‘I’m Keeping My Penis’

Meet Mr Donavan Monnervile aka Miss Decembre Snowe—winner of the 2012 Miss Gay Caribbean USA  Pageant. The pageant winner stopped by the STAR for a photo shoot and this interview last week clad in winning sash and evening gown and I immediately sought to clear the air as to the preference when being addressed, whether it was ‘her’ or ‘him’, ‘Mr’ or ‘Misses’.
“Well when I am dressed up like this it is okay to refer to me as ‘Miss’, ‘she’ or ‘her,’” Snowe replied with a smile. “So do you plan on making the complete transition to looking like a woman?” I followed.
“Although I am more comfortable dressed up as a woman, since I feel even more confident like this, to be honest I do not think that I want to put anything like breast or cut off my penis. I am keeping my penis. I think if I do that it would kill the fun for me because it is the transformation that I like; the fun is putting on false breasts, but if I had to go under the knife I would never,” Snowe replied matter-of-factly.
Stating that she “always” new that she was gay, Decembre Snowe told the STAR that it was not until fifth form days at the Castries Comprehensive School, she decided to come out. “When I actually told my mom she was like, tell us something we do not already know,” Snowe says.
“My mom and my family accepting and supporting me made it easier in me accepting myself, because if she is okay with it then I don’t need to please anyone else. My family is very supportive,” she went on. Not only her family she says but her community has embraced and supported her, making life somewhat easier as a gay person here. “The people in my community of Grande Riviere, Dennery, love, love, love me. They support me in everything that I do and everything they do they ensure I am involved and many of them look up to me,” the 2012 Miss Gay Caribbean said.

A lot of hard work went into participating in the NY pageant Decembre Snowe says. The experience of the pageant Snowe says was quite exhilarating. “There were so many Saint Lucians who are in New York right who were at the show. So I was like a crowd favourite from the get go,” she says. Returning here, the reception she says has been encouraging.
“I was thinking I was going to get more negatives, but it’s a lot more positive,” Snowe says.  “But I think the negative is very good too because it motivates me to prove them wrong. I like it because I think I am getting them upset. I think I am rubbing them sore,” she says with a chuckle.
But what is her message as a gay person living and fighting stigma and discrimination in Saint Lucia. “That gay people are human beings, we are talented and educated. We are not asking to get married but we just want to be accepted for who we are in society and to be treated fairly,” he affirmed.
Although unemployed right now Snowe says she has not received undue discrimination when seeking employment. Her interest currently lies in being self-employed in the area of cosmetology. However she is already preparing for two more pageants next year—Miss Gay World and Miss High Performance in Toronto and California. respectively.
Meanwhile Snowe, who is Catholic by the way and says she believes in God, is hoping to help Saint Lucians open their eyes and stop being so hypocritical.
“Saint Lucians need to let us live our lives. We are not hurting anyone. This is a very hypocritical society due to the fact that they praise criminals, the criminals have rights, there are men who sleep with their own children, men who molest little children, abuse women, but they are not concentrating on these things. Live and let live.”