A Transsistah's Secret-Legs

She's got legs, she knows how to use them.
She never begs, she knows how to choose them.
She's holdin' legs wonderin' how to feel them.
Would you get behind them if you could only find them?
She's my baby, she's my baby,
yeah, it's alright.

ZZ Top Legs

My fellow Texans and legions of singers and writers have waxed poetically about the mystery and beauty of women's legs.

Short of our faces, breasts and our bodies, the next thing a transsistah obsesses about (because she knows that guys and sometimes other women do) are her legs. The last thing she wants is to have NFL linebacker legs or anything that has a mere hint of masculinity.

Fortunately the shape of our legs is something that we have a little control over in terms of exercise to tone and shape them. In addition we get the same benefits from estrogen when it comes to our bodies that biowomen get in creating feminine curves.

After we start taking them, over time hormones do shift fat around and elongate the leg muscles to create a more feminine look to them.

And if you've grown up in the African-American community, you are well aware of the fact that many of our legendary beauties from Lena to Dorothy to Tina to Rihanna have been admired and desired not only for their looks, curvy brown frames, talent and intelligence, but their killer legs as well.

Rihanna not only won Venus Breeze's 2007’s Celebrity Legs of a Goddess, but they also insured her legs with Lloyd's of London for $1 million.

I've observed that guys go especially gaga over those legs if they're wearing hose with them.

Hey ladies, just kicking knowledge to y'all from my time on the other side of the gender fence. If you prefer male companionship, break out the hose. Your love life and the hosiery makers of the planet will thank you for it later.

But back to the original post.

So is it any wonder that after observing the cultural cues and taking all that in, why transwomen, and especially African-American ones would be anxious about how their legs look?

It's also a concern if you're involved in the pageant or ballroom communities in which the closest you come to looking as feminine as possible enhances your chances of winning.

I got the genetic luck of the draw with my legs as well. I can't tell y'all how many hours of teasing I endured in my junior high gym classes about my 'girl's legs' or after we started doing coed gym in tenth grade how many comments I got from my female classmates stating that I needed to trade my legs for theirs.

So I was comforted in the knowledge that HRT would already enhance what I had. Being 6'2" and mostly legs at that, it takes me hours just to shave them. It's an exercise testing my Taurean patience just to get it done, and I do it deliberately and carefully in order to avoid the tendency of rushing it and nicking myself in the process.

Personally I'd like to zap them with the laser and be done with it, but since I'm not rolling in that kind of dough yet, it's the razor, Nair, waxing, depilatories or whatever new product becomes available to get them looking their best.

Canaries In The Memphis Civic Coal Mine

When this video first got uploaded to YouTube a few months ago, I thought about posting and commenting on it based on the lousy reporting in it that tried and miserably failed to make this situation humorous.

Because of other pressing news matters and other issues that garnered my attention I let this one slide for a minute.



Now in light of what's been happening in Memphis over the last few months, I'm recognizing it as a alarm bell and a window into the transphobia that permeates some quarters of the community in Memphis. I believe the frustration over that transphobia and other situations in the Memphis transgender community probably triggered the negative reactions of the transpeople involved in this McDonald blowup chronicled in this jacked up report.

It also gives us some understanding into why all of a sudden Memphis has become a dangerous city for transpeople to live in.

I'm also beginning to warm up to the idea being floated in some quarters of the transgender community of having us and our allies boycott Memphis until their po-po's get it through their heads that 'protect and serve the citizens' means ALL Memphis residents, and that Memphis realizes that it's not okay to declare open season on their transgender residents.

Memphis citizens, if you don't work diligently to find the person or persons who are committing these attacks on transgender people, you may one day have this violence visited upon a member of your own family who may or may not be a transwoman. One that day you will painfully learn the lesson of the 'inescapable web of mutuality' that Dr. King talked about.

Memphis, you have a problem, and it's time in conjunction with local groups in the city, the Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition and other state groups to work together to solve it before more people get hurt or killed.

Eartha Kitt Dies

Y'all know how much I love Eartha Kitt. I was saddened to find out she died today of colon cancer at 81.

She went from being an ostracized mixed race girl from South Carolina to an internationally loved star garnering multiple nominations for Tonys, Grammys and Oscars. And don't forget that famous cat purr.

