Friday, December 19, 2014

Role Models-Damned Glad To Have Them

One of the things I have been most pleased to see this year is a new generation of trans women becoming well known to Middle America and at the same time, advancing the conversation about trans issues on multiple levels.

Whether it was Janet Mock with her New York Times bestselling book Redefining Realness, Laverne Cox's groundbreaking turn on Orange Is The New Black and subsequent Emmy nomination, Carmen Carrera's quest to become a Victoria's Secret model or Geena Rocero's well received coming out TED Talk and subsequent founding of GenderProud, these ladies are raising the bar in terms of being as Laverne calls it of being a possibility model

You don't have to wait until adulthood to be a trans possibility model in the 2K10's.   I have been inspired by Jazz Jennings and other trans younglings who are not only proud of being who they are, they aren't waiting for their trans elders to handle their business for them, either.

They are not only instilling pride in our trans elder ranks when they talk about their evolving lives, but taking the lead in tacking the problems unique to their age group their damned selves and doing so quite successfully.

It's not  just these ladies and our trans kids positively representing Team Trans these days.    The fellas are stepping up to lead and getting their closeups too like Tiq Milan , Dr Kortney Ziegler, and Carter Brown.

They are also doing their part to get the long needed discussion started about trans masculinity, diversifying that conversation and advancing the overall  trans human rights conversation at the same time .

There are also trans folks in all regions of the country and the world stepping up to do the trans human rights thing on a local level, and I'm so happy as a longtime trans human rights warrior to see this happening.

So glad to see more trans role models these days, and so glad to have them.

No comments: