Designer Transition-A Sistah's Wish List

Rapid scientific progress is being made in terms of mapping human DNA thanks to the Human Genome Project. It has unlocked the secrets of which parts of the DNA strand control various aspects of human development, personality, gender and even which base pair combinations trigger susceptibility to certain diseases. It has led to gene based therapies to combat those diseases as well.

And for better or worse, its opened the door to human cloning as well.

I'm in a sci-fi kinda mood today. Let's presume that scientific knowledge has progressed to the point where I can not only transition, but look like any woman on the planet past or present and keep my personality traits. I'm happy with the way I look (about 99% of the time) but if that option were available to me, who would I choose to resemble excluding friends or family members?

My Top 30


1. Halle Berry

2. Beyonce

3. Phyllis Hyman

4. Jayne Kennedy

5. Dorothy Dandridge

6. Lena Horne

7. Diahann Carroll

8. Florence Griffith-Joyner

9. Vanessa L. Williams

10. Phylicia Rashad


11. Tyra Banks

12. Beverly Johnson

13. Meagan Good

14. Gabrielle Union

15. Jasmine Guy

16. Coretta Scott King

17. Toni Braxton

18. Pam Grier

19. Jada Pinkett Smith

20. Vivica A. Fox


21. BernNadette Stanis

22. Denise Matthews (aka Vanity)

23. Yolanda Adams

24. Aaliyah

25. Janet Jackson

26. Iman

27. LisaRaye McCoy

28. Toccara Jones

29. Sade

30. Mpule Kwelagobe

The Race Enters With Me As Well

Trans Griot Note: photo-Anna Julia Cooper

One of the things I'm most cognizant of, whether I'm writing my column, posting on this blog, or speaking in front of various groups, that whether I like it or not I represent not only myself and the transgender community, but the entire African-American community as well.

I was reminded of this yet again when I was a recent guest on Tranny Wreck radio back on May 2.

The show was discussing the topic 'Is Everyone Racist?' and as anyone who's ever read this blog or listened to my archived shows on Ethan St. Pierre's TransFM will tell you, I'm blunt, authoritative and passionate about the things I talk about, especially when it comes to my people.

Well, one person posted a comment in the remarks about that Tranny Wreck show that I pissed him off.

Good.

The reason Rebecca invited me on the show in the first place was to inject a different viewpoint on race and racism in the wake of the Don Imus comments. Being that I am unabashedly a proud African-American transwoman I have seen and experienced things in my lifetime that give me a perspective on racism that is far different than one a white, Latino or Asian person would have.

This person also insinuated that I spoke for the entire African-American race in their haste to criticize me. I'm not overly sensitive to criticism, that's part of the territory as a columnist and an activist. I accept the fact that some peeps aren't going to agree 100% with everything I have to say, even within the African-American community.

The problem is that because we are rarely called upon in either the mainstream or the GLBT community to add our commentary in the media to things that happen in society at large, anyone who does get that shot has it in the back of their minds the famous quote of Anna Julia Cooper.

When and where I enter, then and there the entire race enters with me.

That's why when I'm commenting on various issues, I have to be on point with my commentary. I'm not just braying my opinions like an Ann Coulter or a Rush Limbaugh does. I don't have that luxury. My commentary has to be backed up with facts, logic and reason since we African-Americans are automatically assumed by American society to be less intelligent.

So when some peeps in the mainstream community run across African-Americans who are intelligent, smart, and can string multisyllabic words together in a sentence some of them have a major problem with that.

That's your failing, not mine. I'm not going to apologize for my God-given intelligence or being a Phenomenal Transwoman.

If you can't deal with that, too bad.

Letter To My Fellow African-Americans

Dear Fellow African-Americans,

As one of your transgender cousins who shares your ethnic heritage I am moved to ask this question.

What the hell is wrong with y'all?

What has caused some of y'all to take leave of your senses and work with white fundamentalists who only 40 years ago were not only opposed to us gaining our civil rights but didn't want you, your kids or your grandkids to marry their sons and daughters?

It's pathetically sad when you have a group of African-American ministers go up to Capitol Hill to lobby against the passage of the Hate Crimes Bill at the behest of the same group of white fundamentalist preachers who fought our inclusion during the Civil Rights Movement.

It's also mind numbing and sad to ponder that the baby daughter of the greatest American our country has ever produced, the man who eloquently stated that 'injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere' is associate pastor of a megachurch in which the senior pastor is one of our oppressors and has made anti-gay statements herself.

Why do some of you hate us so much that you will kill us, brutalize us and vote against your own political and economic interests to put people in power to curtail GLBT civil rights? Why are you tossing us out of our homes and churches, ostracizing us within our families, demonizing us inside and outside the African-American community and selectively twisting Biblical scripture to justify it?

Please spare me the 'love the sinner but hate the sin' bogus scripture BS spin line that some of you will use as an excuse to justify your ignorance and hatred. The real deal is that y'all have allowed a bunch of white fundamentalists to jack with our historic community unity by injecting a false issue into our community debate. We have far more pressing issues to deal with than whether Adam and Steve or Tanisha and Markisha get married. We have allowed The Forces of Intolerance to not only gain a foothold in our churches and our communities, but allowed them to distract our churches from their ongoing historic mission of seeking justice for our people and speaking truth to power.

And for what? So a few selfish ministers who aren't fit to shine Dr. King's shoes can chase faith-based bucks and lust for power.

Where were you Hi Impact Leadership Coalition members and sympathizers when our right to vote was being jacked with in 2000 and 2004? Oh yeah, y'all were cheesin' for the cameras at the GOP conventions and the White House. Where were you in August 2005 when our people were dying in New Orleans? Y'all constantly flap your gums to rail against GLBT peeps from the pulpit but your silence was deafening then.

As for speaking truth to power, you megachurch posers and wannabes are more concerned with photo ops, building arena-sized churches and acquiring expensive clothes and cars than fighting for the civil rights of ALL African-Americans and speaking out against injustice. Instead of leadership we get posturing, posing, doublespeak and hate-filled soundbites from anti-gay sermons instead of ones like Dr. King's 'Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution'.

Hate sermons mind you that result in the creation of a climate of intolerance, ignorance and fear that resulted in the killings of African-American GLBT people such as Sakia Gunn, Rashawn Brazell, Amanda Milan, Stephanie Thomas and Ukea Davis. I wonder what DC church the African-American EMT attended who allowed a fellow African-American named Tyra Hunter to bleed to death after a 1995 traffic accident because he discovered that she was a pre-op transwoman? He stopped treating Tyra, but had the time to insult and crack jokes about her.

If you insist that every African-American life is precious and we don't have a person to waste, then that by extension includes same gender loving folks and transpeople as well.

We are your sisters, brothers, nephews, nieces, aunts, uncles, cousins, neighbors and co-workers. We are also proud African-Americans who work, vote, go to church, serve in our nation's military and pay our taxes. All we're asking for is the same thing that any African-American wants, which is respect and dignity to live our lives without unnecessary bullcrap and be contributing members of society.

How many deaths, how much spilled blood, how much pain and suffering and how long will it take before you get that message, my fellow African-Americans?


Respectfully yours,
Monica Roberts
The TransGriot

We're Winning

During the drive back from Washington DC to Louisville in the aftermath of our recent lobby days, I was doing some thinking after I finished my turn at the wheel through western Maryland and most of West Virginia.

I thought about what we'd recently accomplished versus what the Forces of Intolerance tried to pull in DC before we got there and it hit me.

We're winning.

Our opponents went up to Capitol Hill in April bullying and browbeating legislators while we put together reasoned, thoughtful arguments as to why they should pass hate crimes and a transgender inclusive ENDA. It also didn't hurt that Newsweek published its article on gender the very day we started Transgender Lobby Week and 20/20's Barbara Walters did her story on transgender people a week afterward.

