Television alert!

In the last couple months the soap opera "All My Children" (AMC) has featured a transgender character, Zarf/Zoe. Zarf realizes he's really a woman when the woman he's in love with turns out to be lesbian.

I said it was a soap opera.

Ridiculous plotline notwithstanding, AMC has tried to get its TG character right. They have consulted with TG and LGBT groups, and the actor playing Zarf/Zoe, Jeffrey Carlson, has done a lot of research on his own. (I last saw him on Broadway in Tartuffe.) Also, it happens that one of the AMC writers is the friend of a trans friend of mine, and there's been some good communication there in keeping things as real as can be, within the strictures of a "daytime drama."

The show decided to show Zoe going to a TG support group meeting. But instead of trying to script one, they brought in a half-dozen real trans people, and shot an improvised session. My friend Betty Crow (the subject of the recently published She's Not the Man I Married by Helen Boyd) was one of them. The group leader was played by Jennifer Finney Boylan, author of She's Not There--whom I know a little from the myHusbandBetty discussion boards, where I'm a moderator.

It will be shown this Thursday and Friday, Mar 8-9. It's on ABC at 1:00pm ET (and PT, I guess). It may only be 5 minutes or so each day, and most probably will focus on Zarf/Zoe. How much of the real people's stories will be shown is unknown.

I was invited to the wrap party after they shot it, and got to meet everyone. Some of the people's stories are very moving. I hope they get aired. I've got my video recorder all set up.