Can A Sistah Get a Quality Black TV Show on DVD?

I've mentioned the fact that I own an extensive music CD collection. The same is true of my ever expanding DVD collection. It runs the gamut from classic Black movies like Carmen Jones to my recently added Daddy's Little Girls.

I have classic and current TV shows in my DVD collection as well and I'm looking forward to adding Ugly Betty to my collection when they release it in August.

There are a couple of shows I would love to add to my collection. Unfortunately it seems that for some reason these shows have been glacially slow in getting put on the shelves of my local retail outlets. My question is what's the holdup in terms of making available additional seasons of quality shows like A Different World, Soul Food and Living Single?

I have the first seasons for all three and plan on purchasing The Cosby Show seasons as they become available. But A Different World was on for six seasons, Soul Food for five seasons and Living Single was on for five seasons as well.

So what's keeping me from being able to purchase additional seasons of my favorite shows? In the case of A Different World and the Cosby Show they were being distributed for Carsey-Werner Productions by a company called Ventura/Urban Works.

Season 2 of A Different World was originally supposed to come out May 30, 2006. It got pushed back to July 11, was delayed again until September and then the release was indefinitely put on hold to the frustration of fans of A Different World like myself. Even though I own it, I don't like the Anne Beatts produced first season of A Different World and I'm more jazzed about owning Seasons 2-6. After Debbie Allen became producer of the show it actually had the flavor of an HBCU, better scripts and more realistic, topical storylines that dealt with the issues of that late 80's early 90's time period. As a bonus you also get to see the Dwayne-Whitley romance evolve.

It turned out that Ventura/Urban Works got bought out by First Look Entertainment and had to renegotiate the licenses with Carsey-Werner. Don't know what the holdup is with Soul Food and Living Single and I'm not into pushing conspiracy theories. But it's irritating to me and makes you wonder when BS shows like Flavor of Love hit the shelves almost instantaneously after they finish airing and you have to wait years for quality shows like these to be available for purchase.

No 'Game of the Century' Rematch

UCLA released their 2007-2008 basketball schedule and I was disappointed to learn that UH was not on it.

There has been a major push from UH and some UCLA alums to have the schools play each other on the 40th anniversary of the game that changed college basketball forever either at the Dome or Reliant Stadium, which will be the site of the 2011 Final Four.

Before January 20, 1968 you didn't have college basketball games, be they regular or postseason, televised nationally or played in domed stadiums. The NCAA Tournament in those days only invited 24 teams not 65. And we don't have a dynasty in our era that even comes close to the John Wooden-era UCLA Bruins.

At the time they played my alma mater in the Astrodome they were 18-0, the defending national champions, just beginning a streak of seven straight national championships, were ranked number one in the nation, were on a 47 game winning streak and had Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (then Lew Alcindor) occupying the middle of a devastating team that included Lynn Shackelford and Mike Warren (of Hill Street Blues fame.)

My Coogs weren't kitty litter either. They were 13-0 and ranked number two in the nation. We countered the UCLA juggernaut with legendary coach Guy V. Lewis, future NBA Hall of Famer Elvin Hayes, Don Chaney and 1968 Olympian Ken Spain at center. The Coogs also had a 48 game home winning streak of their own to protect in addition to wanting to avenge the 1967 NCAA tournament semifinal beatdown they took at UCLA's hands.

In front of a then record basketball crowd of 52,693 and a nationally televised audience Elvin Hayes scored 39 points to help the Cougars upset mighty UCLA 71-69. That win cemented the University of Houston's status as a basketball powerhouse and elevated Guy Lewis stature as well. It's still a mystery to me why Guy V. Lewis, a man with 592 career wins, who coached in 5 Final Fours (with two of them being title games in 1983-1984) and who integrated college basketball in Texas and the South as well ISN'T in the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, MA.

What many Cougar alums were hoping was to see a replay of that game at the Dome on the 40th anniversary of what's come to be known as 'The Game of the Century'. We wanted it to happen while many of the key participants such as coach Wooden, coach Lewis and many of the players were still alive to be a part of it. Tom Penders and the folks at UH are willing and eager to play the game. The resistance is allegedly coming from UCLA's coach Ben Howland.

It's sad because this would definitely be a great way to mark a historical milestone in men's college basketball. Without this game, you don't have national TV contracts, March Madness, domed-sized crowds at NCAA tournament games, et cetera. It's an irritant to UH alums that UCLA is playing Texas as part of the Big 12-Pac 10 Challenge, and UT doesn't come close to having the basketball history and tradition that we have. Texas just happen to be on a cycle where they've built up a good program right now (with Houston area talent) and UH is coming out of the post-legendary coach funk that UCLA experienced after John Wooden retired. UH has signed some great recruits, has starters coming back from the team that fell to Memphis in the C-USA tournament championship game and has a three year starter in Lamar Smith coming back.

