In the words of trans writer Jen Richards in the Netflix documentary Disclosure, "Having cis men play trans women, in my mind, is a direct link to the violence against trans women.

And in my mind, part of the reason that men end up killing trans women, out of fear that other men will think that they’re gay for having been with trans women, is that their friends – the men whose judgement they fear of – only know trans women from media, and the people playing trans women are the men that they know.

This doesn’t happen when a trans woman plays a trans woman.” .