Sex, Lies, Politics, Transpeeps and Polygraphs

As I constantly remind people, trans folks are part of the diverse mosaic of human life.

That means we'll find ourselves intertwined with and across a wide variety of human activity. We sometimes end up as actors playing a role in the great stage play we call life.

During this election cycle we have transpeople who are running for public office and have excellent chances to win. But in 1983 three African descended transwomen found themselves inserted as an issue in the middle of a heated Mississippi gubernatorial race between the state's attorney general Bill Allain and Republican candidate Leon Bramlett.

The 'Southern Strategy' was now over a decade old, but at the time in state and local level races denizens of the Deep South were still voting for Democratic candidates. In 1983 Mississippi's divorced popular attorney general Bill Allain was running to become the state's governor. Republicans were eager to break the century old Democratic hold on the Mississippi governor's mansion and show they were the new 'moral' political kids on the block with momentum in the state. They wanted Leon Bramlett to win and would do so by any mens necessary to help him.

So enter into this Southern fried political drama Devia Ross Holliday, 24 year old Nicole Toy Arrington, and 22 year old Donna Johnson.

Devia was an illusionist at an local Jackson GLBT club who when she wasn't at her primary job at the Walthall hotel. Nicole Toy Arrington had a dishwashing job at a local motel.

Devia and her housemates paid their bills by sometimes doing sex work on the local trans stroll, and one of their clients was alleged to be the Democratic candidate for governor. A Jackson cop named Randy Clark claimed he witnessed Allain talking to Donna Johnson in August 1983 on that Farish Street trans stroll.

GOP operatives supporting Bramlett got wind of the stories and hired detectives to investigate the rumors. It was the perfect volatile scandal mix of race and sex with a trans twist to it, and a detective with GOP ties soon got in touch with all three ladies and put them on his payroll.

Ross, Arrington, and Johnson were trotted in front of the media to make allegations that they had paid sexual relations with Allain more than 20 times. A polygraph test commissioned by the Jackson Clarion-Ledger appeared to buttress those claims. They then spent the next several weeks before Election Day 1983 being shunted between motels in Mississippi and Louisiana as their handlers sought to limit their media access.

"I'm no sexual deviate, and Leon Bramlett knows it!" Allain said as her denied the allegations. As he traveled to New Orleans to take a polygraph test to back up his denial (which he passed), his operatives went on the offensive to destroy the credibility of Holliday, Arrington and Johnson.

They went as far as to get an affidavit from the parents of Donna Johnson trashing their child by calling her a liar and thief.

On November 8 Bill Allain won the governor's race in a 55%-39% landslide anyway despite all the drama. Weary of being bounced from motel to motel, the trio returned to Jackson and recanted their stories shortly after Allain was inaugurated in January 1984.

The story receded from the headlines, and eventually got retold in two books, Mississippi Politics and Men Like That: A Southern Queer History.

Sadly, exactly ten years later on November 8, 1993 Devia Holliday was found dead in Jackson from a gunshot wound to the head in her Farish Street neighborhood.

Donna Johnson ended up in jail facing a murder charge due to an argument that unfortunately morphed into a stabbing death on January 7, 1984.

As for Nicole Toy Arrington neither book mentions what happened to her.

As for Bill Allain, he decided not to seek a second term as Mississippi governor and returned to his Jackson law practice.

But no one will forget the story of how three transwomen ended up memorably affecting a Mississippi governor's race.

Happy Birthday Caroline Cossey!

One of our pioneering trans women of the 70's and 80's was born on this August 31 date in Britain.

She was a model and a Bond Girl until a British tabloid outed her. She also fought for trans marriage rights in her home country.



Today she's on our side of The Pond happily married to her hubby in an undisclosed location in the great state of Georgia at last report.

Happy birthday, Caroline! My this day be filled with abundant blessings for you and may you have many more.

1986 Phyllis Hyman Performance and Interview

Y'all know how much I love Phyllis Hyman and hate the fact she's no longer on this planet gracing us with her singing talents. We recently passed the 15th anniversary of her death on June 30.

While searching through video for my Facebook page VJ stint I stumbled across this 1986 appearance and interview of Phyllis on David Brenner's 'The Night Life' show.

So you know I had to post this video for your (and my) viewing pleasure.

Feeling Cleveland's Sports Pain

The Decision has been made, and once again Cleveland is on the short end of it as another high profile athlete leaves for a bigger market and greener pastures.

