Sheryl Weikal’s memoir I Was an Abomination: A Story of Trans Survival in Conservative America arrives at a moment when public debate about the very existence of transgender children is louder than ever. For years, figures like J.K. Rowling and Elon Musk have insisted that trans identities in children are the result of external influence, that young people are not capable of knowing who they truly are, and that transition is always prompted by adults.
Sheryl Weikal’s life story dismantles that narrative with unflinching honesty. Raised in a deeply conservative homeschooling family, she knew from her earliest memories that she was a girl. At eight years old, she even crafted a doll that represented herself in her true gender, a gesture both innocent and profound, one that expressed what words could not yet carry. Her memoir reveals how even the strictest isolation from progressive ideas could not erase her own sense of self.
