Where Are The Positive Black Brazilian Transwomen Role Models?

Brazil has a population of African descended people of about 100 million, which is more than the combined population of African descended people in the Caribbean, the US, Canada and Central America.

Based on Lynn Conway's 1/250 ratio of transgender births the estimated potential population of Black Brazilian transsexuals in Brazil is 400,000. But most of the transwomen that we've heard about who have garnered international attention from Brazil are people such as Roberta Close or recently Patricia Araujo, who just walked the runway at a Rio fashion show.

Unfortunately it seems as though the same pattern that we have of invisibility of Black transpeople in the United States has replicated itself in Brazil. Yeah, you see Black transpeople in Brazil, but unfortunately, just like what happened here in the States, they are disproportionately the subjects of adult websites.

So the question I ask as a concerned citizen of the Diaspora, where are the Brazilian transwomen of African descent who are positive role models? Where are the ones who have transitioned and are contributing to Brazilian society and why haven't their accomplishments and achievements been told to the rest of the world?

I know they must exist, it's just they haven't had their moment in the media sun yet.

WOC Blog Carnival This Weekend

Thanks to Renee at Womanist Musings, I'm about to experience something new as a blogger, participating in my first blog carnival.

She's organizing, 'Tell It WOC Speak' which will happen on Sunday, February 15. If you wish to participate in it, get those submissions to Renee ASAP. It's a wonderful way to expose your writing to people who may not have had a chance to see it or haven't web surfed in your blog's direction.

Blog carnivals are prevalent all over the blogosphere, but unfortunately in the Blackosphere we haven't done many of them for whatever myriad reasons. The reason this is my first is that I'm just now getting the recognition and the profile thanks to that Weblog award in which people are asking me to participate in their various carnivals.

Renee believes that with all the talented WOC bloggers out there, the lack of WOC themed blog carnivals shouldn't be happening and there's more than enough excellent content generated by us so that we can have this event on a monthly basis.

She's committed to making this a successful event, and I'm committed to doing my part to help make it happen.

How about you, women bloggers of color? Let's do this. Please submit your post here, either old or new works that talk about or intersect with race that involve class, gender, sexuality, ability, etc.

It is time that we tackle the 'isms' and bring them crashing down, and hopefully on Sunday well see a range of thought that begins the discussion process.

2010 IFGE Conference To Be Held Again In Washington DC

The 2009 edition of the IFGE Conference just concluded another successful run with over 150 attendees and speakers from around the country in attendance despite the unusual early February convention date.

Bree Hartlage, the newly elected chair of the IFGE board announced during the final session of Transgender 2009 that the 2010 edition of the IFGE conference will be held once again in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.

"It was quite apparent to both myself and the rest of our Board that the only logical place for the transgender community to gather each year in the name of education and acceptance is in our nation's capital," noted Ms. Hartlage. She also announced that Transgender 2010 - The Capital Conference, will be moving back to it's traditional April time slot, with specific dates and location to be announced very soon.

Hartlage also had high praise for IFGE Executive Director Denise LeClair as well. "I am extremely grateful to Denise for all of her hard work and determination in staging the 2009 conference despite very long odds."

Ms. LeClair also dished out kudos to the volunteers and the local host organization as well. "I want to acknowledge the tireless work of all our volunteers, especially those from our local host organization, TGEA, The Transgender Education Association of Greater Washington, for making this a highly successful conference - we couldn't have done this without each and every one of you."

As with past IFGE conferences, the program of over 60 workshops drew high praise from those seeking to better understand the many varied aspects of what it means to be transgender in today's society. It is the primary vehicle for fulfilling the IFGE mission of "Promoting Acceptance for Transgender People Through Education".

IFGE is a membership organization, so for information on how to become a member of IFGE and make a donation, please visit: http://www.ifge.org

See you next year at Transgender 2010!

Happy 100th Anniversary NAACP

If a Black person gets in trouble, he calls out two names, Jesus and the NAACP.
Joe Madison

Today marks the 100th anniversary of an iconic organization reviled by segregationists, conservatives, and Dixiecrats and revered by people of all ethnic groups who seek justice and equality.

The NAACP will be celebrating its status as the oldest civil rights organization in the States with a year long series of events. In addition to the Founders Day ceremonies that will kick off the celebration, the 40th annual NAACP Image Awards hosted by Halle Berry and Tyler Perry will be taking place later this evening in Los Angeles.

