Thought SyFy Channel’s Lost Girl [Caged Fae] Was LGBT Friendly? Think Again!

Guest blogger Diana O'Brien is a transgender advocate, writer and licensed esthetician & electrologist in Wilton Manors, FL. She current writes a guest column for the South Florida Gay News.

The third season premiere of Lost Girl just demonstrated the well-worn path for advancing gay/lesbian/bisexual themes in the media. That path continues to be walking over the crushed public image of transgender people.

Lost Girl has received a lot of attention for its sexually charged plot lines and positive portrayal of lesbian and bisexual female characters. Even GLAAD has taken notice of the show, promoting it in The GLAAD Wrap and What to Watch.

Season 3 Episode 1 titled Caged Fae brings transphobia and trans panic back into the mix It depicts this week’s villain as a man impersonating a female prison warden so he can impregnate the all-female inmate population and sell their babies. After “outing” the corset-clad warden with a telling kiss, the show’s heroine Bo leaves justice in the hands (and riot sticks) of the female prison guards. The men-hating prison guards do a hands-on package check, and haul the warden away for some off-screen punishment. This whole scenario sets up the moment when Bo and her female love interest decide to make their lesbian relationship status official.

So here we have it – the whole reason our opponents say trans people (specifically trans women) should not have rights.

We are just a bunch of men that want into women-only facilities so we can “trap” them and violate them. We deserve whatever severe punishment our discoverers decide to meet out. We are the villains. Again.


It is particularly offensive that SyFy Channel takes a page out of the defense playbook of Angia Zapata’s murderer. Trans panic was the supposed justification for beating Angie to death in 2008, after her boyfriend “found out” she was trans. A jury saw through this defense and found her murderer guilt of first degree murder and a bias-based hate crime. This episode shamefully exploits trans panic violence as justified.

This kind of defamation has to stop. The media needs to take responsibility for its continued promotion of transphobic stereotypes and justification of trans panic violence. NBC Universal and the SyFy Channel need to be held accountable and take corrective action. We need GLAAD to take direct action on this now, and stop promoting Lost Girl until its content is friendly towards the whole LGBT community!

Guardian apologizes and Deletes Julie Burchill's Screed 'Transsexuals should cut it out'

 

The highly toxic Observer article 'Transsexuals should cut it out' was deleted but there was no mention Burchill's employment status or even an apology from her.

The following statement is from John Mulholland, editor of the Observer:

We have decided to withdraw from publication the Julie Burchill comment piece 'Transsexuals should cut it out'. The piece was an attempt to explore contentious issues within what had become a highly-charged debate. The Observer is a paper which prides itself on ventilating difficult debates and airing challenging views. On this occasion we got it wrong and in light of the hurt and offence caused I apologise and have made the decision to withdraw the piece. The Observer Readers' Editor will report on these issues at greater length.

The comments posted beneath the article have also been removed in line with our deletion process and as a result these comments will no longer appear in individual users' profiles.

Being a relative novice to British media treatment of transgender people I observed earlier that the brouhaha over 'Seeing Red: the power of female anger' was little more than a Tempest in a teapot. But then I started to learn about the atrocious treatment UK trans people receive by the mainstream media the angst over Moore's article began to make sense.

According to Gay Star News Moore returned to Tweeter and offered an apology for her comment about Brazilian transsexuals:

'I did not set out to offend and the murder of all women trans or not is clearly something I DO care about,' Moore said, adding that there had been 'much bridge building' between her and 'several trans people who I deeply respect' and she is meeting with more trans people.'

(Note I could not verify that she returned to tweeter or said this)


Even though some within the UK community would perceive this as just another episode of transphobia I would like to remind you of this.

We stand with you, planet wide. We are one, planetransgender and our collective voices can't be denied. Even though there has been no word of Burchill's employment status I venture you won't see her hateful writing being framed as an 'exploration of a contentious' subject again, in the Observer anyways.

So I think we can see this as a victory none the less.