00:00Most recently in Dave Chappelle's Netflix special, he said trans people should be more
00:07patient and that it will take a while for people to become really educated on the subject.
00:12But does he have a point?
00:14Ty, let's start with you.
00:15Really?
00:16Start with me?
00:17Well, did you watch the special?
00:18I did watch the special and I was more bothered by his lack of comedy than his actual comments.
00:24I didn't think it was very funny and I thought some of the trans jokes, just some of the
00:28very politically incorrect comedy wasn't that funny.
00:34I kind of get where he's coming from just by how long a movement may take, but I don't
00:40think it's right to assume that just because this is kind of a new movement that it should
00:44only take 60 years or 20 years.
00:47I think that's kind of setting us back in what a movement means to everyone, if you will,
00:52you know what I mean?
00:53Yeah.
00:54So moreover, I'm bothered that he wasn't funny.
00:56Listen, I got my thoughts.
00:57We're going to talk about that later.
00:59Lawrence, how do you feel, or do you feel accepted by the black community as a trans
01:03woman?
01:04Well, first of all, acceptance is not something that I seek from anyone to validate my identity.
01:10So I hope that answers what you're asking me.
01:13Like acceptance was never part, it's not part of the plan.
01:16And Mace, what about you as a trans man?
01:19Do other men who were born male accept you or what have those challenges been?
01:24So I think similarly in the same vein as what Lloyd's is saying, I don't think I'm ever
01:29searching for everyone to accept or completely understand exactly what my experience is.
01:35I think I'm fortunate enough that I've, as we think about the length of all these different
01:39movements and all the different radical black trans activists that have existed over hundreds
01:44of years on this continent and beyond, right, and in Africa and in different parts of the world.
01:50I'm so grateful for all the trans people of color that have taken me under their wing to help
01:55me understand what that movement and that legacy looks like.
01:58Yeah, with clarity comes understanding.
02:00Absolutely, absolutely.
02:01I think we had a conversation beforehand and I was just kind of being versed of the different
02:05terminology that kind of comes with.
02:07I'm, I don't have, unfortunately I don't have any like trans friends.
02:11So all of the, um, just all of the things I learn are from the internet.
02:15So it's, it's kind of interesting to hear that these terms exist.
02:19Um, so again, clarity is good.
02:22That's why we have this conversation.
02:23So I don't, I'm a cis woman.
02:25If that's how you identify.
02:27I don't know how I identify.
02:29I just, I've never questioned it.
02:34It wasn't something that almost to me, like being black, like I'm black and I happen to be a woman.
02:38What kind of woman?
02:39I'm a nice woman.
02:40I'm a mean woman.
02:40I can be a, you know what I mean?
02:41Like all types of other adjectives I can add to that.
02:44But at the end of the day, I'm just a woman.
02:46And we're going to get to that terminology and the pronouns later,
02:49which is a necessary conversation, but Sacred, I want to bring you in.
02:52What kind of issues do your patients come to you with?
02:54You know, all kinds, especially for young people who are transitioning.
02:59I find that now more than ever, oftentimes the young people know more than their parents do.
03:04And it's really important for us to hold spaces because the trends that we saw,
03:08even in the US transgender survey that came out in 2015,
03:11what we found from that was that families are the keys to holding safe spaces for young people.
03:18It helps reduce the risk.
03:19It helps to prevent oftentimes suicidal ideation because young people are saying,
03:23where do I feel safe?
03:24I can't go to school and feel safe.
03:26I can't go to the bathroom of my choice, right?
03:28And I come home and I feel uncomfortable.
03:30And so it's really, really important for us to support families, especially black families,
03:36to keep them united so that the young person doesn't go out into the world feeling uncomfortable.
03:40And speaking of family, I'd like to know from Laura's and from Mace,
03:44what was it like presenting your true self to your family and your friends?
03:49What challenges did you face there, if any?
03:53Yeah, so one thing that's kind of coming up for me, even as I'm here to talk about,
03:56you know, supporting specifically black families, because the reality is that I think a lot of
04:00what's missing in conversations around black trans people is that when we think in the US and western
04:06space about transness, we're always defaulting to whiteness, right? And so a lot of the resources
04:10that exist are not culturally competent to deal with how black trans people have existed and continue to
04:14exist. I would say for my family, I got some very different reactions. I would say some of them were very
04:20lovely. I would say some of them were really not. But now I've been out for like 13 years and
04:26everyone's got their stuff together. Yeah, that's important.
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