It has come a long way since being founded in 1909 by a group of Jewish and African American people in New York. And as Joe Madison's comment that starts this post alludes to, whenever there was trouble and we called on the NAACP, they answered it.

Whether it was getting the message out through its magazine edited by NAACP founder W.E.B. DuBois called Crisis, fighting to enact an anti-lynching bill, topple school segregation, having its legal arm under legendary attorneys Charles Hamilton Houston and future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall attack the laws buttressing Jim Crow, or assisting Civil Rights Movement campaigns, the NAACP has fought on our people's behalf to tackle the issues of the day.

That tradition has continued into this century with the Congressional Civil Rights Report Cards which track the performance of every congressmember and senator on civil rights issues important to our people to calling out the lack of diversity in Hollywood and various industries.

Here's hoping that the NAACP will add to it's mission fighting for the rights of the African-American GLBT people that are its members as well.

It's had a sometimes bumpy ride, and far from being an anachronistic relic of our past, as its new slogan boldly proclaims, the NAACP is now. I shudder to think where we'd be without the NAACP as part of Black America, and in Benjamin Todd Jealous it has a dynamic young leader to take it into its second century.

Just Not Into RuPaul

RuPaul's back on TV with a reality show called RuPaul's Drag Race on Logo. Yeah, I know I've griped for years about the lack of visibility of GLBT African-Americans in the media, but this is one show that I and many African-American GLBT peeps won't be watching.

The reason? Many of us consider RuPaul a sellout.

RuPaul's road to Clarence Thomas-Condoleezza Rice territory basically began in 2002, when he started defending Chuck Knipp and his odious blackface minstrel show that many of us in the SGL community and our allies have major problems with.

When New York activists protested and succeeded in shutting down a 2002 show, RuPaul leaped to Chuck's defense.

RuPaul also had this to say when he appeared at Southern Decadence in New Orleans a few years ago.

"Critics who think that Shirley Q. Liquor is offensive are idiots. Listen, I've been discriminated against by everybody in the world: gay people, black people, whatever. I know discrimination, I know racism, I know it very intimately. She's not racist, and if she were, she wouldn't be on my new CD."

I'm a critic and a lot smarter than you are. Obviously your racism detector is way off and your ignorance of black history speaks volumes. It's also why that 'Foxy Lady' CD tanked.

If you'd paid attention in history class, you'd know that your racist runnin' buddy does a blackface minstrel show that on multiple levels is offensive and racist. Hiding behind your short skirts won't shield him from the deserved criticism and negativity he gets for doing so.

RuPaul also said on a gay radio show,
“I love it. People really need to take a chill pill and people really aren’t sophisticated enough to know that when a person is coming from a place of love as opposed to coming from a place of hate. Shirley Q. Liquor is so clearly coming from a place of love.”

How much 'sophistication' was Chuck showing when he (or one of his cronies) photoshopped Jasmyne Cannick's head to the body of an nude African American porn model on his website because she successfully led the effort to shut down one of his California shows?

Did that come from a place of love? Hell, naw.

RuPaul, you can stop trying to defend Chuck. It's the reason many of us aren't enamored of you any more, and the sooner you realize that, the better.

But then again, like all good sellouts, you'll salute, take the money they offer you, continue to stab your people in the back and expect us to be quiet about it.

What Do You Mean 'It's Her Fault'?

"I don't think Chris would just a hit a girl like that. She had to do something or say something out the way for him to really hurt her," said Nika2hot on MTV.com

I ain't no Ike Turner, but, if I was in a position where it was either me hitting a woman or that woman hurting me, she's a hit chick. I know at least three guys who are now nestled in their graves behind not defending themselves from an attack by a female. And, for the record, I've never faced with that option, so I've never had to hit a female...PEACE. by BigBlackRod on Blackamericaweb.com

Let's not rush to judgment. Everyone's saying " how could he hit a woman?" Who's to say she wasn't hitting him, and he was trying to restrain her, I guess people just assume the worst in other people. by Mcooper6700 on Blackamericaweb.com

nick says: from socialite life celebbuzz.com
ill tack yo she a slut eny way u dont need her good that u beat the pop out of her

Before I get started on this post, I'm saying for the purposes of journalistic disclosure that I'm a fan of both artists, Rihanna and Chris Brown.

But what's pissing me off at the moment is not only the asinine comments that I posted that are just a small sample of the flood of comments across the Web that this unfortunate incident is generating, but this developing meme that 'it's Rihanna's fault' that she got hit, 'she's a slut' or 'she provoked him'.

