Happy Trans National Holiday 2017

There's a reason why I call October 31 the Trans National Holiday. 

It's one of the few times in our binary culture (Mardi Gras, appearing in a film or play, drag in the gayborhood or female mimics clubs are the other moments) in which cisgender men can put on the clothes of the opposite gender and not get crucified for it.

Now if you do it any other time, outside of a female illusionist club or outside the gayborhood, then you are castigated for it.

It's also one of the times that if you are in the questioning phase of your gender identity,  Halloween became the day that you basically ventured out of the closet to make that test drive foray into the world dressed as your true self.

It's why before I transitioned I circled October 31 on the calendar and planned my en femme forays into Montrose with the precision of the D-Day invasion.

Then as the 80's progressed and I became more certain that it 'wasn't a phase' but an intrinsic part of who I am, I stopped just limiting myself to Halloween.

Halloween was also the time that the elaborate drag balls like Finnie's Ball in Chicago and the ones in New York dating back to the Harlem Renaissance happened that drew thousands of people.

It's why there is some truth to the joke that we tell in trans groups and at our conferences that today's crossdresser is tomorrow's trans woman booking a flight to Bangkok for her SRS.

One of the things that surprised me when I first typed in 'transsexual' just to see what happened in Google Books and all these digitized EBONY and JET magazine archived trans themed stories popped up, is my astonishment ho well in many cases EBONY and JET actually covered those issues up to and including the correct pronouns.

Through much of the 50's and 60's JET would post a short story with pics in one of their November issues of the drag queen and later drag king winners of Finnie's Ball

I was also fascinated by those pics from the New York and Chicago drag balls in a 1953 EBONY issue and how much glitz and glamor surrounded those events and the cash prizes paid to the winners.

There were also the Paris female illusionist cabarets of the late 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's like Madam Arthur, Le Carrousel and Cabaret Michou in which April Ashley, Coccinelle, Bambi, Amanda Lear and even a young Caroline Cossey performed.

While the glamorous Harlem Renaissance era balls of the 20's and 30's gave way to the ballroom community, the traditions are still there in terms of people competing to see who can looking flawlessly feminine and who can be on point masculine.

Trans themed pageants serve that purpose today along with the ballroom community.  The capital of the trans cabaret world long ago shifted from France to Thailand, home to Tiffany's and the Alcazar in the seaside resort city of Pattaya.

But on this 2017 edition of the Trans National Holiday, we do so as the dark cloud of the Trump Administration casts a shadow upon our country chock full of people hostile to the trans community.  Fundamentalists Christians and Muslims and Republican legislators attack our communities.   Even Pope Francis has violated his 'who am I to judge' statement by judging the international transgender community.

It's why just being a girl or guy like us is a revolutionary act, and I salute all you peeps who are venturing out later on this Halloween evening and using it to take your first steps toward becoming your true selves.

TNA Halloween Fundraising Party At Hamburger Mary's Tomorrow

For those of you who don't want to watch Game 6 of the World Series and wish to break out your costumes  why not head over to Hamburger Mary's and do so for a good cause?

The Transgender National Alliance helps low income trans people get name and gender marker changes.  TNA helped me get mine back in February, so I got to see firsthand the work they do

TNA is hosting a fundraiser there tomorrow night that will be emceed by Lady Shamu and  Veronica Strutts.   In addition to the Zombies of Mary's, they'll have candy, games and a raffle with prizes that include original art, jewelry, champagne and whiskey .

$20 entry fee that includes the games, $5 for the raffle tickets. 

The TNA Halloween party benefits the Transgender National Alliance and Transgender Women of Color United for Change, and will run from 6-10 PM.

If you're interested, you can call Hamburger Mary's at 713-677-0674 to reserve your table.  Hamburger Mary's Houston is located in the heart of the gayborhood at 2409 Grant Street. 

Is Your Halloween Costume Racist?

Today is Halloween, and thought I'd post this handy flowchart graphic to help you avoid selecting a racist costume and getting the side eye for the groups offended by those costumes.

Remember a people's culture is not a costume for you to mock on Halloween.  If you did and aren't part of the basket of deplorables, you have time to run to your nearest Party City or other costume shop to get a replacement.

Donald Trump however, is fair game.

