C. Vivian Stringer Enters Basketball Hall Of Fame

Despite all the hype, Michael Jordan isn't the only person getting inducted in the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, MA today.

The Class of 2009 also includes David Robinson, John Stockton, Jerry Sloan and one of my fave women's basketball coaches, C. Vivian Stringer of Rutgers.

"To be a part of history and stand there and have your name in the same sentence as all those people who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame is nothing short of earth-shattering to me," Stringer said. "To think about those names and what they've done. They are even greater people than they are athletes if that's possible."

During her 38 year career spanning four decades, Stringer has led three separate teams to the Final Four and is the third winningest coach in women's college basketball.

Her 825-280 career mark puts her behind only Tennessee's Pat Summitt and Jody Conradt of Texas on the career victories list. In addition to being the 11th women's basketball coach inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame, she's also a member of the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame;

Her coaching career started in 1973 at Pennsylvania's Cheyney State University. Stringer took over a newly minted program and during her 12 years there guided the school to the Final Four in 1982.

Stringer moved on to Iowa, where she also stayed for 12 seasons. She took the Hawkeyes to the Final Four in 1993 before leaving for her current position at Rutgers.

Sports Illustrated named Stringer in 2003 one of the most 101 Influential Minorities in Sports and she has written an autobiography entitled, "Standing Tall: A Memoir of Tragedy and Triumph."

Thar tragedy included her daughter Janine contracting spinal meningitis during the year of her 1982 trip to the Final Four with Cheyney State. Her husband Bill died of a heart attack on Thanksgiving Day 1992 at age 47 during the season her Iowa squad made it to the 1993 Final Four.

She's been an inspirational figure for not only the young women she coached, but off the court as well. Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. in recognition of her remarkable life bestowed an honorary membership on her in 2008.

Her off the court leadership came to the forefront in 2007 in the wake of shock jock Don Imus infamous comments aimed at the team she coached.

She turned it into a teachable moment that captured the nation's attention, jump started a dialogue on the ways that women are disrespected in addition to garnering an apology to the team from Imus.

She'll be introduced at the ceremony by her good friend John Chaney. They met when he was coaching the Cheney State men's program in the late 1970's-early 80's.

"Vivian Stringer is a true gem with exceptional courage who believes success is a marathon and as you climb you should lift others up," said Chaney, "She has been my beacon."

Congratulations, Coach Stringer. Here's hoping you finally get that elusive national championship and continue to be an inspiration to young women everywhere.

Naomi Sims Passes Away

I was saddened to hear the news that pioneering African-American supermodel Naomi Sims passed away in Newark, NJ at age 61 after a battle with breast cancer.

Mississippi born Naomi broke into the modeling business in the 1960's and paved the way for other supermodels to follow in her footsteps such as Beverly Johnson, Pat Cleveland and countless others.

In November 1968 she became the first Black model to grace the cover of Ladies Home Journal. She was also among the first to be represented by the Wilhelmina agency and went on to model for designers such as Halston during her career.

In addition, two photographs of her are featured in the The Model As Muse exhibit currently on display at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Her photos also graced the covers of Life and ESSENCE magazines as she became an icon of the 'Black Is Beautiful' movement.

Naomi was also a successful and savvy businesswoman. After leaving the modeling business in 1973, she published five beauty books and in 1976 launched a multi-million dollar wig line aimed at African-American women bearing her name. A decade later she launched a successful cosmetics line.

She opened doors for future models of color, and her family, the fashion industry and others will definitely miss her.

Angie Fenton

Another installment in my ongoing series of articles on transgender and non-transgender women who have qualities that I admire.

I first encountered Angie not long after I moved here to Da Ville. I was in love with her feature writing for C-J's Velocity minipaper and began reading it religiously. I was happy for her when the Courier-Journal wisely moved her up to edit their celebrity news column called The Buzz. She also ended up getting some TV time at WAVE 3 in that role as well.

As part of her Velocity duties she was covering the 2003 Derby Bash I attended. Her petite figure was hard to miss in a sexy pink skirted suit and pumps while sporting a stylish pink Derby hat.

