Pride Month 2020: How Taylor Mason from 'Billions' championed LGBTQ+ community as TV's first non-binary character
It's time to raise the rainbow flags and while there may not be any pride parades this June, the seasonal celebrations shall continue virtually. To kickstart Pride Month 2020 and hail LGTBQIA+ characters on TV, who could be better than Asia Kate Dillon, who made history by playing Taylor Amber Mason on "Billions," the first non-binary role on American series television
Back in 2017, the Showtime series introduced Taylor as the brilliant, sharp, out-of-the-box hedge-fund intern. The character is unique in every way. Championed as the first "female, non-binary character," Taylor specifies how their pronouns are "they, their and them" and is easily the smartest person in any room
In a nutshell, the character breakdown for the breakout role read "Taylor, female, non-binary" and even Dillon had "never come across those two words next to each other" in that way." Reminiscing their reaction, Dillon told As It Happens host Carol Off, "I looked up those words and I had an ah-ha moment, where I realized, you know, female ... referring to anatomical sex, non-binary, referring to gender identity. I was assigned female at birth. My gender identify is non-binary. How amazing!"
Cutting the frills out of her character, she said, "Taylor is someone who is, you know, surrounded by hypermasculinity, working in a morally ambiguous world. And Taylor has a very strong moral center and is not hypermasculine in particular," and added, "So I think that when you have someone who is sort of outside the norm of what we've seen of that world stepping into that world and then we get to watch them navigate that world, I think that's what's exciting about Taylor's journey."
Apart from the fact that the series opened millions of eyes with the exemplary representation of the queer community, it gave Dillon recognition for who they were. The actor said, "I have received tweets from self-identified white, straight, cis-gendered men who have openly said, you know, 'I knew nothing about non-binary identity, I'm a Republican, I'm 65 years old, but you and your character have opened my eyes.' So yeah, that's been extraordinarily gratifying."
Taylor went on to become a series regular from season three and single-handedly challenged the main character, Bobby Axelrod (Damian Lewis), and swiftly moved onto take the center stage as the CIO of Axe Capital. There was no stopping to the character as Taylor soon formed their own company, MaseCap in competition with Axe Capital. They also get a shortlived love story when they meet Oscar Langstraat (Mike Birbiglia), the venture philanthropist.
This moment served as a groundbreaking victory for Taylor's representation as a non-binary character on TV. Not only in professional terms — as it is Taylor adds tremendous value to the firm — but their personal life is also given immense importance and that is the charm of the show.
It comes as no surprise when viewers hailed the showrunners for penning down the role. "The greatest feat that #Billions has pulled off is not once assigning a gender to Taylor in 5 seasons. Not once a him or her scripted through 5 seasons of the show. Unless I've missed it. Incredibly mindful writing. And those dialogues are taut," one fan said and another one posted, "Taylor is def my favorite character. Kudos to @showtime for showcasing a nb character & helping raise awareness about nb identities and the use of they/them/their pronouns."
In fact, the character has helped many understand what a nonbinary person really is. "I was watching #Billions tonight, and my dad, tonight of all nights for some reason, asked me to explain Taylor (nonbinary), played by the incredible @AsiaKateDillon to him. I explained Transgender as well, as he had questions. I'm super proud of my dad right now. #progress," one fan said.
It was due to the character that Dillon made headlines in 2017 while submitting the role for an Emmy nomination. The network wasn't sure whether to submit Dillon for best actor or best actress as the character is neither male nor female and uses the pronouns "they" and "them." Dillon wrote a letter to the Television Academy asking what the categories mean and why they exist.
Soon enough, they got a reply from the producers saying that "anyone can submit under either category for any reason," adding, "The Television Academy celebrates inclusiveness, and as we discussed with Asia, there is no gender requirement for the various performer categories. Asia is free to choose the category they wish to enter." And Dillon — with the help of their character Taylor — sparked a conversation and made a difference.
Taylor has single-handedly put non-binary characters on the map for the TV audience. Dillon said that since coming out as non-binary, they've heard from others who have been inspired by their story. Representation, they added, is important, especially when it comes to television. Speaking to ABC, they had said: "Sometimes you have to see the thing to know that it exists," they said. "Maybe there's a queer person in a town but they don’t feel comfortable or safe coming out, frankly, and the only representation they feel that they have or connection they have is on television or in a movie, and that’s really powerful."
And in the end, it all sums up to Dillon's words as told to Variety, "There’s a silver-lining aspect of ‘Billions’ being a teaching tool about gender identity that myself or my character might be a bridge toward understanding... I think understanding creates hope."