Dirty Sexy Money Has A Twist

When Dirty Sexy Money debuts tonight at 10/9 Central time on ABC, in addition to Blair Underwood having a recurring role in this series as Simon Elder, it will have a recurring transgender character like Ugly Betty.

The difference will be that unlike Rebecca Romijn's Alexis Meade, the transgender character will be played by a transwoman.

Miss Continental 2001-2002 Candis Cayne will play Carmelita, the transgender girlfriend of US Senator Patrick Darling IV played by Billy Baldwin.

This is not the first role for the Maui-born Manhattan based actress who transitioned in 1996. She was on an episode of CSI: New York and is currently filming a reality series for the LOGO Channel.

She gave some tidbits about her role in an interview with NY's Homo Xtra. here's a portion of that interview. (Thanks to Justin Van De Kamp's Televisionista blog for posting it.)




How did you get involved in the upcoming ABC drama series, Dirty Sexy Money?

Patricia Field was the costume designer for the pilot and actually recommended me for the role! I play Billy Baldwin's character's mistress, and every time you see her she's either in her bedroom or in a hotel room- wearing Louboutin. I thought I was maybe going to be in it for a couple episodes, but the writers must be getting a good response, because they've put me in four more episodes so far and keep writing new scenes for my character. It's a dream for me.

Were you intimidated by Billy?

Totally. But when I met him at the table read, he was like, "Candis! Give me a hug!" He was so relaxed and not awkward. He later asked a lot about my relationship with Marco, because his character is sort of in the same situation. A lot of people have weird notions that I'm gay or that people who date me are gay, but he got it and was really into it. Well, not into it, but...




Is it true that your voice was digitally lowered for the pilot episode in post-production?

Yes, but if they want to lower my voice for shock value, fine. They asked me to lower my voice, but I couldn't bring myself to do something that was completely unnatural for me. It's really important for me as a trans actress to be in situations that I'm comfortable with, because there's a lot of weird stuff thrown at trans actresses that we'd never do. So you have to pick your battles, because there are trannies with lower voices, but no tranny would ever stand to pee, for example. As soon as that happened in Transamerica, the movie lost me. With my role in CSI: NY earlier this year, they had a lot of stuff like that written in-like going into a men's room-and I said, "I won't do that because I would never do it in real life." That part was originally written for a drag queen, but I auditioned and I snatched. I snatched!

Isn't Dirty Sexy Money the first time that a trans actress has played a recurring trans character on television?

I think so! The first recurring trans character was on Ugly Betty, but Rebecca Romijn's a woman—which is better than a man playing it! I'm just happy the media is really starting to embrace us, and I'm happy to be working again. After I started transitioning, I stopped working for nearly 10 years. I couldn't go out for the drag roles because I was too womanly, and I couldn't go out for the woman roles because there's a gay guy in every single goddamn casting who'd be like, "She's a man!" It's always the gays spooking you. But now I think it's the year of the tranny. It's finally my year!

It's great that we FINALLY have a transgender actress playing a transwoman in a prime time role. Hopefully it will result in more realistic portrayals of transgender people and more roles for transgender actors of all ethnic backgrounds.

Now if my own people would get beyond treating Black transwomen as a running gag (see the Season 3 Wayans Brothers Return of the Temptones episode featuring Jazzmun for an example of what I'm talking about) I'll be a very happy camper.

Break a leg, Candis.

2007 Women's FIBA Americas Championship

Since 1996, the US women ballers have been an unstoppable juggernaut on the international scene. During that period Team USA garnered three Olympic gold medals (1996, 2000, 2004) and two FIBA world championships (1998 and 2002). Their sustained excellence has been welcomed by US basketball fans in light of the men's program high profile failures on the international level.

But after getting upset in the FIBA women's championship semifinals 75-68 by the Russians last year in Brazil and having their 50 game international win streak snapped, Team USA is in an unfamiliar position going into this FIBA Americas Championship For Women that starts today in Valdivia, Chile and runs through September 30.

Win or run the risk of not making it to the Beijing Olympic Games next year.

Due to being either the World or Olympic Champion and getting the automatic berth as the host Olympic country in 1984 and 1996, Team USA didn't have to qualify for the 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2004 Games. In the two previous Qualifying Tournaments Team USA participated in (1976,1980) they compiled a 10-1 record and captured gold both times.

Only the winner of this tournament gets the automatic bid to Beijing for the FIBA Americas Zone. Second through fourth place get one last shot to qualify for Beijing in a FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament that will be held June 9-15 at an undetermined site.

