Amit was interviewed by every possible media channel, both in Israel and in the world with the wonderful and humane story. She made a film "Family in Trans" directed by Ofir Trainin, which a few weeks ago, "DukAviv", won first place for documentary films in the competition and here in Haifa for the first time she told me her story, which has no equal in the gay community.
Amit Tsuk was born into a normative and normal family, but she says that her father, the date of her birth, is the one responsible for her fate and the many upheavals she went through for more than forty years. All those years she lived in a mask that maybe it was a "virus" that would pass that nothing happened, as a child she was not aware of what she was and who she was and what the definition was, there was no internet that explained about transgenders and every explanation and definition but she was always attracted to the women's clothes of her mother and sister that she hid behind a closet clothes until it is discovered.
The father accepted this harshly, denied her and did not want to see her anymore, the mother, who had already come to terms with one lesbian daughter, had a hard time with the new reality, of a leading son in the family who sees himself as gay, feminine or as a woman, but despite all this, she accepted her son as he is - with great love .
In middle school, a colleague my age fell in love. It seems to her something miraculous, that she is not gay of a man or a woman, in the army she was a combat soldier in armor and was injured "with the unlucky fate" as she calls it, due to Tisha B'av, her terrible date of birth. Amit went through a long rehabilitation, when Gili was by her side and since their romance continued from the age of fifteen, by force of habit and sacrifice - they got married. It seems natural to both of them, as if it were normal love between a man and a woman.


After four years of rehabilitation from the injury, Amit and Gili, as mentioned, got married and started a family, had four children one after the other - three daughters and one son and lived as a happy and satisfied husband and wife.
For twenty-two years, a married colleague of my age lived in hiding, in the mask of a woman trapped in the body of a hairy and muscular man, thinking he himself was the one who attacked him with a deadly "virus"... Along the way, he also learned Thai boxing and Krav Maga, which of course did not change the feeling that says, "that I was actually born wife".
In fact, the fear of losing everything that was built over twenty-two years, a wife, four children and a family, is what gave the fellow the incentive and strength to live under the guise of being a man and not a woman, until he could no longer tolerate the evil of the decree and revealed his closed heart to his wife's age the beloved It started at the age of forty not all at once when he "borrowed" clothes such as tights and women's underwear, both in hiding and by claiming to my age that he was lying too much, especially in the winters, the feminine habits became more and more intense and the muscular and hairy man pulled nail polish on his nails, and became a "son of hybrids", until who revealed his secret to his wife and children who behaved all the way, especially the girls, with tolerance and as heroes. The girls even laughed and told their father that he had become a transgender, which is understandable, and jokingly called their family "like the Kardashians of the Nile".
It was much more difficult for Jordan, Amit's son, to accept the good news, since the father, Amit, became a symbol of "masculinity and valor" for him, especially after they both spent a wonderful Bar Mitzvah birthday "at Camp Nou" in Barcelona and played soccer together in the neighborhood.

After the strange behavior continued and did not stop, due to the crisis of the 1940's so Gili thought, Gili asked her colleague "Does she want to be a second Dana International" and the latter did not hesitate and said yes - this is the answer.
Thus began a long, not easy process, neither for a colleague nor for the entire family, to change her identity from a man to a woman. At first she wore women's clothes but was hesitant to enter a dog or a grocery store or walk around like that in the neighborhood, the children, especially the girls, were the ones who encouraged her, after they got used to the idea that instead of a father and a mother, they would have two mothers, which is not bad at all.
The hormonal treatment was long, painful, tedious and difficult, but Amit saw no way back from this process, the children accepted the evil of the decision as long as the family remained united and whole.

Amit read us a number of personal letters, which she wrote to Gili and the children, from which there is great sensitivity that can be heard mainly from the mouth of a woman, a lot of tenderness and love, acceptance and a request for understanding and compassion, and the answer and response of a hug from Gili and the children is no different. Gili, the loyal wife, decided to stay with Amit and accompanied her to Thailand on the long and difficult road to the surgery to remove the male genitalia, the last remaining sign of Amit's past being a man and not a woman.
Here, a colleague read an emotional farewell letter she wrote to Aber Mina the evening before the surgery that took place in Thailand. The letter sounds exciting, delusional and also terribly scary, for me it was the peak of Amit's openness on stage, telling about the unfolding of her life and finally becoming a woman not only in her soul but also in her body.
Amit and Gili returned from Thailand, hand in hand, as a married couple. Amit in all "Ramah Avria" is a woman and the children who used to call her "Avit" instead of father changed the nomenclature and the word, my age of course mother remained and Amit became a second mother, "my" in her nickname.
Jordan, the son, who adapted to the new situation and who rebelled at first, got a tattoo on his hand that said "Mom there are only two" and thus expressed full identification. They arrived in Israel and did a vow renewal ceremony, to stay together as a united family for days,


Amit Tzuk also changed his identity card, from a male colleague to a female colleague and really not easily, when it seemed that everything was fine, the family was united, happy and Amit's independent business in the field of information systems, which had suffered badly, for a long time, was rebuilt and that's when the "bomb" came - Gilly no longer loves the new colleague, who was her husband in the past, the man of her life, loved and there is no way back.
Gili filed for divorce and the Rabbis demanded from a colleague that she give a divorce immediately, and how would she do that being a woman, since it has never happened that a woman divorces a woman and the Rabbis pressed that if she does not give a divorce immediately, they will make sure to bring the police, who will take her to the detention center after arresting her without hesitation.
In order not to embarrass the children, Amit decided to obey the order of the judges, to give the divorce, but she did it to their displeasure, in the feminine language of the rabbinate in the public domain. They said their goodbyes, each went her own way, Gili changed her attitude, became a lesbian and found a new partner, while Amit found herself a beautiful girl "on the dating site "Shidate" and it turns out that Shirley, the new wife, was engaged to a man of her choice, when she discovered her true sexual attraction and met Amit her new partner.

Gili wrote two books about her life "Love in trance" and "Now I" and gives lectures about her story and her books, Amit puts on the solo show "Baruch Shaeshani Isha" and both found their place in life and in society.


After she finished her story, I approached my colleague, asked for a hug and whispered in her ear "You are a woman's man" in a very, very brave voice, we said our goodbyes and met again for a short interview the next day, on the day of the Haifa Pride Parade.
Watch a short interview with Amit Tzuk and Shirley:
Amit Tzuk-Baruch Sha'ashani woman-child, teenager, combat soldier, husband, father... wife and mother
The full story that accompanies the film "Family in Trans" wins the best film award at the Doc Aviv Film Festival. www.amitsuk.co.il
that we don't know. God keep away from us the bad things that our sons or daughters can do. Amen