Female Bodied Self Portrait based on me female presenting before I started gender transition.
I lived as a Woman until I was 21 years old. I came out as a Lesbian when I was 16 years old to both my family and friends at High School. After coming out I endured homophobic abuse, violence and harassment by Students, Teachers and at home by my mother’s boyfriend at the time.
This escalated at the end of Year 11 when I was strangled by my mother’s boyfriend after he attacked me again for being a lesbian. My friend who lived on the street supported me to call the police and made a report against him. My mother sided with him and after this I moved out of home and dropped out of High school.
The boyfriend lived in the family home since I was in Year 9, I was 15 years old. He was a Drunk and whilst living at the house lost his job for being drunk at work. After he lost his job, his drinking became worse having bingers daily for months at a time. When he was drunk, he would turn on my brother and I for any reason. He out of everyone took the most offense to me coming out as a lesbian. When my mother wasn’t home, he used to walk past my room and yell abuse at me. The drunker he got, the worse it got. It became a regular occurrence of walking in after school to him drunk, calling me a man hater and a filthy lesbian.
