Trans Tornado Chaser Faces Storm of Rejection
Chimera Comstock has fearlessly faced hurricanes and tornadoes, but since coming out as trans she's faced a storm of rejection, including job loss and colleagues turning their backs on her, NBC News reports.
The 34-year-old Oklahoma native came out in August of 2020 with a tweet she posted while standing inside the eye of Hurricane Laura, NBC recalled.
"Since I have all your attention right now in the #eye cat 4 of #HurricaneLaura I thought I would take this moment to #ComeOut as #trans to the world," she posted at Twitter, where her profile describes her as a "Storm chaser & freelance journalist of natural disasters since '04."
(EDGE is not embedding that tweet since it includes Comstock's deadname.)
"Trans-lesbian," her profile adds. "She/her."
A 15-year veteran of the high-octane, sometimes highly dangerous world of storm chasers, Comstock has braved more than 100 storms, telling NBC "she is likely the only out transgender person to experience both a Category 5 hurricane and an EF 5 tornado — the most powerful of their respective kind."
Chasing storms means Comstock has survived winds so severe they heavily damaged or destroyed her vehicles. In 2018, NBC News noted, Hurricane Michael — which ravaged Florida — took the roof off a building in an Air Force based where she and other storm chasers had taken refuge.
Ordinarily, storm chasers help one another out in case of emergencies such as disabled vehicles or other problems encountered during the hazardous pursuit of violent storms.
But, Comstock told NBC News, no one helps her any longer in times of need.
"On her last chase — Hurricane Ida, a Category 4 that ransacked Louisiana over the summer — the tires were ripped off her car by the wind," NBC News recounted, and though Comstock issued a call for help from her peers, "none were willing to help her," NBC detailed, "leaving her stranded for a day."
"I lost most everybody I worked with because of it," Comstock disclosed, going on to say, "It's been extremely isolating."
She's also fallen on harder times when it comes to work.
"Since announcing her transition, she lost her main source of income (a job selling equipment for the trucking industry)," NBC News detailed, "and she is working in retail to make ends meet while she pursues a degree in information technology.
"She is far from alone: According to the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey, more than 1 in 6 trans respondents who had ever been employed reported losing a job because of their gender identity or expression."
But Comstock's courage has not wavered, regardless of the kind of hostile climate she might be facing. She described her vocation to NBC News as a civic mission: "When people see storms on TV, she said, they are much more likely to flee or take shelter," the article relayed.
Not only that, but "Capturing the aftermath of a tornado or hurricane, she added, often brings much-needed support to the communities they leave in ruins," NBC added, before noting that as violent storms grow stronger and more frequent, her camerawork "lets people see the growing dangers of a warming climate."
Comstock expressed no regrets, despite the challenges her public embrace of authenticity have led to.
"It wasn't me that people were seeing or knew or became friends with," Comstock said of her life before she came out; "it was a character I played to hide the fact that I was trans."