Australia’s state broadcaster is promoting the story of “Sapphire,” a 10-year-old trans-identified boy who is set to go on puberty blockers shortly.
ABC posted about the child on their social media accounts today, uploading an almost two-minute clip of the biologically male child speaking about his experiences to Instagram. The video was animated with a cartoonish styling usually intended to appeal to children.
“People think that I’m not really a girl, but I am a girl. I’m ten. When I was younger, I didn’t feel right and everything felt wrong,” the boy, identified as “Sapphire,” said in the clip. He goes on to state that he was jealous of girls playing with Barbies and having long hair.
“I knew that I wanted to be a girl and I was a girl, but I didn’t really know what to say or how to say it or if it was true,” he adds. “It made me feel kind of nervous that people wouldn’t accept me for who I was because they’ve always known me as a boy.”
The child recounts that his friends and family were very “acceptant” of his being transgender.
“I want them to see me as a proud transgender girl, but not always to think, oh, you’re trans, but to say, ‘I’m a girl and that’s who I am and that’s who I will always be’.” He added that anyone who couldn’t see that he was meant to be transgender didn’t “know how I feel and who I want to be.”
Despite only being 10 years old, “Sapphire” boasted that he was set to go on “puberty blockers” soon and proclaimed that taking the drugs would “be like pausing” his body from “growing into what I don’t want it to be.” He is set to be “treated” at Queensland Children’s Hospital.
The story of “Sapphire” was included in a recent ABC documentary titled “Blocked: The Battle Over Youth Gender Care,” which also featured comment from the child’s mother. Identified only as “Alison,” the woman claimed her family was “forced to relocate states” from New South Wales in order to “pursue affirming care” for the boy.
“I think that transgender children are exploring themselves on a daily basis, and that level of introspection is present every single day of their lives,” Alison told presenter Patricia Karvelas. “And that if they are provided with unequivocal love and support then that inner dialogue that they have been having with themselves, they can then have with educated health professionals. It is an ever-present issue that we face every single day. It is the very core of my child’s being and it is unwavering.”
Last year, the French Medical Academy issued a warning to practitioners, urging “great medical caution” in the treatment of so-called “trans kids.” The notice, dated February 25, 2022, was intended to provide information to the members of France’s medical community regarding a “sharp increase in demand” amongst minors seeking “gender affirming care” on a global scale.
Amongst the examples the Academy provided was Australia, where figures for children being treated for “gender dysphoria” had skyrocketed from just one in 2003 to over 200 in 2022.
