America's oldest transgender woman opens up on 'starting from scratch'

2023-06-10

EXCLUSIVE: ‘It’s never too late to accept yourself’: The extraordinary story of one of America’s oldest transgender women to undergo gender transition surgery who says she was ‘prepared to start from scratch’

Last year, Stephanie Haskins became one of the oldest known people to undergo gender reassignment surgery
The 76-year-old opened up about ‘starting from scratch’ after living for decades behind a façade
She hit out at criticisms of the transgender movement, insisting ‘you’d better respect me enough to call me by my name’
Haskins is the subject of a new documentary, ‘Never Too Late?’, produced by Emmy-award winning producer Joyce Mitchell, which is set to premiere in Sacramento’s B-Street Theater on June 21

One of the oldest transgender women in America has opened up about the challenge of accepting herself after spending decades hiding behind a façade of success.

Stephanie Haskins, 76, built a career to become a renowned veteran news broadcaster, while quietly suffering through evenings of excessive drinking and popping pills to numb her pain.

‘I wondered what it would be like doing what I have been thinking of doing for almost all my life,’ she said. ‘I was just waiting to die.’

After an agonizing transition period where she went through several invasive surgeries and was alienated by her family, Haskins has come out the other side to tell her story and to urge other elderly transgender folk that they too can ‘start from scratch’.

Haskins is the subject of a new documentary, ‘Never Too Late?’, created by Emmy-award winning producer Joyce Mitchell, which is set to premiere on June 21 at the B Street Theatre in Sacramento.

Stephanie Haskins, 76, is one of the oldest known people to undergo gender reassignment surgery

Mitchell, who used to work for Haskins, told DailyMail.com that she was stunned by her old boss’ courage.

‘She reached out to me on Facebook messenger and said: ‘I’m a woman!” Michells said. ‘We had dinner and I looked at her, and I said “Hey, we’re both TV people, let’s document this journey”… she’s a very compelling character.’

That journey started last year when Haskins became one of the oldest people in the United States to undergo gender reassignment surgery.

But it came after a decades-long struggle with her identity, which first started when she discovered she was gay aged 13.

Despite being ‘miserable’ for years due to her inner turmoil, she insists there was no indication she would later become transgender.

‘I didn’t play with dolls, didn’t dress up, wasn’t really much interested in makeup … but I never felt comfortable with myself,’ she said.

‘I never saw myself as a viable male person.’

Anguishing over her identity while appearing as happy family man ‘Steve Haskins’, she admitted she would often be ‘mad that I woke up’ after an evening of drink and drugs.

Years after retiring from a successful career in broadcast news, Stephanie said she started her long journey just before the pandemic, on Valentines Day in 2020.

Haskins said throughout her life as a man she ‘never saw myself as a viable male person’

Before her transition, Stephanie lived as ‘Steve Haskins’ for the first seven decades of her life

That’s when she first started her transition by undergoing hormone treatment. The results were almost instant – and the first thing to go was her wrinkles.

Haskins refuses to reveal how much money her transition has cost, but said there are more surgeries on her list, including regular hair loss electrolysis and fat removal.

Although her routine of hormone patches, exercise and cosmetic surgeries is both financially and physically tiresome, she insists that the struggle is worth it.

‘I’m not ever going to go back to who I was,’ she said. ‘And I’m not going to stop being who I am.

‘I am not going to stop speaking out as a radical feminist, I’m not going to stop doing what I can to help other trans people make that transformation.

‘When you live so many years behind a mask, and you feel such an enormous amount of guilt and fear, and you have a sense that you are absolutely alone, that nobody can understand where you are coming from.’

While suffering internally with her identity, Stephanie rose the ranks in broadcast news for a variety of stations over a decades-long career

Before coming out as transgender, Haskins says she would drink excessively and take pills before being ‘mad I woke up’ in the mornings

In the documentary, Haskins speaks directly after receiving her biggest operation yet – a vaginoplasty to medically create a vagina.

And she’s asked what ‘Steve’ would say if he saw her today.

Tearfully, she said felt her past self would say: ‘I’m incredibly proud of you, and I’m so glad that you found my body and our souls are identical’.

Issues surrounding transgender individuals have become a controversial topic in recent years. And with the rise of ‘culture wars’ debates, there are criticisms that the movement promotes extreme, irreversible surgeries and pushes medical transitioning on minors.

But Stephanie addressed the backlash in her documentary, saying: ‘I think it is important for people to know that we are not these body mutilators, we are not perverts.

‘We are not any different from who they are, who their relatives are, who their kids are, we’re just a little bit not quite the same.

‘If you know just on the surface that I am a transgender woman, then you know how much I have given up for that, how much I have suffered, and by God, you’d better respect me enough to call me by my name.’

But Haskins said one of the most heartbreaking aspects to her journey was the struggle in coming out to her ex-wife and daughter.

Declining to go into specifics, she said their reaction was ‘very painful’, and she went through a ‘tough time, like many transgender women do’.

She added that coming out as transgender blindsided her family and she ‘broke their hearts’ when she told them the news.

Speaking after her vaginoplasty surgery (pictured), Stephanie said her past self would be ‘incredibly proud’ of her journey

Despite insisting she was ‘prepared to start from scratch’, many who knew her as ‘Steve’ were stunned to learn of her late-age transition.

The documentary about Haskins’ extraordinary story, ‘Never Too Late’, is set to premiere on June 21 at the B Street Theatre in Sacramento.

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