HBCU's Better Recognize Black TBLG Students Exist

One of the issues we discussed during the just concluded Texas Transgender Non-Discrimination Summit was the lack of LGBT centers on Texas colleges and university campuses.   There's one at Texas A&M, UT-Austin, and a part time one at the University of Houston and they narrowly survived an attempt by our conservafool legislators to cut their funding.

However sad that data point is of three TBLG collegiate centers in the Lone Star State, the reality is there are more on campus LGBT centers in red state Texas than in all of the 105 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU's) put together.  That's disgusting considering it's not a 21st century phenomenon that Black GLBT students exist. 

There are two major HBCU's here in Prairie View A&M, just northwest of Houston which is part of the Texas A&M University system and Texas Southern University here in H-town.  PVAMU doesn't have one and neither does TSU, which is mere blocks from the University of Houston main campus despite increasing numbers of LGBT students on their campuses.  .       . 

Out of the 105 HBCU's across the nation, only one has opened an LGBT center on its campus and that just happened this year.  

The university that made this interesting piece of Black history happen is Bowie State University in Bowie, MD.   After working on it since 2007 BSU opened its Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex and Allies (LGBTQI and Allies) Resource Center.on April 2.

It's not like HBCU's have existed in the 20th and early 21st centuries without chocolate rainbow people matriculating on their campuses.  All of them at one time or another, including elite HBCU campuses such as Morehouse, Spelman and Howard are aware they have or had SGL students in their midst and TBLG alums they solicit for donations.  

Ignoring the issues that impact current SGL and trans students on those HBCU campuses won't make them go away, get those GLBT alums and their supportive allies to write those donation checks or help them draw future Black GLBT students to their campuses.    

Morehouse College sadly has been a poster child for the head in the sand approach on TBLG issues.  Throughout  the 80's and 90's it was on the Princeton Review's Top 20 Most Homophobic campuses list, had an ugly 2002 on campus gay bashing incident ,had two employees fired after homophobic e-mail rants surfaced  in reaction to a gay wedding photo and passed a controversial phobic dress code

The Robert Champion hazing death case that blew up on the Florida A&M campus in November 2011 has caused the resignation of its president, resulted in third degree felony indictments of 13 students and caused its world famous Marching 100 Band to be placed on indefinite suspension.

As National Black Justice Coalition Executive Director/CEO Sharon Lettman-Hicks noted in a press release discussing the Champion case and HBCU's, "These institutions develop many of our future leaders but fail to create safe and nurturing environments for all of our young people to thrive. Combined with legal protections, cultural shifts on these campuses are needed to literally save lives. Our work doesn’t end here.”

Be interesting to see what NBJC has planned in order to help HBCU's get up to speed protecting our TBLG young people who proudly attend these institutions. 

The Champion case is also a warning to HBCU's that they need to get busy proactively tackling the issues of homophobia and transphobia on their campuses.  If they don't, they will discover that ignoring those issues will cost them serious money down the line either in lawsuits or lost revenue because SGL and trans students aren't going away or in the closet.

As bad as HBCU's have been on gay and lesbian issues, gender identity and trans issues on HBCU campuses have probably moved at a glacial pace since Sharon Franklin Brown's well publicized 1995 case.   In light of the fact their white collegiate counterparts are making consistent strides on transgender issues, it's past time for HBCU's to get in the game and get up to speed on trans issues as quickly as possible.  

HBCU's can begin that recognition process by not only opening LGBT centers on their campuses, they can add sexual orientation, gender identity and expression language to institutional non-discrimination statements and employment policies.   Most importantly once they do so, they need to be enforced. 

HBCU's need to send the unmistakable message to their faculty, current and future students, alumni, and the communities they serve that discrimination against LGBT students on HBCU campuses will not be tolerated, they have inclusive and welcoming campuses, and they are willing to include LGBT students in their ongoing missions to uplift the race through educational achievement.

