Uganda's 'Kill The Gays' Bill Is Still Alive

If y'all thought that fundie Ugandan legislator David Bahati's 'Kill The Gays' bill was dead and everything was copasetic for Ugandan TBLG people, time to wake up and restart the protesting.

Despite massive international pressure placed on Uganda to drop the odious legislation that Bahati introduced as a Private Member's Bill in October 2009, he is quoted as saying, "Every single day of my life now I am still pushing that it passes."

His comments also came after the Rolling Stone paper in Uganda published a list of known gay people in the country that triggered attacks on them.and forcing some into hiding.

The only thing keeping the Anti-Homosexuality bill from passing according to Bahati is Ugandan president Yoweri Musaveni's fear of international sanctions if they do pas the draconian bill, which calls for jailing and execution of gay people. 

The Anti-Homosexuality bill is probably the wet dream of our Reichers in the States.   It would criminalize homosexuality in Uganda and subject people to the death penalty who have previous convictions, are HIV-positive or engage in same gender sexual relations with persons under 18 years of age. 

The bill also includes provisions for punishing Ugandans who engage in same gender sexual relations outside of Uganda and asserting that they may be extradited back to the country for punishment.  

It even includes penalties for individuals, companies, media organizations, or non governmental organizations that support GLBT rights..

The world needs to speak up and speak loudly with one voice right fracking now before another murderous orgy of genocidal killing gets unleashed aimed at Uganda's GLBT population.

More Tea Klux Klan Homophobia

For you GLBT people who have ludricrously drank the Delusional GOP Red flavored Kool Aid and advanced the cow feces that the Democrats are the enemy of GLBT kind, y'all really need to wake up, smell the coffee and note that your enemy worships the Elephant.

Funny, I don't see any Democratic party platform that advocates criminalizing same gender marriage or your bedroom activities as the Texas GOP one does. I didn't see the GOP pass GOP friendly laws in the 12 years they had control of Congress and the eight years they stole the White House.

But yet' in GLBT Bizarro world, the Democrats are the enemies of the community. Because a few conservafools have said nice words about marriage equality, they are suddenly 'more friendly' on the issues than the Democrats who fought tooth and nail to keep the Federal Marriage Amendment from becoming the 28th Amendment to the US Constitution, have spent the last 22 months reversing anti gay GLBT policies, and passing GLBT friendly legislation such as the Byrd-Shepard Hate Crimes Bill?

How quickly you forget. But oh, I forgot, if it ain't marriage equality, DOMA or DADT repeat, it's 'crumbs'.

Buy a vowel and get a rainbow clue. The Republican Party hates you, and their Astroturfed Tea Klux Klan subsidiaries aren't much better. The sooner you get that through your heads and run to the polls this November to keep them out of Congress, the better.

Already posted about the Conservative Voter Guide an Ohio Tea Klux Klan group was putting together, now here's another reality check for you.

Peep this FB exchange that was posted on the Ampilfy Your Voice blog between Tim Ravndal, the now former president of the Montana Big Sky Tea Party and Dennis Scranton in which they make jokes about the Matthew Shepard murder.

Dennis Scranton: "I think fruits are decorative. Hang up where they can be seen and appreciated. Call Wyoming for display instructions."

Tim Ravndal: "@Kieth, OOPS I forgot this aint(sic) America no more! @ Dennis, Where can I get that Wyoming printed instruction manual?"

Ravndal was removed from the presidency of the group, but the damage has already been done. It's more evidence of the true nature of the Tea Klux Klan movement.

Tim and everybody who thinks like you, the America in which you vanilla flavored peeps could kill anyone you didn't like with impunity is thankfully long gone.

Those of us on the liberal-progressive side not only don't want to live in your neo Know Nothing, phobic, white supremacist flavored America, we don't want it making a comeback.

Ohio Tea Klux Klan Chapter Hatin' On TBLG Peeps

Y'all know I have zero love for the teabaggers, and after reading this latest revelation about them, the negativity I have for them just got ratcheted up another level.

Thanks to Think Progress, this little tidbit about a local Ohio Tea Klux Klan group called the Freedom Institute of Erie County has surfaced.

