Trans Media Arts

Amanda F. Steele

Hi Folks! Welcome to another rousing addition of Trans Media Arts! There’s been a lot of transgender entertainment in the news lately. I’m here to bring you as many as I can. I hope your month is going well and hope your April showers are turning into May flowers. 

The NBC show Good Girls very recently aired a transgender coming out story. This would be a first for major network TV. The NBC show features three mothers who are pushed into committing theft. One of the mothers has a child named Sadie who had been exploring their gender in the previous episode. In a heartwarming moment, Sadie comes out as transgender to his mom. It was a momentous moment for major network television and for transgender people in the entertainment industry. Although other cable networks and streaming services have featured transgender people in transgender roles, this would be a first for the major networks. Mother Annie tells Sadie about the birth of his new baby brother by saying “It’s a boy,” to which Sadie replies “So am I. I always wanted to be a boy.”

Isaiah Stannard portrays Sadie.

Good Girls creator Jenna Bann spoke about the coming out moment. “We realized we had a really great opportunity to tell the story about a character who was gender non-conforming, but at the same time not necessarily have that be the story. What’s most important to the character and the story we’re telling between Sadie and Annie is really about the bond between Sadie and his mom. We like the idea that the character of Sadie was exploring his gender expression in the show.”

Even though the Rosanne reboot was perhaps the first show to introduce a gender non-conforming adolescent on a major network. Isaiah Stannard was the first transgender character playing a transgender character on a major network show. That is history making! This is good news for transgender entertainment and we’re hoping for more! {Editor’s Note: Let us not forget Nicole Maines in Supergirl. That’s on the CW but it is a network.]

Charlize Theron recently announced that her 7-year- old child is transgender. Her son Jackson, who was assigned male at birth, came out as a transgender girl. Theron states “That she thought she had a boy 7 years ago. Until she looked at me when she was three years old and said ‘I am a boy!’ There you go! I have two beautiful daughters who, just like any parent, I want to protect and I want to see them thrive. I will do everything in my power for my kids to have the right to [be who they want to be] and to be protected within that.” Theron has spoken out for LGBTQ rights in the past, such as in 2009 when she wouldn’t marry her boyfriend, Stuart Townsend because marriage equality wasn’t legal yet. Charlize Theron has starred in many major Hollywood films and she won an Oscar in 2004 for her role in the film Monster.

Trixie Mattel

Who would have expected a country singing drag queen? It seems like drag is everywhere and Trixie Mattel says “Country fans are perceived to be more close minded than they really are.” Matel won RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 3, and has made real inroads in the country music world. Mattel has made 2 Americana/Folk albums featuring an autoharp. Her latest album hit #1 on iTunes singer/songwriter chart. She’s received accolades in the music industry for her work, and even received an endorsement deal with Fender Guitars. 

There’s a new documentary from the BBC spotlighting a Scottish drag queen. The documentary is entitled Mother Truckers: Drag Queens of Glasgow. It features three drag artists at different stages in their career, drag legend Barbara La Bush, Lawrence Cheny and newer drag queen Boss. The documentary hopes to highlight the budding drag scene in Glasgow. Glasgow is home to Scotland’s biggest LGBT population. Lawrence Chaney said “Ever since I was little, I knew i wanted to be a star. I wanted to be in film, TV.” Voss says about drag “I felt like I was doing something bad, like I was breaking the rules,” but she seems to have found her comfort zone now. 

Santino Fontana as Dorothy.

Remember the film Tootsie? Well, there’s a new musical comedy based on that film. The character Micheal Dorsey is a New York actor who can’t get a job because he’s so difficult, but he retools himself as a Southern Lady named Dorothy Micheals. Unlike the film, Dorthy Micheals stars in a bad musical comedy instead of a bad soap opera. it’s a modern successful twist on the old film, but still maintains the laughs. 

That’s all Folks! We’ll see you again around Memorial Day! Don’t miss all the good summer movies upcoming!

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Tags: featured, Transgender

Category: Transgender Fun & Entertainment