Image via The Yappie
In 1952, Christine Jorgensen returned to the U.S., after serving in the Army, as the first person to become widely known for having sex reassignment surgery. After serving in the military, she was an actress and nightclub singer. Her transition made it to the front page of the New York Daily News and she became known for her polishedness and advocacy for transgender people. In 1967, her autobiography, Christine Jorgensen: A Personal Biography, was published and sold almost 450,000 copies. She also gave lectures at colleges about transsexuality, and she later dissociated with the term “transsexual” and popularized the term “transgender”. Though she often received rude and offensive jokes, questions, and comments, she embraced the acknowledgment of the topic. Media often depicted Jorgensen as someone with psychological illness and with both positive and negative attitudes; Jorgensen always accepted this with grace, taking advantage of the attention and personally changing the false narrative of transgender people and advocating for the community. At age 63, Jorgensen died in 1989 as the woman who publicized transitioning and shaped a new, changing, and inclusive view of the subject. While Christine Jorgensen wasn’t the first transgender person in American history, she was the first person to become widely public with her transition.
Since the death of Christine Jorgensen, the transgender community has only grown. Today, there are many successful, talented, young transgender actors. Hari Nef is an American actress, model, and writer. Recently, she played one of the many versions of Barbie in the 2023 film, Barbie. Nef is a transgender woman who started taking female hormones in 2014, around the same time she was discovered by a photographer through Instagram. While Nef has received many negative comments about playing Barbie from far-right viewing people, she’s also received an overwhelming amount of positive praise for her powerful, feminine performance.
Zoe Terakes is a transmasculine Australian actor known for their roles in Wentworth and as Hayley in the 2022 film, Talk to Me. After the film was released, it was banned in Kuwait due to Terakes’ gender identity. Terakes’ response to that was: “Our film doesn’t actually ever mention my transness or my queerness. I am a trans actor who happened to get the role. I’m not a theme. I am a person.” On the other end of the interpretation of Terakes’ performance in the film, it is noted that the role of a bully in a horror film is normally a male character, so the character being a teenage girl earned praise because of its uniqueness and “displacement of expectations”, as said by The Guardian.
In recent times, it isn’t just young transgender actors gaining more recognition. 41-year-old Indian-American actress and transgender activist, Aneesh Sheth, played a major role in the 2023 film, Red, White & Royal Blue, a film adaptation of Casey McQuinston’s queer romance novel. In the novel, it is written that Amy, Sheth’s character, is trans but it isn’t mentioned in the film. While it’s not mentioned in the film, it’s refreshing to see a transgender character played by a transgender actor.
Not only have there been more movies with transgender actors and characters, there has also been more transgender people in popular television shows too. Elliot Fletcher is an American transgender actor best known for his roles in Faking It, The Fosters, and Shameless. In Shameless, Fletcher plays a gay transgender man named Trevor who works for an organization that helps homeless and runaway LGBTQ+ teenagers and he dates one of the main characters. Another trans actor who really rose to fame after starring in a TV show is Hunter Schafer, an American actress, model, and LGBTQ+ rights activist. She’s best known for playing transgender high school girl, Jules Vaughn in Euphoria.
The list of transgender actors getting more roles and being in more shows and movies goes on and on; Elliot Page, Laverne Cox, Michaela Jaé Rodriguez, and more. More inclusivity in characters and the actors that play them is very important and refreshing to see and I hope to continue seeing more in the future.