.jpeg)
If Dylan Mulvaney's happiness online seems like an act, think again. At the Los Angeles LGBT Center's Models of Pride summit over the weekend, Mulvaney opened up about being called “cringe,” leaning into trans joy, and being her most authentic self.
Mulvaney accepted the Center's Models of Pride award, “an honor given each year to a positive role model uplifting LGBTQ+ youth,” according to a press release. In a conversation with Phillip Picardi, the Center's chief marketing and communications officer (and former chief content officer at Teen Vogue), Mulvaney said that their joyful persona online is not put on — it's real, and it's purposeful.
“I've seen a lot of people comment, like, ‘Oh, this is such a facade’ or 'She's putting this thing on' or, you know, ‘This is such a fabricated joy,’” Mulvaney said of how some people mistake her happiness for “cringe.” She does, she said, lean into the cringe to get out of her comfort zone, but she believes the reason some people think her joy is an act is different: “I think it's because they can't actually comprehend a trans person being happy or finding success or love.”
Too often, media representations of trans people focus on their pain. Amid increasing anti-trans sentiment and growing legislative efforts to restrict trans people's care and ability to exist publicly, spotlighting these struggles is certainly necessary. In an interview with them in June, Mulvaney acknowledged that her privilege enables a lot for her that other, less privileged trans people cannot access, and that she may not be an accurate representation of the trans community as a whole. “I am one of the, if not the, most privileged trans people in this country right now; I don’t want people to look at me and say, ‘Oh, yep, the community’s alright,’” she explained. Still, Mulvaney is showing that, despite transphobia and despite this struggle, the trans experience is also a joyful one.
“I just want to look back at my life at the end of this and think about all the happy moments, not the horrible ones,” they continued. “So the more that I can laugh, the more that I can smile, and not take anything too, too seriously in a world that is very serious, is a win.”
Part of that joy is embracing exactly who they are. She remembered a time in high school when she would try to hide her flamboyant side, and how embarrassed she was when someone else commented on it — and how that has since changed.
“I remember this kid who also went to my high school came out to his parents and said, ‘I'm gay, but I'm not Dylan Mulvaney-level gay,’” she said. “And I was so embarrassed. But now I think it's kind of epic to be Dylan Mulvaney-level gay.”
