My Mother and I Went Through Gender Transitions at the Same Time

When I told my parents that their daughter was about to become their son, it made it much easier to find out one of them was going through the same thing.

Illustration by Jeremy Sorese

The summer before my junior year of high school, I came out as transgender. I’d been raised a girl, but knew that I was really a boy, and it was time to transition. What I didn’t know is that the person I’d always called ‘Dad’ was about to transition too. The same year I came out as Alexander, ‘Dad’ came out as Mom.