Four Black Trans Women Breaking Barriers

Just now getting around to it, but was notified by a few peeps that I'm paired up with three amazing trans women that were mentioned in a story written by Heather Jones at Wear Your Voice.

Tona Brown, Elle Hearns, Janet Mock and I were featured in a story written by Jones highlighting Black trans women breaking barriers.

Thanks for the shout out Heather, and thanks for the recognition of my sisters profiled in it.   I'm just one of the amazing trans women around the country who are doing what they can to use their talents to educate, inform and make human rights a reality for all trans people.

It also helps us drive home the message that trans women are women, and get us a step closer to the day that we get our cis counterparts to realize we have talents we wish to contribute to the greater society to make it better.

Fallon Fox Beats Brents!

There's an old saying in the Black community that goes "'Don't let your mouth write a check your body can't cash."

Fallon Fox's opponent should have heeded that comment before she started flapping her transphobic gums last year.   After letting  those comments fly, she also denigrated Fox's WMMA skills and punctuated it with a desire to battle her in the cage.

Well, Brents got her wish tonight, but it didn't turn out the way she expected. 



After she was all Betty Badass last year, it was put up or shut up time during their Capital City Cage Wars co-main event bout earlier tonight. 

The 'Queen of Swords' made short work of Brents with a dominating display of her WMMA skills and talents that resulted in a first round stoppage of the anticipated fight in Springfield, IL.  

Fox is now 5-1 while Brents is now 2-2

History Repeating Itself In Chitown?

TransGriot Note: We African-American transwomen painfully remember that our sis CeCe McDonald spent 41 months in a Minnesota prison unjustly incarcerated after defending herself from an unprovoked racist attack by cisgender transphobic bigots.

Is the same thing about to happen to another African-American trans woman in Chicago?   This guest post by Channyn Parker suggests it's possible.

Self-Defense is Murder When You're A TWOC.

A Trans-Woman sits in Cook County Jail, Division 9, and there she awaits trial. Why?, because she refused to not defend herself.

While on the city of Chicago's West Side, she and a friend were accosted by a barrage of slurs and epithets at a near by gas station. Two neighborhood men, violently informed the young woman and company, that she was not welcome in her own community because she is transgender. Refusing to be berated, thus speaking up for herself, blows to the face were delivered by one of the men. She proceeded to fight back, the result; the accompanying man called for back up.

In an attempt to get away, the young woman and friend, got in the car, in an effort to drive off. By this time, another vehicle full of the assaulting individual's friends had pulled up, thus blocking her from behind. To the side of her, was the man now pulling at her door in an attempt to force her out of the car. In a panicked frenzy to get away, she ran her car into the man thus pinning his leg to the wall.

Amidst the chaos of the situation, the two women fled from the vehicle and hid from their attackers until she was met by safety.

At the urge of her mother, she eventually turned herself in. Here, she was to discover that her attacker was not only injured during her attempt to escape, but the injury cost him his leg. It had to be removed.

Now, a young woman trans woman sits; 26 years old, detained in the Cook County Jail, facing 10 years imprisonment for 1st degree attempted murder. Her crime; defending her life.

This crime comes on the heels of rampant violence against TWOC on our city's west-side. This travesty of justice proceeds the murder of Paige Clay and preceded the death of her friend that accompanied her that very day. Yes, she was later found murdered, her death goes unsolved.

So, here she is.... another victim of being fed up. Here she is, another victim of the devastating reality of the social injustice Trans-Women of Color face.

I could go on and on with all of the crushing details that this case entails. While sitting with this woman today, it took all that was within me not to cry. She holds fast to her innocence as her public defender offers little defense. Again community, I urge you to offer your support.

With her permission, I have offered to gather whatever resources I can to help her go public with this. All I know is that a trans-woman sits, eyes glazed with fear, uncertain of her future. As always, hold her in loving light and prayer. Write her, as your letters of support are welcome. Rally whomever and whatever support you can offer.

TransGriot Update: The transwoman in question's name is Eisha Love, and a #FreeEisha campaign has started complete with a Change.org petition requesting her freedom.

Black America, Stop Hatin' On Black Transwomen

I've been discussing this subject in various posts ever since TransGriot first started in 2006.  Sadly I'm still talking about it eight years later and in last month's column at Black Girl Dangerous.   

Once again, I'm compelled to discuss Black America's culpability in the anti-trans hatred aimed at Black transwomen.  

One of the things I and the Black trans feminine  community are sick of is the rampant ignorance and transphobia in elements of the African-American community.   Far too often the people who have been dissing, oppressing or killing us have been other African-Americans.    

The security guard that jumped off the disrespect of Andraya Williams on the Central Piedmont Community College campus in Charlotte back in March was survey says, an African American cis woman.   The 12 murders of African American transpeople (Evon Young was a trans man) that occurred in 2013 were all perpetrated on us by other African-Americans.  Much of the anti-trans hatred and violence Black trans women have to deal with as demonstrated in this recent case in the ATL comes from our own people.

