Emma grew up with a dad who was an Autogynephile (AGP), ie his main, perhaps only interest in life was in himself as a woman, and the associated clothes, accessories etc. Emma learned (sadly sometimes from professionals) that her role in his life was to validate and support him in this, thus she was an unparented and parentified child.

Interviewed by Janice Williams, she tells us how her father targeted vulnerable women to have children by, causing her mother’s schizophrenia and poverty, homelessness and mental health problems for Emma. She wondered why her family was shunned by neighbours, why she had to stay in her room for hours on Saturday mornings and why she could never invite school-friends home to her house.

All were because of her father’s presentation as a woman. Emma’s voice was hidden because as a child she did not even know that her father was unusual, she felt unable to talk about it and when she eventually did, she was not listened to as she should have been. Autogynephilia, a male-only fetish (self-as-woman-love) often sparks curiosity.

We see it as a narcissistic form of abuse perpetrated by hyper-selfish men solely for their own purposes: a form of objectification, using woman and child as forced mirrors of the fake self. No one should have children in order to use them for validation. We applaud Emma’s bravery in confronting so openly the deliberately-inflicted harms she survived and in setting up a self-help group for other children of AGP .

She is no longer in touch with her father. www.childrenoftransitioners.org