Why I Can't Stand RuPaul

As a recent EBONY.com article noted, it was twenty years ago that RuPaul's 'Supermodel of the World CD was released and propelled him to stardom, an MTV television show during the height of the gangsta rap era, and now a five year run on the LOGO TV show RuPaul's Drag Race.

I own that 'Supermodel' CD and used to once upon a time like RuPaul, but excuse me if I and other transpeople aren't jumping with joy over the coronation of Ru in that Tracey Ross article as some sort of 21st century gender warrior or trans expert.

It really pisses us Black trans women off that you give RuPaul Andre Charles (and Tyler Perry dressed as Madea) more love and respect than you do the average Black transwoman struggling to live their lives and interact with the Black cis and SGL communities without major drama.

RuPaul is a Black gay man, not a transperson, and the trans community is beyond sick and tired of being sick and tired of him being elevated by cis and gay people to some nebulous 'trans expert' level.. 

As a matter of fact, one of the reasons I became a trans activist in 1998 was because of a Transgender Tapestry magazine article in the 90's that ignorantly considered RuPaul and Dennis Rodman as Black transwomen juxtaposed against other accomplished white trans people despite both Ru and Dennis Rodman emphatically saying they weren't trans and didn't want to transition.

It was the epiphany that made me realize just how invisible Black transwomen were in the trans human rights movement at the time and gave me the impetus to get involved and change that dynamic.

Since 2002 Ru has pissed so many of us trans people off on multiple levels that we (myself included) have a contempt for him bordering on the level of dislike we have for the trans exterminationalist radfems and their sellout TS separatist allies. 

He's earned it after his rabid and consistent defense of Shirley Q. Liquor's racist blackface drag show, his slamming of activists calling his behind out about defending Chuck Knipp's racism, his repeated use of the 'tranny' and 'shemale' words after being repeatedly told both are considered offensive slurs to the trans community, and elements of the white gay community rushing to RuPaul's defense and trying to use him as their 'gayplaining' excuse to justify the continued use of the 'tr***y' epithet in gay and lesbian community circles

It also didn't help that one of RuPaul Drag Race contestants Sharon Needles infuriated the African American SGL community after getting caught saying the n-word at an ATL gay club appearance, and then tried to 'gaysplain' his way out of it.  

Ru also added to the still white hot contempt many of us have for him by making a bad joke during an October 29 episode of Drag Race (that I refuse to support) making light of the still somewhat contentious subject in trans world about the differences between transsexuals and drag queens.

Comedienne Vicki Lawrence asked, “Hey Ru, what’s the difference between a drag queen and a transsexual?”
RuPaul laughingly replies, “About twenty-five thousand dollars and a good surgeon.”

He then doubled down on his ignorance and dismissive attitude about the trans community's feelings about the t-word slur during a January 14, 2012  HufPo Gay Voices interview with Michaelangelo Signorile  

And no one has ever said the word "tranny" in a derogatory sense. In fact, you have to go to the intent of the person saying it. Of course Lance Bass, his intent would never be to be derogatory. Never. So, you know, that's really ridiculous. And I hate the fact that he's apologized. I wish he would have said, "F-you, you tranny jerk!"

That level of clueless transphobic ignorance is dangerous, especially when it comes from somebody with a 2009 GLAAD Best Reality Show award winning media platform as big as RuPaul's that is watched by millions of people in cisgender America. 

And it's why I can't stand RuPaul.

IKEA Apologizes For Transphobic Thai Commercial

The Swedish based furniture giant IKEA is one of my fave places to shop for furniture, and it's where I bought much of my furniture for my first apartment back in the 90's.   One of those IKEA pieces I purchased back then at their Katy Freeway store is my current computer desk that has held up quite well through multiple moves.  

IKEA has had a positive reputation in the past for some positive trans inclusive commercials, so it was a shock to me when I read about this IKEA Thailand holiday one the Thai Transgender Alliance was protesting because of the stereotypical way the transwoman was portrayed. 

The commercial shows a couple strolling through an IKEA store when her voice suddenly goes into a masculine range that outs her as trans.  Her date then distances himself from her and eventually runs away from her as she continues to happily shop for IKEA products. 

As Reuters reported in terms of the brewing controversy, "The 20-second commercial shown on YouTube and on Bangkok's trains in December and January entitled 'Luem Aeb' ('Forget to Keep Hidden'), was disrespectful to transsexuals, according to the Thai Transgender Alliance and demanded an explanation from IKEA.





IKEA opened their first store in Thailand in November 2011 and the advertisement was part of a group of commercials for a holiday sale. 

The January 9 Thai Transgender Alliance complaint resulted in conversations with IKEA Thailand marketing officials that resulted in the apology letter the Thai Transgender Alliance posted on their Facebook page.

For those of you who are wondering why that commercial upset our Thai transisters and the international trans community, once again it played upon as the punchline for the humor in the ad the meme that trans women are people you are supposed to be fearful of or embarrassed to be around.  That is dehumanizing to Thai transwomen and their sisters around the globe.

And the dehumanization of transwomen is nothing to laugh at, especially in a commercial   .

It's Not 'Unwarranted Bitching' To Point Out Trans Peeps Weren't Mentioned In The POTUS' Speech

One of the snide comments that is coming from elements of the gay and lesbian community in the wake of the President Obama's historic speech and trans folks pointing out we weren't mentioned in the speech is we need to stop engaging in as this person put it, 'unwarranted bitching'.

Hmm, the rainbow scented cisprivilege is strong with you, isn't it? 

