The Maya Avant 'Bold And The Beautiful' Storyline Is Groundbreaking TV

I've been saying for a few months now the evolving Maya Avant trans storyline on the CBS soap The Bold and the Beautiful has the potential to be a groundbreaking, evolutionary and important one, and so far I haven't been disappointed.

Coming up this week on B&B is a fashion show episode that will air on July 16 featuring Isis King and Carmen Carrera.

But back to talking about this groundbreaking trans character played by Karla Mosley.   While some folks in Trans World are disappointed this character isn't being played by a transfeminine actress, that's mitigated in my eyes by the fact Maya Avant is a major character on the show and is a woman of color..   

This is also groundbreaking on multiple levels. It has been rare to see fictional African-American  trans feminine characters on television, and rarer still for them to be a major show character.   It's why I was thrilled to see this happen, gave the side eye to some peeps who were grousing about the fact the character wasn't played by a trans woman, and I'm hoping this ongoing storyline starts driving a positive discussion about trans issues in the Black community. 

FYI, to underscore how serious the B&B producers are about this storyline, transmasculine actor Scott Turner Schofield pops up on the show as Maya's best friend and mentor Nick.

Last week we got another major peek into Maya's backstory when her parents Julius and Vivienne Avant, played by veteran actors Anna Maria Horsford and Obba Babatunde show up in LA.

They are on a mission to bring little sis Nicole back to Illinois with them so she isn't in her father's mind 'under the influence of Maya.'

Dude, Nicole is an adult woman who loves her big sis.  Get a life and a clue that trans people exist and aren't going away. 

Julius has major problems with Maya's transition, and refuses to wrap his head around the fact he has another daughter and Maya was never comfortable in her skin until after her transition.

Like myself, Anna Maria Horsford is also hoping this storyline jump starts a much needed conversation about trans and SGL subjects in our community and across the country.

"Gay and transgender subjects are not comfortably discussed in the African-American community," Horsford says. "We might see that our children are different but we don't tell anybody about it. We all know that church choir director who never got married and his mother still insists it's because he never met the right girl. We may want to say, 'Oh, Mama, c'mon, we know!' But we keep it polite. I love that this story on The Bold and the Beautiful is ultimately about truth and integrity and acceptance. It's going to stir up a lot of positive talk in our community—and hopefully in all communities."

Another subject in which I hope this Maya Avant trans storyline on B&B will help foster a needed discussion about is blowing up the misguided notion that trans women aren't viable life partners for cis men.

Trans women are women, and many of us have no problem attracting masculine attention because we are quality human beings just looking for love like everybody else on this planet.

The other lie that also needs to be expeditiously shut down is the one bandied about that a cis man attracted to a trans woman is 'less than a man'  for doing so.   Umm no.  Society needs to stop denigrating the men who genuinely seek us out for long term relationships.

I know trans women who are in relationships with, engaged to or happily married to cis men, and it's past time society stop beating up on the men who love us or being shocked that trans women got it going on like that.. 

It's also past time for trans women to get over our internalized issues and believe that we are worthy of being loved by any man, cis or transgender.

And if a soap opera storyline can make all those needed conversations happen, I'm all for that.

Let's Blow Up Some Conservafool Marriage Talking Points

As y'all have been observing, the conservafools are in full freak out mode now that marriage equality is the law of the land after the recent affirmative 5-4 SCOTUS ruling. 

But since when did the faux faith based haters let facts and history get in the way of a good lie?

The bottom line is that marriage is basically a legal contract between two parties, not a religious sacrament, hence the need to get a marriage license from the government before you do so.

As a TransGriot public service, here's a masterful takedown of all the right wing arguments about 'traditional marriage'  by Matt Baume that you can use on your right wing relatives, the ignorati as you surf the Net or the peeps reciting FOX Noise talking points.

Enjoy.

Miss Major Talks Stonewall

There is an upcoming movie about Stonewall that has pissed some people off because it gaywashes and whitewashes the real history of the rebellion that it was a trans, people of color and butch lesbian led event. 

Well, only proves the old saying that you have to be in control of writing the history, because if you aren't, you're not going to be happy about what is produced, especially if it is by people who don't like you.

Miss Major, courtesy of the Trans Oral History Project, talks about June 1969 night.

2015 Williams Watch-Serena Slam!

I repeat, how like her now haters?

Serena Williams ended her business trip to London on a successful note as she captured her sixth 'Williams'-don title, her 21st Grand Slam championship overall, and her second Serena Slam with a 6-4, 6-4 straight set victory over Garbine Muguruza of Spain.

But the 21 year old Muguruza, who knocked Serena out of the French Open last year in the second round and was confident she could pull off the upset again, and was determined to not roll over and hand the Venus Rosewater Dish to Little Sis.  

She was planning on making Serena earn the trophy, and she did..  Muguruza broke Serena's serve in the opening game of the first set and built a 4-2 lead before Serena kicked it up another level and won the next five games to take the set and go up 1-0 in the second set.


Williams built a 5-1 lead in the second set before the nerves and magnitude of what she was about to accomplish briefly affected her, and she dropped two service games with a chance to serve for the title as Muguruza fought to stay alive in the match.

Muguruza closed to 5-4 with a chance to serve to knot the set at 5-5.   But Serena would wake up and build a 40-0 lead and watch Muguruza hit a forehand shot wide to get the break and her sixth Wimbledon title.

In addition to winning her fourth straight Gland Slam title since the 2014 US Open, she is now seven wins away from capturing her first calendar year Grand Slam, tying Steffi Graf with 22 Grand Slam title wins and only three Grand Slam title wins from catching Margaret Court. 

The queue for the strawberries and cream flavored Haterade forms to the left.  

See y'all in New York next month for what may shape up to be a historic US Open.

Bye And Good Riddance Bigot Flag!

The Confederate flag that went up on the South Carolina capitol dome in 1961 as a symbol of resistance to the Civil Rights Movement has finally come down Friday morning to cheers of thousands of onlookers watching a South Carolina State Police honor guard take it away.

And it was way overdue.

