How I Got The Air Marshal Nickname

If you follow me on social media, you may have seen posts referring to me as the Air Marshal, and wonder how I got that nickname.   I'm about to tell you how.

I was still working in the airline biz when I started doing activism work on behalf of the trans community in 1998.  There was also another Monica besides moi in the trans activism ranks who started at roughly the same time in then Phoenix based Monica Helms (as in trans pride flag creator Monica Helms).

Not only did we start getting into trans activism at roughly the same time, our writing styles were close enough in tone that people frequently mixed us up in online forms.

To make it clear in online communication which Monica a comment was being directed at or which one of us Monicas was talking in a comment thread, because Helms served in the Navy, she became known as Monica of the Sea, or Sea Monica for short. Because I was in the airline biz, I became known as Monica of the Air, or Air Monica.

Since I also had as a decade long airline employee the perk of free standby air travel and other discounts to go with it, I quickly became the national trans community's rapid response person when we needed an immediate trans physical presence on short notice for meetings, protests or lobbying efforts at the federal, state or local level.

Since we called  trailblazing leader Phyllis Frye 'The General' because of her time in the Texas A&M Corps of Cadets and the Army, as the newbie Texan to the trans activism community and her mentee, I received the nickname from Polar of 'The Air Marshal.

Air Marshal is a senior three star rank in Great Britain's Royal Air Force, and because I also became when the national Transgender Advocacy Coalition (NTAC) was founded in 1999 their Lobby Chair/ Political Director tasked with developing trans public policy, the Air Marshal nickname fit and stuck.

I liked the Air Marshal nickname better at the time than the one that I was being called by racist vanillacentric privileged TS separatists, Darth Maul.

I actually grew to love that Darth Maul nickname so much that when I won my IFGE Trinity Award in 2006 (becoming the third African American trans person to win it after Dawn Wilson and Marisa Richmond), I was going to enter the hotel ballroom in Philly where they were having the IFGE convention award ceremony to the Imperial March.

That's a story for another time.  Back to the Air Marshal one.

So when you see me post on FB that 'the Air Marshal has landed' , it's basically a nod to my early days as an activist and acknowledging that being my kind of trans activist has at times involved lots of air travel.

45th Anniversary of School House Rock

Back in 1973 as my brother and I, and later my sisters watched Saturday morning cartoons on ABC, some of the advertising breaks were taken up by the Emmy Award winning educational cartoons that later became known as Schoolhouse Rock.

It ran on ABC from 1973-1985, and then was revived for a second run from 1993-1999. 

Those musical education cartoons that dropped knowledge on math, science, grammar and history have become so beloved that I and a lot of peeps own them on DVD.

I bought the 30th Anniversary DVD in 2009 when I lived in Louisville, and when I purchased it, Dawn Wilson and I spent several hours watching them and singing along to our fave ones like 'Conjunction Junction', 'Interplanet Janet',' Suffering Until Suffrage', 'Three Is A Magic Number' , 'Interjections! ' , A Noun Is A Person Place or Thing  and 'Hey Little Twelvetoes'  as the rest of our roommates and friends watched us with bemused looks on their faces .

Of course, as you probably guessed, the political junkie in me loves 'I'm Just A Bill'  which explains the legislative process an has been parodied by Saturday Night Live to lampoon 45.. 

But I was also in love with the 'Verb; That's What's Happening' one as well because it was one of the few in the original series of School House Rock videos in which the main protagonist looked like me.



So happy 45th Anniversary School House Rock!.   Those videos helped a lot of kids get to math, science, grammar and history tests. 

CNN, How Does A Show About 90's TV NOT Discuss 'A Different World'?

As a huge history buff, I have enjoyed watching the CNN documentary series that chronicles the events of the Sixties, the Seventies and the Eighties.

Last night the Nineties had its premiere and spent this initial two hour episode discussing nineties television.  It discussed not only the late night wars, the tabloidization of the news, Will and Grace, Ellen's coming out episode and the rise of cable TV.

It also talked about the golden era of Black TV shows and the use of the Black oriented shows by the fledgling FOX and WB networks to build their audience and networks, then kicking Black viewers to the curb for white ones once their survival was assured.

That's a two hour documentary by itself, but let me continue discussing the Nineties.  

There was however, one glaring omission in last night's CNN show discussing 90's television that bugged me as I watched the initial episode of the Nineties to its conclusion.

It didn't talk about A Different World.

CNN, how are you going to talk about 90's television and not talk about the groundbreaking television show that was credited with being   responsible for the increase in HBCU enrollment during the decade of the nineties?

A Different World may have started in 1987 as a Cosby show spinoff, but was on the air until 1993.   The show starting in its second season after Debbie Allen took over as producer of it realistically depicted HBCU life on the fictional Hillman College campus,   It also delved into subjects that HBCU college students of the late 80's- early 90's were dealing with.

It not only discussed colorism, but discussed racism, sexism, date rape, pledging, South African divestment, the LA Riots, interracial relationships, the 1992 presidential election, the Sharazad Ali controversy and Desert Storm just to name a few of the issues the show tackled during its six season run. .

It also was the first show to tackle HIV/AIDS with the 'If I Should Die Before I Wake' episode that starred Tisha Campbell and Whoopi Goldberg.

A Different World also had a long list of people who did guest starring roles on that show who became major stars in their own right like Marisa Tomei, Keenen Ivory Wayans, Damon Wayans, Kristoff St John, Tupac Shakur, Eriq LaSalle, Jada Pinkett  Smith, Jenifer Lewis, and Halle Berry

So CNN, how does a show that spends two hours discussing 90's television totally whiff on not discussing one of the groundbreaking shows of that early part of the 90's in A Different World?

It was a glaring omission, and one that spoiled the opening episode of the Nineties for me.

Hope the Nineties is better in the next six subsequent episodes due to air than it was in this initial one..

Julia's 'Designing Women' Candidate Rant

I loved the show Designing Women when it was on from 1986-1993, and Dixie Carter's Julia Sugarbaker character on the show never failed to put a smile on my face when she would get to a point where she would read someone for their ignorance, stupidity or hypocritical arrogance.

This  second season 'The Candidate' episode is one of my faves from Designing Women, and it was one in which Julia was recruited to run against a right wing councilmember . She had suppressed much of her outspoken personality to run this race, and finally had enough of it during a debate with Wilson Brickett and goes off.

This video from Designing Women 'The Candidate' perfectly encapsulates my feelings about the Trump regime and its supporters.

Enjoy

Texas Trans Pioneer Linda Phillips Passes Away

Was sad to hear the news via Gordene MacKenzie's Facebook page that pioneering Texas trans woman Linda Phillips has passed away suddenly at age 81 on Monday

Linda Phillips had been crossdressing since age 3,  and had the epiphany that she was trans,and transitioned later in her life.   She married Cynthia on January 10, 1958 in Dallas.

 Linda and Cynthia  were well known figures in many of the Central and South Texas transgender organizations in the late 80's and 1990's , and joined the Boulton and Park Society shortly after its 1986 founding

Linda was the past editor of the Heart of Texas Gender Association newsletter Cross Currents, and Gender Euphoria, the Boulton and Park Society newsletter. in addition to serving as the organization's Secretary and Treasurer.  As one of the principal organizers for the Texas T Party, Linda also served as the Secretary and President of the Texas T Party conference.

The Texas 'T' Party that started in the late 80's was the Texas based trans themed convention held in San Antonio that grew to become the largest trans themed conference on the planet at the time before it ended in 1996.  

That Texas T Party conference was also important in not only connecting the national trans community of that time to each other, but also led to the start of the series of Houston based ICTLEP trans policy conferences from 1992-1996 that became the foundation of the modern trans rights advocacy movement.

The couple also spent the 1990's discussing their longtime transgender-cisgender relationship on talk show television, at colleges and universities and serving on the board of the International Foundation For Gender Education (IFGE).  Their papers are archived at the University of Texas -San Antonio

My condolences to her wife Cynthia, and I thank them both for being pioneering possibility models for my generation of trans people to follow.   I'm even prouder to note that they were fom my home state and setting the leadership bar high for future Texas trans leaders to emulate.

We have lost another trans pioneer, and while she will be missed, Linda Phillips will not be forgotten.

TransGriot Note: Linda's in the white cowboy hat in the first  photo on the left, and on the right in the second one with her spouse Cynthia. 

As of yet haven't heard any information concerning a date or location for either the funeral or memorial service.  I will pass that info along as soon as I receive it.

Selena's Madame Tussaud's Wax Figure Unveiled

It's still hard to believe that my fellow Texan Selena Quintanilla-Perez has been gone now 21 years.  I still remember the shock and horror I felt the March 31, 1995 day I head she'd been murdered by her assistant and head of her fan club Yolanda Saldivar in Corpus Christi, just two weeks shy of her 24th birthday.

It was even more tragic because at the time the undisputed Queen of Tejano music had just recently broken the Houston Rodeo attendance record she set two years previously, was about to release a crossover album Dreaming of You that debuted at the top of the Billboard 200 after her death, and was already talking to Hollywood about doing movies.



Despite being on the planet for only 23 years, her influence on pop culture is massive.   The 1997 Selena biopic was Jennifer Lopez's breakout movie role.  Selena brought Tejano music into mainstream attention.   She was nominated for three Grammy's, won one and probably would have won more based on her dominance in other awards she was nominated for and won.

Latina pop star and Disney alum Selena Gomez is named for the Queen of Tejano.  Here parents were huge fans of Selena.

She will be posthumously getting her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame next year as part of the Class of 2017 that includes Eva Longoria.

Next month MAC Cosmetic will release a makeup line

I've even argued the point with friends that if Selena was still around, been able to do more crossover English language albums and movies in addition to maintaining her fan base in the Latinx community, she would be as huge a pop culture icon as another favorite Texan of mine in Beyonce

Two decades level she is still a beloved figure in the Latinx community.   The reason the new Madame Tussaud's wax figure of her exists is because Selena fans put together a petition that 10,000 people signed to request it happen.

Madame Tussaud's traveled to The Selena Museum in Corpus Christi to ensure that everything about the wax figure of her that recreates her look from a 1993 Corpus Christi concert was on point

Many of those devoted Selena fans have flown to her hometown of Corpus Christi to visit the museum, the statue of her overlooking Corpus Christi Bay, her resting place, the home she lived in with her husband Chris Perez, and her fashion boutiques.

They also started lining up at sundown Tuesday to get the $30 wristbands to see the reveal of the long awaited wax figure at Madame Tussaud's yesterday.

They weren't disappointed.  It's another fitting tribute to a music legend that was taken away from all of us far too soon.

Donahue Show: Tula

During its 26 years of syndication from 1970-1996, The Phil Donahue Show was considered the gold standard when it came to talk shows.  

The wonderful thing about Donahue was that because he was a journalist and newscaster before he quit to start the show, when he covered trans issues and people, he did so in an intelligent and  respectful way for the time period.

Here's video of the show in which he interviewed trans pioneer, author, advocate, Bond Girl and model Caroline Cossey.

1996 Miss Major Letter- Affirmation!

The MAJOR documentary is a step closer to finally being finished, and you can check out the website or the film's Facebook page for updated news and other tantalizing tidbits from the upcoming documentary..

Here is a 1996 letter courtesy of StormMiguel Florez from Miss Major that she wrote for the first issue of the Knock Knock Times, a voice for & by the Tenderloin Transgender Community entitled Affirmation!

While some of the drama, storms, trials and travails we go through as 21st century trans people is nothing compared to what our trans elders endured and is nothing new, if we aren't careful, we will let that avalanche of negativity creep into our lives and rob us of our happiness and joy.  We must guard against that.  

As Miss Major reminds us in that letter, we are unique, wonderful and part of the diverse mosaic of human life.  

And now, here's some circa 1996 words of wisdom from one of our distinguished trans elders.

****

Dear Glamour Girls!

With all the negative attitudes and anti-us people in this world, we need to remember that WE ARE UNIQUE & WONDERFUL! We are the creative souls of humankind. Therefore, we must stand our ground and have all who come in contact with us realize we are worth loving. We are worth it all!

Love is wonderful, but it must be kept safe so that we will survive the wrath of the ignorant. With that in mind, you must constantly think positive, self-affirming thoughts. Re-affirm your precious existence all through your day with affirmations.

You can create them to fit your own special energy. You can feel pretty, like Maria in West Side Story without a man to tell you so ... because you ARE and you know it! Loving yourSelf helps you love someone else. So sing out loud: I FEEL PRETTY!

Stay focused on yourself, stay safe, and keep a positive attitude. We are worth it ALL!

Here are a few affirmations you might use:

*I am a radiant being, filled with light and love.
*I am master/mistress of my life.
*The more I love mySelf, the more love I have to give to others.
Well, my dear other-selves, I close with marvelous thoughts for you.