If You're Wearing Blackface This Halloween, You're A Racist Jerk

Halloween is coming up this Monday, and already seeing the pics on Facebook and Instagram pic of white peeps wearing blackface 'costumes.

Once again, blackface is not funny, not considered complimentary because of the long history of it being used to demean and dehumanize my community dating back to the early 19th Century.

My people and my culture is not a costume for you to put on for your amusement.

You also know blackface is wrong.  If you choose to ignore this warning for any reason, I don't want to hear any "I didn't know blackface was bad" commentary or other weak excuses trying to justify it because myself and other Black people across the Net have said it and written thousands of words why it's jacked up.

And don't even try to deploy the Wayans Brothers White Chicks movie as a defense.  That's an automatic nonstarter.

Note to white women who wear blackface, If you've decided you're to do so after you have been warned not to and why it's not appropriate, don't be surprised at the backlash you get.  Your white tears will not save you from the backlash that will rain down upon you for your lousy decision.

And heaven help you if Black Twitter gets to those pics you thought were cool or funny.   Those blackface pictures will also follow you around forever.

Just say no to Blackface this Halloween, people. If you do, don't be mad when people consider you a racist jerk for doing so

Happy Trans National Holiday 2015!

Today is Halloween, and for those of you who aren't getting rained on like we are in Houston right now, hope you will have a wonderful time taking to kids out to trick or treat, or at that costume party you're planning to attend later tonight.

And don't wear Blackface.   While I'm at it, don't wear yellowface, redface or think that you can put on a non white persons cultural traditions like some sort of costume.  Just say no and use that brain to come up with another idea for a Halloween costume.

Now that I've gotten that TransGriot public service announcement out of the way, Happy Trans National Holiday!

Halloween has been the night in which our people held elaborate drag balls in Chicago and New York that drew thousands on the South Side and the old Roseland Ballroom.

But it was also the night that we trans folks were free to if just for one day, be the everyday men and women we wanted to permanently be the other 364 days of the year.

I know that was the way I looked at it on those Halloween nights before I moved into my own place.  I'd head to a trusted friends apartment where I had my femme clothing stashed, take the time to gleefully get in femme mode and go to Studio 13 in Montrose as an everyday sister just getting off work.

And it's interesting to note that once transition happened for me and became a reality, Halloween wasn't a day I planned with the efficiency of the D-Day invasion, but became just another day on the calendar.

So for trans people and those contemplating transition, Halloween has a different meaning than it does for cis people.  It's only after we become our true selves that we transpeeps even begin to think about it in terms of 'what costume do I wear'?

Happy Trans National Holiday people!

For Halloween 2015, Just Say No To Blackface

Halloween is five weeks away, and it's time to remind you white peeps early to just say no to blackface.   Doing so is NOT 'cool, hip, or edgy' it's straight up racist.

So spare yourself the easily avoidable drama and find characters and people from your own culture to emulate this October 31. My culture and my people are not costumes for you to put on for your amusement.

But I'm willing to bet some arrogant vanillacentric privileged fool will ignore this advice and find themselves in a media caca storm for doing exactly what I'm warning them not to do.

So word to the wise, just say NO to blackface.

Happy Trans National Holiday 2014!

In the trans* community, Halloween is sometimes known by us by another name.

It's called the Trans National Holiday.

We call it that because Halloween, like Mardi Gras and Carnival in Brazil is one of the few periods on the calendar in which you can engage in cross gender dressing and not get judged for it.

It's the other days on the calendar that are problematic.

My first Halloween en femme was spent in 1980 at the old Studio 13 on Westheimer Rd.  I thought it highly humorous at the time that one of the major streets that transited the Montrose gayborhood had the same name as the famed sexologist Dr. Ruth Westheimer.  In my case, I was taking another step toward the giant leap of me becoming Moni.

Since I'm now 20 years into transition, Halloween doesn't have that same excitement for me that it once did, but for those peeps who are on the CD end of the community, this is a big night for them until they can get to their next CD conference or group meeting or those questioning whether they should start a gender transition.

It's also a big night for the folks who provide the transformation services that help them look their gender best, too.

I do the hard solid thinking about the Trans National Holiday pondering the historical aspects of it in terms of the elaborate Harlem Renaissance drag balls of the 20's and 30's and their ballroom community successors.  

