Beat 'Em Up, Beat 'Em Up, Rah-Rah-Rah!

There hasn't been much for me to cheer about this football season. My Texans are jockeying for advantageous NFL draft positioning in a season in which for the first time since their inaugural season in 2002 they were projected to finally make the playoffs. To add insult to injury, the Tennessee Traitors (yuck) are still unbeaten.

And no, I'm never gonna let it go about the Oilers being moved by Kenneth Stanley Adams for greed is good reasons.

But as a proud Cougar alum I have to give a shout out to first year coach Kevin Sumlin and the now 6-4 Coogs. They beat down No. 24 ranked Tulsa 70-30 last Saturday at Robertson Stadium to avenge last season's 56-7 blowout loss that knocked UH out of contention for the West Division title and a return trip to the C-USA championship game.


It was also the Cougars second win this season against a Top 25 ranked club (the other was East Carolina). The last time the Coogs beat two ranked teams in a season, I was matriculating on the UH campus back in 1984. That year we knocked off No. 6 SMU and beat the hell out of No. 3 Texas.

The best part about last Saturday's game is that my Coogs are now bowl eligible.

The Cougars at 5-1 in the C-USA West Division are tied with Rice and Tulsa for the West Division lead. If they knock off UTEP this weekend at the Rob and win the annual blood feud at Rice Stadium on November 29 with our little brothers the Owls, the Cougars are the West Division champs for the second time in three years and play in the C-USA Championship game.

Three more wins (the C-USA title game) and I get to gleefully make the five hour drive to Memphis to watch the C-USA champions play in the Liberty Bowl. I'll just make sure when I get to the Shelby county line and the Memphis city limits I'm not driving over the speed limit and steer clear of the Memphis PD headquarters.

Coach Sumlin did say when he took the job that the ingredients were there for the Coogs to be a consistent winner and a BCS bowl team.

Shoot, I could've told you that. UH is sitting smack dab in the middle of the largest city in a football crazy state. Texas arguably has the best high school programs in the nation with much of that high school football talent playing on fields and stadiums within a 70-100 mile radius of the UH campus.

Texas knew it, too. That's why they fought so hard to keep us out of the Big 12 when it was formed in 1996.

But that's another topic for another day. I can hate on the Longhorns later. In the meantime I'm raising my right arm and doing the Cougar Paw hand salute.

If things go well for the Cougar footballers over the next couple of weeks, I'll be in Memphis singing the school song and hollering "Eat 'em up."

Isis On Tyra

TransGriot Note: The YouTube video finally has been uploaded, so for those of y'all who didn't get to see Isis' appearance on the Tyra Banks Show Tuesday, here it is.

Part 1



Part 2- Isis' Mom


Part 3- Confronting Clark



Part 4




Part 6

The 2008 Louisville TDOR Ceremony

Just arrived back home a little over an hour ago from the sixth annual local observance of the Transgender Day of Remembrance at the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.

The mood was a little more somber than usual because one of our own was on the list. Nakhia's cousin Yana and twin sister Nicole were also some of the 40 people in attendance here along with our friends, LPTS students and allies.

After a welcome from LPTS Dean David Hester (no joke, peeps) the service began with remarks from Sienna (the local gender group) president Christina.

There was a prayer read before the reading of the names part of the ceremony commenced. As I silently read the list of names, many of them whose stories I've chronicled in this blog, I felt this feeling of sadness washing over me.

But what I was feeling probably paled in comparison to Yana and Nicole's reactions when their late relative's name was read aloud and the candle was lit for her.

We had a wonderful rendition of We Shall Overcome after the reading of the names performed by pianist Harry Pickens, an inspiring speech from Beth Harrison Prado, prayer and an additional song from Carol Kraemer.

Once the TDOR service concluded, we moved to the Winn Center for a reception and the announcement of the 2008 Butterfly Award winner.

It's a new award that the LPTS Women's Center began presenting last year to the person doing outstanding work in the local transgender community. Beth was surprised and pleased to learn that the award would be going home with her.

Beth in her short acceptance speech for the Butterfly Award hit the nail on the head about the purpose for the TDOR's.

While we mourn the people tragically taken away from us, it's also a celebration of the fact we are openly and truthfully living our lives as transgender people.

The ceremony reminds us that in any struggle in which oppressed minorities fight for their full citizenship rights, people will lose their lives along the way before the majority of them reach the promised land of equality.

We must keep fighting and pushing for that day while never forgetting the ones who paid the ultimate price for being their authentic selves.

The best way to encapsulate what I'm thinking and feeling right now is to close this with some words from Maya Angelou that were on the front of our TDOR program.

You may shoot me with your words
You may cut me with your eyes
You may kill me with your hatefulness
But still, like air, I'll rise.

Sleep well, my fallen brothers and sisters. You have risen to a better place. We who you left behind will continue the fight to make this a better world for us and future generations to live in.

Ten Years-400 Dead...And Counting

Today is the tenth anniversary of the Transgender Day of Remembrance. It's the day transgender people around the world pause and remember our fallen brothers and sisters along with our allies and friends.

