Olivia Culpo Quotes

I believe that transgender people, including those who have transitioned, are living out real, authentic lives. Those lives should be celebrated, not questioned. Their health care decisions should be theirs and theirs alone to make.

I remember, as a child, lying in my bed at night praying that I would wake up the next day and be a girl, to be my authentic self, and to just have my family be proud of me. I remember looking into the mirror struggling to say just two words, 'I'm transgender.'

The way I see things is that, I think that transgender people are super brave. If you're a female to male, male to female, if you're that brave to take control of your own body and make it however you want it to be, more power to you.

I'm very happy with myself and I think - I always say that I think that if you feel like you're not in the right body, then by all means get to where you want to be.

We didn't have anyone to tell us that what was going on with me was alright. There was no information about transgender people when we started our journey, but we managed to make it through because of the tremendous amount of love that our family had.

I'm not trying to be a spokeswoman for the transgender community; I just want to be looked at as a living, breathing, happy human being.

This is the amazing thing about you. Had I not known anything about your story, I would have absolutely not a clue that you had ever been a boy - a male. Which makes me absolutely believe you always should have been a woman.

I wonder, would I have transitioned from female to male if I was 30 years younger? Possibly. But if I had been born even 30 years later, because it seems like the technology will only get better, it seems like one might not ever need to settle down at all.

I learned a lot more about transgender people. It's not a choice, but a physiological condition that has to do with the size of the hypothalamus part of the brain.

Nature chooses who will be transgender; individuals don't choose this.

I thought, transgender people are much worse off than I am. That's why they're willing to risk everything to be who they are. But the older I got, the harder it got to stay in my body.

I feel so much more comfortable that I've ever been. I've felt male as far back as I can remember.

If someone asks about sexual reassignment surgery, you are supposed to say, 'Why are we talking about that?' But I am a post-op transsexual. And I am a reporter. If you can explain and talk about it, you demystify it. And if you demystify it, it's not an issue.

There's power in naming yourself, in proclaiming to the world that this is who you are. Wielding this power is often a difficult step for many transgender people because it's also a very visible one.

Growing up, my experience with transsexualism was nothing but shame. It was something very hidden, and dealt with very privately.

My parents started questioning me about whether or not I was transgender - whether or not I was trying to be a woman. It was a big argument.

My family knew that they loved me, and whatever this 'I want to be a girl' business was, it certainly wasn't about to change that.

The first thing that's really important to understand, just when approaching the topic of transgender people, is that the sex you're assigned with at birth is not the same as your gender identity.

I am transgender. I knew that I was for as long as I can remember.

The problem with the spectrum that is trans-ness and where people like Caitlyn Jenner lie, transitioning and being trans is more than a physical thing. Transition is a process.

Transgender people really are misunderstood.

I have a transgender nephew on my father's side of the family. So I'm extremely aware of how important it is to support and advocate for young people who are experiencing that in their lives.

It's OK not to understand the whole trans thing. That's alright. My dad didn't understand it. I still don't know everything. What's important is you sort of educate yourself on your own time, but you have to respect it on everyone else's time. Because no one should have to wait for equality.

Kids and just young people in general are usually a lot more, I guess, open-minded to change. Especially when you're really little in elementary school, you don't expect a lot of things from people, so if somebody says, 'I'm switching genders,' you're just sort of like, 'OK, that's new. But cool.'

I'm a gay man trapped in a woman's body!