Posted: 6/14/15 at 1:56pm
OT, but not: I'm always making up new names for drag queens (and really, who doesn't?). Isn't it time for Ms. Sizz Bourne? "Honey, you wanna talk The Bourne Identity? I put the Sizzle in Cis, baby!"
Posted: 6/14/15 at 6:35pm
Lucy Balls
Posted: 6/14/15 at 8:57pm
"PRS, absolutely! I'm not shy in saying that I find Caitlyn a deplorable person and the fact as nothing but a millionaire media whore, she's the bar to which all trans women are being held to is disgusting. But you can't say that, it seems. And in this conversation, I was using that name because she's the trans person everyone is talking about now and comparing to in this situation.
And Kad is right. Do we have a point where we say to people "No. Your name is not Richard. Your name is Rachel." I mean, I can ask people to refer to me as "Academy Award Winner..." but it doesn't change the fact that I'm not an Academy Award winner, even if I walk around with an imitation statue that someone made for me. And if that's weird to people, do I have the right to say I'm being discriminated against because I want to be an Academy Award winner? "
As someone who changed his name legally almost 40 years ago, I can tell you the law (in Florida and I assume most states) already addresses the problem you propose:
1. For one thing, "Academy Award" is trademarked (as the Academy keeps reminding us) and its use in a name wouldn't survive a challenge in court.
2. For another, it is illegal to change one's name for dishonest purposes, such as to avoid prosecution or civil suits, or to gain an unfair financial advantage.
Unless the judge were senile, s/he would put the kibosh on "Acadamy Award Winner Jones" tout suite.
Posted: 6/14/15 at 9:39pm
Thanks to Kad, Namo, Auggie, Jordan and others for the highly informative and stimulating discussion in this thread.
Posted: 6/15/15 at 9:56am
I laughed. I can't help it.
Posted: 6/15/15 at 11:58am
I saw that on FB and laughed too.
Posted: 6/15/15 at 12:31pm
Very interesting interview on Good Morning America this morning: https://gma.yahoo.com/rachel-dolezals-parents-tell-her-hope-youll-help-132238432--abc-news-topstories.html#
Rachel has also postponed tonight's monthly NAACP membership meeting where she planned to speak about the "questions and assumptions swirling in national and global news about my family, my race, my credibility, and the NAACP."
The longer this goes on without her answers the worse she is making this.
I don't have a problem with her studying black history, working for the NAACP, being a educated expert on the subject. Her problem is trying to lie about who she is. Be who you want to look like but truth in your background is her problem.
I know Jordan was speaking about MTF and FTM being who they want to be but most of the time I believe when someone has transitioned and asked about it they rarely try to continue to hide who they are and what their journey involved unlike what Rachel is doing. She is trying to flat out lie and avoid answers.
She wasn't an orphaned squirrel that was raised by a maternal golden retriever so grew up around dogs and now she thinks she is a golden retriever and not a squirrel.
Posted: 6/15/15 at 1:06pm
Posted: 6/15/15 at 1:24pm
She's really going to hurt the nations transracial movement.
Posted: 6/15/15 at 1:30pm
There is no transracial movement.
Posted: 6/15/15 at 1:40pm
Oh, there is now.
And again, please refer to me as Academy Award winner Jordan Catalano from now on. Thanks.
Posted: 6/15/15 at 1:44pm
And the vilified parents, who have been viciously denounced in social media for outing her, just told Thomas Roberts the truth yet again: a newspaper called and asked if they were Rachel's parents. They said yes. The idea that they should have been complicit in her sustained deception, that her identity politics parlor game should be theirs, is a new narcissism. They are not mere satellites in their daughter's orbit, they are people entitled to own their own identity, whoever they are, whatever their problems. You'd think she went to a sleep-away camp and pretended to be black for a summer and created a make believe African-American friend. She's 37 years old, meticulously darkening her skin ("blackface," Jonathan Capehart), adding hair extensions, and then taking selfies that say she's adopting a "natural look."
Well, this story will acquire mythology as it is retold. In the movie version, she'll pull up at their house and make Mama wear the wig Oprah wore in 70s scene in THE BUTLER.
