Hales Skelton couldn’t be the boy he was inside while growing up in conservative Keizer. So, as a young adult, 25 years of feelings came pouring out when he told his partner he planned to transition.

“She saw me as the man I am,” he says. Still, both were in for some surprises as he changed physically and emotionally. Read Hales’ story.

Jean Bryant spiraled into crisis before she embraced the woman she was meant to be. She worried that colleagues, friends and family would turn their backs.

Transitioning has been a process, not a light switch. But she’s deeply grateful that her early fears didn’t come true. Read Jean’s story.

Molly Palmer is among patients who found services to transition — and manage other aspects of her health — at OHSU.

Read how Molly became the woman she has “felt like her whole life,” with help from the OHSU Transgender Health Program. You can also hear Molly talk with her wife, Melissa, in a StoryCorps session.

Tobin Cox joins StoryCorps to talk about finding a welcoming environment at OHSU, as a patient and as an employee. Tobin and their partner were delighted by the respect they found at OHSU clinics.

If “this is how folks are treating me maybe not knowing I’m an employee, then this is a safe spot,” Tobin says.

In this StoryCorps conversation, Corey Gallet de St. Aurin, an OHSU medical student, talks about his transition and living in Portland compared with Florida. His roommate, Nicole Ovregaard, asks: What would you tell yourself when you were thinking about transitioning?

“It’s gonna be OK,” Corey says. “There are gonna be good days and bad days, but that the sacrifice and the scariness of it all is worth it.”