Those FIBA Americas teams will have to fight it out with nine other national teams from around the globe who did not claim gold in the other FIBA zones. Those teams will have to battle two from Africa (silver and bronze medalists), two from Asia (silver and bronze medalists), four from Europe (second through fourth place finishers) and one from Oceania (silver medalist), to claim the final five Olympic slots.

Team USA would rather handle their business now and not wait until June 2008 to qualify. The team that will attempt to bring home the FIBA Americas championship consists of Seimone Augustus (Minnesota Lynx), Sue Bird (Seattle Storm), Rebekkah Brunson (Sacramento Monarchs), Swin Cash (Detroit Shock), Kara Lawson (Sacramento Monarchs), DeLisha Milton-Jones (Washington Mystics), Courtney Paris (University of Oklahoma), Candace Parker (University of Tennessee), Cappie Pondexter (Phoenix Mercury), Katie Smith (Detroit Shock), Diana Taurasi (Phoenix Mercury) and Tina Thompson (Houston Comets). Additionally, Candice Wiggins was addded as an alternate and will travel to Chile to train with the squad prior to the FIBA Americas Championship.

Team USA will be coached by the Seattle Storm's Anne Donovan. Her assistants are Mike Thibault (Connecticut Sun) and collegiate head coaches Gail Goestenkors of the University of Texas and Temple University's Dawn Staley.

Despite the loss in last year's semis, Team USA is still ranked number 1 in the FIBA world rankings and is in Group B with Cuba, Canada and Jamaica. Group A has the always tough Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and the hosts from Chile.

Team USA's opening game in Group B play will be against the Cubans.

Rachel's Right

Miss USA Rachel Smith has incensed some people by inadvertanly dissing current CBS anchor Katie Couric.

During a recent Women in Entertainment Empowerment Network event last week in New York, when Smith was asked about her future career aspirations she expressed her desire to get into journalism. FYI for your Rachel bashers, she interned last summer in Chicago at Harpo Productions and graduated magne cum laude from Belmont College with a degree in journalism.

She's quoted by the New York Daily News as saying, "I always wanted to be a reporter — maybe some TV. Who knows? Some serious news — but some modeling, too. I just don't want to end up like Katie Couric. I want people to take me seriously."

In response, Couric's rep later told the Daily News: "If she continues to offer such profound insight, she will not have to worry about anyone taking her seriously."

For the folks who are attacking Rachel, if they took a monent to actually think about what the sistah's saying, she's right. Katie Couric is one of the reasons I gave up watching CBS News. I watched her the first week after she took over as news anchor and was sadly disappointed about the direction that the newscast took with her in the anchor chair.

CBS, the network home of Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite, and once was the gold standard in terms of broadcast journalism surrendered to the right wing. The network that once had the cojones to call out Joseph McCarthy during the height of the red-baiting McCarthy era, have its news anchor call Vietnam 'unwinnable' caved and fired Dan Rather when the right-wingers screamed about a 60 Minutes report that dared to ask the question that many of us had on our minds long before the 2004 election.

Where was George W. Bush during the last 18 months of his National Guard service?

I noticed that once again, most of Rachel's critics are white and are comparing her to the recent Miss Teen South Carolina who botched her question. Rachel ain't her.

In our community, Black girls are taught from birth that beauty fades. It's drilled into Black girls to rely more on their brains than a beautiful exterior and a pretty face to carry you through life.

For those who choose to model or enter beauty pageants, they are used as springboards for other careers. There's a former Miss America you may have heard of named Vanessa Williams who's conquered Hollywood, the music business and television. 1977 Miss Universe Janelle Commissiong runs a successful business in Trinidad. Before B. Smith took the culinary world by storm she was an Ebony Fashion Fair model. I doubt that anyone considers Tyra Banks a joke these days either.

Beauty queens aren't taken seriously? Just ask a former Miss Black Tennessee who's now running a media empire worth billions. What's her name again?

Things I DIDN'T Expect About Transistion

When you start a gender transition, there are some things you have a basic knowledge about or some assumptions that you go into it with.

You expect to lose a few friends and relatives along the way. You know that your body is finally going to morph in the feminine direction with the accompanying gender characteristics. You're aware that you're going to lose some of your male strength level and your breast size will be the roughly the same cup size as the biowomen in your immediate family. Your emotions will get scrambled in the early stages as your mind and body get adapted to the hormones. You anticipate that there will be some awkward moments, some humorous ones, hurt feelings, joy and pain as you get adjusted to living on the other side of the gender fence.

But there are some things about a gender transition that catch you off guard because you didn't expect it.

For me, there were a few.

One of the things I didn't expect was an increase in the frequency of my bathroom visits. The spironolactone that I take as a testosterone blocker is also a diuretic. Translation: It makes me go to the bathroom more often.

