Can We Talk 4 Real Podcast Turns Three Today!

On August 14, 2012, a podcast debuted on Blogtalkradio featuring as the hosts Michelle, Ina and Terri Boi that had as its mission to discuss the topics and subjects the LGBT community sometimes didn't wanna talk about, and so so from a Black SGL perspective.

I have been honored to be a guest on this show a few times since the Can We Talk 4 Real team started it, and have had the pleasure of meeting them at various conferences and events around the country during that time.

I also know how much work and dedication goes into producing a podcast, much less keeping it going for as of today three years.

It also goes without saying I have mad love for each one of you!

So happy anniversary Can We Talk 4 Real team!   Thank you for all the conversations you have facilitated via your show, the people you have given a voice that didn't have one until you started this show, and may you have much continued success in facilitating those much needed conversations in the future.

Tyra Hunter Death 20th Anniversary

Today is the 20th anniversary of a needless tragedy that occurred on this date in 1995.

A 24 year old trans woman by the name of Tyra Hunter needlessly died after a car accident at 50th and C Streets in SE Washington DC of survivable injuries because of a transphobic EMT.

That happened a mere 16 months into my own physical body morphing.  The Hunter case still bothers me 20 years later because the blatant medical transphobia on display could have easily happened to me or any other trans person.

The fact it was fellow African-Americans involved in his episode of transphobic hate along with it happening in the early stages of my own transition is probably why this Hunter case has stuck with me for so long.   It was also one of the events that began to push me toward the trans human rights activism path.

I find myself on this 20th anniversary of Tyra's death pondering many what if questions and coming up with some possible resolution scenarios for them.:.

What if Tyra had gotten the care she needed to save her life?   What would a now 44 year old Tyra Hunter's life be like now?   Would she be flexing her hairdressing skills and owning her own shop by now?  Would she have found love?   Would she still be living in the DC area?

What kind of contributions would Tyra be making to our community and society in general if she were still here?

But no matter what scenarios I come up with good, bad or middle of the road for a 44 year old Tyra Hunter, I know deep down in my soul that they are questions we will never find out the answer to. 

The reason why is because she is resting in power and peace due to the transphobic actions of one DC Fire Department EMT named Adrian Williams  and subsequently at the now closed DC General Hospital from Dr Bastian because these people entrusted with the responsibility of saving human lives failed to see her as a human being..

#WeExist.  Black trans people exist.   And on this day we in Black Trans World and our allies must rededicate ourselves to reminding our fellow cis Black people that our Black trans lives matter, too.

The one thing that we can take away from this tragedy is that medical transphobia kills.   In Tyra Hunter's memory, we need to as a community be vigilant in ensuring the avoidable tragedy that happened to Tyra Hunter on this sad August 7 day 20 years ago never happens to another trans person of any ethnic background ever again.

50th Anniversary Of The Signing Of The Voting Rights Act

August 6 is also the day 50 years ago that President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act.   I find it deliciously apropos that yesterday the 5th Circuit Court struck down the Texas Voter Suppression (ID) law for the third time using Section 2 of the law.

The Voting Rights Act when it was signed into law by President Johnson, resulted in the mass enfranchisement of racial minorities across the nation.   It was markedly dramatic in the South, where the Jim Crow voter suppression and blatant disenfranchisement mechanisms in place were successful in denying African-Americans the right to vote.

The VRA was designed to enforce the voting rights provision in the 14th and 15th Amendments of the US Constitution, and has been updated and amended five times by Congress to expand its protections.  It is considered the most effective piece of civil rights legislation ever enacted by Congress, which is why it has also been under relentless attack by the conservative movement and the Republican Party..

The Voting Rights Act is not only groundbreaking legislation, it led to a dramatic expansion in the number of African-American politicians at all levels of government including four decades later the election of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States.

It's why I and other African Americans are still highly pissed off about the Supreme Court's racist and clueless 2013 ruling in Shelby v. Holder that gutted a key enforcement provision in the Section 4(b) 'coverage formula' , that was designed to encompass jurisdictions that had historically engaged in egregious voting discrimination at the time the VRA was passed, and was subsequently updated in 1970 and 1975.

