Another Transwoman Murdered, Another Media Diss

Umm, this is getting ridiculous on a lot of levels. It's my sad duty to report that another transgender teen has lost her life. This time it happened in Greeley, CO to 18 year old Latina Angie Zapata.

Her family was supportive of her transition, but you wouldn't know it based on once again, a reporter (Mike Peters) not cracking open the AP Stylebook and failing to follow the guidelines in it for reporting on transgender people.

I ask once again, how fracking hard is it to follow this?

transgender-Use the pronoun preferred by the individuals who have acquired the physical characteristics of the opposite sex or present themselves in a way that does not correspond with their sex at birth.

If that preference is not expressed, use the pronoun consistent with the way the individuals live publicly.

Well, at least the media is consistent. We've seen numerous examples of media reports, no matter where the story is written that utterly failed to respect African-American transwomen.

Now it's a Latina.

Once again, if the media won't do it and respect our fallen transpeople, then I'm gonna do it my damned self on TransGriot. I'm rewriting Mike Peters July 17 story from the Greeley Tribune to show you what a properly written story on a transgender person following the AP Stylebook guidelines should look like.

****

In a quiet neighborhood in southeast Greeley, police Thursday were investigating the death of a victim they identified only as "a young woman."

Police were called to the apartment house in the 2000 block of 4th Avenue at about 3 p.m. Thursday when the body of an 18-year-old transgender woman was found in an upstairs apartment. Police at the scene said it appeared the young woman may have been dead for several hours before she was found.

The neighborhood is one-half block south of the University of Northern Colorado Transportation office. It's also about two blocks southeast of the Jackson Field Sports Complex.

Neighbors gathered on front lawns and in the streets as police officers arrived at the scene to begin the investigation. Yellow crime tape sealed off the upper floors of the two-story apartment complex. The apartment house is probably the newest building in the neighborhood, a large brick building with eight apartments and parking in the back.

A large group of children gathered across the street in the parking lot of a mobile home court, watching from their bicycles as the family grieved and the victim's body was removed.

The young woman's mother was outside the apartment, crying and screaming at police that she wanted to see her daughter. After police told her several times that they were keeping people out of the apartment to preserve the evidence, she left with friends and family.

Neighbors in the area all said they didn't know the people who lived in the apartment building.

The identity of the young woman was not released by Thursday night, nor was the cause of death.

Weld County Coroner Maria Vincent said the death appears to be a homicide, so she could not give any details. Sgt. Adam Turn said Greeley Police were waiting to officially rule the death as a homicide until the autopsy is conducted at 10 a.m. today.

****

Of course, local transgender peeps and our allies are outraged by the disrespectful way Angie's murder was written up in the paper. Here's a press release from Kelly Costello of the Colorado Anti-Violence Project.

On Thursday, July 17, Angie Zapata, an 18-year old Latina transwoman was murdered in her home in Greeley, CO. She suffered two severe fractures in her skull. Her family believes that she was murdered by her boyfriend or members of her boyfriend's gang because of her gender identity.

The Greeley Tribune, a local newspaper reporting on this case, continues to use an incorrect name and pronouns for Angie. Her family has been very supportive of her and are both angry and upset at this lack of accuracy and sensi tivity in reporting. Please let the Greeley Tribune know that this is not acceptable and their lack of appropriate reporting is contributing to an environment where violence against transgender people is continuing. Contact information for the newspaper, editor and reporter is below.

The perpetrator has stolen Angie's sister's car, a very dark forest green 2003 Chrysler PT Cruiser with the Colorado license plate number 441ORN. There is a hubcap missing on the front passenger-side tire and there is paint missing on the front bumper on the driver-side, under the headlight.

Anyone with information about the car is asked to call the Greeley police through the communications center, 970-350-9600. In addition, Angie's cell phone and wallet were also stolen.

All media contacts should be directed to Kelly Costello, Director of Victim Services at the Colorado Anti-Violence Program (CAVP) at either kelly@coavp.org or 303-839-5204. CAVP works to eliminate violence within and against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer communities in Colorado.

Kelly Costello
Director of Victim Services
Colorado Anti-Violence Program
P.O. Box 181085
Denver, CO 80218
www.coavp.org

(303)839-5204
(888)557-4441 toll-free

Greeley Tribune

Write a letter to the editor
http://apps.greeleytribune.com/utils/forms/lettertoeditor/

Randy Bangert, Editor
Phone Number: (970) 392-4435
E-Mail: rbangert@greeleytribune.com

Mike Peters, Reporter
Phone Number: (970) 392-4433
E-Mail: mpeters@greeleytribune.com

New Transsistah Blogs

I am pleased to tell you about these two transsistah blogs that are just cranking up.

Hopefully over time these blogs will garner a readership hungry for more viewpoints from African-American transwomen of all ages, experiences and from different parts of the country.

One day I hope to see the repression lift that my transgender brothers and sisters are facing on many parts of the African continent (and the Caribbean as well) so that they can tell their stories.

Stray Thoughts is written by my homegirl Blackbird up in the Pacific Northwest. She's been the author of an omline diary of her experiences for several years now, and it's nice to see her finally take the plunge and start her own blog.

Not Your Typical Girl is by Lola in the Midwest. I hope that once she establishes a posting schedule that works for her, that she will share more of her thoughts and experiences about being a twentysomething transsistah.

The more sisters and brothers telling their stories, the better as far as I'm concerned. If y'all run across any more blogs written by African-American transwomen, or are an African-American transwoman (or transman) starting one, please don't hesitate to post the name of your blog and a link to it in this thread.

Evolving Into Black Womanhood

A part of being intrinsically human is our imperative to evolve. To become better, stronger, faster, smarter and healthier.

Transpeople are no different. We just think about an element of it that most people don't, gender identity.

One of the subjects I spend a lot of time thinking about now that I'm on the other side of the gender fence is my continuing evolution towards being the best woman and the best person I can be, despite spending twenty plus years in a male body.

