Showdown On Parliament Hill

Our Canadian friends may be getting a new leader on December 8.

It was only a few weeks ago that the Conservatives and Prime Minister Stephen Harper received an expanded parliamentary majority in Canada's October 14 national elections. But because they fell short of the 155 seats they needed to govern on their own without interference from opposition parties, they are in a minority government situation once again.

Their opponents in the Liberal, the NDP and the Bloc Quebecois parties are loudly calling for change north of the border as well. They are gearing up to oust Prime Minister Harper by calling for a vote of no confidence on Monday unless an economic stimulus package to help Canadians facing their worst economic crisis in 80 years was passed immediately.

The opposition is pissed and was unified by a Conservative attempt to cut their $1.95 per vote federal political subsidies. They are much more dependent on them than the Conservatives and they saw it as a naked attempt to hamper their abilities to fund and conduct their next campaign.

Even though the Conservatives backed off of that ill considered plan, the opposition parties are not thrilled that the Conservatives aren't backing down from their plans to present an economic stimulus package as part of their fiscal budget plan in early 2009.

The Liberals, the New Democrats and the Bloc Quebecois command a majority of House of Commons seats and if the no confidence vote is successful in ousting Harper, the political ball then goes to Governor General Michaelle Jean's court.

She's cutting short a European trip to head back to Canada and was scheduled to return today. She'd have to decide whether to hold snap elections or ask the opposition parties to form a coalition government.

She's been working closely with her advisers and constitutional experts and stated from Prague, Czech Republic, "The prime minister and myself need to have a conversation. My door is open. I have to see what the prime minister has to say to me and what he is actually thinking of doing. I don't know exactly anything of his intentions yet."

Meanwhile, back at the Conservative ranch, the prime minister is gearing up for the fight to save his job.

"We will use all legal means to resist this undemocratic seizure of power," he told fellow Conservatives at their annual Christmas party at an Ottawa hotel. "My friends, such an illegitimate government would be a catastrophe, for our democracy, our unity and our economy, especially at a time of global instability."

The Governor General doesn't share his assessment of the situation. "This is part of our democratic system," Jean said. "The role of the governor general is to make sure that our governance is on the right path. So as soon as I'm back I will fulfill my duties in total, sound judgment."

There's more drama in this political mix. Liberal leader Stephane Dion announced his upcoming resignation after his party's October electoral beatdown. Even with the loss, the Liberals hold the second largest number of seats in the House after the Conservatives.

Because they hold the largest number of seats in the proposed coalition, the job of prime minister in a Liberal-NDP coalition government would normally go to him. However, the Bloc Quebecois is opposed to making Dion prime minister, and the Liberals weren't planning on replacing Dion as party leader until their party convention in May.

So the Liberals have the problem of an unsettled leadership situation to throw into this political stew while they participate in negotiations to form the possible coalition government continue between the three parties.

It's going to be an interesting and nerve racking couple of days in Ottawa.

My Houston Comets Memories

Little did my H-town homeboys and girls realize when they walked out of Reliant Arena on September 9 after a 75-68 win over the Connecticut Sun it would be the last game the Houston Comets played in Harris County.

I heard the shocking news today that another one of the Original Eight WNBA franchises bit the dust. Unfortunately it was my hometown team.

The peeps that know me know how much I love WNBA and Comets basketball in general, and in reaction to this news my phone has been blowing up all day.

It was reported that my hometown WNBA team was suspending operations for the 2009 season. The current players, with the exception of unrestricted free agents Latasha Byears, Mwadi Mabika, Hamchetou Maiga-Ba, Michelle Snow and Tina Thompson, would be eligible to be selected in a dispersal draft being conducted on December 8.

Cynthia Cooper-Dyke, who led the Comets to those four titles and is now the women's basketball coach at Prairie View A&M said, "This is disturbing news. This is a team that was an integral part of the WNBA. It is a team that helped establish the league, helped the league grow roots."

"It's a sad, sad, sad day for me," said Van Chancellor, the former Comets coach and GM who now coaches the women's team at LSU. "I just feel bad for everybody. I hate to see the city lose such a great franchise. I have so many memories.

"Houston is losing a big piece of its history. The Houston Comets' four championships will always be a big piece of WNBA history and a big piece of the city's history."

