Tambor quits Transparent

Added by Kelli Busey on November 19, 2017.
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Tambor

Left to right Trace Lysette, Jeffery Tambor and Van Barnes

Now that Jeffery Tambor has quit will Amazon take a leap of faith and hold an open casting a call giving an opportunity for a transgender woman to be cast as a transgender woman?

Two actual transgender women have come forward to accuse Tambor of unwanted sexual advances. The first claim made his transgender assistant Van Barnes on a private Facebook post as reported by Deadline.

The investigation into the claims by the transgender Barnes, which she made online in a private Facebook post, began earlier this week, we hear. In the post, she claims that her former boss, whom she does not identify by name, had repeatedly propositioned her, made lewd comments, groped her and threatened to sue her if she spoke up.

That’s right, Deadline dismissively identified her as “the transgender Barnes”, but that was the just the first allegation.

Trace Lysette an out transgender actress who has appeared on the show put forth further allegations of sexual improprieties made by Tambor that included physical assault.

The transgender writer on Transparent backed up Barnes and Lysette on Instagram saying “…we cannot let trans content be taken down by a single cis man.”

(The above statement is from @tracelysette. The statement below is my response.) . My heart is broken. I’m struggling to put together words right now, as I’m flooded with emotions. Any abuse of power is inexcusable, but hearing the stories of Van and Trace have particularly shattered me. I honor the strength and courage that it must have taken for them to tell their truth. … Thank you for your leadership, Trace. Thank you for speaking up. And thank you for your proposed solution at the end of your statement. You are right — we cannot let trans content be taken down by a single cis man. I’m sure I’ll have more to say, but this is as much as I can get out in this very emotional moment. …. My heart goes out to all victims of abuse, told and untold. I hope this is the beginning of our time to heal.

A post shared by Our Lady J (@ourladyj) on

I took considerable heat back in 2014 when I wrote critically about an interview in which Jeffery Tambor told Janet Mock that he wished a transgender person had been cast for the role of Maura. My main complaint was that once again a man had been cast as a woman. I lost many readers that day who lept to defend the show by pointing out how many transgender people were involved with it in supporting roles. I’m not saying this would happen again but in this instance, there was a seriously flawed dynamic involving the show that prompted me to object to it (besides it being blatantly discriminatorily transface).

via GIPHY

Tambor had said that he wished a trans woman had been cast as instead of him. Perhaps now his selfless, sincerely generous wish will come true.

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