Chicago's Finnie's Ball  and similar ones that took place in New York City and elsewhere around the country drew large crowds and people competing for cash prizes that sought to flawlessly look like for that evening the man or woman they in some cases secretly wanted to be full time.

Those drag balls are a piece of our trans history we should never forget.   We should also never forget the CD peeps are also part of our community.  As the joke with a grain of truth goes that we tell in gender groups and at conferences like SCC, today's crossdresser is tomorrow's trans woman booking a flight to Bangkok for GRS.

So Happy Trans National Holiday!   If your plans are to dress in femme attire, be a drag king or your favorite person of whatever gender, hope you have a wonderful evening doing so.  

And I also hope that tonight serves as the opening steps to your arriving at your own gender epiphany, and your future happiness flows from it..

Happy Trans National Holiday 2013!

Happy Trans National Holiday, or what the rest of you cisgender peeps recognize as Halloween. 

It's what I sometimes call this day because of the drag balls that used to happen in Chicago, New York, New Orleans and even here in Houston that drew attendance in the hundreds and thousands and were eagerly anticipated events. . 

It's also the one day on the calendar except during Mardi Gras when society doesn't trip about gender bending costumes, female illusionists or trans people walking the streets.

It's the rest of the year that's the problem. 

Before I transitioned I used to eagerly circle this day on the calendar and assemble what I was going to wear, and what LGBT clubs in Montrose I was going to hit with the efficiency of Gen Schwartzkopf planning Desert Storm.

It's probably why post transition I'm not as into the Trans National Holiday as I used to be before 1994. 

It's raining here in H-town as I compile this post, and I hope it slacks off so the kids can at least go out and get their trick-or-treating done. Then again, maybe I don't because it's Thursday night, and y'all know what show comes on tonight. 

Note to you in H-town, if you ring my doorbell after 9 PM CDT in search of candy,  it won't be answered because I'll be munching on leftover candy, writing when the mood hits me and watching Scandal. 

Speaking of writing, here's some of my past TransGriot Halloween themed scribblings for your perusal.


As for the big kids, my homegirl Vanity Wilde already held her annual Halloween party last weekend. 

She probably still has her transformations business locale  decorated in spooktactular fashion for tonight.

I suspect since it is Trans National Holiday, she's going to be busy working her makeover magic on all her clients who booked her today so they can put their gender best foot forward later tonight.     

So if the TransGriot were going out tonight in costume, who would she be dressed as? 

My top five would be Olivia Pope, our FLOTUS, a supermodel, Miss Universe and a WNBA ballplayer.

That's a thought for next year.  The costume stores are cleaned out at this point and  I have every intention of being on the couch tonight and chilling as I wait for the latest episode of my fave show to start.

But for those of you who are going out tonight as your fave characters or your true selves, Happy Trans National Holiday!  

White People, Blackface Is NOT Appropriate For Halloween Or ANY Day

'North American Black people have a zero tolerance policy toward any manifestation of white people in blackface, whether it is maliciously racist or not.

We don't care if you are a drag performer, a model doing a high fashion photo shoot, somebody doing so as a badly thought out Halloween costume or drunken white college kids perpetuating negative stereotypes of African descended people in the name of fun and frivolity. You need to get it through your vanillacentric privileged minds blackface is offensive to African descended people and there is no justification in our chococentric minds for doing so.'
--TransGriot July 7, 2013  I Repeat: White People Doing Blackface Drag Is Not Acceptable, Period!


With Halloween fast approaching, we have had increased sightings of vanillacentric privileged people in blackface and when they get justifiably called out on it, have other clueless white peeps trying to come to their defense about it.


Blackface was used to demean and dehumanize African-Americans for almost 2 centuries, and non-white folks are beyond sick and tired of being sick and tired of having this discussion about blackface and why we have a zero tolerance policy toward it. 

Julianne Hough is only the latest white person to find out the hard way just how much we hate blackface. Or was she not paying attention when we called out everybody from Ted Danson to college students majoring in disrespect for doing so?     

Yes Julianne, we get it you love the show Orange Is The New Black.  But you had plenty of other characters you could dress up as like Pennsyltucky, Piper and Red for example.  Why Crazy Eyes?

"I am a huge fan of the show Orange is the New black, actress Uzo Aduba, and the character she has created,” she wrote. “It certainly was never my intention to be disrespectful or demeaning to anyone in any way. I realize my costume hurt and offended people and I truly apologize."

