Miss Major's TGIJP Retirement Party Coming Soon

After her decades of service to our community, the TGI Justice Project announced that Miss Major Griffin-Gracy  would be retiring as executive director of the organization.

On October 25 there will be an epic retirement party in San Francisco for our pioneering trans elder that also doubles as a fundraiser for the organization and Miss Major.

The party will also witness the formal passing of the TGIJP torch to Janetta Johnson, who will take over as executive director of TGI Justice Project.

While Miss Major is stepping down from the ED role at TGI Justice Project, she says she's still going to be speaking out about issues in our community when she feels moved to do so.

“I want to thank you all for working with me and being part of the transitions and changes we’ve  gone through at TGIJP over the years. And I want to assure you that while I’m stepping down as Executive Director, my mouth is not stepping down and I will continue to bitch and let people know what my community is going through. It's difficult living in our truth, but what better way to survive? It's important that we survive; we've got to come out on top. Please continue to support and back up Janetta for taking on the responsibility of taking TGIJP into the next phase. Wish her well and help her prosper. Be safe and stay strong."

The retirement party is slated to start at 4:00 PM PDT and run until 8 PM at the Bently Reserve Banking Hall in San Francisco, located at 301 Battery Street in San Francisco, CA.

You can purchase your tickets at this link.. There is also a Gofundme that has been set up for Miss Major to help her with her retirement expenses at https://www.gofundme.com/MsMajorRetirement 

Thanks for all you have done for us Miss Major, being still f*****g here to tell your story, passing down our history to me and others in our community, and representing for girls like us.

1996 Miss Major Letter- Affirmation!

The MAJOR documentary is a step closer to finally being finished, and you can check out the website or the film's Facebook page for updated news and other tantalizing tidbits from the upcoming documentary..

Here is a 1996 letter courtesy of StormMiguel Florez from Miss Major that she wrote for the first issue of the Knock Knock Times, a voice for & by the Tenderloin Transgender Community entitled Affirmation!

While some of the drama, storms, trials and travails we go through as 21st century trans people is nothing compared to what our trans elders endured and is nothing new, if we aren't careful, we will let that avalanche of negativity creep into our lives and rob us of our happiness and joy.  We must guard against that.  

As Miss Major reminds us in that letter, we are unique, wonderful and part of the diverse mosaic of human life.  

And now, here's some circa 1996 words of wisdom from one of our distinguished trans elders.

****

Dear Glamour Girls!

With all the negative attitudes and anti-us people in this world, we need to remember that WE ARE UNIQUE & WONDERFUL! We are the creative souls of humankind. Therefore, we must stand our ground and have all who come in contact with us realize we are worth loving. We are worth it all!

Love is wonderful, but it must be kept safe so that we will survive the wrath of the ignorant. With that in mind, you must constantly think positive, self-affirming thoughts. Re-affirm your precious existence all through your day with affirmations.

You can create them to fit your own special energy. You can feel pretty, like Maria in West Side Story without a man to tell you so ... because you ARE and you know it! Loving yourSelf helps you love someone else. So sing out loud: I FEEL PRETTY!

Stay focused on yourself, stay safe, and keep a positive attitude. We are worth it ALL!

Here are a few affirmations you might use:

*I am a radiant being, filled with light and love.
*I am master/mistress of my life.
*The more I love mySelf, the more love I have to give to others.
Well, my dear other-selves, I close with marvelous thoughts for you.

Love, respectfully,
Major

Happy 80th Birthday April Ashley!

Across The Pond today is the milestone birthday of one of our trans community icons.  Today April Ashley, MBE was born on this date 80 years ago in Liverpool, England.  

No wonder I love her.   She's a fellow Taurus!

She had a challenging childhood and grew up to become one of the first people in Great Britain to undergo SRS with Dr. Georges Bourou in Casablanca, Morocco in 1960.

She was 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, and enjoyed the romantic attention of actor Peter O'Toole and famed painters Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso.

