A Christian mom says that transgender ideology tore her family apart after her husband transitioned to become a woman.
Tracy Shannon believes her ex-husband lost himself in "fetish behavior," which began with what she described as "cross-dressing." Shannon discovered the behavior after she had her first child.
"There were some rather disturbing things that did happen in those years," Shannon said. She recalled her husband taking her lingerie on weekends and becoming visibly aroused while shaving his legs.
"There were some incidents of cross-dressing in the marriage that would come up. It didn't seem extremely out of control. We would go to counseling, and he'd say he'd never do it again. So I believed him several times," she said.
However, after 14 years of their marriage, Shannon said her husband met someone online who guided him through a medical transition. During the time he was transitioning, Shannon said her husband would lose interest in activities he used to enjoy doing with the children.
Not only did she grieve the loss of her husband, but her children also had to grieve their father.
"I think that gender is a lie. I don't think that anybody can ever accomplish the goal of completely becoming the opposite sex. I believe it's fraudulent therapy and fraudulent medicine. And it creates a lot of problems, not just the destruction of a family, which is serious enough. [But also] the erasure of fathers," Shannon said.
She proceeded to explain how transgender ideology destroys the family.
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"There's this idea that runs through our society with this in other areas that adult fulfillment is more important than the family, more important than the marriage, more important than commitment. And that is why it's harming families."
In the case of her own marriage, Shannon said the marriage counselor informed her that she must be a lesbian since she married someone with a feminine side, and encouraged her to be accepting of her husband's cross-dressing.
She also said the counselor guided her husband to acquire estrogen, which affected her husband's libido and to develop breasts.
"This happens to me behind my back," she said.
Her husband would blame her for his cross-dressing, Shannon said, which deeply affected her self-esteem. In order to help trigger him, she would avoid wearing feminine clothing.
"I was really taking the blame for all of this because he told me that he cross-dressed because of me, that he was stressed and it was the way I treated him. It was a lack of intimacy from me that made him do that. So I was always trying to compensate. And so it did wreck my self-esteem," she said.
"I did worry about setting him off because I did know about some instances of cross-dressing throughout the marriage," she said "So I would change how I dressed. I wouldn't dress as feminine… Even all the way down to my lingerie or underwear and bras, I would just wear the basics because even though I might like to wear something prettier — that made me feel pretty good — but I wouldn't because if I had those things in my closet, then perhaps it might trigger him to cross-dress."
Shannon said her husband's other life of becoming a woman felt as hurtful as an "affair."
"So that did affect me in that he had this other woman that he was creating for himself and enjoying by himself that felt like an affair," she said. "It affected me in the same way that you would imagine a woman whose husband is cheating."
From the discoveries of cross-dressing to the divorce proceedings, Shannon said, "It was a really giant test of my faith… It was a dark time."
She was concerned about how her husband's transition would affect her children.
"I prayed for them," she said. "They went through some horrible stuff… and I couldn't protect them from everything. So I had to trust that God who loves them was going to work things out. And he did. And he protected them from so much. And you'd never know that they have been through so much that they've been through."
Shannon returned to the workforce as the divorce loomed, and was at times in dire financial straits.
At one point, she said she had $30 left in her bank account and couldn't afford to buy a pack of Oreos. She bought them anyway and later found a bag of groceries on her porch that friends had purchased.
"It was just very devastating time for me. But I trusted in the Lord that he would restore everything," she said.
Shannon's story, with all its dark corners, had a happy ending.
"I ended up remarrying and being home again with my children and had another baby," she said.
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