One Of The Killers Of Evon Young Convicted

Billy Griffin's trial may have ended in a hung jury on June 17, but that wasn't the case for Ashanti Mcalister

The 18 year old Mcalister was one of the five men arrested and charged with the brutal murder of 22 year old transmasculine rapper Evon Young who went missing on New Year's Day.

Mcalister's trial started June 24 and he was found guilty of first degree intentional homicide on June 27.

With the conviction, Mcalister is facing a maximum life in prison sentence for the murder of Evon Young with the sentencing soon to come.  37 year old Ron Allen's trial in this case is now set to start on October 7.

23 year old Devin Seaberry plead guilty to a lesser charge of second degree reckless homicide on July 2 in return for their testimony against Griffin, Mcalister and Allen.   Seaberry will be sentenced on October 17.

Victor Stewart also plead guilty June 5 to second degree reckless homicide in exchange for his testimony against the other three defendants and will be sentenced on July 23.     

After having his first one declared a mistrial Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Jeffrey A. Wagner, Billy Griffin is facing a new trial that is scheduled to start September 16.

So if you're keeping score at home on how justice is being served in this Young case here's how its broken down so far.

Two defendants (Stewart and Seaberry) have plead guilty to second degree reckless homicide and have yet to be sentenced.  Mcallister has been convicted of first degree intentional homicide and yet to be sentenced.  Ron Allen is still awaiting trial for first degree intentional homicide, and Billy Griffin was tried, a mistrial was declared and he will have to face the judicial music again.

I will be keeping track of this Evon Young case until all the defendant have been sentenced to do the time for this heinous crime.  

Evon Young Trial Defendant Billy Griffin In Deliberations

Billy Griffin, one of the people accused of killing Milwaukee transmasculine rapper Evon 'Yung LT' Young took the stand in his own defense during his trial late Wednesday and early Thursday. 

He described the New Year's Day murder of his former roommate and music collaboration partner was an indirect payback for him leaving a violent gang run by his cousin Victor Stewart.

Griffin tearfully testified that his days of feigned ignorance during the search for Young and initial lies to police when they began to suspect a homicide, were driven by fear of reprisals from his cousin and Stewart's gang.

Prosecutor Grant Huebner argued that because Griffin's performance was so convincing over the two weeks leading up to his January 15 arrest, his story and display of emotion on the witness stand might also be only an act.

After Griffin wrapped up his testimony, the jurors began deliberating his fate after lunch on June 13 and are still deliberating as of this writing.

Griffin is facing a maximum life in prison sentence if he is convicted of first degree intentional homicide as the family and friends of Young and the trans community await the jury's eventual verdict.

TransGriot Update: After several days of the jury failing to reach a unanimous verdict in the case of Billy Griffin, the accused murderer of Evon Young, a mistrial was just declared this morning by Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Jeffrey A. Wagner.   Wagner scheduled a new trial for September 16.

Seattle And Portland Screenings Of 'Still Black' This Weekend

In the interest of journalistic integrity I do wish to disclose that I'm proud to know one of the transmen featured in it and the director of this award winning documentary.

But for those of you in the Portland and Seattle areas, Dr Kortney Ryan Ziegler is headed your way with his groundbreaking film 'Still Black A Portrait of Black Transmen'.

The screening is a collaborative effort of Gender Odyssey and Sister Sinema  with partial proceeds going to the Gender Odyssey Scholarship Fund.

The Seattle screening is scheduled for Saturday, May 11 and the Portland one on Sunday, May 12, so use this link to purchase tickets for one excellent film spotlighting the lives of six transmen.

here's hoping for sold out screenings on both nights and y'all show Dr. KRZ some love.

Evon Young Case Update

The last time I posted on the murder of Milwaukee trans man and rapper Evon Young five suspects, 37 year old Ron Allen, 23 year old Devin Seaberry, 26 year old Billy Griffin, 18 year old Ashanti Mcalister, and 27 year old Victor Stewart had been arrested and charged with Young's murder. 

