Laith Ashley Shares His Own Experiences of Transphobia and Racism

Laith Ashley started medically transitioning when he was 25 years old.

Four years later, he posed for the legendary photographer Bruce Weber. Since then, his presence in the modeling world skyrocketed.

His dream job is acting in a regular series. He’s a model, actor, musician, and trans activist.

He landed the cover for Attitude Magazine’s October issue alongside olympic freestyle skier Gus Kenworthy. In the interview, he opened up about his transphobic and racist experiences.

“It took some time for me to get used to navigating the world as a male person of color.”

As he transitioned, he looked more and more like a man to society. If I didn’t know who Laith Ashley was, I would assume he’s a cis man. At first glance, I also assumed he was white and just really tan. Both of these aren’t true.

His brother warned that he would be harassed by the cops a lot, but he didn’t really believe him until it actually started happening.

“If I was wearing maybe shorts, a t-shirt, and a baseball cap, on my way to the gym, the police would start treating me differently and with more aggression than I was treated prior to my transition.” — Laith Ashley

It took some time for him to get used to that treatment. He also stated that he feels obligated to bring it up consistently now that he can see it from the perspective of a male person of color.

“That’s a little bit scary and it took some time for me to get used to navigating the world as a male person of color.” — Laith Ashley

Fortunately, Laith hasn’t experienced physical violence. However, he is no stranger to verbal abuse from both inside and outside the LGBTQ community.

“There was one situation about 18 months ago in West Hollywood where a guy was just really disrespectful. I was with a friend, waiting for an Uber and I looked over and noticed a group of three gay men talking and they kept whispering to each other, looking over at me.”

“One of the guys gets up and I notice him coming towards me and he says, ‘Oh, so those guys over there said that you’re a woman. Is that true?’

“I thought: ‘What did you say to me?’ And he was like, ‘Oh, it is true. Yeah, that’s a woman.’”

He added: “I was enraged but I knew I couldn’t react.” — Laith Ashley, Attitude Magazine

Unfortunately, a lot of trans men experience something like this or even something worse.

They’ve found themselves in situations where they’re confronted and have to fight in self-defense. There is also a struggle with toxic masculinity where trans men have more pressure to prove that they’re masculine.

Both women and men confront transmen with invading questions like what’s in their pants. Society has such strict gender roles that it’s easy for people to claim that trans men and women aren’t really the gender they say they are.

Trans men are met with aggressive harassment and even violence when they are forced to use the women’s restrooms. Trans and nonbinary people always have to be on guard in public in case of harassment and violence.

Laith Ashley may be a popular model, actor, musician, and activist, but he’s not exempt from transphobia and racism. Him talking about his experiences sheds light on what transmen and men of color go through on a daily basis. He is using his platform to continue to fight for his fellow trans and gender non-conforming siblings.

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