The GOP's 'Scurred' Of Michelle, Too

We know the GOP is 'scurred' of Sen. Obama. Now it seems as though their fear of a Black president also extends to the woman who would become the first African-American first lady in our country's history as well.

What is it about Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama that 'scurrs' them so much? Is it the fact she's an intelligent, almost 6 feet tall sistah with a compelling story as well? Is it because she rose from growing up in a one bedroom apartment on the South Side of Chicago to graduating from Princeton and Harvard Law and making major cheddar? Is it because she has a handsome husband she's been married to for over a decade and has two cute kids?

Yep.

The Tennessee GOP released a video timed for a visit that she's making to the Volunteer State to campaign for her hubby. It attempts to pile onto a remark she made in Wisconsin three months ago that they tried to blow up into a major controversy. She stated during a rally speech that this was the first time in her adult life she was proud of this country.

Hell, I agree with her. How can you be proud of a country that enslaved your ancestors for two and a half centuries and mistreated your parents, grandparents and great grandparents for another 100 years after that?

For most of my adult life I've had to deal with conservative administrations that have jacked this country up for the benefit of the have-mores, and what Michelle speaks about is a sentiment that many African-Americans say to each other when we're not in racially mixed company.


Besides, you Republicans are drinking GOP Red Haterade because Michelle is not a plastic coated Stepford wife like some GOP spouses are. This is a sistah with a lot of substance behind her and she will make a fantastic First Lady.

Y'all tried to stir up crap back in February with a false conservadriven controversy about Michelle's 1985 Princeton senior thesis and ended up with egg on your faces then. Now it's another video from a state party with a history of race-baiting.



The infamous 2006 'Call me' ad



Obama campaign spokesperson Hari Sevugan fired back at the Tennessee GOP and linked it back to the Rethuglicans smear 'em mentality:

"This is a shameful attempt to attack a woman who has repeatedly said she wouldn't be here without the opportunities and blessings of this nation. The Republican Party's pathetic attempts to use the same smear tactics to win elections have failed in Mississippi, failed in Louisiana, and will fail in November because the American people are looking for a positive vision of real change. And if the Tennessee Republican Party has a problem with Senator Obama, maybe next time they’ll have the courage to address him directly instead of attacking his family."

But then again, if I was the NRCC chair and I'd just spent 42% of my party's on hand cash trying to defend three congressional seats my party had held in Illinois, Louisiana and now Mississippi for 20 years and lost them badly, I'd be trying to deflect blame too.

The 'Southern Strategy' is alive and well. We saw the North Carolina Republicans use race-based ads there and now the 'girlie men' in the Tennessee GOP are attacking his wife. But what's going on is the same racist dynamic that's being played out in the general campaign against Barack. They're trying to demonize Michelle as well.

Keep it up. The more you attack Barack, his wife and his family the more African-American voters that get registered and show up at the polls for the landslide coming in November.

John Edwards Endorses Obama

Huge endorsement for Sen. Obama. John Edwards endorses him at a Grand Rapids, MI rally.



This Democratic nomination race is just about over. The day after Sen. Hillary Clinton wins West Virginia by 41 points, this chills whatever bounce and domination of the news cycle she was expecting that day.

Come on May 20. That's when I get to vote in Kentucky.

Fear Of A Black President

There's a scene in the Chris Rock movie 'Head of State' in which he's running for president and his character Alderman Mays Gilliam is poised to win the White House. It comes down in a tight race to California deciding it. The pundits say it, and a flood of screaming, panic-stricken suburban whites rush out of their cookie cutter homes and flood onto the streets heading as fast as they can to the nearest polling place in order to keep a Black man from occupying the highest office in the land.

That scene was playing in my mind as I watched the results from the West Virginia primary last night and heard the distressing news that 22% of the people in exit polling there openly admitted race was a factor in casting their ballots. The actual numbers were probably double that.

Yes, there is fear out there of Sen. Barack Obama and his family moving into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The lunatic fringe and the Freepers have been screaming for months online they need to do something to stop the n----r from winning this race. It manifested itself in the primary results in West Virginia last night. The same fears were stoked and exploited in Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Indiana and various other states. The Republicans will be ready to race bait all the way to November 4 and test drove their message in North Carolina. The Faux News nattering negativity nabobs stoked the Rev. Wright controversy. When Hillary was about to be finished off she played the race card to the point where I wondered if she was running for KKK Grand Wizard instead of the presidency.

As a hardworking, college educated African-American I'm pissed about how the positive campaign we had on the Democratic primary side degenerated. It was obvious Hillary couldn't beat him with a positive campaign, so her new campaign team started running plays from the GOP race-baiting side of the political playbook. We can only hope and pray that the 'kitchen sink' strategy they employed doesn't come back to haunt us in November.

So what are y'all 'scurred' of working class White America? Are you cowering in your centuries old fear that everything your ancestors have done to my people will be revisited upon you? Are you being fed the lies by right-wing talk radio and Faux News that Barack is 'too liberal', 'lacks experience', 'speaks well but no substance', 'he's an undercover Muslim' and all the other past, present and future bullshyt that will be thrown at him by GOP spinmeisters? Are you believing the fallacious bull that if this country elects an African-American, they'll have less respect for us?

Hell, we've got rock bottom respect levels in the world thanks to the unqualified pseudo-Texan dumb ass y'all voted overwhelmingly for twice. The rest of the world thinks of Barack Obama as an improvement.

White working class America. fire up your braincells and stop falling for the okey-doke. This is probably the best candidate we've had in a generation and he happens to be a mixed race person. He came from nothing to the verge of being president. He is the American Dream that your right-wing pundits are always exhorting my people to believe in until it benefits us, then y'all have a problem with it.

Barack Obama has your economic interests at heart moreso than the parade of GOP idiots that have sold you out to the have-mores over the last 40 years, bamboozled you into voting for them and against your own economic interests because you fell for the 'Guns, God and Gays' 'family values' rhetoric.