I was stunned at how fast my breast development occurred once I started on hormones. I had breast buds and nipple expansion growth within days of taking my first hormones.

I discovered the reason for it when I did followup blood work a month into my transition and it was compared to my baseline numbers. I had a low testosterone count. The testosterone level is measured on a 0-900 scale by your endocrinologist. Biomale testosterone level is usually on the upper end of that scale in the 700-900 range. Biowomen also have small amounts of testosterone in the 50-100 range that basically govern a woman's sex drive.

Mine was at 400 when I started in 1994 and its around 120 now. Slightly higher than what a biowoman would have in her body yet significantly less than what a biomale has in his system. I didn't expect to hear from my endo that my risk for prostate cancer would dwindle to almost zero.

However, my risk for breast cancer has doubled.

Another medical surprise was revealed to me during a subsequent check up as well. My blood pressure and stress level dropped dramatically despite being in a high stress airline job. That one's easy to explain. I wasn't living a double life anymore. I was finally becoming on the outside the person I was on the inside and was damned happy about it.

I discovered by accident that my reflexes and hearing improved. One day I knocked a half full cup of Kool-Aid off the edge of my dining table in my apartment and without thinking quickly snatched it in mid-air. Saved me from cleaning the spill out of my carpet. My guess is this might be a biological thang because mothers have heightened sensory awareness in order to protect their children from approaching danger.


I didn't expect to gain the ability to have multiple orgasms or realize just how good they feel. ;) That was a wonderful surprise. Another interesting discovery was that some biowomen desire to have intimate relationships with pre-op transwomen. I found it ironic that I got hit on my more women after I started transition that I did before as The Twin. I wasn't in gay clubs either when these propositions happened.

Oh well, you never know what people like when you get them behind closed doors.

One of the other surprises was also in a social setting. It's one I chafe at and it took me awhile to get over. Being interrupted when in a converation with a man, having to explain myself and having my intelligence questioned or dismissed. It was a frequent occurrence in business situations as well.

I sarcastically lamented one day to my sistafriends that I lost ten points on my IQ when I transtioned as far as men are concerned. My sistafriends replied that I got it wrong. I didn't lose points, I GAINED twenty points when I transitioned.

I also discovered that some African-Americans have a long way to go in terms of being 'ejumacated' on transgender issues. Despite long time exposure to trans issues thanks to articles in Ebony and Jet, drag shows, balls and pageants and famous crossdressers in our midst such as Flip Wilson (Geraldine Jones), RuPaul, and Tyler Perry's Madea, I quickly found that some of our peeps are WORSE than white fundamentalists. I felt that my brothas and sistahs, given our own civil rights struggles would be more tolerant of transgender people.

Despite those surprises, I adapted and now happily thrive in my life as a Phenomenal Transwoman.

Why Did I Get Married?

I'm a movie junkie, and this is one I'm definitely looking forward to seeing when it hits my local multiplex on its projected release date of October 12.

Tyler Perry returns in front of a camera for the first time since Madea's Family Reunion, but you won't see Tyler's pistol packing alter ego in this story adapted for the big screen from the hit play of the same name.

Why Did I Get Married? stars an ensemble cast that in addition to Perry, includes Janet Jackson, Malik Yoba, Jill Scott, Sharon Leal, Tasha Smith, Michael Jai White, Denise Boutte and Lamann Rucker.

Hmm. That's worth the price of admission and a large buttered popcorn alone. ;)

Why Did I Get Married? is the story about how difficult it is to maintain a solid loving relationship in modern times. It revolves around a group of eight married college friends who have gathered for their annual reunion in the snow-capped mountains of Colorado.


They discover that infidelity has creeped into one couple's marriage. It triggers a series of events over the reunion weekend in which secrets are revealed and they question how valid and solid their own marriages are. Both the husbands and wives also take hard looks at their own lives during this weekend as well.



This looks like another Tyler Perry hit. The trailers are already on The Net and I'll definitely be sitting in the front row next month happily munching my popcorn.

Why Don't You Do More Transgender Posts?

Every now and then while I'm out and about in Da Ville I run into peeps who when they find out I'm the TransGriot, rave about my column or the blog.

One of the questions I got asked recently was why I don't have more content on transgender issues.

While transsexuality is a subject that I could literally find tons of angles to discuss, being a transperson is only one aspect of all the things that make up me. There are transgender bloggers, but not many of them focus on the issues of being TWB (transgender while Black).

As you TransGriot readers have discovered, I had (and still have) a relatively interesting life prior to transition that I've barely scratched the surface of. I have interests beyond just talking about being trans. I have sistafriends I hang out with, talk to on a regular basis and help sort out their drama. I'm keeping abreast of the news. I'm reading various books and listening to my massive CD collection. I'm also working 40 plus hours a week while squeezing time in to work on my novels.

