Obama Talks All Things LGBT with The Advocate

In an exclusive Chicago sit-down with The Advocate's Kerry Eleveld, Democratic front-runner Barack Obama discusses "don't ask, don't tell," Rev. Wright, and what he would do for LGBT Americans if he becomes president.

By Kerry Eleveld

Democratic presidential front-runner Barack Obama has been weathering a small storm lately in the LGBT community for being too tight-lipped with gay and lesbian news media.

Unlike his rival Hillary Clinton, who's given interviews to Logo and several local papers since appearing on the cover of The Advocate last fall, the Illinois senator has only talked once, to address the Donnie McClurkin controversy. But last week, his campaign offered our magazine an exclusive sit-down in Chicago with the man who may well become the next President of the United States.

To some extent, it symbolizes the brilliance of a protracted primary contest where candidates continually pivot and adjust in order to engage ever more voters. Had the race stopped cold in the snows of New Hampshire, gays and lesbians would have been left with one interview of record for each Democratic candidate in total.

But in a wide-ranging interview this Monday, Sen. Obama discussed "don't ask, don't tell," Rev. Wright, and why LGBT folks should lead on marriage equality, not politicians. Some may call the chat a shrewd political move made by the Obama camp ahead of the April 22nd Pennsylvania primary. We call it access.

The Advocate: Let's start with what's hot, why the silence on gay issues? You've only done one other interview with the LGBT press. I know people wish they were hearing more from you.

Sen. Obama: I don't think it's fair to say silence on gay issues. The gay press may feel like I'm not giving them enough love. But basically, all press feels that way at all times. Obviously, when you've got limited amount of time, you've got so many outlets. We tend not to do a whole bunch of specialized press. We try to do general press for a general readership.

But I haven't been silent on gay issues. What's happened is, I speak oftentimes to gay issues to a public general audience. When I spoke at Ebenezer Church for King Day, I talked about the need to get over the homophobia in the African-American community, when I deliver my stump speeches routinely I talk about the way that antigay sentiment is used to divide the country and distract us from issues that we need to be working on, and I include gay constituencies as people that should be treated with full honor and respect as part of the American family.

So I actually have been much more vocal on gay issues to general audiences than any other presidential candidate probably in history. What I probably haven't done as much as the press would like is to put out as many specialized interviews. But that has more to do with our focus on general press than it does on … I promise you the African-American press says the same thing.

And Spanish-language?

And Spanish-language [outlets] had the same gripe. Just generally, we have generally tried to speak to broader audiences. That's all that is.

I think the underlying fear of the gay community is that if you get into office, will LGBT folks be last on the priority list?

I guess my point would be that the fact that I'm raising issues accordant to the LGBT community in a general audience rather than just treating you like a special interest that is sort of off in its own little box – that, I think, is more indicative of my commitment. Because ultimately what that shows is that I'm not afraid to advocate on your behalf outside of church, so to speak. It's easy to preach to the choir; what I think is harder is to speak to a broader audience about why these issues are important to all Americans.

If you were elected, what do you plan to do for the LGBT community -- what can you reasonably get done?

I reasonably can see "don't ask, don't tell" eliminated. I think that I can help usher through an Employment Non-Discrimination Act and sign it into law.

You think it's transgender-inclusive?

I think that's going to be tough, and I've said this before. I have been clear about my interest in including gender identity in legislation, but I've also been honest with the groups that I've met with that it is a heavy lift through Congress. We've got some Democrats who are willing to vote for a non-inclusive bill but we lose them on an inclusive bill, and we just may not be able to generate the votes. I don't know. And obviously, my goal would be to get the strongest possible bill -- that's what I'll be working for.

The third thing I believe I can get done is in dealing with federal employees, making sure that their benefits, that their ability to transfer health or pension benefits the same way that opposite-sex couples do, is something that I'm interested in making happen and I think can be done with some opposition, some turbulence, but I think we can get that done.

And finally, an area that I'm very interested in is making sure that federal benefits are available to same-sex couples who have a civil union. I think as more states sign civil union bills into law the federal government should be helping to usher in a time when there's full equality in terms of what that means for federal benefits.

I assume you're talking about the Defense of Marriage Act.

Absolutely, and I for a very long time have been interested in repeal of DOMA.

Do you think it's possible to get full repeal of DOMA? As you know, Senator Clinton is only looking at repealing the plank of DOMA that prohibits the federal government from recognizing state-sanctioned unions.

I don't know. But my commitment is to try to make sure that we are moving in the direction of full equality, and I think the federal government historically has led on civil rights -- I'd like to see us lead here too.

Back to "don't ask, don't tell" real quick -- you've said before you don't think that's a heavy lift. Of course, it would be if you had Joint Chiefs who were against repeal. Is that something you'll look at?

I would never make this a litmus test for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Obviously, there are so many issues that a member of the Joint Chiefs has to deal with, and my paramount obligation is to get the best possible people to keep America safe. But I think there's increasing recognition within the Armed Forces that this is a counterproductive strategy -- ya know, we're spending large sums of money to kick highly qualified gays or lesbians out of our military, some of whom possess specialties like Arab-language capabilities that we desperately need. That doesn't make us more safe, and what I want are members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who are making decisions based on what strengthens our military and what is going to make us safer, not ideology.

Both you and your wife speak eloquently about being told to wait your turn and how if you had done that, you might not have gone to law school or run for Senate or even president. To some extent, isn't that what you're asking same-sex couples to do by favoring civil unions over marriage, is to wait their turn?

I don't ask them that. Anybody who's been at an LGBT event with me can testify that my message is very explicit -- I don't think that the gay and lesbian community, the LGBT community, should take its cues from me or some political leader in terms of what they think is right for them. It's not my place to tell the LGBT community, wait your turn. I'm very mindful of Dr. King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail" where he says to the white clergy, don't tell me to wait for my freedom.

So I strongly respect the right of same-sex couples to insist that even if we got complete equality in benefits, it still wouldn't be equal because there's a stigma associated with not having the same word, marriage, assigned to it. I understand that, but my perspective is also shaped by the broader political and historical context in which I'm operating. And I've said this before -- I'm the product of a mixed marriage that would have been illegal in 12 states when I was born. That doesn't mean that had I been an adviser to Dr. King back then, I would have told him to lead with repealing an anti-miscegenation law, because it just might not have been the best strategy in terms of moving broader equality forward.

That's a decision that the LGBT community has to make. That's not a decision for me to make.

Is it fair for the LGBT community to ask for leadership? In 1963, President Kennedy made civil rights a moral issue for the country.

But he didn't overturn anti-miscegenation. Right?

True enough.

As I said, I think the LGBT community has every right to push for what it thinks is right. And I think that it's absolutely fair to ask me for leadership, and my argument would be that I'm ahead of the curve on these issues compared to 99% of most elected officials around the country on this issue. So I think I've shown leadership.

What event or person has most affected your perceptions of or relationship to the LGBT community?

Well, it starts with my mom, who just always instilled in me a belief that everybody's of equal worth and a strong sense of empathy -- that you try to see people through their eyes, stand in their shoes. So I think that applies to how I see all people.

Somebody else who influenced me, I actually had a professor at Occidental -- now, this is embarrassing because I might screw up his last name -- Lawrence Golden, I think it was. He was a wonderful guy. He was the first openly gay professor that I had ever come in contact with, or openly gay person of authority that I had come in contact with. And he was just a terrific guy. He wasn't proselytizing all the time, but just his comfort in his own skin and the friendship we developed helped to educate me on a number of these issues.

Did you have a chance to ask him about being gay?

I'm sure we did, but as I said, he was really comfortable in his own skin, and the relationship was a strong friendship and I never felt as if I had to get over any mental hurdles to be close to him or to learn from him. He's probably somebody who had a strong influence.

How old were you then?

