Welcome To Womanhood

This is a guest post by Toni D'orsay that deserves a signal boost.

"Welcome to womanhood."

It is a phrase heard by trans women at least once -- often far more often than that -- and it is always meant in a commiserating way, a kind of "welcome to the sisterhood" statement, that ties within it all the other stuff that goes along with being a woman.

It is often given in particular contexts that suggest that this is a new experience for trans women, something different from what they had experienced in the past, and the flaw in it, the cruelty of it, is derived from that simple misunderstanding.

Trans women are women who typically spend a lot of their time looking in from the outside. Another metaphor: the most unpopular girls in high school who watch even those with the slightest greater popularity enjoy everything, while they get stuck eating ashes. Alone. Away from the lunch room.

It won't apply to all trans women. Nothing can. Not even transness, when it comes right down to it, but that won't stop people from trying, since transness is a concept structured by the dominant social milieu, in and of itself.

But by and large, trans women are women who have been denied all those experiences and forced into another set. They would watch over their shoulders or try to understand the why and how the what from outside, not the inside, and in doing so, they did, in fact, experience a womanhood -- just not the acceptable, prepackaged, pre-approved, preordained, structural and institutional womanhood many know. Most know.

The underlying message is welcome to the ways in which which being a woman sucks. On rare occasions, it is welcome to the ways in which being a woman is awesome.

Trans women already know that, though. They have watched it. They have often prayed for it. They may not understand it as well, because they were never on the inside; never popular enough to hang out in the schoolyard.

Some will argue that isn't probable. You cannot know something from the outside, they will argue. Yet we do that all the time, all of us. If you don't believe me, look at how much we think we know about the lives of celebrities.

We probably don't get it in full detail, the depth of nuance and the nitty gritty of the emotional weight, but we know it.

We don't understand it, though, no mater how many pet theories we come up with.

Trans women were trans girls. They grew up, and a large number of them waited, expectantly for our first periods, our first kisses, our dance dresses and those little things -- for some of us, we figured for a while we were just late bloomers, it would happen, it will be okay.

We were denied those things. Often punished for thinking of them. Often we were nuts, and for those of us of different generations, we were pushed to be more masculine, trounced if we didn't do well, given disappointing looks and worried for us glances by teachers and principals and parents and strangers.

We were children, disappointing parents by being what they told us we could be, because we didn't fit into the world they knew or understand or approved of or liked enough.

They know the dark side. In some cases, perhaps far too well.

But they also, as a result of this, see womanhood differently. I mean, these are women who had to fight to be women, had to defy family and government and, if some are to be believed, Gods, to be women. They never got to experience these things, so for them, sometimes, even the crappy parts of being a woman are blessings, which can be pretty jarring, pretty funny, pretty heartbreaking.

And even as they do so, they are punished for being women. Not merely treated that way, but punished for it punished for wanting it, punished for living as themselves.

Trans women get to be told they don't get a say in their reproductive rights, and then are punished for not having that say, then punished for wanting them, and punished for thinking they deserve them, and punished for not being able to do the thing people think of most often when folks say reproductive rights. Something which a lot of them would give up limbs in the most literal sense to be able to do.

Indeed in one of the more hateful theories out there created by cis folks about tans folks, wanting to be a woman is a delusion, and it is all about sex, and yet if you were to ask trans women if they want babies (which, you guessed it, requires sex), and they answer yes, in and of itself, undoes all of that theory as it is constructed.

Because we are punished for wanting that. Wanting something that people say we can never have, and say it with a kind of smug and grim satisfaction, like a twist of the knife that those who say that know they have just jammed into a kidney from behind.

We know womanhood. And for those of us of color, we know oppression and discrimination that while it differs in style, is still the same, basic, harsh and ugly human reaction.

Which is all bad enough, except that we get it all from everyone, including women, because we break rules we never made that were never established to account for us, that pretend we do not exist.

We know womanhood. And we know a truth that few folks will ever utter, a thought that really makes the notion of welcoming us to womanhood even more bitter than it usually is.

We know because we are not welcome to womanhood, we never have been, anywhere, so even that lie just makes us quirk a corner of our lips in a wry smile and shrug.

Because we are going to carve a place out for us. We are entitled to it -- it is our human right to be so.

And for that we need no welcome.

But you are welcome to join us.   

Womanhood Does Not Equal To Childbirth Alone

While I was surfing the Net last night ran across a Facebook conversation on a trans girlfriend's page in which a cis woman threw the shady comment that trans women were 'men' because we can't conceive or give birth to children.

Of course y'all knew I couldn't let that stand, and shot a comment back at the transphobic sistah would it be okay for trans women when she hits menopause to call her a man?  I pointed out that since in her mind womanhood =  ability to procreate, once she no longer had that ability to do so for whatever reason, by her own narrow definition, she would be a 'man'. 

As for her reaction to the clapback comment I laid on her, she had none.
One of the things that I and my trans sisters are tired of is TERF's and elements of the cisfeminine community throwing that ignorant insult around to either make themselves feel superior to trans women or piss us off.

Just an FYI for some of you who were asleep in biology class, there are some cis women who can't bear children because they have MRKH Syndrome, a rare condition that affects one in every 5000 women in which they are born without a uterus.

Some may have a uterus, but it doesn't function because of fertility or other issues, or the baby making parts work but the cis woman in question chooses not to have children.

Since 2000, medical science has been perfecting the ability to transplant a uterus. The medical technology for that procedure has advanced to the point in which a cis woman in Sweden who received a uterine transplant in 2014 gave birth to a child via Caesarian section.

Now the technology has also advanced to the point that the donor uterus can not only be grown in the lab with stem cells, the lab grown uterus is less susceptible to rejection by the patient it is implanted in.

So as this uterine transplant procedure becomes routine over the next decade, how long will it be before trans women who wish to have children are able to not only have a uterine transplant, but bear children?   Once that happens, it eliminates the ability for TERF's and cis women to weaponize as an insult they shadily throw at trans women their ability to procreate.

As philosopher Simone de Beauvoir once stated, 'Women are made, not born,'  There are many elements that go into womanhood including living culturally as one, and trans and cis women need to realize we have far more in common than they have differences.

We cis and trans women have to do a better job of building sisterhood between us, and discuss the issues that negatively impact that happening.  This is one of those irritant issues for trans women.

Basing womanhood on ability to procreate is also insulting to cis women who can't bear children for whatever reason or choose not to.,

If you claim that femininity and gender roles are artificial constructs that have nothing to do with the body or other biological characteristics, then that applies to trans women as well.

TERF's Have Zero Say In Defining My Black Trans Life

I got to see the transphobic piece of TERF trash written by Elinor Burkett for the New York Times (which I refuse to link to) and have held my tongue for a few days to process that waste of bandwith op-ed that has been seized on by transphobes who want to get the anti-trans hate on. 

People have asked me my opinion about what she wrote. so here goes.  

I have zero respect for people who hate me and my trans community and wish to oppress it by any means necessary.

I have zero respect for another Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist white woman who makes it clear in another published screed she never has and never will know what being trans is like, arrogantly thinks she has the power to define us and uses her privilege and media access to demonize and oppress trans people.

I'm also beyond sick and tired of being sick and tired of media outlets repeatedly giving white TERF's space in their publications to publish these so called contrarian pieces that are barely disguised TERF anti-trans hatred.

Burkett, Burchill and everyone else in TERF World want to keep ignoring the fact that despite trans exclusionary radical feminism's unrelenting 40 plus year failed effort to morally eradicate transsexuality from existence,  and still we trans feminine women rise.

That rise is being led by trans women of color sick of their words that translate into death, pain and misery visited upon our trans ranks.   And contrary to what your vanillacentric privileged TERF egos may tell you, you don't get to define the parameters of trans womanhood and what terrain the discussion will be held on, we trans women do.

