Michelangelo

I was closeted still and attending college. I had a biology-related course where my professor was transgender. My professor was the first openly transgender person I had met in my life. They had transitioned a little later in life but had continued onwards holding a wonderful career and genuinely just being an excellent mentor and teacher. It was a slow realization over the course of the two semesters I attended their class but I began truly making plans for my future instead of assuming I would succumb to my fairly serious depression and other mental health issues. It all finally became clear to me when I had transferred to a university and I decided to cut my hair and wear a binder for the first time. I put on my favorite shirt and cried when I finally saw myself and that I was going to make it.

The Transgender Assistance Program of Virginia (TAP VA) both provided me with assistance when I was deeply struggling financially as well as put me in touch with a clinic which followed an informed consent model to provide HRT. They also put me in touch with a local LGBT+ center where they had support groups for transgender people and transmasculine people of color and I found enormous consolation and guidance from those members of my community.