She was sent at age 8 to by her mother to live with her aunt in Harlem and auditioned for the famed Katherine Dunham Dance Troupe during her teens. She was hired as a featured dancer and vocalist and toured worldwide with the company for several years.

The stint with the Katherine Dunham Dance troupe launched Kitt into a life of roles in the entertainment field. She was a well liked cabaret singer in Europe during the 50's and performed on Broadway. That lead to a recording deal in which she produced 20 albums and acted in hundreds of movie and television roles.

In 1968, however, Kitt encountered a substantial professional setback after she made anti-war statements during a White House luncheon that reportedly made then First Lady Lady Bird Johnson cry. The resulting positive and negative public reactions to Kitt's statements was much more extreme and resulted in professional exile in the United States.

After enduring the professional ostracism by performing in Europe, once the anger faded over the Vietnam War remarks, she returned to US shores and garnered a new generation of fans that ensured she was performing almost until the end of her remarkable life.

She recently finished taping a PBS special six weeks ago in Chicago which is set to air in February. Her recording of one of my favorite Christmas songs, "Santa Baby" was certified gold last week.

Kitt was well known for her distinctive voice and made a name for herself in her portrayal of Catwoman in the television series "Batman." That role produced Kitt's recognizable sultry cat growl.



She worked in film, theater, cabaret, music and on television during her lengthy career.

Heaven just became a little more PURRRRRfect and we have just lost another iconic singer. Rest in peace, Eartha. You've earned it.

Another Memphis Transwoman Shot

Here we go again in Memphis, TN. A transwoman was shot in the face and is in critical condition.

Memphis police say the shooting happened sometime around 5:00 a.m. Tuesday, December 23, 2008 in the 3100 block of Boxtown Road in south Memphis near T.O. Fuller State Park. Leeneshia Edwards was last seen about an hour earlier at the “C.K.’s Coffee Shop” on Union Avenue in midtown Memphis.

Edwards' cousin reports that Lenneshia was shot in the jaw, side and back and is undergoing multiple surgeries.

So peeps in the Memphis area, if you saw anything that night, do us and the family of Leeneshia Edwards a favor. Call Memphis Crime Stoppers if you have any information about either this case, Ebony Whitaker's or Duanna Johnson's at (901) 528-CASH that gets the po-po's one step closer to resolving these crimes. Remember, the peeps that did this could one day strike your family, so the sooner you get them off the streets and behind bars, the safer Memphis becomes for you as well.

For those of us who live in Memphis and beyond, keep Leeneshia in your prayers this holiday season.

When the 110th Congress opens for business,, as soon as an ENDA bill is filed, we need to demand that it not only include transgender people, but it be passed without delay.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all my TransGriot readers around the world! This Christmas season also marks the 40th anniversary of the 1968 Apollo 8 orbital moon mission that produced this famous photo taken on December 24, 1968.

Let's strive to remember in 2009 and beyond that despite the times we fight like cats and dogs with each other, we are still one human family.



We also only have one planet, so let's take care of it. We ain't at Battlestar Galactica technology levels to where we can pack up and move to another one.

Catholic Church Is STILL Hatin' on Transgender People

What the frack is wrong with the old Nazi who's running thangs in the Catholic Church?

Of all the things going wrong in the world these days that he could have taken the time in his Christmas speech to call attention to, he chose to call transgender people a threat to humanity?

But then again, with Paul McHugh, one of the transgender community's longtime haters advising him, I knew that the anti-transgender rhetoric was only going to get progressively worse.

I also have to consider the source of these irrational comments as well. These are the same peeps who 400 years ago persecuted Galileo for daring to suggest that the Earth revolves around the Sun and not the other way around, so it takes a little while for science to catch up with Catholic religious dogma.

Gee, didn't know that transpeople fighting to live their lives around the world was such a threat to a bunch of sexually repressed old men chilling in the Vatican.

You idiots have far more in common with fundie christians than living the actual teachings of Jesus Christ.

Thanks for sharing that message this holiday season, Pope Benedict.

2008 TIME Magazine Person of the Year

If you had any doubt who TIME Magazine would choose as their Person of the Year, now you know. The runners up for the honor were Henry Paulson, Sarah Palin, French president Nicholas Sarkozy and Chinese director Zhang Limou.

