BBC Free Speech 'Things Not To Say To A Trans Person' Video

On BBC Free Speech, several of our British trans siblings, Paris Lees, Fox Fisher, Veronica Blades, Adeleh Sasansara, Munroe Bergdorf, Dani Gibbinson and Harry Taylor were asked to randomly pick out of a bowl some questions they and by extension many trans people are asked. .  

Here's the results.

Shoutout To Our 2016 Trans Wedding Couples

June is traditionally considered the month for weddings, and for people who make their money in photography, wedding planning, making wedding dresses and DJing, this is the beginning of the time that they make their money.

Trans folks get married, too.  Unfortunately over the last few decades we have had to fight tooth and nail in courts in Texas and around the world just to have the right to say 'I do' as witnessed in cases like Delgado v. Araguz, Ms. W in Hong Kong, and Joanne Cassar's in Malta.

One of the other things that I have been so happy to see besides the landmark marriage case wins is continuing to see trans folks hooking up with each other in long term relationships that end up with them saying 'I do' in front of their families and friends.

While we in Trans World are aware the anticipated wedding of the Trans Obamas, AKA Precious Davis and Myles Brady is going to happen soon, just last month we had another out trans couple get married in Logan and Laila Ireland.

Logan and Laila got married in Hawaii on May 17, and I couldn't be happier for both of them.  Still looking forward to the day i meet both of them.

As for Myles and Precious, we've already seen her make a little trans history of her own on Say Yes To The Dress as we and the rest of America got to watch her pick between several gowns.

As for which one she finally did choose, we and Myles won't know until their wedding day..

But I also want to take this TransGriot shoutout post time to salute not only our trans couples, but our couples in which a trans person is marrying or have been happily married for years to a cisgender person.  

But no matter what type of couple is walking down the aisle, I wish you well.   I envy you  because you have found your soulmates.  I'm exceedingly happy for you, and hope and pray those relationships stand the test of time as long, healthy and happy ones..

'Assigned Male' - A Trans Themed Comic Of Our Own

You TransGriot readers are aware of how much i love comics, and while surfing the Net one afternoon I stumbled across he delightful webcomic entitled Assigned Male, created by French-Canadian comic artist Sophie Labelle.

Assigned Male follows the adventures of Stephanie, a young 11 year trans girl who is making her way through early transition, school and her interesting life that includes cis and trans friends, activism, and her amazing parents.

Assigned Male is quickly becoming a favorite for kids who are in early transition and even trans adults like myself who identify with many of the situations that Steph deals with such as anti-trans bullying, insensitive comments, invalidation of who she is as a trans girl, and balancing activism with having as normal a life for a kid as she can.

And as you probably guessed, transphobic haters are coming for this comic as it gets increasing well deserved attention and popularity..

Assigned Male creator Labelle has made it clear that this comic is a transcentric FUBU production, but if cis people get joy out of it and learn something about what our trans community and trans kids deal with, that's cool, too.  .

The online Hateraid that our trans sibling Labelle is getting in some quarters of the Net for her trans positive comic that has now reached 220 issues and counting  is why I'm writing this post about Assigned Male.

It not only deserves to be celebrated in our community, we also need to recognize how important it is for trans kids to see themselves and their lives reflected in popular culture in a world that tries on an almost daily basis to viciously erase their existence.
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Assigned Male updates every Monday, Wednesday and Friday and you can find it at www.assignedmale.com or on Facebook to check out the latest issue of it..

Secretary Clinton, Where You At On Trans United Fund's Trans Issues Survey?

Back in February I wrote a post in which I proudly stood up and endorsed Sec. Hillary Clinton for president in advance of the March 1 Texas presidential primary.

I did so because I believed and still believe that she is the best qualified person left in the running for the most important office in our country.   It is also because of some actions done for trans people while she was Secretary of State in terms of the June 2010 policy change that allows trans people to get US passports with a correct gender marker and without genital surgery.   I also believed she would be the best person left in the race to continue President Obama's legacy as the best president ever when it comes to trans rights issues.

I took a lot of intense criticism from Sanders supporters for that endorsement, but  as a longtime trans community leader, I'm not afraid to make unpopular calls when they are in the best interests of my community.  

The wisdom of that endorsement was validated as she overwhelmingly won Texas, swept the South and other diverse states in our country and garnered over 11 million votes of Democrats while doing so.

.I'd like to point out, as you probably aware of because of the Trans United For Hillary group and this section of your campaign website, that some of those 11 million people who proudly voted for you are transgender Americans.

