A few months ago I very quietly announced to some of you that my gender is nonbinary and requested that people use gender-neutral they/them/their pronouns to refer to me. I also said I don’t feel like I’m a woman and I don’t intend to transition or take hormones.
Turns out I was wrong. I am a woman.
Some of you will have already guessed as much, not least from my increasing comments about gender and my social media posts about transgender issues. On the other hand, some of you definitely have not seen this coming. My gender has been a matter of intense distress, self-examination, questioning, despair and anguish - as those friends kind enough to listen to me know all too well. I didn’t know (or didn’t admit to myself) what I was before the last few months despite years of questioning, but now that I do know, the problems I faced in the past make so much more sense.
Now that I understand more about myself it is time for me to do something about it. I have asked my GP to refer me to a gender identity clinic and I am starting out on my transition.
But that’s not the important part. The important part is this:
I am transgender. My name is Ella. I am a woman.