Since 1927, TIME Magazine has chosen a man, woman, or idea that for better or worse, has most influenced events in the preceding year, and there's no doubt that the soon to be 44th president of the United States has definitely dominated this year news wise.

It was definitely his year in more ways than one, and I can't wait until January 20.

Historic Meeting Of African Transactivists

TransGriot Note: This is wonderful news! Transgender people on the second largest continent on Planet Earth are getting together and getting organized.

Trans activists attend first pan-African meeting
By Staff Writer, PinkNews.co. uk • December 22, 2008 - 15:31
Pink News, UK


South Africa hosted the first ever African Strategy Workshop for transgender activists last week.

Trans people from Burundi, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe took part in the event organised by the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) and Gender DynamiX.

15 activists met to discuss the specific needs of transgender people on the African continent.

"Transgender people throughout the world experience frequent and unacceptable discrimination, violence and abuse," said Paula Ettelbrick, IGLHRC's executive director.

"IGLHRC is proud to be part of this historic gathering of transgender people, taking the fight for human rights in Africa to a whole new level."

There is only one transgender organisation, Gender DynamiX, on the whole continent.

The African Strategy Workshop was designed to help activists, "document human rights abuses against transgender people, derive best practices for human rights advocacy, and share information on gender identity, reassignment surgery and hormone treatment."

Liesl Theron, Director of Gender DynamiX, said: "This long overdue meeting forms an integral part of trans history on our continent and a cornerstone for our future work.

"Participants at the workshop gave moving and painful testimony revealing the wide range of human rights abuses-from arbitrary arrest and detention to rape and murder-that African transgender people regularly encounter."

Activists focused on the case of South African Daisy Dube, who was murdered in Johannesburg after requesting that she not be called istabane (a derogatory Zulu slang word, similar to faggot).

Skipper Mogapi, Trans Alternate at the Trans Secretariat of ILGA, said the workshop was a dream come true.

"Seeing trans people together in their space raising their concerns without being intimidated. We know what the issues are and can now deal with them."

Dear Diego

Dear Diego,

This may come as a surprise that you're seeing this open letter from me, one of the more vehement critics of HRC and your new boss, but congratulations on your new senior legislative policy adviser job starting January 9 in Representative Barney Frank's (D-MA) office.

Contrary to what many peeps may surmise, I have been observing and admiring your historic rise through the Democratic Party hierarchy. Know that I'm extremely proud of you and I'm confident that you'll be an excellent role model as well. The fact that you're doing it as an out and proud Latino transman makes your historic climb even more remarkable and noteworthy.

We may have been on opposite sides on a few issues in the transgender community, but I presume we're on the same page when it comes to seeing that all transgender people attain full citizenship rights.

I know you're the second out transperson hired as a senior staffer after Susan Kimberly in Sen. Norm Coleman's (R-MN) office, but you're the first transperson of color to earn that distinction and I presume the first out transperson to be hired as a senior staffer in the House of Representatives.

Diego, you are someone the entire community can point to with pride and say, transteens, here is an example of what is possible if you bust your butts to get that education and dare to dream big dreams. This is a message that transpeople of color need to see and hear as well, in addition to seeing transpeople like you in positions of power and authority.

I hope your hiring also empowers other transgender staffers that are rumored to be employed in various offices on The Hill to feel comfortable enough to come out.

But my joy over your hiring is tempered by who did it. I hope and pray it signals a profound change in Chairman Frank's thinking about transgender inclusion in ENDA, but I long ago subscribed to deeds, not words when it comes to people whose past exclusionary deeds outstripped their flowery rhetoric.

I hope your hiring signals, like Barack Obama's election to the presidency, that historic change has actually come to the office of the representative from Massachusetts on transgender issues, but only time and the progression of legislation authored by Chairman Frank through the 110th Congress will tell in that regard.

Once again, congratulations on the new position and achieving a historic milestone, and I hope I'm blessed with the opportunity to personally congratulate you the next time I'm in Washington DC.

Sincerely yours,
Monica Roberts
2006 IFGE Trinity Award Winner



Crossposted from The Bilerico Project

Oh,You One Of Them Smart B*****s

Over the years I've gotten to know some wonderful people who are part of the female illusionist and pageant sectors of our community. Many who live full time have turned out to be not only beautiful human beings inside and out, but I've had some fascinating conversations with them.

