Your support helps us to tell the story
As your White House correspondent, I ask the tough questions and seek the answers that matter.
Your support enables me to be in the room, pressing for transparency and accountability. Without your contributions, we wouldn't have the resources to challenge those in power.
Your donation makes it possible for us to keep doing this important work, keeping you informed every step of the way to the November election
Andrew Feinberg
White House Correspondent
A Canadian transgender father left behind a wife and seven children to begin a new life as a six-year-old girl.
Stefonknee (pronounced ‘Stephanie’) Wolschtt, 46, had been married for 23 years when she realised she was transgender.
She's now living with an adoptive family, and says she does not “want to be an adult right now”.
“I can’t deny I was married. I can’t deny I have children. But I’ve moved forward now and I’ve gone back to being a child,” she said in a video series by The Transgender Project, published by Daily Xtra.
Ms Wolschtt said her wife could not accept her as a transgender woman. She was told to either “stop being trans or leave”.
“To me, ‘stop being trans’ isn’t something I could do,” she says. “It would be like telling me to stop being 6ft 2 or leave.”
Feeling rejected by her family, Ms Wolschtt left and now lives with her adoptive family, who she says are “totally comfortable with me being a little girl”.
She explains how her new parents’ youngest granddaughter wanted a little sister and decided Ms Wolschtt should be younger than her.
“We have a great time. We colour, we do kid’s stuff,” she says.
“It’s called play therapy. No medication, no suicide thoughts. And I just get to play.”
In an earlier part of the series, Ms Wolschtt spoke of how she became suicidal and was hospitalised a month after taking part in the first Toronto transgender march in 2009.
After she was discharged, her wife accused her of harassment and assault, and pressed charges against her to achieve a restraining order.
In 2012, her eldest daughter invited Ms Wolschtt to her wedding, but requested she “dress like her dad” and to sit at the back of the church and not address any members of the family.
The day of her daughter’s wedding, Ms Wolschtt attempted suicide for the last time, and was unsuccessful.
She now receives support from the Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto, where the congregation is mostly made up of LGBT people.
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments