Angel's Missing

Sadly as we close out 2014, need to signal boost a report courtesy of ELIXHER about a missing Black trans woman

20 year old Angel Elisha Walker has been missing for two months, and was last seen on that date in Salisbury, NC.

It also isn't helping that the local media has been misgendering her. 

Once again local North Carolina media, correct pronouns matter in helping solve a case that involves a transfeminine person.   It's also a sign of disrespect when you DON''T use proper pronouns ,

Her 2000 Pontiac Sunfire was found November 23 so badly burned it could not be initially identified.

Walker often traveled to the Durham and Camp Lejuene areas, so if you have any information that will help solve this case, please call the Rowan County Sheriff's Office at 704-216-8683.

Rowan County Sheriff’s Office at 704-216-8683.

Houston Trans Woman Attacked, And I'm Pissed About It

Because of the anti-trans hate speech coming from the kneegrow hate ministers of the Baptist Minsters Association of Houston and Vicinity in relation to the HERO passage battle, and it being greeted with silence from other local Black ministers and Black media outlets not called TransGriot, I was beginning to wonder when it would result in Houston area transpeople being attacked or God forbid, killed because of it.

Unfortunately, I got my answer Thursday.

According to an About magazine article, a  gang of seven people attacked Thailand Warr, who is also known as the popular Houston based female illusionist DeyJzah Opulent Mirage,  in the lobby of her Southwest Houston high-rise condo complex as she was preparing to get into a waiting cab for a performance at the Houston Improv.

She was confronted by a group of five Black men and two Black women, all in their late teens to early twenties, who she said smelled of marijuana.   She sustained injuries to her head, upper body and breasts, along with scratches across her chest when they tried to expose her breasts.

I'm attempting to get in contact with Ms. Warr and find out how she's doing along with the rest of the Houston area TBLG community.  If there are any efforts organized that need some additional love from y'all locally and nationall, I'll let you know ASAP.

But right now I'm going to focus the rest of this post on the kneegrow ministers that have been priming the pump for anti-trans violence to erupt with their hate speech as many Houston Black church leaders, our leading organizations like the local NAACP and Urban League, and media outlets like KCOH-AM and KMJQ-FM among others say nothing to condemn the sellout pastors..

Well, if y''all won't say anything, Moni will.

I and the Houston Black transgender community, in a year in which we lost 11 trans people of color in the USA, and with ten of them being African-American, are beyond sick and tired of the cricket chirping silence coming from the Houston Black church about these murders and assaults on trans people when y'all always have a fracking opinion about other crap as demonstrated in the HERO battle you know nothing about

And the fact this attack happened to Ms Warr on November 20, the day we memorialize our lost sisters, wasn't lost on me or anyone else in the trans community and our allies.

What angers me still further is because of your hatred, (yes, hatred) of transgender, gay and lesbian individuals, you real life Uncle Ruckuses have entered into an unholy alliance with Dave Welch and his conservative Republican friends to attempt to kill a much needed human rights ordinance we have NEVER had for our city. 

The attack on Ms Warr is a prime example of exactly why we need the HERO to be implemented without further delay.

And I have nothing but contempt for you for doing so and allowing yourselves to be the useful fools fronting this effort to kill HERO.

Thailand Warr is one of the few anti-trans assaults we are aware of.   How many more have transpired since you started your rhetorical attack on the Houston trans community that we are not privy to and the victims have declined to report them?

Yes, I'm grateful that Ms Warr survived the attack and I pray for her speedy recovery.  I hope the ignorant wastes of DNA who did this face justice.  But I blame the Baptist Ministers Assn. of Houston and Vicinity for sowing the anti-trans seeds at the behest of their massas in the white conservative led Pastor's Council that have now borne poisonous fruit in Ms Warr's life.

The next trans person that gets attacked by a gang of people inside Beltway 8 may not be so fortunate.

Where you at Houston Black church?    Where are your voices of condemnation for this attack Houston NAACP and Houston Urban League for starters?   Where are you Houston Black Area Democrats?  

And where are you Majic 102 and KCOH-AM?   Both of your stations can provide platforms for the sellout ministers and HERO opponents to speak and demonize the Houston African-American trans community, but you can't (or won't) provide a platform for us to rebut the scurrilous and demonstrably false charges aimed at us?

