I have never been excited about fancy dress, but when I received the invitation to a Sopranos-themed party a couple of months ago, I knew immediately who I wanted to go as: Adriana La Cerva. As a transgender woman, I empathised deeply with Adriana. I loved her wit, naivety, garish glamour and scandalous moments – the same reason I admire so many of the women in my trans community. Just look to Hunter Schafer or Alex Consani if you want a masterclass in all the above.
Some of Adriana’s one-liners – “If you think I’m gonna blow this guy for your sick purposes, you are sadly mistaken” – contain the sort of lewd, campy bravado of a ballroom queen. This is not the aspiration of gender transition, of course. But it does approximate to some of the ways trans women respond to their exclusion by a culture that expects women to be respectable, polite and discreet about their sexualities.
But there is a more devastating side of Adriana that speaks to the trans experience: her quest for belonging. She longed for approval not only as a source of validation, but as a means of securing safety and stability. Her greatest struggle was that she craved acceptance from men and the family, even though she could never quite fit into their world.
