Transsexual Pioneer At two o'clock in the morning of January 31, 1969, I walked across the Mexican border alone into Tijuana. My purpose sex-change surgery. This book is an account of the events of my life leading up to that trip and afterwards. Before I became aware of Christine Jorgensen, I didn't know there was another person in the world like me. I was in my mid-teens when I first heard of sex-change surgery. I spent years searching for information and a doctor who could and would perform the operation. I was 29 years old when I had the surgery. With no ID, birth certificate or record of any kind to document my existence, I faced many obstacles in my new life. I worked for the State of Georgia thirty years, retiring in 2000.