Shut Up Fool Awards- Moni's At #CC16 Edition

I'm up in Chicago for the 2016 edition of Creating Change, and I'm having a blast getting my learn on and seeing everyone that made it up here for this major conference.  We're happy that the weather is not as chilly as we expected, but the Chicago Host Committee is showing us a great time as we get our learn on.

It's Friday, and even though I'm up here handling #CC16 business, fools are everywhere, and I gots to call them out.  Speaking of calling fools out, I'll be adding five more names to the SUF Lifetime Achievement Awards List during Oscar weekend..  

So let's get started with my weekly TransGriot Shut Up Fool Awards and finding out what fool, fool or group of fools get it.

Honorable mention number one goes to Bernie Sanders, who is upset that he didn not get the endorsement of the Human Rights Campaign, but keeps mispronouncing the name of the organization.

Maybe if you gooten the name of the group right, they may have felt the bern for you.

Honorable mention number two is a group award for PETA, who floated the offer that if the city of Detroit went vegan, they would pay Detroit`s water bill.

And y`all wanna know why I hate PETA`s racist asses.

Honorable mention number three is a group award for all the 2016 POTUS candidates who continue to spew racist, sexist (fill in the blank) comments at every stop on the ccampaign trail.

Honorable mention number four goes to FOX Noise spokessellout Stacey Dash, who while cooning it up for FOX Noise tried to defend the melanin free Oscar nominees by suggesting that the BET and NAACP awards need to go if we Black people want intergration,

You need to chill with the GOP cranial rinses.   The reaon those award shows exist in the Black community Stacey, is because of repeated snubs like the ones you`re trying to defend.

This week the Shut Up Fool winner is Sarah Palin for blaming the arrest if her son Trask on President Obama and PTSD,

Really?  As usual that chillbilly is just like very other Republican in terms never taking responsibiloity for their actions of lousy parenting.

Sarah Palin, shut up fool

Top 5 Texas Trans Moments of 2015

One of the things that irritates me about Top Five or Top Ten lists for trans issues is that far too often, they ignore stuff that doesn't happen on I-5, I-95 or inside I-495.  FYI to the rest of the country, liberal progressive people do exist here inside the borders of the Lone Star State and some of the 35 million people who live here inside my bigger than France state are trans people.

I need to remind you once again that Texas, and especially Houston based trans activists have helped spur much of the progress of the modern trans rights movement, and far too often we get ignored for doing so.

So in order to address that bi- coastal and inside the beltway imbalance, I'm going to do a 2015 Top 5 trans moments list with a Texas twang to it.

1.  All four anti-trans bathroom bills die in the Texas Legislature.

As part as a major attack on the human rights of Texas TBLG people, the hatemongers in the GOP controlled Texas Legislature rolled out a slate of 20 unjust bills.   Four of those bills (HB 1748, 1749, 2801 and 2802 targeted the Texas trans community.

These bathroom bills sought to not only criminalize being trans for adult trans Texans, but attack our trans kids matriculating in Texas schools.  

HB 1748 and HB 1749 were filed by suburban Houston Republicans Rep. Debbie Riddle of Tomball and would have made it a misdemeanor crime punishable by fines and jail time for Moni and every trans Texan to poop and pee in public restrooms. HB 2080 and 2082, filed by Rep. Gilbert Pena of Pasadena, targeted Texas trans kids.  It incentivized snitching on and bullying trans kids for using the potty for cash.

We were given little to no chance by outside of Texas groups to kill any of that negative legislation, but that's exactly what happened.   Trans Texans in conjunction with our allies got mad, rolled up our sleeves, and showed up in Austin for three lobby days.   We talked to our legislators under the Pink Dome, lobbied and denounced the unjust bills and successfully got them killed.

But you can bet that when the 2017 session starts, we will once again need to be ready to roll to Austin to defend our human rights again.  


2.  HERO Repealed

You've seen a lot of posts on this blog about the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance and the fight in 2014 to pass it.  Passing the law was the easy part.  The hard part as we knew when we started this human rights battle was going to be being able to keep it in the City Code of Ordinances.

Due to a massive disinformation campaign, a devastatingly effective ad, Houston media not doing their job combined with a mistake ridden HERO defense campaign, the Forces of Intolerance led primarily by out of town anti-LGBT activists and the Texas GOP, the Forces of Intolerance won by a 61-39% margin.

And yeah, I had a lot to say about the failure of the Houston Unites campaign to defend the HERO against this debunked trans predator meme and recycled Jim Crow talking points.

3.  Dallas strengthens trans protections

As we were suffering a devastating human rights defeat on our end of I-45 and getting pilloried in the national media for it, on the northern end of it in Dallas they were strengthening their trans protections.

One week after the HERO repeal, the Texas Values haters, fresh off their victory in Houston, tried to replicate what they had done in Dallas.

They failed as the Dallas City Council by a unanimous vote clarified their trans human rights protections that had been on the books since 2002 and the Dallas media tore their spokeshaters to shreds.

This is one time I can't (cough, cough) hate on Dallas.

4. Nikki Araguz Loyd wins her trans marriage case

After a nearly six year battle to do so, Nikki Araguz Loyd finally prevailed in the Delgado v. Araguz  trans marriage legal fight that killed the odious 1999 Littleton v Prange trans marriage case.

It not only reinstated her marriage to the late Capt. Thomas Araguz III and gave her the recognition back as his widow, it set a positive precedent for trans marriage rights in the Lone Star State

And how apropos the final ruling in the case happened on November 20, and the transphobic judge Randy Clapp (R)  that ruled the wrong way back in 2010, was the one that had to sign the order reversing his incorrect one.

5. Texas loses two trans women.

Unfortunately two of the record 20 trans women murdered in 2015 were Lone Star State residents in 24 year old Ty Underwood and 20 year old  Shade Schuler.

24 year old Ty Underwood was killed in Tyler, Texas in January by her boyfriend Carlton Ray Champion, who was convicted of the crime and sentenced to life in prison after bragging he'd be back on the streets on the day he was convicted.

The other trans woman we lost was in Dallas.   The decomposing body of 22 year old Shade Schuler was found on July 29 in a field near the Dallas medical district.

Unfortunately her killer has yet to be found and justice has yet to be served in this case, but it's hopeful that it will happen for her, her family and all who love her in 2016.

A reminder to the rest of the country.  We have some kick butt trans activists here in the Lone Star Sate who despite what y'all think on the coasts, are making stuff happen that benefits trans kind.

