One of the big three iconic magazines in the Black community is ESSENCE. It has been chronicling the stories of Black women since its 1970 founding.
I'm gratified to see that after a problematic history with trans women, that ESSENCE featuring more Black trans women in their stories and coverage to the point I'm seriously considering restarting my subscription to the magazine.
In the January 2020 issue discussing Black Women in Hollywood, I was pleased and proud to see my trans sisters and trans sibling in the article celebrating Black Women in Hollywood..
The women of POSE are not only #BlackTGirlMagic personified, they are doing groundbreaking work on this FX show. I just hope that all their hard work starts getting reflected in them finally starting to get nominated for and actually making more history by taking home some awards
It's also my wish for them that in addition to receiving awards they deserve to be nominated for, that other movie, Broadway and television roles start flowing from their time on this show as they already have started to happen for Angelica Ross and MJ Rodriguez .
And can't forget the groundbreaking work that Janet Mock is doing behind the POSE camera lenses as a writer, director and producer. I'm also looking forward to seeing what happens in Season 3 of POSE later this summer.
You may wish to head to your local newsstand and grab this latest issue of ESSENCE before it's gone.
When I stated life as my true self 25 years ago, one of the things I started doing was picking up copies of Sophisticates Black Hair from my local Walgreen s and CVS magazine shelves
Sophisticates Black Hair Magazine, or SBH for short , has for over 30 years featured hair styling and makeup tips geared toward Black women , but features our Black female celebrities looking fab at various events and on our fave television shows and movies..
It also has an issue dedicated to the Ten Best Styled Women of the Year
So it was a big deal when Angelica Ross announced that she has an article in the latest issue of SBH with our forever FLOTUS on the cover
Congrats Angelica! Looking forward to the day when you are on the cover of Sophisticates Black hair magazine.
Since 2006, the American Society of Magazine Editors holds an annual Best Cover contest to determine the best magazine covers of the previous year.
The Cover of the Year was the New Yorker magazine's 'Blowhard' cover, depicting a Trump-like figure powering a sailboat by blowing into a Klansman's hood. The New Yorker had an exceptionally good year, placing four covers in the contest's Top 10. The 12th annual ASME Best Cover contest was contested in ten categories, and in this year's edition of it 128 magazines took part, submitting 261 covers for the ten contested categories. Online voting via Facebook started on January 2 and lasted four weeks as more than 100 editors, art directors and photo directors judged the contest.
.
In the Best News and Politics cover category the January 2017 National Geographic cover for the 'Gender Revolution' issue featuring our trans kid Avery as the cover girl won the category.
But unfortunately the Nat Geo cover was edged out for the People's Choice Award for cover of the year, losing out to the Entertainment Weekly 'Let's Hear It For The Red White And Ru (yuck) cover.
Congrats to Avery and National Geographic for the win in its category.
Just in time for Black History Month, Laverne Cox continues to blaze trails and make me and other Black trans peeps proud of her.
Her latest history making endeavor is to become the first out trans woman of any ethnic background to be featured as a cover girl for Cosmopolitan magazine.
Cosmo South Africa decided to focus their February issues on the TBLGIQ+ community and love, and tapped Laverne to be on the cover of it.
In her letter to the magazine, she also continued to speak about trans women dating and finding love.
'Trans women need to be loved out in the open and in the light,' she said. I agree with her. I also believe that if their wasn't a stigma toward dating trans women and the people who love us could do spenly, it would go a long way toward cutting our murder rates and the domestic partner violence we see.
But that's another post.
This one is all about celebrating Laverne's historic Cosmo cover achievement.
Hope she also gets some solo covers on ESSENCE (she's done two group covers) and EBONY magazines this year as well
'But only when a transgender person poses on the front cover of a fashion magazine and it is no longer necessary to write an editorial on the subject will we know that the battle is won.-Emmanuelle Alt, French Vogue editor
The French edition of Vogue magazine was founded in 1920, and despite the long list of stunning French trans women like Coccinelle, Marie-Pier Ysser, Marie-Pierre 'Bambi' Pruvot and most recently model Ines-Loan Rau, I was surprised to discover that Vogue Parishas never had a trans woman on the cover of their magazine until now.
