A Christian dad has gone viral after making an emotional speech where he encourages parents to let transgender children "be who they are".
Brandon Boulware gave his emotional speech on March 3 at a meeting of the Missouri state House where he drew attention to the issue of trans athletes competing in schools, Yahoo! News reports.
Introducing himself as "a lifelong Missourian, business lawyer, Christian and the son of a Methodist minister," he defended his daughter at a resolution that banned transgender high school athletes from participating in girls' sports in Missouri.
"I'm a husband and father of four kids - two boys, two girls - including a wonderful and beautiful transgender daughter," he said, revealing that he came to the hearing on his daughter's birthday without her knowledge. "She thinks I'm at work."
The father explained that many people simply "don't get it" when it comes to transgender issues and this once included himself.
Listen to Boulware's emotional speech below:"For years, I would not let my daughter wear girl clothes. I did not let her play with girl toys," Boulware said. "I forced my daughter to wear boy clothes and get short haircuts and play on boys' sports teams."
He explained that he did this because he did not want anyone to pick on his daughter.
"And truth be told I did it to protect myself, as well. I wanted to avoid those inevitable questions as to why my child not look and act like a boy," he said.
However, this did not change his daughter's gender identity and instead left her miserable.
"I cannot overstate that. She was absolutely miserable. Especially at school - no confidence, no friends, no laughter," he said.
But despite this, he continued to force her to act like a stereotypical "boy" until one day, "everything changed."
"I had gotten home from work, and my daughter and her brother were in the front lawn and she had sneaked on one of her older sister's play dresses. And they wanted to go across the street and play with the neighbor's kids... I said no," Boulware said.
"She asked me if she went inside and put on boy clothes, could she then go across the street and play. And it was then that it hit me. My daughter was equating being good with being someone else."
It was at this point that he finally realized that he was being cruel to his daughter by forcing her to be someone else, so he let her grow her hair out, dress how she pleased and she went on to make friends and join a girls' volleyball team.
The passage of Missouri House Joint Resolution 53, however, would prevent her from continuing to play on this team.
"It will affect my daughter. It will mean that she cannot play on the girls' volleyball team, or dance squad, or tennis team," Boulware said. "I ask you: Please don't take that away from my daughter or the countless others like her that are out there. Let them have their childhoods. Let them be who they are. I ask you to vote against this legislation."
The sponsor of the bill, Republican state Rep. Chuck Basye, however, defenced the bill to KTVI and said that it was created to protect cisgender girls.
"Women or young girls, ladies in that matter, after they work hard in a competitive sport and then lose that opportunity to go on to the next level to get a college scholarship," Basye said.
While critics of transgender athletes argue that they have a competitive advantage, science and doctors say that this is not actually supported by the facts.