Going to be interesting to see what we accomplish in 2016.




   

2015 Virginia Prince Transgender Pioneer Award Acceptance Speech

TransGriot Note: This is the text of the speech I'm currently delivering at Fantasia Fair that's entitled 'A Fantastic Voyage Towards Trans Human Rights Progress'


Good afternoon to Barbara Curry, Jamie Dailey, Dallas Denny, Mary Beth Cooper, Miqqi Gilbert, Fantasia Fair staff and volunteers, my fellow transpeople, my mentor Dainna Cicotello, Fantasia Fair attendees, significant others and spouses, allies and friends.

Thank you Denise Norris for that wonderful introduction, and thank you for the work that you have done to make this world better for all of us.

Thanks also to the Fantasia Fair team that has worked hard to not only make it possible for me to be standing in front of you delivering this speech, but is working daily to make this week a special and enjoyable one for all of you here in attendance here in Provincetown today and for the rest of the 41st edition of this conference.

I am pleased and proud to be standing before you making history this afternoon as the first African-American transperson to be honored by Fantasia Fair with the Virginia Prince Transgender Pioneer Award.  I enthusiastically accept it on behalf of myself and the trans ancestors who preceded me in proudly living our trans lives and fighting for our humanity and freedom,.

I also accept this award in the name of all of the people we have lost this year be it through murder or suicide, and may we please have a moment of silence to remind ourselves their lives mattered.

Thank you.

While I may be the first African-American trans person honored with this Virginia Prince Transgender Pioneer Award, I emphatically believe I won't be the last one to be so honored.   We have some people who have been and still are trailblazing African-American leaders such as Marisa Richmond, Kylar Broadus, Dawn Wilson, Miss Major and Louis Mitchell just to name a few who could have easily been standing here today instead of me.

But hey, I'm not going to lie.  I am so happy y'all gave it to me.

It's actually fitting when you think about it, since Texans have figured prominently in shaping the history of the modern trans community.  My fellow Texan Phyllis Frye, who won this award in 2003 is called 'The Godmother of the Trans Rights Movement for providing the innovative leadership we needed at that time as an out trans woman.  She got the Houston anti-crossdressing law killed in August 1980.  She founded the Houston based ICTLEP conferences that started in 1992 and helped organize the trans community, got us focused on the legal aspects of being transgender, got us on the same page politically, instilled a sense of pride in being out, trans and proud, and trained my generation of activists.

The second gender clinic founded in this country after the now closed Johns Hopkins one was in Galveston, TX. in the early 70s at the University of Texas Medical Branch there.. To the west of me in San Antonio the Texas 'T' Party organized in 1988 by Linda and Cynthia Phillips was mushrooming from a regional crossdresser and trans gathering into the then largest trans themed event in the country before it shut down in 1996 and the Atlanta based Southern Comfort grew to take that title.

When the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition was founded in 1999 at an Italian restaurant in Bethesda, MD, two Texans were sitting at that table helping to put it together in myself and Vanessa Edwards Foster.  

And that legacy of innovative Lone Star State trans leadership continues with Josephine Tittsworth's founding of the Texas Transgender Nondiscrimination Summit, which has resulted in 20 Texas colleges and universities and five school districts adopting trans inclusive policies.  Carter Brown has grown Black Trans Men Inc from a trans masculine centered conference that happened in Dallas to the Black Trans Advocacy Conference that will be held again in Big D in late April

We have trans leaders emerging across our state that is bigger than France like Lou Weaver, Nell Gaiter, Dr Oliver Blumer, Dee Dee Watters, Lauryn Farris, Katy Stewart, Robyn Morgan Collado, Ana Andrea Molina and Nikki Araguz Loyd.

Thanks fellow trans Texans for your contributions in making the trans community, Texas and our local communities better for transkind.

So don't hate on Texas, appreciate it because of our tradition of producing some kick ass trans leaders, and contrary to outside of Texas public opinion, Austin is not the only spot in my bigger than France sized state that is a liberal progressive bastion.
There is also the Rio Grande Valley, Corpus Christi, El Paso, Dallas, San Antonio, Beaumont-Port Arthur and my soon to be third largest city in the US hometown of Houston,

Houston has proudly elected Annise Parker, an out lesbian and longtime LGBT community activist as our mayor three times, and we will shock the world again on November 3 when my fellow Houstonians reject right wing fear and smear campaign tactics and vote to keep the HERO.

For those of you who are not aware of my story beyond what you have seen printed in your Fantasia Fair program, here is the short version.   I have been on my evolutionary trans feminine journey for 21 years and counting.  I love history and I am a Christian in the Rev. Dr MLK Jr liberation theology mode of my faith.   I have been involved in trans human rights activism at the local and state level in Kentucky and Texas, and the federal level since 1998.  

I have an award winning nearly ten year old blog called TransGriot that according to my haters nobody reads.

I am an unapologetically Black Texas trans angelic troublemaker who has zero tolerance for TERFs, fundamentalist idiots, trans community sellouts and anyone else who wishes to oppress and demonize trans people or trample the human rights of others. And I vote in every election cycle despite your attempts Texas GOP to make that harder for me and other people they hate in the Lone Star State to do.

At the time I transitioned on April 4, 1994, the landscape for trans people was light years different than it is now.  Minnesota was the only state along with ten cities, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Paul, MN,  Harrisburg, PA, Champaign, IL, Urbana IL, Santa Cruz, CA, and Grand Rapids, MI which had trans inclusive nondiscrimination laws.   We were a few months from doing a national lobby day in Washington DC, and the trans human rights case law was sketchy at best,

We now have 16 states, the District of Columbia and over 200 jurisdictions that have trans inclusive laws.  We are starting to have court rulings go in our favor and even popular culture is starting to add trans characters like the CBS soap The Bold and the Beautiful, Transparent and Orange Is The New Black.  

And sometimes they will even have wonder of wonders, trans actors like Scott Turner Schofield and Laverne Cox, playing trans characters.

We are also a few months from seeing the 15,000 trans people in our armed forces get the ability to openly serve our country.    Thanks to TAVA, SPARTA, our allies and people inside our military like Sgt. Shane Ortega who pushed our nation to do what 16 other countries have already done and allowed trans people to enthusiastically answer the call to serve our nation.

Why is that important?  Because people like Kristin Beck, Amanda Simpson, Brynn Tannehill and our trans elders like Monica Helms, Christine Jorgensen and Allyson Robinson have in common is they served in the military, and are now using those leadership skills to benefit our community and our nation.

