Last Day Of Gender Proud Indiegogo Campaign

I did want to take some time to highlight today is the last day to donate to the indiegogo campaign to help raise funds for Gender Proud, the international organization model and girl like us Geena Rocero founded.

Gender Proud's mission is to pass laws that make it easier for trans people in our various nations to change documentation and gender markers to match their gender presentation 

This inaugural Gender Proud campaign's goal is to raise $15,000 in order to cover expenses for legal aid, transportation, and stipends for front line activists doing the work and they have already raised as of this writing $13,875.     Gender Proud is just $1,125 short of its goal, so if you can drop $1, $5, $10, $20 or more if you can, it will help the org get closer to reaching it on the last day of this campaign.

Here's the link to Gender Proud's website to do that 

TransGriot Update:  Gender Proud reached its fundraising goal and surpassed it, raising $16,025 as of 1 AM CDT on May 17.    Congratulations!


 

TransGriot International Top Ten-December 2013

One of the things I've resolved to do a better job of this year is do posts in which I track where my international readers are coming from. 

I take great pride in being a widely read international blog.  That information helps me do a better job of balancing out my international content so it isn't as North American, North Hemisphere or Western Hemisphere centric.

Of course, I'm always going to focus on events TBLG wise in the African Diaspora regardless of pageviews or location because that's part of my blog's mission statement.

So with this post I'm going to start doing on a monthly basis tracking my Top 10 nations where my blog traffic came from for that preceding month.

So let's get busy revealing those ten nations for December 2013.

10. Poland               729           
9.   China                 734
8.   Russia                2020
7.   France                2348
6.   Australia             2651
5.   Germany             3813
4.   Malaysia             4097
3.   Canada               6261
2.   Great Britain        8339
1.   United States      83897  

That was a surprise in terms of Poland sneaking into the Top Ten.  Malaysia jumping into the number 4 one since I complied the last post in April.   Maybe it's because I mentioned MP Anna Grodzka in that year end international trans year in review post.    No surprise who my top three are although Canada and Great Britain flip flop between the number 2 and 3 spot.

We'll see if there are any changes when I report the numbers for January. 
 

Trans Community Things To Look Forward To In 2014

Many of you TransGriot readers either got dressed up to go party last night or brought in the New Year like I did.   I chilled quietly at home while nervously looking up at the ceiling hoping and praying the fools who were shooting their guns in the distance didn't prove to my detriment the Newtonian gravitational laws of physics.

What goes up (bullets) must come down.

Now that we are past the midnight hour, the ball dropped in Times Square or however you celebrated it around the world to signify that we are indeed in the early morning hours of 2014 east of the International Date Line, what do we have to look forward to as an international trans community this year as we build on 2013?

We are less than 30 days from the 2014 edition of Creating Change happening in H-town January 9-February 2.   I and my Creating Change Host Committee members are ready to roll our the pink, blue and white carpet for you estimated record breaking 4000 attendees and are looking forward to seeing those of you who can be at the Hilton Americas Hotel for the event.

The Trans 100 List is still taking nominations for the 2014 edition of the list.  Deadline to get them in is January 15, and this year nominations of international trans people are encouraged. 

While I'm on the subject of lists, the Latino LGBT oriented Honor 41 List will also be taking nominations soon, and it will be interesting to see if more than five trans Latin@s make the 2014 edition of it.

We finished 2013 with the early good news of our unjustly incarcerated sister CeCe McDonald's scheduled release from that Minnesota jail on January 13.   So we'll be anxiously watching to see if that happens along with the documentary that Laverne and Jac Gares are filming on her.

Speaking of anticipated documentaries, our community will be anxiously awaiting the release of MAJOR! that StormMiguel Florez and Annalise Ophelian are putting together.
   
We'll see the launch of Janet Mock's book Redefining Realness at bookstores near you on February 2 along with Laverne Cox's anticipated return in season two of the hit Netflix show Orange Is The New Black 

The third annual Black Trans Advocacy Conference will happen in Dallas on April 29-May 4.  The Cal for Proposals has already gone out along with asking the community for nominations for the awards that will be given out at BTAC 2014's dinner are being accepted.

On the international front, will my Kenyan sister Audrey Mbugua get the positive result she's seeking in her history making court case?  Will trans human rights on the African continent build forward momentum and wins despite meddling from US based fundie groups?

Will the Canadian Senate when they come off their extended holiday break January 28 finally do the right thing, pass Bill C-279 and finally join the list of nations that protect the human rights of its trans citizens?

And what Canadian province will be the next one that steps up to do so? 

What nation not on our radar will step up to the legislative plate and be the next one to make groundbreaking positive legislative progress on behalf of its trans citizens?  Will we see another trans MP or legislator join Poland's Anna Grodzka on that very short list of trans national legislators in 2014? 

Will we see a trans contestant in the Miss Universe pageant system in the US or elsewhere in the world during the 2014 cycle?   Another trans model rock the runway?  Another high profile trans coming out? Another trans societal breakthrough? 

