If you hadn’t heard, one of the famous “Wachowski brothers,” creators of The Matrix franchise and directors of the new hit Cloud Atlas, recently came out as a transsexual woman. She is now Lana Wachowski. And for her efforts at giving transgenderism more visibility and acceptance she received a visibility award by the Human Rights Campaign.
For which her acceptance speech is amazing. She’s funny, smart, eloquent, and super cute. In fact this rates among the best speeches I’ve ever watched. She claims to be an inexperienced speaker, but she clearly is a talented teller of tales, with charm and wit and insight, and boldly honest. Her speech is charming, hilarious, moving, and informative. She’s an awesome person. I guarantee you’ll love having watched this. So go do.
I discovered this gem thanks to Kylie Sturgess of Token Skeptic who provides the video and links to the transcript at Lana Wachowski’s Human Rights Campaign’s Annual Gala Dinner Speech (or you can just go direct to the transcript or video at The Hollywood Reporter).
Great speech!
I’m also really pleased that Freethought blogs has managed to get two awesome bloggers who also happen to be transgender women – Zinnia Jones and Natalie Reed. Not to mention Freethought blogs is as of now 39% female, with 13 female bloggers and 20 male, even counting all the “group blogs” like Black Skeptics as male.
Nice article but…
Have people already started referring to them as the Wachowski siblings? And if not, why not?
Most people I know call them “the Wachowskis”. Has a ring to it, methinks.
They’re usually referred to as “the Wachowskis” now, and IIRC, even credited as such.
Wikipedia says they go by “the Wachowskis”.
they refer to themselves as The Wachowskis or Wachowski Starship
Wow. That was amazing.
You’re right. One of the best uses of 30 minutes of my time I’ve made in maybe decades.
You there. Looking at this comment. Stop it. Go there now. Come back in 30 minutes.
Seriously.
Kevin,
” One of the best uses of 30 minutes of my time I’ve made in maybe decades.”
Your life must have really sucked for the last few decades.
Nope. Life has been totally awesome til now.
You do the math.
If anyone else has problems with the video, here is (probably) the same on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crHHycz7T_c
I believe they’re usually just called the Wachowskis now.
Konradius – I remember reading somewhere that a few years ago their movie credits became “the Wachowskis”. And that this has been widely known in Hollywood for quite a while, but there was no real fuss- kinda just “oh, ok” and people got on with their lives.
Yes. That’s more or less what Lana says.
Saw Lana speaking at a free screening of Cloud Atlas.
That speech was great!
Thankfully there is a third option: ‘the Wachowskis’. And that’s how I refer to them now.
Thank you for this, Richard. You are completely right. All I have to say now is — to all those sane people amongst us — we need to ask, loudly, WHY DOES IT MATTER? And insist on a sensible answer. And keep on asking, and keep on insisting. I was especially moved by what Lana says at around 15:45+. As true and as sincere as anyone ever said.
This is the bit (from the transcript):
We’re alternating perspectives quite conscious of the fact that we have just made a film about this subject — about the responsibilities us humans have to one another, that our lives are not entirely our own. There is dialogue from the film merging easily with the discussion and I find myself repeating a line from a character who I was very attached to who speaks about her own decision to come out. She says, “If I had remained invisible, the truth would have remained hidden and I couldn’t allow that.” And she says this aware that even at the moment she’s saying it that the sacrifice she has made will cost her her life.
Years ago, Don Imus (yes,THAT Imus) turned me on to Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech – which he’s been rebroadcasting for 30 years, every year on MLK, Jr’s birthday (long before it was made a holiday). It’s a powerful 45 minutes: the words, the delivery, the cadence, knowing that the speech was a personal thought shared with the world resonates to this day.
Ms. Wachowski’s speech now joins Dr. King’s on my personal playlist. It has taken a generation (and we’re not done yet) but we’ve learned that legislation and talking heads from networks and political parties and think tanks ands state houses don’t open people minds and touch their hearts. It’s the words and courage of the select few that teach our children – legislation is not education. I sincerely hope that Ms Wachowski’s message us more quickly spread, more readily accepted, less politicized and had a happier personal ending.
(For the curious, I am a middle aged white male in NY. Born in Brooklyn and raised in a time and in a neighborhood, I’m embarrassed to say, when we had code words that we used to let everyone we saw know that a non-white person was seen I the neighborhood. Let the word go forth from this say, that decency is in the neighborhood, and it knows no color, no orientation!)