Another thing I have been moved and gratified to see is the emergence of trans teen leaders like Jazz Jennings, Nicole Maines and others with the help and loving support of their amazing parents, step up around the country to not only educate their peers about trans issues, but fight for their own and our human rights while kicking knowledge to us trans elders and others outside our community as well.

I can`t forget my amazing sister Fallon Fox, who is kicking ass and taking names in the women's MMA world while my sportswriting sis Christina Kahrl is reporting the sports news.

And speaking of reporters, I can't forget the trailblazing Eden Lane, who was the first out trans woman to report on a national political convention back in 2008 when she did so for PBS during the historic Democratic National Convention in Denver that served as then Sen. Barack Obama`s springboard to a presidency that has been the best ever for trans people.

I have been proud to see Geena Rocero, Isis King, Andreja Pejic, Carmen Carrera, Arisce Wanzer and others continue down the path that people like April Ashley, Caroline Cossey, Tracy Africa Norman, Roberta Close  and Lauren Foster blazed down the world's fashion runways.

And even in the tech world, we are represented in that world by Dr Kortney Ziegler and Angelica Ross building on the accomplishments of Dr Lynn Conway.  

But unfortunately one thing hasn't changed since I began my own transition, and that is the level of anti-trans violence aimed at our community.

We received another reminder of it happening on the eve of this conference when Zella Ziona Smith was murdered last Thursday in Maryland.   The thing that infuriates me is that she was just 21 years old and continues the upsetting to me pattern of trans women of  color taking the disproportionate brunt of it.

Thankfully the waste of DNA who is accused of killing her was arrested by the Montgomery County MD police and is rotting in jail without bond.

I am going to say this and continue to say it loudly and proudly until they bury me six feet under my beloved Texas soil.   As a person who is unapologetically Black and trans, my transition does not mean because you don`t like my Black trans behind or my Black trans brothers and trans sisters,  you can unilaterally erase us from the Black community we are an intertwined kente cloth part of.

Neither will we put up with in Trans and LGBT World attempts to erase us from the community we have shed blood for, helped to create or its historical record.

We trans peeps are part of the diverse mosaic of human life on Planet Earth and didn't just pop up in the late 20th early 21st century.   You haters of all ethnic backgrounds don`t like the fact we trans peeps exist, tough.

We ain't having it or putting up with that crap any more because Black trans issues are Black community issues and vice versa.  Trigger happy policing and voter suppression negatively affect me as an unapologetically Black trans person along with the historic demonization of Blackness and Black femininity.    

We have seen far too many people in Houston, including a mayoral candidate named Ben Hall and misguided hypocritical Black ministers who share my ethnic background in this battle to keep our much needed human rights law bearing false witness against the trans community.   We in Black TBLG Houston are not going to tolerate that revolting development, especially when the off the charts anti-trans hate being spewed is resulting in the deaths of my trans younglings.

Hate thoughts + hate speech = hate violence is an equation that leads to the deaths of far too many of our people here and around the world.  And it needs to stop.        

Black community, when will #BlackTransLivesMatter enough to you for you to get off your asses and recognize that our babies are being killed?  I am beyond sick and tired of being sick and tired of having to remind Black America that Black transpeople are Black people too.

I`ve discussed some issues pertinent to our community, so let`s shift gears for a moment and talk about where do I see this amazing trans human rights voyage we are on needing to go?

One thing we need to do ASAP is have more trans people run for public office.  As that attempt in several states to criminalize being trans in this 2015 legislative cycle points out, we need to be writing the laws that govern us and not on our knees begging to kill the bad bills or get included in the good ones that advance our human rights.

And before you ask me if I am going to take my own advice and run Moni run, let`s just say I am seriously thinking about it.

I would also like to see every trans person who is eligible to do so to not only register to vote, but to exercise it in each and EVERY election cycle.  If we wish to see trans city council members, trans judges, trans mayors, trans state legislators, trans congress members and a trans president someday, we've got to do our part and provide the trans candidate that steps up to run for office support that includes a cadre of base voters they can reliably count on.

We also need as a trans community to be proactive in tackling systemic race issues in our ranks and doing the hard work to dismantle racism, sexism, homophobia and internalized transphobia in our ranks.  Some of our trans brothers need to stop being as misogynistic as their cis masculine counterparts and be the quality men of trans experience we know they can be.

And as Precious Davis and Myles Brady have been role modeling lately,  trans men and trans women loving each other is a powerful and revolutionary act.

As the stats from the 2011 NTDS point out, my transition as an African descended transperson is not like many of yours in this Fantasia Fair room, and neither is it like the one our Latina trans sisters like Arianna Lint, Jennicet Gutierrez, Ruby Corado, Joanna Cifredo and Elizabeth Rivera among others face.

We have an opportunity to role model to the rest of cis world what the Beloved Community that the Rev. Dr Martin Luther King, Jr talked about looks like in practice. White that is going to be a bumpy process at times, it need to be done as part of our ongoing community building efforts.

We must to do a better job on addressing HIV/AIDS issues in Trans World, and the recent Positively Trans Survey was a major first step to doing precisely that.

And people, to borrow the words of Elizabeth Rivera, #StopThe Shade.   We have an array of enemies from the Catholic and Southern Baptist Churches to the TERF`s, FOX Noise and the conservative movement hating on us.

There is enough work that needs to be done in Trans World and beyyond across this country for all of us to excel and shine.  It is time to get busy figuring out what you wish to do, if you have the talent and skill set to accomplish that mission you laid out for yourselves, and get busy making positive change happen.  We do not need to be hating on each other when the reality is we have enemies who wish to destroy all of us.

We need to have regular intergenerational conversations with each other.   I enjoy the phone calls I get for example from Miss Major and Sharyn Grayson, and I`m committing to havoing more conmversations with younger trans activistsgoing forward.   I learn just as much from those conversations as you do from me.

I was blessed to have one of those conversations with Sylvia Rivera in May 2000, and trans younglings, I wish to do for you what Sylvia did for me as a neophyte trans activist.   Those intersectional conversations are important in passing along our history, strategy and tactics, training our replacements in this struggle, and building pride in being the trans men and trans women we are.

We are blessed to be in a tipping point moment for not only the acceptance of trans people in all walks of life, but seeing trans human rights progress grow around the world.

I can`t wait to see how this fantastic voyage of trans human rights progress is going to transpire (pun intended) in the next five to ten years and what exciting things are in store for us.

