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13 Reasons Why's Tommy Dorfman Comes Out As a Trans Woman
"Coming out is always viewed as this grand reveal, but I was never not out," she tells Time.
Tommy Dorfman is sharing her truth with the world.
In a recent interview with Time Magazine, the 29-year-old TV star, best known for her role in Netflix's teen drama series 13 Reasons Why, opened up about her gender identity, her pronouns, and her thoughts on publicly coming out.
"We're talking today to discuss my gender. For a year now, I have been privately identifying and living as a woman--a trans woman," she told the magazine, saying this was her way of reintroducing herself to the world. "It's funny to think about coming out, because I haven't gone anywhere. I view today as a reintroduction to me as a woman, having made a transition medically. Coming out is always viewed as this grand reveal, but I was never not out. Today is about clarity: I am a trans woman. My pronouns are she/her. My name is Tommy."
"I've been living in this other version of coming out where I don't feel safe enough to talk about it, so I just do it," she then said when asked by Time about how she has been documenting her journey over the past year via Instagram, and how that's different than formally announcing her transition in an interview. "But I recognize that transitioning is beautiful. Why not let the world see what that looks like? So I kept, on Instagram, a diaristic time capsule instead -- one that shows a body living in a more fluid space. However, I've learned as a public-facing person that my refusal to clarify can strip me of the freedom to control my own narrative. With this medical transition, there has been discourse about my body, and it began to feel overwhelming. So, recently I looked to examples of others who have come out as trans. There's the version I couldn't really afford to do, which is to disappear for two years and come back with a new name, new face, and new body. But that's not what I wanted."
When asked about the more old-school way for celebrities and public figures to come out, where people usually go off the radar for a while and come back on the scene with a new name and identity, she continued:
"For me, personally, it's not viable. I'm not changing my name. I'm named after my mom's brother who passed a month after I was born, and I feel very connected to that name, to an uncle who held me as he was dying. This is an evolution of Tommy. I'm becoming more Tommy."
Congrats, and thank you for sharing your truth with the world, Tommy!
Raffy is a Los Angeles-based writer, editor, video creator, critic, and the editor in chief of Out.com.
Raffy is a Los Angeles-based writer, editor, video creator, critic, and the editor in chief of Out.com.
