Edward Thomas' Attorney Disrespects Muhlaysia Booker

Our crappy pride month continues with more info coming out of Dallas concerning the legal fallout from the videotaped April 12 assault on Muhlaysia Booker that landed Edward Thomas in the Dallas County Jail.

Thomas is being defended by attorney Andrew W. Wilkerson, who is big mad that his client is facing twenty years in a TDC facility for the videotaped hate assault on our departed sister.

This is the transphobic shyt he had to say on his Facebook page about it:

I’ll say this again, our condolences to the family of Pierre Booker. He was a human being, he was a person that was loved dearly by his family. He did not deserve to die. No one deserves to die. But our client had absolutely nothing to do with his death.

But this is ridiculous. The State is offering Edward Thomas twenty years for that fight in back Royal Crest Apartments a couple months ago. The State is offering twenty years for a fist fight, between two men, with no weaponsinvolved. Let that sink in. There was no knife, no gun, no brass knuckles, and nothing was picked up off the ground and used during the physical altercation. Furthermore, this was no hate crime, period. People who were there know that this all arose from an altercation after Pierre Booker rear ended Thomas’s friends vehicle and refused to exchange insurance information or rectify the situation in anyway. Are you surprised that the news didn’t tell you these details?? Don’t be😑.

No disrespect to anyone’s life style at all. It’s your decision. But when the law recognizes gender it’s based off one’s anatomy or biological make up if you will. So when dealing with the law you must realize that ones sexual preference/orientation has no bearing on his or her gender, a persons gender is based on his/her biological hardware or, plainly said, if a person has a penis, the law views him as a male and if a person has a vagina the law views her as a female. Ridiculously obvious to say, I know, but some of you facebookers seem to have the law a tad bit confused.

So, now that we’ve cleared that up, to offer a man twenty years for a fist fight with another man is unconscionable and shows no regard for his life or his future. Say what you want, but that ain’t justice, not even close. A man can literally wave a gun in another person’s face and not receive twenty years in prison, come on now. Call a spade a spade, this is beyond ridiculous

First off,  Miss Wilkerson, what you said is this jacked up post is not only loud and wrong, but your ignorant and scientifically illiterate rhetoric is why we have a major problem in Black America with anti-trans violence being visited upon trans individuals in Texas and elsewhere in the United States.

It was also straight up disrespectful to the memory of Ms Booker, her family, and all the people in the Dallas area who loved her.

Gender is between your ears, not your legs, and that is the overwhelming consensus of the scientific community and folks who have been doing the research for decades when it comes to transsexuality and gender identity.

Let me repeat it for you one more time so your willfully clueless azz gets it.  The genitalia between your legs is not the sole determinant of your gender identity.

Your client in a fit of transphobic and toxic Black masculinity, stuck his nose in somebody else's business and beat down a trans woman for $200.   He also by doing so, triggered the series of events that resulted in Muhlaysia Booker's death a month later.   

And can you accurately account for your client's whereabouts after he was released from the Dallas County Jail on bail days before Ms Booker was killed?

When your client beat a trans woman unconscious on that April 12 day to the point that several cis women had to step in and physically remove her from your client's flying fists as he uttered homophobic slurs, yeah Miss Attorney Thang, that's not a mere fight.   That's a hate crime that your waste of DNA client deserves jail time for.

One other thing.   Trans people live lives, not a lifestyle.  So miss me with that 'no disrespect' line because your entire comment was dripping with it and transphobic ignorance.   Calling a trans woman a man is the height of disrespect.

You need Jesus and some serious education about trans issues.  .You are also a disgrace to the proud tradition of attorneys from the Thurgood Marshall School of Law.

Now what's the phone number and the URL for the State Bar of Texas?

Naw Curtis Jackson, A Man Who Dates Trans Women Isn't Gay

I cancelled Curtis '50 Cent' Jackson a long time ago, and am proud to say that not one of his CD's desecrates my collection.   His most recent anti-trans comment makes it crystal clear why I just say hell no to 50 Cent.

He took to his Instagram page with 22 million followers yesterday to say to the rapper Young Buck, who was formerly part of his G-Unit group this transphobic comment. 

“If your [sic] in a relationship with a t****y your [sic] gay. that’s a boy, Boy!!!

“It’s cool Buck you gonna be big down at the gay bars Give me a call,

He also posted a video of Young Buck in which the rapper is saying 'take that s**t down' to a woman who wrote an article alleging he had sex with a trans woman.

Um no Curtis and other like mined transphobes, that's not how this works.   Let me make this real simple and plain for you trans ignorati because I'm not feeling your transphobic BS and my patience with it is nonexistent today.

A trans women is a woman, a trans man is man.  That trans man is also a better version of a man than you could ever hope to be.

If you as a cisgender man are attracted to a trans woman, that makes you STRAIGHT.  If you are a cisgender man that is attracted to a trans man, that makes you GAY.

Curtis, your use of the 't****y slur and the BS perpetuation of the 'that's a man' crap to describe trans women not only contributes to the toxic masculinity problem, it  contributes to more Black trans women getting attacked, hurt or killed. 

There are cisgender men who love them some trans women, be they pre, post or non op.   Your comments and the internalized transphobia it feeds in trans attracted men and the Black community at large makes it harder for those men to be open and honest about being ride or die attracted to trans feminine people.

