Elections Matter, GL People

Had one of my Facebook friends shoot me a link to a discussion in which once again, predominately white GL activists were ranting about the executive order issue and getting their left wing hate on for President Obama

One person in the thread who is a proud GetEqual supporter, implied that whichever party held a political office didn't matter and expressed more faith in direct action than the ballot box..

It has little to do with who is in office and everything to do with our community's willingness to fight

Oh really? Spoken like someone chock full of vanillacentric privilege  and that's where you and your organization are tragically wrong.  Elections matter and if you were a person of color you wouldn't part your lips to say something so categorically obtuse.

It calls me to question whether you GetEqual people really have a vowel and a clue about how to get rainbow community human rights coverage done right in the first place, much less have a coherent long range plan for doing so besides hating on President Obama.  

Political Reality Check 101 for you since it seems as though some of you slept through your high school civics or your collegiate political science classes.   What party controls the state houses, Congress, city hall, the judicial benches, the governor's mansion, the White House is a big fracking deal, especially if you are part of a mariginalized minority group.  Control of the White House is also important because the president appoints justices for the federal court system and the Supreme Court.  

And news flash for you white GLBT peeps, in case you haven't realized it yet, Moni's going to break it down for you.  You are part of a marginalized minority group now and as such have been knocked down a few pegs from your former perch at the top of the societal privilege food chain.

That means that you have a new political reality to absorb, and it's one that non-white TBLG people are intimately familiar with.

Rule Number One of the new political reality is that it is never a smart political play to even think about sitting out an election.   Why in the hell do you think the Republifools have spent so much time and money trying to suppress non white people's votes in advance of this election?

Rule Number Two you need to burn into your brains is that you can't get progressive legislation from conservative politicians.   

I'm also going to tear into another misguided comment I saw in this thread from another person.   This person who shall remain nameless suggested the GL community should stay at home in 2012 to 'punish' the Democrats and President Obama for not moving as fast as you vanillacentric privileged peeps deem necessary on rainbow community human rights issues.

Um, didn't y'all try that 'punish the Dems by staying home' strategy in 2010?   How's that working out for you and the GL rights movement?

The only people you 'punished' because of your lack of strategic vision were yourselves, all women, middle class workers, the poor, and our children.   The only people that worked out for was the Tea Klux Klan and the Republicans.  They said.thank you very much clueless left wing Obama haters for staying at home and handing us power in a election cycle that was going to determine how federal, state and local legislative bodies were going to be reapportioned for the entire 2k10 decade.

Since one of them was a Texan, thank y'all very much for irrationally sitting at home and giving the Republicans a Texas House supermajority in the Lone Star State.  They promptly attempted to use it to disenfranchise Blacks and Latinos but thanks to the 1965 Voting Rights Act were stymied for the moment..  That supermajority also gave GOP legislators the political power to cut public school funding for starters and attack this community with more anti-gay legislation .  

Thank you clueless GL folks who hate Obama so much you allowed the Republicans to draw political legislative maps that will reduce our political power and make it harder for us to regain progressive majorities in the Texas legislature until 2020

And at the federal level, thank you for giving the POTUS half a congress that makes it impossible for him to get anything done GLBT rights wise or pass the liberal-progressive legislation we wish to have happen until 2013.

Elections matter, and the sooner you GL folks learn that simple lesson the conservafool moment has known since 1964, the faster we can make GLBT rights progress a reality. 

How (Not) To Write About Black Trans Women

Karnythia of the Angry Black Woman blog had an interesting post I ran across entitled How To Write About Black Women in which she slammed all the tropes, memes and blanket statements aimed at Black women when others outside our community write about us. 

One group she didn't mention is Black trans women, and here's where I was inspired to pick up the baton and happily run with it where Karnythia left off. 

(Moni cracks knuckles) 

Let's get started with this post, shall we?

Only acknowledge the existence of Black transwomen when we are murdered or the victim of a crime, salaciously involved in some scandal or news story you wish to highlight, during the November 20 Transgender Day of Remembrance, you wish to pump up your Nielsen ratings during sweeps week or you wish to use us to insult Black cis women you hate.

