Edward Thomas Defense Attorneys Attacking Muhlaysia Booker's Femininity

Damn, we Black trans women can't get any respect in life or in death.

The news out of Dallas is that Edward Thomas, the waste of DNA who violently put his hands on the late Muhlaysia Booker back in April, will be going to trial in October for that assault in the 195th District Court of Texas.

Thomas was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.   Even though Booker was murdered back in May, that video of the April 12 assault is still around on The Net along with all the witnesses to that violent attack on her.

So what do you do when you're faced with mounting evidence that your client attacked a trans woman?  Go for a cynical variation of the 'trans panic' defense and attempt to strip the trans woman of her femininity.

 The transphobic defense attorney in this case are objecting to the fact that prosecutors are asking Judge Hector Garza (D) to rule that the indictment can use Muhlaysia's name even though she hadn't changed it legally or on any identification documents.

The defense attorneys are using her dead name and disrespectfully referring to Muhlaysia as a man

"Pierre Booker is legally a male by gender. To name him 'Muhlaysia' Booker could have the jury wrongfully conclude that Pierre is female...This is prejudicial against our client ,who is male."

The defense attorneys are trying a variation of the trans panic defense to strip Muhlaysia of her femininity.  They hope they can stir up transphobia in the jury pool and get potential jurors to not see Booker as the woman she is.

It also feeds this dangerous for us and patently false meme that trans women are just 'men in dresses'.

The Edwards defense attorneys also fear that if Booker is seen as the woman she is, it won't go well for their client.   Society usually takes a less charitable view of any man who puts his hands on a woman, and the defense attorneys know that.

It is a despicable legal tactic by the defense attorneys.  Here's hoping that Judge Garza sees the same thing I see and rules in favor of Dallas County prosecutors when the defense motion has a hearing next week.

If he doesn't, I predict that Judge Garza is suddenly going to find himself being primary challenged in March 2020

My Birmingham Trans Fam Weren't Shown Any Love By TSA At Love Field

I've made the sarcastic comment more than a few times that the Transportation Security Administration's TSA initials stand for 'Transsexuals Searched (Scrutinized) Always '.

I've had my own run-ins as a frequent flyer with TSA like many trans folks have, and it gets old.

The TSA claims they are working to better train their personnel about the realities that trans travelers exist and how to treat us with the same dignity and respect you treat other airline passengers while dealing with our trans specific travel challenges.

Bu far too often, the TSA fails at that minimum level expectation of treating trans travelers with respect, and I expect it to get worse during 45's administration.

I was not happy to hear in the wake of our BTAC conference that Daroneshia Duncan, the founding executive director of the Birmingham based (TAKE)  Transgender Advocates Knowledgeable and Empowering organization and our Birmingham trans fam received less than friendly treatment at TSA's Love Field security checkpoint.

The group of seven people, six trans women and one trans man, didn't have any issues with TSA in Birmingham enroute to BTAC, but the drama started on their way back home   Three of the women had temporary ID cards issued to them by the Alabama DMV, which are legal for travel purposes because they do contain a photograph

The TSA peeps at Love Field didn't seem to know that, and harassed the TAKE group, causing them to miss their flight back home.  After sorting out the ID issues, they eventually had to go to DFW and catch a flight home on Delta and told their story on their local TV station WIAT-TV.


 
Here's hoping that we get the TSA peeps at Love Field some Trans 101 training to ensure that this travel mess doesn't happen again.

And news flash to the TSA peeps at Love Field.  Trans people exist, some of us are Black, and we do travel by air.   We deserve and expect to be treated with the same dignity and respect that you extend to other cisgender air travelers transiting your airport.

Ricky Smiley Morning Show Transphobia

The war against media transphobia aimed at trans women of color seems like it's a never ending one.    Here's a FB commentary from TransGriot reader Sasha concerning the transphobic comments she heard aimed at Laverne Cox during one of the Rickey Smiley Morning Show segments yesterday.