The trans woman who has made that breakthrough fashion and French magazine history is Brazilian model Valentina Sampaio. She recently graced the cover of Elle Brazil, and has starred in an ad campaign for L'oreal Paris.
"This month we are proud to celebrate transgender beauty and how models like Valentina Sampaio, who is posing for her first ever Vogue cover, are changing the face of fashion and deconstructing prejudice."said Vogue Paris on their Instagram account and pic of the historic cover.
The 21 year old Sampaio is also set to rip the runway for Saint Laurent soon, and will be on the March cover of Vogue Paris that hits newsstands on February 23. It is the first time ever that a trans feminine woman has graced the cover of any French magazine.
The translated French title from the cover reads: Transgender beauty; How they're shaking up the world.
We most certainly are. It's also just another day and another historic accomplishment checked off the list for my sisters here in the US and around the world who are part of the long stylish line of trans models. Vogue Paris editor Emmanuelle Alt said,"Valentina is on the cover of Vogue this month, not just for her looks or her sparkling personality, but because despite herself she embodies an age-old arduous struggle to be recognised and not to be perceived as something Other.”
Alt also said in her editorial that, “Trans people, the ultimate symbol of a rejection of conformity, are icons that Vogue supports and chooses to celebrate."
We transwomen around the world deeply appreciate you Vogue Paris for doing so.
But Alt also recognized that we have a long way to go to get to the point that seeing a trans feminine person on the cover of a fashion magazine becomes a mundane event.
I'm looking forward to speed up the day that we don't even have to find it necessary to say or argue the point that trans is beautiful, and trans women in all shapes, sizes and skin tones are beautiful in many ways.
I'm hoping that day comes along with all my sisters, and I'm here to witness it.
Was happy to hear that Philippine Rep. Geraldine Roman was recently named to Foreign Policy Magazine's 100 Global Thinkers List.
Some of the people named to this year's list were Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and US Attorney General Loretta Lynch
It's amazing that in a year in which some politicians were trying to use demonization of trans women as a way to get elected to higher office, get reelected, as Trojan horses to pass unjust legislation or detract from their failed governance, it was heartening to trans people around the globe to see Roman get elected to office and openly be a girl like us.
As Congressmember Roman said, 'Gender only becomes an issue when you try to keep it a secret'. Since her election to represent her district in Bataan, she has been advocating for infrastructure improvements, healthcare and for a national anti-discrimination bill that has been rejected for ten years.
One of the cool things about being trans is that we can and are making history at times.
This latest bit of trans history involves the iconic international magazine National Geographic.
When the January 2017 issue of National Geographic comes out, it will have an article in it entitled 'The Gender Revolution' that has a picture of trans teen Trinity Neal in it.
National Geographic is also airing a documentary on February 6 entitled 'Gender Revolution, A Journey With Katie Couric.'
Couric will in the documentary be interviewing parents of trans kids, people undergoing gender confirmation surgery and intersex individuals.
"It's hard to avoid hearing about some aspect of gender these days. Every time you check your phone, turn on the TV or scan Twitter, there's another story that's challenging our preconceived notions of what gender is, how it's determined and the impact these new definitions are having on society," Couric said in a statement. "I set out on a journey to try to educate myself about a topic that young people are living with so effortlessly—and get to know the real people behind the headlines. Because the first step to inclusiveness and tolerance is understanding."
One of the covers for this National Geographic gender issue will be 7 year old Avery Jackson, who will become the first out trans person in the nearly 130 year history of the magazine to grace its cover.
“National Geographic is almost 130 years old, and we have been covering cultures, societies and social issues for all of those years. It struck us, listening to the national conversation, that gender was at the center of so many of these issues in the news,” Susan Goldberg, editorial director of National Geographic Partners and editor-in-chief of National Geographic magazine, told NBC Out.
Goldberg emphasises that while throughout the year there was a lot of emphasis on celebrities, she wanted this issue to focus on the lives of the common man. Goldberg emphasises that while throughout the year there was a lot of emphasis on celebrities, she wanted this issue to focus on the lives of the common man.