WNBA Commissioner Donna Orender stated, “Multiple investors have come forward and expressed significant interest in purchasing the Comets and having them continue to play in Houston in 2009. However, we made the judgment that we would not be able to complete a transaction with the right ownership group in time for the 2009 season. The WNBA is extremely grateful to the Comets organization, to the city of Houston and to the team’s loyal fans for helping build both the WNBA and the game of women’s basketball.”

Okay Donna. If the league's flagship franchise, first dynasty and a team that has a display at the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, MA dedicated to it just folded due to lack of stable ownership since Les Alexander sold it, what does that say for the rest of the WNBA?

And for the sake of those loyal Houston fans, you and the WNBA leadership should have tried harder, helped and allowed more time for a local ownership group to get put together and purchase the team in time for the 2009 season.

My love for the team goes back to the first season. I was a season ticket holder from 1999 until I moved to Da Ville after the 2001 WNBA season. I was at Compaq for the 1997, 1999, and 2000 WNBA championship games and watched three of the four championships be won on our home floor. Even after I moved to Louisville I'd make the hour drive to Indianapolis to watch my girls play the Indiana Fever.

But my love of the Comets is beyond just the basketball. The Comets dynasty is intertwined with my transition as well. I was three years into transition when the WNBA started, and being that an estimated 10% of the WNBA fan base was GLBT, Comets games were some of the first sporting events I attended post transition.

Watching these and the rest of the women of the WNBA helped me get over my hangup about being a 6'2" sistah and be proud of it.

While transition was a small part of my love for the team and the league, it was also the excitement of watching sports and WNBA history unfold before your eyes and being a part of it. It was the joy of watching the Comets take four straight titles to follow up the ones the Rockets won in 94-95 for a championship starved city.

It was being part of the 'Sea of Red', the noisy, boisterous Compaq rocking home crowds that screamed 'Beat LA' at the top of our lungs during the 1999 and 2000 WNBA Western Conference Finals versus the hated LA Sparks.

It was watching the Big Four of Cooper, Swoopes, Thompson and Arcain take on all comers and swat them aside during the dynasty years. It was also a city wrapping its collective arms around the team and mourning along with them the untimely death from cancer of their feisty point guard Kim Perrot during the 1999 season as they threepeated in her memory.

I'm looking at my Comets sweatshirt, 1998 championship hat and other WNBA memorabilia and I'm feeling mixed emotions right now.

I'm angry because in my opinion male-dominated sports reporting takes a too-dismissive and almost disrespectful approach to women's team sports that has a negative effect in getting male sports fans to open their minds and attend these events. Nowhere is that dismissive attitude of sportswriters more openly on display than when it comes to the WNBA.

I'm sad over the fact that this franchise isn't going to be around to pursue that fifth ring and WNBA Championship trophy. It's also the realization that when the 2009 season starts, it will be the first time in 12 seasons a WNBA campaign will kick off without a Houston team involved in it.

I'm hopeful that the WNBA team drought will be a short lived one because Commissioner Orender didn't rule out another WNBA franchise returning to the Bayou City and civic leadership in Houston is just as determined to have the league there.

To everyone ever associated with the Houston Comets, thanks for the memories and thanks for representing our city with not only consummate skill, but more importantly, with dignity and class.


TransGriot Note: The quotes used in this post come from a Houston Chronicle story by Jenny Dial and the WNBA.com website.

Kerry Washington

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

Beauty and brains is a combination that the women I admire share, and even if Kerry Washington doesn't think she is, most fellas have a dissenting opinion about it.

The Bronx native graduated from the same New York prep school as Gwyneth Paltrow, and graduated magna cum laude from George Washington University with a degree in theater arts. She has played opposite Oscar winners Forest Whitaker (Last King of Scotland) and Jamie Foxx (Ray) and likes playing challenging roles herself.

She also shares my brother's and my cousin's January 31 birthday.





She's a three time NAACP Image Award winner, and if I wasn't impressed by her intellect before, I was even more so when one night I watched her take on two conservatives on Bill Maher's HBO show and more than hold her own in the debate as an Obama supporter. She's also testified in front of Congress as well on behalf of the Foundation for the Arts.

