While gay people have slowly made their way onto US TV screens, trans characters still tend to be relegated to murder victims, hookers or are there purely to be the butt of a joke (such as the ‘hilarity’ of a straight male character not knowing a trans woman hasn’t had gender reassignment surgery).
However The CW is planning to change that, with Deadline reporting that they’re developing a series about a female-to-male trans teen. The site says, ‘Written by Brooklyn-based writer-playwright Kyle Jarrow and executive produced by Michael London (Milk), ZE is described as a raw, quirky family drama about a FTM (female-to-male) teen and his family. A personal choice takes on controversial public significance when a Texas teenager announces she is transgender and will be living life as a boy. As his dysfunctional family spirals into identity crises of their own, he discovers that he might be the most well-adjusted of them all.’
The title, ZE, represents a non-gender-specific pronoun (like he or she). This marks the first time a transgender person will be the lead of a primetime show.
Don’t expect to see it soon, as the show is currently just at the development stage, which suggests they’re hoping to make a pilot early next year and then decide whether to move it forward into a full series – indeed, it’ll have to jump a lot of hurdles before it makes it to our screens. There will undoubtedly also be many looking closely at who is chosen to play the lead role, and whether the makers will find a real trans teen or not.
I hope they do use an actual FTM Trans teen to play the lead role. It’ll not only be more believable but more respectable. I can’t wait to see how it turns out. 🙂
Im an actual FTM so i think i should contact them (: