A teenager has been flooded with support from social media users after revealing that her parents kicked her out for dating a transgender man.
TikTok user Elyse took to social media on Saturday, May 5, to reveal how her parents reacted when she told them that her boyfriend is transgender. Her story sheds a light on the challenges not only faced by transgender people but those who date them.
She can be heard crying in the first recording as her father declares that her partner is "not a boy".
"Give me a break," he shouts repeatedly before she says: "He is, he just hasn't started testosterone yet."
He continues: "You have the choice, you have the choice, but this is not the right choice and you know that down deep inside."
Listen to the heartbreaking recording below:In a second recording, the teen explains that she has been in a relationship with her boyfriend for seven to eight months and her father says that she is "willing to give up [her] family" for "someone who doesn't know their left from their right".
She tells her distraught parents that she loves them "so much", but her father says: "I'm sorry but you've put a major, major wall between us.
"This is not the way we brought you up. And if this is what you choose, we can't change it, but these are the consequences."
Elyse tells her parents that her boyfriend is "amazing," but her mom soon adds: "Did you really think we were going to support it?"
Her mother continued: "You made this choice knowingly, you knew what you were doing. Nobody's holding a knife to you to go be his lover…"
Her father then interrupts and says: "It's not a 'he', Mom. It's a 'she'."
Listen to the second recording below:He concludes the recording by saying: "If you choose this path then you’re going to need to speed up being an adult really fast, OK?", which is followed by the suggestion that he will cut her off financially for her decision.
He then storms off, telling her: "I would never have thought you would do this to me."
The recordings, unsurprisingly, did not go unnoticed on TikTok, and at the time of writing, the second alone has been liked over 454K times.
People subsequently rushed to the comments section to support Elyse at this difficult time.
One supportive TikTok user wrote: "The fact that he's making it seem like you have to choose him or your family is horrible. Your dad chose that, not you."
A second added: "Don't listen to his gaslighting. They're nothing if they treat you this way."
While a third wrote: "The amount of hate in your parents hearts is mind blowing. I'm so sorry. [sic]"