There is an alternate cover with a group of seven people on it
Congrats to Avery for making that amazing history and proving once again that trans people are part of the diverse mosaic of human life, and everyone who was interviewed either for the magazine article or the documentary.
By the time I was in the late 80's I was becoming more cognizant of the fact that I wasn't happy not living as my true self, I was starting to come to the conclusion I was trans, and being in the frustrating position of not having the info readily available to make informed decisions on how to transition was becoming a heavy psychic burden on my soul
So because this was the pre-Internet days, news about trans issues and people was hard to find and come by, and when i stumbled across an article about a trans person openly living their life, it was like a a life preserver being thrown to a person drowning in misery. Seeing those articles also gave me hope that it would one day happen for me.
I was perusing magazines at a newsstand one day back in May 1988 and noted that month's issue of the Village Voice had an article about the New York ballroom community that featured Carmen Xtravaganza.
The article was entitled 'Venus Envy: The Drag Balls Of Harlem' by Donald Snuggs. It was the first mainstream publication article about the Harlem based ballroom community and featured Carmen in the interview. It was also several years before the Paris Is Burning documentary would take movie theaters by storm and become an iconic film for our community.
I was fascinated by Sylvia Plachy's photo's of my trans sisters and the ballroom action, and bought it.
I was now 13 months into my airline career and had the ability to jet off anywhere in the US at that time. Fascinated by what I'd just read in that Village voice article, I resolved to go see a ball and meet Carmen one day.
After several moves I lost the magazine and the manila folder that had my trans news story clippings, so I'm happy to see this article in digital form.
While one part of that resolution came true in terms of meeting Carmen, doing a TransGriot Ten Questions interview with her and getting to chat with her from time to time, still have yet to see a New York ball.
For the second consecutive year, our fave transteen Jazz Jennings has been named to the TIME Magazine 30 Most Influential Teens List.
It's a list that includes such lofty company as Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai, First Daughter Malia Obama, Jaden Smith, Ahmed Mohamed and actresses Amandla Sternberg, Rowan Blanchard and Zendaya Coleman.
Y'all know I'm ride or die for our now 15 year old high schooler, and have been ever since she entered our consciousness as a 5 year old being interviewed on 20/20 by Barbara Walters.
This summer the I Am Jazz reality show on TLC was a big hit, and was broadcast on Discovery Familia with Spanish subtitles.
I've had the pleasure of meeting and spending some quality time with her and her wonderful family, and Jazz continues to be the amazing advocate and role model she has been for our community and our trans teens.
Congratulations again to our trailblazing transteen for making the TIME magazine list for the second year, and hope you're having a wonderful first year of high school.
The Jenner Vanity Fair July cover and photo shoot will be in the issue hitting newsstands on June 6, and like the Diane Sawyer interview, it's generating media coverage and generating conversation inside and out side the trans community.
And we have finally learned Jenner's femme name. I presume we'll find out later how Jenner came to choose that name, but interestingly enough she didn't spell it with a 'K'.
No matter what your opinion is on how this Caitlyn Jenner femme rollout has transpired, the bottom line is that it is generating a much needed discussion on trans issues across the media, and especially in Trans World.
I believe that any positive discussion that happens about trans people in the USA and educates the moveable middle is good for the entire trans community.
Caitlyn will also be getting the ESPY's Arthur Ashe Courage Award that has been given to the late Stuart Scott and Robin Roberts just to name two recipients of it.
Personally I think Fallon Fox should have gotten that award, but nevertheless that's another Jenner accomplishment that should be celebrated and cheered by our community.
The attention Caitlyn is getting also gives the rest of us in Trans World an opening with our local media outlets to spring off of that attention and shape a trans discussion that touches upon the issues that we deem important in our local communities..
Yes, there will be some haters and jealous folks in our trans ranks upset because they aren't getting that kind of media attention that rates a photo shoot by Annie Leibovitz.
Some of transkind will be pissed because they don't have access to the finances, surgeons, laser epilation and trans specific medical care that is going to speedily upgrade Caitlyn's body from one of a former Olympic champion to the babe that has been inside her for 65 years and is now being introduced to her family and the world.
