Going To Miss You, Nikki Araguz Loyd

Ironic that  I find myself on the day that we're having the viewing of  Nikki's body back home, I am in San Francisco, 122 miles from where she was born in Carmel, CA.

The viewing of her body is happening today, with the service happening tomorrow at the Humble Civic Center.   And I'm a little bummed that due to a previous commitment I must miss it.

Our Houston community woke up a week ago to the shocking news that Nikki Araguz Loyd had passed away at age 44.   We still as of yet don't know the cause of death, but what I can tell you is that even a week later, it is still sending shockwaves through me and everyone else in the Houston activist community who knew her.

I got to meet her in July 2010, not long after I moved back to Houston and the media firestorm around her marriage case was blowing up.  We became friends after a road trip I took with her to the northern Houston 'burbs. a month later

As I watched her ultimately successful precedent setting marriage case unfold, our friendship grew.

She knew I tended to be a loner at times, so she would unexpectedly show up at my place to pull my behind away from my computer and out of the apartment to do road trips with her and her bestie Meagan Gillett.   She and Meagan took me out for my birthday one year, and I was also present for an epic Thanksgiving dinner in 2015 and several more of her epic parties.

When I had drama in my life,  she was there helping me navigate through it.  I was also in her attorney's office when she won her case, and we subsequently rolled over to the Harris County Civil Courthouse to watch the now fired Harris County Clerk Stan Stanart try a last ditch resistance of the Obergefell ruling.

She purchased the Lenovo laptop I currently use when I travel to events, and got me as a birthday present in 2015 my first smartphone.

She was also there to put her size 9 foot up my behind when I needed a motivational kick in the butt.

I got to meet many of the people in her circles like Meagan Gillett, Bryanna Cox, Denisse Acha, Cressandra Thibodeaux and countless others.   There were local trans advocates she also facilitated meetings with, supported and connected to each other.  She was connected to many national trans peeps as well like Jeanette and Jazz Jennings, Joanna Cifredo de Fellman, Angelica Ross and Geena Rocero just to name a few.

She was connected not only to our trans community,  but the HIV/AIDS one, and the Houston arts community.

Because Nikki transitioned in her teens, she was seen as a role model and shero to our trans kids, and she loved them back.

While she will always be remembered for the landmark 2015 trans marriage equality Araguz v Delgado case that took down the 2001 anti-trans Littleton v Prange precedent, she also helped us pass HERO in May 2014 by revealing a painful event in her own life. 

She helped people get their name and gender marker changes.  When we were spending all day at the Pink Dome waiting to testify against SB 6 in 2017, she and her hubby Will walked into the Texas Capitol building with 20 large pizzas to feed us.

Interestingly enough that while she was a kick butt advocate, she told me during a birthday dinner for me a few years ago that her initial goal after she transitioned was to simply be a wife and mother.

And she relished that role as well.   So well that she got elected as the PTA president at her daughter's middle school.

Nikki's life was short and way too brief for us, but it was one lived fabulously and well.  She always loved a good party, and is probably organizing a few of them with our transcestors now.

And yes diva, I'm going to miss you.

Nikki Araguz Loyd Celebration Of Life Service Dates

For those of you who haven't heard the news yet, Nikki Araguz Loyd passed away on November 6 at he suburban Houston home.  William Loyd and the family have announced when the services will happen.

On Wednesday November 13, the public viewing for Nikki Araguz Loyd will be held at Rosewood Funeral Home in Atascocita, TX from 5- 8 PM CST. 

The funeral home is located at 17404 W Lake Houston Pkwy in Atascocita.
The Celebration of Life Ceremony will take place on Thursday November 14 at the Humble Civic Center from 1-4 PM CST.   The Humble Civic Center is located at 8233 Will Clayton Pkwy in Humble, TX, 77338
Since Nikki always loved a good party, after the services there will be a fabulous Nikki style BYOB🍾 PARTY🍾 at Nectar.   There will be an open mic available to speak and allow you to share your best Nikki memories.

Nectar is located at 7560 FM 1960, in Humble, TX 77346

If you are thinking about flying into Houston for the viewing and service, IAH is the closest airport to that side of town where the events will take place, and there are plenty of hotels in the Humble-IAH area .

If you can attend,  please do so and say goodbye to a revered and iconic member of our community.

Happy 82nd Birthday, April Ashley!

Today is the 82 birthday of British trans icon and pioneer April Ashley.  She has led an amazing life as a Vogue model, received an MBE back in 2012 and was a plaintiff in Corbett v Corbett, a 1970 marriage case that went the wrong way for her and trans folks in Great Britain of which the repercussions of it didn't get cleaned up until the Gender Recognition Act was passed.

