We Are Not Being Sensitive, You're Being Obtuse .

TransGriot Note:  I like to from time to time signal boost commentary from other thought leaders in the community  in this space.   I liked this one from my Chicago based sis Channyn Parker, and believe that it is a message y'all needed to see, read and hear. 

Guest Post by Channyn Lynne Parker

I don’t really know where to begin, except to say for those of you who champion, defend, and continue to support trans women, thank you.

Honestly, I don’t think any trans person here expects a cis-person to understand what it’s like to have a body that expresses itself incongruently to one’s internal reality. However, what you can understand is the importance and recognition of our humanity.

None of us are blind to the fact there are fractures, rifts and subgrouping within our community along feigned notions of superiority.   But know this, there would be no community unless we trans women had not stood up first.

I hear the word “sensitive” being thrown around a lot, as if to gaslight us into believing that we  somehow are at fault for not recognizing the humor you find in our pain.

I wouldn’t be so quick to call a trans woman sensitive.  Remember, due to our daily existence, we trans women in fact have very tough skins.   What you are witnessing however, is heartbreak.

You can’t be sensitive while screaming in the face of a politician, to give you your right to be legally wed.

You can’t be sensitive while holding the hands of your dying, and burying your dead, and still muster up the strength to stand in the front lines demanding an end to the epidemic.

You can’t be sensitive when sitting in front of the young man who is hungry and tired with no place to go, and all you have to offer him is a little bit of comfort and something warm to fill his belly.

So, if to call us “sensitive” is your way of averting the need for or somehow directing at us a coded non-apology apology, it’s an apology that we do not accept.

We trans women were the wet nurses to this movement when “Gay Rights” was in its infancy. So again, what you’re your seeing and hearing from us is not sensitivity, it is a mother's grief. It is a daughter's abandonment, and a sister's rejection from her very own sons and brothers.

I feel no need to tarry any further as I have made myself abundantly clear with this soliloquy.

Again, I love you all with a love that is divinely mandated, and that love, is the love of respect.

This Is Why Liberals Think You Trumpettes Are Stupid

This is from a Facebook friend's page.   I wish I'd come up with this.   But then again I tossed the Trumpettes off my page eons ago and purged them from my life.

Not going to have someone in my life that supports a government that wants to oppress me.

The person was asked by a Trump supporting friend why we liberal progressive peeps thought they were stupid for supporting  Dolt 45, and that person's answer is not only mic drop worthy, it is a must read and must share with the world.

And yes, this post gets the TransGriot seal of approval

***

Stolen from a friend... but another must read; Taken from a friend's wall...

This came across in my feed, thought some people here might enjoy it more than some others in my life:

An anguished question from a Trump supporter: "Why do liberals think Trump supporters are stupid?"

The serious answer: Here’s what we really think about Trump supporters - the rich, the poor, the malignant and the innocently well-meaning, the ones who think and the ones who don't.

That when you saw a man who had owned a fraudulent University, intent on scamming poor people, you thought "Fine."

That when you saw a man who had made it his business practice to stiff his creditors, you said, "Okay."

That when you heard him proudly brag about his own history of sexual abuse, you said, "No problem."

That when he made up stories about seeing muslim-Americans in the thousands cheering the destruction of the World Trade Center, you said, "Not an issue."

That when you saw him brag that he could shoot a man on Fifth Avenue and you wouldn't care, you chirped, "He sure knows me."

That when you heard him illustrate his own character by telling that cute story about the elderly guest bleeding on the floor at his country club, the story about how he turned his back and how it was all an imposition on him, you said, "That's cool!"

That when you saw him mock the disabled, you thought it was the funniest thing you ever saw.

That when you heard him brag that he doesn't read books, you said, "Well, who has time?"

That when the Central Park Five were compensated as innocent men convicted of a crime they didn't commit, and he angrily said that they should still be in prison, you said, "That makes sense."

That when you heard him tell his supporters to beat up protesters and that he would hire attorneys, you thought, "Yes!"

That when you heard him tell one rally to confiscate a man's coat before throwing him out into the freezing cold, you said, "What a great guy!"

That you have watched the parade of neo-Nazis and white supremacists with whom he curries favor, while refusing to condemn outright Nazis, and you have said, "Thumbs up!"

That you hear him unable to talk to foreign dignitaries without insulting their countries and demanding that they praise his electoral win, you said, "That's the way I want my President to be."

That you have watched him remove expertise from all layers of government in favor of people who make money off of eliminating protections in the industries they're supposed to be regulating and you have said, "What a genius!"

That you have heard him continue to profit from his businesses, in part by leveraging his position as President, to the point of overcharging the Secret Service for space in the properties he owns, and you have said, "That's smart!"

That you have heard him say that it was difficult to help Puerto Rico because it was the middle of water and you have said, "That makes sense."

That you have seen him start fights with every country from Canada to New Zealand while praising Russia and quote, "falling in love" with the dictator of North Korea, and you have said, "That's statesmanship!"

That Trump separated children from their families and put them in cages, managed to lose track of 1500 kids. has opened a tent city incarceration camp in the desert in Texas - he explains that they’re just “animals” - and you say, “well, ok then.”

That you have witnessed all the thousand and one other manifestations of corruption and low moral character and outright animalistic rudeness and contempt for you, the working American voter, and you still show up grinning and wearing your MAGA hats and threatening to beat up anybody who says otherwise.

What you don't get, Trump supporters in 2018, is that succumbing to frustration and thinking of you as stupid may be wrong and unhelpful, but it's also...hear me...charitable.

