Fun With Andrea and Calpernia

One of the cool things about the transgender community is when you finally get to talk to people in real time that you have much admiration and respect for.

I'm blessed to have had numerous opportunities to experience that over the years, and another one came tonight thanks to U of L Pride week.

Calpernia and I met and talked during the 2004 SCC. This was the first time that Andrea and I had an opportunity to have a substantive face to face chat.

Andrea and Calpernia were here to deliver the keynote address of the ongoing U of L Pride celebration.

The 2009 edition of U of L Pride Week has had a transgender theme for most of it, and their speech focused on media issues and what their Deep Stealth Productions has done to push the positivity envelope when it comes to the images of transpeople in the media.

In addition to discussing their work and giving tips for how we transpeeps in our locales can become more media savvy when dealing with the press, we were also treated to their short film entitled Transproofed.



These women are doing work in Hollywood which is just as important as the work other trans activists are doing in their various locales educating legislators, academia, and the medical profession about our issues.

Andre Agassi when he was playing tennis had a commercial with the tag line of 'image is everything.' These ladies definitely understand that when it comes to images, Hollywood can make or break a marginalized group in that regard.

I had a blast talking to them last night and I'm looking forward to the next time our paths cross again.

Happy Birthday Caroline!

The Caroline I'm referring to in this post is one of our transgender icons. Back in the 70's and 80's she was a Bond Girl, model, author of two books, civil rights activist, a Paris showgirl and even posed for Playboy.

Today Caroline Cossey, AKA Tula is celebrating her 55th birthday.

She grew up in Britain, worked in Paris, Rome and London as a showgirl, had her SRS at 20 and became a sought after high fashion model.

But after achieving her childhood dream of being a Bond girl and appearing in the For Your Eyes Only Bond movie, she was outed by a British tabloid. It derailed her push to become an actress and temporarily sidelined her modeling career.

She fought back by releasing her first autobiography in 1982 entitled I Am A Woman

Upset about the jacked up British laws concerning the legal status of transsexuals in the wake of the Corbett v. Corbett case, in 1983 she filed suit against the British government to get the legal status of transsexuals changed.

While the legal process percolated through the British judicial system she made numerous media appearances and campaigned tirelessly for transsexual civil rights

After seven years, in 1989 her case reached the European High Courts in Strasbourg, France, where they ruled in her favor. The conservative British government promptly appealed it,

She got married in the wake of the court ruling to businessman Elias Fattal. Soon after she'd returned from her Caribbean honeymoon, the same tabloid that outed her earlier, News of the World, did so again.

During this ugly period, her marriage to Fattal was annulled, her car was sabotaged, and she received death threats. To top it all off, in 1990 she received an adverse ruling from the European Court that reversed her win from the year before.

Despite all the drama swirling around her, she released her second autobiography, My Story and resumed her modeling career.

It does end happily for her. In 1992 she met and married Canadian David Finch and has since moved to the States.

Happy birthday to Caroline Cossey, another one of our transgender icons. May you have a nice quiet stress free day down in Georgia.

I hope to one day get to meet you in person and tell you how much of an inspiration you were to me growing up.

Happy 75th Birthday Dr. Renee Richards

While watching MSNBC's Countdown Keith Olbermann made me aware of a milestone birthday occurring for a woman that happened to be his ophthalmologist.

Dr. Renee Richards turned 75 today.

This woman happened to be one of the transgender newsmakers during the 70's. She was one of the transpeople I was following news wise nationally, internationally and locally as I struggled to make sense of and deal with my own gender issues.

She fought for her right to play professional tennis when the USTA established a woman-born-woman policy back in the day that the New York Supreme Court overturned.

She ended up ranked as high as number 20 in the world before retiring as a player in 1981, and was Martina Navratilova's coach when Martina was dominating the women's tennis scene during the 80's.

She's still practicing medicine, and she has become less than popular in some transpeople's eyes with her increasingly conservative views and public regrets about transition.

