TransTainment 6/27/21

Maines as Dreamer.

Supergirl star Nicole Maines has been in the news for a couple of things. First for a court appearance in her native state of Maine. No, she’s not guilty of anything. (Except being fabulous.) The opposite in fact. She won a case in Maine Supreme Judicial Court back in January over her school district refusing to let her use the girl’s restroom and it has resulted in a settlement of $75,000. The money will go to her attorneys Boston-based Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders and Berman Simmons, a Portland law firm that represented Maines. Get that story from News Center Maine.

The second reason Maines made the news concerned her reaction to the end of Supergirl. Maines played the super powered trans character Dreamer, a.k.a. Nia Nal, for six seasons of the  show. She works at Catco alongside Supergirl, a.k.a. Kara Danvers. Like Kara she is another alien living on Earth but her powers were unexpected, and when her mother passed away she had no one to train her. Season six is said to have a story arc that brings Dreamer up to her full potential. This part of the story is also covered by News Center Maine.

Hey gamers! If you want to support transgender artists you can buy a bundle of 21 games created by transgender game creators for only $10. The Transgender Artists Bundle is available at itch.io until the second week of October. What’s in the bundle? It’s an eclectic range of games from many genres, including a collect-em-up RPG in which you battle your own clothes and a deceptively simple puzzle game that reminiscent of Tetris but presents an entirely new challenge.

Jamie Clayton

Jamie Clayton, the actress who made a name for herself in Sense8, is a semi regular character on The L Word reboot Generation Q. She plays Tess, a “leggy blonde jane-of-all-trades who doesn’t need a drink to have a good time”. Tess has sex appeal and a sense of humor that leads her to stealing every scene she is in. In her spare time she deals cards at secret stud-poker parties. There is no overt indication that the character is transgender and that has caused speculation among fans. When asked about Tess’s gender Clayton said, “The thing that I love about Tess is that whether she’s cis or trans or whatever she is, it’s not part of her story, which I really like, because to me at the end of the day, the only difference between a trans character and a cis character is that cis characters aren’t going around talking about their gender all the time.” Get more on the story from The Cut.

Malik Yoba was 26-years-old when he played Yul Brenner in the film Cool Runnings, and it’s been 28 years since the movie debuted. Since that film gave him his start as an actor he has appeared in many films and TV shows. He played NYPD Detective J C Williams on the police drama, New York Undercover, FBI Special Agent Bill Harken on Alphas, Jim Hudson in Revolution, and Vernon Turner in Empire. What had him in the news this month was not a new project but his coming out as a fan of transgender women. Yoba says he loves all women and men who are like him should stop hiding their truth from the world. Find more on his career and orientation on AmoMama.

Kim Petras made history September 12 at the 2021 MTV Video Music Awards pre-show when she performed her new single The Future Starts Now. She became the first transgender artist to perform at the VMAs. Other trans women appeared during the ceremony in 2014 but did not perform. Here’s video of her working hard on stage.

TS Madison

BROS is an upcoming gay rom-com co-written by and starring Billy Eichner. It’s the first studio film to feature an all-LGBTQ+ principal cast. It will follow the story of two men with commitment issues who attempt a relationship. As if having an all-LGBTQ+ cast isn’t enough Eichner has pushed the envelope to have every principal role—including the heterosexual characters—be played by LGBTQ+ individuals. He has also added several trans or nonbinary actors. TS Madison is a trans actress and author who most recently appeared as Hollywood in the critically lauded film Zola. Miss Lawrence, a gender-nonconforming actor, has appeared on Empire, was a regular on its spinoff Star, and also appeared in the Oscar-nominated The United States vs. Billie Holiday. Also joining the cast is Symone, the winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race season 13. The film is due to premier in August 2022.

Bushwig is an end-of-summer drag weekend extravaganza held each year in Brooklyn, New York. It got its start in 2012when the drag queens Horrorchata, 36, and Merrie Cherry, 38, were day drinking with their friend Simone Moss, 41, at a bar in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn. At one point, Horrorchata realized: “All my friends do drag.” And: “I wanted to see all my friends on the stage.”

A decade later, the festival has grown from a small time affair in someone’s backyard, to a two-day jamboree that draws all types of performance artists, singers, dancers and stylish queer people to one stage, for an audience of more than 5,000. While it started in Bushwick and was named after that neighborhood it has moved to the Knockdown Center in the Maspeth section of Queens. The festival has gotten so big and now feature national and international drag talent that the local queens from Queens are beginning to feel under-represented. Here’s a photo of one of the queens and you can see more in The New York Times.

Tags: drag, featured, Transgender

Category: Transgender Fun & Entertainment