2019 Williams Watch- On To The Australian Open Third Round

The Williams Sisters are still handing their tennis business in Melbourne for this year's edition of the Australian Open and cruising toward another Sister-Sister confrontation in the fourth round.

They handled their second round matches in different ways.

Venus continues to do it the hard way.     She had another three set marathon against France's Alize Cornet, but unlike the first round match, she didn't have to go to tiebreakers to determine who won the sets.

Big Sis also flipped the personal tennis script by winning the first set, losing the second, then turning up her game another notch to overwhelm her opponent in the third. 

She beat Cornet 6-3, 4-6, 6-0 to punch her ticket to the third round and a match with the world number one (for now) and the tournament number one seed in Simona Halep of Romania

Halep has also bee flirting with disaster herself the last two rounds, taking three sets to dispose of  Kaia  Kanepi of Estonia and  Sofia Kenin of the US.

Serena so far has looked like her old dominating self.

She rolled through another microwave tennis match, needing just 70 minutes to brush Eugenie Bouchard of Canada out of the tournament in straight sets 6-2, 6-2. 

It was shaky at times, but 22 winners and capturing the last five games to close out the match definitely helps you close matches out in a hurry

Little Sis may only be seeded 16th, but she is still considered the person to beat here as she pursues her record extending eighth Australian Open title and her 24th Grand Slam title overall

Unless the refs start messing with her.  And heaven help Naomi Osaka if they meet in this tournament.  They are on the same side of the bracket.

But first, before we start talking about potential future matches, she has to handle her third round business against Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine.    Yastremska has already taken out Sam Stosur  in straight sets and 23rd seeded Carla Suarez Navarro in the second round in three sets.

2019 Williams Watch- It's Australian Open Time!

'New year, new tennis season, and of course you TransGriot readers know I'll be keeping up with my fave tennis playing siblings in Venus and Serena Williams.

This will be the first time since the 2017 Australian Open final that both sisters will be playing in this tournament, the first Grand Slam of the 2019 tennis calendar.

You'll recall after Serena won that 2017 Open title, her 23rd overall, in straight sets, she discovered she was 24 weeks pregnant

The Williams sisters won't meet in the Aussie final this year, but potentially the fourth round because they are not only on the same side of the women's singles draw, they are in the same section of it.

WTF?

Their 2019 run in the Aussie Open began with Big Sis taking on 25th seeded  Mihaela Buzarnescu of Romania in the first round.   Big Sis had to work after dropping the first set in a tiebreaker.   She flipped the script by winning the second set in the tie breaker to even the match, and then blowing out Buzarescu in the third set.

Nevertheless, she persisted and will advance to take on Alize Cornet of France after posting a 6-7 (3-7) 7-6 (7-3) 6-2 win.

16th seeded Serena started her quest for her 24th Grand Slam title with an opening round match at Rod Laver Arena  with Germany's Tatjana Maria.

Little Sis wasted little time in administering this tennis beatdown, with her spending a grand total of 49 minutes on the court to send Maria packing.  She fired 22 winners in this match, and took the opening set in just 18 minutes

She punched her ticket to what looks to be a much tougher second round match with Canada's Eugenie Bouchard after a 6-0, 6-2 straight set win.

Australia Votes YES For Marriage Equality

Congrats to our Australian TBLGQ!  After a two month mail ballot campaign that got nasty at times, the Australian Bureau of Statistics announced that 61% of the population voted YES in favor of marriage equality, with 38% against.

More than 12.7 million people, or 79.5% of the Australian voting age population took part in the marriage survey that opened on September 12 and ran until November 7.   .Every Australian state and territory voted in favor of marriage equality

The vote clears the way for the next stage of the fight to take place in the Australian Parliament,

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull wants it to become law by Christmas, but the conservatives gearing  up for a last ditch battle to keep the will of the people concerning Marriage equality from being enacted into law.

Stay turned, because this is about to get very interesting Down Under.

