HAY RIVER - Dean Landrie isn't your typical truck driver. For one thing, he likes to wear nail polish and nylons.

He also goes by Gabrielle Sky and wants to become a woman.

Lila Landrie, left, and Dean Landrie aka Gabrielle Sky, right, say unconditional love keeps them together, even if they may have an unconventional marriage. - Elizabeth McMillan/NNSL photo

Landrie isn't concerned with labels, and neither is his wife of almost 20 years.

"I've spent 40 years as a guy and I now I'll spend the next 40 years as a woman," he says.

Landrie is a transgendered person living in Hay River. Some nights, he can be seen dressed to the nines - wearing a tight, black lace minidress, a full face of make up and three inch heels.

In Hay River, where unfamiliar faces get a double take, Dean stands out, and not just because he's 6'3" with heels. In the small, conservative community, he's an anomaly.

Originally from Saskatchewan, Landrie has lived in the NWT since 1990. He met his wife, Lila, in 1991 and together they have four grown children, three boys and a daughter.

"I'm in a transition of becoming a woman. Some people say transgendered, transexual. A lot of people say it's cross dressing," he explains. "It's a persona if you want to call it that. I'm this person but I'm also that person. Before I was hiding half my personality."

At night, when he's dressed as a woman, he only answers to Gabrielle.

When asked which name he prefers he shrugs.

"I'm both," he says, his deep, gravelly voice a sharp contrast to his ladylike posture as he sips tea in his kitchen.

Landrie knew as a teenager he enjoyed being a woman, but for years he kept his desire hidden.

"So I didn't get the living hell beat out of me," he explains.

It's only been the past few years he became comfortable dressing as a woman at home and in public.

For years he feared violence, but he's never encountered any physical violence in his community.

He goes out on weekends and boasts of being able to two-step in heels. Some uncomfortable situations have arisen in public washrooms (he still uses the men's room) and at work.

"Guys have a tendency if they have another guy wearing nails to back away," he says. "Some people will be offensive. Others just won't say anything. Others will be downright rude ... What people don't know or understand, they're afraid of."

As a whole, Landrie says people in Hay River have been supportive.

"Twenty years ago you wouldn't be able to catch me walking down the street in my dress," he says. "Now it's a different story."

Neighbours have asked him why he dresses the way he does and Landrie says he's happy to explain. "People seem to accept it. They're curious. They ask questions," he says.

Landrie says he considers himself outspoken and blunt, wanting to set an example of honesty for his children. Admitting he wants to become a woman took courage, he says.

"It does take a lot for someone to come out ... the emotional part is the biggest part that plays on a person's mind. 'what are people going to think?' You've just got to be yourself."

Part of the reason Landrie is now comfortable transitioning is his supportive family, he says.

"People ask me what I think of it and I say, I married Dean because of not what he looks like on the outside but who is in on the inside," says Lila Landrie.

"They say, wow, you must have some kind of love for him. I say, no, it's unconditional love," she says.

Lila adds it wasn't a surprise when Dean began dressing as a woman, she initiated painting his nails one night.

"It gave me the opportunity to come out," says Dean.

"We've always been open. We've never lied to each other," says his wife. "We have an interesting trust between us, when you've been together as long as we have, we've been through a lot."

Landrie says he's always identified as bisexual but he's now in a monogamous relationship with his wife and will continue to be when he's a woman.

"It's even stronger now," he says of their relationship.

When the subject of sex comes up, he's candid about people's curiosity.

"There's more than one way to please a woman. It's not all about what's between your legs."

Landrie hasn't started taking steroids but a mix of herbs meant to stimulate estrogen and progesterone production are now found in the family's kitchen. Landrie hopes in the next three years he'll be able to undergo the first phases of surgical transitioning - shortening his vocal cords, removing his Adam's apple and altering his genitalia. Sex re-assignment surgery, which has been done for more than 50 years, is covered by some provinces in Canada but Landrie will have to finance it himself. The surgery will cost up to $15,000.

So far, that hasn't been a deterrent. He's sought out online communities and contacted physicians who perform the surgeries.

"I didn't just jump into this. There is a fair bit of research out there on the male and female bodies and groups out there that help you out and make it easier to transition," he says.

In the meantime, Landrie says he enjoys being Gabrielle.

"I'm a hundred times more comfortable like this than in my work clothes," he says.