Transwomen Who Got Married

June is traditionally the month for weddings, and over the last few years we've had the pleasure of seeing our transsisters around the world get the double blessing of not only transition, but find that special person who loved them enough to marry them.

So let's take a moment to check out these beautiful brides.





Best wishes to all brides getting married this month and the rest of the year, be they cisgender, lesbian or transgender women.

Krispy Kreme

They started in Winston-Salem NC in 1937 with a secret doughnut recipe from a New Orleans based French chef. From those humble beginnings, they expanded to become for many peeps who grew up in the South, THE doughnut.

When the 'Hot Fresh Doughnuts' sign gets lit, the stampede is on.

Everyone has a regional favorite food or guilty pleasure unique to where they grew up. You've heard me wax poetic about Blue Bell ice cream on this blog, but as a Houstonian I didn't get introduced to them until 2000.

They are Krispy Kreme doughnuts, but I call them 'Krispy Krack' because once you eat one, you won't stop until the box is empty.

I grew up on Shipley's, a local Houston chain's doughnuts. I loved them so much that when I drove back home in 2005 for my brother's wedding I hit the drive-thru and bought a dozen to eat on the long drive back to Da Ville.

One of my former flight attendant co-workers Lorna Etheridge, grew up in Charleston, SC. She was positively giddy when she heard another flight attendant mention during a conversation we were having at my gate that Houston was finally getting Krispy Kreme franchises.

One of the initial Houston franchises opened up near my old southwest side apartment on the corner of Westheimer and Dairy-Ashford Road, and I was amazed to see peeps standing in long lines at various times to eagerly devour them. Most of the peeps in line were transplants who missed their favorite doughnuts and were happily getting reacquainted with them.

One day I finally decided to see what the fuss was all about and bought two glazed ones to try, and ended up buying a dozen of them to take home.

I have a Krispy Kreme location not far from where I live here in Da Ville on Bardstown Road near the Watterson Expressway. I prefer to get them there even though they are sold at local convenience stores because they taste better when they're hot. Even if they've been sitting around for a minute, I stick them in the microwave before chowing down on them.

Don't look now, but Krispy Kreme is coming to your hood if it isn't already there. They opened their first international store in Toronto in 2001 and are expanding to other countries as well.

On that note, time for me to roll and get some. Maybe I can get there just as the 'Hot Fresh Doughnuts' light comes on.

Williams Sisters Tackle The 2009 French Open

While Wimbledon has been the personal playground of my favorite tennis playing siblings, the French Open and the clay courts of Stade Roland Garros have been more problematic.

The Williams sisters combined have won the French Open singles title once over their careers, with Serena's 2002 win coming at the expense of Big Sis.

The French Open started on May 24 and Venus' lousy luck at the French Open continued. Her quest for that elusive first French Open singles title is on hold until next year. She was knocked out in the third round after losing in straight sets 0-6, 4-6 at the hands of Hungary's Agnes Szavay.

The Williams sisters are playing doubles in this tournament as well and are attempting to win their first doubles crown here since 1999.

They have captured the 2008 Wimbledon, Olympic, US Open and 2009 Australian Open doubles titles, and are attempting to win all the Grand Slam events in the same year.

Little Sis is still alive in her quest to capture her second French Open title and 11th Grand slam title overall. Serena had a tough first round match with the Czech Republic's Klara Zakopalova that she eventually won 6-3, 6-7, 6-4.

She won her second round match with Spain's Virginia Ruano Pascual of Spain 6-2, 6-0 and got through a sloppy third round three set 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 win over Spain's Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez. The match was marred by a first set blown call when a ball hit by Serena struck her opponent at a critical point in the game. Little Sis also had 25 unforced errors and four double faults, but moves on to the fourth round.

The French Open is running through June 7, and here's hoping my fave tennis playing sisters finally break through and take home from Paris the singles and doubles championship trophies.

