Who Dat?

Who dat?
Who dat?
Who dat say they gonna beat dem Saints?
Who dat?
Who dat?
Who dat say they gonna beat dem Saints?

It's hard to believe, but for the first time in the 40 year history of this NFL franchise the New Orleans Saints will be playing in a conference championship game.
Ever since the Saints joined the NFL in 1967 they've been seen more times on NFL Follies highlights than Super Bowl ones. The city has also hosted more Super Bowls than they've played in.

But the Saints are as much a symbiotic part of New Orleans as the beignets and chicory coffee at Cafe DuMonde, Mardi Gras, and the French Quarter. The city lives and dies with this team. Even though I was a toddler when I lived in New Orleans, the Saints were number two in my NFL affections behind my hometown Oilers. (until they moved to Nashville) They serve as a link to the New Orleans part of my life.

So like Saints fans everywhere I was glued to the TV watching their thrilling 27-24 playoff victory over the Philadelphia Eagles in the Superdome. While I watched the game my thoughts drifted to my pre-Katrina visits to the Big Easy. I was either hanging out with my godsister and her family and friends in Marrero, driving or flying there to party, or just spending a leisurely weekend there getting away from H-town for a minute and soaking up the city's history, music and culture.

There are a lot of times when sports events and teams can bring a city together. I saw it firsthand during the Oilers Luv Ya Blue days in 1978-79, Phi Slama Jama's 1983 run to the NCAA Championship, the Rockets back-to-back NBA titles in 1994-1995 and during the Comets WNBA dynasty from 1997-2000. The Yankees 2001 World Series run helped New Yorkers for just a moment forget the tragedy that had taken place just a month earlier. The Saints are providing the same medicine for the New Orleans area.

If there's any team in this year's NFL playoffs that deserves to go to Super Bowl XLI in Miami it's the Saints. After a Hurricane Katrina forced relocation that caused them to play their home games in San Antonio and Baton Rouge, they limped through that 2005 season with a 3-13 record. This year the script got flipped. New coach, new players, new attitude, a NFC South title complete with a first round playoff bye and a rebuilt Superdome that they christened with a nationally televised win.

This ain't the 'Aints. This Saints team has an explosive offense and a suffocating defense. The players also realize that they represent something bigger than themselves. They represent the hopes and dreams of the people in the region and a diversion for just a few hours from their post-Katrina problems. Like a lot of football fans across the country I'm hoping the Saints come marching back into the Superdome in February with the Vince Lombardi Trophy in their possession.

That would set off a celebration that would rival Mardi Gras.

January 2007 TransGriot Column

Cleaning Up Our Own House
Copyright 2007, THE LETTER


Happy New Year TransGriot readers!

This month marks the third anniversary of my column, the third year of the founding of Transsistahs-Transbrothas and the second anniversary of my TransGriot blog.
Thanks to all of you who have expressed to me during the year how much you enjoy reading TransGriot. That makes my editor Dave and I very happy.

Something that didn’t make me happy was the drive-by show that Chuck Knipp performed at The Connection during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. The reports that I’ve received about it from several people that attended were that they didn’t find it funny and they observed people leaving during the performance.

While that is gratifying to hear, the differing race-based reactions to the SQL minstrel show controversy have exposed the need to have a conversation about racism in the GLBT community.

We are a microcosm of society at large. Since racism is prevalent in the parent society, then our subset of it is also contaminated and it is naïve and foolish to think that we aren’t. When we started planning the first Transsistahs-Transbrothas Conference back in 2005, we had a critic of it post a comment on a predominately white transgender Internet list in response to my letter explaining why we were having TSTBC that said ‘It’ll make it easier for them to service their tricks.”

The March 2002 NGLTF report entitled ‘Say It Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud’ highlights the problem. From April to September 2000 a survey was done at nine Black Pride events in an attempt to learn more about the African-American GLBT community. Guess what one of the issues was for the 2,500 respondents that cropped up?

When asked the question if the racism of GLBT whites was a problem for GLBT blacks within the community, 48% of the respondents agreed with the statement. The numbers were even higher among my fellow transgender survey respondents at 57%.

When asked about their interactions within white GLBT orgs, 39% reported negative experiences within those organizations, 29% reported positive ones and 39% of respondents reported both negative and positive experiences in White GLBT orgs.

When asked about their experiences in white GLBT clubs, 36% reported negative interactions in white GLBT clubs, 30% reported positive ones and 31% reported negative and positive experiences in those clubs.

I can cosign on that last one. I’ve been called the n-word by a white gay patron of one club back in my hometown and denied entrance at another one with the excuse that it wasn’t a transgender bar. However, I observed from the entrance door white t-girls not only inside the club but partying with the predominately white gay male crowd. I’ve had people in the pageant world report that even with equal status level in terms of titles, et cetera, they receive far less appearance money from promoters for performing in shows than their white counterparts.

Accumulations of those negative experiences over time and the frustration of dealing with white GLBT community indifference in tackling the problem head on eventually leads us to say ‘enough’. If you wondered why Black GLBT people have separate pride events, pageant circuits, and conventions such as TSTBC, racism in the community is a major component of why those organizations exist.

As GLBT peeps we are fighting for recognition of our constitutional rights. We need all sectors of our community engaged in this process. It is to our advantage to find a way to work together building a diverse, multicultural community that respects all of its members and face the reality that 40 years of post Civil Rights Movement education and policies did not magically erase 400 years of negative racial attitudes.

There needs to be a long-term commitment from all leaders in the GLBT community to aggressively tackle this nettlesome problem. However, it can’t be just people of color doing the grunt work on this issue. I’m glad to hear that Fairness will spend time in 2007 focusing on anti-racism work.

It couldn’t come at a better time.

Oprah’s Academy Inspires Hope, Memories for Black Attendees of All-Girls’ Institutions

Wednesday, January 03, 2007
By Monica Lewis
From BlackAmericaWeb.com

Educator Jane E. Smith knows firsthand how inspiring an all-female academic environment can be for young women.

A graduate of Spelman College, Smith now heads up the prestigious school’s Center for Leadership and Civic Engagement and has regularly watched how a weekend program spearheaded by Atlanta Mayor Shirley F. Franklin is helping countless young Atlanta females seeking guidance and direction.

