When you train as a dancer, you understand you have to work exceptionally hard. I think dancers are the hardest - working people in show business. You have to push your body beyond where you thought it could go. It's athleticism. Perfection doesn't exist, but with classical ballet, there is an ideal, and I got obsessed with that ideal. In some ways, it was problematic because I don't have an ideal ballet body, but the discipline is what I carry with me to this day. That's my park, the discipline of dancing.

Whether you're transgender or not, most of us get to a point in our lives where we can no longer lie to ourselves.

When I was perceived as a black man I became a threat to public safety. When I was dressed as myself, it was my safety that was threatened.

Just me existing, as an openly black transgender woman from a working-class background, thriving, is a political act. My brother always reminds me that if you are black in America and you're alive, you deserve a round of applause. There are so many forces that don't want us to be alive, and so just being openly who I am, and happy and thriving, is a political act.

We shouldn't demonize the woman who wears high heels and we shouldn't demonize the woman who doesn't wear high heels. We should accept all forms of comportment.

Seeing a black transgender woman embracing and loving everything about herself might be inspiring to some other folks.

I believe that when we love someone, we respect them, and we listen to them; we feel that their voice matters. And- we let them dictate the terms of who they are and what their story is.