A soap opera is making TV history this week with a transgender character’s wedding
As we know, daytime soaps don’t get the most respect in the TV world. Well, major respect is in order for The Bold and the Beautiful, because, as Entertainment Weekly reports, this week the soap is going to make history by airing the first TV wedding to feature a transgender character as a bride or groom.
The trans bride in question is Maya Avant (played by cisgender actress Karla Mosley) who will be marrying Rick Forrester (Jacob Young). Maya’s character was revealed to be a trans woman in March.
“I was excited, and nervous at first,” Mosley told Janet Mock on SoPOPular re: learning that her character was a trans woman. “Soaps don’t have a great history in handling transgender characters. Twenty years ago, the headlines were ‘So and So is A Man.’”
“It’s been incredibly exciting,“ Mosley said later in the interview. “It’s a journey in her truly accepting herself, because I think she has come to a place where she does accept herself.”
As executive producer and head writer Bradley Bell explained to Entertainment Weekly, he is thrilled to have the opportunity to tell this story and make some TV history.
“Karla Mosley has been brilliant in the role of transgender model Maya Avant,” Bell gushed. “When I first explained the story, she eagerly jumped on board and away we went. My writing and producing team, along with the actors have collaborated with GLAAD on scripts and media training. It’s been an honor to tell this positive story of love and acceptance and now we will see the drama peak as we reach Rick and Maya’s wedding day, which will not be an easy walk down the aisle. I’m told we’re the first show in television history to include a story with a transgender character getting married and my hope is that in the future there will be many more.”
Of course, as Bell alludes, this is going to be no easy walk down the aisle (of course it’s not, it’s a TV show, and a SOAP OPERA, to boot). Maya’s conservative father Julius is NOT going to make this wedding thing a walk in the park.
“I will not be publicly embarrassed by my own flesh and blood!” Julius shouts in a preview for next week’s storyline (Obba Babatunde).
Set your DVRs and get that popcorn ready, it sounds like next week’s historic storyline of “The Bold and the Beautiful” is pretty much the definition of unmissable
Related:
This transgender actor is about to make daytime TV history
Why media matters in the fight for LGBT rights
Image via CBS
