ConGRADulations Trans Class of 2016!

TransGriot Note:  The graduation photo is of Sharron Cooks, who is graduating from college later this month.  Thanks Sharron for allowing your photo to grace this post and congrats to you and all out 2016 trans grads for achieving a major life goal. 

With the calendar page flipping to May, it also means that in addition to prom season, we will soon see the invites going out for high school and collegiate graduations around the country and hearing bands play Pomp and Circumstance as grads walk across the stage in their caps and gowns..

Many of the folks walking across those stages later this month to get their diplomas are members of our trans family.  Some are making the jump from middle school to high school.  Others are taking the next evolutionary educational step from high school to college, and others like Sharron and Monica Jones are in the collegiate ranks about to earn their bachelors, masters or other post graduate degrees.

Some made history during their senior year like Landon Patterson, who became Missouri's first ever transfeminine homecoming queen, and Capri Culpepper, who won a 2014 lawsuit against the South Carolina DMV allowing her to take her femme drivers license picture.

She was a finalist for homecoming queen at her high school and Culpepper recently testified last month in opposition against South Carolina's anti-trans potty hate bill.

So proud of our trans younglings.  The trans kids are in many cases the ones successfully fighting the oppressors tooth and nail for their own trans liberation.

On the way to those graduation ceremonies celebrating their academic and other accomplishments, some of our trans family members endured drama inside and outside the classrooms in addition to hitting the books to get that knowledge. I also know of a few who dropped out of high school because they were fed up with the bullying, but decided to go back and finish what they started and get their GED's.

Congratulations to those of you who went that route and successfully passed the tests to do so.

It's not easy getting an education while trans, and our haters are trying to make it harder for you to do so. You deserve the utmost love and respect for making the investment in yourselves to do so.

The best revenge you can get on your tormentors is to if possible, live your life out and proud in the school setting while getting your education.  If that's not possible for you and your preference is the non disclosed route so that you can get your paper in peace, then handle your educational business.

Lambda Legal and the ACLU are standing by if you have haters trying to prevent you from expressing yourself at your prom, your graduation ceremony, or object to your same gender prom date.  The law is on your side, so call the local chapters of these orgs in enough time to help you out and defend your rights..

Congrats to you Trans Class of 2016 members .  Your trans family is immensely proud of you, and will be standing by to ensure that you get through this month with minimal drama.  .

ConGRADulations, Trans Class of 2016!

Sarah's Committing A Revolutionary Act In NC

Y'all know I have much love and respect for Sarah McBride, who I first met when she was a White House intern back in 2011 and have watched her grow into an amazing person and advocate.

While transiting North Carolina Thursday, she committed a revolutionary act.  She took this selfie in the women's restroom at the airport after using it, and posted this accompanying truth filled comment on her page that deserves to get signal boosted.

And now for your TransGriot reading pleasure, here's Sarah:

***

Here I am using a women's restroom in North Carolina that I'm technically barred from being in. 

They say I'm a pervert.
They say I'm a man dressed as a woman.
They say I'm a threat to their children.
They say I'm confused.
They say I'm dangerous.
And they say accepting me as the person I have fought my life to be seen as reflects the downfall of a once great nation.

I'm just a person. We are all just people. Trying to pee in peace. Trying to live our lives as fully and authentically as possible. Barring me from this restroom doesn't help anyone. And allowing me to continue to use this bathroom - just without fear of discrimination and harassment - doesn't hurt anyone.

Stop this. We are good people. #repealhb2
***

We can only hope that the conservatives and fundamentalists 'Christians pushing this anti-trans hatred for Republican political advantage are listening.  So far they aren't and are being obstinate in their resistance to repealing Hate Bill 2, but economic boycotts and negative worldwide publicity seem to be getting their attention.

So are posts like this that point out the ridiculous, unjust and dehumanizing nature of proposing laws and policies that demonize and entire class of people.