She's also playing a transwoman in the upcoming movie Life Is Hot In Cracktown, and had LA transactivist Valerie Spencer as an advisor on the film to ensure she was accurately portraying her role.

I'm curious to see how she'll pull it off, and if it's anything like the other projects she's participated in, I shouldn't be disappointed.

Hopefully one day Kerry will be collecting her own Oscar one day instead of playing beside Oscar winners.

January 2009 ESSENCE Covers

January 20 is already circled on our 2009 calendars thanks to the upcoming inauguration of our first African-American president. As that historic day approaches anything that has the president elect's picture on it is rapidly disappearing off book shelves, store shelves and magazine racks.

Coming soon to a magazine rack (or your mailbox if you subscribe to ESSENCE) on December 12 are the historic covers for the January 2009 issue of the magazine. There will also be a 56 page tribute to our soon to be 44th president and the First Lady.

I'm willing to bet that those magazines will probably sell out quickly like everything else Obama has graced the cover of since November.

Shoot, that reminds me, I need to renew my ESSENCE subscription ASAP.



While you're waiting for January 20, enjoy the 60 Minutes interview.

December 2008 Black Blog Rankings

Merry Christmas peeps! The Electronic Villager and his elves were busy over the holiday weekend compiling the latest edition of the Black Blog Rankings while I was enjoying some classic Christmas songs with soul.



This month there were 1496 blogs ranked, only one less than last month. But seeing how popular these rankings are and how they've come to be viewed as a highly anticipated event in the Blackosphere and a valuable tool to monitor the progress of Black blogs, I have no doubts the January edition will crack the 1500 blog mark.

Top Black blog is Pam's House Blend. You can check out the rest of the Top Ten and Top 25 blogs at Electronic Village.

Okay, so did I reach either one of my goals of cracking the BBR Top 50 and having a Technorati ranking of 150?

As of the December 1 date of these posted rankings, the number 50 BBR ranked blog is survey says, TransGriot!

I jumped up 13 spots from last month's rankings and the Technorati ranking went up 11 points as well. I have as of this date a Technorati ranking of 143. I'm only 7 points and 30 days away from meeting my Technorati goal of 150 by January 1.

Seeing that I've finally hit the Top 50 BBR blogs, I've set my sights for my next goals.

I want to be at a Technorati Ranking of 200 and in the Top 25 BBR blogs by my May 4 birthday. If I get there sooner, I definitely won't complain.

Now where's my champagne bottle?

Oh yeah, killed it last month celebrating Barack's election. Champale will do nicely, too.

The Gender Power Shift

TransGriot Note: I was invited by Renee at Womanist Musings to write this guest post for her blog.

I had a long and wonderful conversation with her over the weekend getting to know her and getting an 'ejumacation' about life north of the border for peeps of color.

So take a moment to wander over there to check it out and some of Renee's other writings on her quality blog, or just scroll down to read it.




When you transition from one gender role to another, you do more than just swap bodies and sometimes genitalia. You are also picking up all the cultural and societal expectations and baggage associated with that gender role as well.
Race and class also enter into this mix as well in terms of the differing reactions we have in terms of transition for white male to female transwomen and male to female transwomen of color.

One of the things I noted when I first transitioned back in 1994 was how much White transwomen lamented transitioning. I was the lone African-American along with a Latina in my gender group at the time, and she and I discussed in our conversations how so many of the discussions for some of them centered on laments about how much money they lost after they transitioned, pining for the executive jobs they held, or how shocked they were about how nasty and virulent the discrimination they were facing for the first time in their lives was..
It was my first exposure to The Gender Power Shift.

Basically, in Western societal structures, it’s all about the White male. Even if they have a PhD, a GED or no degree, they grow up with a sense of entitlement based on their skin color that makes them feel as though they are superior to anyone, much less a mere person of color.

And as I have stated for over a decade, the GLBT community is a microcosm of society at large. Whatever problems and ‘isms’ are prevalent in the parent society are manifested in our little subset of it.

Some carry those attitudes into transition feeling that they’ll have their new gender role, the cash and the power to go with it. They get a rude awakening from their former brothers in arms, which see them as delusional for willingly stepping down from the role as a White male and angry because in their eyes it’s one less white male to help procreate and keep whites in the majority population against the surging tide of rising minority birth rates and immigration.