Secretary Clinton is on the verge of making history as the first female candidate to clinch the Democratic nomination and become a major party candidate for president, and I congratulate her and the campaign staff for that historic accomplishment.

But what I am concerned about is why her campaign, as it shifts to what is certain to be a hard fought fall campaign against Donald Trump (ewwh), has been reluctant to fill out the Trans United Fund survey as the Sanders campaign did. . We know why Donald Trump won't do so

We are in a moment in which the Republican Party, fundamentalists, conservative organizations and even the Ku Klux Klan are making it clear for various reasons they oppose civil rights for trans people, and are gleefully attacking transgender people's humanity as they do so.

It is also the time in American history in which a diverse group of trans Americans have visibility at levels we haven't seen since Christine Jorgensen stepped off the plane at JFK from Denmark in February 1953.

This is a time of heightened interest and support for trans people, and I appreciate the fact the Secretary has mentioned transgender Americans in some of her stump speeches.  But what we need to know as we approach a high stakes election in November is will Secretary Clinton's deeds for trans Americans match or exceed her words?

That's why Trans United Fund sent that survey, because we need an honest answer to that question that we can tell our trans constituency we are charged with representing on the national political stage.

We trans people of color also need to know that answer, because the quality of our lives for the next four years literally hangs on whether you or Donald Trump succeed the best president ever on trans issues on January 20.

As a unapologetically Black trans person who lives in Texas, The TUF survey is information I and others will consider vital when it is time for us to ponder who to vote for in the remaining primaries and the fall election.   Since this survey was put together by a diverse group of trans people, it will help us determine where you stand on a broad range of issues that affect our diverse trans community.

So please take the time out of your busy schedule to complete the TUF Presidential Candidate Survey

I live in a Republican run Texas that seems to be hellbent in becoming the undisputed champion of peddling anti-trans hatred.  Our GOP dominated legislature being out of session until January is probably the only thing that kept them from following North Carolina down the foolish path of enacting unjust HB2 style legislation that will ruin my home state's economy.

I and my trans siblings need to unequivocally know that a President Hillary Clinton will have my back, especially since I'm painfully aware that my GOP governor, lieutenant governor, my US senators and attorney general have made it clear they won't.  I need to know Secretary Clinton, that should you become the next president of the United States, that you will be a drum majorette for justice.

I need to hear your voice Secretary Clinton on the issues of importance to my trans siblings. Our trans parents and our allies need to hear your voice on the human rights issue of our time, and where you stand on the civil rights of transgender Americans.

And we need to know via the Trans United Fund survey, what you will do to protect and defend those human rights..

Nicole Maines' TED Talk

Another one of our amazing trans advocates I've had the pleasure of meeting is Nicole Maines.  

This is the video of her TED Talk today that was focused on her growing up openly trans and coming to the point of loving and accepting herself.    She also points out that community support is important so that trans youth like herself can find their voice.

Enough introductory jibber jabber from moi, let's get to the video for it.

UK Issues Travel Warning To NC and MS

It's getting harder every day for Gov. Pat McCrory (R) and the conservafool movement to claim that North Carolina has suffered 'no repercussions' for passing that unjust human rights monstrosity that NC NAACP President Rev. Dr. William Barber II calls Hate Bill 2.

Concerts are being canceled, conventions are being pulled, Cirque de Soleil has canceled all its performances in North Carolina, and corporations are canceling plans to add jobs in the Tarheel State.   Even Duke University has called for HB 2 to be repealed.

The latest blow to North Carolina is coming from across The Pond.   The UK Foreign Office has issued a travel warning for its LGBTQI British citizens traveling to North Carolina or Mississippi similar to the ones they issue for travel to Russia, Turkey or other anti-TBLG hotspots around the world.

The UK Foreign Office travel advisory to British LGBTQI citizens published today on its website reads::

The US is an extremely diverse society and attitudes towards LGBT people differ hugely across the country. LGBT travelers may be affected by legislation passed recently in the states of North Carolina and Mississippi.

 Before traveling please read our general travel advice for the LGBT community (link above). You can find more detail on LGBT issues in the US on the website of the Human Rights Campaign.’

Gotta be embarrassing to the GOP controlled NC government when Great Britain is putting your state in the same class as other anti-democratic and repressive human rights regimes around the world.

No matter how hard you try to deflect and not take personal responsibility for this mess, you own it because you caused it.  You can also fix it by repealing Hate Bill 2.

