Naw Don Lemon, I'd Rather Not Be Harassed By The Po-Po's Period

Don Lemon must either love getting called out by Black Twitter for the problematic crap he says, is  angling for a contract on Fox Noise when his current CNN one is up, or is spending too much time after work hanging around with SE Cupp and Erin Burnett.  

In his TJMS radio commentary about today's New York City mayoral election that was also posted on Blackamericaweb.com he parted his lips to say that the choice facing New York City voters concerning the hated stop-and-frisk policy is would you rather be politically correct or safe and alive?

Naw Don, the answer to that question is I'd rather not be harassed by the po-po's period. 

Lemon asserted in his TJMS commentary that there are many among the minority community who believe “in theory” that “we’d rather be inconvenienced by being stopped by police than shot by gun-wielding criminals on the street.” However, Lemon said, it’s become too easy for police to become “so drunk with power that they abuse it.”

If NYPD was searching white people in their neighborhoods the same way they do non-white people, that's the only way I and other African-Americans wouldn't have a problem with Stop and Frisk.   But we know what the reality is.  These stop and frisk searches you're so gung ho about aren't happening in New York's predominately white neighborhoods. . 

But you had a different reaction to stop and frisk in 2001 when it happened to you. You also admitted in the TJMS commentary the other downside to the policy in terms of the all too tempting ability of police officers to abuse it.       

It's obvious to every African-American in New York City and this country except you that stop-and-frisk needs to die.  It was obvious to Federal District Judge Shira Scheindlin who declared it unconstitutional. 

Don, it's not being 'politically correct' to be upset at being unconstitutionally harassed by the police in your own neighborhoods because of a policing strategy that does nothing to lower the city's crime rate, but everything to raise your level of animus and hatred toward the police.   

Two More Trans Sisters Senselessly Killed

Damn, we've lost two more girls like us to anti-trans violence.   Once again both transwomen who were killed were under age 35.

We'll start this sad news off with what transpired in New York last weekend.   

21 year old aspiring fashion designer  Islan Nettles was out with a group of trans girlfriends when they ran across a group of men around 11 PM EDT Saturday at the corner of West 148th Street and Eighth Ave. 

When the men realized they were girls like us, they began spouting transphobic slurs and savagely throwing punches   Nettles was taken to Harlem Hospital where she remained on life support for several days until she was taken off of it August 22 and subsequently died of her injuries.

The anti-trans hate attack took place across the street from the NYPD Police Service Area 6 station and resulted in the initial arrest of 20 year old Paris Wilson.    The investigation by police detectives was thrown course by a false confession of one of Wilson's friends and the belief that Nettles' injuries weren't fatally serious.

Nettle's mother and Harlem based TBLG groups are not happy with the ridiculaously low bail set in this case. The Manhattan D.A. requested $7,500 bail during the first court appearance but Judge Melissa Crane set bail at $4,000 bond or $2,000 cash after Wilson's attorney argued that he was no flight risk.

"It's troubling that such a terrible attack would happen and there was no awareness and the person got let back out on the street with a small bail," said Carl Siciliano, executive director of the Ali Forney Center said according to a DNAInfo story.         

Meanwhile on the Left Coast it was 32 year old aspiring actress Domonique Newburn, who was found dead in her Fontana, CA apartment at 4:30 PM PDT on August 20   Newburn appeared in the YouTube web series Hollywood House Boys, a show about gay and transgender friends

Witnesses told police they saw a bare chested man leaving the apartment in what appears to be Newburn's vehicle, a black four door 2004 Mercedes  C240 with the California license plate 7AAY925 

Suspect in this case was described as Black, in his late 20s to early 30s, 5 feet 8 inches tall, with an average build.

Fontana police at this time aren't investigating the murder as a hate crime and are looking for the suspect in this case.

NYPD Stop And Frisk Policy Ruled Unconstitutional By Federal Judge

US District Court Judge Shira A. Scheindlin ruled yesterday in Floyd v. City of New York that NYPD’s controversial stop and frisk tactics were an unconstitutional violation of the rights of people of color in New York City.  

Judge Scheindlin went on to find that top New York police officials have ignored the practice and treated racial profiling as “a myth created by the media,” ordered the NYPD discontinue it, and called for a federal monitor to supervise related reforms.

Duh!  We could have told you without a law degree that Stop and Frisk was unconstitutional.   Trans and gender variant New Yorkers can tell you along with other non-white New Yorkers racial profiling is most definitely isn't a myth especially since it happens to them far too often. 

85 percent of those stopped and frisked are Black or Latino. Among all people stopped and frisked, only 1 out of 10 of the stops results in an arrest or summons.

While Mayor Michael Bloomberg and NYPD Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly predictably hated on the ruling, New York's non-white population, the TBLG community (that is disproportionately targeted by and resent the tactics) and human rights advocacy groups hailed it.

