After an obituary made a big splash online, a small-ad birth announcement in an Australian tabloid newspaper has become a hit online, as it announces the birth of a 19-year-old son.
Published in Brisbane’s Courier-Mail, the announcement is a light-hearted retraction written by mother Yolanda Bogert, in which she corrects the erroneous announcement of the birth of her daughter in 1995. Mrs Bogert’s son is a transgender man named Kai.
Best Birth Announcement ever. Today's CM. What a wonderful family. pic.twitter.com/Zz4NkssKHD
— Lisa Dart (@frostyagnes) December 2, 2014
Kai’s parents took out the ad to show their support to their son’s transition, and screenshots of the newspaper announcement quickly went viral online, causing many to question its authenticity. But the birth announcement was quickly verified as not a hoax by other Courier-Mail readers.
Googled - it's real. Hooray. "@itstheHop: This is amazing. Love it! pic.twitter.com/awdslDJwv8"
— Denise Balkissoon (@balkissoon) December 2, 2014
The paper spoke to the Bogert family and reports that Kai had been living as Beth up until last week. When he came out to his parents as a transgender man, his parents wanted to show their support and took out the advert.
“I needed to show my son I support him 100 per cent and wanted to let the world know that,” Mrs 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.”
The family has since received well wishes from all over the world.
Have seen it, like, 100 times already today but all of a sudden another look at Kai Bogert's birth announcement made me burst into tears.
— Jess McGuire (@jessmcguire) December 2, 2014
