Hi all - just a brief update -
We did our taping on the 26th of April - we took a full hour of questions, and this will be edited down to a 30 minute segment. We'll get airing schedule and tapes/discs sometime in the next few weeks once they finish the edit. Once the other girl and i have a chance to review it, we'll decide if we like it enough to go maximum exposure. Everyone in the studio was completely blown away that night, and we were treated with warmth, kindness, and genuine respect. This was definitely no Jerry Springer type of circus. Closed studio, no live audience, 2 hosts and 2 guests(ourselves) at a round table standard talk/interview show format.
We dealt with questions like: What does transgender mean to us, in our own words ? What are the most common perceptions/misperceptions that most people seem to have ? What are the facts of our lives and experiences versus these kinds of (mis)perceptions ? We talked about gender versus sexual identity, and how this is often such a large part of common misperceptions and biases.
They asked at what age did we become aware of this about ourselves, and how it affected us ?
What kinds of challenges, difficulties, and/or forms of discriminations we have to face in our daily lives. They asked about the use of pronouns and titles, and if people like ourselves strictly prefer to be referred to in the gender we now are living in and at what point does that change for those that transition in gender.
We talked about what it was like beginning transition, and how family, friends, and professional relationships were affected by this, as well as how things have either improved or worsened for us since then. The hosts also covered questions like offensive terminologies, progress being made in any sorts of protective legislations, and ended with what we would most like people in the general public eye to know about this subject, and about ourselves as people in general.
It was truly a grand learning experience for all of us, and I think ( i hope) we will do more, whenever possible. After the taping, we were barraged with compliments on how well everyone thought we had done, and that we had effectively managed to completely change, or considerably expand, the perceptions of almost everyone in the studio that was there working on this show.
This was immensely gratifying, and left all of us with an incredibly warm and truly very positive feeling.
This was a real compliment for both of us, and i felt truly honored to have been given this opportunity.
I will keep everyone posted once we see the finished product, get local airtimes, and decide personally what we each would want to do with it, depending on whether or not we really like it. Everyone there said we really did an excellent job, so of course we can't wait to see it and decide for ouselves...
Thanks,
LoveForever,
Sincerely,
Annagirl
