[News/People] [UK] Jane Fae says becoming a woman feels like ‘coming home’
Stephanie Stevens
Jane Fae says becoming a woman feels like ‘coming home’
Published on Sunday 3 July 2011 02:00
[Photo: <http://bit.ly/jeSBwO> Jane Fae, of Deeping St James]
COMING home – that’s how Jane Fae has described her past year living as a woman.
Later this month, Jane, 53, will undergo gender realignment surgery in
Brighton, shedding at last her old life as a man.
Jane, of Church Street, Deeping St James, was born John Ozimek but
said things had felt wrong from her teenage years.
At Christmas 2009 she admitted having gender issues to her partner
Andrea Fletcher and has been living as a woman for the past year.
Although she admits that not everything has gone “swimmingly”, she has
had no regrets about becoming who she really is.
She said: “It has made me incredibly happy. I could describe it as
‘coming home’.
“There is space for me to feel that I could live and breathe in a way
that I couldn’t before and there has been lots of discoveries.
“I have discovered lots about femininity, about myself, it is never ending.”
Jane is being treated privately and the treatment is costing £10,000.
Otherwise she could have been waiting up to five years for the
operation. She began taking hormone therapy in April last year and has
anti-testosterone drugs and a drug which corrects a receding hairline.
Her body is becoming more feminine and is losing muscle tone. She is
also taking speech therapy to change her voice and has had
electrolysis.
Her transition to become a woman has not just resulted in changes for
Jane but also for her family.
Jane lives with partner Andrea, their six-year-old son, Rafe, and both
their daughters from previous relationships, Megan and Tash.
Jane said: “My daughter has come to terms quite well after a shaky start.
“My six-year-old will use the word ‘Daddy’ but I don’t rate a Father’s
Day card as I’m a girl now.
“I think my partner has found it harder than she thought originally,
but there are far more implications to having your other half fully
transition that you might not think of on day one.
“As with everything else you have to wait and see. Transition is not
just a one-off event it is an ongoing process and people find out
things about themselves. Every single person in the family has found
out things about themselves.”
After a year of taking hormones, Jane has developed breasts and her
figure has become more feminine.
“I have learnt how to dress,” she said. “It is learning the tricks of the trade.
“One of the things I have loved a great deal is sisterhood. Women look
after each other. Women are very good at supporting each other and
basically being nice.
“I go dancing at the Zumba classes at Northborough Village Hall.
“It is lovely as there’s a certain togetherness that isn’t competitive.
“If I was to do sport as a bloke, they are always trying to show off.
Women show off a bit but not in the way blokes do.”
Jane praised members of Our Lady and St Guthlac’s Church, in Deeping
St James, and staff at the Tesco store in Market Deeping for their
reaction to her change.
Unfortunately Jane has received some negative attention from men as a
result of the transition, with an incident in Peterborough and on the
train when returning from a meeting in London.
Jane also spoke briefly at a protest in London on June 12, which is
campaigning for women’s rights and an end to violence against women.
She will give a talk at Deepings Leisure Centre on Wednesday at 7pm.
Jane said: “It will be a public meeting where I can talk openly and
talk about the journey.”
But Jane is happy with her choices.
She said: “I don’t have any regrets about going on this journey, I
only wish it wasn’t necessary. A lot of transgender people think: ‘It
would be nice to have been born the right gender’.
“However I was writing recently on how people go on the tragic
narrative: ‘My life was dreadful, then I discovered this and now it’s
better’. That makes it look as though your whole life was tragic.
People have far worse things happen to them. I get on with it everyone
has said things happen in their lives.”
All rights reserved © 2011 Johnston Publishing Ltd.