Trans Pioneer JoAnn Roberts Dies

I was shocked and saddened to read the TG Forum and Chrysalis posts from Angela Gardner and Dallas Denny announcing the June 7 death of one of the pioneers in the trans community in JoAnn Roberts at age 65 due to lung cancer.

JoAnn Roberts was one of the five founders of the Pennsylvania based Renaissance Transgender Education Assn., the ill-fated GenderPac, and served on the boards of IFGE and AEGIS in which she was the board chair from 1992-1996.

She also was one of the persons who helped give us a major boost in the founding and formation of NTAC in 1999.

She was an early trans political activist and major leader during the renaissance of trans activism in the early 90's.  She authored the Bill of Gender Rights in December 1990 that was subsequently expanded into the International Bill of Gender Rights at the 1993 and subsequent ICTLEP conferences.

JoAnn appeared on many television shows to discuss our issues including the Donahue talk show and served as the founding owner/publisher of TGForum.

'Cousin JoAnn' as I affectionately referred to her as in addition to publishing 'Art and Illusion-A Guide To Crossdressing' also published a 'Who’s Who of the TG Community' and was the driving force for The Second International Congress on Crossdressing, Sex and Gender hosted by Renaissance in suburban Philadelphia in 1997.

I met JoAnn during the 1999 Southern Comfort Conference.  I have fond memories of sitting outside the Buckhead area hotel that used to host SCC with her, Polar, Pam Geddes and Dawn Wilson drinking a 21 year old bottle of scotch while discussing a wide range of subjects.  

Our conversation was interrupted when the chartered bus arrived from an SCC convention excursion to an Atlanta club called the Chamber.  The persons on the bus began stumbling off of it in various stages of inebriation and hilariously and unsteadily attempted to negotiate in their 5 inch heels the distance from the spot where the bus was parked to the hotel's front door..

She had wound down her interaction with the trans community in recent years to spend more time with her family and work on her beloved model train set when she was diagnosed with cancer in February.  

She'd undergone chemotherapy treatment that appeared to successfully halt the cancer spread in her lungs and liver.  Radiation treatments were begun to deal with a tumor on her spine but were halted last week when it was determined that the tumor there had spread and she opted for hospice care where she passed away on June 7.

There is a Facebook page that has been set up to commemorate her life and in which people who knew JoAnn can pay their respects.  But I'm sad to report that one of the early leaders in the American trans community and a trans community pioneer has moved on.

Rest in peace JoAnn, you will be missed. 

Rest In Peace, Marcelle Cook-Daniels

I've been thinking about him recently, and when I Googled his name I stumbled across the obituary that reminded me on this date in 2000 the African-American and national trans community lost one of its major pioneering leaders in the person of Marcelle Y. Cook-Daniels. Cook-Daniels was born in Washington DC on March 1, 1960 where he resided until he moved to Vallejo, CA in 1996.  Marcelle worked for the Internal Revenue Service and a computer programmer/analyst and for Norcal Mutual Insurance.

He was also diligently working toward obtaining his masters degree in computer science at Golden Gate University. 

Marcelle during that time period was one of our early national transmasculine African-American  activists and leaders.  He was a quiet, principled and dedicated man who labored tirelessly to raise awareness about trans and LGB issues. 

He role modeled his personal values of family love, commitment, honesty, openness, and public service through being a loving son to his mother Marcella Daniels, supporting his longtime life partner of seventeen years Loree Cook-Daniels, and being a devoted father to his son Kai Cook-Daniels.

Marcelle's education and advocacy work on behalf of our community included presentations at the 1999 Creating Change Conference in Oakland (where our paths crossed but I sadly never met him), the 1998 "Butch-FTM: Building Coalitions Through Dialogue" event, several True Spirit Conferences, and numerous educational and advocacy events.

Marcelle was interviewed and photographed for the 'Love Makes A Family" book; the Dawn Atkins' book "Looking Queer: Body Image and Identity in Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay and Transgender Communities," and "In The Family" magazine.

