Aww, Nice To Know Y'all Care About And Miss Me!

Yesterday morning got a call from Jeri Hughes in DC that awakened me out of a sound sleep.   She was calling to verify a rumor that had started inside I-495 that I was in Washington and had been jacked with in a local hotel. 

Jeri was puzzled by that because she knows from experience my standard operating procedure anytime I'm traveling to different parts of the country for events or even pleasure travel is to let local activists or trans people know at least 48-72 hours before my scheduled arrival is I will be in their area.

She was also worried along with Earline Budd that something DID happen to moi, but I told her I was comfortably in my bed in H-town and the only drama I faced was courtesy of a transphobic METRO bus rider I quickly put in his place.   It still didn't solve the mystery of the trans woman who really did get disrespected in DC, but they are on the case. 

Once she handled that business, Jeri asked if I was coming to DC for OUT on the Hill.   As of right now, nope won't be there unless a miracle happens, but I will be in Oaktown this weekend for the upcoming Trans*H4CK as a judge.  

Saturday afternoon got a call from my favorite Canadian blogger who got a little worried after she played phone tag with me for several days because I've had to leave the house and use the Houston Public Libray's computers until mine gets back from the shop.

After she teased me by threatening to fly down to Houston and kick my butt for not being in contact with her for the last week and a half, we were on the phone for an hour catching up on things.

Saturday night called my old roomies in Louisville to catch up with the latest happenings in their lives and during that hour long conversation was told that the folks at my old nail shop along with countless other people in the Louisville area are asking the 'How's Monica?' question.

This post is simply to say thank you.   I deeply appreciate knowing that y'all love me, care about me and my well being, and appreciate what I do on behalf of this community.

It's nice to know that even though it has been three years since I left Louisville and was bummed as I pointed the moving van down I-65 south feeling like I left a few things and projects unfinished and friends I'd made over the eight years I lived there behind, those of you I am blessed to stay in contact with tell me otherwise.

So yeah, it's nice to know y'all care about and miss me.

A Good, Bad, Ugly and Great METRO Transit Day

As you've probably noted I've been a longtime public transit rider and fan, especially if your local transit system has a rail component. 

One of the things about being a transit rider is you get to meet a lot of different people as you are headed to whatever destination you are traveling to.

Sometimes those rides can be peaceful and uneventful, while others can be fraught with drama and sometimes danger

Yesterday was one of those days in which I had a METRO travel day that encompassed all of the above.

I bounced out of the house at 5 PM to head to Montrose for our monthly Creating Change host  committee meeting.  The bus route I take passes by the University of Houston, and  when it arrived at the stop at Calhoun and UH University Drive the bus filled up with students finishing their day of classes at my alma mater.   I was in the middle of a wonderful discussion at that point with another passenger about the light rail system and when it was supposed to be completed which this lovely young white female student joined in on.

That discussion on which way Houston future transit needs should go lasted all the way until we got to the Downtown Transit Center where I got off to transfer to the METRORail line and my short trip to the Red Line's Wheeler Station, the closest one to the Montrose Center where we have our monthly meetings.

On that train ride got into another conversation with a black woman several years older than me who had just gotten off the Megabus from New Orleans and was telling me about her trip a few moments after I sat down. 
She also complimented me as we chatted for being in semi diva mode for that upcoming meeting.  We both started talking about beignets, fashion, the city of New Orleans and the Saints football fortunes moments after I sat down with her.

The Wheeler Station pulled into view way too soon and I got off to handle my rainbow community business at our September Host Committee meeting.   When it was over a little after 8 PM CDT Tye West dropped me off at Wheeler Station as I waited for the northbound train to take me back to the Downtown Transit Center and my bus back to South Park. 

The first train that arrived was a two car one that was standing room only and knowing I had a little time before my homeward bound bus arrived at the Downtown Transit Center at 8:48 PM. I passed on taking that full train. 

I noted as the full two car train rolled northbound from Wheeler Station a petite African-American sister rocking an Afro and looking good doing so.  I was surprised to discover when she got close to me she stopped, gave a quizzical look and then had her face light up in recognition of me and my blogging exploits.

I was also surprised to discover the Afro wearing sister was not only a girl like us, but was Paige Mahogany.

Paige used to run the CATS gender group while I was marking the 2k's in Da Ville as a Texan in Exile.   She used to live in South Park where I live now but now lives closer to the McGowen Station in Midtown.  We had an animated conversation for a few moments until the next northbound train arrived and while we were in conversation two brothers were checking us both out since Paige in her short set was dressed more apropos for the humid Houston evening than I was in my pantsuit. 

I get on the northbound train and end up in a conversation discussing weight loss and midnight snacking with a Latino couple until I get to the Downtown Transit Center station to catch my final bus back to the house.

I grab a seat on one of the benches near the spot where my 77 MLK bus will park and settle in for a humid 15 minute wait for the southbound bus.   I notice this young African-American couple sitting a few feet from me with a cute six month old baby and go back to dealing with my own issues of when can I get my computer from the shop and rehashing much of what we discussed in the just concluded Host Committee meeting. 

While I was doing that the 11 Almeda bus rolls up and it's delayed for a few moments as they get a wheelchair passenger on.  The homeboy I observed a few moments earlier with the girlfriend and baby decides to get up and starts walking in my direction toward the St Joseph Parkway end of the transit center.

He's wearing a pleather hat I was trying to see what the design was on the front of it, and whatever Mini Me's problem was with his girlfriend and daddyhood he decided to hurl a misgendering slur at me which I was in no mood to let slide.  I called his Lilliputian ass out while pulling my cellphone out of my purse to dial the METRO po-po's in case this fool wants to start some crap.

For a moment I had a vision of my name being read at this November's TDOR, but that feeling quickly passed when I stood up to reveal that I was a very pissed off 6'2".   I was also giving him a 'don't frack with me' death stare and prepping to give him a proper South Park ass whupping if he persisted in escalating hostilities. 

The 11 Almeda patrons and the driver noticed the developing drama and out of the corner of my eye I noted he was on his radio talking to dispatch.  

Finally homeboy saw the error of his ways and took himself and his saggin' pants toward St. Joseph Parkway.  But he had succeeded in spoiling the good mood I was in by bringing that drama into my space. 