“There are people who find that, in the single-sex environment, they perform better. And for me, there was never a question as to whether or not I could do anything,” Smith told BlackAmericaWeb.com Tuesday, the same day talk show host and philanthropist Oprah Winfrey opened a school for disadvantaged girls in South Africa. “I know that (mentality) comes from the fact that I could do everything at Spelman.

“(Single-sex) environments boost you,” Smith said. “They take you from the corner or the back of the room, and they allow you to speak up.”

Smith is confident that the 150 students chosen to attend the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in Henley-on-Klip, just south of Johannesburg, are now in a position to excel not simply because of Winfrey’s celebrity or financial backing. The young women will now be able to receive a quality education that could help them overcome the gang violence, drugs and rising rate of teenage pregnancy that plagues many state-funded schools.

According to the Associated Press, Winfrey said that she decided to build her own school because she wanted to feel closer to the people she was trying to help. The $40 million academy aims to give 152 girls from deprived backgrounds a quality education in a country where schools are struggling to overcome the legacy of apartheid.

Winfrey's academy received 3,500 applications from across the country. To qualify, they had to show both academic and leadership potential and have a household income of no more than $787 a month. Eventually, the academy will accommodate 450 girls.

The 28-building campus boasts computer and science laboratories, a library and theater, along with a wellness center.

The idea for the school was born in 2000 at a meeting between Winfrey and Mandela. She said she decided to build the academy in South Africa rather than the United States out of love and respect for Mandela and because of her own African roots.

She said she planned a second school for boys and girls in the eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal.

Singers Tina Turner, Mary J. Blige and Mariah Carey, actors Sidney Poitier and Chris Tucker and director Spike Lee attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony. Each guest was asked to bring a personally inscribed book for the library.

Winfrey rejected suggestions the school was elitist and unnecessarily luxurious.

"If you are surrounded by beautiful things and wonderful teachers who inspire you, that beauty brings out the beauty in you," she said, according to the Associated Press.

Such an endeavor is applauded by Smith and many more because of its far-reaching impact.

“She is doing three things: A pursuit of academic excellence, self-betterment and leadership work or preparation,” Smith said. “It’s great that she’s doing this for them. And of course, something like this is needed here (in the United States).”

Melissa Harris Lacewell, an associate professor of politics and African-American studies at Princeton University, said it’s hard to be anything other than a supporter of what Winfrey does. However, she hopes that more attention is paid to ensuring that all American children receive an adequate education, as opposed to creating special schools for a limited number of children.

“On the one hand, I applaud any initiative that gives opportunities to children, but I also really worry that we continue to accept the idea that some schools are just better,” Harris Lacewell told BlackAmericaWeb.com.

“My concern is that as important these pockets of opportunities are, there really shouldn’t be vast differences to the education that is available to children in this country,” Harris Lacewell added. “We ought to be trying to figure out all the time how to make public education right for everybody.”

But because there seems to be so little being done to rectify the nation’s public education system, Harris Lacewell said, too many American children are faced with sub-par education simply by virtue of circumstance. If they’re born to parents who can afford to live in communities with top-rated schools, they’re lucky; if they are born into economically-challenged communities, the education too many children receive leaves plenty to be desired.

The scenario hits home for Harris Lacewell, whose daughter attends public school in upper class Princeton while, just minutes away in predominantly-black Trenton, the school system continues to be plagued with problems.

“I really want us to get to a point as a country where we are appalled, shocked and embarrassed by the idea that any five-year-old would necessarily have a better education that another five-year old," she said.

While most ordinary citizens can’t fund a project on the scale of Winfrey’s academy, they can find a way to give something just as important to a child -- time.

“Last year, my New Year’s resolution was to pick one teenager and listen to them, and I encourage others to do that this year,” Harris Lacewell said, stressing that in addition to academic opportunities, children need to know that adults believe in them.

“I know a million goodhearted people who say they want to go to schools and talk to kids, but I rarely hear people say they want to go and listen to the kids,” Harris Lacewell said. “It turns out that these kids have a lot of ideas on how to fix their situations.”

Spelman College’s Smith agreed with Harris Lacewell that education is just as valuable to people in poorer communities as more affluent ones, and she’s hoping that Winfrey’s move to start her academy will spark conversation on what people can do to provide all children with the best opportunities.

“What this is going to do is start a global awareness of the need for different strategies for the education of boys and girls,” Smith said. “This really will allow for a global discussion of what’s going on and how we, as a culture, can value education.”

Thank You, James Brown - For Your Genius, For Your Music and For Being Black and Proud

Wednesday, December 27, 2006
By: Tonyaa Weathersbee, BlackAmericaWeb.com

James Brown lived his life -- and departed it -- in a way that could have come straight out of a Toni Morrison novel.

The Godfather of Soul was born in a one-room shack in 1933 in Barnwell, S.C., during a time when if a black man was lucky enough to escape the racist terrorism that ruled those days, he invariably was victimized by its Jim Crow fallout. He was abandoned by his parents when he was four. Barred from school for having raggedy clothes. Sent to reform school as a teenager for breaking into cars.

But Brown was able to put all that angst and drama through one of the ultimate processors for positivism -- music. He transformed it into acrobatic moves, splits that any gymnast would envy, feet and hips genetically powered for non-stop swiveling, and hit songs punctuated with squealing horns, electrifying beats and phrases pulled out of a lyrical grab bag.

And there were the screams. Screams that he might have been belting out in a New Year's Eve performance, but which came out as three breaths before he died on Christmas Day.

Like I said, straight out of a Toni Morrison novel.

But the thing that I think I’ll remember most about James Brown, as his life and his influence is criticized and debated, is how his music mirrored the survivability of black folks like himself without, for the most part, glorifying the pathologies that seem to rule too much of our culture nowadays.

Not long after finding his musical soul after meeting Bobby Byrd while in reform school -- who took Brown into his home and into his group, the Gospel Starlighters -- Brown began putting the mournfulness inspired by his past life into music. “Please, Please, Please,” his first song with Byrd’s group, the Flames, became a million-selling single in 1956. It was followed by “Try Me,” which went to No. 1 on the rhythm and blues chart.