Because if you're NOT stupid, we must turn to other explanations, and most of them are *less* flattering.

***

Other explanations for example, like  you are a mean spirited fascist.

Welcome To Womanhood

This is a guest post by Toni D'orsay that deserves a signal boost.

"Welcome to womanhood."

It is a phrase heard by trans women at least once -- often far more often than that -- and it is always meant in a commiserating way, a kind of "welcome to the sisterhood" statement, that ties within it all the other stuff that goes along with being a woman.

It is often given in particular contexts that suggest that this is a new experience for trans women, something different from what they had experienced in the past, and the flaw in it, the cruelty of it, is derived from that simple misunderstanding.

Trans women are women who typically spend a lot of their time looking in from the outside. Another metaphor: the most unpopular girls in high school who watch even those with the slightest greater popularity enjoy everything, while they get stuck eating ashes. Alone. Away from the lunch room.

It won't apply to all trans women. Nothing can. Not even transness, when it comes right down to it, but that won't stop people from trying, since transness is a concept structured by the dominant social milieu, in and of itself.

But by and large, trans women are women who have been denied all those experiences and forced into another set. They would watch over their shoulders or try to understand the why and how the what from outside, not the inside, and in doing so, they did, in fact, experience a womanhood -- just not the acceptable, prepackaged, pre-approved, preordained, structural and institutional womanhood many know. Most know.

The underlying message is welcome to the ways in which which being a woman sucks. On rare occasions, it is welcome to the ways in which being a woman is awesome.

Trans women already know that, though. They have watched it. They have often prayed for it. They may not understand it as well, because they were never on the inside; never popular enough to hang out in the schoolyard.

Some will argue that isn't probable. You cannot know something from the outside, they will argue. Yet we do that all the time, all of us. If you don't believe me, look at how much we think we know about the lives of celebrities.

We probably don't get it in full detail, the depth of nuance and the nitty gritty of the emotional weight, but we know it.

We don't understand it, though, no mater how many pet theories we come up with.

Trans women were trans girls. They grew up, and a large number of them waited, expectantly for our first periods, our first kisses, our dance dresses and those little things -- for some of us, we figured for a while we were just late bloomers, it would happen, it will be okay.

We were denied those things. Often punished for thinking of them. Often we were nuts, and for those of us of different generations, we were pushed to be more masculine, trounced if we didn't do well, given disappointing looks and worried for us glances by teachers and principals and parents and strangers.

We were children, disappointing parents by being what they told us we could be, because we didn't fit into the world they knew or understand or approved of or liked enough.

They know the dark side. In some cases, perhaps far too well.

But they also, as a result of this, see womanhood differently. I mean, these are women who had to fight to be women, had to defy family and government and, if some are to be believed, Gods, to be women. They never got to experience these things, so for them, sometimes, even the crappy parts of being a woman are blessings, which can be pretty jarring, pretty funny, pretty heartbreaking.

And even as they do so, they are punished for being women. Not merely treated that way, but punished for it punished for wanting it, punished for living as themselves.

Trans women get to be told they don't get a say in their reproductive rights, and then are punished for not having that say, then punished for wanting them, and punished for thinking they deserve them, and punished for not being able to do the thing people think of most often when folks say reproductive rights. Something which a lot of them would give up limbs in the most literal sense to be able to do.

Indeed in one of the more hateful theories out there created by cis folks about tans folks, wanting to be a woman is a delusion, and it is all about sex, and yet if you were to ask trans women if they want babies (which, you guessed it, requires sex), and they answer yes, in and of itself, undoes all of that theory as it is constructed.

Because we are punished for wanting that. Wanting something that people say we can never have, and say it with a kind of smug and grim satisfaction, like a twist of the knife that those who say that know they have just jammed into a kidney from behind.

We know womanhood. And for those of us of color, we know oppression and discrimination that while it differs in style, is still the same, basic, harsh and ugly human reaction.

Which is all bad enough, except that we get it all from everyone, including women, because we break rules we never made that were never established to account for us, that pretend we do not exist.

We know womanhood. And we know a truth that few folks will ever utter, a thought that really makes the notion of welcoming us to womanhood even more bitter than it usually is.

We know because we are not welcome to womanhood, we never have been, anywhere, so even that lie just makes us quirk a corner of our lips in a wry smile and shrug.

Because we are going to carve a place out for us. We are entitled to it -- it is our human right to be so.

And for that we need no welcome.

But you are welcome to join us.   

White Women: See You After The March?

This is a commentary about yesterday's as a friend called them 'Becky Marches' because of the lack of diversity in them or erasure of trans women.

It was an essay from Lucy Siale posted to her Facebook page.  It needs to be signal boosted because some of you white women who marched yesterday aren't understanding why I and many Black women cis and trans aren't feeling the Women's March, and Lucy's essay  expresses the emotions of many Black women who just aren't into the Women's March for a lot of reasons.

****

TO THE WHITE WOMEN MARCHING TODAY, I’M TALKING TO YOU. 

The Women’s March has become a disappointing event for me. Today, I did not see community. I did not see a movement dedicated to RADICAL change.  did not see effective pieces of action taken to aggressively fight against the systems of oppression at work.

I saw a lot of white women who haven’t come out since the last women’s march. I saw signs dedicated to female genitals—excluding trans folks. I saw cis-sterhood, not sisterhood. I saw hundreds of white women marching in Walnut Creek, one day out of the year. I saw too many people who came out today because it’s easy, and socially acceptable, and it inevitably contributes to white, mainstream, non-intersectional feminism.

