It Took Decades For Me To Realise My Identity Was A Lie. I Was Prepared For Pain — But Not This

"I have traded my fears for freedom," the author writes.I am a 66-year-old transgender man. The fact that I can make that statement seemed an impossibility not so long ago.Growing up in an era when silence was a guiding principle and secrecy was the standard for survival, it is truly amazing that I have become the man I always knew myself to be.  By the age of six, I learned that society, religion and family had fashioned a perception of me based on a narrow definition of gender, but the carnival mirror held up to me was not my true reflection. Innately, I knew they were wrong and that my outward appearance was a deception — a lie that I couldn’t accept — yet I felt powerless to change.Society taught me about the binary — that only boys and girls existed and that  each matched the genitals with which they were born. Religion taught me God didn’t make mistakes, so any belief accusing Him of such was due to Satan’s influence over me. Family taught me that it was unacceptable to ask for a