A Finer Specimen of Womanhood

TransGriot Note: Another one from the TransGriot The Newspaper Column archives I wrote in February 2004

`A Finer Specimen of Womanhood'
Copyright 2004 The Letter


I am concerned about the image that African-American transwomen present to the world.

Instead of judging a group by the best that they produce, society unfairly judges African-Americans by the worst among us. That standard has been applied to
African-American transpeople as well not only by my own people, but the GLBT community.

I and many others have worked hard to honor the women that we admire. My personal list includes Coretta Scott King, former Texas Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, my mother, my grandmothers, various women in my family, and various women inside and outside my sista circle. I've been blessed with God given intelligence, and I've strived to live my life before and since transition in a positive manner.

I want my fellow African-Americans and others to see that we transsistas are intelligent, spiritual people who embrace our history. Many of us are ready and willing to assume the African-American woman's historical role of uplifting our people when we're asked.

Unfortunately, those of us transsistas who are making the effort to uphold the traditions and honor of the Black women that walked the path before us are facing
an uphill battle. We are receiving a negative backlash from our community because of the poor choices that some of our sistas are making.

It saddened me to read a recent post on a transgendered African-American Internet group that I belong to. A 20 year old sista wrote that she wants to become a porn star,instead of expending that youthful energy to do something positive.

Every time that I get upset over that thought, I think about a young transsista that I met at the 2002 Afro-American Leadership Conference on AIDS in Louisville. She was tossed out of her home after revealing to her family that she was transgendered. Instead of making excuses, she transitioned, graduated from high school, and went on to graduate from Vassar College. She's now planning to become a psychologist.

So for those of you that think that sex work is the only route to 'get paid',that is short sighted, dangerous and defeatist thinking in a world in which HIV/AIDS increasingly carries a face that looks like ours. It dishonors those of us who fought hard to put you in a position where you could transition in high school or in your twenties without going through the drama that we did.

This is America, and it's your life to do whatever with it that pleases you, but it is my fondest wish that more young transsistas would take their butts to college ASAP if they have the opportunity.

Frankly, we need you to become positive role models for the transkids coming behind you and for our people in general. My generation will be passing the
leadership torch to you soon, and frankly, we wonder who amongst you will boldly step up to accept it.

We'd like you to join us who work in corporate America, in the political arena, and who are wives and mothers raising kids.

You decided to do whatever it took to make your body match what you were hardwired to be, African-American women. You are joining a long line of women that stretches back to the dawn of civilization. We are women who have always done outstanding things in the face of seemingly impossible odds and still look good doing it. But with that decision to transition comes an awesome responsibility.

Please consider becoming a finer specimen of womanhood.

Girlie-men Who Oppress People

TransGriot Note: Another TransGriot The Newspaper Column Classic post from my electronic archives I'm sharing with y'all and give you something to peruse while I'm traveling..   This one is from September 2004.

   
Before I get into this month's column, let me remind you peeps that if you aren't registered, you have
until October 2 to do so.  The GLBT community needs you to participate in the most important election in the last fifty years.  It will determine the course of American history for the NEXT fifty years and have a major impact on the GLBT community.

Ah-nold Schwarzenegger recently grabbed headlines when he called his Democratic opponents in the
California General Assembly 'girlie-men'.

What's a girlie-man, anyway?  To me, it's a person who's a bully or who won't stand up and do what's right instead of what's popular. The world's full of them, so let's start ferreting them out.   

We'll start with the 'Kentucky Democrats' in the General Assembly who caved in to the Rethuglicans two
days before the 2004 session ended to pass that odious anti same-sex marriage amendment that Dr. Daniel
Mongiardo authored.  That showed real courage to sell out ten percent of Kentucky's population for your own political gain.  If you did it so that you could hold on to your seats in the Kentucky House, or in
Mongiardo's case beat Jim Bunning, I've got news for you. If a voter has a choice between an ersatz
Republican and a generic one, they'll go with the generic one every time. Chew on that thought at the
next party meeting. It's past time for 'Kentucky Democrats' to go back to being 'Progressive Democrats'
and start standing up for the little guy again.

Now in the local 'girlie-men' category, Jefferson County GOP chair Jack Richardson IV comes to mind. 

