STAR OBSERVER MAGAZINE | MAY 2015

STAR OBSERVER MAGAZINE | MAY 2015

You May Also Like

4 responses to “STAR OBSERVER MAGAZINE | MAY 2015”

  1. Do not forget intersex people as well! We are the gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans* and intersex community after all (LGBTI)!

  2. July 21, 2015

    Dear Star Observer,

    I am writing as one who was born in Sydney, but who has lived the majority of her life in America. It is easy for me to understand why Cate would say, “I still don’t get what all the attention is about.” I hope I may shed some light on why she might feel this way.

    Cate doesn’t know me at all, and yet I know why her life and example is important to me. All my life, I have been a person who is transsexual–one who has, until quite recently, hidden herself behind a male exterior–and despite the ever-increasing levels of physical and emotional suffering this decision has brought upon me.

    In recent years, my marriage ended because I could no longer endure the physical and emotional pain of forcing a male life upon myself. Only by prescribing estrogen and an anti-androgen (Avodart) for me was my doctor able to reduce this pain to tolerable levels by 2008.

    As I have continued down this path, I have wanted my older brother to understand the transsexual life which I myself have been struggling to contain, and which I now needed to accept into my life. I told him I was taking estrogen, but had lots of difficulty explaining exactly why I needed to do this.

    in the end, it was Cate’s two interviews on “One Plus One” and “Australian Story” that I sent my brother so that he would have a familiar context within which to understand my own very difficult journey. Cate’s two interviews have helped both my brother and me to come to terms with the challenges I have faced, and what I will continue to do to resolve them.

    Thanks to Cate’s openness and her gift for self-expression, my brother now understands what has happened to me, and why I need to undergo hormone replacement therapy. My brother now understands, accepts and supports me fully–a gift which is based on the understanding which he received from watching Cate’s televised explanations of her own struggle to understand and accept herself.

    If I were to attempt to explain to Cate why she will always have my respect and gratitude–and why I look up to her as a role model–I would say this:

    “Cate, I look up to you as a role model because of the dignity with which you carry yourself as a woman and as an Australian Air Force Officer. I will never be able to compensate you for the generosity with which you offered us all a greater understanding of the transsexual experience.

    “By so doing, you have gifted my life with my brother’s understanding, love and support–gifts that I receive in generous abundance because you have explained your experience in ways which illustrate much of my own experience as well.

    “Thank you for opening doors for me, and for others like ourselves, who very much need the continuing support and love of our families as we engage the challenges of our own neurologically-, genetically-, and hormonally-created transsexual lives. Thank you especially for being yourself, and thereby allowing us to recognize ourselves–and, to be recognized, understood and cherished as much as ever by those who are closest to us!”

    With kindest regards, I am,

    Sincerely,

    Morgan