It's also a day of mixed emotions for me. One of the people we'll be remembering this year is one of my friends.

Instead of lighting 30 candles on her birthday cake next month, instead we'll be lighting one candle for Nakhia 'Nikki' Williams at our 7 PM EST ceremony in the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary's Caldwell Chapel later tonight. She unfortunately is one of the 27 transpeople killed this year due to the senseless anti-transgender violence directed at us.


Since the night ten years ago that Rita Hester's lifeless body was found in her Boston area apartment and outrage over the disrespectful way the gay and straight news media covered it triggered the first TDOR ceremony in 1999, we have read the names of 412 people over the last ten years of TDOR ceremonies according to the Remembering Our Dead web project site.

The 412 names listed are disproportionately transgender people of color, encompasses 38 states, 130 US cities and several nations. It also includes non-transgender people such as Nashville's Willie Houston and Barry Winchell, who was killed by a fellow soldier because he was dating transwoman Calpernia Addams.

This year's ceremony is a mixed bag of emotions for me. I'm angry about the continued loss of valuable lives. I'm saddened by the fact that one of my friends is on the list this year. I'm shocked but not surprised after reading the stats that we lost so many people this year.

But at the same time, I'm hopeful that with the increased media coverage of transgender people over the last year and a half combined with the upcoming change in presidential administration, we finally have the conditions in place to pass hate crimes and an inclusive ENDA.

They may be just laws to some of you, but for the transgender community they are literally life and death issues. They are symbols that we matter, our lives are respected and valued and when you read the 'We The People' in the Constitution's preamble, that includes transgender Americans as well. .

The TDOR also ensures that how and why our fellow transpeople died never fades from our memories.


crossposted to The Bilerico Project

Once Again HRC-Keep Your Moneygrubbing Mitts Off Our TDOR

I've been advised that the Homosexual Rights Corporation is sponsoring TDOR events in Columbus and Cincinnati, OH.

Those events are supposed to be FUBU productions for us to memorialize our dead with our allies.

While there's some concern in the Dallas-Fort Worth transgender community about HRC's local Federal Club chapter sponsoring an event on the same night and time as the TDOR observances in Dallas and Fort Worth that have been publicized for weeks, let's get real for a minute.

The people who attend that event aren't likely to have compassion for our community, so don't sweat it. Handle your business and honor our people with class and dignity. You'll also know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the peeps who do show up for the DFW events are allies and friends who truly care about the community, not backstabbing sellouts.

If you feel they deliberately targeted the TDOR, then protest their next Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex area events and their dinner.

HRC cannot, in any spin driven hallucinogenic stretch of the word consider themselves to be an ally to the transgender community. Don't think we forgot about HRC selling transgender people out last year and being the lone holdout in the United ENDA coalition.

Those of us who are paying attention know y'all ain't changed one bit. That's why your dinners are still being protested.

Until HRC becomes a true ally to this community and joins the mainstream of the GLBT community in working together to pass a transgender-inclusive ENDA, y'all need to keep your grubby paws off the TDOR events.

Here's what I said about it last year and it bears repeating and rereading, especially by you transgender peeps who are continually sipping the 'HRC is our friends' Kool-aid.

Two More Seats! Two More Seats!

It took two weeks, but we finally have a winner in the Alaska senate race between Mark Begich and Ted Stevens, and it's not good news for the GOP or Sarah Palin.

With roughly 2,500 overseas ballots yet to be counted, Begich finally overtook and expanded his lead to 3,724 votes over scandal plagued Repugnican octogenarian Ted Stevens.

Stevens has served in the Senate since 1968 and his political history in the state goes back to Alaska's pre-statehood days in 1959

"I am humbled and honored to serve Alaska in the United States Senate,” Begich said. “It’s been an incredible journey getting to this point, and I appreciate the support and commitment of the thousands of Alaskans who have brought us to this day. I can’t wait to get to work fighting for Alaskan families."

It also put the Democrats two tantalizing seats closer to the 60 seat supermajority they are seeking. The two seats still outstanding are the nasty recount battle royal between Al Franken and Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) in Minnesota and the Georgia runoff race between incumbent Saxby Chambliss and Democrat Jim Martin

If they can get to 60 seats, the Republicans can't do jack to stop any legislation they don't like or block any appointments by President-elect Obama because the Democrats would have a filibuster-proof majority. 60 votes is what it takes to end a filibuster under Senate rules.

Begich becomes the first Democrat to represent the state in the Senate since Mike Gravel was elected in 1976. Begich's father Nick also served the state as a congressman before dying in a 1972 plane crash.

Begich's win also precludes the embarrassing possibility of the just convicted Stevens, the longest serving Republican in the Senate, having to be ignominiously tossed out by his GOP colleagues. Rumors were if that scenario came to pass, Gov. Sarah Palin was possibly considering running for the Senate seat in a special election.

It also gives President-elect Obama a stronger hand in terms of passing his agenda through Congress.

All political eyes now turn to Minnesota and Georgia.

