King Holiday Video

Here's a 1986  video from the King Dream Chorus and Holiday Crew that was comprised of the Fat Boys, Kurtis Blow, Run DMC, Stacy Lattisaw, Teena Marie, Whitney Houston, El DeBarge and a few other music peeps from the mid to late 80's.

Happy King Day! 25th Anniversary

Today is the 25th anniversary of the federal holiday honoring the late Rev..Dr.Martin Luther King, Jr.    It's one of the few things Saint Ronald of Reagan actually did right during his wretched presidency instead of the right wing thing.

But he did so grudgingly.   Reagan opposed the holiday,as did the late Sen. Jesse Helms (R-North Carolina), Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-South Carolina) and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ).   Reagan hid behind the cost excuse as a reason not to do it, while others cited honoring a private citizen would be contrary to longstanding tradition.


Yeah, right.  How many private citizens who never held public office affect public policy in such a profound way, earn Nobel Peace Prizes for doing so and become an international symbol of peaceful change?

Helms Dixiecrat behind went even further by attacking Dr. King on the Senate floor, and Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) slamming him for it.. 

The bill's passage by a veto proof 338 to 90 margin in the House of Representatives and a 78 to 22 margin in the Senate resulted in Reagan signing the bill into law on November 2, 1983.

Stevie Wonder's famous 1980 song Happy Birthday was released on his Hotter Than July album to support the campaign that sprung up after the bill to create the holiday failed by five votes in 1979 to pass in the House.



The bill introduced by Rep. Katie Hall (D-IN) in the House established the Martin Luther King, Jr. Federal Holiday Commission to oversee observance of the holiday.   President George HW Bush made Coretta Scott King a member for life of the commission in May 1989.



The federal holiday is observed on the third Monday of January and was celebrated for the first time as a federal holiday in 1986 and in all 50 states in 2000


Happy King Day, people!

Happy New Year 2011!

Happy New Year TransGriot Readers!

Welcome to what some people consider the official start of the second decade of the 21st century, the 2K10's.   Like 90% of the population, I consider the year that ends in 0 as the start of the decade.  It's also the first New Year's I've celebrated in the hometown and the home state in a decade.     


It's also my 5th blogiversary today.    I started TransGriot with this post at 12:01 AM EST on January 1, 2006 and I'm still going  five years later.

2010 was a year of changes for me.  I started the year in Louisville and finished it back in Houston.   I left it 30 pounds lighter as well in addition to trying to get reacclimated to all of the changes that have happened in H-town since I left.     

We have city council and mayoral elections slated for later this year and reapportionment.   It  will be interesting to see not only if Annise can get reelected, but if Jenifer Rene Pool can make trans history and become the first trans person elected to a city council of a city above 250K in population  

And yes, we'll also get to check and see how well Moni did in living up to her New Year's resolutions she made last year.

So while I'm happy that I'm still standing 1.88 meters above ground without my heels,  I also realize that I can do and want to do a better job in my life in 2011 than I did last year.

Happy New Year people.   We made it, we all have work to do, so let's get busy doing it.

Happy New Year 2011*!

To my TransGriot readers west of the International Date Line, it is already New Year's Day for you,  so I'd like to take a moment to wish you all a very happy one..   I know you're probably as happy to see 2010 go bye bye as many of us are here on the eastern side of the date line who are still waiting for midnight to come so we can get our party on..

May 2011 be a year full of opportunities and abundant blessings for us all.  

Happy Kwanzaa Black Trans Style-Umoja

TransGriot Note:   On each night of the Kwanzaa celebration this year, I'm going to write about each one of those principles and explain how it applies to the chocolate trans community and our cis African descended brothers and sisters.  

***


Umoja (Unity): To strive for and to maintain unity in the family, community, nation, and race.

Haban gani?    What's the news?    


It's time to light the first candle on the Kinara and ponder the first principle of the seven celebrated during Kwanzaa.

Unity.  It has been an elusive concept for us in the African descended trans community, but one we still push for despite the odds.   Many of us are estranged or cut off from our blood familial relationships.   We have a community that rejects us for specious faith based religious reasons.   As a subset of a community that is attacked and reviled we have a hard time thinking of ourselves as part of the nation, much less are feeling the love amongst our chocolate flavored brothers and sisters.

But to borrow Maya Angelou's words, and still we rise.

We African descended transpeople have long ago realized due to events inside the white dominated trans community that it is past time for us to unify and build our own community based upon the cultural traditions that were carried over from the Mother Continent and that have sustained us through our time here in the Americas.

So our first task to realize as proud chocolate trans people is to point out that we have a shared cultural history with our cis African descended brothers and sisters.    The status quo of our fellow cis African Americans dissing, disrespecting and killing us is no longer acceptable behavior.

If we are going to build a strong unified African American community as called for in the Umoja principle, whether you like it or not, we chocolate transpeople are an integral part of that community.

You cannot call for and strive for national unity in the community and the race when you have elements of it sowing faith based seeds of discord, falsehoods and lies against the trans segment of that community who believes just as fervently in the unifying principles of a strong and unified race.

Chocolate trans community, we need to do a better job starting now of holding up our end of the bargain.   We need to strive not only for unity within the African-American community as a whole, but role model the behavior amongst ourselves.  

If our blood families reject us, find family in each other until your blood family comes to their senses.

By doing the work now to unify our community, maintaining it, and role modeling the behavior to the cis African American community, it will not only benefit the trans community for years to come, but our nation and our people as well.


As I have written before, we did not give up our Black cards when we transitioned, and you need to deal with the reality that some of your African-American brothers and sisters are trans..   

We also have talents and abilities that will lend themselves to helping accomplish the task at hand now and for generations to come, and live up to this principle.