It's not 'unwarranted bitching', it's the trans community speaking an unpalatable truth that y'all GL peeps want to deflect by handing out rainbow flag wrapped white chocolate candy bars and trying to denigrate us for pointing out the obvious. 


Transpeople also spent time, effort and precious money in 2012 getting this president elected to a second term.

It would have meant a lot to the trans community if we had heard our president echo what Vice President Biden said during the campaign about the trans movement being the civil rights issue of our time or just acknowledging we exist in the 60th anniversary year of Christine Jorgensen returning from Denmark to New York.  .  

Rev. David Weekly also had this to say about the trans community feeling politically Left Behind again at his Sherman's Wilderness blog

I do not know the person who made this comment. I do not know what letter of the TLGBQIA population describes him, if any. What I do know is that I remember and participated in raging protests and marches with the gay and lesbian community for decades over similar frustrations about exclusion and discrimination. I have preached inclusivity in every church I ever served. I have marched in Pride parades, phone-banked for Marriage Equality, and protested and testified during legislative sessions in more than one state house. I listened to friends lament the secret support of other administrations, who hired gay and lesbian staff under a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. It was not enough for them, either. This time around, I am grateful my gay and lesbian friends have a President willing to claim them by name, out loud, and proud.

And this is my point. Friends are proud to name one another. Friends stand-up for each other, defend one another, and protect each other from harm. While I well understand the consequences of political fall-out from being too progressive, too inclusive, and too far ahead of our current culture; I still do not feel good about the word “transgender” being left out. This is not “unwarranted bitching:” this is grief.

Check out the post here.

Look Who's Crying White Women's Tears Now

It's been a rough two weeks for radical feminism 

First they start some crap in Britain, and when people justifiably called Suzanne Moore's butt out on it they predictably rush to her defense, start spewing even more transphobic sewage and then start crying white women's tears when the negative reaction rolls in.

Now the scene has shifted to our side of the Pond.  

Gallus Mag who heads the waste of transphobic bandwith known as Gender Tender attacked Janet Mock by posting a copyrighted picture of her and plastering an insultingly misgendering caption on it.

Janet found out about it and asked for it to be removed.  They did, but doubled down on the disrespect.  They replaced it with a screengrab of her from an MSNBC appearance, kept the caption and stuck her old name on it.

Little did they know that violation of terms of service complaints had been filed with WordPress by other parties over the longtime virulent transphobic hate speech posted there.   When GallusMag tweeted that she couldn't access her hatemongering blog and claimed her computer hard drive had been wiped out, the conspiracy theories in Whyte Radfem Womyn Land started going into overdrive and the crying white women's tears commenced.

Gallus Mag complained to a certain Maryland based trans oppressor and accused Janet of trying to get her hate site shut down.   Predictably that trans oppressor poured more gasoline on the fire by compiling one her usual facts free blog posts that I'm not linking to, tweeting it, and then Roseanne Barr's transphobic behind jumps into the fray shouting 'censorship'.

Only reason this didn't blow up because Janet had more class than the cadre of vanillacentric cisprivileged radfems starting this ish and asked her followers not to respond to the obvious transphobic provocation.

But the bottom line in this story is they not only will stoop to any level to attack transwomen, it's past time that the Southern Poverty Law Center declare trans exclusionary radical feminists as a hate group.
 

Tipping Point On Radfem Transphobia?

The British Transphobic Feminist Troika unleashed their hate speech upon the world last week probably thinking they would get pushback from the trans community they and their acolytes could spin and demonize them with until it quickly blow over.

Not this time. 

This time it isn't just our British trans cousins who are pissed off about the transphobic scribblings.   They got reinforcements from various trans bloggers around the world and pushback from the surprising direction of feminists, allies and other justice minded folks tired of the radfem transphobia making them, their nation and their movement look bad.

All I can say is thanks and what took y'all so long?   

It also leads me to ask this question concerning the international kerfluffle that has been stirred up on the Net by the Transphobic Feminist Troika.   Is this a tipping point sign that like the trans community, feminists are also tired of the transhate speech that has been said in their names for over 40 years?

We transpeeps can only hope that's exactly what is happening, but only time will tell in that regard.  We still have radfems on this side of the Pond who revel in spouting hate speech on a regular basis 

Are we going to see this year and from now on serious efforts to root out the cancer of transphobia in feminism, or is feminism just going to go back to business as usual, decry it in private and allow the radical feminists around the world to continue pushing trans hatred in their name?

Transphobic British Feminist Troika Crying White Women's Tears

I've had several people blow up my e-mailbox and my Facebook page asking my opinion about the vile transphobic scribblings of the unholy trinity of British feminists Suzanne Moore, Julie Burchill and Julie Bindel.

Y'all sure about that?   Because you know I'm not going to hold my tongue about it.

This kind of passive-aggressive crap that white radical feminists have been aiming at transwomen and engaged in for over 40 years now with not a peep of complaint from major white feminist blogs is a prime reason why I can't stand and reject feminism. 

And while I'm on that subject, do not ever refer to me as a feminist.   I am a proud womanist, thank you very much.  I consider it an insult to be called a feminist since it is painfully obvious feminism is of, by and for white cis women only.

If you think I'm overreacting or off target with my assessment, peep what Renee of Womanist Musings wrote back in October 2009, 

It comes down to the fact that many self labelled White feminists aren't really interested in equality for all, they are interested in equality with White men.  It's never about tearing down the system, but assuring that they have the power to oppress others.

