What does it feel like to be born in the wrong body? Gina Williams was born and raised as a little boy in the conservative town of Sparta Wisconsin. Gina tells Adam Reilly about her difficult journey of self-discovery, an ex-wife and four children, the brutal murder of her son, having her possessions burned and being disowned from her family.
Gina spent her adolescents keeping a secret from the rest of the world in a red-neck town. Different simply wasn’t tolerated in the small Wisconsin town. It was during long bike rides that Gina started wearing makeup and putting accessories in her hair. There’s a certain element of freedom that we associate with the open road road and to Gina it was a brief escape where she could be the woman she knew she was on the inside.
“When I was in middle school I would look at the girls not as sex objects but how I wish I could look like them and wear their beautiful clothes.”
Gina came out to her family 30 years ago and was met with confusion and anger. To say that the town was old-school is putting it mildly. As the years went on Gina’s parents warmed to the idea of their son living as a trans woman to the point where Gina’s mother taught her how to cook and knit. but Gina’s younger and older brother, both military, have disowned their sister. Hostility didn’t end at home, everyday there was always someone ready to put Gina down for being different. It is only in recent years that Gina has found a new job where they treat her as an equal.
“I am Gina ,that is how they see and treat me. They refer to me as she/her, my boss and colleagues are great.”
Before Gina started living her life as a transgender woman she tried to live life as a male, married a woman and had four beautiful kids. During her marriage, Gina went to see an endocrinologist and was approved to start taking hormones in the hope of physically becoming more feminine. Gina’s wife pleaded with her so she had to stop after awhile in order to save her marriage . The ex-wife was fine in the beginning but after a while she started to view Gina as a threat and didn’t want to be around her anymore. The couple’s sex life also suffered as Gina’s former wife was not attracted to a husband with long hair and breasts. After the couple’s separation friends of Gina’s former wife rallied together and burned everything that belonged to Gina that helped her live as a woman. Gina was left with nothing and had to start over.
“Make sure this is the life you want and make sure you learn all you need to before your journey ahead. I will not discourage but I will not encourage, I will only share my experience and let people decide on their own.”
It has been 14 years since Gina and her wife went their separate waves and Gina says that the two get along with each other for the sake of the kids. Gina’s world was turned upside-down two years ago when her 28 year-old son was brutally stabbed to death by a crazed drug addict. While Gina has experienced enough pain for many lifetimes, she knows the importance of moving forward in life.
Cherry pop 
What a well-written post! It seems to me that you wrote this in an unbiased way. You shared Gina’s pain, struggles, barriers she had to cross and the realities of her life and through her the realities of the lives of her sisters and brothers who have walked the same journey or who are about to, thank you for writing this post so well.
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Thank you for your kind words.
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