***

Last night my sisters and I were watching Dish Nation/Rickey Smiley Morning Show. Laverne Cox was declared as one of the Emmy show's  best dressed women which I though was AMAZING...until one of the hosts yells "that's a man!"and they slightly go into the infamous shock factor, making her identity the center of a joke.

Gary and one of the shows guests, a cis woman of color, then came to Laverne's defense by stating her accomplishment and how major it is for the Transgender community. The young lady also corrected the misgendering and made sure she addressed the Laverne as a WOMAN.

I've been listening to Rickey Smiley Morning Show for YEARS, I'm a fan of the show but I think it's time to call the RSMS out on their consistent ignorance and insensitivity towards the trans community.

This is NOT the first time I've encountered this type of madness from them. Not too long ago they were throwing shade towards Cee Lo after his affair with a transwoman. Not to mention the jokes that very often seem to revolve around #GirlsLikeUs.
We need to hold them accountable.  It is not the guest's job to educate them LIVE on the radio about transgender terminology. As much as they talk and joke about us, they should be well informed on the issue. Rickey Smiley has a huge platform in the black community and instead of all the shade, he could be using that platform for the good of ALL as well as being held accountable for repetitive transphobia.

It's time to call them out!

***

I agree, Sasha . GLAAD and NGLJA Rapid Response team, it's time to handle your media business. 

Overpolicing Language? Seriously?

TransGriot Note:  I read this essay Fallon Fox posted to her Facebook page concerning the still simmering controversy over serial transphobe RuPaul's use of terms the trans community has repeatedly told him were dehumanizing to our community and his white gay male fanbase rushing to defend him. 

The predominately white gay male supporters of RuPaul are holding up any trans woman who seems to side with him as a human shield to bash the rest of us with.  

Why?  Because they are hypocritically pissed off transpeople of all ethnicities had the temerity to do what they have done for decades.  We called and are STILL calling his azz out for using the 'shemale' and 't----y' terms we find offensive to our community and LOGO listened.

LOGO pulled the offending show with the female or shemale game form their site and will no longer used the offensive words on it and elements of the white gay male community are tripping.   What part of 'the trans community will decide what words are or aren't offensive to it' do you not get?  

The latest entry in that small minority of RuPaul trans defenders besides Calpernia Addams and Andrea James is Our Lady J, who recently penned an essay published in the Huffington Post that Fallon is rebutting here.

It deserves a signal boost.   And now, here's Fallon's essay.
**Warning - I'm spelling out derogatory words in this post in order to discuss an important issue.****

Is it true that Ru Paul recently complained to Amanda Byrnes use of the term 'faggot' in a tweet, stating: "Derogatory slurs are ALWAYS an outward projection of a person's own poisonous self-loathing." Just saw that online. That, and the Huffington post article by Our Lady J. I know, I'm a little late on that one.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/our-lady-j/rupauls-drag-race_b_5148719.html

I disagree with Our Lady J on this. 'Drag Queen' is an occupation created primarily in gay culture, in similar fashion, 'Rap artist' is an occupation created primarily by black culture.

Some people argue that 'shemale' is a harmless fun word. You ever Google the word 'shemale'? If not, then I suggest you do. See what you come up with. It's pages and pages of porn. While I like porn myself and see nothing intrinsically wrong with it, (other than the exploitation some porn entities use) - I do not appreciate the language alluding to me being a porn star or sex worker. Because that's what that word actually means.


It's that whole 'chick with a dick' derogatory language from cisgender people I've had to endure for years. No, there's nothing wrong with a woman with a penis. Nothing at all. But, that whole she-male term is wrapped around a very real history of forced sex work and porn. I say forced, because for the most part the trans women who have engaged in those occupations over the years have done so, because of lack of opportunity as trans women. It's pretty much slavery or a type of servitude in some situations. One needs the money to transition or risk losing ones sanity. One needs a job for that. But, one can't find or hold down a job in many situations if one is trans. So, where does that person go...? No other options but sex work or porn in many situations. Trans women are forced out of the openness of general society into a narrow channel that leads to sex work of some kind. And we are forced to endure the labeling of those outside of us. Labeling that seeks to never let us escape us being reduced to genitalia.