Maybe Ben Howland is 'scurred' of another Cougar upset of UCLA ;)

Here's hoping that Coach Howland changes his mind and adds that game to his UCLA Bruin schedule.

We're Winning

During the drive back from Washington DC to Louisville in the aftermath of our recent lobby days, I was doing some thinking after I finished my turn at the wheel through western Maryland and most of West Virginia.

I thought about what we'd recently accomplished versus what the Forces of Intolerance tried to pull in DC before we got there and it hit me.

We're winning.

Our opponents went up to Capitol Hill in April bullying and browbeating legislators while we put together reasoned, thoughtful arguments as to why they should pass hate crimes and a transgender inclusive ENDA. It also didn't hurt that Newsweek published its article on gender the very day we started Transgender Lobby Week and 20/20's Barbara Walters did her story on transgender people a week afterward.

We have more and more increasingly positive news coverage. More states are prohibiting discrimination based on gender identity in addition to the long list of cities that already do so. Hollywood and popular culture has started to take our stories seriously instead of as a joke punchline. Transpeople are getting elected to public office or running close races to get there. The next generation of college kids and high schoolers is on our side. In fact many of those high school and college kids are embracing the reality in their lives and transitioning themselves as early as their elementary school years.

Even the scientific trends are leaning our way. With each passing year the Human Genome Project and other scientific research, despite the best efforts of the Forces of Intolerance to discredit their work continues to make discoveries about gender and how it's not a rigid binary system as previously thought but more fluid and complex.

But despite these positive trends, we still have some work to do and dark days to come. We have the undivided attention of the Religious Reich. They will use every dirty trick, falsehood and lie to prevent the inevitable from happening just as they tried to do during the 60's Civil Rights Movement and failed.

We will lose more transgender people to violence. The Remembering Our Dead list will get longer. The anti-transgender rhetoric coming from their acolytes will get nastier and more hateful. They will try to spin and twist Bible verses to favor their immoral positions. But in the end the result will still be the same and the neo-fascists will lose.

Why do I say that? Because unlike the Forces of Intolerance I not only have unwavering faith in God that this will happen, I also have unwavering faith in the intelligence, fairness and goodness of the American people. You present the American people a logical case and they in time will sort through the lies, half truths. disinformation and spin to do what's right.

We transpeople hold the moral high ground as well. How can people who CLAIM to be 'ministers' or 'christians' be on record as favoring efforts to deny people their civil rights or openly working to oppose them? How can they be working to throw shade at people who are trying to deal with a medical condition they didn't ask for and assert their fundamental right to control their bodies to deal with it? How can they turn a blind eye to people being viciously beaten, assaulted or killed because they are transgender? The Reich also knows that there are no Biblical scriptures specifically mentioning or opposing transsexuality so they are busily trying to spin Paul's words (a conservative's favorite tactic) to make it appear that way.

We are the next phase of the Civil Rights Movement. We transpeople are their spiritual heirs. Our opponents are the Bull Conners. J.H. Jacksons and Orville Faubuses of the world. They have an established losing track record when it comes to opposing freedom and human rights.

Like their bigoted and hate-filled predecessors, the transphobes will lose.

Few School Districts Have Rules On Transgender Students

By John Wright of the Dallas Voice
May 11, 2007

From a 6-year-old kindergartner in Florida who wears dresses to school to a 17-year-old senior in California who ran for prom king to 15-year-old Rochelle Evans of Fort Worth, trangender kids are gaining acceptance in the nation’s public education system.

But discrimination and harassment are still widespread, some experts say, and very few U.S. school districts have written policies related to transgender students. Although the Fort Worth Independent School District reportedly agreed last week to allow the 15-year-old Rochelle, formerly known as Rodney, to identify as a girl at Eastern Hills High School, FWISD is not one of those few.

Neither is the Dallas Independent School District, which has a policy prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation but not gender identity. DISD spokeswoman Ivette Cruz Weis said administration officials are not aware of ever having had an openly transgender student in the district.

Meanwhile, some districts, like Los Angeles’, have gone a step further than merely prohibiting discrimination and harassment against transgender students — they’ve laid out extensive guidelines covering everything from restroom use to dress codes to names and pronouns. Transgender is used to describe those whose outward appearance and internal identity differs from their sex at birth, regardless of whether their biological characteristics have changed.

