It's Black History Month 2015

February 1 in addition to being Super Bowl Sunday is also the first day of Black History Month.

One of the missions of this blog has been to find those nuggets of Black Trans history and talk about them because it is important for you peeps to know it.

May even throw another TransGriot Black Trans History Quiz at you before this month is over.

Here's a sample question for you get to get you ready for it:

50 years ago this event took place in Philadelphia.  What was it?

It's an open Internet and TransGriot blog test and will help you get your Black trans history learn on.  And FYI, Black trans history is also being made in the 2K10's.



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Trans Pride Flag History

One of my Facebook friends asked the question in one of our discussions, "Who came up with the design for the trans pride flag?"   She was referring to the pink, blue and white striped flag that has come into widespread adoption and usage by many trans communities around the world as a symbol of our community

Since it has been almost 15 years since its creation, and I know the person who created it, I thought this would be a great time for a history lesson on the trans pride flag.

That's your cue to have a seat, because TransGriot history class is now in session.   

The transgender pride flag was created in August 1999 by Monica Helms and has five horizontal stripes.  Two stripes are blue ones, two stripes are pink ones and a white center stripe.  

As for their meaning, Helms described it this way in an interview:  "The stripes at the top and bottom are light blue, the traditional color for baby boys. The stripes next to them are pink, the traditional color for baby girls. The stripe in the middle is white, for those who are intersex, transitioning or consider themselves having a neutral or undefined gender. The pattern is such that no matter which way you fly it, it is always correct, signifying us finding correctness in our lives"

The Helms trans pride flag was first publicly unfurled at a Phoenix, AZ pride parade in 2000.   It is not only the original flag, it is the one that is in widespread usage around the planet. 

When Equality House in Topeka, KS was painted in honor of TDOR last year, it was done in the colors of the Helms trans pride flag

A large version of it was recently unfurled and flown last year for the first time on the large public flagpole in San Francisco's Castro District for Transgender Day of Remembrance on November 19-20.

Trans pride flag variants have popped up in Ontario and in Israel, but the Helms trans pride flag was the first and is increasingly becoming the most widely used one around the world.

The 4th Annual TransGriot Black Trans History Quiz

Yes, Black transpeople have a history, and it's vitally important that we know that history and pass it on to each other, our cis brothers and sisters  and future generations. 

But history isn't just for remembering the past accomplishments, we also have people who are making trans history right now.

Since it's Black History Month, time to emphatically make that point as I have done every year since 2011 when I created the first TransGriot Black Trans History Quiz.    The positive response to it was so gratifying I decided to make this a permanent blog feature.  The second edition in 2012 and the third edition soon followed. 

Now it's time for my 4th annual TransGriot Black Trans History Quiz.  It's an open internet test, and you have a few days to mull it over before I post the answers next week in a separate post that I'll eventually link to this one. 

And now, here's the 4th Annual TransGriot Black Trans History Quiz.

***


1. True or False   When last year's Trans 100 List was unveiled, there were 11 African American trans women and four African American trans men honored on it.   

2.  Which one of these is NOT a BTAC Conference award? 

A. Monica Roberts Advocacy Award
B  Kortney Ryan Ziegler Awareness Award
C  Carter Brown Transman Of The Year 
D  Kylar Broadus Equality Award  
E.  Louis Mitchell Empowerment Award  

3.  What Black transman and Black transwoman were named to the Out 100 List for 2013?

4   This transwoman from Toledo became the first ever trans athlete in her sport.  Who is she and name the sport.  

5  Blake Brockington became the first ever Black trans masculine to accomplish this feat.   What was his history making accomplishment?

6. This transman born in Houston was a popular gospel singer from the 40s-70's.  What was his name? 

7. Laverne Cox says she prefers to think of herself as this term.  What is it? 

8. True or False  Dee Dee Chamblee was named a Champion of Change in 2011 by President Obama.

9   Name the transperson who was the first ever to receive a GLAAD Media Award nomination for Outstanding Blog.
 
10   True or False.  Video blogger Diamond Stylz was the plaintiff in a court case to allow her to wear her dress to her high school's prom.

11. Who said this quote? "More than I’m a trans man, I’m a Black man. Many of the things that I see in the world and many of the things that I respond to in the world have more to do with how I am treated as a Black man rather than how I am treated as a trans man."