At that moment I ran into Brian, one of my Falcon classmates who was Class of 1978  (I'm Class of 80).  We'd had a long conversation a month ago and he quickly erased the frown on my face and replaced it with a smile as the bus arrived and I discovered he lives just a few blocks down the street from me.   We also have some things in common besides being Falcons as we discovered after we boarded it for home and discussed everything JJ and Houston radio related for the rest of the ride to South Park.

So yeah, it actually turned out to be a good METRO transit day after all.

The 50th Anniversary Of The March On Washington And The Trans Community

Today is the actual 50th Anniversary of the March On Washington which was capped by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr's speech for the ages. 

I spent most of last Saturday afternoon glued to the couch watching the  commemoration march that happened Saturday and seeing friends like Donna Payne and Aisha Moodie-Mills either speaking during the event or getting to comment on it afterward. 

While I'm happy the gay and lesbain segment of the African-American community got to participate last Saturday, it still bothered me that there was no T and B representation at the event.

Now that I've gotten the obvious point of contention out of the way, time to use this anniversary date to ponder where the African-American trans community is as of August 28, 2013.

We are now sixty years past the February date in which Christine Jorgensen stepped off the plane from Denmark to the glare of the world's media in New York.  The Dewey's Lunch Counter Sit-In and Protest we would jump off in Philly happened two years after the March On Washington.

Just as it was pointed out by of African-American cis brothers and cis sisters, while the African-American trans community has made some fantastic progress since 1953, in many ways it has still been the same old same old dynamic. 

And yes, as I continue to point out, Black transgender issues are black community issues.   Like our cisgender counterparts we face Stop and Frisk policing.   The voter suppression issues affect us too.  And yes, while I may have morphed into a different body shape, I still because of my Black skin and heritage face the same bigotry and old racism like every other African American    

Being transgender didn't change that, just the way I experience it.

Speaking of the transgender community,  we're still invisible when it comes to the leadership ranks of this community.   We still face crushing unemployment-underemployment, and yes, we're taking along with our Latina transsisters the brunt of the casualties as last week's deaths of Islan nettles and Domonique Newburn painfully pointed out.

And we have to deal with the scourge of transphobia inside the African-American community that is fueling some of the anti-trans hate and violence we are suffering. 

But at the same time there are encouraging signs that we're making progress.  In this decade we have more out and proud African descended trans role models than ever before.   We have TPOCC, the NBJC and a host of local organizations fighting for our human rights.   The NAACP is recognizing that their membership base contains Black trans people.   BTMI and BTWI in just three short years has inspired our transbrothers to not only step up their leadership game inside and outside our community but reclaim their history.  We have Black trans people doing some amazing things and as more of us walk off college campuses with degrees in hand I expect to see more groundbreaking and amazing leadership and things to come from my younger transsisters and transbrothers 

Yes, we've made some amazing progress, but we African descended transpeople still have like our cis African-American counterparts a long way to go and problems to solve. 





     

Philip Porter, Derrick Doll And Detransition

Until they moved to Nashville and became the Tennessee Traitors, I was a huge Houston Oilers fan.  When they started their cheerleading squad called the Derrick Dolls, one of my college classmates Thomasina was on it for a few years.

And yes, it bothered me during the 80's that I was in the wrong body to even have a shot at trying out for it and I was jealous of Thomasina for a minute because she was on that squad. 

So it jolted me when I heard about my fellow Texan Philip Porter's detransition story and it subsequently coming out that during his 32 years as Phoebe, he alleges he had been an NFL cheerleader in his trans feminine life.

As he told his story on HuffPost Live recently, and seeing this alleged picture of Phoebe as a trans Derrick Doll brought those memories back on how I felt back in my wandering in the gender wilderness 80's. 

When I was watching those NFL home games being played at the Astrodome along with much of the city of Houston, I was struggling with my own gender issues.  It occurred to me that during the 1992 and 1993 season that Phoebe would occasionally pop on our TV sets, be part of two Derrick Dolls group photos, and take part in the various events the Dolls performed at or graced as hostesses around the city I was taking major steps to get my own transition started.  


I respect Philip's decision to detransition and hope he's happy.  It's his life, his journey and I wish him the best.
But it also gives me an opportunity to talk about the contentious subject in Trans World of detransition.  

We transpeeps go through hell and back just to be recognized as the people we are now, and that journey to be our true selves is a satisfying one to 95% who aren't even thinking about detransition.  That percentage shoots up to 98% if you include the people who have genital surgery. 

At the time I was doing my transition in 1994, one of the WPATH requirements in place was I had to do the 'Real Life Test' in order to get approval from my gender therapist to have genital surgery.  That RLT was in place so that people had an opportunity to back out if they were having second thoughts or had difficulty adjusting to life on the other side of the gender fence before the surgeon's scalpel came into play.   


But instead of the focus on trans issues being about the people who are happily navigating their post transition lives or our challenges, the media focus at times becomes fixated on the very few people in our community who transition and decide to go back as Don Ennis, Ria Cooper and Philip Porter did. 

And sometimes it is the bizarre reasons these detransitioning peeps give for why they are doing so that also sets us off in Trans World. 

The oversaturation coverage of the instances of people detransisitioning leads to cis people asking us the annoying 'When are you going to go back?' question.  

When I got asked by a female student that question during an HCC-Southeast Trans 101 discussion I was conducting last year, my response to that student was why would I go back to the miserable existence and life I had before transition?


There are a lot of reasons why people do so and it really should be a personal issue, but as the old saying goes, the personal can become the political.  That's especially true when you have a marginalized group fighting for human rights coverage and at the same time be understood by the general public.  As they do so everything that happens to that marginalized group good, bad or indifferent is framed in that political context, especially by its enemies. 

It's why detransition is such a contentious topic in the transgender community.  We get prickly about it not only because of our own personal psychic and sweat equity investments in perfecting our gender presentations and gender identities to the world, but by the awareness that far too often some of the people who do detransition become the trans equivalent of 'Ex Gays'.     

They are seized on in conservative circles as a reason why trans human rights coverage shouldn't be granted to the rest of us who are very happy in the trans skins we're in.  

The detransitioned 'Ex-Trans' folks are also pimped by the Religious Reich and groups like PFOX as poster children and 'proof' that you trans people can use prayer to turn away from your 'sinful' lives as trans people

Funny, it was after I attended a 1993 TD Jakes revival in Los Angeles and prayerful contemplation my faith led me to write the letter to the Rosenberg Clinic asking for the first available appointment that started my transition.

