Janet Mock

From Out Magazine:

After writing, producing, and directing for FX’s Pose as well as being signed on to direct an episode of Ryan Murphy’s upcoming series The Politician, Janet Mock has announced an overall deal with Netflix. The announcement makes history as she is the first trans person to establish an overall deal with a major studio.

“This deal is so bonkers,” she said in the announcement video, released today. “I, of course, will be writing and directing a few hush hush projects that I can’t really talk about, but one of them is a half-hour drama and another is a college series. So I’m really excited for that.” The latest episode of Pose, the ballroom drama, now set in the early 1990s, was titled “Worth It” and written by Mock. Mock’s directorial debut “Love Is the Message,” the sixth episode in Pose’s first season is also being considered for an Emmy.

“This is the first kind of deal of its kind for a trans person, no less a trans woman of color,” she continued in the announcement. You know 84% of Americans say that they don’t know and or work with a trans person, and so there’s potential now with Netflix’s worldwide audience to introduce millions, hundreds of millions of viewers to trans people and showing people who may not understand us that we can tell our own stories.”

Can't wait to hear more!

"Bee" in the Bonnet

Connie reacted to my relatively radical post about transgender women versus drag queens:

 ConnieJune 17, 2019 at 5:02 PM

"Oh my! How did that bee get in your bonnet? While you may get some argument on that statement from some people, you won't get one from me. I sometimes wonder if drag queens should be under the transgender umbrella, either.

There are transgender women who do drag, and there are even some cis women who admit to doing drag, as well. There is some entertainment value to both the drag-or and the drag-ee, I suppose, but -to me - it's all about flaunting a caricature of a woman. I would never want to be perceived as doing that, myself, but it is disconcerting to know that there are quite a few people who think that transgender women are drag queens.
When I perform on stage, my makeup and attire are certainly more edgy than what my ordinary look is. It's sometimes difficult for me to be happy with my stage appearance because I feel that I might be seen as a drag queen. I don't do a drag act, by any means, however.

Nowadays, I may even be pegged a drag queen if I read a story to a group of children - since the popularity of "Drag Queen Story Time," anyway. :-)"

I am glad you asked. What really got me going the other day was when I watched coverage promoting the upcoming Cincinnati Pride parade. Of course, I saw the usual cross dresser in a prom dress riding along on the first car followed by a garishly painted drag queen in the second. Fortunately, this must have been old stock footage the station used, because I know for a fact (counting this year) two out of the last three parade marshals have been real live transgender women. Not a caricature of a woman who doesn't represent me at all. 

While I realize not all drag queens aren't gay guys, I still don't want the average citizen watching the news to think it's true and miss the whole point of celebrating the transgender world as a whole.  

I guess transgender is a lifestyle while drag is entertainment.

Hunter Schafer

From Rachel Paige:

"You’ve probably heard the name Hunter Schafer before, and if you haven’t you should definitely learn it. She’s only 20 years old and already a star on the rise in the worlds of modeling, acting, and maybe most important especially in this day in age, LGBTQ rights.

Schafer is a trans woman who stars as Jules in HBO’s brand new series Euphoria where she’s also playing a trans teenager who’s just transferred to a new school. Much like everyone else on Euphoria, Jules gets into some rather difficult to watch scenes that are sure to have audiences talking — but maybe for the right reasons. Even in 2019, it’s rare to see trans characters on screen, and even rarer for them to actually be played by transgender actors (GLAAD's survey of 2017 and 2018 media found only 17 trans characters in all of television — a measly five percent)."

For more, follow the link above.