Elliot Page
Coming out and surgery were “life-saving” for him
Elliot Page spoke to Oprah Winfrey about coming out
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For Elliot Page, the coming-out and the associated surgery were not only “life-changing”, but “life-saving”.
Actor Elliot Page (34, “Juno”) made it clear in a TV interview with Oprah Winfrey (67) how important his coming out as a transgender and the associated surgery were for him. “I want people to know that it has not only been life changing, but life saving for me. And I believe that is the case with so many people.”
Thanks to the operation, during which his breasts were removed to make him look masculine, he can finally see his real self in the mirror. Since then, it’s the little things that give him pleasure – wearing T-shirts, just walking around his hips with a towel after showering, or just touching his chest. This is such a “liberating experience” for Page – “perhaps for the first time in my life I feel good in my body”.
“Children will die”
It is all the more important for him to use his level of fame to support other transgender men and women and to stand up for them. Page denounces the efforts of some US politicians to massively restrict the rights of the transgender community or to withhold aspects of health care from them. “Children will die” if their fear of coming out is not taken away from them at an early stage, says Page. That is the sad truth.
Even as a toddler he knew he was a boy. “I wrote fake love letters and signed them with ‘Jason’,” recalls the 34-year-old. “When I was little, I was 100 percent a boy. (…) I just couldn’t understand when I was told, ‘No, you’re not. You can’t be when you get older.’ “Now Page is” finally feeling the way I am “again.