She has also worked tirelessly to advance the human rights of trans people in Great Britain and awarded her MBE in 2012.

In September 2013 the year long April Ashley: Portrait of A Lady exhibit opened at the Museum of Liverpool focused on her amazing life.

Ashley received a Lifetime Achievement honor during the 2014 European Diversity Awards.

Happy 80th birthday, April!   To me. April Ashley's life is a testament to living well being your best revenge as a trans person.  

And living long enough to celebrate eight decades on this planet definitely qualifies as living well.

Jaci Adams Passes Away

Per several sources in Philadelphia, I have been advised that longtime Philadelphia trans activist Jaci Adams is now with the ancestors after losing her valiant fight against cancer.  

The 56 year old Adams passed away this afternoon at 3:15 PM Eastern time.

Jaci rose from trying circumstances and hardships to become a beloved and award winning leader in the Philadelphia metro area.  She was a founding member of the Temple University Community Advisory Board, served on the planning committee for the Philadelphia Trans Health Conference and the Morris County Planning Committee.   Jaci was a long term volunteer with the AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania, a member of the Philly Police Department LGBT Liaison Committee Team and was a founder of the 2004 People With Hope Trans Conference. 


As soon as I get the information concerning the funeral arrangements or memorial service, I will pass them on via these electronic pages for those of you who wish to attend. 

You can also leave a comment on her Facebook page.

When that memorial service happens, as a final tribute to the work Jaci did on behalf of the community she loved and spent her life working to make Philadelphia a better place for all, please fill up whatever venue that service is held at to show your appreciation. 

We'd also like you to be there filling up the venue and representing those of us from the national trans community who loved her and would like to be in the room but won't be able to.

Rest in power and in peace, Jaci.    

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.

Octavia St. Laurent- Salon Talk

Octavia St. Laurent passed away in May 2009, but she still lives on not only in the hearts of those who loved her, but also the memories of the people who had the pleasure of meeting her or seeing her in the ballrooms.

Here's YouTube video of Octavia getting her hair done before the 2005 Legend's Ball and talking candidly about some of the changes in her life. 


Part 1




Part 2.

Georgina Beyer Seriously Ill

Georgina Beyer, who rose from a challenging situation to become the world's first trans MP in 1999 is reportedly seriously ill with a chronic kidney infection that will force her to do four day a week dialysis unless she gets a kidney transplant.

The 55 year old Beyer was about to announce her candidacy for mayor of Wellington, New Zealand's capital city and has not confirmed as of yet if she will drop those plans to run

She stood for election as a Labour MP in the November 1999 general election and energized the trans community in New Zealand and around the world by winning a usually right-leaning electorate in Wairarapa to become the world's first openly transgender MP.  She held that seat until she resigned from New Zealand's parliament in February 2007.

"I'm sure as hell not going to sit back and think, "woe is me",' said Beyer in an interview with Woman's Day magazine. "I refuse to be defeatist. This health issue has cast a huge shadow, but I'm going to be positive and proactive.'

And we'll follow your lead on that in addition to saying our prayers for you.

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.
 

When Farrakhan And Christine Jorgensen's Paths Crossed

History and historical figures sometimes have those moments where they cross paths as they play their roles on the historical stage..   Sometimes it's because they actually meet, as Malcolm X and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr did in March 1964.   Other times those historical figures may never personally meet, but their paths cross because of other factors.

When Christine Jorgensen returned to the United States sixty years ago this month, she was a major news story and people were fascinated about her and the topic of transsexuality. 

A Bronx born and Boston raised classical violinist and calypso singer with Caribbean family roots by the name of Louis Wolcott was recording hit music under the moniker 'The Charmer' back in those days.   One of his records was so popular it was on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for five years.

'The Charmer' was still two years away from his 1955 conversion as a member of the Nation of Islam, becoming Louis Farrakhan and giving up his music career when he released this calypso record about Christine Jorgensen entitled 'Is She Is Or Is She Ain't'

It ain't exactly complementary of our pioneering American trans woman, but this is just an example of the 'Christine mania' that was going on at the time and some of the shots she took in order to pave the way for future generations of trans people.   

