Ralph, Stay Out In 2008

The news that Ralph Nader is considering another futile run for the presidency next year brought back all those angry feelings that I still harbor for him because of the 2000 election.

If you want to piss off a Green Party member, tell them that Ralph cost Al Gore the election. So I'm not only gonna say it, I'm gonna crunch the numbers and back it up.

Ralph Nader cost Al Gore the 2000 election.



So Naderites, before we get started, spare me whatever spin you've come up with to salve your guilty consciences. Your Nader votes made it possible for the worst president in my lifetime to take office. (I was a teenager during the Nixon years) The blood of 3000 plus dead soldiers is on YOUR hands. The conservative Supreme Court majority we have is YOUR fault.

And it's all because you and Ralphie boy lacked the vision (and failed to listen to us Texans) to see what a disaster a Bush presidency would (and has turned out to be) for our country.

Before we start, here's the basics. In the 2000 election Gore received 266 electoral votes, Bush 271. 270 is the magic electoral vote number to win office. Gore actually received 267, but one DC elector didn't cast their vote in protest over the Florida travesty. I'm going to presume that Nader votes are progressive ones that I'll add to Gore's totals and Buchanan ones are conservative that I'll add to Bush's.

Let's start with the two states that the 2000 election hinged on, New Hampshire and Florida.

Ralph pulled enough votes from Gore in New Hampshire to swing the state in Bush's direction along with 4 critical electoral votes.

Gore 266,348
Bush 273,549
Nader 22,195
Buchanan 2,615

Now assuming Ralph (and Pat) aren't in, lets take their votes and add them to the respective candidates totals. (Nader votes=progressive ones, Buchanan votes =conservative ones) I reject the Naderite assertion that without him in the 2000 race those voters would have stayed home. That's bull feces and y'all know it. The 2000 election was critical to our country's future and everyone knew it.

Gore 266,341 + 22,198 = 288,556
Bush 273,559 + 2,615 = 276,174



No Nader, and Gore not only takes New Hampshire but the presidency as well. New Hampshire's 4 electoral votes puts him over the top and makes Jeb and Katharine's thuggery in Florida irrelevant.

Gore 267 + 4 = 271
Bush 271 - 4 = 267


Moving on to Florida. Remember the Supremes stopped the recount. At that time the vote totals were:

Gore 2,912,293
Bush 2,912,790
Nader 97,495
Buchanan 17,484

Check out the new totals with Nader votes going to Gore and Buchanan ones to Bush.

Gore 2,912,293 + 97,495 = 3,009,741
Bush 2,912,790 + 17,484 = 2,930,274

Gore not only wins Florida, it's not even close enough for them to steal it. That adds 25 more electoral votes to the Gore column and your new electoral vote total is:

Gore 267 + 4 + 25 = 296
Bush 271 - 4 - 25 = 242

That means we have no Supreme Court intervention, no Iraq War, an erasing of our national debt by 2009, a 6-3 PROGRESSIVE majority on the Supreme Court with a Latino/a judge sitting on the bench...

Shall I continue listing what Ralph and y'all screwed up besides a Gore presidency?

Naah, think I'll drop some more political science on y'all. Y'all desperately need a refresher course in it.

In that 2000 election there were six states, Iowa, Oregon, Wisconsin, Washington, Minnesota and New Mexico worth a total 55 electoral votes that Gore narrowly won.

Nader polled 29,374 votes in Iowa, and Gore only beat Bush by 1144 votes there. In Oregon, the 77,357 votes he received there had Gore trailing most of the night until a late surge gave him a 6715 vote win. In Wisconsin, the 94,070 votes he received made it so close Gore only won by 5708 votes there.

Washington was a nail biter most of the night thanks to the 103,002 Nader votes cast there. Gore eventually pulled it out and won by 78,825 votes. In Minnesota, the 126,696 votes Nader garnered there also made that state uncomfortably close but Gore won that state by 59,607 votes.

In New Mexico the 21,251 votes Nader got almost cost Gore the state. Gore won by a razor thin 566 votes.