This one hurts deeply for Cavaliers fans since LeBron is from Akron, Ohio and was a lottery pick for the team. They'd pinned their civic hopes on him breaking their sports championship title drought that dates back to 1964, when the Cleveland Browns won the 1964 NFL title with Jim Brown in their backfield.

But LeBron is taking his game and talents to Miami.

I definitely feel their sports pain. In fact, Houston has been kindred spirits with the city of Cleveland in terms of professional sports frustrations.

The Oilers were AFL powerhouses who struggled after the AFL-NFL merger. They had seasons in which they were pathetic, and others like in the Luv Ya Blue era where they challenged for NFL supremacy.

And to make it worse, the Cowboy fifth column inside Harris County never failed to remind us long suffering Oilers fans that the NFL team 262 miles up Interstate 45 was winning titles.

It was just Houston's luck they were competing in the same rugged AFC Central Division with the Pittsburgh 'Steel Curtain' squads and the Ohio NFL teams. We had a 1975 NFL season in which we went 10-4 and STILL didn't make the playoffs because the Oilers lost to Pittsburgh and Cincinnati twice.

But we did beat the Browns twice that year along with every other NFL team we played, including the future NFL champion Oakland Raiders.

I angrily watched my Oilers get screwed out of the 1980 AFC title game versus Pittsburgh on a hideous blown call during the Luv Ya Blue era, catastrophically blow playoff games to Denver and Buffalo, then painfully watched Bud Adams move the team in 1997 to Nashville and play in a Super Bowl in 2000.

The Texans, the team that replaced the Tennessee Traitors in 2002, only had their first winning season last year after back to back 8-8 campaigns in 2007-2008.

The Astros have been around since 1962 and have worked our collective sporting nerves as well.

In addition to horrid trades and lousy seasons, the 'Stros have had
their share of frustrating and heartbreaking NLCS losses in 1980, 1981, 1986 and 2004.

They made the playoffs in 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2001 and lost in the NLDS, with the 1998 season being particularly galling. We won our second of three straight division titles, had Randy Johnson on our pitching staff and won a team record 102 games only to lose in the NLDS to the San Diego Padres.

They finally won their first National League title in 2005, then got swept by the White Sox after interference from commissioner Bud Selig over the Minute Maid Park retractible roof.

My frustrations even extend to the collegiate level. The Cougars lost in the 1967 College World Series to Arizona State. The Cougar B-ballers have made it to five NCAA Final Fours, and played in three straight during the Phi Slama Jama years from 1982-1984.

They played in the 1983 and 1984 title games, and I have to painfully watch the end of the 1983 NCAA one every time March Madness fires up. In addition to that I'm still pissed along with other UH alums about the Cougars being screwed out of Big 12 membership by the Wronghorns and their arrogant burnt orange wearing fans reminding us of our C-USA membership every chance they get.

The Rockets lost in the 1981 and 1986 NBA Finals to the Boston Celtics and have had some frustrating playoff losses as well.

But the difference between me and a Cleveland sports fan is that I have witnessed my hometown teams win championships. The Rockets finally broke our civic title jinx in 1994 and repeated in 1995 with Houston homeboy Clyde Drexler in the lineup.

I got to watch the Comets win the first four WNBA titles from 1997-2000. The Dynamo moved here from San Jose, CA and won back to back MLS ones in 2006 and 2007. Rice University won an NCAA College World Series title in 2003.

So yes Cleveland, definitely feel your pain and frustration on that one.

Y'all haven't felt this backstabbed since Art Modell moved your beloved Browns to Baltimore in 1995 to become the Ravens, then watched them win a Super Bowl in 2001.

I have a pretty good understanding of why you're burning his jerseys and I take it the Cavalier-Heat games next season are going to be very interesting affairs.

When I lived in Da Ville, every time I went to or through Nashville and passed anywhere near the Tennessee Traitors stadium I flipped it the finger.

But take it from the TransGriot. When y'all finally do break through and win that elusive title, it's going to lead to the biggest cathartic release and civic celebration in your town's history.

Just hope you aren't opposing a Houston team when it happens.

'Soul Train' Gets New Ownership-Where The New Shows At?

Must See TV when I was growing up was getting up at 7 AM on Saturday morning to watch my favorite cartoons, then flipping the channel at noon to watch Soul Train.