The other thing that has pissed me off about this whole ongoing Caitlyn Jenner discussion is that  unless it has happened and I've missed it while handling some personal business, I have yet to hear the voices of cis non-white women in this media conversation.

When it comes to what feminists are thinking about trans women, I will take my cues from people like Melissa Harris-Perry, Kaila Story and Brittney Cooper just to name a few along with other thoughtful Black cis women who know that we Black cis and trans women have far more issues that unite us than divide us.

Both Black cis and trans women are also aware that Black womanhood has been under attack for four centuries, and it is in our mutual interests to end that demonization of Black femininity.

It's also in our mutual interests to jointly hammer home the point to the Black community that if #BlackLivesMatter, some of those Black lives that matter are also Black trans lives. 

It does not help our community when Black trans people are facing 26% unemployment.   We Black trans people need to be in a position to whee we can not only make a decent living, but be in the position in which we can contribute our talents to uplift all African-Americans.

And that needs to happen sooner rather than at some future date.

It is also in the mutual interests of Black cis women in the spirit of Black lives mattering to speak up against the attacks by white TERF's on the femininity of their trans sisters.  They need to drive home the point white women do not speak for Black women when it comes to discussing the parameters of what femininity is, and especially what Black femininity is.

One of the things that has helped me the most in my own ongoing evolutionary Black feminine journey is to have Black cis women in my corner who understand that trans women are women.   They have let me and other Black trans women know in no uncertain terms that I and other Black trans women are their sisters.

And the cool thing about that is we continue to have dialogue about what sisterhood between Black cis and Black trans women looks like in practice.

You TERF's don't get to in your loud and wrong terms slime trans women because you have never walked a nanosecond in our pumps.  Neither do you as white cis women know what it is  like to be a non-white cis or trans woman because race impacts our transitions and our trans lives.   

But non-white cis women are intimately aware of that intersection of race and femininity, and have more than a clue about what it's like to be hated for who you are for existing on Planet Earth in a Black feminine body. .

So no TERF's, you have zero say in defining my Black trans life.  I and other trans women of color thought leaders do.

Misgendering Attacks On A Black Woman's Femininity Aren't Funny

Someone in a spasm of creativity decided to do a parody of the Caitlyn Jenner Vanity Fair cover in which they stuck Wendy Williams on a fictional EBONY magazine cover with the caption 'Call Me Walter'.

While I have major issues with Wendy Williams problematically using transphobia in her rise to shock-jock radio and television fame, insultingly misgendering Viola Davis in 2012 for daring to wear natural hair on the Oscar red carpet, and another incident in which she repeated debunked stereotypes about trans athletes on her talk show,  at the same time I've also had a major problem with people, and especially the Black gossip blogosphere misgendering her.

The reason I have such a problem with it is because of the 'Black Unwoman Meme, the femininity of Black women has been under attack for four centuries by whiteness and white supremacy.   It infuriates me when Black people participate in the demonization of our own women.

Transmisogyny is not just aimed at Black trans women, it is also aimed at any cis Black woman deemed to not measure up to subjective beauty standards not designed with us in mind.

Misgendering is one of the methods that critics have used to attack any Black woman they don't like, with the most recent examples of that type of misgendering being Venus and Serena Williams, Brittney Griner, Fantasia, Ciara and First Lady Michelle Obama.

If you didn't find the attacks on the FLOTUS' femininity by Joan Rivers and right wingers humorous, then for the sake of consistency neither are those attacks warranted or humorous when they are aimed at Wendy Williams or any other Black woman.

More 2015 Birthday Musings

One promise I made to several of my CAL co-workers and a few women when I had those early conversations with in the wake of my transition at IAH was that I wanted to be seen as a complement to Black women and Black womanhood and not a detriment to it.

Don't know if they were aware of it, but I admired and was watching how they effortlessly role modeled the different types of women they were, and I was taking mental notes. 

I was painfully aware in that spring of 1994 there were very few out Black transfeminine role models, and it was going to fall on me to be that person in my influence circles.

I've been told a few times since then they and the other cis women I made that promise to are very proud of me, and y'all don't know how much that means to me.

