‘Monica’ Star Trace Lysette Says Screening at New York’s LGBT Community Center Was ‘Heavy’: ‘I Got My Gender Identity Therapy There 20 Years Ago’
Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Trace Lysette is in a hotel room on 8th Street in New York City when she jumps on a Zoom video call with Variety to talk about her new movie, “Monica.” In just a couple of hours, she’s set to walk the red carpet at the indie drama’s premiere at the IFC Center. “I used to turn tricks a few blocks from there,” Lysette says. Like so many trans women, Lysette once turned to sex work as a means of survival. “I was a young person alone in New York doing God knows what to survive,” says Lysette, who was raised in Ohio. “Last night we had a screening at The [Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community] Center here. That was so heavy for me because I got my gender identity therapy there 20 years ago.”