Hell, I'm envious of that at times even with cis women with hourglass shapes, but unfortunately, that's life. Sometimes we get DNA blessings that others don't. There will be women cis and trans who are smarter, prettier and sexier. Hormones can also be much more generous to some trans women than others. Some have the finances to get the trans specific procedures they need when they want them while others will have to wait decades or never be able to get them..
All I or any trans woman can do is work with the hand that we're dealt and evolve to become the best women we can be.
But instead of hating, let's celebrate the fact a trans woman made the cover of Vanity Fair. Let's celebrate the fact we have a positive discussion happening about trans issues right now that will potentially speed up the timetable for trans human rights achievement. Let's celebrate the fact this may be another huge step toward the attainment of our ultimate goal of acceptance of trans people's humanity in all facets of our society.
And let's celebrate the fact that Caitlyn is finally coming out of a cocoon she's been in for 65 years and is coming out to the world as her true self.
Laverne Cox has broken historic ground on a number of fronts in 2014, but I discovered another historic first that she'd accomplished when I picked up some reading material for my long wait for my homeward bound flight from New York a week ago.
The EBONY Magazine Power 100 issue was the one I purchased , and I was excited to discover that when I looked through the peeps that had been named to it for 2014, Laverne Cox was among them.
It is a BFD in the African-American community to be named to the EBONY Power 100.
EBONY has been selecting the heroes and sheroes of this community and inspiring African-Americans in various categories for over 70 years to compile this list..
This year, for the first time ever, I got to see a transperson included in those EBONY Power 100 ranks. When I thought about the magnitude of what I was seeing as I read the article in the LaGuardia terminal, it made me cry tears of joy. I'd actually lived to see one of our own sheroes be named to that EBONY Power 100 List.
It also is emphatic evidence of what I been saying in these electronic pages for years when I point out that we are part of the kente cloth fabric of the African-American community.
Laverne is the first out trans person to be named to the EBONY Power 100, and I couldn't be more proud of her.
Congratulation Laverne to adding another groundbreaking accomplishment to a long list of them you have achieved in 2014. Can't wait to see what happens for you in 2015.
To understand the significance of this ESSENCE magazine cover, I have to take you back to the late 80's
Tracy Africa Norman was in the process of shooting her sixth ESSENCE magazine cover for an upcoming Christmas issue. At the time Tracy worked for the third largest modeling agency in New York, and she was a hot model with major contracts like Avon, Ultra Sheen and Clairol.
But Tracy was also an undisclosed transwoman, and her cover was about to be blown to ESSENCE editor-in-chief Susan L. Taylor by a shady individual from Tracy's old neighborhood who recognized her.
Tracy was outed, and the sixth cover shoot abruptly ended along with much of Tracy's US modeling career.
So you can imagine my surprise when knowing this history, I saw this ESSENCE cover of Laverne with Alfre Woodard, Nicole Bahari and Dinai Gurira. I'll have to admit I did shed a tear or two when I saw the cover because I thought about what happened to Tracy and just how far the African-American transfeminine ranks have come since then.
But congratulations Laverne. Looking forward to the day that ESSENCE gives a trans woman a solo cover be it you, Ines Rau or some other trans woman or trans model.
Looks like that day may be coming sooner than I thought it would.
What would your reaction be if an institution magazine sought public input into who should make its annual influence list, a person got the fifth highest total of all the vote getters in the poll, but was still snubbed when the final list went to press?
Well, that's what just happened to Laverne Cox. When I discovered she was briefly leading her category in Time 100 voting, I asked my readers to support her and many of you did to the tune of 88,000 votes (mine included). That total was as I mentioned the fifth highest number of votes anyone received, but yet she was ignored by the Time editors when the final list came out.
What up with that Time magazine? .
She wasn't the only one with a similar situation ignored by the Time editors. Oscar winning actress Lupita Nyong'o was also snubbed despite the overwhelming support.of over 41, 000 people.
Time has been mute about it, but peeps pissed about both being snubbed haven't. The champions and supporters have been vocal about their displeasure of neither woman making the list while people that polled far fewer votes and were of lighter complexions did.
Laverne took it in stride, thanking people for supporting her. (and I and 'errbody' else always will have your back). Meanwhile the radio silence coming from Time speaks volumes.
