When Dominique Gallaway made the decision at age forty to embrace her authentic self, she wasn’t just making a personal choice, she was writing a radical act of survival and joy into existence. Her memoir, Free To Be Me: Transitioning at 40, is not only a story of transformation but also a testimony of courage, grief, resilience, and the deep beauty of becoming who you always were.
Dominique, a proud Black transgender woman, opens her life to readers with unflinching honesty. For decades, she had lived behind a carefully constructed façade, fulfilling roles others expected of her while secretly carrying the weight of a truth she feared the world wasn’t ready to accept. Like so many transgender women who transition later in life, her silence was not born of weakness, but of survival. Yet, as Free To Be Me reveals, silence can only hold back authenticity for so long.
