TBLG Groups Stand For Justice For Trayvon Martin

I have griped over the years about the TBLG community sitting on the sidelines when it comes to issues of importance to the African-American community and the one sided out of context appropriation of our civil rights heroes and sheroes to highlight gaycentric issues.  

Have to say I was shocked and surprised to see this joint letter come out from a coalition of national BTLG groups.   Some of the members of this coalition who signed this joint letter, like the National Black Justice Coalition, the International Federation of Black Prides, the Task Force, Lambda Legal, NCLR and Unid@s weren't a surprise to me, but others were.

Anyway, here's the open letter.

National LGBT groups issued the following joint open letter on the killing of Trayvon Martin:

The tragic killing of Trayvon Martin is a national call to action. Our hearts go out to Trayvon’s family and friends for the loss they have experienced. We stand in solidarity with them as they demand answers and justice. We represent organizations with diverse lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender constituencies.

Many in our community have been targets of bigotry and bias. We have a great deal of experience grappling with the role bias plays in violent crimes against our communities. We well know the stories of young people targeted for violence just because of who they are: Rashawn Brazell, Lawrence King, Ali Forney, Deoni Jones, Brandon White, Matthew Shepard, Angie Zapata, Sean Kennedy and countless others.

Trayvon’s killing is a wakeup call to the enduring cancer of racism and racial profiling. The pain his family continues to endure transcends communities and unites us all. Every person, regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation or gender identity, must be able to walk the streets without fear for their safety.

Trayvon’s killing is tragic and the stark reality that racial bias played a role in his death has alarmed our nation. Questions must be asked. Answers must be sought. And justice must be served. We join our voices to the chorus of so many others to demand that local and federal authorities find those answers. We stand in solidarity with Trayvon’s family and friends as they seek justice for his killing. In the timeless words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

Signatories:

CenterLink: The Community of LGBT Centers
Equality Federation
Family Equality Council
Freedom to Marry
GLAAD
Human Rights Campaign
Immigration Equality
International Federation of Black Prides
Lambda Legal
LGBT Progress at the Center for American Progress
National Black Justice Coalition
National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR)
National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE)
National Coalition for LGBT Health
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
National Stonewall Democrats
Out & Equal Workplace Advocates
PFLAG National
Pride at Work
Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders (SAGE)
Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN)
The Trevor Project
UNID@S

Travon Free's Open Letter To Newt

GOP frontrunner Newt Gingrich made some racistly stank comments about poor people that he's still getting pimp slapped over (and rightfully so)

“Really poor children in really poor neighborhoods have no habits of working and have nobody around them who works,” he said. “They literally have no habit of showing up on Monday. They have no habit of staying all day. They have no habit of ‘I do this and you give me cash’ unless it’s illegal.” Newt Gingrich, speech at Harvard University, November 2011  

Recently read this open letter from comedian Travon Free over at Addicting Info that calls his pink plump rump out on his jacked up words denigrating the poor.

Dear Newt Gingrich,
I recently saw you stand up in front of a group of people and allow some of the most
idiotic, unfounded, racist, and ignorant words pass your lips that I’ve ever heard
from a member of a group of the most unqualified presidential candidates America
has ever seen.

To have the audacity to say that poor kids, and let’s be clear that’s republican speak
for black and brown kids, “have no habits of working and nobody around them who
works” is not only an insult to me as black man who grew up in one of those “really
poor” neighborhoods you spoke of but it’s an insult to my mother. And it’s an insult to
many other black and brown children, adults, and hard working parents(often single
parents) who get up every single day to try to provide a better life for their children in
poor neighborhoods.

As a child grew up in Compton in the early 90′s, one of the most dangerous
neighborhoods in America, I watched my mother work tirelessly, sometimes juggling
multiple jobs to provide for myself and my sister. Day in and day out just like many other
parents in poor neighborhoods she did what she had to do in order to provide for us.

You know what that turned into Mr. Gingrich?
A son who received academic and athletic scholarship offers from three Ivy League schools and countless other universities, a son with a college degree in Criminal Justice who graduated with honors from every school he attended, and a daughter who not only
attended a Gifted and Talented Education high school but is one year away from
completing a degree at UCLA.