We'll be watching to see if New York becomes the 18th US state plus the District of Columbia to pass a statewide law protecting the human rights of its trans citizens.  It has passed the NY State Assembly in lopsided numbers six consecutive times only to be stalled by the GOP controlled New York State Senate.  Will that finally change or will other states not on our trans human rights radar at the moment step up to the plate and do whats right for their trans citizens like Delaware did in 2013? 

We will be nervously watching to see if the California Forces of Intolerance haters were successful in forcing a statewide referendum vote on AB 1266.  If they did get enough signatures to force a November repeal vote, did the liberal progressive groups in Cali learn their lessons from the Prop 8 failure?  Do they actually have a plan and are they prepared to fight as hard as the trans community will to decisively win it?

Will my hometown chuck the embarrassing distinction of being the largest city in Texas and the US that doesn't protect the human rights of its trans citizens this year? 

It goes without saying that I'll be watching to ensure that any such ordinance should it happen will be trans inclusive.  

What cities will add their names to the lists of municipalities that value the rights of their trans citizens?

Texas trans peeps are waiting to hear the results of Nikki Araguz Loyd's appeal to the Texas 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in the Araguz v. Delgado case.  Speaking of legal cases we're watching in Texas, the nation and the world, will the trans people we lost in 2013 like Islan Nettles receive justice? 

Will the Black cis community, the Black Church and our legacy orgs step up and accept the challenge Carter Brown laid down?  Will they not only loudly proclaim this year that Black trans lives are just as valuable as their own but back it up with fierce urgency of now action?

Will the African-American and Latino trans communities continue to build on the progress they made in 2013?   Will our African American and Latino trans brothers finally get the media attention they deserve?

In the wake of Fallon Fox, Aeris Houlihan, and Miranda Itzayana running into loud, ignorant and transphobic resistance to them playing and participating in the sports they enjoy, will cis world finally get a grip in 2014 along with the international sporting governmental bodies and simply let us play? 

It also points out that trans human rights advances are and need to happen in the sports world, and why I unapologetically cover them.   

Finally, who will be the breakout trans personalities this year?   The surprises we didn't see coming?   The heartwarming stories we talk about and cover?

And yeah, what will the TransGriot do in 2014?

Those are the interesting things we'll get to see as we spend the next 364 days on this space rock watching the year 2014 unfold before our eyes.  

2013 International Trans Year In Review

Just like 2012, the year 2013 on the international front was a good news, bad news one for the international trans community. 

Let's start with the fact that we continue to see unacceptable levels of anti-trans violence, discrimination and murder being leveled at our people, with the most egregious levels of it happening in various Latin American nations, Brazil, the United States and Turkey.

There was also the horrific case in Jamaica of 16 year old transteen D. Jones being set upon by a mob during a street party and beaten, shot, stabbed and run over by a car for the crime of being her true self. 

We witnessed the disappointing defeat of PLC 122 last week, a bill that would have prohibited gender identity and sexual orientation discrimination in Brazil.  We also saw the Gulf States led by Kuwait consider a ban on transpeople entering the area for employment purposes in October, and expressed concern about transpeople in Russia, Nigeria and Uganda being caught in the backlash spawned by the various draconian anti-gay laws in those nations.

Despite that negative news, the international trans human rights picture overall is an increasingly bright one.

In addition to the United Nations holding on September 26 a first ever ministerial level meeting to discuss TBLG human rights issues, several nations have made moves either with favorable court rulings, administrative rule changes, ended forced sterilizations or SRS in order to do name changes, or are considering or passed legislation to streamline their name change process for transgender people like the Netherlands.


The Philippines held congressional hearings December 5 to discuss an inclusive anti-discrimination bill, and a trans inclusive ENDA passed in the United States Senate on a 64-32 vote. 

While the US state of New York's senate frustratingly refused to allow GENDA to come to a vote on the floor after its passage for the sixth consecutive session by the New York state assembly, the state of Delaware showed them how it was done by becoming the 17th US state to pass a trans inclusive human rights law.

In Canada, progress on the passage of C-279, the Trans Rights Bill was stalled by the Conservatives in the Canadian Senate on the verge of its Third Reading vote in June.  After summer recess, it was dealt another blow by the prorogation of Parliament, which forced it to start the Senate legislative process from the beginning stages after it was reinstated.  C-279 is currently at Second Reading stage in its repeat Senate legislative journey.

C-279 passed the Canadian House on a final 149-137 vote back on March 20 with Prime Minister Stephen Harper being one of the NO votes and current Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau being MIA for it. 

The Canadian and the international trans community will be watching to see if the Canadian Senate values its trans citizens and passes this much needed law.

Canadian trans kids are also front and center in current north of the 49th parallel trans rights battles.  Mat Asano in Quebec,  Harriette Cunningham and Tracey Wilson  in British Columbia are fighting for recognition of their identity in addition to battling documentation issues in those two provinces.     