He was an active supporter of COLAGE (Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere) and provided substantial material and volunteer support to the Transgender Aging Network, four True Spirit conferences, and the Maryland based transmasculine group The American Boyz that eventually folded.

He sadly lost his ongoing struggle with depression and took his own life.  His memorial service on April 26 was attended by family, friends, colleagues and all the people whose lives he'd touched during his 40 years with us. 

For you trans men who never had the opportunity to meet Marcelle, you definitely would have liked and admired him.  You are building upon the work he started and are walking in his footsteps, and I'm writing this post on the anniversary of his death to ensure that his contributions toward building the United States trans and transmasculine communities are never forgotten or disappear.    

Marcelle, you are still missed by all the people who had the pleasure of knowing you.  I'm saddened it didn't happen for us while I was in Oakland for Creating Change.  I hope as you look down upon us you are pleased to see the trans and SGL rights progress we have made since 2000, especially in your hometown of Washington DC and the state of California.

While we still have much work to do, your trans brothers and sisters are laboring mightily to live up to the high standards you set for us.  I still wonder at times how much farther down the path of trans human rights coverage we would be if you and Alexander John Goodrum were still here and had the opportunity to mentor mine and this current generation of transmasculine and transfeminine activists.

Rest in peace Marcelle, and say hello to Alexander for us.    

Phil Donahue Trans Shows

Phil Donahue's talk show based out of Chicago started in 1970 and was the gold standard in that genre for years.  Phil had the number one rated talk show in the 80's and early 90's before Oprah took that title away and his show canceled in 1996. 

He was one of the first talk show hosts to discuss trans issues and for the most part did so without sensationalizing it. 

These shows were a huge assist in terms of me and other trans people during that time trying to gather information on trans issues during the pre-Internet era.   However, watching them with our second decade of the 21st century evolution on these issues and terms we use in the community now can be grating on your nerves at times.

But peeps, this is what we had to work with at the time  .

This show on trans people and their families was broadcast in 1987



One with trans teen Angie Roberts



Phil's 20th anniversary show with clips starting at the :25 mark of transpeople being interviews.

Trans History Moment: The Anti-Trans Michigan Womyn's Music Festival

If you're wondering why  this issue between girls like us and the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival keep popping up repeatedly, it's time for another trans history moment. 

Cristan Williams has a Transadvocate post up in which Nancy Burkholder tells the story about the 1991 night in which she was thrown off 'The Land'.

Here's an excerpt from it.

While I waited for Laura to return I was approached by two women, Chris Coyote and Del Kelleher. Chris said that she needed to speak with me regarding a serious and difficult matter. Sensing her urgency I suggested we move away from the women near the fire pit in order to talk privately. Chris said that the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival was a woman-only event and she wanted to know if I was a man. I replied that I was a woman and I showed her my NH picture ID driver’s license. Then she asked me if I was a transsexual. I asked her what was the point of her questioning and she replied that transsexuals were not permitted to attend the festival. She said that MWMF policy was that the festival was open to “natural, women-born-women” only. I replied that nowhere, in any festival literature or the program guide was that policy stated. I asked Chris to please verify that policy and she went to the office to contact the festival producers, Lisa Vogel and Boo Price. Sometime during this conversation I waved Laura to come over and she witnessed much of what transpired.

I continued speaking with Del. Del stated that the reason the policy was not in any literature was because the issue of transsexuals had never come up as a problem before. Del added that the policy was for the benefit of the transsexuals’ safety and the safety of the women attending the festival. When I pointed out that there were other transsexuals on the land she acknowledged that this was true. Then she added, ‘We haven’t caught them yet, but we did catch you.”

I could care less about the MWMF and have no desire to sitting in the woods in Hart, MI swatting mosquitoes for a concert.  But neither am I going to stand idly by and allow the rabid TERF ideological driven ignorance and transphobia of MWMF and its not anywhere in print anti-trans exclusion policy to keep transwomen who do want to experience the event away from it.

You can read the rest of the post here.

Happy Jimmy Carper Day!