Later, though, Brown’s hits veered from ballads into songs that were more uninhibited and beat-driven. Songs like “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag,” “Cold Sweat,” and “Mother Popcorn,” showed that sometimes, music is best for provoking dancing and physical release rather than reflection and reminiscence.

But in spite of his rough beginnings, Brown didn’t gain his fame by elevating his reform school experience as some sort of rite of passage, but through songs that encouraged black people to be their best. His 1966 song, “Don’t Be A Dropout,” encouraged black youths to not abandon an essential tool for their liberation -- education.

And his 1968 anthem, “Say It Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud,” told the establishment that we “we won’t quit movin’ until we get what we deserve,’ and how “we’d rather die on our feet than be livin’ on our knees.”

That song proved to be a mantra for me, as it was released the year that I went to a predominantly-white elementary school here in Jacksonville, one in which the parents of many of my classmates sported bumper stickers supporting George Wallace, Alabama’s segregationist governor, for president.

It helps to have that kind of a song playing in your head when you’re in an environment in which people think they’re doing you some great favor by allowing you to be there.

Of course, Brown’s life wasn’t flawless. Like many other performers, he had his demons. In 1987, Brown, the man who made the 1970s anti-drug song, “King Heroin,” got hyped up on PCP and led police on a car chase across the South Carolina border. Charges stemming from that misadventure netted him more than two years in prison. He also struggled with legal problems with the Internal Revenue Service and domestic violence charges.

But even though people like me made light of his car chase episode in the late 1980s via the party chant, “Free James Brown,” he didn’t use his music to capitalize on his incarceration, as far too many popular black rap artists do these days. Instead, he continued to live up to his title as the hardest working man in show business by doing what he always did -- pouring his life into the perfection of his art.

Maybe that was a reflection of Brown’s genius and his talent; that in spite of all his troubles with the law and bouts with self-destructiveness, he could perform without having to glorify the most negative things about the black existence. His ingenuity is reflected in the fact that he was able to take the entrails of a life that was destined to be a throwaway one and transform it into something positive and priceless.

For that, as well as for so many other things, may he rest in peace.

The Lady In Red

From the New Zealand Herald
Sunday December 24, 2006
By Leah Haines

It's never been easier to convince an MP to pose in front of Parliament.

With a flick of her multi-toned locks, Georgina Beyer, the world's first transsexual MP, has flung herself eagerly at the stone plinth above which Prime Minister Richard Seddon stands immortalised in bronze.

She leans into King Dick's leg, her teeth quickly licked of any vestiges of lippy and, hands on hips, eyes fixed with that kissy-kissy stare, pouts into the photographer's lens.

Suddenly - "How's this?" - she whips her fur-lined jacket open to reveal a to-die-for figure in elegant black, draped with chains of faux gold and garnet-coloured gems.

"When it comes to cameras, once a queen..." Beyer winks, then sinks into the fox fur trim with a giggle.

Beyer is heading for the old stage lights again after announcing she'll quit next February after seven years in Parliament to take up a role in Christchurch's Fortune Theatre.

The MP has twice before been stopped from quitting by the most unlikely of folks. In 2002, 60 Grey Power members from Dannevirke talked her around. Then three years later Brian Tamaki marshalled his homophobic troops to Parliament. "How could I leave now when the spectre of that is on the horizon?"

After nearly 50 years - as a boy, prostitute, stripper drag queen, actress, mayor and MP, she reckons she has two or three careers left in her. Of Parliament, she's had her fill.

"We deal with the most grave matters of the nation," she says. "And for a bit of a slapper from Vivian St like me, you know, wow! That's a bit of a learning curve! And strangely enough at the end of the day, I see so many similarities between politics and prostitution, especially when it comes to election time, you know? I mean what the hell are we soliciting for?"

Plans for her valedictory speech outfit have begun. "Something glammy," she muses, because the cameras might come to such an important event.

"Oh, you doooooon't want my Christmas day story," she moans.

Loved as a queer icon and adored as a hero by human rights activists, Beyer will more than likely spend Christmas tomorrow alone, at home, in the tiny hamlet of rural Carterton.

Her aloneness is a necessary escape from the people she spends "99 per cent of the time with", she reckons. "That's part of the job. It's work. It's 'You're on' - the price of fame and notoriety."

But the microscope of politics has played havoc with her private life.

"I haven't had the emotional support (others have) by way of a home life or anything like that. I've had to deal with this entire 14 years of my life, as far as that's concerned, alone.

"Yes, I've had support from friends, but many of them have dissipated because you just can't unload on people about stuff. It ruins your personal social life quite dramatically."

Beyer says her aloneness is where she finds her inner peace.

"Relaxation for me is just being at home," she continues. "I don't host Christmas dinners and I'm not very good at wanting to go to others' Christmas meals and things because it's all terribly family and terribly close and I," she pauses, "I just don't fit into that very easily, seeing as I don't do my own."

Her mother is dead, she has nothing much to do with her biological father whom she met for the first time in her mid-20s. She has never met her brother Andrew's wife or children.

Perhaps they're proud of her? "They're probably pissed off that I did so well with myself. It was more convenient to think badly of me when I was a prostitute on the streets or just a drag queen in a drag show or something like that. But then, yes, that'd be having to acknowledge that I'm," and she pauses for dramatic effect, "the only MP in our family."

Beyer hates talking about her family. People have no right to know about "all the deep bitterness and pain and stuff like that".

Was she helpfully shuffled from Parliament by Prime Minister Helen Clark? "No! I would like you to state categorically no one, nothing, but myself has purchased me out of here. I'm the one that's made the decisions."

What are her thoughts on shelving her Gender Identity Bill - which would have enshrined in law the right of transgender and other people to be covered by the Human Rights Act?

She rolls her eyes and says: "There is a prudent time to pull back, you know." Labour had just passed the Civil Union Bill and legalised prostitution. The public didn't have an appetite for more social liberalisation.