Carla Lewis-Note To My Young Trans Folllowers

When  marginalized groups are fighting for not only their very existence and their human rights, the discussions on how they do the advocacy work to get to the point they aren't messed with can be heated at times.  I've been in it now for 18 years and have seen how heated those discussions can get.
Carla Lewis is one of our kick butt community leaders in Tennessee, and she felt compelled to write this note on her Facebook page to all the young trans kids who follow her.  They are sentiments I share when it comes to our trans youth and I believed this needed to be signal boosted.

Our trans children are our most prized assets, and they must be protected and defended from attacks by our enemies.

And now, here's Carla.

***

There are a handful of young transpeople that follow me on social media. To them I want to state this:

You may witness frequent arguing and fighting among transwomen, in particular. We each have our own ideas about how the world should be better.

The one thing we all have in common is that we do not want your youth to be filled with shame and self hate. We do not want you to have to buy black market hormones. We do not want you to be coerced into reparative therapy. We do not want you to have to navigate in a world that wants you to die or go back in the closet. We do not want you to take your own life.

We cannot get our innocence back. We cannot erase our years of shame. We cannot erase the discrimination and loneliness we experienced. We cannot erase our losses.

We do not want this to be your future. This is why we fight in this world. This is why we bicker with one another.

We may never know a world where being trans is no big deal, but you will. I promise.

Right now, whatever you are going through, please know that anywhere in the world you are, you can reach out to a trans brother or sister and know we will help you in any way that we can.

Not Happy About GLAAD Chopping The Best Blog Awards Category

When GLAAD announced their nominees for their upcoming media awards shows in Los Angeles and New York, there was a glaring admission in the 2016 edition of the awards.

Bloggers.

My blog is celebrating its 10th anniversary (January 1) in continuous operation as one of the few Black owned media outlets that centers the voices of trans persons of color and talks about trans history from our perspective..  

As a former nominee for that Best Blog award in 2014, I am not liking the decision, whoever made it, to cut the blogging award category.

Even when TransGriot was nominated in 2014, I felt like we were treated like media stepchildren by not even having our blogging award given during the televised feed. That's why when I was a finalist in 2014, my behind was in Dallas, TX at the BTAC conference being enveloped in my community's love instead of New York at the GLAAD awards ceremony being snubbed.

There seems to be this disconnect concerning just how much impact bloggers have in driving the media conversation about TBLG issues and the movement as a whole.  Since my blog is the only one that unapologetically discusses issues from a Black trans perspective and has done so for a decade, it is considered a credible news source to mainstream journalists and the LGBT big box outlets that do get nominated for awards.  The fact I have been an activist for now approaching 18 years also makes my blog unique and gives me more credibility when I opine about LGBT activism issues.

I can't tell you how many pictures I joyfully took or conversations I had with young LGBT kids at the recent Creating Change in Chicago that grew up reading TransGriot.  In addition to having conversations with the next generation of our movement, and my fellow LGBT journalists, they thanked me for writing the over 9000+ posts I have written over the last ten years telling it like it T-I-S is about our community.

And speaking of my fellow LGBT journalists, looking forward to sharing space with them in Baltimore for the upcoming LGBT Media Journalists Convening in March.

It's also important to have media outlets that are not centered in Washington DC, Los Angeles, San Francisco or New York since the vast majority of  LGBT people don't live there but in cities and rural areas in what is derisively called 'flyover country'.   It is also vitally important to have trans media voices of color breaking down stories from their perspectives.  The more diverse voices we have on the ground to inform our community, the better.

I didn't get into writing TransGriot for the awards.  It simply started as a way for me to have a real time way back in 2006 on commenting on the issues of the day when I was writing a then two year old monthly column at a Louisville-based regional LGBT newspaper.  TransGriot the blog became bigger than and enhanced the readership of TransGriot the newspaper column until it ended in 2007.

It was also founded because I saw the necessity of having an unapologetically Black trans centered blog talking about the issues of the day from a trans perspective.

