Will Black Trans Representation in the Media End with the Final Season of the FX Drama ‘Pose’?

FX’s Pose will strut one last time in its third and final. The groundbreaking series has been a landmark for queer and trans characters in film. Co-creators Steven Canal, Ryan Murphy, and Brad Falbruk announced the premiere date for the final season, May 2nd. The third season will consist of seven abbreviated episodes. One less from season two and three less from season one. Many fans of the show share the feeling of despair but appreciate the storytelling the series offered. 

ESPECIALLY, when you have shows like Riverdale and Greys Anatomy that are getting renewed with like 7 million seasons that no one gives a damn about. There’s just so much more impact Pose could’ve made and I hate it.

— 𝕵𝖊𝖜𝖑𝖘 👾 (@JewlsTheIcon) March 5, 2021

Steven Canals released a statement on the official Twitter account for the show. “It was a very difficult decision for us to make, but this has been an incredible journey,” adding, “we have told the story we wanted to tell.” 

All good things come to an end… @PoseOnFX season 3 debuts May 2nd on FX, and it will be the final season.

Thank you Pose Fam for your commitment. We never took it for granted. ❤️ https://t.co/hGV7eBQKgE

— Steven Canals (@StevenCanals) March 5, 2021

“We got to tell the exact story we wanted, as we wanted to tell it, and I’m incredibly honored and grateful,” said Ryan Murphy in a statement on Friday.  The cast of Pose made television history by having the largest trans cast ever assembled in regards to series regulars. In addition, the writers, producers, and directors were people of color and members of the LGBTQ community. 

The show centers around Black and brown LGBTQ youth. It brought some Ballroom veterans in real life to be a part of the show. Leiomy Maldonado, the ‘ Wonder Women of Vogue,’ choreographed the show. She also appeared in season 2 as Florida Ferocity. Dominique Jackson, one of the show’s main leads, is a ballroom legend in her own right. Jackson plays Elektra Abundance on the series. MJ Rodriguez, another series lead, is an Afro-Latina trans actress, playing Blanca, the motherly character of all of her “children.”

Their stories are as diverse as their characters and actresses/actors who portray them. Most shows that attempted to tell queers’ stories fail. Pose set a standard of diverse film casting, something that lacks within the entertainment industry when telling queer stories.

Film and TV shows like Love Simon, Love Victor, and Queer As Folk, all tell the stories of gay cis-gendered non-Black people. Most notably, they center themselves in whiteness, erasing queer Black stories altogether. When it is centered around queer Blackness, it’s problematic love like in Barry Jenkin’s Moonlight. That in itself isn’t necessarily a bad thing, because it’s a real experience that exists in Black queer love stories. Netflix’s Boys In The Band focuses on a group of gay men, one of which is Black. His love interest in the movie is a white man, which is a common trope when exploring interracial queer relationships. All surrounded in a world of whiteness, none of the films or TV shows listed included any trans women. It’s vital to observe how Hollywood lauds white queerness.

Viceland is one network that accurately tells the story of LGBTQ youth. Their docu-series, My House, premiered in 2018. It explores the ballroom scene in present-day New York. The new generation of underground ballroom dancers is at the forefront to showcase their subculture to the mainstream. Allow Black and brown trans women to tell their stories.

“At the time we weren’t seeing very many Black and Latinx characters — that happened to also be LGBTQ+ — populating screens. And so I wrote the first draft of a pilot the ‘younger me’ deserved. Pose was conceived as a love letter to the underground NY ballroom community, to my beloved New York, to my queer & trans family, to myself. I, along with my incredible collaborators, never intended on changing the TV landscape. I simply wanted to tell an honest story about family, resilience, and love. How fortunate am I to have done that for three seasons. I’m filled with gratitude to our intrepid writers, cast, crew, and producers who worked tirelessly to make Pose come to life, humbled by our loyal audience, thankful to the ballroom community who trusted us to tell their story, overwhelmed by the critics who warmly embraced us, and forever indebted to Ryan Murphy, FX, and 20th Television for changing my life,” said Steven Canals in a statement he told Variety.