A Crown Law clarification was tabled which affirmed that gender identity was covered in law. That achieved what she had wanted so, she reckons, why push the country's tolerance any further?

"And did I want to put myself, my supporters, the queer community and the transgender community through a venal vicious debate which I wouldn't have won?

"I did not have the numbers in this particular term of Parliament to affirm that bill going through. And for what? For nothing. And we would never touch it again for 20 years. Nothing like that would ever come up again, I betcha."

Though she's never experienced overt rudeness from her colleagues, except perhaps from former National MP Brian Neeson - "He used to get a bit huffy puffy but he doesn't count. A terribly conservative man" - she reckons most quietly respect the enormity of her journey to Parliament. Nevertheless she considers herself an outsider.

"Of course I'm a misfit. I'm a first in the world. I'm a transsexual. Okay? And that puts me on the edges of society to begin with. I'm not the only one. But in this particular game I was the only one and I walked into the world of international politics famous, in political circles.

"Can you imagine the scrutiny of that? I've had to mould myself down into something more acceptable in presentation, in the whole public life situation that I lead, ensuring that my behaviour will always be of dignity and integrity and sincerity, knowing that people are going to be uncomfortable in some forums that I am a transsexual. I meet people from countries where the death penalty applies to same sex anything. And, while I may have my opinions, I have to temper them in those forums.

"However, I never fail to state in my public addresses when talking to international forums that I am a proud New Zealand transsexual member of Parliament," she stiffens in her seat, breathes through the nose and smiles. "To reinforce that I have had a fantastic opportunity to up the visibility of significant minorities. I'm proud of my country and everything that's enabled me to be who I am and do what I do. So I've been a misfit in that sense, but in the happiest of ways."

Next on the agenda is very likely to be a serious tilt at the Wellington mayoralty. At the moment Beyer is all diplomacy and "maybes" about the possibility of putting up her hand later next year.

But she is already talking vision and leadership for the Capital - positioning herself as both the vivacious cheerleader and experienced chairwoman.

Her last tilt at the mayoralty in Carterton 1995 was funded by her last stint on the stage - playing a transsexual shearer.

So how did an over-the-top transsexual former streetwalker win the hearts of conservative rural New Zealand? "Oh, just seriously straight-up-ness. I was out. There was nothing not to know about me. I never hid for one moment who I was and the background I came from so they knew. They knew.

"Sonya Davies summed it up in the documentary about me. This old bugger from out of Dannevirke who'd voted National all his life said: 'But not this time. This time I'll be voting for that Georgina Beyer because she's a good chap'."

Happy New Year-Happy Anniversary TransGriot Blog!

Happy New Year!

Wow, another year has flown by. It seems like the older you get, the faster time marches on.

It was just 365 days ago that I started this TransGriot Blog. I knew I was going to start one but it wasn't quite clear at the time in my mind what direction I wanted to take it. The only thing I knew for certain was the start date was going to be on January 1, just as I did with the Transistahs-Transbrothas Yahoo list that is three years old today.

Some of the questions I pondered during the countdown to TransGroit's startup date were, Did I want to do an extension of my column for THE LETTER and just add real time commentary to the stories that I chose to write? Did I want to do strictly news on the transgender community or take a broader approach?

In the end, I just decided to go with what my heart was telling me and just simply write what I felt. In addition to posting my monthly TransGriot columns, I'd comment on breaking news stories. I've posted my poetry or short stories. I've posted my thoughts on transition from an African-American perspective and will resume (one of these days) the series of articles I started about the various women who were influences on the type of woman I wanted to project to the world.

Thanks to all of you who have written or told me personally how much you enjoy this blog. (just need y'all to leave a comment every now and then). It's nice to know that my efforts to provide you a window of the world as I see it along with some of my guest columnists have been noticed and are appreciated.

I'll make one promise for you in 2007, dear readers. Get ready for even more of the same as I strive to make this blog even better.

I Have Another Dream

364 days ago I began this TransGriot blog. I started with a general idea of it being an extension of my monthly column, but I've discovered that it's taken a life of its own. I've found that I've commented far more on general news events than anything strictly transgender related.

That's what I wanted.

While being transgendered is a topic that I could expound on every day and still find fresh ground to cover, the transgender aspect is only a small portion of who I am as a person. I have interests that don't necessarily involve or require total immersion in the transgender community.

One of them I will be striving mightily to achieve in the '07 is publishing one of my manuscripts. I've put that on the back burner for too long trying to get other projects off the ground like the TSTB Convention and it's time to focus on doing something for me.

As evidenced by the 100 plus posts on this blog, I love to write. I wish I had time to do ONLY that. I want (and need to) explore options that would allow me to make a living at what I love to do. I'm tired of scribbling down my ideas and character sketches on a note pad so that it's recorded until I can get home to my computer and type it up. I've got a lot of creative energy that needs to find another outlet besides the blog. I want to see my work on bookstore shelves everywhere.

But just as E. Lynn Harris and Eric Jerome Dickey did other jobs before they got the big breaks they needed to become published best-selling authors, I'm in the 'paying my dues' process as well. Those other jobs aren't exactly a waste of time. The things that have happened at my various workplaces and the interactions I have with people on a daily basis help give me story ideas. They also provide background info that I can incorporate into future manuscripts as well.

I'm just looking forward to the day when I can sign my name onto a contract with a publisher and I'm getting asked about my latest novel at a book signing event.

Battlestar Galactica-Frakking Awesome

During my junior year of high school the original Battlestar Galactica debuted on ABC in 1978. I quickly fell in love with the show and was dismayed when it was cancelled after only a year. Over the years I hoped that the original show would be revived and kept up with news of the various attempts of Richard 'Apollo' Hatch to do just that.

In 2003 a 'reimagined' version written by veteran Star Trek writer Ron Moore debuted as a miniseries. It had some radical changes to the basic story. The Thousand Year War between the Cylons and humans was shortened to 40 years. The robot Cylons were now creations of humanity that rebelled and nearly destroyed their masters, not an alien race. To throw another curve ball into the mix the Cylons not only have 12 humanoid models, they don't die. Their consciousnesses are downloaded and they wake up in somewhere else in a resurrection chamber.

