The 2017 Black Trans Year In Review

2017 for the Black trans community was definitely a year of highs and lows.    As usual we had people make history in big and small ways,

Sadly we lost far too many people in 2017  due to anti-trans violence..

Let's get the bad news out of the way first.   With four days left in this year, we have lost 24 people to anti-trans violence.  FYI  unlike other lists, I count from January 1 to December 31 in the same calendar year.

Of those 24 people, 18 of them were African American trans people, with the youngest being just 17 years old.  17 of the eighteen trans African American murdered were trans feminine. 

Sadly, of the four trans people we lost in Texas, two were African American, and one was in my H-town backyard in Brandi Seals.

One of the other things I need to talk about is Ky Peterson, who is unjustly still in a Georgia jail for killing his attacker while defending himself against being sexually assaulted.

Let's make this the last Christmas that Ky spends in jail.  You can check out the FreeKy website for news on his case.   

Now that I've gotten the bad news out of the way, let's move on to the more positive 2017 news starting with the historic elections of Andrea Jenkins and Phillipe Cunningham to the Minneapolis City Council. 

Andrea is the first out Black trans women elected to public office since Althea Garrison did son in 1990.   Cunningham is the first out  Black trans masculine person elected to ANY public office.   Cunningham in his Ward 4 race beat a 20 year incumbent who was also the council president .

Jenkins and Cunningham are also the first trans persons of any ethnicity elected to a large  metropolitan city council in a city over 250,000 in population.

We saw some groundbreaking  thinks happen in the media world as well.  Wear Your Voice named writer and activist Ashlee Marie Preston as their editor in chief

In June New York Times bestselling author Janet Mock released her second book Surpassing Certainty: What My Twenties Taught Me .  Some blogger y'all know got her second nomination for a GLAAD Media Award in the 'Best Blog' category.

French model Ines Rau became the first ever transgender Playboy Playmate in October.

We were also repped at the National Women's March in Washington DC earlier this year thanks to Raquel Willis and Janet Mock.

Black trans people continued to make strides in Hollywood.   Angelica Ross was tapped for roles on the shows Claws and the upcoming FX series Pose.  Mya Taylor was tapped for a recurring role in AMC's Dietland.  Laverne Cox was nominated for an Emmy for her Sophia Burset role on the show Orange Is The New Black.

Even in the business world, Black trans folks are kicking butt and taking names.    One you need to keep an eye on is tech entrepreneur Dr. Kortney Ziegler.   He's gaining attention with the Appolition app created with his business partner Tiffany Mikell that uses spare change to bail Black people out of jail.   He and Tiffany are also seeking to raise a half million dollars for their start up tech company.

.Black trans Texans also played a role in helping to kill the odious anti-trans SB 6 bill    Trenton Johnson, Carmarion Anderson, Dee Dee Watters,  Jessica Zyrie, Mia Ryan  and Nicole Perry made multiple trips to Austin (I made 8 trips) to not only talk to state lawmakers but spend hours waiting to give two minutes of testimony during the marathon hearings in the Texas House and Senate, and again during the Special Oppression Session senate hearing. 

That's just a small snapshot of what the Black trans community accomplished during 2017.   What groundbreaking things and history will we make in 2018?

Moni's 2014 Year In Review

While 2013 was a great year for me,  2014 was also a breakout year for moi personally. 

And I piled up a lot of activism related frequent flyer miles

It started with me, Dee Dee Watters and several other transpeeps of color showing up at the first Houston City Council meeting of the year in January and sending the message that the only acceptable HERO (which was in its formulation stages at the time) would be a trans-inclusive one.

Three weeks later me and the rest of the Houston Host Committee welcomed Creating Change 2014 to my hometown and the Hilton Americas Hotel for the first time ever.

In addition to being part of the Houston CC14 Host Committee team and co-chair of the committee tasked with running the Racial Diversity Suite, I was also part of three panels during CC14.  

I participated in a panel during NBJC's inaugural Creating Change Black Institute, a GLAAD sponsored media panel featuring Laverne Cox, Tiq Milan and Reina Gossett and a BTLG sisterhood panel with my homegirl Stacey Langley.

And yeah, I did get a shoutout during Laverne's CC14 keynote speech.  I also found out during Creating Change that TransGriot had been nominated for a GLAAD Media Award.

Exactly a month later I found myself in Washington DC for the 2014 edition of the LGBT Media Journalists Convening.   In addition to reuniting with many of my LGBT journalistic colleagues, I also got to meet the fabulous Tona Brown and Candace Avent Montague over dinner

And in a sign of my growing media visibility, I found myself being honored with inclusion on a Autostraddle list of 100 LGBTQ Black Women You Should Know.