It's creating a 15 question Conservative Voter Guide that has some very interesting questions, and a few which will be of major interest to us folks in the TBLG end of the political spectrum.

Peep these:

3. Marriage is defined as being between a man and a woman, any other type of Union is not marriage.

4. Children should not be placed into foster homes where the parents are homosexual, bisexual, or transgender.

10. I oppose the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy of the military and believe that all same sex partners should be banned from combat duty in the military because of the propensity to transmit blood-borne diseases in the theatre of battle.

They have every right to create their candidate forms and ask whatever questions they want in order to ascertain whether the candidate they wish to support shares their values or not.

But this is more evidence that they are what people have said they are. Homophobic, racist and if you read the rest of the questions on the Think Progress story, out of their damned minds.

And some of you GLBT fools are considering staying home and not voting because you're mad at Democrats?

Better check the alarm clock and wake the hell up!

Hypermasculinity Is Killing Our Kids

One of the things I've been sickened about lately is kids who are being beaten because they aren't acting 'masculine enough' for the male adults in their lives.

17 month old Roy Jones is dead and 20 year old Pedro Jones has been arrested on manslaughter charges.

Why? Because he 'was trying to make him 'act like a little boy instead of a little girl'.

 

3 year old Ronnie Paris, Jr. died in 2005 and his then 21 year old father is now doing 30 years in a Florida prison because he didn't want his son growing up to be a 'sissy' or 'soft'.

So he forced him to slap box with him daily, smacked him upside the head and pushed him into walls until his child slipped into a coma January 22 and died six days later from swelling on both sides of his brain.

Then there's 2 year old Dre'Ona Blake, who is no longer here because her daddy beat her to death in 2008 because she wasn't progressing at potty training fast enough to his liking.

Dre'Ona's waste of DNA daddy DeAndre Blake killed transwoman Tiffany Berry in 2006 and was walking the streets of Memphis,TN for two and a half years at the time on bond. According to Berry's family, he didn't like the way Tiffany had touched him, so he killed her.

When I was growing up in the 70's and averaging a fight a week in elementary because I was perceived as not masculine enough, the last thing most boys wanted to be called growing up was a 'punk' or 'sissy'. I watched many a fight get started because of it.

But now, in an age where kids manage to get their paws on handguns, those same fistfights I had to deal with in the 70's have escalated into people getting shot and killed simply because they get pissed for you calling them a 'punk' or 'sissy'.

Homophobia and transphobia feeds into these hypermasculine attitudes,and it has got to stop. We need to have some serious ongoing discussions about gender identity and gender roles in communities of color.

We need to slay the hypermasculinity dragon in our community because it's killing our kids.

Happy International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia

Today was the observance of the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia.

No thanks to haters using the world's great religions to twist religious doctrine into a billy club to attack TBLG people, it is a day that is sorely needed.

IDAHOT is different from pride events because it is focused on pointing out '..that in reality it is homophobia that is shameful and must be deconstructed in its social logic and fought against openly.'

The IDAHOT got its start thanks to our Canadian friends in Quebec. An organization called Fondation Emergence created a National Day Against Homophobia that was celebrated on June 1, 2003.

Afro-French academic Louis-Georges Tin in August 2004 launched the successful campaign to create a similar day that was global in scope and impact. Tin proposed that the IDAHOT be celebrated on May 17th to commemorate the day in 1990 that the World Health Organization decided to remove homosexuality from the list of mental disorders.

The first celebration of it occurred in 2005 and was supported by several international GLBT organizations. Transphobia was added as a focus in 2009 and the French in advance of last year's IDAHOT observance, became the first nation in the world to officially remove transgender issues from its list of mental illnesses.

The International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia is now celebrated in more than 50 countries around the world, and recognized officially by the European Union, Belgium, United Kingdom, France, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Mexico, and Costa Rica.

So Happy IDAHOT! Let's hope and pray that the rest of the nations of the world and the committee putting together the DSM VI manual will follow the example of France in the years to come.

Loudoun County VA Trans Bigot Delgaudio Gets Smackdown

In the wake of Loudoun County passing the measure adding sexual orientation and gender identity to their anti discrimination policy back on January 5, Loudoun County Supervisor and trans bigot Eugene Delgaudio kept flapping his gums and got into political hot water in the process.