Y'all need to admit it. It’s easy for you to show up today and get some likes on Facebook, but it gets more complicated when you’re asked to show up for Black lives, or undocumented immigrants, or trans women of color killed by police. so you don’t. 

You don’t show up, you stay silent for the other 364 days of the year, and you, in turn, contribute to the white supremacy and oppression that disenfranchises communities of color.

That’s not what my future looks like. This is not what I dream of.  This is not what I march and fight for.  It’s important to show up today, but more importantly, EVERY day. We need to mobilize our communities and unite under plans and organizations that prioritize the people over profit.


Why am I angry? Because the women I saw today have been MISSING over the past year. Your absence as allies contributes to white supremacy. Your silence advances the oppressor. Your lack of commitment fails to revolutionize our movement.

We have to do better—we have to be better and expect more from ourselves. While you return to your lives of privilege after today, women of color will continue to occupy these streets—as we always have.  These streets that you claim once a year are stained by the blood of indigenous folks; this is the permanent home of resistance to those of us who can’t afford to take a break after this march.

So today, one year later, I ask you to join us. REAL change didn’t ever come easy.
#PowerToThePeople

***


Thanks Lucy.

Daroneshia's Dream

Today being Dr King's birthday has many of us who have stepped up to leadership roles in our community contemplating what would MLK Jr do if he were around to lend his voice to the civil rights issue of our times in terms of trans human rights.

Daroneshia Duncan, the founding executive director of TAKE Community Services in Birmingham, AL  had an interesting trans themed take (pun intended) on Dr. King's 'I Have A Dream; speech That I wanted to share with you on this King Day.

And now, Daroneshia D. Duncan

As we celebrate the 89th birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I was inspired by his 'I
 Have A Dream" Speech. 

I have a dream that Black Trans Women will one day live in a nation where we will not be judged by our genitals, but by the content of our character. 

I have a dream that one day, Black Trans Women's lives are valued as a human being.

I have a dream that one day, Black Trans Women will bond together stronger in sisterhood.

I have a dream that one day, Black Trans Women can live oppression free.

I have a dream that one day, Black Trans Women will be given RESPECT without having to demand it.

I have a dream that one day, Black Trans Women will be accepted within our own Black community as women.

Trans at last, Trans at last,  thank God almighty BLACK TRANS WOMEN are FREE

***

Thanks, Daroneshia   

It's Not 'Talking Politics' To Cosign Oppression

This is a guest post from my Arizona homegirl Toni D'orsay.  She's tired of people who use the term 'talking politics' to weakly attempt to camouflage the fact they are cosigning oppression when they do so.

This was originally on her Facebook page, and I'm signal boosting it for your TransGriot reading pleasure.

***

It is not "talking politics" when you say that trans people should not be able to use public accommodations.

It is not talking politics when you argue, even for fun or to "prove a point", that black people are not able to follow the law.

It is not politics when you argue that a woman does not have the right to decide what she can and cannot do with her body.

It is not talking politics when you argue for a ban on refugees or you call someone an "illegal immigrant".

Those things are not talking politics. Talking politics is not what you are doing when you support or advocate for oppression, which is violence, and for the denial of human rights, which is also violence -- even if you "don't think it is a human right".

It is not talking politics when you are racist, or misogynist, or ableist, or homophobic, or transphobic, or you think that someone is better than someone else because of how much more money they have (indeed, factually, the opposite is true).

I don't give a flying fuck if you think that someone needs to be polite about stuff or nice about stuff or if we should all just get along because, factually, so long as there i oppression, we cannot, and will not, and never will get along -- as the last seven thousand years have shown rather well.

Either you support human rights -- which must be zealously protected, and which take priority over your whole idea of feeling safe and secure -- or you do not.

There is no middle ground there outside the simple fact that we do not know all of those rights yet. But the ones we do know we must defend, and there is no "not doing so" and thinking that all of this will go away.

This is not with us or against us or beside us or over there somewhere with your thumb up your ass -- at least, not if you believe in people being treated fairly and decently and being able to live their lives.

You might have a philosophical difference of opinion about the value of human rights and all, but the moment your theories are applied to a real world test and involve the denial or abrogation of human rights to anyone, you fucked up, and that idea is an evil one.

You remember evil, don't you? Kinda out of fashion to talk about. Well, that's what all this stuff you think you are doing is -- evil.

If you talk about misandry -- you are engaging in an act of evil. If you talk about reverse racism, you are engaging in evil. If you think that the confederate statues should still be up, or that the Republican Party is a decent one, or that "unfettered free markets" are a good thing -- you are not talking politics. You are talking about being evil, and you are doing it for your own benefit, and saying fuck you to the rest of the world.

Which is evil done for evil purposes.

You wanna know what talking politics is?

talking politics is arguing about the best way to do a universal basic income. Talking politics is about the the best way to protect the environment without concern for its commercial use.

Talking politics is about how we go about ensuring that everyone's human rights are protected, not about who we are going to take them away from but pretending to really care.

Of late, about 90% of any substantive stuff is not talking politics. It's talking about being evil.

So if you wonder why some people still support the orange fuckup and the vast majority of people want to see him out of office, there you have it:

Those that support him are literally evil people. No matter what their reasons are. They are supporting evil, which is and of itself is an evil act.

Those that oppose him may be evil in some ways (I've seen misogyny and racism on the left, many times), but they are less evil than those who support the orange fuckup.

Dionne's Thoughts

TransGriot Note:  Guest post by A. Dionne Stallworth.