We have more and more increasingly positive news coverage. More states are prohibiting discrimination based on gender identity in addition to the long list of cities that already do so. Hollywood and popular culture has started to take our stories seriously instead of as a joke punchline. Transpeople are getting elected to public office or running close races to get there. The next generation of college kids and high schoolers is on our side. In fact many of those high school and college kids are embracing the reality in their lives and transitioning themselves as early as their elementary school years.

Even the scientific trends are leaning our way. With each passing year the Human Genome Project and other scientific research, despite the best efforts of the Forces of Intolerance to discredit their work continues to make discoveries about gender and how it's not a rigid binary system as previously thought but more fluid and complex.

But despite these positive trends, we still have some work to do and dark days to come. We have the undivided attention of the Religious Reich. They will use every dirty trick, falsehood and lie to prevent the inevitable from happening just as they tried to do during the 60's Civil Rights Movement and failed.

We will lose more transgender people to violence. The Remembering Our Dead list will get longer. The anti-transgender rhetoric coming from their acolytes will get nastier and more hateful. They will try to spin and twist Bible verses to favor their immoral positions. But in the end the result will still be the same and the neo-fascists will lose.

Why do I say that? Because unlike the Forces of Intolerance I not only have unwavering faith in God that this will happen, I also have unwavering faith in the intelligence, fairness and goodness of the American people. You present the American people a logical case and they in time will sort through the lies, half truths. disinformation and spin to do what's right.

We transpeople hold the moral high ground as well. How can people who CLAIM to be 'ministers' or 'christians' be on record as favoring efforts to deny people their civil rights or openly working to oppose them? How can they be working to throw shade at people who are trying to deal with a medical condition they didn't ask for and assert their fundamental right to control their bodies to deal with it? How can they turn a blind eye to people being viciously beaten, assaulted or killed because they are transgender? The Reich also knows that there are no Biblical scriptures specifically mentioning or opposing transsexuality so they are busily trying to spin Paul's words (a conservative's favorite tactic) to make it appear that way.

We are the next phase of the Civil Rights Movement. We transpeople are their spiritual heirs. Our opponents are the Bull Conners. J.H. Jacksons and Orville Faubuses of the world. They have an established losing track record when it comes to opposing freedom and human rights.

Like their bigoted and hate-filled predecessors, the transphobes will lose.

Time To Elevate Our Game

This is a post I wrote for Angelica's blog;

--------------------------------------------------------------

Back in 1979 an African-American transwoman by the name of Justina Williams graced the pages of Jet magazine.

With classy elegance, despite the trials she was facing at the time, she expressed her hopes for the future on the pages of one of our community's iconic magazines. She helped destroy the myth in the African-American community that transition was just a 'white thang'.

Almost 40 years later Justina has accomplished many of the goals that she'd set for herself, but in terms of the African-American transgender community at large it has been a mixed bag of success and failure.

We have successful transsistahs (and increasingly) transbrothas doing positive things to uplift our community. Unfortunately we don't hear about many of these success stories because they have chosen to live stealth lives. The lack of media coverage of African-American transwomen who are succeeding in other arenas besides the pageant world has led to a skewed impression among our transkids that the only thing they can do or become is an entertainer or an escort.

While the stealth transpeeps are in isolation to avoid the violence directed at transpeople not only in our community but America at large, it is a contributing factor to the skewed impression I talked about in the previous paragragh.

When I was growing up in the 70's how I would have loved to have seen African-American transgender role models like the ones we have now. People such as Jordana, DJ Miss Honey Dijon, Lorrainne Sade Baskerville, Dr. Marisa Richmond, Kylar Broadus, Dawn Wilson, Valerie Spencer, Jada Tracy O'Brien, Dioone Stallworth, Rev. Joshua Holiday, Tracee McDaniel and Angelica Love Ross are emerging as positive role models for our community along with some of our pageant superstars. (okay, I'll toot my own Trinity Award winning horn as well.)