Curtis, if being with trans women is not your cup of tea, we get it.   You ain't all that to some of us either.  But you and your buds in Rap World need to stop demonizing Black trans women, especially when some of you are desperately trying to hook up with trans women on the down low.

If You Can't (Or Won't) Unapologetically Love A Black Trans Woman, Step

This cartoon has been making the rounds in Black trans feminine world probably because it has struck a nerve to the point it motivated me to write this post about relationships.

Far too often we have some trans attracted men who wish to date us, but only if we keep it a secret. Many are too scared to live in their truth about declaring their desire to openly date trans women without judgment from society.   Some demand relationship secrecy out of concern for their own egos, concerns about what other cisgender women or their homies will say, or fear they will have their manhood questioned for openly dating us.

That social and political shaming of cis men who date trans women is a factor in what is killing us.

So hear me on this fellas and my trans sisters.  Time for a new game plan.  If you can't or won't publicly date me or my trans sisters, don't need your cowardly behind. We'll go to someone else who ain't 'scurred' to unapologetically date us and is ready to do so.

We Black trans women want to be taken out during daylight and early evening hours to public places. We wish to be occasionally spoiled and treated like the regal queens we are.

And if the relationship progresses to another level, we wish to be proudly introduced by you as your girlfriend to your family and friends.

We are not your secret lovers, hit it and quit it sloppy seconds, your punching bags because life is frakking with you or your after 2 AM booty call. We are women of quality and substance who scratch, fight and claw with every fiber of our being daily to be recognized by society as the women we know we are.

We are women who know they deserve better in relationships and aren't afraid to demand our suitors meet or exceed those high LTR standards.

Being in a relationship with a Black trans woman requires you to step your relationship game up. The world at times is unrelentingly cruel to us, and there are days we just need a hug, an empathetic ear, chocolate, an "I love you" whispered into our ear as were cuddling or all of the above.

We need you to be a best friend and a lover.

If you can't handle the challenge of loving a Black trans woman, then step. If you can, like the Marines, we're looking for a few good men, be they cis or trans.

Black trans women are their unapologetic selves 24-7-365, and 366 days in a leap year. We need LTR partners who not only recognize that, but are confident and secure in their own personhood to do the same.

Black TBLGQ America Needs To Have A Family Chat With Black America About Your Anti-TBLGQ Attitudes In 2018

There are a lot of things that need to happen in Black TBLGQ-SGL World in 2018.  Some of those things have a higher priority than others.

One of them that is an absolute imperative in 2018 is a family conversation discussing the transphobia and homophobia in our midst that is being exploited by white Republicans and white fundamentalists to create a wedge between the Black TBLGQ and Black community.

We've repeatedly tried and asked for in Black TBLGQ America for the rest of the Black community to have that conversation about the homophobia and transphobia in their midst, but have been ignored. . 

After witnessing 17 Black trans people making up the bulk of the 24 trans people murdered in the US last year, another trans woman in Detroit shot during a robbery attempt and put in a wheelchair, and two Black women and their kids savagely murdered by two wastes of DNA during the Christmas holidays, enough is enough. 

Our Black Lives Matter Too.   

We're tired of politely asking for that convo to happen and being ignored.   Now we're demanding that Come to Jesus family conversation happen because frankly, the homophobic and transphobic ignorance is killing cis and trans Black people. 

It is getting Black trans, bi and same gender loving kids thrown out of their homes and onto the streets because of a specious interpretations of scripture.   It is also leading to as the Houston HERO ordinance repeal vividly demonstrated in 2015, Black folks being hoodwinked and bamboozled into voting against human rights laws that protect the ENTIRE community because they wanna hate on TBLGQ people at the behest of white Republican voting fundies.   Meanwhile those same white fundies, once they get the result they want, kick you useful kneegrow pastors to the political curb and laugh at you in their quiet rooms at their overwhelmingly white exurban megachurches

Whether these family conversations about the anti-TBLGQ attitudes happen locally at town halls, at ,the NAACP, Urban League, National Association of Black Journalists conventions, NBJC's OUT on the Hill or ESSENCE Fest, they need to happen this year. 

It is past time for the Black community to recognize that Black TBLGQ America is an intertwined part of the Black community.  We are not going to be prayed out of existence or back into the closet..

We in Black TBLGQ World will not allow your incorrect interpretations of your religious faith to be used as an excuse to justify your anti-trans and anti-gay bigotry to fellow Black people.

Do we expect the anti-TBLGQ attitudes to go away this year?   No we don't.   We in Black trans, bi and SGL World know this is a long term project.  But we can't fix the problem unless we start diagnosing and talking about that problem.

Whenever those community conversations happen or how they get organized, it needs to be ASAP.  The patience that Black TBLGQ America has for having a polite family discussion about the transphobia and homophobia in our community's midst  is wearing thin, especially when it's our peeps who are taking the brunt of the casualties because of it.the

Black Media Transphobia Is Not Humorous To Black Trans Women

One of the things I'm really getting sick of along with the Black trans community and the parents of Black trans kids is the ongoing pattern in the Black community of our Black oriented media outlets, be they radio, television or on social media, spouting hate speech aimed at the transgender community.

It is anti-trans hate speech like this that results in Black trans women getting beat up or murdered.

The latest sorry instance of what I'm talking about happened on the New York based Power 105.1 FM radio show The Breakfast Club that is syndicated to 50 markets including Houston's KQBT-FM to an audience of 4 million people.

