Redeemed!

It took eight years, but you can finally call Team USA's men's Olympic gold medallists.

The 'Redeem Team' rolled over Spain by 37 points in the pools, but eked out a hard fought 118-107 victory over Spain to claim the gold medal and finish the Games unbeaten.

In a game more akin to an NBA all-star game in terms of the non stop scoring, Spain showed why they won the 2006 FIBA championship and were determined to make Team USA work for it. Team USA shot a lights out 71 percent in the first half and still couldn't run away from the gritty Spaniards. Spain has been having a banner sports year themselves and dearly wanted to add Team USA to its lengthening list of high profile sports victories.

They almost got their wish. With 8 minutes left in the fourth quarter Spain closed to within two points of tying the game. It took a critical four point play from Kobe Bryant to finally allow Team USA (and its fans) to exhale and start celebrating a moment that we've been waiting for ever since the 2002 embarrassment of Indianapolis, the less than scintillating 2004 bronze medal performance in Athens and falling in the semifinals of the 2006 FIBA World championships in Japan.

All is right with the basketball world until the 2010 FIBA World Championships in Turkey. We have claimed basketball supremacy in the sport we invented for now. But we know we can no longer step on a basketball court wearing a USA jersey, say boo and win by 50. The rest of the world has game as well.

See y'all in Turkey and London.

Poetic Posts

TransGriot Note: I love creative writing, and from time to time I like writing short stories, novels and poetry.

Some of them I've posted on TransGriot, and since there are over 900 plus posts for you to peruse, thought I'd make it easy for y'all and consolidate the poetry links in one easy to find post.

photo and video-Maya Angelou reading her poem 'On The Pulse Of Morning' during the 1993 inauguration of President Bill Clinton.



Silly Rabbit


Ebony


Batty Boys


I Am She


Fracked Up


Don't Disrespect Me



They Don't Want No Sissy Church


Phenomenal Transwoman


Houston Blues


I Am A Houston Sistah

Same Olympic Women's B-Ball Final- Same Result

Since 1996 the Team USA women and the Australian Opals have had quite a basketball rivalry. They are the two best teams in the world. The Aussies are the current FIBA world women's champs. They have met in the 1996 Atlanta semifinals and the gold medal games in Sydney and Athens. All the matchups were double digit Team USA wins.

The Aussies felt that this Olympics was theirs. Some of their best players stayed home to train. Lauren Jackson left the Seattle Storm two weeks before the WNBA Olympic break started to go back to Australia to train with the Opals.

But once again, the Opals will be taking silver medals back Down Under. Lisa Leslie made sure her last Olympic game would end on a high note despite fouling out with 6:33 left in the contest. She scored 14 points to help Team USA defeat Australia 92-65 and join Teresa Edwards as the only female USA ballers to win four gold medals. Leslie made history by becoming the first to accomplish the feat in consecutive Olympiads.

It looked like it was going to be a hard fought game for a while. Team USA trailed 13-10 late in the first quarter before Kara Lawson and the 'Young Guns' as I call them took the floor. They ignited a 12-2 run that gave Team USA a 22-15 lead at the end of the quarter. The Aussie were also held to 22% shooting as Team USA raced out to a 47-30 lead while blistering the nets with 63% shooting.

The 'Young Guns' also outscored the Opals bench 59-11 in this game as well with Kara Lawson's perfect 5 for 5 shooting and 15 points leading the way.

Lauren Jackson scored 20 points while trying to rally the Opals, but they couldn't get any closer than cutting the deficit to 12 points. Team USA not only sent Lisa Leslie and Katie Smith out in style, they won their 33rd consecutive Olympic game.

This team had a nice mix of veterans and youth. Team USA will definitely be in good shape when the Drive for Olympic Gold Five kicks off in London four years from now.

It's Joe Biden

The question many peeps in the political world have been asking in the runup to the start of the Democratic National Convention in Denver Monday has now been answered.

Sen. Joe Biden will be Sen. Obama's running mate.

He returned to Springfield, IL to make that announcement, where he started his campaign 19 months ago. While I was hoping that the veep would be New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, that's too much diversity for the folks who still harbor racist prejudices and assumptions to deal with, even in my own party. Sen. Obama winning the nomination almost dictated that he was going to have to select a white person for the vice presidential slot.



To be honest, I'm glad it wasn't Sen. Hillary Clinton. Contrary to what her supporters think, she is a liability despite the vaunted strength with so-called white working class voters. That was built on smoke and mirrors, GOP crossover vote meddling and a healthy dose of good old-fashioned prejudice.

Her, Bill's and her supporters behaviors since suspending her campaign in June has only pissed me and other African-American Democrats off and probably sunk her chances to get the VP slot.

While Sen. Biden wasn't my favorite of the peeps rumored to be in the mix for the VP slot, if it results in victory on November 4, that's all I care about.

Survey Finds VA Discriminates Against Transgender Veterans

Trans Universe, TAVA founder Monica Helms' blog has the results of an interesting survey conducted by TAVA of 827 transgender veteran participants from December 13, 2007 to May 1, 2008.

