Susan L. Taylor

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

One of the first things I did after starting my transition was subscribe to Essence magazine. It was not only cool seeing my name appear on the mailing label for that iconic magazine every month when it hit my mailbox, I got to read the inspiring words of Susan L. Taylor as well.

This woman I admire is responsible for getting me through many of my early doubt filled days that I could actually become the Phenomenal Transwoman I presently am, thanks to her In The Spirit column. She's written three books— In the Spirit: The Inspirational Writings of Susan L. Taylor, Lessons in Living and Confirmation, and The Spiritual Wisdom that has Shaped Our Lives with a fourth coming out soon.

In April 1994 I picked up her In the Spirit book. I not only have it in a prominent position on my bookshelf, I still refer to it from time to time as well. I also had the sincere pleasure of meeting her back in the late 90's on a flight I was working.

So who is Susan L. Taylor? Like the magazine, she's an icon in the African-American community. She has been at Essence magazine for 37 years. She rose from a freelance fashion and beauty writer in 1971 to serve as editor-in-chief of the magazine from 1981-2000, is the author of three books, in 1999 became the first African-American woman to win the magazine industry's highest honor, the Henry Johnson Fisher Award from the Magazine Publishers of America and was in 2002 inducted into the American Society of Magazine Editors' Hall of Fame. In 2006 she became the first recepient of the NAACP President's Award as well.

Taylor has been married for 15 years to writer Khephra Burns. Shana-Nequai, the daughter she raised is now married and runs her own beauty products company in Atlanta. But if you listen to Ms. Taylor, she'll tell you that she's struggled and worked tirelessly for everything she's accomplished, including being comfortable in that flawless skin of hers.

She started her award winning Essence tenure after previously owning and founding her own company, Nequai Cosmetics. She was without a college degree, newly divorced and a mother of a toddler at the time. But she persevered, rose through the ranks, earned a degree from Fordham University, and stepped into magazine giant Marcia Ann Gillespie's pumps when she took over as Essence's editor-in chief.

Under Taylor's guiding hand, Essence blossomed into a market-leading publication and franchise that includes an awards program, a New Orleans-based music festival, a seminar series, book publishing division and an initiative called Essence Cares, which has a goal of trying to get African American adults to mentor black youth.

Cynthia Griffin wrote in her Our Weekly.com article on Ms. Taylor that she's not only a nurturer, just like her In The Spirit column, she noted the long list of Essence editor's who have published their own books.

In a 2004 Black Issues Book Review article she explained why.

". . . and over the years, I’ve worked with brilliant women who also care deeply about black people and have more to say than they can communicate in Essence. My commitment is to try as best I can to support anyone trying to advance our people.

I also believe in wealth building for black folks, and no Essence editor’s salary is enough for her to live comfortably ever after, so I feel it’s important for editors to take the advice we give to our readers—have a gig on the side and invest. I may have occasionally gotten flak for giving editors the time and space needed to write books, but in the end, everybody’s happy because Essence editors’ books also promote the magazine.”

She's retiring this month from the magazine she helmed to work on other projects that include the post-Katrina recovery of New Orleans. But thanks to hers and other's efforts, the next generation of African-American girls and women will still have the opportunity of looking at a rack filled with a plethora of women's magzines and seeing one that intelligently reflects their beauty, their heritage, their issues and their culture.

You Think Race Explains Oprah's Choices? Better Check The Record

TransGriot Note: Excellent column in the C-J by Betty Winston Baye. Seems like some of her pale fans don't like the fact she's supporting Obama.

December 27, 2007
Courier-Journal.com

Oprah Winfrey has been called out as a racist. That's the fad now, you know -- to brand as racists African Americans who love themselves and seem in general to also love their people.

So now, Oprah is getting her comeuppance. Who does she think she is, detractors ask, to be openly supportive of Barack Obama in his bid to secure the Democratic Party's presidential nomination?

Oprah is showing her "true colors," one critic said, as if Oprah's "true colors" have ever been in doubt?

The mere fact that she is revered by millions of every race the world over shouldn't reduce her to being a slave to others' fantasies.

The idea that Oprah somehow unfairly favors black people over others belies her public record.

Just ask "Dr. Phil."

Who was he before Oprah took a liking to him and rewarded the help that he gave her during a very difficult time in her career, by regularly featuring him on her show, and then by spinning Phil McGraw off into his own show? Today, McGraw is a millionaire several times over, and the last I knew he was very white.

Here lately, every time you turn Oprah on, there's "Dr. Oz," and he's not black.

Or, how about the many scribes, living and long dead, but decidedly not black, whose books Oprah has catapulted into the realm of bestsellers. In fact, most authors that Oprah has championed over the years aren't black and aren't writing about black topics. That's true even in this era, when more blacks than ever are writing and buying books.

Those who've held their head trials and have found Oprah guilty of betraying them by backing Obama should ask Oprah's legion of non-blacks (cooks, personal trainers, designers, wedding planners and actors who are now living the lives that they dreamed of, in large part because a black woman smiled on them) whether Oprah is a racist.

John Travolta, I'm sure, isn't complaining about being Oprah's good friend.

Or how about the fact that any number of black artists have recorded Christmas CDs and no doubt would have loved Oprah's blessings. Yet Oprah chose to anoint Josh Groban's as the must-have Christmas CD for 2007. I doubt that, on the way to the bank, he's thinking Oprah is a racist.

Meanwhile, who has ever confused O magazine, to which I am a faithful subscriber, with Essence, Ebony or Jet?

