Rev. Al Sharpton On MSNBC As Permanent Host?

In the wake of Cenk Uguyr's departure as the host of an MSNBC show that comes on in the 6 PM ET timeslot, Rev Al Sharpton has been filling in for the last several weeks on it as a guest host.

This came in the wake of the NAACP, the National Black Journalists Association, the Blackosphere and the African American community getting more than a little perturbed about the 5-11 PM ET blackout that was occurring during the cable news shows broadcast during that time slot on MSNBC and CNN.

They once again fell into the pattern of having liberal-progressive leaning white men and women squaring off against conservative leaning white men and women, while every now and then sticking a Latino or African-American on to add some melanin to the predominately white panel discussing issues of the day from their cultural perspective.

These 5-11 PM shows in addition to being the most watched hours of cable news programming, also drive much of the political chatter and issues discussion. 

I noticed that in the wake of our loud complaints about it, Melissa Harris-Perry just finished a week long stint on the Rachel Maddow Show and Michael Eric Dyson is currently doing the same for Ed Schultz on his MSNBC show as well. 
 
It hasn't escaped MSNBC's attention either that since 'the Rev' has started showing up in that 6 PM ET timeslot, the ratings of the MSNBC Live show have dramatically improved to the point that MSNBC only trails Fox Noise in that timeslot amongst adult 25-54 viewers and they are considering making Rev. Al the permanent host of it.

It's about damned time.  Some of y'all may hate on Rev. Sharpton, but he has much respect and love in the African-American community that he earned for being a tenacious fighter and tell it like it T-I-S is spokesperson for our community on a wide variety of issues.  

But I'm not going to be happy until I see more diversity in these 5-11 PM news shows and more diverse viewpoints are being expressed in those timeslots.

Diamond Stylz Speaks About The Mclean Funeral Dissing

My transsisters, transbrothers and our allies are pissed off about the way that Lashai Mclean was disrespected at her July 27th funeral.  

Diamond Stylz in her latest video expresses herself about the jacked up situation.  Cristan Williams posted it in the comment thread of the post I wrote describing what happened at the funeral, but this video deserves a post of its own.



Thanks for the shout out, Diamond.   I'm not a happy camper either about this.

Mass Walk Out At Mclean Funeral

One of the things we worry about once we leave this world as trans people is being disrespected at our funeral services or having our lives and the way we have lived them totally ignored by our grieving relatives.

When you're an African-American transperson, that concern is magnified because we are still trying to educate our people on our lives, fight through the disinformation on trans issues and reconcile them with our spirituality at the same time.  .

At Lashai Mclean's July 27 funeral at the Purity Baptist Church, those issues all came to a head when the sermon of Agape Missionary Baptist Church pastor Rev. A.W. Montgomery Sr. offended many of the people in attendance and triggered a mass walkout of 100 people.  

According to a Washington Blade article, people were also were offended by the misgendering of Lashai and an insensitive remark allegedly made by a deacon 

The service was held at Purity Baptist Church near Capitol Hill because the funeral home handling the arrangements for Lashai's service asked Rev. Robin Toogood, the pastor of Purity if he would do so.  Montgomery's church sanctuary in Suitland, MD is the one that grieving members of the Mclean family have ties to and was too small to accommodate the numbers of people expected to attend the funeral service for Lashai. 

Rev. Toogood told the Blade that after giving the welcoming remarks, he turned over the service to Montgomery.    He raised the ire of Mcclean's friends by referring to Lashai as 'he', to which people audibly shouted back 'she'.   D.C. activist and comedian Sampson McCormack relayed to the Blade, “And that came after somebody, I think it was a deacon, said when you live a certain lifestyle this is the consequence you have to pay.”  

Okay, as a Christian, I have a major problem with a minister preaching a funeral sermon laced with anti-TBLG remarks at a funeral for a TBLG person.   We had the same thing happen at a funeral for a gay Louisville friend of mine I attended a few years ago and I had to literally bite my tongue and restrain myself from interrupting the service and calling his butt out right then and there.  Fortunately I didn't have to because the GLBT ministers in the audience discreetly pulled the pastor aside and had the 'come to Jesus' meeting with him on behalf of me and 'errbody' else who was offended by his remarks.

Rick Rosendall, the vice president of the Gay and Lesbian Activist Alliance said it best about the jacked up situation on the GLAA website. "We cannot change the world or people’s minds all at once, but we sure can make it clear that we will not silently accept that kind of disrespect at a funeral.”

Lashai, hope you're finally resting in peace and getting acquainted with the Washington transwomen who preceded you in death.