In a January 31 court hearing they defendants all plead not guilty to the first-degree intentional homicide charges they face. The charges come with a maximum life in prison sentence if they are convicted

Young was brutally killed and once the the murder was done one or more of the perpetrators took the body to a trash dumpster behind an apartment complex and set it on fire.  But by the time the police detectives investigating the case discovered that information, the dumpster in question had been picked up and emptied around January 8 at a transfer station before being taken to a massive landfill in Menomonee Falls, WI  

While the court pleas were happening, the police on January 28 began searching a 200 by 200 foot section of the landfill with cadaver dogs for Young's body which ended after 13 days.   Then on February 19 a body was discovered near a dumpster at 63rd and Kraul Streets where evidence in the Young murder was previously found.   It raised the hopes of Young's family that it was his body, but it turned out not to be.

Despite the lack of a body, police and prosecuotrs belive that they have collected enough crime scene evidence combined with the statements of the alleged killers to secure convictions in this case.

As for the projected trial dates for the defendants in tthe Young case, they are as follows.  Billy Griffin is first up on June 10.  Ron Joseph Allen and Ashanti Mcalister get their day in court on June 24.  Victor Stewart will start on July 1 and Devin L. Seaberry on July 8.    Those dates could change based on whether they change their initial 'not guilty' pleas and take plea bargains  or the trials get rescheduled.

Will Evon Young's family get justice?   That remains to be seen.  But you know I will keep you posted about any developments in this case as I get the information.

Rest In Peace, Marcelle Cook-Daniels

I've been thinking about him recently, and when I Googled his name I stumbled across the obituary that reminded me on this date in 2000 the African-American and national trans community lost one of its major pioneering leaders in the person of Marcelle Y. Cook-Daniels. Cook-Daniels was born in Washington DC on March 1, 1960 where he resided until he moved to Vallejo, CA in 1996.  Marcelle worked for the Internal Revenue Service and a computer programmer/analyst and for Norcal Mutual Insurance.

He was also diligently working toward obtaining his masters degree in computer science at Golden Gate University. 

Marcelle during that time period was one of our early national transmasculine African-American  activists and leaders.  He was a quiet, principled and dedicated man who labored tirelessly to raise awareness about trans and LGB issues. 

He role modeled his personal values of family love, commitment, honesty, openness, and public service through being a loving son to his mother Marcella Daniels, supporting his longtime life partner of seventeen years Loree Cook-Daniels, and being a devoted father to his son Kai Cook-Daniels.

Marcelle's education and advocacy work on behalf of our community included presentations at the 1999 Creating Change Conference in Oakland (where our paths crossed but I sadly never met him), the 1998 "Butch-FTM: Building Coalitions Through Dialogue" event, several True Spirit Conferences, and numerous educational and advocacy events.

Marcelle was interviewed and photographed for the 'Love Makes A Family" book; the Dawn Atkins' book "Looking Queer: Body Image and Identity in Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay and Transgender Communities," and "In The Family" magazine.

He was an active supporter of COLAGE (Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere) and provided substantial material and volunteer support to the Transgender Aging Network, four True Spirit conferences, and the Maryland based transmasculine group The American Boyz that eventually folded.

He sadly lost his ongoing struggle with depression and took his own life.  His memorial service on April 26 was attended by family, friends, colleagues and all the people whose lives he'd touched during his 40 years with us. 

For you trans men who never had the opportunity to meet Marcelle, you definitely would have liked and admired him.  You are building upon the work he started and are walking in his footsteps, and I'm writing this post on the anniversary of his death to ensure that his contributions toward building the United States trans and transmasculine communities are never forgotten or disappear.    

Marcelle, you are still missed by all the people who had the pleasure of knowing you.  I'm saddened it didn't happen for us while I was in Oakland for Creating Change.  I hope as you look down upon us you are pleased to see the trans and SGL rights progress we have made since 2000, especially in your hometown of Washington DC and the state of California.