The hippest trip in America was my peeps version of American Bandstand. It was where me and my friends tuned in to catch up on the latest dances and see my favorite R&B and soul artists.

From 1970 until the 2005-2006 television season we were treated to new episodes and the iconic Soul Train Dancers.

They are so ingrained in African-American culture that In Living Color parodied them during its run.

And what party or African-American wedding did you attend over the last few decades that at one point or another didn't break out at the reception into an impromptu Soul Train line?

There was an episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air that showed Vivian and Phil's engagement on an episode of Soul Train and reappearance during their wedding anniversary along with the kids on a Soul Train episode.

Well, that iconic slice of my youth has new owners. Show creator and long time host Don Cornelius sold the show in June 2008 to a Los Angeles based production company called MadVision Entertainment.

MadVision's plan at the time was to open up the show’s archives for older consumers as well as to create a new version of the program for younger ones.

“The series has never been shown on DVD, and it’s not been utilized on video-on-demand or mobile or Internet platforms,” Peter Griffith, a co-founder of MadVision, said. “There are many opportunities that we are exploring.

While the new Soul Train shows haven't materialized yet in the two years since the deal, it does have a website.

Could there be new episodes of Soul Train on the horizon? I certainly hope so.

Um People, I'm NOT Evangelist Denise K. Matthews

On the occasion of her 50th birthday last year, being a big fan of hers back in the day (and still am), I wrote a post wishing Evangelist Denise K. Matthews a happy birthday and much success in her life. She's overcome a lot of relationship drama, recovered from serious medical issues, drug addiction and along the journey rediscovered her spiritual roots.

She now tours the country in her Fremont. CA based ministry as an evangelist preaching the Word, and I have much love and respect for her doing so.

But ever since I wrote that milestone birthday post for and about her I have had some people for whatever reason think this is Denise's blog and sending yours truly comments meant for Ms. Matthews.

Exhibit A from ineedjesus

HI MS Matthews i read your story it make me want to flow Jesus i wish i can meet you do u have a site i can go to hear he preach the word of God if this is ready you can u reply back

News flash to you peeps...this is TransGriot, not the Evangelist Denise K. Matthews site. I discuss a wide range of things here including religion, but first and foremost it is a blog focused on African descended transgender issues.

I'm mystified as to why people keep sending me comments clearly intended for Ms. Matthews. I have a sympathetic ear, I am a Christian, I look good, but I definitely don't resemble her in any way.

If the medical technology were available for me to look like her, I definitely wouldn't mind, because she is a stunningly beautiful sister both inside and out.

But just an FYI. If you have any questions, comments or concerns that you wish to direct to her, hit Ms. Matthews up on her website to do so.

TransGriot is designed to be a site for peeps who wish to learn more about trans issues from an African flavored perspective.

If you or even Evangelist Matthews wish to stop by for a while, peruse the blog and leave comments, then that's all good as well.

Still Miss You 'Lufer'

Today would have been the 59th birthday of one of my fave singers back in the day, Luther Ronzoni Vandross. He was born on this date in New York City in 1951.

Wow. Has it been five years since he heft us on July 1, 2005? Doesn't seem like it's been that long, but yep, it has.

The man left behind a musical legacy that will be hard to match. There are also probably a lot of people born in the 80's and 90's who probably owe their existence to being conceived while their parents were getting busy while listening to his music.

Anyway, happy birthday 'Lufer'. You are still missed by your fans, and no one as of yet has stepped up to fill your considerable shoes.

80's Music Better Than The 70's? Yeah, Right

Being the 70's music lover I am, there was an interesting topic posted on Womanist Musings in which Renee and Sparky debated 70's versus 80's music.

You know I had to say something about it.

I was a teenager in the 70's. There's no comparison. The 70's, no matter what genre you listened to, beats the 80's hands down.

Now just focusing on the R&B end of it...hmm.

Earth, Wind and Fire, WAR, The Brothers Johnson, The Commodores, Angela Bofill, Phyllis Hyman, Diana Ross, Parliament-Funkadelic, The Jackson Five, Bootsy's Rubber Band, James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight and the Pips, The Whispers, Shalamar, Chic, The Emotions, The Staple Singers, Curtis Mayfield, Graham Central Station, Al Green, Barry White, Teddy Pendergrass, Lou Rawls, Rick James, Teena Marie, LTD, Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, Deniece Williams, Natalie Cole, Donna Summer, Change, Gil Scott-Heron, Minnie Riperton...