I just want to ask one question. In that entire 40 years you've been voting for Republicans, has it put more money in your pocket?

Let's fast forward to the glorious day when a new chapter in American history will commence on January 20, 2009. Barack Obama will raise his right hand at 12:01 PM EST on that day, his lovely wife Michelle will hold the Bible (not the Koran) with his lovely daughters standing there watching their father take the oath of office as president of the United States.

On that day the sky won't fall, no fire and brimstone will rain down upon Washington DC and the subsequent inaugural parade will be the bomb. Four years from now when it's time to reelect him for his second term, your pockets are fat with cash from the tax cut you'll get, your kids are healthier because they'll have health care, and you'll be safer because we ain't running around the planet pissing people off, you'll wonder in 2012 what you were so scared of.

E-Mail From Fredrikka

TransGriot note: It's nice to hear from people who not only appreciate your writing (a gentle hint for you TransGriot readers to leave comments from time to time), they take the time out of their busy schedules to tell you.

I deeply appreciate that. It's also a wake-up call as to just how much of a role model and inspiration others consider me, even if I don't feel like I am most days.

Fredrikka Maxwell, who's a TransGriot guest poster from time to time sent me this e-mail. Someone on the Dignity list (for GLBT Catholics) she's on sent her a link to my Destruction of the Black Transwoman Image post I wrote a few days ago that I crossposted to the Bilerico Project as well. It also underscores the point I was making that I'm not the only African-American transwoman who's beyond sick and tired of being saddled with the 'all Black transwomen are hookers' stereotype.

***

Marvin,
Monica Roberts is someone I have met, have high regard for, and count among my friends.

She has a clear insight into the black community and knows firsthand what it's like to be black and trans. And she's one of those women who have come through that drama and trauma and still holds her head high and walks tall like the regal daughter of kings of the Motherland.

Monica founded a thriving Yahoo list for black trans people, their friends, families, and allies, called Transsistahs-Transbrothas. And when she first thought of starting her list, then called Transsistahs, I was one of the charter members.

Monica is on target with her post. There is, among the mainstream media, the perception that all black transwomen are sex workers. Now I don't deny that some black transwomen may have taken to prostitution. It's not something I've ever encouraged. Here's my take on that.

I know from bitter firsthand experience that a lot of trans people are currently under or flat out unemployed. When you go to hunt for employment on the web, for example, you will usually find on most applications, a space for or a question about whether you've worked under another name. In a perfect world it would be OK to say yes to that. Bu in the real world that can out you and cause you to lose the job you thought you were going to be hired for.

Does the name Peter Oiler mean anything to you? Oiler was a truck driver for the Winn-Dixie grocery chain. They found out somehow that, away from work he was a cross dresser and fired him. He sued. He lost. The court seemed to think it was OK for the company to fire him even if the wasn't doing anything gender variant on company time. Now Oiler wasn't black. He was like mos of you, a white dude.

My reason for bringing him up is that black trans people have gone through that.

Does the name Susan Stanton mean anything to you? Just a person who worked for her city for 14 distinguished years only to get fired because it was learned she was beginning to transition.

There are thousands of black trans people who have gone though that. And what do some of them do since they can't find jobs anywhere? Some take to the streets in more ways than one. Some actually LIVE on the damn street.

And even if you have a decent job, your health insurance may have a specific exclusion for anything related to Gender Reassignment Surgery. That means hormones, or Facial Feminization Surgery, or finding a qualified gender therapist. And your therapists and endocrinologists, electrologist, and your surgeons all have one thing in common. THEY ALL WANT YOUR FREAKING MONEY.

So I'm not going to pass judgment on those who take to the streets. I just say a prayer of thanksgiving and realize that, there, but for the grace of God go I.

But I'm not now, never have, and never will encourage anyone to hit the streets. But I'm telling you that I understand how some people can feel like that's an option.

But, having said that, ALL BLACK TRANSWOMEN ARE NOT WHORES. Thank you. That's the truth from somebody who knows transwomen who run call centers, who are classical musicians, who are nurses, police officers, writers, and motivational speakers and even a minister or two. And that's just the transWOMEN, who include regal souls like my friend Monica Roberts.

Another Day, Another Event

Yesterday afternoon I rolled up to the historic Brennan House downtown for a Meet The Candidates event hosted by CFAIR, the Committee for Fairness and Individual Rights. It's the PAC for the Fairness Campaign and I was invited to attend.

I was rousted out of a sound sleep earlier that morning to round up the wine and sodas for the event. After taking one and a half hours of my day doing it and depositing everything at the Fairness Campaign office on Frankfort Ave I returned home to finish my NE Trans Pride March speech and e-mail it to Bet Power so the ASL interpreters could get to work on it.

The event wasn't starting until 5 PM, and I arrived at 5:45 PM in my black pantsuit. Joanne Lynch greeted me with "Our saviour is here!" a humorous reference to my earlier efforts that morning hitting three separate spread out stores for the wine, the multiple two liter sodas, the humongous bag of ice and saving CFAIR some cash in the process. I jokingly said as I hugged her and entered the Brennan House, "I'm not a saviour. I can't walk on water."

By the time I entered the three story Victorian home several of the CFAIR endorsees were there. Metro council members George Unseld (yes, he's the brother of NBA Hall of Famer Wes Unseld) and Rick Blackwell were there along with Metro council candidate Kungu Njuguna.

I was impressed by my Kenyan descended brother. He was born in the States and is a city attorney who prosecuted violations of Louisville's Human Rights ordnance. He's running in AC's district (the 18th) in the Hurstbourne Parkway/Taylorsville Rd. area. Shelley Santry, who's running in a judicial race was also there to thank CFAIR for the endorsement and chat with us for a few moments before jetting off to another event.

