We Have Work To Do, Trans Community

I spent much of the day as a proud African-American reveling in the sights, sounds and events of the second inauguration of President Obama that serendipitously occurred on Martin Luther King Jr, Day.

While watching the inaugural address, I felt a surge of pride that it was an African-American president bold enough to say the words that gay and lesbian Americans are cheering. 

But at the same time I was saddened and more than keenly aware until he mentioned Stonewall that the trans community I'm a proud part of once again was the unspoken stepchild to this big inside the Beltway party.

The words of Ralph Ellison flashed in my mind as I read the comments of people reveling in the fact that GL was mentioned and so was Stonewall.   A Stonewall Rebellion mind you that wasn't kicked off by Fire Island Mattachine gays, but POC transpeople like Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson

I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.

And it broke my heart to read Sadie's essay she wrote on that day reminding us exactly who we are fighting for when we seek to advance trans human rights coverage around the world.

We are invisible at times because the world refuses to see us for the men and women we actually are.  Far too often that Ellison quote is true for the transpeople who share our ethnic heritage. 

It's time for us trans adults to get refocused on the multi-layered task of ensuring our humanity is respected and protected.  We are fighting against the disrespect, erasure and dehumanization aimed at all of us regardless of our ethnic heritage. .

We trans adults are fighting to ensure trans human rights coverage is permanently ensconced in the laws of the various countries we live in, and for the sake of our kids like Sadie and Jazz we can't waver in that task until it is complete. 

We are not only fighting for us, but for the transkids in elementary, middle and high schools in the United States and the world   

We may not get to enjoy the benefits of the world Sadie and countless kids like her are dreaming about, but the fight we are engaged in is a necessary one on a variety of fronts.  It's necessary that it be done so we don't see another essay or letter like this ten years from now from another transkid expressing their wish that they could just live a normal life.

Happy 84th Birthday Dr. King!

Today would have been the 84th birthday of the Rev Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. has an assassin's bullet not violently taken him away from us in 1968.

Interesting to note that as we approach the latest King Day holiday next Monday, we will see the second term inauguration of our nation's first African-American president.  We will also continue to observe post Sandy Hook massacre an extremely contentious debate over sensible gun control regulation that the NRA and other gun groups have vigorously opposed.

Renee of Womanist Musings and I were having a conversation last week as to what would have happened had Dr King and Malcolm X both been around past April 4, 1968 to now.

Since today is Dr. King's actual birthday I'm going to focus on the Dr King end of our conversation, but we came to the consensus he would have continued to criticize the Vietnam War until the troops came home.  He would have decried the Kent State shootings, Watergate, been a critic of the attacks on unions, the growing inequailty in America between the superrich and the poor  the rising tide of gun violence, the mass shootings and the coarsening of our culture.. 

I believe Dr King would have been a strident critic of apartheid in South Africa and called for the release of Nelson Mandela from prison.   He would have continued his role of nonpartisan criticism of Presidents Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, GHW Bush, Clinton, GW Bush and Obama when they failed on human rights issues and other important issues of the time and praised them when they did something right.. 

And speaking of presidents, I believe he would have been exceedingly proud as many African-Americans are that Barack Obama is in the White House. 

But you can bet Dr King would have been pushing him like he did LBJ to do better every chance he got.to be the transfomative president he can be.

Based on his words about voting, he would have also been a harsh and unrelenting critic of the GOP's reprehensible attempts to suppress our voting rights and the hypocrites of the Religious Right and in Dr King's words their  'Dry as Dust religion'.

And based on the words of his wife Coretta and his longtime friendship with Bayard Rustin, I believe he would have been a supporter of the LGBT rights movement because as he once said, 'injustce anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere'.

But unfortunately he is not here to be our drum major for justice and the moral compass for our people and our nation. The United States and the world are both poorer for that.  

We have the federal holiday to contemplate what he meant to this country and the world.   A monument of Dr. King that has already drawn over half a million visitors from around the world now majestically stands on the west bank of the Tidal Basin in Washington DC near the FDR and Lincoln Memorials that I have had the pleasure of visiting and seeing lit up at night.  .

There's not a lot lately I agree with Tavis Smiley on, but there is one comment he made said several years ago that I heartily concur with that I'm going to paraphrase.  

Dr. King was the greatest American our people have yet produced, and he is sorely missed.  

Happy birthday Dr. King.

First Sunday Of The Year

Today is the first Sunday of the 52 we get every year whether or not it's a leap year.  

Some of you will choose to spend it in your chosen house of worship. Some of you will choose to spend it visiting or hanging out with family or friends. 

Some of you will choose to spend it doing whatever it is that makes you happy. whether it's watching a sporting event, participating in one or curling up with a good book  Some of you will just spend the day relaxing in whatever form that takes..

And some of you will choose to spend it contemplating how this year that it now six days old will turn out.

None of us including the TransGriot will know how this year will transpire until we turn the calendar page to December 31, 2013.   But what we can do is handle the thing we can control to make it a great year.

All we can control is the person in the mirror.  We can work on building up that person's strengths, eliminating their weaknesses, and making them the best human being they can be.  

If we are girls or boys like us, we have the added concerns of dealing with and eradicating the effects of the unholy trinity of shame, fear and guilt that plague us.   And that's a 24/7/365 job

But it's a job we are more than capable of handling on this first Sunday of the year, the other six days of the week, and beyond.

$500 Million Powerball Musings

Texas is a Powerball state and like I did when the Megamillions jackpot hit that then record jackpot in  January 2011 I bought one ticket just to be in it to possibly win it.

The $500 million Powerball one could possibly be even higher by the time they draw the numbers for the jackpot at 10 PM  CST.   If you're thinking about buying a ticket, sales are cut off one hour before the drawing time.


If I were so lucky to win it, here's what would happen to Moni if I heard the news that the only winning ticket was purchased in H-town.    First up is all you friends and family peeps who didn't know me (or care to know me) prior to November 28, don't even bother trying to get to know a trans sistah.  

I'd be up bright and early the next morning hiring a good tax attorney, changing my phone number and making preparation for that trip to Austin to claim it.  

In the fine print of the Powerball ticket you’ll note that you only get the full $500 million if you match all six balls and you agree to take the payout in 30 inflation adjusted payments over 29 years.   Moni's taking all the money now so that means an adjusted $327.4 million payout.

That would still be a record jackpot amount for a single person.   I'd have to pay (and wouldn't gripe about it unlike you Republicans) the 35% federal taxes on that amount.  However since I live in Texas, I wouldn't have to pay any state income tax on that money.

That would leave me with about $213 million, and I'd be 'sliiiiding' some of it to Edenside Christian (my old church in Louisville) some peeps who helped me out (and who know who they are) when I was down on my luck, some family members and organizations and groups that prioritize helping trans people out.  

So yes, National Black Justice Coalition and Trans Persons Of Color Coalition, y'all would be the first organizations to get a call and a check from Moni. 

I'd blow $1 million just because and to get any wild spending spree out of my system.  There are a few shoe stores and clothing outlets that would see my statuesque behind in them, and a trip to Canada to visit a certain womanist mommy blogger would rapidly happen.  

Then I'd be make sure I'd have the bulk of my newfound millions invested wisely so I can live off the interest from it.  I have no desire to repeat the mistakes of far too many lotto winners who frivolously blew their windfall.   

Yeah, yeah, I know the odds.  But dropping $2 on a Powerball ticket and being blessed enough to have the correct five numbers plus a powerball would definitely be a life and bank account changing event, so why not?

And yeah, a TransGriot can dream a little bit can't she?


TransGriot Update:  White there were two people in the Houston area who received $1 million by matching 5 numbers but not the powerball, I wasn't one of them. My ticket was a dud this time

Being Considered Beautiful Is A Trans Human Rights Strategy

In the feminist ranks I hear a lot of railing about the beauty standard that women are judged by.  Far too often that chatter is coming from the vanillacentric privileged wielding women who the system was designed to benefit.  We had an example of that recently from Oxford University student Alice Robb who complained that President Obama calling his daughters strong, smart and beautiful like their mother 'stung her'.

Easy to say that problematic bull feces when the beauty standard is designed to make women who look like you the default setting for what society considers attractive.

I submit that if the trans community is going to accomplish our stated goal of making the TDOR irrelevant, what has to happen is to make it untenable for society to easily dehumanize us.   When people are dehumanized, they are considered irrelevant and disposable by that society, and that leads to the slippery slope of genocidal levels of mayhem and violence aimed at them.

As the trans human rights push gains momentum, we will have to use all the tools in our civil rights toolbox in this fight to reduce anti-trans hate crimes committed against us and ensure that the perpetrators of them are punished. 

One of the things we trans women have to confront is the 'unwoman' meme. I believe the 'unwoman' meme aimed at trans women is one of the factors that fuels the anti-trans violence aimed at us, and it needs to be destroyed.  One of the methods in doing so will be thinking of being considered beautiful not as a detriment to womanhood but as a human rights strategy.  

We trans women have to deal with the reality that we live and interact with a world in which being attractive is considered an asset.  When I talk about being beautiful in this post, I'm not just talking about the physical aspect of it.  I'm talking about inside your mind and heart as well.

One of the strategies we African-Americans used during the civil rights movement in terms of battling the 'unwoman' meme aimed at our women and girls was to not only consistently reinforce the fact they are beautiful, but create the Miss Black America one to drive that message home at a time when we didn't have Black contestants in the predominately white Miss America and Miss Universe pageant systems.

The Miss Universal Queen pageant in Thailand, the Amazing Philippine Beauties one in Manila and the Miss Continental pageant system here in the States are ones specifically created for trans women.  There are also similar pageant systems create for African-American transwomen as well even though the compete, place and win in the Miss Continental ones.   

Now thanks to Jenna Talackova's fight, the Miss Universe system is open to trans women who have the desire to compete in them.  It remains to be seen if Miss America and the Miss World system will follow. .  

I believe that far from hatin' on the beautiful trans women among us, we need to be holding them up as examples.  We point to the world and say yes, trans women are beautiful, attractive, and given the opportunity can compete and possibly win a beauty contest in a head to head match up with a cis woman. 

When we acknowledge to ourselves that we are beautiful women in our own right, we own our power.

Being more determined not to allow others to denigrate our femininity and our beauty is also a way to deal with the shame, guilt and fear in our own ranks.   When we do so, we take pride in ourselves, have better self-esteem, stand up a little taller, are more confident as we deal with the world around us, will be less likely to engage in self-destructive behaviors and less likely to take crap from people.

We'll also experience the freeing of our minds and spirits the revelation that we are beautiful gives us.

So yes, we trans women need to consider being beautiful as a trans human rights strategy.        

Can My Transsisters FINALLY Get Some Love This Holiday Season?

While we had the vice president of the United States stating that trans rights are the civil rights issue of our times, with us being just 31 days from Christmas Day, all I'm asking for Christmas this year is the same thing I've been asking for since I wrote the original post in 2009 and repeated the call in 2011.

Can me and my transsisters get some love during this holiday season?  

It shouldn't be that hard to live up the Golden Rule for 31 days and treat us the way you wish to be treated, even if you have to plaster a fake smile on your face to do so.  But it seems as though every year we have people who get their holiday jollies on disrespecting us and making our lives as miserable as possible.

And in far too many cases, the haters are going too far and taking our lives.  In some cases the holiday drama we go through is enough to drive our more emotionally fragile peeps to consider taking their own lives.

I ask this simple question once again.  For the holiday season, can me and my transsistahs just be allowed to live our lives without additional drama?

Deep down, I suspect I already know what the answer to that question is going to be, but I had to try to plant the seed in your minds and get you to at least think about it.

TDOR 2012 Musings

The Transgender Day of remembrance has become an international event observed by trans people around the world and the 2012 event is no different. 

We're adding another 173 names to a depressingly long 2012 list of people who were murdered around the world between the conclusion of the last TDOR in November 2011 and this year's event.   

Perusing the list reveals events happening in the United Kingdom, Greece, France, Italy, Ireland, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, Romania, Scotland, and Sweden in addition to the ones occurring across the United States and Canada.   Hope there will be others somewhere on the continents of Africa, South America to go along with the ones taking place in North America Europe and the Asian-Pacific Rim.

I also hope that somewhere in the Caribbean, the Middle East and Latin America there will also be a TDOR held, even if it's just a few people gathered at a friends house or in a double secret location and prayers are said for the people we lost.

Texas will be well represented on the US TDOR memorial event list with events taking place in Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio and possibly Lubbock.

If you have information regarding your 2012 event please send an email to Ethan St. Pierre and Marti Abernathey transgenderdor@gmail.com and follow updates on twitter: http://twitter.com/Transgenderdor

When you considering the persecution that our sisters are battling in Malaysia and Russia, it's cool to note that TDOR's are still happening in Kuala Lumpur and St. Petersburg.   I was hoping to see an event taking place in Brazil considering there has been far too much anti-trans violence visited upon my sisters who live here. .

There's also been far too much trans feminine blood shed in Turkey, Honduras, Mexico and Guatemala. 

In Guatemala the anti-trans hatred had gotten so bad trans activist Fernanda Milan had to flee her homeland for Denmark where she endured even more suffering and is facing deportation back to Guatemala    

And yes, hope the Transgender Day of Remembrance events are as diverse as the lost trans sisters we'll be memorializing in them.  

When you contemplate the fact the TDOR was created to honor Rita Hester, a Black Boston metro area transwoman whose 1998 murder still is unsolved, and 70% of the Remembering Our Dead list is comprised of Black and Latina trans women I shouldn't have to say this every year.

I also hope and pray that someday it won't be necessary to have TDOR's to remind the world of the obscene levels of violence aimed at us.

But until the world considers a transperson's life to be as valuable as any cisperson's life, circling November 20 on the calendar every year and remembering our lost sisters will sadly be something we engage in as part of our trans human rights struggle.

Dr King Was Right About The Black Vote

One of the most basic weapons in the fight for social justice will be the cumulative political power of the Negro. I can foresee the Negro vote becoming consistently the decisive vote in national elections.'

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

He was right, as he was about many things he commented on back during his far too brief lifetime.

 FYI, you can bet that Dr. King wasn't voting for any Republicans when he cast those ballots in the 1960 and 1964 presidential elections.

The power of the Black vote is why conservatives have spent millions, colluded with each other, plotted, schemed, wrote voter suppression laws, litigated, violated the 1965 Voting Rights Act and unleashed every dirty trick possible to ensure the power of your vote doesn't decide tomorrow's election. 


Guess we should be flattered that the vanillacentric conservafool movement is so 'scurred' of the African-American vote that they would go to all that effort keep a Black man from getting another four years at a job he's done exceedingly well.

You also have to consider that despite their best Massive Resistance 2.0 efforts to frack with him and make him a one term president, President Obama is still standing and has compiled the best first term legislative record of achievement since FDR and LBJ. .

Well, we need to be tough minded enough as Dr King would say to do what we can to ensure they wasted their megamillions in that futile effort to fear and smear this POTUS, and they fail tomorrow.

And yes, the Black electorate is highly pissed about you conservafools trying to suppress our ability to vote and political payback will be a rhymes with itch. We can't let you take this country back to the 19th century and roll back our hard won civil rights without a fight.

And tomorrow, you will see what Dr. King presciently foresaw play itself out again at the ballot box.   

What Obama Being President STILL Means To Me

Note I didn't say 'potentially'. I have the confidence to say that he WILL be a great president. If we were going to have a first Black president I like my African descended brothers and sisters wanted him or her to be the best and brightest member of our community.    

TransGriot, 'Why Barack Obama Will be A Great President'  February 28, 2009

Four years ago I wrote a blog post that not only that laid out what President Obama's historic run for president meant to me at that time, I also wrote that February 2009 one explaining why I confidently felt he would be an outstanding Oval Office occupant.for the next four to eight years.


He hasn't disappointed me.   President Obama took over during the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, stopped the Dow from freefalling and stopped our nation's slide into a second one.

This man saved the American automotive industry, has had 33 consecutive months of job growth, appointed our first Latina Supreme Court justice in Sonia Sotomayor, passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act,  the Affordable Care Act, repealed DADT, ended the Iraq War, has us on track to get out of Afghanistan by 2014, undid the damage the GW Bush administration had done to our international image and reputation. .

In addition his aggressive persecution of anti-terrorism efforts has decimated the leadership of al-Qaeda, disrupted their operations and has Osama bin Laden resting at the bottom of the Arabian Sea.


Oh yeah, did I mention that he has been the best president ever as far as trans people like myself are concerned on issues of importance to our community such as getting the Byrd-Shepard hate crimes bill passed, appointing Amanda Simpson to an important job in his administration and his administrative heads issuing trans friendly directives and changes that have benefited our community?

And all of this was done while facing Massive Resistance 2.0 by the Republicans hellbent on making him a one-term president.

So yes, with us being two days from a critical election, I know this is the best man for the job of leading this country.  he has been tested, has grown in the job and deserves a second term to clean up the steaming pile of Bushit that was left on his Oval Office doorstep.
  
But I also knew that President Obama getting that second term was going to be harder than his winning the initial one on that historic night four years ago.

So have I had moments during this presidency when I've been upset that he hasn't gone far enough in terms of moving this country forward?   I certainly have.  I still believe this country needs universal single payer health care and also subsidized day care.  I believe DADT should have also addressed the issues of transpeople in the military

Am I still as proud of him and the First Family occupying 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue as I was four years ago?  You damned skippy I am.   I also see the importance to our next generations of kids in seeing someone who looks like them in that office who didn't have everything handed to him on a silver platter like Mitt Romney did and knowing if they bust their butts in school, they could one day be taking the oath of office themselves even if they are in a single parent home or a home with two mommies and two daddies.

It has also been important for me as a trans person to know that I have a president who values me, my fellow transpeople, the trans community and our untapped potential to help it move forward.

But it has been a life changing experience to see someone of my ethnic background in the Oval office and representing me and our nation on the international stage.

It has been depressing to see exactly where the United States is in terms of getting to Dr. King's dream of a color blind nation.  I see the white sheet wearing racism come roaring out of elements of white America who still have the misguided notion that this country belongs exclusively to them.  They have directed unprecedented levels of animus, disrespect and racist negativity at this president.    

It's also the major reason many of those whit voters are reverting to the same self destructive tendency they have had for over 150 years of voting against their own economic and political interests by casting ballots for an incompetent white man who repeatedly lies to them on November 6. 

I've done my part to move this country forward by early voting back on October 22.  Others are doing so as I write this post and both candidates criss cross the battleground states trying to get those last minute votes as other Americans who haven't had the chance to early vote get to weigh in on Tuesday.

but yes, I'm definitely hoping and praying that by 11 PM CST Tuesday the networks will have called this election for President Obama and I can go to sleep knowing that he and the First family won't be leaving Washington DC until January 21, 2017.

Thinking About You Peeps In The Path Of Hurricane Sandy

Since I've spent the majority of my life living on the Gulf Coast in Texas and Louisiana, dealing with hurricanes and being prepared for them is one of the prices we pay for living in this part of the world.

I've ridden out everything from small tropical storms to nerve jangling ones such as Hurricane Betsy when I was living in New Orleans and 1983's Hurricane Alicia.

I'm not sellin' you woof tickets when I say to all my friends in the Northeast corridor that I feel your anxiety as a 900 mile wide Category 2 Hurricane Sandy inexorably comes closer to making landfall in New Jersey.   That's the worst part of it.  

All you can do is make sure you have your windows taped or boarded up, you have your hurricane supplies, and you have an emergency evacuation plan if things get serious.   And yes, for my trans family members hope you don't run into any transphobic bigotry or anti-trans hatred if you have to evacuate and seek shelter. 

So thinking about all my friends and TransGriot readers who are in the path of this storm.  I'm saying a few words of prayer for your safety .  I hope that Hurricane Sandy blows through the area as quickly as possible and causes as little damage and disruption to your lives once it does.. 

   

Respect The Trans Elders

One of the cool things about conventions and conferences is that you not only get to meet the younglings who are all fired up and ready to change the world and you get a charge just from their energy, but you get the opportunity to talk to our activist elders

When I was at OUT on the Hill on the program was a panel that included our activist elders that I was looking forward to attending. 

Then I looked at the start time for it and noted it was at the same time as my trans town hall.

Then I thought about the fact just before that town hall started that out of the people who were sitting on that stage in terms of myself, Valerie, Danielle, Carmarion and our moderator Laverne, I was the oldest person on the stage that morning.   I then realized that (gasp), I was one of the trans elders.

Once upon a time, I was the one who was awestruck at meeting some of the legendary people in this community when I first started my activism in 1998.   Now at whatever event I have the chance to show up at it's the younglings who are considering it an honor to meet me.

I'm cognizant I'm approaching trans elder status (if I'm not there already).  Janet Mock reminded me during our time in DC it is a blessing for a trans woman to reach my age and I want others to have the ability to reach it too.  

And yeah, if I'm going to be a trans elder. I'm going to look good while doing so.

I have much love for the people who blazed the trails and paths that I'm following and lament the passing of others.  I feel so much joy and pride when I'm in the presence of people like Miss Major and Cheryl Courtney-Evans.  I'm looking forward to the day I meet other trans elders in person like Tracie Jada O'Brien and Sharyn Grayson. .

They lived the history we can only read about or I get to write up in a TransGriot post from time to time. 

These folks were not only transitioning and living their lives during an era that was far more restrictive and gender rigid than the world we currently deal with in the second decade of the 21st century, if we shut our mouths and listen to what our elders have to say, they have important lessons they can still teach us.  

So respect the trans elders.   For the ones who are still here, revere them for being the links to our past history they are.  Consider them as valuable fonts of information that can help us in our present.  Make sure we write their stories down or do them in video or oral history format for future generations. 

And never forget our trans elders are invaluable allies to help us shape our future. 

 

Why I'm On Your Behinds To Vote

Today is the last day in CO, FL, OH, NM, PA and Texas that you can register to vote for the upcoming 2012 presidential election cycle. 

You regular readers have probably noticed I've been frequently posting news and updates about unjust voter suppression laws being overturned by the courts, impending registration deadlines and who to call and how to report it if the True the Vote Teapublican azzholes try to commit a felony and intimidate you from casting your ballot.

I'm also writing posts about what's at stake in this November 6 election.  I will continue to frequently do so until the day after it happens.

If you're asking why I'm on your behinds to vote, I'm about to tell you.

African-American men got the right to vote via the 15th Amendment to the Constitution in 1870 and African-American women via the 19th Amendment in 1920.   While we African-Americans on paper had the Constitution backing up our right to vote, in reality grandfather clauses, literacy tests and poll takes effectively shut us out of the electoral process until the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The first election I eagerly got to participate in was the 1980 presidential one between President Carter and Ronald Reagan.  My first Houston mayoral race in 1981 was the historic one in which I got to cast a vote for our first female mayor in Kathy Whitmire.  I stood in line in the rain in 1983 to participate in my first Texas gubernatorial one in which I helped to vote Mark White into the governors mansion and kick Republican Bill Clements out and in 1990 when I proudly cast my ballot for Ann Richards in 1990.

And I remember the pride I felt when I was able in 1997 to elect Houston's first African-American mayor in Lee P. Brown and four years ago when I cast my ballot for President Obama. 

But I'm on your behinds to vote because it's your way to own your power and help determine the people who will be entrusted with the power to govern us at our various government levels.

I'm on your behinds to vote because people like President Lyndon B Johnson used his political capital to get the 1965 Voting Rights Act passed

I'm on your behinds to vote because too many people like Rep John Lewis (D-GA) fought, shed blood, took beatdowns and in some cases died for you to take your butt to your nearby polling place and take a few moments out of your day to cast a ballot  in each and every election.


And yes, from time to time you get the opportunity to help make history in the process.

Your vote is your voice in this political system.  All the marches, Occupy whatever events, blog posts and seminars will not change the system if you have a problem with the way we are governed.   Taking your behind to a polling place and actually casting a ballot for candidates running for office will. 

The first step to that is making sure you're registered so you can do so, and then participating in each and every election cycle, not just presidential ones..

So if you aren't registered, get busy doing so.
    

No, Thank You NBJC!

Got an e-mail from the National Black Justice Coalition Thursday thanking me for my participation in the just concluded 2012 edition of OUT on the Hill.   The e-mail let me know the NBJC team was still getting positive feedback from the events I participated in, and I was happy to hear that. 

But I wanted to take a moment to thank NBJC for giving me the opportunity to not only be a part of that historic trans town hall, but contribute my thoughts as one of the people on that amazing blogger's roundtable as well.   

I enjoyed another chance to be around my NBJC and Black trans and SGL brothers and sisters and our allies.   I enjoyed discussing ways we could 'Own Our Power'.  I reveled in the wide range of conversations I got to engage in with a cross section of our community's thought leaders during the time I was inside I-495.

And yes, loved the chance of spending quality time with old friends and meeting new ones

It's not often we have conferences and events in SGL and trans world in which the majority of the people in attendance at it share my heritage.  OUT on the Hill is quickly becoming one of those must attend events and I was proud and felt honored to have been invited to play a role in the 2012 edition of it .

I hope the 2013 edition of OUT on the Hill next September is bigger, better and bolder than ever.  With the trans men's town hall that's already been announced by NBJC CEO/ED Sharon Lettman-Hicks at the close of this year's event, I know it's on its way to doing precisely that.