I also hope we remember the words of the late Nelson Mandela as we continue on this trans human rights voyage  when he said, `For to be free is not merely to cast off one`s chains, but to live in a way that enhances the freedom of others`

I am proud to be doing my part at this pivotal moment in our history to help our community do exactly that as we continue to steer the SS Trans Human Rights to the safe harbor of codified human rights and having our humanity recognized until I have to pass the steering wheel of this ship to the next generation of trans leaders

And I`m confident that when that day comes, the SS Trans Human Rights will be in good hands.

Thank you, may God bless us and our community, may we love one another and ourselves, and you have a wonderful rest of your time here at Fantasia Fair 41.

 

Moni's Leaving On A Jet Plane: Destination DC

The Air Marshal is taking flight again for Washington DC for the third time in 2015.

The purpose of this latest DC trip is to attend the national Black Justice Coalition's 6th annual OUT on the Hill which is cranking up today with some invite only meetings and discussions.

Because I had to handle some business in Houston, couldn't free up my schedule enough to get here on Tuesday for the pre-conference networking event they had last night at the St. Gregory Hotel..

Well, stuff happens.   Something else that is happening is I'm getting up at 4 AM CDT so I can catch the 7;25 AM nonstop out of Hobby to DCA.  

What I hope will happen is that my flight to DCA will be on time so I can be at that 3:30 PM EDT round table meeting I'm scheduled for on time as well.   It's an invitation only roundtable discussion that I'm honored to be repping the 'T' for  that will feature a conversation on Black TBLGQ/SGL Women's Health and Wellness issues,

I,also have as part of my OUT on the Hill agenda besides being in reporter mode,  a Friday 12:30 PM EDT plenary session discussing the plight of trans women of color in the US.

There's also some good news-bad news I'm dealing with concerning my technology.  This will be the first trip in which I've gotten to test out the smartphone and the tablet I received as a late birthday present back in June.  Still trying to learn how to take photos and video on it, and will get plenty of opportunities to get proficient at doing so during this event.

The bad news is that the Asus laptop I received as a late Christmas present in 2013 that has served me well since #CC14 and through more than a few conferences, blogging and road trips has finally died on me, so I won't have a laptop to carry on this trip. 

I hate that because it had a 17 inch screen that was perfect for watching video and movies full screen and I liked the feel and the setup of the keyboard layout on it  once I got used to it.

I was planning on getting a new or gently used one anyway, but after having to move twice in the span of six weeks, it will have to wait until after I get  back from this conference..

But first, Moni's gotta get some beauty sleep for the long and busy day I'm going to have that gets cranked up in a few hours.

TERF's Now Come In The Sellout Kneegrow Variety

One of the things I'm consistently amused by is the lengths the TERF's will go to hate on little ol' truth telling about their azzes me.

They know that I will swiftly point out their TERF ranks are chock full of predominately white stuck in the 70's females with massive privilege, a boulder sized rock on their shoulders, and mad they weren't born as white men with the power to oppress people at the same level.

They have tried and failed to confront me over the years because they are similar in their thought processes to right wing Republicans in that they are stuck in reciting their convoluted devoid of logic dogma.  I have over a decade of practice in deconstructing their BS while giving zero phucks calling them out as they cry tasty vanilla flavored White Women's Tears.

So they tried a new tactic and sent the TERF Kneegrow Auxiliaries after yours truly. 

Seriously?  If Moni gives zero phucks in calling you white womyn gone wild out, what made you think I was gonna go easy on your Kneegrow TERF Auxiliaries?

The first one was someone I used to know in the Louisville progressive activist community who went to the Hart, MI Hatefest, stepped on 'The Land' and is now spouting their rhetoric.  She complained in a post I had written on my FB page a month ago that 'TERF was a slur', and I patiently tried to point out to Tanisha it wasn't.

You're probably driving to The Land for the last MichFest, so let me repeat it for you once again.

TERF stands for Trans Exterminationalist (Exclusionary) Radical Feminist, and it is a truth in advertising label created by feminists tired of y'all so called 'gender critical feminists' contaminating their brand.

You don't like the TERF description, take it up with your fellow feminists. If you don't want to be called a TERF, there's a simple pathway to follow to not be called one.  Don't emulate their reprehensible behavior or spout their transphobic rhetoric and we trans folks won't have to call you out about it. 

Am I happy this is the last MichFest?  You damned skippy!   I and other trans women are gleefully celebrating the self inflicted demise of an event that was founded by a longtime trans oppressor and transphobe in Lisa Vogel.   It unfortunately was molded in her TERF image to train cis women like you to hate trans people.

And I'm saddened you drank the TERF Kool-Aid.

If you are too clueless as a Black woman to not see the over four decades of TERF oppression of trans womyn (or are deliberately choosing to ignore it) and side with white womyn stuck in the 70's that hate your Black behind, too then you can exit my Facebook page and never speak to me again.

The second kneegrow I'm about to put on blast is one I was warned about by Diwa Cain, one of my Seattle based BTAC brothers.  He shot me a Facebook message a month ago expressing his concerns about Jaqueline Sephora Andrews, a local Black(?)  trans woman who has been saying some jacked up anti-trans crap that has him and other Seattle area trans leaders concerned .

Andrews calls herself a 'gender critical transwoman' which is the latest TERF speak codeword for " I'm gonna be as transphobic as I wanna be."   The fact a trans woman calls herself that is laughable and mind numbingly delusional at best.

Andrews has attacked and repeatedly misgendered Caitlyn Jenner, thrown barbs at Janet Mock up to calling her a misogynist, expressed support for anti-trans bathroom bills and leveled an attack at Jazz Jennings and by extension all trans kids by claiming that their parents allowing them and other trans kids to transition is child abuse. 

And she got my attention and subsequently got on my bad side by misgendering moi and Fallon Fox on Twitter.  That's NOT a place you need to or should ever want to be.

If you wanted my attention, you self hating rhymes with itch, now your cookie chomping sellout ass has got it, sir.. Caitlyn, Janet and Jazz and her family are going to take the high road and ignore your azz. 

I'm going WMMA on your clueless Uncle Ruckus wannabe behind  

One thing I despise more than racists and human rights oppressors is kneegrow sellouts who collude with them for whatever reason.   And I damned sure don't like Jaqueline, an (alleged) Black trans woman gleefully spouting TERF rhetoric.   It's especially problematic that you're doing so on your two bit three hit so-called blog that I'm not even going to link to for your TERF/HBS/-TS separatist fuckery after people in the Seattle area have tried to reason with you and point out what you are saying is some phucked up crap.

