Jahna Steele
Encyclopedia
Jahna Erica Steele was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 transgender
Transgender
Transgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles....

 entertainer and Las Vegas
Las Vegas Strip
The Las Vegas Strip is an approximately stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard in Clark County, Nevada; adjacent to, but outside the city limits of Las Vegas proper. The Strip lies within the unincorporated townships of Paradise and Winchester...

 showgirl
Showgirl
A showgirl is a dancer or performer in a stage entertainment show. Showgirl is also often used as a term for a promotional model in trade fairs and car shows, etc...

 who was voted Las Vegas' "Sexiest Showgirl on The Strip" in 1991, "Las Vegas Entertainer of the Year, 1992," and "Most Beautiful Showgirl, 1993." She was fired after being outed as a trans woman
Trans woman
A trans woman is a male-to-female transsexual or transgender person and the term trans woman is preferred by some individuals over various medical terms. Other non-medical terms include t-girl, tg-girl and ts-girl...

 by a tabloid television show. Steele made numerous film and television appearances, including hosting a transgender beauty pageant featured in the film Trantasia
Trantasia
Trantasia is a mainstream feature-film documentary chronicling 6 contestants in the first ever 'World's Most Beautiful Transsexual Pageant'...

.

Early life and career

Born in San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio is the seventh-largest city in the United States of America and the second-largest city within the state of Texas, with a population of 1.33 million. Located in the American Southwest and the south–central part of Texas, the city serves as the seat of Bexar County. In 2011,...

 as John Matheny, Steele was a Miss Gay USA pageant winner in the Texas finals under the name Jhoana Reis. She later changed her name legally to Jahonau Erica Steele. She joined the cast of the Crazy Girls Revue at the Riviera
Riviera (hotel and casino)
The Riviera is a hotel and casino located on the Las Vegas Strip in Winchester, Nevada. The hotel has over 2,100 rooms, many located in a 23-story tower. The casino has of gaming space.-History:...

 in Las Vegas during the late 1980s. In 1991, Steele was voted "the sexiest showgirl on The Strip"

Outing and its effects

Most people in Las Vegas, including the producer who hired her and her costars, "knew she was transgender but didn't care." She was outed on a 1992 edition of the television program A Current Affair
A Current Affair (US TV series)
A Current Affair is an American television newsmagazine that aired in syndicated from July 1986 to 1996 before reappearing briefly in March 2005. The show was produced by 20th Century Fox, and long based at Fox's New York flagship WNYW.-Overview:...

. The story of her outing and its negative effect on her showgirl career was featured in The National Enquirer
The National Enquirer
The National Enquirer is an American supermarket tabloid now published by American Media Inc . Founded in 1926, the tabloid has gone through a variety of changes over the years....

.


After being fired from Crazy Girls Revue, Steele was a frequent talk show guest and sang in nightclubs across the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 before moving to Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...

. She also appeared as a guest star in a second-season episode of NYPD Blue
NYPD Blue
NYPD Blue is an American television police drama set in New York City, exploring the internal and external struggles of the fictional 15th precinct of Manhattan...

("Don We Now Our Gay Apparel"), playing the character Candace La Rue. Steele later returned to school, and "learned how to do things other than entertaining" so that she'd have something to fall back on, studying computer courses and working for United Blood Services
United Blood Services
United Blood Services is a non-profit organization that gathers blood through donations and provides whole blood and blood products to 18 western states in the US...

 before she worked for a women's health facility and got certified in nonprofit management.

Transsexual beauty contest hostess

Steele made her comeback in 2004 when she hosted The World's Most Beautiful Transsexual Contest
The World's Most Beautiful Transsexual Contest
The World's Most Beautiful Transsexual Contest is a beauty pageant that was held in Las Vegas in 2004 that selected the "most beautiful" transsexual in the world.Jahna Steele was the mistress of ceremonies for the pageant, in which 35 transwomen competed...

 at the Riviera
Riviera (hotel and casino)
The Riviera is a hotel and casino located on the Las Vegas Strip in Winchester, Nevada. The hotel has over 2,100 rooms, many located in a 23-story tower. The casino has of gaming space.-History:...

. A documentary feature film based on the pageant, Trantasia
Trantasia
Trantasia is a mainstream feature-film documentary chronicling 6 contestants in the first ever 'World's Most Beautiful Transsexual Pageant'...

, recognized Steele's pioneering place in the history of the transsexual community. Steele was also featured on several segments of Entertainment Tonight
Entertainment Tonight
Entertainment Tonight is a daily tabloid television entertainment television news show that is syndicated by CBS Television Distribution throughout the United States, Canada and in many countries around the world. Linda Bell Blue is currently the program's executive producer...

in connection with Trantasia
Trantasia
Trantasia is a mainstream feature-film documentary chronicling 6 contestants in the first ever 'World's Most Beautiful Transsexual Pageant'...

. Following the success of the film, Steele continued her singing career and was the spokesperson for Tingari Skin Care System. Steele was working on her "kiss-and-tell" autobiography, Always a Lady when she died in Las Vegas. The cause of death was accidental overdose of cocaine
Cocaine
Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...

, morphine
Morphine
Morphine is a potent opiate analgesic medication and is considered to be the prototypical opioid. It was first isolated in 1804 by Friedrich Sertürner, first distributed by same in 1817, and first commercially sold by Merck in 1827, which at the time was a single small chemists' shop. It was more...

 and hydromorphone
Hydromorphone
Hydromorphone, a more common synonym for dihydromorphinone, commonly a hydrochloride is a very potent centrally-acting analgesic drug of the opioid class. It is a derivative of morphine, to be specific, a hydrogenated ketone thereof and, therefore, a semi-synthetic drug...

.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK