Monica's Excellent JCPS Board Meeting Adventure

It's been a busy couple of days for me, but fighting intolerance is a never ending job.

Saturday night I ended up protesting an HRCoid at the Out and About dinner. Today I spent most the afternoon and evening speaking in front of the Jefferson County School Board to urge that they move forward with a employment policy addition that adds sexual orientation AND gender identity.

I arrived at the Van Hoose Education Center in fly girl fashion diva mode, just in time for the committee hearing that was being held on the issue. Hey, these meetings are televised on local cable TV, so a sistah has to look good.

I did get to speak for a few moments in front of that three person committee, but they voted 2-1 to recommend to the full board that they proceed with adding sexual orientation only.

So the day's not getting off to a great start. I was even more upset when I went to use the facilites and discovered that I left my makeup bag on the bathroom sink at home.

However, I had to shake it off because the board meeting was starting at 7 PM and I was scheduled to speak along with 8 other people on the pro side. We didn't know how many peeps on the anti side would show up and really weren't too concerned about it. We had a multi ethnic and varied group ready to be drum majors for justice.

Our group included two teachers, JCPS parents and students and other progressive Louisville peeps. One of those teachers was an award winning private school transgender one who was fired 24 hours after a Catholic school principal made the local news. The principal was arrested for allegedly soliciting in drag on 18th Street, a known transgender hooker area in Da Ville. The transgender teacher didn't even work at the crossdressing principal's school, but was fired anyway.

We eventually had a total of 30 people show up while the anti side could muster only six. The most delicious part was because the JCPS board was doing recognitions, the entire left side of the meeting room was taken up with the kids, their proud parents, and administrators and teachers there for another part of the meeting agenda. We'd already grabbed the front three rows on the right hand side of the meeting room, so the anti side had to sit behind us.

The CON side consisted of three speakers and about six people total holding their 'no special rights' signs. Two of them were the usual suspects involved with the local Forces of Intolerance.

After two hours they finally got to the part of the meeting in which citizens can address the board on various issues. The order of speakers basically goes in terms of the order in which you called the JCPS secretary to sign up.

The ground rules are you have three minutes to speak. You get a 30 second warning bell, and then a double bell to signal that your time is up.

After I spoke, I ironically had the infamous Dr. Frank Simon called to speak behind me. He's the legendary Klansman (oops, allergist) who's allergic to GLBT people and progressive issues. He's the head of KY Right To Life and a constant nattering nabob of negativity in Da Ville anytime progressive policies are being proposed. He crawled from under his rock to go on a three minute 'GLBT people cause AIDS, typhoid and other diseases' rant before he left the podium.

The second anti speaker was a elderly white grandfather from the South end Okolona neighborhood. He spouted the standard rhetoric about the 'Homosexual Agenda' and not wanting his granddaughter being taught 'how to be a lesbian' by public school teachers.

The third anti speaker was a Black representative of Rev. Jerry Stephenson, our resident Black GLBT hater. I ripped Jerry's behind in a November 2004 TransGriot newspaper column about his comments during the marriage amendment battle in which he stated that GLBT peeps din't have anything to do with the African-American civil rights movement and he was tired of 'our movement being hijacked'.

The sycophant apologized for Jerry not being there and whined about my Forces of Intolerance barb. When he passed me when he was done speaking I said to him, "If the white sheet fits, wear it my brother."

Their negative rhetoric was countered by us kicking knowledge, quoting stats, and telling heartfelt stories before the meeting adjourned for the evening.

My prayer is that we not only changed some hearts and minds tonight, but won a few votes in the process.

Oh by the way, here are my remarks to the board. Enjoy.

***

Dr. Berman, Chairman Hardesty, distinguished school board members and fellow citizens.

I'm Monica Roberts, a resident of District 2 and the child of a retired Houston Independent School District teacher. I left my hometown and I'm now a six year resident of Louisville.

I am a transgender person and concerned citizen who is here tonight to give a voice and put a face on the people that are being left behind by the proposal to only cover sexual orientation in JCPS employment policy and not gender identity as well.

By proposing to move forward to cover sexual orientation only, you are saying to me and other transpersons in Jefferson County that we are not valued, we are not worth protecting from discrimination, and our desires to help contribute our talents to help build our society aren't wanted.

If the LA Unified School District, the second largest district in the United States can not only cover gender identity but come up with comprehensive policies on this issue, what's holding JCPS back?

The Fairness laws have the language, the law has been around since 1999, it's been tested in the conservative 6th District US courts, so I fail to understand why we simply can't use this language to cover everyone?

This is being pushed as an 'incremental rights' approach, but as I and other transpeople know all too well, incremental rights passed for one group leads to EXPONENTIAL increases in bigotry and discrimination directed at the non-covered people by the Forces of Intolerance.

This is our state, our country, our city, our county and our school district as well. Educating the next generation of leaders is a major priority that we can all agree on. We need to have the flexibility to attract the best and brightest people to work for and remain employed by JCPS.

The best and brightest also includes transgender people as well. I humbly ask as a citizen that JCPS include gender identity as well in the proposed employment policy addition.

Thank you.

The Kentucky Fairness Alliance Dinner Protest

Last night I had the pleasure of attending the Kentucky Fairness Alliance Out and About dinner here in Da Ville at the Frazier Arms Musuem. KFA is our statewide GLBT org who is just as pissed as we are about the non-inclusive ENDA.

It was shaping up to be a great event. Robbie Bartlett, one of our local favorite blues, R&B and jazz singers was the entertainment. I had a great time talking to her about a variety of subjects before she had to exit the table and join her band in preparation for her performance. We had some local and state politicians that came to show their support along with many members of the progressive civil rights community in Louisville. I had a great time kicking Transgender 101 knowledge to some of our straight allies who were sitting with me at the Fairness Campaign table.

Unfortunately, the keynote speaker was the first executive director of the Homosexual Rights Corporation, Vic Basile. So when he strode to the podium to make his speech, I stood up and turned my back to him.

Another transperson at the dinner joined me along with five other guests. Others picked that moment to head to the bathroom or take cigarette breaks. When Basile got to the point in his speech about the ENDA passing on Wednesday being a historic moment, there were scattered boos in the room.

The protest had the effect of making Basile angry and I noted he started stumbling over his speech. When he was done I sat down as he got some weak golf clap applause. He hightailed it out of the room before I could pin him down about some selective retelling of African-American civil rights history in support of the HRC 'incremental rights' spin they are trying to use to justify cutting transgender people out of ENDA.

My point is that your push for 'incremental rights' will result in exponential increases in bigotry, discrimination and violence against transpeople like myself. We've already seen the anti-transgender sentiment surface during the ENDA debate among some elements of the GLB communty. And as Terrance at the Republic of T blog so eloquently put it, the 'incremental rights' crowd is extolling the virtues of using spoonfuls of justice to counteract shovelfuls of injustice.

It's not cool when you're the one at the receiving end of the shovelfuls of injustice.

In Basile's speech he made the point about standing in the way of intolerance. For a few minutes last night I took his advice and did just that.

Syimone, Syimone, Syimone....

TransGriot Note- This was going to be my September 2007 newspaper column. The column wasn't printed due to threats of legal action.

-------------------------------------------------------
To Syimone (And Every Black Female Illusionist Who Thinks Like Her)
“I’m not offended by Shirley Q. Liquor because my sexuality is more important to my sense of who I am that my skin color is, and I don’t see the so called Black community out there in the streets protesting for my right to love and fuck and marry who I want.”

That was a quote from Syimone, one of The Connection’s female impersonators. It was originally printed in a June Rolling Stone article about Chuck’s jacked-up minstrel show persona and was recently reprinted in the July 18 issue of the LEO. (the Louisville Eccentric Observer, a local alternative newspaper.)

While we African-Americans aren’t monolithic in thought and she has a constitutional right to her opinion, this comment is just begging for me to expound on it.

News flash for you, Syimone. Race overrides everything in the USA. The color line and the attitudes that accompany it predate the founding of our country by 150 years. So check that birth certificate of yours. It definitely doesn’t have a box to check for gay or straight on it.

There are also African-Americans working for the marriage equality you yearn for. Check out the website of an organization called the National Black Justice Coalition at http://www.nbjcoalition.org/

One of the things I’ve observed and disliked about the African-American illusionist community over the last twenty-five years is some of its members egocentric selfishness combined with Clarence Thomasesque hatred of their ethnic background.

Syimone, since you’re so quick to denigrate the African-American community about what they haven’t done for you, I’d like to ask what you have done FOR the African-American community?

That’s what I thought.

But let’s examine your comment that your sexuality is more important than your ethnic background. Since that’s what you claim (and I think it’s bull feces), where were you when the Fairness laws were under attack in 2004? Didn’t see you at Metro City Hall that night confronting the Reichers. Have you lobbied our legislators in Frankfort or Washington DC for the marriage equality you say is so important to you?

This hatred of your Blackness is not the only issue about you and some of your female illusionist sisters that irritates me and the African-American transpeeps who ARE doing thangs in the community. We get annoyed when we see y’all sit on your silicone-enhanced asses and constantly complain about what peeps aren’t doing for you, but y’all won’t step out of your show world cocoons to be informed or give a damn about issues that matter to the ENTIRE African-American community gay and straight.

So as the old saying goes, if you ain’t part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.

Syimone, I vehemently disagree with your misguided statement that your sexuality overrides your ethnicity. You may believe that fairy tale, but in the real world our dealings with white-dominated orgs such as HRC and GLAAD make a mockery of that. If sexuality overrides ethnicity, then why are there over twenty Black pride events scattered all over our country and around the world?

You chose Chuck over your people and you look like a Condoleezza Rice clone in the process. If you said that because you’re angry at the African-American community or were misquoted, then please contact me and I’ll give you the chance in a future TransGriot column to explain yourself.

But Syimone, if this is the prevailing sentiment of you and your female illusionist sisters, then y’all are as clueless as Chuck and it’s past time for all of y’all to check the alarm clock and wake up.

The Summer of My (Sports) Discontent

This has been a tough summer for this Houston sports fan.

My 'Stros are languishing in fourth place and trailing the Brewers, Cubs and Cardinals. My Comets never recovered from the 0-10 hole they put themselves in to start the 2007 WNBA season and missed the playoffs for only the second time in franchise history. They finish the season against the LA Sparks tonight. Rice made it to the College World Series again but got eliminated. My high school alma mater Jones is coming off an 0-10 2006 football season and the Rockets once again made a quick exit out of the NBA playoffs.


There hasn't been a lot for me to cheer about on the sports home front. I've gotten spoiled over the last decade with WNBA championship runs, the Astros making runs to the postseason and eventually the World Series in 2005, my Falcons winning the 4A boys state title in basketball and making deep playoff runs on the girls side. Even the Dynamo got into the act by moving to H-town from San Jose and promptly winning the MLS championship last year in Dallas.

Oh well, at least the Texans are starting to show some improvement, the Dynamo are on track to make the MLS playoffs and my Coogs are the defending C-USA football champs.

But it hasn't been all bad this summer. U of L made the CWS which was great and caused a lot of excitement here in Da Ville. They are the defending Big East champs in football and have a legitimate Heisman Trophy candidate in Brian Brohm. UK fans are actually looking forward to an SEC season that doesn't involve playing home games at Rupp Arena. While I root for Kentucky teams since I live here and stay mostly neutral in the war between UK and U of L fans, my sports loyalties however, are in the Lone Star State.

But a fact of life is that sports teams have rises and falls for a variety of reasons. Bad drafting decisions, key players leaving due to free agency, perennial powerhouses breaking up thanks to salary cap trouble, players retiring, et cetera. Looks like my favorite teams are about to go into rebuilding mode for a while.

But I'm not gonna abandon them either. My teams will be back and better than ever. With a little luck I may even get to add some more Houston sports championship t-shirts to my collection.

Goodbye, Tammy Faye

Back in 2003 I attended my first Derby party as a Louisville resident. This particular derby happened on May 3, the day before my birthday so I got the tickets as an early birthday present from friends.

The Derby Benefit is a fundraising event for the Fairness Campaign, the local GLBT org here. It's a star-studded affair just like all the other Derby parties that take place in Louisville during Derby Week. It draws its share of national celebs as well straight and gay. You also have gay-friendly celebs popping in to give shout-outs to their GLBT fanbase as well.

In addition to the fun of getting glammed up for my first Derby party, I received a double dose of pleasure when I discovered that The Lady Chablis was there in attendance along with Tammy Faye. Anna Nicole Smith was walking in just as me and my friends were leaving around 10 PM. I got the Lady Chablis to autograph my copy of her book Hiding My Candy and after chatting with Chablis for a few minutes, started talking moments later to Tammy Faye.

Aftwr remarking how she wished she was my height (a sentiment also shared by the 5'3" Lady Chablis) we talked about our faith. She said something to me that she later shared with the assembled partygoers when she went up to the mic to speak.

"God loves you, too. Never let anyone tell you that He doesn't."

I thought about that when I heard the news Sunday that Tammy Faye lost this round battling an unrelenting foe in cancer. She's beat it back twice but this time it was not to be.

Tammy Faye came across to me as a warm, funny and caring person. She's more Christian than many peeps who claim they are. She talks the talk and walks the walk. She's a class act that's definitely gonna be missed.

Elizabeth Kizito

Another installment in my ongoing series of articles on transgender and non-transgender women who have qualities that I admire.

I was introduced to her cookies a year before I actually met Elizabeth Kizito in 2001. She lived two doors down from our old house and one of the things I hated about our move to the new one is that every Christmas we used to get a cookie basket from her. We used to fight over who would get to devour the snickerdoodles.

Elizabeth Namusoke Kizito-Bartlett parlayed her father's cookie recipe and business acumen learned as a little girl in Uganda and turned it into a legendary Louisville institution.

She's known as 'The Cookie Lady' in Louisville and you'll see her delectable treats in stores all over Louisville. You can also get them at her shop on Bardstown Road which also has African arts and crafts for sale. She sells her treats at various Louisville events, several local Louisville outlets and at Louisville Bats games by using a skill she learned back in Uganda. She will walk through the crowd balancing a basket on her head filled to the rim with her cookies.

At 17 she was sent by her father, who owned a bakery business in her homeland to attend school. She moved to Louisville in 1978 and worked as a waitress at a local restaurant. She baked cookies for her co-workers and after the restaurant closed down, she decided to try to make a living baking her cookies.

Without the benefit of savings or a bank loan she started Kizito's Cookies in 1987 and worked hard to build it up. She had no store or collateral when she started and needed a co-signer just to get a six month lease on a bakery. Only after much hard work and five years of building the business did she finally gain the ability to get a bank loan to expand her business.

Her work resulted in her being named Women's Business Owner of the Year by Louisville's chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners. She has been approached by numerous investors about franchising her business. In addition to the 10 types of cookies and seven types of muffins she bakes, she has brownies and biscotti for sale as well.

See y'all later. I'm gonna head out the door and grab a few of her cookies to eat with my Blue Bell homemade vanilla ice cream.

Reclaiming A Legacy

The Derby parties are in full swing here in Da Ville along with all the other events around town that comprise the Kentucky Derby Festival. Celebrity sightings are on the rise around town and even Queen Elizabeth II will be here in the Bluegrass State to watch one of her horses run. It's capped off by "Ladies Day at the Races", the Kentucky Oaks on May 4 and the "Fastest Two Minutes in Sports" on May 5.

But once upon a time the Kentucky Derby was a Black thang. African-Americans once dominated the horse racing game so thoroughly between the Civil War and the turn of the 20th century that when the first Kentucky Derby was run in 1875 thirteen of the fifteen jockeys at the starting line were African-American. The dominance of the sport also extended to and included African-American horse owners, trainers, exercise riders and stable hands.

The first Derby winner, Aristides, was not only ridden by jockey Oliver Lewis but was trained by African-American Ansel Williamson. Jockeys Alonzo Clayton and James Perkins were both 15 years old when they won the Derby. The dominance was so thorough that 15 of the next 28 runnings of the Derby were won by African-American jockeys, 5 of those winners were trained by African-American trainers and one of those was owned and trained by Dudley Allen. The last African-American jockey to ride in the Derby finished 10th aboard an 80-1 longshot in 1921.


Jockeys were the elite African-American athletes of the 19th century. The best was Isaac Murphy. He was the first jockey to win three Kentucky Derbys (1884, 1890, 1891) and did it in record setting style. Murphy also holds the distinctions of not only being the first jockey to win consecutive Derbys, but riding the only African-American owned horse to date that has won the Derby, Dudley Allen's Kingman in 1891.

Before his career was cut short by his untimely death from pneumonia at 34, Murphy won 628 of his 1,412 starts, an astonishing 44% of all the races he rode in. He was the first inductee into the Jockey Hall of Fame when it was established in 1955. His record hasn't come close to being matched by modern day greats as of yet. Hall of Fame jockey Eddie Arcaro said of Murphy's record: "There is no chance that his record of winning will ever be surpassed. Willie Simms is the other African-American jockey that has been inducted into the Hall of Fame. He is the only African-American jockey to win all the races comprising the Triple Crown (The Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes)

Jimmy Wakefield was the last African-American jockey to win the Derby in 1901-1902 and due to lack of opportunity in the United States ended up moving to Europe in 1903 to continue his lucrative career. Wakefield became fluent in several languages, rode for Czar Nicholas II of Russia and had over 2300 wins to his credit before he retired from the sport at age 48 and purchased a horse farm outside Paris. When France was overrun by the Germans in 1940 he and his family escaped to the United States in 1943. When World War II ended he spent a few years in the States before returning to his beloved Maisons-Lafitte farm where he died in 1974.

So what factors combined to change the horse racing era of African-American excellence? The major ones was White resentment of the Black dominance in a sport that was considered in the late 19th century the national pastime and the fact that the jockeys were making salaries three times what most whites were earning in that time period. Klan intimidation, collusion to deny Black jockeys and trainers work and access to US tracks were factors as well. In addition the mass migration of African-Americans from the farms of the South to northern cities combined to ethnically cleanse horse racing of its African-American presence by the turn of the early 20th century.

It would be 79 years before another African-American jockey was present to ride at the Derby. Lafayette, LA native Marlon St. Julien, a successful jockey in the Texas and Chicago racing circuits was tapped to ride Curule in the 2000 Derby. "I think we're here to accomplish something, not just to be here," St. Julien said in a CNNSI interview. "I was put here to be a race rider and I'm going to be the best that I can be." Curule finished seventh in that Derby. St. Julien also made history by becoming the first African-American jockey to ride in the Kentucky Oaks in 103 years when he guided Zoftig to a fifth place finish.

St. Julien is part of a return of African-Americans to their horse racing heritage. MC Hammer's Oaktown Stable owns the filly Lite Light which won the 1991 Kentucky Oaks. Motown's Berry Gordy has been moderately successful with his horses. St. Julien's goal is to ride Breeder's Cup and Triple Crown winners and has eagerly embraced the legacy of the pioneer jockeys. Trainer James Jackson has 2000 career wins to his credit and in 2005 became the first African-American trainer to saddle a Kentucky Oaks starter when Gallant Secret galloped to a third place finish inthe Run For the Lillies.

Our departed horse racing pioneers would be happy to see us back in the Sport of Kings to win, place and show once again. It's time to start building on their legacy of excellence and reclaim it in this century.

Why I Can't Stand The NRA

No sooner than I'd hit the SAVE button on my Virginia Tech post did the National Rifle Association chime in with their bull feces assertion that if the students had been armed the tragedy wouldn't have happened.

Just what I want to see. Drunken fratboys indiscriminately firing 9MM pistols at campus gatherings.

I believe if you want to have a gun, that's your prerogative. My dad owned one and so did my grandfathers. I owned a BB gun and was taught how to properly use it by my grandfather. Like 73% of the American population I want common sense restrictions on guns. I don't think anybody should have AK-47's, Uzis or M-16's since those weapons are only designed for one purpose: to kill mass quantities of humans as quickly as possible.