The Root's Trans Free Black LGBT List

Since June is Pride Month, in honor of the occasion The Root put together a list of 20 notable Black LGBT people    I was curious to see if things had progressed in the African-American blogosphere since I had to call the Grio out about a trans free LGBT leaders list in 2010. .

On the one The Root compiled many of the folks on this list I have had the pleasure of meeting and I admire such as Aisha Moodie-Mills, Phill Wilson, and Donna Payne are on it.   The others they included are familiar ones like poet Staceyann Chin, Jonathan Capehert, Don Lemon, Sapphire, Keith Boykin, Jasmyne Cannick and Wanda Sykes.

What I didn't see in this Black LGBT list was you guessed it, Black trans people.

No Janet Mock (who made the Grio's 100 list BTW).  No Laverne Cox.  No Kylar Broadus, Isis King, Valerie Spencer, Rev. Louis Mitchell, Miss Major, or even some award winning blogger who was part of the first ever trans panel at Netroots Nation 2012..

Just the same old crap, different day in terms of Blackosphere media outlets putting together these Black LGB(t) lists and not including any trans people in them.

Bottom line, if you're going to take the time to put together a list that purports to be representative of the LGBT community leadership, then I, the trans community and our allies expect that trans people be included in said list if you claim it is a TBLG one.

Far too fracking often these trans free lists are overwhelmingly LG dominated, B peeps as an afterthought with no T ones.

Black folks, y'all need to get with that include the trans community program as well because we Black trans peeps are beyond sick and tired of being sick and tired of being erased from these Black TBLG leaders lists y'all put together.  

We aren't ashamed of being Black and trans but the constant erasure and the frequency with which it happens make us wonder if you're ashamed of us.  

That erasure of African descended trans persons leads to situations in which Black transpeople haven't even been invited to discuss trans issues that impact us like the CeCe McDonald case on the Melissa Harris Perry show or NAACP convention LBG(t) town hall meetings with no trans people on those panels

Will be eagerly watching the upcoming NAACP convention next month in my hometown to see if Julian Bond keeps the promise he made in LA last year to ensure the next NAACP convention town hall has trans representation on that panel. 

And the 'we can't find any trans activists' excuse doesn't wash now any more than it did two years ago.

Sadly what I said in the post calling out the erasure and non- inclusion of Black transpeople on Black LGB(t) lists is applicable in this one as well.

My point is that if our own people don't or won't show us some love when you compile these leadership lists, and you write for one of our leading blogosphere sites directed at the African-American community gay and straight, how in the hell can we Black trans leaders who are doing the work expect the predominately white TBLG community to respect us as well?

It's bad enough that Black transpeople get shut out of the predominately vanillacentric upper middle class narrative and get very little to no media attention except when we get killed in a hate crime.   It's disappointing and hurts even more when we get ignored by our own media outlets.

Time For A Trans Juneteenth

On June 19, 1865 Union Major General Gordon Granger read General Order No..3 from the balcony of Galveston's Ashton Villa and declared that all Texas slaves were free.

Today I submit it is time for the great great grandchildren of Texas freedmen and freedwomen to have their own Juneteenth and engage in some emancipation of our own.

Last Friday night I attended an over two hour local meeting in which several African American transwomen and one of our cis woman supporters were expressing their frustration about the invisibility, marginalization, isolation, and negative 'unwoman' images we are dealing with as Black transpeople interacting with the trans communities of Houston and the state of Texas.

I did a lot of listening during that meeting as some of the participants not only expressed their joy at meeting other Houston area transpeople concerned and disgusted about the utter lack of support infrastructure geared toward the African-American trans community of Houston and in the state of Texas, they talked about many of the same issues I brought up in the Modest Proposal post I wrote in the wake of my return to Houston from last year's Out On The Hill/ALC event in Washington DC.  

And I was heartened to learn they are just as fed up and frustrated with the situation as I am about it. 

It's Juneteenth 2012 and it's time for trans Houstonians and trans Texans of African descent to step up our leadership game just like our great great grandparents did when they walked off the plantations and into freedom after the Emancipation Proclamation news and General Granger's Order No. 3 traveled with lightning speed across the state.

