Digital Transgender Archive

Interview with Moe

Moe identifies as a white trans man and was assigned female at birth. He was raised in Walnut Creek, California. He has two sisters and went to the Meher School, a Sufism school, which is connected to Islam and mysticism. His parents weren’t practitioners, but they accepted him into the school as a student. He was a tomboy in the 1980s wearing boy’s clothes and was fairly socially accepted. He began dressing more feminine in middle school and high school, but by the end of high school he wore boy’s clothes again and cut off his hair. He first heard the word transgender in high school but didn’t understand how it related to him or its meaning. He always knew he was different from the general white suburban environment that he was in but didn’t had the language to fully articulate how he was different. He flew under the radar at school and had a good group of friends that he hung out with. In high school he understood he wasn’t good at heterosexuality as a way of being since he didn’t do well in those settings. He had a boyfriend and then a girlfriend in high school, both pretty private relationships. He knew he wasn’t straight and identified as bisexual and then as a dyke both as a gender identity and as a sexuality for a period in his life, associating the term dyke with masculinity. He was called a faggot by others, being seen as a gay guy, during that time in his life. He is attracted to masculine people and to men. He went to Minneapolis Community and Technical College for nursing where he began transitioning. Medically and socially transitioning freed up a lot of his time and energy that he once directed inward but now directed outwards. He’s now a registered nurse and does home hospice. Initially his family wasn’t accepting of his trans identity, but they are now and they have a good relationship. He had top surgery and has been on testosterone for about 5 years since the time of the interview. He is currently filing a complaint against his employer because they are trans exclusive in their health insurance benefit package. He used to work for RECLAIM while he was going to nursing school. He also used to go to PHS, the Program on Human Sexuality, for their youth groups.