Progressive Talking Heads Not Talking About California School Success And Opportunity Act

August 15, 2013 ·

It’s kind of sad, really. Progressive talking heads on cable television aren’t talking about Gov. Jerry Brown (D-CA) signing AB 1266, the School Success and Opportunity Act. (The act will become law on January 1, 2014 — the tenth anniversary of California’s first transgender rights bill, AB 196, the Gender Nondiscrimination Act, becoming law.)

From the Transgender Law Center’s description of the bill that Gov. Jerry Brown of California signed on August 12, 1213:

California law already prohibits discrimination in education, but transgender students are still unfairly excluded from physical education, athletic teams, and other school activities and facilities. This exclusion negatively impacts students’ ability to succeed in school and graduate with their class. For example, physical education classes help students develop healthy fitness habits and teach values like teamwork and fair competition – and count toward graduation as much as any other course.

You can find television talking heads on the right and center-right talking about this bill soon becoming law in very transphobic terms, (here, here, here, here, and here, for example), but progressive talking and left-leaning heads — such as the big four of Chris Matthews, Chris Hayes, Rachel Maddow, and Laurence O’Donnell on MSNBC — didn’t comment on the bill, let alone comment on it as a progressive civil rights bill.

And, it’s not like any of the “gang of four” were discussing LGBT issues on August 12th through the 14th. For example, Laurence McDonnell interviewed Greg Louganis about the 2014 Olympics in Russia, and Louganis mentioned LGBTQ youth:

The text except of Louganis talking about LGBTQ youth from the interview:

It is unfortunate that we have had the Olympics where, you know, we were in Beijing. The don’t have the greatest human rights history, you know? So — and there, I mean, it is so blatantly staring us in the face as to what is happening to the LGBTQ kids in Russia.

Chris Hayes discussing the Russian Olympics and gays on August 13th:

But nothing on the School Success and Opportunity Act from progressive and left-leaning talking heads.

It’s sad that even though LGBT civil rights are human rights, progressive talking heads on cable television apparently don’t believe that that issues specific to the T portion of LGBT community are human rights worth talking about. Instead, they leave trans people — trans youth — to be maligned by right-leaning talking heads on television without progressive cable talking head rebuttal.

Next Post

Transsexual Separatist Slacktivism Doesn't Win Legislatively

Call them classic transsexuals or women of operative history; call them true transsexuals or transsexual separatists -- whatever you call them, you can also call them ineffectual slacktivists. Over at LGBT Weekly where I write the Trans Progressive column, the…
Read
Previous Post

Podcasts And Long Term Effects Of Activism

By Marci Hawkins I came to terms with my transsexuality around 2007/2008. The final piece of the puzzle fell into place when I caught a late night TV show by the name of Sex Change Hospital; it was fascinating to see…
Read
Random Post

Last Ditch Effort: The Right Wing Whopper Lies

Unbelievably, I woke up to find this in a google alert:"Bringing back Hitler and the SS" From the get go, it's filled with lies:"Right now we have a bill called HR 2015 that, in my opinion, would bring back forced…
Read
Random Post

Arsonist TERF thinks trans women are immoral & should be beaten

As readers might be aware, the UK media is engulfed in a new and ongoing round of media-created trans panic of the same type that lead to the death of Lucy Medows in 2013. Already, media hysteria coupled with the…
Read
Random Post

Give A Big Welcome

Everyone give a big warm welcome to our newest blogger, Jenn Burleton.  She blogs here.
Read
Random Post

You’re Just A Tranny… And You Always Will Be

So we've got a trans-inclusive ENDA, time to celebrate! Or so I thought, till I actually looked at the language. Section 8(a)(3) CERTAIN SHARED FACILITIES- Nothing in this Act shall be construed to establish an unlawful employment practice based on…
Read

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.