Leonie Dorado Becomes Bolivia's First Out Trans Television Host

I like to remind our baby trans  and seasoned trans peeps that when you come out as trans, your family expands, not contracts.  You gain siblings not only here in the US, but around the world.

It's because of that when trans persons are making history elsewhere, it's something that we celebrate around the world.

Meet 26 year old Leonie Dorado.   She thought she'd be pursuing a career in music as a singer and piano player, and is currently working on a degree in modern music at Bolivia's National Conservatory of Music.

But sometimes life throws you curveballs that you didn't expect.  For Leonie, that was an offer to get into journalist and co-host the Aby Ayala TV television program.   She jumped at the chance to do so, and in the process, has become the first openly trans person on television in Bolivia's history.

She wants to use her television platform to educate her viewers about the issues she and other TBLGQ+  people experience there, and judging by this comment, she's off to a great start. .

"The LGBT community is a group of millions of people who demand human rights, labor rights, rights to have their lives respected.  This is what has moved me to be part of the project," said Dorado. 

 She also said this in a message to her Facebook followers during Pride Month.

"It's exciting to live on a day like today, which since 1969 marked the beginning of the liberation movement calling for progress in government policies and decisions on human rights," she wrote. "The most relevant thing in my life is not the fact that I am trans, I consider it to be one of the least important things about me. Let's bet to strive to develop our capabilities to be brilliant in what we decide to dedicate ourselves, to bet on our dreams and go for them, to appreciate the best in others, to leave a world something better knowing that at least one life has been encouraged more freely thanks to ours." 

Congrats on the new journalism gig, Leonie.   Think you're going to be great at it. 

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Meet Diana Zurco- Argentinian Newscaster

Some good international news for transkind to report out of Argentina.

The Argentine trans community, like their Brazilian neighbors has been caching hell there to the point that the average age for an Argentinian trans woman to live to is 41.

This media trailblazer is beating the odds.

Meet 40 year old Diana Zurco.   She made her debut recently as the first out trans newscaster on Argentinian television.

“We didn’t look for Diana because she was a trans announcer. We looked for her because she was a very good professional,” said Rosario Lufrano, president of Radio and Television Argentina. “The only way to get there is to have the doors opened for you. We all know how difficult it is for these women to win a spot.”

She had a tough road to get there.   She was in a Catholic boys school until age 17 and made it clear she was trans.  She was expelled because she refused to cut her hair.   Zurco finished her studies at a public high school, and nearly ended up in sex work until she took a hairdressing course. 

She worked in a salon and later an office job before she took the difficult exam along with 1500 applicants in 2012 to study for a career as an announcer.  After graduation she worked at Radio Cuidad before landing the job as the co-anchor of Argentina Public Television's prime time evening news program.

Trans women have appeared on Argentinian television, but they have predominately been on entertainment shows or soap operas.   Zurco is breaking ground as a newscaster.

She is quite aware her presence on this news show is not only groundbreaking and inspirational to the Argentinian trans community, it also sends a message to Argentinian society at large.   Zurco is also aware she has a platform that will be a catalyst for breaking down anti-trans prejudice.

"My presence challenges society," Zurco said in an AP interview.  "It is an invitation to society that says: 'This is me'  behind me are more people like me who want to express themselves.  We are capable, we can study, we can train ourselves, we can communicate to you what is happening in our country., . .

She's another one of the growing ranks of trans media professionals, and I hope she has a along and successful media career.

Ready For Our ABC Nightline Closeup

Dee Dee, Diamond Stylz and I recently taped on July 22 an ABC Nightline episode in which we talked about the violence affecting Black trans women in Texas and around the country.

The initial part of it was taped while we were in Dallas for our recent BTAC Leadership Institute, and the rest was done when we returned back to Houston.

We were also doing so in the wake of the loss of Denali Stuckey at the time we taped it.  We're now up to 20 trans women lost to anti trans violence with three months left in this year.

As y'all know, anti-trans violence aimed at the Black trans community is a serious issue.   It's past time that we were blessed to have an in-depth discussion about it with the people that it negatively affects on national television.   

It was also nice to be having that discussion with my H-town homegirls and fellow BTWI board members.

Was alerted that the show will finally air tonight.   Looking forward to seeing how this segment turned out    As for when  ABC News Nightline airs, it comes on at 11:35 PM CDT.

