Giving Credit Where Credit is Due?

One of the potential problems I see coming out of the HUGE Caitlin Jenner coming out is all of the sudden she will get credit for the transgender advances many people have worked very hard to achieve. Here's a prime example from the LEXIE CANNES STATE OF TRANS — 

UPDATE-3 June 2, 2015. According to blogger Monica Roberts, Texas’ various anti-trans bills, including “bathroom bills” have failed to become law following the end of the Texas legislative session. This means “bathroom bills” in all 5 states have failed. Follow the link above for more.

Another very pleasant departure from the recent Jenner hoopla last night was NOT hearing or seeing any jabbering from Zoey Tur on anything I watched. Instead I saw the very credible and experienced trans woman Eden Lane.

Eden Lane

 The transgender community desperately needs to seize the "Jenner/Gender" moment with quality trans women journalists such as Eden Lane-not one who fell on their head out of a helicopter like Zoey Tur.

Carnival Barkers?

Yesterday, when I visited my daughter, one her her comments was: "My friends want to know what you (me) think about Bruce Jenner."

I just said "A clown show waiting to happen."  Nothing against him, but I will continue to pronoun "him" until he happens to come out, but I just expect the worse.  Sort of like Zoey Tur's comment last night that Jenner's HRT transition meds could have contributed to his tragic wreck. Really???  I guess I better be extra careful since I am on HRT and depression medicine too. Nice job putting the idea in everyone's noggin that we transgender women and men maybe "danger's" on the road.

The only lesson to be learned is no one is an expert and who the hell dug up Zoey Tur anyhow? Surely there maybe someone like Eden Lane (left)  out there, who is truly qualified? But I digress:

Back to my rant - Cognoscenti says it best:

Leelah Alcorn might still be with us had her painful gender odyssey attracted the empathetic national attention Diane Sawyer is reportedly about to shower on Bruce Jenner. But the struggles of a 17-year-old transgender girl from rural Ohio could never compete with the call of the carnival barker.

Few knew her name until Leelah, née Joshua, stepped in front of a tractor-trailer on Interstate 71 20 miles outside Cincinnati a few days after Christmas, one of the 41 percent of transgender people who attempt suicide, according to a 2010 report by the National Center for Transgender Equality and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. Figures about those, like Leelah, who die by suicide are harder to come by in a society that acknowledges transgender people only when they turn up on a hit Netflix or Amazon series, claim Sonny & Cher as parents or grace the front of a Wheaties cereal box.

Follow the link above for more!

No "Mo" Rose?

Paula Gee sent along a short comment about Rose Venkatesan, India's first transgender talk show host:

"OK first in India, how about anywhere else?"

Speaking for the United States, Paula, I don't know of any transgender talk show hosts yet on a major network, unless the person is living under unbelieveable stealth.

There was a short lived moment not long ago to consider Eden Lane, as a replacement on The View.  As of 2012, she was the first (and as of 2012 the only) openly transgender person in mainstream television broadcasting in the United States.

As I see the situation, until the transgender nation clearly crosses the line into mainstream acceptance, at least in this country, very little movement will be made.

Take the View and it's producers for an example. No matter how qualified Eden Lane is, to bring her on board as a regular on the show, is a risk. Complaints from bigoted transphobic viewers do have a tendency to make sponsors a little unedgy. In the same way the transculture can bring pressure to bigoted companies such as Barilla Pasta and Chick fil a...the reverse is true also.

In this country also, Paula, over the last couple of decades, the media has been monopolized by big business. Broadcasting giants such as "Clear Channel" have realized conservative rantings are the way to profits...So finding a place to even start as a transgender talk show host (and get experience) is very difficult. Notice, Eden works for Colorado Public Television.

Finally, the whole idea is a huge "Catch 22". If a transgender talk show host finally becomes accepted as just a woman or a man, then the novelty wears off and the job with it.

Put Eden Lane on the View!

Who is Eden Lane?

Well, she's the first transgender woman on-air broadcast journalist with a major network. Since 2009 she has been the host of the KBDI-TV show "In Focus with Eden Lane"  - the popular Colorado local arts and culture news magazine.  

Eden has also been a part of  OUTSpoken, a prime time special series devoted to the LGBT community- on the air for 20 years. Plus, she was  a reporter covering the historic 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver for PBS.

Actually, there is a campaign complete with a change.org petition that seeks to have ABC's popular daytime gabfest The View invite Eden Lane on the show. If you haven't heard,  Joy Behar and Elisabeth Hasselbeck are leaving soon. What a way for a transgender broadcast pioneer to break the gender barrier on mainstream network television show!

Are We All Transgender Activists?

In this age of extreme media in every area of our lives it's easy to be a trans activist- or be confused with one.
Then again, what exactly defines a trans activist? Let's use transgender broadcaster Eden Lane as an example.
She was interviewed recently by Michelangelo Signorile:

“Once in a while, I may be asked to identify myself and make a statement in a certain way, I think that would undermine the meaning of my work, not just for my work's sake, but for the very reason they're wanting to identify me as a transgender broadcaster. If I were to make political statements, then that undermines my credibility as a journalist. And if that's the point, that I'm a journalist first, and that people are tuning in to watch my program not because I'm talking exclusively about LGBT issues, but all sorts of things, then for me to step up and try to be a political figure would undermine that work and really rob us all of a chance to have a different kind of example available.”

So of course in certain circles in the transgender community I have seen Eden criticized for not being a trans activist...Really? Isn't she the type of positive example we all need? She is a non stealth person just living her life as a real person-the perfect activist!

"The "B" Word

No, not that "B" word- the bully word.
I can't say enough negative about bullying and in fact haven't written much about it's tragic effects here in Cyrsti's Condo much at all.
The reason (or excuse) is I really did not know where to start.
I do think we transgender individuals sometimes think we have the market cornered and certainly it seems that way in our world.
Ironically, one of the woman in the group I went out with last night told me the saddest story of her youth as a very obese kid.  Without going too deep into it, she said the torture such as bubble gum in the hair became so bad she nearly couldn't stand it...and ballooned to over 400 pounds as a young adult.
The good news is she survived the experience, had surgery and literally has lost hundreds of pounds.
Other's of course haven't- inside the transgender, gay or straight world.
Amanda Todd is one of those:
She was a Vancouver-area teenager who posted a story to YouTube last month about being cyber-bullied, then was found dead  in Coquitlam, Canada. Authorities believe she committed suicide.
 The sad part is that a petition has to be started on  Causes  to try to do something.

Then, there is the story of Denver Transsexual TV Host Eden Lane.

In high school, Lane wore androgynous clothing while trying to simply move through the world like any other kid. Until the day some boys were gathered in the back of the science lab talking about which girls they found attractive. The new boy at school named Eden. When the other boys told him she wasn't exactly a girl, the humiliated boy lit her hair on fire with a Bunsen burner.

Read more of her success story here

I was admittedly luckier than most. My physical stature and interest in sports kept me in a safer nondescript .middle point. I wasn't part of the popular crowd but I wasn't bullied nor thank god did I bully. Seemingly today, more and more folks in our society need to be haters and feed on the different or the weak. I (of course) have a few thoughts on why-but in reality who cares what I think. It's what I do that's important and that is exactly why I'm passing along the Causes link to you.
Look,  I know I could pass along sad story after sad story to you.
On the other hand, you survivors need to make sure the world knows more of your successes. Recently again I had someone try to hang the courageous tag on me.
In reality you bullying survivors deserve the credit for being courageous and brave more than I ever will!