Editor's note: MassResistance ran this interview in its full form on August 13, 2020. LifeSiteNews is republishing the below edited version with permission.
October 30, 2020 (MassResistance) — Most people are told about the “transgender” movement through the rose-colored lens of the mainstream media and the “social justice” push in schools, colleges, corporations, government, and even the medical establishment. Almost every day, new laws are passed or court rulings are announced that further accommodate it and punish those who disagree. And the political correctness supporting it gets ever more severe.
But almost no one hears about the terrible damage this sexual perversion and mental health disorder causes for virtually all the people it touches. This testimony will help fill that void.
Since 2018, Tracy Shannon, our Texas MassResistance Chapter leader, has been fighting to expose and put an end to the destructive LGBT agenda in her state. Her efforts to unmask and undo “Drag Queen Story Hour” in Houston, and later throughout the rest of the country, have gained considerable attention, not just in the U.S. but around the world.
What many may not know about Tracy, however, is that she and her children have been severely harmed by the LGBT movement. Her tragic story explains how one of our best activists has been motivated to accomplish her wonderful work to help protect others from this monstrous movement.
MassResistance interviews Tracy Shannon
How has the LGBT movement affected your family?
Several years ago, when my children were all very young, my first husband decided to “transition” to the opposite sex. This was after 15 years of marriage and having three children together.
Were there any early signs of this?
Yes, but at the time I would not have considered them signs of wanting to “transition” to the opposite sex. … I didn't know anything about men living as women except for maybe an episode I'd seen on Dr. Phil or Jerry Springer.
When you look back now, do you see the signs more clearly?
Looking back, I see the signs of deception more clearly. But at the time, I don't see how I could have interpreted them any differently. …
He actually came clean about a lot of his deception when we parted ways. Maybe it was for shock value and maybe it was because I had already uncovered a lot of what he had hidden from me[.] …
But I always believed what my husband told me. No matter what I saw with my eyes, I went to him to unravel the mystery and he always gave me the answers I wanted to hear.
Did you seek counseling with your husband to get help for your marriage – or for him?
Both. I was not in his private sessions with his numerous counselors, but there were many diagnoses over the years and various treatments. One doctor prescribed OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder) meds for him to help with the compulsion to cross-dress, he told me. I didn't know much about OCD but figured that if it helped him, it would help us as a couple and our family.
What I did not know is that he stopped taking those meds, but had been taking female hormones. Apparently, a counselor we went to (who I had believed was going to counsel us on saving our marriage) had written him a letter so he could get the hormones. He had been seeing this therapist on his own for 11 years behind my back.
This particular therapist is the one we saw together when he first admitted to having a problem with cross-dressing. … I went to this therapist with him and she advanced the idea that he could go have nights and weekends with other cross-dressing men without me even knowing about it, and that he could keep a P.O. box where he could get invitations to such events as well as catalogs and women's magazines.
I told her that was crazy and it felt like infidelity to me. She told me that I was “closed-minded.” She went on to tell me I was a lesbian but had not figured it out yet. This was the state of counseling in the LGBTQ community 20 years ago, so it must be much worse now.
She told us about a book for me to read and to discuss with my husband. So, he took me to this perverted adult bookstore in the homosexual part of town. I was very uncomfortable in the store seeing the titles and the men roaming around looking at all the queer stuff. We found the book and left. I read a few chapters before I figured out there was just no way I was going to be like this woman in the book who plays along with her husband's cross-dressing. The author admitted early on in the book she was in a lesbian relationship prior to meeting her husband.
We went back to the therapist and she mentioned at the appointment that my husband would not know if he was a man or a woman for three months. This was the most absurd thing I had ever heard. I told her if that is the case, then I am filing for a divorce because I married a man. My husband said the therapist was putting words in his mouth. I said, “I am done!” and left the session. We left together. I thought we were both done with her. But she went on to write a letter for him supporting his medical transition even while I was married to him, without my knowledge or consent. When I realized this betrayal by him and the therapist, it was very disillusioning.
What was it like for the children? Did they see their father cross-dressing?
The kids saw elements of his cross-dressing. … Closer to the time of our divorce, the kids did see various components of his cross-dressing and feminization. … This was confusing and frustrating for them, especially for my oldest who was 11 at the time.
What was your divorce like?
Divorce for most people involves a lot of changes and those are hard under any circumstances. The children and I lost our home. I had not worked for many years outside the home and had been homeschooling our children. The kids were suddenly thrust into public schools and daycare so that I could work to support them. I could not afford a home. We were homeless and would not have had a place to go if not for my parents taking me and the children in. I was financially strapped and trying to pay mounting legal bills and the bills that were assigned to me. He attained legal counsel from some LGBT activist lawyers that represent transgender clients. By this point, he had determined he was transitioning, which he started both on paper and physically, while we were still married. He changed his name and sex marker on his driver's license. The attorneys instructed him to do this in a liberal county where no opposition would be raised. I had no idea this was happening. This made me a “paper lesbian” and meant I was divorcing a “paper woman.”