But it sure is nice when the hard work you put into making sure your blog is a credible news source is recognized by your peers.

It's interesting for me to note my GLAAD media trained self gets quoted in news stories inside and outside the LGBT community, and so do my Twitter comments from time to time.

If anyone doubts my impact on community conversations or the news cycle, ask the Houston Pride Committee just how much impact my blog 'nobody reads' had when it came to generating the media publicity storm that resulted in getting them to change their misguided decision to move the Houston Pride date to Juneteenth.   I also pointed out mistakes made during the coverage by those same LGBT national outlets GLAAD wants to honor about the HERO fight that was playing out in my Houston backyard.

And before the bigger outlets started doing so, it was yours truly chronicling the deaths of Black trans women, calling people out about the disrespectful transphobic news coverage, chronicling Black trans history, and talking about the history of why HRC is loathed by many in Trans World.

My readers include in addition to high school and college peeps, Houston, Washington D.C. and Texas politicians, various people in my old Louisville stomping grounds, TBLG leaders around the country and the world, and educators at the high school and collegiate levels.

I have been told by various college professors across the country that some of my TransGriot posts have been used in their classes when they wish to talk about and teach trans issues during their gender studies classes.  

And more seriously, so far I have had five people privately tell me that reading some of my posts that focus on empowerment and trans pride on TransGriot kept them from committing suicide.

But I agree with my fellow former two time GLAAD nominee Alvin McEwen that eliminating the Best Blog category sends a negative message.  It's not only short sighted to those of us who toil in the blogging world with little to no compensation at times to ensure that the voices of marginalized LGBT people here and around the world are heard, it's also a mistake.

And it's a mistake I hope they rectify next year.

Susan L. Taylor Comments On Tracey Norman

I'd talked about on these electronic pages the trailblazing modeling career of girl like us Tracey Africa Norman who was nondisclosed in the 70's to early 80's while doing so.

She had major print campaigns with Clairol, Avon, and Ultra Sheen in addition to shooting five ESSENCE covers.   Her career in the United States came to a screeching halt after she was outed as a trans woman during a sixth ESSENCE cover shoot in the early 1980's.

Tracey expanded on and told her story I initially talked about in 2011 during a recent interview with Jada Yuan, and discussed the fateful sixth ESSENCE cover shoot that outed her.

Because the initial Yuan article went viral, we now have another one in which Susan L Taylor has finally commented on the record about her recollections and thoughts about what happened to Norman during and after that fateful ESSENCE photo shoot that marked the end of her modeling career in the US.

Taylor claims in the interview that she suspected that Norman was trans but she accepted her for who she presented herself as at that time.

"So to have this be said about Essence at the time and me specifically is devastating. The truth that I want Tracey to know, and this is so important, is that she was totally safe with us at Essence. No one could have outed her to me. I always suspected she was genetically male. I accepted her as she presented herself, as an exquisitely beautiful black woman. Now, this is 40 years later, but I think someone that she went to school with in Newark told me that they knew her as a boy. I think."
--Susan L. Taylor

Well, I find it interesting to note that Tracey Norman's booming modeling career died immediately after she was outed during that ESSENCE magazine cover shoot and she never shot or appeared on another ESSENCE magazine cover.  

So color me skeptical about what Susan L. Taylor said because if she were sincere about it, Tracey would have appeared on a few more ESSENCE covers during the 80's.

Had her story come out at the time and ESSENCE backed her like Taylor claimed they would have, it would have been groundbreaking for me and other Black trans feminine kids of that time period to have her as someone we could have looked up to.

But it didn't happen that way.  Somebody, whether it was at ESSENCE or elsewhere called her now defunct Zoli agency,  and they suddenly had no work for her the day after that shoot.

The comments by Taylor sound not only disingenuous, but were delivered with much shade as well.

Jazzmun Speaks About Transphobia

One of the people I finally had the pleasure of meeting in 2015 was Jazzmun.

You have seen this California native on television and the silver screen in numerous roles in movies like The 40 Year Old Virgin and Punks, and the documentary In Full Bloom.  I had a wonderful time getting to know our amazing sister earlier this year in Chicago and I hope 2016 is the year she gets the opportunity to really show Hollywood and the world what she can do as an actor.

This is her speaking on the issue of transphobia, and it's something that we need to leave behind in 2015 as we move to a new year this Friday.

Diamond Stylz- No Time 4 It

Been a while since I've had one of Diamond's videos on the blog, and this one needs a signal boost.

And now for your viewing pleasure, one of the pioneering Black trans video bloggers on YouTube y'all need to be watching on a regular basis and I need to be signal boosting her stuff more often..

The Fight To Keep HERO-September 21

'Black ministers in Houston have been particularly outspoken against the ordinance, and, by all accounts, they've been highly effective. Their parishioners and congregants need to show a little independence. They need to read the ordinance themselves, consider the experience of other cities and apply a little common sense to the issue.'-Houston Chronicle, 'Time to be HERO-ic' , September 20, 2015


While I was in Washington DC for the National Black Justice Coalition's just concluded OUT on the Hill Black LGBTQ/SGL Leadership Summit, one of the questions I and my fellow Houstonians attending the conference frequently had to answer while I was inside I-495 was 'What's going on with the HERO?

And what was my answer to the inside the Beltway folks and other Black LGBT peeps like me about it?  "It's 50-50 whether we keep HERO or it gets repealed"

As many people I've talked to about the Houston Unites campaign know, I haven't been happy about the way this has been run since the opening August press conference.  One of the communities that will be critical in determining whether the HERO lives as it should or dies will be the Houston Black community. 

My problem with Houston Unites not only is the lack of will to utterly destroy the trans predator myth, but the problematic lack of consistent pushback in the Houston Black community in the face of negative anti-HERO ads aimed at the Black community being played unchecked on Majic 102 and Ben Hall owned KCOH.

I also have a problem with the failure so far to go on offense concerning the opposition lies that a HERO that covers 15 categories is a 'LGBT ordinance', Federal law already covers everyone and HERO isn't necessary (no it doesn't)  and we need to repeal it so we can 'rewrite it to cover everyone'.

I have also been scratching my head at the ongoing human rights malpractice as to why Houston Unites hasn't pointed out the consequences of what WILL happen to Houston economically if Prop 1 isn't approved.

Note to the HERO haters.  The ordinance already covers every Houstonian, and you need to stop telling the lie that it doesn't   Why shouldn't we have a local, non expensive alternative to combating local discrimination besides filing an expensive federal lawsuit?
Houston Unites needs to be bolder and as relentless in taking the message to Black media outlets and the Houston Black community that HERO protects us from local discrimination as our opponents have been since last year in aggressively demonizing the Houston trans community and putting out disinformation about the ordinance.

It's way past time to rebuke these Houston pastors who repeatedly violate the Ninth Commandment. You do not have to be nice and 'take the high road' against an opponent who wants to oppress you. doesn't care about facts, and is willing to throw their own human rights and the human rights of an entire city under the bus just to get a win and as a bonus for them, satisfy their irrational faux faith based hatred of the Houston LGBT community at the same time.

Neither can it all be on the Houston Black community to find out on their own that some of their ministers are lying to them. That strategy ain't working. Houston Unites is going to need to spend some money NOW just like you're doing for other Houston demographic communities on ramped up media and canvassing efforts targeted specifically to council districts Districts B, D and J for starters.

You're welcome.

The situation also can't continue of the Houston Black LGBT community going it alone on our underfunded education efforts.  We could use some money and air time to get our message out there to our people.    

I and other Houston Black LGBT people who busted our azzes to pass this much needed ordinance are NOT happy about the silence of the local NAACP, Houston area Black politicians. and the local Urban League chapter for starters to get behind Proposition 1,  It would also be nice and deeply appreciated if Houston Unites hires folks from the demonized Houston Black LGBT community to talk to our community as only we can to blow up those lies.

