Bristol Resident Shares Story of Transgender Struggles on NPR

A Bristol resident was recently featured on the NPR segment of "This I Believe Rhode Island".

Jaye Watts, a Bristol resident who identifies himself as a queer-identified transgendered man, reached out to Patch last week to share his news.

"I want Bristol and Warren folks to know that people like me exist and are a part of their community," Watts said in an email to Patch.

In the segment, Watts talks about his struggle growing up knowing there was something different about him. He discussed how difficult and scary it was to come out to the people he loved and that he hopes that one day people can feel free express their gender identity without being harassed.

"Growing up I always knew that I felt different, but it wasn't until about the age of 21 or 22 that I started exploring things," Watts said in the NPR interview. "I came out as a lesbian at 21, and in that process I started to meet people who were transgendered."

Watts went on to discuss how difficult life is for transgendered individuals like himself.

"It came to a point where I was living three different lives," Watts said in the interview. "I was Jaye and he with my friends, Jaye and she at work, and Jaye and she with my family."

Overall, Watts says his interview with NPR was was a good experience.

"I am really happy that I did it," he told Patch. "And I hope that it helps someone who is struggling with coming out, a family that is struggling to understand or even a youth who needs to find Youth Pride"

To hear Watts' full story, listen to his interview on the WRNI webiste.