From Cole Escola to Tourmaline, there is so much trans and non-binary excellence to celebrate this Pride

Holding Space is a joint column by Anne T. Donahue and Peter Knegt that "holds space" for something or someone in popular culture.

Peter: Anne, it's June, the official Gay Month!

Anne: This is true! And it couldn't come at a better time! How are you celebrating? What does it mean for you? I promise I'm not just going to post "love is love" anywhere on my social media platforms and call it a day. Pride's a call to action, baby! 

Peter: It is! And right now the call to action part of Pride is not directed at the capital-G Gays. They're mostly doing just fine. But that is much less the case for the people who are being targeted by the truly rampant and incredibly terrifying rise in transphobia right now, some of which is unfortunately being perpetrated by gay men and lesbians. 

So I thought maybe we could take the opportunity of Pride not so much to discuss that horrifying situation but instead do what anyone who considers themselves a cis ally to the trans community should maybe be taking some time to do this month (or any month): hold space for trans and non-binary excellence! And there's no shortage of examples of that in the culture right now.

Anne: Listen, as the resident cis-hetero spinster girlie of this column, I wholeheartedly agree. And if I can't use my Leslie Bibb-like bob for good, then what am I even doing? What are any of us doing?! As members of an extremely privileged community, it should be impossible to really enjoy anything while folks are literally fighting for their lives. Nobody is free until everybody's free, frankly. And in relation to this column, may I just say the most obvious thing of all: please let's stop consuming anything related to Harry Potter. It had its time. Its creator is a ghoul. She is the antithesis of trans joy. There's so much better culture to take in.

Like, say, Oh, Mary!

Did you watch the Tonys last night? Can we talk about the most recent and excellent cultural development? Enter: Oh, Mary! the now-Tony Award-winning play by Tony Award-winning Cole Escola! Peter, they accepted their award dressed like Bernadette Peters when she won her Tony in the 1990s. They looked amazing. They are amazing. Their mind and vision are such a testament to the spectacular results of embracing your creativity and humour and multitudes of self. And its reception! This is the art people need and want to see! 

Granted, I still have to see it because I haven't made my way to New York in a minute (#school), but everything I've seen and read and consumed via bite-sized clips on TikTok has convinced me that Cole is doing God's work.

Peter: I have been pretty obsessed with Cole Escola since Jeffrey & Cole Casserole (not to mention their scene-stealing performances as demon twinks in Difficult People and Search Party) so I could not have been more excited to watch them win a Tony last night. I legitimately screamed watching them rush up onto the stage in that gown, clearly emotional at the size of the moment (they became the first non-binary performer to ever win in their category!) but still finding a way to insert their acidic delivery into their speech. Like I was dying when they thanked "T-Bow from Grindr" and shaded their mother. It was just such a luminous thing to see happen during such dark times, and it could not be happening to a more talented person. 

I was lucky enough to see Oh Mary! when it was having its initial Off-Broadway run at the Lucille Lortel Theatre last spring, and I am not exaggerating when I say it was among the 5 funniest things I've ever seen, on stage or on screen. And that is in so many ways because of Cole (who not only stars in the play as Mary Todd Lincoln, but also wrote it) and their genius. The fact that it became so successful that it transferred to Broadway and then got repeatedly extended due to wild demand is just… queer icing on the complete garbage cake that is the last year of existence. 

Anne: Culture just gets richer and more interesting when the people making it have the space to create work that they want to make! Like, only Cole Escola could dream up a version of Mary Todd Lincoln as an alcoholic with cabaret aspirations. And now I honestly don't care/plan to think of her as anything but that version — and I'm a history major.

Speaking of history: the fact that Cole is the first non-binary performer to win in their category is such an achievement, but also, it's 2025. And that it's taken decades reflects the glacial pace in which mainstream culture has come to embrace and celebrate trans and non-binary folks. And I'm using "embrace" and "celebrate" loosely because it's been over 30 years since the world lost Marsha P. Johnson and we only got her definitive biography last month. You're reading it now, right? I'm assuming Tourmaline, who wrote it, did an incredible job. But what have your biggest takeaways been?

