The series Small Town Security had its debut on the AMC cable channel Sunday (15 July) evening and featured Lt. Dennis Croft, currently the only transgender man on a reality program currently on the air in the US.

The show takes place at a JJK Security & Investigations, a small town family-owned company in the community of Ringgold, Georgia. The crew there operates under the guidance of Joan ‘The Chief’ Koplan who also hosts a local talk show.

Croft made his debut in dramatic fashion at the end of the episode when he appears on his boss’s talk show for the first time in five years (the show had been on hiatus for some time) as Dennis.

During his first appearance, he was still known as the female Denise Croft and used the occasion to come out as transgender to his small Georgia community.

‘Be unafraid of who you are,’ Croft says in an interview with the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. ‘Do not let yourself nor anyone tell you what you should be or how to live your life. Reach deep into yourself and see who you are and live that. That is your truth and it is the truth to all.’

According to GLAAD, there is such a scarcity of trans men on television that Croft is the only one currently on a reality program. Chaz Bono appeared on ABC’s Dancing With the Stars last year and Tyler Ford participated in the most recent season of The Glee Project.

The only scripted series with a transgender man is Degrassi.