Coming Out As Trans - Trans Youth Equality Foundation

“I never actually came out to my parents. I came out to a close family friend of ours first – he was gay, so I knew he would accept me. I sent him an email and told him that I have always felt like a girl inside, and that I want to get surgery and everything so I can be a normal girl. He told me that he completely supported me, and that I shouldn’t be scared of coming out to my parents because they had always suspected I might be transgender since I was really little.

Later, my mom read the email when I left my computer out, and she told me that she knew all along that I might be transgender, because I used to tell her when I was little that I was supposed to be a girl, her daughter. She didn’t know very much about transgender youth back then, but she promised to accept me and help me as much as she could. That was two years ago. Now I have been on puberty blockers and hormones for more than a year, I am having surgery in less than a year, and I finally am the girl I have always needed to be.”

- a 16-year-old transgender girl

“I never felt comfortable in my body. I knew that I didn’t identify as a boy or with the male gender roles put on me by others. I had told my parents when I was younger that I felt I would be happier if I had been born a girl.

I came out to my parents as gay when I was 14, and they didn’t react badly. But at the same time my parents often chose to ignore my sexuality and femininity. I didn’t come out to them as trans until I was 17, and they took it really badly at first. My parents would cry and yell, and they were completely unsupportive.

But about a year later I told them that I was going to transition regardless of their thoughts, and they eventually became my biggest supporters. My parents are going along with me to my future surgeries, and I’m so happy to have them by my side as I live my life as the girl I was always supposed to be.”

- 18 year-old transgender girl