Love, respectfully,
Major

Tyra Hunter: Plus 19

We must never forget what happened to Tyra on this day. We must also diligently work to ensure that what she suffered at the hands of emergency personnel is not replicated in our locales. The message must be made crystal clear to our first responders that when they swear to serve and protect, that means ALL citizens.
TransGriot  August 7, 2007

Today is the 19th anniversary of a trans death that occurred in Washington DC on August 7, 1995 due to medical transphobia.

It occurred at the corner of 50th and C Streets in Southeast DC that would witness an even more horrific death several years later that is still yet to be solved. 

This is the day that 24 year old Tyra Hunter was a passenger in a car that was involved in an auto accident at that Southeast DC corner and suffered injuries that had she been treated properly she would have survived.

But because of DC Fire Department EMT Adrian Williams' transphobia, and a run in with another transphobic doctor after her arrival at the now closed DC General Hospital, failure to be treated at the accident scene and in the hospital led to her death.   

The thing that really incensed the Washington DC trans community, myself and everyone else in the national trans community in the wake of the tragedy was Williams received a promotion from the DC Fire Department several years later. 

The Tyra Hunter case stays with me because it happened a mere 13 months into my own transition, I still get upset when I think about it, and as long as this blog exists I'm going to continue writing about it because medical transphobia is still happening.

During our fight to pass the HERO, a transman testified that he was denied emergency care at a local hospital by a transphobic doctor.   

The Tyra Hunter incident was one of the trans human rights outrages that began to nudge me in the direction of becoming an activist and trans rights advocate.  I was determined to never again have something as egregious as this happen to one of our sisters at the hands of an EMT, doctor or other medical personnel that could result in death of that trans person.

We can't bring Tyra back, but the best way to honor her memory is to continue as a community to be vigilant and ensure that medical transphobia never takes another trans life, and scream loudly when it does.. 
  

'Girl Meets World' Debuts Friday

One of my back in the 90's guilty pleasure TV shows to watch was Boy Meets World, and I was one of the many fans of the show who were ecstatic to hear that a sequel to it had been greenlighted for 21 episodes to debut in 2014.

Girl Meets World will bring back Cory and Topanga as parents of 12 year old tween Riley with her own mischievous friend in Maya Hart. 

While the show will center on Riley navigating her way through life, we already know that many of the characters from Boy Meets World will be reprising their roles and appearing on the show.

The show will also be set in New York instead of Philadelphia but what we didn't know was when the show would debut. 

Well, the wait is over BMW fans.   The first season of Girl Meets World will debut on the Disney Channel this Friday, June 27 at 9:45 PM EDT.

As to what BMW characters will show up in the new series, so far Rider Strong (Shawn Hunter), Lee Norris (Minkus), Danny McNulty (Harley), William Daniels (Mr. Feeny), and William Russ and Betsy Randle (Cory's parents) are for now.   Other BMW alums will pop up during this first season.  .




Cory is now a school teacher, and Minkus' son is in Cory's class along with his daughter Riley and Maya.  Topanga is now an entrepreneur running a popular hangout for the kids in Riley's school.

So yep, looking forward to watching Girl Meets World this Friday. 
      

Brandon Teena Murder 20th Anniversary

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the murder of  transman Brandon Teena along with Lisa Lambert and Phillip DeVine in Humboldt, NE in the early morning hours of December 31, 1993.

As many of you know this incident was the subject of a 1998 documentary and was covered a year later in the 1999 biopic Boys Don't Cry.

At the time of this heinous murder I was less than four months from starting my own transition.  It affected me and many other trans advocates of the time, and was another one of those seminal community moments.   The shock and anger of us over what happened to Teena galvanized the trans community into action.  We not only wanted to enure that John Lotter and Tom Nissen, the perpetrators of this crime were punished for it.

Lotter and Nissen were indeed convicted and sentenced in separate 1995 trials for the rape and murder of Teena.   Nissen, in exchange for a reduced sentence testified against Lotter, who was convicted and sentenced to death for the crime and is still on Nebraska's death row.   Lotter escaped the death penalty, but is still doing time for his part in the New Year's Eve triple slaying.  

In the wake of Teena's death, the trans community not only accelerated the process of raising our collective voices about the issues that affected us, we added the passage of trans inclusive hate crimes legislation to the human rights to-do list for our community.
 

1993 Oilers Getting More Interesting By The Day

Well well, looks like the In Living Color 'Men on Football' Super Bowl skit joke about the Oilers wasn't too far off base.

