 I am a first-year teacher and I started the Gay Straight Alliance here at the school. Another teacher at the school, Miss Pamela, knew Miss Irvin and said that she would possibly be interested in coming and talk to the middle schoolers and I just thought it would be a really great opportunity for them and got in contact. 66% of people who have met a transgender person or at least know of a transgender person say that they support equal rights for transgender people and I think that that number is only going to continue to go up as it gets more exposure and I believe really strongly that we need these kids to be our leaders and so it's really important for them to be exposed to new ideas and make up their own minds about what they think is fair and what they think is right. Hi everyone, I'm Brian Socropanti with CalTV Entertainment and today I'm joined by Erica Irvin, also known as Amazon Eve. Yes. Most recently featured in American Horror Story Freak Show. It's exciting. It's a great nice to meet you. Thank you. It wasn't until fairly recently that you kind of came up publicly and did come out as transgender. Was there like a moment or an experience that sort of moved you to do that? In 2007 I wrote an article, the first line of that article is I'm a transsexual woman. Technically I would think that's my coming out. We're talking about the coming out party? Well that was American Horror Story Freak Show. I was living someone in stealth and I was using Amazon Eve as my alias name and I didn't want to come out. I was a little afraid. And event happened in 2012 which made me decide that I think now is the time. Right after Hemlock Grove. That's when I decided the next project I'm going to make a coming out of it. For my part originally it was written for man so I auditioned as a male. I nailed it and they googled who I was and said, oh Amazon Eve that's even better. Let's use Amazon Eve. So Ryan Murphy has given me the opportunity of a lifetime to tell this story. American Horror Story is one of my favorite shows in part because of the the way it tackles social issues. It tackles gender and sexuality and race and then disability even and just the idea of otherness. What was that like for you to to be working on this show with Ryan Murphy tackling these issues at the same time and just what was your experience like doing that? I felt better because everyone on set knew who I was. Knew I was transgender so I didn't have to feel odd about saying that and they were very accepting and very loving people. This is like an extended family to me. Got to work with Ryan Murphy because he directed the first episode and there's an opening there's a scene where after we kill the detective that I carry him. I was originally going to be carrying a box. Obviously not carrying. I said let me get my freak on. Let me carry the detective. You can do that. He's a 250 pound man. You see a lot of cases in which a straight actor will play a character who's gay, lesbian, trans, you know things of that nature and oftentimes will be received with critical acclaim but occasionally you'll hear some backlash from the LGBTQ communities as to why didn't that role go to someone that is LGBTQ in real life and what what is your take on that type of situation? We're challenged to represent and I always say make your dollars invisible as they make you but we're such a small group. How do you get to see us out there? It starts with other people playing us. It's part of that understanding. So is this what it's like to be you? Let me put this on. It's just about being human. I played straight cisgender females. Should that role have gone to a six-foot-eight woman? Very hard to find. We have a challenge right now. I'm trying to reach people who are isolated. I'm curious how do we do that? This is a conversation I wanted to begin now. Does everybody here have someone to check in with? A parent? A teacher? Does everybody have someone to check in with? I want to see more hero characters, transgender hero characters on TV. I want to be able to speak to the kids listening right. It's really important to get the message that there is light at the end of this tunnel and that there are other things choices you can make them take in your life. Now I never thought of myself as pretty or beautiful or even valued because these messages these bullying messages said that you're no good, you're not gonna mount to munch, you're mentally ill, these are old ideas. Wipe those away. I'm Brian Sacrapanti and you're watching Cal TV. Was that good? That was good.