Dear Transphobic People- Putting You Transphobic Black Cis Men On Blast

Dear Transphobic People,
Been a while since I've done one of these posts calling y'all out on your off the chains transphobia, but in light of the fact that I have had to call out two transphobic Black men in Third Ward in the last 72 hours, with one of them threatening me with violence, it's past time for me to call y'all out like I had to do with my Black cis sisters.

First off, what the hell is wrong with y'all?  

I and other Black trans women are beyond sick and tired of being sick and tired of y'all having something to say when we are just trying to go about our day without harassment and you feel the nerve to whisper or holler 'that's a man' at us while we're close enough for you to hear it.

Neither do we like it when you Black men repeatedly get on the mics at 100,000 watt radio and TV stations broadcasting transphobic ignorance and hate speech to the world.

That transphobic hate speech metastasizes into anti-trans violence that can cause our deaths.  

Naw b****, I'm not a man. I was born an infant 55 years ago that evolved and grew to become a fabulous, proud, unapologetic Black trans woman who is finally comfortable in her body.

If I was a man, I wouldn't have spent the countless hours and years in counseling, tons of money on trans affirming medical procedures and the aforementioned counseling, money on a new wardrobe, and gleefully getting adjusted to the nuances of living life on the Black feminine side of the gender spectrum.

I and my trans sisters are women, regardless of the genitalia configurations concealed in our panties, what you assume our chromosomes are or what your ignorant masculine azz has to say about the subject.

Gender identity is between your ears, not your legs.  If you aren't a certified gender therapist, geneticist, progressive politician or pastor, supportive family member or ally, or a doctor that specializes in transgender issues, I really don't give a rats anus what your loud and wrong opinion is anyway.

I and Black Trans Feminine World are sick and tired of you kneegrows cooning it up with the same white male Republican politicians that hate your Black behinds to politically hate on the trans community, then expect me and my community's help and support when your white male GOP best buds turn on or their white supremacist police buds shoot to kill one of y'all after they're done using you for their right wing photo ops.

Whatever personal issues you have going on in your life,  or if you're mad because you ain't getting any attention sexually, don't take it out your shortcomings on Black trans women.   Don't get mad because we turned your azz down for a date. If we're not feeling you, deal with it.  

We know deep down you are turned on by us, want to date and get busy with us.  The trans porn sales numbers and sustained popularity of the trans porn genre don't lie.

We Black trans women, nor ANY woman for that mater, are not punching bags for you to release your toxic masculine anger on.   Neither is it acceptable to put your hands on or disrespect a trans woman for any reason.

Too many of my sisters are dying at your hands because you are far too concerned about your masculine reps than the lives of the trans women you are dating or getting busy with.  .

And naw Black gay men, you ain't escaping Moni's Dear Transphobic People wrath either.  It time to snatch your wigs, too

 Far too many of you have thrown transphobic shade at trans women you pass in the gayborhood streets or in the clubs while hugged up with your white male boyfriends, or while you're out and about at the club with your friends.  

Get it through your heads that trans women are WOMEN.  You are not experts (RuPaul) on how we live our lives, we trans women are.   If you want to know something about our lives, respectfully ask us.   If you work for an org that wants to know about our transfeminine lives, pay us for that privilege.

Don't get it twisted, being a trans woman is not analogous to being a drag queen.  While some of my trans sisters make their money doing drag in clubs or the pageant circuit and have used it as a way to facilitate their personal feminine transition journey, drag is simply a job for them to pay their bills.

When that show is over, they wipe the stage makeup off, clock out, exit that club, reenter society and navigate their way back home as trans women, not gay men.

And for those of you working in Black oriented or other cisgender focused human rights orgs, we need you to have our back in those policy circles you have access to, not stab us in the back.

My Black trans life matters just as much as yours does.   Black trans people aren't going away because we are an undeniable part of the diverse mosaic of human life, ,and you need to deal with that reality.

So cis Black men, next time you feel the urge to throw 'that's a man ' shade at a Black trans woman who is just trying to get through her day without drama, put your lips in park and don't do it.

Because you may not like what happens next if you follow through with your desire to mess with a trans woman that day.

'What Would You Do?' Episode Tackles Transphobic Boutique

The ABC show What Would You Do? hosted by John Quinones has had shows that have tackled transphobic situations staged with actors to see what people's reactions would be and how they would respond as the hidden cameras are rolling.

The latest episode of it is set in a New Jersey boutique with a trans women dealing with a transphobic clerk.   The cameras are there to discover whether other shoppers stand up for her or ignore what's happening.

Here's how it turned out.

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Black Community Transphobia Will Be Called Out, Not Ignored

In the wake of the broadcast coonery and buffoonery of the Breakfast Club and its unrepentant host doubling down on the transphobia followed by the death Monday of another African American trans women in the ATL area, it's time to say this once more to my people and hope you get it.