As far as I'm concerned, without you two ladies on the Time 100 list, the quality and credibility of it took a major hit. I submit I'm not alone in my assessment either..
The fledgling trans style magazine Candy is only four issues old, but publisher Luis Venegas looked to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for inspiration for the Winter 2012 cover.
It features trans model Connie Fleming styled and made up to resemble First Lady Michelle Obama.
The split front cover shows New York based model Fleming, who worked for fashion designer and Ugly Betty stylist Patrica Field, being sworn into office and waving an American flag accompanied
by the headline 'The Candydate'.
Venegas explained the rationale behind this Candy cover in a Dazed Digital magazine interview..
“I remember back in early 2007 when the Democratic Party’s nominees were
narrowed down between two ‘controversial’ stereotypes never before seen
for presidency: a black man, Barack Obama; and a woman, Hillary Rodham
Clinton. At that time, I thought, ‘when will the time come when these
archaic walls break down and the White House will be occupied by, for
example, a black, transsexual woman?’”
The cover has definitely been generating some buzz and conversation on the Net and has its fans and its detractors. I fall somewhere in the middle on this.
Guest post from Renee of Womanist Musings, who is all that and four bags of ketchup flavor potato chips.
There
is no doubt that actress Thandie Newton is not only incredibly
beautiful, but accomplished; however, like many other women of colour,
she finds herself unable to grace the cover of 'Vogue' magazine. In an
interview with Pride Magazine, she had the following to say according to Huffpo:
"Don't get me started on black people being on
the cover of big magazines. It's so preposterous. I mean, I've been on
the cover of Harper's Bazaar four times; I've been on the cover of
InStyle four times, but Vogue, not once."
"And people say to me, I mean literally, people have said to me, 'What
have you got against Vogue that you don't want to be on their cover?'
And I just laugh."
"They [Vogue] don't feel the need to represent because it doesn't make
any sense to them. It's just baffling to me, but as usual America will
dictate the ways things go and a magazine like Vogue will just follow
America," she said. "But it's like, don't you want to trail blaze?"
Vogue
does not feel any pressure to have equal representation for women of
colour because the media, just like every other social institution, aids
in the maintenance of White supremacy. We have seen time and time
again that women of colour are denied coverage that White women so
easily get, and when they do finally make the cover of a magazine, they
have to worry that the image will be so lightened that they will be
unrecognizable. Women of colour are also repeatedly denied the
opportunity for meaningful acting parts, but they sure are deemed
desirable when the part of a maid is available. Even Thandie once played
the role of a maid, in Interview with the Vampire, starring Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise.
Race is a large determinant of who gets positive attention in the
media. When it comes to women, there can be no doubt that White women
still represent what it is to be 'woman'. They are held up as the most
talented, attractive, maternal, sexy etc., while Black women are still
relegated to the place of the world's unwoman. The fact that White
women continue to gain from the othering of women of colour, means that
though many supposedly fight for equality, they are not moved as a group
to recognize their racial privilege, or defend us.
Thandie is not the only woman of colour to talk about the erasure in
fashion magazines like Vogue. Despite the big splash that an all Black
version of Italian Vogue a few years ago, Black women are continually
relegated to the sidelines. A simple look at the catwalk, shows that
White women continue to be overrepresented in fashion shows.
Unfortunately too often, people cite the exception to the rule rather
than the rule. Putting women like Michelle Obama on the cover does not
negate the fact that women of colour are rarely featured, nor does it
stand as proof that the fashion industry, or Vogue magazine is not
racist. Erasure is a form of covert racism that is practiced on a daily
basis. The very same people who would never dream of using a racial
slur, have no problem excluding Black women, or actively denying us good
and fair representation.
The common response to this is that Blacks should start our own
magazines, if we want representation, but the truth of the matter is
that a magazine is not an easy undertaking to start. No matter how
talented a person is, the start up capitol is still necessary and since
we know that Blacks are economically disenfranchised, the very idea that
Blacks should just start our own separate magazines is ridiculous. We
don't exist on a level playing field, and this why proposals such as
this, as a way to deal with erasure and racism is quite simply
ridiculous.