I've also heard the same commentary inside the community from Black lesbian identified women, my trans sisters and Black cis feminine allies to our community

Since it is my 53rd birthday and the 21st I've celebrated since my body finally caught up to being the person I always knew I was, it's been an amazing journey that I still marvel at.
I have this life that I've bounced across this country to discuss trans issues from an African-American perspective, and one day after I get my passport, it is my fondest wish to be able to do that in various nations around the globe.

Is there room for improvement?   Yep, because I believe that a transition is an ongoing evolutionary journey that doesn't end until you pass away from this plane of existence.

I'm also continuing to strive to be come that quality Black woman I've talked about on this blog a few times.  Still doing the work to evolve,continue to live up to that promise and exceed it, but so proud and happy there are more amazing examples of Black trans women doing some amazing things and looking fab doing it.

A Mother-Trans Daughter Femininity Dinner Discussion

Some of the Facebook trans groups I'm a member of have very interesting discussion threads at times that eventually trigger hard solid thinking by me to turn it into a post.

This was the case two weeks ago when Lotus, a member of a predominately African-American trans Facebook group I'm on that prides itself on thoughtful discussions of trans issues talked about the night she recently had  dinner with her mother. 

Their dinner discussion turned into a mother-daughter chat that discussed femininity and the perception difference between cis and trans women.

***

Lotus:  Over dinner, my mother and I began an open discussion about the perception of natal females as it pertains to Transgender women. I wanted to bring some of the points that came up during the conversation to the group and see how you all felt about them.

My mother's main point in the conversation was that there is no one SET STANDARD that defines what it means to be a woman. Women come in all shapes, sizes, class levels, and intellectual capabilities; nonetheless they are a woman. With this in mind she inquired as to why someone would assume that all girls like us should strive to be more than the average neighborhood hood rat. As transwomen why is it not okay for us to be the kind of woman we feel most comfortable being (even if that's a "Ratchet Ass Hoe").

I explained to her that as transwomen we should aspire to be a compliment to womanhood not a detriment. Her counter argument was that women are detrimental to themselves so why should a woman in transition feel burdened by the pressure of complimenting womanhood?

We are individuals embarking on a unique journey into what many would perceive as the unknown. We all must make decisions as to who we would like to be, much like any other woman.

All things considered I believe that all points are valid when viewed from that person's perspective. I still stand steadfast by my belief that as a young woman in transition I want to make natal females proud to accept me as the woman that I am, but her perspective opened up another gateway for dialog about the representation of transgender women in society; how we chose to present ourselves.

***

That dinner conversation most certainly did open up a dialog in that group we gleefully began to discuss.  Our trans elder Cheryl Courtney-Evans pointed out in the discussion thread that developed in the wake of Lotus' initial post:: 

I think that perhaps this concept may be simply explained by a sentence/attitude that accompanied the advance of the African American community in it's reach for parity with Whites..."You're a credit to your race." For many years that's what Blacks strove to be, in order to garner 'acceptance'.

Angel V. also pointed out:

When I started my transition, the last thing that was on my mind was acceptance from cis-women. As a matter of fact, the only acceptance that I will ever need is my own. You were not put on this planet to cater to everyone's wants and needs. None of us were. There are plenty of cis-women who will accept us and many who will not. Their opinions will not dictate or change who I am in any capacity.

That said, I like your mom, Lotus. She made some interesting points!! Some ladies will never strive to be better. Trans or otherwise.

What I would have said in response to Lotus' mom is I believe one of the reasons we Black trans women are so adamant about being considered compliments to Black womanhood is because after being stuck on the Black masculinity side where we were considered suspects and targets regardless of the content of our character, some of us don't want to fight that psychic battle again.

But what you come to realize is that Black women also have their own psychic battle they fight in which their femininity is demonized every day by whiteness and white supremacy.  They are depicted as the 'unwoman', 'ugly' and juxtaposed as the polar opposite to white women, who are held up as the penultimate form of feminine beauty and template of womanhood that women of non-white ethnic groups should aspire to be.

As Angel pointed out, some cis Black women don't care, do what they please, don't give a second thought about the historic and current images of Black women and never will. 

So why should we Black trans women care?   Because Black transwomen don't have the luxury to be that cavalier about the feminine images they project to the world.  We're already demonized, have few positive trans feminine role models to counteract the negative images already on the minds of people and fear that whatever negativity happens in our trans ranks will be unfairly projected back at cis African-American women.

But then again, trans women are damned if we do and damned if we don't live up to the standards of Black womanhood.   Even when we try to live our lives as complements to Black womanhood, we're demonized and hated on by many of those same cis Black women we desire sisterhood with and fell like that standarsd is a shifting goalpost. .
   
Cheryl basically dropped some more knowledge on us in this discussion with this sentence. 

Well, I'm sure you've heard the phrase, "Do you"...that's what you do; we must each do as we aspire...whatever that is.

She's right.  And I concur with her that's the point where we Black trans women need to be comfortable in our own minds of getting to.

As Lotus said in that thread, she wasn't aspiring to be hypersexualized by society, but some of her girls like us friends see that as their desired feminine presentation standard and set out to achieve it. 

In my case the elegant Diahann Carroll was one of my feminine role models along with my mother, sis and other cis and trans feminine role modes whose qualities I admired and wanted to role model in my feminine evolutionary path.  

Whatever type of woman we trans women are trying to project to the world, that's ultimately our decision.  Once we start down that path, we have to deal with whatever the consequences are of emulating the type of woman we wish to project to the world as we go through our lives.

But we transwomen also have to become comfortable with just simply being able to 'do you' and being allowed the space to 'do us' just like our cis feminine counterparts. 



TransGriot Note: Last graphic in the post created by Randi of TransMusePlanet.

Still Aiming Higher

'As we own our power, that positive attitude and desire to aim higher as African descended transwomen is taking hold in our ranks.  It demands that we not only represent ourselves to the best of our abilities, but step up to the challenge of being compliments to Black womanhood and not considered detriments to it.'   TransGriot 'Aiming Higher'  October 19, 2011.

Those sentiments I expressed in that October 2011 post are still getting rousing AMENs from many of my Black trans sisters who read those words and have thanked me for writing them.   You have brought it to my attention that I'm not alone in wanting a transition path for girls like us that taps into Black womanhood at its finest and encourages us to be the best women we can be and how we achieve it. 

Our cis sisters want that for us as well as we conceive in our collective minds what that transition path looks like when it's applied to our own lives.   We also have to consider how that fits in with the new  Black trans paradigm  that's developing in this decade.  

There are hard, solid thinking and ongoing conversations going on in our ranks concerning the subject of Black trans womanhood and where we fit in the overall scheme of things.   While some of us get this point, some of our trans sisters have been slow to realize this and it needs to be stressed in Black trans world. 

One of the things we must burn into our brains before we swallow those first estrogen pills or take our first shots is that Black womanhood comes with a legacy of struggle, history and pride we must do our utmost to live up to.  

It's not about a silicone enhanced body, being estrogen based lifeforms, over the top hypersexualized people, legendary ballroom divas, elegant pageant queens or getting SRS, it's living our lives and interacting with the world as African-American women standing tall and having pride in that legacy. 

I want our cis African-American sisters to know that as proud New Black Transwomen, we have our own ongoing history of struggle and a renewed interest in discovering, telling and sharing our own sense of who we are.  We recognize that legacy of struggle that cis Black women have endured and are working hard to be worthy of Black womanhood.

And as a Black trans community leader, I'm doing my part to role model what I'm preaching for mine and the next generation of trans women.

Each girl like us, just like her cis counterparts, has the option of choosing what type of woman she wishes to project to the world.   The problem is that many of us have only been exposed to the hypersexualized girls like us and not ones who have chosen a different path of projecting Black trans womanhood to the world. 