While we still have much work to do, your trans brothers and sisters are laboring mightily to live up to the high standards you set for us.  I still wonder at times how much farther down the path of trans human rights coverage we would be if you and Alexander John Goodrum were still here and had the opportunity to mentor mine and this current generation of transmasculine and transfeminine activists.

Rest in peace Marcelle, and say hello to Alexander for us.    

Dr. Z-Uses Of Black Trans Male Anger

One of the highlights of my recent trip to Dallas for the Black Trans Men, Inc. conference (and I'm so looking forward to making that happen in 2014) was getting to finally meet my fellow blogger and filmmaker Dr. Kortney Ryan Ziegler.

He has this blac (k) ademic post that has found its way to HuffPo entitled Uses Of Black Trans Male Anger  that I definitely needed to share with my TransGriot readers. 

Although I had already learned that as a black male, I had little room to express anger, for fear of the potentially harmful repercussions, what became even clearer to me is that as a black transgender male, I have even less room to be angry. Simply put, thanks to unfortunate societal assumptions of brute masculinity and the damaging myth of aggression as a result of synthetic hormone use, others sometimes interpret our expressions of anger and frustration as inauthentic, in effect preventing potentially healthy and constructive uses of anger in our ongoing process of self-fashioning.

In order for black trans men to move past the limitations of this binary, it is important for us to recognize that our anger is indeed real and is possible to manage within a society that breeds hostility toward our existence. The angry black male that we are perceived to be should not disavow the reality that is our personhood and humanity, and we must seek out healthy ways to reject this distorted image of our identity. This means being aware of our feelings of frustration, rage and resentment and understanding the situations that can provoke those emotions. In other words, use your anger to discover yourself.

You can read the rest of it at blac (k) ademic
 

Black Transmen Are Part Of This Community, Too

One of the things I've long been aware of in my 15 years as an activist is visibility matters. 

One of the long conversations I had with Kortney, Carter, Sean, Lawrence, Diwa and many of the brothers during my trek to Dallas last month for the Black Transmen Conference dealt with the subject concerning their frustration about the lack of Black transmasculine visibility in the trans community. 

Just as we've had to deal with in the Black trans feminine community about the trans narrative being dominated by white trans women for the last 60 years, the transmasculine narrative has also been dominated by its focus on white transmen as well. 

We don't get to see them represented or talked about in the overall transmasculine narrative, much less have regular discussions about what their issues are.  That needs to change.

One of the things I was extremely happy about was seeing that my transbrothers are working diligently to address that visibility problem.  Kortney's award winning 2008 movie :Still Black: A Portrait of Black Transmen  was a major step in that direction (and is still available for purchase) . 

And yeah, you have to check out Kortney's blog Blac(k)ademic for thoughtful posts on trans and other issues from a Black transmasculine perspective.

As the founding executive director of TPOCC Kylar Broadus has been an increasingly visible role model for the Black transmasculine community along with Rev  Louis Mitchell and Carter Brown of BTMI. 

BTMI is cultivating a group of leaders that you will be hearing from in the near future on many levels around the country as they do their parts to become the change they want to see in the world.

They are introducing the world to a group of intelligent, thoughtful (and handsome) Black transmen who are defining what it is to be a man on their own terms and in addition letting people inside and outside this community know they exist.

And as their sister I couldn't be happier to see my brothers stand tall and own their power..       

Diamond Stylz-Louis Mitchell Interview

Been a while since I posted some video from my Houston homegirl's video blog.    Posting an interview she did with another one of my fave transmen, Rev. Louis Mitchell

2nd Annual Black Transmen,Inc Conference Coming Soon

I was pleased to hear about the first one when it occurred earlier this year in Dallas with Rev. Louis Mitchell doing an inspiring keynote address for it.  The 2013 event not only has a date but a bigger hotel close to the DART light rail lines to help you get around Big D and experience what the city has to offer.  

