If you are transgendered, the feeling of wanting your body to match the
sex you feel you are never goes away. For some, though, especially those
who grew up before trans people were widely out and advocating for
equality, these feelings were often compartmentalized and rarely acted
upon. Now that gender reassignment has become much more commonplace,
many of these people may feel increasing pressure to finally undergo the
procedures they have always secretly wanted.
Ken Koch was one of those people. Married twice, a veteran, and a world
traveler, a health scare when he was 63 prompted him to acknowledge the
feelings that had plagued him since he was a small child. By undergoing
a host of procedures, he radically changed his appearance and became
Anne Koch. In the process, though, Anne lost everything that Ken had
accomplished. She had to remake herself from the ground up. Hoping to
help other people in her age bracket who may be considering
transitioning, Anne describes the step-by-step procedures that she
underwent and shares the cost to her personal life in order to show
seniors that although it is never too late to become the person you
always knew you were, it is better to go into that new life prepared for
some serious challenges.
Both a fascinating memoir of a well-educated man growing up trans yet
repressed in the mid-20th century and a guidebook to navigating the
tricky waters of gender reassignment as a senior, It Never Goes Away
shows how what we see in the television world of Transparent
translates in real life.