He sent out an e-mail letter with this transphobic statement to his constituents in the wake of the January 5 majority vote expressing his opposition to the passed policy changes.

"The board votes six yes, Waters and Delgaudio 'no,' with York abstaining, to add 'sexual orientation' and 'gender identity' to the hiring of employees which means if a man dressed as a woman wants a job, you have to treat 'it' the same as a normal person.''



And in a recent January 20 Loudoun County Board of Supervisors meeting he got rebuked for it by his fellow board members.



Supervisor Jim Burton stated, "Regardless of how one may feel about the policy in question, there is no excuse for referring to other human beings as 'it'."

Supervisor Andrea McGimsey stated, "I think that the actions and words of Mr. Delgaudio prove why we needed to institute the policy that we did the other day. There's clearly some people who need those kinds of policies in place."

She said she believed his language was dangerous.

And for far too long, we transpeople have let people like Delgaudio and his like minded christobigot fzriends get away with dehumanizing us.

New rules for a new decade. Time to loudly call them out. If these bigots hold political office or are attempt to get elected by using transpeople as a wedge issue, time to vote them out.

Catholic Church Already Hatin' For The Holidays

Can me and my transsistahs go through this holiday season without being verbally attacked by faith based haters, the Catholic Church, conservative media or conservative Black megachurch preachers?

Monica Roberts November 27, 2009

Nope.

The post I wrote asking if we could go a month without any holiday hatred being directed at transpeople isn't even a week old and the Catholic Church is already hatin' for the holidays.

Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan of Mexico, the emeritus president of the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Health (1996-2009) said in an interview with Pontifex,

homosexuals and transvestites "will never enter into the reign of God," appealing to St. Paul

Barragan went even further in the interview and contradicted Catholic doctrine by stating that he believes that homosexuals are not born that way but become that.

And I thought the birthers were breathtakingly stupid.

The more the Catholic Church engages in hatin' on GLBT people, the more irrelevant they become to the younger generation that has grown up with GLBT people since elementary and middle school. They are also driving progressive Catholics out of the Church with their ultra conservative BS and mean spirited rhetoric as well.

DignityUSA definitely has its work cut out for it trying to roll back the tide of anti-GLBT hate flowing from the Vatican.

FYI Cardinal Barragan, only God will make that final judgment on who enters the Kingdom of Heaven. I have a sneaking suspicion there will be more than a few rainbow denizens walking through the Pearly Gates.

You know, after this Cardinal Barragan comment, I wonder what Papa Ratzi is going to say this Christmas Eve to top last year's phobic commentary.

I'll have to say my prayers for my transsisters residing in heavily Catholic countries. I fear that this transphobic commentary and whatever comes out of the mouth of Benedict XVI is going to result in another spike in the numbers of dead transwomen we'll have to memorialize next November 20.


H/T-Pam's House Blend

Lil Mama Apologizes For Negative Comments To Leiomy

I'll admit because I have such disdain and contempt for reality TV shows, I missed Sunday's America's Best Dance Crew show on MTV in which judge Lil' Mama made disparaging comments to Leiomy Maldonado.

If you haven't heard it by now, the leader of the New York based Vogue Evolution team is a trans woman. These vets of the NY ballroom scene have been ripping it up for several weeks now in their quest to not only represent the GLBT community, but win the $100,000 grand prize as well.





Leiomy has also taken this time in the media spotlight to openly talk about being trans and has done a few interviews with Vogue Evolution about being an out and proud dance crew.

But back to the business at hand. During the August 30, 2009 episode rapper Lil Mama, one of the judges for this show, said this during a critique:

“Leiomy, come on. Your behavior…it’s unacceptable. I just feel that you always have to remember your truth. You were born a man and you are becoming a woman. If you’re going to become a woman, act like a lady. Don’t be a bird, like ‘Oh my god, I’m not doing this!’ You know what I’m saying? It gets too crazy and it gets confusing. You’re doing this for America. Even though you’re the face for transgenders, you’re the face of America right now with this group and it’s not about anybody else. It’s about y’all. You know what I’m saying? So do it for the team. Do it for the team.”