From November 1999 to September 2001 I got to spend some late Saturday-early Sunday AM mornings at the KPFT-FM studios sitting next to Jimmy Carper as a rotating co-host for After Hours. 

KPFT-FM is our local Pacifica Radio outlet with its studios still in the middle of the Montrose gayborhood.  I had a lot of fun doing that 'Queer Radio With Attitude' show especially since I was fulfilling a dream of actually being on the air. 

The best part of the deal of being Jimmy's co-host is I got to say whatever I wanted and what was on my mind about politics, the community or whatever was LGBT related as long as I didn't violate FCC regulations.

And yeah, I did introduce his listeners to some R&B artists who were rainbow family as well since he only played LGBT artists during the time After Hours ran from 1-4 AM. 

Jimmy is a beloved figure in the Houston rainbow community and LGBT radio circles, and Mayor Annise Parker declared March 10, 2013 as 'Jimmy Carper Day'.

Congrats to my old radio bud for the honor... 
 

The Best Man 2 Coming November 2013!

I wrote about it back in October 2011 when the news first broke that one of my fave movies, The Best Man is about to get a sequel.  

After the initial burst of excitement from fans of the movie like myself, hearing that Malcolm D. Lee would be writing and directing it, and hearing the entire cast wanted to reprise their roles, all we were waiting for was the date we would need to be at the multiplex for its premiere.

Seemed like that would be a no brainer decision to greenlight it since the original movie grossed $35 million, it has a huge fanbase, and a cast made up of Taye Diggs, Nia Long, Sanaa Lathan, Terrence Howard, Morris Chestnut, Monica Calhoun, Harold Perrineau and Melissa De Souza we all want to see in some new situations post that wedding weekend.  

Well, the film has finally been greenlighted by Universal and the untitled Best Man 2 sequel will be at your local multiplex on November 15, 2013.

So yeah, we'll finally get to find out what happened to Mia, Lance, Jordan, Harper, Robin, Murch, Quentin and the woman they all loathed, Shelby.

As of yet no details on the basic story or trailers have been released, but you know when that finally happens I'll post that info here on the blog.

Trans History-Roberta Close

Contrary to this article implying that trans models like Lea T, Felipa Torres and Carol Marra are some 21st century twist to the Brazilian modeling scene, that isn't the case.  There was a trans woman strutting the catwalks in Brazil and elsewhere in the world back in the 80's.

This latest group of twentysomething Brazilian models need to bow down and recognize their trans sister who paved the way for them to be able to strut those catwalks in Rio, New York, Milan and Paris.

The pioneering transwoman in question is Roberta Gambine Moreira, who was born on this date in 1964 in Rio de Janiero.  

Known professionally as Roberta Close, she started surreptitiously taking hormones in her teens and began her modeling and film career at age 17.

The 5'10 1/2" beauty won the Miss Gay Brazil pageant at age 20, appeared in a popular Brazilian soap opera and print ads. 

She was the first trans woman to appear on the cover of Brazilian Playboy (while preoperative), and hosted a late night talk show in her homeland.  Even though she was comfortable with her pre-op status during that time period, she eventually had SRS in Britain in 1989, appeared in a post-operative photo spread in the  Brazilian mens magazine Sexy and was voted the 'Most Beautiful Woman In Brazil'.

In 1993 she married her Swiss manager, Roland Granacher, in Europe since in Roman Catholic Brazil she wasn't able to do so.



She also fought a lengthy legal battle in the Brazilian court system to challenge the laws that refused to recognize her femininity in her documentation.  She lost an initial round in 1997 and another in 2003, but eventually won her case to have her birth documentation changed.

On March 4, 2005, Roberta Close acquired legal status as a female in Brazil after Judge Leise Rodrigues de Lima Espiritu Santo of the 9th Family Court of Rio de Janeiro legally recognized her as a woman.

Roberta Close is the reason that the current crop of Brazilian trans models have their opportunities to make it in the fashion world today, and hope these 21st century ladies appreciate the barriers Roberta broke down for them.


