We Don't Want No Scrubs, Either

A scrub is a guy that thinks he's fly
And is also known as a buster
Always talkin' about what he wants
And just sits on his broke ass
So (no)

I don't want your number (no)
I don't want to give you mine and (no)
I don't want to meet you nowhere (no)
I don't want none of your time and (no)

I don't want no scrubs
A scrub is guy who can't get no love from me
Hanging out the passenger side of his best friend's ride
Trying to holler at me




Well, another Valentine's Day has come and gone with me munching half price candy, playing my Luther CD's and observing giddy lovestruck couples enjoying Valentine's Day dinners and quality time with each other while I was out and about this weekend.

While I ain't mad at y'all who are hooked up in serious long term relationships (and to be honest a tad jealous and envious at the same time) I was painfully aware of the fact that one of the downsides of transition was the possibility I could spend the rest of my life alone.

But as someone who's working on becoming a quality Black woman, that doesn't mean that I or my transsisters don't have high standards when it comes to the person that we wish to spend my romantic quality time with either.

Too many times over the years I've seen some nice looking transwoman hooked up with some questionable men just so they can say they have a 'husband' or boyfriend. These busters they hook up with are either running roughshod over them in the process, or doing it, then cruelly dumping them for cisgender women after they've had their fun by playing the 'you can't give me a baby' card.

Yeah, I like to get my freak on, but not at the cost of my self respect, health or dignity. Your femininity as a transwoman does not and should not depend on having a man on your arm or engaging in hoochiesque behavior.

We're not booty calls, one night stands, or some 'exotic' plaything you treat like a vampire and only take out at night, if at all because you're ashamed to be seen with us or afraid of what your homeboys are gonna say if they find out you've hooked up with a transwoman.

The point is the minute you decide to get with me or any of my transsisters, you inherit all of the societal baggage that comes with dating a transwoman as well. In addition to all the societal crap that's heaped upon women, we get a extra helping of hateraid for trying to be who we are from society as well.

So if you're not sure you can handle that or the extra TLC it will require for you at times to date us, then don't step to us. That goes double for all you trifling, non-ambitious, womanizing, fugly, abusive, habitually criminal, wannabe playa playa's out there as well.

Read my lipstick coated lips. If my biosisters don't want you, then don't think we're gonna jump through hoops and beg for your company just because you have a penis and we may be alone at that moment. Some of us have them as well, and you and your fragile egos may be shocked to find out when you pull our panties down that it's bigger than yours.

We're looking for quality relationships just like our biosisters are, and just because we're transwoman doesn't mean we aren't worthy of or don't deserve having quality people to share our lives with.

So no, we don't want no scrubs, either.

Happy President's Day!

Happy President's Day! It means a lot more now that we have Number 44 in office and 'Brother Prez' is handling his business.

Nova Scotia Black Loyalists

Black Canadians have close intertwined ties and kinship with their southern cousins on many levels, and nowhere in Canada is that statement more accurate than in southern Ontario and Nova Scotia.

Some Black Nova Scotians can trace their ancestry directly back to the United States thanks to the Black Loyalists.

When the British realized they were losing the war, the then British Commander in chief at New York Sir Henry Clinton issued on June 30, 1779 the Philipsburg Proclamation. It stated that any Negro belonging to an American patriot was free, and if they deserted the rebel cause would receive full protection, freedom, and land. Thousands did and supported the Loyalist cause until the end of the Revolutionary War.

When the war came to a successful conclusion for the Americans, once the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783 the British had to leave the new United States and the Loyalists gathered in New York to await transport.

In the interim, General George Washington demanded that their lost property, the Black Loyalists be returned. Sir Guy Carleton, now the British commander in chief for New York said no to returning any slaves who had joined the British cause before November 30, 1782, but later came to an agreement with General Washington to pay monetary compensation for their losses.

Signed Certificates of Freedom were issued for New York Blacks identified as joining the British cause prior to the surrender, and any who chose to emigrate were evacuated by ship. To ensure that no one without a certificate was evacuated from New York, the Book of Negroes documented and recorded the name of any Black person on board a vessel, whether slave, indentured servant, or free. It also recorded the details of enslavement, escape, and military service.