But our work is far from over. While we have more people coming out at earlier ages, we still have to grapple with the old problems of fragmentation and separation based on where we live and what segment of the transgender community we occupy. I can't forget about the violence we face across the African diaspora, whether it's here in the States, Jamaica or the rest of the African continent. 70% percent of the names on the Remembering our Dead list are people of color.

As Public Enemy once rapped, 'It's playoff time.' We must as transpeople of African descent do what our ancestors have always done, tackle problems in our community head on with prayerful contemplation, far sighted vision and maximum effort. We have to do it not only for ourselves but our transkids and our brothers and sisters in the rest of the Diaspora as well. Nobody's gonna care about us but us.

I would like to see African-American transpeople one day successfully running for public office, running businesses and taking more active roles in securing our civil rights. Better yet, if necessary to accomplish our goals as a community, if we encounter resistance from so-called allies, let's cut out the middleman and do it our damned selves.

Those dreams will become realities if we stand up, take pride in ourselves, embrace our proud heritage, our spirituality and boldly step forth to claim our God-given place in society.

Happy Birthday Monica!

Just in case you're wondering, I celebrated my birthday a month ago. The Monica I'm wishing a Happy Birthday to is one who is no longer with us, but is still very special to me in my heart.

Her name is Monica Monet Holloway-Barrett and she was born on this date in 1962 in Mobile, AL.

So how did a native Houstonian get to meet this Alabama girl? Her grandparents lived in Houston and during her spring break in 1980 she traveled to H-town to visit them. HISD was still in session at the time and my classmate and her friend Virginia Tucker lived next door to Monica's grandparents.

Virginia invited Monica to hang out with her for the day at Jones and Virginia was in my trig class. When she and Monica walked through the door she had my undivided attention that day instead of my math teacher Mr. Stevenson.

Intelligent people tend to gravitate to other intelligent people and I picked up on that. My 'twin' liked smart sistahs. Monica was about 5'6", had a flawless light caramel colored skin tone and shoulder length jet black hair framing her face.

We exchanged contact data and I was even more smitten with her after I discovered her birthday was June 4, which also happens to be my late Grandmother Tama's birthday as well.

Through the summer of 1980 we traded letters but as the demands of my census enumerator job increased and her summer classes at Rensselear Polytechnic Institute demanded more of her attention we gradually lost contact with each other. When my own freshman year at UH approached and subsequently my transgender issues demanded resolution during the spring semester she faded from my memory for a while.

Over the years I wondered what happened to the girl I met during the last months of my senior year and developed a serious crush on. One day I was flipping through the Houston Chronicle and stumbled across her wedding announcement that her grandparents had placed.

It caught me up on her life up until that time. She'd graduated from Duke in 1984, pledged AKA and had become a doctor after graduating from medical school in 1990. I also discovered that she was now living in Houston. I'd seen the announcement too late to attend the wedding, was a little jealous of the guy she was marrying, but at the same time was pleased to know that things were going well for Monica. I was also happy to know that she'd found someone special to spend the rest of her life with.

In April 1998 I was once again perusing the Houston Chronicle when I was shocked to see something I didn't expect.

Monica's obituary

It didn't mention how she died, but Dr. Monica Holloway-Barrett had become nonetheless an Ivy Beyond The Wall. That obituary also updated me on the final chapter of her life before she was called home April 9. She'd given birth to a daughter in 1993, was teaching classes at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and was involved in a long list of local organizations at the point of her untimely passing.

I cried for a few moments after reading it and realizing that she was only 35 when she died. Once again I was seeing it too late to attend and pay my last respects and I was a little upset about that. It's also ironic and frustrating to me that our paths could have crossed before she passed away. One of the schools that we used to do Trans 101 seminars at was Baylor College of Medicine and the first one I was part of took place in February 1998.

I took some time to remember the beautiful girl I met in my math class that day who'd become an outstanding woman. I clipped that obituary, scanned the picture (which is on my other computer, darn it) and stored it in my high school memory book.

She's one of the reasons that when it came time for me to choose a feminine name when I transitioned in 1994, I chose Monica.