And yeah, need to point out some of that anti-trans oppression has been coming from elements of the Black SGL community.   Y'all seriously need to chill out with that crap. 

Note to you chocolate faith-based trans haters:  Your religious beliefs do not justify willful faith-based hatred and ignorance of the reality that Black trans people exist and have for decades.  

Black cis women, a special message for you.  

If you're jealously mad because some random transwoman is performing femininity better than you are, pulling more 'menz' at the club or in the hood, I suggest you step up your own femme presentation game and stop shadily setting up the transwoman in question for harassment or anti-trans violence.  

We transwomen are simply trying to live our lives to the best of our ability.  We have to deal with the same challenges you do in navigating a planet hostile to Blackness in a Black feminine body.  We have an additional challenge of navigating society and this planet as trans women of African heritage.  

We don't want drama with you, cis Black women.  We want to live our lives united in sisterhood as the Black women we've always wanted and are proud to be.  Instead of succumbing to the people trying to drive wedges between us to make us adversarial opponents, we would rather be fighting the common systemic problems that ail all Black women. 

If you cis sisters take the time and make the effort to get to know us trans women, you'll discover you'll be rewarded with a solid friendship in the process.  You'll also discover some of the issues we deal with are remarkably similar.   We may not have been born with female bodies at birth like you were, but we did have our versions of girlhood and tried to become the Phenomenal Black Transwomen we are as fast as we could.

Whatever issues you cispeeps have going on in your life doesn't justify you taking them out on Black transwomen with your tongues, fists or weapons.  We in Chocolate Trans World have enough drama to deal with just for being our trans selves, plus the onerous application of racist oppression we all get. We don't need an additional helping of hostility, disrespect and dehumanization from the people we share bloodlines, African heritage and history with.    

Bottom line is we realize that many of you aren't cognizant of the fact you know a transperson or have one in your family.  But the odds are you have bumped into one of us somewhere during your daily routine.  You have pooped or pissed next to one of us in a public bathroom.  You have passed us at the mall makeup counter. You've checked us out in the club. You have walked past us as we are busy studying in the library for our midterms.

As for those of us who are publicly out, we range from models to New York Times bestselling authors, MMA fighters, a GLAAD media award nominated blogger, academics, and an actress on a historic cover of TIME magazine.     

At least 1-3% of the African-American population is transgender.  We've been part of this community for over a century and aren't going away any time soon.  Human rights for transpeople are also international human rights issues that benefit the ongoing human rights struggle of the African-American community we interact and intersect with. 

Neither are we transpeeps going back in the closet so you can avoid talking about us or our issues.   

And what are our issues?   In addition to the ones unique to our community, they are same ones the Black community deals with.   Crushing unemployment or underemployment.  Voter suppression.  Unacceptable levels of violence being aimed at us.  Stop and frisk police harassment.  Being targets for anti-female violence and sexual assault.  Body image issues.

Black trans issues are Black community issues.   It's past time Black politicians, our legacy organizations such as the NAACP, the Urban League and our clergy recognize that.   It's also past time for cis African-Americans to realize we trans peeps have much to contribute in order to make Black America, our country and the world better.  

We chocolate transpeeps realize that Trans 101 education needs to be done in our communities and at our HBCU's.  But that's not an excuse for you to not do any 'ejumacation' on your own.  There's this wonderful technological invention called Google  easily available on your computers that you can use to get better informed about our trans lives.
 
It's past time, Black America, that you started loving me and my transsisters instead of knee-jerk hating us.

Perps Busted In ATL MARTA Trans Hate Attack

The two wastes of DNA who were caught on video attacking two African-American trans women on a MARTA train in Atlanta as people cheered and did nothing to halt it have been arrested.

34 year old Luther L. Thomas and 35 year old Frederick L. Missick have been arrested by MARTA police, charged with disorderly conduct (you're kidding, right?) and are chilling in the Fulton County Jail on $2,500 bonds apiece for attacking Janell Crosby and Tyra Woods.   

Both perps were Atlanta residents.  Thomas was arrested on Thursday while Missick was picked up by MARTA police yesterday.

The May 20 incident started when Crosby and Woods were walking to the Five Points MARTA station in downtown Atlanta to catch a southbound train to Oakland City Station.  They were confronted by a group of men, harassed, and had photos taken of them while enduring homophobic and transphobic slurs..   

Thomas and Missick persisted in continuing the abuse during the train ride as Crosby repeatedly told them to stop.   Thomas then physically attacked Crosby as Missick attacked Woods, who was trying to help her friend and stripped her of her clothing.

Thomas and Missick have also been suspended from riding MARTA.   

The ugly incident has incensed the ATL trans community and our local allies, and Mayor Kasim Reed through spokesperson Melissa Mullinax had this to say about it on Thursday.

"The mayor condemns hate crimes of any kind and is committed to the equal rights and equal treatment of Atlanta’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender residents, workers and visitors. The City’s non-discrimination laws were recently amended with the Mayor’s full support to include gender identity as a protected class," said Mullinax.

