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Mom Of the Week Award Goes To This Woman

by Michelle Regalado

When Jodi Gholson Oliver’s 19-year-old child Jesse Oliver told her that he was going to live as a transgender male, the Las Vegas mom didn’t cry or freak out or react in any of the negative, horrible ways that we hear about all too often. Instead, she took the news in the best way possible, proudly taking to Facebook to announce her son’s decision to family and friends.

“Yep, it's true! I am proud to announce that I have given birth to a bouncing baby boy on December 18, 1994,” she wrote of Jesse, who was born “Jessica” but is known to most people as simply “Jes.” The rest of her statement is so sweet, funny, and warm, that I won’t even attempt to paraphrase as it’ll just take away from its awesomeness.

As Oliver wrote:

For about 18 1/2 years we thought he was a girl, who just happened to like bugs, tattoos, flames, skulls, snakes, lizards, etc, etc. Then one day Jes explained to us that he never felt like he was supposed to be a girl, always identified more as boy and therefore planned on living as a male (a term called transgender in case you are not sure). This is something that we have all seen over the years and I am so happy that he can finally feel like the person he was born to be!”

Um…can we get a Mother of the Year Award over here? How amazing does this woman sound? If only more families around the world were half as accepting as she is, I’m 100 percent positive the world would be a much better place. But just wait — her comments only got better from there. She finished her statement with these wise words and a hilarious cartoon photo of a stork holding a bundle and wearing an “It’s a Boy” hat (though we may object to the idea that blue is for boys and pink is for girls, but I digress).

If you have any questions please feel free to ask me, as I will do my best to help you understand a concept that may be unfamiliar to you! If you think your question may be inappropriate, it probably is and I will probably not answer it!

— feeling proud with Jes Oliver.

Slow clap. In just a couple short paragraphs, Oliver managed to drop a supposedly “taboo” bomb, while showing nothing but love and affection for her son and still effectively shutting down any haters that might come their way. All I can say is wow.

And I’m not alone in thinking Oliver is one of the coolest parents around. Her Facebook post has gone viral, garnering thousands of “likes” and over 150,000 thousand notes when Jes reposted it to Tumblr last week (with an added “Heck yeah, mom”). Not that I’m surprised. Both Jes and his mom are so lucky to have such support in each other.

Images: Jodi Gholson/Facebook