Happy International Women's Day 2018!

It hit me while I was on this road trip to Austin admiring the blooming bluebonnets along TX 71 that today I International Women's Day!

So I definitely wanted to take a moment while I'm chilling in Travis County for a minute to say Happy International Women's day to all my sisters cis and trans.

It's an interesting one so far.   We have more women stepping up to run for office in this 2018 cycle.  We just had a March For Black Women here in Houston that had 2000 people in attendance.

But International Women's Day sometimes brings mixed emotions for those of us in TransWorld.  Our femininity gets feminized by friend, for and frenemy, so it leaves us trans women feeling at times that we're not part of Team Woman or what this day is meant to celebrate. 

Yes, you are, because trans women ARE women, and we have and will continue to do our part to help uplift women everywhere and build sisterhood in our ranks .

Happy International Women's Day!

Happy International Women's Day 2017

Got back from ATX after a long day at the SB 6 hearing yesterday and then crashing into bed nanoseconds after I finally hit the house,  but now that I'm awake and in hard solid thinking and writing mode wanted to wish everyone a happy International Women's Day.

On this day I'm thinking about all the amazing women in my life cis and transgender who are amazing leaders in various fields, entrepreneurs, teachers,  moms, aunts, nieces, and just generally bad ass. in every way.  And thanks to the men, cis and trans who ain't 'scurred' to love, support and kick it with us bad ass women

Thank you sisters for being your fabulous selves in every way.   I also thank on this International Women's Day those cis women who are intelligent enough to realize that trans women are women, and just go with it from there in terms of helping us build the relationships and sisterhood we will need to challenge the issues that ail all women together

I'm also thinking about my international sisters who are also facing challenges in their various corners of the world.   I see you, I hear you, and on this day pledge to do what I can to elevate your concerns and get the discussion started with input from you in what actions we can take together to make your lives better.

On this day, it's all about honoring women across the planet for being themselves and working together to make this a better world for all of us to navigate.

Happy International Women's Day 2017!.

Happy International Women's Day 2016

'International Women's Day also includes the issues that impact and ail trans feminine women across Planet Earth . Don't let anyone tell you it doesn't.'
--TransGriot,  March 8, 2015

I said that in my post concerning last year's observance of International Women's Day, and that still rings true 366 days later.

Today is International Women's Day, which is observed internationally every March 8.  it originally started in 1909 as a campaign for better pay and voting rights, it has evolved as a day to celebrate the achievements of women across the globe in the social, political, economic and cultural realms. 

it is also a call to action to speed up the day that gender parity happens.

But sadly, this year's theme, Pledge For Parity, speaks to just how far we have to go to actually get to full equality for women across the planet.  On a day that has its roots in agitating for voting rights and equal pay, it's sad to note that Saudi Arabia's women just received the right to vote last year, and the numbers of women who have led their nations is still a very small sorority.

It's also past time to equalize pay for men and women doing the same jobs.  We have families in which women not only head the household , but whose income from those jobs are helping them to raise kids.

As to where trans women fit in this International Women's Day conversation, as women of trans experience that understand all too well how feminine bodies are demonized and dehumanized, we have our voices to add to this conversation.   We also need to discuss how trans feminine women are fighting tooth and nail just for human rights recognition in our various nations.

We also need to talk this moment to point out that fighting for the human rights of trans feminine people expands human rights for cis women.

Happy International Women's Day to all my sisters, cis and trans..
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International Women's Day Includes Trans Women, Too!

Today is International Women's Day, which is celebrated every March 8.

The UN sponsored iteration of the day dates back to 1977, but the day's history goes back to 1909.

This year's theme is 'Equality For Women Is Progress For All', and equality and progress for women includes trans women in that mix as well.

Anti-trans feminine discrimination and violence basically has its roots in the same systemic anti-woman attitudes and anti-women violence that has historically plagued women on our planet.

And we trans women aren't immune to that.   Ours just comes with a heaping helping of transphobia on top of it along with the refusal to realize what we and medical science already knows in terms of  that trans women are women.

Medical science is increasingly making that point for us along with shifting cultural attitudes and the realization that the trans rights movement is an international human rights one..

But as we celebrate this 2015 edition of International Women's Day in Trans World, while we celebrate the fact that we have trans women running for political office in Britain, have trans parliamentarians in Belgium and Poland, trans feminine models rocking runways from New York to Milan, one who performed on the hallowed stage of Carnegie Hall, another who scored a groundbreaking legal win in Kenya., others who will grace movie and our television screens commenting on various issues inside and outside the trans community, we have trans women around the world who are not experiencing that same level of progress.

In many parts of the world, trans human rights progress is occurring at a glacial pace, if at all.

We still have far too many around the world that experience crushing discrimination that leads them to engage in survival sex work to pay the bills.  

And far too many of our sisters are being killed for simply trying to live their trans feminine lives in the United States, Latin and Central America, Brazil and Turkey.

And those are the trans murders we are aware of.

We have the Canadian Conservative led government that since 2013 has been stalling passage of C-279, the Trans Rights Bill as various Republican state led jurisdictions are trying to pass laws that dehumanize trans people and allow discrimination against them for their own selfish political gain.

And now that the US right wing is losing on the gay marriage issue, they now are starting to attack the humanity of trans people as their ticket to political power, fame and fortune and legitimacy in conservative political circles.

I wrote this last paragraph in a post penned for the 2012 edition of International Women's Day, and it still applies two years later as to where trans women fit into this day..

While we are fighting to overcome the transphobic hatred and disinformation aimed at us, we also seek to continue discussions with our cis sisters as to where trans women fit in the grand scheme of womanhood.  We're more than willing to do our part to help uplift all women cis and trans around the globe if we're respectfully given an opportunity to do so. 

And we're ready to handle our feminine human rights business if that respectful invitation comes.
 
International Women's Day also includes the issues that impact and ail trans feminine women across Planet Earth . Don't let anyone tell you it doesn't.