The coverage formula was the part that made the Section 5 preclearance provision work, and while the SCOTUS didn't strike Section 5 down, by shadily declaring unconstitutional the coverage formula, they basically made Section 5 unenforceable for the time being until Congress can pass a legislative fix to update the old formula.

While this should have been fixed immediately, and President Obama called on Congress today to act on the VRA fix legislation that Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) has filed to do so, good luck with that happening in a dysfunctional GOP controlled House and Senate whose party is heavily invested in keeping the number of voter going to the polls down in order to win elections.

As a result of Section 5 being gutted and the feds having to prosecute voting rights and discrimination cases using the VRA's Section 2 , the immediate result was Republican controlled legislatures gleefully started passing voter (ID) suppression laws designed to mess with and severely restrict the ability of  non-white voters to cast their ballots.  Texas' then Attorney General (now Governor, boo hiss) Greg Abbott, despite having the Texas Voter Suppression Law being struck down in federal court twice, reinstated the unjust law within hours of the SCOTUS misguided 5-4 ruling.

It resulted in the 2014 election cycle in 600,000 predominately non-white Texans not being able to vote.

So on this 50th anniversary of the passage of this groundbreaking law, let's remember that it safeguards the voting rights of all Americans, and must be defended by all who cherish human rights in our country.

Happy Anniversary Tiq and Kim!

You know I had to give a TransGriot shoutout to one of my fave bi-national couples on their first wedding anniversary.   Besides, it's easy for me to remember the day they got married because it's the day after my birthday.

One year ago today Tiq and Kim Katrin Milan got married in New York.   I have much love for both of them because they are and continue to be amazing advocates for the issues they are passionate about.  

Thank both of you for doing what you do individually and collectively to make our planet better, spread knowledge and role model what Black love looks like in action.

And yeah they make one cute couple.

Happy anniversary Kim and Tiq!   May you have many more, and looking forward to the next time or event we get to spend some quality time together.

150th Anniversary Of Lee's Surrender To Grant

150 years ago today CSA General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia after abandoning the Richmond-Petersburg area, headed west in an attempt to link up to the Confederate forces in North Carolina while pursued by Union forces under .Lt. Gen Ulysses S. Grant.

The Confederate retreat was cut off at Appomattox Court House, and Lee launched an attack that morning that sought to break through the Union force in front of him under the assumption it was just a cavalry unit.   When it turned out it was backed up by two Union corps size infantry units, Lee had no choice but to surrender, and did

The surrender of Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia to Grant effectively ended the War To Perpetuate Slavery combat in Virginia.   But as word spread of Lee's surrender, it had seismic effects with the rest of the starving and disillusioned Confederate armies still in the field.

Gen. Joseph E. Johnston surrendered his army in North Carolina on April 26 to Gen. William T. Sherman in Durham, NC.  Gen Edmund Kirby Smith surrendering the Trans-Mississippi Department near New Orleans and Nathan Bedford Forrest (the future KKK founder) surrendering in May. 

The last battle of the Civil War took place in Texas at Palmito Ranch on May 12-13, and the last sizable Confederate unit under Gem Stand Watie surrendered in Oklahoma on June 23.

It also meant that with the military defeat of the Confederacy, it mean the end of their traitorous armed insurrection against the US government, their attempt to win by force keeping slavery alive and the emancipation of my ancestors. 

Happy 21st Transition Anniversary To Me!

Today is the day 21 years ago I began the very public phase of my transition journey when I walked into my job on April 4, 1994, one month before my birthday and clocked in for work as moi.

Little did I realize at the time that this small step would lead to a giant leap in the quality of my life I was living up until that point.   I also look at it as the day my life began.

The activism wouldn't come until a few years later, because at that point in time I was fixated on just being the best sister I could be at the time and fulfilling my vow to my cisgender sisters at IAH who had my back  to be a compliment to Black womanhood and not a detriment to it.

Have I lived up to it?  I believe I have, and so do many of the women who are in my life cis and trans. I'm considered a possibility model as a writer and award winning activist with a widely read and GLAAD award nominated blog. 

I don't just talk about how to be an intersectional trans leader, I do my utmost to role model it. 

But there is always room for personal improvement and evolutionary change.