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 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.

Marsha P. Johnson Case Being Reopened

Marsha P. Johnson was one of our trailblazing trans women as a Stonewall veteran, activist and a co-founder of Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) with Sylvia Rivera.   Her body was found floating in the Hudson River near the Chelsea Piers after the 1992 Pride March. 

The NYPD controversially ruled her death as a suicide over the objections of friends and supporters who emphatically stated she was not suicidal.

It was also anecdotally reported that Marsha was harassed near the spot where her body as later found.

Anyone in the trans community could have told them there is more to the story of any transperson's death, especially in light of the fact we face horrific levels of anti-trans violence aimed at us.  When you are dealing with the death of any transwoman found under mysterious circumstances as Marsha was then, those foul play angles need to be looked at until they can definitively be ruled out   

According to the Village Voice, thanks to the efforts of trans activist Mariah Lopez, the trans daughter of the late Sylvia Rivera,  the Manhattan DA's office has assigned a person to look into the case of Marsha P. Johnson and find out what really happened to her.  

Lopez believes as Sylvia Rivera did at the time that Marsha was murdered.  Lopez is also working to gather support for getting a permanent memorial statue of Marsha placed near the Chelsea Pier.

Granted it's 20 years later, the evidence and trail has grown cold, but it's worth it to definitively know what really happened to Marsha and the sequence of events that led to her untimely death.
.

Christine Jorgenson Hour Magazine Interview

Video of a Christine Jorgenson interview in the 1980's with Gary Collins on the Hour Magazine talk show.

Sylvia Speaks

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

Christine Jorgenson Returns To New York

On this date in 1953 Christine Jorgenson stepped off an airplane from Denmark and into an intense  media spotlight that blew a nuke test off the front pages.

Here's some video of her February 13 arrival at what is now JFK Airport  and the ensuing press conference.

Former New Zealand MP Beyer Having Tough Time

Back in 1999 she made headlines and gave the international trans community a huge sense of pride in her trailblazing achievement when she became the first open trans person on the planet to be elected to their national legislature.

Now 54 year old Georgina Beyer has hit hard times since leaving New Zealand's Parliament and after selling her home and possessions to stay afloat financially is collecting unemployment and now living in a one bedroom apartment. 

You would think that Ms Beyer as a former Labour MP would be hired by someone in New Zealand wishing to take advantage of her twenty years of government experience, her party would be scrambling to find her something or someone would have her giving paid motivational speeches at their events to help her out.

But I suspect there's something else at work here.   Can you say "anti-trans discrimination" TransGriot readers?   Thought you could.

Miss Major Update

Posted about our trans icon in Miss Major being hospitalized for elevated blood pressure.

Was advised by Minister Bobbie Jean Baker that Miss Major was released from the hospital yesterday and is at home.  As of this writing she's been ordered to rest for a few days and will see her doctor for a checkup later in the week.    

According to Minister Bobbie Jean's FB page Miss Major is not taking phone calls at home as of this writing but you can leave messages at her work phone number which is (415) 252-1444    

I don't think she'll mind if we continue to pray for her speedy recovery and continue to send positive thoughts her way.  .

Miss Major Hospitalized

Y'all know how much I love and admire one of our pioneering trans elders in Miss Major.  

Was saddened and alarmed to hear from Minister Bobbie Jean Baker last night that Miss Major has been hospitalized due to seriously elevated blood pressure.   They've got it down and she's at this writing under observation at Kaiser Permanente Oakland hospital where they are running tests to determine what's causing the problem.

Minister Bobbie Jean e-mailed me they are going to keep her under observation for another day and we should have more news about what's happening with Miss Major at noon PST.  

Will keep people posted as I receive the info, and you may wish to send prayers, positive thoughts and well wishes to Miss Major for a speedy recovery.