#never thought i would see a nonbinary person transition on television

[twobeesornottwobees]

watching ally beardsley transition over the past five years has been really wonderful and affirming but also hilarious. they went from looking like siobhan to looking like brennan. truly the entire anglo-saxon spectrum of gender.

[bulgariansumo]

Taken from this

How did you choose your name?

I didn’t. Oddly enough, my birth name was given to me because it was supposedly androgynous, so that works. I used to wish I had a more ‘normal’ name, but now I’m pretty indifferent to it.

What gives you the most dysphoria? (Acknowledging that not all trans people experience dysphoria)

I don’t experience physical dysphoria. I don’t know if I experience social dysphoria, but if so, it’s not too intense.

Do you have more physical dysphoria or more social dysphoria?

Social, if I have it. I don’t like being called certain pronouns, but I’m kind of resigned to it. Only on the internet would it really get to me, but thankfully I’ve never had that happen after coming out.

What do you do to perform self-care when you’re feeling dysphoric?

I don’t need self-care when I have loving and accepting friends!

What was the first time you suspected you were transgender? 

It was kind of hard. In my preteens, I would think to myself that I didn’t want to be my assigned gender, but I didn’t quite want to be the other binary gender either. I kind of resigned myself to being my assigned gender until finding out nonbinary genders were a thing.

When did you realize you were transgender?

5-6 years ago?

What is your favorite part of being transgender?

I feel like there’s a certain freedom to it. When you grow up, you’re fed a lot of messages about gender (boys don’t cry, girls are more nurturing), and I never really liked when people tried to justify my personality with stuff like that. Now that I know I’m not cis, I can ignore it.

How would you explain your gender identity to others?

My gender = No

How did you come out? If you didn’t come out, why do you stay in the closet? Or what happened when you were outed?

It’s much easier for me to stay in the closet.

What have your experiences with packing or wearing breast forms been?

None.

What are your experiences with binding or tucking?

None.

Do you pass?

Technically yes, since having no gender means (ideally) having no gender expectations. I’d like to look androgynous, but I can’t do that socially without tipping people off, and physically, with my body type, it would be a challenge anyway.

What (if any) steps do you want to take to medically transition?

Maybe hormones? But that’s hard to do while staying closeted. I don’t necessarily need them for myself.

How long have you been out?

5-6 years online

What labels have you used before you’ve settled on your current set?

None other than my assigned gender

Have you ever experienced transphobia?

Not directly, but I did have the misfortune of hearing the Apache helicopter joke irl

What do you do when you have to go to the bathroom in public?

Public bathrooms are a den of filth. I would never step foot in one willingly unless it was an emergency.

How does your family feel about your trans identity?

I don’t know, but given how they talk about trans people, I don’t want to

Would you ever go stealth, and if you are stealth, why do you choose to be stealth?

I literally can’t; that is not a luxury I have. There’s not really a way to be ‘stealth’ when you’re nonbinary. You either have to tell people upfront or let them assume what gender you are.

What do you wish you could have shared with your younger self about being trans?

I probably would’ve told myself what a transmed was so that didn’t affect my entire stance on whether or not I’m trans. But I also would tell myself that being nonbinary doesn’t necessarily mean I have to ID as trans either.

Why do you use the pronouns you use?

I like them! And they too!

Do your neurodivergencies affect your gender?

I don’t know if I’m neurodivergent or not.

What’s your biggest trans-related fear?

Being outed to my family. That would not be ideal.

What medical, social, or personal steps have you already taken to start your transition?

I came out online.

What do you wish cis people understood?

Respecting trans and other non-cis people isn’t impossible. I’ve met a decent amount of cis people who are really cool about it, and I appreciate them a lot.

The sanctity of the English language is not and never will be a hill to die on. Using singular they/them will not kill anyone.

What impact has being trans affected your life?

Things make a lot more sense now! I’m really glad I found out I’m nonbinary.

