It's D-Day

And no, I'm not talking about the upcoming anniversary next week of the World War II Allied invasion of Normandy on June 6.

The D-day I'm talking about is the meeting that's being held today in Washington DC to sort out the mess Florida and Michigan created when they bucked Democratic Party rules and held their presidential primaries before January 29.

They were punished by having all their delegates for this year's convention taken away. But with Florida and Michigan being critical swing states in the fall election campaign, the DNC was going to come to some compromise bout this situation.

The problem is twofold. If you reinstate the delegates, how many and how are they allocated since Sen. Obama and the other Democratic candidates all agreed to not campaign in the punished states primaries. Hillary Clinton agreed to the rules at first, then reneged and campaigned in Florida. Now she's trying to claim all the delegates by asserting she 'won' both states.

Yeah, right. It's easy to win when no one else is competing against you.

The result she wants, seating all the delegates and Sen. Obama getting none of the Michigan ones ain't happening. Michigan and Florida clearly broke the rules and they must be enforced. If you dont, during the 2012 Presidential election cycle you'll have more states trying to pull what Florida and Michigan did and we may end up with the Iowa Caucuses and the New Hampshire primary happening during the 2011 Christmas season or earlier.

At best they should split them 50-50, but it's up to the 30 person Rules and Bylaws Committee. Let's hope they come up with a solution that is acceptable to all parties and we can focus on kicking GOP behind this fall.

Colorado GLBT Peeps Flying High Over SB200 Signing

TransGriot Note: Our GLBT brothers and sisters in Colorado are flying as high as the Rockies today thanks to Gov. Bill Ritter (D). In the home state of Unfocused On The Family, it is now illegal to discriminate against GLBT people when buying a home, renting an apartment or using public accommodations. And yes Barney and HRC, we transgender people are included in this bill. So I ask again, what's keeping the Feds from doing the same thing?


Ritter signs bill giving gays equal access to accommodations
By MARK BARNA
THE COLORADO SPRINGS GAZETTE
CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0367 or mark.barna@gazette. com
May 29, 2008

Gov. Bill Ritter on Thursday signed a bill that makes it illegal in Colorado to discriminate against gays, bisexuals and transgendered people when buying a home, renting an apartment or using public accommodations.

"The governor felt that this bill, SB200, was about fairness and treating people equally," said Evan Dreyer, spokesman for the governor's office. "It essentially updates anti-discrimination laws that in some cases have not been updated for 50 years."

Bruce DeBoskey, regional director of Denver's Anti-Defamation League, a civil rights organization, said the law is a step forward for Coloradans.

"No one should be denied housing or public accommodations solely because of his or her sexual preference," DeBoskey said.

One aspect of the law enables transgenders - those who were born one gender but identify with the other - to use public restrooms in which they feel most comfortable.

Beginning May 21, Focus on the Family and Colorado Family Action began sponsoring radio advertisements on four radio stations in Colorado Springs and Denver denouncing the bill.

The ads warned that cross-dressing predators could endanger children
by using restrooms designated for the opposite sex.

Focus founder James Dobson said Thursday:

"Who would believe that the Colorado state Legislature and its governor would have made it legal for men to enter and use women's restrooms and locker room facilities without notice or explanation?

"Henceforth, every woman and little girl will have to fear that a predator, bisexual, cross-dresser or even a homosexual or heterosexual male might walk in and relieve himself in their presence."

DeBoskey denounced Dobson's view.

"It is unfortunate that they feel they have to exaggerate the dangers and play on people's fears," DeBoskey said. "This law is about fairness and justice for all people living in this state."

Last May, Sen. Jennifer Veiga, D-Denver, introduced the forerunner to SB200 known as SB25, a bill that prohibits employment discrimination against gays, bisexuals and transgendered people. Ritter signed it into law. SB200, which Veiga also introduced,
extends the rights of these people to housing and public accommodations.

"This is a law whose time has come," said Ryan Acker, executive director of the Pikes Peak Gay and Lesbian Community Center in Colorado Springs.

"The passing of this bill shows that Colorado is a progressive state."

Copyright C 2008 Freedom Communications

One Denver Trip Ain't Happening

As many of you regular TransGriot readers know I was looking at the prospect in a few months of taking two Denver trips. One was going to be for the TRANScending Gender Conference at the University of Colorado-Boulder in October.

The August Denver trip was in the hands of the DNC. The Bilerico Project, the blog in which I'm a contributing writer was a finalist for the credentialed blogging spots at the upcoming Democratic Convention in Denver. I'd already arranged a place to stay and was prepared to use vacation time so that I could be there for what undoubtedly is going to be a historic convention.

But unfortunately, we got the word last night from the DNC that The Bilerico Project wasn't on the final list for credentialed blogs. While I'm disappointed for Bil that we didn't get it, I'm happy for fellow contributor Pam Spaulding. Her Pam's House Blend not only will be there, it's one of only two GLBT oriented blogs to get credentials for the upcoming convention.

What's bugging me, though is the same thing that's bugging Bil. The other blog that got an LGBT slot, Towleroad, while it is a quality blog that I peruse from time to time, doesn't even do politics on a regular basis like the Project does, much less tackle the prickly subjects head on such as race in the GLBT community or go in depth on transgender issues.

It's also overwhelmingly monoracial. Towleroad's readership is moneyed white gay male and their focus reflects that demographic. (translation-the peeps most likely to donate money to the party.) So like Bil, I have to wonder how much politics factored into the selection process and I'm a little disappointed I won't be there.

Fortunately Pam's blog not only does politics, it does it quite well. It's one I frequently read, and I've posted comments and diaries there from time to time. It's a diverse place to boot just like Bilerico and will serve the GLBT community well.

I have much love and respect for Pam. She's a role model to me. She was one of the first bloggers to give me a boost by allowing me to link to her blog when I started TransGriot in 2006 (Jasmyne Cannick was the other) and she's cool people to boot. I'm also happy that other African-American and minority bloggers will be there to record history as well.

But it looks like my return to Denver after two decades will be delayed now until October.

What Do You Mean Black Transwomen Are Ugly?

One thing my biosisters have told me over the years is that we transwomen and they have far more in common with each other than the things that separate us. In many ways, we share the same trials and tribulations they do.

One of those things as I pointed out in a previous post is the dissing of African-American beauty. I got another taste of it as I was recently visiting a transgender dating website.

While I was lurking, there was a discussion thread in which the guys started talking about the ethnicity of the transwomen they were attracted to, liked to date and the qualities they thought made them attractive.

When one of the guys noted in his post that he liked African-American transwomen, one person posted a derisive comment about it which he punctuated with the words, 'they're ugly and look like men!'

Excuse me?

After a few transsisters who were members of this particular online community blasted him for his ignorance, I signed out and started pondering what would make this person say that.

One of the factors is that beauty has been defined for centuries in a Eurocentric context. We saw an example just last week when Maxim magazine published their list of what they considered the 100 most beautiful women. Only six Black women made that list, and none of them were in the Top Ten. (FYI they were 14 Beyonce, 15 Rihanna, 37 Ashanti, 42 Zoe Saldana, 63 Selita Ebanks, 72 Gabrielle Union, 77 Alicia Keys)

No Meagan Good, no Halle Berry, no Tyra Banks, not even Miss USA 2008 Crystle Stewart...you get the picture.

Maybe if Mr. Black Transwoman Beauty Critic stepped away from his computer and quit surfing the adult websites, he'd get a little 'ejumacation' in terms of the varied beauty of my transsistahs. I have homegirls who if I didn't know their status, would have never guessed they were born boys. They would take great offense as I do to this person's ignorant characterization of us as 'ugly' and 'looking like men'.

It would also be a great surprise for this person and his friends who may harbor the same negative stereotypes to discover that transwomen don't have to come from Thailand, Brazil, the Philippines, Mexico or assorted European countries to be considered beautiful. As an FYI to Mr. Black Transwoman Hater, the Brazilian transwomen you think are so 'exotic' looking have the same African bloodlines that I and my African-American sisters do.



If this person has the time to roll up to Chicago on Labor Day weekend, I'd suggest that he check out the latest edition of the Miss Continental Pageant that nine sistahs have won over its twenty plus year history. I'd like to point out that sistahs have won the last three titles in a row.

I haven't even touched on the other pageant systems that Black transwomen are competitive in, much less the ballroom community that's a showcase for our beauty, creativity and talent. Some of my sisters went from walking ballroom runways to fashion runways as well.

One of the reasons we have Black run ones such as the Miss Black Universe, Duval and the other Black transgender pageant systems is because the negative African-American beauty perceptions that were espoused by this person are sadly part of the dominant culture. The end result is a perception in our GLBT subset of it that results in Black transwomen not getting fair shakes in judging when they compete in predominately white GLBT pageants.

Far from being 'ugly' or 'looking like men', my sisters and I run the gamut in skin tones from vanilla creme to the deepest darkest ebony hue. We vary in height from a petite 5 foot 1 to a statuesque 6 foot 2 and up. We have luscious and dangerous curves over every square inch of our bodies. We can wear any fabric from silk to leather and it looks sexy on us. When we do our hair in the various lengths and styles to complement what Mama, nature and hormones gave us, you pause while out come the claws from the insecure women that don't measure up.

Yes, my sisters and I are smart, talented, beautiful and strong women. Maybe the reason this person uttered that statement is because he wasn't man enough to step to us with the class and dignity it's going to take to capture our hearts.

There are a lot of words you can use to describe me and my transsisters. But 'ugly' ain't one of them.



TransGriot Note: Women in photos are Tracy Africa, actress Meagan Good, Stasha Sanchez

Stealth Post Roundup

I was going to post something on being stealth and how I think it has harmed the transgender community more than its helped us. I decided instead to let y'all peruse some of my previous writings on the stealth issue that I either wrote as a full length post or it came up in the context of a discussion on another issue.

I also need to do as Dr. King would say, more hard, solid thinking on the subject.

So while I'm finding a nice quiet spot and clearing some time to do that hard, solid thinking, enjoy these past TransGriot posts.


Note To World-Black Transpeople Exist

Stealth Transpeople, C'mon Out

Stealth vs. Out

Letter To My African-American Transgender Elders

Time To Elevate Our Game

Genetic Women and Transwomen: Can We Be Friends? Part 2

Are The Divine Nine Sororities Ready To Admit Transwomen?

How Boys Become Boys (and Sometimes Girls)

New research explains how three proteins conspire to determine an embryo's sex
By Nikhil Swaminathan
From Scientific American

In research that could give doctors a way to reassign sex in cases of unclear gender, scientists report this week that they have figured out why some children with genes that should make them boys are instead born as girls.

The study, published in Nature, explains why some embryos with X and Y chromosomes—which should be born as male—develop ovaries and eventually become girls.

The key is whether a gene called Sox9, involved in formation of the testes, is active. "There are a surprisingly large number of cases where this process goes wrong," says Robin Lovell-Badge, a biologist at London's MRC National Institute for Medical Research, who estimates that this phenomenon could effect up to 1 in every 20,000 genetic males. "Maybe one could treat some of these sex reversal or intersex cases after birth by manipulating whether Sox9 is active or not. This is all speculation but it's possible."

If Sox9 is somehow switched on in a genetic female—an embryo with two X chromosomes—it causes male gonads to form; if it fails to turn on in males, the cells it controls will become follicle cells, which mature into ovaries.

To work out this process, Lovell-Badge and his colleagues manipulated the Sox9 gene in genetically engineered mice. They found that what switches on Sox9 is the product of two other genes. When either of those genes—one of which is found on the Y chromosome, only carried by males—is defective, Sox9 remains off and the embryo develops ovaries.

Richard R. Behringer, a geneticist at the University of Texas's M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, called the study "an important step." Behringer, who was not involved in the research, says scientists must now determine how Sox9's activity actually leads to the creation of testes.

Lovell-Badge and his colleagues believe that the findings in mice will apply to humans as well, particularly in diagnosing "male" embryos that are likely to develop into girls. That's important, he says, because those people are at higher risk for ovarian tumors.

He adds that he's very hopeful that with further analysis, scientists may determine ways to reassign gender later in life, "perhaps for cases of sex reversal or perhaps even for individuals who want to undergo sex changes," although he acknowledged that "this is getting very contentious."

Talking About My Faith

Most Sunday mornings I get out of bed, get into diva mode and point my car in the direction of my open and affirming church to hear my pastor Rev. Sally McClain.

That's right, you didn't misread that. I have a female pastor. Quite frankly. she can say in a 25-30 minute sermon what it took some pastors in some Black churches I attended back home one to two hours to say. I'm one of four transwomen and three Black members who attend Edenside Christian Church.

See, I'm a little more complex than some of y'all thought, huh?

One of the things I've noted in my decade plus interactions with the transgender community is the bitterness and in some cases outright hostility toward people who profess to be Christians.

When I've attended various gender conferences in the past I've seen a variety of faith traditions expressed and embraced up to and including atheism and agnosticism. But say you're a Christian and you're looked at like you just dropped in from Mars.

Those strange looks also come from the Forces of Intolerance little 'c' Christians as well. The ChristoBorg had it implanted in their hive mind consciousness that we GLBT people aren't and couldn't possibly be Christians.

Au contraire, my brothers and sisters in Christ. I just don't believe in your warped, Scripture-twisting, vengeful God, hate filled version of it.

One of the most enjoyable parts of the JCPS employment policy battle a few months ago was when I got to see the YouTube video of me speaking in front of the board. At the point of my remarks in which I announced I was a Christian, a voice in the background says, "No way!"

Yes, way! I was baptized on August 2, 1972 at my home church in Houston. Deal with it.

I have had to call on that faith many times before, during and after my transition. It gave me clarity of thought when my mind was troubled or I was upset about things going on in my life. It gave me the strength and courage to become the Phenomenal Transwoman I am today when I was unsure, fearful and afraid that I could do it.

When I suffered through a six month employment drought and didn't know how I was going to pay next month's rent on my apartment or put food on my table when i exhausted the money I had saved up for surgery, people stepped up without me asking them to feed me or pay back money I'd loaned to them and forgotten about dating back several years.

Sen. Obama had this to say about faith in a June 26, 2006 Chicago Tribune interview:

I see faith as more than just a comfort to the weary or a hedge against death. It is an active palpable agent in the world. Ir is a source of hope.

I agree with him. It is a source of hope. It is why I have the unwavering conviction and confidence that we transpeople will accomplish our legislative crown jewels. My faith is why I believe that the current negativity that we suffer from friends and foes alike will end. My faith is why I know that one day we will be fully functioning and valued members of society all over the world.

The day I stop believing that will be the day when I accept every myth and falsehood that our detractors say about us, and that ain't happening. Tammy Faye told me this when I met her in 2003, and I hold fast to this comment every time I hear the Religious Reich spewing forth anti-transgender Hateraid disguised in Christian drag.

"Never let anyone say that God doesn't love you, because He does."

Thanks Tammy Faye, Rev. Sally, Soulforce, Dignity, More Light, and every Christian theologian, pastor and real Christian who never lets me or any GLBT Christian forget that, feels that way, and backs up their words with positive actions.

Miss Tiffany Universe 2008

The 2008 Miss Universe Pageant won't be taking place until this July in Vietnam. Until then, pageant happy Thais can satisfy their pageant jones with the 2008 edition of the Miss Tiffany Universe Pageant.

The transgender Miss Tiffany Universe pageant is now entering its second decade and according to the Pattaya Daily News is taken as seriously as any pageant with biowomen contestants. The pageant has 22 businesses sponsoring it this year, according to Ms. Alisa Bpanthusak, the chair of the contest and Assistant Managing Director of Tiffany's, the Pattaya cabaret that hosts the pageant. The May 30 finals will also be broadcast live on Thai television.

Sorry pageant girls, this one's only open to Thai transwomen. The winner of Miss Tiffany Universe not only receives a cash prize and a car, but serves as Thailand's representative for the pageant they host at Tiffany's for the rest of the world's transwomen called the Miss Universal Queen Pageant. They also send the winner to the Queen of the Universe Pageant held in Los Angeles.

Ms. Bpanthusak also noted in the May 7 press conference held in Bangkok that the pageant was not only gaining increased acceptance and cachet, but the quality and variety of the contestants that entered was rising as well. She noted she had more contestants that were college students or had thespian training.

The judges definitely will have a tough job whittling the pool of applicants down to the 30 girls who'll take part in various related scheduled activities from May 26-29 and selecting Miss Tiffany Universe 2008.

Rochelle's Tough Year

TransGriot Note: Remember Rochelle Evans, who last year fought the Fort Worth Independent School District for the right to be herself? Well, that was the easy part. This Dallas Voice story updates us on what's transpired in her life since.

Fort Worth Transgender Teen Trying To Put Life Back Together

by Ben Briscoe
Dallas Voice
photos by Ben Briscoe

It’s been just more than a year since local transgender teen Rochelle Evans made headlines by fighting her school district for the right to be called “she” and to be herself.

Now Evans says this year was even harder than the last.

It all started when Evans’ mom and dad got divorced after her father couldn’t handle the transition from Rodney to Rochelle.

“That was really hard,” Evans said. “But it quickly got worse.”

Evans’s mom, Lenora, lost her job and the family had to move into a one-bedroom apartment because that’s all they could afford. Evans went to live with her mom’s aunt, but there was a catch: She had to come as a male not a female.

“It just felt like I had been teased. As if you know, as if the world had teased me about what I could be,” she said. “I could be this beautiful woman. Stand up on my own. Be who I wanted to be. I could fight my school district with my mom’s support. And to have that ripped away from you hurt a lot.”

Evans and her aunt and uncle struggled over her identity. The conflict got so great that Evans moved two more times and was in and out of school so much that she racked up four months of absences.

When she tried to re-enroll in a Fort Worth Independent School District she couldn’t because she had missed too much school.

But Evans recovered. She’s living with her best friend’s family and is in an academy now and doing well.

“It’s been going great. No bullying from kids. I get along with all the teachers, all the staff. So as far as now, I’m just worried about getting my education,” Evans said.

In fact, education is so important to her that she wakes up every day while it’s still dark outside to ride the bus to school. Having just turned 16, Evans could get a license and drive, but she chooses not to because she wants to have her name legally changed to Rochelle before getting any form of identification.

"I’ve talked to a lot of older transgender men and women, and they all say until you get your name changed and your F for female put on your driver’s license, life is going to be hard,” Evans said. “And with my mom going through her financial hardships, I just haven’t been able to pursue that yet.”

Like any other teen, Evans is obsessed with text messaging her friends and trying to find a job for some extra spending money. But unlike others, employers are turning her down for being transgender.

She’s had several prospective bosses tell her so in a roundabout way and one at a restaurant chain that just bluntly said it.

“That was really like a punch to the face. Like, oh, that hurt,” she said. “But I can move on. It will heal.”

Evans considered legal action but says she wants to put any more lawsuits on hold, at least until summer. That’s because her primary goal right now is doing well enough in school to get a scholarship to Texas Christian University where she wants to major in psychology.

Another hardship this year has been learning how to date as a transgender teenage girl. A situation can get sticky when Evans has to tell guys she’s interested in that she is biologically male.

“Normally they are, ‘Click.’ You know, [they] hang up in [my] face and [I] never hear from them again,” Evans said. “And you know, I can’t really blame them for it. But it still hurts.”

Plus, she always wonders in the back of her head why those who don’t hang up stay on the line.

“It’s just hard too because I feel like a lot of times, I’m a fetish. Men think, ‘Oh, I haven’t tried that before,’” Evans said. “But I’ll get through it. I’ll find that one person. I’m only 16. I’ve got some time.”

For now, Evans is just taking everything day by day.

“Rochelle, she is just having to do a whole lot, just growing up a whole lot by herself,” Lenora said as tears ran down her cheeks. “I’m just proud of her because as always she just succeeds by herself.”

Going Home Again

A hometown visit brings back the struggles of growing up black and transgender.




by Danielle King
Friday, May 23, 2008
From the Washington Blade

I RECENTLY HAD the opportunity to return to my hometown of Camden, N.J., a city relatively unchanged since my childhood.

Camden, at times, has had the dubious distinction of being named the nation’s most dangerous and poverty-stricken city. With a crime rate that rivals larger cities like Atlanta and Detroit, growing up as a “tranny” in the town was no walk in the park. But today I am grateful for all of those experiences that caused me to appreciate growth, look toward the future and reflect upon my past.

I remember the first time I encountered a transgender woman there. She was wearing tattered jeans, a faded shirt exposing her midriff and chalky make-up. I recall being taken aback by her assertive air. She wasn’t the most “passable” trans person, yet she had an unwavering conviction about who she was and how she wanted to be perceived.

She frequently consorted with the vagrants of our neighborhood and her profession was well known. Occasionally, while riding our bikes along the docks of the Delaware River, my friends and I would see her and a “john” parked by a dilapidated industrial building, engaging in what was no doubt the end result of a business transaction.

Over the years I’ve often wondered about her and dreamed that life had cut her a break. Surely someone had offered her a job. Perhaps she’d even found a wonderful partner, married, adopted two kids, a dog and purchased a house surrounded by a white picket fence. But then, I’d always wake up.

AS A PROUD African-American transgender woman, I understand that unless I actively engage in the ongoing fight for equality, a life like the one I dream of for that transgender woman — and for members of the LGBT community, including myself — will remain beyond reach.

Since my youthful days in Camden, I’ve experienced plenty of “awakenings” — piercing looks from passersby who seem to instantly evaluate and dismiss me. There are tense rides on the Metro during rush hour (an event that my friend Tiana calls the “judgment hour”) and I’ve had my fair share of being the subject of giggles and whispers.

But ironically, those events fuel my strong sense of obligation to the LGBT community — a community that I fervently believe will someday collectively see equality unconditionally afforded to us all.

DURING THIS SEASON of Pride, as we reunite with old friends and make new ones, let us not forget our obligation to the entire community throughout the year. Complacency is the enemy of any cause.

In the true spirit of Pride, disregard your own personal level of “passability” and proactively seek to understand the issues that affect all of the members of our community. Be kind to one another and openly affirm who you are and your right to live your life the way you wish to live it.

We must work toward the day when college students in New Jersey are not shot down because of their same-gender-loving affection and 15-year-olds are not slain because of their gender identity. And we must ensure that all transgender women, despite their “passability,” have the opportunity to become gainfully employed.

Until that happy day arrives, we all have much work to do.


TransGriot note: Danielle King is the Classifieds Manager for the Washington Blade

Hillary Puts Her Foot In Her Mouth Again

I used to have a lot of respect for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton before this 2008 presidential campaign cycle started. But whatever thin layer of it I had for her died Friday when she alluded to the June 1968 assassination of Robert F. Kennedy as one of the reasons she's staying in the race.

