Pride 2012: Transgender Awareness in Pop Culture

 

Pride 2012 was celebrated around the world this weekend from Chicago, where there was a record number of crowds with an estimated 850,000 people, to Thessaloniki, Greece, where they celebrated their first pride with 2,000 attendants. The LGBTQA community has seen progress this year—notably President Obama’s endorsement for gay marriage—and is continuing its work for equality.

This past year has witnessed the rise of transgender figures in pop culture, thus honoring testimonials, inviting activism, and giving voice a still too often silenced community.

Glee’s new character, Unique, a.k.a. Wade Adams, made her premier performing Boogie Nights as a transgender woman. The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, GLAAD's, article on the Fox show's new character highlights the importance of Unique’s self-identification as a woman, not a gay man, distinguishing her from her gay peer, Kurt Hummel, and promoting transgender awareness.

Cher’s son, Chaz Bono, who publicly announced the beginning of his transformation in 2009, has been a key figure in pop culture and in the LGBTQA community this year. Bono was awarded the outstanding documentary prize and Stephen F. Kolzak Award at the 2012 GLAAD Awards for his documentary, "Becoming Chaz,” and rumor has it he will star in an upcoming dating show.

Jenna Talackova, Miss Canada 2012, was disqualified from the Miss Universe competition in March because she was not “naturally born” a woman. Yet thanks to Talackova’s fighting back and the international support she inspired, the Miss Universe beauty pageant will now allow transgender women to participate. Critics and activists praise the move as an inclusive step for transgender women worldwide in pop culture, sports, politics, and the workplace.

Laura Jane Grace, formerly Tommy Gabel and Against Me! founding member, publicly announced his transition to being a woman earlier this year. Check out this amazing Rolling Stone article that follows Laura as she begins her transition. It sheds light on the lived experience of a person undergoing transition, explaining: “For as long as he can remember, Gabel has lived with a condition known as gender dysphoria. As the textbooks explain it, it's a feeling of intense dissatisfaction and disconnect from the gender you were assigned at birth. As Gabel explains it, "The cliché is that you're a woman trapped in a man's body, but it's not that simple. It's a feeling of detachment from your body and from yourself.”