“For any district to prepare for their staff to deal with situations they’re going to face is going to be helpful,” said Sue Spears, director of the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Educational Equity Compliance Office.

“It’s always better to be proactive,” Spears said, adding that the district has a handful of transgender students. “How do you hold people accountable when you haven’t clearly articulated your expectations for behavior and response?”

The LAUSD, second-largest in the U.S. with more than 720,000 students, has a seven-page reference guide requiring district staff to identify students by the names and pronouns they prefer; allow students to dress in accordance with the gender they assert; and either allow students to use bathrooms and locker rooms based on the gender they assert or provide reasonable alternatives.

Rochelle has said she was suspended by FWISD for refusing an assistant principal’s order to remove a wig and high heels. The incident resulted in a controversy that wasn’t resolved until attorneys stepped in on her behalf. One of those attorneys, Jerry Simoneaux Jr. of Houston, said he believes if the district had a policy in place, the whole thing could have been avoided.

“It would have been so easy for an administrator to point to a policy and say, ‘Excuse me, this is the policy on transgender people, and you can’t be harassing her,’” Simoneaux said.

However, he added he’s not optimistic districts in Texas will be drafting such policies in the near future.

“I think a written policy on transgender students would probably scare a lot of parents,” he said. “Maybe later on, as society becomes more aware of transgender people, I hope to see policies in place. We have to do this one step at a time.”

Despite the lack of a written policy, Simoneaux said Fort Worth ISD officials agreed during a meeting May 2 to allow Rochelle to return to school as Rochelle and use a single-stall bathroom in the nurse’s office as opposed to a boy’s or girl’s room.

“The good thing is that they were totally open to hearing what we had to say,” Simoneaux said “I think it was embarrassing for Fort Worth ISD to have this situation arise.”

FWISD administration officials did not respond to a request from the Voice this week for more information about practices related to transgender students. Members of the district’s Board of Education also did not return phone calls seeking comment.

But the district’s apparent decision to allow Rochelle to identify as a girl in school reflects a growing national trend, according to Shannon Minter, a member of the board of directors of the national Transgender Law & Policy Institute.

“What we’re seeing is that increasingly schools around the country, even if they don’t have a formal policy, they are generally, on the whole, doing the right thing and accepting transgender students,” Minter said. “There’s still a lot of the violence, and there’s still a lot of discrimination and harassment and fear. For the first time, we’re also seeing really significant progress.”

This is largely due to the fact that districts that don’t accept transgender students face the specter of lawsuits.

In 2000, the Massachusetts Superior Court ruled that a middle school could not prohibit a transgender student from expressing her identity because it would violate her First Amendment right to free expression and constitute sex discrimination. While the Massachusetts ruling does not apply to other states, there is also a possibility that transgender students are protected by federal Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in public education.

One good way for districts to avoid legal problems would be to adopt written policies.

“I think having a written policy and training helps things go much more smoothly,” Minter said. “Probably most districts aren’t even aware that this is something that they need to be thinking about. We’re trying to get the word out.”

The Dallas Voice sent an e-mail to all nine members of DISD’s Board of Trustees inquiring about the issue, but received no responses. Weis, the DISD spokeswoman, said administration officials told her they are unsure how the district — the 12th-largest in the country with an enrollment of about 159,000 — would respond to a transgender student.

“We would deal with these issues on a case-by-case basis,” she said. “But not having had a preceding case, it would be hard to make an assumption.”

Elisabeth Withers

I was introduced to this talented artist by one of the members on my Transistahs-Transbrothas group.

Tia had adopted Elisabeth's song 'The World Ain't Ready' from her It Can Happen To Anyone album as her theme song. She told us about her in a post to the group. When I checked out Elisabeth's website and listened to the lyrics of the song, I can see why. I was blown away by it and plan to buy it next payday along with the Daddy's Little Girls DVD when it comes out June 12.

Elisabeth states that the song 'The World Ain't Ready' was inspired by a transgender high school classmate in her Joliet, IL hometown. She recalled in a BET.com interview that she had amazing skin, a woman's body and would dress as a girl at school but as soon as the bell rang would run to the bathroom, change clothes and go home to her family as a boy.

When I heard her last name I immediately made the assumption that she was related to the great Bill Withers, but at this time Elisabeth hasn't revealed whether she is or not. But based on her bio and her Tony Award winning performance as Shug in Braodway's The Color Purple she is poised for stardom. If you're headed to the Essence Fest in New Orleans this year you're in for a musical treat.

Where Have All The Instrumental Songs Gone?