My dislike of the NRA actually started in February 2000 when I came to Frankfort to help lobby for passage of a civil rights bill. We were done with our appointments by 1 PM and decided to sit in the gallery and watch the Kentucky House session play out on the floor. I'd noticed Lexington and Louisville police officers meandering in the Capitol building and discovered they were there in support of a bill that then state rep Eleanor Jordan (D-Louisville) was sponsoring.

The Louisville and Lexington PD's were seeing the same guns repeatedly being confiscated in commissions of crimes and were destroying them after the criminal cases were disposed of. Injunctions were filed to stop it after it became public knowledge that's what was happening to those guns. Rep. Jordan's bill would simply give them the authority to do so.

You would think that a bill that helps the police do their jobs more effectively and takes weapons out of the hands of criminals would be a slam dunk with 'law and order' Republicans, right?

Not in GOP Bizarro World. For some reason this was seen as 'gun control legislation' that got a full frontal assault from the NRAoids in the Kentucky House. I and the Louisville and Lexington officers in attendance watched dumbfounded over the next ninety minutes as this bill was attacked. The surreal nature the debate took at one point made me wonder if I was watching aTwilight Zone episode. One rural Kentucky legislator suggested in response to one of Rep. Jordan's points about the different ways rural and urban peeps view guns that the NRA come into the 'hood and do gun safety training.

Rep. Jordan pointed out along with other urban legislators that the kids could probably teach the NRA instructors a few things about guns they didn't know. They turned deaf ears on the concerns of urban legislators about the toll gun violence was taking on our kids and forced votes on two amendments that went down urban-rural/suburban lines. The amendments basically gutted Rep. Jordan's bill to the point where she ended up voting against the bill she authored. To add insult to injury the amendments not only contained language banning Kentucky police departments from tracking the serial numbers on confiscated weapons but ordered then to be turned over to the state police for sale at auction. As the urban legislators feared two of those confiscated weapons sold at a state police auction were used in commission of a series of murders in Louisville later that year.

Rep. Jordan was majorly upset about what happened to her bill along with the police officers in the gallery and let them have it on the floor. Little did any of us know that when she attempted a few months later to become the first African-American elected to Congress from Kentucky a snippet of the news film of her excoriating the NRAoids was used in an Anne Northup attack ad aimed at her.

Like many issues in this country gun control has the volatile element of race in it. Your attitude about guns in the United States depends on your race, gender and where you live. If you're white, male and a suburban/rural dweller nine times out of ten you probably have an NRA sticker on your car. If you're a city dweller like I am you most likely won't.

The NRA knows they have a serious image problem in my community. Various NRA leaders such as Charlton Heston, Wayne LaPierre and Ted Nugent have made racist statements over the years and that perception crystallized over the last decade thanks to their overwhelming support of GOP candidates.

The NRA trotted out Karl Malone and former US House Rep JC Watts (R-OK) several years ago in an 'I'm The NRA' ad campaign attempting to counter the views of many African-Americans that they are a racist organization. They are still deafeningly silent on the issue that matters most to African-Americans: ratcheting down the level of gun violence in our communities. Their simplistic 'buy more guns' spin doesn't wash.

I'm sick of the myopic attitude that the gun peeps have toward sensible gun legislation. Unfortunately the NRA lobby has become a powerful one on the Hill and in many states that many politicians on both sides of the aisle are loath to cross. Anyone who criticizes them is labeled an 'anti-gun extremist'. If that criticism comes from a celeb or a media pundit they are bombarded with sometimes profane e-mails from the pro-gun zealots. If by some miracle politicians get some cojones and pass sensible legislation like the Brady Bill, it gets attacked and watered down and the politicians who passed it find themselves either threatened by the NRA or in a political race with a well funded opponent in the next election cycle.

For years people have worked to have peeps with mental illnesses added to the National Registry of peeps banned from purchasing guns. The NRA has opposed that.
Now a person with a history of mental illness passed a watered down gun check and used those weapons he purchased to kill 31 peeps and himself on the Virgina Tech campus. While those students were grieving, a man who got a bad performance review killed his supervisor and held a woman hostage at NASA's JSC campus in Houston. This incident ironically took place on the seventh anniversary of the Columbine High School tragedy.

How many more lives must we lose before the NRA gets over their fetishistic love affair with guns and hiding behind the Second Amendment to justify a gun culture that is making us less safe?

By the way, when is Vice President Cheney scheduled for his NRA gun safety training class?

Monica’s Statement For the KY Coming Together Conference

Transgriot Note: My friend Joshua asked me to compose a statement for a workshop he's presenting on African-American transpeople at a local conference tomorrow. Here's what I wrote.

I’m Monica Roberts, and I am a forty-something African-American transwoman.

It took me a while to get to the point that I’m comfortable in saying that. I didn’t transition until my early thirties in 1993 and did so in the middle of an international airline terminal in which 30,000 passengers a day passed through it.