That flag is a odious to me as the Nazi flag is to our Jewish friends, and I'm beyond sick and tired of hearing the 'heritage not hate' lie southern revisionists, Dixiecrats and white supremacists routinely spouted whenever it was pointed out the Confederate flag was the flag of white supremacists traitors to the US federal government who fought an armed rebellion to keep my people enslaved.

I would have preferred they burn it, but it is going to its new home in a state archive.

Goodbye and good riddance to that symbol of treason and hate.

Nicole's 'Royal Pains' Episode

If you missed it, there was a Royal Pains episode that aired on June 23 featuring another of our amazing trans teens in Nicole Maines called 'The Prince of Nucleotides'

I finally got a chance to see some video of her performance  courtesy of YouTube, and here it is a scene from it..  If I can find the full episode I'll post it here.

Black Trans History Is A Fascinating And Evolving Story

I was surprised, pleased and honored to see a meme created by TransMusePlanet that quotes me on the importance of Black trans history. 

It's why my blog is named TransGriot and one of the reasons it exists.   While I'm writing many of the posts here to chronicle it and pass it on to my transpeeps that wish to get acquainted with it, it needs to also be seen by my cis Black family and our human rights allies.

I come from a family of historians.  My late godmother Pearl Suel was the founding president of the Houston chapter of the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life, wrote the first Black history curriculum for HISD and taught history at the collegiate and high school level.  

That's where she encountered my mother, who was one of her star students, and my late father.   My mom got her bachelors in history, and passed that love of history to me.  I was involved in History Prep Bowl academic competitions in junior high as was captain of the team in my 8th grade year.

My dad was an admirer of Marcus Garvey.   I also count amongst my friends several collegiate history professors teaching at institutions across the country.

The love of history runs deep in my life, and I am keenly aware of the importance of it for marginalized groups and how it can be used to empower them.

Our opponents are aware of the power of history as well, which is why they work hard to keep you from not only having knowledge of your history, but seek to whitewash or eradicate any mention of it every chance they get.  It is no accident that one of the things our Texas conservafool majority is up to is trying to rewrite the history books so that their misdeeds and failures are glossed over.

One of the first questions I pondered when I transitioned in 1994 was about trans history and Black trans people's contributions to it.  Who are our heroes and sheroes?   Who are the people who preceded me and set the table for our community at the time I encountered it?   What can I do to help make this community better than when I first started hearing about it in 1975?

This blog is one part of the answer to that question.   We not only need to know our Black trans history, but Black cis people ignorant of our trans existence and the contributions we have made to the Black community.   Black trans people are part of the kente cloth fabric of the African-American community and the African Diaspora, and just didn't pop up out of nowhere in the second half of the 20th Century.

While we have known that trans actresses like Alexandra Billings, Alicia Brevard, Candy Darling, Holly Woodlawn and Candis Cayne existed, it was a current actress in Laverne Cox, no stranger to making history and blazing trails, was thrilled to find out that she was walking in the path of a girl like us actress named Ajita Wilson. 

Diamond Stylz and I still chuckle about the time she busted a cis woman on the Net who made the erroneous comment as a joke there would never be a transfeminine JET Beauty of the Week, only to be informed by Diamond, armed with the links to the info,  that Ajita Wilson had done that as well.

There have also been some colorful characters in our history such as Lexington, Kentucky resident James 'Sweet Evening Breeze' Herndon, Georgia Black, Lady Java, Jim McHarris, and Lucy Hicks Anderson to remind us they were fighting to be their true selves in conditions and a time period far more hostile to Black people be they cis or trans.

Back in 1992 we had a transperson named Althea Garrison elected to the Massachusetts state legislature, and hopefully that will happen again in my lifetime.

And while trans models of all ethnic backgrounds like Geena Rocero, Lea T and Andreja Pejic are probably aware there has been a long stylish line of  trans models dating back to the 60's starting with April Ashley. our current Black trans models like Isis King and Arisce Wanzer are also aware of and hopefully inspired by the fact they were preceded on the catwalks and magazine covers by Tracy Africa Norman. 

We know that Miss Major and Marsha P Johnson raised hell at Stonewall a mere 4 years after a group of African-American gender variant kids in Philadelphia kicked off a trans-themed protest at Dewey's Lunch Counter.

And speaking of Black trans leaders, it isn't just Black trans women who have been fighting for and shaping the direction of our movement.   Black trans men like Marcelle Cook-Daniels, Alexander John Goodrum and Kylar Broadus have also been handling their human rights business.

We have people who were plaintiffs in human rights court cases like Patricia Underwood and Patti Shaw, just to name two of them.

We have people in the religious leadership ranks like Rev. Yeshua Holiday, Rev. Carmarion Anderson, and Rev Lawrence T. Richardson among others making the case that Black trans people are also people of faith.

We have had trans trailblazers in the music world like Wilmer Broadnax, Jordana LeSesne, Jaila Simms and Tona Brown who cover many types of musical genres with others following in their trailblazing footsteps..

Black trans history isn't just a recitation of past accomplishments. We have people making history today in tech entrepreneurs like Dr. Kortney Ziegler and Angelica Ross.  We have people in academia like Dr Van Bailey, Dr Kai Green, and Dr. Marisa Richmond.  

And I can't forget Kye Allums and my WMMA sis Fallon Fox.   Kye broke ground as a NCAA Div I collegiate basketball player, and Fallon is kicking butts and taking names in the octagon while representing our community and our athletically inclined transpeeps blazing trails and busting stereotypes in the sports world

And I'm still doing my part to not only help chronicle our Black trans history, but help make some of it as well.  Stories of back in the day Black trans people  that once were untold are now being discovered and told to a new generation of trans people to educate and inspire them to greater heights.

And that telling of our Black trans history is a crucial piece of building up our Black trans kids resistance to the urge to end their lives prematurely, and reinforce the point that #BlackTransLivesMatter.

We still have much human rights work left to do and much left to accomplish.   We have an amazing and evolving story to tell as Black trans people.   I'm proud to do my part as a trans writer walking in the footsteps of Roberta Angela Dee to bring it to you.