Look at the word shemale. We didn't pick this word for ourselves.
SHEMALE = "She" (female in mind ) + "male" (in the pants).

It was meant to mark trans women, and pin us down to what's in our pants pre-surgery (if we elect for it). It was derogatory.

See here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shemale
I remember when I first stepped foot in a drag bar. It was the only safe space I could find in town that I lived. Yes, some drag queens called themselves tranny, or she-male. And they got me to do it very briefly. But, as time went on, I realized how different I was from that drag mentality. I realized that I was trans, not gay. I was offered many times to be a performer because of my potential 'passability'. However, I declined, as I also realized one important thing about myself. I was not a parody of a woman. I was not seeking to be a parody of a woman even temporarily. I wanted to embody 'woman' both inside and out at all times. And not a hyper feminized, non realistic, rigid unmalleable version of one confined to a bar in the secluded side of town either. No, an intelligent, respected woman who had 'options', and held an occupation in spaces straight cisgender people did.


One thing is for sure. If I ever see a Cuban rap artist hold a TV show, have other Cuban rap artists come on the show, then tell those rappers to pick which rap artist in ANY ethnicity or a "nigger", depending on the partial photo presented, I'm going to lose it.

I don't care if Cubans and blacks are under the same umbrella of 'people of color'. I don't care if both of us face discrimination. I wouldn't give Cubans a free pass to hold a tv show and use that harmful word at blacks expense.

Let's look at the word 'nigger'. Where did that come from? The exploitation and hatred of black people in this country. Yes, they loved the benefits they got from us when we were slaves. They marketed us as 'niggers'. I'm quite sure if slavery was still in use today, you could do a google search for 'nigger' and come up with pages of pages of people trying to sell you a 'niggers' service.

Again, where did 'she-male' come from? The exploitation and hatred of trans women in this country. Yes, they loved, and still love, the benefits they get from us as sex workers and porn stars. They market us as 'she-males'. Some of us got lucky. We found ways around this horrible servitude. But, many of us would like out. Many of us want an education. Many of us are stuck, and living similarly to newly released slaves. Some of us see no potential for escape of the framing, no potential life outside of sex work, porn, or drag and accept the term. Some just decide to embrace it. Some, (and this is very, very rare) just like the ring of it. You can find some of them online if you search. Don't worry, it's not hard. Just type in 'shemale', and observe pages and pages of entities trying to sell you a 'shemales' service.

I realize that black oppression and trans oppression are different. But, they do have very striking similarities. And as a black woman I have no problem with pointing them out. It makes sense, and is important to do so in order to attempt to fix the similar problems that plague both minority classes.

...But wait, there's more.

I ask a few questions. And they are open for anyone to answer. And you may have already thought of it.
Are black people who call themselves 'nigger' or 'nigga' (and identify as such-which is rare), similar to trans women calling themselves 'she male' or 'tranny' (and identify as such-which is rare also)?

Are black people who call themselves 'nigger' or 'nigga' (and identify as black- which is common), similar to trans women calling themselves 'shemale' or 'tranny' (and identify as trans - which is also common... Kind of)?

I think so. And how does all of that relate to the topic of Ru Paul's she-male game?

Naw Psychology Today, We Haven't Forgotten About The Black Woman Bashing Article

You think you can publish an article by a psychologist with a history of race baiting, yank it off your site when the wrath of the African American community and our allies comes raining down on you and try to justify the initial Kanazawa article with another one by a different psychologist trying to spin it as 'jump starting a dialogue'?

Oh hell, no.

