Despite Jessica's success at work, her growing group of friends, and her widespread involvement in the local transgender community which she still finds very rewarding, she still felt that there was something missing.  After the breakdown of her marriage, she had met and dated a few seemingly nice people, but none of those relationships (if you could even call them that) were very meaningful (in only a few cases did they even make it as far as a second date). Of course, as is almost always the case in life, things only tend to happen when you least expect them to happen. And so it was that in May 2007, a month after her first conference, while preparing for her second, as well as being busily involved in a number of local advocacy efforts, she met a nice transsexual woman named Devin. When they first got together, they were expecting nothing more than the possibility of becoming friends. But just a few minutes into that first casual encounter, they both realized that they had found someone special, and suddenly dinner turned into a date, and that date turned into a weekend of no fewer than three dates, and by the end of that weekend, they needed very little convincing that this wasn't even going to be a fling, but rather it was looking like the beginnings of a wonderful relationship... the kind that lasts a lifetime. A few weeks later, Jessica and Devin attended their first event together as a couple: the first ever Capital Trans Pride (where Jessica was speaking). Both dressed in their favorite summer dresses, they felt like the happiest couple alive.

Not surprisingly, it was not long before Jessica and Devin found themselves talking about the inevitable... sharing their lives together. But Devin was still in the early stages of getting divorced from her own wife. In a similar twist of fate that had befallen Jessica, Devin and her wife had also planned to remain together through the whole transition process.  However, soon after Devin's third child was born in August 2006, just as Devin was making preparations to begin living her life full time as a woman, they made the decision to lead separate lives.  In a series of most unfortunate circumstances, she had also lost her job as a flight attendant (for nothing more than simply being transgender) and her dream that she had been working toward of becoming a commercial airline pilot was shattered in an instant. Starting all over again in a completely new field, Devin's circumstances were not looking particularly good, but she was always optimistic that she would pull through. So Jessica and Devin starting a new life together was not going to be without its fair share of complications, but both Jessica and Devin knew that they wouldn't have it any other way.

Early in June 2007, just a month after their first date, Jessica got to spend some time with Devin's family at a special event at the local Air and Space museum. All of a sudden, Jessica realized that she was going from being single to being partnered and a stepmom of three wonderful young boys. She was very nervous at first, waiting for them to arrive, waiting to meet the kids for the first time. But once they arrived, Jessica's motherly instincts suddenly kicked in and she seemed to just take the rest of the day in her stride. Over the weeks that followed, she had more opportunities to get to know the kids a little better, and by mid-July, having not seen her in about 2 weeks, Devin's eldest son (at 4 years) was asked when next they would be seeing her. When Jessica heard that, her heart skipped a beat, knowing that she had obviously made an impact and that the kids wanted to see her again just as much as she missed being with them.

When it rains, it pours.  Just as Jessica was dealing with the emotions involved with suddenly becoming a stepmom to 3 small children, the State Department issued a visa bulletin that significantly altered the course of her permanent residency application.  She had been expecting to file her next set of paperwork (the last of them) sometime between the years 2010 and 2012, because of the massive backlog that the Center for Immigration Services had been attempting to whittle down over the preceding 5 years.  Out of the blue, Jessica's priority date was to become current as of July, 2007.  Now this would have been great news if all of her paperwork had been in order, ready for filing, but being caught completely off-guard, what was a dream turned into a bit of a nightmare.  Her passport had recently expired, and she had decided to wait before applying for a new one so that she could change her name and sex in South Africa at the same time.  This, of course, would have required Jessica to already have undergone surgery to alter her genitalia to match her gender identity.  Because her name had been changed legally in the US, but not yet in South Africa, her passport could not match her US identity documents.  So with few options open, Jessica was forced to apply for a new passport, which made for some interesting conversation in the South African Consular Office in DC. Thankfully, they were not busy that day, and it should be mentioned that the staff there were all very respectful and helpful, making calls to some of the highest Home Affairs officials in South Africa to make sure that her case was dealt with in the most efficient manner possible.  As a result, just 2 hours after applying for her new passport, she walked out of the office with a valid temporary passport (albeit under her old name and sex, but with a current photograph, her first decent passport photo ever, which has become the subject of more than a few laughs). Ultimately, after rushing around, spending hours on the phone with legal experts in order to submit the application under her new name, she finally got her application submitted in the nick of time to arrive at the CIS first thing on the morning of July 1, 2007.

