Metro Weekly

Transgender issues explored on MSNBC’s Melissa Harris Perry show [video]

Melissa Harris Perry presented a panel on MSNBC today to discuss transgender issues. Perry said she had decided to be a “better cis ally for the work of trans communities” after watching a hate crime online that involved “a group of African-American teens savagely beating a trans woman in a fast-food restaurant.”

She was joined today by Mara Keisling, Kate Bornstein and Mel Wymore for a 20-minute discussion of transgender issues and trans individuals in the headlines. These included Jenna Talackova, Amanda Simpson and CeCe McDonald, as well as discussions about the challenges facing trans people. The tried to cover a lot in the 20-minute discussion: pronoun usage, gender labels on official documents, running for public office, the coupling of trans issues with gay rights, incarceration problems, and the effects of gay marriage rights on the entire LGBT movement.

Keisling later joined MHP, Kai Wright, Joy-Ann Reid and Allison Kilkenny to discuss the Obama Administration’s “stances — that means plural — on discrimination when it comes to sexual orientation and gender identity” — in a segment that led off with discussion of Metro Weekly‘s exclusive report on Obama’s response to a 2008 political survey in which he said he would support a federal contractor nondiscrimination policy as president.

 

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