As a card carrying member of the Sea of Red and a former Comets season ticket holder, I love me some Tina Thompson.
She had a relatively quiet opening game for her Saturday with only seven points, so you know I was having a blast watching my girl light up the Chinese women for 27 points on 7 of 8 shooting that jumpstarted a 23-0 USA run. Team USA exceeded what the men did yesterday and beat China 108-63.
The guys beat China and Yao Ming 101-70 in what's being called the most watched basketball game ever played.
The rest of the team shot lights out as well. Candace Parker added 12 points, Sylvia Fowles chipped in 16 as Team USA shot 57 percent from the field and outrebounded the Chinese 47-30. They are now 2-0 in their pool and extended their Olympic winning streak to 27 games.
My favorite tennis playing siblings are also doing well so far. Venus, the 2000 Sydney Games singles and doubles gold medallist won her opening Olympic match versus Switzerland's Timea Bacsinszky 6-3, 6-2. Baby Sis concluded her rain delayed beatdown of Olga Govortsova of Belarus, 6-3, 6-1 in her frist singles match of the Beijing games as well. The Williams sisters are also competing in doubles as well. James Blake is the only American left on the men's singles side after defeating Aussie Chris Guccione 6-3, 7-6 (7-3) in his opening Olympic singles match.
The summer Olympics come only come once every four years, and you can't beat it for excitement and drama.
This is an example of what I was talking about in the 'My Peeps Transgender Ignorance' post
I posted this rebuttal comment to Smokie's 'The Wendy Williams Disconnect' post that I linked to as an example of the ignorance on transgender issues that is pervasive in some elements of the African-American community and the African-American blogosphere.
The ignorance level prevalent in this post is so breathtaking I don't know where to begin.
You get half your genetic material from mommy, half from daddy. Despite what some of the scientifically challenged may think, no one on this planet is '100% man' or '100% woman.'
There are also women who have the parts but can't bear children. Does that make them men too?
There are more than a few guys walking around who look like their mothers and vice versa.
Ever heard Toni Braxton sing? I also know of genetic women who have more bass in their voices than some so called men.
FYI Smokie, not all transwomen are the height of WNBA point guards. There are also transwomen that are of average height as well.
So in your wisdom, any genetic woman who is sensitive to the plight of GLBT people or gay men, or has a mix of physical or social traits that are associated with the opposite gender is automatically a 'man' herself?
And what was Smokie's reponse?
Thanks for stopping by, Dude!
You're welcome, Sir Smokie. No, thank you for brilliantly illustrating in one sentence what I was talking about in that post. That some people in the African-American community are so narrow minded and Bushian level stupid that they can't, won't or refuse to open their minds, much less even give another human being the dignity and respect that they demand for themselves.
It's kind of ironic that this commentary was inspired by a response to a Wendy Williams post. I'm not a big fan of hers since she spends too much time on her syndicated afternoon WBLS radio show obsessing over who's sleeping with transwomen, who's gay and calling female celebrities 'men' while getting painted with the same 'transgender' brush she wields on her show.
Smokie, you claim you're fly on your blog, but your actions and intellect sure don't reflect that. A fly person carries themselves with class, elegance and sophistication. They are open to learning things in which their knowledge base is insufficient and can have an intelligent conversation on many subjects.
Nice feminine gesture on the picture, too.
So what's your beef with transgender people? Go ahead, share with us since you seem to have some prescient ability that allows you to discern who's biofeminine and who's not. We call that T-dar, and usually people who have that ability are either transgender themselves or part of the rainbow family
Smokie, I hope and pray that if you have a child, that child doesn't turn out to be transgender or gay. Based on the disrespectful comments that you've previously posted on this blog and the post highlighting your own homophobia and transphobia, you'd be the type of mother that if you discovered your child was wearing your pumps and a dress, told you they were transgender and wanted to transition, would put her child on the street.
I continue to be amazed and appalled at the breathtaking levels of ignorance that have been leveled at transpeople by some of my fellow African-Americans.
That ignorance takes many forms. Sometimes it's people spouting anti-transgender comments steeped in bigoted stereotypes across the Net. Sometimes it's bloggers writing endless posts speculating on whether celebrities such as Ciara or Wendy Williams are transwomen because they have physical, emotional or behavioral traits that some people perceive as not belonging to their gender.
Sometimes it's hurling the 'tranny' epithet at women they don't like. Sometimes it's disrespectfully and cattily calling a transwoman who is unmistakably feminine on the outside and lives her life that way for decades a 'man'.
As I and every other African-American transperson will unfailingly remind our people, just because we transitioned doesn't mean we forfeited our Blackness as well.
It pains us African-American transpeople who deeply love and respect our people when the love and respect we show you isn't reciprocated.
It's irritating to African-American transwomen like myself that a man in drag who plays a semi-cartoonish caricature of a Black woman in a movie role is given more authenticity, respect, cachet and consideration by some of our biosisters.