Judge Scheindlin's (appointed by President Clinton in 1994) ruling in the Floyd case comes on the heels of the New York City Council passing and Mayor Michael Bloomberg vetoing the Community Safety Act, bills that would prohibit profiling based on race, sexual orientation, gender identity and other identities, and would have establish an Inspector General to oversee the NYPD’s practices.

As I've said more than a few times on this blog, Black trans community issues are also Black community issues and vice versa.  

The odious NYPD Stop And Frisk policy is one of those issues in which the interests of the Black community as a whole and Black and Latin@ trans people are symbiotically aligned in wanting a deleterious policy ended as quickly as possible because it also affects our trans sector of it.

Under Stop and Frisk, Latina and Black trans women were selected by NYPD for search under the  suspicion they were sex workers and harassed in many cases.  If officers found more than one condom during the search, they were arrested for solicitation.

The city of New York says it will appeal the ruling, but they would be wise to just cut their losses and come up with a common sense based policing strategy that doesn't involve jacking up and searching non-white New Yorkers just to make white New Yorkers feel safe.

Dwight DeLee Conviction Overturned In Green Trans Hate Murder

Dwight DeLee, who was found guilty of a hate crime in the November 14, 2008 killing of Syracuse, NY trans woman Lateisha Green and sentenced to 25 years in prison, had his conviction set aside by the 4th Appellate Division of New York's Supreme Court based in Rochester.

The court ruled the conviction on Manslaughter in the First Degree as a hate crime should not stand because the jury found Dwight DeLee not guilty of Manslaughter in the First Degree without the added element of a hate crime.


The issue was raised by DeLee's defense counsel after the jury returned the July 2009 guilty verdict, but the lower court judge dismissed the jury instead of returning them to the jury room to resolve the discrepancy.

The appellate court did allow a weapons conviction to stand which means DeLee will remain in prison while the issues surrounding the manslaughter charge are resolved.

Onondaga County DA Bill Fitzpatrick indicated in a prepared statement they would appeal the ruling in the New York State Court Of Appeals.

"We are obviously extremely disappointed in the Fourth Department's decision and we plan to seek permission to appeal as soon as possible. There was nothing in the proof at trial, nor the conduct of the police or attorneys that was at issue. The Appellate Division ruled that, unfortunately, the problem in this case was a judicial error involving the trial judge's instructions to the jury and the jury's verdict based upon those instructions. We intend to ask the Court of Appeals to review this case and follow the well-written and well-reasoned dissent of Justice Erin M. Peradotto."

So stay tuned, will be keeping you TransGriot readers updated as to the latest happenings in the Green case that we thought was handled four years ago. 

And it's also a major reason why GENDA needs to be passed as soon as possible so that trans people are covered under New York hate crimes statutes on gender identity grounds.     

Clock's Ticking On GENDA

While there is good trans rights news about Delaware passing SB 97 out of committee and being solidly on the road to becoming the 17th state to pass trans human rights coverage and internationally out of Canada, that's sadly not the case in New York.

The GOP controlled Senate there is stalling GENDA's passage and trying to run out the clock to ensure they reach the June 20 summer adjournment date without bringing it to the Senate floor for a vote.

GENDA has passed the New York State assembly six consecutive times only to be stalled by the GOP controlled senate.

Albany County just made the New York Senate look even more like the trans oppressors they seem hell bent on being by unanimously passing Local Law D, which bans discrimination based on gender identity and expression.

So keep up the pressure on the Senate, New York trans community and keep channeling your inner Sylvia Rivera.  The bill has the support of your fellow New Yorkers.  You have the moral high ground and the stats and the testimony to prove this bill is needed.   The New York Times just posted a June 12 editorial calling for the passage of GENDA

But where is Gov. Andrew Cuomo who was so vocal on marriage equality?  Why so cricket chirping silent on this human rights issue? .Start calling out Gov. Cuomo on his hypocritical silence on GENDA and point out trans people do vote in presidential primaries especially since he's  rumored to be thinking about running for POTUS..          

GENDA Stalled In NY Senate Again-What's Up With That?

And as residents of the state where Sylvia Rivera spent her life up to and including her deathbed working for trans rights, it's past time for y'all to start channeling her fighting spirit and kick azz tough minded determination to pass the civil rights coverage that our community needs."--TransGriot June 27, 2011 What Are Y'all Gonna Do New York Trans Community?

New York trans community, I know you won't rest (and shouldn't) until GENDA becomes law but y'all should be taking it as an insult that a statewide trans rights bill introduced on May 31 in Delaware is halfway to passage and becoming law in that state. 

Meanwhile you peeps that reside in the state where the Stonewall Rebellion was kicked off by Ms Rivera in 1969 are once again facing the fact it has been eleven years since human rights coverage for gay New Yorkers was passed by throwing you under the civil rights bus to get it and thirteen years since the non trans inclusive New York hate crimes law passed in 2000.