My name today is a reminder to myself on multiple levels. I wanted to honor her memory, so I strive to carry myself in the same way that I remember her as a classy, beautiful and intelligent woman. It's also a reminder to myself to make every moment count and make quality use of the time that you're allotted.

Unlike the Cylons of Battlestar Galactica, we only get one shot at living our lives and you don't get multiple practice runs until it's perfect.

Happy birthday, Monica. Say hello to my grandmother Tama for me.

On The Road Again

Well peeps, in less than 12 hours I'll be rolling toward our nation's capital to lobby in favor of ENDA and hate crimes.

So why am I taking a few days out of my schedule to lobby for these bills? Well, one of my guiding principles is to leave the world in a better position than when I arrived on the scene. I want the transkids who are now six and seven years old to have it better than we did. I don't want them having to wade through all the intolerance, ignorance and bull that we've have to endure. It's up to my generation to make sure that happens.

To borrow Dr. King's eloquent words, I want them to be judged on the content of their character. I want them to be able to achieve their dreams. I don't want them to be afraid to dream or live their lives like I was because I was fearful of what would happen if my gender issues were discovered. I want them to be able to contribute to American society without facing the resistance and limits that we've struggled to overcome. It's also another way I use my talents to give back and help build the community.

As much as I'm eagerly looking forward to lobbying on a Capitol Hill in which the Democrats are in control, it's the road trip I'm really psyched for. I've always liked road trips as I've stated on numerous occasions. In addition I relish the opportunity to see some old friends from around the nation and meet some new ones.

II think every American needs to get to Washington D.C. at least once in their lifetime. You need to see for yourselves how the legislative process works. There's nothing like being in DC and sitting in a hearing or a House or Senate session, watching the debates or talking to your congreessmember or senator. I've done that at the state and city council level but I really need to try to do it for the federal government level as well.

If I get access to a computer I'll try to update the blog and report to you TransGriot readers what's happening during Transgender Lobby Week. I'll be putting on my journalist cap and conducting a few interviews while I'm there as well.

Now I need to finish washing this last load of clothes and get some sleep. Got a long drive ahead of me.

I Am NOT A 'Queen'

Me and my homegirl Sharron were having another one of our marathon phone conversations the other night. (despite the fact I've been battling a nasty bug for the last few days) She's an intelligent biowoman with a very enlightened outlook on things and fun to be around. Her friends encompass a diverse spectrum of people, including the TransGriot.

She's been instrumental in helping me understand the way Louisvillians think. She's been a major ally in terms of getting me to see that femininity is between your ears, not your genital configuration. Sharron also doesn't hesitate in checking me when I start whining about how I wish I'd been born female from jumpstreet. At the same time I've spent more than a few nights helping her decipher the mysteries of biomale behavior.

During our chat she relayed a conversation that she had with a gay male in which she was discussing me and a friend of mine. She objected to the gay male's constant references to transwomen as 'queens' and called him on it. The gay male dismissively said to her, "If they still have a d--- they're queens to me."

News flash to any gay or straight male, straight female, lesbian or anybody else who harbors that assumption. No disrespect to peeps that may think of themselves that way but I'm nobody's queen. I have friends who do shows. I occasionally judge pageants if asked but I am NOT a drag queen. I am a transwoman.

That condescending attitude is what causes major problems between the gay male and transgender communities. It's that Jim Fourattesque dissing of us that has been around since Stonewall that we regularly have to call peeps on.

Fouratt was one of the founders of the post-Stonewall Gay Liberation Front. He's also in some transpeeps eyes the third most hated person in the transgender community behind Janice Raymond and Germaine Greer. His views that transwomen are just 'misguided gay men who undergone sexual mutilations' enraged many of us. He has a long history through the 80's and 90's of liberally eating Hater tots when it comes to transpeople.

Unfortunately his views are still shared by many peeps of his generation. They continue to be espoused by some gay peeps from the elite upper echelons of it to the working class gay clubs. Fouratt described transgender transitions as a socially-forced "cure of homosexuality that were submitted to by confused, crazy queens". This wildly incorrect and distorted image of us was unfortunately accepted by many gay men.