BTW peeps, Pat Robertson has said twice what we already know, that transsexuality isn't a sin.

But that doesn't stop the Religious Reich from not only trying to push that loud and wrong message, they also use these stories of detransitioned 'Ex Trans' folks as a way to pimp their religious conversion therapies.

They are the same ones that didn't work for gay folks, but they are now trying to retool them to grab the cash of parents desperate enough to try them to 'fix' their trans children. 

Whether it was the loathsome Jerry Leach in Kentucky or the recent story that Sabrina Samone told on her blog about P-FOX trumpeting the story of her 'Ex-trans' friend Darrell, the trans community gives these stories the hostile side eye when we hear them. 

Another reason for the trans pissivity when the issue of detransition comes up besides the right wing and other trans haters exploitation of it is our sadness about the tragic story of Mike Penner, the LA Times sportswriter who famously transitioned to become Christine Daniels, transitioned back to Mike and committed suicide.

So yes, Trans World is concerned on many levels when we hear about people detransitioning, but our biggest concerns are always going to be focused on the side of the well being of the person going through it. 

But if you use it as a way to attack the trans community in general, it's on like Donkey Kong. 

Is It Something I Said?-More Musing About B.Scott

Been an interesting 48 hours since I wrote the B.Scott post that included the tweet I made hours after Scott's 'I'm trans' announcement

The reason I wrote the post in the first place is because I'm quite aware of the fact as a longtime Twitter user you cannot covey the nuances of a constantly evolving subject like transness in a 140 character tweet and I felt the need to further clarify where my head was at when I typed it. 

I'm not retracting or deleting the tweet because it's exactly what I was thinking at the time.  I also wrote almost eight years ago on these electronic pages:

There are times that what I write on an issue is going to be in lock step with your worldview and other times it's going to piss you off.  But the goal in either case is I want people doing hard, solid thinking and talking about the subject.

And boy have I gotten what I wanted to happen in this case and then some.  It triggered this interview one from Janet Mock.  Some folks are annoyed to pissed with moi because I did say it.  Others are congratulating me for having the guts to say what they were thinking as well in terms of asking the valid question that's percolating in many trans people's minds about the timing and sincerity of his 'I'm transgender' declaration.' 

I've gotten comments on my Facebook page and e-mails pro and con about it (mostly pro).   But for those of you criticizing me over the post that I included the Tweet in (and really didn't have to when I composed it), you also keep missing the money paragraph in which I said this. 

I'm quite aware of and know evolution and shifting along the gender line segment happens with people as they gain self-awareness and knowledge about where they fall under the trans umbrella.  I'm also quite aware of the fact that sometimes it takes years to get comfortable with the spot you're in under the trans umbrella.  But it's the timing of the 'I'm transgender' declaration that has my 'things that make you go hmm' antennae up.

So hello, I'm not 'erasing genderqueer identities', 'doing gender policing', 'hatin' on B. Scott' or some of the other specious charges that have been leveled in my direction.  

The post was not an attack on B Scott as I presumed I made crystal clear on August 7 or is debating whether he belongs under the trans umbrella or not.  I believe B.Scott does on the drag-genderqueer end of the umbrella.

I am amenable to the idea of having a discussion with B. Scott in the near future about his 'I'm transgender' declaration and exactly where he sees himself. 

I also want to make it clear to him why there are transpeople who have issues with that August 7 declaration 

Many of us on the end of the trans umbrella and gender line segment who live our lives as African descended transfeminine women have been in some cases for decades out there taking the slings and arrows of being trans as we live and fight for recognition of our humanity and human rights. 

Some of the people we've have to battle in that struggle for recognition of our humanity are sadly same gender loving people in our community.  Some of those SGL haters have been self identified effeminate gay men who bristle or get offended if you call them 'Miss', conflate them with transsexuals or ask them when they are going to have SRS. 

There's a sentiment fueling this 'yeah, right' reaction that's encapsulated by something that activist Nadia Belinda Roberts wrote (no relation) in a Facebook discussion on the issue.
"Everybody wants to be Trans, but they don't want to BE Trans!"  

In other words, what Nadia is saying is that some trans women are of the opinion that some of the peeps under the trans umbrella want the benefits and perks of being able to perform femininity under the protection of it but don't want the other negative baggage that comes with taking on the trans feminine label. 

And when it comes to Black trans women, that baggage includes the horrific levels of anti-trans violence and 'unwoman' negativity we deal with inside and outside the Black community.    

That's a discussion for another day.   Why Scott is getting some skeptical reaction is driven by that sentiment and the fact that before August 7, 2013 Scott lived his life as a self-declared androgynous gay man.  If B. Scott had made the "I'm transgender" announcement before the BET incident and now subsequent multimillion dollar lawsuit, I submit there would be less controversy in Trans World about it and more 'welcome to Team Trans' sentiment about it instead of the 'yeah, right' sentiment prevalent in sections of it.     

Now I can't or don't have the ability to read B. Scott's mind, and can only go by what he has stated in Janet's interview or future ones as to whether his epiphany concerning his gender journey is valid and led him to make the declaration at this time.

But only future efforts to reach out to those of us on the transsexual-trans feminine end of the umbrella and the passage of time will reveal the next chapter in this unfolding B. Scott gender saga 
 

Dissension In The Trans Community Is Healthy, Even When It Gets Loud

From time to time I hear concerns from various leaders in the trans community about the sometimes very loud way we can and do disagree with each other when it comes to talking about issues in this community. 

There are white transpeople in this community for example, who bristle, curse and get their backs up when they hear my name and frankly I don't care what they think because I'm focused on the big trans picture.  I'm out and proud about being a Black trans woman, unapologetic about calling out the TS separatists for their loud and wrong bull feces, and have no problem calling out our trans oppressors inside and outside the community.

I also have no qualms about repeatedly calling out the racism in our trans and SGL ranks or tellin' it like it T-I-S is about issues like stealth and how they negatively affect us.

But back to the post.   My thoughts about this topic are more in line with a Jennifer Lawson comment that I've paraphrased for the purpose of this post.  We've had the same discussion in the African-American ranks about the contentious at times sniping we do at each other and her comment on it is,'Dissension is healthy, even if it gets loud.'

My TransGriot take on that comment is "Dissension in the trans community is healthy, even if it gets loud."

I look at dissension as passionate and reasoned argument about the issues of the day and a debate between reasonable, intelligent people into what is the best way to move forward to permanently solve the problem being discussed.