I've also seen a societal evolution over the last 21 years as a Black trans woman.   I have seen us go from not having our voices heard in either cis, SGL or trans ranks to becoming major respected thought leaders.   I have seen girls who share my ethnic background do everything from write New York Times best selling memoirs, perform at Carnegie Hall, to ripping runways and getting the lead role on an upcoming legal drama series. 

I have also seen trans women succeed in any job they are given an opportunity at from working in retail to being doctors and lawyers.

But just as I have seen some things dramatically change over the last 21 years, there are some that sadly haven't.   My sisters are still facing genocidal levels of violence. 

Instead of gay and lesbian politicians opposing our human rights march, it's now the conservative movement with anti-trans laws they are attempting to pass in Florida, Missouri and my home state of Texas to dehumanize and criminalize our lives.

Far too many of our people are choosing suicide rather than getting their best revenge against trans oppression by living their lives well.

Just last month I had the amazing experience of going to the White House for a historic Trans WOC policy briefing.   I talked to Angela Davis in Chicago, and the Rev Dr William Barber II.  I took a photo in Philly in front of the former Dewey's Lunch Counter 50 years after the trans themed sit in that happened there, went to Austin to talk to our state legislators, saw Tona Brown perform for the first time, talked to our Harris County DA Devon Anderson, met the amazing Mia McKenzie and Gloria Allen, and got to meet and spend quality time with many peeps I'd known online for years.

What will this month have in store for me?   That's a good question.   But it's a question I can ask because I'm alive to do so and see where this amazing journey takes me next.

So happy 21st Transition Anniversary!   Looking forward to seeing where I am when my 22nd transition anniversary happens next year.

President Obama's Selma 50 Speech

In case you didn't see it, and I didn't see yesterday's speech live since I was traveling back to Houston from Washington DC, here's President Obama's remarks about the anniversary of Bloody Sunday with the Edmund Pettus Bridge in the background.

We owe much to those Bloody Sunday marchers, including Congressman John Lewis.   Because of that event, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 passed, and without the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Black political power it unleashed, we wouldn't have had President Obama standing there on this 50th anniversary of the event to give a speech about it.

Here's President Obama and the video of the speech.

'Bloody Sunday' 50th Anniversary

While more people are aware of it because of the movie Selma, today marks the 50th anniversary of the brutal breakup of the first Selma to Montgomery voting rights march by Alabama state troopers on March 7, 1965.

SNCC and local activists between 1961-1964 had been trying to organize voter registration drives despite massive resistance from Dallas County, Alabama officials in the county seat of Selma.

They convinced the Rev. Dr Martin Luther King, Jr and SCLC to get involved and make Selma's intransigence to African-American voting a national concern.  They agreed, and began a series of demonstrations in January-February 1965 to the Dallas County Courthouse.

On February 17 protester Jimmy Lee Cooper was fatally shot by an Alabama state trooper and in response, a Selma to Montgomery protest march was scheduled for March 7.

Six hundred marchers assembled in Selma on Sunday, March 7, and, led by John Lewis and other SNCC and SCLC activists, crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge over the Alabama River en route to Montgomery. Just short of the bridge, they found their way blocked by Alabama State troopers and local police who ordered them to turn around. When the protesters refused, the officers shot teargas and waded into the crowd, beating the nonviolent protesters with billy clubs and ultimately hospitalizing over fifty people.
- See more at: http://www.blackpast.org/aah/bloody-sunday-selma-alabama-march-7-1965#sthash.zCNiuu8L.dpuf

Six hundred marchers led by future congressman John Lewis and other SNCC and SCLC leaders set off for Montgomery and crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge over the Alabama River.  

On the other side of it they were met by a wall of Alabama state troopers and local police demanding they turn back  When they refused,  the police responded by firing tear gas into the crowd and beating people with their billy clubs   They sent 50 people to the hospital, including John Lewis.

The violent beating of nonviolent protestors was televised around the world, and led Dr King to call for a second march that he led despite being torn by federal officials urging him to exercise patience and the SNCC and SCLC activist demanding action.

The second march happened on March 9, but King turned it around at the bridge, which exacerbated the developing tension between the civil rights movement elders and the younger activists in SCLC and the more militant SNCC demanding radical action and tactics to overcome the oppressive systems.

On March 21 the third successful march occurred under federal protection, and on August 6 the Voting Rights Act passed, spurred by the horrific violence of the Bloody Sunday march

Third Anniversary Of Trayvon Martin's Death

Today is the third anniversary of the death of Trayvon Martin at the hands of George Zimmerman.