It is hosted by DJ Envy, Angela Yee and Charlamagne Tha God, and has has a problematic relationship with the TBLGQ community and a long history since the show premiered in 2010 of anti-TBLGQ commentary  

This latest episode of Black media transphobia started when Janet Mock appeared on the show last Tuesday to promote her new book Surpassing Certainty.

While the Breakfast Club team managed to actually do a respectful and informative interview with Janet on that day, it was painfully obvious they hadn't learned anything on Friday when they hosted the 'comedian' Lil Duval on the show.



The show went off the transphobic rails quickly starting at the 6:28 mark    In addition to Lil Duval using the t-slur, he then compounded his ignorance fueled descent down the transphobic rabbit hole by expressing the sentiment of killing a trans woman if he found out he was dating one, repeated the trans deception lie, and then topped it all off by dissing Janet Mock for laughs as the Breakfast Club hosts egged him on.

We have so far in 2017 lost 15 trans women to anti-trans violence, and 13 of those women are Black. Even more infuriating to me is many of those Black trans women we lost were under age 40.

I am sick and tired of along with the Black trans community and the parents of Black trans women, of cis Black folks peddling transphobia for laughs, ratings or your monetary gain.

It isn't funny. And I'm sick and tired of the fragile cis Black masculinity reflected in their anti-trans commentary.

When we have the Republican Party at the state and federal levels openly pushing harmful anti-trans legislation like SB 3 that we're having to fight tooth and nail in my home state and the POTUS peddling anti- trans policies, your jokes are leading to Black trans women being assaulted and murdered.

So no Breakfast Club, not tolerating your so called transphobic jokes or any upcoming weak azz apology for them, especially in light of the fact you have a long history of anti-TBLGQ commentary.  #BoycottBreakfastClub

It's past time for Black media outfits, whether they are Internet gossip blogs, TV talk show hosts who used transphobia to build their brand (Wendy Williams) or syndicated FM radio shows like the Breakfast Club to please chill with the Black media transphobia  .

It is getting Black trans women assaulted and killed.

I Repeat NAACP, Where You At When It Comes To Trans People?

Black trans people are Black people.  We are also the Black men and Black women we say we are.  In many cases we fight for our very existence in the same neighborhoods cis Black people live in and we grew up as part of.  We Black trans people are also there when it comes to fighting for the causes that are important to the Black community as a whole, 

Now it's past time, NAACP for you to stand with us.-TransGriot, March 2, 2017 

Of all the organizations that expressed outrage about 45's tweet attempting to eviscerate trans people from the US military, I noticed that despite the NAACP currently having their 108th Annual Convention in Baltimore and having an LGBT Forum last night,  there is still a deafening silence coming from the NAACP concerning transgender people.

And as a former youth member of the NAACP who is contemplating rejoining the organization, that is bothering me.

Yes, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund has commented on Trump's anti-trans tweet and that's wonderful they did so.

But what we Black trans peeps need to see and hear is a board, NAACP presidential or chair level statement unequivocally spelling out where this 108 year old organization stands when it comes to the humanity and human rights of trans people, and backing that up with action.

Just an FYI NAACP, some of those 15,500 active duty transgender service members Trump attacked happen to be Black

We Black trans folks are catching hell, and we have noted that you have been far too silent about it.The Republican Party is gleefully passing anti-trans legislation like the odious SB 3 that just passed through the Texas Senate.  We have had 15 trans women of color murdered in 2017, with 13 of those women being Black.   Most disturbing to me is the increasing levels of anti-trans rhetoric being uttered in our community spaces, the time is now NAACP for you to step up and provide the moral leadership inside this community and unequivocally state that Black trans women are Black woman, Black trans men are Black men, and the NAACP will fight for their humanity and human rights.

And we need that said not only at the national level, but in state and local NAACP chapters as well.

As Jade Lenore of BTWI-Texas recently stated, " NAACP can you take a stand for the Trans people of the Black community? Myself and others need to know if you support us and stand with us. Will you defend us against this blatant hatred that ripping through our Black Trans community?"
I'd like to know the answer to that question myself, NAACP? .

So what say ye, NAACP?   Will you summon the moral courage to stand with the Black trans community and unequivocally state that you do?  Will you form partnerships with Black trans organizations already doing the work but who could use your century plus civil rights gravitas to aid their efforts? Will you work to become trans culturally competent?  Will you reach out to the Black trans leaders, parents of Black trans children and Black community allies and supporters for guidance to help you get there as expeditiously as possible?

Will you make a dent in our 20% unemployment numbers by actually hiring qualified trans people to do the work of this organization?  Black trans people are damned sure front and center in fighting for the human rights of everyone, including cisgender Black people.

Would be nice if we could get a regular paycheck for doing so.

Or will you do what many people and millennials expect you to do and say nothing, thus justifying the ossifying impression that the NAACP doesn't care about trans people or anyone that is not heteronormative , and is continuing its journey toward 21st century irrelevance?

We in Black Trans World eagerly await the answer to this question.

Do You Want Trans Women In Your Ranks Or Not, Divine Nine Sororities?

