12 Pop Culture Classics That Nailed Being Queerly Trans
From Game of Thrones to Xena: Warrior Princess, here are twelve times movies, TV shows, and celebrities stood with Pride for trans, non-binary, and intersex people
Hey there, everyone. It’s Step-Hen-ie here to give you your daily dose of euphoria with 12 pop culture classics that nailed being queerly trans.
1. You’ll Never Watch The Simpsons The Same Way Again
Move over Mr. Garrison, there’s more than one animated (formerly?) trans teacher.
Audiences met tough-as-nails Brunella Pommelhorst as far back as season 3 in the only episode of the Simpsons to be banned from Disney+, but it wasn’t until the season 17 episode “My Fair Laddy” that the long-running show revealed even gym teachers are sometimes waiting to complete their transition
In season 17 episode 12 “My Fair Laddy,” Mr. Skinner announces that the school gym teacher — Brunella Pommelhorst — will be undergoing gender affirmation surgery. As part of Brunella’s social transition, they will request everyone to refer to them as Mr. Pommelhorst going forward.
Read here: You’ll Never Watch The Simpsons The Same Way Again
2. The Awful (And The Amazing!) Trans Rep In Lost Girl
The producers said they didn’t mean it, but is ignorance enough to excuse blatant transphobia?
Expressing warmth and enduring love for the series, oldaintdead wrote “My Love Letter to Lost Girl After 5 Years of Fabulous TV,” saying:
There were bi women, gay men, lesbian women, straight folks and it was all good. Kenzi’s declaration that she liked men was treated with the same respect as Lauren’s declaration that naked football players really weren’t that interesting.
Hells yeah! That sounds great. What else did they say?
In a larger sense, there was much about Lost Girl that was significant in the landscape of pop culture. The attitude toward sexuality was all-inclusive (well, minus a transgender character).
Oh no.
Oh…
Oh no.
Read here: The Awful (And The Amazing!) Trans Rep In Lost Girl
3. You’ll Never Watch The Rocky Horror Picture Show The Same Way Again
The film’s secret connection to another cult classic reveals the truth behind one of Rocky’s most iconic characters.
Romeo. Juliet. Hamlet. Macbeth. Riff Raff.
I’d tell you to find which one isn’t like the rest, but they’re all just as famous.
Few people since Shakespeare have characters that live on in as much infamy and pure adoration as those Richard O’Brien created in the Rocky Horror Picture Show. But if not for a tiny viewing that held less than a hundred people, the world may never have discovered this cult classic.
Read here: You’ll Never Watch The Rocky Horror Picture Show The Same Way Again
4. The Craft: Legacy
Frankie: “We have superpowers without even trying. We literally house babies in our stomachs. ”
Lourdes: “Well, not all of us can do that.”
Frankie: “Shit. You know, point taken. My bad, Lou.”
Lourdes: “Yeah, it’s all good. You know trans girls got our own magick, anyway.”
— The Craft: Legacy (Blumhouse Pictures, Columbia Pictures, Red Wagon Entertainment, Sony Pictures)
While several recent stories have played with fantastic premises that unfortunately depend upon an outdated men vs women paradigm, The Craft: Legacy delivers a worthy sequel to a cult classic with queer magick that extends far beyond the gender binary.
But really, how could it not?
The witch who takes her power from the North — spirit of earth and body, spirit of dirt, blessed be — is the transgender teenage witch named Lourdes.
Read here: The Craft: Transgender Legacy
5. Shut The **** Up…Jason Voorhees Is Gay?!
No one escapes Camp Crystal Lake…especially if you’re queer.
Jason Voorhees, iconic villain from the Friday the 13th series, is gay. If it was a slow news day, I’d bury the lede, but it’s Halloween, and there are about eight million articles published about the Friday the 13th series.
So yes, Jason is gay, and I’m giving that tidbit away for free because the fact that Camp Crystal Lake’s infamous serial killer is gay isn’t nearly as jaw-dropping as who he fell in love with.
The proof, as they say, is in the blood-spattered pudding.
Read here: Shut The **** Up…Jason Voorhees Is Gay?!
6. What Robin Williams Taught Me About Being Transgender
Most of us didn’t encounter this scene until Robin won the Oscar for it. Until it proved he was as worthy of being a dramatic actor as a comedic one. But he filmed the scene long, long ago. He had to know drama was in his soul.
In some sense, we are all suspended in a moment where we can choose our path. Do we practice gratitude for who we are, what we have, and what may still be to come? Or do we wait until we win an Oscar to confirm our worthiness?