I deeply appreciate the fact that many of you enjoy your time on TransGriot and keep coming back. As any writer will tell you, we love it when the work and sometimes late hours we put into compiling interesting and quality blog content is acknowledged by the comments you leave on the various posts. (hint, hint)

But as one of the few African-American peeps who talk about transgender issues, some of the stuff I relay to you is personal. My own family is struggling with a lot of the issues as well, so I have to balance what I can personally talk about versus a desire to not have too many details of their lives exposed to millions of people. I chose to do that in the name of educating peeps on transgender issues, they didn't.

Then there's simply writer's block. There are days or nights I sit in front of this computer and have a wonderful idea for a post, then I start typing, don't like the first, second or third draft and set it aside for a few hours. Sometimes I just hold the idea for a later time. Sometimes I end up just sitting there staring at the computer screen until I give up, shut it down and do something else for a while.

Rest assured, there will always be transgender content in this blog. It isn't called TransGriot for nothing. But the 'griot' in the blog name also means that I'm living up to the West African griot tradition of kicking knowledge to you on a wide variety of subjects as well.

Black Radio Days

A post on the Mes Deaux Cents blog was the inspiration for this one. She talked about her love of radio and working in the business. It's generated a lot of comments from people like myself who fondly remember the pioneering deejays in their hometowns and got me thinking once again about that part of my childhood.

Radio, especially Black radio has a special place not only for me but in the hearts of our people. As someone who grew up around radio stations, cut a promo commercial for my dad's AM drive time show when I was in the first grade and another one years later, I saw that love firsthand.

Black radio entertained us, informed us, raised money, helped us get organized and gave us a voice. It's rightfully credited by no less than Dr. King and others with being the engine that powered the 50's and 60's Civil Rights Movement.

Because the deejay has an exalted place in our community. they were considered leaders and opinion makers. The movie Talk To Me, in which Don Cheadle depicted the life of legendary jock Ralph Waldo 'Petey' Greene who was on Washington DC's WOL-AM during the 60's and 70's, illustrates the ability of Black deejays to shape community public opinions. It was a power that J. Edgar Hoover and others were so afraid of they actually monitored many Black deejays from the late 60's through the mid 70's.

It's no accident that when the Telecommunications Act of 1996 was passed, the first victims of the rush to buy stations in many markets were Black ones. They were part of small radio station networks or had individual owners. When the Clear Channels with their megabucks started calling, they cashed out. If it weren't for Cathy Hughes and Radio One Inc, Black radio as we know it wouldn't exist.

The history of Black Radio is thankfully preserved on the Indiana University campus in its Archives of African-American Music & Culture. There is a section of it that covers Black radio that has not only my dad's memorabilia, but a collection of the late Jack Gibson's Mello Yello magazines and other legendary deejays as well. I'm planning on taking a trip up the road to the IU-Bloomington campus soon and checking out all that radio history.

But it was interesting having a ringside seat for all of that. I got to meet various peeps ranging from politicians to music business people. I got to see some really cool concerts, collect a vast array of promo tee-shirts and have a cutting edge record collection. One of the first concerts I was allowed to attend by myself was a Parliament-Funkadelic one in which Bootsy was part of the tour. I also kept up with the news and happenings in the business by reading my dad's Mello Yello's when he was done with them.

There was one summer I got to tag along for a Jackson 5 concert and actually meet the Jacksons. I have an autographed picture from that encounter of me and Michael Jackson that won me much cash in junior high and high school. ;)

During my sophomore year there was a KYOK Night at the Ice Capades at the Summit in which my brother and I were added to an ice skating race with KYOK's deejays. I spent a lot of weekends on the Galleria's ice rink and in the process learned how to ice skate quite well. I won, but my main concern during the whole thing was not only beating my brother, but not falling in front of 17,000 people because I would have definitely heard about it at school the next morning.

Thanks to Cathy Hughes and others, the traditions and proud history of Black radio have been preserved for the 21st Century. It's cool to know that the kids now growing up will get the same joys out of flipping on their radio and listening to broadcast content that reflects their culture as we did.

It's also comforting to know that Black radio will still be around to help us mobilize our people to fight for justice, as was proven by Thursday's events in Jena, LA as well.

Jena 6 Protest

I am so proud of our people this morning. I caught parts of the Jena 6 protest yesterday on CNN and took time to fire off comments to the CNN website.

As I saw our people gather in Jena, assemble in front of the LaSalle Parish Courthouse, visit Jena High School and watched 'the Revs' and others speak I found myself wishing I could have been part of this history making event. We had a bus full of people that left from Louisville to go there, but I had to work last night.