One staple of Black music over the decades has been the slammin' instrumental tracks that populated many R&B records over the 60's and 70's. Whether it was 'Cleo's Mood' by Junior Walker and the All Stars, 'Machine Gun' by The Commodores, 'Q' by the Brothers Johnson, 'Number One' by Patrice Rushen, Chic's 'Savoir Faire' or 'Go For Your Guns' by the Isley Brothers just to name a few, you could count on some R&B or soul album having a funky, slamming instrumental track to groove on or just chill out with.

As I've mentioned before in other posts I have a massive CD collection. One of the things I've noticed over the years is the dearth of instrumental tracks among the new breed of R&B artists similar to what I grew up on in the 70's.

Why is that?

Back in the day music was produced in a recording studio by MUSICIANS who were proud of it. They'd paid their dues, were creative and competitive peeps who liked to stretch out and flex their musical muscles from time to time. They also liked having one or two tracks on a album where they didn't have to sing, they could just simply play.

And boy did they ever.

Nowdays anybody with a computer, great software, a premium quality mike and a quiet room can record. I also think that another reason that you have the dearth of instrumental songs in R&B is because many districts as cost-cutting measures took music education out of public schools during the late 70's. While many R&B artists did get their start in the church choir, it does hurt if what's being taught at church or Vacation Bible School isn't reinforced in a classroom setting at the elementary school level or at home. If they aren't in the church choir, many kids now don't get introduced to music unless they are in the school band or the choir in their middle and high school years. The recording industry also doesn't take time to groom their artists and give them the opportunity to get better in their craft.

As for the home part of my theory, in my neighborhood alone we had three different bands when I was growing up. My across the street neighbor Jared Edison was a drummer in one band who used to gather at his house and practice until 1 AM in the morning. Another neighbor played guitar and the third band was down the street in Kennedy Heights. Talent shows at Thomas Junior High and Sterling High (or any Black high school in Houston) were competitive affairs. The Jackson 5 once competed in one in their hometown of Gary, IN. I would daresay that the situation I observed in Houston replicated itself in many Black communites across the nation.

One tradition I would love to see them bring back is at least one instrumental jam on an R&B/soul groups record. Until then I'll just keep popping my 70's CD's in and hoping the recording companies get the message.

Time To Elevate Our Game

This is a post I wrote for Angelica's blog;

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Back in 1979 an African-American transwoman by the name of Justina Williams graced the pages of Jet magazine.

With classy elegance, despite the trials she was facing at the time, she expressed her hopes for the future on the pages of one of our community's iconic magazines. She helped destroy the myth in the African-American community that transition was just a 'white thang'.

Almost 40 years later Justina has accomplished many of the goals that she'd set for herself, but in terms of the African-American transgender community at large it has been a mixed bag of success and failure.

We have successful transsistahs (and increasingly) transbrothas doing positive things to uplift our community. Unfortunately we don't hear about many of these success stories because they have chosen to live stealth lives. The lack of media coverage of African-American transwomen who are succeeding in other arenas besides the pageant world has led to a skewed impression among our transkids that the only thing they can do or become is an entertainer or an escort.

While the stealth transpeeps are in isolation to avoid the violence directed at transpeople not only in our community but America at large, it is a contributing factor to the skewed impression I talked about in the previous paragragh.

When I was growing up in the 70's how I would have loved to have seen African-American transgender role models like the ones we have now. People such as Jordana, DJ Miss Honey Dijon, Lorrainne Sade Baskerville, Dr. Marisa Richmond, Kylar Broadus, Dawn Wilson, Valerie Spencer, Jada Tracy O'Brien, Dioone Stallworth, Rev. Joshua Holiday, Tracee McDaniel and Angelica Love Ross are emerging as positive role models for our community along with some of our pageant superstars. (okay, I'll toot my own Trinity Award winning horn as well.)

But our work is far from over. While we have more people coming out at earlier ages, we still have to grapple with the old problems of fragmentation and separation based on where we live and what segment of the transgender community we occupy. I can't forget about the violence we face across the African diaspora, whether it's here in the States, Jamaica or the rest of the African continent. 70% percent of the names on the Remembering our Dead list are people of color.

As Public Enemy once rapped, 'It's playoff time.' We must as transpeople of African descent do what our ancestors have always done, tackle problems in our community head on with prayerful contemplation, far sighted vision and maximum effort. We have to do it not only for ourselves but our transkids and our brothers and sisters in the rest of the Diaspora as well. Nobody's gonna care about us but us.

I would like to see African-American transpeople one day successfully running for public office, running businesses and taking more active roles in securing our civil rights. Better yet, if necessary to accomplish our goals as a community, if we encounter resistance from so-called allies, let's cut out the middleman and do it our damned selves.