Never mind the fact that it's been one anxiety ridden thought in the back of many African-American minds along with many Obama supporters throughout this campaign. One commenter on my Obama rally post alluded to it when I talked about the security layer I had to navigate before I was even allowed to enter the hall for a recent Obama rally here in Louisville.

Sen. Obama received Secret Service protection in May 2007, earlier than any candidate in history with the exception of Sen. Clinton herself, who as a former First Lady continues to receive it.

We African-Americans were already pissed about Mike Huckabee's gun joke at the just concluded National Rifle Association convention here in Da Ville.



Now Sen. Clinton, in the wake of the Huckabbe comment, brings up RFK less than a week away from the 40th anniversary of his June 5 assassination. In a statement released yesterday, Obama campaign spokesperson Bill Burton said, "Senator Clinton's statement before the Argus Leader editorial board was unfortunate and has no place in this campaign."

Sen. Obama was campaigning in Puerto Rico, and had this to say on Radio Isla Puerto Rico about Sen. Clinton's remark. "I have learned that when you are campaigning for as many months as Senator Clinton and I have been campaigning, sometimes you get careless in terms of the statements that you make and I think that is what happened here. Senator Clinton says that she did not intend any offense by it and I will take her at her word on that."

Assassination is not something to be joked about or commented on lightly. There are more than a few unhinged folks who would love to make what Sen. Clinton alluded to a reality. I've heard too many rumblings on the Freeper/batshit crazy end of the Net that we have to 'do something to stop the n----r for taking office.'

Robert F. Kennedy was the 1968 version of Sen. Obama in terms of the popularity and cross cultural appeal of his campaign and his promise to end the Vietnam War if elected, but was more analagous to Sen. Clinton in terms of his chances of winning the nomination.

After winning the June 4 California primary election, he was preparing for a Democratic convention nomination battle with Vice President Hubert Humphrey at the upcoming convention in Chicago.



Part 2 of the Kennedy California victory speech



Part 3 of Kennedy victory speech



Part 4



But an asssassin's bullet just after midnight at Los Angeles' Ambassador Hotel changed all that. Assassinations are history altering events. Can you imagine just how different our country would be if John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Dr. King and Robert Kennedy were still alive?

At any rate, this is just another example that she's far from being 'ready on Day One' to run this country and that Sen. Obama will be.

HBCU's, When AreY'all Gonna Stamp Out Homophobia On Campus?

Morehouse College in Atlanta has the gravitas and justified pride in being the only all-male HBCU (historically Black college and university). It has produced distinguished alumni such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., filmmaker Spike Lee and NAACP head Julian Bond. It also has a thriving gay subculture, as was alluded to in Spike's movie School Daze.



But it also has another reputation it didn't want: It's been listed since the mid 90's in the Princeton Review's Top 20 Homophobic Schools.

I was heartened to see that Morehouse at the urging of influential alums and students is taking steps to grapple with this issue. Senior student Michael Brewer and Morehouse Safe Space recently organized activities during the week of April 21-28 that started with a film created by three students at neighboring women's HBCU Spelman College called 'No Heteros'.

The film documents the experiences of GLBT students on both campuses. The 'No More No Homos Week'activities were designed to trigger a discussion on sexual orientation discrimination and homophobia not only on campus but in the African-American community at large.

It definitely needed to do so in the wake of an ugly November 3, 2002 incident. Sophomore student Aaron Price received a 10 year sentence for beating a fellow student with a baseball bat because he thought the man was making a sexual advance at him. The victim of the attack didn't have on his glasses and stared to verify if Price was his roommate.

But Morehouse isn't alone in having a problem with homophobia on campus. Keith Boykin recounts in his blog a 2006 speaking engagement at Dayton, Ohio's Central State University that turned into an ugly mess.

One of the ongoing missions for Black colleges is to not only uplift the race by molding quality young men and women, but to serve as our community's sword and shield to dispel and disprove negative shade that segregationists and our detractors hurled at us. Since back in the day being gay had a negative context, any rumors of it on HBCU campuses were loudly debunked as the gay students on those campuses were put in a confining 'don't ask, don't tell' straitjacket in which violation of this unwritten rule would merit swift and sometimes violent disapproval.

But with more African-American GLBT students being openly proud of who they are, those who wish to pursue their educations on HBCU campuses still find that the unwritten 'don't ask, don't tell' rule is in full effect on many of these campuses. If they wish to matriculate at a GLBT-friendly college, most of the time their options narrowed to attending a predominately white one or going back into the closet to attend an HBCU.

It's also depressing to note that in the Campus Climate indexes put out by Campus Pride not one HBCU as of yet in the ones I've reviewed have taken the time to fill out the survey so that they can be ranked.

But thanks to a determined group of young Black GLBT people, many of them are paving the way to broaden the choices for these students. Like Michael Brewer and Morehouse Safe Space, they are getting HBCU's to begin dialogues about the issues and starting on campus GLBT support organizations. They are also making the point that being Black and GLBT are not mutually exclusive or separate identities.

But they also need to get the conservative administrations of many of these HBCU campuses to end their silence and speak up about these issues as well. Too many times, silence from the administration is interpreted as non-support by the GLBT students and an open invitation to the bigots to harass them.

HBCU's have a special mission and a long history of producing quality individuals who have pride in our communities and themselves. Three members of my own family and others in my extended family graduated from various HBCU's. The famous United Negro College Fund tag line 'A mind is a terrible thing to waste' also includes GLBT African-American people as well. Some of them are also alumni of HBCU's, and it's past time for HBCU's to make room at the table for our portion of the African-American family.

And one prerequisite for having GLBT people on campus is providing a safe environment where they feel comfortable enough to where they can focus on getting their educations.

What's In A Transperson's Name?

When a mother is pregnant with her child, one of the things that they think long and hard about during their pregnancy as soon as they have a general idea of the presumed gender of the child is the name.

African-American mothers, as descendants of Africans, realize that there's great importance to the name you choose for your child. It says a lot about the individual, their family and their connection to the community at large.

They spend a lot of time carefully putting together combinations of names, poring through various baby name books, and considering various factors in consultation with the father and sometimes the soon to be grandparents before coming up with that combination of three names that gets entered onto your birth certificate soon after you exit the birth canal and enter the world.

Names carry a lot of weight in our binary gendered society, and transpeople know this reality all too well. It's why one of the first things we do when we finally start making those moves to transition is choosing a name that accurately represents who we are. It's one reason why our fundamentalist enemies spend so much time making it hard for us to legally change our names and the gender markers to go with those names.

I believe that some of the negative friction that happens between transpeople and their mothers is fueled in one small way by the fact that many of us unilaterally choose our new names as part of the process.

Granted, some of that friction is caused by the parents rejecting their child in the early wake of the child's announcement of their wish to transition. But sometimes when we logically paint the worst-case scenario for transition and presume that we're going to get cut off from our immediate family's love and it doesn't happen, then I submit that one way to facilitate bonding of our families into the transition process is to allow them that input in the name change decision.

One of the things I would do differently in my own transition if I got the chance to start it over again would be to give my mother and my baby sister some input in choosing my new name. My brother and I got some input in choosing my baby sister's name, so I should have done the same and allowed sis some input in choosing my new one just to be fair.

One mild issue with my intersex roommate and her mother was that when it was time to choose a name that matched her new femme presentation, she went a different direction than choosing the feminine derivative of her old male name she was given at birth by mom. As V's mother saw it and told me in a phone conversation we'd had, she was hurt that her daughter didn't go that route. Some mothers see it rightly or wrongly as a rejection of them.

When I was going through the process of choosing my new femme name, I definitely wanted to keep my MKR initials, since they were my link not only to my family, but mom as well. I also decided to choose a feminine name which would have been popular during the decade I was born. I'd been to far too many gender conferences and attended gender group meetings in which 20-something, 30-something, 40-something, 50-something, and 60-something year old transwomen were running around with or had changed them to currently popular names of the 80's, 90's and 2K's that really didn't fit the person that was standing before me.

I knew too many people in the transgender community back home that had the feminine derivative of my old name and wanted to find another feminine name starting with M. I'd already settled on my middle name starting with K, which was a combination of the first and middle names of a female cousin who is more like a sister to me and I spent a lot of time in her and her two sisters lives on one level or another.

I then thought about the qualities I associated with various feminine names, and the name that I thought best fit the woman I was evolving into and wanted to project to the world while sticking to my 'it had to start with M' prerequisite.

One name that popped into my head as I was trying out various 'M' names with the femme middle name I'd chosen for myself was Monica. Most of the Monica's I'd grown up with or gotten to know were classy, smart, talented and beautiful women. I liked the name even more when I read one definition for it.

Possibly (Greek) "solitary" or (Latin) "to advise; nun". Saint Monica, the mother of Saint Augustine, prayed for her son and saved him from self-destruction. As a result, Saint Augustine became one of the greatest saints in history. The name is popular with Catholics.

As an activist, writer and blogger I definitely do a lot of advising. Writing tends to be a solitary activity along with my tendency to engage in a lot of solitary thinking. Some of the work I'm trying to do is along the lines of getting transwomen to avoid self-destructive things and behaviors. My spirituality is a major component of who I am as a person. I'm happiest when I'm either writing or curled up with a good book, and I'm a Phenomenal Transwoman to boot.


That's how I arrived at my new name. It not only seems to fit quite well with who I am, who the people that meet me see and the woman I'm continually evolving to be, I'm comfortable with it as well.

If you sat ten different transpeople down and asked them how and why they chose their name, you'd get ten different answers as to how they conducted the thought processes or the myriad reasons that eventually led to their new name. It's why we transpeople go off on the media so much when they disrespect us by putting our new names in quotation marks or parentheses or don't use the proper pronouns in describing us in various news stories.

We go through a lot just to get to the point where we not only evolve to become the persons we are, but thinking about the various ancillary aspects of manhood and womanhood.

So what's in a transperson's name? Plenty of hard, solid thinking, blood, toil, drama, sweat, tears, hope, history, roller coaster emotions and prayerful consideration that it will lead to the respect that we demand for ourselves and from others in the world around us.



TransGrior Note: women in photos are actress Monica Calhoun and singer Monica Arnold

Why We Need Black Colleges

By Kevin McGhee -- Black College Wire
Posted May. 07, 2008
The Clarion, Lincoln University (MO)


There has been much talk about whether there is a continued need for historically black bolleges and universities. Most agree that they played an instrumental role in the development and integration of blacks into American society, but now, some say our society has matured past the point of needing these institutions.

Lincoln University, then called Lincoln Institute, was established by the 62nd United States Colored Infantry after the Civil War and stands as a testament to black people’s resolve and forward thinking. It is a pillar in the capitol of Missouri that stands for change. This was also evident in 1954 when Lincoln University began to allow all qualified students to apply and attend.

One justification for this type of thinking is the decreased enrollment in HBCUs. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, in 1972 over 35 percent of all black students that received a college degree received them from HBCUs. In 2001 that percentage had fallen to under 25 percent. Some say this decrease in enrollment leads to admission purely for the purpose of receiving tuition and aid from the federal government.

Some other arguments are that affirmative action allows blacks better access to majority-white institutions, and that socially Americans have grown to the point that these schools are not needed.

All of these arguments are true and seem to suggest that there is less of a need for HBCUs now than in the past, but there are other issues to consider. According to data from the last census 30 percent of blacks who hold doctorates degrees, 35 percent of black lawyers, 50 percent of Black engineers, and 65 percent of black physicians currently in the field all received their educations from HBCUs.

These Institutions have also helped to shape some of the greatest African American minds of the past and today. Oprah Winfrey graduated from Tennessee State University, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. went to Morehouse College, and Sean “Diddy” Combs attended Howard University. Black colleges produce some of the best and brightest of each generation.

Lincoln is still proud of its foundation as a historically black university. It has value in the community as an institution created after blacks were freed in the United States. Many HBCUs have historical values in their community and in the nation as a whole. For instance, as was shown in the movie The Great Debaters, Wiley College was one of the first Black Colleges to debate a White school.

There are 106 HBCUs in the United States and Virgin Islands. Collectively they enroll more than 370,000 African American students annually. The opportunity to receive a college education would not be available to all these students if it were not for these institutions.

One reason so many black students attend these schools is because they do not meet the requirements to get into the majority-white colleges. This comes from the discrepancy in the education received to that point especially early childhood education. Even those who do well enough to get into those schools are sometimes unable to because of the cost. There is an entire group of people that fall victim to this, but still want an education.

NCES reports that only 18 percent of African American people that are in four-year colleges or universities attend HBCUs. This is a testament to there success. A large portion of today’s black middle class have been HBCU graduates. The continued existence of these schools will help to continue this trend.

Race is a touchy issue for many Americans. Some people feel that to keep these institutions is the perpetuation of the same racial inequality that they were created to overcome. America has come a long way from slavery times, but the job is not done. Statements such as the one Rush Limbaugh made about Donovan McNabb, and Don Imus about the Rutgers University women’s basketball team, is proof that the fight is not over. Even blogs about the Jena 6 showed defined racial lines.

Historically black schools were not built to put up walls. They were built to tear them down, and as long as racism exists in this nation, they will always have a place here.


Kevin McGhee, a student at Lincoln University (Mo.), wrote this article for The Clarion, Lincoln's student newspaper.

The State of The Trinity/Virginia Prince Awards

One of the things I was looking for news wise out of last month's IFGE Conference in Tucson and I look forward to hearing about when an IFGE Conference convenes is who won the Trinity and Virginia Prince Awards.

I didn't find out about the Class of 2008 recipients until after the IFGE conference was over, and only because there was some controversy about Cheryl Ann Costa's acceptance speech remarks.

But my question to the IFGE board is this: If the Trinity and the Virginia Prince are considered the highest honors our community give someone for meritorious service to it, isn't that a newsworthy event we should be shouting from the rooftops?

I was set to write Bilerico and TransGriot blog posts publicizing the award winners. But I can't do that if I don't know who won them in a timely fashion.

I'm also concerned that as a 2006 Trinity winner, I have not had any input or been asked to join whatever committee oversees that process. The fact that we've only had three African-American winners of this award, with none of them African-American transmen speaks volumes as to why I'm concerned about the lack of input. You can't tell me that there aren't people of color who are doing yeoman's work for the transgender community that don't deserve at least some consideration for the Trinity or the Virginia Prince.

Now if the Trinity and Virginia Prince are supposed to be our community's highest award, then I submit that one group of people who definitely need to be in the loop on either choosing them or suggesting worthy candidates for these awards is former Trinity/Virginia Prince winners.

I would also suggest that they automatically get that right for life once they win either award. If we wish to increase the diversity of the winners of this award, it might help to have the only three African-American winners on that panel and other people of color as well.

We also need to do a better job publicizing the award. For example, the NAACP Image Awards get major television exposure, so do the GLAAD Awards. If we're going to dispel the myths our opponents throw at us we need to seize every opportunity for positive publicity or that paints our community in a positive light.

What could be more positive and uplifting than to have your community's heroes and heroines get the publicity they deserve as they win these awards? It doesn't
necessarily have to be a TV awards show, but most definitely a press release and a television camera or a newspaper photographer needed to be on hand trumpeting the awards.

This was a positive news opportunity that was missed, and we definitely needed it in light of the negativity flowing from conservative pundits and fundies concerning the recent Thomas Beattie story, the continuing negative attacks we get from our 'frenemy' Barney Frank, other anti-inclusionary ENDA GLB peeps, and elsewhere from other transgender haters.

While I'm making the case as a Trinity winner for better handling and promotion of this community's signature award, I'm also sounding a warning as well. One of the reasons the NAACP Image Awards were created was because of the lack of diversity in mainstream awards shows. Don't think that transpeople of color haven't noted and aren't happy about the lack of diversity when it comes to choosing these awards. You may find yourself one day looking at an African-American, Asian-Pacific Islander or Latino/Latina version of the Trinity if things don't expeditiously improve diversity wise.

We really can't afford as a community any more to be fumbling positive news ops if we wish to make federal transgender rights coverage in our lifetimes a reality.

Anti-LGBT Violence Up 24%

by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: May 20, 2008 - 3:00 pm ET

(New York City) A report released Tuesday shows that violent attacks on members of the LGBT community nationwide grew by 24 percent in 2007 over the previous year.

The 78-page report was prepared by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs with input from more than 30 of its members across the U.S.

The number of incidents of anti-LGBT violence rose from 1,486 in 2006 to 1,833 in 2007, based on reporting from the exact same reporting regions as the year prior.

Additionally, 2007 had the third highest murder rate in the past 10 years that NCAVP has been compiling the report with murders more than doubling from 10 in 2006 to 21 in 2007.

LGBT people also reported a 61% increase in sexual assaults perpetrated as hate crimes.

Part of the increase is attributed to an increase in the willingness of LGBT people to report hate crimes.

"The fact that more people within the queer community are reporting sexual assaults is a hopeful sign that they are coming out of isolation to heal from trauma. It also demonstrates the positive impact of education and outreach," said Jovida Ross, Executive Director of Community United Against Violence in San Francisco.

The report also notes that the most sizeable increases in anti-LGBT incidents in 2007 occurred in the nation's midsection.

In Michigan the number of reported incidents rose 207 percent to more than 200 attacks.

The report blames the increase in Michigan on a three-year high profile campaign against domestic partnership benefits. In February of 2007, the Michigan Court of Appeals overturned the trial court's holding that public employers may offer domestic partnership benefits. The result has been the loss of benefits, such as health insurance, for thousands in Michigan.

But attacks also rose by 135 percent in Minnesota, 142 percent in Kansas City and 28 percent in Pennsylvania.

National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs report includes higher percentages than those reported by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The FBI includes bias crimes against gays and lesbians in its annual report on although currently there is no federal hate law that includes the LGBT community. The most recent FBI report, released

The Matthew Shepard Act, which would add sexuality to the list of categories covered under federal hate crime law, passed the House in May and the White House threatened to veto it.

In an effort to get around a veto the Senate version tied the measure to the 2008 defense authorization bill. It passed in September (story) and then went to conference where the provision was stripped out.

The FBI report found crimes against members of the gays and lesbians were the third largest reported, at 15.5 percent.

While the FBI report is based on formal complaints to police departments and does not include crimes against transsexuals.

The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs report is based on people who have sought help from member agencies as a result of being victims of crimes.

It is generally believed more people tell peer counselors they have been gay bashed than go to police.

Still, Avy Skolnik, National Programs Coordinator at the New York City Anti-Violence Project cautions that the number of violent anti-LGBT incidents is likely even higher that its statistics show.

"We know that the 2,430 people who called on our organizations in 2007 are only a small fraction of the actual number of LGBT people who experienced bias-motivated violence," said Skolnik.

"Anecdotally, we constantly hear stories of LGBT people surviving abuse - sometimes multiple attacks per day when that violence comes from a fellow student, a neighbor, a co-worker, a landlord, or a boss."

(c)365Gay.com 2008

Izza Lopez Bias Case Moves Forward

CCH
5/20/08
Transgendered Female's Title VII Claim Moves Forward

A federal district court in Texas concluded that a biologically male applicant, living life as a female, stated a viable claim under Title VII for an employer's withdrawal of its job offer ostensibly because she misrepresented her sex during the hiring process. (Lopez v River Oaks Imaging & Diagnostic Group, Inc, SDTex, 91 EPD ¶43,164)

The court rejected the blanket assertion that Title VII offers no protection to transgendered individuals, and in the absence of Fifth Circuit precedent, applied Price Waterhouse v Hopkins, USSCt (49 EPD ¶38,936), which interpreted Title VII's protection to extend to individuals who fail to conform to traditional sex stereotypes. "There is nothing in existing case law setting a point at which a man becomes too effeminate, or a woman becomes too masculine, to warrant protection under Title VII and Price Waterhouse," emphasized the court. Holding otherwise would allow employers and courts to superimpose a classification such as "transsexual" on a plaintiff and then legitimize bias based on the gender nonconformity by formalizing it into a purportedly unprotected classification, cautioned the court.

Since there was enough evidence to defeat both parties' summary judgment motions, the applicant could proceed with her bias claim as a male who failed to conform to traditional male stereotypes, held the court.

New England Trans Pride March Calls for Organizations to Participate

May 20, 2008

(Northampton, MA) The organizers of the first New England Transgender Pride March and Rally invite community organizations to sign up for the June 7 event in Northampton, Massachusetts. "We invite the participation not only of transgender and LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) individuals and groups, but also of schools, businesses, labor unions, religious and civic organizations, and anyone else who supports the equal rights of transgender people," states Marie Ali, one of the coordinators of the march.

Interested organizations throughout the region can register free of charge as a contingent to march with their banner by going to the New England Transgender Pride March website at www.transpridemarch.org.

The march will begin at noon on Saturday, June 7 from Lampron Park/Bridge Street School in Northampton and proceed to a rally downtown from 12:30 to 5:00 p.m. at the Armory Street lot behind Thornes Marketplace. The rally is free, open to the public, and will feature a range of transgender and transgender-supportive speakers and
performers.

Ali adds that people can also support the New England Transgender Pride March by giving financially, becoming a sponsor, or volunteering to help at the event. More information about donating time or money is available on the march's website.

Kentucky Primary Election Day

Today is primary election day in Kentucky. Over the last 72 hours there's been a burst of frenzied activity as candidates walked blocks or shook hands with people at various events, volunteers delivered yard signs, and phone banks were cranked up making calls to sway those undecided voters.

Hillary had an event here at the Fairgrounds last night while Michelle Obama stopped in three cities including Louisville for some last minute events. While he has a large statewide grassroots organization here, and had a rally Sunday at Shawnee Park that featured my gospel singing Houston homegirl Yolanda Adams, this state's going to go for Hillary. It's 90% white, and 47% of those voters are her prime vote getting demographic, white working class non college peeps.

I got up early to cast my ballot for Obama this morning at my precinct, which is housed at the 100 year old Crescent Hill Baptist Church. It's a good Baptist church BTW, not a Southern Bigot Convention one. I beat the crowd because at the time I arrived at 7:10 AM I was only the 15th person in the precinct to vote, but I'm sure there will be far more Democrats voting before it's over. My Crescent Hill area precinct has a 2-1 Democrat/Republican registration ratio. The Republicans are mostly Southern Baptist Seminary students.

Dawn is our chief election judge, so she bounced out of the house a little after 5 AM EDT in order to get the polling place open at 6 AM. I'm gonna crash for a while because the polls here don't close until 6 PM and she's stuck there until they close. I have a feeling I'll be making some lunch runs before this day is over.