My Canadian trans cousins did have something else to cheer in 2013 as the province of Newfoundland and Labrador became the latest Canadian legal jurisdiction to protect trans human rights and Quebec has introduced legislation that addresses the trans documentation issue. 

On the political front, while Polish MP Anna Grodzka continues to blaze trails as only the third elected trans MP in world history, we are still waiting for the first ever elected trans national legislator in the Western Hemisphere to happen.  Attempts by Diane Rodriguez in Ecuador in February and Valentina Verbal in Chile to get elected to their respective national legislatures unfortunately fell short.  

Verbal's was for an all too frustratingly familiar reason to transpeople around the world,  She pulled out because of documentation issues.

Speaking of history making trans politicians, was nice to hear about the combination fundraiser and tribute for Georgina Beyer, the world's first ever elected trans MP who is battling chronic kidney failure and is awaiting a transplant.  The well attended tribute event was held in Wellington, NZ on Beyer's 56th birthday on November 14.   


As a child of the African Diaspora, one of this blog's missions is to highlight the issues facing my continental trans brothers and sisters on the African continent and across the Diaspora so they get the attention they deserve.

Despite the recent depressing news from our planet's second largest continent emanating from Uganda and Nigeria, there is positive movement trans human rights wise to report on the African continent. 

There's increased regional cooperation and coordination with various indigenous organizations on the African continent concerning trans rights issues. 

Kenyan trans activist Audrey Mbugua's lawsuit requesting KNEC change her documentation on her school records to reflect who she is now fostered a wider conversation in her nation about trans people and our human rights issues and concerns.

Titica's continued growing musical popularity in Angola and the southern African region led to her being named as a UNAIDS goodwill ambassador.


In Asia, the Vietnamese trans community is coming out of the shadows and increasingly demanding their human rights be respected and codified into law so they no longer face anti-trans discrimination. 

The trans marriage cases the international trans community were nervously watching in Hong Kong with Ms W and in Malta with Joanne Cassar came to successful conclusions in different ways.  

Ms. W finally won at the highest level of the Hong Kong judiciary, the Court of Final Appeal, after losing two previous times.  Cassar won and lost cases at various levels in the Maltese court system, and eventually had to take her marriage case to the European Court of Human Rights before the Maltese elections and a governmental change led to her finally emerging victorious.   The new Maltese government settled the pending ECHR marriage case with Cassar out of court and passed new laws recognizing the rights of transpeople to marry.   They recently honored Cassar with the Gieh ir Repubblika on December 13.  

Here in Texas we are anxiously awaiting the results of the September appeal of Nikki Araguz Loyd in her ongoing court battle to affirm her (and ours in Texas) marriage rights.  No matter which way it goes, it will probably be appealed to the Republican dominated Texas Supreme Court.

The issue of trans people in sports blew up this year in the cases of women's MMA fighter Fallon Fox here in the United States and Aeris Houlihan in the UK.  Both cases have created debate and sometimes contentious discussion in terms of transfeminine athletes, their ability to compete in and participate in their favorite sports against cis women and what is the real science pro and con.

It has also sparked interest in just what are the rules and how can we craft them so they are consistent and fair to both cis and trans athletes.

While the Miss Universe pageant system, with the exception of a few transphobic holdouts was open to trans contestants starting this year, the only person that attempted to do so was 27 year old Kylan Wenzel, who entered the Miss California USA pageant.   Unfortunately she didn't win, but it will be interesting to see if more trans women, now that they have had time to contemplate it and get prepped to enter if they so choose to do so, enter their various national pageants in the 2014 cycle.

Trans models continue to rock the runways with Brazilians Lea T., Carol Marra and Felipa Tavares leading the way.   They are being joined by a rising modeling star in France's Ines-Loan Rau.   The 24 year old from Paris was featured in a steamy photo shoot with Tyson Beckford that went viral. 

In the US trans model Arisce Wanzer is also beginning to get attention and Carmen Carrera is vying to become the first trans Victoria's Secret model   While that didn't happen in 2013, it's just a matter of time before one of the Victoria's Secret Angels strutting that catwalk is a trans woman. 

Jenna Talackova, whose fight to enter the Miss Canada Universe Pageant last year opened it and the Miss Universe system to future transfeminine contestants, is being featured in a January Canadian Elle magazine photo shoot.

Across the Pond, our British trans cousins were handling their business as well. 

They started the year calling out the British TERF duo of Suzanne Moore and Julie Burchill, whose transphobic scribblings in published newspaper columns in January set off a tsunami of local and international condemnation. 

What is believed to be the world's first purpose built memorial dedicated to the victims of anti-trans violence was dedicated in Manchester in July.   But since transphobic idiots don't want us to have nice things or human rights, the memorial was promptly vandalized.  The damage to it was repaired in time for TDOR memorial events in November.