So what you Naderites say? Here's the problem. Because of Ralph, in the closing weeks of the 2000 campaign, instead of using that precious time to attack Bush in Missouri and Ohio and going home to Tennessee to mend fences he was forced to defend what should have been friendly turf.

Gore lost Missouri by 78,786 votes, Tennessee by 80,209 votes and Ohio by 165,019 votes. No Republican gets elected without having Ohio in their electoral vote column and that's where Gore needed to be, not in the Pacific Northwest and the Midwest. He could have also spent time in West Virginia, which he lost by 40,978 votes.

The only thing I can take solace in is the fact that the 'there's no difference between Republicans and Democrats' line has been exposed for the lie it is. The last 7 years have proved there's a major difference when Democrats run thangs as opposed to when Republicans do.

There's one other thing you Naderites need to chew on. If you want progressive policies for our country, you definitely aren't going to get them by helping to elect CONSERVATIVE politicians.

Ralph, stay home in 2008. You've done enough damage to our country.

Wanna Pass? Build A Sistah Circle

I believe that one of the ways to be the best sistah you can be is spending lots of quality interaction time with peeps who have lived that gender role since birth.

In order to successfully transition to womanhood, I think it's critical to build up a network of supportive friends who are not only biowomen, but transwomen as well called a sistah circle.

The first order of business in building that sistah circle is finding the biowomen members of it. They should be people who are so secure in their own femininity that they aren't tripping about your transwoman status. They need to be intellectually curious, spiritual and will 'keep it real' for you in terms of their experiences growing up. They will also check you when you start whining about how lucky they are to be born female.

Bear in mind that this is a two way relationship. You have to 'keep it real' for the biowomen as well in terms of sharing some of the painful parts of your background, the intimate details of your life and answering whatever questions the biowoman has about the medical aspects of transition that you feel comfortable discussing.

The transwoman aspect of your sistah circle is important as well. Sometimes there are just issues that no matter how understanding, smart and down your biowoman friend is, they require another transwoman to break it down for you so that you can understand it. But don't just automatically assume that your biowoman friend may not understand your transgender related problem. She may surprise you.

If you're blessed to find those types of friends, you're on your way.

As you continue your transition journey you'll want to add to your evolving sistah circle biowomen who are married, unmarried, single, divorced, younger, older, straight, gay, in or out of relationships, mothers or have a combination of these characteristics. You'll want the same kind of breakdown for the transwomen that are part of your sistah circle as well.

So why am I talking about sistah circles? Because women have similar networks of intimate interlocking friendships that not only help them sort out the mysteries of womanhood and life in general, but help them get through the challenges of being a woman in a man's world.

My sistahfriends have been invaluable to me in terms of my growth and understanding of the spiritual nature of femininity. They have not only helped me put together my femme presentation, they have checked me when I haven't been on point with it as I need to be. They also smack me back into reality when I start whining about the bull I have to deal with because I wasn't born female.

I bring to the table as a sistah circle member not only my analytical abilities about relationships, willingness to learn everything I can about being female and the desire to have the friendship last a lifetime, I'm also a powerful ally in helping them decipher the mysteries of male behavior.

By building sistah circle friendships, you also help the transgender community. You demystify us in their eyes and help 'ejumacate' them about our lives. Your biowomen friends can potentially be our best allies when disinformation about transpeeps comes up in their daily interactions with other non-transgender persons. They can enlighten peeps about what the real deal is when it comes to transgender peeps because they know one personally.

It also never hurts to have a loyal person in your corner, period.

So go ahead. introduce yourself to that biowoman or transwoman whose outfit you like, who carries herself like the Queen of Sheba or has a magnetic personality you admire.

You have nothing to lose and may gain a friend for life

Transpeeps and the Po-Po's Still Have Drama

There's been a long history in the United States of tension between the police and the transgender community. In fact, the August 1966 Compton's Cafeteria Riot in San Francisco and the June 28, 1969 Stonewall Riots that are considered the start of the United States GLBT civil rights movement have a similar root cause:

GLBT people finally getting fed up with being harassed by police.

So it didn't suprise me when Amnesty International released on September 22, 2005 the first in a series of reports that documented what we in the transgender community have known, talked about and experienced for years. Despite the major gains we've made over the last 40 years in having our civil rights recognized and respected, the problem of police harassment still persists.

