Transgender entertainer, comedian, actor, and host Roz Hernandez is very aware of the stares she gets when out about. She’s vibrant, wears kookie outfits, and is 6’ 1”. And that’s without the heels that match the colorful outfits. But Hernandez, who is of Mexican and Irish descent, isn’t here to live her life based on other people’s terms and conditions. She’s here to make people feel like the rules in society that hold us down from being our most honest and authentically queer selves, they don’t exist when you’re around her.
“I want people to go, okay, that was an experience,” Hernandez shared during an interview with Remezcla for our Identity Edition Pride package for 2024. That’s how she wants to be remembered after you meet her, watch her on TV, or see her live; an experience. Because Hernandez doesn’t care about the stares, even the ones she knows aren’t “cute stares.”
Instead, Hernandez wants people to know that everyone’s welcome to her party. And if you don’t join, that’s your loss. “I always feel like [I want people to know], ‘Just so you know, the party’s over here. So you could either be a hater or you could join the party. You’re welcome to join the party. Everyone’s welcome to join the party.’”
This honesty and unfiltered self love is what we need to see more of in 2024. Because no matter where you turn, there are attacks coming for the LGBTQ+ community that make it hard to be us. In 2024, there were 523 anti-trans bills up for consideration in the U.S. according to the ACLU, doctors in Texas are being banned from offering gender affirming care, and the number of trans people who were murdered in the U.S. nearly doubled between 2017 and 2021 according to data from the non-profit Everytown for Gun Safety.
As queer people, we’re keenly aware that our existence is a form of resistance against those who think that we’re “wrong” or shouldn’t have things like basic fundamental human rights. And when we step out into this big and scary world, it’s a form of reclaiming our freedom and stating that we’re not going anywhere.
Hernandez is leaning into that freedom in everything she does, whether its hosting Hulu’s ghost reality TV series Living for the Dead or participating in the Netflix special Outstanding: A Comedy Revolution with her heroes like Margaret Cho. She’s going to be unapologetically Roz Hernandez.
“Sometimes people are just not here for it. But I think that for me, I’m really leaning into freedom,” Hernandez said, speaking about the way she presents herself to the world but especially in the U.S., where she resides. “I feel like true freedom is not caring what other people think. And as long as you’re not harming anybody, just living your truth for real, that is actual freedom to me.”
This ties back to Hernandez saying that she wants people to feel like they had an experience when meeting her. Because yes, she is a transgender woman. And yes, she’s a multi-hyphenated baddie who also has a podcast called Ghosted! you should totally check out. But she wants people to walk away feeling like they can be themselves around her but out in the world too. “I want people to feel free when they’re around me to be their kookiest or be their queerest or whatever. There’s those silly little rules that aren’t laws, they’re just rules in society. They don’t exist when you’re around me.”
It’s important to note too that all of this, who Hernandez is today and the experience she is, it was a journey. She didn’t magically spring up a 6’ 1” ghost hunting goddess. “I didn’t start out that way and I allow myself to be proud of myself. I’m also a recovering addict and I spent a lot of years just not knowing what to do with myself.”
Hernandez would ask herself “Who is this person that I keep feeling like I want be, because that is not what I see around me, so how is that going to work?” And over time, through the cliche but true sweat and tears, “Finally, over years, little by little, I have gotten to where I am now with just being on my own terms. So I do feel very confident and very proud because I know how challenging it is to deny yourself freedom.”
And if there’s anything that you take away from this interview with Roz Hernandez it’s that, “Nothing good comes from denying yourself.” So, be the experience. Live your truth. Wear kooky outfits.
This post is part of Remezcla Pride 2024: Identity Edition. Read more here.
