Karen Kendra Holmes TedX Talk

Karen Kendra Holmes is a safety office for the federal government, serves in the Maryland National Guard and is one of our award winning advocates. 

She was named in 2017 as one of the 'Top 50 Transgender Americans You Need To Know', and BTAC honored her with the Monica Roberts Advocacy Award that same year.

This is her TedX talk entitled '40 Years and Wandering No More'

 

A Historic Graduation For Keo!

Needed some positive news to talk about after writing about several trans murders, and this is coming from the ATL

Since Spelman changed their policies to allow trans people to matriculate on their campus,  been wondering when would witness our first trans graduate from the first liberal arts college for African American women. 

Turns out it's May 2018. 

Meet Keo Chaad O'Neal.   It's apropos that the 21 year old O'Neal is graduating with a degree in history because he is making it as the first openly trans masculine graduate of Spelman College.   

When the South Plainfield, NJ native first enrolled on the Spelman campus he identified as non binary and used they/them pronouns.    While O'Neal loved Spelman, he didn't feel at the time he would be able to become themself, so O'Neal transferred to a predominately white institution (PWI).

While at the PWI, O'Neal transitioned, grew and developed on that campus, but missed Spelman.

"I came back to Spelman in my junior year because although I could flourish in my queerness, I felt like I was denying my Blackness.  I was nothing more than a body to those folks," O'Neal said.

O'Neal returned to Spelman for his junior and senior year  and says he faced some backlash from current students, their parents and alumni.    He came out during a on campus convocation for Spelman aluma and author Alice Walker who was visiting as ana artist in residence. 

As to what is next for O'Neal.  While he has been accepted into a PhD program in the fall, he wants to take a few years to establish himself before returning to school.

While it was a tough two years, he also had a message for his supporters.

"I could not have made it this far without the encouragement of others, O'Neal said. "It truly takes a village.  For everyone who played a part in my successes, this is a win for all of us."

And in a week full of bad news for our trans community, it's a win we sorely needed.

Congratulation Keo! 

Check Out The 'Marsha's Plate' Podcast

My homegirl Diamond Stylz in the wake of the 2016 election and the lack of balanced, facts based  discussions about trans people in the media, decided to start her own platform to do precisely that called 'Marsha's Plate'.

The Marsha  the podcast is named for is Marsha P Johnson, our pioneering Black trans elder who is credited with kicking off the 1969 Stonewall Rebellion, and who co-founded Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) with Sylvia Rivera.

But back to talking about the 'Marsha's Plate' podcast.   The discussions being had on the podcast which is now up to 30 episodes are coming from a Black trans perspective.

Diamond is joined in this latest media endeavor by her co-hosts Mia Mix and Zee.  They bring to the podcast discussions the perspectives of young trans masculine and trans feminine people.

And knowing Diamond, she's not going to shy away from controversial or hotly contested topics.

Looking forward to checking it out every Thursday, and here's the link to the show.

BTAC Forever!

I'm now back on my end of I-45 after spending the past empowering week in Dallas at the 7th annual National Black Trans Advocacy Conference.

And it seems like the fact of BTAC's unapologetically Black trans self existing bothers some of you  white trans peeps.  Too bad. 

BTAC is a FUBU production in which everyone is welcome to attend, but you must bear in mind if you aren't Black, when you step into our trans Wakanda it is one of the few conferences in Trans and GNC World that is grounded in unapologetic Blackness. 

I'm hearing some bull feces laden chatter from assorted bitter white trans peeps that BTAC is 'racist'.

Um no boo boo kitty, let Moni school you are something.  Racism equals bigotry and prejudice plus systemic power and majority population numbers used by a majority group to retard, roll back or eviscerate the human rights progress of a minority group.

And don't even step to me with that weak azz Webster's Dictionary definition of racism or you will get your wig snacthed.

Back to talking about BTAC. 

Black trans and GNC peeps being at a conference in they meet others like them and unapologetically celebrates our heritage them isn't 'racist'.   You need to stop sniffing that vanillacentric privilege and talking out the side of your neck about an event you probably haven't been to.

And for those of you who doubt what I'm saying, you can come see for yourself when we gather in Dallas again April 22-28 for BTAC 2019. 

