JADA TAHIRY: We are going to always be the same person, we are just the same person..
JADA & BRANDEN: In different bodies. He gets to see what he looks like as a woman and I know this is what
I used to look like before I transitioned. BRANDEN MIGUEL: Dapper!
JADA TAHIRY: I am Jada Tahiry. BRANDEN MIGUEL: I am Branden Miguel.
JADA & BRANDEN: We are identical twins. JADA TAHIRY: But I am transgender.
BRANDEN MIGUEL: My job is done!
JADA TAHIRY: We dressed alike when we were younger. BRANDEN MIGUEL: Yeah!
JADA TAHIRY: Even today look I have on burgundy. He has on burgundy.
JADA TAHIRY: I started transitioning in March 9th, 2015. BRANDEN MIGUEL: I love that. You got the dates.
JADA TAHIRY: Oh, yeah! I remember because this is important.
BRANDEN MIGUEL: Right!
JADA TAHIRY: A lot of people wasn’t a fan of me when I first started transitioning, you know. Even people that’s in
my own community was like, ‘Oh, girl! She is a whore, she is a brick, she is ugly, she is tall, she is dark."
JADA TAHIRY: No, I am not. No, I am not. Trust me. A lot of people thought I was actually joking.
My mom, I remember she told me one day, she was like, ‘You are the daughter that I never had.’
That made me feel good inside. So I remember when I first told Branden that I wanted to transition..
BRANDEN MIGUEL: She told me and me being ignorant. I was like, ‘Transition to what?’
JADA TAHIRY: Wait, your face was priceless.
BRANDEN MIGUEL: I was like, ‘You are going to be like that? No! No! No! No! No!’ We lived in the same house
for four months and we didn’t even speak to each other. Like I wasn’t supportive but the moment I started to see
her more fully blossom and growing. I was like, ‘Well! She is happy, I am happy.’ Because we are twins and if I
don’t support it, other people will feel like they don’t have to either because.. we are one!
JADA TAHIRY: I have had two surgeries before. I have had Gluteoplasty is when they liposuction your stomach
and they insert it into your hips and into your buttocks.
JADA TAHIRY: And I have also had breast augmentation.
BRANDEN MIGUEL: They look nice. JADA TAHIRY: Thanks!
BRANDEN MIGUEL: What’s their name? JADA TAHIRY: JLo and Joel.
BRANDEN MIGUEL: Oh, that’s cute.
JADA TAHIRY: I have also had all my gum line cut at the top to make my teeth appear to be larger. Another
surgery that I plan on having, right now I am just undecided if I want to have a gender reassignment
surgery, something I have been thinking about.
BRANDEN MIGUEL: I see that you stole my look. JADA TAHIRY: No! Actually you look like me.
BRANDEN MIGUEL: The first time I came out to my mom, I think I was 22.
JADA TAHIRY: He was 23. BRANDEN MIGUEL: Oh, 23! Jada help me come out
once she transitioned because, bam, I thought it was just like easy. Once I saw her doing that, I was like,
‘Well, I can do it too.’
JADA TAHIRY: Good! I inspired you.
BRANDEN MIGUEL: When Jada transitioned I felt like I didn’t have a identical twin.
JADA TAHIRY: Did you? BRANDEN MIGUEL: Well, yeah! Because we always were
having fun so I was thinking that we were not going to be able to like, have like, fun.
But actually we still have fun. JADA TAHIRY: It is still funny. It is just…
JADA TAHIRY: Yes, I consider myself to be a identical twin.
BRANDEN MIGUEL: Do you? JADA TAHIRY: We still look alike, my nose is much
smaller than yours and my eyes are more prettier than yours.
BRANDEN MIGUEL: Makes no difference.
SABRINA CATES: Sometimes you can see twins like, they will go their separate ways and they will be like,
‘We are adults.’ Like, what you were as a child is not who you be when you grow up but like, they have kept that
connection from being like, very young and being like close to each other. When Jada first told me she was
transitioning, my reaction was, ‘I don’t care what society says. I don’t look at you any different.’
JADA TAHIRY: I lost my first job here like the first time I experienced discrimination because my name wasn’t
changed and the lady, she would not agree to call me Jada. She fired me for like no reason and from that day
forward I was like, ‘Girl! I am going to get my name changed.’
JADA TAHIRY: They denied me of a name change so, BRANDEN MIGUEL: You can do a lot.
JADA TAHIRY: Yeah, so all this stuff is like building up, you are like, ‘Girl! When can I get a break?’ And I just
didn’t get a break for the first two years of transition. I did not get no break.
This is important because people want to know these things.
BRANDEN MIGUEL: I wouldn’t consider transitioning because that’s your thing. My thing is being me.
You can be you and I can be me. Next question.
JADA TAHIRY: Same momentum from the day that you start and to the day that you step into it. We live in
a world with just so much fakeness, and like, hate. People need to see reality.
BRANDEN MIGUEL: That you can be yourself and still love yourself and still live in a world with them.
Or you live in a world and they live in a world with you. JADA & BRANDEN: It depends upon how you….
BRANDEN MIGUEL: We are the same person. We just live in different bodies.
JADA TAHIRY: That’s a good expression. I will take that. BRANDEN MIGUEL: As you should.
JADA TAHIRY: Branden, you know, I need…it’s cold outside. BRANDEN MIGUEL: Well, we are about to go to Times Square.