A little about me

Thanks for visiting! I'm a 45 year old transsexual woman living in Boulder, Colorado. I published this site to talk about how I dealt with my transgender feelings over the years, how I decided to transition, and what the transition process has been like. I hope my experiences will help other people like me as they work through their feelings.

I struggled with my feelings for years and only recently achieved self-acceptance. Once I did, things happened fast! I've been doing electrolysis weekly since January 2000, started on hormones in January 2001, and went full-time in June 2001. Click here if you'd like to read more about how this all came about.

I'm a software developer, which in general is a relatively transgender-friendly field. I came out at work in May 2001. My manager and the senior management were strongly supportive and helped me work out a detailed transition plan. I started working as Debby on June 4, 2001. Here's the coming out letter I wrote for my coworkers. Everything went really well and the first two weeks were great. Unfortunately all the strong support meant nothing when the company (a dotcom) ran low on cash. I lost my job on the second round of layoffs on June 21, only two and a half weeks after my transition! It was nice while it lasted, but that left me with a sour feeling about the place. They did a lot to help me but the net result was no job less than three weeks later. On the positive side, I now have solid references and an employment history as Debby. That should help a lot when I get around to looking for another job. One piece of advice I have if you're planning to transition: make certain your confidence and presentation are good enough that you can successfully interview for a new job before coming out at work! And you should have enough savings to live on for at least a few months. You just never know what will happen. Fortunately, I was in good shape on both. It would have been bad if I was living paycheck to paycheck.

On June 4, 2002 I had Sex Reassignment Surgery with Dr. Schrang in Wisconsin. Read about my experiences here.

Read about my life after surgery.

Here's some web sites that I found useful when I was in my "information gathering" phase:

• The Looking Glass Society - Lots of good overview material under their "Publications' section. When I came out at work this was one of the info links I gave my managers. They really liked it.
• Lynn Conway's web site - Lynn is a TS woman who transitioned years ago. And she's accomplished more professionally than I could ever dream of doing! She's a prolific writer so allow some time when you visit her site.
• Becky Allison�s web site - Becky has a really detailed diary of her transition and lots of thoughts about how she reconciled her transsexualism with her faith. A great site to check out, particularly if you're Christian.
• Sally's Resource Morsel - Sally is another TS woman who transitioned successfully on the job. And she didn't get laid off like me! She's also written about her personal experiences with cosmetic surgery, hormones, and electrolysis. I found that really helpful when I was planning my own transition.
• tsroadmap.com, a great resource and info site published by Andrea James, a postop TS woman.
• The Gender Identity Center, a TG support and activism group in Denver.

I also recommend the following books. They�re available from Amazon.

• Bornstein, K. Gender Outlaw: On men, women, and the rest of us. New York: Vintage Books (Random House), 1995.
• Brown, M. & Rounsley, C. True Selves: Understanding Transsexualism. San Franscisco: Jossey-Bass, 1996.
• Feinberg, L. Transgender Warriors: Making History from Joan of Arc to Dennis Rodman. Boston: Beacon Press, 1996.
• McCloskey, D. Crossing: A Memoir. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1999.

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