The cover copy, which ends by questioning Lani’s gender, is not encouraging, and Claire, our protagonist, spends the first chapter wondering whether or not it would have changed things if she’d known what Lani was. When I started What Happened to Lani Garver?, I was afraid that it might fall into Magical Queer territory. Rayon manages to hit every stereotype about transgendered women almost casually, from Leto refusing to even identify her as such (he only refers to trans folk as “the Rayons of the world” in his acceptance speech) to the information that Rayon was a completely invented character. Jared Leto’s Oscar win for his role as Rayon in The Dallas Buyers’ Club was an ugly cap to a season of measured, indignant discussion about Rayon’s status as a Magical Queer who dies tragically after inspiring the straight hero to greatness and the choice to have a cisgendered man play a transgendered woman.
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