Nigerian Gender Chickens Coming Home To Roost

Here's a classic example of chickens coming home to roost.

Back in November I chronicled the whining and insulting gender based bitching the Nigerian women's national soccer team, AKA the Super Falcons did before, during and after the shocking 1-0 semifinal loss to Equatorial Guinea in the 6th Africa Women's Cup championship tournament.

That tournament was eventually won by the homestanding women of Equatorial Guinea, who beat South Africa 2-1 in the final. It marked the first time that another nation besides African women's soccer powerhouse Nigeria took home the championship since the tournament started in 1998.

The Super Falcons weren't happy campers about their third place finish. Nigeria Football Federation chairman Sani Lulu Abdullahi said afterward, "This is an embarrassment to the nation. It is clear that there must be an overhaul in several aspects of our women's football."

One of them is pull up the big girl panties, learn how to lose gracefully and stop whining. Instead of the five time defending African champion Super Falcons focusing on correcting their lousy play during this tournament, the coaches and players threw 'that's a man' shade at Equatorial Guinea players Binguisa Simpore and Salimata Simpore, and EQ team captain Anonma Genoveva, who scored seven goals and was the MVP of the tournament.

The Nigerians complained so much about it that the CAF, the governing body for soccer on the African continent will begin instituting gender testing before the 2010 tournament. Next year's tournament will be a qualifier for the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup tournament being held in Germany.

So now that I've laid out the backstory, here's the interesting part.

There is a promising Nigerian teen player by the name of Bessy Ekaete Boniface. As a 16 year old striker she was invited in 2007 to the Super Falcons training camp.

Translation, Ekaete has game.

While being given her medical exam for the national team they discovered she was intersex. She not only was denied a chance to compete for and win a spot with the Super Falcons, the club team she was playing for, the Delta Queens of Asaba dropped her as well.

Unfortunately Ekaete was the major breadwinner of her nine person family and it had deleterious effects on them. Her Delta Queen teammates raised ₦50,000 ($337.84 USD) for her, but her career is still in limbo right now.

FIFA defines you as female for the purposes of competition if you're menstruating, even if you have ambiguous genitalia. That's still a problematic definition.

Because the Nigerian Football Federation played themselves and raised a loud public stink about the Equatorial Guinea players, they can't put her on the national team without looking like hypocrites.

The doctor's report that was released with her permission stated, "She has gender identification problem. She was examined and found to have the features of female, beginning from her external appearance, voice and reaction to issues.

"In my opinion, she is phenotypically female and should not be discriminated against. However she requires other investigations, surgery and hormone therapy to put her in perfect condition.'

But that still doesn't help Ekaete's current situation. Gbenga Omole, who runs an organization called Goldenwing33 Nigeria Limited that uses sports to keep kids from turning to organized crime, has begun an effort to raise the ₦2 million ($13,514 USD) for the surgery she'll need to play at the pro and international level.

When Omole announced that he'd set up an account at a local Nigerian bank group for Ekaete, he stated, "Please help this great future Falcon that will bring honour to this country, joy to many homes and pride to those who will help her today.

"Can't wait to see her back like Kanu Nwankwo did (Nigerian Super Eagles team captain), stronger and better. We urge Nigerians to come to her assistance and save a fledgling career".

Too bad y'all didn't show the same level of compassion for the women of the African champion Equatorial Guinea national team you slimed, but better late than never.

Why No CBC On US Cable Systems?

On my local cable system I have access to over 900 channels of news, sports, movie channels and entertainment. I have digital and HD channels, I have Telemundo. I even have the BBC.

But what I don't have as part of my cable system is the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

You would think that in terms of the Canadians being our next door neighbors, our country's largest trading partner, and the fact that many Canadian systems carry US networks like CNN that our systems would reciprocate and carry the CBC.

Um,no.

While I'm aware that the areas closest to the US-Canadian border do receive over the air CBC broadcasts on their TV sets, I'm not aware if it extends to cable systems that serve those border states as well and doubt they do.

