I looked at Dave Chappelle specifically, casually. I don’t think he’s the funniest person in the world, but I think at some point he had really interesting political views that he expressed through his comedy. I watched, completely unaware of how far I would go. I didn’t see Ricky Gervais special. Look, if I want to challenge, there are a million places I can go to do it. Why did I put myself in this situation?
With these two men, we, the LGBTQ community, live in their heads rent-free. They are constantly talking about us. They are constantly joking about us. These men are obsessed with the trans community. So how do we fight comedians obsessed with who we are and where we come from? We shouldn’t laugh at their jokes. We don’t have to buy tickets to your show. We don’t need to turn on the TV when it’s on. Transform your TV from five million channels to another. Go to Hulu for God’s sake.
My best advice is to bombard them with joy, strength, freedom, fun and celebration. To me, it’s their rarity to make them feel like they’ve been run over by a big stone bus. Every minute I want to feed the LGBTQI+ community with lots of love and lots of joy. This is my weapon. Our celebration of who we are is the best revenge.
The truth is that people who are attacked are afraid. They are absolutely terrified. They are afraid of novelty. They are afraid of opportunity. Anything that even remotely smacks of change is absolutely horrible. Remember, we are talking about men. We’re talking about men and their loss of power and this fear that anything that is direct and narrow is parody and ridiculous.
I’m 60 years old and I started moving in 1979. It was illegal for me to walk the streets back then, it was an obscene act, and it was legal to hit there. Let’s go there again. These laws have been enacted in our states, where any transgender person under the age of 18 cannot receive any form of medical care. They even talk about taking these people away from their families.
We’re back. What we have to do now is continue our education. And in education, what I mean is visibility, if possible and in a safe place. Visibility and information are important because these people are not giving up.
This amazing thing happened to me when I was Bad On Broadway. I walked out the stage door and it was a girl. She was probably seven years old: an African-American girl with a beautiful cannon with a small crown of black hair on her head and fairy wings. My mom told me, “She’s my daughter and she’s trans and she’s never seen another trans person over the age of 21.”
I said I wanted you to hear me. I want you to see me clearly now. Because it’s really important to know that I’m old enough to be your grandmother. The most important thing is that you can grow up at that age. Forget I’m an actor. Forget everything I do. Why not me. Here I am. We can look each other in the eye. I see my past and you see your future.
The moment that will live in me until the day I leave this planet never happened 20 years ago. So the door that is now open is a miracle. I never thought I’d live to see this.
So what do you do every day to uplift yourself and others? How are you at work? That’s what we need. Because we’ve already regressed. Now we have to figure out how to move forward because we’re stuck and we have to get over it. Now.
Alexandra Billings (Transparent, To talk) is the author of a new memoir, this time for me.
The story first appeared in the June 8 issue of The Gossipify. Click here to subscribe.
Source: Hollywood Reporter
Camila Luna is a writer at Gossipify, where she covers the latest movies and television series. With a passion for all things entertainment, Camila brings her unique perspective to her writing and offers readers an inside look at the industry. Camila is a graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in English and is also a avid movie watcher.
