Karen Adell Scot is a woman whose life story spans extraordinary professional achievements, personal courage, and unwavering activism. She is an award-winning high school science teacher in California, a former Major in the military, a law enforcement officer, a feature film screenwriter and producer with movies shown in theaters, and a beauty queen who captured public attention after winning the Miss Trans 2015 pageant. Karen Adell Scot also became widely known after her transition was forcibly exposed by the media, an experience that shaped her outspoken advocacy for transgender dignity, accurate representation, and access to healthcare.
Her story is deeply rooted in lived experience, shaped by an early awareness of her womanhood, a later-in-life transition completed with determination and clarity, and the painful reality of family rejection that so many transgender people face. Through teaching, filmmaking, political activism, and community work, including her TransCare initiative, she has dedicated her life to visibility, education, and support for transgender people. Whether standing in a classroom, speaking to policymakers, writing screenplays inspired by her own life, or mentoring others with compassion and honesty, she embodies resilience, strength, and an unyielding commitment to helping others live as their authentic selves.
Monika: Today it is truly my pleasure and honor to interview Karen Adell Scot, a woman of remarkable depth and diversity. She is an award-winning high school science teacher in California, a feature film producer and screenwriter, a former Major in the military, a law enforcement officer, and, most recently, a beauty queen. Hello, Karen Adell!
Karen Adell: Hi there, Monika!
Monika: For those who are meeting you for the first time, could you share a few words about yourself?
Karen Adell: Thank you so much for inviting me. It is a genuine honor to share a little of my life and journey with your readers.
Monika: In December 2014 your coming-out became a major media story across the United States, placing you unexpectedly in the public spotlight. Were you satisfied with the way the media covered your transition?
Karen Adell: Absolutely not. I was outed against my will on the front pages of many newspapers, on over twenty local news broadcasts, and then on all the major American national news broadcasts, and it went viral on the internet. Many stories used male pronouns and then allowed comments where others called me a “thing” and an “it,” even calling for me to die as some sort of filthy piece of garbage. Some stories about me were so bad that other news stories were written using my example of how NOT to write about transgender women.
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| At the Transgender Law Center SPARK Gala. |
Monika: For many years transgender people were portrayed in the media through stereotypes or ridicule. How would you describe the way transgender characters were traditionally shown in films and on television?
Karen Adell: The tide is turning slowly. We were the only group, a little more than a year ago, that was still mocked in movies and on television. The perpetual joke of the huge, overly made-up man with a beard in a dress, portrayed as a supposed transgender woman who would be attracted to the protagonist of a comedy, was still being used even recently.
Monika: And how do you see transgender representation evolving today across films, television, and other media?
Karen Adell: Now things are changing. We are being seen by many in the media as who we actually are, transgender human beings born as we are, who need to be treated with the same dignity, kindness, and respect as any other minority group. Stars like Laverne Cox and others are being allowed to show their professionalism and are depicting characters that are actually like we really are on television and in films. I am personally writing a movie screenplay in which the protagonist is transgender.
Monika: When you returned to the classroom presenting openly as yourself, how did your students respond to that change?
Karen Adell: The students were mostly very accepting and encouraging toward me. They gave me flowers and wrote wonderful, kind notes on a huge card to make me feel welcome. Most of the students have been great, although there is a small group that reflects the bigotry of their parents and will never look at or talk to me when I greet them. No, it is the adults of the previous generations who are the biggest problem.
Monika: From your perspective as an educator, how did being able to live openly affect your presence in the classroom and your relationship with your students?
Karen Adell: Interestingly, I was always entering my class as a woman, even before transition, because I was a woman. The only thing that changed was presenting as my real self instead of hiding. The kids immediately saw that I was much happier in class, and they commented on how much happier I seemed to them. They say I seem to be smiling all of the time, and I am.
Monika: How would you describe the overall condition of transgender women in American society today?
Karen Adell: The situation for us is deteriorating in my opinion. Our suicide rate is climbing, and the rate of transgender women being violently murdered, especially transgender women of color, is horribly rising. Our unemployment rates are abysmal, and a huge percentage of transgender people have experienced homelessness.
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| Karen just before winning a beauty pageant. |
Karen Adell: Health is a challenge for many women who are told they can get insurance help to transition, but in reality, when they are under Obama Care and relying upon state agencies like Medi-Cal, they are not able to get services easily. They are told they can get the services, but the bureaucratic red tape makes it so the doctors are either paid a pittance for the surgeries or are not paid at all. The doctors simply then refuse to take the government health care, and the transgender person finds they are left out in the cold. Without proper insurance help, Gender Confirmation Surgery and the vital and necessary Facial Feminization Surgery are so expensive that most people cannot afford these life-saving services.
Monika: That sounds devastating. Have you seen cases where these barriers have led to extreme consequences for transgender women?
