Happy Birthday Ethan!

Couldn't let today pass without a TransGriot birthday shoutout to one of my fave people and personalities in the trans community.  

I've known Ethan St. Pierre since the late 90's and am proud to count him amongst my friends.   he's been a trans human rights warrior for over a decade and isn't afraid to tell it like it T-I-S is when it comes to the people inside or outside our community that would impede trans rights progress.

He is also passionate when it comes to the TDOR and keeping it true to the principles of being the memorial event is is supposed to be for our fallen transpeople in addition to being the keeper of the stats.  .

Thanks to the TransFM podcast you can hear his thoughts about many of the issues that impact our community and he has stood up to be counted at his state and federal level when it comes to fighting to trans rights coverage

Happy birthday Ethan!   Thanks for everything you have and continue to do for our community.  May your birthday be a blessed and low stress one and may you have many more. .

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Happy 60th Birthday Sylvia

Today would have been the 60th birthday of the mother of the trans and gay rights movement, Sylvia Rae Rivera and it's a bittersweet moment as we celebrate the day she was born in New York City in 1951.

This birthday anniversary dawns with transpeople in New York state facing another long, hot frustrating summer of dealing with the fact that GENDA lopsidedly passed the New York Assembly for the fourth consecutive session, but once again died in the New York Senate.

I had the pleasure of meeting her in May 2000 and having a long conversation with her about the then state of the trans community.  I have a pretty good idea of what her reactions would be to this news if we were still blessed to have her around.

She'd be pissed, and Trans Nation and trans peeps in New York need to be thinking about this situation in WWSD terms  

What Would Sylvia Do? 

What would she do?   Be in people's faces inside and outside our community fighting tooth and nail to get GENDA passed by any means necessary.   Sylvia's legacy demands nothing less than our best efforts to do that and replicate her fighting spirit in our own locales and at a national level.


And it would be a fitting birthday present to have GENDA be New York state law by this time next year.

Happy birthday Sylvia.  You are missed.

Trans Rights Warrior Tracy Bumpus Called Home

In what was a major shock to me, I was informed that Tracy Bumpus, a longtime activist in the New York area and plaintiff in the successful Bumpus v New York Transit Authority case has passed away.

I was getting to know my 45 year old 'baby sister' as I jokingly called her.
 
She was originally from Oklahoma and we were part of that successful effort that helped kill the unjust MD bill.  She was working on completing her master's degree in social policy and was days from doing so from Empire State College while working as a program assistant at the AIDS Project of East Bay. 

She had already signed up for a second master’s program for teaching and formerly was a life skills trainer and coach for Housing Works Transgender Transitional Housing Program.   She's had some challenges, but she rose above them to become a respected trans rights warrior 

Shockingly, now she's gone.    Tracy was living in Vallejo, CA when she passed away, but the people who loved her extend from the Left Coast all the way back to New York.

Fittingly there will be two memorial services on both coasts.   One will be held for her in New York and the other in Oakland.


The one for Tracy in Oakland will take place this Thursday at the First Unitarian Church of Oakland (685 14th Street) beginning at 6:00 PM PDT.    

The New York one is supposedly taking place on Thursday as well, and when I get the info I'll pass it along in a post as soon as I get confirmation of location and time

Rest in peace Tracy, you will be missed.

Rest In Peace, Dana DeAndra Turner

Was saddened to hear that one of my old friends and fellow advocates in New York, Dana DeAndra Turner passed away in April

Dana was an attorney, role model and powerful transsistah who was part of ICTLEP, had worked for Conscious Contact and the Sylvia Rivera Law Project.   She'd been an award winning advocate for the trans community there and nationally with an emphasis on transwomen of color for over 30 years.

She had overcome some challenges as well.  Dana was diagnosed in 1987 with HIV during her second year of law school at Washington D.C.'s Georgetown University Law Center.  It led to her briefly dropping out of law school, but she returned to ultimately graduate with her Juris Doctorate in 1991.

Armed with her law degree, she focused on the areas of public interest law and relentlessly  campaigning for the rights of people living with HIV/AIDS.

I met her in 1999 during the process of forming NTAC and immediately liked her.   She was a fashionista like myself and had a reputation as a cut to the chase, get it done, tell it like it T-I-S is way of speaking up for underserved populations and issues near and dear to her heart.  

One of my fave memories of Dana is flying up to New York during my Air Marshal days for a memorable visit in which we hung out at her midtown Manhattan place and bounced to a Black gay club on W 14th Street called One Potato Two Potato.

We were talking shop about some trans civil rights issues while a drag show was going on.   The drag artist obviously had a problem with us not focusing our attention on her and sent the alleged assistant manager over to where we were standing to tell us we were disturbing her lousy act.

Dana's infamous wit showed up when she glared at the stage and said as I rolled my eyes at the manager, "Disturbing her act?  Who does she think she is?  This ain't Lincoln Motherfracking Center!"   We then left the club in dramatic fashion to go get pizza as the drag queen causing the drama rolled her eyes at us.

We hadn't been in contact as much since she's been busy with her projects in New York and the last time I talked to her was in January.   I'm going to miss talking to one of the people who helped expand my horizons as an activist and challenged my political thinking at times.. 

Rest in peace, Dana.    You will be missed.  .