Jaimie Wilson is a talented musician, a DJ, a successful model – and a fully transitioned female to male member of the LGBT community.
The 22-year-old, from Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States, has shared his transition journey online and, in the process, has become an empowered poster boy for transgender rights.
Jaimie spoke to UNILAD about his mission to debunk the short-sighted societal myths surrounding transgender people – and told the story behind his incredible transition.
Jaimie first realised he was born into the wrong body when he was just 15-years-old and studying in high school. He learnt the hard way that ‘being yourself is better than being the person people want you to be.’
Raised in a conservative American household, Jaimie was forced to hide his pain for his own safety.
He told UNILAD:
When I was 15 I knew for a fact that I was male. But because I grew up in a very conservative religious household I had to put my identity and feelings aside until I was able to be on my own. I knew the situation would not have been good, or safe, if I came out that young.
Jaimie recalled the extent of his deception, into which he was forced by the ignorance and transphobia of his own flesh and blood.
He remembers:
I would go to the store and shop in the men’s section. I took every opportunity I had to put on masculine clothing and stare into the mirror.
I had a drawer in my bedroom in which I kept all my masculine clothes, and I’d carefully put a layer of feminine clothes over top so that if my parents went through my room they wouldn’t find them.
Jaimie admitted to finding the task of confronting his gender frightening, explaining that he ‘had to bury his feelings’.
He elaborated:
Honestly, it was extremely scary because I didn’t think I’d ever be able to transition.
I thought it was something I would have to live with for the rest of my life. I didn’t tell anyone how I was feeling because I was afraid of losing everyone.
But in a bid to normalise the process of gender reassignment and quash ignorance, Jaimie has bravely shared his journey with his followers on Instagram in a series of candid photographs.
Through his music, the 22-year-old has also found a creative outlet with which to express his feelings, both good and bad.
The singer-songwriter transitioned at the age of 18 when he found himself ‘more excited to be alone than around anyone’, adding, ‘When I was alone I was able to dress and look how I wanted to… I was me.’
Jaimie recounted undergoing gender reassignment surgery, saying:
Transitioning for me physically was the best feeling. I remember cutting my long hair off and how, although the world remained the same, it felt like a whole new one!
Emotionally I felt content, and noticed my social anxiety and stress level sort of just disappeared. I became a more happy and lively person. I became me.
The hormone treatment quickly started to show results, Jaimie explained:
Starting hormones was such a relief in a way.
It was like living nineteen years of your life as someone else, and then getting this magical juice that makes you look, sound, and feel like who you always have envisioned in your head.
In the process of finding himself, Jaimie has lost family and friends who were unable to reconcile the outward transition from ‘the pretty popular country girl’ Jaimie once was and the man he has always been.
He explained:
I lost many friends when I first came out. I think they only feared what others would think. I came out in high school, where there is so much pressure to fit in, and being my friend wasn’t exactly viewed as normal.
I look at it this way, I only changed my appearance, so anyone who disowns me because of my transition clearly only liked me for how I looked on the outside, not who I am on the inside…because that didn’t change.
As a trans activist, Jaimie is now determined to educate people, saying no matter what someone looks or sounds like their identity and gender are their own to define.
He wants people to eschew the idea that there are transgender ‘signs’, saying:
The most damaging stereotype people have of me is that I have not always “looked” the part. There are no ‘signs’ to be transgender.
It may sound crazy, but I didn’t need to ‘come to terms’ with my body. The image I had in my head for so long of how I was suppose to look was finally a reality.
I don’t feel like I was put into a new body. I just made the one I was given my home.
Since transitioning, Jaimie has received an outpouring of love from those who support his choice.
The young model has also been overwhelmed by the warm welcome from within the LGBT community, as well as the wider public.
However, he has lost the support of his relatives and claims, ‘dealing with the betrayal of my family did and still does take its toll’.
Jaimie said:
The hardest part of my transition has been losing my family. Growing up I was told that family will always accept and love one another for who they are. I had to face the facts that the things I was told growing up, and the love I was shown was false.
I remember the night I showed up at home with my hair cut and masculine clothes on, my mom said, ‘I don’t care that you like girls, but why do you have to look like this?’
That hit me pretty hard, she was essentially saying that she is only concerned with my outward appearance… Something no parent should be judging their child for, or anyone for that matter.
Jaimie has since altered his perception of what ‘true family’ really means:
Even if you were raised the same as I was, don’t think that you need to spend your entire life trying to please your family.
Be you, and a true family will love and accept you for who you are. In the end I didn’t lose family. I lost people that share the same blood as me.
While transphobia will never prevail, it is still anything but easy to grow up in a society plagued by taboos as a transgender person.
Determined to make transitioning that little bit easier for each and every individual who chooses gender reassignment, Jaimie has used social media as a platform for campaigning against stigma and transphobia.
The sad truth is, for every accepting person, there is another who may not understand what Jaimie is going through and who might blindly dismiss the trans community outright.
Jaimie is understanding of the battle that occurs in many conservative communities, saying:
I want to say that I was once like you. I was an unaccepting, close-minded person, but that’s because I was unhappy.
Do you really think I would choose this for myself? Choose to lose my family? Choose to spend thousands of dollars on gender assignment surgery and hormones? Choose to be repeatedly ridiculed?
Before you start to judge someone who is transgender or claim they are starving for attention, please stop and think about the sacrifices and hardships they go through just to be their true self.
Jaimie continued with his powerful plea, enthusing:
I want people to know that I am a human being. Me being trans does not define the person I am. I am choosing to be visible not to try and force anything upon anyone.
I just know deep down that there is someone out there who could find hope in my story.
Jaimie added, ‘If my struggles help just one person be themselves I’ll endure the hate that comes along with it.’
He shared a message with the friends and families of those coming to terms with their trans status:
The best way to support a transgender individual is simply to respect them. Use proper pronouns, and truly see them for the person they are.
Look at my before and after… Just because I looked like a woman does not mean that is who I am. Believe them, acknowledge how they feel, and love them for it.
Jaimie has proven that it’s not what’s on the outside that counts, but rather the way you present yourself to the world, and the dignity and grace with which you show respect to others that really counts.
While many of us are privileged enough to feel comfortable in our own skin, we could all learn from Jaimie’s positive message.
If any of the issues raised by Jaimie’s story have affected you, please don’t suffer in silence. Contact Stonewall for further advice and help from the LGBT community.
