Puberty obviously made things more complicated, and then I got Type I Diabetes when I was 15. Diabetes requires you to be in constant contact with your body, and I was really trying to just distract myself from the body entirely. So I felt in that moment like I would die if I didn't learn to live in the body that I was in. With my mom in particular, I went downstairs one day and my mom was reading on the couch.
Can you unload the dishwasher?” For the next 12 years or so, I didn't particularly identify with my body but transitioning just wasn't something I think I was ready to deal with.Īnd then, when I was 27, I was actually engaged when I met somebody else who just saw that part of me and put a name to it.Īnd I was like, “Well, I'm attracted to women.” She just kind of looked up at me like, “Of course you are. I think my biggest fear was that if I told the world that I was male, that the reaction would either be one of pity, or that people would think I was crazy. Somebody else saying it first just protected me and made me feel like I could do it.