Black cis people need to start grasping the basic point that we Black trans people are STILL part of the Black community and the African Diaspora.  We are beyond sick and tired of being sick and tired of the transphobic attitudes being expressed in our Black community ranks..

Our humanity and human rights are not up for debate or discussion or topics for tasteless jokes. Trans folks and gender variant people have existed on every continent, including Africa, since modern humans appeared on this planet.   

We Black trans folks will no longer tolerate disrespect, demonization or dissemination of loud and wrong ignorance about our trans lives from Black cis people.
 From this day forward it's getting called out.  

Sometimes those call outs will not be nice ones especially if we asked politely the first time for you to cease and desist with the transphobic behavior we found problematic and necessary to call you out on in the first place.

If you don't like the fact that Black trans people are demanding respect for their humanity and human rights within our community, too damned bad.   

Neither will we in Black Trans World tolerate any attempts to peddle Black community transphobia as a 'difference of opinion', 'religious beliefs', or whatever BS excuse du jour you come up with to try to willfully ignore the fact that Black transpeople exist, aren't going away or back into the closet.  

Last time I read the Bible, didn't see a scripture in either the Old or New Testament that stated  thou shalt hate on transgender people.'    But I did read one in the New Testament, Matthew 22:39 to be precise, that states thou shalt love thy neighbor as you love yourself.

And neighbor in this case includes your transgender neighbor.   Your transgender neighbor is an intertwined part of the Black community, shares your DNA and history, and is an undeniable part of the diverse mosaic of human life.

We Black trans folks are the experts when it comes to living our Black trans lives. Unless you have a PhD in gender studies or genetics, it's past time you listened to what we have to say about our real world experiences in being Black and trans.   We're tired of being flippantly blown off in discourse about our trans lives as you cisplain them.

It's also past time to stop the shady practice of having any kind of conversation about trans lives without Black trans people being part of that discussion. 

We're also tired of hearing cis Black people recite anti-trans talking points we've heard far too often from white fundamentalist preachers, white fauxminist TERF's or Republican politicians.
Once again, and follow the bouncing clenched fist.   Trans men are men, trans women are women.

And news flash, there are Black parents of Black trans kids who need you to stop reciting the loud and wrong disinformation that get trans people assaulted and killed.

We're tired of the anti-trans violence and anti-trans hate speech coming from our own community. It needs to stop. Today

As Archbishop Desmond Tutu once eloquently said, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” When you are silent, you are condoning the behavior.'
Trans people's humanity and human rights are being attacked.  

Many of those trans folks happen to be Black.   Injustice is being aimed at us, so where do you stand cis Black community?   Do you stand with the trans oppressor or the people fighting the oppression?  .  

Sadly, your behavior leads us to believe that far too many of you are eagerly lining up with our oppressors

Black Media Transphobia Is Not Humorous To Black Trans Women

One of the things I'm really getting sick of along with the Black trans community and the parents of Black trans kids is the ongoing pattern in the Black community of our Black oriented media outlets, be they radio, television or on social media, spouting hate speech aimed at the transgender community.

It is anti-trans hate speech like this that results in Black trans women getting beat up or murdered.

The latest sorry instance of what I'm talking about happened on the New York based Power 105.1 FM radio show The Breakfast Club that is syndicated to 50 markets including Houston's KQBT-FM to an audience of 4 million people.

It is hosted by DJ Envy, Angela Yee and Charlamagne Tha God, and has has a problematic relationship with the TBLGQ community and a long history since the show premiered in 2010 of anti-TBLGQ commentary  

This latest episode of Black media transphobia started when Janet Mock appeared on the show last Tuesday to promote her new book Surpassing Certainty.

While the Breakfast Club team managed to actually do a respectful and informative interview with Janet on that day, it was painfully obvious they hadn't learned anything on Friday when they hosted the 'comedian' Lil Duval on the show.



The show went off the transphobic rails quickly starting at the 6:28 mark    In addition to Lil Duval using the t-slur, he then compounded his ignorance fueled descent down the transphobic rabbit hole by expressing the sentiment of killing a trans woman if he found out he was dating one, repeated the trans deception lie, and then topped it all off by dissing Janet Mock for laughs as the Breakfast Club hosts egged him on.

We have so far in 2017 lost 15 trans women to anti-trans violence, and 13 of those women are Black. Even more infuriating to me is many of those Black trans women we lost were under age 40.

I am sick and tired of along with the Black trans community and the parents of Black trans women, of cis Black folks peddling transphobia for laughs, ratings or your monetary gain.

It isn't funny. And I'm sick and tired of the fragile cis Black masculinity reflected in their anti-trans commentary.

When we have the Republican Party at the state and federal levels openly pushing harmful anti-trans legislation like SB 3 that we're having to fight tooth and nail in my home state and the POTUS peddling anti- trans policies, your jokes are leading to Black trans women being assaulted and murdered.

