Transgender model and activist Rose Montoya invited controversy Saturday when she pulled down her top at a Pride celebration on the White House South Lawn after shaking hands with President Biden.
The incident was posted to her 103,000 followers on Instagram, along with a follow-up clip Monday night, in which the 27-year-old snapped back at detractors.
“Going topless in DC is legal, and I fully support the movement to free the nipples,” she said.
“Why is my chest now deemed inappropriate or illegal when I show it off? However, before coming out as trans, it was not,” she added, seemingly oblivious to the fact that it would also be a breach of decorum for a man to remove his shirt at an executive mansion function.
Montoya grew up the daughter of a pastor in a “small farm town in Idaho,” according to her website.
She began performing in drag during college and came out as transgender in 2015, when she started “gender affirming hormone therapy” and changed her name legally to Rosalynne, the bio says. It’s unclear what her given name was.
Montoya came out as bisexual a year later before declaring she was non-binary in 2019, the site says.
In 2021 she was named one of “18 LGBTQ+ Policy Makers and Advocates Changing the World” by Out Magazine on the strength of her online “educational content” as Republican-led state legislatures around the nation enacted anti-trans legislation.
“Since September of 2020, I’ve had three gender-affirming surgeries,” she told the outlet.
“For a long time, I thought having surgery meant that I didn’t love my body enough. This last year I learned that having surgery is an act of self-love.”
The next year, Montoya secured a Queerties Awards nomination for “best TikToker.”
“Model, actor and advocate Rose Montoya gets frank answering fan questions, and we love to see it!,” the site said.
She went viral during the COVID-19 pandemic when she described an uncomfortable moment at airport security.
“Going through the scanner, there’s a male scanner and a female scanner in the TSA checkpoint – and, looking at me, you know, I look like a woman and I am a woman,” Montoya said on TikTok.
“But, going through the scanner, I always have an ‘anomaly’ between my legs that sets off the alarm.”
Montoya has been featured in modeling campaigns by TomboyX, Savage X Fenty, and Yandy, and delivered speeches at Yale University and Stanford University, according to her LinkedIn page.
She resides in Los Angeles.