BTAC wouldn't have been a needed and necessary response to the ongoing marginalization of Black trans and gender non conforming people inside and outside the TBLGQ world if a long list of white led trans and SGL 'equality' organizations like GenderPac, NCTE, HRC, TENT, and Equality Texas had been doing their job of properly advocating for Black trans people.

More importantly, when they advocate for Black trans people, they hire us to do the advocacy work for and in our community  Since you equality orgs are belatedly coming to the realization that Black trans people exist and aren't going away, BTAC will.

This BTAC event was founded and built by Black trans men, who get even less credit for the yeoman's work they have done to build our trans movement, and that crap needs to stop

For seven years BTAC has handled its business and been a healing place for the Black trans and GNC community. It also been a place where we network, learn and do so in an unapologetic Afrocentric environment that welcomes all who wish to come.

It is needed, life saving and necessary in a world hostile to Black trans and GNC bodies.  Even more galling to us, that anti-Black trans hostility also comes from white trans peeps as well

BTAC is also a place where we can meet others who look like us, their supportive spouses and accomplices who unequivocally support Black trans people in Texas and beyond

It is also a place when we can sit down, interact with and listen to the wisdom of our trans elders. 

For a week we get to live in a Black Trans Wakanda in which we talk about community issues and come up with solutions to those problems.  It is a place where we get to build friendships, are affirmed, loved on and in many cases get to heal from the micro and microaggressive crap that is hurled at us the rest of the year by an increasingly hostile to trans folks outside world until it is time for us to head to our various locales to live our lives.

This year BTAC 2018 had three seminar tracks for trans women, trans men and our anchors, AKA the spouses and allies.   We're planning to add tracks for gender non conforming peeps since we had some show up this year in numbers and they expressed their desire for that t happen. 

We're  planning to have tracks for our trans and GNC elders above age 55 that we call the Golden Flames because we value their wisdom, respect and love them, and realize they have much to teach us in terms of their lived experiences and our history.

We hope that one day as this BTAC conference continues to grow we will have enough parents of Black trans kids and Black trans kids in attendance so that we can programming for them as well   . 
 

At BTAC we get to hear our names called for awards named for distinguished leaders in our community and celebrated at a Friday gala, not a TDOR that was hosted by Dezjorn Gauthier and Jessica Zyrie . 

We show off our talents at Trans Manifest Live early in the conference week.   Our pageant peeps get to compete for the Mr. and MIss Black Trans International titles in which they know before even stepping on that stage that when they win that title, they will expected to be advocates during their reign for our community

And we cap it all off with the Family Day, Black Diamond Ball, and the closing interfaith ceremony led by our elders on Sunday.

BTAC is needed and necessary, and it needs to be supported.   It would be nice if we got to see our Black legacy civil rights orgs like the NAACP step up as sponsors for our conference or the gala. 

It would be wonderful for our BTAC attendees to see our Black trans superstars in the house someday.

But until then, this Dallas, Texas based conference will continue to chug along and serve our community.   If you wanna hate on that, that's on you.

I and the rest of my BTAC fam here and increasingly around the world will smile, mark off our calendars to the last full week of April and return here to Black Trans Wakanda. 

BTAC Forever! 

Photo credits: Rebecca Jackson 

BTAC 2018- Day 1

We've been eagerly waiting since the last BTAC Conference closed out for the 2018 edition of the Black Trans Advocacy Conference.

This year its at a new hotel with a new theme in 2018 as we gather from across Texas, the US and increasingly the world with attendees last year from Brazil and Jamaica .

The conference officially opens with an interfaith service with an Afrocentric flavor that will take place starting at 7 PM,  For those of you who couldn't make it this year, we will be tweeting at the hashtag #BTAC2018

We will still have the Trans Manifest, the keynotes from Diamond Stylz and Jonathan Thunderword, the Mr and Miss Black Trans Pageant, the Awards Gala and the Family Day still ahead of us.

And yes, Moni is still lurking in the shadows of the hospitality suite waiting to to dish out dominoes beatdowns to all who dare step to her when I'm not handling media issues.

Welcome to Dallas, and welcome to BTAC 2018



 

Janet Mock Named To The 2018 ESSENCE #Woke100

You know that I have much love for the all around awesomeness of Janet Mock as a New York Times best selling author, motivational speaker, thought leader and trailblazing advocate.