At the same time, someone who has spent the time, money and exerted major effort to permanently morph their body to match that gender role, is daily living the life of one and wishes to be the best she can be at doing so is dogged out and disrespected.
Much of the ignorance on transgender issues in the community is because some of my peeps don't know about gender issues, don't wanna know, and want to stick their heads in the sand and pretend that transgender people don't exist.
Some of them not only don't want to educate themselves on these issues, but want to pontificate, quote Bible verses out of context and pass judgment on our lives as if they do.
We transpeople are sick and tired of the increasing transphobia and our fellow African-Americans sitting silently on the sidelines as our civil rights not only get attacked by the Forces of Intolerance, but in many cases some of them are the facilitators of those attacks on our civil rights.
We are tired of some of you feeling you have the right to terminate, judge or jack with our lives to make your insecure behinds feel more like a 'man' or a 'woman'.
The point is, whether you want to believe it or not, gender is not an either/or proposition. Nothing in nature is, and you can ask our intersex friends about that if you think I'm kidding.
The fact that gender research keeps getting published that emphasizes what I and other transgender people talk about anecdotally and we're at least 3% of the population will ensure that we'll be garnering headlines for quite a while.
So get used to the fact that transgender people aren't going away, nor are we going back into the closet to make you feel better. Our existence causes you to exercise your brain cells and question every assumption ever made about gender identity and it's time for the African-American community to do, to paraphrase Dr. King, some hard solid thinking on the subject.
Ignorance is not bliss in this situation. We are part of the African-American family, and its past time that you treat us as such. We have far more in common than not and we would rather spend that time working together to solve what ails the African-American community rather than wasting time in a debate about our humanity.
Usually I avoid reality TV shows like the plague because frankly, I'm old school about my shows. I want a TV show that has great writing and compelling characters.
I was planning on ignoring I Want To Work For Diddy until I heard that one of the contestants was transwoman Laverne Cox. So as usual when you Google someone, interesting things sometimes pop up.
She had this to say on her site about being a Black transwoman that echos much of what I've been saying in various ways here on TransGriot.
Ain't I a woman? Black America, my brothers and sisters. I love you and claim you. Do you love and claim me as the black woman I am? My trans identity doesn't make me any less black.
Acknowledging me and my complex identity is an opportunity for us to reconnect to that dream of liberation that doesn't exclude but is about all oppressed people joining together to have a united voice, united in love and the possibility of deliverance. Ain't I a woman.
But back to the show. As much as I despise reality shows and consider some of them a waste of TV time, I may have to watch it. I'm definitely going to keep my eyes on this sister as well and hope she not only wins the job, but does the African-American transgender community proud in the process.
My roomie Dawn bounced out of the house early this morning to compete in the 2008 Bluegrass Games fencing tournament. She came back home a few hours later with an overall silver medal in the open saber competition and a gold in the women's division.
In addition to that, while she was at the venue they were using for the fencing competition, the announcement was made to a cheering crowd that the US won their first medals of the Games courtesy of a US sweep in the individual sabre event. Mariel Zagunis beat her teammate Sada Jacobson 15-8 to sucessfully defend the championship she won at the 2004 Athens games.
In the bronze medal match, Becca Ward came back from a 6-1 deficit to defeat Russia's Sofiya Velikaya 15-14 and assure the US fencers of their history making triumph. It was the first time since Germany swept the foil medals at the 1988 Seoul Games that a nation had swept all the medals in an individual fencing event. Zagunis was also the first fencer and first woman to win back to back gold medals in her event.
I watched nervously as Team USA in their opening game versus the Czech Republic pulled out their bricklayer's union cards. The Czechs took advantage of their early shooting troubles to race out to an 11 point lead. After coach Donovan called a timeout, out came their pressure defense and poof, away went their deficit.
Big Syl came off the bench to score 16 points and snag 14 rebounds as Diana Taurasi led all scorers with 17 points to pace a 40 point 97-57 win. All 12 Team USA lady ballers scored and team captain Lisa Leslie grabbed 10 rebounds. It was Team USA's 26th consecutive victory in Olympic competition and got their quest to win a fourth consecutive gold medal off to a positive start.
Da Fellas play tomorrow against Yao Ming and the homestanding Chinese as the 'Redeem Team' begins their quest to claim our first men's baskeball gold medal since the 2000 Sydney Games.
London and Vancouver, Y'all have some work to do in 2010 and 2012 to top what the Chinese pulled off for the opening ceremonies of these games. I've been watching Olympics since the 1972 Munich games, and so far this opening ceremony was the best I've seen.
Ever since Barcelona used an archer shooting a flaming arrow to light the Olympic cauldron in 1992, everyone's been trying to one up each other. The Chinese upped the ante with Olympic great Li Ning walking through the air to light the cauldron at the Bird's Nest.
