Lily Wachowski, one half of the celebrated filmmaking duo who made the lesbian classic movie Bound, but are best known for The Matrix movies , came out as transgender yesterday in a very inspirational and eloquent statement to Chicago’s leading LGBT newspaper Windy City Times. After been door-stepped by a reporter from the UK’s notorious tabloid newspaper The Daily Mail who threatened to out her, Wachowski decided to share the ‘news’ that her friends, family and work colleagues had known for years. And after all her sister Lana had gone public with her own transition some years ago.
The very tongue in cheek headline Lily used was Sex Change Shocker -Wachowski Brothers Now Sisters.
In her statement Lily Wachowski said “Being transgender is not easy. We live in a majority-enforced gender binary world. This means when you’re transgender you have to face the hard reality of living the rest of your life in a world that is openly hostile to you.”
She went on to acknowledge the one factor that Caitlyn Jenner has studiously avoided ever since her ‘reality tv’ showy outing which is that as a wealthy woman she was one of the lucky ones who was able to comfortably afford all the expenses involved in transitioning ” Having the support of my family and the means to afford doctors and therapists has given me the chance to actually survive this process. Transgender people without support, means and privilege do not have this luxury. And many do not survive. In 2015, the transgender murder rate hit an all-time high in this country. A horrifying disproportionate number of the victims were trans women of color. These are only the recorded homicides so, since trans people do not all fit in the tidy gender binary statistics of murder rates, it means the actual numbers are higher.”
Lily added “And though we have come a long way since Silence of the Lambs, we continue to be demonized and vilified in the media where attack ads portray us as potential predators to keep us from even using the goddamn bathroom. The so-called bathroom bills that are popping up all over this country do not keep children safe, they force trans people into using bathrooms where they can be beaten and or murdered. We are not predators, we are prey.”
queerguru applauds Lily Wachowski for her honesty, her bravery and her determination to continue the struggle to completely understand her own identity and this inspiring so many others who need to break free.
P.S. After Lana Wachowski came out as a trans woman, she received the 2012 Human Rights Campaign Visibility Award, and in 2014 she received the Equality Illinois Freedom Award. Lana said about her HRC award: “there are some things we do for ourselves, but there are some things we do for others. I am here because when I was young, I wanted very badly to be a writer, I wanted to be a filmmaker, but I couldn’t find anyone like me in the world and it felt like my dreams were foreclosed simply because my gender was less typical than others. If I can be that person for someone else, then the sacrifice of my private civic life may have value.”