Shut Up Fool Awards-New Horizons Of Idiocy Edition

The New Horizons mission was launched by NASA on January 19, 2006 to explore Pluto and the Kuiper Belt region beyond it.

The spacecraft after it does the Pluto flyby will head farther into the Kuiper Belt to examine one or two of the ancient, icy mini-worlds in that vast region, at least a billion miles beyond Neptune’s orbit. 

It is already paying dividends by revealing that Pluto has four other moons besides its largest one Charon named Nix, Hydra, Styx and Kerberos

Next Tuesday the New Horizons space probe will make its closest approach to Pluto by flying within 7800 miles of the planet's surface.   As it does so, the United States will become the first spacefaring nation to have sent probes to all the known worlds in our solar system.

Meanwhile back on Planet Earth, it's Friday, and y'all know what that means.  It's time to select the fool, fools or group of fools that continue to push the boundaries of ignorance,  go to new horizons of arrogance, and boldly go where no azzhole has gone before.

It's time for this week's edition of the TransGriot Shut Up Fool Awards.


Honorable mention number one goes to all 16 GOP presidential candidates for suddenly having a 'scheduling conflict' that will prevent them from attending the upcoming National Council of La Raza Convention in Kansas City.  

Way to compete for that Latino vote.

Honorable mention  number two goes to Mike Huckabee, who continues to talk out of both sides of his disingenuous mouth by claiming on one hand Palestinians don't exist, and then called for them to be relocated.  

I have a few Palestinian friends who would love to have a few words with you about that subject.

Make up your mind Mikey.   Either they exist or they don't   If they don't exist, how can the ' non existent Palestinians' be relocated?

Honorable mention number three goes to Candace Cameron Bure, who is revealing herself to be as bad as her right wing fundie brother Kirk for still trying and failing miserably on The View to justify anti-gay discrimination in the wake of the Oregon homophobic cake bakers having to pay a $135K.legal settlement to the lesbian couple they discriminated against.

Raven-Symone of all people called her azz out on it.   



Honorable mention number three goes to Si Robertson, who points to calendars of all things as his 'proof' that atheists don't exist.

Y'all just keep proving to me every day that conservatism is a hotbed of stupidity and ignorance.

Honorable mention number four is Paula Deen, who obviously didn't learn a thing from the last kerfluffle she stirred up and posted a picture of her son dressed in brownface.

Yeah, you have some 'splaining to do to the Latino community about that and your Southern fried bigotry.

Honorable mention number five is Rick Wiles, who renounced his American citizenship because of the SCOTUS marriage equality ruling.  So Rick, when do you leave my country? 

And when you do, make sure you take the rest of your right wing fools with you.

Honorable mention number six is Stacey Dash, who had the wash set and GOP cranial rinse and is trying hard to fit in as a FOX Fembot.   In her latest appearance of the GOP Propaganda Network, she opened her mouth to say that she wants Donald Trump running our country. 

That's it.  You have confirmed to the entire world that you are a beautiful fool. 

Honorable mention number seven is the conservafool majority on the Texas State Board of Education Miseducation.   They are about to push out a textbook that is a crime against history that tries to claim slavery was a side issue in the Civil War ( it was THE issue) , downplays the KKK and Jim Crow segregation, and tries to whitewash to Transatlantic Slave Trade.

Hey, you proud Americans did all that crap, so practice what you screech at other and own your crap.

Honorable mention number eight is a group award for all the Ugly American fools who sent racist tweets in the wake of Team USA's 5-2 victory in the FIFA Women's World Cup final over defending champion Japan.

See, you people are why we can't have nice international reps.

This week's fool is Donald Chump Trump, the leading contender (no joke) for the GOP 2016 POTUS nomination who continues to triple down on the racist and xenophobic crud he's saying on the campaign stump as people and companies rush to sever business ties to him.

Trump recently launched an attack on African-American kids in addition to the continued insults he's lobbed at the Latino community., but incredulously thinks he's going to win the Latino vote.

Yeah right, the sellout Latino vote.   But keep sellin' those presidential woof tickets and race baiting until at least until the first GOP debate on August 6.   You're doing the country a huge service by exposing the racist underbelly of the Republican Party o moderate voters and motivating non-white voters to show up and show out at the polls on November 8, 2016

Donald Trump, shut up fool!

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2015 Williams Watch- Playing For The Serena Slam!

It's the 'Williams'-don semifinals, and Serena Williams was going for her 8th Wimbledon ladies final appearance against a foe in Maria Sharapova who hasn't beaten her since 2004.

And she wouldn't do it today either.

Williams and Sharapova were meeting for the 20th time, and Serena has owned her with a 17-2 record in their head to head meetings.

Make that 18-2.    Serena beat her for the 17th straight time since that shocking 2004 straight set Wimbledon finals loss,.  Little Sis was on her A+ game and made quick (1:19)  6-2. 6-4  straight set work of Sharapova to get to her 8th Wimbledon final, the 25th Grand Slam final of her career and win her 26th straight Grand Slam match.

The win over Sharapova keeps her quest alive for a Serena Slam.  This will be if she wins Saturday  in addition to her sixth Wimbledon ladies singles title, her fourth straight Grand Slam title since she captured the 2014 US Open.   With a win Saturday at Centre Court Serena will also set up a chance to accomplish a calendar year Grand Slam at the US Open and tie Steffi Graf with 22 Grand Slam wins.

How you like her now haters?  Here's some strawberries and cream flavored Haterade for you to drink. Hater tots will be coming soon for you to munch on.

She will face 21 year old Garbine Muguruza of Spain, who knocked off 2012 Wimbledon finalist Agnieszka Radwanska 6-2.3-6, 6-3 to become the first Spanish woman since Arantxa Sanchez Vicario did so in 1996 to advance to the Wimbledon final.

And you can bet Serena won't be sleeping on Muguruza.   If that name sounds familiar to you, it was none other than Muguruza who upset Serena in the second round of the French Open last year.

