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“Today is about clarity: I am a trans woman. My pronouns are she/her. My name is Tommy.”
Tommy Dorfman has revealed she is a trans woman and she has “been privately identifying and living as a woman” for a year. The 29-year-old reintroduced herself while talking with Time Magazine on Thursday.
In the interview, Tommy admitted “it’s funny to think about coming out, because I haven’t gone anywhere.” Instead, she is thinking of the announcement more as a “reintroduction to me as a woman.”
“Coming out is always viewed as this grand reveal, but I was never not out,” she said. “Today is about clarity: I am a trans woman. My pronouns are she/her. My name is Tommy.”
Tommy has been active on social media over the past year, sharing her changes in style and appearance, but until now, she hasn’t addressed her gender. She explained that she has been using Instagram as a “diaristic time capsule,” showing off her transition. “Transitioning is beautiful. Why not let the world see what that looks like?” she said.
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Eventually, though, Tommy decided to address the conversation. “I’ve learned as a public-facing person that my refusal to clarify can strip me of the freedom to control my own narrative,” she said. “With this medical transition, there has been discourse about my body, and it began to feel overwhelming.”
Tommy also revealed the decision to keep her name following the transition. “I feel very connected to that name, to an uncle who held me as he was dying,” she said. “This is an evolution of Tommy. I’m becoming more Tommy.” She continued, saying, “I love my name, I want to keep my name and give new life to my name.”
As for her acting career, Tommy admitted she “feared” her transitioning would hurt it. “I’m most recognized for playing a bitchy gay poet on a soap opera,” she said, saying she’s “no longer interested in playing ‘male’ characters.” Tommy revealed that while she loves acting, she used to hate going to work. “It would always feel really uncomfortable to me. And now I know why.”
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Tommy already has some roles lined up. She is set to act in Lena Dunham’s upcoming film Sharp Stick as well as a Channel 4 series, Fracture.
“I feel like I haven’t scratched the surface with my career or work because everything I’ve done up until the end of last year has been in the wrong body, and not in my truth,” she said. “So much of my work as an actor was like, hiding this part of myself and then bringing life to a character. And so I think I’m just excited to play women. Trans women, cis women, women in general. Non-binary, femme-presenting people.”
