Lea T's Oprah Interview

Here's Lea T's interview with Oprah

Lea T's Models.com Interview

Trans model Lea T will be appearing on Oprah today.   While I still have major issues with Oprah for not ever interviewing an African-American transperson on her show, I'm still going to grudgingly watch this one when it airs later today.

To get you warmed up for that interview, will post the models.com one Lea did recently for you ro peruse.


Lea T models.com interview from models.com on Vimeo.

Now You Discovered You Need Black Transpeople, You're Calling Us

I've only been saying that since I started working for trans rights on a national level since 1998 and on this blog since 2006.   I have warned you swimming in vanilla privilege TBLG peeps running ostensibly inclusive orgs to include us in the paid decision making ranks of this community or suffer the consequences.

Now the chickens are coming home to roost.

Equality Maryland is finding out the hard way that lack of persons of color on your staffs, boards and in your organizations leads to piss poor policy decisions and jacked up legislation that will not garner the support of TBLG people of color.

One thing they forget is that we read, think, and will not just swallow what you say as the gospel truth, especially when you have a long history of screwing us over.

We TBLG people of color also take civil rights legislation very seriously and believe in an approach that has worked since Emancipation.    Write the laws as broadly as possible to cover everybody.   


And once again, they made their usual blunder of not getting input from African-American trans leaders.  It's exacerbated by the fact that Maryland has a 30% African American population, and one of the wealthiest concentrations of African Americans in Prince George's County on DC's doorstep.

You not only need us on this issue, but will need us when the inevitable referendum happens on the marriage bill..  There's a large megachurch in Lanham, MD pastored by Bigot Harry Jackson who is just salivating at the chance to repeal it.

Then again, ignoring us is a deliberate pattern we in the Black TBLG community are beyond sick and tired of.   Since the white dominated TGLB orgs know that we hate the incrementalist approaches favored by the GL community on trans rights issues, they don't want any African American leaders who don't favor the incrementalist approach to have a voice or access to legislators.  

Did you see any trans leaders who look like me at the ENDA hearings? 

The Black trans community is taking the brunt of the casualties and discrimination. If you are going to use our stories to pass trans legislation or want us to lobby and stump for civil rights bills then you not only need to have our input, but make sure said legislation is comprehensive and as airtight as possible.

We also need to be at the table making those decisions. 


You cannot give bigots ANY wiggle room or loopholes to discriminate. Any civil rights bill that doesn't meet that criteria will not get our support.

That dynamic has played out in the last few days as Sandy Rawls announced Trans-United's decision to no longer back a flawed trans rights bill that has no public accommodations language in it at the behest of the Baltimore trans community..

And of course, the white dominated leadership of Equality Maryland is in panic mode.   


When she was supporting it, they couldn't sing Sandy's praises enough.   Now that the script is flipped, out come the white trans attack dogs who are trying to claim 'she doesn't care about the Black trans community' by opposing this bill.

Yeah, right.  When was the last time y'all latte sipping trans attack dogs wallowing in vanilla scented privilege showed up at a Trans-United event, much less in the 'hood in B-more?   

EQ MD tried to pull a fast one in trying to slide this bill through the Maryland legislature, and now that they've been caught are trying to do damage control.   

So naw, don't blow up our phones now when you didn't care what we thought about the piss poor legislation you were trying to craft then or seek our input in making it better..

'The Danish Girl' Movie Finally Begins Filming In July

It was back in 2009 when I wrote the post that announced that Nicole Kidman was going to play transwoman Lili Elbe in the Danish Girl.   

The movie is based on the David Ebershoff novel and at one point had both Gwyneth Paltrow and Charlize Theron slated to play Elbe's wife Gerda Wegener.

The $15 million movie will finally begin shooting in Germany in July with some exterior scenes being shot in Copenhagen.  

Rachel Weisz will now step in to play Gerda and Lasse Hallstrom will direct it.

Should be interesting to see this movie when it's finally done and how Nicole Kidman handles this role as one of our pioneering transwomen. 

I'm Not Your Desperate Exotic Chocolate Fantasy Girl

Since we're approaching Valentine's Day, though I talk about romance and this transwoman's take on it. 

I haven't talked about my love life on this blog because frankly, there isn't much of one to talk about.   But I knew when I started transition that it was a possibility that I would be alone for long stretches of time.

While I'm not happy with that since I am a hopeless romantic at heart, the bottom line is that some of my characters in my fiction novels have better success rates at finding love than I have had.

Some of that is we have to battle the same 'unwoman' crap that our cis sisters do but at a heightened level.  Another is that I have standards I'm not deviating from.   If you're married, keep stepping.   You have to have some brain cells to keep me interested.  Wannabe thugs need not apply either.  . 

One of the mistakes that most cismen make is that they think that transwomen are desperate for any attention they deign to give us and that we'll accept any jacked up romantic situation.


Some of my sisters who are desperate to have their femininity validated by having a man on their arm will settle for BS relationships where they get dogged, disrespected or worse..


I'm not one of those transwomen, but that's those scrubs impression when they meet me..

Then there are the peeps who make demands of you.    I had one guy who was interested in Houston that wanted me to stop being an activist because it would draw 'too much attention' to a potential relationship.  I told him that was non-negotiable because politics was part of what made me the person I am, and my people needed somebody stepping up to fight for them.. 

When I was in Louisville I had a guy that was interested in dating me and let me know it.   However, he was evasive when I asked him for a home phone number and would only give me his cell.  

That's the sign of a married playa, so I immediately kicked his behind to the curb.  I'm not having that.   You are not going to come by my crib late at night thinking we're gonna get busy and then you raise up and leave and go back to your other cis or trans woman.

Another one approached me a few weeks after I'd appeared in a Courier-Journal story.  I told him upfront that if he wanted to date me, I liked chocolate, flowers and Valentine's Day cards.  

He was also told some of the things I liked to do required him to take me out in daylight hours and also involved being around large crowds of people.    I like going out to restaurants, ball games, museums and jazz clubs and I wasn't anyone's booty call.     

If he wasn't ready to be seen with a very public out and proud transwoman, he needed to step right now.   After laying out those expectations, he ran like Usain Bolt. 

So yes, I'd rather be happily single than be in a unhappy and unhealthy relationship.    I'm not your desperate exotic chocolate fantasy girl, and if love happens to find me sometime soon, in the future or never, when it does I have no doubt it will be a quality relationship. 
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As to when it happens, that remains to be seen.
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Canada's Bill C-389 Update VIII-Third Reading Debate Today

The Third Reading debate on Bill C-389 is scheduled to take place at 11 AM EST with the final vote scheduled between 5-6 PM EST on Wednesday February 9.

Even though I live south of the border, I've been following the progress of this bill because I think it's a big fracking deal anytime a national legislature is tackling the subject of trans civil rights

So Canadian TransGriot readers, transpeeps and supporters of civil rights, y'all know what to do.   Bust a move and get busy calling your MP's and letting them know that you support this bill .

You can bet the haters are busy leaning on the Conservative Party MP's to kill this bill.