Actors Access, a website owned by Breakdown Services Ltd., allows for direct communication between casting directors and potential talent.  Actors make profiles complete with their age, height, size, appearance, and gender, and casting directors can send out auditions to actors based on whether the actor's profile information matches the conceptual description of a character.

However, since Breakdown Services has been around since 1971, some of these features are antiquated, urgently necessitating an update.  

On their Actors Access profile, actors are required to fill out whether they would prefer to play male or female roles.  There is no option to be considered for both male and female roles, nor is there an option to he considered for neither.  Below the gender dropdown selection, there is an option to check off "Transgender/Nonbinary", but this does little to help nonbinary actors and transgender actors who have not yet medically transitioned.  Here's why:

The gender dropdown menu forces nonbinary actors to select a binary gender to portray.  Even if they also check off that they are nonbinary in the box below the dropdown menu, they will still be listed as the gender that they have been forced to select from the dropdown menu.  This is invalidating to many nonbinary identities.

From another perspective: as a transgender individual who can not currently access a medical transition, I know that much of society views me as my birth gender.  There are also very few listings looking specifically for trans individuals. Therefore, it is likely that I will be asked to play female roles more often than male roles. I am comfortable portraying any gender. I would like to have the option to audition for BOTH my preferred gender and my gender assigned at birth so that I do not have to limit my opportunities, but the current format of Actors Access does not allow for this.

A simple solution would be for Actors Access to allow actors to select multiple genders from the "gender (to play)" dropdown menu, as well as to select neither gender.

This pride month, let's help uplift and amplify the voices of LGBTQ+ actors.  Breakdown Services, please include more gender options for your transgender and nonbinary actors! �️‍��️‍⚧️