If you’re out there and you see this, please please watch and share. This is my best friend and basically adoptive brother. This is his birth mother literally choking him and ripping a shirt off of him because he is transgender. Ryan and I met because we are both FTM transgender. This goes on for 30 minutes, following hours of verbal abuse. He’s been living with me for the past 4 months while we waited for a court case that his mothers private attorney pushed off 7 times. They tried to secretly have the court date, but by luck we found out and Ryan was able to speak. His mother was only given 20 hours community service and 2 counseling sessions. DCF has once again failed this child, along with many others. So I need your help, for one please share this video regardless. We have done everything in our ability to give him a life and unfortunately it’s out of our hands. Spread this like wildfire, get it to news headlines, to Ellen. I don’t care how, but save this kids life. He’s not gonna make it if he’s goes back to that place tonight

Hey y'all, I’m Ryan Stalvey from Jacksonville, Florida. I’m the kid in the video and I’m just gonna give y'all a little insight on my statement in court today that was denied:

“Hello… My name is Ryan I am here  standing today in this room as a 16 year old boy who just wants  to live my life  happy and feel safe and loved. That’s what all of you want in this room is for every single human being to  feel loved and to feel safe and to  feel happy. We as human beings are so quick to judge and label people and how the feel or what their lifestyle is or how they  look but in reality we have to remember that no matter what your political views are or what god you believe in we all want every single  child to feel safe and loved in their home. Sadly I did not when I lived with My mother and father. they were  only worried about what people would think of them because their  little girl was truly a little boy. So when the found out I was trans  the backlash from them was outrageous. Especially from my mother. They made me believe I was wrong, and so I began feeling depressed, lost, and alone.  They did not understand that you just had to love your child.  I am asking you today because I have lived most of my life sad and scared to please let me live with Nick and Heidi Dennis because they have made me feel safe, loved and I feel proud of who I am. I have developed a brotherhood with their transgender son, Kyler and a place in that house. I even have my own cat there. When I was removed from the home to live with my grandma for a week, Nick described it as taking a piece of furniture away. I belong there. I didn’t feel safe in my old house, so I stand here before you, begging you to let Heidi and Nick gain legal custody of me. I’m not going back to a house that doesn’t feel like a home. I’m not going back to Suicidal thoughts and every day self harm. I held a gun to my head in the sixth grade because I thought I liked girls and I was afraid of what my own mother would think. What 12 year old, holds a gun to their head? What 12 year old would rather die then tell their parents that they’re a little different? They say there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. My parents found out I was transgender at 14 years old. I’ll tell you what, this two year long tunnel has led up to the Dennis family. I can see them, they’re my light. I’m not at the end of that tunnel yet because my parents still have legal attachment to me. So again, please just let me get ahold of that light.”

This is horrifying. No one should have to live like this.

"We were watching the footage livestream from our home," Stalvey's adoptive mother Heidi Dennis told Mic in a phone interview, "because we wanted to make sure Ryan was safe. When the abuse started we immediately called the police."

"Taking him to the doctor is going to be a problem... I can't do anything. His parents won't give him back his school books, medicine, nothing," she said. "His mother has made sure all his teachers refer to him [Ryan] as female, and there's nothing I can do. It's really frustrating to try to raise a child without any legal rights."

Thankfully, Ryan’s classmates have been supporting him.

After speaking with Bradley Landon, a medical case manager at the local LGBT youth nonprofit Jasmyn, we learned how trans teens from toxic homes have it particularly rough in Jacksonville, as there's only one shelter in the area that's considered safe for trans people. [Read more]