Three years ago I owned my truth and made the life changing decision to tell the world that I was born transgender, and that I had previously transitioned at the age of 15. The commitment to come out publicly after transitioning in high school, having sexual reassignment surgery the morning after my 19th birthday, and living stealth between 2011-2016 was driven by a few things. I was desperate to get the weight of my secret off of my shoulders. For five years I lived in a lie where I convinced myself and those around me that I was cisgender (a person who identifies with the gender they’re assigned at birth, which I didn’t.) I spent five years hiding my truth, avoided introducing my high school friends to my college ones, and letting my subconscious anger at the world around me take over my true person.
Because of this, in January of 2016 I privately started to write about my story, and at the same time design a website in hopes of making it a portfolio of my modeling and anything else I’d do. I intended to have a platform in order to help change the way the world was perceiving transgender people, but I wasn’t sure how to accomplish this. Then, on June 12th at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, FL., a tragedy happened, and 49 LGBTQ+ individuals were shot to death. I was heartbroken. This was the first attack that hit close to home since 9/11. My best friend Turner and I quickly tried to edit my writings into a blog post for me to share with the world. Two weeks later, today three years ago, I launched CoreyRae.com with my first blog post, “Allow Me to Reintroduce Myself.” I shared the link to my blog post on Facebook with this caption:
I then let the world discover who I truly am, a proud transgender woman no longer in hiding. The next day I was interviewed by a writer Beth Greenfield at Yahoo.com, and her article launched my activism career, giving my blog the notoriety I needed to be taken seriously.
My mission has been to help my community be seen and treated as equals, and to never give up on that. Six months after coming out, I made my dream come true of moving back to Los Angeles, and the past two and a half years here I’ve dedicated my life to becoming a prominent face in order to make massive changes in this world. I’ve developed unforeseen passions and its led me to taking on a variety of industries and building an empire like no one has seen before. I would've never predicted all the incredible events that have led to where I am now; a woman whose life is being made into a feature film. “QUEEN” is the story of my high school transition and my prom queen victory. It will be the classic high school movie I never got as a child, the one I needed so desperately to see; in order to know that transgender was even a thing, that I could actually transition into a female body, that I could be happy.
The past three years have been nothing short of incredible. In the public eye I’ve grown as a writer, activist, model, public speaker, and entertainment creator. My highs and lows have taught me significant lessons that continue to keep me humble and make me a better person. I’ve been able to help those in need while socializing with Hollywood’s elite, walking in LGBTQ+ fashion shows, speaking at incredible women’s conferences, and being honored with a Voice of the Year award. I’ve been able to represent transgender women on red carpets from LA to Cannes, in Instagram campaigns, on podcasts, and other digital publications like Vogue.com.
As I further my career I’ve realized how hard it is for me to live in the present. I sometimes get caught up in the next step, the end goals, and I often forget to enjoy the blessings life has given me, and that’s become the newest thing I want to work on for myself and help others to realize as well.
I want to take this opportunity to thank every person who has loved and supported me. Thank you, thank you, thank you. You mean more to me than you could ever know and all I want is to make you proud. Happy three years to this site, to living my most authentic self, and here’s to many, many, many more years of making this world a better place for us all.
xx Corey Rae