Houston Unites, it's  past time for you to be HERO-ic too.  If you want to win on November 3, you'll do that ASAP.   

Roland S. Martin Drops The Mic On Bill O'Reilly

Roland S. Martin tore Bill O'Reilly a new anus after O'Reilly used his Fox Noise show to bash #BlackLivesMatter, call them 'a hate group'  and vow in his white supremacist arrogance he was going to ' put Black Lives Matter out of business.'

And yeah, my fellow Houstonian let him have it .




I agree with Roland.  Until you, O'Reilly, are calling out the police with the same venom you spewed at Black Lives Matter, and by the way, I met the founders of the BLM movement in February, you do need to shut your racist, vanillacentric privileged ass up.

The Fight To Keep HERO-September 1

The calendar page flips to September, and this month promises to be just as contentious politically as August turned out to be as the fight to keep the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance played out at City Hall and in the courts

Since we have twelve weeks to go until November 3, just thought I would direct this post at the peeps who are being either hoodwinked and bamboozled by sellout ministers to vote against their own human rights or those who just straight up hate the Houston TBLG community.  

If you smugly think that voting against the HERO is sticking it to the Houston trans, bi and SGL community with zero consequences for yourself, here's some food for thought on that issue.

For those of you considering voting against the HERO because of your dislike of LGBT people, ask yourself this question.  Do you hate the Houston LGBT community so much that you are willing to give up the 2016 Men's Final Four, the 2017 Super Bowl, future convention business and potential corporate relocations to satisfy that hatred with a NO vote to kill the HERO?

If your answer to that question is yes, you're a fool.   You may get the short term psychic satisfaction of believing you've stuck it to Mayor Parker and 'The Gay Agenda', but the reality will be is that what you have done is screwed yourself by voting against your OWN human rights and screwing our city for years to come on top of it.

Far from being a gay rights ordinance as the sellout ministers and their suburban out of town white conservative controllers are telling you, the HERO provides discrimination protection in housing, employment and public accommodations.  It covers 15 categories, including sex, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, religion, familial status, marital status, military status, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, genetic information and pregnancy.
.

In the post HERO passage period from May 28, 2014 to January 15, 2015, 54% of the complaints reported to the City of Houston Office of the Inspector General were for RACIAL discrimination. 17% of the OIG received complaints were for gender discrimination, 15% were for age discrimination and only 4% of the OIG received complaints were for gender identity and sexual orientation.

Until the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance passed, there was NO local remedy for H-town discrimination. Contrary to the lies the opposition are telling you, the state of Texas doesn't have an anti-discrimination law that covers anyone.  With GOP control of our legislature and a GOP governor, we're not getting one anytime soon.

The LGBT community is NOT covered by any federal human rights legislation yet.   it has been introduced, but it is just an introduced bill   And once again, with GOP control of the House and Senate, it is going nowhere.

But the need for human rights protection is still there.

And note to Steve and Becky Riggle.  It's over a year later, and we still haven't had any bakers forced to make swastika cakes inside the Houston city limits.   Neither have we had in Houston an off the charts jump in crossdressed bathroom predators. 

The NCAA and the NFL are not playing when it comes to their signature events.  Both sporting organizations have policies that bar cities and states with discriminatory policies from hosting their championships. 

If you think I'm selling you woof tickets on that, the NFL yanked a Super Bowl from Arizona  in 1990 they were scheduled to host in 1993 for refusing to make the Rev. Dr MLK Jr's birthday a state holiday.  Arizona nearly repeated the legislative stupidity in 2014 when the GOP controlled Arizona legislature passed a right to discriminate law that only then Gov. Jan Brewer's (R) veto of the unjust legislation kept the NFL from making it happen again. 