Today Is National Trans HIV Testing Day

As part of my medical procedures when I restarted my HRT last year, one of the things I had to do was take test for not only Hepatitis B and C exposure, but HIV.  It was a relief to know that the results of those tests all came back negative.

I mention this because today is the inaugural National Trans HIV Testing Day.   Trans people in the US are unfortunately among one of the groups at highest risk for HIV infections.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, trans women of color, and especially trans African-Americans and trans Latinas experience disproportionately high rates of HIV infections.

To add an exclamation point to the issue of trans HIV infections, the Transgender Law Center last month released the initial reports from their groundbreaking Positively Trans Survey with the support of the Elton John AIDS Foundation that focuses on the lives of trans Americans trans living with HIV/AIDS.

The CDC points out certain risk factors directly tied to transphobia and the marginalization that transgender people face that may contribute to the high transgender HIV infection rates.

Those risk factors include:  higher rates of drug and alcohol abuse, sex work, incarceration, homelessness, attempted suicide, unemployment, lack of familial support, violence, stigma and discrimination, limited health care access, and negative health care encounters.

The National Trans HIV Testing Day was conceived in order to promote and recognize the importance of routine HIV testing, status awareness, and ongoing focus of HIV prevention and treatment efforts among transgender people.

It encourages participation by local community based organizations, health jurisdictions, and HIV prevention programs by hosting local trans community specific HIV testing events and forums.  They are also encouraging on this day the development of trans specific HIV campaign materials and resources to tackle the ongoing health crisis in our trans ranks.

Here's hoping that this inaugural National Trans HIV Testing Day is just the first step in a series of coordinated moves that will help us in Trans World get down to zero new infections in our ranks.

The Axis Of Trans Oppression Is Attacking Us- What Are We Gonna Do About It?

One of the things I have been observing as a a long time advocate for trans human rights is the LGBT Hate industry and their ongoing war as part of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy to roll back and eviscerate human rights in the US for gay, bi and lesbian people.  

As the trans part of that rainbow political coalition, we now have not only made rapid human right progress since that first trans federal lobby day in 1994, we have had unprecedented societal visibility in order to drive home the twin messages that trans people are part of the diverse mosaic of humanity and that trans rights are human rights.

That progress and societal visibility has drawn the backlash that visionary leaders in Trans World have long warned was coming as we urged our people to prepare for its arrival.

We have been fighting a multi front war since Stonewall in which we are battling right-wing Bible thumping faux Christian oppressors, the Republican Party and the conservative movement, the TERF's, right wing media and frenemies in the LG ranks who repeatedly threw us under the legislative bus to get sexual orientation only legislation passed.  They are what I call the Axis of Trans Oppression.

We trans folks are unfortunately paying in blood for the failure of LG orgs to recognize that if the rights of transgender people weren't secure, their own rights aren't secure either. The HERO repeal in Houston and the passage of HB 2 in North Carolina have emphatically driven that point home.

As the Rev. Dr.Martin Luther King, Jr. also pointed out, we are in an inescapable web of mutuality, and if this fact hasn't burned itself into your brains yet, trans people are part of that web of mutuality.

We trans people are also paying for the long time neglect and failure of funders to see the wisdom of fiscally seeding regional and national trans groups like NTAC and others.  While we tried our best at the time as trans leaders to make that happen, the growth and maturation of national trans rights orgs should have occurred while we trans peeps were flying under the political radars of our right wing oppressors in the 90's-early 2K's.
 
We also needed to have our best and brightest activists advocates and thinkers in the late 90's early 2K's getting paid to spend 8-10 plus hour days gaining real world experience doing the hard solid thinking and work to advance trans human rights. We needed to be able to do the full time job of educating the public about trans people instead of having to do it part time or without pay. 
But that's coulda, woulda, shoulda Monday morning quarterbacking.  We have to deal with the 2K16 consequences and reality of things that should have happened not happening.   

We are fighting transphobic bigots in the LGBT hate industry who are sitting in nice plush offices, have decades of experience in opprssing people, now training their tactics, media platforms and money on a community they perceive as easy political pickings with little risk of retribution from our side.

They gleefully plot our evisceration as elements pf the LG community say 'we're on our own' to face this onslaught of oppression as they plan their weddings and enjoy the fruits of full equality they gained in many cases with our help and at our expense.


Trans people are under attack by the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, and unfortunately the LG orgs that have honored their 'we'll come back for you' promises have been ineffective in combating it for several reasons.