Unfortunately, that's not always true with 'errbody' in that world. I'm turned off by the anti-intellectual strain exhibited by a minority of peeps in that world, and the horror is that some are proud of it.

What brought on this post was seeing the photo of Chevelle Brooks I posted and remembering a benefit show I attended for her at Incognito, a Black GLBT club back home a few years ago. I was invited by Chevelle's mom to attend, and it was to help her raise funds to compete in a looming Miss Gay US0fA pageant.

That particular night I wasn't feeling well and had a slight temp, but I felt like I had to be there to support Chevelle and her mom, so I dragged myself out of bed, got dressed and made the beeline to the edge of downtown where the club was located.

Sophia McIntosh was the MC of the show and living in Dallas at the time. It was being held during the time (1996) the Oilers were fighting the city and then Mayor Bob Lanier to be let out of their Dome lease so they could move to Nashville.



Sophia cracked a joke about losing the team, which didn't sit well with me and a few others in the crowd because it was a sensitive, emotional subject at the time for us. The Dallas-Houston rivalry being what it was, the fact that someone living in Dallas brought it up only added to the pissivity. Being the militant 'I hate the Irving Cowchips' Oilers fan I was, I spoke up and pointed out that the Oilers were still bound by that lease to play in H-town until 1998.

You know how illusionists don't like to be upstaged, so she retorted, "oh, you one of them smart b*****s. Okay, if you're so smart, who was the president of the United States in 1964?"

"Lyndon Baines Johnson," I quickly replied. "Took over after Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963 in your city and won election in a landslide over Barry Goldwater in 1964."

The crowd whooped it up and hollered, and after she made a lame joke about my hair and was satisfied with the laugh she got out of it, on the show went.

We actually had a nice wide ranging conversation backstage after that, and she confided that most people in that room sadly didn't know half of what I articulated in my response to her.

Anti-intellectualism is not just a GLBT problem, it's a societal one as well. As I've said repeatedly and should be evidenced by the posts here, I was blessed with God-given intelligence and have no problems flexing my intellectual muscles when necessary. And yeah, I'm proud of it.

One of the things I was adamant about before I transitioned was that I wasn't 'dumbing down' for anyone. Love me or hate me, one thing peeps can consistently say about me is 'that girl's smart.'

I'll take that any day over someone whispering behind my back 'that girl's stupid'.

Dag, White Gays-Stop Trippin'

What's up with the sniping and whining coming from some quarters of the white gay community concerning our president elect?

I suspect some of their dislike for Obama comes from the fact that he came from nowhere to beat Hillary, their (and HRC's) preferred candidate, then ended up in the White House thanks to the votes, money and elbow grease of the rest of us despite their lukewarm, tepid support for him.

But the man hasn't even taken office yet and some white gays are already complaining in some quarters that 'we're being forgotten', 'we're being dissed' and whatever cheese they snack on with the whine du jour.

Hello people, Inauguration Day is January 20. It is way too early to discern what type of president he's going to be for the GLBT community because he's NOT in a position until that date to start creating or implementing policy.

It is way too early to engage in conclusion jumps based on incorrect assumptions you have about Obama based on what happened to the GLBT community during the Clinton administration.

That's two different men, two different historical situations and the only thing they have in common is their party affiliation and some Clinton peeps taking on different roles in this administration.

Now that Obama has invited Rick Warren to give the invocation at his inauguration, you've taken even more swigs of the pink flavor Hateraid and let the hatred flow.

Didn't y'all get enough of that after the Democratic primary ended in June and the Prop 8 loss?

I'm warning you now that many African-Americans (gay and non-gay) are still majorly pissed about the anti-Black hate that flowed from some quarters in the white gay community after the Cali Prop 8 loss. You still have major fence mending to do with the Black GLBT community, and it would be wise for you to chill with the attacks on the president elect since it's only pouring gasoline on the still smoldering anger of Black peeps.

I'd also put H. Alexander Robinson's number on speed dial and start chatting with the National Black Justice Coalition. They need to be included forthwith as a facilitator and EQUAL partner to those much needed conversations and whatever future strategizing happens from this point forward.