The Republicans are so nervous about Junior getting his butt kicked that he dusted off his plans to use
poll watchers in West End and Newburg precincts.  It's a clumsy attempt to suppress African-American turnout that harkens back to the days of Jim Crow racism.  That has incensed the African-American community to the point where even Anne Northup had to denounce it.

Maybe we should send poll watchers wearing black berets or the Nation of Islam brothers to his home
precinct and other GOP leaning ones and see how he and his friends like it.

This pattern is happening nationally. The girlie-men in Florida repeated the 'let's strike African-American 'felons' off the voter rolls' trick and got caught.  A GOP legislator in Michigan stated during an
interview that the only way to carry the state is 'suppress the Detroit vote.' Detroit has huge concentrations of motivated African-American and Arab voters, and they will be at the polls in force on November 2. If I had an (R) beside my name on the ballot I'd be nervous, too.

Metro Council member James Peden is another one.   He's the lead dog in the efforts to kill the Fairness
law by trying to force a vote on it.  What's with this conservative fetish to overturn civil rights laws for
people they don't like? He needs to heed the wisdom of Nelson Mandela, who so eloquently stated that
'majority rule is not intended to suppress the views, the hopes, and the aspirations of the minority.'
Peden's attempting to create a wedge issue to use against Democrats in conservative-leaning districts in
their bid to gain a GOP Metro Council majority. If that happens, you can count on much right-wing
mischief coming out of Metro Council chambers after that.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention my least favorite pseudo-Texan, girlie-man George Walker Bush.
 I'll save my comments about him for next month's column.

Transgender People Are Patriots,Too

TransGriot Note:  I used to write a column (called TransGriot BTW) for a monthly Louisville based GLBT paper called The Letter.  I just discovered a file in which I saved my copies of those final drafts of my columns before I sent them to my editor.    So from time to time I'll share with you those early TransGriot the Newspaper Column musings.    This one is circa July 2004. 

Since our country turned 228 this month, I wanted to say thank you to transgendered veterans for their service.  I have much love, respect and admiration for them as a student of history.  You haven't heard much about them, but they do exist and proudly served in all branches of our armed forces.

To give you an idea just how prevalent the transvet phenomenon is, the first internationally renowned transperson, Christine Jorgenson, was a World War II Army vet.  Phyllis Frye, my activist mentor back in Houston served in the Army.  I have T-friends who did tours of duty in Vietnam as combat pilots, tunnel rats, and Green Berets.  Monica Helms, the current president of the Transgender American Veterans Association is a former Navy submariner.  I have a T-girlfriend who was in the Air Force, and my best T-girlfriend was a Gulf War I carrier pilot. I have another T-friend who was in the special forces during that same conflict. Even Calpernia Addams, the T-girlfriend of slain Fort Campbell soldier Barry Winchell served in the Navy.
           

So why all the transvets?  Many transpeople try to escape their feminine gender traits by working in the most masculine profession that they can find, such as police officers or engineers. Military service tends to draw the lion's share of people to its testosterone charged ranks. The reality is that instead of resolving the suppressed gender conflict, the hyper masculine world of military service exacerbates it.

TAVA recently coordinated a May 1 march in which fifty transvets and their supporters traveled to the various Washington military memorials to honor their fallen comrades.  They were a multiethnic group ranging in age from 27 to 77, and they served during World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, Gulf War I, and the peacetime interludes between those conflicts. 

They started at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the Mall, traveled to the newly opened World War II Memorial, visited the Iwo Jima Memorial, and finished the day with a trip to Arlington National Cemetery. They participated in a tearful wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier by an honor guard of TAVA members. Once the precisely structured ceremony concluded, they returned to the hotel for dinner and to share their insights about the historic day.

One person who shared her thoughts was NTAC Chair Vanessa Foster.  She stated that "Beyond the  historic implications of the laying of the wreath as well as the march itself, the ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was devastatingly touching. The irony of the moment with the current war in Iraq was not lost on one. What was truly heartwarming was the lack of snickers, remarks, double takes, and other reactions from the non-transgender crowd when the wreath laying occurred.  The reaction was no different, no less reverent than for any other enlisted person. That is exactly as it should be."   
 
You're absolutely right Ms. Foster.  The TAVA march allowed transvets the opportunity to show non-trans folks that they also put their lives on the line to defend our country in war and peace.  They are patriots who deserve our respect and support, and transvets took those leadership lessons learned in the military and became successful advocates for our community.

Thanks for everything you've done to make this country a better place to live.