ANDREW Gills couldn't stop smiling the
first time he had to shave his face. It was
confirmation of his transformation from a woman
to a man.
Andrew started hormonal treatment and surgery
at 18 years of age and now, six years later,
says he has never felt happier.
Until yesterday, Mr Gills' employer did not
know his most personal secret.
But he told his boss before coming out
publicly to applaud this week's landmark
decision by the Family Court to allow a
13-year-old girl named "Alex" to become a
boy.
"I totally understand how this boy must be
feeling, especially at his age," he said. "
Puberty is just the most excruciating time for
all transgender people."
Before undergoing breast-reduction surgery at
age 20, Mr Gills said he used to tape his
breasts to his chest out of fear of
embarrassment.
He had made the decision to come out publicly
to tell people that it's OK to be
transsexual.
"I wanted to do this to show that people of
transsexual background are just like normal
people and there are people out there that share
their pain they aren't alone," he
said.
On Tuesday, Family Court Chief Justice
Alistair Nicholson gave permission for Alex to
begin receiving estrogen and progestogen until
16 and then testosterone, which will have
irreversible effects.
Mr Gills said he would have started treatment
at the same age had he been able.
"I always knew I was a boy, I used to play
football and marbles with the boys when my two
younger sisters played with dolls," he said.
"Then in Grade 4 my report card came home and
my teacher said I should play with the girls
more and I remember feeling devastated."
It was the first time anyone had told him he
was not a boy, and he remembers feeling
disoriented.
Chief Justice Nicholson's decision has been
widely praised by transsexual groups nationwide
as a just and humane judgment that respects the
anguish people with a transsexual background go
through during puberty.
High-profile Australian transsexual lawyer
Rachael
Wallbank praised the decision as an
enlightened judgment from an enlightened
judge.
Ms Wallbank successfully argued before the
Family Court in 2001 to allow a man of
transsexual background to marry his partner.
She said this week's decision recognised
transsexualism as a biological, not a mental,
problem.