This is not just the case for my family. I know I speak for many other hard working
black, brown, and even poor white families who have the same experiences in the poor
neighborhoods to look down upon from your elitist 1% out of touch pedestal. To say that
an entire community “literally has no habit of showing up on Monday” or “they have no
habit of staying all day” I say that is a load of shit.

Millions of poor children watch their parents show up Monday and many of them
sometimes have to suffer from the fact that their parents have to stay at work ALL DAY.
And lastly, you suggest that to remedy this “problem” as you so blindly see it is to make
poor kids assistant janitors and pay them to clean the restrooms? Your solution is child
labor. Degrading young children by suggesting they clean toilets while painting all union workers as lazy leeches. It’s a shame they don’t have the work ethic of hard working Americans like Kim Kardashian who worked so hard in her sex tape before we crowned her a role model for young girls and showered her with money and adoration or Paris Hilton who was forced to clean so many toilets as a teen to learn “work ethic” before her parents handed over the millions.

This not only echoes the depth of your ignorance but just how truly unqualified
you are to ever be president of this country. Your assumption that poor people have no
ingrained work ethic and “have no habit of ‘I do this and you give me cash’ unless it’s
illegal” is not only dangerously ignorant but it proves you have no connection with the
true heart of this country.

I believe I speak for most if not all of “poor” America when I say Mr. Gingrich you have
no habit of performing, thinking or speaking in a manner that warrants becoming the
leader of the free world and the 45th president of these United States of America. You
represent a party of greedy, selfish, out of touch, wealth protecting, non tax paying,
destroyers of the middle class. You know nothing about us. But your words in your
speech in Des Moines told us everything about you.

Which is why I hope you win your party’s nomination so that poor and impoverished
families can at least experience four more years of a man working diligently to help
them and the communities they call home that you have proven to know nothing about.
president number 44.

PS. You look like someone poured mashed potatoes into a suit

H/T Addicting Info

Brittany's Open Letter To Rep. Sally Kern

As many of you TransGriot readers know, I have been eagerly watching the campaigns of our trans candidates this election cycle.

But the one that has really gotten my attention is Brittany Novotny. She's running a hard hitting and smart campaign focusing on the issues in Oklahoma's 84th House District.

She recently posted on her campaign website an open letter to homobigot Republican incumbent Rep. Sally Kern.

Here's an excerpt from it.

This led me to ponder a question. What exactly do you see as your job as a state legislator? Is this just a game to you? Oklahoma is facing real issues that will affect the everyday lives of teachers, police officers, firefighters, construction workers, small business owners, and most important of all, our children.

Instead of spending your weekends and your time in the legislature “taking a stand against liberals,” why aren’t you finding solutions to our budget dilemma that will keep teachers in the classroom, police officers and firefighters on the street, construction workers improving our roads and bridges, and small businesses afloat?

Legislating should not be a political game. Real lives are affected by what goes on in the legislature. But if you’re too busy “taking a stand against liberals” (of which there are maybe 5 in the 101 seats of the state legislature) to find real funding solutions, then apparently you believe that legislating is just a game. As long as you’re taking a brave stand against “liberals,” then people shouldn’t worry about the fact that Putnam City Schools just laid of 40 teachers.

Check out the full letter at Brittany's website and drop her a little cash for her campaign against Sally Kern as well.

Letter To Lea T.

TransGriot Note: Sass Rogando Sasot is one of the international trans activists I look up to for inspiration as the founder of the transpinay group STRAP. She recently penned an open letter to Brazilian model Lea T.


"I guess when your heart gets broken,
you sort of start to see cracks in everything.
I'm convinced that tragedy wants to harden us
and our mission is never to let it."

- Janeane Garofalo in Felicity

Dear Lea T,

I don't know how will this ever reach you - or whether you can find time in your busy life to even read this. But still, I hope that life's wonder can find a way to let you hear what this lass from Manila has to say.

I would like to congratulate you for your current success and fame. Certainly you are more than aware that you have now been christened as "the fashion world's first transsexual supermodel." I'm pretty sure that a lot of transwomen all over the world are delighted by your breakthrough into the world of modeling. Without doubt, you serve as an inspiration for those who dream to catwalk on the ramps of international fashion and grace the pages of famous magazines.

