55th Anniversary of JFK's Church And State Speech

On September 12, 1960 during the heat of a close presidential race between himself and Vice President Richard Nixon, and because of concerns and skepticism that as a Roman Catholic, his religion would allow him to make important national decisions independently of the Vatican,  then Senator John F Kennedy delivered a speech to a skeptical Greater Houston Ministerial Association.

Here is the transcript an the video of that speech that was one of the events that helped him win the presidency by a razor thin margin over Nixon..

Upcoming UT-Austin Lavender Graduation May 20

After doing some local events, the BTAC conference and resting from that hectic March travel schedule that saw me flying over 8000 miles that month, it's time for me to hit the road again for my first keynote speech in a while.

I'll be heading back to Austin, but not to lobby.   On this trip to the ATX I'll be spending time on the University of Texas- Austin campus delivering a speech for their 8th annual Lavender Graduation.

So what's Lavender Graduation you ask?  Lavender Graduation is a special graduation ceremony that honors the achievements of graduating lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and ally students on the UT-Austin campus.

Lavender Graduation is co-hosted by the Gender and Sexuality Center and the UT Queer Students Alliance (QSA). Our goal is to provide a venue to demonstrate the success of our community members in a personal, entertaining and celebratory way.

The Lavender Graduation Ceremony will feature not only my keynote speech, but inspiring speeches from UT-Austin faculty, administrators, students, and alumni; the chance to cross the lavender stage to celebrate your success and to receive a Lavender Graduation certificate as well as a rainbow tassel; and music, cake and food to share with friends, family and well-wishers!
Would you like to show your support for the event even though you are not graduating?   You can RSVP for the event at this link.   You can attend the event, and bring your friends and community allies!

Sign up on the GSC listserv to get updates and reminders closer to the event – sign up by sending an email to the GSC.   If you need further information about it you can contact the Gender and Sexuality Center at gsc@austin.utexas.edu or 512-232-1831.

The Lavender Graduation will take place at the Student Activity Center starting at 4 PM CDT on the UT-Austin campus at Speedway and 21st Streets.   Hope to see you there!.

Jazz Speaks At The Time To Thrive Conference

Y'all know how much I love the amazing Jazz Jennings, and when I finally met her and members of her family last summer during the Philly Trans Health Conference, I was more excited about it than she was.

She is not only one beautiful and amazing young woman, she has been an advocate for trans kids and our community since she was six years old.

So you'll always see Jazz videos here on TransGriot, and here she is speaking at the recent Time To Thrive conference.

Malala's 2014 Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech

Because I'm still in the process of moving and only getting my TV recently, I finally got a chance to see Malala Yousafzai's historic Nobel Prize acceptance speech. 

She is the youngest Nobel Laureate ever at age 17, but don't sleep on her.   Malala's voice for women's rights and passionate push for the education for girls in developing countries is loud and needs to be heard by their people running these countries.

Here is the video of her December 10 Nobel Prize acceptance speech in Oslo, Norway.

Malcolm X-The Ballot Or The Bullet Speech

This April 4, 1964 speech delivered by Malcolm X at Cleveland's Cory Methodist Church is ranked (number 7) as one of the 100 Greatest Speeches in American history. 

It is sadly, in the wake of what's happening in Ferguson, MO still relevant 50 years later..

Mayor Parker Discusses TBLG Inclusive Human Rights Ordinance

During Mayor Annise Parker's State of the City address she gave to a crowd of 1600 members and guests of the Greater Houston Partnership on Wednesday, she outlined many of the issues that she'll be tackling during her final term as Houston's leader. 

She also addressed the one question that has been on the minds of TBLG Houstonians ever since San Antonio's contentious passage of their trans inclusive human rights ordinance last September made Houston the largest city in the state and the only one of the top five population US cities that doesn't have one:  What's up with the LGBT inclusive non-discrimination ordinance she's been talking about for months now and even mentioned in her third inauguration speech back on January 2? 

You know as a native Houstonian I believe it's past time we do so, and have already spoken to Houston City Council twice urging them to pass such an ordinance.

That's why she discussed during the GHP speech and in the press conference afterward the long needed Human Rights Ordinance, which will prohibit discrimination in city employment, contracting, housing and public accommodations.  It will also add sexual orientation and gender identity to the list of protected classes of people and will create a seven person Human Rights Commission that hears complaints and refer them to the proper authorities

Mayor Parker is expecting that ordinance to be rolled out sometime next month, and as you probably guessed, the usual H-town conservahaters in Dave Welch and the Houston Area Pastor Council are already trying to scuttle it.

But we are just as determined in liberal progressive H-town to pass it, and the fun will begin when we finally see the initial draft of the proposed ordinance next month.
 