2017 Williams Watch - The Australian Open Starts

As you longtime TransGriot readers know, I'm a big tennis fan, and two of my fave players are the fabulous Williams Sisters

The first Grand Slam of the 2017 tennis season is already upon us in the Australian Open in Melbourne, and this will be an interesting one.

It will run until January 29 in Melbourne and for the first time in several years, Serena Williams is not going to be the world's number one ranked player in the world going into a Grand Slam after tying Steffi Graf's record of holding it for 186 consecutive weeks.

That's Angelique Kerber (for now), the defending Australian Open champ who is also the number one seed in this 2017 edition of the Aussie Open. Serena is now number two in the world and also and the number two seed while Venus starts this Australian Open as the number 13 seed.

Opening round play got underway yesterday and both my fave tennis playing siblings got through it to the second round.

Venus had a tough opening round match with Ukraine's Kateryna Kozlova, but she prevailed for a 7-6 (7-5) and 7-5 straight set win   She's in the same half of the bracket as Kerber, so there's a possible clash brewing with Kerber should both keep winning.

Big Sis faces qualifier Stefanie Vogele of Switzerland, who upset Kurumi Nara of Japan, in the second round.

Speaking of winning, second seed Serena started with a tough opening round match with Belinda Bencic of Switzerland.   Little Sis prevailed in straight sets 6-4, 6-3 and will face the Czech Republic's Lucie Safarova.

Are the Williams Sisters playing doubles in this Grand Slam?  Yes they are, and they are seeded 15th in the Australian Open doubles tournament    They will face the doubles duo of Timea Babos of Hungary and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia  ,

Can they take some more Grand Slam singles and doubles titles back home when their business trip to Melbourne is over?   We'll  see.  

2016 Williams Watch - Going For Number 22

In a few hours we'll find out if Serena Williams will earn her seventh Australian Open title and 22nd Grand Slam title win in her illustrious career.

That Aussie Open women's final will start at 2 AM CST.

She punched her ticket to this Australian Open final by taking out fourth seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland for the ninth time in straight sets 6-0, 6-4.   She not only bumped her record against Radwanska to a spotless 9-0. she continued her impressive march through this Aussie Open women's field.

For the first time in her career, she has made it to an Australian Open final without dropping a set along the way.

Serena's reward or doing so will be to face Germany's Angelique Kerber, the 28 year old lefthander who idolized Steffi Graf growing up, and who will be standing in the way of Serena trying to tie her idol for Grand Slam title wins.  Kerber is also the first German player in 20 years to reach a Grand Slam final since you know who.

The seventh seeded Kerber knocked off #14 seeded Victoria Azarenka 6-3, 7-5 in the quarters and surprise semifinalist Johanna Konta 7-5. 6-2 in straight sets to get to her first ever Grand Slam final, and says she relishes the challenge of taking on the world's number one player.

We'll see if she feels the same way in a few hours.  Go get her Serena!

2016 Williams Watch- Serena To The Australian Open Semis!

The 2016 Australian Open keeps rolling to its conclusion, and Serena Williams is still on track to claim her seventh Australian Open title, her 22nd Grad Slam title to tie Steffi Graf overall, and start a run at a Golden Slam.

But standing in the way in the quarterfinal round was a woman she'd beaten 17 straight times in fifth seeded Maria Sharapova of Russia.   The last time she'd lost to Sharapova was in 2004, and since then it's been all Serena all the time

This one started out with Serena getting off to a slow start and dropping her initial service game to get into an 0-2 hole and get her haters around the wold salivating.  But she eventually got it to 4-4 and after a tense four deuce game held to take the lead and eventually break Sharapova to take the first set.  

Serena then kicked it into A+ level and rolled to a 4-0 lead before Sharapova broke the five game un by holding serve.  But Serena once again held her serve and broke Sharapova to win the match in straight sets 6-4, 6-1.   It was the 18th straight win for Little Sis and the seventh straight time in their non rivalry she'd beaten Sharapova in straight sets.

Next up in the semis for Serena is fourth seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland who sent #10 seeded Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain to the sidelines in straight sets 6-1, 6-3.

If she handles her semifinal business, these are the potential opponents who could be standing between her and her seventh Australian Open title.