So what can I say about being a woman who had to work much harder than her genetic sisters to get there and what does it mean to be an African-American transwoman?

I’m deliriously happy to finally be on the correct side of the gender fence. While I consider it a gift from God to be able to experience life from both sides of the gender continuum, I love looking in the mirror and seeing a woman’s face and a woman’s body staring back at me in the mirror. I like having the peace of mind of knowing that my mind and body are in harmony with one another. If I have any regrets about transition they continue to be that I didn’t do this sooner.

It’s still a challenge sometimes interacting with biowomen who don’t get it, don’t want to get it or don’t realize that I am their most powerful ally in helping them decipher the male ego. They also don’t realize how deeply I wish to bond with them, but I’m prayerfully trying to be patient with my sisters.

As far as my friendships go, the people I have in my life are either folks I’ve known before transition or have become part of it since then. I don’t have any doubts about their loyalty or love for me. It's a comforting feeling to know that.

So what does it mean to be an African-American transwoman? It’s not about finding a ‘husband’, looking or ‘trade’ or carrying yourself in less than anything but a ladylike manner but about growing spiritually and emotionally. It’s about being the best that I can be. It’s constant self-examination to ensure that I am living up to the charge that all African-American women have to keep in terms of uplifting our race. It’s about carrying yourself with class and dignity because I represent not only myself but also the entire African-American community.

Happy 65th Birthday Muhammad Ali

Today is the 65th birthday of 'The Greatest'. On this day Cassius Marcellus Clay, the man who would become an inspiration to millions and a symbol of Black Pride was born in Louisville.

The self proclaimed 'pretty' man in 1960 won Olympic gold in Rome, then shocked the world twice. He beat Sonny Liston for the championship in 1964, then joined the Nation of Islam and changed his name to Muhammad Ali. He was a rare blend of lightning quick speed, punching power and unabashed showmanship. The boxing world had never seen anything like him and frankly hasn't been the same since he left. He was also a proud, principled man. He refused induction into the Army during the height of the Vietnam War, an act that cost him his title and three precious years of his boxing career.

Ali's body has been ravaged by the effects of Parkinson's disease, but all of us who had the pleasure of growing up during his heyday and watching the epic 'Thrilla in Manila' with Joe Frazier, him rope-a-dope the then-invincible George Foreman to regain his crown for a second time in 1975, defeat Leon Spinks to regain his crown for the third time in 1978 and his verbal jousting with Howard Cosell will never forget it.

He brought tears to my eyes when I watched him along with the rest of the planet light the Olympic flame during the opening ceremonies of the Atlanta Games in 1996.

He will always be 'The Champ' to me.

Red State-Blue State

Every December in the Bluegrass State the Red State-Blue State paradigm takes on a whole 'nother meaning. For one whole week the state gets hyped up over the University of Kentucky-University of Louisville basketball game. Whether it's played in Lexington or Louisville doesn't matter. The rabid basketball fans in the state choose sides and the trash talk begins.

The Cat and Card fans go at each other on the sports talk shows, radio and television airwaves. Family members choose Wildcat blue or Cardinal red to wear and fans spend large amounts of money purchasing the appropriate color game day attire. Newspapers print special game day sections covering every aspect of the game. Talk about the UK-U of L game is front and center on the minds of the blue and red clad legions of fans at water coolers and the sports bars. The coaches of both squads, their strategies and the players are dissected, sliced, diced and subjected to laser-like scrutiny by the fans of both teams.

The feelings are especially intense in Louisville and Lexington. They hate each other. It's basically the rivalry between the two cities playing itself out on the basketball court. If UK and UL were playing tiddlywinks they'd have a sold-out Rupp Arena or Freedom Hall to watch it.

This isn't just a basketball game. This is about what some people call here the other state religion. Like their counterparts on the other side of the Ohio River in Indiana, they take their basketball seriously in Kentucky. Having basketball bragging rights on the line only heightens the excitement and hype for the game.

It's always fun for me to watch the activity leading up to The Game because not being born here I can say with a straight face that I'm neutral and root for both teams. I do understand the intensity of the rivalry. I got to watch the Texas-Texas A&M hatefest every year. That still doesn't stop denizens of Cat Nation and Cards Nation from exerting an almost missionary zeal in trying to convert me into a partisan fan for their side.

This year's game didn't go so well for Cards fans. UK spanked them in Freedom Hall 61-49. The UK fans have already started gloating about their victory. U of L fans will retreat to their fallback position of having the superior football team and reminding Cat fans that they are going to a BCS bowl in a few weeks.

Cheer up U of L fans. Only ten more months until the 2007 football season kicks off and a chance for revenge at Commonwealth Stadium.

Being True To Themselves

Transgender people are born one gender but identify with other

By Angie Fenton
afenton@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal

Monica Roberts gently circled a fingertip around the lip of her
coffee cup, the perfect manicure a stark contrast to such large,
strong hands.

"Gender is who you are," said Roberts, 42, an organizer of a
conference this week in Louisville for transgender people. "Sex is
what you do and who you do it with."