Naw Psychology Today, you stepped in it on this one.   You jump started a dialogue alright, one that you  folks probably weren't expecting.  It's a conversation about your judgment and relevancy as a trusted magazine covering psychology issues in light of the fact you let a serial race baiter publish such incendiary bull feces..  

And no, the African Diaspora.is not letting the issues of disrespect of sisters using racist tropes masquerading as pseudo-science die either.  Loved Khadijah Britton's Scientific American post on the subject and the article at The Guardian by Nanjala Nyabola. 

Nyabola's post will dispels any attempted spin that it's only African Americans who are pissed about it. 
 
Change.org has a petition with over 30,000 names on it demanding the folowing:

1) a public statement from Psychology Today editors demonstrating accountability for the article itself and the editorial conditions that allowed this article to be published on your website.

2) the removal of Satoshi Kanazawa as a contributor to your website, magazine, and any other Psychology Today publications based on his history of discredited research and repeatedly submitting racially biased articles to Psychology Today, including this most recent disturbing article that your editors chose to abruptly scrub from your website.

3) and the development of more thoughtful and sophisticated strategies for identifying how racism, sexism, homophobia/transphobia, and other oppressions and biases shape any so-called "objective" scientific inquiries, methodologies, and findings that your contributors examine in your publications.  These strategies should be communicated to the public in an effort to be more transparent about how you are disrupting bias in your reporting.

So nope, we ain't letting it go until we get the apology for publishing the article that disrespected us in the first place.   

What We Has Here Is A Fauxgressive Failure To Communicate 2

On Friday I posted the following comment on my Facebook page that grew into a TransGriot blog post about identity politics.

Yeah, I know y'all hate 'identity politics' but news flash people-all politics in the USA is identity politics. The sooner the GL community realizes that and adjusts their game plans to deal with that reality, the better.

The comment then grew into a thread on the issue in which Margaux Ayn Schaffer posted this response to the initial comment:

 What about our identity as Americans?  Being a hyphenated individual does nothing to unite us, it only further divides us. THAT IS SEPARATISM!

I responded with:

Margaux, white Americans have made it quite clear over the last 200 plus years that my identity as an American and any other POC is subject to their interpretation.

I went from being 3/5 of a human to full citizenship thanks to the 14th Amendment and 150 plus years of blood, sweat, tears and activism, and even still I'm only an 'American' when I'm needed to fight a war or pay taxes.

Why is it nobody has a problem with people claiming they are German American, Italian American or other hyphenated European ethnic groups, but let a POC proclaim they are African-American, Asian American or a Latino/a American and European descended Americans start trippin?

Being proud of where you come from is NOT separatism.

Margaux Ayn Schaffer America is supposed to be a melting pot, not a caldron.
Individual identity is not at issue, groupthink is.

Margaux Ayn Schaffer Fragmenting our national cohesion does little to unite us but serves only to further divide us. I find your rhetoric disingenuous and divisive.

btw: I am German/French/Cherokee.
Its easier to call myself an American.

Then I responded to those comments with: 
 @Margaux..your reaction is typical of someone who is wallowing in white privilege and just dismissed what my and my people's lived experience in America is

@margaux Me or anybody else calling ourselves African-American shouldn't bother you

After two other commenters expressed their thoughts Margaux lobbed this incendiary comment into the mix.   

Margaux Ayn Schaffer ‎@De, I just think Monica is being too confrontational and divisive.

Margaux Ayn Schaffer

I'm not bothered by how people identify. Far too much is being read into what I have stated. It's obvious that my opinions carry some participatory bias as does everyone else's. I just think that the hostility is palpable on both sides of t...he argument and people need to find the pause switch and press it then ask the right questions in a less accusitotory manner. Being bitter and combative (I'm not, just frustrated that people are isolationist in their outlook). I just think that whether or not your points are valid, it's not how you build bridges towards understanding others when you are just as full of hostility as you alledge me of being. I apologize if I have offended anyone.

