NAACP Passes Pro-Trans Resolution!

You longtime TransGriot readers are quite aware that I have been calling out for years the NAACP's cricket chirping silence when it comes to what is happening to Black transgender people .

They are the oldest civil rights organization in our community, and whether you feel that way or not, the 110 year old  NAACP's voice is still respected in the progressive civil rights community and with elements of our people.

I have urged them to not only say the words 'Black trans lives matter' from their convention stage, but pushed for NAACP state and local chapters to take action to make sure those words, when they are finally spoken publically, are backed up with policy.

Today, I was thrilled to hear that a resolution supporting the trans community was passed yesterday by the delegates of the 110th NAACP convention in Detroit!

The resolution reads:

Be it resolved that the NAACP will work with all of its Units to work to support equal protection for transgender individuals so that all members of our community can live free of violence, shame and discrimination.

This is a huge win for the Black trans community!  One of our legacy civil rights orgs has actually passed a resolution that acknowledges our existence. 

We in Black Trans World want all members of our Black community to be free from violence, shame and discrimination.   It's imperative that we at least get the process and conversation started about how we do so for Black trans individuals in collaboration with the NAACP before we start plunking down our T-bills for memberships.

Hopefully this opens the doors for conversations with the Black trans community as to the best way to accomplish coordinated action that makes a reality the goal set forth in that resolution.

Musing About The DNC 2020 Trans Contingent

The 2016 DNC Convention in Philadelphia is over and it was a historic and record breaking one. We had a trans contingent of 27 people from across the country that included two superdelegates.

We had Sarah McBride making a historic address Thursday as the first out trans person to speak at any major party convention

Marisa Richmond was not only attending her third consecutive DNC convention, she also made history when she became the first out trans person to hold the position as the DNC convention official timekeeper.

This 2016 Democratic Convention is fading into the history books as we concentrate on the important business of getting our Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton elected to the Oval Office as our first female POTUS, and have as many Democratic senators and congress members join her in DC as possible.   We also are focused on the mission of getting Democrats elected at all levels of government.

However, it's not too early for us in Trans World to start musing about how we are going to exceed the  27 trans folks that came to Philadelphia when the gavel comes down for the start of the 2020 Democratic National Convention.

One thiis we definitely need is more diversity in our trans DNC contingent.   That should always be one of the Prime Directive level missions for us.   Another Prime Directive mission for us should be is to have trans federal, state, and local elected officials in our DNC 2020 trans contingent.

As the GOP led attacks on our human rights has made abundantly clear to us, we must have trans people in the committee rooms to write the good laws that affect us and poised to kill the bad ones.

We also need more trans people involved in the DNC and the state and local parties.   I'm proud of Babs Siperstein and Laura Calvo, our two trans superdelegates.  But I want to see more trans people engaged in the Democratic Party apparatus.  

And finally, I not only want more than 27 people in it,  I want geographic diversity at the same time.

Will it happen for us in 2020?  We'll see when they gavel in that 2020 DNC in a host city to be determined.

And FYI DNC, how about holding the 2020 one in Houston?  Tired of the last national party convention that was held here being the odious 1992 one in which Pat Buchanan gave his infamous 'culture war' speech.

Moni's On Queer Voices Tonight

Another day, another interview for yours truly in the wake of this HERO loss.

Been invited to come back to a familiar place for me, the broadcast studios of our local Pacifica radio affiliate KPFT-FM.

I was invited to be a guest on Queer Voices tonight at 8 PM CST for an interview to talk about the HERO campaign, local issues post-HERO and whatever other subjects we can fit in in the short time allotted for this segment.

Dee Dee Watters is also on this show to talk about the Wednesday TDOR event she's hosting.

They do live stream the show, and it will start at 8 PM CST for those of you not in the Houston area but would like to hear it.   For those of you in the 100,000 watt broadcast radius of  KPFT-FM, may wish to tune your local FM dial to 90.1 to hear it.