   

The Second Annual TransGriot 'A Different World Trivia Quiz-The Answers

Okay TransGriot readers, did you have fun racking your brains trying to find the answers to this year's edition of the TransGriot A Different World Quiz or did you wimp out and wait for me to post the answers?  If you did, shame on you.

Here's the answers to those questions I posted Monday as promised. 

1. Name the artists who sang the theme songs for 'A Different World'.
Phoebe Snow, Aretha Franklin, and Boys II Men

2.What was the name of Whitley and Kim's sorority on the show?
Alpha Delta Rho 

3.What year did Kim pledge under Whitley?
1991

4. What state was Jaleesa from?
New Jersey

5. What was the name of Whitley's therapist who always urged her clients to 'Relax, relate & release? (extra credit point if you can name who played her).
Dr. Langhorne and Debbie Allen played her

6.How long did Kinu and Dwayne date before their break up?
six months

7.True or False. Colonel Taylor was chairman of the math department at Hillman
True

8.What were the nicknames Adele Wayne had for her husband and son Dwayne?
Woodchuck and Chipmunk

9 What was the name of the dream man Dwayne created for his radio shows leading up to Valentine's Day?
Darrell Walker

10. True or False.  Before Ron O'Neal began playing Whitley's father Judge Mercer Gilbert, he played a dean in season one. 
True

11.Who was the Gilbert Hall dorm director in Season 1?
 Stevie Rallen

12.Dwayne spent the summer working as an intern for Kinishewa Electronics in what Canadian cities?
Toronto and Montreal  

13.What city was Lena James from?
A Philadelphia B New York  C Washington DC  D Baltimore

14. True or False.  Whitley won the Miss Hillman title.
False

15.Which one of these is NOT a Hillman college dorm?
A Libbey Hall, B Gilbert Hall, C Douglass Hall, D Height Hall

16. What was the name of Ron Johnson's baby sister?
Rachel, played by Senait Ashenafi

17.True or False.  A Different World was the number one rated show among African-American viewers in the 1990-91 and 1991-92 television seasons.
True

18. What was the name of Walter's charitable foundation that he founded? 
Operation Outreach
 
19.  Which one of these actors or actresses did NOT play a Hillman College professor on the show? 
A Whoopi Goldberg    B. Keenen Ivory Wayans    C. Leslie Uggams   D. Clifton Davis

20  What was the full name of the club that Ron and Mr. Gaines co-owned?
The Place Where The Blues Shall Be Played.

21. What was Terrence's line name when he pledged Kappa Lambda Nu under Ron?
Little Brother No Play

22. What political office was Byron Douglas running for in Virginia? 
state senator

23. What historical event coincided with Whitley and Dwayne's honeymoon?
The 1992 LA riots

24  In addition to his son Terrence, Colonel Taylor had another child who attended Hillman.  Who was she?.
His daughter Suzanne

25  What was Adele Wayne's favorite dessert she loved to cook for Dwayne?
prune cobbler

Now that you've taken the test, how did you do?

0-5     Hillman freshman
6-10   Hillman sophomore
11-14 Hillman junior
15-18 Hillman senior
19-21 Hillman BA
22-23 Hillman Masters
24-25 Hillman PhD

The Second Annual TransGriot 'A Different World' Trivia Quiz

Today is the 25th anniversary of the first broadcast of A Different World on this date in 1987.   Some interesting news is developing about this groundbreaking show in terms of the fact that Debbie Allen is interested in rebooting it and putting it back on the air.  

And naw Carsey-Werner, I still haven't forgotten along with the legions of fans of this show that you haven't released Seasons 2-6 of A Different World to DVD.   What's up with that?

While we're waiting for the outcome of that and Debbie Allen's effort to revive the show, I'm going to give you loyal TransGriot readers an opportunity to tackle the second annual edition of my TransGriot 'A Different World' Trivia Quiz.   If you want to try to tackle last year's quiz, here it is.   I'll give y'all three days like last year to ponder it before I publish the answers in a separate blog post.

Have fun and note it's an open book Internet test.

1. Name the artists who sang the theme song for 'A Different World'.


2.What was the name of Whitley and Kim's sorority on the show?