Peter: I actually just finished Tourmaline's book — Marsha: The Joy and Defiance of Marsha P. Johnson — and it was just the perfect thing to kick off Pride month reading. It's so. So well-done: meticulously researched, incredibly moving. And it tells the story of a trans icon so many of us think we know the whole story of but so many of us absolutely do not (I'll fully admit I learned a lot from the book). Tourmaline does such justice to Johnson's story, and it really leaves you feeling not just inspired by Johnson, but also by Tourmaline for doing all she needed to do to get Johnson's full story told.

I remember first becoming aware of Tourmaline when I got my hands on the 2019 edition of one of my all time favourite books, Larry Mitchell's 1977 gay manifesto as fable The Faggots & Their Friends Between Revolutions (which, no matter how you identify if you have not read this book do change that immediately!). Tourmaline wrote the preface for the new edition, and I had to immediately read it several times back because of just how beautifully it connects Mitchell's work to what queer and trans people are facing today. And with Marsha, she does something similar by telling the story of a remarkable queer person from our past to help us feel inspired to take on our present and future. 

But now we are pretty deep into this column and have only mentioned the trans excellence of three individuals (albeit mighty ones). Who are some other folks who you want to shout out, Anne?

Anne: Okay so as you may or may not know because I've never mentioned it ever in my life, I'm a little interested in history; it's not an obsession at all. So when FX launched the miniseries, Say Nothing, based on Patrick Radden Keefe's book about the Troubles, I perished. The show is brilliantly done, but the crux of the story rests on Dolours Price who's played by Lola Pettigrew. They are AMAZING. Like, unfairly talented. They can carry a scene with just a look, and they make you feel the full spectrum of emotions the character experiences from young adulthood to, well, still young adulthood but slightly older. Deservedly, they won the BAFTA for their performance, and their speech was stirring and powerful and I can't imagine being that eloquent off the cuff (and frankly, neither can anybody who's reading this column). Lola Pettigrew, please be my friend.

Also, my actual pal Niko Stratis just released her fantastic memoir, The Dad Rock That Made Me a Woman, and I can't recommend that enough, either. She's such a gifted storyteller and a very insightful, empathetic, delightful person, and all of that comes through in her very — and generously — personal coming-of-self book. If y'all listen to Commotion or hang on the internet, you're likely already aware of her bang-on opinions on music and pop culture, but to be admitted to a front row seat of her personal trajectory (tied to dad rock, of all genres) is a gift unto itself. 

Also, are you an Ethel Cain fan? I'm so, shamefully late to the party, but I fell into Preacher's Daughter last year and now I'm counting down for Willoughby Tucker, I'll Always Love You (which will be out in August). The audacity to make such beautiful music! Truly, I am never more delusional than when I'm listening to Ethel Cain and convince myself I too can hit all the high notes in "American Teenager." 

Peter: Love Ethel Cain and very excited for the new album to be the soundtrack for me easing myself out of summer. But have not watched Say Nothing yet or read The Dad Rock That Made Me a Woman, so will put them both on my list for the more immediate future.

I also want to shout out a few filmmakers who have really just blown me away with their recent work, all of which is screening in Toronto at some point this summer: J Stevens, whose directorial debut Really Happy Someday just won the audience award at Inside Out and is having a special screening at TIFF on June 13th; Chase Joynt, who has made some of the greatest trans-focused documentaries ever as far as I'm concerned, one of which (the fantastic Billy Tipton exploration No Ordinary Man) is screening at the Paradise Theatre on August 11th with Joynt doing a Q&A; and Jane Schoenbrun, who made one of my favourite movies of last year (I Saw The TV Glow, screening at the Toronto Outdoor Picture Show on June 16th) and one of my favourite films of 2021 (We're All Going To The World's Fair, screening at Paradise on July 23rd).

I feel like trans cinema in general is just having an extraordinary moment right now, which is so necessary after decades of Hollywood feeding us highly questionable cis-made, cis-starring Oscar bait like Transamerica, Dallas Buyers Club and The Danish Girl.

Anne: Lord alive, I could do an entire Holding Space about how angry Jared Leto's Oscar makes me, but we don't need to bring that negativity into our orbit right now.

What we can do is remind our dear readers (hi!) that championing the work made by trans, non-binary, and queer people is easy to do when there's so much. And not just during Pride Month — the books, music, films, and shows are available all the time and everywhere thanks to our good friend, the internet. Even on, say, CBC Gem. AM I RIGHT, PETER?

Peter: Always, Anne.