Three years later I finally got to meet her in person. Dawn and I were featured in a Louisville Courier-Journal article on trans people she authored. In putting that article together we got to know Angie the person and liked what we saw.

She is a classy, funny, determined and intelligent lady that is as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside. Dawn and I both were enthusiastically happy to call our friend after the C-J article was done and later published.

Like the TransGriot, she moved to Da Ville. She's had her challenges in life but to paraphrase Maya Angelou, and still she rises to overcome them and thrive.

You can't help but admire someone like her. Every time Angie's terminally cute self tells me she wishes she had my height, I reply I'd like to be her for a minute.

This busy lady is a competitive bodybuilder in addition to teaching at a local college and writing The Dish column for a local paper called the Voice-Tribune.

Angie Fenton is definitely one of the women I'd love to be when I grow up.

Happy 60th Birthday, Pam Grier!

I posted last month about how much I loved Pam Grier back in the day and still do. Well, today she celebrates her milestone 60th birthday.









Yes, Pam still has it going on. She was the first sistah to appear on the cover of Ms. magazine back in the day.

Happy birthday, Pam. May you have many more.

Kim Fields

Another installment in my ongoing series of articles on transgender and non-transgender women who have qualities that I admire.

Kim Fields just celebrated her Big 4-0 birthday May 12, and I've loved watching her in whatever acting project ever since her Facts of Life days. The NAACP Image Award winning actress and director is a talented singer, writer and spoken word poet as well.



When that show ended I wondered what happened to her. Kim earned a communications and film degree from Malibu's Pepperdine University in 1990, and not long after that popped up on our TV screens as the divalicious Regine Hunter on Living Single.

Kim's been in the spotlight since she appeared on Sesame Street when she was five. She filmed commercials, most notably one for Mrs. Butterworth's syrup back in the day combined with 1978 guest appearances on Good Times. She also recently became a mother on my birthday in 2007 and sorry fellas, is happily married again.

There's a lot to admire about this talented and politically active lady, and may she continue to have much success in her career.

Pam Grier

Another installment in my ongoing series of articles on transgender and non-transgender women who have qualities that I admire.

I loved me some Pam Grier back in the day and still do. I grew up in an era when Blaxploitation era films were flooding the movie theaters after a long melanin free absence of people of color from the silver screen.

I own Coffy and a few other Pam Grier films such as Jackie Brown, and loved her in the L Word.

Pamela Suzette Grier was born in Winston-Salem, NC and was a military brat who traveled around the world with her parents. She eventually ended up in Denver and graduated from East High during her teen years after living in England and Germany. The 5'8" Pam competed in a few beauty pageants to earn money for her college tuition.

She moved to Los Angeles and was discovered while working as a switchboard operator at American International Pictures.

She was called the 'Queen of American International Pictures' as Foxy Brown, Coffy, Sheba Baby, Scream Blacula, Scream and The Big Dollhouse racked up big box office numbers and made her a household name. She was one of the sistahs back in the day that boys and the men of the 70's drooled over (and probably still do).

She's a cousin of NFL Hall of Famer Rosey Grier and once dated Hall of Fame baller and historian Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and comedian Richard Pryor.

The cool thing about many of Pam's films back in the day was that many of her characters were good girls who were wronged, and ended up kicking ass and taking names while fighting for justice.

When the Blaxploitation film genre wound down, Pam's career went on hiatus for a while until the late 80s. She started getting supporting film roles and making guest television role appearances on shows such as The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.

One memorable one for me was when she played a transwoman in the 1996 movie Escape From LA before getting the Jackie Brown role the next year that put her back on the Hollywood 'A' list. She was also a cast member in the highly acclaimed cable series Linc's and of course, you L Word fans recognize her as Kit Porter and from her recurring role on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

Pam has had her share of hard knocks as well. While filming one picture in the Philippines she contracted a rare tropical disease that left her bald and temporarily blind for a month.

She had a more serious health crisis in 1988 when she was diagnosed with cancer and was given 18 months to live, but she beat it.