The battle to pass the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance began to take shape in March. In addition to the LGBT community town hall meeting, I bounced back to the UH campus to watch the passage of the Josephine Tittsworth Act.   It also heralded the use by the opponents of some arguments we would later hear during the HERO fight in terms of the BS 'bathroom predator' one.

In late April the battle to pass HERO began in earnest, and I was one of the Houston trans community leaders hellbent on making sure it was trans inclusive and it passed.  

In the middle of that HERO passage fight I went up I-45 to celebrate my birthday at the Black Trans Advocacy Conference and do a panel. 

My late birthday present was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream and HERO passage on May 28, but did have an interview on KPRC-TV along with Amelia Miller which was one of the few times   the Houston media actually gave transpeople a chance to tell our stories and debunk the lies.

With the passage of HERO came the wingers attempt to force a recall referendum on it which failed, but once again I found myself on a jet plane heading to Philadelphia for my first Philly Trans Health Conference. 

It led to me finally meeting Jazz, Maria Roman  and the newly out Geena Rocero among the long list of  peeps I met during my time in Philadelphia.

I also in June got to debate two of our HERO opponents and tangle with King Hater Dave Welch.

July had me once again leaving on a jet plane to Washington DC for the inaugural White House Innovation Summit.   I got to meet some more amazing peeps like Katrina Goodlett, Joanna Cifredo, and see Dr Kortney Ziegler, Angelica Ross and Ruby Corado once again.

I was barely home from the second DC trip before I flew in late July to Boston for a panel discussion at the National Association of Black Journalists convention, then the next week headed to San Marcos and the Texas State University campus for the first ever Texas Transgender Nondiscrimination Summit held outside the Houston area.

After I returned to Houston from my first visit to Louisville since I left it in 2010 to move back home, for two months my charmed year went horribly south in a hurry. 

Instead of battling our communities enemies and focusing on writing TransGriot blog posts and my new column at Black Girl Dangerous, I was doing battle with transphobic relatives. 

They situation got ugly enough to where I was facing homelessness and ended up being extracted by my friend Sahel to stay at her place for three weeks as the community rallied to support me in my hour of need.   

And while I was going through the worst drama and stress filled weeks of 2014, I received news that I had been voted by the readers of OutSmart Magazine as their Favorite Blogger Female, Favorite Tweeter Female, and was  named as a finalist for Most Prominent Female Activist.

I was also nominated for another local award in relation to the HERO fight.

I was blessed in November with an opportunity to serve as the emcee for the opening plenary of the Facing Race Conference in Dallas in addition to meeting the legendary Kate Bornstein at the Representing Trans* Symposium on the University of Chicago campus .  

On that Chicago trip I finally met Fallon Fox and Christina Kahrl and got to see Jen Richards and Tiq Milan again for the fourth of what would be five times our paths crossed.

I got to happily destroy a Giordano's Pizza while I was in Chitown.

After keynoting a local TDOR event, finally ended up in a new apartment and taking my final trip of the year to New York in December just in time for all of the drama surrounding the Garner murder non-indictment to close out an interesting year.

I did get to meet Kimberly Reed, Eden Lane, Andy Marra and Tracee McDaniel, and get to see Janet Mock, Cheryl Courtney-Evans and my fave trans men in Dr Z, Tiq, Diego Sanchez, Gunner Scott and Amos Mac.

2014 for me was filled with far more highlights and positivity that more than overshadowed the unnecessary family drama. 

I got to have a lot of fangirl moments meeting various peeps inside and outside the trans community during my travels.   During my toughest moment. some people stepped up for me, and I found out who my homegirls really were.pe

I also thanks to the CC14 organizing, the CC14 Conference and HERO fights got an opportunity to meet, work with and become friends with people locally I may not have met otherwise.

As for 2015, can't wait to see what's in store for me this year.  But going to have to do some work to top this one.

Black Trans Year In Review 2014

In a few days we'll be flipping the calendar to 2015 and wondering what the next twelve months in Black Trans World will bring.  It's going to have to be a serious year after the high bar we set for 2014 and the history we seemed to make every month..

It started out on a shocking note with the untimely death in a New Year's Day car accident in Oakland of Minister Bobbie Jean Baker.   The sadness of losing our sister to a hit and run driver was quickly eclipsed by the wonderful news from Minnesota that the unjustly incarcerated CeCe McDonald was going to be released from prison, with that happening on January 13.

Black trans people were all over the media in 2014, and that started early with CeCe McDonald's appearance on the Melissa Harris-Perry Show with Laverne Cox. 

But it wasn't the only time Laverne Cox received media face time in 2014.   Besides her Orange Is The New Black role, the most important one happened January 6 on the Katie Couric Show when she respectfully broke it down to Katie along with Carmen Carrera that questions about our genitalia are no longer acceptable for media people to ask.