"The incident on the MARTA train is disturbing. We understand that MARTA is conducting a thorough investigation and we look forward to the authorities bringing those accountable to justice," she adds.

Two town halls are planned in the Atlanta area to discuss the incident.  One town hall is being facilitated by the group Solutions Not Punishment Coalition on June 3 at the Phillip Rush Center that will start at 5:30 PM EDT.   The second will be facilitated by Restoration Inclusive Ministries at its Decatur, GA church on June 4 and start at 7:30 PM

In the meantime, as justice is being sought in this case, Crosby decided to move back to New York as a result of this incident and Woods is staying with relatives in Cleveland, OH.

As to what outcome Crosby wants to see from this case, she replied, “I really want an apology from them and I really want the law put on them.”      

And your transsisters around the ATL, the nation and the world want the same just outcome.

Will April Be A Deadly Month For African-American Transwomen This Year?

With the calendar page flipping from March to April, the weather gets warmer (at least in some parts of the country), the shorts come out and people emerge to enjoy the wonderful spring weather. 

And over the last two years, what has emerged is a distressing pattern of the month of April being a particularly deadly one for African-American trans women.  

There were three slayings of African-American transwomen in April 2012, and that pattern continued in 2013.   Kelly Young and Ashley Sinclair were killed 48 hours apart in Baltimore and Orlando, and Cemia Dove Acoff's lifeless body was discovered on April 17.

So will we see a threepeat of that pattern in 2014?   I hope and pray we don't, but with the increased attention transpeople and trans issues are getting in the media, it has also fueled backlash.  Some of that backlash will be manifested in people who are mean spirited, hateful and angry enough to take their transphobia to murderous levels. 

And let this post serve as your wake up call.   Remember you are walking around in Black feminine bodies, which like our cisgender Black feminine counterparts, draw their share of murderous attention, too.

So my transsisters, be vigilant and most importantly be safe so I don't have to type out stories of a transwoman being killed somewhere in this country during the month of April.   

Transmisogyny Isn't Just Being Aimed At Black Trans Women Anymore

Y'all know I love my people and my culture across the African Diaspora.  But damn, I wish elements of y'all would grow up and join the 21st century when it comes to gender identity issues.

One of the things I get tired of in the Black community is the at times willful ignorance around gender and gender identity issues.   News flash, they just don't affect trans folks, they affect all of us because everyone has a gender identity and expresses it in different ways.

As I have pointed out before, you get half your genetic material from mommy, half from daddy.  We are all blends and combinations of traits from our parents. 

As medical science is increasingly proving, there's a thin line and series of events that happen during pregnancy that determines whether you come out of mommy's womb in a masculine or feminine body.. 

One of the things I'm also tired of is the scourge of transmisogyny being gleefully spread by the TERF's and clueless cis women for the last 40 years.   While we trans women are the main targets of it, because the right wingers are giving up on their War Against Marriage Equality, they are shifting targets and money to ratchet up the War on Transwomen.

And because they are doing that, their sliming of transwomen will also have collateral damage effects in terms of that transmisogyny backed by right wing money hitting Black cis women as well.  
What a lot of peeps don't realize is that when you transition, in addition to having to deal with sexism, being walking targets for sexual assault, and all the issues that come with walking Planet Earth in a feminine body,  Black trans women also inherit all the baggage that Black cis women have had to deal with for the last four  centuries in terms of the 'unwoman' meme. So what am I talking about when I say the 'unwoman' meme?

If society has set up one group of women (white women) as the paragons of beauty, virtue and fertility for all women to aspire to, then it stands to reason that you also have to come up with a counternarrative of women you point to that are the ones you don't want others to wish to aspire to be and hate on..

And guess what group of women got that narrative assigned to them?   Yep, Black women.

They are called every pejorative you can throw at them. They are called 'ugly', even by fools that are social scientists.  Even their own men, who are supposed to be their defenders and protectors join in the assault on Black womanhood by leveling a weaponized level of the b-word at them courtesy of gangsta rap music. 

And one of the words they'll get to throw at cis Black women as a weaponized insult since the b-word will increasingly come under attack is the t-word.

If you're 4' 11", 5' 11" or 6' 11" with your heels on, you don't have that classic Coke bottle feminine curves, are on the darker end of those 23 shades of Black skin tones, don't possess the sistah booty, are an athlete or don't fit the stereotypical standards of femininity, your femininity will get called into question, especially as a Black woman.

One of the pejoratives they will use while doing so is the t-word.  

And it won't be just Black men engaged in the process of doing so, it will also be Black women policing the femininity of other Black women using 'that's a man' shade.   

If you think I'm kidding about that, check out the Black gossip blogosphere and see the comments that get aimed at Wendy Williams, Fantasia, Brittney Griner and Joseline Hernandez

If Black cis women are getting their femininity disrespected, what hope is there for Black transwomen to even have ours acknowledged by the greater Black community?   Until we girls like us are recognized as the beautiful women we are inside and out, it's going to be difficult to bring down the levels of anti-trans hate violence the transmisogyny fuels inside our community.. 