As you can see this tough sister is still surviving and thriving today. Although this talented actress has yet to win any of the numerous awards she's been nominated for, she's number one in many of her fans hearts.
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Michaelle!

Thought I'd show some love today to the fly sister residing at Rideau Hall, Canada's Governor General Michaelle Jean.

She's got it going on as well, and it's going to be interesting to see what transpires when she comes to Washington for a visit later this year. In the meantime, while we're waiting for the details and the dates of the visit, check out the photos.

Diahann Carroll

Another installment in my ongoing series of articles on transgender and non-transgender women who have qualities that I admire.

When I was a kid, Must See TV was the show 'Julia' featuring trailblazing Tony and Emmy award winning actress Diahann Carroll.

She was born Carol Diahann Johnson in the Bronx, New York on July 17, 1935 and as an infant moved to Harlem's Washington Heights neighborhood. She attended Music and Arts High School with one of her classmates being actor/artist Billy Dee Williams.

One of her first roles was in the 1954 movie Carmen Jones playing a friend to Dorothy Dandridge's Carmen. In 1962 she became the first African-American actress to win a Tony award for her role of Barbara Woodruff in the musical No Strings and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for the 1974 movie Claudine.

Those of you who grew up in the 80's and 90's remember her playing Dominique Deveraux on ABC's Dynasty and its The Colby's spinoff and for the recurring role as Whitley's mother Marion Gilbert on A Different World for which she received an Emmy award nomination in 1989. She also had roles in the 1991 movie The Five Heartbeats and the 1997 movie Eve's Bayou.

Folks who watch Grey's Anatomy will see her as Jane Burke, the demanding mother of Dr. Preston Burke.

She's also a breast cancer survivor and has become a spokesperson and tireless advocate in fighting the disease in our community.

But one of the things that I have always loved about Diahann Carroll is to me, if you look up the words 'class' and 'sophistication' in the dictionary, you'd probably see a picture of her pop up.

She's got it going on, no matter what decade you stick her in. Best of all she just carries herself with class and sophistication at all times. It's been interesting to me since I've admired her for a long time to see her evolve and gracefully age.

She's an example to me like Lena Horne and my mom of the timeless beauty of Black women. And that's a legacy of class, style, elegance and sophistication that I work diligently at being worthy of.

Annise Is Running!

The Annise I'm talking about is Annise Parker, who announced last month that she's beginning a history making run for mayor of my beloved hometown. If she wins she'd be the second woman and first open lesbian mayor of H-town, but even more significantly, in the Lone Star State as well.

Didn't think that my hometown was that progressive, huh? Don't believe everythang the GOP tells you about Texas being a so called 'red' state. They bamboozle enough yahoos to vote for them in the rural areas, but Texas cities are progressive turf. In fact my hometown and Harris County voted for Obama in the election.

But back to the post. I've also had the pleasure of seeing her run for and get elected three times to city council in an at large seat and currently serve as Houston's city controller.



For you transpeeps and our allies, yes, she was president of the Houston Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus and not only supports us, she's cognizant of our issues. The Houston transgender community worked our asses off to get her elected during her first run for council.



And as someone who cut her teeth in Houston's activist community, it's nice to see someone I've met at our Unity Banquet in 2001 when she was on city council and admired for some time finally go for her dream of running our hometown. I may be a little biased, but I truly believe she'll be the best person for the job. I'm a little bummed that I'm 1000 miles away from being able to contribute some time to help work on her campaign, but I can donate some money to do so and will when my budget allows it.

It's a long wait until November 3, but hopefully on that day Houstonians will making another historic choice amongst the many I've seen in my lifetime and make her our mayor.

Michaelle Jean-Canada's First Black Governor General

As I mentioned, it's Black History Month in Canada, too. Since I do get hits from north of the border, and one of the Prime Directives of TransGriot is to talk about people and events across the African Diaspora be they transgender and non-transgender, I felt I needed a creative change of pace for this Black History Month.

I wanted to learn about and decided to focus on the Black history that's not only been made north of the border with my Canadian cousins, but being made now.