GLAAD reached out to Lil Mama and MTV after receiving numerous calls and e-mails from community members and allies regarding those comments.

GLAAD sent me an e-mail this afternoon letting me know that Lil Mama has now apologized for those comments.

Lil Mama: "I would like to clarify anything that was misunderstood from Sunday's show. My remarks were never meant to be disrespectful regarding Leiomy's  gender nor offensive to the LGBT community, which has been a community that has supported me in all my endeavors.

However, in hindsight, I recognize that my words may have come across as hurtful. I spoke with her privately after the taping to express that it was not my intent to offend her or any member of the transgender community and that I still live for Vogue Evolution."

"While we thank Lil Mama for her apology, this incident demonstrates the need for more education around the lives and experiences of transgender people. Lil Mama’s comments during her critique attempted to impose standards of conformity for gender identity and expression -- a mistake that many people make,” said Rashad Robinson, Senior Director of Media Programs at GLAAD.

“Transgender people, particularly transgender women of color, become targets of discrimination and violence when inaccuracies and acts of insult like this are advanced. Contrary to what was said on the program, as an openly transgender woman and dance contestant, Leiomy is living her truth,” Robinson continued.

“It was surprising that MTV, a network that has shown a strong commitment to fair and accurate inclusion of transgender and gay people, would choose to air a clip that includes such disrespectful comments,” said Robinson.

MTV has not yet publicly addressed the comments made by Lil Mama in the episode.

But while we're waiting for their reaction, I'm gonna have to start tuning in to America's Best Dance Crew and see if Vogue Evolution can win it all.

'Jeremy's' Compensation For Jacked Up Guam Prom Denied

Remember 'Jeremy', the gay student on Guam who was denied entry to his prom because he was wearing a dress while female students were allowed to enter wearing tuxedos?

Jeremy's quest for getting reimbursement for the $400 spent getting ready for that aborted prom night at George Washington High School has been denied.

This tempest is also occurring as Guam's legislature is embroiled in a contentious debate over whether to allow same gender unions. The US Western Pacific island territory, whose slogan is 'Where America's Day Begins', decriminalized homosexuality in 1979.

It also has laws in place banning all discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation.

Jeremy identifies as gay instead of trans, and told KUAM-TV News he felt discriminated against by school officials.

"I said, 'Where does it state in this rule in this paper that there's no cross-dressing, no individualism and no opposite genders? It doesn't say anything'. And that's wrong," he said.

Jeremy recently met with school officials about the matter to demand a refund on his ticket and on the items he purchased for the event, as well as a public apology. He says the over $400 he spent on clothes, shoes, hair, nails and makeup getting ready for the prom all went to waste because he wasn't allowed to attend.

While they granted the refund for his ticket, the school has balked at the refund for the items Jeremy purchased and the public apology.

George Washington High School principal Begona Flores stated: There's no need to make a public apology, because we weren't the ones that put it out in the public. He was the one that did so. There's no need for a public apology from any of us, according to legal counsel."

Flores then let her homophobia and transphobia seep into the comment by adding: "He knew the attire. This is for male, this is for female. And he made the conscious decision to buy something else. So why should we be responsible? You cannot pick and chose when you want to be. You want to be this, then not this time. When you start picking and choosing, there's no consistency here. And so we cannot blame other people because when I see Jeremy here, he's a boy."

Jeremy has apparently dressed in female clothing and expressed his gender as female while in school, so school personnel say they were not unreasonably surprised when he arrived at the prom in a gown.

All Jeremy wants is fairness in the system. He wishes to ensure all people are treated the same and not differently because of their sexuality.

Flores insists that it is the decision of the Department of Education and the Guam Education Policy Board to come up with any trans specific policies to ensure this doesn't happen again.

But she added: "I am not going to personally put myself in that position (of drafting a policy) because I don't believe in it. I don't believe in it because I have my own (personal) beliefs and I am not going to deviate from them."

Ms. Flores, I believe your personal beliefs are why you're so intransigent on giving Jeremy a refund on the money spent and an apology for your staff's heavy handed and inconsistent actions that evening.

