Transcript for Transgender Man Shares Struggle After Leaving North Carolina Home

In the clatter of recent headlines around transgender rights it can be a deeply painful and personal experience for the people affected by changing and controversial laws. Tonight a rare vantage point -- powerful journey of one person taking the biggest step imaginable. Here's ABC's Gloria Riviera. I'm going to have you initial next to that -- Reporter: Reeves is about to go under the knife. Doing a vasectomy -- Reporter: It's called "Top surgery." Removing female breasts, reeves, a transgender man, was born with. His nerves kick in. It's getting real. People come in in their scrubs, it starts to get real. Yeah. Reporter: This is a day he's dreamed about. But he says it was almost unimaginable when he was growing up in North Carolina. In North Carolina, I definitely wasn't safe to transition. It was terrifying. Like the consequences I'd have to face. No hate in my state! Reporter: His home state has become the latest battleground for transgender and lgbt rights. Last month house bill 2, the so-called bathroom bill, was signed into law. These rules are in place so we can be safe! Reporter: Requiring transgender people to use public bathrooms matching their birth certificates, the governor saying it's meant to protect girls in bathrooms. It's basic common sense. It's etiquette of privacy that we've had for decades. Reporter: The law sparking outrage and even prompting corporations to boycott. Led by celebrities like rock legend Bruce Springsteen who cancelled a sold-out concert in North Carolina because of the law. Less bandmates speaking out about the decision. You're going to hurt people economically to have them do the right thing morally. We don't need Bruce string seen to come tell us -- Reporter: But there is plenty of support for the bill here and across the country. North Carolina just the latest in a slew of states proposing similar measures. This political fight getting very personal. On this season's "I am cat" on E! Yesterday in Houston an ordinance protecting lgbt people was repealed. The lead slogan was, no men in women's bathrooms. Reporter: Caitlyn Jenner confronted by her transgender friends, including author and activist Jennifer Boylan, about her conservative views. There is a faction of people that uses fear of trans people, fear of gay people, to bring people to the polls -- It's not the republicans -- I don't feel like they're out to get us. Every conservative out there believes in everybody's rights -- Reporter: Caitlyn's glamorous life on the show supported by friends, family and stylists. A far cry from the reality that most transgender people face. No one's giving them awards. No one's telling them they're the woman of the year. Young transgender people are fighting for their lives. Reporter: Young people like reeves, born Reva to a southern Baptist family in North Korea. From an early age he knew something didn't feel right. I don't know, probably at 7 or 8. Refusing to wear the church dresses. Because, you know, the representation that came along with wearing a dress. Reporter: But it wasn't until much later that he learned, on social media, what it meant to be transgender. You never heard that word. It was just like this ah-ha moment. What was that like? Scary. It was so scary. When you realized, I'm transgender, your next thought almost about your parents was what? I can never tell them. Reporter: For years he lived two lives. Every time he left his house wrapping his chest in the car with ace bandages. A painful process. But that's like really terrible, like oh my god, it's awful having that wrapped around your chest all day. Like I had like two or three on. Reporter: Believing he could never come out to his own mother, the two stopped talking, feeling misunderstood and scared he fled, ending up on the streets of Washington, D.C., homeless. What was it like to come to D.C. And not have a place to live? It was terrifying. No job. I only had $100 to my name. It was frightening. Reporter: When we first met reeves he wasn't planning that life-changing surgery. He was just grateful to have a home here at casa ruby, an emergency shelter that welcomes young transgender men and women, found by ruby carato. I was blown that this stranger, someone who didn't even know me, was going to take me in. Trust me on their property. Give me a place to stay. And I was just like, wow. Like I never experienced that kind of kindness before. Reporter: Ruby calls anyone who ends up here her children. Excuse me? See this? You can have them all. Hi, reeves. Reporter: Like reeves, everyone who lives here has run away from something. For at least six months, I've been seeking a change. I've been seeking the other side. Without here I wouldn't have nothing. You're in a safe place. Everybody walks in the door with some trauma. I often have to repair their dignity. Reporter: Family rejection, discrimination, and violence. Facts of life for many in this community. Turns out that 1 in 5 transgender people end up homeless at one point in their lives. And according to one survey, close to half attempt suicide. We live in a system that's not made for us. Our society isn't for transgender people. We're still having to fight to make space for us. Yeah, there's still a lot lacking. Reporter: Reeves says the bathroom bill just passed in his home state will not only make his life harder but more dangerous. What do you make of these laws in North Carolina? Ha. partner by his side -- reeves is biggest step so far. It's happening. Yeah. It definitely is happening. There you go. Reporter: He's about to have a double mastectomy. Helping match his physical body to who he is. All you do now is wait. Yep. It's a waiting game. I suck at that. Reporter: After two months of recovery, the reeves we meet now is walking with a newfound swagger. I feel like you're standing up straighter. Is that my perception? Yeah, I think that -- the binder would make me so tense. Yeah. I feel like when I met you it was more like this. Yeah. Reporter: No longer needing that breast-flattening binder. Happy to say good-bye to this? Yeah. Toss it out. Gone. Reporter: He's looking forward to the summer when he can show off. I'm just like, hey, handsome. That's good. Going to have a good day? Yeah, you are. Reporter: Despite his hardships, reeves knows he's been more fortunate than others. He's now mending his relationship with his mother pack in North Carolina. No hate in my state! Reporter: She's told him she'll stand up against the new bathroom bill. They're like, come here, I'll go to the bathroom with you. I'm like, no, mom, you can't go into the bathroom with me, you'll end up arrested too. That's start for your mom. She's trying. It's cute. Reporter: One important step in a long journey towards healing. For "Nightline," I'm Gloria Riviera in Washington, D.C.

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