From Leonard to Leona: A Singapore Transexual's Journey to Womanhood

Leona, born as Leonard in 1975 in Queenstown, Singapore, tells how she found at an early age that she could not fit into her male identity. She tells how her successful but conflicted career at school, the confusions during National Service and then at university in the United Kingdom finally led in 1997 to sex change surgery in Bangkok. Then there was the uneasy transition to sexual and personal identity as a woman. Leona returned to Singapore in 1999 and is now established as a communications consultant. Many windows are opened onto particular confusions, conflicts, loyalties and joys experienced by one member of the small but ever-present minority of Singapore's born transsexual people.