While Muguruza is capable of doing it, she'll probably get a Serena who is on her A+ game,  remembers what happened last year. at Roland Garros and is ready to atone for it..  

But unfortunately for Muguruza, this ain't Roland Garros, it's the All-England Club, the Williams sisters personal tennis playground.

Should be fun to watch this tennis history unfold for the greatest tennis player of all time as she attempts to win her sixth 'Williams'-don ladies singles title and another Venus Rosewater Dish for her trophy collection.  

I also love the fact she's on the verge of doing so 40 years after Arthur Ashe won his Wimbledon title.

Guess Who's NOT Coming To The 2015 NCLR Conference?

The National Council of La Raza (NCLR) is the largest national Hispanic civil rights organizations in the country, and their annual conference is the largest gathering of Hispanic leaders, institutions, politicians and activists in the United States. 

This year's NCLR conference is in Kansas City, MO  from July 11-14, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is scheduled to speak to an estimated 2200 delegates along with Democratic presidential candidates Senator Bernie Sanders and Governor Martin O'Malley.

attendees will hear NCLR President and CEO Janet Murguía and other speakers address key issues in the Latino community today, including our nation’s economy, technology and community policing, among others. - See more at: http://www.nclr.org/index.php/about_us/news/news_releases#sthash.XiRf3DKp.dpuf

The delegates will also gather to hear NCLR President and CEO Janet Murguia and others speak on July 14 about issues of importance to the Latino community such as immigration, community policing, the economy, and education just to name a few.

Any smart politician is keenly aware of the fact that Latinos are the fastest growing demographic group in the US, and will have increasing clout in the upcoming 2016 presidential election.  

People who are competing for their party's presidential nominations and eventually the presidency of the United States would be wise to speak to these assembled leaders at this NCLR Conference, lay out their vision for America and what their policies will specifically do for the Hispanic community.

But guess who won't be in the Kansas City Convention Center for the NCLR conference?   All 16 Republican presidential candidates.   Interesting to note they all declined their invitations from NCLR to speak at this year's conference. 

Hmm. Don't feel bad Latino community.  The GOP routinely disses the NAACP convention until it's an election year.   Shows you how serious they are about wanting to court your votes, and I hope you remember that in November 2016.

But then again, with all the hateful rhetoric they and Donald Trump have spewed lately about Mexican immigrants lately on FOX Noise and in conservafool media combined with their refusal to pass immigration reform despite having control of the House and Senate, it's probably why the Republican candidates are making sure their campaign travel plans don't include Kansas City this week.

Should be fun to watch what happens in KC over the next few days and see what excuses the GOP presidential clown bus comes up with as to why they avoided the NCLR Conference.

Jazz And Jeanette On 'The View'

So what did you do this morning?  

If you're the fabulous trans teen  Jazz Jennings you woke up early this morning in New York along with your wonderful mom Jeanette to get ready for a live TV appearance on ABC's The View. 

I think Jazz has more frequent flier miles than I do this year, but I digress.

As you all know the TLC reality show featuring Jazz and her amazing family I Am Jazz is set to start on July 15.  Jazz is also a spokesmodel for Clean and Clear, has written a picture book to inspire other trans kids with the same title, and as someone who has had the pleasure of meeting her, is one very sweet kid.

She's had some amazing stuff happened for her. as she continues to live her life, fight for the human rights of transpeople, educate others along the way and be a shining example for other trans kids.

Hey. she's also a wonderful role model for us adult trans folks as well.

As soon as I find the video for this morning's broadcast, I'll post it on the blog for you peeps to see it.

Looking forward to seeing this The View episode since I missed it, the reality show and seeing what happens next for this amazing young lady.

Why We Must Support Our Trans Brothers & Sisters

TransGriot Note: This guest post from Ashton Woods explains from his perspective as an ally to the trans community why other peeps in the SGL community should support their trans brothers and trans sisters.

Over the last fifteen years of being out and proud, I have had the privilege of meeting some great people who just so happened to be Transgender.

When I was fifteen and still living in my beloved New Orleans, I would visit my life long friend Dee whose mother is friends with my mother. He lived around the corner from me and when I would visit him I would notice four people sitting on a porch, sometimes five, two to three women and two men. I had always spoken (its a NOLA thing) to them in passing and one day I was drawn to go directly and speak to them out of attraction to this beautiful man named Jeff. My attention was quickly stolen by a regal and stately elderly woman named Mrs. Williams, who I came to think of as my own family: "Boy come on up here and sit on this porch.." she belted out in strong yet soft tone. It turns out that this group of people for a short time in my teenage life would be part of my chosen family! Amber, one of the women, out of the three happened to be Trans and I couldn't tell until she made mention of it.

THIS is where my advocacy for Trans persons of color originates from. I mean there was this eighty year old woman, her sister who was in her seventies, me a teenager, and two thirty something men just sitting on the porch on Saturdays for a couple hours and talking about life! The best part about us is that we were all Black! Like I said, they were my family for a short time do in part to me becoming an SGL-BT/LGBT homeless youth, which led me to just be around people like me, Black SGL-BT/LGBT homeless youth.

On the first of many nights having to sleep out in the streets, a man held a knife to me in order to force me into having sex with him until I saw this tall statuesque woman come up from behind to take the man down. She told him "Don't mess with this baby..." and she literally took the knife out of his hand and sent him away bloody. Honestly, it was all a blur, but she saved my life and I never knew her name, she saved my life. She was in transition and she let it be known during a short conversation over food that she bought me after convincing me to go and eat at Clover Grill. Mind you, the frame of time between meeting Amber and this stranger who came to my rescue was a matter of months from 1999 to 2000.

You can read the rest by following the link.

2015 Williams Watch-On To The Semis

There was no rest for number one seeded Serena Williams as she took on 23rd seed Victoria Azarenka a day after an emotional fourth round match that sent Big Sis to the Wimbledon sidelines.

She was facing an opponent in Azarenka who while she has dominated her, isn't scared of playing with her either.

Azarenka got off to a great start, taking that first set 6-3. But if the Serena haters were starting to get giddy over the prospect of her getting bounced from Wimbledon, um no, not today.  

