Hi y'all
I'm Julia. I'm English originally, but have been living in Spain for 18 years, most recently in Madrid, and I speak Spanish fluently, as well as having a bit of Catalan and French.
I made use of Susan's forum extensively when I decided to transition in 2014 and, during my really busy transition year (I was very focused on getting it all done in not much more than a year), I met some excellent people here. I did delete my account, but I do dip in from time to time if I find someone who has questions where I hope I can make a positive difference.
I'm a reasonably senior exec in a multinational technologies company. When I decided to transition they gave me excellent support, despite my being the only known transgender person out of 120,000 employees. I do some gender- and orientation-related advocacy within my company and, outside of work, I have done some informal coaching of people just starting their gender journey.
Here in Spain transgender rights are reasonably well established, and I was lucky to have the support from the gender identity unit at the Ramon y Cajal hospital in Madrid. I did facial surgery with Facial Team in Marbella, BA and SRS with Dr Chettawut in Bangkok, and some body sculpturing with Dr Kaye of Ocean Clinic, also in Marbella.
I'm a firm believer of taking charge of one's transition, and I was really, truly fortunate that my transition year was a positive and fascinating experience, with too many taxi drivers asking for my phone number! I am immensely grateful to my family and friends for their unwavering support at that time.
My present partner (whom I met after transition) is female, but I've had boyfriends too, so I guess I'd best classify myself as bi.
Feel free to say hello and reach out.
Hugs and abrazos
Julia