The Galactica was about to be decommissioned and serve as a museum. Even some familiar characters like Colonel Tigh, Commander Adama, Starbuck and Boomer changed race and in some cases gender. In Boomer's case, she was revealed to be a Cylon sleeper agent. They also gave all those characters first names.


When the Pegasus appeared in this version of Battlestar it was commanded by Admiral Helena Cain. Even Baltar's character underwent changes. Instead of crassly selling out the human race for his own personal gain and getting double crossed by the Cylons, Gaius Baltar is a scientific genius who couldn't keep his pants on. He lets his girlfriend poke around the Colonial Fleet mainframe and submits a command navigation program she wrote to the fleet. Unfortunately for humanity Baltar's girlfriend (Number 6)is a Cylon. The algorithm program she wrote contains a backdoor that the Cylons use to cripple Colonial defenses for the surprise Cylon nuclear attack on the Colonies and the Fleet.

New characters are introduced such as Laura Roslin, the Secretary of Education 43rd in the Colonial line of succession. She becomes president of the Colonies in the aftermath of the attack. She discovered just before leaving Caprica City for Galactica's decommissioning ceremony that she has terminal breast cancer. We're introduced to Chief Galen Tyrol, Lt. Felix Gaeta, Laura Roslin's aide Billy Keikeya, Tom Zarek, the Cylon Number Six and Chief Petty Officer Anastasia 'Dee' Dualla.

When the new 'reimagined' show debuted I was still pissed about the fact that the highest ranking character that looked like me was Chief Petty Officer Anastasia Dualla and boycotted it. On the original BSG Booomer and Colonel Tigh were African-Americans and were respectively the third in command of Galactica's best fighter squadron and the XO of the ship. I also had to wrap my mind around a female Starbuck named Kara Thrace.

When they repeated it the next year in preparation for the first season I decided that my love of Edward James Olmos as an actor outweighed my anger over some of my fave characters from the old show being played by new actors. Curiosity also got me to tune in. I wanted to see Edward James Olmos play Commander William Adama. I'm glad I did.

One of the things I constantly complain about besides my outright hatred and refusal to watch 'reality shows' is the lack of good writing in the non-reality TV shows that are currently being broadcast.

This version of Battlestar delivers the goods. I fell in love with it. The writing is first rate and they always keep you guessing in terms of the plot. The various episodes cover issues that seem as though they were ripped fresh from the headlines. It's fascinating to see a world similar to ours in which they have this space travel technology far in excess of our own, but yet haven't found a cure for cancer. It's interesting that they use projectile weapons and guns instead of lasers to fight battles.

This Battlestar is one of the highest rated show on Sci-Fi and has garnered several awards over the past two seasons. There have been rumors over the years since Richard Hatch joined the cast to play Tom Zarek that other original BSG actors would either be doing the same or come onboard to do guest appearances.

One interesting guest actor on this show is Lucy Lawless of Xena fame. She's currently playing Cylon Deanna Biers. They even addressed one of my issues with it when Dualla was promoted to lieutenant and second in command of the Pegasus under Lee 'Apollo' Adama at the end of Season 2. Unfortunately the Pegasus got destroyed in the escape from New Caprica.

Season 3 picks up where it left off January 21. I'll be tuned in. Until then I'll be watching my collection of Battlestar DVD's trying to figure out what the Cylon Plan is.

Old School Christmas

Me and a friend in the days leading up to the Festival of Conspicuous Consumption were talking about how Christmas was growing up for both of us as children in the 70's. We had some similar memories despite living almost 1000 miles apart.

Before my family purchased the current artificial green Christmas tree we still use, we had an artificial silver one with silver foil looking attachments to it that dated back to the 60's. The silver foil tree was backlit with a rotating lightbulb thingy that bathed it in three different colors of red, orange and green light at regular intervals.

We actually bought a real tree one year at Mom's insistence. The additional maintenance and upkeep required to have it stay fresh, the extra precautions we had to observe in order for the tree not to become a fire hazard and the annoyance of vacuuming the carpet almost every day because of fallen needles caused us to go right back to the artificial one the next year.

The radio stations would play classic Christmas music from Thanksgiving until Christmas Day. I loved hearing the variety of soulful Christmas songs that ranged from Nat King Cole to Charles Brown's blues flavored Merry Christmas, Baby.

Stores wouldn't put up Christmas decorations until AFTER Thanksgiving Day. You looked forward to watching A Charlie Brown Christmas, Frosty the Snowman, The Grinch That Stole Christmas and the other various Rankin-Bass animated Christmas shows.

The other aspect of it was a lot of the toys we received made us use our imaginations or physically do something. Hula hoops. Easy Bake Ovens. Etch a Sketches. Legos. Lincoln Logs. Light Brites. Sporting equipment. Bicycles.

Playing electronic football games back in the day involved setting up 22 plastic men, a felt football and a electrically charged metal football field, not a video game console. Boxing was the Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots. One Christmas I got a foosball table and even a hockey game. I developed a wicked spin shot that I still confound my foosball opponents with. I generate speed with it just by flicking my wrists.

I had plastic soldiers like most kids my age and a GI Joe but would've rather had a Barbie. Of course there was always the box that contained clothes and an occasional book or two for me since my parents friends and my family knew I loved to read.

As I got older I was drafted into the Santa's Helpers Corps. I had to help keep my sister's presents safely hidden from their prying, nosey eyes until Christmas Day. I also learned as a member of the SHC the three most deadly words of the Christmas season: Some Assembly Required.

I ended up discovering the joys and frustrations of putting together various Barbie houses, a miniature doll house and two bikes.

Every time I hear those classic back in the day Black Christmas songs during the holidays my mind drifts to those relatively carefree days when as Stevie Wonder sang in I Wish, then my only worry was for Christmas what would be my toy.

These days I have far more to worry about than I did in the 70's.

My Comments-Miss USA Controversy

As you probably guessed, I have some thoughts about the Miss USA controversy and they are rooted in what happened to Vanessa L. Williams.

