Trans Men Audition For Scarlett Johansson Roles

For those of you who presume that trans masculine actors don't exist, prepare to have your mind expanded.

Here's a video in which trans masculine actors are auditioning for Scarlett Johansson roles/ 

Enjoy!

Scarlett Johansson, This Is A Trans Role You Appropriated, Not A Cis Feminine One

Scarlett Johansson obviously didn't get the message in 2016 when she took a whitewashed Major Motoko Kusanagi role that should have gone to an Asian actress in the movie Ghost In The Shell.  That pissed off fans of the manga looking forward to seeing it on the silver screen, and the movie subsequently tanked at the box office.

Now Johansson is slated to play trans man Dante 'Tex' Gill in the upcoming crime drama Rub & Tug directed by Rupert Sanders, the same person who cast her in the failed Ghost In The Shell movie. 

Tex Gill in the1970's and 1980's operated massage parlors in Pittsburgh that served as fronts for prostitution.   Gill also lived his life as a trans man, which is why we're tripping about Johansson getting this role.

Why this latest casting controversy has the trans community pissed off is because once again, we have a cisgender actor playing a transgender role.  In this case the actor has an unrepentant history of cultural appropriation

Two high profile transgender actresses in Trace Lysette and Jamie Clayton took to Twitter to put Johansson and Hollywood on blast for it.

"Oh word? So you can continue to play us but we can't play y'all?" Lysette wrote on her Twitter feed in reaction to Johansson's casting.  "Hollywood is so fucked.  I wouldn't be as upset if I was getting in the same roms as Jennifer Lawrence and Scarlett for cis roles, but we know that is not the case.  A mess." 

"And not only do you play us and steal our narrative and our opportunity but you pat yourselves on the back with trophies and accolades for mimicking what we have lived,"

Clayton echoed the same thoughts in her Twitter commentary about the jacked up casting .

"Actors who are trans never even get to audition for anything other than roles of trans characters.  That's the real issue.  We can't even get in the room.  Cast actors who are trans as non trans characters, I dare you."  

Trace and Jamie are both correct.  If the same reciprocity in being cast for cisgender roles was regularly extended to transgender Hollywood actors, we wouldn't be complaining about this casting of Johansson now. 

But the equitable Hollywood casting for trans actors isn't happening at this time, and Hollywood casting directors, directors and studios know it.  To add insult to injury, cisgender actors are getting awards for doing so while perpetuating a 'men in dresses' stereotype that leads to trans women getting violently assaulted while Hollywood pats itself on the back at awards time. 

And now Hollywood is handing trans masculine roles to cis women that should be played by trans masculine and nonbinary actors.  This is also reinforcing a stereotype trans men have to constantly fight in that they are really butch women.

Johansson poured more gasoline on the casting controversy by dismissively citing actors who have gotten awards for playing trans characters in a weak attempt to defend herself.

"Tell them that they can be directed to Jeffrey Tambor, Jared Leto and Felicity Huffman's reps for comment," Johansson said in a statement obtained by Bustle.

Naw boo boo kitty, not gonna work.   Even Tambor recognized the problem with casting cis people in trans roles when he accepted his second Emmy in 2016.

 "I'm not going to say this beautifully: To you people out there ... please give transgender talent a chance. Give them auditions. Give them their story," Tambor said in his Emmy acceptance speech. 

"I would be happy if I were the last cisgender male to play a transgender female," he added.

The bottom line is that trans actors are beyond sick and tired of not getting fair shots at auditioning for or getting roles written for cisgender people.  But you cis people get cast all day for the limited trans roles available with the weak excuse of 'we need a box office name to help this movie get made'.

Tangerine didn't have a box office name when they cast trans actress Mya Taylor as Alexandra.  The movie that cost $100,000 to make made $924,793 and received several awards, including a Spirit Award  for Taylor.

Don't even try to peddle the 'we couldn't find a trans masculine actor' lie.   Let's see, there's Scott Turner Schofield, Ian Harvie, Chaz Bono, Emmett Jack Lundberg and nonbinary actor Ellie Desautels for starters.

So naw Scarlett, this Tex Gill role is made for a trans masculine actor.   What's going to happen with you in it is the same thing that happened to Ghost In The Shell.  Your appropriating appearance in it will cause this film to get boycotted and tank at the box office.

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.

Not Feeling This Transphobic Country

Today is the 242nd anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence that is considered the birthday of the United States.