The what would have been 62nd birthday of Sylvia Rivera is approaching on July 2.  What would Sylvia be doing in this situation if she was still here in this plane of existence?   Raising hell about it until GENDA passed and had Gov. Cuomo's signature on it. 

How about setting a goal of having that done by her birthday?

New York trans community, y'all need to get pissed off and channel your inner Sylvia Rivera.  You not only need to start demanding ASAP the New York Senate bring GENDA out of committee and to the Senate floor for a vote,  but respectfully demand that the governor you helped elect spend some of his political capital pushing for GENDA's passage so he can sign it into law as he claims he would do if that happens.

Here's the phone number of his Albany office to get you started on the road to being agents of your own trans liberation: 518-474-8390 and making Sylvia smile.

That's a nice opportunity for me to segue into focusing on Gov. Andrew Cuomo.   Here's a Democratic governor who loudly proclaimed as he was signing the marriage equality bill into law after it passed in June 2011 that "New York at its finest has always been a beacon of social justice.”

It seems he has amnesia about the fact that same New York social justice has eluded its transgender  residents.  I also must remind folks of those shame inducing moments in 2000 and 2002 when my transpeople were deliberately excluded from New York's social justice when they were cut out of the hate crimes bill and SONDA. 

It also is quite interesting to note that Gov. Cuomo, who couldn't shut up about marriage equality in 2011 and was tirelessly drumming up support to pass it, is cricket chirping silent about equality when it applies to trans New Yorkers.   

And don't forget Governor Cuomo, it's not just trans New Yorkers who are watching you as a GENDA bill that has passed your state Assembly now six times continues to languish in the New York Senate.  We compare and contrast your inaction on this bill of vital importance to the trans community and our allies to the active and vocal 2011 role you took in passing marriage equality. 

Your inaction and silence on GENDA is being noticed not only by trans New Yorkers, but our allies inside and outside the state.  This Change.org petition is evidence of that.

I also need to remind you we transpeople do vote and are active members of the Democratic Party.  If you follow through on the rumors to run for the Democratic nomination for president in 2016 or 2020, you dismiss at your political peril the ability of the trans community to affect a Democratic nomination process. 

If you think I'm kidding about that, did you get an invite to President Hillary Clinton's inauguration in 2008 or 2012?   We may not have as much money as the gay community does and the anti-trans discrimination we face plays a large role in that GENDA would address, but we did manage to donate over $13K to the 2008 Obama campaign.   What we don't have in cash we make up for with votes and people power for campaigns.

16 states, with Delaware on its way to becoming the 17th to do so have laws on the books to protect the human rights of their trans citizens. 

New York has the chance to join that list and no, signing a continuation of Governor David Paterson’s executive order barring discrimination against transgender employees of NY state is not enough.

The transpeople who don't work for the state need the legal protection that GENDA will provide, and the only thing stopping you from becoming known as a state that values its trans citizens is the New York Senate

You also said at the time you signed the marriage equality bill, "The other states look to New York for the. progressive direction. What we said today is, you look to New York once again. New York made a powerful statement, not just for the people of New York, but for people all across this nation.”

And we need you Gov. Cuomo to make that powerful statement once again not only for trans New Yorkers, but the nation as well.
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Lorena Escalera-One Year Later

Today marks the one year anniversary of the day that 25 year old Lorena Escalera was found dead in her Brooklyn apartment following a suspicious fire.   The model and member of the House of Xtravaganza was found during the subsequent investigation to have died by strangulation and suffocation suffered BEFORE the fire started at approximately 4 AM.  

However, the New York Times and the rest of the New York media decided to engage in an all too familiar pattern in media coverage of the deaths of POC trans women and sensationalize it. 

As Janet Mock stated about the coverage of Lorena at the time:

“As my city's and our nation's paper of record, I would expect the New York Times to treat any subject, regardless of their path in life, with dignity.”

"In Lorena Escalera's life she was so much more than the demeaning, sexist portrait they painted of girls like us. It goes beyond a ‘choice of words.’ According to the Times' limiting, harmful portrait of Lorena, she was nothing more than a ‘curvaceous’ bombshell for men to gawk at. That is not the ‘personal’ story of any woman, and until we treat trans women like human beings - in life and death - with dignity, families and struggles, our society will never see us beyond pariahs in our communities."
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It's now a year later and her killer or killers still haven't been brought to justice and the murder remains unsolved.   Lorena's friends and family want NYPD to move forward on the investigation.  

They want justice for Lorena.   So do we as her trans brothers and trans sisters.  And as the Good Doctor says, justice delayed is justice denied.   It's past time for the process to begin so that the wastes of DNA who killed her can be punished for it and justice can finally happen for Lorena and all the people who loved her.