This represents a strong sampling from what is estimated to be approximately 300,000 veterans in the US who identify as being transgender.

The Palm Center at the University of California, Santa Barbara has released the findings of a survey, conducted by Transgender American Veterans Association (TAVA), that shows that transgender veterans are being turned away and being mistreated in high numbers by Veterans Administration medical facilities.

Check out the story at Trans Universe

Payback

During the 2002 FIBA World men's championship that was held right up the road from me in Indianapolis, Argentina shocked the world by beating Team USA 87-80. That shocking loss sent Team USA careening toward a sixth place finish in a FIBA tournament we were hosting on home soil.

Two years later Argentina proved the 2002 game wasn't a fluke by beating Team USA in the Athens Games semifinals 89-81. The loss sent the 2000 defending Olympic champions to the bronze medal game.

Today the 'Redeem Team' got some payback for 2004. They defeated Argentina 101-81 to advance to the gold medal game against current FIBA world champions Spain. The wounded Argentines will face Lithuania for the bronze medal.

The 'Redeem Team' said they wanted to face Argentina, and in the first quarter they looked as though they would blow them right out of the arena. With the USA up by 10 in the first quarter the Argentines lost Manu Ginobili to the ankle injury that slowed him up in the NBA playoffs. They went up by as much as 21 points early in the second quarter before the defending Olympic champs made a run of their own that whittled the deficit to 46-40.

Houston Rocket Luis Scola scored 28 points to keep the Argentines in the game but Team USA had too much firepower and too many people determined to wipe away the bitter memories of those past embarrassing defeats.

Team USA is now 40 basketball minutes away from fulfilling LeBron James' Olympic gold guarantee.

What's Wrong With The USA Track Team?

It's been a while since I've seen an Olympics (Munich 1972) in which a Team USA track squad has had this many gaffes, miscues, medal favorites who fizzled and just plain old bad luck.

Not counting the boycotted Moscow Games, this will be the first Olympics ever that the United States has gone 0-6 in the sprint events (men's and women's 100m and 200m and the 4x100m relays).

I realized that Usain Bolt was going to kick some major butt in the 100m and 200m and correctly predicted to friends that Michael Johnson's 200m world record he set at the 1996 Atlanta Games would fall. I felt the Jamaicans had the better women's sprinters since our ranks over the last 8 years have been decimated by suspensions and retirements.

But I didn't expect both the men and women's 4x100m relay teams to drop the baton in the same event in the same games.

For an American track fan, watching a US relay team in the Olympic or world championship final, even if we don't win the gold, is an event we take almost for granted. When it doesn't happen, it's major sports news.

To give you an idea how long it's been since a US men's team hasn't competed in an Olympic 4x100 final, you'd have to go back to the 1912 Games in Stockholm and the 1988 Seoul Games. The last time the US women missed a 4x100 final was the 1948 London Games.

I realize these things go in cycles, and from time to time you will get an extraordinary athlete like a Usain Bolt that wasn't born in the USA. That's the breaks. There's a lot of things I'm mad at the Jamaicans about, but you gotta give it to them, they busted their behinds to get to this point. They have an opportunity to become the first nation to go 6-6 in the Olympic sprint events since Team USA did it at the 1984 LA Games.

While the world has clearly stepped up its game in athletics (what the rest of the planet calls track and field) I feel the USA not only hasn't kept pace, but has gotten sloppy in the way it promotes the sport and develops talent.

I grew up watching track events in Houston, which was a hotbed of the sport at one time thanks to HBCU's Texas Southern and Prairie View A&M. Longtime PV women's coach and Hall of Famer Barbara Jacket was the US women's Olympic coach in 1992 and 1968 Olympian and Hall of Famer Jim Hines was a TSU Tiger.

There used to be US TV network coverage of the major track competitions like the Penn and Texas Relays among others. Because of our historical connections to the sport, Houston papers covered track at the high school level and collegiate level as well.

Once upon a time in the States, just as we followed Candace Parker from the historic 2004 McDonald's high school All-American game when she became the first female player to beat the guys in the slam dunk contest to playing for Team USA in Beijing, we used to know who the up and coming track phenoms were and developed them for future Olympic glory.

Now you have to hunt for any coverage of it, much less any coverage of a high school level track meet. I was bummed to find out the Kentucky state championship track meet happens here in Louisville on the U of L campus, and I didn't find out about it until AFTER it had occurred.

I'm happy to hear that incoming USA Track & Field CEO Doug Logan has promised a comprehensive review of the way the US federation does things— including the way we select, train and coach our relays.

It can't happen soon enough in my opinion. The opening ceremony for the London Games happens on August 29, 2012.

TCBing

Taking care of business. That's what the USA men's and women's basketball teams are doing so far in these games. Both finished unbeaten in their pools. They blew people out. Both have disposed of a quarterfinal round opponents. Both are facing tough semifinals opponents.

