It's Juneteenth, 2013 Edition!

Today is June 19 or Juneteenth as we call it in the Lone Star State and the 42 other states that recognize it

It commemorates the 1865 day that Union Major General Gordon Granger stood on the balcony at Ashton Villa in Galveston, TX and read General Order Number 3 that proclaimed that all Texas slaves were henceforth freed.

I wrote a post last year framing Juneteenth in the context of what the African-American trans community in my home state needed to do.  I called for African-American trans Texans to embark on a trans Juneteenth in which we step off the mental plantation of shame, guilt and fear and stride boldly toward a future of us owning our power.  

What I didn't know at the time was that the seeds for what I was calling for were already being planted at the inaugural Black Transmen, Inc conference in Dallas and started to grow this past March.  A few weeks later I finally got a chance while I was in Charlotte for the TransFaith in Color Conference to meet in the flesh two Texas based transwomen I'd corresponded with online for several years in Dallas' Rev. Carmarion Anderson and Houston video blogger Diamond Stylz

At the BTMI conference in March I finally got to meet Carter Brown of Dallas and the men of BTMI who are all about being the change you wish to see in the world.   A month later it was emerging Houston transmasculine leader Tye West.

And yes, there are cis African-American allies and our trans family in Texas, around the nation and the world who stand ready to help us put into practice what I visualized last year.

We've stepped off the mental plantation of shame, fear and guilt and are taking those bold steps into being proud trans masculine and trans feminine Texans involved with and ensconced in the communities we intersect and interact with.  How that continues to evolve will be the source of constant communication. effort and sometimes 'The Texas Trans Revolution Will Not Be Televised' consultation, but I'm happy to see it's finally happening in my birth state.   

I'm also aware that the struggle for trans Texans human rights continues inside and outside of the African-American community.   We have to throw off the shackles of fourth class citizenship and plant trans civil rights trees here in our state as we fight off the oppressors who seek to chop those trees down.  We must nurture their growth even though we realize that as they grow tall enough to shelter transpeople from the blazing sun of anti-trans discrimination and bigotry, we may not live long enough to sit under them and drink strawberry soda or strawberry Kool-Aid in their human rights shade.

That shouldn't deter us from doing the hard solid thinking and work that must be done to build community amongst African-American trans Texans, our cis and trans allies here, across the US and around the world and all people of good will interested in helping us sit at our place at the family table. 

As I said in last year's post and it still applies 365 days later, we African descended Texas transpeople can no longer afford to muddle around for another wasted decade isolated, invisible to the world at large, ignorant about what's going on around us, and feeling impotent socially, emotionally, politically and economically. 

It is time for us to step up our leadership games and be the proud Black trans men and trans women we are, own our power and write our own proud chapter in Black Texas history in the process.

And I'm pleased and proud to see that we are finally on the road to doing all of the above.

Melissa Harris-Perry: If You're A Young Black Man, Who You Are Is Threat Enough

Melissa Harris-Perry comments on the latest infuriating episode of white male in Florida shooting young black kid to death and hiding behind the NRA and ALEC sponsored shoot Black people with impunity  'stand your ground' law to attempt to get away with it..

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Anchor Delivers A Verbal Smackdown To A Bully

Note to bullies. Never mess with someone who has a bigger media platform than you do and is willing to use it.  You will get your feelings hurt. 

WKBT-TV anchor Jennifer Livingston of La Crosse, WI lays the verbal smackdown to Kenneth W. Krause, who e-mailed her a hurtful fat shaming commentary concerning her weight she felt was a low blow.

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She also noted during her on-air rebuttal that October is Anti-Bullying Awareness Month. 

Welcome New TransGriot Readers!

During my highly enjoyable time at Netroots Nation I was pleased and proud to meet not only some of my blogging heroes and sheroes, but people who are toiling away whose names aren't known yet in their local communities doing what they can do to make life better for all of us.

Some of them are just now becoming aware of TransGriot, started reading it during the conference, told me how much they liked what I had to say on many issues and appreciated most of all the unapologetic chococentric point of view I have about issues inside and outside the TBLG community.

Some have even begun putting links to TransGriot on their own blogs and I'm reciprocating to those who do so in my own blog link list which frankly needs a makeover.