It's interesting to me since much of Canada's population lives within 100 miles of our shared 5,500 mile border, that the average Canadian is better versed in US politics than the average American is.

I'd be willing to bet, as our last president demonstrated, that most Americans couldn't tell you who Canada's prime minister is, much less tell you any general geographic or political facts about our northern neighbor.

FYI, it's Stephen Harper. My Canadian friends not so fondly refer to him as either Harpo or 'The Pit Bull In A Sweater Vest'.

While some people in the States may have no problem remaining blissfully ignorant about what transpires in the Great White North, I'm not one of them. As a transperson borders don't matter as much. What happens in one nation affects me in some way here. As a child of the Diaspora I'm also connected to some of my Canadian cousins as well through our shared African ancestry and common threads in our cross border history.

It's also my desire of wanting to be an informed citizen that fuels my hunger to know more about my northern (and southern) neighbors and be versed in the issues that concern them. It's even more of a concern now that we're about to embark upon in the States what promises to be a messy debate about overhauling our crappy health care system.

You can bet the Rethuglicans will do everything possible to smear the Canadian single payer universal healthcare system like they always do when we crank up these periodic discussions. If we had the CBC on many of our cable systems they wouldn't be able to get away with telling the lies they do about it.

Shut Up Fool! Awards-Take Me Out To The Ballgame Edition

Our Shut Up Fool! Awards mascot made an appearance at Wrigley Field this week. He threw out the first pitch for the Cubs game versus the Pittsburgh Pirates and attempted to sing 'Take Me Out To The Ballgame' during the 7th inning.



Okay, now that you survived viewing this video, let's see what fool we get to pity this week.

As Mr. T would say, so many fools so little time. Once again I had a target rich environment in terms of fools to select this week.

The GOP put on their pointed hoods this week to trash President Obama's historic nominee for the Supreme Court in Judge Sonia Sotomayor.

So out of all the outrageous lies, accusations, obfuscations and distortions of her record, and Mike Huckabee calling her Maria, the most outrageous came from the winner, ol' Turd Blossom himself, Karl Rove.

Bush's Brain had the nerve to part his lips and say, “I’m not really certain how intellectually strong she would be, she has not been very strong on the second circuit.”

Okay, you have a college dropout calling someone who graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Princeton stupid.

She also was a co-recipient of the M. Taylor Pyne Prize, the highest honor Princeton awards to an undergraduate, went on to Yale Law School and served as an editor of the Yale Law Journal and managing editor of the Yale Studies in World Public Order.

Sotomayor brings more in terms of judicial experience and serving on a federal court in 100 years. She has more judicial experience than all the current justices sitting on the Court.

Karl Rove, Shut up RACIST fool!

Playa Playa Archie Picks Veronica

I used to collect and read the Archie comic books back in the day and still occasionally peruse them from time to time.

Thanks to the TG Graphics and Fiction Archive site, I ran across an interesting gender bending Archie one in Issue 516 called 'The Other Side Of The Fence'.

His mother Mary Andrews was frustrated about the trials and tribulations of raising a teenage son and imagined what life would be like if Archie were her daughter instead of her son.

After imagining a grass is greener idyllic scenario, a lunch date with Mrs. Lodge and Mrs. Cooper gives her the 411 about the difficulties of raising teenage daughters.

Both women confide to Mary that they considered her the lucky one and the trio of mothers quickly agree that whether you have sons or daughters, it's still a tough job to raise them.

It then concludes with Mrs. Andrews coming home, hugging her son and realizing she wouldn't change that for the world.

One of the long running stories in the Archie comic book series is the love triangle between Archie Andrews, sophisticated spoiled rich girl Veronica Lodge and the loyal girl next door with the big heart Betty Cooper.

After 68 years Archie and the gang finally grow up starting with Issue 600, which hits the stands in August.

They skip the story ahead five years after their graduation from Riverdale High and as they are just starting their fresh out of college post-graduate lives.