Whether women want to acknowledge it or not, like their transsisters, all girls do not come into the world from birth knowing everything there is to know about femininity and womanhood. The only advantages you have over transwomen is that you possess the body-brain gender map match at birth, you have a head start in learning it, were encouraged by your families and society to do so and have time in your teen years to make your mistakes as you grow into your gender role.

It's been often said that there's nothing harder than being a Black man or a Black woman. I'd like to introduce you to the Monica Roberts remix of that comment.

There's nothing harder than being a Black man or a Black woman in a mismatched body.

But it was the hand I was dealt, and all I can do now that I'm finally on the evolutionary path to womanhoood is deal with and move on. But how do you do that?

First order of business is to decide what is the image of Black womanhood that you want to personally project to the world? Once you get that part figured out, then you take the time to observe the fine examples of Black womanhood around you.

One thing we transwomen share with you is that we also get to watch and (hopefully) learn from the mistakes the biowomen and transwomen surrounding us made. You pick and choose the qualities you like that's close to the target feminine image in your mind in terms of fashion tips, style, traits and personality. You toss out the stuff you don't like or doesn't work for you as you evolve to match on the outside the unique person that's on the inside.

I had wonderful role models and examples in terms of my mother, aunts, my sisters various cousins and friends. I had other women I came in contact with from school, my church, work, and just being out and about in the world that had admirable qualities as well.

The other ingredient that's part of an evolution into Black womanhood is pride. Pride in yourself and pride in our people. The pride in yourself is sometimes hard to come by as a transwoman because of the daily slings and arrows you suffer from society as you transition. There are the shame and guilt issues we're plagued with from time to time that we all have to work through no matter how long we've been transitioning in addition to all the traditional issues Black women in society grapple with.

But having that pride translates into making sure that you not only look good, but your behavior is on point and you carry yourself with class and dignity. Once you do that, then the inner beauty begins to shine through and you begin to feel more comfortable and at ease with yourself.

You also have to be on guard as a transwoman into not having your evolving Black womanhood based solely on your body. You also have to be on guard against believing the negative hype and feeling that the only thing that values you is how many 'husbands' you have showering you with attention, how many you sleep with, or your femininty is tied up in how big your butt or breasts are.

Beauty fades over time, and that tight body you had in your twenties and thirties will eventually fall victim to gravity and a slowing metabolism. You should be developing your mind in conjunction with your body development.

The body is also the easy part of the transition as well. But as the initial awkward phase of a body transition fades and you have staring back at you the face and body of a chocolate (or all the other shades from vanilla creme to dark ebony) Nubian goddess standing before you, it's hard not to be proud of that and proud of the many accomplishments of our people despite tremendous odds.

That brings me to another ingredient in the evolutionary path, knowing our history. You have to look at the fact that we are descended from people that survived the Middle Passage. A gender transition is nothing compared to what Black women endured during slavery, emancipation and still endure even today, but still found ways to uplift our race, this country and themselves. Once you put a gender transition in that context, it makes me feel sometimes that I have to step up my game and be on point just to be worthy of Black womanhood.

My being the Phenomenal Transwoman also stands on the shoulders and the work of the people that proceeded me. From Avon Wilson, the first African-American transwoman to go through the now shuttered Johns Hopkins gender program in the mid 60's, the kids at Dewey's Lunch Counter and the sisters at Stonewall standing up for their rights, to Justina Williams, the late Roberta Angela Dee and all those transwomen who either lived their lives not letting anyone know their secret or who were out and proud before it was cool to be out and proud..

Don't let biowomen make you feel less than female because you can't bear children. There are more than a few biowomen who are in the non childbearing boat with their transsisters, and I don't see any mad rush to call them 'men' because of it.

The final ingredient is spirituality. Faith in God, or whatever you call the higher power that's greater than yourself. Nurturing a faith that will sustain you through the rough times and allow you to appreciate the blessings. And while I complain about it at times, being transgender is one of those blessings.

I and many of my sisters take our evolution into Black womanhood that seriously. But unfortunately there are others who aren't that conscious of what they're stepping up to when they swallow their first hormones or took their first shot to jump start the transition, or have a Toni Childsesque attitude toward it.

I and many of my transsisters aren't wanting to be seen as a detriment to Black womanhood. We wish to be seen as a compliment to it as we follow our evolutionary destinies and make body and feminine gender mapped minds mesh together.

For all the African-American transwomen past, present and future, I owe it to them to not only live my life open and honestly as an African-American transwoman and share my truths, but to do it in a manner that honors them and our biosisters as well.

Happy 90th Birthday Nelson Mandela!

'No power on earth can stop an oppressed people determined to win their freedom.' Nelson Mandela. June 26, 1961

Today is the 90th birthday of a civil rights icon and a hero of mine, former South African president Nelson Mandela. The birthday boy is looking good and still speaking eloquently on many issues after all these years.







He's celebrating with family and friends today ar his rural homestead in southeastern South Africa. The rest of the world gets the chance to celebrate with him at a reception for 500 dignitaries tomorrow.

The man who spent 27 years of his life imprisoned on Robben Island for fighting apartheid, became the first president of a post-apartheid South Africa. He is one of those rare people who transcends their national boundaries to become a citizen of the world.

Nelson Mandela is an inspiration to me as I and others work to not only help transgender people gain their constitutionally guaranteed rights, but have their humanity respected as well.

Just as Dr. King and the African-American civil rights movement served as a model for the anti-apartheid freedom movement for my South African cousins, I look to both movements for lessons that will help us achieve our goals.

Mandela's birthday reminds us not only that one person can make a difference, but one person can also inspire a nation to do what many people and nay-sayers claim is impossible.

As they reverently call him in South Africa, happy birthday, Madiba. May the birthdays that God continues to bless you with be happy ones.

Pizza Run

Yesterday Polar and I decided we wanted to grab a bite to eat. We were in the mood for pizza, and since both of us were off from work we decided to go run out and get some.