Save the date because the transbrothers are getting together on the other end of I-45 for their 2nd Annual Black Transmen,.Inc Transgender Advocacy Conference and Dinner in Dallas.  

For the second year in a row the transbrothers are planning a conference as big as the Lone Star State from March 13-March 18 at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Dallas - Campbell Centre .   Had some scheduling conflicts that kept me from attending the initial one (and was pissed about it)  but will do my best to keep the calendar open and clear for that weekend.

But I'll let my transbrothers toot their own horns about this fast growing and sure to be well attended event.

***.
 
Welcome to Our 2nd Annual Black Transmen, Inc Transgender Advocacy Conference! We are anxious to meet you in Dallas, Texas once again for an amazing and life changing experience. We would like to extend a special invitation and welcome to our sister group Black Transwomen and look forward to building with you as well. This is our time to meet, unite, discuss, learn and celebrate.

Plan for an event of a life time for couples, youth, singles, families and allies to transmen and the SLGBTQIH community worldwide. "Become the change you want to see in the world"

General Conference Information:

(4) Day Empowerment Event Schedule. Featured Topics on: Identity, Culture, Religion, Family, Health, Wealth, Careers, Education, Business, Legal, Community and Youth Services
Registration: http://blacktransadvocacy2013.eventbrite.com/

Conference Tracks:

Black Transmen, Inc Leadership Training (staff only)
SLGBTQHI Alliance & Community Training
Trans Health Fair & HIV/AIDS Education, Prevention and Testing
Trans Career Services & Job Fair
Trans Youth Seminar
Transmen Seminar
Transwomen Seminar
Trans Aging Adult Seminar
Spouses Seminar

Conference Events:

Annual Black Transmen, Inc Awards Dinner Ball (Formal Attire)
For Men: www.menswearhouse.com
TransManifest- Live! Performances from the SLGBTQ community.
Black Transmen, Inc Mini Ball featuring* All Trans Categories*
Pre & Post Conference Events will also be scheduled
More Events Will Be Posted!

Travel Discount Information:

Our Host Hotel $89 Night! Double Tree: Code BTA
http://doubletree.hilton.com/en/dt/groups/personalized/D/DFWCNDT-BTA-20130313/index.jhtml?WT.mc_id=POG
American Airlines: Code A6733DE www.aa.com
Avis: Code D256983 www.avis.com
Amtrak: Code X79L-957 www.amtrak.com
Get on the Bus: Enjoy A Bus ride from your local area! Contact us to be added to the list.

Black Trans History-Jim McHarris

Found another interesting story from our African-American trans past in the fascinating EBONY archives.

Courtesy of a November 1954 issue of EBONY and the books Black Love, Black Resistance and Dr Susan Stryker's The Transgender Studies Reader, I began to read the story about transman Jim McHarris.

It starts in his birthplace of Meridian, MS in 1924.   He was born as Annie Lee Grant and his parents died early during his childhood. 

McHarris was raised by two sets of foster parents and exhibited a distaste for all things feminine except dating the ladies.   The young Jim McHarris would often slip away to Jackson to hang out.  Longtime friend Bishop Smiley Jones noted that young McHarris was not only attracted to women, but preferred mens clothing and living as a man as well.  

He transitioned in his early teens, ditched the female clothing and began in 1939 to move frequently to different cities around the country.   McHarris lived in Memphis, Chicago and other midwestern cities living his transmasculine life.   In that 15 year period as a restless traveler the 5' 5" McHarris worked as a short order cook, cab driver, gas station attendant, auto mechanic, shipyard worker, and preacher.while continuing with his handsome baby face and husky 175 pound frame to draw attention from and enjoy the company of the ladies he was attracted to. 

