My transgender uncle: A family secret hidden for decades

[Kate Thomas]

My transgender uncle: A family secret hidden for decades
Hannah Booth
The Guardian,
Friday 15 November 2013

Ken was Sara's uncle – he married her "beautiful, glamorous" aunt Hazel – Audrey's younger sister – in 1954. Their wedding photograph shows a gorgeous, dimpled bride smiling in a white dress and veil, and an upright man in a dark suit, with a serious expression. He was 34, she 29.

Among the documents was a letter from Hazel to Audrey, dated 10 September 1959. "This letter will no doubt come as a surprise to you," she wrote, "but don't be unduly alarmed.

"Last October, without any previous inkling whatsoever, I learned that K was changing his sex."

Her husband had secretly been taking female hormones. By July that year his skin was becoming smoother, he didn't need to shave as often and breasts were developing.

Since the age of three, he had wanted to become a girl; as a teenager he collected girl's clothes – even making his own – and dressed as a girl when his parents were out. He constructed false drawers at his parents' – and later his own – house to store them.