My Transgender Story | Irish Lives | Only Human
301‘My Transgender Journey’ follows three people who have transitioned to their true gender.
This one hour special follows three people, as they search for a sense of their own identity in Ireland, a country that is the only EU member state not providing a legal mechanism for recognition of transgender persons.
Sam, Louise and Kay give an up-close and personal account of their transgender journeys and what it is like to live in a country that does not fully accept them.
Louise Hannon shares her story as the first transgender worker in Ireland to successfully use the Employment Equality Act in a case of discrimination on the grounds of gender but it was a long and difficult journey. Speaking about a particularly low point in her life, Louise said:
"15 years ago I was very low, to the point where I was ready to commit suicide. For a long, long time I didn’t know what was wrong. I had been abused as a child, sexually abused and I had this morbid fear that I would turn out to be an abuser of some sort and it got to the point where I just didn’t know where to turn.”
After beginning to see a counsellor, Louise realised she needed to make the transition from male to female and that not addressing this was the root of her unhappiness.
UCD student Sam Blanckensee made the transition from female to male with the full support of his family but he still has further barriers to cross. As Sam has not undergone any surgery, he has been binding his breast tissue which can be very dangerous to a person’s health.
“You can’t breathe in them binders, you can break ribs, I developed asthma from wearing them too much. I know a friend who will possibly need heart surgery because it has cut off the circulation to his blood vessels in his heart. They’re really, really bad for you because it doesn’t allow your chest to expand.”
Kay Bear Koss gives an open and honest account of her pending surgery, as well as her struggle to change her name and gender on her American passport. Kay described how a motorcycle accident made her realise she had to accept her true gender.
“I went flying over the handlebars. I was mid-air and time froze as it does in those situations and I thought ‘you know what, if you walk away from this you’re not going to get another chance so you better do something and change your life if you want to be happy’.”
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Produced by Sky Vision.
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