Thank You, NY Assemblyman Daniel O'Donnell!

I mentioned GENDA passed the NY state General Assembly for the sixth straight time, and now the fun part begins of getting it through the Republican controlled NY state Senate.

While it was pending in the assembly the GENDA opponents had nothing to throw at it but the 'bathroom meme', and here's Assemblyman  Daniel O'Donnell properly eviscerating it.

Thank you Assemblyman O'Donnell for standing up for the human rights of trans New Yorkers.

GENDA Passes NY Assembly For Sixth Straight Time

Back on April 19 I asked the question if GENDA would finally pass in New York State this year.  

Well, it's off t a great start.  For the sixth straight time GENDA, the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act passed the NY state Assembly on a 84-46 vote Tuesday. 

GENDA (A.4226)(S.0195) ensures that all New Yorkers, including those who identify as transgender or present their gender in a way that differs from what is traditionally associated with their birth sex, are protected from discrimination in housing, employment, credit, public accommodations, and other areas of everyday life under the Human Rights Law. The measure also expands the state's hate crime protections to explicitly include crimes against transgender people.

And yes, as you probably guessed opponents of the bill threw the bathroom meme into the debate in their attempts to block it but failed.

Assemblymember Deborah J. Glick said about its passage, "GENDA appropriately extends long overdue civil rights protections to the transgender community. I am confident that fairness and justice will result in passage, and I call on the NYS Senate to embrace the 21st Century and approve this crucial bill.
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Tuesday also saw 700 people descend upon Albany to lobby for passage of GENDA and work on the senators in the Republican controlled New York Senate.  The bill has gone from being passed in the Assembly to dying in the Senate for the last five sessions without ever getting a floor vote.

Empire State Pride Agenda Executive Director Nathan Schaefer is hopeful this time will be different  and congratulated the Assembly for standing up for the rights of trans New Yorkers.

"LGBT New Yorkers have made significant strides towards equality with legislative victories on hate crimes, bullying, and most recently, marriage equality. And yet, we have work to do. In many places across New York, people can be fired from their jobs, evicted from their homes, and experience discrimination just because of their gender identity or expression. The time to extend basic civil rights to transgender New Yorkers is long overdue. We commend the Assembly for recognizing this need and passing GENDA for the 6th time.

Senate Sponsor Daniel Squadron will lead the charge to pass GENDA through the Investigations and Government Operations Committee and the full Senate.  If that happens, it will then go to Gov. Andrew Cuomo's desk for his signature.

Transgender New Yorkers have been waiting far too long to have their home state cover them in anti-discrimination and hate crime laws, and it's past time it happened .

Will GENDA Finally Pass In New York This Year?

Or will it be the same old same old frustrating pattern of the bill overwhelmingly passing in the Democratic controlled New York State Assembly and dying in the GOP controlled New York State Senate?

So what's GENDA?  The Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (A.4226/Gottfried)(S.195/Squadron) is a bill that would outlaw discrimination in New York State based on gender identity or expression. Currently it is legal in most parts of New York to be fired from your job, kicked out of your home, denied credit or public accommodations (like service in a restaurant) simply for being transgender.

GENDA is not a controversial bill in New York state.   It has broad based support.   A Global Strategy Group poll of 600 New York voters found 78 percent supported its passage (margin of error +/- 4 percent). Support was strong across the state - upstate was 74 percent, New York City was 79 percent, downstate suburbs were at 82 percent - and even Republicans and independents supported the bill at 67 percent and 78 percent, respectively.

GENDA would also expands the state’s hate crimes law to explicitly include crimes against transgender people.   When Dwight DeLee, the convicted killer of Lateisha Green was charged with a hate crime in 2009, it wasn't based on the fact Green was a girl like us, it was because DeLee perceived her as gay. 

That needs to change.   What also needs to change is the jacked up situation that gays and lesbians have had civil rights protection in New York state for over a decade because they threw transpeople under the bus in 2002 to get it.

GENDA has passed the New York state assembly five straight times only to die in the state senate.  It also hasn't gotten the support, attention and same level of effort the marriage push got before it passed in 2011.

The Empire State Pride Agenda says that passing GENDA is their top legislative priority.  While I've met people in the organizations who are sincere about that statement, I'd like to see the deeds back up the words.   
 
I'll also be less skeptical about it when I see former president Bill Clinton, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg,  Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) and the same long list of politicians, organizations and people in the gay and straight communities putting together the same type of political full court press on the NY Senate to pass this bill like they did for marriage. 

Speaking of MIA people, where's Lady Gaga?  Aren't her trans little monsters human rights important too? 

And note to HRC.  If you're looking for ways to show that you're serious about making amends to the trans community over Trans Flag Gate, put your money where your mouth is.  Spend the big Equal Sign bucks and throw your political weight around to pass this bill.  

