Ana Scarlett Vargas was assigned male at birth, but she said she knew she was a girl at just 7 years old. At 13, she started performing in drag shows, impersonating the Mexican actress Laura Leon, in the tourist city of Acapulco where she was raised.
During one performance, she was shocked to find her father in the audience. "I prefer you dead, than as a fag," she recalled him saying, before beating her.