Called Stonewalled: Police Abuse and Misconduct against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender people in the United States, the Amnesty International report revealed that transgender people experienced some of the most egregious cases of police brutality.

AI heard reports of transgender individuals being subjected by police to discriminatory profiling as sex workers; “policing” of transgender individuals bathroom use; sexual, verbal and physical abuse; inappropriate and illegal searches to determine a transgender individual’s “true” sex; and a failure to protect transgender individuals from abuse while in detention.

A subsequent report was released in March 2006 called Stonewalled: Police Abuse and Misconduct Against Lesbian, Gay and Transgender People in the U.S. that documents serious patterns of police abuse, including incidents amounting to torture and ill-treatment. It also points out that GLBT persons of color are particularly vulnerable to this abuse and it is compounded by the systemic racism and homophobia prevalent in many US police forces. GLBT peeps are also singled out for selective enforcement of "morals regulations," bars and social gatherings regulations, demonstrations and "quality of life" ordinaces.

How serious is the problem? In San Antonio, one of the four cities profiled in the September 2005 report, veteran police officer Dave Gutierrez was convicted and sentenced on January 19 to 24 years and four months in prison for raping and assaulting then 21 year old transwoman Starlight Bernal during a June 10, 2005 traffic stop.


It's also come to light that the investigation into transwoman Nizah Morris' death in Philadelphia is pointing disturbing fingers at the police. The recent classification of transwoman Erica Keel's death as an accident has exacerbated tensions between the Philadelphia police department and the transgender community to the point that it became an issue in the Philadelphia mayor's race.

The negativity affects us in multiple ways. The police failing to act, or being openly (or covertly) hostile to transgender people affects their attitudes toward solving crimes committed against us.

That lack of action emboldens people who wish to bring harm to us. They assume that the police, their ministers, society and the justice system are on their side and they'll get away with committing the crime against us. Previous cases in which people were prosecuted for committing murders against transgender people that received little or ridiculously low sentences feed into that perception. The 'trans panic' defenses that attorneys use to get their clients off also don't help along with the reluctance of prosecuters to use hate crimes statutes if they happen to have one in their jurisdiction that covers us. That has the unfortunate effect of encouraging crimes to be committed against us, not deterring it.

The drama between us and the police means that many transpeople are reluctant to report crimes when they occur because of the fear you'll get even more harrasment from the officer that's supposed to help you. If you think I'm kidding, ask JoLea Lamot's family what happened on November 24, 1998 when her mother Nancy called 911 on JoLea's behalf because they feared she'd accidentally overdosed on some medication.

The late Marvin Zindler used to say on his reports back home that 'it's hell to be poor'. It's also hell to be transgender. One message that needs to be made loud and clear is that we transpeople are taxpaying citizens as well. We don't need the po-po's adding to the drama we already get just for living our lives.

Serving and protecting the public also includes us as well.

Stephanie and Ukea-Rest In Peace

Five years ago today at the same Southeast DC intersection where transsistah Tyra Hunter was involved in the fateful auto accident that took her life, two transsistahs named Stephanie Thomas and Ukea Davis were brutally murdered.

19 year old Stephanie and 18 year old Ukea met at a SMYAL (Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League) meeting and became best friends. They were inseparable to the point where they helped each other transition and lived in an apartment together.

And unfortunately, they died together as well.

At 11:30 PM on August 12, 2002 the girls told friends they were headed to a nearby gas station to pick up cigarettes. No one's certain whether they actually accomplished their stated mission and were in the process of returning or had even left. At around 3 AM the girls were sitting in Thomas' Camry at a stop sign at 50th and C Streets. Suddenly a car rolled up next to them and sprayed them with semi automatic gunfire.

According to an eyewitness, another car approached the intersection after the shooting and the driver got out to ascertain what had happened. Ukea Davis was already dead and the driver nudged Stephanie to see if by some miracle she was alive.
She acknowledged she was by moaning as he touched her shoulder.

