Barbecuing Flame Monroe's Ignorant Radio Interview

I met Flame Monroe briefly when he lived in Houston for a hot minute.  We ironically had the same person, Marie Asmar, as our electrologist.   Flame moved back to Chicago and I basically was living my Air Marshal life that morphed into 20 plus years of trailblazing activism on behalf of the trans community.

So when I began to get asked what were my thoughts about Flame Monroe's massively problematic The Breakfast Club  interview, I was still in the midst of traveling between San Francisco and Austin and prepping for the Equality Texas gala. 

So I didn't get to see and hear the video of it until last night, and ugh. what a cluster.   Glad I did so on an empty stomach.

Note to Flame and all you drag queens.   Since you and other drag queens have made it abundantly clear you are female impersonators or men, do all us trans women a favor. Keep your mouths shut about anything relating to trans women when a microphone is in your face or a TV camera is rolling. 

We already have a major problem with cis people conflating trans women and drag queens, which you made worse with the 30 minutes of breathtaking ignorance you spewed the other day.

Far too often when you drag queens open your mouths to talk about trans folks, it turns out to be as in this TBC interview, massively ignorant and wrong.

Leave the media discussions about trans people to trans people trained to handle it or who have the lived experience to do so.  We trans folks are the experts in talking about our trans lives, not some ignorant drag queen.

Let me say this louder for you peeps on The Breakfast Club and 'errbody' else who engages in either innocently or willfully conflating drag queens with trans women.   

Trans women and drag queens are not the same. 

The fact that this cluster of a 30 minute interview happened on The Breakfast Club, which already has raised the ire of the Black trans community with its glaring transphobia problem, and willful anti-trans ignorance being spewed on its airwaves, made this interview all the more egregious and maddening to those of us in Black Trans World who work hard at educating the public on trans issues.

The fact it happened during Trans Awareness Week also adds to the pissivity I and other trans women feel about this hot drag queen mess of an interview.

And I have a major problem with anyone in Black Trans or SGL World who thinks this is 'no big deal'.   This is the kind of ignorant speech you cis peeps cosign that leads to Black trans people getting disrespected, assaulted and killed.

But let me turn my focus on Flame Monroe's azz.

No Boo Boo Kitty, demanding respect for our humanity, human rights and our lives and fighting back against anti-trans oppression is NOT 'forcing your lifestyle on someone else'

Miss me with that bullshyt.   Also miss me with that problematic 'lifestyle' word as well.   Trans people live trans lives, not a 'lifestyle'.

If you think otherwise, question for you.   When did you choose to live a male lifestyle?

And yes Flame, trans women are not only women, trans men are men.  If you actually hit Google every now and then, you would be more aware of that point. You would also be aware of the increasing body of scientific research that comes down on the side of trans people being authentic parts of the diverse mosaic of human life.

You would also be aware that being born with a penis or a vagina doesn't lock step determine whether you are male or female.   Your brain does.   Gender identity is between your ears, not your legs       

Finally, words matter, especially when it comes to media opportunities for a marginalized group.

You set this community's education efforts backwards with this interview, and played right into the transphobic ignorance that The Breakfast Club likes to push on their show.

You may dismiss that fact or even this post as something you don't care about, but I do care about the trans community, and have given 21 years (and counting) of my life to fighting for its human rights.

Your words do matter to the trans folks and trans kids who will be harmed by the cisfolks repeating them, and claiming you're 'keeping it real'. 

You're 'keeping it real' alright.  Real ignorant.

Your words also matter to our enemies who will take what you said in that massive fail of a Breakfast Club interview and weaponize it for use against us.

TransGriot Update: Heard this post and my FOX26 interview plucked Marcus' nerves.  So much for that tough talk the #HeSheDummy was spouting in that studio.    

Moni Ain't Happy About The Bigoted White Trans Feminine Attack On Janet

It's been 48 hours since that second hideous attack interview Piers Morgan unleashed upon Janet Mock followed by that jacked up panel, and I'm more than a little pissed off about it along with supporters in the Black trans, cis and SGL community.

But I've been surprised and disappointed by the reaction of elements of the white trans community to it. 

I'm tired of the white trans community ignoring the fact that Janet was attacked in this Morgan interview, and frankly some of you are doing so because you are jealous of the media attention she's received over the last two years.

It has the appearance to me and other people in the Black trans community and our allies that elements of the white trans community are secretly happy the 'uppity Black transwoman' got taken down a few notches by your cis White masculine 'ally' Piers Morgan and you're now using Morgan as a human shield excuse to unleash your own attacks of her.

It would be a good idea for you vanillacentric privilege wielding peeps to back the hell up off Janet right now, because the more shade you level at her, the more pissed off we get in Black Trans world about it along with our allies.

And FYI John Aravosis and 'errbody' else that thinks it was a pro-trans interview, this is what a pro-trans   interview with a real trans ally looks like.   This Marc Lamont Hill one is another example.   



Now it's time for a reality check.  I submit that if Janet Mock looked like this trans Hawaiian (Candis Cayne) instead of being a Hawaiian of African descent, the reaction to Piers Morgan's media bull feces would have been substantially different. 

Outrage would be filling up every white trans blog on the Net and you'd probably already have a Change.org petition up calling for Piers Morgan to apologize.

Bottom line is that for the last six decades, the transfeminine perspective, the people interviewed in the media about it, and the transfeminine discourse has disproportionately been centered on, spoken and written about by a long list of white transwomen.