February 5 would have been his 20th birthday, and I would hazard a guess that today is just as hard on his parents as his birth date is.  It's even harder when less than a day ago the Department of Justice announced that they wouldn't be pressing charges against Zimmerman for Trayvon's murder.

Zimmerman may have gotten away with murder, but for all intents and purposes he's earned a life sentence in which he'll have to constantly look over  his shoulder to see if someone's going to do unto him what he did to Trayvon.

Rest  in power Trayvon.

Christine Jorgensen Hour Magazine Interview

This was the date in 1953 when Christine Jorgensen stepped her stylishly dressed self off an SAS plane from Denmark and ushered in the modern era of trans visibility.

Christine not only was a pioneer, she took time out of her life to educate the public about our trans lives up until her death in 1989.

To honor the day she arrived at Idlywild (now JFK Airport) 62 years ago, here's the video of her interview with Gary Collins on Hour Magazine.

Philly, Are You Planning To Recognize The 50th Anniversary Of The Dewey's Sit In?

Ever since I was first sent notice of it by Dr. Susan Stryker, I was excited to learn and talk about the Dewey's Lunch Counter Sit In and Protest that involved African-American gender variant kids in April- May 1965.

Every since this came to light, there have been attempt to whitewash and gaywash the protest and erase the African-American gender variant kids completely out of the story,.

And I'm not having it.

This is one of the first instances of a protest centered around gender identity issues that involved people of color  

And that is worth celebrating, especially with the 50th anniversary of this event looming

I hope that on April 25, 2015 that we will see at that site where  Dewey's once existed members of the Philadelphia LGBT community coming together to commemorate this event in trans history

That's right I said trans history.  The protest was driven by Dewey's refusal to serve young patrons dressed in  'non-conformist clothing.'   This was a first ever protest that was sparked by gender variant issues and an ultimately successful one.

So Philly, hope you're planning a nice event on that date.

25th Anniversary Of The Fall Of The Berlin Wall

Like the Cold War and Jim Crow segregation, the Berlin Wall was a part of the world when I was born in 1962.   It was erected in August 1961 to stop the flow of East Germans fleeing their 'worker's paradise' to West Germany and came down in dramatic fashion on November 9, 1989.

For something that seemed like it was going to have a permanent place during my time on Earth to the point it was a tourist attraction and two US presidents made speeches near it, the stunning way events unfolded 25 years ago that brought The Wall down and several months later on October 3, 1990 led to the reunification of Germany are still mindboggling at times to me as a Cold War baby.

The Berlin Wall was such a reality in my world that I used it as a visual example of my determination NOT to do something.   I would say to peeps, "That will happen when the Berlin Wall falls."

And now, within my lifetime, before the close of the 20th century, it was beginning to happen before my very eyes.   The official dismantling of the Wall didn't start until the summer of 1990 and was completed in 1992

But happen it did, and the process got started 25 years ago on this date.

45th Anniversary of Apollo 11 Launch

On July 16, 1969 my space junkie self was up on a warm summer Houston morning like everyone else in the country and the world nervously awaiting the launch of Apollo 11 on live television. 

Meanwhile to the southeast of me down in Clear Lake, Mission Control was keeping a watchful eye on their monitors and Launch Pad 39A.  They too along with their counterparts in Florida were awaiting the launch of the ginormous Saturn V rocket from Cape Kennedy that would propel Neil Armstrong, Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin and Michael Collins toward the Moon and their rendezvous with history. 

At 8:32 AM CDT the Saturn V rocket roared to life and slowly lifted off from its launchpad enroute to the Moon.   12 minutes later it was in Earth orbit and after one and a half trips around the planet the third stage of the Saturn V fired up on its translunar injection burn to send Apollo 11 to the Moon.



 

50th Anniversary Of The Civil Rights Act of 1964 Signing

I was a mere toddler when this event happened, but it was a critical one in determining the type of America I got to grow up in as an African-American child.

On this date in 1964, with the Rev. Dr Martin Luther King, Jr as one of the witnesses, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the landmark Civil Rights Act into law.

It was the signature legislation of the Civil Rights Movement.  The law barred segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. 

