Can The Girls Of The African Diaspora End The Title Drought At Miss International Queen 2011?

As I mentioned in a previous post, although there have been African descended girls in the Miss International Queen pageant, there has never been a person from the African diaspora who has walked away with the crown.  Stasha Sanchez came tantalizingly close with her finish in the top three last year as the second runner up in this internationally renowned and most coveted title in the trans pageant world.

This year the 24 candidates represent 18 countries and the candidates from the African Diaspora include Sahhara, a Nigerian born UK resident who is the first ever continental African contestant in the Miss International Queen event, Brazilian Yasmin Dream and two African-American girls in 2010-11 Miss Continental titleholder Mokha Montrese and perennial Miss Continental competitor Silkie O'Hara Munro

When the pageant week starts on October 30 Thai time (today on my side of the International Date Line) and concludes with the televised final on November 4 (November 3), will 2010 queen Mini Han be placing the crown on one of their heads or will the title drought continue as the crown is placed on the coiffed head of one of the other 20 contestants?

Will let you TransGriot readers know what transpires at Miss International Queen 2011

Congrats Dr. Stryker!

You longtime TransGriot readers know I have much love and respect for Dr. Susan Stryker, who is one of the people ensuring that rainbow community history and the trans contributions to it are preserved and not erased as they have been.

I was pleased to hear that Dr. Stryker, who was an associate professor of gender studies at Indiana University-Bloomington is now the director of the University of  Arizona's Institute of LGBT Studies.

Dr. Stryker is an author, filmmaker, archivist and activist whose 2005 documentary, Screaming Queens, the Riot at Compton's Cafeteria tells the story of the first known instance of collective militant resistance to anti-TBLG police harassment in US history.  The 1966 Compton's Cafeteria Riot in San Francisco was led by transsexuals and drag queens and preceded the more widely known Stonewall one by three years. 

She held visiting professor faculty positions at Harvard University, the University of California-Santa Cruz, Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, BC and Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. 

She was the executive director of the GLBT Historical Society in San Francisco from 1999-2003 and her most recent book Transgender History mentions some blogger y'all know and love. 

Congrats Dr. Stryker, and may you have much success in your new position.