Kyler Mills came to work for Watermark in November 2021 as one of the company’s creative designers. He is an artist, whose talent can been seen on many covers of Watermark; he is a lover of anime, sushi and Quentin Tarantino films; and he happens to be a transgender male.
“I know other people, when they answer the question ‘how do you identify?’, say I identify as a trans male but I don’t really care for that. I am just some guy,” Mills says. “As I get older it’s important, for me anyway, to make that distinction because a lot of younger people I think will just answer that question with ‘oh, I am a trans man,’ and that’s true, I am a trans man but for me I am a man and I happen to be trans.”
Mills came out as trans about 12 years ago, around the time he moved to Orlando to attend the University of Central Florida.
“When I first came out it was scary because 12 years ago it wasn’t as common,” he recalls. “I went to [UCF’s] GSA and I said ‘I am a trans man and I would like care. What can you do for me?’ They didn’t have any answer for me other than to go to The Center, which turned out to be very good for me,” Mills says.
During his first trip to the LGBT+ Center in Orlando, Mills asked about trans services and was given a business card to a local therapist.
“Back then it was different than it is today,” he says. “Before you could be on hormones there were requirements and timeframes. It was the one card he had to offer me as a trans person. Comparing that to now, the accessibility of services is incredible.”
Trans services aren’t the only thing more accessible to the community now, Mills points out. Role models and trans people in media are much more prevalent today than when he first came out.
“There’s always been rockstars that have played with gender roles. The way they presented themselves, they were going in that nonbinary direction and I think those things were super important for me to see growing up,” he says. “Me and my husband talk about this a lot, when we were younger it was easier to see trans women in media but trans men weren’t as visible. But there was someone I followed online who lived in Germany, and he had come out and was talking about his transition and I thought ‘Is that a thing? Is that me?’”
Mills adds that he is amazed how far the community has come in visibility in just the past 10 years.
“There are so many more resources, online communities, more people to talk to, more places to go and get care and affirmation,” he says. “There’s more of a feeling of acceptance, like you have a community that is going to have your back. Back then I had no idea what was going to happen.”
When it comes to how others view the trans community, Mills stresses that in his day-to-day life, he and his husband are just like every other couple.
“Me and my husband, because it is important for us, have breakfast together every morning,” he says. “I go to work, do my 9-5 grind like everyone does. I’m lucky that I go home to a loving family. We watch some YouTube, we have dinner, I take the dog out. Nothing too abnormal. If I’m being good, maybe every few months I go to the doctor which I should definitely do more often. I’m not very good at that. Something I would like to become a part of my routine is I would like to start biking to work every day. We are in the middle of moving, I just bought a condo, so a lot of our day-to-day is packing. The things that make me unique and make me myself don’t necessarily have to do with the fact that I’m trans.”
Mills adds that for those in the world who want to focus just on the fact that he is a trans man, he has some advice.
“The fact that I’m trans is something that affects me and it doesn’t have anything to do with you,” he says. “At the end of the day you don’t have to think about it, you don’t have to worry about it. It isn’t your problem.”
To be the first person featured in Watermark’s new Visibili-T space is something that is exciting for Mills.
“This is a really important project that we are doing, to highlight trans voices in their everyday lives,” he says. “I hope our readers enjoy what we have coming for them this year.”
Read more about this new feature and Watermark’s commitment to the transgender community here.
