Jordan was the victim of a hate crime after beginning hormone replacement therapy. He opens up to PEOPLE about his transition journey, including his top and bottom surgeries
Jordan Weems
NEED TO KNOW
- A transgender man is opening up about his transition journey and undergoing multiple plastic surgeries to affirm his gender
- In an interview with PEOPLE, Jordan, who was born female, says he was the victim of a hate crime shortly after starting hormone replacement therapy
- Over the course of six years, Jordan underwent top surgery to remove his breast tissue and then bottom surgery to cosmetically alter his genitals
One transgender man's journey all started with a picture.
In April 2018, Jordan — who was born female but is now living as a trans man — saw a photo of a mother and son, who had undergone gender-affirming surgery, and realized that it summed up how he was feeling inside.
"I'm like, I've been feeling like this type of way, but I never knew or was surrounded by it. So I hopped on Google and did my research. I [realized] there are other people that feel how I felt, but I just never knew the word for it," he tells PEOPLE.
Around that time, Jordan, a 34-year-old Los Angeles DJ, went to his nearest LGBTQ+ center to learn about hormone replacement therapy, a treatment that involves the use of hormones such as estrogen or testosterone, or hormone blockers, to achieve physical characteristics that are more masculine or feminine, per Johns Hopkins Medicine.
Jordan Weems
His first day on testosterone was in May 2018, when he was around 27. He was "happy" finally undergoing treatment, but one day, he was shot out of prejudice.
Jordan claims he was shot during a DJ gig shortly after beginning his transition. The incident started with the alleged shooter being "aggressive" toward Jordan about his new pronouns and ended with that same person shooting Jordan in the neck and back after Jordan attempted to defuse an "altercation" between the person with the gun and a minor. "They were like, 'We'll show you what it's like to be a man,' " he claims.
The gunman fled, and Jordan never heard from him again, but the violence made Jordan "scared." He tried to go about his life until one day he had a "mental breakdown," he says. He lost everything — his apartment, his jobs — and pawned his jewelry just to get his car back. He even considered ending his own life, but with resilience, he didn't let any of that, he says, "deter me from the finish line."
In March 2019, Jordan legally changed his name and gender marker, and after six months of hormone therapy and working through his trauma, he decided it was time for top surgery.
A part of masculinizing procedures, top surgery involves the removal of breast tissue to create a chest that's male-like in appearance. Jordan had this done that same year, two days short of his one-year anniversary on testosterone, and he recovered in his car for months without a place to permanently stay.
"I got a lot of scrutiny on the internet, especially where I live [people made comments like] 'I feel grossed out looking at you like this,' and I said, 'Well, this is the new me.' "
Jordan Weems
At this point in his journey, Jordan was "over happily" with his appearance on top, but he still felt body dysmorphia when looking at his genitals.
After a year of research, Jordan felt like he was ready for bottom surgery. He had his uterus, fallopian tubes and cervix surgically removed through a hysterectomy in April 2021, but he kept his ovaries for medical reasons, like maintaining his heart health and in vitro fertilization (IVF) in the event he decides to have biological children.
Jordan was originally scheduled for his phalloplasty months down the line, but he was able to get his operation pushed earlier to summer 2021.
A phalloplasty involves shaping and contouring skin grafts from other parts of the body and reattaching them to the groin to create a penis, states John Hopkins Medicine. For some patients, it can also involve the lengthening of the urethra for urination.
The procedure utilized the skin on Jordan's thigh for what's called an anterolateral thigh flap (ALT), rather than his forearm, a decision that Jordan made because he didn't want his scars to show while DJing. "It was basically like [the surgeons] sat the penis on top of the clitoris and vagina [which was surgically closed]," Jordan says of the 12-hour procedure.
Six months passed before Jordan could get a glansplasty, which creates the tip of a penis, and a scrotoplasty. He used a catheter to urinate after both surgeries. An erectile pump was added in August 2022 and involved planting a part of the device on his pelvic bone and inserting a pump in his labia that he has to squeeze manually to inflate his new penis, similar to an erection.
Jordan's transition was complete after he revised his scrotum (because of its position, it would inflate by itself when he sat, he explains), underwent another surgery to receive a second scrotum implant in March 2023, and then had two more revisions to tweak the tip, with his third and final procedure done in December 2025.
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One of the many things Jordan is open about regarding his transition is his sex life. He knew the reality of altering his genitals was a game of "Russian roulette," but he remembered thinking, "I'd rather look and present [as male] even if I can't feel at all." He explains that each time he's undergone a stage of bottom surgery, it'd take time for the nerves to regenerate and for Jordan to feel any sensation, which he says at first felt like hitting a funny bone. "It can get discouraging along the way."
Despite this and the adversity he first experienced, Jordan says his family — including his mom and sisters — and girlfriend have been nothing but supportive about his transition. "When I got the first stage [of his bottom surgery], my mom came to the hospital with a 'It's a Boy' balloon," he shares. "Now," adds Jordan, "I want to gain a little more weight, tone myself up, build my confidence and continue to share my story to help other people [understand the transgender community]."
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