Isis' Tyra Banks Show Appearance

Just finished watching an hour ago the Tyra show featuring our sis Isis on it. She's looking fly and it was interesting hearing her thoughts about ANTM, sharing some of her pics from the old days and getting her mother's take on things.

I can also see where she got those good looks from. She's just like her mom, a beautiful and classy lady as well.

The fun part for me was Isis finally getting the opportunity to confront Clark over her hateful statements. Clark tried to use her 'growing up in the South' and her Southern Baptist religion as excuses for her comments on ANTM.

Naw chick, you just got called out on your BS. Let's roll that beautiful YouTube footage shall we?



Clark, did your narrow young little 'c' 'christian' mind consider that the reason you don't see transgender peeps openly living their lives in your South Carolina town is because some of the denizens of that town openly express the same negative attitudes you obviously felt comfortable enough to utter for posterity?

Shoot, that's another post.

But I do have one question to ask Clark. Why aren't you in the Final Three for ANTM's Cycle 11? Seems like Isis is more of a woman than you are. She has the one thing you seem to lack:

Class.

Anyway, back to the show. It was also cool seeing her reaction when Dr. Bowers walked on set as well. I've bumped into Dr. Bowers at SCC and IFGE and she's a class act as well.

So check out the show, and Oxygen usually broadcasts it if you miss the syndicated broadcast of it. You also may wish to head to the Tyra show website and show some love to our girl. The haters are already crawling out of the woodpile.

TDOR 2008 Names List

Courtesy of Ethan St. Pierre, as of November 16, the list of people being memorialized for the 10th Annual Transgender Day of Remembrance on Thursday.


Kellie Telesford
Location: Thornton Heath, UK
Cause of Death: Strangled
Date of Death: November 21, 2007
Kellie was strangled to death with a scarf, by 18 year old Shanniel Hyatt, who then covered the body of 39-year-old Kellie Telesford with a white blanket - with the brown furry scarf used to choke her still bound tightly round her neck. Hyatt said he killer her after discovering she had a penis.


Brian McGlothin (Liked to dress in Women's clothes)
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio
Cause of Death: Shot in the head with an automatic rifle by Antonio Williams who is serving a six year sentence. Brian was 25 years old.
Date of Death: December 23, 2007



Gabriela Alejandra Albornoz
Location: Santiago, Chile
Cause of Death: Attacked and stabbed
Date of Death: December 28, 2007

Patrick Murphy (Found Dressed in Women's clothes)
Location: Albuquerque, NM
Cause of Death: Shot Several times in the head
Date of Death: January 8, 2008
Patrick was 39 years old.

Stacy Brown
Location: Baltimore, MD
Cause of Death: Shot in the head
Date of Death: January 8, 2008
Stacy was 30 years old.


Adolphus Simmons
Location: Charleston, SC
Cause of Death: Shot to Death (Aldophus was 18 yrs. old)
Date of Death: January 21, 2008


Fedra (a known transvestite)
Location: Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia
Cause of Death: Was found lying face up in a pool of blood,
cause of death was not reported.
Date of Death: January 22, 2008


Ashley Sweeney
Location: Detroit, Michigan
Cause of Death: Shot in the head
Date of Death: February 4, 2008
The age of Ashley Sweeney is unknown, she was only described as a young transgender woman in a press release.


Sanesha (Talib) Stewart
Location: Bronx, NY
Cause of Death: Stabbed to Death
Date of Death: February 10, 2008
Sanesha was 25 years old.


Lawrence King
Location: Oxnard, California
Cause of Death: Shot to death by a classmate because he liked to wear
women's clothes. (Lawrence King was 15 years old).
Date of Death: February 12, 2008


Simmie Williams Jr.
Location: Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Cause of Death: Shot to death, Simmie was found wearing women's clothing. (Simmie was 17 years old)
Date of Death: February 22, 2008


Luna (no last name reported)
Location: Lisbon, Portugal
Cause of Death: Brutally beaten to death and tossed into a dumpster.
Date of Death: March 15, 2008


Lloyd Nixon
Location: West Palm Beach, Florida
Cause of Death:Repeatedly beat in the head with a brick.
Date of Death: April 16, 2008
Lloyd was 45 years old.


Felicia Melton-Smyth
Location: Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
Cause of Death: brutally stabbed to death by Francisco Javier Hollos, who said he killed her because she would not pay for sex. Felicia was an HIV activist on vacation from Wisconsin.
Date of Death: May 26, 2008


Silvana Berisha
Location: Hamburg, Germany
Cause of Death: Stabbed to Death
Date of Death: June 24, 2008


Ebony (Rodney) Whitaker
Location: Memphis, Tennessee
Cause of Death:Shot (Ebony was 20 yrs. old)
Date of Death:July 1, 2008


Rosa Pazos
Location: Sevilla, Spain
Cause of Death: Was found in her apartment, she had been stabbed in the throat.
Date of Death: July 11, 2008


Juan Carlos Aucalle Coronel
Location: Lombardi, Italy
Cause of Death severely beaten causing fractures to the head and face before being run over by a car.
Date of Death July 14, 2008
Juan Carlos was 35 years old.