I would hope that if a qualified #girllikeus decided she was down with the historic mission of Alpha Kappa Alpha, Delta Sigma Theta, Zeta Phi Beta, or Sigma Gamma Rho. loved that sorority's history, was qualified to be a member, and wanted to be a part of building their legacy for a new century of service she would be invited to do so and not disrespectfully turned away
-TransGriot,  December 5, 2012  

I've been talking about this subject for over a decade on this blog concerning the need for the Divine Nine sororities to emulate the evolutionary steps they took in admitting Latina, Asian, white, bi and lesbian women in their ranks and consider finally admitting trans women.

It's highly likely there are non disclosed trans members of Divine Nine sororities right now, but I would like to see out trans women have the ability and the option become available if they desire to do so to join. .

I would rather they do this unilaterally because as they realized in admitting Latina, Asian, white , Bi and lesbian women, it was the right thing to do.  Because if you as organizations claim to embrace all women, then by default all women includes transgender women as well

I'm bringing this subject up again because DL Hughley's wannabe Que Dog behind was stoking the hellfire flames of transphobic bigotry yesterday by posing the question should trans women be allowed to join Delta Sigma Theta or by extension, any of the Divine Nine sororities?

The resulting comment thread as you probably guessed was a festering pustule of transphobia.

That's a problem because these four iconic and historic Greek letter organizations, with nearly a million members worldwide and over a century of service and achievement on behalf of our Black community, comprise the largest organized group of professional college educated Black women in the world.

Divine Nine sorority members are prominent in the fields of business, government, legal, medical, media, sports, the arts and the armed forces, and it's troubling to me as the child and sibling of AKA's that elements of the Divine NIne are sounding like white TERF's when it comes to discussing transgender women.

That's a major problem for Black trans women and our Black cis feminine allies that we need to address right now.  .

So let's get this salient point established right now.  Trans women exist, trans women are women, some trans women are college educated, and are an undeniably intertwined part of the Black community.   Black trans women have been standing up for yours, theirs and everybody's human rights for decades in addition to being trailblazing members of the trans community

We are not only handling our business in being the best people that we can be, we are doing our part to uplift Black womanhood and be the intersectional allies and sisters that you can rely on.

And yes,.trans kids exist, and news flash for y'all, some of those trans kids matriculating in elementary, middle school and high school classrooms across this country are Black.

Some of those amazing trans kids in our ranks will eventually go on to attend college.  It is also possible that some of those kids, like I did, are growing up under the positive influence of members of a Divine Nine sorority, are down with the mission of that particular sorority, and as a result of their positive interactions with that Divine Nine sorority elder would love to join.

The question you'll  have to answer is will you turn that trans feminine child away like every other institution in society is doing to that trans feminine child right now?   Will you Divine Nine sororities and elements of your membership send the message to her (and her trans feminine non-Greek elders) that you're rejecting her femininity and her existence by not including her in your esteemed ranks?

What we need to hear from you right now or in the near future Divine Nine sororities is an unequivocal answer to that question.  

We need you Divine Nine to state one way or the other that either yes, we recognize trans women as the women you are and would love to have you join us if you qualify for membership or no, we don't want you even if you do qualify so we know where you stand.

The reality is you'll have to make that choice sooner or later because Black trans women aren't going away, and we're not going to stop asking this question.  
 

The New H-Town Emancipation Avenue Signs Are Up!

I've known this was going to happen since January, but the city of Houston a month before Juneteenth finally has put the new street signs up on the street formerly known as Dowling Ave.

The city followed HISD's lead in renaming eight schools that were named for Confederates, and that at times contentious renaming took effect at the start of the 2016-17 academic year.

Texas State Rep Garnet Coleman (D-Houston) started the push to rename the street a year ago.  It was originally named for Houston businessman Dick Dowling, a Confederate war hero from the 1863 Second Battle of the Sabine Pass.  

Dowling and his 47 artillery armed troops faced and fought off a Union invasion flotilla of 22 ships, armed with four gunboats and artillery of its own and 18 transports with an Union invasion force of 5000 men.   Thanks to the inept execution of the Union invasion plan, Dowling and his men managed  to disable and capture two Union gunboats and 200 soldiers as the rest of the Union flotilla retreated to New Orleans.  

The victory was celebrated with much hyperbole throughout the Confederacy and the city of Houston, with Dowling being promoted to the rank of major, but after the war dying during a Houston yellow fever epidemic in 1867.  

The street traverses the historical heart of the predominately Black and southside Third Ward neighborhood near downtown.   It passes Emancipation Park, which sits on the corner of Elgin and now Emancipation Ave, and that park also has historical and emotional significance for Black Houstonians.

Freedmen led by the Rev. Jack Yates, the first pastor of Antioch Missionary Baptist Church, the oldest Black church in Houston, raised $800 to purchase the ten acres of land that Emancipation Park now sits on to have their Juneteenth celebrations.

Emancipation Park when it opened in 1872 was Texas' first public park.   It was also the only one in the entire city of Houston open to Blacks , so it was rather insulting that a street named for a man who fought as part of an armed rebellion to keep us enslaved ran past that historic park that is directly tied to the early Juneteenth celebrations in Texas.

Until the Juneteeth Parade moved downtown, it used to come down Emancipation Ave to terminate at the park for the subsequent festival that happened there.  Went to more of a few of them with my brother and my late Grandmother Tama as a child as we grabbed a spot in the park to watch the parade go by..  

In addition to city council unanimously voting to change the name of the street, it also repaved much of Emancipation Avenue in conjunction with the $33 million renovation of Emancipation Park that will be celebrated on Juneteenth 2017..

