55 Public Figures Who Have Spoken About Their Own Transitions

This is a subject a great deal of internet content handles badly, so the approach is worth stating directly: everyone covered here has spoken publicly about their own life. Nothing in the collection rests on speculation, and the framing throughout follows what each person has said about themselves.

When Someone Came Forward Changed Their Experience Completely

The public figures here work across film, television, music, modelling, sport and activism, and their experiences differ enormously depending on when they came forward.

Those who spoke in the eighties and nineties did so with essentially no public vocabulary for it, very little medical support, and a press environment that ranged from hostile to openly cruel. Those who have come forward more recently have had a considerably better - though still far from good - reception.

• 1980s-1990s: no shared vocabulary, minimal support, hostile coverage.
• 2000s: growing visibility, but coverage still frequently sensational.
• Recent years: better reception overall, with significant regional variation.

A Before-And-After Format Carries One Obvious Risk

The before-and-after format carries an obvious risk of reducing a person's life to two images, and it is fair to be alert to that.

What the better examples in this collection actually show is not a transformation of appearance so much as the difference between a person managing an expectation and a person who has stopped having to. That is visible in the eyes rather than anywhere else.

Reading the Collection Carefully

The useful way to watch this is to treat each pairing as two moments in one continuous life rather than as a transformation with a before and an after. That framing follows how the people involved have generally described it themselves.

The Most Useful Way To Watch This Collection

Roughly eight minutes. The rest of the section is in Pride in Hollywood.

Frequently Asked Questions

The Bottom Line

Fifty-five people, each described on the terms they set themselves. Watch above, then browse the wider Pride in Hollywood section.