The First Transgender Contestant on ‘Naked and Afraid’ Used it as an Opportunity to Educate: WATCH

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The First Transgender Contestant on ‘Naked and Afraid’ Used it as an Opportunity to Educate: WATCH

The Discovery Channel featured Quince Mountain, the first transgender contestant on its outdoor survival show Naked and Afraid, in Sunday night’s episode. On the show, two people are dumped into the wilderness with nothing, not even the clothes on their backs, for 21 days.

Mountain took it as an opportunity to educate.

The Reno Gazette Journal reports: “The episode features a tense moment when Mountain tells Owens that his surgical scars are the result of his gender transition. Mountain said producers gave him the option of keeping his gender transition private. But he declined and chose to discuss it openly. He welcomed the chance to be himself and discuss gender identity on his own terms, an opportunity transgender people are often denied.”

Mountain talked about the opportunity on Twitter (and check out the trailer below):

But if I’m honest, I wasn’t drawn to appearing on @NakedAndAfraid despite the nudity requirement–it was an alluring feature.

I felt, as a trans guy, that stripping down would be a relief, a way to get it over with & just finally say the unsayable, widely and publicly.

— Quince Mountain (@QuinceMountain) June 12, 2019

We are supposed to apologize for our bodies. This is something expected of women, and perhaps even more so for trans people.

— Quince Mountain (@QuinceMountain) June 12, 2019

These experiences were formative, and they were meant to keep me in line.

— Quince Mountain (@QuinceMountain) June 12, 2019

To be an openly trans person doing something beyond transitioning, dating, losing a job, or being harassed in a bathroom—to be in the public square, able to act rather than simply being acted upon—It’s a big deal.

— Quince Mountain (@QuinceMountain) June 12, 2019

So now I’m sharing something that is a part of my story.

But what about acting? Aren’t reality shows completely fake at worst, contrived and gimmicky at best?

— Quince Mountain (@QuinceMountain) June 12, 2019

I’m very happy to talk about acting and authenticity.

My authentic experience growing up as a trans person was one of fictional performance.

— Quince Mountain (@QuinceMountain) June 12, 2019

And yes, perhaps we have been deceivers—but not in the ways that you think, and almost always for our own security.

People mistrust us, whether or not they stop to think about it. This is the trans double bind.

— Quince Mountain (@QuinceMountain) June 12, 2019

It’s no accident that the “sports” or athletic challenges I’m involved in include outdoor survival and mushing.

Sports are divided by gender, and my experience made most of them inaccessible.

But dogs don’t ask for ID cards, and neither does the wilderness. pic.twitter.com/vZQpojWxzJ

— Quince Mountain (@QuinceMountain) June 12, 2019