So no Breakfast Club, not tolerating your so called transphobic jokes or any upcoming weak azz apology for them, especially in light of the fact you have a long history of anti-TBLGQ commentary.  #BoycottBreakfastClub

It's past time for Black media outfits, whether they are Internet gossip blogs, TV talk show hosts who used transphobia to build their brand (Wendy Williams) or syndicated FM radio shows like the Breakfast Club to please chill with the Black media transphobia  .

It is getting Black trans women assaulted and killed.

Houston's FOX 26 Is Demonizing The Trans Community Again

I've noted to my dismay ever since I returned home from Louisville in May 2010 the rightward slant of the news department at KRIV-TV.  One of the other things I'm not fond of concerning FOX 26 is the ongoing pattern they have of demonizing, attacking and peddling disinformation about the Houston LGBT community.

And I've called them and their reporters who engage in it out about that crap.

It is a pattern at FOX 26 that was abundantly clear during the fight to keep the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance and their slanted anti-TBLGQ coverage lead was unfortunately followed by other television stations in the Houston market.   It has continued post HERO.

With the Special Oppression Session on the horizon in Austin, news coverage is starting to ramp up in advance of it.  Thanks to Media Matters, I was made aware of this problematic July 9 KRIV-TV panel since I'm not in the habit of watching FOX 26 because of their slanted and transphobic news coverage.

This latest FOX 26 panel I'm slamming was in response to the recent New Yorker article in which Texas House speaker Joe Straus (R) expressed his opposition to these anti-trans bills and said that he didn't want the death of a single Texan on his hands as a result of SB 6 and HB 2899.

Do you notice the problem with this panel?  You probably do if you're a Houston area or Texas based trans person or Texas trans ally. But for those of you who don't see it,  the problem is there are ZERO Houston area trans advocates among the six people being interviewed for this segment.

Guess it's easier to demonize a group FOX 26 when you don't invite them to your studio so they can push back against the anti-trans narrative you're trying to peddle.



Next time you wish to do a panel that discusses the lives of trans people FOX 26, it may help if you have actual Houston trans people as part of that discussion instead of a bunch of cisgender people and Republican haters who are ignorant, hostile and deliberately obtuse about our trans lives and the issues we face.

But then again, your conservative sycophants probably don't want that to happen because every time they have run up against a Houston trans advocate on your airwaves, they've gotten their azz handed to them.

Do You Want Trans Women In Your Ranks Or Not, Divine Nine Sororities?

I would hope that if a qualified #girllikeus decided she was down with the historic mission of Alpha Kappa Alpha, Delta Sigma Theta, Zeta Phi Beta, or Sigma Gamma Rho. loved that sorority's history, was qualified to be a member, and wanted to be a part of building their legacy for a new century of service she would be invited to do so and not disrespectfully turned away
-TransGriot,  December 5, 2012  

I've been talking about this subject for over a decade on this blog concerning the need for the Divine Nine sororities to emulate the evolutionary steps they took in admitting Latina, Asian, white, bi and lesbian women in their ranks and consider finally admitting trans women.

It's highly likely there are non disclosed trans members of Divine Nine sororities right now, but I would like to see out trans women have the ability and the option become available if they desire to do so to join. .

I would rather they do this unilaterally because as they realized in admitting Latina, Asian, white , Bi and lesbian women, it was the right thing to do.  Because if you as organizations claim to embrace all women, then by default all women includes transgender women as well

I'm bringing this subject up again because DL Hughley's wannabe Que Dog behind was stoking the hellfire flames of transphobic bigotry yesterday by posing the question should trans women be allowed to join Delta Sigma Theta or by extension, any of the Divine Nine sororities?

The resulting comment thread as you probably guessed was a festering pustule of transphobia.

That's a problem because these four iconic and historic Greek letter organizations, with nearly a million members worldwide and over a century of service and achievement on behalf of our Black community, comprise the largest organized group of professional college educated Black women in the world.

Divine Nine sorority members are prominent in the fields of business, government, legal, medical, media, sports, the arts and the armed forces, and it's troubling to me as the child and sibling of AKA's that elements of the Divine NIne are sounding like white TERF's when it comes to discussing transgender women.

That's a major problem for Black trans women and our Black cis feminine allies that we need to address right now.  .

So let's get this salient point established right now.  Trans women exist, trans women are women, some trans women are college educated, and are an undeniably intertwined part of the Black community.   Black trans women have been standing up for yours, theirs and everybody's human rights for decades in addition to being trailblazing members of the trans community

We are not only handling our business in being the best people that we can be, we are doing our part to uplift Black womanhood and be the intersectional allies and sisters that you can rely on.

And yes,.trans kids exist, and news flash for y'all, some of those trans kids matriculating in elementary, middle school and high school classrooms across this country are Black.

Some of those amazing trans kids in our ranks will eventually go on to attend college.  It is also possible that some of those kids, like I did, are growing up under the positive influence of members of a Divine Nine sorority, are down with the mission of that particular sorority, and as a result of their positive interactions with that Divine Nine sorority elder would love to join.

