Becoming Christine – adopted Galwegian tells story of transition

Christine Beynon has been hiding most of her life. The 73-year-old transgender father of two is from East London, but has lived near Claregalway—in a house she built herself—for almost forty years.

And she was in the closet for most of them. “I lived a lie all my life,” she says thoughtfully. “I came out in 2006 even though I’ve been transgender since I was about ten or eleven years old.

“I never had many school friends, I wouldn’t go out…I took up fishing, because that was a lonely thing. I took up cycling; I used to cycle miles and miles, because that was a lonely thing. But you don’t prefer to be alone—you are alone.”

Early experiences impressed Christine with the need for secrecy from a young age. “Things were different in the fifties and sixties. My mum used to catch me and give me a slap, because I used to wear her clothes and makeup and everything…one aunt knew.

“I was about ten or twelve, and she gave me a dress to put on. It was black silk—I can still see it—an old-type ballroom dress, with sequins, black. And I put it on, and they all laughed at me.”

From that time until 2006, nobody saw the real Christine—including her wife, who was originally from Claregalway. The pair met in London and moved to Ireland to raise Christine’s stepson, whom she adopted as an infant, and their daughter.

According to Christine, her trans identity “didn’t really manifest itself until after my wife died…I was still dressing within the marriage. All that time. I think she knew, but we never spoke about it. ‘Til the day she died, we never spoke about it.”

Christine is the subject of a new art exhibition at the Galway Arts Centre called “Becoming Christine”, which features selfies taken during and after her transition, as well as video and voice recordings.

Irish trans rights activist Dr. Lydia Foy will open the exhibition—which is run by artist Amanda Dunsmore and curated by Liz Burns—on Friday evening. The show will run until early July.

Read Christine’s full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.