3.What year did Kim pledge under Whitley?


4. What state was Jaleesa from?


5. What was the name of Whitley's therapist who always urged her clients to 'Relax, relate & release? (extra credit point if you can name who played her).


6.How long did Kinu and Dwayne date before their break up?

7.True or False. Colonel Taylor was chairman of the math department at Hillman


8.What were the nicknames Adele Wayne had for her husband and son Dwayne?


9 What was the name of the dream man Dwayne created for his radio shows leading up to Valentine's Day?


10. True or False.  Before Ron O'Neal began playing Whitley's father Judge Mercer Gilbert, he played a dean in season one. 


11.Who was the Gilbert Hall dorm director in Season 1?

12.Dwayne spent the summer working in an internship for Kinishewa Electronics in what Canadian cities?


13.What city was Lena James from?
A Philadelphia B. New York  C. Washington DC  D. Baltimore

14. True or False.  Whitley won the Miss Hillman title.


15.Which one of these is NOT a Hillman college dorm?
A Libbey Hall, B Gilbert Hall, C. Douglass Hall, D. Height Hall

16. What was the name of Ron Johnson's baby sister?


17.True or False.  A Different World was the number one rated show among African-American viewers in the 1990-91 and 1991-92 television seasons.


18. What was the name of Walter's charitable foundation that he founded? 


19.  Which one of these actors or actresses did NOT play a Hillman College professor on the show? 

A Whoopi Goldberg    B. Keenen Ivory Wayans    C. Leslie Uggams   D. Clifton Davis

20  What was the full name of the club that Ron and Mr. Gaines co-owned?


21. What was Terrence's line name when he pledged Kappa Lambda Nu under Ron?

22. What political office was Byron Douglas running for in Virginia? 


23. What historical event coincided with Whitley and Dwayne's honeymoon?


24  In addition to his son Terrence, Colonel Taylor had another child who attended Hillman.  Who was she?.


25  What was Adele Wayne's favorite dessert she loved to cook for Dwayne?
.

****

You may start the quiz.  I'll give y'all until midnight CDT on the 27th to come up with the answers on your own..


.

The Ricki Lake Show Is Back!

Back in 1993 Ricki Lake kicked off her popular syndicated television talk show that lasted 11 years before it ended. 

The then 24 year old quickly garnered a loyal young adult audience hungry for a talk show that discussed the issues of the day from their generational perspective. 

She's pondered getting back into the talk show arena ever since her first show ended in 2004 

Today, The Ricki Lake Show returns to television with a Ricki Lake that is two decades older later this month and has gone through marriage, divorce, raising kids and remarriage.  

The new show is different from the 90's version. According to 20th Television, the new show "will present topical conversation reflecting Ricki's own personal journey and recent life experiences. As her fans have grown up with Ricki, a combination of relevant themes personal to the host and her audience including family, marriage, parenting, divorce, weight loss and overall well-being are being explored for the program. 

"I have a specific point of view and a vision and a sense of who I am at this point in my life," she said in a recent interview. "Not that I have it all figured out, but growth comes with age and life experience."

The show has been taping episodes since July 25 and is already getting positive buzz and PR.  Some of her fans who remember the old show will probably tune in to see what the new Ricki show is like.

It comes on at noon CDT here in Houston, and it will be interesting to see if Ricki Lake v. 2.0 is as much of a ratings success as her previous show was. 

Bennigan's Is Back In H-town!

One of my fondest memories of the 80's and 90's was hanging out at Bennigan's.   When I wasn't scarfing up their food and having drinks there as well, I was soaking up the atmosphere.  

There were two of the then 20 locations in Houston that regularly got me to part with my money.  One of them was located on Loop 610 by the Astrodome and the other was by my old apartment on Bissonnet.   It was across the street from the Pappas Barbecue location I was on a first name basis with most of the staff who worked there during the 90's.  

That's another post.  This one's about my love affair with Bennigan's.

