‘Trans Takeover’ Picket Outside Netflix Puts Spotlight on Community’s Struggles in Hollywood: ‘We Have the Right to Tell Our Own Stories’

variety.com:

Charna Flam Pink and blue hues overwhelmed the stretch of Sunset Boulevard outside Netflix on Thursday as the “Trans Takeover” picket drew at least 200 writers and allies to address concerns about trans employment and how the community is portrayed in pop culture. “Trans people are workers too.

We’re in solidarity with the labor movement around the world and we are showing up in ways that we are often not depicted,” said writer Jacob Tobia, whose credits include the Showtime pilot “Sissy.” “Strikes are moments where you redefine who is at the table, and we want to be sure that we’re sending a really strong message to the world that we’re at the table now and we want to stay at the table.” Tobia and others noted that the hostile backlash to LGBT rights, particularly for trans and nonbinary people, in states including Texas and Tennessee has come on the heels of a number of TV series and movies focused on this marginalized but emerging community. “Hollywood put us on a pedestal and then kind of abandoned us, frankly.

If you want to stand with us, you need to stand with us. You can’t just put us in a few TV shows and then, when things get hard and when people are paying attention, stop greenlighting our projects,” Tobia said. “You have to commit to us as a community and show that you really care about our dignity, our lives and our economic vitality.” Sydney Baloue, whose credits include the CW series “Tom Swift,” emphasized that representation matters when trans stories are told in mainstream media. “You would never have a white showrunner create a Black show without Black writers and then hire a token Black person and say, ‘Hey, can you give us the greenlight on this Black story,’ ” Baloue said. “Why are cisgender