Many of us are millimeters close to saying to hell with y'all and doing what we should have done eons ago-say goodbye and good luck to you, formulate and push our own inclusive GLBT civil rights agenda to our peeps and others that factors our needs into the mix while you continue jousting at same gender marriage windmills for a small sector of the community.

Don't get me wrong, I'm for same gender marriage, just not at the expense of more higher priority legislation that benefits the entire GLBT community such as hate crimes and ENDA. You can't get married if you're dead or don't have or can't get and keep a job to support a partner.

You can also stop pushing the specious argument that granting marriage rights to same sex couples is going to grease the skids for other civil rights to flow from it.

The bottom line is that marriage is not a high priority right now for me and many GLBT people of color. Getting and keeping a job and keeping people from thinking they have carte blanche to kill us is. Those basic civil rights aren't going to flow from the right to marry, it's the other way around as history books and the Civil Rights movement forcefully demonstrate.

But whatever your deep seated problem with President elect Obama is, it's time to work through getting over it as soon as possible. Just because I supported him for the presidency doesn't mean, nor should you assume that I don't think he shouldn't be criticized. If President Obama does something wrong during the next four to eight years of his administration, I'll be the first one chewing on his behind.

But give the man a chance to at least warm up the damn chair in the Oval Office and implement policy before you start criticizing him.

Grandma Just Got Busted In A Drug Deal

TransGriot Note: It's time for another holiday song rewrite! This one was spawned by the news that Sherry Johnston, mother of Levi Johnston and soon to be grandmother of Levi and Bristol Palin's baby boy, was arrested by Alaska State Police in a drug investigation.

This situation was too irresistible not to put in song format, so fire up those iPod's and sing along with the rewritten holiday lyrics.




Grandma Just Got Busted In A Drug Deal
(sung to the tune of 'Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer' by the Irish Rovers)

Grandma just got busted in a drug deal
By Alaska state police before Christmas Eve
Because the other grandma is the governor
Doesn't mean that you'll get a reprieve

She'd been under investigation
For several months as we now know
She'd been selling Oxycontin,
Got busted as she stepped out in the snow.

Bailed her out before Christmas mornin,'
In Wasilla now she's back.
But next month grandma's got a court date
And the DA won't be cutting her any slack

Grandma just got busted in a drug deal
By Alaska state police before Christmas Eve
Because the other grandma is the governor
Doesn't mean that you'll get a reprieve

Now we're all concerned for Levi
He's probably not takin' this so well.
He's been working in the North Slope oil fields
And he's probably hollerin' 'what the hell?'


Bristol's had her baby shower
She's due any day now that's a fact
And we just can't help but wonder:
If Grandma Sarah thinks the situation's wacked?
(Yes, it's wacked)

Grandma just got busted in a drug deal
By Alaska state police before Christmas Eve
Because the other grandma is the governor
Doesn't mean that you'll get a reprieve

Grandma Sarah didn't call a press conference
But she took pains to enunciate
Through a government media spokesperson,
'This isn't a matter of Alaska state'.

So there it is my friends and neighbors.
A story as bizarre as it can be
It's a perfect holiday example
Of conservative family values and hypocrisy

Grandma just got busted in a drug deal
By Alaska state police before Christmas Eve
Because the other grandma is the governor
Doesn't mean that you'll get a reprieve
(Sing it, Sarah)

Grandma just got busted in a drug deal
By Alaska state police before Christmas Eve
Because the other grandma is the governor
Doesn't mean that you'll get a reprieve

Louisville Central Repeats

One of the things that I immediately noticed when I moved here was the difference in the level of interest in high school football versus that of my birth state.

In Texas, it's the state religion. State religion status is reserved for basketball here at the high school and collegiate levels.

But when it comes to fan loyalty, the fans of the various schools take a back seat to no one. They are just as loyal and school spirit filled as the ones back home, even if they don't always fill up major football stadiums to the rafters for title games.

Last year historic Central High, the alma mater of 'The Greatest' and the oldest African-American high school in Louisville, made history as its coach Ty Scoggins became the first African-American to win a KHSAA football title in front of excited alumni, students and fans at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium when they defeated Belfry to win the Class 3A title.

This year's edition of the Central Yellowjackets came into the season as the hunted, not the hunters. They also found themselves on a chilly December 12 day at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium in front of 3,917 people playing for another Class 3A title as well.

