Biographies: Who we are: Paul-to-Penn

I am a transitioned Male to Female. I completed my transition while employed by a global software company as a Senior Project Manager working with very large utilities. As a project manager my primary job has been to create teams to work in difficult cooperative environments. I am still working for that company.

How did I get there? What quirk of fate would take a privileged white male and have her end up a 2Spirit? I was born that way. The trouble began when I found out that wasn’t acceptable in my world. So like many I hid and became an over-compensating male. That male protected and hid the female inside until it became unbearable. Thus began the transition.

The male Paul was a sailor, worked in several commercial nuclear power plants, ran warehouses, trained sales people, owned a machine shop, a consulting company, was a business analyst, and is a senior project manager.

In 1997 I started hormone therapy and emotional counseling. The anger started to go away -- people asked what has changed in you, how can I make changes like that in my life and so on. In 2000 I had surgery which included a near fatal infection. Prior to the surgery I sat with the senior management of the company I currently work for and outed myself. That Company has supported me through the entire process. I informed my friends and family and changed my name. The one thing that remained constant was our marriage of 36 years which is alive and stronger today than ever.

I became deeply involved in the Native American Spiritual Path and consider myself an Earth Walker. Many people have shared ceremony with me and I believe I honor most spiritual paths including those who say there is none.

As I grew into Penn it became clear that one of the gifts that I had been given was the ability to organize, listen to people, develop plans and to guide those plans to completion. Once I figured out that I needed to honor all of me and move forward to becoming me I set out the plan and moved forward. I enjoy helping people integrate their transition.

Great Spirit, I request the privilege of walking on our Mother the Earth with like minded souls and to share what has been shared with me openly and freely.

Penn Baker       505-281-2269       2spirit@comcast.net