Oscars, The Deadly Grouches, and Hope with Hillary

Anohni

It’s Oscar time and did you know that the very first transgender performer to be nominated for an Academy Award, boycotted the event? Anohni, (formerly Antony Hegarty) the first transgender performer to be nominated for an Oscar, boycotted the Feb. 28 event.

“They are going to try to convince us that they have our best interests at heart by waving flags for identity politics and fake moral issues,” said the Manta Ray singer.

In an essay for Pitchfork the best original song nominee says she wasn’t asked to perform her song during the show and would not be attending this year’s ceremony.

Anohni was nominated for best original song for her collaboration with J.Ralph on Manta Ray, which appears in the documentary Racing Extinction. The apparent problem is that other nominated songs were scheduled to be performed. Oscar producers omitted a performance of Manta Ray and David Lang’s song Simple Song #3 due to “time constraints.”

Lady Gaga, Sam Smith and The Weeknd all performed their nominated songs from The Hunting Ground, Spectre, and Fifty Shades of Grey, respectively, while Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl, not nominated in any category, gave a special performance.

Transgender discrimination? Time constraints? Hmmmm! You decide!

Meanwhile across the country a widespread movement to bully and endanger transgender youth has caught fire!

RNC Chair Reince Priebus

Once isolated to a few fly over red states the war against transgender people in general and the most at risk youth in particular has been endorsed by the Republican National Party! The Republican Party is now the official party of “The Potty Police”! So much for being the Party of small government!

The GOP resolution clearly rejects the legitimacy of transgender identities and calls for policies that refuse trans people access to bathrooms that match their gender identities. It also demands that the Department of Education rescind its interpretation of Title IX “that wrongly includes facility use issues by transgender students.”

Words and actions, words and actions, and what do we hear from our billionaire, or near billionaire trans Republicans? The sound of silence!

War has been declared and we are fighting back on a political front. What started off as a basic Facebook page (I’m all thumbs except for my middle finger) articulating the transgender inclusive statements and actions of Hillary Clinton, gathered steam with some techno-abled talented volunteers led by Sarah McBride and Lisa Mottet who helped organize a steering committee and relaunched Trans United for Hillary as a Web page and Facebook page with links for fundraising and action … Empowerment!

We have started off with positive publicity in the Beltway, but this is a true national coast to coast effort with a growing list of trans activists that include :

Mara Keisling (D.C.)
Sarah McBride (Del.)
Angelica Ross (Ill.)
Ames Simmons (Ga.)
Barbraa Casbar Siperstein (N.J.)
Blossom Brown (Miss.)
Daria Lohman (Ariz.)
Daye Pope (Pa.)
Geena Rocero (N.Y.)
Jacquelyn Ryan (Mass.)
Jay Brown (Md.)
Kellan Baker (D.C.)
Kimi Cole (Nev.)
Lisa Mottet (D.C.)
Lou Weaver (Texas)
Marisa Richmond (Tenn.)
Meghan Stabler (Texas)
Melissa Sklarz (N.Y.)
Paula Schoenhower (Okla.)
Rhodes Perry (Ore.)
Zackary Drucker (Calif.)

The list is growing!

See more at The Washington Blade.

The new website articulates Hillary Clinton’s history of actually doing and her vision of equality. No myths, no slurs, Facts and a vision!

Tags: Activist, Anohni, Antony Hegarty, featured, Hillary, opinion, politics, restroom wars

Category: Transgender Community News, Transgender Opinion, Transgender Politics