This team gets more interesting by the day.   First there was the allegation on HuffPo there was a transfeminine Derrick Doll shaking her pompoms on the Astrodome sidelines during the 1992 and 1993 seasons.

Then there was the recent NFL Network documentary about the 1993 Oilers team and all the drama surrounding it.  1-4 start, Warren Moon benching, Babygate, the nationally televised punch of Kevin Gilbride by Buddy Ryan, the 11 game win streak that led to them clinching the AFC Central title with a 12-4 record and earning home field advantage throughout the playoffs but falling victim to one last hurrah from Joe Montana and the Kansas City Chiefs 28-20 in their divisional round Dome playoff game.   

Now in the wake of the documentary comes this preview of a Houston Chronicle article scheduled to be published on Sunday (December 29) that stated there were two gay players on that 1993 team, the team knew about it, and didn't care. 

“Listen, those guys that we’re talking about were unbelievable teammates. And if you wanted to go to war with someone, you would get those guys first. Because I have never seen tougher guys than those guys,” said Oilers Pro Bowl linebacker Lamar Lathon. “And everybody in the locker room, the consensus knew or had an idea that things were not exactly right. But guess what? When they strapped the pads on and got on the field, man, we were going to war with these guys because they were unbelievable.”

It's interesting info in light of the fact that no active NFL player has come out, and only a handful of NFL players have come out in retirement.  It's also interesting to note that Brendon Ayanbadejo and Chris Kluwe, after expressing support for marriage equality and filing an amicus brief on February 28 in support of the Hollingsworth v Perry case then before the US Supreme Court, were let go by their respective NFL teams and were not signed by any NFL team during the 2013 season.  

But back to the 1993 Oilers and that gay players revelation.  That was the way it should have been.  Nobody giving a damn about those two gay Oilers except for how they did their jobs on the playing field.

As to who they are, I remember hearing a lot of rumors during that time about who those players were, but as long as my fave team was winning, I didn't care.  

Looking forward to reading that Chronicle article on Sunday.
 

Sally Jessy Raphael 90's Trans Show

During the 90's you could count on during sweeps weeks to see the highly competitive talk show broadcast environment at the time doing shows on trans issues.  And yep, I was videotaping them to watch later when i got home from work.

One of the more respectful ones who broadcast trans themed shows during that period besides Jenny Jones was Sally Jessy Raphael.   This is one entitled 'Beautiful Women Who Have A Secret '

Another Early 90's Springer Show On Trans Issues

While looking for some interesting video, ran across another early 90's Jerry Springer show that surprise surprise, respectfully talks about trans issues.

While this is only a less than eight minute snippet of it, it still is an interesting enough discussion to post on the blog.

Happy 55th Birthday, Cherrelle!

I had the pleasure of meeting her while working an LAX flight in the late 90's.   She was traveling under her birth name, but I knew who she was the millisecond she walked up to gate C-14. 

It also worked out than on this particular LAX departure it was swapped to one of the widebody aircraft that had an expanded first class.  I got the opportunity to improve the seating assignments of one of my fave singers and have an enjoyable chat with her for a few minutes before she boarded.

I'm going down Moni's airline memory lane for a moment because today is the 55th birthday of Cheryl Anne Norton, known to the rest of the music world as Cherrelle.  
She was born in Los Angeles on this date in 1958 and is another one of the talented group of singers that Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis produced into R&B stardom in the 80's and early 90's.

She is also the cousin of Perri 'Pebbles' Reid, who is a Grammy nominated singer who had a few hits herself. in the late 80's early 90's.  You can hear Cherrelle's voice on her her cousin's song 'Always'.

Her signature hits like 'I Didn't Mean To Turn You On'   (yes people, she recorded it first, NOT Robert Palmer), 'Everything I Miss At Home', and her 'Saturday Love' and 'Never Knew Love Like This' duets with Alexander O'Neal.  

She's still touring and pooping up at various events like the BET Honors in which she sang 'Saturday Love with her back in the day duet partner.
 
Happy birthday Cherrelle!  May you have many more..

The TransGriot 20th Anniversary 'Living Single' Quiz-The Answers

Did y'all have fun trying to solve my 20th Anniversary Living Single Trivia Quiz? 

Or did some of you not even try and waited until today to find out the answers?   If you fall into the latter category, shame on y'all for not wishing to flex your intellectual muscles. 
   
As promised, here are the answers to the Living Single quiz.