In 2012 the plantations that trans African American Texans inhabit are primarily mental ones.  We need to emancipate ourselves as a community from the shame and guilt issues that revolve around us being trans men and trans women and stride boldly toward living better quality lives, having higher expectations and pride in ourselves. 

We don't know our history and who our heroes and sheroes are.  We have transpeople who would like to have a regular job and not have to depend on sex work to pay the bills but don't know who or where to turn to or who can help them to achieve it.  We have folks who would make wonderful trans role models or leaders but stay closeted out of fear of losing their jobs    We have transpeople of color with big dreams they would like to achieve.   We also have Texas African-American transpeople who are sick and tired of being saddled with the negative transfeminine images or being judged by the worst of our community and not our best people.

It is also time for African-American cis Texans and Houstonians to realize that we trans Texans are part of the kente cloth fabric of the African African community.  Our issues are your issues and vice versa.  It is past time our churches and legacy organizations stop hating and ignoring us but embracing their trans children.  We have skills, talents, and intelligence that we can no longer as an African American community afford to throw away.  We African descended transpeople want to contribute those talents to the uplift of our community, but we need help African American cis allies so that we can make that happen.  .

Barbara Jordan once said,"The majority of the American people still believe that every single individual in this country is entitled to just as much respect, just as much dignity, as every other individual. "

I believe that trans Americans deserve that respect and dignity, and so do the trans people in my home state.  It's also critical that trans people of color in Houston, Texas and the nation get to experience that as well considering the state of the Black trans community.

Our great great grandparents in the Lone Star State in Houston, Austin and Mexia pooled their money in the late 19th century to buy pieces of property that became the parks that we held those Juneteenth celebrations in.   They also banded together to build community for the long term benefit of future generations.   They were visionary leaders in far more challenging times than we transpeople face in the second decade of the 21st century.

Some of our ancestors ended up getting elected to the state legislature and passed the laws that set up the free Texas public education system that we benefited from as an example of the visionary thinking prevalent in our great great grandparents generation.

Texas Black trans community, it's time for us and my fellow Black Houstonians to emulate our ancestors and own our power.  It's time to mobilize, take action and begin building that Texas Black trans community infrastructure to last for future generations of transpeople inside and outside our community.

We must do it not only for ourselves, but so that we can be a stronger and more cohesive part of our African American family, the rainbow community, society in general and all the communities we intersect and interact with.  We must make certain that once we set our goals and come to a consensus on what we want to achieve and how our Lone Star trans community should look we exercise maximum unwavering effort in achieving them.

It is not going to be an easy process.  There will be much of hard work involved and those with nanosecond length attention spans are not needed for this task.  Neither will people be needed who don't love this community, want to see it survive, thrive and prosper and aren't committed to the long term success of it. 

Neither will the change we are needing to happen occur instantaneously.  There will be periods of success followed by periods of backlash and retreat in reaction to our success by the Forces of Intolerance.  There will be at times contentious discussion amongst ourselves and our allies as we grapple with this long term and necessary project. 

And yes, the haters will come out to play. 

We will have people who like the status quo situation we find ourselves in, who fear us closing ranks and will fight us tooth and nail to ensure that the Trans Juneteenth doesn't happen.   They will lose because we are on the morally correct side of history.  People are coming to the realization that fighting to ensure the human rights of trans people expands their own human rights coverage.

It is past time we came together for the good of all Lone Star transpeople of African descent, our allies of all colors and build that community that we can be proud of.

It also must be done.  We African descended Texas transpeople can no longer afford to muddle around for another wasted decade isolated,  invisible to the world at large, ignorant about what's going on around us, and feeling impotent socially, emotionally, politically and economically. 

It is time for us to be the proud Black trans men and trans women we are, own our power and write our own proud chapter in Black Texas history in the process.
 
What better day to start that process of the Black trans community of Texas owning its power than on Juneteenth?

