The Breakfast Club Interview With Malik Yoba

This the recent The breakfast Club show with Malik Yoba  that also included NBJC Executive Director David Johns,  Carmen Carrera and Nala Simone

Shocker, it was a serious conversation.

Radio Interview With Paola Acha Today

Another day, another radio interview.   This time I'll be on the air with the lovely Paola Acha, the hostess of the Be Cool Be Smart show on KNLY 91.1 FM The Boss in The Woodlands.

Yep, the Woodlands. 

Her show runs from 3- 4PM CST and is available through YouTube and Facebook Live

Looking forward to heading up to the northern 'burbs in Montgomery County and spending what promises to be an enjoyable hour talking about whatever issues come up for discussion in that time frame

Here's the link to the show

Kimberly's Faith Journey

From time to time I've talked about one of our wonderful Lone Star Mama Bears in Kimberly Shappley, who has been on a evolutionary journey of her own along with her amazing trans daughter Kai.

     

Here's the video of the recent Today show interview that was done with Jenna Bush Hager that was recently broadcast.  If you missed it, here's the video.

George Takei Talks About Trans Rights Rollback

I have much love for George Takei, and was happy to see this MSNBC interview that Ali Velshi conducted with him concerning the Trump misadministration attack on our human rights

Takei called trans rights 'fundamental human rights' (which is what they are) that should travel across state lines.  My human rights shouldn't depend on what zip code I live in.

But that's another post.   Here's the Takei interview

 

Laverne Talks Trans Rights On The Stephen Colbert Show

You know I have much love for Laverne Cox and I'm eagerly anticipating the debut of the CBS legal drama Doubt tomorrow at 9 PM CST,

Last night she was on Stephen Colbert's show to not only discuss Doubt, but also talk about her meeting Beyonce at the Grammy and other subjects.

On of the subjects that Laverne talked about is the upcoming Gavin Grimm case, and you may wish to take notes about how she talked about it and the unjust trans bathroom oppression laws in less than two minutes.



This is also an excellent  example of how you use your visibility to advance our human rights.

Moni's On KPFT-FM's 'Queer Voices' Tonight

Just a reminder to you TransGriot readers and H-town peeps that I will once again be a guest on Queer Voices along with Jeffry Faircloth to talk about the Kim Burrell controversy and whatever other topics we can squeeze in during the time I'm scheduled to be interviewed.

KPFT-FM is our local Pacifica radio affiliate with a colorful history.  Its transmitter was bombed twice by the Klan, and yours truly used to be one of the rotating co-hosts from 1999-2001 on the After Hours show hosted by the late Jimmy Carper.  

So coming to the Montrose area studios of KPFT-FM is like coming home, and I enjoy any time I get to spend behind the mic there.

For those of you in the Houston area, KPFT-FM is at 90.1 FM on your radio dial and at 89.5 FM in the Galveston area.  For those of you who don't live in the Houston area but would like to hear this latest Queer Voices episode, here's the link to the livestream of it.

The show will start at 8 PM CST, and hope you'll tune in.

Moni's Going On WMPG-FM Again

At 1:30 PM EST I'll be doing a radio interview with Dal Maxwell st WMPG-FM  90.0  a public radio station that's based in  southern Maine

Yep, it has a livestream, and the link is here for Dal Maxwell's Celtic .

http://www.wmpg.org/listen/wmpg-live-stream/

If you missed the live interview, it will be archived for you to listen to at your leisure.

Kimberly's News 88.7 Radio Interview

While the Republican Party and my reprehensible lieutenant governor has made no secret of their gleeful hatred of trans people for political gain, there are people inside their ranks trying to change that anti-trans pattern who are mothers of transgender children.

One of those mothers is in my Houston area backyard. Kimberly Shappley is not only a Republican but an evangelical Christian raising a trans feminine daughter.

She has been stepping up her visibility over the last few months as she seeks to fight for the human rights of her child Kai, and recently was interviewed on News 88.7 by Florian Martin about her journey.

Here's the link to the News 88.7 interview.

Moni's Going To Be A 'Lambda Weekly' Guest Tomorrow

For those of you in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, you're going to get an opportunity to hear my voice on your FM dial tomorrow at 1 PM CDT.