To punish them for their ‘crime’ of voluntarily stepping down from the white male club, they get busted them down to white women power levels and face heightened levels of discrimination to keep them there.

Now, at the bottom of the societal power structure is the Black male. They’ve been told their whole lives by the parent society they’ll never amount to nothing, they’re predisposed to criminal activity…well, you get the drift. So when a Black male transitions, the parent society doesn’t care as much, but the end result is that it’s a power upgrade for that individual.

Black society is matriarchal based and power is shared somewhat equally between males and females. So when a Black male transitions, while we’re seen as less of a threat to the white power structure than we were as males, it’s conversely a step up in terms of power and prestige because of our new gender role.

In addition to that, being a Black woman is liberating to the person that chafed at being stuck in the Black male gender role. They get the benefits of no longer being considered a ‘menace to society’ with the corresponding improvements in quality of life. So to them, transition becomes a step up in class and power levels and it’s reflected in their perceptions of it.

The reactions of biowomen to transwomen are also different based on race and class. White transwomen are battling the burden of getting whacked with the anti-transgender feminist backlash instigated by Janice Raymond and Germaine Greer in the 70’s and 80’s and their radical feminist disciples. They are seen as interlopers in women’s spaces still seeking to wield WMP despite being in female bodies.

The reaction of Black biowomen to their transsisters is totally different. Black women have had their own bruising battles with those same Raymond-Greer radical feminists, and for the most part reject their philosophy. They are womanists, and reject the demonization of transgender women as espoused by the radical feminists.

As long as Black transwomen immerse themselves in and take seriously the role of Black womanhood, we are down with the goals of uplifting the race and advancing the causes of all women, we are accepted for the most part as women by the biowomen in the Black femininity club.

In addition, Black transwomen because of lack of capital, not only have extended transitions, they tend to focus more on perfecting the inner femininity first before they get to the point of dealing with surgical issues. That helps us hone the social skill we need to smooth our acceptance into the ranks by some Black biowomen.

White transwomen, who tend to start with more capital, blitz through the transition process, get SRS, then focus on the internal femininity issues. Their progress is also retarded by the resentment that some White biowomen have toward White transwomen as well for various reasons.

And in case you’re wondering, White transmen have noted their increased societal power gain after they transitioned, and Black transmen have noted the increased negative perceptions of them post transition as well.

So yes, race and class affect transition in many ways, and the Gender Power Shift is only one small example of it.

World AIDS Day 2008

Today is the 20th Anniversary celebration of World AIDS Day. One of the little known facts about HIV/AIDS is that transwomen, and disproportionately transwomen of color are one of the fastest growing categories of people who are infected by it as this PSA from the Banyan Tree Project reminds us.



It's also a problem in Black America as well as the Black AIDS Institute and the National Minority AIDS Council will tell you.

Houston was one of the early Ground Zero's of the initial HIV/AIDS wave in the early 80's. I had friends and a 24 year old cousin die during that stage as it decimated the Houston GLBT community.

So to my younglings and 'errbody' who reads TransGriot on a regular basis, be safe out there. Don't take it for granted your potential sex partner is not infected. If you're not sure of a person's HIV status you're about to get busy with, use protection until you both get tested.

Transgender Job Fair

As a reminder to you GLB peeps that we ain't forgot about ENDA and how serious having a job is for transgender people (especially transgender peeps of color), here's a San Francisco TV news story about a transgender job fair they conducted there recently.



The new session of the 110th Congress starts January 3. In light of the way y'all felt about being treated like second class citizens, we expect that if a new ENDA bill is introduced in this session, you'll remember how you felt after Prop 8 and trust that the new ENDA bill will not only be transgender inclusive, but you will do your part as our allies to help it pass.

Does The Transgender Porn World Celebrate The TDOR?

TransGriot Note: Transgender adult actress Vaniity at an event in Las Vegas.

In the wake of my commentary last week calling for HRC to leave our TDOR alone, one of the comments that was posted to it came for a person calling themselves Eddy.

I agree! Very well-written post, as usual. I wonder if trans porn industry observes this day. Does anyone know?

