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Transgender as Ingroup or Outgroup? Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Viewers Respond to a Transgender Character in Daytime Television

2010; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 57; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/00918361003712103

1540-3602

Eleanor Morrison,

Gender, Feminism, and Media

Abstract From November 2006 to April 2007, the daytime drama All My Children featured Zoe, the first transitioning transgender character on broadcast television. Acknowledging historical tension within the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) community over transgender acceptance, this study examines how lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) viewers of All My Children reacted to this character. LGB viewers were more likely to dislike the character than non-LGB viewers, yet were also more trans-supportive than non-LGB viewers. Further evaluation suggests LGB viewers' negative response to Zoe was tied not to the transgender status of the character but specifically to unhappiness with a plot development seen to threaten the identity of the lesbian character, Bianca. Applications of social identity theory and implications for community politics are discussed. KEYWORDS: social identityingroupoutgroupintragroupreceptionaudiencetelevisionsoap operatransgenderlesbian Notes 1. The difference in N totals is due to three respondents identifying as both bisexual and straight, or both bisexual and gay; those three response sets then omitted for homosexual versus bisexual analysis purposes. 2. It is not surprising that AMC producers would do so, given the industrial restraints traditionally in place. Indeed, most surprising is that such a queer romance was presented at all. Ultimately, both Bianca and Zoe left the show, and Bianca returned to Pine Valley a year and a half later with a non-trans lesbian fiancé (and child, thus constituting daytime's first same-sex family and another ground-breaking notch in the belt for AMC). 3. See CitationGamson's (1997) for a briefing of the transwomen versus “womyn-born-womyn” lesbian clashes at and about the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival.