Don't Be Shy...Ask Me Questions

This morning I had the pleasure of corresponding with a young college student about a transgender related relationship issue. I hope that I was successful in resolving to her satisfaction and clearing up some questions in her mind. She was a little nervous at first, but as one of my college professors and my parents once told me, the only dumb question is the one that's never asked.

I presume that like the person I'm talking about in the previous paragraph, some of you may have stumbled upon TransGriot while web surfing, Googling a question or for myriad other reasons.

One of the reasons I blog is to kick knowledge out about transgender issues, with an emphasis on African-Americans and what we deal with when we transition. Some issues are similar to my transsisters ad transbrothers in general, while others are unique to the African-American experience.

So if you have some burning questions on something I may not have touched on in the 700 plus posts I have here, feel free to leave a comment in this thread or hit me at transgriot@yahoo.com. If it doesn't get too personal, I'll answer it.

It doesn't even have to be transgender related. ;)

If y'all hit me with some good ones, they may even show up in a future TransGriot post.

'Tipping' Affects More Than Just Housing Markets

When I talk about 'tipping', I'm not talking about trying to figure out how much cash you give your server after you chow down at your local restaurant.

In the real estate world, 'tipping' refers to the point of no return in which 'white flight' is triggered from a neighborhood because of the perception that it's 'too Black' or 'too ethnic'

What is that point? According to some studies, white flight from some neighborhoods can be triggered if just 8% of the homes are bought by Black owners. Translation, in a 100 home subdivision, if just eight African-American families move in, the mass exodus begins. Other studies say if the percentage of white residents dips below 50%, 'white flight' begins.

I believe it's the 8% figure, and I remember a vivid example of it.

My friend Leighton Lindsey and his family moved from my neighborhood to their Hiram Clarke area neighborhood in 1976. That area and their block was majority white at the time and their new home was just two blocks up the street from Madison High School in southwest Houston.

Two months later when they got settled into their new home, my brother and I were invited to spend the weekend with him and his brother Todd. I noted when we got dropped off at his house that not only did the next door neighbors have a 'For Sale' sign on their home, but four other houses on that same block had them as well.

I'm bringing up this childhood memory in the wake of the comments of a Projector on Bilerico where I'm a contributing writer. This person complained that Bilerico was becoming 'too black', a comment in which I and Bil Browning went off on.

I'm also seeing and hearing the same whispers on other GLBT oriented lists that I peruse that Bilerico is 'too Black' or 'too transgender'. Is that your code word or whatever the frack excuse you're using for not only not wanting to read the posts of people that don't look like you, but don't want to engage in the frank discussions we have on various issues on the Project?

If that's your opinion, you're entitled to it. But basing those comments on a small portion of the generated comment of the Project being authored by African-American GLBT people is bigoted and asinine.

As I have repeatedly stated, I see things through an African-American prism. The way I look at and analyze issues does not always neatly line up with a predominately white GLBT community's views. There are some issues I will agree with you with on that put me at odds with the African-American community. There are others that I'll have a radically different point of view on that will have me standing in solidarity with my people.

When I'm commenting on issues, it's primarily based on what's right and wrong along with the moral and ethical implications. I'm also blunt about tellin' it like it T-I-S is as the late Jack 'The Rapper' Gibson would say.

So if you can't handle what I have to say and try to dismiss it as a 'transgender conspiracy theory' or 'rubbing my blackness in your face', you do so at your own intellectual peril.

Transgender Conspiracy Theory? Yeah, Right

In the wake of the Houston HRC dinner protest HRC has been furiously trying to spin (translation: lie) its way out of a problem that they caused.

Their latest spin line is that this was a 'conspiracy theory'

Yeah, right. I'm supposed to disbelieve ten years of evidence, history and personal experience that tell me the Homosexual Rights Campaign is a bunch of morally bankrupt liars, but transgender people are 'conspiracy theorists' according to the words of an unnamed HRC staffer?

Personally, I don't believe in conspiracy theories and don't peddle them. I'm a 'just the facts' girl who is blessed with an encyclopedic knowledge of history.

Being a minority also gives me some insight on some things as well. That combination of experiences, history and knowledge of previous Forces of Oppression hijinks tells me not to cavalierly dismiss someone who expresses concerns that may seem outlandish at first, but upon further review are later proven right.

When Rep. Maxine Waters was vilified by the Right for saying that the Feds were facilitating the flooding of Los Angeles and other large urban cities with crack cocaine and using the profits to fund the Nicaraguan contras, she was derisively called 'Mad Maxine' until a scandal called Iran-Contra broke out and Pulitzer prize winning investigative reporter Gary Webb verified the story.

When Marti Abernathey, NTAC, I and others revealed what we discovered during our May 2007 lobby day that we weren't covered in ENDA, we were called 'crazy' and liars' until October.

So when I post that a Houston dinner protest is coming, read my Phyllabuster and see that she has a meeting with HPD, I have to ask the questions why were the Po-Po's called in the first place, what did national HRC say during that initial phone call to make HPD call Phyllis Frye and resulted in the massive show of police force (and waste of Houston taxpayer dollars) Saturday for a protest that turned out 11 transgender people?