He moved to Kosciusko, MS in November 1953 and ran into his old friend Bishop Smiley Jones, who was now living there and was the pastor of the True Tabernacle Church of the First Born.  (If that town name sounds familiar, it is the hometown of talk show queen Oprah Winfrey who ironically was born there in January, 1954, but back to the story)

McHarris asked his old friend to keep his gender secret as he set out to build his life in Kosciusko.  He worked at a gas station for almost three months, was living at a local boarding house, was working as a short order cook and was engaged to be married to a young high school girl.  . He was also scheduled to be elevated to deacon at the True Tabernacle church

But the life he was carefully building in that town of 10,000 people at the time unraveled in 1954 when he was pulled over by Kosciusko.police on a traffic stop.  Officers pulled him over for McHarris' car having improper lighting and noted he had a pint of whiskey in the car.   He was arrested and when the officers prepared to do a pat down search on him Jim revealed his birth gender..     
  
The gender revelation caused drama in the town and subjected Bishop Jones to some criticism from local residents.  The people most upset were the cis women that Jim dated as well as the woman he dated when he was living in Memphis who admitted in the EBONY article she was receiving money from him.  

There was even more drama when Jim in order to 'prove' he was born female, retreated to a closet, stripped off his male clothes and revealed breasts and female genitalia in front of the judge and the arresting officers.

He was quickly fined by Judge (and mayor of Kosciusko) T.V. Rone and given the option of paying a $100 fine or doing 30 days in jail at the prison farm.  While Jim was serving his sentence he was dressed in men's clothes, and worked in the prison kitchen, but housed with a female prisoner.

When he served his time, he stepped out to a Kosciusko that gave him a cool reception and people he once called friends shunning him..  McHarris decided it was time to move once again.  As he gathered his belongings and prepared to move to Jackson, he said in the article "I ain't done nothing wrong and I ain't breaking no laws"

He also made the decision to live his life permanently as a man.  But one thing Jim McHarris didn't do was register as all US men had to do at that time for the draft.

When EBONY asked him why, he quipped, "Man, I ain't crazy."   But in every other respect, Jim McHarris was happy to be treated as one of the boys and made certain he lived his life that way to the best of his ability.

Black Trans Brothers-What Can We Black Trans Women Do To Help You Own Your Power?

Ever since I transitioned, it's been necessary as a trans woman of African descent to paraphrase Barbara Jordan, to do more than just talk about the injustice and oppression we trans women of color have to constantly fight against and work to eradicate it..

I've had to along with other African descended transwomen step up to a leadership role in fighting anti-trans discrimination and oppression.  I'm proud and happy to see as our trans seniors begin the process of advising us.   I'm pleased to see our younger generation of trans women begin to step up to those leadership positions and be trans human rights warriors around the country as well.      

But it's not just us.  We've had African descended transmen who have stepped up to the national leadership ranks such as the late Alexander John Goodrum, the late Marcelle Cook-Daniels, Kylar Broadus, Louis Mitchell, Imani Henry, Carter Brown and blaze some historic trails while doing so.

But even elements of the trans masculine ranks recognize they can and should do more to help us African- descended trans women equally shoulder the leadership burden in terms of uplifting the entire African descended trans community.    

One of the things I'm looking forward to discussing while I'm at Out On The Hill next week is discussing what can we in the African descended trans feminine do to help our trans masculine brothers own their power.

While we know the brothers can, are quite capable of and we have no doubts will handle their business, we can help them avoid some of the pitfalls we Black transwomen encountered as we continue to seek to own our power and exercise it on the behalf of our community.  

It would also be a good thing as African descended trans women if we get familiar with some of the issues unique to African-American transmen.

I'm ready and willing to open this electronic platform to my African descended trans brothers to signal boost what they are writing in their blogosphere and get that needed conversation jump started.

And of course, when it comes to the elements of the ongoing conversation that will fall into The Black Trans Revolution Will Not Be Televised territory, we'll have those discussion amongst ourselves.   

So tell us Black trans men.  What can we do to help you own your power?   The sooner that conversation happens, the sooner the results of it will be mutually beneficial to all of us, the African-American community and all the other communities we African descended transpeople intersect and interact with.  

