I met Sophie during the 2012 Philly Trans Health Conference and fell in love not only with the French Canadian cartoonist, girl like us and public speaker, but her Assigned Male comic.
Assigned Male chronicles the adventures of Stephie, a young Canadian trans girl from Montreal getting adjusted to life while trans. The cast of Assigned Male also includes her gender nonconforming friend Ciel, their cis friend Eirikur, her boyfriend Frank, her brother Virgil and a diverse cast of minor characters.
And yes, I'm a fan of Assigned Male, with its cast of unapologetic trans and gender nonconforming characters making their way in the world. It also has some timely commentary on events transpiring in Canada, the US and the world concerning trans people.
It has also drawn it share of right wing haters who hate the unapologetic truth telling that Assigned Male brings to its updated three times a week webcomic pages.
Labelle is currently doing a US Tour, and the southern US leg of it started in New Orleans with stops in Austin last night, Houston today and Denton on Tuesday.
Looking forward to seeing Sophie and welcoming her to H-town. If you want to see her and get some Assigned Male swag at the same time, you'll need to swing by the Montrose Center starting at 4 PM CST.
I'm still too pissed off about this to even write about what happened to the Voting Rights Act right now after a busy, roller coaster emotion filled news day yesterday and prepping for a road trip to Denver for a family reunion.
This cartoon pretty much expresses how I feel about the VRA and Uncle Ruckus, er Thomas making the unjust ruling happen.
One of the things we are definitely going to have to redouble our efforts in destroying in 2012 is the bathroom meme being deployed by rad fems, GL frenemies and the religious right transbigots to retard the progress of trans human rights laws
One thing I noticed a long time ago is how similar the anti-trans language and rhetoric is that comes out of the mouths of radical feminists and the religious right. Looks like the cartoonist who drew this noticed the same thing.
The cartoonist should have added the WWBT's in here for good measure, but that's a subject for another day.
I love the trans themed web cartoons at Trans Girl Diaries, and one had me laughing my butt off that deserves to be signal boosted.
I've written about or verbally pimp slapped the ubermenschen at TS-Si and other Transsexual Taliban hate sites since this blog started. I reject their SRS=transsexual=woman doctrine that they pimp and the sneering classist vanilla scented racism that goes with it.
In the process, I've become the transwoman they love to hate.
I can't help it that I was blessed with the intelligence to eviscerate their weak assed hate filled screeds, look better in a dress and heels than they do, have trans and cis girlfriends who love and respect me, an award winning blog and an IFGE Trinity award on my shelf.
And point of order for your transsexual separatist echo chamber, I AM all that and four bags of chips. If I wasn't y'all wouldn't be spending every waking moment hatin' on me.
I don't care enough about you to hate you ubermenschen back. I just pity you wannabe radical lesbian feminist fools.
But enough talking about those wastes of DNA. I loved the latest offering from TransGirl Diaries that perfectly illustrates the underlying thought processes that undergird the TS-Si posts. If you don't have surgery, you aren't a 'true transsexual' and you are a 'man'.
Okay, so what about transmen? Hatin' on the transguys is Lynn 'Dirt' Baker's department
Between keeping either a gay soldier or a bigoted one....I'd say goodbye to the bigot.
At least the gay one won't embarrass the country, cause drama in the ranks or create international incidents that inflame the populace our units are stationed in on overseas deployments like the bigoted one would.
This picture says it all about Fox Noise. When the most popular cartoon on your network lampoons your news propaganda division, you know your news propaganda network has zero credibility with the American people that read and think..
Was this the mysterious 'gay agenda' the sellout negro ministers were babbling about in the closing weeks of the campaign?
Yeah, I called them negroes. They don't deserve to be called Black or African American until they come to their senses and stop palling around with white fundamentalists who do not have the African American community's best interests at heart.
Anyhoo, I'm going to get off the electronic soapbox and let you enjoy the cartoon from the editorial pages of the Houston Chronicle.
When I watched the original Madagascar movies, I fell in love with the antics of Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private.
Those lovable action oriented penguins made both movies even more entertaining for me than chuckling over the antics of Alex, Gloria, Melman, Marty and King Julien.
I was thrilled to find out that Nickelodeon gave them their own animated series called The Penguins of Madagascar.
After their globetrotting adventures in the two Madagascar movies, they're back at the Central Park Zoo. Unfortunately for Skipper and the gang King Julien, Maurice and Mort are next door at the lemur house. They've also added another character in Marlene the otter, whose habitat is next door to the penguins as well.
As the stories evolve you occasionally see the monkeys and other zoo denizens as Skipper and the gang conduct their various hilarious missions inside and outside the zoo.