That false image negatively impacted relations between the transgender and gay communites for over two decades. We fought a decade long battle with elements of the Houston Gay Lesbian Political Caucus just to get included in that influential organization. The time we wasted fighting each other distracted us from the bigger issue of the radical Religious Right-Republican takeover of Harris County and Texas. We still have echoes of this drama when you hear some GLB activists claim that we aren't part of 'their' movement or that we shouldn't be participating in 'their' pride parades.

The late Sylvia Rivera (who I had an interesting chat with during a New York vacation in May 2000) was a Stonewall Vet and founder of STAR (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries) She had this to say in 2001 about Fouratt which is apropos to this post.

"You and others must realize that as many of you were born gay males we are born Trans. Stop speaking for me and my sisters and brothers of the Trans Community. We can speak for ourselves. Neither you nor anyone else can know our lives and our feelings."

That's one reason why this blog exists. Too many misconceptions are around about transgender peeps, especially transpeeps with my ethnic heritage. In many cases the myths and misperceptions are promoted and spread by folks who are supposed to be our allies.

Do me and other transpeeps a favor. Honor Sylvia's memory by letting us speak for and define ourselves.

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?

The Virginia Tech Tragedy

College is supposed to be an overall positive experience. You're finally getting to sort everything out in terms of what you want to do in life, where you're headed and learning and growing as a young adult while having some fun in the process.

For many peeps it's the first time you get to step out, live away from home and get your first taste of adulthood. It's the last time in your life when the only responsibilities you have are to get up, go to class and study your butt off unless you also have a job you're juggling to help pay your tuition.

I guess it's why I enjoy walking around on various college campuses when I do follow Dawn to various fencing tournaments. It takes me back to my own college days in that respect. It's hard for me to imagine what it would have been like to have that peace of mind shattered by a gunman suddenly popping up in one of my classes, firing shots at me and my classmates, then to discover a day or so later that he was a classsmate that peeps had been seeing disturbing behavior patterns about for two years leading up to that horrific incident.

Even the folks who weren't in those Norris Hall classrooms that morning are haunted by 'That could have been me' thoughts. I can only imagine what was going through people's minds as their buildings were on lockdown wondering if the incident was over of if their building was next on the shooter's target list.

What about the peeps who for some reason decided not to go to class that morning? I know they feel just as hurt as the gun shop owner who sold Cho the weapons he used.

How would I feel about that? How do you put that behind you and move on with llfe, if you ever do? It's also tough at that age to lose a classmate because up until you get past your college years and your ten-year high school reunion you have this false feeling of immortality. You walk around in your late teens and 20's with this attitude that you have plenty of time to accomplish the things you want to do or get your life together.


There are 32 people that have been tragically taken from us including Cho. But to the Virginia Tech students who may be reading this blog, life does go on. In 1966 The University of Texas suffered a similar tragedy. It took a while but people eventually forgot until Monday that a deadly shooting occurred on its campus. It brought back the flood of memories in Austin and on the UT campus of what Charles Whitman had done almost 41 years earlier.

It was interesting to read Nikki Giovanni's account of her 2005 encounter with Cho in her writing class she was teaching at Virginia Tech. I think what needs to happen in the wake of this tragedy is to strenghten the ability of college professors and administrators to compel folks with disturbing behavior patterns to undergo counseling once its verified.

Would that have prevented the shooting? That's a debatable question. As far as the gun issue I'm going to deal with that another time. In this post I want to continue focusing on the 32 people we lost, the folks at Virginia Tech and their families who are grieving and trying to make sense out of an irrational situation.

We will never know what types of contributions those fallen people would have made to our society and others around the world. We can only guess about that as we mourn them, memorialize them and sadly have to move on.

"The Revs" DO Speak For Many African-Americans

I continue to be amused and amazed by the vitriolic hatred that comes out of many conservapundits mouths whenever "The Revs" are asked to comment on issues like the recent Don Imus flap.