Excuse me? The sad part is that some women are regurgitating this bullshit as well.

Bottom line is that I don't care how mad you get, it ain't cool to hit a woman period. That's something that men are taught from boyhood and I speak from experience when I say this. I was in a situation on the other side of the gender fence when my ex-girlfriend picked up a glass Coke bottle during an argument, swung it at me and fortunately missed.

As volcanically pissed off as I was at the time, I still managed without hitting her to disarm and restrain her until she calmed down.

For these folks flapping their gums about 'it's her fault' or the other foul comments I won't waste bandwidth repeating, I have to ask this question for the peeps who feel that way.

What if it was your daughter, sister, aunt, mother, grandmother or any female relative that was in Rihanna's pumps? Would you feel the same way? I'd be willing to bet if Rihanna was your relative, you'd be ready to kick any man's behind that put his hands on her or wouldn't appreciate the fact that her reputation and character are being trashed to defend him.

The story of what happened early Sunday morning is still unfolding and the truth is somewhere in the middle between his story and hers. But some peeps really need to check themselves about the breathtakingly sexist, stupid and insensitive comments being directed at Rihanna.

Castro's Daughter Helps Cuba's Transgender Community Come Out Of The Shadows

Cuba is famous for its cigars, its passion for baseball, the long list of great major league ballplayers from the island, great Olympians and a certain cigar smoking bearded gentleman who was its long time leader.

But I'll bet you didn't know is that like everywhere else on the planet, Cuba has transgender people on the island as well.

Thanks to having a powerful friend in internationally renowned sexologist Mariela Castro Espin, who is President Raul Castro's daughter and Fidel Castro's niece, transgender people have been able to come out of the shadows. She's the head of the National Centre for Sex Education or CENESEX, and since 2004 has pushed for more humane treatment of Cuba's GLBT people.

Not so long ago, being GLBT was a disqualifying factor for upper echelon positions in Cuban society and anti-gay witch hunts were conducted in the 1960s and 1970s that would have made the Religious Reich proud.

In 2005 CENESEX created the National Commission for Integral Care of Transsexual People, and last year announced on June 6 that free SRS would become available for Cuban transsexuals that wish to have it. They would commence when the Cuban surgical team designated to perform the operations finished being trained by international experts was ready to begin the procedures. CENESEX also hosts a transgender support group that meets weekly in Havana.

Cuba performed its first and only sex reassignment surgery in 1988 and so far 28 Cubans have been diagnosed by the government as transsexual, and 19 wish to have gender reassignment surgery.

Castro's mother is the late Vilma Espin, who was an internationally recognized champion of women's rights. For her, it is the rights of gay and transgender people that need to be fought for.

She's pushing the Cuban National Assembly to adopt what would be the most liberal gay and transsexual rights law in Latin America.

It would if passed officially recognize same-sex unions and inheritance rights among same-sex couples, along with giving transgender Cubans the rights to obtain free sex-change operations. Transgender Cubans would be permitted to change their gender on their identity cards without having genital surgery as a precondition for doing so.

It's ironic that a nation reviled by conservatives for being repressive is more compassionate and tolerant towards its transgender citizens than my own country.

The Transgender Issue In The USA

Interesting article from Thailand's Pattaya Daily News about transgender issues in the States.

It's nice to get a perspective from outside the USA as to what they think about our community here, especially when it that perspective comes from a writer based in Thailand, which has a more tolerant attitude toward its transgender people.

Once y'all check out the article, you can leave your thoughts and comments in this thread. International readers, this will also be your invitation to chime in as well. I'm interested in hearing your thoughts and discovering from your comments what the rep of the USA transgender community is outside our borders.

Villager's February 2009 Black Blog Rankings

The Villager has compiled the Black Blog Rankings for February, so lets see how much love I received in them since I won't be getting any chocolate hearts or stuffed animals on Valentine's Day unless I buy it for myself.

This edition of the BBR's has 1593 ranked blogs, an increase of 43 blogs from the last compilation date of January 1. The Blackosphere continues to grow based on the continued increases in Black blogs beings added to the BBR's every month.

The runaway Number One BBR ranked blog is still Pam's House Blend, and if you wish to find out who the other Top Ten blogs are, here's the link to check them out.

My goal is to by my May 4 birthday, be at a 200 Technorati ranking and in the BBR Top 25.

My momentum toward the Top 25 hasn't been as meteoric since the historic election ended, but by continuing to focus on quality posts, adding some new features like my Shut Up Fool! awards and my upcoming discussion series, I hope to resume forward progress. I also want to earn some awards love from my own people in addition to earning a repeat trip as a Weblog Awards finalist.