I also know that the HRC modus operandi over the last decade has been to find more pliant transgender leaders, subvert organizations that don't have a master-slave subservient view of our now severely strained relationship or acquiesce to the gays first-trannies someday 'incremental progress' strategy they espouse concerning LGBT civil rights.


The transgender community resumed picketing these dinners in October 2007 and I wouldn't be surprised if more creative anti-HRC demonstrations are in the planning stages. Transpeople are that angry over the betrayal. We are beyond sick and tired of being sick and tired about being tossed aside like an empty beer can, disrespectfully being told to 'wait our turn' or being used as legislative bargaining chips.

This time, the efforts of HRC apologists and Vichy transgender organizations will not stop this campaign. The only thing that will end it is HRC making a public apology for lying to us at our signature convention about our inclusion in ENDA, and busting their asses in 2009 and beyond in conjunction with United ENDA to make it happen.

When future historians finally tackle the subject of the GLBT rights movement, it will note the appalling actions of a so-called civil rights organization directed at an allied group which needed the civil rights protections worse than they did. They will probably comment that HRC was more concerned with their own selfish interests than passing broad legislation that covered the entire GLBT community.

Reflections About A King

When I flipped the calendar page from March to April, I stared at the 4 that appeared in the first Friday of the month and realized we were approaching another sad anniversary of his assassination.

It's been 40 years since whoever fired that bullet, whether it was James Earl Ray or some person whose name will remain unknown to us cut short Dr. King's brilliant life at age 39. I was a first grader at the time one month away from celebrating my sixth birthday when he was killed in Memphis.

Usually in the run up to this anniversary date, like I do on his January 15 birthday and the federal holiday, I not only take time to reflect on the remarkable life of who Tavis Smiley calls 'the greatest American we ever produced', I take stock in my own personal life and ask myself some hard questions about what I'm doing to not only help my people make 'The Dream' a reality, but what I'm doing in service to others as well.

This 40th anniversary of his assassination is also arriving at another pivotal moment in our history. It's ironic that just like 40 years ago, we are embroiled in another controversial war, environmental issues are on the minds of votes, we have an unpopular president occupying the White House, race relations have become testy, the economy is stagnant, and Americans are pessimistic about the future.

But at the same time, Robert Kennedy's run for the presidency 40 years ago was generating the same kind of optimism and hope among a cross section of Americans as Sen. Barack Obama's historic presidential run is today.

But make no mistake about it, we are in another dust up over race because we have failed to aggressively pursue the remedies and policies that would make 'The Dream' a reality. It's interesting to note that no one has brought up the Kerner Commission report, which was released 40 years ago on February 29, 1968 and warned 'our nation is moving toward two societies, one Black, One White—Separate and Unequal' in the context of these discussion.

Over the last few days, I've been rereading my copy of A Testament of Hope, which is a James Washington edited compilation of writings, interviews and speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Every time I read it I gain new insights about this remarkable man. The other striking thing is how applicable his words are to our time period, especially when he talks about his opposition to the Vietnam War.

Dr. King was a rare combination of intelligence, superior oratorical skill, political savviness, scientific curiosity, top notch writing skills, spirituality, and telegenic looks in one impressive package.

There are not many movement leaders in our time who have half of those qualities, much less the stature that Dr. King commanded during his lifetime. I remember a commentary I wrote in response to a post on a transgender list that said we needed a transgender Martin Luther King. It also created a leadership yardstick that few people can live up to but if they tried, we'd be much better off.

America and the world suffered a great loss when he was taken away from us and we are a poorer nation for it.


Crossposted to The Bilerico Project.

Hate On Haters

What I do reflects on you
What you do reflects on me
What WE do reflects on the ENTIRE gay community.

That was the text of a sign that used to hang in various Houston gay clubs in our Montrose gayborhood. It was a reminder to all of the club patrons that like it or not, you are now a minority and the rules changed from the 'rugged individualist' selfish behavior you used to exhibit on a daily basis. Whether you liked it or not, you were part of a community of people under attack by our parent society and your interactions in the world around you had to take that into account.

It's a lesson that we African-Americans and other peeps of color have had drilled into us from the cradle, but some WWBT's have refused to learn.

Over the last several weeks we've had an infestation of WWBT's on various GLBT blogs spouting their selfish, hateful, transphobic and increasingly insulting rhetoric on various GLBT blogs that one by one has gotten the authors banned from the major ones like Bilerico, Pam's House Blend and others. They are now trying to bring that Hateraid over here, especially since I have called them out on their bullshit on this post and others.

I'm not tolerating it. I've worked hard to build TransGriot into a place where my fellow African-Americans, our supporters and others around the world can come and get information about transgender issues from an African-American perspective. I refuse to let a bunch of clueless, exclusionary latte-sipping racists who have no idea about how politics, much less anything else works (and don't care) try to tear down what I have patiently built up here over the last two plus years.

It's not an issue with African-American transpeople. This is only coming from a small, loud argumentative segment of elderly white transwomen. It's an unwelcome blast from the past that is so 90's, and it's the last time I'm wasting this blog's bandwith commenting on this issue. I have bigger fish to fry.

I chuckle because every time these peeps post their vitriolic crap (which I delete) in a vain attempt to quote unquote 'try to make me look bad', they're missing the mark. They need to look in the mirror (if it doesn't break first) to ascertain who this is really hurting. You're making yourselves look like the peeps that not only need Jesus, but need straitjackets and prescription medication as well.

But unfortunately your vitriol has a negative effect on the transgender community in general, and I believe that's your ultimate goal. You WWBT's not only want to make the community look bad, but want to use the Republican strategy of driving wedges into its constituent parts to break it up.

You peeps have been miserable failures at working well and playing nice with each other since the 90's. The evidence is overwhelming that there's a viable, vibrant transgender community that is growing and evolving. You WWBT's not only hate it, you want to by any means necessary manufacture your reality that there's no transgender community. You are attempting to remix and attack us with the same 'womyn born womyn' radical lesbian feminist crap you've been smacked with by the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival peeps since the early 90's in order to jack with the common interests that bind and enable us to work together.

This cynical strategy of yours will also fail.

Whether you WWBT's realize it or not, as much as we despise even being associated with or mentioned in the same breath with you, our parent society and the GLBT community links us with you Ann Coulter wannabees. The winds will blow the fallout from your verbal attacks on us back toward you as well.

To the rest of my regular readers, I apologize to you. Think of the WWBT's as our misguided senile grandparents who spout outrageous and embarrasing statements at inopportune times. Think Ann Coulter. Same mentality, same racism, same sophomoric arrogance level. They think that just because they spent $10,000 or less on a neocoochie back in the day and they got that money by any means necessary, it makes them ubermenschen. They forget that like everything else in society since the 70's, SRS prices have gone up as well, and for various reasons not everybody can or will have SRS.

We can't help the fact that some of you are frothing at the mouth and bitter about the fact that you're home alone and some of my sisters not only look better than you, some of them are in satisfying long term relationships with biomen despite having five inches of neoclit in their lace panties.

If y'all would check those jacked up attitudes, you might get to use that neocoochie from time to time and not only feel a man inside you, you'll get to experience what an orgasm feels like.

All of your ugly comments will not change the fact that I am a proud, college educated African-American transwoman who has mad writing skills, has a Trinity on my mantel, and have biowomen and transwomen who consider me one of the girls. I have peeps gay, straight and transgender all over the planet who not only love and care about me, they value my friendship.


I'm blessed to have a diverse, worldwide readership of this blog who values my intelligence, wit and insightful commentary on various issues. I'm happy that I've gotten to do speeches, college lectures and panel discussions in addition to numerous print and radio interviews. I'm honored that I've garnered awards from my fellow non-transgender African-Americans and the GLBT community for doing civil rights work, am considered a valued member of my church, and have the love and unconditional support of my family.

In other words people, I have a life. So hate on haters, I'm a Phenomenal Transwoman.

I'm having a blast being the best Monica I can be and succeeding. I'm not only kicking knowledge about transgender people, but doing my part to help speed up the day when unconditional acceptance of transpeople in American society and having our rights codified into law is a no brainer and a reality.

I'm Glad I'm Not Like You

As I wrote about back in January, I have a hater and agent provocateur that it seems like has made it her mission in life to post contrary and negative comments on just about any thread I initiate on the Bilerico Project.

As many of you may already be aware of, I was honored to be invited to join it as a contributor earlier this year.

On a recent post of mine called 'I'm Pissed Off', the hater posted a comment totally unrelated to the topic in which she stated that I and Monica Helms, another activist she has Hateraid for, wasn't like her.

Gee, in my case was it my photo that clued you in to that profound revelation?

Once again we have the whiny, exclusionary, borderline delusional rants of WWBT's polluting the Internet. They are hating on people who have put themselves out there to do the work of advancing civil rights coverage for all GLBT people. They turn intelligent, thoughtful discourse into a WWE wrestling match. The WWBT's are not only making asses of themselves, they are proving themselves to be the transgender equivalents of Ann Coulter.

But the WWBT's are right about one thing: I'm not like you.

I'm a proud African-American transwoman who is descended from the survivors of the Middle Passage. I'm a Phenomenal Transwoman who like her biosisters is proud of her heritage, cognizant of her history and revels in the fact that she can take her place amongst some of the most beautiful and intelligent women in the world.

I'm a proud African-American transwoman who is also a third generation Texan. I come from women who make history, start and build organizations and work to solve problems sometimes at great risk to their own safety or comfort level, not passively sit on their butts behind a computer terminal, incorrectly spout and misinterpret feminist theory and snipe at everybody that doesn't agree with them.

As the late Rep. Barbara Jordan, one of my heroines and a fellow Houstonian said when she accepted the NAACP's Spingarn medal in 1992, "It is a burden of Black people that we have to do more than just talk."

When I didn't see people like myself represented in the early national transgender leadership ten years ago, I and others got involved so that my people's issues would be part of the general transgender community conversation. We also wanted our transkids to see people standing up for transgender rights that reflected their cultural heritage as well. When the transgender community was resistant to or indifferent to having us in their spaces, organizations or conferences, we created our own.

I'm glad I'm not like you. I revel in every chocolate brown curve of my body. I love not only the quiet strength and intelligence of my transsistahs and transbrothas, I love the variety of skin tones me and my transpeeps have from vanilla creme to the deepest darkest ebony hue. I love the way we can wear anything from jeans to couture and rock it with the confidence of supermodels strutting the runways.

One thing I pray for is not only gracefully aging, but that I continue to have the same thirst for knowledge that I've had since childhood. I pray I continue to keep an open mind, not let the madness of a few narrow minded people discourage me from fighting for everyone's civil rights, be willing to seek out young people who have different spins on issues that will expand and add flexibility to my views, and continue to be a positive influence on mine and the next generation of transgender people.

I also pray that I don't turn into a bitter, exclusionary, self-hating, selfish shrew like some of you WWBT's have become.

I'm glad I'm not like you, and I thank God every day for that fact.

Michelle, I Feel Ya

The conservatives have their panties in a knot because Michelle Obama was quoted as saying during a recent campaign appearance that this is the first time in her adult life she's been proud of this country. They're also whining about the fact that Senator Obama allegedly doesn't put an American flag lapel on his coat.

If that's the best shade you GOPers can throw, and I know you're capable of doing much worse, then I should be preparing for a historic trip to Washington DC next January 20 to see the first African-American president be inaugurated.

My feelings for this country echo a line from the HBO movie The Tuskegee Airmen.

How do I feel about my country, and how does my country feel about me?

It's hard to love a country that enslaved your ancestors for two and a half centuries, spent another 100 years terrorizing them, lynching them and denying them basic opportunities, refuses to apologize and pay reparations for their crimes, and has one party that bases its ability to win elections on how much Hateraid they can stir up against African-Americans. It's a testament to the strength and inner fortitude of my people that we've survived and thrived despite all the negativity that's been thrown at us.

Patriotism is not the armchair variety as espoused by conservatives. Just because they put American flag pins on the lapels of their suits, put American flag decals on their SUV's, cars and pickup trucks doesn't mean they love this country any more than someone who doesn't. The conservative movement's actions over the last 40 years are those of people who clearly don't love or have respect for the constitution or our country.

I must point out that despite all the bullshit that this country has taken my people through, African-Americans have fought in every war this country has waged from the Revolutionary War to the misguided adventure in Iraq. That's more than I can say for my people's draft and combat dodging critics.

Our innovative creativity and intelligence has enriched this country, shaped its culture and advanced its scientific knowledge, technical and engineering prowess.

Patriotism is not blind obedience to the status quo and never criticizing the president as conservative pundits would have you believe. It's praising your country when it does the right thing and calling it out when it does things that even though they may be legal, are morally and ethically wrong.

The United States is held to a higher standard of behavior on the world stage. Frankly, we have slipped from that high standard thanks to the idiots we have in charge that stole two elections to stay in power for the last seven years.

The conservative vision for America, the mean-spirited, hate thy neighbor, I got mine and screw the rest of y'all one is not the kind of America I and the vast majority of people want to live in.

I'm proud of my country when it lives up to the high moral standards, fair play and ideals of justice and equality it espouses. I'm proud of my country when government power is used to help the least among us, not corporations and the 'have mores'. I'm proud of my country when it helps people around the world get back on their feet after a natural disaster strikes. I'm proud of my country when it uses its moral leadership judiciously to wage peace. I'm proud of my country when it bears in mind that we need to leave an America (and a world) that's better than the one we found.

Those moments where my country lives up to its lofty ideals have been few and far between in my life, and we've definitely been devoid of those moments under GOP rule.

As a patriot, I'm going to criticize it until 'errbody' has a fair shot at the American Dream, and not just a limited slice of the white male population. I want to be a drum major for justice like Dr. King was. I want transgender people included in the 'We The People' preamble to the constitution and not have people think it's okay to put my civil rights up to a vote or repeal them because of false interpretations of Biblical teachings. I'm going to support candidates for political office and like minded Americans who feel the same way.

And frankly, I just want to be proud of my country again.

Sick-Ohh

If you've visited the blog over the last few days, you probably noticed I haven't been my usual prolific self in posting to TransGriot lately.

Here in Da Ville we've had a nasty flu strain that has been hitting people hard around town and unfortunately I caught it around Tuesday while at work. I had a 100 degree fever coupled with body aches, chills, congestion, a sore throat and an annoying cough that kept me miserable and bedridden for a few days.

Thanks to my mom and grandmother Lou Ella I inherited their amazing immune systems so I rarely get sick. When I do it usually takes something like this flu strain to waylay me, and I'm an unhappy, cranky camper when it does.

I muddled through work for the next two days and spent Friday and most of Saturday morning crashed in the bed. I got up to run a few errands and grab a copy of Why Did I Get Married? since I was feeling 60% better by that afternoon.

I was feeling well enough after drinking enough orange juice and Dawn's family recipe hot toddy over the last few days to get up and spend most of Sunday being part of the Fairness Campaign's community conversation with its potential new director.

I think this thing has finally run its course, but I'm going to bury it in Vitamin C over this week just to make sure.

Hateraid From A WBT

One of the things that's part of being an activist, especially one who has writing talents and an ever increasing media profile is critcism.

I'm a big girl and I expect it, nor do I presume that 'errbody' agrees with what I have to say. I welcome constructive criticism if it is done in a loving way that helps me become a better person and a better activist.

But this is what was sitting in my e-mail inbox when I checked it early on the morning of January 25 after doing 15 hours at work.

From: "Sue Robins"
To:
Subject: I owe you thanks
Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2008 14:35:25 -0800

Minica;

I wanted to thank you for showing your true colors up on Bilerico today. You really should stick to what you know best and keep out of the bigger picture. What you and others are demonstrating is the inability of the transgender community to function in a polite environment without saying disrespectful thing. I have heard it from more then a few of my post-transition friends that you and your ilk are making a mockery of the transgender rights cause. This is the very reason people have been leaving the TG movement in droves.

You don’t seem to understand you have to work with straight middle class men and women if you want to insure progress in transgender rights. You have to play the game by their rules not Barney Frank’s. One of those rules is there is only two sexes Men and Women fortunately a large part of the transgender community understands that. You just keep posting your disrespectful comments you are showing the world that transgenders are nothing more then freaks to be seen on Jerry Springer; thankfully my transgender friends don’t act that way.

Have a nice day

Hugs
Sue Robins

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

(Cue Papi Boulevardez laugh)

FYI TransGriot readers. I didn't put my first post on the Bilerico Project blog until 6:48 PM Friday evening. So at the time I read this e-mail I didn't know what the hell she was talking about.

I've since discovered that Sue Robins is one of those white transsexual separatists that I've been tangling with in various online transgender groups since the late 90's.

Before I start the fun and festivities taking this e-mail apart and rebutting her WBT azz (and in this case the WBT stands for weak-minded belligerent transsexual) enjoy this music video from Jill Scott for her hit song 'Hate on Me'.



I wanted to thank you for showing your true colors up on Bilerico today. You really should stick to what you know best and keep out of the bigger picture.

Why? What is it about lil old me that 'scurrs' you and your ilk so much? And as for keeping out of the bigger picture, too late. While you were cowering in your closet, I was lobbying congressmembers in 1998. I was sitting at a table at Task Force HQ in DC back in 2000 during their National Transgender Policy meeting. I've been in this effort for ten years now and I ain't going away.

What you and others are demonstrating is the inability of the transgender community to function in a polite environment without saying disrespectful thing.

There you go again with that BS 'horizontal hostility' crap. The interesting thing is that every time this shade gets thrown by nekulturny people like you, y'all jump off crap, then you wanna whine and holler 'horizontal hostility' when people call you on it.

I have heard it from more then a few of my post-transition friends that you and your ilk are making a mockery of the transgender rights cause. This is the very reason people have been leaving the TG movement in droves.

Oh really? The one thing that's making a mockery of the transgender rights cause is the inept way that it's been handled for the last ten years by some peeps that share your ethnic background.

As for your assertion that people are leaving the movement in droves, got any facts to back that statement up? Methinks you're just counting your whiny clueless 'WBT' peeps who have repeatedly demonstrated breathtaking ignorance on a vast array of subjects and the inability to work and play well with others.

You don’t seem to understand you have to work with straight middle class men and women if you want to insure progress in transgender rights. You have to play the game by their rules not Barney Frank’s.

This is priceless. White male privilege in action, folks. You are not only discounting and disrespecting my intelligence and abilities, but have the nerve to try to lecture me about how to pass rights legislation when I've been to Capitol Hill, two state legislatures, and recently the Jefferson County school board to do precisely that.

One of those rules is there is only two sexes Men and Women fortunately a large part of the transgender community understands that.

Umm, medical science and biology says otherwise. I think our intersex friends would have a bone to pick with you about your narrow assessment as well. Fortunately a larger section of the transgender community and our allies understand that gender is a continuum, and everybody fits somewhere along that line. The only peeps that share your gender=genitalia dogma besides some of your WBT friends are the Religious Right, the Catholic Church and Barney Frank.

You just keep posting your disrespectful comments you are showing the world that transgenders are nothing more then freaks to be seen on Jerry Springer; thankfully my transgender friends don’t act that way.

FYI, Jerry Springer's peeps called me and asked me to come on their show in 1997. I told them hell no and lose my phone number.

Funny, media professionals over the years seem to like my comments enough to continue to ask me to do interviews such as my local newspaper or the Colorlines magazine one I just did. Go pick it up at a bookseller near you.

The 600 hits per day I get on this blog seems to indicate that peeps like what I have to say. I wrote a newspaper column in a GLBT paper for three years and co-hosted a radio show for two.

So what have you done to uplift transgender peeps today or over the last ten years besides sit behind your computer all day and rant?

By the way Sue, I have a fresh batch of Hater tots prepared for you that y'all can munch on to go with that Vanilla Ice flavored Hateraid you and your friends are drinking by the 55 gallon drum.

You have a blessed day.

Moving Day

TransGriot Note: photos of I-10 at Texas-New Mexico border and I-5 sign from AARoads.com

I spent most of this cold, clear and sunny day helping a transgender girlfriend move.

On the drive up and back to Louisville on I-64 I reflected on the fact that this has been a recurring thing for me with people, be they transgender or non-transgender. While my T-girlfriend was happy to be getting out of Frankfort and moving to Da Ville, my own move in 2001 was a reluctant one. I started crying when the U-Haul I was riding in that was barreling eastbound on I-10 crossed the Sabine River into Louisiana.

Both our moves, despite being separated by several years, resulted from similar circumstances. Inability to find life sustaining gainful employment that we're qualified (or overqualified for) due to the prejudices and hatred of others. Toss in sustained unemployment, blacklisting, collusion by fundamentalist haters and transphobes to keep it that way and dwindling funds to that mix and it eventually forces relocation to areas that have transgender protective laws on the books.