I'll be a guest on the long running show Lambda Weekly on KNON-FM 89.3, which is hosted by David Taffet, Lerone Landis  and Patti Fink.

The show has been on the air since 1983, and is one of the longest running LGBT themed shows currently on air. and has had a long list of distinguished celebrity and LGBT community guests.

So North Texas, tune in at 1 PM to hear the show and me comment on the issues of importance to our community.

   

Tamron Hall Calls Out The Berner NV Bad Behavior

One of the many reasons I love my Texas homegirl Tamron Hall is because she's a no BS journalist who doesn't let peeps on either side of the political spectrum weasel out of tough questions.

Here's the recent interview in which she asks some tough question of Sanders surrogate Nina Turner in the wake of the Green Tea Partiers showed their nekulturny selves during last weekend's Nevada Democratic meeting

Watch as Tamron doesn't allow Turner to spin her way out of the mess the Benrers made in Nevada.

Enjoy.

 

Susan L. Taylor Comments On Tracey Norman

I'd talked about on these electronic pages the trailblazing modeling career of girl like us Tracey Africa Norman who was nondisclosed in the 70's to early 80's while doing so.

She had major print campaigns with Clairol, Avon, and Ultra Sheen in addition to shooting five ESSENCE covers.   Her career in the United States came to a screeching halt after she was outed as a trans woman during a sixth ESSENCE cover shoot in the early 1980's.

Tracey expanded on and told her story I initially talked about in 2011 during a recent interview with Jada Yuan, and discussed the fateful sixth ESSENCE cover shoot that outed her.

Because the initial Yuan article went viral, we now have another one in which Susan L Taylor has finally commented on the record about her recollections and thoughts about what happened to Norman during and after that fateful ESSENCE photo shoot that marked the end of her modeling career in the US.

Taylor claims in the interview that she suspected that Norman was trans but she accepted her for who she presented herself as at that time.

"So to have this be said about Essence at the time and me specifically is devastating. The truth that I want Tracey to know, and this is so important, is that she was totally safe with us at Essence. No one could have outed her to me. I always suspected she was genetically male. I accepted her as she presented herself, as an exquisitely beautiful black woman. Now, this is 40 years later, but I think someone that she went to school with in Newark told me that they knew her as a boy. I think."
--Susan L. Taylor

Well, I find it interesting to note that Tracey Norman's booming modeling career died immediately after she was outed during that ESSENCE magazine cover shoot and she never shot or appeared on another ESSENCE magazine cover.  

So color me skeptical about what Susan L. Taylor said because if she were sincere about it, Tracey would have appeared on a few more ESSENCE covers during the 80's.

Had her story come out at the time and ESSENCE backed her like Taylor claimed they would have, it would have been groundbreaking for me and other Black trans feminine kids of that time period to have her as someone we could have looked up to.

But it didn't happen that way.  Somebody, whether it was at ESSENCE or elsewhere called her now defunct Zoli agency,  and they suddenly had no work for her the day after that shoot.

The comments by Taylor sound not only disingenuous, but were delivered with much shade as well.

RuPaul Says He Wouldn't Have Dropped T-Word Slur From Show

Seems like RuPaul still hasn't learned anything from all the drama that was unleashed last year when his RuPaul's Drag Race show was forced to drop the t-word slur and the equally offensive 'You've Got She-Mail' catchphrase from it by LOGO TV.

In a June 3 interview with The Guardian, RuPaul said that he wouldn't have dropped the problematic phrases reviled by the majority of the trans community,

RuPaul said in that interview: “I would not have changed it, but that’s their choice. Our intention was always coming from a place of love. On paper, you cannot read intention, so it was actually hurtful."

 RuPaul, when a majority of a community tells you words are hurtful slurs, if you love and respect the community as you claim, you respectfully listen to what they have to say and don't fracking use them.

Allegedly coming from a 'place of love' doesn't give you a pass for you to disrespectfully ignore the wishes of the people that emphatically tells you NOT to do it, then use your predominately white gay male fanbase as a human shield to deflect the criticism that will inevitably come your way.

At least you admitted the words were hurtful, and that's a start.  But still not going to watch Drag Race.

