A wave of transgender characters hits TV

'I am the new normal."

That's how Caitlyn Jenner ends the first trailer for her forthcoming E! docu-series, I Am Cait, set for a July 26 premiere.

In the July issue of Vanity Fair, Jenner told former Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News writer Buzz Bissinger she would like I Am Cait to focus on issues such as the rates of suicide in the transgender community.

There will also be a segment in which Jenner sees whether she can still hit a golf ball 300 yards with the addition of newly acquired "ample breasts," as Vanity Fair calls them.

C'mon, it's still TV.

Jenner is one of a host of trans people on TV in coming months, along with Laverne Cox, who returns as Sophia Burset on Netflix's Orange is the New Black (June 12), trans blogger Nomi (Jamie Clayton) on Netflix's sci-fi series Sense8 (it premiered Friday and was co-created by the trans Lana Wachowski, half of the brains behind The Matrix), the Lehwalds on ABC Family's Becoming Us (June 8), and TLC's I Am Jazz (July 15), about trans teen activist Jazz Jennings.

Also this year, Amazon Studios' fantastic Transparent debuted. It follows Maura Pfefferman (Jeffrey Tambor) as she deals with her narcissistic family while she embarks on her transition. It became the first streaming show to win a Golden Globe for best TV series, comedy or musical, among other awards.

So, why now?

The proliferation of transgender characters can, in part, be attributed to a wider array of distribution platforms. Amazon Studios, which puts out Transparent, and Netflix, with Orange is the New Black and Sense8, don't have to adhere to traditional advertising models.

For different reasons, cable, too, can push the boundaries further than broadcast. There are simply more channels, each with a need to differentiate itself from the next. TLC has stood out from reality-focused peers by looking at people with nontraditional lives, as in the controversial show 19 Kids and Counting. Jazz Jennings' views on gender and sexuality may be very different from those of the Duggars, but she fits the brand.

Jennings, like Jenner, has lived much of her life on TV. She started appearing on news programs about gender identity disorder when she was as young as 6, was the subject of an OWN documentary, and has become a YouTube star on her own terms.

There's no downplaying how important these media representations are.

I asked Bissinger how familiar he was with trans issues before reporting on Jenner. He immediately responded, "I'm a great fan of the show Transparent, because it shows not just how difficult it is, but how funny it is. The only normal person on that show is Jeffrey Tambor. It can be awkward and painful and humiliating."

In other words, Bissinger learned from the show's complicated and layered portrayal. Tambor's portrayal of Maura has much the same potential with transgender issues. Created by Jill Soloway based on her own experience as a parent transitioning later in life, Transparent works well that way. Just as Maura and her children are learning about her new life, so are we. Maura's friend Davina (trans actress Alexandra Billings) guides Maura, just as she guides us, through a certain type of trans experience.

It's not as though trans people are new to TV. But they have been shown only in specific lights, and are more likely to be victims on Law & Order or serial killers (see: CSI and Nip/Tuck) than real people.

Now, as Adrienne Shaw, assistant professor of media studies and production at Temple University, points out, most trans people on TV are a single type: They are trans women. Chaz Bono's run on Dancing With the Stars, coach Beiste (Dot-Marie Jones) on Glee, and Cole on The Fosters (Tom Phelan) are rare examples of trans men on TV. Most TV trans women are privileged enough to afford hormones or surgery. And most of the stories revolve around gender or transition rather than daily life.

Although the shows featuring trans characters are not perfect, they are slowly pushing the boundaries.

That's what makes Becoming Us on ABC Family interesting. Not only isthe showon a channel geared toward families (or more specifically, teens), it features a cast member of a type not often seen on TV.

The show centers on Evanston, Ill., teen Ben Lehwald and his relationship with his parent Carly, who speaks about how much better her life has become after transitioning. Ben and Carly's part of the show revels in its own normality. True, issues about Carly's transition are at the heart of Becoming Us, but the first episode centers on Ben's poor grades.

The other piece of Becoming Us, however, is Ben's girlfriend Danielle, whose father, Danny, is also trans. Unlike Carly, Danny uses male pronouns and talks to his daughter about his reluctance to leave the house in women's clothes.

Danny is in flux. He's not as traditionally feminine as Carly, nor does he seem as confident. His anxieties over people's reactions shape much of his character on Becoming Us.

Sense8's Nomi also adds dimensions. The first shot of Nomi shows her injecting hormones, and she is at first defined by her profession: a trans activist blogger. But her second scene? She's having sex with her girlfriend. Sex scenes happen constantly, explicitly, and comparatively chastely, on all types of TV, but never in this context, shot as romantic rather than salacious. Nomi is a sexualized being.

Cox, who plays Sophia on Orange is the New Black, appears on the cover of the July issue of Essence with the other black cast members, alongside the headline "Sexy at Every Size." (Cox has appeared on magazine covers before, notably Time magazine last year, with the headline "The Transgender Tipping Point.") Last season, Sophia spent much of her time giving sage advice about the female anatomy to fellow inmates. But in the third season, she takes on a bigger role, doing more than hair.

The third season looks at motherhood. In the season opener, Sophia gives her son advice about how to meet girls, in part because she's jealous of her ex's boyfriend. He gets to see her son whenever he wants. Sophia's advice has nothing to do with gender and everything to do with being a parent, and being unable to fulfill that role because she is in prison.

These are all baby steps in the right direction, expanding the number of ways trans people can be represented on TV.

Perhaps the biggest step so far was one not taken. This year, the pilot season of CBS's legal drama Doubt, Cox was cast in a supporting role as a brilliant lawyer. Cox, the first openly trans person to be nominated for an Emmy for her work in Orange is the New Black, would have become the first trans person to be cast as a series regular on a network show.

That would have been a big deal. The audience for broadcast dwarfs that for cable, and there's no barrier for entry like a streaming service such as Netflix or Amazon.

Doubt was not picked up for the fall season, presumably not because of Cox's role, but because of a host of other reasons shows are not sent to series. It would have been a huge step for media visibility. But what's important is that it's not nearly the end of the fight.

StartText

Becoming Us

Premieres 9 p.m. Monday on ABC Family.

Orange is the New Black

All third-season episodes premiere Friday on Netflix.

I Am Jazz

Premieres 10 p.m. July 15 on TLC

I Am Cait

Premieres 9 p.m. July 26 on E!

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@mollyeichel