This is a three page paper. This is an inspirational feature story on Geena Rocero and her endeavor to effect global policy as it relates to transmen and transwomen identification and gender marker (M/F). This is not your typical typical before/after transgender storyâ€"the story focuses Geena and who she is as a person and her cause.The 900 word feature story should include a lede that pulls the reader in to care. Evoke an emotional response and persuade the reader to be interested in Geena's story and cause. The end of the story should be almost as explosive as the first. Perhaps the end of the story should reveal that Geena is a transwoman (she had the sex change at 19 years old)?
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Geena Rocero is a model with a purpose. Rocero was born and raised in the Philippines, and recently returned to her homeland to help victims of Typhoon Haiyan. In the midst of a busy schedule, Rocero spends time in her first interview because she feels that sharing her life story is one of the first steps toward helping others. "We're all in this journey together," Rocero exclaims.
Coincidentally, the interview falls on Transgender Day of Remembrance, which commemorates all transmen and transwomen who lost their lives because of targeted attacks. "Transwomen of color are the most marginalized," Rocero reminds us. "70% of hate crime in the LGBT community is committed against transwomen of color. I want this to change. I need this to change. I get so emotional about this and I'm reminded how privileged I am," she says with tears in her eyes.
Rocero works as a model but recently, it seems the bulk of Rocero's work has not been in front of the camera. On November 21, Rocero spoke at a fundraiser for Doctors Without Borders at the Arena in New York City. This December, Rocero is scheduled to deliver a speech at the University of Philippines. After her trip to the Philippines, which will include time spent with her brother, Rocero is traveling to Thailand. In Thailand, she is meeting the country's first transwoman public official to discuss "how we can work together to achieve common goals." The common goals Rocero refers to are the common goals of full United Nations human rights recognition for the transgender population. According to Rocero, transgender issues are the last barrier to full human rights recognition. She states, "This is not about gay rights. There so much work to do. People need access to hormones, and for hormones to be accessible via insurance. Individuals need the power to change their identification documents."
Rocero knows first hand the problems that transgender people face when they travel. Japanese officials who were perplexed about her passport once detained her at an airport in Tokyo. If Rocero had been permitted to change the gender on her passport, she would have had no trouble entering Japan or any other country. As Rocero puts it, "When a woman gets married, she files it with no fee and changes her last name. We need also to be able to change the gender designation. This is not entertainment for us. This is life and death."
One of Rocero's missions is to counsel young people about transgender practical matters such as "how to tell your boyfriend," and what hormones to take. Rocero has been recognized informally as a female since she was sixteen years old. She claims that she was known as Geena in high school, and that she competed as a female in beauty pageants long before she had sexual reassignment surgery. However, Philippine law does not permit a legal gender change on identity documents. Philippine law also does not permit legal name change except when a woman gets married. Rocero wants to change this law, not just in the Philippines, but around the world so that transgendered individuals can enjoy the same freedom of movement as anyone else. American law permits official name and gender changes, regardless of whether the person has undergone surgery. However, Geena admits the process was grueling, expensive, and "crazy." It took three months, $1,000, and a formal announcement in a newspaper to officially be recognized as a female.
When she was a young girl, Rocero knew she was female. Her dream was to become a model. She borrowed her sister's clothes, wore her mom's lipstick, entered local beauty pageants, and eventually self-medicated with hormones. Her parents, especially her mom, supported Geena and helped her to enter beauty pageants. When she was 17, Rocero moved to the United States. She was able to work in the United States and save enough money for the gender reassignment surgery, which she had done at age 19. In fact, while on her upcoming trip to Thailand, Rocero is meeting her surgeon to "thank him for giving me a wonderful vagina."
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