Kenneth is growing up gracefully. Yes, really graceful as he starts declaring openly that “I wanted to be a girl than a boy!”
At four years old, he speaks his mind boldly and doesn’t care if he hurts anybody or in return, he’ll be ridiculed by his kiddie peers.
Once, I tagged him along in one of my downtown trips to pay our monthly bills. We went to one of a service providers’ office, it was almost Holy Week break so the billing office was so crowded and we stand for an hour to be attended by a teller-cashier.
Suddenly a friend journalist approached and greeted me. Our casual conversation was diverted to my son’s behavior.
He was dancing amidst the crowd and doesn’t care if people were laughing at him.
I don’t know what to do then. People might think that my son is a special child as he is making faces and noises showing his decayed teeth.
So I called his attention, “Kenneth, stop it please, people here don’t want noise.”
Everyone was stunned and then later laughed again when they heard Kenneth’s replies saying, “Mama please call me Kimberly, I don’t like the name Kenneth, okay?”
My friend journalist could hardly control his amusement.
“Julz, you should bring your son to a psychiatrist or else you’ll have problems with him later,” says my homophobic friend.
I was trying to control my emotion then as I dearly loved to slap his face in public.
One time I got mad when Kenneth was peeing mimicking the male dog.
He explained that he just wanted to feel how dogs urinate from one wall to another.
“Sinubukan ko lang kung mahirap kasi kanina pa yung dog ihi nang ihi sa bakod paikot-ikot hanggang dun sa puno.”
So I told him in an angry tone that “next time I’ll see you peeing like a dog I will really cut your penis.”
But I was shocked with his answer, “hay salamat, mawawala na ang penis ko.”
I am deeply aware that my son is growing up as gay and he is not a typical person trying to hide his preferred sex.
Although I keep explaining him that even if he removed his penis (as this is what he wanted) he’ll remain a male forever as God is the One that bestowed his gender.
“If I die and I live again on green planet (Earth) do you think God and Papa Jesus will already make me a girl?”
That is always his difficult question if he’s cornered with ended answer as “wala ka nang magagawa anak dahil pinanganak kang lalaki.”
Kenneth at his age is probably exploring everything, maybe at age 6 he’ll soon realize that he is indeed a boy. Whatever choice he’ll make someday, I will always support him.