The Bennigan's on Loop 610 got the nickname of 'Black Bennigan's' by me and my friends at the time for an obvious reason.  It was a short drive from Third Ward, South Park and the nearby condo and apartment complex filled neighborhood chock full of Buppies and young professionals.  If you said you wanted to eat at Bennigan's and the answer to the 'which one?' question came back "Black Bennigan's", you knew immediately which direction to point the car and drive. 

That particular Bennigan's was more fun at times than paying $5 cover to go to any club and was always packed.  There were times when the restaurant would be closed at 2 AM and people would still be hanging out in the parking lot until 3 AM.

There were more than a few times I hung out at the 610 location with friends during the 80's.  When I moved to my new Bissonnet and Beltway 8 southwest Houston neighborhood in 1991, one of the reasons I picked it was because my apartment complex was less than two blocks walking distance from that Bissonnet Bennigan's location..

That particular location liked to put Rockets and later Comets games on their televisions, and when the Rockets won their 1994 NBA title I was sitting there cheering with everyone else when it happened. 

So when I moved back to Houston, I was shocked to learn that all 20 Houston Bennigan's locations closed when the chain went through bankruptcy in 2008.  I still get depressed when I pass by the old Loop 610 location that had been bought and remodeled into a Mexican food chain restaurant.  

Was estatic to learn that Bennigan's is reentering the Houston market and the new franchisee is planning to open up to 10 restaurants around the Houston area.  That's half of the total that were around prior to the 2008 bankruptcy, but it's better than not having any here at all  .   

And yes, for those of you who loved the Monte Cristo sandwich, it's still on the menu. 

It's ICTLEP's 20th Anniversary!

Twenty years ago this month at a southwest Houston Hilton hotel in August 1992 a groundbreaking event occurred that not only laid the foundation for trans human rights law and employment policy, it sowed the seeds that resulted in a trans inclusive ENDA and the EEOC trans ruling.

The conference was called the International Conference on Transgender Law and Employment Policy, and it was created by Judge Phyllis Frye, 'the grandmother of the trans rights national transgender legal and political movement' to bring activists together to discuss transgender equality legislation seriously needed in the areas of housing, insurance, probate, employment, healthcare, military service, as well as criminal and family law..     

The first of six annual ICTLEP conferences were held in Houston and I first became aware of it not long after I began my own transition in April 1994.  Unfortunately my work schedule at the time kept me from going to the 1995, 1996 and 1997 ICTLEP conferences as my desire to get more politically involved in fighting for trans human rights increased.

ICTLEP was born out of Phyllis' idea in 1991 to start a moveable transgender conference specifically targeting transgender law issues.   The Gulf Coast Transgender Community (GCTC) group of which Phyllis was vice president at the time was receptive to the idea when she presented it to the GCTC board in early 1992 and provided funding for it.  

Since this was the pre-Internet days, mailing lists and ads were the primary way to get the word out about events in the trans community and we were fortunate in the Lone Star State to have one of the then biggest trans themed events happening in San Antonio in the Texas T-Party 


The Texas T-Party was organized by Linda and Cynthia Phillips and was drawing upwards of 300 people from Texas and around the country to come to the San Antonio area based event.  Its mailing list was vital in publicizing the nascent ICTLEP conferences and the Phillpses made sure when Judge Frye attended the T-Party she always got T-Party workshop space, waived fees, and brochures placed in all of the Phillips mail-outs.

“Without the Texas T-Party, I would have only reached half of the people I reached,” says Frye in a recent OutSmart magazine interview..



The first ICTLEP conference was a success and led to five other events based in Houston as well. 

Out of those ICTLEP events came not only papers such as the International Bill of Gender Rights and countless others that are the basis for much of the legal principles and policies we fight for as trans activists today, it also provided the means to train the early activists who later passed on the lessons and training they learned at the six ICTLEP conferences to people like myself who came on board starting in 1998 and later.  ICTLEP also led to our inclusion in the National LGBT Bar Association and their trans inclusive stances. 

So yes, it's past time we recognize ICTLEP's critical role in providing the foundations for us to build the modern trans rights movement and salute the 20th anniversary of the first ICTLEP conference this month.