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/10/26/4579558/julianne-hough-apologizes-for.html#storylink=cpy

But this wasn't the lone instance of well known white people donning black face.   Check out what designers Alessandro Dell'Acqua, Paula Cademartori and others did at a fashion industry Halloween party in Milan with a 'Disco Africa' theme.   

Any wonder why the catwalks at the fall and spring fashion shows are always overwhelmingly walked by white models? 

Bottom line, say no to blackface, because your azz will be called out about it. 

Read the next line and commit it to memory for Halloween and beyond. 

My people and my culture are not costumes for you put on for your or your people's entertainment and amusement.  And when we call your azz out about it, you don't get to tell me as the offended POC party what is and isn't offensive or to 'lighten up' about it.


Blackface is not appropriate for Halloween or ANY day.

 

Scary Proposition For African-Americans

One of the things that sends shivers up my spine this Halloween is fast forwarding to November 6 and hearing the networks say, "We project Mitt Romney will be the next president of the United States." 

I also don't want to see the FOX noise gloating that will ensue.

It is why you've seen the long lines of African-Americans at the polls enduring waits in some cases of several hours to do so because to us the prospect of hearing those words and what they mean long term scares me and other African-Americans to death.

We fear a Romney presidency for starters because he will fill the Supreme Court and our federal judiciary with Robert Bork-Antonin Scalia clones.   His domestic policies as Rosie Perez stated, suck and that's before we even get to discussing his clueless foreign policy.

No, Mitt Romney scares the hell out of me and many African-American in this country, and we definitely want 4 more for POTUS 44.

Happy Trans National Holiday!

No, the date is correct, it is October 31 and today is Halloween.   We also jokingly call today in the transgender community the Trans National Holiday.

It is the one day on the calendar besides Mardi Gras in New Orleans in which a cis male can put on feminine attire and not be looked at cross-eyed or have their manhood or sexuality questioned.   Outside of those days, different story.


This night back in the day used to be an eagerly anticipated one on the south side of Chicago.  Finnie's Ball happened on Halloween night and was a must attend event for several decades that drew thousands of people. 

It was so big that the 1952 one got covered in EBONY magazine.  JET magazine routinely devoted a page to it in one of its November weekly issues to discuss the ball and the drag king and queen prize winners of the affair until the 70's.  There were similar events in New York as well as other parts of the country with significant clusters of TBLG people.

October 31 was one of the days on the calendar we transpeople circled so that we could be our true selves, if just for that day and night.  It was when you did so on days besides October 31 is when you had a clue that there were other gender related issues going on. 

I have written a few Halloween themed TransGriot posts throughout the years on a few topics pertaining to this day that you can peruse for your reading pleasure here..

I hope you TransGriot readers had fun at whatever Halloween parties you attended this past weekend.

If you're escorting costumed younglings out and about tonight in their search for candy, please be safe while doing so.

And yeah, I'd love some candy corn. I'm out of it.

Mass quantities of chocolate will work as well.

TransGriot Halloween Posts

Happy Halloween, People!


I'm back home for my first Halloween in a decade, but it also means that for the first time in nine years I'm going to miss all the fun on Hillcrest Avenue in Louisville.

In addition to scarfing up mass quantities of candy and wearing spooktacular costumes, Halloween has the rep in the GLBT community as the TBLG national holiday.

The ballroom community can trace its roots to the elaborate Harlem Renaissance era drag balls held in New York.  They used to do a big one on Halloween.   Chicago's ballroom community has its South Side roots in the Finnie's Ball that was held on Halloween night starting in 1935. 

It's the one day on the calendar when a cisgender male can put on a dress and people won't bat an eyelash at him.  Let that same cisgender male do it on the other 364 days on the calendar and suddenly it's a problem.


I've written a few Halloween themed posts on the blog, and though I'd give y'all a chance to peruse them. 

Halloween-The Transgender National Holiday

What Are You Wearing For Halloween?

Nightmare On Hillcrest Avenue


New York's Greenwich Village Halloween Parade

Finnie's Halloween Balls

Warning: Frighten Black Peeps During Halloween At Your Own Risk

I Want Candy (Corn)

Not Feeling Halloween


Pat Robertson And CBN Friends Are Tripping Again