Bottom line Black community is you need to cease and desist with aiming transmisogyny not only at us, but at Black cis women.   It's not cool, and the off the charts anti-trans violence directed toward is is spilling over to affect the lives of cis Black women .  

     .  

Konyale Madden, RIP

One of the things that unfortunately happened while Computer Prime was in the shop and I didn't get to report on when it happened was the murder of another African-American trans woman in the month of August

And this one happened in my home state.  

I heard about Domonique Newburn and Islan Nettles, now it's past time for me to catch up with the third African-American transwoman under age 35 who was murdered that month in A Konyale Madden.   

34 year old Konyale Madden was found punched in the face and shot to death in her Denton County home in Savannah Estates just east of Denton, TX by friends on Sunday, September 1.

She texted another family member she was going out on a date and that was the last communication anyone had with her.  Denton County Sheriff's Sgt. Larry Kish speculates Madden was killed either that Friday or Saturday.   Some of her belongings were missing but there were no signs of forced entry in her home.

And as you probably guessed, Madden was misgendered in the initial news reporting on the story in the Denton paper. 

Madden was born in Longviev, TX and transitioned in high school.  She graduated from UT-Arlington in 2002, worked in Plano at the JC Penney corporate office until being laid off and attended services at TD Jakes' Potter's House church in Dallas.

Her funeral was held in Longview on September 7.

If you have any information on the case, contact Denton County Sheriff’s Office investigator Donn Britt at 940-349-1667.

Rest in peace Konyale, you'll be missed by all who loved you. 

Happy Second Anniversary Of Your 25th Birthday, Isis!

October 1 is a day that's burned in the TransGriot memory banks for a lot of reasons, but one of the major ones is because it is the birthday of my fabulous fashion designing and groundbreaking model little sis Isis King!

Wasn't going to let today pass without giving her the usual blog birthday shout out.  

She is still one busy lady.   Isis is continuing to fulfill that prophetic statement I made about her in the open letter I wrote to her back in 2008 when she first got our collective attention due to her appearance on America's Next Top Model 

She's designing the wedding dress for her sister and is the Maid of Honor in her sister's wedding, and is happily living her life. 

Next time my butt is in the New York metro area I do hope to FINALLY meet her instead of having to be satisfied with talking to her on the phone from time to time.

And yes, you are STILL a beautiful butterfly spreading your wings, flying and continuing to evolve into a classy young woman both inside and out.  You also continue to be an inspiration to all of us and I'm very proud of you.

Happy birthday, Isis!   May you have many more. 

A Mother-Trans Daughter Femininity Dinner Discussion

Some of the Facebook trans groups I'm a member of have very interesting discussion threads at times that eventually trigger hard solid thinking by me to turn it into a post.

This was the case two weeks ago when Lotus, a member of a predominately African-American trans Facebook group I'm on that prides itself on thoughtful discussions of trans issues talked about the night she recently had  dinner with her mother. 

Their dinner discussion turned into a mother-daughter chat that discussed femininity and the perception difference between cis and trans women.

***

Lotus:  Over dinner, my mother and I began an open discussion about the perception of natal females as it pertains to Transgender women. I wanted to bring some of the points that came up during the conversation to the group and see how you all felt about them.

My mother's main point in the conversation was that there is no one SET STANDARD that defines what it means to be a woman. Women come in all shapes, sizes, class levels, and intellectual capabilities; nonetheless they are a woman. With this in mind she inquired as to why someone would assume that all girls like us should strive to be more than the average neighborhood hood rat. As transwomen why is it not okay for us to be the kind of woman we feel most comfortable being (even if that's a "Ratchet Ass Hoe").

I explained to her that as transwomen we should aspire to be a compliment to womanhood not a detriment. Her counter argument was that women are detrimental to themselves so why should a woman in transition feel burdened by the pressure of complimenting womanhood?

We are individuals embarking on a unique journey into what many would perceive as the unknown. We all must make decisions as to who we would like to be, much like any other woman.

All things considered I believe that all points are valid when viewed from that person's perspective. I still stand steadfast by my belief that as a young woman in transition I want to make natal females proud to accept me as the woman that I am, but her perspective opened up another gateway for dialog about the representation of transgender women in society; how we chose to present ourselves.

***

That dinner conversation most certainly did open up a dialog in that group we gleefully began to discuss.  Our trans elder Cheryl Courtney-Evans pointed out in the discussion thread that developed in the wake of Lotus' initial post:: 

I think that perhaps this concept may be simply explained by a sentence/attitude that accompanied the advance of the African American community in it's reach for parity with Whites..."You're a credit to your race." For many years that's what Blacks strove to be, in order to garner 'acceptance'.

Angel V. also pointed out:

When I started my transition, the last thing that was on my mind was acceptance from cis-women. As a matter of fact, the only acceptance that I will ever need is my own. You were not put on this planet to cater to everyone's wants and needs. None of us were. There are plenty of cis-women who will accept us and many who will not. Their opinions will not dictate or change who I am in any capacity.

That said, I like your mom, Lotus. She made some interesting points!! Some ladies will never strive to be better. Trans or otherwise.

What I would have said in response to Lotus' mom is I believe one of the reasons we Black trans women are so adamant about being considered compliments to Black womanhood is because after being stuck on the Black masculinity side where we were considered suspects and targets regardless of the content of our character, some of us don't want to fight that psychic battle again.

But what you come to realize is that Black women also have their own psychic battle they fight in which their femininity is demonized every day by whiteness and white supremacy.  They are depicted as the 'unwoman', 'ugly' and juxtaposed as the polar opposite to white women, who are held up as the penultimate form of feminine beauty and template of womanhood that women of non-white ethnic groups should aspire to be.

As Angel pointed out, some cis Black women don't care, do what they please, don't give a second thought about the historic and current images of Black women and never will. 

So why should we Black trans women care?   Because Black transwomen don't have the luxury to be that cavalier about the feminine images they project to the world.  We're already demonized, have few positive trans feminine role models to counteract the negative images already on the minds of people and fear that whatever negativity happens in our trans ranks will be unfairly projected back at cis African-American women.

But then again, trans women are damned if we do and damned if we don't live up to the standards of Black womanhood.   Even when we try to live our lives as complements to Black womanhood, we're demonized and hated on by many of those same cis Black women we desire sisterhood with and fell like that standarsd is a shifting goalpost. .
   
Cheryl basically dropped some more knowledge on us in this discussion with this sentence. 

Well, I'm sure you've heard the phrase, "Do you"...that's what you do; we must each do as we aspire...whatever that is.

She's right.  And I concur with her that's the point where we Black trans women need to be comfortable in our own minds of getting to.

As Lotus said in that thread, she wasn't aspiring to be hypersexualized by society, but some of her girls like us friends see that as their desired feminine presentation standard and set out to achieve it. 

In my case the elegant Diahann Carroll was one of my feminine role models along with my mother, sis and other cis and trans feminine role modes whose qualities I admired and wanted to role model in my feminine evolutionary path.  

Whatever type of woman we trans women are trying to project to the world, that's ultimately our decision.  Once we start down that path, we have to deal with whatever the consequences are of emulating the type of woman we wish to project to the world as we go through our lives.

But we transwomen also have to become comfortable with just simply being able to 'do you' and being allowed the space to 'do us' just like our cis feminine counterparts. 



TransGriot Note: Last graphic in the post created by Randi of TransMusePlanet.

What Chad and Amiyah Can Teach Us About Respecting Trans Women

TransGriot Note: Interesting article from one of the people I had the pleasure of meeting during OUT on the Hill last year, Anti-Intellect, concerning the ignorance bubbling up once again in the Black gossip blogosphere concerning this recent photo Chad Johnson took with girl like us Amiyah Scott

The guest post at Funky Dineva is entitled 'What Chad Johnson and Amiyah Scott Can Teach Us About Respecting Transgender Women'.   

It's a call for the Black community to chill with the ignorance and disrespect aimed at trans women and start understanding and respecting the ones in their midst.

I agree.  And it needed to happen like yesterday.
I also got a little love in the post, too.

And yeah, ignorance alert in the comment threads. 

Here's a taste of it:    

I look forward to the day when a straight man taking a picture with a trans woman is not an issue. If social media is any indication, we have a while to go before that vision becomes a reality. Over the weekend, a picture surfaced of former NFL player and reality star, Chad Johnson, posing with Amiyah Scott, a trans woman. Judging by the number of ignorant comments leveled at both Johnson and Scott, you would have thought that the two had committed a serious crime, and in a sense, they had. In our transphobic world, a straight man taking a picture with a trans woman is seen as a “crime”. What is the crime, you ask? The crime is respecting a transgender woman.

Media representation has the potential to make us comfortable with people from different walks of life, but it also has the potential to make us see a community in a monolithic way. Trans women have all too often only been seen as predators and/or comic relief. I am here to tell you, however, that the lives of trans woman are diverse and multifaceted. Yes, there are trans women who have not revealed their gender identity, often for good reason, but there are many who live there lives with honesty and openness. Trans women come from all walks of life, and it is long overdue that we start to recognize their diversity within their community. We need to look beyond the stereotypes to see the trans women who are enrolled in college and trade schools, the trans women who are journalists, motivational speakers, doctors, executive directors, hairstylists, actresses, wives, mothers, and almost any other role imaginable.

You can read the rest of it by clicking this link. 

Cemia Dove Acoff Case Update

The last news I had in the Cemia Dove Acoff case was that her alleged killer Andrey Bridges had been arrested on May 6 and charged with her murder on May 10. 

Unfortunately the stenographers at the Cleveland Plain Dealer are still thumbing their noses at the local trans community and still disrespecting Cemia by not only using old name in the story but that old mugshot and unflattering pics every chance they get.