Her current book is Surpassing Certainty, and I'm planning on getting a copy of it soon and taking some of my next scheduled down time to read it.

And because she is so awesome, I'm not surprised when I hear that Janet has broken new ground or been included on some list.

ESSENCE magazine has released their second annual #Woke100 list of Black women who are doing wonderful things for our community as proven change agents here and around the world

There was one trans feminine person included on the list this year, and it wasn't moi., it was Ms. Mock. 

Congratulations Janet for blazing another trail and repping #BlackTGirlMagic  and #BlackTrans Excellence in everything you do. 

Trans Peeps Rocked The 2018 Oscars

Despite being in a moment in this country in which the humanity and human rights of trans people are under attack by the Trump Misadministration and their white fundie allies, the opposite is happening in Hollywood as trans people become a more visible and active part of the motion picture industry

Trans excellence was on display during last night's Oscars, with Janet Mock and actress Daniela Vega rocking the Oscar red carpets to kick the night off and us waiting to see in trans director Yance Ford's name would be called to collect his first Oscar.

Vega would also make history as the first ever openly trans presenter during the Oscars main ceremony.  She introduced Sufjan Stevens, whose song 'Mystery of Love' for the Call Me By Your Name soundtrack was nominated for a Best Original Song Oscar.

She would later in the evening join her castmates on stage as the movie she was the lead actress in, A Fantastic Woman, won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language film.

That made her the first openly trans actress to play a trans character in an Oscar winning film.



So yeah Hollywood, your not so subtle hint to not only hire trans actors and actresses for trans roles, but consider letting them have an opportunity to play cisgender characters as well

Attention then turned on this night to trans masculine director Yance Ford to see if he would make more trans Oscar history on a night that was turning into an amazing one for transkind. .

He had already made Oscar history back in January when he became the first openly  transgender director to be nominated for an Oscar.

Ford already had four previous documentaries under his belt, but his fifth one Strong Island, was up for the Best Documentary nomination



Unfortunately it was not to be his night, as the documentary Icarus got the Oscar in Ford's category..

I have no doubt we will see this gifted filmmaker again on a Oscar stage, and hopefully it will be to make an acceptance speech as he gets to hold that stateutee in his hands

But it sure would have been nice to see #BlackTransExcellence rewarded last night

Congrats to Daniela and Yance for making history and repping our community well.  It was also nice to see my sis Janet ripping the red carpet to shreds.

Will be interesting to see what transpires at next year's Oscars.

It's Inauguration Day For Councilmembers Cunningham and Jenkins!

Today was the public inauguration in Minneapolis for Councilmembers Phillipe Cunningham and Andrea Jenkins, Mayor Jacob Frey and their council colleagues in the Minneapolis City Hall rotunda. 

After the public inauguration, and the mayor's inauguration speech,  they and their city council colleagues immediately went to the council chambers to meet and elect a new council president and determine who the various committee chairs would be.

It's going to be an exciting but busy day for Andrea and Phillipe in Minneapolis today.  They'll find out their committee assignments, and after that get busy with the nuts and bolts work of helping to run Minneapolis.

And looking forward to hearing them talk about it the next time I get to spend quality time with either of them.

Minneapolis Council Members Cunningham and Jenkins Get Acclimated To Their New Job

With us being in the second day of the new year, that means that the trans folks who were elected in those groundbreaking historic elections back in November now over the next few days and weeks get sworn in and start to handle their constituents business.

Here's now Councilmember Andrea Jenkins in a picture from her FB page getting sworn in this morning in Minneapolis.

Here's Councilmember Cunningham's inauguration pic.   He's ready and eager to do the job for the residents of his northside Ward 4 along with his staff .

There's also in the wake of the election, interviewing and hiring the staff for your council office.  And yes, you also have training to go through as a councilperson like any other job. 

There was a three day orientation in which Andrea and Phillipe spent several days learning the nuts and bolts basic rules in filing ordinances and bills, voting procedures and getting up to speed on local state and federal policies that impact the city

And at $98,695 a year, the salary is nice as well.

Yes people, you have to put in the work to be an effective legislator, and having the pleasure of knowing both of them, I know they are more than prepared and ready to hit the ground running as councilmembers.