Now it also just happened that July 1, 2007 was exactly a year since Jessica had started living full time as a woman, and therefore marked the end of her one year "Real Life Experience" [as defined in the WPATH Standards of Care for transgender patients], and thereby finally met all of the criteria to apply for irreversible surgery which would finally fix up the last details of her body's birth sex not matching her true gender. Jessica chose Dr. Marci L. Bowers, one of the world's leading male-to-female surgical specialists, as her surgeon to perform the rather intricate genital reconstructive surgery.  After obtaining support letters from her therapist and a psychologist, she submitted her application for surgery. She cried as she started filling the blanks on the form that she had been waiting to fill out for a lifetime. Two weeks after having submitted her application, Jessica received a call from Marci herself.  Not Dr. Bowers. Not even Marci Bowers. She simply greeted Jessica with "Hi Jessica, this is Marci." [Marci might very well have just stopped short of saying her last name because Jessica had recognized Marci's voice from the documentaries that she had watched numerous times over the preceding few years.] And that seems to sum up Marci's very personal relationship with each and every one of her patients. The good news was that she was accepted as a patient. The bad news was that, being a leader in the field, as well as being transsexual herself, Dr. Bowers had a 10 month waiting list, having been booked up that far in advance by prospective GRS candidates.  When Jessica found out that it was no longer the 6 to 7 months that it had been just a year prior, she suddenly realized that it would conflict with a conference that she (and, coincidentally, Marci too) would be presenting at (the Trans-Health Conference 2008).  It also meant that she would have to wait another full year before she would be able to finally feel whole.  But just as quickly as Jessica was given the bad news, Marci noticed an opening on her schedule for February 8, 2008.  Sold!  Within minutes of the call, Jessica had cleared the date with her employer, and was on the phone with Devin to give her the incredible news.  This was a moment that Jessica had only dreamed about up until then. Now she was on the final straight heading towards having her dream become reality.

Jessica's mother took the news well, and was relieved to hear that Devin would be able to make the trip to Trinidad, CO, with me, as it was unlikely that her mom would be able to make the trip all the way from South Africa at that time of year. The fact that Devin had some nursing experience as an emergency responder earlier in her career also helped put Jessica's mom's mind a little more at ease.

So with Devin and Jessica's mom, as well as a few of her closest friends having been informed, it was time to tell all of her friends and all those who had played a significant part in her transition to date. Of course, Jessica has always been known for her somewhat twisted sense of humor, and so thought it fitting to have a bit of fun with the e-mail announcement.  The subject of the e-mail read: "Expecting a girl."  And the message itself started like this: "For those of you that have not heard the good news yet, my mom is expecting a girl in 6 months and 7 days!  Okay, so it'll be 33 years, 2 months and 12 days overdue, but at least she won't be doing any pushing this time around."

At the end of August, 2007, Devin moved in with Jessica.  As fate would have it, no sooner were they living together when circumstances kept them apart for a few weeks, while both of them were out of town.  While Devin was vacationing in Ireland (her home), Jessica was attending the Southern Comfort Conference 2007 (one of the largest transgender conferences in the world) for the first time in mid-September, 2007.  Jessica McKinnon presented her workshop "Making a Successful Transition at Work" on the Saturday morning, and immediately thereafter Marci Bowers presented a session covering the latest advances in one-stage genital reassignment surgery.  Jessica had a great time at the conference, making many new friends and meeting some very influential people in person, such as Joe Solmonese of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and Mara Kiesling of the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE).

And what would meeting influential people be without the feeling of having being betrayed by one of them just two weeks later?  One of the promises that Joe Solmonese had made at the conference to more than 1000 attendees was that the HRC would actively oppose any proposed legislation that was not fully support and inclusive of the entire LGBT community (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender).  Two weeks after the conference, the HRC went back on their word, and while they were thankfully still very supportive of the fully inclusive version of the so-called ENDA bill (Employment Non-Discrimination Act), they unfortunately did nothing to oppose a less inclusive version that effectively excluded protection under the law for all transgender people.  This sparked what will probably be remembered as one of the most heated debates in the US transgender world of the first decade of the 21st century.  With Jessica's deep involvement in transgender transitions in the workplace, this legislation hit very close to him, and she found herself getting a lot more involved on the political side of things than she ever thought she would, calling up and personally visiting members of Congress, participating in protests in support of true equality for everyone.  Jessica seized the opportunity to get the word out at one protest when she was interviewed by both CNN and Fox News early in October, 2007.  The fight for the rights for transgender people in the US has always been very controversial, and it will be interesting to see how everything plays out in the years to come.

Never to be outdone by negativity, Jessica finally received confirmation of her permanent residency application, and when she was called in for fingerprinting, Jessica noticed that the man taking her fingerprints was convinced that there was a mistake on the application and was frantically trying to figure out what the source of the confusion was.  Jessica was impressed by his composure and professionalism when she told him that her previous name on the form was actually correct.  He simply said "Well, I can see why you changed your name", and then mumbled something about parents and the cruel names that they sometimes choose to give to their children.  Jessica pointed to the M on her driver's license, to which he just laughed softly, looked at her, and just smiled, not wanting say any more to expose her birth sex to those sitting nearby.  Unintentional and unexpected compliments like that just never seem to get old...

October 2007 was a already a busy month for Jessica, and just to top it off, she was approached by Marie Claire South Africa to be interviewed as part of a feature in their April 2008 issue.  Jessica McKinnon also had a followup interview live on DC101’s Elliot in the Morning radio show on Thursday, October 25, 2007. [The recording of the interview, as well as the Q&A with callers, is now available in two parts: [Part 1] and [Part 2].] This interview was a followup to her first interview with Elliot Segal 13 months prior [click here for the audio recording of the original interview from Thursday, September 21, 2006]. Jessica McKinnon will have further followup interviews with Elliot Segal on DC101 just before and after her surgery in early February, 2008.