12   Audrey Mbugua filed a lawsuit to get the National Examinations Council in this nation to change the records to reflect who she is now.   What is that nation?

13.  Who said this quote?  “Our lives, the path we feel we have to take is a challenge. We are voluntarily accepting the role of Public Enemy No. 1: The black man is the most feared man in America."

14.  Houston's Dee Dee Watters last year became the first trans person ever to organize an African American themed version of this trans community event.  What was it? 

A.  A trans feminine summit
B.  A TDOR memorial
C.  A statewide trans conference
D.  A Transgender Day of Visibility

15.  The inaugural Trans* H4CK organized by Dr. Kortney R. Ziegler took place in this city.

A  San Francisco
B  San Jose
C  Berkeley
D. Oakland
 
16  Angolan musical star Titica was named a Goodwill Ambassador by this agency last year.  Name the agency.
 
17  Who said this quote?  "I'm a woman in mind, heart and spirit. That's all that matters. They can cut things off, paste things on, or reconfigure my body parts. If you're a woman, you're a woman. Period"

18. True or False.  A Black trans feminine student has never been named as her schools homecoming or prom queen.

19   How many ESSENCE magazine covers did trans model Tracy Africa Norman shoot? 

20.  Jordana LeSesne, Honey Dijon Redmond and Zoe Renee Lapin all have this in common.  What is that common denominator? 

21   Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P Johnson co-founded this organization in 1970.  Name it.

22.  This trans musician played tours with Whitney Houston, the Isley Brothers and several other major artists.  Name her.  

23   Who said this quote? "“They wanted to force me to be someone that I wasn’t. They wanted me to delegitimize myself as a trans woman — and I was not taking that. As a trans woman — as a proud black trans woman — I was not going to allow the system to delegitimize and hyper-sexualize and take my identity away from me.”
 
24.  The murder of this Boston area African-American transwoman in 1998 was the impetus to start the Transgender Day of remembrance that occurs every November 20.  Name the transwoman.

25.  Trans pioneer Gloria Allen in 2012 was teaching charm school classes for trans youth at the Center on Halsted in what city?

 

Georgina Beyer Being Honored At Upcoming NZ Fundraiser

Georgina Beyer will go down in history as the world's first trans mayor and first trans MP, but has been battling chronic kidney failure that requires her to do dialysis four times a day as she awaits a kidney transplant.  

With her 56th birthday approaching on November 14, people from across the New Zealand political spectrum and the TBLG community will gather at The James Cabaret in Wellington from 6:30-11:30 PM local time to celebrate the life of Ms. Beyer, her birthday and raise funds to help support her while continues her quest to recover from her health challenge.

Event organizer Jo Paku said in a GayNZ.com report the event is also about formally recognizing the work Beyer has done in shaping New Zealand’s political and social landscape, and the positive impacts that she has had on the global stage.


“She has been an inspiration to many lives through her work with community organizations, local and central Government and her commitment to art, culture and heritage,” Paku says.


“It is her unique story that we are paying homage to, as well as commemorating her 56th birthday.

Yes, she has not only been an inspiration to people ion New Zealand, she's been an inspiration to transpeople around the world.  Beyer's historic November 1999 win has spurred transpeople in several nations to run for public office with mixed levels of success.

Get well soon Ms Beyer and hope that fundraiser is megasuccessful.

Use Our Black Trans History Posted Here To 'Ejumacate' Folks

"One of my favorite parts about TransGriot is when you showcase some of our trans history.  It opens my eyes to a world in the past that I can't imagine living in. From Lady Java to Lucy Hicks Anderson, I appreciate knowing that we didn't just pop up in the millennium. We have been here fighting. It shows me that I have been handed a torch and I need to continue running with the torch." --Diamond Stylz  October 26,.2011

One of the things I get a lot of love and appreciation for (and requests to do more of) are the posts scattered through the almost 7000 TransGriot posts here I've written about Black trans history makers, the events we've had a hand in shaping, compiling interviews of Black trans people and chronicling our accomplishments here and across the African Diaspora.

I even have a post at EBONY.com talking about it.

I recently added a trans history one about Wilmer 'Little Axe' Broadnax, a trans man who was a major gospel singer in the 40's, 50's and 60's and more are forthcoming.   The Broadnax story also drives home the point I repeatedly make on this blog, at my panel discussions, seminars and during my keynote speeches that Black transpeople are woven into the kente cloth fabric of African-American life and we aren't going away. .

