Greg Gayne/FOXGet ready to meet a whole new Coach Beiste on Glee.
Just a few episodes ago, the McKinley High football coach, played by Dot-Marie Jones, revealed to Sue (Jane Lynch) and Sam (Chord Overstreet) that she suffered from Gender Dysphoria and had decided to make the transition from female to male. She decided to take a leave of absence in order to start her surgeries, handing the football team over to Sam for the time being.
In the Feb. 13 episode, titled "Transitioning," Coach Beiste has returned to debut his new look and introduce fans to Sheldon on the Fox series, seen in the photo above.
After the reveal in the Jan. 16 episode, Jones spoke to E! News about the storyline.
"Ryan Murphy told me he had big plans for me this season and I said, ‘Awesome, I'm ready.' And he made me a series regular. I got the script is how I found out about it," Jones told us of how she learned of the Gender Dysphoria storyline. "And at first when I was reading the script, you know the cancer thing, I was like, ‘Oh, crap. No!' And then I kept reading and I'm like, ‘Holy s--t! This is totally different!' I never expected it at all."
As for how everyone at McKinley will react to the change, it sounds like there's not much to worry about. "It's awesome. It's very positive," Jones said of the reaction.
While shows like Netflix's Orange Is the New Black and Amazon's Transparent have made waves lately with their groundbreaking portrayals of transgender characters, this Glee storyline marks the first time a series regular character has come out and transitioned on network television.
This Friday's all-new Glee also marks a major milestone for the show, as it features the show's 700th (!) musical performance with "What the World Needs Now," which is also the title of the episode.
Glee airs on Fridays at 9 p.m. on Fox.