Creating Change 2014-Laverne Cox Speech

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This is the keynote speech Laverne gave at the opening Thursday night plenary. that everyone who heard it is STILL talking about.  

Hopefully I'll get to do that one day (hint hint)

President Obama's Remarks At Mandela Memorial

To Graça Machel and the Mandela family; to President Zuma and members of the government; to heads of state and government, past and present; distinguished guests - it is a singular honor to be with you today, to celebrate a life unlike any other.  To the people of South Africa - people of every race and walk of life - the world thanks you for sharing Nelson Mandela with us.  His struggle was your struggle.  His triumph was your triumph.  Your dignity and hope found expression in his life, and your freedom, your democracy is his cherished legacy.

It is hard to eulogize any man - to capture in words not just the facts and the dates that make a life, but the essential truth of a person - their private joys and sorrows; the quiet moments and unique qualities that illuminate someone’s soul.  How much harder to do so for a giant of history, who moved a nation toward justice, and in the process moved billions around the world.

Born during World War I, far from the corridors of power, a boy raised herding cattle and tutored by elders of his Thembu tribe - Madiba would emerge as the last great liberator of the 20th century.  Like Gandhi, he would lead a resistance movement - a movement that at its start held little prospect of success.  Like King, he would give potent voice to the claims of the oppressed, and the moral necessity of racial justice.  He would endure a brutal imprisonment that began in the time of Kennedy and Khrushchev, and reached the final days of the Cold War.  Emerging from prison, without force of arms, he would - like Lincoln - hold his country together when it threatened to break apart.  Like America’s founding fathers, he would erect a constitutional order to preserve freedom for future generations - a commitment to democracy and rule of law ratified not only by his election, but by his willingness to step down from power.

Given the sweep of his life, and the adoration that he so rightly earned, it is tempting then to remember Nelson Mandela as an icon, smiling and serene, detached from the tawdry affairs of lesser men.  But Madiba himself strongly resisted such a lifeless portrait. Instead, he insisted on sharing with us his doubts and fears; his miscalculations along with his victories.  “I’m not a saint,” he said, “unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying.”

It was precisely because he could admit to imperfection - because he could be so full of good humor, even mischief, despite the heavy burdens he carried - that we loved him so.  He was not a bust made of marble; he was a man of flesh and blood - a son and husband, a father and a friend.  That is why we learned so much from him; that is why we can learn from him still.  For nothing he achieved was inevitable.  In the arc of his life, we see a man who earned his place in history through struggle and shrewdness; persistence and faith.  He tells us what’s possible not just in the pages of dusty history books, but in our own lives as well.
Mandela showed us the power of action; of taking risks on behalf of our ideals.  Perhaps Madiba was right that he inherited, “a proud rebelliousness, a stubborn sense of fairness” from his father. Certainly he shared with millions of black and colored South Africans the anger born of, “a thousand slights, a thousand indignities, a thousand unremembered moments…a desire to fight the system that imprisoned my people.”

But like other early giants of the ANC - the Sisulus and Tambos - Madiba disciplined his anger; and channeled his desire to fight into organization, and platforms, and strategies for action, so men and women could stand-up for their dignity.  Moreover, he accepted the consequences of his actions, knowing that standing up to powerful interests and injustice carries a price.  “I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination,” he said at his 1964 trial.  “I’ve cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities.  It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve.  But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”
Mandela taught us the power of action, but also ideas; the importance of reason and arguments; the need to study not only those you agree with, but those who you don’t.  He understood that ideas cannot be contained by prison walls, or extinguished by a sniper’s bullet.  He turned his trial into an indictment of apartheid because of his eloquence and passion, but also his training as an advocate. He used decades in prison to sharpen his arguments, but also to spread his thirst for knowledge to others in the movement.  And he learned the language and customs of his oppressor so that one day he might better convey to them how their own freedom depended upon his.

Mandela demonstrated that action and ideas are not enough; no matter how right, they must be chiseled into laws and institutions.  He was practical, testing his beliefs against the hard surface of circumstance and history.  On core principles he was unyielding, which is why he could rebuff offers of conditional release, reminding the Apartheid regime that, “prisoners cannot enter into contracts.”  But as he showed in painstaking negotiations to transfer power and draft new laws, he was not afraid to compromise for the sake of a larger goal.  And because he was not only a leader of a movement, but a skillful politician, the Constitution that emerged was worthy of this multiracial democracy; true to his vision of laws that protect minority as well as majority rights, and the precious freedoms of every South African.