So for those of you just discovering my electronic cyberhome, welcome.   Check out the over 5500 post that I've written over the last six years.  Some might make you laugh, others will make you cry when you read them.  Others will piss you off while others will enlighten, educate and empower you. 

I also thank you longtime TransGriot readers as well for being there and reading me for all these years and you also let me know at Netroots Nation 2012 how much you love and appreciate my writing. 

But TransGriot is basically designed with one purpose in mind, and that is to get you to critically think about trans issues and see them from a different perspective.

Haters Gonna Hate

Comedian Katt Williams spoke some truth here.  

So what she/he keeps talking about you and hating on you. What do you think a hater's job is...to hate. If you have someone hating on you right now you better think of how to get five more people hating by Christmas. You need haters to make you stronger..without haters most people wouldn't try to become better. Just tell them b***h you just hate me because you can't be me.' 

 Well, I have a one line sentence that encapsulates the same thing to my haters.   .  

'You hate me because you wanna emulate me.'

And to paraphrase President Franklin Delano Roosevelt,  I welcome your hatred. 

It lets me know I'm on the right track in doing what I need to do.  It lets me know that you're 'scurred' of me for whatever reason in your minds. It lets me know that you are so bothered by the fact that I am speaking my truth, uplifting a longtime downtrodden community and fear me doing my part to get Black transpeople to see themselves in a positive light.

When I'm getting inspiring e-mail from people around the country and the world telling me they appreciate what I do, a post I wrote inspired them, or a post I wrote dissuaded them from committing suicide, that means more to me than any sniping or derogatory commentary you haters can come up with.

But haters gonna hate   Take a number and step in that long line of people that wanna spout vitriol at award winning Moni with the award winning blog 'nobody reads'.   

All you're doing is talking loud and saying nothing while I empower, educate and enunciate my thoughts as to how we make the trans community better, the TBLG community better, and the nation and the world better..
 
On that note, I wasted enough bandwith on y'all.   Time to do as Dr. King called it,  some more hard, solid thinking and writing on subjects that matter.

Like Comments....But

In case you missed it on the left hand sidebar, I don't mind receiving comments on the things I post here.    

However, due to the fact that I am an unapologetic African American transwoman who tells it like it T-I-S is, I do get my share of hate and racist commentary.   It's why the TransGriot comment section is on moderated status, and that will not change in the forseeable future.   

That means because of the idiots, lil ol me is the one who has to approve all of your comments good, bad or indifferent.  They'll get posted when I get the time in my busy life to go through them.   

Yes, contrary to public opinion and the unsolicited opinions of my detractors, I do have a life that doesn't revolve around this blog.

Since this is my cyberhome, your First Amendment free speech rights extend to the end of my nose.    If your comment is offensive or racist, it will not see the light of day unless I feel like embarrassing you or making you look like the anus you are for the world to see.

Some I hold in the que for the Nuke A Troll segment, and I reserve the right to edit your comment for clarity. 

There is no need to repetitively send your comments, it'll show up once I approve it.

Thank you for your patience.

The Washington Blade Quoted Me...

But not enough in the article they wrote on HB 235.  The article failed to interview local opponents such as Sandy Rawls, Dana LaRocca, and Jenna Fischetti for example.   Chibbaro tried to claim that the HB 235 opposition was out-of-state transpeople    It also failed to explain the reason why HB 235 is getting this pushback...

And I have to co-sign Kat Rose's latest ENDAblog article. 

I also like her FB page comment 

Why is it that when a politician changes his mind to the detriment of trans rights its 'political reality,' but when a politician changes his mind to the detriment of same-sex marriage, he becomes the embodiment of betrayal - Benedict Arnold multiplied by Julius and Ethel Rosenberg with a Quisling chaser?

Here's the initial article on HB 235 from the Blade's Lou Chibbaro, Jr.

Here's the comment I left on that article that has yet to be approved as I write this

Monica Roberts March 4, 2011 at 1:33 am

Since you’re going to selectively quote me in this article, I also said this in that Feb 15.’Still Concerned About The Flawed MD Trans Rights Bill’ post on my blog.

