On Monday, ABC News editor Don Ennis announced that he was no longer a woman trapped in a man’s body; now he was a man trapped in a woman’s body that used to be a man’s body. According to Ennis, he underwent two days of amnesia, and woke up in an odd situation: “I accused my wife of playing some kind of cruel joke, dressing me up in a wig and bra and making fake ID’s with the name ‘Dawn’ on it. Seriously…It became obvious this was not the case once I took off the bra – and discovered two reasons I was wearing one.” Ennis had undergone hormone therapy resulting in him growing breasts.
“I thought it was 1999…and I was sure as hell that I was a man. Fortunately, my memories of the last 14 years have since returned. But what did not return was my identity as Dawn. I am writing to let you know I’m changing my name…to Don Ennis. That will be my name again, now and forever. And it appears I’m not transgender after all. I have retained the much different mind-set I had in 1999: I am now totally, completely, unabashedly male in my mind, despite my physical attributes. I’m asking all of you who accepted me as a transgender to now understand: I was misdiagnosed. I am already using the men’s room and dressing accordingly. It’s so odd to be experiencing this from the other side; as recently as last Friday, I felt I was indeed a woman, in my mind, body and soul. Even though I will not wear the wig or the makeup or the skirts again, I promise to remain a strong straight ally, a supporter of diversity and an advocate for equal rights and other LGBT issues including same-sex marriage.”
Ellis said that his three-month transformation into Dawn was a “tremendous gift.”
He added, “The new change I’m revealing to you today did not arise because I couldn’t hack it, or people wouldn’t accept the new/real/female ‘me,’ or I had trouble finding shoes that fit (Oh, I found plenty, more than I could afford)…Even my beloved, who had encouraged me to be true to myself at the expense of our marriage, had finally accepted my new identity.”