Updated On: 6/15/15 at 01:44 PM
Posted: 6/15/15 at 1:50pm
One person doesn't make a movement.
I find all this talk of the "transracial movement" and comparisons to transgendered people similar to the "slippery slope" argument used against gay marriage. If gay people get married next people will want to marry their siblings...or farm animals!
I feel like that's what is happening here. Caitlyn Jenner can decide she's a female so this woman can decide she's black! Look what's happening to this country!
Posted: 6/15/15 at 1:53pm
Caitlyn has a penis. This woman has white skin. One wants to be a woman. The other wants to be black. Again, I'm not saying one is right, one is wrong. But there IS a discussion that deserves to be had about this. I know people don't want to have it because race is still such a touchy subject in this country, but it's going to be had.
Posted: 6/15/15 at 1:58pm
And Rachel Dolezal is ONE person. Just one. If there were suddenly a movement of people who were claiming they felt they the were born into the wrong race you might have a point. But there is not.
Posted: 6/15/15 at 2:02pm
She is just one. But she's the one who's going to make this a "thing". This won't be the last time you'll hear about it, is all I'm saying.
If the ridiculous term "transracial" had been around in the 90's, you'd have heard every white suburban kid listening to TuPac saying that's what he was.
Posted: 6/15/15 at 2:03pm
And please don't misinterpret what I'm saying as being in support for a "movement". I'm just saying that it won't be the last you hear about it.
Posted: 6/15/15 at 2:08pm
We will probably hear more about Racel Dolezal over the next week. Then this story will fade into the oblivion of the 24 hour news cycle.
Posted: 6/15/15 at 2:11pm
Ok. But it seems to me that you're being "transraciallyphobic" in your dismissal of this and your intolerance of that specific trans movement.
Posted: 6/15/15 at 2:15pm
You seem to realllllllllllllllllly want this to be a thing. It's my opinion, as a non-believer, that the devil does not need any advocates.
Posted: 6/15/15 at 2:18pm
LOL. Honestly, I'm so not invested either way. I just find it "amusing" (for lack of a better word) that so many people (and I'm not even referring to anyone really on this message board) who do nothing but talk only about "EQUALITY FOR ALL! BE WHOEVER YOU WANT TO BE!" saying this woman is weird or a freak or a fraud for wanting to be black. I just find it to be hypocritical and, honestly, I kind of like that it shows them being as "intolerant...?" as other people are when it comes to something THEY don't understand. Not that I do understand it, but still.
And the MSNBC poll today is "Is it ok to be transracial". So yeah, it's becoming a "thing".
Posted: 6/15/15 at 2:24pm
Look Jordan, with all due respect.
Sometimes the people who advocate for change to make the world a better place end up seeming like pains in the ass in order to get things done. Nobody, but nobody, ever made the world a better place or changed it for the better just by trying to be a pain in the ass.
Posted: 6/15/15 at 2:36pm
Of course they didn't. But the internet has made just being a pain in the ass an acceptable form of "activism" and that's pretty much all you see now, it seems.
BUT that said, I still think the "transracial" question is a valid one, asking why that's not acceptable for people to claim to be, when they can claim to be transgender. Each was born one way, yet claim they feel another way and can take actions to make themselves look on the outside how they feel on the inside. The question is why is it ok to accept one group and not another? And the "transracial isn't even a thing" argument doesn't seem valid to me since obviously, it is a thing now, even if we only have this one woman representing it.
And like I said before, I think the reason this is considered such a non-issue is because we can't talk freely talk about race in this country, and this is REALLY uncomfortable for people to discuss.
Posted: 6/15/15 at 2:42pm
Why don't you seem interesting in responding to the many ways people here have explained to you that it's not the same, or the many articles linked in this thread that explain why it's not the same, but rather you keep re-asking the question because "people" are going to keep asking it?
Posted: 6/15/15 at 2:42pm
Just a side note -
I'm really enjoying being able to have an actual discussion about these things on this thread without any kind of bitchery or blaming sexism, racism, etc. that are the norm when discussing anything online. This is a rare thing and it's really great.
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