Family trees are often confusing, especially when there are too many members or cross-family marriages. But what happens when one person decides to go for gender transformation? Well, the entire family tree then becomes a book of confusions. That’s exactly what happened with Maisons when their daughter decided to come off as a girl a few years ago.
Transgenderism is gaining more and more popularity as people are normalizing the concept in modern days. People are not afraid or ashamed of accepting that they feel like a different gender at heart. But this was not the case a few decades ago. Many are guilty of living their lives in emotional suffocation rather than bringing out the courage to declare that they feel like the opposite gender deep down. There are cases where men who identified as women deep down couldn’t come off as their true identities, and were hence suppressed to get married and live life like normal men. But gone are the days when most of us would care about societal norms before embracing transgenderism. One such incident of Eric Maison came to light after he was motivated by his daughter to come off as a man.
It all started a few years ago when Corey Maison, a 15-year-old, declared to her family that she identifies as a girl. This gave immense courage to her then-mom Erica Maison to reveal the fact that she has always wanted to identify as a man. And when Corey went on with her gender transition, it gave Erica immense courage to get on her journey too. The Maison family from Detroit thus embraced their incredible transition journeys as they reimagined themselves as father and daughter after living as mother and son for years. The duo is now leaning on each other’s support as they transition together.
Corey Masion, who was born as a boy, came out as a transgender person 4 years ago. Earlier, the boy was scared that the family would not accept him. But still, her courage to accept herself helped her make her parents proud. To her surprise, Corey became an inspiration for her mom, who was enlightened by her daughter’s decision.
Eric Maison, who used to identify herself as Erica, was inspired by her daughter’s bold decision. However, he was still in a dilemma about whether to transition to a man, worried about his family dynamics and their future. He was not sure what the rest of his life would look like. However, he took the leap of faith despite the see-saw of relief and terror in his heart.
After taking the bold step of getting converted, Eric still plans to continue his life with his husband Les Masion, but now as a recently transitioned dad of 5. Though Les was in love with Erica as a person, he still proudly accepts Eric as the latter is happier with a new appearance.
The father-daughter duo mentions how they finally feel “complete” now; however, Eric regrets not being educated sooner about transgenderism and not coming to terms with his gender identity earlier.
The story teaches us to keep lifting each other up, fighting for equality, and standing together always.
