Tommy Dorfman warns transphobia in US is leading to ‘targeted eradication’ of trans people
Tommy Dorfman has called transphobia a ‘disease'(Getty)
Tommy Dorfman has described the persecution of trans people in the US as a “targeted eradication” after attending a rally for Trans Day of Visibility.
The actor, who came out publicly as trans in 2021, warned against the “disease of transphobia” in her home country after speaking at an event in New York City on last Friday (31 March).
“All signs are pointing to a very specific type of targeted eradication of an entire part of humanity in this country, if these people get their way, and that starts with denying medical and health care that is necessary for survival for trans people,” Dorfman told British Vogue the day after the rally.
“I think there’s a lot of frustration with how silent the entertainment and fashion industries have been during this time, which feels incredibly disheartening, because they do love to profit off of us.”
Last month, the US state of Tennessee passed a chilling bill that redefined sex and legally erased trans individuals. Republican Tennessee governor Bill Lee has also signed a separate bill that will prevent trans youth from accessing life-saving, gender-affirming healthcare and is set to take effect on 1 July.
It’s been estimated that almost 400 anti-LGBTQ+ bills were proposed across US between the beginning of 2023 and early March.
13 Reasons Why star Dorfman, who came out as non-binary in 2017, before announcing in 2021 that she’d been living privately as a woman for over a year, explained that the LGBTQ+ youth who organised Friday’s rally were a far cry from the demonised image of queerness that pervades much of the media.
“These queer and trans kids [organising the rally] were 16, 17, 18, and they had so much love and respect for each other,” she said.
“I was enamoured by the way they treat each other and the community that they foster and the care that they have for the rest of the country, because obviously New York is not in as dire straits – yet – compared to the 46 states that have introduced anti-trans legislation this year alone.
“New York is an outlier for now, but I don’t think anyone is resting on our laurels in any way,” she continued. “This disease of transphobia and this type of rhetoric is contagious, and there was definitely an acknowledgement of that during the protest.”
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