Katie Leone is an American writer, former stockbroker, teacher, preacher, and wrestling champion who has devoted much of her literary work to transgender fiction. The author of 25 transgender novels, she uses storytelling to promote transgender equality, challenge misconceptions, and show readers that being transgender is about far more than sexuality. Drawing on her own experiences, she creates complex characters whose struggles with identity, acceptance, faith, and self-discovery reflect some of the challenges she has faced in her own life. In particular, her experiences growing up in an intensely masculine environment, first as a world-class wrestler and later among conservative Christians, provided inspiration for stories about the conflict between outward appearances and inner truth. Katie began her transition at the age of 37. Although she had expected greater resistance because of the traditionally masculine image she had cultivated, many people around her proved supportive. She credits the encouragement of friends and the example of other transgender women, including Joyce Melton, the founder of the transgender fiction website Big Closet, with helping her believe that she, too, could build a life as her authentic self.
Her God Bless the Child series explores the importance of acceptance from several perspectives, from a foster parent learning to understand a child's gender identity to a young transgender woman fighting to preserve her sense of self in the face of prejudice. In novels such as Wrestling Against Myself and The Transsexual and the Cross, Katie also examines the relationship between Christianity and transgender identity. Her own faith remains an important part of her life, and she firmly believes that being transgender is not a sin. Beyond her fiction, Katie is passionate about changing public perceptions of transgender people. She has argued that transgender fiction deserves recognition as a literary category in its own right, rather than being reduced to biography or erotica. Through her writing and public speaking, she seeks to demonstrate that transgender people are ordinary human beings whose lives encompass love, faith, relationships, and personal ambitions. At the heart of her message is a simple but powerful encouragement to embrace oneself, practise self-love, and have the courage to live truthfully.
Monika: Katie, welcome, and thank you for joining me today!
Katie: Hi, Monika. Thanks for inviting me over; it’s a real treat and an honor.
Monika: To start, tell me a few words about yourself.
Katie: I’m a very simple woman. I enjoy keeping to myself for the most part. I love writing stories and try to promote transgender equality through fiction. Most of the time I’m with my f2m boyfriend Felix and we spend time talking and laughing. Hopefully there will be a wedding in the near future.
Monika: Your 25 novels are filled with transgender characters. Do any autobiographical elements find their way into their lives and stories?
Katie: It is hard not to include part of yourself in your characters, or they wind up flat. A lot of the characters in my books are usually a part of me, whether good or bad. We all have those sides of us that we wish we didn’t, and I use that to create some of my evil characters. Fiction is a great place to let those demons out, because at least you can see it for what it is and address the issues.
Monika: Beyond those sides of yourself, are there other sources of inspiration for your characters?
Katie: Some other characters are based on people I know. In some books it’s more prevalent than others. In Wrestling Against Myself, the main character Tony was based on who I was in high school, as was Courtney. On the outside I was the big, tough, in control, ultra-fundamentalist Christian, but at the same time I knew of my transgender nature and was scared that it would get out. There were some elements from my life in God Bless the Child as well, though I probably embellished to the nth degree on the severity.
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Monika: Can transgender literature be considered a genre or category in its own right?
Katie: Right now there is no such thing as transgender fiction in the eyes of Amazon and Barnes and Noble, and I think that is unfortunate. They tend to lump everything in as either biography or erotica, and that’s a shame.
Monika: How do you approach the sexual side of the subject in your own writing?
Katie: Though I do have a few adult-themed titles under the pseudonym Abigail Tudai, I have done my best to write a lot of works that bypass the sexual nature of being transgender. I’m not saying that there isn’t a sexual component to being transgender; there is a sexual part of just being human, but I think mainstream society thinks that being transgender is all about sex, and I try to show them that isn’t the way.
Monika: And what impression do general readers have of transgender fiction?
Katie: Unfortunately, mainstream audiences likewise assume all transgender literature is sexual in nature, and a search on Amazon will show why that belief still exists. It isn’t until transgender fiction without erotica is accepted as its own category that the general public will know that there is something that explains the phenomenon without being inundated with sexual content.
Monika: The God Bless the Child series is probably your most popular work. Which themes run through your novels?
Katie: One of the main themes that runs through the God Bless the Child series is acceptance. In the title book of the series, we waited for Chase to accept that his then foster child had gender issues. Being the macho cop that he was, he had to break past his preconceived notions of what biological gender determined and see that gender was more than anatomy.
