CNN on Wednesday premiered a
documentary short film on its digital platforms about a 7-year-old
transgender boy.
Raising Ryland follows Ryland
Whittington and his family – parents Jeff and Hillary and sister
Brynley – as they deal with Ryland's diagnosis of deafness and
learn that he is transgender.
“As soon as he got any understanding
of communication he started saying immediately, 'I am a boy,'”
Hillary says in the film.
“It was like painful for him to be
seen as a girl.”
“We asked him. He hated it. He
wanted to make us happy. And then after he got his hair cut, it was
like a totally different kid. The smile on his face was bigger than
I've ever seen,” she adds.
The
film is available on CNN.com
and all of the networks mobile properties, including CNNgo.