Authentically Us

Authentically Us is a conversational show hosted by Lanae Marie, a Black trans woman, and its anchor is trans experience as it is actually lived. It does not stay anchored for long. Titles run from 'Laser Hair Removal or Electrolysis?' and 'Imposter Syndrome & Gender Dysphoria' to 'The Tulsa Massacre of 1921', 'Remembering 9/11 -20 Years After' and 'The American Dream', with a two-part trip through 90s pop culture alongside guest Tracie Bailey. The format shifts with the subject. Some episodes are guest conversations, sometimes split into two parts. Others have the host on her own, reacting to a clip or talking through her own news, such as losing a work-from-home job or getting over COVID. The guest conversations make the warmest entry point. Across two parts, Lanae and Kristabelle Taylor, a trans content creator from Cape Town, South Africa, compare dating before and after transition. Lanae talks about never fitting the stereotypes of a Black man and about still being ghosted. Kristabelle describes the confidence male privilege handed her and the more settled kind that came after. Race is never a side note. The two weigh colorism, interracial dating and the stares that can come with it, and one of them cautions against putting it all down to racism, pointing to the pull of cultural familiarity. Somewhere in the middle, the talk lands on a phrase worth keeping: rejection is protection. A look back at 2020 with Rose Montoya, introduced as a model, makeup artist, educator and advocate, runs graver. It moves through COVID, a killing whose video neither of them watched, and the year's toll of trans lives. Rose wonders aloud whether violence has truly risen or simply become more visible, and the conversation reaches self-harm, boundaries and a direct word to anyone struggling. The host closes that episode with a song she wrote about self-love. Then there is the blunt side. Reacting to Blaire White's video from Pride in Austin, Texas, Lanae argues that Pride has drifted from its basics in ways that hurt LGBTQ+ people, while crediting the attendees who were willing to disagree in a friendly way. On locker rooms she draws firm lines, asking trans women to be respectful of the women around them. Rose Montoya, the former guest, later reappears as a subject in titles such as 'Indecent Trans Exposure At The White House'. Conversations wander, circle back and sometimes admit they do not know something, which gives even heavy material an unhurried, lived-in feel. Two episodes years apart sign off with the same line, 'Our time is now, let's change the world', and that pairing of hope with plain speaking runs through everything in between.