Transgender

This topic might have a better name.

Transgender person, lining up with Non-binary person.

Talk about it here.

Among humans, a transgender person was someone whose gender did not align with that which they were assigned at birth. The term was used as an adjective, often shortened to simply "trans".

Non-binary people were also or could also be trans. Calypso Jonze self-identified as trans and non-binary, (AUDIO: The Lovecraft Invasion ^[+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) and used they/them pronouns. (AUDIO: The End of the Beginning ^[+]Robert Valentine, Main Range (Big Finish Productions, 2021).)

Mickey Smith had a trans friend called Sally Salter, who was part of his Bad Wolf band. (PROSE: Rose ^[+]Russell T Davies, adapted from Rose (Russell T Davies), Target novelisations (Target Books, 2018).) Jack Harkness once had a transgender co-worker, Vanessa, who changed her name, something that perplexed Jack. (TV: Greeks Bearing Gifts ^[+]Toby Whithouse, Torchwood series 1 (BBC Three, 2006).)

Eleanor Blake, an accomplished mathematician who met the Seventh Doctor and entered a brief romantic relationship with Chris Cwej, was a trans woman who lived through the 1940s. She went on to travel with Alpha Wheeler throughout space to escape the discrimination she faced on Earth. (AUDIO: The Jabari Countdown ^[+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)

Tania Bell was a trans woman who worked for Torchwood Three. She was a resident of 107 Baker Street. She later became a companion of the Eighth Doctor, as well as Liv Chenka's romantic partner, on 2020 Earth. (AUDIO: Must-See TV ^[+]Lisa McMullin, Stranded 1 (The Eighth Doctor Adventures: Stranded, Big Finish Productions, 2020)., Wild Animals ^[+]John Dorney, Stranded 1 (The Eighth Doctor Adventures: Stranded, Big Finish Productions, 2020)., Dead Time ^[+]Matt Fitton, Stranded 2 (The Eighth Doctor Adventures: Stranded, Big Finish Productions, 2021).) She was accustomed to other people "minding" that she was trans, (AUDIO: Wild Animals ^[+]John Dorney, Stranded 1 (The Eighth Doctor Adventures: Stranded, Big Finish Productions, 2020).) but understood that the identity one forged for oneself was truer than the "shot in the dark" that was birth assignment. She chose her name to affirm who she really was. (AUDIO: The Long Way Round ^[+]John Dorney, Stranded 2 (The Eighth Doctor Adventures: Stranded, Big Finish Productions, 2021).)

Because gender was often wrongly assigned at birth, (TV: Day of the Moon ^[+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 6 (BBC One, 2011)., Father's Day ^[+]Paul Cornell, Doctor Who series 1 (BBC One, 2005)., AUDIO: The Long Way Round ^[+]John Dorney, Stranded 2 (The Eighth Doctor Adventures: Stranded, Big Finish Productions, 2021).) trans people like Sally Salter (PROSE: Rose ^[+]Russell T Davies, adapted from Rose (Russell T Davies), Target novelisations (Target Books, 2018).) and Eleanor Blake came to realise that they had always been a different gender to that which they had been told. Despite others' non-acceptance, Eleanor was fully aware that she had "always been Eleanor". (AUDIO: The Jabari Countdown ^[+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) In the mid-2000s, Sally had to cut ties with her family in order to begin living life as herself. She found affirmation with her friends and bandmates, together known as Bad Wolf, and a safe space in which to sleep at Mickey's one-bedroom flat. (PROSE: Rose ^[+]Russell T Davies, adapted from Rose (Russell T Davies), Target novelisations (Target Books, 2018).)

Donna Noble's child had originally been born male and given the name 'Jason', before eventually coming out as transgender and non-binary. (TV: The Star Beast ^[+]Russell T Davies, adapted from Doctor Who and the Star Beast (Pat Mills and John Wagner), Doctor Who 2023 specials (BBC One, 2023)., The Giggle ^[+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who 60th Anniversary Specials (BBC One and Disney+, 2023).) Whilst transitioning to female, she choose the name of Rose for herself, based off subconscious memories of Rose Tyler she inherited from her mother's meta-crisis. (TV: The Star Beast ^[+]Russell T Davies, adapted from Doctor Who and the Star Beast (Pat Mills and John Wagner), Doctor Who 2023 specials (BBC One, 2023).) Rose's transitioning involved years of therapists, doctors, voice lessons, hormone treatments and her loved ones learning pronouns. (PROSE: The Star Beast ^[+]Gary Russell, adapted from The Star Beast (Russell T Davies), 60th Anniversary Novels (Target Books, 2024).) There were school bullies who would harass her by continuing to use her deadname, which tended to annoy Donna, who was highly supportive of her daughter, but Rose herself put up a brave front against the harassment. (TV: The Star Beast ^[+]Russell T Davies, adapted from Doctor Who and the Star Beast (Pat Mills and John Wagner), Doctor Who 2023 specials (BBC One, 2023).)

