Many children grow up feeling like outsiders, like they are somehow different than all the other kids. In Jamey Lynne Bishop's case, she was right. Jamey Lynne was very different than the other kids because—unbeknownst to all—she was a girl growing up in a boy’s body. Taught to ignore her feelings and conform to the model society expected of her male body, Jamey Lynne spent her life acting the role of a horny heterosexual male. When the inner turmoil became unbearable, as it often did, she turned to drugs and alcohol to dull the pain. Eventually, while in her third marriage and after having fathered beautiful twin daughters, Jamey Lynne finds her way to choosing sobriety. In sobriety she discovers the key to her troubled past: undiagnosed Gender Identity Disorder. With the help of an understanding therapist, an incredibly supporting wife, and a lot of Internet research, Jamey Lynne quickly follows the guidelines and recommendations of the Harry Benjamin Standards and transitions to living her life as a woman. The book ends shortly after her reassignment surgery, but it is, as the story concludes, only the beginning for Jamey Lynne’s new life.

"Living a Lie - A Transgendered Journey" is an absorbing and harrowing tale of half a life lived with a secret not understood by even the secret’s keeper. If ever a story could convince a skeptic of the reality of Gender Identity Disorder (transsexualism), this is it. Bishop writes in an clear, colorful, and easy to read style. This is the only book I literally could not put down; I read it cover to cover in the wee hours of a single late night. The tone is serious, the information is accurate, and author’s openness and honesty is breathtaking. You are bound to enjoy and value “Living a Lie” if you are curious to better understand the plight of the transgendered, if you starting or have completed (as I have) your own transgendered journey, or if youj are simply interested in a human interest story of courage, struggle, and triumph. Thank you, Jamey Lynne, for sharing your story with us.

Lannie Rose
December 14, 2004