Former ‘Bachelorette’ star Josh Seiter describes ‘abuse’ since coming out as trans: ‘I fear for my safety’
A former Bachelorette star who came out as transgender since the show says she doesn’t need surgery or hormone treatment to “be a woman.”
Josh Seiter, 37, who was born male, and appeared on season 11 of TV show in 2015 as a cis male competing with others to match with a single woman.
But she came out as a trans woman in May 2024 and has faced death threats since.
Josh has now revealed she is not on hormone medication and is unsure if she will get surgery.
She says she’s now realised she “doesn’t need to take anything to be a trans woman”.
But this hasn’t stopped trolls cruel comments over her decision to turn down surgery and keep traditionally-male features like facial hair.
She says some abuse has even come from trans people who say she is not trans or part of the LGBTQ+ community.
Josh, a influencer, from Chicago, Illinois, said: “I fear for my safety all the time.
“If I am in a restaurant, a park or in downtown Chicago I get nervous.
“I am looking behind my back and wondering if someone is going to stab me or hurt me.
“The abuse I have been getting is pretty awful – I have been met with intolerance, bigotry and gatekeeping.”
Josh said she has struggled with his identity for as long as she can remember.
Aged seven she would often go into her parent’s bedroom while they were out and put on her mum’s dresses and jewellery.
Josh said: “I couldn’t articulate what I was going through but I knew I felt comfortable.
“I was homeschooled in a very conservative Christian family.
“It was only in college that I was given the freedom to explore my gender identity.
“It was during that time that I knew I was trans but 18 years ago there wasn’t that vocabulary.”
Josh came out as pansexual in January 2021 but it wasn’t until his dad died in April that she started to “express herself”.
Josh said her family have largely been supportive.
Josh said: “That patriarchal father figure was gone and I started to express myself more.
“Some of my family I am close to and some I am not.
“Since my father’s passing, I have been estranged from some family members.
“Despite my mother being of a Christian faith she has been really understanding and open-minded.
“She is a supporter of mine and she loves me — she loves me regardless.”
Josh said she doesn’t know if she will get surgery in the future and is taking her transition day by day.
She said: “A this point I have thought about all aspects. I am taking it day by day and trying not to jump ahead.
“All the hate I have been receiving made me focus on the now and the every day.
“The great thing about being trans is there is not one way to do it.
“I realised that I don’t need to take anything to be a trans woman.
Josh came out publicly in May 2024 and said she was not prepared for the amount of abuse she would receive.
She has been told she can be a woman because she is muscular and told she is not a real trans woman.
One comment said “I am a real trans woman you are not”
Josh said: “Within my first post as a woman, I started getting abuse and it has been nonstop since.
“I get hundreds of messages a day.
“I am getting a lot of hate from the LGBTQ+ community and the conservatives are giving me death threats saying they want to murder me.
“I have been told that if they run into me in the street they will shoot me.
“The abuse has been awful, it is a complete 180 from what has been represented to me my whole life that the LGBTQ+ community is accepting and tolerant.”