Hope that when you watch it, it will be an informative show and that those of you who see it will get something out of it.  .

MJ Off Broadway

Y'all know I absolutely love MJ Rodriguez from POSE, and if you've watched seasons one and two of the show we've discovered that she has an amazing singing voice. 

Now that we're anxiously awaiting Season 3 of POSE,  until they start filming it Rodriquez is keeping herself busy with other acting projects like playing Audrey from Little Shop of Horrors
That Pasadena Playhouse production of the musical play started on September 25, and also stars George Salazar.  It's running through October 20 for you Cali folks who wish to see it. 

MJ and George Salazar were on CBS' The Late Late Show With James Corden performing the Suddenly Seymour song from the play, and here's the video from it to brighten your day

Bye Megyn!

Black Santa came early this year and gave us the Christmas present of Megyn Kelly FINALLY getting fired from the Today Show for her comments defending blackface.

The karmic wheel has finally come for Kelly, who Black America has always had a hate-hate relationship with.    While Kelly was the pretty propaganda face at FOX Noise, she dished out a long stream of anti-Black comments that we still have receipts for and she's been unrepentant about.

What pissed off Black America even further was Andy Lack paying $69 million to Kelly to come to NBC, and the shady way that Tamron Hall and Al Roker were forced out of their Today Show time slot to make room fo her to do so. 

Seems like Andy Lack was the only person in America who didn't know this was a ratings trainwreck in the making. I stopped watching Today the nanosecond that Tamron Hall was bounced.

Wonder how my fellow Texan is feeling today about this news?   She's keeping it classy, so Black America will be gleefully petty for her. 

#ByeMegyn.  And a suggestion for you as you look for a new TV job.   Get some counseling to deal with those anti-Black attitudes you obviously have a problem with.

Nicole Maines Gets Supergirl' Role!

The shows I put in the #MustSeeTransTV category are continuing to expand with every passing year.

I was introduced to Supergirl by my friend Fabian Washington, who was such a serious fan of the show he got me curious enough to check it out and eventually binge watch two season of it

Now I'm happy to hear that Nicole Maines has been tapped for a groundbreaking role in the upcoming fourth season of Supergirl playing a transgender superhero.

Well, that's not too far from her real life in being a trans advocate, the victorious plaintiff in a groundbreaking trans rights case, and being in a well received April 2016 TedXTalk, but back to discussing her latest accomplishment.

The 20 year old Maines will be playing reporter Nia Nal, who is working alongside Kara (Supergirl) Danvers at CatCo.   Nia will as the season progresses have her superhero destiny revealed to her.

Her casting was revealed at the just concluded San Diego Comic Con on Saturday, and she is justifiably nervous about this groundbreaking role and the buzz it is creating for the show as the first ever transgender superhero on television.

"It feels fitting to say, with great power comes great responsibility, she said in a Variety interview.."I'm nervous because I want to do it right . 

Maines is no stranger to television, having guest starred on the show Royal Pains during its seventh season  .In the Variety interview she was asked what she would like out trans youth to take away from this groundbreaking step fo her and the community.

"We can be whoever we want, we can do whatever we want, we can be superheroes, because in many ways we are," she said. "We’ve had trans representation in television for a while but it hasn’t been the right representation ... I think we’re in a time right now where more than ever representation in the media matters. And what we see on television has a very dramatic effect on our society."

Yes ma'am, positive media representation most certainly does matter, which was why Scarlett Johansson got put on blast a few weeks ago.  Maines expressed her thoughts about that contentious issue of cis actors playing trans parts as well.

"I think that cisgender actors don’t take roles out of malice, it’s just a failure to realize the context of having cisgender people play transgender characters ... Having trans people play trans roles shows that we are valid in our identities and we exist,” Maines said.

Good luck in your new role, Nicole!  So proud of you and will be watching when the new season of Supergirl starts in October on the CW Network. .

If You Want Trans TV Shows, Gotta Watch Them

When I was growing up in the 60's and 70's, there were very few Black actors on television or TV shows that told stories from the African American perspective.

Anytime that we had a show that featured a Black person, like Star Trek and Nichelle Nichols,  Diahann Carroll's Julia, or the Flip Wilson Show, it was Must See Black TV.

