to survive on this shore

STEPHANIE, 64 ST. LOUIS, 2014

I identify primarily as a woman and secondarily as transgender. And some days I feel rather genderless, actually. It wasn’t until I got into my 50s that, through internet research, I discovered there was a name for all this. It was a great relief. And then, for me, it was like, “We’re going full speed!” Because it was a matter of life and death at that point.

But the transition was also pretty costly in other ways. My oldest son doesn’t speak to me anymore, and he hasn’t for over five years. It’s probably the saddest part in my life. There is a lot of discrimination that happens with transgender people, but the worst discrimination to me is what families do.

I also experienced losses in my work life. I was a strategic account manager