Trans in Hollywood: Gender-bending Roles

The Huffington Post is running a poll drawing from a pretty complete collection of a actors who've portrayed characters of the opposite gender in a film. With choices including Oscar-caliber performances such as Linda Hunt in The Year of Living Dangerously and Hilary Swank in Boys Don't Cry, comic turns from Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie and Robin Williams in Mrs. Doubtfire, and over a dozen more, the site has gathered the most memorable -- for one reason or another -- transgender and gender-bending characters of film.

You can check out all the selections and vote for your top five performances there. Currently, Swank and Hunt are both in the top tier for their convincing on-screen transformations, as is Cillian Murphy for Breakfast on Pluto, Jaye Davidson in The Crying Game, and Cate Blanchett in I'm Not There.

Candis Cayne of television’s canceled Dirty Sexy Money has spoken about her firsthand relationship with the transgender communities representation in the media as an actress. Cayne has said, “It's really important for me as a trans actress to be in situations that I'm comfortable with, because there's a lot of weird stuff thrown at trans actresses that we'd never do. So you have to pick your battles, because there are trannies with lower voices, but no tranny would ever stand to pee, for example. As soon as that happened in Transamerica, the movie lost me.”

Recently judge Lil Mama on the show America's Best Dance Crew made controversial comments to contestant Leiomy Maldonado, who dances with the all-gay dance group Vogue Evolution. The Advocate reported Lil Mama said to Maldonado, “I just feel that you always have to remember your truth. You were born a man and you are becoming a woman. If you’re going to become a woman, act like a lady. Don’t be a bird, like ‘Oh my god, I’m not doing this!’ You know what I’m saying? It gets too crazy and it gets confusing. You’re doing this for America. Even though you’re the face for transgenders, you’re the face of America right now with this group and it’s not about anybody else. It’s about y’all. You know what I’m saying? So do it for the team. Do it for the team.”
Moments after the show aired, trans activists and allies took to the Web to complain about Lil Mama’s comments. GLAAD reported on its blog that it had received numerous complains with regard to Lil Mama’s comments."

Lil Mama has since apologized.