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 It fundamentally changed our country for the better with its passage and when the voting rights, fair housing, and other civil rights legislation was passed in its trailblazing wake followed by court cases that further validated, clarified and built upon that landmark legislation. . 

Here's what President Johnson had to say about the Civil Rights Act at the time when he signed it.  

50th Anniversary Of The Freedom Summer Murders

This month marks the 50th anniversary of the start of Freedom Summer, which was a ten week coordinated civil rights campaign organized by the four Mississippi branches of CORE, SNCC, SCLC and the NAACP under the Council of Federated Organization coalition banner. 

The Freedom Summer campaign was designed to register African-American voters in Mississippi, which at the time had only 6.7% of its Black population registered because of the measures put in place to suppress it such as poll taxes, subjective literacy tests, onerous voter registration forms and grandfather clauses.

It also set up Freedom Houses, Freedom Schools and community centers to support the African-American population in many Mississippi small towns.   

Over 1000 out of state volunteers came to Mississippi to help the local Blacks participating in the Freedom Summer Project.   Two of them were New Yorkers Michael Schwerner, who was a CORE organizer and his summer volunteer Andrew Goodman.   They were paired with local CORE organizer James Chaney.

Of course, Freedom Summer was met by violent resistance by the Klan, the White Citizens Councils and other white segregationists in the state.  Black churches were bombed and burned along with Black businesses, Freedom Summer volunteers were beaten or arrested.

On June 21, 1964 Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner were sent to Longdale, MS to investigate the June 16 burning of the Mt Zion Baptist Church in which they had intended to set up a Freedom School to aid the voter registration drive in Neshoba County.    

After their investigation, the civil rights workers were enroute back to COFO headquarters in Meridian when they were falsely arrested in Philadelphia, MS, detained until after nightfall, and released into a Klan ambush.  

Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner were killed and their bodies buried in an earthen dam under construction.   They were found weeks later after an intensive search.

The perps were eventually convicted in 1967.  Edgar Ray Killen's original trial deadlocked, and he wasn't convicted until 2005.

The murders of the civil rights workers and the national outrage behind it helped galvanized support for passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Right Act of 1965. 

 

Timmy's Turns 50

I have many Canadian readers of this blog, and could let this anniversary pass without mentioning it.

If you have traveled to Canada, you have seen, passed by or even stopped by a Canadian institution older than the maple leaf flag and beloved by Canadians everywhere.

It's Timmy's, AKA Tim Horton's, the quick service institution that expat Canadians in the States wax poetic about.    Tim Horton's is such a iconic part of Canadian life that a few years ago a Timmy's truck was sent to Afghanistan to serve its legendary coffee to Canadian Armed Forces personnel stationed there. 

No federal Canadian election cycle is complete unless you see the leaders of the major parties in the Great White North working the crowd at a Tim Horton's location of their choosing in various parts of the country or working behind the counter. 

And the love of a Canadian and Timmy's starts at birth. I still laugh about a 2011 conversation I had with Renee's son Mayhem in which he innocently asked me how do I survive in this world without Timmy's. 

I have a Tim Horton's coffee mug courtesy of Rafael McDonnell, who got it for me after his last Canadian vacation complete with tea and hot chocolate I have long since destroyed.  

Tim Horton's was founded on May 17, 1964 in Hamilton, ON by its namesake, former Toronto Maple Leafs hockey player Tim Horton and former police Ron Joyce as a quick service donut and coffee shop.   The concept took off to the point in which Joyce was made a full partner in 1967 and they were setting up franchises in southern Ontario.   Horton was killed in a car accident in 1974, but Tim Horton's grew to be a food service juggernaut that clocks $3 billion a year in sales and has 4304 worldwide restaurant locations as of June 30, 2013. 

3468 of those Timmy's locations are in Canada, 807 in the United States, and 29 locations are in the Gulf Cooperation Council states.  There are plans to open an additional 300 new U.S. locations by 2018 in various American cities including St. Louis, Youngstown, OH, Fort Wayne, IN and more in North Dakota.

To celebrate their 50th anniversary, Tim Horton's set up a replica of the original store in Yonge and Dundas Square and sent it back to the 60's, the decade of its birth.   There were people dressed in 60's clothing, cars from that era and a replica of the first store passing out Timmy's products and several of Horton's teammates on that Maple Leaf squad.