My Black community understood that ratings mattered, and if we wanted to see more Black TV shows, it was imperative that we supported the shows that were on the air.

Julia and the Flip Wilson Show later led to The Jeffersons, Sanford and Son, Good Times, and What's Happening.   It  set the stage for the shows we would later see in the 80's and 90's like Cosby, A Different World and Living Single.

It would also give Black actors the opportunity to draw paychecks for being on a successful series, and parlay that into other TV and movie work as they continued to blaze historic TV trails while slaying Hollywood stereotypes about what Black actors could and couldn't do.

We have trans actors in Hollywood who need and deserve to be able to make a living plying and perfecting their craft. We are also in the trans community more than sick of cis actors playing trans people when we have trans masculine and trans feminine people who are more than capable of playing those roles.

We trans peeps are also capable of playing cis masculine and cis feminine characters if just given that opportunity. 

That is why the FX series POSE is a critical to the future of trans actors in Hollywood as Nichelle Nichols playing Nyota Uhura on Star Trek paved the way for the shows of the late 60's and 70's to feature Black actors. 

POSE has five trans actors with major roles in this show in MJ Rodriguez (Blanca Evangelista) Dominique Jackson (Elektra Abundance), Hailie Sahar (Lulu Abundance), Indya Moore (Angel Evangelista) and Angelica Ross (Candy Abundance) 

In addition, POSE has Our Lady J as a writer, Leiomy Maldonado as a choreographer for the ballroom scenes and Janet Mock as a writer and producer of this show set in the New York ballroom community of the late 1980's.

I've enjoyed watching POSE.  This show deserves your support not only because it is well written and well acted, but it's potential to like the programs of the 60's and 70's that gave us the Black TV shows we watch today, could potentially act as a springboard to do the same for transgender actors, writers and producers in Hollywood. 

Ratings still matter and are the lifeblood for television shows.   They determine whether TV shows have long multiseason runs or die in one and done fashion.   It is why people who claim that accurate trans representation in the media is important to them, take some time out of their Sunday evening (or whenever they can binge watch or stream it) to tune into FX and watch POSE.

POSE's success could also lead to more studios being willing to take a chance on producing more trans themed TV shows with trans actors in them, along with trans people writing the scripts. 

So let me repeat this once again.   If you want to see more trans themed shows and trans actors on your TV screen, it is imperative that you support shows like POSE.

Sunny Hostin Makes Conservafools Look Bad On 'The View'

I was one of the peeps calling for Raven Symone to be replaced on The View by a thinking sister, and was happy to hear that former federal prosecutor and legal analyst Sunny Hostin got that chair.

Newt Gingrich and Meghan McCain must have forgotten that part of Sunny's background when they tried to peddle their kill the investigation talking points to the audience of The View and got royally embarrassed by her.

Then again, what Gingrich and McCain did was commit an all too common mistake of the conservative movement.  They misunderestimate the intellect of Black women until it's too late, and end up looking foolish or worse in the process. 



Bet they'll think twice before they try that on another sister again.
  

Cotton Lives!

She's alive!    Cotton is alive!   #LivingBlackTransCharactersMatter .

For those of you who have been watching the FOX TV show STAR, Cotton is the name of Amiyah Scott's groundbreaking trans character on the Empire spinoff show focused on the rise of an ATL based girl group..

Amiyah Scott made history when the show debuted by playing one of the first major transgender characters on a prime time network drama series.

Had they killed Cotton off this show, I already had a  post prepared to put the show on blast, but now I won't have to do that.   Instead I can talk about why this character is so important to my Black trans community

One of the things that has become depressingly familiar to me and other people observing the trajectory of transgender characters on television is that far too often we're either killed off in the first ten minutes of the show, we're playing sex workers, the sassy drag queen or other tropes.

The other thing that has been a pain in the azz is that far too often, those characters have been played far too often by male actors in drag.   Less frequently they are played by a cis feminine actress or actual transgender people.

The television landscape is even more bleak for Black trans television characters.   You have to go back to a 1977 Season 4 episode of The Jeffersons in which Edith Stokes appeared (played by Veronica Redd) to find a non stereotypical Black trans character.

The.more recent Black trans ones are Maya Avant Forrester on the CBS soap The Bold and the Beautiful played by Karla Mosley, and the two characters both played by Laverne Cox in Orange Is The New Black's  Sophia Burset and the now canceled CBS show Doubt's Cameron Wirth. 

