Don't You Dare Tell Me I Don't Have The Right To Speak For This Community

Just as you GL folks can, will and do speak out about any anti-gay legislation regardless of whether you live in that area or not, trans Americans have the same rights to do the same thing.

I dare anyone cis, trans or gay to tell me I don't.
Bilerico Project comment thread, April 12, 2011

Seems like the folks who were on the losing side of the HB 235 battle are still in hatin' mode.  Perused this comment from one of the peeps on Dana Beyer's FB page that mentions yours truly:

Did I miss something? When did Ashley Love (and Monica Roberts) start speaking for the Trans people of Maryland and for the trans community as a whole? 

Yeah, you did.   I've been speaking for this community since 1998 in my case.   I also have an IFGE Trinity Award (Trinity Class of 2006) that backs up my ability and my right to speak for the trans community as a whole.  

Maryland surrounds our nation's capital.   I and others saw the danger inherent in the passage of that fracked up bill.   It would have sent a bad message to Capitol Hill and elsewhere that could have been applied to future trans rights legislation, and without the P/A language,  the bill had it become law would have hampered our ability to legally fight anti-trans discrimination.     It was bad legislation, so it needed to die.

Settling for bad legislation just so you have it is never an option for a marginalized group.  

You vanilla trans peeps in Maryland also started appropriating my people's stories such as Tyra Trent's murder in Baltimore while shutting the Maryland African-American trans community out of the debate or a seat at the table in formulating this bill and I wasn't having that.

There was not going to be a repeat of 2001 on my watch.

If the process had been open and not as secretive, and EQ MD hadn't been pushing a disinformation campaign to pass this bill in the wake of their marriage loss,  I wouldn't have felt the need to jump into this mess, nor would have I been invited to do so by Trans Maryland and Trans United.

But back to the point I want to make.   Don't you dare tell me I don't have the right as one of four African-American IFGE Trinity winners and a longtime activist for this community that I don't have the right to speak for this community, especially when my African-American transpeeps in Maryland were being erased and shut out of the HB 235 discussion      

My community stretches across the entire United States and the African diaspora, and when I see a jacked up situation occurring, I am not going to be silent about it.

We Need To Handle Our Chocolate Trans Business

I'm not only angry and disgusted about what has transpired in Maryland over the last two months concerning HB 235, so are many of my fellow African descended transpeople..

I'm disgusted over the duplicitous and shady way that this bill was handled by predominately white dominated 'equality' groups.   They were aided and abetted by white sellout transpeople thinking only about their comfort, status and bank accounts.

Once again, they not only froze African American transpeeps out of the process of developing this law in a state with a 30 percent African American population, they used the deaths and stories of African American transpeople and appropriated our proud civil rights history to attempt to pass this unjust law.

And when we call their asses out on their all too familiar pattern of behavior, the white trans apologists have the nerve to attack us for pointing out how jacked up this situation is. .

You know, I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired of seeing this crap happen again, and I am close to recommending that since the white trans community and their Gay, Inc overseers repeatedly won't do the right thing and pass comprehensive civil rights laws that help the entire community,  maybe it's time for us in light of what has happened in Maryland, for the African-American trans community to totally separate ourselves from the white dominated trans community and handle our own political business.

Why stay in a community in which we're not wanted or respected?   I'm chuckling about the recently released survey that highlights the lack of trans people in GLB orgs.  I'm willing to bet that what transpeople they do have working in them don't have melanin in their skin.

Bottom line is that we're beyond tired of the invisibility and it's time for the chocolate trans community to do what our Black sisters did in the late 80's and early 90's when they separated themselves from a similar jacked up situation in the feminist ranks.

As to what that independent Black trans community will look like?.   That's part of the Black trans revolution that will not be televised or talked about on this blog, Twitter or Facebook    But white trans community, know that you've had ample time and multiple warnings to clean up your behavior and the clock's ticking..

How long are we going to allow ourselves to keep getting disrespected?   How long are we going to see our transpeople bear the brunt of the discrimination and trans murder casualties as you continue to sell us out to gain the white privilege you lost when you transitioned and continue to pine away for?

It's nation time Black trans people.   Time to build that FUBU community.    If we have some righteous white trans brothers and sisters wishing to help, we'll gladly take you,, but know going in it will be a situation  in which we are going to call the march.

It is also going to happen after we finish closing ranks and have that in house conversation about how we want that Black trans community to look, collectively act, and the policies we will pursue to advance all transpeople's civil rights.

It's past time for the children, grandchildren and great grandchildren of our civil rights warriors to show you how a civil rights movement is run properly.

We've been doing it bassackwards for the last 50 plus years and it ain't working out for us.   Time to try something different.