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Whether it was lackluster, sequined storylines or characters that were difficult to become invested in, the reboot of Gossip Girl has widely been considered a disappointment, especially standing in the shadow of its lauded predecessor. The reboot, which aired from 2021 to 2023, tried to atone for the sins of the original series’ lack of diversity. But instead of thoughtful representations, the show often felt like a checklist– a polyamorous couple, check; main characters of color, check; queer main characters, check; rich characters acknowledging their excessive wealth, check. And then, of course, there was Gossip Girl whose identity is revealed in the first episode—she’s actually a she and a teacher of the students whose lives she uses as fodder for her unrealized writing dreams, all the while claiming she’s doing so in order to correct their entitled behavior.
For a reboot that tried to amend for some of the problematic aspects of its senior, it created its own troubling dimensions as well–like a storyline where a student becomes sexually involved with a teacher, only for the teacher to, for the most part, come out of it unscathed and not meeting justice. While the original “GG” was made for the age of blogs, the new, but not improved, GG is of the Instagram era, where online clout is king to the uber-rich teenagers that treat Manhatten like their own personal playground. But in the midst of all the city lights, noise of yet again another argument, and storylines that reveal a new Gossip Girl trying and stumbling to find itself, there is one jewel in all the chaos: Luna La (Zión Moreno).
Who Is Luna La?
Luna, a transgender character who enjoys the same hedonism and treachery that New York City offers just as much as her peers, is the series’s overlooked success. What’s extraordinary about Luna is how her identity as a trans person, which has been highly politicized recently, is portrayed as being so ordinary. While her identity as a trans woman is acknowledged, she’s not defined by it or contained to it. She’s a person who happens to be trans. Luna has goals; she wants to be a celebrity stylist. Luna has a sex life just like her classmates; she’s able to act upon her desires and is able to do so fully as herself. Luna has her own story; she and her mother have a complicated relationship, as many of her friends have complicated relationships with their parents. And Luna is always able to be herself and nothing more; she never has to grandstand or be a learning opportunity for viewers.
Previous Trans Representation on Television
Luna has set a new benchmark for trans characters to come. Before, most trans characters’ entire presence on television and film revolved around their identity. One of the first examples of a trans character on television was Robert Reed playing Pat Caddison on Medical Center in 1975. By today’s standards, a cis man playing a trans woman wouldn’t be accepted, but at the time it was groundbreaking television. Pat was respected by the other characters and was treated compassionately by them. All in the Family, a show with pugnacious Archie Bunker (Carroll O’Connor), even offers a sympathetic representation of a trans character, although it didn’t use the term “trans” and still referred to Beverly, the trans character, as “he.” But considering the times, Beverly was still treated like a human being and wasn’t relegated to being a joke or oddity, but instead as a person with a heart. The Jeffersons even featured a trans character and her storyline culminates in acceptance and friendship.
Twin Peaks offered a glimpse at a trans character who in many ways is Luna’s spiritual predecessor. David Duchovny plays Denise Bryson, a former coworker of Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) who formerly presented as a man but has revealed herself to be a trans woman. How this character relates to Luna is by how her revelation of her true identity is handled: “Okay,” says Dale casually upon Denise informing him of her being a trans woman. Denise’s identity wasn’t treated as some grand reveal, but instead as a casual acceptance that Dale’s former coworker is a trans woman. The casualty in regard to being transgender that Denise was shown in Twin Peaks evolved into the nonissue of Luna’s identity that she wasn’t defined by in Gossip Girl.
Perhaps one of the breakthrough trans roles was brought to us by Laverne Cox as Sophia Burset in Orange Is the New Black. Cox played a main character on Orange Is the New Black, and through her, viewers were able to glimpse into the trans experience. Sophia is shown throughout various stages of her journey. But the show also shows the harshness that people who are trans can experience. The success of the series finally provided audiences with a trans character who took up more space than just an episode or as a side character.