Speaking of over, even though Hillary's projected to win here, the script is flipped in Oregon. Whatever delegates she gets here will be cancelled out by the delegate haul Barack gets in Oregon. The best news is that after tonight Barack is going to clinch the majority of pledged delegates despite what Clintonian fuzzy math and her protestations that this race isn't over.

You can't spin math or this large crowd that showed up at this rally in Portland, OR.



It's over Hillary. The obese singer began singing arias when John Edwards endorsed Obama even after you won by 41 points in West Virginia. What you're doing is akin to a basketball team making three pointers late in the fourth quarter after you couldn't buy a basket in the first half, and are hurriedly trying to make the final margin of defeat look palatable.

Even Bush and McCain acknowledged the obvious and have started tag team attacks on him. In the meantime Sen. Obama just keeps campaigning and connecting with all segments of the US population, like he's doing at this Montana event with the Crow Nation.



Besides the battle between Obama and Clinton on the Democratic side, we're also choosing who will be our nominee to oppose Sen. Mitch McConnell. On the Repugnican side Anne Throwup (oops Northup) is trying to make a comeback after her failed challenge to former governor Ernie Fletcher last year. She's in a four person race to see who's is going to be the Republican candidate to take on Rep. John Yarmuth. Rep. Yarmuth, to progressive Louisville's great delight, ousted her in 2006 after she held this 3rd District seat with a 2-1 Democratic registration advantage for ten years.

Her secret recipe for holding on to it was shoveling faith based bucks at two local Black megachurches, Canaan and St. Stephen. I was astounded and disgusted after I moved her to discover that this woman had 30% support in the Louisville Black community despite an anti African-American voting record.

Well, time to get some beauty sleep. Looks Like I'll be up for a while tonight watching CNN, KET (Kentucky Educational Television) and the local news stations as well.

ConGRADulations

Yesterday I received an e-mail from my old friend Melinda Bogdanovich concerning the impending graduation of her son Alexander from his Austin area high school on May 31. It triggered memories of my own high school graduation that happened on this date 28 years ago.

Put your calculators down. My 30 year reunion is coming up in 2010.

Although I'm Class of 80, in reality my high school years covered the tail end of the 70's. We only spent a grand total of five months in the 1980's

So when I looked at Alexander's handsome face on his graduation picture, it took me back to that magical month when I (and his Aunt Melanie) were about to hit that milestone day. I'd turned 18. I'd just gotten my license after driving around on my learner's permit for two years. The All Night Senior Party at Astroworld had come and gone and I stayed until the park closed down at 6 AM. I was still pondering who I was going to take to the prom since two of my top five candidates now had boyfriends.

I had mixed emotions at that time. While I was happy on one level that my time in high school was coming to an end and was excited to be moving on to college, there was sadness as well on two levels. Those of us who had spent three years bonding together as 'The Class With Class' were about to go our separate ways and pursue our various dreams. For some peeps, that meant college. For others it was off to the military. And for others they were still trying to sort things out in terms of what direction they wanted their lives to take.

I will never forget seeing all of us in the caps and gowns in our school colors as we excitedly awaited the start of our ceremony at 7 PM. All 700 of us marching into the then Astroarena (now Reliant Arena). The choir singing and the band playing as part of the ceremony with the senior members participating in their caps and gowns.

Listening to our graduation speaker Judge Thomas Routt. Hearing the shouts of joy from the relatives and friends of people when their baby's name was called as they crossed that stage. Tearing up as we started singing our class and school songs. My classmates and I tossing our caps in the air after the benediction was said to close out our ceremony. The endless snapping of photos with various clusters of classmates before we turned in our caps and gowns.

Unfortunately, since ours was on a Tuesday night, we still had to go to school the next morning. (The school year didn't end until the first week of June) The only thing many of us did was go straight home and to bed. We still had other Senior Week events to go through including the prom that Saturday.

It's also ironic when you think about it, the world of May 1980 and the world of May 2008 have some interesting parallels. We'd just had the winter games in Lake Placid, but there was talk of a boycott of the Moscow Games because of the December 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Gas prices had spiked to a horrible $1.49 cents a gallon. We had inflation as a result of the gas spike and President Carter's popularity was plummeting because of the economy and the Iran hostage crisis. We were facing a crossroads presidential election with a charismatic candidate in November that I was going to be eligible to participate in. Texas had an unpopular Republican governor. The 'Disco Sucks' movement was gaining momentum.

Hmm, the more things change, the more things stay the same.

So to the Class of 2008, congratulations. Whether you're moving on to the next level of your educational careers or leaving college for the working world, may your dreams come true and you have a smooth and relatively pothole free road to success.

And the other issue that was bothering me at the time? Well, you know.

Easy Pickin’s Protesting In The Big Easy

Guest Post by Vanessa Edwards Foster
From the Trans Political Blog

“When an individual is protesting society's refusal to acknowledge his dignity as a human being, his very act of protest confers dignity on him.” — Bayard Rustin, Civil Rights Movement & Gay Activist

“Well, I saw the HRC sign and I thought “what’s this about?” and had to come over here and see. I don’t like HRC either, which is why I never donate to them! I just want to say I support you – you go, girl!” That was a quote from a gay man from Lapanto, Arkansas who had just returned from a cruise with two lesbian friends from there and happened to be staying in the hotel directly across the street from the Intercontinental Hotel in New Orleans as the Human Rights Campaign banquet began Sunday afternoon.

He watched us for a while, went back to the hotel, then came down a half hour later and helped us protest HRC. He also liked some of the raunchy, loud rock – like Linkin Park – which I was blaring from my boombox.

As it turns out, the boombox music worked well. It was very ugly, angry and possibly abrasive to the ear. But it accomplished what I had wanted: drawing the attention, expressing the mood and doing it all without us saying one word. No cheers, no chants, no shouting matches with attendees – and most pointedly, no words that the HRC people will then use to blast us and justify their marginalization of us later.

It’s also distinctly trans music – not of the typical gay disco, dance, diva or even show tune fare that typically is the choice of gay and lesbian America. It’s the stuff that typically is heard blaring from the jukeboxes of what’s affectionately known as “tranny hooker” bars.

An additional bonus to the music was a surprise: we got a number of thumbs-ups and supporters who either liked the music (some of the Buffalo Soldiers contingent in town for a get together, as well as Gen X & Y types who were also enjoying!) even support from the riders on the passing trolleys. It was quite the spectacle!

“I don’t get it. Why would they do that? They’re wacked! That’s not being equal.” Such was the quote from a very polite young junior high-aged teen, replete with longish blonde hair, braces and a Bob Marley T-shirt upon hearing why we were protesting HRC. Truth told, he appeared drawn as much for the Korn song playing as our signs and protest march.

As I explained to him who we transgenders were, who HRC was, what they’ve done historically and how “equality” isn’t equal to all people, I watched his young face watching me and noted a seeming androgyny. I’ll never know if his curiosity was more than just cursory. One thing I did note was he was very diligent in his learning, was patient to listen to the entire story and even thanked me for the information.

Indeed we reached at least one youth (as well as loose gaggles of other teens and/or young adults who passed by).

And those were just two of the folks among the numerous curious who asked. Two of the MCC ministers who volunteered for the HRC banquet came out, got a full education from protesters Phyllis Austin and Kelli Busey (who rode down from Dallas). There were hugs all around and animated chat as well as some new local connections made or renewed by both local girls, Phyllis and Courtney Sharp. One of the ministers who wore his “equal sign” pin removed it!

Another older woman engaged Courtney in explaining her reasons for protesting the banquet. When Courtney explained, the woman asked “are you against transgenders?” Obviously Courtney replied to the contrary, and the woman answered “good! Because I was about to protest YOU if you were!”

Of course we had security running around monitoring us nervously, but there was one big distinction this protest: there was NO police presence! We somehow managed to get the drop on them before they had chance to react (either that or they couldn’t convince the NOPD that the handful of tranny protesters was worth expending resources and manpower on.) Oh, the menace of transgenders ….

“[T]he Gay Elite condemns them and others to death because of our obsessive need to be seen as the Morally Superior Victimized Minority.” — Tammy Bruce, columnist for FrontPageMag

Some of the most memorable items: one black, obviously gay male in a red and white striped shirt talking frantically on a cell phone walking out and giving a head count of the protesters and asking what could be done about us. It was satisfying to see the unnerving.

One of the hotel’s patrons walking by and yelling at me to “turn that shit off!” while the Geto Boys blasted “F*ck ‘Em All!” from the boombox. He clearly wasn’t into our musical choice!

One apparently conservative guy who asked me about the protest and offered support for our protest – but then asked why I was supporting transgenders: “you’re not one of them, are you?” When I assured him I was (including the part about my football days), he stood agape giving the once over a few times. He then gave me a little compliment, wished me “good luck” and walked back across the street rubbing his chin and looking like I hurt his feelings. Poor guy – at least he supported us!

And of course the banquet-goers themselves: nervous people with fast walks averting eye contact with a fixed-straight myopic stare, the cold-hearted elite glares and smug eye-rolling glances and those few who gave physical flinches at both the sign messages and the raunch music with looks of shock and, yes, a few pained expressions. It is painful, and it’s admittedly not a great thing to sate oneself with others pain.

In the case of the Human Rights Campaign, though, it’s collateral damage that has to be factored and accepted into the equation. Sadly, that’s the only option other than our giving up completely and being obliterated. Not only does HRC not care to know about trans people nor the irreparable pain they’ve inflicted, they actively engage in continuing the damage and increasing the intensity.

As with Rep. Barney Frank, HRC takes continuing pleasure in watching the havoc from the chaos they create for us with their strategies, manipulation and implementation. They delight in watching us learn to mistrust our own community by their own selective wedging operations and externally assisted classism. They practically pee their pants laughing at the disenfranchisement, unemployment, economic tragedy and vulnerability they create for us with their own empty promises.

And they will continue this pattern.

They have the money, most all the media and certainly the power: there’s nothing to stop them, and everything to gain by continuing the damage to the trans community. The only way they will learn what we’re feeling is when they have to live with the same pain, the same fear, the same desperation and to feel the effects of the same type of damage.

Money, power and attention (and increasing all three for themselves) is their only desire. Only once those have been impacted will they make “attempts” to come around – even if true reconciliation never comes.

Meanwhile, we make impact … as we did with the last inquiry: a modelesque twenty-something with her equally attractive boyfriend. She was going into the restaurant across the street with her beau and (after seeing our signs) felt compelled to ask us why we were protesting HRC as she had attended their banquet at the Ritz-Carlton the year before. “I’m confused. Why would you protest [HRC]?”

We enlightened her completely on “equality” as opposed to everyone being equal, to which she replied: “Well that sucks! Thank you for letting me know that!” Control that damage, HRC.

The lies, the hurt, the pain, the hate
Really keep fucking with me –
There's no where else to go.” — Korn, Embrace

California Supreme Court’s Ruling On Gay Marriage A Benefit To Everyone

By: H. Alexander Robinson, NBJC CEO
16 May 08 12:00 AM EDT

Yesterday the California Supreme Court handed down a historic decision upholding the freedom granting hundreds of thousands of residents in the state of California the freedom to marry the person that they love.

The state Supreme Court ruled in favor of legalizing unions between people of the same gender thus affirming decades of progress made within the lesbian, gay bisexual and transgender (LGBT) movement in the state of California.

The second state high court to rule in favor of ending the exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage said, "in view of the substance and significance of the fundamental constitutional right to form a family relationship, the California Constitution properly must be interpreted to guarantee this basic civil right [marriage] to all Californians, whether gay or heterosexual, and to same-sex couples as well as to opposite-sex couples."

Having grown up in the segregated south, I have witnessed and experienced discrimination and I have witnessed and experienced progress, understanding, and change. This decision is a crucial step in realizing the vision of one America, an America that is no longer divided by race, gender, or sexual orientation.

Today we stand at a pivotal point in history. As a black community, we have the unique opportunity of ushering in a new era of social change and progress for another oppressed group.

The shameful history of discrimination faced by African Americans is virtually unparallel in our country. However, discrimination in all its forms is simply wrong and must never be tolerated within our society. To tolerate injustice and discrimination toward gay Americans threatens the very justice for which so many Americans gave their lives.

To not have the right to visit a partner in the hospital, inherit each other's assets, or even be able to draw medical insurance from a spouse's policy is a heartbreaking tragedy that gay men and women must face as a daily reality. It is only through the civil rights of a "marriage" and not a civil union, which provides over 1,000 federal benefits to prevent these disparities from happening.

As black people, we know from our own civil rights history that change does not happen overnight but instead it happens over duration of time.

As we celebrate the memory of our recently departed champion Mildred Loving, let us not forget that it was just 41 years ago next month that the US Supreme Court ruled in the Loving vs. State of Virginia that allowed interracial marriage across every state in the nation.

We must never take for granted the institution of marriage. It is a sacred expression of love. Regardless of who you love, the rights to marry should always be an option.

Many object to marriage for same gender couples based on history or religious beliefs. Two things are clear. First, the Court's ruling only applies to the civil institution of marriage and our churches and mosques will remain free to celebrate the unions of their choice.

Second, the Court in citing its ruling 60 years ago in Perez v. Sharp in which it found that "notwithstanding the circumstances that statutory prohibitions on interracial marriage had existed since the founding of the state---makes clear that history along is not invariably an appropriate guide for determining the meaning and cope of this fundamental (state) constitutional guarantee."

The National Black Justice Coalition and the California Conference of the NAACP filed an amicus in support of the rights of same gender couple to marry in the state.

Now the forces of bigotry and discrimination will seek to overturn this ruling by writing discrimination into the California constitution. We must stand against the forces that stand on the wrong side of history.

We must stand against these forces in every state in the union as there multiple ballot initiatives, pending state legislation and court cases waiting to be heard such is the case in the state of Florida/

Finally we should reflect upon the words of Willie L. Brown Jr., Former Mayor of the City of San Francisco, CA who stated that:

"The African-American community has been at the forefront of many struggles to secure rights for disenfranchised groups and communities. On the issue of marriage equality, however, we have not used our voices or resources to mobilize affirmatively. For the most part, we have been silent. It is my belief that this is our fight too. We must stand for equality and dignity for all of our brothers and sisters. The right to marry whomever you choose is a right that should be enjoyed by everyone."

H. Alexander Robinson is Executive Director and CEO of the National Black Justice Coalition, America's only nationwide black lesbian, gay, bisexual and trangender civil rights organization.

Feeling Left Out

Don't get me wrong, I was just as happy as many of you when the California Supreme Court came down on the side of justice Thursday. You have every right to be happy, excited, proud, party hearty or whatever emotion you're feeling as the reality of this historic day and historic decision sinks in.

But the emotions I'm feeling are akin to someone who's not part of the cool kids clique getting to watch from their bedroom window a cool kid clique member neighbor throwing a slammin' party that the non-cool kid outsider can see and hear boisterously blaring next door.

My mood is tempered because I'm thinking about Christie Lee Littleton. She's a Latina transwoman who in 1999 had her 1989 marriage to Mark Littleton tragically invalidated thanks to a retroactive application of DOMA to it by insurance company attorneys. Her name and gender change was invalidated as well.

Why did it happen? To keep her from winning a share of a $2.5 million wrongful death malpractice lawsuit she filed as her late spouse's widow.

I'm bringing this up to remind my GLB bretheren that this landmark victory has come at the cost of the marriage rights for transgender people. Our religious right friends started attacking our legal marriages once they realized that we transgender people blow a Mack truck sized hole in their bogus 'marriage equals a man and a woman' argument they use as a baton to beat up on marriage equality with.

The Law of Unintended Consequences effect of the push for marriage equality has been that some of the anti-marriage equality constitutional amendments that various states hurriedly passed during and after the 2004 election cycle contain prohibitions for transgender people to get married. It also has many transgender people who are in male-female marriages nervously wondering if their own marriages will be the next ones to be invalidated.

Many of us in the transgender community have noted that when it comes to marriage equality, some of you GLB peeps are not accepting 'incremental progress' when it comes to a civil rights issue you desire to have become a reality as expeditiously as possible, but you don't share our urgency to have the same thing happen for a transgender-inclusive ENDA.

In my time working for the passage of inclusive ENDA and hate crimes legislation, I've had the pleasure of meeting and observing many same gender couples. They have been together in loving, long term, stable relationships decades longer than some hetero couples I knew who were 'so in love' back in high school.

It's a travesty that those same gender couples don't have the equivalent access to the thousands of rights that married hetero couples have conferred upon them and take for granted. It's not fair to be penalized tax wise because you love and are spending the rest of your life (hopefully) with someone who just happens to share the same gender as you.

Don't get it twisted. Congratulations! I'm happy for the GLB community and I ain't mad at you. Thursday was a historic day for civil rights.

But I still feel left out of the celebration.

Transgender Marriage Rattles Mexico

Mario del Scororro and Diana Guerrero, a transgendered couple, prepare for their wedding ceremony in Mexico City yesterday. Mario and Diana are the first Mexican transgendered couple to marry in a public ceremony. The couple said they hoped media coverage would pressure Mexico's Congress to pass a law that would let people get sex-change operations in public hospitals and then be able to change their names and genders in public records.

Photograph by : Tomas Bravo, Reuters]


Couple Hopes Publicity Will Spur Law To Allow Sex-Change Operations

Mica Rosenberg, Reuters
Published: Sunday, May 18, 2008
(c) Times Colonist (Victoria) 2008

MEXICO CITY -- A couple who both changed their sex married yesterday in Mexico's first transgender wedding, as the traditionally conservative country loses some of its inhibitions.

Mario del Socorro, formerly Maria, and Diana Guerrero, who used to be Jose, held an austere ceremony for friends and relatives in a community centre.

The couple said they hoped media coverage would pressure Mexico's congress to pass a proposed law that would let people get sex-change operations in public hospitals.


They would then be able to change their names and genders in public records.

"When you are applying for a job and your documents don't coincide with what you look like, you just don't get hired. It's that simple," said del Socorro, 55, who is balding with a wispy goatee and stands several inches shorter than his new bride.

Lawmakers behind the transgender proposal are challenging a swath of conservative customs in largely Catholic Mexico, and in recent years they have been gaining momentum.

In 2006, gay civil unions were legalized in Mexico City and the northern state of Coahuila.

Lawmakers in the capital last year legalized early-term abortions and approved a law allowing terminally ill people to refuse treatment.

The Catholic Church has strongly criticized all of these measures.

Del Socorro and Guerrero got married under their pre-sex change names because the law allowing gay civil unions does not give partners the same benefits as a traditional marriage.

At the ceremony, guests cheered the teary-eyed groom and beaming bride as they cut two tall wedding cakes before a crowd of journalists.

Members of the bride's Catholic family said the couple tried for months to find a priest who would marry them in a church.

"At the end of the day, it's a marriage between a woman and a man, so what's the problem with blessing this union in the eyes of God?" said the bride's sister, Flor Guerrero.

Missing Home Again

Ever since I moved to Louisville, even though I've been here almost seven years, I go through these occasional bouts of homesickness.

Sometimes they can be triggered by the most innocent things. Seeing Houston homeboy Roland Martin on CNN pontificating on some issue, talking to family, watching a sistah from Missouri City winning Miss USA or watching a news report that involves things happening back in H-town.

This bout started when I called up Vanessa and got her cellphone as she was rolling eastbound on I-10 toward New Orleans for the HRC protest. It didn't help that I'd just finished writing a post on my airline days as well and the WNBA season was less than 24 hours from tipping off at the time. While I've done a few road trips already and there are a few more in the near future for me, it's still been almost three years since I last visited home, and that was a mostly drama filled 36 hour visit for my brother's wedding.

So why do I go through this on a regular basis? I've spent most of my life with the exception of the month I lived in Denver for training, the two years in New Orleans and the almost seven years I've lived here residing in Houston.

It's probably because a native Texan and Houstonian's attachment to the 268,581 square mile slice of the United States we call Texas is like nowhere else in the country and it runs deep. Houston being the largest city in Texas also adds another notch or two the pride I feel at being born there.

I think another reason as to why I haven't been able to shake those frequent bouts of homesickness is that I have yet since I moved here been able to take a vacation week in which I get to go home without it being dictated by a ticking clock because I had to fit the trip in a narrow work schedule window. To compound the problem, driving the 1000 miles from Louisville to Houston means I have to leave earlier than I'd like and allow a day for the return trip.

One of the things that I've thought about over the years is that I'd been there so long it was just a given to me that I'd be there until they were lowering my coffin into a six foot hole. It never occurred to me that I'd be put in a position in which I'd have to leave it for a while, and the fact it was reluctantly done eats at me from time to time. The fact that there's distance between me and my beloved hometown, combined with the differences in the cultural quality of life between a city with 2.5 million people versus one with 400,000 has made me belatedly appreciate what I had there.

But those were the lemons I was handed, so I'm trying to make lemonade with them while I'm here. While I'm appreciated and loved by my chosen family up here, the activist community shows me love and seeks me out when they have problems that need solving, it reminds me that I had unfinished 'bidness' at home. Every now and then I get slapped with the 'outsider' tag by some native Louisvillian 'too busy' or too lazy to do anything about their situations except bitch and complain about the people that are trying to improve things for 'errbody' in the Louisville metro area and the state.

While it's been a mixed bag of experiences in Da Ville, to be honest I did need to experience living in another part of the country besides the Lone Star State and the Gulf Coast for a while. The Kentucky Colonel proclamation hanging on my wall along with the back to back awards I've received from organizations up here still reminds me of the fact that the progressive community here values me more than my hometown one did before I left.

But I still miss things that are quintessentially Houston and Texan. Rolling up to Scott Street and grabbing a Frenchy's chicken three-piece and their seasoned Frenchy Fries. Rolling down I-45 to Galveston. Majic 102. Grabbing a bite at Katz's Deli or Niko-Niko's. Montrose and the eclectic nature of it. Chilling in the park at the base of Williams Tower in the Galleria area and the Water Wall. Chilling in Hermann Park. Barbecue. The ride up Texas 71 to Austin when the bluebonnets are blooming. Texas high school football. TSU's Ocean of Soul band. The Coogs. The Ensemble. Rolling up I-45 to Dallas. Rolling west on I-10 to San Antonio. Rolling east on I-10 to visit New Orleans.

Hell, I even miss Mattress Mack's Gallery Furniture commercials.



Oh well, at least I can get Blue Bell Homemade vanilla ice cream up here now.

Another Day, Another Racially Insensitive Republican Remark

TransGriot Note: If there's any doubt that racism in this country is alive and well and that the GOP is the home of the Dixiecrats and closeted (and not so closted) racists, this election campaign will give you all the evidence you need to begin spelling Republican with 'KKK' in the middle of it.