And no, claiming that you're working 'behind the scenes' to help it pass isn't going to cut it.  We need visible, easily verifiable proof you are acting in the best interests if trans New Yorkers and getting GENDA passed.  


I would love to write a post this year with the headline 'GENDA Passes!' instead of the one I've had to write for the last five years.  But for me to be able to do that, you trans New Yorkers will have to act as agents in your own liberation.  

You may wish to start that process by making plans to head to Albany on April 30 for Equality and Justice Day. 

You'll get your opportunity on that day to head to that beautiful; state capitol building of yours that your taxes pay to maintain to advocate for GENDA's passage.   If you can't, you can always call, visit or e-mail your New York state assemblyperson or senator and tell your story.

The trans human rights train has already left the station and made stops in 16 states, the District of Columbia and over 180 local jurisdictions.  Time to add New York State to that list.   

Deja Vu Trans EMS Death In New York?

In 1995 I was horrified to hear the story of 24 year old Washington DC trans woman Tyra Hunter, who died at the hands of a transphobic EMT and a doctor who let their transphobia override their obligation and duty to provide medical care in her hour of need.

Once again I'm stunned to hear about another case happening in which a New York EMS technician is alleged to have not done his duty and allowed a trans woman to die after going into diabetic shock.

This case happened back on June 15, 2012 in New York, but we're just now hearing about what happened to 30 year old Shaun Smith because her mother Jenette Cox has filed a lawsuit alleging that EMS responders let her child die because she was trans. .

Smith started her transition and hormone replacement therapy (HRT) in 2010.  She purchased estrogen, progesterone and spironolactone online and was taking them without consulting a physician.

It is alleged that after Smith complained of shortness of breath to her mother, Cox told Smith she would get her sneakers so they could go to the emergency room.  When Cox returned she found Smith unresponsive and called 911.  The ambulance arrived on the scene 10 minutes later, the EMS responders took Smith's pulse but said there was nothing they could do, according to Cox. 

Cox repeatedly asked why they were not trying to revive Smith. "They didn’t even open their equipment to try to work on him,” said Cox in the interview with the Sheepshead Bites blog. “They didn’t do nothing for my son.”

The EMS responders declared Smith dead at 4:42 AM EDT.  Court papers state Smith, who had no history of diabetes, died of diabetic ketoacidosis, which results from a shortage of insulin.

“This is somebody who needed urgent care and didn’t get it, and basically what stopped them were breasts on an originally male body,” said Ilya Novofastovsky, the attorney representing Cox in the malpractice and discrimination case against the NYPD and the FDNY, which operates the EMS.

Novofastovsky said discrimination against transgender people by emergency responders and medical workers is a nationwide problem that causes a delay or absence of care, and leads to additional suffering and even death for the patient.

Novofastovsky and Cox also named Harlem Hospital in their lawsuit, which Smith checked into on December 2011, complaining about a headache from having taken “too many diet pills,” according to the hospital report.  The medical report includes the hormones that Smith was taking at the time.

Novofastovsky alleges the hospital was also discriminatory in caring for Smith, having sent her to the mental health clinic rather than given medical care, where they might have discovered the onset of diabetes.

He points to the report from the visit, which diagnosis Smith with an “unspecified, drug induced mental disorder.”

I've written about medical transphobia and the stories of trans people who have had less than pleasant experiences not only accessing health care, but with first responders or medical personnel.  This isn't the first time less than respectful treatment of transpeople by first responders has happened in the Big Apple as this  ugly November 24,1998 incident involving transwoman Jolea Lamot bears witness to. 

It also points to the fact there is an ongoing need for Trans 101 education and training across all sectors for the medical community from medical and nursing schools to first responders and medical assistants in order to avoid another Tyra Hunter incident that could unnecessarily cost another transperson their life. 

NY Ballroom Community Calling For 2013 Latex Ball Boycott

Interesting things happening in the New York Ballroom Community and they center on the 2013 Latex Ball.

It's considered the largest ball competition for the ballroom community in the world.  The 22nd annual edition of it at the historic Roseland Ballroom in New York back in August 2012 drew over 2000 people from the New York area and around the world competing in 26 categories in dance, vogueing, fashion, appearance and attitude.

It was an event that counted among the people attending it fashion models from Wilhelmina Models, members of the Imperial Court of New York, and countless others. The event incorporated HIV testing and sexual health messaging provided by GMHC, other community-based organizations, and the New York City and NY State health departments.   Over 2,000 people from the NYC area, across the nation and around the world attended the ball which raised nearly $28,000.

But it is that $28,000 from last year's event that has the ballroom community ready to chop their participation in this mega event.  There have been calls from various quarters of the community to boycott the 2013 edition of the Latex Ball because of unanswered questions about where the money went. 



