The amazing transgender actress Alexandra Billings is an even more amazing writer, in my opinion. She presents her opinion in ways that can really make you see complex issues much more clearly and succinctly. I’ve been following her Livejournal for some time now.
Today I noticed Alex had posted about Ted Haggard’s appearance on the Oprah Show. I like the way she doesn’t take the “He’s just a hypocrite” stance that so many other LGBTQ bloggers have. I like the way she can understand why he says the things he does. I like the way that she clearly makes the point that Haggard and his family could resolve the situation without losing their faith – that it’s the rules of their particular religion that prevents them from doing so right now.
And most of all, I like her last four paragraphs which demonstrate an insight that I’ve not seen expressed anywhere else. Anyone in a relationship in which one partner realizes their sexual or gender identity differs from the one they originally presented to their partner can learn from this, especially if they also have a strong religious faith.
As I commented on the post, the sad thing is that neither Haggard nor his wife are likely to ever read Alexandra’s words.
Filed under: Blogging, Commentary | Tagged: Alexandra Billings, Oprah Winfrey, Ted Jaggard | 2 Comments »
The format was a little different in that the female documentary-maker (unnamed, and unseen) gave a narration that showed she became a true friend to Jan Hamilton during the filming. Apart from a few interactions that Jan has with people in her life, we don’t get to see or hear from others during the hour-long show. From the start, when we see footage of “Captain Ian Hamilton” of the Elite Parachute Regiment hiking through the jungle, Jan is on-camera almost all the time.
“I hid behind this big wall of being a paratrooper … I hated myself and I hated the world and I hated being in the world.” Jan had an overpowering sense of the wrong person, the wrong body.
Review: Law and Order SVU: Transgender Teen
Over on her “A T Revival” blog, Lori posted a review of last night’s episode of Law and Order: Special Victim’s Unit. As I was in a very drowsy state as I tried to stay awake to watch it, I’m grateful that she wrote down her summary and opinions, filling in the parts I missed.
Read the rest of the summary, and Lori’s take on the episode here.
Filed under: Commentary, Transgender, Video | Tagged: law & order, nbc, review, special victims unit, svu, television, Transgender, transgender children, tv | 4 Comments »