And naw, I wasn't the only person who thought the jacked up Plain Dealer coverage of Cemia was problematic.

My fear is that the Cleveland Plain Dealer's ongoing journalistic hate crime and disrespectful coverage is poisoning any potential jury pool for the Bridges trial and will make it harder for Cemia and her family and friends to get justice in this case. 

But back to the update. 

Bridges was charged with aggravated murder, murder, kidnapping, felonious assault, tampering with evidence and crime against a human corpse in the death of Cemia Dove Acoff. 

Many Cleveland area advocates and Cleveland City Council member Jim Cimperman believe there should have been a hate crime charge added to the indictment and I concur with that assessment.   

Judge Hollie L. Gallagher was assigned to the case and Bridges' bond was set at $5 million and there was a scheduled May 21 pretrial hearing that as of yet I haven't found any additional information on..

I will be keeping an eye on this case until justice is served in it.

Still Aiming Higher

'As we own our power, that positive attitude and desire to aim higher as African descended transwomen is taking hold in our ranks.  It demands that we not only represent ourselves to the best of our abilities, but step up to the challenge of being compliments to Black womanhood and not considered detriments to it.'   TransGriot 'Aiming Higher'  October 19, 2011.

Those sentiments I expressed in that October 2011 post are still getting rousing AMENs from many of my Black trans sisters who read those words and have thanked me for writing them.   You have brought it to my attention that I'm not alone in wanting a transition path for girls like us that taps into Black womanhood at its finest and encourages us to be the best women we can be and how we achieve it. 

Our cis sisters want that for us as well as we conceive in our collective minds what that transition path looks like when it's applied to our own lives.   We also have to consider how that fits in with the new  Black trans paradigm  that's developing in this decade.  

There are hard, solid thinking and ongoing conversations going on in our ranks concerning the subject of Black trans womanhood and where we fit in the overall scheme of things.   While some of us get this point, some of our trans sisters have been slow to realize this and it needs to be stressed in Black trans world. 

One of the things we must burn into our brains before we swallow those first estrogen pills or take our first shots is that Black womanhood comes with a legacy of struggle, history and pride we must do our utmost to live up to.  

It's not about a silicone enhanced body, being estrogen based lifeforms, over the top hypersexualized people, legendary ballroom divas, elegant pageant queens or getting SRS, it's living our lives and interacting with the world as African-American women standing tall and having pride in that legacy. 

I want our cis African-American sisters to know that as proud New Black Transwomen, we have our own ongoing history of struggle and a renewed interest in discovering, telling and sharing our own sense of who we are.  We recognize that legacy of struggle that cis Black women have endured and are working hard to be worthy of Black womanhood.

And as a Black trans community leader, I'm doing my part to role model what I'm preaching for mine and the next generation of trans women.

Each girl like us, just like her cis counterparts, has the option of choosing what type of woman she wishes to project to the world.   The problem is that many of us have only been exposed to the hypersexualized girls like us and not ones who have chosen a different path of projecting Black trans womanhood to the world. 

We Black girls like us as we attempt to project the type of woman we wish to be to the world have to grapple with and conquer shame, guilt and fear issues.   We have to overcome a predominately negative media image, a lack of visible positive Black trans roles models and four centuries of negativity aimed at cis African descended women that affects how our femininity is judged.

We also have to be cognizant of the fact Black girls like us have our choices in terms of the type of woman we wish to project to the world and they will get harshly scrutinized and judged by the worst that we produce, not the best among us.   

That choice of the type of women we project to the world comes with the pressure of knowing it can possibly can affect for good or ill whether our marginalized trans community gets human rights coverage. It's why I stress and repeatedly say like a mantra that Black trans women need to be compliments to Black womanhood and not considered detriments to it.

Some of the reservations of cis Black women concerning trans women aren't predominately faith based or harboring on jealousy, but hinge on in their minds their fear we transwomen aren't taking Black womanhood seriously enough.  I submit that the faster we African descended girls like us slay those concerns and we are considered compliments to Black womanhood, the sooner that the cis Black feminine community will embrace their trans sisters. 

Then again there will be always be a cadre of cis Black women that no matter what we do or become those finer specimens of womanhood that Sharon Davis asked us to become back in the late 80's, they're still gonna hate for whatever reason, so bump them.  

We Black girls like us need to aim higher not only for ourselves, but for the cis women who are and do consider us their sisters, friends and allies.

And by doing so, it will result in us being better Black women of trans experience better able to navigate all the communities we intersect and interact with.

Deoni Jones Trial Delayed Again In DC

Gary Niles Montgomery was arrested and charged with the murder of 22 year old Deoni Jones back on February 12, 2012, but the wheels of justice in this case are moving at tortoise like speed.

He is charged with first degree murder while armed for Jones' February 2 slaying, but the trial has been delayed as his current attorney Colle Latin contests the two mental competency evaluation that found him fit to stand trial.

