Trans sisters

Cover story

YVONNE MARITIN

When you are born into a body that just doesn't feel right, it's impossible to lead a happy life. This month, we look into the lives of Christchurch transgenders.

They just want to be "ordinary" and blend into society, but transgender people struggle to be ignored. Knowing they are a different gender to the sex they were born brings its share of hardship, Yvonne Martin reports.

For people whose sense of being male or female matches the sex they were born, it's difficult to imagine life any other way. But thousands of New Zealanders are transgenders, where the sex they believe themselves to be conflicts with how nature cast them.

Assume Nothing, one of Canterbury Museum's latest exhibitions, explores the diversity and complexities of gender. It features photographic portraits by Rebecca Swan and film clips by Kirsty MacDonald of high-profile individuals such as former MP Georgina Beyer and veteran entertainer Carmen Rupe.

This month, Avenues spoke to five transgender Cantabrians about their extraordinary lives; the difficult decisions made to come out as their true selves, the personal costs and the twilight world between genders where some live.

Trans sisters

They're unlikely friends whose paths probably would never have crossed if they didn't share a rare bond. Kim Morgan and Nikki Smith have both joined the sisterhood after decades as biological males.

Kim transitioned in her early 50s and has come a long way in the past six years.

She sold her house to fund gender reassignment surgery in Thailand in 2006 and has been through the Family Court process to be legally declared a female.

"Births, Deaths and Marriages issued me with a new birth certificate in June 2007. I opened it up and there was F, instead of M. That was the most wonderful feeling of peace and serenity in that one changed letter," says Kim, who works at the Christchurch City Libraries.

Nikki, a University of Canterbury employee and a traditional male for her first 40-odd years, has come out as a woman part-time.

"I'm not totally out. I am amongst a lot of my work colleagues and I'm out amongst quite a lot of my friends, but not all of them. So, I'm at the halfway stage and, with Kim's help, I'm slowly moving along."

The pair belong to Agender Christchurch - Nikki is the chair - and meet regularly for coffees.

"We enjoy our coffees out, don't we?" says Nikki, who's now in her early 60s. "Two hours can go by and we share all sorts of things."

Kim also values the company of a like-minded woman: "In the guy days, the interaction of males is quite limited. Not much goes on verbally," she says. 

"I always felt locked out of the world I belonged in, which was with women," Kim says. "I was uncomfortable with male culture and most of their outlook. I feel sorry for males now. They have to live within the narrow confines of what, for most of them, is their way of life. [As women] you are allowed to be more open and more expressive and more connected at a deeper level."

*For more, read the August issue of Avenues*