Three individuals who transitioned from male to female shared their journeys recently when the Oak Park Area Lesbian & Gay Association hosted a Transgender Education Panel at the Oak Park Library. Panelists Ann Lewis, Odette Bishop and Jill Rose Quinn each shared how they struggled with their identities for decades before coming out as transgender women. Each of them voiced their regret over the years they lived not being “themselves.” They said they hoped their stories would help to encourage transgender people and their families with the transitioning process. Quinn said she knew at age four or five that she was a girl. She also said she knew no one in her family would like that truth, so she kept it to herself for almost 40 years. “The period of puberty particularly, the period of coming to learn that you are in fact perhaps not what everybody thinks you are, is particularly painful, but there is life afterward, Quinn said. “And the way you get through that period is through support of your friends and family.”