This blog hasn’t been updated in a few months. Partly because I had a dry spell as an background actress, but I was also getting tired of making the same posts each month about my problems. The good news is that there has been some progress in this industry over the last few years; casting companies have stopped booking me as “Trans Hooker.” But Capital Casting recently asked me to play a nude sex worker. Like I said, there’s been “Some” progress. There’s a pay bump for being naked, and I assume someone at the casting agency wants to see me naked. By now you’re wondering what show it was. But no I didn’t take the role, and thank you for your lecherous curiosity.
Capital Casting’s lawyer has formally denied that they’re engaging in discrimination against trans people by typecasting us as sex workers and ”LGBT Type” (You can see their rebuttal by contacting New York State’s Division of Human Rights and requesting the files from case# 10226413).
However, Capital Casting’s lawyer called transgender people “The transgendered” so that’s a clue about how sensitive they are towards the trans community. The federal Department o f Labor actually has guidelines on how employers are supposed to talk about trans people, and saying “The Transgendered” is “incorrect and disrespectful.” That’s the government talking, not my personal opinion.
This is practically proof that Capital Casting didn’t even read the Department of Labor’s definition of discrimination before denying their guilt. And they probably didn’t even ask a trans employee to read the rebuttal and point out problems like that.
And the NY State official who ruled in these cases also calls trans people “The Transgendered” so that’s a hint about how effective the Hochul administration is at enforcing their own anti-discrimination laws. The leaders of NY State Division of Human Rights don’t even read their own diversity brochures, presumably (I say “Presumably” for legal purposes).
Seriously, the Regional Supervisor of the NY State Division of Human Rights called trans people “The Transgendered” in two other cases that I know of. Yes, I can show you the signed documents where he did this, and provide the case numbers. I won’t say his name here because trans activists have literally shot people over less.
That’s why I say “Capital Casting” and “Garret Wiley Casting” instead of using the real names of these casting companies. I also avoid using the proper names of people at Screen Actors Guild. People have been murdered by trans activists for doing less. Capital Casting has been around for over a hundred years, and SAG has been around for nearly ninety years. Generations of moviegoers have been raised to view transgender people through the stereotypical casting choices perpetuated by this company (Often with permission from SAG). Much of the real-world, tangible harm done to transgender people is due to the entertainment industry.
But, again, I have made some progress on my own. I was booked to work as a Stand-In for the second time!
If you read this blog you’ll see that this industry doesn’t want to hire transgender actresses for certain jobs. One is being a Stand-In. After many years of fighting for this sort of work, I was finally booked as a Stand-In back in March of 2025. And, seven months later it happened again.
One of the mid-sized casting companies contacted me for an upcoming TV series. A performer who identifies as non-binary needed a Stand-In for one scene. In previous chapters I’ve talked about how my first Stand-In gig only happened because a transgender actress had demanded a trans Stand-In.
This time around I suspect that the casting company was being genuinely inclusive, and wanted to give the role to an authentic “Gender nonconforming” performer. I don’t think the entertainment industry can see a difference between trans and non-binary. But I was happy to take the job, better me than some actress who says, “Sure I’ll be any gender you want, if the pay is high enough!”
The casting ad really says, “Any Gender.”
And, anyway, for a Stand-In the things that matter are height, weight, skin tone, and hair color. I was a match to all of those. The other performer was 5’10”, blonde, fair-skinned, and slender.
And it was a pretty easy gig; the character only has one line, and was filmed shot from just one angle. My scene was the second of the day. It only took an hour to film; I literally just stood in one place for a few minutes while the cameraman and lighting crew set up the shot, then the “Real” actor said their line in a couple of takes. And.. We’re done.
I was in and out in about three hours, and got paid for the whole day.
I think terms like non-binary and “Gender non-conforming” are readily exploited by actors and actresses who are willing to lie just to get a role.
And actors are renown for fudging their resumes when it comes to age, height, weight, languages, skills, and even their ethnicity. What’s stopping a man from claiming that his drag persona makes him gender non-conforming? Or if an actress gets an androgynous haircut and adds a few more pronouns to her casting profile, who’s to say she isn’t authentically a non-binary demi-boy?
Actors will often claim to be an entirely different race so they c an get a role. In fact, companies like Capital Casting explicitly say “… portrayable appearance is important while reality is not (e.g., a background actor with the right look can portray a Native American on camera without actually being a Native American)”
Those are their actual words. In a their rebuttal to a discrimination case from 2022. And you thought I was joking about the naked hooker role…
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