What do you do to validate yourself?

Write! Creating the representation I want to see, and seeing other people enjoy it, is really helpful!

How do you feel about trans representation in media?

It’s improving, but could be better.

Who is your favorite trans celebrity?

I don’t really know all that much about trans celebrities. I think there’s like 5 I can name total? Asia Kate Dillon interested me in particular, because before hearing about them, I never knew there was a nonbinary character on US television that wasn’t a robot or an alien, let alone a celebrity that publicly identified as nonbinary, and got to play said character! It’s really cool, and I really appreciate them for being out there.

Who is the transgender person who has influenced you the most?

@rontufox. He was the first person I ever knew to mention the word ‘genderqueer’ and was the guy that reblogged the post that made me realize my identity. Great dude, great friend, really understanding and an inspiration for how to treat other people in general! I love you, bro!

How are you involved with the trans community, IRL or online?

Other than having trans friends and reblogging an occassional post… not much. I have little idea what the nonbinary community is like, what problems they have or face. Does an organized nonbinary community even exist? I’ve seen and heard a lot more discussion about and by trans men and women, but can’t really say I ‘know’ their communities, because I’m not either of those identities.

How do you see yourself identifying and presenting in 5 years?

The same.

What trans issue are you most passionate about?

Representation in media. There’s a lot of trans stories to tell, but not many are being told, and the ones that are are often by cis people which creates… issues, to say the least.

What advice would you give to other trans people, or what message would you like to share with them?

No one is immune to misogyny. Please examine how you treat/behave toward women. On the other hand, ragging on men just for the sake of ragging on men doesn’t really do any good for anyone and can easily reinforce harmful beliefs. People who choose to belittle or ignore the struggles of specific men (cis LGB+ men, trans men, men of color, etc.) are especially suspicious when it comes to this.

NEVER INTERACT WITH TERFs. Period. They are not a joke. Transphobes in general are bad of course, but TERFs are especially manipulative. They can and will turn someone completely inside out in order to get someone to believe their ideology and have a lot of sneaky tactics to get otherwise anti-TERF people to agree with them. No matter how secure you think you are in your identity, it’s not worth it. The same goes for transmeds. I don’t know the full extent of their tactics, but based on personal experience, they’re pretty damaging too.

How do you feel your gender interacts with your race, disability, class, weight, etc. from the perspective of intersectionality?

I’d much rather be read as a guy online than in real life.

What, if any, is the difference between your gender identity and your gender expression?

I don’t really get to ‘express’ my gender irl. I’d like to have more ‘plain’ clothes that aren’t obviously tailored for one gender. Online, my gender expression is... just being me! I used to put a little more thought into trying to come off as completely androgynous, but what’s the point of being nonbinary if I can’t be myself?

Do you feel more masculine, feminine, or neither?

Neither

What is your sexual and romantic orientation, and what are your thoughts on it?

I’m ace and aro. I feel like it’s made a lot easier for me to be my identity than if I were attracted to people. I don’t often see unaligned nonbinary people in discussions of attraction, but then again, I rarely see nonbinary discussions at all. It’s already hard enough for binary trans and aligned nonbinary people to get taken seriously as their in a relationship or in other parts of the LGBT+ community.

There’s people who don’t believe nonbinary people exist or should be a part of the LGBT+ community, and then there are others who don’t believe asexual or aromantic people should be a part of the community either. But there are many more cis+heterosexual+heteromantic people, who would not accept nonbinary, ace, aro people at all. It’s hard to interact with the LGBT+ community beyond support if you have to second-guess whether you belong at all. But, the more I learn about other people’s experiences in the online LGBT+ community, the more I learn that no group feels completely safe, and all of them are either being persecuted or ignored by each other. I don’t really know what to say other than it’s really sad.

Is your ideal partner also trans, or do you not have a preference?

I have no ideal partner.

How did/do you manage waiting to transition?