If you and the Guam school board end up in court and suffering an adverse legal verdict directing you to pay more than the $400 Jeremy's request plus still have to apologize, you'll have no one to blame but yourself.

Blacks Must Confront Their Homophobia

TransGriot Note: This is a recent column by my 2004 Pulitzer Prize winning cousin (that's right, my cousin) on a subject that is near and dear to my heart.


Blacks must confront their homophobia
By LEONARD PITTS JR.
lpitts@miamiherald.com

''The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.'' -- Martin Luther King, Jr.

That's for Marion Barry, who seems to need the reminder.

The former mayor and current city councilman of Washington, D.C. is a longtime supporter of gay rights. So observers were stunned last week when a bill committing the city to recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere passed the council on a vote of 12-1.

The ''one'' was Barry.

Wait, it gets worse. Barry said his position hasn't changed but warned that the council needs to move slowly on this issue. ''All hell is going to break loose,'' Barry said. ''We may have a civil war. The black community is just adamant against this.'' Indeed, after the vote, a group of black ministers reportedly ''stormed'' the hallway outside the council chambers, vowing political reprisals.

The Washington Post quotes Barry as saying he voted as he did because ''I am representing my constituents.'' He reminded reporters that ``98 percent of my constituents are black, and we don't have but a handful of openly gay residents.''

That's a lot of words to say what he could have said in three: I punked out.

There's something to be said for representing one's constituents. But there is more to be said for leading them. Barry's failure to understand the difference is galling in light of the fact that he was once a leader in the civil-rights movement.

One wonders how differently that movement might have turned out had white people such as Clifford Durr, Viola Liuzzo, Ralph McGill, Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and Lyndon Johnson allowed themselves to be cowed by the angry voices of white men and women saying, ''All hell is going to break loose.'' For that matter, how much longer might the long night of slavery have lasted had white people like Elijah Lovejoy, William Lloyd Garrison, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Lucretia Mott and Thaddeus Stevens bowed to the fact that the white community was ''just adamant'' against freedom.

One wonders, too, whether those black ministers in the hall see their mirror image in generations of white ministers who have used the Bible to condone the evil of slavery (''Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters.'') and the fiction of African-American inferiority (the ''curse'' of Ham).

At day's end, though, the great tragedy here is neither historical amnesia nor moral cowardice. No, the tragedy is embodied in Barry's description of African Americans as a people for whom open homosexuality is rare. That description is, unfortunately, too accurate -- not simply for black Washington, but for black America. We are a socially conservative people.

And our conservatism is, quite literally, killing us.

It is no coincidence the community that has yet to make a safe place for its gay members to openly be who they are, the community that still regards gay as a dirty secret not to be spoken in open company, the community in which people still think gay ''can't happen in my family,'' is also the community that accounts for half of all AIDS diagnoses in this country, the community that has lost 211,000 brothers and sisters to this disease, the community where marriages keep popping like balloons from the discovery that the husband is gay on the ``down low.''

The measure of a man, said Dr. King, is where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. Marion Barry should take note. We all should.

Where sexuality is concerned, African America lives by lies. We are long overdue to wake up, grow up and speak up to tell the truth openly and without fear. We are dying in this silence.

And for what it's worth, Martin's measurement still applies.

Black People More Homophobic? You're Kidding, Right?

One of the memes that has irritated many Black people gay, transgender and straight since the Prop 8 debacle has been the 'Black people are more homophobic' one.

You're kidding, right?

Every time I'm watching TV I see predominately white ministers such as James Dobson, other white fundamentalists, white dominated anti equality orgs and peeps like Tony Perkins leading the anti gay charge.

Fred Phelps checks the 'white' box on his census forms, and the megachurches bankrolling these rights rollback or anti same gender marriage amendments have membership rolls of predominately European ancestry.

I'm not saying we don't have 'phobes in our midst. The peeps who are selling out to the white fundies like the Hi Impact leadership Coalition come immediately to mind along with the homophobic pronouncements of people like Rev. Gregory Daniels, Donnie McClurkin, and Rev. Bernice King.

But it was the Mormon church who provided the cash to fund and provided the foot soldiers for the Yes On 8 Forces of Intolerance. Last time I checked, the Mormon church ain't exactly chock full of members who look like me.