The women just disposed of a Russian team that for 23 minutes gave them their stiffest challenge yet. They expected a tough game from them and they got it.

It's a tradition with us and Russia. It's a rivalry with deep roots. The Russians upset Team USA 75-68 to end Team USA's 50 game international winning streak in the 2006 FIBA championship semifinals in Brazil. Russia, playing as the Unified Team in 1992 also handed the US women their last Olympic loss as well.

So with that history on the minds of several US players and basketball fans around the planet, it probably led to the sloppy start of this semifinal matchup. Team USA had the TransGriot and probably every USA basketball fan nervous as our girls trailed by as much as seven points. They turned the ball over 13 times, missed free throws and blew six layups until they settled down and turned up the defensive heat. Team USA went on a 10-2 run to go into halftime with a slim one point lead.

They started off the third quarter the same way they did the first two. They trailed the Russians 38-33 before they ratcheted up the defensive pressure and scored the next 12 points while shutting down the Russians (and Becky Hammon) for the next 7 minutes while limiting them to 8 points for the quarter and seizing control of the game.

Thanks to Diana Taurasi's 21 points (with 15 of them courtesy of her sharpshooting from beyond the FIBA arc) and Tina Thompson's 15 points they defeated Russia 67-52 and secured not only their 32nd straight Olympic win, but their fourth straight trip to the Olympic gold medal game on Saturday versus the Australians. They dismantled China 90-56 in the other semifinal game with Penny Taylor sitting on the bench.

It'll be the third straight time since 2000 that they and the Opals have squared off in a women's Olympic basketball final and should be fun to watch.

Silly Rabbit

TransGriot Note: Was motivated to write this poem after seeing a young male wearing this anti gay slogan on a t-shirt.

An MKR Poem


Saw you on the street the other day
Wearing a shirt that was anti gay
It read, 'silly faggot, dicks are for chicks'
Thanks for the warning you're a bigoted prick

Did you know there are chicks
That don't like dicks?
And there are chicks
That possess dicks?

There are handsome Dicks
Who used to be chicks
And there are Dicks
Who are now cute chicks

So, silly rabbit
Are you in the habit
Of showing the world that in your brain
Ignorance, transphobia and homophobia reign?

And that you're immature
And insecure
In your sexuality
And gender identity?

Think about this silly rabbit, if you can
Did that shirt make you feel more like a man?
If hating gay and trans peeps makes you feel okay
You're a pathetic waste of DNA

You keep hatin' on peeps who are transgender or gay
We ain't gonna go away
'Tudes like yours cause us stress and strife
But won't keep us from living a quality life
Silly rabbit

'Creation Science' Gets Another Legal Smackdown

As the child of an educator I abhor and despise ignorance no matter where it comes from.

I have a special distaste for the Religious Reich not only because of their faith-based hatred of GLBT people or the twisting of Biblical scripture for their nefarious political purposes, but because of their decades long Talibanesque push to destroy public schools. They wish to force their interpretations of science on the rest of us who don't turn off our brains when we enter a church sanctuary or have no problem reconciling scientific reason and logic with our Christian beliefs. In fact, Dr. Martin Luther King is my role model to be just that type of Christian.

I'm bringing this issue up because the University of California recently won a federal lawsuit brought by a Christian school in Southern California, an association of Christian schools, and several students in 2005. They were arguing that the University of California's refusal to honor courses that reject evolution or declare the Bible infallible violated their rights to freedom of speech and religion.

S. James Otero of the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles ruled that when considering applicants from Christian high schools, the University of California system does not have to recognize or give credit to those courses.

Judge Otero said the UC's review committees had a valid reason for rejecting the courses. It wasn't because they contained religious viewpoints; it was because they failed to meet the university's legitimate academic standards.

In a written statement UC provost and executive vice president for academic and health affairs Wyatt R. Hume praised the judge’s ruling. “As we have said all along,” he said, “the question the university addresses in reviewing courses is not whether they have religious content, but whether they provide adequate instruction in the subject matter.”

As you probably guessed, the Reichers are already appealing the case, which is winding it's way through the Ninth Circuit.

Hallelujah!

I'm sick of right-wingers pimping creation science, intelligent design or whatever name du jour they call creationism as legitimate science.

If they despise having their kids sit next to African-American, Latino/a, Asian and GLBT kids in a classroom so much that they willingly pay thousands of dollars to send their kids to private 'christian' schools and stuff their heads full of Flintstones cartoons, so be it.

It's on y'all if you want to pay for the privilege of dumbing down your kids. We have in northern Kentucky a $27 million dollar monument to that ignorance in Petersburg called the Creation Museum.

Just don't expect the rest of the science, logic and reason based world to play along with your faith-based fantasy that you are the majority or use our tax dollars to pay for that BS.

Neither should you expect a competitive academic institution such as the University of California or any other public university that require fact-based science classes as a prerequisite for entrance to factor non-science based courses into that entrance decision. If y'all won't allow diversity as a reason to admit historically denied people who qualify to enter Cal, then y'all don't get any sympathy or slack from me.