Thank you NBJC, for being one of the few organizations that spotlights and capitalizes the "T' in LGBT.  Thank you for being stand up allies for Black trans people who have been largely shut out of having a voice in that national LGBT rights conversation, lifting us up as you climb and helping us own our power.

And thank you once again for blessing me with the opportunity to be a part of it..      

It's 12:00 Midnight CDT-What Do I Want To Write About?

One of the things I strive to do on TransGriot is to write and post at least three times a day.    I like to have one post up at midnight CDT so that my international readers in Europe, Africa and the Pacific have something fresh to read in their timezones along with my night owls and party animals on my side of the planet.

I will have a morning post that comes up anytime between 2 AM CDT and 10 AM CDT and then my noon CST one. 

Depending on what's going on in the news cycle and what's on my mind I may do more than that. 

What I'd planned to do in this spot today was hopefully have some coverage of the Kyra Kruz Cordova vigil that happened in Philly last night, but as of yet haven't spotted any video, photos or Internet chatter about it.

So what to write about?  Had a few other ideas, but after three drafts really wasn't happy with them and I set them aside to marinate for a bit until I get that 'aha' moment that will allow me to finish what I started writing and post it.

I wasn't feeling a political post right now either, and as for anything interesting in my day to day life, you peeps already know I'm headed to DC in a few days for OUT on the Hill. 

I just felt y'all deserved to see something if you're going to take your valuable time to surf by here, and I do thank you for doing that on a regular basis.

Okay, maybe if I do some web surfing of my own I'll see something that will pique my interest.  


       

9-11 Eleventh Anniversary

Today is as many of us in the States are aware of the eleventh anniversary of the al-Qaeda triggered terror attacks on this date in 2001.   Four passenger jets were hijacked and crashed into the World Trade Center towers in New York, and the Pentagon outside Washington DC from 8:46 AM EDT to 10:28 AM EDT 


Another attack on the US Capitol building was foiled when the passengers on that hijacked Flight 93 attempted to take it over and it crashed in a field near Shanksville, PA.  

Many of us remember what we were doing on the morning of September 11, 2001 as we tried to get news about the extent of the attacks and the developing chaotic situation.   The attacks killed nearly 3000 people, resulted in the failure and collapse of both World Trade Center towers and severe damage to the Pentagon.

US airspace was closed at 9:45 AM EDT, resulting in the rerouting of inbound international passenger aircraft to Canada and the initiation of Operation Yellow Ribbon.

The mastermind of the attack, Osama bin Laden now lies at the bottom of the Arabian Sea in an undisclosed location after he was finally caught in Abbbotabad, Pakistan by SEAL Team 6 on May 1, 2011. A national memorial has been built and dedicated on that site and a new 1,776 foot tower is rising in the New York skyline

But even though it has been eleven years since that horrific day, the memories of it have yet to fade from our collective national consciousness and probably wont for a long time.. 

The Thing We All Have In Common Is We're Trans Women

One of the things that needs to stop in the African-American trans feminine community is allowing outsiders or people inside the community to drive wedges between girls like us in order to keep us divided and realizing the collective power we have as a group.

In some cases the divisions we create are done by ourselves to our fellow transwomen. 

People in one group will assume I don't want to have anything to do with people in the other groups because I'm an activist.   That's not the case.  I not only want to meet and talk to you, if you treat me with dignity and respect, I'll reciprocate and do the same thing for you.

It may surprise y'all to learn that I would like to meet Sidney Starr one day.  One of the reasons is I saw a tweet my young transsister posted a few weeks ago about how she used to be ashamed of being a transwoman and now she's proud of being a girl like us.

That blew me away that a girl as beautiful as her would have the same shame and guilt issues all of us deal with at one time or another in our transition journeys.  I'm interested in hearing her story and what it's like to walk in her pumps.

The genesis of this post was a conversation Tona Brown and I had about this subject yesterday in terms of the various cliques and the misunderstandings that crop up between us.   I've been aware for some time of the different groups and cliques of African descended transwomen, and ever since I started this blog one of my goals has been to do my best to bridge that gap between those of us in the pageant, ballroom, activist, crossdresser, stealth, club and yes, escort worlds.

But if you peeps aren't willing to meet me halfway or are 'scurred' to talk to me and my activist friends, how can I accomplish that goal of bridging the gap?  I and the activist community can't help you if we don't know what the issues unique to your group are.

If you've perused this blog, you'll note I have posts covering some of the major pageants and some ballroom stuff.  I really need to do more of them because there are many women involved in the pageant and ballroom worlds that are making history, who are great at what they do, have as much status and love in their communities as I do in the activist realm and their stories need to be told to the audience that reads TransGriot.  And yes, I admire what you do as well and I'm looking forward to one day meeting various people involved in the pageant and ballroom world..  

I'm in contact with some folks, lurking on the FB and Twitter feeds of others and admire the hard work you're putting in to get to that legendary status on the ballroom and pageant runways   Many of you are also carrying yourself with class and dignity while doing so.

One of the points I also need to make is that there is movement between the various categories under the trans umbrella.  I've observed more than a few people in my time interacting with the various sections of the trans community that started in the drag, crossdresser, pageant or ballroom ends of it, had their gender epiphany and eventually ended up with round trip tickets to Bangkok getting gender realignment surgery. 