Your ass has never been to a trans conference, much less interacted with your local trans community, and you have the nerve to spout harmful TERF rhetoric at people who are doing more to advance the human rights of trans people and especially trans people of color than your shady azz.

Who the phuck are you to insult Jazz, Janet, Fallon, Caitlyn and moi, who have done more collectively and individually to advance the human rights of transpeople of all ethnic backgrounds than your no interaction with the Seattle trans community don't know and don't care when you started transitioning behind?

So let me put this in terms I'm sure you'll understand:  Get thee behind me TERF wannabe Satan.

And you know you've earned a Shut Up Fool Award nomination for this week as well.

Shut Up Fool Awards- Moni's Moving Edition

After a drama filled run to get to this point,  I finally moved out of the place I've called home for the last six months yesterday.

I'm still trying to find a new landing spot, and after moving my belongings to a storage facility, I'm spending the next few days at a friend's house destressing from the events of the last month while working on trying to find a new place without that time pressure bearing down upon me.

Thanks to Dee Dee Watters and Nikki Araguz Loyd for their help on Wednesday and Thursday getting the process started.  I also thank all of you who have contributed to my moving fund which is just $300 short of the target and those of you who have offered multiple places to choose from to stay while I find a solution to my housing situation.

Still time to donate and I thank you for doing so.  On the let side of the blog is a tip jar button that goes to my PayPal.

Dee Dee and I have some leads on a new place to call our own, and hopefully they will pan out in an expeditious manner.

Now, enough jibber-jabber about me, I know what y'all surfed over here for.   It's Friday, and while I was contemplating where I wanted to live, I also was contemplating what fool, fools or group of fools would be getting called out in this week's edition of the TransGriot Shut Up Fool Awards.

So let's get right to it shall we?

Honorable mention number one goes to every kneegrow who tried to defend Rachel Dolezal's fake Black feminine alleged bisexual behind.

Her 15 minutes of fame have long since expired.  Time for you to have several seats and a nice steaming cup of shut the hell up.

Honorable mention number two is a group award for everybody in Conservaworld tapdancing around another domestic terrorist attack and hate crime committed by a Real American like them, avoiding any mention of the systemic racism and anti-Black rhetoric they inflame conservasheeple like Roof with, trying to blame the victims and spin it as an 'attack on Christianity'/

Oh yeah, it most certainly is.  Another example of the centuries old historic pattern of white supremacists attacking Black churches and the people who attend them.

Honorable mention number three is LMPD Sgt Dave Mulchler, the president of the local FOP branch in Louisville who stupidly sent out an open letter threatening retaliation against any citizen who questions police actions in the wake of a fatal police shooting that has inflamed local tensions

He was rebuked by Mayor Greg Fischer (D) hours after releasing it.

“I appreciate that emotions are high after the tragic event of last week,” he said. “This letter does not reflect the sentiments of me or the vast majority of Louisville’s citizens, who know that we are all on the same page, working to build safe and strong communities for all of our families. We are in this together — police who put their lives on the line to keep us safe while building strong relationships of trust, and community members, who must be engaged citizens involved in our efforts to create a compassionate, thriving Louisville. Rather than incite anger and distrust between the police and the community, my administration will continue to work to build those critical relationships and the trust they create.”

Of course, Mulchler is now zipping his lips and not saying jack to the media after opening mouth and inserting badge in it.

Honorable mention number four is another group award for the nine GOP Kansas legislators who filed a complaint against Valdenia Winn (D-Kansas City) an African-American legislator who called them out on their racist anti-immigrant legislation.

A special Uncle Ruckus Award goes to the two kneegrow Republicans who allowed themselves to be used as sellout human shields so the white Republicans would appear less racist for what they are trying to pull

Honorable mention number five is FOX Noise' Erick Erickson, who blamed the Wednesday terror attack at Emanuel AME Church on transgender people.

Honorable mention number six is Alveda King.  She was cooning it up on FOX Noise trying the blame the Charleston terror attack on legalized abortion.

Damn, isn't your 15 minutes up yet?

This week's winner is Pope Francis, who every time he takes one positive step forward, takes another two backwards by saying something jacked up

Once again the toxic anti-trans hatred Paul McHugh injected into the Vatican ranks reared its ugly head yesterday when he wrote as part of a 184 page encyclical that "transpeople should accept their God given bodies  and not seek to manipulate them."

Hey Your Transphobiness, don't know what McHugh has been telling you, but transsexuality is not a sin.  

That's also why medical professionals have called for society to stop attacking transpeople and embrace them as the church you head should be leading the way in doing, but tragically fail at.

And I accept my beautiful trans body that was created by God along with the millions of other transpeople on the planet who are sick and tired of your attacks on our humanity.

Since you are a man of science, why don't you consult with experts in the field of transsexuality instead of a discredited quack?   And yes, I'll remind you that trans people are part of the diverse mosaic of human life

Have several seats in St Paul's Cathedral and shut up fool

2015 UT-Austin Lavender Graduation Speech

This is the text of the speech I'm delivering at UT-Austin's Lavender Graduation.

Good afternoon to the UT-Austin faculty, alumni, students, guests, friends and the UT-Austin Class of 2015.

If UT alum Matthew McConnaughey can speak to the graduating class at my alma mater UH as he did last Friday, I guess y'all can indulge having this Cougar speak to you today.

I am honored to be here as your keynote speaker for this 8th annual Lavender Graduation that is co--hosted by the Gender and Sexuality Center and the UT Queer Students Alliance (QSA).    The Gender and Sexuality Center is celebrating its 10th anniversary of service to UT campus community, and I salute the wonderful work that they do in providing opportunities for all members of the UT Austin community to explore, organize, and promote learning around issues of gender and sexuality.

The center also facilitates a greater responsiveness to the needs of women and the LGBTQ communities through education, outreach, and advocacy, and I thank Liz Elsen for the opportunity to address you today.

I also thank Melinda Bogdanovich for being here with me today and opening her home to me while I am here in the ATX.  I spent a long enjoyable night catching up with her, and so looking forward to the next time I get to spend some quality time with her and he family.

It's also an anniversary for myself in that 35 years ago today I was in the Astroarena back in Houston graduating from high school and preparing to take that next step and get my college education.   But I was also dealing with wrestling with a word that I'd heard just five years earlier that perfectly encapsulated what I was struggling with.