Eighteen … 19. It does remind me, though, I remember in my first two years of college that was when I first saw students who were self-identified gay and lesbian come out and start organizing around gay issues, so that would have been in 1979 and '80. I think what's encouraging is just to see how much progress has been made in such a relatively short period of time.

Just draw that thought out a little bit in terms of comparing it to the African-American civil rights movement.

You always want to be careful comparing groups that have been discriminated against because each group's experiences are different. I think that the transition toward fuller acceptance of the LGBT community has happened without some of the tumult and violence that accompanied the civil rights movement. But we still have a long ways to go, and I think that it also obviously varies geographically. I think in urban communities, you can't say there's full equality, but in terms of the LGBT community daily round they're not as likely to experience certainly the discrimination that they experienced 25 years ago.

Whereas, in the African-American community, you can still see some fairly overt racism. On the other hand, in rural communities, I think attitudes are slower to change.

There's plenty of homophobia to go around, but you have a unique perspective into the African-American community. Is there a..…

I don't think it's worse than in the white community. I think that the difference has to do with the fact that the African-American community is more churched and most African-American churches are still fairly traditional in their interpretations of Scripture. And so from the pulpit or in sermons you still hear homophobic attitudes expressed. And since African-American ministers are often the most prominent figures in the African-American community those attitudes get magnified or amplified a little bit more than in other communities.

Do you think there's a specific prescriptive, which is not to say that there's more homophobia in the African-American community. But is there a different answer to…

Well, I think what's important is to have some of that church leadership speak up and change its attitudes, because I think a lot of its members are taking cues from that leadership.

Do you have any regrets about the South Carolina tour? People there are still sort of mystified that you gave Donnie McClurkin the chance to get up on stage and do this, and he did go on sort of an antigay rant there.

I tell you what, my campaign is premised on trying to reach as many constituencies as possible, and to go into as many places as possible and sometimes that creates discomfort or turbulence. This goes back to your first question. If you're segmenting your base into neat categories and constituency groups and you never try to bring them together and you just speak to them individually -- so I keep the African-Americans neatly over here and the church folks neatly over there and the LGBT community neatly over there -- then these kinds of issues don't arise.

The flip side of it is, you never create the opportunity for people to have a conversation and to lift some of these issues up and to talk about them and to struggle with them and our campaign is built around the idea that we should all be talking. And that creates some discomfort because people discover, gosh, within the Democratic Party or within Barack Obama's campaign or within whatever sets of constituencies there are going to be some different points of view that might even be offensive to some folks. That's not unique to this issue. I mean, ironically, my biggest … the biggest political news surrounding me over the last three weeks has been Reverend Wright, who offended a whole huge constituency with some of his statements but has been very good on gay and lesbian issues. I mean he's one of the leaders in the African-American community of embracing, speaking out against homophobia, and talking about the importance of AIDS.

And so nobody is going to be perfectly aligned with my views. So what I hope is that people take me for who I am, for what I've said and for what I've displayed in terms of my commitment to these issues, but understanding that there's going to be a range of constituencies that I'm reaching out to and working on issues that we have in common, even though I may differ with them on other issues. And that's true, also, by the way … well, I think that's going to be true so long as I'm reaching out beyond the traditional Democratic base.

Izza Lopez Wins A Round In Discrimination Case

Plaintiff wins round in transgender case

By MARY FLOOD
mary.flood@chron. com
April 8, 2008, 10:20PM
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle

She says she didn't get the job because she was born male.

The company says it wasn't that, claiming she misrepresented herself.

In a letter rescinding the job, the employer complained she presented herself as a woman at her interview, but the background check revealed she was a man.

And the judge said that despite requests to end the case now, this closely watched lawsuit will go forward to mediation and, if necessary, to a jury.

Last week, U.S. District Judge Nancy Atlas, in a 31-page opinion, refused to dismiss the case of 27-year-old Izza Lopez. Born Raul Jr., Lopez claims the Houston radiology chain River Oaks Imaging and Diagnostic wrongfully pulled its 2005 offer to employ her as an appointment scheduler.

River Oaks Imaging said in legal papers that it is just following its policy of refusing to hire people whose background checks reveal they misrepresented themselves to get hired.

A law professor who specializes in these issues and a lawyer for Lambda Legal, a national gay and lesbian civil rights group, both say the case is unusual and could set at least a local precedent and possibly be cited elsewhere.

"Lopez has stated a legally viable claim of discrimination as a male who failed to conform with traditional male stereotypes, " Atlas wrote. Lopez's suit said she'd identified as female for years and she has been accepted as female by friends and family for some time.

Motivation an issue

The judge said if a jury gets the case, it will have to decide whether the company was just following policy on interview misrepresentations and made a decision without regard to Lopez's sex or whether Lopez's gender nonconformance actually motivated the company.

Atlas noted that Lopez put both her male given name and female adopted name on her River Oaks Imaging employment application papers and her background check papers. The judge also said a River Oaks Imaging employee knew Lopez was a transgender female.

Sara Benson, a visiting professor at the University of Illinois College of Law who writes on sexual orientation legal issues, said it is a victory for Lopez that she got the case to proceed to trial.

"This opinion creates something people can cite. It can be used to persuade," she said, even though a Houston trial court does not rule other federal courts.

She said it's relatively rare in an employment discrimination case for a judge to find there might be direct evidence of discrimination, as with the letter in this case.

Benson said the letter rescinding the job offer might be seen by a jury as a reflection of a "neutral policy" against hiring individuals whose background checks conflict with their applications or as a "cover-up for sex discrimination. "

Happy with decision
Lopez, who works with medical records, said this week that she's grateful the judge is letting the case go forward.

"I'm happy the judge's order recognizes the strength of my claim," she said.

She said she doesn't see herself as someone who wants to be in a public fight, but she felt the injustice was too much to let pass.

"I never wanted any of this. Somehow it found me," she said.

"I hope that everything I'm doing eventually is advantageous for some other transgender person. I hope I am not doing it in vain," said Lopez, who has legally changed her first name from Raul to Izabella.

Not a protected status

Lopez is not specifically claiming she was discriminated against because she is a transgender woman.

Being transgender is not a legally protected status. Rather, her legal point is that she was discriminated against because she did not meet the gender stereotypes of her would-be employer, a matter the U.S. Supreme Court has said can be protected.

In that case, a female associate at an accounting firm was passed over for promotion because she did not meet sexual stereotypes regarding behavior and appearance.

Lopez, who after being told she was hired by River Oaks Imaging quit her old job and couldn't get it back, is seeking damages for lost pay and benefits, and for emotional distress, pain and suffering.

'Not part of what we do'

River Oaks Imaging CEO Jim King said he cannot discuss the Lopez case.

"We are an equal opportunity employer and we have a diverse group of employees," he said. With 12 offices, River Oaks Imaging has about 400 employees, he said.

"We are very proud of our record of promoting employees," King said.
"Discrimination is not part of what we do."

He said the company does not believe it did anything wrong.

Mediation may not help

Howard Dulmage, the Houston lawyer for River Oaks Imaging, said the firm had a transgender employee when Lopez applied and has many gay and lesbian employees as well.

He said this case may have started with a misunderstanding, "but a lot of gas got thrown on the fire because of issues that are bigger than just this case."

Dulmage said he does not expect mediation will work because his client and Lopez are so far apart and his client had no ill intent in this matter.

Lambda Legal lawyer Cole Thaler of Atlanta, who handles transgender cases for the group and is working on Lopez's, said the judge's opinion "affirms that transgender people are not being deceptive by being themselves."

Thaler said this appears to be the first time in this federal circuit that such a case has been allowed to proceed.



Link to Houston Chronicle story

Detroit and Kansas City Pass Transgender Protections

It continues to be a major source of irritation to me when city after city and state after state passes transgender protections and the Feds still obstinately don't get it. (or don't want to get it in Barney's case)

You can now add Kansas City, MO and Detroit to the ever lengthening list of 90 municipalities, 12 states, and Washington, D.C., in providing such protection

Yesterday the Detroit City Council voted 8-1 to amend the City's nondiscrimination ordinance to included transgender people.