I observed a few people use the pageant, drag and ballroom ends of it to not only do their gender transition, but use the prize money they earned to pay for it.

I think about what my trans life would have been like if I didn't have the blessings of a two parent home, a middle class upbringing, blood and chosen family and friends who love and support me and a college education.  

The escort life isn't (and never was an option) for me, but neither am I going to sit in judgment of those who are in it because I realize that even with college educations, 26% of us transpeeps are unemployed or underemployed.   We are facing unacceptable levels of anti-trans violence aimed at us amongst other issues that affect all of us. 

If we put our heads together we can begin to resolve those issues to the benefit of all of us.  No matter what clique we belong to, we all want to be true to ourselves, live quality lives, be proud of who we are and be the best persons we can be. 


I want us to laser beam focus on the fact that whatever our differences brought on by the cliques we hang out in due to class, education, generational issues, et cetera, the one thing that unites all of us at the end of the day and should squash all the bull feces amongst us is that we're all Black transwomen and we're hated on one level or another by some extremely misguided people primarily because we are trans.

Let's focus on the thing we all have in common, and work to build community from there.   I've been willing to try if you are.   There are others willing to follow my lead if you're willing in your various groups of the community to meet us halfway.

The Olympian I Know

I look forward to watching the Olympics and  rooting for the athletes representing my country and others in various sports  

The intensity and interest goes up another notch when you actually have a personal connection with the person you're watching compete for Olympic glory

When I first started watching my then roommate pick up a sabre and start participating in various fencing tournaments inside the Kentucky Division and the Great Lakes Region, in the process of supporting my homegirl Dawn I got to meet some of the wonderful people who are part of US Fencing in that part of the world.

In addition to meeting the families, parents and friends of fencers, the 'Baby Vets' and the 'Senior Mama's, the gang at LFC, Maestro Stawicki, various officials and referees in US fencing, I also got to meet some of the up and coming US fencers when I was the announcer for the Super Youth Regional tourney that was held in Louisville in 2010.  

One of the fencing families I got to know during my time in Kentucky were the Kiefers.  Lee, her sister Alex and her baby brother are all foil fencers and pretty darned good ones.   Lee was already fencing on the international cadet level when I met them and their proud parents a few years ago.

When Dawn and I used to discuss Lee's tremendous talent or her  chances to be on or selected for a USA Olympic fencing team, we never used the word 'if' when discussing her, but 'when'  

Dawn and I along with everyone else in the Kentucky Division expected her to be in London, and here she is competing at age 18 with a 2011 Pan Am Games gold medal and a raft of cadet and junior championship medals in hand.  She also has the distinction of being only the second American woman to ever earn a medal at the senior World Fencing Championships when she picked up a bronze last October. . 

Lee made it to the quarterfinals of her first Olympic foil tournament before being ousted by the eventual silver medalist Arriana Errigo of Italy.   Lee is also a smart, super sweet person in addition to having serious fencing ability and talent.

I was up early to watch her match yesterday morning, and while I was sad she fell just short of the medal round, she made some fencing history in the process.  I have no doubts I will be seeing her again in Rio four years from now and she'll be standing on the medal platform when she competes in that 2016 tournament.

She still has the team foil event to go in a few days (August 2), so if things break her way, she may head back to Kentucky with a London Olympic medal after all.   

Congrats Lee.  It's an honor to have a personal connection with an Olympic athlete and know firsthand the levels of hard work, determination and effort it took for you to be standing on that London Olympic strip.

I'm one more person who is immensely proud of you

Maya Angelou Definition Of A Hero

This Maya Angelou quote really resonated for me.  

If you are striving to make this world a better place for all people, there are times in which you will be standing alone because you have to have the courage of your convictions to say things that make you unpopular at times.   You have be willing to do the right thing when others seek the most expedient thing to do, are willing to sell you out for their own comfort, cower in the shadows or are reluctant to take a stand.

In some parts of the world, working to make it a better place for all people means literally putting your own life in jeopardy to do so.

You also must have the unshakeable courage of your convictions.   You must have a great grasp of history in order to learn from the mistakes of your predecessors and better formulate a plan what will work in the politcal and historic times you live in.  

You must know your enemy and most importantly, know yourself so that your intent to make the world a better place for everyone becomes action that accomplishes that goal.

Annoy The GOP-Use Facts And Logic

Another graphic floating around the Net that is so dead on target in describing the unwashed masses of Republifools.  Your defense against the Fox Noise talking point spewing sheeple is burying their bull feces in an avalanche of facts and logic.

Seems like they have an aversion to facts and logic.   Just look at the 2012 Texas Republican Party platform with the plank in it that opposes teaching kids how to critically think.

That way they have good little conservafools and avoid the embarrassing situations of promoting little Jonathan Krohn's as the future of their movement and giving them CPAC speaking spots, only to see them three years later renounce conservatism after they turn off the conservative talk radio and begin to think for themselves.

Why are Republifools so averse to facts and logic?   Time for Moni to school y'all, so grab a chair.

