Actress and Activist Nicole Maines Will Be TV's First Transgender Superhero
Nicole Maines made history as the plaintiff in Doe v. Clenchy, the Maine Supreme Court case that helped set a landmark precedent for allowing transgender people to use the bathroom that matched their gender identity. Now, the actress and activist is changing the game yet again: The CW just announced that she’ll join the cast of Supergirl as Nia Nal, a groundbreaking character who marks TV’s first trans superhero.
“I haven’t really wrapped my head around it,” Maines said in an interview with Variety earlier this week, adding, “I’m nervous because I want to do it right.”
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Nia Nal—a.k.a. Dreamer—is a “soulful young transgender woman with a fierce drive to protect others.” Dreamer is loosely based on the DC Comics character of Nura Nal, a superhero with the power of seeing people’s deaths in the future.
After the Maine Supreme Court ruled that her right to use the bathroom matching her gender identity had been violated under the state’s Human Rights Act, Maines went on to become the subject of the book Becoming Nicole by Amy Ellis Nutt, as well as one of the transgender people featured in the HBO documentary The Trans List. She also appeared on the USA Network show Royal Pains, in which she played a transgender teen.
Maines’ casting comes at a time in which many people have pointed out the lack of trans representation on screen. Actress Scarlett Johansson recently pulled out of the film Rub and Tug after facing backlash for being cast as a transgender man. Maines touched on the controversy with Variety and said that keeping Johansson in that role would have only furthered stereotypes about the transgender community.
“I think that cisgender actors don’t take roles out of malice—it’s just a failure to realize the context of having cisgender people play transgender characters,” she said. “We don’t see the same issue with sexuality; we see straight people play gay all the time. With trans folks we have a lot of people accusing us of just playing dress up for whatever reasons, and that’s just not true. Having trans people play trans roles show that we are valid in our identities and we exist.”
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