SXNews.E-P.net.au
Local trans author Katherine Cummings, 73, has experienced highs and lows in her gender journey. She spoke with Katrina Fox.
In 1986, John Cummings, a 52-year-old academic librarian, became Katherine. In addition to the physical changes achieved by gender realignment surgery, Cummings’ life – and those of her family – changed forever.
Although Cummings had “desperately wanted to be female ever since memories began”, she believed for many years that she was simply a transvestite, rather than a transsexual – or transgender as she describes herself today. After a somewhat idyllic early childhood, part of which was spent in the Pacific Islands (her father was captain of a medical yacht), Cummings returned to Australia in her teens after living in New Zealand and Scotland for short periods of time.