Note I said reasonable, intelligent people.  

I see contentious, passionate debate as meaning we're not apathetic about the problems that ail us in the trans community and we wish to do whatever it takes to solve them. As long as we recognize that and swiftly close trans ranks to work on the big picture things that we have in common I'll take occasional sniping and dissension on low level insignificant stuff.

What are those big picture items?   ENDA passage, recognizing our trans human rights and our humanity, insisting on positive and diverse media portrayals, calling out anti-trans bigots and oppressors with a loud unified voice, getting respectful medical coverage, and eliminating anti-trans violence here and around the world.  

There's more, but that's just the short list of some of the things we're fighting to achieve. Others will have more to add or want to take some off that list.  And note I said that is a short list.   It's not a comprehensive one of everything that negatively affects trans people.   That list can also vary based on race and class.  

But the point I'm making is that we need to be in constant discussions about what ails our community, what we need to do to permanently eradicate the problem, and keep tabs on the progress we make in solving those problems.  

What's more important than giving each other the evil eye after a passionate argument is having the ability to swiftly close ranks when we're being attacked by oppressors outside our community. and keeping our eye on the prize of trans human rights coverage here and elsewhere around the globe.

Fear Of An Unjust Verdict

I did much venting about the Trayvon Martin case when it started unfolding last year and wasn't the only blogger who had something to say about it at the time. 

For those of you who have been surfing over to the blog looking for my chococentric commentary on the Zimmerman trial, I must confess I haven't been watching much of it because I'm not too optimistic that justice will be served in this case. 

The ultimate justice would be Trayvon Benjamin Martin walking into his parents arms and out of that Seminole County courtroom, but we know that ain't happening.

But what I and much of the African-American community fears will happen after the six woman jury made up of ZERO African-Americans gets to deliberate on this case is that George Zimmerman walks.

We have ample evidence of the reality that America doesn't care much about Black lives, and they care even less about a young Black kid's life.   Far too many people, and especially conservative whites believe the bull feces that all young Black men, including Trayvon Martin are dangerous suspects.

After the defense delivers their closing argument tomorrow and the case goes to the jury, what Black America fears is the visual when that jury comes out of deliberation and delivers the verdict in front of the unblinking eye of the media's television cameras, a 'not guilty' verdict will be read.

We will then in Black America have to painfully watch as George Zimmerman exhales, cheers and he, his family and friends plaster cheesy grins all over their faces in victory while Tracy Martin, Sybrina Fulton, Trayvon's brother Jahvaris Fulton and their family, friends and supporters have stunned or disconsolate looks on their faces as the sickening realization sinks in that Zimmerman just got away with murdering their loved one.

Well, all we can do is wait and see how this plays out, and see if it verifies what I said when this trial started last month.

If Zimmerman is convicted, the justice system worked in this case despite the attempts of the Zimmerman family and the vanillacentric conservafool movement to shift the narrative, 'work the refs'  and demonize Trayvon for the fateful decision he made to simply get some tea and Skittles from a local 7 Eleven.

If he walks, we're probably looking at Rodney King levels of anger and pissivity in our community that I hope and pray doesn't explode into what Dr. King called it in his 'The Other America' essay as 'the language of the unheard'.     

Transition Is An Ongoing Journey

There is a mistaken belief in the trans community that transition is a finite journey with a fixed beginning, middle and endpoint.  

Some people think it begins when you swallow your first estrogen tablets or take your first testosterone shot and ends when you have some kind of surgical intervention or the morphing into the body that matches your brain gender map is complete. 

But I submit that's not the case.  Transition may start when you take that first estrogen or testosterone shot, but the endpoint is when they close the coffin lid on you.

The middle between those two points is the life you live and how you define it.

Like life itself, transition is a constantly evolving series of events that are part of the totality of your life until it's done.  It is a just battle for the self determination of your own identity to paraphrase what my little sis Jordana has eloquently said about it.  It is a long journey of self discovery that at times can be a pain in the ass.   There are periods of introspection and analysis you'll have to go through in terms of whether you're living up to the goals you set for yourself when you began your transition.   Sometime you do that hard solid thinking that comes with that honest assessment of where you are in terms of your transition goals on your own, sometimes it's a group exercise in concert with others. 

My personal guiding transition principle and has been since 1994 was wanting to be a compliment to Black womanhood, not a detriment to it.  

When I sit down and do hard solid thinking on where I am in terms of reaching this goal, it is with this guiding principle in mind among many others. 

But as you're on this journey, you want to strive to live a quality life an which you are happy in your own skin.  How you define that happiness and what a quality life means is up to you.

Once Again, How Do I Feel About My Country, And How Does My Country Feel About Me?

Today is July 4, 2013, the 237th birthday of the United States, and I'm not in a celebratory mood as this Independence Day arrives.

The Supreme Court, aided and abetted by a self-hating live version of The Boondocks Uncle Ruckus voted 5-4 to eviscerate Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act. 

It was one of the potent legal tools we had to keep the conservafools in GOP dominated state dictatorships legislatures in check as they repeatedly attempted to roll back our human rights,  and now it's been fracked with. 

The conservative dominated Rasmussen poll publishes one yesterday which confirms what we already knew about the vanillacentric privileged conservafools.   They ignorantly think Blacks are more racist than whites. 

If you believe that BS I have waterfront property I'd like to sell you between Breaux Bridge and Baton Rouge, LA along I-10 in the Atchafalaya Swamp. 

FYI to you conservasheep.  Racism=prejudice plus systemic power, something the Rasmussen conservaidiots should have retained from Sociology 101. Black people in the United States have NEVER had the power and population numbers to oppress people and turn their prejudices into legislative oppression like whites have gleefully and repeatedly done throughout American history for over three centuries.

The African-American president, the First Lady and his family continue to get unprecedented levels of disrespect aimed at them and will until they leave the White House on January 20, 2017.

Sometimes I wonder just how many of you white Americans not only say amen to what Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney wrote about my people in the 1857 Dred Scott v Sandford decision but think on this date in the second decade of the 21st century we're still 3/5ths of a human being compared to you?

And just to refresh your memory banks concerning what Chief Justice Taney wrote on March 6, 1857:

"...beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations, and so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.".

There are days I'm feeling Frederick Douglass' July 5, 1852 speech, but none more keenly than today. 

