Anne Faith Beon was born practically with axle grease on her hands -- pumping gas as a child, working on car engines and driving hot rods in the beachfront blue-collar community where she was raised.
Beon wasn't a tomboy. She was a boy, born with male anatomy and high doses of testosterone coursing through her body.
Beon is a woman now, not because of a name change or the clothes she wears, but because of biology. California transgender medicine specialist Dr. Maddie Deutsch called it "a mixture of genetics and physiology" on a recent broadcast of Anderson Cooper's program, "AC360," on CNN.
"It's not a choice. It takes place whether you like it or not," Beon said. "When it happens late in life it's like a race horse coming out of the gate. You can only hold it back for so long."
Beon began a regiment of hormone therapy, including estrogen injections in May 2008, which has softened her skin and developed her breasts. Electrolysis and other procedures help push the process along.
Beon will complete the transition from male to female in November when she travels to Canada for gender reassignment surgery, which will remove her testicles and alter the penis to approximate female anatomy. It is an irreversible decision and a painful surgery, but Beon, who lives in West Haven, said she looks forward to it because from a very young age she felt trapped in the wrong body.
A dangerous 'crossing'
In a poem titled "The Crossing," Beon calls the transitioning process "both beautiful and dangerous."
"It's not an easy path," and for many it is life-threatening, she said, adding that the suicide rate among people who wrestle with gender identity and the fear of how their families and society will perceive them is high, as is the murder rate, and she wants to put an end to both.
Beon is one of the lucky ones. She owns her own home and has worked for the last three years as a medical courier.
"I transitioned on the job, and as far as the company goes, they've been very, very supportive. They could have given me trouble. They could have found a way to get rid of me," said Beon, who said she also feels supported by a number of doctors and nurses she interacts with regularly on her regional courier route.
Beon said her lifelong struggle to self-acceptance has been worth it. "I'm finally working on the right octane. "¦ I'm unbelievably happy now," she said.
Living a macho man's life
"I had dreams about turning into a girl," said Beon. "I knew there was something wrong when I was 3. Most transgender people know (early on), but you're taught by society that's not what you're supposed to be, and you have all that testosterone floating around in your system so you do what comes natural, you do what your parents tell you, and you create a façade. You act and apparently my act was really, really good," she said.
For nearly five decades, Beon struggled inwardly with her gender identity, cross-dressing in secret to satisfy "the need to express a female self," but publicly settling into the role her male body dictated, engaging in typical masculine activities, even marrying a woman and having a child. Beon's Oscar-worthy performance fooled the world.
"I was one of those kids with a beer in one hand and a Camaro in the other. I got involved in hot rods and stock car racing. I pitted for someone who competes in NASCAR modified. I built many cars from the ground up."
Beon also held many typically male jobs -- working in a foundry, on the docks and driving a truck -- "anything that was male-oriented. I didn't want anyone to even guess that there was anything other than male about me because I was so ashamed," she said.
What her What her son feels
Beon first confided in a female friend about 10 years ago. "She accepted that part of me and that allowed me to start asking questions of myself," she recalled. But most people did not take it well.
Continue Reading Here
Mail to a friendCOMMENTS
- There Are No Comments Yet