Obviously  Margaux did care because she wouldn't have made the original 'hyphenated American' comment in the first place.   I also decided to point out she ignored what I had to say about Black citizenship being ignored and the silencing tactics she was engaging in. 

@Margaux, you prove my point with every post you make. I'm speaking my truth and my lived experience and you in your infinite vanilla flavored wisdom have dismissed it and deemed it 'divisive' and 'confrontational'

if you don't like me speaking the truth about the historical fact that POC status as Americans is subject to the whims of white people, e, you can always unfriend me..

Once again Margaux, check the history books. heard of a case called Dred Scott v Sanford?

If it's not the case that POC US citizenship is subject to the whim of white people, explain the efforts by Tea Klux Klan members and the conservafool movement to repeal the 14th Amendment, deny the children of undocumented immigrants born on American soil and who are Americans their citizenship, and the proposals to take away citzenship from people deemed 'terrorists'

Funny the people overwhelmingly backing those proposed laws share your ethnic heritage.

Margaux Ayn Schaffer

‎@Monica, I am not a revisionist. I know my history.

On the other hand, the question is how do we build a bridge to the future. How do we move forward. Mutual respect is a good place to start. But you need to consider whether you seek to preach to the choir or reach out to a broader community. You catch more bees with honey than vinegar.

I just think that painting white people (and myself in particular) is not the way to win hearts and minds.

People are factionalizing. Tribalism is coming back.

After two other comments, tried to get the discussion back on track after finally having enough of Margaux and blocking her.

Monica Roberts on that note now can we get back to what this community needs to do to realize that identity politics are alive and well, aren't going away any time soon, and what this community needs to do to pass our political and social agenda in light of that fact

Nope...Two more people besides Margaux picked up the 'Monica is a 'divisive racist' meme and you know I wasn't having that BS continue on my own FB page.
 

It's at 31 comments as I write this, and y'all can read how it developed for yourselves.  

Once again this is a classic example of a person of color making a statement in online discourse that doesn't fit the vanilla flavored worldview of some white people.   They don't like it and either try to ignore it, or flip the script and attack the POC by deeming them as 'racist', 'confrontational' or 'angry' in order to silence them and therefore get the last word in.

The insidiousness and insanity of 'whiteness' and 'white privilege'.  All this drama I wasn't looking for that day when I simply posted a comment on my own FB page that wasn't in the spirit of being confrontational. 

For you peeps that accused me in that thread of being confrontational, when I want to be confrontational, trust me, there will be no doubt in yours and anyone else's minds when I do go there.

Disrespecting Victoria C. White

Just in case anyone has forgotten that we are weeks away from another somber TDOR ceremony is November, here's another reminder for my cis African descended community which ethnic group along with Latinas will be disproportionately represented when we read the names on November 20.

28 year old Victoria Carmen White of Newark was shot to death early Sunday morning on September 12 and pronounced dead at the scene at a Maplewood, NJ apartment building located at 159 Jacoby Street.

But as tragic as the violent end of Victoria's life was, she got a layer of disrespect shoveled on top of it as well.

The Maplewood Police and Essex County Prosecutor's Office initially identified her using her old name and incorrect gender pronouns.

They had to retract that initial press release and add the following statement:

"Following an examination by the Medical Examiner and further investigation, it has been confirmed that the victim was a post-operative transgender female having undergone sex reassignment surgery."

Take a look at the photos of Victoria interspersed throughout this post. Does she look like a 'man'?

When are you peeps going to get it through your heads, especially in the law enforcement and criminal justice communities that genitalia does not necessarily equal gender?

But that's a rant for another day.

Rest in peace, Victoria. We can only hope and pray that by the time your trans brothers and sisters around the world recite your name and light candles for you at the 2010 TDOR ceremony, that the person who callously ended your life will be brought to justice and spend the rest of their lives rotting in jail.