This latest incident garnered my attention because it happened in Greenwood, MS. As many of my longtime TransGriot readers are aware of I'm a Texan and Houstonian by birth, but on my mother's side of the family I've got deep roots in Mississippi. The portions of my extended family that don't live in Jackson or Yazoo City live in and around Greenwood and the nearby town of Itta Bena, home of Mississippi Valley State University.

I spent more than a few summer vacations as a child travelling there with mom, my uncle and my maternal grandparents. So I wasn't a happy camper when I saw this BlackAmericaweb.com story about the insulting e-mail comments directed at Senator David Jordan, who's the rep in the Mississippi State Senate for my family members and the peeps in Leflore, Holmes and Tallahatchie counties. He also sits on the Greenwood City Council.

Greenwood Blacks Outraged at White Councilman Referring to Black Senator as ‘Ole Nigger’
Friday, May 16, 2008
by F. Finley McRae, BlackAmericaWeb.com

Blacks in the small, Mississippi Delta city of Greenwood are seething over a white city councilman's e-mail that referred to a black political leader, who is highly respected statewide, as an "ole nigger."

For many blacks, the e-mail, containing an illogical message about council president David Jordan, 74, who also holds a state senate seat, is a reminder that the vaunted "New South," romanticized by pundits nationwide, may well be a distant dream and perhaps even a myth.

Since Sunday, when the e-mail -- exposed by one of the 15 whites who received it -- and its subsequent furor began attracting statewide national media attention, Greenwood and Leflore County, where it sits, has been bombarded by reactions in the city's newspapers and its talk radio stations.

The e-mail, which Jordan said "is shocking," was sent early last week by John Lee, one of the city's two white Republican councilmen. Since then, Lee has increasingly been scorned and heaped with disdain and contempt by the vast majority of Greenwood's African-American population, according to several residents who asked for anonymity before speaking with BlackAmericaWeb.com. Many blacks are also believed to hold an equal amount of contempt for the other white councilman, John Jennings, who continues to defend the embattled Lee.

In his e-mail, Lee alleged that he "had a long talk after the city council meeting ... with David Jordan. The ole nigger can't understand why the black's (sic) continue to shoot one another. I told him he needed to spend less time with the old people at the Voters League and more time with the young people about getting an education."

Lee's e-mail erroneously claims that Jordan missed an opportunity to help a "big black" who asked him for employment. In fact, according to an outraged Jordan, he had previously employed the young man during several election cycles.

The young man, Lee claimed, told Jordan that he is a rapper. "I told David he missed his chance. He should have told that black boy he should be in school getting his education in order to have a future." Jordan said the "black boy" is a 28-year-old man."

An outraged Jordan, who is also president of the Greenwood Voters League, the political engine which has propelled blacks to growing representation and power since the 1960s, told BlackAmericaWeb.com that "Lee's lying and fabricated a story" which has no factual foundation.

Blacks throughout the city have vowed to demand a public apology from Lee at next Tuesday's council meeting, according to Lee Hall, who hosts the city's only local talk radio show, "Greenwood Morning." He is also the general manager of WGRM, the station that carries "Greenwood Morning" live from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m.

Lee's words, Hall told BlackAmericaWeb.com, have generated a daily discussion via the airwaves. "These words have dominated my show since Sunday because the majority of Greenwood's African-Americans are angry and upset" over his use of them and his refusal to issue a public apology. Hall said blacks expect Lee to openly apologize to Jordan and the other four black council members.

A substantial number of whites, mostly the city's liberals, are also angry with Lee and have called and sent e-mails to the city's newspapers to express their disgust over his choice of words.

Many Greenwood blacks and whites alike are also angry over what they perceive as the disparate punishment meted out to Solomon Osborn, a black juvenile court judge. Osborn was sanctioned early this year by the state's Judicial Performance Commission and will suffer a $48,000 loss in salary and six-month suspension for having said, in a public meeting, that "any black person who believes what white men say in the United States of America is a damned fool."

Jordan has repeatedly called for Lee's resignation. The council's four other blacks have not been as vocal, however. Ronnie Stevenson, the council's vice president, is also reportedly in favor of Lee's resignation. BlackAmericaWeb.com reached two of the five, Tennil Cannon and Taylor Dillard, for comment yesterday.

Both men said they do not know what, if anything, they can do about Lee's comments under laws governing council behavior. Some blacks, however, believe the African-American members could at least draft a statement condemning Lee's use of the n-word and the fabrication Jordan has alleged.

In speaking on WGRM on Sunday, Cannon said, "those words were also meant for me, the other black council members and Greenwood residents." But Dillard, when asked by Hall for a statement, declined to comment, Hall said.

Sheriel Perkins, Greenwood's first black mayor in 140 years, did not respond to repeated calls for comment. Perkins' election in 2005 was challenged by a group of ultra-conservative whites who refused to accept her victory. They claimed to have "found" more than 200 votes allegedly cast for her white opponent. Jordan led a long and exhausting legal campaign that finally resulted in victory for her 18 months later.

When interviewed by BlackAmericaWeb.com, her husband, state Rep. Willie Perkins, said he would support a recall effort against Lee if one were forthcoming. "He should resign," Perkins said. His wife, the mayor, has been mum thus far, according to sources.

Lee, an accountant, when reached by BlackAmericaWeb.com at his office, said he was with a client and thus "could not sit here talking about this in front of" that person.

Willie Perkins, speaking slowly and measuring his words, said, "Lee's statement and presence do not help this community to move forward, which is what we need to do and move past John Lee and the many others here who are like him, but who have not expressed it. We've got to move past that group and continue to work with people of different colors to improve race relations, attract employment and spur economic development," he said.

Regarding Osborn, his disparate treatment and its high cost, Perkins said, "I don't know all the details, so I can't address a judicial complaint against a judge in the same manner, in terms of what should be done in this case." No laws exist, Perkins said, "to force him out of office. I don't know of any laws to prevent people from making remarks of this nature."

Any recall effort would have to be initiated in Lee's district, which is more than 90 percent white and Republican.

That notwithstanding, Jordan said, "he's not going to do the council any good. He's just going to sit in middle of us, the majority of council members, who represent the black community, which is mad as the devil."

Interviewed by BlackAmericaWeb.com at his office, Jennings, the other white Republican councilman and a professional photographer, once again defended Lee.

"You can listen to car stereos at MacDonald's and hear worldwide role-model rappers using the n-word. Am I supposed to laugh? What am I supposed to do? Chris Rock uses it every third word," Lee said. "No matter what we do, everybody defaults to the 'Old South' and says, 'That's Mississippi, what do you expect?'"

Lee, Jennings said, "doesn't have a history of that word. He asked for forgiveness, and Jordan forgave him until he got pressure from Washington," he claimed. Redemption, said Jennings, "is what its all about, not destroying people for making mistakes. If so, we'd never make any progress."

But Jordan, while acknowledging that Lee had asked the other four council members to forgive him and had came to Jordan's home to speak to him, said he told Lee, "I don't want to talk to you. It's best that you leave right now."

Many whites, especially Lee and Jennings, Jordan said, "expect me to forgive and forget, but this is too hurtful." Jordan is now insisting on a public apology from Lee, which he said, his constituents are demanding.

"I forgave him, but black people throughout this city are calling for Lee's head," Jordan said.

Jordan also took strong exception to Jennings' assertion that he was pressured by "Washington" and thus rescinded his apology. "I don't know what he's talking about," Jordan said. "What does he mean, where did he get that?"

Jordan, who was a pupil of the late Mississippi civil rights icon, state NAACP president Dr. Aaron Henry, said that Lee cannot presume "to lecture me over what's best for any of my people. He's got to be out of his mind. I've sued just about everybody and every agency so black people can have a measure of justice and opportunity, led demonstrations, re-organized the Voters League and led it for 43 years."

Jordan's father, Cleveland, a sharecropper, is featured on an album at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. focused on the victories and tribulations suffered by Mississippi's civil rights heroes, along with the beloved Fannie Lou Hammer and Medgar Evers, who was assassinated in Jackson by a Klansman, Byron De La Beckwith, after refusing to abandon his leadership role to gain full equality for African-Americans.

Greenwood is only 10 miles from Money, the little hamlet where 14-year-old Emmet Till, a Chicago teen visiting his grandmother and other relatives, was abducted at 2 a.m. on Aug. 28, 1955, by a group of white men for allegedly looking at and perhaps whistling at a white woman. After beating and hanging Till, the men tossed his disfigured body into the Tallahatchie River. His remains, discovered three days afterward, were viewed by thousands in Chicago.

Within weeks, blacks and whites, full of horror and rage, began to mobilize and propelled the the modern day civil rights movement.

More HRC Events You Can Protest

Here's more HRC sponsored events you can protest:

HRC at the Mystics: Washington Mystics vs. Los Angeles Sparks
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Washington, DC

Trans-Unity Pride
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Los Angeles, CA

Ladies Spectacular at the WNBA Chicago Sky
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Chicago, IL

HRC Equalizers Softball Game
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Nashville, TN

HRC Night with the Indiana Fever
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Indianapolis , IN

2008 HRC Utah Gala Dinner
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Orem, UT

HRC Columbus Gala Dinner 2008
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Columbus, OH

Third Annual HRC Pride Cruise
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
New York, NY

2008 HRC Chicago Gala: Summer Chic
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Chicago, Il

2008 HRC San Francisco Bay Area Gala
Saturday, July 26, 2008
San Francisco, CA

3rd Annual HRC Dinner: Life, Liberty & Pursuit of Equality
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Las Vegas, NV

2008 Twin Cities Gala Dinner
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Minneapolis, MN

9th Annual Pacific Northwest Dinner
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Seattle, WA

2008 HRC National Dinner in Washington DC
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Washington, DC

27th Annual New England Gala Dinner
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Boston, MA

Annual HRC San Antonio Gala Dinner
Saturday, October 25, 2008
San Antonio, TX

Black Tie Dinner, Inc.'s 2008 Dallas/Ft. Worth Gala
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Dallas, TX

The WNBA Season's Starting!

Who cares if the NBA playoffs have reached the conference finals unless you live in Boston, Cleveland, Detroit, New Orleans, San Antonio or LA. Let the real basketball playing begin!

I'm a big basketball fan and love the WNBA. I'm signed up again for the WNBA league broadband pass so I can watch my girls and other WNBA games throughout the season on my computer. I used to have Comets season tickets when I lived in H-town and was in Compaq for the 1997, 1999 and 2000 title games during the Comets dynasty years when they won 'ahem' four consecutive WNBA titles.

I make a road trip to Indianapolis every summer to see my girls play the Indiana Fever, but won't be able to make it this year. I have a previous engagement in Northampton, MA on June 7 when they're scheduled to be in Indy.

Today the WNBA opens its 12th season of play with a marquee matchup between the defending champion Phoenix Mercury and the team that 'errbody's' picking to win it all, the Los Angeles Sparks. But don't think that Diana Taurasi, Cappie Poindexter and the Mercury are just gonna hand the trophy over to their Western Conference rivals. There are a few teams in the Eastern Conference such as the Detroit Shock that may have objections to a premature coronation of the Sparks as WNBA champions as well.

LA hit rock bottom with a 10-24 record last season while their Olympian center Lisa Leslie was on maternity leave. They not only ended up winning the WNBA draft lottery, but got a bonus when Candace Parker decided to forego her last year of eligibility and enter the WNBA draft after her Tennessee Lady Volunteers won their second straight NCAA title.

As for my favorite WNBA team, the Houston Comets, change is in the air as well. In addition to moving to the smaller Reliant Arena, for the first time since the team began play as one of the Original Eight franchises, we won't have Sheryl Swoopes in a Comet uniform. She signed a free agent contract with the Seattle Storm in the offseason. The Comets open the season on the road with the defending Eastern Conference Champions Detroit Shock.

While we still have WNBA All-Star and Olympian Tina Thompson, we've added Rutgers Matee Ajavon and LSU point guard Erica Wright to a squad that along with vets Tamecka Dixon and Mwadi Mabika and centers Michelle Snow and my fellow Cougar Sancho Lyttle has a tantalizing blend of youth and experience for coach Karleen Thompson's squad. I've watched Comets 3rd round pick Crystal Kelly play ball since I moved here and I was saddened to hear she just missed making the Comets opening day roster.

But like the NBA's Western Conference, the WNBA Western Conference is brutal as well. The question for us Comet fans is does this team have not only what it takes for us to be one of the four Western teams to make the playoffs, but celebrate winning a fifth WNBA title when this extended season is over?

In August the league will be taking an Olympic break so that players can join their Olympic squads for the Beijing Games. It'll be interesting to not only see who makes Team USA, but how many of the WNBA players from other countries stay home as their national teams prepare for the Games.

Change is also the word for the rest of the league as well. A new franchise joins the WNBA sorority and brings it back up to 14 teams. The Atlanta Dream will begin their maiden season playing in the Eastern Conference. There are the old faces in new places stories, too. Swin Cash will be joining Sheryl Swoopes and Yolanda Griffith in Seattle after she was traded. Katie Douglas was traded to Indiana. Tamika Whitmore will be wearing a Connecticut Sun uniform this summer. DeLisha Milton-Jones is headed back to LA.

But it's the new crop of rookies that has us WNBA fans excited. In addition to Candace Parker in LA, her Lady Vol teammate Alexis Hornbuckle will be playing for the Detroit Shock. Candice Wiggins will be playing for the Minnesota Lynx. LSU's Sylvia Fowles is Chicago Sky bound. Essence Carson will be playing across the Hudson River for the New York Liberty along with Erlana Larkins of North Carolina. Crystal Langhorne will be playing not too far from College Park, MD for the Washington Mystics.

The major questions in this WNBA season besides who will win the WNBA rookie of the year and make the WNBA All-Star team (no WNBA All-Star game because it's an Olympic year) are can the Phoenix Mercury repeat? Will the Detroit Shock return to the WNBA Finals? How nasty will the Western Conference be this summer? How many games will the Atlanta Glory win? Can the New York Liberty build on their surprise return to the playoffs and make a deeper playoff run in the East? Do the retooled Sparks have too much firepower to be denied a return to championship glory to the disgust of us Comet fans?

'Burp!' So what if I'm drinking Comet red Hateraid for the Sparks? Hey, old rivalries die hard ;)

But seriously, I'm happy to see the WNBA surviving and thriving, especially since they made the move a few years ago to become a separate entity from the parent NBA. It is the longest surviving women's professional sports league in the US and with the increasingly deep talent pool in women's college ball and the inquiries from more than a few cities for WNBA franchises, you'll probably see careful expansion to expand job opportunities for those college players over the next few years according to WNBA commisioner Donna Orender.

The future indeed looks bright for the league, and the new owners are committed along with league mangement and the WNBA Player's Association to ensure that the WNBA is around for its 20th anniversary and beyond to serve as an inspration to another generation of girls and young women.

So let the games begin, and Go Comets!

2008 Olympic Basketball Draw Set

On April 26 FIBA conducted the draw that set the preliminary groups for the upcoming Olympic Games Basketball tournament in Beijing from August 10-24. The USA men's and women's teams learned not only what groups they would be in, but what teams would comprise those groups as well.

On the men's side, preliminary play is scheduled for August 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18, with the quarterfinals action taking place on August 20, the semifinals on August 22 and the men’s gold medal game on August 24.

The 2004 Athens Games bronze medallist will be in Group B and so far they'll have their work cut out for them if they want to bring home the gold. In addition to having the host Chinese (and Yao Ming) in their group, they will have the defending FIBA World Champion Spain, the perennial Africa Zone champs Angola, and two teams yet to be determined after the FIBA World Olympic Qualifying tournament being held July 14-20 in Athens, Greece is completed.

Group A will consist of the defending Olympic champion Argentina, Lithuania, European champion Russia, Australia, Iran and one team that will be determined through the FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament. The men's teams hoping to grab one of the final three Olympic spots at the tournament are Brazil, Canada, Cape Verde, Croatia, Germany, Greece, Korea, Lebanon, New Zealand and Puerto Rico.

On the women's side, the three time defending Olympic champs will be seeking their fourth consecutive Olympic gold medal. Like the men, they'll also be in Group B and have the hosts from China in their group as well. They'll also have Africa Zone champ Mali, New Zealand and two teams that will be determined through the FIBA Women's World Olympic Qualifying Tournament that will take place June 9-15 in Madrid, Spain. The women's teams playing to grab one of those final five spots are Angola, Argentina, Belarus, Brazil, Chinese Taipei, Cuba, Czech Republic, Fiji, Japan, Latvia, Senegal and the host Spaniards.

Group A for the women will consist of the 2004 silver medallist and FIBA world champion Australians, the 2004 bronze medallists Russia, South Korea and three teams from the FIBA Women's World Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

The women's tournament at the Beijing Games will run from Aug 9-23 with preliminary play scheduled for August 9, 11, 13, 15 and 17. The women's quarterfinals action takes place on August 19 and women's semifinals play is slated for Aug. 21. The women's gold medal finals will take place on August 23.

The WNBA will start play May 17 and take a break for the Beijing Games. As of yet the final lineups for the USA men's or women's teams have been set. The men are being coached by Duke's Mike Krzyzewski, the women by Anne Donovan.

Hopefully both teams will be bringing gold medals back to the States when the Beijing Games are concluded.

Big Plans For Big Easy And The Little Equal

Guest Post by Vanessa Edwards Foster
Courtesy Trans Political blog

This will be a short blog post as I’m awaiting my riding buddy coming in from Dallas. Yes, a couple of tranny road warriors will be hitting I-10 shortly, heading east into the Big Easy to help protest the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Banquet. Who knows? Maybe we can draw out the riot squad replete with barricades and horseback crowd-control officers just like Houston?

At first I pondered whether to make a trip over to New Orleans, whose community has been decimated since Katrina and still remains mostly scattered to the four winds. Then my good friend and longtime trans activist, Courtney Sharp, sent the below advertisement for HRC’s New Orleans Entertainment Extravaganza!:

Note how their version of entertainment is having someone in the form of Bianca Del Rio caricaturize women and more particularly the image of gender transgression. Example: transgender! Yes, we trans people (who everyone in Congress and gay-elite-land knows are beyond help in the form of justice or rights) are the perfect fodder for humor for their little tete-a-tete. Yet another reminder how objectified we trans people really are in elite G&L America, and hooray for HRC for reminding us of that again!

You gotta know we’re making gains when they’re back to remembering us in caricatured form again.

Since the HRC has already written off the lion’s share of transgender activists as people to avoid and circumvent, and added a nice little character assassination to top it off, why not make it a self-fulfilling prophecy for them? Certainly when you have nothing to have ever gained, there’s nothing to lose!

More pointedly, HRC in its contemporary version really has no clue what protesters and “loose cannons” are all about. They complain about this now! These folks really have no recollection or awareness of the old days, the Act-Up days, the Stonewall days. In short order after the next congressional session (and maybe sooner), they will. It’s time to give them what they want to portray us as and what they expect – protests and acrimony, venom and voices raised to a pique.

Maybe it’s time to “give the people what they want” … so to speak.

So off to protest in the Big Easy with Kelli Busey and Courtney and the good folks hosting in New Orleans! Then time to hit the French Quarter too! (Hey, you’ve gotta have some diversion to get your mind off of the depression borne from the GLBT politic!)

TransGriot Note: Give 'em hell Ness, Kelly and Courtney! The protests continue. No ENDA No Peace!

Confessions Of A GLBT Airline Employee

The recent Bilerico post concerning my GLBT airline brothers and sisters who've lost their jobs was a deja vu moment for me.

One of my nicknames in the transgender community is the Air Marshal because I worked for 14 years for CAL at IAH.

Oops, drifting into airline speak again.

I was the rapid response team for the transgender community during my early activist years. If we had a problem or needed someone representing us for a short notice protest or board meeting, I got called.

I miss it so much I wrote a novel in 2003 that weaves some of my airline experiences into the plot called On The Wings of Love

I started working for Continental in 1987 during the Frank Lorenzo regime. I remember telling friends after my grandfather passed away in 1984 and had worked 35 years for CAL that I wouldn't be caught dead there while he was running the place. I was upset that the 'Proud Bird with the Golden Tail's' quality reputation, as Continental's ad slogan was back in the day had been sullied by Lorenzo's union busting and heavy-handed diss the employees management style..

But since it was the Reagan years and jobs were scarce I reluctantly took it after resisting the suggestion from my dad for three years because I wanted to start in passenger service, not the ramp. I spent a miserable but fun year on the IAH ramp before I finally got the promotion to passenger service I wanted in June 1988 and subsequently ended up in Denver spending the month of July 1988 at old Stapleton Airport in training.

I loved the international and multicultural aspect of working for an airline. We had people from 40 countries and all 50 states and territories that worked at IAH. That multicultural aspect of our employee base also included GLBT peeps as well.

I also noted that it was consistent throughout the industry when I started non-revving all over the place once my pass privileges kicked in (I miss the Golden Handcuffs, too). As a gate agent and later a CSR and supervisor I got to interact with a lot of GLBT pilots, flight attendants, fellow gate emplyees and supervisors at mine and other carriers.

I also got to interact with GLBT customers, and I'll save those stories for another post.

Because I was the lone African-American on my gates for a few years with the exception of a few supervisors who became my airline mentors, I spent down time between flights in the flight attendant lounge hanging out.with my high school classmate Melanie and other Afriican-Americans. I got to meet some wonderful people and I still laugh about one visit to the company store which at that time before they moved the crew lounge to more spacious digs was down the hall.

I was grabbing snacks and was standing next to a 'family' flight attendant who was playing with a model of a DC-10. He held it in his hand like it was flying in straight level flight for a few seconds then nosedived it into a pile of t-shirts while singsonging the words "Death cruiser." It was a sarcastic nickname they had for the plane that referenced the DC-10's propensity to crash when they first entered airline fleets in the 70's before they fixed the problem. We used to call the A300 Airbus the 'Scarebus' because of the way it rattled like it was going to break apart when you revved the bird up for takeoff.

I saw the effects of the HIV/AIDS crisis reflected in the airline ranks as well. There were more than a few times I popped down in the crew lounge to say hello to some people and was greeted at the door of the crew lounge with a memorial photo and burning candle memorializing another co-worker who lost their battle with AIDS.

Before I transitioned I used to spend a lot of time in Montrose crossdressed . There were more than a few times I'd bounce into Charlie's, the gay-owned 24 hour restaurant and coffee shop in the heart of Houston's gayborhood and run into fellow employees there or at Studio 13, the Black gay hangout. There were also moments in which I had co-workers come out. Every time it happened, I had to ask myself when I was finally going to address my own gender issues and do the same thing they were doing.