So you can see why I was concerned and slightly angry with the Star fall finale cliffhanger in which we didn't know if Cotton was dead or alive.

Cotton's character is important for many reasons.  Black trans women are taking the brunt of the anti- trans murders happening in the United States.  We still have people in the Black community who think that being trans is a joke, a choice, sinful or who are openly hostile to our very existence.

Because this show is being broadcast at a time in which the Republican Party at the federal and state level are openly persecuting trans people with discriminatory legislation, Star has an opportunity if they choose to take it to basically show trans women like Cotton as the complex people we are to the millions of people in their vast viewing audience. 

If you're pooh poohing that thought, it was over a decade of positive portrayals of gay and lesbian characters on network and cable television that led to human rights advances for that community and the breaking down of stereotypes aimed at lesbian and gay people.  The same was true for the African American community 

We need the same thing to happen in Black Trans World   There are many stories that can be told about Black trans people through Cotton.   You can already see the evolution of her relationship with her mother Carlotta, played by Queen Latifah.   She already loved and lost a man who she deeply cared about in Elliott. 

And unfortunately has a psycho one after her in Otis.

Some things that affect us in Trans World have been addressed in earlier Star shows.   There was one in which Cotton was attacked while with a guy outside the strip club she moonlighted at and Star ended up punching him.   Silicone pumping was addressed in another episode in which Miss Bruce was making extra money by doing it in the shop.  Another episode featured a minister laying hands on Cotton to 'pray the trans away'. 

Because Cotton lives, there will be more opportunities to tell stories like that on Star.  Hopefully I get to see an episode in which Cotton gets a name and gender marker change done because that is a BFD in Trans World.

So how would I do that on the show if I was writing the script for it?  Cotton has a conversation with Carlotta to ask her what she would have named her had she been born cis feminine, and changes it to that name.

I have other ideas specific to this trans storyline Lee Daniels, call this trans sister writer to hear them

I'm deliriously happy that Cotton lives, and I'll get to see how her character evolves over the rest of this season and hopefully many more seasons to come.

And yeah, I want to see what transpires in the lives of Star, Simone and Alex on the show too and if they are able to make their musical dreams come true as well

Candis Cayne Gets A Multi Show Character On 'Grey's Anatomy'

It's been a while since the last time that Candis Cayne was on an ABC television show. 

Back in 2007-2008 Candis was on the show Dirty Sexy Money making history by playing Carmelita Rainer. 

At that time Cayne was the first out trans actress playing a recurring trans character on a major network show, and I was more than a little pissed when her character was killed off .

She has since moved on to play characters on multiple television shows like Necessary Roughness, Elementary, The Magicians, Nip/Tuck and Transparent along with appearing on the I Am Cait reality show.

Now she will return to the ABC network to once again play a trans feminine character on the show Grey's Anatomy with a multi arc storyline. 

Cayne's character will be checking into Grey Sloan Hospital for a groundbreaking gender confirmation surgery.   The storyline is modeled on a story that Grey's Anatomy writers read about Hayley Anthony who helped pioneer a new way for Dr Jess Ting to perform GRS surgeries.

The Grey's Anatomy writers thought this would make an interesting story to tell, and tapped Cayne to do it

It's all part of the announced effort of Grey's Anatomy in its t14th season to change the way television tells the stories of transpeople, and it is definitely appreciated at this tumultuous time in our history. 

Grey's Anatomy is also quickly establishing itself as a Must See Trans TV show. 

Meet Our Newest Trans TV Character, Dr Casey Parker

While we have seen the number of trans feminine characters increase on our nation's television and movie screens in the last few years, with some of those characters being played by actual trans actors, what we haven't seen is a corresponding increase in trans masculine characters played by actual trans masculine actors .

We've had my Texas homeboy Scott Turner Schofield 's historic recurring role on the CBS soap The Bold and the Beautiful playing Nick in conjunction with the Maya Avant Forrester character played by a cis feminine actress.

We've had Toine Wilkins, a Black trans masculine character on the OWN network show Queen Sugar played by Brian Michael Smith

Now gracing your television screens is Dr. Casey Parker, who made his debut Thursday night on the long running ABC show Grey's Anatomy played by Alex Blue Davis.

