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Read: Viewers react to 7de Laan’s first transgender actress

Recently, the popular series, 7de Laan hit some big milestones. The television series celebrated its 4 000th episode in March and aired its first gay kiss later on which really had people talking.

Now the weekly soap is trying to reach another milestone by introducing the first transgender actress in its cast.

On Tuesday night, Deonay Balie (27) who plays Geneviève Du Preez was introduced as the first transgender actress on the soapie.

In an interview with You, Balie said that it’s an important achievement to be one of the few – if not the only – transgender actress seen on local television screens.

She said: “There’s no well-known transgender actress in soapies. And LGBT people (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people) do have a need to tell their stories.

“It’s taken us a long time to get to the point that a transgender actress can appear in a series like 7de Laan, but I still think it’s wonderful they’ve decided to add a trans character to the story line.”

Deonay, who is a primary school teacher in Steinkopf in the Northern Cape, became involved with television by chance and was approached to audition for the role.

She said that she isn’t too worried about the backlash her role might create though:

“I’d much rather listen to why they don’t like having a transgender woman in the series and then talk about it. I’m a tough cookie. I’ll remind people that you don’t have to agree with someone but you should respect each other.”