34 | QSALTLAKE MAGAZINE | TRANSGENDER AWARENESS
Qsaltlake.com |
Issue 287 | November 1, 2018
More than AnwithInterview Transgender meets ‘Transformer’ the eye Janae Kroc
as her documentary becomes available to stream BY MIKEY ROX
You don’t
mess with Janae Kroc. One look at her and you’ll see why. Born Matthew Raymond Kroczaleski, Janae — the transgender subject of the award-winning documentary Transformer — is a former Marine who made a name for herself (as Matt) as a competitive powerlifter and bodybuilder. In 2009, she set the male world record in the 220-pound weight class lifting 2,551 pounds. And while she’s not as powerful as she used to be, in the physical sense at least, she can still squash you like a bug: Last year, 18 months into her estrogen therapy, Janae lifted 210 pounds for 10 reps and deadlifted 605 pounds. Recently, she has accelerated her transition from male to female, an evolution a decade-plus in the making, which has come with its own set of challenges. In this interview, Janae opens up her new documentary (streaming now); the discrimination she’s faced since coming out; how the bodybuilding community has both shunned and embraced her; raising three well-adjusted, supportive sons (she and their mother divorced as a result of her coming out); the long, costly road to gender-reassignment surgery; and how some burdens weigh more than any barbell she’s ever touched.
