A 12-year-old boy who was born a girl has changed his name by deed poll, after he realised that he had been assigned the wrong gender at birth.
As he grew up, Gabriel Buttress realised that his birth gender was not the one that he was supposed to live with for the rest of his life and took action. Despite his young age, Gabriel took matters into his own hands, cut off all of his hair and changed his name by law.
His mum, Melanie Palmer-Scaum, said, "About two years ago we were in this shop looking for girls' clothes and he said, 'I don't want to shop here mum.'"
"He has four brothers so I thought it might be to do with that but then he said he wanted his hair cut short.
"As soon as the clipper touched his head he had the biggest grin on his face and that was when I had a little bit of an inkling."
Melanie, a 35-year-old mom of six says that Gabriel had always been a bit of a tomboy but that she didn't realise that he felt as if he was trapped inside of the wrong body.
However, back in February, Gabriel gathered up the courage to talk to his mom about the issue.
"And I didn't know what it was. He said, 'well I'm one of them', and I asked him if he meant he was trans and he said he was.
"Even though I had an inkling I was still a little shocked and it took me a couple of days to get my head around it.
"It was a shock and it took time for it to sink in and for me to get used to calling Gabriel at him."
While Gabriel's mom and family have accepted him for who he is, things are quite difficult for the boy at school. His mom made the decision to home-school him due to a few incidents at school, and she believes that he is happier at home where he can be who he truly wants to be.
"He had a few people ask him "are you a boy or a girl?" but he just didn't have the confidence to come out at school and his anxiety got really bad." His mum said. "I said to him that he didn't have to go back to school and that he can be a boy 24/7 at home. I said that I would home-school him and he was so happy."
Now that he has legally changed his name, Gabriel is set to undergo a hormone-blocking procedure. This will delay his puberty and will allow him to transition properly.
Gabriel's mom is aware of the criticism that she will receive for allowing him to make such a drastic decision at a young age, but she believes that it's important for parents to listen to their children and understand their concerns when it comes to their gender.