Houston Stonewall Young Democrats #AfterHERO Discussion

It's been a week post-HERO loss, and far from wallowing in despair over a temporary defeat, the Houston activist community is taking the time to ask itself in this post-mortem period some hard questions about when went wrong, and what we need to do to clean the mess up so it doesn't happen again.

Last night I was honored to be invited to take part in a discussion at the Houston Stonewall Young Democrats meeting along with Brandon Mack and Texas state Reps. Armando Walle and Ana Hernandez to talk about what needed to be done post-HERO.

It was a lively discussion in a packed room at Little Big's moderated by HSYD president James Lee, which even got the attention of ABC13, but after interviewing James, bounced before the community conversation happened.    

Brandon pointed out one thing that must happen is for the predominately white LG leadership in Houston must not only share power and reach out to non-white Houston, but stop ignoring Black LGBT people when we tell you stuff that you don't want to hear.

I echoed the same points from a trans perspective, and Reps. Walle and Hernandez pointed out it is imperative that young voters get active, involved and most importantly, show up at the polls to vote

Thanks James and HSYD for the invitation.

What Next For Our TBLG Rights Movement?

The parades are over and the street sweepers have done their work to clean up the trash after they ended.   Some of our BTLG peeps said prayers of thanksgiving during Sunday services in TBLG friendly churches while others woke up to hangovers after celebratory partying well into the night in the gayborhoods during a Pride Weekend that occured as a major policy objective was achieved.

Yes, life in America was forever impacted by the landmark SCOTUS ruling that established a fundamental right to marry and allowed many of my gay and lesbian friends in states like Texas hostile to same sex marriage to do so.  It also conferred after a 12 year battle recognition of the marriages of many others who got them in other locales, but the states they resided in refused to do so.

And yes, it reinstated the ability of my trans brothers and trans sisters to get married that we`d had ever since Christine Jorgensen stepped off the plane from Denmark and have them recognized across this nation.

While the landmark SCOTUS ruling is something to celebrate, it still doesnt benefit the vast majority of people who still have to deal with the reality that in 29 states they can be fired for being gay, and 32 states for being transgender.

And as I have said more than a few times, you need money to pay for the wedding license, the wedding chapel, the wedding dress, the wedding tux, the wedding planner, the wedding rings, the wedding reception, and life after the wedding.

So what should our major TBLG policy priority be after marriage?   Jobs, Jobs, Jobs!

A full court press now needs to happen to get ENDA passed nationally, and do a local civic and state by state push to enact ENDA-style laws in all 50 states.

Your bi and trans sisters and brothers need their human rights respected, protected amd codified into law.   Trans folks need ASAP the basic human rights protections you GL folks have enjoyed for decades and sometimes got by repeatedly throwing us unde the legislative bus as you did in Maryland, Massachusetts, New York and New Hampshire just to name a few egriegious examples of it

We want as trans men and women the ability to openly serve in our country`s armed forces.  We want the near genocidal slaughter of trans women of color to end along with the end of the problematic incarceration of undocumented trans feminine women in ICE detention centers with cisgender men.

And yes, we trans people, and especially trans people of color, want to be sitting at the power tables in LGBT orgs helping formulate policy.  We need trans elected officials on large city councils, state legislatures and eventually as US senators and congressmembers.

We need to have a human rights wave building that serves to rise all LGBT boats with it, not just the community have mores.   We need to have a movemen that is also invested in being a justice for all movement and not a just-us one.

We also need to be a stand up ally to other groups and movements that supported our causes in ou time of need and not ones that use as an excuse to opt out of them `this isn`t an LGBT issue`.

The right to healthcare is an LGBT issue.   Fighting for economic fairness is an LGBT issue.  The right to vote is an LGBT issue.  Climate change is an LGBT issue.  A woman`s right to choose is an LGBT issue.   Combating racism and sexism is an LGBT issue.

We LGBT peeps need to focus on being a shining example to the rest of straight cisgender America of how to build and sustain an intersectional anti-racist movement and community.

