The Wachowskis are a sibling directing team best known for The Matrix, V for Vendetta, Cloud Atlas and last year’s high-priced bomb Jupiter Ascending. (I didn’t see Jupiter Ascending but I really liked Cloud Atlas and thought it was underrated.) They put out ambitious, sweeping scifi films and are currently working on the second season of the acclaimed series Sense8 for Netflix. They also do screenwriting, video game directing, and comic book writing. They were born brothers and Lana, 50, became one of the first high profile people to come out as transgender in 2012. Now her sibling Lilly, born Andrew Paul, 48, has also come out as transgender. Lilly made the announcement ahead of a story outing her by the Daily Mail. She penned an essay in LGBT publication The Windy City Times out of Chicago, where she’s from. Here’s part of her announcement and you can read it in full at the source. The publication adds that “GLAAD and other LGBT organizations strongly condemn the outing of a transgender person before they are ready to tell their own story.”

“SEX CHANGE SHOCKER—WACHOWSKI BROTHERS NOW SISTERS!!!”

There’s the headline I’ve been waiting for this past year. Up until now with dread and/or eye rolling exasperation. The “news” has almost come out a couple of times. Each was preceded by an ominous email from my agent—reporters have been asking for statements regarding the “Andy Wachowski gender transition” story they were about to publish. In response to this threatened public outing against my will, I had a prepared a statement that was one part piss, one part vinegar and 12 parts gasoline.

It had a lot of politically relevant insights regarding the dangers of outing trans people, and the statistical horrors of transgender suicide and murder rates. Not to mention a slightly sarcastic wrap-up that “revealed” my father had injected praying mantis blood into his paternal ball-sac before conceiving each of his children to produce a brood of super women, hellbent on female domination. Okay, mega sarcastic.

But it didn’t happen. The editors of these publications didn’t print a story that was only salacious in substance and could possibly have a potentially fatal effect. And being the optimist that I am, I was happy to chalk it up to progress.

Then last night while getting ready to go out for dinner my doorbell rang. Standing on my front porch was a man I did not recognize.

“This might be a little awkward,” he said in an English accent.

I remember sighing.

Sometimes it’s really tough work to be an optimist.

He proceeded to explain he was a journalist from the Daily Mail, which was the largest news service in the UK and was most definitely not a tabloid. And that I really had to sit down with him tomorrow or the next day or next week so that I could have my picture taken and tell my story which was so inspirational! And that I really didn’t want to have someone from the National Enquirer following me around, did I? BTW—The Daily Mail is so definitely not a tabloid.

My sister Lana and I have largely avoided the press. I find talking about my art frustratingly tedious and talking about myself a wholly mortifying experience. I knew at some point I would have to come out publicly. You know, when you’re living as an out transgender person it’s … kind of difficult to hide. I just wanted—needed some time to get my head right, to feel comfortable.

But apparently I don’t get to decide this.

After he had given me his card, and I closed the door it began to dawn on me where I had heard of the Daily Mail. It was the “news” organization that had played a huge part in the national public outing of Lucy Meadows, an elementary school teacher and trans woman in the UK. An editorial in the “not-a-tabloid” demonized her as a damaging influence on the children’s delicate innocence and summarized “he’s not only trapped in the wrong body, he’s in the wrong job.” The reason I knew about her wasn’t because she was transgender it was because three months after the Daily Mail article came out, Lucy committed suicide.

And now here they were, at my front door, almost as if to say—

“There’s another one! Let’s drag ’em out in the open so we can all have a look!”

Being transgender is not easy. We live in a majority-enforced gender binary world. This means when you’re transgender you have to face the hard reality of living the rest of your life in a world that is openly hostile to you.

I am one of the lucky ones. Having the support of my family and the means to afford doctors and therapists has given me the chance to actually survive this process. Transgender people without support, means and privilege do not have this luxury. And many do not survive. In 2015, the transgender murder rate hit an all-time high in this country. A horrifying disproportionate number of the victims were trans women of color. These are only the recorded homicides so, since trans people do not all fit in the tidy gender binary statistics of murder rates, it means the actual numbers are higher.

And though we have come a long way since Silence of the Lambs, we continue to be demonized and vilified in the media where attack ads portray us as potential predators to keep us from even using the goddamn bathroom. The so-called bathroom bills that are popping up all over this country do not keep children safe, they force trans people into using bathrooms where they can be beaten and or murdered. We are not predators, we are prey.

So yeah, I’m transgender.

And yeah, I’ve transitioned.

I’m out to my friends and family. Most people at work know too. Everyone is cool with it. Yes, thanks to my fabulous sister they’ve done it before, but also because they’re fantastic people. Without the love and support of my wife and friends and family I would not be where I am today.

[From Windy City Times]

She’s such a great writer “BTW, the Daily Mail is definitely not a tabloid.” I’ve never heard the story about how The Mail outed a school teacher, after which she committed suicide. That’s despicable and you would think that after that they would realize that outing people is an awful, destructive thing to do but no, they were trying to do it to Lilly too. That excerpt is long and the rest of her statement is well worth reading in full. It’s thoughtful, poetic and gives insight into what she’s gone through. We may never be able to grasp the complexity of her journey, but we can understand some of it, and it feels like all of society is coming around on this. It was both heartwarming and sad for me to read this statement because she brings the reality of transitioning to light. She also acknowledges and understands her privilege as a wealthy white person, which is much more than I can say for Caitlyn, especially lately.

Lana and Lilly in 2013:

photos credit: WENN, FameFlynet and Lilly Wachowski/Windy City Times