Those dreams will become realities if we stand up, take pride in ourselves, embrace our proud heritage, our spirituality and boldly step forth to claim our God-given place in society.

Happy Birthday Monica!

Just in case you're wondering, I celebrated my birthday a month ago. The Monica I'm wishing a Happy Birthday to is one who is no longer with us, but is still very special to me in my heart.

Her name is Monica Monet Holloway-Barrett and she was born on this date in 1962 in Mobile, AL.

So how did a native Houstonian get to meet this Alabama girl? Her grandparents lived in Houston and during her spring break in 1980 she traveled to H-town to visit them. HISD was still in session at the time and my classmate and her friend Virginia Tucker lived next door to Monica's grandparents.

Virginia invited Monica to hang out with her for the day at Jones and Virginia was in my trig class. When she and Monica walked through the door she had my undivided attention that day instead of my math teacher Mr. Stevenson.

Intelligent people tend to gravitate to other intelligent people and I picked up on that. My 'twin' liked smart sistahs. Monica was about 5'6", had a flawless light caramel colored skin tone and shoulder length jet black hair framing her face.

We exchanged contact data and I was even more smitten with her after I discovered her birthday was June 4, which also happens to be my late Grandmother Tama's birthday as well.

Through the summer of 1980 we traded letters but as the demands of my census enumerator job increased and her summer classes at Rensselear Polytechnic Institute demanded more of her attention we gradually lost contact with each other. When my own freshman year at UH approached and subsequently my transgender issues demanded resolution during the spring semester she faded from my memory for a while.

Over the years I wondered what happened to the girl I met during the last months of my senior year and developed a serious crush on. One day I was flipping through the Houston Chronicle and stumbled across her wedding announcement that her grandparents had placed.

It caught me up on her life up until that time. She'd graduated from Duke in 1984, pledged AKA and had become a doctor after graduating from medical school in 1990. I also discovered that she was now living in Houston. I'd seen the announcement too late to attend the wedding, was a little jealous of the guy she was marrying, but at the same time was pleased to know that things were going well for Monica. I was also happy to know that she'd found someone special to spend the rest of her life with.

In April 1998 I was once again perusing the Houston Chronicle when I was shocked to see something I didn't expect.

Monica's obituary

It didn't mention how she died, but Dr. Monica Holloway-Barrett had become nonetheless an Ivy Beyond The Wall. That obituary also updated me on the final chapter of her life before she was called home April 9. She'd given birth to a daughter in 1993, was teaching classes at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and was involved in a long list of local organizations at the point of her untimely passing.

I cried for a few moments after reading it and realizing that she was only 35 when she died. Once again I was seeing it too late to attend and pay my last respects and I was a little upset about that. It's also ironic and frustrating to me that our paths could have crossed before she passed away. One of the schools that we used to do Trans 101 seminars at was Baylor College of Medicine and the first one I was part of took place in February 1998.

I took some time to remember the beautiful girl I met in my math class that day who'd become an outstanding woman. I clipped that obituary, scanned the picture (which is on my other computer, darn it) and stored it in my high school memory book.

She's one of the reasons that when it came time for me to choose a feminine name when I transitioned in 1994, I chose Monica.

My name today is a reminder to myself on multiple levels. I wanted to honor her memory, so I strive to carry myself in the same way that I remember her as a classy, beautiful and intelligent woman. It's also a reminder to myself to make every moment count and make quality use of the time that you're allotted.

Unlike the Cylons of Battlestar Galactica, we only get one shot at living our lives and you don't get multiple practice runs until it's perfect.

Happy birthday, Monica. Say hello to my grandmother Tama for me.

Black Music Month

photos-Duke Ellington, Denyce Graves, 'Jimmy Jam' Harris and Terry Lewis

Since 1979 the month of June has been celebrated as Black Music Month in the United States. At the urging of legendary songwriter and record producer Kenny Gamble, President Jimmy Carter designated June as Black Music Month.

A quarter century later, President Bush like all American presidents since then have issued an annual Black Music Month proclamation to celebrate the occasion.

It's a time when we look back at the various forms of music that we either created, such as jazz, the blues, gospel music, rap, and hip-hop.

There are music genres that we've enhanced with our talents such as disco and the opera world with singers such as Leontyne Price, Denyce Graves and Kathleen Battle.

We also celebrate our rich musical tradition that we brought with us from the African continent.

We remember our legendary artists like Mahalia Jackson, Louis Armstrong, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Little Richard, Luther Vandross, James Brown, Ella Fitzgerald, Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, B.B. King and Duke Ellington just to name a few.

