Transgender, through a modern looking glass

Abstract

www.thelancet.com/psychiatry Vol 2 May 2015 e16 Everyone is talking about Transparent, the Amazon Original Series that has already won two Golden Globes this year, and rightly so. It takes a topical subject and injects humour, grit, and humanity without gloss and crassness. The show tells the story of Maura (played by the splendid Jeffrey Tambor), a transgender woman in her late 60s who, after living her entire life as Mort Pfefferman—a retired divorced father of three—decides to finally live as a woman, a situation that she feels would complete her despite all the risks that go with it. Her coming out to the rest of her family is slowed down by the selfabsorption of her three children, who are too involved in their own unmoored or unmooring lives. The eldest daughter is transitioning from a boring, middle-class, suburban married life to the same, but with a girlfriend rather than a husband; the son, a music producer, is in a constant search for love but often in the wrong places; and the very smart but completely lost youngest daughter is still trying to figure her life out. They all deal with Maura’s coming out in different ways. As their dark secrets are exposed and their lives shaken, Maura, by contrast, transitions slowly into a serene, strong, and increasingly confident woman. Transparent is delightful. It is tremendously funny, fresh, and adventurous, and the cast is superb. Tambor exceeds all expectations in the role of Maura; although some members of the lesbian, gay, transgender, and bisexual community had initially expressed concerns about a cisgender man playing a transwoman, his honest performance reveals his awareness of the responsibility of the role. Tambor also received a lot of help from the transgender people who constitute much of the cast and staff behind the scenes. The script was beautifully crafted by Jill Soloway, who was herself inspired to write it after her own parent came out as transgender 3 years ago. Transparent promises to be transformative with regard to how the transgender community is perceived in the USA. It is the fi rst time a transgender character takes the centre of a story in a television series in such a frank way, and it arrives at a moment in which the transgender community is becoming increasingly visible in the media. Transparent could provide greater mainstream understanding of a community that has had to live for far too long in the margins, and for which the fi ght for full acceptance has only just started.