The big public one takes place on January 8 in Minneapolis when all the councilmembers gather in the City Hall rotunda to be sworn in starting at 9:30 AM CST.

Following that swearing in, the organizational meeting for city council will take place in which the Minneapolis City Council leadership will be elected.   Remember Philllpe beat the incumbent council president Barb Johnson in his race who had been in that Ward 4 seat 20 years and spent the last eight of her term as the Minneapolis City Council president.

The new council president, once elected by majority vote of the council, then will assign members to various committees and appoint the committee chairs.

January 8 will not only be a historic day not only for Andrea and Phillipe, but the city of Minneapolis and the trans community as well. 

Happy Birthday Kortney!

Definitely had to take a moment to give a TransGriot shout out to another one of the trailblazing trans brothers in our midst that I have mad love and respect for in Dr. Kortney Ziegler. 

Kortney was recently named to the 40 under 40 list of people making a name for themselves in various fields in the East Bay, and has also been named to the Root 100.

Kourtney is the director of the award winning documentary Still Black: A Portrait Of Black Transmen, and in 2013 created Trans* H4CK, that creates tech applications to solve real world problems in the trans community



 
Now he and Tiffany Mikell are the creative minds behind an app called Appolition, which allows people to use their spare change to help bail Black people out of jail. 

So when he says he's on his way to becoming a multimillionaire, I believe him based on his past track record. 

Happy birthday Kortney!   May you have many more and keep on doing amazing things for our communty.. 

Rest In Power Bishop S.F. Makalani-MaHee

'I have to tell you as an African-American transgender man of faith that it is crucially important that the dignity of every citizen  not only be provided for, but affirmed."
-Bishop S.F. Makalani-MaHee , 2014    

I first met Bishop S.F Makalani MaHee when I was tapped to deliver the keynote speech for the TransSaints Conference in Charlotte, NC in 2012.  We were connected on Facebook, and he, like myself was a contributor to the Bilerico Project.   I kept up with him as one of the amazing people speaking up for the trans community of South Florida and being a transgender man of faith .

I was shocked to hear that Bishop had suffered a heart attack on November 2 and after a valiant struggle to recover, passed away on November 20 at the age of 45.

Bishop Makalani-MaHee born in New York, and was the founder of Black Gay Pride South Florida in addition to his day job of being the Transgender Programs Coordinator for the Florida Department of Health in Broward County. 

In addition to becoming the youngest commissioned pastor at Unity Fellowship Church, he was a strong voice for the empowerment of the South Florida transgender community and a strong critic of proposed policies and unjust laws that would harm it

.

A memorial service is being held for Bishop Makalani-MaHee later today starting at 4 PM EST at the Sunshine Cathedral, located at 1480 SW Ninth Avenue in Fort Lauderdale, FL.

But there is no denying the fact that we have lost one of our community's powerful soldiers for human rights, and he will be missed not only by all who loved him, but his trans family in South Florida and around the country.   

 

You Can Call Phillipe Councilmember-Elect Cunningham!

It took us another day to have it confirmed, but the Minneapolis City Council will have TWO Black trans people sitting on it in a few weeks!

Phillipe Cunningham quit his policy job with Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges to focus on the Herculean task of taking on 20 year incumbent and Minneapolis City Council Board President Barb Johnson.    She had served on the council since 1997, held the presidency for 8 years and was a second generation holder of this Ward 4 seat her mother had previously held.

Johnson was considered unbeatable, but as anyone who watches politics can tell you, no one is unbeatable.  You stay in office long enough and sooner or later you are going to lose an election.

Cunningham was all over Ward 4 introducing himself to voters who liked his message, and combined with help from Trans United Fund and Outfront MN built a campaign team that increased turnout in Ward 4 to the point it helped him grab the historic win.

Minneapolis has an interesting ranked choice voting system that eliminates runoff elections.  Johnson led him by a mere 125 votes that night, but didn't break 50%, which meant that they would have to go through the second and third choice counts until either he or Johnson were declared the winner.

Cunningham made up the early deficit and beat Johnson by 175 votes. 
 

By toppling the Ward 4 incumbent, Cunningham becomes the first out Black trans masculine person elected to public office in the US, the first trans masculine person elected to the Minneapolis City Council, and the first out transmasculine person of any ethnic background to be elected to a the city council of a large city.

