Thank you Geraldo

By Brittany Rose


Thank you Geraldo! And Phil and Oprah and Montel and Sally and the rest of them.

I know that, as a rule, talk shows are programa non grata in TG circles. We've all been horribly embarrassed by programs that exploit, ridicule, and offer superficial understanding to our sisters and brothers. Then when one of the T's from a show comes online and says, "I think I came across pretty well," the general response is "Not even close, sister." There have even been calls for boycotts of talk shows for their misrepresentations and mistreatment of who we really are. As a matter of fact, T's have become the symbol in the public mindset for what is wrong with talk shows in general. Have you noticed? Every time someone talks about cleaning up talk shows, the bad examples they use are always "Transvestites who ____" Fill in the Blank. ...who raise cocker spaniels, ...who don't know the difference, ... who wear the clothes of their own sex! (Personally the topic I want to see on a talk show is "People who are willing to make fools of themselves on national television, and why" but I digress.)

Yes, I will concede all that and more. But before I discovered the Internet, growing up in a small town in the Midwest, talk shows were almost all I had. General attitudes of the people around me, as well as the good old passage in Deuteronomy had me convinced it was wrong, and I had no alternative opinion.

Except talk shows.

Weekly I would scan the TV Guide looking for anything TG related. Whether it was "Men who dress like women", "A visit to La Cage" or "Transvestites who give other T's a bad name" I watched. Those programs showed me that I wasn't alone -- that other men, adults even, had the same feelings. And when audience members attacked, I found myself defending not only the guest, but my own beliefs as well.

My favorite moment in every show would be when they would wheel out the "expert". ( I want one of those for my daily life. "Great party! Oops, sorry. Fortunately I have with me today Dr. Heimler-Schmitt who will explain exactly what societal forces caused me to do that, and why I'm not at fault.") The expert would usually (depending on the expert) explain that there was nothing wrong with cross-dressing behavior. I would want to show that to everyone, "See, See, this is me, and there's nothing wrong with it!" I never did of course. Way too risky! It was hard enough to watch them without anyone catching on. "Mom, we're out of milk, could you run to the store, oh, around 9 o'clock?" "Oh, no, I'm not watching the show, silly, I'm doing a paper on the, um, commercials. Yeah, it is trash, isn't it!"

Brittany Rose My favorite shows were the ones featuring Phil Donahue in a skirt. (Just Kidding!) Actually, I loved the ones with female impersonators. They were so convincing and so real that they filled my fantasy life for days afterwards. It wasn't until years later when the Internet enabled me to chat and finally meet other T's, that my dreams began to come true.

I'll always be grateful for those exploitative, condescending talk shows, and the guests who had the courage to appear. Once Geraldo did an alternative lifestyles show, and he introduced the gay couple, the lesbian couple, the S&M couple, and finally the very passable male transvestite. As she was introduced she said, looking down the row, "I guess I'm the pervert here." And I could tell by the way she smiled, that she didn't believe it. And because of people like her, I didn't either.


Back to Transgender Forum's home page