We Black girls like us as we attempt to project the type of woman we wish to be to the world have to grapple with and conquer shame, guilt and fear issues.   We have to overcome a predominately negative media image, a lack of visible positive Black trans roles models and four centuries of negativity aimed at cis African descended women that affects how our femininity is judged.

We also have to be cognizant of the fact Black girls like us have our choices in terms of the type of woman we wish to project to the world and they will get harshly scrutinized and judged by the worst that we produce, not the best among us.   

That choice of the type of women we project to the world comes with the pressure of knowing it can possibly can affect for good or ill whether our marginalized trans community gets human rights coverage. It's why I stress and repeatedly say like a mantra that Black trans women need to be compliments to Black womanhood and not considered detriments to it.

Some of the reservations of cis Black women concerning trans women aren't predominately faith based or harboring on jealousy, but hinge on in their minds their fear we transwomen aren't taking Black womanhood seriously enough.  I submit that the faster we African descended girls like us slay those concerns and we are considered compliments to Black womanhood, the sooner that the cis Black feminine community will embrace their trans sisters. 

Then again there will be always be a cadre of cis Black women that no matter what we do or become those finer specimens of womanhood that Sharon Davis asked us to become back in the late 80's, they're still gonna hate for whatever reason, so bump them.  

We Black girls like us need to aim higher not only for ourselves, but for the cis women who are and do consider us their sisters, friends and allies.

And by doing so, it will result in us being better Black women of trans experience better able to navigate all the communities we intersect and interact with.

Being Trans Affects Everything

It's not a lifestyle (and I hate that conservaterm).  When you swallow those hormones or take those first shots of testosterone or estrogen, it causes seismic shifts in your life that mere cis people can't begin to comprehend.

But if we're going to gain trans human rights coverage and make transphobia as unpalatable as racism, homophobia or sexism are, we're going to have to do our best to make them understand.

The day I swallowed my first hormone I no longer had access to male privilege contrary to the ignorant lie the white privileged TERF's try to pimp.  Once my body morphed into the feminine form I will have for the rest of my life, I not only had to get used to navigating the world in it, I had to get used to becoming a moving target for sexual assault, sexism, and all the other not so fun crap aimed at women in our society. 

And I also had to get used to doing so as a Black woman, which has its own set of challenges in addition to the girl like us issues.

As Jamison Green's quote states, being trans affects everything.  It affects the paper trails in our lives.  It affects familial relationships. It affect romantic relationships.  It has a ripple effect on your friendships that you established prior to transition.  It affects your health and wellness and how you approach it.  It affects how you look at your body.  It even affects your politics and the trajectory of your own life depending on when you transition.  

While being trans hasn't been good for my bank account and purse at times, in terms of the quality of my life it has vastly improved.

There's no way in Hades I'd go back to being 'The Twin' as I call the old me.  

I have an exciting life in which I get to do public speaking, panel discussions at various conferences and colleges across the nation, radio and podcast interviews and hope to one day do international trans conferences.

I'm looked at as a respected role model and leader for this community.  I was honored with inclusion on the inaugural Trans 100 list.  I have an award winning blog that is read internationally, is considered an authoritative source of info I'm working hard to keep that way and has attracted over 4.8 million hits.

I'm way happier and more comfortable in my skin being Moni and the folks who knew me prior to 1994 can tell you the same thing. The only thing I'd change about my life is starting transition earlier. 

Being trans does affect everything, and there is more upside to that change than there is a negative downside.  And I like being a constantly evolving girl like me.

What Is Texas Womanhood?

I should confess that I've always been more of an observer than a participant in Texas Womanhood: the spirit was willing but I was declared ineligible on grounds of size early. You can't be six feet tall and cute, both. I think I was first named captain of the basketball team when I was four and that's what I've been ever since.' Molly Ivins

That was an interesting quote by the late Molly Ivins about herself that I found myself pondering since you know I'm a proud child of the Lone Star State.

It also got me musing about just what is the Texas Womanhood she spoke of?