And yep, looking forward to the day I can buy my own Tim Horton's hot chocolate to take back to Baja Alberta.  FYI, if you're wondering where is Baja Alberta, it's what Renee calls Texas.   She still calls Alberta 'that wretched province'.

Happy anniversary Timmy's!   May you continue to grow, prosper and put some locations in Texas someday..

Today Is My 20 Year Transition Anniversary!

Today is the day 20 years ago I walked into Houston Intercontinental Airport's Terminal C to clock in at my then seven year old airline job to begin my first nerve wracking work week evolving into the Phenomenal Transwoman you see today.

It had been a long road to get to that April 4, 1994 day.  I'd had my first appointment with my gender therapist Dr. Cole just two months earlier.  

That first work week was filled with me having one on one emotional conversations with my airline co-workers spelling out why I was handling my transition business.   Some of them led to tell it like it T-I-S is revelations and epiphanies.   Others were simply people wanting to know what the process was like as I would evolve in front of their very eyes.

The now 16 years and counting of activism around trans human rights issues started four years later, but from 1994-1998 my thirtysomething self was more focused on becoming the best woman I could be.  

I felt at the time I was going from zero to femininity and needing to play catch up with the other cis sisters in my peer group, my workplace and elsewhere around H-town. 

On that April 4, 1994 day I was facing the task of needing to have the acquired knowledge of a thirtysomething Black woman and not having three decades to learn and make mistakes while doing so.   I also accepted the mission of going through a body morphing second puberty with a wide variety range of reactions from friends, family and society ranging from unconditional acceptance to virulent hostility.  Add to the body morphing and other changes bumrushing me at that moment at a dizzying pace the frustrating at times documentation and paperwork changes combined with rolling down I-45 south to Galveston every few months for check ups and chats at the gender clinic with Dr Emery and Dr. Cole.

Some of those challenges I encountered were quickly learning that sexism, misogyny, and the straight up hatred aimed at Black women is no joke. 

I also received an early reminder of the transmisogynistic hatred trans women face inside and outside our community when Tyra Hunter died at the hands of a transphobic Washington DC EMT a mere 15 months into my transition.  

I had a scary 1996 incident that taught me paying attention to my personal safety was a must and that any lapse in attention could result in severe injury, sexual assault or my untimely death 

I discovered the wallet in my purse was going to take a bigger hit now that I was on the femme gender side because of the added expenses and the new wardrobe I was having to build from scratch. 

I also discovered that the weight gain you pick up after starting HRT is no joke either.  

I already knew this from sitting in locker rooms during my teen years, but it got it reinforced as an estrogen based lifeform just how much men can be pigs at times.

There were humorous and sometimes touching moments along the way as I adjusted to my happier life as Monica. 

I built my network of cis and trans sistafriends who broke down the evolving feminine journey I was on.  They praised me when I was handling my business and put their foot up my ass when necessary to give me that needed motivational kick.  

My sistagirls (and they know who they are) stayed on my behind to make sure that I not only continued to evolve to be a better person, I kept my promise to evolve to be a complement to Black womanhood and not be seen as a detriment.to it.  

And yes, my transbrothers have played their parts in helping me become the person I needed to be. 

Because I stepped out on faith and did so, I have been afforded some amazing opportunities.   I get to travel and participate in discussions about trans and other issues at various conferences and college campuses in Houston and around the country.

I have a blog that has been visited by 5.5 million people around the world since I started it in January 2006.  It has led to a new column at Black Girl Dangerous and being published at EBONY.com, Loop 21, the Huffington Post and a long list of other blogs

I have gotten to meet wonderful people inside and outside the trans community I probably wouldn't have come in contact with otherwise had I continued to unhappily muddle through my pre-transition life.  My network of friends and chosen family encompasses the United States and the world.  

And the question I asked at the beginning of my transition has been emphatically answered in 2014.   The girls like us who share my ethnic background are all across the African Diaspora.   I have also gotten the opportunity to meet and befriend beautiful, smart and talented transwomen of all ethnic backgrounds and ages.

I have had the opportunity to be a witness to the last 20 years of trans history, helped shape some of it, and meet some of the people who made that history before I transitioned like Phyllis Frye, the late Sylvia Rivera and Miss Major.   I get to unearth chapters of our Black trans history as one of the missions of this blog.   