I still struggle not to see the feeling of euphoria like an Oscar…but I’m getting better at it. I work hard to explore and fulfill the things that make me feel euphoria. The things that make me feel whole. I also relax so that those things can find themselves. I don’t have control over everything. I never did.
Read here: What Robin Williams Taught Me About Being Transgender
7. What Matt Damon Taught Me About Being Transgender
Imagine chasing that and not getting it. And then getting it finally in your 80s or 90s, with all of life behind you, and realizing what an unbelievable waste of your…
That’s the part that sticks with me.
That’s the part that reminds me of addiction, what addiction expert Gabor Maté (Kundalini Yoga Training Seminar) describes not as substance dependence but a compulsive relationship with anything that has taken power over our lives.
As a woman with trans experiences, I chased the feeling of euphoria as though I would ever feel enough euphoria to never again feel dysphoria. As though I would ever get the ultimate fix of gender validation to never again need validation.
Read here: What Matt Damon Taught Me About Being Transgender
8. What Comedian Pete Holmes Taught Me About Being Transgender
Your brain is that weird best friend you can’t get rid of. It’s the weird best friend that laughs at jokes you know aren’t funny. It’s the weird best friend that pokes fun at the weirdest insecurities a person could ever experience. What’s worse, it’s good at it.
Then there’s Pete Holmes, that weird comedian you’d never want to get rid of. He’s got a joke that illustrates some of the weirdest brains in the world. You know…the kind where the gender in your brain may not necessarily match the gender of your body.
In the space of about thirty seconds, Pete tells a joke that helps us understand the experience of dysphoria, why it’s so ****ing hard to overcome, and how to embrace the source of that suffering as our new best friend.
Read here: What Comedian Pete Holmes Taught Me About Being Transgender
9. You’ll Never Watch Alien (1979) The Same Way Again
The Alien franchise is extremely queer and pro-trans.
Thanks to a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it screen readout in Aliens (1986) of the people who died in Alien (1979), a lot of people are already familiar with the first trans character.
One trans character alone distinguishes the movie from pretty much any sci-fi movie of that era — and almost as many sci-fi movies of today. But there’s a second trans character, too.
Transphobia threatened to erase the second transgender character from sci-fi history and franchise canon, but unearthed evidence from USENET archives reveals Alien was meant to also include a trans man.
Read here: You’ll Never Watch Alien (1979) The Same Way Again
10. The Trans Short Film Version Of Everything Everywhere All At Once
This weekend, I finally checked out a movie starring an acclaimed Asian actress who may finally get her due by leading audiences through an inter-dimensional rupture in which an unlikely hero must use the skills, wisdom, and insight from each multi-verse version of herself to return to her own dimension and finally accept her authentic self.
But enough about The Actress, the dimension-spanning short film starring trans actress Isobel Sandoval in which, well…see the above description.
BOOM GOES THE DYNAMITE!!!
Read here: The Trans Short Film Version Of Everything Everywhere All At Once
11. You’ll Never Watch Xena: Warrior Princess The Same Way Again
Xena: Warrior Princess was a goddamn pioneer for LGBTQ+ activism. The series played with queer romance, the diversity of nearby weaponry, and why the patriarchy is obviously and utterly awful for everyone regardless of gender.
Next, the show invited rising star Karen Dior to play Xena’s newest ally — and Gabrielle’s worst enemy.
Karen Dior first broke into movies as an adult film star, then published a memoir and transitioned into mainstream roles. Yet even as their acting career reached new heights, Karen increasingly turned to activism, all the way until their sad passing from AIDS-related complications in 2004.
But before she would face her own rainbow passage, she would help solve a beauty pageant true crime mystery.
Her ally wouldn’t be Sherlock Holmes. Not even Benoit Blanc.
It would be the warrior princess Xena.
Read here: Xena Kissed A Trans Girl…And She Liked It
12. Barbie, Blade Runner, And The Future Of Cyberpunk
Is The Barbie Movie Secretly A Sequel To The Matrix?
In the most subversive movie of my generation, our protagonist wakes to the truth that their deepest dread isn’t just paranoia. Their seemingly idealized world is actually the dystopian creation of a malevolent intelligence harvesting their bodies for resources.
But enough about Barbie — I want to tell you why it’s secretly set in the same cinematic universe as The Matrix.
Read here: Barbie, Blade Runner, And The Future Of Cyberpunk
If you like my work and want to support it, send me a tip or become a subscriber for Queer History on Patreon, Medium, YouTube, or Substack