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!
Category: Transgender Community News, Transgender Opinion, Transgender Politics
About the Author (Author Profile)
Babs at 76 passed away in 2019. She was a member of the Executive Committee of the Democratic National Committee, Deputy Vice Chair of the NJ Democratic State Committee and Political Director of the Gender Rights Advocacy Association of NJ. She served on the Executive Committee of Trans United 4 Obama. She has served as Vice Chair of the DNC Eastern Caucus, was President of NJ Stonewall Democrats, Co-Chair of National Stonewall Democrats Federal PAC Board, Vice-Chair of Garden State Equality, Executive Board member of National Stonewall Democrats as Chair of the DNC Relations Committee and a member of the NJ Civil Unions Review Commission.Subscribe
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Btw, I’m apparently in the bottom 34%. Oh well…
“…we do not yet have outright chaos…”
We don’t have any sort of chaos. We have people on both sides in Congress (and historically, in the WH) who are representing the interests of the majority of their constituents.
You ‘fire’ them by voting them out. Happens all the time.
Just wondering: is there a single member of Congress who isn’t close to the top 1%? Their salaries alone put them in the top 7% and then there are the outside sources of income.
Related question: how did Harry Reid get so darned rich? 🙂
Many in congress do not represent the interests of their consituents… if they did why would they continue to listen to the big money… citizens Unites is a freedom of speech thing… most people don;t care, or just don;t have a voice. Congressional districts have been so gerrymandered … it is all about the money and the elite who control things…. perhaps republicans are starting to wake up with Trump… to a different nightmare. It is not easy to dump a bad incumbent. the system is often rigged. Too many of us don’t bother to vote and we get what someone else wants
“The yerm “transvestite” is considered a slur since it is used by professional transphobes … it is Latin for crossdresser … speak English!”
Then we need to take it back from them, just like the ‘community’ did with the Q word. Actually I can see why ‘tranny’ is unacceptable to the ‘community’ but transvestite is a perfectly good word for crossdresser.
Also if we have to bar words that have their origin in Latin, well there goes half of the English language. 🙂
And ‘speak English!? We agree on that – let’s establish English as our national language. That’s a position that I definitely support but I thought it was universally considered conservative if not jingoistic by liberals.
As far as implied responsibility, we do have a ‘functioning government’ so we must have the balance you speak of, created by people exercising their own self-interest, as everyone always does.
A functioning government? for the most part … no! But if your standards are low enough so that we do not yet have outright chaos…. you must be happy to see a large group of legislators who believe that they were elected to make government not work. I’d like to see them fired and be replaced by competent hard working people who act in the interest of America and not lazy shills who only act for the interests who do harm for the 99%
The yerm “transvestite” is considered a slur since it is used by professional transphobes … it is Latin for crossdresser … speak English!
As far as rights and responsibilities, I do believe that a balance was implied by our founding Fathers (and their mothers) in creating our Republic … so much of that original intent has been perverted by ideologues and plain greed, but if we want a functioning government we do need a balance.
You are correct in that we have made remarkable progress on trans issues, but it has not happened in a vacuum, believe me, it has happened by showing up and smart and strategic engagement.
No slur on your party intended. The word choice should have been possessive plural, ie “Democrats’ party”. Just like the often-used “Republicans’ party”. 🙂
I’m not a Republican, not even political anymore, I’m more of a cultural observer, of a conservative bent.
Speaking of words, why is “transvestite” elitist? I was under the impression that it fell into disfavor among our word police because it became associated in somebody’s mind with the sexual nature of crossdressing among supposedly hetero males. Sexual expression of a ‘certain kind’ is bad of course as determined by our thought police.
“With our Freedom comes an implied responsibility that few people ever consider.” If it’s not spelled out in the Constitution or in the law, there is no responsibility laid upon the individual for what happens to other people. Otherwise we’d all be guilty of ongoing crimes against humanity for our lack of concern for all the world’s suffering. Of course if one believes in God’s Law then loving our neighbor would be the ultimate responsibility but we as secularists can’t make that assumption, can we?
You are right that if I were the victim of trans-persecution, then I’d probably be an activist of one sort or another. Notice how many celebrities become spokespeople for the disease that they’re diagnosed with. A disease/condition that they previously showed no concern whatsoever for?
That’s self-interest at work, and the point of my previous post. Everyone always acts in their own self-interest so trans people, like gays, or racial minorities, or political subgroups, naturally define their priorities and act on them as they see fit. You don’t see too many Asians making the plight of sub-Saharan Africans their life’s goal, eg.
Finally, I believe we live in a remarkably progressive environment vis-a-vis trans issues. Compared, I mean, to the past – the entire-history-of-the-world past. And, as they say, “it gets better”. 🙂
lesleyanne, In America we are free to make choices for ourselves whether they are good of bad for ourselves, our loved ones or our fellow Americans.
That being said let me make a few things clear. With our Freedom comes an implied responsibility that few people ever consider. Every action has a reaction. There is no “Democrat Party”, that is a slur upon the “Democratic Party” by disrespectful Republicans!
If you deem yourself not affected by the current anti-trans culture and legal environment and unwilling to contribute to solutions that may help vulnerable and at risk people who may identify as part of the trans umbrella … that is your choice. But, if you are a crossdresser ( I refuse to use that elistist latin word) like Peter Oiler and you get fired and your family gets devastated as his was … maybe you might find some liberal to help … but not me!
Of course people whose major issue is their own trans-ness are going to align with the Democrat party, which is clearly sympathetic and supportive.
I would think virtually all transsexuals who are confronting society’s hesitance or outright disapproval are in that interest group.
Otoh, I don’t think there are a high percentage of transvestites/crossdressers who are free to live openly/ full-time and thus aren’t facing that discrimination.
That, being the case, one would expect that subset of trans folks to establish their own values and priorities, which may well be more on the conservative side of the ideological divide.
As Americans, we’re free to define our own self-interest, and believe, promote, and vote the way we choose.
Isn’t freedom great?!?
LesleyAnne great to see you again
>one would expect that subset of trans folks to establish their own values and priorities, which may well be more on the conservative side of the ideological divide.
Yes absolutely, I’ve always found more passion for the freedom of the individual rather than protection of a specific class.
Which is one of the reasons Caitlyn Jenner’s statement on supporting Ted Cruz came off as so awful, a flamboyant “ooooh I can be the trans ambassador” rather than an articulate position on America as a land that should look to expand the freedom of each individual to be the best they can be with a freedom of expression as precious as our freedom of speech. What if we saw the way an individual presents themselves be it a bald man, a woman with tattoos on her arms, or a man from a different land in a suit, with a wig, a cross on his neck as no different in liberty than the words we write with no fear of judgement or retribution.
KoolMcKool, I do believe we’re getting there. 🙂