In Indianapolis.

Actually, the reason we bypassed our favorite pizza place in Louisville (Impellizzeri's) and drove 100 miles for it was not just because we had the 'we need a road trip' itch that needed scratching,

It was an opportunity that popped up to meet newlyweds Waymon and Anthony, see Marti again (I haven't seen her in the flesh since the NTAC Lobby Day in DC last year) and congratulate her personally for being elected as a transgender delegate repping Indiana for the upcoming Democratic National Convention in Denver.

I'd also finally get the opportunity to fulfill my promise for a face-to-face meeting with Bil.

After Polar scooped me up at the house and we battled our way through the late afternoon rush hour traffic trying to get across the Kennedy Bridge to the Indiana side of the Ohio River, we stopped in Sellersburg to get gas.

It's cheaper there than it is here in Louisville, a fact that we in Da Ville gripe about every day. There's an investigation under way by Kentucky's state attorney general Jack Conway as to why we in Da Ville are paying far more for reformulated gas than our neighboring cities Indianapolis, Nashville and Cincinatti.

After Polar filled the tank, off we rolled northward up I-65 at a 70 mile per hour clip to our dinner rendezvous. I-65 is a major truck route and we noted the fact that like us, the truckers had pretty much slowed it down to doing speed limits these days and not because the Indiana State Police were busy patrolling the road in both directions.

We were enjoying life on the road again. Enjoying the scenery and seeing the corn grow at various heights as we passed numerous farms and outlet malls. We recounted past roadtrips as the numbers on the green mile markers on the side of the road steadily climbed up and the highway mileage between us and Indianapolis went down. It wasn't long before we reached I-465, the beltway interstate that loops Indy and headed east on it to the Washington Ave exit and our final stop at a pizza place in Irvington.

As we rode I-465 I noticed a gas price of $3.98 as we talked about the efforts of David Letterman fans back in 2002 to name the entire 60 mile I-465 loop for him. I knew from previous trips that I-65 through Indy was named for singer and Indianapolis native Kenneth 'Babyface' Edmonds and wondered if they were going to name a freeway for another Indy native, Vivica A. Fox. (I love me some Vivica A. Fox)

Polar pointed out the western end of I-465 that runs past the airport and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is named for four time Indy champ (and a fellow Houstonian) AJ Foyt, Jr.

We finally arrived at the pizza place in picturesque Irvington and ran into Marti, who arrived at the same time we did. After we all greeted each other, we were escorted by one of the enthusiastic young servers to the patio area where Bil and the happy couple were waiting for us.

Unfortunately, Jerame wasn't there, but we did spend a wonderful few hours talking shop, plotting the next moves of 'The Gay Agenda', getting to know each other on a personal level, Waymon and I telling a few stories from our airline days, Marti and I talking about some transgender issues, and catching up on the latest political news while Polar broke out his political science degree to pontificate on it.

We also got a good laugh about the latest tired twist to the 'TBP is too Black' spin. The whispers on the GLBT Net now is that the Project is a 'Black gay website'.

All power to GLBT Black people (raising clenched fist in air). Hmm, wish I'd worn my black polo shirt and black beret for the photos now that I've heard that nonsense.

And how was the pizza?

It was great, and so were the people I was eating it with.


Crossposted to The Bilerico Project

T-Tunes With Soul

I reread the Elisabeth Withers post I wrote last year. While I was doing so it reminded me of a project I was working on before I moved to Louisville in 2001.

During the 1999 Texas Lobby Day, as a token of appreciation to all the participants one of the organizing team members put together a compilation cassette tape of transgender themed music called T-Tunes. When I received mine I looked at the songs listed and noted that it was devoid of African-American music.

I pointed out to the person that compiled it that there were songs that you could definitely interpret in the R&B end of the music spectrum as having a transgender theme, even if it wasn't specifically written that way like Elisabeth Withers' 'The World Ain't Ready'.

Well, without further ado I decided to start compiling my own list of what is going to become an ongoing project of TransGriot, the T-Tunes with Soul

'The World Ain't Ready' Elisabeth Withers

'Transformation' Nona Hendryx


'Skeletons' Stevie Wonder


'You're Not The Man' Sade

''Unpretty' TLC

'Imagine' Earth, Wind and Fire

'I Can Only Be Me' Keith John (from the School Daze soundtrack)


So R&B fans.. any other songs you can think of that could be considered transgender themed?


TransGriot Note: person in photo is singer Nona Hendryx in her home studio

Dr. Collier Cole

With this post I'm going to start a regular feature on TransGriot about my favorite men, transgender and biomen. I'm going to kick it off by starting with Dr. Cole.

Meet the man besides my father that is responsible for the TransGriot being here.

Dr. Collier Cole Ph.D is the director of the Rosenberg Clinic in Galveston. Along with Dr. Lee Emory they have helped approximately 450 transgender people a year from all over Texas and the Gulf Coast region transition in both directions since 1980.

It's a testament to the quality of his work that four IFGE Trinity winners started their transitions with him. He also has another well known Rosenberg Clinic alumnus in transman Michael Kantaras, of Kantaras v. Kantaras legal fame in Florida.

Rosenberg Clinic has alumni meetings during the first Saturdays twice a year in June and December. Thanks to those meetings I met one of my close transwoman girlfriends. We were also blessed that he was involved with WPATH as well. Unfortunately because of my move I missed the 2003 WPATH conference that was held in Galveston.

I got to meet Dr. Cole him when I had my first appointment with him in January 1994. Over time I began to blossom as I shed my fears, insecurities and realized I wasn't alone. Dr. Cole got me over my height hangups, anxiety about whether I'd convincingly pass or not and helped me work out a few other issues as well.

He smoothed out some of the potholes on the road to transition for me and many other transpeople in the Houston-Galveston metro area and all over the Gulf Coast region. He teaches on these issues, and I had the pleasure of being part of a panel discussion for one of his classes at Texas A&M-Galveston.

