Bristol Resident Shares Story of Transgender Struggles on NPR

Bristol resident Jaye Watts was featured on the This I Believe Rhode Island segment of RI NPR.

    By Sara Bagwell
    March 20, 2012

http://bristol-warren.patch.com/articles/bristol-resident-featured-in-npr-s-this-i-believe-rhode-island

A Bristol resident was recently featured on the NPR segment of "This I Believe Rhode Island".

Jaye Watts, a Bristol resident who identifies himself as a queer-identified transgendered man, reached out to Patch last week to share his news.

"I want Bristol and Warren folks to know that people like me exist and are a part of their community," Watts said in an email to Patch.

In the segment, Watts talks about his struggle growing up knowing there was something different about him. He discussed how difficult and scary it was to come out to the people he loved and that he hopes that one day people can feel free express their gender identity without being harassed.

-----

This I Believe Rhode Island

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wrni/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=1912572

RIPR (WRNI) - Imagine reaching a point in your life when you discover that the identity you have had all along, the way you've seen yourself since birth, is turned upside down. Perhaps you learn for the first time that the father you've known every day of your life is not your biological father. Or you learn that you have a biological sibling that you never knew about. Or, like Jayeson Watts, you discover that the sex you were assigned at birth does not match how you feel on the inside.

Jayeson Watts lives in Bristol, Rhode Island and describes himself as a queer identified transgender man. He is a social worker at Youth Pride, Inc., an organization that provides services to Rhode Island's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Questioning youth.