The Historic and Cultural House Ball Institute and its council that represents 20 houses and 12 ballroom hall of famers on it are reflective of the simmering anger in the ballroom community about this issue.   They argue (and they have a major point here) since there wouldn't be a Latex Ball without the cooperation and involvement of the community, there should have been some effort by GMHC to give a portion of the proceeds raised to the ballroom community so that it would directly benefit the ballroom kids. 

Gay Men's Health Crisis is claiming they used the money raised at the 2012 Latex Ball for expenses related to putting on the ball and other projects but won't say exactly what projects, programming and how much of the $28,000 raised at the ball was allocated to that GHMC programming. 

GMHC is resisting calls from Wolfgang Busch, the director of the How Do I Look documentary and a longtime supporter of the NY ballroom community and the Historic and Cultural House Ball Institute to produce the documentation backing up their version of the story. 

        




In the meantime the things that make you go hmm questions keep coming from people in the ballroom community.   Sean Coleman asks of GMHC,  Why charge an entrance fee? You are charging $50/$100 for VIP tickets. Where does that money go?  

And the interesting one from Sean:  Why are you as a health service agency allowed to and why would you serve alcoholic beverages at a function in which you are doing HIV/AIDS testing?

Of course, GMHC is doing what most organizations in the middle of a controversy do.  They are circling the wagons, deny, demonize the people criticizing you and engage in radio silence hoping to not draw the considerable attention of the New York media corps to it.  GMHC hopes they can outlast the controversy and make it go away.  But Busch and the ballroom community are just as determined to get the story out there and have countered with protests and YouTube videos designed to get people to ask the hard questions about it..   

But GMHC is in a no win position.  The only way the controversy will die is if GMHC not only starts talking, but opens their books and prove they spent the 2012 Latex Ball money on programming.

It's either you do so to Wolfgang Busch and the ballroom community or find yourself in addition to facing a boycott that would put a crimp in a highly anticipated ballroom community event, you'll be facing a federal indictment and having to prove to the feds where the money went.

Isis Fall 2013 Collection Presentation

Y'all know I'm so bursting at the seams proud of my fashion designing little sis.

Nice segue into what this post is about.   For you peeps in the New York metro area it's Fall Fashion Week 2013.

Isis' main job when she's not lecturing or taking part in discussions on trans issues is as a fashion designer.  Many of the clothes you see her wearing when she's on the runways or taking photos at community events are of her own design.  

With the international fashion world descending on New York for Fashion Week, Isis will be doing a premiere and presentation of her Fashion Collection.

She's entitled it 'The Goldest Winter Ever" and it will be taking place at the Wix Lounge from 6-7:30 PM EST.

Location of the presentation event is the Wix Lounge at  10 West 18th Street in New York, NY between 5th and 6th Streets.  It will be on the second floor level of the club.

Best of luck sis and hope it's one overwhelmingly successful event.

Dissing Lee Brewster

Want to know why I can't stand the radfems, or as they are sometimes referred to in some online circles the TERF's?  (Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists).   I call them the Whyte Womyn Gone Wyld.

They have spent four decades of their vanillacentric cisprivileged time hating on transpeople and opposing our human rights, and as Cristan Williams points out once again in her latest post at Ehipassiko, those of us in the 2k10's aren't the only ones to have felt the ugliness of their transphobia.   Our pioneers Sylvia Rivera and Lee Brewster did so as well.

Here's a taste of Cristan's post:

I’ve noted before how RadFems inspired the violence inflicted upon Stonewall hero Sylvia Rivera. Until now, I wasn’t aware that their cruelty was extended to the transperson who coordinated and paid for overturning anti-gay NY laws:

Lee Brewster staged a number of actions designed to bring a case against NY so that Brewster could have NY’s anti-gay laws overturned. Have you ever wondered where the Mattachine Society’s money came from? That was Lee Brewster. Ever wonder where the cash came from to have the early 1960s national queer meetings? That was Lee Brewster. The cash for challenging anti-gay laws came from Lee too.

Any hope that giving a moment to Jean O’Leary and Sylvia Rivera would end this squall disappeared the moment Lee Brewster took the stage. He, too, was in full drag, with thick eye makeup, a lush blond wig tumbling over his shoulders and a queen’s crown resting on the wig. “I cannot sit and let my people be insulted,” Brewster said. “They’ve accused me of reminding you too many times that today you’re celebrating what was the result of what the drag queens did at the Stonewall. You go to bars because of what drag queens did for you, and these bitches”—he gestured to the lesbians—”tell us to quit being ourselves.” Vito Russo walked over to Brewster, slipped his arm around Brewster’s waist and whispered into his ear, but Brewster pushed him off.

You can read the rest of Christan's interesting look at our history.

