She Swoopes To Conquer

By Arnold Wayne Jones
Staff Writer, Dallas Voice
Mar 8, 2007, 19:12

WNBA star Sheryl Swoopes, who rocked pro athletics by coming out at the height of her career, has some choice words for Tim Hardaway

More people have probably used the words “gay” and “basketball” in the same breath in the last two months than at any other time in history. And it’s not because of March Madness. The discussion was stirred by retired NBA player Jon Amaechi’s decision to come out, followed soon thereafter by ex-star Tim Hardaway’s proudly homophobic remarks that gay people shouldn’t be allowed to exist.

But the dialogue over gay athletes in basketball really started more than a year ago when WNBA star Sheryl Swoopes came out.

At the time of her admission to being lesbian in October 2005, Swoopes became (and still remains) the only player on a professional team sport to come out as gay or lesbian while still active.

What made her announcement all the more remarkable was that it came not from a minor player or someone hawking a new memoir, but an acknowledged superstar in her field with nothing to sell at all. No, the Texan-bred Swoopes — a three-time MVP with the Houston Comets, three-time Olympic gold medalist and the first woman to have a Nike shoe named for her — had far more to lose financially than to gain. Yet she came out anyway.

Prior to her appearance at several events in Dallas this weekend, Swoopes shared her thoughts about the Amaechi-Hardaway debacle, the state of pro sports for gay athletes and why she chose to come out when she did.

Sheryl Swoopes will appear at a private home at 5214 Livingston Ave. at 6 p.m. on Friday. $350. 972-383-6926. She will also speak at the Lambda Legal Women’s Brunch, “Making the Case for Equality,” at a private home at 8505 Douglas Ave. at 11 a.m. on Saturday. $100 suggested donation. 214-219-8585.


Were you surprised when Jon Amaechi came out — or by Tim Hardaway’s response? No and no. I think what Jon Amaechi did was very courageous. And obviously, I am very supportive of the decision he made. I was not surprised by what Tim said, but it could have been any NBA player to make that comment. That’s how society is, and how sports are. It is kind of disappointing. I have know Tim Hardaway for a while and admired him as an athlete, so to hear his comment made so strongly was more hurtful and disappointing than anything.

Had Tim Hardaway ever said such things to you directly? No. But then I don’t hang out with NBA guys. I saw him in January, and he didn’t treat me any differently than he ever has.

After you came out, did anyone make Hardaway-like comments about you? I haven’t heard any yet. It wouldn’t surprise me if it happened and I just don’t know about it — I’m sure people had comments but everything I’ve heard directly has been very positive and supportive.

You came out while still an active player, a first for a team-sport athlete. Why? It didn’t have anything to do with me saying, “Do I want to do it while I’m still playing or do I want to wait?”

For me, the timing was perfect. I was at a point where I was tired of not being able to be me. I knew I’d have to deal with everything that came along, whether it be good, bad or indifferent. But I didn’t discuss my decision with anyone. I just said, “This is the day.” I could not ask what’s gonna happen, what’s the league is going to say, how my teammates would feel.

That was brave. I think so, too. But there are so many other issues that are bigger and more important in this world than we should be concerned with than dealing with someone’s sexuality. Of course, that’s what people want to read, so that’s what people cover.

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban recently said he thinks gay players should come out because it would actually do wonders for their marketability, making them media stars. Agree? I agree — it would be a huge media circus. But I would bet my life that he’d have a hard time selling that to current NBA players. When I made my decision — and to this day I haven’t regretted it — I didn’t say, “These are all the endorsements I could lose.” What I gained was peace of mind and happiness, which outweighs all the money in the world.

But when you talk about male athletes — and not just basketball players but all male professional athletes — their biggest concern is “What about my endorsements? What’s the money I’m going to lose?” It becomes such a huge male-ego thing. Even Jon Amaechi said the NBA is not ready for a current player to come out.

What Tim Hardaway said not only hurt Jon and myself but all the younger people who are dealing with this who think “I can’t do this because this is how people truly feel.” And I think that’s unfortunate. I think what Jon and I did will do the world more good than harm; what Tim Hardaway did is just the opposite.

Do you think it was harder to come out because you did still had to deal with teammates and fans? I think it’s hard, period. There are so many issues you have to deal with. I don’t think it’s any easier for a female athlete than a male. But I got to a point where I didn’t care about those things anymore. The entire time I was being what everybody else thought I should be, I was totally miserable. I would go to bed with a headache or a stomach ache and wake up that way. No one in their right mind could say that was healthy or good.

I have to thank Martina [Navratilova] and Billie Jean [King], because when they made that decision they lost so much money. But they kind of set the bar for other female athletes. They did it and are very successful now — why shouldn’t I? Why couldn’t I?

Aside from the gay issue, what is the state of the WBNA right now? I think there’s always room to grow. When you look at the women’s college game, it’s in a very good place. Look at all the talent and potential that’s there.

As for the WNBA, we have a lot of room to grow and you can only hope that the WNBA is going to be very successful. I do believe it will be around a while because of all the talent.

How do you want to be remembered as an athlete? I’m proud of what I did or helped to do at Texas Tech, which I think will always be remembered. Being on the first team to win four championships in a row, and the first woman to receive three MVP awards, was great. And being able to represent your country [in the Olympics] is phenomenal honor, but three times was a dream come true. One doesn’t mean more to me than another.

But when I’m done playing, whether that’s in a year or two or three, I want people to look back and say I had it all and did it all. Every time I stepped on the floor, I left if all there.



This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition March 09, 2007
© Copyright by DallasVoice.com

Thai Spice Girls Preach Transsexual Power

20th February 2007 17:04
Amy Bourke
From Pink News.co.uk




A girl band of transsexuals who model themselves on the Spice Girls are hoping to change social attitudes and achieve pop chart success in Thailand.

Venus Flytrap's five members were all born males and later underwent gender reassignment surgery.

Like the famous British group, they have onstage personas, namely Cool Venus, Naughty Venus, Posh Venus, Sweet Venus and Hot Venus.

They have achieved the dream of many a struggling artist and been snapped up by Sony BMG Music Entertainment, one of the world's biggest recording companies.

However, this is a purely commercial venture by a company looking to exploit a niche market in Thailand.

Sony auditioned 100 transsexual performers before selecting the final five, who later underwent a year of singing, dancing and acting lessons.

The band hope that their first single, 'Cause I'm Your Lady, will help to promote tolerance and inclusion of transsexuals in Thailand.

Their first album, Visa for Love, was released in December.

It has not had any chart success yet, but has earned the girls a lucrative concert deal, and has enjoyed repeat play on Bangkok's SkyTrain rail network

Sony's director for artists and repertoire Amonrat Homhoul told AFP: "It was not easy.

"Recording was time-consuming because the group members sing as women, but cannot keep their voices at a high pitch for more than a few hours.

"The response has been good, even if their songs aren't in the charts yet."

Thailand is believed to have the largest transsexual population in the world.

Experts estimate at least 10,000 trans people live in Thailand, though some put the figure at 10 times that.

Even the conservative number would mean that per capita, Thailand has many more transsexuals than most developed countries.

Although no-one is sure why Thailand attracts so many, part of the reason may be that medical treatments for sex change operations are extremely cheap.

They cost roughly 150,000 baht, (£2,000).

Some clinics in Pattaya will perform the surgery for as little as £500.

Thai people are often more tolerant of trangender people than other countries.

Transsexuals are known as "kathoey," and have special roles to play in village festivals, usually involving decorations or performances.
Transgender people are also often represented in the media and in public Thai life, but they can still draw negative attention.

More often than not their only option of work is dancing as exotic entertainers in cabaret revues.

Laws in Thailand are also heavily stacked against transgender people. They are not covered by rape laws, and are not allowed to marry.

The band's dream is that the music's appeal will extend to beyond the cabaret clubs tucked away in seedy red-light districts.

"I see being in Venus Flytrap as another chance for me, a ladyboy, to work in another field of entertainment other than cabarets and beauty pageants," Dhanade Ruangroongroj, or Cool Venus told AFP.

Krerkkong, who is studying for a masters in political science, said she hopes her experience with the band will help earn recognition for other transsexuals.

Ploypaitoon Moukprakaaiphed, or Hot Venus, lets us know why transsexuals do it better.

She told AFP she had the edge because, "I can sing both as a woman, and a man."


TransGriot Note: There's a glaring inaccuracy in this report. One of the paragraphs states that Thailand is believed to have the largest transgender population in the world. That's doubtful. The US alone has 300 million peeps and with a conservative estimate of one in 500 births being transgender that translates to roughly 2 million transpeeps in the US.

Happy Birthday Jasmine Guy!

One of my favorite quadruple threats was born on this date in 1964.

I fell in love with Jasmine when she played Hillman's diva princess Whitley Gilbert on NBC's A Different World. But that wasn't her first time in the limelight. She's been performing on stage and screen for over 20 years as a dancer, actress, and singer.

Jasmine was a member of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and danced in the TV pilot and on the show Fame with Debbie Allen. In addition to doing Broadway and dance theater, she's appeared in the movies Harlem Nights, Klash, and one of my fave Spike Lee movies School Daze. She also played Velma Kelly in the touring production of Chicago.

She also done television since A Different World with roles and guest spots on Showtime's Dead Like Me, NYPD Blue, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Touched By an Angel , The Parkers and That's So Raven.

You can also call Jasmine an author. She penned the book 'Evolution of a Revolutionary', the story and spiriitual journey of Afeni Shakur. For those of you who are wondering who she is, you've probably heard of her son Tupac.

Jasmine these days is happily married and has a daughter. I'm looking forward to checking out her next multimedia project.

Documentary-American Beauties

Liz sent this link to TSTB about the award-winning documentary film called American Beauties.

The 2005 documentary is a series of interviews with Asian transwomen Amanda, Imani, Kimberly and Kosal. They express themselves on the issues facing them such as discrimination, prostitution, sex reassignment surgery, their former lives, and their dreams for the future.

And here's the YouTube video from that documentary as well:

Part 1



Part 2



Part 3



Part 4

Houston Unity Banquet Tickets Go On Sale

Renowned activist Ray Hill to keynote April 14 event


The Houston Transgender Unity Committee has opened ticket sales for the 15th annual Houston Transgender Unity Banquet, which will be held on Saturday, April 14, at the Westchase Hilton (9999 Westheimer at Briarpark), 6:30 p.m. until 1 a.m.

Tickets are $50 in advance ($60 at the door) and can be purchased through Ticketweb at the Unity Committee website, www.htuc.org. Tickets are also available at Jewel’s Boutique (2404 Taft near Fairview) and by mail (P.O. Box 542287, Houston 77254).

Some proceeds from Unity Banquet ticket sales support the Peggy Rudd Transgender Scholarship Fund. For the second year, the Unity Committee will present a scholarship at the banquet to a transgender-identified student pursuing higher education. The Rudd Scholarship application is available at the Unity Committee website.

The 2007 Unity Banquet, which is the largest single-night transgender event in the nation, is dedicated to the memory of the transgender advocate and HIV/AIDS activist and educator Brenda Thomas (1943-2006). Thomas was the Unity Committee executive director. Among her many achievements and honors, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2002 Unity Banquet and the Trinity Award, which honors transgender heroes, from the International Foundation for Gender Education in 2004.

Ray Hill, the renowned activist for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender rights, is the Unity Banquet keynote speaker. During the banquet, representatives from other local transgender groups will make presentations about their work. These groups include Helping TransGenders Anonymous, Houston Transgender Life Connection/Thursday Night Social Group, STAG/Some Transgenders Are Guys, Tau Chi chapter of Tri-Ess, the Society for the Second Self, and Texas Association for Transsexual Support,

Unity Banquet sponsors (as of March 1) are Charles Armstrong Investments, Nechman, Simoneaux, and Frye, PLLC, Resurrection Metropolitan Community Church, Dr. Pierre Brassard-Clinique de Chirurgies Esthetique St-Joseph, Dr. Suporn Clinic-Thailand, Denise O'Doherty, The Princess Company, Legacy Community Health Services, Tim Brookover & Albert Mata, The Crossings-Austin, Alley Theatre, Houston Symphony, Bruce Kieler, and John Steven Kellett Foundation.

The Houston Transgender Unity Committee is the nonprofit consortium of area trans organizations. In addition to the Unity Banquet, Unity Committee projects include the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance in November and Unity Month in March. Committee representatives frequently speak to schools, businesses, and organizations.

Lobby Day Attracts 210 LGBT Activists To Austin

By David Webb
Staff Writer, Dallas Voice
Mar 8, 2007, 20:36





Transgender activists account for almost one-fourth of people visiting legislators to discuss issues

The turnout for Lobby Day in Austin this year was smaller than in some previous years, but the enthusiasm of the lobbyists made up for the shortage, according to some of the participants.

An estimated 210 members of the LGBT community showed up at the Texas Capitol to visit with legislators and voice their concerns about discrimination in the workplace, housing and schools, said Paul Scott, executive director of Equality Texas. The lobbyists also advocated for the rights of gay and lesbian people who want to adopt children or be foster parents.

“It was very effective,” Scott said. “We were not refused by any office. There were some offices where the conversations were shorter, but that was to be expected.”

Scott said Equality Texas leaders had reached out to the state’s transgender community to participate in the effort, and they were gratified by the response.

“They backed it 100 percent,” said Scott, who noted that almost one-fourth of the lobbyists were transgender people. Scott said the inclusion of transgender people in the lobby effort was useful to the overall LGBT community as well.

“There were many gay and lesbian people who had never had interaction with transgender persons before,” Scott said. “There’s a lot of work to do in our own community on transgender issues as well as within the general community.”

Dallas resident Jessica Davis, a member of Gender Education Advocacy Resources, said transgender lobbyists talked to legislators about a bill allowing gender mark changes and adding transgender language to the state hate crimes law.

“It was empowering,” Davis said. “I’ll be back in 2009, and I’ll be encouraging others to go with me.”

Shannon Bailey, president of Texas Stonewall Democrats, said it was his sixth time to participate in Lobby Day. He first started attending the biannual events in 1997.

“We certainly could have used more people, but I think it was the most successful that I’ve been to,” Bailey said. “To me it was a little more friendly than it has been in the past — even in the less-friendly legislators’ offices. It was not the less-friendly legislators themselves, but their staffs that were certainly willing to listen to our issues.”

Bailey said the staff members today tend to be younger and more open to dialogue than the legislators they represent.

“The staffs seem to have a little softer ear on our issues,” Bailey said. “It’s been interesting over the years to see them change. They ask us to come into the offices and sit down and talk.”

Bailey said he is hopeful that the 2009 Lobby Day will include a large rally to draw more people to Austin.