The question you'll  have to answer is will you turn that trans feminine child away like every other institution in society is doing to that trans feminine child right now?   Will you Divine Nine sororities and elements of your membership send the message to her (and her trans feminine non-Greek elders) that you're rejecting her femininity and her existence by not including her in your esteemed ranks?

What we need to hear from you right now or in the near future Divine Nine sororities is an unequivocal answer to that question.  

We need you Divine Nine to state one way or the other that either yes, we recognize trans women as the women you are and would love to have you join us if you qualify for membership or no, we don't want you even if you do qualify so we know where you stand.

The reality is you'll have to make that choice sooner or later because Black trans women aren't going away, and we're not going to stop asking this question.  
 

Montgomery County Valero Station Engaging in Transphobia

Why do I keep saying hate thoughts + hate speech =  hate crimes/violence like a mantra?  It's because that is the Equation of Oppression.

Thanks to reader Charity Goodwin, I was advised of a situation that occurred at a Valero station that was spotted by another trans woman who needed to commit a revolutionary act and use the bathroom

She found this sign on the single stall bathroom at  a Valero branded gas station on 340 Valley Wood Dr in Spring just off I-45 in Montgomery County

This is what months and years of anti-trans propaganda from the Texas Republican Party, right wing pastors and conservative media leads to.   Special conservafool snowflakes putting dehumanizing signs on the door of a single stall women's bathroom.

FYI conservafool, trans women are women who also need to poop and pee.  Guess you had this pressing need to feel better about your miserable self by exercising your oppressor gene.

Microaggressive crap like this is why we Texas trans peeps fight unjust bills like HB 2899 and call out any instances of dehumanization of Texas trans people aimed at us whether it comes from the Lt Governor or some idiot running a local gas station. .

Rep. Senfronia Thompson Calls Out The TX GOP Transphobic Discrimination

“White. Colored. I was living through that era…bathrooms divided us then, and it divides us now. America has long recognized that separate but equal is not equal at all.” “I can also tell you that separate restrooms for transgender kids, which is what we will be discussing for this bill, are also based on fear and not fact.”
-TX State Rep. Senfronia Thompson (D-Houston)

On this May 21 date that will live in Texas political infamy as 'Discrimination Sunday', the Texas GOP decided to satisfy their inner bigotry and pass a bill (HB 2078) laws to discriminate against Texas trans kids.   They also passed another bill that would allow taxpayer funded adoption agencies to refuse to place children with TBLGQ, non-Christian or unmarried people because of religious objections

Rep. Senfronia Thompson has been in the Texas House since she was elected to represent Texas House District 141 since 1972 and is the longest serving African-American woman in the Texas Legislature.

As she did in 2005 in her 'Hellfire Flames of Bigotry' speech in which she called out the passage of the unconstitutional Texas anti-gay marriage amendment to our state constitution, 'Ms. T' was once again standing tall against injustice when she took to the Texas House floor to remind her colleagues that separate is not equal, and discrimination aimed at trans people is just as ugly as when it was done to her and other Black Texans.

Too bad the Texas GOP isn't getting that message through their pointed hoods.

And with us headed once again into a tax money squandering special oppression session,  I wanted y'all to see and hear the words of one of the people and Democrats who have had our backs during this Texas legislation oppression session.

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Assigned Male Cartoonist Attacked By Online Haters

I've loved the online webcomic Assigned Male ever since I stumbled across it during one of my web searching forays for interesting things to write about.

I wrote about its importance to our community, and even had the pleasure of meeting its lovely artist Sophie Labelle in the vendors area during last year's Philadelphia Trans Health Conference.

But what I'm not happy to hear is that haters have been sending Labelle death threats, doxxed her and hackers in a coordinated attack were successful in temporarily taking down her Facebook website with over three years of Assigned Male strips on it.  

And this is happening during a week in which the Canadian Senate was debating Bill C-16, the Trans Rights Act in a Senate committee

Fortunately she'd backed up her work and the Facebook site is now back up online, but it forced her to cancel a book tour appearance in Halifax.

Labelle's book is entitled Dating Tips For Trans and Queer Weirdos, and is a 28 page one that explores the relationship between Ciel and Eirikur, two of the Assigned Male comic characters.  

The book tour has two more stops in Quebec City on May 25 and Vancouver on June 1.

Labelle says in a Toronto Star interview that she is more determined than ever to not let the haters win and give it the best she's got.

That's wonderful to  hear because the comic stip is important to our trans kids.   They need to see positive representations of themselves in the comic world, and I agree with Sophie, that's one of the reasons why the haters came after your strip.

But it's nice to know that your book tour will not only continue, but we'll see more of the Assigned Male adventures of Stephanie and her friends. .  

Dear Transphobic People

It's past time to call these fools and trans haters out on a regular basis,  and there are enough of them out there for me to skewer on a regular basis.  