It's going to be interesting to see what they came up with for the closing ceremony, but for the next two and a half weeks, I'll sit back and enjoy the competition.
I just got back into Louisville a few hours ago. Polar and I just completed a 450 mile run down to Charlotte and back to help our friend Joshua move.
I was definitely ready for another road trip, especially after the day from Hades I'd had at work Wednesday.
This one got off to a slightly late start Thursday morning, but it wasn't long before we got Joshua's belongings loaded into the back of Polar's Toyota Matrix, Joshua dropped his key off at the apartment office, said goodbye to a few neighbors and off we rolled off toward the Gene Snyder Freeway (aka I-265) Louisville's outer beltway. The weather was beautiful as we eventually reached I-64 east and pointed the car toward Lexington and rolled past the horse farms in Woodford and Scott counties.
We were having a great time enjoying life on the road again with lots of lively conversation on a wide variety of subjects. However, I was having a hard time getting a word in on this trip because I had two guys dominating it.
We eventually reached the junction of I-75 and I-64 in Lexington one hour later. It overlaps for a few miles before the highways separate and we began our southbound leg on I-75 toward Knoxville and the Great Smoky Mountains. We decided to grab something to eat and refuel in Richmond, KY before resuming our southward run toward the Tennessee-Kentucky border.
Once we got back on the road, other than noticing the fact that gas was significantly cheaper than inside the Louisville city limits, I also noted that despite the fact we were on a major north-south interstate route that terminates in Florida, there wasn't as much traffic on the highway. I also noted that more than a few gas stations at various exits were shuttered.
When we arrived in Knoxville around 3:30 EDT and prepared to enter I-40 east for our run through eastern Tennessee to Asheville, NC, we had to creep past an army of heavy-duty wreckers trying to deal with an 18-wheeler that had broken its axle and flipped over on its side.
We were still making great time as we zipped through eastern Tennessee, passed the exit for Dollywood and Pigeon Forge, Dolly Parton's hometown and got closer to the Smokies, The Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Tennessee-North Carolina border as I-40 wound its way through the Pigeon River valley.
Once you cross the North Carolina state line, you also cross the Eastern Continental Divide at mile marker 22. I-40 as it approaches Asheville also runs very close to the highest peak in North Carolina, Mount Mitchell. It is at 6,684 feet the highest peak east of the Mississippi River and has a state parksurrounding it.
By 7:40 PM EDT we were in Gastonia, NC and the Charlotte suburbs after being slowed down for two miles by a paving project on US 321, which is a divided highway that runs between Hickory, NC and Gastonia. It also connects I-40 and I-85 and shaves some time and miles off the run to Charlotte. The nearest north-south interstate that cuts through Charlotte is I-77, but to get to it would mean going to Statesboro where it intersects with I-40, which is way east of Hickory.
A few minutes later we were at Joshua's new digs in an apartment complex two blocks from UNC Charlotte. We spent the next hour getting his stuff unloaded, took him to a nearby store to grab some goodies and for a ride around his new Queen City neighborhood.
Charlotte's called the Queen City because it's named for King George III's German-born wife Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Streilitz and was founded in 1768. Queen Charlotte is also a sistah. She's a direct descendant of Margarita de Castro y Sousa, who is a member of the Black branch of the Portuguese Royal House. Charlotte street signs have a crown on the left hand side of them to reflect the city's nickname.
After we got Joshua safely back to his new crib, we said our goodbyes and headed back toward Gastonia, grabbed some food and hit our hotel room to get some sleep for our return trip.
We didn't get up and hit the road until 10 AM. We'd had some overnight showers in the Charlotte metro area that cleared out into a beautiful and relatively cool day for driving.
But neither one of us were 100 percent. I spent most of the early portion of the drive battling an upset stomach. In the process of moving Joshua into his apartment Polar missed a step while carrying Joshua's TV and aggravated an old knee injury.
I spent most of the day drinking mass quantities of Sprite to settle my stomach while talking politics and a few other subjects with Polar. By the time we stopped for lunch around 1 PM in the Knoxville 'burbs I was starting to feel better. We stopped again at a truck stop near Corbin, KY to refuel and I noted the college kids were starting to roll back to campus.
We finally arrived back in Da Ville around 6 PM. Despite the upset stomach, as always I love doing these road trips. I get to see some great scenery, engage in some thought provoking conversation, and change up my daily routine. It was also neat getting to see another part of the country I haven't visited before.
I couldn't bounce out of town without pointing out today's sad anniversary. Thirteen years ago today transsistah Tyra Hunter died at the hands of a transphobe named Adrian Williams. But she didn't meet this transphobe as the result of a date.
Tyra crossed paths with him as the result of a traffic accident while she was on her way to work. A traffic accident she would have survived had she received timely emergency medical treatment but didn't, because this transphobe failed to do his duty and serve this particular Washington DC resident when she needed it most.