A museum exhibit celebrating the life of trans pioneer and icon April Ashley opened in her hometown of Liverpool back in September.   Entitled April Ashley: Portrait of a Lady, the exhibit will run at the Museum of Liverpool until September 14, 2014.

2013 was award winning British trans activist Paris Lees' breakout year on her side of The Pond.

The 25 year old journalist not only received the top spot on this year's Pink List, Lees just recently made history as the first out trans panelist  to appear on the BBC's long running Question Time program. 

Lees also received rave reviews from the British public for her historic appearance.  So what will Paris and our British trans cousins do next?  Will be interesting to see as the New Year dawns.

There were a lot of things good, bad and groundbreaking that happened internationally for the trans community in 2013.   Looking forward to discussing and chronicling more of the positive trends in the international trans community in 2014

World AIDS Day 2013

Today is the 25th annual observance of World AIDS Day.   It started back in 1988 as the first ever global health day that serves several purposes.   It organizes people to help fight and do education about HIV/AIDS, allows us show support for those persons living with HIV and acts as a memorial day for the 25 million people around the world who have succumbed to it between 1981 and 1997.

333 million people worldwide are estimated to be living with HIV. 

I have two cousins who are part of the 25 million people worldwide who have succumbed to AIDS.  I've had at least 10 classmates from elementary through high school that are sadly among that group of people we have lost to AIDS that I think about on this day.

Also in that group are transfeminine people, as the untimely death of activist Alexis Rivera last year pointed out.  A depressingly long list of transgender needs assessments going back to 2000 also revealed alarming HIV infection rates in Washington DC and several other cities of up to 20% of the respondents taking them. 

I'm also aware of trans women who are living with HIV and are surviving, thriving in their personal and professional lives and contributing their talents toward making our society better along with other people who are HIV+..

But just as I had a front row seat in 1981 for the dawn of the age of HIV/AIDS, I'd like to see a cure expeditiously happen for it as well.  
   

The theme of this year's 25th anniversary observance of World AIDS Day is “Shared Responsibility: Strengthening Results for an AIDS-Free Generation.  There will be a candlelight observance ceremony starting at 5:30 PM at Tranquility Park in downtown Houston, which will be one of the many World AIDS Day themed events world wide.

The goal is to get new HIV/AIDS infection rates and deaths down to ZERO..  It's a lofty goal that has a multipronged approach to it in terms of educating people about the disease, promoting safe sexual practices and urging people to get tested.

But the sooner it happens around the world, the better.

I Like Sports And I Need To Write About Sports

When I'm out and about in our community and the subject turns to what I write about on TransGriot, I have people tell me that they love it when the Shut Up Fool Awards pop up every Friday.  They are appreciative of the hard work I put in and long hours to keep up with all things trans here and around the world.

They enjoy my Ten Questions interviews and love it that I break down politics and how it impacts this community as well.  They love my Black trans history posts and for the most part me discussing race and class and how it affects our TBLG community.   They love my motivational posts and also want to hear my views and analysis on whatever subject I feel like talking about.   

But every now and then I get some pushback as to why I discuss sports on this blog.  

Well, frankly, because it's my blog and if I want to talk sports on it, I can.   Second, because TBLG sports fans exist, I'm one of them and they need love and content to read, too.  I write about my local Houston teams.   I have opinions I want to express about developments in the collegiate and professional ranks from time to time.   And because female athletes don't get much ink or love in an arena dominated by male sports writers, I'll comment on developments in women's sports that pique my interest.

Far too often female athletes and their athletic achievements are belittled by male sports writers and male sports fans.  Women's sports leagues like the WNBA, women's international sports and women's collegiate sports are seen as not deserving of media attention like 'the menz.' until some controversy pops up. 

If we don't talk about female athletes, their accomplishments and the issues that impact them, who will?  

I like discussing my fave tennis playing siblings the Williams Sisters, who get far too much disrespect from the media, their fellow players and knuckle dragging racist idiots in comment threads despite having Tennis Hall of Fame level careers. 

Serena and Venus will always get love here and when deserved, some WTF's.  And yes, the 2014 Australian Open starts January 13-26.      

Third, keeping up with all things trans means that I need to be talking about trans athletes, our history and how developments in the sports world like the LGBT Sports Coalition and Nike LGBT Sports Summits affect our community. 

As Kye Allums, Fallon Fox, Michelle Dumaresq, Christina Kahrl, Keelin Godsey  and others prove, trans people are also breaking ground and making history in the sports world as Renee Richards once did when she sued the USTA in 1976 for the right to play in the US open and won.  

As a blog that seeks to chronicle trans people making history, that means you readers need to see their stories.  They are also trailblazing leaders and pioneers in the sports world that are busting stereotypes about us and they deserve our community's love, understanding, appreciation and support.