So let's get this party started.

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Dear Transphobic People,

One of the things I've been quite pissed off about is you peeps who call yourselves Republicans or conservatives, mad because you lost the Obergefell SCOTUS case, retooling and turning your anti-gay industry and Right Wing Noise Machine loose on the trans community.

You ran your standard disinformation and demonization playbook.  You've retooled the predator myth you used on the gay community to attack trans women, and attacked our trans kids and their parents.

You started World War T expecting an easy political Culture War win you could ride to 2018 GOP primary midterm success, and have been shocked to find out that we had more allies than you thought.   We're also fighting your right wing behinds tooth and nail because frankly, you messed with us and our kids, and we have no choice but to fight you back and win.

And what made you peeps think that trans folks, who have fought tooth and nail and gone through hell to become their true selves, were going to just roll over for you?  

Hell naw, we weren't.  We're going to fight your GOP behinds tooth and nail until you leave us alone and stop attacking our humanity and human rights. .

And yeah, the slimiest people are the so called pastors pimping anti-trans hate from their pulpits and politicians like former NC governor Pat McCrory (R) and current (for now) Texas Lt/ Governor Dan  'Potty Panic' Patrick (R)  who are pushing anti-trans hate for his political benefit next year.

But Pat McCrory found out that hatin' on trans people isn't the ticket to electoral success.  So did former Texas House state reps Debbie Riddle (R-Tomball) and Gilbert Pena (R-Pasadena) who pushed four anti-trans bills that were defeated in the 2015 Texas Lege session and found themselves flushed by the voters outside of the Pink Dome when the 2017 session started.  

We can only hope that Dan Patrick. Sen Lois Kolkhorst  (R-Brenham) and Sen. Eddie Lucio, Jr's (DINO-Brownsville)  the only Democrat to vote for SB 6) political careers will suffer the same fate as SB 6 for messing with Texas trans kids and Texas trans women.

Sit Yo' Azz Down Chimamanda And Talk To A Black Trans Woman...

Before you part your lips to say something this cluelessly ignorant about us ever again.

Some of my TransGriot readers have asked me what are my thoughts concerning the jacked up comments that Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has made in a British Channel 4 interview in which she made some negative comments about trans women,



After seeing the video, it pissed me off to the point I needed 24 hours to craft a response to it.

It's obvious in this series of WTF level contradictory statements that Adichie has neither talked to or spent any time talking to trans women, and especially Black trans women.  

If she had, she wouldn't be facing the firestorm of criticism she's getting now and me writing this post telling her to have several seats.

Doesn't matter if trans women's parents attempted to raise them as males with the male privilege that comes attached with that.  The nanosecond we start taking hormones and our bodies morph to that female form, we lose whatever male privilege we have and get all the gender specific BS aimed at women on this planet.

There also crap that we get simply for being trans or seen as effeminate..

We in Trans Feminine World don't and never have denied the fact there are certain aspects of our lives that are intrinsically different from a cis woman.  But at the same time neither can you deny or dismiss the fact that there are also similarities in feminine life experiences with cis and trans women.

Neither can you deny unless you are being willfully ignorant and intellectually dishonest about it that trans women get sexually assaulted, murdered, discriminated against and disrespected simply for being and living as women on a plant hostile to femininity.

The fact that we have increasing numbers of trans women who have experienced life on this planet as female from childhood makes her comment problematically clueless.  It also makes Adichie guilty of doing to trans women what she cautions people about in terms of making blanket statements based on a single narrative.

Chimamanda, it's not like I and other Black trans women haven't been telling our stories.  Like your fellow feminists, you refuse to hear it.  We're tired of the facts free sliming that comes from feminists and TERF's. We're also tired as Black trans women of the racism that comes with those facts free lies about us we've heard since the disco era.

It's also comments like these to borrow the words of my homegirl Bryanna Jenkins, that make Black trans women as reluctant to trust and embrace Black cis women as Black women are to trust white women.

But with a hostile Republican administration in place in Washington DC and various US states, if we want to solve the problems that impact all women, both cis and trans Black women are going to need to have those hard ongoing conversations in order to build the sisterhood we'll need to make that collective  action happen.

The base level of understanding we need from Black cis women to get this started is that Black trans women are women.  We can go from there.    

So sit your azz down Chimamanda and talk to a variety of Black trans women before you ever again part your lips to say something as problematic about us in a public setting ever again.

A Bathroom User Speaks About The Unjust GOP Bathroom Bills

We trans women know that the GOP Bathroom Bills like Texas' SB 6 are bull feces, and don't do anything except oppress trans woman, damage a state's economy and give Republican legislators raw meat for their base to run for reelection on.  

Seriously TV has this video taking a potshot at the Republican Party for pushing these unjust bills and calls out their War on Women.