And when it comes to oppressing transwomen, you have shown that you will gleefully engage in that nekulturny behavior.  When you get called on it, you climb back onto the pedestal of white womanhood, shed those tears, try to play the harmless victim who wouldn't hurt a fly role and assert these people you disrespected and oppressed are being mean to you when you know in your soulless hearts you threw the first sucker punch.

That crap is getting old.  You need to pull up the big girl panties, practice what you screech at others and take responsibility for your reprehensible words and actions.  But then again, you're white women reeking of vanillacentric privilege and will never apologize for the stank shyt you do, so why am I wasting mine and the international trans community's time demanding an apology that will never come?.      

But back to riffing on these across the Pond jerkettes.   This troika of transphobia has some nerve to think that just because they were born white, British and with a vagina they could just write their transphobic screeds and think British transpeople and their allies here in the States and around the world weren't going to justifiably call them out on it.  

But then again, they're white women reeking of vanillacentric privilege, so that level of arrogance shouldn't surprise me.    


News flash for your flat arses, we transwomen could, should, can, and will push back just as hard rhetorically and not give a rat's anus whether your feelings were hurt or we plucked your delicate, precious nerves, because you and your like minded ilk haven't cared about our feelings or our humanity since the 70's. 


We'd be justified in playing the dozens on your behinds being that as usual, you started it.  We're fed up with you radical or whatever kind of feminists you call yourselves disrespecting us and then crying white women's tears when we trans women call your arses out about the stank stuff you do .

But as tempting and temporarily ego satisfying as that would be, then we'd be stooping to your sophomoric WWE level of discourse and I don't feel like going there today. 

The bottom line in case you haven't noticed is this is January 2013, the second decade of the 21st century, not the 1970's.  You can no longer say or write whatever in the hell insulting comments you wish about girls like us as y'all could during the disco era and not think we aren't going to respond to it.   Your vanillacentric privilege will not shield you from the consequences of your transphobic hate speech that you proudly unveiled to the world..


As an African-American transwoman, I'm beyond sick and tired of being sick and tired of your racist and transphobic hate speech that is stoking the white hot flames of anti-trans bigotry and discrimination.  It is not only getting transwomen of all ethnic backgrounds killed, but disproportionately ones that share my ethnic heritage.

Note that despite all your jacked up rhetoric, the world is moving rapidly towards acceptance and integration of transwomen in nations all over the world including Great Britain. 

April Ashley was recently awarded an MBE for her human rights work.  Other transwomen do everything from compete in beauty pageants, walk fashion runways and raise kids to being doctors, lawyers and serving in their nation's parliaments. 

Despite your rhetoric, to paraphrase Maya Angelou's words, and still we trans women rise.

Almost 60 years to the February 13, 1953 day that Christine Jorgensen stepped off her flight from Denmark in New York to the glare of camera flashbulbs and massive publicity, the cold reality is that despite your rhetoric, we're winning the trans human rights battle in Great Britain and around the world.

The wonderful part about that is there's nothing that you three can do or say to stop the inevitability of the arc of the moral universe from bending toward justice and human rights coverage for transpeople. 


TransGriot Update: Surprise, surprise.  Suzanne Moore has apologized for her transphobic remarks and the Observer's editor has taken down the transphobic Julie Burchill piece that she still has not apologized for.  Our British trans cousins were putting together a protest march planned to end at the Guardian and Observer's shared HQ building, which may still happen because of the perception of increased levels of transphobia in the British media 

Stay tuned, the fun is just getting started across The Pond.


TransGriot Note: photos in order from top to bottom are Suzanne Moore, Julie Burchill,  Julie Bindel and April Ashley MBE

Claudia Jordan and Tamar Braxton Throwing Transphobic Shade At Joseline Hernandez

One of the things the African American cisgender community needs to do a much better job of in 2013 is to stop perpetuating the black unwoman meme in our community and uttering shady transphobic comments at each other 

I was alerted by Janet Mock to this latest outbreak of transphobic shade being thrown and it was during the December 17 debut of the Tiny Tonight talk show on VH1. 

The show is hosted by Tameka 'Tiny' Harris and includes the rapper Trina, Tamar Braxton, and former Price is Right and Deal Or No Deal model Claudia Jordan.   Tiny described it as a next generation version of The View.  

If that's the level of conversation they are aiming for, they definitely missed the target badly in terms of reaching that level of intelligent discourse during their debut show. 

There was a discussion centered on the VH1 reality show Love and Hip Hop in which Tamar and Claudia began going down that tired transphobic 'Joseline Hernandez is a man' turf.

Of course, Joseline, who is justifiably tired of having her femininity attacked, struck back on Twitter and Kandi Burruss' 'Kandi Koated Nights' radio show by slamming Claudia and Tamar.

But yeah people, this is getting old.  We transwomen are sick and tired of being sick and tired of the 'that's a man' shade y'all like to throw at any woman that you ignorantly presume doesn't pass muster with the Black Femininity Police.

Get More:
Tiny Tonight! 2012: Year in Review, Tiny Tonight

The shade starts at the 10:00 minute mark    Tamar should know better because she's had along with two of her sisters the same trans feminine status accusations hurled at her.

And you also need to consider the fact that Black transwomen are part of the target viewing audience for your show, and you are alienating us with this constant repetition of  this transphobic meme.

So no, y'all need to chill with that.  

Dissing Lee Brewster

Want to know why I can't stand the radfems, or as they are sometimes referred to in some online circles the TERF's?  (Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists).   I call them the Whyte Womyn Gone Wyld.