So now you know another reason why transpeople went nuclear when we were cut out of ENDA last September.

While it didn't involve gender issues, the moving thang happened to me on the other side of the gender fence as well. I still talk about one that happened in the mid 80's that involves my cousin Karen and her hubby. They moved into a west Houston house that has an UPSTAIRS utility room. It was Hades shoving a washer and dryer up that stairwell. After that was done hours later I wanted to find the architect who designed that house, beat them down, and ask what were they smoking when they drew up those plans for it?

I thought about the times back in my Air Marshal days (the nickname Dawn and AC gave me when I worked for CAL) I non-revved to help my transgender girlfriends and other peeps pack their stuff and move to another location.

There was a time when I helped AC move out of the home he'd grown up in that had to be sold off to help pay his mother's mounting medical bills.

There were some moves I was part of that involved helping people come back to or leave Houston.

In 1988 my mom's friend Helene had been living in Vallejo for three years. She liked it, but was weary of the California cost of living issues and ready to move back home. She secured a teaching job back here for the approaching 1988-89 school year, but I was the only person she knew that had a flexible enough work schedule, (I had three consecutive days off at the time) and the ability to get to the West Coast and help her drive the 1920 miles back home. Mom knows I like road trips, so she enlisted me to get her best friend back to the Lone Star State.

I hopped a flight to San Francisco, helped Ms. Helene pack the rest of her condo in the backseat and trunk of a Taurus, and at 6 PM PDT Monday off we rolled to Houston via I-5 south to hook up with I-10 in Los Angeles. I enjoyed the conversation and the entertaining nighttime run through The Grapevine we had on that cross country trip. But the worst part for me was that I had to be at IAH at 7 AM CDT Thursday and I didn't get back home until 8 PM CDT Wednesday night.

The delayed reaction from the compressed drive schedule (Vallejo to Banning, 5 hours of sleep, a Banning, CA to El Paso, TX leg arriving in El Paso at midnight MDT, another 5 hours of sleep, then the 700 mile run to Houston) kicked my butt. Fortunately it was only a part time shift, I got off at noon and crashed when I got home. I also swore to myself when I got home from that waltz across Texas (and California, Arizona and New Mexico) that I never wanted to see I-10 WEST of San Antonio again.

Four years later in October 1992 I was burning vacation days heading westbound on I-10 to help my cousin Karen (on my dad's side of the family) move to Los Angeles to pursue her dream of a music career. Karen's more like my sister than my cousin and I didn't want her driving 1500 miles by herself.

I enjoyed the trip, (except for the monotonously boring drive through West Texas) the conversation and the two hour pit stop at a Casa Grande, AZ outlet mall. I flew back to Houston after hanging out for a day of R&R with my friend Seni. In 1998 I was back in LA doing what else, helping Seni pack to move to Detroit so that she could help her mother take care of her ailing father.

So it seems like helping someone move is a recurring event in my life. Every time I say this is the last one, I suddenly find myself taking the time out of my day to do precisely that. I do it because I remember what it was like to be in that situation myself.

And in this case, it gave me something to write about. :)

Why I'm STILL Boycotting Jamaica

I wrote a post a few months ago in the wake of hearing about the ugly wave of anti-GLBT violence in Jamaica that called for a boycott of Jamaican products and tourism to the island until they clean up their act down there.

As I checked my comments this morning I discovered one from 19 year old Shellie-Ann Anderson. Seems like the homegirl from Jamaica didn't like that post and left this comment on it.

batty bwoy fi get buss ass fi true.
unnu too raasclaat nasty and friggin fool.

if unnu nuh waan nobody lick unnu dung unnu keep unnu homo self to unnu self and mek peace remain as much as possible.

Yo Shellie-Ann, are they teaching y'all how to hate on GLBT peeps as part of the high school technology curriculum in Jamaica these days?

And how would you like it if I disrespected you and posted some BS like that on YOUR blog?

Ever since those Southern Baptist missionaries went to Jamaica and several African nations in the 90's, things have been jacked up in those countries ever since.

Maybe you should reread the last paragraph of the winning essay you wrote for that contest the Gleaner published.

We should simply be given guidelines for Internet use that we may choose wisely and ensure that our online experiences are healthy, productive and safe.

Was what you posted in the comment section on my blog healthy or productive?

First lesson to you little girl, is never piss off an activist. Especially an activist that has a blog with an international readership.

I am repeating my call to boycott all Jamaican products. If you're on a cruise and the ship stops at a Jamaican port, stay on the boat. If you wish to vacation in the Caribbean, travel to some destination other than Jamaica.

Shellie-Ann, you can hate on me or any other GLBT person either in your homeland, your hometown of May Pen or elsewhere online. But you and your country are the ones who'll lose in the end. I can afford to take international vacations, and I'll be damned if I spend one penny of my hard earned cash in a country that doesn't respect the lives of my fellow GLBT people.

The bottom line is that we are human beings just like you. Not only are we not going away, we are tired of the homophobic and transphobic BS coming from you and your fellow countrybigots, and it needs to stop.