That forced Judge Robert Morin to postpone the June 10 trial and set a third mental competency evaluation for Montgomery that won't take place until January 6, 2014.   That pushed the tentative trial date back to April 14, 2014.

Montgomery was initially found competent to stand trial in March 2012, but the case was not allowed to proceed due to the failure of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia to obtain an indictment until November 2012. Montgomery also switched defense lawyers, further delaying court proceedings.

His defense attorneys have also been fiercely contesting the two mental competency evaluation results finding the 56 year old Montgomery fit to stand trial as the frustrations of Jones' family, friends and supporters mount.

Meanwhile Montgomery sits in the DC Jail without bond as he awaits their third mental competency evaluation.


"The delay prolongs the pain and suffering of Deoni Jones's family," Hassan Naveed of Gays and Lesbians Opposing Violence (GLOV) said. "It is critical for the court to act fast and show its commitment to ending these vicious hate crimes. Our city has faced a decade-long trend of targeted and often lethal violence against the transgender community, it is time for the courts to take it seriously."

It's not only time to take that decade long trend of anti-trans violence in Washington DC seriously, but do what it takes to eradicate it.

Expeditious trials of perpetrators accused of killing transpeople would be a great place to start.

Brandi's In JET Magazine!

If you search the JET magazine archives in Google books, you'll find articles on Black trans women throughout its nearly 60 years of publication that run the gamut from positive to not so positive.

Some of those JET articles were light years ahead of the mainstream media in terms of respectfully using correct pronouns while others would be right at home in our current media environment when it comes to covering trans women of color.

We even had a girl like us appear as a JET Beauty of the Week.in its August 20, 1981 issue in the late actress Ajita Wilson

There's a saying in the African-American community that you haven't made it until you appear on the pages of JET or EBONY.

I was deliriously happy and pleased to discover via Janet Mock and ELIXHER that JET"s April 29 issue contained a one page article featuring Washington DC trans woman Brandi Ahzionae.

29 year old Brandi opens up about her journey to be a girl like us in that JET issue that may still be available on your grocery store magazine racks with the 'Missing And Black' cover story.  

Brandi was subsequently interviewed on the electronic pages of ELIXHER.   She said something in the ELIXHER interview I enthusiastically agree with, especially in light of the ongoing journalistic hate crime being perpetrated by the Cleveland Plain Dealer aimed at Cemia Acoff.


I’d like to see Black trans women portrayed in a more positive light. I want the media to give us just as much of a right to be “normal” as anyone else. This is an opportunity to start a movement and gain some respect in the transgender community. The T in LGBT is excluded. We are a separate issue and people need to learn this.

Amen Brandi and congratulations on continuing the tradition of Black trans women being featured in one of our community's iconic magazines.    

Cleveland Plain Dealer STILL Hatin' On Cemia

Far from seeing the error of their transphobic ways and correcting them, the Cleveland Plain Dealer continues to flip the journalistic middle finger at the Cleveland trans community.

In their latest article, the stenographers at the Plain Dealer continue to conduct a journalism class case study in how not to report on Black trans people. 

They continue to misgender Cemia and demonize her by using the mug shot and problematic references that people found so odious in the first place.  

As a reminder, not that you care anyway Cleveland Plain Dealer, here's what the AP Stylebook says about covering transgender people:

transgender-Use the pronoun preferred by the individuals who have acquired the physical characteristics of the opposite sex or present themselves in a way that does not correspond with their sex at birth.

If that preference is not expressed, use the pronoun consistent with the way the individuals live publicly.

It's sad when a smaller local news outlet in Cleveland, out of town news media and bloggers show more respect for the victim of the crime than the local paper of record.

It's crystal clear at this point through this latest article they are defiantly obtuse about how offensive this is to the trans community and instead of making their corrections, have tripled down on the transphobia.So what can you TransGriot readers do to help our friends and allies in the Cleveland trans community? 

Help our Cleveland transpeeps and allies get that sorely needed meeting with the Plain Dealer editors and staff to discuss their fracked up coverage on Cemia.  Call them out in the comment threads on these pathetic stories.   And if that doesn't work, be civil and e-mail the reporters in question as you point out the continued blatant AP Stylebook violations.   

Alleged Ce Ce Acoff Killer Charged

In the latest development in the Cemia Ce Ce Acoff case, the alleged perpetrator of the killing, 36 year old Andrey Bridges of Parma, OH has been charged with aggravated murder, kidnapping, tampering with evidence and gross abuse of a corpse in his appearance before Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court.  

Bridges has a long criminal history that includes felonious assault and four stints in prison.  He did not enter a plea, was assigned a public defender and his bail was set at $5 million.

That's the good news.  The bad news is that the Plain Dealer continues to stick their journalistic middle finger at the Cleveland and national trans community and obstinately traffic in transphobia.

And yes, I'm concerned that the relentless PD media negativity and demonization of CeCe may have a negative effect on this trial and the ability to get justice for her.