1. What was the name of the law firm that Maxine worked at?
Evans and Bell

2.  Khadijah and Maxine were roommates at which HBCU?
Howard University

3.  True or False:  Queen Latifah's and Kim Fields' real life mothers played their character's mothers on the show.
True.  Queen Latifah's mother Rita Owens played her character's mother Rita James and Kim Field's mother Chip Fields Hurd played her character's mother Laverne Hunter.

 
4.  Kyle and Overton were childhood friends from which city?
Cleveland, Ohio

5.  What is Maxine's middle name?
Felice


6.   True of False:  Regine and Kyle dated each other.
True.  That tidbit was revealed in a flashback episode.

7.  When Khadijah won her journalism award, who presented it to her?
Susan L Taylor, the former Editor of ESSENCE magazine.  Khadijah was her intern.

8.  Synclaire was from what Midwestern city?
Minneapolis, MN

9.  When the girls confessed to each other about the first people they made love to, who was the NBA ball player they shockingly discovered Synclaire got busy with? 
Michael Jordan at a Minnesota basketball camp.

10. What was the name of the soap opera that Regine worked as a costume assistant for?
Palo Alto

11.  Ira Lee Williams III moves into Khadijah and Regine's apartment after Overton and Synclaire get married and she moves out.  What was his nickname?  
Tripp

12.  True or False:  Gladys Knight and J. Anthony Brown played Overton's parents on the show.
False.  Gladys Knight did play his mother.  Antonio Fargas played his father on the show and J. Anthony Brown played his Uncle Tibby.

13.  What was Max's campaign slogan when she ran for alderman? 
Ride The Maverick

14.  What Gray's Anatomy actor played Khadijah's boyfriend Dr. Charles Roberts?
Isaiah Washington IV

15.  What was the name of the Black Mountie who kept tormenting Overton and Synclaire during their Canadian Christmas trip?
Constable Robeson 

16.  True or False: Arsenio Hall made a cameo appearance on the show.
True

17.  What was the name of Synclaire's monstrous troll doll she kept in her room?
Crispus Attucks

18.  What rapper played the bully that tormented Kyle in high school and he finally stood up to at their reunion?
Tone Loc

19.  Khadijah, Regine and Scooter were from what New Jersey town?
East Orange

20.  True or False:  During an excursion the girls made to a gay bar, Max was misgendered by a bar patron as a trans woman.
True.  And bonus points if you knew the bar patron hitting on her was played by the Jamie Foxx Show's Christopher B. Duncan

The TransGriot 'Living Single' 20th Anniversary Quiz

On August 22, 1993 Living Single broadcast the first of 118 episodes on FOX.   We were introduced to a Brooklyn brownstone and twentysomethings Khadijah and Synclaire James, Regine Hunter, Maxine Shaw, Kyle Barker and Overton Jones as they lived, worked, loved and got married over the next five television seasons.

Was it really 20 years ago that the show debuted?  

When I compiled my last A Different World quiz I promised you TransGriot readers you'd be getting another one of my infamous trivia quizzes based on this show, and here it is.  It's an open internet test that I'll give y'all through this weekend to mull over these 20 questions based on the show.

I'll post the answers on Monday, so until then have fun racking your brains trying to answer them.  

1. What was the name of the law firm that Maxine worked at?

2.  Khadijah and Maxine were roommates at which HBCU?

3.  True or False:  Queen Latifah's and Kim Fields' real life mothers played their character's mothers on the show. 
 
4.   Kyle and Overton were childhood friends from which city?

5.   What is Maxine's middle name? 


6.   True of False:  Regine and Kyle dated each other.

7.  When Khadijah won her journalism award, who presented it to her?

8.  Synclaire was from what Midwestern city?

9.  When the girls confessed to each other about the first people they made love to, who was the NBA ball player they shockingly discovered Synclaire got busy with? 

10. What was the name of the soap opera that Regine worked as a costume assistant for?

11.  Ira Lee Williams III moves into Khadijah and Regine's apartment after Overton and Synclaire get married and she moves out.  What was his nickname?  

12.  True or False:  Gladys Knight and J. Anthony Brown played Overton's parents on the show.

13.  What was Max's campaign slogan when she ran for alderman? 

14.  What Gray's Anatomy actor played Khadijah's boyfriend Dr. Charles Roberts?

15.  What was the name of the Black Mountie who kept tormenting Overton and Synclaire during their Canadian Christmas trip?   

