Whitey's Link
Gonna break back into it slowly, I guess.
Lol. ;-)
Cossey was born in Brooke, Norfolk. Through puberty, Cossey was distinctly feminine in appearance due to a variant of a condition known as XXXY syndrome, where, instead of having the XY male chromosome pattern, she possesses the genotype XXXY[1][3] (people with Klinefelter's syndrome usually have XXY). In Cossey's autobiography My Story, she describes an unhappy childhood, where she suffered confusing feelings and bullying by peers due to her femininity.[3] Growing up, Cossey's closest companion was her sister, Pam, with whom she played dress up in their mother's clothes.[1] Cossey left formal schooling when she was fifteen, and found work in a clothing store and as a butcher's apprentice. At sixteen she moved to London and worked at a variety of low-wage jobs.[3]
Cossey started transitioning whilst serving in the Corps of Royal Engineers after befriending a post-operative trans woman who was serving as the 9 Sqn RE SSM.[3] By 19, Cossey was receiving hormone therapy, serving full-time in a female gender role and had begun to split her time between working as a Shipwright and starting a part-time career as a showgirl at a London nightclub.[3] Despite initial shock, the Corps of Royal Engineers were eventually supportive.[1] Following breast augmentation surgery, Cossey worked as a showgirl in Paris and as a topless dancer in Rome to save up for sex reassignment surgery (SRS). After years of hormonal and psychological treatment, and legally changing her name, Cossey had her final surgery on 31 December 1974 at Charing Cross Hospital, London.[1]