Your naked photo in the August 2010 edition of French Vogue is what really got into me. A simple yet powerful photo that celebrates our body, our existence, our totality. You stand there with a quiet dignity in your eyes, with a sense of self-possession of your uniqueness, and with a distinctive and courageous beauty. To use what Sharon Stone said about the beauty of Meryl Streep, your photo has all the appeal of an "unmade bed." But more than all these, your photo is like a lover's affectionate assurance to his/her partner that "she shouldn't be ashamed of her body for there's nothing wrong with it."

Whether it's your intention or not, you now have also become a spokesperson of transsexual issues, specifically that of transwomen. I've read your feature story in The Guardian on 1 August 2010, "Lea T and the loneliness of the fashion world's first transsexual supermodel." That article bared your soul, revealing the suffering that you carry on your modelesque shoulders. A lot of transwomen feel your pain as they do share your story of family rejection, societal ridicule, and the accompanying depression.

Surely these things have hardened you and caused you to have, as what you called it, "the war in your head." I feel that this also led you to be pessimistic about love, calling it a "luxury" . Furthermore, you gave a disheartening reflection saying that "those transsexuals who do enter into serious relationships often do so by keeping their past from their partners." Then went on saying, "We transsexuals are born and grow up alone. After the operation we are born again, but once again alone. And we die alone. It is the price we pay."

Lea, I don't know how far one can argue about the benefits of being a pessimist over being an optimist. Both spiritual teachings and scientific studies show that optimism is beneficial and that pessimism is harmful. I don't know if you heard about studies showing that optimism boosts the immune system; and that persistent pessimism is hazardous to ones health.

Well, there's no need to list down all these empirical studies to prove that optimism fares better than pessimism. Relying on our ancient old instinct, we find that we are more motivated, glowing, and engaged when we move more into the light of optimism. But, please, don't mistake optimism for wishful thinking. Optimism is simply putting things into perspective, and realizing that whatever unfortunate things that happen to us, they too will pass. It is simply understanding that "what was and what is" are not "what will always be." Things change. Whether change will lead to the road of "better" or "worse" depends on our attitude, persistence, and faith in the benevolence of life.

There's always a danger in giving a sense of eternity to our suffering. For transsexual people like us, we do this by internalizing the transphobia that we experience/d in our lives, leading us to make our transsexualism as an eternal disabling factor in our lives: "I'm a transsexual, therefore I will never find a job"; "I'm a transsexual, therefore I will never find love"; "I'm a transsexual, therefore I will never _______." But when we go deeper into ourselves and engaged in self-reflection, can we honestly find the value in staying imprisoned in the cages in which we keep ourselves?

Lea, love is not a luxury. Finding someone to share your happiness with and keeping that person in your life may be hard but it's not hard in the sense of impossible. It is hard for every one - not just for us transsexuals. It is hard for it's not easy to be vulnerable. Staying behind our walls seems to be more comfortable than allowing ourselves to experience the exquisite joy and pain of being in love. But it is love that allows you to heal. It brings into surface all that is damaged in you so you can touch them with compassion, thereby allowing the possibility of transformation.

You may say that those who find love, without having to hide their 'past' from their partners, may just be lucky. Perhaps. But just like in other areas of our lives, luck cannot work without readiness. Take yourself for example. You are where you are right now because of luck and of your readiness: You were at the right time, at the right place, with the right attitude.

I hope that you let your current affluence and influence inspire you to see the astonishing goodness of life. Hold on to this goodness. Whatever loneliness you are experiencing, just let it be, but don't indulge in it. Our loneliness are just waiting for us to embrace it with compassion and affection. And what allows us to be able to do this is love.

You were born with love. You'll die with love. It is not a goal to be achieved nor a luxury you can forego. Love is a foundation for living.


My warmest,
Sass Rogando Sasot

Open Letter To My Young Black Transsisters

Dear Young Black Transsisters,

Been a while since I wrote one of these open letters, and this time I thought I'd direct this one at you since y'all don't get enough love sent your way.

One of the cool things about being the TransGriot is from time to time, I get to chat with some of you either online or on the phone. I get to hear your joys, your sorrows, your concerns, your triumphs, and your disappointments.

First thing you need to know and always remember is that you are not alone. Even if you have some issues separating yourselves from your blood family, know that you are loved not only by God or whatever you address the higher power as, but by us as well.

Your family has expanded, not contracted, and your sisters are all over the planet. You are part of the interlocking mosaic of humankind, and you are special.

