I'm about your ages and have known I was a girl since I was 5, 1964. I grew up in a war zone, parents had issues, so there was no one to tell. I've always figured myself born female with a birth defect, called male on birth certificate, put in boys clothes[hated them] hair cut short[protested every time]. Picked on and beat-up a lot as a teen. Suicide has always been a close friend, way to close. In 1980 I had a 'weird' moment with my best friend at the time when I realized fully for the first time how much in love with him I was. That was when all that I had heard of what you women had done[which wasn't much] entered my mind in that instant and I wanted to transition as fast as humanly possible. Of course 'transition' didn't exist then, it was the pieces that had to be put together by someone competent to do it. I wasn't. So with things falling apart around me, I just slunk off into the future. And here it is 37yrs. later and I've finally found my happiness! Just what you girls did 40-50yrs. ago. I hope with all of my heart that when parents read your posts with mine they will see that their kid is not a monster or something wrong, but they just have a problem that needs to be fixed and can be. So when your called 'pioneers and trailblazers' know that you were! Because those of us out in the wilderness [and there were more than I ever thought!] heard bits and pieces, hear and there, and so knew that there was hope somewhere, somehow. There's a football coach here that had to rebuild a team after many bad seasons, he's called it 'Brick by Brick' and now we have a good team. You 'old-timers' are the bricks of the stairs to where we are now! Young people now don't know what it was like back then, and I'm sooo glad of that. The "ordinary' lives that you've lived is what we all have strived for, and in you we see it is possible. Thank you for sharing your stories with us for you truly are appreciated!