But so happy to see the new Emancipation Avenue signs

Deric Muhammad, #WeExist

One of the things I get pissed off about in my Black community is activists, ignorant people and ministers spouting facts free anti-trans and anti-SGL rhetoric in our ranks that is a carbon copy of crap that white fundamentalists have been sputtering for decades from their megachurch pulpits and talk radio shows.

I was sent a link to a homophobic op ed authored by local activist Deric Muhammad published in the Houston Forward Times that attacks teen lesbians.

It's not only a slap in the face of the Houston Black LGBT community, this op-ed also has the problematic timing of being published as a Forward Times featured editorial on the first day of LGBT Pride Month..

Since Mr. Muhammad wrote in his article he wished to get a community conversation going, be careful what you wish for.

Ashton Woods has already written his response to Muhammad's homophobic Forward Times scribblings, now it's my turn.  .

I've met Deric Muhammad at various Houston community events in the last two years, and one of the vibes I picked up from him when I heard him speak at city hall or during various community events is that he may have a problem with his Houston LGBT siblings.   I had to call him out during a meeting held at KCOH a little over a year ago about some problematic comments that erased the Houston LGBT community during a community conversation about police brutality and the Jordan Baker case..

It's reprehensible that you have written an article that attacks lesbian teens and blames them for the problems of the Black community.  Sadly, it is confirming what I suspected when I first encountered you at the Harris County Courthouse.   I'll also point out that same gender loving attractions are not a 'choice'.. If you really believe that bull feces, then tell me the exact date that you chose to be a heterosexual Black male and chose to live a heterosexual lifestyle?

I'd also like to point out to you that one of the iconic leaders in our Black H-town community was a lesbian named Barbara Jordan.   Our lesbian sisters have not only historically been on the front lines in helping uplift our community and fighting for our civil rights, they are continuing to provide innovative and principled leadership for our community as well.

Teen lesbianism isn't the cause of what ails the Black community as a whole.  It's anti-Black policies pursued by politicians and a conservative movement that hates our people.

Our LGBT kids are already under attack from predominately white Religious Right and Republican politicians.  The last people that need to be attacking them are people in our Black community.

This divisive BS of attacking kids in the name of 'starting a community conversation'  is the last thing we need right now, and as a unapologetically proud Black trans Houstonian, it pisses me the hell off every time some person that shares my ethnic heritage decides to try to live up to the 'Black people are more homophobic' meme I have to constantly argue against in mixed human rights company.

#WeExist, Deric.   If you claim you love all Black people in H-town, then by default that includes my unapologetic Black trans behind and your Black trans, bi and SGL siblings.

Waka Flocka Flame, Shut The Fucka Uppa

One of the things I'm really getting sick of along with the Black trans community is Black cis folks acting like we Black trans folks don't exist.   The latest to fall into this trap is rapper Waka Flocka Flame, who opened mouth and inserted foot in it while on the syndicated The Breakfast Club radio show in New York on Friday

He went on a rant during the interview attacking Caitlyn Jenner as an 'affront to God' and then kept going to attack the entire trans community.

The transphobic comments start at the 9:15 mark



'Transgenders, they're marketing evil, man" he said on air before he went on to accuse the trans community of 'doing the devil's work' and as a test of society that we needed to 'outbeat'.

Back in the day there were church folk that claimed (and still do) that rap music was 'marketing evil'. If you're so concerned about the culture. then you and your fellow rappers as people who have negatively contributed to the culture you decry need to stop disrespecting women in your alleged recordings and go back to producing rap music that uplifts the community.

Not gonna hold my breath that will happen anytime soon.

And speaking of 'rebellions against God', by you having tattoos and long braided hair, you are hypocritically doing the same thing you falsely accused trans people of.

And before you start trying to Bible beat trans folks, I suggest you read Matthew 19;12, Acts 8:26-40, Isaiah 56:5 and Galatians 3:28 for starters.

Comments like yours also amp up the anti-trans hate in the Black community that lead to anti-trans violence and murder of our people.  Of the 20 trans people that have been murdered this year, 14 have been Black, and 10 of those murders were trans women under age 40.

By the way, Waka Flocka Fool, in case you didn't know it, and based on that radio interview you don't, there are millions of transpeople around the world not named Caitlyn Jenner, and surprise surprise, some of them are Black.  

We did not lose our Black cards when we transitioned, and many of those Black trans folks are doing amazing things and have been part of the kente cloth fabric of our community for over a century.  In addition to New York Times best selling authors, Emmy Award nominated actresses, and a GLAAD award nominated blogger, we have doctors, lawyers, college professors, athletes, models, classically trained singers, soldiers and parents raising kids in our ranks.

All we want to do is live our lives to the best of our ability and contribute our talents to uplifting the Black community without drama.  But far too many of you are bringing the faux faith based negativity and drama to us instead of hitting Google and educating yourselves about our lives.

If you make negative transphobic comments on a 100,000 watt radio station, we trans people who are negatively impacted by those comments have no other choice but to infer about you based on those comments that you are a transphobic idiot.

You cannot claim Waka Flocka Flame you have 'nothing against transgender people' after you spew transphobic comments in a Friday radio interview and then say you stand by those comments.

