A Story Of Two Women

When I was reading this morning’s trans news looking for something to write about today these two article popped out to me; they both are stories about trans woman but are different as night to day.

At the end of his rope, Kevin Swartz was reborn as AshleyTwo decades before there was Caitlyn Jenner, a Nebraska farmer made a similar journeyBy Erin Grace / World-Herald staff writer
Sunday, November 1, 2015

MALMO, Neb. — The farmer slides open the big green metal doors of this machine shed on a farm 50 miles west of Omaha.

Here is a 1957 John Deere tractor, the oldest the farmer ever bought.

Here is a 2014 John Deere combine that costs 10 times as much as a new car.

And here is the spot, right here, where the farmer once sized up the rafters and a bleak future. Here is where the farmer planned to end it all: a life straddling two irreconcilable selves — male in a physical sense, female in every other way.

This lifelong struggle had felt hopeless. The farmer’s wife had left and taken the kids. The farmer was more alone than ever.

So the farmer had searched for a rope.

Improbably, in this cavernous, tool-stocked shed, the farmer couldn’t find one.

And this bought enough time for doubt — for the farmer to reconsider the impact of a suicide on two young children.

At that moment, the farmer had stopped looking for an end.

And started looking for a beginning.

As you can guess, she is trans and it was at that point in her life that she chose to transition. She lives in a small town and she took a big chance,

For starters, it’s unlikely any of Malmo’s 100 residents then would have flown the rainbow flag. No one could have imagined gay marriage or said those words with a straight face. And the idea of being transgender was even less accepted.

Just two years earlier, in another Nebraska town, a young woman named Teena Brandon who presented herself as a man had been raped and murdered.

Sometimes it was dangerous to be transgender. More often, it was a joke.

Popular culture at the time played being transgender for laughs.

But she did transition and it hasn’t been a bed of roses, it did have its ups and downs but she survived and she still runs the farm.

While on the east coast,

Meet Dr. Levine, Pennsylvania's top docThe highest-ranking transgender person in state history continues a distinguished career in health careBy Michael A. Fuoco / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
November 1, 2015

HARRISBURG — By any measure, Rachel Levine had a whirlwind week in January — one that was as life-changing for her as it was historic for Pennsylvania.

There was no grand plan, no lifelong dream at work. The process was organic.

It began when Dr. Levine agreed to co-chair then-Gov.-elect Tom Wolf’s transition committee for state physician general, a Health Department position created in 1996. She made it clear she wasn’t a candidate because she was happy and fulfilled as a physician at the Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital-Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.
[…]
On Friday, Jan. 16, Dr. Levine was offered and accepted the position; on Saturday the appointment was announced; on Monday she saw patients until 6 p.m.; on Tuesday Gov. Wolf was inaugurated; and on Wednesday morning she began her new role as the state’s top doctor.

In becoming Pennsylvania’s fourth physician general — and being appointed to Gov. Wolf’s cabinet — she became the highest-ranking openly transgender person in state government history, joining only a handful of other transgender women serving in government office nationally.

Her nomination and unanimous 49-0 confirmation by the Republican-controlled Pennsylvania Senate in June were hailed in the transgender community across the nation and have made her a role model.

Two different stories but one theme, the world doesn’t end when we transition.

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Right now I am up in northwestern Connecticut doing training for the staff and administration at a elementary school.