Ahead of a planned outing against her will by a news outlet, Lilly Wachowski has announced that she’s transgender. With her sister Lana, who came out publicly in 2012 after rumors that she was trans had circulated for several years, Lily is half of the famed Wachowski filmmaking siblings, best known for the Matrix franchise and the sizzling lesbian thriller Bound. While we don’t approve of outing, we certainly welcome Lilly, formerly known as Andy, to the LGBT family and this is likely the first time two siblings in the entertainment industry have come out publicly as trans so hooray for progress.
GLAAD quickly issued a statement through Nick Adams, the org’s Director of Programs for Transgender Media.”GLAAD is thrilled that Lilly Wachowski is able to be her true and authentic self today, however, she should not have been forced to disclose her transgender identity before she was ready to do so,” he said. “Journalists must learn that it is unacceptable to out a transgender person, in the same way it is unacceptable to out a person who is gay, lesbian, or bisexual.”
Related: Lana Wachowski Made “Cloud Atlas” To Combat Transphobia, Homophobia
Lilly shared her story with the Windy City Times. Read her full statement below.
SEX CHANGE SHOCKER—WACHOWSKI BROTHERS NOW SISTERS!!!”
There’s the headline I’ve been waiting for this past year. Up until now with dread and/or eye rolling exasperation. The “news” has almost come out a couple of times. Each was preceded by an ominous email from my agent—reporters have been asking for statements regarding the “Andy Wachowski gender transition” story they were about to publish. In response to this threatened public outing against my will, I had a prepared a statement that was one part piss, one part vinegar and 12 parts gasoline.
It had a lot of politically relevant insights regarding the dangers of outing trans people, and the statistical horrors of transgender suicide and murder rates. Not to mention a slightly sarcastic wrap-up that “revealed” my father had injected praying mantis blood into his paternal ball-sac before conceiving each of his children to produce a brood of super women, hellbent on female domination. Okay, mega sarcastic.
But it didn’t happen. The editors of these publications didn’t print a story that was only salacious in substance and could possibly have a potentially fatal effect. And being the optimist that I am, I was happy to chalk it up to progress.
Then last night while getting ready to go out for dinner my doorbell rang. Standing on my front porch was a man I did not recognize.
“This might be a little awkward,” he said in an English accent.
I remember sighing.
Sometimes it’s really tough work to be an optimist.
He proceeded to explain he was a journalist from the Daily Mail, which was the largest news service in the UK and was most definitely not a tabloid. And that I really had to sit down with him tomorrow or the next day or next week so that I could have my picture taken and tell my story which was so inspirational! And that I really didn’t want to have someone from the National Enquirer following me around, did I? BTW—The Daily Mail is so definitely not a tabloid.
My sister Lana and I have largely avoided the press. I find talking about my art frustratingly tedious and talking about myself a wholly mortifying experience. I knew at some point I would have to come out publicly. You know, when you’re living as an out transgender person it’s … kind of difficult to hide. I just wanted—needed some time to get my head right, to feel comfortable.
But apparently I don’t get to decide this.
After he had given me his card, and I closed the door it began to dawn on me where I had heard of the Daily Mail. It was the “news” organization that had played a huge part in the national public outing of Lucy Meadows, an elementary school teacher and trans woman in the UK. An editorial in the “not-a-tabloid” demonized her as a damaging influence on the children’s delicate innocence and summarized “he’s not only trapped in the wrong body, he’s in the wrong job.” The reason I knew about her wasn’t because she was transgender it was because three months after the Daily Mail article came out, Lucy committed suicide.
And now here they were, at my front door, almost as if to say—
“There’s another one! Let’s drag ’em out in the open so we can all have a look!”
Being transgender is not easy. We live in a majority-enforced gender binary world. This means when you’re transgender you have to face the hard reality of living the rest of your life in a world that is openly hostile to you.
I am one of the lucky ones. Having the support of my family and the means to afford doctors and therapists has given me the chance to actually survive this process. Transgender people without support, means and privilege do not have this luxury. And many do not survive. In 2015, the transgender murder rate hit an all-time high in this country. A horrifying disproportionate number of the victims were trans women of color. These are only the recorded homicides so, since trans people do not all fit in the tidy gender binary statistics of murder rates, it means the actual numbers are higher.
And though we have come a long way since Silence of the Lambs, we continue to be demonized and vilified in the media where attack ads portray us as potential predators to keep us from even using the goddamn bathroom. The so-called bathroom bills that are popping up all over this country do not keep children safe, they force trans people into using bathrooms where they can be beaten and or murdered. We are not predators, we are prey.
So yeah, I’m transgender.
And yeah, I’ve transitioned.
I’m out to my friends and family. Most people at work know too. Everyone is cool with it. Yes, thanks to my fabulous sister they’ve done it before, but also because they’re fantastic people. Without the love and support of my wife and friends and family I would not be where I am today.
