I’ve been doing tons of interviews for TLS (as we insiders call “Transamerican Love Story"), and today I did a call-in interview on HRC leader Joe Solomonese’s “The Agenda” (link to bio). Joe was out today, so I spoke with Mary Breslauer and guest Cornelius.

Link to audio of the interview: Calpernia on “The Agenda” XM Radio Show

As everyone in the trans community, and GLB community, knows, the HRC has supported a version of ENDA (the Employment Non Discrimination Act) that leaves out trans people, thus leaving us vulnerable to job discrimination. This is a major issue, and although my interview on the show with Mary was part of a show on dating in the GLBT world, I did manage to slip in the community’s disagreement with HRC’s stand on ENDA. The hosts were perfectly charming, but the questions stayed very on target to “Transamerican Love Story” (as they’re supposed to for an episode on dating). I struggled to find a place to make my statement on HRC/ENDA without derailing the light hearted interview, and just to prove that I did, here’s some spotty audio I recorded in my room as I chatted. This is my response to the question on the phone about the show being groundbreaking:

I felt like it was important to reach out to the HRC audience through participating in the interview, because I’ve always believed that putting as many human faces and voices to political issues as possible is key to resonating with the larger community as a whole. “Transamerican Love Story” is a fun reality dating show, but it can also be one more way of many to keep the trans community connected and in the minds of the GLB’s and heteros out there!

But you should probably just hear the whole interview right from their site. XM Radio has so many thought provoking shows now!
Link to audio of the interview: Calpernia on “The Agenda” XM Radio Show (Click here and choose the Calpernia audio link)

I still get the cringe-inducing “She used to be a man!”, but I’m still happy about the coverage. If we can just get people to watch the show, they’ll elevate their understanding of trans people and the people who love them, I believe. And heck, I am sandwiched between the Anorexic Twins, the Tornado Baby and Anna Nicole Smith’s “grieving infant”. Now that’s hilarious* company!

And don’t miss the time Andrea and I were on Entertainment Tonight’s “The Insider” for Transamerica! It’s the 3rd button under the viewing screen.

(* Not the Anna Nicole part, I was honestly stricken with sadness to hear she and her son had died.)

From Andrea James’ Shared Experiences Blog:

Calpernia and I recently chatted with Michael Kearns from Frontiers Magazine about Transamerican Love Story. His nice profile is available here:

* Girls Just Wanna Have Fun: Calpernia Addams and Andrea James discuss their new Logo series Transamerican Love Story


* Frontiers Volume 26 Issue 20 (PDF)

OMG everybody, check out the Transamerican Love Story page on logoonline.com! It has video clips, photos and lots of info about the show. I’m so excited!

Logo has scheduled the series premiere of Transamerican Love Story for Monday 11 February at 10pm, with new episodes each week. They are leading in with Ma Vie En Rose, one of the best films about gender variance ever made.

Transamerican Love Story is a competitive dating show that follows my friend Calpernia Addams as she narrows eight bachelors down to one winner. Alec Mapa hosts, and I am the sassy friend who says mean things about the guys.

For night owls, it airs again Monday at 1am, then repeats throughout the week:

Mondays 10 pm and 1am
Tuesdays at 7pm and 4am
Thursdays at 8am (with special airings Valentine’s Day only at 4pm and 9pm)
Fridays at 12:30pm
Various times on weekends. Check your local listings.

Get a printable PDF of Logo’s February schedule

Stay tuned for more news as the premiere gets closer!

via Shared Experiences - Andrea James’ Blog