“I’m sort of a grassroots type,” Bailey said. “I love a good rally and protest. I think it energizes people — makes them feel part of something.”

Protests also help educate the public, Bailey said.

Scott said a rally might be a possibility in 2009.

“We do respect and understand the need for us to come together publicly as a community,” Scott said.

“We’re looking at some ways we can possibly accomplish that in 2009.”

We Don't Want Ann Coulter, Either

I've been amused over the last four years about the 'Mann Coulter' epithet directed at the Queen of Conservamean in addition to the comments, jokes and rumors circulating that she's transgendered.

If she is, I'd like to state for the record that y'all can have her.

While there are many women that we in the transgender community would be estatic to find out are actually one of our sisters and we would welcome them with open arms, please let Ann Coulter NOT be one of them.

Frankly, it's an insult to the transgender community for y'all to call her one. I have T-girlfriends that are much better looking and have far more elegance and class in their pinky fingers than Ann Coulter does in her entire body.

While I'm on this tip, what's up with this trend in the blogosphere and elsewhere to label women you don't like as transsexuals? Paris Hilton has had that comment thrown at her repeatedly along with her sister Nicky by Perez Hilton and others. Even Tina Fey took a recent swipe at Paris using the same attack line. I'm not a big fan of Paris Hilton, but enough is enough. If you wish to insult her, find another way to do it without calling her a transsexual. It really annoys those of us who are transwomen and who are proud of it.

But back to Ann. Every time Coulter opens her mouth something hateful and asinine comes out of it. Oh, her conservative friends were loving it when it was anti-liberal bile spewing from her lips or quotes such as, "My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times Building."

When she attacked 9-11 widows Kristen Breitweiser, Lorie Van Auken, Mindy Kleinberg and Patty Casazza last year by calling them the 'Witches of East Brunswick' among other comments, she found herself being called out by many peeps in her own party.

She put her pumps in her mouth again during the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington D.C. last week when she called 2008 Denmocratic presidential candidate John Edwatds a 'faggot'.

It's not the first time that she's used anti-gay rhetoric to smear Democrats either and they egged her on. Now were entering the 2008 presidential election cycle and the GOP and the rest of the conservative movement is in extreme makeover mode. They're trying to look look less hateful and bigoted than they really are and now they want to disown her.

Too late now. Y'all were the ones enabling her behavior in the first place. Buying those wastes of trees she called books, paying her speaking fees and laughing the loudest at her remarks. Now the chickens have come home to roost.

I don't care if home girl is six feet tall, does have a huge Adam's Apple, a double-digit shoe size and a rather murky background, that does not make Ann Coulter a transsexual unless she makes that declaration. There's a better chance of the Cubs winning the World Series than Ann having a press conference at the Washington Press Club and uttering those four words.

For the record, that's one press conference I hope I'll never see.

Transsexual Pioneer Renee Richards Regrets Fame

Sun Feb 18, 2007 12:07pm ET
By Belinda Goldsmith

NEW YORK (Reuters) - As Renee Richards, the world's most famous transsexual athlete, looks back on her life, she has one regret -- the fame she attained.

Richards, who was born Richard Raskind, had managed to create a new life for herself as a woman after a sex change operation in 1975 but a year later made a decision that was to have an even greater impact.

She decided to take the United States Tennis Association to court for banning her from playing in women's events at the U.S. Open as she was a transsexual -- and she won, winning headlines globally as a pioneer for transsexual rights.

Richards, now 72 and without a partner, said she does not regret the sex change operation at the age of 40 -- although she might have liked to have gone through the process a bit earlier -- but she does have misgivings about her notoriety.

"I made the fateful decision to go and fight the legal battle to be able to play as a woman and stay in the public eye and become this symbol," Richards, an ophthalmologist, told Reuters in an interview in her Manhattan offices.

"I could have gone back to my office and just carried on with my life and the notoriety would have died down. I would have been able to resume the semblance of a normal life. I could have lived a more private life but I chose not to.

"I have misgivings about that. I am nostalgic about what would have happened if I had done it the other way," said the 6-foot-2-inch tall Richards with an unmistakable air of sadness as she folds her man-sized hands in her lap

Richards went on to play tennis professionally until 1981 then coached Martina Navratilova for two years before returning to the practice of ophthalmology.

FLEETING FAME

Fame came at a cost for Richards, who as Richard Raskind graduated from Yale, served in the Navy, become a prominent ophthalmologist and internationally known amateur tennis player. Raskind also married and fathered a son, Nick.

Her son, who is now 34 and still refers to her as "Dad" in private, attended many schools and struggled academically. He bounced between jobs before finally settling into a career as a real estate broker specializing in New York lofts.

"I am sure that had a lot to do with the chaos I went through in his childhood," said Richards, who refers to her son as "the apple of my eye."

Although Richards' mother died before her sex change operation, her father refused to acknowledge her sex change, and her sister still denies Richards' existence to friends.

Richards' former wife, who remarried and had another son, only talks to her when they need to discuss their son.

"We don't have a friendship," said Richards.

Forming relationships with men has proved difficult since she gained such notoriety, with Richards only having a couple of long-term boyfriends.

"With my first romances, they didn't know who I was but then I was found out," she said.

"You have to be a pretty strong character to have a relationship with someone who has been a man originally, and famous. I haven't had any romance in a number of years."

Richards, who spends her time between her home in upstate New York and a Manhattan apartment she shares with her son, found fame was also fleeting.

In the mid-1970s and when her memoir, "Second Serve: The Renee Richards Story," came out in 1983, was treated as an curiosity and besieged by television chat shows.

But with the release this month of her second memoir, "No Way Renee, The Second Half of My Notorious Life," few came knocking and television showed no interest.

"It is annoying to me," said Richards. "I'm so ordinary now; they're not interested. There's lots about transsexuals now."

© Reuters 2007. All Rights Reserved.


TransGriot note: I'm glad Renee did fight the USTA. As someone who was struggling with gender issues during the 70's she was the first concrete evidence I had that transpeople existed. It would take me a few more years before I met some transwomen who shared my ethnic heritage, but she along with local transwomen Phyllis Frye and Toni Mayes put names and faces to what I was feeling emotionally and internally at the time.

Open Letter to Kenneth Eng

Dear Kenneth,
For somebody that graduated from NYU, you are breathtakingly ignorant to paint an entire race of people with a stereotypical brush based on two movies and a rap radio station as you did in your recent February 23 column. (Personally I prefer classic R&B and jazz myself.)

I guess you forgot about the story of Joseph Cinque and the Amistad revolt? That wasn't an isolated incident. Many slave ship voyages didn't get too far away from the African coastline before the rebellions started. There were far more successful slave rebellions and revolts than the 'happy darkie' pro-slavery revisionist forces care to elaborate on and the first one happened in 1733. They feared slave rebellions from 1792 onward. Haiti's slaves liberating themselves from French rule in 1803 made them even more 'scurred' of us replicating the feat on US shores.

I see you're also clueless about Harriet Tubman, the Underground Railroad and the various ingenious ways that African-Americans escaped from plantations. They fought for their freedom in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars.

While were on the war tip, ever heard of the Buffalo Soldiers? The 761st Tank Battalion AKA the Black Panthers? The Tuskegee Airmen? The 54th Massachusetts Regiment? You desperately need to hop on the subway and spend some time at the Schomburg Institute.

