Awesome alert: Liu Wei plays piano with his toes in China's Got Talent

Liu Wei, photographed from above, playing an upright piano.

Awesome Alert is a regular feature in which I feature awesome stories of marginalized folks that come to my attention through Google Alerts.

Liu Wei is a Chinese pianist and composer competing in China's Got Talent. Wei, whose arms were amputated after electrocution at age ten, plays the piano beautifully with his toes. He forgoes prosthetics, and says that the only thing he cannot do that he would like to is drive. "For people like me, there were only two options. One was to abandon all dreams, which would lead to a quick, hopeless death. The other was to struggle without arms to live an outstanding life," Liu said to the judges last week on America's Got Talent.

In the video below, Liu Wei goes through his day, brushing his teeth, eating, and surfing, sometimes using his toes. After the video, he talks to the China's Got Talent judges and plays Mariage D'amour to great applause:




There's a lot to critique about how the media and show portray his accomplishments; many of the articles I consulted for this post framed it in terms of a "heartening [tale] of overcoming adversity" and a "sob story". This trope takes the focus off the accomplishments and talent of folks with disability like Wei. Wei's not there to compete and accomplish something, but in these stories, he's there primarily to move the audience to tears.

And there's something of that to the clip from China's Got Talent - one of the judges suggests that there's nothing he has to say because Wei's so inspiring. That's not the reason Wei should be getting acclaim - he should be praised because he's a good goddamn pianist. China's Got Talent apparently regularly features performers with disabilities, and that's to be commended, but I wonder how many of the performers are framed in a condescending or exceptionalizing way.'

In any case, Wei is an excellent pianist who hopefully has many years of continued success and accomplishment to look forward to.

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Awesome alert: Vandy Beth Glenn wins Georgia trans discrimination suit

A federal court handed down a potentially powerful ruling on trans rights today, when judge Richard Story ruled that the Georgia State Assembly’s firing of trans woman Vandy Beth Glenn was illegal discrimination. The decision may help to give trans women the protection that cis women have legally had for decades: the right to not be fired for being a woman.

Ms. Glenn worked as an editor in the Office of Legislative Counsel successfully for two years before deciding to transition on the advice of her health care providers. Ms. Glenn approached her boss, Sewell Brumby, about her plans, providing pictures of herself as she planned to present. Brumby ‘s reaction, naturally, was to fire Ms. Glenn because her womanhood "...was inappropriate, that it would be disruptive, that some people would view it as a moral issue, and that it would make Glenn's coworkers uncomfortable."

Brumby’s prioritizing of the comfort of cis people and arbitrary notions of morality above details such as competence and the right to work is a clear reflection of systematic cissupremacy. The workplace is a frequent battleground for trans women particularly; upon coming out as trans, they are commonly subjected to sexual harassment and degendering. And as with Ms. Glenn, they are very often fired simply for presenting as themselves. This blatant form of discrimination contributes directly to high levels of homelessness among trans people.

Beth Littrell, an attorney with LAMBDA Legal who argued the case, praised the judge’s decision. However, she was cautious in her optimism, and quick to note that the ruling “is no substitution for a statewide law [protecting trans rights to work], but it does send a message.”

Congratulations to Ms. Glenn! Here's hoping that the July 13th ruling determining a remedy to this discrimination will be handled satisfactorily.

Awesome alert: Trans rabbi Reuben Zellman

Awesome Alerts is a new and hopefully regular quick-hit feature. I have several Google alerts set up to bring me news on some of the marginalized subjects I make an effort to cover here, namely feminism, disability, race, and trans issues. Since we live in a kyriarchy, there's not a lot of good news as a general rule. But oppressed lives are not so necessarily tragic, so I'm going to start making an effort to bring more good news. And thus, Awesome Alerts!

Reuben Zellman, a trans activist since 1999, has been ordained as the first out trans rabbi in the Bay area. He was recently hired at Berkley's Beth El Congregation as an assistant rabbi, where he will tutor b’nai mitzvah students and direct the choir. Zellman has previously worked in disability services, and he writes and teaches on trans and intersex issues. He was the first openly trans person to study at Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion.

Zellman is the second trans rabbi to be ordained after Elliot Zukla. Both contribute to the awesome website TransTorah. I'll close today with a quote from his 2008 sermon titled "No Longer Strangers", which I think is relevant to not only Jewish communities but feminist discourse:

When it comes to welcoming transgender people into our faith communities, we must say more than: come share this place with me. We must say: come share yourself with me. We must not only make more room at the table; we have to change what’s on the menu. Truly welcoming trans people into our houses of worship means we must all be prepared to think differently, to do differently, to believe differently. We must be ready to be changed, institutionally and personally, by the particular knowledge and gifts that transgender people bring.