The White Lotus Creator Opens Up About Gender Storyline That Was Cut After Trump's Election

Leslie Bibb, Michelle Monaghan and Carrie Coon in The White Lotus season threeThe White Lotus creator Mike White has spoken out about a decision to remove one particular minor storyline from the show in light of Donald Trump’s re-election.Earlier this week, cast member Carrie Coon revealed that in the original script, her character was supposed to open up to her close friends about the fact that her teenager was experimenting with their gender identity, and had begun using gender-neutral pronouns.Mike actually began working on the script as far back as 2022, but production was repeatedly delayed due to the Hollywood strikes.In a new interview with the whole cast published in The Hollywood Reporter, Carrie explained: “Originally, you discovered that Laurie’s daughter is nonbinary and Laurie is struggling with her teenager going by ‘they/them’.”She added: “This was before Trump was re-elected and before this war on the trans community was escalated. Mike felt that it was actually too political, or too far, or too distracting.”Mike White at the premiere of The White Lotus season two in 2022Mike himself also shared: “It felt right in March of last year. Now, there’s a vibe shift. I don’t think that it was radical, but that’s not the kind of attention I want.“The politics of it could overwhelm whatever ideas I’m trying to talk about. And a lot of it was about time. Every episode is bulging at 60 minutes.”Carrie previously told Harper’s Bazaar that the scene would have seen her character “struggling to explain” her teen’s gender expression to her friends.Carrie Coon in character as Laurie in The White LotusShe said: “It was only a short scene, but for me, it did make the question of whether Kate voted for Trump so much more provocative and personally offensive to Laurie, considering who her child is in the world. “But the season was written before the election. And considering the way the Trump administration has weaponised the cultural war against transgender people even more since then, when the time came to cut the episode down, Mike felt that the scene was so small and the topic so big that it wasn’t the right way to engage in that conversation.”Immediately after returning to the White House in January 2025, Trump began rolling back certain policies introduced during Joe Biden’s tenure in the White House.As well as taking aim at diversity, equity and inclusion schemes, he also claimed that “as of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female”.Since then, an executive order was signed meaning that any trans person who is issued a new US passport will be referred to by the gender they were assigned at birth, which Euphoria star Hunter Schafer recently shared her experience of.In late January, Trump also signed an executive order which is reportedly preventing hospitals in some states from offering gender-affirming care to trans adolescents.Only one episode remains in the current season of The White Lotus, which will premiere on Sky and Now in the UK on Monday. Read the cast’s wide-ranging interview in The Hollywood Reporter here.Help and support: The Gender Trust supports anyone affected by gender identity | 01527 894 838Mermaids offers information, support, friendship and shared experiences for young people with gender identity issues | 0208 1234819LGBT Youth Scotland is the largest youth and community-based organisation for LGBT people in Scotland. Text 07786 202 370Gires provides information for trans people, their families and professionals who care for them | 01372 801554Depend provides support, advice and information for anyone who knows, or is related to, a transsexual person in the UKMORE WHITE LOTUS:11 Hidden Details You Might Have Missed In The White Lotus Season 3Where Will The White Lotus Be Heading For Season 4? Here's Everything We Know23 Behind-The-Scenes Facts You Probably Didn't Know About How The White Lotus Season 3 Was Made