After a difficult transition, Denver man works to ensure the process is easier for others

DENVER — Colter Armstrong always knew who he was, though he did not have words to describe it until his adulthood.

Armstrong, 30, is a transgender man living in Denver. He came out and began his transition in 2014, but wishes he had the resources to do so sooner.

“Transitioning isn’t easy,” Armstrong said. “There’s a lot of confusion.”

As a child assigned female at birth in Illinois, Armstrong said he wanted to play on the boys’ sports teams, dressed in male clothing and considered himself a “tomboy,” which he described as a young girl who likes traditionally masculine activities, hairstyles and clothing.

Throughout his life, Armstrong said he never had words to explain what he now knows as gender dysphoria, which psychologists say happens when one’s gender identity does not match their assigned sex at birth. 

“Always having this image in your head of who you want to be but not being able to fulfill that takes a toll on you,” Armstrong said. 

When Armstrong moved to Denver from Nederland in 2013, he said limited online resources existed for transgender folks to find doctors who could prescribe gender-affirming care such as hormone replacement therapy and surgeries, so many transgender folks turned to social media spaces like Tumblr for support. 

After searching on Tumblr, Armstrong found another transgender man in Denver who had been prescribed testosterone and helped connect Armstrong to the same doctor.

Armstrong has now been on testosterone therapy for eight years and has had a subcutaneous mastectomy, which is also known as “masculinizing chest surgery.”

Those who pass Armstrong in public perceive him as a man, which he said is what he’s always wanted.

“Now being able to look in the mirror and be like, ‘This feels right. Finally, everything feels like one, rather than who I feel like versus what I look like.'”

Because his transition was so difficult, Armstrong has now dedicated much of his life to ensuring other community members have access to resources he did not, such as affirming doctors, clean needles to inject hormones and hot meals when needed. 

Armstrong has volunteered with several LGBTQ+ organizations in Colorado and currently works for The Trevor Project, a nationwide organization that focuses on suicide prevention efforts for LGBTQ+ youth. Armstrong helps run a crisis hotline for transgender folks ages 16 to 24.

“Being able to give back to the community in ways where I really needed resources when I couldn't access them has always been kind of my goal,” Armstrong said. “It's Important that people within this trans umbrella know that there are people that care and that they are being taken care of.”

Throughout his process of first coming out as a cisgender lesbian then a transgender man, Armstrong said he has lost friends and dealt with strains on his relationship with family members.

“It definitely severed our relationship, which wasn't easy to navigate. Your family is there for you your whole life and then you find yourself and they’re not anymore,” Armstrong said. “Eight years down the road, they use the right name and pronouns, but it’s not the same as it was before transition.”

Though losing relationships with family members was difficult, Armstrong said he has gained a “chosen family,” of other transgender community members and allies, which he hoped to build for others like him.

“The way that most people are ostracized by their families, there's no bouncing back from that,” Armstrong said. “I don't want anyone to ever have to struggle in their transition like some of the times I've had to struggle through.”

Alison Berg is a multimedia journalist at Rocky Mountain PBS. You can reach her at alisonberg@rmpbs.org.