The Tea About Princess Janae Place

"Never ever let somebody tell you what you cannot do or who you cannot be"
-Princess Janae Banks, October 2010

One of the excuses I hear when I make the repeated call for Black trans led organizations to get more significant levels of funding to do their needed and necessary work in our community is funders claiming they don't know of any Black trans led orgs or aren't aware of what they do.

Time to fix that problem. 

Princess Janae Place in New York's Bronx borough is named for the late Princess Janae Banks. 

She was born On February 8, 1970 in Brooklyn, New York and was tossed out of her home at age 19 when she came out as transgender to her family.   Banks was an iconic entertainer, pageant and ballroom performer for nearly 25 years in the New York tri-state region who died from lymphoma cancer after a long battle to beat it on September 16, 2013.

Banks was also a fierce advocate for the TBLGQ community.   Probably because of her experiences with being homeless and housing insecure, she focused her advocacy  on trans individuals at risk of becoming homeless or facing housing insecurity.

Princess Janae Place was founded in 2015 by its Executive Director Jevon Martin to continue Banks' advocacy around tackling the issues of housing affecting transgender and gender non conforming people.

Princess Janae Place, Inc is located at 2526 Wallace Ave in the Bronx, and is New York State's first and only community based housing organization led by and for people of trans experience.   With the motto of  'Housing is Healthcare',  Princess Janae Place, seeks to not only continue to make a dent in that problem. but provide a safe and welcoming space to the New York transgender and GNC community.

PJP's mission is to help people of trans experience maximize their full potential by providing residential, educational, clinical, and recreational services that create and nurture connections to the community and the world.

Since Princess Janae Place sees safe and affordable housing as a human right, it provides housing navigation services that include:

*Referrals to public, state and city housing vouchers
*Assistance in completing housing application
*Support in navigating the housing market
*General education on housing rights
*Referrals to a prescreened group of landlords and realtors with experience working with trans and gender non conforming individuals
*Referrals to non profit partners that provide housing.

PJP It also along with its partner organizations provides a wide array of case management services that include:

*GED preparedness and continuing education opportunities,
*Culturally competent health care, HIV prevention and testing
*Job readiness and preparedness programs that include resume review, access to professional clothing , job interview preparation and job referrals
*Mental health and counseling services
*Substance abuse treatment and support groups

PJP also has an ongoing peep led support and social networking group entitled 'Let's Talk' that covers a wide array of topics such as transitioning, medical care  and surgery resources, harassment, discrimination  and violence, and housing homelessness.

PJP participates in many events and functions in the New York Tri State area, and also conducts a Princess Pageant.    On October 6 it will hold a benefit show featuring the PJP Pageant court from 6;30-8:30 PM EDT at Zambo Aroma in the Bronx.

You can get your tickets for it at this link.

It can use you help to keep these services essential to the New York and tri state trans and GNC community operating and free to PJP members.   

If you need any further information concerning Princess Janae Place's programs or events, the address is 2526 Wallace Ave,  Bronx, NY 10467.   Their phone number is (718) 684-1688 and you can also access and like their Facebook page here.   

The Trans Community Could Use Some Investment In Our Advocacy Infrastructure and Our People

I noted with interest a conversation Renae Taylor had on her FB page recently in which she talked about the struggle we trans advocates have just making enough money to sustain our lives or the viability of our organizations.

She expressed a wish that a fund be created that would pay the bills of a trans advocate for at least a year so that they can focus full time on advocacy work instead of having to work non advocacy jobs to pay bills.

Renae's modest proposal sounded to me similar to the MacArthur Foundation's Fellows Program, or what is called the 'Genius Grant'. 

Fellows must be citizens or residents of the United States, can be working in any field, and have shown "extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction".  

The Foundation doesn't take applications for it.   They solicit at a certain time anonymous and confidential nominations that are reviewed by a confidential group of a dozen people.  Those people review the nominations and recommend awardees to the foundation president and board of directors. 

Usually the first sign that a person has won a MacArthur Fellowship is when they get a congratulatory phone call from the Foundation.  According to the website, 'The fellowship is not a reward for past accomplishments, but rather an investment in a person's originality, insight, and potential". However, it is considered a significant honor to receive it.

MacArthur Fellows get a no strings attached $625,000 grant paid to them in quarterly installments over a five year period. 

That is a life changing amount of money.  These fellowship grants have been awarded to 945 people since 1981, and people such as Marian Wright Edelman, Junot Diaz, Ta-nehisi Coates and Alison bechdel are just some of the distinguished people who have received MacArthur Fellowships.

So back to discussing Renae's idea.

The trans community and trans activism suffers from a major lack of significant investment in our organizations via a vis organizations primarily focused on the lesbian and gay community.   If those trans organizations are focused on trans communities of color,  they get even less funding than their white trans counterparts..

Heaven help that trans organization if it is based in the eleven state southern US region, AKA the former Confederacy.   It gets as a whole only 8% of the available donor funding made to TBLGQ organizations, with the majority of that money being gobbled up by Atlanta and Houston based orgs.

These underfunded trans organizations are fighting well funded right wing orgs with people who get paid quite well to come up with ways to oppress us.  The ED's of many of the anti-trans hate orgs are making just on their salary alone, more than the annual operating budget of many POC trans led organizations.