King Julien and Skipper cross swords every now and then because he annoys Skipper, but every now and then the penguins come to his rescue and bail him out of some jam Julien's bombastic personality gets himself himself into.
It's a guilty pleasure of mine that I'll probably add to my DVD collection along with the two Madagascar movies I already own as soon as they release it.
I'm a huge fan of Aaron McGruder's cartoon 'The Boondocks' (which doesn't appear in my local paper The Courier-Journal for some strange reason). I have the first two seasons of the Boondocks DVD happily parked by my TV and own two of the Boondocks books.
He started on the TV show, but has now migrated to the strip. There's a character called Uncle Ruckus, who is the embodiment of all self-hating sellout blacks.
But you don't have to believe me. Watch the video montage of Uncle Ruckus.
And oh yeah, video is questionable for work environment and has language issues.
Every time I see Uncle Ruckus, it reminds me of all those Oreo-cookie chomping Stepford Negroes falling all over themselves to appear on Faux News and elsewhere to look and act more conservative than thou.
After checking out the conservahijinks at last weekend's CPAC convention in Washington DC, it made me wonder if Dr. Drakken's brainwashing shampoo was handed out to the convention attendees.
That's a nice segue into my latest song rewrite. Since new GOP chair Michael Steele wants to do 'hip hop outreach', thought I'd help the brother out and poke fun at him, the GOP and Rush Limbaugh at the same time.
Shego, give me a beat.
Rappin' Rushbo (sung to the tune of Rappin' Drakken)
Yo Yo Yo Rush Limbaugh rappin' to you Don't want this country stayin' blue I know you're wary 'Cause the GOP's scary And has been hatin' on y'all
Obama ain't no star Hate his liberal repertoire I know I'm nerve racking So quit that yakkin' Think I'm out? It's on and crackin'
Femi-Nazis don't listen to my show It kicks me in my ego I talk about our plans Cause you know that I'm da man I make GOP legislators dance
Come on. oh. eee. gah!
GOP dreams to rule the world Make a barefoot and pregnant girl All end in rejection So after introspection We're turning our careers in another direction
Thanks to the Obama team The GOP can't be seen as mean Would I lie to you? Or your boo? I'm tellin' y'all what you have to do
Listen peeps and obey! Become conservative today! You may think we're villains Yo we're just chillin' Come on, let me hear you say Listen peeps and obey! You're a player, just play our way
The GOP can do a rap song Time to get your vote on Take some OxyContin and get that cranium rinsed!
One of my guilty television pleasures is watching Kim, Ron, Wade, and Monique negotiate the travails of high school life while jetting around the world to fight evildoers such as Dr. Drakken, Shego, Monkey Fist, Duff Killian, Senor Senior, Sr. and Senor Senior, Jr.
Oh yeah, and it does has a catchy theme song, too.
While I have a major beef with how it was heavily promoted by Disney vis a vis The Proud Family, I still like the cartoon.
Like 'errbody' else who watched it I was happy to see lifelong friends Kim and Ron kissing each other at the prom and becoming a couple. It's been interesting to see not only how their relationship develops, but how Kim deals with her twin brothers Jim and Tim, AKA 'the tweebs' being skipped to the 9th grade and now attending Middleton High during her and Ron's senior year.
It's also nice to see supergenius Wade get out of his room (voiced by Tahj Mowry). Wade is the youngest member of Team Possible and graduated from high school and college at age 10. He also creates much of the high-tech wizardry Kim and Ron use on their missions and keeps her up to date with a constant stream of intel filtered through the computer in his room.
Monique (voiced by Raven) is Kim's best female friend. She works at Club Banana, has become its assistant manager and even convinced Kim to work there.
Monique not only keeps the jet setting Kim cognizant of the Middleton High School happenings, she gives Kim sage advice when she's sorting out various problems in her non crime fighting life. She like Wade even helps Kim and Ron on an occasional crime fighting mission sometimes as well.
Kim Possible has garnered an international following and thanks to YouTube, yours truly gets the chance to catch up on whatever episodes she's missed.
You and me will always be tight Family every single day and night Even when you starts acting like a fool You know I'm loving every single thing you do
I know I can always be myself Around you more then anybody else And every day as I'm heading off to school You know there no one I love as much as you
Family, a family Proud Family They'll make you scream They'll make you wanna sing Its a family thing a family A proud proud family Proud Family They'll push your buttons They'll make you wanna hug 'em A family A family A proud proud family
When this cartoon premiered on Disney with the catchy theme song sung by Destiny's Child and little sis Solange Knowles, it got my attention.
