December 1, 1952

What's significant about this day?

It's the day the announcement of  Christine Jorgensen's SRS surgery in Denmark was plastered in newspapers all over the world.

SRS wasn't a new procedure.   Lili Elbe was the first along with a patient named 'Dorchen'  at Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld's Berlin based Institute of Sexual Science in 1930-31.  The new twist in Christine's procedure was adding the HRT prior to the surgical procedure.   


Christine didn't return to New York until February 1953, but the announcement primed the pump for her to become a media celebrity upon her arrival back in the States.

It also let people that felt the same way as Christine know they were not alone and they now had a way to deal with it. 

Miss Major Interview

I have much love for one of our iconic transwomen in  Miss Major, who is one of the few African descended Stonewall Rebellion veterans.    She talks to Ashley Love about Stonewall and a few other issues.   


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The Houston Christohaters Already Tripping About Judge Frye

Well, was wondering how long it would take our local right wing conservafools to react to Judge Phyllis Frye's historic appointment to a Houston municipal judgeship.

About 24 hours for the haters in the Houston Area Pastors Council, our local Forces of Intolerance auxiliary with 300 hate churches in its membership run by Dave Welch.. 

“This is not just a benign act. This is someone (Frye) who is very well known as an aggressive activist on sexual diversity issues and very much against the mainstream of most of the people….As we all know municipal court judges are the first step in the elevation of different judgeships. They typically go on to civil district court judges or family court judges and beyond, so this is not a benign appointment. It’s a statement. It really is. We’ll be calling on the churches to stand up and be involved,” said Dave Welch.

Dave, didn't you learn from the on-air pwning you took from Cristan not to mess with us?   

And you're right, it IS a statement.   It's a statement that we trans Houstonians are talented, intelligent tax paying citizens of the city who love Houston just as much as y'all profess you do and have much to offer our community and society.

It's past time for y'all to back up off us and let us trans Houstonians live our lives without your conservafool political agenda driven interference in it.

  

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Happy Birthday Miss Major!

I had the pleasure of meeting her in conjunction with the Transsistahs-Transbrothas conference in 2005 and our paths crossed again in 2008 in Northampton, MA when she was the Grand Marshal for the inaugural trans pride event held there.

Today, I'm taking a moment to respectfully bow in the direction of the Bay Area (or wherever her travels are taking her at the moment) and wish Miss Major a very happy birthday. 

She is one of the few African descended Stonewall Rebellion veterans still walking in this plane of existence and is a living legend for us.  She's had an interesting life as someone who transitioned in the 1950's, was a member of the Mattachine Society, and has been a tireless advocate for the rights and humane treatment of trans prisoners.  In 2008 she testified to the United Nations about the mistreatment of trans people of color in the United States and continues to be an eloquent spokesperson and one of my role models as an advocate for our issues.

Happy birthday Miss Major!  Enjoy your day and may you have many more to continue telling your story to all of us within the sound of your voice.

Alexandra Billings-It Gets Better

TransGriot Note  Actress Alexandra Billings talks about her experiences being bullied as a child and explaining how life got better for her.

Miss Major's Yale Speech

Miss Major is one of my trans elders and one of the few African-American Stonewall veterans still around as a living witness to that history. She is also an activist in her own right and advocate for trans prison rights in California and beyond that should have received an IFGE Trinity Award by now.

In 2008, Miss Major testified at the United Nations about the abuses of transgender women of color in the United States.

She began her transition in the 50's and ever since I met her at the 2005 Transsisters-Transbrothers conference in Louisville, I've been eager to hear and seek out that chocolate flavored trans history and wisdom from her perspective.

Stumbled across this story about a November 2009 chat she had at Yale University during Yale's Trans Awareness Week.

Moni's A Legend?

As I've mentioned in several posts I had an interesting and fun weekend in the Pioneer Valley of western Massachusetts spending time with the trans community there and in New England who drove to Northampton to see the parade and rally.

One of the words I kept hearing a lot in my conversations with my hosts and various community members was 'legend' and people telling me it was an 'honor to meet me'.

Others thanked me for writing various TransGriot community related posts that either inspired or informed them, including the ones about GIEC.

Granted, I've done and I'm still doing things for this community as a 2006 IFGE Trinity Award recipient, have become sort of an elder stateswoman and commentator on TransGriot and other blogs as time moves on.

TransGriot keeps me busy chronicling our community history, current events and upcoming leaders you should know about while shining a bright spotlight on our enemies internal and external.

But legend? Naaah.

Maybe I don't think so because I feel at times like I haven't done enough for the community.

I've felt since I moved back home I haven't been involved enough in Houston and Texas trans issues, even though I've surfaced at a few events since my May return to the Lone Star State.

I was doing far more when I departed Da Ville, up to and including sitting on community boards of GLBT orgs, speaking to college classes in the area, helping plan and speak at local TDOR ceremonies and getting involved in community candidate endorsement interviews.

Yeah, I realize it took me two years to build up to that level of community service and involvement and I've realistically only been back in H-town for four short months. It's going to take me time to get to that level again, and it was one of the things that bothered me before the 3000 mile round trip to Northampton.

But the trip helped to recharge the activist batteries and make me realize why I got into it on behalf of my trans brothers and sisters in Texas and elsewhere in the first place.

I wanted to help transpeople find the courage to stand up and fight for their constitutionally guaranteed civil rights.

I also wanted to emphatically point out to the white dominated trans community leadership and get them to realize that transpeople of color will play a major role in making that civil rights breakthrough happen.

It has been beneficial to helping me do the same in my own life as well.

It was comforting to know that people in the community not only wanted me there for this year's event, but took time out of their busy lives and weekends to want to be in Northampton for it.

I was happy to see the turnout for it despite the drama that preceded my arrival there and see the community's hard work validated. If I played a small role in motivating the local community to empower themselves, well that's all good as well.

To know that people around the country and in some cases the world look to you for principled leadership and guidance is an awesome responsibility and one I take very seriously.

And yeah, may have something positive to announce about me getting back in the local community groove as well, but we'll see how it plays out.

But legend? I think it'll be up to future historians to judge me on that, but it sure does have a nice ring to it.