LITTLE
Hallie Baker told her parents she would kill
herself if she didn't get her way but
this was no childish tantrum. For the
six-year-old was begging her mum and dad to let
her transform herself into a BOY.
And for the three years since then, Hallie
has had her way, answering to the name Hal,
while being treated as a lad at home and
school.
Now "he" plans to start taking hormones at
the onset of puberty to stop him growing
breasts.
This week, Hal's disturbing story was told on
the Oprah Winfrey show in America, when his
mother Karen sobbed as she looked at pictures of
Hallie looking cute in a dress.
Karen, who has another daughter, said: "It's
painful to look at photos of Hallie. I had
dreams of my girls growing up together, doing
the whole wedding thing.
"Those are pictures of a little girl that is
gone and she'll never come back. I had to grieve
that.
"For a while I felt a little guilty about
that, because other parents truly have lost
their children. I did - but I gained a son.
Although I miss my daughter, I am so lucky to
see my son Hal happy."
Karen added: "She was my beautiful baby girl
but from a very young age she kept saying she
wanted to be a boy.
"We thought she was just a tomboy, then we
thought she might be a lesbian. But she insisted
she was a boy. We went to a therapist who said
they believed Hallie was transgendered.
"We thought, 'Well, let's give it a try.' We
let him live as a boy and he just
blossomed."
And talking about his decision to take
hormones when he reaches puberty, Karen
added:
"He knows his options about hormones. It will
be his decision.
"But we have told him, 'If you ever change
your mind, you tell us.'"
Hal, who wore trousers, a shirt and tie for
his TV appearance, looked at photos of himself
as a girl and told Oprah:
"While living as Hallie I really started to
hate myself.
"I felt trapped and uncomfortable. I told my
parents slowly, I didn't tell them everything at
once. It was difficult but that's over. That's
in my past, and this is my future."
An obviously shocked Oprah said: "I've been
doing this show for a lot of years and I have to
admit this is an eye-opener for me."
Also on the programme was 11-year-old Kayla,
who is already on hormone treatment to stop
breast growth and periods after
living as a boy called Kaden for a year. As
with Hal, Kaden's school has accepted his change
of sex and has even given him his own
toilet.
Kaden's mother Angelina said he had refused
to dress as a girl from a young age.
She said: "He didn't even like girls'
knickers. He never played with girls' things, he
was into dirt and bikes."
Kaden said: "When people used to say I was a
girl, I said, 'No I'm not, I'm a boy.'
Counsellors said it was a phase I was going
through.
"I got really angry. Then I saw an Oprah show
where a boy was expressing his feelings about
being the opposite sex. I knew this is who I
was. It was like a miracle."
Angelina said: "He spends ages binding his
breasts in the morning. He wants testosterone
and a full sex change as soon as he is old
enough."
Talking about his future, Kaden said:
"I imagine myself in a big house with a wife
and kids. I wish I'd been born a boy it
would have been a lot easier."
Oprah's programme also featured five-year-old
Dylan, who was shown screaming at his parents:
"I want to be a girl!" and bursting into tears
when his dad Derek took his dolls away.
His mum Sharon said: "Last year he stated
that he wanted to become a girl.
"I explained to him, 'It's not possible,
Dylan, because you have a penis.'
"He replied, 'Well, then I want my penis to
fall off so that I can be a girl.'
"He's been saying he's a girl since he was
two-and-a-half. I thought it was a phase but now
he tucks his willy between his legs so you can't
see it."
Derek said: "I dreamed of having a son who
played football for his college.
"The other day Dylan told me he wanted to be
a cheerleader. When I said boys could be
cheerleaders too, he said, 'No, a girl
cheerleader!'"
Hal and Kaden's parents said they let their
children change sex after therapists told them
they could be transgendered - boys trapped in
girls' bodies.
But Jana Ekdahl, a clinical psychotherapist
and gender specialist, thinks they might have
acted too soon.
She said: "The one concern is that people
move a little bit too fast in this process. Hal
is a kid, so he should enjoy being nine years
old. Try not to think too far into the
future."
Of Dylan, she said:
"Three things could happen - he could grow up
to be gay, he could be transgendered, or he
could grow out of this behaviour."
However, she added: "If the child is
transgendered, they're transgendered. There's
really nothing you can do to change that.
"It occurs in the womb - the brain develops
in one direction and the body in another."
