Thursday, July 23, 2009

The Sad Story of Chloe and Rene

On Tuesday, I decided to check out the latest story on ABC’s Prime Time: Family Secrets. The episode, "‘He’ Becomes ‘She’: Husband’s Transformation Into a Woman" is about Chloe Prince, a transgender person who has had what she refers to as "gender reassignment surgery." Now, I generally avoid most such "documentaries." They usually just make me regret the time wasted watching.

I have to admit, I found this one a surprisingly interesting story. Granted, parts of it sounded a bit contrived....the intersex stuff especially. But overall, it was, interesting.

In may ways, it was a typical transgender biography. For many years, Chloe was a run of the mill crossdresser. Lots of clothes, but transition was more fantasy than serious desire. Chloe had been in a relationship that ended. Chloe met Rene, fell in love, and they got married. Before they married, Chole revealed her, uh, hobby to Rene, who married her anyway. They have two sons. Now, this is where the story gets kind of weird. Chloe claims that, after having blood work related to an allergy to be stings, she was informed that she has "47 XXY 'Mosaic' Klinefelter's syndrome." (Actually, the proper term is Klinefelter syndrome, as Dr. Harry Klinefelter neither had the condition, nor did he own it. He just discovered it. But such mistakes are common.) Kilinefelter Syndrome occurs when a male is born with a karotype of XXY instead of the normal XY. It is considered a form of intersex, though it should be noted that most with Klinefelter have no gender identity issues. Chloe, however, uses the claim of having Klinefelter Syndrome as the excuse for the decision to transition.


Now, the vast majority, though not 100%, of those with Klinefelter Syndrome are sterile. Chloe claims that because of being "mosaic" this is not the case. Mosaic would mean that not all cells are XXY, but that some are XY. This however, makes the story even more bizarre, as this variant of Klinefelter Syndrom is extremely rare. There are only 10 cases recorded in medical literature.

It is not unusual for those who are transgender to claim some form of intersex in order to gain some added degree of credibility. That is not to say that all such claims are false. In fact, a lot of HBS women have some history of documented intersex issues. This should not surprise anyone, as the same sort of hormonal issues that are believed to cause HBS also cause intersex conditions. But, as I said, Klinefelter Syndrome is not normally linked to gender identity issues.

As to Renée, I honestly felt sorry for her. I'll be blunt. I would like to see her kick Chloe to the curb, and take her for all she is worth in divorce court. I mean really, it is obvious that the poor woman was not involved in her husband's choices. Chloe cleaned out the 501(K) and took off for Thailand, leaving her behind to worry about what to expect. I seriously doubt she is at all happy with Chloe being "Mommy."


It is obvious, Renée is at Chloe's mercy. She is scared to be on her on, and Chloe takes advantage of that. Simply put, she is "codependent." I try to avoid using that term, as it has become trivialized by its abuse as a form of psychobabble, but in this case it is entirely appropriate.

Yes, Chloe got her money's worth out of her FFS, but really, I honestly did not feel she vibed as a woman. I mean, the line about not being able to decide if she wanted to be a girl, or be with a girl...I bet that one made Michael Bailey's heart go pitter-patter. The whole thing was a farce. I find it funny that the only reason some transgender types hated it is because it emphasized surgery. Well, I'm sorry, but that is how the real world works. No, surgery doesn't make you a woman. I think Chloe illustrates that very well. But not wanting surgery indicates that you don't really want to be a woman in my opinion. I don't buy into the deconstructionist view. Chloe is another exception that proves the rule.

Beyond that, I felt that Chloe is a poster child for the transgender view. And a good example of why I don't accept that identity. Really, if someone has problems with the fact that Chloe had surgery, they are missing the point. Granted, the day may come when this person's world crashes in on them. But right now, the real problem is the damage Chloe has left in her wake. She has likely ruined the lives of three people, and worse, she continues to victimize them.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's hard to say if Chloe really is XY mosaic. I would venture to guess with all the endocrine disruptors in the environment sex linked birth defects are and have been on the rise since the 70's. Chloe is a little too old to fall into that category though.