That led to Tiq Milan appearing with Christina Kahrl on CNN to discuss the media trans reporting fails.  Laverne also was featured on a Time magazine cover in April, received a historic Emmy nomination, was on the cover of ESSENCE magazine and was named to the EBONY Power 100.

Janet Mock also continued to be a 2014 news and history maker.   In addition to setting Piers Morgan straight for his jacked up attack interview of her, on February 4 she released her memoir Redefining Realness and began a book tour to support it.

She became the first out trans person to have a book make the New York Times bestseller list.  Mock also closed out the year on a high personal note by announcing her engagement December 23.  Wedding date has yet to be set.

We lost two trailblazing trans sisters to cancer this year.   In Philadelphia we lost trailblazing trans sister Jaci Adams in February.   Chicago's trans and HIV/AIDS activist communities are still mourning the December 6 loss of Joy Morris. We also lost San Diego based advocate Kenishia Hubbard on August 18.

The Black trans community was once again well represented when the second edition of the Trans 100 was released March 30.   Nominations are now being taken for the third edition of it.

Janet and Laverne were an example of Black trans people getting attention from the mainstream Black community when they were honored by being named to the 2014 The Root 100 List. 

I took a lot of heat when I questioned the timing of B. Scott's trans declaration within hours of filing a gender discrimination lawsuit against BET.  I was vindicated when Scott lost that lawsuit and noted he went right back to being an androgynous gay male.

Once again because of the bathroom predator lie the professional trans haters are spreading to fight the passage of laws to fight anti-trans discrimination, we have had instances of ignorant people harassing trans women for simply going to the bathroom to handle their nature calls.  

Kaye Bowers in Arkansas was fired from her job at Mickey D's because a customer complained after she went to the correct bathroom for her outward gender presentation, and in Charlotte, Andraya Williams' case after being disrespected at her community college garnered national attention and at last report a pending lawsuit.

The Black Trans Advocacy Conference in Dallas had another successful run and drew over 100 people including a certain blogger who celebrated her birthday on the last day of it.

Outrage reigned across Black Trans World in May when two trans women were attacked on a MARTA train in the ATL and no one came to their aid.  The wastes of DNA who perpetrated the transphobic attack were later arrested.

There was also outrage over the arrest and conviction of Monica Jones in Phoenix for Walking While Black Trans.  As the New Year unfolds we will see if justice is served in her case.

Longtime San Diego based trans activist Tracie Jada O'Brien was honored by the California LGBT Caucus on June 23.  

Two days later history was made when Tona Brown stepped onto the storied stage of Carnegie Hall to become the first out\trans African-American to perform there

One of the things I had noted that it had been a quiet year in terms of African-American trans women being killed due to anti-trans violence.   That suddenly came to an end in June when in rapid succession, Kandy Hall, Yaz'min Shancez, and Tiffany Edwards were killed along with Latina trans activist Zoraida Reyes.   12 African-American trans women would eventually be lost to anti-trans violence in 2014, and a #BlackTransLivesMatter hasttag has been created to remind our cis African-American family about that simple  fact..

Our fave WMMA fighting sis Fallon Fox not only was kicking azz and taking names in the octagon, she was taking on the anti-trans sporting ignorance in the sports world. 

Fallon was also pointing out the reluctance of the two main WMMA circuits to sign her as they hypocritically sign female fighters with WORSE records than Fox's 5-1 mark.

The most delicious 2014 Fox WMMA bout was a September 13 microwaved beatdown of one of her transphobic critics Tamikka Brents.    Bet Ms Brents doesn't have any doubts about Ms Fox's WMMA skills now, does she?

It was a great year for the trans brothers as well.  Dr Kortney Ryan Ziegler's took Trans* H4CK from its Oakland home to successful stagings of it across the country in Las Vegas, Chicago and Boston.  

Tiq Milan's handsome face was not only seen on various talk shows this year discussing trans people in the media, in May he got married to his spouse Kim.

Speaking of positive media coverage, this Candy magazine cover featured a glam shot of several trans activists of color that should have been non controversial, but was anything but..  

It points out that in 2015, some of the ongoing education we'll have to do is also inside our own trans community.  Elements of it fail to realize (or deliberately want to ignore the fact) that race matters in trans world  and the transitions of Black trans people are not like theirs.

Speaking of 2015, will be interesting to see what happens for our community in the next twelve months.   In addition to witnessing the things we didn't expect, we'll observe what things good, and bad will affect us as we reach the midpoint of the second decade of the 21st century.

Moni's 2013 Year In Review

Well, 2013 was nothing like 2012 where I had two groundbreaking panel discussions at Netroots Nation and OUT on the Hill, but I did manage to do a few things that made this year memorable as well.

After celebrating the seventh anniversary of TransGriot on New Years Day, I moved right into blasting TERF's mode, but this time it was ones across The Pond.