And that's just scratching the surface of it.

Even the artists you could counter with that had success in the 80's such as Cameo, Michael Jackson and Prince all released hit records in the 70's.



Luther Vandross? Released two hit singles with Change, sang backup with Bowie.
The Sugarhill Gang's 'Rapper's Delight' was released in 1979 and used Chic's 'Good Times' as its music track.

As a matter of fact, without music from Parliament-Funkadelic, Chic and James Brown to sample, most 80's hip hop/rap wouldn't exist





Face the facts 80's music fans. The concerts were flashier and better, the music groups more talented, and may I point out, had to use real instruments and read and write music to do so.

And how many 80's artists won four consecutive Album of the Year Grammys as Stevie Wonder did, much less have their songs spark legislation or become signature anthems for various social issues such as Freda Payne's 'Bring the Boys Home', Marvin Gaye's 'What's Going On', Diana Ross' 'I'm Coming Out' , McFadden and Whitehead's 'Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now' or 'Wake Up Everybody' by Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes?

The Philly Sound, P-Funk, Disco, Motown jazz fusion and rap all either began or evolved during the 70's

Game, set and match to the 70's as the best and most innovative music decade.

Happy Birthday Caroline!

The Caroline I'm referring to in this post is one of our transgender icons. Back in the 70's and 80's she was a Bond Girl, model, author of two books, civil rights activist, a Paris showgirl and even posed for Playboy.

Today Caroline Cossey, AKA Tula is celebrating her 55th birthday.

She grew up in Britain, worked in Paris, Rome and London as a showgirl, had her SRS at 20 and became a sought after high fashion model.

But after achieving her childhood dream of being a Bond girl and appearing in the For Your Eyes Only Bond movie, she was outed by a British tabloid. It derailed her push to become an actress and temporarily sidelined her modeling career.

She fought back by releasing her first autobiography in 1982 entitled I Am A Woman

Upset about the jacked up British laws concerning the legal status of transsexuals in the wake of the Corbett v. Corbett case, in 1983 she filed suit against the British government to get the legal status of transsexuals changed.

While the legal process percolated through the British judicial system she made numerous media appearances and campaigned tirelessly for transsexual civil rights

After seven years, in 1989 her case reached the European High Courts in Strasbourg, France, where they ruled in her favor. The conservative British government promptly appealed it,

She got married in the wake of the court ruling to businessman Elias Fattal. Soon after she'd returned from her Caribbean honeymoon, the same tabloid that outed her earlier, News of the World, did so again.

During this ugly period, her marriage to Fattal was annulled, her car was sabotaged, and she received death threats. To top it all off, in 1990 she received an adverse ruling from the European Court that reversed her win from the year before.

Despite all the drama swirling around her, she released her second autobiography, My Story and resumed her modeling career.

It does end happily for her. In 1992 she met and married Canadian David Finch and has since moved to the States.

Happy birthday to Caroline Cossey, another one of our transgender icons. May you have a nice quiet stress free day down in Georgia.

I hope to one day get to meet you in person and tell you how much of an inspiration you were to me growing up.

Tenika Watson's Story

When Teddy Pendergrass had the traffic accident that paralyzed him back in 1982, there was another passenger in his car whose life was affected as well.

Then 31 year old Tenika Watson's injuries were more emotional than physical. Her life after the accident suffered as a result of the publicity surrounding the crash and after she was outed as a transwoman.

She said about Pendergrass at the time. "I was concerned about him. I was concerned if he was really hurt. I feel about him as I do about any other human being. I thought we were both going to die."

The 5'10" beauty was on her way to becoming a model when the fateful traffic accident occurred. It took according to her an hour and 45 minutes to free her and Pendergrass from the wrecked car before she was taken to the hospital.

She told Philadelphia Tribune writer Barbara Faggins in an interview published in the May 31, 1982 issue of JET that the medical people on duty were more concerned with getting a urinalysis test done than finding out about the extent of her injuries.

"They were interested in finding out what I had in my system. The wanted to find out what was in my urine." I was very upset with them. I must have gotten to the hospital around 1 AM and didn't leave until 6 AM."

I remember at the time there was much Hateraid directed at her from die hard ciswomen Teddy fans. Pendergrass used to have 'For Women Only' concerts back in the late 70's and they loved them some Teddy. Some even ignorantly blamed her for the accident as if she was driving the car.

