Transgender Celebrities And Their Journey To Self-Discovery

In contemporary times, more and more people including celebrities are becoming true to themselves about their sexuality. Gone are the days when outing used to be a big issue, there has been a paradigm shift in transgenders who do not feel whole with their birth gender going all out for a gender reconstruction and coming out more sexually fulfilled with their constructed gender. This becomes more interesting when we learn that a lot of our idols are transgender celebrities.

Though there are a couple of known transgender celebrities like Caitlyn Jenner, Laverne Cox, and Janet Mock who all transitioned into their preferred genders before the public eye, however, there exist a crop of others who have not really been (sexually) all there lives what we now know them to be now. It is for this special category of celebrities that this article has been dedicated to. Here we will bring you 12 of such transgender celebrities, a brief background detail of each and their gender transitioning story.

1. Erika Ervin

Standing at 6 feet 8 inches in height, Erika is really tall for a woman, more so, she has been adjudged the tallest transgender woman in the world. Erika was born on February 23, 1979, in Turlock, California and grew to become an American actress, fitness trainer and model known professionally as Amazon Eve. Her career has seen her play recurring roles in American Horror Story: Freak Show and American Horror Story: Apocalypse, just as she has appeared on the cover of Zoo Weekly; an Australian Magazine. Ervin had her sex reassignment surgery (male to female) in 2004 prior to which she went by the name William. News about it, however only went public almost 10 years later as she made the revelation on a Swedish TV show after she was encouraged by fellow actor Bill Skarsgård.

2. Dr. Marci Bowers

In the transgender world, Dr. Marci Bowers has made the dreams of many become true, but what many people don't know about this surgeon with the courage, heart and gifted hands to completely transform the sexual identity of a person is that she was once a male. The surgeon was born on January 18, 1958, and named Mark Bowers which she continued to identify with up till her university days in the University of Minnesota Medical School. She graduated from the college in 1986 after which she went to study under the famous sex reassignment surgeon Dr. Stanley Biber. She equally spent some time in the "Sex Change Capital of the World" - Trinidad, Trinidad, Colorado before moving over to Burlingame, California. Bowers got married 11 years to a woman before she had her surgery in 1998 to become a woman. With her spouse, they share three children together and are today "closer than sisters" as they no longer share a marital relationship.

3. Ines Rau

There are transgender celebrities who by mere looking at them, you will never believe they went through a gender reassignment surgery. Such transgender people through the reconstruction procedures they went through became totally modified to their new gender. Ines Rau is one of such and being that she is a model, you wouldn't believe she was previously a male. Ines was born on March 18, 1990, in Paris, France. She was born male and is of Algerian descent. As early as age 16, the model had her gender reassignment surgery but never disclosed it until she turned 24. Her career started as a dancer when she was 18, then she went into modeling at age 24 when she posed nude with Tyson Beckford in a French luxury magazine OOB. Over the years, the French-born Algerian model has continually grown in the industry and even became a voice for the transgender community.

4. Lana Wachowski

Lana Wachowski became famous as one of the Wachowski brothers (Laurence/Larry and Andy) credited for directing films like Cloud Atlas and Jupiter Ascending. But following her transition from male to female, they now simply go as The Wachowski's. Lana was born as a boy on June 21, 1965, in Chicago, Illinois where he also grew up. He identified with girls as a kid and as he got older, social stigma and the discomfort of being in a body that was distinct from what he felt caused him to have depression and have suicidal thoughts. Coming into the new millennium, Lana began her transitioning journey and completed it in 2008.

5. Lilly Wachowski

Following Lana's trans journey, her then brother and now sister stood by her as she transformed to be what we now know her to be. What we didn't know was that Andy, now Lilly was equally a woman in a man's body. Lilly was born as Andy Wachowski on December 29, 1967, in Chicago, Illinois. Lilly has seen as much success as her sister Lana has seen in her career. The duo are inseparable and whichever credit one has, the other equally has it. She came out as a transgender in March 2016.

6. Valentijn de Hingh

Behind her glamour and dazzle in the fashion industry is a once was a child who was born as a boy. But like every other transgender person today, Valentijn didn't feel comfortable in the body he was born in. Prior to his fame, he was known back in Holland as a male but transitioned into a female in the year 2007. She has since then been enjoying her life and career as an IMG model.

7. Zeke Smith

Though it seems transgender celebrities are dominated by men becoming women, there are still a couple of them from the other divide who have never been happier ever since they began living as men. One of such is Zeke Smith (the Survivor contestant). Zeke is a comedian, asset manager, and a two-time reality television contestant. Behind that mustache he spots and sea-green eyes once was a girl born in central Oklahoma on January 28, 1985. From an early age, Zeke knew she was gay and by age 15 she outed. During her days in college, she transitioned into a man and has been living as one since then.

8. Chaz Bono

Chaz Salvatore Bono is an American writer, actor, and musician born as a girl to Sonny Bono and Cher on March 4, 1969, and named Chastity Sun Bono. She regularly appeared as a little girl in her parent's reality television program in the 70's prior to her beginning her music career in the year 1988. Chaz began his transitioning journey unto a path of self-gender fulfillment in mid-2008. By May 2010, his legal transition was completed and today he is one of the biggest transgender celebrities speaking out for others. Going by the way he looks, many people who do not know him before now actually don't believe he was previously a female.

9. Ian Harvie

There are not many transgender celebrities who are comedians and are good in their act. We probably have Ian Harvie and a few others. Ian today is one of those who is vocal about trans people and would seize any opportunity he has to speak about them. The comedian was born on May 28, 1968, in Portland Maine and by his 19th birthday, he identified himself as gay. At age 32, he became a trans-man as he transitioned from female to male.

10. Buck Angel

If you crave for surreal contents in adult films, then you must have come across Buck Angel (born Jake Miller, 5 June 1972) famous as an adult filmmaker. Buck has not always been accepted the way he is now. Growing up and as he came to terms with his true sexual identity, the adult entertainer struggled to find a place in a society that is not welcoming of people like him. He first began working as a female model and over time grew more confident to look the way he really felt inside. Buck today looks male but has the genitals of a female.

11. Lucas Silveira

Lucas Silveira is a guitarist, songwriter, and vocalist from Toronto, Ontario. She was born in the year 1979 and in her youth, she lived in Portugal for 6 years. For this reason, the musician considers herself as a Canadian-Portuguese. As a kid, Lucas knew she was a boy inside and at a time asked her mother to buy her a male genital organ. As she came of age, she first identified as a lesbian and in 2004 she became a transgender (female to male). In the year 2010, he began his hormone replacement therapy and has been living and looking more like a man since then.

12. Loren Cameron

American author and photographer whose works are more popular than his previous sexual identity once was a female. Loren was born on born August 28, 1959, in Pasadena, California where she also grew up as a tomboy. By age 16, she outed and received rejection in her hometown. This then led her to travel out to the San Francisco Bay Area where she was well received by the lesbian community there. As she got older, she felt an inner hunger to look more masculine than feminine and this led to her transition from male to female which she captured with her camera. Her journey to self-discovery also marked the dawn of her photography career as she not only photographed herself but also the transsexual community.