Parents Decide To Raise Transgender 5-Year-Old Jacob Lemay As A Boy

In what might turn out to be the story of the youngest transgender child in history, two parents have decided to raise their daughter as a boy, per his own request. Five-year-old Jacob Lemay was born “Mia” but quickly began correcting his parents by insisting “I’m a boy.” Instead of fighting the wishes of the transgender child, Jacob’s parents decided to embrace his identity.

According to NBC News, Jacob’s parents made the decision to raise a transgender child last year, when their son was only four.

“The environment that my son will grow up in depends on how transgender people are perceived by society,” said Mimi Lemay, the mother of the transgender child. “If we don’t come out now and talk to people and … show people that transgender children are normal and wonderful and they’re not to be feared, then I’m afraid that he will go into the world and meet with hostility.”

According to Metro, Jacob’s father, Joe, revealed that his then-daughter wanted to change clothes up to 12 times a day, because she didn’t feel comfortable in girl’s clothing — an obvious indication of a transgender child. But when Mia was given an article of clothing made for boys, namely a blue jumper with a dog printed on front, she wore it for six straight months.

Some people may protest that a transgender child is too young to determine what sex they want to be or what gender they identify as. But doctors say that children like Jacob, who clearly and consistently show signs of gender identity disorder, should be encouraged to live their lives as the sex they envision as themselves — as a transgender child.

“When kids are consistent, persistent, and insistent in a cross-gender identity — and wanting to be the other gender and wanting the other gender’s body parts or being very unhappy with the body parts they’re given — we consider those children very likely to go on and continue a transgender identity,” said professor of pediatrics Dr. Michelle Forcier.

The moment that clinched the Lemays’ decision to let Jacob live as a transgender child came when they asked him if he wanted to be like another transgender child reported about on the news. When Mimi and Joe informed Jacob that he could live as a transgender child in a totally new school, Jacob was ecstatic.

“That’s what I want,” Jacob said. “I want to be a boy always. I want to be a boy named Jacob.”

For the story on the transgender child that inspired the Lemays, read the previous report from the Inquisitr.

[Images courtesy of the Lemay family and NBC News]