Laverne Is A 2014 Glamour Woman Of The Year!

This has been one amazing year for Laverne Cox in which she has broken ground for transkind on one level or another.  She was the first transperson to appear on the cover of Time magazine.   She was  the first out transperson to be nominated for an Emmy thanks to her groundbreaking Sophia Burset role on Orange Is The New Black.   She's produced a documentary on the unjust incarceration of CeCe McDonald for defending herself from a transphobic attack.

And now you can add one more first to an amazing list of them for Cox.   The first out trans person to be named a Glamour Woman Of The Year.

Yep, there's a girl like us along with other 2014 winners Chelsea Clinton, Robin Roberts, Lupita Nyong'o, and Mindy Kaling just to name a few of the other honorees

Megacongrats on another trailblazing first, Laverne.  

Belgium Has A Transgender Parliamentarian!

University of Ghent professor Petra De Sutter has become the second serving trans parlimentarian in Europe after recent elections in her nation. 

The head of the Reproductive Medicine Department at the University Hospital Ghent and associate professor of gynecology at the university ran for a European Parliament seat as a member of the Belgian Groen (Green) Party because she wanted to fight “for a more social and fairer Europe, where everyone feels at home” and against “an unpleasant mentality of everyone for themselves”.

De Sutter finished second in the May 25 balloting with 47,000 votes.   But the Greens were only able to secure one seat, and that went to current MEP Bart Staes.

Following reforms in Belgium this year, the 60 members of the Belgian Senate, the upper house of the Belgian federal Parliament are no longer elected but appointed.  50 of them come from regional and community parliaments, and the final ten are appointed by their political peers. 

De Sutter was sworn in July 10, and her appointment makes her not only the first transgender parliamentarian in Belgium, but the second currently serving one along with Anna Grodzka of Poland, the third overall in Europe, and the fourth ever internationally..  

Hopefully there will be more to come.

Rev. Dr Cameron Partridge Preaching At Historic National Cathedral TBLG Service Today

More trans history will be made in Washington DC today as the Rev. Dr. Cameron Partridge is set to become the first out trans pastor to preach from the  National Cathedral's Canterbury Pulpit.

It will be part of a service in which the cathedral celebrates TBLG Pride Month, and it will be officiated by the Right Rev. Gene Robinson  

In addition to the historic participation of Rev. Partridge, who is the Episcopal chaplain at Boston University, the service will also include readings and prayers from members of the BTLG community. 

The Very Rev. Gary Hall, dean of the cathedral, says he hopes Partridge's appearance "will send a symbolic message in support of greater equality for the transgender community."

That message of support from a religious community is definitely needed in the wake of the Southern Baptists passing their anti-trans resolution on June 10.

Congratulations Rev. Partridge on this historic occasion, and hope you get pack the pews attendance levels for this LGBT service.

Bonnie N. Davenport DC's First Trans Cop

This post is probably going to come as a surprise to some people who have seen the long history of transphobic shenanigans emanating from DC Metro Police officers, but once upon a time the DC Metro Police Department had on its force a trans police officer by the name of Bonnie Nora Davenport.

She was born in Buffalo, NY. in 1943, was an Air Force veteran and studied at American University and George Washington University ,  

Bonnie was an eight year veteran of the DC police force when she made the trip to Trinidad, CO and had her SRS performed by Dr. Stanley Biber.   In 1979 she became the first and so far only trans cop on the Metro DC force when she was certified to return to duty.

Bonnie eventually served for 20 years on the DC Metro Police until she retired in 1991.  She got married to Earl O'Neal who preceded her in death..

This trailblazing police officer passed away at her home in Fredonia, NY on the morning of November 17, 2009.  

Hopefully there will be another transperson who joins the DC Metro Police force and carries on her legacy because frankly, they could use some trans police officers now on their force.