Dr. Cole is a blessing to those of us who transitioned at the Rosenberg Clinic. One of the things I miss about home is taking that trip down I-45 to hang out with all the clinic alumni and gather at Gaido's for fresh seafood and talk about how all of us are living our lives. There was one memorable trip where the June reunion coincided with a Caribbean festival they were having in Galveston, and the parade route passed right by the clinic. The December meeting always coincided with the annual Dickens on the Strand Festival, so after we'd have our reunion meeting we hit it for awhile before heading back up I-45 to Houston.

Thanks Dr. Cole for the major role you played in getting me over my issues and helping me to kick start my evolution towards becoming the Phenomenal Transwoman.

Transteen Documentaries

Here are two more documentaries on transteens that I found on YouTube. Enjoy.


The MSNBC story on Angelika Torres




Julie Joyce's story 'I'm Not A Boy'

Here We Go Again-Bathroom Division

Before the dust even had a chance to settle on the Khadijah Farmer case comes word from the Left Coast and Jasmyne Cannick's blog that the same crap happened to songwriter Tanya White at the posh Beverly Hills Hotel. The incident occurred in September 2007 while she was there with a friend attending a birthday party for actress LisaRaye McCoy.

White found herself being tossed out of the women's restroom and disrespectfully called 'it' by hotel staff, then even after her gender identity was validated by her friend LaTrece Barney, was escorted off hotel property.



"I felt dehumanized, especially because no one ever asked me any questions and never asked for my I.D. To be called "it" and then forced to leave the restroom made me furious," White says. "I never want to be treated with such disrespect again because of how I choose to dress."

Tanya White is a songwriter, producer and recording artist who has written songs for Janet Jackson, Babyface, and Seal. She's hired uberattorney Gloria Allred to represent her in her fight against the Beverly Hills Hotel. She's asking for an apology and changes in hotel dress code policies, but will file the lawsuit and seek financial damages if she doesn't receive that apology.

Stay tuned, 'cause it's on like Donkey Kong now.

Once again, this points to what I and other transgender leaders have repeatedly said and warned about for over a decade. Unfortunately a certain gay congressman and a large organization that worships cash and the equal sign refuse to listen.

Any legislation such as ENDA, hate crimes or anything else that doesn't include the words 'gender or perceived gender' leaves a Mack-truck sized loophole in it that the bigots can use to do an end run and continue to discriminate against GLBT peeps.

It also leaves people like Ms. White, Khadijah Farmer and transgender peeps unprotected and exposed to the ignorance of others.

Repeat After Me: All Black Transwomen AREN'T Hookers

I get so sick of hearing the 'Black transwomen are hookers' shade. Every time one of my transsisters gets killed, in just about every story I read, the assumption is made that they are either hookers or if they had a prior arrest for it, it's played up in the story.

When the Duanna Johnson story broke last month, I cautioned some people commenting on it on the Bilerico Project not to jump to conclusions and assume that's just because the Memphis po-po's who beat her charged her with prostitution, that's not necessarily what she did for a living.

Hollywood isn't helping either. The images it puts out only adds to our frustration at being mischaracterized.

White transwomen get Felicity Huffman playing a transwoman named Bree in the movie Transamerica and see her get nominated for a gazillion awards for doing so. I get Kerry Washington playing a guess what in the soon to be released movie Life Is Hot In Cracktown.

If you see transwomen being interviewed on shows like Larry King, you'll rarely see a Black one on those panels. Even Oprah when she finally did some shows on transgender people failed to include one of us on the panel. The melanin-free Congressional hearing was also devoid of African-Americans.

You see white transwomen getting news coverage for working in various professional occupations, running for public office and getting massive media face time to counteract the fact that some of their t-girls also partake in the world's oldest profession. You just don't hear about it as much because it's spun by the MSM as a 'Black' problem.

So is it any wonder that a Black transkid looks at this situation and unfortunately thinks based on the tsunami of negative images projected at them even from the LGBT media, that the only thing they can be or do if they transition is become a hooker?

Is it any wonder that a big swath of the African-American community harbors the same misconceptions about us?

When are our African-American media outlets (EBONY, JET, ESSENCE, et cetera) going to step up to the plate and put together more positive stories on transgender African-Americans doing thangs, much less cover the crap that happens to us now?

If magazines like Colorlines, and some GLBT papers can do it, and you did it in the past, what's stopping the iconic publications in our community from doing so now?

EBONY used to cover Chicago's Finnie's Ball and the New York drag balls up until 1952. You're missing out on some wonderful history that our people need to know. Everything from Black GLBT people conducting a 1965 sit in protest in Philadelphia to a Tennessee transgender college professor becoming the first African-American transgender delegate to the Democratic National Convention. It underscores the fact that just because we transitioned, we didn't stop being Black. It also makes the point that we have the same desire to uplift the race and see it survive and thrive just as many of you non-transgender African-American peeps do.

I have transwomen friends who work in IT, teach, are nurses, and are managers who work in various professional fields. Many of us are college educated with advanced degrees. We resent that the first thing coming out of people's mouths gay, straight or transgender when the conversation belatedly comes around to discussing transgender people of African-descent being the p-word.

It's even more hurtful and insulting to see African-American SGL people, folks who should know better than anyone else about stereotyping, also part their lips to say the same negative things about us.

Retreating deeper into stealth won't change this situation. It's what caused this news blackout to begin with.

The Transgender Talented Tenth is going to have to step up to the plate and do more to tell their stories to counteract all the negative spin that's out there.

I'm trying to do my part by not only telling my story on TransGriot, but by participating in panel discussion on and off college campuses, sitting on organizational boards in the GLBT community, doing speaking engagements, and consenting to do radio, podcast and print interviews.

But I'm only one person and TransGriot is just one blog. I'm competing with a sea of Internet websites and adult films that have no problem peddling the more negative images of pre-operative African-American transwomen for cash.