And it couldn't have happened to a nicer person.
 
Congratulations Phillipe for your historic win! 

So proud of you, and know that you and Andrea will do some amazing work in conjunction with your fellow councilmembers making your wards and the City of Minneapolis better.

Minha Filha! A Black Trans Daughterhood - Coming Soon In The ATX

I get to enjoy the brilliance of my homegirl Dora Silva Santana on a regular basis when I pop up to Austin, see her at BTAC or chat with her on the phone from time to time..

Now you peeps in the ATX have a chance to witness it when her performance piece Minha Filha! A Black Trans Daughterhood happens this month.

Minha filha! A Black Trans Daughterhood

What happens when the work of love comes through navigating precarity? My daughterhood was learning and trusting a mothering style that filled with meanings the absence, the landscape, the struggle. I couldn’t be mothered-protected from history, but I could learn to see my daughterhood in the seek-and-hiding from it. My girlhood was an imaginative-embodied space where running my little legs on the mud of northern Brazil without being caught in my girly motion was my favorite freedom game. At times, I drudged in the muddiness of daughterhood-motherhood. Allowing oneself to be the daughter of your own so that you can mother yourself, blurring boundaries, daughterring in order to open space for mothering. This is part of the story I want to share with you as we engage in this journey of remembering and living. Every time I would have hungry little eyes in the middle of the struggle, my mother would say “de mais longe a gente já veio” (from further we’ve come). Every time we stumble, it is healing to look back.

The event is free, and is being sponsored by the Cultural Arts Division of the City of Austin's Economic Development Department, the Trans Justice Funding Project and allgo.

It will be held on August 13 at the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center,  600 River Street in Austin from 3-5 PM.

Hope you peeps in the ATX area check it out, and I get a chance to roll up from Houston to see it as well

'Queen Sugar' Actor Comes Out As Trans Masculine

The critically acclaimed Ava DuVernay produced show Queen Sugar on OWN, debuted on the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) on September 6 for a thirteen episode run and was renewed for a second season that started on June 20.

The show is garnering an ever increasing audience with its diverse and complex characters, is based on the 2014 debut novel of the same name by Natalie Baczile, and tells the story of a woman who unexpectedly inherits a struggling Louisiana sugar cane farm.

Queen Sugar was nominated for five NAACP Image Awards, and won the Outstanding Drama Series and Outstanding Writing In A Dramatic Series one.

One of the characters on this show, Antoine 'Toine' Wilkins, recently debuted as the high school friend of major character Ralph Angel Bordelon, played by Kofi Siriboe.

Ralph protected Toine from the bullies during their high school days, and Toine feels a sense of loyalty to him as a result.  We'll see how this plays out during the rest of the Queen Sugar season two.

Toine is a trans masculine cop, and you know I and a whole lot of trans people inside and outside of Hollywood have complained about cis actors playing trans roles.

Interestingly enough, Brian Michael Smith, the actor who plays Toine, has recently come out as trans masculine.   Tiq Milan interviews him here.  

Smith has been performing since childhood, but acting professionally for five years.   He has played cisgender roles prior to this announcement.  He was also in this Toyota commercial featuring Eli Manning.  He's also appeared on the shows Detour, Girls, Blue Bloods and Law and Order : SVU

Smith is hoping not only to bring more authentic trans characters to life on screen and stage, he also wants to play a wide variety of trans and cisgender roles.

Have another show I need to watch and support when I have time to do so.

Black Trans History- Jackie Shane

'I never realized that I'd mean something to people all these years later'
-Jackie Shane  

I've talked about in these TransGriot electronic pages about trans masculine gospel singer Wilmer Broadnax, who was a major star from the 40's to the 70's.

Now it turns out that we are now getting another piece of our Black trans history revealed in the person of R&B singer Jackie Shane.

She was born in Nashville on May 15, 1940.  While Nashville is world renowned for its country music scene, it also had a thriving blues and R&B music scene centered on the clubs on Jefferson St.

Shane was surrounded by music from an early age, and according to the 2010 CBC Elaine Banks  radio documentary I Got Mine; The Story Of Jackie Shane, as a teen she stayed with Marion James, Nashville's legendary Queen of the Blues.

