Posted with Susan's permission:
Please sign and share this petition anywhere you can. Thank you.
https://www.change.org/p/discovery-channel-tlc-the-learning-channel-greenlight-reality-roads-transgender-documentary-series-my-transgender-lifeHello. This is Delia.
What follows is an open letter to the network executives at The Learning Channel, TLC, on behalf of myself, the other selected candidates for the Reality Roads Television production "My Transgender Life", and the entire transgender community.
To Whom it May Concern,
In January of 2015, I was one of over 200 transgender individuals in the United States to learn of a casting call for Pre-Hormone Therapy transgender individuals for a proposed documentary series by Reality Roads Television under the working title "My Transgender Life.
After a series of emails, phone calls, and interviews held over Skype, I was one of what I have heard were six individuals selected for the project were it to be given the green light.
The producers at Reality Roads initially expressed great optimism for this documentary, which would cover the costs of, and document the transitions of this small group of ordinary, every day transgender individuals.
After over a month of waiting to have a budget approved for the show, we have learned that, while the show is not "dead," it is on hold, and the general feeling that we have gotten from the production company is that the documentary is expected to remain on hold indefinitely due to budget concerns from TLC, and that we should move on with our lives as though the show will not ever be approved.
While it has been made clear that there is no attitude from TLC against the show, other than budgetary concerns, this is frankly disappointing. As a long time viewer of TLC, I have always loved the network for its unique talent for reaching out into groups of people who need higher levels of public awareness. Your programming has always been educational, as would be expected, and even better, has always seemed to have purpose.
To me, this program is exactly that, and it is very much needed. Transgender people are one of the most marginalized, misunderstood, and opressed groups of people in the nation. Transgender women, especially transgender women of color, have the highest per capita rate of being murdered, discriminated against for employment, and sexually assaulted in the nation. In nearly every case, the reason for the murder, discrimination, or assault is solely because of our being transgender.
In almost every state, an individual who murders a transwoman can avoid a guilty verdict by using what is often known as the "trans panic" defense; an assertion that finding out an individual is transgender may cause such psychological distress that an individual may lose control and kill us, and that this is somehow a normal and natural reaction to the situation.
Transgender people also experience one of the highest per capita rates of experiencing homelessness at some point in their lives, with many estimates higher than 50% of all transgender people experiencing homelessness.
It is no surprise to me that there are budget concerns from the network. While many insurance companies are beginning to cover Hormone replacement therapy, most do not cover the cost of sexual reassignment surgery, which can run $20,000.00 or more in and of itself, and this is only a small piece of the overall picture. For transwomen specifically, the remaining procedures we feel are necessary to completely relieve our dysphoria can run the total to over $100,000.00. HRT and SRS are extremely important, but they cannot undo the damages of male puberty to our faces, voices, and other aspects of our bodies which can be corrected with facial feminization, voice training, or voice feminization, electrolysis, reasonable breast augmentation, and chondrolaryngoplasty.
The sad truth however, is that none of these additional procedures are currently covered by insurance companies, as they are all considered to be "cosmetic." As has been stated repeatedly by transgender actress Laverne Cox, and many other transgender rights advocates, these procedures are not cosmetic at all. They are necessary, and life saving.
Add to all of these issues the social stigmas against dating or even associating with transgender individuals, the unfounded fears of the public whenever we do somethin as simple as use the restroom, and a score of other issues we face on a daily basis, and it is no wonder why we also hold one of the highest per capita suicide and suicide attempt rates of any demographic. Cases like Leelah Alcorn are just the tip of the iceberg.
All of these issues stem from ignorance. the misinformation the public continues to feed itself about transgender people, all of the myths, misconceptions, and hate speach, continue to lead to a world where we are continually opressed and denied access to necessary medical care, housing, and employment. A world where we are murdered and pushed to suicide and homelessness.