All I'm trying to do is tip the balance back toward the positive end. I don't want 100 years from now when historians read about the transgender rights movement, Black transpeople's yeoman contributions to gaining those rights being whitewashed out of the historical record or the general narrative being 'all we did was sex work'.

Will There Be Transgender Athletes In Beijing?

Standing on the top step of the Olympic medal platform with a gold medal around your neck while hearing your country's national anthem being played is a universal dream for all people who participate in sports.

Transgender athletes share that dream as well, and as we rapidly approach the August 8 start of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, we're aware that since the 2004 Athens Games transpeople have been eligible to compete thanks to rules changes enacted by the International Olympic Committee.

The new IOC rules were enacted too late for many transgender athletes to compete in Athens. The hopes of transgender people all over the world shifted to the 2006 Torino Winter Games or the upcoming Summer Games in Beijing. We were anxious to find out if some transperson somewhere had the athletic talent to make an Olympic team. There's no doubt about the intestinal fortitude part, we have that down cold. To transition takes guts period, so making an Olympic team is a doable challenge.

Many US transpeople were looking north of the border and keeping a close eye on Canadian cyclist Kristen Worley and Canadian BMX biker Michelle Dumaresq. They had the best shots on this side of the world of making their national teams and being the first openly transgender athletes to compete in the Games.

Note I said openly compete. Olympian Stella Walsh won gold in the 100m at the 1932 Games in Los Angeles and the silver in the same event at the 1936 Games in Berlin. She is considered one of the greatest track and field athletes of all time. But it took her untimely death in 1980 from a stray bullet hitting her during a robbery attempt for the world to discover from her autopsy results she was probably intersex. Not only did she have male genitalia, but XY chromosomes as well. It was Stella's case that motivated some IOC members to look into the transgender athletes issue and proactively deal with it.

I checked out the Canadian Olympic website and it seems that neither Kristen or Michelle made the Canadian teams in their respective bike disciplines. In fact, there was a dispute between Kristen and the Canadian Cycling Association about whether she'd qualified or not.

I'm a little disappointed because as I mentioned in a post a while back, whether we live in the States, Canada, Thailand, South Africa, Australia, Great Britain, Brazil or wherever we are on the planet, transgender issues are international ones. Any breakthrough we make anywhere positively affects our brothers and sisters on the rest of the planet. So yeah, I was rooting for Kristin and Michelle to make the Canadian team and would have been cheering for them to win even if they were opposed by US cyclists.

So unless there's a transgender athlete qualified for their national team somewhere else in the world, it's unlikely we'll see it happen in 2008.

But it will happen. Transgender kids growing up now will ensure that one day, a transgender athlete will be standing at the top step of an Olympic podium having a medal placed around their neck. Some of the high school athletic governing bodies in the United Ststes are beginning to take a look at these issues and the NCAA is considering proactively drafting policies that cover transgender athletes as well.

We have transgender athletes competing in various sports at high levels such as golfer Mianne Bagger, and it's not too farfetched to think that one day, they will make a national team or qualify for an Olympic Games.

As for the detractors who claim transwomen have an advantage competitively over biowomen, the only sport so far that the charge may possibly be true is swimming. We transwomen carry extra body fat from our time in male bodies. However, whatever buoyancy advantage that gives you is negated by the fact that we're still lugging around a masculine weight skeleton and have less strength to do it because of our feminine muscle tone. So in short, transwomen swimmers would be competing under a handicap.

I noted that when I got on the tennis court a few years after I started transition. It took me a while to get adjusted to the fact that I'm a little slower because I have to run around for two plus hours on a tennis court lugging a 6'2" frame with femme muscle tone. The fact I wasn't in tennis playing shape at the time made it more difficult.

What I noted anecdotally will get a major scientific test. Sport Canada along with various partners has begun a first of its kind in the world major research project on transitioned athletes. The goal is to provide sports governing bodies with the data they need to ensure fair competition and balance our desires as transgender people to participate fully in all that life has to offer.

As an African-American, I am fully aware of the power that sports, especially at the Olympic level has to break stereotypes, educate and bring people together. It's one of the reasons I love the Olympic Games so much. I was hoping to see Kristen or Michelle either carrying the Canadian flag or proudly marching into the Olympic Stadium in Beijing next month.

But if it doesn't happen in this Olympiad, I'm comforted in the knowledge of knowing that someday and somewhere it will.

2008 NAACP Convention

The AKA's aren't the only historic African-American organization holding a convention this week. The 99th NAACP Convention is being held up I-71 from me in Cincinnati. It started on the 12th and is running until Thursday.

The NAACP will celebrate its centennial on February 12 next year and this convention will kick off a series of events leading up to that date.

The theme for this year's convention is "Power, Justice, Freedom, Vote,” and this year’s annual gathering of more than 8,000 NAACP members, delegates and visitors will be held at the Duke Energy Center. Presumptive Democratic nominee for president Sen. Barack Obama delivered remarks last night, and since it's an election year, the GOP preumptive nominee won't be ignoring or dissing the NAACP by not showing up. Sen. John McCain will also be here in Cincy to speak on Wednesday night.

The National Black Justice Coalition will be on the scene as well for the fourth consecutive year. In addition to having a booth at the convention, America's only nationwide LGBT civil rights organization will have a visible presence at the annual NAACP conference.

-NBJC will host a reception honoring 4 people whose work in civil rights has greatly benefited black LGBT communities. The event is free and open to the public.

-NBJC's CEO, H. Alexander Robinson will address the NAACP Board of Directors and Trustees at their annual Luncheon. The event is closed to the public.

-NBJC will distribute its Black LGBT focused publications at its tradeshow booth during the convention being at the Duke Energy Center. The event is free and open to the public.

-NBJC will co-sponsor the Eyes Open Festival, a Black LGBT Film and Arts event leading up to the convention There is an admission fee.