I came out online. That’s it to me. It was pretty easy for me in particular because there were very few people who I told my assigned gender beforehand.

What is the place (blog, website, forum, IRL space) you get most of your info on being trans or on trans related things?

Tumblr. 

Do you interact with other trans people IRL?

I don’t know if I’ve ever met a trans person IRL

Are you involved in any trans-related activism?

Not really.

Free space! Answer any question you want, or make up your own question to answer.

Thanks, I might make a few!

What do you hope for in the future?

Trans rights!  Safer discussions of LGBT+ topics in public!

What are you thankful for?

My amazing friends for supporting me! I wouldn’t have gotten this far without you, and I’m thankful for the people who are there for me!

What do you wish to achieve?

I wish to be able to understand and respect other parts of the LGBT+ community better. I know I won’t be able to understand other groups 100%, but I like learning! And more than anything, I don’t want to make it any harder than it already is to be LGBT+ online. I want to help my friends!!

Why didn’t you write “as a trans person” after those last three questions, when that’s what you meant? 

I’m not sure if I see myself as trans to begin with. I’ve only heard one other person share this sentiment with me, but I feel like being trans is a little more involved what I am, and I don’t feel comfortable co-opting on that experience (even though...taking this questionnaire meant for trans people… might be doing just that.) I do want to clarify that I’m not saying that nonbinary people who share my experiences CAN’T be trans. I’m just saying that I’m not sure if I see myself personally as trans. I’m not cis though. That I know for sure.

Did you like taking this questionnaire?

Heck yeah! Nice job, OP!

What’s a way you can end this on a happy note?

I know a lot of these answers have been downers, but I think if people pull together, a better future is possible for all of us. I’m thankful for where I am in life now, and I want other people to get to a similar spot in life, if not better! Also, let me know if I stepped out of line in any of these answers so I can edit them!

[njawaidofficial]

TCA Highlights Karate Kid GLAAD Nielsen

http://styleveryday.com/2017/08/06/tca-highlights-karate-kid-glaad-nielsen/

TCA Highlights Karate Kid GLAAD Nielsen

With no one network presenting at the Television Critics Association press tour on Friday (August 4), the day was dedicated to an assortment of what were called “industry panels.” 

What “industry panels” meant ran the gamut from a Nielsen presentation using many slides to update reporters on the changing ways Nielsen is able to measure people watching TV in 2017 to panels on LGBTQ issues organized with the help of GLAAD to an introduction for the Warner Bros. digital platform Stage 13.

The emotional conversations on the GLAAD panels were the day’s highlight, but for silly fun it was hard to beat YouTube Red bringing out William Zabka and Ralph Macchio amidst blasting music and flashing lights to go head-to-head as a tease for the upcoming streaming sequel Cobra Kai.

Really the day had no lowlights, so these are just highlights…

Show me the money. Nielsen started the day with an interesting presentation illustrating how much of today’s TV viewership takes place outside of the Live+7 Day window, suggesting many shows with huge growth in the 8-to-35 day range. This is fascinating. And true. But who’s selling ads on that 8-to-35 day window and if nobody’s selling ads on it and nobody’s making money on it, what’s the use? “From a Nielsen perspective, what we are trying to do is just empower our clients with the ability to decide whatever kind of deal that they want to make,” said Brian Fuhrer, part of Nielsen’s product leadership group. “So the 8-35 isn’t just a custom report. It’s flowing through all of the transaction systems and the files that they need to make deals. A great quote from one of our clients was ‘Do you know what? Even if I don’t necessarily change the definition of ‘currency’ yet, at last this allows me to show people what they are getting for free.’ So it starts to open it up. And I suspect that we are going to see, when you look at the additional audience out there, people starting to entertain at least a 14 day window.”