I' eagerly await the answers to those questions along with our allies

Why Joan Rivers FLOTUS Comment Was Racistly Insulting

As an unapologetically proud Black trans woman, one of the cornerstones of this blog is working to build self esteem, confidence and pride amongst my sisters in being Black women of trans experience.

Joan Rivers'' transmisogynist comment aimed at First Lady Michelle Obama Wednesday pissed me the hell off on a lot of levels.  Here's why it wasn't humorous nor complimentary

There has been a determined effort by the conservafool slime machine and conspiracy conservawackos  to plant this meme in the media that the 5'11" FLOTUS is a transwoman.   While we in Black trans world would be proud to embrace her as one of our sisters if she was,  there is overwhelming evidence she showed up on this planet on January 17, 1964 in Chicago in a cis female body, has given birth to two beautiful daughters, and has spent the last 50 years of her life in that gender role.

Congratulations Joan, you just did the conservafools dirty work for them by taking that crap our of their cesspools of right wing crazy and injecting it in the mainstream media.

It's infuriating because this First Lady, even before her husband was elected to the Oval Office, has been subjected to unprecedented levels of disrespect up to and being compared to a simian, un-American, 'racist' , 'Stokely Carmichael in a dress', called ugly and having 'that's a man' shade thrown at her by comedian Jay Mohr in 2009. 

And yes, Rivers made a borderline racist 'Blackie O' comment in 2011, so this isn't the first time she's thrown shade at the First Lady.   Now she's weaponized 'transgender' and aimed it at the First Lady as an insult.

Another element of why I'm not happy about the comment is that it plays into the racist four century old pattern of whiteness and white supremacy pushing the unwoman meme that demonizes the femininity of Black women.

If you have a group of women that you put on a societal pedestal as the paragons of beauty, fertility and the femininity gold standard that all women should aspire to, then it stands to reason that you would set up a group of women as the ones to not emulate. 

Unfortunately Black women are the ones who have been saddled with that problematic situation for the last 400 years due to the toxic legacy of the Atlantic Slave Trade.  With Michelle Obama being the defacto public face of Black womanhood as the president's wife, her femininity has been under severe assault.

It also fit into an ongoing pattern of throwing transphobic shade at any Black woman you dislike whether that woman is Fantasia, Serena Williams, Brittney Griner or the FLOTUS.   Any woman who doesn't fit the critic's narrow designation of what a woman is get saddled with transmisogynistic insults or 'that's a man' shade to police her gender presentation.

The fact the comment came out of a white woman's mouth, and one of Jewish heritage who have struggled at times through their own  tortured history with being demonized, also heightened the insensitivity and offense level of Rivers' transmisogynistic comment when seen through the eyes of Black women.

It's also telling to note that Michelle Obama's documented 50 years of life on this space rock, delivering and raising two Black female children of her own and being the First Lady of the United States still didn't shield her from being attacked by the Black Unwoman Meme and having her femininity denigrated. 

And finally, when you look at it from my vantage point as a Black transwoman, I'm pissed off by the comment because it fauxgressively implied to the world by cattily weaponizing transgender as a insult you hurled at the First Lady, that being a transwoman is something to be ashamed of, or makes you less than you as a elderly white woman with multiple surgical enhancements.  

Let me emphatically state it is not insult to be called or something to be ashamed of to be a trans woman. Neither is it shameful to be a Black woman no matter how hard whiteness and white supremacy tries to sell those woof tickets to us. 

The only person that has anything to be ashamed of is Joan Rivers for parting her collagen enhanced lips to say something that jacked up in the first place.

Piers Morgan Starts Tripping After Janet Calls Him Out Over Interview

After Janet Mock called Piers Morgan out for sensationalizing her CNN interview with her, Piers Morgan took to Twitter to strike back and call her 'ungrateful'.

For what Oh Mighty Media Whitey?   You mad and got your vanillacentric privileged fee fees hurt because the Black trans woman called your azz out for disrespecting her on your show and she and the trans community are pushing back?

