Category: Blog

So… Today is the Transgender Day of Remembrance. You might be asking “why am I blogging about this?” Well it’s simple… I’m blogging in support of friends. Friends who I worry about every day. Friends who I care for. Friends who I fear could end up being a victim of a senseless hate crime just for being themselves.

“just another dead fag to you that’s all just another light missing on a long taxi ride”

– Tori Amos, “Taxi Ride”

Too many trans-persons are becoming victims of senseless hate crimes. In the past year, more than 160 lives were stripped from this earth. These are women and men who have families, friends, partners. And they all died just because they were being their true selves. For that matter, there is one name on this years list, who was killed not because he was transgendered himself, but because he dared to love and accept a transgendered woman. It’s sad really that this hate exists. The hate that would allow someone to take a fellow human’s life just because of who they are or who they love. It’s not right.

Edit @ 11am 11/20: Quick Note — This morning I’ve now seen 3 different numbers on the number of trans-persons killed. There is the 160 that I saw last night on Questioning Transphobia and reported here. This morning, however, Jenn Dolari is reporting 132 on her Twitter feed, and Pink News & The Bilerico Project are reporting 117. I’m not sure what the actual number is at this point, however, any more than 0 is too many.

“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”

– Master Yoda

He may have been just a movie character, but his wisdom is spot on in this struggle. The fear of differences is what cost these 160+ people their lives. Because the fear, brought hate, and the hate turned to anger and rage, and that then lead to the suffering. Not of the attacker…but of the victim, their families, friends, and the world at large.

We shouldn’t ever be hating or fearing the differences that people have. It’s the differences that we each bring to the table which make each one of us as a whole, the whole human race, better. We should take the time to learn. To talk. To listen. For then and only the will you see that each person is not that much different than you or I.

“I am beautiful no matter what they say Words can’t bring me down I am beautiful in every single way Yes, words can’t bring me down So don’t you bring me down today”

-Christina Aguilera, “Beautiful”

These 160+ souls should never have had their lives cut short. They were people with the potential to go on and do great things. Who knows what they could have been or become. The only thing that’s known is that they did not choose to be who they were, or to die at the hands of hate. I encourage everyone to please stop the hate in this world.

The names of the deceased for 2009 can be accessed here.

You can find more information on the Transgender Day of Remembrance here.

And I also encourage everyone to read this article that has a lot of sobering statistics about transgender related crimes, or at least to watch the attached video.

If you would like to know why I chose the lyrics I did, [click here]

Today is a day that has been lurking for many years. Ana has faithfully served us for nearly 70 years, but after many years of talking about it, and through last minute mind changing, she finally retires today. When you look back at her long career, you have to take a minute and think of all the things she’s seen. A few wars, good times for the country, bad times for the country, major historical events in the world. She has a wealth of history that will soon be just that. From her start when she only had two colors in her wardrobe, to the 50’s when she started to add to it, even though the outfits never quite looked the same each time she wore them, she’s been through a lot.

Now, I would like to introduce you to her successor, this scrappy young lad, Digi Tal. You might recognize her, because she’s been training for this day around here since the late 1990’s. While she might not be as reliable as Ana, she promises to do just as good of a job at serving the public as Ana has. So please, welcome Digi into her new, enhanced role.

So with that, I would like a big round of applause for Ana Log. And if she’ll step forward, I would like to present her with this gold watch for her many years of service.

This is in response to: http://www.marquettetribune.org/index.php?story=mutv_needs_the_public
First off, I’d like to say, I wish I knew who was the viewpoint person this year at the Tribune because I commend them for actually writing a viewpoint in support of MUTV. In 4 years @ Marquette, there were a great many viewpoint editors who would have written a column condemning MUTV (and for the record, the same hatred from the print media was expressed to Marquette Radio as well).
Unfortunately, some of the cries of the column have been going on for years.

The site also claims that the station serves “Marquette’s 12,000 students and approximately 200,000 Milwaukee area homes.” Trying to determine if the above statement is true or not seems nearly impossible

I remember being in staff meetings where we talked about the possibility of being added off-campus. Hell, I even remember when Marquette started offering the cable/internet Time-Warner deal that anyone who was on that package was supposed to get MUTV. A friend had it, but was never able to get MUTV. In fact, my friends in Campus Town couldn’t even get MUTV (or MUR or the Campus Movie Channel). Sadly, that 200,000 Milwaukee homes deal either never happened or is an old number from when MUTV *was* available on Saturdays via what is now WMKE-CA (low power channel 7, transmitter is on the Hilton).

Marquette University Television needs to expand its viewership to all Marquette students, and non-students for that matter, by joining a public access channel.

We did, but it was not though joining with a public access channel. Student Media Advisor Barb Fleming, former GM Ryan Bigney, myself and my assistant Online Director, Steve Gagner, were able to get streaming video up on MUTV’s website. Even though it was not the preferred off-campus distribution mechanism at the time , it was better than nothing. (Though as an aside, it seems to be down at the moment). Never the less, it opened up the possibility that off-campus students, alumni and yes even parents at home were able to watch news packages, entertainment programming and even some select sports programming. Not only that, in 2003 we began broadcasting the annual MUSG election special LIVE on the internet.

Start exposing MUTV on a public access channel and it will do justice to its 50th anniversary.

Unfortunately, this is the part where I have to disagree. While a public access channel would allow MUTV to be show in many more homes across Milwaukee, don’t forget that the target market of the station, is Marquette students and alumni. The Internet, therefore, is a much better distribution method than a public access channel. Why? Not only does it reach the students and alumni living in Milwaukee but it has the potential to reach alumni who are living in other parts of the state, country or even world.
While I’m not sure where things stand now, when I left in 2004, MUTV was more accessible to more people than ever before and the Internet, not a public access channel, was the key to achieving that.
-A
On iTunes: Wish You Were Here from the album “Wish You Were Here (REMASTERED)” by Pink Floyd

Technorati Tags: Marquette, Marquette University, MUTV