They have spent four decades of their vanillacentric cisprivileged time hating on transpeople and opposing our human rights, and as Cristan Williams points out once again in her latest post at Ehipassiko, those of us in the 2k10's aren't the only ones to have felt the ugliness of their transphobia.   Our pioneers Sylvia Rivera and Lee Brewster did so as well.

Here's a taste of Cristan's post:

I’ve noted before how RadFems inspired the violence inflicted upon Stonewall hero Sylvia Rivera. Until now, I wasn’t aware that their cruelty was extended to the transperson who coordinated and paid for overturning anti-gay NY laws:

Lee Brewster staged a number of actions designed to bring a case against NY so that Brewster could have NY’s anti-gay laws overturned. Have you ever wondered where the Mattachine Society’s money came from? That was Lee Brewster. Ever wonder where the cash came from to have the early 1960s national queer meetings? That was Lee Brewster. The cash for challenging anti-gay laws came from Lee too.

Any hope that giving a moment to Jean O’Leary and Sylvia Rivera would end this squall disappeared the moment Lee Brewster took the stage. He, too, was in full drag, with thick eye makeup, a lush blond wig tumbling over his shoulders and a queen’s crown resting on the wig. “I cannot sit and let my people be insulted,” Brewster said. “They’ve accused me of reminding you too many times that today you’re celebrating what was the result of what the drag queens did at the Stonewall. You go to bars because of what drag queens did for you, and these bitches”—he gestured to the lesbians—”tell us to quit being ourselves.” Vito Russo walked over to Brewster, slipped his arm around Brewster’s waist and whispered into his ear, but Brewster pushed him off.

You can read the rest of Christan's interesting look at our history.

TransGriot Note:  The portrait of Lee Brewster was by artist Vicki West.  Brewster ran Lee's Mardi Gras Boutique from 1968 until passing away in 2000.  And yep, I visited it on one of my New York trips in 1998 

It's Hell To Be Trans In Kuwait

While we think we have it tough being trans in the United States, there are some parts of the world where just trying to live our trans lives can lead to severe harassment, arrest or death.

Our transsisters in Kuwait since 2007 have been dealing with the deleterious fallout from an amendment to Article 198 of the Kuwaiti Penal Code that arbitrarily criminalizes 'imitating the opposite sex in that nation.  

It has led to a rise in transphobic discrimination against trans women and according to a Human Rights Watch January 2012 report and trans activists in that nation, they face daily persecution, physical, sexual, and emotional abuse both at the hands of the police and the Kuwaiti public.  This is despite the fact that GID is officially recognized by the Kuwaiti Health Ministry as a legitimate medical condition

Police were given the freedom to determine whether a person’s appearance constitutes “imitating the opposite sex” without any specific criteria being laid down for what exactly constitutes violating Article 198.

Human Right Watch documented cases in which trans individuals were being arrested even when they were wearing male clothes and later forced by police to dress in women's clothing in order to claim they arrested them in that attire. 

Other Human Rights Watch cases documented interviewed trans women stating police arresting them because they had a soft voice or smooth skin.

A trans activist who spoke to Gay Middle East said, 'The situation in Kuwait is horrible for us, just intolerable. There are at least 13 transgender women in jail right now.' .Sheikh Sheikh Jaber Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, the Prime Minister of Kuwait, denied was happening when he was approached by international human rights activists.  

The trans prisoners the prime minister claims were arrested for other offenses were not allowed by Kuwaiti authorities to be interviewed by human rights activists to corroborate the veracity of his statement.

Kuwaiti media has been gleefully pushing transphobic coverage of the harassment, which doesn't help the situation.     

There have been calls to not only to repeal that portion of Article 198, but release the trans women who are in Kuwaiti jails and stop the persecution of trans women in that nation.  

I know we have our own problems in the United States, and I've documented them in this blog's electronic pages.  But that shouldn't stop us from being concerned about what is happening to our trans sister's human rights in the Middle East and elsewhere in the world.   

Still Pissed About Roseanne Barr's Transphobic Tweets

The passage of this weekend not only didn't lessen my anger about Roseanne Barr's jacked up transphobic tweets I put her and Kola Boof on blast for Friday, it poured gasoline on the smoldering anger I felt about it when I discovered this wasn't an isolated incident of transphobic bigotry coming from her. 

From 'Roseannearchy: Dispatches from the Nut Farm'

“Then the Transgendered versus the Butch Dyke wars started—to see two of those folks fighting about being female was quite an eye-opener for me. You haven’t lived until you have seen a huge guy with boobs talking about female hormones and deciding to keep his penis, and how that was a feminist issue.” – Roseanne Barr

Umm hmm...guess you'll be telling jokes from The Land next year.  

I find it laughable that you and your whyte radfem womyn gone wyld allies are bloviating about angry tweets aimed at you from righteously angry trans women reacting to the negativity your vanillacentric privileged behind put out there. 

Keep crying those White Women's Tears.  It ain't working because you privileged white feminists started this War on Transwomen beck in the 1970's and we're beyond tired of it.

Thanks to the Net trans women and our cis feminine allies now have the ability to return your transphobic rhetorical fire just as quickly as y'all put it out there.  Some of my trans sisters don't really care at this point if it hurts your feelings and tweaks your delicate precious nerves.  You damned sure didn't care about our feelings when you let fly with those comments and we see you and your feminist buddies as worse than our right wing conservafool oppressors. 

News flash, Roseanne.  The bathroom predators you rail about are cisgender people attacking trans people.  Bottom line is that your pimping of that demonstrably false bathroom predator meme has deleterious and real word effects on trans people's lives.   It not only fuels anti-trans hatred, but in some cases results in anti-trans violence aimed at transwomen and the people who give a damn about us.