I had my say about the POTUS not specifically mentioning trans peeps during his second inaugural speech.   That erasure caused a transkid to write a letter that I posted on TransGriot because I felt it needed wider exposure.   Boy did it ever get that exposure and then some.  Sadie's 'Letter To The World' became the most read post ever in TransGriot history.     

I celebrated Black History Month with another Black Trans History Quiz, wrote my State of the Black Trans Union post, recognized the 60th anniversary of Christine Jorgensen's return to New York after her transition, and took an enjoyable February trip to Philadelphia to attend the LGBT Media Journalist Convening. 

A month later I headed up I-45 to Dallas to deliver my first ever Texas keynote speech at the Black Trans Advocacy Conference with my dad's condition weighing heavily on my mind.  I was also surprised during that conference to receive an award named after me by BTMI/BTWI, the Monica Roberts Advocacy Award.   My father passed away a few days after I returned to Houston.  

I was named to the inaugural Trans 100 list and put my foot all up in the Cleveland Plain Dealer's behind over their over the top misgendering of Cemia Dove Acoff to the point that the 'journalistic hate crime' comment I used was picked up by Andy Humm and Ann Northrup on Gay USA.

I was also honored to spend a few hours on the beautiful campus of Rice University with Cristell Perez being interviewed as part of an oral history project featuring TBLG Houstonians. 

Every now and then I have to put my trolls and haters on blast to let them know upfront I'm not playing with them, and that happened a few times this year.   I also had fun blasting the transphobia in Bossip's jacked up comment threads

One of the ongoing projects I was part of this year was being part of the team putting together the rapidly approaching 2014 edition of Creating Change. 

I'm helping put together the Racial Diversity Suite and I have been documenting our Road To Creating Change as a series of diary posts and I was interviewed as part of that promotional effort for the conference as a past attendee.  

And for those of you headed to Creating Change, I'm now part of as of this writing two panel discussions.

I taught my first ever seminar at the 2013 Texas Transgender Nondiscrimination Summit on the UH campus after being there for the last three TTNS events in reporter mode.

Took another trip to Oakland in September at Dr. Kortney Ryan Ziegler's invitation to be a judge for Trans* H4CK, a creative melding by him of a hackathon with trans social justice issues to create apps to solve real world trans problems. 

It was fascinating to watch the process of developing an app occur.  My judging team had some tough calls to make in terms of which team won.  It was also apropos that this was taking place at the Betti Ono Gallery, mere blocks from where our transsister Brandy Martell was killed.

After I wrote a September 2012 post calling out the transphobic writings of feminist icon Gloria Steinem, was surprised to hear her statement in October recanting those comments.   

Moni practices what she preaches when she talks about intersectionality.  I spoke at a March HISD board meeting as part of a successful effort to delay the merger of my old high school.  I vented about the BS Ani DiFranco plantation feminist retreat in solidarity with my Black cis feminine sisters and called out the senseless violence aimed at them.. I spoke at a local City Hall rally in the wake of the jacked up Zimmerman verdict.


Despite not being able to vote because of it taking over 8 months for me to get my TDL swapped for my Kentucky one, I covered a northside mayoral campaign forum.  I was happy to see Mayor Parker earn her third and final term a few days later         

November saw me as part of my busy TDOR schedule not only be part of the first ever African American organized TDOR event here in Houston, 24 hours later I found myself in San Antonio speaking at their TDOR. 

And yes, I had my usual complement of radio and podcast interviews, including my debut one on Canadian radio.for CHRW 94.9 FM's Between The Margins show.  I participated in various community panel at different venues around town and quoted in a long list of articles..

So yeah, just another boring year for moi.    Wonder how 2014 is going to turn out?
  

2013 International Trans Year In Review

Just like 2012, the year 2013 on the international front was a good news, bad news one for the international trans community. 

Let's start with the fact that we continue to see unacceptable levels of anti-trans violence, discrimination and murder being leveled at our people, with the most egregious levels of it happening in various Latin American nations, Brazil, the United States and Turkey.

There was also the horrific case in Jamaica of 16 year old transteen D. Jones being set upon by a mob during a street party and beaten, shot, stabbed and run over by a car for the crime of being her true self. 

We witnessed the disappointing defeat of PLC 122 last week, a bill that would have prohibited gender identity and sexual orientation discrimination in Brazil.  We also saw the Gulf States led by Kuwait consider a ban on transpeople entering the area for employment purposes in October, and expressed concern about transpeople in Russia, Nigeria and Uganda being caught in the backlash spawned by the various draconian anti-gay laws in those nations.

Despite that negative news, the international trans human rights picture overall is an increasingly bright one.

In addition to the United Nations holding on September 26 a first ever ministerial level meeting to discuss TBLG human rights issues, several nations have made moves either with favorable court rulings, administrative rule changes, ended forced sterilizations or SRS in order to do name changes, or are considering or passed legislation to streamline their name change process for transgender people like the Netherlands.