That half of the quarterfinal bracket has #14 seeded Victoria Azarenka facing off against #7 seeded German Angelique Kerber, and giant killers Johanna Konta of Great Britain and qualifier Zhang Shuhai of China in the other quarterfinal.

The winners will face off in the semis to determine who that finalist will be.

TransGriot Update: The other semi will be Angelique Kerber and Johanna Konta.

2016 Williams Watch-Serena's Headed To The Quarters!

While I was in Chicago dealing with a drama filled Creating Change conference, I was comforted in the fact that Serena Williams was kicking butt and taking names on her way to hopefully her seventh Australian Open title and 22nd Grand Slam title overall.

In her Australian Open third round match she played during the January 22 night session at Rod Laver Arena, she made quick 6-1, 6-1 straight set work of Russia's Daria Kasatkina.

Two days later on that Rod Laver Arena court she only took 55 minutes to efficiently send another Russian to the sidelines in Margarita Gasparyan.    Little Sis beat her in straight sets 6-2, 6-1 to set up a quarterfinal match with an opponent she hasn't lost to since the 2004 Wimbledon finals in Maria Sharapova.

Maria may be tired of hearing about it, but facts are facts.  You've lost 17 straight matches to the greatest tennis player of all time, and until you beat her, you'll get repeatedly reminded of it.

Should Serena handle her tennis business and make it 18 straight against Sharapova, she would face the winner of the Agnieszka Radwanska - Carla Suarez Navarro match in the Australian Open semifinals.

2016 Williams Watch- Good And Bad News From Melbourne

My fave tennis playing siblings are once again starting the New Year Down Under at the first Grand Slam tournament of the 2016 tennis season in the Australian Open.

And after the first round matches were completed in Melbourne, there's some good news and bad news to report.

First the bad news.  There were 12 players in the women's singles bracket that went down in first round upsets.  Number 2 seed Simona Halep, #16 seed Caroline Wozniacki, #17 Sara Errani, #22 Andrea Petkovic, #24 Sloane Stephens and #25 Samantha Stosur were some of the folks who went down in the first round.   #23 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova went bye bye in the second round.

Joining that list of one round and done players was Venus Williams.   8th seeded Big Sis is surprisingly done for this tournament after she was upset by Johanna Konta of Great Britain in straight sets 4-6, 2-6.   Venus has a great 2015 in which she reached the quarterfinals at last year's Australian Open and Wimbledon, and the third round of the US Open but had a bad day at the office at the worst possible time.  

Nothing in her game was working, including her usually lethal serve which was broken by Konta five times.  She was moved around the court easily in a loss that was considered a shock to tennis pundits

But she's out of the 2016 Aussie Open in the first round

Meanwhile on that same Rod Laver Arena court, Serena began the quest for her seventh Australian Open title by knocking off Camila Giorgi of Italy in straight sets 6-4, 7-5 to punch her ticket to the second round where she faced Hsieh Sui-Wei of Taiwan.

She took an hour to cruise to a 6-1, 6-2 straight set victory and move on to her third round match with Russia's Daria Kasatkina .

Going to be an interesting week Down Under, especially on the women's side.

2016 Williams Watch- It's Time For The Australian Open

The first Grand Slam tournament of the tennis season is the Australian Open, and the 2016 edition of it will kick off in Melbourne later tonight (Monday Melbourne time) and run until January 30.  

All eyes as usual will be on defending women's singles champ Serena Williams after her bid for a Grand Slam came up just short after being upset in the US Open semis.  She's had four months to rest from it, but there is some concern after she withdrew from the Hopman Cup warmup tournament with a knee injury.

She says she's ready to play, and she'll need to be from the opening round.  Her draw for this tournament has the world and Australian Open's number one seeded player on a potential collision course with Caroline Wozniacki (16), Belinda Bencic (12), Agnieszka Radwanska (4) and Australia Open finalist Maria Sharapova (5) in her half of the women's singles bracket.

Serena starts her bid for her 22nd Grand Slam title and seventh Australian Open title with her opening round match with Italy's Camila Giorgi, who is ranked number 35 in the world..