And in which one of your science-fiction universes did you come up with that asinine statement? I'm tired of peeps like you dismissing our very real historical experiences in this country as 'whining'. The Christianity that the slavemasters forced on us was infused with our own religious experiences and traditions we brought with us from Africa. From that Christianity came some of our greatest leaders in the late 19th and 20th century.

Kenneth, what I don't get is your disjointed rambling about some obscure high school debate and what connection it has with African-Americans in general. But then again racists were never known to have logical linear thinking processes.

If you didn't see any African-Americans in your honors or AP classes, then you must have attended school in the 'burbs or went to a private one. I was in gifted and talented classes in junior and senior high along with many of my friends. Education was stressed in mine and many other households in my neighborhood.

George Santayana was right. If you don't study the past you are condemned to repeat it. That's why we just spent 28 days commemorating our history. African-Americans are painfully familiar with that statement more than anyone else in this country because we've seen the effects of neglected or ignored history disproportionately impact our community. For example, our experiences during Reconstruction in the late 19th century have eerily replicated themselves in the late 20th-early 21st century.

And it is rather troubling that this kind of virulent racism is alive and well in the early 21st century, especially in someone who is a 21 year old college graduate. I'm even more angered over the fact that you chose Black History Month to write such disgusting tripe.

We are heroes, Kenneth. I'm descended from peeps that survived the Middle Passage. Despite violent opposition, nattering naysayers and countless obstacles placed in our paths over the last 400 years that would have broken less sturdy peoples, to quote Maya Angelou, 'and still we rise.'


Sincerely,
Monica Roberts
The TransGriot

March 2007 TransGriot Column

Why Is The GLBT Community ‘Scurred’ of Old Glory?
Copyright 2007, THE LETTER

Something’s missing when we have any kind of press conference, protest, or other function in the GLBT community.

The American flag.

I find it odd that the flag is absent from many GLBT protest events. (I’m not talking about that rainbow version of the US flag, either.) I’m talking about the red, white and blue one with the 50 stars and thirteen stripes on it. You know, the one that was planted on the moon in 1969.

One of the things I see as a failing of those of us on the progressive side of the culture war is ceding control of our national symbol to the Christobigots. It lends credence to their propaganda spin about us that we’re anti-American when we don’t fly the flag at our events. The US flag is not a bought and paid for campaign decoration for the Religious Right, Fox News or the Republican Party. It belongs to all of us. We need to make that clear by resolving to use it at every opportunity to erase the perception in the Fox-watching masses minds, some of our own peeps and
mainstream Americans that it is.

Other protest movements have not had the aversion to the flag that I’ve seen in GLBT activist community circles. I point out that the US flag was carried during Civil Rights movement marches. When Vietnam War protesters weren’t burning them they carried Old Glory along with their peace version. Even the immigration protesters began carrying it when the nationally televised marches of them carrying Mexican and other national flags began generating a backlash against their cause.

We in the GLBT community need to proudly display it as a reminder to ourselves and our opponents that we are American citizens, we have constitutional rights and we demand that they be respected and defended irregardless of whether you like us or not.

To the folks that argue that it causes conflicting emotions in the GLBT community: And your point is?

If any peeps in this country should have a putrid hatred of that flag it should be African-Americans along with Native Americans. But both groups have fought and died for it in combat, held protests accompanied by it, hang it on our doorsteps and have it at places of honor in our communities.

I’m not a Faux News patriot. I love my country and deplore what has happened to it in the last seven years. I will praise it when it does the right thing and like any patriot will call it out when it’s on the wrong side of an issue. I am horrified that our country’s good name has been besmirched by a group of arrogant boobs in an unbelievably short time. But don’t turn anger with the administration into playa hating on the flag.

To many people on Planet Earth the US flag represents hope, justice, freedom, equality and fairness. Aren't those the same values that we're fighting for in the GLBT movement?

Just simply flying Old Glory will take away one more lie they use to demonize us and garner support for their anti-constitutional agenda. It may even get us some support from those American flag bumper sticker voters when we need it.

So don’t be ‘scurred’ of the flag. Get in touch with your patriotic side. Your country will thank you for it later. Put your right hand over your heart, face the flagpole and repeat after me.

I pledge allegiance to the flag
Of the United States of America
And to the republic for which it stands
One nation under God
Indivisible
With liberty and justice for all

Quit Hatin' On Tubby

Question:
What would you do with a coach who during his ten year tenure has won five SEC regular season championships, five SEC tournament championships, won the 1998 NCAA title, made it to the NCAA Tournament every year, won an Olympic gold medal in 2000, and has had 9 straight 20 win seasons?

In addition to that record, that coach won three National Coach of the Year awards (in 2003 he won it by unanimous vote and was the first coach in 25 years to do so), had 5 players drafted in the first round of the NBA draft, has never been in NCAA trouble and entering the 2006-07 season had a 365-133 record. (winning percentage of .733)

For some folks in this state the answer would be to fire him.

Like many African-Americans in Kentucky I'm fed up with the yearly calls from some UK basketball fans to "Fire Tubby". When you ask those irrational idiots why they want him ousted as the Wildcat coach they'll come up with the nebulous excuses 'He can't recruit' or 'He's a lousy coach.'

As far as many of us are concerned in the African-American community, those excuses are smokescreens for the real reason they want him gone: Some of those fans are terrified of the possibility that Orlando 'Tubby' Smith could eclipse the record of their beloved Adolph Rupp (876-190) and become the winningest coach in UK history.

Yeah, racism is playing a major part in this drama along with the arrogance of some UK fans. The SEC was their personal basketball playground for years until the other SEC schools got tired of getting their butts kicked by UK and got serious about beefing up their basketball programs. Those fans forget that Kentucky is still an elite program, the winningest program in NCAA history and still has won more SEC titles (47) than anyone else in the league combined.

But the days are over when Kentucky could walk onto the court, say 'boo', have the other team quaking in their sneakers and win by twenty. The perception may be that UK has slipped, but the new reality is that in 2007 there are more elite programs in men's college ball than in the 41 seasons that Rupp coached.

These programs are all chasing a finite number of elite players. All of this 'Fire Tubby' talk has a negative effect on recruiting. It raises questions in elite players minds about the wisdom of signing a UK letter-of-intent if they like Tubby and want to play for him. That makes it harder for Tubby to recruit those very same elite players that are needed to sustain the UK program against the Dukes, Floridas and UConns of the NCAA basketball universe.

So what would happen if the haters got their wish and Tubby got canned? First of all a coach with Tubby's pedigree wouldn't be unemployed long. He'd be coaching somewhere else before the next season started. UK would get lambasted in the national press and by the college coaching fraternity for doing so.

They would instantly cede basketball supremacy in the state to Louisville. The negative fallout from the firing would ensure that many elite and top-tier African-American players both inside and outside the state would bypass Lexington and play at U of L or elsewhere for at least five to ten years. UK will also have a tough time attracting the same type of high quality coach especially after his fellow coaches watched him get shabbily treated by a segment of the UK fan base.

Frankly, I don't think he's going anywhere. He signed an eight-year $20.25 million extension of his contract last year that runs through the 2010-11 season. That's a lot of contract to swallow. But at the same time I know that anything can happen.

In 1986 I watched Fred Akers get fired at Texas basically for losing four straight years to Texas A&M. Never mind the fact he'd won 75 percent of his games. The same thing happened to Aggie coach R.C. Slocum after going 6-6 in 2002 and losing to the Longhorns for four straight years.

