Happy Birthday Aisha!

Time for another TransGriot Birthday Shout out!

During the 2011 OUT on the Hill, I attended a panel discussion with Denise LeClair at the Congressional Visitors Center that was sponsored by the LGBT Congressional Staff Association and served as the kickoff event on the 2011 OUT on the Hill schedule. 

Not long after I arrived cards were passed out so that we could write a question that would be read and answered by the panelists.  Well, normally I carry a pen with me but forgot it.  Denise didn't have one on her either, and this stylishly dressed lady sitting in the row above and behind us in that auditorium saved the day by lending us hers for a moment to write our questions down on the index cards. 

Mine got selected, and the question I asked was: 

In light of the fact that the recent NAACP LGBT town hall had no bi or trans representation, when will African Americans inside and outside the LGBT community have that family discussion about the transgender community and our issues?

The stylishly dressed young lady who lent me her pen to write the question on that September 2011 evening that triggered a much needed discussion on the 'T' end of the community during that event was none other than Aisha Moodie-Mills.  I discovered that two days later during the OUT on the Hill event hosted at the Center For American Progress and she was one of the panelists for it.   It was a year later that I met the other half of my fave DC power couple, her spouse Danielle at the 2012 OUT on the Hill.


Anyway, I'm doing all this fangirl jibber-jabbering because today is Aisha's birthday, and I wasn't letting it pass with giving her a TransGriot birthday shoutout. 

As you guessed I have mad love and admiration for her and Danielle.  I love reading her thoughtful writing on LGBT rights and other issues in various venues, checking her and Danielle's Politini podcast out and seeing Aisha's insightful commentary from time to time on the various MSNBC shows.  


Hey, if MSNBC was smart they'd give Aisha her own show.    But that's just me talking. 

Speaking of MSNBC shows, she and Danielle will be on Melissa Harris-Perry in a few hours. 

What a nice way to spend your birthday.

Happy birthday Aisha!   May your special day be as beautiful as you are, overflowing with blessings, and you have many more of them to come! . 

Happy Birthday Dr. KRZ!

I couldn't let today pass without giving a TransGriot shoutout to one of my fave transmen. 

I  had the please of spending some quality time with back in September during the inaugural and wildly successful Trans*H4CK that he is busy working to replicate in other parts of the country.

And yeah I enjoyed meeting his significant other, too.

For those of you who know Kortney, I don't have to elaborate on just how awesome he is, and I'm proud to have him around as one of the peeps in my life.

Happy birthday Dr. Z!   May this one be full of love. smiles and abundant blessings and you have many more of them. 

And looking forward to being in your presence the next time our paths cross.

Happy Birthday Arianna!

When I went to New York for the GLAAD POC Media Institute training last year, little did I realize I was going to depart from it not only better equipped to do media appearances on behalf of our community, but I left it with a few new friends and allies.  

One of the people I met during that training was a lovely Latina from Florida via Peru named Arianna Inurritegui Lint. 

Arianna is VP of the TransLatin@ Coalition and pops up regularly on Spanish language media to talk about trans issues from a Latina perspective.  This accomplished lady was also one of the five trans people named to the inaugural Honor 41 list that spotlights the contributions of TBLG Latin@ people.  

And today is her birthday.  

Happy birthday sis, and may you celebrate many more of them!.   

Happy Milestone Birthday Mr Watts!

Had to take a moment to give a TransGriot milestone birthday shoutout to my fellow Texan on his Big 3-0 birthday.

Many of you TransGriot readers know that I've been jousting with this Navy vet for the last three seasons for NFL prognostication supremacy, but he has other interests besides beating me and Eli picking football games.   

In addition to expressing himself on his Michael's Rant blog, he is the chair of the Veteran's Caucus of the Texas Young Democrats

We have our moments of good-natured disagreement when it comes to being passionate defenders of our areas of the Lone Star State and our favorite Texas based NFL teams, but what we do agree on is that Texas deserves much better leadership than it has gotten over the last decade and a half from the Teapublicans.  

Happy milestone birthday Mr Watts!   May you have many more.

Happy Birthday Dawn!

Today happens to be the birthday of my former Louisville roomie Dawn Wilson.

She's probably celebrating it by going to the LFC to train for her annual trip up I-65 to administer saber fencing beatings at the Remenyik Open in Chicago

I used to enjoy that road trip to Chicago with her and especially the post-tournament celebration at Giordano's.

Hee hee. Lord Vader is also another year closer to leaving the Vet 40's 'Baby Vets' and having to.....

*Cough*, *Cough*, *Wheeze*

...fence in the Vet 50's with the 'Senior Mamas'.

Anyway, happy birthday Dawn!   May this one be filled with abundant blessings, lots of laughs, love, smiles and you standing on the victory podium at the Remenyik Open  . 

 

Happy Birthday, Jazz!

