Transgender Job Fair

As a reminder to you GLB peeps that we ain't forgot about ENDA and how serious having a job is for transgender people (especially transgender peeps of color), here's a San Francisco TV news story about a transgender job fair they conducted there recently.



The new session of the 110th Congress starts January 3. In light of the way y'all felt about being treated like second class citizens, we expect that if a new ENDA bill is introduced in this session, you'll remember how you felt after Prop 8 and trust that the new ENDA bill will not only be transgender inclusive, but you will do your part as our allies to help it pass.

Does The Transgender Porn World Celebrate The TDOR?

TransGriot Note: Transgender adult actress Vaniity at an event in Las Vegas.

In the wake of my commentary last week calling for HRC to leave our TDOR alone, one of the comments that was posted to it came for a person calling themselves Eddy.

I agree! Very well-written post, as usual. I wonder if trans porn industry observes this day. Does anyone know?

As the USS Monica went to Defcon 2 alert status and spooled up her rhetorical Tomahawks in preparation for launch, my thoughts ranged from immediately deleting the comment to rhetorically blasting it to smithereens.

My initial anger over the comment was fueled by the fact that once again, the negative perception of transgender peeps had wormed its way into a day that was meant for us to remember our fallen sisters.

But with my finger ready to hit DELETE, I stepped away from my pissivity over Eddy's comments to ponder why he felt comfortable enough to ask it on this blog in the first place.

One of the things that I and other transpeople of color have long complained about is the lack of balance with our images as transwomen. The adult entertainment world has played a major part in that combined with lack of positive role models of transwomen of color due to stealth status and other reasons to counteract it.

And far too often in the adult entertainment industry the images of African-American, Latina, and Asian transwomen are the ones disproportionately pushed and advertised to the point whee it negatively affects even the positive things we try to do.

Since some peeps make tons of money off pre-op transgender images with their adult films, magazines and various websites, and transgender people of color are the ones disproportionately bearing the brunt of the anti-transgender violence, when you ask Eddy's question in that context, somehow it doesn't seem as insulting as it did at first knee-jerk glance.

So did shemalewhatever.com and its like minded cousins black out their website for the day?

Did they stop filming the latest epic adult transgender film for release?

Did they cancel that trip to Thailand or Brazil looking for poor or young transpeople to take pictures of?

Did any of the adult transgender stars or the young transwomen participating in the destruction of our images show up at the TDOR events in West Hollywood, New York or elsewhere?

Did they even stop to care?

Come to think of it, Eddy's question is one that we all deserves an answer to.

November 2008 Black Blog Rankings

Electronic Villager finally got the opportunity to update the BBR's for this month. This month there were 1497 blogs ranked, 57 more than last month, with the Number One BBR blog still being Pam's House Blend.

You can check out the BBR's for the rest of the Top 10 and beyond and see how your blog stacked up.

And congrats Renee, Womanist Musings is at Number 23 while the Electronic Village rounds out the Top 25.

I deeply appreciate as all of us in the Blackosphere do the Villager taking the time out of his busy schedule to compile these ranking so that we have this important tool to measure our growth and progress.

As you know, for several months now I've been posting my goals for TransGriot. I want to be breaking the BBR Top 50 blogs and hitting a 150 Technorati ranking by January 1, 2009. You also get to witness in these BBR posts how I'm doing in terms of realizing that goal.

The BBR rankings usually get posted the first weekend of the month, but I totally understood why it didn't happen this month. There was some historic presidential election we (and the world) were all breathlessly following, and I know the Villager has been busy with real world concerns that have cut into his allotted blogging time.

TransGriot was also nominated in two categories for the 2008 Weblog Awards. 'Best LGBT Blog' and 'Best Small Minor Blog'.

The nominations have closed and they are now in the process of whittling it the nominations in each category to the 15 blogs that will be voted on starting December 8 to determine the winner. Pam's House Blend took the 'Best LGBT Blog' Award in 2005-2006 and I'd love to be in that company.

So now I've caught y'all up on some housekeeping stuff, let's get to what y'all want to know: What's my BBR this month?

The October BBR's were good news, bad news. I lost ground and slipped to number 70 after several months of major progress, but my Technorati ranking went up to 136. My Technorati rating actually bottomed out at 130 probably due to my Ike hiatus and some old links rolling off before it started its current climb to where it is now.

According to the posted rankings as of November 26, TransGriot was at number 63 with a 132 Technorati ranking.

Only one problem. My Technorati ranking on November 26 was 144.

While that's seven spots up from last month's ranking, based on my Technorati ranking on that date, I should be much higher in the BBR's than number 63. (it's at 143 as I compile this post)

My 144 (or even my 143) ranking would put me just two spots away from the BBR Top 50 at number 52 and put me tantalizingly close to reaching and surpassing my goals with a month to go.

But I'll leave that up to the founding genius of the BBR's to sort that out. In the meantime, I'll just continue to focus on as we all do in producing quality blog posts for you to peruse, and worry about the rest of the small stuff later.

Black Doctors-Where Y'all At?

One of the things that I've noted about the helping professionals assisting us in becoming the men and women we are is the lack of melanin in the group at the national level.

While we are blessed in the transgender community with helping professionals that are compassionate, skilled and caring to all their patients no matter what their ethnicity is, I've had the pleasure over the years of meeting many of them, and they go beyond the call of duty to fight tooth and nail for us, I'm still struck by the lack of African-American doctors involved in the gender identity medical world.

It's a concern because I know we have young African-Americans attending medical school. When I was a TATS member I used to be part of the Transgender 101 panel discussions we had at Baylor College of Medicine and talked to them.

One of my doctors early in my transition in between visits to the gender clinic was a Latino one on Houston's north side by the name of Dr. Mendoza. He unfortunately has passed away, but his basic philosophy when he was sometimes asked why he treated us was 'transgender people need medical care, too.'

Maybe there are African-American doctors involved in other cities on a local level that I'm not aware of yet that have the same basic philosophy and take their oath seriously, but who aren't disclosing that part of their practice in fear that it will drive other patients away.

But in light of a medical establishment that still is met with cautious skepticism by many African-Americans because of the fallout from the 40 year Tuskegee Syphilis Study that commenced in 1932, I believe that one reason that some African-American transpeople are reluctant to access the health care system besides cost or seek dangerous alternate methods such as silicone pumping to accomplish the body morphing we need to have happen is lingering trust issues as a result of that study.

The fact that some transpeople of color have experienced overt negative transphobic behavior and denial of service doesn't help either. It's also never far from our minds as African-American transgender people that Tyra Hunter died in 1995 because of lack of timely medical assistance in an emergency situation, and the EMT involved shared our cultural heritage.

And let's face it, it sometimes helps to have someone who has shared your cultural background understand when you're talking to them about transition as a person of color and some of the issues unique to that.

It would be nice when they have these WPATH conferences that the experiences of people of color are injected into the overall discussion of transgender health matters as well by their African-American medical peers. It would carry more weight than just moi speaking to them.

It would be also be nice for example, if you desire to do or need facial feminization surgery, to have a plastic surgery doctor that understands that we have cultural issues about our noses being messed with, there are certain nuances about ethnic beauty, and we don't want to look like Lil Kim or Michael Jackson when they finish.

So where are the African-American doctors that support us? For those of us who do have that option of surgical enhancement, do they even want our business?

Inquiring minds wanna know.

Battle of Houston

Rice and UH have always fought each other tooth and nail regardless of records or the sport we're playing. It's why I'm going to be on pins and needles today while awaiting the outcome of the UH-Rice game at Rice Stadium.

Today's battle for the Bayou Bucket not only symbolizes who wins football bragging rights in H-town for the year, it also has C-USA championship and bowl implications as well.

If the Coogs win, we are the C-USA West Division champs and host a rematch with East Carolina in the C-USA title game December 6 at Robertson Stadium. If Rice wins, they give Tulsa a chance to win the West title with a win over Marshall.

Rice wins the West title if they beat the Coogs and Tulsa loses to Marshall.

Got it?

So our little brothers at Rice will have an extra incentive beside the usual dislike of all things red and white to knock us off.

If my Coogs beat the Owls and take out East Carolina again, they get to play in Memphis against an SEC representative. Rumor is that the opponent might be UK.

Talk about fun in this house,you know that Dawn and I will be verbally jousting from now until New Year's Day if that happens.

Change.gov

Just in case you're counting the days until January 20 and President-elect Obama's inauguration, you can check out the official website of the transition team, change.gov

You can check out the discussions going on about various policy initiatives, apply for a job in the administration, and other assorted tidbits and announcements.


Hey, I'm just happy he won!

Waah! Nigeria Loses To Equatorial Guinea

Ever since the African Women's Championship tourney was launched in 1998, the Nigerian national women's team has dominated women's soccer on the Mother Continent.

They've won this tournament five times, but the defending champion Super Falcons suffered a shocking 1-0 loss on Tuesday in the tournament semifinals to the hosts from Equatorial Guinea. It set off a wild celebration in the capital city of Malabo and denied the Super Falcons a chance to take home their sixth title.

Instead, for the first time in the ten year history of the African Women's Championship, the Nigerians will be playing for third place on November 28 versus Cameroon while the hosts head to the title match versus South Africa on Saturday.

The reason I'm mentioning it is because gender issues reared their ugly heads in the pre-match gamesmanship and the whining from the losing team after the match.

One of the tired recurring themes in women's sports is the fear that in order to gain a competitive advantage, men will either dress up as women in order to win individual sports glory, be ordered to do so and be placed on those teams by higher level political (or sports) officials hungry for prestige, or feed their female athletes testosterone as the East Germans did all in the name of garnering international sporting glory and prestige.

Despite the fact that rumors the USSR's medal winning Press sisters Irina and Tamara were males that interestingly enough both retired from international competition prior to the institution by the IOC of gender testing before the 1968 Olympic cycle, the only nation (so far) busted for actually doing so is Nazi Germany in the 1936 Olympics.

They forced Hermann Ratjen, who had ambiguous genitalia, to live as Dora for three years and compete in the Olympic women's high jump as Dora. There was also the same 'that's a man' shade thrown in the 1936 Berlin Games 100m final at Helen Stephens after she upset defending Olympic champ Stella Walsh in then world record time.

The Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) spent several days before the semifinal match with Equatorial Guinea grousing about two players in general, Binguisa Simpore and Salimata Simpore. They demanded that the CAF (Confederation of African Football) do gender tests on them prior to the match and when the CAF deferred action on the protest until next month, threatened to boycott the match.

Super Falcon Lillian Cole stated in a Guardian (Nigeria) interview," I am not trying to give excuses for our inability to make it to the final, but sincerely speaking, it would be difficult for a team made of female players to beat those Equatorial Guinean team. We played against men and it is so unfortunate for CAF to allow 'men' to be playing in a nations cup meant for women.

"Those two players (Binguisa Simpore and Salimata Simpore) are men no matter how somebody will try to convince me. Even their captain, Anonma Genoveva is more of a man than a woman. I expected CAF to act on the protest filed by Nigeria before the match."

Maureen Eke echoed her teammate, asserting that the presence of those two 'men' in the Guinean squad stopped the Falcons from operating smoothly.

"We did everything within our limit to break into their defense but you saw how the 'boy' in their defense was using his power to block every move we made. He didn't give us any space at all because he has the power of a man and it was very wrong'

Meow, ladies. You lost, get over it.

Equatorial Guinea team captain Genoveva, one of the targets of Cole's sour graping, showed more class than her vanquished opponents did. She tearfully called it a dream come true at the post match press conference.

"Nigeria is a big country filled with experienced players. But for this tournament, we prepared extremely hard and I am happy it is coming in my time."

Bottom line, if Precious Dede stops Genoveve's free kick in the 58th minute from going into the net, y'all might have been playing in the finals despite the fact you've only scored two goals in this entire tournament.

The Nigerian women need to look in the mirror in terms of who lost this tournament. As I can tell you firsthand from being a fan of the USA basketball dynasty, it doesn't last forever.

While you're coasting on past glory and feeling it's your birthright to win international titles, the teams you beat up on in those international competitions will eventually get tired of taking sports beatdowns from you. They stop being 'scurred' and in awe of being on the same field with you, get mad and begin working smarter and harder to dethrone you. Sooner or later their hard work is rewarded and they begin getting the lucky bounces in games that eventually lead to just what happened to the Super Falcons on Tuesday.

