Munroe Bergdorf on transphobic TV debates: ‘We’re in this very precarious time’
Metro.co.uk as Queerpiphany, her show with Drag Race UK star Tayce, hits YouTube.During episode one, guest Yasmin Finney references Munroe’s Good Morning Britain interview in 2018, during which she clashed with presenter Piers Morgan.
Four years on, daytime TV hosts are still having ‘debates’ about the trans community. ‘It hasn’t been an easy ride for me,’ Munroe reflected. ‘I think we’re in this very precarious moment in time when it comes to trans rights and I think that it’s very reminiscent of where gay men were in the 1980s and 90s with this mass hysteria over – at the time, it was gay men, now it’s trans people.
Like, what does that mean if we have equal rights? Should we be allowed in the spaces we want to be in? All these things are being debated about trans people were being debated about gay men in the 1980s and 1990s so we know exactly where it’s rooted.
Even if they don’t want to say it’s transphobic, it’s transphobic.‘It’s really, really difficult, a lot of the time, but we are making huge strides and the media has a massive impact on the general consensus within society, like we saw with gay men with how television programming had a big impact on people understanding that community, from Sex and the City to Will and Grace and just having that element of laughter.’Prioritising humour and laughter is something Munroe and Tayce are focused on in their show Queerphiphany, which has returned for season two on MTV’s YouTube channel. ‘This is a show that can empower all people, whether or not you’re queer,’ she explained. ‘I think that the most important thing is showing that we all have that moment, that “Aha” moment in helping us to understand who we are, giving us permission to be our whole selves,’ she.