Ignore the African descended trans activists who have toiled for decades to represent our community or have eloquently written about those issues for years because only white transwomen do that.  Don't bother quoting Black transwomen on issues of importance to the rainbow community at large, write positive stories about them speaking on trans issues or believe there are engaged Black transfeminine leaders involved in fighting for the human rights of their community and others.        .

Use a sellout Black gay male drag queen, white trans activists at inside the beltway Gay, Inc organizations or local rainbow community orgs to speak as 'experts' on Black trans lives.

Violate the AP Stylebook guidelines on covering transgender people by misgendering Black transwomen at every opportunity.  When known, mention their old male names even if it isn't germane to the story in order to other them and reinforce the point they weren't originally born female.  

If a Black transwoman is a victim of a hate crime or discrimination, you take the police spokesperson or the right wing anti-trans organization word as gospel truth without questioning if the 'man' they are describing in their press conference is actually a transwoman..  Inject the 'deception meme' into the story, add any criminal record your research may have uncovered if they have one and make certain you use either the mug shot or an unflattering picture of her.  Throw in for good measure without any evidence to back it up shady commentary or your presumption the transperson in question was soliciting

Quotes of family members or neighbors misgendering that person work for the story as well.   .


When in the process of rebutting a critique a Black transwoman has written, call her 'angry', 'obsessed about race', take digs at her education and demand she produce dissertation level citations to prove her points. If that doesn't work, call her a racist.  If all of the above fails, call her a 'man'.

If you're a cis female or radical feminist do all of the above, flaunt your ability to menstruate, birth them babies and add misogynist to your list of charges. If you're a white transsexual separatist, obsess about surgical status in addition to doing all of the above.

Position the Black transwoman as the 'unwoman' juxtaposed to cis women and non Black trans women you have anointed with honorary cis privilege.  The Black transwoman doesn't exist except to fulfill the 'tragic transsexual' meme or as martyrs to use in order to fundraise for Gay, Inc organizations.  

They are also handy for browbeating Black civil rights legacy orgs into supporting same gender marriage, taking Black legislators to task to garner support for getting marriage equality laws passed for GL people or ramrod through unjust trans rights laws without public accommodations language.

If Black transwomen object to the erasure or the misuse of their fallen transsisters lives and histories in that manner, accuse them of being divisive, refuse to engage with them, microaggressively engage in tone arguments or lob sexist, bigoted and misgendering comments at them while doing so..

Presume that your cis privileged life and your observations based on collegiate gender theory classes trump the lived experiences and everyday lives of a Black transwoman.  Dismiss it when she states that race matters and aim pre-1963 Dr. King quotes at her while chiding her for not being colorblind   Obsess about the Black transwoman's sexuality and make blanket statements and presumptions that her only interests in life are partying, getting high, getting pumped and turning tricks. 

Make blanket statements and assumptions that she is neither concerned about nor intelligent enough to discuss the human rights issues that affect all transpeople or that she has spirituality, hopes, dreams and aspirations in life just like any other human being on the planet. 

Liberals - Y'all Need To Be Scarfing Up Girl Scout Cookies This Year

The conservafools have had their their hate on for the Girl Scouts since 2005 and are now taking it to unprecedented levels.  They have gone on their propaganda organ Fox to spread thir vitriol against them and have even threatened to boycott their annual cookie drive.

As I have implored people to do, since they have had our backs, the trans community's back and resisted the right wing idiocy, it's time for us liberal progressive peeps in 2012 to show them some love and have their backs when their annual Girl Scout Cookie drive starts.

If you think Moni's sellin' you woof tickets on that conservahate of the Girl Scouts, here's the scoop from Media Matters. 



To any Girl Scouts or their troop leaders reading this blog, I like shortbreads and Thin Mints and I'm looking to triple my order this year.  So e-mail a Girl Scout cookie loving sister and let me know where y'all gonna be selling them this year..