A few minutes after I arrived my state rep Mary Lou Marzian showed up and showed us some love. I also got a hug from former metro council member Denise Bentley, who's looking good these days. I noted and mentioned to her that she's dropped a little weight, even though she didn't think so. I also ran into Dr. Story and Jaison Gardiner for the second time in 24 hours as well along with Mark England, who hosted the recent Derby benefit that was the day before my birthday. Dawn popped in after she got off work.

Since I drove, I wasn't partaking in any of the wine and stuck to the soda. The Louisville po-po's have been on the prowl lately pre and post Derby and I was in no mood to spend the night at the Jefferson County Hilton. I hung around chatting with many of the peeps who did show up like Christine and the gang from Sienna, our local transgender organization.

Christine's the prez of the group and congratulated me for my upcoming speaking slot at the NE Pride March. I told her I'd try to make a future Sienna meeting if it didn't conflict with what I had going on. Mark England also chatted with me for a few minutes and asked if I'd seen the photo I took with him and Russ at the Derby benefit. When I replied no, he asked for my e-mail address, input it into his PDA and sent it to me a few hours later.

I'd left my Obama button at home, and a young LGBT Hillary supporter approached me about supporting his candidate. I politely listened to his spiel before I told him I was supporting Senator Obama. When he mentioned that HRC endorsed Senator Clinton, I politely shot back,"That's a major reason why I'm supporting Sen. Obama."

That triggered a lively back and forth conversation in which every time he spouted a pro-Hillary talking point, I had an answer for it. I also pointed out that I'd sat across the table from numerous meetings/confrontations with HRC personnel over the last ten years and had a long, ugly history with them.

When he tried to claim that Obama hadn't stood up for GLBT peeps as an Illinois senator, I told him I had friends and relatives in Chicago who said otherwise. After a few minutes of amusing myself with him, I told him that on this subject we'd agree to disagree and I was still voting for Obama on Tuesday as Joanne and Jeff Rodgers grinned at me.

For you GLBT peeps that still believe that BS like my young friend, here's a quote from a Windy City News February 11, 2004 interview that y'all need to pay attention to.

We must be careful to keep our eyes on the prize-equal rights for every American. We must continue to fight for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. We must vigorously expand hate-crimes legislation and be vigilant about how these laws are enforced. We must continue to expand adoption rights and make them consistent and seamless throughout all 50 states, and we must repeal the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" military policy.

Just an FYI GLBT Hillary lovers, the Windy City Times is a GLBT publication. At the time he was quoted in this interview he was an Illinois state senator a few months away from making the historic keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic convention that catapulted him to national recognition.

Not long after that the event wound to a close. After we helped the staff put the tables and chairs up, I took a quick tour through the lovely Victorian era home before exiting the place and heading back home to Crescent Hill.

TLDEF Settles Landmark Farmer v. Caliente Cab Restaurant Lawsuit

I've talked from time to time about Khadijah Farmer, and I've received word from the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund that there's been a settlement in the case. The New York based TLDEF has been diligently working on her landmark lawsuit against Caliente Cab Restaurant Company.

As part of the settlement, Caliente has agreed to:

*Add gender, including gender identity and expression, to its corporate non-discrimination policy;

*Amend its employee handbook to state that "persons patronizing or employed at Caliente have the right to use the bathroom facilities consistent with their gender identity and expression;"

*Adopt a gender-neutral dress code for its employees;

*Institute personnel training programs regarding its new policies;

*Pay $35,000 in damages to Khadijah.

Just to refresh 'errbody's' memory banks about what happened, after the conclusion of the New York GLBT Pride March on June 24, 2007, Khadijah, her girlfriend and another friend went to dine at the Caliente Cab restaurant.

When Khadijah went to use the women's restroom, the restaurant's bouncer followed her in, pounded on the door of the stall she was using and proceeded to throw her out of the bathroom and the restaurant because of the bouncer's misguided perception because of her short haircut that she was either male or transgender. (are you listening HRC and Barney Frank?) She attempted to show him her NY state ID demonstrating that she is female, but was rebuffed.

This was a crystal clear example of why we transpeople have been arguing ad nauseum for over a decade that 'gender or perceived gender' language needs to remain in ENDA in order to protect ALL members of the GLBT community. Many transgender and gender non-conforming people experience harassment and discrimination when trying to access sex-segregated facilities such as bathrooms.

Khadijah's case highlights one of the major intersections between the transgender, GLB rights movements and our straight allies. Gender expression discrimination can affect anyone, be they transgender, lesbian, gay, bisexual or straight. The settlement also sends a message that discrimination on the basis of gender expression will not be tolerated.

"I'm very happy that the restaurant has taken appropriate steps to ensure that all patrons, regardless of how masculine or feminine they appear, are treated with dignity and respect," Khadijah said of the settlement. "People come in all shapes and sizes, and they shouldn't be discriminated against because they don't match someone's expectations of how masculine or feminine they should be."

Amen, sister. Now only if the Homosexual Rights Corporation and a certain congressman from Massachusetts would remember that and introduce an ENDA bill that not only protects everyone, the entire GLBT community can work together to get passed.

Witness To History-Obama In Da Ville

Sen. Barack Obama was in Da Ville today for a campaign rally at the Kentucky International Convention Center. You know that I made sure yours truly was going to be inside the room and part of the 8,000 people that showed up to witness history. There were another 2,000 people that wanted to get in but were unfortunately turned away because the hall was at capacity.

I farted around a little too long and bounced out of the house clad in my Obama shirt and jeans at 4:30 PM. I arrived downtown and passed the convention center enroute to the parking lot I like to use four blocks away on Chestnut Street. I noted the line to get inside snaked around the building for several blocks.