African-American Transwoman Suing DC Police For Civil Rights Violations

People are learning the not so nice details about what happened to Autumn Sandeen after she was arrested during an April 30 anti-DADT protest in DC.

Thanks to Queen Emily at Questioning Transphobia we have new information about another case of Po-Po's Gone Wild and harassing a transwoman while under arrest.

Patti Shaw's case was originally talked about in an Amnesty International report 'Stonewalled', detailing the police abuse that LGBT people face.

Now the 44 year old African-American post operative transwoman is suing the District of Columbia, the U.S. Attorney General and the U.S. Marshal's Service, for $10 million, alleging civil rights violations, assault, battery, negligence and infliction of emotional distress in that 2003 case.

Patti's story starts after her purse came up missing and she phoned in a report to the DC Police. She found the purse after filing the report, but ironically was robbed of that purse while taking her dogs out for a walk that evening.

When the DC police finally responded and Shaw told her story, a detective asked her rude questions. Shaw says that several days later, the detective told her "that he did not believe her story and he said that he was going to issue a warrant for her arrest for making a false report to a police officer."

According to Shaw, she was told by the officer to turn herself in to the 6th Precinct "within a couple days or she would be arrested."

Shaw stated she complied with the request and reported to the precinct at 4 AM. When the officers on duty learned her old male name during the intake process, they ignored her legally changed ID identifying her as female and sent her into the men's prison.

During the intake process, Shaw says she was searched by a male marshal in the view of other marshals who made transphobic jokes and used incorrect pronouns about her breasts.

One marshal commenting about Shaw's breasts stated, "those must be implants, because hormones don't make breasts stand up so perky like that."

Another marshal according to Shaw stated about her breasts, "He's the best I've ever seen."

Her nightmare was only beginning. It got worse after she was sent to the holding facility and had to interact with cis male prisoners.

Shaw said that "Several of the men in the holding facility touched her inappropriately, verbally harassed and propositioned her, threatened to punch her if she did not show her breasts and shook their penises at her.

When she asked to be taken to another location to urinate, Shaw was forced "to urinate in a cup in full view of the men in the holding facility."

She says she suffered physical and emotional damages, including stress, anxiety and depression. She's seeking with the help of her attorney Karl-Henri Gauvin $5 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages.

I'm extremely interested in finding out how this police abuse case transpires. Because like Queen Emily, I'm wondering why was she even arrested in the first place unless somebody wanted to inappropriately flex some police power and jack with Shaw for whatever transphobic reason.

H/T Questioning Transphobia

Dissing Of Sonia Williams On Semi-Homemaker Blog

One of the things I gripe about on TransGriot is how the beauty of African-American women, be they trans or cisgender is disrespected.

It's also interesting to note how quickly African descended women are labeled as 'unfeminine' vis-a-vis the model of vanilla femininity that all are supposed to bow down and aspire to.

It happens far too often to the Williams sisters, and they aren't alone in that regard either.

Thanks to reader Lurlean I was advised of a thread occurring on the Food Network Humor Blog that illustrated this perfectly.

As usual, the folks that called out the disrespect of Sonia Williams were slammed as 'lacking a sense of humor' or 'overly sensitive'.

Ain't nothing humorous about a Black woman being disrespected. It's also playing into and perpetuating the 'Black women are unfeminine' stereotype that dates back to slavery.

Since it escaped these peeps in science class, or they graduated from 'Christian' private schools that teach Flintstones science, let me school y'all on something.

You get half your genetic material from mommy and half from daddy, and we are all blends of features from our parents.

Just as there are plenty of cisgender women who have 'masculine' body builds or combinations of features considered 'masculine', there are also cisgender men who have body builds and combinations of features that are considered 'feminine'.

Just an FYI, unless a person declares themselves to be trans, they ain't. Nor is it our business if they are.

TransGriot Note: Seems like in the last few hours, the Food Network Humor blog where that crappy post was housed is down for maintenance. Interesting.