Not long after I moved to Louisville Dawn and I were parked in front of the TV watching the antics of Oscar, Trudy, Penny, Suga Mama, the infant twins Bebe and Cece and Penny's friends Zoe, Dijonay, Sticky and 'frenemy' Lacienega.
Toss in Wizard Kelly owning everythang, Oscar's humorous attempts to sell the town his barf inducing Proud Snacks, The Gross Sisters jacking 'errbody' in the school for their money, Dr. Payne, rapper Sir Paid A Lot, the Boulevardez clan, Suga Mama's romantic pursuit of Papi Boulevardez, little Peabo's crush on Penny, and Penny navigating the waters of a teenager growing up, and life in Wizville, CA and at Willy T. Ribbs Jr/Sr.High was never boring
It was also cool because this was not only written as a slice of teen life from an African-American middle class perspective, it's rare that you had a cartoon that focused on African American life and our perspectives, period.
Okay, so now we have The Boondocks, but this preceded it, people.
I also loved the fact that during its four year run from September 15, 2001 to August 19, 2005 it had a long list of African-American and other entertainers doing guest appearances that ranged from Vanessa L. Williams to Samuel L. Jackson and Kobe Bryant.
But the one thing that irritated me during the show's run and since was how Kim Possible, a show that started at roughly the same time and even though I love that cartoon as well, was relentlessly pushed marketing wise with merchandise in their Disney stores and on the Disney website and The Proud Family wasn't.
I';m also mildy irritated that Kim Possible is still on the air and the Proud Family isn't as well.
Thanks to Bruce W. Smith and his Jambalaya Studios, we'll have the Proud Family around (as soon as they put all four seasons on DVD) to treasure forever.
I've had the pleasure over the years of meeting now Lieutenant Stephan Thorne of the San Francisco Police Department (congrats Stephan on the promotion) and hanging out with TOPS founder Tony Barreto-Neto during the 2000 IFGE convention in Washington DC.
But my favorite transgender police officer is Sgt. Aoi Futaba of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department.
Aoi was a former star high school basketball player in Japan with many female fans and after joining the force worked on the vice squad.
She crossdressed as part of an operation to catch a serial rapist, and after the case was successfully concluded she realized her body may be male, but her spirit was female and continued to dress and live as a woman full time.
She transferred from Vice to the Traffic Division soon afterward and ends up at Bokuto Station. After a rocky beginning, Aoi's new coworkers at Bokuto Precinct fully accept her, even with the knowledge that she wasn't always female.
By the way, did I mention that Sgt. Aoi Futaba is an anime character?
Some of you may have figured out either by the photos or the initial paragraph I wrote that I'm talking about the anime series You're Under Arrest. While the show is focused on the exploits on and off duty of Sgt. Miyuki Kobayakawa and Sgt. Natsumi Tsujimoto who are this anime police show's Cagney and Lacey clones, Aoi is the far more fascinating character on it.
Miyuki correctly observes during their initial meeting that Aoi is more feminine than any genetic woman in Bokuto Station by saying to her after she explained her emotions and thoughts leading to her transition, "You're the daughter my mom always wanted." During the first and second season her observation proves to be right on target.
You have the embarrassing situations centered on Aoi's pre-op status in various episodes, but over time she not only proves to be a valued officer at Bokuto Station, she simply becomes 'one of the girls.' Even Yoriko Nikaido, the nosy Bokuto station dispatcher and scheming gossip who had a major problem with her at first using the women's locker room eventually warms to Aoi and becomes her patrol partner.
It's interesting to note that Aoi realistically mirrors many of the emotions, concerns and problems that many transgender people face. She faced the bathroom issue in the very first episode that chronicles her character's initial arrival at Bokuto Station.
There were two episodes in which she faced the 'When Do I Tell Him' dating dilemma. She had to decide when to disclose to a handsome and famous actor she was attracted to and who showed romantic interest in her that she was a transwoman. The other episode chronicling Aoi's dating dilemma focused on her anguish about meeting a man she'd become romantically involved with via the Internet and revealing her secret.
There was also the You're Under Arrest-Full Throttle episode in the third season in which her old superior in the vice department Udamura Kumanosuke felt responsible for her transition because of those crossdressing missions and showed up at Bokuto station with the announced intention of turning Aoi back into a man. After the failure of the remasculinization plan, his wife pointed out after meeting Aoi that she was always female and that was her natural predestined path to travel.
Even one of her female fans in the first episode who'd developed a crush on the pre-transition Aoi in high school and treasured the pair of old basketball shoes she was given by Aoi eventually realized the same thing.
So yes, she's my favorite transgender police officer, at least in the anime world.
As for my favorite transgender police officer in the real world, I'm pleading the fifth on that.