We need to lead and show the nation and the world how to eradicate anti-Blackness, sexism, transphobia, biphobia and racism from our ranks as our contribution to building the `beloved community` that the Rev. Dr Martin Luther King, Jr often talked about.

We also have to develop the ability to multitask.  While we focus on solidifying our gains at home, we must also be aware that US based wingers like Scott Lively are spreading their LGBT hate message overseas to where it is unfortunately finding receptive ears and causing problems for our GLBT brothers and sisters in those nations.

As you probably realized by now, it takes sustained effort to achieve policy goals. The hard part is to defend and keep them while under sustained attack by our prevaricating right wing oppressors.

This community is at a crossroads now.  It can either acknowledge that the human rights work in our BTLG ranks is not even close to being done and start working on the next phases of our movement, or it can repeat the mistakes made in Canada after they achieved marriage equality in 2003 and stopped working for policies and legislation that protected the LGBT have nots.

Which path will the American LGBT community take?   I hope it`s the former and not the latter one.

We Black LGBT Peeps Only Care About Gay Rights? Ignorant Fool Please!

I saw this meme on Nephew's AKA Jaison Gardner's FB page that some fool with too much time on his hands created that I am compelled to call out.

It levels an old charge in Black non- SGL circles they aim at the Black TBLGQ community that Black gay people are 'not loyal' to the Black cause because they are 'only loyal to gay rights'.

Which is straight up bull feces.

SGL, bi and trans folks first up are Black people.  We have to deal with the everyday microaggressions and macroaggressions of just navigating life in a Black body just like straight Black folks, with an extra heaping helping of transphobia, biphobia, and homophobia dropped on top of that.

In addition to having to fight the conservative movement tooth and nail just to avoid being dehumanized, we have to also deal with the same crap coming from people who share our ethnic heritage uttering the same loud and wrong BS at us.

We in Black TBLGQ World are sick and tired of being 'too Black' for our gay counterparts and 'not Black enough' for some of you peeps regurgitating that anti-gay propaganda you've been fed by sellout ministers and FOX Noise

The reality is that Black LGBT issues are Black community issues and vice versa.

I guess the ignorant creator of this meme didn't learn anything about Bayard Rustin in school, who not only created the concept of the Freedom Rides so skillfully used by Diane Nash and SNCC two decades later, also was a brilliant movement organizer, leader, and advisor to the Rev. Dr MLK Jr. 

If it weren't for Rustin, the 1963 March On Washington wouldn't have been the spectacular success it turned out to be.   And yes, Rustin was a Black gay man.

Lorraine Hansberry, the creator of the play A Raisin In The Sun, in her brief life was a civil rights movement warrior who was also concerned about the African liberation struggle.

Guess whoever created this meme (and I wouldn't be surprised if it was someone in the National Organization for Marriage)  also forgot about James Baldwin and Angela Davis

This meme may be part of their well documented plan to drive a wedge between the African-American, Latino and SGL community, and if the fool who created this is Black, then I pity him for allowing himself to be hoodwinked and bamboozled by NOM's propaganda.

And as Coretta Scott King pointed out in a March 31, 1998  speech:

"Gays and lesbians stood up for civil rights in Montgomery and Selma, in Albany, Georgia, and St. Augustine, Florida, and many other campaigns of the civil rights movement. I salute the contributions of these courageous men and women who fought for my freedom at a time when they could find few voices for their own."

It's not just in the civil rights era that Black LGBT peeps handled their human rights business on behalf of the Black community, it's happening in 2K15 America as well.  

The Black Lives Matter movement founders, Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometti rep the L.   Black TBLG  peeps in Houston including yours truly busted their behinds to get the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance passed last May while being opposed by Black ministers and Black people on the loud and wrong side of this human rights issue.

We have the common goal along with our non-gay Black peeps of eradicating the anti-Black societal attitudes that deleteriously impact all of us.  Black BTLGQ people are not only concerned with advancing human rights for our own community, but simultaneously uplifting the Black community we intersect and interact with.