For the past 16 years, Roberts, who was born male, has been living as
a female, since finding the ability to accept herself, with the help
of a therapist, and receiving hormone therapy.

As to whether she's undergone sex reassignment surgery -- a procedure
that alters a person's physical appearance and function of their
existing sexual characteristics to that of the other sex -- Roberts
considers that her personal business.

She does admit that once the body matches the internal feelings, it's
a huge relief.

"When we finally do get to the surgery, it's icing on the cake," she
said.

"I've always looked at life through a feminine prism. It's nothing I
did consciously," Roberts said. "The only thing that's wrong with us
is the discrimination that's happening to us."

No one has hard, fast statistics on the total number of transgender
people -- individuals whose gender identity and the way in which they
express it differs from the gender they were assigned at birth.

But according to the World Professional Association for Transgender
Health, a 500-member organization whose mission is to further the
understanding and treatment of gender identity disorder, one in
11,900 males and one in 30,400 females are transgender individuals.

"We don't know" what causes transgenderism, said Dr. Jack Drescher,
distinguished fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and past
chair of the group's Committee on Gay, Lesbian & Bisexual Issues.

The official diagnoses for transgender individuals can range from
gender dysphoria, an uncomfortable feeling about one's gender
identity, to gender identity disorder, a condition in which a person
is born one gender but identifies as belonging to the other.

One problem is that the psychiatric association "offers no guidelines
on what to do about it," said Drescher, who is also a
psychoanalyst/psychiatrist in New York City.

"People in the deaf community don't think that deafness is an
illness. It's just who they are," he said.

Likewise, there is no consensus as to whether transgenderism is
really a disorder.

Are transgender people ever really able to live fulfilling lives?

"Psychiatrists should never be asked that question," Drescher
said. "You ask the transgender people themselves. They'll tell you if
they can lead happy, healthy lives."

At least 70 transgender people will meet this week at the second
annual Transsistahs-Transbrothas Defying Gravity Conference 2006 at
the Galt House Hotel and Suites to discuss how to live such lives.

The conference, which Roberts and her roommate, Dawn Wilson, helped
organize, will address issues and concerns of the African-American
transgender community.

Wilson, 39, says the weekend is important to her because she'll have
a chance to serve as a role model for younger transgender attendees.
Even though she has been "out" as a woman since 1998, she also
expects to reap the benefits of being around others who understand
her experience.

"You grow up wondering, where are the people who look like me?"
Wilson said.

For some, like Wilson and Roberts, who live in Louisville, you also
grow up aware that you were born one gender, but you feel differently
inside.

Roberts said she "always knew there was something different, and I
was out of sync."

"I knew at age 5 something wasn't right," Wilson said.

Roberts and Wilson recall being told they carried their backpacks too
effeminately and raised their hands in class like girls.

Kids can be cruel. Roberts said she lived that reality every day,
averaging a fight a week, usually battling an aggressive group of
three male classmates who picked on Roberts for being different.

Although Wilson said she "grew up in a household where radical
thought was encouraged, not discouraged," she, too, faced hardships
when trying to get a grasp on who she was.

Known then as "Don," Wilson said she was raised by an aunt and uncle
after her parents died young. Still, family members teased her for
having "too much sugar in the gas tank."

When Wilson played dress-up and opted to wear women's clothes, "they
figured I'd grow out of it," she said.

Instead, Wilson grew increasingly comfortable as she adopted a more
female-oriented persona.

So did Roberts, who said that in college "people wanted me to join
Alpha Phi Alpha (fraternity) when what I wanted to do was join Alpha
Kappa Alpha (sorority)."

Roberts and Wilson -- who met in 1999 while lobbying for transgender
rights in Frankfort and became fast friends -- decided to seek
professional help and transition from males to females in the
early '90s.

First, they underwent intensive counseling from certified gender
therapists. Then, they began living like women and undergoing hormone
therapy that brought about physiological changes, including the
growth of breasts.

"I'm a 38B and damn proud of it," said Wilson.

"I'm a 38C and damn proud of it, too," said Roberts, before high-
fiving Wilson.

As proud as they are, neither was willing to go into detail about the
rest of the physical aspects of their transformations.

"That's part of my past," Roberts said. "It wasn't horrible for me.
Did I have some rough times? Yeah."

"Did it cause me to appreciate what I have now?" Wilson asked
rhetorically.

"Oh yeah," she said, before adding, "We're not typical."

Only God has the right to determine gender, said Albert Mohler,
president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He said any
attempt to alter that creation is an act of rebellion against God.

Regardless of how others define human sexuality and
gender, "Christians are obligated to find our definitions … in the
Bible. What the activists want to call 'sex-reassignment surgery'
must be seen as a form of bodily mutilation rather than gender
correction. The chromosomes will continue to tell the story," Mohler
said.

"Gender is not under our control after all. When a nation's moral
rebellion comes down to this level of confusion, we are already in
big trouble. A society that can't distinguish between men and women
is not likely to find moral clarity in any other area of life," he
said.

Some transgender people also struggle with how their families are
affected.

None of Roberts' or Wilson's relatives wished to speak to The Courier-
Journal. Both women admit some family members are more accepting than
others.