"What's cool about the show, the episode and Krista's vision for this character is he's about way more than being trans," Davis said.   "I cried at the table read, it was very moving for me.  I've been waiting for a moment like this on TV my whole life.  I'm so honored I got to say that line on TV because it's a long time coming."

Alex's previous television acting credits include episodes on 2 Broke Girls and NCIS: Los Angeles before getting this role



"TV is opening up to a greater range of roles (for trans characters); laverne played a lawyer on Doubt, and I'm playing a doctor-- both roles haven't really been seen before (for trans characters), Davis says.

"People can see trans folks in a new light: these are people who walk among us and are human beings  who have lives.  They're not defined by being trans."   

That's precisely what we want, be we trans actors or trans folks getting to watch a guy or girl like us on screen.  We want to see characters that are like the peeps we know in Trans World and that are in our our everyday lives..

Congrats Alex for getting that role and also realizing the importance of it, especially in light of the act it's coming during a time when we have to fight a hostile administration and its fundamentalist allies seeking to eviscerate us from public life and discourse. 

DFW Area White Woman Tripping About Curvaceous Black Reporter

Black women not only come in 24 different skin tones from light bright and damned near white to deepest darkest ebony, a fact that Rihanna is taking to the bank with her new makeup line, we also come in many different body types.

And one white Dallas TV viewer is mad because of that.

Meet Demetria Obilor.  She works at WFAA-TV 8 in Dallas, and does their morning traffic reports for them.  As you can also see she is beautiful, voluptuous, and curvaceous.

Conservaviewer Jan Shedd had a problem with that and took to Facebook to express herself.

“Has anyone seen channel 8’s new morning traffic reporter,” Shedd wrote on Facebook. “She’s a size 16/18 woman in a size 6 dress. She looks ridiculous. I understand that when I watch Channel 8 I’m going to get biased reporting and political correctness, but clearly they have taken complete leave of their senses."

Of course, once Jan's jealousy tinged Facebook comments were posted to Black Twitter, the ruthless dragging of Bigot Becky swiftly ensued with their usual brutal efficiency.

And yeah, Black Twitter is still putting their collective electronic foot up Shedd's behind as they call Shedd's bigoted ignorance out. 

Bitter Becky, party of one, your table is ready.

Obilor also posted a video to her own Twitter feed thanking Black Twitter for coming to her defense and calling the hater out and basically saying if you don't like her, you have channel options

You're welcome sis.  We got your back. 

Meanwhile, I have another reason to watch WFAA-TV 8 besides Dale Hansen the next time I end up on the northern end of I-45.

Brazilian Trans Community Embraces Hit Soap Opera 'Edge Of Desire'

Here in the US, we not only get to see ourselves represented on screen, we are at the point that we have trans actors playing the trans roles we see on our broadcast networks.

Currently we get to see the lovely Amiyah Scott on the FOX show Star,  Laverne Cox in Orange Is The New Black and Doubt, Trace Lysette on Transparent, and Rain Valdez on Lopez.

Down in Brazil, the embattled trans community turns their TV sets to the Globo network to watch the hit soap opera Edge Of Desire which features a lead trans character played by actress Carol Duarte named Ivana who is transitioning in the transmasculine direction to Ivan.

Several of the Edge of Desire supporting characters are trans persons once they step out of the studio for taping. 

The soap has the most watched Brazilian newscast as a lead in, and is created and written by Gloria Perez. 

"The soap opera is a reflection of Brazilian society at any given moment," she said..  Perez also wanted to create a transgender character that viewers would feel empathy for and also start a conversation in a nation that had 144 trans murders last year.

"I thought it was time to talk about it," said Perez. 

Perez has succeeded in creating a character viewers have empathy for.  The Brazil trans community believes that this is the most accurate and nuanced fictional portrayal of their lives ever in Brazilian media.

And they along with the 50 million viewers watching the show have followed every moment of Ivan's transition from the conversation with her mother after Ivan cut his hair,  his increasingly tense home life to the employment discrimination and attacks from strangers he faced while out and about in Brazilian society.

Carol Duarte felt the role was a daunting responsibility at first, but has been surprised by the positive reception for her character.  'But the reaction has been so warm and supportive.  People are cheering for Ivan to find his own happiness."

Here's hoping there's a dual happy ending not only for Ivan, but for the Brazilian trans community.