Rachael Passalt

Rachael Valerie Passalt?? (born Raymond Ethan Passalt; August 18, 1980) is an American advocate and writer. She is the oldest child of former American news presenters Julia and Yvonne Passalt. She is one of the primary recurring characters of Caprice & Ella. Rachael is a news anchorwoman, chemical fanatic, and conspiracy theorist. She is Traci Davidson's transgendered wife (formerly husband). On Caprice & Ella, she is known for her lifestyle which includes drinking Long Island Iced Tea, chemicals, and hunting. She is also known for her political views and conspiracy theories.
Passalt, like her father (Julia), is a transgender woman. In 2002, several years after being outed as bisexual by the tabloid press, she publicly self-identified as such in a cover story, eventually going on to discuss the process of coming out to oneself and to others in her autobiography, Minnesota Bi Man's Outing: A Guide to the Coming Out Process for Gays, Lesbians, and Their Families (2004) includes her coming out account.
Between 2013 and 2017, Passalt underwent male-to-female gender transition. A two-part local news feature in November 2014 explained that her transition had started a year before."Rachael Passalt", November 2014, ABC 11 News Nightline. In October 2014, she legally changed her gender and name. 
==Appearance==
Rachael stands at 6'2" and is often portrayed as skinny and scrawny, albeit with a bit of a beer belly. She has gray hair and previously had black hair that was balding. Rachael is seen typically wearing a leopard print shirt with a white undershirt, navy blue jeans and work boots. She has a brown pouch clipped to her belt where she keeps her cell phone, and wears a watch on her left wrist.
==Personality==
Rachael often gets caught up in her (usually farfetched and extreme) conspiracy theories and rarely will become paranoid, which can sometimes cause her to be very selfish or double-cross her friends (particularly Ava), although in the end she usually sees sense and comes to the aid of her friends. 
==Relationships==
*Traci Davidson: Rachael's wife. Rachael is very protective of Traci and often threatens others if she believes someone is trying to make a romantic and/or sexual connection to her.Rachael is fiercely devoted to her wife, and frequently displays her love for her. She blames herself for all of the problems Traci herself caused between them while she was cheating on her, has an explicit trust in her, and pampers her constantly. She lavishes compliments, favors and gifts upon her. Rachael is very supportive of Traci and many things she does. During the time that Traci was losing her hair, Rachael fully stands by Traci and accepts that she may go bald,"" and she is attentive to her work life as demonstrated by the time she consistently spends watching Traci's news and Breeanna's weather reports on the news."" Moreover, Rachael is very faithful to her. 
*Ava Zinn: Rachael often likes to tease Ava about numerous things but also acknowledges that Ava is the person she can turn to when she's in a difficult situation and needs help to get out of it. Like she does with many others, Racahel will be loyal to Ava but will quickly turn on her if she believes things have gone bad. Still, there are times when Rachael will stick by Ava for the whole duration.
==Trivia==
*Rachael appears to fail at everything Ava excels at; work, sports, lawn care etc. but succeeds at what Ava fails at. 
*Despite her stubborn personality she is, ironically, much more accepting and tolerant of other people's lifestyles than her friends. For example; She not only had no issue with her father being a transgender woman.
*Rachael and Karly are very close. In one episode, it is revealed they take a yearly fishing trip together as well as other outings without Ava. Also, when Ava isn't the one to talk Rachael out of something, it is usually Karly - that, or Karly is almost always with Rachael on her crazy schemes. Rachael also rarely insults Karly or has a bad word to say about her, being the first to stick up for her. Rachael also has remarked "Karly you're a genius!" In multiple situations.
==Early life==
Passalt is the oldest child of former news presenters Julia Passalt (b. 1957 d. 2024) and Yvonne Quimby (b. 1955 d. 2016) on which on occasion the young child often appeared. Passalt was named Raymond Ethan Pasalt after Raymond Burr, the actor who played the lead role in Perry Mason, which was one of the favorite shows that her maternal grandfather (Hamilton Quimby) watched.Julia Passalt biography on KFMN-FTV. Passalt has two younger siblings: a brother, Nickolas (b. 1984), and a sister, Gloria (b. 1988).
Passalt came out to both parents as bisexual at age 16. In the autobiography, Passalt wrote that, "as a child, I always felt there was something different about me. I'd look at other boys my age and feel perplexed by their obvious interests, which girl in class was the hottest, and who looked the most like cover boy George Clooney. When I was 11, I finally found a name for exactly how I was different. I realized I was bi."
In the Caprice & Ella miniseries "Breaking Boiling Point", Passalt revealed that she will join the cast of Caprice & Ella, sharing narrator duties with Karly Jameson.
==Activism and Personal life==
In 1996, while attending high school, Passalt met and began dating U of M sophomore Traci Davidson. Rachael (as Raymond) proposed to Traci at her high school prom and were married in 1998.
In 1998, Passalt graduated from high school and attended the University of Minnesota. The 2004 book Minnesota's Bi Man Outing detailed how Passalt's coming out "catapulted me into a political role that has transformed my life, providing me with affirmation as a bisexual, as a man, and as an individual." In the same book, Passalt reported that her father (Julia, then known as Jeffery Passalt), who was both a gay icon and an ally of LGBT communities, was quite uncomfortable with the news at first and "went ballistic"?? before coming to terms with it: "By 2000, two years after I came out publicly, my father had progressed so far that she agreed to 'come out' herself as the proud father of a bisexual son." Julia Passalt has since become an outspoken LGBT rights activist.
Passalt worked as a writer at large for U of M's LGBT Advocate and served as a director for WLMM NBC 13 Minnesota and was supported by wife (Traci Passalt). 
In October 2022, Passalt did what other television personalities almost never did back in the 1980's: renounced hair colring products and began wearing her hair grey, which was its natural hair style by that time.
==Gender transition==
In mid-2013, Passalt began undergoing a physical and social gender transition from male to female. This was confirmed in September 2014 by her father and her wife who then identified Passalt's preferred name as Rachael Passalt and posted on Facebook, "I almost feel like saying I lost a son, but gained a daughter after my son Raymond Passalt came out and just reconciled with his wife, Traci."https://www.facebook.com/julia.passalt/posts/308148202698250 Vote for the Girls U.S./UK founder and creator Ava Zinn, Fiona Johnson from KBYF, future fellow Vote for the Girls Australia moderator Kathi Jameson, among other colleagues were quick to offer praise and support for the announcement. Passalt's legal transition began on December 1, 2014 (coincidentally ten years after Ava Zinn began her own transition and another coincidence, the spouse of Kellie Rock and transgender daughter of Kym Christian began theirs as the same day as Rachael's), when Passalt began requesting an Indiana court to grant her request for a gender and name change tht was eventually granted in April 2015. She chose the name "Rachael Valerie Passalt" in honor of Rachael O'Connor and Valerie Rockey, both previously were supported by the Vote for the Girls franchise in 2014 (O'Connor was supported by the UK Vote for the Girls for the third series of the British adaptation of The Voice and Rockey was supported by the U.S. Vote for the Girls for the eleventh season of the American adaptation of So You Think You Can Dance).??
==Footnotes==
==External links==
Category: Transgender and transsexual women
Category:Characters
Category:Humans
Category:Females
Category:Characters Who Swear
Category:Characters Able to Speak
Category:Female Characters
Category:Transgender Female Characters
Category:Ava's Gal Pals
Category:Passalts