"The Detroit City Council believes that it is a necessity for every Detroit citizen to be protected from all forms of discrimination, injustice, and harm, " said Kenneth Cockrel, Jr., Detroit City Council President. It is for this reason that the Detroit City Council affirms the addition of gender identity as a protected class within its Human Rights Ordinance. The practices and policies of the City of Detroit should promote a public confidence in the fairness and equal treatment of any and all human beings. Detroit is a welcoming city, and all of our policies must reflect this openness and commitment to social justice. The Detroit City Council expresses the desire for justice for everyone."

On April 2 the City Council of Kansas City unanimously voted to add gender identity and expression as protected categories in the city’s nondiscrimination policies.

Councilmember Beth Gottstein, who sponsored the measure, said, “If our city code doesn’t protect everyone, it protects no one. I am proud that we have taken this action to make clear that no one in Kansas City should have to face discrimination.”

Mayor Mark Funkhouser said, “Perhaps it was an oversight that gender identity was not included in the original legislation. If so, it was a mistake that we must now right.”

So Ted and Barney, what's holding y'all back?

2008 March Madness Post Mortem

Congratulations to the Kansas Jayhawks and the Tennessee Lady Vols, your NCAA hoops champs for 2008.

As you'll notice, on my men's bracket I not only picked the championship game, but picked Kansas to win.

If Memphis had hit their free throws down the stretch it would have been an incorrect pick and their fans would still be partying on Beale Street. But I'd watched them earn their bricklayer's union cards all through the season and I felt that one day their lack of shooting prowess at the line would cost them.

They laid enough bricks down the stretch to let Kansas back in the game. Once Chalmers hit the three to tie it that will never be forgotten by Jayhawk Nation, it was over. You don't give Kansas (or at least this particular Kansas team) five extra minutes to beat you.


For the women's bracket I picked three of the Final Four teams, but had UConn winning it all. But I didn't foresee Candice Wiggins dropping 40 points in two tournament games, making a serious run at Sheryl Swoopes 15 year old record for total points in a tournament (177), and powering Stanford to the championship game.

As for the Candice vs. Candace II battle, I had a feeling that this game wasn't going to be as close as the December 22 one in which Stanford upset the Lady Vols in Cali.

My intuition proved correct as Tennessee beat down the Cardinal 64-48 to become the first school to win back to back NCAA women's titles since Uconn threepeated in 2002-2003-2004

Well, this college season's entered into the history books. Only seven more months until the 2008-09 season tips off.

HBCUs Have A Responsibility To LGBT Students

HBCUs Have A Responsibility To LGBT Students
Campus Silence Is Read As Lack Of Support

By Eric Pritchard
May 17, 2007, 09:00 AM
From diverseeducation.com

The article, “At Conservative Black Colleges, Gays Struggle to Find Their
Voice,” that recently ran on DiverseEducation.com hit home for me like no other news story in recent memory. In 2002, I graduated from a historically Black college. A first-generation college student, I was a celebrated student-leader who was well-respected by the administration, faculty and my peers on campus. Still, being Black, gay, proud, but fearfully silent, my college experience was not all that different from the experiences of the lesbian and gay students referenced in the story.

It was never said but implicitly understood that being gay was not going to win me any allies or let me keep any. There weren’t any student support services made explicitly available to lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender students on campus. And, I imagine that even if I could convince other LGBT students to create a student organization with me, I might have been met with the same resistance experienced by the students quoted in the article.

The Black community’s contentious relationship with gender and sexuality is not a new phenomenon, yet I believe there is a depth to the situation that should be further explored. For example, to evaluate the relevance of an LGBT student organization the same way one might a drill team or fashion club is outrageous. The LGBT identity of these students is not a hobby, but represents a part of their lives and directly impacts their ability to succeed academically. What I think is truly problematic is the fact that students are being forced to develop their own means of support in the first place. The development and sustainment of an affirming and safe space for LGBT students is an institution’s responsibility. It is absurd for HBCUs to demand that a student demonstrate academic excellence when administrators are unwilling to create a space where academic success and development are even possible. Simply letting LGBT students organize their own groups seems like a toothless solution to the emotional and physical terrorism of homophobia and transphobia that they may endure on any given day.

I am not so naïve as to believe that my appeals to the humanity of others to react humanely toward students will be seen as anything more than idealistic. To that end, I want to appeal to the dollars and sense of administrators, for if they don’t care about people, they must certainly care about their own pocketbooks. Every time they have a situation where they do not take a stand against hatred and bigotry, they create a silent declaration that hate and bigotry are tolerable. In the case of the HBCUs, silence is read as a publicly adamant lack of support for the LGBT students on their campuses. This contributes to a culture of hate that will ultimately result in someone being hurt or killed. Many HBCUs are already under-resourced and struggling financially. Therefore, it would be prudent to avoid lawsuits by taking the necessary steps to change the culture of the campuses toward LGBT students.

One could try to excuse some of the lack of support by pointing to the minimal financial resources HBCUs have in comparison with their predominately White counterparts. However, that argument cannot hold when the Human Rights Campaign’s HBCU outreach program is not taken full advantage of by those institutions. While I applaud the efforts and successes of HRC’s program, I would encourage anyone invested in the success of LGBT students of color to be equally mindful of their experiences at traditionally White institutions. There, these students often experience race- and class-based oppression in their LGBT support services and campus centers.

LGBT students at HBCUs give me hope as an HBCU alumnus. The growth in visible LGBT communities on these campuses, when coupled with the organized agitation of the trustees, administration, alumni and fellow students, could help change the tide in some way. Also, I encourage all HBCU alumni, administration and faculty who identify as LGBT persons or allies to promote courageous conversations about gender and sexuality at their institutions, for this is necessary to facilitate change. As Black lesbian feminist poet Audre Lorde reminds us, we are not separated by our differences, but by our silence.

Eric Pritchard is a doctoral candidate in the English, Composition and Rhetoric Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Colleges Recruit GLBT Students At UC San Diego

If you're a college bound GLBT student or ally on the West Coast looking for a GLBT friendly campus, you may want to make that hop down to San Diego on Friday, April 11 for the Campus Pride College Admission Fair.

It's free for any LGBT or Ally youth and their families. No registration is necessary for this event. It will be taking place at the Price Center Ballroom on the University of California-San Diego campus from 11 AM to 2 PM PDT and is being hosted by the UC San Diego LGBT Resource Center.

In addition to grand prize drawings featuring iPods, books, and CD's throughout the day, there will be seminars during the event as well on these topics:

“Finding Your LGBT-Friendly Campus”
by Shane L. Windmeyer, Executive Director of Campus Pride
11:15 a.m. to 11:45 a.m.

“Pros and Cons of Selecting a United States Service Academy:
The LGBT Experience”
by USNAOut.org -- Alumni Group
11:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.

“Navigating the College Admissions Process”
by the UC San Diego Office for Admissions and Relations with Schools
12:15 p.m. to 12:45 p.m.

"Point Foundation Scholarships”
Financial support, mentoring and hope to meritorious students who are marginalized due to sexual orientation or gender identity
12:45 p.m. to 1:15 p.m.

“Financing Your Education”
by the UC San Diego Department of Financial Aid
1:15 p.m. to 1:45 p.m.

