What Mom Cares About Most Is That

I Felt Like One Of The Boys. My Friends Were Boys. In School I Related To Boys.

I Thought, Transgender People Are Much Worse Off Than I Am. That's Why They're Willing To Risk Everything To Be Who They Are. But The Older I Got, The Harder It Got To Stay In My Body.

So When I Was About 13 Or 14, I Realized I Was Attracted To Women And Then Made The Assumption That I Was A Lesbian, And Didn't Realize That That Wasn't The Case. It Was The Fact That I Was A Man And A Heterosexual Man. The Issue Wasn't My Sexual Orientation, But Rather My Gender Identity.

Around 2001, I Started Analyzing Lesbians. I Started To Realize That Even Really Butch-acting Or -dressing Women Still Had A Strong Female Identity That I Never Had.

I Wanted To Show America A Different Kind Of Man. If There Was Someone Like Me When I Was Growing Up, My Whole Life Would Have Been Different.