 
I'm Tre'vell Anderson, the Director of 
Culture and Entertainment for OUT Magazine. 
I'll be your moderator for this spicy panel we're about to have. 
Yes, give it up! 
For me as a proud, open, black, gay man,
who I've been since I was younger.
When I was younger, I've had the taboos that I was not
only black, but I also had albinism and I'm gay. 
So, I had three always against me. Three strikes. 
And I look inside of television today. When it comes to
gay men in general of any race, the first thing is that
there's not a form of diversity
within what type of gay man there is. 
There's always the effeminate boy, the snappy queen.
Every gay man isn't a "hoe," he doesn't want
to do E in the bathroom and have sex. 
I'm not like that. 
As women of African descent, especially those
who don't pass the "Brown Paper Bag Test,"
they're overlooked in the dating scene, but also overlooked,
or have a history of being overlooked, in media. 
In magazines ... 
the standard of beauty has silently been put in
our brains to be so opposite of what we look like. 
And that's been so deeply ingrained into our own culture. 
What I would like to see more in media
and shows and cinema is support from parents
'cause I think that's where it starts. 
I get a lot of messages that children are
suicidal, that they've run away from home, 
and if we can just showcase that and friendships and hardships, 
parents will be able to take note on a large platform like Freeform. 
Dating as a trans woman is really difficult. We deal with
a lot of rejection and I'm usually someone's secret. 
We need to see a cis heterosexual man dating a trans woman. 
We need to see more of that. 
I feel lucky to be on a show like Good Trouble,
and so lucky to play a character like Raj, 
because historically Asian characters and South Asian
characters typically are very unsexual I would say. 
You know? It's either a funny "I am the
proprietor of a  7-Eleven" kind of character ...
[Tre'vell] We all know that one.
[Dhruv] You all know that one.
... or a character with no sex drive of any kind.
So, it's kind of quietly radical to get to play
a character with a bit of a sexual energy of any kind. 
I think even Freeform putting us all together on a stage like this — 
me being a straight man who's black, EJ or Shaun — 
and us being able to have these conversations and me just listen. 
A lot of the time people just lean on their own
understandings of what they think about a situation 
or what they think about a person.
But they don't know the person. 
My backlash is not just being a black girl,
but it's being a black skinny girl. 
Now, "stereotypically speaking," black women
are volumptuous, they're thick, they're built.  
You know? And I am not. 
So, with that being said, use your platform to
make people who look like you and feel like you
super comfortable with being themselves. 
So, I would say use your platform, don't
hesitate to speak out and correct people.  
Go ahead and check 'em if they don't know.
What's been said before is to refuse
to participate in harmful behavior,
even if the harmful behavior is not against
you or groups that you identify with.
Refuse to laugh, refuse to perpetuate that
conversation, and refuse to be silent.  
Use the platform to say that I have a crush on this
trans woman because your followers will be like,
"Wow, this inspires me." 
And people look up to us. You know?
Every day someone is looking up to us, 
and I think it's really important to do that, yeah. 
It is okay to not have implants, it's okay to have implants. 
It's okay to have hairy armpits, it's okay to be bald. Okay?
It's okay to be whoever the hell you want to be. 
Someone cast the big b*tch, okay?
These kids who are suffering with
obesity just don't know how to handle it.
And I've always been big, but I work
it and I put myself out there.
And growing up big too, you know what it's like,
and I've never got to see that dynamic. 
But I think that we just need to confer to
the conversation as much as possible.
And if you have a grievance in dating life,
whether it be my struggle or anyone else's struggle,  
don't be afraid to talk about it. You don't need to 
call anybody out, but don't be afraid to talk about it
and let other people know because you never know
who's going through the same thing and can relate ... 
and help fix the problem and elevate it to
a level that might get national attention. 
Alright, can I get a round of applause for the entire panel?
