Mara Keisling writes at Huffington Post about last week’s Melissa Harris-Perry show on MSNBC where they spent an hour discussing trans issues. In addition to Keisling, from the National Center for Transgender Equality, the show featured Kate Bornstein and N.Y.C. City Council Candidate Mel Wymore.
For one of the first times that I can remember, trans people got to outline to the public at least part of the trans political agenda for ourselves. From health care access, to barriers to updating identity documents, to talking about jail and detention reform and raising awareness of CeCe McDonald’s story, we finally had a chance to bring trans issues to a national audience as trans people.
Keisling says that while the show was historic, she wishes there was more time to discuss employment discrimination and the concerns of trans people of color. Keisling also said that the real sign of acceptance of trans people is when a trans person is invited on TV to talk about something other than being trans.
I’m looking forward to the day when trans people are invited to Anderson Cooper 360, Up with Chris Hayes, and The Rachel Maddow Show to talk about Wall Street reform, getting our troops out of Afghanistan, and overturning Citizens United. Right now, trans people talking about trans issues is crucial. But I believe that our exceptional progress will ultimately be marked by the moment when who we are becomes unexceptional. Getting there is going to take more people like Melissa Harris-Perry helping us raise all our voices and tell America our stories.