Between 1783 and 1785, in the aftermath of the Revolutionary War an estimated 5000 Black Loyalists departed New York for Nova Scotia, Quebec, the West Indies, England, Germany and Belgium. 3000 of them ended up in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, which was then a part of Nova Scotia but was split off into a separate province for administrative reasons.

Life for them upon arrival was harsh. The large wave of Loyalist immigration they were part of put severe strains on the Nova Scotian government and the Black Loyalists encountered unfair and unequal treatment. They were given much smaller plots of land and fewer provisions than white settlers. Many didn't received the promised land allotments and some received no provisions. Black laborers were paid lower wages than white laborers for the same work. In addition, black people faced discriminatory local bylaws that penalized them for ‘offenses’ such as dancing or loitering.

Some eventually left for Sierra Leone, but others stayed in Nova Scotia, persevered and eventually carved out for themselves a proud history that their descendants are eagerly reclaiming.

It's a history I look forward to one day exploring in a visit to Nova Scotia as well.

'Tell It WOC Speak' Blog Carnival Up

This month's edition of the 'Tell It WOC Speak' blog carnival is up and popping. I was surprised and honored to see that the post I contributed to the carnival was highlighted as a featured one.

Thanks Renee for putting this blog carnival together.

As I mentioned in the previous announcement posts, this will be a monthly event taking place on the 15th that spotlights the work of Women of color bloggers. She believes that there are plenty of WOC bloggers out here in the Afrosphere that don't get the opportunities to spotlight their work.

So take a moment to check out this month's edition of the carnival and discover the writing of some great bloggers.

This Is How Whitewashing Us Out of GLBT History Begins

Last February over at the Bilerico Project I wrote a post for Black History Month about the 1965 Dewey Lunch Counter Sit-In Protest in Philadelphia. which is the first documented evidence of an organized African-American GLBT civil rights protest.

The significance of this is that it happened four years before the June 1969 Stonewall Riots that kicked off the modern GLBT rights movement, and I wrote an October 2007 TransGriot post about it. I was sent the heads up by Dr. Susan Stryker, who does a yeoman's job compiling transgender history and thought I'd find that tidbit interesting.

I wrote this paragraph in my February 2008 Bilerico post on the Dewey's Protest.

The interesting aspect of this campaign is not that it happened during the height of the 1960's Civil Rights movement. It was an African-American GLBT production.

Little did I know that drama was going to start over that paragraph and the following one in my original TransGriot post.

On April 25 more than 150 kids in 'non-conformist clothing' showed up at Dewey's in protest and were turned away by Dewey's management. Three teenagers (two male, one female) refused to leave after being denied service. They were arrested along with a gay activist who advised them of their legal rights, were charged and later found guilty of misdemeanor disorderly conduct.

Almost immediately one who calls himself Tom started the 'challenging and silencing' tactics.

From your picture you aren't old enough to have been there but the man who offered to get legal help and was arrested was the Janus President, Clark Polak
( http://gayhistory.wikispaces.com/Polak,+Clark?f=print ). He wasn't African American. The quote you have is from the old Janus newsletter. I still have a copy along with the flyer that was handed out. It was covered in the old Drum magazine too - there's a few photographs in that article. You can see it wasn't primarily an African American protest from the photos & talking to those who were there. Though I'm sure it was inspired by other lunch counter protests that were primarily African American.

Dewey's had several locations and gays - and always drag queens - hung out there. Usually late night - they were open all night. They wanted gay people to use the one on 13th Street only and kicked people out. The protest wasn't just one day - it was over 5 days - my old newsletter says 1500 of the flyers were handed out and it was on the local television.

Of course, I wasn't backing down and this was my response.

Tom,
Dr. Susan Stryker and Marc Stein say otherwise.

And what you posted is an example of the 'whitewashing' of GLBT history. Here's an event that was predominately a FUBU production, that predated the Compton Cafeteria Riot by a year and Stonewall by 4. and here cone the comments that, "the advisor was white." etc.

It's the same modus operandi that changed the Stonewall Riots from a transgender and peeps of color event to having literally no mention of people of color participating in Stonewall.