The story is going to play out over the next six issues, but it's already leaked out which one of his high school honeys Archie proposes to.

It's Veronica.

I've always been rooting for Betty as you can tell, and hoped one day Archie would see the light and they'd one day get hitched.

Hey I'm an unabashed romantic, so sue me.

While Betty was doing things for Archie, Veronica always seemed to me to keep Archie at arms length until she sensed that Betty was getting the upper hand. She'd then start paying more romantic attention to Archie until he was focused on her to Veronica's satisfaction, then once Archie's eyes were back on her, the cycle would start all over again.

Well, as you can see on the Issue 600 cover, Archie is proposing to her just as Betty is walking past the jewelry store and witnessed the whole thing.

But knowing how indecisive Archie has been, Betty may still have a fighting chance. Veronica only has the ring. Neither she nor Archie have walked down the aisle and said 'I do' yet.

So stay tuned, this could get interesting.

Category Closed-Goodbye Octavia

TransGriot Note: Still looking for information concerning Octavia's funeral which occurred May 26. The only thing I've been able to find so far on the Web is a comment on the Parlour magazine site from a commenter named J'alla. If I find any video, photos or other commentary elsewhere it will be attached to this post.

In the meantime, here's J'alla's description of the service.


I was able to attend the funeral and I must say, Octavia Saint Laurent’s service was just as heartfelt and larger than life as the diva herself.

From individual roses being given on cue to members of her family upon their mention during the reading of her Eulogy, a video w photos from some of Octavia’s best photo shoots to an exclusive mastered recording of Octavia singing the song “God’s Command,” that she especially made to have played at her funeral, love and fabulocity overcame the room.

Octavia’s mother, brother and sister also shared memories about Octavia and her passion for her activist work in the LGBT which shed an insightful and personal light on the performer and model.

Octavia’s funeral brought family, friends and generations of legendary children from all over the ball scene such as Kevin Aviance and many others together leaving mere standing room only.

Even in transition, Octavia looked beautiful. Dressed in pink and white and with flawless makeup, the service closed with attendees strolling to take their final views of her to the legendary ball track “Love is the Message.”

RIP Octavia Saint Laurent.

TBLG Discrimination Protections Voted Down in Shelby County, TN Commission Committee

TransGriot Note: Memphis has witnessed several transpeople either being beat down, killed or injured last year. In addition to that, GLBT peeps living there experience discrimination like they do everywhere else.

Of course, when someone proposes an ordinance to attack the discrimination issue, out come the Christobigots. It's worse anytime you have a megahate church like Bellevue Baptist in the vicinity.

Pay particular attention to the comments of Shelby County commissioner Archie Bunker, oops Wyatt Bunker. Give you one guess where he attends church.

The good news is that because it was a 5-5 vote, the full commission gets to vote on the ordinance June 1


Discrimination Protections for Gays Voted Down in County Commission Committee
by Bianca Phillips
Memphis Flyer.com
Wednesday May 27, 2009


"There's nothing wrong with discrimination," said Shelby County Commissioner Wyatt Bunker, while addressing the county commission committee charged with a vote on an ordinance that would prevent discrimination toward gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender workers in Shelby County government.

Though audible gasps from the audience followed Bunker's statement, five other commissioners apparently agreed, as they voted down the ordinance in committee. The ordinance will still go to the full commission for a vote on Monday.

The original ordinance, proposed by commissioner Steve Mulroy, would protect Shelby County employees, workers with county contractors, and employees of large private businesses in unincorporated Shelby County.

Commissioners Deidre Malone and J.W. Gibson proposed an amendment to the ordinance removing protections for all but Shelby County government employees.

"We need to get our own house in order before we can start regulating other people," said Malone.

Gibson also had concerns about the cost of enforcing the ordinance, if passed.

"This will require time and more people," Gibson said.

But Mulroy disagreed, stating that no additional investigators would be needed in the county's human resources office.