She openly criticized the 2004 IOC decision to allow transpeople to compete in the Olympic games, calling it 'stupid'.

I disagree, but just like I speak my mind and some people don't like what I have to say, I respect her right to articulate her opinions on that subject and many others.

I need to point out to the peeps criticizing her that just as I reflect the attitudes of someone who grew up in the 60's and 70's, she is a product of her generation. She grew up in a time that was far more rigid and repressive about gender and she reflects those attitudes.

Happy birthday Dr. Richards. I hope that your remaining days on the planet are filled with whatever happiness and peace you can find.

Sally Jessy Pageant Show

Transsexuality was and still is a popular talk show topic, especially during sweeps months. While Jerry Springer went to the Dark Side of the ratings force on these issues, other talk shows such as Jenny Jones, Cristina and Sally Jessy Raphael tried to keep the stories they did on the subject respectful and informative.

Here's an early 90's one in which they held a pageant on the Sally Jessy Raphael show. Brought back some memories because my late Texas homegirl Tandi Andrews is part of it.

About Damned Time II

While I was channel surfing earlier tonight in search of something to watch other than the brewing political news du jour, I stumbled across another Larry King Show on transgender issues.

When I saw another all white transgender panel, I was about to turn it off CNN until something told me to hang around for a minute.

Listening to my inner voice was rewarded when I was surprised to see something different from all the previous CNN transgender panels:

Somebody who shared my ethnic heritage.

My little sis Isis King popped up for this discussion. I was happy to hear her get to articulate her thoughts on not only her recent experience on America's Next Top Model and her SRS surgery with Dr. Marci Bowers, but get a chance to actually point out that transition issues are different for the African-American community.

Too bad that nugget came at the end of the segment, but maybe it's something that the CNN peeps would like to explore. (hint,hint)

Hopefully this is only the beginning of having the experiences of transpeople of color begin to get injected into these discussions.

Meeting Sylvia Rivera

When I took a vacation trip to New York back in May 2000, little did I realize that I would get a chance to meet a historic figure at the same time.

It was back during my NTAC days and the same weekend as the Millennium March. I had no intention of going to DC because the trans community was dissed and ignored in the planning for the march, then made extremely late additions of Riki Wilchins and Jamison Green to the list of speakers when other transpeeps griped about HRC's 'bidness' as usual 'ignore the trannies' approach to community event planning.

That's a story for a later post

Since I was in the Big Apple I was invited by the denizens of Transy House to meet some of the peeps living there.

One of those peeps as I discovered two hours into the visit was Sylvia Rivera.

Thanks to my dad's job and my then airline one I was used to meeting historical figures, celebrities, public/political figures and icons. It really didn't faze me that I was meeting the Mother of the Transgender Rights movement.

After I received a big hug from her and she had a chance to eat something, we started talking. Sylvia carried herself with a regal elegance, and she was ever the activist. We discussed in a long conversation the state of the trans movement, especially after she discovered I wasn't bamboozled by HRC either and couldn't stand Jim Fouratt's transphobic behind.

We had a long conversation about her Gay Liberation Front days, STAR (the first political organization for transgender rights in the world), the chopping of transpeople from New York City's gay rights bill in 1971 that failed to pass, some of the drama and hateraid that was directed her way when the gay community ejected her, Marsha P. Johnson and our transsisters out of the GLF in order to appear more 'mainstream', and her adamant belief that we needed to do more as transpeople to fight for our rights and ensure we weren't erased from GLBT history.

When Sylvia discovered I was a proud Texan, she started criticizing President Lyndon Johnson and the Vietnam War.

I politely pointed out that as an African-American transperson from the Lone Star State I have a much higher opinion of LBJ. I also pointed out that an Austin high school and NASA's Mission Control Center in Houston are named for him, an Austin radio station bears his initials in addition to his presidential library (which I've visited) being ensconced on the University of Texas campus.

