I'm Glad I'm Not Like You

As I wrote about back in January, I have a hater and agent provocateur that it seems like has made it her mission in life to post contrary and negative comments on just about any thread I initiate on the Bilerico Project.

As many of you may already be aware of, I was honored to be invited to join it as a contributor earlier this year.

On a recent post of mine called 'I'm Pissed Off', the hater posted a comment totally unrelated to the topic in which she stated that I and Monica Helms, another activist she has Hateraid for, wasn't like her.

Gee, in my case was it my photo that clued you in to that profound revelation?

Once again we have the whiny, exclusionary, borderline delusional rants of WWBT's polluting the Internet. They are hating on people who have put themselves out there to do the work of advancing civil rights coverage for all GLBT people. They turn intelligent, thoughtful discourse into a WWE wrestling match. The WWBT's are not only making asses of themselves, they are proving themselves to be the transgender equivalents of Ann Coulter.

But the WWBT's are right about one thing: I'm not like you.

I'm a proud African-American transwoman who is descended from the survivors of the Middle Passage. I'm a Phenomenal Transwoman who like her biosisters is proud of her heritage, cognizant of her history and revels in the fact that she can take her place amongst some of the most beautiful and intelligent women in the world.

I'm a proud African-American transwoman who is also a third generation Texan. I come from women who make history, start and build organizations and work to solve problems sometimes at great risk to their own safety or comfort level, not passively sit on their butts behind a computer terminal, incorrectly spout and misinterpret feminist theory and snipe at everybody that doesn't agree with them.

As the late Rep. Barbara Jordan, one of my heroines and a fellow Houstonian said when she accepted the NAACP's Spingarn medal in 1992, "It is a burden of Black people that we have to do more than just talk."

When I didn't see people like myself represented in the early national transgender leadership ten years ago, I and others got involved so that my people's issues would be part of the general transgender community conversation. We also wanted our transkids to see people standing up for transgender rights that reflected their cultural heritage as well. When the transgender community was resistant to or indifferent to having us in their spaces, organizations or conferences, we created our own.

I'm glad I'm not like you. I revel in every chocolate brown curve of my body. I love not only the quiet strength and intelligence of my transsistahs and transbrothas, I love the variety of skin tones me and my transpeeps have from vanilla creme to the deepest darkest ebony hue. I love the way we can wear anything from jeans to couture and rock it with the confidence of supermodels strutting the runways.

One thing I pray for is not only gracefully aging, but that I continue to have the same thirst for knowledge that I've had since childhood. I pray I continue to keep an open mind, not let the madness of a few narrow minded people discourage me from fighting for everyone's civil rights, be willing to seek out young people who have different spins on issues that will expand and add flexibility to my views, and continue to be a positive influence on mine and the next generation of transgender people.

I also pray that I don't turn into a bitter, exclusionary, self-hating, selfish shrew like some of you WWBT's have become.

I'm glad I'm not like you, and I thank God every day for that fact.