Actor Josie Totah has come out as transgender in a powerful essay for Time, writing that she is "ready to be free".
Totah, known for her role on the TV show Champions, as well as Glee and Spiderman: Homecoming, wrote that she had felt boxed in by the media as a "gay boy".
"Numerous reporters have asked me in interviews how it feels to be a young gay man," Totah wrote in the essay.
She continued: "I was even introduced that way before receiving an award from an LGBTQ+ rights organisation. I understand that they didn’t really know better. I almost felt like I owed it to everybody to be that gay boy. But that has never been the way I think of myself.
“My pronouns are she, her and hers. I identify as female, specifically as a transgender female. And my name is Josie Totah."
Taking to social media to share the heart-felt article, Totah wrote: "For so long I’ve been trying to hide who I was by pretending I’m someone I’m not."
She continued: "And I did it in fear. In fear that I wouldn’t be accepted or loved. I tried so hard to become a person that I knew I never was.
"But I’m realising I can’t fake it forever. I know now more than ever I’m ready to take the step to becoming myself."
She concluded: "I am Transgender and this is my story."
Celebrities including Tommy Dorfman and Mindy Kindling tweeted Totah their support and congratulations.
