Win Or Lose’s trans voice actor “disheartened” that Disney cut her story
"I was excited to share my journey to help empower other trans youth. I knew this would be a very important conversation. Trans stories matter, and they deserve to be heard.”
Photo courtesy of Disney
As reported earlier today, Disney has excised any reference to a trans character’s gender identity from its upcoming Pixar series Win Or Lose, a show about accepting your teammates for who they are. Actually, they did a while ago and forgot to tell the voice actor. One source told The Hollywood Reporter that Disney made the decision “several months ago,” but the studio finally got around to telling Chanel Stewart, Win Or Lose‘s transgender voice actor, last Monday. Stewart is likely no stranger to displays of transphobia such as these. Still, she was pretty diplomatic about this about-face from the multi-billion-dollar behemoth built on dreams coming true.
“I was very disheartened,” Stewart told Deadline. “From the moment I got the script, I was excited to share my journey to help empower other trans youth. I knew this would be a very important conversation. Trans stories matter, and they deserve to be heard.”
Disney hired Stewart, then 14, in 2020 after she answered a social media ad searching for “an authentic, 14-year-old transgender girl to voice a transgender teenager in a new animated series,” Deadline reports. Stewart believes she “was exactly what they wanted to a T, and that’s why it felt so right.”
“I wore it as a badge. I wore it with pride. I wore it with honor because it meant so much to me. The thought of authentically portraying a transgender teenage girl made me really happy. I wanted to make this for transgender kids like me.”
Of course, Disney did not want to make it for other transgender kids like her. In a statement, Disney said, “When it comes to animated content for a younger audience, we recognize that many parents would prefer to discuss certain subjects with their children on their own terms and timeline.” Weirdly, this newfound recognition came about after the Trump campaign and conservative groups spent millions on anti-trans ads, scapegoating the 3 million Americans who identify as transgender (roughly 1% of the population)—and settled a $15 million defamation suit with the President-elect.
Stewart’s mom was more pointed about the controversy.
“It was upsetting because my daughter is transgender, and this is her life. I felt like it was very important that we not hide that fact,” Stewart’s mom, Keisha, said. “There may be some parents out there who are not ready to have that conversation, but this is the world that we live in and everyone should be represented. Everyone deserves to be recognized. And it felt like it was just another setback for the LGBTQ community, because it’s very hard on transgender teenagers—transgender people, period. Especially when you’re young and you’re trying to figure out how to navigate this world that you live in and be able to grow into your own person.”
Win Or Lose is Pixar’s first long-form series, following a middle school softball team and the week leading up to their big game. Each episode will center on a different character. Stewart says her character is “still a part of the show heavily,” but her character would “now be a cis girl, a straight cig girl.” It’s unclear if she would have her own episode devoted to her. Nevertheless, Stewart remains honored to “be a part of queer history” as one of the first transgender girls to voice a Disney character.