Good News

Delia on Let’s Make A Deal

Three weeks ago, I mentioned that watching Let’s Make A Deal while I was recuperating from my surgery, “a guy showed up dressed as a drag queen.” I did not know if he was the first contestant in drag to appear on the show, but it was a first for me. [If you are not familiar with Let’s Make A Deal, audience members who participate in making a deal (winning prizes) dress in all sorts of costumes.]

I don’t watch Let’s Make A Deal everyday, but since my first sighting, I have seen another contestant on the show who I believe was trans-something. She used a feminine name (Delia) and looked like a woman, but she was very tall (a few inches taller than the show’s host, Wayne Brady, who is a six-footer) and her voice raised doubts about her birth gender.

When Delia had to make a deal by choosing curtain 1, 2 or 3, she prefaced her selection by saying that she had been married to her wife for 25 years. And when Delia won the “Big Deal,” her wife joined her on the stage and looked like a cisgender woman, just a lot shorter than Delia.

I don’t know if Delia is a crossdresser or transsexual, but my trans radar was sounding loudly and I am sure she is trans-something.

Everyday there is nothing but bad news on the trans front and it is very disheartening. So it did my heart good to see a trans-person appear as a contestant on a popular television show and be treated as just another contestant and not a freak. 

That’s good news!

Wearing Trina Turk

The Flag Sisters

In 1977, a leading Italian television host invited three actors - Tito Le Duc (a Mexican), Mauro Bronchi (an Italian) and Neil Hansen, a boy from Perth, Western Australia - to appear in drag on his new variety show. They thought it would be the end of their acting careers. It wasn't. In a twinkling of the eye, The Flag Sisters were Italy's hottest act. With countless TV appearances, feature films and national tours, they were high flying and adored, the paparazzi forever snap-snapping at their high heels. They brought joy to millions of fans at a time when Italy was on the verge of nervous breakdown, the Red Brigades and other radical groups bringing terror to the streets. (Source: IMDb)