Christian Group Boycotts Nickelodeon’s Degrassi Trans Character Adam Torres

The Florida Family Association is calling for an advertiser boycott of Nickelodeon’s Teen Nick channel over a transgender character on its show, Degrassi: The Next Generation.The anti-gay group is falsely claiming to have already forced Kodak, the show’s prime sponsor, to pull out. Of course this was immediately denied by Kodak. Not to mention that the fools over at the FFA seem to ignore (or totally oblivious) to the fact that Kodak has had a long and inclusive history when it comes to trans folks! As Kodak’s website notes: Kodak has achieved a significant milestone by creating a safe environment for our Transgender employees. Transgender employees have been visible in our work community for at least the last 60 years from areas around the world. And in addition, Kodak Worldwide Benefits has updated health plan coverage to include procedures, services, and supplies for sex transformation (gender reassignment).

Enjoy this fabulous You Tube clip of Adam with Beyoncé’s beautiful song “If I were a Boy”

Some trivia on Nickelodeon’s Degrassi Character Adam:

• Adam is the first transgender character to be featured on Degrassi.
• Adam is the first scripted transgeder teen character in television history (not including documentaries or one-time guest roles).
• Adam is an FTM (Female to Male) transgender.
• Adam’s birth name is Grace “Gracie” Torres.The original birthname was planned to be Chelsea.
• Adam is one of three characters who caused self-harm to themselves. Others include Ellie Nash and Darcy Edwards, who both cut themselves.
• Adam’s grandmother doesn’t know that he’s transgender.
• It’s been speculated that Drew is Audra’s biological son and Adam is Omar’s biological son (daughter) because it’s been revealed that he was born with the name Grace Torres, meaning he took his father’s name. Also, in the episode My Body is a Cage, it was revealed that Drew and Adam (Grace) got along well as kids before Audra and Omar got married.

It should also be noted that there have been, understandably, critiques from sectors of the trans community that a trans person was not hired to play this role.