Seeing this was both uplifting and harrowing at the same time. Corinna's story is important and relatable and representative of what so many of us are concerned about. Corinna's perspective is balanced, introspective, and well articulated. This is what people need to hear if there's going to be a changing tide that's not of a conservative homophobic reactionary nature. Certainly a good sign to see this in the WaPo.

When I was 19, I had surgery for sex reassignment, or what is now called gender affirmation surgery. The callow young man who was obsessed with transitioning to womanhood could not have imagined reaching middle age. But now I’m closer to 50, keeping a watchful eye on my 401(k), and dieting and exercising in the hope that I’ll have a healthy retirement. In terms of my priorities and interests today, that younger incarnation of myself might as well have been a different person — yet that was the person who committed me to a lifetime set apart from my peers.

YES! As a former naive teenager, I am so glad that I am not now bound by anything I did at that age. The amount of experience and growing into my body I've done since then cannot be underscored. It feels more like a past life than my own past. The trans movement of today is very myopically youth-centered. The overwhelming desire appears to become the anime teen version of the opposite sex.

I once believed that I would be more successful finding love as a woman than as a man

A very common thought for a gay person to have

but in truth, few straight men are interested in having a physical relationship with a person who was born the same sex as them.

Few "straight" men but no straight men. Reality and identities clashing again. A man who wants to have a relationship with a biological male but also cling to the idea that he is "straight" is going to be someone dealing with a lot of cognitive dissonance and reality denial. That's not a healthy relationship dynamic. Just like a relationship where one partner has to pretend the other is not their natal sex.

In high school, when I experienced crushes on my male classmates, I believed that the only way those feelings could be requited was if I altered my body.

Again, not an unusual feeling for a gay person to have.

It turned out that several of those crushes were also gay. If I had confessed my interest, what might have developed?

This is heart-breaking and I feel it deeply as someone who came out late. I've had a lot of what ifs that I try not to get too caught up in because I radically accept the decisions I made and understand why I made them, but holy moly am I glad I didn't do anything irreversible to prevent myself from getting on my path in the first place and giving myself a chance at happiness down the line. I have been hearing this idea from more and more old school transsexuals lately. Some of them in middle age have realized they could accept themselves as gay but that they are so deep into their transition that detransitioning seems more impractical.

What was I seeking for my sacrifice? A feeling of wholeness and perfection. I was still a virgin when I went in for surgery. I mistakenly believed that this made my choice more serious and authentic. I chose an irreversible change before I’d even begun to understand my sexuality.

Again, i relate to this. I'm so glad I didn't do anything irreversible and I don't want other LGB people (and others) to be in this position either. Abigail Shrier covered in Irreversible Damage how common it is for the girls and young women with ROGD to have never even kissed anyone.

The surgeon deemed my operation a good outcome, but intercourse never became pleasurable. When I tell friends, they’re saddened by the loss, but it’s abstract to me — I cannot grieve the absence of a thing I’ve never had.

Devastating and makes me think of Jazz Jennings.