The Internet is for porn, but YouTube Red probably is not. YouTube Red’s upcoming series Ryan Hansen Solves Crimes on Television* makes many many many jokes about how people think YouTube Red actually is a porn site or just sounds like it ought to be a porn site, but how many people out there actually make that mistake? YouTube chief Susanne Daniels isn’t exactly sure, which may be why she finds the jokes funny.  Added Rawson Marshall Thurber, writer-director on Ryan Hansen, “I think that when a network has a good sense of humor about itself, then it kind of opens you up and lets you tell any jokes you want. So I was really happy about that, for sure.”

Labor Management Relations Act of 1947. Ryan Hansen Solves Crimes on Television* (the “*” is important) isn’t necessarily a great series, but it’s cheeky and funny and knowing about both Hollywood and crime procedurals and it manages to have a number of laughs that are really dumb, a few that are really sophisticated and joke about the Taft-Hartley Act. “Two people will laugh at a Taft-Hartley joke, but it’s literally my favorite joke in the entire pilot. So that’s what I mean, is that those sort of deep cuts, I think, when they do connect with that .3 percent of audience members make an audience love a show. It’s not that those are our only jokes. We have plenty of other jokes for all comers. But being able to a Taft-Hartley joke in a show is pretty specially, I think,” Thurber explained. Noted Hansen, who has also done a series in the past for CW Seed, “I think the best part about a new space is you get to kind of have a lot more freedom. On the typical networks and stuff, there’s a lot of people saying what you can and can’t do. So in this we get to do a lot of crazy things, like different formats, a lot of weird jokes, making fun of our own network, and all that stuff. So I think there’s just really a lot more freedom and fun to be had, and I like to have fun.”

Step One For Stage 13. Stage 13 is part of the Warner Bros. Digital Networks and their first original series, Snatchers, premiered on go90 this summer. The platform will fully debut this October with a number of new shows including Two Sentence Horror Stories. It’s a platform that many (or most) critics didn’t necessarily know about before the day of panels, but now it’s definitely on a few radars. Of the platform’s mission statement, Diana Mogollón explained, “Number one: Showcasing the very best original fresh voices out there today. And, number two: Reflecting our world in a truly multidimensional way. That is, all of us have heard of the multicultural conversation time and time again. Well, for us at Stage 13, it’s beyond that. It’s beyond race and demo. It’s about a true mind-set and about understanding what makes young audiences tick, from their lifestyles or passion points, their identities, their expressions, and allow those to be the inspiration and the unifying force to tell amazing stories in the most innovating way possible.”

Role Models. Honestly, just about every second of the two GLAAD-affiliated panels could be listed as a highlight, including a question about which lesbian, gay and bisexual characters on TV meant a lot to them growing up, which prompted both Stephanie Beatriz and Lena Waithe to immediately turn to panelist Wilson Cruz and agree, “This one.”

Maybe *don’t* bury your gays. A sharp rise in the deaths, often violent deaths, of lesbian characters on TV prompting lots of frustrated, saddened and angry writing about the trope known as “bury your gays” and left some writers claiming they don’t think in those terms. GLAAD’s director of entertainment research and analysis offered these thoughts on why it’s important to do so. ” I don’t think that they were ever coming at it from some sort of area where they just wanted to hurt people. I think that they probably just didn’t know. They didn’t know the sort of long history of this issue, and just how far it dates back to, like the Hays Code and all of this kind of history that goes into it. Because it’s not just a problem of one show and one character. It’s just everybody doing it over time, and over time, and over time adds up to this really kind of like toxic thing, that as a queer woman, if you’re watching TV, you kind of learn, ‘Okay. Well, I can’t have a happy ending. I am never going to find love. I’m not going to live a happy, long life with my partner.’ So I do think it was just that they were not aware. I think it’s amazing how the fans kind of just led this charge last year, that it got to be a big enough issue, that it started getting national coverage, and people kind of became aware of these things, and are hopefully going to do better as they start developing new shows in the future.” Added Wynonna Earp EP Emily Andras, “All I see right now on social media is kids who are seeing themselves on television get killed. And I think if you live in a small town where you’re already struggling to come out or see yourself represented, I think that can do a lot of damage. I think we can write three-dimensional LGBT characters. And I hope you do get to the point where we have enough heroes that we can have amazing gay villains and amazing everything across the board. But right now, I think there is a bit of responsibility that we need to be aware of these tropes.”

