Parenting a trans teen in rural Australia has enriched our lives in ways I never could have imagined

Sarah Michell with her son Milo, who came out to his family as transgender at the age of 15. ‘It has been challenging watching him launch into the wider world,’ Sarah says. Photograph: Tim Johnman

My son Milo came out just before he turned 16. We were watching TV and having a lively discussion about LGBTIQA+ representation when he jumped to his feet and retrieved a letter from his room, addressed to his father and me. It explained, in no uncertain terms, that he was transgender.

It wasn’t entirely without warning. The year before, he’d told us he thought he might be gender fluid. Wondering if it was a phase, I’d found a counsellor for him at the local neighbourhood centre. Even so, the more definitive announcement came as a shock. In the family counselling session that followed, he stated his intentions: he wanted to be called Milo, he wanted us to use male pronouns and he wanted to transition socially at school.