Page 28 - Letter to My Father Curriculums_Neat2

Dear Dad,

I am not a homosexual. Through you raised me as a boy I was never your son. I have
a Y chromosome and all the physical attributes involved with that genetic abnormality,
and I am sexually attracted to men, but I am not homosexual. "If you are a man who
likes men, then aren’t you gay," you might ask. But, dad, I am not a man. I am woman,
a daughter, who is physically and emotionally attracted to men. What makes a woman?
What makes a man? It isn't the physical body, but the mental, emotional, and spiritual
attributes.

Our family was always different from the traditional. I was the cook, cleaner, and
clothes-horse, while Leslie was the athlete (although she cooked and sewed as much
as I did). Nancy was the proverbial “girl”, the only one who played with dolls constantly. I
think Leslie and I used our baby sister, Nancy, as our doll. Sexual identification was
never applicable to household chores, sports, or other family activities. Femininity and
masculinity were interchangeable and equally supported by your teaching all three of us
the same things. Leslie was as good a hunter as I, and Nancy is still the mechanic.

I remember as a child being taunted as a crybaby. But actual physical pain generally
didn’t cause my tears. It was frustration, dislike, compassion, empathy and love – that’s
what watered my world. Are emotions what makes us who we are? A woman is gentle,
patient, soft. I am all of these things. I cannot offer any subjective evidence for my being
soft, or gentle. My patience is evident by my lasting fifty years as a woman in a man's
body. Does my softness make me a woman? Does having these feelings make me
feminine?

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