16.  True or False: Arsenio Hall made a cameo appearance on the show.

17.  What was the name of Synclaire's monstrous troll doll she kept in her room?

18.  What rapper played the bully that tormented Kyle in high school and he finally stood up to at their reunion?

19.  Khadijah, Regine and Scooter were from what New Jersey town?

20.  True or False:  During an excursion to a gay bar, Max was misgendered by a bar patron as a trans woman.

Philip Porter, Derrick Doll And Detransition

Until they moved to Nashville and became the Tennessee Traitors, I was a huge Houston Oilers fan.  When they started their cheerleading squad called the Derrick Dolls, one of my college classmates Thomasina was on it for a few years.

And yes, it bothered me during the 80's that I was in the wrong body to even have a shot at trying out for it and I was jealous of Thomasina for a minute because she was on that squad. 

So it jolted me when I heard about my fellow Texan Philip Porter's detransition story and it subsequently coming out that during his 32 years as Phoebe, he alleges he had been an NFL cheerleader in his trans feminine life.

As he told his story on HuffPost Live recently, and seeing this alleged picture of Phoebe as a trans Derrick Doll brought those memories back on how I felt back in my wandering in the gender wilderness 80's. 

When I was watching those NFL home games being played at the Astrodome along with much of the city of Houston, I was struggling with my own gender issues.  It occurred to me that during the 1992 and 1993 season that Phoebe would occasionally pop on our TV sets, be part of two Derrick Dolls group photos, and take part in the various events the Dolls performed at or graced as hostesses around the city I was taking major steps to get my own transition started.  


I respect Philip's decision to detransition and hope he's happy.  It's his life, his journey and I wish him the best.
But it also gives me an opportunity to talk about the contentious subject in Trans World of detransition.  

We transpeeps go through hell and back just to be recognized as the people we are now, and that journey to be our true selves is a satisfying one to 95% who aren't even thinking about detransition.  That percentage shoots up to 98% if you include the people who have genital surgery. 

At the time I was doing my transition in 1994, one of the WPATH requirements in place was I had to do the 'Real Life Test' in order to get approval from my gender therapist to have genital surgery.  That RLT was in place so that people had an opportunity to back out if they were having second thoughts or had difficulty adjusting to life on the other side of the gender fence before the surgeon's scalpel came into play.   


But instead of the focus on trans issues being about the people who are happily navigating their post transition lives or our challenges, the media focus at times becomes fixated on the very few people in our community who transition and decide to go back as Don Ennis, Ria Cooper and Philip Porter did. 

And sometimes it is the bizarre reasons these detransitioning peeps give for why they are doing so that also sets us off in Trans World. 

The oversaturation coverage of the instances of people detransisitioning leads to cis people asking us the annoying 'When are you going to go back?' question.  

When I got asked by a female student that question during an HCC-Southeast Trans 101 discussion I was conducting last year, my response to that student was why would I go back to the miserable existence and life I had before transition?


There are a lot of reasons why people do so and it really should be a personal issue, but as the old saying goes, the personal can become the political.  That's especially true when you have a marginalized group fighting for human rights coverage and at the same time be understood by the general public.  As they do so everything that happens to that marginalized group good, bad or indifferent is framed in that political context, especially by its enemies. 

It's why detransition is such a contentious topic in the transgender community.  We get prickly about it not only because of our own personal psychic and sweat equity investments in perfecting our gender presentations and gender identities to the world, but by the awareness that far too often some of the people who do detransition become the trans equivalent of 'Ex Gays'.     

They are seized on in conservative circles as a reason why trans human rights coverage shouldn't be granted to the rest of us who are very happy in the trans skins we're in.  

The detransitioned 'Ex-Trans' folks are also pimped by the Religious Reich and groups like PFOX as poster children and 'proof' that you trans people can use prayer to turn away from your 'sinful' lives as trans people

Funny, it was after I attended a 1993 TD Jakes revival in Los Angeles and prayerful contemplation my faith led me to write the letter to the Rosenberg Clinic asking for the first available appointment that started my transition.

BTW peeps, Pat Robertson has said twice what we already know, that transsexuality isn't a sin.

But that doesn't stop the Religious Reich from not only trying to push that loud and wrong message, they also use these stories of detransitioned 'Ex Trans' folks as a way to pimp their religious conversion therapies.