Well, at least they don't have Venus on the same side of the bracket with her little sister this time.

Big Sis came on strong at the end of the season and finished ranked in the top ten.  She starts 2016 with her highest seeding in a Grand Slam tournament since 2011.

Venus is seeded number 8 in this Australian Open tournament, and kicks off her quest for her first Australian Open title since 2003 with an opening round match against Johanna Konta of Great Britain.

This tournament will be interesting for both sisters, and we'll see if this is the first step to a Golden Slam for Serena or Venus executes another deep run that ends up with her clashing with her sister in a Grand Slam final.
.

Karma And Holly Holm Knock Out Rousey

I am not a fan of formerly unbeaten UFC bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey because I've been more than a little pissed off about the transphobic comments she has repeatedly leveled at Fallon Fox.

And yes, you're reading that first sentence correctly.   Former UFC champion.

In Melbourne, Australia in front of a record crowd of 70,000 people as the main event for UFC 193, there was a shock the world WMMA upset Down Under as the 12-1 underdog Holm surprised and dominated the fight with the former champ from start to finish before she knocked out Rousey at 59 seconds in the second round.

No microwaved fight for Rousey in this one.   And if you see me walking around town with a huge grin on my face, now you know why.

Rousey suffers her first loss after 12 wins while the 34 year old Holm not only grabs the UFC bantamweight title belt away from her, but stays unbeaten at 10-0.

And once again, karma is a you know what..

2015 FIFA Women's World Cup USA Watch-Starting Group Play Today Versus Australia

The FIFA world number 2 ranked USA women finally get the Group D party started with their opening round FIFA Women's World Cup match against Australia later tonight in Winnipeg.

Group D is considered this tournament's 'Group of Death', because in addition to the FIFA number 2 ranked USA and FIFA number 10 ranked Australia, has FIFA number 5 ranked Sweden and FIFA number 33 ranked African champs Nigeria in the mix in this competitive group.

Only three teams will advance to the knockout round, so one of these four teams will have their dreams dashed.   So getting off to a winning start and getting points in these three group stage matches (3 for a win, 1 for a tie, 0 for a loss) will be critical in surviving and advancing from Group D..

Once the Red, White & Blue (gotta come up with a cooler nickname than this) completes their match with the Matildas, they will face Sweden and their old coach Pia Sundhage on June 12  in Winnipeg and finish up in Vancouver on June 16 against the Super Falcons of Nigeria.

But the road to the July 5 title match starts today, and Team USA will hopefully be at BC Place in Vancouver as one of the two teams playing for the title.

But they have to get past Australia first.

2015 Williams Watch-Number 19!

The 2015 Australian Open started with Serena Williams being ranked number one but not having won this title since 2010.  

But with an amazing 18-4 record in Grand Slam finals, she had a great shot at ending her Australian Open title drought.

For the first time in eleven years, the Australian Open featured the world number one versus the world number two player playing for the title.   

It was Serena versus her favorite whipping girl Maria Sharapova.   Ever since that Wimbledon final upset in 2004, Serena has beaten Sharapova like a drum 15 straight times since then.  Two of those losses for Sharapova came in Grand Slam finals, the 2007 Australian Open and the 2013 French Open

Little Sis got off to a fast start in this one by immediately breaking Sharapova's serve and never trailing in that first set.   With Serena up 3-2, here comes the rain and the Rod Laver Stadium room was closed.   After the 12 minute delay, Serena won the next ten points to take control of the set 5-2 and win it  6-3,

;But Sharapova isn't ranked number two in the world for nothing, and jacked up her game another level.  Neither player dropped a game, there were some amazing shots made on both sides and the second set went to a tiebreaker.

The tiebreaker was just as hard fought as the second set was.    After Sharapova got a mini break by hitting a wicked forehand winner, Serena fought back to take both points and get back on serve.

Williams raced out to a 4-1 lead in the tiebreaker before Sharapova fought back to narrow the gap to 6-5.