November Trans* Formations: Activists & Allies & Community Making Series

You know it has to be important for me to miss Scandal (that's what DVR is for anyway), but tonight along with Cristan Williams and Katy Stewart I'll be discussing Trans History in a conversation facilitated by Lou Weaver at Resurrection Metropolitan Community Church.  

It starts at 7 PM CST and Resurrection MCC is located at 2025 West 11th Street in Houston.

It is part of a series of Thursday night discussions organized and facilitated by Lou as part of Trans* Awareness and Ally Month and the upcoming Transgender Day of Remembrance.

Thursday, November 7
Gender Talk 101: Our Stories
Thursday, November 14
A Short History of the Alphabet: Our Diversity Journey
Thursday, November 21
The A-List: Ally-Advocate-Activist Training
Thursday, December 5
Community-Making for All: Moving Forward

The trans movement and transpeople didn't just materialize in the late 20th-early 21st century.  We have a proud history that I and my fellow panelists will be discussing and hope you can join us.

If you can't make it tonight, hope you can make the ret of the scheduled topics and discussions in this series.

April Ashley Museum Exhibit Opening September 27

April Ashley is one of our pioneering trans people and was honored last year with an MBE for her lifelong human rights advocacy. 

It's exiting and interesting to note that an exhibit about her life is opening Friday in her hometown of Liverpool.  

How cool is that? 

The Museum of Liverpool is hosting the exhibit entitled April Ashley: Portrait of a Lady that will run from September 27-September 14, 2014.

The year long exhibit is funded with a £78,000 ($125,371) grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) and curated by Homotopia in partnership with National Museums Liverpool.   It draws upon April Ashley’s previously unseen photographic archive and personal documents to investigate the wider impact of changing social and legal conditions for all transgender, lesbian, gay and bisexual people from 1935 to today.

April was born in Liverpool in 1935, joined the Merchant Marine at age 14 to escape her unhappy home life, and after two suicide attempts and electroshock therapy to 'cure' her moved to Paris, transitioned, worked at the famed Le Carrousel trans cabaret and was the first person in Europe (and Dr. Georges Bourou's ninth) to undergo genital surgery with Dr Bourou at his clinic in Casablanca, Morocco in 1960. 

She returned to Britain after the surgery and became a successful Vogue model and actress until she was outed in 1961.  She was a plaintiff in the 1970 Corbett v Corbett divorce case that has had international legal ramifications on trans marriages (and negatively impacted Christie Lee Littleton in 1999 among others) in addition to the status of trans people in Great Britain that wasn't rectified until the 2004 Gender Recognition Act was passed.

Ashley has had a major impact on us as a trans pioneer and it's wonderful that her life is being spotlighted

The Museum of Liverpool opened in July 2011 and is the first national museum in Great Britain devoted to the history of a regional city.   It showcases popular culture while tackling social, historical and contemporary issues and is a fantastic, free family day out. It has attracted more than two million visitors since it opened and was awarded the prestigious Council of Europe Museum Prize for 2013 for its commitment to human rights as well as its work with children and families from all backgrounds.

The April Ashley exhibit is just another example of that human rights commitment.  If you live in Great Britain or are here on our side of The Pond planning to visit Great Britain, hope you take the opportunity to travel to Liverpool and see the April Ashley exhibit while it's there.   

More TransGriot Ten Questions Interview Links

I have an upcoming TransGriot Ten Questions interview on the blog for the first time in nearly a year.  That's too long an interval between Ten Question interview posts since my last one with Tracie Jada O'Brien.

In my defense, me keeping an eye on the 2012 presidential campaign and election cycle and last year's busy travel and speaking schedule was a major factor in producing that interview drought.

Still, that's too long an interval between interviews and I want them to happen more frequently.   Many of you readers noticed and have been asking me when I was going to start doing the TransGriot Ten Questions interviews again since it is a feature of this blog you tell me that you enjoy.   

