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"The Academy Awards have just erased the silver lining&amp;#xA0;of an awards season that has been rightfully dominated by stories of omission and institutional injustice.&amp;#xA0;\r\nLost in the justifiable furor over #OscarsSoWhite is the fact that a transgender person has received an Academy Award nomination for the first time since songwriter Angela Morley earned two in the mid-Seventies. Mercury Prize-winning musician Anohni (n&amp;#xE9;e Antony Hegarty) has been recognized for her song &amp;quot;Manta Ray,&amp;quot; the J. Ralph duet she was commissioned to co-write and perform for the climate crisis documentary Racing Extinction.&amp;#xA0;\r\n\r\nBut when it comes to this year&amp;apos;s Oscars, even nominees aren&amp;apos;t safe from being othered out of the ceremony. Squandering a golden opportunity to recognize and champion diversity in the artistic community (and allow the world a few minutes to indulge in one of its most mellifluous voices), the Academy neglected to invite Anohni to perform during the telecast. As a result, Anohni has declared that she will not be attending the ceremony as part of a statement she posted on her website&amp;#xA0;on Thursday. &amp;quot;I have decided not to attend the Academy Awards this election year,&amp;quot; she writes. &amp;quot;I will not be lulled into submission with a few more well manufactured, feel-good ballads and a bit of good old fashioned T. and A.&amp;quot;\r\nThis is the most recent development of a story that has been unfolding in public view over the last week. On Saturday, it was reported that Anohni was one of two Best Original Song nominees who wasn&amp;apos;t invited to perform during the telecast (the other was the duo of David Lang and Sumi Jo, whose Simple Song #3 was commissioned for Paolo Sorrentino&amp;apos;s Youth). The slight, as per the Academy&amp;apos;s usual style of sharing their shortsightedness, was only possible to glean via omission &amp;#x2014; the news had to be parsed from a press release boasting that nominees Lady Gaga, Sam Smith, and the Weeknd would be singing on air.&amp;#xA0;\r\n\r\nAnohni, frustrated by the complete lack of communication from the Academy, took it upon herself to explain why she&amp;apos;s been convinced to ignore the Hollywood hoopla and stay put in NYC. &amp;quot;Last night I tried to force myself to get on the plane to fly to L.A. for all the nominee events,&amp;quot; she writes, &amp;quot;but the feelings of embarrassment and anger knocked me back&amp;#x2026; There I was, feeling a sting of shame that reminded me of America&amp;apos;s earliest affirmations of my inadequacy as a transperson. I turned around at the airport and went back home.&amp;quot;&amp;#xA0;\r\nThe next morning, Anohni observes, the Oscars added her gender to the &amp;quot;trivia&amp;quot; page of their website (that detail appears to have been removed).\r\nAnohni&amp;apos;s impassioned letter goes on to make clear that she doesn&amp;apos;t feel entitled to her time in the spotlight, nor does she believe that her gender was &amp;quot;directly&amp;quot; responsible for her exclusion from the show. &amp;quot;I was not invited to perform because I am relatively unknown in the U.S., singing a song about ecocide, and that might not sell advertising space.&amp;quot; Anohni, in her graciousness, may not recall the 2006 ceremony in which rap group Three 6 Mafia performed a song about pimping, and then promptly won the Oscar for it.&amp;#xA0;\r\nNevertheless, Anohni doesn&amp;apos;t exactly let the Academy off the hook. On the contrary, she uses the dire truth behind her treatment to reinforce the urgency of her work: &amp;quot;If you trace the trail of breadcrumbs, the deeper truth of it is impossible to ignore. Like global warming, it is not one isolated event, but a series of events that occur over years to create a system that has sought to undermine me, at first as a feminist child, and later as an androgynous transwoman.&amp;quot; And then, diagnosing the Oscars as one symptom of a broader institutional failure: &amp;quot;It is a system of social oppression and diminished opportunities for transpeople that has been employed by capitalism in the U.S. to crush our dreams and our collective spirit.&amp;quot;&amp;#xA0;\r\nUndaunted by the blowback she might receive from being so candid about her frustrations, Anohni bluntly states that she has &amp;quot;Gladly paid a price for speaking my truth in the face of loathing and idiocy.&amp;quot;\r\nVisit Anohni&amp;apos;s website to read the statement in full.&amp;#xA0;Hopelessness, Anohni&amp;apos;s fifth LP, will be released in May.\r\nThe Oscars, hosted by Chris Rock, will air&amp;#xA0;on February 28th&amp;#xA0;at 7 pm. Dave Grohl, who is not nominated for anything, is also scheduled to perform during the telecast."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/news/trans-oscar-nominee-anohni-on-why-shes-boycotting-academy-awards-20160225>