'13 Reasons Why' Actress Comes Out as Transgender
Editor's Note
If you’ve experienced sexual abuse or assault, the following post could be potentially triggering. You can contact The National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 1-800-656-4673.
Earlier last week, the “13 Reasons Why” TV star Tommy Dorfman told TIME magazine during an interview that she was coming out as transgender.
Dorfman said that she was coming out formally as a transgender woman, an identity that she has aligned herself with since 2020.
“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,” Dorfman said.
For many of Dorfman’s fans, this formal coming out may not entirely be a surprise as her Instagram account reveals her passion for fashion, activism on behalf of the LGBTQIA+ community and the Black Lives matter movement, etc.
Dorfman made her medical transition earlier this year and said this to TIME about her experience in the process, “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…. I’m named after my mom’s brother who passed a month after I was born, and I feel very connected to that name…I’m becoming more Tommy.”
Dorfman also told TIME that she is very concerned for the health and wellbeing of the transgender and nonbinary youth in the United States.
According to the Trevor Project’s recent data collection project on transgender youth in 2019, one in every three transgender youth have attempted suicide or had suicide ideations. One-third of the same number reported that they are victims of past sexual violence and over half reported struggling with bouts of severe depression.
She said that while she is no longer interested in playing male characters on the silver screen, she is excited for future projects to come having recently completed “The Shuroo Process” and “Sharp Stick.”
“This is who I f-cking am…Transitioning has been liberating and clarifying,” Dorfman said.
Most recently, Dorfman’s cousin and “Bachelorette” alumna Andi Dorfman told People magazine that “Tommy has always bravely and boldly lived life by her own terms and it’s something I have always admired and been in absolute awe of. She has stood up for herself and advocated for the entire LGBTQ+ community with pride, with love and, most of all, with compassion for all.”
Personally, as someone who identifies within the transgender and nonbinary community, I relate so strongly to Dorfman’s passionate expression of herself. She is becoming more Tommy every day as she becomes more accepting of herself and her gender expression, just as I am becoming more Dani every day as I do the same.
Story courtesy of Tommy Durfman’s Instagram account
(He/They) 26 yr old nonbinary lesbian rocking Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, Type 3 & 6 as a journalist. Anxiety/OCD/PTSD warrior. Cat dad, bartending and baking enthusiast.
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