Trans man Aydian Dowling’s wife gives birth to their first child
Trans man and campaigner Aydian Dowling has welcomed his first son with wife Jenilee.
Dowling’s partner gave birth to the couple’s son Antler Joseph Dowling on Thursday (November 1).
“My life is forever changed because of you,” Dowling posted on Instagram on Sunday (November 4). “I promise to love you more than I’ve ever loved before.
Writing to his more than 180,000 followers, he added: “I promise to show you what it is to be a kind and loving human. I promise to be the example so you can learn not from just my words but from my actions.
Aydian Dowling at the 10th Annual Shorty Awards in April 2018. (Noam Galai/Getty Images for Shorty Awards)
“I promise to show you my fears and my weakness so you may know what the true strength looks like.
“I promise to never let you go.”
Dowling is the first trans man to have featured on the front covers of Men’s Health and Gay Times.
The trans rights advocate and motivational speaker, who married Jenilee in 2012, has posted two more photos of his son.
In one, showing Antler dressed in a deer-themed outfit, Dowling explained that his son’s name was chosen because the animals “have been shown to us throughout our entire pregnancy journey.”
“Since Jenilee and I have been together we have been reborn many times,” he wrote. “We together have been through death, great change, disappointment, happiness, and now birth.
“The deer shown to us reminds us to trust that no matter how dark things can get, the sun will always come back to shine.”
He also explained that Antler’s middle name Joseph is a tribute to Jenilee’s father, who passed away in the first year of their relationship.
Dowling explained why he and his wife choose a deer-themed name for their son. (alionsfear/Instagram)
Dowling went on to post a further photo of Antler, wearing an outfit decorated with Simba from the Lion King.
“This was Antlers first item of clothing he has ever worn ,” Dowling wrote.
“And yes—I couldn’t wait to get it on him (even tho he’s been pretty much naked since then haha).
“Oh and yes—this is the beginning of a flurry of baby photos from now until well probably forever .”
In August 2016, Dowling hit-out at transphobes on Instagram, saying he is regularly told to “put a shirt on.”
“It’s a pretty common thing said to me,” he wrote. “It makes me wonder—is it because I was born female that so many people insist having my shirt off is me being ‘topless’?
He compared himself to cisgender men who, he said, receive less criticism for posting topless images “no matter the age, size, colour, anything.”
He continued: “But once transmen who work their ass off to AFFORD top surgery start posting shirtless photos—it’s now seen as ‘too much’ or ‘topless.'”