I'm not a fan of judgmental rappers who seem to think they know more about trans lives than the folks who actually live them and the scientists who have done decades of research about them.  We trans folks are superheroes and supersheroes just for getting up in the morning and living our lives to the best of our ability in a world that irrationally hates on us.

And Waka Flocka Flame, giving a half-assed non apology apology doesn't erase the real damage those The Breakfast Club comments unleashed to the psyche of a child or person in our community struggling with gender identity issues.  

Hate thoughts + hate speech = hate violence,  and those comments can lead to a trans kid being bullied at school, suicide or to a trans adult who has to deal with the real threat of anti-trans violence fueled by the anti-trans hate speech of you and your buddies in the rap world. .

I am what God made me, an unapologetically Black trans woman, proud of being both Black and trans.  If you don't like that, tough.  I don't give a rat's anus whether you do or not.  But what I will not stand for as a longtime advocate for the human rights of trans people for nearly two decades is you and other misguided Black people demonizing the trans community, and by extension, African descended trans people without calling your behind out on it because our Black trans lives matter too.

 #WeExist, and it's because of unnecessary transphobic comments like yours that our lives are a struggle.  

So Waka Flocka Flame, shut the fucka uppa and have several sections of seats at Madison Square Garden when you do so.

The Fight To Keep HERO-September 10

One day closer to November 3 and the 2015 Houston city and mayoral elections that will determine the fate of Proposition 1, AKA HERO

Mayoral candidate Ben Hall and his merry band of faux 'christian' HERO haters have ramped up their attacks on the ordinance, with Hall hosting an event at Northbrook MS in which he flat out lied about the ordinance and tried to claim the Fort Worth ordinance was better.   Yeah, figures he and his friends would like that one since it threw trans people under the civil rights bus there.  

The HERO haters have also been throwing out the talking point that the HERO is 'poorly written' and needs to be redone so that we can 'make it better.' That's bigot speak for 'we want to erase the Houston TBLG community out of it and protect our special right to discriminate'.


Funny, the Greater Houston Partnership likes it as is, can read it, and is urging a YES vote on Proposition 1.   The ordinance is also written so clearly that even a conservafool like Sarah Palin can understand it.

And what sayeth Moni to those kneegrows bearing false witness against the Houston trans community and colluding with white conservafool pastors to pimp anti-trans hate in the Houston Black community we reside in?

'Our fate as Black TBLGQ people in this country is inextricably tied to the rest of Black America, and Black folks wishing to divide the Black SGL and non-SGL communities would do well to remember that'--TransGriot March 25, 2015

Back to the HERO update.  

Transphobic ignorance has been raging unchecked in the Black community due to the HERO hatin' ministers colluding with White conservative pastors, fanning the hellfire flames of transphobic bigotry.

But we HERO supporters have been pushing back hard against the ignorance.  There was Cristan Williams masterfully pushing back against the debunked trans predator bathroom lie that has been nauseatingly repeated since 2014.

Fran Watson took on the HERO haters on Majic 102's Sunday Morning Live show. It is one of the most listened to FM stations in Black Houston, and so far it has been on the wrong side of this debate.  Didn't get any better yesterday when Majic 102 featured sexual harasser, hypocrite pastor and city council candidate Kendall Baker, who is running against Councilmember Richard Nguyen.

Kudos to Fran for going into the belly of the HERO hatin' beast yesterday when she went to Ben Hall owned KCOH-AM to confront Hall and the HERO ignorati.

Noel Freeman was recently on a KTRK-TV 13 public affairs program and demolished the bathroom predator lie.



Take notes people, this is what needs to be said about it for the rest of the HERO defense campaign and anywhere else in the country this issue comes up.

To give you an example of the bigoted ignorance we Houston Black TBLG people are encountering (and need IMMEDIATE help confronting Houston Unites), this is a snippet of an online conversation advocate Ashton Woods had with a faux faith based HERO hater (part of the anti-LGBT COGIC denomination) on a Facebook discussion thread I was also heavily active on yesterday.


I had fun dropping 20 megatons of HERO knowledge on willfully ignorant people in that thread as well..

And FYI, this is what trans people do in the bathroom.

Ashton also has an interesting post on his Strength In Numbers blog that documents who we're fighting against in this battle to keep HERO.

Ashton is also putting together a press conference that will take place at 5:30 PM CDT tomorrow (September 11) at Miller Outdoor Theater in Hermann Park.  It will give the Houston TBLG communities of color a chance to speak about why HERO is needed and necessary,

One of the other things I'm not liking in addition to the lack of trans, bi and SGL voices of color in this Houston Unites campaign defending the HERO is the silence of the local NAACP, the local Houston Urban League chapter, and the silence of far too many Black legislators at all levels of government in terms of confronting the ignorance around HERO.

Y'all need to speak up, be courageous drum majors and majorettes for justice and clearly outline where you stand on HERO before early voting starts next month.

If you support HERO, better name it and claim it.   That also goes for you peeps running for council as well.

Will pop the popcorn and see which Houston mayoral candidates during the mayoral debate tonight on ABC-13 and Univision stand up for HERO.

I already know the ones who hate it.

TERF's Have Zero Say In Defining My Black Trans Life

I got to see the transphobic piece of TERF trash written by Elinor Burkett for the New York Times (which I refuse to link to) and have held my tongue for a few days to process that waste of bandwith op-ed that has been seized on by transphobes who want to get the anti-trans hate on. 