As the USS Monica went to Defcon 2 alert status and spooled up her rhetorical Tomahawks in preparation for launch, my thoughts ranged from immediately deleting the comment to rhetorically blasting it to smithereens.

My initial anger over the comment was fueled by the fact that once again, the negative perception of transgender peeps had wormed its way into a day that was meant for us to remember our fallen sisters.

But with my finger ready to hit DELETE, I stepped away from my pissivity over Eddy's comments to ponder why he felt comfortable enough to ask it on this blog in the first place.

One of the things that I and other transpeople of color have long complained about is the lack of balance with our images as transwomen. The adult entertainment world has played a major part in that combined with lack of positive role models of transwomen of color due to stealth status and other reasons to counteract it.

And far too often in the adult entertainment industry the images of African-American, Latina, and Asian transwomen are the ones disproportionately pushed and advertised to the point whee it negatively affects even the positive things we try to do.

Since some peeps make tons of money off pre-op transgender images with their adult films, magazines and various websites, and transgender people of color are the ones disproportionately bearing the brunt of the anti-transgender violence, when you ask Eddy's question in that context, somehow it doesn't seem as insulting as it did at first knee-jerk glance.

So did shemalewhatever.com and its like minded cousins black out their website for the day?

Did they stop filming the latest epic adult transgender film for release?

Did they cancel that trip to Thailand or Brazil looking for poor or young transpeople to take pictures of?

Did any of the adult transgender stars or the young transwomen participating in the destruction of our images show up at the TDOR events in West Hollywood, New York or elsewhere?

Did they even stop to care?

Come to think of it, Eddy's question is one that we all deserves an answer to.

November 2008 Black Blog Rankings

Electronic Villager finally got the opportunity to update the BBR's for this month. This month there were 1497 blogs ranked, 57 more than last month, with the Number One BBR blog still being Pam's House Blend.

You can check out the BBR's for the rest of the Top 10 and beyond and see how your blog stacked up.

And congrats Renee, Womanist Musings is at Number 23 while the Electronic Village rounds out the Top 25.

I deeply appreciate as all of us in the Blackosphere do the Villager taking the time out of his busy schedule to compile these ranking so that we have this important tool to measure our growth and progress.

As you know, for several months now I've been posting my goals for TransGriot. I want to be breaking the BBR Top 50 blogs and hitting a 150 Technorati ranking by January 1, 2009. You also get to witness in these BBR posts how I'm doing in terms of realizing that goal.

The BBR rankings usually get posted the first weekend of the month, but I totally understood why it didn't happen this month. There was some historic presidential election we (and the world) were all breathlessly following, and I know the Villager has been busy with real world concerns that have cut into his allotted blogging time.

TransGriot was also nominated in two categories for the 2008 Weblog Awards. 'Best LGBT Blog' and 'Best Small Minor Blog'.

The nominations have closed and they are now in the process of whittling it the nominations in each category to the 15 blogs that will be voted on starting December 8 to determine the winner. Pam's House Blend took the 'Best LGBT Blog' Award in 2005-2006 and I'd love to be in that company.

So now I've caught y'all up on some housekeeping stuff, let's get to what y'all want to know: What's my BBR this month?

The October BBR's were good news, bad news. I lost ground and slipped to number 70 after several months of major progress, but my Technorati ranking went up to 136. My Technorati rating actually bottomed out at 130 probably due to my Ike hiatus and some old links rolling off before it started its current climb to where it is now.

According to the posted rankings as of November 26, TransGriot was at number 63 with a 132 Technorati ranking.

Only one problem. My Technorati ranking on November 26 was 144.

While that's seven spots up from last month's ranking, based on my Technorati ranking on that date, I should be much higher in the BBR's than number 63. (it's at 143 as I compile this post)

My 144 (or even my 143) ranking would put me just two spots away from the BBR Top 50 at number 52 and put me tantalizingly close to reaching and surpassing my goals with a month to go.

But I'll leave that up to the founding genius of the BBR's to sort that out. In the meantime, I'll just continue to focus on as we all do in producing quality blog posts for you to peruse, and worry about the rest of the small stuff later.

Black Doctors-Where Y'all At?

One of the things that I've noted about the helping professionals assisting us in becoming the men and women we are is the lack of melanin in the group at the national level.