The inspiration for this post is concerning something that happened two nights ago while I was burning the post midnight oil composing a few future TransGriot articles.  I had one browser window open on my Facebook page as usual and received a chat message from Diamond Stylz asking me what was the name of our trans sister who was a JET magazine beauty of the week. 

After I replied 'Ajita Wilson' and sent her the link to the post I wrote about her, she explained moments later why she asked. 

Diamond was approached online by a cis Black woman who wished to write a Buzzfeed post entitled '12 Reasons You'll Never Be A Jet Beauty Of The Week' that wanted to include the transphobic 'because you're a man'  line as one of them.  

Diamond not only schooled her on why that particular reason was not only problematic and insultingly transphobic, she used the link to my Ajita Wilson story to prove it was historically inaccurate and wrong.

Diamond then proceeded to use more of our trans history to point out the other things Black trans women have accomplished or are part of like being a state legislator (Althea Garrison), a major fashion model (Tracy Africa Norman), a writer, community leader and past editor of People.com (Janet Mock), helping jump off the Stonewall Riots and be a major early trans leaders (Marsha P. Johnson, Miss Major), help found organizations like A Dionne Stallworth and Dee Dee Chamblee, sing before a sitting US president (Tona Brown), be the first patient to go through the Johns Hopkins Gender program (Avon Wilson), help take down the odious LAPD Rule Number 9 (Lady Java), groundbreaking actress (Laverne Cox), fashion designer (Isis King), college professor and two time DNC convention delegate (Dr. Marisa Richmond), novelist Pamela Hayes, musicians across a wide range of musical genres from Jordana LeSesne, Koko Jones, Katey Red to the late T. Desiree Hines, attorneys like the late Dana Turner, ministers (Rev. Carmarion Anderson), up and coming activists like KOKUMO, trans elders such as Tracie Jada O'Brien, Cheryl Courtney-Evans and Gloria Allen, our Diaspora sisters Audrey Mbugua, Mia Nikasimo, Sahhara and some award winning trans blogger whose posts y'all will occasionally read.      

And that's before I even start talking about all the stuff Black transmen have done and are still accomplishing across the African Diaspora that deserves its own post like Marcelle Cook-Daniels, Alexander 'Bear' Goodrum, Kylar Broadus, Rev. Louis Mitchell, Dr. Kortney Ryan Ziegler, Carter Brown, Victor Mukasa and Skipper Mogapi just to name a few.   

When Diamond was through with cis homegirl she was shifting gears and asking her about doing an interview for a feminine empowerment blog she writes.

That's the power our Black trans history has.  It not only can 'ejumacate' and inspire us to do wonderful things, it also educates our own people who aren't aware of the Black trans community's accomplishments and us standing up for our human rights.  

It also tells the fascinating stories of people like Georgia Black, Lucy Hicks Anderson, Wilmer Broadnax, James 'Sweet Evening Breeze' Herndon and Jim McHarris who boldly lived their lives in an era which predates transgender being used to describe them.

They were simply living the best way they knew how their lives as the men and women they were created to be and insisted they were regardless of the genitalia configurations between their legs.

Much of the reason I compile Black trans history stories on this blog is to ensure they are documented and don't get forgotten, gayjacked or whitewashed.  The attempts to do that with the predominately African-American 1965 Dewey's Lunch Counter Sit In Protest in Philadelphia story have been made.  

It's here on the blog and I'll be adding more Black trans history stories as expeditiously as possible.

So use it trans people, allies and supporters to dispel the lie that we Black transpeople haven't contributed anything to the advancement of trans human rights, our people's advancement, aren't part of the Black community or made some history in our own right.

Use the Black trans history posted here to 'ejumacate' folks about our ongoing contributions to society here and across the Diaspora.

February 13, 1953

Today was the day 60 years ago that Christine Jorgenson stepped off a Scandinavian Airways flight from Copenhagen to Idlewild (now JFK) Airport in New York and into history as the first post World War II transperson. 

The news of her genital surgeries had already exploded into the international headlines in December 1952 It primed the pump for the media feeding frenzy that greeted the stylishly dressed 27 year old when she arrived on this side of The Pond.  


