Reply To: Hi ladies! Heeeeere’s Stevie

[DeeAnn Hopings]

Stevie:

You found us! Very Good!

Beyond health issues, age doesn’t seem to be a great barrier. There are people who have had affirmation surgeries into their 70’s and perhaps older., so it does happen. The interesting thing to know is that only around 1/3 of transgender people have affirmation surgeries. I think we in the community, and the general public also, believe that the number is much higher.

Note that there is physical transition and social transition. In my case, I finally realized 8 to 10 years ago that I have always been this amalgam of female and male energies, perspectives and thought processes. However, I’ve never felt that I was in the wrong body. I’ve never noticed any sort of dysphoria. For me, identifying as transgender and non-binary seems appropriate.

I retired at the end of January 2016 and came out as transgender about 4 months before that. I’ve been living in the SoCal desert since then. I present as DeeAnn at least 90% of the time. Very few of the people I am acquainted with have ever met Don. I was a board member of our local trans organization and a member of the steering committee for our local HRC group, both for 2+ years. Currently I am the volunteer coordinator for Palm Springs Pride, community liaison officer for my car club, a commissioner on the Cathedral City Public Arts Commission and on the steering committee for Desert Stonewall Democrats. I am known solely as DeeAnn and she has her own credit card. I did that because it always struck me as odd to present as DeeAnn and offer up Don’s credit card. It could also invite unwanted scrutiny.

About the only thing left would be to change my name legally, but that would be an arduous process across 4 states, public school, university, SSI, driver’s license, passport, birth certificate, tax information, employment information, credit cards, medical information, et al. I think my time would be put to much better use on other things rather than to track down all of that.

Anyway, I encourage you to complete your Profile page as best you can. It helps other members to understand your journey so far and your aspirations for the future.

Also, you can search for other Canadian members by clicking on Social in the menu and then on Member Directory. That will put you at the search utility.