"The Revs" I'm speaking about are the Rev. Al Sharpton and the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. It seems that many whites can't conceal their outright hatred for these gentlemen. I even heard Evan Cohen on Fox Sports Radio rant repeatedly for three hours during a third shift show early Monday morning about his 'disgust' as he put it for Rev. Jesse attending the Jackie Robinson memorial event in Los Angeles. (News flash, Evan. Rev. Jackson preached the 1972 funeral for Jackie Robinson and is a friend of the family, so explain to me why shouldn't he be there?)

It seems as though these peeps have selective memories when it comes to The Revs. In Rev. Jackson's case they never fail to bring up the 1984 'Hymietown' comment but their memory banks suddenly get fuzzy when it's mentioned that in 1983 Rev. Jackson traveled to Damascus, Syria to rescue a downed US Navy pilot, ran for president in 1984 and 1988 and rescued hundreds of hostages Saddam was detaining in Iraq in 1990.

Rev. Sharpton constantly has the Tawana Brawley case thrown in his face, but he too has run for public office and has been a thoughtful and eloquent spokesperson along with Rev. Jackson on various issues. I guess y'all forgot about the thunderous speech he made at the 2004 Democratic Convention calling out the Bush misadministration.

What, y'all gonna withdraw your support for Senator Barack Obama and take back everything you said about him if The Revs come out and openly support him in his presidential bid? Then again I wouldn't be suprised if that happened considering the level of the negativity spewed at Reverends Sharpton and Jackson.

The bottom line is that no matter how much Hateraid you drink and spit back at The Revs, they have much love and respect from many African-Americans. They have been on the frontlines for decades doing the African-American community's civil rights grunt work. That's more than we can say for the Negroes that are constantly trotted out by right-wingers as examples of peeps THEY think should be our leaders and THEY think we should listen to like Condoleezza Rice and others.

You don't get to make that call, we do. As long as Condi and company are supporting positions, people and politicians that work against the interests of African-Americans, they'll continue to have zero credibility in our eyes.

If you're distressed that The Revs have that status, then your media outlets need to start calling the peeps that are the African-American community's ELECTED leaders in the Congressional Black Caucus to appear on the Sunday morning talk shows and other events. They need to talk to the next NAACP president. That person has juice as the head of one of the oldest civil rights organizations in our country and has a membership that crosses the spectrum of Black America. They need to talk to Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League which encompasses our business leaders. You need to have frequent chats with Cathy Hughes, the head of Radio One, the seventh largest radio corporation communications company in the US, the heads of the various Divine Nine fraternities and sororities, the editors of Jet, Ebony, Essence and Black Enterprise magazines, et cetera.

But since the media likes controversy, they'll continue to call on "The Revs" for their opinions on various issues. Bear in mind as you throw things at your TV that they DO speak for many African-American most of the time on many issues.

Sometimes they even speak for the TransGriot as well.

Roseanne Has A Point

While interviewing Jasmyne Cannick as a guest host for a radio show on KCAA-AM in San Bernardino, CA last week, Roseanne Barr made the following comments about gay peeps.

Never once in my 54 years have I ever once heard a gay or lesbian person who’s politically active say one thing about anything that was not about them. They don’t care about minimum wage, they don’t care about any other group other than their own self because you know, some people say being gay and lesbian is a totally narcissistic thing and sometimes I wonder.

I’ve never heard any of them say anything except for “accept me ‘cause I’m gay.”
It’s just, it’s screwed. It’s no different than the evangelicals, it’s the same mindset. They want you to accept Jesus and you guys want us to all believe it’s ok to be gay. And a lot of us, a lot of them, I do, I don’t give a damn who anybody has sex with, as long as they’re not underage and an animal. I don’t give a damn, it’s none of my damn business. I’m just sick of all the divisiveness, it’s not getting any of us anywhere.