It's time for the racist cadre of UK fans to shut up and let Tubby do his job. You'll have nobody to blame but yourselves if you're successful in running him out of Lexington and my prediction comes to pass about UK basketball life after Tubby.

A Rebuttal to Kenneth Eng's 'Why I Hate Blacks' Column

By Kenneth Eng
published in AsianWeek February 23, 2007

TransGriot note: This is the text of the AsianWeek newspaper column written by Kenneth Eng that caused major controversy when it was published on February 23. After coming under fire from African-American and Asian groups, editor Ted Fang has apologized for it and announced that Eng is no longer a contributing writer. My comments will be boldfaced.

Here is a list of reasons why we should discriminate against blacks, starting from the most obvious down to the least obvious.

*Blacks hate us. Every Asian who has come across them knows that they take almost every opportunity to hurl racist remarks at us. In my experience I would say about 90 percent of blacks I have met regardless of age or environment, poke fun at the very sight of an Asian. Furthermore, their activity in the media proves their hatred. Rush Hour, Exit Wounds, Hot 97, et cetera.

For somebody that graduated from NYU, you are breathtakingly ignorant to paint an entire race of people with a stereotypical brush based on two movies and a rap radio station as you did in your recent February 23 column. (Personally I prefer classic R&B and jazz myself.)

*Contrary to media depictions I would argue that blacks are weak willed. They are the only race that has been enslaved for 300 years. It's unbelievable it took them that long to fight back. On the other hand we slaughtered the Russians in the Russo-Japanese War.

I guess you forgot about the story of Joseph Cinque and the Amistad revolt? That wasn't an isolated incident. Many slave ship voyages didn't get too far away from the African coastline before the rebellions started. There were far more successful slave rebellions and revolts than the 'happy darkie' pro-slavery revisionist forces care to elaborate on and the first one happened in 1733. They feared slave rebellions from 1792 onward. Haiti's slaves liberating themselves from French rule in 1803 made them even more 'scurred' of us replicating the feat on US shores.

I see you're also clueless about Harriet Tubman, the Underground Railroad and the various ingenious ways that African-Americans escaped from plantations. They fought for their freedom in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars.

While were on the war tip, ever heard of the Buffalo Soldiers? The 761st Tank Battalion AKA the Black Panthers? The Tuskegee Airmen? The 54th Massachusetts Regiment? You desperately need to hop the subway and spend some time at the Schomburg Institute.

*Blacks are easy to coerce. This is proven by the fact that so many of them, including Rev. Al Sharpton tend to be Christians. Yet at the same time they spend much of their time whining about how much they hate the 'whites that oppressed them.'
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Christianity the religion that whites forced upon them?

And in which one of your science-fiction universes did you come up with that asinine statement? I'm tired of peeps like you dismissing our very real historical experiences in this country as 'whining'. The Christianity that the slavemasters forced on us was infused with our own religious experiences and traditions we brought with us from Africa. From that Christianity came some of our greatest leaders in the late 19th and 20th century.

*Blacks don't get it. I know it's a blunt and crass assessment but it's true. When I was in high school, I recall a class debate in which one half of the class was chosen to defend black slavery and the other half was chosen to defend liberation. Disturbingly, blacks on the prior side viciously defended slavery as well as Christianity. They say if you don't study history you are condemned to repeat it. In high school I only remember one black student ever attending my honors and AP courses. And that student was caught cheating.

Kenneth, what I don't get is your disjointed rambling about some obscure high school debate and what connection it has with African-Americans in general. But then again racists were never known to have logical linear thinking processes.

If you didn't see any African-Americans in your honors or AP classes, then you must have attended school in the 'burbs or went to a private one. I was in gifted and talented classes in junior and senior high along with many of my friends. Education was stressed in mine and many other households in my neighborhood.

George Santayana was right. If you don't study the past you are condemned to repeat it. That's why we just spent 28 days commemorating our history. African-Americans are painfully familiar with that statement more than anyone else in this country because we've seen the effects of neglected or ignored history disproportionately impact our community. For example, our experiences during Reconstruction in the late 19th century have eerily replicated themselves in the late 20th-early 21st century.

It is rather troubling that they are treated as heroes, but then again whites will do anything to defend them.

And it is rather troubling that this kind of virulent racism is alive and well in the early 21st century, especially in someone who is a 21 year old college graduate. I'm even more angered over the fact that you chose Black History Month to write such disgusting tripe.

We are heroes, Kenneth. I'm descended from peeps that survived The Middle Passage. Despite violent opposition, nattering naysayers and countless obstacles placed in our paths over the last 400 years that would have broken less sturdy peoples, to quote Maya Angelou, 'and still we rise.'

Blue Bell Comes To The Bluegrass State!

photo courtesy Blue Bell.com website



Hallelujah!

I just read the announcement on the Blue Bell website that stores in the Louisville area and within 100 miles of Da Ville will start selling Blue Bell on March 12.

I have been eagerly awaiting this day ever since I moved here.

For those of you not fortunate enough to live in the 16 states (and Indiana will make number 17) where you can buy Blue Bell or don't get to Carabbas or Outback Steakhouse very often you are missing a treat.

The ice cream is legendary in the Lone Star State. As a matter of fact, when I went to Dallas last November for my cousin William's wedding one of the first things I did after arriving there was have a pint of Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla. I gobbled up another one when I stopped in Hope, AK to see the Clinton birthplace and gas up on the return trip.

To a native Texan, eating Blue Bell is a slice of home. No matter what your favorite flavor is, be it mint chocolate chip, pralines and cream, butter pecan, chocolate, chocolate sundae or cookies and cream, it gets eaten in mass quantities. If I was depressed or down about something all it took sometimes to get me out of my funk was a half gallon of Blue Bell homemade vanilla and a bottle of Hershey's chocolate syrup.

For a long time it was only sold within a 100 mile radius of their creamery in Brenham, TX just northwest of Houston. During the 80's and 90's they gradually expanded the distribution to the rest of Texas and neighboring states. I remember one 1989 weekend trip I took to New Orleans in which my godsister Angela requested that I bring a half gallon of homemade vanilla with me.

Blue Bell is also celebrating its 100th anniversary this year with special events, an ice cream flavor naming contest and a traveling exhibit that will cover 66 cities. (So far Louisville isn't on the itinerary yet, darn it)


The lucky cities and towns in Kentucky and southern Indiana that will soon be enjoying Blue Bell with me in addition to Louisville are Bardstown, Campbellsville, Cynthiana, Elizabethtown, Frankfort, Harrodsburg, Henderson, Jeffersontown, La Grange, Lawrenceburg, Leitchfield, Lexington, London, Middlesboro, Morehead, Mt. Sterling, Owensboro, Richmond and Shelbyville.

The lucky Indiana cities and towns are Boonville, Evansville, Huntingburg, Jasper, Princeton and Tell City.

Hey, I'm elated that I'll get to happily devour the 'best ice cream in the country' again. The best part of the whole deal is that I won't need to go to a restaurant, have it shipped or travel a few hundred miles to eat Blue Bell any more.

New TransGriot Blog Links

left photo-Jackie
right photo-Angelica

Hey TransGriot readers!

Just a quick note about two of the blogs that I've linked to TransGriot.

Jackie's Things According To Me is one I discovered after she left comments on many of my posts. It's an enjoyable read on subjects ranging from her life in a long term committed relationship to current events, so check it out. I get a kick out of the fact that her partner's name is Monica as well ;)

Angelica Love Ross is a person I introduced you peeps to earlier this month. I wrote about her You Tube video imploring African-American transwomen to work on the internal part of transition. In addition to having a Chicago-based image consulting business Angelica has started a blog called The Transsexual Revolution. I'm pleased to announce that she has asked me to become a contributing guest poster on her blog.