Merit arguments cut both ways. Thanks to your decision to isolate them from a diverse world, your kids failed to meet the fact-based science credits requirement standard necessary to enter an elite institution. Besides, this country is already lagging far enough behind in math and science thanks to your hate on public education hijinks.

On the University of California logo it has the words 'Let there be light' on it. There needed to be light shone on the Religious Reich's ongoing attempts to force creationism down people's throats as they just did in Louisiana. Thank you University of California and Judge Otero for calling them on it

The Reichers would do well to remember the words of a man far smarter than many of us, Albert Einstein.

“Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.”

And the fundies have been blind for a long time when it comes to science education.

Another Houston Landmark Goes Bye-Bye

I talked about how I felt when what would have been Astroworld's 40th anniversary passed with it being razed to the ground and many Houstonians still saddened and pissed about how Six Flags handled the situation.

Now another landmark company for many Houstonians is going bye-bye as well.

Finger Furniture, where for 81 years generations of Houstonians have bought the furniture for their homes will become Ashley Furniture HomeStores. The four Finger locations in town will be shut down, including the massive one on the Gulf Freeway close to downtown that holds the Houston Baseball Museum and the home plate for old Buffs Stadium.

The Gulf Freeway store sits on the site of old Buffs Stadium, which was the home of Houston's longtime minor league baseball team the Houston Buffalos.

It was a St. Louis Cardinals affiliate until the Colt 45s/Astros were born in 1962. Some legendary Cardinals such as Dizzy Dean played here before heading off to St. Louis and future Hall of Fame careers.

As a result of being a former Cardinals farm team city, the major league opponent that draws the biggest crowds for Astros games behind the Cubs and ahead of the Braves and Dodgers, especially among the generation that grew up with the Buffs is the St. Louis Cardinals. It was also ironic that we beat the Cards to earn our first National League championship in 2005.

Finger Furniture was founded by Sam Finger in 1927. His son S.P. "Sammy" Finger was an industry legend who pioneered the environmental room-setting retail concept, according to the American Furniture Hall of Fame.

In 1989, Robert "Bobby" Finger became president and CEO. The company named his son Rodney Finger president in 2006, and the following year, after the death of Bobby Finger, Rodney became CEO.

Last year, the company posted sales of about $255 million, according to Furniture Today.

"It's sad to see them go. Sammy Finger built a great brand," said Jim McIngvale, owner of Gallery Furniture.

"Finger's has been a good name in the community for a long time. I wish the family and employees well and hope the transformation is successful," said Melvyn Wolff, chairman of Star Furniture, a 96-year-old chain and the oldest in Texas.

Fingers was a victim of the changes in the furniture industry. Once upon a time all furniture retailers in the States bought their products in North Carolina. Now it comes from all over the world. Rodney Finger mentioned that several of Fingers old suppliers have gone out of business as a result of that changing business model.

Fingers bought the exclusive operating rights for Ashley Furniture in the Houston area a few years ago. The three Ashley stores it has opened in the Houston market are outperforming their four Fingers ones, leading to the corporate restructuring.

Most of the furniture in my parents and grandparents homes came from Fingers. When I tagged along on those furniture shopping trips I'd make a beeline for the Houston Baseball Museum section of the store and its free soda pop.

I understand the Finger's are doing what they have to do to ensure the company survives for a fifth generation and beyond. The end result is that another piece of the Houston I and generations of people grew up with, and like Joske's and Sakowitz, another marquee retailing name in the Houston area is going away forever.

Houston Councilwoman Jones Helps Rescue Driver From Fiery Crash

TransGriot Note: I wrote a post about my fellow Cougar back in December 2007 when she won her at-large seat on City Council. Check out what she's been up to since then.

By JENNIFER LATSON
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Aug. 17, 2008, 11:01PM

The sparks from the highway looked like fireworks, but Jolanda Jones' teenage son saw what caused them: a car vaulting off the elevated stretch of Westpark Tollway before crashing about 100 feet below.

Jones followed the billowing smoke to where the car rested against a fence in the Hillcroft Transit Center.

Flames engulfed its front end.

"I think, 'Oh my God, someone's dead,' " Jones said.

The Houston City Council member and two other Good Samaritans happened to see the crash just before 1 a.m. Sunday. Together, they pulled the driver from the mangled, fiery wreckage.

Jones and a friend had just picked up her son from a country-western concert and were headed toward Wal-Mart on a Westpark feeder road when they saw the car leap off the tollway near U.S. 59. They stopped their car, called 911 and followed the smoke.

"We just ran," said Jones, 42, a former track and field star at the University of Houston.

She didn't expect to see anyone alive. But when she neared the car, she saw movement.

Then she heard a woman screaming.

Jones and the two men, all of them strangers to each other, tried to pry the woman out, but she was pinned by the steering wheel inside the crumpled car.

Time was running out.

"The window was melting," Jones said. "The fire was coming in."

Finally, Jones leaned in through the back passenger window and put her weight on the driver's seat.