So just like the Team USA men's b-ballers had to reorganize the way they did things after the embarrassing losses in the 2002 FIBA Championships (on home soil no less) and the 2004 Athens Games, stop making excuses, roll up their sleeves and start working, looks like the same thing needs to happen in Nigeria with the women's soccer team.

And to Lillian Cole, Maureen Eke and all the other Nigeria Super Falcon women, I'd be careful who you disrespectfully call men because you're mad you lost. Some of y'all don't exactly look like Nigerian supermodel Oluchi Onweagba or Nollywood starlets.

And stop the whining, excuse making and denigrating your opponents. It's the first step to getting your international championship groove back.


TransGriot Note: Update peeps- Equatorial Guinea went on to win the AWC by defeating South Africa 2-1. The Nigerians took home the bronze medal after a 1-1 draw with Cameroon was settled on penalty kicks.

Genevova, one of the players the Nigerians were hatin' on, scored the game winning goal. In fact she personally scored more goals (six) than the Super Falcons collectively did in the entire tournament.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all you TransGriot readers in the States. You Canadian ones got y'all grub on last month ;).

We have a lot to be thankful for this year. In a few weeks our turkey of a president will be headed back to that pseudo ranch in Crawford and intelligence will reign in the White House once again.

I'm also relatively happy, healthy and gainfully employed.

A shout out to my favorite twins from my high school days Joslyn and Roslyn, who are celebrating the anniversaries of their 29th birthday today.

While I can't be with my family back home today, I do have my chosen family here in Da Ville I'll be breaking bread with and trying to call others as time and the Turkey Day festivities permit.

And, no, I'm not going anywhere near any mall or strip center on the Louisville metro area on Friday. Five years of working retail and getting up at 3 AM for those madhouse sales was enough.

Happy Thanksgiving TransGriot readers! Now go get your grub on and watch some football.

The Hippest Trip In America

Don Cornelius getting busted last Friday in LA triggered memories about my favorite way in my teens to enjoy a Saturday besides watching my favorite cartoons.

The show was Soul Train and to me and every other African-American kid growing up in the 70's, 80's, 90's and part of the 2K's, it was Must See TV.

It was our version of American Bandstand and Don Cornelius was our Dick Clark. I tuned in to KHTV 39 at noon to see the latest dances, the latest fashions and hear the latest music.

And because I was on the wrong side of the gender fence at the time, I was also jealously envious of the sistahs on that show.




You also got to see the Soul Train Dancers forming that world famous Soul Train Line and either coolly or in some cases acrobatically moving and grooving their way down the end of it.







Some of the peeps who danced on Soul Train over the years included Rosie Perez, Carmen Electra, Nick Cannon, MC Hammer, Jermaine Stewart, Fred "Rerun" Berry, Pebbles, and NFL legend Walter Payton. Jody Watley and Jeffery Daniel danced on the show before becoming (along with Howard Hewitt) two-thirds of the group Shalamar.

It was also the place where we tuned in to see our artists (even if some of them were lip-synching to the songs).


The Commodores 1974



Chic 1978



Teena Marie 1980



Morris Day and The Time 1982



Vanity 6 1984



After a 35 year run, 1117 episodes and several guest hosts after Don Cornelius stepped down in 1993, Soul Train ended its historic run in 2006.



Wishing you love. peace and SOUL!

Oh, Deer!

Hey peeps, if you're hitting the roads in preparation for Turkey Day, be careful since deer are out looking for love in the wrong places.

Like the middle of a highway.

There was a front page article in the Courier-Journal yesterday warning folks that October-December is prime time for deer vs. car crashes since they're out looking to get their freak on. The female deer that aren't in heat and don't want to be bothered loiter around the highways to prevent a love connection.

The article brought back memories not only what happened to Polar back in 2002 when he had an up close and personal encounter with a pregnant doe on I-77 in West Virginia, but some close encounters I've had with Bambis inside and outside the Louisville city limits.

In 2005 I was a passenger in a westbound van headed back to Louisville on I-64 from a meeting in Lexington. Near Waddy, KY I spotted the deer up ahead meandering blithely in the left lane and warned my friend Erica, who promptly changed lanes and fortunately passed the deer without incident. The 18 wheeler behind us probably turned it into deer burgers.

Last November I was headed home after I got off from work at 5 AM. I was four blocks from home when something told me to slow my butt down as I approached the curve near the back side of the Southern Baptist Seminary.

All of a sudden a deer jumped out in the road from the seminary twenty yards in front of my car and started running in the wrong lanes away from me. Fortunately for the deer, the TARC bus that's usually headed westbound hadn't approached my street yet otherwise me and the neighbors would have been feasting on deer sausage and venison.

While I'm making humorous cracks about it, deer vs. car crashes are serious business. Polar's encounter totaled his car, and people have been killed or seriously injured as a result of these types of car (and sometimes motorcycle) crashes.

When I drove to Dallas for my cousin's November 2006 wedding, I was concerned because most of the driving I was doing was going to be at night, when deer are most active. I made it a point to have 18 wheelers run interference for me on I-65, I-40 and I-30 while I was motoring through rural Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas and northeast Texas enroute there and back to Da Ville. Better they hit Bambi than me.

But be careful, peeps. The car (and life) you save may be your own.

A Transsistah's Secret-Tucking

If you've ever attended or watched video of a transgender pageant or ball, you've probably watched contestants strut their stuff in skimpy bathing suits or wear tight jeans and look good doing it.

You also probably wondered as you watched them strut back and forth across the stage how do pre-op transwomen and female illusionists hide the neoclitoris?

Well, it's a technique that we call tucking. The methods to accomplish 'hiding the candy' as the Lady Chablis called it are as varied as the transpeople who use them.

One which sounds painful is basically pushing the family jewels into the cavity they descended from. The testicles shrink as you keep swallowing estrogen or taking the shots, so it's not as hard as it sounds.

You basically spread your legs and carefully push the the testicles toward the cavity. Once you get them in the cavity the scrotal sac will be empty, and you can wrap that loose skin around the penile shaft and then pull it all back between your legs using either tape or an extra set of panties to hold everything in place. Gravity will get them back into their natural position when you free the penis.

Yes, peeps do shave the area to make sure that they don't give themselves an impromptu Brazilian wax. Most people also use surgical tape these days instead of duct tape since duct tape can pull skin off as you remove it.

Others will use a gaff to tuck the neoclit away while others just simply pull it back as far as it will go and wear a girdle or an extra pair of panties to ensure that everything stays in place.

Sometimes it doesn't always stay in place and the neoclit wiggles free. With the interior testicular method you have to be very careful when you sit down, otherwise you get the sensation of someone kicking you in the groin.

Feminine fashions are designed to accentuate the body. Jeans are designed to be form fitting and tight, and the last thing you want is a frontal bulge while wearing them, especially if you are in certain social situations. Tucking will continue to be a necessary evil for pre-ops until they can get to the point they can afford either SRS or an orchiectomy to remove the family jewels.

Stepping Up To The No On 8 Plate

Lost in the noisily contentious post mortem of why No on 8 lost in 'Ca-lee-for-nia' is the fact that the transgender POC community stepped up to the plate and did their part to help drive the NO vote.

Here's Exhibits A and B:

Jazzmun speaking at Club Cobra on the issue.



Tita Aida



So I don't ever want to hear coming from a gay or lesbian person's mouth ever again that transpeople, and especially transgender people of color didn't have your back on an issue important to the gay and lesbian community.

Leave The TDOR Alone

As TDOR 2008 recedes into the rear view mirror of history I wish to comment on the efforts of some people in the transgender community to turn the Transgender Day of Remembrance ceremony into a happy-happy joy-joy event.

Leave the TDOR alone.

There are 365 days in a year (366 during leap years), which is probably why our presidential election campaigns seem so endless.

If you wish to have an event that takes a happy-happy joy-joy approach to publicizing transgender issues, by all means organize it and promote the hell out of it. If it's a good one and has no connection whatsoever to the Homosexual Rights Corporation, I'll even post whatever press release you put together for this event on TransGriot.

Just pick some other calendar date to do it.

Just as Memorial Day and Veterans Day are two calendar days specifically set aside to memorialize veterans and anyone who has paid the ultimate price for us to have what freedoms we do enjoy here in the States, we transgender peeps need that same kind of day to memorialize the people we've lost as well.

The TDOR is a memorial service and as such is a serious, contemplative event. The core element of it is the reading of the names and lighting of candles for the dearly departed.

The TDOR in addition to us ensuring the names of our fallen brothers and sisters don't fade from our memories with the passage of time, is also a way for us to initiate teachable moments with our allies, do coalition building, talk to the general public about our issues, and sometimes get the bonus of media coverage as well.

The TDOR is also important to transgender people of color as well. We get precious little media coverage and people of color make up the disproportionate share of the 412 people (and counting) memorialized on the Remembering Our Dead site.

As a matter of fact, since the other thing we African American transgender peeps share with our non-transgender brothers and sisters besides our heritage is a near invisibility in the media, there was a proposal a few years ago by some peeps in the African-American transgender community to have our own event.

It would be centered on the August 7 date of Tyra Hunter's death due to the ignorant negligence of an African-American EMT in Washington DC.

The proposed day's mission would be to publicize the fact that many of the anti-transgender murders of African-American transgender people are committed by our own people. It would also seek to do some 'ejumacation' of our community around those and other issues affecting us and point out that 60% of the ROD list is transpeople of color.

But when it was pointed out that Rita Hester's murder was the impetus that led to the TDOR, and that day was now being celebrated around the world, the chatter about a separate day, even though it's a wonderful idea that probably needs to happen, went dormant.

If my fellow transpeeps of African descent realize the importance of the world pausing to contemplate anti-transgender violence, then what's the problem with the cognitive abilities of those of you trying to mess with the TDOR's simplistic perfection for specious reasons?

I will go Maya Wilkes on you quislings if what I'm hearing about this effort to change the 'morbid and depressing' TDOR's is true and the unstated purpose is to grease the skids for HRC to resume raising funds in our community on the bones of our fallen brothers and sisters.

Congratulations, Rebecca!

With all the various events going on in the last few weeks including the historic presidential election, I forgot to post my congratulations to our honorary transwoman Rebecca Romijn, who is expecting twins sometime this winter with her hubby Jerry McConnell.

As many of you TransGriot readers know, Rebecca plays transwoman Alexis Meade on one of my fave TV shows, Ugly Betty.

The way they've explained Alexis' hiatus on the show writing wise is that she fathered the French child originally thought to be Daniel's pre-transition (y'all are gonna have to get with the program and catch up) and has taken a leave of absence from Meade Communications to jet off to Paris and spend quality time with her son.

Her son's mother was a French model who died and left instructions in the event of her death to find the Meades.

I hope that she reconsiders leaving the show and whatever drama between her and the new writing staff gets squashed. I'd love to see more of our honorary transwoman strutting through the halls of the Mode building running thangs in future seasons.

I love watching her play Alexis almost as much as I enjoy watching Vanessa L. Williams play the deliciously wicked and always scheming Wilhelmina Slater, and Mark Indelicato playing Betty's Broadway loving fashionista nephew Justin Suarez.

Shoot, the entire cast on that show rocks.

And yes, I did say 'honorary transwoman'. She considers herself a friend of the community and backed up her words with her actions.

When a group of us protested last year's Washington DC HRC dinner in the wake of the ENDA backstabbing, Monica Helms passed a 'Transgender Pride' button to one of our allies who was going inside the convention center to attend it. That ally promised they would get the button to Rebecca, who along with Michael Urie was there that evening to accept an award on behalf of the show.

When they appeared onstage to accept it, Rebecca was wearing the button.

Rebecca has also made it clear that she wanted to portray this role as accurately as possible and even consulted her transgender girlfriends on how to do so. It clearly showed in the performances she gave during that first season that she (and the previous writing team) got it.

So congratulations, Rebecca. May you and Jerry's twins be born healthy and may life continue to bring you both much happiness and success.