All hate is wrong. Discrimination is wrong. One can’t call someone out for hate and discrimination on one day and return it people on the next.  I can only hope that Bill Shakespeare won’t mind my taking a few liberties with his words.

“I am an (add race, gender expression/presentation/identity, class, religious or spiritual identity (or lack of one), sexual orientation, political affiliations, country of citizenship, species or anything that makes a living being different from one another). Have we not eyes? Have we hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same summer and winter as each other? If you cut us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, do we not revenge or avenge?”

We all differ in many ways – some obvious and in others, not so much. This is the only planet we have, the only corporeal existence we know, and the only time we have. Given the finite resources The One has given to us, shouldn’t we learn to share them for the betterment of all concerned? Our very survival as living beings depends on how we answer that question.

I will end this with another hackneyed movie quote: “There are many ways to The One, my child.  I hope that yours is not too difficult.” Enjoy life, enjoy our gifts, our faults, our dreams, our nightmares and each other. Each of us has less time than we may think.


Have a great day and enjoy all that surrounds you and share it with someone – family, a friend or stranger.  Heed the words of this song.

None of us are Free (as recorded by Ray Charles)

Well you better listen, my sisters and brothers
'Cause if you do you can hear
There are voices still calling across the years
And they're all crying across the ocean
And they're crying across the land
And they will till we all come to understand
None of us are free
None of us are free
None of us are free, one of us are chained
None of us are free
And there are people still in darkness
And they just can't see the light
If you don't say it's wrong then that says it right
We got try to feel for each other
Let our brothers know that we care
Got to get the message, send it out loud and clear
None of us are free
None of us are free
None of us are free, one of us are chained
None of us are free
It's a simple truth we all need, just to hear and to see
None of us are free, one of us is chained
None of us are free, now I swear your salvation isn't too hard to find
None of us can find it on our own
We've got to join together in spirit, heart, and mind
So that every soul who's suffering will know they're not alone
None of us are free
None of us are free
None of us are free, one of us are chained
None of us are free
If you just look around you
You're gonna see what I say
'Cause the world is getting smaller each passing day
Now it's time to start making changes
And it's time for us all to realize
That the truth is shining real bright right before our eyes
None of us are free
None of us are free
None of us are free, one of us are chained
None of us are free
None of us are free
None of us are free
None of us are free, one of us are chained
None of us are free
None of us are free
None of us are free
None of us are free, one of us are chained
None of us are free

Does My Black Trans Life Matter, Pageant and Ballroom Community?

TransGriot Note: The deaths of five Black trans women during the month of February and three during the weekend without  much outcry or chatter from many of the organizations that we intersect and interact with has many of us in Black Trans World doing some hard solid thinking about our place in Black TBLGQ World.

This is a guest commentary from Erica Christian articulating her thoughts about the silence of the pageant and ballroom community about the sisters we've lost and how it's making her feel as a trans woman who has been in and repeatedly shown up for that community

It was originally on her Facebook page, but needed to be signal boosted as a example of the across the board sentiment in Black Trans Feminine World that no one gives a rat's anus about us being slaughtered.

And now,  here's our guest commentator Erica Christian
***

I have decided to be silent and see exactly what my so called LGBTQ national pageantry systems, and ball systems community are going to decide to do about our trans women of color being killed in numbers within a matter of days.

I guess we are nothing to you but a show queen for entertaining you.  An extra letter in the community acronym.  A soft skinned, natural, unclockable piece of fishy/cunty/pussy/woman

What was l thinking?   I'm so f***ing stupid for thinking my life matters in this LGB Community.
At this point, at this very moment, l'm mad as hell and l can't stop crying.  I get up every morning and report to work, advocating, outreaching, connecting, supporting and giving everything of myself to take care of and make a difference in my community that's stricken with poverty, homelessness, HIV/STD infections, without any biases or regret because l love you, and it will always be my purpose in my lifetime.

Yet still l don't matter, nor do the rest of my beautiful transgender sisters of color matter..

How am l supposed to feel? .We are being slaughtered and this is okay for you?

I guess l will continue to do what l have had to do for the past 50 years  Survive the best way possible and continue to live with no expectations, no disappointments.

If you are offended by my statements, please unfriend me.  Oh wait, like it even matters that I'm still alive for now.   Does my Black trans life even matter to you, pageant and ballroom community?
I wonder, would it matter if l was killed or slaughtered because l am a trans woman of color?

God, l ask for guidance on dealing with this pain and sadness.

***

Yes Erica, it does matter.   Your life matters to me, your trans siblings, and all who love you.  But I am interested in hearing and seeing the answer to the question you posed.  

About Kingian Love

This is another one of Toni D'orsay's commentaries from her Facebook page that needs to be shared with the world, especially on this last King Day celebration with Barack Obama as our president.

And now, here's Toni

***

So today I have been honoring a man who's life is, far too often, invoked as a condemnation of my efforts.

Of the efforts of any person of color, of any woman, of any disabled person, of any LGBT person.

"You are too vulgar, too confrontational, too angry, too egotistical, too masculine, too aggressive, too loud"

This is their words, their too and their much, and their too much of me in their head and in their eyes and in their face and space and I am just over and through and around and within them and that offends them into defends of their too and their much and their too much.

They start seeing me in my paleness, bleached by the dark and the hiding from the sun, and think me like them even as I call out my darkness and my difference and shed the things they put on me to reveal my many colored robe and all the truths within it.

