The parents of four-year-old Aubrey are fighting over whether to raise their child a boy or a girl, Kidspot reports.
Aubrey, like all intersex children, was born with ambiguous genitalia, but chromosomal testing at the time of birth indicated they were 70 per cent male.
Despite this, a doctor advised parents Michelle and Kyle to subject Aubrey to surgery and raise them as a girl, but now, Aubrey has indicated they want to be a boy – an idea that doesn’t sit well with dad Kyle.
Appearing on the Dr Phil show earlier this week, the ex-couple, along with Kyle’s new wife Brittany, explained when Aubrey is with their dad on the weekends, they live as a girl, but when they are with their mum, they identify as a boy.
Both parents say their child plays with gendered toys and dresses as either boy or girl depending on who is looking after them, but Brittany admitted she thinks Aubrey tends to prefer toys and clothing that would normally be associated with boys.
Of the moment she realised her child wanted to be a boy, Michelle said, “There would be time I would be brushing Aubrey’s hair and he would start crying because he didn’t want it in a ponytail anymore because girls wore their hair in pony tails.”
Kyle didn’t agree though, saying, “When Aubrey is with me she likes to act like a girl.”
“Kyle is a little bit close-minded when it comes to Aubrey being a boy and he knows her as daddy’s girl, so it’s a hard pill to swallow,” Brittany said.
When Brittany has asked Aubrey if they’re a boy or girl, they say they’re not sure. “She will tell me she doesn’t know, then sometimes she will say ‘I’m a boy’ but she has never said she is a girl.”
Of the situation, Dr Phil said, “What’s heartbreaking to me is you’re interrogating a four year old.”
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