Grey's Anatomy Paves the Way For Groundbreaking Transgender TV Storytelling

This month, Grey's Anatomy broke new ground with the introduction of a major transgender character, and now the show is taking things even further. The veteran ABC drama has cast actress Candis Cayne for a "groundbreaking" transgender story arc that will unfold over multiple episodes. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Cayne will portray a transgender patient who comes to Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital to receive a cutting-edge "vaginoplasty" surgery.

Cayne's character arc is based on a true story. In real life, Jess Ting — the director of surgery at the Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery at Mount Sinai — created this exact surgery with the help of a transgender woman named Hayley Anthony. According to Grey's showrunner Krista Vernoff, the surgery "revolutionizes the making of a vagina and we thought that was a really cool story and [Cayne] is playing a character inspired by something we read."

The news comes just a few weeks after the introduction of Casey, a new intern played by Alex Blue Davis, who identifies as a "proud trans man." Casey is a monumental character in transgender representation not because he's the first transgender character to appear on TV, but because his transgender identity is not the sole defining attribute of his character. In fact, we don't find out he's transgender until after we get to know him a little bit and watch him shine as a tech-savvy member of the hospital staff. The treatment of Casey suggests that Cayne's character will also be treated with care and will add further nuance to the show's depiction of transgender individuals.