Patchworked and frayed, like some country tune, my robe of many colors is cast in drab hue and cry and the then they see me only as the black one that deceives and lures and now they forget that I am more than one thing and so never so easily contained, oiled and slick from the failures of their own efforts to punish and silence me by drowning my brilliance in the darkness they concoct and convene and conveniently they tell themselves they can escape now.

"Be like King!" They extol and exhort and exhale and hex bring this marvel of a man as a shield for themselves, coopting and co-owning and appropriately appropriating the approximation of what they see as acceptable and allowable and apple pie a man with dark skin and a dream they breathe to lift themselves up and never my peoples, never my tribes, never my families.

They catch a drift and caricature the cacophony and complain about the noise like a short king to a wizard, hey man the peasants are revolting and you can say that again.

But hey, they are good and they are loving and you cannot grasp what love is without knowing what you are loving and like they have made me they are too thin and pale to grasp the color of love and the weight of it and burden of having to be the ones that love when all that is returned is hate.

Love is telling you that you are wrong, and love is you listening and asking and thinking and realizing that you are wrong.

If I say to you that need you need to step back and let that black or brown sister step up and you need to point to her and say hey, listen up, that is me being loving and me loving you and loving the work and yet you turn to me and you say that you cannot find a woman to lift up or that woman isn't deserving or good enough or useful enough or pretty enough or why don't you just say it plain and real that she ain't white enough you saltine looking piece of work.

Love does not mean you, with your newfound struggle, are better at this than we, for whom this struggle is as old as the blood and bone in our bodies, weaned on The Talk that you don't even have to have to have because to you the Talk is about sex and for us it is about living and how your code switching in your newfound world is stolen from we who have done it from the moment we learned that the world was out there.

If I tell you that rap is your poetry slam, your spoken word art and you roll your eyes at fuck tha police and can't tell a Run from a DMC and say yeah, but that ain't your jam I am gonna laugh.

Because who gave you your jam, but we?

You call it eggshells, correctness, politics, and what that is is you being careful not to be nonracist but to not show how fuckin racist you already are and how sleeping you are while we are woke and shaking in the middle of a long dark night you don't even know is there.

You think of me and you think of rambling lessons and crystalline posts that make you feel good or feel bad but make you feel without feeling it, and then I bust a piece of heart like this here and you blow it off and wonder why I don't just stick to shouting at windmills since my lance has been broken and my Pancho is a coffee bean you drink with a pretty label that says the right words even though we all sit in a nation where even a child makes more as an allowance than that coffee bean farmer does in a year.

I don't want your guilt. I want your blood, your sweat, your tears, your risking your job and family and hopes and dreams because that is what we risk walking down the street around you every day.

And now, no matter how many of you get this and cheer this and celebrate this know that it wasn't We who put hell in office.

It was you, and you are they, and we don't have the luxury and the privilege of saying but it was those bad ones.

Remember this on the Day of the King, and know that love never tears down, that love can sting, and that love sometimes means discipline to show you a better way.

 

Paige's Open Letter To Charlotte City Council

Was not happy to hear that yesterday the Charlotte City Council, after resisting a so-called 'deal' in September to  repeal their NDO in exchange for the Republican controlled North Carolina legislature subsequently repealing the unjust HB2, the Charlotte City Council on a surprise 10-0 vote threw the Charlotte trans community under the bus and repealed the trans protective NDO as part of a 'deal' brokered by Roy Cooper that allegedly will result in the repeal of the unjust HB2.

Of course I'm pissed about it along with trans folks in Charlotte and North Carolina who don't trust the NC GOP to follow through on their end of it.   But what has them even more incensed is that they weren't consulted, and are livid that the Charlotte City Council would take this step without consulting them.

Local trans leader Paige Dula composed an open letter to the Charlotte City Council that expresses the feeling of trans folks in the Queen City, and I'm posting it as a guest op-ed because the voices of the local trans community needed to be signal boosted.

And now, here's Paige Dula's open letter..

***

As a member of the local LGBTQ community I must say I was totally taken aback by the sudden repeal of Charlotte's NDO on the condition of the NCGA lifting HB2. I have been personally contacted by a couple of you privately and I appreciate you reaching out as you have. But I have to ask why didn't you reach out to our community sooner to discuss this course of action? We worked together very hard over several years to make the NDO happen. So many people in the local LGBT community have a LOT of skin in that game. It's not safe or easy to be out as a transgender woman but I and a few others did so the past couple years to put a face to why the protections are important. We sacrificed our personal safety and privacy for the betterment of our whole LGBT community. In one meeting you rendered that as worthless. I understand the state and Charlotte in particular is really taking on the chin financially in the wake of HB2 and the boycotts. But why give in NOW? Why when you said you wouldn't in September?

I've been assured that in the future Charlotte will pass another NDO, once Roy Cooper is in office. The problem is the NCGA still has a Republican super majority that will just be able to do a repeat of HB2. That is, unless Charlotte passes an NDO the NCGA finds palatable. That would entail stripping transgender protections in the public accommodations area. That would be unacceptable as that is the area where transgender people experience the most harassment and discrimination.

The other option would be to hope the redistricting and subsequent re-election of the NCGA next year results in there no longer being a republican super majority and a fully inclusive NDO could go in and stand unchallenged at least as long as we have a Democratic governor. In that case we have at minimum a year before a new ordinance can go in. And let me tell you that at least for the Trans community the incidences of harassment have done nothing but increase thanks to HB2 and the Trump campaign. Bigots feel emboldened now and we need protection now more than ever. Next year transgender people are likely to lose a ton of protections that Obama put in place for us: Affordable Care Act requiring medical treatment for Trans patients... GONE, Title IX protections for Trans students... GONE, DOJ case against HB2... GONE, transgender people serving openly in the military... GONE.