I remember when one of my fellow Latina CSR's transferred to Inflight. I used to good naturedly tease Gloria because every time I saw her cute, petite self, she was standing in front of one of the floor length mirrors we had in various breakrooms around the terminal. Her makeup bag was open, not a hair out of place and she'd be applying mascara to those long eyelashes of hers that framed her wide light gray eyes

We'd become good friends over time and she came out a few months later. I was one of the first people she told because I knew her partner as well and she was worried about losing my friendship, I told her I had my own issues and that we were friends for life as she hugged me. Gloria ended up being one of the first people I told about my own transition in 1994. It was interesting to note that when I finally did so, over the next few weeks several people in various departments came out as well.

Since I worked the gates my transition was a very public one. I felt like I was in a fishbowl with 30,000 passengers a day transiting Terminal C at the time, and my co-workers got to watch me morph in front of their very eyes into the Phenomenal Transwoman.

The GLBT ones in and out of the closet welcomed me into the family. There were varying reactions from my straight counterparts. One interesting reaction was the way the guys shunned me for a few weeks, then resumed conversing with me three months later. It was as if I was beig severed from the Masculine Borg collective. The women embraced me almost immediately, and there was one memorable conversation in which I ended up in the breakroom with several sistahs and they laid out the Sistah's Rules of Femininity to me during a 45 minute break between flights. The fundies just tried to proselytize me.

In those early transition days I did a Terminal C listening tour in which I made it clear that anybody who wanted to ask me questions could pull me aside on our breaks and as long as the question wasn't too personal, I'd answer it. I made that same offer to the pilots, Inflight, the mechanics and the ramp as well. It seems like during that first six weeks I had more honest one on one or group conversations with people than I'd had with folks in the previous six years I'd been employed there..

The funniest one was when I had one female co-worker trying to ascertain what my sexual orientation was and asked me if I asked me if I liked women. I brushed her question off by joking, "Yeah, I like women. I like women so much I want to be one." When that led to one of my gay male supervisors pulling me aside after a flight and asking it I was transitioning to become a lesbian, I quickly had to do damage control on that comment.

Another humorous moment was when the late Jerry Falwell made his infamous attack on Teletubbie Tinky-Winky. and every out GLBT pilot and flight attendant in the system responded by putting Tinky Winky key fobs on their roller bags.

There were also not so humorous moments. I flew to DCA in 1998 for my first lobby trip with Vanessa Edwards Foster traveling with me on a buddy pass. I was still in the process of getting my work records changed to reflect my new name and my company ID already had Monica on it. I was in a great mood because it was my first trip to DC and I was feeling good after being on the Hill for two days (before i found out we'd been sabotaged by HRC a year later).

The African-American gate agent I showed my ID to, when it was time for me to pick up our seats for the return trip to Houston embarrassed and angered me by using my old name on the PA in a crowded gate lounge, in effect outing me to the entire lobby. He ended up issuing a written apology to me a few days later when i wrote up the incident for my supervisor and his GM.

The same thing happened to me in LA in 1999. This one exposed me to some jerks on the flight walking by my aisle seat and repeatedly calling me 'faggot' as I was still fuming about not only being outed again, but this time being erroneously bumped off the 7 AM PDT LAX-IAH trip. I couldn't retaliate because I was in uniform and heading back to work when I arrived at IAH.

I also used my passes to check out GLBT venues in other cities. I hung out at Club Peanuts on Santa Monica Blvd at Club Peanuts one Tuesday night and ran into a few actors enjoying on the down low the company of the T-girls hanging out there. So I wasn't surprised by the news of a certain comedian being pulled over on that street with a T-girl in his vehicle.

There was one night I was in the Village with Dana Turner and we were talking about transgender related community business during a drag show at One Potato, Two Potato. The manager actually walked over to us and asked us to be quiet because we 'were disturbing the (lousy) drag performer on stage. Me and Dana did double takes, then she replied to the manager, "Since when did this become Lincoln mother----ing Center?"

One thing I do miss about my airline days besides the travel, the flexible schedule, the money and the other perks that go along with it is that every workday was different. One day you'd be checking in a celebrity or politician, the next some sweet senior citizen taking a trip to see her grandkids, a couple on their honeymoon.or a kid heading off to college or military boot camp.

We were a family, no matter if you worked in LAX, EWR, CLE, ORD, IAH or some outstation with four flights a day. You were also connected to other airline people internationally as well not only at your own carrier, but others worldwide. We had airlne specific softball, volleyball and basketball tournaments, 5 and 10K runs in various spots on the globe and picnics in various places. The world was basically your playground and with airline passes, you could see any concert, attend any sporting event and any conference no matter where it was held. All you had to do was trade for the days off.

Oh yeah, we also had some slammin' parties, too. Some airline peeps can drink and eat twice their weight in food and alcoholic beverages. I also noted the irony that as many hetero airline couples marriages were crumbling because of AIDS (Airline Induced Divorce Syndrome) the GLBT airline couples I knew had been together up to a decade or more.

But yeah, I do miss the airline industry and I'm saddened that it's going through another round of consolidation and contraction that's going to cost a lot of good people some very nice well paying jobs.

But mine was fun while it lasted.

The Civil Rights Battle Moves From The Streets To The Internet

By Heather Faison, NNPA Special Correspondent
May 12, 2008

PHILADELPHIA (NNPA) - One of the most important e-mails to land in Kourtney Addison's inbox was seconds away from being cyber trash.

As her eyes scrolled down the computer screen, the forwarded message read like a scene from a Jim Crow-era documentary. A tree that only Whites could sit under, nooses hung in a schoolyard, a Black teen facing a 22-year sentence for beating a White classmate.

Immediately, she thought it was a joke. "It just seemed so unreal," she recalled of the story later known as the Jena Six.

"It was just blatant racism."

Wearing a white T-shirt with the words "Free The Jena 6" painted in red block letters, the Temple University sophomore joined more than 700 students in a demonstration in front of City Hall last September. It was Addison's first protest. As she pumped her fist in the air letting her oversized cowry shell bracelet drop to her elbow, the 19-year-old was brought to tears by the passion displayed by her peers and the realization that "Dr. King's dream had not been fully realized yet."

The events of last year - the Jena Six protest, the firing of racist disc jockey Don Imus and the campaign for Genarlow Wilson, a Georgia teen sentenced to prison for consensual sex with a White classmate - resulted in a rebirth of political activism among African-Americans, unseen in recent years.

Many have wondered who is behind this surge. The leader of this movement is not on CNN or holding press conferences on the evening news. This revolution will not be televised - but you may find it in your e-mail.

Today's generation is turning technology into activism and using the Internet as a tool to carry its messages. With social media sites and e-mail blasts, a story about an injustice can be sent to millions in one mouse-click, garnering support en masse.

"The early Civil Rights Movement had the mimeograph and the Black press. Today, we have e-mail, blogs, text messaging, online petitions, instant messaging, social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace," said Chris Rabb, Philadelphia-based Netroots activist.

Netroots (taken from Internet and grassroots) was coined after Internet users ignited the campaign of 2004 presidential candidate Howard Dean through mass e-mails and blogs, bringing him national support and millions in fundraising dollars. Netroots uses the Internet as a platform to voice opinions and draw online users to a particular cause.

Though Netroots activism for African Americans is nascent, says Rabb, "it is by no means a fad."

Through grassroots petition signing and e-mail campaigns, these online activists raised the profiles of stories such as the Sean Bell shooting, long before the media or Black leaders noticed. Cutting no slack for offenders regardless of race, these individuals successfully challenged BET networks' negative portrayal of African-Americans and have exposed the faults of Black leaders in their candid blog commentaries.

"Black activists Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are pimping the 'man' in the name of civil rights," read a tongue-in-cheek entry from blogger, The Field Negro.

The mobilization strength of African-American bloggers has been the force behind this movement. These individuals share their views and social commentaries on blog sites that allow readers to comment, e-mail or link stories to other sites. While most blogs are created for leisure and better reflect an online diary, a group of bloggers known as the Afrosphere is dedicating its efforts to the progress of African-Americans. This pool of activists successfully motivates its readers to political participation, says Antoinette Pole, a political science professor at Southern Connecticut State University.

In her study "Black Bloggers and the Blogosphere," which was the first academic examination of this group, Pole found that Black bloggers had a greater desire and ability to encourage readers towards social awareness issues moreso than their White counterparts. Most Black bloggers used their sites to engage political activism by suggesting readers: vote or register to vote in elections, sign petitions supporting a cause, attend a rally or protest and donate to charitable causes.

Since Pole's November 2005 study, which is included in her upcoming book exploring political participation among bloggers, Black bloggers have grown from a sparse group and have situated themselves at the forefront of civil rights activism.

The number of Black-operated blogs is growing daily with 900 tracked in March by Electric Villager's Black Blog Rankings (BBR). A giant leap from the 75 blogs accounted for in September 2007.

The sites in the Top Ten Black Blog rankings attract an average of 500 visitors daily.

This network has used its heft to rally around social causes and draw the nation's attention to overlooked injustices, such as in the town of the once little-known Jena.

Though many have vied for credit, the organization of the mammoth descent in Jena was the property of Black bloggers, wrote Raquel Christie of the American Journalism Review in the first assessment of the media's response to the story. For months after the fight involving the Jena High School students now known as the Jena Six, the media and traditional civil rights organizations were silent.

While the mainstream media trailed in their coverage - even after Chicago Tribune reporter Howard Witt broke the story nationally - and Black leaders stood oblivious to the Deep South injustice, a network of bloggers and Internet-based civil rights organizations reportedly galvanized more than 220,000 people who signed online petitions and contributed more than $130,000 to the legal defense fund in support of the teenagers months before the protest.

James Rucker, co-founder of colorofchange.org, says his group helped set up the fund and organized a "blog-in" where thousands of interlinked bloggers wrote solely about the story for one day to focus their readers' attentions to the case.

Playing catch-up along with the media, the Rev. Al Sharpton said it was through the Internet that he found out about the Jena Six story.

The influence of Black bloggers was first realized when their online petitions brought national attention to the case of 14-year-old Shaquanda Cotton who was sentenced to seven years in prison for shoving a school hall monitor in Paris, Texas. Citing racial discrimination, bloggers called a "Day of Action" where they united under the cause and simultaneously posted stories solely about Cotton's case. The bloggers and their readers began flooding the Texas governor and Texas prison authority with letters and holding protests in front of the courthouse. Their collective effort resulted in Cotton's release and an examination of the Texas juvenile justice system.

"That one issue kind of coalesced everyone around one central issue; that's when we began to link to one another," says Shawn Williams, creator of the blog Dallas South, which is based in Dallas, Texas. "Before that we were all sort of blogging in our own worlds."

Cotton's story was the catalyst for what would become the Afrospear, says Williams, which is a blog site for discussion among all bloggers in African Diaspora, to share ideas and plan solutions.

The diverse landscape of the Afrosphere mirrors a movement that transcends labels of class, gender and partisanship. These bloggers discuss a range of insights from conservative politics (Jack and Jill Politics) to Black misogyny (What About Our Daughters) to gay rights (The Republic of T) and are airing out topics once reserved for barber shops and sister circles.

Little technical skill is required to start a blog or engage in the conversations. Compared to the preparation and training needed during the Civil Rights Movement, activists today can fight injustice without extensive knowledge and with little time commitment, allowing everyone to make a contribution, says Rucker.

This culture of inclusion bodes well for closing the digital divide in which African Americans are statistically behind in Internet use and access.

"An increasing percentage of civic-minded Black people are becoming more and more web savvy," observed Rabb. "At the same time there is a proliferation of web-based resources and other technologies that make it free, easy and powerful for private citizens to amplify their voices and impact in ways unimaginable even during the dot-com craze a decade ago."

After the Jena Six protest there was an eagerness to coin this political drive the "new civil rights movement." Though flattered by the comparison, many bloggers avoid that moniker saying that it "puts them in a box" too concentrated on the ways of the past. One precedent they defy in the Afrosphere is the old-age idea that a movement requires a chosen leader.

"There's no one persona or personality that's kind of at the center of things," says Rucker. "I think hopefully we're able to move beyond centralized personality-based leadership that has plagued us in the past."

Many bloggers write under an alias to maintain anonymity, which Rabb likens to the Underground Railroad agents who could conduct their missions without ever meeting face-to-face.

This "faceless" leadership is especially appealing to youth who are discovering their voices through Netroots activism. While civil rights veterans are toiling over how this generation would fall in line with the rules set by their forbearers, they have overlooked a charge already in progress.

"The movement may not be as visible as it was in the '60s, but that's because the issues we face are not as visible. Racism and things of that nature are institutionalized now," says Addison.

The events that unfolded last year struck a cord with those in a younger generation, specifically Generation Y, igniting a display of activism and pride. The stories of Mychal Bell (the face of the Jena Six), Genarlow Wilson and the young women of the Rutgers University basketball team, who were object of Imus' verbal attack, resonated with younger generations. In those cases the victims were the same age as their best friends and classmates, which made them realize that the fight was no longer just their parents'.

For a generation that was introduced to a computer before a pen and a pad, this movement has come to Generation Y's favorite hangout spot - the Internet. The popular social network Web site Facebook has been instrumental in helping young activists share their opinions with peers and brand their own causes.

When a group of Temple students wanted a Black student union to bridge the gap with the community and create a support system for Black students, they created a Facebook group to rallying the university and the community behind their cause. Addison, an officer in the student organization, says the site has been a viral avenue of communication, with 707 people having joined.

"Because our aim is so wide its imperative that we reach out to a lot of people at one time, so we use the World Wide Web," says the New Jersey native.

"If each coordinator invites all of their friends on Facebook to an event we're holding, we can get the word out to literally thousands of people within a matter of minutes." The Black student union raised $800 for the Jena Six legal fund and organized the Temple protest that went from the campus Bell Tower to the steps of City Hall.

In these tech-rich times, one place these young activists don't seem to be running to is traditional civil rights organizations. Williams, a one-time NAACP college chapter leader, has seen first hand the exodus of youth from such organizations.

In recent years the NAACP has struggled to increase membership and remain relevant to today's youth who are more likely to meet with friends over instant messenger than at the library - a common gathering place for NAACP meetings. The organization's presumed shortcomings have more to do with a digital disconnect than with its "cool factor," according to Williams.

"A lot of the NAACP chapters are a little bit behind the times," he says, noting one local chapter that has a blog linked to the Afrosphere. "When it comes to activism and advocacy today, it moves at lightning speed."

This disconnection can prevent local chapters from furthering their agendas outside of their regional borders, adds Pole.

Efforts by the Louisiana NAACP and local chapters fell short when a rally they organized last March in support of the Jena Six teens drew only a few dozen people. Though well-intended, their outcome paled in comparison to the whirlwind of support that followed as a result of Internet campaigns.

Resources and skill sets from both online efforts and tradition organizations are needed and each could find greater success in a collaborative effort, Mary Frances Berry, a history professor at the University of Pennsylvania, noted in a recent interview with NPR. The former chairperson of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights suggested that when the NAACP selects its future president, the candidate should be someone who can bridge the gap with online activists.

"They need to get with it, and plug in with these folks. All this energy needs to be mobilized, so that it doesn't become a one-week show," says Berry.

And if the old guard refuses collaboration, she stated ominously, "new organizations will simply have to displace them."

Heather Faison, a former Black Press fellow at the NNPA News Service, is a copy editor at the Philadelphia Tribune.

I Repeat: Can't Y'all Read Your Own Stylebooks?

I wrote about this issue last year, so let's review once again what the AP Stylebook says about transgender people and how to cover us.

transgender-Use the pronoun preferred by the individuals who have acquired the physical characteristics of the opposite sex or present themselves in a way that does not correspond with their sex at birth.

If that preference is not expressed, use the pronoun consistent with the way the individuals live publicly.

Okay, so New York Daily News, you have some 'splainin to do about the way you handled the February 10 Saneshia Stewart story.

Fooled John Stabbed Bronx Tranny

A transgendered prostitute was stabbed to death in the Bronx Saturday by a customer who was apparently surprised by the hooker’s true sex, police sources said Saturday.

The victim - a 25-year-old man who dressed like a woman - was identified by sources as Talib Stewart, who often went by the feminine nicknames of Nesha or Sanesha.

Stewart was stabbed multiple times inside a Belmont apartment building about 6 a.m. Saturday, police said.

A 37-year-old man was later arrested inside the second-floor apartment, police said.

Though the suspect’s identity was not immediately released, the sources said he was the prostitute’s john who became enraged when he learned his partner was not a woman.

Stewart, more than 6 feet tall, was known to wear stylish, provocative outfits with towering high heels, neighbors said.

Stewart also apparently had undergone surgery to give him larger breasts and other female characteristics, neighbors said.

“She looked like a girl but when she turned around, you knew it was a man,” a 17-year-old neighbor said. “She had a big jaw and an Adam’s apple.”

Neighbors said Stewart was a friendly and flirty presence on the block and was rarely hassled for his appearance.

“She’s always been Nesha to me,” said a friend who just gave her first name, Janelle. “She’s funny and outgoing.”

“It’s a shock - nobody should do something like that,” said another neighbor who asked not to be identified. “She never had any problems here.”

Stewart’s relatives visited the crime scene Saturday afternoon and angrily declined comment. Neighbors said they didn’t know if Stewart was turning tricks but they had noticed frequent male visitors to her home.

The suspect remained in police custody last night as the Bronx district attorney was determining which charges to file, officials said.

Okay, this is just jacked up and piss poor reporting on so many levels I don't even know where to start. But then again this is the type of crappy tabloid style reporting we transpeople get that caused us to meet with the AP back in 2000 to craft the stylebook rules in the first place to end this BS.

First off, it's kinda obvious that if the person has a femme hairstyle, breasts, is dressed in feminine attire and lives that way 24/7/365 you use the pronouns 'she' and 'her' to describe this person except when they are germane to the story.

Secondly, why even put her old male name in the story? If she goes by Saneshia, then that's what you write. The whole story was written in a disrespectful, distorted, and dehumanizing tone.

GLAAD felt the same way and complained. The New York Daily News did a follow up story the next day but still got it wrong. They again used the wrong pronouns and this time put Saneshia's name in parentheses.

Slain transgendered neighbor 'a friend of whole building,' Bronx man says

Monday, February 11th 2008, 4:00 AM

Talib (Sanesha) Stewart, a 6-foot transsexual, was found stabbed in Bronx building- allegedly by an ex-con who flew into a rage after finding out Stewart was not a woman.

So they were shocked to learn that their 25-year-old transgendered neighbor was stabbed to death Saturday by an ex-con who told cops he flew into a rage when he found out his date was not a woman.

"Nesha was a friend of the whole building - a really nice person who didn't deserve that," downstairs neighbor Steven Bamberg, 45, said. "I called him 'her' out of respect."

Police responded to a dispute on Beaumont Ave. about 6 a.m. and found Stewart stabbed several times.

They arrested Steve McMillan, 37, who was still inside Stewart's apartment. He was waiting to be arraigned on a murder charge last night. Police sources said McMillan was a john who flew into a rage after discovering Stewart, a prostitute, was not a woman.

Bamberg, however, denied Stewart was a prostitute.

The statuesque Stewart had breast implants and other plastic surgery to look more like a woman, neighbors said.

McMillan was released from prison in November after serving eight years on a Westchester County drug conviction, state prison records show.

Bamberg said he heard his friend in distress about 5 a.m. and phoned 911.

"It was like a scream," he said. "Then I heard, 'Uhhhhhh,' softer and softer, her last breath."

When cops arrived, they knocked at Stewart's door repeatedly, Bamberg said. McMillan eventually answered, the neighbor said.

Bamberg said he saw police with guns drawn telling the suspect as they led him outside, "You know your friend upstairs is dead."

"You killed my friend!" Bamberg recalled screaming at McMillan before collapsing onto the curb and crying.

Stewart was well-loved since moving into the building three years ago, Bamberg said.

"We all accepted her," he said.

Bamberg said McMillan was at the house hours before the killing, claiming to have left something in Stewart's apartment.

He said cops removed the apartment door as evidence.

"There's a big pool of blood on the floor and all over the bed," Bamberg said. "It looks like a war zone."

A spokeswoman with the medical examiner's office said the fatal blows penetrated Stewart's throat and lung.

Stewart's grandmother, Evelyn Stewart, said she loved the victim.

"I've always been close to him," she said after identifying Stewart's body yesterday. "I didn't care what he was."

McMillan was charged with attempting to sell a controlled substance in 1999, records show. He recently returned to Yonkers and was living temporarily at a shelter, a friend, who identified himself as Ramel C., said.

Ramel C., 37, said McMillan had a girlfriend. He said his life-long friend must have been shocked to discover he was with a man.

"I'm not saying that's a reason to kill anyone," he said. "But I'm sure he was in some type of turmoil or shock."

This once again plays into what I wrote about in terms of how African-American transwomen images are treated. Neighbors 'assumed' that since Saneshia had many male admirers, that she was a hooker. Yeah, right. Sounds like some neighbors had nothing better to do than worry about who was going in and out of Saneshia's door.

I'm also pissed about the repeated use of incorrect pronouns and the placing of her name in parenteses. Do you do the same thing to Cherilyn (Cher) Sarkisian or Gordon (Sting) Sumner? So why presume that it's okay to do it to transwomen?

So once again, to all those media peeps who continue to do this, can't you read your own stylebooks? Or are you too indifferent, transphobic, too busy or don't care about doing accurate stories about transpersons and covereing them with dignity and respect, especially when that life has been senselessly taken away?

The GOP's 'Scurred' Of Michelle, Too

We know the GOP is 'scurred' of Sen. Obama. Now it seems as though their fear of a Black president also extends to the woman who would become the first African-American first lady in our country's history as well.

What is it about Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama that 'scurrs' them so much? Is it the fact she's an intelligent, almost 6 feet tall sistah with a compelling story as well? Is it because she rose from growing up in a one bedroom apartment on the South Side of Chicago to graduating from Princeton and Harvard Law and making major cheddar? Is it because she has a handsome husband she's been married to for over a decade and has two cute kids?

Yep.

The Tennessee GOP released a video timed for a visit that she's making to the Volunteer State to campaign for her hubby. It attempts to pile onto a remark she made in Wisconsin three months ago that they tried to blow up into a major controversy. She stated during a rally speech that this was the first time in her adult life she was proud of this country.

Hell, I agree with her. How can you be proud of a country that enslaved your ancestors for two and a half centuries and mistreated your parents, grandparents and great grandparents for another 100 years after that?

For most of my adult life I've had to deal with conservative administrations that have jacked this country up for the benefit of the have-mores, and what Michelle speaks about is a sentiment that many African-Americans say to each other when we're not in racially mixed company.