Janet To Be Interviewed By Oprah May 3

One of the things I've asked for on this blog in two open letters in 2007 and 2010 was for Oprah to interview a Black trans person on her show.  

Her talk show ended before that happened, but now it looks like that is finally going to happen.

Janet Mock will be on the May 3 episode of Oprah's Super Soul Sunday being interviewed about her New York Times best selling book Redefining Realness.

Better late than never, but so happy for my sis Janet.   It's also interesting the timing of this broadcast, since it comes a week after the Jenner interview that drew 19 million people to view it.

Super Soul Sunday is broadcast on OWN  at 11 AM, and I'll be tuned in for it.

Christine Jorgensen Hour Magazine Interview

This was the date in 1953 when Christine Jorgensen stepped her stylishly dressed self off an SAS plane from Denmark and ushered in the modern era of trans visibility.

Christine not only was a pioneer, she took time out of her life to educate the public about our trans lives up until her death in 1989.

To honor the day she arrived at Idlywild (now JFK Airport) 62 years ago, here's the video of her interview with Gary Collins on Hour Magazine.

Hour Magazine 1980 Trans Interview

While looking for something to watch on YouTube stumbled across this video of a 1980 Hour Magazine host Gary Collins interviewing trans women Heather Fontaine, Amanda Winters and Shalei Latrelle

Hour Magazine was one of the first national talk shows that discussed transsexuality, and Collins would later interview on his show Caroline 'Tula' Cossey and Christine Jorgensen.

This show also featured a few moments of their performances at the Queen Mary drag club in Studio City, CA.

It was a professional but very Trans 101 interview by Collins in what has a feel to be a conversational style.  And yes, some questions from the studio audience.

And I'm feeling old watching this.disco-era video.

But this show was a godsend to peeps like me in the pre-Internet era.


Part 1


Part 2

Politini LGBT Decoded Interview With Dr. KRZ

Y'all know how much love and respect I have for all three of these brilliant people in Aisha and Danielle Moodie-Mills and Dr. Kortney Ryan Ziegler.

That's too much awesomeness for one room we are not worthy to handle. (bowing in direction of Oakland and DC)

They recently got together to do a Politini interview that Danielle conducted.   In it Kortney talks about what equality means to him and why he has no problem speaking his mind when it comes to calling out injustice when he see it.

Check it out!

Janet's Interview With Tracee Ellis Ross

Janet Mock was guest hosting for Larry King recently on his Larry King Now show, and got the opportunity to interview the fabulous Tracee Ellis Ross.

She gets to chat with Tracee about her new ABC show Black-ish, her mom Diana Ross and other issues, and here's the video of it.

My Latest WFPL-FM 'Strange Fruit' Interview

Y'all know I have much love for Dr. Kaila Story and Jaison Gardner, (AKA 'Niece' and 'Nephew' and they refer to me as 'Auntie Monica') the co-hosts of WFPL-FM's Strange Fruit.  

I pop in from time to time with my thoughts on various topics, and normally I have to do so by calling in to participate on their show.

This particular appearance was different, because one of the things I got to do while I was on vacation in my other hometown was actually sit in WFPL-FM's 4th Street studios and tape an interview that was just broadcast.

Only took me being away from Da Ville for four years and be on vacation inside I-265 to actually walk in that building for the first time after years of walking past it for various reasons. 

The podcast is up of that interview, and you can click on this link to listen to it.  My comments start around the 13:00 minute mark of this edition of Strange Fruit.

Leigha Hagood's Handling Her Business

You may remember me writing the story back in June about publicist Leigha Hagood, the 'Olivia Pope of the Hip-Hop World' who had her own world rocked recently when a disgruntled former employee tried to blackmail her.

She derailed the extortion attempt by coming out as trans, and after taking some time to let the controversy die down and let both of us honor previous commitments,  I finally got the opportunity to sit down and have a long chat with Leigha Sunday night.  

In addition to wishing her a happy belated birthday (it was July 24), in that two hour plus conversation she shared some details about her life, what it's like to be a publicist to various personal and corporate clients in Hollywood, and what the initial furor stirred up by the disgruntled ex-employee cost her.

While Leigha is happy she can go about her life from now on without having to worry about someone attempting to extort her as the cost of keeping her previously undisclosed girl like us status quiet, the initial cost of coming out as trans was steep.