In addition to not doing his duty, he disrespected her in the process as she lay there dying.
In a few hours I'll be hitting the interstates and taking another road trip with Polar. This time I'll be heading to the Tarheel State and the Queen City of Charlotte via eastern Kentucky and Knoxville, TN.
Tell ya'll about my latest road trip and why I'm riding the highways again when I get back.
Over at The Bilerico Project, Nadine Smith posted this story about a Florida state legislator and minister who thinks 'the law is supposed to discriminate sometimes'.
The constitutionally challenged idiot who said this, Rev. Darryl Rouson, I'm sorry to say shares my ethnic heritage. What's even more shocking and disgusting is that he's a Florida state legislator.
Okay, so a man who is entrusted with the sacred responsibility to make law in the state of Florida feels the law should discriminate. It is unacceptable and morally reprehensible that in light of our own tortured civil rights history in this country, when we are only 150 years removed from slavery and only 40 years removed from the end of a long and bloody fight against Jim Crow segregation that an African-American, much less an African-American legislator would even part his lips to say that.
Dr, King and everybody who put their lives on the line to end Jim Crow segregation is probably rolling over in their graves right now over that beyond asinine statement.
But Rev. Rouson's comment speaks to one of the things that I have been majorly perturbed with over the last decade. African-American ministers being facilitators for and agents of oppression instead of fulfilling the historic duty and mission of the Black church to speak truth to power and fight for the oppressed.
It has irritated me to no end the ignorance that has been displayed in some quarters of the African-American community not only of our history, but it escaping some people as Dr. King so eloquently stated, that we are in an inescapable network of mutuality.
That means what hurts the African-American community hurts me as well and what affects me as a transperson of African descent does affect the greater African-American community.
I've always been blessed with the ability to look at an issue and see the big picture, or what peeps in the political world call 'vision'. Barack Obama is a politician that has that ability, but that's a subject for a future post.
One of the things that alarmed me when I first started paying attention to the Religious Reich back in the late 80's-early 90's was their absolute hatred of the 60's Civil Rights Movement. the separation of church and state doctrine, and the Constitution. They wanted a theocracy, and the only way to accomplish it was trash the constitution. They also remember from their readings of history that Germans voted Hitler into power and the old quote that when fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross.
So like the Cylons, they had a multi faceted plan to do so.
They needed an enemy to focus on, and since 'godless communism' wasn't available, it got replaced by 'The Gay Agenda'. They wanted you to believe that if we didn't start oppressing gay people, our country would collapse. Knowing that most fair minded Americans wouldn't drink that Kool-Aid, they 'scurred' and duped many of you into believing that BS.
People see a videotape of a person getting roughly handled by the police during a protest and think they 'deserve it'. A person gets beat down in a police station and people shrug their shoulders because it was a transgender person taking the blows and not one of 'their' people.
In order to get people comfortable with the idea of voting to limit people's civil rights or eliminate them altogether, out come the ballot initiatives from 'concerned citizens'. There are constitutional amendments proposed with Orwellian language that state they're designed to 'protect marriage' or 'strengthen the family' but in reality they strip away not only GLBT people's rights , but the rights of straight people as well.
The sad part is that many of the folks now complaining about this didn't have any problem doing so on election day because they thought 'their' rights weren't on the chopping block. Some of them blindly followed what their pastor said in his homophobic sermon preached from his pulpit on Sunday after getting his faith-based bribe money. That sermon concluded with the admonition that voting for the latest 'Hate The Gays' constitutional Amendment or voting to repeal civil rights for GLBT people is not only your way to prove you're a God-fearing Christian, but a good American as well.
The problem with that attitude and the faith-based ignorance that feeds into this is that once civil rights are lost, it's difficult to get them back. These amendments are also being designed to have an impossibly high threshold to repeal them as well as being designed with deceptive wording when they are first proposed.
Back in the early 20th century, before the high-tech methane gas detectors were created, miners used to take a live canary into the mine and hang them in the areas where they worked. If that canary started showing visible effects, like swaying on its perch before dying, then the miners knew that the methane concentration in that area of the mine had built up to dangerous levels and they had to get out immediately.
To borrow an analogy Dr. Enoch Paige used in his speech to the Transgender Pride March back in June, we GLBT people are the canaries in the civil rights coal mine. The health of our civil rights determines the health of civil rights in our democracy in general, and right now we are swaying from the efforts of a decade of poisonous attacks on them.
We and our rights aren't dead yet, but there are plenty of warning signs the Reichers are coming after us, aided and abetted by cowardly constitutonally-challenged legislators such as Rev. Rouson and sometimes by our own allies.