The Philippines held congressional hearings December 5 to discuss an inclusive anti-discrimination bill, and a trans inclusive ENDA passed in the United States Senate on a 64-32 vote. 

While the US state of New York's senate frustratingly refused to allow GENDA to come to a vote on the floor after its passage for the sixth consecutive session by the New York state assembly, the state of Delaware showed them how it was done by becoming the 17th US state to pass a trans inclusive human rights law.

In Canada, progress on the passage of C-279, the Trans Rights Bill was stalled by the Conservatives in the Canadian Senate on the verge of its Third Reading vote in June.  After summer recess, it was dealt another blow by the prorogation of Parliament, which forced it to start the Senate legislative process from the beginning stages after it was reinstated.  C-279 is currently at Second Reading stage in its repeat Senate legislative journey.

C-279 passed the Canadian House on a final 149-137 vote back on March 20 with Prime Minister Stephen Harper being one of the NO votes and current Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau being MIA for it. 

The Canadian and the international trans community will be watching to see if the Canadian Senate values its trans citizens and passes this much needed law.

Canadian trans kids are also front and center in current north of the 49th parallel trans rights battles.  Mat Asano in Quebec,  Harriette Cunningham and Tracey Wilson  in British Columbia are fighting for recognition of their identity in addition to battling documentation issues in those two provinces.     

My Canadian trans cousins did have something else to cheer in 2013 as the province of Newfoundland and Labrador became the latest Canadian legal jurisdiction to protect trans human rights and Quebec has introduced legislation that addresses the trans documentation issue. 

On the political front, while Polish MP Anna Grodzka continues to blaze trails as only the third elected trans MP in world history, we are still waiting for the first ever elected trans national legislator in the Western Hemisphere to happen.  Attempts by Diane Rodriguez in Ecuador in February and Valentina Verbal in Chile to get elected to their respective national legislatures unfortunately fell short.  

Verbal's was for an all too frustratingly familiar reason to transpeople around the world,  She pulled out because of documentation issues.

Speaking of history making trans politicians, was nice to hear about the combination fundraiser and tribute for Georgina Beyer, the world's first ever elected trans MP who is battling chronic kidney failure and is awaiting a transplant.  The well attended tribute event was held in Wellington, NZ on Beyer's 56th birthday on November 14.   


As a child of the African Diaspora, one of this blog's missions is to highlight the issues facing my continental trans brothers and sisters on the African continent and across the Diaspora so they get the attention they deserve.

Despite the recent depressing news from our planet's second largest continent emanating from Uganda and Nigeria, there is positive movement trans human rights wise to report on the African continent. 

There's increased regional cooperation and coordination with various indigenous organizations on the African continent concerning trans rights issues. 

Kenyan trans activist Audrey Mbugua's lawsuit requesting KNEC change her documentation on her school records to reflect who she is now fostered a wider conversation in her nation about trans people and our human rights issues and concerns.

Titica's continued growing musical popularity in Angola and the southern African region led to her being named as a UNAIDS goodwill ambassador.


In Asia, the Vietnamese trans community is coming out of the shadows and increasingly demanding their human rights be respected and codified into law so they no longer face anti-trans discrimination. 

The trans marriage cases the international trans community were nervously watching in Hong Kong with Ms W and in Malta with Joanne Cassar came to successful conclusions in different ways.  

Ms. W finally won at the highest level of the Hong Kong judiciary, the Court of Final Appeal, after losing two previous times.  Cassar won and lost cases at various levels in the Maltese court system, and eventually had to take her marriage case to the European Court of Human Rights before the Maltese elections and a governmental change led to her finally emerging victorious.   The new Maltese government settled the pending ECHR marriage case with Cassar out of court and passed new laws recognizing the rights of transpeople to marry.   They recently honored Cassar with the Gieh ir Repubblika on December 13.  

Here in Texas we are anxiously awaiting the results of the September appeal of Nikki Araguz Loyd in her ongoing court battle to affirm her (and ours in Texas) marriage rights.  No matter which way it goes, it will probably be appealed to the Republican dominated Texas Supreme Court.

The issue of trans people in sports blew up this year in the cases of women's MMA fighter Fallon Fox here in the United States and Aeris Houlihan in the UK.  Both cases have created debate and sometimes contentious discussion in terms of transfeminine athletes, their ability to compete in and participate in their favorite sports against cis women and what is the real science pro and con.

It has also sparked interest in just what are the rules and how can we craft them so they are consistent and fair to both cis and trans athletes.

