Trans is all the rage. Get used to it. Look around. Genders are bending and lines are blurring all around you.
The Danish Girl, starring Eddie Redmayne as a guy who becomes a girl, premiered at TIFF on Saturday night.
So did About Ray, starring Elle Fanning as a girl who becomes a guy.
There is Oscar buzz around both films.
They’re timely. given the hype over Caitlyn Jenner, nee Bruce. When a social issue goes Hollywood, you know it has gone mainstream, too.
In case you’ve been frozen solid since the 1950s, “transgender” is the T in LGBT.
It stands for anyone who does not identify with gender “norms” — from cross-dressers to surgically altered transsexuals.
Not too long ago, the T also stood for taboo. Trans men and women were freaks. T-girls, Shemales. He-shes. Trannies. Ladyboys.
Now they have their own reality shows and gaze from the cover of Vanity Fair. They compete in the Miss Universe Canada pageant — with the backing of Donald Trump.
They star on Orange is the New Black and get Emmy nods. A transgender supermodel, Brazilian Lea T, is the face of Givenchy and Redken.
Transgender mayors have popped up from England to New Zealand. Next year, transgenders can serve openly in the U.S. military. Shrinks no longer call their life a “disorder.”
They can put their preferred gender on their Ontario driver’s licence. Your kid will soon be taught about them in public school.
On Facebook, you can choose boring old “male” or “female” or customize to “transsexual male,” “transexxual female” and dozens of other labels, such as “pan-gender,” which covers all bases.
The transgendered have even invaded that conservative bastion, Bay St.
“This is great,” says Enza Anderson, Canada’s most high-profile transgender banker.
“It’s fascinating how the whole movement has come full circle.”
Likely you recall Enza was the hottest thing in size 11 heels on Toronto’s political scene. She finished third in the 2000 mayoral race won by Mel Lastman.
You may even recall a column for which I took a stroll in her pumps. My calves have never been the same.
Last time I checked, Enza worked as a financial services coordinator for the Bank of Montreal branch on Church St. in the Gay Village, but she has since transferred to Bay and King.
“Talk about ultra-conservative,” she tells me. “Ten years ago? No way, no how.
“I’m lucky. Working for a bank, it’s all suits and you can’t show arms or legs. For BMO to have someone like me there is very progressive.”
And timely.
Trans is cool. Trans is hot. Trans is mainstream.
This is the way of the world. One by one, “minorities” overcome fear and bias to become accepted (more or less) by the rest of us — and even trendy. Blacks, Italian immigrants, Irishmen, women, hippies, Catholics, natives, Asians ...
Sooner or later, they’ll get to old, bald guys.
Lesbians, gays and bisexuals are practically comformists these days. So, it shouldn’t surprise you that the T in LGBT is taking its turn on the civil rights battleground.
“We’re making our mark in Hollywood,” says Ms. Anderson, 51, an icon of the revolution. “We’re making our mark in corporate Canada. You just have to understand that it’s here forever and to appreciate trans people, to understand that they’re human, too, with human rights.”
In other words, live and let live.
She says not everyone has heard the good news. She says a city truck manned by city employees in city uniforms “drove by me two weeks ago, heckling and laughing.
“It’ll be a long time before the yahoos get the message.”
On the other hand, the trans-formation makes life in the mainstream much more interesting, on Bay St. in particular.
“I get to work in an environment where all the women have great shoes,” reports Enza.
Strobel’s column usually runs Monday to Thursday. Hear him Tuesday and Thursday mornings on 94.9 The Rock FM.
[email protected].
The Danish Girl, starring Eddie Redmayne as a guy who becomes a girl, premiered at TIFF on Saturday night.
So did About Ray, starring Elle Fanning as a girl who becomes a guy.
There is Oscar buzz around both films.
They’re timely. given the hype over Caitlyn Jenner, nee Bruce. When a social issue goes Hollywood, you know it has gone mainstream, too.
In case you’ve been frozen solid since the 1950s, “transgender” is the T in LGBT.
It stands for anyone who does not identify with gender “norms” — from cross-dressers to surgically altered transsexuals.
Not too long ago, the T also stood for taboo. Trans men and women were freaks. T-girls, Shemales. He-shes. Trannies. Ladyboys.
Now they have their own reality shows and gaze from the cover of Vanity Fair. They compete in the Miss Universe Canada pageant — with the backing of Donald Trump.
They star on Orange is the New Black and get Emmy nods. A transgender supermodel, Brazilian Lea T, is the face of Givenchy and Redken.
Transgender mayors have popped up from England to New Zealand. Next year, transgenders can serve openly in the U.S. military. Shrinks no longer call their life a “disorder.”
They can put their preferred gender on their Ontario driver’s licence. Your kid will soon be taught about them in public school.
On Facebook, you can choose boring old “male” or “female” or customize to “transsexual male,” “transexxual female” and dozens of other labels, such as “pan-gender,” which covers all bases.
The transgendered have even invaded that conservative bastion, Bay St.
“This is great,” says Enza Anderson, Canada’s most high-profile transgender banker.
“It’s fascinating how the whole movement has come full circle.”
Likely you recall Enza was the hottest thing in size 11 heels on Toronto’s political scene. She finished third in the 2000 mayoral race won by Mel Lastman.
You may even recall a column for which I took a stroll in her pumps. My calves have never been the same.
Last time I checked, Enza worked as a financial services coordinator for the Bank of Montreal branch on Church St. in the Gay Village, but she has since transferred to Bay and King.
“Talk about ultra-conservative,” she tells me. “Ten years ago? No way, no how.
“I’m lucky. Working for a bank, it’s all suits and you can’t show arms or legs. For BMO to have someone like me there is very progressive.”
And timely.
Trans is cool. Trans is hot. Trans is mainstream.
This is the way of the world. One by one, “minorities” overcome fear and bias to become accepted (more or less) by the rest of us — and even trendy. Blacks, Italian immigrants, Irishmen, women, hippies, Catholics, natives, Asians ...
Sooner or later, they’ll get to old, bald guys.
Lesbians, gays and bisexuals are practically comformists these days. So, it shouldn’t surprise you that the T in LGBT is taking its turn on the civil rights battleground.
“We’re making our mark in Hollywood,” says Ms. Anderson, 51, an icon of the revolution. “We’re making our mark in corporate Canada. You just have to understand that it’s here forever and to appreciate trans people, to understand that they’re human, too, with human rights.”
In other words, live and let live.
She says not everyone has heard the good news. She says a city truck manned by city employees in city uniforms “drove by me two weeks ago, heckling and laughing.
“It’ll be a long time before the yahoos get the message.”
On the other hand, the trans-formation makes life in the mainstream much more interesting, on Bay St. in particular.
“I get to work in an environment where all the women have great shoes,” reports Enza.
Strobel’s column usually runs Monday to Thursday. Hear him Tuesday and Thursday mornings on 94.9 The Rock FM.
[email protected].
