ALOTO's Lea Robinson on Queer Family and What Connects Us
A League of Their Own is all about people finding their team, and for Max Chapman (Chanté Adams), a Black woman who dreams of being a professional pitcher, that journey involves a surprising family member: the trans uncle she never knew she had.Early in the series, the audience hears about Max’s estranged “Auntie” Bertie, but when Max finally gets to meet Bertie for the first time since she was little, she finds out he’s a trans man and he’s living his best life.Bertie — played by trans actor Lea (pronounced “Lee”) Robinson (he/they) — is happily married, owns a home, and hosts queer parties with his friends from around the country.
Contrast that with Max, who is closeted, afraid of people seeing the real her, and unsure of what she wants. When she meets Bertie, she sees that there are more possibilities than she ever dreamed of.
That’s exactly what Robinson is hoping viewers feel as well.“I pray and manifest every morning that Bertie and all the other folks in the show, that it impacts someone, it moves someone,” Robinson says. “Because that feels like, to me, success.
If you can use this vehicle to tell a story, to move someone, to encourage someone, that’s what I hope for.”Something that was important for the show’s creators and writers was to not only show the period’s homophobia and transphobia but to also show that there have always been and always will be queer people thriving.
