Ivy has said she first began thinking she might be transgender when she was thirteen, but took sixteen more years to "come to terms with it". She started transitioning near the time she was finishing her doctorate, and came out "two days after I defended my dissertation."Fred Dreier, "Q&A: Dr. Rachel McKinnon, masters track champion and transgender athlete", VeloNews (15 October 2018). She wrote to her students to tell them that she was transgender on 2 May 2012.Rachel McKinnon, "Coming Out in Class", The Chronicle of Higher Education (25 June 2012).
