“Most trans women don’t look like Laverne Cox or Caitlyn Jenner. Most of us look … well, like trans women. We might have a visible Adam’s apple. We might have real trouble hiding that five o’clock shadow. We might have broad shoulders or big hands and feet. We might be really tall or have a deep voice. We might have a penis.

We’re non-passing. As trans women, we are told that to gain acceptance, we have to pass for cisgender. We have to be invisible. We have to be indistinguishable from someone who was born a woman... When the media portray non-passing trans women, it’s usually non-trans men who play them. Male actors win awards for their courage in playing trans women. In truth, they’re just reflecting back at the world what the world assumes trans women are. We’re not women. We’re just men in dresses. The media wrongly depicts us as makeup-obsessed little boys who made a choice one day to become women. We’re never just women who happen to possess some untraditionally feminine attributes.”