A birth announcement in an Australian newspaper is causing quite a buzz—and not because it’s another celebrity bombshell.
The births section of Tuesday’s Courier-Mail featured a light-hearted retraction from Yolanda Bogert, who wanted to announce the birth of her 19-year-old son. It wasn’t the first announcement, but rather, a retraction to the birth announcement they originally made.
“In 1995 we announced the arrival of our sprogget Elizabeth Anne as a daughter,” it read. “Oops our bad. We would like to present our wonderful son – Kai Bogert.”
Best Birth Announcement ever. Today's CM. What a wonderful family. pic.twitter.com/Zz4NkssKHD
— Lisa Dart (@frostyagnes) December 2, 2014
The ad, which Kai’s parents took out to demonstrate their support for him, warmed the hearts of many and recalled one mother’s Facebook announcement that her son had come out as transgender. Screenshots of the newspaper ad quickly went viral on Twitter and caused some to question its authenticity.
Luckily, verification was easy.
Googled – it's real. Hooray. "@itstheHop: This is amazing. Love it! http://t.co/awdslDJwv8"
— Denise Balkissoon (@balkissoon) December 2, 2014
The Courier-Mail spoke with Bogert and Kai after the birth announcement went viral. Kai had been living as Beth up until a few days ago, but after he came out to his parents, they wanted to show their son that they loved and supported him.
“I needed to show my son I support him 100 per cent and wanted to let the world know that,” Bogert said. “It is all very new to us. Kai just told me a few days ago that he no longer wanted to live as a girl.”
If a supportive ad from a parent can make random strangers on the Internet get warm and fuzzy, we can only imagine how much of an impact it had on Kai. He may be in the early days of transitioning, but he’s got his family on his side.
“I am still me but I am more me than I was a few days ago and feel free,” he said.
Photo via aloshbennett/Flickr (CC BY 2.0) | Remix by Fernando Alfonso III