"It's not like we're going to have investigators roving the hallways looking for discrimination problems," Mulroy said. "The [Equal Opportunity Employment] Commission investigates based on complaints, just like they already do with other issues of discrimination."

Religious convictions guided the votes of several commissioners, including Mike Carpenter and Bunker. Bunker blamed the ordinance on a "homosexual agenda" and compared protections for gays to "the seven deadly sins."

"Once [homosexuals] get their foot in the door, they push their way through society until [homosexuality] becomes the norm," said Bunker.

Supporters and opposition for the ordinance filled the committee meeting room. Brad Watkins with the Mid-South Peace & Justice Center pleaded with commission members to consider God’s love when using Christian faith to justify their opinion on the ordinance.

"Our faith is one of inclusion and love. We can't say that we love someone and then sit back and discriminate against them," said Watkins.

The Freezer Project

TransGriot Note: Wonderful story from north of the border about a meals project that helps recovering post operative trans peeps

Freezer Project Eases The Transition

By Sarah Fraser
Ottawa
Wednesday May 27, 2009
Xtra.ca.com

Post SRS Trans Folk Get Boost From Program

Now entering its second year, the Freezer Project is an initiative that provides a portable freezer containing 30 homemade frozen meals —and the occasional ice cream bar or eclair — to individuals who have undergone sex reassignment surgery (SRS).

The project, started by trans activist and community agitator Elizabeth Tyler in 2008, is a free service open to both trans men and trans women. It fills a critical gap for people who may not have other options in terms of household support post-surgery.

"The freezers typically go out to folks who are living alone or who are low income."

The project began after Tyler observed an acquaintance recuperating from a bilateral mastectomy. His recovery was a painful and difficult one.

"After the surgery, he couldn't open his pain medication. He couldn't use the can opener to open a can of beans. He even had trouble taking the top off of spaghetti sauce," Tyler says.

"That's how the Freezer Project was born. I thought, 'Hey, someone should do this.' Then I thought, 'I guess that person is me.' It was easy to take action on."

Prior to surgery, Tyler meets with clients to understand their preferences and needs. They discuss whether the individual has any food allergies or restrictions, such as a vegetarian diet, and they work out the month-long menu together.

Tyler drops off the freezer after the client returns from the hospital and then picks it up in 30 days' time. In the meantime, the client simply takes a Tupperware container out of the freezer each night, lets it thaw and the food is ready to be heated and eaten the following day. No additional prep is needed.

When it comes to potential clients, Tyler says that she goes on an honour system and wants to keep it that way.

"If someone wants to be a recipient of [a] freezer and feels that they need it, I do my best to arrange it for them. I would not turn anyone down, and so far, the service has not been abused."

Although Tyler is the one who initiated this project, the wider Ottawa community is now getting involved in the process of cooking and assembling the meals for each freezer.

"The Freezer Project engages the community — it gives folks a chance to help out in a simple and easy way," Tyler says.

How does it work? Tyler typically rounds up seven other volunteer cooks and asks each person to make a large pot of a specific dish, like chili or stew. They each divide their dish into four portions, which equals a month's worth of food. A little bit of effort ends up making a huge difference in someone's recovery.

For the freezer that's about to be assembled, one of Ottawa's roller derby teams has volunteered to cook everything and put it together. Amazingly, the food, the freezer and the Tupperware containers come entirely from donations and the person receiving the freezer does not pay for the service.

Beyond it being free, Tyler believes that the Freezer Project offers benefits that services like Meals on Wheels does not.

"[With] Meals on Wheels...there is not as much choice," Tyler said. "And [they] deliver at lunch time, which is not always the most convenient for people. With the Freezer Project, you create your own menu and have more variety. And we try to keep the contents nutritious."

Given that SRS is now included under the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) — a move made by Ontario's Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care in June 2008 — more people will be able to undergo SRS. And the Freezer Project will undoubtedly grow as a result. In fact, in the last year, the project has served five clients in the Ottawa-Carleton region and more are requesting the service. Tyler is working on expanding the Freezer Project beyond Ottawa.

