A BROTHER and sister in the United States have swapped genders after they came out to their parents as transgender just a month apart.

    At just 3 years old, Aly McGarrity was a tomboy who would rather be outside playing football with the boys, while her older brother Russie, then 5, enjoyed playing dress up with the girls.

    For Russie, the next few years would be hard, his mother Beth told Good Housekeeping.

    At high school, he was bullied by his peers but refused to bow to pressure to conform and adopted an androgynous look.

    “I would rather be hated for who I am than loved for who I am not,” he told his parents.

    Beth, from Connecticut, says she always knew her children were a little different.

    But she and her husband Russ became worried about their son who slowly spiraled into depression.

    The mother said his school struggled to understand Russie’s struggle and even threatened to expel him after he ran into the girl’s toilets.

    “I did not choose this for myself,” he had told her. “I wish there was a way that I could not be this way.”

    While the family were concerned with Russie’s struggle, unbeknownst to anyone, his sister was also struggling with her own identity.

    Aly had always been a bit of a tomboy but deep down she knew there was more to it.

    After researching transgender on the Internet, she said she realized that she had been born the wrong sex. She wanted to be a boy. And it was Aly who took the brave step to come out to her parents first.

    Just a few days before her 15th birthday, she broke the news to her brother that she was transgender.

    Then, with Russie at her side, she broke the news to her mom.

    “I’ve figured out what’s going on with me,” she told her. “I know that I’m transgender. I’ve always wanted to be a boy. I never told you this, but when I was little, I would go to sleep and wish that I’d wake up a boy.

    “Every time we did the wishbone at Thanksgiving and I won, I would wish that I was a boy.”

    A month later, Russie confessed that he too was transgender and both siblings, after receiving counseling, have decided to go ahead with gender reassignment surgery.

    Today Russie, 20, is known as Rai, while Aly, 17, goes by the name Gavin.

    But their parents said nothing had changed as far as how much they love their children.

    Beth said, “People ask me what I’ve lost, but I don’t feel that I’ve lost anything. I have my son and daughter the way they should be.”

    Gavin said that it had been his parents’ unwavering support that had allowed him and his sister to become the people they wanted to be. (SD-Agencies)