So pardon me if I don't have a lot of trust that you all are doing what is best for me, my community, Charlotte, and NC. What good is a government who doesn't stand beside the least of their constituents? We fought hard to make sure you were elected because we were assured you had our backs. All I see now is your back turned against us.

Freedom Is a Just Cause

TransGriot Note: This is an op-ed from Josephine Tittsworth, the founding executive director of the Texas Transgender Nondiscrimination Summit.
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As a natural born Texan, I find it very difficult to understand how people can condone discrimination. Texas was founded on freedom not discrimination. The Whites, Blacks, and Hispanics all fought together to gain freedom from tyranny. At this time in our great history slavery was outlawed by the Mexican government yet that very government persecuted the pioneers who came to seek their fortunes, family security, and a place in history. William Travis came to Texas from Alabama where he fled from debts and his wife. James Bowie came to Texas to further his fraudulent land deals and gain wealth in land grants. David Crockett came to Texas to get away from the outrageous politics in the United States. These three men are embedded into our history as great men. These were the undesirables from the United States yet they understood the importance of Freedom. As a Texan we are deeply influenced by these three men. They sacrificed their lives so that we could live as respected humans. We all remember the phrase “Remember the Alamo.”

Today too many politicians are garnering forces to create a society of hate through discrimination. Enlightened people in Texas have made great advances to ensure Texans a safe and respectful future. Current legislative efforts to curtail freedom through discriminatory laws are an insult to the history of our great State of Texas. Instead of working towards freedom and respect for all Texans our political leaders are openly defying the dignity of a select minority group; Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Transgenders, Intersex people, and our Allies. We as citizens of this great state need to make our voices heard loud and clear. Stop the hate and endorse love should be our anthem for freedom under these circumstances.

We can find common ground to work through our differences. No matter how impossible everything may seem to be when faced with an impenetrable barrier of religious beliefs, personal commitments, freedoms, class status, socioeconomic status, or family standards we can overcome our differences. That barrier, regardless of its basis, can be torn down just as the Berlin Wall was torn down after decades of righteous social justice attacks against inhuman rights. We as Texans are strong and willing to claim our rights to freedom and justice. We are a very proud people, justly earned.

Our legislative session in Texas begins in January 2017. Legislators have submitted numerous bills to curtail the rights of Texans. Even though only minorities are primarily impacted directly with discriminatory legislation, eventually all Texans will carry the burden of wrongly persecuting small groups of people for personal prejudices and discrimination. We encourage all people to step forward and let your voices for social justice be heard loudly and clearly. Today we fight for “Freedom Cause” against myths, stereotyping, misinformation, unfounded propaganda, and any form of injustice that hurts our neighbors and neighborhoods. The Texas Transgender Nondiscrimination Summit (501c3) stands for justice along with the National Association of Social Workers Texas Chapter and Equality Texas.

Josephine P. Tittsworth, ABD, LMSW, BSW, AA
P. O. Box 1095
Baytown, Texas 77522-1095

info@txtns.org  

We Are All At Risk

TransGriot Note: This op-ed is courtesy of Philadelphia based trans advocate Sharron Cooks, who was our lone African-American trans feminine delegate at the 2016 DNC, and recently participated in the Trans United For Hillary event centered in North Carolina.

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The Democratic Party and its leadership as we know it have been devastated by the results of this election term especially the presidency. This is particularly troublesome for people of color, Muslims, people with abilities issues, LGB people and the transgender community. The transgender community of color will be the first and most negatively affected by the 2016 presidential election results because of the discriminatory policies the Republicans plan to implement while in control of our three branches of American government; the presidency, congress and the Supreme Court (if a conservative is appointed). Mike Pence has been hailed as one of the most conservative and anti-lgbT government officials of our time. His views and policies on lgbT issues will strip away any and all progress made for lgbT equality under President Obama's administration. For transgender individuals this is absolutely terrifying. 

During the Hillary Clinton campaign, I took a visit to North Carolina with Trans United for Hillary (TU4H). TU4H is a political organization that is comprised of Trans activists from various organizations and states from around the country. TU4H organized several events in North Carolina to help support Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party, and oppose Governor Pat McCrory, the sponsor of HB2. House Bill 2 or more formally known as the, "Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act,"  is a piece of statewide anti lgbT legislation that grants the state permission to legally discriminate against gay and transgender people in North Carolina and it is in full effect. 

My visit to North Carolina, gave me and others in the Trans community, a glimpse of what is in store for the lgbT community underneath a Trump/ Pence administration, which is the legalization of discrimination against lgbT individuals not only in North Carolina but nationwide. A member of the TU4H team had a first had experience being discriminated against for simply existing. While canvassing for the TU4H campaign, a Trans woman had law enforcement officials called on her not once but twice. The perception of being "Trans," is all North Carolina residents need when they call law enforcement officials. Luckily, my TU4H team member was not arrested but it was definitely a wake up call for me and many other TU4H team members.

Trans activists from the National Center for Transgender Equality, the Human Rights Campaign and from around the country along with some Trans delegates from the Democratic National Convention were informed about the discrimination our TU4H team members faced and we were instructed not to "post" about it by a TU4H organizer. In essence we were being "silenced" in the face of anti- lgbT protections even though our mission is to advocate for pro- lgbT legislation.

