Actress/choreographer Candis Cayne is joining the cast of Grey’s Anatomy for what’s being called a “groundbreaking” transgender-themed storyline.
The 14th season will feature a multi-episode arc in which Candis plays a trans patient who arrives at Grey Sloan for vaginoplasty surgery.
The story is based on Hayley Anthony, a transgender woman who helped create a game-changing new procedure alongside Jess Ting, the director of surgery at the Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery at Mount Sinai.
Showrunner Krista Vernoff tells The Hollywood Reporter, “The surgery revolutionizes the making of a vagina and we thought that was a really cool story, and Candis is playing a character inspired by something we read.”
Talking to Time in October, Candis talked about her experiences as a transgender actress:
“I knew that it was nearly impossible to be an actress. The first part of my career was doing prostitute roles, drug addict roles, or drag queen roles.
I would go to these auditions and say ‘I’m trans,’ tried to pitch myself even though nobody really wanted to talk about it. This wasn’t just about me wanting to be an actress, this was about moving the fabric of society forward.”
It’s worth noting that the current season features intern Dr. Casey Parker, who’s portrayed by out transgender actor Alex Blue Davies.
The character came out to Miranda Bailey as a “proud trans man” after staving off a cyberattack on the hospital’s computer system.
h/t: Gay Times
Ummmm Yeah
You can’t make a vagina. You can make a surgical wound that appears to be one on the outside.
Bob LaBlah
I can’t agree more with your comment but for many its a total waste of time explaining to them they will never be what they think they are regardless of how much they shell out to the plastic surgeon who willingly takes their money and encourages them to spread the news about his surgical procedures.
Jaxton
Gray’s Anatomy seems to pay scant attention to male homosexuality and male bisexuality.
Kangol
I remember when Candis Cayne first appeared on the scene. She’s one trans woman who just grows more glamorous with each passing year. Great to see her getting more high-profile mainstream exposure.
Jack Meoff
Greys is all about the lesbians when it comes to gay representation. When are they going to introduce a hot gay doctor to the cast with a husband and a kid?
SiamSam
And who doesn’t mince, lisp, or eyeroll?
Rex Huskey
Why??? Let them be straight, get drunk and have gay sex with a buddy…. A far more interesting story-line.
Rex Huskey
“This wasn’t just about me wanting to be an actress, this was about moving the fabric of society forward.” Sorry honey, i dont believe you. It all about you!
rmarin776
No idea why so many commenters here are so invested in shaming transpeople (and transwomen, especially).
These “you can’t make a vagina…” comments are really akin to “two men can’t be parents and form a family”, “same sex couples can’t really be married”, etc. You can impose your belief system on just about anything and make it “not real” – but these realities DO EXIST, whether you see fit to acknowledge them or not.
If you don’t “agree” with sex reassignment, it’s pretty simple: don’t get sex reassignment surgery. But really, why run around making dehumanizing statements about those who feel that this path is right for them?
Kangol
The trans-shaming is relentless among some of the commenters on this site. Transphobia is rife, and transgenderism clearly unsettles them. What’s so odd is that they seem not to realize that a person can consider themselves trans and transition without ever having genital reassignment surgery, yet there’s a clear fixation on genitalia. A lot of it is also is misogyny, too. At any rate, more power to Candis Cayne!
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
“These “you can’t make a vagina…” comments are really akin to “two men can’t be parents and form a family”, “same sex couples can’t really be married”, etc. You can impose your belief system on just about anything and make it “not real” – but these realities DO EXIST, whether you see fit to acknowledge them or not.”
Leaving aside the argument re the validity or otherwise of the Trans issue. Your analogies are sloppy and invalid. Clearly men can become parents — it’s a biological fact. Abd the concept of “Family” is already so elastic as to include anyone and always has been. However a “vagina” is a biological FACT; what surgeons can acheevie are varying degrees of vagina-like simulacrum. But good luck to them and all who sail in ‘em
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
Oops “verisimilitude”* not “simulacrum” (though some may aver the later to be more accurate)
Polaro
Facts are facts; I have trouble with people on either side of the political spectrum who deny facts that are inconvenient for their feelings. Your feelings (bigoted or snowflake alike) do not change facts. Gender reassignment helps trans people look like they see themselves; I don’t get it myself, but more power to them because it is a huge surgery/commitment, one that does not affect me one bit. That said, it is purely cosmetic, which cannot be denied. Does it make a trans woman less of a woman that a woman with a functioning vagina? Less is the wrong word; because that applies a judgment to her value, which would be cruel. She is different from a natural born woman; we need to admit that as a fact. Where we need to be is to understand she is what she is; that’s her reality, and accept her for who she is.
Nowuvedoneit
What does them getting surgery on their privates peeve you off? Do you that is the same type of arguments homophobes made? The penis is meant to go in a vagina not a butt, you can’t have two women be happy in bed because there is no penis involved, Adam and Eve not Steve, it’s just biology men and women were meant to be together.
You all are a bunch of idiots arguing about what people do that has no effect literally zero affect on your life personally, unless well you harbor deep seated feelings of being trans yourself. The loudest and most vocal opponents usually are the ones that hate what they see in others because it reminds them of themselves.