Don't Hate

An MKR poem


Don't hate
Because the world thinks it's great
That we have a Black president after a 200 year wait
With Michelle as his loving mate
And from the Oval Office he'll administrate

Don't hate
Because Obama can enunciate
His campaign was first-rate
Change was the theme Barack articulates
In January we'll have a prez that can communicate

Don't hate
Because America wants to repudiate
Our race-based tendency to segregate
And racism we need to obliterate
For y'all who wanna trip please emigrate

Don't hate
Because conservatism lies prostrate
You're the fools that chose to concentrate
On GLBT civil rights to eradicate
And the undemocratic agenda you pontificate

Don't hate
Because the world did celebrate
McCain and Palin's losing fate
The DC House Bush soon has to vacate
Our troops from Iraq we can extricate

Don't hate
Because 'We the people' gave them a mandate
It's time to stop bickering and cooperate
Now the Dems will get to legislate
To clean up the eight year mess we didn't create

Don't hate
Because with the planet we'll collaborate
On science and technology we'll innovate
Our children we'll recommit to educate
That's why Barack's the winning candidate

So don't hate

Transgender Day of Remembrance - Africa

TransGriot Note: On November 20 transgender people all over the world remembered the 30 people we lost (and are still losing) due to anti-transgender violence. There were probably far more killed this year that we'll probably never find out their names or the circumstances concerning how they died.

Sokari Ekine and South Africa's Gender DynamiX reminded us that our transgender brothers and sisters on the African continent are still struggling mightily against transphobia.

From The Gender DynamiX press release on November 20.

Due to the fact that most cases of murders related to transphobia are not documented in the majority of African countries, we are not able to list all incidents but would like to reflect on some known incidents.

For over a year one of our trans sisters in Nigeria suffered severe transphobia, as she was continually harassed, beaten, and had to flee for her life. On 2 July 2008, Daisy Dube, a well known drag artist in Johannesburg, was murdered when she asked the perpetrator to not call her istabane anymore (a derogative Zulu slang word, similar to faggot). To mention just two cases reported to us.

TDOR takes place 5 days before the start of 16 days of activism, and we, the Africa Transgender Network and Gender DynamiX want to point out to include the importance of raising awareness about transgender, transsexual and gender non-conforming matters

This press release serves the following purposes;

1. To commemorate those who have died due to Transphobia, across the world

2. To acknowledge our many African brothers and sisters who are silenced about their gender identity and living daily in danger of their lives.

3. To increase public awareness of hate crimes against transgender people and to publicly condemn all those involved in these acts.

4. To call upon governments to protect gender non-conforming people.

5. To encourage and stand together with all those in the fight against Transphobia



The day will be commemorated in different countries at different times. The Trans Africa Network and Gender DynamiX however will commemorate the day in Cape Town on the 12th of December 2008

Way To Go Falcons!

When I was walking the halls of Jesse H. Jones High School in the late 70's, we were competitive in every sport we played.

Future NFL Hall of Famer Darrell Green patrolled our secondary. Former Bronco Alfred Williams is an alum. One of the guys taking it to the hoop for the Falcons was 6'10" center and future 1983 NCAA high jump champion Ricky Thompson. Our basketball team in 1979 was ranked as high as No. 2 in the state on the boys side and our girls teams in all sports were competitive as well. The TransGriot even did her part as a member of the 1980 Falcon tennis team.

Jones even won state championships, just not while I was matriculating there as a Vanguard student.

They took Class 4A state basketball titles in 1965 and in 2003-04 with major help from now Cleveland Cavalier Daniel Gibson. There was a memorable 1985 run to the Class 5A football championship which ended on the Astrodome's turf in the Region III-5A finals courtesy of guess who 21-15.

Yates then went on to clobber San Antonio Holmes 34-0 and beat down legendary Texas football powerhouse Odessa Permian 37-0 in Texas Stadium to become the first inner city school in decades to win a Class 5A football title.

But in a UIL competitive era in which only the district champs got to go to the playoffs and playing in a brutally competitive District 20-4A (now 5A), we were always the bridesmaids finishing second to our rivals at Jack Yates in football and Phillis Wheatley in basketball while they made runs at state championships.

Even if we did survive the district wars, we would also have to survive the most challenging region in the state (Region III) just to get to any championship game or take that two hour bus ride to Austin for it.

In my sophomore year (1977) we beat Yates but lost a heartbreaker to Wheatley the next week on a Hail Mary pass. It forced a four way tie for the district title that after all the tie breakers were consulted resulted in Yates still going to the Dome for the playoffs to our chagrin. In 1979 we were nursing a narrow lead over Wheatley and two minutes from winning district outright in a sold out b-ball game at Barnett Fieldhouse only to lose it on a play I would eerily see replicated in the 1983 NCAA championship game as a UH student.

So I was happy and pleased to see that my high school alma mater took the District 22-4A title this year with a perfect 7-0 record and beat Houston Ross Sterling and Houston Worthing in the process. My sis, brother and two cousins graduated from Sterling, while my other sis, my uncle and my parents graduated from Worthing.

I was happy until I checked out the online Houston Chronicle and read the brackets for the 2008 Texas Class 4A playoffs. That's what produced the deja vu moment that inspired me to compose this post.

Even though I'm experiencing finite disappointment again, I still got bragging rights. I can't wait until the reunion next year to remind my relatives their teams got beat down by my mighty Falcons.

Once again Falcon state championship dreams are crushed by our Third Ward rivals. Their season was ended with a 27-6 loss to Jack Yates in the Bi-district round of the Class 4A Division II playoffs. It's even more galling to me that we lost to a JY team that squeaked in with a losing record as a third place qualifier.

But as a proud Falcon alum, had to give the Falcon footballers a shout out for the wonderful 7-3 season. Hope 2009 is a repeat of the same and you have a more extended stay in the playoffs next year.

Beat 'Em Up, Beat 'Em Up, Rah-Rah-Rah!

There hasn't been much for me to cheer about this football season. My Texans are jockeying for advantageous NFL draft positioning in a season in which for the first time since their inaugural season in 2002 they were projected to finally make the playoffs. To add insult to injury, the Tennessee Traitors (yuck) are still unbeaten.

And no, I'm never gonna let it go about the Oilers being moved by Kenneth Stanley Adams for greed is good reasons.

But as a proud Cougar alum I have to give a shout out to first year coach Kevin Sumlin and the now 6-4 Coogs. They beat down No. 24 ranked Tulsa 70-30 last Saturday at Robertson Stadium to avenge last season's 56-7 blowout loss that knocked UH out of contention for the West Division title and a return trip to the C-USA championship game.


It was also the Cougars second win this season against a Top 25 ranked club (the other was East Carolina). The last time the Coogs beat two ranked teams in a season, I was matriculating on the UH campus back in 1984. That year we knocked off No. 6 SMU and beat the hell out of No. 3 Texas.

The best part about last Saturday's game is that my Coogs are now bowl eligible.

The Cougars at 5-1 in the C-USA West Division are tied with Rice and Tulsa for the West Division lead. If they knock off UTEP this weekend at the Rob and win the annual blood feud at Rice Stadium on November 29 with our little brothers the Owls, the Cougars are the West Division champs for the second time in three years and play in the C-USA Championship game.

Three more wins (the C-USA title game) and I get to gleefully make the five hour drive to Memphis to watch the C-USA champions play in the Liberty Bowl. I'll just make sure when I get to the Shelby county line and the Memphis city limits I'm not driving over the speed limit and steer clear of the Memphis PD headquarters.

Coach Sumlin did say when he took the job that the ingredients were there for the Coogs to be a consistent winner and a BCS bowl team.

Shoot, I could've told you that. UH is sitting smack dab in the middle of the largest city in a football crazy state. Texas arguably has the best high school programs in the nation with much of that high school football talent playing on fields and stadiums within a 70-100 mile radius of the UH campus.

Texas knew it, too. That's why they fought so hard to keep us out of the Big 12 when it was formed in 1996.

But that's another topic for another day. I can hate on the Longhorns later. In the meantime I'm raising my right arm and doing the Cougar Paw hand salute.

If things go well for the Cougar footballers over the next couple of weeks, I'll be in Memphis singing the school song and hollering "Eat 'em up."

Isis On Tyra

TransGriot Note: The YouTube video finally has been uploaded, so for those of y'all who didn't get to see Isis' appearance on the Tyra Banks Show Tuesday, here it is.

Part 1



Part 2- Isis' Mom


Part 3- Confronting Clark



Part 4




Part 6

The 2008 Louisville TDOR Ceremony

Just arrived back home a little over an hour ago from the sixth annual local observance of the Transgender Day of Remembrance at the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.

The mood was a little more somber than usual because one of our own was on the list. Nakhia's cousin Yana and twin sister Nicole were also some of the 40 people in attendance here along with our friends, LPTS students and allies.

After a welcome from LPTS Dean David Hester (no joke, peeps) the service began with remarks from Sienna (the local gender group) president Christina.

There was a prayer read before the reading of the names part of the ceremony commenced. As I silently read the list of names, many of them whose stories I've chronicled in this blog, I felt this feeling of sadness washing over me.

But what I was feeling probably paled in comparison to Yana and Nicole's reactions when their late relative's name was read aloud and the candle was lit for her.

We had a wonderful rendition of We Shall Overcome after the reading of the names performed by pianist Harry Pickens, an inspiring speech from Beth Harrison Prado, prayer and an additional song from Carol Kraemer.

Once the TDOR service concluded, we moved to the Winn Center for a reception and the announcement of the 2008 Butterfly Award winner.

It's a new award that the LPTS Women's Center began presenting last year to the person doing outstanding work in the local transgender community. Beth was surprised and pleased to learn that the award would be going home with her.

Beth in her short acceptance speech for the Butterfly Award hit the nail on the head about the purpose for the TDOR's.

While we mourn the people tragically taken away from us, it's also a celebration of the fact we are openly and truthfully living our lives as transgender people.

The ceremony reminds us that in any struggle in which oppressed minorities fight for their full citizenship rights, people will lose their lives along the way before the majority of them reach the promised land of equality.

We must keep fighting and pushing for that day while never forgetting the ones who paid the ultimate price for being their authentic selves.

The best way to encapsulate what I'm thinking and feeling right now is to close this with some words from Maya Angelou that were on the front of our TDOR program.

You may shoot me with your words
You may cut me with your eyes
You may kill me with your hatefulness
But still, like air, I'll rise.

Sleep well, my fallen brothers and sisters. You have risen to a better place. We who you left behind will continue the fight to make this a better world for us and future generations to live in.

Ten Years-400 Dead...And Counting

Today is the tenth anniversary of the Transgender Day of Remembrance. It's the day transgender people around the world pause and remember our fallen brothers and sisters along with our allies and friends.

It's also a day of mixed emotions for me. One of the people we'll be remembering this year is one of my friends.

Instead of lighting 30 candles on her birthday cake next month, instead we'll be lighting one candle for Nakhia 'Nikki' Williams at our 7 PM EST ceremony in the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary's Caldwell Chapel later tonight. She unfortunately is one of the 27 transpeople killed this year due to the senseless anti-transgender violence directed at us.


Since the night ten years ago that Rita Hester's lifeless body was found in her Boston area apartment and outrage over the disrespectful way the gay and straight news media covered it triggered the first TDOR ceremony in 1999, we have read the names of 412 people over the last ten years of TDOR ceremonies according to the Remembering Our Dead web project site.

The 412 names listed are disproportionately transgender people of color, encompasses 38 states, 130 US cities and several nations. It also includes non-transgender people such as Nashville's Willie Houston and Barry Winchell, who was killed by a fellow soldier because he was dating transwoman Calpernia Addams.

This year's ceremony is a mixed bag of emotions for me. I'm angry about the continued loss of valuable lives. I'm saddened by the fact that one of my friends is on the list this year. I'm shocked but not surprised after reading the stats that we lost so many people this year.

But at the same time, I'm hopeful that with the increased media coverage of transgender people over the last year and a half combined with the upcoming change in presidential administration, we finally have the conditions in place to pass hate crimes and an inclusive ENDA.

They may be just laws to some of you, but for the transgender community they are literally life and death issues. They are symbols that we matter, our lives are respected and valued and when you read the 'We The People' in the Constitution's preamble, that includes transgender Americans as well. .

The TDOR also ensures that how and why our fellow transpeople died never fades from our memories.


crossposted to The Bilerico Project

Once Again HRC-Keep Your Moneygrubbing Mitts Off Our TDOR

I've been advised that the Homosexual Rights Corporation is sponsoring TDOR events in Columbus and Cincinnati, OH.

Those events are supposed to be FUBU productions for us to memorialize our dead with our allies.

While there's some concern in the Dallas-Fort Worth transgender community about HRC's local Federal Club chapter sponsoring an event on the same night and time as the TDOR observances in Dallas and Fort Worth that have been publicized for weeks, let's get real for a minute.