Happy Birthday Kylar!

Couldn't let today pass without pointing out today is the birthday of one of my fave trailblazing transmen.

It's TPOCC founder and Executive Director Kylar Broadus' birthday, and I had to give him a TransGriot birthday shoutout.

It's been a busy, history making year for the brother from Missouri building the Trans Persons of Color Coalition into the national voice for transpeople of color it has become in addition to all the other trailblazing work he has done. 

I look forward to my next opportunity to spend some quality time with my fellow red stater at NBJC's Out On The Hill in just a few weeks.  

That's your cue people to make your plans to attend the third annual edition of this empowering Washington DC conference.

You get to meet outstanding national African-descended trans and SGL leaders like Kylar and we make the point once again to our inside I-495 politicians and organizational leaders that Black LGBT people are Black people, too.  

And yeah, when conservafools aren't attempting to suppress it, we vote. 

But back to the birthday shoutout.

Happy birthday Kylar!   Thanks to all you do to raise the leadership bar, the visibility of transpeople of color (especially those of us from red states) and help us own our power. 

May you have many more birthdays to come and they be happy ones! 

Time To Pay Us Black Trans Speakers, Too

One of the things that irritates me and other African-American trans community people who have gotten the opportunity to do speaking engagements is running into a meme, mindset or mistaken belief by organizers and planners of these events.

It's a mistaken belief that because we African-American trans speakers don't get as many of these speaking opportunities vis a vis our white counterparts, we are so starved for the attention that we'll do these for free or severely reduced rates.

We African-American trans peeps have bills to pay and need to replenish our bank accounts like just like our white trans community counterparts do.  To be honest, it's our stories that urgently need to be heard by society in addition to us getting the visibility that white trans people have had since 1953.

Our chocolate trans people not only need to be heard because they bring fresh perspectives and innovative thinking to the ongoing rainbow community human rights discussion, frankly y'all need the 'ejumacation' about what our lives are like and what we think about the hot topic issues inside and outside our rainbow community. 

And Black trans speakers also need to be standing up at podiums inside the Black community as well doing the 'ejumacation' and sharing our knowledge as Kylar just did at the recently concluded NAACP convention in Houston..

Black transpeople need to be showcased far more frequently than they are nowadays because it will blow up the erroneous perception in communities of color and society that thoughtful, visionary trans people like us don't exist.   It also is concrete evidence we have out and proud unapologetically Black trans people who are involved in the rainbow human rights struggle and we Black trans people have some ideas about where the movement needs to go..

And yes, those fresh perspectives are worth paying for to hear them.if you have the ability to do so.

Two years ago Dan Choi was getting flack because either he or his agent was allegedly asking for $10,000 before he'll even step to the microphone to speak.  It was something a then Texas Tech student complained about and I rebutted in my Activists Need To Get Paid, Too post.

My fee is not even close to that.  

A few years ago in the wake of my keynote speech at the 2008 gender conference I was part of at the University of Colorado, I had an inquiry come in about my availability to speak at a large west coast city's pride march.   They were willing to go as far as fly me roundtrip out from Louisville and put me up in a hotel, but when I asked for a mere $500 on top of that there was cricket chirping silence.

Considering my profile in the trans activist community and status, they were getting off extremely cheap.  I also believe that had I been a melanin free trans human being I would have been standing at the podium that day and had more money than that mere $500 in my purse on the way back to Da Ville.   

I'm also hearing the same complaints from other African-American activists who have had a few colleges or groups balk at paying speaking fees when we are quite aware they had no problem shelling out far more money for white activists who don't have one-tenth of the activist resumes many of us have put together.

But yes, if you want to help speed up that day when trans African-Americans can do our parts to help uplift our community and be financially stable enough to be able to donate to your causes, y'all have make that investment in our talents as well.

Time to pay the Black transman and Black transwoman for their stories and valuable time that they are willing to spend to enliven you event when you summon the courage to ask them to do so.