We also celebrate the heirs to their legacy in our current artists like Alicia Keys, John Legend, Jill Scott and others.

Black Music Month is a chance to celebrate the huge imprint that we have left on American music and indeed, the world musically since we arrived on these shores in 1619. We get reconnected with some of our pioneers, such as Thomas A. Dorsey, the 'Father of Gospel Music.'

We give props to the legendary producers such as Motown's Holland Dozier Holland, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Gamble and Huff and the folks following in their giant footsteps.



We also marvel at how our music gave up hope in dark times for our people, celebrated our successes, helped us dance on Saturday nights and get our praise on during Sunday morning worship services.

It was the soundtrack for our youth, our love making, instilled pride in our heritage and motivated us (and the South Africans) to fight for our civil rights.

It even inspires athletes to perform at championship levels. Ask the 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates or Sister Sledge if you think I'm kidding about that.

Black music is a powerful, multigenerational, creative force.



Every now and then George W. Bush gets something right. Here are his words from the May 31, 2002 proclamation declaring Black Music Month in the USA.



I call on Americans of all backgrounds to learn more about the rich heritage of black music and how it has shaped our culture and our way of life, and urge them to take the opportunity to enjoy the great musical experiences available through the contributions of African American music.

I plan to help y'all out this month in exploring Black music. As far as I'm concerned, EVERY month is Black Music Month.

Now where's my Parliament-Funkadelic CD?

June 2007 TransGriot Column

Chuck Knipp + SQL + Minstrel Show = Racism
Copyright 2007, THE LETTER

Just in time for pride I’m calling out all you GLBT racism enablers.

Racism enabler? Moi? Yes, you!

You peeps who silently sit through racist rants that would make the local KKK Grand Wizard proud. It also includes you peeps who paid good American money to see and support a racist minstrel show like some of y’all did on May 5 during Derby.

A minstrel show mind you that perpetuates stereotypes dating back to the 1830’s and has as much humor in it as Don Imus’ April 4 ‘nappy headed garden tool’ comments that got him canned from his multimillion dollar radio gig.

Stop rolling your eyes and muttering under your breath ‘there she goes again.’ I’m just as sick and tired of ‘splaining to y’all why Chuck’s minstrel show is offensive to the African-American SGL community. For the record, it’s disrespectful on multiple levels to single mothers, economically disadvantaged peeps, women and African-Americans.

Spare me your latest ‘It’s free speech’ SQL defense line. With free speech comes responsibility and consequences as well. Free speech cuts both ways. Just as Chuck has the right to say things and insult my people in his ‘act’ I have a reciprocal right to protest and call him out for performing a 'show’ with stereotypes rooted in slavery.

And no, Chuck doesn’t get a ‘dodge criticism’ free pass because he’s gay. Isaiah Washington and Tim Hardaway didn’t (and still don’t) get them from the gay community for their one-time comments, so a serial offender like Chuck doesn’t get one either.

Let me also put an end to Chuck’s disingenuously fallacious statement that by performing SQL he’s fostering a discussion on race relations by getting us to laugh at them.

Bull feces.

Chuck is exacerbating racial tensions, not healing them. Using a blackface image with 400 years of negativity associated with it doesn’t exactly lend itself in African-American eyes as a starting point for a civil discourse on race relations. In 2002 we African-Americans had a major problem with those blackface images in Spike Lee’s ‘Bamboozled’ movie. You know we’re gonna be highly perturbed with someone standing on stage in blackface who is not only gay and should know better, but comes from the same ethnic group and gender that enslaved our great-great grandparents.

That little ‘12 Days of Kwanzaa’ ditty Chuck composed that’s posted on every white supremacist website on the Net also puts an abrupt end to that ‘I’m a racial healer' fallacy as well.

Finally, let’s get one thing straight (pardon the pun). The white community gay or straight doesn’t get to determine what we African-Americans should or shouldn't be offended by. The African-American community collectively does and it’s the height of arrogance for you to think that you do. Trotting out RuPaul, the mysterious African-American ‘friend’ who’s allegedly an SQL fan (yeah, right) or anyone else for Chuck to hide behind ain’t gonna work either. RuPaul has less credibility in the African-American SGL community nowadays than Condoleezza Rice.

It should be obvious after 5 years of protests, show cancellations, denunciations from African-American activists, African-American GLBT columnists and bloggers, GLBT organizations, our gay and straight allies and other concerned citizens of various ethnic backgrounds where we stand on the SQL issue. The more intransigent you get about SQL, the more you risk losing the African-American GLBT community as an ally
in the GLBT rights struggle.

Yes peeps, it’s that serious.