There She Goes Again

Just when I was about to give The View's Sherri Shepherd props for calling out Elisabeth Hasselbeck on her 'Hillary Clinton is evil' conservarant, Sherri blows whatever cool points she'd begun to earn with me with her comments about Patti Labelle.

While commenting on the Stellar Awards, she mentions taking a picture with gospel legend Shirley Caesar and ' the Black Patti Labelle'.

I know she's knowledge challenged at times, but damn, even I had to do a double take when I saw this clip.

Whoopi reminded you, so will I and probably 'errbody' else in the blogosphere and beyond. Miss Patti is DEFINITELY a sistah and a beloved icon to the African-American GLBT community.



I'll say it again. Sherri Shepherd is an embarrassment to our people.

America's NEVER Ready To Expand Rights

Like many peeps in the transgender community I was incensed, but not surprised by Susan Stanton's unfortunate and ignorantly naive comments. She echoed crap that I've heard for over a decade from Barney Frank and HRC when she stated that America isn't ready for transgender civil rights.

It was ironic because her St. Pete Times interview came out literally 24 hours after I posted a commentary warning that she was being groomed by HRC to become the next spokessellout.

"I think we need to do a whole lot more educating before we’re going to be able to realistically have the support on the national level to get this passed. I personally don’t feel denying the rights of one group should be perpetuated unless everybody has those rights."

But in the spirit of Dr. King's birthday, instead of excoriating Susan for her less than enlightened comments, I'd rather 'ejumacate' Ms. Stanton.

Susan, since you're a newbie to living as a minority, let me hip you to something since you spent the past forty plus years basking in white male privilege.

America is NEVER ready to grant rights to people it despises.

The despised folks have to fight tooth and nail, claw, scratch, cajole, protest, write, march, shame, embarrass, vote, call out and educate until America does the right thing and finally has the moment of clarity that says, 'hey, they're right, it is wrong to discriminate against these people and we need to do the morally right thing and correct it."

Susan, in the United States Constitution it states that as an African-American, I am considered as 3/5 of what you are as a white American. America wasn't ready when women demanded the right to vote. America wasn't ready when African-Americans demanded full citizenship rights and our humanity be respected.

And contrary to the 'incremental rights' fiction about the African-American civil rights journey being bandied about by people with a vested interest in ignoring transgender people and trying to placate those in their own ranks uncomfortable with that stance, let me school you (and others) about the Civil Rights Act of 1875.

Only five years after emancipation, in 1870 this COMPREHENSIVE civil rights bill was introduced by Senator Charles Sumner (R-MA) and Representative Benjamin Butler (R-MA) with major input from African-Americans who had been elected to Congress at that time.

It stated that all persons, regardless of race, color, or previous condition of servitude were entitled to full and equal employment, of accommodation in "inns, public conveyances on land or water, theaters, and other places of public amusement." Violators of this law faced fines from $500-$1000 and jail time that ranged from 30 days to 1 year.

Imagine that incrementalists, a broadly inclusive civil rights bill with teeth. Who would've thunk it?

The Civil Rights Act of 1875 was preceded by the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which strengthened Civil Rights Laws to protect freedmen and to grant full citizenship to those born on U.S. soil except Indians. President Andrew Johnson vetoed the bill, but the veto was overridden by Congress.


The Civil Rights Act of 1871 was known at the time as the 'Ku Klux Klan Act' because one of the main reasons for its passage was to protect African-Americans in the South from the KKK by providing a civil remedy for the egregious abuses of their civil rights then being committed.

Note that all this legislative activity is all happening in the first DECADE after my people were emancipated from slavery.

Unfortunately, this comprehensive civil rights law was not vigorously enforced and was rendered ineffective, especially after federal troops were withdrawn from the South in the wake of the end of Reconstruction.

In 1883 the conservative-dominated Supreme Court declared the act unconstitutional by asserting that Congress did not have the power to regulate the conduct and transactions of individuals.

But major chunks of this comprehensive 1875 bill were used eighty plus years later by President John F. Kennedy to craft the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and by President Lyndon Johnson to craft the Fair Housing Act by using the federal power to regulate interstate commerce.

But to get to that point, over the next 80 years we African-Americans had to battle Klansman, lynching, Jim Crow segregation and discrimination, massive ignorance and hatred, myths about us being purported as scientific facts, bloody riots, conservative politicians, a conservative Supreme Court and our own sellouts.

So Susan, your attitude, Barney's, HRC's and the misguided gay peeps that agree with you is one that I as an African-American have seen before. My history also tells me that the incrementalist argument you parroted is not only a false one, but flies in the face of reality. Explain to me how my people managed to get a comprehensive bill passed in an environment far more hostile to our rights than transgender people face in the early 21st century?

The point is that America is NEVER ready to expand civil rights to the people that desperately need them. Sometimes we have to drag our legislators kicking and screaming into doing the right thing and making it happen.

Hell, if the segregationists had gotten their way African-Americans would still be experiencing the oppressive heel of Jim Crow segregation. The folks that have civil rights coverage are always quick to tell someone else to 'wait their turn' or accept 'incremental progress'.

The people that need the civil rights coverage need to as Nelson Mandela so eloquently stated 'become our own liberators'.

We don't need to partake of the tranquilizing drug of incrementalism, but focus on standing up and loudly proclaiming that it's time to make real the promises of democracy for transgender Americans not in 2013, not in 2009, but NOW.

