Thoughts on The Lady and the Dale, or Revealing Yourself in the Dark
If anybody hasn't watched The Lady and the Dale yet, please do so. It is an amazing documentary series that does what Caleb Hannan wishes he did, but without the constant conflation of transgender identity with criminality. It's simultaneously hilarious - Liz Carmichael trying to force a car onto the market like she were a one-person Galt's Gulch without realizing that the design she took was very flawed is the stuff of absolute bewilderment - and enraging (look at any interview with the transcendentally stubborn Dick Carlson - yes, Tucker's father). It's also inspiring - if Liz Carmichael could be herself, warts and all, in this decade, maybe just maybe we could admit that Matthew Shepard and Brandon Teena were way more complicated than clean-slate martyrs for gay and trans rights (again, not to conflate any alleged criminality with their queerness - gender identity and sexual orientation are independent of peoples' personal moralities, that much is stressed