The chyron your peeps used was problematic to start with. But as Janet said in her BuzzFeed interview:  

“This is my first mainstream television show, was that moment, with Piers Morgan, and you see what they did to my story. Compared to a moment if I’m on Melissa Harris-Perry, which is slightly different, a more sensitive and safe space. But I go onto Piers Morgan, and all of my followers and everyone are like, ‘What is this?’” she said. But, she noted, “It’s also more representative of the ignorance that there is about trans people’s lives. We’re out of the safe bubble of social justice.”


Frankly, we in the trans community are beyond sick and tired of being sick and tired of the six decade old focus on our genitalia in the media.  If you didn't get that fracking message last month after the Katie Couric interview with Laverne Cox and Carmen Carrera, here's the wakeup call once again.  

As a matter of fact, watch the Melissa Harris-Perry show and check out the proper way to do an interview with a trans woman.

Trans Woman Pumped By Armani Nicole Davenport Dies

Accused silicone pumper Armani Nicole Davenport's case in Louisiana which a trans woman she pumped ended up in a coma with a less than 50/50 chance of survival just took another serious turn.

On New Year's Day 25 year old Brenisha Hall, who has been in a coma since being pumped October 24 by Davenport with a still unknown substance, died after her body shut down.

The Dallas based Davenport surrendered to NOPD and Orleans Parish authorities November 6 and was charged at the time with negligent injuring. 

An autopsy was performed by Interim LSU Public Hospital officials on Hall with her death being ruled by doctors as a result of natural causes.  The results of that hospital autopsy were relayed to the Jefferson Parish Coroner's Office via phone conversation since Hall was a Jefferson Parish resident.  The Jefferson Parish coroners office released the body and Hall was buried on January 11.

But an investigation has been launched by NOPD police and prosecutors to ascertain whether sufficient evidence exists to bring a charge of negligent homicide.   It would require a new autopsy by the Orleans Parish Coroner's Office and getting permission of the family to exhume Hall's body in order to conduct it.

"In light of the victim's death, we are re-evaluating the case at this time to see if additional charges are warranted under the law," said Christopher Bowman, a spokesman for Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro.

Will keep you posted as more details emerge about this ongoing case.

NoMoreDownLow.TV Unsolved Black LGBT Murders Show

NoMoreDownLow.TV is in their third anniversary season and has up on their YouTube channel and website a show discussing the murders of out trans, bi and SGL peeps. 

It has an interview with the parents of JaParker Deoni Jones as part of it just to give you a taste of what they put together.

Why This Janet Mock Photo Is More Important Than You Think

My sis Janet Mock has been piling up the frequent flyer miles lately with recent trips from New York to the University of Louisville and The Ohio State University to talk about our issues.  But it's the Ohio State trip that raised my eyebrows, especially after I saw her photo with the legendary bell hooks.

I called Janet Saturday to catch up with her and get her impressions about meeting the iconic Ms. hooks.   She was on the Ohio State University campus as part of a discussion entitled,  "Gender Policing and the Politics of Defining Womanhood." organized by OSU's Office of Diversity and Inclusion and the Multicultural Center

They met in their Columbus hotel before the actual event and Janet gave bell an advance copy of her soon to be released book Redefining Realness. 

Janet was elated to discover the next day that Ms. hooks not only stayed up all night to read it, she was quoting passages from it during their discussion. 

Last night, upon our first meeting, I gave bell my book Redefining Realness, and she surprised me at breakfast this AM by having read the entire book. She actually read passages to the audience! It was a transformative experience for both of us, as black women from different generations and experiences to share stories, insights and thoughts.

One of the things we African-American trans women have needed African American cis women to understand is that trans women are women.  We are just as down for the cause of uplifting Black womanhood if just given the opportunity to do so.  We have also needed cis Black women to understand that some of the issues we Black trans women face walking around in a Black female body are the same cultural and societal issues Black cis women face with the additional challenges of anti-trans discrimination and off the charts violence we have to deal with on top of it.

So yeah, that picture of Janet and bell hooks is a Big Fracking Deal.  So are the Black Trans Revolution Will Not Be Televised (or blogged about) conversations Janet had with her once the just as important one during the OSU event was completed.