But by living her life, she inspired others in Great Britain to live as their true selves, and she deserves much credit and praise for that.

Happy birthday April!   Thank you for being that trans pioneer that we all needed, for the wonderful trailblazing life that you have lived up to this point, the honors that you have received, and may you be blessed to see many more

Here's two clips of her 2015 interview on the British TV show Loose Women

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A film that documented April's visit to her hometown of Liverpool for her 80th birthday to receive an Honour of the City.

Rest In Power, Cheryl Courtney-Evans

I was shocked and saddened to hear that another one of our trans elders and pioneers has transitioned and earned her wings.

Still trying to process the sad news that Cheryl Courtney-Evans has passed away.

The award winning Atlanta based advocate was one of the co-founders of the Atlanta based organization TILTT (Transgender Individuals Living Their Truth), worked with the SNaP Coalition, and was a blogger commenting on issues affecting the ATL community at A Bitch For Justice.

I'd known Cheryl for a few years online before I finally met and spent some quality time with her during the 2012 Trans Faith In Color Conference that I was a keynote speaker for in Charlotte.

I enjoyed having dinner with her and Diamond Stylz (who I was also meeting for the first time at that event) as she expressed her thoughts about being one of mine and Diamond's trans elders, along with the changes she'd seen since her 1968 transition at age 16.

This is Diamond's interview with Cheryl.



From time to time since I knew she was having some health challenges recently, I made it a point to call and check on her to see how she was doing at regular intervals, and I'm so thankful not only for those opportunities I did get to talk to her, I'm so happy I did this 2011 TransGriot Ten Questions interview with her.

This is a more recent January 22 interview Raquel Willis conducted with Cheryl.











As soon as I have information from my ATL area contacts concerning a memorial service for her, I'll pass that along as a soon as I receive it.

She lived up to the name of her blog in fighting for justice in the Atlanta area and beyond, and I'm going to miss the conversations we had about a lot of subjects.

I, the Atlanta and national trans community and all who loved you are going to miss you.

I know that while mine and the hearts of the people in the ATL area are heavy at this time, they will remember your legacy of love and service to our community, and we will never forget you.

Rest in Power and Peace, Cheryl, and hug all the ancestors who have moved on for us.

Linda Phillips Celebration Of Life Service Set For October 15

I posted here about the recent death of one of our trans community pioneers in Linda Phillips, who along with her amazing spouse Cynthia ran the San Antonio area based group the Boulton and Park Society and the Texas T Party Convention.

The San Antonio based Texas T Party was the largest trans themed convention in the world from 1988 until the mid 90's.

This is the article written about her in the San Antonio Express-News.

Cynthia Phillips contacted me this morning, and wanted me to let you TransGriot readers know that the date, time and location for Linda's Celebration of Life Service has been set.

It will be held starting at 1 PM on October 15, 2016 at the Metropolitan Community Church San Antonio.  The address of the church is 611 E. Myrtle St. in San Antonio, TX.

If you are in the San Antonio area or just wish to come and pay your respects on that day to one of our trans community pioneers here in Texas and nationally, I urge you to do so.

This is the obituary for Linda Phillips.  

In lieu of flowers, donations are asked for the Bulverde Area Humane Society, P. O. Box 50, Bulverde, TX 78163 (which she helped build); or Transgender Education Network of Texas, 102 Wonder World Dr. #304-174, San Marcos, TX 78666; or The Center-Pride Center San Antonio, 1002 N. Flores St., San Antonio, TX 78212

Iconic Entertainer The Lady Chablis Dies

“I want people to remember, parents to remember, that when a child is born, it may possibly be someone like myself, so be prepared for things like that. If you don’t like it, just remember that great things can happen.”--Lady Chablis

Sad news to report out of Savannah, GA.  Several local TV stations and Club One are reporting that our trans sister Brenda Dale Knox, AKA The Lady Chablis, who gained fame during the 90's thanks to the 1994 book and 1997 movie Midnight In The Garden of Good and Evil and her subsequent 1996 autobiography Hiding My Candy has died at age 59.

She passed away surrounded by family and friends at St Joseph's/Candler Hospital

I have an autographed copy of that book thanks to meeting her during our LGBT Derby party in Louisville in 2003.   She was one of the celebrity guests that was invited to attend along with the late Tammy Faye Bakker and Anna Nicole Smith, and when I spoke to her diminutive self she was impressed by my average for a supermodel height.

When I whipped my copy of Hiding My Candy out of my purse and asked her to autograph it, she cheerfully did so while exclaiming "You made my day".

I replied, "You've made mine, too".   She really had, since the next day was my birthday.

