Tag Archives: cis

Sep 29 2015

Why Jeffrey Tambor’s Emmy Speech Fails Trans People

Tambor1Honestly, I’d been dreading watching Jeffrey Tambor’s Emmy acceptance speech. Not because I didn’t enjoy Amazon’s production Transparent, but because of the standard in Hollywood which consistently gives roles of trasnsgender women to cisgender men. I understand that they needed a “big name” to try to attract viewers, but many in the transgender community are simply fed up with this practice.

That being said, I seriously almost didn’t make it past Jimmy Kimmel’s introduction. I found his eating of the card and implication that he could then arbitrarily choose whomever he wanted to win unfunny and distasteful. It seemed to de-legitimize the award itself. Furthermore, I was more than a little angry about his remark that maybe “it’s time a woman won this (the Best Actor in a Comedy Series Emmy).” Continue reading →

May 2 2015

Trans Losses: Jules Vilmur on Raising a Trans Teen, and Fixing Society

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Editor’s note: Suicide and the loss of a child are discussed in this interview. Appropriate trigger warnings apply.

TransEthics: You are the first cis person to be interviewed by TransEthics. Being the parent of a trans child, I imagine you have a somewhat unique perspective. But first, tell me how you personally feel about the use of the words “cis” and “cisgender”.

Jules Vilmur: I hear people complain about the use of cis and cisgender, but it doesn’t bother me. I get the need for it in conversations about gender and such. There’s a lot of eye-rolling by cis people at the thought of having to qualify their gender but for me it’s a way of understanding that gender sometimes does need qualification. Continue reading →