American actress and activist Calpernia Addams was BOTD in 1971. Born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee, she was assigned male at birth. She joined the US Navy, serving as a field medical combat specialist during the 2001 Gulf War. She came out as a transgender woman while still in active service, taking the name Calpernia Addams (inspired, respectively. by Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar and the 1991 comedy The Addams Family). After leaving the Navy, she worked as a cabaret performer in Nashville. In 1999, she met and formed a relationship with US Army soldier Barry Winchell, after Winchell attended one of her performances. Winchell became the target of harassment within the Army, resulting his being bludgeoned to death by a fellow soldier. The resulting murder trial thrust Addams into public view, and she became a spokesperson for transgender rights and combatting homophobia. Winchell’s death led to a federal government review and eventual abolition of the US military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy for LGBTQ personnel. In 2002, Addams co-formed Deep Stealth Productions to advise filmmakers and actors on dealing with transgender issues in their work, coaching cis actors Felicity Huffman and Jared Leto to play trans women in the films Transamerica and Dallas Buyers Club. Addams produced and starred in an all-trans production of Eve Ensler‘s play The Vagina Monologues, later chronicled in the 2006 documentary Beautiful Daughters. In 2008, she appeared in reality TV series Transamerican Love Story, in which eight male contestants competed to date her. Thought to be the first reality series featuring a trans “bachelorette”, the show won a number of industry and inclusivity awards. Addams continues to perform in theatre and television, and is now one of Hollywood’s best known trans advisers. She was played by cis actor Lee Pace in the 2003 TV biopic Soldier’s Girl, focusing on her relationship with Winchell.