Netflix, the host of Baby Reindeer, has a very shiny show on its hands. And, if you ever saw it, you would even say it’s a masterpiece.
Shoddily-crafted Rudolph references aside, we’re approaching the one-month anniversary of Baby Reindeer‘s reign at the top of Netflix’s television charts, and it’s deserved every single second of it. Indeed, with its superhuman penchant for vulnerability, masterful grasp of tension, and its non-linear exploration of the more twisted side of the human condition, the name “Donny Dunn” will be stuck in the minds of many for the foreseeable future.
Today, some folks are wondering whether Donny — the protagonist of the show and a fictionalized version of Baby Reindeer creator Richard Gadd — is a trans character or not. Based on the piece of information you were just given about Donny in that previous sentence, that’s about all the info you should need.
Is Donny transgender?
No, Donny is not transgender; he’s a cis man who is based on a real-life cis man. This question may have come out of the fact that Donny is shown to be using a trans dating site in the show’s second episode (where he meets Teri), but any trans person who has subjected themselves to online dating (that’s not a trans-specific issue; online dating simply sucks) can tell you firsthand that plenty of cis people use trans dating sites to seek out trans partners specifically.
So no, Donny is not transgender, but Baby Reindeer nevertheless shows magnificent dexterity in handling Teri (the aforementioned trans woman who Donny ends up dating), who you can read more about here.
Baby Reindeer is available to stream on Netflix.