As of April 3, 2008 this was the list of colleges and organizations that were slated to participate in this event:

Bard College at Simon's Rock
Bennington College
Boise State University
California Lutheran University
California State University, San Marcos
Columbia College Chicago
Eckerd College
Eugene Lang College
Emory University
Georgetown University
GLSEN (Local/Regional Chapters)
Green Mountain College
Humboldt State University
Illinois Institute of Technology
Ithaca College
Kalamazoo Collegee
Laboratory Institute of Merchandising (LIM College)
Lewis & Clark College
Mills College
Northeastern University
Pennsylvania State University
Pitzer College
Point Foundation
Princeton University
Roosevelt University
Stanford University
Sonoma State University
University of Arizona
University at Buffalo
University of California, Riverside
University of California, San Diego
University of Colorado at Boulder
University of Denver
University of Illinois at Springfield
University of Maryland
University of the Pacific
University of Pennsylvania
University of Puget Sound
USNAOUT.org -- Alumni Organization
University of San Francisco
University of Southern California
University of Utah
University of Washington
Whitman College
Whittier College
Yale University

If you need further details about this event, you can visit www.campusclimateindex.org/events contact Campus Pride at (704) 277-6710, visit their website at http://www.campuspride.org/ or e-mail them at info@campuspride.org.

Candice vs. Candace II

The 2008 NCAA women's basketball championship game will come down to a second battle between the two best players in women's collegiate basketball and probable number one and number two overall picks in the upcoming 2008 WNBA draft. It'll be Stanford's Candice Wiggins versus Tennessee's Candace Parker.

During a regular season game played in Stanford, CA back in December, the then Number 5 ranked Cardinal shocked then unbeaten and Number 1 ranked Tennessee by beating them 73-69 in overtime. Wiggins dropped 22 points in that first game including one of two free throws with 28.6 seconds left to seal the win and snap an 11-game series losing streak to the Lady Vols.

Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer remarked after the victory, "I just want to say one thing. Tonight Candice is spelled with an 'i."

Well, it's Round 2 of the Candice vs. Candace battle in Tampa, but this time the NCAA national championship is at stake. Which way will we spell the name tonight?

Will it be Ms. Wiggins, Tara VanDerveer and the Cardinal cutting down the nets and celebrating their second straight victory over the Lady Vols or will it be Ms. Parker, Pat Summitt and the Lady Vols avenging their earlier defeat?

At any rate, it'll be a fun game to watch.

ID Issues In Thailand

TransGriot Note: One of the things that's a major irritant to those of us who transition is the refusal of some nations to allow transgender people to change our identity documents to reflect the person we are now, not at birth. This September 20, 2007 article touches on some of the issues that mismatched ID can cause a transitioned transperson and how those identity document issues can lead to other issues that impact our quality of life.

Please call me "Miss," Transgendered Thais Say
September 20, 2007
Copyright © 2008 AFP

BANGKOK (AFP) — Yonlada Krerkkong Suanyot says she's every bit a woman, except for on her identity card which identifies her as a man.

Yonlada was born male but completed her sex change operation five years ago and has lived as woman for even longer.

Although Thailand has a worldwide reputation as a paradise for transsexuals, with gender reassignment surgery widely available and relatively cheap, the kingdom does not allow people to officially change their gender for legal purposes.

Activists are now trying to change that, proposing a new law that would allow transvestites and transsexuals to legally change their gender and adopt the title "Miss".

It's a minor legal change with profound legal implications.

The difference between Yonlada's appearance and the gender on official documents such as her national identity card and passport has caused her countless problems, including rejection for bank loans and refusal of jobs.

"I have lost a lot of opportunities to work for good companies or even government agencies," she said.

When she tried to get a bank loan to start her own business, the loan was refused because the bank thought she was using a stolen ID.

"I know the bank thought I didn't look reliable," she said.

Some transsexuals also have problems travelling overseas, because they are listed as men on their passports but appear as women at the immigration counter.

Natee Teerarojjaongs, chairman of the Gay Political Group, said he had proposed the legal change to Thailand's parliament specifically to end such discrimination.

"This would clear obstacles for them working and travelling," he said.

Natee is also pushing for the law to cover people who dress as the opposite sex or have undergone some surgery, as well as those who have completed their gender reassignment surgery.

Thailand is believed to have one of the largest transsexual populations in the world.

Transsexuals, known locally as kathoey, have long had a place in Thai culture, with roles reserved for them in traditional festivals, in folk theatre, and even as geisha-style "companions."

Kathoey are also among Thailand's most visible cultural exports, with Vegas-style transsexual cabarets performing to audiences of thousands and popular movies about their lives playing the global film festival circuit.

That history of acceptance, combined with easy access to Thailand's top-rate hospitals, has made it relatively easy for people to undergo a sex change.

Academics estimate at least 10,000 live in Thailand, though other guesses are more than 10 times higher. Even the conservative number would mean that per capita, Thailand has many more transsexuals than most developed countries.

"We estimate that only three percent of transvestites complete their sex change because the medical bills are so expensive, but we want to make sure everyone is equal and can be covered by the law," he said.

There would be conditions to legally change genders, including a mandatory psychiatric evaluation and a background check, he said.

Natee found a sympathetic ear in member of parliament Kanjana Silpa-archa, who heads the subcommittee on women's affairs.

"I believe people should have equal rights. Transgendered people should have the same rights as any other sex," she said. "For a person who is not happy with his sex and who lives as the opposite sex, he deserves the chance to receive what he wants."

Kanjana's committee has taken up Natee's proposal, but the measure still needs approval from the higher-ranking committee on women, youth and the elderly before going to the entire parliament.

The current parliament was appointed by the military after last year's coup, so Natee and Kanjana acknowledge that there's not much time to give the bill a hearing before legislative elections on December 23.

Yonlada said the current system just encourages transgendered people to break the law by getting fake IDs. She admits to bribing a Bangkok city worker to get a fake card with the title "Miss," but said that didn't help in the long run as potential employers found her out anyway.

"If we could really have the title 'Miss,' it would help us live our lives more easily," she said.

Miss USA 2008

The Miss USA 2008 pageant will be held in Las Vegas this weekend, and that means that sistah Miss USA 2007 Rachel Smith will be crowning her successor.

I'll still be glued to the set watching this year's pageant because for the first time, the Lone Star State will be represented by a sistah.

Crystle Stewart became the first African-American winner of the Miss Texas USA pageant on July 1, 2007. Some people consider 1995 winner Chelsi Smith as the first African-American winner, but in a press conference not long after her crowning she pointed out she was biracial. She later went on to become Miss USA and Miss Universe.



Winning the Miss Texas USA pageant is tougher than winning Miss USA or Miss Universe. The Miss Texas pageant sometimes has more than 100 women competing, and many of those winners had to battle their way through local pageants in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and other locales around the state just to get to the state pageant. Thanks to us pageant-happy peeps in Texas it's also one of the few state pageants in the Miss USA system that is televised live.

Miss Texas USA winners have a prolific history of capturing the Miss USA title. The Lone Star State representative has won Miss USA eight times, with a notable streak during the 80's in which a Miss Texas delegate captured the title five straight years. 1986 Miss Texas USA winner Christy Fitchner beat future Oscar winning actress Halle Berry for that year's Miss USA title and was first runner up for Miss Universe. However, with all that success, a Miss Texas has only won Miss Universe once.

The last Miss Texas to win the title was in 2001, and my fellow Cougar Crystle will be trying to end that title drought. I'll be rooting for her to do just that this Friday night and hopefully go on to capture Miss Universe.

Whatever Happened To My Old Friend....

When I had my monthly newspaper column in THE LETTER, I wrote one commentary that was published in April 2006 about my philosophy on friendships and how I treat them like marriages. As far as I'm concerned they are till death do you part, they are valuable, and they take just as much work, effort and open communication to sustain them and have them continue to flourish.

Most of the time I do a good job of staying in contact with old friends, but for others its been a challenge.

Mes Deux Cents has a recent post on her blog which talked about an old friend of hers from first grade that moved away and from time to time she thinks about her and wonders how her life turned out.

That got me thinking about some the peeps I was friends with BT (before transition) and AT (after transition) that were close at one point, and they either moved away, I did or we drifted apart.