Speaking of stereotypes, just as we do so as a community when it comes to doing Trans 101 mythbusting about transpeople in the rest of society, there is just as much disinformation, mythbusting and Trans 101 that needs to be done about transpeople in the sports world.  

There are also sports related issues that we need as a community to be paying attention to and be able to discuss authoritatively like the NCAA rules for trans athletes.  We need to be able to talk about the International Olympic Committee's Stockholm Consensus that allow trans people to compete in the Olympic Games.   We need to be aware about Jazz's successful two year fight with the US Soccer Association to allow trans kids to play and be working on getting FIFA to allow trans athletes to play on international soccer teams like cis people can.  

We also need to as a community need to be keeping up with the states that allow trans kids to compete at the high school level in the gender they present to the world and fight for their right to compete.   

I also see the parallels between transpeople making groundbreaking strides in athletic competition and the African-American human rights struggle.   It's no accident that with the successes of Jesse Owens in the 1936 Olympic Games, boxer Joe Louis, and Jackie Robinson smashing baseball's color line in 1947 among our countless other sporting achievements that African-Americans also gained increased acceptance of our humanity and advancement in our human rights struggle. 

I submit that as more out trans athletes make their mark in the sporting world, we'll see less hatred and drama directed at us as a community as a result of their athletic competition success, and it will pave the way for other trans athletes to exceed what the pioneers accomplished. 


We transpeeps not only increasingly play the games, we have people like Christina Kahrl, who is breaking ground by writing about the athletes who play them as an ESPN.com columnist and a member of the Baseball Writers Hall of Fame.  

I have TBLG sports fans and trans athletes who thank me for writing about them, standing up for their humanity against the transphobic haters and using my TransGriot platform to talk about being a sports personality who happens to be trans.   That will continue because trans athletes have an important role to play in our ongoing trans human rights struggle.

Trans athletes not only excel on the field of play to prove we can do so just like any other cis person, we love the various games we play.   As they play the games they love, they demolish stereotypes and advance trans human rights at the same time for all of us, even for you trans peeps who hate sports.   

So yeah, I like sports, I write about sports and need to continue doing so.   

Paris Lees Tops Britain's 2013 Pink List!

If it seems like to the rest of the world 2013 has been British trans journalist, advocate and media presenter Paris Lees' breakout year in terms of getting British national and increasing international attention as a voice for the trans community across The Pond, actually it wasn't. 

Lees has been a rising personality in the British trans ranks for several years now as the founding editor of META magazine, Britain's first trans themed magazine, an It Gets Better video, winning a 2012 National Diversity Award , and being an instrumental player in the discussions the British trans community had with Channel 4 that has led to more positive portrayals of transpeople there.



Paris Lees rocky rise to prominence and status as one of the torchbearing voices in the British trans community has gained more cachet as she recently was named to the number one spot in the 2013 edition of The Independent Pink List of 101 influential British TBLG people

And her trans cousins on this side of The Pond couldn't be happier for her.

So what's next for this groundbreaking 25 year trans leader?  Stay tuned, because it's going to be interesting for transpeople on both sides of The Pond and internationally to watch.

Persian Gulf States Seek To Bar Trans Workers

Remember the post I wrote in July asking where in the world I could travel on a US passport?   

Scratch the Persian Gulf States from that list if a proposed policy is approved to bar trans people from obtaining visas to work in the Persian Gulf States. 

The Gulf Cooperation Council according to the Saudi based Arab News is pondering a proposal by the Kuwaiti Ministry of Health tightening genetic tests for immigrant workers in order to prevent transgender migrants from entering the GCC job market.

Tawfiq Khojah, director-general of the Executive Office at the GCC Health Council, said, “The health checklist for migrant workers now contains a mandatory examination to determine gender.”

These constrictions are necessary to 'preserve Islamic principles', he added and will be made in a meeting for the Central Committee for Foreign Workers’ at the Health Council to be held on November 11, Khojah told Arab News.

I don't doubt that part of what's motivating this Kuwaiti proposed policy is a reaction to the flood of trans sex workers entering the conservative leaning Gulf States combined with transphobic attitudes in that country leading to the persecution of Kuwaiti transpeople.

“Undergoing the test will become mandatory for an estimated 289 health centers across the GCC if the Health Council approves the proposal of tighter controls on gender tests for migrant workers. More than 2 million expatriate workers underwent the new gender tests in 2012,” Khojah said.

Youssef Mendkar, director of the Public Health Department at the Kuwait Ministry of Health, confirmed that the proposal aims to prevent transgender migrants from working in GCC countries. The tests determine the gender at birth.

The Kuwaiti backed anti-trans proposal before the GCC is a violation of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Yogyakarta Principles.

The transphobic proposal is getting denounced by LGBT human rights advocates such as London based Peter Tatchell and is only adding to the pressure FIFA is getting to pull the 2022 World Cup tournament from Qatar.

"Excluding expat workers because of their gender identity is immoral and doesn't make economic sense," said Tatchell to The Guardian. "People should be employed solely on the basis of their personal integrity and their ability to do the job. Trans people make perfectly good, reliable employees."