She was born and raised in Quincy, Florida on March 11, 1957, and she's been making people's day as an entertainer since her debut at Savanaah's Club One in 1988.   In addition to briefly doing pageants and winning a few titles, she has raised thousands in campaigns for the American Diabetes Association and various LGBTQ charities,

She played herself in the Midnight In the Garden of Good and Evil movie.   Her most recent TV appearance was on the Real Housewives of Atlanta in 2013, but has been in declining health lately.

The Grand Empress of Savannah has transitioned and she will be missed.  Rest in power and peace, sis.

The 'Venus Envy' Village Voice Article

By the time I was in the late 80's I was becoming more cognizant of the fact that I wasn't happy not living as my true self, I was starting to come to the conclusion I was trans, and being in the frustrating position of not having the info readily available to make informed decisions on how to transition was becoming a heavy psychic burden on my soul

So because this was the pre-Internet days, news about trans issues and people was hard to find and come by, and when i stumbled across an article about a trans person openly living their life, it was like a a life preserver being thrown to a person drowning in misery.  Seeing those articles also gave me hope that it would one day happen for me.

I was perusing magazines at a newsstand one day back in May 1988 and noted that month's issue of the Village Voice had an article about the New York ballroom community that featured Carmen Xtravaganza.

The article was entitled 'Venus Envy: The Drag Balls Of Harlem' by Donald Snuggs.  It was the first mainstream publication article about the Harlem based ballroom community and featured Carmen in the interview.   It was also several years before the Paris Is Burning documentary would take movie theaters by storm and become an iconic film for our community.

I was fascinated by Sylvia Plachy's photo's of my trans sisters and the ballroom action, and bought it.

I was now 13 months into my airline career and had the ability to jet off anywhere in the US at that time. Fascinated by what I'd just read in that Village voice article, I resolved to go see a ball and meet Carmen one day.

After several moves I lost the magazine and the manila folder that had my trans news story clippings, so I'm happy to see this article in digital form.

While one part of that resolution came true in terms of meeting Carmen, doing a TransGriot Ten Questions interview with her and getting to chat with her from time to time, still have yet to see a New York ball.

Trans Icon Holly Woodlawn Passes Away

Been hearing the mounting bad news that trans actress, icon and Warhol muse Holly Woodlawn was ill with cancer, and her health had been deteriorating for the last few months.

Was sad to hear of her passing today at 3:06 PM PST in Los Angeles at age 69.

Woodlawn in addition to being a girl like us, was the inspiration for the Lou Reed song Walk On The Wild Side, and her life was chronicled in the 1991 documentary A Life In High Heels.

She was born in Puerto Rico in 1946 and raised in Miami Beach, FL.  She ran away from home and hitchhiked to New York, linked up with Andy Warhol and became one of his superstars.




Woodlawn starred in the 1970's underground classic movies Trash (1970) and Women In Revolt (1972) along with performing on the New York and Los Angeles cabaret circuits..  

While Woodlawn received critical acclaim for those film roles, she struggled to turn it into mainstream success and moved back to Miami in 1979.  She did make a comeback into public consciousness starting in the 1990's with the rise of queer and independent films, and most recently had a role on the show Transparent.

Rest in power and peace, Holly Woodlawn.

Happy Milestone Birthday Cecilia!

Today is the milestone 50th birthday of San Francisco based trans advocate and pioneer Cecilia Chung!

Before I had the pleasure of spending some quality time with this smart and beautiful lady from Hong Kong with a wicked sense of humor and getting to know her, I'd been a long time admirer of her and her trailblazing advocacy work on behalf of our community.

In addition to being a senior strategist at the Transgender Law Center, serving on the President's Council on HIV and AIDS, and being the first openly trans person and person living with HIV on the San Francisco Human Rights Commission of which she served as its chair.   She was one of the founders of San Francisco's Trans March and works tirelessly n the local, national and international levels to improve access to medical treatment for transgender people and people living with HIV, and to erase stigma and discrimination through education, policy, advocacy, and visibility

Happy milestone birthday Cecilia!  looking forward to the next time that we get to spend some quality time together and hope your birthday is as fabulous as you are!.

Miss Major Talks Stonewall

There is an upcoming movie about Stonewall that has pissed some people off because it gaywashes and whitewashes the real history of the rebellion that it was a trans, people of color and butch lesbian led event. 

Well, only proves the old saying that you have to be in control of writing the history, because if you aren't, you're not going to be happy about what is produced, especially if it is by people who don't like you.

Miss Major, courtesy of the Trans Oral History Project, talks about June 1969 night.

