Mackay’s Sacha Davis speaks on her nine-year-old daughter Ellie’s trans journey
Ellie Davis was marked male as on her birth certificate but her mother knew something was different, even when she was just a toddler. Meet the girl making Mackay a more accepting place.
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It is fair to say a lot of people will spend their whole lives figuring out who they are, but one Mackay girl says she has already found and fought for her identity at just nine years old.
Ellie Davis was marked as male on her birth certificate, but her mother Sacha knew something was different — even when Ellie was just a toddler.
“Initially we thought ‘oh it’s just fancy dress, it’s just a piece of material’,” Ms Davis said.
“But it was so much more than just barbies and pink dresses.”
Ms Davis began researching into identity topics, watching and reading whatever she could get her hands on to help her understand what her daughter might be going through.
It was during a documentary on transgender children that her and Ellie were watching that Ms Davis said her daughter finally knew.
“Ellie looked at me and said ‘oh mum, that’s who I am’,” Ms Davis said.
But Ms Davis said not everything fell into place straight away.
“I thought ‘she’s so young, how can you know?’,” Ms Davis said.
“I held her back for a long time.”
And of course, being gender diverse in a small Queensland community comes with its own additional challenges.
“I worry about my child’s safety,” Ms Davis said.
“Before she transitioned, we would tell her ‘when you’re at home you can play dresses, but when we’re out you have to wear your boy clothes’”.
Ms Davis soon realised she could not hold Ellie back anymore and in April 2019, Ms Davis let her try out her new identity.
They started with using Ellie’s new name and she/her pronouns at home.
All-in-all, Ms Davis said there was not actually much that needed to be changed — and Ellie began to flourish.
In December 2020, Ellie began her transition and she hasn’t looked back.
“I felt free,” Ellie said.
Despite Ms Davis’s endless research and support, she knew her daughter needed to connect with others who could understand her specific struggles and joys — which is why events like the Mackay Rainbow Pride Parade have proved so important to Ellie and her family.
“It’s nice to be around our community,” Ellie said about the Pride Parade.
Ms Davis agreed, saying it meant a lot to both of them to be involved in the day.
“Just being here with veterans who have paved the way for Ellie,” Ms Davis said.
“Discrimination is not as acceptable as it once was, and a lot of that is because of the older generations who are here today.”
Sahara Isleta is one of those veterans — pushing to make Mackay a safer and more enjoyable place for people within the LGBTQI+ community.
“Sahara is one of the only trans people Ellie really knows, watching them together, it’s great,” Ms Davis said.
For her part, Ms Isleta said she was proud to watch a young person like Ellie developing so well at such a young age.
Ms Isleta said she also knew the importance of days like the Mackay Rainbow Pride Parade.
“We can give a lot of guidance to the younger people,” Ms Isleta said.
“To show them that they are accepted here in Mackay.”
People who are interested in connecting with Mackay’s LGBTQI+ community can head to Mackay Rainbow Pride’s Facebook page here.
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