This profile is the first in Queerty’s Out For Good series, recognizing those who came out to make a difference. The series will run throughout October in honor of National Coming Out Day on October 11.
Name: Jake Graf, 40
Bio: Actor, filmmaker, known for his starring roles in The Danish Girl and Colette. His directorial outings include the short films Brace and Chance.
Coming out: Graf has never hidden being trans. In fact, he has maintained that he is male from about age two. He didn’t officially transition until age 28, and began making short films thereafter, and taking on mostly cisgender acting roles. To raise awareness for transgender issues, Jake decided to go public with his story of life as a transgender actor in late 2017, when he and Hannah Winterbourne, a noted UK transgender activist, announced their engagement. But it is this year that he has really emerged, not just as an advocate for trans causes but as a star, thanks to his role in Danish Girl in 2015 and Colette this year.
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Making a difference: Shortly after his public coming out and engagement, Graf made a series of videos about life as a transgender man, including an autobiographical short film presented to the UK Parliament. He and Hannah became something of a celebrity power couple following their storybook wedding in early 2018.
In a recent interview with Queerty, Graf discussed casting transgender characters with cisgender actors, and vice-versa, showing a subtle understanding of how change happens in Hollywood :
A lot of these films, a lot of these representations, you’ve got to bear in mind the reach those films will have with an Eddie [Redmayne, of The Danish Girl] or a Denise Gough [in Colette] playing those characters. And I know that [transgender actors] should certainly have the chance to read for them. And eventually, we will get to the point where we are the best prospects. But I think at the moment, where it stands, it is an industry and films are being shelved on a daily basis…I genuinely believe that with the work, and with people…giving opportunities to transgender actors in cisgender roles, we are ready to build those profiles, build our experience, and we will—sooner than you think—be the only option for those trans roles.
Given his rising star, we already have one actor in mind that could fulfill Graf’s prophecy: Graf himself.
As it is, he’s already found the role of a lifetime as a working actor and filmmaker living as an out transgender man. Given the plethora of cisgender roles, Graf had a lot to lose by coming out and speaking out.
In doing so though, he gave hope to other aspiring transgender actors everywhere that someday only one thing will qualify actors for a role: talent.
Jake’s Words of Wisdom, as told to Queerty:
When I was growing up, there were no visible trans men in the media or on-screen and that made for an extremely lonely, isolating experience during my formative years. When I transitioned and finally became ‘me,’ it seemed almost unthinkable that I wouldn’t come out for the world to see, and live as a proud and visible member of the transgender community.
I am privileged to live in a country where being openly out and trans is accepted, and I aim to show that queer and LGBT people are everywhere and have existed since the dawn of time. It is through being vocal and visible that we give hope to our youth and hopefully ease the journey as each new generation comes out.
My wife Hannah and I were both out and visible in the media long before we met, but neither of realized the hope and positivity that we would be able to spread to the wider community as a couple. Our decision to speak about our relationship publicly and to allow media coverage of our wedding prompted so much kindness and support from not only the trans and queer communities but also from mainstream society.
Through the messages that we receive on our social media, we have become increasingly aware that trans folk need to feel that they too are deserving of someone who loves them for exactly who they are. If we are able to give them even the smallest glimmer of that hope, then we know that living so visibly has been the right choice and is forcing the kind of change that we as trans people so desperately need.
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Those who came out to make a difference
Prax07
She, not He. She’s a lesbian, since she married a female. Or if queerty considers she a he, in a “straight” marriage, then they are a straight couple, which means “his” story doesn’t even belong here.
Enough with this trans bullcrap being lumped in with gays & lesbians. They aren’t Us, they aren’t linked to Us as trans. Stop lumping them in with Us. Time to remove all the extra crap letters and bring it back to just LGB.
Phil H
He’s a he. Stop being a bigot.
Gigi Gee
@Prax07 — You’re not one of “Us, you’re one of Them. GFY, you idiot.
Smith David
Your comments are just as disparaging in the way that many gay men try to villianize and marginalize feminine men.
The “straight world” is not giving out extra points for your bigotry. A large majority of them want to wipe us from existence. Do you understand that? It’s a very cruel way of thinking. Everyone of us is important and no one group is better or above the rest.
JK 1984
He is a he. Trans people are just as much a part of the rainbow community (or whatever terminology people want to use) as gays, lesbians and bisexuals.
This is (to me at least) because as a sexual/gender minority they have been subjected to bigotry, harassment, violence and murder, just as much as/of not more than LGB people throughout history. Straight people (the bigoted type at least) don’t care if you are trans or gay or a pansexual, non-binary Queer. You are the other and therefore they will hate you all the same.
That is why Trans is “lumped” in with us.
laidbackdude69
Prax07, Hannah is also transgender, so your pronouns mean nothing other than to say you’re ignorant. Personally, they can add as many letters as they want to LGBTQ+. The more advocates, the better understanding, which ultimately leads to less people like YOU!
Rock-N-RollHS
ah, reading all these comments–from top down–is a wonderful crystallization what our country has become! Enjoy!
Prax07
She is a She, no amount of butchery and hormones changes that fact. Trans are mentally sick people that should have never been lumped into the LGB banner in the first place. They should be removed and put into their own category, they don’t belong, nor do we need these sick individuals as allies or representatives.
Xtian99
Prax07 – I see that you are very pained and frustrated, but people as academically and intellectually stunted as you are usually very afraid of “new ideas” and lash out as a defensive and protective response. As an LGBTQ banner holder, I welcome the “TQ” under the banner, and would like to request your departure right away with a big “FU.” How on earth does some vile twisted pig like you think you have any right to include or exclude, or decide who is a sick individual. get happy you twisted old queen.
randile
Prax07 you do realize you are using the exact same descriptive given to members of the gay community by religious leaders and the medical profession. The terminology is no longer used by medical professionals. Since you desire to describe transsexuals in this manor, you have given the best reason for inclusion.
Xtian99
Prax07 – I see that you are very pained and frustrated, but people as academically and intellectually stunted as you are usually very afraid of “new ideas” and lash out as a defensive and protective response. As an LGBTQ banner holder, I welcome the “TQ” under the banner, and would like to request your departure right away with a big “FU.” How on earth does some vile twisted pig like you think you have any right to include or exclude, or decide who is a sick individual. get happy you twisted old queen.
Prax07
And what spineless individual decided to tag on the extra alphabet? As a G in LGB I wasn’t consulted, who actually was? I don’t care if religious right consider us as mentally ill. They do happen to be correct about these trans individuals however. We aren’t lopping off body parts and taking massive amounts of hormones to turn ourselves into something Other. A woman that looks like a male from the waist up is still a woman, no matter what her deluded mind thinks. A man that has his junk removed and breast implants stuffed in is still a male. Pretending otherwise is pure delusion, and going along with that delusion is not helping anyone. They don’t positively benefit us in any way. Them being included with us makes us appear to be lunatics as well. And yes, when it comes to My rights being looked at and lumped in with those nutjobs by the nutjobs in power, then yes, I want no association whatsoever.