As long as I'm tracking this case, Cemia (and any other trans woman being disrespected in the media) will get the respect she deserves on these electronic pages.

Well, Andrey Bridges has now been charged for the murder of Cemia 'Ce Ce Acoff.   The question now becomes will he do time for it?

In my nearly twenty years of being transitioned and 15 years of activism, I have seen far too many killers of non-white transwomen walk or get ridiculously low sentences.  I'm not letting go of my skeptical cynicism or doing the happy dance until I hear the words 'guilty' come out of a jury foreperson's mouth.  

Ce Ce Acoff Rally Today At 3 PM

For those of you in the Cleveland metro area there will be a rally for our fallen trans sister Cemia Dove 'Ce Ce' Acoff  later today in Cleveland's Willard Park.

The rally is being organized by local DJ Zoe Renee Lapin and will start at 3 PM EDT.  If you need further information about it get in contact with Zoe for further details about the rally.  

I hope you peeps in the area spread the word and can attend it, and here's hoping that we'll have allies and respectful media coverage there as well 

And speaking of respectful media coverage, still pushing for that to happen in this case, so stay on the Plain Dealer and the local TV stations and demand it.  They exist to serve the people in the Cleveland area, not the other way around.

TransGriot Update:  Rally was moved to the step of Cleveland's City Hall

Brandy Martell Memorial Vigil Held In Oakland

As I mentioned in one of my posts, a memorial candlelight vigil was held in Oakland to mark the one year anniversary of the date that Brandy Martell was killed.   The 37 year old Martell was fatally shot while sitting in her car through the door an window of it at the corner of 13th and Franklin Streets.

Martell was a peer advocate for TransVision, a Fremont, CA based organization for trans women. Martell worked there from February 2007 to November 2011, offering health information and outreach to other transgender women.

Last night Brandy's friends and colleagues gathered at that location to remember her and also point out the perpetrator of this crime has yet to be brought to justice.  They lit candle and movingly spoke of her TransVision work  

Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan was also there urging folks with information on this case to come forward and help OPD solve the crime.

Anyone with information on Brandy Martell’s murder can send the Oakland Police Department tips anonymously by texting TIP OAKLANDPD to 888777, calling the toll-free hotline at (855) 847-7247, or by calling (510) 535-4867.

“If you saw something, say something,” said Police Chief Howard Jordan at the vigil. “We know there were a lot of people out there that night who saw what happened. Don’t let Brandy’s death go in vain.”

Don't let the wastes of DNA who committed that crime go free.   If they killed Brandy so callously, they could possibly kill someone else you're acquainted with, too.

They need to be rotting in jail.  Let's do what we can to ensure the crime gets solved and Brandy can rest in peace.

Three More April African-American Transwomen Deaths

I'm beyond sick and tired of being sick and tired of the near genocidal levels of anti-trans violence that are taking away far too many under 30 transwomen of color before they've had a chance to live their lives.  We are not only losing them, but their potential contributions and talents toward building all the communities we intersect and interact with.   TransGriot  April 5, 2013

29 year old Kelly Young, 30 year old Ashley Sinclair and 20 year old Ce Ce Acoff until this month were living their trans lives.  Now they are all dead because they were fighting the just battle for self determination of their own identities.

Translation from Jordana's eloquent quote: they died because somebody hated the fact they were trans and arrogantly presumed they had the power to erase them from this plane of existence. 

Kelly died on April 3 in Baltimore, MD.  48 hours later Ashley was killed in Orlando, FL and now we discover that Ce Ce Acoff's body was found with multiple stab wounds on April 17.

Right now I'm angry, and it's not just because of the jacked up Cleveland Plain Dealer article in Ms. Acoff's case. I'm pissed off because this is the third African-American transwoman we have lost this month. 

What's making me even more upset right now is the latest girl like us to die was only 20 years old. 

I hear the news about this latest April 2013 death on the very night in Oakland they are having a memorial candlelight vigil for Brandy Martell who was killed one year ago today.

The three deja vu trans deaths of April 2013 eerily replicates the deadly trifecta of African American trans murders that happened just 12 months ago last April.  So you can understand why I went nuclear over that transphobic Acoff article and mad that history repeated itself . 

The painful reality we're dealing with is that three more African-American transwomen will never reach their 40th birthdays.   In Ce Ce Acoff's case,she like Chicago's Paige Clay will never see her 30th, much less her 25th birthday.  It's three more names we will have to read through blurry, tear soaked eyes on November 20 on a Transgender Day of Remembrance list that will probably be adding more names to it before the cutoff date for the 2013 TDOR memorials take place all over the world.

A TDOR names list that once again will be overflowing with the names of Black and Latina transwomen.    

Once again I'll be headed to another birthday thinking about the transwomen that won't get the opportunity to grow a year older and celebrate it like I'll hopefully be doing on Saturday.  

TransGriot Update:  Thanks to tips from readers Lilith and Jahaira discovered Ms Acoff's femme name is Cemia Dove.  Her friends called her Ce Ce.
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