This part of the tournament is Serena Time, and she handled her tennis business, cranked out 17 aces and took the second set 6-2 to even the match.  She then kicked up her tennis game to another level to take the third set 6-3 and punch her ticket to the semifinals

With the 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 quarterfinal win Serena is now 17-3 lifetime vs Azarenka, and a perfect 10-0 in Grand Slam tournament matchups against Vika. It was also her 26th consecutive Grand Slam match win.  Her semifinal opponent on Thursday will be Maria Sharapova, who is 2-17 lifetime against her and whose last victory over Serena came over a decade ago in the 2004 Wimbledon final.

Should she handle her tennis business as expected on Thursday, she would face the winner of the Agnieszka Radwanska-Garbine Muguruza semifinal for the 'Williams'-don ladies singles title on Saturday.

She's just two matches away from winning her 21st Grand Slam title, sixth Wimbledon crown, her second 'Serena Slam', and being a US Open win away from completing a calendar year Grand Slam.

US Navy And Marines Adopt Trans Policy Changes

The trans community has a long and proud history of people who have answered the call in war and peacetime to serve in our country's military going back to Christine Jorgenson. 

Many of our past and present trans community leaders are also military veterans, and there are an estimated 15,000 trans people currently serving in the United States Armed Forces.

I've had the pleasure of meeting many of them serving across the various branches, but unlike our LGB brothers and sisters, the 2011 repeal of DADT didn't allow transpeople to openly serve, and left us vulnerable to being discharged if our trans status was discovered.

The momentum is rapidly growing for open military service for transgender people, especially in light of the recent AMA resolution stating 'there was no medically valid reason to exclude transgender individuals from service in the US military.' 

We have also begun to see more transpeople such as Army Sgt. Shane Ortega come out to openly fight the ban.

During the recent LGBT White House Pride Month Reception, transmasculine Air Force Senior Airman Logan Ireland was in attendance along with his transfeminine fiancee, Army Corporal Laila Villanueva as a guest of President Obama.

The Air Force and Army have recently adopted policy changes that make it harder to discharge transgender members of those two services, and now the Navy and Marines have followed suit and done the same thing.

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus signed a memorandum last Wednesday directed at the chief of naval operations and the commandant of the Marine Corps stating, "Effective immediately, separations initiated under the provisions of the reference for service members with a diagnosis or history of gender dysphoria, who identify themselves as transgender, or who have taken steps to externalize the condition, must be forwarded to the assistant secretary of the Navy (manpower and reserve affairs) for decision."

Of course, Sgt. Ortega said he was "elated" with hearing the news because it gives transgender troops worried about discharge "the opportunity to breathe."

The policy change for transgender troops "doesn't mean that equal opportunity protections, uniforms, medical care and other important issues" have been resolved, Sgt. Ortega said. "It simply means a step forward in the right direction toward ethical and moral human rights treatment for our service members."

And current trans members of the Navy and Marines along with our trans vets from those services would definitely agree with you.

We are getting closer to the day when trans people who wish to do so can openly serve our country, and that day looks like it will amazingly happen in our lifetimes.

'Game Face' Houston Debut Happening July 26

The 19th annual QFest LGBTQ film festival will take place in several venues around Houston from July 23-27.   One of those films being shown is the classic documentary Paris Is Burning.

But QFest will also have thanks to Out & Equal Houston the local debut of the documentary Game Face that features the coming out stories of my WMMA fighting homegirl Fallon Fox and Terrence Clemens, a young, ambitious and talented college basketball player in Oklahoma, who happens to be gay.


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The Out & Equal sponsored screening of Game Face will occur at 14 Pews on July 26 starting at 3 PM CDT.   The doors at 14 Pews will open at 2:30 PM and after the film's conclusion there will be a mix and mingle event in the 14 Pews backyard. 

!4 Pews address is 800 Aurora St. in Houston. Free seating through Out & Equal Houston & QPass Holders is limited, so registration will close at 60 persons.  General admission for non-Out & Equal Houston or Q-Fest members is $10.

So hope y'all take advantage of the opportunity to see Game Face and the other exciting cinematic offering that QFest has on tap in it's 2015 edition..

We The People WH Trans Flag Colors For TDOR 2015 Petition

As we recently discovered when the wingers freaked out over the White House being lit in the rainbow flag colors on June 26 to celebrate the SCOTUS marriage equality ruling, the White House is lit up for special occasions. 

It is lit in pink for breast cancer awareness and the fountains are dyed green for St Patrick's Day.

A We The People petition has been created seeking to get the White House lit up in the pink, blue and white colors of the trans pride flag for the Transgender Day Of Remembrance on November 20.

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We petition the Obama administration to:

Light the White House in the transgender pride flag colors on November 20th, the Transgender Day of Remembrance.

Annually the White House is lit up pink to support breast cancer awareness. The fountains have been dyed green for St. Patrick's Day. On Friday June 26th the White House was lit up in the LGBT Pride flag colors to celebrate the historic victory of national marriage rights for the community. Trans people were among the many who celebrated this reaction by the White House.

Trans people however still face many unique obstacles to participating fully in the American dream.

Since its inception in 1999, the Transgender Day of Remembrance has grown from a national to an international event.

Beyond a historic first, the powerful symbolism of having the White House lit in the colors of the Transgender Pride flag on that date would be a significant event.

Published Date: Jul 06, 2015

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I like this idea, hence the signal boosting post for it. 

In order to get an official response from the White House concerning this petition, we need to gather 100,000 signatures before August 5, and yes the TransGriot has already signed it as the eleventh person to do so.

I'm asking you trans peeps and allies to sign it and share it with your influence network so we can exceed that 100K signature requirement before the deadline.  Here's the link to do so.
 

Let's do this and honor our fallen trans folks with something extra special during this year's TDOR commemorations by getting the Obama Administration to light up the White House in the trans flag colors.

'I Am Jazz' Starts July 15

I've had the pleasure of meeting Jazz, Jeanette, her grandparents and her big sis Ari last year at PTHC, and now the rest of America will on July 15.