I'm also pleased to see that I get a lot of international traffic. Welcome, glad you stopped by and appreciate you spending your web surfing time here. Please take a moment to peruse the posts on a wide variety of subjects and drop an occasional comment or two. If you like it, link to TransGriot as well.

Okay, so how much love did I get this month in the BBR's? In the January BBR's TransGriot was sitting at Number 46 with a 144 Technorati ranking.

As of the February 8 BBR compilation date, TransGriot was at Number 48 with a Technorati ranking of 150. I dropped two slots, but gained six points on my Technorati ranking and I'm still in the Top 50 Blogs.

It's frustrating right now because I'm not progressing like I think I should, but I still have a few months until my birthday.

'Brother Prez's' First Press Conference

Like most of the country I was tuned in to President Obama's first prime time press conference.

After the last eight painful years (fourteen if I add his time as Texas governor) of seeing the previous occupant of the White House massacre the English language and have them less frequently as Michael Jackson has plastic surgery, it was nice to see our president confidently stride into the East Room of the White House and confidently answer multiple part questions from the press corps.



He even took questions from Helen Thomas, the dean of the Washington White House press corps and from a Huffington Post reporter.

If people still haven't gotten the memo that there's a new sheriff in town, last night was another clue that change has come to DC.

Where's 'Big, Bad John'? Not In DC

Once upon a time my home state produced national leaders such as Lyndon Johnson, Lloyd Bentsen, Ralph Yarborough, Barbara Jordan, Mickey Leland, Sam Rayburn and John Tower.

They were people who had vision and had the best interest of our nation at heart, and sometimes took unpopular stands that cost them elections. For example, Ralph Yarborough voted for the 1964 and 1965 Civil Rights Acts, and lost his senate seat in 1970 to Lloyd Bentsen.

I was disappointed when Rick Noriega didn't win his race against John Cornyn back on November 4, thus dooming Texas to piss poor Senate representation for another six years.

But the folks who voted for Noriega can look at the peeps who voted for Cornyn just because he has an (R) behind his name (or for other nefarious reasons) and say 'I told you so.'



So where was 'Big Bad John' when the crucial cloture vote on the stimulus package was being held in DC? This is probably the most important legislation of this century and he's 200 miles away in New York schmoozing with GOP Wall Street donors and media conservatives.

Hang on progressive Texans. It's only a matter of time before the GOP once again is a minority party in our beloved state and it'll be sooner rather than later.

Transpinays Are Doing It For Themselves

Every now and then you'll see my busy sis PinayTG post something in my comment section from time to time. I have a link to her wonderful blog as well.

But as I continue to point out, transgender peeps are everywhere and we face on varying levels from country to country and continent to continent a struggle to see our human rights respected, codified into law and protected.

So what's a transpinay? A transpinay is a transwoman of Filipina heritage. It's a term the community created to more accurately describe themselves and separate themselves from the more negative local terms that are considered insulting by our sisters there. I enthusiastically embrace and use transpinay here out of respect, solidarity and love for my sisters.

Transpinays are becoming more active and vocal about educating their nation about transgender issues and improving the lives of their sisters through STRAP, the Manila based Society of Transsexual Women of the Philippines.

STRAP was founded in 2002 and its multifaceted mission not only focuses on fighting for the rights of transpinays, they are a support group, do educational advocacy on transgender issues, build pride in being a transpinay and confront negative images about transwomen as well.

Like us on this side of the Pacific, they face the same non-matching identity paperwork issues, discrimination, and unemployment/underemployment problems as well. But with each passing day they are becoming a more cohesive community, and it's only a matter of time before transpinays take their rightful place in Philippine society.

Miss Brazil Transsex Pageant 2008

The Thais proudly state that they have the most beautiful transwomen in the world, and have frequent pageants in the 'Land of Smiles' to prove it. But the Brazilians would vehemently argue that point.

Here are some photos from the 2008 Miss Brazil Transsex Pageant held a few months ago. The winner, Fernanda Lima was supposed to go on to compete as Brazil's representative in the Miss International Queen Pageant held in Pattaya at Tiffany's Cabaret, but that pageant eventually got postponed due to the political crisis that was raging in Thailand at the time.

So we'll have to wait a few months to see the 2009 version of the Miss International Queen Pageant to get the resolution to the question of who has the world's most beautiful transwomen.

