Some of us here on Team GWLA are night owls, so to speak. If you, too, are a creature of late night TV programming, we strongly suggest tuning into Amanpour and Company on PBS. It usually airs weeknights at 11:00 pm (PST). You might think that 11:00 is too late to watch news programming, but the show is made up of timely, long-form interviews — without commercials — on a variety of topics and it doesn’t produce the same stress-inducing response that one might get from watching cable news. It rarely disappoints! Anyway…

We tuned into an episode that aired last month, on March 22nd, in which a segment, titled “Over 400 Anti-LGBTQ Bills Proposed in 2023: Not by Accident, But by Design,” featured an interview of trans journalist/activist Imara Jones, Founder and CEO of TransLash Media, by NPR’s Michelle Martin, who also serves as a regular correspondent for this show. Much of the segment covered Imara’s investigative reporting that revealed a disturbing, but not surprising, connection of the anti-LGBTQ legislation to conservative efforts towards banning abortion. (NOTE: Since the airing of this episode, Ms. Jones has been chosen as one of TIME magazine’s “100 Most Influential People.”)

While the main topic is/was very interesting, an exchange towards the end of the interview particularly resonated with us — simply stated, yet profound! You can watch the interview in its entirety above, but we’ve excerpted the exchange below:

MICHELLE MARTIN ASKS: Is there any part of you that feels some sympathy for people who just don’t understand this and feel that this is contrary to the world as they understood it? You know, they were taught a binary… there are men, there are women, they don’t know any trans people and it kind of upsets their concept of the way the world should be and they don’t know what to do with that.

IMARA JONES RESPONDS: I think that what makes me really upset is that the natural confusion or misunderstanding that people have is being manipulated and weaponized by a group of people…

I don’t think that there’s a trans person in existence who minds a conversation about, well, “what is this?” “How did it come to be?” And, “how did you come to be?” And “I don’t understand.”

“I don’t understand” is the gateway to understanding, so I don’t think…that’s the issue. I think the problem is that natural curiosity and misunderstanding is being weaponized…