Jonathan Adams

Black Transwomen Wanna Be on Top

Tyra Banks and Diddy, both, have added Black transgender women to the casts of their latest reality shows.

On America’s Next Top Model Cycle 11, Isis.

From Transgriot:

22 year old Isis is an executive assistant for a non-profit organization from Prince George’s County MD, but now resides in New York. If she wins, she’ll get a management deal with Elite Model Management, a $100,000 CoverGirl contract and a cover story and six-page fashion spread in an issue of Seventeen magazine.

Isis is also known in the ballroom community as Isis Tsunami. She rocks the runway category and now she’ll get the opportunity to do so on a much larger stage.

On Sean Comb’s reality show du jour, “I Want to Work for Diddy,” Laverne Cox.

Cox on her identity:

Ain’t I a woman? Black America, my brothers and sisters. I love you and claim you. Do you love and claim me as the black woman I am? My trans identity doesn’t make me any less black. Acknowlegding me and my complex identity is an opportunity for us to reconnect to that dream of liberation that doesn’t exclude but is about all oppressed people joining together to have a united voice, united in love and the possibility of deliverance. Ain’t I a woman.

This is definitely something be excited about. Transwomen having visibility on television in roles other than hookers. I was probably already going to watch these shows, but these women will definitely make me tune in.

Posted at 12:58 PM, Aug 15, 2008 in LGBT | Permalink | View Comments