Rachael Evelyn Booth - Wishing on a Star

2012, 2016, English, Interview, Rachael Evelyn Booth,

"Wishing on a Star: My Journey Across the Gender Divide" by Rachael Evelyn Booth. The 1st edition was published in 2012, and the 2nd edition in 2016. 

"Rachael Evelyn Booth shares her story of what it's like to be born as a girl in a boy's body and struggling her whole life trying to fit into what society said she was supposed to be. From her trials growing up through her time in the Navy and her marriages and children, her heartbreaking yet heartwarming story is told with total honesty and great humor, creating a book that you won't be able to put down."

"Rachael Evelyn Booth is a retired Senior Computer Scientist, having worked for 30 years as a programmer/designer for the Navy's AEGIS Shipboard Weapons systems as well as others. She retired early in 2005 after a bout of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever which left her with TBI and a stroke. She has spent the years since recovering at home and is doing well.

She spent 9 years in the Navy where she served as an interpreter, becoming fluent in Mandarin Chinese and Arabic and has a working knowledge of Spanish and French, with some German and Russian. She holds a 2nd degree black belt in Okinawa Kenpo Karate and Kenpo (open hand and weaponry) and is a licensed teacher in Women's Self Defense and Assault Prevention. Rachael plays many instruments and has been a semi-professional guitar player/singer for over 40 years. She lives in the mountains of Northwestern New Hampshire with her wife of 19 years along with their golden retrievers Barney and Casey and their cat Smokey."

I interviewed Rachael Evelyn Booth in 2016. I asked her about what inspired her to write this book and this is how she responded: "I had read many books by trans-people before and they were all either terribly flowery and difficult to read, terribly sad with a “poor me” mentality, or terribly boring with pages and pages of charts and data. I wanted to write a book that people would find informative, honest, and funny. I’ve used humor throughout my life as a tool to keep people interested in speeches, presentations, and everyday conversations. It works very well."

"My main goal for writing this book was to show other transpeople who were living in that darkness that almost killed me that they’re not alone and if I could find a way to survive it and finally become a “full” person in both body and mind that they could, too."

"I also wrote it to help the transperson’s family and friends learn what their loved one is going through in human terms that they could understand. People just don’t get what it means to live every day of your life wishing that you didn’t have to live as the biological gender your birth certificate claims you are; hoping that you can find the strength to live to see just one more day."

"Most people are born male or female and they take it for granted – it’s just who they are. Trying to get people to understand what being transgender is like is similar to trying to explain what colors look like to a person who’s been blind from birth. They just don’t have any frame of reference to really understand it fully."

Available via Amazon

and The Heroines of My Life

Photo via Heroines of My Life