The Montel Williams Show

While watching my regular news show this morning, I caught an ad for the Montel Williams Show this afternoon. It mentioned transgender people and quickly showed a transgender woman. I thought I recognized her as Aejaie Sellers, Billy DeFrank Center's director. After looking at their site, I was right. (It also says the program will be repeated on Tuesday, November 21st.)

I've met Aejaie at least twice now, and while she is a very good speaker and a very nice person, I'm not quite sure about her expertise in talking about transgender topics. Personal one, no problem...but the transgender community/world, I'm not sure. You see, she just recently came out when she took up the directorship. Before that, she lived a fairly stealth life. When both she and I were at a PFLAG meeting not too long ago, I could tell that she hadn't seen much of the T world in quite a while. The world has changed a lot since she first transitioned some 20 years ago or so. Hopefully her past 9 months as director have opened her eyes a little to make up for the time she was away.

I also finally read an email from a local friend that told me of the show. It was sent a few days ago, which could have given me more time to write about the show today, but the title said 'Motel Show' instead of Montel...so, thus, everyone will be stuck with the 6 hour advance warning instead of the 2-3 day notice. In that email, though, my friend mentioned that Chris Daley, one of the leads at the Transgender Law Center, will be on the show, too. When I heard that, I knew that we would be well represented. Chris is one of the greatest guys to deal with, he is well mannered, and is one of the best speakers around. He's also very understanding of transgender situations.

Between Aejaie and Chris, I feel quite confident it will be a well executed show. I'm taping it this afternoon, so I'll try to give my take on it later this weekend.

(For those wondering, Aejaie is pronounced Ah-zjay...which probably doesn't help either, so...just watch the show. =P )

Addendum (11/16/06)

The show was pretty decent, with your typical stories of transition. They told the wonderful story of a young MTF and her supportive mother, and chatted with both a well transitioned MTF and FTM. I've met Aejaie, but I'm not sure if I have met the FTM or not. He looked fairly familiar. Aejaie even mentioned that the world has changed quite a bit since she transitioned.

The young transitioner's story was put together quite nicely. She's definitely a lucky girl to be able to transition so young and have such a supportive parent. Hopefully, the future will bring about more situations like these...especially with transgender people transitioning at such young ages.

Chris Daley was also a wonderful speaker who mentioned several issues that transgender people still face. It was nice to see him on there. It was still kinda weird watching a major TV program and knowing some of the people on the show.

I'll have to give it to Montel, though....he puts on decent trans-shows. I remember he had Gwen Araujo's family on after that whole incident, and this program was done quite well, too. I've seen an Oprah show here or there, and, to me, she just doesn't have a clue. Perhaps Montel can relate on a minor basis since he is going thru his own battle with MS. Sometimes a person has to go thru their own battle before they can understand what someone else is going thru.

Overall, I liked the program....thumbs up, Montel.