Some people argue that Christine Jorgensen's arrival in New York and her stylishly stepping off that SAS airplane are the opening moments of the sexual revolution in the United States.

What it did signify was that for transpeople, we now had a name for what was ailing us, a way to deal with it, and a person we could look up to as one of us who had successfully gone through the medical process.

So yes, we all walk in Christine Jorgensen's pumps. It was she who endured the stifling media scrutiny of being a transperson under the white hot glare of media publicity from the moment she stepped off the plane from Denmark on February 13, 1953 until she passed away in May 1989.

And because she did so, we exist today.   The ongoing education on trans issues began in the US at that moment and is still unfolding today. 

Take a moment today to say words of thanks for Christine Jorgensen.  Let's also strive in this 60th anniversary year of her arrival back on US soil to honor her memory by doing what we can to pave the way for the trans younglings who are depending on us, their trans elders, to make it easier for them to live their trans lives to their fullest potential.
 

The 3rd Annual African-American Trans History Quiz-The Answers

Well, did y'all have fun trying to answer the 3rd annual incarnation of the TransGriot African-American Trans History Quiz?    It was an open Internet test and I gave you the hint that some of the answer to these 25 questions were buried in previous TransGriot posts.

As promised the quiz answers, but gave y'all etra time and posted them at noon Central time Thursday..

***


1.  Kylar Broadus and Dr Marisa Richmond were two of the 13 delegates to this event that took place in Charlotte last summer.   Name the event.

The Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, NC

2. This Chicago activist wrote a one act play, organized a trans pride event and considers herself an 'artivist'  Who is she?

Kokumo Kinetic

3. This IFGE Trinity Award winner was appointed to this position in Washington DC.  Name the position.
Earline Budd,  human rights commissioner

4. True or False.  Janet Mock was invited to attend an LGBT reception at the Vice President's residence.

True

5.  The TransGriot was one of the participants in a historic event at last year's Netroots Nation.  What was it?

The first ever panel on trans issues 

6.  At  last year's NBJC OUT on the Hill their first ever trans town hall was conducted.  Who were the four participants in the town hall and who was the moderator of it?

Minister Carmarion Anderson, Danielle King, Valerie Spencer, the TransGriot and Laverne Cox was Moderator.

7. Rapper Katey Red made a cameo appearance on this HBO television show.  Name it.
Treme

8. According to a 1966 Sepia magazine article, who is considered the 'First Negro Sex Change"?

A. Avon Wilson                                C. Delisa Newton
B. Carlett Brown                              D. Carole Small

9. True or False.  Valerie Spencer was part of the first all trans production of The Vagina Monologues in 2004. 
True

10. Dee Dee Chamblee runs an organization called LaGender in this southern US city.   Name it.
It's in Atlanta

11. True or False.  Pioneering transman Alexander John Goodrum is from San Francisco.
False    He was from Chicago.   Moved to San Francisco and then Tuscon.  

12. Which one of these companies did Tracy Africa Norman NOT have a modeling campaign contract with during her heyday?

A. Clairol                                           C.  Ultra Sheen
B. Avon Cosmetics                             D.  Newport cigarettes

13.  True or False  Kortney Ryan Ziegler produced a 2008 film called 'Still Black: A Portrait Of Black Transmen'

True

14. Trans woman Georgia Black, whose story was chronicled in a 1951 EBONY article, lived in which Florida town?

A Sanford                                            C. Quincy
B Kissimmee                                        D. Tallahassee

15. Who said this in a 1954 EBONY magazine article?.  "I ain't done nothing wrong and I ain't beaking no laws"

Jim McHarris

16. In what year did Althea Garrison win her race for the Massachusetts state legislature?
1992

17. KK Logan took what Indiana city's school board to court for barring her from attending her 2006 high school prom in femme attire?

A. Ft Wayne                                         C. Indianapolis
B. Gary                                                 D. Evansville

18. True or False. The police investigation into the death of Stonewall veteran Marsha P. Johnson was reopened.
True

19. This trans woman is the author of the novels The Other Women: A Story Of Three Transsexuals, The Lie, Sex And the Single Transsexual, and Shattered Dreams: An African American Family Story.   Name her. 

