Filipina trans woman Jehenna Bana chronicles her journey of self-love – from seeking acceptance from her family, undergoing surgery, and navigating work abroad as a member of the LGBTQ+ community. PrideMonth
This story is published in partnership with SoJannelleTV, a magazine show about Filipinos in North AmericaJehenna Bana remembers feeling like a woman as a young child, putting on her older sister’s high-heeled shoes and dresses and admiring herself in the mirror. The transgender woman would eventually follow in her sisters’ footsteps, competing in beauty pageants in Candon, Ilocos Sur, Philippines.
“That’s when my siblings came to realize I’m not like other transgender women, who becomes a trans woman and moves to Japan, because that’s what they worried of me becoming a trans woman – that I [would] be wasting my education and opportunity to become a professional,” said Bana. It wasn’t enough to just be really good, however. Bana felt she needed to be great. She set out to excel at the top of her class in school. That hard work paid off, when Bana finished college and began working as a nurse at a network of kidney care facilities across America. She briefly lived in San Francisco, where she first began undergoing gender affirmation care. While she chose to undergo surgery, she said it wasn’t to adhere to anyone’s expectations of her.
Bana said that while society has come a long way in tolerating transgender people, there still is far more progress needed in terms of accepting.