Kentucky-Black Head Coaching Hotbed?

Over the last few years, there has been a marked increase in the numbers of minorities getting the head coaching jobs at NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division 1) schools. I'm proud to say my alma mater, the University of Houston is one of them.

But the interesting trend that has happened lately on the NCAA African-American head football coaching front is transpiring in Kentucky.

There are three schools in this state, Louisville, Kentucky and Western Kentucky that play at the FBS level. With the recent elevation of offensive coordinator and UK alum Joker Phillips in the wake of the retirement of Rich Brooks, U of L's hiring of Florida defense coordinator Charlie Strong and the hiring of Hilltopper alum and Stanford assistant Willie Taggart at WKU, the state of Kentucky's FBS football programs are all headed by African-Americans.

That means out of the 12 African-American head football coaches in the FBS, Kentucky is home to one quarter of them.

In addition, Joker Phillips' elevation to the position makes him only the second ever African-American head football coach in the SEC. Sylvester Croom broke that barrier when he was hired by Mississippi State in 2004 and held the position until he resigned at the end of the 2008 season.

Kentuckians are taking football as seriously as they do King Basketball in light of the fact these three programs have been making competitive noise.

The Wildcats have been steadily building the foundation since the arrival of Brooks and have become competitive in the SEC East, the toughest division in college football.

The Cards won a BCS bowl in 2005 as Big East champions but have slipped from that elite level.

Western Kentucky won the 2002 Division I-AA National Championship, elevated its program to FBS level and had a rough 0-10 maiden season adjusting to FBS level football.

It's great to see that all three institutions have decided to have these well qualified gentlemen run their programs. Strong was defense coordinator for the NCAA Champion Florida Gators. Phillips has been the offensive coordinator for the Wildcats. Taggart was an assistant coach at WKU for a decade before he moved on to Stanford.

It's even more gratifying to see in Phillips' and Taggart's cases former players who have been given the opportunity to coach at their alma maters. In Taggart's case he is one of only four WKU players in the 91 year football history to have their jersey number retired.

May all three have much success leading their respective programs to the next level of development in the future, unless they're playing Kevin Sumlin and my Cougars.

Never Forget The People Who Died

Never forget the people who died.

That's what the TDOR is all about. To make sure we never forget the people we have lost to anti transgender violence.

We say people because we have folks on our list such as Willie Houston and Pfc. Barry Winchell who died because of ignorant perceptions as well. Barry died because he was dating Calpernia Addams and one of his fellow Fort Campbell soldiers had a problem with that. Willie died because the shooter's homophobia was triggered by him holding his fiancee's purse while she used the restroom.

But the bulk of the people on this sadly growing list are transpeople of color. Black and Latina people make up 70% of the Remembering our Dead list, and once again, the people we memorialize this year are disproportionately people of color.

12 of them resided in the United States, and are part of the 117 names worldwide we are sadly adding to this list.

As long as I'm living on Planet Earth and compile posts for TransGriot, it will be part of this blog's mission to ensure that I cover the TDOR and make sure our fallen transpeople are never forgotten.

Why Do We Need Transgender Day Of Remembrance? Well…

TransGriot Note: My latest post for Global Comment

If you’ve been perusing my home blog and other transgender-themed blogs across the Internet recently, you may have noticed the TDOR acronym pop up, and wondered what it means.

TDOR stands for the Transgender Day of Remembrance. For the last eleven years, every November 20 we memorialize and call attention to the people we’ve lost due to anti-transgender hatred and prejudice.

The Transgender Day of Remembrance began in the wake of the November 28, 1998 murder of African-American transwoman Rita Hester of Boston, MA. Rita’s murder was the impetus for San Francisco based activist Gwen Smith to begin the Remembering Our Dead web project and organize a vigil in San Francisco on the one year anniversary of Rita’s murder.

The 1999 San Francisco vigil quickly morphed into an event that was observed on November 20 in various locations around the world. This year in addition to TDOR events taking place in numerous locales across the United States and Canada, TDOR events will take place in Australia, England, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Malaysia, The Philippines, The Netherlands, Norway, Scotland and Sweden.

The Remembering Our Dead Web Project not only compiles the names of people from around the world who have lost their lives to anti-transgender violence, it keeps statistics as well.

There are non-transgender people on the list such as Nashville’s Willie Houston. He was murdered in 2002, because the shooter considered him gay after seeing him hold his fiancé’s purse. This resulted in a verbal parking lot altercation near the General Jackson steamboat that tragically ended in death.

Pfc. Barry Winchell is another non transgender person on the list. In the early morning hours of July 5, 1999 the Fort Campbell, KY was killed because he was dating a trans woman, Calpernia Addams. That story is told in the movie “Soldier’s Girl.”