It was beautiful to see 50,000 people peacefully assembling to march for justice. The best part of it was seeing all the young people that were involved. It brought tears to my eyes.

This is an opportunity for parents to have a teachable moment for their kids about our history in this country and the civil rights movement.



We must constantly remind our kids (and some whites as well) that 400 years of racism did not magically disappear in the 60's and 70's. The Forces of Intolerance are always at work and there are Jena's everywhere along with the attitudes that created them.

My hope and prayer is that our young people's involvement in social justice issues doesn't stop with this case. I hope that our youth and the participants realized that our fight for justice as African-Americans is an ongoing battle and that they must do their part to continue 'Fighting the Power' to the best of their abilities until Dr. King's dream is an unalterable reality.

Transparent

I just finished reading Transparent by Cris Beam. It's an interesting nonfiction book about several Los Angeles Latina and African-American transkids covering a period from 1998 to 2005.

One of the people featured in the book, Foxxjazell was familiar to me. I just wrote a blog post last month on her increasing popularity in California's rap scene as a transgender rapper. It was interesting to read her background story.

Some of it was sad, some triumphant. Some of their stories hit home and triggered some emotional memories concerning some things I was dealing with in my own childhood.

Cris Beam also weaves transgender history, science, and knowledge throughout the book. If you want to get some insight on some of the issues we deal with and how they affect these transkids, you may want to pick this book up and add it to your collection.

I'm Not Surprised

During the time I was working for Continental Airlines, Houston hosted the 1992 GOP convention. Many of those delegates went through IAH to get to the convention and return to their homes scattered across the country. I met some of the GOP leadership like now Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN), other George HW Bush cabinet peeps, and convention delegates from various states as I worked flights during this period.

The day after it ended, I had a Seattle flight I was working. I was killing time until a short air traffic control delay was lifted before I could board the plane. In the lobby there was a group of teenaged kids who had just attended the convention. They had their GOP t-shirts on and were energized about working for George HW Bush's reeelection. Three girls approached the podium and engaged me in a discussion about joining their party and voting for Bush senior.

After politely listening to them for a few moments I replied, "No thanks, I'm voting for Clinton."

"But why?" one of the eager young white females replied.

"Your party has engaged in practices and behaviors over the years that have led me to conclude that people who look like me aren't wanted. Until your party gets serious about competing for my people's votes and doing the things necessary to get those votes beyond symbolic measures, I'll continue to be a Democrat."

I'm recounting this conversation because of the news that GOP frontrunners John McCain, Rudy Guiliani, and Mitt Romney all declined invitations to the All American Presidential Forum to be held on September 27 at Morgan State University for the GOP candidates. A similar forum was held on June 28th for the Democrats and all eight contenders showed up at Howard University for it.

I'm not surprised that Guiliani isn't gonna show up. He's 'scurred' about the questions that will pop up about his contentious relationship in NYC with the African-American community and the Abner Louima and Amadou Diallo NYPD incidents that happened under his tenure.

McCain has 'F' grades on his NAACP Civil Rights report cards and Romney is probably afraid he'll get hit with questions about the Mormon Church's negative beliefs about African-Americans. Only one of the GOP candidates, Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) even bothered to show up for the presidential forum during the recent NAACP convention in Detroit.

The journalists who will be asking the questions for the five confirmed Republican presidential candidates showing up in Baltimore as I write this are Ray Suarez of The NewsHour, columnist Cynthia Tucker of The Atlanta Journal Constitution and NPR's Juan Williams. Tavis will once again be moderator for the event which will air on PBS starting at 9 PM EDT.

I read Tavis' comments on the snub and he's not a happy camper.

"The word frontrunner has taken a whole new meaning for me," said Smiley in an interview with Lee Bailey. "I didn't know it meant being out front and running from people of color."

"The frontrunners, specifically Mr. Romney, Mr. McCain and Mr. Guiliani, have said to us they will not be on stage at Morgan State University on September 27th. All the Democrats showed up in June, but the front running Republicans have said they will not be there. They have also told Univision that they will not be there for the Hispanic debate. So, collectively, what the Republican frontrunners have told both black and brown Americans is that we don't appreciate you, don't value your issues and you're not a priority to us."

"You can't go through an entire primary process and refuse to talk to black and brown voters," he continued. "It's unconscionable, it's untenable, it's unthinkable and no one should be elected president in 2008, in the most multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-racial America ever and, in the process, ignore and ditch those voters. If you're not going to talk to all of America then you don't deserve to be president of all of America."