Earth takes its time on too many things, and [trans rights] is one of them. Not in this century, I'm afraid. Though the next one is... a little better.Seventh Doctor

Though, according to the Seventh Doctor, circumstances would improve "a little" by the 21st century for trans people, Eleanor had to hide her identity in order to survive in the 1940s, due to the genocides occurring in that time. In fact, Eleanor faced violence and discrimination on account of her gender. She was surprised to find Chris Cwej so accepting, noting how he "didn't even blink", but held little hope for changes to come within her lifetime.

Coming as he did from the 30th century, Chris did not understand the fuss about assigned genders (as in that era, gender was not assigned at birth, but instead chosen at a special ceremony, which took place upon one's 16th birthday). As he explained to Eleanor, on first finding out she was a trans woman, "it seems a bit stupid and fascist to care about little stuff like that", considering the breadth of the universe, and all the dangers and variety to be found therein. (AUDIO: The Jabari Countdown ^[+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)

"A few years" prior to her discover in 3909 that she was actually an android who'd been subjected to illegal fleshing, Emily suspected her dysmorphia and spiritual malaise about her existence (actually an effect of the fleshing process) might have meant she was trans. She used a holosimulator to test out the feeling of living as other genders, but they did not nothing to alleviate the malaise, and she dismissed the theory, annoyed that "her feelings couldn't have the decency to be the result of something normal". (PROSE: Cybergeddon ^[+]Lupan Evezan, Novelisations in Time & Space (BBV Productions, 2021).)

Cassandra O'Brien.Δ17 also once claimed to Rose Tyler that she had once been "a little boy" on Earth, although she was notoriously prone to misusing words and knowledge from her early Earthly life. (TV: The End of the World ^[+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 1 (BBC One, 2005).)

Conall Lethbridge-Stewart knew some people who were trans and had told his younger sister, Lucy Wilson. (PROSE: Sweet Revenge ^[+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)

When Cleo Proctor was kicked out of her house by her mother in 2012 when beginning her transition, Jordan Proctor took her in. (AUDIO: SOS ^[+]Juno Dawson, Redacted (BBC Sounds, 2022).)

Miles Werbiansky, by March 2011, had transitioned. (PROSE: A Worthy Successor ^[+]James Hornby and James Wylder, Cyberon (Arcbeatle Press, 2020).)

Behind the scenes

Writers

In 2011, trans woman Lilah Sturges wrote the IDW comic story A Fairytale Life. Sturges was credited by her birth name for the story as she "didn't consciously know [she was transgender] until 2012".

Jay Harley was the assistant director for Series 6 and writer of Zero Hour and The Good Master for Big Finish in 2017. They later came out as non-binary.

In 2018, Juno Dawson, another trans woman, wrote the BBC New Series Adventures novel, The Good Doctor.

Also during this time, Niki Haringsma wrote two Faction Paradox short stories: A Scene and What Keeps Their Lines Alive.

Later in 2018, "tubular transdudette" Doris V Sutherland wrote PROSE: The Bunny's Curse. She would go on to write another Bernice Summerfield story, AUDIO: Clear History, in 2019.

In 2020, Amy Veeres wrote the Ninth Doctor Short Trips audio story Her Own Bootstraps.

That same year, Grant Morrison came out as non-binary. Although no longer associated with the DWU by that point, they had previously written three comic stories for Doctor Who Magazine, which were reprinted in Grant Morrison's Doctor Who.

Stacey Smith? wrote the short story The Church of Saint Sebastian in 2005, prior to coming out as a trans woman in 2021.

Actors

Lor Wilson, who portrayed Lucy Cartwright and Daughter of Mine in Human Nature / The Family of Blood, later came out as non-binary. She reprised her role in the 2020 webcast The Shadow in the Mirror.

In 2015, Bethany Black became the first openly transgender person to be cast in an episode of Doctor Who, series 9's Sleep No More. She played the role of 474.

Adèle Anderson, a trans woman, had a guest role in the 2017 Big Finish audio story The Carrionite Curse. She later played a series of clones named Dreyda in the Jenny: The Doctor's Daughter audio story Zero Space, and held a recurring role as the Sixth Tamasan starting with the Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume Three box set.

In 2020, Rebecca Root began her role in Stranded as Eighth Doctor companion Tania Bell, who was the first trans companion in the Doctor Who universe. She also portrayed cis characters in earlier Big Finish stories.

That same year, non-binary actor Robyn Holdaway had a role in AUDIO: The Lovecraft Invasion ^[+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.. They played Calypso Jonze, a trans, non-binary bounty hunter from the 51st century. This became a recurring role in 2021, with The End of the Beginning.

Other

In 2018, Vera Wylde (host of Doctor Who YouTube channel Council of Geeks) came out as non-binary. They have since revealed that they relate to the Twelfth Doctor due to his character arc of accepting who he is and not wanting to change.