Besides, you Republicans are drinking GOP Red Haterade because Michelle is not a plastic coated Stepford wife like some GOP spouses are. This is a sistah with a lot of substance behind her and she will make a fantastic First Lady.

Y'all tried to stir up crap back in February with a false conservadriven controversy about Michelle's 1985 Princeton senior thesis and ended up with egg on your faces then. Now it's another video from a state party with a history of race-baiting.



The infamous 2006 'Call me' ad



Obama campaign spokesperson Hari Sevugan fired back at the Tennessee GOP and linked it back to the Rethuglicans smear 'em mentality:

"This is a shameful attempt to attack a woman who has repeatedly said she wouldn't be here without the opportunities and blessings of this nation. The Republican Party's pathetic attempts to use the same smear tactics to win elections have failed in Mississippi, failed in Louisiana, and will fail in November because the American people are looking for a positive vision of real change. And if the Tennessee Republican Party has a problem with Senator Obama, maybe next time they’ll have the courage to address him directly instead of attacking his family."

But then again, if I was the NRCC chair and I'd just spent 42% of my party's on hand cash trying to defend three congressional seats my party had held in Illinois, Louisiana and now Mississippi for 20 years and lost them badly, I'd be trying to deflect blame too.

The 'Southern Strategy' is alive and well. We saw the North Carolina Republicans use race-based ads there and now the 'girlie men' in the Tennessee GOP are attacking his wife. But what's going on is the same racist dynamic that's being played out in the general campaign against Barack. They're trying to demonize Michelle as well.

Keep it up. The more you attack Barack, his wife and his family the more African-American voters that get registered and show up at the polls for the landslide coming in November.

John Edwards Endorses Obama

Huge endorsement for Sen. Obama. John Edwards endorses him at a Grand Rapids, MI rally.



This Democratic nomination race is just about over. The day after Sen. Hillary Clinton wins West Virginia by 41 points, this chills whatever bounce and domination of the news cycle she was expecting that day.

Come on May 20. That's when I get to vote in Kentucky.

Fear Of A Black President

There's a scene in the Chris Rock movie 'Head of State' in which he's running for president and his character Alderman Mays Gilliam is poised to win the White House. It comes down in a tight race to California deciding it. The pundits say it, and a flood of screaming, panic-stricken suburban whites rush out of their cookie cutter homes and flood onto the streets heading as fast as they can to the nearest polling place in order to keep a Black man from occupying the highest office in the land.

That scene was playing in my mind as I watched the results from the West Virginia primary last night and heard the distressing news that 22% of the people in exit polling there openly admitted race was a factor in casting their ballots. The actual numbers were probably double that.

Yes, there is fear out there of Sen. Barack Obama and his family moving into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The lunatic fringe and the Freepers have been screaming for months online they need to do something to stop the n----r from winning this race. It manifested itself in the primary results in West Virginia last night. The same fears were stoked and exploited in Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Indiana and various other states. The Republicans will be ready to race bait all the way to November 4 and test drove their message in North Carolina. The Faux News nattering negativity nabobs stoked the Rev. Wright controversy. When Hillary was about to be finished off she played the race card to the point where I wondered if she was running for KKK Grand Wizard instead of the presidency.

As a hardworking, college educated African-American I'm pissed about how the positive campaign we had on the Democratic primary side degenerated. It was obvious Hillary couldn't beat him with a positive campaign, so her new campaign team started running plays from the GOP race-baiting side of the political playbook. We can only hope and pray that the 'kitchen sink' strategy they employed doesn't come back to haunt us in November.

So what are y'all 'scurred' of working class White America? Are you cowering in your centuries old fear that everything your ancestors have done to my people will be revisited upon you? Are you being fed the lies by right-wing talk radio and Faux News that Barack is 'too liberal', 'lacks experience', 'speaks well but no substance', 'he's an undercover Muslim' and all the other past, present and future bullshyt that will be thrown at him by GOP spinmeisters? Are you believing the fallacious bull that if this country elects an African-American, they'll have less respect for us?

Hell, we've got rock bottom respect levels in the world thanks to the unqualified pseudo-Texan dumb ass y'all voted overwhelmingly for twice. The rest of the world thinks of Barack Obama as an improvement.

White working class America. fire up your braincells and stop falling for the okey-doke. This is probably the best candidate we've had in a generation and he happens to be a mixed race person. He came from nothing to the verge of being president. He is the American Dream that your right-wing pundits are always exhorting my people to believe in until it benefits us, then y'all have a problem with it.

Barack Obama has your economic interests at heart moreso than the parade of GOP idiots that have sold you out to the have-mores over the last 40 years, bamboozled you into voting for them and against your own economic interests because you fell for the 'Guns, God and Gays' 'family values' rhetoric.

I just want to ask one question. In that entire 40 years you've been voting for Republicans, has it put more money in your pocket?

Let's fast forward to the glorious day when a new chapter in American history will commence on January 20, 2009. Barack Obama will raise his right hand at 12:01 PM EST on that day, his lovely wife Michelle will hold the Bible (not the Koran) with his lovely daughters standing there watching their father take the oath of office as president of the United States.

On that day the sky won't fall, no fire and brimstone will rain down upon Washington DC and the subsequent inaugural parade will be the bomb. Four years from now when it's time to reelect him for his second term, your pockets are fat with cash from the tax cut you'll get, your kids are healthier because they'll have health care, and you'll be safer because we ain't running around the planet pissing people off, you'll wonder in 2012 what you were so scared of.

E-Mail From Fredrikka

TransGriot note: It's nice to hear from people who not only appreciate your writing (a gentle hint for you TransGriot readers to leave comments from time to time), they take the time out of their busy schedules to tell you.

I deeply appreciate that. It's also a wake-up call as to just how much of a role model and inspiration others consider me, even if I don't feel like I am most days.

Fredrikka Maxwell, who's a TransGriot guest poster from time to time sent me this e-mail. Someone on the Dignity list (for GLBT Catholics) she's on sent her a link to my Destruction of the Black Transwoman Image post I wrote a few days ago that I crossposted to the Bilerico Project as well. It also underscores the point I was making that I'm not the only African-American transwoman who's beyond sick and tired of being saddled with the 'all Black transwomen are hookers' stereotype.

***

Marvin,
Monica Roberts is someone I have met, have high regard for, and count among my friends.

She has a clear insight into the black community and knows firsthand what it's like to be black and trans. And she's one of those women who have come through that drama and trauma and still holds her head high and walks tall like the regal daughter of kings of the Motherland.

Monica founded a thriving Yahoo list for black trans people, their friends, families, and allies, called Transsistahs-Transbrothas. And when she first thought of starting her list, then called Transsistahs, I was one of the charter members.

Monica is on target with her post. There is, among the mainstream media, the perception that all black transwomen are sex workers. Now I don't deny that some black transwomen may have taken to prostitution. It's not something I've ever encouraged. Here's my take on that.

I know from bitter firsthand experience that a lot of trans people are currently under or flat out unemployed. When you go to hunt for employment on the web, for example, you will usually find on most applications, a space for or a question about whether you've worked under another name. In a perfect world it would be OK to say yes to that. Bu in the real world that can out you and cause you to lose the job you thought you were going to be hired for.

Does the name Peter Oiler mean anything to you? Oiler was a truck driver for the Winn-Dixie grocery chain. They found out somehow that, away from work he was a cross dresser and fired him. He sued. He lost. The court seemed to think it was OK for the company to fire him even if the wasn't doing anything gender variant on company time. Now Oiler wasn't black. He was like mos of you, a white dude.

My reason for bringing him up is that black trans people have gone through that.

Does the name Susan Stanton mean anything to you? Just a person who worked for her city for 14 distinguished years only to get fired because it was learned she was beginning to transition.

There are thousands of black trans people who have gone though that. And what do some of them do since they can't find jobs anywhere? Some take to the streets in more ways than one. Some actually LIVE on the damn street.

And even if you have a decent job, your health insurance may have a specific exclusion for anything related to Gender Reassignment Surgery. That means hormones, or Facial Feminization Surgery, or finding a qualified gender therapist. And your therapists and endocrinologists, electrologist, and your surgeons all have one thing in common. THEY ALL WANT YOUR FREAKING MONEY.

So I'm not going to pass judgment on those who take to the streets. I just say a prayer of thanksgiving and realize that, there, but for the grace of God go I.

But I'm not now, never have, and never will encourage anyone to hit the streets. But I'm telling you that I understand how some people can feel like that's an option.

But, having said that, ALL BLACK TRANSWOMEN ARE NOT WHORES. Thank you. That's the truth from somebody who knows transwomen who run call centers, who are classical musicians, who are nurses, police officers, writers, and motivational speakers and even a minister or two. And that's just the transWOMEN, who include regal souls like my friend Monica Roberts.

Another Day, Another Event

Yesterday afternoon I rolled up to the historic Brennan House downtown for a Meet The Candidates event hosted by CFAIR, the Committee for Fairness and Individual Rights. It's the PAC for the Fairness Campaign and I was invited to attend.

I was rousted out of a sound sleep earlier that morning to round up the wine and sodas for the event. After taking one and a half hours of my day doing it and depositing everything at the Fairness Campaign office on Frankfort Ave I returned home to finish my NE Trans Pride March speech and e-mail it to Bet Power so the ASL interpreters could get to work on it.

The event wasn't starting until 5 PM, and I arrived at 5:45 PM in my black pantsuit. Joanne Lynch greeted me with "Our saviour is here!" a humorous reference to my earlier efforts that morning hitting three separate spread out stores for the wine, the multiple two liter sodas, the humongous bag of ice and saving CFAIR some cash in the process. I jokingly said as I hugged her and entered the Brennan House, "I'm not a saviour. I can't walk on water."

By the time I entered the three story Victorian home several of the CFAIR endorsees were there. Metro council members George Unseld (yes, he's the brother of NBA Hall of Famer Wes Unseld) and Rick Blackwell were there along with Metro council candidate Kungu Njuguna.

I was impressed by my Kenyan descended brother. He was born in the States and is a city attorney who prosecuted violations of Louisville's Human Rights ordnance. He's running in AC's district (the 18th) in the Hurstbourne Parkway/Taylorsville Rd. area. Shelley Santry, who's running in a judicial race was also there to thank CFAIR for the endorsement and chat with us for a few moments before jetting off to another event.

A few minutes after I arrived my state rep Mary Lou Marzian showed up and showed us some love. I also got a hug from former metro council member Denise Bentley, who's looking good these days. I noted and mentioned to her that she's dropped a little weight, even though she didn't think so. I also ran into Dr. Story and Jaison Gardiner for the second time in 24 hours as well along with Mark England, who hosted the recent Derby benefit that was the day before my birthday. Dawn popped in after she got off work.

Since I drove, I wasn't partaking in any of the wine and stuck to the soda. The Louisville po-po's have been on the prowl lately pre and post Derby and I was in no mood to spend the night at the Jefferson County Hilton. I hung around chatting with many of the peeps who did show up like Christine and the gang from Sienna, our local transgender organization.

Christine's the prez of the group and congratulated me for my upcoming speaking slot at the NE Pride March. I told her I'd try to make a future Sienna meeting if it didn't conflict with what I had going on. Mark England also chatted with me for a few minutes and asked if I'd seen the photo I took with him and Russ at the Derby benefit. When I replied no, he asked for my e-mail address, input it into his PDA and sent it to me a few hours later.

I'd left my Obama button at home, and a young LGBT Hillary supporter approached me about supporting his candidate. I politely listened to his spiel before I told him I was supporting Senator Obama. When he mentioned that HRC endorsed Senator Clinton, I politely shot back,"That's a major reason why I'm supporting Sen. Obama."

That triggered a lively back and forth conversation in which every time he spouted a pro-Hillary talking point, I had an answer for it. I also pointed out that I'd sat across the table from numerous meetings/confrontations with HRC personnel over the last ten years and had a long, ugly history with them.

When he tried to claim that Obama hadn't stood up for GLBT peeps as an Illinois senator, I told him I had friends and relatives in Chicago who said otherwise. After a few minutes of amusing myself with him, I told him that on this subject we'd agree to disagree and I was still voting for Obama on Tuesday as Joanne and Jeff Rodgers grinned at me.

For you GLBT peeps that still believe that BS like my young friend, here's a quote from a Windy City News February 11, 2004 interview that y'all need to pay attention to.

We must be careful to keep our eyes on the prize-equal rights for every American. We must continue to fight for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. We must vigorously expand hate-crimes legislation and be vigilant about how these laws are enforced. We must continue to expand adoption rights and make them consistent and seamless throughout all 50 states, and we must repeal the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" military policy.

Just an FYI GLBT Hillary lovers, the Windy City Times is a GLBT publication. At the time he was quoted in this interview he was an Illinois state senator a few months away from making the historic keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic convention that catapulted him to national recognition.

Not long after that the event wound to a close. After we helped the staff put the tables and chairs up, I took a quick tour through the lovely Victorian era home before exiting the place and heading back home to Crescent Hill.

TLDEF Settles Landmark Farmer v. Caliente Cab Restaurant Lawsuit

I've talked from time to time about Khadijah Farmer, and I've received word from the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund that there's been a settlement in the case. The New York based TLDEF has been diligently working on her landmark lawsuit against Caliente Cab Restaurant Company.

As part of the settlement, Caliente has agreed to:

*Add gender, including gender identity and expression, to its corporate non-discrimination policy;

*Amend its employee handbook to state that "persons patronizing or employed at Caliente have the right to use the bathroom facilities consistent with their gender identity and expression;"

*Adopt a gender-neutral dress code for its employees;

*Institute personnel training programs regarding its new policies;

*Pay $35,000 in damages to Khadijah.

Just to refresh 'errbody's' memory banks about what happened, after the conclusion of the New York GLBT Pride March on June 24, 2007, Khadijah, her girlfriend and another friend went to dine at the Caliente Cab restaurant.

When Khadijah went to use the women's restroom, the restaurant's bouncer followed her in, pounded on the door of the stall she was using and proceeded to throw her out of the bathroom and the restaurant because of the bouncer's misguided perception because of her short haircut that she was either male or transgender. (are you listening HRC and Barney Frank?) She attempted to show him her NY state ID demonstrating that she is female, but was rebuffed.

This was a crystal clear example of why we transpeople have been arguing ad nauseum for over a decade that 'gender or perceived gender' language needs to remain in ENDA in order to protect ALL members of the GLBT community. Many transgender and gender non-conforming people experience harassment and discrimination when trying to access sex-segregated facilities such as bathrooms.

Khadijah's case highlights one of the major intersections between the transgender, GLB rights movements and our straight allies. Gender expression discrimination can affect anyone, be they transgender, lesbian, gay, bisexual or straight. The settlement also sends a message that discrimination on the basis of gender expression will not be tolerated.

"I'm very happy that the restaurant has taken appropriate steps to ensure that all patrons, regardless of how masculine or feminine they appear, are treated with dignity and respect," Khadijah said of the settlement. "People come in all shapes and sizes, and they shouldn't be discriminated against because they don't match someone's expectations of how masculine or feminine they should be."

Amen, sister. Now only if the Homosexual Rights Corporation and a certain congressman from Massachusetts would remember that and introduce an ENDA bill that not only protects everyone, the entire GLBT community can work together to get passed.

Witness To History-Obama In Da Ville

Sen. Barack Obama was in Da Ville today for a campaign rally at the Kentucky International Convention Center. You know that I made sure yours truly was going to be inside the room and part of the 8,000 people that showed up to witness history. There were another 2,000 people that wanted to get in but were unfortunately turned away because the hall was at capacity.

I farted around a little too long and bounced out of the house clad in my Obama shirt and jeans at 4:30 PM. I arrived downtown and passed the convention center enroute to the parking lot I like to use four blocks away on Chestnut Street. I noted the line to get inside snaked around the building for several blocks.

The doors opened at 5 PM and even though I was at the back of the line where it started on the 4th Street side of the Convention Center complex, it moved fast. There were various politicians introducing themselves and shaking hands with people as we waited to get in. Campaign workers were passing out stickers for Greg Fischer, the other Democratic candidate for US Senate here in Kentucky. There are many Democrats in the state who have concerns about just how electable Bruce Lunsford will be if he gets in a race with Mitch McConnell (R-KY) with the Vencor mess lurking in his background.

Unfortunately the local chapter of the Forces of Intolerance was in full effect as well. The odious Dr. Frank Simon was there with several of his acolytes staging an anti-abortion protest. But despite the negative karma from Simon and company, the mood remained festive on this beautiful late afternoon spring day with vendors hawking bootleg Obama shirts and buttons as well. The official Obama campaign stands inside the convention center were doing a brisk business as well.

A few minutes later I was being directed into the building by the cheerfully efficient Obama campaign personnel. I quickly autographed an Obama campaign sign in sheet and headed in the direction of a nearby up escalator. I waited in a second line to walk through a metal detector while I was hand wanded by a Secret Service agent and my purse thoroughly searched by a TSA employee. The whole process from the time I hit the end of the long line to getting into a seat in the bleacher section was thirty minutes.

While I waited for the rally to start, I was having conversations with various people in the multicultural crowd that attended this rally. We were basically talking about the historic nature of this event, Barack's chances in the Kentucky primary next Tuesday (May 20) and eventually in the fall against John McCain.

I eventually ended up seated next to an African-American woman named Bessie. We hit it off immediately and while we were talking about our personal lives, she mentioned she has a college age son at Harvard who's a blogger. I told her about my blog and living life as a transgender woman. We ended up talking about a wide array of subjects before KY 6th District Rep. Ben Chandler stepped on stage at 6:40 PM to deliver the warm up stem-winder speech.

When he was done, he introduced a Ford plant worker who spoke for a few moments, then introduced Sen. Obama a little after 7 PM. The crowd began to roar in approval as flashbulbs from phones and cameras began popping all over the building and especially around Sen. Obama and his ring of Secret Service agents.



Sen. Obama took about ten minutes to shake hands before stepping on stage and getting into his speech. He had to stop twice because two peeps were feeling ill due to heat exhaustion and in one case tossed a liter sized bottle of water to one of them.

40 minutes later after directing his fire at Sen. McCain, his cousin Dick Cheney and George W. Bush, he departed the stage to wild, enthusiastic applause. Me made a loop around the stage to shake hands with the assembled masses before winding his way back to the green room area behind the VIP stands, flashbulbs and the media trailing him all the way.

I killed a few minutes watching people be interviewed by local television personalities and reporters, shaking hands and hugging friends and colleagues before I exited the convention center. I ran into Dr. Story and Jaison Gardiner and walked with them for a few blocks gauging their reactions to the rally before we went our separate ways to our cars.

I enjoyed my late afternoon witnessing political history. I was happy to see the multitudes of enthusiastic young people who were in attendance at this rally. I'm looking forward to being at the convention in Denver courtesy of the Project later this summer as well.

Lucas County, Ohio Leads The Way

TransGriot Note: A few years ago I flew up to Toledo, OH to take my friend Sonia Watson and her then one year old daughter Jasmine on one of my buddy passes to visit her mother. It was an interesting visit with her parents. Her mom is from Jamaica and Sonia jokingly calls herself a 'Jamerican', a term which expresses pride in her Jamaican and her American roots. I also got to see where Sonia got her flawless beauty from. She's the spitting image of her mother. She also teased me for a year after that trip about the Jamaican white rum I drank that knocked me on my azz.

Unfortunately I was only there on my three days off and burned two of them flying up and back to Houston via Cleveland. so I didn't get to spend more time there to see the city.

So knowing the state of Ohio's anti-GLBT rep thanks to ten years of GOP rule and hearing the stories of my transgender friends who used to live there, this recent news out of Toledo and Lucas County is underscoring the fact that the landscape is indeed changing for Ohio GLBT residents, and that Toledo and Lucas County are leading the way.

Lucas bans job bias for county workers
Commission joins Toledo council in backing state bill

by Anthony Glassman
Gay People's Chronicle - OH,USA
May 9, 2008

http://www.gaypeopl eschronicle. com/stories08/ may/0509081. htm

Toledo--Northwest Ohio has delivered a one-two punch for LGBT equality, with Lucas County extending nondiscrimination protections to its LGBT employees and joining the city of Toledo in supporting the state Equal Housing and Employment Act.

Toledo City Council unanimously approved a resolution endorsing EHEA on April 29. The bill, in the state legislature, would prohibit employment and housing discrimination by sexual orientation or gender identity. The Lucas County Commission followed on May 6 with a 3-0 vote to endorse the measure.

At the same meeting, commissioners unanimously passed the county worker non-discrimination measure.

During the meeting, Lucas commissioner Ben Konop pointed to Richard Florida's book Who's Your City. The follow-up to Florida's Rise of the Creative Class, it repeats the author's arguments that creativity bolsters economic development, and Florida firmly believes that protections for LGBT people help attract the "creative class" to an area.

"I think it was the right thing to do from two perspectives," Konop told the Gay People's Chronicle. "Number one, I think morally it's hard to argue. People should be judged for the job they're doing instead of their sexual orientation or gender identity, so it protects county employees from being judged unfairly."

"There's an economic benefit to our community from this, too," he ontinued. "There's been substantial social science research showing the more a community is diverse and accepting of sexual orientation and gender identities, the better the community does economically. We in Toledo are in very difficult economic times, so we need all
the help we can get."

"I think we need to establish ourselves as one of the premier communities in the country in terms of diversity and tolerance of people of all different views and backgrounds, " he concluded. "We going to take it very seriously and make sure it's abided by."

Michelle Stecker, interim executive director of Equality Toledo, noted that the welfare of the LGBT community is "tied to the economic development of northwest Ohio," but also said that the area enjoys an embarrassment of riches in terms of forward-thinking elected officials.

Franklin County, which includes Columbus, also protects county employees on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, while Cuyahoga and Summit counties (containing Cleveland and Akron) protect for sexual orientation alone, according to Kim Welter of Equality Ohio.

The four counties join 11 Ohio cities that include sexual orientation in their public worker job policies. Eight of these cities also protect private employees, and four of those include gender identity. The state of Ohio also bars discrimination in state employment by sexual orientation or gender identity.

Franklin County has also passed a resolution supporting EHEA, which was introduced in the Ohio House in March by Democrat Dan Stewart and Republican Jon Peterson, and in the Senate by Democrat Dale Miller.

Lucas County Commission president Tina Skeldon Wozniak told the Toledo Blade, "I don't believe we practice discrimination, but I think it's important to make it recognizable within the policy. I think it's the right thing to do, but I also believe communities that are progressive in their policies toward protection of people's rights have stronger communities. "

Stecker was pleased with the three unanimous decisions.

"We're so fortunate," she said. "In Toledo, our leaders are really supportive of LGBT civil rights, and Toledo has become a model city in Ohio in terms of reaching out to the LGBT community."