I personally don't read Vogue, because I am not interested in fashion,
and I certainly would not support a magazine that cannot be arsed to
have someone who looks like me appear on even a semi-regular schedule;
however, I recognize what this lack of exposure is doing to young Black
women. There is a reason why even today despite all the gains of the
Black community, that Black children continue to prefer the White doll.
Everywhere they look, everything that is constructed as good, pure and
beautiful is White. From the television shows that they watch, to
billboard and magazine covers they are shown, to be White is to be
worthy of attention and adoration. No matter how hard a parent tries to
invest a child with racial pride, they are fighting the institution of
White supremacy, which is determined to enforce the exact opposite. We
need Black women on the covers of magazines like Vogue, if our children
are ever to see themselves as valuable. We need these covers to dispel
the idea that Black women are just born unattractive. There is
absolutely nothing neutral about erasure and until we address the fact
that it essentially amounts to a value judgment based in racist ideals,
we are going to continue to have a divided society in which some people
are privileged over others, simply based in the Whiteness of their
skin.
"No person in the U.S. shall, on the basis of sex be excluded from participation in, or denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educational program or activity receiving federal aid."
Ever since President Richard Nixon signed Title IX into law on June 23, 1972 it has had a far reaching effect on the numbers of women earning postgraduate degrees.
Before Title IX, many schools refused to admit women or enforced strict quotas in postgraduate programs. That was reflected in the fact that in 1972, the year Title IX became law, women only received 9% of the medical degrees awarded, 7% of law degrees and 25% of the US citizens receiving doctorates being women.
By 1994, those numbers increased to 38% of medical degrees, 43% of law degrees and 44% of all doctoral degrees awarded to US citizens were women.
One of the prominent effects of Title IX besides the increase in the percentages of women receiving postgraduate degrees is in the world of sports.
Athletics has also created the most controversy regarding Title IX, but its gains have also been noteworthy.
It's not unusual on any given day to turn on the television and see women's intercollegiate sports on TV. There's infinitely more attention focused on women athletes during the Olympics and on high school level girls sports compared to when I was growing up in the late 70's.
But one thing that bothers me as a sports loving person is the dismissive attitude some women have toward all things athletic. It gets to the point when in some cases, women who love or participate in sports are greeted with less than complimentary verbal epithets or have their femininity questioned.
Last year Seventeen magazine in conjunction with the WNBA partnered for a comprehensive survey that was published in the magazine's September 2008 issue.
WNBA President Donna Orender stated, "We are pleased to partner with Seventeen magazine on this important survey as we know first hand how the role of sports can develop young girls into leaders.
"The women of the WNBA are strong, passionate and determined individuals who exhibit these traits both on and off the court. As a result, we are true believers in the significance of participation in sports for all girls and women."
The Seventeen/WNBA survey revealed that 83% of teen girls play sports with basketball ranked as the number one participatory sport.
Girls play sports for a variety of reasons, but the top reason found in this survey is to exercise (68.4%). Other top reasons included forming friendships, competing and representing their schools.
Challenges that young female sports enthusiasts endure include insecurities; 33% of girls who don't play sports say it's because they're worried that they wouldn't be good at it.
In addition, 35% of girls also say their teams don't get as much equipment or field time as the boys' teams and 35% of girls have heard their peers make homophobic remarks about female athletes.
The Seventeen/WNBA survey also revealed that 66% of teen girls believe that cheerleading is a sport, not some sideline event, and 71% think female cheerleaders should cheer at girls' sports events.
Despite these factors keeping some girls from playing sports, teens today are able to look to inspiring women professional athletes and Olympians such as Lisa Leslie, Mia Hamm, Diana Taurasi, Serena and Venus Williams, Candace Parker and Florence Griffith-Joyner.
As young teens hone their athletic skills, they look upon these women as they endeavor to take women's sports to a whole new level and dismiss outdated stereotypes about the women who play them.
You also have young women such as Brittney Griner who are following in their role models footsteps and preparing to exceed even their lofty performance standards.
But despite the overwhelming evidence of the benefits of sports participation for girls and women, you still have mind-numbing fluff coming from women's magazines such as Cosmo that spout erroneous, outdated stereotypes.