The doors opened at 5 PM and even though I was at the back of the line where it started on the 4th Street side of the Convention Center complex, it moved fast. There were various politicians introducing themselves and shaking hands with people as we waited to get in. Campaign workers were passing out stickers for Greg Fischer, the other Democratic candidate for US Senate here in Kentucky. There are many Democrats in the state who have concerns about just how electable Bruce Lunsford will be if he gets in a race with Mitch McConnell (R-KY) with the Vencor mess lurking in his background.

Unfortunately the local chapter of the Forces of Intolerance was in full effect as well. The odious Dr. Frank Simon was there with several of his acolytes staging an anti-abortion protest. But despite the negative karma from Simon and company, the mood remained festive on this beautiful late afternoon spring day with vendors hawking bootleg Obama shirts and buttons as well. The official Obama campaign stands inside the convention center were doing a brisk business as well.

A few minutes later I was being directed into the building by the cheerfully efficient Obama campaign personnel. I quickly autographed an Obama campaign sign in sheet and headed in the direction of a nearby up escalator. I waited in a second line to walk through a metal detector while I was hand wanded by a Secret Service agent and my purse thoroughly searched by a TSA employee. The whole process from the time I hit the end of the long line to getting into a seat in the bleacher section was thirty minutes.

While I waited for the rally to start, I was having conversations with various people in the multicultural crowd that attended this rally. We were basically talking about the historic nature of this event, Barack's chances in the Kentucky primary next Tuesday (May 20) and eventually in the fall against John McCain.

I eventually ended up seated next to an African-American woman named Bessie. We hit it off immediately and while we were talking about our personal lives, she mentioned she has a college age son at Harvard who's a blogger. I told her about my blog and living life as a transgender woman. We ended up talking about a wide array of subjects before KY 6th District Rep. Ben Chandler stepped on stage at 6:40 PM to deliver the warm up stem-winder speech.

When he was done, he introduced a Ford plant worker who spoke for a few moments, then introduced Sen. Obama a little after 7 PM. The crowd began to roar in approval as flashbulbs from phones and cameras began popping all over the building and especially around Sen. Obama and his ring of Secret Service agents.



Sen. Obama took about ten minutes to shake hands before stepping on stage and getting into his speech. He had to stop twice because two peeps were feeling ill due to heat exhaustion and in one case tossed a liter sized bottle of water to one of them.

40 minutes later after directing his fire at Sen. McCain, his cousin Dick Cheney and George W. Bush, he departed the stage to wild, enthusiastic applause. Me made a loop around the stage to shake hands with the assembled masses before winding his way back to the green room area behind the VIP stands, flashbulbs and the media trailing him all the way.

I killed a few minutes watching people be interviewed by local television personalities and reporters, shaking hands and hugging friends and colleagues before I exited the convention center. I ran into Dr. Story and Jaison Gardiner and walked with them for a few blocks gauging their reactions to the rally before we went our separate ways to our cars.

I enjoyed my late afternoon witnessing political history. I was happy to see the multitudes of enthusiastic young people who were in attendance at this rally. I'm looking forward to being at the convention in Denver courtesy of the Project later this summer as well.

Lucas County, Ohio Leads The Way

TransGriot Note: A few years ago I flew up to Toledo, OH to take my friend Sonia Watson and her then one year old daughter Jasmine on one of my buddy passes to visit her mother. It was an interesting visit with her parents. Her mom is from Jamaica and Sonia jokingly calls herself a 'Jamerican', a term which expresses pride in her Jamaican and her American roots. I also got to see where Sonia got her flawless beauty from. She's the spitting image of her mother. She also teased me for a year after that trip about the Jamaican white rum I drank that knocked me on my azz.

Unfortunately I was only there on my three days off and burned two of them flying up and back to Houston via Cleveland. so I didn't get to spend more time there to see the city.

So knowing the state of Ohio's anti-GLBT rep thanks to ten years of GOP rule and hearing the stories of my transgender friends who used to live there, this recent news out of Toledo and Lucas County is underscoring the fact that the landscape is indeed changing for Ohio GLBT residents, and that Toledo and Lucas County are leading the way.

Lucas bans job bias for county workers
Commission joins Toledo council in backing state bill

by Anthony Glassman
Gay People's Chronicle - OH,USA
May 9, 2008

http://www.gaypeopl eschronicle. com/stories08/ may/0509081. htm

Toledo--Northwest Ohio has delivered a one-two punch for LGBT equality, with Lucas County extending nondiscrimination protections to its LGBT employees and joining the city of Toledo in supporting the state Equal Housing and Employment Act.

Toledo City Council unanimously approved a resolution endorsing EHEA on April 29. The bill, in the state legislature, would prohibit employment and housing discrimination by sexual orientation or gender identity. The Lucas County Commission followed on May 6 with a 3-0 vote to endorse the measure.

At the same meeting, commissioners unanimously passed the county worker non-discrimination measure.

During the meeting, Lucas commissioner Ben Konop pointed to Richard Florida's book Who's Your City. The follow-up to Florida's Rise of the Creative Class, it repeats the author's arguments that creativity bolsters economic development, and Florida firmly believes that protections for LGBT people help attract the "creative class" to an area.

"I think it was the right thing to do from two perspectives," Konop told the Gay People's Chronicle. "Number one, I think morally it's hard to argue. People should be judged for the job they're doing instead of their sexual orientation or gender identity, so it protects county employees from being judged unfairly."

"There's an economic benefit to our community from this, too," he ontinued. "There's been substantial social science research showing the more a community is diverse and accepting of sexual orientation and gender identities, the better the community does economically. We in Toledo are in very difficult economic times, so we need all
the help we can get."

"I think we need to establish ourselves as one of the premier communities in the country in terms of diversity and tolerance of people of all different views and backgrounds, " he concluded. "We going to take it very seriously and make sure it's abided by."

Michelle Stecker, interim executive director of Equality Toledo, noted that the welfare of the LGBT community is "tied to the economic development of northwest Ohio," but also said that the area enjoys an embarrassment of riches in terms of forward-thinking elected officials.