The woman slipped free, and the trio lifted her out the window.

Her leg was clearly broken; the protruding bone was visible, stretching the skin. Blood trickled from her mouth.

Jones carried her to a curb and sat down, cradling her in her arms, she said.

"I didn't know if she was going to live or die," she said. "I didn't want to put her on the ground."

Jones spoke to her briefly and learned her first name. The dark-haired woman was about 25, Jones guessed.

The woman screamed until police and firefighters arrived and whisked her away in an ambulance.

It was the second time this month that Jones has crossed paths with police at a scene.

On Aug. 1, she happened upon an arrest in progress outside a Third Ward gas station. She approached police and said she had concerns that the suspect, wanted on charges of marijuana possession, was being mistreated. The officers accused her of interfering with an arrest.

This time, she said, one officer expressed gratitude.

"He said, 'You saved her life,' " she recalled Sunday afternoon.

But, she said, he told her the woman might have suffered massive internal injuries from the 100-foot fall.

Houston police Capt. Bruce Williams declined to comment Sunday on the specifics of the accident.

Jones said anxiety kept her awake all night. She went to the Ben Taub Hospital emergency room Sunday morning to check on the woman.

She could only tell them the woman's first name and the details of the crash. They knew who she meant.

"They said, 'Yes, ma'am. She's alive.' "

jennifer.latson@chron.com

African-American Sibling Fencers Win Silver Medals

The Williams sisters aren't the only African-American siblings who will be taking medals back home from Beijing.

Meet Keeth and Erinn Smart. Keeth and Erinn are the trailblazing fencers from Brooklyn, NY who were the first kids that walked through the doors of the Peter Westbrook Foundation's fencing program when he started it in 1990.

Peter Westbrook was the last American man to win a fencing medal and the first African-American one to do so. He captured a bronze medal in the men's sabre event at the 1984 LA Games. The Smarts are competing in their third Olympics, and as the old saying goes, the third time was the charm. But they've had a rough year just getting to this point.

Their parents unfortunately weren't there to witness it. Their father Thomas Smart passed away in 2005 from a sudden heart attack,. Their mother Audrey Elizabeth died recently in March after battling colon cancer for two years.

Keeth contracted a rare blood disorder that put him in intensive care for two weeks while competing in a fencing tournament in Algeria. The disorder not only threatened his participation in the Beijing Games but put his life in jeopardy as well.

The Smart's roads to their respective medals were just as rocky. In the women's team foil event Team USA was ranked seventh out of eight teams. They upset Poland and then held off Hungary 35-33 in the semifinals as Erinn held off a furious late charge by the Hungarian fencer to send them to the gold medal match versus Russia.

Unfortunately Team USA lost to Russia 28-11 in the gold medal match, but in the process they earned the first US medals in the foil event since 1960.

Keeth's run to a medal was just as dramatic in the men's team sabre event.

Smart took over in the quarterfinal with the USA trailing defending world champion Hungary 40-36. In the team event, first one to 45 wins, and the Americans had their backs to the wall. Smart rallied to tie the match at 44 all, then scored the winning touch to send them to the semifinals against the Russians.

In the semifinals, Keeth found himself not only facing a 40-35 deficit, but a personal demon as well. At the 2004 Athens Games he came on the strip in the bronze medal match against the Russians with a 40-35 lead. Russia's Stanislav Pozdnyakov rallied to lead them to a 45-44 win and the bronze medal. The loss bothered him to the point that he took a two year sabbatical from the sport.

Smart was now ironically facing the same man in the reverse situation and rose to the challenge. He outfenced Pozdnyakov and led Team USA to a 45-44 win and the gold medal match against France.

Unfortunately in the gold medal match Team USA fell behind 40-28 before Smart took over. Despite the twelve point deficit, he almost pulled it out with another miracle rally against France's Julien Pillet. He outscored him 9-5, but the deficit was too much to overcome as Team USA lost 45-37 to France for the silver, the first fencing medals for the men's sabre program since 1984.

Congratulations Keeth and Erinn for making history in the fencing world, being trailblazing role models and finally earning those well-deserved medals while persevering through a tough year for both of you off the strip.

APA Resolves To Play Leading Role In Improving Treatment For Gender-Variant People

TransGriot Note: The transgender community will be closely monitoring the APA to ensure they follow through on what has been written in this press release.

BOSTON – The American Psychological Association urged psychologists today to take a leading role in ending discrimination based on gender identity, calling upon the profession to provide "appropriate, nondiscriminatory treatment to all transgender and gender-variant individuals" and encouraging more research into all aspects of gender identity and expression.

The action came at APA's Annual Convention when the association's governing Council of Representatives adopted a resolution supporting full equality for transgender and gender-variant people. The resolution also calls on APA to:

* support legal and social recognition of transgender individuals consistent with their gender identity and expression;
* support the provision of adequate and medically necessary treatment for transgender and gender-variant people;
* recognize the benefit and necessity of gender transition treatments for appropriately evaluated individuals;
* call on public and private insurers to cover these treatments.