Roseanne's clueless pushing of the bathroom predator meme is not only pathetically sad, it's par for the white feminist course. 

As long as it's transwomen, and especially non-white transwomen who are getting assaulted and killed, you don't give a rats anus that it's happening, nor are you concerned about doing anything to eradicate it.

Well, I am concerned about it and I do care what's happening to my sisters because there but for the grace of God go I in that situation. 

Your ill considered tweeted words needlessly poured gasoline on this testy situation and will lead to hatred and potential assaults not only aimed at us, but cis women who don't fit the Femininity Police standards on what and how a woman should look like and present herself in public. .

The trans women and the masculine appearing cis women who will experience those assaults will have you Roseanne and your radical feminist buddies to thank for it.

 

Gloria Steinem-Transphobe

You long time TransGriot readers know I'm not a feminist and I cringe when I hear Black women even say the term because of its history of marginalizing women of color to the point they left the movement.

And don't even get me started on its outright hostility to trans women, which is why I identify as a womanist.

And yes, it's time to unmask another one of the feminist icons, Gloria Steinem as a transphobe. 

She not only wrote some foul stuff centered on Renee Richards in 1977 when hating on transwomen was par for the feminist course, but in the 1983 book Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions that was recently republished.

But before I get to the transphobic 1983 scribblings, here's what she said then about Renee Richards and transpeople in general.  It was also in reaction at the time to comments that characterized the Richards saga as "a frightening instance of what feminism could lead to" or as "living proof that feminism isn't necessary."  

Steinem wrote at the time, "At a minimum, it was a diversion from the widespread problems of sexual inequality." She writes that, while she supports the right of individuals to identify as they choose, she claims that, in many cases, transsexuals "surgically mutilate their own bodies" in order to conform to a gender role that is inexorably tied to physical body parts. She concludes that "feminists are right to feel uncomfortable about the need for and uses of transsexualism."

She then concluded the transphobic article with the quote: "If the shoe doesn't fit, must we change the foot?

Moving on to the Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions in which pages 224-228 of it contains a five page essay on trans identities in which she cited Janice Raymond and her odious 1979 waste of trees The Transsexual Empire in it several times. 

Let's start with these transphobic gems.   On page 226 of the book:

Was it fair for women to face someone trained physically and culturally for forty years as a man?

On page 227 Steinem pulls out the 'mutilation' card:

In other words, transsexuals are paying an extreme tribute to the power of sex roles. In order to set their real human personalities free, they surgically mutilate their own bodies...

And ho hum, here we go again with the tired 'waste of medical resources' meme as she gives a shout out to Janice Raymond:

Instead of serving more lifesaving but often less lucrative needs for their surgical and hormone-therapy skills, some physicians are aiding individuals who are desperately trying to conform to an unjust society. It’s a small group of successful physicians she [Janice Raymond] names ‘the transsexual empire’.

So if you wonder why I have such a low regard for feminism no matter what wave it is in or have eye roll inducing suspicion of trans feminism, it's because of transphobic scribblings like this from a long list of white feminists and trans feminists like Chelsea Sayre who spend more time apologizing for the TERF's than calling them out for their nekulturny behavior.   

Discovering feminist icon Gloria Steinem shared those anti-trans sentiments, combined with feminism's appalling silence over the fact that their poison pens and the anti-trans sentiments they stoked have caused deleterious real world effects in the lives of trans women only adds to my distaste of feminism.

Want Fries With That Transphobic Hate Crime?

Can we trans women have a day in which somebody is not fracking with either us or the people who give a damn about us?  

Guess that's too much to ask.

The latest incident of cis haters gone wild happened in New York's Greenwich Village gayborhood at a McDonald's at 136 W. Third Street on September 19 to a transwoman and her boyfriend.

That particular Mickey D's has been plagued by some recent disturbing incidents including a patron badly beaten up in March 2011 because someone didn't like his pink tennis shoelaces.

Jamar McLeod, 24, told the NY Daily News he and his girlfriend, 22 year old Jalisa “JoJo” Griffen had just picked up her hormone medicine Wednesday night and were headed back to their apartment in Bushwick when they headed into the fast food restaurant on W. Third St. around 7 PM EDT to grab something to eat and use the bathroom

While in line McLeod got into a conversation with Griffen about how people were being attacked just for being gay.  He was overheard by their 350 pound tormentor Keith Patron, who butted into their conversation and started hurling homophobic slurs at the couple punctuated with '"I can't stand gay people."

McLeod implored him to leave it alone, but the bully from the Bronx escalated the verbal abuse when Griffen headed to the ladies bathroom.  Patron said she needed to 'use the men's room', kept up the homophobic and transphobic slurs and threatened to beat her up.  McLeod told him that wasn't happening, and he wasn't touching his girlfriend without going through him first.  

They ended up outside the restaurant and after ducking a swing from the McHater McLeod proceeded to give the transphobic bully a proper beatdown complete with a knee to the groin and a punch to the face. 

That's when the 44 year old Patron pulled out a razor and slashed McLeod on the elbow, neck and face.  He was treated at Bellevue Hospital and released but unfortunately the scars from the unprovoked attack will be permanent ones.  

Patron was arrested and charged with assault as a hate crime.  He's being held in jail in lieu of a $50,000 bond and hopefully justice will prevail in this case.

But once again, it's a situation occurring in which we're minding our own business and trying to get through our day without drama, and some phobic idiot thinks he has carte blanche to say and do anything they wish to us.

And that shyt needs to stop.   It will only stop when people are properly prosecuted and sent to jail for doing so.

