MAGNET Changes Name of Panel Discussion to Acknowledge Allies of Trans People in LGB Community

Media Advocates Giving National Equality to Transsexual & Transgender People

July 7, 2010

MAGNET Changes Name of Panel Discussion to Acknowledge Allies of Transsexual People in the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Community.

On July 15th Media Advocates Giving National Equality to Transsexual & Transgender People (MAGNET) is hosting a panel discussion concerning the trend of gay male producers creating negative and transphobic media images that harm transsexual women called “Women Demanding Change Now”. The prior subtitle was “The Dehumanizing Misrepresentation of Transsexual Women through a Gay Male Media Mafia Lens”. Due to MAGNET wanting to rebuild trust between the trans and LGB community, and because of community feedback pertaining to our confrontational title, we are now exchanging the part “Gay Male Media Mafia” to “Gay Male Hollywood”.

MAGNET has received input from community leaders concerned with many in the LGBT activist community’s language and terms, such as “Gay Inc.” and “Gay Male Media Mafia”.
We acknowledge these terms are confrontational, but are they even a small fraction as confrontational as the spiritually & mentally violent and inhumane images that Gay Hollywood continues to make of transsexual women which hold many of them hostage in segregation, depression and dangerous vulnerability? Is “mafia” an inaccurate word when one considers that for decades on end the gay establishment has continued to marginalize the transsexual, transgender and intersex communities for their own gain? Gay Hollywood has bombarded the trans community with abuse by irresponsibly green lighting and producing content with dangerous messaging. The gay press deliberately (sometimes unintentionally) mis-gendering, silencing and stigmatizing trans women during this current uprising of Trans Americans is another reason we chose the word “mafia”. This is not us “picking a fight”; this is actually us defending ourselves from a fight waged on us from those in the LGB community who feel “oppressing our own” is just. While some LGB people harm us out of “ignorance”, we won’t ignore the alarming truth that many gay and lesbian decision makers harbor conscious transphobic ideals which impact Trans Americans, and us seeking accountability is not “divisive”, it’s us calling out “divisiveness”.

However, because we want nothing more than to make this a “LGBT family meeting” in hopes of inspiring the gay community to stop exploiting and impeding trans people’s progress, we feel that it’s best to change the name so we will not alienate those in the gay community who truly want to be allies with the trans community. The pursuit of happiness and human rights are also beholden to Trans Americans, and the defamation against them is a road block to these goals, and it must be resolved.

Moving forward, the main goal of our panel is to address this current crisis of propaganda in the media which assaults transsexual women. While we note that many of these images are made by gay men, we acknowledge that many gay men understand our honest hurt, and truly want to help us foster understanding in society, humanize our images and be allies in ACTION (not just allies in words or acronyms.) Therefore we are making this concession because we have faith that as these conversations about media reform continue that more and more LGBT people will realize that “bad visibility” IS NOT better than “no visibility”. While many people in the trans community are calling to break away from the LGB community because they feel they are deliberately holding them back, MAGNET believes that LGBT UNITY is best, but it has to be honest unity, or it’s not unity at all.

Bill, a gay man and ally to the liberation of transsexual, transgender and intersex people, wrote us: "As a white, male, gay American, I understand where you are coming from. All too often, the LGTB community 'forgets' about the 'T' in that acronym. I have always found that particularly odd, as those are the people in our community who are treated the worst. They are treated with disdain and with open, celebratory abuse. Many LGB people participate in this abuse. I have seen it firsthand. I always speak up about it. Trans people NEED us. They NEED our support & our inclusion. What they do not need is our abandonment of them in favor of our OWN civil equality."

This inspiring message from a gay men reinstills ours faith that the LGBT community does have a chance of staying together. If Gay Inc. would listen, educate themselves and understand more, then that hope can become a reality.

We hope to see you at the panel!

July 15th. 7:00-9:30pm “Women Demanding Change Now: The Dehumanizing Misrepresentation of Transsexual Women through the Gay Male Hollywood Lens.”

For panel info: http://www.facebook.com/loveashleylove#!/event.php?eid=138251619535256&ref=mf