In a note posted on social media, RuPaul's Drag Race star Willow Pill described her gender identity as "trans femme."
During last week's episode of Untucked, Pill said that she wasn't sure where she's at with her gender. She said that the issue was complicated by her cystinosis, a rare but serious disease that can affect many parts of the body.
"I want to address some of the things I said in Untucked last week when I talked about my gender identity," Pill wrote.
"Its taken me a long time to come to terms with my transness because so much space has been taken up by my illness. My condition has caused me so much physical and emotional pain that my body became something I always wanted out of."
"During quarantine, I started to explore my feelings about my illness and unpacked a lot of medical PTSD and self-hatred. But only in the last year have I really started to realize that I'm not happy with my gender identity either. Much of that is due to being on Drag Race and feeling euphoria being Willow for the first time since quarantine and being around a bunch of queer and trans friends on set."
"I'm still not sure where I fit on the spectrum, for now I just say trans femme, but I also don't have to know now."
Pill also revealed that in November (after filming had ended) she had female feminization surgery, which makes your face appear more feminine.
"Transitioning with a chronic illness is not simple," Pill said. "Any further medicalization of my body scares me because of my medical PTSD. I'm currently discussing a very low dose of hormones with my doctor and will have to take things very slow because I"m on a variety of intense medications. It may be that it's not for me because my health comes first but I want to try."
She added that she uses "they/she" pronouns.
During last week's episode of Untucked, Pill said that she wasn't sure where she's at with her gender. She said that the issue was complicated by her cystinosis, a rare but serious disease that can affect many parts of the body.
"I want to address some of the things I said in Untucked last week when I talked about my gender identity," Pill wrote.
"Its taken me a long time to come to terms with my transness because so much space has been taken up by my illness. My condition has caused me so much physical and emotional pain that my body became something I always wanted out of."
"During quarantine, I started to explore my feelings about my illness and unpacked a lot of medical PTSD and self-hatred. But only in the last year have I really started to realize that I'm not happy with my gender identity either. Much of that is due to being on Drag Race and feeling euphoria being Willow for the first time since quarantine and being around a bunch of queer and trans friends on set."
"I'm still not sure where I fit on the spectrum, for now I just say trans femme, but I also don't have to know now."
Pill also revealed that in November (after filming had ended) she had female feminization surgery, which makes your face appear more feminine.
"Transitioning with a chronic illness is not simple," Pill said. "Any further medicalization of my body scares me because of my medical PTSD. I'm currently discussing a very low dose of hormones with my doctor and will have to take things very slow because I"m on a variety of intense medications. It may be that it's not for me because my health comes first but I want to try."
She added that she uses "they/she" pronouns.
This article appeared at On Top Magazine and has been published here with permission.
