Diversity Rules Magazine

6 Diversity Rules Magazine November 2019 Sophie - Con't from page 5 very nasty way. My page erupted with support from my Facebook family and they pounced on her with both feet. I did not have to li a finger, it was di- vine. At that point, I knew my hiding was over. Yet at mes I s ll struggle with people knowing, but that is ge ng a million percent be er. That's when I de- cided to just go all in and embrace who and what I am, a transgender female. I got three reac- ons to coming out as transgender. One was many people es- pecially males had no clue that I was trans- gender. The second group split between male and female that said I thought that you might be. And the third said, it's about me you came out, which were made up of mostly females and the smallest group. At one point I just started tell- ing everyone, I'd meet people, I was s ll going by the name Rory and I would introduce myself, 'Hi I'm Rory, I'm transgender.' Or the postman came in, I'd say 'Thanks, BTW you know I'm transgender.' I think all those years of s fling my feelings were just final- ly catching up with me. Since then I feel like I have released them into ethers. All of that has calmed down now. When I introduce myself I simply sat, Hi I am Sophie Marie. JRK: What was the reac on from your family and friends when you began your long journey of com- ing out as transgender? SW: So many people will surprise you. In good and bad ways, The biggest thing is to remember it's on them not you of how they react. I was lucky I've had an easy transi on because all my family and ninety- nine percent of my friends have stayed friends. You know there is always that one that has to be dif- ferent. I mean compared to many of my transgen- der friends which about a third were like me. But so many others have lost family, friends, and even their life because they came out as transgender. JRK: Tell us about "Hummingbird." What was the defining moment that propelled you into ac ng re- lated to this project? SW: The story Hummingbird is inspired by my tran- si on process and confronts suicide -- one of the most significant issues of the transgender commu- nity. In 2017 I won the Interna onal Screen Writers Asso- cia on award, New Orleans writer of the year. Dur- ing the fes val, I pitched a movie called humming- bird that is loosely based on my story dealing with suicide to a producer friend. He loved it and said we should shoot 10 minutes of it and use that to find funding. I told him I could find half the money if he could find the other half. Two weeks before shoot- ing we lost half of the funding. I asked everyone in- volved if they were on board to shoot it no ma er what. They all agreed to make it. So, we stripped away everything that wasn't essen al. Then I called in favors from a couple of great actors like Lance Nichols and John Sch- neider. Also, I decided to play the lead be- cause it was just a proof of concept. They could always change me out if they felt I couldn't do the part. A er we fin- ished the shoot, I was with another filmmak- er who asked what I was working on. I hap- pened to have some of the footage with me and showed him a few of the scenes. He was blown away with the ac ng and asked if he could tell a friend of his about what he saw. I agreed and a few days later I meet with Kate Adair and she signed me as an actor. Hummingbird has never been finished. It s ll hurts my heart thinking about what happened next. One of the transgender consultants on the film was a Sophie - Con't on page 8

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