Welcome to Geena Rocero’s Tranimal Kingdom
Geena Rocero comes out of modeling retirement for GAY TIMES, in this editorial reimagining a few of her favorite, gender-defiant fauna WORDS BY FRAN TIRADO PHOTOGRAPHY HUNTER ABRAMS MAKEUP LAUREL CHARLESTON FASHION LJ PEREZ HAIR WILLIAM SCOTT BLAIR LIGHTING DIRECTION SAM LEE MAKEUP ASSISTANT V SADIKU HAIR ASSISTANT ZENOBIA TEAGUE STYLE ASSISTANT MIA NAVARRO JEWELS SWAROVSKI HEELS GIANVITTO ROSSI Because she grew up in the city, trailblazer Geena Rocero feels like she’s always trying to get back to her roots in a pre-colonial Philippines.
Her desire to do so, she says, came to fruition in a tanning salon in San Francisco — you’ll have to read her book to hear the rest of that story.
But before 400 years of colonization from Spain, America, and Japan in World War II, the Philippines were “an animist culture,” Geena says. “Everything revolved around the seasons, the animals, the flowers, the harvest.” In her pageant days, she was anointed with the insult-turned-nickname- turned-memoir-title, “Horse Barbie,” for her tumbling hair and long legs.
Now, she explores her ancestral animism in her current work as a storyteller, uncovering parts of her colonial “brainwashing” that denied what has always existed for her. “And that led me to how natural it is to have variations of sex and gender.” Growing up, Geena was taught: “You were assigned this gender.