Angie Zapata
Location: Greeley, Colorado
Cause of Death: She was found in her home with two severe fractures in her skull.
Angie was murdered by 31 year old, Alan Ray Andrade. Angie was 18 years old.
Date of Death: July 17, 2008


Jaylynn L. Namauu
Location: Makiki Honolulu, Hawaii
Cause of Death: Stabbed to Death
Date of Death: July 17, 2008
Jaylynn was 35 years old.


Samantha Rangel Brandau
Location: Milan, Italy
Cause of Death: beaten, gang raped and stabbed numerous times before being left for dead.
Date of Death: July 29, 2008
Samantha was 30 years old.



Ruby Molina
Location: Sacramento, California
Cause of Death: Drowned
Date of Death: September 21, 2008
Ruby's naked body was found floating in the American river.
She was 22 years old.


Aimee Wilcoxson
Location: Aurora, Colorado
Cause of Death: undetermined (Police have yet to reveal cause)
Date of Death: November 3, 2008
Aimee was found dead in her bed. She was 34 years old.



Duanna Johnson
Location: Memphis, Tennessee
Cause of Death: Shot
Date of Death: November 9, 2008
Duanna was found dead in the middle of the street. She was 42 years old.


Dilek Ince
Location: Ankara, Turkey
Cause of Death:Shot in the back of the head
Date of Death: November 11, 2008


Teish (Moses) Cannon
Location: Syracuse, New York
Cause of Death: Shot
Date of Death: November 14, 2008
Teish was 22 years old.



Ali
Location:Iraq
Cause of Death:executed for being transgender
Date of Death:2008, Month is Unknown
Video of Ali before she was executed: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2tDVtjQNfQ


*IMPORTANT NOTE FROM ETHAN - (In case I don't get the details posted in time) There were 2 other Iraqi transgender women who were executed at the same time as Ali. Please remember them at your TDoR event.


TransGriot Note: For further info you can contact Ethan at radicalguy@gmail.com

Isis' Early Christmas Present

Christmas is about five weeks away, but if you tune into today's Tyra Banks Show you'll not only get the pleasure of seeing her on the screen again, Tyra has a surprise for her.

I'm also looking forward to seeing Isis set Clark's sanctimonious (and non-ANTM Cycle 11 winning behind) straight.

Oh well, might as well tell y'all since the word is already out there on the Net. Isis is going to get her sex reassignment surgery.

Dr. Marci Bowers will be performing the surgery. Dr. Bowers is a transwoman herself and in 2003 was picked by the legendary Dr. Stanley Biber to take over his practice in Trinidad, CO when he decided to retire.

Congrats sis! I know you've wanted this and I couldn't be happier for you.

Enjoy the trip to Colorado.

The Decisive Black Vote

'One of the most basic weapons in the fight for social justice will be the cumulative political power of the Negro. I can foresee the Negro vote becoming consistently the decisive vote in national elections.'

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

One of the things that is bugging me about how quickly African-American voters got slandered for the passage of Prop 8 in California, is how silent those same peeps have been about how decisive the Black vote was in terms of getting Barack Obama elected to the presidency. Dr. King's prescient comments about how decisive the African-American vote would become played out in this election.

How decisive?

*Without the Black vote, Indiana, Ohio, Virginia and North Carolina wouldn't have turned blue.

*Colorado, Florida and Nevada wouldn't have without the tag team of Latino and African-American voters

*Pennsylvania stayed blue because of it

*Mary Landrieu owes her reelection to the Senate in 2002 and 2008 to Louisiana's African-American voters.

*Saxby Chambliss wouldn't be facing a runoff in Georgia

*Missouri wouldn't have been as close or stayed in play without it.

Bottom line, if we have the juice despite having 6% of the population of California clustered in nine counties to be blamed for the passage of Proposition 8, then conversely, African-American voters are responsible for flipping six states that Bush won in 2004 and electing President Obama.

Nominations For 2008 Weblog Awards Now Open

With all the attention focused on this historic presidential election, it skated almost unnoticed that the 2008 Weblog Award Nominations started November 3.

It's the big kahuna of blog awards and a coveted award for those of us who are part of the blogosphere.

I was shocked to discover that someone has already nominated TransGriot for the Best LGBT Blog Award (thanks Pablo Domo), and I'm also nominated in the Best Small Minor Blog Category (based on Technorati authority) as well.

There's still time to nominate your favorite bloggers before they whittle down the nominations to the three finalists for the general public to vote on. Voting for selected finalists is expected begin in early December 2008.

You can click on this link for the full list of categories for the 2008 Weblog Awards.

A Transsistah's Secret-Makeup

One of the things I've gotten a lot of compliments about over the years and I take pride in is how I apply my makeup. Sometimes I get asked how I do it.

Well, a lot of it was simply practice. I've been playing with it since I was 15, and most times all I would do is just put it on and try different looks. By doing that I learned what eye shadow and lipstick colors worked for me and which ones didn't. I learned how to apply the right amount of blush to my cheekbones without looking like a cartoon character.

