Happy 14th Blogiversary TransGriot!

One thing I can promise you dear reader is that you won't be disappointed. There will be times I'll make you laugh. Other times I'll touch your heart. Then there will be the occasional time or two when I piss you off. But my goal is to make you think and expose you to some of the drama that African-American transpeeps (and transpeople in general) deal with.-TransGriot, January 1, 2006 

The arrival of New Year's Day 2020 also means that TransGriot is celebrating another birthday!

It was on January 1, 2006 at 12 midnight EST that my first post went up on my blog.   It took me a year to find my voice and figure out what I wanted to do with it, but once I did, it has led to four a GLAAD Outstanding Blog Award nominations  in 2014, 2017 and 2019.  I captured it on my third nomination in 2018.

It also led to last year the TERF enemies of the trans community cyberattacking it in a failed attempt to shut it down. 

It has also opened up some opportunities for me to express myself not on on these electronic pages, but at college campuses, conferences,  on radio and television, and other venues across the United States. 

There are over 11, 000 posts on this blog discussing everything from trans issues to sports.  It is not only an electronic repository of our Black trans history, it  has also allowed me to elevate my voice in the political discourse of the moment inside and outside of the TBLGQ community.

And with 2020 being a presidential election year, I'll have a lot to talk about until New Year's Eve rolls back around in 365 days.   

Yep, this is also a leap year and an Olympic year    Will be nice to see if we have a trans athlete FINALLY qualify for an Olympics.

Note to all you haters claiming that trans feminine athletes are 'dominating women's sports'   So far this is the only trans woman who has made it to an Olympic opening ceremony, and she was holding the placard for the Brazilian Olympic team.

While I have been documenting the murders of my trans family over the last few years, it is not the only mission of this blog.  Here's my mission statement to tell you what it is.

The TransGriot blog's mission is to become the griot of our community. I will introduce you to and talk about your African descended trans brothers and trans sisters across the Diaspora, reclaim and document our chocolate flavored trans history, speak truth to power, comment on the things that impact our trans community from an Afrocentric perspective.  I will also enlighten you about the general things that go on around me and in the communities that I am a member of.
--Mission Statement compiled January 2, 2011

 That's my blog's mission.   Been handling that business for now fourteen years, and just an FYI, the 15th anniversary of this blog will take place 366 days from now on January 1, 2021.

Happy blogiversary TransGriot 

Happy 13th Blogiversary, TransGriot

Today is not only the start of a new year, it's also the 13th anniversary of the start of TransGriot.

At midnight Eastern standard time on January 1, 2006, my first post went up on this blog.   It initially started out as a way for me to comment real time on the issues of the day and complement the monthly column I had in a local Louisville TBLGQ paper called The Letter.

The blog eventually got more popular than the newspaper column after spending much of of TransGriot's first year trying to figure out what I wanted to do with it.

Now after 13 years, over 10,000 posts, and finally capturing an elusive GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Blog , what I figured out was that what I needed to do with it was be a voice for Black trans people who at that point and time didn't have one.

It also has another important mission of recording our history.  I also used TransGriot's electronic pages to push the media in the TBLGQ community and in Cis World of doing better when  and how they report on trans issues, and role modeling how to do so.

And yes, one of the most beloved features is the TransGriot Shut Up Fool Awards.

So thanks to Jordana LeSesne for relentlessly staying on my azz until she got me to commit in November 2005 to start TransGriot, to pick a January 1 start date, and actually follow through with my first post.

This blog opened up a new world of opportunities for me, in addition to allowing me to be the voice for a community. 

While my blog may have started to give Black trans people a voice and talk about the issues from our perspective, it has grown far beyond what I envisioned for it when I hit SEND on that first post on New Year's Day 2006. .

Here's to TransGriot's Year 13!   Let's see how it transpires.

Happy New Year 2017 And Happy Blogiversary TransGriot!

At this moment I'm ringing in the New Year at a party being hosted by Nikki Araguz Loyd, so I wanted to make sure I took a moment to wish you TransGriot readers around the world a very Happy New Year.  

It's actually the first time in several years that I've done something on New Year's Eve besides chill at home and wait for ABC's New Year's Rocking Eve to come on TV and watch the ball drop from Times Square.   Hasn't really been the same for me since Dick Clark died anyway, so needed to do something to get out of the New Year's Eve rut I've lapsed into, and thanks Nikki for providing the opportunity and the event to do so. ..

January 1 is also the blogiversary for TransGriot.   11 years ago today my first post went up on this electronic platform at 12 midnight EST.    It was based in Louisville at the time, and not only focused on my life in Da Ville, it was also focused on giving Black transpeople a voice in the blogosphere in addition to talking about and recording our history.

Today my award winning blog is now based in my hometown of Houston, and this is just one of over 10,000 posts I and my guest bloggers have written for you to peruse.