This was always more than just us complaining about a lousy minstrel show. This is being viewed by some in the African-American GLBT community as a litmus test to see just how serious the white GLBT community is about dealing with issues that we deem important.

And right now you’re in danger of failing that test.

Who Has The World's Most Beautiful Transwomen? Part 3

In this post I'm going to concentrate on transwomen inhabiting Europe.

We transpeeps need to give the Europeans major shout-outs. They have led the way in terms of the medical and scientific research, the generous medical plans that cover transitions in some countries and the groundbreaking legal statutes that protect our rights and make it easy to change documents to match presentations. Sweden passed TG laws back in 1972, followed by Germany in 1981, Italy in 1982, the Netherlands in 1985, Turkey in 1988, Britain and Spain in 2004.

The transpeople that garnered early media attention also came from this region of the world. Christine Jorgenson was the first transwoman to get international media attention, but her initial surgery was done in Denmark. After Christine, it was the European transwomen who dominated much of the international media attention through the 60s and 70's.

We'll start with the Dutch girls. They get to start early on hormones that are covered by national health plans. Romy Haag was one of the early Dutch transwomen who after transitioning at 33, has made a career for herself in Germany.

The current poster child for Dutch transwomen is Kelly van der Veer. She had her surgery at 19 and has been a fixture on Dutch TV and in Dutch popular culture ever since.

Britain not only has covered transgender issues and grappled with them since the 60's, their NHS granted Angel Paris-Jordan SRS at age 17.

Our British cousins have also had a few transwomen grab international headlines as well. April Ashley was the transgender poster girl in the 60's and was involved in a groundbreaking court case. Her divorce from Arthur Corbett led to an unfortunate ruling that hampered the ability of British transwomen until the 2004 passage of the Gender Recognition Act to have their marriages recognized and change their identity documents to match current gender presentation. The case also reared its ugly head here in the States in adverse marriage rulings in the 90's.

The British transgender it girl torch was passed to Caroline Cossey in the 70's and 80's, and it remains to be seen in the early 21st century who will be the next famous British transwoman.

You knew the French would not be outdone with Coccinelle and Amanda Lear to point to with Gallic pride in this beautiful transwoman debate. Coccinelle rivaled Christine Jorgensen back in the day in terms of world media attention and after her SRS in Morocco in 1958 became extremely popular in France. She was also an activist who fought for transgender rights in France as well.

Amanda Lear played the 'is-she-is-she-not-a-transwoman' coy role with the world media for decades even though she performed with Coccinelle and April Ashley at the same Paris transgender cabarets.


The Germans produce supermodels, so it would stand to reason that they would also have beautiful transgender frauleins to boast about. They did much of the early research in transsexuality under the world famous sexologist Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld that led to Lili Elbe's pioneering surgeries in 1931. It's also no accident at one of the Nazis first public book burnings happened outside of Hirschfeld's offices. Germany is also home to what some people believe is the youngest transwoman to transition in Kim, who began her transition at age 12.

Greek transwomen can point with Hellenic pride to their renowned poster girl Jenny Hiloudaki, who burst onto the world's radar screens in the 90's. She began her transition at age 13 and had SRS at age 20. She became one of Greece's top models complete with a jet setting high society lifestyle to go with it. She was even at the center of a Greek political scandal because of her 1997 affair with District Attorney George Sakelaropoulos which was eagerly followed in the Greek press, was named Greek Woman of the Year in 2000.

While Italy is one place the Brazilian transwomen call their home away from home, the Italians have some beautiful home grown transwomen as well, and Eva Robin's is their poster girl. Eva's story is interesting because she says she developed extremely feminine features and began developing breasts at a young age naturally, but that's been disputed, along with whether or not she's had SRS.

What isn't disputed is the fact that however it happened, she's got it going on in the beauty department and has parlayed it into a nice career as an actress model and commentator.

Spain is a relative newbie in terms of passing progressive legislation for transsexuals, having done so in 2004, but not in producing beautiful transwomen. Bibiana Fernandez also known by her stage name of Bibi Andersen, is a statuesque actress and model who has appeared in several films produced by world renowned director Pedro Almodovar.

The nations that were behind the Iron Curtain like Russia, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine, Serbia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary and Romania have transpeople there, and as those communities emerge and more info comes out, they too will probably join in this debate as to who has the world's most beautiful transwomen.

Who Has The World's Most Beautiful Transwomen?-Part 2

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as the old saying goes. What I'm doing in this series of posts is trying to objectively ascertain what part of the world has the most beautiful transwomen. While that's an argument that will rage long after I finish this series, it'll definitely be a fun one as well.