If you live in the Cincinnati area, you may want to check it out.

Michelle Obama To Become An AKA

The oldest African-American sorority is about to gain a new member.

In an announcement made Monday during this week's Boule running through this Friday that's sure to thrill Alpha Kappa Alpha's over 200,000 members, Michelle Obama will reportedly accept an invitation to join the sorority. At the time she was matriculating on the Princeton campus, an AKA chapter didn't exist and wasn't founded there until 1985.

Ever since it became known that Mrs. Obama wasn't a member of a Divine Nine organization, the jockeying for the honor of inducting her into their ranks has been fierce. But some people felt Alpha Kappa Alpha had the advantage because of the sorority's corporate headquarters being located in Chicago and large AKA alumni groups located there and in Washington DC, where the sorority was founded 100 years ago.

If Senator Obama becomes our next president, she wouldn't be the first AKA First Lady. The late Eleanor Roosevelt holds that distinction, but she joins a long list of prominent members of the sorority that includes astronaut Mae Jemison, Alicia Keys, Coretta Scott King, Rosa Parks, Jada Pinkett Smith and Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

Also being honored with induction into AKA is Rutgers women's basketball coach C. Vivian Stringer and Kenyan environmental and political activist Wangari Muta Maathai, the first continental African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

So don't be surprised if you see Michelle Obama sporting salmon pink and apple green at an event near you.

GOP Golddigger

TransGriot Note: it's been a while since I composed a song rewrite for your pleasure. There was also a neat picture I found of an elderly McCain and his wife that I wanted to go with this post, but for some strange reason every time I tried to upload either that picture, one of McCain, or of Cindy, it returned a mysterious 'internal server error' response. Even changing the name of the photo file didn't allow it to be uploaded. Interestingly enough, I don't get that same 'internal server error' response when it comes to pictures of Barack and Michelle Obama. What's up with that?



Sung to the tune of Kanye West's 'Gold Digger'

He takes my money when I'm in need
Yea he's a trifflin' husband indeed
Oh he's a gold digga way over town
That digs on me

Chorus
(He did me wrong)
McCain's a GOP gold digger (When I'm Need)
Cindy made his bank account bigger(He did me wrong)
McCain's a GOP gold digger (When I'm need)
Cindy made his bank account bigger
get down boy go head get down (I gotta leave)
get down boy go head get down (I gotta leave)
get down boy go head get down (I gotta leave)
get down boy go head get down

After Vietnam
Cheerleader had it going on
With truckloads of cash
Under her underarm
Cindy said "John, you rock!"
As she fell for his charm
His wife Carol prayed for his safety
From the Viet Cong
Dumped his first wife for Cindy
Yo homes, have you seen her?
Because Cindy's cash can help in the political arena
Cindy adopts a Bangladeshi kid
Bush used to ruin the 2K presidential bid
Ok you got ya kid I have to bring around my friends
I sold out to the Bushies for my career to extend
But I won the nomination, that's the bed I made
If I'm messing with this girl then I gotta get paid
You know why
It take too much to touch her
Cindy's makeup comes off in huge clusters
But without her my career would be lackluster
Don't care what y'all say yeah, I still love her


(He did me wrong)
McCain's a GOP gold digger (When I'm Need)
Cindy made his bank account bigger(He did me wrong)
McCain's a GOP gold digger (When I'm need)
Cindy made his bank account bigger
get down boy go head get down (I gotta leave)
get down boy go head get down (I gotta leave)
get down boy go head get down (I gotta leave)
get down boy go head get down


14 years, 14 years Carol had your kids
Cindy's also got you for 18 years
John's payin' alimony for dissing her, dig?
His baby momma's car and crib ain't bigger than his
You see McCain on Meet the Press almost every Sunday
But he won't be driving off in a Hyundai
He was supposed to buy the presidency with her money
He went to the doctor and got a facelift with his honey
He walkin' around with a grin so sunny
Barack gonna wipe it off your face in November, sonny
If you're so in love why'd she get a prenup? Say it
SHE GOT A PRENUP, Yeaah
It's something that she felt she needed to have
Cause if you leave her dude she ain't gonna give you half
14 years, 14 years
Cindy didn't tell him she was adopting a kid.

He did me wrong)
McCain's a GOP gold digger (When I'm Need)
Cindy made his bank account bigger(He did me wrong)
McCain's a GOP gold digger (When I'm need)
Cindy made his bank account bigger
get down boy go head get down (I gotta leave)
get down boy go head get down (I gotta leave)
get down boy go head get down (I gotta leave)
get down boy go head get down

You're a GOP gold digger and you got needs
McCain said she wears too much makeup and insulted her weave
Bailed out your broke campaign in your time of need
You publicly called her the C-word, damn homes she's peeved
But you peeps outside the beltway need to watch him
While half your check ends up putting gas in your Datsun
McCain got that presidential ambition look in his eyes
In November it'll be Obama taking the prize
With Michelle his only wife standing by his side
McCain's trying to win but his heart ain't right
How you dissed Carol, keep spinning, awight?
McCain you really make me hurl
Dumping your wife for a younger white girl

Get down boy go head get down
Get down boy go head get down
get down boy go head get down
get down boy go head
(can you play that back)


Cross posted to The Bilerico Project

Race Baiting-New Yorker Style

As if Faux News putrid crap, the Tennessee GOP and various right-wing sites hatin' on the Obamas wasn't bad enough, now comes word of this New Yorker magazine cover hitting the newsstands today that's supposed to be satirical, but ain't.

"The New Yorker may think, as one of their staff explained to us, that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Senator Obama's right-wing critics have tried to create," said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton. "But most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree."

The magazine tried to CTA and said in a statement the cover "combines a number of fantastical images about the Obamas and shows them for the obvious distortions they are."

"The burning flag, the nationalist-radical and Islamic outfits, the fist-bump, the portrait on the wall? All of them echo one attack or another. Satire is part of what we do, and it is meant to bring things out into the open, to hold up a mirror to prejudice, the hateful, and the absurd. And that's the spirit of this cover."