The attacks that Oprah has endured for supporting Obama, unfortunately, aren't surprising to those of us who are aware that, in order for some people to really admire a black person, that black person must never be "too" black, which explains why any number of black people in public life -- at no small price to their mental health, I should say -- invest a lot of energy fleeing from the obvious.



Oprah has given her reasons for supporting Obama. Yes, he and his wife are fellow Chicagoans and dear friends. But she also has said, "We need somebody who is committed to the welfare of all Americans… We need a new way to do business in Washington, D.C., and in the world."

And for sure, a lot of Americans share those feelings.

Meanwhile, Oprah has said that she never has openly supported a candidate before, but that she's doing it now because, she said, and rightly so, "If we continue to do the same things over and over, I know you get the same results."

And yes, for Oprah and millions of others, and not all of them black people, Barack Obama is, in fact, the substance of things hoped for.

If George W. Bush, whose lack of qualifications should be painfully obvious to all by now, can be considered fit for the presidency, surely Obama has every right to aspire to the job.

Even so, Obama doesn't have a lock on the black vote, just as it cannot be argued that Hillary Clinton has the women's vote all locked up. Clinton's black support runs deep and strong. Scores of African Americans, including Maya Angelou, one of Oprah's dearest friends, have thrown their support to Clinton. Angie Stone, in a song titled "My People" on her new CD, has gone so far as to include Bill Clinton on the list of "My People."

Are Oprah's attackers equally upset that there are women who support Hillary Clinton chiefly because she's a woman and because they believe that it's time for a woman to be in the White House, not merely as first lady but running the joint?

Oprah's critics, I do believe, need to search their own souls for good answers as to what exactly is offensive to them about a black woman supporting a black man's aspirations. And while they do that, other Americans are simply deliriously happy to have options that we haven't seen in a while.

Unfortunate Comments, Unfortunate Volleys and Unfortunate Silence

TransGriot Note:This guest column is from Vanessa Edwards Foster's Trans Political blog

“Words in papers, words in books,
Words on TV, words for crooks …
Eat your words but don’t go hungry.
Words have always nearly hung me.” — Wordy Rappinghood, Tom Tom Club

"I'd rather be hated for what I am than loved for what I'm not." — rapper Bushwick Bill of the Geto Boys

For the record, I was one of the folks Meredith Bacon wrote to regarding National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) ever working with the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) again. It’s apparently making the rounds of the GLBT community and inspiring a bit of controversy due to some of the comments contained within.

Additionally I personally believe Meredith when she states her feelings about the organization she co-chairs and her feelings on working with HRC. Meredith has shown herself to be very true-blue, devoted to the transgender community, its advancement and the attainment of civil rights for all (including the trans community.) There’s no question on that point.

That said, her comments seemed contrary to NCTE’s historical position on HRC and Barney Frank. They also seemed at odds with a more tempered and at times unclear, and seemingly noncommittal position by at least one of their other board members and mostly keenly, their Executive Director/Founder. I didn’t disbelieve Meredith as much as I was skeptical of it being shared by NCTE.

I decided to cut to the chase and ask the founder, Mara Keisling, directly. As it turns out, the Email address I sent to must be only for outgoing mail and she reportedly did not receive it. (I haven’t received communication other than press blurbs from her since 2003, I had no other NCTE Email addresses from her in my Email address book.)

However, Mara was asked of this Email independently via a question from a radio interview with Becky Juro on Dec. 27. After hearing the comment, Keisling said it “would be inappropriate for [her] to comment at this time.”

“Words are like a certain person who
Can’t say what they mean,
Don’t mean what they say.” — Wordy Rappinghood, Tom Tom Club

Ironically, publications such as Chris Crain’s Windows Media Groups (home to the Washington Blade) have now picked up on Meredith’s comments, both in news reports and their editor’s blog. It was a broad shot across the bow by the Blade as NCTE is the only group in Washington they have enjoyed good working relations with.

Rather than anyone addressing whether NCTE will work with HRC in the future, the Blade chose to zero in on the demands for resignation from HRC’s board and leadership and a sentence from Meredith’s post that observed HRC being controlled and dependent upon “white, rich, professional gay men.” They’re using this as a cudgel to beat home their point that NCTE needed to demand retraction and repudiation – or remove Bacon from office.

Admittedly, Meredith’s wording is emotional and imprudent coming from a board chair. Even we in NTAC never even ventured such raw sentiment. Just a comment from one NTAC board member verbally requesting (as an individual) the resignation from then Exec. Dir. Elizabeth Birch was roundly used to dismiss and discredit the entire group. (Ironically it was NCTE making hay of that comment circa 2002, even absent any official imprimatur).

Personally, one thing I’ve felt strongly about, and that NTAC officially chose to do, is to stay out of any consideration of whom groups such as NGLTF, HRC, et. al. choose as leaders. It’s their community, their organizations, they need free reign to choose their leaders without our meddling or pressure – whomever that may be. Even in my case, when I was asked for my opinion on it (tempting as it was, being HRC) I refrained.

Similarly, asking for resignations is pointless. You never know who they’ll choose next (it could be worse!), and only serves to make the targeted group resentful. Blast the choices these leaders make that negatively impact us – that’s fair game. But leave their community to have their own leadership for their groups. It hasn’t gone unnoticed though how HRC and others in the gay and lesbian community don’t return that favor.

Certainly what Meredith publicly opined on behalf of NCTE would’ve never been tolerated in any official capacity from NTAC. We’d have been publicly pilloried and vilified – even by our own community.