But I'm not feeling particularly patriotic on this Fourth of July 2018.   I'm not feeling love for a country that gleefully hates on me and my trans community just for unapologetically existing. 

It also hates on me for being unapologetically Black and female.

I'm also not feeling love for a country that has an administration that with the help of longtime haters like the Family Research Council, the TERF's and white conservative evilgelicals are goading the Trump misadministration into rescinding the Obama era trans friendly policies and replacing them with trans oppressive ones. 

There's also the people who claim they support trans people, but are silent about the injustice being aimed at transgender people.

The worst people are the clueless or self hating trans people whose whiteness was more important than ensuring that our community wouldn't be oppressed, and sold us out by voting for Trump.

FYI, your white skin will not protect you from the trans oppression being visited upon us by the Trump misadministration

Trans people are Americans too, whose human rights are covered under the Constitution  Those inalienable rights didn't disappear when we transitioned, and anyone who thinks they do is one of the domestic enemies to the country we were warned about.

So nope, not feeling this transphobic country on this 4th of July.

On this Independence Day I am going to redouble my efforts to ensure that the human rights for trans Americans are respected and protected.  Our trans kids are counting on us trans adults to do precisely that, and I'm not going to disappoint them.

Yes, right now our Republican led federal government is a worldwide embarrassment and disgrace.

But this November, we have an opportunity to change that.   And we need to seize that opportunity to vote the oppressors out.

Why Was Diamond Stylz's You Tube Video Blog Deleted?

On the YouTube platform, video bloggers chronicle everything and discuss many subjects.   Some of the folks who do so have become famous for doing so.

Some of the video bloggers handling their business on YouTube have become famous for doing so.

As with written blogs, there are very few Black trans video bloggers discussing subjects from our perspective.  The person who is my counterpart in the video blogging world in terms of longevity, gravitas and reach is Diamond Stylz.

She has been video blogging since 2009, and you have seen over my 12 years of work on TransGriot me put up some of her videos here because what she was thoughtfully talking about at the time was on point and needed to be amplified.

I was dismayed to find out that after nearly a decade in operation, YouTube suddenly deleted all of her videos from their platform.

Her crime?  She posted a video of her hitting her own hand with a whip with no nudity, violence or foul language.  But according to them that was an 'egregious violation of their terms of service'?

Really?   Can you say this is some shady BS?  Thought you could.

This #BlackTransMediaPurge happened despite the fact that Diamond had zero strikes according to their 'three strikes and your video blog is out' policy.

Diamond is also upset and mystified as to why they did it.  "If they had a problem with that hand video, they should have just deleted it, given me my first strike, and moved on," she said. "'But for them to just delete all my videos was wrong and shameful."

I agree, and this YouTube action reeks of the twin evils of racism and transphobia.   Would they have done this to Gigi Gorgeous?  Hell naw. 

Hopefully YouTube will reverse this unjust action and reinstate her video blog that she put a decade of work into building.

We'll see     

A Trans Woman Is Crowned Miss Universe Spain!

Transgender women have been eligible since 2012 to compete for the Miss Universe title.  It has taken a few years, but when the 2018 edition of the pageant takes place, it is going to have more attention than usual because there will finally be a trans contestant vying for the crown.

And nope, she won't be from the Philippines or Thailand.

25 year old Angela Ponce from Spain will be the trans woman making that history.   She captured the Miss Universe Spain crown Saturday night, beating 20 other beauties for the crown.

This isn't the first time Ponce has attempted to represent Spain by winning one of the Big Four international pageant titles. 

In 2015 she competed in the Miss World Spain pageant after capturing the title from her home region of Cadiz, Spain but was unsuccessful in doing so.

When Miss Universe 2018 finally happens later this year, there will probably be a larger than usual viewing audience checking it out. 

I can also guarantee that trans women from around the world, where we compete in the pageant world or not, will be tuned in to Miss Universe to cheer Angela on.

The 2018 BTAC Leadership Institute

As you TransGriot readers are aware of, I got to come to New Orleans for the first time since 1990, but it wasn't for pleasure.  This was a business trip.   I was in town because the Black Trans Advocacy Coalition came to New Orleans for its first ever Leadership Institute. 

I was in attendance for this event because I sit on the board of Black Trans Women, Inc., one of the constituent organizations of the Dallas based Black Trans Advocacy Coalition.  The other BTAC orgs are Black Trans Men, Inc., The Black Trans International Pageantry System, the Anchors spousal support group,  and the newest part of the BTAC family, BTXI for gender non conforming individuals.