Pamela Hayes

20.  T Desiree Hines is someone we just lost to cancer.  What instrument did this talented musician play?
the organ

21. Titica is a girl like us who is a rising music star in her nation's fusion of techno and rap called kuduro.   What nation is she from?
Angola

22. What transperson said this line?  'We transwomen aren't taking any crap anymore from cis people who seem to think we exist to be a punchline for a joke or to bully to make themselves feel more secure in their own gender identities and sexual orientation.'
The TransGriot

23   True or False: FTM International has had an African-American trans man run it.
True.  His name is Zion Johnson

24.  Trans actress Ajita Wilson accomplished this feat in August 1981?  What was it? 
Appeared in the August 24, 1981 issue as a JET Beauty of the Week

25.  An African-American trans woman and transman were two of the people photographed for a groundbreaking anti-trans discrimination poster campaign in this city.   Name the city.
Washington DC.


To those of you who actually tried to answer the questions, thanks.  For those of you who waited until Thursday to get the answers, shame on you...

But hope you enjoyed it and learned a little something about Black trans history.   The point I wanted to make that trans history is not just our past or the exploits of our heroes and sheroes, but is also being made in the present time as well.


We will be doing this again in 2014


 

Dissing Lee Brewster

Want to know why I can't stand the radfems, or as they are sometimes referred to in some online circles the TERF's?  (Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists).   I call them the Whyte Womyn Gone Wyld.

They have spent four decades of their vanillacentric cisprivileged time hating on transpeople and opposing our human rights, and as Cristan Williams points out once again in her latest post at Ehipassiko, those of us in the 2k10's aren't the only ones to have felt the ugliness of their transphobia.   Our pioneers Sylvia Rivera and Lee Brewster did so as well.

Here's a taste of Cristan's post:

I’ve noted before how RadFems inspired the violence inflicted upon Stonewall hero Sylvia Rivera. Until now, I wasn’t aware that their cruelty was extended to the transperson who coordinated and paid for overturning anti-gay NY laws:

Lee Brewster staged a number of actions designed to bring a case against NY so that Brewster could have NY’s anti-gay laws overturned. Have you ever wondered where the Mattachine Society’s money came from? That was Lee Brewster. Ever wonder where the cash came from to have the early 1960s national queer meetings? That was Lee Brewster. The cash for challenging anti-gay laws came from Lee too.

Any hope that giving a moment to Jean O’Leary and Sylvia Rivera would end this squall disappeared the moment Lee Brewster took the stage. He, too, was in full drag, with thick eye makeup, a lush blond wig tumbling over his shoulders and a queen’s crown resting on the wig. “I cannot sit and let my people be insulted,” Brewster said. “They’ve accused me of reminding you too many times that today you’re celebrating what was the result of what the drag queens did at the Stonewall. You go to bars because of what drag queens did for you, and these bitches”—he gestured to the lesbians—”tell us to quit being ourselves.” Vito Russo walked over to Brewster, slipped his arm around Brewster’s waist and whispered into his ear, but Brewster pushed him off.

You can read the rest of Christan's interesting look at our history.

TransGriot Note:  The portrait of Lee Brewster was by artist Vicki West.  Brewster ran Lee's Mardi Gras Boutique from 1968 until passing away in 2000.  And yep, I visited it on one of my New York trips in 1998 

Christine Jorgensen-Sixty Years Later

While Christine Jorgensen was quietly convalescing in a Danish hospital after the second of her genital surgeries on November 20, the news about her being the first post World War II transwoman was about to explode literally into New York's and eventually the world's consciousness.

Dr Magnus Hirschfeld and his Berlin institute had already done the first trans surgeries with Lili Elbe and 'Dorchen' back in 1930-31.  Christine was the first post World War II to do so after undergoing hormone replacement therapy under Dr. Christian Hamburger and his team.. 

On December 1, 1952 the headline for the New York Daily News blared 'EX-GI BECOMES BLONDE BEAUTY', thus triggering the ongoing fascination of America and the world with us transpeople.

That December 1952 headline knocked a nuclear test at Eniwetok Atoll off the front pages and also created a news feeding frenzy that only became more pronounced when then 27 year old Christine  returned home to New York on February 13, 1953.

It is a sixty year period that has seen surgery for transwomen evolve through the efforts of people such as Georges Bourou, Roberto Granato, Stanley Biber, Yvon Menard, Sanguan Kunaporn, and a girl like us in Marci Bowers.

It is also a period that has seen the knowledge of the medical and social side of transsexualty grow through the efforts of Harry Benjamin, organizations such as WPATH and in many cases, transpeople themselves.