“Words can put you on the run ….”— Wordy Rappinghood, Tom Tom Club

Meanwhile the comments the Washington Blade chose to zero in on (rich, gay white men), was a typically Crain-like attempt at creating tabloidesque controversy, and with the only trans organization they like, no less! Regarding the comment though, other than adding the words “and women” at the end of that statement, I’d like to ask Kevin Naff where he’s seen anything contrary to that resemblance in the organizational leadership or staffing hierarchy by these national groups or the agenda direction chosen by HRC?

How often do you see people of color represented in those “high-profile” positions? How often are there folks of less-than-moneyed means, the working class or the impoverished? How about anyone from any of the other alphabets in the amalgamated acronym affixed to every group’s mission (but seldom seen beyond the lettering)? When hired, are these segments there in representative numbers, or simply there as an individual whose sole function is plausible deniability when the calls come in about lack of voice or inclusion?

You may take umbrage at the statement’s blunt wording, but the point she uncomfortably breached about who controls isn’t inaccurate. It’s just not mentioned in “polite company.” When you look around the GLBT community, and most especially the GLBT movement you see raw, unbridled classism.

When you look back at the African American Civil Rights movement, you saw nowhere near the level of it. And yet looking at the GLBT movement in its history and especially more recently, it’s a classist movement rivaling the Republican Revolution a la Gingrich and the Marie Antoinette era in France.

Why is it that this movement starts off and gains traction with a Sylvia Rivera or Bob Kohler or Ray Hill or Marsha P. Johnson, and ends up with well-paid heroes taking the bows on stage and screen such as a Harry Hay, an Elizabeth Birch, a Matt Foreman or a Joe Solmonese? Why, you simply kick those in between – Jessica Xavier, Kerry Lobel, Sarah DePalma, Yoseñio Lewis or Dawn Wilson – to the curb, marginalize them as radical loose cannons and just take it and run with it. Who’s going to remember, right?

Moreover, why is it those in the most need are the least heard and the last considered?

You may adopt the mantle of victimization over Meredith Bacon’s not-so-choice wording, Messrs. Naff and Crain. Privilege aside, you were victims. Happy?

However you will also do so in full defense of trying to silence the subject and perpetuating what Bacon was pointing out: a movement that’s indeed ruled by and fully in control of the elite. The comments weren’t decorous, and expecting resignations is unrealistic (from either side), but Bacon was more gutsy than inaccurate in breaching the subject. Lord knows the Washington Blade would never address the subject of their volition.

In the meantime, we still have no idea whether NCTE does or does not intend to work with HRC in the foreseeable future. It’s a point the Blade skillfully chose to overlook, especially in light of the recent ENDA affair. From NCTE there has been nothing but silence on their relations with HRC or on Bacon’s comments. Even after the Blade contacted her on the comments, Exec. Dir. Mara Keisling has continued to refuse comment. The silence is deafening, and one can only surmise from the outside what’s taking place within the walls of NCTE. Only “one source familiar with” NCTE, in the Lou Chibbaro column in the Blade, said that Bacon “was only speaking for herself.”

On a different subject, another “source familiar with” NCTE also relayed that Rep. Barney Frank in anger was reported to have called Mara Keisling “a stupid ass” and added that all the organizations rallying with her on the United ENDA Coalition were “stupid asses” as well during their rush to coalesce and isolate HRC and Frank on their ENDA stunt. Again, not-so-choice wording said in extreme emotion.

Does anyone reading this believe that Kevin Naff, Chris Crain and the Washington Blade will be publicly calling for repudiation of Rep. Frank’s comments, or requesting a resignation? How about any other individual or organization? Yep, I wouldn’t bet the ranch on that one.

It’s just so much easier to thrash NCTE co-chair Bacon’s indiscretion, and simply sidestep any lack of decorum from Barney Frank.

“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.

“What is courage? … The courage to speak our mind and not stay silent, simply because we are afraid that other people might not agree with us. Of course, there will be conflicting views. And of course, conflict is unpleasant. But not speaking your mind can lead to much worse unpleasantness.” — from the website, www.indianchild.com

In Praise of Black Voices

When I bought my first computer and called up PDQ.net to hook me up with my first Internet dial-up service back in 1997, all I thought I was doing at the time was simply getting Internet access. What I didn't realize was how that simple act would not only irreversibly change my life and expand my horizons exponentially, but in the process garner me new friends as well.

One of the places I found myself increasingly drawn to was a then Black-owned discussion site called Black Voices. It had various discussion groups that people could post to on politics, sports, music, books, current events and the ever popular Rant area. There was even one for gay and lesbian Afronetizens.

And it was a wild, fun, serious and raucous place depending on the day of the week. We had some serious, thoughtful and sometimes contentious discussions on the politics of the late 90's, social justice issues, the gap developing between poor and middle/upper middle class African-Americans and other subjects du jour.

We also went through a week long exercise in which we set up and brainstormed this scenario. After a second US civil war, the states of Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia were ceded to African-Americans to set up a new country called New Kemet. We actually spent a week discussing what kind of government New Kemet should have, economic development, social justice, military/defense issues, et cetera.

We even came up with Afrocentric emoticons and shorthand to punctuate our posts with and give the Net some flava.

I liked hitting the sports area which was just as lively. As the resident BV Comets fan who was riding high during the time of the first WNBA championship dynasty, me and the LA Skanks fans (oops, Sparks) would constantly trade barbs about the other's team. One LA Sparks fan made a crack about Sheryl Swoopes constantly evolving and creative hair styles once to which I responded, "I know you ain't talking about weaves when you peeps in Southern California use more horse hair per capita than they have available in the entire state of Kentucky."