Landis Smithers, This Is What Golden Globes Trans Beauty Looks Like

I'm more than a little sick of people letting their inner transphobic bigot out and aiming transmisogynist comments at cis women for whatever jacked up reason.

Far too often they get aimed at Black women in positions of power like Serena Williams and First Lady Michelle Obama.   It's even more odious and heightens my pissivity about it when the trans misogynist comments come from someone who is a member of the TBLGQ community

Last night, Landis Smithers the VP of Grindr, took to Twitter to make a comment about actress Kristen Wiig's new short hairstyle and tweeted this:

Well Landis, guess your ignorant behind wasn't aware of it last night, but there were actual trans feminine beauties attending the Golden Globe Awards last night and slaying the red carpet in actresses Trace Lysette and Rain Valdez

Rain's Golden Globes red carpet pic is gracing the top of this post, and here's Trace's red carpet slayage:

Landis, this is why I have a major problem with your tweet.   At a time when the Republican Party, the conservative movement, right wing 'christians' , my home state of Texas and several others are openly attacking the humanity and human rights of trans people,  I'm beyond sick and tired of white gay men like you thinking that you can disparage trans women or aim trans misogynistic and shady comments at cisgender ones and arrogantly think you won't get called out on it by us.

Trans women are women,even if your behind doesn't get that simple point.  Some of us when we transition hit the genetic lottery and turned out gorgeous.  The long stylish line of trans models going back to the 60's drives that point home.

There's also an ever growing list of trans actresses in Hollywood in addition to Rain and Trace like Alexandra Billings, Angelica Ross, Jen Richards, Laverne Cox, Mya Taylor, Amiyah Scott, Zackary Drucker and Jamie Clayton just to name a few of them who will be slaying red carpets and hopefully getting awards for their trailblazing work in the near future.

I also can't forget Aleshia Brevard, who was blazing the Hollywood trail that many of these women are following

And FYI  Landis, short hair doesn't make a woman less feminine.  Ask Toni Braxton, Halle Berry, Lupita Nyong'o and countless others who look fab with short hair and have walked red carpets while doing so

Trace and Rain are just two examples of the diverse beauty of trans women that exist not only in Hollywood, but across this country and the world.

And we trans women will continue being our fab selves slaying runways, red carpets, beauty pageants and just being our amazing selves in whatever setting we find ourselves in.

Kim Burrell And Homophobic Houston Black Church Folk, Leave TBLGQ Hatred Behind In 2016

Needed to take a few days to compose my thoughts about Kim Burrell serving Satan and letting loose that hateful anti-gay rant she tried to pass off as a sermon recently.

And I'm sad to say that Burrell is from my hometown.    But what I do need to say about it is something that has been on my mind since the HERO repeal.

I'm tired of so called kneegrow little c  'christians' peddling this anti-trans and anti-gay hatred they copied from white fundamentalists that is causing dissension and discord in our community.  

It is also this faux faith based ignorance that led you Houston kneegrow church folk to allow yourselves in 2015 to be hoodwinked and bamboozled into voting against a human rights ordinance in HERO that protected you at the behest of your ministers who were puppets for white fundies and the Texas and Harris County Republican Party..

Kim Burrell ain't the only person in the Houston city limits using their pulpit to preach anti-gay hate. She just got caught doing so and is being deservedly called out for it.   There are also Black masculine ministers who do so every Sunday who need to be called on the carpet for it as well

This also isn't just a H-town problem, it's one I'm sadly seeing being repeated in sellout Black churches across the country and across the African Diaspora.   But I'm directing my anger about it at my H-town homies and homettes first.

At a time in which we have an anti-Black presidential administration about to take over the White House on January 20, the Black trans, bi, SGL and straight communities do not need this crap happening right now.   We need to be more united than ever before.

You know you're a bunch of shady hypocrites for doing so because you know damned well you couldn't get through a Sunday service without your gay choir director or the trans women singing in the church choir.  Neither would you look presentable for the cameras Ms. Burrell without that army of TBLGQ folks who style your hair, do your nails and makeup and coordinate your clothing.

We also know for a fact that some of the people we lost in the Black community to AIDS also happened to be gospel singers like yourself.

If you faux faith based kneegrow 'christians' feel the need in 2017 to wrap your homophobic and transphobic bigotry in Scripture, don't be surprised when I and other Black folks inside and outside our community swiftly call your faux faith based behinds out on you violation of the Ten Commandments and other various books of the Bible you hypocritically profess to believe in.

I'm looking at you Rev. Max Miller and the Baptist Ministers Assn of Houston and Vicinity.   Don't think Moni, Black TBLGQ Houston or our allies forgot about all that anti-trans hate y'all pimped from your pulpits on behalf of the Harris County GOP and white fundamentalists like Dave Welch who threw y'all sellout butts under the bus when Election Day 2015 passed and HERO got repealed.

That's why TBLGQ hatred aimed at Black TBLGQ folks by Black so called Christians needs to stay behind in 2016 and will not be tolerated or excused by those of us in Black TBLGQ world in the 2K17.

