Showing posts with label Sonia Burgess. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sonia Burgess. Show all posts

Monday, January 10, 2011

Sonia and Me

butterfly_x_2

I was very moved by the Sonia Burgess story (mentioned in yesterday's post here). In many ways, her story is my story.

 

Sonia lived full-time as a woman except at work, where she presented as a male.

I try to live as a woman as much as possible. The exceptions are at work and my life with my wife.

 

Where Sonia worked as a male, "the existence of her alter ego was something of an open secret."

After wearing convincing female costumes to our workplace Halloween parties, I believe that some of my co-workers suspect that something is up.

 

"Sonia was open about her lifestyle to anyone who asked, but she also had separate groups of friends: those who knew her as David and those who knew her exclusively as Sonia."

That describes me to a T (pun intended).

 

Sonia "was growing her hair out and she was certainly discussing some facial surgery and a boob job, but I don't think she was going to go for genital surgery. I don't think she thought it was worth it. It was enough for her to be perceived as female. She didn't see the need to go through such a radical procedure. Partly, this was because Burgess seemed to feel little friction between his (sic) two gender identities."

Same here. If I was full-time, I would grow my hair out and permanently remove the unwanted hair, but I would have no interest in surgery. I feel no friction between my gender identities' As I've mentioned before, I am a woman with a male body and that's alright by me.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Life and Death of David Sonia Burgess

"Last October, detectives were called to investigate the death of a woman under a London tube train. But as they traced her final moments, they discovered that she was, in fact, David Burgess, one of the most brilliant immigration lawyers of his generation. Here, Burgess's family and friends tell, for the first time, the complicated story of the loving father, brilliant colleague, sensitive woman and courageous person they knew."

Thank you, Gwen for alerting me about this story that appears in today's Guardian The Observer. You can read the rest of it here.

I so identify with Sonia! I wish I knew her before she died.