Finally, Mandela understood the ties that bind the human spirit.  There is a word in South Africa- Ubuntu - that describes his greatest gift: his recognition that we are all bound together in ways that can be invisible to the eye; that there is a oneness to humanity; that we achieve ourselves by sharing ourselves with others, and caring for those around us.  We can never know how much of this was innate in him, or how much of was shaped and burnished in a dark, solitary cell.  But we remember the gestures, large and small - introducing his jailors as honored guests at his inauguration; taking the pitch in a Springbok uniform; turning his family’s heartbreak into a call to confront HIV/AIDS - that revealed the depth of his empathy and understanding.  He not only embodied Ubuntu; he taught millions to find that truth within themselves.  It took a man like Madiba to free not just the prisoner, but the jailor as well; to show that you must trust others so that they may trust you; to teach that reconciliation is not a matter of ignoring a cruel past, but a means of confronting it with inclusion, generosity and truth. He changed laws, but also hearts.

For the people of South Africa, for those he inspired around the globe - Madiba’s passing is rightly a time of mourning, and a time to celebrate his heroic life.  But I believe it should also prompt in each of us a time for self-reflection. With honesty, regardless of our station or circumstance, we must ask:  how well have I applied his lessons in my own life?

It is a question I ask myself - as a man and as a President.  We know that like South Africa, the United States had to overcome centuries of racial subjugation.  As was true here, it took the sacrifice of countless people - known and unknown - to see the dawn of a new day.  Michelle and I are the beneficiaries of that struggle.  But in America and South Africa, and countries around the globe, we cannot allow our progress to cloud the fact that our work is not done.  The struggles that follow the victory of formal equality and universal franchise may not be as filled with drama and moral clarity as those that came before, but they are no less important.  For around the world today, we still see children suffering from hunger, and disease; run-down schools, and few prospects for the future.  Around the world today, men and women are still imprisoned for their political beliefs; and are still persecuted for what they look like, or how they worship, or who they love.
We, too, must act on behalf of justice.  We, too, must act on behalf of peace.  There are too many of us who happily embrace Madiba’s legacy of racial reconciliation, but passionately resist even modest reforms that would challenge chronic poverty and growing inequality.  There are too many leaders who claim solidarity with Madiba’s struggle for freedom, but do not tolerate dissent from their own people.  And there are too many of us who stand on the sidelines, comfortable in complacency or cynicism when our voices must be heard.

The questions we face today - how to promote equality and justice; to uphold freedom and human rights; to end conflict and sectarian war - do not have easy answers.  But there were no easy answers in front of that child in Qunu.  Nelson Mandela reminds us that it always seems impossible until it is done.  South Africa shows us that is true.  South Africa shows us we can change.  We can choose to live in a world defined not by our differences, but by our common hopes.  We can choose a world defined not by conflict, but by peace and justice and opportunity.

We will never see the likes of Nelson Mandela again.  But let me say to the young people of Africa, and young people around the world - you can make his life’s work your own.  Over thirty years ago, while still a student, I learned of Mandela and the struggles in this land.  It stirred something in me.  It woke me up to my responsibilities - to others, and to myself - and set me on an improbable journey that finds me here today.  And while I will always fall short of Madiba’s example, he makes me want to be better.  He speaks to what is best inside us.  After this great liberator is laid to rest; when we have returned to our cities and villages, and rejoined our daily routines, let us search then for his strength - for his largeness of spirit - somewhere inside ourselves.  And when the night grows dark, when injustice weighs heavy on our hearts, or our best laid plans seem beyond our reach - think of Madiba, and the words that brought him comfort within the four walls of a cell:

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

What a great soul it was.  We will miss him deeply.  May God bless the memory of Nelson Mandela.  May God bless the people of South Africa.

Dr. King's I've Been To The Mountaintop Speech

45 years ago today Dr. King was in Memphis to support striking sanitation workers.  He gave this "I've Been To The Mountaintop' speech which sadly turned out to be the last of his brilliant but oh so brief life.





The next day April 4, an assassin's bullet took his life as he stood on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel.

This is the full speech


H/T Michael's Rant     

TDOR 2012 Speech Links And Posts

As I run across them, I'm collecting the links to 2012 TDOR speeches and TDOR related commentary from various people of color across the Net and posting it here.  If you TransGriot readers see any interesting links, have links to video, send it to me.

Phoenix TDOR opening remarks

Everyday People

The Speech I May Yet Give

Paying Real Homage To Our Transgender Fallen

Rep. Cleaver Takes DNC To Church

I was going to compile a post (and probably still need to) that put together the best speeches from the recently concluded DNC, but this one needed its own stand alone post.

It's from Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver (D-MO), the current chair of the Congressional Black Caucus who when he's not batting the Teapublicans is an ordained minister in Kansas City.

And he ditched his prepared remarks and took the DNC to church.