My transsisters in Washington DC are once again under attack as Deoni Jones' family awaits justice that has now been delayed until April 2014 for her February 2012 murder.. 

A Black woman in Georgia is told that she needs to submit to an invasive medical procedure to prove her femininity just to correct a birth certificate error and a smirking white male who killed an unarmed black teenager is on trial at this moment in Sanford, FL in front of a six person jury with no African-Americans on it.

But just when I feel like I want to leave the United States and never come back, I remember the words of my shero Barbara Jordan who eloquently stated that all we want is an America as good as its promise.

No, check that.  I want an America BETTER than its promise. 

I listen to Marvin Gaye's soulful version of the national anthem he sang at the 1983 NBA all star game or Jimi Hendrix's 1969 guitar solo version at Woodstock and get chills.   I think about the Rev. Dr Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Rep. John Lewis, The Tuskegee Airmen, the Freedom Riders, Four Little Girls and all the people who fought marched, bled and died for me to be in the position to move the freedom torch forward.  It makes me realize I can't turn my back on that history.  I have to fight like they did in their time to make this country better for the next generation and generations yet unborn.

And as my little sis Jordana LeSesne wisely stated, 'no fight is more just than the battle for self-determination of ones own identity.'
 
The battle for trans human rights continues here in the United States as well.  The increased attacks and negativity we're getting aimed at us because we're winning that war right now but still have a long way to go until we see trans human rights become a reality across our nation.
 
 I have a pretty good idea how my country feels about me and all the communities I intersect and interact with as of July 4, 2013.   But how do I feel about my country today?

I'm ambivalent and a little pissed off at the USA because of the regressive human rights path we've been on lately no thanks to a batturd crazy Republican Party that professes to love freedom and democracy, but only when it benefits wealthy conservative white males and the profits over people corporations they run.   

Even though you clueless conservafools and Tea Klux Klan members piss me and my people off at times, I still love this country.   I've just been along with my fellow Americans who are persons of color more thoughtful about how.and why I do.  .

Check with me on July 5 as to how I'll feel about my country tomorrow.  

Rev Sally McClain Retires

Those of you who have been long time readers of TransGriot know that the blog not only started in Louisville, but through May 2010 chronicled some of my Bluegrass State life as a Texan in exile.

One of the people that I talked about in various blog posts who was a big part of my Louisville life and  my evolving faith journey was my pastor at Edenside Christian Church, the Rev. Sally McClain.  

I first met her approximately 48 hours after arriving in Louisville in late September 2001.  I was still reeling emotionally and depressed about my move from Houston, the series of seismic level events in my life starting that February which precipitated my relocation.  I was also spending a lot of my time in my new locale pondering my future and my 40th birthday that was a mere 8 months away.  

Dawn had me hop in her car and took me to meet the pastor of her church and at the time I didn't know anybody yet in Da Ville besides the Fairness peeps, my housemates, and my new next door neighbors.

When I walked into Sally's office, it did wonders for my mood that day.   You gotta love a pastor that has a stuffed Cartman doll on her bookshelf and who Dawn nicknamed 'Mustang Sally' because at the time she took over the leadership of Edenside she was driving a Ford Mustang.  

A few days later after visiting her Edenside office the Louisville AIDS Walk happened, and I joined the Edenside crew as we walked from the Belvedere starting point in downtown Louisville across the Clark Bridge to Indiana and back.  

I had so much fun that day with the folks there I started attending Sunday services at Edenside since the Highlands neighborhood in Da Ville that surrounded the church reminded me a lot of Montrose.

Edenside eventually grew on me until I joined the church a few months later in 2002.  You have to love a church like Edenside that in addition to being actively involved in the Highlands neighborhood and the Louisville community, hosted art shows in its building, hosted a concert by one of our members who was a jazz vocalist, had an HIV/AIDS memorial service and has the Louisville Scottish Association Bagpipe band pop in from time to time.

And oh yeah, did I forget to mention a certain DJ spinning Christmas tunes with soul as part of our church's contribution to the Bardstown Road Aglow event the first Saturday in December that kicks off the holiday season in the Highlands? 

She also led by example.  She's on the advisory board for the WHAS-TV Crusade For Children, one of the major charity fundraising events in the area.  Before I left for Texas she'd become a regular panelist on WHAS-TV's The Moral Side Of The News. 

As the Cartman doll on her bottom bookshelf demonstrated, Rev. Sally also has a wicked sense of humor she''d unleash at times. As a proud UK alum during basketball season no Louisville and Indiana fan in our congregation was safe whenever they lost their annual games to the Cats.

I loved the fact she could say in a 20-30 minute sermon what it would take most Black minsters 45 minutes to an hour to dramatically pontificate on.  I also loved the fact my Louisville church later officially became an open and affirming one.

I also loved the fact Edenside services started at 10:40 AM, included weekly communion and we were done by 11:45 AM.  Most times I was back home by noon unless we were having a post service church dinner or event.  

Yesterday the retirement service was held for Rev. Sally at Edenside.  We tried to arrange it so I could come to Louisville and 'sliiiiide into Edenside' for this event as a surprise for her but it didn't work out. 

Then again, the news of me being back in Jefferson County wouldn't have stayed a surprise long either.

With all the stuff I been juggling lately I didn't think about simply writing a statement about what my time at Edenside meant to me that pretty much coincided with Sally's tenure at the church for Dawn to read until it was way too late to do so.. 

She not only helped me start to get over being depressed about being there but helped me get acclimated to life in Kentuckiana as a member of Edenside.   I got the chance to find my speaking voice again as a worship leader and meet some new people who became my friends during the what turned out to be eight years I lived there.  Her sermons got me thinking about a lot of social justice issues that fueled my activism while I was there and sometimes fueled my social justice during my Texan in exile days.

And it was a two way street.  I was the DJ for her son Derek's wedding.  I also gave her the advice after she asked my opinion about her first Moral Side of The News telecast to be fearless in making her points.  As the only female panelist on the show at the time, the boys ganged up on her during her first appearance.    

Just as things changed and time moved on after I left Houston, the same is true for my 105 year old church.   Some of the members I met when I arrived in 2001 and later joined the church have either moved on, moved out of state like I did or are not in this plane of existence.  Edenside's building is unfortunately for sale as well and Sally is retiring.

But the 1000 miles between me and Edenside didn't keep her from checking on me from time to time or sending me her and the Edenside family's condolences when my father was gravely ill last March and eventually passed away.

