Dr. Ronnie Gladden stunned Australian radio hosts on Tuesday morning when they revealed they “identify as a white woman” despite being a black man.
The US-based speaker appeared on The Kyle and Jackie O Show, where they explained that they specifically wanted to identify as Hollywood star, Anne Hathaway.
The tenured English professor, who teaches in Cincinnati, said they discovered they were white women at the age of four, shocking hosts Kyle Sandilands and Jackie ‘O’ Henderson.
“When did you, as a young black man, first realize, ‘Oh sh*t. I’m actually a white woman?’ the shock jock asked Ronnie, who uses those pronouns.
“You wouldn’t believe it if I told you, but I’ll tell you anyway, since you asked me: I was four years old. I mean it,” the actor responded.
‘And your family wouldn’t have agreed to that. They probably would have thought, “Little Ronnie is here fantasizing,” Kyle said.
Ronnie went on to say that for most of their lives they kept their identities to themselves, not even telling their parents how they felt.
“I just realized that the way my brain was put together, and how it was mapped, didn’t match the math on the outside. And I thought, “What am I going to do with that?”, they said.
Dr. Ronnie Gladden stunned Australian radio hosts on Tuesday morning when they revealed they ‘identify as a white woman’ despite being a black man
As for their Anne Hathaway “identity,” Ronnie began hinting at a bizarre connection between themselves and the award-winning actress.
“So Anne Hathaway, of course. She is beautiful and she can do anything, they said.
“The thing about Anne Hathaway is that we know that her partner, as she herself has said, is a lot like William Shakespeare.
“And of course we know that ‘Anne Hathaway’ was, I believe, the name of one of Shakespeare’s relatives.
“And so I’ve been in a number of Shakespeare productions, so I just think it’s cool that there’s a literary connection. And besides, she’s just beautiful and brilliant.’
The US-based speaker appeared on The Kyle and Jackie O Show, where they explained that they wanted to identify specifically as Hollywood star Anne Hathaway
Host Jackie said, “So, is that more of a case where you just admire her and want to be like her, but don’t identify as her?”
Ronnie said, “Yeah, I won’t because she’s already taken, right? Isn’t that what Oscar Wilde said? You might as well be yourself because everyone else is busy.
‘She’s already taken. But she’s kind of an archetype. There’s something about her energy, her resilience… She represents, I think, a great avatar. Her look. Pale skin.’
Ronnie is part of a little-known community of people who are “transracial,” meaning they are both transgender and identify as transracial.
People who are transracial believe that race is a social construct and therefore a “choice,” but the idea of ”changing” race is highly controversial.
The tenured English professor, who teaches in Cincinnati, said they discovered they were white women at the age of four, shocking presenters Kyle Sandilands and Jackie ‘O’ Henderson.
A famous example of a transracial person is Rachel Dolezal, the former NAACP leader, who was exposed in 2015 as a white woman whose family is primarily of European descent.
The revelation sparked outrage around the world and on social media after she said the “idea of race is a lie.”
During an interview with BBC’s Newsnight that year, she claimed that ethnicity is not biological and compared being “transracial” to being transgender, prompting X (formerly Twitter) users to accuse her of using “white privilege” to make her arguments to put forward.
Despite the criticism, Rachel doubled down on her transracial identity, describing herself as “unapologetically Black” in a 2019 documentary.
Rachel has praised Ronnie’s work, saying it “encourages us to expand our concept of acceptance and inclusion.”