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KingRay Gibson (he/him) has fought tirelessly to become the “trans Superman” he is today. Born in segregated Omaha in 1957, the son of an activist and Major League pitcher Bob Gibson, KingRay knew he was different: on top of being Black in an all-white neighborhood and chafing at the expectations of his birth gender, his father was also world-famous. KingRay emulated his father by excelling in every sport he tried except for golf and tennis, which required him to wear a dress. Though his father traveled often, KingRay described him as “my hero; he was my mentor and he didn’t even know it.” He remembers sneaking onto the field to run the bases at Major League stadiums, but he was forbidden from being a bat boy or playing catch with his dad before games, which enraged him. Further infuriating was the onset of puberty. He told his mother at age 13 that he wanted a sex change, “and I didn’t even know what that was.”
When young KingRay’s parents divorced, it pushed him to experiment with sex and drugs. These behaviors escalated during his semester of college, and he dropped out. He joined the Air Force a couple of years later. He was aware of his attraction to women at this time, and noticed how his transness would slip out at odd moments, like telling cousins that “I was joining the service for them to make me a better man.” KingRay’s time in the Air Force was mixed: he excelled at the work, and his placement in California deepened his connection to his mother, but he lived a closeted double life. Working as a data processing scientist sparked KingRay’s love of computers, so he was determined to work for a tech company when he was discharged, and eventually won his dream job at Tandem Computers.
In his mid-twenties, KingRay got clean and sober. A.A. meetings helped him find power in public speaking for Landmark Worldwide, a skill he still uses, and enough equilibrium to re-enroll in university. KingRay ended up in Texas and remembers watching TV in his 50s and seeing Chaz Bono, whose story “woke up everything in me.” KingRay was eventually able to accept himself, and began his medical transition at 58. He realized that he’d never been a lesbian and left the lesbian groups he’d belonged to shortly after transitioning, wishing their membership could “all respect where we are inside of the LGBTQ and stop being assholes.” KingRay found the community he was missing when he came out in a viral Facebook post, and he found the outpouring of love from his loved ones to be the “icing on the cake” of his self-acceptance. KingRay was also able to get all-important paternal recognition before his father’s death in 2020. KingRay is a surrogate father for youth around the world, saying, “I’ve been through what a lot of these kids are trying to go through” and that “helping others helps me to stay strong.” He currently lives in the Southeast.