Transgender fashion model and advocate Geena Rocero recalled her experience of being detained in an airport because her passport still identified her as male in an interview with HuffPost Live this week.

"I was held there for a couple hours, being questioned about who I am," Rocero, who was born in the Philippines and came out as transgender in 2013, recalled of the experience, which took place in 2005 when she was traveling from New York to Tokyo. "That moment raised my consciousness."

Rocero, who became a U.S. citizen in 2006, said she "felt a sense of validation" after she came out last year.

"I wasn't ready a year [before]. I just felt a sense of...I was ready to talk about it," she said. "It was a very emotional time but really, more so, just a feeling of being validated."

