Exploring the Boundaries
“It's my legacy, and it's my promise for everyone,” says Alexis Tan. She is speaking about her role in “pursuing [her] advocacies and educating people about the transgender experience.” Alexis' own experience includes having undergone gender confirmation surgery in 2018. Before that, she spent long hours questioning herself. She also suffered from bullying in school. But support from everyone in her family helped her overcome those years. That same support has been there for her during and after her gender confirmation surgery.
Alexis is from Australia and of Filipina heritage. As with many transgender women before her, she recognizes her great fortune in getting to where she is today. She sprinkles her talk with words of gratitude and thanks for the support she has received. And that support made possible her winning the Miss Mardis Gras International Queen pageant in 2017. Held in Sydney, the event highlights LGBTQ causes. Alexis' victory enabled her to work with a number of non-profit agencies that benefit transgender women. It has also paved the way for her participation in Miss Australia 2019.
It was when she was 18 years-old that Alexis realized she needed to transition to a woman. Not someone to put things off, she researched the feelings that caused her to identify as a woman and began to come to terms with herself. Now 26 years-old, Alexis understands that she benefited from having strong female role models around her early in life. Her mother was there for her as well as her sisters. And in school, her friends were mostly girls. All this has helped her. Still, she also realizes that it is what is inside you that determines who you are.
