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faerieberrySeptember 24, 2024
He started taking hormones and then felt even worse….. so of course “completing” the “sex change” will make him feel totally better! Because turning your dick inside out will totally make you not look like a 6’8 man anymore, the dick was the only giveaway, trust me bro…..
For real tho I hope those 2 little girls ended up doing okay, can’t imagine going through this with BOTH parents at age 2 or 7 💀
I keep thinking about how the eldest one was from her prior marriage. I have no idea what her biological father was like, but if I was her bio father I’d be SO scared to have her around this man.
I felt a pit in my stomach knowing this as daughters are more likely to be abused by step fathers and moms boyfriend more than anyone else. I pray she was ok.
This whole situation makes me feel so uncomfortable and setting my ick alarm so bad. I wish her a peaceful happy and safe life. Both her and her sister.
faerieberrySeptember 24, 2024
Oh I missed that the oldest one wasn’t his! You’re so right, that makes it even worse, I really hope they’re both doing okay today
Okay a lot of this is egregious but I just have to say the $900 disability check in 1979 jumped out at me. I feel like in my country I hear about people getting barely more than that monthly nearly 50 years later meanwhile rent has gone up, what, like a few thousand percent since then? Insane.
Holy shit, you're right!
What cost $900 in 1979 would cost $3836.16 in 2023. Also, if you were to buy exactly the same products in 2023 and 1979, they would cost you $900 and $195.24 respectively.
I have to wonder how long this man lived, given his serious medical issues.
I also can't understand why surgery would "complete" the sex change - it's crude enough these days, but in the 1970s?! - and lessen the medical issues ("before the medical problems worsen") Surely it would only increase them?
I also wonder if he even survived surgery given his severe emphysema.
I found Sheila's obituary. Surprisingly, he lived to be 66 and died in 2011.
https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/name/sheila-reynolds-obituary?pid=178635352
Looks like he was still married to Jean. No idea whether Jean was still pretending she was a man or not. I wonder if the surgery ever happened, since it looks like they had a son at some point. Unless it was a son from a prior marriage of his.
hard_headed_womanSeptember 24, 2024
Died at sixty-six? He looks eighty-six in that photo.
And Jean was referred to as "spouse" and not husband or wife. Hmmm
worried19September 25, 2024
He lived a lot longer than I expected given his emphysema, asthma, and extreme height. Very tall men also tend to have shorter lifespans.
It's curious that Jean was referred to as his spouse. I also notice that she never adopted a male name. I wonder if she was serious about her male identity, or if the double announcement was just to make news as a transsexual couple and drum up enough money to support Sheila's transition.
hard_headed_womanSeptember 25, 2024
Well, Gene is a male name, so only the spelling if her name is feminine.
bumpyjerboaSeptember 24, 2024
How can the son be Henry III of Sheila was no longer Henry Jr.?
Male ego and patrilines seem to survive transition in the most surprising ways...
worried19September 25, 2024
The more I think about it, it seems likelier that this was a son from a previous marriage when Sheila was still Harry.
bumpyjerboaSeptember 25, 2024
Still. It just reminds me of the way TiMs in the UK can still have their titles when their actually female sisters could not.
Cake and eating it too and whatnot.
[Deleted]September 24, 2024
No idea. I have a few stories and individuals I’m looking around for more info on and I’m going to do that with these two people as well.
But I was more outraged at the fact they were exposing these children to this madness. Then ontop of that! Being so narcissistic and selfish as to put the names and faces of those children in the paper!
The world wasn’t kind to children of weirdos then. And those children deserved better than to be fathered by and raised around a 6’8 guy who’s tried on 3 occasions to castrate himself.
He is so disgusting. Look at his legs
LampdarkerSeptember 24, 2024
I also can't understand why surgery would "complete" the sex change - it's crude enough these days, but in the 1970s?! - and lessen the medical issues ("before the medical problems worsen") Surely it would only increase them?
Definition of insanity.
worried19September 24, 2024
Jesus, that's crazy for the time period. I wonder whatever happened to these people. It doesn't sound like reputable doctors were entertaining them. I very much doubt they were able to get the surgeries at all due to being unemployed and on public assistance. And of course this mainstream newspaper isn't pretending for even a second that they are the opposite sex.
Those poor kids. Not only growing up in poverty, but with two parents with mental health issues in a tiny town. Apparently Benson only has 5000 people in it today, who knows how many people lived there in 1979. I'm sure other the other children in town were cruel to them.
My uncles who grew up during this time have admitted to teasing “weird” kids during this time. Those kids didn’t stand a chance. My heart aches so much for them.
worried19September 25, 2024
I hope the parents were decent at least. But the small town atmosphere would have been difficult. This couple could have moved someplace like San Francisco where the kids wouldn't have stood out so much.
I found out more about them in some more articles. I’ll post when I get a chance.
"Woman sacrifices her own wants and happiness for a man. She and her husband are seeking out fly-by-night quack doctor who was chased out of Mexico and fled to Alaska"
Daily public ridicule is what these men deserve.
Feel so sorry for these kids though, who knows if anyone was looking out for them back in those days. There was so much less public understanding of fetishistic transsexualism (even now there is such catastrophic misinformation) and less understanding of child safeguarding and abuse.
hard_headed_womanSeptember 24, 2024
While less was known about CSA, there was a social consensus that we protected kids from actual weirdos. If he didn't qualify as a weirdo back then, I don't know who would have.
I truly hope so! From talking with my mom (born in '61) and a good friend who was born in '59, they both have said that attitudes about child abuse were very 'keep to yourself' when they were young. My friend even had a specific family on their street, where everyone felt like something was off and tried to help the kids out here and there with small things on the down low without the parents knowing, everyone in the neighborhood still strongly felt that what happens in someone's private home was their business only.
But obviously things might have shifted quite a bit from '59 and '61 to '79.
KestrelSeptember 24, 2024
Obviously people shouldn't ridicule him for wearing a dress, but like... Just put on a pair of jeans dude? It's that easy.
worried19September 25, 2024
He could have dressed kind of feminine and just presented himself as a leftover hippie. It was still the 1970s.
The ridicule would be for exposing his children to his fetishes, and for claiming to be transsexual (which is basically the fetish). He can be a man in a dress, but I draw the line at appropriation of the other sex.
RNPhalaropeSeptember 24, 2024
I remember seeing this pair on the Phil Donohue show (?) back then.
I don't know if those old TV shows are available on-line, but it would be interesting to see again.
Why they chose to live in Benson, AZ, not a large town, while drawing such attention to themselves, is a mystery to me.
I just want to say I appreciate all the posts you've made digging out just how far back this rabbit hole goes, but it's also so, so despairing. I truly can't wait to not be alive anymore for this shit lol
[Deleted]September 24, 2024
Lmao. Back when you were allowed to say something as simple and true as that.
Where are you finding all these, if you don't mind me asking?
Newspapers.com! Gotta pay to use, but it’s worth it for me
You are doing such a great thing!