She enumerated the ways in which LGBT citizens are protected in Toledo.

"We have a domestic partnership registry, we have cutting-edge transgender protections, our large employers offer protections for LGBT employees," she said. "It came as no surprise that the county commissioners and city council were unanimous, because they are our allies."

"I'm thrilled they went on the record to support EHEA and I'm thankful for their leadership," she concluded. "It's because we have such wonderful political allies. When we go to them with our issues, we know they're going to say yes to us, we know they're going to be supportive."

"They don't just give it lip service, they show us by their actions that LGBT people are truly welcome here in northwest Ohio," she posited. "That's why Toledo is such a good place to live for LGBT people."

"We've been getting phone calls from people in other areas asking, tell us about Toledo, should we be moving there, and that's exciting as well," Stecker noted.

C 2008 KWIR Publications

Happy Mother's Day

(photo-painting Mother's Love by Kolongi)

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers (and 'errbody' else) who read TransGriot! I've already sent my cards and gifts to my mom and sister. Hope you've had a chance to call the favorite moms in your life, whether they are your biological ones or people who were like mothers to you.

And now, let me put my DJ hat on and post some Mother's Day music videos for you to enjoy.

The Intruders I'll Always Love My Mama extended version




Tupac's Dear Mama



Happy Mother's Day to all those special women everywhere!

Why A Transsistahs Convention?

TransGriot Note: This was written in February 2005 to explain to our Caucasian brothers and sisters why we were planning a convention of our own that took place later that year.


Why a Transsistahs Convention?
By Monica Roberts

Ever since the word got out that Dawn Wilson and I are helping a committee of young African-American transpeople to organize a convention for later this year, there has been much weeping and gnashing of teeth in the Caucasian transgender community. What does the Caucasian transgender community have to fear from a group of African-American transpeople getting together in Louisville to spend several days networking, learning and bonding with each other, just like you peeps have done at Southern Comfort, Gold Rush, IFGE, and various other events?

The simple fact is that we have cultural differences that aren’t being reflected in the current organizational setup of the Caucasian transgendered community. Our community is built with a belief in God as the central pillar of our daily lives. We don't see that reflected in the Caucasian trans community and we have issues and concerns that aren’t being addressed.

What issues you ask? Issues such as HIV/AIDS, the disproportionate number of African-American and Latina transpeople that make up the Remembering our Dead list, socioeconomic issues, ignoring the roles that people of color have played in shaping transgender history, and the pervasive racism within the community. When African-American transactivists and other activists of color have tried to point them out they are dismissively told that their concerns ‘aren’t trans issues’ or ‘quit playing the race card’.

We have qualms about the Caucasian transgender political leadership continually trying to align itself with HRC. It’s a group that has a sorry history of being disrespectful to the African-American GLBT/SGL community and repeatedly sabotaging transgender lobby efforts. The Caucasian TG leadership even sabotaged a 2002 African-American transgender led initiative to the Congressional Black Caucus that would have benefited the entire trans community and boasted about it afterward.

A conservative administration is entrenched in Washington DC. Many African-American transpeople reside in areas run by conservative state and local governments. It was past time for us to build our own institutions so that we may better weather the storms of ‘compassionate conservatism’ and the backstabbing from our so-called allies.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the fact that there have been people and organizations within the Caucasian trans community who have tried to be inclusive and sounded the alarm that we needed to be welcomed into the fold or else. Their pleas and ours have fallen on deaf ears. I’ve noted the growing frustration within our community reflected in the posts on my Transsistahs Yahoo discussion list that I founded a year ago and other African-American GLBT/SGL lists. Those posts have repeatedly called for us to build institutions that will give African-American transkids something to be proud of and resources that they can tap into that reflect their cultural heritage. We’ve finally decided to act on that.

The gathering in Louisville is in the mold of our African-American cultural tradition. We have a proud heritage as African-American women of doing things that not only help us but also uplift the race at the same time. The sistahs are doing it for ourselves to paraphrase an old Aretha Franklin song. We’re not doing it to permanently separate ourselves from the Caucasian trans community, but so that we may work together with our mainstream African-American brothers and sisters. Kwame Toure (Stokely Carmichael to you folks who remember the Civil Rights Movement) stated, 'Before a group can enter the open society, it must first close ranks.'

Well, the African-American transcommunity is closing ranks. Louisville, here we come.

Destruction Of The Black Transwoman Image

One of the things that I and my transsisters have in common with our biosisters besides our shared cultural heritage is defending the images of Black women from constant assault inside and outside the community.

Ever since the advent of the slave trade, the Black female image has been subjected to a wide array of slights, outrageous comments, and bigoted or racist behavior.

Black women have dealt with everything from being sexually assaulted by slave masters who considered them less than human to being toured as carnival exhibits as Saartjie Baartman was in the early 19th century as the Hottentot Venus. We also have our wide-ranging skin tone palettes, full lips, curvaceous bodies and ample butts constantly derided as either 'exotic' or 'ugly' vis-a-vis the Eurocentric standard of beauty.



We African-American transwomen share like our biosisters the same problems in addition to others brought on by our transgender status. At least my biosisters don't have to contend with being disrespectfully called 'sir' or called a man.

Oops, check that. Any sistah who's 5'8" or taller, has short cropped hair, is an athlete, or full figured and tall with broad shoulders has had that shade thrown at them. I just remembered the Khadijah Farmer case now currently in litigation.

But I'm digressing. The transwomen division part of the Black female image destruction is in large part courtesy of the escort and porn worlds. We didn't start out with negative images. Over the latter half of the 20th century as coverage of transgender issues became more frequent on local, national, and international newscasts, there was a corresponding explosion in transgender themed adult material. One major irritant to me and many African-American transwomen (and the irritation is shared by our Latina and Asian transsisters as well) is that the images are predominately women of color.

While there are also white transwomen involved in those worlds, they have balance because John and Jane Q. Public have also seen news stories in which white transwomen are seen as businesspeople, politicians elected to office, et cetera. Since the stories are either ignored or aren't being told that transwomen of color are doing mainstream and remarkable things, the negatives get disproportionately shunted to and pile up for African-American transwomen.

Many of us take our transitions seriously. We are talented, intelligent, accomplished women in our own rights. But you wouldn't know that (and probably don't) know that based on the disproportionate attention focused on the subset of our transsistahs involved in the escort and adult entertainment world.

Unfortunately the tendency to judge African-Americans by the worst we produce, combined with our near invisibility in terms of the 55 year history of positive media coverage of transgender people vis-a-vis our white sisters have been devastating to our efforts to educate our fellow African-Americans on transgender issues. It's probably one of the factors in why we initially lost eight CBC votes in the ENDA debate last fall.

We also haven't been helped by Hollywood movie or television portrayals or fictional accounts that perpetuate the 'Black transwomen are hookers' myth. You only need look at two television characters to see what we African-American transwomen have to contend with.

On one hand, you have Rebecca Romijn's Ugly Betty character Alexis Meade, who plays a major role in running a magazine empire. Jazzmun gets to play Dontrelle, who is guess what?

What is a prostitute, Alex?



I'm a big fan of actress Kerry Washington, but in the upcoming movie Life Is Hot In Cracktown based on the novel of the same name, she gets to play a transwoman. While I'm not thrilled that she's playing a character who once again feeds into that 'Black transwomen are hookers' stereotype, I know based on her past work that she's a stickler for authenticity.

She hired Valerie Spencer as her advisor and had Valerie on set to ensure that her character was on point in terms of the emotions and drama that we deal with. I'd just like to see Kerry Washington, any sistah actress or Jazzmun one day get to play an African-American transgender character like Alexis Meade or the Edith Stokes character Veronica Redd played back in the 70's.

Unfortunately, the stereotype is overpowering whatever positive things we try to do as African-American transwomen. When the members of TSTB were in the process of organizing the first Transsistahs-Transbrothas Conference in 2005, the white transgender community was fearful we'd take that moment to permanently separate ourselves from them. I took pains as one of the organizers to write an open letter in February 2005 explaining why we were doing it and posted it to a few transgender oriented lists.

One of the responses that came back on the tgusarights list was from a person calling herself Brenda Jean, who stated that our conference 'would make it easier for us to service our tricks'. That negative image was revealed during the wrongful death trial of Tyra Hunter to have partly played a role in her untimely death from an auto accident. She was not only disrespected at the accident scene by the EMT, but was ignored after she arrived at DC General Hospital and administered a drug that they give to emergency patients they presume to be drug addicts.

There was one night back home when I was watching my friend Sivi Ross do a drag show in a predominately white GLBT club called Cousins. I ended up reading a patron the riot act after he disrespectfully propositioned yours truly by saying the words "How much?" to me.

We also have to contend with as African-American transwomen when we enter relationships with us being lumped on the 'exotic' end of the scale. In some men's minds, what could be more 'exotic' than a beautiful African-American woman with (or who used to have) daddy's equipment? (And you know the stereotype about African-American men)



Just as our biosisters have to constantly fight a never ending battle to debunk these stereotypes, African-American transwomen will be in the same fight on a different flank to combat the stereotypes unique to us.

Beautiful Daughters

If you've ever seen The Vagina Monologues, some of you may be aware that there was an all transgender version of it done in Los Angeles back in 2004. That production was videotaped in a documentary called Beautiful Daughters that's been repeatedly broadcast on LOGO (which my cable system doesn't carry yet no thanks to the local fundamentalist idiots).

During that February 2 performance, Eve Ensler, the creator of The Vagina Monologues wrote and debuted a transgender-themed monologue entitled 'They Beat The Girl Out Of My Boy..Or So They Tried. It's a monologue that my homegirl Lexi has performed in a local production of the play as well.



One of the people in the all-transgender production was transsister Valerie Spencer, who I've been pleased to get to know thanks to the Transsistahs-Transbrothas Yahoo Group I founded in 2004. In addition to doing some marvelous work out in the LA area as a social worker and activist, Valerie has been exploring the artistic side of her personality as well. (Hmm, sounds familiar)

I was also delighted to learn that Valerie was actress Kerry Washington's advisor for the soon to be released film Life Is Hot In Cracktown, based on Buddy Giovinazzo's 1993 novel of the same name. In the film Kerry will play a transgender character.

The V-Day show raised a lot of money and was an emotional experience for all involved. It's cool that transgender women's voices are now incorporated into this fabulous play as well.

Tired Of The 'F' Word

The 'F' word I'm talking about in this case is Minister Louis Farrakhan.

It never fails that when an African-American candidate is running in a political race in which they have to appeal to a broad sector of the electorate, are sucessfully doing so, and winning (see Barack Obama a few months ago) the 'F' word comes out to 'scurr' white voters. It's why many African-Americans were more than angry with Chris Matthews when he brought up Minister Farrakhan in the MSGOP debate a few months ago.

I have mixed emotions about Louis Farrakhan personally like many African-Americans do. Hu-ell naw I don't like some of his negative comments about our Jewish friends and some of the other over the top statements over the years. But you have to admire somebody who can get formerly incarcerated men and other assorted knuckleheads to not only turn their lives around, but become responsible citizens who do their fair share to live up to our community's historic uplift the race mission.

You also have to admire someone who can inspire a million African-American men from all sectors of the community and across the country to organize, plan and gather together for a peaceful day on the Washington Mall.

For those of you who were focused more on Rev. Jeremiah Wright's antics and the subsequent MSM spin intended to damage Sen. Obama's march to the Democratic nomination, you missed out on the nuggets of truth that were interspersed during that infamous National Press Club speech.

While it is uncomfortable for White America to hear, Rev. Wright wasn't kidding when he stated that when Minister Farrakhan speaks, Black America listens. Many of us listen, analyze what he has to say, sift out the truth and dismiss what we don't like.

Even Tavis Smiley has gotten criticism for having him on the stage during several State of the Black Union events, but Tavis realizes what I know as well. There are folks in the African-American community to whom Minister Farrakhan appeals to, and an honest dialogue on our issues in the Black community can't take place if all parties aren't represented.

But I'm sick of African-American candidates getting whacked with decades old statements, video and five second snippets of Farrakhan soundbites in an obvious attempt to paint an African-American candidate with broad based white electorate appeal as 'racist'.

If some of y'all wanna fall for that okey-doke, that's on you. But if you let the bogus fear mongering from Faux News and the Right-Wing Noise Machine deter you from electing the best presidential candidate we've had since Bobby Kennedy for superficial reasons, that's a tragedy for the nation.

Belly of the Beast-The Atlanta HRC Dinner

TransGriot Note: The transgender community's protests of HRC dinners continue. Last weekend was the Atlanta HRC dinner, and Monica Helms in a post from her Trans Universe Blog tells us what went down in the ATL.

The "Belly of the Beast" – The Atlanta HRC Dinner
By Monica F. Helms


At the last minute, I didn’t know if I could attend the Atlanta HRC Dinner protest in front of the Hyatt Regency, May 3, 2008. Work had me signed up to do 2 hours of overtime right in the middle of when the protest was scheduled. Luckily, I was able to trade the hours to a co-worker.

On Saturday, I had to formulate a plan to talk with the most people I could at the dinner. But in order to do that, I needed to go inside the “Belly of the Beast.” Being a former submariner, I was familiar with submarine war tactics, which have helped me as an activist in the past. You sneak into an enemy’s port, lay a few torpedoes in the sides of their ships, then slip silently away. They never know what hit them.

For this dinner, I needed a disguise, in other words, a “duck blind.” When hunting ducks, the hunters have to blend into the environment, so they build a camouflage enclosure where they can see the ducks, but the ducks cannot see them. For this, I would wear my long evening gown that had no back. It’s also how spies blend into a fancy party. “My name is Bond. Jane Bond.” I was ready to do some shaking AND stirring. Of course, I probably blew my cover when I wore my “Trans and Proud” and “TAVA” buttons.

I knew that I would not get into the dinner without a ticket and I had no intention of buying one. However, they always had their Silent Auction before the dinner and you didn’t have to have a dinner ticket to go in there.

When I arrived at the Hyatt, two people were already handing out flyers and holding signs. Sir Jesse was outside and Anneliese was just inside the hotel door, handing out flyers as people came in. Others who arrived later were Jamie, Jae, Marisa, Dante, Betty and a friend of hers, Ghetto Gospel.

I heard earlier from Betty that on Thursday, May 1st, Joe Solmonese had a meeting with a half dozen transgender people here in Georgia . I wasn’t invited, nor was a few other transgender people who have worked at the national level, such as Dana Owings, Kristin Reichman and Cole Thaler from Lambda Legal. I’m willing to bet it was not accidental.

I was told that Joe “. . . apologized for misspeaking at Southern Comfort . . .” and that “. . . had he known what was going to have happen, he wouldn’t have said what he had said.” To me that translates to “HRC has no integrity when it comes to speaking to transgender people and I have the backbone of a jelly fish.” George Orwell would be so proud.

Once inside, I strolled into the Silent Auction like I belonged there. In reality, if HRC was more supportive of transgender people and their needs, then I would have indeed belonged there. But, I was nothing more than an interloper in the game of intrigue. Okay, so I’m getting a bit melodramatic.

The first thing that I noticed was that in a city that has a large population of African Americans, the crowd looked distinctly white and distinctly male. There were some attendees who were People of Color and there were attendees who were female, but where I saw the most diversity was with the “hired help” and the volunteers. Interesting enough, one of the dinner’s co-chairs (Ebonee Bradford) was an African American woman.

The theme for the evening was a Las Vegas casino, complete with the bright lights, Vegas showgirls and an Elvis impersonator. I mingled with the crowd, talking to various people there, some who openly admitted they were part of HRC’s organization. I spoke with one woman who touted HRC’s “wonderful” Corporate Equality Index, having no idea I would be the wrong person to try and convince their CEI was so “perfect.” I proceeded to point out that my 100% company screwed me over simply because I’m trans when I needed a medically necessary operation that others in the company can get.

I told the woman the bar for transgender medical issues was set so low that an ant could jump over it. HRC does that to falsely inflate the numbers on the 100% list and to placate the corporations by allowing them to medically mistreat their transgender employees, just as long as their gay and lesbian employees are treated fairly. Transgender people don’t need to be treated fairly, by HRC’s standards.

During my journey through “ Never-Never Land ,” I had a chance to speak to the Beast Master himself, Joe Solmonese. I was nice and I complimented him on how appropriate the casino theme for the dinner was. “This is such a perfect theme you have here, Joe. It’s all about gambling . . . and you’re gambling with people’s lives.” I suspect he didn’t appreciate that.

Of course, I wasn’t going to stop there. I informed him about the Transgender Veterans Survey, conducted by TAVA that had just ended and it had 827 responses to it. Besides the military and VA-related questions in the survey, we had a great deal of general questions. I said he needs to see how many of our transgender veterans were unemployed and under-employed, and how many have been discriminated on the job. It didn’t seem to faze him. Ask me if I’m surprised.

Interesting, the number of transgender veterans who took our survey far surpasses the number of responses on the questionable survey HRC conducted to see if transgender people should be in ENDA. Also, you have to factor in the small population our respondents came from to really get the impact.

Then I asked Solmonese why I didn’t get an E-mail inviting me to the meeting on Thursday. He said, “I don’t know who put that together.” Ah, really? Does he expect me to believe he’s that clueless on something as important as a meeting? He then asked me, “What did you hear of the meeting?” I responded by saying, “That it took place and I wasn’t invited.” Also, the media wasn’t invited. I guess he doesn’t want to take a chance of going on record with what he says to transgender people. I wonder why.

The one thing that really set me off was when I had a chance to speak with a person I thought was a friend. He is an effeminate gay man who is the partner of a lawyer who I know through SLDN and the American Veterans for Equal Rights. He proceeded to tell me about his four-hour session at the spa to get ready for the event. I told him I was there to educate people on the need for a fully inclusive ENDA.

He said, “Oh, I don’t support that at all. They said there aren’t enough votes with transgender people in the bill. Besides, we need a win.”

I was pissed. “So, you want a win on the backs of millions of transgender people?” He tried to say something, but I continued. “You are an effeminate gay man and without Gender Identity and Gender Expression in ENDA, you’re just as fucked as transgender people. You and butch lesbians will be screwed, just like me.” He didn’t respond to that. Besides, he had his sugar daddy, so to hell with everyone else. I walked away.

The best thing I found out was when I went back outside to join the protest. Betty, a member of the Atlanta Pride Committee, informed me that they just had a vote that day to turn down HRC’s offer to be a sponsor for this year’s Pride. In a year where the expenses have increased in putting on Atlanta Pride, they turned down $5000 from HRC because of their stance on ENDA. I always knew I loved the people on the Atlanta Pride Committee, but this made me love them even more. I hope others will take that stance with HRC at their pride events. Betty also informed me that a trans man will be the Grand Marshall for the Pride Parade.

So much for the Atlanta HRC Dinner. I may not have made an impact on many people, but a friend reminded me that every little bit helps. I want to express my appreciation to Jamie Roberts and Sir Jesse McNulty for putting this together. It’s people like them and the Atlanta Pride Committee who make me proud to live in Georgia.

Today Was A Good B-Day

I still have a few minutes left in another Cuatro De Mayo celebration, AKA my birthday. As usual its been an interesting weekend.

I was born during the Kennedy Administration at 10:45 PM CDT on this day in H-town's Third Ward. At this point in my life I look at every birthday I reach as the blessing that it is, especially when you factor in that it took me awhile to evolve (and I'm STILL evolving) into the person I am today.

One of the neat things about living in Da Ville is that my birthday falls either just before, on or just after Derby Day. The two week period leading up to the Kentucky Derby is a smorgasbord of events, parties and festivals all leading up to the Derby and Kentucky Oaks. The Oaks is held the day before at Churchill Downs and the races that day including the Oaks have fillies running in them.

When I first moved up here in 2001, my big 4-0 birthday actually fell during Derby 128 in 2002. I still have memorabilia stashed from that one..

Of course, the GLBT community gets in on the fun as well. One of the parties I attended last night was sponsored by our local GLBT civil rights organization, the Fairness Campaign. It's a fundraiser for Fairness and an opportunity for our community to show some love to all the local, state and national political peeps and others who support us. It's also a chance for GLBT friendly celebs who are attending other Derby events around town to interface with their local GLBT fans. And hey, i get to dress up for it as well.

But that party made for a short night. I'd already agreed to roll up to Columbus this morning with Dawn to catch another fencing tournament with her, and we shoved off bright and early up I-71 north at 10 AM EDT to do so. A few hours later we were in Columbus, but not after a little Mapquest drama.

For those of you who Mapquest trips, you're probably aware of the quirks that sometimes pop up that have you taking counterintuitive routes to your destination point. Nine times out of ten it's on target, but every now and then you get one of those head scratching routings

Well, our target destination was a high school in Dublin, OH where the Great Lakes Regional Tournament was being held. We should have been routed off I-71 WESTWARD onto I-270. Instead, it gave us directions a few minutes into it I realized had us going EASTWARD away from Dublin. I ended up catching I-70 west, cutting through downtown Columbus and intersecting I-270 a few moments later and getting Dawn there 35 minutes before check in time at 3 PM EDT.

Well, despite that glitch, I did enjoy the tournament, have a pleasant trip up and back on a beautiful spring day through the Kentucky and Ohio countryside while blasting Janet Jackson's new CD and a host of old school R&B favorites on my system.

I also had the opportunity at various moments during that drive to reflect on some of the blessings I've received this year. Being invited to become a contributing writer to the Project. Speaking at the upcoming inaugural New England Transgender Pride March on June 7. Having people in my life who love and care about me in addition to the calls, e-mails, e-cards and well wishes I received from people who consider me an important part of their lives. I deeply appreciate all the love you've showered on me today.

When I blew out the candles on the cake, one of the things I wished for will hopefully take place on May 20, November 4 and January 20, 2009.

So yeah, today was a good day. And I hope to be blessed with another similar one like it or better 365 days from now.

My Birthday Horoscope

TransGriot Note: Just for fun I decided to pull this up and see how accurate it was: hmmmm....

May 4 Birthday Astrology
by Jill M. Phillips

A Taurus born on May 4 seeks to distill from life its purest essence. Where most people have a tendency to complicate events, these men and women want to enjoy life in a simple and unadorned fashion. Spiritually, these individuals set high standards for themselves.

Friends and Lovers

People born on May 4 have a charismatic personality that sets them apart. Because of this it is sometimes hard for May 4 people to know why people are drawn to them as friends. Love and romance bring a similar dilemma. They are easily swayed by flattery. May 4 men and women should use a great deal of discretion when choosing a life-mate.

