On May 1, transgender actress Tommy Dorfman shared Instagram photos of transphobic text messages sent by a man who was seated next to her in first class during a recent flight. The man apparently sent the exact same hateful messages to at least seven people on his smartphone. Dorman referred to him as an “alt right vampire.”
“I am in the first aisle of First Class. Guess what is sitting next to me?” the man wrote in one text. “A f**king transsexual in the midst of going from a man to a woman. Just my luck I was hoping for a hot babe!!” In another message, he added, “2 and a half hours of sitting next to this freak!!”
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One of the people he texted, a woman named Samantha, responded, “Just remember many people you love are lgbtq+ and this country sucks for them right now.” Dorfman wrote upon that image, “wait samantha [I love you] girl.” However, the image also shows the man’s thumb typing out an unsent reply that read, “This guy is a freak.”
In the caption for her Instgram post, Dorfman criticized the man’s “audacity” and claimed that the “alt right vampire” also made “deeply misogynistic and revolting comments” about the flight attendants.
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Dorfman wrote, “objectively, i know i’m not ‘passing’ and i’m ‘bricky’ and ‘clocky’ but passing hasn’t been the point for me nor should it be for any trans person.”
“we are all allowed to evolve in any way that feels true and that evolution can expand and contract,” she continued. “it’s always been about alignment and autonomy for my own comfort, not the comfort of others or the expectations of society.”
“the choices i’ve made for myself to feel safe and comfortable in my body and spirit…. does come at the cost of safety and comfort in the world, especially in america, and that’s not without consequence internally and externally,” she added. “i am lucky to have the life i have, the ability to fly freely (for now), and even post s**t like this.”
Dorfman officially came out as a transgender woman in a July 22, 2021 TIME magazine interview after quietly documenting her transition on Instagram for over a year.
“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. Coming out is always viewed as this grand reveal, but I was never not out. Today is about clarity: I am a trans woman. My pronouns are she/her. My name is Tommy,” she wrote.
Dorfman said she would keep using her birth name to honor her namesake, “an uncle who held me as he was dying.” But she announced that she would no longer play male roles.
“It’s impossible for me to separate my personal and professional transition, because my body and face are linked to my career,” Dorfman said. “I feared that by actively transitioning in my personal life, I would lose whatever career I’ve been told I’m supposed to have. But I’m no longer interested in playing ‘male’ characters – except for maybe in a ‘Cate Blanchett playing Bob Dylan’ way.”
“Sometimes you just have to say, ‘No, this is just who I f**king am’,” she added.
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