While I was living in H-town I did find myself running into my classmates that stayed in Houston to either attend college or still lived there. Some, like my fifth grade classmate Clyde Drexler (yes, that Clyde Drexler) it was impossible not to know what they were up to and how their life turned out. Others it hasn't been as easy to get that information.

Some of the people I knew in earlier grades I got reunited with in high school or college. Others I would see in a news story, like my old junior high school classmate Vonda Higgins who became a HPD undercover officer and was shot and left paralyzed after a 1998 drug bust went horribly wrong for her and her partner. Other I heard about when they ran for public office, or were featured in news articles good and bad.

Mes Deux's post had me reminisicing about a girl named Stephanie King who was in my fifth grade class as well. I frequently found myself during my airline days being reunited with my classmates from grade school, junior high, high school and college. There was one time I was reunited with a girl I had a crush on in elementary school during my uncle's wedding in 1990. She was the wedding coordinator, and I discovered she worked at the airport for US Customs when I went to work a few days later. There were others I ran into at various clubs during the 80's and early 90's. My junior high classmate Kimberli I used to run into when I was accompanying my mother on one of her shoe shopping forays at Wholesale Shoe Warehouse. Some of those reunions became even more interesting after I transitioned.

When Stephanie's father's job transferred him to San Antonio, she ended up moving there just before our Christmas break. One day in 1989 between flights we'd been having one of those 'I wonder what my old classmate is doing' conversations in the breakroom and I excused myself to start working a San Antonio flight.

During a little down time in the flight I found myself wondering what happened to her when this beautiful tall, sister walked up to check in. She mentioned she was visiting relatives and old school friends in Houston. When I asked her what school, thinking she'd moved in high school, she mentioned she moved in fifth grade.

I remarked to her as I checked her in for the flight that I had a classmate who'd moved to San Antonio in fifth grade when I was at Frost Elementary. She raised an eyebrow for a moment, then called me by name. I glanced at the name of the passenger record on the computer screen in front of me. It was Stephanie. I didn't recognize her at first because she used to wear glasses in elementary school and the stylishly dressed sistah standing in front of me wasn't.

She and I exchanged phone numbers and we talked off and on for about two years before I lost track of her because I lost her phone number when I moved to my new apartment.

There are others I haven't seen since high school and in some cases junior high school. There are others I met during the early stages of my transition that I find myself thinking about as well. I find myself wondering how their lives turned out, and hope they are happy and healthy. I even find myself wondering about some of my old teachers as well at times. It's a major reason I don't miss a high school reunion and the big 30 year one for my class is coming up in 2010.

Well, if any of my old classmates, co-workers or friends happen to be surfing the Net and stumble across this post, hollar at me. As you can see by this blog and the number of posts I have on it, I have much to tell you.

It's Houston's Turn To Protest An HRC Dinner

The Houston HRC dinner will be held on Saturday, April 12 at the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston, and like other HRC dinners elsewhere in the country they will have company.

The transgender community continues its series of protests of HRC dinners that night. According to some sources attendance has taken major hits at the HRC dinners previously held in other locales. The protests are estimated to have cost HRC $1 million in donation income.

The Houston protest is being coordinated by Phyllis Frye, Josephine Tittsworth and Vanessa Edwards-Foster and they plan to be there for several hours.

If you wish to participate meet these ladies at the corner of Polk Street and Avenue de las Americas sometime around 4:30 CDT. They'll put you in the best position to stand up for your rights.

Give 'em hell, H-town!

Donna Rose

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


I have much love, respect and admiration for Donna Rose. But she probably didn't feel the love when our paths first crossed back at the 2004 Southern Comfort Conference in Atlanta.

I was there to facilitate a Transsistahs-Transbrothers event we held during the 2004 SCC and Donna was conducting a seminar. It had just been recently announced that she was joining the HRC board and Monica Helms and Angela Brightfeather caught me after the TSTB event concluded. They asked me to tag along with them to check out the seminar she was conducting.

I remember one of the things I said to her that day was, "Donna, we are proud of you and the fact that one of our own is finally getting on that board. But what I and others who have been burned by HRC want to know is WHEN they screw us again, will you stand with them or with your people?"

Our paths crossed again at the 2006 IFGE Conference in Philadelphia, but that was the year I won my Trinity and after that speech I gave, I had half the convention either congratulating me or wanting to talk to me about various subjects. I also bounced away from the hotel not long after the awards luncheon concluded to hang out with my homegirls Dionne Stallworth and Jordana LeSesne to not only tour the city, but meet with local GLBT leaders in Philly. We didn't actually see each other again until Dawn, AC and I were checking out of the hotel on Sunday morning before we hit the road for the drive back to Louisville and I was engrossed in a conversation with Alison Laing.

Donna's answered the question I asked in 2004 and then some. She's been a sterling example of the ethically moral leadership that Dawn and I have talked about that our community needs. She's a Trinity Award winner like myself, blogger and eloquent spokesperson for our community. While she was on the HRC board she pushed transgender employment issues along with Jamison Green and tried to get them to see that adding transgender people to ENDA helped them as well to no avail. She even took time out of her busy schedule to compete in the 2006 Gay Games held in Chicago and win a gold medal in wrestling.

She's continuing to speak and be a postive role model for all of us and I'm looking forward to the New England Trans Pride March in Northampton, MA this June and having a chance to finally sit down with her, have a substinative chat and extend an invitation for her to hang out with us in the Bluegrass state.

Transgender Grognard

A grognard is a wargaming enthusiast, and one of the things post transition that I still like to do from time to time is play wargames.

What's a wargame? Well, the oldest one is chess. Wargaming is basically playing chess, but instead of moving knights, pawns, bishops and rooks around a square board, you're moving armored and ground units across a mapboard.

While the games I play these days are predominately computer ones, I originally got into playing wargames back in my teens as an outgrowth of my love of history.

I started playing World War II games, and since the Cold War was still raging then I gradually shifted my interests into playing more modern era games. I eventually bought Avalon Hill's The Arab-Israeli Wars and started gravitating to SPI games to accommodate my expanding desires in playing out the modern history and all its what-if's in those games.

Back in the 70's wargaming was a fast growing and booming hobby and business, and one of the popular publishers of the games besides Avalon Hill was the James Dunnigan founded Simulations Publications Inc. or SPI for short.

SPI's titles were mainly modern warfare games, and one of my SPI favorites I bought was a game called The Next War.

The Next War simulated the clash between the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact vs NATO. The game was released in 1977, which was a period in which the Warsaw Pact not only had the numbers, but a rough parity with NATO as well.

I bought my copy in the mid 80's, and since I would frequently get stuck playing as the Warsaw Pact, I bought a book called Russian Military Power.

I also started buying a US government publication being put out called Soviet Military Power in 1985 to better understand Soviet military doctrine, organize my units and think tactically like a Warsaw Pact general when playing with those units. I eventually purchased the 1983 and 1984 issues from the local US Government bookstore downtown and kept up with each subsequent release of it until 1990.

It paid off in spectacular fashion one day. I was playing a guy who I surprised by committing 2/3 of my air units and launching massive air attacks against the central German SAM belts and key SAM sites, various frontline NATO units and key air bases.

We were playing a Next War game scenario in which the attack was timed to coincide with the annual Warsaw Pact spring maneuvers, which meant I had double the forces available at the start. As a concession to him I agreed to play without using nukes and chemical weapons otherwise my initial assault would have been even more devastating.

In addition to taking minimal losses in the airstrikes, I got lucky and got the dice roll that kept him from getting REFORGER reinforcement units from the US, dropped Soviet paratroop divisions into Denmark, Austria and Holland and got the rolls that took those countries out of the fight.