Well, never let it be said I don't give my TransGriot readers what they want.  The next one goes up at 12 midnight CDT on the 17th.   You'll have to surf back to the blog to find out who is the subject of it.

As to why I started the TransGriot Ten Questions interviews in the first place, it was a way to continue fulfilling my blog's mission of compiling and documenting Black trans history and talk to (and talk up) our community's up and coming leaders, opinion shapers, artists, thinkers, historical icons and interesting personalities who are molding and shaping not only our chocolate trans world but the trans community at large.   

I ask them ten questions they can answer as short or as long as they wish on various subjects of interest to our trans community.  I'm also striving to have a mix of African descended trans people from across the Diaspora, of all ages as well and in different sectors of our community including the pageant and ballroom communities.

So yeah people, I'm thinking globally and locally with this feature.  

For those of you I've asked to be the next TransGriot Ten Questions subjects, once I coordinate our schedules to do so, I compile your questions and send them to your e-mail inbox, please get them back to me as expeditiously as possible so I can post them for my readers.  

Here's the link to a 2011 compilation post making it easier for you (and me) to find the initial group of interviews and the ones I've done in the wake of that October 3, 2011 compilation post.   

TransGriot Ten Questions Interview-Isis King

TransGriot Ten Question Interview- Tracie Jada O'Brien

TransGriot Ten Questions Interview- Cheryl Courtney-Evans

TransGriot Ten Questions Interview-Diamond Stylz

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.

The 3rd Annual TransGriot African-American Trans History Quiz

Here it is, the 3rd Annual incarnation of the TransGriot African-American Trans History Quiz.   It's an open Internet test and some of the answer to these 25 questions will be buried in previous TransGriot posts.

I'll give y'all a few days to ponder them before the quiz answers are posted at midnight 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.

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

3. This IFGE Trinity Award winner was appointed to this position in Washington DC.  Name the position.

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

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

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?

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

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. 

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

11. True or False.  Pioneering transman Alexander John Goodrum is from San Francisco.

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

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"

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

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.

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.   

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

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?

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.'

23   True or False: FTM International has had an African-American trans man run it.

24.  Trans actress Ajita Wilson accomplished this feat in August 1981?  What was it? 

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.
 

Coming Monday, The 3rd Annual TransGriot African-American Trans History Quiz

Two years ago I started compiling a Black trans history quiz on this blog after getting a little perturbed over my observation that Black transpeople were being erased and marginalized in  LGBT compiled quizzes that were heavy on the LG end of the community.

Since Black History Month starts this Friday, it's time for me to post my latest incarnation of the TransGriot African-American Trans History Quiz as a reminder that Black transpeople did (and still are) making history today in all the communities we intersect and interact with.  

As per usual, it's an open Internet test and some of the answers are buried in my TransGriot posts.

Once I post it on Monday I'll give you a few days to ponder it before I post the answers at midnight Central time on Thursday.    And yes, some of the 25 questions you'll get will be true or false and multiple choice ones.

Just to give you a taste of what you're going to get Monday, I'll post the links to the previous quizzes.

The First Annual TransGriot African-American Trans History Quiz

The 2nd Annual TransGriot African-American Trans History Quiz



TransGriot Note:  Photo is of trans model Tracy Africa Norman during a photo shoot.

Trans Pioneer April Ashley Receives Her MBE

I wrote about this when it happened back in June, and in a morning investiture ceremony held at Buckingham Palace last Thursday, trans pioneer April Ashley was awarded the Member of the British Empire (MBE) as part of the annual Queen Birthday Honors list.

The now 77 year old Ashley  was one of the first persons from Great Britain who underwent SRS back in 1960, became a successful actress and model, appeared in the Road To Hong Kong movie with Bing Crosby and Bob Hope and became a trans human rights advocate..

She was also one of the parties in the horrible 1970 Corbet v Corbett divorce case that set a grossly negative marriage precedent for transpeople in Great Britain by not allowing them to get married until it was reversed in 2004 by the British Gender Recognition Act.