Transsexual.

In Houston until 1980 we had an anti-crossdressing ordinance on the books that criminalized people wearing opposite gender clothing, and it was used at times by HPD to harass the Houston LGBT community.   A trans woman by the name of Toni Mayes was being messed with by HPD to the point that every time she used a female restroom consistent with her gender presentation, she was arrested,   She got tired of it, sued, and won her case.

Then Renee Richards transition and her legal case in which she sued for the right to play in the US Open as a woman blew up in the news less than a year later.   A soon to be high school age TransGriot was contemplating the fact that what seemed to be impossible was a very doable thing in terms of being her true self.

It took me almost two decades and a few twists and turns to get to that point when I summoned the courage to take that next step, but here I am, a proud, internationally recognized unapologetic Black trans woman.

But enough about me.   This Lavender Graduation is  about you, the Class of 2015. about to step out into the world as your true selves armed with not only the knowledge you gained as you walked across the UT-Austin campus, but the life skills and acquired knowledge you gained just by living your out and proud lives.

And as one of your trans elders, time for Moni to arm you with more of your history before you leave this campus with those hard won diplomas.

As we are quite aware of, it has become fashionable in liberal-progressive circles to beat up on Texas because of our conservative leaning government that believes in oppressing people rather than investing in people.

I know you're tired of it and so am I of being told by people on the coasts for us to leave our beloved state and come to the so called liberal oases that in some ways  may seem to be better, but have their own problems and issues.

But hear me now East and West Coasts.  You got the opportunity of passing your LGBT friendly legislation in an era that was less politically partisan.  We here in Texas and the rest of what you derisively call 'flyover country' have to fight tooth and nail for whatever progress we get.   

And yeah  we  heard the sneers that we wouldn't be able to stop those 18 anti-LGBT bills, but  we did. it because we're Texans and it's in our DNA to do what's considered the impossible.

Now we'll have to be vigilant until June 1 to ensure those bills stay dead, but tom line is we did what the rest of the country thought we couldn't do.

So in order for us to get the human rights in our red state that you enjoy in your blue states, we have to stand and fight for them.  Changing Texas for the better and making its laws and policies more TBLG accepting cannot be done from New York or San Francisco. 

But what many people also fail to realize outside of the borders of the Lone Star state is that much of the modern LGBT human rights movement has a Texas twang to it.

Ray Hill, who is a legendary activist in the Houston area, was a key player in the early national LGBT ranks that included Harvey Milk and Frank Kameny.  

And without Texans such as Phyllis Frye, Sarah De Palma, Tere Prasse, Jane Ellen Fairfax, and Dee McKellar, the modern trans rights movement would have taken a lot longer to get organized, get its messaging on point, and even do lobbying at the local, state and federal levels.

That organizing happened at the ICTLEP conferences held in Houston starting in 1992 through 1996., and were responsible for not only putting out an International Bill of Transgender Rights, but focusing our early direction of passing an inclusive ENDA, passage of the hate crimes bill and passing local trans inclusive ordinances.

Just down I-35 in San Antonio,  Linda and Cynthia Phillips were busy not only running a trans group called the Boulton and Park Society, but what would eventually become the largest trans gathering in the country until Southern Comfort overtook it in the Texas T Party.

The T was for transsexual, not teabagger.

Even two critical trans marriage law cases, the Littleton v Prange one and the ongoing Araguz v Delgado one both involve plaintiffs from the Lone Star state.

And yeah, there some award winning African-American trans blogger from Houston y'all might have heard about who helped organize a muticultural trans rights org called NTAC in 1999 and has a blog with 6 million hits as of yesterday nobody reads.

That legacy of pioneering Texas trans leaders that we proudly uphold also extends to people like Carter Brown, Lou Weaver, Katy Stewart, Dr Oliver Blumer, Lauryn Farris and Dee Dee Watters just to name a few on the trans Texan end of the LGBT leadership scale.

There are also outstanding Texas leaders who are also proud members of our community like Rep Mary Gonzales,  Rep. Celia Israel, Omar Narvaez, Rafael McDonnell and countless others all over the 268, 820 sq miles of Planet Earth we call home who are doing that they can in their own way large and small to make their communities and Texas a better place for all of us.

Yes graduates, you have a proud history, and you'll hopefully get an opportunity to put your stamp on that history.   I have no doubt that some of you sitting here today will go on to do great things and I hope I'm around to see you accomplish them.

But your biggest accomplishment will be to simply become the best human beings you can be.

The best thing you can do is live your life boldly and proudly as the wonderful people we know you are and are evolving to become.   Know that you are not alone in this quest.   In addition to family members, and family in this instance doesn't necessarily mean the people related to you by blood, but chosen family.    You also have friends, allies, your BTLG elders and other interested parties who will be invaluable to you as you continue on this path to being the best persons you can be.

In closing, I want to once again say congratulations to the UT-Austin Lavender Graduation Class of 2015.  As you step off Forty Acres and the world know that we love you, we're proud of you, and as you fulfill your lifelong dreams in whatever field you choose on behalf of our LGBT community and yourselves, I;ll be eagerly watching for it to unfold and write it down.

Congratulations graduates!

Moni's 2015 NCAA Men's B-Ball Prediction

I absolutely love March Madness except when they show video of a certain 1983 NCAA title game,. 

Since 2007 I have posted my NCAA men's brackets for the whole world to see.

Because my schedule has been so packed full of events combined with breaking news that had a must write about priority, just wasn't able to sit down long enough to put together my 2015 NCAA bracket post before the First Four games started on Tuesday.

Oh well, with all the upsets yesterday my 2015 bracket would have been trashed anyway.  And darn it, I'll be out of town when the South Regional Final happens at NRG Stadium March 29

And assuming our stupid azz GOP controlled state legislature doesn't pass any hate legislation, the NCAA Men's Final Four is scheduled to return to NRG Stadium in 2016.

Just in case you're curious, here's the brackets for 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014

All I have time to do unfortunately is predict who will win the men's NCAA title this year when they cut down the nets in Indianapolis on April 6

That team will be undefeated Kentucky

Yep, I'm predicting that they will run the table, get those six tourney wins they need  and finish as the first undefeated.team since Indiana did so back in 1976.   Ironically this year's title game will be played at Lucas Oil Stadium.

Will the Cats do it?   We'll see as the 2015 edition of the NCAA tourney unfolds.