Congratulations on your retirement, you've earned it.  While I'm sure the Edenside church family will miss you doing those weekly thought provoking sermons, spending quality time with the grandkids and getting to travel for stuff other than church related events will be a bonus.
 
And I'll not only stay in touch, but give you at least 48 hours warning the next time I'm headed to the Louisville area.

Nobody Has The Right To Deny You Power Over Your Body Or Your Future

'Nobody has the right to deny you power over your body or your future'   Sandra Fluke

But it seems like when it comes to girls like us, a diverse group of transphobes seem to think they have the ability to do precisely that.   Whether it's the trans exterminationalist rad fems, the conservative elements of the Catholic Church and other faiths, elements of the gay and lesbian community or right wing legislators, they are united in their zeal to deny transpeople the power over their bodies and their futures. 

Article 3 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.   When it comes to transpeople, that right to life, liberty and security of person has been under sustained attack.

And it's past time we transpeople in the United States and around the world fight for our human right to exist/ Because for us to have a future, we must change our bodies as the first step towards us beginning to acquire the confidence, strength and will to do what is necessary to have positive outcomes in our lives..

So what is it about the simple demand of transpeople wanting to peacefully live our lives just like anyone else on the planet that scares the crap out of people?   Is it because we strive to be our authentic selves and in that gender metamorphosis it forces us to sort out issues that most cispeople refuse to contemplate much less deal with over their lifetimes?

Is it because it forces cis people who uncomfortable in their own skins to think about gender identity characteristics that people once thought were immutable?  Are cis people bothered by the realization that a little more or less testosterone in vitro would have them either walking in our trans shoes or on the other side of the gender divide in a body opposite the one they arrived out of the birth canal with? 

Or is it because transpeople make cisfolks realize that the dividing line between masculine and feminine is not the rigid Berlin Wall binary many people envision it as but a thin line segment that we all fall along somewhere along?  

All we transpeople is around the world want is to proudly live our lives in our various nations just like any other cis person.  We want to get a good education, good jobs, be the best people we can be, have the ability to marry the people we find are worthy of our love, start families, and do our part to build up the nations we inhabit.  We also want to live our lives free from fear, discrimination and transphobic bigotry as we do so.

Owning our bodies and the power to determine what happens to them is a major step towards making the other things happen.  The international fight to make trans human rights a reality puts us on the correct side of the arc of the moral universe that is always bending toward justice.

Even if it seems that inevitable day is slow in arriving at times for transpeople.

This is the second decade of the 21st century.  The medical means to help transpeople because the men and women they were born to be exists. The science is on our side, the laws are catching up to where we've always been.

The only people that should ever have the power over our trans bodies is us.   We trans people are becoming more cognizant that control of our bodies and what to do with them is not only worth fighting for, it's imperative we do so if we're going to have futures to look forward to.

And it's a fight that we must win for the sake of our trans younglings following in our footsteps. 

The Battle For Self Determination Of One's Own Identity Is A Just One

I'm blessed to have some pretty smart people around me as you can tell by some of the conversations that get started on my Facebook page.  

Sometimes those profound conversations get cranked up by some post I've written.  There are times it happens because either I or somebody else starts doing some hard solid thinking about whatever subject we were tackling at the moment and a comment jump starts a thoughtful conversation.

I wrote a post about a Houston area trans community issue that has a pleasant conclusion in Toni Zamazul getting to be herself  for her upcoming May 11 prom.  

So as the comments started flowing  Jordana LeSesne (yes the same Jordana that challenged me to start TransGriot in the first place) had this to say about it.  

No fight is more just than the battle for self determination of one's own identity. 

And she's absolutely right about that.   When it comes to fighting for your right to self determine your own identity, it is not only a just battle, but it is one that must be waged.  

Only you should have the power to determine your self identity and you must zealously defend it. When others do it for you either because they did so by force or you ceded that power to do so willingly, you not only aren't going to like what they come up with, but you don't have the power to control and define your own humanity. 

It's why I refuse to allow anyone to define for me who I am as an African descended girl like us.   I am a New Black Transwoman whose femininity and womanhood is just as valid as someone who was fortunate to be born into a feminine body. 

My transbrothers are also becoming (or already are) more vocal not only in terms of how they define trans masculinity, but are doing hard solid thinking about masculinity in general and their roles in redefining it so it fits for them and their ongoing battle for self determination of their identity

We have made remarkable progress in terms of advancing trans human rights in our various locales.  We have begun to do the hard work of shifting the conversations about trans people into more positive territory.  We have even begun the herculean task of getting our stories told in a more positive way in the media.   
But we can't forget the work we still need to do between our ears to permanently banish the unholy trinity of shame, guilt and fear from our lives.   That starts with us never forgetting that we must fight and decisively win the battle for self determination of our own identity and remember as we engage in that just battle, we have the moral high ground when we do so.

45th Anniversary of Dr. MLK, Jr's Assassination

It's now 45 years since that awful April 4, 1968 day that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr was assassinated in Memphis, TN at 6:01 PM CDT.  

I was four weeks from celebrating my sixth birthday at the time and because of that assassin's bullet Dr King unfortunately would not live to celebrate his 40th.

2013 finds us in the interesting and ironic convergence of this year that we mark the somber 45th anniversary of his assassination also being the 50th anniversaries of Dr King writing the famous Letter From Birmingham City Jail, the Birmingham Campaign, the March on Washington and the 'I Have A Dream' Speech, and the bombing of Birmingham's Sixteenth Street Baptist Church.

And yes, we still have an African-American president and his family living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

There are times I wonder where this country would be if the Drum Major For Justice had been able to live through the 70's and 80's.  We know his stance on the Vietnam War and he was increasingly focused on economic issues..  What would he have commented on in terms of the issues of the 1970's and 1980's?

Renee of Womanist Musings and I discussed that during his birthday weekend.

He definitely would have praised the Nixon Administration for ending the American involvement in the Vietnam War but called them out over Watergate.  He would have decried the Yom Kippur War, the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and probably criticized Ronald Reagan for his Evil Empire rhetoric that dangerously increased Cold War tensions between the US and USSR to the point that as we now know World War III almost got jumped off.   

And what would Dr. King have said about Stonewall and the LGBT rights movement?  The ERA and the rise of a conservative movement that disingenuously hid behind the Bible to roll back human rights?.

