Hari Nef Quotes

Saying to someone 'I'm a transsexual' is the most empowering thing I've ever felt in my whole life.

Someone said to me a long time ago, 'You're a drag queen,' and at the time I was a little like... hello? But then I realized over the years that I actually am.

It means so much to me to see Caitlyn Jenner coming out, just by being her authentic self, staying true to who she is, and just living her life.

I knew I could never be an actor as a man. It just doesn't work, you know? And so when I was doing drag, I realized I could do that kind of stuff, and then when I was transitioning, I kind of gave up on the whole thing because I didn't think that this time would ever come, you know?

I love drag queens... they perform me better than I ever could myself.

I've always had a tomboy quality to me that I embrace and don't run away from. At the same time I'm a real girlie-girl.

I'm proud of my sexuality. I embrace it. It's just another part of me.

I'm proud of my sexuality.

There's kind of a gift in being gay because, if you come out, you're forced to express yourself.

My sexuality is not a phase. I am who I am.

I achieved my personal dream and completed my transition to be able to live life as a woman.

The difference between being in the closet and out of the closet as a gay man is such a huge shift. I feel so connected still to that 22-year-old, but the idea that I was not open with that part of my life - which I am now so open about - is sort of surreal.

I was planning to transition right after high school and attend university as a girl, but then the modeling thing came up. It was an opportunity to see the world. My family knew I identified as a girl, but I didn't tell people in fashion.

For the sexuality thing, I really feel like the reason I speak so blunt about it is because I held it in for so long. I never told my mom. I never told my family. I kept it to myself. Now, I'm happy with who I am. Either you accept it, or you don't. There's a lot of rappers out there that's like that, but no one's stepping up.

For years I've known at some point it's very likely the shoe would drop. Maybe someone would guess that I'm trans. Maybe they would know me from my life before I transitioned.

I'll have men, or I'll have women say that I'll never be a woman because I don't menstruate, or because I'm not made up like Kim Kardashian. So in that sense, I use makeup for a little bit of confidence. But for the most part, day-to-day, I wear makeup if it feels good.

When I was going through transition, I didn't push it on everyone.

I can't pull back. I'm 6 foot 3, I'm tall, and I'm gay. I light up the room.

I feel like the most fascinating parts of a trans life take place after the decision to transition. They take place when you're in this new body, in this new life, and you start realizing things.

Right after I got out of the military, I realized that I wasn't surrounded by men all of the time. I started behaving - and outwardly - how I truly felt inside. And I decided that it would be a good idea if I transitioned.

As a black person of non-gender-conforming experience, my first existentially reciprocal and affirming experiences were in the New York ballrooms.

What I didn't tell her was that I distinctly remember walking out of my junior year English class reading, 'Amandla Stenberg comes out as queer.' She unknowingly set a precedent in my life, a gold standard of how to be proud and exist in the intersectionality of multiple identities that were one thought of as being conflicting.

Arca was a project born immediately after I came out of the closet in New York.

Before my transition I felt trapped, and now I've been set free.

It's funny. Some people now are like, 'Why would you transition? Why can't you just be comfortable how you were born?' That was my logic, but at a certain point, I realized that I was born uncomfortable.