American actor Tommy Dorfman, who is known for playing Ryan Shaver in the Netflix series ’13 Reasons Why’ came out as a trans woman on Thursday. In an interview, she revealed that her pronouns are she/her, retaining her name as Tommy.
“For a year now, I have been privately identifying and living as a woman — a trans woman. It’s funny to think about coming out because I haven’t gone anywhere. I view today as a reintroduction to me as a woman, having made a transition medically,” the 29-year-old told novelist Torrey Peters in a Time.com interview.
“Coming out is always viewed as this grand reveal, but I was never not out,” she continues. “Today is about clarity: I am a trans woman. My pronouns are she/her. My name is Tommy,” she added.
Fans on social media had been speculating about her gender identity. Tommy had many times, with her appearance on Instagram, hinted at her being a trans woman. However, the interview was the first time she publicly and officially announced.
She said that she is connected to the name Tommy and therefore wants to retain it.
“I’m named after my mom’s brother who passed a month after I was born, and I feel very connected to that name, to an uncle who held me as he was dying. This is an evolution of Tommy. I’m becoming more Tommy… I am actually myself,” she explains.
“I’ve been living in this other version of coming out where I don’t feel safe enough to talk about it, so I just do it. But I recognize that transitioning is beautiful. Why not let the world see what that looks like?” she says. “So I kept, on Instagram, a diaristic time capsule instead — one that shows a body living in a more fluid space.”
“However, I’ve learned as a public-facing person that my refusal to clarify can strip me of the freedom to control my own narrative,” Tommy continues. “With this medical transition, there has been discourse about my body, and it began to feel overwhelming.”
Tommy was last seen playing Oscar in 2020 romantic comedy ‘Love in the Time of Corona’. She will direct an adaptation of Mason Deaver’s ‘I Wish You All the Best’. Tommy is also set to feature in Lena Dunham’s feature film ‘Sharp Stick’.
