Katherine, a gentle 19-year old from Brooklyn, is many things: Bangladeshi American, an avid gamer, Muslim, a future programmer. But one thing she is not: human. At least, that’s what she's been told by the family who rejected her.

In the cramped apartment she shares with her parents and siblings, Katherine is a ghost. Virtually ignored, she spends her days invisible in the hallway, the only place she doesn’t get in the way of her mother who is seldom outside the kitchen, her father who spends his days in the living room, and her siblings, who hide themselves away in their small room.

Katherine doesn’t have a room, let alone a bed she can call her own. “I sleep on an extra bed until a guest comes. And when they come, I sleep in a random spot around the house.”

She escapes reality with the only item she can claim as her own: her computer. That's where she dreams of a better life.

This has become Katherine's new normal ever since she came out as transgender last year. After 18 years of repressing her true identity, she finally mustered up the courage to come out to her immigrant parents. Terror set in: “What if they don’t accept me?”

The brief talk went exactly how she had predicted. Her parents disapproved. In an instant, she was dead to them.

Depression quickly set in, and for Katherine — who had self-esteem issues since she was a child — thoughts of suicide became very real.

Living in an unsupportive household with family that ostracizes her, Katherine feels trapped. Not only is she a prisoner inside her home, but in her own body. "Maybe if I went away, it’d all be better," she would think.



