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 JAMISON
Green is no woman. That fact is clear from the
first moment you meet him. Deep of voice and
self-assured, stoutly built with a confident
stride, thinning hair and a manicured beard. It's
hard to believe that this shining example of
maleness was born female. "I'm told that I started
to refuse to wear dresses before I was two,"
explains Green.
I
knew I had a girl body. I knew that people used
feminine pronouns to refer to me. I knew I was
supposed to be a girl."
He shakes his head and continues,
"It
was just difficult to do that."
Although Green never quite
felt comfortable in his own skin, he maintains
"it was
just a normal, happy childhood except that this
stuff [gender confusion] for me was always
in the background." Still,
Green was active in sports and school activities.
To the casual observer, this was a tomboy; a young
child more at home wearing jeans and climbing trees
than donning the required school uniform of a
dress.
It wasn't until college that
Green's internal struggle had more obvious
manifestations. He was pursued by a female
classmate, which Green at first resisted. "After
awhile," he says, "I gave in and found out that I
really enjoyed this kind of intimacy." This first
girlfriend suggested Green might be a good
candidate for a sex change, which he vehemently
denied. At that time, the idea was repulsive to
him.
Green had several long-term
lesbian relationships before settling into a
14-year commitment. His partner conceived and bore
two children through artificial insemination. The
couple opted for a sperm donor who resembled Green.
But parenthood stirred feelings in Green he could
no longer ignore.
I
was leading this pretty adult life and yet, I
didn't feel like an adult. I felt like I was
stuck in this adolescent place because people
still reacted to me the same that they did when
I was young, and they couldn't tell what sex I
was." However, Green's
partner did not support his need to physically
become the gender he felt he had always been and
their relationship ended.
On the road to
change
Becoming a candidate for
sexual reconstruction surgery (SRS) is an arduous
process. It includes a rigorous psychological
examination to ensure the person is of sound mind
and will be able to make the social change from one
sex to the other. The candidate is required to live
as the opposite sex for a year or more as they
begin a regimen of hormone therapy. Says
Green,
The
actual psychological and physical change is
primarily done with hormones. Surgery is like
icing on the cake. Surgery is not what it's all
about."
 As
Green was going through his transition, he
continued to hold a managerial position in an
office building. When he confronted his colleagues
with the news that he would be assuming a male
identity and that they should address him
accordingly, he met with a lot of acceptance and
some resistance. One male co-worker was so incensed
by Green's presence in the men's restroom, he
threatened to become violent. Green says with eyes
wide,
There
is nothing like realizing, I mean really
realizing, what it's like to be perceived as
different. I mean, really different; so
different that some people might actually want
to kill you. So different that some people think
that you don't deserve to live."
But Green endured:
I
think what happens is, you have this constant
awareness that you are transitioning, that you
are being tested socially everywhere you look,
everywhere you go. You carry that with you. And
then, one day, that's taking up less and less
space. That awareness is falling behind you
because you don't need it any more."
Fast-forward more than 10
years. Green completed his physical change with
chest reconstruction and the creation of a
neo-phallus. He is now a transgender activist and
is engaged to be married to a woman. He crusades
for the acceptance of transgendered people - that
he and fellow transsexuals be treated fairly in the
workplace, at the doctor's office, on the street.
He is spreading the message that "transgendered
people are not crazy, and they're not
perverts...they're ordinary people who are
struggling with extraordinary
circumstances."
Green's own plight has
resulted in a greater compassion for and
understanding of his fellow human
beings:
Probably
the most powerful thing for me was to learn
about my own judgments about people who are
different, including myself. My own sense of
shame and embarrassment over what I've had to go
through. My own sense of tolerance for other
people's variant appearances or behaviours has
changed dramatically."
James Green. He's quite a
man.
*Name has been
changed to protect anonymity.
Citation
— Donovan, M., (2002). Jamison Green.
Bell
Globemedia
Interactive.
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