That's been the GOP game plan since Nixon concocted the 'Southern Strategy'. Like Tavis, I'm sick of Black conservatives spouting that bullshit 'you need to get off the Democrat plantation line'. You Black conservative clowns continue to apologize and make excuses for your GOP massas. These GOP peeps say they want to compete for our votes, but don't have the cojones to show up at our conventions, our events or give interviews to our media peeps to address our issues.

You black conservatives have shown the African-American community repeatedly over the years where your loyalties lie.

In 2004 the negro Ken Blackwell led the charge to suppress our people's votes in Ohio (he doesn't deserve to be called Black). Ward Connerly is the point negro in trying to get affirmative action programs killed. Don't even get me started on Uncle Thomas, the 'honorary white man' as conservative commentators call him on the Supreme Court.

And all you Black conservative bloggers and GOP butt-kissing preachers have been deafingly silent about how your vaunted GOP showed the world how much they cared about New Orleans and its African-American residents, but can flap your gums ad nauseum when it comes to same-sex marriage and hatin' on GLBT people.

And you want to know why reality based African-Americans vote at a 90% clip for Democratic candidates?

Thanks to the naked racism that's spewing out of your base over the immigration issue, you're driving Latinos away from your party as well at a record clip. 'Bout time they woke up to the true nature of the Republican Party.

Can't wait for September 27 to get here. I'm gonna make sure I have plenty of popcorn on hand to munch on for what promises to be an entertaining evening.

NAACP And The Jena 6 Case

TransGriot Note: For those of you who question whether the NAACP is relevant, this is an e-mail blast I received yesterday about the Jena 6 case.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


It's an American outrage that demonstrates the continuing shame of racism in our country.


Six black teenagers in a small Louisiana town are facing some of the most overly aggressive prosecution we've seen - all over a schoolyard fight with white students. The group has come to be known in the media as the Jena 6, in reference to the small town where a series of racial incidents escalated after three nooses were hung from a tree at a local high school.


Click here to add your name to the Justice for Jena petition now!


The events led to the arrest of the young men - all being charged with serious criminal offenses that could lead to decades in jail. But, the white students involved were not initially prosecuted; they received a three-day in school suspension for hanging the nooses.


In a trial that lasted only two days, an all-white jury convicted Mychal Bell, the first of the group to be tried. The public defender presented no rebuttal or witnesses, and the jury deliberated for less than two hours.


On Friday, the Louisiana Court of Appeals took an important step towards justice for the Jena 6. They tossed out Bell's conviction for aggravated battery, stating that he should not have been tried and convicted as an adult. But, Mychal Bell remains in jail awaiting a new trial. The legal fight is far from over for him and his co-defendants.


Donate to the NAACP Justice for Jena Fund.


How the NAACP is Advocating For Justice

The NAACP is mobilized to secure justice and equity for these young men.

* The NAACP, in conjunction with the American Civil Liberties Union, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Southern University Law Center, has provided some additional legal support and resources to the defendants' attorneys and remains committed to the defense of the remaining young men.

* We presented a petition of over 62,000 signatures (gathered on the NAACP website; signatures now exceed 92,000) to the Governor of Louisiana on Sept. 17 as a symbol of the thousands of citizens concerned with the unequal treatment of the defendants and the pubic acknowledgement that the hanging of the three nooses is a serious hate crime offense.

* We have demanded that the Attorney General's office investigate the prosecution and monitor the trials.

* We organized activities, including a rally and town hall, in Jena on Sept. 20 in the spirit of justice and equality. The town hall will focus on racial disparities in the education and criminal justice systems.

* We are actively monitoring the situation and remain committed to the defense of the six young men to ensure proper treatment by the court system and protection of their rights under the law.

If you can't come to Jena, you can participate in our efforts via the NAACP website by signing the Justice for Jena petition, donating to the cause, or by viewing our live webcast of the rally and town hall meeting on Sept. 20. Forward this email to your family and friends and ask them to sign the petition.
We cannot afford to be silent when so much is at stake.


Sincerely,

Dennis Courtland Hayes
Interim President & CEO
NAACP

First Brotha In Space

Today is the 26th anniversary of the launch of the first brotha in space. And no, it wasn't Guy Bluford. His launch into space on the NASA STS-8 mission didn't occur until August 30, 1983.

That honor goes to Cuban cosmonaut Colonel Arnaldo Tamayo-Mendez. On September 18, 1980 he was launched into space as part of the Soyuz 38 mission from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The Cuban Air Force pilot was selected on March 1, 1978 as part of the Intercosmos program the Russian (then Soviet) space program was conducting to allow fellow Eastern Bloc nations to take part in space exploration.

After docking with the Salyut 6 space station, Tamayo and his Russian counterpart Yuri Romanenko remained on board to conduct experiments into what causes a form of motion sickness in some space travelers called SAS or space adaptation sickness.