The people who attend that event aren't likely to have compassion for our community, so don't sweat it. Handle your business and honor our people with class and dignity. You'll also know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the peeps who do show up for the DFW events are allies and friends who truly care about the community, not backstabbing sellouts.

If you feel they deliberately targeted the TDOR, then protest their next Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex area events and their dinner.

HRC cannot, in any spin driven hallucinogenic stretch of the word consider themselves to be an ally to the transgender community. Don't think we forgot about HRC selling transgender people out last year and being the lone holdout in the United ENDA coalition.

Those of us who are paying attention know y'all ain't changed one bit. That's why your dinners are still being protested.

Until HRC becomes a true ally to this community and joins the mainstream of the GLBT community in working together to pass a transgender-inclusive ENDA, y'all need to keep your grubby paws off the TDOR events.

Here's what I said about it last year and it bears repeating and rereading, especially by you transgender peeps who are continually sipping the 'HRC is our friends' Kool-aid.

Two More Seats! Two More Seats!

It took two weeks, but we finally have a winner in the Alaska senate race between Mark Begich and Ted Stevens, and it's not good news for the GOP or Sarah Palin.

With roughly 2,500 overseas ballots yet to be counted, Begich finally overtook and expanded his lead to 3,724 votes over scandal plagued Repugnican octogenarian Ted Stevens.

Stevens has served in the Senate since 1968 and his political history in the state goes back to Alaska's pre-statehood days in 1959

"I am humbled and honored to serve Alaska in the United States Senate,” Begich said. “It’s been an incredible journey getting to this point, and I appreciate the support and commitment of the thousands of Alaskans who have brought us to this day. I can’t wait to get to work fighting for Alaskan families."

It also put the Democrats two tantalizing seats closer to the 60 seat supermajority they are seeking. The two seats still outstanding are the nasty recount battle royal between Al Franken and Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) in Minnesota and the Georgia runoff race between incumbent Saxby Chambliss and Democrat Jim Martin

If they can get to 60 seats, the Republicans can't do jack to stop any legislation they don't like or block any appointments by President-elect Obama because the Democrats would have a filibuster-proof majority. 60 votes is what it takes to end a filibuster under Senate rules.

Begich becomes the first Democrat to represent the state in the Senate since Mike Gravel was elected in 1976. Begich's father Nick also served the state as a congressman before dying in a 1972 plane crash.

Begich's win also precludes the embarrassing possibility of the just convicted Stevens, the longest serving Republican in the Senate, having to be ignominiously tossed out by his GOP colleagues. Rumors were if that scenario came to pass, Gov. Sarah Palin was possibly considering running for the Senate seat in a special election.

It also gives President-elect Obama a stronger hand in terms of passing his agenda through Congress.

All political eyes now turn to Minnesota and Georgia.

Isis' Tyra Banks Show Appearance

Just finished watching an hour ago the Tyra show featuring our sis Isis on it. She's looking fly and it was interesting hearing her thoughts about ANTM, sharing some of her pics from the old days and getting her mother's take on things.

I can also see where she got those good looks from. She's just like her mom, a beautiful and classy lady as well.

The fun part for me was Isis finally getting the opportunity to confront Clark over her hateful statements. Clark tried to use her 'growing up in the South' and her Southern Baptist religion as excuses for her comments on ANTM.

Naw chick, you just got called out on your BS. Let's roll that beautiful YouTube footage shall we?



Clark, did your narrow young little 'c' 'christian' mind consider that the reason you don't see transgender peeps openly living their lives in your South Carolina town is because some of the denizens of that town openly express the same negative attitudes you obviously felt comfortable enough to utter for posterity?

Shoot, that's another post.

But I do have one question to ask Clark. Why aren't you in the Final Three for ANTM's Cycle 11? Seems like Isis is more of a woman than you are. She has the one thing you seem to lack:

Class.

Anyway, back to the show. It was also cool seeing her reaction when Dr. Bowers walked on set as well. I've bumped into Dr. Bowers at SCC and IFGE and she's a class act as well.

So check out the show, and Oxygen usually broadcasts it if you miss the syndicated broadcast of it. You also may wish to head to the Tyra show website and show some love to our girl. The haters are already crawling out of the woodpile.

TDOR 2008 Names List

Courtesy of Ethan St. Pierre, as of November 16, the list of people being memorialized for the 10th Annual Transgender Day of Remembrance on Thursday.


Kellie Telesford
Location: Thornton Heath, UK
Cause of Death: Strangled
Date of Death: November 21, 2007
Kellie was strangled to death with a scarf, by 18 year old Shanniel Hyatt, who then covered the body of 39-year-old Kellie Telesford with a white blanket - with the brown furry scarf used to choke her still bound tightly round her neck. Hyatt said he killer her after discovering she had a penis.


Brian McGlothin (Liked to dress in Women's clothes)
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio
Cause of Death: Shot in the head with an automatic rifle by Antonio Williams who is serving a six year sentence. Brian was 25 years old.
Date of Death: December 23, 2007



Gabriela Alejandra Albornoz
Location: Santiago, Chile
Cause of Death: Attacked and stabbed
Date of Death: December 28, 2007

Patrick Murphy (Found Dressed in Women's clothes)
Location: Albuquerque, NM
Cause of Death: Shot Several times in the head
Date of Death: January 8, 2008
Patrick was 39 years old.

Stacy Brown
Location: Baltimore, MD
Cause of Death: Shot in the head
Date of Death: January 8, 2008
Stacy was 30 years old.


Adolphus Simmons
Location: Charleston, SC
Cause of Death: Shot to Death (Aldophus was 18 yrs. old)
Date of Death: January 21, 2008


Fedra (a known transvestite)
Location: Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia
Cause of Death: Was found lying face up in a pool of blood,
cause of death was not reported.
Date of Death: January 22, 2008


Ashley Sweeney
Location: Detroit, Michigan
Cause of Death: Shot in the head
Date of Death: February 4, 2008
The age of Ashley Sweeney is unknown, she was only described as a young transgender woman in a press release.


Sanesha (Talib) Stewart
Location: Bronx, NY
Cause of Death: Stabbed to Death
Date of Death: February 10, 2008
Sanesha was 25 years old.


Lawrence King
Location: Oxnard, California
Cause of Death: Shot to death by a classmate because he liked to wear
women's clothes. (Lawrence King was 15 years old).
Date of Death: February 12, 2008


Simmie Williams Jr.
Location: Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Cause of Death: Shot to death, Simmie was found wearing women's clothing. (Simmie was 17 years old)
Date of Death: February 22, 2008


Luna (no last name reported)
Location: Lisbon, Portugal
Cause of Death: Brutally beaten to death and tossed into a dumpster.
Date of Death: March 15, 2008


Lloyd Nixon
Location: West Palm Beach, Florida
Cause of Death:Repeatedly beat in the head with a brick.
Date of Death: April 16, 2008
Lloyd was 45 years old.


Felicia Melton-Smyth
Location: Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
Cause of Death: brutally stabbed to death by Francisco Javier Hollos, who said he killed her because she would not pay for sex. Felicia was an HIV activist on vacation from Wisconsin.
Date of Death: May 26, 2008


Silvana Berisha
Location: Hamburg, Germany
Cause of Death: Stabbed to Death
Date of Death: June 24, 2008


Ebony (Rodney) Whitaker
Location: Memphis, Tennessee
Cause of Death:Shot (Ebony was 20 yrs. old)
Date of Death:July 1, 2008


Rosa Pazos
Location: Sevilla, Spain
Cause of Death: Was found in her apartment, she had been stabbed in the throat.
Date of Death: July 11, 2008


Juan Carlos Aucalle Coronel
Location: Lombardi, Italy
Cause of Death severely beaten causing fractures to the head and face before being run over by a car.
Date of Death July 14, 2008
Juan Carlos was 35 years old.


Angie Zapata
Location: Greeley, Colorado
Cause of Death: She was found in her home with two severe fractures in her skull.
Angie was murdered by 31 year old, Alan Ray Andrade. Angie was 18 years old.
Date of Death: July 17, 2008


Jaylynn L. Namauu
Location: Makiki Honolulu, Hawaii
Cause of Death: Stabbed to Death
Date of Death: July 17, 2008
Jaylynn was 35 years old.


Samantha Rangel Brandau
Location: Milan, Italy
Cause of Death: beaten, gang raped and stabbed numerous times before being left for dead.
Date of Death: July 29, 2008
Samantha was 30 years old.



Ruby Molina
Location: Sacramento, California
Cause of Death: Drowned
Date of Death: September 21, 2008
Ruby's naked body was found floating in the American river.
She was 22 years old.


Aimee Wilcoxson
Location: Aurora, Colorado
Cause of Death: undetermined (Police have yet to reveal cause)
Date of Death: November 3, 2008
Aimee was found dead in her bed. She was 34 years old.



Duanna Johnson
Location: Memphis, Tennessee
Cause of Death: Shot
Date of Death: November 9, 2008
Duanna was found dead in the middle of the street. She was 42 years old.


Dilek Ince
Location: Ankara, Turkey
Cause of Death:Shot in the back of the head
Date of Death: November 11, 2008


Teish (Moses) Cannon
Location: Syracuse, New York
Cause of Death: Shot
Date of Death: November 14, 2008
Teish was 22 years old.



Ali
Location:Iraq
Cause of Death:executed for being transgender
Date of Death:2008, Month is Unknown
Video of Ali before she was executed: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2tDVtjQNfQ


*IMPORTANT NOTE FROM ETHAN - (In case I don't get the details posted in time) There were 2 other Iraqi transgender women who were executed at the same time as Ali. Please remember them at your TDoR event.


TransGriot Note: For further info you can contact Ethan at radicalguy@gmail.com

Isis' Early Christmas Present

Christmas is about five weeks away, but if you tune into today's Tyra Banks Show you'll not only get the pleasure of seeing her on the screen again, Tyra has a surprise for her.

I'm also looking forward to seeing Isis set Clark's sanctimonious (and non-ANTM Cycle 11 winning behind) straight.

Oh well, might as well tell y'all since the word is already out there on the Net. Isis is going to get her sex reassignment surgery.

Dr. Marci Bowers will be performing the surgery. Dr. Bowers is a transwoman herself and in 2003 was picked by the legendary Dr. Stanley Biber to take over his practice in Trinidad, CO when he decided to retire.

Congrats sis! I know you've wanted this and I couldn't be happier for you.

Enjoy the trip to Colorado.

The Decisive Black Vote

'One of the most basic weapons in the fight for social justice will be the cumulative political power of the Negro. I can foresee the Negro vote becoming consistently the decisive vote in national elections.'

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

One of the things that is bugging me about how quickly African-American voters got slandered for the passage of Prop 8 in California, is how silent those same peeps have been about how decisive the Black vote was in terms of getting Barack Obama elected to the presidency. Dr. King's prescient comments about how decisive the African-American vote would become played out in this election.

How decisive?

*Without the Black vote, Indiana, Ohio, Virginia and North Carolina wouldn't have turned blue.

*Colorado, Florida and Nevada wouldn't have without the tag team of Latino and African-American voters

*Pennsylvania stayed blue because of it

*Mary Landrieu owes her reelection to the Senate in 2002 and 2008 to Louisiana's African-American voters.

*Saxby Chambliss wouldn't be facing a runoff in Georgia

*Missouri wouldn't have been as close or stayed in play without it.

Bottom line, if we have the juice despite having 6% of the population of California clustered in nine counties to be blamed for the passage of Proposition 8, then conversely, African-American voters are responsible for flipping six states that Bush won in 2004 and electing President Obama.

Nominations For 2008 Weblog Awards Now Open

With all the attention focused on this historic presidential election, it skated almost unnoticed that the 2008 Weblog Award Nominations started November 3.

It's the big kahuna of blog awards and a coveted award for those of us who are part of the blogosphere.

I was shocked to discover that someone has already nominated TransGriot for the Best LGBT Blog Award (thanks Pablo Domo), and I'm also nominated in the Best Small Minor Blog Category (based on Technorati authority) as well.

There's still time to nominate your favorite bloggers before they whittle down the nominations to the three finalists for the general public to vote on. Voting for selected finalists is expected begin in early December 2008.

You can click on this link for the full list of categories for the 2008 Weblog Awards.

A Transsistah's Secret-Makeup

One of the things I've gotten a lot of compliments about over the years and I take pride in is how I apply my makeup. Sometimes I get asked how I do it.