I find it laughable the Blacks are 'more homophobic' charge when the number one blog for almost a year in the Afrosphere's BBR's (Black Blog Rankings) has been the GLBT oriented Pam's House Blend. I and my transsisters have received much love, support, hands of friendship and sisterhood from womanists, but the predominately white dominated rad fem ranks have shown me and my transsisters nothing but hostile vitriolic hatred for three decades.

Even our civil rights icons such as Rep. John Lewis, Julian Bond and the late Coretta Scott King have consistently stated that GLBT rights are not only civil tights but human rights.

And if Black people are so homophobic as was scurrilously charged in California based on a flawed exit poll in Los Angeles County, explain why Prop 8 was defeated in Alameda County, which has a 13% Black population?

The major problem I have with the 'Black people are more homophobic' meme is that the peeps that keep spouting it are not only overwhelmingly white gays such as Dan Savage and others, but it deliberately ignores the fact there are Black SGL people as well.

If you want to eventually win the fight for same gender marriage, you can't continue to write off large chunks of the electorate because you have this false belief that our community is 'more homophobic', won't be receptive to your message and won't even try to be in my community to win it. You have to find a message that resonates with us just like you do any other community, and you'll need the help of the Black SGL/transgender community and our allies to do that. Failure to engage my community means failure to win at the ballot box.

So just as the white community has not only 'phobes but supporters and allies, so do we. It's past time you stop demonizing us with this disrespectful discredited meme and start humbly asking what can you do to win our support.

Silly Rabbit

TransGriot Note: Was motivated to write this poem after seeing a young male wearing this anti gay slogan on a t-shirt.

An MKR Poem


Saw you on the street the other day
Wearing a shirt that was anti gay
It read, 'silly faggot, dicks are for chicks'
Thanks for the warning you're a bigoted prick

Did you know there are chicks
That don't like dicks?
And there are chicks
That possess dicks?

There are handsome Dicks
Who used to be chicks
And there are Dicks
Who are now cute chicks

So, silly rabbit
Are you in the habit
Of showing the world that in your brain
Ignorance, transphobia and homophobia reign?

And that you're immature
And insecure
In your sexuality
And gender identity?

Think about this silly rabbit, if you can
Did that shirt make you feel more like a man?
If hating gay and trans peeps makes you feel okay
You're a pathetic waste of DNA

You keep hatin' on peeps who are transgender or gay
We ain't gonna go away
'Tudes like yours cause us stress and strife
But won't keep us from living a quality life
Silly rabbit

The Willie Houston Story

One of the things I need to point out is how pervasive gender and gender role stereotyping is prevalent in our culture. The rigid gender binary has such a powerful connotation that transgressing it as you see played out in transgender people's lives leads to harsh treatment, ostracizing and even death in some cases.

Sometimes even for people who aren't transgender.

On the Remembering our Dead lists are the names Pfc. Barry Winchell and Willie Houston. Neither of these men are GLBT, but died at the hands of others because of the PERCEPTION that they were.

Barry Winchell's story is familiar to anyone who saw the movie Soldier's Girl or who has heard Calpernia Addams speak about it from time to time.

But Willie Houston's story won't been told in a movie, and it's past time that it be heard again. People need to remember the insane reason why we memorialize him on this list. It's an example of the ignorance that some of my people show on gender issues, and unfortunately, that ignorance in this case caused an unnecessary death.

On July 28, 2001, 38 year old Willie Houston, his fiance Nedra Jones, and their friends Valerie and Melvin Holt celebrated their engagement by taking a midnight dinner cruise on the General Jackson Showboat in Nashville, TN.

When the boat docked at 2;45 AM EDT, out of concern for Mr. Holt they decided to wait until most of the passengers had disembarked from the boat before doing so themselves. Ms. Jones had to use the dockside restroom, so she asked her fiance to hold her purse. While Ms. Jones was doing so, Mr. Holt had to also use the restroom so Willie escorted his blind friend to the men's room still in possession of his fiance's purse. Ms. Jones was told by Valerie Holt what was happening when she returned.

