FM89's series My Valley, My Story features first person accounts from the lives of people throughout the San Joaquin Valley. This week reporter Diana Aguilera brings us the story of transgender activist Zoyer Zyndel. He talks about the struggles he's faced and his hopes for the valley's LGBTQ community.
"I was assigned female at birth but I live my life as male. and so my sex did not correspond with my gender. Gender is a function of the brain and I've always saw myself in my brain as a male."
"I think I went through more drastic changes through my coming out as an activist rather than my coming out as a trans-male."
"I never really had a problem. It becomes an issue when I see others in my community being hurt, attacked, murdered, then I make it an issue."
"People feel alone, people feel invalidated, imagine if you never see your kind represented in leadership. They're there but there's not a whole lot of them visible."
"I'm personally invested in this town. I want to see our LGBT community, especially our transgender community, grow. I'll be here until I die, I'll be here until I die working on it."