CeCe Being Sentenced Today

The eyes of trans people around the world and our supporters will turn in the direction of the Hennepin County, MN Courthouse in a few hours as we find out how much jail time Cece McDonald will get.

As part of a plea deal, McDonald plead guilty May 2 to second degree manslaughter in the June 5, 2011 incident in which she and a group of TBLG friends were attacked by a group of white people outside a south Minneapolis bar and white supremacist Dean Schmitz died. 

Until May 11, she was the only person in the incident charged, but now Molly Shannon Flaherty has been arrested and is being charged by Washington County prosecutors with second degree assault with a deadly weapon and third degree assault causing substantial bodily harm for smashing a glass in McDonald’s face during the fight. 

Both charges are felonies that carry a maximum sentence of seven years and five years in prison.

Hennepin County Prosecutor Michael Freeman (D) is still trying to cover his behind, but nobody's buying it in light of the fact one of the people involved was a white supremacist and Cece and friends were the victims of a hate crime.

Speculation is that CeCe will be sentenced to time served plus good time already accumulated by the judge in this case and will only have to do 20 months.   There is lobbying occurring asking the judge to sentence her to home incarceration for that time instead of sending her to prison.

We'll see what happens at 1:30 PM CDT today.

NBJC Commends the NAACP’s Support of Marriage Equality

TransGriot Note: The press release from the National Black Justice Coalition concerning the NAACP resolution supporting marriage equality.

Yesterday the NAACP released a resolution supporting marriage equality. The organization’s board of directors voted to support the freedom to marry as a continuation of its commitment to equal protection under the law. The National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC), the nation’s leading Black lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization, commends the NAACP for this historic step.

“As a Life Member of the NAACP, I am happy to see the organization join the President of the United States in ‘evolving’ and follow the powerful example of civil rights icons and Black voices like Rev. Dr. Joseph Lowery, Julian Bond, Rev. Al Sharpton, Rev. Dr. Michael Eric Dyson and others who have said committed LGBT couples and families deserve the same protections as everyone else,” says Sharon Lettman-Hicks, NBJC Executive Director and CEO. “Family is the epicenter of Black life, community and culture. For Black LGBT people, its importance is just as great.”

The NAACP has addressed civil rights with regard to marriage since Loving v. Virginia declared anti-miscegenation laws unconstitutional in 1967. In recent years the organization has taken public positions against state and federal efforts to ban the rights and privileges for LGBT citizens, including strong opposition to Proposition 8 in California, the Defense of Marriage Act, and most recently, North Carolina’s Amendment 1, which instituted a constitutional ban on marriage for same-sex couples.

Studies show that Black lesbian partners parent at almost the same rate as Black heterosexual couples. In comparison to their white counterparts, both Black gay and lesbian couples are more likely to be raising children. Robbed of the 1,138 federal protections and benefits available to married couples, including Social Security survivors benefits, Medicaid spend-down protections, and workers' compensation, Black same-sex families are disproportionately put in harm’s way. Despite these challenges, Black gay men and lesbians continue to care for children in need of a loving and supportive home.


According to the LGBT Families of Color: Facts at a Glance Report, same-sex partners who become foster parents are more likely to be families of color than among heterosexual married couples. Yet 40 states plus the District of Columbia are silent on fostering by LGBT parents, while 2 states restrict it. Same-sex couples also face uncertainty about joint adoption in 28 states and are prohibited entirely in 5 other states.

“Outdated anti-gay laws and mindsets disproportionately undermine Black families,” adds Lettman-Hicks. “When you deny loving and committed same-sex couples equal protection under the law, you’re inflicting an even greater blow on LGBT families of color whose challenges are compounded by both race and orientation.

As a voice of Black leadership, the NAACP can help the country understand that the fight for equality isn’t about ‘Black vs. gay,’ but that there are loving couples and families at the intersection who are a part of the Black/African American narrative.”

##

The National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC) is a civil rights organization dedicated to empowering Black lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. NBJC’s mission is to end racism and homophobia.