J. Kent Friedman, the chair of the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority, already warned the conservative hardheads on City Council last month that if the HERO is struck down, based on what happened in Arizona in the 90's, and the NCAA threatened to do to Indiana in the wake of the March passage of their discriminatory RFRA, the 2017 Super Bowl and next year's NCAA Men's Final Four at NRG Stadium could be in jeopardy.  And that's before we even start talking about the potential convention business we will lose along with corporate relocations.

So if I were you, I'd be voting to keep the HERO, and telling your friends and neighbors to do the same.

John Oliver's On Point Transgender Rights Commentary

If you don't have HBO or haven't seen it yet, John Oliver, the host of HBO's Last Week Tonight had a ten minute segment on his June 28th show in which he discussed the transgender community that has received rave reviews and kudos from peeps in Trans World.

This needs to be seen, and here's the YouTube video of it.

RuPaul Says He Wouldn't Have Dropped T-Word Slur From Show

Seems like RuPaul still hasn't learned anything from all the drama that was unleashed last year when his RuPaul's Drag Race show was forced to drop the t-word slur and the equally offensive 'You've Got She-Mail' catchphrase from it by LOGO TV.

In a June 3 interview with The Guardian, RuPaul said that he wouldn't have dropped the problematic phrases reviled by the majority of the trans community,

RuPaul said in that interview: “I would not have changed it, but that’s their choice. Our intention was always coming from a place of love. On paper, you cannot read intention, so it was actually hurtful."

 RuPaul, when a majority of a community tells you words are hurtful slurs, if you love and respect the community as you claim, you respectfully listen to what they have to say and don't fracking use them.

Allegedly coming from a 'place of love' doesn't give you a pass for you to disrespectfully ignore the wishes of the people that emphatically tells you NOT to do it, then use your predominately white gay male fanbase as a human shield to deflect the criticism that will inevitably come your way.

At least you admitted the words were hurtful, and that's a start.  But still not going to watch Drag Race.

Dale Hansen Calls Out The Flower Mound Bigots

You'll recall I wrote about the bigotry eruption that occurred at the recent February 13 Flower Mound-Plano East boys basketball game that got deserved national attention and condemnation.

Now longtime WFAA-TV sportscaster Dale Hansen has added his voice to those condemning what happened in that town.  You'll remember Hansen on these electronic pages  for his commentary in support of NFL draftee Michael Sam.

Now he's calling out what happened in Flower Mound.

I Can't Breathe

Neither can I.

Still pissed off and wondering what the hell those Staten Island grand jurors were thinking?

But the protests are continuing not only here in New York, but across the nation as people express how fed up they are with po-po's gone wild, killing unarmed Black people, and then escaping punsihment for it.

Now that the feds get a crack at this case, we'll see how this one transpires.

Word of warning to my white friends rights now.   Black America is in F**k Da Police mode right now, and highly pissed off after seeing muliple Black people of all ages getting killed by white cops with no accountability or punishment.  It would be wise of you to not repeat any Conservafool talking points or that 'not all cops are bad' line.

We don't wanna hear that crap right now.  #BlackLivesMatter. Until the po-po's stop treating us as if we're all suspects they can kill with impunity, they are all bad apples until proven innocent.

The police forces of this country have historically proven to us they are hostile to gleefully hateful to African-Americans.   So until they change that pattern, we'll be singing NWA for the next few weeks.

My Thoughts On The Griffin SCC Speech

I was shocked to note when I read the transcript of the speech HRC President Chad Griffin delivered on Friday to the huddled masses at the Southern Comfort Conference my name was mentioned in it.

As I've been gathering my thoughts about the speech, I've been getting e-mails and questions asking me what are my thoughts about what Griffin said.  I've also noted what other trans community leaders have said about the speech.

Knowing what I say is going to have an impact on how this speech is perceived, it's why I've taken my time putting a post out about it until now.   And because my name was mentioned in that speech, I do need to say something about it so everyone knows where I stand.

