Armistead Maupin’s Tales of The City is being remade for a new generation and by LGBT friendly Netflix. The original series was groundbreaking for the late 70’s early 80’s audience, but there were no transgender characters in the original series. The remake will break new ground in changing that. Netflix is holding a casting call for trans latnix actor with little or no experience to play the character of Jake Rodriguez, a trans man in his twenties or thirties.

Rodriguez is described as someone who has “recently transitioned (in the last two years). While comfortable in his own skin, he is still learning how to navigate his old relationships in his new identity.”

Since Netflix’s Tales of the City series will likely follow Maupin’s eighth Tales of the City book, Mary Ann in Autumn — a story about a woman named Mary Ann, fresh from a mid-life crisis, returning to San Francisco after 20 years away — it’s entirely possible that Jake Rodriguez is an updated version of the book’s character Jake Greenleaf.

Who is Jake Rodriguez/Greenleaf?

Greenleaf is a transgender man who helps Michael Tolliver — the author’s stand-in character— with his gardening business. It’s entirely possible that Greenleaf’s name in the book was merely a gardening pseudonym, but Netflix has imagined the character as Latinx despite Greenleaf not being assigned a clear race in the book.

In the book, Maupin uses Greenleaf as a way to explore how San Francisco isn’t always as welcoming as it seems. At one point, Greenleaf muses:

So far, claiming another gender — even the one that came naturally to him —  had merely offered new ways to feel alienated, new opportunities for humiliation. A lot of cis (bio) guys were just in it for the novelty, losing interest altogether once their curiosity was satisfied. As for other trans guys, they were either cruising the Lone Star for liquored up bio bears or flirting with the femme lesbians down at the Lexington Club. They weren’t looking for Jake.

At one point in the book, Greenleaf even gets into an “erotically-charged friendship with a young Mormon missionary who hopes to rid himself of his attraction to men,” according to The Washington Post. Greenleaf later befriends Mary Ann and begins to look after her.

Here’s why Jake Rodriguez would be a big deal for TV

The casting of a trans-Latinx character on a major streaming TV series is a big deal for two reasons.

First, the original Tales of the City books and TV series were predominantly white, something that the author later called “a mistake” he made out of fear of misrepresenting characters unlike himself. Maupin later said that he and Netflix would “do something about it,” and it seems they are.

Second, and more importantly, trans men of color rarely appear on TV. GLAAD’s 2017 study of queer characters on TV found only four trans men on all network, cable, and streaming TV shows. And Latinx people made up only 9 to 10% of all LGBTQ TV characters despite being 17.6% of the American population.

Jake Rodriguez may well be the first ever regularly recurring trans Latinx man that American viewers ever see on the small screen.

Much has been said lately of the growing discontent many in our community feel towards the film industry’s reluctance to actively seek trans actors for trans characters. Netflix is an example we hope grows and continues.

If you wanna try out for Jake Rodriguez, just write talesofthecitycasting@gmail.com. The show starts shooting from July to November 2018 in New York City.