EXCLUSIVE – Interview With Katelynn From The Real World: Brooklyn
January 12, 2009 by Justin Cole, GLAAD's Director of Digital Media
As I posted about on Friday, GLAAD was able to sit down with some of the cast members from this season of MTV’s The Real World. It’s the most LGBT inclusive season to date.
If you missed the first few interviews, you can click here to watch them. And if you missed the first episode, you can visit MTV’s website and watch the entire thing along with video dailies from the cast members. The next episode airs this week on Wednesday, January 14th.
Below is our exclusive interview with Katelynn, The Real World’s first ever transgender housemate.
It’s encouraging to see MTV provide greater visibility and a larger platform for transgender issues. Katelynn worked at the New York City LGBT Center while filming, which we’ll hopefully learn more about as the season unfolds.
You can read more information on the cast members from the MTV press release:
Katelynn, 24 – West Palm Beach, FL
Katelynn is a native of West Palm Beach and was raised in a religious Italian household, where she dreamed of being as good of a mother to her children as her own mom has been to her. Yet, this goal seemed unattainable since Katelynn was born male. In high school, she realized that something was missing in her life, and she began the slow transgender process by starting to dress in more feminine clothing. By age 17, she began living as a woman. This past July, Katelynn traveled to Thailand to undergo surgery to complete her transformation. She is a self-proclaimed computer geek and holds a black belt in Tae Kwon Do. After a string of bad relationships, she hopes to one day marry her current boyfriend, Mike.
In my wildest dreams, I could not even imagine knowing what I was at your age.
Kudos Katelynn. You not only know who and what you are, you express yourself confidently and eloquently. Thank you for being a strong representative for our community.
You are what we fought for you to be. You are who we dreamed of being.
Keep up the good work.
Namaste,
Dominique
SLC, UT
[...] exclusive interviews many members of the cast. If you haven’t yet seen the interviews with Ryan & Chet, J.D. and Scott, Sarah, or Katelynn you should check them out! The cast will be at XES Lounge, 157 [...]