Tired Of Being Invisible

I'm going to remix Ralph Ellison's words so that they are apropos to conveying to the rest of the world how the chocolate trans community is feeling at this point in our history.

We are invisible because you not only refuse to see and hear me, you refuse to acknowledge our existence.

That's basically the sentiment that comes across when I talk to African-American trans men and trans women in all age demographics around the country about the state of our trans community and our place in the greater scheme of things.

Every time one of our transwomen dies, we get erased from things like congressional hearings, town halls and televised discussions about our issues, have to deal with micro and macroaggressive bigotry and discrimination aimed at us from inside and outside the GLBT community, or being considered the trans 'unwoman', the frustration and anger grows.

Hear me and hear my community.   My trans cousins of the African Diaspora are more than capable of speaking up and speaking out about their thoughts concerning this erasure of African-descended trans people, but don't think I haven't had discussions with African continent trans leaders and trans people over the last few years that echo the frustrations I'm verbalizing in this post.

So when I say community, my thinking reflected in this post is inclusive of my trans cousins across the African Diaspora as well.

I'm also extending my African diaspora trans cousins an open invitation to express themselves on this blog  about what it's like being trans people in the Caribbean and continental Africa and their perceptions of it from their vantage point.   But back to what I needed to get off my chest..

We're tired of being invisible. 

We're tired of taking the brunt of the trans community casualties and nobody giving a damn about it.   We're enraged about seeing one of our trans sisters stand her ground against neo-Nazi attack but be the only one being punished for it.   We're tired of our voices being erased from trans community discourse and our heroes and sheroes ignored.   We're tired of people seeming to conveniently forget that transwomen also exist in the Caribbean and the African continent and they have important voices that need to be seen and heard as well. 

We're tired of being seen as 'tragic transsexuals' but not groundbreaking leaders, role models and iconic figures in this community.  We're tired of being ignored and disrespected by our fellow African-Americans as well straight and gay.

And it needs to cease and desist. 

Transgender Or Not WHY MUST African-Americans Continually Justify Their Pride?

Guest post from Cheryl Courtney-Evans of the Abitchforjustice blog

Okay, so it's 2012, we've had the Civil Rights Act passed (1965), three or four actors/actresses win Academy Awards, a plethora of black and black-themed television shows with positive African American images over the airways, yada, yada, yada! One would say, "You've come a looong way baby!" And they'd be right...

BUT...we still have idiots like Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona staging investigations of President Obama's birth certificate, claiming it to be a "fraud, and questioning his eligibility to be president", an asshole in Alaska filing suit against his presidency on the grounds of "questionable citizenship", and a FEDERAL Circuit Court judge, Richard Cebull, circulating a racially-charged email stating, "Obama's lucky he wasn't born a dog...". And we're expected to think the United States is "through with its racism"...REALLY???

And as the rest of society goes, so goes the LGBT community...yes, there is still some remnants of racism and attitudes of "white privilege" in the LGBT community, as much as some would deny it (I mean, this community is suppose to be one of the most acceptance and inclusion, right?).

What's got me talking like this, you may ask.

Well, recently an African American transwoman I greatly admire and respect, Ms. Monica Roberts, award-winning author of the TransGriot, an African American themed blog, was published in another African American themed internet publication, EBONY.com. This article was her "spotlight" of African American transpersons who have proven to be trailblazers in the transgender community; the transgender community being a segment of the African American community who have gotten little enough attention for positive things...we are readily given enough attention when it's regarding the negatives...prostitution, larceny and victims. So WHY is that this article was barely three days old when a person felt the need, via the HUFF Post 'comments' section, to question Monica's effort, calling it "just another effort to divide us racially"! If she (and I think she must be transgender by the use of the word "us") wasn't already thinking racially 'divisive', it seems to me she would have applauded Monica and thanked her for information about her African American transsistas that she didn't have before; hell, I wasn't aware of some of them myself!

WHY is it that we as an African American community, let alone the African American transgender community, always find the need to justify our pride in our heritage, accomplishments or attempts to do for ourselves to some folks?? After all, very often the struggles we face as transgender persons is compounded by our race. Why shouldn't we revel in the fact that we overcame an obstacle in spite of it?