And that's something I believe all of us can agree on.

Yo IOC, When Y'all Gonna Take The East German Medals Back?

I watched during my teen and young adult years the meteoric rise of East Germany into an international sports powerhouse. It began after the then two Germanys split into separate Olympic teams starting in 1968.

On the surface it was an amazing story. Here was a nation of 17 million people that from 1972-1988 not only challenged the Soviet Union and the United States for Olympic medal supremacy, but dominated in the international competition arenas in summer and winter sports championships as well.

In the 1976, 1980 and 1988 Summer Games the East Germans were second in the gold medal count only to the Soviet Union (the US was third and boycotted the 1980 Moscow Games in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan). The 1976 Montreal Games were even more galling for the United States because the East Germans took 11 out of 13 gold medals in women's swimming events, led by Kornelia Ender's four gold medals.

In the 1976, 1980 and 1988 Winter Games they finished second to the Soviet Union and led all nations at the 1984 Sarajevo Games.

I'm reminiscing about this in the wake of the news that Marion Jones is headed to Club Fed for six months and has had her Sydney medals taken away from her.

Ben Johnson's gold medal and 100 meter world record was snatched in 1988 and handed to Carl Lewis after he failed a post race drug test in Seoul. Kelli White had 100 and 200 meter international track championship gold medals taken away in 2003 and lost a chance to compete in the 2004 Athens Games when she was banned for two years after testing positive.

I'm not saying this just because these peeps share my ethnic heritage. They failed tests, admitted to it and will now (or have in Ben Johnson's and Kelli White's cases) face the music. It's simply a question of fairness to me. I'm more pissed at both Marion and Kelli because they not only let us down as a people, they saw the drama that Florence Griffith-Joyner went through after she won her medals during the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

FloJo won her medals in times that STILL haven't been matched to this day, never failed a post race drug test, busted her glamorous behind to get to that point in her sport, but was dogged to her grave by allegations of cheating.

My bone of contention is that Marion Jones and Kelli White should have been more cognizant of the fact that they were heirs to a legacy. They were part of the legacy of sistah sprinters that stretched back to the 1960 Rome Olympics and Wilma Rudolph.

The torch had been passed to them to represent by the retirement and untimely death of FloJo in 1999. They should have done whatever it took to win and stay clean while doing it.

But what I find interesting is that the IOC is mum about taking away the East German medals.

Hey, if y'all are snatching back Marion Jones' medals, then y'all should be knocking on doors in eastern Germany as well asking for your medals and giving them to the peeps who rightfully earned them.

This was state sponsored cheating that played a decisive role in the success of East German athletes in international competitions, with the most notable performances occurring at the 1976 Montreal Olympics and the 1980 Moscow games.

But it's also left a terrible legacy in its wake. The victims, mostly teens at the time received Oral-Turinabol, an anabolic steroid containing testosterone made by Jenapharm.

The "blue bean" had astonishing powers. It accelerated muscle buildup and boosted recovery times but had catastrophic side effects: infertility among women, embarrassing hair growth, breast cancer, heart problems and testicular cancer.

An estimated 800 athletes developed serious ailments and their long term health was ruined because the leaders wanted to show the world that the Deutsche Demokratische Republik's communist system was superior to its capitalist neighbors and cousins in West Germany.

The most public face of the doping scandal is Andreas Krieger - a European champion shot-putter who took so many male hormones as Heidi Krieger she decided to transition.

One of the few other victims to have spoken publicly about her plight is swimmer Rica Reinisch, who at age 15 won three gold medals in the 1980 Moscow Olympics. "The worst thing was that I didn't know I was being doped," she told the Guardian. I was lied to and deceived. Whenever I asked my coach what the tablets were I was told they were vitamins and preparations."

According to Dr. Werner Franke, a microbiologist who exposed the doping scandal after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Stasi, East Germany's secret police kept meticulous records of the impact the drugs had on performance.

A top-secret sporting medical committee including members of the Parteibüro, East Germany's communist leadership body, met to decide which members of the national squad were to be given the drugs.


Franke contends that scientists from Jenapharm attended these secret committee meetings. Documents also suggest that Jenapharm scientists collaborated with the secret police, the Stasi, in an informal capacity, he claims - protesting privately but not publicly - at the use of steroids in sport.

"There was no medical reason to give steroids. It was against the law of the German Democratic Republic. It was against medical ethics," Franke said. "Everybody knew these drugs were not allowed. The people who participated in this clandestine operation knew that they would lose privileges if they refused to take part.

One major beneficiary if the IOC held the former East Germany to the same standards they hold Black athletes to would be Shirley Babashoff. During her Olympic career that covered the 1972 and 1976 Games she won two golds and 8 silver medals and both of those were team events. In the seven individual races she swam in 1972 and 1976 she was beaten to the wall by an East German swimmer who later was found to have been taking anabolic steroids.

She loudly and honestly sounded the warning that something strange was going on during the Montreal Games with the East German women swimmers. She was ripped by the press and derisively called 'Surly Shirley' and 'sore loser' in the process. Now she's been vindicated by the subsequent trials and sentencing in Germany of the people responsible for the East German doping program.

But the question I still have to ask the IOC (and the IAAF as well) is when are y'all gonna take the medals away from the East Germans?