Christine Jorgensen as our pioneering American transwoman would be followed by legions of other transwomen and transmen not only here, but around the world such as Great Britain's April Ashley and France's Coccinelle.   There were countless others who eventually had surgery and under the protocols of the time faded into society never to reveal their status as transwomen while other picked up the advocacy torch to fight for the human rights of people like themselves. 

Christine was the first to deal with trans celebrity status.  She navigated the media onslaught that greeted her upon her return to the States.  She wrote her life story in an autobiography that sits on my bookshelf now and became a movie.  She had a career in entertainment and Hollywood. She did the education at university campuses as a lecturer in the 1970's and 1980's.   She did the television interviews on the shows of the day such as Donahue and Dick Cavett .  She worked with the medical professionals of her time such as Dr. Harry Benjamin while living her life to best of her ability until she passed away in May 1989 of lung and bladder cancer the day before my 27th birthday. 

Christine also dealt with the societal frustrations that many transpeople still deal with today.   She was denied the opportunity to get married in 1959 because her birth certificte still had 'male' on it.  She was loved by some and vilified by others.  But she was happy and never regretted what she'd gone through to become a pioneering #girllikeus.

She also gave a name and a face to what people were suffering with and was the trans icon of many of my trans elders who were kids during that time period.  When Jorgensen passed away on May 3, 1989 in San Clemente, CA I was well into gathering information and making the moves to get hormones to facilitate my own transition that would happen for me in 1994.

Some people consider Christine Jorgensen's arrival in New York and her stylishly stepping off that SAS airplane from Copenhagen at what is now JFK airport the opening moments of the sexual revolution in the United States and there's a plausible argument that could be made for that.   

As she said in the film that was made several years before her death in which she returned to Denmark to reunite with the medical team that made her transition possible, "We didn't start the sexual revolution but I think we gave it a good kick in the pants!"

But Christine Jorgensen is also the starting point for our public fascination with and at times sixty year contentious discussion of transsexality on many levels   It's also the beginnings of a worldwide journey of discovery and evolution for those of us who are gender variant.   It also jump started the still evolving medical and societal thinking concerning gender identity and the causes and treatment of transsexuality.

And we transpeople owe a lot to her sixty years later for being courageous enough to start that journey.

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.


   

Happy Trans National Holiday 2012!

I call Halloween the 'Trans National Holiday' because its one of the times besides Mardi Gras when we could walk the streets as ourselves and not get hateraid directed at us.

While some people take the opportunity to dress up as their favorite horror movie character or whatever idea comes to their mind, many people in the trans community take the time to dress en femme or as drag kings.  

It's also the night that back in the day the elaborate drag balls would happen like the Finnies Ball on the South Side of Chicago, the events at Webster Hall and other venues in New York that had their roots in the Harlem Renaissance, and elsewhere in the country.   









Now the ballroom community ha picked up that torch, carried it into the 21st century and the legacy of those early balls lives on with them.

Sylvia Rivera 1973 Christopher Street Liberation Day Rally Speech

This is 1973 video of Sylvia Rivera speaking at the Christopher Street Liberation Day Rally despite attempts to silence her.   

She pushed her way past rainbow community transphobes determined to keep her off that stage and still managed to grab the mic, have her say and be heard that day over a crowd that was hatin' on her.  

That it the legacy that we trans activists living in the second decade of the 21st century must honor and live up to.

Here's the video of Sylvia's speech.

y'all better quiet down! from reina july on Vimeo.

Pivotal Trans Historical Events and Personalities

I have to thank Nephew (AKA Jaison Gardner) for giving me the idea for this post..   Since it's TBLG History Month, he'd asked the question on his Facebook page what people thought were some of the pivotal events, people, and cultural events in LGBT history.  

After contributing a few comments to the thread on Jaison's page I decided I needed to do something similar focusing on the trans end of the rainbow community historical spectrum.

I'll focus on the USA trans community in this one.   I'll do an international trans one as well.

Ahem. Let's get this historical party started shall we?

For our trans ancestors we still don't know about yet

Lucy Hicks Anderson


The February 1953 arrival in New York of Christine Jorgenson from Denmark which is the beginning of American media and international attention on trans people.