But unfortunately the good Samaritan was forced to flee when the shooters came back to finish their grisly work. The shooter got out of the car and peppered the mortally wounded teens with more gunfire. By the time rescue workers reached the bloodsoaked car Stephanie was also dead. She and Ukea had taken ten rounds each.

Even in a city with a high murder rate such as Washington DC, the execution style killings of two transgender teenagers rocked the city and the DC transgender community. Their joint funeral was packed. The people who spoke at the vigil held for them included then mayor Anthony Williams and DC congressional Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton.

As of this writing the perpetrators in the murders of Stephanie Thomas and Ukea Davis still haven't been brought to justice. To make things worse just four days after the vigil marking the one year anniversary of the killings Washington underwent a series of transgender murders. In the span of eight days two transwomen were killed and another survived a shooting near the US capitol building.

The sad part about the Thomas-Davis killing was the brutality of it. While I'm happy that in the short time they had on the planet they got to transition, sometimes it shocks me just how visceral the hatred is toward transgender people. It saddens me to think about the fact that Stephanie and Ukea didn't get a chance to unleash whatever potential their lives held for them. It angers me to think that someone hated or felt so threatened by Stephanie and Ukea just openly living their lives that they picked up a gun and killed them.

Rest in peace, ladies.

Bishop Harry Jackson's Claims Divisive and Untrue

Jackson's Claims Divisive and Untrue

July 1, 2007
by: Rev. Dr. Michael Eric Dyson
Sylvia Rhue, Ph.D.

Bishop Harry Jackson of the High Impact Leadership Coalition and pastor of Hope Christian Church in Maryland is leading the misguided attempt to scare Black ministers into backing his efforts to derail the much needed Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act also known as the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act. In doing so he is distorting the facts about a law which would provide local law enforcement with addition tools to stem the tide of intentional acts of violence and murder.

Contrary to Bishop Jackson's assertions, this bill will not "muzzle clergy", and it is not "anti-Christian". This bill should be passed because it is fair, overdue and much needed. The House passed a version last May and the Senate should pass it as well.

Bishop Jackson's claims are based on bias that is divisive, destructive and untrue. Hate crimes laws punish violent acts, not beliefs or thoughts, not even violent thoughts. The proposed federal statute does not punish, nor prohibit in any way, free expression of one's religious beliefs.

Pastors will remain free to condemn, demean, defame and dehumanize their gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered congregants and neighbors as they feel called by their religious beliefs. This bill will not change the First Amendment and we would not support any law that undermined this precious freedom.

On the other hand, we work with clergy who respect gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people, and honor the many gifts they have brought to the Church, especially to the Black Church. We believe this is the American way—we value the separation of church and state. We also believe it is the authentic way of Christ.

We also suggest that Bishop Jackson take a course in basic human sexuality since so much of his resistance to equal rights for LGBT people lies in his stated assumption that homosexuality is a "choice", while being black is not. Sexual orientation is not a choice. It is a innate, God-gifted, morally neutral state of being.

We hope and pray that Bishop Jackson will focus some attention on Christ's message of inclusion as we did when we invited him to speak to our members during our recently held Black Church Summit at Mother Bethel AME Church in Philadelphia. From that experience alone the good Bishop should have known that we would never support a law that would silence him in his own pulpit.

Rev. Dr. Michael Eric Dyson
Sylvia Rhue, Ph.D.

The writers are respectively the Chair and Director of the National Black Justice Coalition's Religious Advisory Committee.

Where My Sistahs And Brothas At?

I tuned in to watch the Larry King Live show on transgender peeps earlier this evening on CNN hoping to see if the transgender community would pick up on a recurring omission they make when they put these shows together.

Sadly, they didn't.

So what is the glaring omission you ask? I have no complaint about the content of the show. It was tastefully done and informative as Larry King shows usually are. But there was one thing missing. As usual, there was NO African-American transperson as part of the panel.

Yeah, the white transgender community will point to the Latina that was part of tonight's panel and state quizzically, "What was wrong with it? There was a person of color on the panel."

No, my Caucasian sisters and brothers, there was a LATINA on the panel. There were three white people on that panel. There were three transwomen and a transman on that panel.

There were NO African-Americans on that panel.

