Identifies as: Bi-gender

Neighborhood: Vernon Hills, Ill.

Life's wor: "Retired, and living every moment making memories."

Hobbies: "Model building, reading, my children and my grandchildren."

When did you start questioning gender?

"Somewhere around three or four years of age."

What is your coming out story?

"Fifty-eight years of repressing my feminine identity left me standing at the edge of the abyss of suicide. Running from that moment, I found Tri-Ess, and Chicago Gender Society, and life 're-started.'"

What is the best thing about being trans/ gender-variant?

"The calendar stays quite full living two lives."

Whom do you admire most?

"My parents and all those who have helped me set and achieve goals."

How do you explain the way you feel about gender to others?

"Gender is an identity. It is how we perceive ourselves and how we present to the world. Whether that gender identity matches our birth sex, or not, it is who we are, who we were meant to be. It's not a choice, and it cannot be cured. Gender and sex are not, and as we learn more, cannot be considered the same thing. Simply put, sex is a reproductive role. Gender, is a 'societal role,' and sexual orientation is independent of both."

What issues outside of the queer community do you care about?

"The Constitution of The United States is the supreme law of the land and must always remain so if human equality is to survive. The book, edited, and rearranged to give 'man' power, by the emperor Constantine, that we refer to as the Bible, as well as any of the 'great books' cannot, and must never, replace the Constitution as the supreme law. When that happens, freedom dies."

Do you consider yourself an activist?

"Not really, but I have gone with Equality Illinois on three separate Lobby Days trips to Springfield to lobby for LGBT rights and protections."