The 11-3 Yellowjackets rolled up 323 rushing yards, paced by Chance Hughes 169 yards and two TD's as Central successfully repeated as 3A state football champs by beating Breathitt County 40-19 in front of their enthusiastic fans, students and alumni.

Congrats once again to Central as they proved they are the best 3A football team in Kentucky. Can they threepeat? We'll find out when the 2009 season kicks off.

A Transsistah's Secret-Facial Hair Removal

One of the things that annoys any phase of transwoman to no end, be she pre, post or non op is plucking stray facial hairs or picking up a razor to closely shave her face.

You not only have to do it so that you leave no traces of hair stubble on your face, you have to use extreme caution in doing so to avoid nicking and cutting yourself in the process.

It's a cruel irony of male to female transition and taking estrogen that while body hair growth slows to a crawl, if you've started male pattern balding, your hair in the area that's shedding hair won't regenerate. The other cruel irony is that facial hair is a more stubborn beast impervious to anything but its permanent removal, and nothing gets you read faster than five o'clock beard shadow.

Depilatory creams and waxing help, but they are only temporary solutions. To permanently remove it, you have two choices, either electrolysis or laser.

I was fortunate because I had a lower than normal testosterone count so my facial hair growth was relatively light. Even so, I was tired of shaving what hair I did get and starting in 1997 I spent three years back home undergoing electrolysis with my electrologist Marie Asmar.

Basically what happens in this 100 year old method of hair removal is a needle is inserted into the hair follicle bulb at the base of the hair shaft and an electric current shoots into the base of the hair follicle to kill it.

It is a meticulous, time consuming process and as I mentioned earlier, facial hair is a stubborn beast. It will sometimes take multiple applications to kill that follicle for good with varying levels of pain as you undergo it while the cash meter is running as you do so.

As I sat in Marie's office, as she worked on my face I'd listen to her tell fascinating stories about the Houston Arab community and her girlhood in Lebanon. In the meantime the buzz in the local and national transgender community was all about Dallas' Electrology 2000.

Electrology 2000 was founded in 1986 by Ruthann and Bren Piranio. At the time I transitioned in 1994 they'd been in business for almost a decade and had some loyal customers in my TATS group who positively raved about it.

E2000 was doing a booming business with the transgender community inside and outside Texas because it was reputed to be relatively pain free. E2000 and its adherents claimed that it took less time to clear your face over traditional electrolysis techniques, which could only clear small sections of your face in one sitting.

Even though I was a one hour plane ride from Dallas due to my then airline job, as I investigated it, the drawback was its cost. It required large cash outlays up front while you pay many electrologists an hourly rate or can negotiate for blocks of time at a flexible rate.

E2000's large cash upfront business model unfortunately locks out most transpeeps of color. It's ironic because the E2000 technique was purported to be effective at clearing African-American facial hair and stopping pseudofolliculitis barbae, aka razor bumps.

Just like the hairs on African-American heads, the natural curl in it means that when you cut it with the razor, it grows back in a curled pattern. The now sharpened end of recently cut hair penetrates the skin, which interprets it as a foreign body attacking it and causes an inflamed skin bump.

So as usual, most of the folks taking advantage of it had money and jobs that allowed them to take time off from work to fly to the Dallas metro area to do so.

E2000's sensitivity to the transgender community not only contributed to its success, but also meant long waiting times jockeying with transpeeps all over the country just to get an appointment. If you didn't have relatives in Dallas like I did (and at the time they weren't aware of my transition) then you have to add the additional expense of hotel rooms and auto to get around since it's in the 'burbs in Carrollton.

It's been around for 22 years and is now under new management as Electrology 3000. So even though my then airline job paid me well enough to afford it, I said thanks but no thanks to E2000. Marie was also treating other transgender clients at the time and I liked her, the fact she was up the street from my apartment, I was happy with her work and her rate was reasonable.

The other method used is laser. At the time I was starting to undergo electrolysis and ruled out E2000, the first lasers were coming out. However, the early lasers were useless for African-American or darker skinned people and it took several years before the third generation long pulse YAG lasers were developed that actually works for African-Americans.

Laser has the advantage of being faster time wise, less painful than traditional electrolysis and being able to treat larger expanses of skin in one treatment, but shares the same problem of repeated applications until the hair follicle ceases production. It's also more resistant to certain colors of hair such as gray, red or blonde.

