Blowing Up The Anti-Trans Talking Points

Since our right wing oppressors, TERF's and clueless writers like Michelle Goldberg are deploying anti-transgender talking points in their 'fear and smear' campaign to demonize the trans community for whatever reason, as a TransGriot public service, need to point y'all to an excellent post Brynn Tannehill wrote that seeks to push back against the commonly used anti-trans myths

And now, here's Brynn's post, entitled Fighting Back Against Anti-Transgender Talking Points.

We Trans Peeps Make The Call Concerning Who We Are, Not You Cisgender Haters

This is just one of those days I was in a combative mood.  I got a message from one of my FB friends in Bermuda earlier today concerning a commentary from a cis woman purporting to be a professional counselor on the island that threw some ignorant transphobic shade at self proclaimed 'Hip Hop Transsexual' Sidney Starr.

The price you pay for being attracted to fakeness! And women..born females.. empty their bank accounts, starve themselves, inject themselves, etc to be able to look like this... smh.. all because our men have been conditioned to want what is not real.. to want what is not traditionally them. This is NOT our women.. this is our women.. oh and I guess now our men too... trying to look like hybrids. Trying to attain a false sense of ideal beauty. It is a REAL BIG problem when a race of men change themselves to look like what another race calls the ideal beauty... what MAN changes himself to be the vision of another race's WOman? Seriously????? This is getting out of hand! This was brought to my attention.. "Hip Hop Transexual" known as Sidney Star.. Nowadays you must really inspect the women that you're with, and also ask to see young child hood photos just to be on the safe side.... or better yet get real and be attracted to natural beauty which you will only find in real women. But first I guess you would have to actually love yourself and the physical features of your own race. siiigh smh

Shaking my head at the ignorance that was contained in that comment and the subsequent Facebook thread attached to Sidney's photo .

There was one fool who suggested the Buju Banton method for dealing with the issue.of what to do after discovering your date is trans as the Not So Good alleged Doctor wrote another comment that was the tired and wrong chromosomes meme that XX= female and XY= male.

Y'all knew I had to put that ignorance on blast.    

In your zeal to demonize Sidney Starr, guess you forgot about the women on this planet who are born with Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome and have XY chromosomes but feminine bodies.

And what about women who can't conceive or give birth to children or are born without a uterus? Does that make them 'men' in your opinion?

There are men and women who have XXY or XXXY or other combinations of chromosomes that you cant determine just by looking at them

And FYI, would love for you to put your money where your mouth is and take a chromosome test so we can know what your chromosomes turn out to be.

And wouldn't it be the height of irony if your test revealed them to be something other than XX?

I wasn't done yet.   I also tackled the deception meme that was also floating around unchecked in that transphobic thread.

The 'deception' meme is also problematic in this thread. It drives much of the anti-trans violence around the world that results in the untimely deaths of trans women and especially transwomen of color. How is a trans person being 'deceptive' by simply living their life?

The genitalia between a trans woman or a trans man's legs is nobody's business except the person they are potentially dating. It you don't like the fact that a trans woman you are attracted to for her FEMININITY possesses a penis in her panties and you aren't down with that, then simply step away.

You are not and never will be justified in hitting or killing a transwoman because you have a problem with the fact you were attracted to her.

And cis women, nether are you justified in telling a trans woman's business and setting her up for a potential hate crime because you're jealous that said transwoman is performing femininity BETTER than you are or getting more masculine romantic attention.

Trans women don't deserve beatdowns or death because of the internalized transphobia of cis people.

The TransGriot's work stamping out transphobia is never done.  That type of ignorance is dangerous, especially to a child or person who has gender issues they are trying to sort out and they go to this person as an alleged professional counselor who is supposed to help them.

It also didn't help that this comment thread popped up mere days after Bermuda's governor made the Throne Speech to open parliament and discussed in vague terms during the speech their National Gender Policy. 

But time to move this away from Bermuda's sunny shores and close this post.

This issue of transphobia in the African Diaspora isn't just a Bermuda problem.  It's one we have here in North America, Brazil, the Caribbean and continental Africa, too.  And as I've stated before, I didn't stop being Black when I transitioned, nor does being trans negate my being proud of my African heritage..      

