‘Monster: The Ed Gein Story’ Draws Fierce Backlash Over Harmful Gay & Trans Depictions

Netflix’s newest true crime horror series, Monster: The Ed Gein Story, has provoked a wave of criticism — particularly from LGBTQIA+ viewers — over what many see as dangerously irresponsible and harmful representations of transgender people, homosexuality, and more.

The series is the third instalment in Ryan Murphy’s Monster franchise, which previously profiled Jeffrey Dahmer, then the Menendez Brothers.

It reimagines the life of American murderer Ed Gein, played by Charlie Hunnam, through a stylised lens of horror, weaving in fictionalised encounters with cultural figures like Alfred Hitchcock and Christine Jorgensen, and dramatising Gein’s descent into violence.

While critics have taken aim at its graphic imagery, pacing, and factual liberties, the show has met an especially fierce counter-offensive from the LGBTQIA+ community who warn that it traffics in old, dangerous tropes.

How Monster: The Ed Gein Story weaponises queerness

One of the most provocative sequences in Monster imagines Alfred Hitchcock warning actor Anthony Perkins that his “secret” — his homosexuality — is a “sickness”.

In real life, Anthony Perkins was rumoured to be gay for decades, but remained closeted his entire life. The series shows Perkins, played by Joe Pollari, in a downlow relationship with Tab Hunter. Hunter, a beloved Hollywood heartthrob at the time, came out as gay and spoke about his relationship with Perkins in his memoir Tab Hunter Confidential: The Making of a Movie Star in 2005.

The show then draws a parallel between Perkins’ “secret” and Gein’s — his violent, gruesome acts — blurring the repression of homosexuality and pathology violence in ways many viewers found distressing.

In other scenes, Murphy’s version of Gein includes him wearing women’s clothes, and obsessing over photographs of Christine Jorgensen — the first person in the US to have gender affirming surgery in the 1950s, who then used her celebrity to become a lifelong advocate for the trans community.

However, there is no credible historical evidence that Gein cross-dressed, or even knew who Jorgensen was.

By weaving a real trans pioneer into the story of a murderer, the show revives a long-standing cinematic trope that conflates gender nonconformity with psychosis, disguise, and violence, a trope which has been repeatedly condemned by LGBTQIA+ advocates.

Another of the show’s most criticised moments involves Gein using a human woman’s face as a mask to “turn into a lady”, and specifically in order to terrify children. Many viewers have argued that this scene not only distorts history but directly fuels anti-trans “groomer” narratives currently used to attack trans and queer people in real-world politics.

Viewer backlash surfaces on X and Threads

Within hours of streaming, queer and trans viewers began condemning various elements in Monster: The Ed Gein Story.

X user @maxvsmonsters wrote that the show “is actually one of the most disgusting and disrespectful pieces of media to ever exist”.

On Threads, @worriersmusic described the series as “wildly irresponsible and tone deaf in the current climate for trans people.”

Another viewer, @and_mayhem_ensued, corrected one of the show’s invented plotlines: “Christine Jorgensen did not know Ed Gein — despite what Ryan Murphy wants you to think. Once again, he’s throwing the LGBTQIA+ community under the bus just to make his serial killer shows more salacious.”

Thread user @cynthiaaajg_ added: “Worth noting: there’s no solid historical evidence that Ed Gein was a habitual cross-dresser in the sense of identifying as female or living publicly in women’s clothing.”

Meanwhile, @renehta wrote that they found it “crazy” that “Ryan Murphy made Pose — a show that created unprecedented opportunities for trans actors and stories — but now decides 2025 is the year to associate Ed Gein with trans people by having him terrorise some little kids by ‘turning into a lady’ with a human skin mask after seeing pictures of Christine Jorgensen in a newspaper.”

They continued: “Like creating the association is already really bad, but the added layer of having that specific element terrorise small children is insane and really feeds into the ‘groomer’ narrative that has already done immense harm to queer people.”

Why the outrage around Monsters: The Ed Gein Story matters

The outrage surrounding Monster: The Ed Gein Story is not simply about one show’s creative choices. In a global climate where trans identities are under increasing attack — politically, socially, and physically — media portrayals that blur the line between queerness and monstrosity can have tangible, dangerous consequences.

As @maxvsmonsters warned, the show “is gonna do irreparable damage to the trans community.” The sentiment has been echoed across queer online spaces, where viewers say the series plays into harmful myths rather than challenging them.

Ryan Murphy has long been credited for ground-breaking representation in shows like Pose, which centred trans women of colour and introduced audiences to a more authentic depiction of queer life.

With Monster: The Ed Gein Story, many feel he has undone that legacy — reverting to shock tactics at the expense of the very communities he once championed.