BY HANNAH HARTLEY
Many readers will more than likely already be familiar with a billboard that has come under fire for mocking Caitlyn Jenner. This advertisement was launched and hoisted in the sky and onto a billboard in the metro Toledo area where a transgender woman was brutally attacked one year ago and suffered serious wounds.
The host of the radio show, Schaffer, who has said he would never DJ at a gay wedding, said it was just a 'parody of a magazine cover' and described Jenner as a 'hero.' Huh?
As a marketing professional and transgender spokesperson for the community, I sat back to think about how I felt about this. What is the big deal, right? Well … this is actually a really big deal when you sit back and think about what this represents.
Caitlyn Jenner's ascent to the transgender media spotlight that she has earned post-transition represents the public arrival of telling a transgender story in the mainstream media in a way that had never been seen before today. The interest from the public in her story and social engagement online is not only indicative of the star power which she yielded as Bruce, but more importantly represents a societal shift forward toward a greater universal acceptance of the transgender population and larger interest in the subject.
I am not stating that Caitlyn's arrival is representative of the average transgender person's journey, but her story has similar themes and struggles as many transgender people and could be used as a teaching moment to help align. As I sat and talked about this billboard advertisement with friends and acquaintances outside the community, I began to uncover a common theme in regards to what the real problem was with this advertising campaign for me, even if hidden at first glance.
Transgender people are currently fighting for their basic human rights to simply survive and reach a basic standard of living in this country. The transition process and the transgender population is commonly misunderstood and the butt of many jokes which further stigmatizes a population of people that are not asking for special rights — we would just like equal rights!
As I had conversations with friends and acquaintances outside the community, I heard again and again how the billboard was great, he looked a lot like Bruce, gotta love those trans drag queen guys and you know … they didn't even make the radio jockey that funny or stupid looking. This really made me stand back and think to myself … hmmm.
Transgender people are not a joke, comic relief or an epic lampoon for a laugh. Although we may be misunderstood, we are teachers, parents, executives, children, police officers, military personnel, writers, musicians, pilots and … regular people just like everyone else on the planet.
In order to reframe why this billboard is harmful to the community and making a joke out of something that simply isn't funny, let me pose a controversial billboard campaign for your consideration.
Would these types of billboards or messaging be beneficial for their representative minority groups?
# Downtown NYC, giant billboard using a white person in black face mocking a famous black gold medal winning Olympic athlete? Ummm … I think not!
# How about national tragedy burn victim with severe scarring in a parody advertisement about anti-aging skin lotion?
# What about posthumous Christopher Reeve in a wheelchair mockingly played by a gymnast with new running shoes that are so comfortable you won't know you have them on? I mean that would be alright … what, no?
I will save everyone the long-winded explanation of why these campaigns might or might not be OK and simply say, as a larger community of one human race, we can and we must do better. Thank you to all of the groups that have come together in standing to help bring this billboard and messaging down.
When we openly mock and parody the identity of the transgender community and transition process, we will only continue to propagate the misunderstanding and hatred that surrounds so many transgender individuals. People learn through teaching moments and in this instance, the teaching moment is to simply bring the billboard down.
