Lisa Salazar - Then This Happened: After Transparently

2023, Canada, English, Lisa Salazar,

Full title: "Then This Happened: After Transparently" by Lisa Salazar.

When Lisa Salazar published Transparently: Behind the Scenes of a Good Life in 2011, she offered the world an honest, tender, and hopeful memoir of self-discovery. The book chronicled her first fifty-nine years and six months, culminating in the first month after her gender confirmation surgery. She wrote it during the three months leading up to that life-changing event, a time filled with anticipation and quiet optimism. The title reflected her state of mind then, she felt transparent, open, and grateful for the life she had lived, aware of her many privileges and the support that had carried her to that point. Nothing in her writing was embellished or self-congratulatory. It was the portrait of a woman embracing truth after a lifetime of waiting to live authentically.

 

Twelve years later, Lisa revisits that story with Then This Happened: After Transparently, a continuation that completes the arc of her life up to March 30, 2023, exactly thirteen years after her surgery. This new edition stands not as a sequel in the traditional sense but as a reckoning. Where Transparently was full of promise, Then This Happened captures the unexpected turns, the losses, and the deeper wisdom that emerged as life unfolded in ways she could never have predicted. The tone is more grounded and more reflective, shaped by the realities of aging, activism, faith, and the growing hostility that trans people have faced in recent years. Lisa’s choice of title tells its own story, it is as though she is looking back at the hopes of her earlier self and gently saying, “Yes, that was true, but then this happened.”

In our recent conversation for The Heroines of My Life, Lisa spoke with the same clarity and grace that has long defined her writing. When I reminded her how radiant she looked, she smiled and said that it was not about time standing still but about living in alignment with herself. That alignment, she explained, brings an inner calm that radiates outward. Her transition had not only given her peace but had taught her to appreciate simplicity, presence, and connection as the real sources of beauty. It was striking how her voice carried both serenity and strength, a combination that has made her such a compelling advocate and spiritual guide.

 

During our 2013 interview, Lisa had just embarked on her Master’s program in Theology and Pastoral Care. At that time, she was still exploring what life beyond Transparently might hold. The intervening years have seen her grow into a respected Spiritual Health Practitioner in Vancouver, walking alongside people facing illness, grief, and questions of meaning. Her work in multi-faith pastoral care has deepened her understanding of compassion and the human need for connection. She describes her vocation as sacred work, a calling rather than a job, and her daily life reflects that same devotion to care and presence.

Yet, as Then This Happened reveals, Lisa’s journey since Transparently has not been without turmoil. In the book, and in our interview, she acknowledges how sharply the social and political climate has shifted. A decade ago, she believed that the world was slowly becoming safer and more welcoming for trans people. Today, she sees that belief as both hopeful and naïve. Across the United States and even within Canada, rights that once seemed secure are being questioned or revoked. Populism and religious fundamentalism have rekindled old fears, and trans lives have once again become battlegrounds in cultural and political wars. Lisa’s advocacy, once focused on education and dialogue, has now evolved into a defense of existence itself.

 

Still, even in this darker landscape, her tone remains far from bitter. Hope for Lisa is no longer a sweeping ideal but a series of small, luminous moments, young people who live unapologetically, allies who stand beside the community, families who choose love over fear. She sees hope not as the absence of hardship but as the quiet persistence of kindness in spite of it. Her work, her walks through the streets of Vancouver, her writing, and her time with her sons and their families all feed that sense of grounded optimism.

 

Then This Happened delves deeply into this evolution. It is not just the story of what came after surgery but a meditation on how one continues to live and grow when the “big event” of life is behind you. Lisa explores her spiritual evolution, her shifting understanding of advocacy, her changing relationships, and her enduring faith. The book reflects on her realization that authenticity, while freeing, often demands unexpected courage. She never planned to become a public figure, yet each step, from sharing her story at Interesting Vancouver to opposing Uganda’s “Kill the Gays” bill, to advocating for inclusive education in British Columbia, drew her further into the public sphere. What began as personal healing became a mission of visibility and solidarity.

In our conversation, Lisa spoke movingly about this transformation. Transition gave her authenticity, she said, but life afterward required new forms of courage. Authenticity, as she now understands it, sometimes means standing in places you never imagined, using your voice even when it trembles. And while advocacy today feels heavier than it did a decade ago, she has found peace in the act of simply showing up. Her legacy, she hopes, will not be defined by battles fought but by the space she helped open for others to exist with dignity and belonging.

 

The beauty of Then This Happened lies in its honesty. Lisa does not romanticize the post-transition years, nor does she wallow in disillusionment. Instead, she writes with the measured voice of someone who has seen both sides of transformation, the exhilaration of becoming and the steady work of being. Her reflections remind readers that transition is not an endpoint but a threshold, and life beyond it is as complex and unpredictable as any other human journey. At seventy-one, Lisa leads a life marked by discipline and intention. She rises before dawn, walks twenty thousand steps a day, listens to audiobooks, and ends her evenings in quiet reflection. She enjoys cooking, writing, and spending time with her significant other. Her simplicity is not an escape from the world but a means of sustaining herself within it. Vancouver, with its seawall, mountains, and moments of stillness, has become both her sanctuary and her muse.

 

Reading Then This Happened: After Transparently feels like sitting down with a wise friend who has lived fully and thought deeply. It offers no easy conclusions but plenty of truth. Through it, Lisa Salazar reminds us that peace is not found in perfection but in perseverance, and that even when the world grows harsh, the simple act of telling one’s story remains an act of hope. Her words, and her life, illuminate a path that many will recognize, a path of becoming, questioning, grieving, and ultimately, enduring. In the end, Lisa’s memoir is not only about her but about all of us who strive to live honestly in a world that often misunderstands honesty itself. It stands as both a continuation and a conversation, a companion piece to her earlier work and a mirror of the times we live in. And for those of us lucky enough to call her a sister in spirit, as I do, Then This Happened feels like a love letter to authenticity, resilience, and the unbreakable hope that, even after everything, life still calls us to grow.

Available via Amazon

and The Heroines of My Life

Photos via Instagram and The Heroines of My Life

 

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