CBBC aired the first episode of Australian four-part series First Day yesterday, a show which documents the life of trans 12 year-old Hannah Bradford as she starts her new school.
CBBC and the show have been praised by viewers for giving trans youth on-screen representation, which is a rarity.
The first part of the series follows Hannah on her last day of primary school, where bullies torment her, calling her by her deadname, before showing her dress shopping with her mother ahead of her first day of high school.
Hannah is played by trans actress Evie Macdonald, a 15 year-old who previously confronted the Australian prime minister Scott Morrison for his views on the trans community.
Morrison voted against same-sex marriage in Australia in 2017. He responded to a news piece by The Daily Telegraph which reported that teachers were being trained to identify trans children.
“We do not need ‘gender whisperers’ in our schools. Let kids be kids,” he posted on Twitter.
Macdonald, who was 13 years-old at the time, replied to Morrison in a video clip that went viral saying:
“My name is Evie Macdonald, I’m 13 years old and I’m a transgender kid. And this is what I want to say to the prime minister.
“There are thousands of kids in Australia that are gender diverse. We don’t deserve to be disrespected like that through tweets from our prime minister.
“I know what it’s like to be on the receiving end of attitudes like this.
“I went to a Christian school where I had to pretend to be a boy and spent weeks in conversion therapy. We get one childhood and mine was stolen from me by attitudes like this.”
We speak to PM @ScottMorrisonMP about his views on the au pair case, whether bullying occurred during the leadership spill and a young trans kid shares her story with the PM. #auspol #TheProjectTV pic.twitter.com/caN3VQiN8z
— The Project (@theprojecttv) September 6, 2018
This is the third LGBT+ storyline that has featured in a CBBC programme in recent weeks.
In early August, they aired a heartfelt and informative coming out scene in the latest episode of Mystic.
Also earlier this month, the BBC responded to complaints received when The Next Step featured a same-sex kiss.
“At Children’s BBC, we are proud to reflect all areas of children’s lives across our factual and fictional output,” the BBC said in a statement responding to the complaints.
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