People have asked me my opinion about what she wrote. so here goes.  

I have zero respect for people who hate me and my trans community and wish to oppress it by any means necessary.

I have zero respect for another Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist white woman who makes it clear in another published screed she never has and never will know what being trans is like, arrogantly thinks she has the power to define us and uses her privilege and media access to demonize and oppress trans people.

I'm also beyond sick and tired of being sick and tired of media outlets repeatedly giving white TERF's space in their publications to publish these so called contrarian pieces that are barely disguised TERF anti-trans hatred.

Burkett, Burchill and everyone else in TERF World want to keep ignoring the fact that despite trans exclusionary radical feminism's unrelenting 40 plus year failed effort to morally eradicate transsexuality from existence,  and still we trans feminine women rise.

That rise is being led by trans women of color sick of their words that translate into death, pain and misery visited upon our trans ranks.   And contrary to what your vanillacentric privileged TERF egos may tell you, you don't get to define the parameters of trans womanhood and what terrain the discussion will be held on, we trans women do.

The other thing that has pissed me off about this whole ongoing Caitlyn Jenner discussion is that  unless it has happened and I've missed it while handling some personal business, I have yet to hear the voices of cis non-white women in this media conversation.

When it comes to what feminists are thinking about trans women, I will take my cues from people like Melissa Harris-Perry, Kaila Story and Brittney Cooper just to name a few along with other thoughtful Black cis women who know that we Black cis and trans women have far more issues that unite us than divide us.

Both Black cis and trans women are also aware that Black womanhood has been under attack for four centuries, and it is in our mutual interests to end that demonization of Black femininity.

It's also in our mutual interests to jointly hammer home the point to the Black community that if #BlackLivesMatter, some of those Black lives that matter are also Black trans lives. 

It does not help our community when Black trans people are facing 26% unemployment.   We Black trans people need to be in a position to whee we can not only make a decent living, but be in the position in which we can contribute our talents to uplift all African-Americans.

And that needs to happen sooner rather than at some future date.

It is also in the mutual interests of Black cis women in the spirit of Black lives mattering to speak up against the attacks by white TERF's on the femininity of their trans sisters.  They need to drive home the point white women do not speak for Black women when it comes to discussing the parameters of what femininity is, and especially what Black femininity is.

One of the things that has helped me the most in my own ongoing evolutionary Black feminine journey is to have Black cis women in my corner who understand that trans women are women.   They have let me and other Black trans women know in no uncertain terms that I and other Black trans women are their sisters.

And the cool thing about that is we continue to have dialogue about what sisterhood between Black cis and Black trans women looks like in practice.

You TERF's don't get to in your loud and wrong terms slime trans women because you have never walked a nanosecond in our pumps.  Neither do you as white cis women know what it is  like to be a non-white cis or trans woman because race impacts our transitions and our trans lives.   

But non-white cis women are intimately aware of that intersection of race and femininity, and have more than a clue about what it's like to be hated for who you are for existing on Planet Earth in a Black feminine body. .

So no TERF's, you have zero say in defining my Black trans life.  I and other trans women of color thought leaders do.

We Black LGBT Peeps Only Care About Gay Rights? Ignorant Fool Please!

I saw this meme on Nephew's AKA Jaison Gardner's FB page that some fool with too much time on his hands created that I am compelled to call out.

It levels an old charge in Black non- SGL circles they aim at the Black TBLGQ community that Black gay people are 'not loyal' to the Black cause because they are 'only loyal to gay rights'.

Which is straight up bull feces.

SGL, bi and trans folks first up are Black people.  We have to deal with the everyday microaggressions and macroaggressions of just navigating life in a Black body just like straight Black folks, with an extra heaping helping of transphobia, biphobia, and homophobia dropped on top of that.

In addition to having to fight the conservative movement tooth and nail just to avoid being dehumanized, we have to also deal with the same crap coming from people who share our ethnic heritage uttering the same loud and wrong BS at us.

We in Black TBLGQ World are sick and tired of being 'too Black' for our gay counterparts and 'not Black enough' for some of you peeps regurgitating that anti-gay propaganda you've been fed by sellout ministers and FOX Noise

The reality is that Black LGBT issues are Black community issues and vice versa.

I guess the ignorant creator of this meme didn't learn anything about Bayard Rustin in school, who not only created the concept of the Freedom Rides so skillfully used by Diane Nash and SNCC two decades later, also was a brilliant movement organizer, leader, and advisor to the Rev. Dr MLK Jr. 

If it weren't for Rustin, the 1963 March On Washington wouldn't have been the spectacular success it turned out to be.   And yes, Rustin was a Black gay man.

Lorraine Hansberry, the creator of the play A Raisin In The Sun, in her brief life was a civil rights movement warrior who was also concerned about the African liberation struggle.

Guess whoever created this meme (and I wouldn't be surprised if it was someone in the National Organization for Marriage)  also forgot about James Baldwin and Angela Davis

This meme may be part of their well documented plan to drive a wedge between the African-American, Latino and SGL community, and if the fool who created this is Black, then I pity him for allowing himself to be hoodwinked and bamboozled by NOM's propaganda.

And as Coretta Scott King pointed out in a March 31, 1998  speech:

"Gays and lesbians stood up for civil rights in Montgomery and Selma, in Albany, Georgia, and St. Augustine, Florida, and many other campaigns of the civil rights movement. I salute the contributions of these courageous men and women who fought for my freedom at a time when they could find few voices for their own."