In addition to  myself, there were 20 people taking part in this training conducted by BTAC Founding President Carter Brown and Director of Programs Esperanza Brown at the Doubletree New Orleans Airport in suburban Kenner, LA. 

And the best part of it for me was I didn't have to wait until April 2019 to see many of these peeps.

We came by air and car from Houston, Dallas, Austin, Atlanta, Little Rock, Lawrence and Topeka, KS, Memphis, Asheville, NC and New Orleans eager to not only be in this city, but also handle our BTAC Leadership Institute business.  

That business started on Friday morning in business attire with breakfast at 8 AM followed by us heading into the hotel's Pontchartrain room at 9 AM for the first day of the BTAC leadership Institute

We discovered during breakfast we were assigned seats for this first day, and found out why moments later.   Inside the BTAC swag bags at our seats were Kindle Fire 7 tables that were assigned to us to take home and be used during this institute and beyond to conduct BTAC business.

After getting a brief history of the organization and why it was created in 2011, we reviewed BTAC policies, the recently concluded conference, and other issues of importance to the organization before breaking for lunch at 12:30.

Lunch was none other than the New Orleans classics of red bean and rice, a salad, sweet tea and chicken with bread pudding for dessert.

After lunch we received familiarization training on our new BTAC issued tablets, some training concerning the orgs official communications apps and what we can and can't do with the new tablets before we ended the first day of training at 5 PM.

These training events aren't  all work.   Team building is going on as well in addition to getting an opportunity to see the host city.   After a few hours of rest, off we went to a popular local seafood restaurant where we were met by Syria Synclaire, one of our former BTIPS queens who is on the BTIPS board but couldn't join us for training until Saturday.

Several of us also ventured into the French Quarter to see our current BTIPS queen Malaysia Black perform in a illusionist show at a local pub on Bourbon Street before calling it a night. 

Day 2 gave us a little extra sleep since we didn't start until 10 AM.   We also got to break out the BTAC Leadership Institute shirts that were in our BTAC swag bag we received the previous day..

This day was dedicated to being in our various BTAC groups and coming up with policy for the 2018-2019 fiscal year that starts July 1.   We broke off into those various constituent groups and spent the next 30 minutes discussing and outlining programs we wished to conduct during this 2019 year, then making presentations to everyone before we broke for lunch.

Those presentation discussion ran during lunch, after lunch and up until the 3:30 PM cutoff time we had to end Day 2.   We took a few moments to begin a discussion on the 2019 budget we'll continue later before calling it a day and heading to City Park to take some group photos in our new shirts.

We got back to the hotel as we watched a building thunderstorm move toward our location.  We also  continued those discussions about Black trans community and other issues near the pool before we called it a night because many of us have early travel departure times on Sunday morning.

For the most part, this BTAC Leadership Institute for our senior leadership staff was well received.  It helped us get more in sync with each other as leaders and give us a better idea of where our constituent organizations fit into the overall plan for BTAC.

While there are parts of  this event I can't talk about because of confidentiality agreements I signed, what I can confidently say is that this just concluded Leadership Institute will be a major building block in helping the Black Trans Advocacy Coalition do a better job of serving our community.

And this also comes at a time in our country's history when the Black trans community needs BTAC to lead with love the most.

Picture credits: Rebecca Jackson, Achim Howard 

Jacksonville,You Have A Trans Violence Problem

Less than a month after the November 2015 repeal of the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance, Jacksonville was trying to pass the addition of gender identity to their own ERO.

Fresh off their shady victory in Houston, Republican advocates and conservative fundamentalists went to work using the same reprehensible playbook to defeat Jacksonville's attempt to add gender identity to their ERO. 

After a month of nonstop anti-trans rhetoric pimped by now disgraced pedophile pastor Kenneth Adkins and the Klan distributing anti-gay flyers mere days after a contentious public forum, Jacksonville's mayor Lenny Curry (R)  then shut down the attempt to pass the ERO in January. 

It was revived and successfully passed in February 2017, but the anti-trans animus stirred up by the Jacksonville hate pastors definitely didn't go away.  The anti-trans animus needlessly stirred up by the hate pastors in their attempt to kill the Jacksonville ERO I assert is one of the reasons that Jacksonville has a trans violence problem.

In 2018 we have had three trans women, Celine Walker, Antasha English and now Cathalina James killed in this city.  A fourth Black trans woman was shot during a domestic dispute but survived. 

