Imagine living a life as someone else, someone you do not feel comfortable with. Christina Hollis, author of the book “Beyond Belief: The Discovery of My Existence,” gave a presentation to UW-Platteville students, staff and faculty on April 14 about her fight to be someone she wasn’t. The Patricia A. Doyle Women’s Center sponsored the event.

Born in 1946, Hollis spent most of her life repressing certain feelings she had about her gender.

“I knew I was supposed to be a boy but as I got older, I started a life of repression,” Hollis said. “I had thoughts of wanting to be feminine but I replaced those feelings with being someone else – being a guy.”

Photograph by Jodi Krautkramer
Christinia Hollis, author of the book “Beyond Belief: The Discovery of My Existence,” spoke to an audience of about 23 students, staff and faculty. She gave insight on how it was to be a transgender person.

In 1990, Hollis went through the sex reassignment surgery to become a woman. Hollis calls this stage as her “happy” stage; she felt comfortable with who she was. From 1946 to 1985, Hollis described to the audience that this was the “His” phase, where she acted like a guy because that’s what she thought society wanted and that this was the norm. During 1986, on a drive home from her parent’s house, Hollis could feel that the old “him” was letting go and that this new person was coming through. The “transition” stage was most beneficial to her because she was searching for who she was and who she wanted to be.

Hollis grew up in Minnesota, where she was the third of six children. Known as Bill, she married her junior year of college and had three children. She graduated with an engineering degree in 1973. She suppressed “not normal” feelings she had until 1986. Even then, she performed a dual role, where Monday through Friday she was Bill while working at her job at John Deere, and when she arrived home for the weekend, she allowed her self to be Christina.

“I got to go home and be me,” Hollis said.

After coming to the hard decision of giving up her family, Hollis separated from her then wife and went to the human resource center at John Deere in 1988 to tell them that she was going to have the surgery. She was transferred to a different John Deere company in New Jersey.

In the last couple of years, Hollis has become reacquainted with her three sons. After the split with her ex, she did not have custody with her children and her ex-wife would not allow her to see the children. Though she hurt her children, she doesn’t regret having the surgery.

“There are positive and negatives to being a man and a woman,” Hollis said.

After the surgery, she legally changed her name. In 2001, Hollis married her husband Wulf, whom she met in 1992. When asked what the best part of being a woman is, the answer was very simple.

“Just being who I am – just existing.”

Pat Foster, director of the Patricia A. Doyle Women’s Center, contacted Hollis after hearing Hollis’ presentation to the Psychology of Women class. Foster said she enjoyed the presentation and wanted to bring her back.

Students enjoyed the presentation because it brought a message of knowledge and experience to a different way of life.
“I loved her and I thought she was great,” Hanah Diebold, a fourth year business administration major, said. “The presentation brought more understanding and knowledge.”