One thing Wilson said she's learned is "family is more than just who
you happen to be related to."

But that's beside the point, said Roberts. "We have a blast just
being out."

Since transitioning into a woman, "I've lived more of a beloved and
healthy life, because I'm not afraid to dream anymore," said Roberts.

That's the key to happiness for transgender people, said clinical
social worker Richard Coomer.

"When they're living to be who they are, yes, they're very healthy
individuals," Coomer said.

The Louisville-based counselor added, "What (transgender individuals)
mainly want to do is be who they are and live life just like all of
us."

That's exactly what Scott Nilsson, 27, an Indiana resident, is doing.

Born female, Scott has undergone what he said is a physical and
spiritual transformation that has allowed him to "look myself in the
mirror and be proud of who I am."

Engaged "to the most beautiful girl in the world," Nilsson shared his
story with several of his coworkers, who were "astounded" their
colleague was once known as "Amy," a heterosexual female.

In turn, Nilsson said he's "still astounded" to be successfully
living as a male.

"I am finally who I knew I always was," he said.

The Madness of Queen Derby

It's the first week of May. In addtion to my birthday falling during this week, in Da Ville that means it's time for the annual madness and frivolity that's a lead in to the running of Saturday's Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs.

Derby Week is like Mardi Gras used to be in New Orleans (minus the nudity). Lots of parties, peripheral events such as the Kentucky Derby Festival and a few parades leading up to Kentucky Oaks Day and Derby Day itself. The big one is the Pegasus parade which has native Louisvillian Muhammad Ali as its Grand Marshal this year.

The kickoff for it is Thunder Over Louisville, a massive fireworks and air show that happens along the Ohio River waterfront downtown. The Great Steamboat Race takes place on the Ohio River on a six mile course from the Clark bridge to Six Mile Island and back between the Cincinatti-based paddlewheel boat Delta Queen and the Louisville based Belle of Louisville.

Some of the bigger parties are hosted by former NBA ballers Darrell Grffith, Derek Anderson and the 100 Black Men. Those are the ones that mainly Black Louisvillians and Black celebs attend. There are also other parties hosted by the mayor, the governor of Kentucky, and various organizations in addition to the pageant that selects the Derby Queen and her court.

The younger set used to cruise down Broadway, the east-west main street in Da Ville that crosses the entire city from Shawnee Park in the majority Black West End of Louisville to its intersection with Baxter Avenue near the entrance to Cave Hill Cemetary on the East End which is mostly white. Gridlock and some hooliganism led to LMPD announcing a major crackdown on cruising this year. It has pissed off many of the African-American youth in town that lament that there aren't many Derby events designed with them in mind and they have a vaild point. It's something that seriously needs to be addressed and planned for in the near future with them having a major say in what happens.

The GLBT community has a Saturday Derby benefit party that raises money for the Fairness Campaign and draws GLBT friendly and out GLBT celebs. It's the one I usually get to attend because its affordable and conducive to my work schedule.

One of the big shindigs happens just a mile from where I live, the Barnstable-Brown Party. The Doublemint Gum twins of the 70's Cyb and Trish Barnstable are from Louisville and Trish (the married one) throws a lavish benefit party that brings Hollywood celebs to her massive house on Lexington Road. There are eager autograph seekers waiting outside for a glimpse of their fave celeb.

The Kentucky Oaks is the Friday before Derby Day. It's called 'Ladies Day at the Races' because all the horse races on the program that day have nothing but fillies in them. Just as the winning horse in the Kentucky Derby gets a garland of roses, the winning horse in the Kentucky Oaks receives a garland of lillies. The attendees dress uo for it just like the do for Derby and it has more local peeps in attendance than the mainly international crowd that shows up for the Derby.

Oops, that reminds me, need to go shopping for a good deal on a Derby hat. Later.

The Power of The Pen

Every so often I get a reminder of the old saying 'the pen is mightier than the sword' and its relevance in today's techno go-go society.

One of my friends was moved to write a letter blasting Governor Fletcher's (R-KY) craven sellout to the radical right wing. A few days ago he rescinded the executive order that Governor Paul Patton (D-KY) signed three years ago that protected Kentucky's GLBT citizens in state employment.

The most odious part of the entire episode is that Governor Fletcher did it on 'Diversity Day' in front of school children and on the same day the University of the Cumberlands was expelling a gay honor student for declaring he was gay online.

Well, that letter to the editor was published as an Op-ed piece. Since it hit the paper this morning the phone has been ringing off the hook. A GOP state legislator called this morning who is the rep in AC's KY House district. A woman campaigning to replace the Republican in her eastern Jefferson County KY House district invited us to her speaking event tonight.

It's one of the things that I always loved about writing. The written word still has the power to galvanize people to action, right wrongs, soothe troubled souls, entertain, enlighten and inform. Even legislators place a higher importance on written communications than phone calls. They equate one written letter to representing the views of TEN constituents. So grab that pen and some paper or sit down at your computer and start writing your local newspapers about what's bugging you. You may see it in print and be surprised at the results.

It may even get you your own newspaper column one day.