October 7 is already a busy day for me birthday card wise because I have two cousins who were born on this date.  So is six time Grammy award winning singer Toni Braxton, actress Nicole Ari Parker, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, baseball player Evan Longoria and (yuck) Russian president Vladimir Putin.  

October 7 is also the birthday of my trailblazing little sis Jazz, who turned 13 today  

Jazz has been an inspiration not only for the trans kids of her generation through her award winning advocacy, she's inspired me and my generation by allowing us to peek into her life at different time periods courtesy of her various media interviews, the I Am Jazz documentary, speeches and the two Barbara Walters interviews.   Jazz also fought a two year battle with the US Soccer Federation to get them to craft policies so transkids like her can play soccer.

Jazz has been one of the reasons along with our other transkids we trans elders have fought so hard to ensure that our trans younglings like her have a better world to grow up in and have laws on the books to protect their human rights.

We want our trans younglings to have the unfettered ability to just focus on making their dreams come true when they get to adulthood just like everyone else in this society.

And yeah, I'm still looking forward to meeting her although we keep missing connections.   Was bummed when I found out she and her mom were recently transiting Hobby Airport on their way back home mere hours after I'd arrived and gotten back to H-town after my West Coast trip for Trans* H4CK.   

And hint hint Jazz, I will be here in January for Creating Change 2014 in Houston.

But back to the birthday post.  

Jazz, you are a blessing to us, your family and the trans community and I and your trans elders have much love for you.  Hope you are having a wonderful birthday chock full of blessings, laughter, smiles and unconditional love.

May you have more of them to come!

Happy Birthday Jenifer!

Another day, another TransGriot birthday shout out.

Today is Jenifer Rene Pool's birthday, and I presume these are the four things Jenifer is probably looking for when she blows out the candles on her birthday cake:  Your donations for her campaign, you to volunteer, your votes in our upcoming November 5 city election if you live in the Houston city limits and to be standing in the Wortham Center in January being sworn in as one of our city council members

And if you can't wait until November 5, early voting starts October 25.

Jenifer is running for the Position 3 at large council seat, so that means she's running to represent the entire city.  You can check out her campaign website and like her campaign Facebook page here. 

I hope all of those wishes come true for her and the community's sake because Jenifer would be a wonderful addition to Houston City Council.

But we still have a lot of hard work and sweat equity ahead to make that happen. 

Happy birthday Jenifer!  May you have many more and make a little history in the process.

Happy Second Anniversary Of Your 25th Birthday, Isis!

October 1 is a day that's burned in the TransGriot memory banks for a lot of reasons, but one of the major ones is because it is the birthday of my fabulous fashion designing and groundbreaking model little sis Isis King!

Wasn't going to let today pass without giving her the usual blog birthday shout out.  

She is still one busy lady.   Isis is continuing to fulfill that prophetic statement I made about her in the open letter I wrote to her back in 2008 when she first got our collective attention due to her appearance on America's Next Top Model 

She's designing the wedding dress for her sister and is the Maid of Honor in her sister's wedding, and is happily living her life. 

Next time my butt is in the New York metro area I do hope to FINALLY meet her instead of having to be satisfied with talking to her on the phone from time to time.

And yes, you are STILL a beautiful butterfly spreading your wings, flying and continuing to evolve into a classy young woman both inside and out.  You also continue to be an inspiration to all of us and I'm very proud of you.

Happy birthday, Isis!   May you have many more. 

Whitney's 50th Birthday-You're Still Missed

Still hard to believe it's been over a year since we lost her, and we got another sad reminded of the person and iconic musician we lost because today would have been Whitney Elizabeth Houston's 50th birthday.

She died way too soon and is missed by her family, friends and legions of fans.

I play and look at my Whitney Houston CD's from time to time, see my copy of The Bodyguard and think about the fact that I will never be able to buy new music from her ever again or enjoy seeing her in concert.

I'm also thinking of her mother Cissy on this day, who had to endure what no parent ever wants to go through in having to witness the burial of their child. 

While the heavenly choir gained another singer, we're still pondering her loss.  We still have her music, the love, and all the memories of her she left behind to hold on to.

rest in peace Whitney, you're still missed.

Happy 52nd Birthday Mr. President!

Today is the 52nd birthday of President Barack Hussein Obama II who reality based peeps know was born on this date in Honolulu, HI back in 1961 

This birthday is one his legions of haters in the conservafool movement spent billions in a failed attempt to ensure he would be celebrating it in Chicago but the American people said otherwise.

Yep, he'll be in office from now until January 20, 2017 so he'll have three more he'll be celebrating as a resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue until that date.  

So hate on haters.

Happy birthday Mr. President.  You'll have to wait until next November before we can give you the birthday present I'm sure you'd like for this weekend.

A Democratically controlled House and Senate so you can get thing done on behalf of this country.