Monika: What about the later books in the series?
Katie: In Growing Up Jenny, it was about members of the community, especially Skeeter, who began the book as an antagonist and by the end became an ally. He too had to get past the bigotry that gender is determined by anatomy. In Finding Jenny, the book is about how Jenny accepted who she was and how she held onto that despite people trying to destroy her own self-image.
Monika: In “Wrestling Against Myself” and “The Transsexual and the Cross,” you focus on the interactions between Christianity and transsexuality. What is the general attitude of the Christian religion toward the transgender phenomenon?
Katie: Christianity, as a religious institution, has been divided on the issue. There are some great churches that have started the open and affirming movement in America that welcome the LGBT community with no issues. However, there are some that claim to be Christian that espouse hatred towards anything that is outside their idea of right and wholesome. They do not realize that they are not modelling Jesus, which is what a Christian is supposed to aim for, but are modelling the Pharisees that Jesus preached against.
Monika: And what about Christianity as a belief system?
Katie: Christianity, as a belief system, has no issue with people being transgender. Being transgender in and of itself is not a sin. Being transgender is a state of being, and sin is an action. It often makes me cringe when people refer to being transgender as being a sin, and that comes from inside the transgender community. If a person thinks they need to ask for forgiveness for being trans, they need to evaluate the situation.
Monika: How do you see your own transgender identity in that light?
Katie: I am transgender, just like I am left-handed and blue-eyed. They are traits that are out of my control, and the best I can do is to accommodate my life around my circumstances. That being said, I think I find it harder to adjust to being left-handed than I do being transgender.
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Monika: Does the Bible say anything about transgenderism, and if so, how are those passages interpreted?
Katie: There are some verses in Deuteronomy that can be taken out of context to speak against cross-dressing. The popular verse to bring up is Deuteronomy 22:5, which says a woman shouldn’t wear that which pertains to a man and a man shouldn’t wear that which pertains to a woman. Upon further research, the verses talk more about civic duty than they do about clothing. I don’t know why people fail to realize that back in 3500 B.C., when the book of Deuteronomy was written, men and women both wore robes that were strikingly similar.
Monika: Are there other passages that speak to you on this subject?
Katie: Though not directly related to transgenderism, Jesus said, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?” If I shouldn’t worry about what I wear, I think others shouldn’t worry about what I am wearing either. The body is more than what is on the outside, and that includes our anatomy.
Monika: Is there a verse you return to personally?
Katie: The other verse I like to quote is Psalm 139:14: “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” God made me the way that I am, and He has a purpose for that, which includes me being transgender. If God made me this way, who am I to argue?
Monika: How would you describe the present situation of transgender women in American society?
Katie: In everything I think there are some good and some bad. I think things are getting better, but there is still such a long way to go. Yes, there are laws being enacted to promote equality and to protect transgender people, but there is still a large segment of society that has a wrong view of what being transgender is. When you hear the jokes on the radio or the hurtful comments on the street as you walk by people who refer to you as a freak, that shows you that we aren’t there quite yet. It will take some time and some work, and that work will primarily have to come from the transgender community. It is probably going to take a generation or two to wipe out the bigotry, but if we don’t start the work now, it’s only going to delay progress for future generations.
Monika: At what age did you transition, and was it a difficult process?
Katie: I was 37. The most difficult part was allowing myself to break through the barrier. A lot of people were not surprised and were pretty supportive, and that took me off guard. As a former world-class wrestler, I thought I had created a macho image for my male façade, but many people saw right through that. I was fortunate to have a lot of wonderful friends around me for support and encouragement.
Monika: Did you have any transgender role models to look up to at the time of your transition?
Katie: Not so much that I followed, but people who had transitioned before gave me hope that I too could survive the journey. One of the people who has been vital on my journey is Joyce Melton, who runs one of the biggest transgender fiction websites around, Big Closet. She friended me very early on in my journey, well before I even began to think of transitioning, when I was living vicariously through fiction. She transitioned in the 70s when things weren’t nearly as friendly as they are now. If she could do it then, I certainly could do it now.
Monika: Coming out is rarely easy. What was the hardest part for you?