The new proposal would also violate FIFA's non-discrimination values and prompts questions about Qatar's hosting of the 2022 tournament, Tatchell said.

"The proposals to test and ban foreign trans employees from the Gulf Co-operation countries will include Qatar and will penalize World Cup construction and hospitality staff from overseas who are trans," he said.

"If these plans get the go-ahead, FIFA should cancel the 2022 World Cup contract on the grounds that Qatar has violated FIFA's non-discrimination values. It should find a new host city for the 2022 tournament. Discrimination against trans people is incompatible with FIFA's commitment to equality for all."

Indeed.  If the Kuwaitis insist on pushing this transphobic policy,, then FIFA needs to yank the 2022 World Cup from Qatar in order to stay true to their anti-discrimination policies.   Good luck on that happening. 

We'll find out what transpires at that November 11 meeting and see if transphobia prevails.. 

Malala's Triumphant Year

One year ago today a gun toting Taliban thug boarded a school bus and shot Malala Yousafzai in the head for daring to speak up and criticize their efforts to turn Pakistan's Swat Valley back to the Middle Ages. 

Girls' education was banned, women were beaten for leaving their homes without a male relative escorting them, and her hometown of Mingora featured floggings and executions in its central square

She was airlifted to Britain as the world prayed for her survival, and spent three months in a Birmingham hospital recovering from her grave injuries.

She not only survived, but the voice the Taliban thought they silenced forever on that October day has grown louder and has an even bigger international platform. 

Yousafzai celebrated her 16th birthday by speaking to a July 12 United Nations youth conference .   In that memorable speech in front of the nearly 1200 participants and assembled dignitaries, she declared  "Let us pick up our books and our pens. They are our most powerful weapons. One teacher, one book, one pen, can change the world."

When Birmingham opened their massive new public librarly last month, she again proclaimed that education is "the only weapon that can defeat terrorism.”

And she says that the West needs to engage the Taliban in peace talks if the social and political conflict in South Asia is ever to be resolved.  "The best way to solve problems and to fight against war is through dialogue," she said.

In the run up to this bittersweet anniversary the wise beyond her years teen has been interviewed by the BBC.  She was named Time Magazine's Most Influential Person for 2013, is already the youngest person ever nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and is considered the frontrunner to receive it when the winner is announced October 11 in Oslo, Norway.  If that happens Friday, she would become the youngest person ever to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

Malala's message is being heard globally as she works to complete her own education while traveling the world speaking about the equal rights for girls and education for all.issues that are near and dear to her heart.

The nonprofit Malala Fund advocates for girls' education and raises money for schools and tuition in her native Pakistan.
 
A lot has changed for her since that horrific day, but she still has dreams of going back home, getting into politics and changing Pakistan for the better.  "I will be a politician in my future," she said, vowing to make education compulsory.

"I hope that a day will come when the people of Pakistan will be free, they will have their rights, there will be peace, and every girl and every boy will be going to school."

People around the world hope that you get the opportunity to make that dream for your homeland a reality.  

Hazreen Shaik Daud Video Update

I talked about Hazreen Shaik Daud, the Malaysian trans girl like us who was appointed the political secretary to Tanjung Bungah state assemblyman Teh Yee Cheu of the Democratic Action Party (DAP) in Malaysia.

In Penang state a Transgender committee headed by Teh has been approved and will be formed in two months.  The objectives of this legislative transgender committee is to collect data and alleviate the status and social stigma associated with the transgender community. 

Some of their activities will include holding public forums to spread awareness on the issue.

Here's a video that discusses Hazreen's appointment

Where In The World Can I Go With My US Passport As A Trans Person?

One of the things that's on my short term to do list is getting my United States passport.  I want to have that issue out of the way in case I get invited to participate in a future international trans conference.  

The cool thing about getting a US passport is you don't need to undergo genital surgery to get the proper gender code on it and it's on the voter suppression laws list of acceptable ID because of the $135 cost.

I do like to travel, and one of the things I regret didn't get a chance to do more often before I reluctantly left the airline industry was fly internationally.

Like a lot of people I have an international travel bucket list of which in addition to seeing the classic tourist attractions like Paris' Eiffel Towel, Beijing's Forbidden City, Tokyo's Ginza district, transiting the Panama Canal and Berlin's Brandenburg Gate I also have attending international sporting events on my agenda like the Olympics, FIFA World Cups, FIBA world championships and tennis Grand Slam tournaments.  

My personal travel bucket list has a mix of well known tourist things to do plus things that are significant to my culture as a child of the African Diaspora and membership in the international trans community.    

Some of the things I'd like to do someday in addition to visiting Paris is going to the D-Day beaches in Normandy.   I want to see Robben Island prison in South Africa, look out of The Door of No Return at Senegal's Goree Island, visit Berlin, Stuttgart where my cousins are and drive on an autobahn, and travel to Holland and visit Anne Frank's annex. 