"My family and friends are angry because of what they've read in the papers about me." she said. "What really upset me was the fact that the papers made me out to be some animal or demon and that I was not a God fearing person."

Amen sis.

She was asked by Faggins if there was any part of her life that she would like to change, Watson stated, "I wish I had been born genetically a woman instead of having to get surgery. Society won't accept me as a woman."

I had a recent conversation with Dionne Stallworth, and she tells me that Tenika is still in the Philly area. I would love to hear from Tenika what has transpired in her life since it was turned upside down by that traffic accident.

Sarah Luiz Interview Video

The 50's had Christine Jorgenson as a transgender newsmaking icon. In the 60's it was April Ashley and Coccinelle. In the 70's it was Renee Richards and Caroline 'Tula' Cossey.

In the 80's Sarah Luiz was one of the newsmaking transwomen of that decade. Sarah first burst onto the scene with her very public fight to have her SRS covered by her Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance, a battle she eventually won.

Sarah was also hitting the talk show and interview circuit during the 80's and early 90's. In addition to being an inspiration for the transkids and others like myself grappling with the issue at that time, she spread the word that all we transwomen wanted was to live our lives out like everyone else with a minimum of drama.

Here's one of those talk show interviews from the Jane Whitney Show.



Thanks Sarah for standing up and fighting for us then so we could stand tall now.

Michael Jackson 1958-2009

They say deaths come in threes, and that is especially true of celebrity ones. Farrah Fawcett died this morning, Ed McMahon a day ago, and it was in the back of my mind who would be the third.

As of the time I'm writing this, the LA Times is confirming that Michael Jackson has died.

This is a sad on for me because I have a personal connection to it.

Michael Jackson's death is striking me a little harder than the average celeb death on many levels.

I and my brother got to tag along with my Dad when the station had a 'Meet The Jackson Five contest back in the day. We picked up the winner, and zipped off to the Sam Houston Coliseum for the concert. The show was the bomb until the crowd bumrushed the stage and put a quick end to it. I was backstage and barely avoided being trampled as the frenzied crowd chased the J5 to their waiting limos to the street.

At the rendezvous at the Galleria Oaks Hotel, I got to meet him along with the contest winner and my friend Ernest Carswell. Ernest and I used to win a lot of money off those photos in junior high school from peeps who assumed we were lying about doing so.

I still have the autographed pics at my parents house.

I like a lot of peeps of my generation and those like my sisters who grew up in the 80's was a big fan, and it was amplified by the fact I had met him.

It was also a sense of immense pride to many African-Americans that an R&B artist blew up to become a household name around the world, thanks to Quincy Jones' composing genius and his immense talent.

You were a once in a generation performer, and you will be missed.

RIP Michael.

What Was My First Concert?

June marks the 30th anniversary observance of Black Music Month, and I haven't had much discussion about it thanks to various higher profile breaking news stories.

I planned at the beginning of the month to talk about some of my fave groups, concerts I've attended and and why the American music scene owes a major creative debt to its African descended people.

So I'm going to make up for lost time and dedicate some posts until the end of the month to doing just that.

Y'all know my teen years were spent in the 70's. Thanks to Dad I got to attend a long list of great concerts and see some slammin' groups and artists back in the day.

My first concert experience happened during the summer of 1976. The Summit (later Compaq Center) had only been open a year and was several decades from becoming Lakewood Church's new sanctuary.

The group that my dad was taking me and my brother to see? WAR

The best part about this show was I got to see it from the comfort of the sky boxes with the staff of the radio station.

I got my grub on, had a bottomless soda cup and had the option of either watching the concert from nice comfortable seats or watch the closed circuit TV feed of the show.



The first one I attended without the parental units tagging along was one headlined by Bootsy's Rubber Band in 1976. I had floor seats 20 rows from the stage for this one. I also saw Bootsy in 1978 during his Player Of The Year Tour.



When I showed up for school that Monday wearing my Bootsy concert t-shirt, I opened my big mouth and accidentally let it slip I had a extra ticket that ended up going to waste.

Half the girls at JJ (and some of my homies as well) were pissed at me for a week.

In my defense, I did get those tickets last minute, and several peeps I called weren't home. Most of the time I didn't get those comp tickets until several hours before the show or I'd come home and the tickets were lying on my bed.



It seemed like during that era in the 70's and 80's, every time I turned around there were great shows to attend. Don't even get me started on the Budweiser Superfests and Kool Jazz Festivals stadium tours devoid of jazz artists, but full of great R&B ones.