Franklin County, which includes Columbus, also protects county employees on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, while Cuyahoga and Summit counties (containing Cleveland and Akron) protect for sexual orientation alone, according to Kim Welter of Equality Ohio.

The four counties join 11 Ohio cities that include sexual orientation in their public worker job policies. Eight of these cities also protect private employees, and four of those include gender identity. The state of Ohio also bars discrimination in state employment by sexual orientation or gender identity.

Franklin County has also passed a resolution supporting EHEA, which was introduced in the Ohio House in March by Democrat Dan Stewart and Republican Jon Peterson, and in the Senate by Democrat Dale Miller.

Lucas County Commission president Tina Skeldon Wozniak told the Toledo Blade, "I don't believe we practice discrimination, but I think it's important to make it recognizable within the policy. I think it's the right thing to do, but I also believe communities that are progressive in their policies toward protection of people's rights have stronger communities. "

Stecker was pleased with the three unanimous decisions.

"We're so fortunate," she said. "In Toledo, our leaders are really supportive of LGBT civil rights, and Toledo has become a model city in Ohio in terms of reaching out to the LGBT community."

She enumerated the ways in which LGBT citizens are protected in Toledo.

"We have a domestic partnership registry, we have cutting-edge transgender protections, our large employers offer protections for LGBT employees," she said. "It came as no surprise that the county commissioners and city council were unanimous, because they are our allies."

"I'm thrilled they went on the record to support EHEA and I'm thankful for their leadership," she concluded. "It's because we have such wonderful political allies. When we go to them with our issues, we know they're going to say yes to us, we know they're going to be supportive."

"They don't just give it lip service, they show us by their actions that LGBT people are truly welcome here in northwest Ohio," she posited. "That's why Toledo is such a good place to live for LGBT people."

"We've been getting phone calls from people in other areas asking, tell us about Toledo, should we be moving there, and that's exciting as well," Stecker noted.

C 2008 KWIR Publications

Happy Mother's Day

(photo-painting Mother's Love by Kolongi)

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers (and 'errbody' else) who read TransGriot! I've already sent my cards and gifts to my mom and sister. Hope you've had a chance to call the favorite moms in your life, whether they are your biological ones or people who were like mothers to you.

And now, let me put my DJ hat on and post some Mother's Day music videos for you to enjoy.

The Intruders I'll Always Love My Mama extended version




Tupac's Dear Mama



Happy Mother's Day to all those special women everywhere!

Why A Transsistahs Convention?

TransGriot Note: This was written in February 2005 to explain to our Caucasian brothers and sisters why we were planning a convention of our own that took place later that year.


Why a Transsistahs Convention?
By Monica Roberts

Ever since the word got out that Dawn Wilson and I are helping a committee of young African-American transpeople to organize a convention for later this year, there has been much weeping and gnashing of teeth in the Caucasian transgender community. What does the Caucasian transgender community have to fear from a group of African-American transpeople getting together in Louisville to spend several days networking, learning and bonding with each other, just like you peeps have done at Southern Comfort, Gold Rush, IFGE, and various other events?

The simple fact is that we have cultural differences that aren’t being reflected in the current organizational setup of the Caucasian transgendered community. Our community is built with a belief in God as the central pillar of our daily lives. We don't see that reflected in the Caucasian trans community and we have issues and concerns that aren’t being addressed.

What issues you ask? Issues such as HIV/AIDS, the disproportionate number of African-American and Latina transpeople that make up the Remembering our Dead list, socioeconomic issues, ignoring the roles that people of color have played in shaping transgender history, and the pervasive racism within the community. When African-American transactivists and other activists of color have tried to point them out they are dismissively told that their concerns ‘aren’t trans issues’ or ‘quit playing the race card’.

We have qualms about the Caucasian transgender political leadership continually trying to align itself with HRC. It’s a group that has a sorry history of being disrespectful to the African-American GLBT/SGL community and repeatedly sabotaging transgender lobby efforts. The Caucasian TG leadership even sabotaged a 2002 African-American transgender led initiative to the Congressional Black Caucus that would have benefited the entire trans community and boasted about it afterward.

A conservative administration is entrenched in Washington DC. Many African-American transpeople reside in areas run by conservative state and local governments. It was past time for us to build our own institutions so that we may better weather the storms of ‘compassionate conservatism’ and the backstabbing from our so-called allies.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the fact that there have been people and organizations within the Caucasian trans community who have tried to be inclusive and sounded the alarm that we needed to be welcomed into the fold or else. Their pleas and ours have fallen on deaf ears. I’ve noted the growing frustration within our community reflected in the posts on my Transsistahs Yahoo discussion list that I founded a year ago and other African-American GLBT/SGL lists. Those posts have repeatedly called for us to build institutions that will give African-American transkids something to be proud of and resources that they can tap into that reflect their cultural heritage. We’ve finally decided to act on that.

The gathering in Louisville is in the mold of our African-American cultural tradition. We have a proud heritage as African-American women of doing things that not only help us but also uplift the race at the same time. The sistahs are doing it for ourselves to paraphrase an old Aretha Franklin song. We’re not doing it to permanently separate ourselves from the Caucasian trans community, but so that we may work together with our mainstream African-American brothers and sisters. Kwame Toure (Stokely Carmichael to you folks who remember the Civil Rights Movement) stated, 'Before a group can enter the open society, it must first close ranks.'

Well, the African-American transcommunity is closing ranks. Louisville, here we come.

Destruction Of The Black Transwoman Image

One of the things that I and my transsisters have in common with our biosisters besides our shared cultural heritage is defending the images of Black women from constant assault inside and outside the community.

Ever since the advent of the slave trade, the Black female image has been subjected to a wide array of slights, outrageous comments, and bigoted or racist behavior.