I paid closer attention to how biowomen who wore makeup looked while they were out and about in the world. I emulated the women (and my transgender sisters in Montrose) whose looks I liked and used as cautionary tales the looks I didn't like. (using black eyeliner pencil to line lips, for example)

I learned how to use a steady hand to apply eyeliner pencils because I personally don't like the look of liquid eyeliners.

That was difficult for me because in junior high I got hit in the left eye with a balled up piece of pottery clay in my 7th grade art class. I still have a reflexive motion as a result of that incident that causes my left eyelid to rapidly shut and water anytime some foreign object gets near it.

The involuntary eye shutting reflex caused me major problems during baseball season the following spring because for a right handed hitter, you are using your left eye to spot the ball. For most of the early part of that season, anytime a pitcher threw me a curve ball, my eye and brain perceived it as a 'Danger' moment, the eyelid fluttered shut and I missed badly while swinging at the pitch.

But back to the subject at hand. The funny thing about it was that I used to shut both eyes while applying my eyeliner pencils, and what that did was allow me to develop a technique in which I can place it where I need it to go without staring in the mirror. Eventually my brain stopped interpreting my eyeliner pencil as a threat and I could open and close an eye to apply it as normal.

I fought to get over the shame and guilt of actually walking up to the makeup counter and buying what I needed for my forays into Montrose. In addition to that, I went through a trial and error period before I finally hit upon the right combination of products that work for this Phenomenal Transwoman.

I was an obsessive perfectionist about my look in my early transition days. I wanted to make sure I didn't step outside the crib looking drag queenish. My goal when I put my other face on was to look like the average biowoman on the street.

I'm a firm believer that you can learn something about any subject from reading books, and makeup application wasn't any different. As a matter of fact, two books that had (and still do) occupy prominent places on my bookshelf are Sam Fine's Fine Beauty and Reggie Wells' Face Painting.

They are both renowned celebrity makeup artists who dealt predominately with African-American celebrities. Reggie Wells was Oprah's Emmy Award winning makeup artist while Sam Fine was Tyra's and a few other sistah supermodels makeup man of choice during the 90's.

Tyra's book Tyra's Beauty Inside and Out was also helpful in not only talking about makeup application, it also focused on working on the inner you as well. One of the lessons I got from her book, in Tyra's typical 'keepin' it real' style is that all makeup does is enhance the exterior.

To emphasize that point, she took a photo of herself without makeup and highlighted all her imperfections, then showed a picture of her with makeup on.

The book's message was something I already knew before I transitioned, but it bears repeating. It's what's going on inside personality wise that makes you beautiful.

But the makeup tips was what i bought the books for, and I surmised if I was going to learn the basics, short of getting help from a biowoman about it, what better teachers than those two men and a supermodel?

I mentioned the trial and error part of my makeup search. When it came to my foundation, it was definitely that. I started off using the Posner that you can easily get in most beauty supply stores and drugstores. The shade was slightly off and I had to spend time correcting it with a darker powder to make it match my skin tone.

I finally decided to try the two makeup giants for African-American women at the time I transitioned, Flori Roberts and Fashion Fair. I started with the Flori Roberts because it was slightly less expensive than the Fashion Fair, and struck paydirt with a cream foundation shade that matched my skin tone perfectly. For several years I bought it until Flori Roberts counters started disappearing from department store makeup areas in the wake of the department store merger and acquisition wave of the 80's and 90's.

Eventually I moved on to Fashion Fair. It took me two tries before I discovered that their Pure Brown Glo shade was my match, and I've used it faithfully ever since. It also has the advantage of being a thick cream foundation, so before I started my electrolysis in the late 90's, that was a major advantage in hiding any five o'clock shadow growth that would occur no matter how closely you shaved.

I use Coty's airspun loose translucent powder that I get from any drugstore, and it's the same place I get my pencils, my lip gloss and my Maybelline mascara. I only do mascara if I'm going out since I have naturally long eyelashes already.

I do like Fashion Fair's lipsticks and eyeshadow palettes as well, although MAC has some nice stuff for women of color, too.

If you're a t-sistah on a budget, Posner's still out there along with the Cover Girl Queen line. Haven't tried any of their stuff yet to see if there's a shade hat works for me just in case they run out of my fave Fashion Fair one. It seems like half of Louisville wears my shade, and I have to make sure I have a backup when Derby and Christmas are approaching.

Oh yeah budding t-girls, don't forget that if you put it on, you have to take it off as well. I'm blessed with smooth even toned skin and I take care of it. I'm armed with facial cleansers, soaps, astringents, and facial masques to make sure I get whatever residual makeup is on my face off of it.

On that note, it's time for me to do my facial. Later peeps.

2008 Miss International Queen Pageant Postponed

If you're wondering why I haven't done a post yet about who won Miss International Queen 2008, the reason is because the pageant won't be happening until October 2009.

It's been affected by a double whammy of political unrest and a border clash between Thailand and Cambodia near the 11th century Preah Vihear temple.

