Jahna Steele
Jahna Erica Steele was an American transgender entertainer and Las Vegas showgirl 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 by a tabloid television show. Steele made numerous film and television appearances, including hosting a transgender beauty pageant featured in the film Trantasia.
Early life and career
Born in San Antonio, Texas, Steele was a Miss Gay USA pageant winner in the Texas finals under the name Jhoana Reis. In her early twenties, Steele underwent gender confirmation surgery, also known as sexual reassignment surgery. She then left San Antonio and moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, following her sex reassignment surgery. She later changed her name legally to Jahonau Erica Steele. She joined the cast of the Crazy Girls Revue at the Riviera 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. Following her outing by A Current Affair people began questioning Jahna's womanhood and asking if she was a girl, to which she'd reply, "Well last time I looked, for the past 25 years." The story of her outing and its negative effect on her showgirl career was featured in The National Enquirer.After being fired from Crazy Girls Revue, Steele was a frequent talk show guest and sang in nightclubs across the United States before moving to Hawaii. She also appeared as a guest star in a second-season episode of NYPD Blue, playing the character Candace La Rue. Steele was additionally on the Maury Povich Show in the early 1990s. Following her outing as being a transgender woman, she received much publicity leading her to be on various talk shows such as the Maury Show. When asked about her experience on the show, Steele stated, "... it was much more based on education and kindness. Now it's about exploitation and freakism, and like, 'We fooled you. Hardy-har-har. This is a man.' Which is just so insulting to somebody who's lived such a distressful life, because it's not easy growing up with a gender-identity disorder."
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 before she worked for a women's health facility and got certified in nonprofit management. Prior to her death, she also began hosting Aleman's La Cage drag show at the Riviera, and it was the last job she had before overdosing in January 2008.