In Part 2 I'm going to concentrate on the Americas, North, Central and South.

The Mexican transwomen have the same advantages as their Thai sisters. Over-the counter availability of hormones, petite body builds that translate well into feminine proportions, some androgynous biomale characteristics and a semi-tolerant culture despite being a Roman Catholic country.

They also have that delicious blend of Latin and indigenous Indian features. Some of the girls who were born there have emigrated to the United States. They congregate in the transgender meccas of LA, San Francisco, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Atlanta, Chicago and New York.

The Puerto Rican and Dominican transgirls combine the best aspects of being Latina with African influences. They are concentrated mostly in the New York and Miami areas.



Some people consider the Brazilians the most beautiful transwomen in the world, even over the Thais.

The Brazilians in addition to being a Roman Catholic country have the gender bending vibe running through their culture thanks to Carnaval. It is also the plastic surgery capital of South America. Because of economic and social conditions at home Brazilian transwomen also migrate to other parts of the world as well.



In the States, being that it's a large country we have various groups we can throw into this mix. The Hawaiian girls, African-Americans, Latinas, Asians and Caucasian ones from various parts of the country. Depending on the cultural group some get to start in their early to late teens while other end up starting transition in early adulthood. Even with that late start, we Americans and our Canadian cousins can still produce transwomen that rank up there with the world's best.



You do have girls that are increasingly coming from the Central American nations of Panama, who also share the African influences like their Brazilian and African-American counterparts, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Guatemala. There are also the girls of Chile, Argentina, Venezuela and Peru along with girls from the Caribbean island nations as well.

Who Has The World's Most Beautiful Transwomen?-Part 1

The Miss Tiffany Universe pageant that occurred earlier this month got me thinking about this question: Who does have the most beautiful transwomen on the planet?

When I first conceived this post it was just going to be a single one, but this has turned out to be a subject that's going to require multiple posts that I'm going to break up by regions. I'll start with Asia.


The Thais have argued for the last decade that they do and they have miles of video, the plastic surgeons, and pageants to back them up. Thai girls also start with the advantages of a culture that tolerates them and access to over-the-counter hormones that they can start in their early teens. They have the additional advantage of slight body builds that are enhanced after female hormones work their magic.

The end result is a transwoman that is so convincingly female that in some cases the only way you can tell them apart from bio Thai women is their voices if they didn't start HRT before testosterone impacted their vocal chords.



The girls from Korea, Japan and the Philippines would beg to differ with that assessment. They have the same advantages of slight body builds that morph into convincing feminine presentations as well and somewhat tolerant cultures.

Harisu is one of the more well known transwomen from Korea. She transitioned at 18 and in 2002 became the second person in South Korea to legally change her gender. She not only is a model and singer but has a few endorsements with several Asian companies as well. She recently got married to her longtime boyfriend May 19. You also have the Korean pop group Lady representing which is made up of four Korean transwomen. They were the four chosen from an audition of transwomen that numbered in the hundreds. The group's formation was inspired by Harisu's popularity.

The Chinese are also in this mix as well as their cousins in Taiwan and Hong Kong. In China transsexuality has ceased to be a taboo topic. 500 transwomen have had SRS since 2004 according to government statistics. There are also increasing numbers of Chinese transmen as well.Chen Lili is the unofficial poster girl for Chinese transwomen. She's a model who was the 2004 Miss Universe China and was set to compete in the Miss Universe Pageant being held in Quito, Ecuador. Although there was no rule at the time keeping transwomen from entering, the Miss Universe organization barred her and ruled that only biowomen can compete.



The Filipinas boast of a blend of Latin, Asian and Pacific island traits combined with a somewhat tolerant culture despite the fact it's a Roman Catholic country. Many Philippine transwomen also transition early as well.



From the 50's until the mid 80's the Asian capital for transgender women wasn't centered in Pattaya but Singapore's Bugis Street. Until it was torn down by Singaporean authorities it was world renowned as a tourist mecca and the place where beautiful transwomen hung out on a nightly basis.

It was also a popular R&R stop for British, American and Aussie military personnel. The construction of a rail station ended the carnival like culture that had built up around the area to the lament of locals and tourists. Singaporean officials tried to recreate it but the efforts failed. The 1995 movie Bugis Street captures that bygone era.

In Muslim Malaysia and Indonesia you have the warias. The term is a blend of the Indonesian words for man and woman. They too have beauty contests and back in 2005 one of them in Jakarta was interrupted by hardline fundie Muslims who crashed the party. The winners of the 2004 and 2005 Miss Waria International pagenat moved on to compete in the Miss International Queen.


The debate continues in Part 2