(gentle music) - Hi, everyone.

My name is Sylvie, and I'm going to tell you a story about my son.

And I wanna start by saying two things.

One, he is an adult now, and two, I have his permission to tell this story.

So, I'm an English teacher.

What a shock.

I know.

I teach college English to high school students, and one of my favorite parts of my job is the relationships that I form with my students.

They tell me a lot of things, because we spend a lot of time together.

So, sometimes they tell me more than they tell their own parents, just because they have access to me throughout the day.

I have three children of my own, and when they were all in high school, I found out that one of them was going by a different name at school than at home.

And I really wasn't surprised.

We had talked about the name.

I had helped him pick out the name.

As I said, I have three children.

My oldest is my daughter, and I also have twin boys.

They're two years apart.

So, for three days I had three kids under the age of two.

My older daughter is lovely.

So, when I was pregnant, I was really excited and I thought I was going to give birth to a boy and a girl.

Now, I was ready for another girl.

My oldest was already great, but a boy, hmm, I didn't know if I could handle that.

What if he were the kind of boy who rammed his toy trucks into the furniture or broke his arm by jumping off the roof of the house?

Well, I can tell you that my one son is nothing like that.

In fact, he's very gentle.

He plays the cello.

His twin however, was exactly like that, which was very surprising, because we thought she was a girl.

This is the only child responsible for a trip to the emergency room, the only child who's broken a bone.

I used to move things from low shelves to high shelves, close off rooms with baby gates.

This child was unpredictable.

And this child also played baseball, not softball, and once went out on a date with a team member and came back and she confidently announced, "Mom, I'm gay," which we weren't surprised by.

And of course, that was completely welcome in our family.

Not long after that, my child started exploring the pronouns they and them.

And then not long after that, my child began cutting themselves.

I knew that I had to get professional help.

I had dealt with depression in my oldest child, and so, I knew that our family needed to talk to someone who knew a little bit more than we did.

The conversation that my son and I were having was indicative of a bigger social issue.

The paradigm was shifting, and before I knew it my son was researching gender-reassignment surgery and testosterone therapy.

And I really needed to find someone who knew more than I did.

As the mother of three teenagers, I felt as if I had talked to almost every child psychologist in the 757, yet, none of them could communicate effectively with my transgender son.

So, I talked to members of the LGBTQ community, especially my good friend, Eric House, who runs Outlife757.

And he told me about a pediatrician who practiced gender-affirming healthcare.

Now, I was terrified.

This was so unfamiliar, and for a short time, I considered waiting until he was 18, but I was afraid that he wouldn't live that long.

So, we made the appointment and we went to see the doctor, and he took my son into another room and they talked and I was terrified and I tried to control my emotions.

So, then they came back into the room and they announced that my son would begin testosterone therapy, and I was very supportive.

And then the doctor started talking about the effects that the testosterone would have on my child's body.

And I tried to control my facial expressions, and the doctor said, "His voice will get deeper and his hips will narrow."

And then he said, "And of course, he'll grow hair on his face."

And I tried not to flash a quick frightened look up at my son, but the idea of my child, who I thought was my daughter, growing a beard was a lot for me to handle in that moment.

So, I composed myself and I looked at my son and he had the biggest smile on his face.

He was so happy.

This is exactly what he wanted.

And at that moment, I knew that we were making the right decision.

When my son told me that he was transgender, I thought I had to find someone who knew more than I did, but I didn't.

He knew everything he needed to know, and the only person I had to look to was him.

Thank you.

(audience cheering) (gentle music)