A few moments later Houston and Melvin Holt returned from their trip to the men's room. He was still carrying his fiance's purse slung over his shoulder and he and Melvin Holt were laughing about and recounting the homophobic remarks directed at Houston in the men's room.

A few moments later a man later identified as then 25-year-old Lewis Maynard Davidson III and another man started cursing at Houston. When Ms. Jones told Davidson that he didn't have to talk to Houston like that, Davidson responded,"F--k you, fat b---h." Ms. Jones then read Davidson like a cheap novel while Houston warned the man not to disrespect his lady.

As the Holts, Houston and Jones exited the General Jackson, Davidson and his friend continued to spew abusive language and threats at them. Houston finally told Ms. Jones to stop and let Davidson and his companion pass and as he did said, "I'll f--k y'all up-you and your friends."

As they continued walking with the Holts to the parking lot, Davidson shouted insults at them again before heading off to his car. As Houston was unlocking his Davidson approached him again brandishing a gun.

As Jones shouted for security guards, Houston tried to reason with Davidson by saying, "Man, there ain't no need in acting like this. We just came on the boat to have a good time,...and we are just ready to go home."

To drive home the point that he wasn't looking for trouble, Houston pushed the gun in a downward direction, stepped away from Davidson with hands up and open palms faced outward. Davidson still shot, hit Houston in the chest and jumped into a waiting car that rapidly left the scene. Houston unfortunately died a few hours later

Davidson was caught in Ohio two months later and extradited back to Tennessee. He was tried, convicted of first degree premeditated murder and sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Willie Houston.

While Lewis M. Davidson III is rotting in jail, it still doesn't erase the pain for Ms. Jones and everyone who knew Willie Houston. It's also mind boggling to think that this tragic series of events started because the shooter was tripping about someone carrying his girlfriend's purse and ignorantly assumed they were gay.

HBCU's, When AreY'all Gonna Stamp Out Homophobia On Campus?

Morehouse College in Atlanta has the gravitas and justified pride in being the only all-male HBCU (historically Black college and university). It has produced distinguished alumni such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., filmmaker Spike Lee and NAACP head Julian Bond. It also has a thriving gay subculture, as was alluded to in Spike's movie School Daze.



But it also has another reputation it didn't want: It's been listed since the mid 90's in the Princeton Review's Top 20 Homophobic Schools.

I was heartened to see that Morehouse at the urging of influential alums and students is taking steps to grapple with this issue. Senior student Michael Brewer and Morehouse Safe Space recently organized activities during the week of April 21-28 that started with a film created by three students at neighboring women's HBCU Spelman College called 'No Heteros'.

The film documents the experiences of GLBT students on both campuses. The 'No More No Homos Week'activities were designed to trigger a discussion on sexual orientation discrimination and homophobia not only on campus but in the African-American community at large.

It definitely needed to do so in the wake of an ugly November 3, 2002 incident. Sophomore student Aaron Price received a 10 year sentence for beating a fellow student with a baseball bat because he thought the man was making a sexual advance at him. The victim of the attack didn't have on his glasses and stared to verify if Price was his roommate.

But Morehouse isn't alone in having a problem with homophobia on campus. Keith Boykin recounts in his blog a 2006 speaking engagement at Dayton, Ohio's Central State University that turned into an ugly mess.

One of the ongoing missions for Black colleges is to not only uplift the race by molding quality young men and women, but to serve as our community's sword and shield to dispel and disprove negative shade that segregationists and our detractors hurled at us. Since back in the day being gay had a negative context, any rumors of it on HBCU campuses were loudly debunked as the gay students on those campuses were put in a confining 'don't ask, don't tell' straitjacket in which violation of this unwritten rule would merit swift and sometimes violent disapproval.

But with more African-American GLBT students being openly proud of who they are, those who wish to pursue their educations on HBCU campuses still find that the unwritten 'don't ask, don't tell' rule is in full effect on many of these campuses. If they wish to matriculate at a GLBT-friendly college, most of the time their options narrowed to attending a predominately white one or going back into the closet to attend an HBCU.

It's also depressing to note that in the Campus Climate indexes put out by Campus Pride not one HBCU as of yet in the ones I've reviewed have taken the time to fill out the survey so that they can be ranked.

