'Top Model' contender blazes trans trail
26th September 2008
As a little boy in the Washington suburbs, Darrell Walls liked to pretend to be Lil' Kim or a Pink Power Ranger.
He felt different, like a girl mistakenly born a boy.
But Walls eventually embraced that difference and today is living as Isis King. Now King, 22, is the first transgender contestant on "America's Next Top Model," the CW Television Network reality show hosted by supermodel Tyra Banks.
"I'm just trying to be myself," King said during a telephone interview last week. "If I inspire people, that's a wonderful thing — whether you're trans or not."
Although the number of transgender depictions on television remains small, activists say in recent years they have seen a movement away from stereotypical roles such as sex workers or villains. The roles are not as marginalized, and some are even portrayed by transgender actors.
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"America's Next Top Model" contender Isis King is the first transgender contestant on the show.
Last year, Candis Cayne became the first transgender actress to have a recurring role on ABC's "Dirty Sexy Money." She plays Carmelita, mistress of Patrick Darling, a New York attorney general played by actor William Baldwin.
And from 2003 to 2006, transgender actress Alexandra Billings guest-starred on three TV shows, including ABC's "Grey's Anatomy." Billings played a married transgender woman about to have sex-reassignment surgery. However, as doctors prepare her for surgery, they discover she has breast cancer, and she's told she must stop her female hormone therapy to treat the disease.
"When audiences see real gay and transgender people facing many of the same ups and downs as everybody else, it helps to change perceptions and break down stereotypes," said Neil G. Giuliano, president of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. "The casting of Isis on such a popular show offers a groundbreaking opportunity for a community that is historically underrepresented on television."
Audiences are seeing not only how King fares on photo shoots and before judges but also how some of her fellow contestants comment behind the scenes. One, for instance, called her a man. Another made a "drag queen" reference.
Viewers also are glimpsing how she's making the transition from man to woman. A recent episode, for example, showed her injecting female hormones. King began the treatments last year and wants to have the expensive surgery — which not all transgender people undertake — by her 25th birthday.
"I don't believe the surgery will make me any more of a woman," said King, who has been living as a woman since early last year. "I've always been that woman. But . . . it's something I feel will complete me."
"Top Model" was shot over the summer, so King and other contestants already know their fates, although they are not permitted to discuss them. Fans of the reality show, which airs Wednesday nights, will have to wait until Dec. 10 to learn who wins.
Source: Omaha World Herald