Some of those who have done so I have had profound philosophical disagreements with like Riki Wilchins. Some of Kate Bornstein's writing I don't agree with either but I respected their right to say it.

For the first time in the trans community's modern history, we have Black trans women like Janet Mock, Laverne Cox and my GLAAD Award nominated self stepping up, getting the media spotlight and broadening the conversation. The appearances of Mock and Cox on the scene in the last two years and countless other African-American trans people have done more to advance the conversation and understanding about about trans issues in the Black cis and SGL community and amongst our intelligentsia than those discussions on trans issues in the last six decades

And some of you trans peeps have a problem with that and the masters degree wielding author of Redefining Realness who has SRO book events and has played a major role in making that happen? 

Buy a vowel and get a clue that transwomen come in all shades and ethnic backgrounds.  If we say we want to get trans human rights legislation passed in a near future that sees America getting more diverse, we are going to need a wide variety of spokespeople besides white transmasculine or white transfeminine ones to get people motivated to join our human rights cause and accomplish that task.

Dyssonance Comments On The Piers Morgan Interview

Been a while since one of Antonia D'orsay's posts has graced my blog. 

But since Piers Morgan had the balls to call Toni's name in vain on his show, I thought it only fair to give The Empress of the Known Universe a chance to respond to his ish and have it signal boosted for the benefit of her loyal subjects courtesy of my GLAAD Award nominated blog. 

The firestorm is still raging inside and outside Transworld over the jacked up second interview that incredibly people with vanillacentric privilege are attacking Janet Mock for and applauding Morgan for putting the 'uppity' Black trans woman in her place.   (sarcasm meter on maximum)

Toni wrote a post on her Dyssonance blog critiquing the interview and subsequent online firestorm and here's a taste of it.

I had stayed out of it, and raised an eyebrow at the way he and his followers were saying that he hadn’t been given the benefit of the doubt. Yet he had been given such: that was how Janet Mock went on his show the first time, and then it was why he was given a second chance the second time. That isn’t merely the benefit if the doubt, that is being willing to stick your hand n a fire twice.

Which is just one example, by itself, of why the entire second show was an act of violence and abuse, and it was intentional because he not only threatened her the night before, but he is so ignorant, he cannot help but be part of the system that intentionally causes harm.

So in that, we can see that what he did not only meets the World Health Organizations definition of violence based on scientific consensus, but that it was an immoral and unethical series of actions as a whole, meant to put her into her place and allow him to stand atop his prize and bleat triumphantly.
I saw it, livestreamed via a friend.

You can read the rest of Toni's post by clicking on the link.

Piers Morgan Is STILL Tripping

The BS continues from Piers Morgan, who let his vanillacentric cisprivilege take over and continue his attacks in the wake of his first jacked up CNN interview with Janet Mock.  She called him out about it, and he then went on the counterattack on Twitter.

Hell, if this is an example of you being an ally, I damned sure wasn't feeling the love (and neither was much of the trans community and our true allies) after watching the two train wreck interviews that I can confidently say probably won't be nominated for GLAAD Media Awards.  .

And frankly, Piers Morgan claiming that trans people are 'cisphobic' is as laughable as the right wing conservatives polluting his network and elsewhere who claim that people of color calling them on their bull feces is 'reverse racism.'

The thing that has pissed the trans community off about both these interviews is that Piers not only didn't listen, he kept interrupting Janet. Then to add insult to injury, Morgan had the nerve in his vanilla scented privileged arrogance to claim that he was not only an ally, but we should be grateful for the TV interview time.

It's the optics of this interview that set many of us off, and especially those of us in the trans POC community.

And once again, what sets us off is that far too many people, especially in the media, focus and obsess on that past prior to our body morphing and use it to erase the people we have evolved to become now.
  
If you claim that you respect and admire the person that Janet (or any transperson) is now, what her birth name was or what genitalia she's packing in her panties shouldn't matter to you unless you want to date her, and she already has a man who loves her.  

All that should matter is the content of our characters, how we treat you as a fellow human being in 2014 and beyond, not when we came out of the birth canal decades ago.

Piers Morgan Starts Tripping After Janet Calls Him Out Over Interview

After Janet Mock called Piers Morgan out for sensationalizing her CNN interview with her, Piers Morgan took to Twitter to strike back and call her 'ungrateful'.

For what Oh Mighty Media Whitey?   You mad and got your vanillacentric privileged fee fees hurt because the Black trans woman called your azz out for disrespecting her on your show and she and the trans community are pushing back?

The chyron your peeps used was problematic to start with. But as Janet said in her BuzzFeed interview:  

“This is my first mainstream television show, was that moment, with Piers Morgan, and you see what they did to my story. Compared to a moment if I’m on Melissa Harris-Perry, which is slightly different, a more sensitive and safe space. But I go onto Piers Morgan, and all of my followers and everyone are like, ‘What is this?’” she said. But, she noted, “It’s also more representative of the ignorance that there is about trans people’s lives. We’re out of the safe bubble of social justice.”


Frankly, we in the trans community are beyond sick and tired of being sick and tired of the six decade old focus on our genitalia in the media.  If you didn't get that fracking message last month after the Katie Couric interview with Laverne Cox and Carmen Carrera, here's the wakeup call once again.  

As a matter of fact, watch the Melissa Harris-Perry show and check out the proper way to do an interview with a trans woman.