Is Texas Womanhood an offshoot of womanhood in general with a Texas twang shaped by our state's culture?   Does being born in the Lone Star State, living here or transitioning here impact the concept of womanhood because we are either native or naturalized Texans?

Is there a distinct definition of womanhood based on our shared experience of living inside the Lone Star State?

Probably yes and no. Out of the over 25 million people who reside inside the borders of the Lone Star State there are 12,673,281 who are female according to the 2010 US Census

Those 12.6 million women are a diverse bunch and one that defies stereotyping. We don't all have big hair that is blonde or white in color and sprayed into place within an inch of its life. 

Some of us wear our hair in dreds, loced, ultra short, permed, bleached, braided, weaved to our butts or in a natural style in a wide variety of colors and shades.  

We can be either deeply spiritual church going sisters or not.   We don't all speak with a sassy, witty, sharp tongued drawl like our former governor (God, I miss her) Ann Richards   For many of us Texas women English is not our primary native language.  Spanish is along with many other languages from around the globe.  

Many of us aren't blessed with the writing prowess of Molly Ivins or Linda Ellerbee, the oratorical skills of Barbara Jordan, the head turning beauty and social justice conscience of Eva Longoria, the regal elegance of Tony Award winning actress Phylicia Rashad, the bootyliciousness of Grammy award winning singer Beyonce Knowles, the singing voice of Yolanda Adams or want to grow up to be Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders, wear the Miss Texas crown or be Mary Kay reps.

But yet, we still share that common experience of being Texas women. 

Some of us were caught up on the other side of the gender fence once upon a time but we got to our Texas womanhood status as fast as we could.  

Nobody appreciates something more than when you have to fight for it such as we Texas transwomen have had to do such as Toni Mayes, Judge Phyllis Frye, Christie Lee Littleton, Nikki Araguz, Cristan Williams, Vanessa Edwards Foster, and some African descended Houston based transwoman who pens an award winning blog y'all might have heard about just to name a few. .

We Texas transwomen have trailblazers and leaders in our ranks as well and a proud history to go with it.  Much of the trans history that was written in the 90's and 2K's has a Lone Star brand to it with Texans providing major leadership voices in the community at the local, state and national level or being involved in the struggles to achieve trans human rights.

We are still providing that leadership today and as Texas transwomen we also bring to the table more questions to ponder and more diversity to the table when we discuss what exactly comprises this Texas Womanhood that Ivins spoke of  

I love Molly, but I think the Lone Star statuesque sisters would dispute that part of her comment that you can't be six foot tall and cute.   Model Jerry Hall fabulously pulled that off during the 70's.  So does gospel singer Yolanda Adams who was a former model.   When I'm feeling it don't have a problem doing so either.  

Some of us are trailblazers.in a wide variety of fields be it the political, fashion, education, business, science, military, sports or entertainment worlds. 

Pick one of those fields and you'll find a woman with a Texas birth certificate or who now resides here who had or still has some major influence in it.

Think I'm kidding about the trailblazing part?   Lets see.  How about Barbara Charline Jordan, the first Black woman elected to the Texas Senate and later the first to the US House since Reconstruction. 

She was on the Judiciary Committee during the 1973 Watergate hearings and an ethics advisor to Gov. Ann Richards. 

Barbara Jordan even blazed a trail in death as she became the first Black person to be buried in the Texas State Cemetery in Austin.   

There's my current mayor, Annise Parker.  She the first openly gay person to be elected to Houston city council and did so in an at-large seat, and our controllers office.   She was the first to not only do so in Texas, she holds the distinction of being the openly gay mayor leading the largest constituency, since Houston has over 2 million inhabitants.   

Parker followed the playbook to the Houston mayoral chair written by the woman that blazed that groundbreaking trail in the late 70's and 80's she followed in Kathryn J. Whitmire.

So what is Texas Womanhood?  Shoot, even we Texans are trying to figure out exactly what that entails and those arguments can be contentious at times..

But what is clear to me is that Texas Womanhood is an evolving, lifelong process and we are a diverse bunch.

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\n"; document.getElementById('resselect').value=zoomres; } -->