[Photo by: Supergirl/CW]

'Supergirl' to feature TV's first transgender superhero

July 22, 2018

[Photo by: Supergirl/CW]

Saturday’s Comic-Con brought the news that Nicole Maines would be making history on the fourth season of CW’s Supergirl by becoming the first ever trans superhero on TV.

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Variety spoke with trans activist to discuss her newly acquire role as Nia Nal (AKA Dreamer) and what this means for the trans community.

“I haven’t really wrapped my head around it,” Maines told Variety. “It feels fitting to say with great power, comes great responsibility. I’m nervous because I want to do it right.”

“We can be whoever we want, we can do whatever we want, we can be superheroes, because in many ways we are. We’ve had trans representation in television for a while but it hasn’t been the right representation.”

Maines hopes her role in the DC show will provide a positive impact and the “right representation” for the trans community.

“I think we’re in a time right now where more than ever representation in the media matters. And what we see on television has a very dramatic effect on our society.”

Maines came out to her parents in the late ’90s/early 2000s when trans women were being portrayed by cisgender men as either sex workers or drugs addicts, an image Maines is hoping to break with her new role.

“I think that cis gender actors don’t take roles out of malice, it’s just a failure to realize the context of having cis gender people play trans gender characters. 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.”

The fourth season of Supergirl returns to the CW on October 14.