The Victory Fund swiftly released a statement condemning remarks and quickly trotted out openly gay Alabama state legislator Patricia Todd and her work to establish a state minimum wage as a example of a gay person who does care about the issues she raised. Here in Kentucky Louisville's Fairness Campaign has consistently lent its voice to a wide range of causes beyond its primary focus on GLBT civil rights issues.

But Roseanne does have a point. There are too many gays who selfishly don't care about any issue other than their own civil rights. Unfortunately there are many African-Americans and others nodding their heads in agreement with her. The transgender community has experienced that attitude all too often since Stonewall and over the last 13 years.

We have a running battle going on with elements of HRC and some gay activists over transgender rights issues. We've been dismissively told by some of them 'it's not our turn' or 'wait until we get OUR rights and we'll come back for you' as they cut transgender peeps out of 'their' hate crimes and employment bills over the last decade at various levels of government. Some have even loudly complained we shouldn't even be part of 'their' movement while getting indignant over African-Americans flipping the script on them. Their panties get all in a bunch when African-Americans say that the GLBT rights movement is not the same as the 60's Civil Rights Movement and they need to stop hijacking 'our' movement.

African-American GLBT/SGL peeps have long had drama with the selfish white gays over racism in the community and their double standards about it. Gay peeps justifiably fumed, ranted and raved over Tim Hardaway's and Isaiah Washington's comments. They generated reams of press releases condemning them while the selfish ones flocked to watch a white gay man named Chuck Knipp do a demeaning minstrel show that African-American peeps have been loudly protesting since 2002. They then have the temerity to tell us to 'get over it'. When we call them on their double standard they spew racist invectives at SQL's African-American critics to defend the gay man doing the minstrel show.

Ain't that a switch.

Black gays, y'all ain't off the hook on this, either. There are many of you who only care about where's the next fabulous party, pageant or ball than being engaged and involved in the community. Before y'all start tripping I know that there are many African-American GLBT peeps who ARE active in various organizations and doing wonderful work to uplift the race. Unfortunately the perception out there is that we're not and don't care.

Roseanne apologized for the statement, but it's that perception and the actions of some gay peeps that led her to make it in the first place.

Black Peeps HAVE Been Discussing Negative Rap Lyrics-Y'all Been Ignoring Us

One of the things that I was amused and pissed to hear during the whole Don Imus flap was the pathetic attempts of conservatives to shift the blame to the African-American community.

The African-American community has been decrying negativity in hip-hop for over a decade. Y'all haven't been paying attention.

In 1993 C. Delores Tucker was calling hip-hop "pornographic filth" and saying it was demeaning and offensive to Black women. She was slammed in 1994 when she objected to nominating Tupac Shakur for an NAACP Image Award.

In 2004 students at Spelman College mobilized and got a Nelly campus appearance cancelled in the wake of his misogynistic Tip Drill video that incensed women at the most famous African-American women's college in the nation. That resulted in Essence Magazine starting their ongoing Take Back The Music Campaign.

Since Oprah is focusing her considerable media platform on this issue we now have White America's undivided attention. Over the next two days Oprah's show will be devoted to broadcasting a town hall meeting entitled After Imus: Now What?

Today's show had some interesting commentary from voices ranging from Maya Angelou and Stanley Crouch to India.Arie and the Rev. Al Sharpton. It was also gratifying to see the Spelman women finally get recognized for what they've been trying to say for several years. Tomorrow's show will have the response from the hip-hop community courtesy of hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons and rapper Common.

Yes, we have major work to do in our community and thank God this conversation has finally been jumped off. I hope that it results in some substinative sustained action over time. We also need to point out as Asha Bandele did today that the b-word and n-word didn't originate in our communities or with gangsta rappers. African-Americans have had those words hurled at us and suffered assaults on our images since 1619.

We can finger point at each other all day long, the bottom line is that the denigration of our women needs to stop. As C. Delores Tucker once said, "You can't listen to all that language and filth without it affecting you."

Too bad not many peeps were paying attention to Ms. Tucker in 1993. Better late than never.

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.