The reason I'm griping about it is because once again, just as last night's HRC sponsored GLBT Democratic presidential candidate forum ignored the concerns of African-American, Latino/a's GLBT peeps and the transgender community, the white transgender community repeatedly and conveniently forgets us when these media opportunities arise.

News flash: There are intelligent African-American transpeople who can easily speak for ours and the entire transgender community and look fly while doing it. We need that face time, too. We need to have my people (and yours) see African-American transpeople in a setting other than a pageant stage, an adult website or a smoky GLBT club.

Once again in a nationally televised setting, I didn't see someone representing me or my community. The transkids that share my heritage didn't see someone on that stage tonight that represents them.

That's what I'm upset about

The Most Important Man in Black America

Tavis Smiley frequently says (and I agree with him on that point) that Dr. Martin Luther King is the greatest American we ever produced.

The most important man in contemporary Black history next to Carter G. Woodson or Dr. Martin Luther King I would argue is John H. Johnson.

John H. Johnson is the Arkansas born man from humble beginnings. His father died in a sawmill accident in 1926. His mother Gertrude saved her money in order to move herself and John to Chicago. Upon their arrival in Chcago in 1933 he was enrolled at all-Black DuSable High and was exposed for the first time to middle class African-Americans. Some of his DuBale classmates were Redd Foxx, Nat King Cole and entrepreneur William Abernathy. He studied hard during the day and devoured self-improvement books at night.

In 1942 he took a $500 loan against his mother's furniture and started Johnson Publishing Company. He launched Negro Digest which was the forerunner to Ebony. By June 1942 the circulation of his magazine was up to 50,000 copies and doubled to 100,000 copies in October 1943 when First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt penned one of his regular guest columns called "If I Were A Negro."

JPC (now run by his daughter Linda Johnson Rice) grew to become the largest black-owned publishing company in the world. The iconic Ebony magazine he founded in 1945 is the nation's number one African-American oriented magazine with a circulation of 1.7 million and a monthly readership of 11 million. Jet Magazine, the newsweekly magazine he founded in 1951 also became a staple in African-American homes. JPC not only publishes books, it produces the Ebony Fashion Fair traveling fashion show and owns Fashion Fair Cosmetics as well.

Ebony became the African-American version of Life magazine. Without the existence of Ebony, the words of an Atlanta born preacher by the name of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wouldn't have been exposed to millions of people. The early civil rights marches and events would have gone uncovered.

In the 80's a Chicago DJ by the name of Tom Joyner was hired to host the Ebony-Jet Showcase TV show. That exposure led to Tom Joyner's radio show becoming a syndicated property that's heard by 11 million people daily courtesy of Cathy Hughes' Radio One.

His wife Eunice Johnson started executive producing the Ebony Fashion Fair shows in 1963. The show is celebrating their 50th anniversary in 2008. The shows proved that not only do African-American women have a unique sense of style and flair, we look good strutting down runways wearing those couture outfits as well. Those traveling shows not only have raised $57 million for local charities, they jump started the acting careers of former Ebony Fashion Fair models Richard Roundtree, Judy Pace and Diahann Carroll.

Before Pat Cleveland became an internationally known supermodel, she strutted her stuff at Ebony Fashion Fair fashion shows during the 60's. Fashion Fair model alumni Janet Langhart Cohen, Sue Simmons and B. Smith used their time there as springboards to greater success in other fields. The Ebony Fashion Fair shows also give Black fashion designers such as Tracy Reese and others a chance to showcase their talents as well.

The best selling Fashion Fair cosmetics line is the largest cosmetics company that caters to women of color. Over time it eventually forced white-oriented makeup lines to broaden their products and make shades compatible with our skin tones.

So as you can see, the influence of John H. Johnson and his company have had far reaching ripple effects on not only our culture, but profound effects on our country over the last 60 plus years as well.

Nichelle Nichols

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

photos-Nichelle Nichols in 2004, as Lt Uhura, the EBONY magazine cover, Dr. Mae Jemison, Whoopi Goldberg as Guinan, the christening of the Space Shuttle Enterprise

Nichelle Nichols in addition to being a trailblazing actress has been an inspiration for people of my generation and subsequent ones to not only follow their dreams, but reach for the stars.