While it's going to be tougher for you than your cissisters to find that special someone, it's not impossible either. One thing that will make that bumpy road to romance a lot smoother is if you start by loving yourself first. Once you get that loving yourself first party started, everything else will fall into place.

You have people like myself who are willing to fight tooth and nail for you in order to make your lives better. We are ready, willing and able to pass on our hard won knowledge about dealing with life as a transperson of African descent.

We stand ready to give you that motivational kick in the butt when you need it or a comforting hug when it's necessary. We fight the Forces of Intolerance inside and outside our community so that your generation of transwomen and succeeding ones have it a little better than we did.

These aren't just one way interactions, my young Black transsisters. We get to understand how much the world has changed since we were your age and walking in your pumps. In some cases we get to listen to you kick it to us about new ways of approaching a situation or thinking about these issues.

We are proud to note that you are the best educated, smartest and most tech savvy group our people have produced. We know you are capable of great things if you just get that break you need to excel.

I don't see it as a burden to interact with you, I see it as an honor, privilege, and something I am called to do. It's a promise I made to God that if I was blessed to transition, I would happily serve as a mentor to the transkids coming behind me since I and my peers were denied that.

In the best traditions of our people, I hope that I have either done, written or said something that inspired you. I hope that you feel that I have lifted you up as I climbed. All I ask is that you do the same someday for the transsisters that transition behind you.

I get the pleasure of answering your questions, passing your history on to you, and sometimes just enjoying chilling with you for that fleeting moment of time I'm conversing with you

My generation didn't have the benefit of our African descended trans elders kicking knowledge to us due the WPATH standard in place at the time demanding that they hide once their transitions were completed. Some chose to live stealth lives for various reasons as well.

It's one of the reasons why we are just now finding out about some of the accomplishments of our African descended transsisters. Consider yourselves blessed that we are now able thanks to 21st century communications technology and changes in those restrictive policies to do so for you.

The French philosopher Simone de Beauvoir once stated, 'One is not born a woman, one becomes one. Our cissisters don't come out of the birth canal knowing everything there is to know about womanhood, they have to learn it just like you do and it is a lifelong process.

The major difference is you face resistance from society and your blood families in some cases as you try to navigate all the issues wrapped up with wandering Planet Earth in an African descended feminine body. To complicate matters, you don't have as much time to learn what you need to know.

You also face faith-based ignorance, prejudice, discrimination, being walking targets for sexual assault and the Black Woman's Burden of having her beauty and intelligence denigrated and disrespected.

You have a history despite the best attempts of people inside and outside the community to erase you from TBLG history and try to tell you what you can't do or accomplish.

People who share your ethnic heritage executed the first trans oriented protest in 1965. Miss Major was present at Stonewall in 1969. Marsha P. Johnson in conjunction with Sylvia Rivera helped organize STAR. It was an African American transwoman named Avon Wilson who was the first client in 1966 of the now closed Johns Hopkins Gender Program. Over the last ten years four of us have picked up IFGE Trinity Awards for the work we have done to uplift the entire trans community. Tracy Africa was a successful fashion model in the 70's and 80's. Dr. Marisa Richmond was present at the 2008 Democratic Convention as the first trans African American elected delegate to a major party convention. Some of you, like Isis are making history today.

There are many of your transsisters working in a wide range of professional fields and occupations around the country and across the Diaspora.

You are African descended transwomen. You have nothing to be ashamed of in saying that. Up, up my mighty sisters, and accomplish what you will.

But in the end, the best advice I can give you is that you must love yourself and have pride in everything that you do. You are the descendants of queens and history making women of action who have been the backbone of our culture and our people, and that is a towering legacy to live up to.

I hope that I and other African descended transwomen have provided you with role models that we didn't have or didn't know about back when we were your age in terms of how to become quality women of trans experience.

I have no doubts that you will exponentially improve on what we've been able to accomplish and write impressive new chapters in future history books where the African descended transwoman is concerned.

And as you climb, know that we will be happily watching you every step of the way.


Sincerely yours,
Monica Roberts
The TransGriot

Ryan Murphy's Transphobic Hypocrisy

TransGriot Note: Ashley Love is one of our intelligent, up and coming trans community leaders as an organizer for MAGNET. She sounds off in this open letter posted on the Transforming Media blog about producer Ryan Murphy's transphobic blind spot after castigating Newsweek's Ramin Setoodeh for his recent 'Straight Jacket' article.

