One Woman's Journey Growing Up Transgender And Mormonhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/-anwhat-its-like-growing-up-transgenderd-mormon_55ef4e5fe4b002d5c0771a5d?utm_hp_ref=transgenderThe Huffington Post/Antonia Blumberg
Associate Religion Editor, The Huffington Post
Posted: 09/08/2015 07:28 PM EDT
"Transmormon, a documentary recently selected to be part of National Geographic's Short Film Showcase, explores what it's like growing up transgender and Mormon. The story is told through the eyes of Eri Hayward, a transgender woman raised in a Mormon community in Utah, and her family.
"For the longest time I kind of had this fantasy... that a fairy godmother would come and turn me into a girl and make everything better," said Eri, who was assigned male at birth. "It was such an escape for me."
Eri's father, Ed, recalled her saying as a 4-year-old, "Daddy, I want to be a girl." Ed said he thought it was a "phase" his child was going through, a theory that seemed to be corroborated in Eri's teenage years when she started dressing in more masculine styles and dating a girl. But that didn't last long, either."