Michelle Rodriguez (best known for her roles in the Fast and Furious franchise and Avatar) appears in an upcoming movie as ... wait for it ... a man who unwillingly goes through sexual reassignment surgery. The film, (Re)Assignment, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and hasn't been sitting well with the trans community. The plot has Rodriguez's character seeking revenge on the surgeon who altered her gender. The surgeon is, sadly, played by Sigourney Weaver, who has in the past been a great ally to LGBT people, even starring in the early gay-themed film Prayers for Bobby. Despite feedback from the trans community, Rodriguez stands by the role. As she told Reuters:
“What is transgender? Is it a psychological thing or is it an operation, and does the LGBTQ community own the operation? Do they have a branding right over a sex change? Are they mad that somebody decided to take their branded transgender operation and use it on heterosexual people? It’s a B-movie noir genre comic book take on something. I’m bisexual. I do guys. I do girls. You can’t really argue with me because I’m you."
She goes on to talk about her considerations when choosing to take on a role:
“If I do a movie, I’d never do a movie with the intention of offending anybody in the LGBT community because I’m a part of it.”
Rodriguez may be bisexual but she's got a lot to learn when it comes to listening, especially since the trans community has expressed disdain with this harmful premise since the film was first announced back in October of 2015. At that point, the backlash against the movie was bad that GLAAD issued a statement calling it “disappointing” for its “sensationalistic” depiction of gender-confirmation surgeries.
