As The Glee Project's first transgender contestant, Tyler dealt with his big transition in front of a television audience. I spoke with Tyler about why he decided to try out for the show and his goal of raising awareness about what it's like to be transgender.
Ology: Hi Tyler. Since you’re so early in your transition, how hard was it to truly find your way with the sexuality theme?
Tyler: It was definitely hard. I mean because I’m so internal with that and I’m so not an overtly sexual person to begin with. I’m very connection based and I’m very - what I find sexy is the way people’s brains work and, you know, like people’s wittiness and creativity and stuff like that.
So to try to be sexy in a way that I’m not was definitely - the biggest challenge was, you know, how do I portray that and how do I be true to myself while still coming across as, you know, “typically” sexy.
Why did you decide to try out for the show so soon, while you were still transitioning?
I tried out for the show so soon because people have never seen a trans person going through puberty on television. Transitioning is something that’s not widely known about. People have really no knowledge of it and I really just want to raise awareness and, you know, let people know that trans people are just normal, everyday people like everyone else. We’re all the same. We all, you know, go to bed at night, wake up in the morning, do our jobs, etc., etc.
Also I went - it’s always been my dream to perform and I really didn’t even like - it wasn’t that much of a decision for me. It was just like, you know, this is what I want to do with my life. I’m going to go for it. I’m going to audition. And it ended up working really, really well.
So I didn’t really take the timeline into consideration when I auditioned. I was just, you know, fulfilling my dreams. And then it ended up that, you know, I was able to educate people on what it’s like to transition.
| Related: Read all The Glee Project recaps and exit interviews right here! |
Is that the kind of character that you would have wanted to play on Glee if you had made it on, to further educate the audience?
I would love that. I would love to educate people on a bigger platform. Honestly I would be open to playing any character on Glee. You know, I wouldn’t be opposed to playing a character who was not transgendered.
But my biggest goal at the moment is really to educate people and have everything about being transgendered being more common knowledge and being more widely accepted and not be such a stigma or a taboo topic.
Although your time on the show came to an end, do you feel a sense of optimism in that Ryan and others thought you simply weren’t ready?
Definitely. I mean it’s better to not be ready then to just straight up be - for them to be like oh, we don’t want you. I’m definitely optimistic about my future and the mentors blessed me with so much advice and so much encouragement and support that, I’m very confident in my future and in all of the things that I’m capable of doing.
You know, I have overcome so much and even on the show I just grew so much as a person and as a performer that I can’t wait to start working again and, you know, put all the criticism that they gave me to good use.
What are your plans for the future now?
My plans are always, you know, to keep learning, keep growing as a person. To, you know, really just drown myself in music and like immerse myself in everything creative that I possibly can because I’m interested in so many things. And I just want to do so many things with my life.
And my main goal has always been, you know, get a record deal and go on world tour and win Grammys and that kind of stuff. But I really just want to push myself to do everything that I can singing wise, musical instrument wise, acting wise and just, you know, taking each day as it comes and, you know, that’s just how I want it.
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