 

The FLOTUS 2012 DNC Keynote Speech

President Obama has joked at times that First lady Michelle Obama is the better speech maker in their family.   Well, the POTUS might not be kidding about that.

This keynote speech was not only moving, but it was a kill them with kindness rebuttal to the Ann Romney speech and the other BS the RNC was spreading in Tampa last week.

Shut Up Fool Awards-TransFaith In Color Conference Edition

Assuming my flights are on time, according to my schedule I should be in Charlotte as you read this and preparing to do my keynote for the TransFaith In Color Conference that starts today.

Looking forward to seeing everyone at this event which has long been on my 'must attend' conference list.   The TFIC folks wanted me to speak at their inaugural 2010 conference in Los Angeles but had a scheduling conflict that kept me from doing so.

I'm here now, fired up anxious to see some old friends and meet new ones. I'm also ready to participate in some of the seminars and panel discussions in addition to deliver my keynote speech at noon EDT tomorrow.  For those of you who can't be here, the text of my speech will pop up here on the blog at that time.

If I happen to get some video of it, I'lll post it to the blog later.   .

It's also Friday, and that means I have to handle some of my usual Friday TransGriot business in terms of the weekly Shut Up Fool awards.  

As always, I had a bumper crop of fools his week.   Group nods to Fox Noise, the Log Cabin Republicans, the Tea Klux Klan, and the Republican Party.   Individual nods this week to Chad Johnson, R. Clarke Cooper, Reince Priebus, John Sununu, Eric Fehrnstrom, Rep Paul Ryan, Gretchen Carlson, 

This week's SUF winner is.one of our contenders for the Shut Up Fool of the Year Award in Mitt Romney

So what did he do to earn this week's award?  Lie about the fact that the $718 billion the ACA takes from Medicare is waste and fraud, not from benefits of current recipients and extends the life of the program by eight years.  Lied when he claimed the POTUS is running a 'racist and divisive' campaign, and them made a racist dog whistle 'go back to Chicago' remark while doing so.  Sent his wife Ann to do his dirty work about not releasing more tax returns.  Lied that president Obama is trying to eliminate military voting rights in Ohio...

Oh yeah, did forget to point out that Mittbot lies on a daily basis? 

On that note.  This one deserves a special Mr T appearance.  Mitt Romney, shut the HELL up, fool!
 

Monica's University Of Arizona Speech

TransGriot Note: This is the original text of the speech I'm delivering at this moment in the Gallagher Theatre on the University of Arizona campus.

Good evening University of Arizona students, faculty, alumni, guests and friends.  I bring you greetings from the Lone Star State, my beloved hometown of Houston and the communities I interact with.

I have to tell y’all that some of my friends were concerned when I announced I was coming to the UA campus because of what they’ve heard about Sheriff Joe Arpaio.  I told them to chill and I’d be fine because I would be amongst friends.   I pointed out that Tucson and Pima County is pretty much liberal-progressive turf and the home of Sheriff Clarence Dupnik and former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

You have had a TBLG anti-discrimination law on the books for almost two decades now and the other reason I’d said to my friends was uh…uh….oops I forgot. 

Darn Rick Perry moments.   

With all seriousness, it is indeed an honor and a pleasure for me to be standing here in Tucson during this 2012 edition of Black History Month at the invitation of my sponsors the ASUA Pride Alliance, the Women's Resource Center, and African American Student Affairs. 

I’m also thrilled to be here tonight for another reason.  Dr. Susan Stryker, one of the preeminent trans historians in academia and a person I admire in the trans community is the director of UA’s Institute of LGBT Studies.

I want to thank Stephan Przybylowicz for coordinating all the hard work behind the scenes that resulted in me being at the Gallagher Theatre to talk about Blogging at the Intersection of Race and Gender on the electronic pages of TransGriot.

If you’re wondering why my blog is named TransGriot, it’s because I love history and come from a family of historians.  My late godmother Pearl Suel wrote the African-American history curriculum for the Houston Independent School District and I was the person she tested it out on when she was compiling it.  My mom’s undergrad degree is in history, my baby sis has a psychology degree with a history minor, and as you probably guessed my parents made certain my siblings and I were immersed in our people’s history.
Griots are storytellers in several western African nations who keep alive the oral tradition and history of a village, their people or a family.   They are able to recite up to five centuries of that history from memory. 

Since I wanted a name for my blog that made it clear I was proud of my African-American heritage, being trans, and the fact I come from a history loving family, it was a perfect fit.  

When I transitioned in 1994, one of the things I was struck by and concerned about was the fact that ever since Christine Jorgenson stepped off the airplane at New York’s Idyllwild Airport to the glare of popping flashbulbs and a crush of photographers 59 years ago on February 12, the trans narrative has been overwhelmingly focused on my white transsisters and transbrothers.