We beat back an attempt here in Louisville in 2004 and won big when our Fairness Ordinance had to be reauthorized in the wake of the city-county merger. Our brothers and sisters in Montgomery County, Maryland are fighting to keep a transgender civil rights law that passed last year on a 9-0 vote. The Forces of Intolerance are using the bathroom issue as a wedge issue and trying various deceptive and deceitful tactics they will use to fight transgender rights laws elsewhere if they are successful in repealing this one.
This is a coordinated strategy that our enemies are using, and it will take a coordinated response from all sectors of it to beat it back.
It's also a fight we must win, or like the coal mine canaries, our civil rights will painfully expire right before our eyes. And to my fellow non-GLBT African-Americans, guess whose civil rights are next on the right-wing chopping block after they're done jacking with the GLBT community?
So we need y'all to step up to the plate and help some brothers and sisters out. The civil rights you save may be your own.
Minister Lisa Vazquez at the Black Women, Blow The Trumpet blog had a very interesting post she wrote on July 17 entitled 'The Transgender Sista Among Us: Chaos or Community?'
Check this thought provoking post out, TransGriot readers.
There are also as of this date 36 comments that run the gamut of opinion as well. If you wish to comment on it, please do so first on Lisa's blog. I also don't mind if y'all want to leave comments here as well.
TransGriot Note: It's been a while since I've been motivated to write a poem about something. I started writing the first draft of this one about Ebony Whitaker the day she was buried.
An MKR Poem
Ebony Died violently At age twenty Because she was T
Tossed out at sixteen Onto Memphis streets too mean With pockets very lean Because of her gender dream
So this lovely teen To make her green And fulfill her gender dream Strut her stuff for sex fiends
Living a street life Full of torment and strife While evolving to be Ebony
She died painfully and quick At the hands of a horny trick Out of hatred and pure meanness 'Cause he discovered she had a penis
No vagina between her legs Was the reason he shot her dead Thought that was enough justification To facilitate her short life's termination
This beautiful young woman The world didn't understand That although she was born Rodney She was never a man
Thank you HRC, And Barney Because you don't care about transgender me There's no Ebony
To the Memphis media who refused to look Inside their AP stylebook Did these peeps even go to journalism school? 'Cause the coverage of Ebony and Tiffany definitely wasn't cool
And to the cowardly waste of DNA Who callously took your life away This monstrous crime will not stand Justice for you we'll always demand
My dearest Ebony Now your femme spirit's flying free Wonder how your life would've turned out to be With unconditional love from your family
In the wake of the Angie Zapata killing in Greeley last week, the debate raging in the blogosphere and beyond that has emerged since her tragic and untimely death has depended on who's doing the interpretation of it.
For non-transgender people, we've heard the ludicrous she 'deceived' Allen Andrade, so he was somehow justified in killing her spin on many comments. Some can't even get the pronouns right, or are doing it to be disrespectful or sensationalist.
In the transgender community, the discussion has been all over the map. I had two of my young TransGriot readers take me to task over the dating safety post I wrote Saturday because they felt in their words it was 'condescending to young transwomen' and 'insensitive to Angie's memory' because of the timing of it, even though that wasn't my intent when I wrote it.
One point Megan was correct about was that I didn't highlight the core dilemma of all transwomen who embark upon establishing a satisfying romantic relationship with biomen: to tell or not to tell.
We transpeople agree with our biobrothers and biosisters that the logical and sensible thing to do in an ideal world and an ideal dating situation would be to just simply reveal your transgender status at a certain juncture in the courtship process. In our intracommunity discussions we've agreed that point would usually be just before getting intimate with that person. By doing so, you would give that person the option of staying or going.
But in the real world it's not that black and white. The dilemma we face and the questions we ask ourselves are - when is that point? What will be the bioman's reaction when you do tell him you're a transwoman and will you have a relationship, much less be alive after you reveal that personal bombshell?
It doesn't matter when or where she tells him, once she reveals the deep secret about herself, she's damned if she does and damned if she doesn't. She's also putting her life in jeopardy if or when she does.
If she follows conventional wisdom and she's fortunate, the worst she'll get on the lower end of the scale is getting embarrassed if she's out in public when she tells him because the guy cursed her out before storming off.
On the other end of the scale that far too many transwomen experience, is a violent reaction that ranges from a simple beatdown to murder. That is consistent irregardless of the transwoman's age, ethnicity, social status or whether she's pre/non-op or post-op. Even marriage won't protect you if you make the revelation to the wrong person. There was a case a few years ago in which a post-op transwoman came clean to her husband and was subsequently found dead.
The other problem is that once you disclose you're a transwoman, as far as some biomen are concerned, you may as well wear a scarlet 'T' embroidered on your clothing. If you don't, they will damned sure create a virtual scarlet letter for you since they will tell all their homies and a few of their biofemale friends for good measure.
So even if you show up in the club one night looking so fly you make all the biowomen in it look like your ugly stepsisters to your Cinderella, you not only won't be getting any play from the fellas if just one biomale or biofemale is around who knows your business, but by the time they've finished spreading the news, in some cases you'll be getting dissed by some of the biomen and biowomen hanging out in that nightspot severely enough to make you leave.