Whether it was or not, the GOP is thanking you for giving them the image they'll ride from now until November 4. Satire is one thing. I get satire. I love it and read Mad Magazine as a kid for years. But good satire has an element of truth to it and frankly, the New Yorker Obama cover doesn't pass that test.

That New Yorker cover is every spin line, smear and regurgitated lie that the GOP and their Faux News propaganda arm have come up with to denigrate the Obamas. The fact that they took the unprecedented step and added his wife to the image just adds to the pissivity that I and many African-Americans feel about this cover.

It's also a fact that some of the GOP sheeple out there actually believe in their hive minds the bull that was depicted in this cartoon and will take it as 'evidence' that it's the 'truth'. Shouldn't the CNN debunking of the 'madrassa' lies back in January told you people that your favorite so-called 'news' outlet peddles in propaganda?



But I live in a reality based world with reason, knowledge and double checked facts as one cornerstone of it, not rumor or innuendo that allegedly passes as news. And unlike fundies, I don't turn off my brain when I go to church, either.

In the context of a racially polarized electorate contemplating putting an African-American in the highest political office in the land for the first time in our country's history, and the historical course-changing stakes of this election, the cover was irresponsible as well. One of my fears is that this cover has the potential to possibly do damage to the Obama campaign because it comes from a so-called liberal magazine.

It doesn't matter if the New Yorker wrote a serious article about Senator Obama on the inside of the magazine. The problem is the cover you produced to sell that magazine.

Deja Vu At Miss Universe 2008

Four Latinas made the five finalists at Miss Universe 2008 along with Miss Russia. Miss Venezuela, Dayana Mendoza was crowned Miss Universe 2008.

So what happened to my Houston homegirl? Unbelievably, for the second year in a row, the Miss USA rep trips during the evening gown competition.

Probably the thought going through Miss USA's Crystle Stewart's mind and all the contestants in this year's Miss Universe pageant in Nha Trang, Vietnam was 'don't fall'.

I'm referring to the image of Miss USA 2007 Rachel Smith falling during the evening gown portion of last year's event in Mexico City and still managing to score high enough to squeak into the five finalists to the disgust of the hometown Mexican crowd. She eventually finished fourth in last year's pageant and 'The Fall' is one of the more popular clips on YouTube.



Just before it happened, host Jerry Springer even alluded to last year's mishap in his banter with co-host Mel B.

Well, it happened again.



Miss USA 2008 Crystle Stewart was probably on track to at least make the five finalists, but had to get past the evening gown competition. This year the Latinas were bringing it. Miss Venezeula, Miss Colombia, Miss Dominican Republic, and Miss Mexico were serving it and scoring high with the international panel of judges. I felt if Crystle could get to the finals and get a decent question that showcased her intelligence and public speaking skills, she'd have a good chance to win.

But that slip cost her big time. Although like Rachel did last year, she got up as if nothing had happened, she only scored an 8.0. I knew that wasn't going to cut it with the Latinas scoring in the low to high 9's and after what happened last year, there was no way she'd be allowed near the five finalists.

The one thing that's already irritating me is the hateraid and snide racist comments that are already coming her way that I've peeped on the Net.

So we'll have to wait another year to see if a Miss USA can finally break the dry spell that we've had at this pageant. The last Miss USA rep to win it was in 1997

Miss USA Endorses Sen. Obama

When my Houston homegirl became the sixth sistah to win Miss USA back in April, and she was a Cougar alum to boot, I already liked 26 year old Crystle Stewart.

On the eve of the 2008 Miss Universe pageant that's currently taking place in the Vietnamese resort town of Nha Trang, Miss USA endorsed Sen. Barack Obama for president.

She said while she admired both candidates, she was more drawn to the Democratic hopeful.

"I like Barack Obama -- just his poise and the way he motivates people -- and that's something that draws me," said the Texan beauty, who works as a motivational speaker and is writing a book called "Waiting to Win."

Asked if she would vote for Obama, she said: "That's a secret, but yes!"

She also threw McCain supporters a bone as well. "John McCain is an American hero," she said of the Republican Party hopeful. "I'm actually kind of torn because I think he's a great person, he's older and he might be a little bit wiser," she told AFP on the eve of the Miss Universe contest, to be broadcast Sunday evening US time.

"But Obama's on the higher end of the list," she added.

Because the event is being held in Nha Trang, which during the Vietnam War was a major US naval base, she was also asked a question by the AFP reporter about that period.

Stewart said she was proud to represent the United States in an event held in Vietnam, once America's battlefield enemy, because the show could act as a bridge between the countries and help post-war reconciliation.

"That was 30 years ago, and we had a terrible conflict, but now we're working together, and I think this will show everyone that USA and Vietnam can be very friendly and cordial to each other," she said.

"Hopefully we can be role models to other countries, to work in cooperation and peace together... It's bringing the countries closer together."

The finals are being televised at 9 PM EST tonight, and I hope that Crystle continues to make history.

My Podcast With Ethan Is Online

Last Sunday I sat down with Ethan St. Pierre and talked about a few issues in the transgender community on his podcast. He shot me an e-mail Friday informing me that the podcast is now online and up at TransFM and podomatic.com

If you wish to hear the TransGriot pontificating on a few issues, click on this link to listen to the show.

It can also be accessed by going to the TransFM website, click on my name and hear the show that way as well.

But since I already did the heavy Net lifting for you, just check it out.

Louis Coleman: 'A First Responder To Injustice'

TransGriot note: Rev. Louis Coleman passed away on July 4. He was as Betty Baye's column mentioned, a first responder to injustice here in Da Ville and across the state.

He's also a polarizing figure here as well. One day I overheard a white co-worker of mine when I worked at Macy's griping about him and a recent LG&E price hike in the breakroom. I pointed out that if it hadn't been for Rev. Coleman protesting it and chewing on them in the media the price hike would have been even higher.