But it's the first ones you attend that are the most memorable.

Unless something crazy happens.

A Different World Theme Songs-Video

Since I'm still impatiently waiting for Carsey-Werner, Ventura, Viacom or whoever owns the rights to A Different World to stop stalling and release Seasons 2-6 of the show on DVD, thought I'd get the video of the three versions of the theme songs played during the six season run of the series and post them.

Season 1, composed by Dawnn Lewis sung by Phoebe Snow.



The Queen of Soul Version of the song.



The Boys 2 Men version




The excuse for not releasing the DVDs is the false assumption that A Different World doesn't have a fanbase. They came to that conclusion based on the sales of the Season 1 DVD. Hello, Season 1 sucked, seasons 2-6 didn't after it began to reflect the reality of HBCU student life.

As a bonus for you ADW lovers, I'm posting the video from the 'Homie Don't You Know Me' episode with the late Tupac Shakur in it. (damn I miss Tupac)

Happy Birthday Lady Tee!

There are many whites who love R&B music, and some even try to sing it with varying levels of success. For those of us growing up in the 70's and 80's, the woman born on this date in Santa Monica, California became the definitive and most successful of the 'blue-eyed' soul singers of our generation.

I couldn't let today pass without giving a birthday shout out to Teena Marie. She's the Cali girl who ended up getting signed by legendary Motown Records, getting her first album produced by punk funk king Rick James and even rapping on her 1981 song 'Square Biz'.



Teena Marie on Soul Train



This is also Teena's 30th anniversary in the music business, with her Rick James produced and written debut album Wild And Peaceful hitting the airwaves in 1979. She's even responsible for a law called the Brockert Initiative as a result of the nasty legal battle she fought with Motown after discovering they underpaid her royalties on the four Motown albums she recorded.

That lawsuit resulted in what's called the Teena Marie Law, which means a record company cannot keep an artist under contract without releasing a record by him or her.



Reunited just four days before Rick's death to sing Fire and Desire in 2004



Teena's back in the business after a layoff to raise her daughter Alia Rose. She has created and still is thrilling us with music her fans like me will treasure forever.

Happy Birthday Teena Marie!

Happy 50th Birthday Denise Matthews

Some of you may not recognize the name, but probably recognize that beautiful face. You may also recognize who she is if I say the name Vanity 6 as well.

January 4 marked her milestone birthday, and if you listen to the Niagara Falls, ON native tell her story or read her autobiography Blame It On Vanity, she'll probably tell you she's thankful she made it.

If Evangelist Denise K. Matthews is doing any touring these days, it's basically to spread the gospel. But back in the day she fronted Prince's girl group Vanity 6, was the crush of just about every Black male growing up during that era and admired by many in the entertainment world and beyond.

She overcame a less than pleasant childhood, drug addition, a turbulent romantic relationship, losing a kidney, suffering a stroke and heart attack. being rendered temporarily deaf and blinded by that stroke and nearly dying in 1994.

She survived all of that and is still standing. Denise is still as beautiful as ever, but her focus these days is spreading the Word from her Fremont, CA based ministry and making the inner Denise match the beautiful person we see on the outside.

And your fans still love you, Denise. Happy birthday.

FMI Magazine

Back in the BI (before Internet) days I was searching for any information I could get on transgender people. If I spotted a newspaper article on a transperson, I clipped it out and stuck it in an envelope to peruse later. I saved, but eventually lost in the process of moving from my parents house to my apartment the JET magazine issues that chronicled the stories of transsistahs Justina Williams and Sharon Davis.

But one unlikely source of info for me came from a glossy magazine called Female Mimics International, or FMI for short.

I ended up getting dragged into the Bellaire News adult store one day by a friend who was looking for adult movies to rent. While he was perusing the movies, I was hanging around the magazine racks and spotted an issue of FMI that had an African-American transwoman on the cover. Since I was with my homeboy and wasn't even remotely ready to tell him that I was hanging out in Montrose but dressing a bit differently when I did so, I couldn't purchase it at that moment. I came back a few day later and picked up it because I was curious about the magazine and its contents.