One such history maker is Michaelle Jean, who on September 27, 2005 made history in the Great White North when she was appointed by then Prime Minister Paul Martin to become the first Black Governor General of Canada.

Unlike our system of government here in the States in which the president functions as the political head of government and the symbolic head of state, those roles are separate in Canada's parliamentary system. The Prime Minister represents the government, Queen Elizabeth II is the sovereign head of state of Canada, with the powers and authority of the sovereign delegated to the Governor General of Canada.

Michaelle Jean is in effect the Canadian head of state. The term is for five years but can be extended for up to seven years.

While her role as the 27th Governor General is mostly symbolic and ceremonial, she is not only the Commander in Chief of the Canadian Armed Forces, it also includes among other duties promoting unity and culture within Canada and giving Royal Assent to bills passed by the House of Commons and the Senate, the final step in Canadian lawmaking.

She was the center of major political interest in Canada last December when Prime Minister Stephen Harper suspended Parliament to stave off a no confidence vote he was probably going to lose. The fate of his minority government fell to her under her rarely used special personal authority to appoint or dismiss a prime minister or dissolve Parliament.



Michaelle Jean was born in Port au Prince, Haiti in 1957 and as a child her family fled the Papa Doc Duvalier dictatorship in 1968 to settle in Montreal. She earned a BA in Italian and Hispanic languages and literature, a Master of Arts degree in comparative literature at the University of Montreal and studied languages and literature at the University of Perouse, the University of Florence and the Catholic University of Milan. She is fluent in five languages: French, English, Italian, Spanish and Creole.

While matriculating in college, from 1979-1987 she spent seven years working with shelters and transition homes for abused women in Quebec, aid organizations for immigrant women and families, and worked at Employment and Immigration Canada and the Conseil des Communautés culturelles du Québec. She also coordinated a study on women as victims in abusive relationships that was published in 1987.

After joining Radio Canada in 1988, she enjoyed an 18 year career as a award winning journalist, reporter, television news anchor and starting in 2004 host of her own television show entitled Michaelle, which featured in-depth interviews with experts and enthusiasts.

Her history making term as Canada's Governor General expires in 2010 unless it's extended by Prime Minister Harper (or whoever the next Prime Minister is if there's a no confidence vote that ousts him).

At any rate, Michaelle Jean is someone even we folks south of the border can look up to with pride, embrace and emulate as well.

Tona Brown

Another installment in my ongoing series of articles on transgender and non-transgender women who have qualities that I admire.

I haven't had an opportunity to meet her in person yet, but Tona is someone I've known for a few years, chat with on a regular basis and marvel at her musical gifts.

The Norfolk, VA resident has been involved in the music world since she started learning how to play the violin at age 10. She attended the prestigious Governor's School For The Arts in Norfolk and has won numerous musical competitions and garnered awards since age 14.

She's continued her lifelong involvement with music since her transition several years ago, and was selected in April 2006 to take part in the Tranny Roadshow, a touring group of transgender performance artists and is studying with mezzo soprano Robynne Redmond among her other ongoing projects.

Tona feels that it's important to show that an African descended transwoman can achieve and succeed in any endeavor that we put our minds to, and she's been a wonderful role model in that regard.

She's making her mark in the classical music world, and best of all she's doing it as an out transwoman.

You can check out her website at http://www.tonabrown.net/home

Don't Hate On Jasmyne 'Cause She's Telling The Truth

Y'all know I absolutely love me some Jasmyne Cannick because as the late Jack 'The Rapper' Gibson used to say, she tells it like it T-I-S is.

Some white gay peeps already hate on her because of her successful efforts to shut down Chuck Knipp's odious Shirley Q. Liquor performances in the Los Angeles area and because of her blunt, no holds barred unapologetically Black blog.

In the wake of the passage of the Prop 8 same gender marriage ban she's been drawing increasing fire from white gays who took offense at her dead on commentary on why Prop 8 passed and her LA Times op-ed piece that appeared the Sunday after the election.

