Katherine Deves' transgender comments hurt my family

"The comments made me feel really upset, very angry and really scared actually. She has actually caused so much hurt.

I think for my husband and I it has caused a lot of anger and hurt internally - I've come to realise that there's a lot of people in our area who share Katherine Deves' views and that is scary.

Thankfully our daughter is quite young so she is oblivious to it but I have friends with kids who are old enough to understand and were very affected by this.

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They are often emotionally struggling already and this just makes it so much worse. There is a lot more bullying happening at schools because of comments like this.

I went to a march in Manly and spoke about it, and there are people who called me and the people at that march oxygen thieves. That's just really hurtful, we're all humans.

People in our space, it gets worse on a daily basis, the bullying that goes on at school and what [Deves] said makes it 10,000 times worse.

My daughter socially transitioned when she was four, but she told us before that. It was very obvious from 18 months old, she would be throwing a tantrum over wanting to put a dress on.

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Yes, people do say that she has an older sister, but I will tell you now, that older sister at the time was into black, dinosaurs and would never put on a dress.

Having a trans daughter was a complete surprise to us, as we were not in that rainbow space at all. At three-and-a-half, it was no longer 'I want to be' it was 'I am' and she became very vocal about it. It was intense for us and we saw someone about it who said 'yes, she has gender dysphoria and just to go with it'.

We've faced loads of discrimination.

As she gets older things do get tougher and my parenting has been questioned a lot.

People have said that I brainwashed my child. Well - no! - because in this day and age, this is still the more difficult path - even though it shouldn't be. Once I was even asked at what point did I decide I wanted another daughter. I didn't. I'm blessed to have another daughter, but I never set out to obtain one.

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She is in a female-only competitive gymnastics squad, her coaches all know and they are completely fine.

She does swimming lessons and not once has she ever been mis-gendered by her swim instructors.

Having a separate sporting category as some people have suggested, how is that fair? My child might not go through male puberty - unless she decides otherwise of course.

We have a trans child who, for now, doesn't have body dysphoria, she has gender dysphoria. There is nothing wrong with her or her body.

Having my child not being part of sport goes against all of her human rights, and would negatively affect her mental health, her sense of belonging.

Every sporting body have their own plans in place and they're not the ones bringing this up, she [Deves] is. It's a non-issue.

I just wish that people knew that we're just a regular family and it has nothing to do with me, or my wants or needs because honestly, in today's society I would still not choose this for my family or my daughter. That sounds harsh, but people are cruel out there and this is not the easy route."

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