Interview with Isabelle Wedin

Isabelle Wedin is from Long Island, New York, was assigned male at birth, and identifies as a lesbian woman. Wedin doesn’t have any kids, and she’s been married for 9 years now. She cross-dressed in private beginning at the age of 12 or 13 since she wasn’t comfortable sharing it. Since she was young, she recognized that she wanted to be a girl, but she thought the idea was absurd. She kept things about her gender a secret, but other boys targeted her and picked on her. She describes the bind that men often find themselves in: they can’t properly be masculine since they are often humiliated for doing it wrong, but they can’t be feminine either because that’s not allowed. She discovered drama club in high school which was full of queer people and came out as bi to some people then. That experience helped her figure a few things out, and she started to come into her own. She stayed in Long Island until 18. She then moved for college where she met her wife and then moved into an apartment with her in Queens. Wedin dressed openly queer in college, wearing heels and hair accessories or a skirt over jeans. After college, she was too busy with her job to think too much about gender and just referred to herself as a crossdresser. When she came out to her wife, she already knew and was supportive and understanding about her identity. She’s on hormone replacement therapy on spironolactone, estradiol, finasteride, progesterone and uses intense pulsed light to remove hair. She is considering bottom surgery. Now passing as a woman in public, she’s experienced street harassment such as cat calling and men leering at her. She works as a systems administrator in IT keeping the servers running.

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Item Information:

Identifier: rv042t26g
Collection: Audio and Video Clips and Transcripts
Institution: Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection, University of Minnesota
Creator(s): Wedin, Isabelle
Contributor(s): Jenkins, Andrea
Publisher: University of Minnesota Minneapolis Libraries
Date Created: Oct. 31, 2016
Genre: Oral Histories
Transcriptions
Subject(s): Alliance Defending Freedom
Allina Health Systems
Avery Edison
Catherine Graffam
Free CeCe
Google Hangouts
Informational Technology
Julia Serano
June Taylor
MetaFilter
National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE)
RJ Reynolds Tobacco
Places: Minnesota > Hennepin County > City of Minneapolis > University of Minnesota
New York > Queens > Long Island
North Carolina > Forsyth County > Winston Township > Winston-Salem
New York > Suffolk > Town of Islip > Brentwood
Topic(s): Androgyny
Anxiety
Assigned gender
Biotechnology
Bisexuals
Bullying
Children
Coming out
Crossdressing
Depression
Discrimination
Divorce
Education
Employment discrimination
Estrogen
Femininities
Gender dysphoria
Gender identity
Gender role
Genderfluid identity
Harassment
Heteronormativity
Heterosexuality
Homophobia
Hormone therapy
Indigenous peoples
Intersex
Law
Lesbian identity
LGBTI community
Marriage
Masculinities
Medical interventions
Medicalisation
MtFs
Passing (Gender)
Plays
Police
Racially mixed people
Racism
Sexism
Sexual harassment
Slavery
Social justice
Spironolactone
Support groups
Swimwear
Transgender people
Transphobia
Two-spirit people
Volunteering
Resource Type: Moving image
Text
Language: English
Related URL: https://umedia.lib.umn.edu/
Rights: Copyright undetermined
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