But one aspect of her game that puts Serena on a another level from \the rest of the women's tennis world is her serve, and she cranked what she thought along with the Rod Laver Arena crowd was the championship point.  

But after it was called alet, she gathered herself and hit another no doubt about it ace which was the 18th of the match and the title clinching point.

6-3,7-6 (7-5).  In addition to this being Serena's 6th Australian Open title, it was her 19th Grand slam title, putting her only three behind Steffi Graf at 22 and Margaret Court at 24.

The race to catch Steffi is on, and if Serena gets a calendar year Grand Slam, she will.  Just remains to be seen if she will accomplish it.

Congrats on title number 19, and on to Paris.

2015 Williams Watch-Serena To The Aussie Open Finals!

After the all-Russian semifinal ended with another Sharapova win over Ekaterina Makarova, the all American semifinal took place at Rod Laver Arena  between world number one Serena Williams and 19 year old phenom Madison Keys.

Keys knocked off fourth seeded Petra Kvitova and Big Sis on the way to her first ever Grand Slam semifinal.

This match was going to be a tough one for Little Sis because Keys is one of the few younglings who have the power in her serve and shots to match Serena.

Keys showed that power early and often in a tightly contested first set in which  a nervous Serena was immediately broken in her opening game, but eventually was broken by Williams to even the match in the first set at 3-3 despite a barrage of big serves and laser like ground strokes from Keys.   

Both players stayed on serve in the rest of the first set until the tiebreaker, in which Serena opened up a 4-1 lead before winning the tiebreaker 7-5 to take the first set.7-6.

Serena showed Keys who was the woman in the second set.  She broke Keys twice to run up a 5-1 second set lead.   But Keys showed she had some intestinal fortitude as well.   Serving to extend the match, she fought off seven match points to eventually take the game and force Serena to serve it out.

After Keys survived an eighth match point, Serena uncorked an ace to close out the hard fought match over Keys and win it 7-6 (7-5) 6-2.

She now has a shot at winning her first Australian Open title since 2010 and her 19th Grand Slam title overall.   Because she subdued Keys in the semifinal, she will continue to hold on to the world number one ranking no matter what the result of the final match is at 2 AM CST Saturday. 

Those of us who love Serena hope it's her capturing her fifth Australian Open title.

2015 Williams Watch- Good And Bad News Quarterfinal Day

My fave tennis playing siblings made it to the quarterfinal round of the 2015 Australian Open and if they made it through their respective matches, would play each other in the semifinals with a Aussie Open finals slot on the line.

While Serena handled her business and took out 2014 Australian Open runner up Dominika Cibulkova in straight sets.6-2, 6-2, to move on to the  semifinals, unfortunately that wasn't the case  for Big Sis.

Venus came out flat against American teen phenom Madison Keys and lost in three sets 3-6, 6-4, 4-6 despite Keys suffering a left thigh injury that necessitated a medical timeout in the second set.

It is the 19 year old Keys who will face the world's number one ranked player for a spot in the final against the winner of the all-Russian Ekaterina Makarova - Maria Sharapova semifinal.

Despite Venus' time in Melbourne being done, Serena is still alive for her fifth Australian Open title, her first since 2010 and her 19th Grand Slam title overall.

2015 Williams Watch- Venus and Serena In The Aussie Quarters

I've been having some problems with my cable, which has prevented me from watching my fave tennis playing siblings kick butt in the 2015 Australian Open 

My cable problems have cleared up just in time for me to discover that Serena and especially Venus are having a successful so far business trip to Melbourne.

I'll start with Little Sis' road to the quarterfinals which started with a 6-0, 6-1 opening round waxing of Belgium's Alison Van Uylvanck that took only 61 minutes. 

That set her up for a second round 7-5, 6-0 straight set win over Russia's Vera Zvonareva in which she got off to a slow start, saved three set points but eventually kicked it up to Serena mode 
She was clinically efficient in that closing set, taking only 27 minutes to complete it and move on to the third round.

She faced Elina Svitolina of Ukraine, and after dropping the first set 4-6, she regrouped to take the second set 6-2 to even the match, then blitzed her 6-0 to move on to the fourth round.

