Being a parent who is a trans woman can be a complicated experience at times. While I knew I was trans for a long time, I did not come out until later in life. Becoming a parent was wonderful, scary and very emotional time. The joys of being a parent were also reminders that I was not as mum.

My experience of my own gender has never been set in stone. Even when I was in primary school, I remember feeling different somehow. I was a ‘tomboy’ some days, wearing my cousins’ hand me down clothes, playing in mud and fascinated by insects and frogs. Other days, I wanted to dance and sing to musical numbers wearing my grandma’s long frilly nightie. I loved dressing up and pretending I was someone else.

Originally the day of a protest in Boston, Massachusetts, October 26th 1996, drew attention to the harmful practice of non-consensual genital surgery performed on intersex children to make their bodies conform to a gender binary, despite any lack of medical necessity. this was the first visible public act of defiance and brought the issue of intersex bodily autonomy and rights to the forefront.