TLC will launch the I Am Jazz reality TV show on that date ay 9 PM CDT, and while I'm not a huge fan of reality television, this is one show I'll definitely be tuning in to watch if I have cable installed by then

But for those of you who do, you may not want to miss this show about one of our amazing trans teen advocates and her wonderful family.

Here  are some of the promo videos to give you a taste of what's coming on July 15.

Back Up Off Jennicet, And Do Something About Trans ICE Detainees

I met Jennicet Gutierrez during the 2015 edition of Creating Change in Denver, and I enjoyed the time I spent getting to know her.

She is passionate about immigration issues as a undocumented trans Latina and other trans human rights issues.

A lot of people have been bumping their gums about Jennicet speaking truth to power during the recent LGBT reception on June 24 and interrupting President Obama's speech with a call to stop the jacked up incarceration of trans feminine detainees with the cis boys in ICE detention centers.

She was not only escorted out of the White House event, but hurtfully booed by other LGBT leaders as people opined, some in mind numbing ways, with their take on what happened.

Comparing her to Kanye West?  Seriously?   That's worthy of an SUF nomination.  But back to the post.

Here's what Jennicet had to say about it:

"[Obama] came out, started speaking and started to get into his speech on how wonderful everything is, and I couldn’t help but think about the conditions that my LGBTQ Latino/Latina, especially trans women of color, are facing in detention. So, to me, that was the moment I had to speak up. I had to raise awareness to the President and to everyone else watching that I’m not just going to celebrate, when my trans sisters are facing a lot of violence in the detention centers. [Trans women are facing] sexual and physical abuse, and I just had to send a message."

While I'm not happy about what happened since I believe along with a wide majority of African-Americans this POTUS has had far too much disrespectful crap aimed at him on a consistent basis, neither am I happy about the vitriol that has been aimed at Jennicet either.

Some of that vitriol has been borderline racist and transphobic in nature in some corners of the Internet, and it also in LGBT World has had the foul stench of respectability politics. 

As far as I'm concerned, Jennicet at that moment was channeling another trans Latina who in 1969 kicked off the very movement we celebrated at the White House during the last weekend of June in Sylvia Rivera.

As someone who met Sylvia in 2000. I can guarantee you that if she were still in this plane of existence, she would not only approve of what Jennicet did, but probably had she been in the East Room, joined her in speaking truth to power in calling on President Obama to halt what was happening to trans detainees and calling out you peeps who booed her.

For those of you who bask in the afterglow of respectability politics and a landmark Supreme Court case win, complete with access to those power circles, instead of whining about how 'it wasn't the right time or venue' to bring that issue up, how about you peeps using your influence to get something done about the inhumane treatment of trans feminine detainees when you can spare a moment from planning your weddings.



The safety of trans people in ICE detention may not be an issue of importance high enough on your priority list for the all marriage all the time peeps, but it has been important enough for people to get arrested protesting the horrid conditions in ICE detention for immigrant trans women.

And it was also important enough for Jennicet Gutierrez to interrupt President Obama's speech amongst her LGBT leadership peers and risk the consequences of that action.   

I also note for those of you trying to claim that Jennicet's action was ineffective, how do you explain the fact that 24 trans feminine women are being transferred soon to an ICE women's facility?

And it's interesting to note that  35 members of the House of Representatives recently sent a letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson urging him to end the detention of LGBT undocumented immigrants. 

How do you explain the conversation that has been started about the conditions trans women face in those detention centers?   Not bad for a so called ineffective gesture.

So stop giving Jennicet hell, and start giving ICE hell until they stop housing trans feminine women with cisgender men in those detention facilities for starters.   Then we can move to the next step of ending incarceration and deportation of all LGBT people back to countries they fled to the United Stares from.

Because in many cases, the reason they are in the United States is because it wasn't safe for them to live their TBLG lives in their birth nations in the first place.

2015 Williams Watch-Only One Can Go To The Quarterfinals...

Because the geniuses at the All England Club had Serena and Venus on the same side of the draw, they met for the 26th time and the first time in six years at this Grand Slam event that has been their personal playground.

At 'Williams'-don, Serena and Venus have won a combined 10 singles titles (and counting), five doubles crowns. one mixed doubles title, and oh yeah, the 2012 London Olympic singles and doubles gold medals.

But this time they were playing for high stakes at Centre Court.  In addition to both seeking their sixth Wimbledon crowns and a spot in the quarterfinals, Serena was playing to keep her Serena Slam alive and her pursuit of a calendar year Grand Slam going as well. 

While Venus had a 6-3, 6-2 straight set victory over Aleksandra Krunic to get to this fourth round showdown with her number one seeded little sister, Serena had to battle all of the Centre Court crowd and Great Britain's Heather Wilson to get there.  It took three sets in which there were some testy moments, but she prevailed 6-2, 4-6, 7-5 to get to the match with Big Sis.

While Big Sis put up a fight, Little Sis is just too good and rolled to a 6-4, 6-3 straight set win.

But the fun is just getting started for Serena.   Waiting for her in the quarters is Victoria Azarenka, and should she get past her, a potential semifinal matchup with Maria Sharapova is on the horizon should she survive her quarterfinal match with American Coco Vandeweghe.

If she gets past them, she will have earned that spot in the final versus potential opponents from the  other side of the quarterfinal bracket like Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska or Madison Keys who square off in one quarterfinal match.   The survivor would get the Garbine Muguruza-Timea Bacsinszky winner.

We'll see if Little Sis can survive and advance to Saturday, and I'm rooting for her to do so.

2015 FIFA Women's World Cup Team USA Watch-Redemption!

After navigating and defeating a series of knockout round opponents that included FIFA number 10 ranked Colombia, China, and FIFA world number one ranked Germany in the semifinals,  Team USA not only reached the goal they set for themselves when this tournament started, they got the finals matchup they wanted in Vancouver with Japan.

And far from being the tight finals matchup that everyone expected, it turned into a surprising 5-2 rout as the USA scored four goals in a 16 minute onslaught that avenged the 2011 FIFA finals loss in Germany on penalty kicks to the Nadeshiko and sent them on cruise control to the FIFA women's world championship and first since 1999.