At this year’s TDOR ceremony we’ll be adding Michael Hunt’s name. He was murdered along with his transgender girlfriend, Taysia Elzy

The core part of any TDOR service is reading the list of names of people we lost from the time after we held the previous year’s event to the current one. As that list of names is read, a candle is lit in remembrance of that person.

Sadly, according to Ethan St. Pierre – who compiles the statistics and in 1995 lost his aunt Debra Forte to anti transgender violence – we will be lighting candles for 117 people. One of the other glaring statistics that Ethan points out is that 70% of the Remembering Our Dead list is made up of trans people of color, and that pattern sadly continues with the people we are memorializing for 2009.

Read the rest here.

Ten Years-400 Dead...And Counting

Today is the tenth anniversary of the Transgender Day of Remembrance. It's the day transgender people around the world pause and remember our fallen brothers and sisters along with our allies and friends.

It's also a day of mixed emotions for me. One of the people we'll be remembering this year is one of my friends.

Instead of lighting 30 candles on her birthday cake next month, instead we'll be lighting one candle for Nakhia 'Nikki' Williams at our 7 PM EST ceremony in the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary's Caldwell Chapel later tonight. She unfortunately is one of the 27 transpeople killed this year due to the senseless anti-transgender violence directed at us.


Since the night ten years ago that Rita Hester's lifeless body was found in her Boston area apartment and outrage over the disrespectful way the gay and straight news media covered it triggered the first TDOR ceremony in 1999, we have read the names of 412 people over the last ten years of TDOR ceremonies according to the Remembering Our Dead web project site.

The 412 names listed are disproportionately transgender people of color, encompasses 38 states, 130 US cities and several nations. It also includes non-transgender people such as Nashville's Willie Houston and Barry Winchell, who was killed by a fellow soldier because he was dating transwoman Calpernia Addams.

This year's ceremony is a mixed bag of emotions for me. I'm angry about the continued loss of valuable lives. I'm saddened by the fact that one of my friends is on the list this year. I'm shocked but not surprised after reading the stats that we lost so many people this year.

But at the same time, I'm hopeful that with the increased media coverage of transgender people over the last year and a half combined with the upcoming change in presidential administration, we finally have the conditions in place to pass hate crimes and an inclusive ENDA.

They may be just laws to some of you, but for the transgender community they are literally life and death issues. They are symbols that we matter, our lives are respected and valued and when you read the 'We The People' in the Constitution's preamble, that includes transgender Americans as well. .

The TDOR also ensures that how and why our fellow transpeople died never fades from our memories.


crossposted to The Bilerico Project

The Willie Houston Story

One of the things I need to point out is how pervasive gender and gender role stereotyping is prevalent in our culture. The rigid gender binary has such a powerful connotation that transgressing it as you see played out in transgender people's lives leads to harsh treatment, ostracizing and even death in some cases.

Sometimes even for people who aren't transgender.

On the Remembering our Dead lists are the names Pfc. Barry Winchell and Willie Houston. Neither of these men are GLBT, but died at the hands of others because of the PERCEPTION that they were.

Barry Winchell's story is familiar to anyone who saw the movie Soldier's Girl or who has heard Calpernia Addams speak about it from time to time.

But Willie Houston's story won't been told in a movie, and it's past time that it be heard again. People need to remember the insane reason why we memorialize him on this list. It's an example of the ignorance that some of my people show on gender issues, and unfortunately, that ignorance in this case caused an unnecessary death.

On July 28, 2001, 38 year old Willie Houston, his fiance Nedra Jones, and their friends Valerie and Melvin Holt celebrated their engagement by taking a midnight dinner cruise on the General Jackson Showboat in Nashville, TN.

When the boat docked at 2;45 AM EDT, out of concern for Mr. Holt they decided to wait until most of the passengers had disembarked from the boat before doing so themselves. Ms. Jones had to use the dockside restroom, so she asked her fiance to hold her purse. While Ms. Jones was doing so, Mr. Holt had to also use the restroom so Willie escorted his blind friend to the men's room still in possession of his fiance's purse. Ms. Jones was told by Valerie Holt what was happening when she returned.

A few moments later Houston and Melvin Holt returned from their trip to the men's room. He was still carrying his fiance's purse slung over his shoulder and he and Melvin Holt were laughing about and recounting the homophobic remarks directed at Houston in the men's room.

A few moments later a man later identified as then 25-year-old Lewis Maynard Davidson III and another man started cursing at Houston. When Ms. Jones told Davidson that he didn't have to talk to Houston like that, Davidson responded,"F--k you, fat b---h." Ms. Jones then read Davidson like a cheap novel while Houston warned the man not to disrespect his lady.

As the Holts, Houston and Jones exited the General Jackson, Davidson and his friend continued to spew abusive language and threats at them. Houston finally told Ms. Jones to stop and let Davidson and his companion pass and as he did said, "I'll f--k y'all up-you and your friends."