We agreed to disagree on that subject.

It was a little past midnight before we wrapped up the conversation. I ended up staying overnight at Transy House because I was staying in Yonkers with a friend and would have had a long crosstown subway and commuter rail ride there from Brooklyn through Manhattan in the wee hours of the morning. Once I arrived at the Yonkers train station, it would be a 30 minute walk to my friend's condo from the station unless there was a cab parked there. I also wasn't sure if the commuter rail trains were still running all the way to Yonkers that late either.

I was planning to return to expand on our conversations, but my life took a different direction several months later. Sylvia died way too soon in 2002 from lung cancer at age 50. I smiled when I heard that even on her deathbed, she was giving the powers that be hell.

One thing I've regretted over the years is that I didn't have a tape recorder or a notepad with me to record for posterity everything we talked about or I didn't get to see her again. But then again I wasn't expecting to meet a legend either.

I think about the things we discussed when we approach the Stonewall anniversary or when I'm looking at some situation that crops up between the transgender and gay communities that illustrates perfectly the points Sylvia warned me about almost a decade earlier.

I'm also a firm believer in listening to the wisdom of my elders. Some of what Sylvia divulged to me has served me well over the years. I'm also aware of the fact that I'm walking in Sylvia's pumps.

The conversation at times felt like she was passing a torch to me that night. It's my job as I see it, to hold that torch aloft and keep the transgender rights flame lit until it's time for me to pass it on to the next generation.

Category Closed-Goodbye Octavia

TransGriot Note: Still looking for information concerning Octavia's funeral which occurred May 26. The only thing I've been able to find so far on the Web is a comment on the Parlour magazine site from a commenter named J'alla. If I find any video, photos or other commentary elsewhere it will be attached to this post.

In the meantime, here's J'alla's description of the service.


I was able to attend the funeral and I must say, Octavia Saint Laurent’s service was just as heartfelt and larger than life as the diva herself.

From individual roses being given on cue to members of her family upon their mention during the reading of her Eulogy, a video w photos from some of Octavia’s best photo shoots to an exclusive mastered recording of Octavia singing the song “God’s Command,” that she especially made to have played at her funeral, love and fabulocity overcame the room.

Octavia’s mother, brother and sister also shared memories about Octavia and her passion for her activist work in the LGBT which shed an insightful and personal light on the performer and model.

Octavia’s funeral brought family, friends and generations of legendary children from all over the ball scene such as Kevin Aviance and many others together leaving mere standing room only.

Even in transition, Octavia looked beautiful. Dressed in pink and white and with flawless makeup, the service closed with attendees strolling to take their final views of her to the legendary ball track “Love is the Message.”

RIP Octavia Saint Laurent.

Octavia St. Laurent Funeral Information

For those of you in the New York metro area, nearby or elsewhere who wish to attend the funeral of Octavia St. Laurent, here's the information courtesy of the Village Voice.

Octavia's viewing will take place starting at 11 AM on Monday, May 25 with burial being on Tuesday, May 26.

Stutzman Funeral Home is handling the arrangements, and is located at 224-39 Jamaica Ave, Queens Village, NY.

If you need further info, the phone number is 718-465-3210 for times or call Linda at 718-347-7740 or Jonathan 347-548-5964

Coccinelle

Since I mentioned Coccinelle in a previous post, I thought it was only fair that you get to know who Jacqueline-Charlotte Dufresnoy was.

She was born in Paris on August 23, 1931. Her petite 5'3" frame and slight build led to many people questioning her gender identity. She was also aware of her gender issues at age 4 and began taking hormones in 1952.

A year later she made her debut as a transgender showgirl at Chez Madame Arthur where her mother worked selling flowers. She took the stage name Coccinelle (French for ladybug) as the show at Chez Madame Arthur became popular among Parisians and fascination about her metamorphosis grew.