She was born in Robbins, IL as Grace Nichols on December 28, 1932, just outside Chicago. She toured the Unites States, Canada and Europe with the Lionel Hampton and Duke Ellington bands. She appeared in a Chicago production of Carmen Jones before she moved west and had her fateful meeting with Gene Roddenberry. Before casting her as Lt. Nyota Upenda Uhura on Star Trek, she'd worked as a guest actress on Roddenberry's first television series The Lieutenant.

As we Trekkies all know, it was Star Trek that made her a historical icon, launched her life into a new direction and sharpened her interest in space exploration.

But she almost quit the show. Frustrated during the first season over what she perceived as playing just a glorified telephone operator, she was ready to hang up the Starfleet uniform until she ran into Dr. Martin Luther King at a civil rights rally. Dr. King was a huge Star Trek fan and urged her not to quit. He pointed out to her that she was the first African-American actress who was on a network TV show playing a non-stereotypical role.

According to Nichols, he told her "Don't you know you have the first non-stereotypical role in television? For the first time the world will see us as we should be seen -- people of quality in the future. You created a role with dignity and beauty and grace and intelligence. You're not just a role model for our children, but for people who don't look like us to see us for the first time as equals."

She stayed and later made television history with the first interracial kiss on TV with costar William Shatner. She costarred in the six subsequent Star Trek movies and eventually her character was promoted to Commander.

Once Star Trek ended, she worked for NASA in the 70's and early 80's as part of a program to not only encourage African-American youth to consider math and science careers but recruit women and minority astronauts for NASA. She recruited Dr. Sally K. Ride, US Air Force Col. Guion Bluford (the first African-American in space), Dr. Judith Resnik and Dr. Ron McNair, who flew missions before both were killed in the 1986 Challenger disaster. The essay contest I won in 8th grade in which I earned a trip to NASA was part of that program.

And like other issues that Dr. King was prescient on, he was on target in terms of Nichols being a role model to African-American children and others. She was the inspiration for another Chicago girl who grew up to become the first African-American woman in space, Dr. Mae C. Jemison. She also inspired a New York City girl by the name of Caryn Elaine Johnson to shoot for an entertainment career after seeing her on Star Trek. Caryn Elaine Johnson would not only accomplish that goal, but would have a recurring role herself on Star Trek-The Next Generation as Guinan.

Nichols is considered part of the NASA family. She flew aboard NASA's C-141 Astronomy Observatory on its eight hour high altitude mission to analyze the atmospheres of Mars and Saturn. She was present along with her Star Trek castmates when the first space shuttle Enterprise was christened and was a guest of the Jet Propulsion Lab when Viking 1 soft landed on Mars on July 17, 1976. She has written two science-fiction novels about a tough black woman in space, Saturn's Child and its sequel, Saturna's Quest and is working on a third. She has since the mid 80's sat on the Board of Governors for the National Space Society.

So if you haven't had the pleasure of meeting her like I did back in the mid 70's, check out this multi-talented and passionate ambassador for space exploration.

Live long and prosper, Nichelle.

The Only 'F' I Ever Want

Back when I was in school the 'F' was something to avoid and be ashamed of. It was a source of negativity and a graphic representation of failure. I wanted to avoid seeing it on any report card I handed to my parents, any test that I took or any paper I wrote.

Since transition however, the 'F' has taken on a new connotation for me and other transwomen. It represents validation and official acceptance of our lives.

The gender marker code on our official documents is another war that we must fight just to validate our personhood. Back in 2000 I was determined to vote in that upcoming presidential election under my new name and have my voter registration reflect it. You don't know how happy I felt when I left the Harris County courthouse an hour later with a brand new voter registration card with my new name and an 'F' in the gender code box. I felt eight feet tall when I handed my new voter registration card to the precinct judge during early voting and affixed my signature to the line on the computer printout of registered voters that had Monica on it.

Gender codes reflecting our reality are vitally important to us. In a society in which we have to present identification every day for mundane things, it's a source of embarrassment, shame and anger when we are required to produce an ID that has a femme name on it but a big fat 'M' in the gender code box. A gender code that you know deep down is based on your genitalia's configuration at birth.

