Episode 163: Being and Being Married to a Trans Person with Aydian and Jenilee Dowling

Last June I had the absolute pleasure of standing in the back of the room watching my husband Mike share his heart and wisdom on a panel of incredible men at the BirthFit Summit. I was so freaking proud of him. Mike shared the stage with a man who spoke about something that really touched me. This man was raised as a woman and transitioned to being a man in his early twenties. He shared that he was the only person on the panel who knew both what it was like to be perceived as female during one time of his life and male after a certain point. As a result, he had a unique perspective because he understood the experience of being a woman in our culture in a way that most other men cannot. Aydian Dowling is a transgender man, a trans activist, a speaker, an entrepreneur, a husband, a dad, and someone who is impressively fit, compassionate, and articulate. His wife, Jenillee, is an intuitive, a healer, a (MSW) social worker, a mother, a wife, an entrepreneur, and someone who is impressively empathic and transparent. Together with their son Antler, they’re a family. Not everyone understands what it means to be a trans person. Not everyone thinks they’re worthy of all of the things that everyone deserves. But everyone deserves to be loved and to feel a sense of belonging and to be a family. We wanted to feature the Dowlings on The Kate & Mike Show for a number of reasons, including that we really resonated with them as parents navigating being independently employed with a young child while also being committed to personal growth and awakening. It’s also important to make configurations of family that challenge the status quo more visible, so the world can see that love comes in all forms and configurations and that everyone is worthy of it. Listen in to this week’s episode of The Kate & Mike Show to learn: • How Aydian, the first transgender man ever to be on the cover of Men’s Health or any other mainstream magazine, first realized who he was. • What Aydian understands about women that many men don’t because he was raised female. • What the t-shirt that our daughter Ruby wears says that makes Mike uncomfortable and why. • The love story between Aydian and Jenilee and what baking had to do with it. • How becoming parents has challenged them and made them grow. • What’s next for both of them career-wise (they were both beautifully transparent about the moment they’re in right now in co-creating the future). Once you’ve listened in to this important episode, we’d love to hear from you. What did you learn from this episode? How can you apply that to your life and community? You can get your own copy of Do Less and still receive incredible bonuses at http://katenorthrup.com/book! Kate wants to hear from you, and you can post about your #DoLess experiences on Instagram, DM her (@katenorthrup) or email [email protected]. Would you, or a company you know, be a good fit to sponsor The Kate & Mike Show? If so, let’s talk! You can email [email protected] regarding current sponsorship opportunities. Show notes and links for this episode can be found at http://www.katenorthrup.com/podcast.