Happy 95th Birthday, Nelson Mandela!

'The very fact that racism degrades both the perpetrator and the victim commands that, if we are to be true to our commitment to protect human dignity, we fight on until victory is achieved.'--Nelson Mandela
The odds were looking bleak a few weeks ago in terms of him being around to celebrating this birthday.  He was battling a lung infection that had him on the ropes for a while, but today has dawned with him still in our plane of existence.

Today is former South African president Nelson Mandela's 95th birthday, and the world greets the news that the 1993 Nobel laureate is seeing this day with great relief.

As we celebrate his legacy, we in the United States also note that Mandela's 95th birthday is coming on the on the heels of our human rights being messed with on multiple levels by our Republican oppressors.  We are also emotionally reeling as we process our reactions to an unjust court verdict in which the teen victim was put on trial and not the adult gun toting bigot who killed him. 

It is also Nelson Mandela International Day , in which the global call to action goes out that celebrates and makes the point that each individual on our planet has the power to transform the world and the ability to make an impact.

The Mandela Day campaign message is a simple one.  It points out that Mr. Mandela gave 67 years of his life fighting for social justice.  It asks individuals to start with 67 minutes of their time supporting their favorite local charity or serving their community.

Mandela Day is a call to action for individuals across the planet to take responsibility for changing the world into a better place, one small step at a time, just as Mr. Mandela did.

There are weeks like this one in which that seems like it will be an impossible task, but in the spirit of this day we must do our part to at least try.

Happy birthday Madiba!    May you be blessed with many more.

It's Renee's Birthday Again!

It's July 11, and longtime readers of this blog know what that means.  

It's time for my annual birthday post celebrating the day the founding editor of Womanist Musings and my homegirl Renee Martin arrived on this planet north of the 49th parallel.

But this birthday post has a little different tone to it this year because of the frightening news I received from the Unhusband last month that she'd had a serious health setback.

She's recovering and working her butt off now along with the folks at the rehab hospital who are just as determined as she is to help her get better.  She's also armed with her tablet, so please continue to say your prayers and send your well wishes to her and her family.

But a world without Renee's blog commentary or one in which I don't get to pick up the phone and talk to her on a regular basis on a wide range of subjects is too painful to even comprehend. 

So this birthday for my Timmy's Ice Capp drinking Coach purse loving homegirl is a special one. 

Renee's made it through another 365 days (366 in a leap year) and a challenging month to celebrate it.  Those of us who love her are ecstatic that she's still in this plane of existence with us to enjoy it, say 'Happy Birthday' to her and let her know how much she is loved by us.

And yes, she is another year closer to a milestone birthday of her own (snicker, snicker).

Naw Renee, don't think I forgot about what you wrote last year.  I have 365 days to contemplate what to write when you hit your own milestone birthday next year. 

I have every confidence in the world you and by extension all of us who love you will be blessed enough to have you here next July to read it. 

Love you sis, and Happy Birthday, Renee!

It's Pam's Milestone Birthday Today!

Pam Spaulding that is!

Today is a milestone birthday for her, and it's kind of a bittersweet one for fans of Pam's House Blend.

After nine years of writing, she compiled her last post on it July 1.  While we miss her daily commentary on the issues of the day and understand the reason why she shut down the Blend, her voice and insightful commentary on many issues is still missed in the Blogosphere.

She still pops up from time to time on social media and I couldn't let today pass without wishing my blogging idol and shero a very happy birthday.

Happy birthday Pam!  May it be full of blessings and you continue to have more of them. 

Happy 25th Birthday CeCe McDonald!

Today is CeCe McDonald's birthday and I wanted to make certain this day didn't pass without the TransGriot acknowledging it.

I and the entire trans community wish you weren't unjustly stuck inside those Minnesota prison walls for basically standing your ground and defending yourself/   Our fondest wish for you as a community would be that you were out and about being able to do what any girl hitting 25 could do on her special day and celebrating it with friends and family.

But the bottom lines for today are that you're alive and you still have your life to look forward to going forward from today.   

Happy 25th birthday CeCe!   May you have many more birthdays to come.. 

 

Happy Birthday To Me, Happy Birthday To Me...

Happy birthday dear Moni, happy birthday to me!

It's time to celebrate Cuatro de Mayo again and now officially being on the other side of the Big 50 birthday.  Thanks to everyone who has sent me birthday greetings, e-mails, cards, gave me gifts, or called.   It is deeply appreciated.  

Thanks to all of you who continue to surf by my blog and play an integral part in making it the success it is.


As Janet Mock reminded me last year, it's a blessing for me to have reached this age since far too many of our transwomen won't have that opportunity.   I'm at a point in my life where I can begin (if I'm not doing that already) to act as the mentor to younger trans women I wish I'd had.

