Boobs Aren’t for Everyone, by Rain Dove

Help Stacey from Oxygen’s Living Different Raise Money for Surgery! Click here to be directed to the Indie Gogo Campaign!!!

My name is Rain Dove, I’m a 6’2, muscular, intense androgynous fashion model. I’m often mistaken for a male. I’m often harassed as a female. I love who I am, and I don’t care WHAT others think I am. I am comfortable in my identity, and I am comfortable with the world’s expectations of what that means. I AM SECURE IN WHO I AM. And so is Lizzette Castillo’s love, Stacey Logan from Living Different on Oxygen. Which is why I am advocating to raise money for his top surgery. (Double Mastectomy- which is having the breasts removed and chest reconstructed into pecs.)

Me working on the editorial.

A fan reached out to me recently and told me that they were floored by the difference between Stacey and I. That I had accepted myself, my body, and my place in the world. But that they were saddened that Stacey was going through transition because it meant that Stacey had not reached that same level of self acceptance. That Stacey was insecure in his identity.

But what that fan failed to realize was that it’s not that Stacey is insecure about his identity, or his gender, or his body. It’s that Stacey is 100% secure. Stacey knows exactly what he wants, and his security in himself is as solid as the security of the love that he shares with his girlfriend Lizzette.

The real issue is that Stacey experiences Gender Identity Disorder. He says he has always felt like a man in a woman’s body. Not man as in socially (beer, motorcycles, tools, cologne, and the color blue). But a man… as in pecs, male genetalia, facial hair. Things that he did not inherit biologically. It’s not just that he dislikes his female anatomy, it’s that he feels foreign to it. Disgusted by it. Afraid of it.

Gender Identity Disorder (GID) is a medical condition. It is diagnosed by physicians. It is a REAL disassociation of ones physical body attributes due to biological, chemical, or prenatal factors. It is not social conditioning. The side effects of GID include depression, anxiety, and bodily mistreatment due to the disconnect one has to their body, usually specifically their genitalia or breasts.

For me- I use my breasts like a passport or a hall pass to get into social functions, the bathroom safely, and out of a speeding ticket here and there. But for Stacey- his breasts, though often bound everyday, are like sirens wailing out an argument to the very identity he feels he has. Every day, he walks into the world knowing that to SIMPLY STATE that he is a HE- will never be good enough as long as he has evidence that he may not be anatomically. While he is secure in his mind and his heart about who he is, the fact that others may not be can be emotionally damaging… and at times physically dangerous.

Security is a form of conviction and commitment. It means that you are not concerned or questioning what you should be, where you should be, or how you should be. It means ‘fearless.’ And when Stacey and Lizz revealed their love and Staceys transition on national television- that showed a type of fearlessness and bravery that few would be able to hold. They stepped off a cliff together into a void of the unknown- unsure of what the world might say about them, but understanding that their journey was strong enough to hold through any judgements. They knew their message was the most important thing to share, and they sacrificed their potential privacy and reputations to teach the world another level of integrity and self love.

When we last left Stacey on the premiere of Living Different, his story was unresolved. It should be enough for anyone simply to be exactly who and what they say they are. It should be enough to simply be you, however YOU’D define yourself. But unfortunately, in a world where people are constantly defining and labeling the expanding space around them- it is a difficult process. I would like to invite you to contribute towards giving Stacey the story he deserves. One that results in him living his authentic life in the body he authentically identifies with.

Stacey told me “When I look in the mirror I see what IS. But it does not reflect the full potential of the ME that I could be.”

Stacey and Lizz

To support that, to support his next step, and support a world where we support each other- please donate to our campaign brought to you by WhattheDoost.com. Just $1, $5, $20- or more- can change a life. PLUS there are really cool perks in there from an opportunity to go on an all-inclusive adventure with me (Rain Dove), to a professional lingerie photoshoot by  Living Different love interest Nomi Ellenson, to a video of a love ballad of your choice sung by Lizz to Stacey. And I will be donating my entire fashion week collection of couture clothing.

Let’s help Stacey be the fullest version of himself that he can be. Because, in my opinion, anyone who wants to offer the world the most that they can give- deserves to be given the world. This is a gift we can give Stacey- for giving us his story.

The cast of Living Different including Rain Dove, Nomi Ellenson, Mary Va’de Bon Coeur, Ethan Kaplan, and the publication What The Doost are standing behind this fundraiser in support and recognition that Stacey deserves the opportunity to be everything he wants to be especially since his story has inspired many others to do the same.