Canadian family holds gender reveal party for 8-year-old who doesn't want to live as a boy

A Canadian family held a gender reveal party after their eight-year-old child decided not to live as a boy. The child, now referred to as Ella Scott, made the decision to transition at six. Two years later, Scott’s parents determined it was no longer a phase and held a gender reveal party to make the announcement to the extended family.

"With Ella," the mother said, "it's like she always knew but we just didn't. We always knew she was a little different, when she was little as she was always friends with girls and played with Frozen toys."

"I have two other children, Ella's brothers, who play rough but Ella never wanted to join in," the mother said, as reported the Daily Mail.

The parents didn’t know how to respond so they showed Scott books of trans people. Eventually, the child said, "I'm not a boy, I don't feel like this inside."

The parents arranged a consultation with a psychologist from their local child mental health centre Reach Out Centre for Kids. The organization provided support to the parents as Scott transitioned.

In grade one, the child began using she/her pronouns and wearing female clothing. The mother said her child became upset when long hair didn't come in fast enough.

The parents decided to support the 8-year-old by hosting a gender reveal party. Relatives were supportive and now refer to the child as "Ella" instead of the former boy name, which the parents would not reveal.

The child was moved to a new school where the old name was not known. The mother has set up a publicity page on Instagram to make her child's journey public. The page is filled with the mother's thoughts and feelings about the 8-year-old's gender journey, as well as highlights from the pride life, with books choses in association with the local library, on pronouns, Jazz Jennings, and other trans issues. The doctor who performed Jennings' gender transition said children are "not as functional" after medicalized gender transition.

The mother laments that she can't drug the 8-year-old with hormones until the child hits puberty.

"In most local clinics the rules are that you need to start puberty before you can get in and that means Ella wouldn't qualify," the mother said.

Doctors who are both trans themselves and who have performed many hundreds of medical gender transitions, on children and adults, have expressed concerns about the application of puberty blockers, the name given to a drug called Lupron, to children prior to puberty.

Dr. Marci Bowers noted that there have been no instances wherein the application of puberty blockers to children prior to the Tanner 2 development stage has resulted in a functional sex life. In addition, genital development is inadequate prior to that stage to ensure a successful remaking of the penis into a neo-vagina.

In short, were the mother able to access Lupron for her biologically male child, that child would never experience an orgasm and would never have functioning or fully grown genitals.

Canada's health services have been criticized for allowing medical gender transition of minors too soon. "Other countries have taken a step back," wrote the National Post in 2021, "and the critics’ concerns are unexpectedly being shared by some leading figures in the transgender medical world itself."

Canada has passed Bill C-4, which states that once a person says they are trans, it is illegal to suggest that perhaps they will be okay without attempting to transition to the opposite gender from their natal sex.