This is Stefan before going through his transition to Katrina.
“ …Remember that this is your child first and foremost, even before this child is a particular gender. They truly are the same person they were before you knew this about them. In my mind rejection isn't the answer—Emilie, mother of a transgender teen ”
Katrina, who is featured in the
Discovery Health show
Transgender Teens, was born a male but is currently living as a female. Unlike many of the teens living their lives as the opposite sex, though, Katrina has the support of her family.
Three years after she discovered her son was transgender, Emilie is still adjusting to the change. But she is happy to report that things are going fairly well. Twenty-year-old Stefan, who now goes by the name Katrina, is living on her own, taking female hormones and working hard to find full-time employment and support herself financially. She has a strong base of emotional support from her mom and sisters.
Getting there wasn't easy though — for Katrina or her family. Emilie faced the dual challenge of coming to terms with her own feelings while at the same time trying to support her child and help him find happiness as a woman. We talked to Emilie recently about the process of understanding her son's feelings and aiding his transformation to live life as a female. Here is what she had to say:
I think I had always sensed that something was a little different, particularly when she was in her teens. But the first time it was made really clear to me was in an email — at times my kids and I have actually emailed back and forth about things that were going on in their lives even though they were living in the house. So Stefan, at the time, was writing me about some things that were going on and said "think of me as your daughter." That was the first time it was semi-clear, but even then I wasn't thinking in that vein. I was thinking maybe he was gay. It's sort of funny looking back because the whole impact of it didn't hit me right away, but I remember that it really stuck in my mind. It was such a big statement. That was about three years ago.
I don't think I fully took it in, but I was comprehending it as a possibility for a while. I guess it just seemed very complicated to me because I wasn't sure of what his, or her, sexual orientation and proclivities and desires were and how she wanted to live in the future. So all that was really unclear for a while. And that is just my understanding of it. When you talk to her, you realize that it goes back far longer than three years ago.