I and more than a few people in GLBT Louisville were pissed at him for two months (some are still pissed) because he sided with the bigots during the bruising JCPS policy fight a few months ago. He will be missed.

By Betty Baye
Louisville Courier-Journal
July 10, 2008

I took for granted that the Rev. Louis Coleman would always be around Kentucky, speaking truth to power as he saw it.

But the long July 4 holiday was rudely interrupted while I was out to dinner with friends. News arrived that Louis had died.

My immediate thought was that now Louis can lay down the cross that he carried for so many and let somebody take care of him.

Louis Coleman befriended me when I was a reporter back in the mid-'80s. He kicked open doors in this city and this state through which a lot a people waltzed, including some who, once seated at tables of power, denied Coleman just as Judas denied the Jesus that Louis served so faithfully for 64 years.

We've all probably heard Louis' critics; they said that his tactics were unorthodox and that he wasn't always careful about marshalling all the facts before lacing up his marching shoes and grabbing his bullhorn and picket signs.

Fact is that Louis Coleman was just too "grassroots" for some people.

He wasn't an oratorical wonder like Frederick Douglass, Mary McCloud Bethune, Malcolm X or Martin Luther King Jr. He wasn't erudite like W.E.B. DuBois. And when he mounted the pulpit of the First Congregational Church, where he was pastor for many years, he wasn't a poetic preacher like the Rev. Jesse Jackson. Louis wasn't a natty dresser like Minister Louis Farrakhan, and he couldn't turn a phrase on paper like James Baldwin or his old friend, the late Anne Braden.

No, Louis Coleman was just Louis.

He wasn't a duplicate of anyone. He had his own style, and if you know anything about the civil rights movement, and human rights struggles in general, you know that it takes all kinds.

King, for example, self-identified as a drum major for justice. When I think of Louis Coleman, I imagine a foot soldier, bringing up the rear, as someone more comfortable in a T-shirt and jeans and in the trenches rather than in board rooms -- though Louis slipped in and out of more board rooms than some might imagine.

I'll always remember Louis as a first responder to injustice; he was an accessible leader.

Louis was hard-headed, too. He didn't readily take to the advice of those who urged him to take better care of himself or to slow down. For example, he called himself retired once, but that that didn't last long. Louis ran himself ragged holding press conferences about one issue or another, leading daily vigils outside crack houses and picketing City Hall, police headquarters and job sites, where he didn't believe that minorities were getting their fair share of the work or the contracts.

Not everybody was always happy to see Louis Coleman coming.

But those unhappy folks weren't the poor kids who lined up for the school-supplies giveaway that Louis held every year. Those unhappy with him weren't the people who applauded Louis' efforts to cut down on the violence by buying back guns off the streets.

And contrary to many of his detractors, who obviously had no personal contact, Louis was no racist. He didn't discriminate among his friends or those who sought his aid.

Though Louis did generate a lot of press over the last 30 or so years, he did some of his best work behind the scenes, and he never seemed to mind, as some close to him clearly did, when he wasn't given credit for the work that he had done. And it also didn't seem to matter to Louis that when the money that came as result of something that Louis first agitated for, it didn't flow into the coffers of the Justice Resource Center, but instead went to more mainstream groups.

It's not that Louis Coleman never got angry or didn't have an ego; we all do. But what I and many others who knew this kind, wonderful human being will cherish as his legacy is that Louis was more about getting the job done than simply being famous or being loved.

Louis Coleman was one of God's originals, and I'm going to miss his face around this place. I'll miss, too, those phone calls when I'd pick up and hear his raspy voice on the end of the line saying ever so respectfully, "Sister Betty, I've written something. Do you think you can get it in The Courier?"

Betty Winston Bayé's column appears Thursdays; her e-mail address is bbaye@courier-journal.com.

It's Centennial Boule Time!

Beginning yesterday and continuing through next Friday, the predominant fashion color for more than 20,000 sisters around Washington DC will be salmon pink and apple green.

Those 20,000 women I'm talking about are the sorors of Alpha Kappa Alpha, Inc. the first and the oldest African-American sorority. They will be returning to the city where the organization was born for the Centennial Boule.

AKA was founded on the Howard University campus one hundred years ago on January 15, 1908.

I come from a long line of AKA's. My mom, sister and several cousins are members and may be walking around DC as I write this. When I lived at home, I used to read my mom's Ivy Leaf magazines when she and my sis were done with them. I drove Mom to more than a few of her grad chapter meetings after I acquired my license and even DJed a few of her chapter's Christmas parties before I transitioned. I lived next door to one of the founding members and basileus of my mom's grad chapter and grew up in a neighborhood full of AKA's. The sorority has touched my life and the lives of many people in many ways even if I was the wrong gender at the time for membership.

The Boule is AKA's biennial national convention that moves around so that the nine US AKA regions (the tenth is the international one) get the opportunity to host it. In milestone years such as this one, they return to Washington DC, which hosted the 25th, 50th, and 75th anniversary Boules as well.

In addition to staying true to its mission of service to all mankind, empowering women and uplifting our people, AKA has stood tall for justice as well. AKA members were not only involved in the civil rights movement, but are making trailblazing strides in all areas of our society uncluding the frontiers of space.

Centennial Supreme Basileus Barbara A. McKinzie has not only focused on a economic empowerment message during her tenure, she has spoken out against the disrespectful comments of Don Imus directed at the Rutgers University women's basketball team and the recent racist flavored ads the Tennessee GOP was running against Michelle Obama.

One hundred years later, Alpha Kappa Alpha has grown from its humble beginnings at Miner Hall to an international women's organization with over 200,000 members in various fields.

Mattel has even created an AKA Barbie in honor of the centennial, the first doll its ever done based on any sorority, much less an African-American organization.

Skee-wee and have a memorable week in Washington DC, ladies.