Ads In DC Trans Respect Campaign Launched

I talked about it last month when the Washington DC Office of Human Rights decided in reaction to the string of ugly anti-trans incidents and murders in the District to launch a first of a kind anti-trans discrimination campaign.

This first of several posters of DC trans and gender variant people who are spokespeople for this campaign were released.  The one featuring DC transwoman Kisha quotes her saying, "I love wandering through Smithsonian museums, eating on H Street with friends, and going to shows at Howard Theatre."

It mentions the tagline for the campaign: "I’m a transgender woman and I’m part of DC. Please treat me the way any woman would want to be treated: with courtesy and respect."

The poster then points out discrimination based on gender identity and expression is illegal in the District of Columbia under its Human Rights Law and provides a website and phone number (202) 727-4559 to get more information.or report anti-trans discrimination

The formal launch for the campaign happened last night with an event attended by DC Mayor Vincent Gray.

“This District is committed to ensuring that all people are protected from discrimination, and that includes discrimination against the transgender and gender-non-conforming communities,” said Mayor Gray. “This landmark campaign from the Office of Human Rights is an important piece of a larger effort by my administration to ensure all residents have equal access to employment, housing and public services and accommodations regardless of gender identity or expression.”

As for the spokesmodel's thoughts on the campaign, Kisha approves of the message and thinks it will have a positive effect on the city..

"I think it’s going to have a great impact," she said. "The fact that it is going to be right there in your face. People will see transgender people. They’re going through everyday life, everyday struggles — the same as straight people, rich people, everyone. Getting the message out there … is going to be great."

The rest of your transpeeps around the country think it's great, too.   Major props to the DC Office of Human Rights and DC Mayor Vincent Gray for making it happen.

Tyra Hunter 17th Anniversary

I was barely sixteen months into my own transition when I heard the shocking news coming out of Washington DC on August 7, 1995 about an African-American transwoman who died there.

Why do I remember this particular transwoman out of sadly the hundreds who have died since that date?   It's because Tyra's death was unnecessary. 

It was also because of the way she died. 

Tyra Hunter didn't die at the point of a gun or a knife, she died because of medical transphobia   The transphobe who was responsible for her untimely death was wearing the uniform of a Washington DC Fire Department EMT. 

She died from injuries she received in a car accident at 50th and C Streets in SE Washington DC because Adrian Williams failed to remember at the time Ms Hunter was one of the District's residents he was trained and supposed to help.  

Sadly that same DC street corner would see two more African-American transwomen die there under a hail of automatic weapons fire just seven years later in the persons of Stephanie Thomas and Ukea Davis.

Tyra's death and my shock and anger over it would be one of the cumulative events that began to nudge me towards becoming the trans activist I am today.   It was a wake up call that as an out trans African-American I needed to do more to start educating my people that we existed, we're part of the kente cloth fabric of the African-American community and we deserved recognition of our human rights.

Tyra, while you left us far too soon, you'll be happy to know that you are not forgotten.   As long as TransGriot exists, I won't let people forget what happened to you on that day and I and others are working to ensure it never happens to another transperson ever again.

Miss Universe Pageant's Transphobic Holdouts

We are indebted to Jenna Talackova for cracking a glass ceiling and helping bringing down the odious 'natural born women' rule that discriminated against transwomen like her who wished to participate in their national Miss Universe system pageants. 

Thanks to Jenna's efforts the glass pageant ceiling has been shattered.  Policy changes have been implemented that will allow transwomen to compete in their national Miss Universe pageants starting in 2013.

Transwomen around the world who have dreamed about entering their national pageants just like any other cis woman and possibly winning it now can start working to make that dream come true. 

There are still some transphobic Miss Universe national franchise holdouts upset about the rule change and coincidentally both that have publicly stated so are Roman Catholic countries.  Thanks to the efforts of STRAP in facilitating an intelligent debate on the subject, the Philippines will not be one of them. 

Until STRAP got their formidable selves involved and changed the climate to a 'just the facts' debate, the Philippine franchise holders and public opinion was leaning in that direction. Banning transwomen from competing would have been problematic and a travesty in light of the fact the Manila based Amazing Philippine Beauties trans pageant takes place in that nation .

Mexico is one of the Miss Universe national organizations that announced on April 12 they would bar the participation of trans women.

"The rules have been followed since 1994 and it will continue in this respect as it has throughout the history of the competition," according to celebrity news website, Celestrellas and Univision.  

You're still hiding behind that 'natural born women' rule which even The Donald knew wouldn't stand up in court and even the Miss Universe system isn't backing.  So what's your excuse now to justify continuing to bar Mexican transwomen from competing? 

You may want to reconsider that hardheaded stance in light of the fact Erica Andrews won the 2006 Miss International Queen trans pageant in Thailand a few years ago.

The other holdout is Venezuela, which transphobically huffed, puffed and said the same thing.   Their pageant will be held on August 30 in Caracas and as of this writing there will be no transwomen on the stage.  

According to the Global Beauties pageant blog, Osmel Sousa, the president of the Miss Venezuela organization said during an April 24 press conference that "The Christian Venezuelan people would never accept the participation of transgenders in the Miss Venezuela contest.” 

There's a lot of things Christians 'would never accept' back in the day, Mr. Sousa.  There are some little c 'Christians' in my country who still think I'm 3/5ths of a human being and as a descendant of slaves shouldn't have United States citizenship.  

