An outraged trans community made our concerns be heard and Lost Girl producers listened.
Yesterday I published guest blogger Diana O'Brien's article Thought SyFy Channel’s Lost Girl [Caged Fae] Was LGBT Friendly? Think Again!. Diana was incensed a show that portrays lesbians in a positive light would base it's season opener plot around what boils down to be transpanic.
Essentially it's about a female warden in a women's prison who turns out to be a man who is using his position to rape woman and sell the babies into slavery. Nice huh? Well its all cloaked in science fiction and sexualized lesbian domination fantasy so the producers reasoned is it wasn't overtly offensive.
It wasn't offensive in that context if a person isn't a transgender/transsexual and isn't deathly afraid of dating for fear of someone murdering you after sex to massage their ego/silence you/is a gang member who doesn't want his homies to find out. As happens nearly every other day.
I couldn't find Prodigy's apology on their Facebook page or their twitter timeline. The only place I saw it was on Glaad's blog. So for the record here it is:
"We want to let you know that the Lost Girl writers base all episodic characters off of researched folklore, and that the character of The Warden in the premiere of Season 3 is a character based off the mythological shapeshifter known as the Liderc. The Warden was only intended to represent this mythic being. We did not intend this character to be seen as a transgender person, we apologize if the character was seen as such. We do hope that you accept that no comparison or discrimination toward the transgender community was intended by the depiction of this mythological character.
Lost Girl prides itself on being open and accepting to everyone, and are enthusiastic supporters of the GLBT community. We want to encourage a society in which everyone can feel comfortable to express and be who they are without judgment. Equality and a world without labels is important to all of us at the series. We strive to create three dimensional characters, who empower all viewers regardless of sexuality or gender."
Sincerely,
The Producers of LOST GIRL
A nice apology and explanation but it would have been a lot better if it had appeared somewhere else in addition to the Glaad Blog.
Now here's where we get real messy.
There is a disturbing amount of push back from this advocacy from some gay and lesbian cis people in the GLAAD article's comments. They are really upset we have criticized a show that portrays
Not just upset, they are incensed that we are 'making a mountain out of a molehill"
Got a memo for them. We are trans. We have a voice and we are here. Respect us.