This was most troubling for me for several reasons; first, why would the TU4H and the Democratic Party knowingly send a Trans people in a known conservative county with No Trespassing" signage to canvass (knock on the doors of residents to get them out to vote and to promote the Democratic Party's platform of inclusion and diversity)? Second, why was our safety being compromised for political gain? Third, why did TU4H organizers ask the team to "remain silent" about two incidents involving the police being called on a Trans woman for simply existing?

All too often, Trans people are exploited and their safety put at risk all for the sake of a human resource such as labor and political capital in this case.

Republican Governor McCrory was defeated in North Carolina's gubernatorial race by Democrat Roy Cooper which gives lgbT people in North Carolina some hope of HB2 being repealed. But is it a victory considering what the Trump/Pence administration has planned?  

 It has been days now since the results of the American presidential campaign and many white LGBT organizations and leaders are at a loss as to which direction they "should" focus on to ensure the protections LGBTQ people,  secured during President Obama's administration. As a member of the Trans community of color, I am extremely concerned that the rights of Trans people will be the first set of protections to be revoked. It is time for white LGBT leaders to become supportive allies to the Trans community and it's leadership. It is time for the "old guard" to step aside and listen to those who are facing discrimination on an all too frequent basis, and to help elevate members of the Trans community to lead this battle for equality. Not equality for some, not equality in incremental stages, not equality that only consists of white LGBT run organizations but true equality for all people. 

In Philadelphia, PA we are very fortunate to have lgbT protections but how long will that last under a Trump/Pence administration? Well if it is anything like HB2 in North Carolina, our nation's LGB and Trans community is in for a world  full of troubles. The Trans community, all too often, has not been a priority when it comes to legal protections and now that we are probably the first in line facing a repeal of any and all rights we have fought for, we are demanding our inclusion in every the stage of the legislative process. #ProtectTransRights 

African-Americans, Poor Whites and Latinos Know What America Has To Lose

You TransGriot readers know how much love and profound respect I have for the Rev. Dr William J. Barber, and once again this moral human rights leader is speaking truth to power

He's putting Donald Trump on blast in this post and rebutting his 'What do you have to lose?'  comment he says to his predominately white rally crowds in terms of his 'Black 'outreach'.for his failing presidential campaign.

Here's the post from Dr Barber that I'm signal boosting.

***
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African-Americans, Poor Whites, and Latinos Know

What America Has To Lose

 When political strategists told candidate Trump he couldn't win the Presidency while alienating every minority voter, he scoffed and said, "You're fired." But if he wouldn't listen to experience, Trump will listen to data. Hillary Clinton's double-digit lead in national polls has prompted the pivot Trump promised he'd never make.

So if you're African-American, Donald Trump wants your vote. Democrats have taken us for granted, he says, speaking to crowds in battle ground states that are overwhelmingly white. According to him we have been gullible and unsophisticated in the way we have cast our votes. He doesn't see us among his audiences, but he hopes we're listening. He promises that he-and he alone-can fix our problems. After all, he reasons, "What the hell do you have to lose?"

Black lives have always mattered in American political discourse, though not always for the right reason. But they have mattered, which is why we have had to fight for every civil liberty and legal protection we've gained since arriving on these shores as chattel slaves. We have had to be among the most sophisticated voters, knowing that no party or candidate is perfect and that race as well as class will always impact the policy decisions of whoever is in office. African-Americans have always had a lot to lose. The franchise of voting itself has been a constant struggle, then and now. Our history is too heavy a burden, but it has given us insight that cannot be taken away. This is why we know perhaps better than any group of Americans how much we all have to lose if we buy the lie of Trump and other extremists who've hijacked the Republican Party.

After a year of verbal brutality, racially charged speech, and regressive policy proposals that have masterfully tapped white fear, Trump wants to convince us he is not racist. George Wallace did the same thing in his 1968 Dixiecrat presidential campaign, which followed the race baiting campaign of Republican Nominee Barry Goldwater. Wallace, who had declared just five years earlier, "segregation yesterday, now and forever" tried to pivot away from the stigma of Old South bigotry by using the language of anti-elitism, anti-communism, and "law and order" to win white voters reeling with fear and hatred of the black freedom movement, the antiwar movement, the counter-culture and the women's liberation movement.

In a speech at Madison Square Garden, Wallace said, "I am very grateful for the fact that in 1966 my wife received more black votes in Alabama than did either one of her opponents. We are proud to say that they support us now in this race for the presidency, and we would like to have the support of people of all races, colors, creeds, religions, and national origins in the state of New York."

To win the White House in '68, Richard Nixon learned to out-Wallace Wallace by speaking in a new racially-coded language that capitalized on racial fears and prejudices without using blatant slurs and open appeals to white supremacy.  Lee Atwater, one of the architects of Nixon's campaign, called this Southern Strategy "a brilliant campaign... a blueprint for everything I have done in the South since then."

Nixon used his "Southern Strategy" to establish a new Sunbelt power base for the Republican Party in the South and West.  Many Southern white conservatives-Jesse Helms, Strom Thurmond, and most of what would become the New Right in the South-left the Democratic Party. Strom Thurmond organized conservative Democrats across the South to abandon their party and become Republicans in 1968, telling them that Nixon could actually win and that the white South would never go back to the party of civil rights. Nixon took the entire South (except for the handful of states that Wallace took), and his narrow victory in 1968 would have been a landslide except that Wallace siphoned off 13.5 per cent of the vote.

