Seven years ago, dressed in a white, strapless wedding dress, Cody Harman was preparing to walk down the aisle and marry what would seem to be the man of her dreams.
However, deep down, Cody knew something about this seemingly perfect picture wasn’t right.
This is because didn’t know how to tell everyone that he felt like he was a man living in a woman’s body.
“I lived many years of my life in fear, just trying to survive,” the 30-year-old Californian chef confesses.
“I also knew I was attracted to girls but because my parents were very religious they made me think it was a sin, so I dated guys instead.”
“I was worried that people would realise I was gay if I didn’t have a husband.”
In 2012, Cody told his family he was a lesbian and, as reported by The Mirror, he then told them he was transgender.
“My mum cried at first, but now she’s happy for me. I also met a great community of people online and I realised that I wasn’t alone.”
In 2014, Cody started taking male hormones and also had a double “Going through puberty for the second time in your twenties definitely has its challenges,” says Cody. Although, these challenges weren’t enough to stop Cody from working on his strength so that he could compete in his first Female to Male Transgender bodybuilding competition in October 2016. Cody will be completing his transition in June this year when he was phalloplasty surgery on June 13. “Although I’ve taken some huge steps forward at battling fear, it’s always going to be an ongoing fight for me,” he says. “I will never let fear run my life ever again.” For more about Cody’s life-changing journey, check out his YouTube channel, Cody_talks.
