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Sitting down with Joey Nolfi for EW’s Quick Drag<\/i> podcast, the performer opened up about how filming Season 16 of the Emmy-winning reality series helped her close a painful chapter of her life and find herself as she entered the next one head-on.<\/p>\n
\u2022 On identifying as non-binary pre-Drag Race<\/i> and her divorce:<\/span><\/b> “It wasn’t at all supported by my partner, and it ended up being a big part of why I had to leave, because he didn’t want to be with a trans person.<\/b> I was in a bad place about it, mentally, for a while, but you get to a point where you’re like, I have to do what’s right for me<\/i>, and that involved getting out of that.”<\/p>\n \u2022 On finding herself on set:<\/span><\/b> “I showed up to Drag Race<\/i> in this space of, I’m going to advocate for myself, I’m going to stand up for myself, I’m not going to allow myself to be victimized in the way that I feel like I have been in the past, pre-<\/i>Drag Race. [I was] in this environment for the first time where everyone’s calling me Amanda and not my government name, and realizing how good that felt, and I started to feel a bit more comfortable in the reformation of my identity.”<\/b><\/p>\n \u2022 On life after filming:<\/span><\/b> “It was kind of jarring to go from that environment where everyone is calling me Amanda and she\/her-ing me, to being called by my government name again, and he\/him. I was like, This is very much not correct for me<\/i>. That experience helped push me out of the nest a little bit and crack the egg.”<\/p>\n \u2022 On the Internet’s thirst over her pre-transition photos*:<\/span><\/b> “There’s going to be a lot of shit flung my way with the whole trans experience, and that’s something where I can choose to let it upset me, or choose to let it be water off a duck’s back… that’s fine, that’s fierce for them, I guess. I’m not really interested in hooking up with somebody who’s more attracted to who I was four or five years ago. If you want to get your rocks off to it? Sure.”<\/b><\/p>\n Amanda Tori Meating has come out as trans! In this lovely interview, she reveals how her ‘Drag Race’ experience + liberating herself through divorce helped along her gender exploration journey:<\/p>\n ‘I have to do what’s right for me.’https:\/\/t.co\/2L38iLAtKd<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/Jf2sEwTkso<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Joey Nolfi (@joeynolfi) January 30, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/center><\/p>\n * Not linking, but several days prior to Amanda’s announcement photos of her pre-drag days caused a stir online.<\/p>\n\n