From Fear and Confusion to Love and Acceptance
Marsha Aizumi and her transgender son share their emotional journey.

Wed, Oct 3 2012
By RYOKO NAKAMURA, Rafu Japanese Staff Writer

http://rafu.com/news/2012/10/from-fear-and-confusion-to-love-and-acceptance/

TORRANCE — "My son was born in a female body, but all his life, he's felt like a boy. He didn't understand that. I didn't and people around us didn't understand what it meant. Our story is about a family that had to deal with changing how we think about our child."

Marsha Aizumi and her transgender son, Aiden, addressed a Japanese American audience to educate the public and to raise awareness of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) members of the Asian community on Sept. 14 at Faith United Methodist Church in Torrance.

The presentation, "A Mother, Her Transgender Son, and Their Journey to Love and Acceptance," was hosted by the Greater L.A. Singles Chapter of the JACL.

All Aizumi wanted was a little girl when she and her husband, Tad, decided to adopt a child from Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture. They named the little girl Ashley.

"I found very quickly that she didn't want to wear pink, didn't like dolls, didn't want to do any of the girl things that I remember doing when I was young," Aizumi recalled.