A country singer has come out as a transgender woman, claiming she has been trying to be anything but a “trans person” for 36 years.
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While speaking to Rolling Stone in April, Vandoliers singer Jenni Rose opened up about her transgender journey; She revealed she had come out as a trans woman to her family last summer and told her bandmates later that year.
“I’ve always been very arms-length with people because of this,” Rose explained. “I didn’t want anybody to ever find out about it. For 26 years, I’ve tried to be anything but a trans person, and it never went away.”
“And, not it’s going crazy,” she continued. “And I know that there are all these people who are kind of going back into the closet. But I’m going to come out and see what happens.”
Rose said that her coming-out experience has been better than she expected. “It’s been great,” she said. “Jenni has way more friends. I never had friends. You can ask [Vandoliers bandmate] Cory [Graves] how many times I said I don’t have any friends outside the band. Now, I have a lot.”
Coming Out as a Transgender Woman Wasn’t Easy for the Country Singer
However, the country singer admitted she hasn’t always been so open about who she has come out as a transgender woman to.
Jenni Rose explained that she has feared the worst with nearly every person she has told. Thankfully, she has been wrong almost every time, pointing out that one religious family member has disapproved.
“I finally opened up, and I allowed myself to have friends,” Rose further shared. “I allowed myself to take care of myself, and I allow myself to just be me, regardless of what people are going to say or do. It has taught me to stick up for myself.”
She then said, “Once you get discipline and boundaries, all the people-pleasing stuff really falls off. That’s when I gave myself permission to be who I am, and to be Jenni.”
Rose also revealed that she knew at a young age she wanted to be a woman.
“When I was four, I didn’t want to be a boy,” she added. “But it was weird. I stopped. I was told it was bad, because that’s what normal people would do: ‘Stop wearing dresses. Boys don’t play with dolls.'”