TransTainment!

Flawless Sabrina (L) with Harlow in 1968.

The Queen is a documentary film that follows drag contestants in 1967’s Miss All-American Camp Beauty Pageant, capturing plenty of drama both on screen and off. Though groundbreaking for its time, the film has been screened infrequently since its 1968 Cannes Film Festival debut and looked lost to history until last year, when a restored version hit theaters to mark LGBTQ Pride Month in June. Three of the contestants were Flawless Sabrina, Harlow and Crystal LaBeija and Andy Warhol was one of the judges. In 1967 you could be arrested for appearing in public in drag so the pageant, like the drag balls in Harlem, were underground events. In the woke 21st century some have noted that the majority of the contestants and all the judges of the Miss All-American Camp Beauty Pageant were white. Learn more about The Queen and the pageant from The Huffington Post.

The Chi creator Lena Waithe appeared on The Late Late Show with James Corden recently and announced the show’s first transgender character, Jasmine. The show just premiered its third season on Showtime and Waithe says the season will be the “gayest season ever” and that Jasmine is “fantastic.”  She does say that the actor in the role is a Chicago native and the transgender nature of the character will not be emphasized. Learn a bit more from United Press International. Refinery 29 has more information on how the trans character is introduced.

Kalki Subramaniam

Kalki Subramaniam is a celebrated Indian transgender activist, artist, poet, actor and inspirational speaker. She is the founder of Sahodari Foundation, an organization which works for Indian transgender population through its powerful art projects. Kalki has spoken over to a million students across India and is known for her relentless activism. She was one of the prominent activists who lobbied for the recognition of legal rights for transgender people and had a milestone victory in 2014 when the Supreme court of India finally recognized the transgender community’s civil rights in the country. She recently had an option piece published on the CNN website. Learn more about her and her causes from her own website.

Laverne Cox has produced Disclosure, a new documentary about transgender portrayals in film and TV, for Netflix. The film examines how Hollywood shapes the way Americans feel about transgender people, and how transgender people are taught to feel about themselves. Angelica Ross, Mj Rodriguez, and Chaz Bono, all appear and comment on iconic TV and film titles like The Jeffersons and The Crying Game in this context. The Grio has more information and The Los Angeles Times has a review. You can view the film trailer right here.

Rebecca Root

Doctor Who has introduced its first transgender companion for the show’s new Big Finish Productions audio series Stranded. Rebecca Root plays the role of Tania Bell with the BBC favorite’s Eighth Doctor Paul McGann, Torchwood star Tom Price, and Tom Baker as The Curator. The Doctor has lost his TARDIS somewhere in time and space and is stranded on Earth in London 2020. Doctor Who fans can download or order CDs of Stranded exclusively from Big Finish Audio until July 31. After that the program will go on general sale. Rebecca Root says that the character, while transgender, her gender has noting to do with the plot. Read about it in the Daily Mail.

Last week we mentioned in our news column that there was a petition being circulated asking for Pose star Dominique Jackson to portray the Marvel hero Storm in the next X-Men film. Ms. Jackson is from Tobago, a country she left to immigrate to the United States out of fear of abuse in her home land.  Her former home is excited now that she has made it big in the U.S. and their take on Dominique as Storm is positive. The Trinidad and Tobago news site Loop is soliciting signatures on the petition. (The Loop caption writer misidentified the franchise saying fans wanted to see her as Storm in Black Panther 2 but the article gets it right.)

Josie Totah

Saved By The Bell reboot has finally got its leading lady. Transgender actress Josie Totah will be leading the show which will air on Peacock streaming service. She will play Lexi, “a beautiful, sharp-tongued cheerleader and the most popular girl at Bayside High who is both admired and feared by her fellow students”. She will also be credited as a producer on the show. The show will air as part of NBCUniversal’s new streaming service, Peacock. Glamour reports the plot of the reboot will have original show character Zack Morris as the current state governor. He “gets into hot water for closing too many low-income high schools, he proposes they send the affected students to the highest-performing schools in the state—including Bayside High. The influx of new students gives the overprivileged Bayside kids a much needed and hilarious dose of reality.” The show premiers on Peacock on July 14.

Nine models participate in Calvin Klein Pride month ad campaign and among them are the campaign’s star, black trans model Jari Jones, plus Brazilian drag queen Pabllo Vittar, trans genderqueer YouTube personality Chella Man, queer pop artist Gia Woods, and “13 Reasons Why” actor Tommy Dorfman, who is gay. The series of pictures and videos were shot by American photographer Ryan McGinley. Learn more from CNN Style.

Courtney Act

J.K. Rowling who brought Harry Potter and the wonder of wizardry to life is now hurting her fans with her remarks in defense of a Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist who lost her job after anti-transgender remarks. At least that’s what trans media star Courtney Act believes. Rowling recently came under fire for invalidating trans people by using Twitter to slam an article for using the phrase “people who menstruate” rather than “women.” Courtney said to BANG Showbiz, “Many people would be fans of the books, it’s just hurtful and unnecessary and I think that we should be looking at ways to support and lift up – especially during Pride month, like read the room – and I think we should be focusing our attention on the injustices that become trans people, the violence rates, the life expectancy is so much lower, especially trans people of color.” It is ironic that one of Rowling’s creation that she used throughout the Potter series was Polyjuice Potion. That is a potion that allows a wizard to transform totally into another person, of any gender. She created this transformation elixir that many in the transgender world would die for but she can’t use her imagination to see the reality of transgender people. Learn more about Courtney Act’s comments from BANG Showbiz.

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Tags: drag, featured, Transgender

Category: Media, Transgender Fun & Entertainment