1000 Wins!

I'm a huge basketball fan and I absolutely love women's college and pro basketball. If there's a women's game on the tube, whether it's the NCAA college ranks, the WNBA, the Olympics or FIBA worlds, I'm watching it.

I was pleased to hear that legendary University of Tennessee women's head coach Pat Summitt accomplished a coaching milestone that even a male head basketball coach has yet to reach.

On February 5 she became the first NCAA Division I coach to record 1000 wins when her freshman laden Lady Volunteer team defeated Georgia 73-47.

The now 56 year old Pat Summitt has been the Lady Vols coach since 1974. She was hired at age 22 as the head coach after being named as a graduate assistant while working on her masters in physical education.

She won a silver medal with the USA women's team at the Montreal Games in 1976 and eight years later coached Team USA to a gold medal at the LA Games. She was part of the inaugural class of the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 1999 and in 2000 was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame as well.

She has also inspired 45 of her own players to become coaches in their own right.

Summitt has been busy rewriting the NCAA record books as well. In addition to owning the record for most NCAA wins, she led the Lady Vols to their eighth national championship and 18th Final Four last year, both NCAA records. She's only two titles shy of tying legendary UCLA men's coach John Wooden for the most NCAA titles with 10. She has the most NCAA tournament victories with 104 in 123 games played, and has coached 18 seasons in which her team won more than 30 games, including a perfect 39-0 championship season in 1997-98.

Congratulations Coach Summitt for winning her 1000th game and for all she's done to elevate women's basketball to the respect level it deserves.

'Spotlight' On Angelica Ross

It's been a while since I talked about Angelica Ross and what she's been up to. I recently received an e-mail from her stating that she was about to begin pursue a dream of a music career.

She has produced an album that will be dropping this spring on her indie Know Better Records label called 'When Two Worlds Collide' and has released the first single for it called 'Spotlight'

You can check out the song and the video for it on her website and also download it at the usual music spots of iTunes, Napster and Amazon.com.

Let's do our part to help support a sistah and get her career jump started. You never know, if it does well enough she may end up with a major label recording deal like Kim Petras did, and to be honest, I'd like to see her succeed.

NBJC and GLAAD Will Host Forum At Upcoming NAACP Image Awards

On the eve of the 40th Annual NAACP Image Awards which will be hosted by Oscar winning actor Halle Berry and screenwriter-actor Tyler Perry, the National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC) and the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) will jointly host a forum February 11 on the infrequent intersection of African American and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) images in media, and the importance of these stories being told, particularly in the wake of California's Proposition 8.

The panel will explore the historical under-representation of these images, the ongoing advocacy efforts to promote the telling of these stories and the professional issues and challenges facing openly gay African American artists.

The planned two hour forum will also be co-sponsored by The Screen Actors Guild LGBT Actors Committee and the Beverly Hills-Hollywood Branch of the NAACP starting at 7 PM PST in the Screen Actors Guild James Cagney Board Room.

The panelists confirmed for the event include Willis Edwards, Member, National Board of Directors, NAACP; Vice Chair of the NAACP Image Awards, Deondray Gossett, Writer/Producer/Director, "The DL Chronicles", Maurice Jamal, Writer/Producer/Director, "Dirty Laundry," "The Ski Trip", Sonja Sohn, Actor, "The Wire" and J. Karen Thomas, Actor; Founding Member SAG LGBT Actors Committee

The panel will be moderated by GLAAD Senior Director of Media Programs Rashad Robinson.

"For the first time we have five openly gay individuals and multiple gay-themed projects nominated at the NAACP Image Awards," said Jasper Hendricks, NBJC Director of Field Operations. "We are hopeful this historic achievement will begin to break down barriers to openly LGBT arts and entertainment professionals in getting roles and jobs in the industry. We need to continue to highlight our successes and this forum will be a part of educating the media and the industry as to the issues LGBT people face."

"This year's nominees for the NAACP Image Awards demonstrate significant progress at a time when LGBT African Americans continue to be underrepresented in the media and those representations are often based on stereotypes," said GLAAD Senior Director of Media Programs Rashad Robinson. "We hope that through open dialogue with industry leaders at forums like this, we can continue to open doors for stories and images of our lives and our communities. These stories – when told in a fair, accurate and inclusive way – have the power to change hearts and minds."

The "Knocking Down the Door: Black LGBT Images in Media" will be held on Wednesday, February 11, 2009 from 7-9 PM PST at the Screen Actors Guild, James Cagney Board Room, First Floor.

