For Older Transitioners: How do you refer to yourself in the past?

[karenk1959]

We put too much emphasis on labels. I was a person and now I am a person!

[Jerri]

there was a guy used to know

[Tessa James]

Starting transition at age 60 with the physical attributes of the time, I felt it was unlikely that I would be passable.  My decision was and is to remain comfortable with my past and to honor my full long life.  That is one reason my current middle name was once my first.

I am also part of the less binary, if more female, spectrum and happy to "out" myself when talking about the past as a "person who" and/or sometimes; when I was "living as a guy".

My perceptions are different now and seeing the world through new eyes and feelings is part of the gift we can give ourselves.  This level of personal authenticity and integration makes these the best years of my life

[Charlie Nicki]

"Before I transitioned" or "When I was living/presenting as a man" sound good to me. Especially the second one since it implies you weren't a man, just had to try living as one.

[arice]

Sometimes I start the narrative with, "Back when I was trying to be a fake man . . ."

I usually don't use gender specific terms, so "kid", "teen", "undergrad" etc... but today I had the occasion to say "back when I was pretending to be a straight woman"...

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[arice]

I refer to myself without the gender unless it's somehow relevant to. Everything I did was still me. I didn't compensate or try to be someone other than who I've always been, so I have no real need to separate myself from the past. I mean I don't need to use the old name or talk about what others saw in me when I'm describing my own POV.

As long as I can do that I feel fine with it. Of course there are certain... things.. in the past that I tend to avoid as subjects because they really would confuse people now to hear me speak of it.

I agree. My experiences are mine and the life I've lived was mine. I'm not going to pretend otherwise.

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