When Lisa Dart tweeted on her phone during her lunch break at the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University on Monday, she never imagined the post would make international headlines within 24 hours.
Her tweet announced what she described as “the best birth announcement ever” from The Courier-Mail, where she had come across a notice from proud parents celebrating the ‘arrival’ of their son Kai Bogert, who was born Elizabeth in 1995.
The classified was placed after 19-year-old Kai approached his family last week with the news he had made the choice to live as a male.
Lisa says that this wonderful show of support and love from a family came at just the right time.
“With so much hate and vitriol being shared around the world and in the news, I thought it was lovely to see an act of total acceptance and love by a child’s family.”
“As a contact officer with Griffith University, a workplace I’ve found that strives to always be inclusive; I felt this showed what we are all aiming for – a truly accepting, fair and supportive society.”
Her tweet has been retweeted more than 5,000 times and the story has now made headlines across Australia, in New York, London, Ireland, Canada, France and Italy with stories still appearing every hour.
While she originally tweeted with the intention of merely alerting her friends and family to the news, Lisa says she hopes that people now continue to give the Bogert family support in line withthe initial extraordinary reaction.
“It has been so incredible to see the overwhelmingly positive reaction and support worldwide for this family,” she says.
“It was just too beautiful a public notice not to share.”
Read The Courier-Mail’s story.
Lisa’s original tweet.