So what's a transwoman to do who's not into GLBT clubs, who's looking for love but also wants to survive the process as well?
While there are biomen who do wish to date us, want us as life partners, and will be perfect gentlemen about it, there are others, the 'tranny chasers' as we call them in the transgender community, whose perceptions of us are colored by too much exposure to transsexual porn sites. Get one of them on a date, and they treat you like a porn star or an object instead of a human being with feelings.
If you are a Latina, African-American or Asian transwoman, that problem is even more acute because much of the transgender porn disseminated these days disproportionately features transwomen of color.
For a transwoman, finding true love can be as elusive as an NBA playoff spot for the LA Clippers. But even the Clippers make the NBA playoffs from time to time. The trick for us is to find that true love without losing our lives in the process.
And sometimes, to avoid living the rest of their lives alone, some of my sisters will take that chance. If they find a guy they like, they'll cross that disclosure bridge when they come to it.
So we're damned if we do tell- damned if we don't.
TransGriot Note: As Dr. King stated, we are in an inescapable network of mutuality. For those of you who continue to ignore the fact that transgender people are part of the human family and that crimes committed against us should get the same swift and sure punishment that you accord anyone else, here's a reminder of what some of the possible consequences can be to society if you don't.
Tiffany Berry's killer D'Andre Blake walked the streets of Memphis as a free man for two and a half years because the judge set a ridiculously low bond for her murder. Now a second person has died at the hands of the man who killed Tiffany, his own two year old daughter.
Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition Calls On Berry Murder To Be Prosecuted As Hate Crime
Last night (August 1), WREG-TV in Memphis reported that the man who was charged with the February 16, 2006, murder of Tiffany Berry, has now been arraigned on a second murder charge. On Thursday, authorities in Shelby County charged DeAndre Blake with the murder of his own two year old daughter.
At the time of this second murder, Blake was walking the streets of Memphis as a free man on a $20,000 bond. According to Berry's family, Blake admitted he had killed Berry because he did not like the way she had "touched" him.
"We believe these 'trans panic' and 'gay panic' defenses need to be rejected and that local law enforcement needs to begin aggressive prosecution of all such cases as hate crimes," said Dr. Marisa Richmond, President of the Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition. "If the judge had set a more appropriate bond, or if the Shelby County District Attorney had been more aggressive at scheduling a trial date, this man might not have been out walking the streets for two and half years and that child might still be alive," continued Richmond.
This latest tragedy is just one more in a growing number of anti-GLBT hate crimes across Tennessee. The Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition insists that the murder of Tiffany Berry be prosecuted as a hate crime. We also insist that the Memphis Police Department officers who brutally beat Duanna Johnson, an African American transgender woman, on February 12, also be prosecuted on hate crimes charges. We also urge the Memphis Police Department to step up its investigation of the July 1 murder of Ebony Whitaker, another African American transgender woman.
In other parts of Tennessee, we insist that local authorities aggressively investigate and prosecute additional hate crimes including the murder of Nakia Baker in Nashville on January 7, 2007, the ongoing harassment of a gay man at his home in McMinnville, and last weekend's tragic shooting in the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville. All of these events show that there needs to be increased education across Tennessee about the GLBT community, and a more serious look at hate crimes covering both sexual orientation and gender identity.
We also urge members of the Tennessee General Assembly to address the inadequacies of Tennessee's hate crimes statute in Tennessee Code Annotated 40-35-114 (23), as soon as they reconvene in January. This should include adding "gender identity or expression" to the language. It is also time for the United States Congress to pass the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act.
We also wish to extend our condolences to the other family members of the child who lost her life so senselessly this week.
Main Entry: role model Function: noun Date: 1957 : a person whose behavior in a particular role is imitated by others
The first time I heard those words attributed to me was back in 1999. I was listening to 'After Hours' late one night back home and Sarah and Jimmy during one part of the show started talking about people in the Houston GLBT community that they considered leaders and role models. Vanessa Edwards Foster's and my name came up in the conversation, and after being in shock for a moment, I began to think about the gravity of what they just said on a 100,000 watt FM radio station.
Damn, I'm a role model now. There are times when I wonder if any one's even reading some of the stuff I post here on TransGriot or on the Bilerico Project.
When I look at my blog's hit counter I get my answer. I get my answer from the people who are moved enough to leave comments on the posts (hint, hint)
Sometimes those posted comments from transpeople and allies all over our planet tell me the same thing that Sarah, Jimmy and others have said over the last nine years, that they consider me a role model as well. While it's potentially head-swelling stuff and I'm honored that people think of me that way, I still keep it in perspective when I read it. I put my pantyhose on one leg at a time just like everybody else.