I knew there were African-American transpeople who preceded me, but I rarely heard their stories or about their historical contributions to the trans rights movement.

When blogging began to take off in the middle of the last decade, there were hundreds of trans blogs written by, about and focused on my white counterparts and their dominant points of view about transitions, TBLG politics, and our rainbow community history.  

Conversely, when I surveyed the blogging landscape at the time I was pondering starting TransGriot there was not one discussing trans issues from an Afrocentric point of view or talking about our trans heroes and sheroes.

I was complaining about that one night to Jordana LeSesne in a phone conversation I was having with her in November 2005.  She’s a trans pioneer in her own right in terms of being a trailblazing transwoman involved in the drum and bass music and Afro Punk movements.  After patiently listening to me gripe about this situation, she calmly asked “So when are you going to start that blog?”

Since I wanted this blog done right, it was incumbent upon me to do it myself.  So a few seconds after midnight on January 1, 2006 TransGriot was born.  It has had for now six years the dual missions of not only discussing trans issues from that sorely missing Afrocentric point of view but also to make people aware of the fact that trans people of color have been major players in shaping the history of the trans community here in the United States and increasingly across the African Diaspora.

I must be doing something rights because I’ve either won or been a finalist for Best LGBT Blog awards and I’m closing in on 3.5 million hits.  For those of you who let me know you read it, I thank you for doing so.

But because of the overwhelming focus on my white transsisters and transbrothers over the last five decades, transpeople of color have either been erased from the trans community historical narrative or not discussed at all.   It’s even worse for Black transmen and that’s a nice way to segue into a part of that trans history. 

With the tenth anniversary of his untimely death being this year and my statuesque behind standing inside Pima County I cannot start this conversation about the intersection of race and gender without mentioning a trailblazing transman who lived right here in Tucson, Alexander John Goodrum.

Goodrum was born in Chicago in 1960, and not long after coming out as a lesbian in 1979 at age 19 testified in favor of a gay and lesbian rights ordinance being considered there.  That was his first taste of activism and being the voice of a community that didn’t have one. 

He subsequently joined the Illinois Gay and Lesbian Task Force to work on youth issues.  After moving to San Francisco and taking a respite from activism to transition, he helped organize the first FTM conference in that city in 1995 before moving to Tucson later that year

In 1998, he took on the role of being the voice for a community that didn’t have one.   When then Tucson mayor George Miller held a community  meeting in the wake of the Matthew Shepard killing to discuss ways to prevent a similar hate crime in Tucson, Goodrum and transman Jerry Armsby were left off the invitation list.  They showed up anyway, shouted ‘and transgender’ every time the people in that room only spoke about the gay and lesbian community and took the opportunity to educate the GLB people gathered at that meeting about trans issues. 

As Goodrum and Armsby spoke, the GLB community leaders present wisely realized they didn’t have a clue about transpeople, our lives and our issues.  That led to Goodrum’s participation on the Mayoral Task Force on GLBT Issues, the proto organization which is now known as the City of Tucson Commission on Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Issues. 

As the co-chair of the Social Services Committee he was instrumental in getting gender identity added to Tucson’s non-discrimination law in 1999.  

So yes Tucson transpeople in the audience tonight, you owe the inclusion of gender identity in your local non-discrimination law to a trailblazing African-American transman.  

I had the pleasure of meeting Alexander at the 1999 Task Force Creating Change event that was held in Oakland and liked him the instant I met him.  And yeah, the brother was handsome too.  

We shared the same philosophy in terms of rainbow community activism that not only did African-American trans and same gender loving people need to be intimately involved in it, trans people should not be separated from the struggle for rainbow community human rights.        

In addition to serving on the Commission on Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Issues Goodrum was the founder of TGNet Arizona, served with the Southern Arizona Gender Alliance and was a highly respected activist nationally.  But what many of us didn’t know about Alexander was that he was struggling to overcome a debilitating mental illness   

We lost this pioneering transman in September 2002 due to a tragic suicide. In the wake of community concerns about the lack of mental health access for gender variant people, The Alexander John Goodrum Transgender Mental Health Advocacy Project was founded.              

But Goodrum is just one of the African-American transpeople who have blazed trails in Arizona.  Just up I-10 from here in Phoenix Regina Gazelle founded an organization in 2006 called This Is H.O.W. 

It’s dedicated to the betterment of the lives of Trans (transsexual, transgender, and gender variant) persons experiencing crisis situations such as homelessness, substance abuse, familial abuse, and transition related difficulties and does education efforts on trans issues.  It is now run by transwoman Antonia D’orsay who herself is beginning to get respect and attention as a national activist.

Since this particular Black History Month was focused on the contributions of women to our history and we are about to move into Women’s History Month, I do need to touch on some of the transwomen who have helped make it. 