Ashley received the Member of the British Empire in the investiture ceremony from Prince Charles for her long time work as a British trans human rights advocate, and congratulations to her for a well deserved honor.

Ashley said that for over half a century she had "been writing to people and helping people and I've written thousands and thousands of letters".

"Strangely enough although it was transgender, it was also gay and lesbian [people writing to me] and women desperate for divorces," she said.

About her gender reassignment surgery in 1960 and being awarded the MBE Ashley said, "To me it was just a normal thing to do - I never thought I was doing anything special quite frankly, so to be suddenly awarded this is astonishing."

Bella Jay, who organizes the annual Sparkle event in Manchester, UK said the former model had "faced many struggles in life, which perhaps people don't really understand in the more tolerant and open society in which we live today".

"Achieving real transgender equality is a big issue for many people in modern Britain, but all too often it either fails to gain any real publicity or is misunderstood," said Jay in a BBC interview.

"I congratulate April on the award which recognizes her achievements and again helps bring the issues facing the trans-community into the public eye.

Ashley's trans cousins across the Pond and around the world that she was an inspiration and beacon of hope to in the 60's and beyond also join our British cousins in recognizing April Ashley, MBE as well.

DNC Trans Delegate Musing

We have one more day to go in this 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, sixty days to go until Election Day. and this DNC convention has been historic in many respects.  

It's the first one ever held in North Carolina and it is the first time we have ever had a Latino give a keynote speech.  I'm happy that San Antonio mayor Julian Castro, the person who made that historic speech is from my home state

The trans community has made history as well with not only our largest DNC delegate contingent ever at 13 people, it is also the most diverse one we have ever sent to any DNC convention.   It's remarkable progress considering that it was only 12 years ago that Jane Fee was the lone representative for our community at the DNC 2000 convention in Los Angeles.

From one solitary trans person in 2000 our numbers increased to six in 2004, eight in 2008 to thirteen in Charlotte out of the nearly 6000 delegates in the Queen City for the DNC. 

But I was reminded when Rep. Jared Polis of Colorado stepped to the podium Monday night and other GL delegates got the chance to speak about their partners of the one thing that didn't happen for our diverse trans delegation.  

We didn't get to see any of our trans delegates speak at the convention podium on the first or second nights of the DNC convention to the delegates in the hall.   It probably won't happen tomorrow night either since that night will belong to Vice President Biden and President Obama as they make their respective acceptance speeches and the convention will draw to a close after they are done..

So when the Democratic party in Charlotte is over and we head back to our different sections of the country to do the work to ensure that President Obama is taking the oath of office on January 20, we transpeeps will still have things to check off on our Own Our Power To Do list.

Besides getting the POTUS reelected, working to elect Democratic House and Senate majorities to help a presidential brother out, we trans people still have work to do in the Democratic Party ranks.   We need to garner inclusive acceptance in the ranks to the point the Democratic Party won't hesitate in terms of selecting a trans speaker to proudly stand in front of a future DNC convention floor with a national TV audience looking on.  

I'm hoping when that 2016 DNC occurs, we'll have more than thirteen delegates in another diverse contingent of transpeople.  

And for those of you who have asked if one of those 2016 transpeople will be yours truly, I'm seriously thinking about it.   Back in 1984 I tried to become a Texas DNC delegate and only made it as far as the state senate district convention level.  

If I'm going to make a serious run at becoming the first ever African-American trans Texan DNC delegate in 2016,  I'll have to get busy on that soon.. 

One of the things I'd like to see in that 2016 DNC transgender delegate contingent besides more people and continued ethnic diversity is that trans DNC delegation in 2016 and beyond include trans people who are elected to public office.  That would be in addition to the trans people already diligently working inside the various levels of the Democratic Party to ensure we have a voice in it at the policy formation tables.

