Pedro Pascal, star of "The Mandalorian" and "Wonder Woman 1984," took to social media this week to celebrate his younger sister, Lux Pascal, who just came out to the world as transgender.
The elder Pascal, 45, shared the cover of Chilean magazine Ya, featuring his younger sister, on Instagram Tuesday. Alongside the image, he wrote a loving post caption in Spanish, "Mi hermana, mi corazón, nuestra Lux," that translates to, "My sister, my heart, our Lux."
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Lux Pascal, a 28-year-old aspiring actress told the magazine that her older brother has been a supportive family member throughout the changes in her life. "He has been an important part of this. He is also an artist and has been a guide. He was one of the first people who gave me the things to form identity," she told Ya in a Spanish-language interview.
"For everyone in my family, my transition has been very natural," she said of her family's support. "Almost something they expected to happen."
Lux, who is studying acting at The Julliard School in New York City, told the magazine she has no problem reflecting on her past or looking at photographs of herself before her transition, which she started in July 2020. "I don't feel anxiety when I see old photos of mine," she said, adding, "The same happens to me with theater: I see someone who was doing what they liked."
Reflecting on her youth, Lux said, "I think if I would have been sufficiently sure of myself I would have transitioned in my adolescence. In school I trusted my classmates. Coming out of the closet as a gay man didn't cost me anything, but deep down it wasn't who I was. It was only a step on the staircase, but it wasn't me.
"It was an easy thing to say," she said about her coming out, "but the truth was, 'Oof, if you really knew what I feel..."
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Pascal added that once she transitioned, she didn't have very clear goals, but she didn't feel like transforming herself into the "perfect" woman. "That doesn't exist."
On LGBTQ activism, she said, "We need trans activists to be good, intelligent, be informed and be references to speak against transphobia, homophobia, racism."
Pascal's coming out and her decision to do so publicly is activism in and of itself. According to a Harris poll cited by GLAAD, an LGBTQ media advocacy group, only 20% of people in the United States say they personally know someone who is transgender, making it more important for the stories of trans people to be told in media.
When picking her chosen name, the younger Pascal said she looked to a memory from her childhood, as well as one of her favorite films.
"When I was younger, in school they taught us about the meaning of our names," she recalled. "'Benjamin means this, Camila means that.' Suddenly, they said, 'Lucas means he who brings the light.' And when I was talking with my friends about my transition and they asked about my new name, that memory came to mind.
"Also, one of the characters in Sofia Coppola’s 'Virgin Suicides' was named 'Lux' which is light in Latin… I was pleased with my childhood memory and that my previous name had signified something I was looking for myself."
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