She's plucked some nerves out there and nationally, but that's the job of us activist types. We're not in it for popularity. If you like us, cool, but in our pursuit to make this a better society for all of us truth is an essential weapon in that struggle. Sometimes we have to bluntly state the obvious to the peeps enamored of denial, spin, sugar coating and outright lying.

Doing that and being unapologetically proud of her heritage doesn't make her or any person of color racist. I'm getting a little sick of seeing that tired comment being thrown out there because you don't like either her for whatever reason or the message.

As Parliament-Funkadelic would say, if you don't like the effects, don't produce the cause.

Many African-American GLBT folks, if they haven't already tuned you out, are millimeters close to saying to hell with y'all after the naked displays of anti-Black racism that erupted in many GLBT communities, the racist comments from some white gay pundits, and the startling ease in which those comments freely flowed from your lips, pens and keyboards in the gay blogosphere and beyond.

Whether you like it or not, Jasmyne has the respect and the ear of the Black GLBT and non GLBT community in LA and beyond. She's just the messenger trying to get it through your thick skulls what it will take to fix the obvious problem you have in crafting a pro-GLBT rights message that will resonate with the African-American community.

If you want to win, it would behoove many of of you trying to figure out what to do and how to approach the African-American GLBT community for help to listen to what she and other African-American GLBT peeps in Cali and elsewhere have to say.

But hating on Jasmyne Cannick for simply telling the truth is not an option.

Cydne Kimbrough

Another installment in my ongoing series of articles on transgender and non-transgender women who have qualities that I admire.

Cydne is one of of my transsistahs I'm getting to know, but who has been an activist fighting the good fight in Baltimore since 1999. She started her own transition at 16, and her name comes from one her mom was planning to christen her with at birth had she been born with a female body.

She has an ambitious goal. "I want to create a situation in Baltimore city that will reduce bias against transgender people and afford them a better quality of life."

I've admired Cydne and the wide spectrum of work she's done to achieve that goal and help improve the lives of her fellow transpeople in Baltimore. Whether it's HIV/AIDS prevention and harm reduction to getting the Baltimore Police department to be more respectful and cognizant of the fact that they have transgender citizens to protect and serve as well, she's done it.

Oh yeah, did I forget to mention she's working on her degree as well from Coppin State University?

This is just the short list of some of the things she's done for the community:

+ Chairperson and President Board of Directors of Baltimore Black Pride, Inc.
+ Former Program Director of TransAm - the pioneering HIV Education/Prevention program for African American Transgender Persons in Baltimore
+ Served 3 years as member of the Maryland HIV Community Planning Group & Membership Committee Chair
+ Member of the Mayor's GLB/T Task Force
+ Co-founder and Executive Director of the Gender Learning Advocacy and Support System of Baltimore (G.L.A.S.S Baltimore) – scheduled to launch the fall of 2008

She serves on various boards in the area and has done a lot of work getting the transgender community in Baltimore to stand up and be proud of who they are. She was recently named an OSI Fellow and I won't be surprised if one day I see her at an IFGE conference becoming the next African-American transwoman to win the IFGE Trinity Award.

The pride in herself is a mantra that she lives by and constantly role models, and she has called on her deep faith in God to carry her through the rough times as well.

God has blessed Cydne, and she has blessed us by being a tireless advocate, eloquent spokesperson and concerned citizen just trying to do what she can to make like better for transpeople in her hometown and beyond.

My Houston Comets Memories

Little did my H-town homeboys and girls realize when they walked out of Reliant Arena on September 9 after a 75-68 win over the Connecticut Sun it would be the last game the Houston Comets played in Harris County.

I heard the shocking news today that another one of the Original Eight WNBA franchises bit the dust. Unfortunately it was my hometown team.

The peeps that know me know how much I love WNBA and Comets basketball in general, and in reaction to this news my phone has been blowing up all day.

It was reported that my hometown WNBA team was suspending operations for the 2009 season. The current players, with the exception of unrestricted free agents Latasha Byears, Mwadi Mabika, Hamchetou Maiga-Ba, Michelle Snow and Tina Thompson, would be eligible to be selected in a dispersal draft being conducted on December 8.