Here's a quote from Ashley's open letter;

Ryan, as a gay man who purports to be an ally of everyone in the LGBT community, (and I would hope that includes transsexual women as well, not just gay men of privilege), you are held to a higher standard of behavior.


Yes, sis. you are speaking serious truth there. Here's the link to the full text.

Dear Black GLB Community

Dear Black GLB Community,
As one of your award winning trans sisters, I have had the opportunity since 1980 to observe the peaks and valleys of this community.

I have watched our community get ravaged by HIV/AIDS. At the same time, I have had the pleasure of watching it like the mythical phoenix, arise from the fire, stand up, grow, and begin to follow in the footsteps of our ancestors by doing things for ourselves.

We have managed to hold on to our faith and spirituality while demanding that we be accepted for who we are as African descended TBLG people both inside and outside our chocolate flavored community.

We are also beginning to see the emergence on the Mother Continent and across the Diaspora of TBLG people speaking loudly for fairness and equality sometimes even at great risk to themselves.

But sometimes I've observed behavior that is distressing to me as an African descended person. There have been times that you chocolate flavored GLB peeps have either been too silent in terms of condemning the violence, discrimination and outright faith-based distorted lies aimed at your African descended trans brothers and sisters, or have been willing accomplices in the denigration and demonization of the trans element of the community.

Black GLB community, your trans brothers and sisters are counting on you to do a better job of integrating the 'T' into our subset of the larger GLBT community than the piss poor job over the last 40 years by your Euro descended GLBT counterparts.

African-American cispeople have begun stepping up to the plate to do so. We need you Black GLB peeps to be shining examples to your fellow GLB peeps and our fellow African-Americans in terms of showing by example how to be exceptional allies to your chocolate transbrothers and transsisters.

While there are organizations such as the International Federation of Black Prides and others in various communities across the country that do a wonderful job in making sure we can participate in and have a voice shaping the destiny of the African American GLBT/SGL community, there are some that clearly need to not only step up their game, but do Trans 101 before they embark on that journey.

Black transpeople are ready, willing and capable to do the work on our end as well, but you've got to meet us halfway. By doing so it will be a mutually beneficial situation for all concerned as a stronger African descended subset of the GLBT community..

Black GLB community, because we share a common history of struggle and success as a people, what we need from you more than anything else is love and acceptance.

And I hope and pray that those steps to build a African flavored GLBT community with a thoroughly integrated trans element in it happen sooner rather than later.

Sincerely Yours,
Monica
The TransGriot

Dear Oprah II

TransGriot Note: I wrote an open letter to Oprah back in 2007 asking when she was going to interview an African American trans person on her show. Time for another one.

Dear Oprah,
When you began to cover transgender issues on your show back in 2007, I along with the African descended trans community were excited that you were beginning to train your attention on the issues of transgender people.

The trans community in general deeply appreciates any opportunity we have been granted to educate the public. The sizable viewing audience exposed to your shows highlighting trans issues has been invaluable as well.

But once again, I have to ask on behalf of the African American trans community, when are you going to show us the same love you have shown the white trans community when we need the media exposure far more than they do?

We in the African descended trans community have been disappointed to see that our media blackout continues, even on Oprah.

The problem has and continues to be in the 57 years since Christine Jorgenson stepped off her flight from Denmark into the glare of media publicity in New York that the narrative of transgender exposure and experience has been predominately driven by white trans lives.

I wrote an open letter respectfully asking for equal time for transpeople who share your ethnic heritage. In the almost three years that have passed since then, I and the African American trans community have watched shows featuring Thomas Beattie and other white transpeople up to and including your recent show focusing on trans filmmaker Kimberly Reed.

But what still stands out for us is the glaring lack of African descended transpeople on your show.

The fact that your Emmy award winning talk show will be ending September 9, 2011 has added to the increased sense of disappointment myself and other African descended people feel as we fail to see ourselves and our lives represented in these shows.

That disappointment is heightened by the fact that we disproportionately continue to bear the brunt of anti-transgender hate violence.

Since your first 2007 trans themed show we have witnessed the late Duanna Johnson's beating by a Memphis police officer caught on videotape. We have had dozens of African descended transpeople such as Taysia Elzy, Ebony Whitaker, and Lateisha Green murdered, and far too often, the perpetrators of these heinous crimes against African descended transpeople share our ethnic heritage.