In addition, women athletes in addition to having to battle feminine gender policing also have to contend with the sexist attitudes of male sports fans.
Led by the male dominated sports journalism world, the dismissive attitudes of sports talk radio and sports journalists about the level of play filter down to the potential male fan base and male athletes.
We should insist upon and demand consistent, professional coverage of women's sports from the male dominated sorts journalism culture.
Why am I so adamant about it? Sports teaches important life lessons that non athletes often miss out on. You learn that even if you practice hard and execute your game plan flawlessly, sometimes you come up short. You learn how to work well with others as part of a team. You learn how to lose with grace and win with class.
It's a pride builder when you come from a zero skills base to a higher skills level in your chosen sport and you see it translated into better performance on the field.
It's also a major self esteem boost when you kick the winning goal, get the key hit that wins the game for your team or you dig deep, pull yourself out of a love-40 hole in a critical game in a tennis match and come back to win, or run your personal best time to win a medal.
These are lessons that the male population has had ample opportunities to absorb (and some peeps need to reabsorb) and enjoyed through sports competition. The Women's Sports Foundation seconds my thoughts on the matter as well.
We should not only enthusiastically support the young girls and women in our lives who participate in sports, we should also take it upon ourselves to support women's club, high school, intercollegiate and professional sports as well.
I was a proud Houston Comets season ticket holder back home for several years during their championship run and it was the best money I've ever spent.
I saw the money I spent on my season tickets it as my investment toward keeping the WNBA viable and alive for future generations of sports loving girls. Those young girls who marveled at the play of WNBA pioneers such as Cynthia Cooper are now grown up and getting their opportunity to play in the league.
Even though I'm still pissed about the WNBA leadership not doing enough to give a local group enough time to organize and keep my hometown franchise alive, I still support the league.
Far from being something that women should ignore, sports and participation in them by their daughters should be embraced and encouraged.
One of the cool benefits of the recent Johnson Publishing Company deal with Google that allows digitizing of the iconic African-American magazines JET and EBONY is that it not only provides a record of Black history as it happened, it also is a cultural time capsule as well.
One of the things I've always pondered is African American transgender people and our history. I know I and other African-American transpeeps didn't just pop up out of thin air. We have a long fascinating history that just begs to be told.
One of those fascinating stories starts unfolding across several JET issues during 1953. Coincidentally it starts around the time Christine Jorgensen had become a household name after the December 1, 1952 news story broke about her surgery and just before her February 13, 1953 return to the United States from Denmark.
It centers on a 26 year old professional female illusionist and shake dancer from Pittsburgh whose birth name was Charles Robert Brown but later changed it to Carlett Angianlee Brown.
Carlett was in a relationship with a 24 year old US Army sergeant stationed in Germany named Eugene Martin. She'd served in the Navy, and during her service time was checked out for an issue with recurring monthly bleeding through her rectal area.
The medical exam revealed that she was intersex and had some feminine plumbing. The surgeons wanted to remove it, but she declined to have that done and opted for SRS instead.
In the process of weighing her SRS options with three surgeons in various countries, she discovered that the laws of those countries at the time didn't allow foreign nationals to obtain SRS.
Dr. Christian Hamburger, the endocrinologist who supervised Christine Jorgensen's transition, advised Carlett that if she gave up her US citizenship she could have it done in Denmark. Germany's then justice minister advised Brown that if became a German resident and took the steps to become a German citizen, she could have it performed there as well.
So Carlett decided to do just that. She applied for her US passport and made arrangements to travel to Bonn, Germany in August 1953 and meet Dr. Hamburger there for her initial checkup before having SRS.
Carlett's game plan once she completed SRS was to get married to Sgt. Eugene Martin
"I just want to become a woman as quickly as possible, that's all. I'll become a citizen of any country that will allow me the treatment that I need and be operated on," she said at the time.
Fast forward to June 25 issue. Carlett has now traveled to Boston and signed papers at the Danish consulate renouncing her US citizenship. She's doing some bookings in the area to help pay for her looming August 2 overseas trip and even hit Filene's to shop for her wedding dress.
