I tuned in to watch the Larry King Live show on transgender peeps earlier this evening on CNN hoping to see if the transgender community would pick up on a recurring omission they make when they put these shows together.
Sadly, they didn't.
So what is the glaring omission you ask? I have no complaint about the content of the show. It was tastefully done and informative as Larry King shows usually are. But there was one thing missing. As usual, there was NO African-American transperson as part of the panel.
Yeah, the white transgender community will point to the Latina that was part of tonight's panel and state quizzically, "What was wrong with it? There was a person of color on the panel."
No, my Caucasian sisters and brothers, there was a LATINA on the panel. There were three white people on that panel. There were three transwomen and a transman on that panel.
There were NO African-Americans on that panel.
The reason I'm griping about it is because once again, just as last night's HRC sponsored GLBT Democratic presidential candidate forum ignored the concerns of African-American, Latino/a's GLBT peeps and the transgender community, the white transgender community repeatedly and conveniently forgets us when these media opportunities arise.
News flash: There are intelligent African-American transpeople who can easily speak for ours and the entire transgender community and look fly while doing it. We need that face time, too. We need to have my people (and yours) see African-American transpeople in a setting other than a pageant stage, an adult website or a smoky GLBT club.
Once again in a nationally televised setting, I didn't see someone representing me or my community. The transkids that share my heritage didn't see someone on that stage tonight that represents them.
That's what I'm upset about