She dyed her brunette hair blonde and later joined transgender showgirls April Ashley of Great Britain and Amanda Lear as a regular at the famed Le Carrousel de Paris nightclub as her popularity continued to increase.

Coccinelle usually arrived on stage wearing scarlet lipstick and wearing one of a number of outrageous mink coats dyed in different colors.

She'd already had rhinoplasty to further feminize her features, and in 1958 she traveled to Morocco and became the first European transwoman to undergo vaginoplasty by pioneering Casablanca based SRS surgeon Dr. Georges Burou.

When she returned to France, she became a media sensation like Christine Jorgenson several years before. She then remixed her look and her stage act to match the prominent sex symbols of that time period, Marilyn Monroe and Brigitte Bardot.

In addition to her new sexy image, she became appearing in various movies such as 1959's Europa di notte by director Alessandro Blasetti. More films followed, and she became the first French transwoman to become a major star in 1963 when she starred in a revue entitled 'Cherchez la femme' at the famed Paris Olympic Theater.

Coccinelle was a trailblazer and an iconic figure to transpeople who grew up in the 50's and 60's. After her operation France modified its laws to allow details on birth certificates to be amended following SRS, and she duly changed her name to Jacqueline-Charlotte from Jacques-Charles.

She also worked extensively as an activist on behalf of French transgender people, founding the organization Devenir Femme (To Become Woman). Devenir Femme was designed to provide emotional and practical support for persons seeking sex reassignment surgery. She also helped establish the Center for Aid, Research, and Information for Transsexuality and Gender Identity as well.



She was married three times, and her first marriage to sports journalist Francis Bonnet in 1960 not only was the first transsexual union to be officially acknowledged by the nation of France, she booked Notre Dame Cathedral for the ceremony. It also established a transgender person's legal right to marry in France.

Coccinelle toured the world for 25 years, and was a big hit in South America. Bob Hope was impressed by her show and offered her a tempting financial package to perform with his troupe, but she declined it. She even performed in front of the Shah of Iran and for 10 years appeared in a German cabaret run by transwoman Romy Haag. Her autobiography, Coccinelle by Coccinelle, was published in 1987 with her last public performance being done in 1990.

She later moved to Marseilles and ran her own cabaret there from 2002-2005 before being hospitalized in July 2006 following a stroke. She died on October 9, 2006 at age 75.

At her funeral, held at the Eglise Saint-Roch de Paris, Father Philippe Desgens reminded mourners: "All the children of God have a place in the Church", and noted that "by her marriage in church after her operation, and during her whole life, Coccinelle showed her faith."

Coccinelle is another of our iconic transwomen who will never be forgotten, and blazed a path that future French transwomen would follow.

Octavia St Laurent Clips

Octavia may be gone from us, but she'll never be forgotten. It's also a given that the ballroom competition in Heaven just got a little more fierce.

Rest in peace, sis.

RIP Octavia St. Laurent

The Paris Is Burning movie came out as I was early into my own transition. One of the people I was captivated by and resolved to meet one day was Octavia St. Laurent.

The closest I've come to making that happen was when the funeral for Amanda Milan happened in 2000 and at the last minute I couldn't get the time off to go.

I wish I had. She gave a moving and fiery eulogy for Amanda that day on which she said, "Gays have rights, lesbians have rights, men have rights, women have rights, even animals have rights. "How many of us have to die before the community recognizes that we are not expendable?"

Sadly, that's not going to happen.

I just received the word that Octavia St. Laurent passed away May 17. Still trying to get the who, what, when, where, why and how details, and will pass them on to you as I find out.

In the interim, check out this video from Paris Is Burning.



Rest In Peace sis.

Why Black Transgender Role Models Are Important

Wyatt T. Walker wrote in a December 1967 Negro Digest article, "Rob a people of their sense of history and you take away hope."