LindaCON's comment reminds me of an incident here in Atlanta, where a group of us (multiracial, by the way) attempted to put together an organization aimed at helping transgenders here find jobs to reduce the number of commercial sex workers (there was a big broohaha about the number of them in Atlanta's Midtown area at the time). Because the predominant number of "working girls" at the time were black, we named the group the Transgender Persons Of Color worker's project (TPOC). As soon as TPOC got a little publicity in the local LBGT publication, the Southern Voice, a white transgender woman (mind you, this girl had already had a job that she'd gotten herself fired from) wrote a 'letter to the editor' questioning "why we weren't helping any white trans people?" AND SHE'D NEVER ATTEMPTED TO CONTACT US OR BE A PART OF TPOC's EFFORTS; she was merely going by the name. (NOTE: Do you think NAACP [National Association for the Advancement of Colored People] means there are no whites involved in it? You would be mistaken.) I suppose it's okay if we were to just sit back and continue to be victims, and not try to do for self...

As God is my witness (and He knows my heart), I am as non-divisive as ANYONE; I get along with anyone that treats me with the respect that I give them, no matter what cultural background they come from, BUT I refuse to neglect, ignore or deny my heritage!  I applaud Monica Roberts for her continued effort with this respect, giving our young African American trans women & men the information, education and history, with pride in something they themselves can move forward with...and lest we forget, this same education can be of benefit to all other trans cultures who have the open-mindedness to see it as such...think about it.

Happy Kwanzaa Black Trans Style-The 2011 Remix: Umoja

TransGriot Note:  On each night of the 2011 Kwanzaa celebration, just as I did last year, I'm going to write about each one of those principles and explain how it applies to the chocolate trans community and our cis African descended brothers and sisters. 
***
Umoja (Unity): To strive for and to maintain unity in the family, community, nation, and race.

Haban gari    What's The News?   

It's time to light the first candle on the Kinara and ponder the first principle of the seven celebrated during Kwanzaa.

Umoja.  Unity.  As I stated in last year's post, It's a concept we've been striving to achieve in our community over the time we have been Africans living in the Western Hemisphere.  That is no different for those of us who are African descended trans people. 

And yes, it has been at times an elusive and frustrating as hell concept for us in the African descended trans community to grasp and achieve.  But in order for us to become a part of the greater society as Kwame Ture said, in order for us to own our power it is imperative that we close ranks, work it out amongst ourselves in family conversations and hopefully emerge a more powerful and stronger community on the other side of what will be an ongoing process.


One of the things I was most happy to see in the 2k11 is various elements in chocolate transworld coming to an epiphany that this needs to happen and soon.   TPOCC's emergence, the upcoming Black Transmen's Empowerment Conference event in Dallas, the Transfaith in Color Conference and the Philly Trans Health one are just some examples of the yearning for Black transpeople to own their power as Sharon Lettman-Hicks of NBJC would say. 

Our haters don't want to see that happen, and will do whatever it takes to frustrate, delay and impede our progress toward making umoja a reality in the chocolate trans community

There were also steps taken by our cis African descended brothers and sisters in light of the horrific stats that came out during the summer pointing out how hard we have it .  Our cis brothers and sisters could no longer ignore the reality that they must do a better job on their end in including the chocolate trans community in its policy stances and organizations. 

The NAACP made a highly publicized attempt to do so in a town hall meeting during it's 2011 convention that failed to include the bi and trans sectors of the community.  The NAACP and the chocolate trans world knows how much this needs to happen and no matter how frustrated we get with their missteps in the process, we must keep on pushing for that unity and inclusion to happen.

I've also been heartened to observe the greater desire amongst African descended trans people to organize, unite and build community on a local, state and regional level as well and get better connected with the communities we intersect with as well. . 

Despite the odds and obstacles being put in our way, umoja will happen and it will pay great dividends for us once we achieve it and consistently strive to maintain it..