Self-Made Men

IT’S SAFE TO SAY 2015 WAS THE YEAR TRANS WENT MAINSTREAM. YET, THE OVERWHELMING FOCUS IS ON TRANS WOMEN; FROM LAVERNE COX AND REBECCA ROOT, TO CAITLYN JENNER, AND HER ICONIC REVEAL ON THE COVER OF VANITY FAIR. HERE WE PRESENT THE OTHER SIDE OF THE TRANS EXPERIENCE.

WORDS: BEN KELLY GROOMING: SANDRA HADI

PHOTOGRAPHY: PAUL GRACE PGRACE.CO.UK

REVIEW OF THE YEAR

TRANS MEN

TRANS MEN MADE THEIR VOICES HEARD WHEN RILEY CARTER MILLINGTON JOINED THE CAST OF EASTENDERS AS KYLE IN OCTOBER AND TOPPED THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY’S RAINBOW LIST IN NOVEMBER.

KIERAN MOLONEY, 25, NEW ZEALAND

As early as I could dress myself, I challenged what I wanted to wear. I knew that I didn't feel female. You don't know what it is; all you know is that you feel different. Then, in your teenage years you develop these deep feelings and you see other people m couples. I didn't have an attraction to males hut I was envious - | wanted their bodies, and I wanted to be with the girls they were with! 1 wasn't a proud woman, and I wasn't a proud lesbian. I'd been mistaken for a boy my whole life, and it was actually my school counsellor who said. "Have you ever thought that you are a boy? She basically said it for me. I didn't even know it existed. The counsellor took me to the doctor and he put me on hormones straight away, at 17.

My mum is a single mum. and she's very supportive. I told her about a week beforehand that I was going to start hormones, and she was like. 'What?! No. you've got to think about these things’, and I basically said. 'Are you coming with me or not? Because I'm going'. So, she came, and we figured it out together, There was absolutely unchanging im mind. I left school and moved im self away from everyone, because I couldn't talk to them. I didn't feel I could even talk to my friends as I was going through this huge transition.