South Florida Makes Big, Queer Reality TV Show History

In the event that you’ve had better things to do than watch

MTV deteriorate into a steaming sewer of reality programming, you may have missed

South Florida’s double-time queer cast previewed on Real World Brooklyn. The show’s 21^st season premiers

January 7 and will follow its first-ever transgender character – a Broward male-to-female

named Katelynn – along with a gay Miami

Beach dolphin trainer (the mammal, not the team) as

they “stop being polite and start getting real” in front of a tilted-for-effect

camera.

Katelynn Cusanelli, 24, is a former Palm Beach Community College student and moved in with the cast three weeks after

her gender reassignment surgery. Judging by her Facebook profile, she’s now doing

a decent job “passing” in Missoula, Montana — post all of that “getting real.” (That will no doubt change once the show airs.) The teaser previews one of the

male character’s thoughtful reflection: “Dude, she was born a man!” And it

promises a hipster Mormon and a macho military guy.TV

and film seem to be sloooowly becoming more comfortable with the idea of trans

and cross-dressing characters in non-comedy roles, at least when it comes to

guys becoming ladies. (Transamerica, A Girl Like Me: The

Gwen Araujo Story even All My Children) For

some reason, though, middle America still doesn’t seem able to

digest chick-to-dude tranny folk. But, hey, there’s always season

twenty-two.

–Natalie O’Neill