Which country claims it has been a source of drama between Thailand and Cambodia for decades. The World Court awarded it to Cambodia in 1962, but the sovereignty issues over some of the land around the temple were not clearly resolved.

UNESCO approving Cambodia's application to designate the temple a World Heritage Site led to July 15 troop deployments by both nations along the disputed border. Despite a late August troop pullback, a brief gun battle broke out between the two sides in October which ended up with one Cambodian and two Thai soldiers wounded.

In addition, the political tension in Thailand between the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) and the People’s Power Party-led coalition government has ratched up to armed confrontation levels between protesters and riot police. An October 7 demonstration resulted in one person killed and several injured.

While the political turmoil has largely been confined to the capital of Bangkok and the border situation is quiet for now, some of the collateral damage has been felt in Thailand's tourism industry, which contributes (depending on what stats you read) 6% to 14% of GNP to Thailand's economy.

It has also been felt 110 kilometers away in the resort city of Pattaya, home to the Tiffany's transgender cabaret shows and two of the best known transgender pageants on the planet.

Due to the travel warnings that several countries have issued since the October 7 clashes between police and protesters in Bangkok and the border clash with Cambodia, Tiffany's Cabaret, which usually has no problem filling its 2000 seat auditorium for it's world renowned show, has seen its business drop 50%.

Alisa Phanthusak, (right in photo) the organizer of the Miss Tiffany’s Universe and Miss International Queen pageant and whose family owns Tiffany's Cabaret, admitted feeling “terrible” that the international pageant had to be “postponed”.

“But we had to take this painful decision because international tourist arrivals dropped after the government declared emergency rule (on Sept 2, after a Thai was killed when anti and pro-government groups clashed on the streets of Bangkok) and several countries advised their citizens not to travel to Thailand,” she explained.

The Miss International Queen 2008/2009 Pageant will take place next October, presuming the political unrest has settled down by then. This year's Miss Tiffany winner Kangsadan Wongdu­sadeekul will represent Thailand alongside Miss Tiffany 2009.

While Miss Tiffany 2008 is disappointed she won't get to compete this year against the world's best transwomen pageant contestants, she's looking at it with glass half full optimism.

“She feels the postponement will be an advantage, as it will give her time to improve her English, looks and outfit.” she said through a translator.

Hopefully, they will hold an election in Thailand soon to sort out the political drama, and cooler heads will prevail and hash out an amicable settlement between Thailand and Cambodia over the disputed border area.

I not only don't want to see any more drama and bloodshed over those two issues, it would be nice to see this pageant finally take place.

To paraphrase the old Thai proverb, even though the elephants are battling, the ants don't deserve to get squashed.

The SPLC Wins Another Legal Battle Against Hate Groups

If you're looking for an organization to donate money to, send a check the Southern Poverty Law Center's way.

They not only have been documenting hate groups in this country, under the leadership of SPLC founding attorney Morris Dees they have taken an active role toward breaking them financially.

The SPLC strategy has been so successful that trial testimony in the Gruver case revealed a 1999 Klan plot to kill Morris Dees was broken up by the FBI.

There are millions of reasons why hate groups want to see the Alabama-born Dees expeditiously depart this Earth.

After the 1981 Mobile, AL lynching death of Michael Donald, in 1987 the SPLC on behalf of his mother Beulah Mae Donald filed a civil lawsuit against the United Klans of America. It resulted in a $7 million verdict that put the notorious United Klans of America out of business. The UKA was the group responsible for the 1961 beatdown of the Freedom Riders in the Birmingham bus station, the 1963 bombing of Birmingham's 16th Street Baptist Church and the killing of Viola Liuzzo.

In the wake of the 1988 killing of Ethiopian college student Mulugeta Seraw in Portland, OR by three racist skinheads affiliated with the White Aryan Resistance, the SPLC sued on behalf of his father and won a $12.5 million verdict that forced WAR leader Tom Metzger to sell his California home to satisfy the judgment and put WAR out of the hatemongering business.

In 2000 the SPLC won a $6.3 million jury verdict in the Keenan v. Aryan Nations case that forced Aryan Nations leader Richard Butler to give up the group's 20 acre Idaho compound.

The latest Southern Poverty Law Center legal victory against an odious Klan group has been raging not too far from me in Brandenburg, KY.

After three days of testimony, yesterday a jury awarded $2.5 million in damages to 19 year old Jordan Gruver. In July 2006 the then 16 year old teen who is of Panamanian and Native American descent was severely beaten by members of the Imperial Klans of America who were recruiting new members at the Meade County Fair.

They taunted him with inaccurate ethnic slurs, spat on him and doused him with alcohol. Two men identified as Edwards and Hensley knocked Gruver to the ground and repeatedly struck and kicked him in an attack that left the teen with a broken jaw, a broken left forearm, two cracked ribs and multiple cuts and bruises.

According to the SPLC, The IKA members mistakenly thought he was an illegal Latino immigrant and not an American citizen.

The all-white jury found that the Imperial Klans of America and its founder wrongfully targeted Gruver, who is an American citizen of Panamanian and Native-American descent.