The Houston Dash's Carli Lloyd got things off to a fast and successful start when just 3 minutes into the match she scored the first of her three goals courtesy of a Megan Rapinoe corner kick to put Team USA up 1-0.

Two minutes later Lloyd was Janie on the spot as another corner kick from Lauren Holiday found its way through a maze of players to her foot and she tapped it in the net from short range for her second goal and fifth of the tournament which put the Red White and Blue up 2-0. 

Lauren Holiday would score in the 14th minute to put Team USA up 3-0, but the offensive fireworks in BC Place weren't done yet to the delight of the pro-American crowd. 

And if it wasn't enough for Carli Lloyd to score the two fastest goals in FIFA Women's World Cup finals history, she scored another one that will probably be talked about for decades that put the USA up 4-0

In what will rank up there as the goal of the tournament, in the 16th minute Lloyd capped off her finals hat trick by lobbing a ball from the midfield stripe 54 yards away from the Japanese goal that caught keeper Ayumi Kaihori way off her line.  Kaihori stumbled and fell on her back as she tried to get back in position to stop the ball that sailed past her desperately outstretched hands into the net.



Speaking of goalkeeping, Hope Solo was working on a record of her own.  When the match started she hadn't allowed a goal in 513 minutes, and for another 27 minutes Solo was handling her goalkeeping business until Yuki Ogimi fired a shot past her to cut the USA lead to 4-1.

She fell one agonizing minute short of breaking the Germans World Cup shutout streak record they set during their 2007 title run in which they didn't give up a single goal in the entire tournament.

In the second half Aya Miyama's free kick in the 52nd minute took a glancing blow off of Julie Johnston's head and unfortunately past Hope Solo for an own goal that cut the deficit to 4-2.

But just two minutes later Tobin Heath scored to push the lead back up to 5-2 to the delight of the 53,331 predominately American peeps in the stands as they began to party like it was 1999 and celebrate the Team USA women's third FIFA world championship and first in 16 years.

Hope Solo was deservedly awarded the Golden Glove Award as the best goalkeeper. and Carli Lloyd the Golden Ball as best player.   She just missed out on the Golden Boot because although she and Germany's Celia Sasic had six goals, Sasic scored her six with less playing time than Lloyd.

It was also a long awaited celebratory moment for Abby Wambach, Christie Rampone and Shannon Box, who have probably played in their final World Cups for the Red White and Blue (we have got to get a cooler nickname for our women and men's national teams) and probably won`t be on the Olympic squad in Rio as the seek their fourth straight gold medal.

But that's next year.  Congratulations to the now three time FIFA women's world champions.  Time to sew that third star on the US team jerseys.

And Carli, hope you have some more scoring magic left for the remainder of the Houston Dash season.

John Oliver's On Point Transgender Rights Commentary

If you don't have HBO or haven't seen it yet, John Oliver, the host of HBO's Last Week Tonight had a ten minute segment on his June 28th show in which he discussed the transgender community that has received rave reviews and kudos from peeps in Trans World.

This needs to be seen, and here's the YouTube video of it.

Laverne's Madame Tussaud's Wax Figure Revealed

While many of you were partying during Pride last weekend, a little history was taking place in San Francisco as Madame Tussaud's unveiled the wax likeness of her.

She is the first out transperson ever to be so honored, and Laverne was on hand for the June 26 ceremony.

“I hope that it gives people a sense of possibility. I think that it’s important that yes, I’m transgender, but I’m also a Black person in America. And I was raised African Methodist Episcopal,” Ms. Cox said in her speech. “So I’m standing here at the intersection of multiple identities, and so I hope that people will be inspired to believe that anything is possible.”

The wax figure will be part of the Madame Tussaud's San Francisco permanent collection, and was part of a special display for pride.

Madame Tussaud's San Francisco is located on Fisherman's Wharf, so check it out the next time you are visiting the city.

Girl Scouts Return Transphobe`s Donation, Get Paid

`If a girl is recognized by her family, school and community as a girl and lives culturally as a girl, Girl Scouts is an organization that can serve her in a setting that is both emotionally and physically safe.`
-Girl Scouts statement welcoming transgender girls

Over the last few years, the Girl Scouts of America have been standup allies for the trans community, and opened their doors so that trans girls can participate.

That support of trans feminine girls created a problem for the Western Washington Girl Scout council and its CEO Megan Ferland recently.

They received a $100K donation during their fundraising drive which was a quarter of their fundraising goal.  However, it came with a transphobic string attached.

In a letter she received five weeks later, the donor requested that none of the donated money be used to assist transgender girls, and if they couldn't guarantee that, the donor wanted their money returned.

Ferland knew because the parents chose to share that information, there are trans girls participating in some Western Washington area troops.  Even though that monetary gift would have allowed 200 fiscally challenged girls to attend summer camp, Ferland quickly returned the money and on June 29 launched a `Girl Scouts is #ForEVERYGirl  Indiegogo campaign with a YouTube video to accompany it in order to replace the funds they lost.

They recouped the money they lost in 24 hours and tripled it, raising $300K, and benefit all girls in the Western Washington area that will need some financial assistance in order to attend camp.

People also supported the campaign on social media, using the #ForEVERYGirl hashtag.

My congratulations to the Western Washington Girl Scouts, who demonstrated principled leadership,  returned a transphobic donation and were rewarded for it.

I sure would like to know who that transphobe is so they can receive the proper level of scorn they deserve..

But I;m definitely tripling my Girl Scout cookie order next year.

Shut Up Fool Awards-There Go The SCOTUS Judges Edition

It`s the USA`s birthday tomorrow, and some of us have much to celebrate in the wake of the SCOTUS delivering some groundbreaking decisions on marriage equality, preserving Obamacare and even spiking an unjust Texas law that would have forced all but five abortion clinics east of I-35 in the state to close.

However, just before the Supremes bounced from DC until the first Monday in October, they decided to take another affirmative action case from the same suburban Texas white female who was mad because she couldn`t get into UT with jacked up grades.