In addition to adopting the wide-ranging resolution, the Council of Representatives received a report by APA's Task Force on Gender Identity and Gender Variance. The six-member task force spent more than two years reviewing the scientific literature, as well as APA policies regarding transgender issues. It was also charged with developing recommendations for education, professional training and further research into transgenderism, and proposing how APA can best meet the needs of psychologists and students who identify as transgender or gender-variant.

Noting that transgender people, their families, friends and employers are increasingly turning to psychologists for help, "this trend underscores the need for psychologists to acquire greater knowledge and competence in addressing transgender issues," the report states.

Among the report's recommendations:

* APA should encourage training programs and graduate internships to welcome and support transgender and gender-variant people;
* APA should develop separate practice guidelines for transgender clients;
* APA should encourage more research into gender identity and expression, including the reliability and validity of diagnostic criteria for gender identity disorders;
* APA should advocate for antidiscrimination protection for transgender people in jurisdictions that lack such laws.

With regard to research, the task force listed a series of recommended areas of focus, including social stigma and public attitudes toward gender identity; identity development, including prospective studies of children and adolescents; the process and outcome of transgender-specific health care; and the variables associated with the efficacy of sex reassignment.

As a direct result of the task force's work, APA added gender identity to its nondiscrimination policy earlier this year. This builds upon prior adoption of gender identity nondiscrimination language in APA's bylaws, Code of Ethics and its Guidelines and Principles for Accreditation of Professional Programs in Psychology.

In addition, the task force developed a brochure, Answers to Your Questions about Transgender Individuals and Gender Identity (http://www.apa.org/topics/transgender.html), which APA published in 2006 and has made available on its Web site.

The task force recommended that APA take no position with respect to the diagnosis of gender identity disorder, which is sometimes required for transgender clients to obtain needed care. "Psychologists who work with clients with gender identity issues are not of one mind on this issue," task force members wrote. They noted that the psychiatric profession publishes the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, which contains GID, "and thus revision is their responsibility."

The report noted that APA has previously adopted resolutions discouraging psychologists from using diagnoses that are potentially harmful or discriminatory. "Accordingly, if there were evidence showing the GID diagnosis to be similarly harmful and discriminatory against gender-variant, transgender or transsexual people, there would be a precedent for a resolution discouraging psychologists from using this diagnosis," the task force wrote. "However … there is a great deal of disagreement about the GID diagnosis and whether it is helpful or harmful; therefore, the Task Force does not recommend that APA take a position on GID at this time."

'Transsexuality Gene' Makes Women Feel Like Men

16:13 29 July 2008
NewScientist.com news service
Linda Geddes

A gene variant has been identified that appears to be associated with female-to-male transsexuality – the feeling some women have that they belong to the opposite sex.

While such complex behaviour is likely the result of multiple genes, environmental and cultural factors, the researchers say the discovery suggests that transsexuality does have a genetic component.

The variation is in the gene for an enzyme called cytochrome P17, which is involved in the metabolism of sex hormones. Its presence leads to higher than average tissue concentrations of male and female sex hormones, which may in turn influence early brain development.

Clemens Tempfer and his colleagues at the Medical University of Vienna in Austria discovered the variant after analysing DNA samples from 49 female-to-male (FtM) and 102 male-to-female (MtF) transsexuals, as well as 1669 non-transsexual controls.

The variant was more common in men than women, although it doesn’t seem to be implicated in MtF transsexuality as the proportion of MtF transsexuals with it was similar to that in non-transsexual men. In women, however, there were some differences: 44% of FtM transsexuals carried it, compared with 31% of non-transsexual women.

Testosterone boost

While there are many women with the variant who are not transsexual and many FtM transsexuals who lack it, the finding raises the possibility that the variant makes women more likely to feel that their bodies are of the wrong sex, and that this is a result of their brains having been exposed to higher than average levels of sex hormones during development.

"It may increase the likelihood that people will become transsexual," says Tempfer. But he stresses that their cultural environment is also important.

"The present study found that a mutant gene that ultimately results in higher testosterone levels is overrepresented in female-to male transsexualism, says Mikael Landén of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.

"This is in line with what we previously know about masculinisation of the brain and is therefore less likely to be a chance finding", he says. "Hence, the study is important and adds to the notion that gender identity is influenced by sex hormones early in life, and that certain gene combinations make individuals more vulnerable to aberrant effects."

Motive fears

However, Janett Scott, former president of the Beaumont Society, a UK support group for transgender people, is concerned that positing a biological basis for transsexuality may encourage people to try and cure it.

"Nature may have made us the way that we are, but nurture is what gives us a problem," she says.

Tempfer strongly denies any such motive for his research: "That is completely out of the question," he says.

Nonetheless, he says, if other gene variants with a stronger association to transsexuality are identified, establishing a diagnosis might become easier. This might allow gender reassignment surgery or hormone therapy to start earlier in life.

