Author Emerges as Public Face for Transgender People

Jennifer Finney Boylan never set out to be a public face for transgender people.

But the novelist and English professor at Colby College was thrust into that role by her 2002 best-selling memoir about the transition to womanhood that freed her from the decades-long torment of being a female trapped in a male body.

With three appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show, two on Larry King Live, and numerous other interviews and public appearances, Boylan, 49, has become a sunny-faced activist for transgender citizens and one of the most widely recognized transsexuals of recent years.

''Activism for me takes the form of living a normal life and doing so very publicly,'' she said.

Boylan's public schedule is getting busier with this year's publication of her second memoir, I'm Looking Through You, a poignant but laugh-out-loud story about growing up in a Charles Addams–like Victorian mansion on Philadelphia's Main Line.

The author, then named James, concealed her conflicted sexuality, hiding her stash of lingerie in a secret panel in her bedroom. The spooky old house, with footsteps in the attic, clouds of blue mist, and a ghostlike figure of an old woman in a mirror, serves as backdrop for an adolescence haunted by gender issues that forced Boylan to keep the nature of her true self hidden. In so doing, she became something of a ghost herself.

''As I wrote the book, it became clear to me that the Scooby Doo ghosts, as I call them, were less interesting than the metaphorical ghosts,'' she said. ''While not everybody believes in ghosts, everybody knows what it means to be haunted.''

The inner turmoil about which she wrote is now ancient history for Boylan, who detailed her 2000 sex change in the earlier memoir, She's Not There. Today, she lives with her spouse, Deedie, their two boys, and two Labrador retrievers within a mile of the lake on which Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn starred in the 1982 Academy Award–winning film On Golden Pond.

James Boylan had met Deedie (named Grace in the two books) while in college and only told her of his secret about a decade ago, well after they were married. Boylan had hoped that their love would be enough to keep the gender demons at bay. They remain legally married.

Boylan said she didn't go public with her life story to become a role model or a poster child for the transgender community, but rather because writing and storytelling is what she does.

''A lot of good is done simply by being public, by being visible and by telling stories so people can see that a life like mine, a family like mine is familiar and it's normal, and that it's a lot less extraordinary than it seems,'' she said.

She hopes her story will help to reshape the public's image of transsexuals.

''We think of transgendered people as living in a big locked house somewhere. They never show their faces, or when they do show their faces they seem tortured and unknowable,'' she said. ''When people see me and they see my family, they see something that's familiar.''

Now in the midst of a yearlong sabbatical, Boylan juggles her writing and family chores (she's both a soccer mom and a tuba mom) with appearances in support of her latest book and on transgender issues. She's also writing occasional op-ed pieces for The New York Times, which focus largely on the political campaign and do not mention that she's transgender.

Besides book tours, she speaks at colleges, corporate events, and law firms. Although she's not comfortable in a lobbying role, Boylan addressed the National Press Club last spring in support of legislation to bar discrimination against transgender people.

Boylan has been a valuable asset in helping to change public attitudes, said Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality.

''Her sense of humor, her wit, are really an important part of the education she does. She has a communication style that's accessible to a lot of people,'' Keisling said.

Boylan, tall with strawberry-blond hair that flows to the middle of her back, remains equivocal about offering her private life for everyone to see. But because she had a hard time finding role models while growing up, she said it's probably good to have someone recognizable to look to.

There are many ways of dealing with gender variance, she said, and her story is not the only one that deserves to be told.

''There are plenty of people who have, one way or another, gotten on with their lives and live lives of fulfillment and happiness,'' she said.

Although such positive outcomes are not always the case, some employers, such as Boylan's, are increasingly showing more compassion and understanding. The overall society, too, seems to be showing more awareness of transgender issues, she said. (Jerry Harkavy, AP)