Coming soon: Growing up with a Trans Father
But first, the daughter of a trans man shares a letter from her deceased dad
I woke this week to a voice text from an Anonymous Conversations interviewee who had refused to let me share our talk, which we recorded in April and she decided in May she did not want published.
You don’t have to agree with her.
You don’t have to agree with anyone.
But I want you to hear the pain this woman still carries. Here is an exceptionally talented fashion designer who grew up with a trans father, after finding a letter that he wrote to her shortly before his death:
This message prompted me to call her to try to convince her that people would want to hear her experience. She then agreed to share the letter itself, the best possible image of which is below. He also agreed to do another interview, which I will be posting soon.
I personally found the letter fascinating. It’s what a man who had been trans for the last twenty years of his life had to say to his only child. But if you’re not interested in reading old-school typing that’s way too close together, you still might want to scroll down to the bottom for a sample of the next episode, my conversation with his daughter.
(Note: He misspells "lose" as "loose," a common mistake.)
The next recording is a segment of our first attempt at a conversation, in April. It was the day after she had had her first night of sleep in months (on self-medication). She was suffering from severe insomnia and prevented by our medical system’s bureaucracy from getting the correct help. Once she heard what we had recorded, she did as other interviewees have done: refused to let me publish.
I thought the conversation was perfect, even with the crying and cursing thruout most of it. I liked that it captured someone barely functional after months of not sleeping, and I appreciated how raw and random her state of mind was. I even appreciated her circular and stammering speech.
She did not, but she eventually got a prescription for the medication she needed, got better rested, discovered that letter, and sent me the unexpected message about it, which I took as sign she still wanted to share her story.
I have permission to publish part of that first conversation in April, the part when we were still discussing corporations and Western medicine. She agreed it might be revolutionary to share what she has discovered about MTHFR, a gene she believes is at the root of her serotonin and dopamine imbalances, and possibly also her dad’s.
Here is just the very beginning of that first talk, a part I will not be including when I post Anonymous Conversations #3 in a few days. We were talking about the Bud Light debacle that had just happened, and our disappointment with corporations.