Hunter Schafer, Dylan Mulvaney, and These Trans Celebrities and Changing the World
By Anne Buescher
Happy transgender awareness week! Let’s take a dive into five popular trans celebrities and what they are doing to work towards gender equality for all.
Dylan Mulvaney
A popular TikTok star, actress, and activist, Dylan Mulvaney has been a voice for trans rights since well before she gained the title of stardom. Through TikTok Dylan documented her transition through her series “365 Days of Girlhood”. She has spread an incredible amount of awareness around transgender individuals through her documentation of her own transition, sharing an incredibly personal part of her life so as to help others better understand what it means to be transgender. In 2022 she spoke with current president Joe Biden about trans rights, and won Attitude’s 2023 Woman of the Year Award.
Elliot Page
After a successful career in film, starring in wildly renowned works like Juno, The Umbrella Academy, and other noteworthy films, Elliot Page came forward as transgender. As he began his transition he was met with open arms and grace. The directors and writers of Umbrella Academy worked hard to turn his current character into a trans role in order to encompass and respect Page’s transition without compromising the film, or their actor. This year he came out with his Memoir titled “Pageboy”. The book talks about the good, the bad, and the ugly in Page’s transition. As right wing conservatives continue to try and pass anti-trans bills and laws, creators and celebrities like Elliot Page work hard to share with the world what it really means to be trans. He has continued to speak up for trans rights and even though the process of writing his gritty memoir was difficult, Elliot Page felt his story was necessary to share so that other transgender people out there feel less alone.
Hunter Schafer
Hunter Schafer made her debut as an actress with her role as Jules Vaughn in HBO’s award winning show Euphoria, but Schafer was familiar with stardom long before her first acting role. Hunter Schafer has an extensive modeling career under her belt, and in 2017 was listed in Teen Vogue’s “21 under 21” granting her an interview with Hillary Clinton. She has advocated for LGBTQ+ rights and fought vehemently against North Carolina’s House Bill 2. In 2022 She was named in Queerty magazine among 50 heroes ‘leading the nation towards equity, acceptance, and dignity for all people.”
Sam Smith
Sam Smith has been a popular singer/songwriter for many years, and faced quite a lot of backlash when they publicly came out. However, since then, Sam Smith has taken hold of the music industry. This year’s obsession with one of their newest songs, Unholy, caused an uproar and brought up a much needed discussion about how queer culture and the sex positive movement often go hand in hand, but they are not the same thing.Sam Smith is officially the first openly non-binary singer/songwriter to release a song that reached №1 at the Billboard hot 100, but their achievements don’t end there. They also won a BMI Pop Award this year for their song Love Me More, and received a Grammy for the hit song Unholy.
Yasmin Finney
Yasmin Finney made her debut this year with the acclaimed role of Elle in the hit Netflix queer romance Heartstopper. This role paved the way for Yasmin Finney’s career. She was nominated for a Children’s and Family Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Performance due to the role and is set to join the cast of Doctor Who this year. Yasmin has also been featured on GLADDS second annual 20 under 20 list. She is truly a talented rising star speaking up for trans rights and creating a positive influence for trans women everywhere.
About the Author:
Anna Buescher is a current junior at Butler university studying Biology and French. She uses she/they pronouns and identifies as a queer woman. She is passionate about LGBTQ+ rights, climate change, fungi and much much more. You can reach out to her at abuescher@butler.edu.