Jenna's Open Letter To A PISD Transphobe

On my Facebook page, we had a discussion on National Coming Out Day about the importance of cisgender allies coming out in support of their trans siblings.   The parents of trans kids also need your support since the Mama and Papa Bears are also along with their kids being demonized by right wingers.

Well, here's an example of what I'm talking about in terms of cis people supporting trans people.

Jenna Hammond is a recent 2016 graduate of Pearland ISD's Dawson High School in Houston's southern suburbs.  Yes, it's the same Pearland ISD whose current transphobic Superintendent Dr. John Kelly made some horrible remarks back in May about one of the transkids I have mad love for in Kai Shappley, who started kindergarten in PISD back on August 22

PISD made it clear at their last board meeting bfore the 2016-17 school year started they were going to ignore for now the DOE/DOJ Dear Colleague Letter and oppress Kai.

Guess y'all want to waste PISD taxpayer money on a anti-trans discrimination lawsuit you're going to lose.

Jenna wrote an open letter to Dr. Kelly taking him to task for his faux faith based transphobia and reminding him that as the Pearland ISD superintendent, his job is not to demonize and oppress the kids like Kai in his district, but to create the best conditions in PISD so that all kids can learn, grow and thrive as individuals and eventually adults once they graduate.

Here's the text of Jenna's letter.

***

Dear Dr. Kelly:

I attended Pearland ISD schools for most of my life and I have always felt and displayed pride in the resources and opportunities I was able to receive throughout my education. I graduated from Dawson High School this year, and I had hoped to leave Pearland with that pride and fondness intact.

However, your words and actions as superintendent, a representative of the district as a whole, have single-handedly shattered that perception. I am frankly shocked and appalled by your response to Kai Shappley, a fellow student in PISD, simply wishing to use the correct bathroom for her identity. The fact that the district that raised me could display such callous bigotry to a child is…upsetting, to say the very least. It genuinely hurts me to even think about it, this hateful precedent that you have set.

I was proud of the fact that I graduated from a school that gave me truly life-changing lessons and unique opportunities, with no consideration of the fact that I was openly gay. I think many of Dawson’s LGBT+ students would say the same. I believed that this district was solely invested in the success and happiness of me and my fellow students, that there was a conscious effort to put aside political and religious differences in order to focus purely on the betterment and education of our youth. I wish I could still allow myself to believe this. But you, with a single declaration, have irreparably damaged this perception.

You may want to write me off immediately because of my admission that I am a lesbian. I would hope that you at least respect and care about your constituents and students enough to listen to my words, regardless of your personal religious beliefs about my “lifestyle.” Honestly, I am not writing you to climb on my soapbox and try to force you to embrace my beliefs.   I am writing you with the hope that you will listen and understand, empathize with the students whose lives you have a great impact upon.

I recognize and understand that you are an adult and my senior, so I will not try to combat your personal beliefs, which you are clearly devoted to.  If we were to argue about bible verses and the relevance of religion, it would only be a rehashing of a debate that has been had a million times, and it would only leave us both exasperated, with neither side having budged and no solution found. I respect that your beliefs are your own, and you have a right to have them, regardless of whether or not I agree. So again, I ask: please listen to what I have to say.

I would like to begin by stating a simple fact: Kai Shappley is a child. First and foremost, above all else, she is a child. It is your duty as superintendent to do what is best for the children in this district. Your statement on transgenderism in May is callous at best, and the clear hatred lingering behind your words accomplishes the exact opposite of what you are meant to accomplish. In this statement, you compared the presence of transgender people in public restrooms to pedophilia and polygamy. I ask that you take a moment to consider these words once more. You have compared Kai’s very existence to abuse and sexual deviancy committed by malicious adults. This is a child, only 5 years old.

Because you work for the district, I assume that you are invested in the wellbeing of the children attending Pearland’s schools. Aside from her gender, Kai is still a young, impressionable child; just like her peers, she wants to play around, watch cartoons, and learn about the world. Think of her not as a trans person, but as a person. Would you call any other child a deviant on the level of child molesters? You are telling this girl from a young age that she wrong simply for existing, that she does not deserve to feel comfortable in the environments that are meant to nurture her as she grows.  I know it is difficult to put yourself in the shoes of someone you are obviously prone to hating anyway, but I ask that you try, for the sake of a child under your care.

