Interview with Finn Allen (Wanda Mae) | Ep #45

Profiles in LGBTQ+ Courage

Finn Allen (formerly Wanda Mae). Wanda Mae was a little girl raised in a household with an alcoholic mother, an abusive father, and two sisters.

She never felt “at home” in her female body, even though at an early age she excelled at sports and was a stand-out school athlete.

From the age of 4 or 5, Wanda Mae felt like a boy, not a girl.

But in her childhood, she didn’t have a lot of time to dwell on all that. And there was nobody to talk to about her shame, discomfort, and confusion.

At home, after her father left, Wanda Mae was beaten by her mother and her boyfriend, before eventually being sent to foster care, where she was abused again.

In the years that followed, Wanda Mae TRIED to find herself. She married a man, became an alcoholic and took the occasional hit of cocaine.

At times she was suicidal.

And then, she got into recovery.

Fast forward several decades to today.

Today, Wanda Mae is Finn Allen, a 57-year-old transgender tax attorney for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

As he tells PFLAG Cape Cod’s Rick Koonce in this raw interview, at the age of 52 Wanda Mae finally embraced her masculine identity, changed her name, began the transitioning process, and came out publicly as a trans man in 2020.

“I spent the first 50-something years of my life living someone else’s life,” he says.

“Today, I’m finally feeling free to live my real life, and be my authentic self, free of shame and confusion.

“What a gift it is to finally realize, “I finally get to be ME!”

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