Dr. Erin Brewer, who identifies herself as a formerly transgender child, said she is glad that her teachers notified her parents about her gender dysphoria during a hearing Monday.
Brewer offered her testimony during committee hearings before the Virginia legislature concerning Sage’s Law, a bill that would require school officials to notify parents if a student exhibits gender dysphoria or asks to be treated as a different gender than his or her biological sex. The bill also clarifies that the definition of child abuse does not include so-called “misgendering.” (RELATED: Father Raided By FBI Found Not Guilty Of Federal Charges Alleging He Assaulted Abortion Worker)
The mother of Sage, the girl whom the bill is named after, testified earlier that day that teachers had kept her daughter’s gender identity a secret, and even withheld custody, keeping Sage in a male children’s home where she was repeatedly assaulted and given drugs.
“I am a former trans kid. I was insistent and persistent that I was a boy when I started first grade after a brutal sexual assault. If I had been affirmed by my teachers it would have allowed me to completely disassociate from myself as a girl and create a new persona who could pretend that the horrible trauma that triggered my gender dysphoria hadn’t happened to me,” Brewer said.
“It would have reinforced the mistaken belief that had caused me to develop gender dysphoria — that it was too dangerous to be a girl.”
The school contacted Brewer’s mother and, with her permission, had her assessed by the school psychologist.
“They came up with a comprehensive program to help me resolve my gender dysphoria. I’m incredibly grateful to that school psychologist and to my teachers for doing the right thing, for formulating a program to help me to understand that I was not inherently flawed, and that I was not born in the wrong body.”