And there are many times we are doing Black community uplift work, but you just aren't aware that the person involved in your local civic club, chapter of the NAACP, or community leader is also part of the Black BTLGQ community.

While there are moments that the Black non-SGL community pisses us off with the internal homophobia that expeditiously needs eradication, the fact remains that we Black LGBTQ peeps are and historically have been an undeniable part of the kente cloth fabric of the African-American community. 

Our fate as Black TBLGQ people in this country is inextricably tied to the rest of Black America, and Black folks wishing to divide the Black SGL and non-SGL communities would do well to remember that.

So to say that Black LGBTQ peeps only care about gay rights is not only a blatant lie, it is a narrative contrary to the historical evidence.

Message To The Brothers

TransGriot Note:  This deserves a signal boost.

It was written by Julian Long in response to the renewed drama surrounding Ray Rice.   It has jumpstarted a  conversation in our community right now about domestic violence as a result of the termination of his Ravens contract and the indefinite (and long overdue) NFL suspension resulting from punching his wife following a domestic dispute in a New Jersey casino.

And now, take it away Mr. Long.

Black men. Fellas. Brothers.

I need you to stop complaining about Ray Rice's (much deserved and yet woefully insufficient punishment) RIGHT NOW.

When we - Black men are beaten, slain, left in the street and otherwise persecuted our sisters, our mothers, our women stand for us with nearly unilateral unwavering support. They march for us. They cry out our names and demand justice. They support us in our moments of quiet fear when we shed the bitter shameful tears of self-doubt and fatigue. If you cannot find it within you to get over your idol worship and stand up for our sisters when they are being abused and mistreated then you need to spend some serious time in reflection.

STOP looking for reasons to diminish Ray Rice's actions.
"Well...it couldn't have been that bad. She married him."
It doesn't matter.

"She should know he's a big man and if provoked he's gonna hit back"
It doesn't matter.

"She charged at him"
It doesn't matter.

"She hit him first"
It doesn't matter.

"He's trained to hit. He can't stop it. It's a reflex."
Are you f*cking kidding me. That's absurd and even if it were true IT DOESN'T MATTER.

When you say these kinds of things – when you look for ways to go easy on Ray Rice when you claim he's "already been punished" you do two things – first you tell black women "Your lives and your sense of safety have less value to me than the recreational sports entertainment I watch ritually." You tell the women who stand for you- cry for you- demand justice for you ––"thanks for all that but don't mess with my game" You deny them any hope of feeling safe with you. You reinforce the perception that they are ALONE in their struggle. Which in turn signals to those who would further victimize them (you know- general society that places Black women at the very bottom of valued humans) that they are free to move at will.

The second thing you do is – and this is irony – you borrow from the script of people like supporters of Darren Wilson. Let's compare notes...

"He shouldn't have been in the street"
It doesn't matter

"He should have listened to the cop"
It doesn't matter

"They say he stole so he was in the mindset to resist arrest"
It doesn't matter

"Cops are trained to shoot to kill. He couldn't help it it was reflex.."
Are you seeing the terrifying parallel? IT DOESN'T MATTER.

Brothers. Recognize wrong and stand up for what's right. Whatever happened between them and whatever they did to patch things up is irrelevant to the fact that no man has business hitting (let alone knocking out) any woman over a spat. He should regard the use of his body against her as lethal force and exercise restraint above all else.

Also stop sipping your damn tea.

IT IS YOUR BUSINESS

When one of our sisters is hurt, abused or in peril it's OUR business. Because when somebody has us jammed against a car with 5 or 6 weapons drawn at us they sure as hell make it their business to monitor record and speak out. They throw themselves in peril to see us safe –– and you can't manage as much as a a supportive Facebook post?!

GTFOH. I mean it. we don't need that sh*t in our community.

 

Time To Deal With The Contentious Relationship Between Cis Black Men And Cis Black Women

I commented on that disgusting video earlier this week that has been generating somewhat heated discussion across the Blackosphere and beyond.  