She moved to Montreal in 1960, and a chance 1962 encounter with the Washington DC based band Frank Motley and the Motley Crew, known as Frank Motley and the Hitchhikers north of the border led to her becoming the lead singer for the group, relocating to Toronto with them in 1961 and as their lead singer subsequently taking Toronto's music scene by storm.  

Shane and the band would occasionally head south for US gigs in Boston, Nashville and Los Angeles, but it was Toronto where they were making their money.  Toronto's music scene was centered on Yonge Street, and they were tapping into the hunger Canadian audiences had for R&B and soul music.

Shane's first single was a cover of the Frank Barrett Motown classic song Money, but it was the song she released later in 1962 entitled Any Other Way, that hit number two on the then influential CHUM radio music chart that led to her taking the Toronto based music scene by storm .

In addition to performing at Toronto's Sapphire Club , there was this 1965 performance on Nashville's WLAC-TV's Night Train show



As the 60's inexorably moved into the 70's the bookings dried up and Shane left Toronto in 1971 returned to the States and lost touch with her bandmates.   She turned down an offer from George Clinton to become part of Funkadelic and began caring for an aunt in Los Angeles.   She returned to Nashville around 1996 after the death of her mother as people wondered what happened to her.  

Rumors abounded that she had been violently murdered in LA or committed suicide until she was found by saxophonist Steve Kennedy living in Nashville in 2005.

Thanks to that 2010 CBC radio documentary, there has been renewed interest in Jackie Shane's career and life, and she's still alive and kicking in Nashville at age 77.

And yes, Jackie, your life means plenty to all of us trans peeps all these years later as a Black trans woman living her life. doing what she loved and being unapologetic about it.      

It also means that another piece of our Black trans history has been uncovered for us to enjoy and appreciate.

Learning, Networking and Having Fun At BTAC 2017

We're passing the halfway mark of the BTAC 2017 conference, and in addition to yours truly doing my part to ensure it is an informative and enjoyable conference for all our attendees, I am enjoying my extended birthday week celebration.

It is my fave conference, and increasingly we have people attending from different parts of the world. Our brother Neish is back from Jamaica, Dora is repping Brazil, and Neo is repping The Congo.

That perspective is important for those of us African descended people who grew up here in the States, and helps give us visual evidence and proof that we are part of the African Diaspora.

One of the other things that takes place during BTAC 2017 that is important is all the networking and information sharing that happens in conversations large and small.

We have two more days of panels, with today's panels being focused on health and wellness issues

The other thing that is also important when we gather at BTAC is seeing old friends, meeting new ones from around the country and the world, and just getting to know people on a personal level you may have only regular connections with previously via Facebook or other social media.

There's also meetings with people from other organizations who wish to seriously engage with our Black trans community as we are gathered here in Dallas, and me handling my business as BTAC's Media Chair.

My BTAC siblings, like myself are taking time to have some fun.  It's not all serious business.  BTAC is at a basic level, a big family reunion and one of the few Afrocentric trans themed conferences in the US.

It's a time where I get to laugh and get loved on by my trans fam that looks like me and shares my ethnic background.

When you have a bunch of Black trans women gathered at a conference, it's gonna be a fashion show.  Mama Moni is damned sure ready and able to handle her fashion business in that department with several days of clothes and three pairs of shoes in her two suitcases.

I'm also enjoying the fact that in addition the record attendance we are having this year, we have a large contingent of trans women to go along with our trans brothers.   We also have a lot of first time BTAC attendees this year, and it makes me pleased and proud to see this happening.

You can keep up with the BTAC happenings at the #BTAC2017 hashtag.   We also have people doing Facebook Live events and I'm tweeting at my TransGriot Twitter handle when I'm not taking part in an event..

Sharron Cooks Makes History Again

Last summer Sharron Cooks made history by becoming the first out trans person in the state of Pennsylvania to become a DNC delegate.  She's made history once again by becoming the first out trans person to chair a city commission in Philadelphia.

 On Thursday she was elected as chair of the 23 member Mayor's Commission on LGBT  Affairs.

"As chair of the Mayor's Commission on LGBT Affairs, I am committed and dedicated to serving the needs of the City of Philadelphia's LGBTQ community.  I am committed to advocating for equality and building and maintaining positive and supportive community relationships with trust, honesty, transparency and integrity, " Cooks said in a G Philly Interview.