There is an easy way tot tell a tranny from a legitimate TS, it's more accurate than not. Take a person's name and run it through wolfram look for the occurrence of that name in the year that person was borne. Your name, for example is age appropriate. Unless she was borne in Europe or Great Britten, Chloe wouldn't be age appropriate for someone of her age.
Trannys have a bad habit of choosing names that are 20+ years younger than their real age.
Some of them pick a kiddie name get FFS and then show the world how silly they look when they can't even speak the language of the generation they represent themselves as. Nothing worse than a 55 year old who names himself something like Amber, gets FFS and wears 1970's skirts, (the really short ones) with 5" fetish heals, too much of the wrong perfume, whorish makeup, and worst of all no voice training. These are the ones who go looking for work dressed that way and complain that nobody will hire them and everyone stares at them wherever they go.

You see that walking the front door of your business asking for an employment application; you ether want to laugh so hard you have an accident or you want to vomit, it's usually the ladder not the former.

I am not saying this is going to be Cloe's fate she has a 1 in 2 chance of being successful. She picked a good surgeon and from the looks of things spent slightly more than $50,000.00 given current exchange rates. I didn't see the documentary so I have no idea what the rest of her presentation is like voice, word usage, intonation, movement etc... All the stuff that really matters. She could be another Marcy Bowers or Lynn Conway and have the voice of a lumberjack. That would make $50,000.00 worth of work all for not.
Many of us get by with far less invested because we are legitimate and all we need do is let the female we are out. Socialization comes easy to us and our voice developed naturally.

Well I hope the two of them can reinvent their relationship, some of us have been successful at doing that. Others have to start over with new friends, break ties with family and find a new job after moving to another part of the country.

I wish the best for Renee I hope she can bury her husband and ether move on or build a friendship with Chloe. This is a challenge no matter what she chooses to do.

One thing that bothers me greatly. Years ago when I had the birth defect corrected I did take plenty of pictures many of the town were I had my corrective surgery and many of the women I was sharing the experience with while I was recovering. I consider this to be all very private and that album is kept out of sight of my friends when they visit. I have never posted any of those pictures to the net and don't even have copies on my computer. I won't put any of the people I shared what is a very personal experience with anybody outside of my inner circle of friends (all 2 of them) These people may not want to be outed, I respect that.

Chloe has marked herself, her wife and their children for the rest of their natural lives. An act of selfishness seems inadequate to describe this blatant act of exhibitionism

Jackie said...

This is a sad story. I hope they both can find peace either together or apart.

Just Jennifer said...

I don't Klinefelter Syndrome is related to endocrine disruptors. It is more an issue with cell division. But, I do suspect that sex linked birth defects will rise.

As to your suggestion, I agree, it is quite accurate. The Social Security Administration also has a database that shows the popularity of various names related to birth year.

I have actually had TG types criticize the way I dress. One once told me I looked like a housewife. I actually took that as a compliment, though the person did not understand why.

I don't know what the future holds for that relationship. I hope that Rene can find happiness. But I have to wonder.

Just Jennifer said...

Jackie, I agree. I would never presume to tell Rene what to do. But I did find it interesting that, while watching this show, I could identify more with what she was suffering than I could with what Chloe had done.

Suzy Stephens said...

I like the way you wrote that. You hit a lot of points that I felt were important in the episode. i.e. about Chloe saying that she didn't know if she wanted to be the girl or be with her...

I stumbled across the Chloe Prince story when researching gender schemas and transgendered life styles. I felt really sad for Rene. My fiance and I had a talk about what we would do in that situation. I told him that if he wanted to be come a woman it was cool with me but if he wanted the surgery he would have to think of a way that he could afford to pay for it without ruining our families income. He said he would still love me if I wanted to be a guy, but we wouldn't have sex. *sigh*

We both agreed that we didn't want to be the opposite sex. If we had kids we would wait until they were older. Most important, we weren't going to be so selfish that we only thought about ourselves and obsessed about our private parts until it drove us mad.

I think TS people are more legit when they don't tell people they are. Kind of like when gay people don't tell strangers they first meet that they are gay. It's none of our business if they really have girl or boy parts.

Thanks for being awesome.

Unknown said...

Chloe is a wonderful lady, I have seen her in person. I know many wonderful transgender people.

Now, why don't you take some time to actually get to know transgender people, and try NOT being a hate monger ?

Just Jennifer said...

Actually, I probably have met more "transgender" people than you ever will. And I am sorry, but disagreeing with a radical social political agenda does not automatically equate to hate. That bit of drivel, gets really old, really fast.