And frankly, our transitions are different from our white trans counterparts.

Your audience as you are keenly aware of consists of cis and trans African-Americans. It is inside and outside our African American community that we African American trans people struggle against violence, invisibility, faith based ignorance and rejection of our lives. The predominately Caucasian lens that transgender experiences have been framed in has led to a misguided perception in our community that being transgender 'is a white thang.'

Isis King is just one example of trans African Americans of all ages who are blowing away that myth. We're talented, proudly living our lives and wish to make greater contributions to uplift our people.

Like any other persons, we want unconditional equality and acceptance in our society and a fair chance to make that happen.

An appearance on your show by an African descended transperson or transpersons would not only be deeply appreciated by us, it could go a long way towards breaking down those barriers of ignorance about trans issues on the African-American community and who we are to the world at large.

It would also give our friends, supportive family members and allies a positive thing about us to point to.

Whether that happens before September 8, 2011 is up to you, and I pray it does.

Sincerely,

Monica Roberts
The TransGriot
2006 IFGE Trinity Award Winner

Dear Haters

Dear Haters,
You have many names, but you nattering nabobs of negativity gorging yourself on Hateraid and Hater Tots know who you are.

I occasionally monitor your blogs to see what you're up to and get a good laugh out of it. When I read your lame attacks I consider myself in good company.

I remind myself that throughout world history there were people blessed with visionary foresight and thinking who were similarly denigrated for simply wishing to do the right thing and expand civil rights coverage for their people while educating others about the mutual intersectionality of the issues involved.

While I'm not claiming to be in the class of a W.E.B. DuBois, a Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr or an Audre Lorde, I'm on this Earth at this particular time and blessed with specific talents. I believe I need to give it my best efforts to help accomplish the task of integrating transgender people in society's mainstream while you peeps on the wrong side of the moral arc of history keep wandering in the swamp of privilege fueled ignorance.

I'm not going to be sidetracked by your snide comments, your faith-based ignorance, racism, and mind boggling stupidity just because it makes you feel more like a man or a woman to do so.

I don't have time, nor will I waste precious positive energy jousting with you. I have a blog to build, people to educate on transgender issues, a community to uplift and positive people to interface with who do wish to learn and grow as human beings.


Have a blessed day,
The TransGriot

Dear Diego

Dear Diego,

This may come as a surprise that you're seeing this open letter from me, one of the more vehement critics of HRC and your new boss, but congratulations on your new senior legislative policy adviser job starting January 9 in Representative Barney Frank's (D-MA) office.

Contrary to what many peeps may surmise, I have been observing and admiring your historic rise through the Democratic Party hierarchy. Know that I'm extremely proud of you and I'm confident that you'll be an excellent role model as well. The fact that you're doing it as an out and proud Latino transman makes your historic climb even more remarkable and noteworthy.

We may have been on opposite sides on a few issues in the transgender community, but I presume we're on the same page when it comes to seeing that all transgender people attain full citizenship rights.

I know you're the second out transperson hired as a senior staffer after Susan Kimberly in Sen. Norm Coleman's (R-MN) office, but you're the first transperson of color to earn that distinction and I presume the first out transperson to be hired as a senior staffer in the House of Representatives.

Diego, you are someone the entire community can point to with pride and say, transteens, here is an example of what is possible if you bust your butts to get that education and dare to dream big dreams. This is a message that transpeople of color need to see and hear as well, in addition to seeing transpeople like you in positions of power and authority.

I hope your hiring also empowers other transgender staffers that are rumored to be employed in various offices on The Hill to feel comfortable enough to come out.

But my joy over your hiring is tempered by who did it. I hope and pray it signals a profound change in Chairman Frank's thinking about transgender inclusion in ENDA, but I long ago subscribed to deeds, not words when it comes to people whose past exclusionary deeds outstripped their flowery rhetoric.

I hope your hiring signals, like Barack Obama's election to the presidency, that historic change has actually come to the office of the representative from Massachusetts on transgender issues, but only time and the progression of legislation authored by Chairman Frank through the 110th Congress will tell in that regard.

Once again, congratulations on the new position and achieving a historic milestone, and I hope I'm blessed with the opportunity to personally congratulate you the next time I'm in Washington DC.

Sincerely yours,
Monica Roberts
2006 IFGE Trinity Award Winner



Crossposted from The Bilerico Project