We talk to one of our co-facilitators at the L.A. LGBT Center, Tawni Sofia Acosta! Tawni is sixty-two, and was born at a time when there was zero information on being transgender ("or if there was information, it was just the freak show information"). As a result, she had no language to explain what she was feeling; she only knew that if she expressed it to her family and friends, things would not go well. Tawni ended up suppressing her true identity so ferociously that she didn't even begin addressing it until she was in her fifties...at which point she had been in a hetero-presenting marriage for over twenty years. Tawni explains how her need to see herself as female kept intensifying until she finally had to face it head on, and shares what that meant for her marriage, her job, and more. She also describes how transitioning gave her a courage she'd never had before, and unexpectedly led her to her new career as a hypnotherapist!

(TW: discussion of suicidal ideation)

Follow Tawni on Instagram at @acostatawni, and on Twitter at @TawniSofia. You can also connect with her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/TawniSofiaAcosta, on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/tsacosta, or schedule a discovery/strategy call with her at https://calendly.com/tawnisofia/strategy-call!

This episode is sponsored by Hinge's Not-so Frequently Asked Questions. Check them out at https://hinge.nfaq.co/!