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Bernie Wagenblast, the voice of the NYC subway, finding her true voice after sharing her transition

By
Alice Gainer
Alice Gainer
Alice Gainer
Alice Gainer joined CBS News New York as a reporter and anchor in January 2013. She covers breaking, feature and general assignment stories.
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Alice Gainer

/ CBS New York

NEW YORK -- June is Pride Month and CBS2 is featuring a well known voice in our area.

The person behind those familiar announcements on the subway and on the radio is now finding her true voice.

"Five months ago today, I transitioned to living my life full time as a woman," Bernie Wagenblast told CBS2.

She said this transition has been a lifelong dream.

"When I was 4 years old, I remember wishing I was a girl," she said.

After switching clothes with a female neighbor as a child, she was told she could not do that. For decades, very few knew how Wagenblast truly felt.

"The woman I was dating, I knew I was going to ask her to marry me, and I felt if I'm going to do that she needs to know about this part of me," she said.

Wagenblast said 2017 was the turning point.

"It was a very innocent thing. I had seen on some late night comedy shows showing pictures of NFL quarterbacks as women and they were using an app [FaceApp] that had just come out to do that," she said.

After trying the app out herself, she said, "This was the first time I saw what I felt was a realistic representation of what I might look like."

A few years ago, she told her daughters and their husbands and, more recently, her grandchildren.

"All of the people I shared this with, none of them had any inkling that this was something I had been living with all my life," Wagenblast said.

Now at 66 years old, Wagenblast, who still goes by Bernie, is happier than ever.

"There was not an hour of my waking life probably from when I was a little kid to when I socially transitioned that I didn't think about this at least in passing -- every hour it was constantly there," she said. "The acceptance and support that I've had has just blown me away. That has been the best part of this."

Wagenblast acknowledged transitioning is a process and she urged loved ones of trans people to educate themselves and reach out to support groups.

"It's not wrong and it's not unusual to mourn the person that they knew," she said.

Above all, Wagenblast urged, "Let the person know that you love them [and] this doesn't change anything."

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