Then after launching the ground assault across Northern and Central West Germany I piled eight Soviet and two East German divisions in the Fulda Gap area, moved the artillery units in place and blew a hole through his combined US-West German force that allowed me to take the Frankfurt-am-Main area and capture the REFORGER bases as well while my Soviet blitzkrieg was rolling into Holland, Denmark and Belgium. I was also rolling a Warsaw Pact force made up of Czech, Hungarian, and Russian units through Austria to link up with the paratroopers, move into southern Bavaria and prep for an attack on northern Italy.

Eight turns later I was the master of Western Europe and my opponent was pissed. It was the first time he'd played against an African-American opponent and I believe the reason for his pissivity was that he realized he'd made the fatal mistake of underestimating my intelligence and skill level in addition to the overwhelming nature of the victory I achieved.

The next time we played I wasn't so lucky. He corrected his deployment mistakes I'd taken advantage of the previous time we played, I got the adverse dice rolls that took some of my Warsaw Pact satellite nations out of the game and he ended up reunifying Germany and eastern Europe on his terms.

I got into some modern naval wargames that Victory Games put out as well entitled 2nd Fleet, 3rd Fleet, 5th Fleet and 7th Fleet, the titles of these game coincided with the names of the US Navy Fleets tasked for coverage in various areas of the globe and which the combat took place.

2nd Fleet covered the North Atlantic, Third Fleet the Aleutian Islands/North Pacific, Fifth Fleet the Middle East/Indian Ocean, and Seventh Fleet the Far East. They also put out one called Sixth Fleet, but I could never find it in the shop I bought my games from.

I enjoyed playing them, but as my airline career advanced, I started traveling and then dealt with my gender transition I began having less time available in my life to play those games. Wargames have hundreds of units to tediously set up even before you make your first combat moves on the board and take up space and time.

The home computer explosion eliminated that time and space problem. You could play and save the game until you had time in your schedule to pick up where you left off playing it.

One of my fave computer wargames I own is called People's General, which simulates a postulated future war between US and Chinese forces in which China has conquered Asia and the US/UN force has to take it back. You can also play as the Chinese and conquer Asia, or a third scenario in which Vietnam decides to conquer the Asian landmass as well.


My favorite computer wargame I own is Star Wars Rebellion. I'm a Star Wars fanatic and when the game came out in the late 90's I jumped at the chance to play it. It's set in the time period after the destruction of the first Death Star at the battle of Yavin and before the events of the Empire Strikes Back movie.

In it you play as either the Rebel Alliance or the Empire. You have to build infrastructure to support your war machine, recruit characters and initiate R&D efforts to get better weapons while simultaneously conquering the entire 100 planet Star Wars galaxy through a combination of diplomacy and military muscle. You also have to find the hidden Rebel headquarters and destroy it in addition to capturing Mon Mothma and Luke Skywalker to win the game if you're the Empire.

If you're the Rebels, your task in addition to conquering the galaxy is to seize the Imperial capital planet of Coruscant and capture Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine.

I frequently find myself playing as the Empire and name all my Imperial Star Destroyers after right-wing pundits, Republican presidents, vice presidents and Republican congressmembers. ;)

The interesting wrinkle in Star Wars Rebellion is that unlike most wargames, it's not a turn based one in which you move, then your opponent moves. The clock is ticking and things are happening as you're making all these grand strategic moves

One unexpected benefit I received from playing wargames was learning how to think in broad strategic terms, rapidly come up with solutions to problems when the initial strategy failed, quickly reacting to and successfully resolving problems and learning how and when to make decisive moves at the proper time.

It's also a lot of fun as well.

The ACLU-Fairness Dinner

One of the neat things about being an activist and getting in the trenches to fight the good fight is that one of the benefits is getting invites to various events and parties. So earlier tonight I pulled out the formal clothes and my heels, got into diva mode and rolled over to the Ali Center with Dawn for the ACLU Kentucky-Fairness Dinner.

It was a fundraiser for both organizations and many of the liberal-progressive community peeps in Louisville and some from Lexington were in attendance. We also had several state and local politicians, judges, several U of L professors and a US senate candidate in attendance as well. Various people in the room were wearing either Clinton or Obama buttons since the primary election in Kentucky is May 20.

I got a chance to chat with Dr. Story again and had people thanking me for my role in fighting for the JCPS employment protections battle a few months ago, which I didn't expect. I had a few people complimenting me on my blog as well ad had another pleasant conversation with U of L law professor Sam Marcossin. I met him two weeks ago when I took part in a panel discussion the Kentucky Alliance Against Racist and Political Oppression sponsored on impeachment. I discovered during the conversation that he knew my mentor Phyllis Frye.

Small world moment, indeed. I had another one of those moments when during my conversation with Bob Cunningham I discovered he knew a friend of my uncle's back in Houston.

I had a lot of fun and enjoyed the stimulating, thought provoking conversations I had with the various people in the room and with my tablemates. I also enjoyed the view of the river and the city from the sixth floor dining room.

While the Muhammad Ali Center has been open almost two years, it was the first time I'd actually had a chance to visit the place, and from what I saw I'm going back on a future day off. I also had a great time tonight doing my small part in representing the transgender community as well.

I Didn't Stop Being Black When I Transitioned

One of the things that irritates the frack out of me is when I run into folks that seem to have the misguided belief that I'm not only no longer Black, but don't have any right to claim my heritage since I transitioned over ten years ago.

The only thing that changed about me is the outer shell. It now matches the way I always felt, wanted to project to the world and who I am, a strong, proud woman who happens to be unabashedly African-American. The people who are still in my life that knew 'The Twin' back in the day way back when can tell you that they felt like I was on the wrong team as well. I had one of my longtime friends who remarked to me after I pulled the trigger and finally transitioned, "What took you so long?"

I'm sick and tired of you folks who don't even read the Bible on a regular basis or who are C&E Christians spouting Bible verses out of context or quoting Paul to justify your ignorant and devoid of scientific knowledge views.

Since you peeps are so adept at kicking out Bible verses to denigrate transgender peeps like me, here's one for you to chew on: Matthew 19;12

'For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother's womb: and there are some eunuchs which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.'

BTW, Eunuchs are considered by Biblical scholars what would be in our time as transgender people.

Jesus called us to love without limits our fellow human being. That includes transgender people as well, who are also created in God's image.

Jesus also calls us to show love for others as well as for ourselves. So if some of y'all have a problem showing unconditional love to transgender peeps, it can only be because you have limited love for yourselves or have some gender issues of your own you haven't resolved.

But that's another post for another time. Moni's going to school you right now on being Black and transgender. I still have chocolate brown skin covering my now curvaceous body, except it now smoother and softer. Just because I transitioned, it doesn't shield me from being whacked with all the daily slings and arrows that being Black in America presents you with. I still get called 'nigger'. As a matter of fact I've had that epithet thrown at me more so by people in the GLBT community since I transitioned than folks outside it. I also get the displeasure of having the b-word spat at me as well.

Let me also hip you to the fact that Black transgender peeps history is intertwined with the African-American community in what Dr. King called an inescapable network of mutuality. The African-American transgender community didn't just morph out of thin air, we've always been here and a part of it.

We were part of the Civil Rights Movement of the 60's as the late Coretta Scott King pointed out, and the Dewey's Lunch Counter protest is evidence of. We helped start the GLBT rights movement at Stonewall in 1969. We have been doing our part to help uplift the race. We are your neighbors, doctors, teachers, lawyers, mothers and fathers raising kids, and someday may even be representing you at various governmental levels. One of my dear friends will be headed to Denver as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention. Some of my brothers and sisters are not as open about who they are because of the ignorance I'm calling some of you out on.

If anyone should know the pain of faith-based ignorance and the damage it causes, it should be us. Why some people would want to hurl that same level of ignorance at fellow African-Americans for superficial reasons is stupid and divisive to our unity as a people.

Just because I and my transgender brothers and sisters transitioned doesn't exclude us from claiming our history. I'm Black and proud of it, and I refuse to let anyone try to assert, whether it's from a pulpit or a street corner in the 'hood that I'm not Black because I transitioned.

