Finding the Real Me

Finding the Real Me is an extraordinary collection of real-life stories told by a wide-range of sex and gender diverse people. These healing tales of struggle and transformation reveal just how creative, resourceful, and adventurous the individuals in this community can be and also helps to bridge the gap between ignorance and understanding. As each incredible story unfolds we become part of the author's journey to self-acceptance and join the celebration of their new life. Page by page, we laugh, cry, and learn to appreciate these wonderful courageous people and the road they walked to be their true selves. Finding the Real Me is a landmark book that encourages us to embrace diversity, to never fear our differences, and to remain always in awe of our amazing possibilities. Foreword ix

Acknowledgments xiii

Introduction xv

Glossary xviii

Paradox Is Paradise for Me 1

Lessons of Life 11

A Rose in Bloom 19

A Journey to Androgyny 30

Bad Hair Days: The Story 43

Robyn's Journey 55

Japan: A Sexually Unique Country 68

So, Which One Is the Opposite Sex? The Sometimes Spiritual Journey of a Metagender 76

Being Human: A Personal Transsexual Perspective of Transition 88

Peter's Story 98

The Headache Is in Your Head 103

Gallae, or Reflections of a Pagan Heart 115

Time for a Good Transgender Story 126

Melanie: My Story 137

Confessions of a She-Male Merchant Marine 147

Dream On, and Don't Wake Up to the Nightmare of Reality 158

Jack's Story 168

Tracy's Story 179

The Second Transition 188

An Other-Gendered Boy 203

Masks and Redemptive Transformation 209

Rikki's Story 220

The Constructed Life 231

My Purple Aura: A Journey to Self-Acceptance 242

The Never Ending Tango 253

Butch: A Work in Progress 263

Resources 275

The Editors 281

The Authors 283

Tracie O'Keefe is a clinical hypnotherapist, psychotherapist, and counselor in Sydney, Australia and professor of sex, gender, and sexuality at the Calamus International University. She is the author of the book Sex, Gender, and Sexuality.
Katrina Fox is a freelance journalist and editor.
O'Keefe and Fox are the coauthors of Trans-X-U-All Finding the Real Me is an extraordinary collection of real-life stories told by a wide-range of sex and gender diverse people. These healing tales of struggle and transformation reveal just how creative, resourceful, and adventurous the individuals in this community can be and also helps to bridge the gap between ignorance and understanding. As each incredible story unfolds we become part of the author's journey to self-acceptance and join the celebration of their new life. Page by page, we laugh, cry, and learn to appreciate these wonderful courageous people and the road they walked to be their true selves.
Finding the Real Me is a landmark book that encourages us to embrace diversity, to never fear our differences, and to remain always in awe of our amazing possibilities.

"This groundbreaking selection of autobiographies gives loud and celebratory voice to the frequently hidden and ignored community of those with diverse sex and gender expression. An important and long overdue publication that is sure to illuminate and inform people of all genders who enter the realm of its pages."
— Elizabeth Riley, general manager, Gender Centre, Sydney, Australia

"If you ever doubted that transgender and transsexual issues cross national and cultural boundaries, this provocative collection of voices ought to be enlightening. The confidence, self-awareness, creativity, playfulness, and commitment to life that these people share in the face of invalidation, restriction, oppression, and even violence is absolutely inspiring. The personal is political; these voices raised in harmony prove it."— Jamison Green, educator and author, Becoming a Visible Man