Second Wachowski sibling comes out as a trans woman
The Wachowski siblings have always been very private in their personal affairs, to the extent that Matrix and Cloud Atlas co-director Lana Wachowski’s transition from male to female took place out of the public eye. But while Lana presented herself to the world on her own time, her sibling and creative partner Lilly (formerly Andy) Wachowski has been compelled to hasten her announcement by the fear of being outed in a British newspaper.
Wachowski explains her situation in a statement originally published in Chicago’s LGBT Windy City Times newspaper (the Wachowskis were born in Chicago), where she says that she’s “been waiting for this past year” for someone to out her as transgender in the press, and had preemptively “prepared a statement that was one part piss, one part vinegar and 12 parts gasoline” in response. But when a reporter from The Daily Mail—a paper whose story on a transgender teacher in the U.K. reportedly led to the woman’s suicide—showed up on her doorstep, she realized that she had to say something soon. (The Daily Mail has since responded with a statement denying their reporter pressured Wachowski.) Wachowski writes:
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.