From the Advocate magazine in partnership with Glad, I'm Jeffrey Masters, and this is

LGBTQ and A. As we've often talked about, the history of trans-representation in Hollywood is not

great, to say the least. It's usually inaccurate, inauthentic, even dangerous at times.

And while we have had a large number of trans stories on screen in recent years that really

deserve to be celebrated, the vast majority of these depictions do center around trans women

only.

Probably the biggest exception of that is Boys Don't Cry, where Hillary Swank played

Brandon Tina, a trans man who was the victim of a truly brutal murder. Now, that was in 1999,

and since then, that's been about it. There have been small roles here and there for sure,

but nothing since has reached mainstream audiences in the way that Boys

Don't Cry did.

That is just one part of why I find Brian Michael Smith's role on the TV show 9-1-1-Lone Star

to be so exciting.

Brian plays a character that defies stereotypes.

He's a hero, a fireman who is also trans.

The character's gender is acknowledged and is part of the story without it being the only

interesting or defining aspect of him.

So Brian Michael Smith is here to talk about all that today and more.

Let's hear it.

So not only is it historic to have this black trans-masking character on such a mainstream TV show, but I think it is equally important, and has to be underlined,

actually, that this role is a fireman.

He's a hero, and he's not built on cliches that we've seen typically.

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