Carlett Brown's 1953 attempt to become the 'First Negro Sex Change"

The 1965 Dewey's Lunch Counter Sit In in Philadelphia, the first instance of a protest based on gender variant issues.

The Compton's Cafeteria Riot in 1966.

The trans initiated Stonewall Riots in 1969

Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson founding STAR (Street Transvestites Action Revolutionaries) in 1970

The 1976 MT vs JT case.

Renee Richards challenging the USTA in 1976 for the right to play in the US Open as a woman

Phyllis Frye beginning her role as the Grandmother of the trans rights movement with the August 1980 repeal of the Houston anti-crossdressing ordinance.

Althea Garrison becomes the first transperson to be elected to a state legislature in November 1992 when she wins her race for a Massachusetts House seat.

The 1994 Phyllis Frye led Trans Lobby Day in Washington DC that signals the reviving of trans political activism. 

1995 founding of GenderPAC

The Littleton v Prange Case in 1999

Kim Coco Iwamoto's 2006 election to the Hawaii State Board of Education

Vicky Kolakowski becoming the first out transperson elected to a judicial seat in 2010 (Alameda County, California).


The beginning of the Southern Comfort trans conference in Atlanta and its growth to become the largest trans conference by the close of the 20th century.

The 2005-2006 Transsistahs-Transbrothas Conferences in Louisville that led to other African-American themed trans conferences.

Jane Fee becoming the first transperson to attend a major political party convention at the 2000 DNC.

The DNC having 13 trans delegates in Charlotte. Dr. Marisa Richmond becoming the first African-American trans delegate to a DNC at the Denver one in 2008 and Kylar Broadus becoming the first African-American trans man delegate to the DNC in 2012

 Kye Allums becoming the first out transperson to compete at a Division I NCAA institution in 2010.

Keelin Godsey attempting to make the US Olympic team as an out trans athlete in 2008 and 2012


Will probably keep adding to this one..

Alexander Goodrum-Gone Ten Years

I'd been in Louisville just over a year on this date when Dawn told me the shocking news that Alexander John Goodrum was dead a few days short of his 42nd birthday on October 3.  

I had the sincere pleasure of meeting him during the 1999 Creating Change conference that took place in Oakland, and it was one of the first times since becoming a national activist I'd met one of our African-descended trans brothers and had a chance to talk about trans life and issues from their perspective. 

Alexander was a Chicago native and had been an activist in GLBT organizing and social justice issues since 1980 in Chicago, San Francisco and after moving there in 1996 in Tucson.   He'd been doing some trailblazing work for the trans human rights community and he was one of my early role models.  He was also one of the first people I met who identified with the bi end of it.

In addition to being a dynamic speaker, Goodrum also founded TGNet Arizona, was a board member on the Tucson GLBT Commission, and the Funding Exchange's OUT Fund, which allocates an annual grant named after Goodrum to LGBT community organizing projects.

Goodrum was instrumental in getting Tuscon to include gender identity in their non discrimination law in 1999, and wrote this paper that appears on the Southern Arizona Gender Alliance (SAGA)  website entitled Gender Identity 101-A Transgender Primer  

But what I and many folks in the national community didn't know about Alexander was he was dealing with some major personal issues that would unfortunately drive him to take his life on the morning of Saturday, September 28, 2002 while under observation at La Frontera Psychiatric Hospital in Tucson.

I couldn't make it to that October 5 memorial service that day, but there isn't a time when I don't think about that handsome smiling guy I met in Oakland that people called 'Bear' and wonder where our community would be on our human rights march if he were still around. 

It's been ten years since his untimely passing, and I definitely want to make sure we never forget this African descended trans man who was a major player in our Black trans history 

Black Trans History Compilations

Thanks for the love y'all have been sending me concerning the recent post I wrote concerning cult actress Ajita Wilson . I found it interesting that she was a #girllikeus and possibly the first trans Jet Beauty of the Week.

While I'm in the midst of a travel day (and see you in a few hours New Yorkers) thought I'd give y'all some more of our history to peruse.

Jowelle De Souza Trini Trans Pioneer

A Look At African American Trans Traliblazers

Black Trans History-Althea Garrison

We Black Trans People Need To Know Our Black Trans History

The Story of Carlett Brown

The Interesting Story Of Gerald Trenton

Sharon Franklin Brown's Story

Musing About Carole Small
Musing About Avon Wilson's Blended Life

Gayjacking and Whitewashing Philadelphia Trans History?

