'I needed to socially transition': from announcer to advocate

NEW JERSEY (PIX11) – The person behind one of the most familiar male voices in the New York City subway system is telling her story to PIX11 News to increase trans visibility.

Bernie Wagenblast, who is 67 years old, is the voice that tells you, "There is a number four uptown train approaching the station. Please stand away from the platform edge."

Wagenblast maintained a male public persona until late 2022, when she socially transitioned to a transgender woman. 

She tells PIX11 News she always knew she was female and adds, "I remember at about four years old, visiting my grandmother and sitting in front of her vanity, putting on her necklaces."

She said she struggled with these feelings for decades and, when she was a teenager in the 1970s, was able to talk to one transgender woman secretly through a prearranged phone call at a payphone. 

Wagenblast said, "It was such an important moment for me because it was the first time I shared with anyone how I was feeling on the inside. In the 1960s and 1970s, there wasn't a lot of information that was available."

Finally, in the fall of 2022, a friend offered to help her dress for a semi-formal event. 

Wagenblast says, "She put the dress on did my makeup. For the first time in my life, I was able to be in public as the person I always felt myself to be, on the inside, and from that evening on, I knew I needed to socially transition."

A recently released U.S. Trans Survey found that Wagenblast is not alone in her feelings of satisfaction and fulfillment after transitioning. It found that 94 % of people living part of the time as a gender other than assigned at birth are "a lot more satisfied" or a "little more satisfied" with life.

It comes at a time when the ACLU is tracking more than 515 anti-LGBTQ bills in dozens of states nationwide.