There's not too many things I agree with Tavis Smiley about these days, but there is one statement I'm in lock step agreement with him on in terms of him stating that Dr. King was the greatest American our people have ever produced.

And the memorial to him in Washington DC is an exclamation point to that..

First They Ignore You...

There is a famous Mahatma Gandhi quote that reads,“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

Been thinking about that quote in the context of the approach of my 15th anniversary as a trans activist this summer and my observation of just how true that quote has been in the time I've been in the trans rights movement.

Short of the Whyte Radfem Womyn Gone Wyld who have been fighting us since the 1970's and elements of the gay and lesbian community who continue to falsely claim we're not part of 'their community' , we've been ignored for the most part by the Religious Right and the conservative movement in general.    

But as transpeople began to revive their dormant human rights struggle in the mid 90's, become more assertive, and get some political success, we got their attention.

They tried mocking and making fun of us but the victories for trans rights kept piling up.  We now have over 180 jurisdictions and 15 states that have trans human rights protections on their legal books.  Increasingly nations such as Argentina are passing laws to recognize the human rights of their trans citizens..

Having out and proud trans people of all ethnic backgrounds and around the world has also been a major boon toward the sustained success we have had in the last 15 years in terms of getting our message out there and overcoming the shame, fear and guilt in our own ranks.  
     

Now that the tide is perceptively shifting to conservatives eventually losing their culture war against gays and lesbians, we trans people are getting the full attention of the Right Wing Culture War Machinery because they need a new enemy to fight and rally their sheeple around.

The Religious Right already got that project started by coming up with a new faith based attack line claiming that trans people are 'rebelling against God' by altering your body.

When all you Christians stop getting breast and butt implants, tummy tucks, Botox injections, nose jobs and other major plastic surgery that alters your bodies, then maybe I'll be inclined to listen.   But until then, read Matthew 19:12, listen to Pat Robertson's October 5, 1999 700 Club show , have a Coke and a smile (or whatever your fave carbonated beverage of choice is) and peddle that faith based transphobia somewhere else. 

The conservative movement picked up a tactic from the TERF's (trans exclusionary radical feminists) and the Jim Crow era by peddling the bathroom meme in their attempt to stop trans human rights laws from passing.  

The conservafool oppressors know they have no justified legal argument they can make to oppose trans human rights laws.   They also don't have a credible faith-based one they can deploy either, so the only tactic they have left is their tried and true fear and smear one.

They have deployed Fox Noise in their increasing attacks on trans people.   Now that the discredited reparative therapy people won't have gay and lesbian kids to pick on anymore and gouge their desperate heteronormative parents for money, guess whose kids will become their new targets now they are aware of the existence of trans youth.

It's just a matter of time before they start giving Jerry Leach and his Lexington, KY based Reality Resources a call and you see him on your FOX Noise television screens along with increased anti-trans Dr Keith Ablow sightings.  PFOX is deploying an 'ex-trans' spokesperson who surprise, surprise just happens to have my ethnic background.

But the bottom line is, we're winning.   We're winning because we have the moral high ground, have the increasing medical and scientific evidence to back us up, the statistics back our cause, we continue to gain public support for our just cause and we are on the correct side of the human rights argument.  

Our human rights win is inevitable no matter how much money, time, and propaganda the haters deploy to stop it.   We have a human rights win that is ours for the taking.   But that win will become a reality only if we transpeople here in the United States and around the world are tough minded enough to push back even harder against all our trans oppressors lies. 

We have to be tough minded enough to continue to do the education, be out and proud about being trans, work to pass trans human rights laws, talk to the persuadeable middle and get transpeople and and our allies who believe in our human rights cause elected to office and keep them there  

And that final victory will be so sweet when we accomplish it.

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.  But only if you are tough minded enough to fight for that win against your oppressors.

The State Of The Black Trans Union 2013

While I was watching the State of the Union address I couldn't help but ponder in the aftermath of that speech the overall status of the African-American trans community and where it is several weeks into 2013.

So what is the State of the Black Trans Union through the eyes of the TransGriot?   A mixed bag.

We've made some strides on many fronts.  Two members of the record trans contingent that attended the 2012 Democratic natrional convention in Charlotte were TPOCC executive director Kylar Broadus and the president emeritus of the Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition Dr. Marisa Richmond.

Kylar also became the first transperson of any ethnic background to give testimony to a US senate committee.  In Washington DC IFGE award winner Earline Budd was nominated for and became a DC Human Rights Commissioner.  We've have more role models become visible around the country such as Janet Mock,. Laverne Cox, Valerie Spencer, Dr Kortney Ryan Ziegler, Minister Carmarion Anderson, Isis King, Carter Brown, Danielle King. Diamond Stylz, Kokumo Kinetic and Cheryl Courtney Evans just to name a few.   

We have all these people (including myself) and other unheralded ones taking on leadership roles in our community.  Many are gaining local, national and sometimes international attention for it but as Ralph Ellison would say, yet we are still invisible to mainstream America. 

Ever since Christine Jorgensen 60 years ago this month stepped her stylishly dressed self on the tarmac at JFK airport the media light and the narrative has been predominately focused on white transwomen.   That still persists six decades later to the point that when CeCe McDonald, one of our own trans women was in trouble, the only person a talk show helmed by a Black woman sought out to talk about the case was a white one.

We are still disproportionately  along with our Latina sisters taking the brunt of the anti-trans murders, and 2013 is already off to a negative start with the killing of Milwaukee rapper Evon 'Yung LT' Young.   The New Year dawned with Sage Smith still missing and former DC Police officer Kenneth Furr receiving a get out of jail free card after being convicted on October 27 of wounding two trans women.   CeCe McDonald is in jail for standing her ground and defending herself while the people who killed Paige Clay and Brandy Martell are still free.

We are still grappling with an unemployment rate almost double the one cis African-Americans face at 27% and haven't had an African-American transperson elected to public office since 1992.  Outside of TPOCC, there are no African-American transpersons that I am aware of who are working in any major LGBT human rights organization.  

In our state and civic locales the LGBT orgs that purport to represent the entire community resemble Republican party convention halls and frustration is growing about that state of affairs.

We are still frustrated by a media blackout (pun intended) that hampers us from getting the attention we deserve to help shed a spotlight on the solvable problems in the African-American trans community that are also Black America's problems.

