Deal With The Fact Black Trans Women Exist

Angela Giaandrea Valentino is one of my longtime readers who had a major problem with transphobic hate for Laverne Cox coming out of the mouth of Flo Anthony on a morning radio show. recently and had something to say about it on her Facebook page.

I thought it deserved to be signal boosted, so here's Angela's comment.

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So this morning on a local radio station (WDKX-FM) they were talking about Laverne Cox appearing on The View yesterday (January 8) and Flo Anthony had called in to express her thoughts. Okay fine.

As I was listening more closely I hear them calling trans women all types of he/shes, shims, men.... Flo Anthony calling Laverne Cox a drag queen, saying that she shouldn't be representing black women. "We have all of these bad reality show stars and now we have Laverne..." Why THAT comparison? Flo Anthony should be so fucking honored.

They went on to mock her voice, saying she sounds like a man, like a drag queen, asking why her voice isn't higher... So this is what it comes down to? Overlook her intelligence, her character, her poise, her elegance and her grace and let's focus on "She had on too much makeup and her wig was too long and her voice isn't feminine enough."

Seriously? Laverne is flawless. Point blank period.

I intend to light Flo Anthony's raggedy ass up once I get on Twitter. How dare she. Never mind the fact that she mentioned how she hasn't been able to get on The View to save her life.

So it's sour grapes then? Nobody is checking for you boo. Laverne was there for a reason. We trans women are here for a reason. Oh you can't deal? That's too bad. Because you will. One way or another.

We are not going anywhere.  Deal with it.

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All I can do is say amen and piggyback on what my sis Angela said for you transphobic Black cis women (and 'errbody' else who cosigns Flo Anthony's alleged loud and wrong ignorant comments) to chew on.

Stop  hatin'.  Trans women are women as many of your cis sisters realize.  

We are proud and beautiful Black trans women    We are going to live, laugh, love, excel and represent ourselves, our people and our community to the best of our ability.  We are part of the diverse mosaic of human life and part of the Black community as well with all our perfect imperfections.

Ain't we Back women, too?   Yes, we are.

We are part of the kente cloth fabric of the African American community.  Black trans women have appeared not only on the stage of The View, but the stage at Carnegie Hall.  We have been elected to a state legislature, graced the covers of ESSENCE and Time magazines and even had a JET Beauty of the Week.  

We are New York Times bestselling authors and GLAAD award nominated bloggers.  We are college professors, actors, doctors, lawyers, business owners, musicians, models, athletes, ministers, wives and mothers   We are as diverse and multifaceted as the Black cisfeminine community is.

We Black trans women also face sexual assault and genocidal levels of violence aimed at us.   We have had our beauty denigrated just as Black cis women's beauty has been under attack by whiteness and white supremacy for the last 400 years.  

And I and other Black trans women are sick and tired of being sick and tired of hearing out of the mouths of jealous cis Black women engaging in femininity policing that we shouldn't be 'representing Black women' 

The melanin in our skin says otherwise.

We also get enough of that erasure of our femininity crap from society.  It's even more hurtful when it comes from our own people, and even more injurious coming from our cis Black sisters.

We'll keep that 'not representing Black women' sentiment in mind the next time a Black trans woman does something groundbreakingly amazing.  

And I have no doubt that with the young, gifted and talented Black trans women following in mine and other Black trans feminine pioneer's pumps, they will exceed what even we have been able to accomplish so far in this decade.

We Black trans women are also down with the cause of uplifting and celebrating Black womanhood.  If you have a problem with the depictions of Black womanhood in the media, I suggest you start in your own cisgender feminine house first before you even attempt to ignorantly step to Black trans women.

And as my sister Angela advised, deal with it.  Black trans women exist and aren't going away.