Kate Toyer considers herself to be one of Australia's first visibly transgender veterinarians.
She has been practising at Batemans Bay on the NSW far south coast, along with her wife Tara Cashman, for more than 25 years.
Kate publicly identified as a binary transwoman when she was 43, when she and Tara had been married for 19 years and had three kids, and has been advocating for greater diversity in the vet industry ever since.
"I was probably one of the first more visibly trans veterinarians out there, certainly in Australia and probably the world," she said.
"We're seeing now with World Pride that trans people are there.
"They've been a part of your life, you probably just don't realise it."
Kate and Tara moved to Batemans Bay in 1996, after they graduated from university.
As the years went by, Kate turned to the internet to research gender identity to better understand how she was feeling.
"Not feeling quite comfortable as being male and the constraints of what that entailed were always there simmering under the surface," she said.
"We'd built this social construct of what is the ideal family … and basically I've gone and blown it up."
In 2011, Kate told her wife how she felt, and they began to explore what that meant in private.
"We had to deconstruct all our internalised social biases as to what we thought success and happiness was.
"What we had left was that we loved each other."
For their children, Rhian, Elise and James Toyer, Kate would still be known as Dad, but her transition "wasn't a big deal" to them.
"We are proud of her, just for making the big decision later on in life to live her truth," Elise said.
"At the core, she's just the same person, just with some different clothes and longer hair."
Elise, who is the eldest sibling at 22, said it had been a positive experience for her family to become part of the LGBT community.
"We never used to go to Mardi Gras and we go to Mardi Gras now, so that's quite good," she said.
"We have become involved in this community that we just would not have been as actively involved in had she not made the decision to transition."
Embraced by their country town
In 2015, Kate began publicly identifying as a binary transwoman and began hormone therapy and the various legal processes including changing her name.
An email was sent out from their veterinary practice, notifying their clients that Kate would no longer be known by her birth name, Adam.
The response from the public was overwhelming.
"Surprisingly, country towns are a lot more broadminded than … [the] stereotypical view of what a country town is like," Tara said.
"I'm not saying it's all plain sailing … but on the whole, I'd say our town has been fantastic as far as accepting us as we are."
The sentiment was shared by Kate, who was taken aback by how their older clients embraced her.
"They were in that frame of 'you've got one life, live your life'," she said.
"But they were like, 'You're still the same person, but now you're Kate and you're female'."
'Building a better world'
Kate and Tara soon looked at advocating for greater diversity in the veterinary industry.
By 2017, they had set up Australian Rainbow Vets and Allies (ARVA) as an advocacy and support group for LGBT individuals in veterinary practice in Australia and South-East Asia.
The group has been participating in the Sydney Mardi Gras festival for about six years, and will be heading to World Pride.
ARVA has been helping coordinate the Veterinary Kaleidoscope Summit as part of Pride Amplified on February 27-28.
"It's the very first diversity and inclusion conference for the veterinary industry ever in Australia," Kate said.
"We're getting the conversation started because the veterinary profession is basically the least diverse profession in the world.
"It's through conversation and understanding that we can all grow and actually build a better world."
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