But in the wake of me posting my response to it, it also gave me time to contemplate why has the relationship between cis Black women and cis Black men gotten this contentious? 

Is it as bad as this video indicates?

I sincerely hope it isn't.  I hope it was just a random event that happened to have a camera around to capture it.. 

My sis Laverne Cox mentioned during one of her speeches at UNC-Chapel Hill a few weeks ago that she was saddened to hear the go-to gender identifying terms among younglings are not male and female, but the n-word and the b-word.

Ouch.  And yeah, that's a problem.  Then toss into this volatile mix misogyny, stir in resentment on both sides, bake and voila, drama will ensue. 

Some elements of our Black male population are resenting the fact that sistahs are not only getting their educations and degrees, but getting the stacks of Benjamins and CEO positions that come with those degrees.

Some sistahs are upset that when they do make the sacrifices to get that sheepskin, elevate their status, and reach that point in their lives they are ready to get married and have children with men who have the same status levels and ethnic background they do, they irritatingly see that pool of brothers increasingly getting coupled with non-Black women..

Whether this is just one of the issues feeding into that drama between Black men and Black women, or there are others to add to these two I briefly mentioned, whatever the drama is that's causing heightened agitation between Black men and Black women and damaging our potential to form long lasting romantic relationships with each other needs to be squashed as soon as possible. 

We have a long laundry list of problems to deal with as a community that need our undivided attention to solve together without having adding hostility between Black men and Black women to it.    .

And if it means we Black trans men and trans women end up being the ones who step up to role model what a healthy relationship looks like between Black men and Black women to the cis Black community and the world, then let's get busy Black trans community doing so.

The time has come for us as a community to deal with the contentious relationship between Black cis men and cis women.  

Ask A Trans Attracted Man 8-Tyson And Ines Photos

Last week the Net blew up talking about the steamy nude photos that supermodel Tyson Beckford took with rising fashion model Ines Rau.

The Paris born beauty recently revealed she was trans in a Models.com interview.

Of course the nekulturny cesspool of Black gossip blogs that traffic in transphobia for hits (and they know who they are 'Sandra' Rose and Bossip) had their usual transphobic crap to say in reaction to it

As part of my efforts to support the brothers who love trans women, I have been posting Troy's series of videos at TransGriot discussing the issues trans attracted men deal with because I believe as he does the stigma surrounding trans attracted men needs to die quick, fast and expeditiously.

I'll save my thoughts about that issue for a future post, but now, here's Troy



 .

Trans POC Speakers Need To Be Seen, Heard And Paid At TBLG Events

Had an enjoyable two hour conversation with Tona Brown late Sunday afternoon.   It eventually turned to discussing the appalling and frustrating to us topic of lack of opportunities to do keynote speeches on college campuses, at TDOR's, trans and SGL conventions, seminars, community dinners, awards shows, rallies,  marches or LGBT pride events.

I've been blessed to have the opportunity to do a few trans conference keynote speeches along with three TDOR keynotes, some collegiate ones and participate in major conferences such as the 2012 Netroots Nation and two NBJC OUT on the Hill events.  I enjoy doing them and I and my trans POC colleagues would respectfully like the opportunity to do more of them.

As I mentioned before, the trans narrative in this country for the last six decades has been told from an overwhelmingly white trans feminine perspective with slightly more ink in the last few years for the white trans masculine one.   Our Black, Asian and Latino trans brothers get little if no media love period.

But yet, it is our POC trans world stories that need the most telling   From CeCe McDonald to the 1965 Dewey's Lunch Counter Sit-In and Protest to present day trans leaders and icons simply expounding on our transmasculine and transfeminine journeys, the stories of trans people of color need to be added to this overwhelmingly monoracial conversation about trans issues that could stand after 60 years to have some fresh perspectives injected into it.

There is the need for views on various trans and non trans issues with flavor it to be expressed by trans POC's in order to break down the trans ignorance that still persist in gay and straight elements of our own communities of color.  Just as you get to do, we want the ability to tell our own histories and discuss how the issues of the day impact us.  

We trans people of color deserve the opportunity to point out to all the communities we intersect and interact with we exist, are intertwined with and part of the diverse mosaic of human life.

We also wish to point out that as people of color of trans experience, we are concerned about the success of the greater communities we intersect and interact with.  We strive to and want to be the role models and thought leaders providing the visionary leadership to inspire others to do just that.

Even when we do get the e-mail or the phone call, when we tell you what our fees are, it's upsetting to us to note that you balk at paying us what we're worth, but will pay the Dan Choi's and white trans women of the world large fees to do so without blinking.  

Black trans musicians and performers are also upset about Pride events that won't hesitate about paying the $50-60K it takes on average to get a well known cis female musician to perform at their event but haven't (or won't) consider having a trans musician or keynote speaker or color in order to keep that GLB cash or T-bills circulating in our own community.   

Black Pride orgs not only do the same thing, but infuriatingly will claim poverty or attempt to play the Black solidarity card when they call us to possibly perform and we ask for fair compensation of our time and the work we put in on our ends to make their event a successful one.  

They'll also claim poverty when they want trans activists to speak but we know and see it on their Pride promotion websites are charging covers of $15 a head or more to get into many Black Pride events.

That lack of trans POC speaker diversity is at its most infuriating best when it comes to Transgender Day of Remembrance Events.  The overwhelming number of people dying are Black and Latina transpeople, but when it comes time to have the events, you walk into a TDOR memorial venue and see an event that because of its glaring lack of diversity frustratingly reminds you of a Republican Party convention. 

And naw, it's not just Moni noticing that.  Our SGL and African-American cis allies are noticing it, too.

I don't know how others feel about TDOR's, but I'm willing for that event to forgo my speaking fee if you cover my transportation to get me there and back to H-town and I get a place to stay.  I am that serious about being willing to lead by example and have people from trans communities of color being part of the TDOR's helping memorialize our fallen sisters. 

Frankly it's past time we had more non-white transpeople participating in TDOR events and talking about the people we've lost.

Of course, if you slide me a down low check for that TDOR speech I'm not going to turn it down either.  Like I said, I have bills to pay and a blog y'all like to read to maintain.


As I said in a previous post on this subject and that point still remains true a year later, non-white transpeeps have bills to pay and need to replenish our bank accounts like just like our white trans community counterparts do.  

So for those of you in decision making positions, don't forget there exists a vast qualified pool of non-white trans and SGL people who can confidently and competently speak or perform at your various events.

You just need to take the initiative to call them and once you do, pay them for their time.

MSNBC's Thomas Roberts Goes Off

Too bad I didn't see this when it was first broadcast Monday morning, but thanks to the magic of video, I get to see it now.

MSNBC anchor Thomas Roberts launched into a rant calling out the conservafools favorite disparaging talking points to 'other' people, and challenged his network to do more to debunk them.

“When we talk about these laws, don’t we need to do more about our social contract with each other in this country when it comes to being ‘others’?” the MSNBC host asked. “Because when we look at this we can use this as a great pivot point to talk about race relations in this country. But being an ‘other,’ whether it’s LGBT — because you’re then suspected of being a pedophile and a rabid disease carrier. And if you are a woman, well, you certainly don’t have a right to your own body and your own reproductive health. Because if you do then you’re just a slut who wants to sleep around and use abortion as birth control. And then if you’re Hispanic, you’re just a taker, you’re not a maker, and you want to come here and have anchor babies and you just want to lay off the land [sic].”
 

Laverne On Being Black And Trans

You hear my take on being Black and trans on a regular basis here at TransGriot.  Stumbled across this video of my sis Laverne Cox expressing herself on the topic.

Take it away Laverne

The Thing We All Have In Common Is We're Trans Women

One of the things that needs to stop in the African-American trans feminine community is allowing outsiders or people inside the community to drive wedges between girls like us in order to keep us divided and realizing the collective power we have as a group.