We have four years to work on that trans community, so let's make it happen.

The 2012 DNC Trans Delegates

When I say in my posts that the Democratic Party has an inclusive big blue tent, I'm not kidding   One of the things I'm most proud of about my party is that trans delegates since 2000 have been part of the proceedings and that will also be the case when the Democratic National Convention kicks off September 4-6 in Charlotte, North Carolina. 

When the Democratic Party gathered for their 2000 convention in Los Angeles, Minnesota's Jane Fee became the first ever trans delegate to take part in a DNC.   Four years later at the DNC 2004 convention in Boston, the delegations from Georgia, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas had trans people as members of them. 

At the historic 2008 DNC in Denver, not only was 'gender identity' included in the language of the Democratic Party platform for the first time, we had transpeople as part of the delegations from the states of Arizona, Indiana, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Tennessee and Texas.

History was also made in 2008 as the first ever African-American trans delegate, Dr. Marisa Richmond, was elected as part of Tennessee's DNC contingent.   

When the 2012 DNC convention is gaveled into session in Charlotte's Time Warner Cable Arena tomorrow, there will be 12 trans Democrats in attendance as delegates when it starts.  They are from blue states such as Maryland, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Oregon and Wisconsin and red states such as Arizona, North Carolina, Missouri and Texas. 

They also range from superdelegates to committee members, so we as a trans community will be well represented during this event by the time President Obama makes his acceptance speech at Bank of America Stadium on September 6. 

I'm most proud to note that for African-American transpeople, it will be a historic occasion for the second time.  In addition to Dr. Marisa Richmond returning for her second consecutive DNC convention as a Tennessee delegate,  Kylar Broadus makes history again this year by becoming the first ever African-American trans masculine delegate to attend a DNC convention.  

I'm also happy that a trans Texan will be part of that DNC trans contingent for the third consecutive convention.   Meghan Stabler will be part of a record sized LGBT Lone Star contingent headed to the Tarheel State.

The 12 transpeople making up the DNC's trans contingent is not only a record, it is also the most diverse group of trans people to represent our community at a Democratic National convention.   You also have to consider how far we've come since 2000 and the time it took for us to get to this point.

Makes me proud to be a Democrat and wonder how many trans delegates we'll have at the 2016 DNC.  I also wonder whether those delegate ranks in 2016 will include trans political office holders for the first time in addition to the mix of convention vets and party members.. 

Good Luck Keelin!

The US Olympic Track and Field Trials (called Athletics to the rest of the world) will kick off today and run through July 1 in Eugene, OR to determine who gets those coveted all expense paid spots on the US Olympic team we're sending to London.

I've talked about transman Keelin Godsey, who has been pursuing his dream of competing in the Olympics since 2008.

Starting at 2:15 PM EDT 28 year old Godsey will take the first steps toward sporting history when he competes in the hammer throw prelims competition with 23 other athletes at Nike World Headquarters in Beaverton, OR.  If everything goes well for Godsey he'll be in the finals that start at 4:15 PM EDT.  

Keelin was a 16 time All-American athlete at Bates College and the Division III national champion in 2005 in the hammer throw before transitioning during his senior year.

Godsey has continued post college to excel in the event and has already passed the Olympic qualifying standard of 68 meters.   He long ago socially transitioned to male, but will compete in the women's hammer throw and is considered by IOC and IAAF rules as a female competitor.  He is forgoing taking testosterone until either after the trials or the London Olympics so that he could make his Olympic competition dream come true.    

If Keelin places in the top three finishers, he not only will make the team, he will become the first open trans athlete ever to quality for their national Olympic team and the US Olympic team.   Keelin already has the distinction of being the first open trans athlete to make a US Pan Am Games squad and competed in the 2011 Pan Am Games, finishing fifth in the hammer throw competition in Guadalajara. 

Keelin, good luck and hope you make your Olympic dream come true.