But these words, “transgender” and “transitioned” are hard for me because they both have lost their complexity in their assimilation into the mainstream. There is a lack of nuance of time and space. To be transgender is something largely understood as existing within the dogmatic terminus of male or female. And to “transition” imparts a sense of immediacy, a before and after from one terminus to another. But the reality, my reality is that I’ve been transitioning and will continue to transition all of my life, through the infinite that exists between male and female as it does in the infinite between the binary of zero and one. We need to elevate the dialogue beyond the simplicity of binary. Binary is a false idol.
Now, gender theory and queer theory hurt my tiny brain. The combinations of words, like freeform jazz, clang disjointed and discordant in my ears. I long for understanding of queer and gender theory but it’s a struggle as is the struggle for understanding of my own identity. I have a quote in my office though by José Muñoz given to me by a good friend. I stare at it in contemplation sometimes trying to decipher its meaning but the last sentence resonates:
“Queerness is essentially about the rejection of a here and now and an insistence on potentiality for another world.”
So I will continue to be an optimist adding my shoulder to the Sisyphean struggle of progress and in my very being, be an example of the potentiality of another world.
Lilly Wachowski
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
i wonder whether the next 10 years after Virtual Reality finally goes fucking massive this phenomenon will accelerated, ‘’exacerbated’’ or ameliorated?
Discuss.
Stached1
OK how is this news? Not only are the trans they’re also pretty nutty.
jayj150
That crazy look in his eyes; that creepy, unsettling, ‘I know I’m trying too hard but I can’t help it’ look in his eyes. The same contrite, caricature-like look, that all so-called “transbians” seem to share. Look at Jenner, Molloy, Banks, and all the prominent transbians on social media. Gay guys who transition to transgender(aka “straight” transgenders) don’t come off nearly as scary as these guys. I think the former type is basically self-loathing gay men who can’t bear the idea of being homosexual. But the latter type, the ‘transbians’, have some seriously deeper, scarier issues going on.
Tobi
I blame Monsanto.
leobaga
Can I ask a serious question from some intelligent readers here. Is trans a mental illness? I’m particularly confused about Caitlyn Jenner. She’s turned into a woman but she’s not attracted to men. So what is she, a lesbian? Now, recently she said she’s open to dating men. What is up with that? She sure is a special case.
Dave Downunder
@leobaga:
Trans is not a mental illness but Caitlyn Jenner is a bit of a nutter so I can understand your confusion. Most of the trans women I have known have been attracted to men however I did know one who was a lesbian which, if you read up on it online, is not totally unheard of.
Caitlyn just has a habit if saying whatever she thinks will get her headlines so don’t base your views iof trans people on her by any means.
SashaVonAndris
I would think transgenderism and hetero/homosexuality are a separate issue. In my opinion, LGBTI and all the rest was made as a “you’re not alone” initiative. Gay men were ostracized for being different, lesbians celebrated as a fantasy. Bisexual men, “bi now, gay later”, bisexual women seen as a bonus fantasy. Now it’s the issue of whether a transgender individual should identify as LGBT and all the others based on “gay or straight”? I’m starting to think intolerance is a human issue.
Dave Downunder
@SashaVonAndris:
Of course intolerance is a human issue. People have been not tolerant of things that are different from themselves for centuries the most notable reason being religion. Two different religions can be so similar yet they will still not tolerate each other on principal and hence huge wars have been fought.
Different races have been not tolerating each other for centuries and that too has resulted in massive wars. There has been intolerance between the genders in past centuries with women being denied basic rights in some communities and being relegated to second class citizens denied the right to be educated or to vote or to drive.
There has been intolerance between the classes for centuries with upper classes looking down on lower classes and lower classes sneering at the upper class. There has been intolerance between countries and cities ans states based on political and cultural views.
The intolerance aimed at GLBTI people is just another examples and the smaller the minority the longer it takes to triumph.
So yes intolerance is a very human condition and is not likely to disappear. nce one group gains acceptance haters will always find someone else to hate.
DistingueTraces
Huh.
I expected to see some bigotry in the comments, but not nothing but bigotry.
Okay.
In other news, fuck the Daily Mail.
dracukon
I rewatched the first Matrix the other day for like the 50th time, and was reading some trivia about it, and one of the bits was that the Switch character was originally written to be a male in the real world and female in the matrix (or vice versa), which the studio vetoed – but looking back, not only would that have been a cool element, but it makes so much sense(8) given what we now know about the Wachowskis.
Charlie in Charge
@dracukon: That would have been pretty awesome. Fortunately this was made up for in Sense8 (which I adored).
Welcome to the club Lilly.
AtticusBennett
there we have it, folks – the most influential sci-fi action film of the last 25 years was made by two transwomen. YAAAS!
MORE SENSE8 please, and thank you for Cloud Atlas 😀
QueertyQ
Whilst the solidarity is cool, and fine, I do think in a few years the Lesbian/Gay/Bi sphere will split from the Transgender sphere and perhaps rightly so.
The two issues are completely different. It’s sexuality versus gender orientation. These should not be treated the same nor come under the same banner, although I think the wider Queer/Inclusive banner is fine. I just think the time has come for people to branch out on their own and accept the two categories are separate issues.
