Griffin Hansbury

My favorite story in the This American Life: Testosterone podcast (which originally aired in 2002) was Griffin Hansbury’s story about his transition. He’s now a psychotherapist in New York.

When asked about what he missed the most, he replied:

Maybe the close relationships that I had with women. I still have close relationships with the women that I’ve known since before T, but I don’t make close relationships with new female friends. It’s hard to do. There’s a barrier. So I kinda miss, like, being part of a cool bunch of women. I actually like women better than men. It just so happens that I fit in more as a man, ya know, but I think women are really cool. Um, ya know, sisterhood is powerful and all that stuff.

And when asked what the biggest thing he’s gained is:

Biggest thing I’ve gained… um, you know, it’s just so great when people call me sir, even after seven years. I don’t always hear it, but it still rings a little bell inside my heart. It’s wonderful and I … it’s something that when I was a little kid I used to wish for. Turn me into a boy. Pinocchio. And you never really think it’s possible. But it is possible. Knowing that that’s possible - that you can actually make this enormous leap - means that anything else must be possible, too, because this is certainly unbelievable.

True story.

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