But it was the creative way in which we dealt with flame wars that is still memorable to this day for me. We BVers called it Rant Rappin' and the gist of it was that if you were pissed at a person, you had to rewrite a current (or past) song to insult them.

It made you pause and wonder if you were mad enough at this person to go through the time and effort to diss them that way and paradoxically kept flame wars down. But if you decided you WERE that mad at this person, it was on like Donkey Kong.

It was a lot of fun logging on and reading a brand new lyrical spin on the current hits of the day. Even though I was involved in a few BV Rant Rap battles, at that time I didn't reveal my transwoman status to my BV peeps. I wanted the Original BVers out there in cyberspace to get to know me based on my intellect and personality, not have their perceptions colored by whatever late 90's prejudices they may or may not have had about transgender people.

There was one memorable Christmas holidays Rant Rap battle between me and Dymolishn that went on for three days. We rewrote Christmas songs to insult each other. To this day I crack up every time I hear the Luther song Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas and Alexander O'Neal's Sleigh Ride and superimpose my remixed lyrics on them.

And woe be unto the Internet racists who dared to befoul our Internet cyberhome. 'Don't feed the trolls' was not the operative word at BV back in the day. It was 'Embarrass, belittle and utterly humiliate the trolls' by burying their BS and ignorance in a blizzard of history, facts and knowledge with an insult or two mixed in for good measure. They got to the point they quit trying to mess with us.

So coming up with one liners to deal with right-wingers (and HRC and Barney) for me is a snap thanks to the time I spent at BV honing my rapid response skillz.

It was purchased by AOL around 2000 and it wasn't quite the same to us Original BVers after that, so we ended up drifting away over time. I still pop in from time to time just to see if any of the original gang shows up.

These BVers became my first Internet family. We even got to a point where we planned meetups for BV members clustered in various cities. So to Shareign, Kodzansette, CD, the late Mr. Swing, Chila-o, Jwal, any of the other Original BVers that I love and forgot your user names (and you too, Dymolishn), if you're still surfing the Net, here's a ^5 to all of you, thanks for the memories and drop me a line.

Upgradin'

Yesterday I spent a pleasantly nerve-wracking day at AC's house while he helped me upgrade my late 20th century computer to the demands of the early 21st century Internet.

AC is one of the smartest and more multi-talented friends I have in my life. He's a major reason my car stays in tip top shape, he's a talented writer and has mad carpentry skills that he's put to good use. In addition to rebuilding the basement in his house into an entertainment center and doing roofing and other repairs on his house and ours, he rebuilt part of the walk-in basement of this house into a room with a fully functional bathroom. Like the TransGriot, he can intelligently talk about a wide variety of subjects while doing all that.

In addition, his music collection is heavy on 70's and 80's rock and roll and R&B. His collection in addition to having CD's is heavy on albums, something I have in my R&B and jazz collection back at my parents house. If I'm DJing a party that has a mixed race crowd, the first place I head for is his house.

We both have a cluster of computers from our ten plus years on the Net, so we decided to see what parts we had from upgrading those various machines that have long since outlived their Internet usefulness were still viable that we could harvest. We also were prepared to get new ones as needed to augment building my newly improved computer.

I got much needed RAM memory added to my machine, so it's loading much faster along with any YouTube and other video files. We needed to add some USB ports to my machine, so we checked out the CompUSA store on Hurstbourne Parkway near his place that's going out of business to see what they had available.

I also discovered during those parts forays yesterday just how much computer technology has advanced since I bought my first Hewlett-Packard one in 1997.

He also had a CD-RW burner he was no longer using that he added to mine. It came from a Compaq he owned that died a painful fried motherboard death when a sudden thunderstorm popped up while he was engrossed in working on it. I had a 48X Creative CD-ROM drive I had on my old HP minidesktop machine that's now installed on this one.

But the major goal of this impromptu upgrade, slaving the 8 GB hard drive from my HP minidesktop to the 8 GB one I have in this system is what caused us much of the drama. I bought this machine I currently have in a 2003 corporate technology sale.

Although corporate machines are more robust than the average general use ones, the drawback is that the BIOSes on corporate machines for obvious security reasons aren't designed to be easily changed as we discovered to our frustration.

So although it was a success on many levels, I'll probably be heading back to my friendly neighborhood computer store to get an 80 GB hard drive and a DVD-ROM drive or wait until the next computer technology show hits the Kentucky Convention Center or the Fairgrounds.

Shoot, gotta have room for my MP3 and picture files. ;)

Obama Wins Iowa!

I had to work last night, so I was out of the news loop until 6 AM. When I tuned my car radio to the Tom Joyner Morning Show, the upbeat mood of Tom, Sybil and company told me what I wanted to know. Obama won!

He made history in the process. Obama becomes the first African-American presidential candidate to pull off a win in the Iowa caucuses.



Final Democratic returns showed Sen. Obama gaining 38 percent support, with former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards edging out Sen. Clinton for second place. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson got 2 percent to finish fourth.

Obama's victory was much closer in the all-important race for delegates. The AP analysis estimated Obama would win 16 delegates, compared to 15 for Clinton and 14 for Edwards. Clinton will win more delegates than Edwards, despite getting fewer votes, because of Iowa's complicated caucus system.

Clinton leads with 175 delegates, including superdelegates, followed by Obama with 75 and Edwards with 46.

A total of 4,051 delegate votes are up for grabs, with the magic number of delegates necessary in order for a Presidential or Vice Presidential candidate to be nominated is 2,026.

This win gives Sen. Obama some major momentum going into Tuesday's New Hampshire primary.

How Do The Iowa Caucuses Work?