'Mom, I Need To Be A Girl' Rereleased

I had the pleasure of meeting 'Just Evelyn' during a 1999 Creating Change conference in Oakland. Evelyn is a determined, single mom of 3 and pioneer of the work that she now does as a TransYouth Family Allies board member and I had a blast talking to this fascinating woman.

She wrote about about her then teenage daughter Danielle in a book entitled, 'Mom, I Need To Be A Girl and how she facilitated Danielle's transition more than ten years ago.

I read her book and for parents and care providers dealing with these issues, or people who simply wish to better educate themselves on these issues, it's a must read tome. Evelyn's common-sense filled book is recommended by TYFA as a must read for parents and young transitioners alike age 9 and up. TYFA also recommends it for the libraries of every care provider who works with children and adolescents with gender identity issues.

I'm happy to note that 'Mom, I Need To Be A Girl' is not only being rereleased, Evelyn will be donating all proceeds for the sale of the book which is available on Amazon.com to TYFA.

If you want to preview it, the book is also on Lynn Conway's website as well in several languages.

'It's Me In A Different Way'

By Jeff Kass, Rocky Mountain News
Photos by Matt McClain, Rocky Mountain News
kassj@RockyMountainNews.com
Originally published 12:30 a.m., March 1, 2008
Updated 03:13 a.m., March 1, 2008

On the first day of eighth grade, Melaina Marquez wore a polo shirt, wedge shoes and denim skirt with ruffles.

The year before, that outfit would have been out of the question. At that point, Melaina was a boy known as Manuel.

Melaina, now 15, is considered to be transgender: a person who does not identify with the sex based on his or her genitalia. She decided to tell her story after news reports last month about a 7-year-old Douglas County girl who attended school last year as a boy.

At age 2, Melaina recalls playing with Barbies and her favorite toy, a kitchenette. When she played house in pre-school, "I would always want to be the mom."

Melaina says she never struggled with her identity. But her mother, Michelle Benzor-Marquez, cannot say the same.

When Melaina was around 8 years old, she was allowed to wear light-colored lip gloss and a little blush, but only at home. Melaina's hair grew longer, little by little, but her mom had the stylist chop it off one day in sixth grade. Melaina cried the whole 20 miles to her grandmother's home.

Benzor-Marquez hoped Melaina was gay because she figured the world could better handle that than transgender.

"I know people think it's wrong to be transgender," said Melaina, who on a recent day was dressed in black jeans and a black and gold striped blouse with decorative bow. "But God made everyone different in his own way, and you can't change that. It's not a choice."

As many as 3 million

Statistics on transgender people are generally unreliable, according to advocates. Many people are scared or embarrassed to come forward and may not know about the term transgender, which came into common usage only about a decade ago.

The National Center for Transgender Equality in Washington, D.C., says it can only estimate from information that has been "cobbled together" that there may be from 1 million to 3 million people in the United States who take steps to live as the opposite sex.


Some advocates believe more transgender people are coming out. TransYouth Family Allies, which has counseled the Douglas County family, says it worked with roughly 15 families nationally last year. So far this year, the number is already more than 30, it reports.

It is not unusual for a youngster to deal with issues of sexual identity, according to experts. Trinidad (CO) sex change surgeon Marci Bowers said about 95 percent of those she has operated on told her they remember identifying with the opposite sex as young as 4 or 5 years old.

"They (the kids) are hard-wired that way," Bowers said. "Don't get caught up on the genitalia. It's the child's internal concept of their self-identity. They know who they are."

From Manuel to Melaina

In fall 2006, the Bill Reed Middle School psychologist had a meeting with Benzor-Marquez. Melaina, known then as Manuel, was being teased and harassed.

"I had to come out and say, 'My daughter is transgender,' " Benzor-Marquez recalled.

This was the first time she ever said the word - and the first step toward fully acknowledging her daughter's situation.

She then told the principal that Melaina would be living as a girl "in the future."

"His eyes got really big. He was scared. It was unknown to him," she recalled.

But he was supportive, and asked, "What can we do about this?"

Benzor-Marquez didn't know herself.

"I'll keep you posted," she said.

Melaina had about 10 sessions with a therapist, who is an expert in transgender issues. By the spring of 2007, the therapist agreed that Melaina was transgender - and psychologically balanced.

Melaina wanted to display her new identity immediately. But mom wanted to go slow. They had to check school policy and prepare answers for those who had questions.

That summer, Benzor-Marquez did her transgender homework, while Melaina grew her hair out, worked on her makeup, and prepared her wardrobe.

There was also the question of a name. Mom wanted to keep the first initial the same. She also wanted something ethnic to reflect their Mexican heritage. Benzor-Marquez's mom mentioned a Greek name, Melaina.

That worked for Benzor-Marquez.

"I named you the first time you were born," she said. "I'm picking it the second time."

Support at school

Before Melaina started eighth grade as a girl in 2007, her mom met with school employees, from secretaries on up, about Melaina's situation. During the first week of classes, someone on staff kept an eye out for her. "We wanted her to be safe and have fun and be a kid," Benzor- Marquez added.

The first day back went fine, Melaina said. Soon after, "the question" arose: "Did you have a sex change?"

If it is the most obvious question for transgender people, it is also the most bothersome.

"Nobody else has to answer that question," said Trans-Youth Family Allies executive director Kim Pearson.

Plus, U.S. standards of medical care generally have called for sex change operations only for people at least 18 years old, according to some advocates.

Now in ninth grade at Mountain View High School in Loveland, Melaina knows a lot of people and has a small circle of close friends. She is also on the girls track team.

Like the Douglas County girl, Melaina uses unisex bathrooms on campus, although she would prefer the girls' restroom. Melaina's counselor is there for her five days a week.

Benzor-Marquez said Melaina's friends have been supportive, encouraging her to ask boys out.

But Melaina also has been harassed and hurt, sometimes accidentally, sometimes not.

One classmate - she says he didn't mean for her to hear - said, "She's an it." Then there was another guy at the bus stop. He was a bit more vocal.

"She's still a guy!" he declared.

She recently had a date with boy to see the movie Beowulf. Her stepfather chaperoned. The date was teased when classmates found out he went with her, Melaina said.

Yet she counts her transition as "100 percent successful."

Mom doesn't go that far. Benzor-Marquez feels that Melaina may have become accustomed to the small but steady stream of comments and questions directed at her, and view them as normal.

But Benzor-Marquez said that parental support, working closely with school officials and being honest with classmates are among the keys to a smooth transition.

That honesty is apparent in how Melaina approaches a guy she likes.

"Have you ever heard the term transgender?" she will say. "I used to be a boy before, but now I'm female."

The response, typically, is hardly what she wants to hear.

"They'll be freaked out for a week or so, then say, 'Can we just be friends?' " Melaina said.

She has not given up. But she also reflects that she may not have a boyfriend throughout high school.

"It hurts to a point," she added. "But you either like me, or you don't."

At one point, Melaina's mother pulls a passport-sized picture out of her wallet. It could be any dark-haired boy at 21/2-years- old, dressed in khakis and a striped dress shirt.

"It's still me," Melaina said. "I don't find it gross or wrong. It's me in a different way."

Battlestar Galactica-Season 4

Like all Battlestar Galactica fans I was glued to the television starting at 10 PM EDT for an hour last night watching the season premiere.

Technically, Razor was the season premier back in November, but it was cool to see the cast for what is going to be 'sniff-sniff' the last season of BSG.

And to think I was once one of the OBSG (original Battlestar Galactica) fans who ranted about how I wasn't gonna in my words, "watch this travesty."

It's been a fun filled roller coaster ride and the writing in this long awaited season premiere didn't disappoint. I died laughing during one scene in which Admiral Adama said upon Kara's seemingly miraculous return from the dead, "Do you believe in miracles?' and Tigh answered "No" alluding to Al Michaels famous call of the final moments of the US-Soviet Union Olympic hockey game in 1980.

