Transgender actress Candis Cayne says
in an It Got Better video that she was told that being gay was “evil”
by a high school teacher.
The 44-year-old Cayne, who currently
appears on Caitlyn Jenner's reality series I Am Cait, got her
break in 2007 when she was cast to play Carmelita, a transgender
mistress, on ABC's Dirty Sexy Money.
In the video, Cayne recalls being
thrown out of a high school in Los Angeles.
“I was devastated,” Cayne said.
“And I went back to one of the teacher's houses where I was living
and she looked at me and said, 'You know you're getting kicked out
because you're gay. And what you are is dirty and what you are is
evil.'”
“That was [a] big moment in my life
where I saw first hand the devastation of true homophobia,” she
said.
Cayne came to the realization that she
“wanted to grow old as a woman” while living in New York, where
she performed in drag.
“I think the reason why I kind of got
through it was my parents were there for me. They have always taught
me to be who you are and always be true to yourself,” Cayne added.