Say amen to Laganja Estranja, who is opening up about her identity as a trans woman for the first time — and telling powerful truths in the process.
“I’m looking back at who I am in the mirror, and it’s such an incredible feeling,” the Drag Race season 6 star told Entertainment Weekly this week in a revealing interview about her coming out journey. She joins a wave of stars who have come out as LGBTQ+ this Pride month.
Estranja offered a message to anyone struggling with their own identity: “Breathe and accept it, because once you do, it’s incredibly empowering.”
In her EW interview, the 32-year-old Texas native emphasized that everyone’s relationship to their gender identity is different, and that all trans people deserve the time, space, and support to come out on their own terms.
“People think that when you’re trans that you’ve wanted to be a girl your whole life; yes, that’s partly true [for me], but it’s also true that I’ve wanted to be male my whole life to fit into what society deems as normal,” she told the magazine.
Estranja explained that she first came out as nonbinary because she felt constrained by pressures to conform to rigid gender norms.
“I tried to be male and be in-between and nonbinary,” said Estranja, who will continue to perform under her current drag name and go by her birth name Jay to those close to her. “The truth is I’m a feminine entity and I can live this life.”
Performing in drag for the past 10 years has played an integral role in Estranja’s evolving relationship to her gender identity, she said. Presenting as a woman on stage “made it more explainable to the masses.”
“I do want to be able to express this at all times,” she said. “I’m able to come off stage and take my makeup off and still see a beautiful woman in the mirror. It’s powerful.”
Estranja also volunteered details about her physical transition, saying that she specifically chose to come out before beginning hormone therapy to show that every trans person’s journey is different.
“Glam doesn’t make you a woman,” she said, adding, “Gender is performative, and what we wear is an extension of what we feel on the inside. That’s the real truth here: once this is out and once people know, I’m going to be more free to explore what it means to be a woman on the inside.”