While the Miss Universe pageant system, with the exception of a few transphobic holdouts was open to trans contestants starting this year, the only person that attempted to do so was 27 year old Kylan Wenzel, who entered the Miss California USA pageant.   Unfortunately she didn't win, but it will be interesting to see if more trans women, now that they have had time to contemplate it and get prepped to enter if they so choose to do so, enter their various national pageants in the 2014 cycle.

Trans models continue to rock the runways with Brazilians Lea T., Carol Marra and Felipa Tavares leading the way.   They are being joined by a rising modeling star in France's Ines-Loan Rau.   The 24 year old from Paris was featured in a steamy photo shoot with Tyson Beckford that went viral. 

In the US trans model Arisce Wanzer is also beginning to get attention and Carmen Carrera is vying to become the first trans Victoria's Secret model   While that didn't happen in 2013, it's just a matter of time before one of the Victoria's Secret Angels strutting that catwalk is a trans woman. 

Jenna Talackova, whose fight to enter the Miss Canada Universe Pageant last year opened it and the Miss Universe system to future transfeminine contestants, is being featured in a January Canadian Elle magazine photo shoot.

Across the Pond, our British trans cousins were handling their business as well. 

They started the year calling out the British TERF duo of Suzanne Moore and Julie Burchill, whose transphobic scribblings in published newspaper columns in January set off a tsunami of local and international condemnation. 

What is believed to be the world's first purpose built memorial dedicated to the victims of anti-trans violence was dedicated in Manchester in July.   But since transphobic idiots don't want us to have nice things or human rights, the memorial was promptly vandalized.  The damage to it was repaired in time for TDOR memorial events in November.

A museum exhibit celebrating the life of trans pioneer and icon April Ashley opened in her hometown of Liverpool back in September.   Entitled April Ashley: Portrait of a Lady, the exhibit will run at the Museum of Liverpool until September 14, 2014.

2013 was award winning British trans activist Paris Lees' breakout year on her side of The Pond.

The 25 year old journalist not only received the top spot on this year's Pink List, Lees just recently made history as the first out trans panelist  to appear on the BBC's long running Question Time program. 

Lees also received rave reviews from the British public for her historic appearance.  So what will Paris and our British trans cousins do next?  Will be interesting to see as the New Year dawns.

There were a lot of things good, bad and groundbreaking that happened internationally for the trans community in 2013.   Looking forward to discussing and chronicling more of the positive trends in the international trans community in 2014

Black Trans Year In Review 2013

Those were just some of the stories that were part of our Black trans year in review for 2012.   I hope this post is even longer and chock full of even more groundbreaking achievements for our community in the twelve months ahead.  
--TransGriot December 28, 2012

The year 2013 is about to exit stage left in a few days and make room for 2014.   It was a year in which we continued to see groundbreaking progress and achievements for the Black trans community.. 

But unfortunately we started off 2013 like we did 2012 with the horrific murder of transman Evon Young in Milwaukee, WI.  He went missing on New Year's Eve and his body was never found. 

The five people involved in this heinous crime and their cases are being resolved in the legal system now..

Evon was one of twelve African American transpeople to die during the 2012-2013 TDOR cycle.  Sadly, another pattern that persists in the wake of murders of African-American transpeople in addition the extreme levels of violence aimed at them by the perpetrators of this killings is ongoing media (and police) misgendering of them.  

The most egregious example of media misgendering happening was in the wake of the Cemia 'CeCe' Dove Acoff case in Cleveland, OH by their local paper of record.  A letter delivered in November by a group of concerned Cleveland LGBT citizens has resulted in improved coverage of the TBLG community.  We'll be watching to see if that is a permanent change in the culture of the Cleveland Plain Dealer or they will backslide toward committing journalistic hate crimes again.    

So let's take a moment to remember Evon Young, Ashley Sinclair, Kelly Young, Cemia 'CeCe' Dove Acoff, Milan Boudreaux, Artegus Konyale Madden, Domonique Newburn, Eyricka, Morgan, Diamond Williams, Amari Hill, Islan Nettles, and C. Lipscomb.  

Let's not forget that CeCe McDonald is still sitting in a Minnesota jail for standing her ground and defending herself against a racist and transphobic attack and transteen D. Sage Smith is still missing over a year later.  


We are increasingly seeing the people committing these crimes against us being caught and prosecuted.   While that has yet to happen for Kelly Young, C. Lipscomb, Konyale Madden or Domonique Newburn, Cemia Acoff's killer Andrey Bridges in now sitting in an Ohio jail cell until at least 2034 and hope the same happens soon in the cases of Deoni Jones and Islan Nettles.  

People who survived horrific attacks like our sisters Bree Wallace and Coko Williams also saw the people who attacked them get arrested, convicted and sentenced to jail time for doing so.


We witnessed in 2013 Toni D'orsay's dream with an assist from Jen Richards become a reality in terms of the unveiling of the inaugural Trans 100 List.  The diverse list included 11 African-American trans women and  4 African-American trans men    Nominations are being taken for the second edition of the list which will be released in 2014 will include international trans people, so get them in before January 15.