How steep?  It cost her three clients, $120,000 of lost business and having to spend time putting her formidable PR skills to work dealing with a PR crisis of her own.

She has come a long way from the precocious kid who grew up in Baltimore.  She graduated from high school at age 15, earned her undergrad degree at Morgan State University and subsequently received a full ride scholarship to Princeton.

But like many of us on our gender journeys, she knew deep down she had to address the gender issue that had been building during her college years.  Before heading west to Los Angeles in 2009 armed with her degrees, a one way bus ticket, $40 and a duffel bag began to transition.

After arriving in LA, she began to make the critical contacts that led to her PR career while working on the development of a show being prepared for pitch to MTV.  She met Gabriel Cannon, the younger brother of Nick Cannon who became her first true friend in Hollywood.  She also met A-list publicist Cassandra Grill-Neiman at that time, which was Leigha's introduction to being a publicist.

"Meeting Gabriel was a pivotal moment in my early Hollywood days," said Leigha.  "I not only gained a true friend, but he helped me along with Cassandra avoid the Hollywood pitfalls."  

During Grammy Weekend 2010 Hagood met A-list publicist Ashley Aristice-Caffey, another person who was instrumental in her development who also subsequently became her best friend in    

Hagood's big break as a publicist came during the 2010 NBA All-Star Weekend in Dallas that led to the signing of her first NBA client.   That initial NBA client would be her introduction into the world of celebrity fixing and crisis management.   From that initial crisis management job came others leading to her current reputation as the 'Olivia Pope of the Hip-Hop World'. 

In 2011 came the opportunity to take on members of the Glee cast as clients and led to her first corporate client courtesy of Keisha Knowles.  "Keisha was the reason the LA Gay and Lesbian Center became my first corporate.client.  She saw something special in me and took a chance on this poor social climbing child," she says with a laugh.

The Gay and Lesbian Center job led to other corporate clients with her star rising, she decided to consider striking out on her own and form her own company. 

By 2012, with her A-list client and corporate portfolio expanding, the kid who arrived in Southern California with just $40 in her pocket had become a millionaire.  But because of the confidential nature of the business, she couldn't  claim credit for many of the things she'd done like getting negative stories spiked before they spread, nipping rumors and negative press before the narrative got entrenched, fixing personal crises and branding and developing new artists for major record labels. 

At this point Hagood began to study the careers of Yvette Noel-Shure and Jenna Fleishman in preparation to start her own firm.  "In a way, Yvette became a mentor to me.  I watched how she handled Beyonce's career and began to realize that I had the ability and skills to take it to the next level," says Hagood..  "She was my role model in learning how to seamlessly put together all those skills I was already practicing and take them to the next level."

Her confidence bolstered by watching her mentor, Hagood formed her own firm which thanks to her work ethic and determination, became wildly successful.   She's worked with 8 Grammy nominated artists. of which two took home Grammy Awards. 

As you would suspect from someone nicknamed the 'Olivia Pope of the Hip Hop World', she has handled her own crisis and is moving forward personally and professionally.

While she's dealing with the legal ramifications of the breached contracts, Leigha's  remaining A-list clients have had her back.  The trans revelation has not changed their perception about Hagood or the quality of her work for them.  Those clients see her being a girl like us as a non issue which is fine with Leigha. 

She's gratified to have received critical support from her clients, her friends, people in the trans community and supportive allies, but she's itching to get back to just living her life and doing a job she absolutely loves.  

Hagood has set a goal of attending a major trans oriented conference in the near future to meet other members of the community, but believes it's not necessary for her to be an activist.

"Those roles are being fulfilled quite well by you, Tona Brown, Janet Mock, Laverne Cox, Kylar Broadus and countless other people around the nation.  Being trans is just a small part of the many complex layers that make up Leigha Hagood the person," she said. "The best way I can help the community is provide another possibility model as to what we can achieve if given the opportunity and do my job to the best of my ability."

Laverne Cox On 'The View'

My Emmy Award nominated sis showed up on ABC's The View a few days ago to discuss the remarkable 2014 she's having and talk about her role on the Netflix smash hit series Orange Is The New Black along with other subjects. 

Here's the video from that interview