‘Trans people have been presented as scapegoats:’ Baby Reindeer’s Nava Mau speaks about trans rights at the Golden Globes
It’s not a good time for transgender people right now. Convicted felon Donald Trump is president-elect of the United States, and he’s made his stance on trans people perfectly clear. He believes that children are being given gender operations in school, something that is categorically not happening, but because of the world we live in countless people believe him. He plans to end “transgender lunacy” and stop trans people from serving in the military and “out of our elementary schools.” His message could not be clearer: he believes transgender people to be second-class citizens.
Trans celebrities are naturally feeling the pain of it all. So Baby Reindeer star Nava Mau used the Golden Globes red carpet as an opportunity to speak out about the problem. “We’re in a time that is going to require deep emotion. We cannot buy our emotions, we have to let them course through us, we have to share them with each other, and we’re going to have to fight,” she told the Los Angeles Times. “A lot of us have to fight for our basic human rights, potentially our livelihoods, and being able to keep living where we may live. And so we need each other… We’re not giving up. We’re banding together, and it’s always darkest before the sun comes back out.” Unfortunately, the large TERF community on the internet is constantly gaslighting people into believing discrimination and violence against trans people isn’t happening. But it very much is.
“Trans people have been presented as scapegoats. There has been so much propaganda and false narratives created around who we are—that we’re monsters, that we’re criminals, and that we don’t belong in people’s homes and families and in communities,” Mau went on. “And the reality is that we do. We already exist, we’re already here. We always have been. And all we’ve ever wanted is to be able to live our lives and be authentic to who we truly are.”
Mau herself is great representation for trans people in the entertainment industry. She had acted before, always playing trans women, but Baby Reindeer brought her to public attention and her impressive performance won her a Emmy Award. That made her the first ever trans person to win a supporting actress primetime Emmy.
Mau said of her role in Baby Reindeer, “It seemed really important to show people that trans women exist in real life and in relationships with real people.” Hopefully, the more trans people appear in the media in a positive light, the more that can be done to stop the rising tide of transphobia.
Have a tip we should know? tips@themarysue.com
