'Real World' star: ‘Living my life in someone else’s skin’

Katelynn Cusanelli, the first transgendered person on MTV’s popular reality series “The Real World,” spoke in the Potomac Lounge Monday night to kick off Transgender Awareness Week.

The event was sponsored by the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Student Development Center, the Queer Student Union, Beyond Boundaries and Campus Life.

Senior deaf studies major Bryce Edwards, the QSU's treasurer, said that the QSU decided to bring Cusanelli to campus because she appeals to more than just the LGBT community, having been on such a popular television show.

“She has had such a positive media influence on the transgender community,” Edwards said. “She showed on 'The Real World' that transgender people are happy. They have their good days and their bad days just like everyone else, but they’re thriving in society.”

Cusanelli spoke to a crowd of around 200 people about her life and experience as a transgendered person.

Cusanelli was born as a male into a Sicilian Roman Catholic family, and always knew growing up that she didn’t identify with her male peers.

“Everything felt alien,” Cusanelli said. “It felt like I was living my life in someone else’s skin.”

When she was 14 years old, Cusanelli went to a friend’s “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” themed birthday party, where she cross-dressed for the first time. After that she became involved in her local LGBT community center.

While she was in high school Cusanelli went to a workshop where she was first introduced to the term “transgender.”

“I realized that they didn’t just make up this term for me, that there had to be at least one other crazy bitch out there like me,” Cusanelli recalled.

When she was 17, Cusanelli decided to come out to her mom, who told her that she could not live that kind of lifestyle under her roof. She spent her senior year of high school living out of the back or her car and staying at friends’ houses.

As she watched her friends go off to college and live “normal kid” lives, Cusanelli sank deeper and deeper into her struggle and depression. She resorted to the sex industry for money, which she says is an unfortunate truth for many transgendered women.

Cusanelli finally decided to get out of the sex industry and began to work “crap” jobs while augmenting her wages by dancing in drag.

As she entered her 20s, Cusanelli began seeing a therapist who officially diagnosed her as transsexual. At age 21, she began taking estrogen to begin her transition.

“I started taking my estrogen and I started crying uncontrollably for no reason,” Cusanelli said. “A Charmin commercial would set me off for hours.”

Five years after leaving home, Cusanelli reconciled with her family and recognized the struggles that they faced.

“My family had to mourn the loss of a son before they could celebrate the life of a daughter,” she said.

During her transition Cusanelli grew tired of working jobs that she didn’t really like at places that discriminated against her for being a transgendered person. At one job, she was denied access to all restrooms, even during a 12-hour shift.

One day Cusanelli’s best friend called her and told her about an MTV casting session in Miami. When she found out that it was a casting call for “The Real World: Brooklyn,” Cusanelli said her first thoughts were, “Is this shit still on? They’re still airing this show?”

Cusanelli said that when the producers met her and found out that she was transgendered, they thought, “You’re well spoken, you’re civilized and you’re a tranny... You’re hired!”

Cusanelli agreed to be on the show, but only under one condition: it had to be after her sexual reassignment surgery. So she flew to Thailand and underwent a 13-hour surgery to complete her transition.

“Contrary to popular belief, nothing is amputated. It’s not cut off. There’s no power drill involved,” Cusanelli joked with the audience.

Cusanelli arrived at “The Real World” house still in stitches and sutures, only three weeks after returning from Thailand; and as she says, the rest is history.

Cusanelli is engaged to a man that she met in high school and has been dating for three years.

She says she remains close with all of her “Real World” cast mates. Scott Herman is still like a big brother to her, she and JD Ordoñez reconciled their friendship and the girls will be bridesmaids at her wedding.

Cusanelli just wrapped production on a season of “Real World/Road Rules Challenge.” She said she hopes that MTV will continue to have transgendered people on their shows so that people – especially the MTV demographic of young people ages 12 to 24 – can become more aware and understanding of the transgender community.

 

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