The Shame of Being Trans: Transgender Patients and Cisgender Doctors in U.S. Medical Dramas

U.S. medical series have, since 1975, regularly integrated guest transgender characters as patients but limit patient and doctor interactions to problems caused by or related to their medical transition. An analysis of more than 18 different U.S. scripted medical dramas series aired between 1975 to 2018 demonstrates how the professional authority of the main characters often validates the character's gender dysphoria, but the narrative questions the validity of its presumed solution (gender transition) and delegitimizes the outcome (gender identity as a basis of gender instead of one's sex). These series do so by presenting the distinction between the sex (as assigned at birth) and gender identity of trans guest characters as so significant that attempts to prioritize the latter over the former, or hide its existence, are characterized as shameful and associate gender transition with deception and selfishness, thereby contributing to current transphobic debates across the United States.