Well, a lot of it was simply practice. I've been playing with it since I was 15, and most times all I would do is just put it on and try different looks. By doing that I learned what eye shadow and lipstick colors worked for me and which ones didn't. I learned how to apply the right amount of blush to my cheekbones without looking like a cartoon character.

I paid closer attention to how biowomen who wore makeup looked while they were out and about in the world. I emulated the women (and my transgender sisters in Montrose) whose looks I liked and used as cautionary tales the looks I didn't like. (using black eyeliner pencil to line lips, for example)

I learned how to use a steady hand to apply eyeliner pencils because I personally don't like the look of liquid eyeliners.

That was difficult for me because in junior high I got hit in the left eye with a balled up piece of pottery clay in my 7th grade art class. I still have a reflexive motion as a result of that incident that causes my left eyelid to rapidly shut and water anytime some foreign object gets near it.

The involuntary eye shutting reflex caused me major problems during baseball season the following spring because for a right handed hitter, you are using your left eye to spot the ball. For most of the early part of that season, anytime a pitcher threw me a curve ball, my eye and brain perceived it as a 'Danger' moment, the eyelid fluttered shut and I missed badly while swinging at the pitch.

But back to the subject at hand. The funny thing about it was that I used to shut both eyes while applying my eyeliner pencils, and what that did was allow me to develop a technique in which I can place it where I need it to go without staring in the mirror. Eventually my brain stopped interpreting my eyeliner pencil as a threat and I could open and close an eye to apply it as normal.

I fought to get over the shame and guilt of actually walking up to the makeup counter and buying what I needed for my forays into Montrose. In addition to that, I went through a trial and error period before I finally hit upon the right combination of products that work for this Phenomenal Transwoman.

I was an obsessive perfectionist about my look in my early transition days. I wanted to make sure I didn't step outside the crib looking drag queenish. My goal when I put my other face on was to look like the average biowoman on the street.

I'm a firm believer that you can learn something about any subject from reading books, and makeup application wasn't any different. As a matter of fact, two books that had (and still do) occupy prominent places on my bookshelf are Sam Fine's Fine Beauty and Reggie Wells' Face Painting.

They are both renowned celebrity makeup artists who dealt predominately with African-American celebrities. Reggie Wells was Oprah's Emmy Award winning makeup artist while Sam Fine was Tyra's and a few other sistah supermodels makeup man of choice during the 90's.

Tyra's book Tyra's Beauty Inside and Out was also helpful in not only talking about makeup application, it also focused on working on the inner you as well. One of the lessons I got from her book, in Tyra's typical 'keepin' it real' style is that all makeup does is enhance the exterior.

To emphasize that point, she took a photo of herself without makeup and highlighted all her imperfections, then showed a picture of her with makeup on.

The book's message was something I already knew before I transitioned, but it bears repeating. It's what's going on inside personality wise that makes you beautiful.

But the makeup tips was what i bought the books for, and I surmised if I was going to learn the basics, short of getting help from a biowoman about it, what better teachers than those two men and a supermodel?

I mentioned the trial and error part of my makeup search. When it came to my foundation, it was definitely that. I started off using the Posner that you can easily get in most beauty supply stores and drugstores. The shade was slightly off and I had to spend time correcting it with a darker powder to make it match my skin tone.

I finally decided to try the two makeup giants for African-American women at the time I transitioned, Flori Roberts and Fashion Fair. I started with the Flori Roberts because it was slightly less expensive than the Fashion Fair, and struck paydirt with a cream foundation shade that matched my skin tone perfectly. For several years I bought it until Flori Roberts counters started disappearing from department store makeup areas in the wake of the department store merger and acquisition wave of the 80's and 90's.

Eventually I moved on to Fashion Fair. It took me two tries before I discovered that their Pure Brown Glo shade was my match, and I've used it faithfully ever since. It also has the advantage of being a thick cream foundation, so before I started my electrolysis in the late 90's, that was a major advantage in hiding any five o'clock shadow growth that would occur no matter how closely you shaved.

I use Coty's airspun loose translucent powder that I get from any drugstore, and it's the same place I get my pencils, my lip gloss and my Maybelline mascara. I only do mascara if I'm going out since I have naturally long eyelashes already.

I do like Fashion Fair's lipsticks and eyeshadow palettes as well, although MAC has some nice stuff for women of color, too.

If you're a t-sistah on a budget, Posner's still out there along with the Cover Girl Queen line. Haven't tried any of their stuff yet to see if there's a shade hat works for me just in case they run out of my fave Fashion Fair one. It seems like half of Louisville wears my shade, and I have to make sure I have a backup when Derby and Christmas are approaching.

Oh yeah budding t-girls, don't forget that if you put it on, you have to take it off as well. I'm blessed with smooth even toned skin and I take care of it. I'm armed with facial cleansers, soaps, astringents, and facial masques to make sure I get whatever residual makeup is on my face off of it.

On that note, it's time for me to do my facial. Later peeps.

2008 Miss International Queen Pageant Postponed

If you're wondering why I haven't done a post yet about who won Miss International Queen 2008, the reason is because the pageant won't be happening until October 2009.

It's been affected by a double whammy of political unrest and a border clash between Thailand and Cambodia near the 11th century Preah Vihear temple.

Which country claims it has been a source of drama between Thailand and Cambodia for decades. The World Court awarded it to Cambodia in 1962, but the sovereignty issues over some of the land around the temple were not clearly resolved.

UNESCO approving Cambodia's application to designate the temple a World Heritage Site led to July 15 troop deployments by both nations along the disputed border. Despite a late August troop pullback, a brief gun battle broke out between the two sides in October which ended up with one Cambodian and two Thai soldiers wounded.

In addition, the political tension in Thailand between the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) and the People’s Power Party-led coalition government has ratched up to armed confrontation levels between protesters and riot police. An October 7 demonstration resulted in one person killed and several injured.

While the political turmoil has largely been confined to the capital of Bangkok and the border situation is quiet for now, some of the collateral damage has been felt in Thailand's tourism industry, which contributes (depending on what stats you read) 6% to 14% of GNP to Thailand's economy.

It has also been felt 110 kilometers away in the resort city of Pattaya, home to the Tiffany's transgender cabaret shows and two of the best known transgender pageants on the planet.

Due to the travel warnings that several countries have issued since the October 7 clashes between police and protesters in Bangkok and the border clash with Cambodia, Tiffany's Cabaret, which usually has no problem filling its 2000 seat auditorium for it's world renowned show, has seen its business drop 50%.

Alisa Phanthusak, (right in photo) the organizer of the Miss Tiffany’s Universe and Miss International Queen pageant and whose family owns Tiffany's Cabaret, admitted feeling “terrible” that the international pageant had to be “postponed”.

“But we had to take this painful decision because international tourist arrivals dropped after the government declared emergency rule (on Sept 2, after a Thai was killed when anti and pro-government groups clashed on the streets of Bangkok) and several countries advised their citizens not to travel to Thailand,” she explained.

The Miss International Queen 2008/2009 Pageant will take place next October, presuming the political unrest has settled down by then. This year's Miss Tiffany winner Kangsadan Wongdu­sadeekul will represent Thailand alongside Miss Tiffany 2009.

While Miss Tiffany 2008 is disappointed she won't get to compete this year against the world's best transwomen pageant contestants, she's looking at it with glass half full optimism.

“She feels the postponement will be an advantage, as it will give her time to improve her English, looks and outfit.” she said through a translator.

Hopefully, they will hold an election in Thailand soon to sort out the political drama, and cooler heads will prevail and hash out an amicable settlement between Thailand and Cambodia over the disputed border area.

I not only don't want to see any more drama and bloodshed over those two issues, it would be nice to see this pageant finally take place.

To paraphrase the old Thai proverb, even though the elephants are battling, the ants don't deserve to get squashed.

The SPLC Wins Another Legal Battle Against Hate Groups

If you're looking for an organization to donate money to, send a check the Southern Poverty Law Center's way.

They not only have been documenting hate groups in this country, under the leadership of SPLC founding attorney Morris Dees they have taken an active role toward breaking them financially.

The SPLC strategy has been so successful that trial testimony in the Gruver case revealed a 1999 Klan plot to kill Morris Dees was broken up by the FBI.

There are millions of reasons why hate groups want to see the Alabama-born Dees expeditiously depart this Earth.

After the 1981 Mobile, AL lynching death of Michael Donald, in 1987 the SPLC on behalf of his mother Beulah Mae Donald filed a civil lawsuit against the United Klans of America. It resulted in a $7 million verdict that put the notorious United Klans of America out of business. The UKA was the group responsible for the 1961 beatdown of the Freedom Riders in the Birmingham bus station, the 1963 bombing of Birmingham's 16th Street Baptist Church and the killing of Viola Liuzzo.

In the wake of the 1988 killing of Ethiopian college student Mulugeta Seraw in Portland, OR by three racist skinheads affiliated with the White Aryan Resistance, the SPLC sued on behalf of his father and won a $12.5 million verdict that forced WAR leader Tom Metzger to sell his California home to satisfy the judgment and put WAR out of the hatemongering business.

In 2000 the SPLC won a $6.3 million jury verdict in the Keenan v. Aryan Nations case that forced Aryan Nations leader Richard Butler to give up the group's 20 acre Idaho compound.

The latest Southern Poverty Law Center legal victory against an odious Klan group has been raging not too far from me in Brandenburg, KY.

After three days of testimony, yesterday a jury awarded $2.5 million in damages to 19 year old Jordan Gruver. In July 2006 the then 16 year old teen who is of Panamanian and Native American descent was severely beaten by members of the Imperial Klans of America who were recruiting new members at the Meade County Fair.

They taunted him with inaccurate ethnic slurs, spat on him and doused him with alcohol. Two men identified as Edwards and Hensley knocked Gruver to the ground and repeatedly struck and kicked him in an attack that left the teen with a broken jaw, a broken left forearm, two cracked ribs and multiple cuts and bruises.

According to the SPLC, The IKA members mistakenly thought he was an illegal Latino immigrant and not an American citizen.

The all-white jury found that the Imperial Klans of America and its founder wrongfully targeted Gruver, who is an American citizen of Panamanian and Native-American descent.

Gruver filed the personal injury lawsuit last year seeking up to $6 million in damages from the Imperial Klans of America and two of its leaders, Imperial Wizard Ron Edwards and Grand Titan Jarred R. Hensley. The jury of seven men and seven women deliberated for five hours before rendering their verdict.

"The people of Meade County, Kentucky, have spoken loudly and clearly. And what they've said is that ethnic violence has no place in our society, that those who promote hate and violence will be held accountable and made to pay a steep price," Dees said.

The Southern Poverty Law Center says the Imperial Klans of America is the second largest KKK group after the Brotherhood of Klans Knights, based in Marion, Ohio. SPLC spokesman Booth Gunter said there are 34 named Klan organizations across the country with 155 separate chapters.

The Anti-Defamation League, who also tracks hate group activity, estimates there are more than 40 different Klan groups, with as many as 5,000 members in more than 100 chapters, or 'klaverns' across the country.

So congratulations to the SPLC for taking out another hate group and sending them the message that if you engage in inciting hate violence to the point where someone is harmed or killed, you will pay for it not just with jail time, but financially as well.

Monica's TRANScending Gender Keynote Speech-Part II

TransGriot Note: This is Part II of the original text of my keynote speech that I gave on November 7, 2008 to the TRANScending Gender conference at CU-Boulder. For Part I click this link.

So now that I've touched upon a little of the backstory, let's pull out the virtual crystal ball and try to forecast the future of the transgender rights movement.

As far as our legislative crown jewels of ENDA and hate crimes go, they will pass, but probably not until a second Obama term seeing that President Bush has so jacked up the economy that it will probably take most of this first term to clean up the economic mess.

President-elect Obama will need to focus this term predominately on straightening out economic issues before he can even attempt to spend his considerable political capital on social issues.

We transpeople will need to ensure that whatever form Obamacare takes. we are included from the outset and our health issues and concerns are covered. If we aren't, to paraphrase the late consumer reporter Marvin Zindler from my hometown, it'll be hell for us to get amended and added into it once the basic framework of the universal healthcare system is set in concrete. The other headache we'll face is battling virulent opposition from religious conservatives as we try to do so.

We are also going to have to ratchet up our participation in the political process. We can't depend on others to speak for us, no matter how well intentioned. We have to do it our damned selves.

If the ENDA betrayal last year taught us anything, we need to have our own people representing us in state legislatures and at the federal level with intimate knowledge of our issues and concerns just as gays and lesbians have Barney Frank, Tammy Baldwin and now Jared Polis.