One thing that you'll discover as you continue to peruse TransGriot is that there are many ways to transition. What makes it so fascinating is that it's a journey that can be universal in nature but it's also as individual as the person undergoing it. I hope that you'll enjoy reading the thoughts of a twentysomething transwoman that's traveling that road right now.

Janet Hill

,

Another installment in my ongoing series of articles on transgender and non-transgender women who have qualities that I admire.


Janet Hill is one impressive sistah. She's the Vice President of Washington, D.C. corporate consulting firm Alexander & Associates, Inc. She sits on the boards of Sprint Nextel, Inc.; Wendy’s International, Inc.; Dean Foods, Inc., McDonald Dental Laboratory in New Orleans, the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University and the Durham Literacy Council.

She is a former chairwoman of the bipartisan Women’s Campaign Fund, a national PAC raising money for women running for federal, state and local offices. She taught mathematics at the high school and collegiate levels and served during the Carter Administration as a Special Assistant to then Secretary of the Army Clifford Alexander.

Oh, did I mention she's the wife of NFL Hall of Famer Calvin Hill and the mother of Grant Hill?

She was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on December 23, 1947. She attended Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts as one of five African-American students on the entire campus at the time. An interesting footnote from her time at Wellesley is that her college roommate was Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. She graduated in 1969 with a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics and also holds an M.A. in mathematics from the University of Chicago.

She's a no-nonsense parent that earned the nickname 'The Sergeant' from her son's friends that she upgraded to 'The General'. She considered it a compliment as she mentioned in a May 12, 2002 CNN interview.

"Oh, it's absolutely a compliment. You know, I was tough as a mother of Grant when he was a young child, but that all ended when he was 18 years old."

She also believes that you have to set high standards for your children and do more than spend quality time with them.

"We aren't challenging them to work hard at something other than perfecting their athletic ability," she said in a 1998 Jet interview.

Like myself, she believes in the importance of role models. She takes it a step further and hopes that youth would look at accessible role models, i.e. the people that are closest to them and who can touch them every day.

"I hope your role models will be your parents, or maybe your teachers, coaches, neighbors or minister."

Janet Hill reminds me in a lot of ways of my own mother and many of the women of her era. It's a level of excellence that I want to emulate as well.

Shilah Phillips-The First African-American Miss Texas

Congratulations to Shilah Phillips who made a little Black history of her own on July 8, 2006. She became the first African-American to win the Miss Texas pageant.

She finished first runner up in the 2007 Miss America pageant held on January 29 and narrowly missed joining Vanessa Williams, Suzette Charles, Marjorie Judith Vincent, Dr. Debbye Turner, Kimberly Aiken, Erika Harold and Ericka Dunlap as sistahs who've won the Miss America crown.

As of yet there hasn't been an African-American who has won the Miss Texas USA pageant, but I have to add an asterisk to that statement.

In 1995 Deer Park resident Chelsi Smith won Miss Texas USA. When she was asked by a reporter how it felt to become the first African-American to win it, she replied that she wasn't Black, she was white. She clarified her statement by saying she was biracial but she'd already angered many Black Texans in the process.

It was like rubbing salt in the wound when she captured the Miss USA and Miss Universe titles later that year. I was even more pissed because one of my homegirls, Crystal Dillard competed in the 1984 Miss Texas USA pageant. Crystal almost made history that night but finished as the 4th runner up.

Okay, I'm done venting now. Back to the story.

I'm happy to see a sistah finally break through in the Miss Texas pageant. Pageants are such a big deal in the Lone Star State this one and Miss Texas USA are televised statewide in prime time. The Texas state pageants are traditionally more competitive and tougher to win than the actual Miss USA and Miss America ones with up to 100 contestants.

Texas girls that win the local ones consistently place in the semifinals of both pageant systems. Three Texans have gone on to win Miss America. Eight Texans have won Miss USA with the aforementioned Chelsi Smith becoming Miss Universe. Halle Berry had the misfortune of competing during the unprecedented run from 1985-1989 in which Texans won Miss USA five straight years, otherwise she would have become the first African-American Miss USA in 1986.

Shilah, congratulations and continued success in all your future endeavors.

Tall Sistahs

TransGriot Note: Photo is of Sen. Barack Obama and his statuesque 5'11" wife Michelle. 

(List has been updated as of August 5, 2020)


In our society women are considered tall if they are 5'8' or taller. There's much debate as to how elastic that definition of 'tall' is. My personal belief is that if you're 5'7" or above you can consider yourself tall. Some people dispute my belief and state that tall status for women starts at 5'6".

One of my issues when I started transition was my height.
I used to believe the hype despite the abundant evidence that there weren't a lot of women my height (6'2") and I would get read like a cheap novel.

A few things happened that changed my outlook. The rise of 5'11" Tyra Banks as a supermodel at the time I was beginning my transition, Dr. Cole drilling it into my head during my gender counseling sessions over time that women come in ALL shapes and sizes, my own observations of the world around me and the startup of the WNBA in 1997. I began to look at it with a renewed sense of pride that I am over 6 feet tall and most of my under 5'7" sisters would love to be walking in my pumps.

My fears turned out to be unfounded. The ironic thing is that most peeps when they see me on the street ask me if I'm a fashion model or a WNBA ballplayer. ;)

To help those who may be going through a similar thing, this is a list that I have compiled of sistahs that are 5'7" or taller. While there are other lists of tall women on the Net, many of them either don't have or list few of our African-American stars, athletes or peeps of note.

This post will be one that I'll continually update. There are tall women of all ethnic backgrounds and I'll be putting that together in a separate post.

The Tall Sistahs List

5'7"

Halle Berry
Eve
India Arie
Vivica A. Fox
Sanaa Lathan
Sade
Jackee Harry
Tracee Ellis Ross
Florence Griffith-Joyner
Rosario Dawson
Dawnn Lewis
Beyonce Knowles
Dionne Warwick

5'8"

Aaliyah
Rihanna
Shari Headley
Ananda Lewis
Whitney Houston
Gabrielle Union
Jill Marie Jones
Pam Grier
Chudney Ross (Diana Ross' daughter and Tracee Eillis Ross' baby sis)
Maritza Correia (US women's team swimmer)
Zahra Redwood (2007 Miss Jamaica)

5'8 1/2”
Jennifer Beals

5'9"

Michael Michele
Mariah Carey
Ciara
Iman
Kelis
Kim Coles
Mo’Nique
Beverly Johnson
Toccara Jones
Garcelle Beauvais
Lela Rochon
Valarie Pettiford
Yoanna Henry (2007 Miss St. Lucia)
Renata Christian (2007 Miss US Virgin Islands)
Shakara Ledard 5'9 1/2" (supermodel)
Crystle Stewart (2008 Miss USA)

5'10"

Jayne Kennedy
Naomi Campbell
Serena Williams
Cynthia Cooper
Laila Ali
Queen Latifah
Jackie Joyner-Kersee
Robin Roberts
Kenya Moore
Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth
K.D. (Karen Denise) Aubert
Lisa Fischer (Luther Vandross backup singer)
Naomi Sims
Micaela Reis (2007 Miss Angola)
Meleesea Payne (2007 Miss Guyana)
Flaviana Matata (2007 Miss Tanzania)
Gayle King
NeNe Leakes
Zendaya