Gruver filed the personal injury lawsuit last year seeking up to $6 million in damages from the Imperial Klans of America and two of its leaders, Imperial Wizard Ron Edwards and Grand Titan Jarred R. Hensley. The jury of seven men and seven women deliberated for five hours before rendering their verdict.

"The people of Meade County, Kentucky, have spoken loudly and clearly. And what they've said is that ethnic violence has no place in our society, that those who promote hate and violence will be held accountable and made to pay a steep price," Dees said.

The Southern Poverty Law Center says the Imperial Klans of America is the second largest KKK group after the Brotherhood of Klans Knights, based in Marion, Ohio. SPLC spokesman Booth Gunter said there are 34 named Klan organizations across the country with 155 separate chapters.

The Anti-Defamation League, who also tracks hate group activity, estimates there are more than 40 different Klan groups, with as many as 5,000 members in more than 100 chapters, or 'klaverns' across the country.

So congratulations to the SPLC for taking out another hate group and sending them the message that if you engage in inciting hate violence to the point where someone is harmed or killed, you will pay for it not just with jail time, but financially as well.

Monica's TRANScending Gender Keynote Speech-Part II

TransGriot Note: This is Part II of the original text of my keynote speech that I gave on November 7, 2008 to the TRANScending Gender conference at CU-Boulder. For Part I click this link.

So now that I've touched upon a little of the backstory, let's pull out the virtual crystal ball and try to forecast the future of the transgender rights movement.

As far as our legislative crown jewels of ENDA and hate crimes go, they will pass, but probably not until a second Obama term seeing that President Bush has so jacked up the economy that it will probably take most of this first term to clean up the economic mess.

President-elect Obama will need to focus this term predominately on straightening out economic issues before he can even attempt to spend his considerable political capital on social issues.

We transpeople will need to ensure that whatever form Obamacare takes. we are included from the outset and our health issues and concerns are covered. If we aren't, to paraphrase the late consumer reporter Marvin Zindler from my hometown, it'll be hell for us to get amended and added into it once the basic framework of the universal healthcare system is set in concrete. The other headache we'll face is battling virulent opposition from religious conservatives as we try to do so.

We are also going to have to ratchet up our participation in the political process. We can't depend on others to speak for us, no matter how well intentioned. We have to do it our damned selves.

If the ENDA betrayal last year taught us anything, we need to have our own people representing us in state legislatures and at the federal level with intimate knowledge of our issues and concerns just as gays and lesbians have Barney Frank, Tammy Baldwin and now Jared Polis.

We not only must start donating to political campaigns, similar to the community effort we had on the Act Blue page that raised $16,000 for the Obama campaign, we need to use the Obama campaign fundraising model for our purposes.

The average Obama campaign contribution was around $15. We spend that much or more going to a club or attending a gender convention. How about taking some of that money and pooling it for the purposes of electing transpeople to state and federal offices?

That's a nice segue into what needs to happen next, getting transpeople elected to state legislatures, Congress, and over time governorships and the White House.

While we've had some success getting transpeople elected to small city councils and mayor's offices, we have yet to translate that to electing people to large city councils. Monica Barros-Greene in Dallas has come closest to doing so, but so far the highest ranking US based transperson holding elective office is Hawaii state board of education member Kim Coco Iwamoto.

We must not only develop leaders out of the African-American, Latino/a, and Asian-Pacific Islander communities, they must be given the elbow room to develop cohesive communities that act as a complement to the transgender community at large.

The white transgender community must realize they can't be everywhere and do everything and it's past time to share the power. There are outreach and issues specific to minority communities that minority transpeople are better suited to solve.

We must also develop our future transgender leaders, then set them free to do the work. The young people now matriculating through this college and others are the most intelligent, most information savvy generation ever produced, and it's past time to let the younglings handle things. They not only provide fresh ideas and energy to the movement, they can probably teach us grizzled veterans a few things in the process as well that will make the movement infinitely better in the long run.

If we pass ENDA and hate crimes, then as our friends in Cali painfully found out, you better be prepared to defend your hard won rights from determined right wing attack. The Forces of Intolerance will not stop until they've killed all GLBT protective legislation, and we can expect the same frontal assault on any transgender rights measures passed as well.

For example, even though a transgender rights law passed in Montgomery County, MD on an 8-0 vote last year, they filed lawsuits and used underhanded tactics in order to get enough signatures for a petition drive to force a referendum on the issue that we barely defeated in court.

Finally, being transgender is a worldwide issue. We have brothers and sisters all over the planet with varying degree of civil protection. We need to do a better job of information sharing, tactics and strategy session information sharing and general support of each other.

Malcolm X once said in a February 1965 speech at the London School of Economics,

"If something is yours by right, then fight for it or shut up. If you don't fight for it, then forget it.

We transpeople have the right by dint of birth in this section of planet Earth we call the United States of America to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

That right is too precious to forget and is worth fighting for. Neither will I and my fellow transpeople shut up talking about it until we too are included in the 'We The People' preamble to the Constitution.

I thank you once again for this opportunity to address you this evening, and may you have a wonderful, informative and successful conference weekend.