Bottom line is that conservafools know that their political theory is designed to buttress white supremacy,  keep the superrich 1% paying as little in taxes as possible, destroy the New Deal, and return this country to the Robber Baron age of unfetter laissez-faire capitalism.

They need easily bamboozled people that will believe their conservamedia lies that it's the Black president's fault that their jobs went overseas.  The reality is that it's the so called 'job creators' who look like them that are closing down their plants.

The vulture capitalists offshore their manufacturing jobs to China and India, make mad loot as they do so and laugh all the way to Cayman Islands and Bermuda banks to deposit it.

They chuckle in their quiet rooms about how stupid the white working class conservafool voters are to continue a 150 year pattern of voting for economic policies that don't benefit them in the name of vanillacentric ethnic solidarity . .

Conservatism carries the stench of vanillacentric privilege and oppresses people of color.   If you think that I'm being harsh about that conservaracism point, then explain the voter suppression laws that conveniently sprang up in the wake of the election of Barack Obama to the presidency, the anti-immigration Juan Crow laws, or the rise of the Tea Klux Klan.

Racism=prejudice plus power, and the fact that 2040 and your minority status is rapidly approaching means that you conservafools are in panic mode to delay the inevitable.  Instead of pushing to mess with the Voting Rights Act and repeal affirmative action laws you better keep them in place for your grandkids and great grandkids.   

And let's be real for a moment.  If conservatism were so superior to liberalism, they why the need for Orwellian laws when you conservafools get into power, the outright distortions and lies by GOP politicians, voter suppression of non-whites, the hermetically sealed conervamedia environment, the hive mind conservamentality and the reluctance to have honest open debate with liberals in which we compare and contrast our visions for the America we wish to create?

You conservafools already know the answer to that question.  Your vision of trickle down economics and vulture capitalism doesn't work for the vast majority of the country and doesn't stand up to facts and rigorous scrutiny.   If conservatism benefited people of color, you'd have far more Black people at your Republican conventions than the 36 total you had in 2008.    It'll be interesting to see how many show up in Tampa.

But conservatism fails to lift people out of poverty because of your hatred of poor people and the government intervention and policies it will require to tackle the systemic economic inequality issues that cause poverty in our country.   All the GOP does is talk.  The Democrats since FDR have acted.   

That's why you conservafools must have a 24 hour propaganda network and loud talk radio Noise Machine to distract people from the facts and logic that conservatism is a racist, failed political and economic system.

So liberal progressives and Democrats, annoy a conservafool in your family and a GOP politician near you.   Continue to use facts and logic to blow up their talking points and lies.

And if you are a conservafool who really believes if you cut taxes for the wealthy it'll magically jump start the economy, I have some Louisiana waterfront property between Lafayette and Baton Rouge along I-10 to sell you in the Atchafalaya Swamp.

Happy 236th Birthday USA!

Happy birthday USA!   Once again on my nation's 236th birthday I find myself asking the question I borrowed from the first 'Tuskegee Airmen movie. 

How do I feel about my country?   How does my country feel about me?   

While my feelings about my country sometimes approach the level that Frederick Douglass expressed when he delivered this 1852 speech,  I find myself on this Independence Day in a melancholy mood.

As I anticipate watching the red, white and blue fireworks light up the night sky above Eleanor Tinsley Park later this evening and see the endless shows reminding of our nation's birthday,  I'm nervous about the critical presidential election we have just 124 days away.  

I wonder about the future of our nation in light of the conservafools who are willing to destroy it just to make one Black man and his family move from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.   I worry about the conservavoters stupid or racist enough to vote against their own economic interests like they have done for 150 years just to put another rich boy who looks like them with unresolved daddy issues in who will rubber stamp their 1% plutocratic agenda unlike the 'uppity' Black POTUS.

We are just three days from hosting the 103rd annual NAACP convention in my beloved hometown.  But I wonder will there be another LGBT town hall meeting and if it's held, will there actually be a trans person on the panel this time or will it be a trans free event like last year?

But it's not all bad I'm pondering on this day.  I'm noting that trans human rights in my nation, like everywhere else in the world has been on a positive upward trend.  We are having not only more positive feedback and discussion about trans issues, I'm happy on this day to see more #girlslikeus standing up, being out and proud and helping to facilitate those trans human rights discussions in our various communities.       

The Affordable Care Act has been upheld by the SCOTUS and the economy is doing a slow recovery from the Great Recession despite Massive Resistance 2.0 from the Republifools.   And yes, NFL traning camps start opening in a few weeks along with the opening ceremonies of the London Olympic Games on the 27th.

While there's a lot of things that concern me about my country, there also a few things it does do right to the point that we sill have people still wanting to come here.  Like any other American who resides inside or outside of its borders or are in our nation's military defending it, I want it to be the best country it can be and I want to have a say in how it gets to that point.  

And for the sake of my nieces, I need to fight just as hard for my vision of America as the conservafools do for theirs.  And hear me conservafools, just because I won't fight dirty like you have done for the last 40 years doesn't mean I as a liberal won't stand up to y'all and fight like hell to make my vision of a fair America that works for everybody come to fruition.  .My nieces deserve to grow up and have that type of America I enjoyed around when they hit adulthood

Happy birthday USA!    May you have many more to come.