We have finally reached the point where ballots will begin to get cast in order to determine the Democratic and Republican nominees for the presidency. The road to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue starts at tonight's Iowa Caucuses. Kentucky doesn't have its primary election until late May, so the race may be over and done by the time I finally get to weigh in on this.

Then again, it may take a little longer this year to sort out the two peeps left standing that will make their acceptance speeches at their respective party conventions in Denver and Minneapolis (the republicans).

Here's a piece written by Sean Flaherty at VoteTrustUSA.com explaining how the Iowa Caucuses work.

***

A modern caucus, in 13 states still the basis of choosing delegates to Presidential nominating convention, is a descendant of the Congressional nominating caucus, and the early state nominating caucuses, in which members of state legislatures met to choose party candidates for state office, and members of Congress chose party Presidential nominees. The Congressional system died after the 1824 election, and was replaced by national nominating conventions. At the same time, state caucuses gradually gave way to state nominating conventions, and the precinct-level caucus became important.

Caucuses are generally a viva-voce affair, meaning that voters openly declare their choice, but Iowa Republicans now vote for President on a secret ballot.

Many know that Iowa caucus-goers meet among their party members in locations that range from a school cafeteria to a living room, and then make their choice for President. Beyond those basics, the caucus process seems arcane, even for political junkies. It has even been suggested that voting machines of some kind are used in the caucuses, which has made Iowans who have attended caucuses scratch their heads.

The caucuses are entirely party-run, and the two parties' processes are alike in many ways, but differ in important aspects.

Both parties allow any registered voter to participate in their caucus by re-registering as a member of the party on caucus night. A voter can attend only one party's caucus, and since both take place on the same night, "caucus raiding" is not a concern of either party.

In both parties, the caucuses elect delegates to the county convention, rather than to the national party convention. The county convention will then select delegates to attend to a district convention, which will them elect delegates to a state convention. The state conventions elect delegates to the national nominating convention. In neither party are the delegates at the three levels of conventions bound to vote according to the Presidential caucus results, though generally they do so if the national race is still competitive.

The caucuses take place at the precinct level. In both parties, supporters usually make speeches on behalf of Presidential candidates. The Democrats divide into preference groups for Presidential candidates, which must meet a viability threshold to elect county convention delegates. The threshold is either 15% of the attendees or 25%, depending on the number of delegates to choose. If a preference group does not meet the threshold, its members can realign with another candidate's group, as can members of viable preference groups. Then each group elects delegates in proportion to its percentage of attendees.

At the Republican caucuses, there is a straw poll for President and a separate election for county convention delegates, according to Chuck Laudner, executive director of the Republican Party of Iowa. The Presidential straw poll is conducted by secret ballot, in which voters write their choice on paper. The ballots are counted by hand. After the straw poll, other caucus business takes place, and the selection of county convention delegates is nearer the end of the evening. The caucus-goers who run for election to the county convention do not necessarily say which Presidential candidate they support.

And about voting machines: no, they are not used to tabulate votes in either the Democratic or Republican caucuses, according to the Republicans' Laudner and Iowa Democratic Party communications director Carrie Giddins. The Republicans phone in their results to the state party, and the phone call is witnessed, usually by the caucus-goers who made speeches on behalf of the candidates. The Democratic caucus chair also phones in results to the state party, and party rules require a representative from each preference group be present to witness the call.

The Republican precinct chairs will usually allow observers to watch the caucus and the ballot-counting, though they have discretion, said Laudner. Democratic rules allow media and citizen observation.

The caucuses are complex, no way to deny it. Say what you will about the complexity of the caucuses, though; they are orders of magnitude more transparent and verifiable than the roster of Presidential primaries using paperless touch screen voting machines that will follow weeks later. Let's hope that 2008 is the last Presidential election year in which anyone will have occasion to make that comparison.

Moni's Make Me Laugh Movies

Whenever I'm in one of those moods that even Blue Bell won't get me out of (like I was during the Christmas holidays), I have a few movies stashed in my ever expanding DVD collection that are guaranteed at minimum to put a smile on my face or make me double over in laughter.

So what are those movies? Glad you asked inquiring TransGriot reader!



Here's Moni's Make Me Laugh Movie List. Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married? is definitely going to to be added to this list once it comes out on DVD.



1-Blazing Saddles



2-Fast Times At Ridgemont High

3-The Blues Brothers

4-Undercover Brother



5-House Party

6-Friday

7-Next Friday

8-Friday After Next

9-Animal House



10-Hollywood Shuffle

11-I'm Gonna Git You Sucka

12-Ace Ventura Pet Detective

13-The Brothers

14-Soul Plane



15-School Daze

Let's Party...You Plan It

photo-Suga Shack by Ernie Barnes

One of the things that irritates me about some of my transpeeps and others in the at-large transgender community is this lack of understanding of the importance of planning.

I hear a lot of complaining in some African-American transgender circles about why we don't have a community infrastructure similar to our white counterparts.

Some of us who can afford to go to an SCC will attend, then while hanging out with each other surrounded by an ocean of white faces wonder why we don't have a similar event like this that reflects our cultural background and discusses our issues.

While the various factions in the African-American transgender community is one factor that has impeded our progress toward building that kind of infrastructure, one of the major reasons why I believe we don't have it is the lack of people willing to commit their time, money and sweat equity into helping organize these events and commit themselves to doing the work necessary to keep them viable.

We all like a good party, pageant, ball, seminar or convention. I'm no exception to that sentiment, but these events just don't materialize out of thin air. As I know all too well, they can take up to a year to plan and cost money to put on and advertise.

