Fox’s Glee has been no stranger to LGB storylines, and but in a new episode they look to finally cover the T.
In a new episode, viewers of the series learned William McKinley High School’s football coach Shannon Beiste, played by three-time Emmy nominee Dot Marie Jones, is transitioning from female to male.
The football coach shared with school principal Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) and assistant football coach Sam Evans (Chord Overstreet) that he has gender dysphoria – the formal diagnosis used by psychologists and physicians to describe people who identify as transgender.
In a moving monologue, Beiste explained that her transition wasn’t about who she wanted to go to bed with but who she wanted to go to bed as. She then explained that she’d be having surgery to remove her breasts and begin taking testosterone as Glee kicked off a story that will see her character over the course of the season see Shannon become Sheldon.
“I’ve felt like this my whole life. Growing up I was really confused – I thought I was just a tomboy. No matter what I did, I never felt at home in my own skin. I never felt like my body matched who I was in the inside. I’ve got to do this for my own peace of mind, I’ve got to get my body in alignment with how I see myself.”
Sylvester, naturally, gets a few zingers in: ‘When you think about it, it’s not that big of a stretch.’
But even the normally heartless Sylvester shows she has a heart when she tells Beiste that his job will be waiting for her.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Aq-lQKj45I