Top GOP Congressional Leaders No Show Selma 50 Event

For those people, especially in Conservaworld and even the liberal ranks who don't understand why I have an intense dislike for the Republican Party, it's simple.

The Republicans hate me and my people.

I'll repeat it for you again if you think Moni was kidding about what I just wrote in that last sentence and write it in bold print for you this time:  The Republicans hate me and my people.

You would think that a part that bristles at the commentary I and other African-Americans inside and outside the TBLGQ community that they are racist, bigoted toward African-Americans, anti-Black, (fill in the blank), you would think they would jump at opportunities to at least symbolically show African-Americans they aren't as bad as we say they are.

But the Selma 50 event came and went without an appearance from top GOP leaders like Speaker of the House John Boehner, Sen Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and House Majority Klansman, er Whip Steve Scalise or their leading candidates for the GOP 2016 presidential nomination.

And naw, I don't want to hear any false equivalence grousing pointing out some Democratic leaders didn't show up either.

It ain't the Democrats who are gleefully saying racist crap on an almost daily basis or passing repressive legislation, that's all on you Republicans.   

Hell, it would have been more shocking to me if they had shown up, seeing that their party has made attacking the Voting Rights Act one of the centerpieces of conservative movement activity over the last 50 years.

So the next time I or anyone else in Black America calls you out on your racism and your blatantly anti-Black commentary, demagoguery, laws and policies detrimental to our community, I don't want to hear a mumbling FOX broadcast word in protest of it.  

And don't be surprised when I look at you funny when you say you're a proud Republican.

You Republicans and the conservafool movement as a whole are the party of white supremacy, and it's past time that people call them on it and vote accordingly.

Shut Up Fool Awards-Moni's In Snowy DC Edition

This Friday finds me waking up in a hotel room bed outside the 713 area code and inside I-495.  Thankfully it's after the 2015 Cirque de GOP, also known as the CPAC conference, has mercifully been over for a week. 

And the beautiful view that greeted me was a snow covered one of Dupont Circle.

At this moment you're reading this I'm knee deep in a Trans Persons of Color Coalition board meeting and loving every moment of it.   I'm proud and happy to be spending this time with my TPOCC family helping to chart the course of this multicultural trans organization for this and the next few years.

Speaking of stuff I'm happy to be doing is calling out every Friday the fool, fools or group of fools that have us shaking our head pondering just how they walk through life being so off the charts ignorant and stupid.

So while I handle my TPOCC meeting business, you TransGriot readers get to find out who won this week's TransGriot Shut Up Fool Awards.

Honorable mention number one is a group award for the GOP House and Speaker John Boehner for their failure to legislate and provide funding for Homeland Security

Honorable mention number two I got north of the border for and give a group award to the Canadian Senate Conservatives for stalling passage of the Trans Rights Bill for two years. and adding an amendment to it exempting C-279 from applying to public spaces including bathrooms and locker rooms.

Just another example why marginalized people all over the world hate conservatism.

Honorable mention number three is Tennessee state Rep Sheila Butt (R), who got her butt (pun intended) in trouble with a racist tweet saying it's time for an NAAWP.



Oh Sheila, you already have the National Association For The Advancement of White People.  It's called the Republican Party.  So have several seats and a nice tall sweet tea flavored glass of shut the hell up.

Honorable mention number four is the Liberty Institute.   They are doing loud and long bitching about the fact their petitions to force a May repeal referendum on the recently passed non discrimination law were rejected.  But what they fail to admit to their sheeple is the city of Plano notified the Liberty Institute three weeks before the deadline to submit the petitions they had problems, and they failed to correct the problems.

Oops.  Looks like no matter what end of I-45 they are on, the haters have a demonstrated inability to collect signatures for petition drives.

And when you attempt to dig a grave for someone, better dig one for yourselves.

Honorable mention number five is Flip Benham, who spent far more time at that Monday hearing for Charlotte's failed LGBT rights bill staked out in front of the women's bathroom oppressing trans women  and  trans kids than he did listening to the testimony of over 150 Queen City citizens expressing themselves pro and con about the ordinance.

Doesn't your perverted azz and your fellow faith based perverts have better things to do than creepily standing watch in front of the women's restroom to berate any transwoman going to piss and poop in them?

Let my trans people poop and piss in peace.

Honorable mention number six is Ben Carson, who in addition to the rants he unleashed during the Cirque de GOP, said that science needs religion to interpret it because it could be propaganda, and that prison sex  proves that being gay is a choice.

Honorable mention number seven is Andrea Shea King, who let loose a racist rant on Wing Nut Daily calling for Congressional Black Caucus legislators that boycotted Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to be hanged.

Another racist idiot with a radio show firing up the conservasheeple.   If she were thirty years younger she'd be perfect FOX Fembot material.

And y'all wonder why I continue to call the Tea Party the Tea Klux Klan.

This week's Shut Up Fool is Cal-ee-forn-ia attorney Matt McLaughlin, who has proposed a California ballot initiative, the 'Sodomite Liquidation Suppression Act'. that would if it made it to the ballot in Cali and passed, would mandate the execution of all gay peeps in the state,

Hey, I have to give him props to not only naming and claiming his hatred, he put his own money ($200) down on what he believes in.   Even if it is genocide.

And you know I gots to call his azz out on it.  Here's another example of a white conservamale wanting to oppress (and kill) somebody he doesn't like.

Never mind the fact a federal judge ruled the California death penalty was unconstitutional last June

Matt McLaughlin, have several seats and shut the hell up, fool!

Trans America, Your Humanity Is Under Attack

Maybe it's me being inside the Beltway or simply being pissed off at the spectacle of a grown ass faith based bully berating a trans youngling in Charlotte for simply handling a nature call, or the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday happening in Selma tomorrow, but Moni has something to say about what I've observed going on over the last few weeks in Trans World and beyond.

Like many of you in Trans World I'm not happy about the Religious Reich  doubling down on the thoroughly debunked bathroom predator meme and sponsoring dehumanizing anti-trans legislation that is a straight up attack on our humanity

While one is on its way to dying in Kentucky despite being passed by their GOP controlled senate, there are others in Florida and Texas still floating around that haven't gotten the derisive pushback they need to make the GOP withdraw them or the business community calling them out.about it.

But that's a subject for another post.   I want to talk about what we in the trans community can control.

And Moni's going to be real about it and can't say it enough,  your humanity as a trans person in this country is under attack.   I've been warning you for years that the faith-based haters were going to come for us, and now that day of reckoning is here.

