Take Two translates the day’s headlines for Southern California, making sense of the news and cultural events that affect our lives. Produced by Southern California Public Radio and broadcast from October 2012 – June 2021. Hosted by A Martinez.
The year 2014 saw transgender people in the spotlight with Netflix's "Orange is the New Black" and the Amazon series "Transparent." And public figures like Janet Mock and LaVerne Cox told their personal stories proudly.
But positive representations of trans people in the media are fairly new. And despite these representations, trans people continue to endure unique daily challenges in their personal lives. They are still highly likely to deal with discrimination, bullying, and suicide. For example, activists recently mourned the death of transgender teen Leelah Alcorn in Ohio, who died of an apparent suicide after stepping in front of a semi truck.
It's struggles like this that bring transgender progress into question.
Yet, despite the work ahead for trans activism, a look back at the history of the trans community shows there's much to celebrate in 2014.
Loni Shibuyama is an archivist at USC's ONE archives, one of the largest collections of LGBT materials in the world. She joined Take Two, along with Zackary Drucker, a trans woman, artist, and consultant on "Transparent," to highlight the issues trans people face, and the progress that has been made.