Luna Is Part of a New Generation of Trans Characters
Luna’s existence isn’t treated as controversial or requiring her to divulge her experiences in her transition. Her character is revolutionary in that, in an age of growing right-wing attacks against trans people, she’s able to freely live her life. Many trans characters before he had to suffer in order to convey their humanity; Beverly from All in the Family was murdered at the end of the episode. Instead, Luna’s issues don’t pertain to her life as a trans woman but instead fixated on the same vapidity as her peers, and that’s refreshing. Her biggest problems are dealing with her narcissistic mother, being in a friend group where each member, except maybe Aki (Evan Mock), is self-involved, trying to make herself known as a stylist, and enduring whatever it is that Gossip Girl writes next. But not once is her existence as a trans person treated as a source of strife or conflict. It’s as if the show allowed Luna to exist within the eye of the storm; sure, the show outside of her had many shortcomings, but she was able to exist apart from many of its failures.
We Needed More Luna
However, while Gossip Girl crafted this wonderful trans character, it did let her down by not utilizing her enough. Yes, Luna is a main character, but she’s not a main-main character. While she definitely has a place in the spoiled brood friendship circle, she’s still more of a supporting component to characters like queen bee Julien (Jordan Alexander). Even in the finale when Luna stands up for herself by stepping out of Julian’s shadow, she doesn’t get to enjoy her success in the same way. The show ended in Rome, which felt random and out of place with the previous scene as if the cast and crew were wanting to go to Rome so they set the final scenes there as a last hurrah. The main-main characters are enjoying all the Eternal City has to offer. We see signs in Rome of Luna modeling in a new campaign for clothing, but she’s still not really there. It’s as if despite her character having this major achievement, she’s still peripheral.
Looking back at its two seasons, there’s really own one episode that feels like it was written with Luna in the forefront: season 2’s “Y Lu’s Mamá También.” In the episode, we learn why Luna has such a difficult relationship with her mother. Her mother, an actress who’s trying to revive her career, feels threatened by women because she sees them as competitors, which includes her own daughter. After the typical reboot Gossip Girl drama, they finally talk about why their relationship is so complicated. Her mother revealed that she didn’t want a daughter but got one anyways. And Luna is finally able to accept that perhaps her relationship with her mother will always be frayed. Watching her mother finally open up, viewers probably expect it to lead into a conversation about Luna being trans, but it never does. Instead, her mother airs her complicated feelings about having a daughter but never questions the legitimacy of her having a daughter. Luna being trans isn’t a point of contention in their relationship. Her identity is unquestionably accepted. Gossip Girl, in spite of all of its faults, displayed a wherewithal to not make Luna and her mother’s moment be about Luna being trans; they’re able to have a complicated mother-daughter relationship like any cis mother and daughter could have.
In an interview with Refinery29, Moreno, who plays Luna, spoke about how she was happy with how her character was written and represented:
“What’s more, Luna’s story never centered on her identity as a trans woman. For Moreno, who recently turned 28 and transitioned when she was 13, it was refreshing, in a way, to step into the role of a trans character who wasn’t explicitly — or solely — defined by gender identity.‘I have to give a lot of credit to the writers for really not making her story about her being trans at all,’ she says. ‘Of course, I think about it a lot because it’s who I am. But it does not dictate my life and we need more characters that are trans that have stories outside of that, you know? We’re multi-dimensional people.’”
Though Luna didn’t get all the attention she deserved, she is still a giant leap forward for trans characters to follow in her designer high-heel footsteps. Allowing Luna’s trans identity to be just a facet of her personhood is a turning point for trans characters. Trans people, and queer people in general, can be proud of their sexual orientations dn identities, but they also don’t want to be summed up or simplified by them. The reboot of Gossip Girl is an example of how rebooting a series can be a risk that may not pay off, but if there’s anything that can be gleaned from it is that Luna La is a beacon for the trans representation on television and film to follow. Viva Luna!
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