The other thing that annoys me is the peeps who criticize every element of the event. They complain about the cost, bitch about why this speaker, seminar topic, or service wasn't available, the food, et cetera but were 'too busy' to help participate in the planning of it.

When we put together the first Transistahs-Transbrothas Conference that took place in Louisville in 2005, we did it in nine months, but really needed a year. It was hurt in the planning phases by many of the peeps who initially committed to help being MIA for various reasons when crunch time came.

I ended up as a one woman ad hoc crisis management committee, airport shuttle service, DJ and emergency seminar presenter. I did more work during the four days I was off from my regular job for the 2005 TSTBC than I did when I returned to my job when the conference was over. It was moderately successful and we had a subsequent one in 2006. I didn't really get a chance to enjoy myself at the history-making first event and was a little unhappy that TSTBC didn't turn out quite the way I envisioned it. The people who attended were pleased, and that gave me the validation I needed to know it was worth it.

The point I'm making is that if the African-American transgender community desires to have these events (and organizations, et cetera) planning is not only a necessary evil, but a critical part of the process.

The who, what, where, when, why and how much will it cost questions get asked and worked out in planning meetings. The outline, theme and scope of the conference gets fleshed out and takes shape during these meetings as well so that the event runs smoothly.

And most importantly, the financial controls are established, accounts set up and monitored so that the organizing committee not only knows to the penny how much money is in those accounts, but where the money is going with the highest standards of ethical behavior. The cost/benefit analysis work is done to ensure we get the most bang for the buck. The nuts and bolts details are also hammered out in these meetings as well.

It sounds boring and tedious, and to be honest, sometimes they are. Sometimes these meetings can get quite animated and contentious when you have opposing views being discussed. But if you want to put your community's best foot forward and create a signature event that will stand the test of time, it has to be done.

Planning meetings aren't necessarily boring affairs. I've helped participate in some SCC planning sessions in 2000 and 2002 along with the TSTBC ones and some preliminary discussions here for a Louisville Black Pride event. Some of them were more fun than the actual conference. I'll tell you TransGriot readers in a future post the story about a 2002 one that happened on my birthday.

While I've discussed conventions, the same rules apply to smaller scale events as well. Even parties, pageants and balls require some level of planning and organization in order for them to run smoothly.

The bottom line is that if we want more SCC style conferences, seminars or similar events in our community, we need COMMITTED and DEDICATED cadres of people doing the behind the scenes grunt work in order to make them a reality.

How Do I Look?

If you were one of those people who caught Paris Is Burning in the theaters back in the day and wondered what's up with the New York ballroom community, you'll probably be interested in Wolfgang Busch's How Do I Look documentary. There's a DVD of it available on howdoilooknyc.org




Conceived as a sequel to this internationally known cult favorite, it was shot over a series of balls from 1997 and is produced by Kevin Ultra Omni. It not only takes a snapshot of some old school legends like Octavia St. Laurent, it introduces you to the new legends on the scene




If after seeing this movie or reading this post you'd like more info on what the ballroom community is currently doing, check out Frank Leon Roberts' (we're not related as far as I know) excellent blog Canwebefrank.com on a regular basis.

In addition to the coverage of the ballroom communty, Frank also comments on social issues, the African-American GLBT community and his everyday adventures in his quest for his doctorate.

The cast and crew of How Do I look are also available for lectures and screenings as well, so check the website for further info on rates and availability.

Octavia!

Ever since Paris Is Burning was released, I simply fell in love with Octavia St. Laurent. One day I hope to meet her in person or simply interview her, but in the meantime I'll have to just watch the videos until that day comes.



The 2005 Pill Awards



A Latex Ball battle





Part 1 of the 1993 Bazzar Ball Femme Queen Battle




Part 2 of the 1993 Bazzar Ball Femme Queen Battle




Octavia in another face battle

It's Barack!

Happy New Year TransGriot readers!

One thing I promised y'all I'd do a few months ago was let you know on New Year's Day which candidate I planned on supporting in the primaries and hopefully through the upcoming presidential election this November.

It was a tight decision that I went back and forth on a number of times, but I'm supporting Sen. Barack Obama.

While some of you may have thought because of my heritage that I automatically would have been supporting him when he first announced, you would be making an incorrect assumption. I put a lot of thought into this decision and I've been wavering between him, Sen. Hillary Clinton, former Sen. John Edwards and Gov. Bill Richardson.

Every one of my semifinalists had something on one level or another that bothered me. I've always liked Sen. Clinton, but the early HRC endorsement of her raises questions in my mind. In Gov. Richardson's case I like his broad based experience, but he botched that HRC softball debate question.

I like John Edwards, but I question whether he has the desire to be president. He and Sen. John Kerry in 2004 didn't fight hard enough to keep Bushie boy and friends from stealing Ohio (and the election) despite massive evidence of fraud, GOP African-American vote suppresion tactics employed there, mysterious voting machine malfunctions that came from a company whose CEO promised to do whatever it took to deliver Ohio for Bush, and the sellout secretary of state being the chair of the Bush campaign in Ohio.


In Sen. Obama's case, it was not confronting Donnie McClurkin's homophobia more forcefully at the South Carolina campaign event. He compounded the mistake by sending an HRC-recommended white gay minister, Rev. Andy Siddon to speak to a predominately African-American crowd that required not only an African-American minister to refute the idiocy, but one with stature like a Michael Eric Dyson, or a GLBT one such as Bishop Yvette Flunder.

I'd already heard him call out the misguided ministers of the Hi Impact Leadership Coalition on more than a few occasions, so I narrowed it down to Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama.

