Second Matrix director Andy Wachowski comes out as transgender woman
By Tribute on March 9, 2016 | 14 Comments
Andy Wachowski (pictured far left in black suit), best known for co-writing and directing The Matrix films, has come out as transgender.
Now going by the name Lilly, she follows in her sister’s footsteps. Lana Wachowski, formally Larry, came out as transgender in 2012.
Lilly’s statement wasn’t delivered on her own terms. She says she was approached at her home by a reporter for Daily Mail, a U.K. news outlet, who asked Lilly to reveal her gender identity for the newspaper. Lilly referred to the encounter as a “threatened public outing against my will.”
Feeling pressure to have her story carefully and authentically expressed, Lilly wrote an essay for Chicago’s Windy City Times detailing her transition.
In the essay, she writes, “My sister Lana and I have largely avoided the press. I find talking about my art frustratingly tedious and talking about myself a wholly mortifying experience. I knew at some point I would have to come out publicly. You know, when you’re living as an out transgender person it’s … kind of difficult to hide. I just wanted – needed – some time to get my head right, to feel comfortable.”
She adds, “But apparently I don’t get to decide this.”
Lilly also delves into the issues and severe dangers that transgender people confront, criticizing the gender binaries entrenched in society.
“Being transgender is not easy. We live in a majority-enforced gender binary world. This means when you’re transgender you have to face the hard reality of living the rest of your life in a world that is openly hostile to you.”
She continues, “I am one of the lucky ones. Having the support of my family and the means to afford doctors and therapists has given me the chance to actually survive this process. Transgender people without support, means and privilege do not have this luxury. And many do not survive.”
The LGBT organization GLAAD (the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) championed Lilly’s decision to come out as transgender, but condemned media organizations for coercing transgender people to disclose their transitions.
Nick Adams, GLAAD’s director of programs for transgender media, said, “Journalists must learn that it is unacceptable to out a transgender person, in the same way it is unacceptable to out a person who is gay, lesbian, or bisexual.”
The Wachowski siblings shot to superstardom after jointly writing and directing The Matrix. The duo followed up on the success of the film with 2003’s The Matrix Reloaded, as writers for 2005’s V for Vendetta, and again as writers-directors for 2015’s Jupiter Ascending and last year’s sci-fi Netflix series Sense8. ~Matthew Pariselli
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isn’t everyone trans now?
Seems like. I’m guessing we’ll see a lot more of this in the coming months and years, especially in Hollywood.
yeah its the new hip cool thing to be trans, first it was being Gay and everyone was coming out as being Gay and people were all “Ooo, Ahh” not its this
you can no longer be either a Man or a Woman that’s too binary and overly offensive as well as oppressive everyone has to be a special little snowflake now.
Everyone has to be some type of “polyamorous pansexual genderqueer with gender fluidity” or something stupid thing like that the whole thing is completely retarded.
Now if these people want to go a play dress up and play pretend that is that is fine do whatever, but the realism of the situation is no matter how many surgeries you get, no matter how much make-up you put on, no matter how much you try to act and sound like a woman you will never truly be one.
Why? because you will always be Male simply because you can’t change your genetics.
but in the end I guess Mystique at the end of X-Men: First Class was right “Mutant and Proud”
WOW! God got it wrong twice within the same family.
Wow, edgy. The troll doth protest too much, methinks.
came out as a hippo, not a gal.
Back tom the zoo, please.
As long as their movies are awesome, I don’t care about their (trans)sexuality.
OK, here’s the deal. It is NOT a fad, it is a birth item which you and only you know about until you can articulate the words. It is not a mod or fun or cool thing, it just is a fact of nature and everyone had better get over it.
When it happens to you, when the thoughts finally chrystalize, when it becomes clear, with it comes all the other stuff, the fears and the pain and the self-doubt, one does not need the contempt and mocking which some of you think is subtle but which is actually overt and very, very painful.
Get over yourself folks, there are more than 2 genders but if you are raised in the wrong one it is a very heavy load.
Aside from BEVERLEY and ECHO, you are all being ignorant jackasses!
I agree with NL73 (and BEVERLEY and ECHO). These artists produce art for your enjoyment and which you may judge according to your taste. Their lives, however, are theirs alone and NOT presented for your judgement. None of this is anybody’s business but theirs and wouldn’t be public at all (at least not yet) without coercion.
To look at this in a different light, one would hope that with the money made by the Wachowski’s they could hire someone to dig up some dirt on the U.K. daily mail reporter to publicise. It seems these people believe themselves to be above the moral laws, I wish for once the skeletons in their closets were brought to life for the world to see.
Hammy yeah I’m a total edgelord, and hey while you’re at it
say Hi to /b/ for me. also if you’re going to talk to me
you have to use my proper pronouns of “Zim, Zu, Zop, Zog”
also have you check your privilege today?
Beverley Campbell what the hell are you talking
about? and “there are more than 2 genders” ?
I think you should go back to tumblr with all
your Otherkin before you get seriously Triggered
by something completely ridiculous and unimportant
I’m sure there is a post you have to write
about ableism or some other ism or ist out there
that you are offended by.
just remember mayonnaise is not a gender
People like most of the above are the reason people are afraid to come out & be themselves. Get your moral right winged heads out of your asses & smell the java. This is a new century & things have changed. Take your homophobic rhetoric & slither back to the dark ages. You make me ashamed to be a human being. Being transgender isn’t a choice any more than being gay is. Just because Caitlyn Jenner has made a mockery of it doesn’t mean it’s open bigot day on others. I suppose you’d rather these people commit suicide like they used to , just so your Christian ideals aren’t offended. God forbid something private/tragic happens to one of you & the camera crews come knocking. If you think it can’t happen to the average Joe, think again. Life changes in the blink of an eye & it could be you. Will you want sympathy & understanding or cold judgement from someone hiding behind the anonimity of their touch screen?
I fully understand where Lily Wachowski is coming from, in terms of her right to determine when or if she wants to “come out” publicly about her sexuality. It is just wrong for the media to decide for someone about these personal matters and how and when they should be dealt with.
Most of the comments regarding this story show an incredible ignorance about gender, sexuality, and the forces that determine them, and these comments are indicative of a society which is still living in the dark ages socially and religiously. Most of you probably have no idea, for example, how many children are born with physically inconclusive gender characteristics, or that the number one genetic anomaly is males who are born with XXY sex chromosomes, many of whom never even are aware of it, while others have many clearly female body characteristics, but male sex organs. This occurs in 1 out of every 100 to 500 children depending on the location and other genetic factors. Millions of children were bathed in female sex hormones during fetal development between 1940 and 1980 when those hormones were given as a supposed “cure” for miscarriages, and many of these children were either born with inconclusive physical genders or later in life transitioned from male to female. These, as well as the effects of pesticides, plastics and other chemical which are sex hormone analogues may be responsible for altering gender identity or attraction in humans.
If you honestly think making a gender change is so faddish” or the “flavour of the month” just try it for a day or two and see how much “fun” it is being around so many ignorant people making judgements and comments. Life is difficult enough for people who find themselves dealing with being a sexual minority, or having to live in the wrong gender to please what society think is “normal”, without the painful and hostile comments being made here.
My question is why are people so threatened by what someone else does with their gender identification?