I would be remiss if on this day I didn't mention all the transwomen who started that journey around the same 1994 time with me that for various reasons fell by the wayside and didn't continue their evolution, passed on far too soon, or lived their lives well and are now watching over me with the ancestors like Dana Turner and Roberta Angela Dee.

I also need to acknowledge the people cis and trans who popped in on this journey with me for a short time who had lessons good and bad to teach me but who are now out of my life for various reasons.   

There are some things that have happened in that 20 years I didn't foresee.  Becoming an activist wasn't in the original 1994 plan, that just happened because of my strong social justice leanings that were there long before I swallowed my first Premarin tablet and a jacked up IFGE Tapestry article   The nearly nine years in Louisville was something else I didn't see coming, but overall was important to my growth and development as moi.  

I also didn't foresee at the time having a generation of young trans people who see me as a iconic leader and role model, a fact I got reminded of during Creating Change 14.  That amuses and humbles me at times.   I'm honored that people think highly enough me to not only nominate me for and sometimes give me awards, but actually name them after me as BTAC did.

I  keep that iconic status in mind when I have the conversations with them about the history I've made and seen (and I'm still making) as I encourage them to fearlessly be the best girls and boys like us they can be.

I've seen some amazing progress for the trans community here in the States and internationally over the last twenty years, but we are not done yet.  There is still a long way to go before transpeople have full societal equality in my nation and around the world.  

My transition started 20 years ago today, but it is still an ongoing evolutionary journey that won't end until I'm meeting the ancestors. 

And you better believe I'm deliriously happy I took that first small, nerve wracking step in 1994 that has resulted in a giant leap in the quality of my life.  

Thanks To My Trans Sistas, Too

Tomorrow will mark the 20th anniversary of the 1994 day I began the very public coming out phase of my gender transition.   I wrote a post thanking the cis women in my sistahcircle who were there at various points along the way cheering me on and helping me evolve to become the Phenomenal Transwoman you see before you today.

I could have said it in the April 1 post, but as I wrote that post I took it out because I felt the influence of the trans community on my development needed more than just a paragraph or two, but needed to be in a separate post of its own. 

It wasn't just my cis sisters that had a hand in pushing me to become the best woman of trans experience I could be, trans women of all ages, ethnic backgrounds and nationalities had a hand in it as well. 

Transwomen were also during these last 20 years teaching me the good, bad, and ugly lessons I needed to learn at various point in my transfeminine journey.  From those first TATS meetings I attended in various locales around Houston from 1994 until I moved in 2001 to Da Ville, the first group of trans women who had active influence in shaping the person I am today were the ones who came in and out of TATS during that period.  

There are others here and elsewhere who I can't name who have chosen to non-disclose, but who had wisdom to pass on to me as well about life, love and generally dealing with many of the issues that only another transwoman would be able to break down.  

There were my activist mentors and possibility models like Phyllis Frye, Dainna Cicotello, Sarah DePalma, Vanessa Edwards Foster, Josephine Tittsworth, Dawn Wilson, A. Dionne Stallworth and Dr. Marisa Richmond who not only reawakened my interest in politics, but reminded me that as someone who has been blessed with great talents, leadership skills and the ability to have been able to transition, we needed to give something back to our community.  

There were trans women in the Louisville area I have much love for as well who helped me feel at home during my Texan in exile years and also had more lessons to teach.

There are international trans women who not only helped 'ejumacate' me about how trans issues are evolving in their parts of the planet, they have also become wonderful friends and colleagues in the trans human rights struggle.  

The new kids on the trans block, the Generation X, Generation Y and Millennials who even though I'm old enough to be their mom or Big Sis in some cases, have qualities that I admire and inspire me to step up my game.  Some of them at times like my little sisters Jordana LeSesne and Tona Brown have not hesitated to give Big Sis a much needed motivational kick in the butt when necessary. 

My trans elders are also part of the equation.   They are kicking that trans herstory to me along with their hard earned and won wisdom.  They are also giving me and everyone else in the transfeminine community examples of how to age regally and gracefully.