We not only must start donating to political campaigns, similar to the community effort we had on the Act Blue page that raised $16,000 for the Obama campaign, we need to use the Obama campaign fundraising model for our purposes.

The average Obama campaign contribution was around $15. We spend that much or more going to a club or attending a gender convention. How about taking some of that money and pooling it for the purposes of electing transpeople to state and federal offices?

That's a nice segue into what needs to happen next, getting transpeople elected to state legislatures, Congress, and over time governorships and the White House.

While we've had some success getting transpeople elected to small city councils and mayor's offices, we have yet to translate that to electing people to large city councils. Monica Barros-Greene in Dallas has come closest to doing so, but so far the highest ranking US based transperson holding elective office is Hawaii state board of education member Kim Coco Iwamoto.

We must not only develop leaders out of the African-American, Latino/a, and Asian-Pacific Islander communities, they must be given the elbow room to develop cohesive communities that act as a complement to the transgender community at large.

The white transgender community must realize they can't be everywhere and do everything and it's past time to share the power. There are outreach and issues specific to minority communities that minority transpeople are better suited to solve.

We must also develop our future transgender leaders, then set them free to do the work. The young people now matriculating through this college and others are the most intelligent, most information savvy generation ever produced, and it's past time to let the younglings handle things. They not only provide fresh ideas and energy to the movement, they can probably teach us grizzled veterans a few things in the process as well that will make the movement infinitely better in the long run.

If we pass ENDA and hate crimes, then as our friends in Cali painfully found out, you better be prepared to defend your hard won rights from determined right wing attack. The Forces of Intolerance will not stop until they've killed all GLBT protective legislation, and we can expect the same frontal assault on any transgender rights measures passed as well.

For example, even though a transgender rights law passed in Montgomery County, MD on an 8-0 vote last year, they filed lawsuits and used underhanded tactics in order to get enough signatures for a petition drive to force a referendum on the issue that we barely defeated in court.

Finally, being transgender is a worldwide issue. We have brothers and sisters all over the planet with varying degree of civil protection. We need to do a better job of information sharing, tactics and strategy session information sharing and general support of each other.

Malcolm X once said in a February 1965 speech at the London School of Economics,

"If something is yours by right, then fight for it or shut up. If you don't fight for it, then forget it.

We transpeople have the right by dint of birth in this section of planet Earth we call the United States of America to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

That right is too precious to forget and is worth fighting for. Neither will I and my fellow transpeople shut up talking about it until we too are included in the 'We The People' preamble to the Constitution.

I thank you once again for this opportunity to address you this evening, and may you have a wonderful, informative and successful conference weekend.

Monica's TRANScending Gender Keynote Speech

TransGriot Note: This is Part I of the original text of the speech I delivered at the TRANScending Gender Symposium at CU-Boulder on November 7, 2008. Link to Part II

To the organizers, conference attendees, students, allies and friends, I bring you greetings from the Bluegrass State and my birth state of Texas.

And no, I'm not a Texas Longhorn fan. I'm a proud University of Houston alumnus who despises the color burnt orange.

I sincerely thank the organizers for the opportunity to address you today in the wake of a historic presidential race. I'm also tickled to death to be as my shero Rep. Barbara Jordan stated over twenty years ago during the Democratic Convention in New York, your keynote speaker. (imitated Barbara Jordan at that point)

As I shared with Angela, Andee, Stephanie and others during our numerous e-mail exchanges prior to my appearance here today, this isn't my first trip to the Denver metro area. Twenty years ago when I was a Continental Airlines employee I hopped a flight for the day to attend a company picnic at the Adams County Fairgrounds.

Two months later I found myself spending the month of July 1988 living in a hotel on Denver's east side in a training class. And at that time I looked a lot different than the Phenomenal Transwoman you see standing before you today.

So yeah, a lot of things have changed since my last visit, including me.

Twenty years ago, DIA didn't exist, Federico Pena was Denver's mayor, Roy Romer was governor, Colorado was a red state gearing up for a legal battle over the odious Amendment 2, the Broncos played at Mile High Stadium, the Buffs played in the Big 8 Conference, the GLBTRC on campus was a few years from being born and transgender people were speeding south down I-25 to Trinidad to get SRS from Dr. Stanley Biber.

Today you have a wonderful governor in Bill Ritter, Colorado is unquestionably a blue state with statewide GLBT protections, the Buffs now play in the Big 12 Conference, the Broncos have a new mile High Stadium to play in and transpeople are still speeding south down I-25 to get SRS from Dr. Marci Bowers.

By the way, on behalf of your GLBT brothers and sisters nationwide, congratulations on not only electing Jared Polis to Congress, but we profusely thank you for getting Marilyn Musgrave out of Washington.

One other thing that's consistent over the last 20 years is that transpeople flip Rev. James Dobson and Unfocused on the Family the finger as they pass through Colorado Springs on their way to Trinidad.

This is an interesting time to have a conference. We are now roughly 72 hours past a historic election in which an African-American will be occupying the Oval Office on January 20.

The Democrats have expanded their House majority and picked up seats in the Senate with three races outstanding in Minnesota, Alaska and Georgia. The best part is that Barack Hussein Obama will be picking the Supreme Court justices when the next opening on the court happen.

And yes my friends, there will be openings- Antonin Scalia is 70, Clarence Thomas is 60, Ruth Bader Ginsburg is in her 60's, David Souter is hinting at retirement and John Paul Stevens is in his 80's.

So let's segue into the theme of our conference, 'The Future of Transgender Activism'. But before I can talk about the future of transgender activism, I'll have to take you back to the past so that you'll know where we came from and how we arrived at this point. I've personally been involved since the mid-90's, but transgender activism predates Stonewall and San Francisco's Compton Cafeteria riots of 1966.

Let me stop the way back machine in Philadelphia, PA in April 1965 outside a diner frequented by GLBT peeps of African descent called Dewey's Lunch Counter.

Many of the people who frequented this diner were transgender. One day the management got tired of all the GLBT people hanging around their establishment and decreed that they would no longer serve people wearing 'gender variant clothing'.

When the owners backed up their rhetoric by refusing to serve transgender people, this being the 60's and the Civil Rights Movement being in full effect at the time, it was on like Donkey Kong. They borrowed the tactics of the movement and organized a sit it and informational picket campaign that after a few arrests, eventually forced the owners of Dewey's to rescind their odious policy.

The best part about it for me was that this was an all African-American GLBT production. It's gratifying to know that the work that I and other people of color do is rooted in this event, and makes me feel connected to a part of my history.

A year later came the Compton's riot followed by the more famous Stonewall Riot in New York in 1969, of which we'll celebrate the 40th anniversary of its occurrence next year.

But as the 70's dawned transpeople found themselves being rudely shoved out of the movement they had major roles in kick starting to life. We also found ourselves under attack by radical feminists such as Janice Raymond and Germaine Greer.

By the time I got yanked out of the closet in 1993, our long isolation was beginning to end. Transpeople began to stand up for themselves, form organizations such as ICTLEP and GenderPac and demand our rights. We began to lobby Congress in 1994 and push for inclusion in hate crimes and ENDA. We began to get involved in politics and do what I'm doing right now, speak to college students, professional organizations and others about our issues.

Coloradans such as Dainna Ciccotello also had major national leadership roles during that formative period as well. One of the first self-help books on transsexuality I read was written by the late JoAnn Altman Stringer. Other Coloradans were working diligently to get GLBT inclusive rights passed in boulder, Denver and eventually the rest of the state as well.

And we can't forget the country doctor doing state of the art SRS down in Trinidad.

Wake Up, White GLBT Community

Sometimes I feel like Laurence Fishburne's character Dap in Spike's movie School Daze when it comes to talking to some white GLBT peeps about racism, white privilege, how it impacts the community as a whole and the stubborn refusal to forcefully address it.



Well, to borrow a line from Malcolm X, the chickens have come home to roost thanks to the passage of Proposition 8 in Cali and a similar Florida anti marriage equality amendment.

The point is that your African-American GLBT allies and progressive African-Americans are beyond sick and tired of being castigated for the Prop 8 loss. If you want to vent on somebody, take it to the people who actually sponsored it, the Mormon Church, the Traditional Values Coalition, conservative Black preachers, the Catholic Church and all the peeps who share your ethnic heritage who signed the petitions and voted for the amendment in the first place.

Hell, African-Americans make up only 6% of the population in California. There were far more peeps that shared your ethnic heritage across the state that helped it to pass besides focusing broad brush racist vitriol on the clusters of Black folks in nine California counties. It was the failure to engage communities of color until late in the game that led to this devastating loss.

We also see this crap for what it is, a right-wing attempt to not only sow seeds of division within the African-American community, but also split it from the GLBT civil rights coalition.

The point is that the No on 8 forces didn't do a good job in reaching out to the African-American community. The Yes peeps were placing ads on African-American radio stations, other AA oriented media and deploying homobigot preachers to speak for them at predominately African-American community events.

Magic Johnson stated on the Larry King Show that he was a No on 8 supporter. There are several African-American Hollywood stars, California African-American politicians and native Californian icons such as Tyra Banks who are GLBT community supporters. Where were the ads in the AA community trumpeting that or featuring them?

Where were the ads featuring GLBT friendly African-American ministers such as San Francisco's Bishop Yvette Flunder? Did you even have any ads similar to the devastating No on 8 ad featuring Mormon missionaries barging into a white lesbian couple's home, snatching their wedding rings off their fingers and tearing their marriage license in half that targeted the Black and other communities of color as well?



While this ad and the clones of the Mac PC ads were brilliant, what was needed were ads specifically targeted to the African-American community.



But some of you stooped to the oldest trick in the book to explain the loss, blame Black people and hate on Jasmyne Cannick for keepin' it real about why the No on 8 campaign failed to garner support in Cali's African-American community.

How very Republican of you.

Now that the Prop 8 loss has gotten your attention, once again the African-American GLBT community will point out yet again that we are not only part of the overall GLBT community, we are part of the 13% of the population that claims our African heritage.

It should be crystal clear by now that you cannot win elections without engaging either the GLBT or non GLBT African-American community and asking for our support.

Yes, we African-American GLBT peeps and bloggers are painfully aware of the homohaters that share our ethnic heritage. We never denied that nor are we defending them as some of you have insultingly charged. We have pointed out ad nauseum for years the danger of letting the perception that 'this is a white gay movement' take root or the Black fundamentalist 'they're hijacking the 60's Civil Rights Movement' spin go unchallenged. The 'whitewashing' of gay history has denied us concrete examples of African-American gay peeps we can point to besides Bayard Rustin who have made major contributions to building not only the 60's Civil Rights movement, but the GLBT movement as well.

The failure of some white gay peeps to engage in issues of importance to African-Americans combined with the failure to forcefully denounce racism within your own ranks, loudly call for 'incremental progress' on transgender people's rights as you take a hypocritical 'damn the torpedoes' approach to marriage equality has led to a unflattering perception that the only peeps you care about are yourselves.

You are also not doing yourself any favors by attacking President-elect Obama when he has yet to even be given a chance to prove what type of president he'll be on GLBT issues.

Just so you don't think that this constructive criticism is a one way street, I've called out my own peeps just as forcefully about their homophobia for years along with other Black GLBT bloggers. But that's an in house conversation we're gonna have to have just like the internal ones y'all have that we ain't privy to.

But one thing that needs to happen post haste is that African-American GLBT people must become equal partners and have major leadership roles in this movement, not just when y'all want some melanin in the photo ops to show how inclusive you are.

Time to check the alarm clock and wake up. If you don't, you'll see more GLBT rights disappear into oblivion because of flawed political strategy.

2008 Louisville TDOR Events

The 10th Anniversary of the Transgender Day Of Remembrance is rapidly approaching, and once again our sponsor for the local TDOR events held at the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary will be the Women's Center at LPTS and More Light.

For the second time since the local events began to be hosted by the LPTS in 2002, there will be a heightened level of sadness for us in Da Ville this year. One of the names we'll read will be one of our own, Nakhia Williams.

The week of events leading up to the November 20 service will kick off tomorrow with a Transgender 101 Workshop from 12:30-1;30 PM in the Winn Center's McAtee Dining Room.

On November 19 there will be a 6:30 PM screening of the film Soldier's Girl followed by a discussion at the Caldwell Chapel's Fellowship Hall. Doors open at 6 PM for that event.

