The Real Girl
Bay Windows
By Lawrence Ferber
Jan 14, 2009
http://www.baywindows.com/index.php?ch=arts&sc=movies_and_tv&sc2=news&sc3=&id=85876 (http://www.baywindows.com/index.php?ch=arts&sc=movies_and_tv&sc2=news&sc3=&id=85876)
Since its debut in 1992, MTV's The Real World has illuminated televisions nationwide with fresh images of diverse, non-stereotypical and real queer young people including its first season's Norman Korpi (NYC), HIV+ Cuban Pedro Zamora (San Francisco, 1994), bisexual Filipina Ruthie Alcaide (Hawaii, 1999), African-American Karamo Brown (Philadelphia, 2004), and athlete Tyler Duckworth (Key West, 2006). With its 21st season, set in Brooklyn, New York, the show welcomes its first transgendered cast member, Katelynn Cusanelli, who underwent sexual reassignment surgery in Thailand just weeks before cameras rolled.