Black women have dealt with everything from being sexually assaulted by slave masters who considered them less than human to being toured as carnival exhibits as Saartjie Baartman was in the early 19th century as the Hottentot Venus. We also have our wide-ranging skin tone palettes, full lips, curvaceous bodies and ample butts constantly derided as either 'exotic' or 'ugly' vis-a-vis the Eurocentric standard of beauty.



We African-American transwomen share like our biosisters the same problems in addition to others brought on by our transgender status. At least my biosisters don't have to contend with being disrespectfully called 'sir' or called a man.

Oops, check that. Any sistah who's 5'8" or taller, has short cropped hair, is an athlete, or full figured and tall with broad shoulders has had that shade thrown at them. I just remembered the Khadijah Farmer case now currently in litigation.

But I'm digressing. The transwomen division part of the Black female image destruction is in large part courtesy of the escort and porn worlds. We didn't start out with negative images. Over the latter half of the 20th century as coverage of transgender issues became more frequent on local, national, and international newscasts, there was a corresponding explosion in transgender themed adult material. One major irritant to me and many African-American transwomen (and the irritation is shared by our Latina and Asian transsisters as well) is that the images are predominately women of color.

While there are also white transwomen involved in those worlds, they have balance because John and Jane Q. Public have also seen news stories in which white transwomen are seen as businesspeople, politicians elected to office, et cetera. Since the stories are either ignored or aren't being told that transwomen of color are doing mainstream and remarkable things, the negatives get disproportionately shunted to and pile up for African-American transwomen.

Many of us take our transitions seriously. We are talented, intelligent, accomplished women in our own rights. But you wouldn't know that (and probably don't) know that based on the disproportionate attention focused on the subset of our transsistahs involved in the escort and adult entertainment world.

Unfortunately the tendency to judge African-Americans by the worst we produce, combined with our near invisibility in terms of the 55 year history of positive media coverage of transgender people vis-a-vis our white sisters have been devastating to our efforts to educate our fellow African-Americans on transgender issues. It's probably one of the factors in why we initially lost eight CBC votes in the ENDA debate last fall.

We also haven't been helped by Hollywood movie or television portrayals or fictional accounts that perpetuate the 'Black transwomen are hookers' myth. You only need look at two television characters to see what we African-American transwomen have to contend with.

On one hand, you have Rebecca Romijn's Ugly Betty character Alexis Meade, who plays a major role in running a magazine empire. Jazzmun gets to play Dontrelle, who is guess what?

What is a prostitute, Alex?



I'm a big fan of actress Kerry Washington, but in the upcoming movie Life Is Hot In Cracktown based on the novel of the same name, she gets to play a transwoman. While I'm not thrilled that she's playing a character who once again feeds into that 'Black transwomen are hookers' stereotype, I know based on her past work that she's a stickler for authenticity.

She hired Valerie Spencer as her advisor and had Valerie on set to ensure that her character was on point in terms of the emotions and drama that we deal with. I'd just like to see Kerry Washington, any sistah actress or Jazzmun one day get to play an African-American transgender character like Alexis Meade or the Edith Stokes character Veronica Redd played back in the 70's.

Unfortunately, the stereotype is overpowering whatever positive things we try to do as African-American transwomen. When the members of TSTB were in the process of organizing the first Transsistahs-Transbrothas Conference in 2005, the white transgender community was fearful we'd take that moment to permanently separate ourselves from them. I took pains as one of the organizers to write an open letter in February 2005 explaining why we were doing it and posted it to a few transgender oriented lists.

One of the responses that came back on the tgusarights list was from a person calling herself Brenda Jean, who stated that our conference 'would make it easier for us to service our tricks'. That negative image was revealed during the wrongful death trial of Tyra Hunter to have partly played a role in her untimely death from an auto accident. She was not only disrespected at the accident scene by the EMT, but was ignored after she arrived at DC General Hospital and administered a drug that they give to emergency patients they presume to be drug addicts.

There was one night back home when I was watching my friend Sivi Ross do a drag show in a predominately white GLBT club called Cousins. I ended up reading a patron the riot act after he disrespectfully propositioned yours truly by saying the words "How much?" to me.

We also have to contend with as African-American transwomen when we enter relationships with us being lumped on the 'exotic' end of the scale. In some men's minds, what could be more 'exotic' than a beautiful African-American woman with (or who used to have) daddy's equipment? (And you know the stereotype about African-American men)



Just as our biosisters have to constantly fight a never ending battle to debunk these stereotypes, African-American transwomen will be in the same fight on a different flank to combat the stereotypes unique to us.

Beautiful Daughters

If you've ever seen The Vagina Monologues, some of you may be aware that there was an all transgender version of it done in Los Angeles back in 2004. That production was videotaped in a documentary called Beautiful Daughters that's been repeatedly broadcast on LOGO (which my cable system doesn't carry yet no thanks to the local fundamentalist idiots).

During that February 2 performance, Eve Ensler, the creator of The Vagina Monologues wrote and debuted a transgender-themed monologue entitled 'They Beat The Girl Out Of My Boy..Or So They Tried. It's a monologue that my homegirl Lexi has performed in a local production of the play as well.



One of the people in the all-transgender production was transsister Valerie Spencer, who I've been pleased to get to know thanks to the Transsistahs-Transbrothas Yahoo Group I founded in 2004. In addition to doing some marvelous work out in the LA area as a social worker and activist, Valerie has been exploring the artistic side of her personality as well. (Hmm, sounds familiar)

I was also delighted to learn that Valerie was actress Kerry Washington's advisor for the soon to be released film Life Is Hot In Cracktown, based on Buddy Giovinazzo's 1993 novel of the same name. In the film Kerry will play a transgender character.

The V-Day show raised a lot of money and was an emotional experience for all involved. It's cool that transgender women's voices are now incorporated into this fabulous play as well.

Tired Of The 'F' Word

The 'F' word I'm talking about in this case is Minister Louis Farrakhan.