I'm also rapidly approaching the 6.5 million hit milestone that I'll achieve sometime during the first two weeks of 2017..   I'll also have something I didn't have when I started this blog thanks to Koncept Kit, a logo.

With an incoming administration that doesn't like the media or the truth, telling it like it T-I-S is even more important now and vital for the next four years.   It's also important to speak truth to power to the people in our TBLGQ community and the other communities I intersect with.

So celebrate the fact that we've survived the 366 day trip on this space rock, and then after the last song has been played and the fireworks have faded, it'll be time to wake up and get to work.

And it'll be time for me to start my second decade of telling it like it T-I-S is on this unapologetically Black blog that has evolved to be a media voice for an entire community.

Happy 10th Blogiversary Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters!

Eight months after I founded TransGriot on January 1, on September 6, 2006 South Carolina based blogger Alvin McEwen was founding his now decade old award winning blog entitled Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters.

The blog was initially started by McEwen as an effort to support a book of the same name that Alvin was trying to get published that discussed the anti-gay industry, but turned out to be far more successful than the book was according to Alvin.

I finally got to meet him and Pam Spaulding at Netroots Nation 2012 in Providence, and had a blast getting to know him and discussing with him and Pam some of the issues impacting our community at the time.   I also have the pleasure from time to time of chatting with my fellow Southern blogging colleague on a somewhat regular basis.

Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters has done such a great job of calling out the tactics of the anti-gay right, he has become after Joe Jervis of Joe My God, the other LGBTQ blogger they love to hate  

McEwen's blog has also been nominated twice (2014-2015) for GLAAD Media  Awards, and there are times I link to him for his take on the issues of the faux Christians and their ongoing facts free attacks on our LGBTQ community and other subjects.

Happy blogiversary Alvin and congrats on 10 years of publishing success for your blog. It is needed and even more necessary now than it was when it started.

May you have continued success in exposing the facts free hypocrisy and outright blasphemous lies of the anti-LGBTQ industry.

Happy 10th Blogiversary TransGriot!

It is finally New Year's Day in the US central time zone, and the first day of 2016 is not the only thing we are celebrating today.

January 1 also happens to be the day in 2006 that I started TransGriot the blog with this post.

I only wrote 124 posts in that inaugural yer because I still had at the time a monthly newspaper column I was focused on in addition of trying to figure out what direction I wanted to take the blog in, but eventually did so.

So after over 9000 posts, a GLAAD Media Awards nomination, winning a 2013 Esteem Award, a 2010 Black Weblog Award and 2011 finalist nomination along with a 2008 Weblog Award finalist nomination. TransGriot has grown beyond my wildest dreams and expectations.

I hope you'll also hit that TransGriot Tip Jar in the upper left hand corner and donate what you can to keep it going and ad free.

In this 10th anniversary year, which also happens to be one in which we will be choosing the next president, I suspect I'll be doing a lot of political posts this year along with whatever else needs to be discussed inside and outside of Trans World.

And if I'm blessed to do so, I will be covering a few conferences and events that I get the opportunity to attend.  So far I'm looking at possibly attending Creating Change 2016 in Chicago, the 2016 LGBT Media Journalists Convening in Baltimore, and the joint NABJ/NAHJ Conference in Washington DC.

And I can't wait for it to get started.

Happy blogiversary!

   

Happy 9th Anniversary TransGriot!

January 1 as you long time readers are aware of also happens to be the anniversary date of the founding of TransGriot.   

It was on New Year's Day 2006 that I decided after much prompting from my sis Jordana LeSesne, this would be the day I started this blog with this initial post.

The TransGriot blog Mission Statement came a few years later on January 2, 2011.

The TransGriot blog's mission is to become the griot of our community. I will introduce you to and talk about your African descended transbrothers and transsisters across the Diaspora, reclaim and document our chocolate flavored trans history, speak truth to power, comment on the things that impact our trans community from an Afrocentric perspective and enlighten you about the general things that go on around me and in the communities that I am a member of.
Nine years and several award nominations later, TransGriot has garnered over 5.8 million hits and counting internationally.  It is also considered the go to blog for information and commentary not only about trans people of color, but the trans community as a whole.

And I'm proud to have seen my baby grow up.  So is the person who stayed on my butt and  ensured that first post at midnight EST on January 1, 2006 happened

So proud of you and TransGriot. Just look how far you've come! The best still lay ahead. Onward and upward Monica, just like I said at that conference we met at in Philly.
-Jordana LeSesne

Thanks to all you readers who continue to surf by here to check out my latest posts.  Thanks to all you readers that  I meet as I'm out and about in the world, during my events and my travels across this country (and hopefully soon the world)  how much you appreciate my writing.

You can bet that whatever happens in 2015, I'll be commenting on it.