TransGriot Update:  Sadly, Keelin failed to qualify.   Finished fifth despite a personal best throw of 231 feet 3 inches. Missed a trip to London by 11 inches.

Kylar Broadus Makes History In DC Today

When Sen Tom Harkin (D-IA)  convenes the Senate committee hearing on ENDA later this morning, one of the five people sitting at that table will be making some trans history when that happens.

Founding Trans People of Color Coalition (TPOCC) Executive Director Kylar Broadus will become the first transperson ever to give federal testimony at a US senate hearing when the ENDA hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee convenes at 10 AM EDT in Room 106 of the Everett Dirksen Senate Office Building..

In 2009 there were no trans witnesses in the Senate ENDA hearing, but Vandy Beth Glenn gave testimony in the US House ENDA one.

Kylar is also a living embodiment of what I'm talking about when I say we have trans people of color who are more than capable of providing visionary leadership in the rainbow community and it's past time that fact was recognized.


Can't think of a better person to represent our community at the table and hopefully I'll get to see the hearing on C-SPAN.

I'll post the hearing video here once it archives from the committee website.  

Yollada Wins In Thailand!

The ranks of trans politicians around the world just increased by one.   Congrats to Yollada 'Nok' Suanyot who made history in her homeland.  

The Thai provincial elections were held May 27 and Yollada was running as an independent candidate in her home province of Nan that is located along the Thai-Laos border.  She beat out two male candidates of which one of them was from the better funded national ruling party to boot to win that election.

So yep, it's another victory #GirlsLikeUs around the world can celebrate. Told y'all we transwoman can do anything we set our minds to if given the chance and the opportunity to do so.

Yollada is now the highest ranking trans politician in Thailand, and here's hoping she continues her rise in Thailand's political ranks to where she ends up in their national legislature.

Only time will tell if that happens, but in this enterprising woman's case I wouldn't bet against her pulling it off.

You're Still A Winner In Our Eyes, Jenna

With the eyes of the world focused on Toronto for a historic finals night for the 2012 Miss Canada Universe pageant, 23 year old Jenna Talackova was not only competing for the right to represent her nation in the Miss Universe event in December, but an entire worldwide community of transwomen.

She did make it to the 12 semifinalist round, but unfortunately not to the five finalists one.

But as I've said for a few days now, even if she didn't walk out with the Miss Canada Universe crown last night and I presume she's probably disappointed she didn't, she's still a winner.  

Talackova fought for her place in this pageant after being unjustly disqualified by the bogus and transphobic 'natural born womna' rule.  Because she did so she eventually broke through a glass ceiling that allowed her to be on stage with 64 other Canadian women and will make it  easier (we hope) for the next transwoman who wishes to compete in her Miss Universe system national pageant.

In the process of tenaciously fighting for her dream to happen, she gave transwomen around the world an opportunity to jump start educational conversations about who we are, how transphobic and wrong that rule was and what we are capable of doing if we're just given the opportunity to try.

It's never easy to be a trailblazer, and Jenna did so with class and dignity.   Her sister contestants agree with me since she was one of three women who tied for the Miss Congeniality award for this 2012 pageant. 

It'll be interesting moving forward from this date to see what transpires next for Jenna in the future and see if she makes come true her stated goals of becoming a Victoria's Secret model and getting the swimsuit cover of Sports Illustrated.

I have the feeling that this determined young woman somehow will make it happen and expand the boundaries of what is possible for #girlslikeus.

You're still a winner in our eyes, Jenna.   

The Story of Georgia Black

If people thought I was kidding about the point that I've repeatedly made about Black transpeople being integrated into the kente cloth lives of our people, it's time to take a trip back in time to 1951 and the town of Sanford, FL.

One of the town's beloved citizens, an African-American woman named Georgia Black has passed away in June.  She ran a boarding house, was married twice and had several boyfriends after those relationships ended.