It never fails that when an African-American candidate is running in a political race in which they have to appeal to a broad sector of the electorate, are sucessfully doing so, and winning (see Barack Obama a few months ago) the 'F' word comes out to 'scurr' white voters. It's why many African-Americans were more than angry with Chris Matthews when he brought up Minister Farrakhan in the MSGOP debate a few months ago.

I have mixed emotions about Louis Farrakhan personally like many African-Americans do. Hu-ell naw I don't like some of his negative comments about our Jewish friends and some of the other over the top statements over the years. But you have to admire somebody who can get formerly incarcerated men and other assorted knuckleheads to not only turn their lives around, but become responsible citizens who do their fair share to live up to our community's historic uplift the race mission.

You also have to admire someone who can inspire a million African-American men from all sectors of the community and across the country to organize, plan and gather together for a peaceful day on the Washington Mall.

For those of you who were focused more on Rev. Jeremiah Wright's antics and the subsequent MSM spin intended to damage Sen. Obama's march to the Democratic nomination, you missed out on the nuggets of truth that were interspersed during that infamous National Press Club speech.

While it is uncomfortable for White America to hear, Rev. Wright wasn't kidding when he stated that when Minister Farrakhan speaks, Black America listens. Many of us listen, analyze what he has to say, sift out the truth and dismiss what we don't like.

Even Tavis Smiley has gotten criticism for having him on the stage during several State of the Black Union events, but Tavis realizes what I know as well. There are folks in the African-American community to whom Minister Farrakhan appeals to, and an honest dialogue on our issues in the Black community can't take place if all parties aren't represented.

But I'm sick of African-American candidates getting whacked with decades old statements, video and five second snippets of Farrakhan soundbites in an obvious attempt to paint an African-American candidate with broad based white electorate appeal as 'racist'.

If some of y'all wanna fall for that okey-doke, that's on you. But if you let the bogus fear mongering from Faux News and the Right-Wing Noise Machine deter you from electing the best presidential candidate we've had since Bobby Kennedy for superficial reasons, that's a tragedy for the nation.

Belly of the Beast-The Atlanta HRC Dinner

TransGriot Note: The transgender community's protests of HRC dinners continue. Last weekend was the Atlanta HRC dinner, and Monica Helms in a post from her Trans Universe Blog tells us what went down in the ATL.

The "Belly of the Beast" – The Atlanta HRC Dinner
By Monica F. Helms


At the last minute, I didn’t know if I could attend the Atlanta HRC Dinner protest in front of the Hyatt Regency, May 3, 2008. Work had me signed up to do 2 hours of overtime right in the middle of when the protest was scheduled. Luckily, I was able to trade the hours to a co-worker.

On Saturday, I had to formulate a plan to talk with the most people I could at the dinner. But in order to do that, I needed to go inside the “Belly of the Beast.” Being a former submariner, I was familiar with submarine war tactics, which have helped me as an activist in the past. You sneak into an enemy’s port, lay a few torpedoes in the sides of their ships, then slip silently away. They never know what hit them.

For this dinner, I needed a disguise, in other words, a “duck blind.” When hunting ducks, the hunters have to blend into the environment, so they build a camouflage enclosure where they can see the ducks, but the ducks cannot see them. For this, I would wear my long evening gown that had no back. It’s also how spies blend into a fancy party. “My name is Bond. Jane Bond.” I was ready to do some shaking AND stirring. Of course, I probably blew my cover when I wore my “Trans and Proud” and “TAVA” buttons.

I knew that I would not get into the dinner without a ticket and I had no intention of buying one. However, they always had their Silent Auction before the dinner and you didn’t have to have a dinner ticket to go in there.

When I arrived at the Hyatt, two people were already handing out flyers and holding signs. Sir Jesse was outside and Anneliese was just inside the hotel door, handing out flyers as people came in. Others who arrived later were Jamie, Jae, Marisa, Dante, Betty and a friend of hers, Ghetto Gospel.

I heard earlier from Betty that on Thursday, May 1st, Joe Solmonese had a meeting with a half dozen transgender people here in Georgia . I wasn’t invited, nor was a few other transgender people who have worked at the national level, such as Dana Owings, Kristin Reichman and Cole Thaler from Lambda Legal. I’m willing to bet it was not accidental.

I was told that Joe “. . . apologized for misspeaking at Southern Comfort . . .” and that “. . . had he known what was going to have happen, he wouldn’t have said what he had said.” To me that translates to “HRC has no integrity when it comes to speaking to transgender people and I have the backbone of a jelly fish.” George Orwell would be so proud.

Once inside, I strolled into the Silent Auction like I belonged there. In reality, if HRC was more supportive of transgender people and their needs, then I would have indeed belonged there. But, I was nothing more than an interloper in the game of intrigue. Okay, so I’m getting a bit melodramatic.

The first thing that I noticed was that in a city that has a large population of African Americans, the crowd looked distinctly white and distinctly male. There were some attendees who were People of Color and there were attendees who were female, but where I saw the most diversity was with the “hired help” and the volunteers. Interesting enough, one of the dinner’s co-chairs (Ebonee Bradford) was an African American woman.

The theme for the evening was a Las Vegas casino, complete with the bright lights, Vegas showgirls and an Elvis impersonator. I mingled with the crowd, talking to various people there, some who openly admitted they were part of HRC’s organization. I spoke with one woman who touted HRC’s “wonderful” Corporate Equality Index, having no idea I would be the wrong person to try and convince their CEI was so “perfect.” I proceeded to point out that my 100% company screwed me over simply because I’m trans when I needed a medically necessary operation that others in the company can get.

I told the woman the bar for transgender medical issues was set so low that an ant could jump over it. HRC does that to falsely inflate the numbers on the 100% list and to placate the corporations by allowing them to medically mistreat their transgender employees, just as long as their gay and lesbian employees are treated fairly. Transgender people don’t need to be treated fairly, by HRC’s standards.