My old Texas driver's license had some gender memories attached to it. Back in 1978, when HISD was still offering driver's ed I took it in summer school, which was being hosted by Jones. For the road driving portion of it we were put in groups of four. I ended up in a car with three other women. One was my Thomas Jr. High homeroom classmate Rita Roy who now attended Lamar. The second sistah was a girl named Yvonne Sibley who attended Sterling and the third was a sista named Berlye Magee that went to Yates.

It was bad enough I was in a car with three gorgeous sistahs. I had a crush on Rita back in fifth grade and she'd become even more beautiful since we left Thomas. It was another aggravating reminder that I was on the wrong side of the gender fence.

The Real ID Act, passed in the wake of 9-11 is an aggravation for all transgender people. One of the other things I lobbied for back in May in addition to passage of hate crimes was the repeal of Title II of the Real ID Act. It makes it harder for us to change the gender marker on our identity documents. Those markers should reflect who we are in 2007, not what our genitalia was thirty to forty plus years ago.

The wrong gender marker also opens us up to discrimination. You don't have to be a MIT grad to figure out what's going on if a person standing in front of you in a female body hands you an ID with an 'M' in the gender marker portion of it.

If you think I'm exaggerating about this, check out this August 2 Dallas Voice story about transwoman Jodi Pleasant, who was denied entry into a Bossier City, LA casino because the gender marker didn't match her presentation.

We transpeeps are also having problems with the Social Security Administration. Your Social Security number is permanent and you aren't allowed to change it but you can change the name. What the SSA has been doing since 2002 is sending employer's letters if a SSN doesn't match with the name in the SSA database. That has the effect of outing transpeople to their employers. If those employers are transphobic, then that letter has the effect of potentially costing them their jobs.

Transpeople shouldn't have to jump through hoops to change gender codes on any identity documents. Neither should we be required to produce letters proving that we've had SRS. Not everyone will be able to have SRS for fiscal or medical reasons. For transmen their surgeries aren't even close to being satisfactory for them and they often forgo them. Simple proof that the person has been living in their new gender for an extended period of time should be enough to do that.

We need to strike a compromise that balances the needs of society to accurately ID a person and balance it with the desire of transpeople to have that ID accurately reflect their new reality.

Tyra Hunter Anniversary

Today is the twelfth anniversary of the death of transsistah Tyra Hunter.

The major differences in her death is that it didn't happen at the hands of a violent transphobe wielding a knife or gun. Her death was preventable. The disgusting part of it is that the transphobes in this case were a doctor and a Washington DC firefighter.

Tyra Hunter had been transitioned since she was 14 years old. On the morning of August 7, 1995 the popular 24 year old hairdresser was on her way to work as a passenger in a car. That vehicle ended up being involved in an accident at the corner of 50th and C streets in Southeast DC.

Tyra and the driver had been pulled from the smoking ruins of the vehicle by onlookers and were lying on the ground when fire department personnel arrived at the scene. The neighborhood began gathering to watch as a male firefighter began treating Tyra for her injuries. That is, until he cut open her pants leg and noted she had male genitalia.

At that point, according to eyewitnesses, the firefighter, later identified as Adrian Williams stood up and backed away from Tyra. She was semi-conscious, complaining about pain and gasping for breath as he was quoted as saying by one witness, "This bitch ain't no girl...It's a nigger, he got a dick."

Williams began joking with the other fire department personnel at the scene as the bystanders pleaded with them to resume working to save Tyra's life. One bystander is quoted as saying, "It don’t make any difference, he’s [sic] a person, he’s a human being."

The firefighters on the scene didn't share that assessment. They were more concerned with honing their comedic skills than doing their duty. Another witness at the scene heard one of the firefighters say, "look, it's got a cock and balls." While the firefighters stood around doing their not ready for prime time act, Tyra's treatment was discontinued for 5 to 7 critical minutes while bystanders pleaded for them to resume treatment. Finally an EMS supervisor arrived and resumed treating Tyra. She was rushed to DC General Hospital where she arrived at 4:10 PM.