On November 20 there will be another panel discussion from 12:30-1:30 PM on Transgender Experience of Faith Communities in the Winn Center's McAtee Dining Rooms with the Memorial Service happening at 7:00 PM in the Caldwell Chapel.

As part of the service we have someone from the local transgender community as the featured speaker, and this year it will be Beth Harrison-Prado. (Just as an FYI, I was given that honor in 2002-2003)

Following the service will be a reception and the presentation of the 2008 Butterfly Award, which honors a person whose done outstanding service for the transgender community.

As of yet haven't heard if the GLBT group on the University of Louisville campus is planning anything for the TDOR, but if they are I'll post it to the blog.

For further info on the 2008 TDOR events at the LPTS, click on this link to the Wimminwise Blog. Hope to see you peeps there.

The World Loves The President-Elect

Must be hard to be a Republican these days. You've spent millions of dollars denigrating liberals, blaming Black people for our country's ills, sneering at science and intellectuals, and the country overwhelmingly elects a president who embodies all those qualities as the entire planet breaks out in celebration.

Poor babies.

Overnight President-elect Obama's victory has not only reenergized this country in a way not seen since the JFK or Clinton eras, but the world is excited for us as well.





As Americans we should and need to hold ourselves up to higher standards of international behavior than we've exhibited under Republican rule in the last eight years. That ruining of our international good name is one of the factors that paved the way for Obama's election.



It's going to be nice for Americans traveling around the world or living abroad to not have to be ashamed of our country or our president for the next four years.



It's also cool to have an intelligent president in the White House once again who can speak eloquently and that world leaders respect. The fact he shares my African heritage is a bonus.



But it has also been gratifying to note how Obama's election has motivated African descended people across the Diaspora to aim higher and eventually elect their own Obamas.


And it's a blessing that I'm still around to see it.

Nelson Mandela's Letter To Our President-Elect

TransGriot Note: I've been comparing this historic election of our first African-American president to the 1994 one in which South Africans stood in long lines to elect Nelson Mandela as South Africa's first Black president. Here's Nelson Mandela's congratulatory letter to our president-elect.


5 November 2008

Senator Barack Obama,
Chicago

Dear Senator Obama,

We join people in your country and around the world in congratulating you on becoming the President-Elect of the United States. Your victory has demonstrated that no person anywhere in the world should not dare to dream of wanting to change the world for a better place.

We note and applaud your commitment to supporting the cause of peace and security around the world. We trust that you will also make it the mission of your Presidency to combat the scourge of poverty and disease everywhere.

We wish you strength and fortitude in the challenging days and years that lie ahead. We are sure you will ultimately achieve your dream making the United States of America a full partner in a community of nations committed to peace and prosperity for all.

Sincerely,

N R Mandela

Duanna Johnson Found Dead

TransGriot Note: Remember Duanna Johnson, whose beat down by Memphis cops was caught on tape a few months ago and led to a lawsuit against the Memphis Po-Po's?

She'd been having a rough time lately in Memphis. Unfortunately she was found dead November 9, and we'll be adding her name to the long list of people we honor when we have the Remembering Our Dead ceremonies in a few weeks.

Here's the commentary from the Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition


TTPC Reacts to Murder of Duanna Johnson in Memphis


It is with great sadness today that we must report the murder of Duanna Johnson in Memphis. Miss Johnson is the transgendered woman whose beating by members of the Memphis Police Department on February 12, 2008, was captured by a surveillance camera.

Memphis Police are asking anyone with information about Duanna Johnson's death to call Crime Stoppers at (901) 528-CASH.

The Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition wishes to extend our condolences to the family and friends of Duanna Johnson.


"We consider this latest crime to be a real tragedy," said Dr. Marisa Richmond, President of TTPC. "We urge any and all individuals with any information about this crime to step forward immediately so that the perpetrators can be brought to justice. It is also time for the State of Tennessee to add 'gender identity or expression' to the Hate Crimes Enhancement Factors in Tennessee Code Annotated 40-35-114 (23), and for the Federal Government to pass the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act," continued Richmond.

This latest tragedy is just one more in a growing number of anti-LGBT hate crimes across Tennessee. It is also the third murder of an African American transwoman in Memphis in less than three years.

The Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition insists that the February 16, 2006, murder of Tiffany Berry in Memphis be prosecuted aggressively and that the courts reject the anticipated 'trans panic' defense.

We also urge the Memphis Police Department to step up its investigation of the July 1, 2008, murder of Ebony Whitaker.

In other parts of Tennessee, we insist that local authorities aggressively investigate and prosecute additional hate crimes including the murder of Nakia Baker in Nashville on January 7, 2007, the ongoing harassment of a gay man at his home in McMinnville, and the tragic shooting in the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville, and other crimes motivated by hate based on a person's sexual orientation, gender identity or expression. All of these events show that there needs to be increased education across Tennessee about the LGBT community, and a more serious look at hate crimes covering both sexual orientation and gender identity or expression.

The Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition (TTPC) is an organization designed to educate and advocate on behalf of transgender related legislation at the Federal, State and local levels. TTPC is dedicated to raising public awareness and building alliances with other organizations concerned with equal rights legislation.

For more information, or to make a donation, contact:

Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition
P.O. Box 92335
Nashville, TN 37209
http://ttgpac.com
TTGPAC@aol.com
(615)293-6199
(615)353-1834 fax

Bye CU, Hello Louisville

I'm back in Da Ville after a wonderful weekend in Boulder taking part in this weekend's Transforming Gender Symposium. Thanks to Stephanie, Andee and Angela for the invitation and all the volunteers and panelists who helped make this weekend a well run and informative one.

It was also an honor to finally meet and talk to Katastrophe, Ryka, Krista, and Michelle and to continue the conversations we started during this weekend. It was also neat to have a Canadian perspective on some of these issues courtesy of Krista and Michelle.

I was also surprised and pleased to receive a visit from Liz, one of my TSTB sisters. We spent a few hours laughing and talking about a few issues until we both started dozing on each other around 11 PM MST.

But unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and I had to reluctantly hug and say goodbye to Liz since I had to get some sleep and get up at 3 AM for my shuttle which was picking me up at 3:30 AM. I had a 6 AM MST flight out of Denver International to Chicago-O'Hare and my connecting flight to Louisville.

After two uneventful flights, I ended up at home about 2:30 PM EST. Dawn caught me up with local events before I trudged up to my room and opened my bag to see if my CU coffee mug survived the trip.

It did, and I drifted off to some well deserved rest after a long but satisfying weekend in Boulder.

Thanks for the invite CU GLBT Resource Center. I hope it doesn't take me twenty more years to return to the Denver area next time.

Still In Colorado

Hey people. Still in Boulder checking out the conference and will be heading back to the Bluegrass State tomorrow. I almost don't want to leave, it's so beautiful out here and on the CU campus.

Got a chance to walk around it yesterday. It is so close to the mountains. Was a little windy yesterday, but has calmed down today.

My keynote speech was last night and I'll post the full text of it later. I ended up having to cut a few pages. I always worry about not having enough speech to cover my allotted time, but it turns out I tend to have far more speech than time to deliver it.

Still getting compliments for it, so as long as the people attending it and the wonderful people who brought me out here liked it, then it's a success. I've also had fun meeting some of the CU students who read TransGriot and getting to know some of my fellow panelists.

Still tripping about how fast the fallout over the Prop 8 loss turned racist and ugly, spurred on and stirred up by Rush and his conservafriends. I wrote a post about it on Bilerico called 'Fallin' For The Okey-Doke' that I haven't checked for nasty grams yet.

While I'm saddened and disgusted about the Prop 8 loss, instead of getting pissed off at African-Americans in general, the GLB community needs to remember who the real culprits are: the folks who put this up to a vote in the first place.

Hope the GLB community remembers this and how they felt the next time they hear one of their own suggest that transpeople need to be cut out of ENDA.

On my lunch break before my 4 PM MST panel discussion, so I'm gonna rustle up some food. The hosts were feeding me, but its vegan fare and y'all know I like my beef.

Live From Boulder, It's Moni!

Finally made it to Boulder, CO after flying since 12:45 PM EST from Da Ville. Weather was beautiful for most of the trip down to DFW and up to DEN with very little chop. I was also pleased to discover that this hotel, the Boulder Outlook not only is within rock throwing distance of the CU campus, it has complementary Internet access.

As I mentioned in some earlier posts this is my first trip back to the area in 20 years. This town has definitely changed and Boulder is more beautiful than I remember it.

Only drama I had was when I was trying to make my connection out of DFW to my Denver flight and the gate info I was given turned out to be incorrect. I ended up in Terminal B instead of next door in Terminal C where my bird was departing from, but fortunately I got there early, and thanks to the efficient Skylink trains I got there in enough time to grab a barbecue sandwich before boarding my flight.

I'm revising the speech as I write this. A lot of what I'll be talking about hinged on Tuesday's election results, so although I usually like having these speeches done with plenty of time to revise and polish them, I'll have until 6:30 PM MST tomorrow to get it as close to perfect as I'd like it.

Speaking of working on speeches, guess I better get back to the room and handle my business. I've been operating on three hours of sleep and if the Phenomenal Transwoman is going to look her best, she needs to crash.

Headed To Boulder, CO!

Hey peeps!
Headed to Boulder CO to be the keynote speaker for the TRANScending Gender Conference kicking off tomorrow on the CU Boulder campus.

Will tell y'all about it either when I get back or if I manage to get computer access sometime during my stay there.

President Elect Obama's Victory Speech

The victory speech.

Yes We Did!

It's one time I will happily say (and will write the post on November 5 if it plays out) I was wrong about an issue. I've always told friends that I believed the United States was too obstinately racist to ever put in my lifetime an African-American man in the Oval Office. I've always believed for that reason the first African-American president would be a woman rather than an African-American man.

Monica Roberts, October 1, 2008

Okay, I'll say it. I was wrong. And I'm saying it with a wide as Texas smile on my face.

What my people have been hoping, dreaming and praying for to happen for almost 150 years has finally come true. We have an African-American president.

President Elect Barack Hussein Obama, Jr.

Come January 20 the White House will have occupants who share the same heritage as the people who built it.

He didn't just squeak by. It was an electoral college blowout. He garnered 61 million votes, the most in US history. The victory was especially sweet because he also exorcised the ghosts of Florida 2000 and Ohio 2004.

In one fell swoop the election of President elect Obama (God, I love the sound of that) has begun the repair the damage to our country's international good name severely damaged by the Bush misadministration.

It's a history making election on a lot of levels, and one which I and a lot of people around the world will be celebrating for a while. I cried when he hit the magic 270 mark at 11 PM EDT and thought about how my late grandmother would have loved to have seen this.

We African-Americans were dancing in the streets last night. We were joined by our fellow Americans and people around the world. We're standing a little taller and smiling a lot wider this morning.

It's a new morning on America. For the first time many of us have a reason to be proud of our country. I'm loving the fact that for the first time in a while I have a president I can be proud of and look up to.

I'm happy that on my niece's ninth birthday she'll get to witness the inauguration of our nation's first African-American president.

And so will I.

I've Voted-Now It's Your Turn

I've done my civic duty, now it's time for you to do yours. If you haven't voted, please do so.

If you need to know where your precinct is, click on this link

"There's no question that in the next thirty or forty years a Negro can also achieve the same position that my brother has as president of the United States, certainly within that period of time."

Robert F. Kennedy, May 1961

Depending on where you live, you'll have until 6 or 7 PM to cast your ballot. So let's do this. Get your vote on. There's history to be made today.

It's E-Day

It's E-Day. Election Day 2008. After two years of primaries, debates and a hard fought stretch run it comes down to peeps casting their ballots. The denizens of Dixville Notch NH, have already done so. At midnight they cast their ballots with the results being 15-6 for Obama.

I'm about to head out the door right now to my precinct to cast a history making presidential vote for Barack Obama. While I'm nervous about the outcome, I'm cautiously optimistic as well. The trends are breaking his way right now, but we'll know in a few hours whether he'll be our next president as this historic day wears on.

I was happy to hear the Redskins lost to the Steelers 23-6. So if the Redskins Election Predictor holds true to form there will be a very festive crowd in Grant Park tonight.

I also get a chance to weigh in on the McConnell-Lunsford US senate race as well along with other state and local races.

I've waited long enough. Time to get rolling to the precinct.

There Is No Oppression Olympics

I’m a little sick of this nouveau trendy slogan of ‘oppression Olympics'.

