Laverne Cox
The Year of Chaz
Posted: 9/28/11 12:03 AM ET
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/laverne-cox/the-year-of-chaz_b_981481.htmlTalking to a friend about the recent conservative outrage surrounding Chaz Bono on Dancing with the Stars, my friend said to me, "Could you imagine people calling for boycotts and protests if it were a black person cast?" I, of course, immediately thought of the history of black folks on television and how in the 1950s and early 1960s it was rare to see black people on television. When we were on television, the roles were often very limited and stereotypical. I have often mused that the current state of trangender representation in the media is comparable to that of black folks on television in the early to mid-1960s.
I recall raising a similar comparison between civil rights struggle for African Americans in this country with that of transgender Americans during an interview with Touré for the now-defunct BET show, On the Black Carpet. Touré, who I believe is a brilliant and insightful thinker and not taking this position himself, noted that many black folks would contend that they didn't choose to be black but would say that being transgender is a choice. I recall saying to him that the only choice for me was whether I would live in denial and shame or live in my truth. After an adolescence of denial, I chose the truth.