They are the same ones that didn't work for gay folks, but they are now trying to retool them to grab the cash of parents desperate enough to try them to 'fix' their trans children. 

Whether it was the loathsome Jerry Leach in Kentucky or the recent story that Sabrina Samone told on her blog about P-FOX trumpeting the story of her 'Ex-trans' friend Darrell, the trans community gives these stories the hostile side eye when we hear them. 

Another reason for the trans pissivity when the issue of detransition comes up besides the right wing and other trans haters exploitation of it is our sadness about the tragic story of Mike Penner, the LA Times sportswriter who famously transitioned to become Christine Daniels, transitioned back to Mike and committed suicide.

So yes, Trans World is concerned on many levels when we hear about people detransitioning, but our biggest concerns are always going to be focused on the side of the well being of the person going through it. 

But if you use it as a way to attack the trans community in general, it's on like Donkey Kong. 

August 7, 1995

An auto accident happened on this date 18 years ago at the corner of 50th and C Streets in southeast Washington DC that would eventually get the attention of the nation and the world. 

It involved a 24 year old girl like us named Tyra Hunter who was headed to work at the time as a passenger in one of the vehicles.

She and the driver were pulled from the smoldering ruins of the car and a DC paramedic named Adrian Williams began to work on her until he cut her pants leg open to reveal a penis.

He stood up, backed away, made dehumanizing transphobic remarks and cracked transphobic jokes for five to seven critical minutes until an EMS supervisor arrived on the scene to resume her treatment.

She was taken to the now closed DC General Hospital where she died of blunt force trauma at 5:20 PM EDT.
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Transphobia killed Tyra Hunter.   Medical transphobia..

At the time this happened I was 16 months into my own transition.  I was horrified, shocked and angered by what happened to her.  Tyra's unnecessary death still bothers me to this day.

I think about Tyra often, especially on this day.   She would have been 42 this year had she not encountered an EMT who forgot that serving all the citizens of The District includes transgender ones, too and wonder how her would have evolved from that point had Adrian Williams done his duty.  . 

But the person I feel the most sorrow for today is Tyra's mother Margie Hunter.  She lost her child who should still be standing on this planet.   That 50th and C street corner would claim two more young Black trans lives seven years later on the date of Tyra's funeral.  

And sadly, on this date in 2013 we are still losing young Black transwomen to anti-trans hate and violence.

And I want it to stop.   

'Girl Meets World' Is A Go!

For those of you who grew up in the 90's, one of the iconic shows for you was Boy Meets World.  And yes, it was one of my guilty pleasure shows I enjoyed watching.

During its seven year run on ABC from 1993-2000 you got to follow Cory Matthews and his friends coming of age stories from their middle school years to their time at John Adams High and into college.  

You watched Cory's friendship with Topanga Lawrence blossom into a romance in which she eventually became his wife, but not without some bumps along the way including a breakup and her family's move to Pittsburgh.   You also got to watch Topanga as she morphed from being an eccentric hippie child to a mature, calm and collected young woman.

Rumors began flying in late 2012 about a possible spinoff to the show focusing on Cory and Topanga's 12 year old daughter Riley and her best friend Maya.  

The rumors and buzz got even more intense when Danielle Fishel and Ben Savage confirmed in November 2012 they would be reprising their Cory and Topanga roles for the pilot episode and Rowan Blanchard and Sabrina Carpenter were cast for the roles of Riley and Maya.  

William Daniels, AKA Mr. Feeny also made an appearance in the pilot episode.

As for as the other Boy Meets World cast, they are in various stages of talks with the producers to eventually make appearances on this show.   The producers have give the old cast members open invitations to participate in the new show if they wish and wanted to save some surprises for that first season. 

But the producers, Disney and the old cast are united in their determination to have Girl Meets World be the same type of quality show for this generation of kids that they enjoyed doing for the kids of the 90's.

Unlike Boy Meets World, which was set in Philadelphia, Girl Meets World is set in New York. Cory is now a history teacher with two of the students he is teaching being his daughter and Maya.

As for Topanga, she transitioned from a law career for life as an entrepreneur running a popular pudding shop that serves as a hangout for Riley and her friends. 

Riley will also have an older brother named Elliot and a potential love interest of her own in Tristan Friar, a transfer student from Texas.

Production on the series has already started in Los Angeles with the first episodes scheduled to air on Disney Channel in 2014.  

Here's hoping Girl Meets World does justice to the original show and lasts just as long as the original did.