She now has her US passport with her new name of Carlett Angianlee on it and all systems are go to become the 'First Negro Sex Change'.
Then fate intervened. Crossdressing back in the 50's could earn you a trip to jail, and the Boston po-po's promptly arrested and jailed her overnight for doing so as the July 9 issue reported. Carlett was still undeterred and was still planning to leave for Denmark and her date with history.
She then postponed her departure in order to get a feminizing face lift in New York with Dr. George J.B. Weiss, as the August 6 issue reported. It even mentioned that Carlett's face lift was going to cost $500 dollars.
Then she was hit with the news that she was ordered not to leave the United States until $1200 in back taxes were paid. The October 15th issue reported that she ended up taking a $60 a week cook's job at Iowa State's Pi Kappa frat house that a friend helped her get in order to earn the money to pay off those back taxes.
At that point the trail through those back issues of JET in terms of Carlett's fascinating story starts turning cold. As of yet I haven't found out if she ever did earn the money to pay off the back taxes, make that trip to Europe, have SRS, get married or even how the rest of her life turned out. If Carlett is still alive she'd be well into her 70's.
But thanks to JET, mine and future generations will get to read it.
Tami had a post in March that discussed her take on whether we should do more as a community to keep our iconic magazines alive.
While some folks are hollering 'let them die', I have a problem with that knee jerk shortsighted view of the situation, even though I have mixed emotions about it.
As a historian, I don't like the idea of losing EBONY and JET, much less contemplating a world without its needed voice. As many of you did, I perused the older issues of EBONY and JET at my grandparents house growing up and I spent hours perusing those issues and reading the history that unfolded before my eyes. I also chuckled at some of the back in the day ads that served as a time capsule for the period.
It seems that everybody had a subscription to those two magazines when I was growing up, and whether you were at your cousin's house in Mississippi, your uncle's place in Los Angeles, EBONY or JET would be sitting in a prominent place in their living rooms. One of the first things I did after moving out of my parents house was get my own EBONY subscription.
Thanks to the late visionary John H. Johnson, these magazines since 1945 have been covering our stories, our people and our history when white owned magazines would barely touch our communities, much less tell our stories in a balanced way.
Without EBONY and JET, much of the Civil Rights history probably wouldn't have seen the light of day. Many of Dr. King's essays were published in the pages of EBONY. Our iconic stars on stage, screen, television and the sporting worlds wouldn't have gotten the coverage they deserved.
Our history would have less documentation, especially in the 70's when it seemed that every time you turned around there was another African-American breaking new ground or we had another 'First Black' making history.
And tell the truth, many of you already have copies of the issues of EBONY and JET relating to the historic 2008 election of President Obama, the inauguration and the historic Obama administration.
One of the reasons that African descended supermodels grace the catwalks now is because of Eunice Johnson and the Ebony Fashion Fair. Not only did it clue designers in on the fact that Black women had dollars to spend on high fashion clothes, the traveling fashion show has raised tens of thousands of dollars over the years for various charitable organizations in the African-American community.
Fashion Fair Cosmetics and its success clued white owned makeup companies into the fact there was a large customer base they weren't meeting the needs of.
But on the other hand both those magazines have been behind the curve for a while in terms of developments inside the AA GLBT/SGL community, something I've long complained about on TransGriot.
It's sad for example, when Isis got more love in white owned magazines than she did in our iconic Black ones (and ESSENCE falls in that category as well).
I'm for giving Linda Johnson Rice the help she needs because the Johnson family deserves that much from us. I'm seriously thinking about renewing my subscription especially since I'm buying them off the racks so much these days I may as well save myself some cash and get it delivered to the crib.
But my support comes with a condition and an ultimatum. I want EBONY and JET to do a better job of covering the entire African-American community. News of our community just doesn't begin and end in middle class African-American communities. There needs to be a serious effort toward inclusive coverage of the entire spectrum of the AA community.
Because as someone who grew up around Black radio and knows the power of Black owned media, it's easier to tell your story when you own the printing press, the television show and the radio station as opposed to depending upon someone else with built in biases to honestly tell the story of your people for you.
It is a BFD in the African-American community to be named to the EBONY Power 100. 
