9 Celebrities Who Changed Their Gender and Are Enjoying It

Gender reassignment surgery, sometimes called sex reassignment surgery, is performed to transition individuals with gender dysphoria to their desired gender. People with gender dysphoria often feel that they were born in the wrong gender.

For example, a biological male may identify more as female and vice versa. Approximately 9,000 transgender surgeries are performed annually across the U.S.

The latest statistics indicate that 0.6% of the U.S. population identifies as transgender. The U.S. sex reassignment surgery market was valued at USD 267.0 million in 2019 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 14.4% from 2020 to 2027.

The number of sex-change surgeries conducted each year has been steadily increasing, from 8,304 in 2017 to 9,576 in 2018, with 2,885 male-to-female surgeries and 6,691 female-to-male surgeries. This is a life-changing transformation.

It requires great courage and support from family, friends, and loved ones. However, it is much more difficult when you’re a celebrity, with journalists and paparazzi stalking every little detail of your life, and when there are always hundreds or thousands of people judging you.

These nine transgender celebrities deserve a round of applause for overcoming difficulties and shining even brighter than before.

1. Balian Buschbaum

Balian Buschbaum, formerly Yvonne Buschbaum, is a former German pole vaulter who won the German pole vault championship and set the record in 1999. Buschbaum revealed in November 2007 that he was retiring from the sport due to a recurring injury and that he wanted to undergo gender transformation treatment.

© ullstein bild / Contributor / Getty Images, © buschbaumbalian / instagram

Formerly Yvonne Buschbaum

© buschbaumbalian / instagram

2. Geena Rocero

Geena Rocero is a transgender advocate and the founder of Gender Proud, a video production firm that advocates for justice, equality, and trans rights. Geena Rocero was primarily known as a successful model before she came out. She is now a spokesperson for the fight for LGBTQIA rights.

© Geena Rocero / Ted Talks, © geenarocero / instagram

She is known for her 2014 TED talk in which she publicly revealed, for the first time, that she had been born a boy.

© Geena Rocero / Ted Talks, © geenarocero / instagram

3. Laura Jane Grace

Laura Jane Grace (born Thomas James Gabel) is a member of the American punk rock band Against Me! She is a singer and guitarist. Laura declared her plans to live openly as a transgender woman in a Rolling Stone interview in 2012. "Transgender Dysphoria Blues," the band's sixth studio album, was released in 2014 after a protracted period of lineup changes and transformations.

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Born Thomas James Gabel

© laurajanegrace / instagram

4. Jazz Jennings

Jazz Jennings is a teenage LGBT rights activist, a YouTuber, and a spokesmodel. After being removed from the girls' bathroom at school when she was nine, she began to raise awareness about the misunderstandings and discrimination faced by transgender individuals.

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Jennings and her parents founded the TransKids Purple Rainbow Foundation

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5. Aydian Dowling

Aydian Dowling is a popular YouTuber, bodybuilder, transgender activist, co-founder of a volunteer organization called PointofPride.org, a transgender rights campaigner, and a loving husband and parent. Aydian was the first transgender man to appear on the cover of Men's Health magazine's collector's edition, as well as the first transgender male to appear on the cover of Gay Times magazine.

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On his channel, Dowling shares fitness tips and insights about sports for transgender people.

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6. Alexandra Billings

Alexandra Billings is an award-winning stage and film actor, a respected theater educator, and an AIDS and LGBT activist from the United States. Billings is also one of the few actors who have portrayed a transgender character on television, having appeared in "Grey's Anatomy," "How To Get Away With Murder," and "Transparent."

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Alexandra earned the Human Rights Campaign Visibility Award in 2016 for her contributions to the LGBTQ community.

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7. Lea T

Leandra Medeiros Cerezo, better known as Lea T, is a transgender fashion model, a pop culture phenomenon, and a transgender campaigner. She is the star of Givenchy's most talked-about ad campaign. Toninho Cerezo, a well-known Brazilian football player, is her father.

© oprah.com, © leat / instagram

She is the first openly transgender person to appear in an Olympic Games opening ceremony.

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8. Lana Wachowski

Lana Wachowski is the first prominent Hollywood director to come out as transgender. Lana Wachowski's brother, Lilly Wachowski, came out as a transgender woman a few years later, in 2016.

© Bob Riha Jr / Contributor / Getty Images, © Jason Merritt / Staff / Getty Images

In October 2012, she received the Human Rights Campaign's Visibility Award.

© Paul A. Hebert/Invision/AP/East News

9. Conchita Wurst

Because Conchita Wurst (also known as Thomas Neuwirth) is more of a stage persona, there is no before-and-after regarding sex reassignment surgery. She became a major influencer and media celebrity after winning the Eurovision Song Contest in 2014, bringing crucial LGBT and transgender-related issues to the international stage.

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She won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2014.

© conchitawurst / instagram

One of the many benefits of the technological and medical breakthroughs we have witnessed in the last 50 years is that they enable so many people to live their best lives. Of course, the whole process is lengthy and challenging.

But judging by these individuals’ smiling faces, it’s totally worth it.