Abby Stein’s journey is on its way to the small screen. According to Variety, production and financing company Fugitive has acquired the international distribution rights to “Abby,” a scripted drama series about the trans activist, author, and speaker.
The show is being co-developed by Fugitive’s Anthony Kimble and Rogo Productions’ Howard Cohen.
Raised in Brooklyn’s Hasidic Jewish community and a former ultra-Orthodox rabbi, Stein is a direct descendent of Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Hasidism. She was married with a young child when she came out as a woman to her family and community several years ago.
Stein wrote about her experiences in her memoir, “Becoming Eve: My Journey from Ultra-Orthodox Rabbi to Transgender Woman,” which was published last November.
“People in the LGBTQ+ community often talk about the ‘aha’ moment when they realized or came to terms with their sexuality or gender identity. I never had that,” Stein has said. “For me, it was more like waking up to the fact that my family thought I was a boy. I always knew I was a girl, and every night I prayed to wake up in the morning looking like one.”
She explained, “In Hasidism, men are the leaders in all aspects of life. As far as I can tell, our community is one of the most gender-segregated societies in the United States. We had separate schools, buses, administrations, you name it,” Stein said. “The wall separating men and women, both figuratively and literally, was so strong that it made it all the more obvious to me which side I belonged on.”
Stein is thought to be the first openly trans woman raised in a Hasidic community, and the first woman to be ordained a Hasidic rabbi. In 2015 she founded a support group for trans people from Orthodox communities.