But the nightmare was just beginning for Tyra. The DC General Hospital ER staff compounded the insulting neglect of the fire fighters. A doctor refused to treat her and she died of blunt force trauma at 5:20 PM in the now closed hospital's emergency room.

The case alarmed and enraged not only African-American transpeople nationally, but the entire transgender and local African-American community. Over 2,000 people attended her August 12 funeral.

Tyra's mother Margie Hunter, who ironically works as a nurse, filed a $10 million civil lawsuit in February 1996 in DC Superior Court against the District of Columbia, the firefighter and a DC General Hospital physician. The allegations contained in the suit alleged that the D.C. Fire Department personnel called to the scene of a car accident involving Tyra made derogatory comments about Tyra's personal appearance and withdrew emergency medical treatment. Mrs. Hunter also charged that Tyra died as a result of medical negligence while, or after being treated at D.C. General Hospital.

On December 11, 1998 a jury awarded Margie Hunter $2.9 million in damages. The jury determined that DC Fire Department employees violated the 1977 DC Human Rights Law, and that Tyra Hunter's death was caused by medical malpractice at DC General. Experts testified during the trial that had Tyra received proper medical care at either stage of treatment, she had an 86% chance of surviving the accident.

The city further angered DC transgender residents by immediately appealing the decision. The case was later settled for $1.75 million. DC transpeople were further enraged when they discovered that not only were none of the firefighters at the scene disciplined, but Adrian Williams had subsequently received a promotion.

In Washington DC the Tyra Hunter Drop-In Center is named for her and the sensitivity training that DC fire department personnel attend is named in her honor as well.

We must never forget what happened to Tyra on this day. We must also diligently work to ensure that what she suffered at the hands of emergency personnel is not replicated in our locales. The message must be made crystal clear to our first responders that when they swear to serve and protect, that means ALL citizens.

Sick of Hearing the Term "Race Card'

Did you get your race card?
Hell no, I didn't get my race card
Did you get your race card?
Hell no, I didn’t get my race card!
Everything ain't black and white.
Did you get your race card?
Homeboy, when you get your race card
Did you get your race card?
White boy, what is a race card?

Indeed, what the hell is a 'race card'? It's a right-wing creation for starters that I absolutely despise.

I'm sick of people, usually of European extraction throwing out that conservaline 'you're just playing the race card' any time a serious discussion is taking place that gets to the root cause of negative race relations in the United States.

The color line.

It wouldn't be necessary to 'play the race card' as you peeps so derisively put it if you Euro-descended Americans ancestors hadn't set up a system that demonizes non- whites, maximizes benefits to your ethnic group, stacks the deck to maintain that advantage, marks the biggest face cards in the American cultural card deck for themselves and passes them on to their children.

As far as racial face cards go the 'white card' trumps all. I'm tired of having my ancestors 200 plus years of pain and suffering during slavery and our very real experiences with 100 years of Jim Crow racism dismissed, trivialized and disrespectfully compared to a card game.

There are two Americas, a white one and a Black one which are separate, unequal and more hostile to each other thanks to GOP misrule. One of the reasons it's hard for us to talk to each other on many subjects is because we don't see things the same way.

And if we can't at least come to a decision on mutually agreed ground rules for the conversation, the end result is that it devolves into a disorganized mess once the words 'race card' are injected into the discussion.

Using the words 'race card' is for the intellectually lazy. If you can't make your arguments without using reason and logic to buttress your viewpoint, then don't get into a discussion that's turbocharged with race to begin with.

Sooner or later this country is going to have to come to terms with what your ancestors did to mine. Until we get that apology for slavery by whoever's occupying the White House, we African-Americans are going to continue to have bitter feelings toward whites in this country. It makes slavery for us impossible to 'get over'. Until whites come clean on what happened, you're going to be defensive about the subject of race.

In the end, to solve the vexing problem of race relations in the US, we're going to have to deal with it like we've dealt with other problems in this country. We've got to tackle it head on. Both sides need to honestly verbalize their feelings instead of tap dancing around the subject. Only then will we come up with solutions that everybody can be happy with.

And if y'all stop using that BS 'race card' line, it would make me and other African-Americans extremely happy.