As a parent, your unconditional love for your child will always give you the heart to accept their mistakes. And when they make life-changing decisions, you end up agreeing and supporting them no matter how difficult it may be to do so. That is exactly the position that this father was put into.

Brandon Boulware has four children – three boys and one girl. But what he did not expect was for that to change.

According to a speech he made at the Missouri state House, one of his biologically male kids “never smiled.” He shared that he always refused to let his son wear girl clothes and play with toys meant for girls. He wants his son to look and act like a boy. And he knew that doing so made his son unhappy.

But he had a change of heart. Now, he refers to this child as his ‘daughter.’

In a moving speech on his daughter’s birthday, Boulware shared how he came to accept that his child was meant to be a girl. He also talked about how he needed to let her be who she was meant to be. The loving father explains why this means that it is so important for the state of Missouri to give his daughter a chance to play on the girls’ sports teams.

The debate between letting and not letting trans-gender student-athletes compete is still ongoing not only in the United States but all across the globe.

Some people feel that trans-gender student-athletes should not be allowed to compete on sports teams. Simply because they are different than their gender that was assigned at birth. They believe that a child who was born a boy but identifies as a girl should not be allowed to compete on girls’ sports teams. And this is because they feel that their gender at birth might give them an unfair advantage.

There are now bills in 20 states that will try to change the laws and prevent trans athletes from competing in female sports.

Pediatrician and geneticist Dr. Eric Villain explains that genetically male individuals can have an advantage over genetically female individuals by about 10-12%. This is due to testosterone. However, Villain also explains that this hormone doesn’t provide an advantage in all sports. It’s not really even an issue until puberty hits. Also, it should be noted that many transgender individuals chose to delay puberty.

Villain said, “At a high school level, many trans youth do delay their puberty, which means that even if they are not taking these gender-affirming hormones, their natural puberty in their biological sex is not happening, therefore resulting in a delay and an absence of an effect on muscle mass, at least for the male-to-female situation. So the supposed advantage of muscle mass and red blood cells because of testosterone becomes moot in middle and often high school competitions when there have been puberty blockers involved.”

Boulware didn’t tell her that he was giving this speech. And this was surely a moment to remember for both father and daughter. When this story was shared on Twitter, it quickly went viral. One user pointed out that this is the best birthday present he could ever give his daughter and that one day she will appreciate it.