So when I stated that I wish I'd had pioneering transgender role models to look up to of African descent growing up like white transwomen have with Christine Jorgensen, April Ashley, and Phyllis Frye, I was speaking not only from a personal frame of reference, but from a historical one as well.

Yes, those people and many others have wonderful qualities that anyone can admire and emulate. But they also have in common the fact they are white.

That hasn't changed even though there are three African-American transgender people who have Trinity Awards on their mantels. That hasn't changed even though there are countless examples of transgender people of color stepping up, being intimately involved in shaping the history of this community and blazing trails such as the Alexander John Goodrums and Roberta Angela Dees of the world.

I'm lamenting the history that either hasn't or is just beginning to be told.

The point is that a young Euro-American transkid always has people representing them that affirm, reflect and share their cultural heritage. They log into computers for information on transgender issues, and the websites and the history they tell about the community disproportionately reflects them.

Go to the library or search for books on transgender issues, and there's a plethora of books, be they fiction or non-fiction, written from their point of view. They even see themselves reflected in the few movies and TV shows that have been done with transgender characters in them.

Now if you're a person of color, it's a different world.

Black transwomen have been whitewashed out of the transgender community narrative despite playing major roles in crafting it. We're rarely interviewed by the MSM, have books written by us, about us, or for us, asked to speak at colleges on transgender issues, or reflected in the predominately white middle-upper middle class leadership ranks of the community.

Don't even get me started talking about the images of African descended transwomen.

So when people consider me a role model or tell me they're honored to talk to me, I realize the seriousness of it. It's something I wish I'd had growing up, and it's the same lament shared by current day transwomen now in their twenties and thirties.

It's important in any marginalized community, especially as a transperson of color to have role models that share your ethnic heritage. They give you a concrete example of the fact that you aren't alone for starters. Their existence lets you know they are proud to be who they are, a roadmap to living your own proud life and the strength to persevere against adversity.

It also lets you know that you have a valued history that we have an obligation to defend and build up to greater heights. It also gives you the sense that you are another runner in the relay race of life and it's your turn to pick up the baton and carry it forward.

That has what's been denied us through intentional and unintentional whitewashing of transgender history, our community being disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS and taking the brunt of the hate violence directed at transgender people.

It has also served as Wyatt Walker's quote states, taken away our hope.

It's a negative pattern that needs to be reversed, and it starts with us. We have to claim and fiercely defend our history, trumpet our accomplishments, and document what's happening for current and future generations to read as well.

I want future generations of cisgender people inside and outside my African descended community to know not only what Alexander John Goodrum, Roberta Angela Dee, Dionne Stallworth, Kylar Broadus, Dawn Wilson, Dr. Marisa Richmond, Lorrainne Sade Baskerville, some transgender blogger who's the 2006 IFGE Trinity Award winner and many others accomplished in their time here on Earth to build this community, it's important for future generations of transkids to know this as well.

Just Because A Brother Dates A Transwoman Doesn't Make Him Gay

One of the tired memes I hear which gets repeated far too often is if a cisgender male dates a transwoman, he's automatically slapped with the 'gay' label.

I saw that crap repeat itself after the recent Tyra show in which Isis was proposed to by her boyfriend Desmond. The homophobic/transphobic negativity instantaneously erupted in the comment threads.

Sounds like some peeps were jealous.

The bottom line is that when we transition, one of the Prime Directives of our WPATH real life tests is that we blend in with society. Being a transperson also doesn't stop our sex drives or the fact that we gotta have it too.

Transwomen need love just like any other person walking Planet Earth. If you haters haven't gotten the memo by now, the stereotype of transwomen looking like NFL linebackers in dresses has long since been thoroughly discredited.

There have been some stunning looking transwomen over the last half century emerge from their cocoons to become beautiful butterflies. If they're hetero oriented in their sexual orientation, they like going out on dates, revel in being in the company of men, getting candy, flowers, chocolate and enjoy getting intimate with them just like any other estrogen based lifeform.