TransGriot Note:  The portrait of Lee Brewster was by artist Vicki West.  Brewster ran Lee's Mardi Gras Boutique from 1968 until passing away in 2000.  And yep, I visited it on one of my New York trips in 1998 

Marsha P. Johnson Case Being Reopened

Marsha P. Johnson was one of our trailblazing trans women as a Stonewall veteran, activist and a co-founder of Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) with Sylvia Rivera.   Her body was found floating in the Hudson River near the Chelsea Piers after the 1992 Pride March. 

The NYPD controversially ruled her death as a suicide over the objections of friends and supporters who emphatically stated she was not suicidal.

It was also anecdotally reported that Marsha was harassed near the spot where her body as later found.

Anyone in the trans community could have told them there is more to the story of any transperson's death, especially in light of the fact we face horrific levels of anti-trans violence aimed at us.  When you are dealing with the death of any transwoman found under mysterious circumstances as Marsha was then, those foul play angles need to be looked at until they can definitively be ruled out   

According to the Village Voice, thanks to the efforts of trans activist Mariah Lopez, the trans daughter of the late Sylvia Rivera,  the Manhattan DA's office has assigned a person to look into the case of Marsha P. Johnson and find out what really happened to her.  

Lopez believes as Sylvia Rivera did at the time that Marsha was murdered.  Lopez is also working to gather support for getting a permanent memorial statue of Marsha placed near the Chelsea Pier.

Granted it's 20 years later, the evidence and trail has grown cold, but it's worth it to definitively know what really happened to Marsha and the sequence of events that led to her untimely death.
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Ali Forney Center Destroyed By Sandy Flooding

One of the casualties of Hurricane Sandy's landfall in the New Jersey-New York region was the Ali Forney Center in New York's Chelsea neighborhood. 

The Ali Forney Center (AFC) started in June 2002 in response to fulfilling a need for a safe shelter for LGBTIQ kids in the New York Area.  It has grown to become the nation's largest organization of its kind serving homeless LGBT youth.  It provides food, shelter, education, HIV testing and treatment, mental health and substance abuse services.and other medical attention for them.

The center's location was in Chelsea half a block from the Hudson River.  The Hurricane Sandy storm surge driven flooding left four feet of water in the center and destroyed their phones, computers, refrigerator, food and supplies.  Complicating matters is the flooding left the space uninhabitable. 

The AFC takes care of 300 people a month and 1000 people a year.  While they were planning to move to a new 24 hour center in Harlem, that space won't be ready for the full services this vulnerable population needs for several months.

The Ali Forney Center team is asking for help.   They have temporarily relocated to the NYC LGBT center located at 208 W. 13th St  (between 7th and 8th Avenues)  with operation hours from 10 AM-5:30 PM EST.  Phone number is 646-358-1755

They are also asking for cash donations or checks only at this time.  

Ali Forney Center/ATTN: Andria Ottley
224 West 35th St, Suite 1500
New York, NY 10001

They have no place to store food, supplies,  clothing or utilize extra volunteers and when they have that capability or need that type of assistance, they will reach out to supporters of the AFC at that time.

Want Fries With That Transphobic Hate Crime?

Can we trans women have a day in which somebody is not fracking with either us or the people who give a damn about us?  

Guess that's too much to ask.

The latest incident of cis haters gone wild happened in New York's Greenwich Village gayborhood at a McDonald's at 136 W. Third Street on September 19 to a transwoman and her boyfriend.

That particular Mickey D's has been plagued by some recent disturbing incidents including a patron badly beaten up in March 2011 because someone didn't like his pink tennis shoelaces.

Jamar McLeod, 24, told the NY Daily News he and his girlfriend, 22 year old Jalisa “JoJo” Griffen had just picked up her hormone medicine Wednesday night and were headed back to their apartment in Bushwick when they headed into the fast food restaurant on W. Third St. around 7 PM EDT to grab something to eat and use the bathroom

While in line McLeod got into a conversation with Griffen about how people were being attacked just for being gay.  He was overheard by their 350 pound tormentor Keith Patron, who butted into their conversation and started hurling homophobic slurs at the couple punctuated with '"I can't stand gay people."

McLeod implored him to leave it alone, but the bully from the Bronx escalated the verbal abuse when Griffen headed to the ladies bathroom.  Patron said she needed to 'use the men's room', kept up the homophobic and transphobic slurs and threatened to beat her up.  McLeod told him that wasn't happening, and he wasn't touching his girlfriend without going through him first.  

They ended up outside the restaurant and after ducking a swing from the McHater McLeod proceeded to give the transphobic bully a proper beatdown complete with a knee to the groin and a punch to the face. 

That's when the 44 year old Patron pulled out a razor and slashed McLeod on the elbow, neck and face.  He was treated at Bellevue Hospital and released but unfortunately the scars from the unprovoked attack will be permanent ones.  

Patron was arrested and charged with assault as a hate crime.  He's being held in jail in lieu of a $50,000 bond and hopefully justice will prevail in this case.