2013 was also a huge breakout year for Janet Mock and Laverne Cox.   In addition to being named on various community lists inside and outside the trans community, collecting numerous awards and doing countless speeches, both made appearances on talk shows ranging from 'HuffPo Live' to 'The Melissa Harris-Perry Show'.  

In addition, Janet's book Redefining Realness is set to hit bookstores in February 2014 while Laverne has garnered major buzz for her breakout acting role as Sophia Burset in the Netflix hit series 'Orange Is The New Black' which will start its second buzz producing season in the Summer 2014.

We also had B. Scott announcing she was trans* in the wake of being discriminated against at the BET Awards.  B's evolution to Team Trans will be one of the things we'll be watching in the upcoming year.


The transbrothers were also making major strides and stepping up to their leadership roles in the Black trans community as well.  The Black Trans Advocacy Conference that began in Dallas last year and hosted by Black Transmen, Inc got bigger and better in 2013.   It moved to the Doubletree Campbell Center for its second edition, expanded its programming, opened its doors to trans women and gave out awards.  The third annual edition of BTAC will be taking place in Dallas April 29-May 4.

In addition to BTMI expanding from its Dallas headquarters and adding new state chapters, they also formed a Black Transwomen, Inc sister organization.   Trans 100 honoree Carter Brown continued his rise as a major national leader and challenged cis Black leaders to stand up for Black transpeople.

Whether the leadership of traditional Black civil rights orgs, the clergy, Black SGL people and Black politicians at the local, state and federal level consistently do so is something that we'll be anxiously watching in the Black trans ranks in 2014.

Trans Persons of Color Coalition (TPOCC) also continued its climb towards becoming a respected national organization by holding its first lobby day in Washington DC with ENDA and immigration reform being its top issues.

The National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC) on September 20 featured the trans brothers in a town hall of their own at this year's fourth edition of OUT on the Hill.  

Dr. Kortney Ryan Ziegler was also getting some love and things done.  In September he organized Trans* H4CK, the first ever hackathon in Oakland that melded the hackathon platform with trans social justice issues.   Kortney was also named to the Root 100 list of influencers and achievers in the African-American community oi addition addition to being honored with several awards for his innovative social justice activism and thoughtful blog commentary.

Kortney is also working on expanding trans hackathons across the nation, so we'll be watching in 2014 just how successful our trans brother is in doing so.

Speaking of blog commentary, Black trans bloggers, be they in written format like TransGriot now heading into its 8th anniversary year on January 1, blac(k) ademic or in video format like Diamond Stylz are telling it like it T-I-S is on many subjects with a new generation of written and video bloggers coming online in their trailblazing wakes to tell our stories in 2014.


Kylar Broadus also was making moves in 2013.   He was tapped to lead the Task Force's Transgender Civil Rights Project in September and named to the OUT 100 List.

Like everyone else in the country, we African-descended trans people also celebrated the November 7 passage of the trans inclusive Employment and Non Discrimination Act  (ENDA) in the US Senate. 

That human rights project has been ongoing for several decades, but one of the people we can thank for helping us get the 64-32 vote is Kylar, whose historic June 12, 2012  committee testimomy is widely credited as not only solidifying the inclusion of trans people in ENDA, but swaying many senators to support the bill.   

One of the things I talked about in the wake of mine and other people's ongoing frustrations with TDOR is that the people memorialized at these events are predominately Black and Latina, but the people organizing and conducting the ceremonies are overwhelmingly white.   I warned that if that dynamic didn't change and get more inclusive, you would start to see separate TDOR's for the same reason that separate pride events exist. 

That prediction may have come to pass in 2013.  We had happen in my hometown on November 20 the first ever Black trans organized TDOR event in the United States thanks to Dee Dee Watters.  Will we see others in the rest of the US in 2014?   That's something to watch, too    

So as we turn our attention toward 2014, we still have some old challenges to overcome.  Once again during the Christmas season we have lost another transwoman, Brittany Stergis to anti-trans violence in Cleveland and had her disrespected by local media outlets.  

As the Rev Dr. Martin Luther King once said, "We must accept finite disappointment but must never lose infinite hope."  We've had our share of finite disappointment in 2013, survived and overcome it because of our infinite hope and belief in creating a better future for ourselves and our community. .

Now it's time to experience more infinite hope and success in the Black trans community ranks in the rapidly approaching New Year.  

And as long as I'm blessed to do so, I'll be chronicling it on these electronic pages in 2014.

2012 International Trans Year In Review

Just as the African-American trans community  made some great strides in 2012, there was remarkable  progress made for trans human rights internationally and many of the folks making news were transgender people.

