TV reporter reintroduces herself as a trans woman on air: ‘I finally know what it’s like to love me’
Nora J.S. Reichardt made time to re-introduce herself to viewers on the same day she legally changed her name. (Local 5 News/YouTube)
A television reporter has shared with viewers that she is a trans woman, in a moving message to viewers.
Nora J.S. Reichardt, a reporter for Local 5 News in Des Moines, Iowa, made time to re-introduce herself to viewers on the same day she legally changed her name.
On 5 October a report into Reichardt’s transition was broadcast live on the news channel.
The 24-year-old took time off from 17 September to 2 October to accomplish her “transition to-do list” goals, before announcing the news to viewers.
“My name is Nora J.S. Reichardt and I’m a transgender woman living in Des Moines and working for WI Local 5,” she said.
“For a long time I didn’t think I would get to say that, at least not on air like this.
“I didn’t know if there was a place and a space for me to do this sort of work that I’ve really come to love and enjoy, while also getting to be myself while I do it.”
The reporter spoke about the “wrongness” she felt around her body, and shared she had contemplated her gender identity in high school.
At that time, due to growing up in a rural area, Reichardt felt she was unable to find the words to express how she was feeling.
“I thought I was just depressed, I thought I was just anxious and I’ve had those feelings almost as long as I can remember,” she explained.
But it was her TV job, and feeling she wasn’t “connecting” with the person she saw that helped Reichardt embrace her true trans self.
‘Everyone knew me as Nora – except the viewers’
Following taking up counselling in September last year, Reichardt explained she began pursing medical intervention and hormone replacement therapy.
“There was a decent span of time where everyone in my life functionally knew me as Nora, except for the viewers at home,” she said.
Before coming out as trans, Reichardt said she adopted an approach at work that treated “every day at work as if it was a dress up day”.
After breaking the news she took to Twitter to share her thanks for all the people who supported her through the process.
It's hard to describe how it feels to finally share that. For a long time, my own body felt foreign and wrong to me, and transitioning has been the first time I've felt like myself in my 24 years of life.
— Nora J.S. Reichardt 🏳️⚧️ (@Nora_JSR) October 4, 2022
“So often conversations about people like me center around whether or not we can play sports or what bathrooms we have to use, and that’s sad to me,” she added.
“There is so much joy and beauty to be found in being trans! I finally know what it’s like to love myself, and I’m never going back!”
Reichardt has been reporting at the channel since July 2021.
Recently British YouTuber Charlie McDonnell, who is known as charlieissocoollike to her 152,000 Instagram followers, came out as trans on the platform.