But for those of us who wish to look our gender best, in order to permanently get rid of our facial hair, laser and electrolysis are options that we have to consider and decide whether to factor it into or out of our transition budgets.

Under New Management In One Month

We are only one month away from the United States being under new management.

I can't wait to see the inauguration, the parades, the inaugural balls and all the other assorted historical pomp and circumstance that accompany our presidential change in leadership. It's also going to be cool to finally have an A student in charge of the country as well.

It's also going to be beautiful to see Air Force One (or Marine One) take off in the direction of Dallas with Bush on board for the final time as the White House finally get some peeps descended from the original builders of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue moved in.

Sorry Dallas peeps, he's not transiting enroute to the fake Crawford ranch, he's settling there. Unfortunately we'll also have to endure at least a month of furious spinning coming from the Bush misadministration trying to cleanse his odious presidential legacy.

While most schools wouldn't be caught dead with the George W. Bush Presidential Center on their campus, the schools that fiercely competed for it were Baylor University in Waco, Texas Tech University in Lubbock, The University of Dallas and Southern Methodist University.

SMU eventually won that competition because First Lady Laura Bush, presidential adviser Karen Hughes and White House counsel Harriet Miers are alums. Laura Bush also serves on SMUT's (our sarcastic nickname from my college days for that preppy Republican private school) board of Trustees, and Vice President Dick Cheney when he lived in Dallas once served on SMU's Board of Trustees.

He and Faux News can spin until they get dizzy, but nothing is going to save Junior from the harsh judgment of the American people, the world and present and future historians that this ranks (so far) as one of the worst presidencies in US history.

And we're talking historically bad ones such as James Buchanan (1857-1861) whose failures led to the Civil War that almost destroyed this country. Franklin Pierce (1853-1857) had the triple whammy of being drunk, incompetent and unfortunately preceding Buchanan. Warren Harding's (1921-23) brief term had unprecedented level of corruption, Ulysses S. Grant (1868-77) was at the helm during the 'robber baron' era and a depression, and Dubya's alter ego, 'His Fraudulency' Rutherford B. Hayes (1877-81) was questionably elected on disputed Florida votes as well and as part of the political deal that sealed his election, facilitated the introduction of racist Jim Crow segregation and an orgy of anti black violence in the South by ending reconstruction and pulling federal troops out of the region.

That's the presidential company that many people consider Bush occupies, but time will tell.

So yes, I'm happy that President elect Obama is determined to leave office being considered as one of our best presidents. He knows that future POC occupants of the Oval Office will depend on him successfully executing the job over the next four to eight years, and so far he is putting together an administration that will help him make that possible.

Because after the last 8 years, the country and the world definitely needs it.

2008 Weblog Awards Finalist Schedule

If you're wondering what's up with the 2008 Weblog Awards like I am, since I was nominated for two categories, (Best LGBT Blog Award and Best Small Minor Blog) the good peeps at the Weblog Awards had over 5000 nominations to sift through which slowed them down considerably.

They've finally gotten that massive number of nominees whittled down, so I and the other nominated blogs will find out next Thursday (Christmas Day) whether we've made the cut to be voted on by you peeps.

Information about the process is in this post along with their updated schedule.

Finalist Announced - December 25

Finalist Logos Available - December 25

Finalist Voting Page Available* - December 29

Finalist Voting - January 2 through January 10


Here's hoping I get something extra in my Christmas stocking this year.

2008-The Year Of The Black Transperson

Ever since Christine Jorgensen stepped off the plane in New York from Denmark in 1953, the media coverage concerning transgender people has been disproportionately focused on white transgender people.

What little coverage we have garnered has been limited to African-American oriented publications such as EBONY or JET, focusing on us when the subject turns to transgender prostitution or repeated inaccurate, insensitive and sensationalized stories filled with incorrect pronoun usage about transwomen who lost their lives to anti-transgender violence.

We had hopes after Los Angeles transwoman Cookie Fields' story was published in the iconic pages of ESSENCE magazine in November 2006 that it would usher in increased positive coverage for transgender people of African descent. Those hopes were dashed as we went right back to the usual fade to invisibility in not only African-American oriented media, but their larger mainstream media friends as well.

