Josh Seiter claims he faked being trans but fans say ‘The Bachelorette’ alum was ‘testing the waters’

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Former ‘The Bachelorette’ star Josh Seiter has revealed that he was pretending to be a transgender woman for the last five months to “prove” a point. 

The 37-year-old reality TV star appeared during a recent episode of BlazeTV podcast ‘Prime Time with Alex Stein’, where he admitted that he took up the pretense as a part of a social experiment to “expose how gullible and delusional the left is".

Seiter, whose Instagram bio still describes him as a ‘Trans Activist & Educator’, initially came out as a transgender woman in May 2024. Seiter further claimed in the interview that during his stint, he realized that following his coming out, he received a slew of death threats that made him “fear for [his] safety all the time.”

Former ‘The Bachelorette’ star Josh Seiter reveals he pretended to be trans woman

Appearing on the podcast, Josh Seiter revealed that throughout his faux journey, he believed that people did not “need to take anything to be a trans woman,” including hormones or elective surgeries, per the New York Post. 

“I think a lot of trans women are turned on at the thought of themselves being women. Guess what? It doesn’t magically make them women,” said Seiter, who started the episode with a full face of makeup and a scarf of transgender colors. 

Later in the episode, he had one of the staff members working on the show come and wipe his makeup. As Seiter revealed his hoax to the camera, he stated his ruse was to highlight how “gullible and delusional the left is.”

Seiter added, “We live in a free country, you can do whatever you want. But don’t make your fetish my truth. I don’t have to accept it.”

He added that as he first started on the course of his journey, he was met with “intolerance, bigotry and gatekeeping” from all sides, including transgender people and members of the LGBTQIA+ community. 

“I faked being a faker. I pretended to be a pretender,” Seiter said, before elaborating, “We are all the same, we are all men putting on makeup and dresses and claiming we are women, and I hope that this could help some people understand that just because you put on dresses and makeup as a man doesn’t magically make you a woman.”

During the interview, he also added how he came up with the idea of the pretense.

"How did I come up with this? I was talking with some friends and we said, this is patently false men do not magically become women,' said Seiter.

He continued, "I said, let me prove how ridiculous this is using reductio ad absurdum by being trans for five, six months," before noting, "And hopefully people will understand then how ridiculous this is."

Seiter, who was a contestant in the 11th season of ‘The Bachelorette’, also equated being transgender to chronic mental illnesses like schizophrenia. 

However, according to the American Psychiatric Association, gender dysphoria or gender non-conforming presentations like being transgender are not considered mental disorders. 

Seiter previously came out as pansexual in January 2021, and as a bisexual in 2023. He, however, did not touch upon the subject during his interview.

Josh Seiter's admission about faking to be a trans woman gets netizens talking

As soon as Josh Seiter admitted about pretending to be transgender for the last six months, fans took to social media to remind him that they understood his disguise long ago. Some, however, noted that he did it for clout. 

One of the social media users said, "Seems like bro was lowkey just testing the waters 😭 You couldn’t pay me to dress up like that…"

Someone else noted, "Wow. That’s quite the stunt. I’m sure the trans community will not take too kindly to this!"

Another netizen, meanwhile, said, "He is lying and knows it. He like many others took advantage of a moment to get attention and now they know its over."

"Now he’s admitting it, we called that out a while ago. But also LOL," said another user. 

Someone else added, "Yea ok…he just got lonely and changed his mind when he lost all his friends."

Another enraged user commented, "What kind of joke was this? Does anyone do this?"

Someone else said, "I always thought he was doing a Dylan Mulvaney act 🤷‍♀️."

"This raises serious questions about the authenticity of what we see online!" chided another user.

Someone else observed, "Without the dress his mannerisms are still feminine…"

"😂😂🤣😆. We all knew he was pretending…," said another fan about his pretense.

A user remarked, "I’m not buying it. He was somewhat famous, had a little following and decided to take on a new “role” to gain a larger audience. It worked for a short time, until people started to question him. He then decided to use that as a way to get “out” of his new role."

"I knew he was fake! Over the top," said someone else.

"Everyone knew the whole time tbf," reiterated someone else.

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