There were transwomen such as Lucy Hicks Anderson, who was born in 1886, was raised as a girl in pre Depression era Kentucky and left in her 20s to migrate to California via Texas.  She found herself on trial in 1944 after she married Reuben Anderson because the Ventura County district attorney discovered she’d been born biologically male and decided to prosecute her for perjury.  

He asserted that Anderson committed perjury when she signed the marriagelicense application and swore that there were 'no legal objections' to the marriage.

Of course Lucy had a dissenting opinion. "I defy any doctor in the world to prove that I am not a woman,” she told reporters in the midst of her perjury trial. “I have lived, dressed, acted just what I am, a woman.”  The jury convicted her of the perjury charge, but the judge sentenced her to ten years probation rather than send her to prison.

The story of history making African-American transwomen extends to the 1965 Dewey’s Lunch Counter Sit In and Protest in Philadelphia which was the first trans protest action in the nation

There was Lady Java, who in 1967 fought LAPD bullying struck the blows that eventually took down the odious Rule Number 9 in Los Angeles that made it illegal for performers to 'impersonate by means of costume or dress a member of the opposite sex' unless you had a special permit issued by the LA Board of Police Commissioners.  

Never mind the fact that in 1962 the California Supreme Court had struck down anti-crossdressing ordinances in the state.   Her courageous fight against the unfairness of Rule No 9 eventually led to it being struck down in 1969.

The first person to undergo SRS in the gender program at Johns Hopkins Hospital was African-American transwoman Avon Wilson. 

It includes Stonewall veterans Miss Major and Marsha P. Johnson, A Dionne Stallworth, who was one of the organizers of GenderPac, the trans community’s first political PAC.

It includes Dawn Wilson, myself, Lorrainne Sade Baskerville, Dr. Marisa Richmond and the African descend transwomen who have made history but we haven’t discovered it yet.  It also includes all the transwomen whose names are lost to history as well and our deceased ones such as Lois Bates, Dana Turner, and Roberta Angela Dee, the trans writer whose pumps I walk in.     
  

I also can’t forget the women who are making history as I speak such as Janet Mock, Isis King, Tona Brown, and Laverne Cox or the unknown ones who are currently matriculating in secondary schools, or our nation’s college campuses.  

So why haven’t you heard about this history?  As I mentioned earlier, the dominant narrative is focused on my white trans brothers and transsisters.   As I’ve said on the blog and elsewhere, the GLBT community is a microcosm of society at large.  

Translation: all the ills and isms present in the parent society are also embedded in our little subset of it.   So yes, race matters even in the trans community.

Before any person of color can even begin to deal with the issues of a gender transition, we still have to deal with the issues or being non-white people in a vanillacentric privileged society.

And then we get the happy happy joy joy experience of how to deal with navigating that society in a feminine body and how race and class affect that gender transition differently from my white counterparts. 

As an African-American transwoman, I have to not only deal with the same old same old racism, bigotry, prejudice and microaggresive behavior aimed at me before I morphed into this body, I have to deal with sexism and the unwoman meme aimed at Black women whether we are cis or transgender.

I’m noticed for the color of my skin first.   That means the centuries old baggage of that comes into play before the trans issues even enter the equation.  There are trans issues unique to being a person of color on top of that we have to navigate in our own communities.    

And that’s before I even get started discussing the hatred aimed at trans people from the radical lesbian separatists ranks since the late 70’s, some gay and lesbian people and our self hating transsexual separatist transphobes  
 
The rainbow community needs to be better than our oppressors. Sadly in some cases they aren’t, especially when it comes to being fierce advocates for the human rights of trans people.  

Sometimes gay and lesbian people along with radical feminists have been more virulent opponents and oppressors of trans human rights than fundamentalist right wing conservatives have been. 

Because the issues of trans people are intertwined with gender politics, probably need to segue into that for a moment and bring Alexander Goodrum back into this conversation. 

In 2000 he was quoted as saying, “When transgendered people are denied rights, it's often the because of the perception that they're homosexual. With gay people, it's often as not because they're perceived to be violating gender norms. It's the same fight against the same enemies.  GLBT people have to realize that in order to move ahead.”

He’s absolutely right on those points, but yet you still have people on the GL side saying we aren’t part of ‘their community’ and we have some on the trans side saying we need to cut the GLB folks and forge our own civil rights path. 

Um, no.  Transpeople have invested too much time, energy and blood into building the rainbow community to simply walk away from it.   We’re part of the GLBT community because some of us actually are gay, bi, or lesbian.   We trans people also blow a Mack truck sized hole in the gender binary the GLB community grapples with.

