In a lengthy Facebook post complete with colorful family photos, Love Gwaltney said she and her husband “got it wrong 17 years ago,” when they announced they were having a daughter, revealing their biologically female child is actually “our son.”
The Gwaltney’s teenage child, McKenzie, will now identify as a male and go by the name “Grey Schoolcraft.”
“He’s much like any other 17-year-old nerdy boy: stays up way too late gaming, hates showering, and eats too much junk food,” Gwaltney wrote. “We will be referring to Grey with he/him pronouns from here on out, but he told us to tell you that he also doesn’t mind if you use they/them.”
Gwaltney, who is currently pregnant and wore both pink and blue to Grey’s “belated” reveal party, went on to explain the reasoning behind the many colors involved in the event:
The colors of the balloons we chose for Grey match the non-binary pride flag, and the cake layers are those that represent transgender bodies, for those that are wondering.
No, we’re not buying him a lifted truck. Yes, we will be buying him some new clothes.
Also, all of you who came to this post hoping to find out if this new baby is a girl or boy, sorry (not sorry) to disappoint you.
According to a report from CNN, Grey helped choose the colors for the cake and the balloons.
“I wanted the transgender flag in there, because I still feel that going from whatever you are originally to nonbinary is also a transition and it doesn’t just have to be straight female to male,” Grey explained.
Initially concerned about telling extended family about the transition, Grey said the anxiety melted away when loved ones accepted the change. Grey described it as “refreshing.”
“You’ve been going by one name all your life and to suddenly go by a new name, especially when your parents call you by it, it’s weird and has to register in your brain,” said the Akron, Ohio, native. “But it’s definitely 100% worth it, and I’m glad we had [the reveal party].”
Gwaltney, for her part, was very defensive of Grey in her Facebook post.
Her child, she wrote, is “fully capable of making his decision on his pronouns and how he identifies. We in no way influenced him, we just provided him with a happy, healthy home where he feels like he can be true and honest.”
The transition, Grey’s mother continued, “was not a sudden decision.” Rather, it took their child “years,” all of which “built up to where we are now (binder use, haircuts, clothing changes, etc. etc.).”
“So please stop assuming we forced this on our child,” Gwaltney wrote, “and stop assuming he is ‘too young’ to be capable of knowing who and what he is.”
“Hateful” comments, she noted on the post, “have no place on a thread meant to celebrate our son’s transition.” She called those who type such remarks “bigoted, transphobic trolls … attacking a 17 year old.”