Spain's Garbine Muguruza also took the first set in their fourth round match 2-6 before Serena flipped the script and roared back to take the second set 6-3 and the deciding set 6-2 to head to the Australian open quarterfinals for the first time since 2013.

The world number one and number one tournament seed faces 2014 Aussie Open runner up Dominika Cibulkova, who survived a three set battle of her own with Victoria Azarenka. 

18th seeded Big Sis is having her best Australian Open since she made it to the Aussie Open finals against her sister in 2003.  She's made it to the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time since the 2010 US Open.

Venus' path to the quarters started with a first round 6-2, 6-2 straight set win over Maria Torro-Flor of Spain.

That punched her ticket to a second round clash with fellow American Lauren Davis which ended with a 6-2, 6-3 straight set victory which propelled her to the third round.

She faced Italy's Camila Giorgi and battled to a hard fought 4-6, 7-6 (7-2) , 6-1 victory that sent her to the fourth round against 6th seeded Agnieszka Radwanska.    Venus took down Radwanska 6-3, 2-6, 6-1 to advance to a quarterfinal match with American teen Madison Keys.

Should the Williams sisters win their respective quarterfinal matches, they will face each other in the semifinals for a spot in the 2015 Australian Open final.

2015 Williams Watch-Australian Open 2015 Starts

One of the other things that is a regular feature of TransGriot is moi  tracking the tennis playing exploits of my fave kick butt tennis playing siblings in Venus and Serena Williams.  This feature got started because I was tired of the racist disrespect the Williams sisters received at times

With the first Grand Slam of the 2015 tennis season about to start Down Under, it's time for another year of Williams Watch posts.

In addition to Serena chasing history and trying to win her 19th career Grand Slam tournament, she's trying to win her sixth Australian Open and her first since 2010.

But before the number one overall seeded Little Sis even takes the court against Belgian Alison Van Uytvanck, she will make tennis history.

She will become only the fourth player in the WTA rankings era to hold the Number 1 spot for at least 100 weeks.   She joins Chris Evert (113 straight weeks from May 10, 1976 to July 9, 1978), Martina Navratilova (156 straight weeks from June 14, 1982 to June 9, 1985) and Steffi Graf (186 straight weeks from August 17, 1987 to March 10, 1991) as the only players accomplishing that rare feat.

Serena has held the Number One ranking since February 13, 2013 and is guaranteed a 101st week through the second week of the Australian Open.  How long she holds that ranking beyond February 1 depends on how well she plays in this tournament.

Should she get through her opening round match, she would take on the winner of the Vera Zvonareva - Oris Jabeur match

Big Sis is here in Melbourne as well.  She's seeded 18th in this tournament, and she takes on Spain's Maria Torr-Flor inn her opening round match.   She would take on the winner of the Lauren Davis - Aleksandra Krunic match if she survives the opening round tilt.


They are also entered in the Australian Open doubles, and it will be interesting to see if they walk away with their first Australian Open doubles title since 2010.
Here's hoping you both have long successful runs in this 2015 edition of the Australian Open.

ANZPATH Conference Trans Human Rights Keynote Speech

As I've been saying for a long time and it increasingly is being borne out, trans rights are an international human rights issue.

That message was driven home at the recent Australia and New Zealand Professional Association For Transgender Health biennial conference at Adelaide University that took place October 3-6

Australian Human Rights Commissioner Tim Wilson gave the opening keynote speech at this event.

He was appointed in February and the appointment was notable Down Under because Wilson is the first ever openly gay human rights commissioner.

Wilson's speech clarifies the Australian Human Rights Commission position on trans human rights issues.and leaves no room for doubt for our Aussie trans brothers and trans sisters where the commission stands.

Here's Commissioner Wilson's October 3 ANZPATH keynote speech.

'He Wanted To Erase Her Existence'

Mayang Prasetyo, another one of our transsisters was murdered in Australia.

Along with the media in Brisbane misgendering and sensationalizing the whole thing also came a Guardian post by Amy Gray that took the opposite angle. 