I want to go to Poland and see Auschwitz, see Mt. Fuji in Japan and ride a bullet train, visit Australia, hang out with Zoe in Canberra, see the Sydney Opera House and catch a footy game.  I want to visit London's Imperial War Museum and The All England Club, see Hong Kong, and spend some quality time with Naomi Fontanos and my transpinay sisters in the Philippines and take in the Amazing Philippines Show while I'm there.  

I'd also like to travel to Thailand, see a show at one of Thailand's trans cabarets, spend quality time with Audrey Mbugua and Lindsay during a Kenyan visit.  I'd like to visit Canada and my Canadian homegirls cis and trans across the country along with doing a dream north of the border road trip. 

But because of the anti-trans animus being stoked in large sections of the Middle East, eastern Europe, Latin America, Malaysia and Indonesia and much of the African continent, there are some of my travel bucket list items I may have to postpone or scratch off the list period for the time being. 

Can't go to Russia or Nigeria.  They both have draconian anti-LGBT laws and Russia will host the 2014 Winter Olympics in a few months.  Bye bye Red Square in Moscow and visiting St. Petersburg. 

Uganda, where Victoria Falls is located not only has a Kill The Gays one they have been trying to pass for several years now, it has rampant transphobia.  There are several sub-Saharan African nations in which transphobia is sadly on the rise.

The Middle East?  Same tired story of rampant anti-trans animus, especially in the Gulf States like Kuwait.  Egypt, the home of the pyramids has denied entry to transpeople into their country from customs and so has Dubai. 

Turkey is the second most dangerous place in the world for trans women and will be the host nation for the FIBA World Championship for Women next year.  

Brazil?  One of the most dangerous places in the world for trans women and the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics will be there.   Mexico?  Increasingly dangerous for trans women.    Greece?  Police harassment and unjust detainment of our transsisters, so that kills visiting the ancient Greek antiquity sites like the Parthenon.  The Caribbean?   We have heard the stories about Jamaica's recent anti-TBLG history.  Some of the other Anglophone Caribbean nations still have British colonial era anti-crossdressing laws on their legal books that could be liberally interpreted by the local po-po's to garner you some unwanted time in the local jails.

Bermuda?  While they just enacted a law expanding rights for gay, lesbian and bi folks, it's still open harassment season for trans people.

Central America?  Anti-trans animus and violent attacks on our transsisters in several of those nations such as Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.  Malaysia and Indonesia?  Anti-trans attitudes spread by fundie Muslims.  Hong Kong was detaining trans women, especially transpinays as you entered customs.

And that's before we even throw in my skin color and racial profiling as a factor.   The fun of just getting on that international flight to leave the USA after going through the TSA security gauntlet and upon your return going through customs as you reenter the US.

So where the hell can I travel as a Black trans woman who wants to see the world before she departs it? 

Theoretically, it's any place on the globe I have the time, cash and desire to visit with the exception of Cuba and North Korea in which US government travel bans are in place.

But realistically, the list of countries I can safely travel to as a trans person is sadly shrinking.

Happy 95th Birthday, Nelson Mandela!

'The very fact that racism degrades both the perpetrator and the victim commands that, if we are to be true to our commitment to protect human dignity, we fight on until victory is achieved.'--Nelson Mandela
The odds were looking bleak a few weeks ago in terms of him being around to celebrating this birthday.  He was battling a lung infection that had him on the ropes for a while, but today has dawned with him still in our plane of existence.

Today is former South African president Nelson Mandela's 95th birthday, and the world greets the news that the 1993 Nobel laureate is seeing this day with great relief.

As we celebrate his legacy, we in the United States also note that Mandela's 95th birthday is coming on the on the heels of our human rights being messed with on multiple levels by our Republican oppressors.  We are also emotionally reeling as we process our reactions to an unjust court verdict in which the teen victim was put on trial and not the adult gun toting bigot who killed him. 

It is also Nelson Mandela International Day , in which the global call to action goes out that celebrates and makes the point that each individual on our planet has the power to transform the world and the ability to make an impact.

The Mandela Day campaign message is a simple one.  It points out that Mr. Mandela gave 67 years of his life fighting for social justice.  It asks individuals to start with 67 minutes of their time supporting their favorite local charity or serving their community.

Mandela Day is a call to action for individuals across the planet to take responsibility for changing the world into a better place, one small step at a time, just as Mr. Mandela did.

There are weeks like this one in which that seems like it will be an impossible task, but in the spirit of this day we must do our part to at least try.

Happy birthday Madiba!    May you be blessed with many more.

Darn, Still No South American Trans National Legislators Yet

While South American nations have made outstanding progress on trans issues over the last few years and leaders are emerging like Venezuela's Tamara Adrian who are garnering international recognition, looks like the international trans community will have to wait a little longer before we see a trans legislator elected on the South American continent.