When it's not too damned hot to wear pantyhose, that is ;)
But there are times I hear it and burst into tears. Lola's comment kind of took me back to the time when I was in my late teens, a college student struggling with this issue.
Like many young transpeople, she's dealing with the transgender issues now and not allowing them to fester because they never go away. If you do that, before you know it ten years has passed and you have a spouse, kids and a career to factor into the transition equation.
There are times when I wonder if I'd had the type of information and positive role models available now like a Dr. Marisa Richmond when I was trying to transition, where I would be in my development path as a transwoman?
But I have to deal with the context of the times I grew up in in the 60's and 70's. While the information on transpeople was sketchy at best, there's a lot of positives connected with growing up in that time period as well.
It's that combination of influences plus the willingness to adapt and listen to the enlightened viewpoints of people who are wiser and sometimes younger than me that makes me at this particular point in time in August 2008 the person I am.
You have to concede that young people nowdays are a hell of a lot smarter than we were at that age. They grew up immersed in information thanks to the Internet, and sometimes they may have a better approach or a fresh way of thinking about an issue than their elders. But sometimes your elders have valuabe lessons they learned that you can incorporate into your own knowledge base as well. They are your elders and in your life for a reason, and they need to be treated as the historical resources they are so you don't repeat mistakes.
All I can do is strive to be the best person I can be, and if in the process of my own personal evolution it inspires some of you to do the same, then it's a win-win situation for us and the community as well.
So far this year we've had four transwomen killed. Ebony Whitaker, Saneshia Stewart, Simmie Williams and now Angie Zapata.
Outside of the common denominator that they're all transwomen of color, the other thing they had in common is that all these transwomen were under age 30. Two of the four, Saneshia Stewart and Angie Zapata were killed by people they were out on dates with.
I realize that if they are attracted to the opposite sex, that a large part of living a normal life for these transwomen so inclined to do so is dating. I and everyone who's fighting for our rights want all transpeople to live as normal a life as possible and I will continue to unswervingly advocate for their right to do so.
I know that my young transsisters are no different than young biowomen in many ways. Like young biowomen, some of my transsisters not only are attractive and stunningly so in some cases, they have no problem garnering the attention of the opposite sex. They also want to test their ability to attract their attention and wish to explore their blossoming feminine sexuality as well.
But if you're going to date, you have to be cognizant of the fact that as a woman, you have to be more aware of your personal safety since you no longer have the male strength level to defend yourself you once had. Once you start taking female hormones, your muscles start elongating to create those feminine curves on your body. That results in a reduced strength level. I'm 6'2", but after 15 plus years of being an estrogen-based lifeform I have the strength level of a strong woman my size, not a 6'2" male.
If heaven forbid, I'm in a situation in which I find myself trying to fight off an assault, if they catch me by surprise, I will have a hard time fighting off a determined attacker. So one thing I learned early in my transition is that like my biosisters, for my own personal safety, I must have a heightened hyper awareness of my surroundings at all times.
That is something that biowomen grow up with from birth. It's a new experience for transwomen. Failure as a transwoman to think about your personal safety 24-7-365 (or 366 in a leap year like this one) can result in being assaulted or worse.
The dating rules also change, and you have special addendums to those rules as a pre-op/non-op (or even post-op) transwoman. You also have to extremely careful about online dating as well.
While there are some biomen who are secure enough in their masculinity to enjoy our company and appreciate us in all our varieties and flavors, there are far more out there who don't wish to date transwomen period, pre, non-op or post-op.
Some of those biomen who fall into the 'don't want to date transwomen' category are emotionally insecure about their own sexuality. They are the ones who will react negatively, even violently to a revelation by you deep into the date, relationship or before or after sexual relations that you are a transwoman.
So if you're going to date, the best policy is to let your potential date know upfront that you are a transwoman. It is vitally important to do that if you like this person enough to want to start a relationship with them.
If you want to get busy with them, you need to tell them before you fall into bed with them. Waiting until he slips his hand inside your panties and feels a neoclit tucked between your legs is too late.
I was once upon a time a teenager with raging hormones, so I understand that things happen. I'm aware that a young or newbie transwoman has the powerful desire and eagerly wants to test her ability to attract the opposite sex just like some biowomen do. Some of it is because she really likes the person, some of it is for ego boosting purposes, some of it is because she sees it as the ultimate test of their femininity, and sometimes it's simply to get her freak on. Sometimes it's all of the above or a combination of the above reasons.
But just as our biosisters have to be cognizant of the fact that they could get raped or worse if they aren't careful about the situations they put themselves in, transwomen have all the other security concerns of a biowoman and more.
One of the things that a transwoman has to be aware of, no matter what her age, is that we face a heightened risk for physical violence and assault. While it's most likely to happen in a dating situation, it isn't always the case. Amanda Milan had her throat slashed seven years just because she was standing up for herself seven years ago at a New York bus terminal.
