Thursday, August 25, 2011

The HLN 'Transgender In America' Interview

Well, the reviews from the Transosphere are coming in concerning the Don Lemon conducted interview on HLN's The Joy Behar Show with Isis King, Harmony Santana, Laverne Cox and Chaz Bono.

And it ain't pretty.  

Chaz Bono complained on air and later on Twitter about the Trans 101 line of questioning. 

The only thing I can give them a thumbs up concerning this panel was that it was a multiethnic one. Chaz got frustrated with the Trans 101 line of questioning and complained about it on air and on Twitter. 

You know, maybe Don needs to read the post I wrote in the wake of the trans free NAACP panel discussion at their recently concluded convention in LA..

I'll have to ponder it for another day since I wasn't happy when that interview was over either. 

Janet Mock has shared her thoughts about Monday's show in her Fish Food For Thought blog post entitled Trans in the Media: A Call to Elevate the Conversation.

And that’s the bigger issue here: Lemon symbolizes many of our gay brothers and lesbian sisters, who just don’t get us trans people. We inherently shake their own notions of what it means to be a man and a woman in our society to their core. Until we are able to actually be open to the gender-variancy that is in nature, naturally, we’ll never be able to move forward and not only demand gay and lesbian rights, but transgender rights; civil human rights.

The sad thing about it was that it was a wonderful opportunity to advance the conversation about trans issues, but it was mishandled and fumbled once again.



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