The BILERICO Project
Mark S. King
Original Article: bit.ly/1zgE0Ue
The lobby of the Melbourne convention center at the international AIDS conference last July was packed with scientists, community educators, and activists. I was busy wrangling interviews for my daily video blogs.
Across the room I spotted JoAnne Keatley and Laxmi Narayan Tripathi, two of the most visible transgender women in the world and experts on transgender issues. I scurried up to them for a sound bite on their thoughts about the conference.
"This has been quite a year for trans people," I began, as an ill-conceived question began forming in my tiny brain, "what with the visibility of trans people like actress Laverne Cox. That must help a lot, huh?"
The women stared at me as if I were mad.
"Our visibility is due to grassroots organizations doing the hard work of education and advocacy," JoAnne responded with a gracious but cool reserve. She went on to explain that transgender people face enormous challenges just to make ends meet financially. "We are victims of discrimination and violence on a daily basis," she said. "Too many of us, in order to survive, have to engage in sex work. The number one intervention for the trans population is to make it safe for us to participate in the workplace."
I felt like an idiot, but my insensitivity knew no bounds and I wasn’t done yet. The activists were accompanied by a third woman who was quite lovely but declined contributing to the interview. As I thanked JoAnne and Laxmi for their time, I turned to their companion and good-naturedly said, "ah, the quiet, pretty one."
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