5'10 1/2"
Veronica Webb
Grace Jones
Leila Lopes (Miss Universe 2011)

5'11"

Tyra Banks
Grace Jones
Nikki McCray
Alek Wek
Marion Jones
Marsha Warfield
Michelle Obama
Anne Marie Johnson
Rachel Smith (2007 Miss USA)
Rosemary Chileshe (2007 Miss Zambia)
Sydney Tamiia Poitier
Lauren Green (FOX Noise anchor)

5’11 1/2”
Wendy Williams

6 feet

Phyllis Hyman
Aisha Tyler
Faye Wattleton (former head Planned Parenthood)
Sheryl Swoopes
Nona Gaye
Macy Gray
Kimora Lee Simmons
Maya Angelou
Stagecoach Mary Fields
Jamaica Kincaid
Octavia Butler
Carole Gist (first African-American Miss USA)
Yolanda Adams
Jewel Garner (2007 Miss Barbados)
Ainett Stephens
Jordin Sparks
Diahann Carroll

6'1"

Wendy Fitzwilliam (1998 Miss Universe)
Tamika Catchings (Indiana Fever)
Swin Cash (Seattle Storm)
Jade Johnson (British long-jumper)

6'1 1/2"
Venus Williams

6'2"

Tamara Dobson (from the Cleopatra Jones movie)
Tina Thompson (Houston Comets)
Rev. Paula McGee (Twin sis of Pamela McGee and USC b-ball great)
Pamela McGee (Twin sis of Paula McGee and retired WNBA baller)
Oluchi Onweagba (Nigerian-born supermodel)
Flo Hyman (former US Olympic volleyballer)
Chamique Holdsclaw (LA Sparks)
Tari Phillips (former Houston Comet)
Tamika Whitmore (Indiana Fever)
Katherine 'Kat' Smith  (author, blogger and model) 

6'3"

Cheryl Miller
Mistie Williams (former Houston Comets center and daughter of Chubby Checker)
Cheryl Ford (WNBA player and daughter of NBA hall of famer Karl Malone)
Astou Ndiaye-Diatta (WNBA player)
DeMya Walker (WNBA player)
Kim Glass (USA volleyball)

6'4"

Carolyn Peck (ESPN analyst)
Candace Parker (LA Sparks)
Monique Ambers (WNBA assistant coach)
Tangela Smith
Tammy Sutton-Brown 

6'5"

Lisa Leslie-Lockwood (Olympian and retired LA Sparks center)
Monica Lamb (former Houston Comets center )
Michelle Snow (former Houston Comets center)

6'6"
Sylvia Fowles (Chicago Sky)
Kara Braxton
Chantelle Anderson (retired WNBA player)

Black Transgender TV Characters

Back in 2000 when GLAAD was crowing about the TV show Ally McBeal having a transgender character, I pointed out the Edith Stokes character from The Jeffersons was missing from their list. As usual when it comes to matters of people of color GLAAD was silent about that.

And that ain't the only one.

African-American transgender characters are not a new phenomenon. They've been on television for a while and you can probably consider Flip Wilson's Geraldine Jones as the first one. On Thursday nights from 1970 to 1974 I would tune in to The Flip Wilson Show so that I could see the latest antics of the sassy wise-cracking Geraldine. I loved to see her utter her famous line 'what you see is what you get' and professing her love for her boyfriend 'Killer'.

Interestingly enough one of the shows that was on opposite Flip was All In The Family, which had the Beverly LaSalle character on for three episodes.

In 1977 came the 'Just A Friend' episode aired during The Jeffersons fourth season. We get to see George happily anticipating the arrival in New York of his old Navy buddy Eddie Stokes that he hasn't seen in 25 years.

He discovers when he arrives at the hotel that Eddie has transitioned and is now Edith (played by Young and the Restless actress Veronica Redd).

George initially thinks that it's a prank since his former bunkmate has a rep as a practical jokester. But when he comes to the realization that Edith is not joking about this subject he gets uncomfortable, rejects her and storms out of the room.

He returns home and discovers he's in hot water with Louise who doesn't believe his story.  She called the hotel and discovered that the room was registered to Edith Stokes and suspects that George is having an affair. George goes to the desperate measure of having Leroy, one of his employees dress in bad drag trying to impersonate Edie after he fails to locate her.

Edie shows up at George's apartment and Louise is skeptical until Edie validates her identity by reciting a line from the letters that Louise used to write to George during his time in the Navy. They end the episode with George accepting his friend and her playing a practical joke on George that results in him getting dunked with water.

That episode was groundbreaking at the time in terms of the accurate depiction of some of the emotions that transpeople deal with when Edie was explaining her transition. It shouldn't have been a surprise to me since it was a Norman Lear produced show and a spinoff from All In the Family. They were aware of the issues thanks to the Beverly LaSalle episodes. It was just the first time it was done with an African-American character and show cast.

RuPaul from 1996-1998 hosted a talk show on VH-1 and has done cameo roles on a few television shows as well during the 90's.

The CW show All of Us during its first season featured Tyra Banks playing a transwoman in the 'O Brother Where Art Thou?' episode aired on February 24, 2004. It was an episode in which she played Dirk's estranged brother Tyrone.

She shows up at the TV station and revealed that she was now Roni. I didn't like the way that one was handled because the Roni character she played came off as stereotypical and cartoonish.


Barbershop: The Series debuted on Showtime August 14, 2005 and for six episodes Sheryl Lee Ralph played Claire, a woman that Eddie meets in a local bar.

Things progress very quickly and Claire tells him not long after they would up in bed that she is a transwoman.

The delicious part about it was that Eddie was forced to confront the homophobic statements he'd been spouting from his barber chair. Over those episodes you get to watch Claire and Eddie attempt to resolve the unique issues that crop up in that relationship.


While Veronica Redd and Sheryl Lee Ralph have done the best job in my opinion of a realistic portrayal of what we go through, I'm greedy.

I want and need to see a show that's willing to do a realistic African-American transgender character. Additionally I'd like that character to not be a one shot deal, killed off in the first ten seconds and be part of a soap or drama series. Is that too much to ask for? Then again I may have to write that character on my own.

Yo Hollywood, hit me up on my e-mail when you're ready for a realistic transgender character with soul.

Professor Emeritus John Hope Franklin Helps Teach Us Who We Are

Tuesday, February 20, 2007
By: Michael H. Cottman
from BlackAmericaWeb.com

"We must go beyond textbooks, go out into the bypaths and untrodden depths of the wilderness and travel and explore and tell the world the glories of our journey." -- JOHN HOPE FRANKLIN.

John Hope Franklin, the undisputed dean of black historians, turned 92 last month, but his landmark work studying the 300-year social evolution of African-Americans continues as professor emeritus of history at Duke University.

Franklin’s many publications have focused on the history of the American South and on the African-American contribution to the development of the United States.

His best-known book, the pioneering and now classic "From Slavery to Freedom (1947; 8th ed. 2000)" revolutionized the understanding of African-American history and changed the way the subject is taught throughout the United States.

Among Franklin's other works are "The Militant South: 1800–1860 (1956)," "Reconstruction after the Civil War (1961)," "Color and Race (1968)," "Racial Equality in America (1976)," "Race and History (1989)," "The Color Line (1993)" and "In Search of the Promised Land."

"It was necessary, as a black historian," Franklin once said, "to have a personal agenda."