After 120 orbits of the earth covering a total of 7 days, 20 hours and 43 minutes, Tamayo and Romamenko executed a risky night landing. They returned safely to earth 180 kilometers from the city of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on September 26, 1980.

The Guantanamo born (January 29, 1942) Tamayo-Mendez was not only the first person of African descent into space, he was also the first Hispanic and the first person from a Western Hemisphere nation other than the United States to fly a space mission.

After his cosmonaut career he was promoted to brigadier general in the Cuban Air Force and settled into married life with his wife and two sons.

In The Spirit

Over the weekend I was checking out the seminar topics that were presented during the just concluded Southern Comfort Conference when this one caught my eye.

Fractal Femininity (Masculinity); Changing Gender a Better Way; from the Inside Out that was taught by Dr. John O'Dea. I chuckled to myself as I read that.

One of the things that African-American transpeeps have known for years is that transition is an inside-out process. Anybody can acquire the body if you have enough cash to do so. But since we only earn .70 for every dollar a white person earns, we by necessity had to focus on the internal process first.

I'm a voracious reader, and one of the first things I did after I started transition was subscribe to Essence magazine. It has a wonderful column called In The Spirit by Susan L. Taylor that focuses on many of the spiritual, emotional and other issues that African-American women deal with in their daily lives. She also published a book by the same name that deals with the spiritual side of womanhood.

By listening to the advice that was given to me by my sistafriends, doing tons of reading, having Dr. Cole tell me the same thing and simple observation, I learned that femininity is internal and between your ears, not the genitalia configuration between your legs.

It's a lesson that was reinforced by observing the way some white transpeople approach transition. I noted there was way too much emphasis on SRS and and not enough time focused on dealing with the emotional aspects of femininity. One of the reasons that WPATH calls for the one year Real Life Test is to give you time to get the mind and your new body configuration in sync and get comfortable with it. It's also getting you prepared for dealing with the reality of living as a woman in a male-dominated society.

Too many times I saw peeps blitz through the process, then get upset or wonder why they were still not accepted as women even though they had gotten surgery. It's because while they may have the bodies, the thoughts and actions are still consistent with the masculine behavior patterns they grew up with and didn't address before hopping that flight to Thailand or wherever they had the snip-and-tuck done.

One of the keys is a basic one. Loving yourself. You have to not only feel comfortable in your own skin, but look in the mirror and love the reflection staring back at you. Sometimes that's a tough job with all the negativity that can get hurled at us on a regular basis, but if you have enough self love, you can deal with almost anything the world throws at you.

You also have to believe in a higher power. Be it God, Allah, Jah, Yahweh or whatever you call the higher power, you must acknowledge that there are forces at work that are greater than yourself. You must come to the realization that you are a child of God that is created in His image and that as a transperson, you are part of the divine plan as well despite what fundie 'christians' have to say.

Finally, dealing with the spiritual side of womanhood is an ongoing process. The paths we take toward that spiritual growth and enlightenment are varied. But in the end the goal is still the same. You want to continue evolving to be a better person than when you started your journey.

How 'Bout Those Texans?

Yeah, yeah I know we've only just completed the first two weekends of the 2007 NFL season, but my Texans are 2-0 for the first time in franchise history after beating KC 20-3 and Carolina 34-21 yesterday.

I'll get a better idea of just how good my Texans really are when they play Indianapolis in Reliant next week.

I was already enjoying this season before it started when they beat the Cowchips in the annual Governor's Cup preseason game. Will this be the year my team finally makes it to the NFL playoffs? Have they finally put the pieces together and built an NFL team that will not only consistently win, but be in the mix in postseason play?

We longsuffering Houston fans can only hope that our patience has finally been rewarded. We hope that this is the beginning of sustained success and we'll get to not only see our team in postseason play, but back on nationally televised games as well. Only time will tell if this Texans team has the right stuff to do that.

It would also be a nice story for the hometown boy (Gary Kubiak) and one of the African-American GM's in the NFL (Rick Smith) to have their hard work rewarded with a long playoff run.

I Miss Black Friday Night Lights

One of the things I miss about home as I mentioned in a previous post is high school football, Texas-style.

There's nothing like it anywhere else in the country. The book, movie and NBC TV show Friday Night Lights was based on the legendary Odessa Permian Panthers. I enjoyed watching them get beat down by Jack Yates 37-0 in the 1985 Class 5A championship game at Texas Stadium even though we lost to JY in the 1985 Region III-5A final 21-15 in the Dome that year.