Don Lemon, If You Were In Our Shoes, How Mad Would You Be?

I have my issues with Ashley Love palling around with the Tea Trans Klan, but at the same time in the name of Black trans solidarity I'm not and can't in good conscience let slide your disrespectful dig at her   I've had several phone conversations with her over the last year and while I'm not a clinical psychologist (and neither are you) I would say that she is far from being an 'unstable lady' and an apology is owed to her.

Perhaps you weren't aware that her passionate anger about the NAACP, one of  our iconic legacy organizations, erasing us from a historic panel on LG(bt) issues is a sentiment shared by many of us in the African-American trans community and our allies.  

So Mr. Lemon, if you were in our shoes, how mad would you be?

Being upset or angry about being excluded or disrespected doesn't make one 'unstable' any more than it did when your fellow gay and lesbian peeps were outraged about the way the 2008 Prop 8 vote went down in California and temporarily eliminated their ability to get married.

I didn't hear people calling them 'unstable', even when predominately white elements of the LG community began erroneously blaming African-Americans for their loss.   I didn't hear people describing GL  people as 'unstable' when they were getting in touch with their inner Archie Bunkers and disrespecting other African-American LGBT people who were there picketing in solidarity with them in the aftermath of that jacked up election.

Ashley's actions were no more 'unstable' as trans activist Ethan St. Pierre remarked as Lt. Dan Choi and friends chaining themselves to the White House fence in military uniforms to protest Don't Ask Don't Tell. 

Frankly, as a longtime award winning activist and African-American trans blogger, I'm not exactly happy about the NAACP erasure either and have been vocal about my displeasure with it. 

Had I been able to attend that Los Angeles panel I probably would have had some choice words to say about how the African-American trans community feels deeply wounded and hurt about being erased from a discussion on TBLG issues.

But Don, since you're newly out and probably haven't been around your African-American trans cousins yet, time to school you on some things you probably aren't hearing from the predominately vanilla flavored LG people that have surrounded you since you came out just three short months ago.

First order of business is that contrary to the meme that's pimped about us, we have professional, college educated and talented African-American trans men and trans women.   We have college professors, classically trained musicians, lawyers, doctors, writers, teachers, athletes, students and business persons in our ranks.

You may have even met some of them and didn't realize it because many of them are living lives similar to yours prior to coming out in which they don't reveal their trans status to anyone but a trusted few people with their secret.  

And why is that?   Because as the recent Task Force/NCTE survey reveals, we have a rough time just living our lives and it can sometimes have deleterious effects on our careers.  

That survey revealed Black transgender people live in extreme poverty with 34% reporting incomes of less than $10,000.  Black trans people suffer severe economic distress because of unemployment related to discrimination based on the oppressions of race, gender and transphobic bias.  Approximately 32% reported losing their job due to bias and 48% were not hired due to bias. 

And this is just the tip of the iceberg of the issues suffered by Black transsexuals.   We are taking the brunt of the casualties in terms of anti-trans violence aimed at us.  To get an idea just how bad the situation is, I urge you to attend this year's Transgender Day Of Remembrance events either in Atlanta or New York and you will see firsthand when they read the names of the fallen how many of them are trans people of color. 

  
There is also the invisibility aspect that NAACP played into with our erasure from that panel.   Trans issues have been discussed since Christine Jorgenson stepped off her New York flight from Denmark to the glare of flashing camera lightbulbs and the crush of media coverage in February 1953 but African-American transpeople are barely acknowledged as existing.

The conversations, activism and direction of the trans rights movement have been dominated by white people for almost 60 years.   Black transpeople are barely part of the conversation despite the fact that we have helped write much of the history and done much of the grunt work in terms of putting our lives and livelihoods on the line to stand up for ours and other people's civil rights.  It was African descended trans people in Philadelphia who jumped off the first trans specific issues protest in April-May 1965.   

When Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore began doing SRS surgeries in 1967, African-American transwoman Avon Wilson was their first patient. 


Yes Mr. Lemon, we African descended transpeople exist and we're not going away.  The reason trans issues aren't as advanced as they need to be is because of repeated deliberate actions by the GL community to cut us out of badly needed civil rights legislation as legislative bargaining chips or deliberate attempts to drown out our ability to be integral parts of the civil rights conversation.    

Black transpeople are beyond sick and tired of being sick and tired of the erasure, tired of our sisters blood being shed, tired of the erasure, tired of the disrespect and dehumanizing behavior aimed at us, and were tired of being excluded from the African American family table.

So Mr. Lemon, I ask the question again.   If you were in our shoes, how mad would you be? 
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