They are just as clueless in the issues that impact trans lives because of at times willful ignorance, their own long time discriminatory practices rooted in rainbow anti-trans bigotry and internal LGBT racial animus. .

Because of the failure to hire talented trans leaders and organizers in their organizations, they not only don't have trained trans people in place in their organizations to help lead and formulate the strategies necessary to defeat the Axis of Trans Oppression anti-trans talking points and tactics, they don't have a development pipeline in place to properly train the next generation of trans leaders and grow the movement.  

This combined with a lack of muscular trans organizations that will strike fear in their oppressive hearts also doesn't help us .It also doesn't help us that we don't have (yet) elected trans politicians at the large city, state, judicial and congressional level

With over 100 anti trans legislative measures popping up like kudzu across the South and elsewhere in this country backed up by right wing media gleefully spouting anti-trans hate speech, we need those trans led efforts to beat back the oppression being aimed at us like yesterday.

While that's the reality of what we trans Americans are facing, it doesn't mean that we need to just give up, throw up our hands and submit to whatever the Axis of Trans Oppression has in store for us.  We need to fight 'em until we can't.  We come from trans folks who rose up in protest of anti-trans discrimination and oppression at Cooper's Donuts in 1959, Dewey's Lunch Counter in 1965, Compton's Cafeteria in 1966, and the Stonewall Inn in 1969 and leaders like Sylvia Rivera who ferociously fought to her dying day for our human rights.  

We need to role model Sylvia, Marsha and our other trans human rights warriors of yesterday and today. We have a proud history and legacy to live up to of fighting anti-trans oppression no matter where it comes from, and it's a fight we must win despite the long odds.

The trans kids growing up now are depending on their trans elders and our allies to handle our trans human rights business, and we can't afford to let them or our elders down.

We`are on the correct side of history while our opposition isn't.  The Axis of Trans Oppression is part of the same conservative movement who were on the losing side when it came to breaking away from Great Britain to found this nation, abolishing slavery, women's suffrage, women's rights, the African-American Civil Rights Movement, and gay rights.  They will lose when it cones to trans rights, and I have confidence I will live to see our inevitable victory.

So let me ask the question I posed earlier.  The Axis of Trans Oppression is attacking our community.  What are we gonna do to repel their attacks?   Stand up and fight back.

I'm Exactly What God Wanted Me To Be

I find it humorous and aggravating at times when the GOP trans oppressors try to invoke Conservagod in their pathetic and misguided attempts to legislate hate and bigotry toward toward trans people.

I had a wonderful time yesterday speaking in front of a crowd at the Houston Trans Visibility Gathering at Hermann Park.  The trans kids and parents giving me props for being that fierce human rights warrior was a nice reminder of why we are fighting tooth and nail to make things for our trans kids better.

But since it's Sunday, I want to point out that trans people are part of the diverse mosaic of human life. We are God's children just like you right wing peeps blasphemously hiding behind the Bible claim you are, and will not tolerate your faux faith based attacks on our humanity. .

Trans people exist.  We are not 'rebelling against God' in the latest lie you tell your conservafool leaning sheeple, er congregations, we are joyfully living our lives.

We are living those lives exactly as God wanted us, and too bad if you don't like it.  Our trans lives are not up for theological debate or discussion. and we trans peeps are going to fiercely push back when you try to go there.

Far from being unhappy, the moment I transitioned 22 years ago last week, my life improved dramatically. I've been able to take part of some amazing events around the country inside and outside the trans community and while there, talk about the issues that impact us intersectionally.

I have been blessed with a media platform in which I get to express myself on a regular basis about whatever issues I can to discuss and thousands of people here and around the world read.

While I've had some challenges along the way getting acclimated to life in my trans feminine body, there are also amazing people I've met along the way I'm blessed to call my friends.   Could life be better?  Damn skippy it could, and it would be if you conservafools would stop gleefully oppressing us.

There are also people I get to talk to on a regular basis I probably wouldn't have met or had the opportunity to meet and get to know had I not become the person God wanted me to be and unblocked the blessings that have come into my life as a result.

But those are just my observations as part of the 22 years I've spent in our community..  If you interviewed other trans folks around the country and the world, I'd be willing to wager that the majority of the people you would talk to would also be for the most part satisfied with being our trans selves.

I'm exactly who and what God wanted me to be, and I'm looking forward to seeing what things are in store for me as I live my life as an unapologetic Texas Black trans woman.