Can you say `entitled`girls and boys?   Thought you could.

Oyez, Oyez, Oyez!   Time to rule on that fool, fool or group of fools exhibiting Antomin Scalia levels of biogtry, Clarence Thomas levels of hypocrisy and sellout coonery, John Roberts (no relation) levels of cluelessness and Joseph Alito levels of arrogance.

It`s time for this week`s edition of the TransGriot Shut Up fool awards, SCOTUS style.

Our first honorable mention case is the entire conservafool movement vs marriage equality, and the court finds you went too far off the chain in over the top hyperbole, attempts to enact Massive Resistance 3.0 by refusing to issue marriage licenses across the country, and other acts of conservaignorance I`d need to write a full post to call out.

Honorable mention case number two is Donald Trump vs the Latino community, and this one despite an amicus brief from FOX Noise, the verdict is unanimous that Trump is a bigot.  Univision has pulled out of broacasting the Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants he owns,  Mexico has pulled their delegate from the Miss Universe pageant, and NBC Universal has kicked him to the curb from The Apprentice in additon to the pendejo being excoriated by the Latino community and their allies.

Honorable mention case number three is the group one for all the KKKonfederate Flag defenders vs American history.    Another unamimous decision in favor of history and the facts that the Confederate flag represents white supremacy and gray clad group of racists who fought an armed rebellion against the US goverment to keep my people enslaved.  

The South not only started the War To Perpetuate Slavery they lost, the words of the CSA politicians of the day, Confederate VP Alexander Stephens 1861`Cornerstone Speech` and the causes of secession for several states made it quite clear why they did so.

Heritage not hate my azz.

Honorable mention case number four is Frankie Quijano and Houston Pride vs Reality.   In the wake of the historic ruling happening just 24 hours before the first ever downtown pride parade was a reason for optimism, but to claim that 750K people attended the parade and the festival was stretching the boundaris of credibility when the crowd estimates I`d heard was 450K.

Honorable mention case number fiveis Amber Roof vs Class.   She`s the sister of Charleston `terriss` Dylann Roof who was scheduled to get married on June 21 until her Confederate flag waving white supremacist brother walked into a church, killed 9 people and forced her to cancel the wedding.

She put together a self serving GoFundMe campaign to raise the money for her rescheduled wedding, which was canceled after widespread negative backlash `to start their new lives`.

Whiteness at its finest folks.   She`s more concerned about her life,  and her only concern about the nine lives her brother took or how it impacts their families is it ruined her wedding.

Have an arena full of seats, a bless her heart and a nice Southern sweet tea flavored blend of shut the hell up.

This week`s Supreme Fool is Rick Perry.   In addition to running for the GOP presidential nomination for a second time while under indictment, Perry made the mistake of thinking black people are as clueless as the GOP base when he opened his mouth to say that it is the Republican Party who is giing hope to my coomunity.

Snce when?   Yeah, your party is giving hope to Black Americans alright in the contex of we hope you GOP conservajerks lose next year`s election and some house and Senate seats to go with it.    We hope you stop demonizing us.   We hope you stop suppressing our right to vote.   We hope you stop coming up with new ways to insult a POTUS revered by us.

And what was the name of your family`s West Texas hunting lodge again?

Rick Perry, shut up fool!

2015 Williams Watch-On To The Third Round

My fave tennis playing sisters are still cruising toward a Wimbledon quarterfinal clash if the brackets hold up.

Okay, what genius at the All England Club set up the brackets so they were on the same side of the Wimbledon ladies singles draw anyway?

One of the other interesting pieces of Williams Sisters related news coming out of The Championships this week was the withdrawal of Venus and Serena from the doubles tournament so they could concentrate on playing singles.


In their second round matches, Serena got past Timea Babos of Hungary in straight sets 6-4, 6-1 to set up her third round clash with British homegirl Heather Watson.

Venus had to work a little harder, but she also prevailed in straight sets 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 in her match against Yulia Putintseva.    She gets the Czech Republic`s Aleksandra Krunic, fresh off of springing an upset on Sara Errani.

Can they survive their third round matches and treat the tennis world to a Little Sis-Big Sis fourth round matchup at Wimbledon and the first in six years?   We`ll see.

Don`t Spend Your T-Bills Where You Aren`t Respected

I`ve been busy the last few days moving to the new Casa De Monica, and just started catching up with all the trans news that I need to comment on.

One of those issues I felt the need to comment on is a trans dignity and respect.

I was perusing my Facebook feed and noted a comment from a well known activist who was recounting a transphobic experience she`d had at her local hairdresser.

She was getting her hair done when a conversation started in the shop about last week`s  SCOTUS marriage ruling.   She was stunned and pissed off to hear the beautician working on her hair express a negative reaction to it, and then take a potshot at guys and girls like us by adding that she couldn`t stand people who `changed their sex.`

Little did the transphobic hairdresser know that she was working on the tresses of one of those people she hated.

The person in question didn`t elaborate on how far along she was in the process of getting her hair done at the time the transphobic comment was uttered.   But having been in a similar situation back in the late 90s when I was getting my hair done and another beautician not working on my hair at the time made several derogatory comments about Black Americans (she was Nigerian), I ripped her a new anus.

So what is Moni`s moral in this story?   The bottom line is that if you are so inclined and the situation calls for it, we need to call out disrespectful commentary and negative treatment of trans people.   I understand it`s a judgment call as whether or not you feel safe to do so, but if you are in a reasonably safe space,  put them in check.

How you do it is your call.

Now why am I saying this?  Because the odds are that transphobes aren`t going to let their negative commentary loose unless they think they will have majority support in whatever venue this is happening in.  

If we let transphobic comments slide for whatever set of reasons, then it will happen again to someone else until the transphobe finally gets checked on their nekulturny behavior.

Maybe missing out on some service fees plus tips or getting checked by their supervisor after you have a chat with them will speed up that process

Neither should we trans peeps spend our precious T-bills with people or companies who don`t respect our humanity.