But once again, it's a situation occurring in which we're minding our own business and trying to get through our day without drama, and some phobic idiot thinks he has carte blanche to say and do anything they wish to us.

And that shyt needs to stop.   It will only stop when people are properly prosecuted and sent to jail for doing so.

2012 Transgender Political Candidates

We've had not only a historic level of trans participation at the Democratic National Convention this year, but over the last few election cycles have had trans candidate stepping up to run for public office.

The 2012 election cycle is no exception as we had transman Mel Wymore step up to run for the New York City city council District 6 seat.

Metropolitan Business Association president Gina Duncan attempted to run for District 5 county commissioner in Orange County, Florida which is in the Orlando area.

Gina Duncan was unfortunately defeated August 14 in her bid for the District 5 seat after a spirited campaign.  Incumbent Ted Edwards received 59 percent of the votes, and Duncan 40 percent despite having endorsements from the Central Florida AFL-CIO an the Orange County Democratic Party to get a third term in District 5

She declared her candidacy back in January, and I was hoping she'd pull off that historic win, but it was not to be. 

The other trans candidate in this cycle is Mel Wymore, who is running for the District 6 council seat which covers the Upper West Side.  Its current councilmember is term-limited and Wymore is running against three other candidates for it.

As to why he's running for the seat, this is from his website:

As a parent of two children on the Upper West Side, my first priority is creating a safe and caring community that values every person and brings us together as human beings.  In my professional career as a systems engineer, entrepreneur, and community activist, I am a collaborative leader who focuses on the big picture, then works tirelessly on the details that really make a difference.

If Wymore wins, he would not only become the first trans councilmember in New York City, he would also become the first in the United States to be elected to a city council in a city with a population over 250,000 people

Good luck Mel and hope you make history.    If I discover there are other trans candidates running for office in this 2012 election cycle, I'll definitely write it up on these electronic pages.

A transperson getting elected to a large city council anywhere in this nation is a huge deal if transpeople are going to take the next electoral step and get someone elected to Congress.  Congressional candidates tend to be current of former large city council members, county commissioners or judges and we don't have we only have one person in Alameda County Superior Court Judge Vicky Kolakowski in California who is an elected sitting judge and two time Hawaii state board of education member Kim Coco Iwamoto.  Unfortunately in the same 2010 election cycle in which Iwamoto was reelected to the Hawaii State Board of Education voters also passed a constitutional amendment that reverts the BOE to a nine member appointed board, and Gov. Neil Abercrombie (D) declined to appoint her to it.

For the trans human rights movement to evolve to the next level, we're going to need to get our transpeeps elected to city councils, school boards, county commissioners board, state legislatures, and Congress with the power to write law and enact policy, not just lobby the people with that power.
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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.. 

2012 Williams Watch-US Open Recap

The last time I composed one of these Williams sisters watch posts my fave tennis playing siblings were collecting their London Games gold medals after repeating as the Olympics tennis doubles champions and Serena had taken the gold in singles in dominating fashion at 'Williams'-don.

Now we're at Flushing Meadows and ironically I left New York the day the 2012 US  Open was starting, which bummed the tennis fan in me out for a moment until that deluge hit..

So to catch you peeps up on what's happening, Serena was seeded fourth while Venus was unseeded.  And bad news to all the women's doubles competitors, they are entered in this doubles tournament and unseeded.

Big Sis opened up her US Open's singles tourney play with a straight set 6-3, 6-1 win over fellow American Bethanie Mattek-Sands but was knocked out in the second round in a three set 2-6,7-5, 5-7 battle with Germany's Angelique Kerber.

Meanwhile 4th seeded Little Sis was handling her US Open business by blitzing American Coco Wandeweghe 6-1,6-1 in her opening match, Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez of Spain 6-2, 6-4 in the second round, and Ekaterina Makarova of Russia 6-4, 6-0 in the third round to set up her fourth round clash with Andrea Hlavackova of the Czech Republic.

Little Sis hasn't dropped a set yet and should she handle her fourth round business it'll set up a quarterfinal match between her and the winner of the Pironkova-Ivanovic match.   Angelique Kerber is still alive on her side of the bracket along with 2012 Wimbledon runner-up Agnieszka Radwanska.

In the US Open doubles tourney, the Williams sisters started with a first round 6-4, 6-0 win over Americans Lindsay Lee-Waters and Megan Moulton-Levy.   In the second round they won by an identical 6-4, 6-0 score over the team of Klaudia Jans-Ignacik of Poland and Kristina Mladenovic of France to set up a third round doubles clash with the Russian duo of Maria Kirilenko and Nadia Petrova 


So stay tuned, will Serena continue her march to her third US open singles title?  Will she and Big Sis add another Grand Slam doubles title to their collection?  We'll know the answers to those questions by the end of the week.