Yes Maryland trans peeps, Lord knows... I understand how badly you want trans rights coverage along with everyone else shouting from the rooftops that this bill is flawed. But better to insist on an airtight and properly written trans rights bill from the outset, even if it takes a few more years to pass than settle for a bad bill now.

Any civil rights bill ever written has that no brainer language in it, including the ones that the GL community cut us out of that cover them. But yet Equality Maryland drafted and submitted HB 235 to the Maryland legislature, admitted they did so, and is pimping the ‘incremental rights’ mantra at the trans community while they settle for nothing less than full blown same sex marriage for themselves.


GL community, if legislative ‘crumbs’ aren’t acceptable to you, they aren’t for me and my community either, especially in light of the fact it’s trans POC’s who are taking the brunt of the trans hate casualties and the discrimination.


Jenna Fischetti of TransMaryland had this to say about the Blade HB 235 article:

In responsible journalism, should you wish to investigate a story and write on it, a collection of the purported facts should obtained. In writing this piece you have not interviewed a single person in opposition to the bill, while interviewing or at least reporting the statements of three persons in favor of this weakened bill. You didn't speak with Sandy Rawls, you merely reposted a statement from her Facebook profile, you reference a national transgender activist with as much if not more experience in civil rights than ANYONE currently discussing this legislation and even then, its just one comment about same-sex marriage and the attention the anti-discrimination bill is getting. Nothing on the points of why this is poor legislation. No counterpoint to what amounts to a fluff piece written for the benefit of EQMD and its attempt to ram a flawed bill on the community solely so one politician, a bureaucrat and one civil rights attorney can claim victory.

The political reality is Senator Rich Madaleno, D Montgomery County, the Maryland Senate's only openly gay Senator has called for this bill to be amended with public accommodations. That countless local members of the transgender community do not support the bill because it creates a separate but not equal subclass of citizenship for individuals based on gender identity. Lou, can you name me 5 people this would protect? I can name you 6 million. THE ENTIRE STATE OF MARYLAND as EVERY citizen has a gender identity, just that not all are transsexual or transgender and face the immediate or obvious discrimination, but are still subject to discrimination. Young boys wanting to wear Daphne costumes for Halloween or the softball playing 'tomboys' are affected by gender expression and the discrimination it presents. Public accommodations, what are they? What's your favorite emergency room? What's you preferred ambulance service? We would ask Tyra Hunter, but regrettably she's not able to answer that. She was a DC resident refused basic emergency services based on her gender identity. As a result she died. What bill brings her back? Restores her family to whole?

Additionally due to prior versions including public accommodations, this years draft without establishes legislative intent that separate but not equal classes were the intent of the legislature in drafting the bill, preventing jurist interpretation which might otherwise provide protection not explicitly defined. So even if we might try to litigate a provision of the employment or housing to cover public accommodations we're pinched. And believe me, the logic that shelters are housing is based on the notion they can be 'interpreted' that way.

The transgender community has been sold out on numerous occasions and refuses to accept an empty promise from a group, devoid of transsexual representation and a history of transgender members leaving its ranks on the board in complete frustration of lack in understanding on these issues. If Equality Maryland truly believes and is interested in fighting for the inclusion of public accommodations, it will back an amendment REMOVING sexual orientation from the public accommodations Codes in Maryland (20-302, 20-304, 20-401,and 20-402) and THEN come out saying 'We're now TRULY in this fight just like you!" That's putting your money where your mouth is. But they won't because they know better. Half a loaf? It a dead end street. If our legislators are incapable of recognizing BASIC civil rights, the transgender community prefers to educate and continue to place constituent based pressure on them to wake up to the fact its 2011.

Why is there so much fact and information coming from my keyboard when you were silent on these points? Because I research my facts. I am a woman of transsexual history. I am one of the voices which Equality Maryland wishes to gloss over.

***

Interesting in that case isn't it Jenna?    When we have something to say about legislation that affects us that Gay, Inc orgs don't wanna hear or want to suppress, then all of a sudden I'm an 'out-of-state' blogger.    If I'm writing about an issue that affects GL people, then they have no problem with my location.

Bottom line is HB 235 is still a jacked up worthless trans rights bill.   Until public accoomdations language is put in it to strengthen it, me and my friends inside and outide of Maryland aren't shutting up about this unjust bill..