It's Another TransGriot Blogiversary-8 Years And Counting

One thing I can promise you dear reader is that you won't be disappointed. There will be times I'll make you laugh. Other times I'll touch your heart. Then there will be the occasional time or two when I piss you off. But my goal is to make you think and expose you to some of the drama that African-American transpeeps (and transpeople in general) deal with.
--TransGriot, January 1, 2006    'Happy New Year!'

That was the closing paragraph from my initial post when I started this blog on New Year's Day 2006.  Can't believe I'm still doing so almost 7500 posts later.  

New Year's Day 2014 marks the 8th year since I had the challenge issued to me by my little sis from another mother Jordana LeSesne to pick a hard date to start a blog.   Mission statement came five years later.

Jordana patiently listened to me as I griped during one of our phone conversations in November 2005 about the lack of Afrocentric trans blog in the starting to blow up blogosphere.  After listening to me complain about the situation, she asked, "So when are you going to start one?"  

She pressed me to pick a starting date for it because she knew me all too well. If I started getting bogged down in multiple projects, the blog ran the risk of getting put on the back burner.  Jordana stayed on my behind until that first post went up. 

I chose January 1, 2006 and a few moments after midnight on that date my first post went up. 

So you TransGriot readers have Jordana to thank for giving me the nudge I needed to get it started, and several awards and over 5 million hits later her faith in me and my writing skills was rewarded.

And she was right in saying our Afrocentric trans community needed a voice in the emerging blogosphere, so why not let it be mine?   You TransGriot readers have not only liked what I've had to say on these electronic pages, the 5 million plus hits tell me you take time out of your busy days on a regular basis to read what I post. 

I thank you for doing so.  

As we move into Year 8, I'm rapidly approaching the 5.5 million hit milestone along with the 7500 post one.  It's the fifth anniversary of me doing my Weekly Shut Up Fool posts y'all eagerly await every Friday.  I plan to do more of the TransGriot Ten Questions Interview posts and start doing a TransGriot Shut up Fool of the Month. 

You know if I'm invited to do so, I'll cover the conferences and events I'm able to attend, starting with Creating Change 2014, which is in H-town this year.  

And yes, to the consternation of my haters, I'll continue to tell it like it T-I-S is about the issues of the day and the things that impact Trans World and our community.  

God willing, the game plan is to do so for the foreseeable future.

Happy Blogiversary TransGriot.

Happy 7th Anniversary TransGriot Blog!

January 1 also happens to be the anniversary date for TransGriot.  At midnight EST on January 1, 2006 the first post went up on this blog.  

You can also thank Jordana LeSesne for pushing me to get the blogging party started as well thanks to a phone conversation we had in November 2005.  I was griping about the dearth of transgender blogs at the time focused on trans issues from an Afrocentric perspective, and she said after patiently listening to my lament, "So when are you going to start it?"

She didn't leave it there.  Jordana also made me commit to a start date for the soon to be born blog and I chose January 1.      

This is the closing paragraph from that initial post.

One thing I can promise you dear reader is that you won't be disappointed. There will be times I'll make you laugh. Other times I'll touch your heart. Then there will be the occasional time or two when I piss you off. But my goal is to make you think and expose you to some of the drama that African-American transpeeps (and transpeople in general) deal with.

The mission statement and hit counter came later, but the humble beginnings of that first post have now led to several awards and me having over 4.5 million people around the world reading the over 6000 posts I've compiled in this electronic space.   

And what's the TransGriot Mission Statement you ask?

The TransGriot blog's mission is to become the griot of our community.  I will introduce you to and talk about your African descended transbrothers and transsisters across the Diaspora, reclaim and document our chocolate flavored trans history, speak truth to power, comment on the things that impact our trans community from an Afrocentric perspective and enlighten you about the general things that go on around me and in the communities that I am a member of.

Hopefully in the now seven years this blog has been in operation, I've lived up to that mission statement. 

I know I've lived up to everything I said in the closing paragraph of that January 1, 2006 post.

Happy anniversary, TransGriot! 

Happy New Year 2012 -Happy TransGriot Blogiversary!

It's 2012.. Happy New Year TransGriot readers!   

Today also happens to be TransGriot blogiversary in which on this date six years ago my first post went up on my then fledgling blog. 

Six years later I have over 3.2 million hits and counting on this blog, over 5000 posts, a worldwide following, multiple nominations and awards for what I write here and the love, respect and admiration of my blogging peers and people inside and outside the trans community.

But without you loyal readers stopping by on a regular basis, spending your valuable web surfing time reading the posts I compile here and recommending them to your friends and associates, I wouldn't have achieved it as quickly as I have. 

Yes, I have mad writing skills and talent.  A lot of hard work has gone into building this blog and is a major  part of my formula for success here, but you readers are the most important piece of it.   

You can bet that I'll have a lot to say about what's going on in 2012 inside and outside the trans community here in the States and around the world.

Will I write more than 1563 posts like I did last year?   Well, considering it's a critical election year in the United States and the Summer Olympics are just two of the major events happening in 2012, maybe.

Happy New Year!