Gray's post asserted that it was masculine entitlement that led to Prasetyo's death.

That Guardian article generated some commentary on my FB page when  I posted it, and the most thought provoking one of all so far was from Troy, whose trans attracted man videos you see pop up on TransGriot from time to time.

In his comment on the article Troy remarked, "Think of the last few trans women that have been murdered, thrown on the streets, dumped in the garbage. It seems their killers wanted to erase them from existence."

"That's why I'm so adamant about language. When you dehumanize someone it's easier to justify killing them."

Exactly, Troy.  Ever since I transitioned 20 years ago and became aware of the horrific levels of anti-trans violence aimed at us, there have been times when I have been stunned by the extreme level of violence that was aimed at transfeminine murder victims. 

Yaz'min Shancez's killer shot her, then burned her body. Shellie Hilliard's body in Detroit was dismembered and burned by her convicted killer.  I remember reading about other trans murders on the Remembering Our Dead list in which extreme violence was part of it.

One of my suspicions as to why that happens is because of the virulent level anti-trans hate can reach at times with cisgender males, as Joanna Cifredo noted while recounting an incident that happened to her in her blog post Passing To Survive.

That night will forever be ingrained in my memory. It was the night that I looked straight into the eyes of transphobia. I don’t think “phobia” is even the right word, he wasn’t scared of me, just the opposite, I was scared of him, instead I came face to face with pure, undiluted, hatred. As I rode home I began to think about the paralyzing fear that engulfed every pore of my being, and I began to sob uncontrollably. I started to think of all of my sisters who came face to face with hatred and weren’t as lucky as I was to have someone there defending them and were met with their mortality

Joanna is describing an instance in which she came face to face with someone who literally wanted to erase her existence from the face of this Earth because of her trans feminine status.  That person probably would have eagerly done so if it hadn't been for the fact there was a door and another cis male keeping that from happening in the incident she describes in the post

It's the sudden nature in which a transwoman can go from having a pleasant day to fearing for her life that keeps us on edge as we navigate our lives. 

My transsisters, this is just one of the things that estrogen based lifeforms unfortunately have to deal with   It is dangerous at times to walk this planet in a feminine body.

It gets even more problematic when that feminine body is a trans feminine one.  You have cisgender males who mistakenly feel they have the right to violently harm or kill a trans woman simply because the transwoman's presence in their space at that given moment for whatever specious reason offends them.

And I suspect this unfortunately happened to our sis Mayang.   For whatever reason, the man who professed to love her, killed and dismembered her before killing himself. 

How much transphobia played a role in this domestic violence situation we will probably never know, but the bottom line is still the same.  

Our sis is dead at the hands of a man who appears to have wanted to erase her existence

2014 Williams Watch-Serena Upset

Serena's attempt to win her first Australian Open title since 2010 came to a screeching halt as she was upset by Ana Ivanovic 6-3, 3-6, 3-6 to end her business trip down under and her 25 match win streak.

Cue the racist hatred of her in the Internet comment threads in 5...4...3...2...1...

Serena was down a bit from her usual high quality tennis level while Ivanovic was playing an A+ game. 

It was just Ivanovic's day as she kept kept attacking Serena's serve and hitting forehand winners just out of Serena's reach.   She even got the net court bounces to fall her way.  

The Serena haters are crawling out of their holes now in gleeful and racist celebration, so hate on.   All I have to say is see you in Paris at Roland Garros. 

2014 Williams Watch- Out Of The Doubles

It's wait until next year for any shot at capturing another Australian Open doubles crown for my fave tennis playing siblings.   Due to a leg injury suffered by Venus, she and Little Sis were forced to withdraw from the 2014 Aussie Open doubles tournament.

But the news is still all good for Serena in her march to the Australian Open singles title.   She spent another scorching afternoon at Rod Laver Arena, taking 80 minutes to knock off Daniela Hantuchova in straight sets 6-3, 6-3.

It's sets up her fourth round match with Ana Ivanovic of Serbia, with the winner moving on to the quarterfinals to take on the winner of the Casey Dellacqua-Eugenie Bouchard match  .