Lt Col. Cate McGregor is not the same person today as she was when she joined the army.
Born Malcolm McGregor, she endured decades of a private struggle – unsure of why she felt the way she did – before finally coming to realise that she was a transgendered person when she was in her 50s.
Her story was told on ABC’s Australian Story last night, with Cate to sharing her perspective on the most difficult decision of her life.
Cate says that throughout her life she felt, “conflicted”, describing the feeling as being “like an out of tune orchestra. It’s like some screeching that’s not right”.
She was serving as the speechwriter to the Chief of the Army David Morrison – Cate penned Morrison’s landmark speech last year, which went viral – when she realised that something had to change.
A few years before that speech, Cate had fallen into a deep depression, and went back into therapy, where she says she “started to disturb my subconscious”. After seeing a newspaper story one weekend about a transgendered woman, it clicked.
“At the next therapy session I went to, I just burst into tears and said, ‘It’s really simple. I’m a transsexual’.”
“We all wear masks. At some point you have to rip it off, and say, who am I?” Cate says.
But Cate had always known – on some level – that she was confused about her gender. Cate’s father died when she was eight, which had a profound effect on her family.
“The year after my father died I tried on some of my mother’s clothes,” Cate explains, “And she found out that it happened, and she was very very upset about it. I learned that it wasn’t a good idea.”
Cate, as Malcolm, went on to join the army, before working for both the Labor and Liberal parties.
“I was overachieving at one level, but my personal life was in turmoil,” Cate says of that time. “I guess I always had some level of ambiguity or tension about my gender. But in 1985, it reached a real intensity, and I sought out specialist medical help.”
Top Comments
I think David Morrison is a wonderful defence leader and I truly hope that his influence can trickle down through the ranks so that all defence members can have the same level of understanding and acceptance that David has shown to Cate. I am glad to see that Cate has had the support from her work place.
Changing one's gender is not a decision to be entered into lightly. having met a few men who have decided to be women, my observation is that they have had very large hands and this is a give away. One that I knew was VERY tall ( as well as having large hands) which made it difficult for him to pass himself off as a woman. Now transgender people post op they may feel like they are women but men ( having looked at women intently for years) are highly likely to detect that something is not quite right.
A couple of male friends of mine went to a regular speed dating event., ie for heterosexual dating and found that one of their "dates" was a transsexual. Both my friends are good hearted fellows and would never physically assault anyone unless it was self defence ( however, they remarked that the transgender person was placing themselves in danger, as they felt it was quite likely that some men would bash the transgender person for deceiving them ( or for no reason than that they were transgender).
Both of my friends were very polite to the their transgender speed date but one could not control himself and asked "Are you a man?"" and he said she ignored the question.
Anyway ,my point is that changing ones gender is a terribly serious business and some individuals are not happy post op, just because a man feels he is a woman ( and makes certain physical changes etc) does not mean he will be accepted as a woman. Many men ( but not all) would not want to date a woman ( who was formerly a man). Transgender people can be a target for the bullies and violent louts that inhabit this world
This post, while no doubt well-meaning, is extremely ignorant on many levels. Pretty sure trans people don't need you to tell them to think it through. I mean, it's not impulse shopping. "Oh, I'll buy these sheets that are on sale, and while I'm at it might change my gender". And why the hell is it a trans person's responsibility to stop people from being thugs?
Also, your friends don't get kudos for not bashing someone up. That's, like, baseline human decency. Yeesh.
Completely agree pickle.
This sort of ignorance is the unfortunate result of most people not having any idea that some people they know have transitioned. So many people say - 'oh, I can definitely tell everytime' - well I can let those people know, from personal experience, no you can't.
As to transitioning without thinking it through . . . wow - how condescending. There is a reason it takes years to transition - like you said pickle, not something you just duck into the GP for while shopping :-)