Container of humanity. The two GLAAD panels addressed first LGB representation and then transgender trends and Transparent actress Alexandra Billings explained the connection, but also separation, between the two. “You know, the ‘T’ was added later, which is why it’s at the end,” she chuckled. “We are, as we usually are, an afterthought. Happy to be included, but an afterthought nonetheless. I think the one thing we’re all have in common is that we’re all marginalized. We all come from an ostracized place in society, and we all understand each other in that particular queer container. And historically, we have all fought the same fight. So, we’ve all always been in the same place, it’s just, you know, now we’re actually labeling things. And the label, really, the LGBTQIA, is for people who do not identify that way, so then you all have some place to put us. Hopefully, one day, the initials will go away, and we can all just live in the container of humanity. That would be great.”

Not standing Pat. I’ve already seen some Twitter pushback to Jill Soloway’s comments about the Saturday Night Live sketch “It’s Pat” and it feels to me like the kind of thing where it’s important to have her whole quote out there. Soloway said, “In terms of talking about the past, I talk a lot about these kinds of triggering recovered memories about the character ‘It’s Pat’ on Saturday Night Live, which was a hateful, hateful, awful thing to do to nonbinary people, to create this character that the whole world laughed at openly, that they were invited to not only think of as a victim or a villain but an entire series of years of a sketch about the idea of pointing at a person and laughing at them because they were nonbinary. We didn’t understand that at the time, but in looking back at that, what an awful piece of antitrans propaganda that was handed out for many, many years.” 

As was emphasized throughout the panel, it comes down to how you see yourself represented in the media. If you’re a cis male or female, there’s no lack of representation diversity and so positive or negative depictions, you’re able to choose which versions represent you. If you’re nonbinary and the media representation is Pat and that’s about it? That’s what you get? Those sketches wouldn’t be so funny. [If they were ever funny. My memory is of Pat only occasionally being funny.]

A different story of seeing yourself. Billings recalled a time in the mid-70s before she transitioned, sitting on the edge of her bed, miserable, with a handful of pills in her hand. “So I turned on the television, and I was watching Phil Donahue,” Billings recalled. “And there were these three beautiful, sparkly, shiny human beings, witty and funny, intelligent, and talking about all kinds of their life. And I thought, what fabulous like, they are incredible. I love these women. I love these women. I want to be these women. And then the questions from the audience were so strange. ‘What bathroom do you use?’ Do you believe we are still having that conversation? … and as the interview went, come to find out, they were all trans women. And it was at that moment that I said out loud and I know this is happening because it’s happening to you in your life and you in your life that a trans person, a young trans youth will say, which I said out loud, ‘Oh, there I am.’ I recognized immediately that that was part of my tribe. Just in my inner life, I recognized myself.”

  Do better. The last word from the GLAAD panels, for this post’s purposes, goes to Laverne Cox. “[W]e have to do better because there’s so many stories that have yet to be told, so many trans folks out there who are not being represented,” She said. “The brilliance, when we get to speak up and speak out social media has been a great example of that we are brilliant. I’m just going to say it. Trans people are brilliant, and there’s just so many examples of that here on this stage and beyond. And when we have voices, when we are loud our voices are amplified because, of course, we have voices. When these voices can be amplified in media, what gifts we are to the world. I want trans folks to know and I want trans youth to know that they are gifts to the world, that they are anointed and they are called for something really beautiful and incredible.”

TCA | Television Critics Association

#GLAAD #Highlights #Karate #Kid #Nielsen #TCA