She was told she had 5 years to live. So she started living as a woman.

“I felt I was always a woman.”

For Jane Lee Mullowney, it took a death sentence to realize life was too short to live any way but authentically.  

“At 33 years old, I was diagnosed with cancer and given five years to live,” Jane tells LGBTQ Nation. “I quickly made the change from weekend cross-dresser to full-time woman.”

“First, I went on Estradiol 6 mg a day, then getting breasts put in, followed by lower face surgery, then upper face surgery. Finally, vaginoplasty surgery.”

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“During all this, I decided to write LGBTQ+ novels, first about my trans journey. Soon, it became a part-me and part-fiction novel.”

Over time, the death sentence receded as Mullowney manifested her true self physically and, through her art, emotionally.

A single novel turned into a popular series called Love and Revenge. The first to grab readers’ attention was the semi-autobiographical The Red Bitch’s Revenge.

Mullowney has been pitching the book series around Hollywood lately, but a production deal wouldn’t be her only accomplishment outside dreaming up popular revenge scenarios.

(“Six more LGBTQ+ novels followed,” she says, “about romantic, strong, dangerous lesbians.”)

She also has two patents to her name for technology designed to measure smokestack emissions, the fruit of decades of work in environmental engineering. On the job, she’s traveled to 62 countries.

Mullowney is still writing and also paints to stretch those muscles again so many years after exploring the visual arts as a teenager.

She also volunteers with a nonprofit organization in Washington, D.C., where she visits senators and representatives to discuss transgender rights and education.

That advocacy was at work when Mullowney snapped her Pride in Pictures submission earlier in 2024.

“Here I am at a transgender conference this year. The photo shows me for the rest of my life.”

Jane Lee Mullowney Author Jane Lee Mullowney

Pride in Pictures is LGBTQ Nation’s annual series celebrating Pride across the country. We asked our readers to send in their pictures and stories of Pride and we got so many rainbows. Keep an eye out for more heartwarming stories to get you ready for Pride Month 2024.

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