First up, the speech itself.  While it's a nice start, I appreciate and was surprised by the shoutout from Griffin, the fact remains to when it comes to HRC, you have a three decade negative anti-trans history to overcome, including with me, who cut her teeth in trans community organizing during the period when HRC was a worse oppressor to the trans community than the Religious Right.  

Because of that, the HRC equal sign logo brings the same negative reaction when I see it to myself and others in the trans community as other transphobic oppressor organizations like Focus on the Family.

And make no mistake about it, HRC has been an oppressor organization to the trans community for much of its history and we would be foolish to ignore or forget it.  

We can't forget former HRC president Elizabeth Birch saying to thunderous cheers that trans inclusion in ENDA would happen 'over her dead body'.  We trans people can't forget being told by congressional staffers, a congressman and a senator that our attempts to exercise our constitutional rights and lobby our congressmembers in 1997, 1998 and 1999 in Washington DC were poisoned by your paid lobbyists at the time Winnie Stachelberg and Nancy Buermeyer. 

And I personally can't forget having to call Buermeyer out about that during a 2000 Task Force sponsored National Transgender Policy meeting in DC, or remembering when the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition (NTAC) was trying to do its job of representing our community and reach out to them, HRC arrogantly refused to work with us when I was its political director from its 1999 founding until I left that position in 2002.

Neither can I forget some of your folks and donors who gleefully slap the equal sign stickers on their vehicles, attend the $225 a plate dinners and hate on transpeople with the same fervor as our right wing opponents.       

"Don't trust HRC'.   That's what the late mother of the trans rights movement Sylvia Rivera told me during a long conversation we had in May 2000.   She's been proven right about that point over the last decade.

And I have yet to even talk about how HRC has been tone deaf to the African-American same gender loving community over the years, and has the same level of negativity toward the Equal Sign org as the trans community does.

But, even with all of that history as a backdrop, I'm still willing to keep an open mind and see how this latest effort of HRC glasnost plays out.

Back to the speech.  It was a partial apology because you didn't address the ugly stuff that was done prior to your ascension to the HRC presidency.   After the Solmonese 2007 SCC Big Lie, it is going to take sustained deeds before many of us in Trans World even begin to think we can trust you. 

And those sustained deeds are going to have to be big ones like Kat Rose has suggested, reparations.  

And what form would those trans reparations take? 

As HRC begins to expand work in the trans rights arena, hire ONLY transpeople to do it, especially in the lobbying- policy formation end.  Priority should be given to people who cut their teeth in trans rights organizing and are familiar with the history and issues that affect multiple levels of the trans community.

A designated portion of the money from those dinners that suck tens of thousands of dollars of cash out of our locales could be donated to local trans organizations that have been doing the work for years while y'all were focused on 'all same sex marriage all the time'.  

And the transphobia that is embedded in the HRC culture needs to be publicly rooted out.

Those are just a few of my suggestions as to what needs to happen next.   Other trans leaders may have similar or different ideas.   But the reality is there is an Olympus Mons sized mountain that HRC is going to have to climb for this organization to get back in the good graces of the trans community.  


While I'm happy you recognize you need to start the process and the onus is on you and the organization to repair the damage that previous transphobic HRC leaders caused, it is going to take a while before we transfolks even begin to think about trusting HRC, much less consider it a true ally and worthy partner in our common human rights struggle.   

And realize you have little to zero room for error while doing so. 

MHP's Letter To Santa

Megyn Kelly stepped in it with her vanillacentric privileged commentary over Aisha Harris' Slate article about Santa and her overly defensive assertion that 'it was an undeniable fact that Santa was white.'  

"I mean, Jesus was a white man too. He was a historical figure, that's a verifiable fact. As is Santa—I just want the kids watching to know that." — Megyn Kelly

Well, you knew Melissa Harris-Perry was going to have to drop a commentary about that, and here it is for your viewing pleasure.

Hers is much more diplomatic than mine was going to be.