Growing up different: B.C. transgender patients line up for surgery but doctor who can do it is denied OR time
http://www.timescolonist.com/Health/Growing+different+transgender+patients+line+surgery+doctor+denied+time/1216483/story.htmlKatherine Dedyna
1/25/09
Katherine Dedyna writes about British Columbians living with gender identity disorder who continue to face expensive surgery and long stays at a private Montreal clinic now that plans for a publicly funded sexual reassignment clinic on the West Coast have collapsed.
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As a tomboyish six-year-old, the little girl would tell kids she didn't know that her name was Sean. She wanted to be a boy; she felt like a boy inside. Growing up, the feeling intensified. She presented an increasingly male facade to the world. She wore men's clothing, kept her hair cropped and took testosterone for years to promote beard growth. Hair also grew on large breasts hidden by a chest binder.
But no more. At 37, Sean Brown is recovered from a double mastectomy on Oct. 28 to remove those breasts and contour a male chest. He finally feels outside the way he feels inside -- masculine in a way he couldn't fully imagine before. "It's absolute relief," he says. And he's able to live his life in ordinary ways that once eluded him: "I went swimming for the first time and got changed in the change room." No hiding required.
