Twin Boy Becomes Transgender Girl; Bullying Forces Family Move
Once they were twin boys, but now Wyatt and Jonas Maines, 14, are brother and sister.
According to ABCnews.com, Wyatt Maines has always wanted to become a girl. Since age four, he would ask his mother, "When do I get to be a girl?" the site reports. According to reports he would also tell his father how much he hated his penis.
Now, Wyatt is undergoing gender reassignment surgery to become “Nicole.”
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Wyatt’s father, Wayne Maines, who is director of safety and environmental management at the University of Maine, admitted he had concerns. He said he was afraid for the safety of his son and daughter after the Boston Globe ran a front-page story on the family.
Maines, who is politically conservative, told the Boston Globe that he initially had trouble calling his son Nicole, the name he chose since the fourth grade saying: "I was grieving. I was losing a son."
The Boston Globe reported the family’s story on Sunday. Apparently, the twins had been victims of bullying because of Wyatt’s gender reassignment surgery. The bullying lead to a lawsuit and the family had to move to a different town.
Wayne and Kelly Maines, the twins’ parents, hope their transgendered son’s story would shine a spotlight on the struggle of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender community.
"We sat down with our kids at the breakfast table when they were nine and talked about fear, hate, evil and freedom of speech before sending them to school," Wayne Maines, 52, wrote in an email to ABCNews.com.
"I was very angry and sad to have to talk to our small children in this manner," he explained. "We also told them to keep their heads up, be proud and take care of each other and their friends. I am very proud of them both because they have not forgotten that lesson and they continue to help others whenever it is safe to do so."
Candi Cushman, an analyst for Focus on the Family, said on TrueTolerance.org, "What parents need to be aware of is there are activist groups who want to promote homosexuality to kids because they realize if they can capture hearts and minds of our children at the earliest ages they will have for all practical purposes won the clash of values that we are currently experiencing.”
Regarding the bullying of gay or transgendered people, Christian organizations such as PublicReligion.org have taken a stance that bullying is the main issue to be addressed in those situations and is completely separate from the ethics of homosexuality and transgender, which traditionally Christians believe are sinful and against Biblical teachings.
“Bullying is always wrong and followers of Christ should say so,” read a 2011 New Year Pastoral letter.
