Interview with Lauren Robison

Monika: Today I am talking to Lauren Robison, an American retired IBM-er, former car racing champion, and transgender woman that documents her transition on social media. Hello Lauren!

Lauren: Thanks so much, Monika! One quick correction, I never was a champion driving the race car. The best I ever did was to finish in 4th place for the season, missing third place by one point. I'm still frustrated by that! What I am most happy about, regarding my experience racing with the Sports Car Club of America, is that I did it. I have loved the sound and the smell of a racetrack for years and years so having the chance to live a dream of mine and see it become reality was really quite special.

After my transition, I had very much lost my sense of community. I needed a new start for my new life with an entirely new set of people. I used to fly full-size airplanes before getting married, so I thought that was perhaps a viable option, but I found myself with nothing to do on a summer weekend, so I took the chance to drive, in my sportscar, out to Summit Point Motorsports Park in West Virginia. Needless to say, I was enthralled with the sights and the sounds, but I was even more excited by the friendly people. This was a place where I could build a new life so I made the leap and volunteered to help. I, an unknown tall woman was welcomed with open arms.

Interview with Debbie Ballard

Debbie Ballard is an American IT architect consultant, writer, and transgender activist whose remarkable journey reflects both innovation in technology and the resilience of living authentically. She was among the early pioneers who shaped the commercialization of the Internet in the 1990s, later became a leader in advancing Linux and Open Source technologies, and contributed to globalization initiatives that helped redefine how businesses and people connect across the world. With decades of experience at the forefront of technological progress, she has also carried a deeply personal story of navigating her identity in a time when being openly transgender often meant rejection, loss, or invisibility. Her autobiographical works, Debbie's Secret Life: LGBT in Stealth and Living in Stealth: Undercover, provide an unflinching look at what it means to grow up transgender while being forced to hide one’s true self. Written from her lived experience, these books are more than memoirs, they are heartfelt appeals to parents, teachers, counselors, and policymakers to understand the lifelong impact of denial and suppression.