I have much love for the transkids like Jazz, Natalie Maines, Tracey Wilson and countless others who are fighting these inspirational battles to be themselves at the elementary, middle and high school levels.   I not only envy and admire them for being able to do so at such young ages with the help of supportive families, they remind me and my generation that the primary goal of the activism we do in our time on the planet is so that when the younglings get to our ages, they'll hopefully have less societal drama.

There are my trans sisters in the pageant and drag worlds who while on their own evolutionary journeys, made time in their busy lives to help straighten a sistah's presentation out and look her gender best..  

The transbrothers have had their input from the late Alexander John Goodrum to the men of BTMI.  They have reminded me that I have been just as much an inspiration to them as they have been to me.     

Just like the cis sisters who have been or still are a part of my evolving feminine journey,  some have been here with me the entire two decades. 

Some were only here for certain parts of it to teach me lessons I needed to know at that time and have moved on to live their own lives, while others came in a bit later but are hanging with me now. 

And sadly, there are the people who I met along the way like Lois Bates, Dee McKellar, Christie Lee Littleton Van de Putte, Michelle Myers, Roberta Angela Dee, Sylvia Rivera, Dana Turner,  Jaci Adams, Tracy Bumpus and Nakhia Williams who have passed on. 

So to the girls and guys like us out ther who had a hand over the last 20 years in helping me become the best Moni I can be and own my power while doing so, thank you. 

Thanks To My Cis Sistas

I'm rapidly approaching the April 4 day that I started the public phase of my transition 20 years ago. 

It was an exciting but anxiety filled few days as the calendar turned to April and the day I'd been emotionally building up to for years was finally arriving.

While I had feminine role models that I wanted to emulate, it's a big jump from imagining the person you wish to become and doing the hard work to make that person a reality.   
 
Becoming me was a team effort.  In addition to my medical team at the gender clinic ensuring that I stayed healthy as I morphed the body and navigated the dizzying emotional changes,  I also had a support team of my cis sistas.

They helped me understand what I was embarking on by sharing their own stories about their evolving feminine journeys.   Some of the things they told me were fascinating to hear, others were humorous, while others were raw, painful deeply personal stuff they had yet to share with anyone else but did so with me. 

Some of them took it to another level and became some of my first sistafriends.

My cis sistas who were in my corner were my swords and shields against the haters.   They gave me the motivational kick when I needed it, challenged me and helped me figure out my evolving fashion style.  They told me to pull up the big girl panties when I would complain about getting whacked by the sexism they've had to navigate their entire lives. 

My African-American cis sistas helped me understand the challenges of navigating the world in a Black female body.  They stayed on my butt to ensure that I would become the woman I promised them in our conversations post April 4 I wanted to be and wished to project to the world.   

Some have been there by my side since the beginning.  Others moved on or our lives took us in different paths after they taught me the lessons I needed to learn at a particular point in my evolutionary feminine journey.   Some have joined me at a certain points in that journey and been along for the ride dispensing their wisdom along the way.

For those of you in my sistacircle as I approach this anniversary date, thank you.   You not only have qualities that I admire and incorporated into my own life, your unconditional love and support made it a lot easier for me to tackle going from zero to femininity. 

You are all loved and deeply appreciated by me for doing so and helping me become the Phenomenal Transwoman you see standing before you today.

30th Anniversary Of Marvin Gaye's Death

Now that I've gotten my April Fool's prank post out of the way, back to giving you readers what y'all surf over here for. 

This one is making me feel my age.  

It was 30 years ago today on April 1, 1984 when I and the rest of America learned that the story we were hearing about iconic soul singer Marvin Gaye being shot to death by his father on the eve of his 45th birthday was not an April Fool's Day joke, but was tragically true.  .

Marvin was just 44 years old when he was shot twice by his father at 11:38 AM PST after intervening in a argument his parents were having.   His wounds were fatal ones, and he was pronounced dead at 1:01 PM PST once he arrived at the hospital

It's 30 years later, and I find myself wondering what Marvin's music would sound like if he was still around and still writing songs today.   The ones he did write are still as relevant today as when he penned them back in the 60's and 70s'.    'Sexual Healing' is probably responsible for some of my readers being here today .

And he's one of the few singers who put their own spin on the national anthem as he did at the 1983 NBA All Star game in Los Angeles and made it a memorable. 




Rest in Power, Marvin.  You're still missed.