Stop hiding behind scripture to mask your transphobia.   Besides, your surgically enhanced cis women haven't been getting the job done lately at the Miss Universe competition stage since 2009 and the major reason you won in 2008 was Miss USA Crystle Stewart slipping and falling during the evening gown competition with her strongest event yet to come. .You may need to let some transwomen in to help y'all step up your beauty pageant game.

But here's hoping the transphobic Miss Universe holdouts eventually relent and allow the transwomen in their respective nations to compete for their national and Miss Universe crowns.

Black Gossip Blogs Spouting Transphobic BS Again

I've never liked the Black gossip blogosphere for more than a few reasons, but the overriding one is the rampant transphobia in their ranks and the comment sections of those blogs.

There have been more than a few times I've called them out about their transphobic attacks aimed at their fave punching bag Wendy Williams, and went after Sandra Rose when she posted her ignorant comments concerning Kye Allums.

Now they are aiming their transphobic animus at Joseline Hernandez of the VH1 series Love and Hip-Hop Atlanta.   While it's not one of the shows I watch since I'm not a 'reality' show fan, what has gotten my attention is the loud 'that's a man' chatter being aimed at Joseline.

Dayum, here we go again.   Why am I not surprised Sandra Rose's trifling behind and Bossip are front and center in trafficking the transphobia? 

Not cool Sandra with the misgendering of Joseline, but then again you never exceed the low expectations I have for you.  Bossip used the anti-trans slur word 'shim' in the title of another post slamming Joseline.  


Here's the comment I left at one of the blogs in which the comment threads are gleefully engaging in transphobia.

SMH at the rampant transphobia and ignorance running amok here. A little more or less testosterone in vitro and many of you would be in the same situation as transpeople are.

News flash for you scientifically illiterate folks aiming transphobic shade at Ms. Hernandez.  Women come in all shapes, sizes, body combinations and configurations.   Just because a woman is over 5'7", has broad shoulders and other physical traits considered part of the masculine spectrum doesn't mean she's automatically trans. 

I have trans girlfriends who are petite, ultrafeminine looking size 7 shoe wearing divas and cis girlfriends of varying heights and combinations of traits who wear size 12 pumps.You are a blend of genetic material from mommy and daddy, and started your in vitro developmental phase as female, so you are inevitably going to get a blend of gender characteristics from both parents

The other aspect of this transphobic shade being hurled at Joseline I don't appreciate is because it's playing into the 'unwoman' meme deployed far too often against women of color, and especially women of color with non-stereotypical feminine personas or body configurations.

I'm also convinced that the transphobic shade being hurled at her is what prompted Hernandez to tweet the frontal nude photo of herself showing her genitalia in an attempt to 'prove' she was female.


One of the rules I have for TransGriot is that if a person has not publicly declared they are trans, until they do so, I don't publicly speculate about their gender identity or how they express it unless they are causing demonstrable harm to the trans community.  

Until Joseline has a press conference, I'in presuming out of respect for her that she's a cis female.

Too bad some of you in the Black gossip blogosphere have gone in the opposite nekulturny direction.

WWYD? Trans Diner Employee Episode

Finally found the YouTube video of the episode of ABC's What Would You Do? that Carmen Carrera appeared in as a trans waitress being verbally abused by a transphobic longtime customer in a New Jersey diner.

The WWYD hidden cameras are in the house to record the reactions (or lack thereof) of the patros in the diner.

Feminists Need To Stop The Rad Fem War On Transwomen

Chelsea Sayre, one of my fellow Transadvocate columnists with whom I have disagreed with before,  just wrote another post in which I need to point out what she failed to discuss. 

In her post she calls out elements of the trans community for the escalating nastiness as she saw it between the feminist and trans feminine communities that needs to stop.  On that point I agree with Chelsea that it is deplorable and needs to stop before somebody gets hurt on either side. 

However, where I part company with her is in noting that her focusing the post on trans women is problematic.  She also failed to understand that what has been done unto transwomen in the first place by rad fems is the reason why the hostility between the two camps exists.

I note you ignored the War on Transwomen was started in the 1970's by predominately white radical feminists.  In the last four decades in addition to sliming us at every opportunity, they have gleefully done everything possible to thwart the enacting of desperately needed trans human rights legislation and policies. 

You do recall the paper Janice Raymond wrote in 1980 to Congress that erased the ability of low income trans women to use Medicare and Medicaid to pay for trans health care and was the impetus for insurance companies to enact trans exclusionary riders in the policies we insultingly pay hard earned T-bills for?

They have pimped their disco-era dogma in transphobic books like The Transsexual Empire and countless other wastes of trees others penned that have called us 'Frankenstinian', for transwomen to be 'morally erased from existence' and called for the worldwide banning of SRS surgeries.

They have also used their positions of vanillacentirc cis privileged power to oppress trans women by any means necessary and swarm attacked in the blogosphere any trans advocates or our cis female allies who have dissenting opinions about their jacked up vanillacentric and racist points of view.


Hmm.  No mention of the 17 year old transteen being outed at his school for daring to express his First Amendment rights online to criticize one of the more vicious ringleaders of the War on Transwomen and whyte rad fem womyn engaging in cis privilege filled right wing intimidation tactics of calling the jobs of trans advocates they don't like and who tell it like it T-I-S is about them in an attempt to frack with their lives.

Curiously, no mention of the 'womyn born womyn' pimping disco era trans hate and feminism ignoring and in some cases leaders like Gloria Steinem and Adrienne Rich co-signing it.  That transphobia egged on by feminists has had a deleterious effect on the lives of trans people and transwomen of color to the point we're getting murdered at the rate of two per month

So yeah, you damn skippy we transwomen have a right to be angry and pissed about that.  I'm not surprised that in your feminist sisterhood of the traveling white pantsuits supportive point of view in your post you'd ignore the right wing bullying tactics they have been engaging in to support their failed disco era dogma..