Katie: The hardest thing for me was lowering my defenses and letting the world see the real me. Most of my life had been spent in the ultra-masculine world of wrestling and around the religious right. Both groups have a history of intolerance towards the LGBT community, and I learned to toe the gender line. I find it funny that the religious right preaches integrity, but I had little of it while living the lie that I was male.
Though I am still a bit reserved about the way I go about life, I at least now present the truth and let the chips fall where they may.
Monika: Transgender stories and characters have appeared in films, newspapers, and books for years. What do you think of how they have been portrayed so far?
Katie: I think that film and media are starting to get away from portraying transgender characters as caricatures or fodder for jokes. I would like to see more films where the transgender character is the lead, but those are few and far between. I think we’ve come a long way from ‘Tootsie’, and I look forward to seeing more accurate portrayals of transgender characters and having them have more depth than in the past.
Monika: Have you recently read or watched anything about transgenderism that stood out for you?
Katie: I watched Lady Valor when it was on CNN. I think Kristin Beck could be an effective spokeswoman for the transgender community because she has such a wonderful pedigree as a former Navy SEAL. I am also wondering who is waiting in the wings. It is very difficult for some to put into words what they are feeling and to get that message across, but I think it is coming.
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Monika: The transgender cause is usually presented together with the other LGBT communities. As the last letter in the abbreviation, is the transgender community able to promote its own cause within the group?
Katie: With being lumped together, we have greater numbers, and that matters to policy makers, so that is important. However, I think the plight of the transgender person living in transition is vastly different from that of the out homosexual. Sexual orientation is something you can keep under wraps, but transitioning is all-encompassing and hard to hide. Recently in Tampa a teacher announced their plans to transition and it was front-page news; you don’t see that happen with a person who is LGB. I think it would be wise to promote some of our causes separately because they don’t affect the LGB community at all. Issues like bathroom privileges and changing gender markers are our own battles, and we need to present them as such.
Monika: Harvey Milk was a leading figure of gay activism in the 60s and 70s. Is there anyone in the American transgender community whose actions could be compared to his?
Katie: There are some. Kathy Baldock just published a book, “Walking the Bridgeless Canyon,” and actively speaks in churches on behalf of the LGBT community. Kristin Beck is fighting the good fight for transgender inclusion in the military. Laverne Cox is showing that transgender women can play women’s roles on TV and in film. There are a lot of different avenues that are getting covered, and the more positive exposure mainstream society gets of the transgender community, the better.
Monika: Politics is another arena where voices matter. Are you active in it, do you take part in any lobbying campaigns, and can transgender women make a difference there?
Katie: I decided a long time ago not to take my fight to the political arena but to the masses directly. There are many who are better at playing political games than I am. I feel I am better at explaining what being transgender is to the masses and showing them that we are normal, regular people just as they are. I am trying to start being more actively public, and have had several public speaking engagements in the past. As I get more stable financially through my writing, I will be able to take on a larger public role.
Monika: What role does love play in your life?
Katie: Love is what makes life worth living. Without love there is no reason to get out of bed. But love comes in many forms. First of all, I remind myself of the love God has for me and that I am His daughter. There is also my boyfriend Felix, who brings a lot of joy and laughter into my life, and hopefully a diamond ring will soon follow.
Monika: Many transgender women write memoirs. Has the idea of writing your own ever crossed your mind?
Katie: I have thought of it and even have the title picked out. My life has been a series of calamities that will require me to have a bigger support system in place when I write it. If someone is familiar with my work, they would understand that some of the things I write about I know from experience. One day I will muster up the courage to face those past demons and lay them to rest on paper and hope they stay there forever.
Monika: Do you have any new projects in the works?
Katie: I just finished writing a biography of a transgender undercover narcotics officer who had GRS, and I am currently writing the sequel to Unreachable.
Monika: What advice would you give to transgender girls struggling with gender dysphoria?
Katie: Be true to yourself first and foremost. The other thing is to learn to love yourself for who you truly are. Love is infectious; the more you love yourself, the more others will love you. Being transgender is not a game or a hobby; it is a state of being. Accept yourself for who you are and cut yourself some slack. We all falter; that’s what makes life so fascinating. If you are going to fail, fail wonderfully.
Thanks for having me.
Thanks for having me.
Monika: Katie, thank you for this interview!
All the photos: courtesy of Katie Leone.
© 2014 - Monika Kowalska
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