Transgender youth activist Georgie Stone is taking on an acting role and joining the cast of Neighbours.
Stone will play the first transgender character on the long running soap opera. In the past both Neighbours and Home and Away have been criticised for their severe lack of LGBTIQ+ representation.
The 18 year old pitched the idea of including a transgender character to producers and has spent the last eight months working with the Neighbours team to include elements from her own life in her character’s backstory.
Stone said she was excited to be joining to television program.
“I am so excited to be joining such an iconic show,” Stone said. “Neighbours is all about telling stories we can connect to, stories that reflect our society today.”
“It has progressed so much since it first began, which is why I thought it was time to have a trans character on the show. I can’t wait for everyone to meet her!”
Stone will begin filming her episodes in June and they will air later in the year. No other details about her character, or how long she will be in the show have been released.
When she was 10 years old Stone became the youngest person in Australia to be given hormone blockers, and she later successfully campaigned for young people to be able to undergo hormone replacement therapy without having to apply for permission from the courts.
Stone is an ambassador of the AFL Pride round, Wear It Purple Day and the Human Rights Arts and Film Festival. She has previously been Victoria’s Young Person of the Year.
OIP Staff
