I didn't post this earlier, as I didn't want to intrude on the remembrance of Tommy.

Here's the poem Wendy mentioned. I wrote it for my mother, who was reliving her memories of sexual assault during the Kavanaugh hearings. I felt that if she, and other women, could be brave enough to come forward about what had happened to them, then I could be brave enough to come out as transgendered.

I understand now why you didn't want sons
Even though you got one anyway
Born into the wrong body
My life might have been different
Knowing now what we didn't know then
You knew I was different
But the way you raised me would have been the same
You protected me and camouflaged me
Until I was ready to be the real me
You may have been born in the year of the tiger
But you have always been a dragon
Fiercely protective
But with a wisdom you rarely credit yourself with
I don't know if dragons have larval forms
But I think they must
Because I have finally shed my chrysalis
And become my own dragon