Children and Family

The deep spiritual values possessed by May 4 people are generally the result of some profound experience during their childhood years. Their upbringing is likely to have been unusual or offbeat. They love children, and whether or not they have any of their own, they'll continually concern themselves with children's issues.

Health

May 4 people take an active interest in keeping themselves healthy. They eat well, exercise regularly, and rarely if ever have to worry about putting on excess weight. Frequent check-ups and the use of alternate remedies in addition to conventional ones can help ensure good health.

Career and Finances

With their dynamic personality and devotion to social causes, May 4 individuals prefer careers where they can make a difference in the world. They often choose politics, the law, social work, or family counseling. If they have considerable financial power they may use it to garner support for worthy causes. These people have simple tastes and seldom make a show of what they possess.

Dreams and Goals

May 4 individuals are philosophical types who ask "why not?" when contemplating a life change. They have a wildly optimistic view of life, believing that they can make the world a better place through their own efforts. No matter what kind of career they decide upon, these individuals are sure to favor humanitarian concerns.

Taurus Information for May 4

You should embrace: Interesting projects, joy, changes of venue
You should avoid: Anxiety, insecurity, drawing conclusions

May 4 Stuff

Today is my favorite day on the calendar next to payday and Christmas because at 10:45 PM in Houston's Third Ward yours truly was born. ;)

So in honor of my favorite day I'm posting all the events and peeps who share my birthday.

Events

1256 - Augustinian monastic order constituted at Lecceto Monastery when Pope Alexander IV issues a papal bull Licet ecclesiae catholicae
1415 - Religious reformers John Wycliffe and Jan Hus were condemned as heretics at the Council of Constance.
1471 - Wars of the Roses: The Battle of Tewkesbury – Edward IV defeats a Lancastrian Army and kills Edward, Prince of Wales.
1493 - Pope Alexander VI divides the New World between Spain and Portugal along the Demarcation Line.
1494 - Christopher Columbus lands in Jamaica.
1626 - Dutch explorer Peter Minuit arrives in New Netherland (present day Manhattan Island) aboard the See Meeuw.
1675 - King Charles II of England orders the construction of the Royal Greenwich Observatory.
1686 - Municipality of Ilagan was founded in the Philippines.
1799 - Fourth Anglo-Mysore War: The Battle of Seringapatam – The siege of Seringapatam ends when the city is assaulted and the Tipu Sultan killed by the besieging British army, under the command of General George Harris.
1814 - Emperor Napoleon I of France arrives at Portoferraio on the island of Elba to begin his exile.
1814 - King Ferdinand VII of Spain signs the Decrete of the 4th of May, returning Spain to absolutism.
1855 - American adventurer William Walker departs from San Francisco with about 60 men to conquer Nicaragua.
1859 - Cornwall Railway opened across the Royal Albert Bridge linking the counties of Devon and Cornwall in England.
1863 - American Civil War: Battle of Chancellorsville – The battle ends with a Union retreat.
1869 - The Naval Battle of Hakodate takes place in Japan.
1871 - The National Association, the first professional baseball league, opens its first season in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
1886 - Haymarket Square Riot: A bomb is thrown at policemen trying to break up a labor rally in Chicago, Illinois, United States, killing eight and wounding 60. The police fire into the crowd.
1904 - Construction begins by the United States on the Panama Canal.
1904 - German football club FC Schalke 04 was founded
1904 - Charles Stewart Rolls met Frederick Henry Royce at the Midland Hotel in Manchester England.
1910 - The Royal Canadian Navy is created.
1912 - Italy occupies the Greek island of Rhodes.
1919 - May Fourth Movement: Student demonstrations take place in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, protesting the Treaty of Versailles, which transferred Chinese territory to Japan.
1924 - The 1924 Summer Olympics open in Paris, France.
1930 - British police arrest Mahatma Gandhi and place him in Yeravda Central Prison.
1932 - In Atlanta, Georgia, mobster Al Capone begins serving an eleven-year prison sentence for tax evasion.
1942 - World War II: Battle of the Coral Sea – The battle begins with an attack by aircraft from the United States aircraft carrier Yorktown on Japanese naval forces at Tulagi Island in the Solomon Islands. The Japanese forces had invaded Tulagi the day before.
1945 - World War II: Liberation of the Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg by the British Army.
1945 - World War II: Surrender of the North Germany Army to Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery.
1946 - In San Francisco Bay, US Marines from the Treasure Island Marine Barracks stop a two-day riot at Alcatraz federal prison. Five people are killed in the riot.
1949 - The entire Torino football (soccer) team (except for one player who did not take the trip due to an injury) is killed in a plane crash at the Superga hill at the edge of Turin, Italy.
1953 - Ernest Hemingway is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for The Old Man and the Sea.
1961 - American civil rights movement: The "Freedom Riders" begin a bus trip through the South.
1970 - Vietnam War: Kent State shootings – The Ohio National Guard, sent to Kent State University after the ROTC building was burnt down, opens fire killing four students and wounding nine others. The students were protesting the United States' invasion of Cambodia.
1972 - The Don't Make A Wave Committee, a fledgling environmental organization founded in Canada in 1971, officially changes its name to "Greenpeace Foundation".
1974 - An all-female Japanese team reaches the summit of Manaslu, becoming the first women to climb an 8,000-meter peak.
1979 - Margaret Thatcher becomes the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
1980 - President Josip Broz Tito of Yugoslavia dies in Ljubljana at the age of 87.
1982 - 20 sailors are killed when the British Type 42 destroyer HMS Sheffield (D80) is hit by an Argentinian Exocet missile during the Falklands War.
1988 - The PEPCON disaster rocked Henderson, Nevada, as tons of space shuttle fuel detonated during a fire.
1989 - Iran-Contra Affair: Former White House aide Oliver North is convicted of three crimes and was acquitted of nine other charges. The convictions, however, are later overturned on appeal.
1990 - Latvia proclaims renewal of its independence after the Soviet occupation.
1994 - Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat sign a peace accord regarding Palestinian autonomy granting self-rule in the Gaza Strip and Jericho.
1998 - A federal judge in Sacramento, California, gives "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski four life sentences plus 30 years after Kaczynski accepted a plea agreement sparing him from the death penalty.
2000 - Ken Livingstone becomes the first Mayor of London.
2001 - Pope John Paul II follows Saint Paul's footsteps across the Mediterranean, from Greece to Syria to Malta.
2001 - The Milwaukee Art Museum addition, the first Santiago Calatrava-designed structure in the United States, opens to the public.
2002 - An EAS Airlines BAC 1-11-500 crashes in a suburb of Kano, Nigeria shortly after takeoff killing more than 148 people.

Births

1008 - Khajeh Abdollah Ansari, The Persian Sufi (d. 1088)
1008 - King Henry I of France (d. 1060)
1654 - Kangxi Emperor of China (d. 1722)
1655 - Bartolomeo Cristofori, Italian maker of musical instruments (d. 1731)
1715 - Richard Graves, English writer (d. 1804)
1733 - Jean-Charles de Borda, French mathematician, physicist, political scientist, and sailor (d. 1799)
1752 - John Brooks, 11th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1825)
1767 - Tyagaraja, Composer of Indian classical Carnatic music (d. 1847)
1772 - Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus, German publisher (d. 1823)
1781 - Karl Christian Friedrich Krause, German philosopher (d. 1832)
1796 - Horace Mann, American educator (d. 1859)
1796 - William H. Prescott, American historian (d. 1859)
1820 - Julia Tyler, First Lady of the United States (d. 1889)
1822 - Charles Boucher de Boucherville, Quebec politician (d. 1915)
1825 - Thomas Henry Huxley, English scientist (d. 1895)
1825 - Augustus Le Plongeon, French antiquitarian (d. 1908)
1826 - Frederic Edwin Church, American painter (d. 1900)
1827 - John Hanning Speke, British explorer (d. 1864)
1852 - Alice Pleasance Liddell, English schoolgirl model for Alice in Wonderland (d. 1934)
1864 - Marie Booth, the third daughter of William and Catherine Booth (d. 1937)
1870 - Alexandre Benois, Russian artist (d. 1960)
1873 - Joe De Grasse, Canadian film director (d. 1940)
1889 - Francis Cardinal Spellman, American religious leader (d. 1967)
1903 - Luther Adler, American stage actor (d. 1984)
1904 - Umm Kulthum, Egyptian singer (official Date of Birth) (d. 1975)
1908 - Giovannino Guareschi, Italian journalist (d. 1968)
1913 - Lady Katherine Brandram, née Princess of Greece and Denmark
1916 - Jane Jacobs, Canadian author and activist (d. 2006)
1918 - Tanaka Kakuei, Japanese political leader (d. 1993)
1918 - Thomas Mead, Australian politician and journalist (d. 2004)
1919 - Dory Funk, Professional wrestler (d. 1973)
1921 - Edo Murtić, Croatian painter (d. 2005)
1923 - Ed Cassidy, American musician (Spirit)
1923 - Eric Sykes, British actor and comedian
1923 - Godfrey Quigley, British actor (d. 1994)
1923 - Assi Rahbani, Lebanese composer and author
1925 - Maurice R. Greenberg, American businessman
1928 - Maynard Ferguson, Canadian musician (d. 2006)
1928 - Hosni Mubarak, President of Egypt
1928 - Wolfgang von Trips, German racing driver (d. 1961)
1929 - Audrey Hepburn, Anglo-Dutch actress (d. 1993)
1929 - Sidney Lamb, American linguist
1930 - Roberta Peters, American soprano
1931 - Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Russian conductor
1931 - Thomas Stuttaford, British doctor and writer
1933 - J. Fred Duckett, Texan sports announcer and teacher
1936 - El Cordobés, Spanish matador
1937 - Ron Carter, American jazz bassist
1937 - Dick Dale, American guitarist
1937 - Mr. Fuji, Former professional wrestler
1938 - Tyrone Davis, American soul singer (d. 2005)
1938 - Carlos Monsiváis, Mexican writer
1939 - Paul Gleason, American actor (d. 2006)
1939 - Amos Oz, Israeli writer, novelist, and journalist
1939 - Léon Rochefort, Quebec ice hockey player
1940 - Robin Cook, American novelist
1941 - George Will, American writer
1942 - Nickolas Ashford, American record producer, songwriter, and musician (Ashford and Simpson)
1943 - Mikhail Chemiakin, Russian painter
1944 - Roger Rees, British-born actor
1945 - Narasimhan Ram, Indian journalist
1946 - John Watson, Northern Irish racecar driver
1948 - Hurley Haywood, American race car driver, and three-time winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans
1949 - John Force, American race car driver
1949 - Stella Parton, American country music singer
1949 - Graham Swift, British author
1950 - Darryl Hunt, English musician (The Pogues)
1951 - Colin Bass, British bassist (Camel)
1951 - Jackie Jackson, American singer and musician (The Jackson 5)
1951 - Gérard Jugnot, French actor, film director, screenwriter and producer
1951 - Mick Mars, American guitarist (Mötley Crüe)
1952 - Michael Barrymore, English comedian, actor, quiz master and entertainer
1954 - Pia Zadora, American actress
1955 - Robert Ellis Orrall, American singer
1956 - David Guterson, American author
1956 - Ulrike Meyfarth, German athlete
1956 - Ken Oberkfell, American baseball player
1958 - Delbert Fowler, American and Canadian professional football player
1958 - Keith Haring, American graphical artist (d. 1990)
1959 - Scott Armstrong, American professional wrestling referee
1959 - Randy Travis, American musician
1961 - Luis Herrera, Colombian cyclist
1961 - Ishita Bhaduri, Indian (Bengali) Poet
1962 - Oleta Adams, American singer
1964 - Mónica Bardem, Spanish actress
1964 - Zsuzsa Mathe, Hungarian painter and visual artist, founder of transrealism
1964 - Rocco Siffredi, Italian porn actor
1967 - Ana Gasteyer, American actress
1968 - Julian Barratt, English comedian and musician, one half of The Mighty Boosh
1968 - Kate Garraway, English GMTV Presenter
1969 - Micah Aivazoff, Canadian ice hockey player
1969 - Ryan Shamrock, American wrestling valet
1970 - Gregg Alexander, American musician (New Radicals)
1971 - Joe Borowski, American baseball player
1971 - Luiz Garcia, Jr., Brazilian racing driver
1972 - Manny Aybar, Dominican baseball player
1972 - Mike Dirnt, American musician (Green Day)
1973 - Guillermo Barros Schelotto, Argentine footballer
1973 - John Madden, Canadian ice hockey player
1974 - Miguel Cairo, Venezuelan baseball player
1975 - Laci Peterson, American murder victim (d. 2002)
1976 - Ben Grieve, American baseball player
1976 - Jason Michaels, American baseball player
1977 - Emily Perkins, Canadian actress
1977 - Mariano Pernía, Argentine-Spanish footballer
1979 - Lance Bass, American singer (*NSYNC)
1979 - Wes Butters, British broadcaster
1979 - Lesley Vainikolo, Tongan born rugby union and rugby league player
1980 - Andrew Raycroft, NHL goalie
1981 - Eric Djemba-Djemba, Cameroon footballer
1982 - Kleopas Giannou, Greek footballer
1982 - Hector King, Mexican singer-songwriter
1982 - Markus Rogan, Austrian swimmer
1982 - Rasheeda,American hiphop singer
1983 - Trisha Krishnan, Indian actress
1983 - Derek Roy, Canadian ice hockey player
1984 - Manjural Islam, Bangladeshi test cricket player (d. 2007)
1984 - Kevin Slowey, American baseball player
1984 - Montell Owens, American football player
1985 - Anthony Fedorov, American singer
1985 - Ravinder Bopara, English cricketer
1987 - Cesc Fàbregas, Spanish footballer
1987 - Jorge Lorenzo, Spanish motorcycle racer
1987 - Anjeza Shahini, Albanian singer
1994 - Pauline Ducruet, daughter of HSH Princess Stéphanie of Monaco
1994 - Alexander Gould, American actor

Deaths

1975 - Moe Howard, American actor and comedian (b. 1897)
1980 - Josip Broz Tito, President of Yugoslavia (b. 1892)

Nothin' But A Derby Party

photos-Louisville Courier-Journal 'The Buzz' columnist Angie Fenton wearing a derby hat, Gabrielle Union and Shaun Robinson at the Derby, the Lady Chablis

One of the interesting things about life in Louisville is the two week period that this town throws itself a party in advance of its signature event, the Kentucky Derby. During that two weeks, Da Ville gets celebrities winging in on private jets from all over the planet to attend the numerous derby parties being thrown all over the area. It's also fun for me since Derby always falls either on or around my May 4 birthday.


We rush all over town trying to find that perfect hat or dress for Derby, getting hair done, and spend the day in the nail shop getting manicured and pedicured. If we're not checking out the various events connected with the Kentucky Derby Festival, or standing outside the Barstable house along with the paparazzi trying to get a glimpse of the celebs arriving for the Barnstable-Brown party, or feel like shelling out the big bucks for the African-American community's signature event the Grand Gala, we're watching the all day coverage of the Kentucky Oaks or Derby or making sure we've got other things to do.

The Louisville GLBT community gets in on the fun as well. If we're not attending the parties at a gay-centric nightclub or at a friend's place, we're getting ready for the Derby party that serves as a fundraiser for the Fairness Campaign along with our GLBT friends from Lexington and the rest of the state.


It hasn'r been around as long as the others, but it's one in which GLBT celebs or GLBT friendly ones pop in and show some love to our community. One that's definitely gonna be missed this year is Anna Nicole Smith, who made it a point to stop in and treat us to her over the top wild and crazy personality. She was arriving just as I was leaving the 2003 event. At that same 2003 one I ended up talking to the Lady Chablis, and made her night when I pulled out my copy of her autobiography for her petite self to autograph. Speaking of cute, petite women, Angie was sporting a pink derby hat to go with the pink suit she was rocking while reporting on the party for the C-J.

That one sticks in my memory for another reason besides the Lady Chablis. I got into a fascinating conversation with Tammy Faye about faith, and she told me something that has stuck with me ever since: Never let anyone tell you that God doesn't love you.

Damn, gotta go make a run to Walgreen's and pick up a disposable camera and another pair of hose for the party tonight.

Shame and Guilt

One of the things we transpeople fight a neverending battle with is shame and guilt issues. They are the result of the accumulation of things and events that we experienced growing up in mismatched bodies.

For example, if we held our schoolbooks the 'wrong' way, flopped around in mom's heels as a toddler or wanted to play with dolls instead of army men and trucks, we were quickly and firmly told that we couldn't do that because we were 'boys' and those were 'girls' things.

As you grow older and the defined gender roles become more rigid and the peer pressure to conform becomes more intense, you look for any outlet to relieve the growing pressure to release the girl inside and discover crossdressing as an outlet to do just that.

But as you do that you're bombarded by the negative cultural message that 'it's wrong' for boys to wear 'girls' clothes, but note the contradiction that girls not only can wear 'boys clothes' it's celebrated as a fashion statement. You're more troubled when you sit in your church on Sunday and hear your pastor spew forth an anti-gay sermon. Heaven help you if you get caught while in cross-dressed mode and get the beatdown of your life.

That forces you to retreat deep inside, resolve not to tell anyone about your issues out of fear, and you begin to feel guilt for not standing up and being honest about who and what you really are.

You struggle to do what your heart and your brain are telling you, but because you're in the opposite body are being slowly pushed to conform to the gender norms and expectations of being an inhabitant in that body.

If you're a person who thinks and plans long term, you end up not making those plans because you have a transgender issue that's the wild card in the deck of life that will upset whatever hopes and dreams you dare to have.

Relationships? If you're honest with yourself, you back out or sabotage them because you don't want to hurt the bioperson that is falling in love with you. You dread telling your parents and family members because you're afraid of not only being tossed out of the house, but being cut off from their love and affection forever.

And you're miserable because of it.

One of the first keys to beating shame and guilt is dealing with all those issues. You also must realize that it's not a crime to be transgender and live your life. You had no more control over being transgender than you have over your sexual orientation or other immutable characteristics.

What you do have control over is how you intelligently deal with the issues that resulted from the body-mind mismatch.

Tellin' Our Stories

One of the things that is desperately needed in the wake of the repeated attempts by the HRC-Frank neo-Mattachine cabal to cut transpeople out of ENDA is African-American transpeople willing to tell our stories to not only our community, but our legislative representatives as well.

Thanks to the Democrats regaining control of congress in the 2006 midterm elections and the addition of members, the Congressional Black caucus is not only larger than its ever been in its history, it is now wielding historic levels of power with several members chairing committees, Rep. Clyburn being majority whip and a certain senator from Illinois running for president.

That fact hasn't been lost on our white fundamentalist enemies in the Traditional Values Coalition and the Religious Reich. They have sent their faith-based flunkies in the Hi Impact Leadership Coalition to do their browbeating for them. They know from historical trends that any progressive legislation doesn't pass the House without the support of 'The Conscience of the Congress'.

While I don't mind telling our stories to our congressmembers, I can't be the only one. Our enemies are damnded sure firing up the buses full of faith-based sheeple to spread lies about us and rolling them to Washington. The Lo Impact 'ministers' are using their TVC provided talking points to convince them NOT to include us. But all their talking points with their carefully selected negative scriptures can't compare to a transgender constituent telling their story of how a lack of employment protections led to them losing a job.

Yes, now is not the time to burrow deeper into the closet, but to take bold, decisive action like our brothers and sisters did back in 1965. If you want an inclusive ENDA and Hhte crimes law passed and signed next year, then we're gonna have to fight tooth and nail for it.

Hey, we come from people who are used to fighting against long odds with the deck and the power structure stacked against them and prevailing. This battle is nothing different. The HRC-Frank 'incremental progress' cabal that opposes our inclusion or hollers 'wait your turn' is similar to Rev J.H. Jackson and his supporters.

We have the moral high ground on our side. For all the bluster coming from the sacreligious right, they are the ideological and spiritual heirs of the same anti-progressive forces of Intolerance that Dr. King an his contemporaries faced 40 years ago.

But we can't sit idly by and twiddle our thumbs, then gripe that our concerns aren't being addressed. We have to speak truth to power, talk to our legislators and tell them our stories.

Happy 75th Birthday James Brown

Today would have been the 75th birthday for the 'Godfather of Soul'. He unfortunately left us on Christmas Day 2006, but he's left behind a groundbreaking and colorful legacy of music and show stopping performances that will never be forgotten.

Soul Brother Number One on Soul Train singing my fave James Brown song Say It Loud (I'm Black And I'm Proud)




James at the Apollo in 1968 singing It's A Man's World medley



Get Up Offa That Thing




I Feel Good

Three More Superdelegates For Obama

To paraphrase my fellow Texan H. Ross Perot's famous line, that 'giant sucking sound' you hear is Hillary Clinton's superdelegate lead wasting away.

Many Dems like myself have been increasingly concerned about the nasty tone this race is taking while John McCain gets a free ride from the MSM and aren't happy about Hillary's nattering negative attacks of Sen. Obama. She's also been pissing people off in the party left, right and center and her once large lead in superdelegates has dwindled to just 18 with these key endorsements.

Rep. Baron Hill, who represents Indiana's 9th Congressional District across the river from me (and includes Bloomington and Indiana University) announced his support yesterday in advance of the May 6 primary. He joins Rep. Andre Carson of Indianapolis, the grandson of the late Rep. Julia Carson in endorsing Sen Obama.

"We cannot continue to pursue the same politics of personal destruction we have engaged in for a generation," Hill said. "I believe Senator Obama has the capability to change the tone and tenor of politics in Washington. I believe that he can and will work with both parties and elevate the level of public discourse."

On my side of the Ohio River, Rep. Ben Chandler, who represents Kentucky's 6th District (Lexington and the area around it) also announced his support for Sen. Obama at a press conference here in Da Ville. My congressman, 3rd District Rep. John Yarmuth has already announced he's supporting Sen. Obama and introduced Rep Chandler at the press conference.

"I've listened to the man. I have met with him and, like many of you, I am excited by his message of change for the future."

Rep. Chandler did catch some flak from some constituents for committing before the May 20 primary here in the Bluegrass state. He's the grandson of former Kentucky governor, US senator and baseball commissioner A.B.'Happy' Chandler and ran for governor himself in 2003.

He praised Obama as "a man of great integrity and intellect" and of "quiet strength."

In another blow to Hillary, Joe Andrew, who led the Democratic Party during the Clinton administration from 1999-2001 has switched his allegiance to Barack Obama and is encouraging fellow Democrats to "heal the rift in our party" and unite behind the Illinois senator.

He's planning a news conference later today in Indianapolis to urge other Hoosiers to support Obama in Tuesday's May 6 primary and has written a lengthy letter explaining his decision that he plans to send to other superdelegates.