Journal reference: Fertility and Sterility (DOI: 10.1016/j.fertnstert.2007.05.056)

Real Motherhood Is About This

17 Aug 2008, 0407 hrs IST,
T S Sreenivasa Raghavan,TNN
from The Times Of India

It was a quiescent Sunday evening. The sky was alight in hues of red and purple, and an energetic breeze from the seashore whirred into the bus I had boarded from Cuddallore. I was back from an interview, an unusual one but, more importantly, one that had answered one of the nagging questions of my life.

The meeting with Kalki a transgender friend of mine had answered the question: 'Who is a real mother?' Through my life, I had never got an answer perhaps because the mental illness my mother has been suffering from for the last 43 years had created a chasm in our relationship. I grew up in my grandmother's custody. I didn't expect the question to be answered. But a phone call from the 30-plus Kalki started it all: "I've something to share if you could make it to Cuddallore..."

The stunningly beautiful trans-gender, whose father was a senior DMK leader in Tamil Nadu, is based in Pollachi, some 450 kilometres from Chennai. An arts graduate, she later did her post-graduation in journalism and mass communication. Till recently she worked for an IT giant as web designer before she decided to pursue the career of an independent media specialist.

As I reached the orphanage in Cuddallore, Kalki came running out. "It's been so long since we met," she said warmly. "I'm so happy you came. Meet my daughter, Selvi." It was then that I noticed a child who was playing with toys scattered around her.

I was fazed at first. Suddenly, I recalled a news report I'd read recently in The Guardian: 'Pregnant man gives birth to baby girl.' But I still couldn't believe Kalki.

"Don't tell me. I know you're beautiful. But, I also know..." I hesitated.

It was then that Kalki unfolded her story. In 2006, she and her friends had gone to Cuddallore to hold an HIV awareness camp. It was there that she met Selvi and her biological parents begging at the entrance to a temple.

"The parents were pitch-drunk. They were physically tormenting the child to beg," Kalki recalls. Unable to stand the sight, she approached the mother: "I'm a childless mother. Can I have your baby?"

It was a lie. But Kalki had no hesitation in mouthing it.

"Give me Rs 1,000 and take her. And don't ever bring her back," the mother replied.

Finally as she walked away nonchalantly pocketing a paltry sum of Rs 500, Kalki and her friends were shocked.I learnt from Kalki later that the mother had, in fact, sold the same girl for Rs 2,000 earlier. But the buyer returned the baby soon afterwards when a doctor told him that apart from being malnourished, she had a hole in her heart and would not survive.

But that didn't stop Kalki from doing what she felt right. "Selvi anyway would have died," she avers. "But I said to myself 'First let me make an attempt...'"

Fortunately, Selvi survived and the doctor now says that there's no room for worry, though the child is slightly retarded. "Normal or retarded, I love her...she's my daughter," Kalki told me, holding the baby to her closely. What will Kalki do if the biological mother turns up? "I won't give Selvi up. I may not have given birth to her but isn't there a motherhood that's beyond biology?" she asked.

As I took leave of Kalki and later waited for the bus, I realised to my infinite emotion that the question that had been troubling me for so long had just been answered.

sreenivasa.srinivasa@gmail.com

More Ballroom Community Video

As Clay Cane's and Frank Leon Roberts blogs document, the ballroom community is still evolving and possibly about to become more mainstream. You have Isis Tsunami competing in Cycle 11 of America's Next Top Model.

Tracy Africa went from walking the runways at New York balls to the runways of European fashion capitals.

There are balls and ball houses that have spread out from New York and now have chapters in many of the major cities of the United States.

So enjoy some of these YouTube clips of various balls.


2007 Mizrahi Candyland Ball



DeDe Balenciaga




1993 Alphabet Ball



Classic Ball Tanay vs. Onjenee


The 2007 Icon Ball Drags Face category.



Barbie Mizrahi

Venus and Serena Win Beijing Doubles Gold

My favorite tennis playing sisters shook off their disappointing quarterfinal singles losses and beat Anabel Medina Garrigues and Virginia Ruano Pascual of Spain 6-2, 6-0 to win the women's doubles tornament

They were the 2000 Sydney Games doubles gold medallists, but didn't defend the title at Athens because of an injury to Venus. They made a little history in the process by becoming only the second pair to win the Olympic doubles title twice after fellow Americans Gigi and Mary Jo Fernandez.

While they had their troubles in the Beijing singles tournament, they didn't on the doubles side of it. They only dropped two sets during the entire tournament and were rarely challenged. In fact, the sisters are now 10-0 in Olympic doubles competition.

The 2012 London Games tennis tournament venue, should the Williams sisters decide to defend their title and make the 2012 Olympic team, will be conducted at the Williams sisters personal playground, the All England Lawn Tennis Club.

Kellie Telesford Murderer Gets Off

Across The Pond, they've had their own high profile transgender murder trial going on. Unfortunately the results are depressingly familiar to those of us who are transgender, a transperson of color and live on this side of the Atlantic.