Cynthia Cooper-Dyke, who led the Comets to those four titles and is now the women's basketball coach at Prairie View A&M said, "This is disturbing news. This is a team that was an integral part of the WNBA. It is a team that helped establish the league, helped the league grow roots."

"It's a sad, sad, sad day for me," said Van Chancellor, the former Comets coach and GM who now coaches the women's team at LSU. "I just feel bad for everybody. I hate to see the city lose such a great franchise. I have so many memories.

"Houston is losing a big piece of its history. The Houston Comets' four championships will always be a big piece of WNBA history and a big piece of the city's history."

WNBA Commissioner Donna Orender stated, “Multiple investors have come forward and expressed significant interest in purchasing the Comets and having them continue to play in Houston in 2009. However, we made the judgment that we would not be able to complete a transaction with the right ownership group in time for the 2009 season. The WNBA is extremely grateful to the Comets organization, to the city of Houston and to the team’s loyal fans for helping build both the WNBA and the game of women’s basketball.”

Okay Donna. If the league's flagship franchise, first dynasty and a team that has a display at the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, MA dedicated to it just folded due to lack of stable ownership since Les Alexander sold it, what does that say for the rest of the WNBA?

And for the sake of those loyal Houston fans, you and the WNBA leadership should have tried harder, helped and allowed more time for a local ownership group to get put together and purchase the team in time for the 2009 season.

My love for the team goes back to the first season. I was a season ticket holder from 1999 until I moved to Da Ville after the 2001 WNBA season. I was at Compaq for the 1997, 1999, and 2000 WNBA championship games and watched three of the four championships be won on our home floor. Even after I moved to Louisville I'd make the hour drive to Indianapolis to watch my girls play the Indiana Fever.

But my love of the Comets is beyond just the basketball. The Comets dynasty is intertwined with my transition as well. I was three years into transition when the WNBA started, and being that an estimated 10% of the WNBA fan base was GLBT, Comets games were some of the first sporting events I attended post transition.

Watching these and the rest of the women of the WNBA helped me get over my hangup about being a 6'2" sistah and be proud of it.

While transition was a small part of my love for the team and the league, it was also the excitement of watching sports and WNBA history unfold before your eyes and being a part of it. It was the joy of watching the Comets take four straight titles to follow up the ones the Rockets won in 94-95 for a championship starved city.

It was being part of the 'Sea of Red', the noisy, boisterous Compaq rocking home crowds that screamed 'Beat LA' at the top of our lungs during the 1999 and 2000 WNBA Western Conference Finals versus the hated LA Sparks.

It was watching the Big Four of Cooper, Swoopes, Thompson and Arcain take on all comers and swat them aside during the dynasty years. It was also a city wrapping its collective arms around the team and mourning along with them the untimely death from cancer of their feisty point guard Kim Perrot during the 1999 season as they threepeated in her memory.

I'm looking at my Comets sweatshirt, 1998 championship hat and other WNBA memorabilia and I'm feeling mixed emotions right now.

I'm angry because in my opinion male-dominated sports reporting takes a too-dismissive and almost disrespectful approach to women's team sports that has a negative effect in getting male sports fans to open their minds and attend these events. Nowhere is that dismissive attitude of sportswriters more openly on display than when it comes to the WNBA.

I'm sad over the fact that this franchise isn't going to be around to pursue that fifth ring and WNBA Championship trophy. It's also the realization that when the 2009 season starts, it will be the first time in 12 seasons a WNBA campaign will kick off without a Houston team involved in it.

I'm hopeful that the WNBA team drought will be a short lived one because Commissioner Orender didn't rule out another WNBA franchise returning to the Bayou City and civic leadership in Houston is just as determined to have the league there.

To everyone ever associated with the Houston Comets, thanks for the memories and thanks for representing our city with not only consummate skill, but more importantly, with dignity and class.


TransGriot Note: The quotes used in this post come from a Houston Chronicle story by Jenny Dial and the WNBA.com website.