Black also raised a son, did domestic work for many of the wealthy families in the town, was a devout church going woman who was the leader of the local Women's Missionary Society and after she passed away was buried at the Burton Cemetery in Sanford.   The town's baseball stadium once barred Jackie Robinson from entering it but she is mourned by all who knew her even in this era of virulent Jim Crow segregation. 

Dr. Orville Barks, the county physician doing the autopsy, is astonished to discover that the frail woman he is examining has male genitalia.

Georgia's story was covered in a transphobic, sensationalized manner by the EBONY reporter when he wrote about her in October 1951. I'm going to give it the dignity it deserved. 

Georgia Cantey was born in South Carolina in 1906 and at age 15, ran away from working on a farm in Galeyville, South Carolina and headed to Charleston.  It was while working as a house servant in the city that Cantey began living as a woman.  One of the unidentified members of the household staff supplied her with a feminine wardrobe and became her first boyfriend as she honed her feminine gender presentation. 

Eventually that first relationship soured, and she met in Winter Haven, FL the man that would become her first husband, Alonzo Sabbe.  He was quite ill at the time and after Cantey nursed him back to health Sabbe asked her to marry him.  Sabbe also had a child named Willie that he had been raising.   Willie was the child of Sabbe's cousin  who visited Florida and abandoned him when he was three months old.  Cantey adopted Willie and raised as her own child after the couple moved to Sanford, FL.     

Sabbe's health took another negative turn and he died shortly after the marriage, and Cantey got married to Muster Black at the home of Mrs. Joanna Moore, the principal of Sanford's Black elementary school.  Unfortunately, seven years after getting married for the second time in her life to Black, the World War I vet died and as his widow, the EBONY story notes she was the beneficiary of his Veteran's Administration pension.  .  

Georgia continued to live her life until she herself became ill and her story leaked out to the irate disbelief of the Black and White denizens of Sanford, FL.  

Roy Williams, the police chief of Sanford at the time launched an investigation, but ended it after finding no evidence of criminal activity.  Even Dr. Orville Barks was upset about his role in spilling Georgia's gender business.  She was not intersex, and Barks caught some flack about the reporting about it from some of the denizens of Sanford.

The local paper, the Sanford Herald ceased publishing the story after pastor James Murray of the Trinity Methodist Church phoned the editor and protested about it being placed on the front page.

According to the EBONY article, one wealthy person that Black worked for defiantly said," I don't care what Georgia Black was.  She nursed members of our family through birth, sickness and death.  Sh was one of the best citizens in town."

Georgia Black told her story to EBONY a month before her death.   She insisted that fate had intended her to be female and dismissed her male genitalia as 'growths'.  'The doctor says he didn't see how I could married, but I don't pay no 'tention to that doctor.  My husbands and me had a peaceful, lovely life "  

And your life Georgia was a fascinating one that African-descended transpeople following in your footsteps needed to hear about as well.  

A Look At African-American Trans Traliblazers

TransGriot Note: Hey TransGriot readers, while I'm not writing at the Huffington Post (yet), this is about a big an honor as you can get as an African-American writer.   I've been published by the iconic EBONY magazine.  It's their online version, but still, we're talking about EBONY. 
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Though February has passed, there is never a bad time to get reacquainted with African American history makers- the events that shaped our lives, our heroes and “sheroes.” Over the last few years we've been paying closer attention to the accomplishments of Black gay and lesbian people such as Bayard Rustin. But there is another group of African Americans who have shaped our people's history: transgender people.
Transgender African Americans have been active contributors to history, even though they have often been overlooked.

