StoryCorps Shorts: Love Lost, and Found
Special | 2m 38sVideo has Closed Captions
“I had to be who I wasn’t so that I could survive.”
Sue McConnell and Kristyn Weed are best friends and Vietnam-era veterans. Although they didn’t serve in the war together, they share a story of courage — on and off the battlefield. They met at a transgender veterans’ support group and became inseparable members of a powerful, enduring sisterhood.
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Major funding for POV is provided by PBS, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Wyncote Foundation, Reva & David Logan Foundation, the Open Society Foundations and the...
StoryCorps Shorts: Love Lost, and Found
Special | 2m 38sVideo has Closed Captions
Sue McConnell and Kristyn Weed are best friends and Vietnam-era veterans. Although they didn’t serve in the war together, they share a story of courage — on and off the battlefield. They met at a transgender veterans’ support group and became inseparable members of a powerful, enduring sisterhood.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipKristyn Weed (KW): I didn't start transitioning until I was 58.
Sue McConnell (SM): I guess I was 50.
KW: How did your family accept you?
SM: Well, my son disowned me.
He told his mother that he didn't want anything to do with the f----- freak.
So I don't get to talk to my grandson or my granddaughter.
KW: My family is similar to yours.
SM: Your daughter disowned you?
KW: Both my daughters disowned me, yeah.
SM: Yeah.
KW: Yeah.
SM: When I was growing up, I always knew there was something different.
I didn't like the same things the other boys did.
You know, they wanted to play Army and cowboys and Indians.
And I wanted to be the girl on the wagon that was sewing and making coffee [laughs].
KW: Right.
SM: But you know, I had to be who I wasn't so that I could survive.
KW: I spent 15 years in the Army and I enlisted of all places, as a paratrooper going to the 82nd Airborne Division.
And the units I was in, the soldiers were pretty hard-charging.
So that was the image you had to portray.
I didn't start wearing women's clothes until I was out of the military.
I wouldn't do it, because I was afraid.
SM: But then, we met at the transgender support group-- KW: Yeah, the VA support group-- SM: And we started joking and then just like nitpicking at each other and stuff-- KW: [laughs] SM:--and people said, 'Well you guys really are sisters!'
We do sit around and talk a lot.
We would sit in Denny's for coffee at like 2 o'clock in the afternoon and it'd be dark-- KW: And leave there at 10 o'clock at night SM:--10 o'clock at night.
SM & KW: [laughs] KW: The servers all know us, the managers know us.
SM: She flirts with all the waitresses.
KW: Me?
[laughs] SM: Yes, you do!
SM & KW: [laughs] KW: We get twenty percent military discount!
SM: Yes, we do!
KW: [laughs] You know, it hurts to have lost my daughters, but I found out love is not a two-way street.
And love is not unconditional.
SM: It is for some of us.
KW: You're always there for me.
There's never a doubt or question as to whether you would be or not.
SM: You are my sister.
KW: I'm glad of it.
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Major funding for POV is provided by PBS, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Wyncote Foundation, Reva & David Logan Foundation, the Open Society Foundations and the...