I have to get the Season 3 DVDs and catch up since I didn't see much of that season due to them moving it to Sunday nights ands I was working Sundays at the time.

If last nights show is indicative of what were going to see form the last season of Battlestar, then its gonna go out with all guns blazing.

Obama's Remarks On The King Assassination Anniversary

Today represents a tragic anniversary for our country. Through his faith, courage, and wisdom, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. moved an entire nation. He preached the gospel of brotherhood; of equality and justice. That's the cause for which he lived – and for which he died forty years ago today. And so before we begin, I ask you to join me in a moment of silence in memory of this extraordinary American.

There's been a lot of discussion this week about how Dr. King's life and legacy speak to us today. It's taking place in our schools and churches, on television and around the dinner table. And I suspect that much of what folks are talking about centers on issues of racial justice – on the Montgomery bus boycott and the March on Washington, on the freedom rides and the stand at Selma.

And that's as it should be – because those were times when ordinary men and women, straight-backed and clear-eyed, challenged what they knew was wrong and helped perfect our union. And they did so in large part because Dr. King pointed the way.

But I also think it's worth reflecting on what Dr. King was doing in Memphis, when he stepped onto that motel balcony on his way out for dinner.

And what he was doing was standing up for struggling sanitation workers. For years, these workers had served their city without complaint, picking up other people's trash for little pay and even less respect. Passers-by would call them "walking buzzards," and in the segregated South, most were forced to use separate drinking fountains and bathrooms.

But in 1968, these workers decided they'd had enough, and over 1,000 went on strike. Their demands were modest – better wages, better benefits, and recognition of their union. But the opposition was fierce. Their vigils were met with handcuffs. Their protests turned back with mace. And at the end of one march, a 16-year old boy lay dead.

This is the struggle that brought Dr. King to Memphis. It was a struggle for economic justice, for the opportunity that should be available to people of all races and all walks of life. Because Dr. King understood that the struggle for economic justice and the struggle for racial justice were really one – that each was part of a larger struggle "for freedom, for dignity, and for humanity." So long as Americans were trapped in poverty, so long as they were being denied the wages, benefits, and fair treatment they deserved – so long as opportunity was being opened to some but not all – the dream that he spoke of would remain out of reach.

And on the eve of his death, Dr. King gave a sermon in Memphis about what the movement there meant to him and to America. And in tones that would prove eerily prophetic, Dr. King said that despite the threats he'd received, he didn't fear any man, because he had been there when Birmingham aroused the conscience of this nation. And he'd been there to see the students stand up for freedom by sitting in at lunch counters. And he'd been there in Memphis when it was dark enough to see the stars, to see the community coming together around a common purpose. So Dr. King had been to the mountaintop. He had seen the Promised Land. And while he knew somewhere deep in his bones that he would not get there with us, he knew that we would get there.

He knew it because he had seen that Americans have "the capacity," as he said that night, "to project the 'I' into the 'thou.'" To recognize that no matter what the color of our skin, no matter what faith we practice, no matter how much money we have – no matter whether we are sanitation workers or United States Senators – we all have a stake in one another, we are our brother's keeper, we are our sister's keeper, and "either we go up together, or we go down together."

And when he was killed the following day, it left a wound on the soul of our nation that has yet to fully heal. And in few places was the pain more pronounced than in Indianapolis, where Robert Kennedy happened to be campaigning. And it fell to him to inform a crowded park that Dr. King had been killed. And as the shock turned toward anger, Kennedy reminded them of Dr. King's compassion, and his love. And on a night when cities across the nation were alight with violence, all was quiet in Indianapolis.

In the dark days after Dr. King's death, Coretta Scott King pointed out the stars. She took up her husband's cause and led a march in Memphis. But while those sanitation workers eventually got their union contract, the struggle for economic justice remains an unfinished part of the King legacy. Because the dream is still out of reach for too many Americans. Just this morning, it was announced that more Americans are unemployed now than at any time in years. And all across this country, families are facing rising costs, stagnant wages, and the terrible burden of losing a home.

Part of the problem is that for a long time, we've had a politics that's been too small for the scale of the challenges we face. This is something I spoke about a few weeks ago in a speech I gave in Philadelphia. And what I said was that instead of having a politics that lives up to Dr. King's call for unity, we've had a politics that's used race to drive us apart, when all this does is feed the forces of division and distraction, and stop us from solving our problems.

That is why the great need of this hour is much the same as it was when Dr. King delivered his sermon in Memphis. We have to recognize that while we each have a different past, we all share the same hopes for the future – that we'll be able to find a job that pays a decent wage, that there will be affordable health care when we get sick, that we'll be able to send our kids to college, and that after a lifetime of hard work, we'll be able to retire with security. They're common hopes, modest dreams. And they're at the heart of the struggle for freedom, dignity, and humanity that Dr. King began, and that it is our task to complete.

You know, Dr. King once said that the arc of the moral universe is long, but that it bends toward justice. But what he also knew was that it doesn't bend on its own. It bends because each of us puts our hands on that arc and bends it in the direction of justice.

So on this day – of all days – let's each do our part to bend that arc.

Let's bend that arc toward justice.

Let's bend that arc toward opportunity.

Let's bend that arc toward prosperity for all.

And if we can do that and march together – as one nation, and one people – then we won't just be keeping faith with what Dr. King lived and died for, we'll be making real the words of Amos that he invoked so often, and "let justice roll down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream."

Reflections About A King

When I flipped the calendar page from March to April, I stared at the 4 that appeared in the first Friday of the month and realized we were approaching another sad anniversary of his assassination.

It's been 40 years since whoever fired that bullet, whether it was James Earl Ray or some person whose name will remain unknown to us cut short Dr. King's brilliant life at age 39. I was a first grader at the time one month away from celebrating my sixth birthday when he was killed in Memphis.

Usually in the run up to this anniversary date, like I do on his January 15 birthday and the federal holiday, I not only take time to reflect on the remarkable life of who Tavis Smiley calls 'the greatest American we ever produced', I take stock in my own personal life and ask myself some hard questions about what I'm doing to not only help my people make 'The Dream' a reality, but what I'm doing in service to others as well.

This 40th anniversary of his assassination is also arriving at another pivotal moment in our history. It's ironic that just like 40 years ago, we are embroiled in another controversial war, environmental issues are on the minds of votes, we have an unpopular president occupying the White House, race relations have become testy, the economy is stagnant, and Americans are pessimistic about the future.

But at the same time, Robert Kennedy's run for the presidency 40 years ago was generating the same kind of optimism and hope among a cross section of Americans as Sen. Barack Obama's historic presidential run is today.

But make no mistake about it, we are in another dust up over race because we have failed to aggressively pursue the remedies and policies that would make 'The Dream' a reality. It's interesting to note that no one has brought up the Kerner Commission report, which was released 40 years ago on February 29, 1968 and warned 'our nation is moving toward two societies, one Black, One White—Separate and Unequal' in the context of these discussion.

Over the last few days, I've been rereading my copy of A Testament of Hope, which is a James Washington edited compilation of writings, interviews and speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Every time I read it I gain new insights about this remarkable man. The other striking thing is how applicable his words are to our time period, especially when he talks about his opposition to the Vietnam War.

Dr. King was a rare combination of intelligence, superior oratorical skill, political savviness, scientific curiosity, top notch writing skills, spirituality, and telegenic looks in one impressive package.

There are not many movement leaders in our time who have half of those qualities, much less the stature that Dr. King commanded during his lifetime. I remember a commentary I wrote in response to a post on a transgender list that said we needed a transgender Martin Luther King. It also created a leadership yardstick that few people can live up to but if they tried, we'd be much better off.

America and the world suffered a great loss when he was taken away from us and we are a poorer nation for it.


Crossposted to The Bilerico Project.