I can remember as far back as the age of five
assuming that when I grew up I would
be a man. It never occured to me that I might be
a girl."
—Michael, 40 years
old—Australia, 2002
For many people who consider themselves not
necessarily transgender – but transsexual
– there is a destination. It's not about
the journey or any kind of gender-play or drag.
It's about changing your entire life. I think a
lot of people don't understand that for many of
us the idea is not to end up identifying as
transsexual"
—Billy Lane—USA,
2006
I felt humiliated having to wear a girl's school
uniform. I've never felt like a girl. It was
like living as a ghost. Since it looked like
high school was going to be more of the same, I
quit school...I've never lived life as a
transsexual. I've always lived my life naturally
as a man. So I don't really know well the
transsexual life."
—Lee Mun-gi, 40 years
old—China, 2004
I've had gender confirmation surgery. The term
"gender dysphoria" was never true for me. I was
always comfortable with my male gender identity.
It was my sex, my female body, that created the
dysphoria...We do not change our gender; we
change our sex in order to facilitate the full
expression of our selves. Our gender opposes our
sex, and it is the physical sex which causes the
dysphoria and which we want to change."
—James, 1995
I am a man who was assigned to the gender called
'female' at my birth. Since society assumes that
gender and sex always match, the doctor who
looked at my genitals instead of my mind,
assumed incorrectly I was a girl. Throughout my
childhood I knew perfectly well that I was
really a boy but because my body seemed to
insist otherwise...I regard myself as a
perfectly normal, well-adjusted man."
—Andrew, 36 years old— NSW,
2003
I was never female, I was just born that
gender."
—Ed, 48 years old—USA,
1995
I regard transsexualism as a medical condition
like any other and transition as a
rehabilitative process...one does not spend all
their life transitioning. I also believe that
when one transitions it is more about a
transitioning of public genders than anything
else. That transitioning is about the rest of
the world realising the truth of who I am and
the recognition that comes with this. I have
always known myself to be nothing but male
despite the fact that a medical professional
pronounced to my parents that I was a girl,
based on a glance at my genitalia."
—Cameron, 37 years
old—Sydney, 2002
We don't want to be separated out from other men
and women. My gender identity is not about being
transgender; it's about being male."
—Marcus Arana—USA,
2006
"I'm not a woman -- that's the whole point. I'm
a man. Inside myself I'm a man and as a man it's
a horror for me to have breasts. They're
constant reminders that nature made a dreadful
mistake in putting me together. I have to get
rid of all the woman in me, and surgery is the
only way."
—Tracey—USA, 1970
When I go to the beach the top of me looks male
and bottom half doesn't. It might take three
operations, it might take five. I've been
through a lot of pain and there's more to come.
But in the long run, I'll be what I always
should have been."
—Mark, 44 years old— Sydney,
1990
...my
husband has not wavered from the very first
conversation we ever had about transsexualism.
He was very sincere and extremely clear. He told
me about a little boy with a girl’s name
who was misunderstood, lonely and unhappy...It
seemed simple and obvious to me that he was a
man living with a fairly rare medical
condition."
—Elizabeth talking about her
husband—Sydney, 2002
I was taught to be a young woman. This was to be
a lonely time for my true self. I dived into a
fantasy world where I was a boy freely being a
boy – such a simple dream but so far to
reach. I imagined a mirror with me standing in
front of it as a man. Making plans for my
career, my life as a man. I found peace in
myself whenever I imagined this."
—Dylan, 31 years old—Sydney,
2001
My book was written as tribute to the little boy
Paul whom I abandoned all those years ago when I
made the unconscious decision to conform in a
society defined by rigid rules and shallow
stereotypes. This little boy has suffered in
silence for far too long, and now he is reborn a
man."
—Paul, 26 years old—UK,
1995
Add
your experience as a man with this physical
condition
