Pose's Dominique Jackson says she was told she could lose her life over joining the show. Photo / Supplied
Pose's Dominique Jackson says she was told she could lose her life over joining the show. Photo / Supplied
For transgender communities, living as their authentic selves can be a matter of life or death.
Last week, the New York Times revealed that the Trump Administration was essentially seeking to remove state recognition of transgender identities in the United States, a policy that could affect trans Americans in areas of health, education and justice.
Meanwhile, violent discrimination remains rampant against trans and gender non-binary people; according to the Human Rights Campaign, anti-transgender violence is currently at a record high in the US.
Pose, a ground-breaking show following various collectives (known as "houses") in New York City's ballroom culture in the 1980 and '90s, has made history for having the largest transgender cast of any show in history. But when the series premiered in June, star Dominique Jackson wasn't excited. Instead, she was plagued by fear and anxiety.
"It was the most public step I was taking," she says. "My fear was that now I was really an out trans woman. I wasn't just out in my community, I wasn't just out in small spaces and online, I would be out now to the entire world.
"There were a few people who said to me, 'Don't do the show, because people are going to know exactly who you are, and then you're going to lose your life,'" she says.
"In my book, The Transsexual from Tobego Revised, I obituarise and memorialise about 2500 transgender men and women who were brutally murdered - raped, beheaded, burned alive. I thought to myself, 'Whoa. This could happen to you now'."
Though her safety was on her mind, Jackson knew Pose was something she needed to do.
"I realised that I couldn't live in a box," she says. "It was not for me. I had to step out, and I had to take this risk."
Dominique Jackson as Elektra Abundance in Pose. Photo / Supplied
But Pose's vitality helped it win favour with critics; the show broke through with a 97 per cent rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a swift second-season order.
Jackson says that after the premiere, friends who were wary at first later praised her for her role.
"They've all said to me, 'We are so happy that all of you did this, because you're not living in the comfort of Hollywood'," she says.
"Some of us still live in the neighbourhoods that we grew up in, that we've lived in for 20 years. I live in an apartment building with about 500 people. So one person sees this show, and I'm coming in at 1or 2 o'clock in the morning - that can be my life.
"But because of this, other women and men can now show up for roles. And Mr Murphy [show creator Ryan Murphy] has given us this opportunity and we have to take it.
"We have to continue to empower each other … we do not have to live in this marginalisation, we do not have to live in oppression, but our fight to get out of it is not going to be an easy one."
In Pose, Jackson plays Elektra Abundance, mother of the legendary House of Abundance, who dominates the late-night balls. Jackson identifies with Elektra on a very personal level; after moving to New York in 1990, she herself came up through New York's ballroom culture. She was taken under the wing of the same kind of House Mother figure she portrays - and later became one herself.
Shooting the ballroom scenes was a joy, says Jackson; not only did it take her back to her past, but the opulent costumes and extravagant performances allowed her to express a part of her identity she adores.
"I love being glamorous," she says. "That's one thing I relate to Elektra about. Whenever I have to go out or do something, it must be glamour. Women are very different, but the woman I wish to be is the ultra-femme girl, and it's not something that's instilled in me, it's just something that when I look in the mirror, it's how I want to present myself."
Dominique Jackson: 'Whenever I have to go out, it must be glamour'. Photo / Supplied
Hollywood has a chequered past of telling trans stories - cisgender actors have continually been cast in trans roles, and subsequently praised for doing so.
The tide is slowly changing; Scarlett Johansson recently dropped out of playing a trans man in the film Rub & Tug, after initially defending her casting by comparing it to performers such as Eddie Redmayne (The Danish Girl) and Jeffrey Tambor (Transparent).
"I've learned a lot from the [trans] community since making my first statement about my casting and realise it was insensitive," Johansson said via a statement announcing her departure. "I am thankful that this casting debate, albeit controversial, has sparked a larger conversation about diversity and representation in film."
Trans actress Tracy Lysette (Transparent) pointed out that it wasn't just about Johansson's cisgender identity – it's that trans people aren't getting a seat at the table.
"I wouldn't be as upset if I was getting in the same rooms as Jennifer Lawrence and Scarlett for cis roles, but we know that's not the case."
Pose is the kind of cultural phenomenon that lets a wealth of trans talent through the door - while also allowing them to tell their own stories with authenticity.
Jackson has a deep and personal connection with the emotional journey in Elektra's character arc, which includes her undergoing gender-affirming surgery. "Having gone through bottom gender-reassignment surgery, I related to Elektra, because there is that sense of loss when you finally realise that it's your truth," she says.
"[These storylines] are extremely important because the societal view of these things is very ignorant," she says. "Now that they're seeing it play out on screen, it is not just about entertainment – it's about the story behind that, the reasoning behind that. It's educating and entertaining.
"[Murphy's] humility allowed him to say, 'You guys tell me how this is supposed to be.' They hired people who were of ballroom, and people who lived in that time. And these people were hired to help them with narrating the story, and making everything as authentic as it could possibly be."
Dominique Jackson's Elektra leads the winning House of Abundance in Pose. Photo / Supplied
As the show progressed, Jackson would receive more and more messages from fans thanking her for the show - saying they found it inspirational and meaningful. "I made a post one day, and I was thanking the LGBTQIA+ community for watching the show, and a few guys DMed me, and they were like, 'Straight men watch Pose too!'
"We've had people contacting us, telling us that they're going to reach out to their transgender family members and try to make amends, because until they saw Pose, they did not realise the lives that we live.
"They did not realise how much we were marginalised and oppressed, and that we still fought to be who we are. That we still found and created this ball culture that gave us validation, that let us know that we were human beings, that helped us to continue our craft and be who we are."