When we talk about erasure and gayjacking of trans history, this is how it happens.  

The Dewey's Lunch Counter Sit-In that occurred in April-May 1965 was the first protest organized around specifically trans issues, and it was done so predominately by Black trans people.  There have been attempts to whitewash this FUBU protest organized around African-American Civil Rights Movement principles as a Clark Polak-Janus Society production.    

Cei Bell wrote this letter to the editor in the Philadelphia Gay News concerning a story that the city is considering naming a section of Locust Street between 12th and 13th Streets for Barbara Gittings, who is considered the mother of the gay and lesbian movement. 

Last week, PGN published an article about Locust Street between 12th and 13th being renamed Barbara Gittings Way [“‘Gittings Way’ in the works,” June 22-28]. Malcolm Lazin, who proposed the renaming, referred to Gittings as the mother of the LGBT movement.

Just because something (or someone) is lesbian and gay doesn’t make it LGBT.

In the ’60s, when Gittings was one of the organizers of the Annual Reminders protest at Independence Hall, the point of the men dressing in suits and the women wearing dresses and carrying pocketbooks was they did not want drag queens, effeminate males and butch dykes — the homosexual stereotypes — at the protest. The reason effeminate males, drag queens and butch dykes were the stereotype is because they were the only people who were out of the closet. Rock Hudson certainly wouldn’t turn from kissing Doris Day and say, “I really want to suck tonsils with Troy Donahue!” That may have been the official moment that the movement began intentionally excluding and harassing gender-variant people out of the movement.

On the other hand, the earlier successful May 1965 sit-in demonstration by drag queens at Dewey’s (a restaurant at 17th and Chancellor streets where Little Pete’s is located) allowed straight-appearing gay men such as Clark Polak from the Janus Society and lesbians to join them. Social class may be the reason why the Independence Hall demonstrations by Gittings and others are promoted as historic while the earlier sit-in demonstration by drag queens at Dewey’s to be served has been ignored.

Bell asserts that in the 60's and 70's, 13th and Locust streets were multicultural hangouts for Philadelphia drag queens and transsexuals and suggests that the more apropos sections of Philadelphia streets for honoring Gittings would be Spruce between 13th and Juniper where the William Way GLBT Center sits, not the ones they are considering.

Sylvia Speaks

As in Sylvia Rivera, the mother of the trans rights movement.

Anna Grodzka Officially Makes History

The new session of the Polish parliament opened today with not only the first openly gay MP, Robert Biedron taking the oath of office but with Anna Grodzka becoming the first trans member.

Grodzka becomes only the third trans person worldwide after Georgina Beyer in New Zealand and Vladimir Luxuria in Italy to win election to her nation's highest legislative body. 

"It is a symbolic moment, but we owe this symbolism not to me but to the people of Poland because they made their choice," Grodzka told The Associated Press. "They wanted a modern Poland, a Poland open to variety, a Poland where all people would feel good regardless of their differences. I cannot fail them in their expectations."

Best of luck and much success to you MP Grodzka in representing your constituents and the trans community of Poland.

Putting Some Soul And The Capital 'T' In TBLG History Month

If you haven't heard, October is TBLG History Month in the US.   One of the things I'm going to be diligent about this month is not only ensuring that the trans community isn't erased, but the POC end of it isn't whitewashed out of the narrative.

So to get this party started I'm going to post links to previous Black Trans history posts I've written at TransGriot to make it easy to access them.

I'm also going to come out this month with new TransGriot Ten Questions interviews some of you have told me you want to see more of from our chocolate trans icons in addition to posting the previous ones..

The TransGriot is going to do her part to ensure that the 'T' is not only capitalized during this month, it has soul as well.

The First Annual TransGriot African-American Trans History Quiz

The 1965 Dewey's Lunch Counter Sit In

TransGriot GLBT History Links

This Is How Whitewashing Us Out Of GLBT History Begins

Trans Activism Is 'Too New'?  Bull Feces


African-American Transgender History 50's Style

Sir Lady Java-Trans Civil Rights Warrior

Black Trans History: Lucy Hicks Anderson

Devastating Ballroom Beauties

Where Africa?

Black Transpeople Are Making Black History, Too

Who Was The First African-American Transwoman?

Why Black Transgender Role Models Are Important