TransPortrayal
Summer camp frequently promises outdoor adventures, new friends and possible summer romance. But in the new TV show, Dead of Summer, which premiered on the Freeform network in June, a summer of fun turns into a summer of horror.
Dead of Summer joins shows like Orange is the New Black, Transparent and I Am Cait, in featuring a transgender character. The big difference is that Dead of Summer is set in 1989.
Zelda Williams, Robin Williams daughter, plays Drew, a quiet but cool guy counselor who also happens to be a transgender man. It is very important to Zelda to accurately portray a transgender man, because as Zelda points out, transgender men are not reflected as frequently in Hollywood as transgender women. “The thing I’m most terrified about is the transgender community being insulted by him,” Zelda told Entertainment Weekly. “It’s great that [the public] will get to learn about a male-identifying transgender character as a lead in an ensemble show, but really, more than anything, he is for the transgender community, because they don’t ever get to see him.… I hope that they’re happy with him, because I’m proud of him…. I’m really excited for people to see who he is.”
Zelda did research for her role with transgender men in order to get an accurate portrayal. She told Entertainment Weekly that “The transgender community deserves an honest portrayal, I can’t choose if they like his plot because I didn’t write it, but I can choose if they think that he’s not a stereotype, at least in how I hold myself, and that’s all I can do.”
Tags: Freeform, LGBT, LGBT Characters, LGBTQ youth, Summer, Summer Camp, Transgender, TV show