I wanted to show America a different kind of man. If there was someone like me when I was growing up, my whole life would have been different.
I’ve been embraced by a new community. That’s what happens when you’re finally honest about who you are; you find others like you.
I had felt uncomfortable as a woman my whole life.
I felt like one of the boys. My friends were boys. In school I related to boys.
I absolutely believe in assimilation. I don’t believe I’m any different from straight people. My wants and needs are the same as theirs. I don’t look at sexual orientation as that big of a deal. It’s just an orientation.
I don’t have the luxury of doing things privately.
I came out around 25 publicly.
For me, it was never a question of whether or not I was transgender. It was a question of what I’d be able to handle transitioning and having to do it in the public eye. One of the issues that was hard for me to overcome was the fear of that.
I thought, transgender people are much worse off than I am. That’s why they’re willing to risk everything to be who they are. But the older I got, the harder it got to stay in my body.
Obviously the transgender movement has not progressed in the way that the gay and lesbian movement has. But I’m an activist – thats just the kind of person I am.
Parents have to understand: if your kid isn’t you, don’t blame the kid.
Being self-supporting is important to me.
It really bothers me when I see people doing my mother in drag. I mean, just imagine if you saw people doing that with your mother.
As you get older it’s more confusing. Suddenly, there’s more pressure to fit in to your assigned gender.
I always wanted to shave. It is a very natural process. For my birthday I got a lot of shaving stuff.
A lot of parents never speak to their transgender kids again that’s not the case in my family.
What mom cares about most is that I’m happy, healthy and enjoying my life.
Around 2001, I started analyzing lesbians. I started to realize that even really butch-acting or -dressing women still had a strong female identity that I never had.
People who don’t have gender dysphoria aren’t going to catch it by watching me dance on television.
So when I was about 13 or 14, I realized I was attracted to women and then made the assumption that I was a lesbian, and didn’t realize that that wasn’t the case. It was the fact that I was a man and a heterosexual man. The issue wasn’t my sexual orientation, but rather my gender identity.
There’s a gender in your brain and a gender in your body. For 99 percent of people, those things are in alignment. For transgender people, they’re mismatched. That’s all it is. It’s not complicated, it’s not a neurosis. It’s a mix-up. It’s a birth defect, like a cleft palate.