Something else GLBT people need to realize is that in order for the entire community to move forward on human rights issues, they will need the help and major input from trans and same gender loving people of color as well.    

And some of what we have to say and what we persons of color consider as policy priorities will not in some cases neatly line up with the aspirations and goals of a vanillacentirc privilege laden GLBT movement with a senior leadership that is overwhelmingly white and upper middle class.

This nation is increasingly becoming a majority-minority one.  There are four states, Hawaii, New Mexico, California and my home state of Texas that are majority-minority.   Two of those states are solidly blue, New Mexico is a swing state and only the 2003 Delaymandering has kept Texas from going that way.   

In Arizona, the non-Latino white population has fallen below 60% Hispanic as it has in Maryland, Nevada, Florida, New York, New Jersey, Louisiana and Mississippi.  

So if we are looking at the short and long term political goals of trans human rights and rainbow community rights, we need to build an inclusive movement that takes this information into consideration and ensures that we don’t fall into the trap of building a movement that ignores the lived reality of much of its constituents. 

According to the Task Force-National Black Justice Coalition NCTE  National Transgender Discrimination Survey, Black transpeople face an unemployment rate of 26%, four times the general population and double what the African-American community faces and the trans community as a whole at 14%.    34% of us reported living in extreme poverty, which is a household income of less than $10,000 a year.

The numbers from the NTDS survey for Latino-Latina transpeople are just as alarming.  The unemployment rate is at 20% and the number of Latino transpeople reporting living in extreme poverty is at 28%

Those number point to why many rainbow community persons of color don’t see marriage equality as the end all be all number one priority as a GLBT political organizing issue.  We are the ones disproportionately getting brutalized by hate crimes aimed at this community and facing crippling unemployment or underemployment, so it stands to reason we need to have those issues dealt with first before we can even think about getting married.    

It’s hard to get married when it takes money to not only support your spouse, but it takes a steady cash flow to purchase the wedding license, the wedding ring, the wedding gowns, and the hall for the wedding and the reception and honeymoon afterward. 

And if some misguided people have the jacked up attitude that it’s open hunting season on transpeople, what’s the point if we’re not going to be around to enjoy it? 

We trans POC’s see it as instead of pushing same sex marriage which only benefits a few people in the rainbow community, the emphasis on community organizing should be on getting ENDA, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act passed and on President Obama’s desk for him to sign. 

It’s why Kylar Broadus founded TPOCC, the Trans People of Color Coalition in 2010 to ensure that our voices were heard in these policy discussions. TPOCC is in the process of conducting a series of town hall meetings around the country to talk to groups of transpeople about what our needs are and what they think TPOCC should be focused on.    

Not that we don’t know that already.  Here’s a hint Jobs, Jobs, Jobs.   Number two is slowing down the HIV/AIDS infection rates in my community along with stopping and reversing the near genocidal levels of violence aimed at non-white transwomen so they can live long enough, prosper and help build the trans community like I’ve been able and blessed to do. 

The trans people in this generation are the most tech savvy and the best educated generation in our people’s history.  I have no doubts if given an opportunity to do so they will be the ones who will etch their name on our nation’s history books as the first congressmembers, mayors, judges, open athletes, models and parents getting married and raising kids as they do their parts to uplift the African-American community inside and outside the trans and SGL community. .   

But for this to occur, one thing that will need to happen in the cis community straight and gay is the realization that the genitalia you possess between your legs does not always neatly line up with the gender identity between your ears and your gender expression. 

Being transgender is not an excuse for cis people gay or straight to oppress us, pimp a regressive political agenda, or a reason to deny our human rights to make you feel better as men and women in our ciscentrist society.   

We transfolks are human beings who are part of the diverse mosaic of human life and that madness needs to stop.  

As former South African President Nelson Mandela once said, “What challenges us is to ensure that none should enjoy lesser rights and none tormented because they are born different, hold contrary political views, or pray to God in a different manner.”

I’m a Black transwoman who is proud to be both.  Those identities are not mutually exclusive, nor are they disqualifications from me participating in the greater society and doing my part to make my community, my state, my nation and the world a better place to live.

It’s past time we realized that transpeople of color have much to offer our various communities in terms of our leadership skills honed by having to constantly fight oppression aimed at us and wanting to be a contributing part of the greater society.   We are closing ranks now to be better able to do that, but we will also need help from allies to do so as well          

I will continue to do what I can with every fiber of my being to make trans human rights happen in my lifetime.  I will educate and empower my African-American community and any others willing to listen about my trans brothers and sisters and facilitate the ongoing race, class and gender conversation as I do so.

The challenge of ensuring that transpeople enjoy first class citizenship is one that we will need maximum effort from all parties concerned to make this a reality in the rest of this decade and beyond. 