Since the male species that's hetero oriented checks out the beauty first as a prelude to chasing the booty, these transwomen, like any beautiful woman do get attention from the male species. Sometimes it doesn't matter whether we've had the surgery or not when they meet us. If we turn them on, they want to get to know us, and like us enough to want to get intimate with us, then nothing's gonna stop it.

The people that take the time to step to us, aren't 'scurred' of the drama and get to know a transwoman beyond the stereotypes discover we have varied personalities just like our cisgender sisters. We transwomen also realize how much crap you have to deal with just to date us and it's deeply appreciated.

But that doesn't mean just because we have a tough time finding men not 'scurred' to date transwomen you get a free pass to disrespect us. We're also looking for quality men just like our cisgender sisters and not scrubs.

Just because a cisgender guy dates one of us doesn't make him gay. Anybody who holds on to that antiquated thinking needs to go back and retake Sexuality 101. A gay male is attracted to another gay male. Generally they aren't interested for the most part in having relationships with transwomen, but after almost thirty years of observing the TLBG community I've seen some interesting couplings.

You also never know what a person likes to do in the bedroom once the door is closed, and it's nobody's business if that person likes a transwoman who just happens to have a neoclit in her panties. Love is funny that way.

If two people find that type of deep committed love and want to stay together for the rest of their lives, then what's wrong with that?

It's hard enough for a transwoman, be she straight or lesbian to find love. Are we supposed to let plumbing issues get in the way if we have found our soul mate and he doesn't care about it? I think not.

Isis Update On Tyra

When we last checked in with little sis Isis, she was just coming off an appearance on The Tyra Banks Show in which we were introduced to her mom, she got to confront one of her ANTM Cycle 11 tormentors Clark, and she was surprised with the announcement from Tyra that she was paying for her SRS as she introduced her to Dr. Marci Bowers.

In the Tyra show being broadcast on Monday, Isis is sporting a new blonde look, she will talk about her SRS, the changes in her life and introduce us to her boyfriend Desmond.

There will also be another surprise for Isis on this show, a marriage proposal

So set the TIVO's peeps. This should be interesting.

Nicole Kidman To Play Transwoman Lili Elbe

Seeing how well it worked for Felicity Huffman to play a transwoman in the movie Transamerica, Oscar winning actress Nicole Kidman is now going to do so in an upcoming indie film called the Danish Girl, based on David Ebeshoff's fictionalized account of the relationship of Elbe and wife Gerda, who will be played by Oscar winner Charlize Theron.

Gerda was a successful artist and illustrator in her own right, and in addition to painting beautiful pictures of women, painted some highly erotic ones as well. You may wish to wait until you get home to check them out courtesy of the Dorothy Surrender's blog if you're curious since these images are a bit steamy for work.

But for us transpeeps, Lili is considered the pioneer. She was born Einar Wegener in 1886 and met Gerda Gottlieb while they were students in a Copenhagen art school.

They settled in Paris in 1912 and worked as illustrators, with Einar focusing on painting landscapes while Gerda finding commercial success focusing on books and fashion magazines. Lili's body type also allowed her to pass quite easily as a woman, which she did from 1910 onwards.

When one of Gerda's models no showed, she asked Lili to fill in to great success. Gerda then continued to use Lili in a series of paintings as her model. Sometimes she was dressed in high fashion clothes, other times in the nude.

Beginning in 1930, after Lili's examination by Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, she underwent an experimental series of operations in Berlin to finish her transformation to woman. She had an ovarian transplant performed in the second surgery, but after she experienced severe abdominal pain, had emergency surgery to remove them. She died in 1931 as a result of complications from that failed transplant and is buried in Dresden, Germany.

It's going to be interesting to not only see this piece of transgender history come to the silver screen, but see Nicole Kidman playing a transwoman as well.

Looking forward to seeing this movie when it finally comes out.