FMI was part of Kim Christy's adult publishing world. While part of each issue served to promote whatever adult transgender themed video she had just produced or some of her regular Kim Christy starlets such as Heather Fontaine, Dana Douglas, and Summer St. Cerly, there were in many FMI magazines short fiction stories, transition tips, coverage of the California transgender pageant scene and San Francisco and LA transgender events. There was also one Kim published when her longtime friend and New York transgender icon International Chrysis died that had a tribute article.

I ended up with a large collection of them before an ex-girlfriend found them in the box I kept them in while rummaging through my apartment closet. She unilaterally took them to the dumpster while I was at work. I was royally pissed about it when I found out about it later not only because they were my property, now it's hard to even find FMI magazines and the collection I'd built up over several years would have made a nice addition to some GLBT archive.

But in its own way, FMI not only showcased the beauty of transgender women, but actually managed to inform and open a window to another aspect of that world at the same time.

Happy 60th Birthday Donna Summer

While I was perusing the celebrity birthdays on New Year's Eve, I discovered that one of my favorite singers was celebrating a milestone birthday.

Back in the day I was a huge disco fan, and one of my favorite singers was Donna Summer. She started off as a gospel singer, but what a lot of people don't realize about her is that she's an accomplished songwriter as well.

She has won five Grammys and is the only artist to have three consecutive number one double albums and three number one pop singles in the same year. While she's known for the disco hits, her musical repertoire encompasses rock, pop, R&B and gospel.

She has sold over 130 million records worldwide and I definitely have my share of Donna's music in my collection. She's one of the most successful female artists of the 1970s and 1980's and was inducted in 2004 to the Dance Music Hall of Fame.\

Happy birthday, Donna and may you have many more.

Carmen Xtravaganza

I remember where I was when I first began to hear about the NY ballroom scene. I was with one of my then homies who was trolling for adult films to rent at Bellaire News while I was perusing the out of town newspapers.

This was the early 80's BI (before Internet) when you couldn't simply fire up a computer to access an out of town paper. You had to buy it at a newsstand or go to the public library to read it, and some of those newsstands also sold adult magazines and videos.

While waiting for him to complete his rental, I was reading the Village Voice and this particular issue had an article about the NY ballroom scene. It got my undivided attention when it started talking about the femme realness category and one of the up and coming stars in that category in the 80's, Carmen Xtravaganza.

Since I was in information procuring mode about anything transgender at the time, I continued to read the article. As I recall it, people inside and outside the community were raving about her as and coming legend and I paid particular attention to the quotes from her mother about her transition.

I bought that issue and kept the article for a few years until it got lost when I moved out of my parents house.

Not long after I read about her in the Village Voice, Paris Is Burning came out and Carmen was in this scene from it.



Even though I've visited New York a few times, I was never able to time my visit so that I could attend a ball. As some of you know I have much love for the ballroom community and it's still a goal of mine to do just that to attend a ball one day.

carmen xtravaganza the princes boll 8/3/20008


Carmen is still around, looking as lovely as ever and became the mother of the House of Xtravaganza for a while. She still pops up at the balls and performs in New York from time to time.

The Hippest Trip In America

Don Cornelius getting busted last Friday in LA triggered memories about my favorite way in my teens to enjoy a Saturday besides watching my favorite cartoons.

The show was Soul Train and to me and every other African-American kid growing up in the 70's, 80's, 90's and part of the 2K's, it was Must See TV.

It was our version of American Bandstand and Don Cornelius was our Dick Clark. I tuned in to KHTV 39 at noon to see the latest dances, the latest fashions and hear the latest music.

And because I was on the wrong side of the gender fence at the time, I was also jealously envious of the sistahs on that show.




You also got to see the Soul Train Dancers forming that world famous Soul Train Line and either coolly or in some cases acrobatically moving and grooving their way down the end of it.







Some of the peeps who danced on Soul Train over the years included Rosie Perez, Carmen Electra, Nick Cannon, MC Hammer, Jermaine Stewart, Fred "Rerun" Berry, Pebbles, and NFL legend Walter Payton. Jody Watley and Jeffery Daniel danced on the show before becoming (along with Howard Hewitt) two-thirds of the group Shalamar.

It was also the place where we tuned in to see our artists (even if some of them were lip-synching to the songs).


The Commodores 1974



Chic 1978



Teena Marie 1980



Morris Day and The Time 1982



Vanity 6 1984



After a 35 year run, 1117 episodes and several guest hosts after Don Cornelius stepped down in 1993, Soul Train ended its historic run in 2006.



Wishing you love. peace and SOUL!