I realize this is The Donald's pageant. As the owner of it he can make whatever decision he chooses to make concerning the status of Tara Conner. But I still have to wonder what would have happened if it was Tamiko Nash running buck wild in New York. Based on what happened to Vanessa Williams, my highly skeptical answer would have been no.

Let's flip da script for a moment. Let's assume that Tamiko Nash is wearing the MIss USA crown instead of Tara Conner. If Tamiko Nash had been hanging out with gangsta rappers, caught drinking while underage, running around with various Manhattan playa-playas and was headed to rehab for an alleged coke addiction, I have to question whether US public opinion or the media would have allowed a sistah to screw up on that massive scale with little or no media attention when there was a Caucasian first runner-up available to replace her.

Now let's take our alternate history scenario further and assume that The Donald did cut his wayward African-American queen some slack and offered her the same deal that he gave Tara Conner. I can see the right wingers screaming on Faux News and right-wing talk radio that he was caving in to the Black community. They'd be railing about his 'keeping a woman of questionable morals' in that spot to represent the USA at the Miss Universe Pageant and taking every opportunity to use the incident to attack African-Americans in general.

Let's exit our alternate universe and slide back to reality. In terms of how most African-Americans perceive our culture, young White people get multiple chances to screw up, young Blacks and other minorities do not.

Whether that's an accurate perception or not, the differing results as to what happened to Vanessa Williams in 1984 and Tara Conner in 2006 only confirm the suspicions of African-Americans that there IS one.

Double Standard

Trump Blasted for Keeping `Party Girl' Miss USA While Black Runner-Up Waits In Wings

Wednesday, December 20, 2006
By: Monica Lewis, BlackAmericaWeb.com

Let the conspiracy theories begin.

Despite developing a "party girl" reputation and even breaking the law by engaging in underage drinking, Miss USA Tara Conner will keep her crown, knocking down any chance of first runner-up Tamiko Nash taking over the title.

In a press conference Tuesday, Donald Trump, who owns the Miss Universe organization, said he would not dethrone Conner, whose alleged behavior has come under serious scrutiny in recent days. The former Miss Kentucky has reportedly been caught drinking in numerous New York nightclubs, engaging in an open mouth kiss with the reigning Miss Teen USA and been involved in flings with some of Manhattan's most eligible bachelors.

But Conner, who is white, stood by Trump's side as he publicly issued a vote of confidence, calling his wayward beauty queen "a good person." Had Trump pulled the trigger and sent Conner packing, Nash would have stepped in becoming the fifth black woman to hold the Miss USA title. Instead, Nash remains in her current role while Conner keeps the crown -- and enters rehab for drinking and after allegedly testing positive for cocaine.

"I've always been a believer in second chances," Trump, who owns the Miss Universe Organization, said at a podium inside the atrium of Trump Tower along New York's famed Fifth Avenue. "Tara is a good person. Tara has tried hard. Tara is going to be given a second chance."

According to reports, Trump was prepared to dethrone Conner, who just turned 21 Monday, before meeting with her prior to the scheduled press conference. However, he chalked up Conner's behavior to what happens to many small-town women who come to New York, the city that never sleeps.

In 2002, Miss Russia Oxana Fedorova won the Miss Universe pageant but was stripped of her title after violating her contract. Trump said Fedorova didn't show up for some photo shoots and charity events. It was the first time a titleholder had been ousted in the contest's more than 50-year history. Fedorova denied she was fired and said she gave up the title voluntarily.

In Nash's home state of California, many people have been talking about the controversy and the apparent blind eye given to Conner.
Paula Kimber, publisher of the California Advocate, a Black newspaper, said she disagrees with Trump's choice.

"The general feeling here is that if the races were the other way around, it wouldn't be the same result," Kimber told BlackAmericaWeb.com. "I couldn't imagine (Nash) keeping the title if it had been her who did all of this stuff."

This turn of events has many looking back to the mid-1980s when Vanessa Williams was forced to relinquish her crown when nude pictures of her, taken before she became the first Black Miss America, surfaced. Williams, who went on to have a professional
acting and singing career that could be envied by other beauty queens who served out the duration of their reigns, was thought unfit to represent a title that makes its holders an instant role model.

Melissa Lacewell Harris, a political science professor at the University of Chicago, said the situation speaks volumes about white privilege in America.

"Giving her a second chance is indicative of how White America works.
It's true for everyone from white fraternity boys to even people like George Bush, who can have mediocre grades and a failing international war and still be given a second chance," Lacewell Harris told BlackAmericaWeb.com.

"Over and over again, the mistakes young white people make are not held against them," Lacewell Harris said, adding that, if true, Conner's behavior don't seem to flow with the family values that a person in her position should display. "But when young Blacks make mistakes, it more than likely limits their opportunities forever.

"For the privileged people, whether it is white or the wealthy, they don't have to live perfect lives to have equal opportunities," Lacewell Harris continued. "They're allowed to make mistakes and even fail. Yet with (blacks), any moral misstep or miscalculation can lead to a lifetime of pain."

While some may feel as if debating whether or not Conner should keep her crown is a trivial matter, Lacewell Harris said, this latest turn of events could address some larger, more compelling issues plaguing society.

"This type of scenario is a litmus test and sets the stage for what's possible, not only on the cultural front but in a political sense," she told BlackAmericaWeb.com.

"In a certain way, the way Barack Obama is playing with the idea of running for president leaves us in the position where we need to asking are we ready for Black leaders," she added. "If there's a sense of discomfort of going to a Black girl when there's a problematic white girl holding the crown, maybe Barack should wait."

On Transgender Human Rights Issues in Africa

From Fahamu (Oxford)
Visit their site: http://www.fahamu.org/

December 7, 2006
Posted to the web December 7, 2006

by Juliet Victor Mukasa


In most African states, homosexuality is illegal. Juliet Victor Mukasa writes that in Africa, transgender people are punished and ostracised for being who they are. "While still with my parents, I was always beaten by my father for "behaving" like a boy. In school, the same story. While peeing one day my neighbour's daughter found me peeing while squatting and she screamed like she had seen a monster."

As a transgender person who is attracted physically and emotionally to other women, issues that African women and trangenders face are of particular concern to me. The one thing that all transgender people have in common is that we do not fit into traditional gender categories.