In some cases the divisions we create are done by ourselves to our fellow transwomen. 

People in one group will assume I don't want to have anything to do with people in the other groups because I'm an activist.   That's not the case.  I not only want to meet and talk to you, if you treat me with dignity and respect, I'll reciprocate and do the same thing for you.

It may surprise y'all to learn that I would like to meet Sidney Starr one day.  One of the reasons is I saw a tweet my young transsister posted a few weeks ago about how she used to be ashamed of being a transwoman and now she's proud of being a girl like us.

That blew me away that a girl as beautiful as her would have the same shame and guilt issues all of us deal with at one time or another in our transition journeys.  I'm interested in hearing her story and what it's like to walk in her pumps.

The genesis of this post was a conversation Tona Brown and I had about this subject yesterday in terms of the various cliques and the misunderstandings that crop up between us.   I've been aware for some time of the different groups and cliques of African descended transwomen, and ever since I started this blog one of my goals has been to do my best to bridge that gap between those of us in the pageant, ballroom, activist, crossdresser, stealth, club and yes, escort worlds.

But if you peeps aren't willing to meet me halfway or are 'scurred' to talk to me and my activist friends, how can I accomplish that goal of bridging the gap?  I and the activist community can't help you if we don't know what the issues unique to your group are.

If you've perused this blog, you'll note I have posts covering some of the major pageants and some ballroom stuff.  I really need to do more of them because there are many women involved in the pageant and ballroom worlds that are making history, who are great at what they do, have as much status and love in their communities as I do in the activist realm and their stories need to be told to the audience that reads TransGriot.  And yes, I admire what you do as well and I'm looking forward to one day meeting various people involved in the pageant and ballroom world..  

I'm in contact with some folks, lurking on the FB and Twitter feeds of others and admire the hard work you're putting in to get to that legendary status on the ballroom and pageant runways   Many of you are also carrying yourself with class and dignity while doing so.

One of the points I also need to make is that there is movement between the various categories under the trans umbrella.  I've observed more than a few people in my time interacting with the various sections of the trans community that started in the drag, crossdresser, pageant or ballroom ends of it, had their gender epiphany and eventually ended up with round trip tickets to Bangkok getting gender realignment surgery. 

I observed a few people use the pageant, drag and ballroom ends of it to not only do their gender transition, but use the prize money they earned to pay for it.

I think about what my trans life would have been like if I didn't have the blessings of a two parent home, a middle class upbringing, blood and chosen family and friends who love and support me and a college education.  

The escort life isn't (and never was an option) for me, but neither am I going to sit in judgment of those who are in it because I realize that even with college educations, 26% of us transpeeps are unemployed or underemployed.   We are facing unacceptable levels of anti-trans violence aimed at us amongst other issues that affect all of us. 

If we put our heads together we can begin to resolve those issues to the benefit of all of us.  No matter what clique we belong to, we all want to be true to ourselves, live quality lives, be proud of who we are and be the best persons we can be. 


I want us to laser beam focus on the fact that whatever our differences brought on by the cliques we hang out in due to class, education, generational issues, et cetera, the one thing that unites all of us at the end of the day and should squash all the bull feces amongst us is that we're all Black transwomen and we're hated on one level or another by some extremely misguided people primarily because we are trans.

Let's focus on the thing we all have in common, and work to build community from there.   I've been willing to try if you are.   There are others willing to follow my lead if you're willing in your various groups of the community to meet us halfway.

Thanks Angelica!

Wanted to take a moment to thank Angelica Ross for inviting me to participate in her inaugural 'Miss Ross Live' podcast that happened in the 4-6 PM CDT timeslot yesterday afternoon . 

That two hours seemed like it just flew by, and it was also cool to have Isis King, Janet Mock and Kyle on the show as well as we talked about not only the CeCe McDonald and Paige Clay cases, but touched upon a number of issues affecting the African-American trans community

It's also nice to know that y'all think as highly of me that I do of all of you, and as I've said more than a few times, our community is going to be in great hands with up and coming leaders like you

Listen to internet radio with AngelicaRoss on Blog Talk Radio

Looking forward to the next time my schedule allows me to participate on your show.