"The hope is to see the project take off in other cities — I'm trying to spread the word far and wide. I think the program could be applied to many different situations: I concentrate specifically on trans men and women because...there is a need for it, and it is close to my heart," said Tyler.

"I'm not aware of any other such projects in the world. It is very simple to run, and it doesn't cost a thing."

So far, the feedback Tyler has received from clients has been tremendously positive. She has received thank you cards in the mail and heartening comments from recipients.

"People appreciate that it is free and think it's a wonderful project."

If you or someone you know is interested in receiving a freezer or volunteering for the project, please contact Elizabeth Tyler at thefreezerproject@ live.com.


©2009 Pink Triangle Press

There They Go Again-RepubliKKKan Racism

It didn't take long for the right wingers to attack President Obama's pick of Judge Sotomayor.

The privileged white males of the GOP and their puppet ruler Michael Steele within hours of the nomination were merrily attacking her education, cherry picking rulings from her long judicial career, called her an 'affirmative action hire' and based on a snippet of a YouTube video were calling her 'racist'.

It takes one to know one.

I found it laughable that two GOP college dropouts in Rush Limbaugh and Karl Rove would have the cojones to call a summa cum laude Princetnn grad and editor of the Yale Law Review 'stupid'.

You boys been chomping on those Hater tots again haven't you?

But these aren't the only white sheet wearing haters that have come out of the GOP woodpile.





Sen. James Imhofe (R-OK) stated, "Of primary concern to me is whether or not Judge Sotomayor follows the proper role of judges and refrains from legislating from the bench. Some of her recent comments on this matter have given me cause for great concern. In the months ahead, it will be important for those of us in the U.S. Senate to weigh her qualifications and character as well as her ability to rule fairly without undue influence from her own personal race, gender, or political preferences.

Oh yeah, and the 110 other people who sat on the Court, especially the 107 past and present white males who occupied those seats all made rulings without their personal biases and upbringing coming into play.

The bottom line is that the GOP is hatin' on the fact that President Obama has once again put them in a political bind. They can't go overboard on attacking this historic choice or else they not only look like the intolerant bigots they are, they risk losing the support of Latinos for decades and cement their status as the 'rich white male party.'

Life Is Hot In Cracktown

I've been talking about this movie for awhile since Kerry Washington is playing a transwoman in it.

This film is based on the 1993 novel by Buddy Giovinazzi and also stars Evan Ross.



Life Is Hot In Cracktown features four stories that present a gripping and realistic view of an inner city neighborhood devastated by the ravages of crack cocaine. Giovinazzo had been trying to adapt his novel into a feature film for years. Thanks to Kerry Washington's interest in the script, he was able to finally shoot the film in 2008.

While I wasn't happy about the 'Black transwoman hooker' stereotype rearing its ugly head again, I'm curious to see how she plays Marybeth. Kerry likes to portray her characters as accurately as possible, and had LA transactivist Valerie Spencer advising her for this film.

The movie opens in a theater near you on June 26

Who Was The First African-American Transwoman?

In 1906 Kelly Miller stated, "All great people glorify their history and look back upon their early attainments with a spiritual vision."

Because the half century of transgender history so far has been predominately written by people who don't share my ethnic heritage, it has only covered one facet of the story.

We know for example that Lili Elbe was the first person to undergo gender transition in the 1930's, that Christine Jorgensen in 1953 was the first post-war one that garnered huge media attention, and about the exploits of other transwomen from Coccinelle to Renee Richards to Dana International.

But it's only in the last few years that the stories of pioneering non-white transpeople have been coming to the forefront. Fortunately, some of those stories were recorded in the pages of our iconic magazines JET, EBONY and Sepia. Thanks to the Johnson Publishing Company agreement with Google that resulted in JET and EBONY being digitized and placed online in their book search feature to peruse, some of those stories are now coming to light.