And I look forward to seeing that happen.
 

50th Anniversary of JFK Inauguration Speech

Today is the 50th anniversary of the inauguration of the man who was President of the United States when I was born, John Fitzgerald Kennedy.  



He was taken away from us far too soon due to his assassination in Dallas on November 22, 1963 and a lot of the fascination with JFK's presidency is because it is fraught with 'what ifs'?

Here's the transcript of the speech courtesy of the American Rhetoric site.

***

Vice President Johnson, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Chief Justice, President Eisenhower, Vice President Nixon, President Truman, reverend clergy, fellow citizens:

We observe today not a victory of party, but a celebration of freedom -- symbolizing an end, as well as a beginning -- signifying renewal, as well as change. For I have sworn before you and Almighty God the same solemn oath our forebears prescribed nearly a century and three-quarters ago.

The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe -- the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God.

We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans -- born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage, and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

This much we pledge -- and more.

To those old allies whose cultural and spiritual origins we share, we pledge the loyalty of faithful friends. United there is little we cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures. Divided there is little we can do -- for we dare not meet a powerful challenge at odds and split asunder.

To those new states whom we welcome to the ranks of the free, we pledge our word that one form of colonial control shall not have passed away merely to be replaced by a far more iron tyranny. We shall not always expect to find them supporting our view. But we shall always hope to find them strongly supporting their own freedom -- and to remember that, in the past, those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside.

To those people in the huts and villages of half the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required -- not because the Communists may be doing it, not because we seek their votes, but because it is right. If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.

To our sister republics south of our border, we offer a special pledge: to convert our good words into good deeds, in a new alliance for progress, to assist free men and free governments in casting off the chains of poverty. But this peaceful revolution of hope cannot become the prey of hostile powers. Let all our neighbors know that we shall join with them to oppose aggression or subversion anywhere in the Americas. And let every other power know that this hemisphere intends to remain the master of its own house.

To that world assembly of sovereign states, the United Nations, our last best hope in an age where the instruments of war have far outpaced the instruments of peace, we renew our pledge of support -- to prevent it from becoming merely a forum for invective, to strengthen its shield of the new and the weak, and to enlarge the area in which its writ may run.

Finally, to those nations who would make themselves our adversary, we offer not a pledge but a request: that both sides begin anew the quest for peace, before the dark powers of destruction unleashed by science engulf all humanity in planned or accidental self-destruction.

We dare not tempt them with weakness. For only when our arms are sufficient beyond doubt can we be certain beyond doubt that they will never be employed.  

But neither cantwo great and powerful groups of nations take comfort from our present course -- both sides overburdened by the cost of modern weapons, both rightly alarmed by the steady spread of the deadly atom, yet both racing to alter that uncertain balance of terror that stays the hand of mankind's final war.

So let us begin anew -- remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof. Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate.

Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of belaboring those problems which divide us.

Let both sides, for the first time, formulate serious and precise proposals for the inspection and control of arms, and bring the absolute power to destroy other nations under the absolute control of all nations.

Let both sides seek to invoke the wonders of science instead of its terrors. Together let us explore the stars, conquer the deserts, eradicate disease, tap the ocean depths, and encourage the arts and commerce.

Let both sides unite to heed, in all corners of the earth, the command of Isaiah -- to "undo the heavy burdens, and [to] let the oppressed go free."¹

And, if a beachhead of cooperation may push back the jungle of suspicion, let both sides join in creating a new endeavor -- not a new balance of power, but a new world of law -- where the strong are just, and the weak secure, and the peace preserved.

All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days; nor in the life of this Administration; nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin.

In your hands, my fellow citizens, more than mine, will rest the final success or failure of our course. Since this country was founded, each generation of Americans has been summoned to give testimony to its national loyalty. The graves of young Americans who answered the call to service surround the globe.

Now the trumpet summons us again -- not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need -- not as a call to battle, though embattled we are -- but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, "rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation,"² a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself.

Can we forge against these enemies a grand and global alliance, North and South, East and West, that can assure a more fruitful life for all mankind? Will you join in that historic effort?

In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility -- I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it. And the glow from that fire can truly light the world.

And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.

My fellow citizens of the world, ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.   

Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you. With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own.

Moni's At Aggieland Tonight

Moni's on her way to Bryan-College Station at this moment to do her first Trans 101 presentation since she returned to the Lone Star State, and it's happening on the Texas A&M campus in College Station.

Thank you Lowell Kane and the Texas A&M LGBT Center for the invite, and it's an honor and pleasure for me to walk the same campus my activist mentors once trod.

If you want the TransGriot to speak on your campus about trans issues, GLBT politics, history et cetera, shoot me an e-mail with proposed dates for when you'd like me to do so.