[su_heading size=”16″]Transgender actors are out there and far more deserving than Leto[/su_heading]
The gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community just can’t catch a break. With every victory, there seems to be a counteracting defeat. We continue to constantly offend and even disregard anyone who is different, and then carelessly blame it on the idea or excuse that “we did not know.” This way of thinking has reached its expiration.
Is it alright to mistreat an individual who is different than what we are used to, based on that notion? While I’m sure that most people would answer this question with a “No” it still happens too often.
Why? Because the age old saying that “ignorance is bliss,” is true, and sadly, there is plenty of evidence to back it up.
Jared Leto, a straight white male, recently won a Golden Globe for his role as Rayon, a transgender woman who has AIDS in the movie ‘Dallas Buyer Club.’ Starring alongside Matthew Mcconaughey, Leto won the Globe for best supporting actor.
The movie is based on the true story of a straight man named Ron Woodroof who contracts AIDS in the mid 80’s, the peak of the AIDS crisis in the United States. In the movie, Rayon, who is extremely homophobic ironically, becomes one of Ron’s closest friends after Ron finds out that he contracted the AIDS virus. Ron and Rayon then start working together to smuggle and distribute AIDS medication to others with the AIDS virus, mainly gay men.
Needless to say, the transgender community was not pleased when they learned that a straight man was given the role of Rayon. There are plenty of transgender actors and actresses out there looking for work, who are frequently over looked because of who they are. Why not give a transgender actor the role? A transgender actor would have made the role of Rayon more organic as opposed to the obvious “man in a dress” effect. The fact that Hollywood would not hire a transgender woman for the role of Rayon is a huge slap in the face to the entire transgender community.
It was also interesting that he was nominated and won the Golden Globe in the category of best supporting actor. He was a woman in the movie right? Transgender women do not identify as “men dressed like women,” but as women.
It reminds me of when Hollywood used to hire white actors and actresses to play every race and nationality. A white actor or actress could play an Asian, Hispanic, Native American or African American and it was okay over a hundred years ago. This movie was made in 2013, why aren’t more people upset about this?
Jared Leto won over 30 awards for this role, and to add insult to injury the comments he made after winning these awards, were further evidence that he did not take the time to familiarize himself with the transgender community.
When he won the Golden Globe he talked about how he had to “wax his entire body, including his eyebrows,” and he made jokes about how “did not use any prosthetics, that was his real butt in the movie.” This was all in good fun. However, the only acknowledgement he gave to the transgender community during his speech was a weird “shout out to his character” whereby he said, “To the Rayons of the world, thanks for the inspiration.”
Really? This is a group of people who are many times even marginalized from the gay, lesbian and bisexual community. Not only did Hollywood hire a straight man to play the role of Rayon, who is a transgender woman, but they do not bother to educate the actor who clearly has little to no exposure or experience around anyone in the transgender community.
One a side note, Leto also failed to mention AIDS in his speech. The entire movie was about this very real and still prevalent virus and he did not even mention it, strange.
Transgender people are often seen as “creatures” as described by Leto and many others, but, they are people. They are human beings just like everyone else and they should be treated as such. In 2014 it should not be okay for anyone to be treated like a second class citizen. Gay or straight, it is not okay.
I believe the problem is that many chose to remain ignorant instead of educating themselves—this can no longer be an excuse. With the internet we have access to so much, whether or not we grew up in a diverse neighborhood can no longer be an excuse. If you don’t know something, look it up. Educate yourself, ask questions, learn more and be a better person.