There are transphobic people out there who think we 'deserve' what we get directed at us violence wise or that we're 'deceiving' them for living our lives. That's what makes dating for a transwoman dangerous and can possibly result in you getting seriously hurt or killed.
If they aren't already, young transwomen, and transwomen in general need to start being aware of the fact that they must take common sense precautions in order to avoid being added to the 'Remembering our Dead' list.
That's not 'blaming the victim', it's stating a fact.
This month the Electronic Villager had the pleasure of ranking 1329 African-American blogs for this month's Black Blog Rankings. That's an increase of 60 blogs from the July 2008 ranking.
The AfroSpear is growing as well. I received the honor of being invited to join last momth along with several other blogs. The Black blogosphere even has its own blogging convention now with the just recently concluded Blogging While Brown Conference along with the 2008 edition of the Black Weblog Awards, which are now accepting nominations.
Some unexpected work schedule complications kept me from attending the inaugural Blogging While Brown Conference to my chagrin, but I definitely want to be in the house next year, assuming it's in the ATL.
So what's TransGriot's BBR ranking?
I achieved another short term goal and cracked The BBR Top 100 blogs! I jumped 30 spots from my July BBR ranking of 122 with a 95 Technorati ranking
As of August 1 TransGriot had a BBR of 92 with a 113 Technorati ranking.
That means I'm going to have to set another blogging goal. I mentioned in my July post I wanted to be at a 150 Technorati ranking by the end of the year. Let's add cracking the top 50 BBR blogs by January 1, 2009 to that as well.
So how am I going to do that? By simply doing what I do now. Continuing to write thoughtful commentary that you'll not only want to read and come back for, but link to as well.
Being an AfroSpear member, while I'm still a neophyte to it, I believe over time will be a compliment to what I'm doing now. I have a role to play by telling the stories of the transgender members of our African family, kicking knowledge to you and telling the stories of transgender people in general. I'm also happy to note that other African-American transgender voices now starting to speak on the blogosphere as well, and I welcome the added input and insights about being Black and transgender.
There are far more African-American transpeople than yours truly. I just happen to be one of the peeps with writing skills who's willing to talk about it.
So as you can see TransGriot readers, the blog is making major jumps up the BBR ladder, and I sincerely thank everyone who thinks highly enough of my blog to make it possible. But I've got much work to do. There's 42 blogs between me and the Number 50 slot and I have to add 37 points to my Technorati ranking for my target 150 ranking by January 1, 2009.
So gotta get back to creating more interesting blog posts for you.
We'll see how close I can come to hitting my new end of the year goals next month.
Hey TransGriot readers!
Been offline for about 36 hours getting a new computer, and nope, it's not the Dell in the blog post picture.
Actually it's a 1.7 gig AMD one my roommate used to own that she used for gaming. It no longer suited her needs since she long ago bought a computer that dwarfs mine in capabilities and processing power to play WOW, but it definitely worked for me. It's far more powerful than the 500 speed Pentium III that I've been playing with since 2003 and best of all, it has Windows XP.
I talked about the problems that me and Polar had when we tried to upgrade that P-III and discovered that one of the legacies of a formerly corporate machine, especially when you buy one from a company that does tech support is a BIOS that doesn't allow you to change it without a password.
This one wasn't as painful because my roomie had a local computer shop build it, and was equipped with a kick butt user friendly BIOS that's easy for even a semi-computer literate user like me to understand and navigate. I also inherited from Polar's old computer that died the painful thunderstorm death the CD-DVD ROM player and the DVR-RW burner.
As for my old P-III, it's getting a makeover. Polar and I have a pile of computer parts to play with, and he thinks he's found a way around the BIOS lockout problem.
So if all goes well, the P-III will become a backup computer.
I'm still trying to get my sound calibrated, getting used to XP, test driving all the new features, downloading plug ins and finding and migrating all my old files since I now have two hard drives and 48 gigs of space to play with. I had only 8 GB of hard drive space on the old one, and 5 GB of that was taken up by my music and picture files.
I'm getting adjusted to it and like the stability so far. It's fun being able to play DVD's on my computer now and having the ability to burn things to a disk is cool as well.
Now if I could just get the new sound card figured out, things will definitely be copacetic.
As a card carrying member of the Sea of Red and a former Comets season ticket holder, I love me some Tina Thompson. 
My favorite tennis playing siblings are also doing well so far. Venus, the 2000 Sydney Games singles and doubles gold medallist won her opening Olympic match versus Switzerland's Timea Bacsinszky 6-3, 6-2. Baby Sis concluded her rain delayed beatdown of Olga Govortsova of Belarus, 6-3, 6-1 in her frist singles match of the Beijing games as well. The Williams sisters are also competing in doubles as well. James Blake is the only American left on the men's singles side after defeating Aussie Chris Guccione 6-3, 7-6 (7-3) in his opening Olympic singles match. 