Stating facts about a minority group’s issues, struggles and being oppressed is simply that, stating facts about those problems and issues. It is not as some people derisively put it, engaging in a competition to pit one ethnic group's issues against another ethnic group's issues.

The 'oppression Olympics' moniker is as disrespectful and disingenuous as the 'race card' one.

Explain how in Hades you can solve the issues that divide us along racial lines if you don't know what they are, tiptoe around identifying them and refuse to discuss solutions to those problems?

Transgender On TV: Laverne Cox & Isis King Brings On New Reality

TransGriot Note: I didn't like the paragraph in which the writer confuses the androgeny on ANTM with Isis' appearance on the show as an open transgender contestant. Those are two different issues. However, the article is overall a good one.

By Bridget Bland
From BlackVoices.com

While androgynous images of entertainers have long appeared in movies and depictions of homosexuals on television are more present than ever, this season the new trend on reality TV may have been transgender contestants.

Until just a few months ago, transgender characters have been relegated to scripted television series like 'Boston Legal,' 'Ugly Betty,' 'Dirty Sexy Money' and 'All My Children.' Recently, two contestants have showcased the ups and downs of being transgender while vying for the top prize on two of TV's most popular shows.

For the new season of 'America's Next Top Model,' supermodel Tyra Banks decided to cast 22-year-old Isis King, the very first transgender contestant to be featured on the popular, fashion forward "dramality" series, which is in its eleventh cycle.

Although she was recently booted from the show, King, who was noticed by Banks when she first appeared as an extra in the background during a photo shoot in a previous season of the hit CW series, says she did not believe that Tyra chose her simply for ratings and controversy sake.

'Tyra picked me because of my performance and she picked me because I stood out in the background of a photo," King told BlackVoices.com last week. "I don't think that it's a trend...she picked me for that reason."

"I think the one message we always try to get out there, that Tyra always expresses, is you want to widen the spectrum of what is considered beautiful," 'Top Model' executive producer Ken Mok said in a recent interview with the 'Associated Press.'

Androgyny is nothing new to the show either.

J. Alexander (also known as Miss J) is one of the show's most popular judges and has garnered a cult-like following with his over-the-top wardrobe, colorful accessories and sharp-witted quips. Other cross-dressers, drag-queens and gay culture icons (Kevin Aviance, Benny Ninja, etc.) have graced the screen during some notable challenges.

Banks, who once praised the pre-operative transsexual saying, 'I tell my staff, 'This girl is absolutely amazing,'' made a point to express that the reason for King's dismissal was because of a difficulty to stand out in photos and not because of her sexual orientation.

In a swimsuit challenge, wearing boy shorts still proved uncomfortable for the Maryland native. "I would say that it was difficult for me," she confided. "I tried not to think about it because I did not want it to consume what I was doing. I think it was more mentally difficult but I went through and did what I had to do."

The leggy beauty is hoping that within three years she'll be able to afford to pay for the surgical operation that will make her a woman and continue to follow her dream of becoming a supermodel. "The finances are what are keeping me from doing it. If I could have had it already I would have," she said. "My goal is my 25th birthday [to] have it by then but hopefully I will get a job that will put me in a situation where I can."

Right now, King resides in New York City and continues to pursue her modeling career in addition to dabbling in fashion design.

Shortly after she caused a media splash on 'Top Model,' Laverne Cox gained attention for being another transgender person on reality television -- as a contestant on VH1's 'I Want to Work for Diddy' competition.

On the hip-hop savvy series, Cox's fellow contestants asked her to "tranny it up" in one of the challenges. And although she told us she didn't really know what that meant, she counts her time vying for the opportunity to work with Sean "Diddy" Combs as an "overwhelmingly positive experience [and] a really good time."

The camera ready cross-dresser, who referred to herself as a "strong black woman" on the show, particularly loved watching herself on television. "I think its huge and its so exciting for me to be a professional transgender person. To see a transgender person on TV, hopefully people will continue to see us as human beings,' she said.

Causing a stir and shaking things up on a popular TV show is nothing new (see: Omarosa Manigult-Stalworth, Tiffany "Miss New York" Pollard). But many wonder if mainstream TV viewers are really ready to embrace a transgender person –and not just use them as window dressing for shock value.

"I know that it was very important that we represented who we were openly from the very beginning," 'I Want to Work for Diddy' cast-off Rob Smith, who identifies as gay, wrote on his blog. "But let's not get too serious. We're all aware of how absurd reality television is."

"I honestly don't know whether they are ready or not but at this point it doesn't matter," Cox attested, before adding, "I am so passionate about it. There will be people that will go against it but I said, 'you know what I'm really passionate about breaking into the art so whether or not people are ready or not I am going to do this.'"

In addition to auditioning for more acting roles in the future -- already having appeared on 'Law & Order SVU' and MTV – she has also produced her very-own documentary series on transgender people called 'T,' which can be seen at www.BeingT.com.

Political Football

If both campaigns are showing a little more interest than usual in tonight's Monday night football tilt between the Washington Redskins and the Pittsburgh Steelers, there's a good reason for it.

Since 1940, the Redskins last home game before a presidential election has presaged the eventual winner in 16 out of 17 elections. If the Redskins win that game, the incumbent party goes on to win that election. If the Redskins lose, the party out of power wins the election.

The only time the Redskins Game Predictor has been inaccurate was in 2004. The Green Bay Packers marched into FedEx Field and beat the Redskins but Junior won(?) anyway. The other interesting twist in this game is that the Steelers head coach, Mike Tomlin is African-American, mirroring the presidential race.

So McCain will probably be rooting for the Redskins, while Obama will be probably be doing the same for the Steelers. So will I and every other Obama supporter tonight.

Anybody from Pittsburgh have a Terrible Towel they can lend me?

Congratulations Again 'Number Two'!

TransGriot Note: Y'all know how much I love and admire Dr. Marisa Richmond of Nashville, who is one of my role models as to the type of Phenomenal Transwoman I wish to project to the world.

Well, 'Number Two', as Dawn and I call her (our inside joke about being the only African-American IFGE Trinity Award winners and the order in which the three of us received them) was recently honored with the 2008 Baltimore Black Pride Chairwoman's ICON Award for her years of work toward advancing GLBT-issues.

Congrats, sis. The story from Nashville's Out and About follows.


Marisa Richmond, president of the Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition (TTPC), has received the 2008 Baltimore Black Pride Chairwoman's ICON Award for her years of work toward advancing GLBT-issues. She accepted the award in Baltimore, Md., on Oct. 11.

The Chairwoman's ICON Award is a special honor personally selected by the Chair of the Board of Directors. Cydne Kimbrough, this year's chairwoman, said she chose Richmond for the award because of her tireless dedication to the GLBT community.

The Chairwoman's ICON Award is a special honor personally selected by the Chair of the Board of Directors. Cydne Kimbrough, this year's chairwoman, said she chose Richmond for the award because of her tireless dedication to the GLBT community.

"It has been my personal goal to select individuals who are stellar examples of what we all can be, no matter our race, gender identity/expression , or sexual orientation, " Kimbrough said. "Dr. Richmond was a clear choice as she is educated, powerful, humble, kind and not only one of the best in the GLBT community of color - she is one of the best in the country and possibly the world."

The ICON awards are given to community members and allies who work to improve the lives of GLBT people of color in Baltimore and throughout the U.S. Icons are nominated by community members.

Richmond said the award reassured her of the importance of her work.

"I've started to realize that, especially for African American transgender people, I've become an important role model because they don't see a lot of positive role models out there," Richmond said.

Aside from her work with TTPC, Richmond also serves on the board of directors of the National Center for Transgender Equality and is on the Sexual Violence Prevention Planning Committee of the Tennessee Department of Health.

"The transgender community doesn't need to look far to find a leader that is always putting us first," said TTPC member Carla Lewis. "Many times Marisa Richmond stands for us when we won't stand for ourselves."

Richmond is a former Board Member of the Tennessee Vals in Nashville, and has also served on the Boards of American Educational Gender Information Service (Board Chair from 1996 to 1999), the International Foundation for Gender Education, National Transgender Advocacy Coalition, Tennessee Equality Project and Nashville's Rainbow
Community Center.

Since April 2006, she has been a regular panelist on Out & About Today on News Channel 5+ in Nashville and has been a columnist for Triangle Journal News in Memphis since February 2008.

Richmond said she has had a commitment to hard work since her childhood.

"I was raised to stand up for what I believe in and never to accept second class status," Richmond said. "My parents were politically active and they encouraged me to be so, too, because everyone can make difference."

Earlier this year, on Super Tuesday, Richmond became the first openly transgender person to win an election in Tennessee when she was elected to the Davidson County Democratic Party Executive Committee. One month later, she became the first African American transgender person to be elected as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention from any state, and is currently one of two Tennesseans on the National LGBT Steering and Policy Committee of the Obama for America Campaign.

"She put a face on the transgender part of LGBT and has continued to drag the transgender community kicking and screaming into the open where the rest of the world can see that we deserve to be respected for our humanity just like everyone else," Lewis said.

Barack's Presidential Resume

TransGriot Note: Stumbled across this courtesy of the TheLadders.net website. it wrote sample resumes for John McCain and Barack Obama for president.

So the next time someone spots that 'he's not qualified' shade, send them to this link.

Lewis Hamilton Wins F1 Driving Title

Unlike my roomie Dawn, I'm not a rabid fan of Formula One racing, but I do appreciate it when anyone of African descent makes history as Lewis Hamilton did today.

After barely missing becoming the world driving champ last year in his maiden F1 season, British driver Lewis Hamilton not only became the youngest Formula One world driving champion at age 23, he is also the first person of African descent to do so. I thought it was also fitting that he won the title in dramatic fashion at the Brazilian Grand Prix in Sao Paulo.



Brazilian homeboy Felipe Massa won the race for the second time in his career (previous win 2006) and thought he'd clinched the world championship at his hometown Interlagos track with his sixth victory of the season. With Massa's win Hamilton's margin for clinching the title shrank from finishing no worse than eighth place to fifth.

Hamilton had won five races this year including the British Grand Prix, but unfortunately was languishing in sixth place on the final lap before he passed Germany's Timo Glock on the last corner to finish fifth and edge Massa by one point in the overall F1 standings 98-97.

Congratulation to Lewis Hamilton and may he win any future F1 driving titles with less drama.

2008 Amazing Philippine Beauties Pageant Winner

As Pinay TG can probably tell you, the Philippines, like the rest of Asia and the Pacific island nations loves pageants. It has hosted the Miss Universe pageant a few times back in the day.



One fast growing one that I have documented here as a pageant junkie is the Amazing Philippine Beauties Pageant. It started as a talent search vehicle for the Amazing Philippines Show, a Tiffany's style transgender cabaret revue show based in Manila now spreading out to satellite locations in various resort areas of the Philippines.

While the original intent was to find talented and beautiful transwomen for the show, it has quickly morphed into a popular event of its own garnering international publicity in just six years.






This year 25 women competed for the title during the finals held in Manila on October 24. The winner was crowned by 2007 Amazing Philippine Beauty queen Rianne Barrameda.





The winner was 27 year old Angelika Santillan, who beat out her 19 year old pageant rival Rosa Garcia for the crown. Garcia was first runner up.



Santillan will represent the Philippines at the 2008 Miss International Queen Pageant in Pattaya once they reschedule it. The pageant was postponed due to recent civil unrest in Thailand.

Halloween Politricks In Michigan

The GOP is becoming unglued as the election continues to trend Obama's way.

Somehow this doesn't (or shouldn't) shock me, but even this I have to shake my head at. Peep this story from Grosse Pointe Farms.

McCain supporter Shirley Nagle refused to give Halloween candy to children if their parents didn't support the McPalin ticket.



Ah, compassionate conservatism at its finest.

Obama Landslide?

Thanks to record breaking early voting turnout and historic turnouts of African-American voters, this election is turning quite interesting. Obama is competitive in states that haven't voted Democratic in decades and this election is being played save Pennsylvania on GOP turf.

<p><strong>><a href='http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/interactives/campaign08/electoral-college/'>Electoral College Prediction Map</a></strong> - Predict the winner of the general election. Use the map to experiment with winning combinations of states. Save your prediction and send it to friends.</p>


The question is will Barack Obama have a blowout win on Tuesday, or will it be a narrow upset win (gag) for John McCain?

The map is interactive, so you can click on it and change states from one candidate to the other with the corresponding change in electoral votes.