Tulsa World reporter honored for stories about transgender Bixby teenager

[Shana A]

Becoming Katie

PART ONE: Katie was born at 15.
Luke is just a painful memory.

By CARY ASPINWALL World Staff Writer
Published: 5/7/2011  2:21 AM

http://www.tulsaworld.com/specialprojects/news/becoming_katie/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20110507_11_A1_CUTLIN842116

BIXBY - The lone memento of Luke Hill's unhappy existence hangs like a specter in his former bedroom, piercing blue eyes haunting from a 12-year-old portrait.

It's Luke at age 4, in a blue silk kimono, a glossy studio snapshot from when the family lived in Japan, during Dad's service in the U.S. Marine Corps.

This is Katie's room now, and the picture of Luke hanging on her wall is the only one she'll allow her mother to display in the house.

[Shana A]

Becoming Katie

After years feeling lost, Katie finds her new identity.

By CARY ASPINWALL World Staff Writer
Published: 5/8/2011  2:21 AM

http://www.tulsaworld.com/specialprojects/news/becoming_katie/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20110508_11_A1_CUTLIN999189

BIXBY - Katie Hill tries not to take it personally when people don't understand what transgender means. She didn't know herself for a long time.

[...]

"It wasn't my fault," Katie said. "It was just nature handing me something that wasn't fair. I couldn't look in the mirror without wanting to cry."

[Becka]

Katie Hill wasn't born a girl.  but she always knew he was mean to be one. 
Becoming Katie

by Cary Aspinwall, Tulsa World Staff Writer
Published 5/7/2011 and 5/8/2011
Published in The Tulsa World

http://www.tulsaworld.com/specialprojects/news/becoming_katie/default.aspx

BIXBY - The lone memento of Luke Hill's unhappy existence hangs like a specter in his former bedroom, piercing blue eyes haunting from a 12-year-old portrait.
It's Luke at age 4, in a blue silk kimono, a glossy studio snapshot from when the family lived in Japan, during Dad's service in the U.S. Marine Corps.
This is Katie's room now, and the picture of Luke hanging on her wall is the only one she'll allow her mother to display in the house.
Katie asked her mom to destroy the rest. She doesn't want to be reminded of Luke, his miserable existence as a puzzle piece that never fit.

Luke is just a memory in the minds of those who loved him, the blue-eyed ghost in the portrait.
Katie is flesh and bone, long hair and limbs, breasts and eyelashes. A happy 16-year-old who believes it's not her fault she was born into the wrong body.
And by burying Luke and becoming Katie, she has righted what nature made wrong.

[Shana A]

Tulsa World reporter honored for stories about transgender Bixby teenager

By Staff Reports
Published: 4/3/2012  2:23 AM

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20120403_11_A4_CUTLIN488302

Tulsa World Staff Writer Cary Aspinwall accepted a national award Monday evening in Washington, D.C., for her work on "Becoming Katie," a two-part series that explored the life and transition of a transgender Bixby teenager.

Aspinwall won the 2012 Freedom Forum and American Society of News Editors Award for Distinguished Writing on Diversity and was selected from a pool of journalists from across the country, regardless of their publication size.

[...]

"Becoming Katie" followed Bixby resident Katie Hill last year as she dealt with being a transgender teenager in an Oklahoma high school.

The story showed how she abandoned the name Luke Hill as she and her parents learned to educate themselves about what it means to be transgender.

[SandraJane]

Here's the current link to the "Becoming Katie" articles;

http://www.tulsaworld.com/specialprojects/news/becoming_katie/default.aspx

[justmeinoz]

A well deserved award in my opinion.