Let's get the bad news out of the way first.   We continue to see far too many transwomen die due to anti-trans violence, with the major hotspots being Latin America, the United States and Turkey.  We once again memorialized our fallen sisters during the Transgender Day of Remembrance.

Where we saw major progress was politically.  In Poland Anna Grodzka became only the third transperson to be elected to her national legislative body in October 2011 and took her seat a month later.   In Thailand Yollada 'Nok' Suanyok on May 27 became the highest ranking trans politician in the 'Land of Smiles' when she won an election in her home province.   Adela Hernandez won office in Cuba.

Groundbreaking trans candidates ran for office in various countries in 2012 as well.  Diana Sanchez Barrios became the first ever to do so in Mexico when she filed to run for a seat in Mexico City's July 1 Municipal Assembly elections.

Argentina passed a groundbreaking Gender Identity Law in May by wide margins in both houses of its national legislature that was signed by President Cristina Fernandez and took effect on June 4.  Activists in Chile are trying to pass a similar law in their nation. 

There's also been positive movement on trans rights issues in Australia and the Philippines.  There was a UN vote that condemned extrajudicial killings that for the first time ever included ones based on sexual orientation and gender identity. 

Trans rights laws advanced on the Canadian provincial level in Ontario, Manitoba and Nova Scotia, while C-279, the federal trans rights law continues to make steady progress as it passed its second reading phase on a 150-132 vote despite determined opposition by some Conservative MP's. 

There was Canada's Jenna Talackova giving us an unexpected win when her fight to enter the Miss Canada Universe pageant resulted in the demise of the bogus 'natural born woman' rule and the Miss Universe pageant system despite transphobic resistance from national pageant holdouts like Mexico and Venezuela opening their competition to trans women in 2013.

Speaking of pageants, the Philippines finally got their long awaited triumph in the Miss International Queen trans one when Kevin Balot became the first transpinay to bring that title home after years of frustration. 

Trans models such as Brazil's trio of Lea T, Carol Marra and Felipa Tavares, Valentijn de Hingh of the Netherlands and gender bender Andrej Pejic are rocking runways, but the trans model is not a new phenomenon.  it's just the fashion world has rediscovered it in 2012.

We're still fighting for our trans marriage rights with Malta's Joanne Cassar's case going before the European Court of Human Rights, Ms W losing another round in Hong Kong, and Nikki Araguz still fighting in Texas.

The ruling in Cassar v Malta should be released sometime in 2013.

Speaking of trans court rulings, our Muslim Malaysian transsisters suffered an adverse ruling when four of them challenged Section 66 of the country's Islamic criminal law code.that bars Muslim men from dressing or posing as women.   It is being used to harass trans women  by Islamic fundamentalists and they unfortunately lost the suit.   

There was major concern expressed from the international trans community when Guatemalan trans activist Fernanda Milan was facing deportation from Denmark in September.   Her case is now being reviewed by Danish authorities after a wave of international protests. 

PC Air, the Thai startup airline famous for having trans flight attendants, hit some business turbulence in October.  It's lone Airbus 310-222 was stuck at Seoul's Incheon airport because the company has not paid its overdue airport charges and fuel fees due to a dispute with its South Korean agent.

The dispute stranded 400 people total at Incheon and in Bangkok, and PC Air was forced to suspend charter service until they can satisfy the Thai Transport Ministry that the incident won't be repeated.

There were some interesting developments in 2012 from continental Africa trans wise as well. 

There was the not so nice one of the Ugandan parliament's misguided attempts to pass an Anti-Homosexuality Act pimped by American based right wing fundie Christian zealots and fronted by David Bahati.   The bill does have a clause that would deleteriously affect transpeople living in Uganda.

It was nice to hear about the story of Titica, one of Angola's rising popular music stars who happens to be a girl like us.

She s a rising star in the Angolan music genre called kuduro, which is a fusion of rap and techno music.  She was named the best kuduro artist of 2011, is a regular on radio and television there and has performed at a Divas concert in front of Angolan president Jose Eduardo dos Santos

Nigerian Mia Nikasimo continues to speak out along with other African activists like Kenya's Audrey Mbugua and Uganda's Victor Mukasa about the plight of transpeople in the 66 nations on the second largest continent on our planet.

And unfortunately, another Olympiad came and went in London without an open trans athlete as American Keelin Godsey fell just short of making the US Olympic team despite his lifetime best hammer throw.

Hopefully when the nations of the world gather in Sochi in 2014 and Rio in 2016, there will be a trans athlete proudly marching into the stadium during the opening ceremony.

Internationally, trans human rights are on the march and our visibility is increasing along with the positive public publicity.  There is still a lot of work to do in various areas of the world to eradicate anti-trans prejudice and anti-trans violence in 2013, but the international trans community is making it happen.

I hope I have more positive news to report when we get to the end of 2013.