I was one of those people. When my family wouldn't accept me fully and my divorce and the toxic personality I had developed as a coping mechanism kept pushing me farther from my friends, I gradually became suicidal. I was taken to the hospital, where I stayed for nearly two weeks with nowhere to go. My family sent me a letter intentionally misgenderin me and disowning me. My friends would not answer their phones. It took the connections of a social worker at the hospital to a gender therapist, Debra Dubose and an excommunicated Russian Orthodox priest, Father Nathan Monk, who is one of our areas greatest advocates for LGBT rights to help me find temporary housing from which I could begin to rebuild my life, a process which I still feel I am so near the very beginning of.
The saddest part of all of this is that my story is not at all unusual. I actually had it very easy compared to so many. I am more than happy to admit that I need this show personally because I do not know any other way that I will ever achieve the means of affording my transition. At times this has tempted me towards hopelessness, but that is no longer the person I am. I am driven. I will succeed.
While this show could give hope to the six transgender individuals it has selected, it is very important to note, that the impact this documentary could hold for the entire transgender community cannot be forgotten. Right now we do not have anything like this. We have a handful of transgender celebreties, who can only do so much on their own to help. We have tabloids and rampant speculation and assumptions about celebreties who may not even be transgender. We have non-transgender drag queens perpetuating the public misconception of us, not because it is their intention, but because they are one of the more popular segments of the LGBT, and uneducated people think that is who we are. We need more stories. We need more voices at all walks of life and from all socioeconomic backgrounds.. We need advocates who can show the public our journeys from start to finish with all the hurdles we face, without the trappings of celebrity, or the illusion that we are any less commonplace and ordinary than we truly are.
The fact that the network is reluctant to approve a budget goes a very long way towards showing how necessary it is. I believe that TLC's logic is flawed in that it seems to not at all account for how many transgender people there are in this nation, how many people there are who support us, and how much the public's attention has shifted towards our demographic. The interest is most definitely there. The venture will be profitable, and I am running this petition to prove it.
Our petition seeks for TLC to approve a budget for "My Transgender Life" and greenlight the project including at the very least, all six of the currently selected candidates. The signatures on this petition will be a testament to the public's desire to watch this documentary when it airs. In addition to this, I am recommending a number of transgender inclusive companies from which the network could seek additional funding to make this series a reality. These are companies which strive to be inclusive of us in their policies, and which I am certain would jump at the opportunity to be included in the list of names that made this project a reality. I also urge all transgender individuals to sign this petition and support this documentary any way you can. It will go so far towards us achieving the visibility we need to pass legislation banning discrimination, making ALL of the procedures we need accessible to every transgender individual, and securing housing for those of us who still face rejection. Furthermore, it will help to drown out the ignorance which has led to all of these issues even existing in the first place.
Sincerely,
-Delia Melody Gonzales
Here Follows a list of Transgender inclusive companies, which I recommend lobbying for support of this project:
Target
Apple, Inc,
AT&T,
EA (Electronic Arts)
Mac
Macey's Inc
Ulta
Sephora
Nike, Inc
Yahoo, Inc
Sprint
Google, Inc
Intel
IBM
Subaru
Toyota
US Airways
Volkswagen Group of America
Virgin America Airlines
General Motors
Ford
Delta Airlines
Chevron
Chrysler Group
American Airlines
Alaska Airlines
Lockheed Martin Co
Northrop Grumman
Texas Instruments
Xerox, Inc
Levi Strauss
Time Warner
Viacom
Kodak, Inc
Cox Enterprises
AMC, Inc
Anheuser-Bush
Campbell Soup Co
Coca-Cola
General Mills, Co.
Hershey Co.
MillerCoors
PepsiCo
Proctor and Gamble
Sara Lee Co
Snapple Group
Starbucks
Supervalue
Aetna
Bausch And Lomb
Walgreens
Borders Books
Bed Bath And Beyond
CVS Pharmacy
Gap, Inc
Kmart
IKEA
Nordstrom
Sears
Staples Co.
I hope this list of potential supporting companies along with this letter and petition will make it clear that this project is necessary and easily profitable. It is my hope that TLC will make what we believe is not only a good business decision, but also the right decision, and greenlight this project.