It’s like a coming of age. Things cannot stay joined at the hip forever out of fear of change and progress. Things have to evolve and move on imo. We may see more progress under separate banners.
AtticusBennett
@QueertyQ: we’ll see more progress when we actively support each other, within the larger LGBT and Queer communities.
what our movements have in common is LGB and T are all seen, by the ignorant and bigoted, as “betrayals of gender” – gay men are seen as traitors to their sex, and there’s a reason that the most insecure gay males are always touting their own self-styled and decidedly-neanderthalian brand of “masculinity” – transphobia and homophobia are hopelessly intertwined in that regard.
hearing my transgender friends talk about growing up and being shamed or feeling “different” for not behaving the way they were expected to, as per their sex and (at the time) perceived-gender absolutely resonates with honest gay men and women – so much of the bigotries that are thrown at gay people stem from the basic old-fashioned and archaic ideas about “what a man” or “what a woman” is “Supposed To Be”
dwes09
@jayj150: “That crazy look in his eyes; that creepy, unsettling, ‘I know I’m trying too hard but I can’t help it’ look in his eyes. The same contrite, caricature-like look, that all so-called “transbians” seem to share. Look at Jenner, Molloy, Banks, and all the prominent transbians on social media. Gay guys who transition to transgender(aka “straight” transgenders) don’t come off nearly as scary as these guys. I think the former type is basically self-loathing gay men who can’t bear the idea of being homosexual. But the latter type, the ‘transbians’, have some seriously deeper, scarier issues going on.”
I “THINK” this, I “BELIEVE” that… Is it really that hard to read and find out what actually knowledgeable people understand and know about a phenomena like gender dysphoria? What is it about the terminally self absorbed that makes them assume anything that pops into their imagination is insight rather than misunderstanding?
And just because you project your own prejudice and lack of insight into a photo, does not make THAT real! I (and likely many others here) looked at the same photograph and did not see those things. Plus, one need not be a rocket scientist to know that a photograph captures an instant in the mercurial movements of a face in conversation. Only primitives believe it captures the soul as opposed to the intent of the photographer (who takes many, chooses one and then manipulates it to emphasize their chosen vision)! The actual truth is that some transgender people (both men and women) are gay, some are straight, dome are bi. There is no indication that any but a tiny number are “self-loathing gay men”. And if you find some “scary”, that is about YOUR psyche not their nature as individuals.
If, in fact, you are a gay man and not some straight troll it serves you to notice that you are voicing the same kind of baseless notions on transgenders (for whatever reasons) as the haters of gay folks voice about. And your notions are no more correct, nor any less stupid.
What you would like to believe about them is not fact (but only what you would like to believe), and if you have any sort of intelligence or empathy, you’ll try actual education rather than passing judgement based on figments of your imagination. Otherwise you are no different from the Christian wingnuts who insist all gay men are pedophiles or posessed by demons.
dwes09
@AtticusBennett: “and there’s a reason that the most insecure gay males are always touting their own self-styled and decidedly-neanderthalian brand of “masculinity””
Look, we are not republicans here (well, most of us at least) who fall for the repetition of myth and come to believe it as true. Your two most common complaints are that gay men of masculine affect are the result of parental distaste, or a desire to please fathers, and that masculinity in gay men is a result of self hatred. Provide SCHOLARLY support (as opposed to bullshit “social/queer theory”), or admit that is simply a personal prejudice with no grounding in reality. Scholarly support means facts and figures, not some regurgitated Freudian belief (he had no facts either, just prejudices and victorian assumptions). Some “butch” gay men are possibly motivated by your fanciful notions, some “fey” gay men are as well, and both are equally likely to come from a broad range of family backgrounds with a broad range of family support. All indication is that masculine affect exists on a continuum among male homosexuals, just as it does with heterosexual men. As with the affect of Transgender folks, these are not simple phenomena, nor does political analysis offer any real or valuable insight into them.
CCTR
@QueertyQ: You have to consider social, physiological, and psychological, similarities and differences between these “spheres”. They are not always mutually exclusive.
Consider individuals that identify as transgender that are not interested in sexual reassignment procedures. Consider transgender individuals that are not interested in stealth presentations/expressions to the world. Consider transgender individuals that identify as gay transmen or lesbian transwomen. Consider gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals that identify as gender fluid or gender queer.
So its not simply sexuality vs. gender orientatiion, but more about individuals identifying as sexual orientation and gender orientation minorities in a society in which they are marginalized.
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
@dwes09 — at last you have come –as it was prophesied –.to liberate us from the perennially-certain, presumptuous psychobablers from both ends of the windbag spectrum. Thank You , you fucking rock.
girldownunder
Welcome, Lilly!
How wonderful to not only have a supportive network of ggod friends & family in-general, but also to have a sister to share your journey with- wow!
Best wishes from AU
🙂
Chris
I prefer them to Caitlin. I am rather tired of Caitlin’s unearned privilege and, for some reason, I think the Wachowski sisters will be more thoughtful and better human beings all round. May they find happiness.