Fitzgerald Webb was born for the spotlight. But it was an intimate crowd — family and a few close friends — that gathered for one of the biggest events of his life. It was the evening he would see his new chest.

But more on that later.

Growing up female in Fortson, a small town between LaGrange and Columbus, Webb sang in musicals and played drums in his high school marching band. He danced with a candle on his head for the Pandanggo sa ilaw, or “dance of lights,” in cultural productions for his mom’s Filipino American club. But even as he reveled in those performances, something felt off.

“I remember feeling like there’s got to be more than this,” Webb says. “I wasn’t being my true self.”

Sometimes he made discoveries that brought him closer to his authentic self, but that didn’t please other people. He recalled getting in trouble for watching the gender-expansive cult classic “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”

“My dad was upset. I was like, ‘I don’t get it, they’re all beautiful people.’ What was the issue?”

While attending Auburn University in Alabama, Webb made a group of queer friends who broadened his knowledge of gender and sexuality. As he began to better understand himself, getting on stage was a pivotal part of the journey.

One summer Webb enrolled in a drag camp hosted by local performers to help newcomers learn drag and compete. Performing as a man, he found, felt right. He began to see why as a child he had hated his clothes and been horrified when his breasts began to grow in.

Drag was “the only gender expression I had,” says Webb, who still identified as a woman at the time. “I could be this whole different person.”

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

After graduating in 2018 Webb had two major realizations: That he wasn’t a “she” and that he wanted to continue performing drag. But being in Alabama made things challenging.

When he decided to transition from female to male, finding gender-affirming care ― while possible — was unpleasant. “Getting on testosterone in Alabama was an awful experience,” he says. He felt judged and belittled by the people working in the doctor’s office.