It's not just in the civil rights era that Black LGBT peeps handled their human rights business on behalf of the Black community, it's happening in 2K15 America as well.  

The Black Lives Matter movement founders, Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometti rep the L.   Black TBLG  peeps in Houston including yours truly busted their behinds to get the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance passed last May while being opposed by Black ministers and Black people on the loud and wrong side of this human rights issue.

We have the common goal along with our non-gay Black peeps of eradicating the anti-Black societal attitudes that deleteriously impact all of us.  Black BTLGQ people are not only concerned with advancing human rights for our own community, but simultaneously uplifting the Black community we intersect and interact with.

And there are many times we are doing Black community uplift work, but you just aren't aware that the person involved in your local civic club, chapter of the NAACP, or community leader is also part of the Black BTLGQ community.

While there are moments that the Black non-SGL community pisses us off with the internal homophobia that expeditiously needs eradication, the fact remains that we Black LGBTQ peeps are and historically have been an undeniable part of the kente cloth fabric of the African-American community. 

Our fate as Black TBLGQ people in this country is inextricably tied to the rest of Black America, and Black folks wishing to divide the Black SGL and non-SGL communities would do well to remember that.

So to say that Black LGBTQ peeps only care about gay rights is not only a blatant lie, it is a narrative contrary to the historical evidence.

Black Media, I Expect Higher Standards From You When It Comes To Covering Black Trans People

When I traveled to Boston for last summer's National Association of Black Journalists conference (NABJ) to discuss with fellow panelists Kenyon Farrow, Kellee Terrell and moderator Tiq Milan how to cover Black trans folks, it was with the intent of not only fostering that discussion, but impressing upon the attendees of that panel how accurate reporting about Black trans people from our media peeps is critically important.

In the first two months of 2015, seems like some Black media peeps needed to have some seats in that panel discussion as well.

Been more than pissed off to see disrespectful reporting aimed at my transsisters who have tragically lost their lives.   I've been even more irritated to note that some of the culprits guilty of transphobic reporting and failing to read their AP Stylebooks have been African-American journalists.

I expect disrespectful reporting from non-Black cisgender journalists and media outlets.   But I have a severe problem with it when the disrespectful reporting happens on the Tom Joyner Morning Show, newspapers, my hometown television and radio stations and other Black controlled media outlets and blogs

I don't even waste my breath or bandwith calling out Bossip and Sandra Rose. They are unrepentant cesspools of media transphobia that couldn't spell journalistic integrity even with the help of spell check.  But I do have higher expectations and standards for Black journalists when it comes to respectfully reporting on Black trans people.  

And here is the money paragraph once again from the AP Stylebook that has been there since 2001.

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 individuals live publicly.

If you have questions, peruse those AP Stylebook pages.   There are also the styleguides from the NLGJA and GLAAD to help a journalistic brother or sister out and avoid the wrath of Moni, my chocolate transpeeps and our allies from coming down upon you for some fracked up reporting  that could have been easily avoided.

I'd like to also see as soon as possible an entry in the NABJ Styleguide about transgender people since it seems to have become necessary to request it expeditiously happen.

And yeah, here's the difference between a transgender man and a transgender woman since y'all media peeps have picked up that annoying conservatactic of conflating the two to be snarkily insulting.

A transgender man  (or trans man) is one who was born with female genitalia but has transitioned to and lives life as a male.  

A transgender woman (or trans woman) is one who was born with male genitalia, but has transitioned to and lives life as a female.

And one other thing Black media.  Focus on what's between our ears, not what genitalia may or may not be between our legs.

Also sick of the 'deception meme' being pushed in Black media stories about trans people.  We're living our authentic lives.   You need to deal with and approach us transpeeps as you would any other person you are writing or reporting on.

It's important because ignorance in African-American ranks about trans people is being pushed by sellout Black right wing pastors from their pulpits.

The bottom line Black media is that Black trans people are not only part of the diverse mosaic of human life, we have been and still are part of the kente cloth fabric of Black America.  We aren't going away, and as Laverne Cox, Janet Mock, Tona Brown, Tiq Milan and a host of Black transpeople prove on a regular basis, and still we rise.

We have abundant talents to contribute to our Black community.  Black journalists need to get with the program and take the lead in pointing out Black trans people are Black people and our issues are Black community issues.

Black journalists and bloggers also need to realize that coverage of trans people is not click bait for your blogs, a way for you to add salacious details to your radio broadcasts, newspaper or television stories, or 'scurr' or mislead people about the purpose of non-discrimination laws that cover you and whatever other category they happen to cover.

You also have a journalistic legacy to uphold of being fierce advocates for our community.  Black transpeople once again are part of your constituency.

It's also infuriating and mind blowing to contemplate that Black journalists in the pre-AP Stylebook days writing for JET,. EBONY, HUE and Sepia magazines did a better and more respectful job of writing about transpeople than their 21st century counterparts.

Unchecked anti-trans hate speech kills.   In the wake of the murders of  17 trans women since June with the vast majority of them being African-American trans feminine women under 40, it's past time for Black media and Black journalists to ponder if their media misgendering of African-American trans women is a contributing factor to the anti-trans hatred that leads to anti-trans violence and the far too frequent murders of Black trans women.