Feb 19, 2020

Gray Ellis Could Make Transgender Political History in North Carolina. It’s Very Personal.

Gray Ellis says he first knew he was trans when he was 4. He recalled being at home in rural North Carolina, his friends from the local Pentecostal church—where Ellis’ grandfather was a minister, and his father the choir director and deacon—were playing in the yard. “Mom bought us Popsicles, and told the kids to line up, girls first. I went to the back of the line. My mom, said, ‘Hey, I said girls first.’ I said, ‘I heard you.’ That’s my earliest memory of knowing. I didn’t transition till I was 40, and I don’t think my mom understood it until just before then. Now she’s very supportive.”