Another reservation I have about him is related to my long term experiences as an African-American of seeing African-American candidates be embraced by White Americans, but they are held to a much higher standard of behavior and expectations than they have for a white candidate, even if the African-American candidate is a higher caliber one than the white candidate.

An example of this was the 2006 Tennessee US Senate campaign of Rep. Harold Ford, Jr.

Ford, who is the current DLC chair, downplayed his African-American roots, ran an almost perfect centrist campaign, and built a 9 point lead going into the final week leading to the 2006 election. But as any African-American politicial scientist or any poli-sci student will tell you, when an African-American candidate is running against a white candidate REGARDLESS of party, the African-American candidate has a 10 point deficit going into that race.

Republicans will quickly dip into the race baiting bag of dirty tricks when they are losing as well. They know as well as I and other African Americans do that there are some people in this country who will not vote for ANY African-American candidate, irregardless of how qualified they are.

All it took was the GOP running the race baiting 'Call Me' commercial to sink Harold Ford's chances of becoming the first African-American elected to the Senate from a southern state since Reconstruction.



While I'm impressed with the fact that he's garnered a lot of white support in his bid, I'm still skeptical as an African-American that this support, what people say in polls and on-camera interviews will turn in the privacy of the election booth into enough votes in the primary season and the general election on November 4 to see him at noon on January 20, 2009 take the oath of office as president of the United States.



Yeah, he got elected to the senate in Illinois, which has elected an African-American to represent it in the Senate before in Carol Moseley Braun. Obama won in a landslide, but let's get real for a minute, he was running against Alan Keyes. I could have beaten Alan Keyes in a statewide election.

But despite my fears that this race baiting will happen again if he gets the nomination, I'm supporting him. I'll get an idea on January 3 just how serious peeps are about their support for him when the Iowa caucuses happen and the New Hampshire primary later this month.

If he can take these two events heading into the South Carolina primary, then I can begin to have the audacity of hope that America truly is seriously considering putting a African-American in the Oval Office.


I've liked him ever since I saw his speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston. He had a hard act to follow oratorically in terms of Rev. Al Sharpton and I was impressed by his oratorical skills. I also chatted with my family members in and from Chicago who had positive things to say about him as well.



I've read his books and I'm in the process of doing more research on his policy stances and his record. I think he has some wonderful ideas along with the entire Democratic field to clean up George Bush's mess and get this country moving in the right direction again.

And Michelle Obama would make an excellent First Lady. ;)

As to people who would point to his being only a first term US senator, Abraham Lincoln only served one term in the US House and lost a US Senate race in 1858 before he was elected president. Those of us who study history know how his presidency turned out. This current misadministration was the most experienced in history, and look how they jacked stuff up.

But it's all up to the voters in Iowa and New Hampshire to get this party started.

Whether they follow up their words with positive action or not, I'm supporting Barack Obama during this primary season.

Why Didn't You Tell Us?

I have a confession and an apology to make to the transgender community.

I'm one of the people that was alerted to the fact that ENDA was in trouble back in May and there was a problem with us being included in it.

I've gotten a lot of questions in the post-mortem over this latest ENDA disaster about why those of us who discovered what was about to go down didn't do more to get the word out to the community and possibly avert what happened.

What for?

This community believed every negative word ever uttered about me, AC, Dawn Wilson, Vanessa Edwards Foster and anyone either associated with NTAC or who didn't buy into the 'HRC is our friends' mantra.

So my thoughts were at the time, why burn up my money, gas and valuable vacation time sticking my neck out there for peeps that didn't appreciate it?

Why set myself up to get criticized by a community that only a few months ago was loudly calling for NTAC to disband and join forces with the all-knowing, all-powerful insiders of the greatest civil rights organization since the African-American civil rights movement?

You believed the hypnotic 'HRC is our friends' PR spin and we were the salmon swimming upstream against the prevailing tide of transgender public opinion. You failed to ask the skeptically critical questions when the news coming from inside the beltway was "We're included, it's a slam dunk."

That slam dunk attempt got slapped into the cheap seats by Barney Frank.

The transgender community has an annoyingly bad habit in its internal discourse of discounting, shouting down or dismissing any voice that isn't white or has a penchant for saying what it doesn't want to hear.

That tendency bit them in the butt this time. The transgender community also has a major race problem that was exploited by our opponents on BOTH sides of this issue.

So when I (and others) were confronted with a situation in which I was being called 'crazy' and an 'uppity n-word' by a certain person being hailed by the community as the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful, greatest civil rights leader since MLK, who they believed with all their hearts would lead us transgender people out of the wilderness and into the Promised Land of civil rights equality and can do no wrong, then what was the point of sounding the warning if they believed that feces?

It would have gotten the same reaction from the transgender community that AC, Dawn and I got from Babs Casbar in the Longworth Building cafeteria when we told her during the NTAC Lobby day what we'd discovered. When she asked where we'd gotten our info and we told her, her reaction was, "What do they know?"

Okay, this person is active in the Stonewall Democrats, and she didn't know who the Congressional Black Caucus was or the level of power this organization had acquired since the Democratic takeover of Congress?

Babs did send me an e-mail after everything blew up that we were right, but being right and having the ability to say 'I told you so' doesn't make me feel any better about this disgusting mess. Obviously the CBC reps knew more and were willing to share with fellow African-Americans what your vaunted 'insider' legislators wouldn't tell you.

So much for the image of NCTE being the 'insiders'

Even if we did tell y'all, all you peeps who drank the 'HRC Is Our Friends' Kool-Aid would have done is shrugged your collective shoulders, did a 'There they go again' Reagan imitation and blew it off because that info came from 'those crazy NTAC people.'