During my journey through “ Never-Never Land ,” I had a chance to speak to the Beast Master himself, Joe Solmonese. I was nice and I complimented him on how appropriate the casino theme for the dinner was. “This is such a perfect theme you have here, Joe. It’s all about gambling . . . and you’re gambling with people’s lives.” I suspect he didn’t appreciate that.

Of course, I wasn’t going to stop there. I informed him about the Transgender Veterans Survey, conducted by TAVA that had just ended and it had 827 responses to it. Besides the military and VA-related questions in the survey, we had a great deal of general questions. I said he needs to see how many of our transgender veterans were unemployed and under-employed, and how many have been discriminated on the job. It didn’t seem to faze him. Ask me if I’m surprised.

Interesting, the number of transgender veterans who took our survey far surpasses the number of responses on the questionable survey HRC conducted to see if transgender people should be in ENDA. Also, you have to factor in the small population our respondents came from to really get the impact.

Then I asked Solmonese why I didn’t get an E-mail inviting me to the meeting on Thursday. He said, “I don’t know who put that together.” Ah, really? Does he expect me to believe he’s that clueless on something as important as a meeting? He then asked me, “What did you hear of the meeting?” I responded by saying, “That it took place and I wasn’t invited.” Also, the media wasn’t invited. I guess he doesn’t want to take a chance of going on record with what he says to transgender people. I wonder why.

The one thing that really set me off was when I had a chance to speak with a person I thought was a friend. He is an effeminate gay man who is the partner of a lawyer who I know through SLDN and the American Veterans for Equal Rights. He proceeded to tell me about his four-hour session at the spa to get ready for the event. I told him I was there to educate people on the need for a fully inclusive ENDA.

He said, “Oh, I don’t support that at all. They said there aren’t enough votes with transgender people in the bill. Besides, we need a win.”

I was pissed. “So, you want a win on the backs of millions of transgender people?” He tried to say something, but I continued. “You are an effeminate gay man and without Gender Identity and Gender Expression in ENDA, you’re just as fucked as transgender people. You and butch lesbians will be screwed, just like me.” He didn’t respond to that. Besides, he had his sugar daddy, so to hell with everyone else. I walked away.

The best thing I found out was when I went back outside to join the protest. Betty, a member of the Atlanta Pride Committee, informed me that they just had a vote that day to turn down HRC’s offer to be a sponsor for this year’s Pride. In a year where the expenses have increased in putting on Atlanta Pride, they turned down $5000 from HRC because of their stance on ENDA. I always knew I loved the people on the Atlanta Pride Committee, but this made me love them even more. I hope others will take that stance with HRC at their pride events. Betty also informed me that a trans man will be the Grand Marshall for the Pride Parade.

So much for the Atlanta HRC Dinner. I may not have made an impact on many people, but a friend reminded me that every little bit helps. I want to express my appreciation to Jamie Roberts and Sir Jesse McNulty for putting this together. It’s people like them and the Atlanta Pride Committee who make me proud to live in Georgia.

Today Was A Good B-Day

I still have a few minutes left in another Cuatro De Mayo celebration, AKA my birthday. As usual its been an interesting weekend.

I was born during the Kennedy Administration at 10:45 PM CDT on this day in H-town's Third Ward. At this point in my life I look at every birthday I reach as the blessing that it is, especially when you factor in that it took me awhile to evolve (and I'm STILL evolving) into the person I am today.

One of the neat things about living in Da Ville is that my birthday falls either just before, on or just after Derby Day. The two week period leading up to the Kentucky Derby is a smorgasbord of events, parties and festivals all leading up to the Derby and Kentucky Oaks. The Oaks is held the day before at Churchill Downs and the races that day including the Oaks have fillies running in them.

When I first moved up here in 2001, my big 4-0 birthday actually fell during Derby 128 in 2002. I still have memorabilia stashed from that one..

Of course, the GLBT community gets in on the fun as well. One of the parties I attended last night was sponsored by our local GLBT civil rights organization, the Fairness Campaign. It's a fundraiser for Fairness and an opportunity for our community to show some love to all the local, state and national political peeps and others who support us. It's also a chance for GLBT friendly celebs who are attending other Derby events around town to interface with their local GLBT fans. And hey, i get to dress up for it as well.

But that party made for a short night. I'd already agreed to roll up to Columbus this morning with Dawn to catch another fencing tournament with her, and we shoved off bright and early up I-71 north at 10 AM EDT to do so. A few hours later we were in Columbus, but not after a little Mapquest drama.

For those of you who Mapquest trips, you're probably aware of the quirks that sometimes pop up that have you taking counterintuitive routes to your destination point. Nine times out of ten it's on target, but every now and then you get one of those head scratching routings

Well, our target destination was a high school in Dublin, OH where the Great Lakes Regional Tournament was being held. We should have been routed off I-71 WESTWARD onto I-270. Instead, it gave us directions a few minutes into it I realized had us going EASTWARD away from Dublin. I ended up catching I-70 west, cutting through downtown Columbus and intersecting I-270 a few moments later and getting Dawn there 35 minutes before check in time at 3 PM EDT.

Well, despite that glitch, I did enjoy the tournament, have a pleasant trip up and back on a beautiful spring day through the Kentucky and Ohio countryside while blasting Janet Jackson's new CD and a host of old school R&B favorites on my system.

I also had the opportunity at various moments during that drive to reflect on some of the blessings I've received this year. Being invited to become a contributing writer to the Project. Speaking at the upcoming inaugural New England Transgender Pride March on June 7. Having people in my life who love and care about me in addition to the calls, e-mails, e-cards and well wishes I received from people who consider me an important part of their lives. I deeply appreciate all the love you've showered on me today.

When I blew out the candles on the cake, one of the things I wished for will hopefully take place on May 20, November 4 and January 20, 2009.

So yeah, today was a good day. And I hope to be blessed with another similar one like it or better 365 days from now.