As they continued walking with the Holts to the parking lot, Davidson shouted insults at them again before heading off to his car. As Houston was unlocking his Davidson approached him again brandishing a gun.

As Jones shouted for security guards, Houston tried to reason with Davidson by saying, "Man, there ain't no need in acting like this. We just came on the boat to have a good time,...and we are just ready to go home."

To drive home the point that he wasn't looking for trouble, Houston pushed the gun in a downward direction, stepped away from Davidson with hands up and open palms faced outward. Davidson still shot, hit Houston in the chest and jumped into a waiting car that rapidly left the scene. Houston unfortunately died a few hours later

Davidson was caught in Ohio two months later and extradited back to Tennessee. He was tried, convicted of first degree premeditated murder and sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Willie Houston.

While Lewis M. Davidson III is rotting in jail, it still doesn't erase the pain for Ms. Jones and everyone who knew Willie Houston. It's also mind boggling to think that this tragic series of events started because the shooter was tripping about someone carrying his girlfriend's purse and ignorantly assumed they were gay.

Open Letter To The CBC

Dear Congressional Black Caucus,
When the 110th Congress was gaveled into session back in January it made history on many fronts. The members of the CBC for the first time would not only chair many subcommittees, but important committees such as Ways and Means and Judiciary.

An African-American would serve as the Majority Whip for the first time in a decade. It would even include not only its first representative from Minnesota, but that representative would be a Muslim as well. And the thing I am most proud of is that a CBC member of the Senate is not only running for president, but has a serious shot to win the Democratic party nomination for the job next year as well.

Yes, the CBC has come a long way since its founding in 1971 and it's not called the 'Conscience of the Congress' for nothing.

So as an African-American who happens to be transgender, I would like to appeal to that conscience and humbly ask why some members of the CBC aren't voting to expand civil rights to their fellow African-Americans who happen to be transgender.

I'm not naive to politics. I'm a student of history who is painfully aware of our tortured history in this country and how long it took civil rights for African-Americans to pass.

But I fail to understand why some CBC members are balking at expanding rights to people who desperately need them in the name of 'pragmatic politics'. There are over 300 organizations including the National Black Justice Coalition and the International Federation of Black Prides that support an inclusive ENDA.

I understand that the misguided ministers of the Hi Impact Leadership Coalition and others in Congress are placing tremendous pressure on some of you to vote NO not only on the Baldwin Amendment that would fix the problems in Rep. Barney Frank's HR 3685, but on HR 3685 as well.

But looking at our history, you can well understand why as an African-American transperson I'm imploring you to vote YES on the Baldwin Amendment and include people in this legislation that should have never been cut out of it in the first place.

Over 70% of the people listed on the Remembering our Dead List, which memorializes victims of anti-transgender violence are African-American or other people of color. Many of you were in Washington when Tyra Hunter was denied emergency medical treatment by an African-American EMT and subsequently at DC General that would have saved her life. The hate for transgender people is so palpable that several years ago Willie Houston, an African-American who was helping a man cross a Nashville street was shot and killed because he happened to be holding his wife's purse at the time.

I thank the CBC for standing tall on the hate crimes bill that passed the House May 3 and I and others expressed that sentiment to many of the CBC offices I was able to visit then. But what is more vitally important to transgender people like myself is having job protections.

It does me no good to have hate crimes protection if someone feels that they have a God given 'special right' to mess with my employment, fire me because I transitioned, or deny me or any person gay or straight a job we have the qualifications to do because we don't fit their impressions of how a man or woman is supposed to act, walk, talk or look.

I have already felt the sting of employment discrimination because I'm transgender. I need a roof over my head, food to eat, and clothes on my back. I have to earn money to pay for those necessities of life and that requires a job. Since medical care at the moment is tied up in gainful employment as well, an inclusive ENDA is a life or death issue to us.

The late Barbara Jordan, a fellow Texan, one of my heroes and a distinguished member of the Congressional Black Caucus once stated,

"One thing is clear to me: We, as human beings, must be willing to accept people who are different from ourselves."

As a transgender American of African descent that's all I and any other transperson is asking for. All we want is an expansion of the 'We, the People' in the Constitution to include us. All we are asking for is an opportunity to be able to use our talents to work and live our lives free of harassment. All we want is an equitable opportunity to do our part to help build our country. Because the Forces of Intolerance are arrayed against us now, we can't wait decades for a separate transgender-only ENDA to pass.

In short, we're asking for nothing more than you would want for yourselves or your children: First-class citizenship.

Whether we get that will be determined in large part by the actions of the Democratic Party and the members of 'the Conscience of the Congress.'

Since the CBC's founding you have never failed to lead on civil rights issues before. Please don't let failing to expand civil rights protection for transgender Americans become the first stain on that impressive and morally principled record.

Sincerely yours,
Monica Roberts
2006 IFGE Trinity Award Winner