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'Time' Mag's Transgender Cover -
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'Time' Mag's Transgender Cover - I found this an interesting take on 'Time's' cover tgirl. Dear Time: Thanks for nothing. One of the big buzzes at the beginning of last week (the day after Memorial Day) was that a transperson was to be featured on the cover of Time — Laverne Cox, one of the co-stars of Orange Is the New Black. Time teased us with a Q-and-A with Ms. Cox but kept the online version of the cover story behind a subscriber paywall. Some of my wonderful and extremely supportive friends were excited about this and messaged me on Facebook and sent links to the Q-and-A and offered me their copies of the issue when they were finished with it. And I, too, was somewhat excited, cautiously curious at how Time would play this story. I finally got a copy in the mail at the beginning of the week (courtesy of my friend and former Fresno Bee colleague, Diana Ramirez-Simon), and, well, I wanted to read it and let it swirl around a little bit before I added my two cents to what I’ve been calling the last frontier of civil rights for some time now. Okay, I’ve read it, all nine pages — actually, four pages, after you take out the photos and the half-page of air on the lede page — and, well, I’m not happy. Time, thanks for nothing. I’ll explain … ***** The story itself was okaaaaaayyyy, kind of a glossy, Trans 101 primer for people who, years into this, still have never seen or encountered a transgender person. In some ways, it’s what I was doing four years ago when I started running “Ask Aunt Fran” installments on this here blog, only with some updates and a couple of recent stories, such as Cassidy Campbell, the trans homecoming queen in Huntington Beach, Calif.; the update on the current political progress (or lack thereof) on the civil rights front; and Cox and her journey from feminine, bullied boy to stunning star. Since I don’t give Netflix my money, I haven’t seen Orange Is the New Black. It didn’t hit me until a couple of days ago, when I saw one of the many Web articles about the upcoming season and finally realized: “Holy shit! The new season starts this Sunday!” Immediately followed by: “A-HAAAA! No WONDER Time put Laverne on the cover!” And then the anger came in a rush. If you’re in the news business, you damn well know — or should — that the whole gender-dysphoric spectrum has been news for some time now. Hell, deeply red-state Fresno — the place where I came out, the place all the elites in the Bay Area and L.A. ignore, save to peer down their imperious noses and scoff at and joke about — had a transman run for prom king — followed almost immediately by the country’s first trans prom queen (at two different high schools) — seven years ago! And it was also seven years ago that network TV had a trans actress in a prominent role — Candis Cayne in Dirty Sexy money. And let’s see, a bunch of trans happenings, good and bad, since then: It’s still legal in 32 states to discriminate against transpeople … Congress refuses to acknowledge the presence of transpeople (including my representative, a 30-year Democratic congresswoman in a very safe seat; I sent a letter to early last year about perhaps working for trans civil rights on the national level, with no response at all from her staff) — except when it’s someone like Barney Frank, working with the “Human Rights” Campaign’s blessing, to lop transpeople off a failed attempt at passing an employment Non-Discrimination Act … Amanda Simpson, the first transperson appointed by a president to a federal post, four years ago … Chaz Bono’s coming-out three years ago … Last year, close to home, Calliope Wong, a senior transgirl at Amity High School in nearby Woodbridge, having her application turned down by so-called “liberal” Smith College for not being a real woman … Two mothers, Cheryl Kilodavis (My Princess Boy) and Lori Duron (Raising My Rainbow) who have written bestsellers about their gender-nonconforming sons … Against Me! singer Laura Jane Grace and MMA fighter Fallon Fox coming out publicly … who have had to fight in court just to use the damned bathroom in school … The American Psychiatric Association finally ceasing last year to consider gender dysphoria as a disorder … Kristin Beck, a former Navy SEAL who came out and wrote a bestesller about her experiences and transition last year … Laverne and RuPaul’s Drag Race winner Carmen Carrera gracefully deflecting Katie Couric’s ignorant what’s-under-the-skirt? question on her (now-canceled) talk show … Janet Mock writing a bestseller and having to endure Piers Morgan’s ignorance on his (now-canceled) talk show … Karen Adell Scot, the science teacher (and ex-soldier and ex-cop) at Yosemite High in Oakhurst, Calif. (less than an hour north of Fresno), who had to warp-speed her coming-out … And, hand in-hand with the continuing struggle to have our civil rights as Americans recognized, there’s a 16-year-old Latina transgirl who has been sitting in an adult prison here in Connecticut for two months now without ever having been charged with a crime, and only now, as of yesterday, is being released to a juvenile facility out of state … and the continuing violence against transpeople — just a week and a half ago, there were the two black transwomen assaulted on a MARTA train in Atlanta, and bystanders did nothing but cheer and pull out their phones to video the attack. So, with all this having gone on, the editors at Time wait until the week of the season premiere of a popular series, slap a photo of one of the stars on the cover and proclaim loudly, with some self-congratulation, “Hey! Look! Transpeople exist! Aren’t we hip and trendy to notice?” Uhhhhh … no, Time, you’re not. If you’re actually journalists, or look down the above list, you’ll see that you’re way behind the curve. This fight to have our rights as Americans recognized has been going on for some time now, with its battles and victories and defeats and temporary setbacks. The one parallel I can think of is had their predecessors at Time waited until the fall of 1965 — the premiere of I Spy, with Bill Cosby’s groundbreaking role as the first black co-star of a network TV drama — to write a cover story about the black civil rights movement. Just how the hell do you think that would’ve gone over? Uhhhhhh, yeah. Same with trans civil rights. So, in closing, Time editors, I just want to say: Thanks sooooo much for turning our civil rights battle into a cheap product tie-in. Thanks for nothing. ( from Boston Indymedia - http://Polyamory Date.com ) |
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