Colombia's Shelcy Sanchez attempted to make that giant electoral leap for transkind back in 2010 when she became the first open transperson on the South American continent and first in her nation to run for a seat in their national legislature but was unsuccessful in her Colombian House of Representatives race. 


Back in February 30 year old Diane Rodriguez became the first out transperson in Ecuador to run for a seat in her nation's national legislature.  

The election was held on February 17 and unfortunately the psychology student came up short in her history making run as a member of the leftist Ruptura 25 party for a seat in Ecuador's National Assembly.

The eyes of the international trans community turned to Chile's Valentina Verbal as she picked up the baton in the attempt to make international trans history as the South American continent's first trans national legislator 

Verbal was also making history as the first open trans candidate in Chile.  She was running for the seat in Chile's national legislature representing northern Santiago’s Recoleta-Independencia district as a member of a center-right political party with a campaign message focused on achieving equality rather than her district’s specific needs.

Chile's parliamentary election isn't until November, but unfortunately Verbal announced she is dropping out as a candidate for a reason that is painfully familiar to trans people world wide:  documentation issues. 

Verbal ran for office having applied for a legal name change that isn't official yet.   She is a well known activist in the country and active in her party but was told by Chilean election officials she either had to run for her seat with her old male name on the ballot or pull out of the race.  


“I thought, perhaps naively, that given the vacuum of electoral laws, and filling in that space with the anti-discrimination law, there wouldn’t be trouble getting what I asked,” Verbal said.

The reason Verbal pulled out is she felt that having been in Chilean politics for  several years and risen to prominence as Valentina Verbal, voters wouldn’t recognize her old male birth name on the ballot and connect it with the person she is now and the campaign would be a wash.

While she may have been sidelined for this election cycle by the name change issue, Verbal said, "I’m sure of one thing: I will continue in politics.”

Verbal also said something that I and a lot of folks have made the case for here in the States and on this blog in terms of having more trans people get involved in electoral politics and running for office at all governmental levels. 

“In order to get strong social changes, it’s necessary to make them from a position of power, in particular from Parliament. Because Chile is a very legalistic country, it’s important to have laws to provoke these changes.”

While the first South American, first in the Western Hemisphere and fourth trans person worldwide elected to their national legislature won't happen in this election cycle unless there's somebody running I'm not aware of yet,  it's only a matter of time before it does.   

Naw China, We STILL Haven't Forgotten What Today Is

June 4, 1989, the 24th anniversary of the crushing of the Tiananmen Square student led protests with PLA tanks and troops. 

Since somebody thought it would be a cute stunt to remove the link to the original TransGriot June 4, 1989 post and reroute it to some game site, bad move.  All you did was piss me off and ensure I'd circle the date on the calendar to make sure I'd write another post reminding my readers here in the States and around the world about the day Chinese tanks and troops slaughtered their own citizens participating in a peaceful protest.  

Besides, I don't ever forget that June 4 date because it happens to be my late grandmother Tama's birthday. 

It was a five week protest by students and concerned citizens simply asking for government reform and an end to corruption in their government that captured the world's attention.




The Chinese government answer to those demands came in the late evening of June 3 and the early morning hours of June 4.  The plug was pulled on the television feed for the international foreign news networks broadcasting the event and PLA troops backed up by tanks began firing on and running over the people in the square to break up the demonstration.    Casualties were estimated between 200-1000 people dead. 


As I said in last year's post, those PLA tanks and troops may have crushed the demonstration, and the Chinese government may continue to try to erase and deny what happened, but the video, photographic and written evidence is still out there and it's always going to be a part of world history. 

Neither can you crush the root of freedom from which democracy will inevitably flower once it has taken root.

So on this day international community, remember the people who died in the name of freedom and democracy in their homeland's capitol city.


We also need to on this day in the United States, remember that freedom requires eternal vigilance from the enemies inside and outside our borders who seek to exterminate it.

IDAHOT 2013 Happening Friday

IDAHOT stands for the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia, which is an international event created in 2004 to draw the attention of policymakers, opinion leaders, social movements, the public and the media to this issue.  Transphobia was officially added to the campaign in 2009

It is not one centralized campaign under UN auspices, but coordinated by a Paris based IDAHOT committee founded and headed by French academic Louis-Georges Tin.   It is designed to be a day in which everyone can use it as a way to take action against the twin scourges of homophobia and transphobia.

As of this writing, biphobia has not been officially added to the campaign. 

The May 17 date was chosen by the IDAHOT creators to commemorate the World Health Organization’s 1990 decision to declassify homosexuality as a mental disorder.    It something we transpeople around the world are seeking to replicate with the WHO in terms of getting GID declassified with this upcoming revision of the ICD-11 manual in 2015.

The IDAHOT is celebated in more than 100 countries and has gained official recognition in the European Union, Belgium, United Kingdom, France, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Mexico, and Costa Rica.

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