Jazz Speaks At The Time To Thrive Conference

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

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

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

MAJOR! Documentary Kickstarter Campaign In Final Days

I talked about the Kickstarter campaign that is happening to fund the documentary MAJOR! by filmmakers Annalise Ophelian and StormMiguel Florez.   With just four days left they have at the time of this writing raised $19,824 toward their goal of $25,000 

Every little bit helps toward getting this film made.  You can donate, $1, $5, $10, $20 or more.  There are perks being offered at certain donation levels like an advance autographed copy of Janet Mock's upcoming book Redefining Realness  (of which there are only 3 of those left) if you donate $125.

It would be nice if Annalise and StormMiguel hit their goal because as I said in the September 21 post and will repeat here, this a film that not only needs to be made but once it's completed seen for ours and future generations.     

They are agonizingly close to hitting their fundraising target.  Your donation could be the one that gets them closer to meeting their goal or puts them over the top for it, so please consider doing so before the 9 PM EDT October 8 deadline.. 

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. 

Still Miss You, Tracy

June 28 will mark the second anniversary since those of us who know Tracy Bumphus were stunned to hear the news about her untimely passing.

She's hanging out with the angels now, but that still doesn't keep those of us who knew and loved her from missing her and thinking about the ways she touched our lives be it in a small or quite significant way.

I not only stumbled across this guest post in my TransGriot archives that she'd written and I posted when the TS ubermenschen separatists were running wild back in 2010, had declared me as their number two enemy (a fact I'm still chuckling about to this day) and tred to drag her name into their mess. 

Another reason Tracy is on my mind besides the upcoming anniversary of her death is because I was sent a link to a HIV/AIDS testing video that she'd done in her capacity as a program assistant at the AIDS Project of East Bay

Even though it's two years old the message is still relevant and needs to be heard.  Even better, we get to see Tracy in action doing what she always did, educating people

And yeah, this is also a reminder for you TransGriot readers to take a moment to tell the people that you love and care about in your life how much you love and care about them.  Once you or they have left this plane of existence, it's too late to do so.

Alexandra Billings Speaks About Being A Transgender Performer

I love Alexandra Billings and look forward to the day I finally meet her.   In the interim here's an interview in which she discusses being a transgender performer.

Miss Major Spending Holiday In Hospital

Got word yesterday from Bobbie Jean Baker that Miss Major went into Kaiser Oakland hospital yesterday due to unknown causes.   

According to Bobbie Jean Miss Major is resting comfortably as of this moment. 

She's promised to keep me informed of what's happening with her, and I will pass those updates along to you as I receive them.

I'm just as interested as y'all are as to how our iconic transwoman is doing.

Being in the hospital sucks at any time, but it's got to be even more depressing when it's occurring during a major holiday.  

So when you peeps are saying your prayers tonight or before you have your holiday dinners, please pray for Miss Major to have a speedy recovery  

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.

Upscoming Miss Ross Live June 30 Show With Isis

Another edition of the Miss Ross Live Show will be broadcast on June 30 at 11 AM Eastern Time/10 AM Central and will features actress, model and activist Isis King.  



She'll be talking about the movie Hello Forever she's in and the faux controversy about the American Apparel ad she appears in.  

I'm just sayin'..

You can  check it out on Saturday or catch the podcast later for your listening pleasure over at BlogTalkRadio. 

April Ashley, MBE!

April Ashley was one of the first people in Great Britain to have SRS in 1960 when she did so with Dr Georges Bourou  in Casablanca, Morocco.  She led an exciting life as a Vogue fashion model, worked at the famed LeCarrousel trans club in Paris in which she rubbed elbows with Ernest Hemingway, Jean Paul Sartre and Bob Hope, was an actress, a lover to actors Omar Sharif and Peter O’Toole and attracted the romantic attentions of painters Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso.

She was outed when her so called 'friend' sold her story to the British tabloids, but it didn't stop her from marrying aristocrat Arthur Corbett and setting up another interesting chapter in her life when he filed for divorce in 1969.  .

She was the defendant in the 1970 Corbett v Corbett marriage case that had negative consequences for the identities of British transpeople until the passage of the 2004 Gender Recognition Act Act.   That case has been deleteriously used on our side of The Pond against Christie Lee Littleton, J'Noel Gardiner, and most recently Nikki Araguz and Ms W in Hong Kong as a weapon against trans marriages.

She has worked tirelessly to advance the human rights of transpeople in Britain as is noted as well for her charity work. 

When the Queen's Birthday Honours List was announced yesterday, April Ashley received an MBE for her trans human rights advocacy.

Congratulations to one of our pioneering iconic transpeople    Getting an MBE is a huge honor in Britain and Ms Ashley deserves it.