But it's not like I and others didn't try to sound the alarm. I wrote about the possibility of us being screwed in my TransGriot print column in THE LETTER that was published in July 2007. I posted it on my blog as well.

And here's the paragraph in which I sounded the warning:

But one thing I repeatedly heard in several offices I visited during the recent National Transgender Advocacy Coalition (NTAC) Lobby Days May 15-17 disturbed me. Several staffers informed me that Senator Kennedy’s bill DOESN’T mirror HR 1592 by including the words ‘gender identity’ and the definition for it as set forth in Section 3.6 of the House bill. I hope by the time that this column is read that it turned out to be just a rumor and the bill does mirror the one that passed the House May 3.
But what if that information IS true?

There are some gay and lesbian people that would be ecstatic if that happened. Some of them have expressed the attitude that the term doesn’t belong in ‘their’ ENDA bill. That’s a fundamentally short sighted, selfish and myopic viewpoint.

That's what I wrote in July 2007. As a matter of fact, Dawn, AC and I along with other NTACers were disturbed enough to consider putting together a team of lobbyists to storm the Hill unannounced before the August recess. But since NCTE was on the Hill and the community conventional wisdom was arrayed against NTAC, against our better political instincts we punted the ball and let NCTE run (and screw up) the show.

In hindsight, we should have followed our instincts, ran our clandestine lobby day, reported our findings after it was done and said to you NTAC critics who would have bitched about what we'd done 'screw y'all, we're trying to get this ENDA bill passed.'

Others may not be forthcoming about their mistakes, but I will own up to mine.

I apologize to the community for not doing enough to FORCEFULLY get the word out there. That won't happen again.

But even if I or others come up with the info and put it out there, whether you like it or not, you are minorities now. It is critical to your survival and it's your responsibility as American citizens and voters to acquire info, use your God-given critical thinking and reasoning skills to filter it our and act (or not act) on it.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all my TransGriot readers!

For those of you living in the US, make sure your voter registration cards are active and you participate in the most important presidential election of our lifetimes.

The Final Five Sellouts

This ENDA mess is reminding me more and more of Battlestar Galactica.



Mara Keisling reminds me of Gaius Baltar, who was seduced by Number Six only to discover to his horror within moments of the devastating Cylon nuclear attack on the Colonies that she was a Cylon. He also discovered that he unwittingly aided and abetted the destruction of the Colonies (think transgender community) by letting his girlfriend poke around the Colonial Military defense mainframe computer. He also submitted a Command Navigation Program to the Colonial military (think the 'HRC Is Our Friends' PR strategy) that contained an electronic backdoor that the Cylons used to neutralize Colonial defenses.

NTAC and current chair Ethan St. Pierre is represented by Admiral William Adara, who because of his previous service in the First Cylon War refused to network the computers on the Galactica, which saved his ship from destruction (and as we found out later and it was expounded on in Razor, the Pegasus as well because it was undergoing a retrofit at the Scorpian shipyards.

Admiral Helena Cain, AKA Dawn Wilson not only figured out what happened after the attack, but has been an unrelenting opponent of the Cylons (oops, HRC).

But people in the transgender community, despite her obvious talents and leadership skills, fear her.

You have President Laura Roslin, AKA former NTAC chair Vanessa Edwards Foster, who has grown into leadership stature despite being attacked by the cancerous whisper campaign orchestrated by the head of NCTE, outright efforts to sabotage her organization by repeated raids on the NTAC BOD and calls by transgender sheeple for NTAC to close its doors and merge with NCTE.

While all this was going on she was being called 'crazy' like myself and others who refused to drink the 'HRC is our friends' Kool-Aid.

Joe Solmonese is Aaron Doral, the smooth talking polished media pro who excels at sowing seeds of confusion and deception. Ask the folks who were in attendance at the 2007 SCC who parted with $20,000 of hard earned cash during his speech how good he is.

But as entertaining as this Battlestar analogy is getting, I'm going to skip ahead and get to the heart of it. It seems as though the HRCylons and Barney Frank are tired of me and the Admiral Adamas in the transgender Colonial Fleet criticizing them over their duplicitous amoral BS around ENDA and want to hand pick their own leaders to negotiate with.

The word from the transgender grapevine is that Mara is out and they are grooming Susan Stanton to become their new spokessellout. She's perfect in their eyes for the job. She doesn't know the community history because she's new, has a nationally known name, a very public discrimination story that played out in front of television cameras and hasn't had an opportunity to talk to us old HRCylon War vets about HRC's sorry history.

HRC in conjunction with Barney Frank's office are putting together their own transgender 'leaders' that they feel will be pliable enough for them to work with.

I've seen this game run before. It's the same one the Republican Party has been trying to run on the African-American community for decades. The GOP doesn't wanna talk to the NAACP or our elected leadership in the Congressional Black Caucus, so they have spent millions cultivating their network of megachurch black preachers and black conservatives that they conveniently use and ignore when it suits their purposes. HRC and Barney Frank are trying to run the same game on the transgender community.

The information that we do have on the Final Five sellouts thanks to Donna Rose is that they are upper middle class white transwomen.

No peeps of color, no transmen, no working class transpeeps who will inconveniently call them out like Commander Lee Adama on cutting transpeople out of ENDA. So far Susan Stanton's name is the only one that has surfaced, and we are working hard to find out the identities of the Final Five.

Fortunately I won't have to do what Deanna Biers (aka Number 3) did to find out that information and I'll definitely let you TransGriot readers in on the secret when they are revealed.