As a transperson of African descent who comes from a family of historians, I want to know and revel in my history. Just as I'm keenly aware of the varied historical accomplishments of my people, I want to know the same things about Black transpeople as well.

I am one of three African-Americans who has won the IFGE Trinity Award. Dr. Marisa Richmond is the first African-American transperson to be elected as a major party convention delegate for her state. I know that Avon Wilson was the first African-American and first person to go through Johns Hopkins gender program in 1966

But what irritates me at times is that I don't definitively know (yet) who was the first African-American person to transition.

I've been encouraged lately to see some tantalizing clues surface pointing to an answer to that question.

About the same time that the media was fixated on Christine Jorgensen, an article appeared in the June 18, 1953 issue of JET magazine.

It began following the story across several JET issues of Pittsburgh's Carlett Brown. Because Denmark's laws restricted the surgery to Danish nationals, Carlett took the drastic step of renouncing her US citizenship in order to be able to have SRS done in Denmark and have her HRT supervised by Dr. Christian Hamburger, Christine Jorgensen's endocrinologist.

I'll have to write up her fascinating story in another post since I'm still reading through more than a few issues of JET to find out how the story ended.

A Sepia magazine article and two 1965 National Insider tabloid articles claim New Orleans born Delisa Newton, who was 31 when she transitioned is that person.

Sepia magazine was a Fort Worth, TX based competitor of EBONY/JET similar in style to Look magazine that published from 1948-1983. The African-American Museum in Dallas, TX has the picture files of Sepia Magazine in its archives.

It seems appropriate that one of the contenders was born in New Orleans. Delisa was billed as ‘The First Negro Sex Change’ in that 1966 article, but they probably weren't aware of Avon Wilson yet. I'd also have to check with what's left of the New Orleans transgender community to see if Delisa is still alive.

These are the articles in question pointing to Delisa Newton. I have yet to find those Sepia magazine articles online or see them.

* Delisa Newton. “My lover beat me”. National Insider, June 20, 1965: 4-5.
* Delisa Newton. “Why I could never marry a white man!”. National Insider July 18, 1965: 17.
* Delisa Newton. “From Man to Woman”. Sepia. 1966.

JET also had a small blurb in its March 16, 1967 issue about 28 year old Philadelphian Carole Small. She was working as a female illusionist-singer in Germany and was reported to be in Denmark getting SRS. Assuming she's still alive, she'd be approaching her 70th birthday.

Carole was quoted as saying in that article, "Black women in America are among the luckiest on the face of the earth and it will be marvelous to be one."

Your late 20th century-early 21st century sisters echo those sentiments as well. It would be nice for us to know exactly who was our first and hear about how their lives progressed post surgery.

In order to continue progressing toward our glorious future, we must know about our past in order to get a better understanding of our present.

As I keep perusing these older issues of EBONY/JET, I'm discovering they did a much better job of covering gender issues back in the day than I'd been aware of.

It's Sonia Sotomayor!

Can I call it or what?

I've been saying since 2007 that the next Supreme Court justice pick would be a Latino/a. It didn't take a rocket scientist to see that it was going to and needed to happen. It's also smart politics to start including the fastest growing ethnic group into the upper echelons of our government.

President Obama made more history today by selecting US Second District Court of Appeals Judge Sonia Sotomayor to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter. It was something that was long overdue in terms of adding more diversity to the highest court in the land and more women on a court dominated by seven white males and honorary white man Clarence Thomas.

Looking forward to seeing her in the Supreme Court photo this October once she's confirmed.

Happy 60th Birthday, Pam Grier!

I posted last month about how much I loved Pam Grier back in the day and still do. Well, today she celebrates her milestone 60th birthday.









Yes, Pam still has it going on. She was the first sistah to appear on the cover of Ms. magazine back in the day.

Happy birthday, Pam. May you have many more.