I know that this next statement is likely going to fall on deaf ears, but honestly, I find your usage of your religion in your argument wildly inappropriate.  Your religious beliefs are yours and yours alone, no matter how strong your faith is.  It is clear that you are quite passionate in your stalwart devotion to those beliefs.  Again, I realize that I cannot change this.  I cannot force you to stop your abhorrence of the identities and lifestyles of people such as me and Kai.  However, at the end of the day, these personal religious beliefs are not intended to be used to govern the citizens of the U.S., including Texas, including P.I.S.D. Religious freedom is something I learned in these very same schools, and I believe that applies to this situation.  Even if you maintain the belief that we are a Christian nation, based in biblical law, that is still a highly subjective concept.  Every person’s idea of Christianity is unique; how can you decide that yours is the correct one that every person should be compelled to follow?  You may argue that our basis of government is biblical, but is it not based on the concept of freedom as well?  Free practice of religion is a constitutional right; how is forcing your personal religious beliefs on others not a violation of that right? You stated that the government allowing transgender people into the restroom for the gender they identify with is “unconstitutional interference,” but is it not unconstitutional interference to interfere with the lives of others based on your religion, effectively stripping away their right to follow their own beliefs.

The fact is you are dealing with children here.  Kai Shappley is not a pedophile entering the restroom to prey upon her peers.  Kai Shappley is not holding the other children down and forcing them to abandon their religion.  Kai Shappley is trying to use the restroom comfortably.  That you would choose to overlook that and spout bigotry from your public platform deeply saddens me. No kindergartener should have to be taken to court and told by the people designated to help her grow that she does not deserve the basic human right of feeling safe and comfortable.

Kai is a child you are meant to help, not a criminal for you to condemn.  I sincerely hope you take any part of this letter to heart, because right now you are just a hateful disappointment from where I am standing.

Jenna C. Hammond

***

Thank you Jenna for supporting not only Kai, but Kimberly and our community as well.

Transphobic Hypocrisy, Thy Name Is The GOP

This was an interesting point that i was pondering as I watched last night's debate.

The GOP and conservative movement has been attacking transpeople for over a year in the wake of their marriage equality loss and needing another marginalize group to demonize for their nefarious political purposes.

We even have Republican attorney generals fighting the federal government so they can continue to be on the wrong side of history and oppress trans children.
 
But this 2016  presidential campaign has revealed they have a real life molester as their presidential nominee, and not a word has come out of their mouths condemning it.

The cricket chirping silence has been most deafening from white fundamentalists who crave power and their desire to oppress people over what is morally correct.

Their religion is the 'dry as dust' religion that Dr King talked about

Can't wait for October 24 to get here.   What's that date you ask?   The first day of early voting in Texas.

Yo One Million Moms, This Is What A Trans Feminine Fashion Model Looks Like

Was chuckling to myself when I saw the story in the UK based Pink News about the right wing hate group One Million Moms (actually 3500 men)  who are trying to start another failed boycott against a retailer they accuse of being too trans friendly.



H&M has a new 'She's a Lady' ad campaign featuring several diverse women of all ages and body types modeling different styles of clothing.

One of the women involved in this campaign is female Muay Thai boxing champion Fatima Pinto, who One Million Haters transphobically misgendered and attacked.

But while I'm chuckling about the loud and wrong One Million Haters reactions, this is in reality a serious issue that I, other trans people and our allies have been talking about for some time in terms of trans misogyny not just affecting trans women.

The One Milling Haters peeps were so busy focusing their faux faith based transphobic ire on Ms. Pinto that they completely missed model Hari Nef, who was also featured in the ad.

Far too often the unwoman meme is not only aimed at transgender women, bit it is aimed at cisgender women, and especially cisgender women of color like First Lady Michelle Obama, Serena Williams to demonize any woman who doesn't fit the stereotypical feminine societal mold

This also points to something else I've talked about on this blog and elsewhere in terms of not only the beauty of non-white women being demonized. it also plays into for trans women the far too often a stereotypical and media perpetuated 'that's a man' assumption of what a trans woman is or isn't supposed to look like.

Let's start with the Trans 101 basic tenet that trans women are women.  Once we start taking estrogen, doesn't take us long to look the part.  Some of us when we start hormone replacement therapy also got the genetic luck of the draw and morphed into very attractive and beautiful women.

That reality makes some of us who did get the genetic luck of the draw and are model height to get the call from the fashion world to strut the fashion runways of New York, London, Paris  Milan and Tokyo.

And FYI One Million Haters and everyone who shares their less than enlightened views about girls like us, trans women walking runways, gracing the covers of magazines or participating in multimillion dollar ad campaigns is not a new phenomenon.  

We've been doing so since the 1960's, and the long stylish line of trans models has continued into the 21st century.

FYI since y'all are woefully ignorant about the topic, here are just a few glamorous examples of what trans feminine models actually look like.

Meet the lovely and fabulous Geena Rocero.  And yes as someone who has met her, she's even more beautiful in real life.

And this is another trans model in Carmen Carrera

Another longtime trans model in Isis King

And just to rub it in some more, still another trans model in Andreja Pejic.

Noticing a pattern here?   Trans women's body types and shapes are as varied as our cis feminine counterparts, and all are beautiful in their own way.

That's why the long stylish line of trans models has been in existence since the 1960's, and will continue no matter how much unhinged ranting One Million Haters does.