Earlier this week, transgender icons Carmen Carrera, best known for starring on "RuPaul's Drag Race," and "Orange Is The New Black" star Laverne Cox dropped by Katie Couric's talk show to discuss their careers and issues relating to the transgender community.
However, when Couric asked Carerra about her "private parts," the show took a turn away from focusing on the lives of these "possibility models," as Cox so eloquently put it, to scrutinizing their bodies, an all too common situation which plagues trans people both in the media and in every day life.
Carerra and Cox responded beautifully to Couric's unfortunate line of questioning, both on the show and in the aftermath of its airing, which had already triggered outraged responses across the Internet.
"It is my dream that by highlighting the deep humanity of trans people’s lives in the media, elevating actual trans voices to speak the truth of our lived experiences in ways that don’t sensationalize and objectify us, those human voices and stories can be a part of the disruption needed to end the disproportionate injustices that threaten so many trans people’s lives, particularly the lives of trans women of color," Cox wrote, in part, on her Tumblr blog.
Now Couric herself is responding to claims that her question was invasive, ignorant and demonstrative of everything that is wrong with how mainstream media attempts to cover transgender people and issues.
In a video clip entitled "Follow Up Friday: Interracial Relationships, Carmen Carrera & Laverne Cox," Couric notes:
"Even if some thought my question was off base, I wanted to make sure my question and Carmen's answer stayed in the show as a teachable moment for me, as well as our viewers. I'm really proud we were able to spotlight such an open and honest conversation with Carmen and Laverne Cox, who are both terrific, about the myriad of struggles that this often maligned, marginalized and misunderstood community faces."
You can view the full video above.
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