Gino Baileau: Mining The Univesity: Infusion Presents: Isis King

Hello! What's Miners yours!!!!! This week, my friend Taylor and I went to an event hosted by the LGBT center. Say hi to Taylor!!!

This week, Isis King came to talk to the LGBT community at the university. Isis is a fashion model and designer who competed in the eleventh cycle of Tyra Bank's reality show America's Next Top Model. She was the first transgender woman to compete on the show, one of the most visible transgender people on television, and the most talked about top model contestant ever.

Before Isis, she was just King.

Isis had a surgery four years ago. Before then, she grew up in Washington D.C.

In a predominately black area, facing stereotypes growing up was really hard. She always knew she was different. In an area like the one she lived in, she felt as though she couldn't fully explore who she thought she wanted to be. She LOVED to double dutch with the girls, but any chance her mom caught her doing so, she was punished. It wasn't allowed. Even in kindergarten, Isis had a boyfriend. The teacher would tell all of the students to have bathroom buddies. When it was her and her boyfriends turn, they would go to the bathroom stall and kiss. One day, another student walked in on them and told the principle. When Isis' mother picked her up that day, she was completely embarrassed and told her "We will never repeat this story to anybody". Isis says her mother blocked a lot of things out that she didn't want to see. She didn't want to see that her son was gay, but Isis was more than just a little gay boy. She always identified herself as a woman. Developing these thoughts so young, she did not have any intelligence on becoming transgendered. Her mother monitored her computer so she couldn't lookup any information online, and she was always on close watch. The only education she had we're Maury and Jerry Springer episodes of "That's A Man!" which put drag queens and transgendered folk in a bad light.

She ended up confiding in her aunt because she couldn't go to her mother. In high school, her aunt would let her and her boyfriend stay by her house. Eventually, the aunt made Isis tell her mom. Isis wrote her mother a letter, reminding her of all the signs growing up that she feels transgendered, and that she has a boyfriend. After her mom read the letter, she got upset and wouldn't even let Isis babysit her baby brother alone anymore. Isis was very dependent on her mother, and now with her gone, she needed to grab support somewhere else to be stable. She moved in with her boyfriend, who became very controlling. He made her only wear baggy clothing and her hair would have to be braided. She thought he was only 7 years older than her, but a year later told her he was 14 years older. He entrapped her...all the house, car, and phone bills that they shared were all under her name. She felt stuck, and he became abusive. When she started to get beaten, she called her mom and told her. Her mom, aunt, and grandparents all came to her boyfriend's house when he wasn't home and packed all of her things up. She ran away from him and went to therapy. In therapy is where she realized "I want a sex change". She wanted to stop living for her mother, ex boyfriend, and society, and do what is right for herself.

She moved to New York and hung out with a lot of drag queens. With them, she felt like she could dress the way she wanted to dress and felt like herself. She decided to start taking hormones to help start the transgender process. This took a lot of her money, and she became broke. Then, she went to an LGBT homeless shelter to survive while still taking hormones. The makers of America's Next Top Model scouted her from there because they were looking for homeless girls to pose in the background of a shoot. Doing this was where her first shine in the spotlight started. Isis was recognized by the producers and asked to compete in the next season of America's Next Top Model. She only made it through a couple of eliminations, but she has made a brand for herself. She is now focusing on fashion design and is wrapping up filming a movie in the Philippines.

This is Isis today, a beautiful skeleton of a woman. She looks like she's going to fall over and die at any second...so skinny.

She paved the way for a lot of people trying out in future seasons of ANTM, including myself. Tyra Banks found my androgynous modeling on my Instagram and asked me to have a personal audition with her for next season of ANTM Guys VS. Girls.