Reporters don’t know much, I have been interviewed many reporters and at some of the question it is really hard to keep from rolling your eyes.
So you might have seen on the news that Kim Petras was the first trans person to win a Grammy but it was fake news. For many of us in the community we knew it an alternate truth, as a matter of fact I think that I have her vinyl record… Switched On Bach.
That was electronic music pioneer Wendy Carlos.LGBTQ NationBy John RussellFebruary 6, 2023“I just wanted to thank all the incredible transgender legends before me who kicked these doors open for me so I could be here tonight,” Kim Petras said in her acceptance speech for Best Pop Group/Duo Performance at Sunday night’s 65th Annual Grammy Awards.The 30-year-old pop star made history alongside Sam Smith as the first out trans and non-binary artists to receive the award for their song “Unholy.”
Petras made a point of acknowledging in her speech that she was “the first transgender woman to win this [emphasis added] award.” And while much of the media coverage of her win included that essential caveat, some on social media took the opportunity to set the record straight and acknowledge a trans pioneer of electronic music.
Youngsters! They think that they know everything, but she wasn’t…
“While we celebrate Kim Petras’s historic win at last night’s Grammys, let’s also use this as an opportunity to show some love to electronic music pioneer and 3x Grammy Award-winner Wendy Carlos,” writer and podcast host Evan Ross Katz wrote in an Instagram post.
“An important distinction to make,” tweeted musician Left at London. “Wendy Carlos is the first trans person to win a grammy. Kim Petras is the first OUT trans person to win a grammy.”
I remember back then I was deep in the closet and I went to the record store at the mall and found it!
Now I am not a Bach fan but this was very special it was the break through album, the first all electronic album.
Like many reporters now a days they are just sent out for an interview with little or no background information, someone may have told the reporter that Kim was the first.
This is what Ms. Carlos won the Grammy for...
I was grabbed out of the hearing on the trans non-discrimination bill by one of our lobbyists (and friend and former grad school classmate); “There’s a reporters who want to interview you about the bill…
“Thank you sir for being interviewed…” Wait a minute! We tried to tell the reporter about the AP Stylebook about pronouns but he was having none of it. Basically he was saying you can’t tell me what questions to asked and we tried to tell we were not doing that we were only saying about, finally it got through his thick skull. “Oh, okay,” and we gave him a lessons on gender pronouns and he did use the proper pronouns,
It is good that there are more trans people whose work is recognized and rewarded. I think it is a step in the right direction.
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