These legal changes also made way for the daily intimidation and bullying tactics of the LGBT attorneys to insist that I call my ex by his chosen female pronouns and female name in court. The argument was made daily for me to do that. I resisted. That was over a decade ago, and the judge did not make me do it but asked me how I felt about it. I said I cannot refer to the man I was married to for 15 years and had three children with as a woman, and it was insensitive to me for them to even ask that.
During the court proceedings, which lasted over a week, his lawyers tried to argue that I was too conservative to co-parent with a transgender parent. They also questioned me about my Christian faith and asked how I could co-parent with a transgender given my Christian faith.
Those last two examples of how I was treated gave me a glimpse into the future of how the trans movement (with their LGB allies) will relentlessly go after Christians and trample our First Amendment rights.
We later had to modify the court order due to his FTM (female-to-male) lover being abusive to him and the kids, plus some non-responsiveness and poor decision making on his part. We settled, but not before 100K in attorney fees were spent on my side due to the numerous motions by his activist attorney. That is their M.O. — to bury people in motions and drain them financially.
What has been the impact on the children?
Their dad was awarded shared joint custody with me initially. This was considered a landmark victory for transgender parents in Texas, and I think in the USA. It was mentioned in a gay magazine when it happened years ago.
The impact really depends on which child we are talking about and which point in time. They were all traumatized early on by the enormous changes that divorce normally brings, compounded by their father “transitioning” to a woman. They were sent to a court-ordered therapist who coached them to accept their dad's transition. They felt manipulated and lost trust in the therapy process, especially since they were coached to not call him “Dad” anymore and to use his chosen pronouns. They were threatened with spankings and punishment by their dad and his lover if they called him “Dad.” This was deeply hurtful to my oldest son at that time.
The kids argued over complying with this and came to the decision on their own not to comply. They continue to call him “Dad” but they settled on not publicly outing him as a compromise. The kids are at different stages of grief and acceptance. Acceptance for them simply means that they don't have control of what their dad does; it doesn't mean they are supportive of the decision. They all think it was a bad decision that didn't consider their best interests.
The children have struggled at times when other kids have activities with their dads, such as father-daughter dances or father-son events. They do wish that they had a father who filled that role. They used to put their heads down and cry at school to hide their sorrow when these events were announced. They still feel sad on Father's Day when everyone else is sharing their memories of their fathers because they feel they were deprived of the experiences they should have had with their dad in the normal role of a father.
They are at various stages of processing it all. There is a grieving process that nobody seems to be fully aware of. The kids have struggled with suicidal ideation, OCD, and anxiety over the years. They continue to get help from a new therapist (who was not appointed by the court).
The earlier court-appointed therapist failed to report abuse as a mandatory reporter when she knew the kids were threatened, abused, and neglected in his care. During our deposition of this therapist, she said that she felt Child Protective Services would not take any action. Sadly, nobody was doing anything for the kids while they went through some hellish years — while their dad was in early transition, living with an activist who was also in early female-to-male transition. The kids were exposed to all kinds of sexual things at his house … all kinds of literature on transgenderism. Something else that was also very unsettling to me was that the children often slept in the bed with their father and his FTM lover.
Fortunately, he is not with that individual anymore and has been more careful in recent years. But when he first transitioned, the kids were exposed to all kinds of LGBT stuff. They were taken to an LGBT-affirming church that had a rainbow banner in the sanctuary. Two of my sons would run from the church to escape — because they didn't know who was a boy or who was a girl, and they were traumatized by the “women” with deep voices.
My older son was coaxed to wear a pride bracelet and pressured to join the LGBTQ allies club at his school by his dad's partner, but my son would take the bracelet off at school and he refused to join the homosexual club at the school. His father and his then FTM lover would sit him down and tell him it was okay to be gay and that he could come out to them at any time. This would make my son very angry. The children were told that their dad went through a metamorphosis, like a butterfly, and that he has a girl's brain. Since transitioning, he tells the kids that although he has some regrets, it has been good for his career to be a woman. (Funny: That is opposite of how genuine women feel.)
The kids will be dealing with the issue their whole lives, I suspect, as they come to terms with the many ways their father's presence is either uncomfortable, unwanted, or absent in many situations they have yet to encounter. At different times, they have said that their dad's transition feels like a death, or like he disappeared and an imposter came back. While they do love their father, show him respect, and see him to varying degrees, they still have to deal with the choices he has made. Despite all they have been through, you would never know it just by looking at them. They are doing their best to overcome it all and walking in truth and grace better than I would have at their age.
How has all this impacted you?
Aside from some PTSD and trust issues, it has motivated me to warn people of the destructive nature of the LGBTQ movement and how it seeks to destroy the rights of free speech, religious freedom, and parental rights.
Any final thoughts?
Had my husband gotten legitimate psychological and medical help to deal with his mental health issues instead of the quackery and poisonous maltreatment by the LGBTQ movement's “therapists,” he might be a normal person now and my family would have been saved enormous trauma. But the LGBTQ movement and their allies don't care about any of that.
I would encourage people to learn more about the transgender movement by visiting the massresistance.org website. Sign up to receive our newsletters where they can continue to follow my work exposing the neo-morality movement and fighting for children.