And since 2014, the trans rights legislative battles have predominately been in the southern US.   Considering we're majorly outspent, it's a miracle we have been as successful and do the work we do on basically a shoestring budget.

So imagine what we trans folks could do, especially in communities of color if we could spend our days working full time in well funded organizations to help our communities,

Imagine if our most talented advocates didn't have to do Go Fund Me appeals just to get the money to pay their bills or have to spend time being stressed out and worried about how next month's bills are going to get paid

Just having them paid for a year would be a load off the minds of an advocate, and would allow them to focus on doing what is needed for the community and allow them to save what money they may earn elsewhere.

That's why Renae's idea is an intriguing one.   The question is where would the seed money come from for it? 

 Would be nice if Renae's idea became a reality, because at this critical point in our trans human rights struggle, we could definitely use the investments in our trans advocacy infrastructure and our people. .

Help Trans United Fund Elect More Trans People To Office

TransGriot Note: In the interests of journalistic integrity, I sit on the board of the Trans United Fund.


As you know, I do a lot of writing through my blog, TransGriot (which just won a GLAAD Media Award, making history as the first time a trans person has won for Best Blog!) But what you may not know is that I'm a Board Member and key leader in Trans United Fund, a trans-led organization working to build political power for trans and nonbinary people across the country.

One of the main ways we build this power is electing transformative trans leaders. We are decisive in electing trans leaders because when we do that, there are more trans people who see ourselves reflected in leadership, and more people of our communities who believe they can run. When they do run, they come to Trans United Fund as the go-to organization for help in their races, and we need the resources to help them win.

Will you stand up and help build political power that our communities need with me and Trans United Fund? Whether it's in your budget to give $15 or $150, every dollar makes a difference in the lives of trans people like me, and our ability to join the decision making tables where decisions about us are made. Nothing about us, without us!

In this environment, with a presidential administration which is actively hostile towards trans people, it is crucial that we elect trans folks to public office at all levels of government. It is critical to elect trans people to office not only to defend against the attacks of the opposition but to advance our interests, rights, and needs in decision making bodies at the local, state and national level.. As a trans-led, trans-run organization, run by a majority of trans people of color like myself, Trans United Fund has proven that we have the best interests of trans people at heart. We are actively working to build political power across the country by building a diverse coalition of leaders across different identities, experiences, and backgrounds.

And that's exactly the group we need leading this charge to make change right now.

Join us and our work and pitch in now: we can go so much farther together.

TAVA Turns 10

This year also marks the 10th birthday of the Transgender American Veterans Association  which was founded in January 2003 by Monica Helms and Angela Brightfeather out of growing concerns for the fair and equal treatment of transgender veterans and active duty service members.

When the June 2010 VA directive came out, TAVA was in the position of seeing their major policy objective achieved.  Even more gratifying to the board members, the feedback they received from their constituents is that it worked.  

Now they are at a critical crossroads as to whether to build on that success or fold the organization.  

As TAVA founding president Monica Helms stated on her Facebook page:

Yesterday was TAVA's 10 year anniversary. Sadly, it may be our last. We did accomplish our primary mission when in June 2010, the VA initiated a directive that shows how to treat trans veterans properly. Two days after that came out, we received E-mails and calls from transgender veterans who said it worked. You don't know how wonderful that felt.

But, all the board members (the ones who are left) are all over 60 and we are tired. Other organizations, such as OutServe and NCTE are taking up the slack. TAVA's board is in the process of deciding how we need to "fade out," and there is some contention on how it should be done. All we ask of our friends is to understand and support our decision, whichever direction it goes. We appreciate all your support over the years. YOU are the ones who helped us fulfill our primary mission. We love you for that.

And thank you Monica and TAVA for your past and continuing service to this nation and the trans community.   But I would submit to you that TAVA's mission isn't done in terms of advocacy for fair and equal treatment of transgender veterans and active duty service members, especially since patriotic transpeople cannot join our military.

Don't Ask Don't Tell still exists for us.

Yes SLDN-OutServe has now added the issues of trans vets to their mission.  They have a transwoman in Allyson Robinson running it that I have much respect for.   But compared to TAVA, the merged SLDN-OutServe are newbies at advocating for trans veterans, understanding our issues and it's still marriage-centric in terms of its advocacy.  We are still dealing with the fallout of DADT not ending for us so GLB peeps could openly serve.  

I haven't forgotten how that organization refused to consider lifting transpeople as they climbed and made excuses for not advocating for transpeople to also be able to openly serve when Don't Ask Don't Tell repeal was being worked on during the Democratically controlled lame duck Congress in 2010 and eventually became a reality for the GLB community in September 2011.

So yes, I'm wary of SLDN-Outserve based on how military transfolks got thrown under the Humvee in the runup to DADT repeal.

I know you TAVA board members are tired after fighting this battle for so long and you want to move on to your well deserved rest and retire.  If you need to recruit younger peeps and train them to handle those issues, fine. 

But I submit TAVA needs to survive.  An organization of, by and for trans veterans is needed, especially when we have returning vets that will be coming home from service in Iraq and Afghanistan.  They will need an org that understands their needs, has the expertise to deal with trans veterans and the unique issues that crop up for them.
But thank you all for what you've done to help advance trans human rights in this arena for the last 10 years..