We're taught that that a human being must behave, present themselves, dress and so on in only two ways...male or female. There are rules that govern genders, unfortunately. Such gender rules include:

-How a man should dress in order to appear masculine;

-What types of jobs are fitting for a woman

-That a woman must only be in a relationship with another man, not with a woman

These rules to govern our behaviour are socially constructed, meaning that they are not "natural". They are rules made up by people, sometimes with horrible punishments for not following them.

In Africa, transgender people are seriously punished for being who they are. While still with my parents, I was always beaten by my father for "behaving" like a boy. In school, the same story. While peeing one day my neighbour's daughter found me peeing while squatting and she screamed like she had seen a monster. I became the laughing stock of the village and I expelled myself because of the humiliation. I could speak the whole day about the discomforts I have suffered in life more because I am a transgender person.

All trans-people that I have interacted with mention such, or even worse, moments in their lives. It can be a very deep violation of our being to be forced to perform our gender differently to who we feel it for ourselves.

Some people, like myself, are born with a sense of ourselves as male in some ways, even though we are biologically female.

As a transgender person, it is constantly demanded of me to explain and justify why I do not fit into other people's ideas of what a woman or a man should be.

As a Human Rights defender, I am working to protect a space for people to exist freely without facing harassment, threats, or violence for not fitting into traditional gender categories.

I can give specific examples of human rights abuses and violations of transgender people in Africa:

- Raped to prove that you are really a woman

- At school and public assembly - humiliation and beatings

- Thrown out of the family home

- Thrown out of subsequent homes by landlords

- Losing jobs because of feeling violated wearing a skirt

- Psychological Effects of Abuse: Depression, Anger, Drinking, Suicide

- Holding a full bladder for 12-18 hours daily

- Being undressed and humiliated

- Being abused by government when trying to get a passport

- In church - I was once stripped naked before a multitude of people. The pastor 'saw' the spirit of a young man inside me and they burnt my clothes and shoes in order to kill the male spirit.

- By Police: humiliation, mocking, mistreatment

However, transgender people have also been successful in overcoming these abuses.

In Uganda there is tremendous energy and anger on the part of activists. Many LGBTs are ready to rise up. For example, some transgender men are dressing up in drag and declaring that they have had enough.

Another victory is the establishment of the first specifically Transgender organization on the continent: Gender DynamiX, located in Cape Town, South Africa.

We are now claiming language and claiming spaces. Sometimes it is even difficult for us to understand ourselves because the world has been constructed to make us completely invisible. But now we are finding words to use for ourselves such as He She Che.

As an illustration of why we need your support, I would like to highlight the work of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG). SMUG is an organization made up of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Human Rights Defenders. Many of us in leadership in this organization are women and several of us are transgender. We face many challenges such as in Uganda, on a weekly basis, gay men are arrested and face detention if they do not pay a bribe to be released. This has become a business from which the police benefit. The basic Human Rights of LGBT people are completely disregarded in this process as the police abuse our rights.

Many of us do not receive protection from the police when we face violations of our rights by the surrounding community. One of SMUG's primary emphases in our workplan for this year is sensitising the police and creating a better working relationship with them.


By having the support, awareness, and protection of international Human Rights bodies, we will be much more effective in this endeavour. Through our work, we aim to help people realise the ways in which we are all connected, whether straight or LGBT, the societal rules governing what a woman has to be like and what a man has to be like hurt us all.

However, we still have many needs. We are an invisible population when it comes to protection. There is almost NO research to understand transgender people's lives in Africa.We have an undocumented history and are still invisible.

The secrecy and covert nature of our work in Africa also makes us invisible to the larger gender and human rights sector, and to each other. There is almost NO action in this area to protect people who do not fit into traditional gender categories. At the same time we are highly visible and therefore highly vulnerable to discrimination.

Transgender people have the potential to radically challenge discriminatory practices in a way that helps to free all people from sexism. People who cross gender boundaries make transformation of society more possible, and make gender transgressions more acceptable and enable societal gender transformation. We - the transgender community - have the right to tell our stories and have them heard, and to have our lives protected.

Mainstream Human Rights organizations, for the most part, are not accepting or protecting us on any level. As people from all over the world who are concerned about human rights and gender injustice, we need to work together to protect our most vulnerable Human Rights Defenders.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

1. Research and understand the complex self-identification of transgender people in Africa.

2. More effectively monitor human rights situations abuses and violations against Transgender People (such as systematic rape, intimidation, forced undressing, and economic exclusion).

3. Educate the UN bodies and its partners about transgender concerns.

4. Provide training, support, and protection to transgender Human Rights Defenders and allies.

5. Put pressure on local governments, donors, economic powers and human rights institutions toprovide protection for those who do not fit into traditional gender categories and to recognize the way in which transgender people add to the freedom of expression and quality of life of all people.

• This paper was presented at the World International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) PANEL AT 2ND UNCHR SESSION. Juliet Victor Mukasa is the Chairperson of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG). Mukasa is also in the ILGA Board of Representatives

Pumping Up-Beauty To Die For

TransGriot Note: Transwoman J. Middleton testifying in a 2002 pretrial hearing related to Miami's Vera Lawrence case

One thing that has concerned me over the last few years is silicone pumping parties and the rising number of deaths that have been occurring in various parts of the country as a result of them.

It's not a new phenomenon to me, but I recall being introduced to a young transwoman at a Transgender Initiative meeting a year after I arrived in Louisville. The first question she asked me after the introductions and noting my prominent cheekbones and C-cup breasts was, "Did you get pumped?"

Some of my young sistahs that wish to transition either don't have the funds or don't want to give hormone replacement therapy the time required to make them look 'fishy'. In order to achieve that feminine look they will have (they hope) medical grade silicone injected into their lips, buttocks, cheeks and breasts in order to enlarge them and give them that feminine appearance.

Pumping is also popular among the pageant girls seeking a quick and inexpensive way to enlarge their breasts, hips, and cheeks without resorting to surgery. An underground network of unlicensed providers has sprung up in various parts of the country to provide those services at 'pumping parties'. At these parties groups of people gather at a central location to get injected or share at prices ranging from $250 to $1000 a shot.