This year, there were encouraging signs that the media blackout African-American transpeople have frustratingly endured and fought for decades may finally be starting to lift.

Whether it was some African-American transwoman blogger whose commentary got posted on this blog, the Bilerico Project, and other various spots across the blogosphere to Isis King and Laverne Cox's star making turns on reality TV shows, 2008 will arguably go down as the year that Black transgender people got long overdue recognition and face time.

I'm proud to have played a small part in it when I became the Bilerico Project's first African-American transgender blogger in January. I not only was quoted in various articles and blog posts, in recognition that my TransGriot blog is continuing to grow and gain new readers I was asked to write guest posts for various blogs as well in addition to being invited to speak at various events.

While my transbrothers have gotten even less attention than we have since 1953, they nevertheless got some of this new media love as well.

There was a documentary released called Still Black: A Portrait of Black Transmen that's garnered attention and racked up film festival awards. Daisy Hernandez's Color Lines article Becoming A Black Man and Nick Mwaluko's Huffington Post story gave some transbrothers an opportunity to tell their stories as well.

Nick's story was interesting because it gave us the opportunity to read about a continental African speaking on transgender issues. Nigeria's Mia Nikasimo did the same a little later and it highlights the fact there are transgender peeps on the second largest continent on the planet as well.

Isis King's history making turn as a contestant on Cycle 11 of America's Next Top Model and Laverne Cox's time on I Want To Work For Diddy drove home the points that we are beautiful, intelligent and are driven to succeed in addition to giving us positive TV face time.

While Isis didn't win the big prize of the modeling contract she was seeking, she became a role model to many people in the process. In addition to the numerous media interviews she conducted, she made an appearance on Tyra's Emmy award winning talk show. Laverne since her turn on I Want To Work For Diddy is working on various projects, acting and producing a documentary.

And in a year in which we proudly witnessed the historic campaign that resulted in Sen. Barack Obama becoming the first African-American elected president of the United States, history professor Dr. Marisa Richmond not only was there to witness history being made in Denver, she made it herself as the first African-American transgender delegate to a major party convention.

But just as these positive things were happening for us, the joy was tempered by the fact that we still have a long way to go before we are accepted by all our people. Too many times the anti-transgender hatred and violence we face comes not only from people that share our ethnic background, but from the people that are supposed to protect and serve us as well.

Those points were driven home by the shocking videotape of Duanna Johnson being beaten in a Memphis police station and several African-American transwomen across the country being murdered. Duanna's story became more tragic as she was found shot to death November 9.

In addition to Nick and Mia speaking their truths about transgender issues, African descended transpeople across the Diaspora made headlines as well with Kellie Telesford's Jamaican-born killer being acquitted in London, the suffering of our transgender brothers and sisters in Jamaica and the bravery of transgender activists in Uganda such as Victor Juliet Mukasa and elsewhere on the Mother Continent fighting simply for the right for themselves and their transgender brothers and sisters to live their lives in peace.

And while we didn't (as of yet) add any new members to the African-American IFGE Trinity winners club that is currently me, Marisa Richmond and Dawn Wilson, there are proud African-American transpeople who are leaders in various cities such as Cydne Kimbrough, Earline Budd, Louis Mitchell and others not only working to make things better for transgender people, but the communities they reside in as well.

We also got to hear from the next generation of African descended transkids like Rochelle Evans who despite facing some obstacles, are determined to do their part to ensure that they are ready and able to write the next chapters in our stories of success.

This year will close with the fact that African descended transpeople are beginning to have their stories be covered and told. When it isn't perfect or inaccurate, we're demanding it be done accurately and respectfully.

And what a story it is. We're doing our part to uplift the race by helping to uplift our communities, are breaking historic ground in various fields, and are shaking off the shame and guilt to forcefully stand up for our rights to simply live their lives.

We can only hope and pray that the positive upward trends for African descended transpeople continue into the New Year.

Documentary-She's My Son

I posted the article a few months ago about the award winning documentary She's My Son by Indrani Kopal.

It peeks into the lives of Malaysian transwomen and once again, underscores the comment I made sometime ago that being transgender is a worldwide issue. We are everywhere, and we are a part of the human family that needs to be embraced, not reviled.

Here's the YouTube uploaded video of it.