The animus between the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office and the local trans community doesn't help, either.   The JSO needs to stop being transphobic azzholes and treat the local trans community with dignity and respect. 

When Celine Walker was killed, she was misgendered by the JSO, and the local media followed their lead.   When they got called on it by the local community and GLAAD, they claimed they had a policy that would not allow them to refer to victims as transgender

This blatant lack of respect from JSO is probably a major reason why these cases have remained unsolved so far and feeds into the anti-trans animus initially stirred up in 2015 .

According to local advocates, the trans community is more fearful of the JSO than the killer that is lurking about killing them.    That's a situation that must change if they are to get the help necessary from the Jacksonville trans community that will solve this case.

JSO must become culturally competent to make that happen, because trans folks do live in the city of Jacksonville and Duval County itself.

Jacksonville, it's obvious you have a trans violence problem.   What are you going to do to solve it?

Made It To NOLA!

Finally made it to NOLA in one piece and my hotel near the New Orleans Airport around 7:30 PM CDT.  Looking forward to seeing my BTAC fam, some NOLA peeps while I'm here  and doing this leadership training over the next two days.

Amazed it's LESS humid than Houston right now as I sit around the pool area.

The leadership training starts tomorrow morning, so I do need to make sure I get into bed early enough so I can be all bright eyed and bushy tailed in the AM. 

Once we're done with Day One of the training, looking forward to spending some quality time with and catching up with everyone .

Headed To NOLA!

Been far too long since I've been to New Orleans.   Despite it being only a five hour drive and an hour's flight away, the last time I was in NOLA was for the 1990 Mardi Gras

I was there for the last weekend leading up to Fat Tuesday, so I got to see not only some West Bank parades while gulping a few 64 oz frozen daiquiris, but watched the Endymion parade in downtown NOLA from a coveted bleacher seat near the reviewing stand.

Endymion is known for its celebrity grand marshals, and the grand marshal that year was I kid you not, Spuds Mackenzie and the Spudettes. 

This is not only the first time I'm traveling to NOLA in the 21st Century, it's also the first time I've been here since transition, and so looking forward to the trip.

I lived there on the West Bank in Marrero with my family for two years as a toddler when my dad was working for WBOK-AM, so it is somewhat of a long overdue homecoming. 

New Orleans was one of the first non rev trips I took in March 1987 when I put in the month I needed to become pass eligible.

It is a business trip since I'm headed there for a BTAC Leadership retreat and training that starts tomorrow morning at 9 AM and ends Saturday afternoon. 

The good news is I get to spend some quality time with my BTAC fam again and didn't have to wait until April 2019 to do so.  The bad news is I have to go to IAH because Dee Dee and I have been booked on (ugh) Spirit Airlines to get there. 

And y'all know how much I despise Spirit.

The good thing about this trip is that it's only 45-50 minutes in the air and I get to stay at a Doubletree Hotel for it upon arrival.

Can you say 'destroyed cookies' people?   Thought you could. 

Some beignets will be destroyed on this trip as well as soon as I get the opportunity to do so, preferably from Cafe Du Monde.

Moni's Thoughts About Justice Kennedy's Retirement

US Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy alarmed many people yesterday after a string of depressing from my perspective 5-4 decisions to announce that he was retiring from the SCOTUS.

It's bad news because he was the swing vote on many critical issues like affirmative action, a woman right to choose and gay marriage just to name a few.   I didn't forget that he was a conservative appointed by Ronald Reagan, and in this 2017-18 SCOTUS term he swung far too often to the right for my tastes.

That news from the SCOTUS was being heralded with weeping and gnashing of white liberal progressive teeth, but was met with me and others in Black TBLGQ world with a collective shrug.

Bottom line is we, Hillary Clinton  (and especially this blogger) told y'all what would happen if y'all didn't get over your butthurt Bernie fee fees, look at the big political picture, realize the 2016 election was about the SCOTUS and federal judiciary and vote accordingly.

My humanity as an unapologetic Black trans person was on the ballot, so you damned skippy I was with her.

And many of you failed to do so in enough numbers, especially in several critical swing states for Trump to shockingly win.

So what do we do now?   Exhale, and prepare to fight tooth and nail to mitigate this disaster by firing everything with an 'R' behind their name on the ballot in November.

This is not a surprise to me because Kennedy is 81 years old.   As I have been pointing out since 2012 there were a potential four SCOTUS nominations that would potentially come open either in Barack Obama's second term of the term of the 45th president. 