18 year old Shanniel Hyatt was cleared of murdering 39 year old florist and beautician Kellie Telesford. She'd met Hyatt outside the south London beauty salon where she worked just hours before she was killed.

Ms. Telesford's worried friends, who knew she rarely went anywhere without having her phone by her side and hadn't been able to successfully contact her called police. She was found strangled to death with a brown scarf around her neck in her locked South London apartment on November 21, 2007.

According to trial testimony, when paramedics found her body, the scarf was tied so tightly around her neck they could only get the tips of their fingers inside. There were also partial DNA traces from Shanniel Hyatt on the scarf it as well.

Hyatt admitted he gone out on a date with Telesford on November 18 while his girlfriend was out of town with their baby. Hyatt met her at the Norbury train station and rode back to Telesford's apartment for a drink and to watch DVD's.

He claimed she performed a sex act on him and denied that he killed Kellie Telesford in a transphobic rage after discovering she was a pre-op transwoman.

According to prosecutor Sally O'Neill, her body was on the floor with only her feet and right hand poking out from a "carefully" draped white throw. The apartment showed signs of disturbance, appearing to have been searched and items stolen such as Kellie's mobile phone, electronic equipment and her Oyster card.

CCTV images and mobile telephone records show Hyatt used Ms. Telesford's Oyster card to catch the bus from her home. He was carrying a "big bag, probably containing other items that he had stolen", according to Ms. O'Neill.

When Hyatt was arrested he told police he did not kill Ms. Telesford and had not even been aware that she was biologically male at the time. He insisted that she was alive at the time he left her apartment, with that departure time and his story changing several times during repeated questioning by police after his November 29 arrest.

Hyatt's defense attorney Joanna Greenberg admitted her client was a "cheap and nasty thief" but repeated his claim that Ms. Telesford was "fit and well" when he left her apartment. She then incredulously suggested that Kellie may have died during a consensual sex game which went wrong, or that she may have inflicted her fatal injuries herself.

Greenberg also claimed in her defense argument that there were no signs that Ms. Telesford fought Mr Hyatt, even though she had "a man's strength".

Say what?

Yeah, right. We transwomen of color are not only exotic sex fiends with large sex organs and superhuman strength, but have magical powers and abilities far beyond the capabilities of biowomen, too. But if it flies in the face of logic and scientific evidence and works to get your apartment robbing murderous transphobic client off, so be it. Gotta blame that trannie for her own death and trash her reputation while you're at it.

Even though Hyatt was acquitted of manslaughter and murder charges, he's still in custody pending a deportation hearing back to Jamaica, mon.

Why am I not surprised he's from the most homophobic and transphobic place on earth?

And once again, the family of a slain transgender person is left wondering why this senseless murder happened and why the justice system once again failed to convict the killer.

I can only hope and pray we have better results with Angie Zapata's killer.

Double B-Ball Blowouts

Spain has been having a banner year athletically. Rafael Nadal not only has become the world's number one ranked player in tennis, he's in the tennis singles gold medal match. A Spaniard won the Tour De France. Spain won the Euro soccer championship and are the defending FIBA men's world basketball champs.

But in these Games so far, when it comes to basketball, Americans rule.

The USA men did something for the first time in these Games. They finally lit somebody up from three point range and it couldn't have come at a better time.

A Group B showdown game that was supposed to be a stiff test for Team USA turned into a 119-82 blowout thanks to lethal 12 of 25 (48%) shooting from behind the shorter FIBA arc.

They've only been shooting 29% for the tournament so far, but hit their first seven three pointers as every Team USA player scored for the first time in these Games. LeBron James had 18 points, Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony each chipped in 16 points, Chris Paul tallied 14, with Kobe Bryant and Deron Williams both chipping in 11 as Team USA moved to 4-0 in pool play.

Team USA has a final group match with Dirk Nowitzki and Germany before heading to the quarterfinals. They will face the number 4 team from Group A, either Australia or Croatia. If they keep winning, they will not face either Group A leader Lithuania or Spain again until the gold medal game.

The women beat Spain Friday, but it was a little tougher slog for them. Despite opening the game with a 19-4 run and holding Spain scoreless for 7:30, they fought back to trim the early Team USA advantage to 22-17 at the end of the first quarter and only had a five point halftime lead. Team USA also had a scare when Lisa Leslie went to the bench with a minor hip injury.

They tightened the defensive screws and opened the third quarter with a 20-5 run to take control of the game. Lisa Leslie had 14 points to go with her 11 rebounds while Tina Thompson chipped in 17. Diana Taurasi tallied 12 points while Candace Parker added 13 to help Team USA subdue Spain 93-55 and go 4-0 in Group B play. Former Houston Comet Amaya Valdemoro tallied 17 for 2-2 Spain.

It was the 29th straight win in Olympic competition for Team USA. Their last Olympic loss was to the Unified Team during the semifinals of the 1992 Barcelona Games.

Team USA will play their final group match against New Zealand before moving on to the quarterfinals to take on the number four team from Group A.