But as the 2003 Vera Lawrence case pointed out, it's not just transgender women who are doing it. Genetic women are also going to pumping parties to enhance their looks. But that desire can have fatal consequences.

Vera Lawrence died after having 12,000 cc of industrial grade silicone injected into each of her buttocks at a Miami area pump party. The case garnered media attention because the person accused of administering the fatal injections was transgender. In July 2003 Mark Hawkins was sentenced to 30 years and Viva Hendrix to 5 years for their roles in Ms. Lawrence's death, but Hawkins' conviction was overturned.

The FDA has never approved the marketing of injectable liquid silicone for any cosmetic purpose, including the treatment of facial defects or wrinkles, or enlarging the breasts. Besides the risk of death, the adverse effects of liquid silicone injections have included movement of the silicone to other parts of the body, inflammation and discoloration of surrounding tissues, and the formation of granulomas (nodules of granulated, inflamed tissue).

One of the other risks from pumping is the possibility of acquiring HIV. If one of the participants is infected and shares a needle with another person, then that infected person will spread the virus with everyone who shared a silicone shot with her.

I'm not a fan of pumping parties. My advice is to use hormones to get the desired look. It took your mothers, aunts and sisters about 10 years to get their curves, breasts and hips, so why rush the process? I do understand the overwhelming desire to look as realistic as possible, but long-term health problems or death as a result of a short term desire to look 'fish' is a losing proposition.

But to all the transwomen (and genetic ones) reading this, if you insist on doing so after all the warnings that myself and medical professionals have given about the dangers of loose silicone roaming through your body, then that's on you.

I want to look my best, too. Using loose silicone to accomplish that isn't part of my game plan and never will be. Beauty is not worth dying over.

New Game Plan

Another guest column I wrote that was published by THE LETTER in August 2003
-----------------------------------------
New Game Plan
By Monica Roberts
Copyright 2003, THE LETTER


During the summer of 2002 I wrote an article directed at the
Caucasian male to female transsexuals in the community. I stated to
them that they are now considered whether they like it or not,
minorities, and the old rules of white male privilege that they are
used to operating under don't apply. Some of my own people have hard
heads too, so I'm now going to turn my attention to African-American
transgendered peeps.

I've been observing the Black GLBT community since the early 80's, and
I've been considered one of the trail blazing leaders in the national
trans community since 1998. One of the things that I admire about the
Caucasian trans community is that there is far more discussion and
information sharing concerning the process of transition than among
my own people.

And why is that happening? I believe that too much time is spent in
the African-American trans community focusing on having sex and
partying instead of intelligently discussing the process that leads
to us becoming recognized in the eyes of mainstream society as a
female. I witnessed too many Black T-girls who allow their lives to
get wrapped up in the short term pleasures of having a 'husband' or
finding 'trade' to sleep with for the night. There is much more to
being a woman than swallowing estrogen, developing a feminine body,
and spreading your legs or bending over to screw everything that
moves. That short-sighted thinking is dangerous, and has probably put
the entire African-American community at risk.
When studies like the 2000 Washington DC Transgender Needs Assessment
show that 32% of our sisters are HIV-positive out of a sample group
of 250 people, it's time to consider a new game plan.

Another is the fact that those T-girls who have acquired the
knowledge on how to transition jealously guard it like the secret
recipe for Kentucky Fried Chicken. The persons who've already
transitioned want to cut out the potential competition. I remember
bumping into that problem when I was trying to find out how to get
the process started back in 1981. Most of the girls I asked were
tight-lipped on where they got their hormones, who did their hair,
or the other points of Transition 101. They ignored me instead
of seeing me as another human being who wanted to get to the place
where they were. They had forgotten the cardinal rule of the African-
American community: Each one, teach one. The spread of the
Internet has largely eliminated this problem, since much of the
information that I was seeking at that time is readily available
online.

Just once I'd like to see discussions for example, on what's
happening with T-sistas in various parts of the country. I'd like to
see us form our own organizations so that we can openly discuss
what's on our minds, and try to bridge the gaps between the
professional T-girls, the club T-girls, and the street T-girls.

I'd love to see T-sistas show up in significant numbers one
September at Southern Comfort in Atlanta or have our own.
I'd love to have conversations with them about aspects of the
transition process that are working their nerves. I've love to be
able to network with other T-sisters to build a foundation for a
nationwide support apparatus. I'd like to see African-American T-
sisters write about their feelings, how they grew up,
what drama they dealt with, what age they started the change, and
have them published in gay and straight media.

Most of all, I'd love to see the professional T-girls come out, if
possible,and become role models for the next generation of T-kids.
I'm in contact with many African-American T-girls who are college
educated. Some are holding advanced degrees. They are working in
various professional fields, and a few I know are wives and mothers
successfully raising children.
It's sad that unlike Caucasian T-kids, many of our T-kids have never
been exposed to a successful professional T- person who looks like
them. That's critically important in building our T-kids self esteem
and showing those kids that there is another path besides sex work
to a better life.

Finally, we need to impress upon people that transition is a slow
time-consuming process, and a major life altering decision. There
are no shortcuts, so put the silicone away. Your mother and your
sisters had years to learn everything about Femininity 101, and their
bodies developed over time. In my case, I started transitioning at
age 27, so I not only had to learn everything about femininity (and
I'm still learning at age 40), but at that moment I needed to have
the level of knowledge appropriate for a 27 year old Black woman.
The rub was that I didn't have 27 years to learn it.

How I did it was asking questions of my genetic female sisterfriends,
accepting the advice that they gave me, and observing their behavior
in various social situations To paraphrase the old joke about
getting to Carnegie Hall, the best way to become a woman when you
weren't immersed in femininity at birth is practice, practice,
practice. Much of my early progress in assimilating into Black
womanhood happened because of the help I received, and still get to
this day.

We Black T-girls have a lot to live up to. Black women are the
mothers of civilization, and we have a long, proud history of
achievement and success despite tremendous odds. I look at it as an
honor and a privilege to finally become part of that sacred circle
after being on the outside looking in for so long.

Anybody else care to join me?