Boom! Dan Savage Gets Glitterbombed

There has been no love lost between Dan Savage and anyone in the rainbow community who is not a white gay male, TransGriot included.

He is loved by them, but the rest of us see Savage as racist, sexist, transphobic, biphobic, abelist, misogynistic, fill in the blank.

Well, I could keep waxing poetic about Savage's many sins, but what shocked many of his fans was when he became the first person within the rainbow community to get glitterbombed Tuesday.

While onstage at the University of Oregon on November 1 a group calling themselves the 'Dan Savage Welcoming Committee' gave him a nice sparkly welcome to campus.

On November 1st, 2011, an operative of the Dan Savage Welcoming Committee (DSWM) glitterbombed Dan while he was giving a Q&A at the University of Nike's Ford Alumni Center in Eugene, Oregon. During this session, the operative leapt to the stage and poured glitter over Dan's head as they shouted, "Dan Savage is a transphobe!" As they turned tail, they added, "Glitterbomb courtesy of the Dan Savage Welcoming Committee," and just before they got out the door, "He's a racist and misogynist and a rape-apologist, too!" The operative then fled the scene.

I haven't liked Dan Savage ever since he unleashed that racist tirade in the wake of the 2008 Prop 8 referendum loss in California blaming African American voters.  He never apologized to the Black community inside and outside LGBT circles for his throughly debunked '70% of African Americans approved Prop 8' meme he gave birth to that still surfaces at times in the testy discourse between Black and white GLBT people.

It is so pervasive it has yet to be taken out of the Wikipedia article on African-Americans despite it being repeatedly crushed since 2009 under a mountain of statistics and articles that pegged the actual African American support at 58%

But back to Savage. In the meantime Dan's Vanillacentric Fan Club was scratching their collective heads trying to figure out why their hero is so hated by the rest of the rainbow community despite the fact he created the 'It Gets Better' campaign.  

Yep, he had his broken clock moment creating 'It Gets Better' in the wake of the unacceptable spike in TBLG suicides and says he's trying to evolve already on his fill in the blank 'ism' failures, but the glee (pun intended) in the chocolate trans, bi and SGL community and the rest of the rainbow Net over this latest glitterbombing was off the charts.

And he needs to look in the mirror and ask himself why.

Kim K Just Blew That 'Sanctity Of Marriage' Talking Point For You Haters

Kim Kardashian's marriage only lasted 72 days and netted her a reported $18 million dollars in profits.

But yet the right wing marriage equality opponents are always screaming that straw man argument about how allowing gay peeps to marry will destroy the 'sanctity of marriage' for straight peepul or the howler I heard in the Maryland marriage equality debate earlier this year, open the door for android marriage.

Bull feces.  As a matter of fact while I'm on the subject of marriage, stop messing with trans people's ability to get married.  

Because you haters are on increasingly shaky legal ground in terms of keeping DOMA and those unconstitutional anti-gay marriage amendments in place as long as possible.

We know you want to continue that foaming at the mouth hatred of the rainbow community going to keep your conservahate 'family' orgs coffers filled with cash from your suckers donors, but leave us transpeeps out of your drama.  

We have enough problems with people mistaking non same gender trans marriages for same gender ones.

We also have cis people deliberately misgendering trans people in a non same gender marriage to attack our ability to get married for their fiscal or political gain at our expense. 

Seems to me by this latest sterling example that you straight folks are doing a bang up job by yourselves of destroying the sanctity of marriage without any assistance from us.

Let us rainbow community people have the opportunity to get in on the fun of getting married and divorced for 72 days or less or show y'all how to do it right and get married until death do us part.
  

And it's gleefully delicious to the TBLG community that Kim Kardashian just became the rainbow community poster girl who is helping our community point that glaring hypocrisy out.