Amanda Tori Meating made a big announcement regarding her identity this week. The Drag Race season 16 contestant shared with her fans that is transgender and
The New York queen shared her “gender exploration journey” and how she has “arrived to a point where I feel like I’m transitioning” in an interview with Entertainment Weekly’s, Quick Drag podcast.
In her telling interview, she revealed that she considered herself to be non-binary for roughly four years before competing on Drag Race. However, she was “figuring out where exactly I sat on the trans spectrum.”
“It wasn’t at all supported by my partner,” Meating explained the struggles after coming out. “ and it ended up being a big part of why I had to leave because he didn’t want to be with a trans person.
“I was in a bad place about it, mentally, for a while, but you get to a point where you’re like, ‘I have to do what’s right for me’, and that involved getting out of that.”
However, Meating partly credits her time on Drag Race to her arrival to self acceptance.
“I showed up to Drag Race in this space of, I’m going to advocate for myself, I’m going to stand up for myself, I’m not going to allow myself to be victimized in the way that I feel like I have been in the past, pre-Drag Race.”
Meating is competiting alongside fellow queens Dawn, Geneva Karr, Hershii LiqCour-Jeté, Megami, Mhi’ya Iman Le’Paige, Mirage, Morphine Love Dion, Nymphia Wind, Plane Jane, Plasma, Q, Sapphira Cristál and Xunami Muse.
The proud queen is still in the running to take home the grand prize of $200,000 and a coveted spot in the Drag Race hall of fame.
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