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'I want to be a woman': Spouse asks wife for help transitioning

After almost forty years of marriage, a couple's bond is tested when a long-kept secret comes to light. Today, we share a story of what it's like coming out as transgender... when the truth about your gender identity might break your wife's heart. A look inside a new dimension of an old relationship.
CBC Radio ·
"I love him more now than I did before." Today we share the story of a woman who after decades of marriage helps her partner transition to female. (Suzanne Dufresne/CBC)
The Current24:59'I want to be a woman': Spouse asks wife for help transitioning - August 18, 2015

It's been a couple months since the world was introduced to Caitlyn Jenner in Vanity Fair magazine. Her big reveal is part of a small movement in the entertainment industry that's raising the visibility of transgender people in North America.

In January, the TV series "Transparent" --- about a transgender father of three -- picked up two Golden Globe awards. That's after actress Laverne Cox graced the cover of TIME magazine, with a headline declaring the fight for transgender equality the next civil rights frontier.

But far from these celebrity stories, there are also the quiet struggles... of people trying to reconcile how they feel on the inside --- with how they look on the outside.

Today we bring you the story of one prairie couple ... senior citizens... who after almost forty years of marriage thought they had discovered everything there was to know about each other. They were wrong.

CBC's Suzanne Dufresne's documentary is called "Being Jacqueline." It first aired in May. 

* Just a note - to protect identities - we are not using real names in this documentary.*

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