The point is that I have something you don't as a POC transperson.  I have decades of experience in living as a marginalized person before I even transitioned and I see things from the perspective of being an oppressed person. 

When you are subjected to daily microaggressive and macroaggresive tactics aimed at your humanity by a group that is wielding societal power (and don't even go there in vanillacentric denial that white women don't hold societal power) that they gleefully exercise when they have the opportunity to do so, it is inevitable it will cause resentment and anger in the marginalized community that is targeted by said attacks.

This is simply a reaction to the almost 40 years of dehumanizing trans rhetoric combined with active work by radical feminists in the War on Transwomen.   I'm not saying it's justified, and like I said in the earlier paragraph I agree with you and Monica Maldonado in it needs to stop.

But it needs to stop on both sides. 

If the feminist community is going to point fingers at the trans feminine one and demand we get our over the top misbehaving peeps under control, then you need to do the same thing with your feminist bad actresses as well in order to help ratchet down the developing bad blood.  

Feminism's decades long silence and inaction with the rad fems combined with what it has done to our community is why transwomen are pissed off in the first place and feminism has the negative connotation it does with elements of us. 

Feminism also needs to stop crying white women's tears about the pushback from transwomen against the nekulturny negativity aimed at us by rad fems.   It also needs to immediately stop pretending they are the victims in this kerfluffle and ignoring the fact that the transfeminine reaction to this just didn't organically occur in a vacuum. 

So Chelsea, when you feminists start actively working to rein in the hate group that whyte womyn born womyn claim is part of your movement in addition to feminists actually being seen more frequently unequivocally standing up for transwomen's human rights, maybe then transfeminine women will not feel compelled to go to Defcon 3, 2 or 1 levels to defend their human rights, their femininity and their humanity.

Carmen, When You Agree To Be The Butt Of A Reality TV Joke...

Don't be surprised, shocked and angry when the producers of that show disrespectfully treat you like one.

Carmen Carrera from Season 3 of RuPaul's Drag Race is in the process of transitioning and she recently appeared on an episode of the ABC show What Would You Do when she portrayed a transitioning waitress in a New Jersey diner to test the reactions of the patrons to another actor playing a transphobic customer.  

She agreed to appear on Monday's episode of the TLC reality TV show Cake Boss as part of a joke that was being played on Cousin Anthony   Well, the show appearance didn't quite turn out the way 24 year old Carmen envisioned it would.

Im so upset right now, I cant stop crying. My heart truly hurts. I need people to understand that I KNOW I was born male and not ashamed of it. I wouldn't of cared if they said I was born male or USED TO BE male. By calling me a 'MAN' promotes ignorance and makes it ok to call transgender women, men. PEOPLE GET BULLIED, BEAT UP, AND KILLED FOR BEING TRANS BECAUSE OF THIS IGNORANCE! There was a time it was like that for gay people, even for some ethnic groups. Its not ok to call a gay person a fag, its not ok to call a spanish person a spic, its not ok to call a black person a nigger. THIS IS THE SAME TYPE OF THING. I made it VERY clear to the producers on how to use the correct wording before agreeing to filming this but instead they chose to poke fun and be disrespectful. Thats not what Im about! Please voice your opinion.

Be careful what you wish for Ms. Carrera, because the TransGriot is about to do precisely that in this post.

First lesson my trans youngling, is that all publicity ain't good publicity.   Ask trans folks who did the Jerry Springer Show or similar tabloid TV fare back in the day when they were your age or older and came to later regret it. 

Carrera tweeted this comment a little later concerning her thoughts about what happened on Cake Boss.

Im really trying to be a positive role model for trans people and it upsets me that after I SPECIFICALLY asked the producers of "Cake Boss" NOT to disrespect me or trans people. Before I agreed to do this show, I was assured and then reassured that it wasn't going to be like the JERRY SPRINGER show or MAURY. Let me make this clear. CALLING A TRANSGENDER WOMAN A MAN IS WRONG. Period. Its degrading, its rude, and its very hurtful. I may not have been born a woman, but im NOT a man. I told them I would mind if they said "born male" or "was a male". After taking this journey its not fair at all to be lied to by the producers. PLEASE PASS THIS ALONG. EDUCATE AND PROMOTE EQUALITY AND RESPECT!!!!!!!

No problem.  I have your back sis and will signal boost your comments.  

But back to the post.

Carmen, I'm also happy to hear that you want to be considered as a positive role model for our community and sincerely wish to use your celebrity status to discuss equality and trans human rights issues.

But appearing on Cake Boss ain't and wasn't the place to do it. If you want to be taken seriously as an advocate, you need to go to media venues where you will be treated with dignity and respect. 

Granted, the tired borderline transphobic Austin Powers reference was uncalled for along with Cousin Anthony's transphobic tweet aimed at you I didn't like for which he and Cake Boss star Buddy Valastro both later apologized for.

But the fact remains you were an agent in your own oppression when you agreed to not only go on that show, but be the butt of a joke on top of that. 

Carmen, chalk this experience up as an activist lesson learned.   Since you expressed an interest in advocating for our community, I would urge you to get in contact with GLAAD and participate in one of their media training sessions the next time they conduct one in your area.

Because my dear trans sister, you have the prerequisites needed to be a great activist.  You have the desire to be an advocate, a heart full of love for our community and you're drop dead gorgeous on top of it..