So while some peeps are trying to rehash the 2016 election, the bottom line is that 2016 election ship has sailed.   As usual I and every Black person in America, despite us trying to warn you white liberal progressives of the danger of a Trump presidency, unfortunately still have to deal with the fallout from liberal progressive lack of political vision and massive failure to pay attention to the big political picture.

What's that big political picture?  Every election matters.  The federal judiciary matters, especially to marginalized and non white Americans.   Control of Congress and the White House matters.

Trust Black women 

Seeing the big political picture means that some of y'all on the left need to stop hating on the Democrats and realizing that they are the only political party big enough and in the position to stop the slide toward authoritarianism.

Translation:  That means your puny third parties aren't big enough or organized enough to take on the massive job of stopping this country's slide toward conservative authoritarianism.  It also means your azzes are going to have to do what George Will and others have asked you to do and vote for Democrats up and down the ballot this November.

I don't want to hear jack about the Democrats didn't do this or that, left wing ideological purity or 'I voted my conscience'.   The only people that have a credible claim toward voting their conscience are the 65, 843,063 Americans who voted for Hillary Clinton to become the 45th POTUS.   

Focus.  Everything and every policy we value as liberal progressive is in danger of political extinction.   It's past time you far left peeps fight the Republicans who are the major cause of the political drama you hate as hard as you do the Democrats.

Black and other POC Americans have been in fighting mode because we have to be.  Would be nice for the rest of y'all to get in formation and join us in firing the GOP this November at the ballot box and in every election cycle for the next 20 years.

Because your kids, grandkids, nieces and nephews are counting on you to do so.

   

Number 14- Rest In Power Keisha Wells

It's my sad duty to report courtesy of the Pittsburgh Lesbian Reporters the loss of our second trans person this month  and the 14th in 2018.

We head back to Cleveland to discuss the latest person gone to join the ancestors too soon. 

She is 54 year old Keisha Wells, and she was found dead from a gunshot wound to the abdomen at 7 AM EDT Sunday in the parking lot of an apartment complex on Detroit Avenue near West 87th Street.

As of this time there are no suspects, and if you have any info that can help solve this case you are urged to call the Cleveland Police Department. 

If anyone has a nice photo of Keisha, it would also be nice to have that as well for this article and any subsequent articles about her.

As of this moment no info concerning a vigil or memorial service, and if that happens, will pass that along to you along with any case updates as expeditiously as possible.

Jazz Is Having Her GRS!

On a day filled with bad news from the SCOTUS to the White House, some good news to report.

One of our favorite trans teens is finally having her gender confirmation surgery today!

We've not only had the pleasure of watching her grow up, but thanks to the I Am Jazz reality TV show share some of her adventures, advocacy and family life.

Best of luck to Jazz Jennings as she undergoes surgery.   May she come through it without any complications, and she be blessed with speedy healing and recovery after it. 

Number 13- Rest In Power and Peace Cathalina Christina James

We have lost our thirteenth person to anti-trans violence, and for the third time this year it happened in Jacksonville, FL.

She is 24 year old Cathalina Christina James.  She is originally from Sumter, SC, but according to her Facebook page was in the process of moving to New York. 

After the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office responded to a 1 PM EDT call Sunday at the Quality Inn located in the 8300 block of Dix Ellis Trail, James was found deceased from a gunshot wound in her third floor motel room by emergency responders.

The hotel was ironically located across the street from the JSO District 3 substation.

The only information so far concerning a possible suspect in this murder case is that a male was spotted driving a beige vehicle.

Cathalina is not only the 13th person killed this year and the third in Jacksonville alone, she is the seventh African American trans and GNC person we have lost to anti trans violence this year.

And what continues to sadden and infuriate me is that she was under 30 years of age.

The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office is looking for any information that will help solve this case.  I you saw something, please call Crime Stoppers at 1-866-845-TIPS (8477) or JSO's non-emergency line at (904) 630-0500.

If you saw something, no matter how minor you think it is, call JSO so we can bring the perpetrator of this crime to justice.   As of yet no word on a vigil or memorial service for Cathalina, but will pass that info also as I receive it.

There will be a Trans Lives Matter event sponsored by local activists at the Duval County Courthouse tomorrow at 7 PM EDT.   Hope those of you in the Jacksonville area will consider attending it.

Rest in power and peace Cathalina.   You barely got a chance to enjoy your life before it was taken from you.  Your trans and GNC siblings will not only continue to remind people that your Black trans life mattered, we won't rest until your killer is behind bars