So what did I wish for when I blew out the candles on this year's birthday cake?  Gotta keep it a secret so it will become a reality. 

But one thing I would like to see is GENDA pass in New York, ENDA pass at the federal level, the TERF's be declared by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group and continue to slouch along with their TS separatist allies toward increasingly bitter irrelevancy.   I'd also like to see in the wake of  the Trans100 unveiling the international Trans 100 lists of various countries and my trans brothers like Carter, Diwa, Sean Mekhi, Louis, Kortney and the rest of the BTMI brother continue to be recognized for their increasing leadership roles.

And finally, I just want to be a better person 365 days from now than I am on this date.  I want to continue my evolution toward being the quality Black woman I know I am but can always improve on.  

Happy Birthday Carmen Xtravaganza!

If you go deep into my archives you'll see this series of Women I Admire posts.  It was my way of paying homage to the women trans and non-trans who had qualities that I was looking for and admired and wanted to emulate in my own life in terms of the type of woman i wanted to project to the world.   

One of the persons I wrote a post about was Carmen Xtravaganza.   

She is strikingly beautiful (still is) and one of the many people I looked up to during that 80's time period I was in trans information gathering mode and weighing the decision to transition. 

In the wake of this post I wrote, I realized that I wanted to lead by example and get to know, have regular conversations with and hopefully form lasting friendships with my sisters in the ballroom and pageant worlds.  

I was thrilled to get a FB friends request from this ballroom legend recently, and we've been chatting from time to time.   It's been a blast getting to know her and I am so looking forward to meeting her the next time I'm in the New York area or wherever our paths cross. 

Anyway, she told me during our chat yesterday that April 9 is her birthday, so I'm giving her TransGriot birthday shoutout treatment .

Happy birthday Carmen!   May you have many more!.

It's Janet Mock's Birthday!

Another year and another birthday celebration for one beautiful lady I finally got the opportunity to meet when I flew up to New York last August for my GLAAD media training.

I got to spend more quality time with her and Kimberley McLeod a few short weeks later when I was in Washington DC for the 2012 edition of OUT on the Hill and she was there to attend a function at Vice President Joe Biden's house. .

Janet's photos don't her justice.  She's even more beautiful in person both inside and out, and I'm proud to call her a friend.

Happy birthday, Janet!.   Know you've already been celebrating it for most of the weekend, so may you continue to receive abundant blessings on your special day, and may you have many more birthdays to come!     

Happy Birthday Kimberley And Diamond!

When I checked my Facebook page noted that two of my fave ladies in the community are having birthdays today, so both of them are getting the TransGriot birthday shoutout treatment.. 

Kimberley McLeod is the creative force behind Elixher.com where some my posts will pop up from time to time. 

She's also the Director of Communications at the National Black Justice Coalition and was recently named (# 38) one of 50 Black LGBT People that Every Black LGBT Youth Should Know by National Youth Pride Services.

She's one of the people in the community I admire and is one smart and gorgeous lady I enjoy spending quality time talking to.

Happy birthday Kimberley!   


Today is also my Houston homegirl Diamond Stylz's birthday.

You know Diamond from her outstanding video blog that I post her insightful commentary videos from time to time here at TransGriot.

I also had the pleasure of finally meeting her during last year's TransFaith in Color Conference in Charlotte and spending some quality time getting to know this talented lady with a wicked sense of humor. 

Happy birthday Diamond to you as well!

May both you ladies have a blessings filled special day that is as beautiful as both of you are, and may you celebrate many more birthdays to come!

Happy 49th Birthday Madame First Lady!

Today is the 49th birthday of First Lady Michelle L. Obama, who I am deliriously happy to say will be living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue until January 20, 2017.

Looking forward to seeing he discuss her various policy initiatives and representing our country now and throughout her husband's second term.   It will also be interesting to see what she does after she leaves the White House as well. 

So happy birthday Madame First Lady!    May it be a day as beautiful as you are filled with blessings, and may you have many more of them.

Happy Birthday Niece!

For you regular readers of TransGriot, you've seen me write posts from time to time about the exploits of Dr. Kaila A. Story, also known to moi as Niece.  

I had the pleasure of meeting one of the rising intellectual stars in academia back when I lived in Louisville in 2008. 

She's the Assistant Professor of Women's and Gender Studies at the University of Louisville, with a joint appointment in the Department of Pan-African Studies. She also holds the Audre Lorde Chair in Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.

I've had the honor of doing some trans related panel discussions for her classes when I lived there and when she's not teaching her lucky U of L students, she's the co-hostess of the WFPL-FM radio show Strange Fruit along with Jaison Gardner, AKA Nephew.

But it's all about Niece in this post because today is her birthday!

Happy Birthday Niece!    May it be a day as beautiful as you are.  May it also be one that is chock full of abundant blessings.   And yes, may you celebrate many more of them!