While we are blessed in the transgender community with helping professionals that are compassionate, skilled and caring to all their patients no matter what their ethnicity is, I've had the pleasure over the years of meeting many of them, and they go beyond the call of duty to fight tooth and nail for us, I'm still struck by the lack of African-American doctors involved in the gender identity medical world.

It's a concern because I know we have young African-Americans attending medical school. When I was a TATS member I used to be part of the Transgender 101 panel discussions we had at Baylor College of Medicine and talked to them.

One of my doctors early in my transition in between visits to the gender clinic was a Latino one on Houston's north side by the name of Dr. Mendoza. He unfortunately has passed away, but his basic philosophy when he was sometimes asked why he treated us was 'transgender people need medical care, too.'

Maybe there are African-American doctors involved in other cities on a local level that I'm not aware of yet that have the same basic philosophy and take their oath seriously, but who aren't disclosing that part of their practice in fear that it will drive other patients away.

But in light of a medical establishment that still is met with cautious skepticism by many African-Americans because of the fallout from the 40 year Tuskegee Syphilis Study that commenced in 1932, I believe that one reason that some African-American transpeople are reluctant to access the health care system besides cost or seek dangerous alternate methods such as silicone pumping to accomplish the body morphing we need to have happen is lingering trust issues as a result of that study.

The fact that some transpeople of color have experienced overt negative transphobic behavior and denial of service doesn't help either. It's also never far from our minds as African-American transgender people that Tyra Hunter died in 1995 because of lack of timely medical assistance in an emergency situation, and the EMT involved shared our cultural heritage.

And let's face it, it sometimes helps to have someone who has shared your cultural background understand when you're talking to them about transition as a person of color and some of the issues unique to that.

It would be nice when they have these WPATH conferences that the experiences of people of color are injected into the overall discussion of transgender health matters as well by their African-American medical peers. It would carry more weight than just moi speaking to them.

It would be also be nice for example, if you desire to do or need facial feminization surgery, to have a plastic surgery doctor that understands that we have cultural issues about our noses being messed with, there are certain nuances about ethnic beauty, and we don't want to look like Lil Kim or Michael Jackson when they finish.

So where are the African-American doctors that support us? For those of us who do have that option of surgical enhancement, do they even want our business?

Inquiring minds wanna know.

Battle of Houston

Rice and UH have always fought each other tooth and nail regardless of records or the sport we're playing. It's why I'm going to be on pins and needles today while awaiting the outcome of the UH-Rice game at Rice Stadium.

Today's battle for the Bayou Bucket not only symbolizes who wins football bragging rights in H-town for the year, it also has C-USA championship and bowl implications as well.

If the Coogs win, we are the C-USA West Division champs and host a rematch with East Carolina in the C-USA title game December 6 at Robertson Stadium. If Rice wins, they give Tulsa a chance to win the West title with a win over Marshall.

Rice wins the West title if they beat the Coogs and Tulsa loses to Marshall.

Got it?

So our little brothers at Rice will have an extra incentive beside the usual dislike of all things red and white to knock us off.

If my Coogs beat the Owls and take out East Carolina again, they get to play in Memphis against an SEC representative. Rumor is that the opponent might be UK.

Talk about fun in this house,you know that Dawn and I will be verbally jousting from now until New Year's Day if that happens.

Change.gov

Just in case you're counting the days until January 20 and President-elect Obama's inauguration, you can check out the official website of the transition team, change.gov

You can check out the discussions going on about various policy initiatives, apply for a job in the administration, and other assorted tidbits and announcements.


Hey, I'm just happy he won!

Waah! Nigeria Loses To Equatorial Guinea

Ever since the African Women's Championship tourney was launched in 1998, the Nigerian national women's team has dominated women's soccer on the Mother Continent.

They've won this tournament five times, but the defending champion Super Falcons suffered a shocking 1-0 loss on Tuesday in the tournament semifinals to the hosts from Equatorial Guinea. It set off a wild celebration in the capital city of Malabo and denied the Super Falcons a chance to take home their sixth title.

Instead, for the first time in the ten year history of the African Women's Championship, the Nigerians will be playing for third place on November 28 versus Cameroon while the hosts head to the title match versus South Africa on Saturday.