According to historian William Chafe, by 1969 most middle class whites believed blacks had a better chance at good education, jobs, and housing than they did. Almost 80 per cent said that most people on welfare could earn their own way if they wanted. Kevin Phillips, another of Nixon's chief strategists, explained that "all you've got to do with American politics is work out who hates whom and you've got it." Phillips advised Nixon that the Republican Party could win without Negro votes by painting the Democrats as a "black party." Predicting "a new American revolution coming out of the South and West," Phillips noted that "white ethnics" in the North were also ripe for the picking, correctly predicting, for example, that the Irish Democrats in New York would turn Republican "because they don't like the Jews and Negroes who run the New York Democratic Party." The South, Phillips said, would become the base for a new Republican Party.

This hijacking of the Republican Party depended on revisionist history. In an effort to gain African-American votes, Trump wants to claim the "party of Lincoln." But Lincoln's Republican party-and its opposition Democratic party-were the polar opposites of today's parties that carry those same names. If Trump really wanted to embrace the "Party of Lincoln," he would have to support the Reconstruction policies that won freed blacks' support in the 19^thcentury. He would have to be for federal intervention to ensure equal protection, for expanding voting rights, and for public education. African-Americans are not naïve. We know Trump and other so-called conservative extremists doesn't represent the party of Lincoln because they oppose the policies that have increased our freedom and well-being in this nation.

Trump's pivot is a political ploy taken out of the Southern Strategy playbook, which was developed in the late 1960s and used by candidates from Nixon to Reagan to George Bush to exploit white Southern fear while avoiding the stigma of overt racism. This strategy taught state-level and national politicians, especially in the South, to reference race in the coded language of "tax cuts," "entitlement programs," "states rights," "right to work," and "voter fraud." By associating black political power with "big government," the Southern Strategy created a disdain for the very social uplift programs that had benefited many whites in the 1940s and 50s. If black people were stealing from their neighbors by taking "free stuff' from the government, then they were to blame for poor white people's suffering. This convinced many whites to vote against their own self-interest, thereby undermining the coalitions of poor and working people who had challenged systemic injustice during the labor and civil rights movements.

When I hear Trump ask, "What do you have to lose?", I immediately think of all that African-Americans have fought for and won, together with our allies from other communities: our freedom, our citizenship; our right to vote, to sit on juries, to serve in the military; our right to education, to integrated public facilities, to fair housing and just wages. The question itself is an insult to black people in America.

But it is an insult to poor white people, too. Because despite the injustices we have faced, there are still more of them than there are of us. According to the University of Michigan's National Poverty Center, 26% of African-Americans are poor-an extreme disparity compared to the 10% poverty among whites. But in real numbers, millions more poor white people who are being conned by the Southern Strategy and the extremists who use it to build their own power and wealth.

The worst lie of our time is that extreme policies only hurt black people. In state houses across America, we have seen this kind of political extremism attack voting rights protections, public education, health care for all, living wages, labor rights, and immigrant rights. It has led the way in refusing to address racial disparities in our criminal justice system, and its trickle-down economics led to the worst recession since the Great Depression. The so-called "big government" that extremists railed against for decades bailed out the banks that were "too big to fail," and poor and working people of every race bore the brunt of creditors' over-speculation.

Take it from a people who learned long ago that, "just trust me," from a rich white man is a polite way of saying, "You better know your place, boy." This nation is far from perfect, but we've come a long way from where we started. We all have a great deal to lose if we buy the lie that our best hope is in returning to some imagined greatness of our past. If history shows us anything, it's that we become a more perfect union when people who've been pitted against one another see our common cause, join hands, and listen to the better angels of our nature. Our true greatness lies in a determination to move forward together, not one step back.

Don't Believe The Hype -It Isn't Trans Folks You Need To Fear In Your Bathrooms

We're the prey, not the predators.  

That point is increasing getting through to reality based America despite all the lies broadcast at max volume from the Rethuiglican Noise Machine.  Despite their best efforts of the Republican Party, FOX Noise, right wing talk radio, conservafool certified hate groups like the Family Research Council, and fundamentalist churches like the Southern Baptists and the Roman Catholic Church, this attempt to dehumanize and other trans people will fail.

The sad part is that the GOP is doing this as Ted Cruz his reprehensibly doing, for November 8 political advantage.   The Rethuglicans are desperately trying to divert attention from the fact they are the ones passing the unjust anti-civil rights measures in a state near you to cover up the fact they suck at governing our states and the nation..

Thank God the Texas legislature isn't in session until January, but i'm already getting ready to do battle the the Lone Star Forces of Intolerance seeking to spread trans hate in my state.

To drive home the point that we trans peeps aren't the problem, here's a guest  post from Yunus Coldman that I saw on his Facebook page that deserves to be signal boosted.

And now, here's Yunus Coldman

***

Don't buy into the hype or the fear people. The overwhelming stats show that child molesters do not consider themselves trans anything, gender fluid, etc. they are self admittedly, and enraged if otherwise labeled, with few exceptions, heterosexual men.

The two alleged incidences that have occurred happened after the idea of dressing up in female clothing was provided by the fearmongers. These perverts are not transgender women (who are women whether you like it or not) therefore the data still holds firm that there are and have never been such occurrences committed by people of trans experience. These are the facts. Child molesters mostly disguise themselves as cousins, uncles, friend of the family, religious figures and senators.

I will also add if you want protection for your children in restrooms it will most likely be from the trans community. After all, trans women are the ones who are most likely attacked in restrooms ... And every place else for that matter. They don't want it happening to anyone else especially children.

Off my soapbox. Good night

***.

Let my people pee and live in human rights dignity.

Off my electronic soapbox concerning this subject for now as well.

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.