We trans people not only get to make the final call on being the men and women we are, we demand acceptance for being the evolving persons we are now, not when we came out of the womb decades ago.      

The last thing we need is drama from cisgender people who have issues with their own bodies and being comfortable in their own skin.  If you arrogantly think you have the right to oppress or kill us for choosing to do what was necessary to make our bodies match our brains so we can navigate society more comfortably, you thought wrong.    
 
It is we trans people who are the final arbiters of who we are and what type of person we present to the world, not you cisgender haters.

And every time you forget that point, one of us will be around to remind you.
  

Trans Woman Accuses El Monte, CA Police Officer Of Sexual Assault

One of the depressingly consistent stories I've chronicled since I started this blog in 2006 is the long and sometimes ugly history of police misconduct aimed at transwomen that is sadly widespread across the nation in red and blue states. 

The root cause of the May 1959 Cooper's Donuts Riots in Los Angeles, the August 1966 Compton's Cafeteria one in San Francisco and the June 1969 Stonewall Riots is trans and gender variant people getting fed up with police harassment of them.

We have had far too many cases of trans women disrespected in their own homes, having their human rights violated, messed with in jails by guards and prisoners alike, physically and sexually assaulted , subjected to stop and frisk tactics and even shot at by a drunk off duty cop pissed off because a trans woman rejected his disrespectful sexual advances.   And in far too many of those cases the police disrespect of trans women and disregard for their human rights has been aimed at Black and Latina transwomen. 

Now comes word from the Left Coast concerning a transwoman who filed a federal lawsuit on October 18 under a pseudonym that seeks unspecified monetary damages and names as defendants the city of El Monte, CA and an unnamed police officer she alleges sexually assaulted her.

According the the complaint, plaintiff  'Jane Roe' alleges that in the early morning hours on October 23, 2012.she was crossing Garvey Avenue at Central Avenue (map) on the way to a friend's house between 4 AM and 6 AM PDT when a uniformed El Monte police officer pulled up in a marked patrol car and demanded to know what she was doing, according to the civil complaint. 

The officer ordered her to lean into the driver's side window of the patrol car and "Because she feared for her safety if she refused, (she) leaned forward and (the officer) groped her breasts," the complaint says. "He then asked (her) if she was 'a nasty she-male.' (She) responded that she was transsexual."

The officer then allegedly ordered Roe to walk into an alley behind businesses in the southeastern corner of the intersection, and into a secluded parking lot behind 10052 Garvey Avenue in which upon arrival he ordered her to perform oral sex on him, the complaint says.

After several minutes, the officer raped her on the trunk of his patrol car while calling her demeaning names.

The officer then allegedly threw his used condom on the ground and told the trans woman to leave. After a few moments, she returned to retrieve the condom for use as evidence, according to the complaint.

That condom she retrieved was turned over to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department as evidence.  The officer was placed on leave as the El Monte Police Department launched an internal affairs investigation and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's launched a criminal investigation into the matter.

Jane Roe's federal lawsuit is a reminder of how many times the police officers who are sworn to protect and serve us have forgotten or ignored the fact that we transpeople are part of the community and we have human rights that you violate at your peril.

Colorado Civil Rights Division Lets Coy Pee In Peace

The Colorado Civil Rights Division has ruled in favor of 6 year old trans kid Coy Mathis, who was barred from using the girls' restroom at her elementary school despite a statewide law banning discrimination on the basis of gender identity in public accommodations.


The Fountain-Fort Carson School District 8 told Coy's parents in December that the first grader would not be able to continue to use the girls' restroom after the holiday break
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The family then filed a civil rights complaint in February.   The Civil Rights Division eventually ruled that the district's solution of letting Mathis use staff bathrooms was a violation of the young girl’s rights and was similar to discriminatory “separate but equal” laws.

"Schools should not discriminate against their students, and we are thrilled that Coy can return to school and put this behind her," Kathryn Mathis, Coy's mother, said in a statement published in the Denver Post. "All we ever wanted was for Coy's school to treat her the same as other little girls. We are extremely happy that she now will be treated equally.

And all any transperson wants, no matter what their age is to be treated as a first class citizen and be able to pee in peace.