Gavin Cueto first came out to his 83-year-old grandmother when he was only 11 — and she’s been his biggest supporter ever since.
Gavin Cueto, a transgender man from Newport, Wales, struggled with coming out to his family as a child. The first person he ended up confiding in was his 83-year-old grandmother, Elaine.
The 20-year-old, who has been documenting his transition on YouTube, recently recorded a Q&A with his nan, and it is too cute for most of the internet to handle. These two are not only family — they’re clearly BFFs.
In the video, titled “Grandmother and Transgender Grandson Q&A,” Cueto asks his grandmother about the time he came out to her when he was only 11 years old. “I’d had half a lager, so I was tired and I was about to go to bed,” Elaine recalls in the video.
“Gavin came in wanting to talk to me,” Elaine remembers. “He said, “Nan, I’ve got something to tell you. I want to be a boy.” Her initial response? “Wouldn’t we all? We’d all like to be a man, because they’ve got a better life than us.”
“I was scared that I would get disowned, so I knew if I told my nan first I’d have a place to stay if anything went wrong,” Cueto told BuzzFeed News. Although his grandmother had no real experience with the transgender community, she has supported her grandson throughout his coming-out journey.
In the video, Elaine describes how she knew something was troubling her grandson even before he came out. “He was moody, didn’t want to interact with people,” she recalls.
“She said I was a pain in the ass,” says Cueto.
As Cueto got a bit older, he began to sort out the confusing emotions he was experiencing. He first learned what the word “transgender” meant after watching a soap opera on television. He continued to confide in his grandmother, coming out to her again when he was 13 years old. His nan kept it a secret, as he requested.
When he began to go through female puberty, Cueto became depressed and at times resorted to self-harm. “I still struggle with depression now,” he said. “I’ve learned that I just go through bad patches, but always come back fighting. And, that I’m not alone.”
With his grandmother’s support, he finally came out to his mother, Julie Godden. She has been supportive ever since taking him to a gender identity clinic in London to start planning his medical transition, including hormone therapy and top surgery.
Elaine was by her grandson’s side when he received his first testosterone injection in 2015.
Cueto is now campaigning with Fixers, a UK charity that provides young people with a platform to educate others and provide support for fellow LGBT youth.
“I hope that other trans people like myself can relate to my videos and I hope they can help people understand what it’s like to be trans and how much support we need.”
“I’m basically trying to put my story out there to help others understand and not judge straightaway — for others to be educated,” Cueto said.
Clearly, people could learn a lot from his nan.