Monica's TRANScending Gender Keynote Speech

TransGriot Note: This is Part I of the original text of the speech I delivered at the TRANScending Gender Symposium at CU-Boulder on November 7, 2008. Link to Part II

To the organizers, conference attendees, students, allies and friends, I bring you greetings from the Bluegrass State and my birth state of Texas.

And no, I'm not a Texas Longhorn fan. I'm a proud University of Houston alumnus who despises the color burnt orange.

I sincerely thank the organizers for the opportunity to address you today in the wake of a historic presidential race. I'm also tickled to death to be as my shero Rep. Barbara Jordan stated over twenty years ago during the Democratic Convention in New York, your keynote speaker. (imitated Barbara Jordan at that point)

As I shared with Angela, Andee, Stephanie and others during our numerous e-mail exchanges prior to my appearance here today, this isn't my first trip to the Denver metro area. Twenty years ago when I was a Continental Airlines employee I hopped a flight for the day to attend a company picnic at the Adams County Fairgrounds.

Two months later I found myself spending the month of July 1988 living in a hotel on Denver's east side in a training class. And at that time I looked a lot different than the Phenomenal Transwoman you see standing before you today.

So yeah, a lot of things have changed since my last visit, including me.

Twenty years ago, DIA didn't exist, Federico Pena was Denver's mayor, Roy Romer was governor, Colorado was a red state gearing up for a legal battle over the odious Amendment 2, the Broncos played at Mile High Stadium, the Buffs played in the Big 8 Conference, the GLBTRC on campus was a few years from being born and transgender people were speeding south down I-25 to Trinidad to get SRS from Dr. Stanley Biber.

Today you have a wonderful governor in Bill Ritter, Colorado is unquestionably a blue state with statewide GLBT protections, the Buffs now play in the Big 12 Conference, the Broncos have a new mile High Stadium to play in and transpeople are still speeding south down I-25 to get SRS from Dr. Marci Bowers.

By the way, on behalf of your GLBT brothers and sisters nationwide, congratulations on not only electing Jared Polis to Congress, but we profusely thank you for getting Marilyn Musgrave out of Washington.

One other thing that's consistent over the last 20 years is that transpeople flip Rev. James Dobson and Unfocused on the Family the finger as they pass through Colorado Springs on their way to Trinidad.

This is an interesting time to have a conference. We are now roughly 72 hours past a historic election in which an African-American will be occupying the Oval Office on January 20.

The Democrats have expanded their House majority and picked up seats in the Senate with three races outstanding in Minnesota, Alaska and Georgia. The best part is that Barack Hussein Obama will be picking the Supreme Court justices when the next opening on the court happen.

And yes my friends, there will be openings- Antonin Scalia is 70, Clarence Thomas is 60, Ruth Bader Ginsburg is in her 60's, David Souter is hinting at retirement and John Paul Stevens is in his 80's.

So let's segue into the theme of our conference, 'The Future of Transgender Activism'. But before I can talk about the future of transgender activism, I'll have to take you back to the past so that you'll know where we came from and how we arrived at this point. I've personally been involved since the mid-90's, but transgender activism predates Stonewall and San Francisco's Compton Cafeteria riots of 1966.

Let me stop the way back machine in Philadelphia, PA in April 1965 outside a diner frequented by GLBT peeps of African descent called Dewey's Lunch Counter.

Many of the people who frequented this diner were transgender. One day the management got tired of all the GLBT people hanging around their establishment and decreed that they would no longer serve people wearing 'gender variant clothing'.

When the owners backed up their rhetoric by refusing to serve transgender people, this being the 60's and the Civil Rights Movement being in full effect at the time, it was on like Donkey Kong. They borrowed the tactics of the movement and organized a sit it and informational picket campaign that after a few arrests, eventually forced the owners of Dewey's to rescind their odious policy.

The best part about it for me was that this was an all African-American GLBT production. It's gratifying to know that the work that I and other people of color do is rooted in this event, and makes me feel connected to a part of my history.

A year later came the Compton's riot followed by the more famous Stonewall Riot in New York in 1969, of which we'll celebrate the 40th anniversary of its occurrence next year.

But as the 70's dawned transpeople found themselves being rudely shoved out of the movement they had major roles in kick starting to life. We also found ourselves under attack by radical feminists such as Janice Raymond and Germaine Greer.

By the time I got yanked out of the closet in 1993, our long isolation was beginning to end. Transpeople began to stand up for themselves, form organizations such as ICTLEP and GenderPac and demand our rights. We began to lobby Congress in 1994 and push for inclusion in hate crimes and ENDA. We began to get involved in politics and do what I'm doing right now, speak to college students, professional organizations and others about our issues.

Coloradans such as Dainna Ciccotello also had major national leadership roles during that formative period as well. One of the first self-help books on transsexuality I read was written by the late JoAnn Altman Stringer. Other Coloradans were working diligently to get GLBT inclusive rights passed in boulder, Denver and eventually the rest of the state as well.

And we can't forget the country doctor doing state of the art SRS down in Trinidad.