The reason I'm mentioning it is because gender issues reared their ugly heads in the pre-match gamesmanship and the whining from the losing team after the match.

One of the tired recurring themes in women's sports is the fear that in order to gain a competitive advantage, men will either dress up as women in order to win individual sports glory, be ordered to do so and be placed on those teams by higher level political (or sports) officials hungry for prestige, or feed their female athletes testosterone as the East Germans did all in the name of garnering international sporting glory and prestige.

Despite the fact that rumors the USSR's medal winning Press sisters Irina and Tamara were males that interestingly enough both retired from international competition prior to the institution by the IOC of gender testing before the 1968 Olympic cycle, the only nation (so far) busted for actually doing so is Nazi Germany in the 1936 Olympics.

They forced Hermann Ratjen, who had ambiguous genitalia, to live as Dora for three years and compete in the Olympic women's high jump as Dora. There was also the same 'that's a man' shade thrown in the 1936 Berlin Games 100m final at Helen Stephens after she upset defending Olympic champ Stella Walsh in then world record time.

The Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) spent several days before the semifinal match with Equatorial Guinea grousing about two players in general, Binguisa Simpore and Salimata Simpore. They demanded that the CAF (Confederation of African Football) do gender tests on them prior to the match and when the CAF deferred action on the protest until next month, threatened to boycott the match.

Super Falcon Lillian Cole stated in a Guardian (Nigeria) interview," I am not trying to give excuses for our inability to make it to the final, but sincerely speaking, it would be difficult for a team made of female players to beat those Equatorial Guinean team. We played against men and it is so unfortunate for CAF to allow 'men' to be playing in a nations cup meant for women.

"Those two players (Binguisa Simpore and Salimata Simpore) are men no matter how somebody will try to convince me. Even their captain, Anonma Genoveva is more of a man than a woman. I expected CAF to act on the protest filed by Nigeria before the match."

Maureen Eke echoed her teammate, asserting that the presence of those two 'men' in the Guinean squad stopped the Falcons from operating smoothly.

"We did everything within our limit to break into their defense but you saw how the 'boy' in their defense was using his power to block every move we made. He didn't give us any space at all because he has the power of a man and it was very wrong'

Meow, ladies. You lost, get over it.

Equatorial Guinea team captain Genoveva, one of the targets of Cole's sour graping, showed more class than her vanquished opponents did. She tearfully called it a dream come true at the post match press conference.

"Nigeria is a big country filled with experienced players. But for this tournament, we prepared extremely hard and I am happy it is coming in my time."

Bottom line, if Precious Dede stops Genoveva's free kick in the 58th minute from going into the net, y'all might have been playing in the finals despite the fact you've only scored two goals in this entire tournament.

The Nigerian women need to look in the mirror in terms of who lost this tournament. As I can tell you firsthand from being a fan of the USA basketball dynasty, it doesn't last forever.

While you're coasting on past glory and feeling it's your birthright to win international titles, the teams you beat up on in those international competitions will eventually get tired of taking sports beatdowns from you. They stop being 'scurred' and in awe of being on the same field with you, get mad and begin working smarter and harder to dethrone you. Sooner or later their hard work is rewarded and they begin getting the lucky bounces in games that eventually lead to just what happened to the Super Falcons on Tuesday.

So just like the Team USA men's b-ballers had to reorganize the way they did things after the embarrassing losses in the 2002 FIBA Championships (on home soil no less) and the 2004 Athens Games, stop making excuses, roll up their sleeves and start working, looks like the same thing needs to happen in Nigeria with the women's soccer team.

And to Lillian Cole, Maureen Eke and all the other Nigeria Super Falcon women, I'd be careful who you disrespectfully call men because you're mad you lost. Some of y'all don't exactly look like Nigerian supermodel Oluchi Onweagba or Nollywood starlets.

And stop the whining, excuse making and denigrating your opponents. It's the first step to getting your international championship groove back.


TransGriot Note: Update peeps- Equatorial Guinea went on to win the AWC by defeating South Africa 2-1. The Nigerians took home the bronze medal after a 1-1 draw with Cameroon was settled on penalty kicks.

Genevova, one of the players the Nigerians were hatin' on, scored the game winning goal. In fact she personally scored more goals (six) than the Super Falcons collectively did in the entire tournament.