Region III, as southeast Texas is referred to in UIL parlance (University Interscholastic League, the governing body for Texas high school athletic and academic competitions), is the Houston-Galveston-Golden Triangle area. It contains some of the best players in the Lone Star State. If you think I'm just bragging, check the birthplaces of many NFL Hall of Famers, current NCAA Division One ballplayers or current NFL players. Most of them have southeast Texas addresses.

Just in HISD alone at the time I was in high school, Mike Singletary was playing at Worthing High, Dexter Manley at Jack Yates and Darrell Green patrolled the secondary for my alma mater Jesse Jones. There was some kid by the name of Thurman Thomas who played for a brand new high school in Fort Bend county called Willowridge.

Wonder what happened to him?

I'm taking this trip down memory lane because they played the Madison-Yates game last night. Watching those highlights on Chron.com triggered a lot of fond memories. It was a must attend game. In the 1999 one a Madison Marlins quarterback by the name of Vince Young tore up the JY Lions.

Yep, the same Vince Young who now quarterbacks the Tennessee Traitors. (nope, I'm NEVER gonna let it go that Bud Adams moved my beloved Oilers to Nashville)

My dad was the play-by-play announcer not only for Texas Southern University games but HISD games when the station had the broadcast contract for them. As a result I got to see a lot of those big rivalry games such as Kashmere-Booker T. Washington, Houston Ross Sterling-Madison, Wheatley-Yates, Smiley-Forest Brook, and Yates versus 'errbody'. And since nearly all the majority Black schools in the area were performing in the same high-stepping style as TSU's famous 'Ocean of Soul' marching band, there were some great halftime marching band battles as well.

In fact, those high school band rivalries were so fierce that in 1978-79, thanks to the efforts of the late Artice 'C-Boy' Vaughn there was a contest initiated called 'The Battle of the Bands' to determine Houston's best. In 1979 it got moved from Delmar Stadium to Rice Stadium where it drew almost 30,000 fans just to watch the best high school bands in the area strut their stuff. The biggest shock to the crowd that night was Pasadena's J. Frank Dobie High taking the Superband Division of this predominately Black band competition.

In HISD we all hated JY, or "Burger King High" as we called them during my time at JJ. Burger King's uniforms in the 70's were in the same gold and red colors as Yates. They were not only our bitter rival, Yates is one of the original African-American schools in HISD along with Phillis Wheatley, Booker T. Washington, Kashmere and Evan E. Worthing.

Yates alumns and students never let us peeps who went to schools like Jones, Madison, and Sterling that started out as predominately white schools (but became majority Black thanks to white flight) forget that fact. They also rubbed it in our faces that many history making and prominent Houstonians such as Barbara Jordan, Mickey Leland and Debbie Allen once walked their campuses. We used to fight back at JJ by playing and singing the tune to the Burger King 'Have It Your Way' commercials and pointing to our academic prowess.

Jack Yates also won games with such nauseating regularity it became a big deal to the other Black schools to knock them off. We beat 'Burger King' during my sophomore year but lost a heartbreaker to Wheatley the next week that denied us a trip to the Dome for the opening round of the state playoffs.

There was also the historical and cultural angle of playing Yates. The Yates-Wheatley game back during the PVIL days (the Prairie View Interscholastic League, the African-American counterpart to the UIL during segregation) was played on Thanksgiving Day to sellout crowds at Jeppesen (now Robertson) Stadium on the UH campus. It was a major event in the Houston Black community. Anytime they played high school doubleheaders in the Astrodome Yates would be one of the featured teams.

My old school is in a slump right now since our all state running back Remus Nembhard moved on to the college ranks and JJ is in rebuilding mode. I also have to deal with the indignity of watching Ross Sterling, the school my neighborhood is zoned to become resurgent in football again at the same time. I'm getting teased about it by my family members who are Sterling alumni.

I'm also marveling at the new high school football landscape in the Houston area. Fort Bend ISD has grown from just Dulles High to enough high schools for their own ten team 5A district. I see new schools opening in the 'burbs every year because suburban districs such as Klein, Cy-Fair, Katy and Alief have experienced the same hypergrowth as FBISD. Even HISD has two new ones in Westside and Cesar Chavez. While some things have changed with Katy, Lamar and North Shore becoming powerhouse programs or once powerful 5A programs moving down to 4A, some have remained the same such as LaMarque's continued dominance of the 4A ranks.

While I remain a fan of Texas high school football in general and loving football is part of my DNA as a Texan, I just have mad love for the flavor of a Black high school football game. Oh how I'd love to be back sitting in the aluminum bleachers on a clear and cool fall night at Barnett Stadium (or any stadium complex in the Houston area) enjoying a high quality high school game again complete with high stepping bands.

Go Falcons!