Franklin also edited a number of books, including a 1997 autobiography of his father, an Oklahoma lawyer. Franklin was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1995. His papers form the collection of Duke's John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African-American Documentation.

Darlene Taylor, who has researched the African slave trade for several national and international educational projects, said she frequently turns to Franklin’s work for accurate accounts of black history.

"We should celebrate Dr. Franklin’s contributions to African history and his contributions to understanding the history of people of African descent," Taylor, director of the Middle Passage Legacy, told BlackAmericaWeb.com Monday.

"When you look at history books, when you look at how children are learning about African history and African-American history, so much is left out," Taylor said. "But thanks to Dr. Franklin, he is keeping our history alive."

Taylor said she often referred to Franklin’s books while researching the slave trade when she lived in Egypt during the 1990s.

"It’s important to celebrate Dr. Franklin’s work as he continues to tell our history," Taylor said. "Dr. Franklin provides a special perspective that should be heard."

A renowned historian and Medal of Freedom recipient, Franklin was appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1997 to chair the Advisory Board for the President’s Initiative on Race, created to begin "a great and unprecedented conversation about race" across America.

"We can't undo this part of our heritage," Franklin once said. "But what we can affect is where we are headed. I want to talk about multi-culturalism, because I think that's where we are headed."

Franklin was a co-recipient of the $1 million John W. Kluge Prize for the Study of Humanity, awarded by the Library of Congress last year. Professor Franklin shared the prize with Princeton professor Yu Ying-Shih.

It is how humanity has impacted black Americans -- from the Civil War to civil rights -- that Franklin has studied and debated.

"It's not so much Katrina as a phenomenon as it's Katrina as a metaphor for what our society has become," Franklin told reporters last year. "It reflects; it's a mirror of what we've become -- super-extraordinarily complacent."

In 2001, Duke University opened the John Hope Franklin Center for Interdisciplinary and International Studies, which is dedicated to bringing together the nation’s social scientists.

Franklin was born on Jan. 2, 1915 in Oklahoma and was educated at Fisk and Harvard University, where he earned a Ph.D. He has taught at Fisk, Brooklyn College and the University of Chicago. In 1982, he was named James B. Duke Professor of History at Duke and was elected professor emeritus in 1985. From 1985 to 1992, he was professor of legal history in the Duke Law School.

Franklin's mother, Mollie, was a teacher, and his father, B.C. Franklin, was an attorney who handled lawsuits precipitated by the famous Tulsa Race Riot on 1921. A black man named Dick Rowland, stepped into an elevator in the Drexel Building operated by a white woman, Sarah Page. Rowland was accused of sexually attacking Page, which sparked the riots.

"When I was eight years old, people used to ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up," Franklin said in a speech at Duke University last year. "I said, ‘The first Negro president of the United States.’ "

In addition to his work as a historian, Franklin was involved in some of the key events of the civil rights movement. As an expert on Southern history, he was recruited by NAACP attorney Thurgood Marshall in 1953 to help prepare the brief in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case before the U.S. Supreme Court. He also accompanied Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on the march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala., in 1965.

"He's been, in many ways, like an African elder, a repository of wisdom, of tradition, and just a solid good sense, and a remarkable sense of humanness," Archbishop Desmond Tutu said of Franklin in a PBS documentary.

In 1978, Who's Who in America selected Dr. Franklin as one of eight Americans who has made significant contributions to society. In 1996, Franklin was elected to the Oklahoma Historians Hall of Fame, and in 1997, he received the Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award. In addition, Franklin has also received honorary degrees from more than 100 colleges and universities.

"If the house is to be set in order," Franklin said, "one cannot begin with the present. He must begin with the past."

If Anna Nicole Smith Were Black, Would She Be Getting Such A Glorified Post Mortem? No

photo-Anna leaving the Supreme Court


Wednesday, February 21, 2007
By: Tonyaa Weathersbee, BlackAmericaWeb.com

Maybe it's out of respect for the dead that Rush Limbaugh hasn't called ex-stripper and Playboy centerfold Anna Nicole Smith a "ho," the insult he leveled at the black stripper who accused three Duke University lacrosse players of raping her in a bathroom.

But I suspect that when people like Limbaugh see white women who behave like Smith, they see her through the prism of quirkiness and outrageousness. With black women, they're quicker to turn the morality lens on us.

And when they look at us with that lens, they tend to freeze us in it.

First of all, let me say that it is always a sad thing to hear of anyone dying before their time, whether that person is a 19-year-old black guy who gets gunned down by gang bullets or a 39-year-old blonde bombshell like Smith, whose excesses finally caught up with her. Sadder still is that Smith leaves behind a five-month-old daughter, Dannielynn, who will never know her mother.

But when you strip away the spin and apply the morality standards to her life that black women, and especially poor black women, are lambasted for not living up to, you find someone who fell far short of those standards.

Yet in spite of that, she's being iconized.

Let's see. Smith began her climb to fame as a stripper. She posed naked in Playboy, and achieved her greatest fame as a Guess? Jeans model. She had no great artistic talent to dwarf those superficial beginnings, so she built her life on trying to find bizarre ways to stay in the spotlight.

By the end of her life, she had become a drug abuser and had given birth to a daughter out-of-wedlock. Three men are claiming to have fathered her daughter -- one of which includes a married man, Prince Frederick von Anhalt -- who claims they had an affair since the 1990s.

While no one will know, at least for a while, who Dannielynn's real daddy is, what is clear is that Smith was a tad promiscuous. She did triple the things that got Janet Jackson vilified for exposing a nipple ring at the 2004 Super Bowl, but even her death won't make her go away.

The headlines and newscasts have been dominated by her. Journalists are combing her old stomping ground in Mexia, Texas to uncover clues about her childhood. She's being dubbed as a "tragic beauty," and, laughably, being compared to Marilyn Monroe -- even though her closest brush with movie fame came in a "Naked Gun" spoof.

Yet when I think about how Smith lived her life, and all the empathetic airings of the circumstances surrounding her death, I have to wonder: If she were black, would there have been a rush to euphemize her? Would writers be struggling to find meaning in her life, a life that was basically driven by her need to be in spotlight?

The answer I keep coming up with is no.

Even a black woman as talented as Jackson wasn't able to make outrageousness work for her. Her wardrobe malfunction, for example, sent America into a tizzy for months. No one saw it as gutsy, or even accepted it as a mistake as much as they saw it as immoral, as all that was wrong with America.

She couldn't apologize enough for it. And people wouldn't let it go.

Some pundits even blamed her and "Nipplegate" for galvanizing morals voters and causing John Kerry to lose the 2004 presidential election.
Anytime she visited a new place, few media smart-alecks could resist admonishing her to keep her clothes on.

I wonder what those so-called morals voters are saying now, as the tawdry details of Smith's daughter's paternity continue to eat up much more air time than the 2004 Super Bowl did.

Now, none of this is to say that black women ought to be out there fighting to get famous for being loose or promiscuous. But as I constantly am bombarded with the details of Smith's life, I can't help but to think about how race and wealth is lived in this country. I think about how Smith receives adulation and empathy in spite of the way that she lived her life, and black women like Jackson, as well as the Duke stripper, receive only contempt and are held up as examples of black immorality if they take off their clothes in public or have babies out of wedlock. And while I'm all for black women holding themselves to high behavioral standards, I still don't like it when we're held to a double one.

One that makes the lower standards fine as long as they come in creamy blond packaging.