But thanks to a determined group of young Black GLBT people, many of them are paving the way to broaden the choices for these students. Like Michael Brewer and Morehouse Safe Space, they are getting HBCU's to begin dialogues about the issues and starting on campus GLBT support organizations. They are also making the point that being Black and GLBT are not mutually exclusive or separate identities.

But they also need to get the conservative administrations of many of these HBCU campuses to end their silence and speak up about these issues as well. Too many times, silence from the administration is interpreted as non-support by the GLBT students and an open invitation to the bigots to harass them.

HBCU's have a special mission and a long history of producing quality individuals who have pride in our communities and themselves. Three members of my own family and others in my extended family graduated from various HBCU's. The famous United Negro College Fund tag line 'A mind is a terrible thing to waste' also includes GLBT African-American people as well. Some of them are also alumni of HBCU's, and it's past time for HBCU's to make room at the table for our portion of the African-American family.

And one prerequisite for having GLBT people on campus is providing a safe environment where they feel comfortable enough to where they can focus on getting their educations.

November 2004 TransGriot Column

Black History Month Lesson: Three Months Early
By Monica Roberts
Copyright 2004, THE LETTER

TransGriot Note: This column originally appeared in THE LETTER in November 2004.

Well folks, by the time you read this the election should’ve already taken place. We’ll either be celebrating the fact that Bush is packing up for a one-way trip to Crawford or we’ll have four more years of mean-spirited misleadership to endure. I pray that the odious amendment to the Kentucky Constitution banning same-sex marriage died a horrible death.

Now, let’s get to the column.

One of the things that’s irritated me about the same-sex marriage amendment battle has been the use of sellout Black ministers to shill for them instead of Dr. Frank Simon and Company.

The Reverend Jerry Stephenson commented during a local September 17 rally that “gay rights activists have hijacked the civil rights movement and that Blacks don’t believe that homosexuals ought to be married.”

Speak for yourself, Rev. Jerry. I believe that if two people love each other and want to get married, it's their business. I could care less whether they’re the same gender or not. Neither the state of Kentucky nor the United States Congress should be attempting to enshrine intolerance in our constitution at the behest of Bible-thumping bigots. I’m in good company. Ambassador Carol Moseley-Braun, Coretta Scott King, Julian Bond, Rep. John Lewis, Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Rev. Al Sharpton, Dr. Joycelyn Elders, Whoopi Goldberg, and former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown are some of the folks with our skin pigmentation that agree with me. By the way reverend, I am also a Christian.

Let me get back to focusing on Rev. Stephenson’s ignorant assertion that gays have hijacked the civil rights movement. He and the rest of his fellow Stepford Negroes got that talking point directly from the Concerned Women for America, an organization that has been less than friendly to African-Americans and our issues over the years.

By the way Rev. Stephenson, since you were sleeping in class during Black History Month, let me hip you to the fact that gays and lesbians played a major role in the Civil Rights Movement. Can you say Bayard Rustin? I thought you could.

This gay Black man was not only a co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with Dr. Martin Luther King, but was one of his principal strategic advisors. Rustin was the person who introduced Dr. King to Gandhi’s non-violence philosophy, the major ingredient in the series of campaigns that won passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. He was also lead organizer of the 1963 March on Washington in which Dr. King gave his immortal ‘I Have a Dream’ speech.

Coretta Scott King pointed out during a April 1998 speech to the 25th Anniversary Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund luncheon that “Gays and lesbians stood up for civil rights in Montgomery, Selma, Albany GA, St. Augustine FL and many other campaigns of the Civil Rights Movement.” She said that “Many of these courageous men and women were fighting for my freedom at a time when they could find few voices for their own, and I salute their contributions.”

She also had this to say about gay rights and the civil rights movement:

"We have a lot more work to do in our common struggle against bigotry and discrimination. I say “common struggle” because I believe very strongly that all forms of bigotry and discrimination are equally wrong and should be opposed by right-thinking Americans everywhere. Freedom from discrimination based on sexual orientation is surely a fundamental human right in any great democracy, as much as freedom from racial, religious, gender, or ethnic discrimination."

Amen, Mrs King.