CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – (CLARKSVILLENOW) Susan Larson has been a well-known personality in Clarksville for many years, but most of her neighbors did not know the real Susan.
The talented photographer and founder of the website Clarksville Online was known by another name until a year ago when she came out as transgender on her Facebook page.
“I am a transsexual. I’m telling you this because I am going to be going through some changes over the course of the coming year. Bill Larson is going away, and Susan Elizabeth Larson is taking his place,” she wrote.
That same day, she instructed her attorney to file papers to change her name from William to Susan.
It was a brave move. Clarksville is a conservative town and with no way of knowing what the response would be from the community at large, there was a lot to lose. If she did not share her true self, show would have had to continue to live with a painful reality.
“From my earliest memories, I have always felt a sense of wrongness about myself, my body, and how others interacted with me. I had no name for it, but I felt it nonetheless,” Larson said. “As I grew older I realized what it was, and that others did not feel the same way that I did. I was being raised as a boy, but I knew with all my heart that I wasn’t.”
Her decision was supported by many, including a minister, elected officials and community leaders.
Even before she came out and began the actual gender reassignment process, her journey inspired her to start a transgender website to help others. Today Susan’s Place has grown into a movement with followers all over the world.
Now, perhaps the biggest day of all is this Friday when Larson undergoes the actual sex reassignment surgery at Preecha Aesthetic Institute in Bangkok, Thailand. The surgery, which is expected to last around five hours, was paid for in full by an anonymous donor because of Susan’s work on her website.
The Preecha Aesthetic Institute also donated facial feminization procedures which will include brow shave, lowering the hairline, an eyebrow lift, jaw contouring, face and neck lift.
Susan’s recuperation is expected to take a few weeks and she is planning on returning home to Clarksville on February 10. Until then, friends in the community can meditate on her words from a year ago when she introduced herself to the world; “I truly believe that this is the path that I was intended to follow in life. Either way I have faith that God will understand and support my course of action in life.”