Skip to playerSkip to main content
  • 22 hours ago
A special 'ESSENCE Live' panel delves into the controversial laws sparked conversation across the country about transgender men and women and where they should be able to use the bathroom.
Transcript
00:01Georgia's religious liberty law,
00:02which allowed churches to opt out of conducting same-sex marriages.
00:06Then there are the quote-unquote bathroom laws in other states
00:09that say people must use the same bathroom of the same sex they were born as.
00:13A lot of people are saying these laws are anti-transgender.
00:16Okay, so this is just a few things that are coming up.
00:18What do y'all think, and does anyone, and should everyone care?
00:21Just jump right on in.
00:22I think we should absolutely care, and I'm so glad.
00:25Kudos to you for having this conversation,
00:27because I always get infuriated when I think about us as oppressed people
00:31wanting to oppress others.
00:33It honestly does not make sense in my head.
00:36It doesn't compute.
00:37It's weird to me because it's like,
00:39I don't spend that much time in the bathroom anyway.
00:41You get in, you pee, you wash your hands, you get out.
00:44I don't even have enough time to process,
00:46is this a real man, is this a real woman?
00:48Gender and sexuality are not necessarily intertwined,
00:50but there is a common prejudice against both.
00:53It reminds me of a couple of things that,
00:54one, they should have been expected because majorly white,
00:57upper-middle-class men were pushing the marriage equality movement,
01:02which benefits everyone who wants to be married,
01:05but beyond that heteronormative stance,
01:07the reality is there are still laws on the books
01:09that anyone can be fired for their sexuality.
01:12It's definitely a backlash to change,
01:14is what happened to women when they wanted,
01:17when they had the right to have abortion,
01:19or just in response to feminism.
01:20Like, this always happens,
01:22and we're never collectively prepared on the progressive end.
01:25It's a reminder that we need to continue to be focused on, like,
01:29you know, just because we get one thing
01:30doesn't mean, like, a wave of other things won't happen right after.
01:33There's these two E words that are so absent in these times,
01:37and it's such a damn shame,
01:38and it's empathy and education.
01:41Mm-hmm.
01:41And empathy is really just being able to put yourself in someone else's shoes.
01:46That way, even if you're not walking their narrative,
01:49you understand what pain is like can be transferable to you.
01:52Education, because we're just afraid of everything that's unknown.
01:56And I'm like, if we're moving to a space
01:59where marriage equality is accepted by all, okay,
02:03watching two people walk down the aisle,
02:05why do you care if it's a penis or another P word?
02:08I don't know if you can use that.
02:09No, we cannot.
02:10Okay, if it is a penis or a vagina,
02:14you know what I mean?
02:15Like, we've already crossed such a major threshold,
02:18which is the aisle, and now we care about the toilet?
02:20Well, when they put up the city ordinance,
02:23they made it essentially like,
02:25don't let men in girls' restrooms,
02:29which is a big misrepresentation of what, you know, being trans is.
02:32Right.
02:33But if that prejudice allow people to vote against their own interests,
02:38not realizing now that that law is not there,
02:40then that affects you.
02:42Someone can easily turn that around about you.
02:44Like, ultimately, this is still a prejudice,
02:46and it's a conservative movement pushing set prejudice
02:48that will eventually kind of, like, be used backdoor to you,
02:51because in some ways, like, trans are facing,
02:53like, trans people are facing another thing.
02:54I'm facing something as a gay man.
02:56I'm facing it as a black person.
02:57It's all interconnected.
02:59Absolutely.
02:59So people need to be very aware of, like,
03:00when you vote for one prejudice,
03:01it's giving somebody permission to then put that on you.
03:04The intersectionality, I think,
03:06is something that's really important to talk about
03:07because we act like, you know, it's completely isolated.
03:10Like, this is a gay issue.
03:11This is a black issue.
03:12This is a woman's issue.
03:13But we are, as Michael said, you know,
03:15all, like, many different things.
03:17You know, I'm black, I'm a woman,
03:18I'm, you know, daughter of immigrants.
03:20Like, we all cross into different arenas and areas.
03:24And I think that, you know, when we,
03:25that's what allows us, as you said, you know,
03:27to vote against our own interests
03:28when we start to put people in boxes
03:30and think, this doesn't apply to me.
03:32Or we have, like, a competition for suffering
03:34amongst oppression, oppressed people.
03:36Like, the black issue is more important
03:39than the gay issue.
03:40But he can't separate himself.
03:41I can't separate myself.
03:43We can't separate the different parts of ourselves.
03:45Like, I'm a straight man.
03:46Like, it doesn't, it's a law that,
03:47I guess, on the surface doesn't affect me.
03:49But at the same time, a lot of the,
03:51a lot of the laws that got passed
03:52through the civil rights movement
03:54didn't just get passed by black people.
03:56It got passed by people who look outside of themselves.
03:58So it takes people like myself
03:59and other people like me to be like,
04:01listen, this is much bigger than you.
04:03You know what I mean?
04:03Like, you have to let your voice be heard.
04:05I guess the difference is,
04:06it's a lot of folks believing that sexuality,
04:09your sexual orientation is a choice.
04:11And then the argument would be made,
04:13hey, when I popped out the womb,
04:15this was the flesh that I came through in.
04:18Any thoughts?
04:21You know what I mean?
04:23You know what I mean?
04:23I guess that's the truth.
04:24You know what I mean?
04:25You know what I mean?
04:26You know what I mean?
Comments

Recommended