ABC Good Morning America co-host Janai Norman teemed up with author and activist Tre’vell Anderson on Saturday to denounce Republicans and their “slew of anti-trans bills” that causing transgenders like Anderson to face an “unprecedented legislative attack… on our lives.”
Norman kicked off her report by mourning “state legislatures from Florida to Nebraska introduce a slew of anti-trans bills affecting bathrooms, healthcare, and pronouns.”
However, if men using the women’s restroom does not bother you, Anderson is bringing good news, “visibility through media representation is becoming more and more vital for the trans community and it's the subject of journalist Tre'vell Anderson's new book: We See Each Other: A Black Trans Journey Through TV And Films.”
After some discussion about “representation,” Norman declared that “part of the issue around this is that for many, movies and TV, that's their main exposure to members of the community and you say that visibility is a paradox because we're often seeing either violent depictions or exaggerated characters instead of just everyday people just going about their lives.”
If Norman is upset at depictions of transgender people being “exaggerated characters,” she should start by talking to her GMA colleagues.
Anderson replied by claiming they just want to be treated like “regular folks,” but “we are also facing, you know, unprecedented legislative attack, right, on our lives, particularly the lives of trans women and girls.”
Nobody is attacking anybody’s life, but as for the second part of Anderson’s response, that is because real women are affected more by the practical effects of trans ideology such as the aforementioned bathroom issue, sports, or the reducing of womanhood to skirts and makeup.
Nevertheless, Anderson continued, claiming that other people are the ones with the problem “first of all, trans people, we exist, we’re everywhere, we’re your neighbor, we’re your barista, we’re the person bagging the groceries at the grocery store, but maybe you don't know that because you have not yet created a space safe enough for that trans person to tell you their truth.”
Alternatively, grocery baggers should simply bag groceries, but Anderson insisted, “they feel like they have to hide, right, or keep that to themselves as a means of surviving, right, this very inhospitable world that we live in but what would life be like if we made people feel comfortable, right, to reveal themselves and hopefully with the book, right, folks, you know, will get a tease of how to go about doing that work.”
Believing that men can suddenly become women is “very inhospitable” to the idea of truth. Going on ABC to promote “their truth” isn’t going to change that.
This segment was sponsored by FedEx.
Here is a transcript for the May 19 show:
ABC Good Morning America
5/20/2023
9:12 AM ET
JANAI NORMAN: As state legislatures from Florida to Nebraska introduce a slew of anti-trans bills affecting bathrooms, healthcare, and pronouns, now visibility through media representation is becoming more and more vital for the trans community and it's the subject of journalist Tre'vell Anderson's new book: We See Each Other: A Black Trans Journey Through TV And Films.
TRE’VELL ANDERSON: It often feels like people think we as trans people dropped onto the face of Earth with Laverne Cox in Orange is the New Black, right, but we have a very long history in every culture and community on this globe since the beginning of time.
NORMAN: Yeah.
ANDERSON: And, so, one of my messages is just to remind people we've always been here, we ain't going nowhere as well—
NORMAN: Yeah.
ANDERSON: -- and then also for the members of community, that because we belong to this long line of trans brilliance, right, we will be able to make it past this moment.
NORMAN: Yeah, and part of the issue around this is that for many, movies and TV, that's their main exposure to members of the community and you say that visibility is a paradox because we're often seeing either violent depictions or exaggerated characters instead of just everyday people just going about their lives.
ANDERSON: I think that's when we are having a conversation about visibility, we’re trying to get to a place where people can treat us as regular folks and not treat us as some anomaly or aberration in society, but yeah, visibility is a paradox because we are the most visible we’ve ever been as a community but we are also facing, you know, unprecedented legislative attack, right,—
NORMAN: Right.
ANDERSON: -- on our lives, particularly the lives of trans women and girls and it's really interesting I would say because folks, like you mentioned, folks do believe that they have never met a trans person, right, so they believe the only things they are getting about trans people are what –
NORMAN: I love that you’re using the word believe—
ANDERSON: Oh yes.
NORMAN: -- because that doesn’t mean that's the case.
ANDERSON: Oh, it’s not the case.
NORMAN: That’s just what they believe.
ANDERSON: What I love to say is that, you know, first of all, trans people, we exist, we’re everywhere, we’re your neighbor, we’re your barista, we’re the person bagging the groceries at the grocery store, but maybe you don't know that because you have not yet created a space safe enough for that trans person to tell you their truth—
NORMAN: Yeah.
ANDERSON: --right? And so they feel like they have to hide, right, or keep that to themselves as a means of surviving, right, this very inhospitable world that we live in—
NORMAN: Yeah.
ANDERSON: -- but what would life be like if we made people feel comfortable, right, to reveal themselves and hopefully with the book, right, folks, you know, will get a tease of how to go about doing that work.