We are also beyond sick and tired of being sick and tired of the dynamic in the African-American community that gives far more unconditional love, respect and authenticity to the fictional Madea character Tyler Perry plays and RuPaul dressed in drag than the proud African-American trans women in their midst fighting for their human rights, dignity and humanity.  
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To borrow Maya Angelou's words, and still we rise.

The Trans Persons of Color Coalition contines to grow and solidify its standing as the go to organization for non-white transpeople.   The Black Transmen Inc, Conference I have the honor along with Kylar of doing a keynote speech for next month in Dallas is in its second year at a bigger hotel.  The TransFaith in Color conference in Charlotte continues to grow in size and positive reputation.

The National Black Justice Coalition also continues to make it clear to the Black transgender community that the 'T' is capitalized in LGBT when they speak of and include us in their advocacy and their programming..    

Speaking of our Black transmen, it has been a blessing and sincere joy to see them stepping up to share the leadership role in our community, do the organizing work that needs to be done and get their much deserved time in the media spotlight as they do so.

The upcoming March 31 unveiling of the first annual Trans 100 list will be the first step in giving recognition to those amazing leaders out there.   They run the gamut from our emerging youth to elder statespersons that give me hope that the future of our Black trans union will continue to improve in 2013 and beyond.

I also hope to see us in 2013 as we continue our effort to build a better, more cohesive African-American trans community, we also take some time to reach out to our trans brothers and sisters across the African Diaspora..  Their voices have been just as muted as ours have been here in the States and they are also struggling for the protection of their human rights and respect of their humanity in their various nations.

If they ask for our help, we must respond by respectfully asking our Diaspora cousins what's the best way for us in the West to do so and then follow through.  

So what's the state of the Black Trans Union?   A mixed bag that's not even close to where we need it to be, but is improving enough to give me hope that when i write this post in 2014 it will be better. 

I Believe There's An LGBT Community, But...

One of the ongoing arguments I hear and I reject whether it comes from the LGB end of the spectrum or the trans end of it is that 'there is no LGBT community'. Granted I've railed more than a few times on this blog about some of the contentious history that has occurred between elements of it, but the evidence is overwhelming that an LGBT community exists.

While I believe there is an LGBT community, at the same time I as a person of color have seen, heard and experienced enough negativity to give me pause.enough to seek to emulate what my people have done in interacting with a predominately vanillacentric privileged parent society.

The BTLG community as a microcosm of the society at large has the same drama, race, class and inequality issues that permeate the parent society and just because we fly rainbow or pink, white and blue striped flags it didn't change that dynamic one bit.

Black trans and same gender loving (SGL) peeps still get called the n-word just as quickly by people inside this community as they do by knuckle-dragging idiots outside of it.  So to combat that, for our own sanity and well-being we POC members of this contentious group we interact with have to do our parts to ensure we have vibrant trans and same gender loving communities of our own across the nation..

It's why during this Black History Month I'm making sure that trans history makers get highlighted on my  blog and my Facebook page.  It's why the National Black Justice Coalition got founded ten years ago and the Trans Persons of Color Coalition got founded in 2010.  I don't doubt because of that same dynamic you will soon (if it hasn't happened already) trans and SGL organizations that cater to the issues unique to the Latin@ community. 

We aren't doing it just to separate from predominately white TBLG groups as we've been accused of doing, but to strengthen our own voices.   We're owning our power and pointing out to the members of the ethnic groups we belong to that yes, we exist and being a person of color and trans, gay, bi or lesbian is not an oxymoron.   We're addressing in our ranks the shame, guilt and fear issues by building pride in being same gender loving and trans people of color.  That's needed so that we can be better, more powerful allies in our common human rights struggle.
We're also calling attention to the fact that we're feeling marginalized, invisible and ignored in the greater GLBT community and that policy issues need addressing besides 'all marriage all the time'.
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This LGBT community is a diverse group we are a part of, and we all agree that our human rights as BTLG citizens of our nation must be respected and protected under the laws of our land and the 'We the People' in the United States Constitution also applies to trans and same gender loving citizens of this nation 

I believe there is an LGBT community.  But because we are a diverse bunch, much work has to be constantly done to ensure we are all on the same human rights page and keep moving forward to accomplish our human rights goals.

Why I Love NBJC

The National Black Justice Coalition's anniversary doesn't officially happen until December 2003, but there's nothing stopping me from showing my love and appreciation for this organization now and throughout out this tenth anniversary year. 

And what better day to publish this post than on the first day of Black History Month 2013?  

I remember when I first heard about the formation of the National Black Justice Coalition after it had occurred. I was happy that we African-American LGBT peeps finally had an organization of our own to deal with issues from our Afrocentric perspective even though it was more focused at the time on tackling the negative marriage equality paradigm in the Black community and flipping that script. 

I noted that Keith Boykin was involved and was happy to see Kylar Broadus as the initial board chair along with one of my activist mentors in Mandy Carter.   I had the pleasure of meeting the organization's founding ED H Alexander Robinson at an event in Louisville, and now have the pleasure of interacting with from time to time current NBJC ED and CEO Sharon Lettman-Hicks.   

I've gotten to know other NBJC founders and board members past and present as the organization continued to grow during the 2k's to become a powerful, increasingly respected and listened to inside I-495 player in the human rights arena.

It has been a joy for me to watch over this second decade of the 21st century NBJC continue to coalesce, grow and evolve to become the go to organization on Black LGBT issues and help us as Sharon likes to say 'Own Our Power'

The thing that has made me most proud of the National Black Justice Coalition is they didn't consider the 'T' in LGBT as an afterthought like other professional GLBT lobbying orgs have sadly done.  

Over those ten years they have lifted us Black transpeople up as they climbed and shown us dignity and respect while doing so.

It is a respect level we rarely get (and still don't) get from our own peers much less white run gay and lesbian organizations




NBJC has made certain we trans people not only have input, but are highlighted in and have substantiative roles in their various initiatives and programming from OUT on the Hill to their recent appearance at Creating Change 2013 to the just launched Many Faces, One Voice economic empowerment tour.

Transpeople are considered a valued part of the Black LGBT family and NBJC's constituent base.  What's not to love about that?  

As a matter of fact it's time for us who are fiscally able to do so to drop them some t-bills as a thank you.   The work they do isn't cheap, and every contribution they get is efficiently used to fund their continuing work on our community's behalf. 

Happy tenth anniversary NBJC as you continue your unapologetically Black, bold, and innovative leadership of our SGL and trans community