My Road to Acceptance as a Trans Man Began in Prison

I finally saw a specialist one year after I decided to start hormone replacement therapy. Most prisons have a general practitioner, but not an endocrinologist. So, handcuffed and shackled with leg and waist chains, in a van with three guards and another trans man, I rode two and a half hours to Augusta State Medical Prison in east Georgia. When the doctor asked what stopped me from transitioning at home, I told him it was mostly my family’s influence, but that I was no longer concerned with whether or not they accepted me for who I am. He was satisfied with that. He wrote me a prescription for 100 mg of testosterone every two weeks.

Since we weren’t allowed to handle needles, I would have my injections administered by prison medical staff. But when I went for my follow-up, the