I'm 52 and for the first time in my life I'm myself. After lifetime of deep-cover, including 5 terrible years of hiding from the world, I'm out to everyone. I was told there would be collateral damage, and they were right. My children, after initially being great, found a reason unrelated to my transition to stop talking with me. This hurts, not just because I feel betrayed, but because especially they're both highly educated and intelligent. My daughter is an a major TV network news reporter who's well respected and loved in the LGBT community, and my son, 27, is applying to med school and have always been supportive of transgender people.
My friends and co-workers have been great. If anything, we're closer now that I've torn down the walls and can be myself. I work in a very male dominant profession, flying med-evac helicopters as pilot-in-command, where the number of female pilots number in the dozens. I thought I wouldn't be accepted, but I was wrong.
The loss of my children, notwithstanding, I'm the happiest I've been since their birth. In fact, before the Estradiol implant makes me sterile, I'm considering having another child.