For any further information contact: Damon Romine, GLAAD, (323) 634-2012

Online Discourse Frustrations

One of the things that I've found is irritating about substantive online discourse in the blogosphere and beyond is how race and white privilege rears its ugly head in the middle of it at inopportune times.

If a Black person (or any POC) on a mixed race blog states an opinion that doesn't neatly line up with white groupthink on an issue, they are immediately challenged to prove it, provide links to it, loudly denounced as being 'racist' or the person is viciously personally attacked in order to divert attention from the original subject matter being discussed.

The same hue and cry for accuracy doesn't exist when a white person states their opinion on an issue. It's just taken as a given that it's correct, it's grounded in logic and reason and 'errbody's' supposed to accept with without debate even if it resembles barnyard feces.

The problem is that Whites and Blacks live in vastly different worlds. Black people grow up in a world in which we constantly confront racism and its deleterious effects on our lives. Whites grow up in one in which they live enveloped in that white privilege cocoon. Even if a white person transitions or is GLBT, they still carry with them white privilege as they are discriminated against and reviled by their fellow whites.

Therefore, it's illogical for example, a white feminist to say that you know what it's like to be a black woman' because you're not even though there are some things about womanhood that cross cultural and ethnic lines. But even I'm cautious about saying that line even though I've been transitioned for over a decade and probably have more credibility if I said it than you ever will.

We aren't even close to being a 'post-racial' society either. The election of President Obama and 40 years of post civil rights legislation did not magically erase the 400 plus years of racist attitudes that buttressed slavery and we never addressed post emancipation.

Those attitudes are so insidious that even if you think that you're not being offensive, there are times that the racism oozes into your statement and you're not aware of it until a POC calls you on it.

And don't even get me started on that BS race card meme or the your civil rights struggle is 'just like ours' because it isn't.

Just because POC's are bluntly expressing an opinion that happens to be diametrically opposed to yours, it doesn't make us 'angry'. If we're pissed, there will be no doubt about that because we'll definitely let you know when we are.

Too many times when POC bloggers write about various issues, some peeps get defensive about it. As one of my fave bloggers Renee says, 'If it ain't about you, don't make it about you.' If you don't exhibit the behaviors we're complaining about, then don't take it personally.

Even though online discourse can be maddeningly frustrating at times, they are also sorely needed conversations to help foster understanding as to just how deeply entrenched and pervasive these racist attitudes are in our society.

But if both sides approach them in a spirit of Kingian love, an open mind an a willingness to listen to thoughts and opinions which may uncomfortably challenge some core assumptions you've held about some issues, we'll all be better for the experiences.

Kim Petras Video

Congrats to German transteen Kim Petras, who recently had her SRS and is happily embarking on her new life. She has a blog called Kimperium (written in German and English) and a recording contract. Girlfriend's future is so bright she needs shades to walk down the street.

Here's the latest entry from her YouTube video blog.




And a September 21, 2008 entry

Bulent Ersoy Acquitted

I mentioned that beloved transwoman singer Bulent Ersoy was on trial for remarks she made on a TV program critical of the Turkish military.

In Turkey, military service is obligatory for men over the age of 20, and it is a crime to speak against it.

She stated on that fateful February 24 TV broadcast that if she had a son, she would not let him fight in other people’s wars, referring to the increasing number of soldiers killed fighting outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorists.

Thanks to her lawyer, Muhittin Yüzüak, she was acquitted on December 18.

The court ruled that Ersoy be acquitted of charges of trying to turn the public against obligatory military service. The court pointed to freedom of speech as the rationale for the ruling and Presiding Judge Ülker Kirazcı ruled that Ersoy’s remarks were personal thoughts she'd expressed in line with her right to freedom of speech and thought.

She was facing a jail term ranging from nine months to nearly three years had she been convicted of the charges.

A Transsistah's Secret- Shoe Sizes

Being the shoe fanatic I am, one of the first things I wanted know was what was my feminine shoe size. The basic rule of thumb in the US and Canadian markets is that you add two to your old male shoe size to get the equivalent femme shoe size.

Therefore, if you wore a size 8 in a men's shoe, your equivalent women's shoe size is a 10.

However, while most people have consistent sizes across types of shoes, sometimes depending on the style of shoe and where it's manufactured, you may have to get one that's larger. I noted that I had to go a size larger for shoes made in Brazil, for example, while others were fairly true to my actual shoe size.

So word to the wise is try them on first before you buy them to make sure they're comfortable and they fit.