Not Feeling The (White) Trans Community Hatred Of Kamala Harris

I was overjoyed to hear Kamala Harris' name called Tuesday when Joe Biden announced his running mate for the critically important November 3 election. 

Sen. Harris was my first choice for president.  She has been on my political radar ever since I saw her speak on a criminal justice panel during one of Tavis Smiley's State of the Black Union conversations in 2006. 

I've paid attention as she has successfully made trailblazing runs for (and won) San Francisco DA, California attorney general, and now as only the second Black female US senator in American history.

Her selection by Joe Biden as his vice presidential running mate shows that he knows the importance of winning this election and recognizes Black women are the base of the Democratic Party.  Biden also recognizes the fact that without Black voters across the country getting in formation for him, he wouldn't be the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee.

Biden also recognizes he needs Black voters to come out in massive numbers to oust Trump from the White House.

But what has pissed me off is the massive ignorance I'm seeing so far occurring in Trans World about Sen. Harris.   There are trans peeps, especially in the sections of it who are still mad (and can stay mad) about Bernie losing, who are exhibiting an off the charts level of hatred aimed at Sen. Harris.

Joining them in the hatefest are the peeps who were mad that Elizabeth Warren didn't get chosen to be Vice POTUS.

Calling Harris a TERF?   Really fools?  That is a smear that not only is easily debunked, but is so off the charts idiotic that it makes me question the mental acuity of the people who parrot it.

I'm also not going to waste time and space in this post debating that ridiculous birther BS either.

And naw trans boo boo kitties, your dislike of Sen. Harris isn't about policy.  I see your pink and white trans flag pointed hoods showing.  For some of y'all it's about your racism you're trying to cloak in a BS policy argument but failing mightily to do so. 

So let's get to the reality of where Kamala Harris stands when it comes to trans specific issues.

Let's start with the July 2006 two day conference she organized to come up with ways to push back against and defeat the trans panic defense.   That conference was attended by over 200 prosecutors and law enforcement officials from across the nation.

In 2014, as the California DA, she supported AB 2501, a bill authored by Assemblywoman Susan Bonilla that banned the use of the trans and gay panic defense in California.

She has also as a senator filed the federal bill (S.1721) to ban the use of the trans and gay panic defense.  She has repeatedly called out anti-trams violence aimed at Black trans women, and expressed her vehement opposition to Trump's anti-trans military service ban.

As California AG, she also joined with other AG's in several states in submitting the 2016 amicus brief in opposition of North Carolina's transphobic HB 2.  She also did the same in the Gavin Grimm case and joined 11 other states in doing so. 

Attorney General Harris also joined 11 states in filing an amicus brief in State of Texas v. United States, in the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Texas, to support federal guidance that discrimination based on gender identity constitutes unlawful discrimination based on sex and that schools risk losing Title IX-linked funding unless they permit students to use facilities consistent with their gender identity.

And yes, let's also address the persistent lie that Harris 'opposed surgery for trans inmates'.

The California AG office is the designated attorney for all California state agencies.   That means when they have to go to court on an issue, the AG's office represents them.

The California AG office is the largest state attorney's office in the nation, with five divisions and over 1000 attorneys working for it.    Harris was as AG in an executive position several layers of management above the attorneys who would try those cases.

So when a trans inmate filed a case to force the California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation to allow her to have GCS while incarcerated, they were obligated to defend it.

When Harris discovered this case was happening, she worked behind the scenes to not only settle the case in favor of the trans inmates, but force the California Dept of Corrections & Rehabilitation to change the policy.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention she participated as a speaker at the 2005 SF Trans March.

I'm also tired of hearing the 'Kamala hates sex workers' BS as well.   She went after the pimps and sex traffickers, not the sex workers caught up un the system. 

When Angelica Ross and Shea Diamond both questioned her about those cases, she apologized, and took responsibility for those cases.  Ross and Diamond were satisfied with her answers, and if they were good with it, so am I.

Warning you now.   KHive is not playing with you peeps (and neither am I) when we say that ANY disrespect of Senator Kamala Harris from now until Election Day and beyond will be met with massive pushback and CVS level receipts debunking lies and fake talking points.

You wanna try us, go right ahead, but it will end badly for you.

So no, I'm not feeling the hatred that trans fauxgressives are aiming at Harris, and it needs to stop.
 

You Conservafools Don't Get To Tell Us How To Mourn Our Community Heroes

Seems like the Karen and Chad conservafools are having a hissy fit over President Obama's eulogy of the late Rep. John Lewis at his homegoing yesterday.  The Right Wing Noise Machine hit dogs were hollering all over conservative media big mad he called them and their orange wannabe dictator out without mentioning him or them by name. 

How dare you Karens and Chads presume to tell us Black folks how to mourn one of our community's great civil rights icons.   Hello, did you fools ever pay attention to John Lewis' life? .  Obviously you didn't.



I would hope and I expect that when my time on Planet Earth has ended, I'm putting y'all on notice now.   I want the speakers at my homegoing service to be just as forceful calling out the issues of the day when y'all celebrate me joining the ancestors.

 I recall you conservapeeps said the same BS back in 2006 when Coretta Scott King died and many of the speakers at her funeral called out George W Bush  to his face./ He was POTUS at the time and attended the funeral.

Trump didn't even have the cojones, much less the empathy to make the short drive to the US Capitol to attend the ceremony in which his body was lying in state.

I doubt the  Lewis family would have wanted him desecrating the hallowed historic sanctuary of Ebenezer Baptist Church anyway or that ceremony since he's gone full Klansman these days.

Let me repeat the money quote from what I wrote in the wake of the conservafool whining about how political the Coretta Scott King funeral got.

Dr. King and Coretta Scott King were POLITICAL people. Therefore, it is appropriate in terms of commenting on the totality of their lives to refer to political themes when making remarks to honor them. Rev. Joseph Lowery, President Clinton, Mayor Shirley Franklin, and President Carter were saying publicly things about Junior that many African-Americans say about him in conversations with each other. If that bothers you conservatives, too bad. 

Must hurt to realize that you peeps are on the wrong side of history yet again and it shows your utter lack of understanding of African-American culture and traditions. It is also arrogant and presumptuous of people who fought (and still are fighting) tooth and nail to derail America's progress toward fulfilling The Dream to tell us how to mourn the passing of the 'Queen of the Civil Rights movement. 

I'm really getting sick of this conservative BS that there should be NO criticism of the president, when these SAME conservatives several years ago called President Clinton everything but a child of God. They even stooped as low as to attack their then-teenaged daughter Chelsea. If George got out amongst the 90% percent of African-Americans who DIDN'T vote for him in either election he'd hear those comments more often.

Now fast forward to 2020. 

John Lewis was a political person, a sitting congressman for over 30 years, and a Civil Rights Movement icon.  Therefore, it is appropriate in the traditions of our people to comment on the state of the nation and speak truth to power.

But you conservafools wouldn't know how to do that or even care because you have been cricket chirping silent accomplices to white supremacist tyranny  .

Miss me with that bull feces that his funeral was 'too political'.   Y'all can be mad and stay mad about that and President Obama's on point eulogy calling out the worst presidency in American history

And let me say this once again so your hive minds get the point I've been making.  You conservafools don't get to tell us how to mourn our community heroes and sheroes.

Black Trans Folks Have Been Trying To Tell Black Cis Peeps What We Need- Y'all Ain't Listening

As you TransGriot readers were aware of, I was part of a two hour Zoom town hall on Saturday that was supposed to be convened in the spirit of All Black Lives Matter and was sold to me as a convo to discuss the needs of our Black trans family.

As you probably guessed in a conversation moderated by a cis Black man and of which nine of the twelve participants were cis, it didn't turn out that way. 

Even though we had major Houston trans allies on that panel like BLM-HOU's Ashton P. Woods, Rev. Denise Junious and attorney Jolanda Jones, every time that we started talking about trans peeps, the conversation got diverted and derailed from its intended focus on Black trans lives

While myself, Kaleb Elijah and Tori Cooper managed to get some points across, the end result was that the trans participants and our allies were left frustrated at how the conversation organized by Black Greeks Speak Social Justice turned out. 

There was far too much stuff we didn't talk about in the two hours allotted for this conversation. 

For starters, we needed to talk about the transphobia in the Black community ranks that is not only in the Black same gender loving community, but has expressed itself in Black Greek Letter Organization (BGLO) ranks as well. 

Exhibit A of that BGLO transphobia was the attempt by a faction of Zeta Phi Beta members last year to adopt a diversity statement that sought to bar trans women from joining the sorority.  It was rescinded after intense negative media attention and efforts by trans allies within the Zeta Phi Beta ranks. 

We didn't talk about the fact that the common thread with many of the Black trans women that have been murdered in the last few years across the country has been intimate partner violence and trans misogynoir 

Translation:  Cis Black men are killing and gleefully subjecting Black trans women to beatdowns

We didn't go into depth about the role that the Black church and Black media, be it traditional or social media, plays in pushing anti-trans hatred in our community to the point of so called 'comedians' like Lil Duval on shows like The Breakfast Club do on-air advocating for our murders.

Neither did we go in depth about the inaction of our legacy orgs like the NAACP when it comes to advocacy on behalf of Black trans folks.   We also didn't talk about the lack of Black trans folks being hired to do policy work inside and outside the TBLGQ community.

I don't doubt for a nanosecond that my Black trans masculine family and our Black non binary siblings have a long list of their own things they need to say to Black cis America as well

So what do Black trans folks need? 

The first and most important thing is for y'all to stop killing us or subjecting us to beatdowns. 

Periodt. 

We do not exist for y'all to beat on us or kill us because you're mad about whatever personal issues you're dealing with.   Take those personal issues and problems up with your friendly neighborhood therapist and keep your hands to yourself.

We need Black cis people to cease and desist with debating our existence.  Trans folks have been part of our community since the rise of modern humans and we aren't going anywhere. 

Stop trying to pawn off your transphobia as a 'disagreement'    Discussing whether Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan or Lebron James are the greatest basketball players ever is a legitimate cause for debate and disagreement.

Trying to claim that Black trans people don't exist when the science and our very existence overwhelmingly say otherwise is not.

Black trans folks need good paying jobs.   We need housing. We need competent non discriminatory medical care. 

We need Black cis men to stop being 'scurred' and come clean about the fact some of you are attracted to Black trans women.  Some of you wish to take that desire further and have long term relationships with us. 

Because we Black trans women know many of us have been killed in dating situations, we're going to tell you from the jump we're trans.   We do not have to 'trick' or deceive you into walking into our bedrooms.  Many of you do so willingly, and you need to stop fronting about that with cis Black women and your homeboys. 

We need cis Black women to recognize that we trans women are not your enemy.  The white supremacist Karens and Kens who wish to gleefully oppress all of us are.   We would rather spend our precious time building sisterhood with other Black cis women, building long term friendships,   and uplifting the community together.

While we recognize and acknowledge that the feminine journeys of Black trans and cisgender women are different along with the issues we face as a result, there are some issues that both groups face that we would do well to work together to combat.

We need y'all cis peeps to stop shadily whispering (or yelling) 'That's a Man' when a trans woman is in the club or elsewhere, and she happens to be on her feminine presentation A game.   That shyt gets trans women beaten or killed.   Mine nor any other trans woman's existence is not an indictment of you or Black womanhood in general.

Hell, the attacks on Black femmes have occurred long before Black trans women started getting written about in 19th century newspapers, and even those articles, like today's 21st century media coverage, were mostly negative.

We need you to not only stop attacking our Black trans kids like Zaya Wade, we need you to stop attacking their parents for loving their kids enough to allow them to honestly and openly live as their true selves.

We need you to stop trying to pass off your transphobia as part of your religion.  That is a major sore spot with me, other trans folks and our allies that will get you called out.  If your religion calls for you to hate on trans people, then you need a new religion

Since we founded Black trans led organizations to do the policy work that Black legacy orgs wouldn't (and wouldn't hire us for), we need our trans led grassroots orgs properly funded. 

We currently have 27 trans people nationwide who are elected officials.  Only two of them are Black, and they both sit on the Minneapolis City Council in Councilmembers Andrea Jenkins and Phillipe Cunningham.   The trans folks all running for office in this 2020 cycle are predominately white.

We know that must change.   So when increasing numbers of Black trans people do decide to run for public office, we not only will need your support, be it financial or otherwise, we will need your votes when we do.

We also need cis elected officials at all levels of government to consider hiring qualified Black trans people to work on their staffs to do the needed and necessary policy work that will help improve all our lives
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We also need you to listen when we talk about the issues that impact our communities.  We trans and gender non conforming peeps are the experts when it comes to talking about our lives.

So unless you have a PhD in gender identity issues, are a geneticist doing research in that area, or a psychologist trained to treat gender dysphoria issues, STFU with your loud and wrong faux faith based opinions about our lives.  Your loud and wrong opinion does not trump a trans person's actual lived experience.

Most importantly, we Black trans peeps need you Black cis folks to treat us with the dignity and respect you demand for yourselves.

Still Love And Miss You, Renee

I'm a little down today because I just realized that my north of the border homegirl Renee Martin has been gone for a year as of today.

And while I know that she is with the ancestors and is no longer suffering from the cancer that took her life (Eff Cancer), deep down I wish she'd had a little more time to be on this plane of existence with us.  I still have her number programmed in my phone because I can't bring myself to the point of deleting it.

The last time I talked to Dawn Wilson, we both talked about how much we missed Renee.

There are days that when I hear of some political shadiness going down in Alberta, I can hear her saying in a voice dripping with disdain "that wretched province'.   She wasn't a fan of Doug Ford either, and the last time I had a long conversation with her last March we spent a good ten to fifteen minutes dragging Trump and being concerned about my safety as the anti-trans violence on this side of the border hit epidemic levels.  .

I miss those long conversations we had about every subject under the sun from politics to womanism  to Olympic women's hockey.   I miss her talking about the travails of being the only feminine life form in a house filled with masculine ones. 

I even  miss the phone call and the good natured trash talking that would would come from her whenever the Canadian women's hockey team beat the US women.

And yes, we've had multiple conversations about racism, Canadian style, fauxgressives. and white feminist fails. 

I can only imagine what she'd say if she were still here instead of resting in power.   We'd have a lot to talk about in terms of how Orange Foolius has taken us from superpower to banana republic in three years.    Last year's Canadian national elections and the NDP.  How her boys are not so little any more.

There would also be additional barbs directed at the Republican misleadership of my beloved home state she called Baja Alberta

She wasn't a fan of the TERFs, so I imagine that she'd be dragging JK Rowling and the rest of the TERFKarens almost as hard as I have been.

She also would have been hilariously commenting about how Melania was making goo goo eyes at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

And I know she was just as proud of my elevated national media profile as I was proud of her for her multiple published op-eds in The Guardian and speaking before the St Catharines City Council. 



Before she passed she was working on getting me north of the border to speak at an International Women's Day event in the St Catharines area.

This is going to be a rough day to get through.   It also comes just two days before her July 11 birthday.

Still love and miss you,  Renee.

Even Though 'Rona Spiked My Birthday, It's Still All Good

Well, like everyone else who has had a birthday since the middle of March, mine was wrecked by 'Rona. 

I was supposed to be on the other end of I-45 in Dallas today awaiting the start of the 2020 edition of BTAC and celebrating it with my BTAC fam.   Instead I'm in Houston feeling a little bummed about it.

Actually, I'm feeling a lot less bummed because I received a delivery of Frenchy's chicken for lunch from Emmett Schelling and for dessert a delivery of Tiff's Treats chocolate chip cookies and Blue Bell ice cream from Rachel Gonzales and her family..

But not gonna lie.  I was really looking forward to celebrating my birthday at BTAC this year.

As of this writing I've had 400 birthday messages on my Facebook page, another ten on Twitter, and five calls at this point.  So yes. I'm definitely feeling the love from you peeps around the world, and it's making this birthday a little less sucky.

Instead I'm counting my blessings.   I'm way over the 35 average age that a Black trans woman lives to  before her untimely death.   I have a roof over my head, I'm relatively healthy, and still look fab for my age.

I thank everyone who took the time out of their busy days to text, write, e-mail or call me.   It meant a lot and really helped me get out of the funky mood I was in

But there's always room for improvement and for me to keep striving to be a better version of myself.   And to borrow the slightly edited words of my esteemed trans elder Miss Major for PG consumption, I'm still effing here.

I'm starting my 58th trip around the sun on this space rock.   So what will I wish for when I blow out the birthday candles?   Good damned question.

Change Will Not Happen Under A Fascist Republican Dictatorship

I've been amused and alarmed to hear the #NeverBiden rhetoric coming from Bitter Berners who seemed to have willfully forgotten the 2016 election.

These are NOT normal times. We have a malignant political tumor that needs to be excised from the WH.

That is the only thing that matters in November. Everything else is BS. Trump gotta go.  His Republican enablers at all levels of government gotta go as well. 

You have far too many MAGATS that are okay with fascist crap happening as long as it is only aimed at the non-white people and other peeps they despise.

There are also far too many Republican politicians who will look the other way as long as they can stay in power and keep getting their six figure taxpayer funded checks

So I don't from this moment forward want to hear another syllable uttered about how Biden is not your preferred choice for president. Neither am I as a Black trans woman in the mood to hear that tired left wing political purity BS or the false 'Biden is worse than Trump' talking points because you mad Bernie lost again.
  .

Been there heard that shyt in 2016 when you far lefties hated on Hillary.   She was the last person standing between Trump and the White house, and you peeps let your hatred of her override your common sense enough to allow Trump to slide into the Oval Office.

I heard this same rhetoric from the far left in 2000 when Al Gore was 'not progressive enough' for the fauxgressive purity police.  Both times in 2000 and 2016, we had opportunities that if Gore or Clinton had won, to flip the federal judiciary and the SCOTUS in a progressive direction.

Biden is the last person standing out of the Democratic primary field. He is the only thing standing between a Trump second term and catastrophe.

I also don't want to hear another caca laden word from far left white fauxgressives about how this country and its political system needs to burn down so 'The Revolution' can happen.

Your revolution won't mean shyt if you have a fascist/ totalitarian government in place that bans gatherings, criminalizes protest, suppresses your votes, has police armed with military equipment ready to gleefully use it, demonizes media and monitors your social media to ensure you won't be able to organize or speak out against it.

A fascist/totalitarian government that will arrest, torture, and jail you indefinitely in a concentration camp for daring to organize against it if they don't decide to outright execute you.

Can you hear me now? Good.

This is what is at stake this November

Maybe down the road when this American political crisis is settled, only then can you think about pushing for the type of systemic change you want.

But it can't and will not happen under a fascist Republican dictatorship

TDOV 2020-The Trend Line Is Positive

This particular TDOV was already guaranteed because of the COVID-19 crisis to be an unusual one.

We have William Barr, the current US Attorney General, using debunked junk science to argue that transgender girls and women are NOT women in a federal lawsuit filed to deny transgender women the right to compete in women's sports.

On the eve of TDOV we lost longtime trans advocate Lorena Borjas in New York to the virus that morning.  Later in the day, Idaho governor Brad Little (R) decided to embrace his trans oppressor gene and  signed two unjust anti-trans bills into law.

Rest in power and peace Lorena.   You will be missed by the Latinx trans community and all who loved you.

And yes, it goes without saying we've already had five murders and counting of trans folks from Puerto Rico to OKC to NYC.

So yes, while TDOV 2020 is getting off to a crappy start, we still have to remember why this March 31 day was founded by Rachel Crandall back in 2009.

TDOV is to not only recognize our existence to society, it is to also celebrate our success. And over the past year we've had a lot to celebrate. 

The FX show POSE is not only getting excellent ratings with its trans cast, there are also trans folks like Janet Mock making history behind the camera writing, directing and producing the show.

VA Del Danica Roem (D) got reelected to her Virginia House seat for another two year term, and in the process became the first out trans person REELECTED to her political seat. 

Hopefully the same thing will happen for CO state Rep Brianna Titone (D) later this year.

Sarah McBride is also running for office in DE, hoping to become the first out trans person ever elected to a state senate seat.

Our fourth out trans judge was just elected to office in Illinois in Judge Jill Rose Quinn.

In Minnesota, Council members Andrea Jenkins and Phillipe Cunningham are still on the job and serving together on the Minneapolis City Council.

I'm also proud of my Houston homegirl Jessica Zyrie, who continues to rip NY Fashion Week runways and make history on the Project Runway show.

And I can't forget my Houston homies Diamond Stylz, Mia Mix and Zee, who continue to drop knowledge on one of my fave podcasts in Marsha's Plate.

That's before I talk about you peeps who are MVT's (Most Valuable Transpeeps) for just having the courage to step out of your doors, walk down the street and commit the revolutionary act of unapologetically living your daily lives.

And time for a well deserved shout out aimed at my trans younglings.  Whether you're in elementary, middle school, high school or college, you continue to make me proud just by being your fabulous selves.

We have some talented, smart, beautiful, handsome and amazing people in our trans community.

As I like to constantly remind y'all, your family expands, not contracts after your transition, and it crosses international borders on top of that.

We are everywhere and in every profession.  We are your sons, daughters, siblings, uncles, aunts and neighbors.  All we want is the opportunity to contribute our talents to society without being harassed or jacked with.  We are not going to be erased from society, and if you trans oppressors try it, we will fight you tooth and nail ever millimeter of the way.

One of the other positive developments on this TDOV 2020 that needs to be discussed is increasing support from cisgender peeps who unapologetically embrace us.

Some of them are high profile Hollywood stars like Selenis Leyva, who supports the community and her trans sister Marizol. 

Others are athletes like Dwyane Wade and his wife Gabrielle Union, who have made it clear they support their child Zaya's transition, and pushed back against the vitriol coming from ignorant Black community transphobes about it.

And yes, there are cis politicians out there at all levels of government who unlike Republicans, are willing to stand up and defend our humanity and human rights instead of gleefully attacking them.

Trans amorous men are starting to come out of the shadows and openly declare they love trans women, you can chill with the attempts to shame them about it, and there's nothing you haters can do or say that will deter them from pursuing the women they love. .

So that's where we stand as this TDOV 2020 happens during the middle of a pandemic.   While we've had some setbacks, the overall trend line is one of positive growth and recognition that trans people exist, and we aren't going away.

Happy TDOV 2020 everybody!