Their presence and contributions are not a recent development, but can be traced back through the centuries. Consider the story of Lucy Hicks Anderson, who was born in 1886 in Waddy, KY. She made it quite clear that she was a girl and insisted on wearing dresses to school.  The term “transgender” didn't exist at that time, but the doctor who examined her advised Lucy's mother to raise her as a girl.
As an adult, Lucy eventually got married and divorced twice while en route to Ventura, CA via Pecos, TX.  Her second marriage-to soldier Reuben Anderson in 1944-introduced legal complications that led the Ventura County district attorney to prosecute her for perjury after it was discovered that she was born biologically male.  He asserted that Anderson committed perjury when she signed the marriage license application and swore that there were 'no legal objections' to the marriage. Lucy expressed her conviction in her gender identity to reporters during the trial. "I defy any doctor in the world to prove that I am not a woman,” Anderson said. “I have lived, dressed, acted just what I am, a woman.”  The jury convicted her of the perjury charge, but the judge sentenced her to ten years’ probation rather than send her to prison.

In 1953, while much of America focused on the story of Christine Jorgensen (a White woman who was the first person widely known to have undergone sex reassignment surgery) JET Magazine readers learned about Carlett Brown's attempt to become the "First Negro Sex Change." Transgender African Americans actively participated in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, incorporating tactics from those efforts into their own work toward liberation. The gender non-conforming African American youth in Philadelphia, PA who kick-started the Dewey's Lunch Counter Sit In and Protest in April and May of 1965 were a prime example of such involvement. It was the first protest specifically organized around and concerning trans issues, and preceded both the 1966 Compton's Cafeteria Riots and the better known 1969 Stonewall Riots in which African American transgender advocates such as Miss Major and Marsha P. Johnson (pictured) were involved.

In 1967, civil rights and transgender advocate Lady Java stood up against discrimination and struck the blows that eventually brought down the odious codes used by the LAPD to harass her and other LGBT people in Los Angeles. Meanwhile, the Johns Hopkins Gender Program in Baltimore opened its doors and welcomed one of its first patients, an African-American transwoman named Avon Wilson. In the 70s, 80s and 90s, Black transpeople played key roles in the emerging trans advocacy movement.  A. Dionne Stallworth helped organize and sign the incorporation papers of GenderPac. The late Alexander John Goodrum was not only a founder of TGNet Arizona, but sat on the City of Tucson's LGBT commission.  Lorrainne Sade Baskerville became an award winning leader in Chicago, a role which was eventually picked up by the late Lois Bates.

Dawn Wilson and I were part of a team that founded the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition (NTAC) in 1999, a multicultural trans advocacy organization.  Zion Johnson became the first African-American chair of FTMInternational, while Trans People of Color Coalition (TPOCC) founder Kylar Broadus became the board chair of the National Black Justice Coalition. We also can't forget the people like Justina Williams, Patricia Underwood, KK Logan, Diamond Stylz, Patti Shaw, Diana Taylor, and countless others who stood up for their human rights when they were trampled on by others.  They have advanced the movement toward equality for transgender people.

On a sadder note, we can never forget our fallen transpeople. Rita Hester's 1998 murder was the impetus to organize the now worldwide memorial service we call the Transgender Day of Remembrance. And yes, Black transpeople were (and still are) making breakthroughs inside and outside the LGBT community.  Currently four of us, Dawn Wilson (2000) Dr. Marisa Richmond (2002), myself (2006) and Rev. Earline Budd (2010) have won the IFGE Trinity Award, the trans community's highest award for outstanding service in advocacy. We IFGE Trinity winners, along with countless other heroes and sheroes organizing locally, continue to serve the trans community in various ways and make trans history in the process.

Read the rest of my EBONY.com article here.

Phyllis Frye-Our Trailblazing Community Godmother

If you're wondering who were some of my influences in terms envisioning a unified and inclusive trans community, one of them is my activist mentor Phyllis Frye.  

I loved this recent post by Cristan Williams from her blog that gave me a little more insight into her.

It's history from the TFA archives that Cristan Williams posted on her blog about that evolution and how Phyllis' thinking shaped the Houston trans community and beyond

I can't say it enough how much we owe to our trailblazing trans human rights warrior