Karen Adell: There are women who have given up and threatened to commit suicide after initially believing they might be covered for these procedures, only to discover they would never get them because of uncaring bureaucratic red tape, doctors refusing to accept their insurance, and lack of government payment. I personally have had my insurance refuse to pay for my estrogen even though I am legally guaranteed it, forcing me to pay cash I did not have.
Monika: Living in such a society must be incredibly challenging. How are transgender people generally perceived by the wider American public and certain political or religious groups?
Karen Adell: American society is ruled by a pervasive and widely believed paradigm that transgender men are just women posing as men, and transgender women are just men posing as women. They are seen by the religious right as perverts, pedophiles, deceivers, and liars, acting to try to fool everyone. They are treated as an “abomination” to God and are seen as trying to subvert God’s holy gender binary created in the Garden of Eden.
Monika: What kinds of social consequences do transgender women face because of these perceptions?
Karen Adell: They are seen as destructive to the dominant Christian culture and as a danger to the minds of children. They are perceived as invaders trying to gawk at or molest people in public and school restrooms. They are often set apart, shunned, ostracized, disdained, misgendered, and treated as if they are lying, cheating, and immoral. Hating or even attacking them is sometimes viewed as acceptable.
Monika: Have these prejudices led to violent attacks against transgender women?
Karen Adell: Recently, near my home in California, five men went to an area with a visible LGBT community to attack a transgender woman just for the sheer pleasure of “beating up a tranny.” They assaulted her as she walked from getting coffee, breaking her ribs and cheekbones, splitting her lips, and causing bruises and contusions all over her body. If she had not been able to fight back, they could have killed her. This paradigm in America and in many countries of the world is why transgender women are being murdered violently at a rate of one woman every thirty-two hours, and that rate is rising.
Monika: When did you first begin to live as a woman, and what were the challenges you faced growing up with your true identity?
Karen Adell: I initially transitioned as a tiny child. I was female from my first self-aware memories. I told my mommy I was a little girl and asked to wear a scarf on my head to simulate long hair. In America in the 1960s, a little boy body with a girl inside could not go to school as a little girl, so I had to go to school as a boy. This started a lifelong bout with Cultural Gender Inertia ruling my life. Everyone expected me to be a boy and later a man’s man. I was forced to keep up this façade for decades.
Monika: When did you begin living fully as your authentic self, and what was that experience like?
Karen Adell: I began my second and final transition on April 21, 2013, and never looked back. I was 55 years old. For me, the most difficult part was coming back to my true self and finding that nearly my entire set of friends and family had decided that I was not worthy of their time any longer. I was shunned by so many people. My personal transition was fast and done with scientific planning and style. I am a science gal who knows how to plan well. I am fully transitioned now.
Monika: When you were transitioning, did you have any transgender role models whose experiences guided or inspired you?
Karen Adell: I didn’t have any role models at all. I was kind of a “Lone Ranger” in my area. Later I found out that others had gone before me and examined their pathways to see what I could do to enhance my transition.
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| Modeling for the NoH8 campaign. |
Monika: Are there any transgender women today whom you admire or look up to for their courage and achievements?
Karen Adell: There are many whom I look up to. Other military ladies like me, such as Sage Fox and Kristin Beck, to name a few. I also appreciate the difficult paths actresses like Laverne Cox have traveled, and women like Cece McDonald who had to fight for their lives and were then placed in jail just for defending themselves.
Monika: What was the most difficult aspect of coming out as your authentic self?
Karen Adell: The hardest thing by far was family shunning and disdain. The gigantic pain from being shunned is the cause of my suicide attempt. Fifty-seven percent of transgender people will attempt suicide because they are cut off from and no longer included in their beloved families. It is so sad that at the time when you need the greatest support of your life, those who say they will always love you and be there for you are the first to leave and shun you.
Monika: The transgender cause is often included within the broader LGBT movement. Do you feel the transgender community is able to advocate for its own issues effectively within that group?
Karen Adell: We try. I have had some huge support recently when I won the Miss Trans 2015 beauty pageant. A large number of gay and lesbian people were so sweet and supportive of the transgender people in our community. I know that in some areas, transgender people are put down and even ostracized by the LGB community, but here that does not happen. Here we are treated wonderfully and with kindness. This is how it should be.
Monika: Are there leaders or activists in the US transgender community whose work you feel is comparable to Harvey Milk’s contributions to gay activism in the 1960s and 70s?
Karen Adell: Mara Keisling, the Executive Director of the National Center for Gender Equality, and those who are working at the Transgender Law Center are my heroes. Also, there are so many nameless men and women working tirelessly and with no fanfare to help in their own way, in their own area, who will never be known publicly, yet are as important as any big names.
END OF PART 1
All photos: courtesy of Karen Adell Scot.
© 2015 - Monika Kowalska
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