If you thought lesbian “Batwoman” was the woke-est of superheroes, get ready for Nia Nal on the CW’s hit show “Supergirl.” Unlike the cisnormative lady bat, Nia Nal will break even more barriers by becoming the first transgender superhero in television history.
According to HuffPo, the CW’s “Supergirl” will be “introducing TV’s first ever transgender superhero in the upcoming fourth season, the show announced during its San Diego Comic-Con panel Saturday.”
The character Nia Nal will be played by transgender actor Nicole Maines (a man presenting himself as a woman) and will be based of the DC Comics character Nura Nal. Sometimes called “Dream Girl,” the character Nia Nal is a humanoid alien that also sees into the future.
Speaking with Variety, Maines said that being TV’s first transgender superhero will be a “great responsibility.”
“I haven’t really wrapped my head around it,” Maines said. “It feels fitting to say with great power, comes great responsibility. I’m nervous because I want to do it right.”
An outspoken advocate for transgenderism, Maines had previously been featured on the HBO documentary “The Trans List.” He hopes that his role on “Supergirl” will send the message to the trans community that they can be superheroes, too.
“We can be whoever we want, we can do whatever we want, we can be superheroes, because in many ways we are,” he said. “We’ve had trans representation in television for a while but it hasn’t been the right representation.”
Maines became a household name among transgender advocates in the case Doe v. Clenchy, in which he and his family sued the school district for barring him from using the girl’s bathroom. In a June 2014 decision, the Maine Supreme Court determined that young Maines had been discriminated against under the Human Rights Act. The school district was then forced to pay $75,000 to his family.