What are you going to do about it? Are you going to meekly submit to right-wing oppression and let them criminalize being trans without a fight?

And don't think you can reason with GOP women on this issue.   Debbie Riddle sponsored our trans hate bill in Texas, and I predict that you'll see more white GOP women acting as useful fools to front these scientifically illiterate anti-trans measures

Let's also not forget that some of our LGB friends voted for some of the GOP legislators who are oppressing us, and are more concerned with their wallets that aiding us and anyone else in our human rights struggles.

How much is your dignity and humanity as a human being worth to you trans people, and are you willing to fight for it?   Are you going to be the trans men and women you say you are and these times demand?   Are you willing to join our younglings in fighting for our human rights against white male conservafools who are basically mad they didn't get to oppress somebody Jim Crow style like their great grandparents did?

Or are you going to cower in the false security of nondisclosure and let others do the heavy lifting of being agents for our liberation while you insultingly say from the safety of your keyboards 'these people don't represent me'?

Your nondisclosed status will not protect you forever from anti-trans oppression or anti-trans bigotry.   Sooner or later that pseudo-cisnormative status you have painstakingly built up will unravel, and you'll be blowing up mine or other activists phones wanting us to drop other important collective work that needs to be done to deal with your personal crisis.


Want to stop or slow down trans youth suicides? The first step to that happening ,is trans adults being visible,  proudly being possibility models living our lives to the best of our ability, and role modeling leadership is such a positive way it inspires our trans youth to live, handle their educational business and take the steps to dare to dream to be productive in society.

When we are doing the trans advocacy, we have to bear in mind that is not just for us.   Some of the policies we're fighting to get passed we may not be around to see them implemented, much less enjoy them.   But fight for them we must.

And finally, we must send the message that our humanity and our human rights are not up for discussion, nor are our human rights to be played with for your personal  political gains.

Don't tread on us or our human rights.  We're tired of it.  We've had enough. That message also goes to our peeps who are willing to throw the entire community under the human rights bus for their own comfort.

We also need to hold those who claim trans leadership status accountable in our community who aren't doing the job of  being trans leaders.

We also need to be on our job of building trans community.   I'm sick of the selfish trans separatist inspired rugged individualism.  We need collective community building for the rest of this decade and beyond.

Trans Americans, your humanity is under attack.   What are you going to do about it?

Black Media, I Expect Higher Standards From You When It Comes To Covering Black Trans People

When I traveled to Boston for last summer's National Association of Black Journalists conference (NABJ) to discuss with fellow panelists Kenyon Farrow, Kellee Terrell and moderator Tiq Milan how to cover Black trans folks, it was with the intent of not only fostering that discussion, but impressing upon the attendees of that panel how accurate reporting about Black trans people from our media peeps is critically important.

In the first two months of 2015, seems like some Black media peeps needed to have some seats in that panel discussion as well.

Been more than pissed off to see disrespectful reporting aimed at my transsisters who have tragically lost their lives.   I've been even more irritated to note that some of the culprits guilty of transphobic reporting and failing to read their AP Stylebooks have been African-American journalists.

I expect disrespectful reporting from non-Black cisgender journalists and media outlets.   But I have a severe problem with it when the disrespectful reporting happens on the Tom Joyner Morning Show, newspapers, my hometown television and radio stations and other Black controlled media outlets and blogs

I don't even waste my breath or bandwith calling out Bossip and Sandra Rose. They are unrepentant cesspools of media transphobia that couldn't spell journalistic integrity even with the help of spell check.  But I do have higher expectations and standards for Black journalists when it comes to respectfully reporting on Black trans people.  

And here is the money paragraph once again from the AP Stylebook that has been there since 2001.

transgender-Use the pronoun preferred by the individuals who have acquired the physical characteristics of the opposite sex or present themselves in a way that does not correspond with their sex at birth.

If that preference is not expressed, use the pronoun consistent with the individuals live publicly.

If you have questions, peruse those AP Stylebook pages.   There are also the styleguides from the NLGJA and GLAAD to help a journalistic brother or sister out and avoid the wrath of Moni, my chocolate transpeeps and our allies from coming down upon you for some fracked up reporting  that could have been easily avoided.

I'd like to also see as soon as possible an entry in the NABJ Styleguide about transgender people since it seems to have become necessary to request it expeditiously happen.

And yeah, here's the difference between a transgender man and a transgender woman since y'all media peeps have picked up that annoying conservatactic of conflating the two to be snarkily insulting.

A transgender man  (or trans man) is one who was born with female genitalia but has transitioned to and lives life as a male.  

A transgender woman (or trans woman) is one who was born with male genitalia, but has transitioned to and lives life as a female.

And one other thing Black media.  Focus on what's between our ears, not what genitalia may or may not be between our legs.

Also sick of the 'deception meme' being pushed in Black media stories about trans people.  We're living our authentic lives.   You need to deal with and approach us transpeeps as you would any other person you are writing or reporting on.

It's important because ignorance in African-American ranks about trans people is being pushed by sellout Black right wing pastors from their pulpits.

The bottom line Black media is that Black trans people are not only part of the diverse mosaic of human life, we have been and still are part of the kente cloth fabric of Black America.  We aren't going away, and as Laverne Cox, Janet Mock, Tona Brown, Tiq Milan and a host of Black transpeople prove on a regular basis, and still we rise.

We have abundant talents to contribute to our Black community.  Black journalists need to get with the program and take the lead in pointing out Black trans people are Black people and our issues are Black community issues.

Black journalists and bloggers also need to realize that coverage of trans people is not click bait for your blogs, a way for you to add salacious details to your radio broadcasts, newspaper or television stories, or 'scurr' or mislead people about the purpose of non-discrimination laws that cover you and whatever other category they happen to cover.

You also have a journalistic legacy to uphold of being fierce advocates for our community.  Black transpeople once again are part of your constituency.

It's also infuriating and mind blowing to contemplate that Black journalists in the pre-AP Stylebook days writing for JET,. EBONY, HUE and Sepia magazines did a better and more respectful job of writing about transpeople than their 21st century counterparts.

Unchecked anti-trans hate speech kills.   In the wake of the murders of  17 trans women since June with the vast majority of them being African-American trans feminine women under 40, it's past time for Black media and Black journalists to ponder if their media misgendering of African-American trans women is a contributing factor to the anti-trans hatred that leads to anti-trans violence and the far too frequent murders of Black trans women.