"This is a new role for me as a Black transgender woman.  I am open to learning and receiving respectful feedback, and I am looking forward to working with all members of our LGBTQ community and allies here in Philadelphia and abroad as well as working with other organizations and institution to help address the needs of our community."

Congrats Sharron for making history once again and being a trailblazing leader for your community.   Have no doubts you'll do a wonderful job in that chairperson's role.   

Black Trans Women Are Leaders

"It's got to stop somewhere, and it won't unless somebody steps forward and takes a stand.  I guess that's me.  Lady Java,  October 21, 1967 

On the way back from Austin I was thinking about once again in the early morning hours of International Women's Day the comment Diamond Stylz made about all the ways that Black trans women show up for many movements, but are in many cases dissed, dismissed or ignored as we are whitewashed out of the historical narrative.  .

And that needs to stop.  'Black trans women aren't just here to entertain you, provide melanin for your photo opps or be saddled with the 'tragic transsexuals' meme that your predominately white LGBTQ equality org uses to fundraise and lobby on.

Even when talking about trans kids, far too often the issue is framed through a white cultural lens. Black trans kids exist, and their voices need to be in this ongoing cultural conversation.  

There is this problematic narrative in the Black community that being trans 'is a white thang'. The best way we Black trans people and our community allies counter and attack it is having visible Black trans leaders combined with whacking the haters saying this with historical examples of the existence of Black trans people.

It can't be just in some photo op.  It must be a targeted, sustained media effort as well.

Black cis people need to consistently see and hear Black trans people talking about trans issues.  A white spokesperson can do that all day long and the massage will just be ignored.  

But let Laverne Cox or another Black trans person say the same message and their ears will perk up. We know how to talk to our people.  

When we lobby local, state and federal legislators, there are things I can say that doesn't have quite the same context when a white trans person says them.   And let me remind you that some of those local, state and federal legislators we're trying to persuade have my ethnic background.

Note that it was Laverne Cox that came up with the perfectly succinct line to talk about the Grimm case and our lives in general.

To further illustrate my point in the importance of centering Black trans people in our work, there was an incident that happened during the SB 6 hearing yesterday in which Sen. Eddie Lucio said to Dr Colt Keo-Meier that 'you don't know what discrimination is like".

Do you think Sen Eddie Lucio would have dared say that to me?

If he had tried that with me,  I would have immediately pushed back and said, "Sen Lucio,  I'm old enough to have started my school days in a segregated HISD school.  So yeah, being Black and trans I know what discrimination is like, and SB 6 is a discriminatory bill."

And at a time when we have hostile GOP state and federal administrations, we don't have time for non-intersectional BS.  It's nation time as far as we're concerned.  We're wanting action and solutions to the problems that ail our community, because we see this as a Defcon 1 emergency level situation because our sisters are being murdered,

The bottom line is that if you wish to have lasting success in this trans rights movement, it ain't gonna happen without Black trans women being at the table helping to formulate the strategies and tactics to do so.

We have numerous examples around the country of Black trans feminine leaders like Raquel Willis, Angelica Ross, Sharron Cooks, Janet Mock, Dee Dee Watters ,Precious Brady Davis, Andrea Jenkins, Tracee McDaniel, Rev Carmarion Anderson, Jazzmun Nichala Crayton, Lourdes Hunter, Elle Hearns, Bryanna Jenkins, Kim Watson and countless others,

There are also emerging young Black trans feminine leaders like Trinity Neal.

We Black trans women have been handling our leadership business even before Stonewall when you think about Lady Java, Lucy Hicks Anderson,  and post Stonewall in the person of Miss Major, Dawn Wilson, Marisa Richmond and yeah, some Texas based blogger y'all know.

So ponder this thought during International Women's Day in that Black trans women are leaders. We have a proud legacy of Black feminine leadership to draw on from our history and build upon.

In many cases  we are making history as we blaze these leadership trails   So why wouldn't you have capable Black trans women in your organizations?

You can either reach out and have us at the table to help create a winning strategy for all of us, or you can continue to wallow in the depths of anti-Blackness and spite, not include us as equal partners, and watch us do the damned thing anyway and look fly while doing so.

Your call.