If you want African-American participation in the GLBT movement, you have got to have concrete examples of our participation in it so we feel we have a stake in it as well.

Brynn Craffey got it, and rebutted Tom's comment.

Monica, thanks for sharing this story! I'm not well read on our history and I'd never heard of the incident.

Tom, go back and re-read the entry: Monica never said that she was there. And while the question of whether or not the arrested legal advisor was white or African-American is an important historical detail, it doesn't change the fact that Dewey's was a hangout for African-American LGBT kids, the protest was influenced and inspired by the Civil Rights Movement, and African-American LGBT folks played a prominent role in it.

I agree with Monica: the way you jumped in and tried to contradict those facts is indicative of a dynamic that is far too prevalent, namely, the erasure by whites of African-Americans, LGBT folks, Native-Americans, women, progressives and other minorities from history.

Once that was dismissed, the new attack line emerged courtesy of Timothy Hulsey, and it's a meme that whitewashers use to erase transpeople out of GLBT history.

At the same time, this article goes too far in the other direction, not only by erasing or dismissing the involvement of non-African-American persons, but also by defining "drag queens" and butch lesbians as necessarily Transgender.

Brynn pointed out once again what I already knew as a transperson.

defining "drag queens" and butch lesbians as necessarily Transgender.

Excuse me, Timothy? I've got news for you, they ARE transgender.

The comments thread after this initial February 2008 exchange lay dormant until January 13. Chris Bartlett then chimes in with more 'evidence' that the unnamed advisor in my Dewey's post was the late Clark Polak.

Dear friends,

First of all Monica thanks for posting this important piece of LGBT history. It is a huge service to all of us.

I want to mention, however, as a long-time Philadelphia activist, that Clark Polak, the advisor mentioned in your article above, was not African-American. It just isn't so.

I mention this not to white-wash history, because there were African Americans there and at Dewey's in general, and they are a proud part of our LGBT history in Philadelphia. I mention it because Clark Polak is an unsung hero in Philadelphia's gay history-- publisher of Drum, unabashed sex radical, and courageous confronter of the status quo. He was a natural ally to the trans people and people of color who were there that day. He took a stand when many others wouldn't.

I would agree that it is often the white people who end up in history-- because they often wrote the history in the past-- and Clark wrote a lot of history in his magazine. I will also not deny that Philadelphia has a long and shameful history, both in its LGBT communities and in the broader community, of overt racism that has made the stories of Black LGBT folks in this city invisible.

The answer is not to deny Polak's participation-- and willingness to both be arrested and defend the folks there-- but to interview those who were there to hear the stories of the black and trans folk who participated.

My friend Kevin Trimell Jones has started the Black LGBT Archivists Society of Philadelphia and is doing that work of collecting the stories, photos, and artifacts of Black LGBT Philadelphia. I'll be sure to post the link to his website here when he has it up and running. I'll also ask him whether we can seek Dewey's stories from African American participants.

My answer to that comment was:

Chris,

I find it hilarious that you wish for me in this article that brings to light an all FUBU production of GLBT history, and now you want to in the name of 'historical accuracy' want to claim that a white person was 'an advisor'.

Did white gays like yourself concerned (yourself) about 'historical accuracy' when Sylvia Rivera, Miss Major and the other transwomen who kicked off the Stonewall Riots weren't given their full credit?

This is the insidious nature of whitewashing history' and how it has erased POC participation in building the GLBT movement. First it's a 'white advisor', then next it will be claims 'The Janus Society helped plan it', then 20 years from now we'll be hearing this revisionist story about the Dewey Lunch Counter Sit In Protest that will have no African-Americans in it.

Nope..not today, not on this post

When we POC complain about being edited out of the historical record, this is an example of how it happens. I find it interesting that Chris erroneously tried to claim that I mentioned that Clark Polak was the advisor. Nope, all my post says is that a 'gay advisor' was arrested, and I got that from Mark Stein's 2000 book City of Sisterly and Brotherly Loves: Lesbian and Gay Philadelphia 1945-1972.

The critics IMMEDIATELY assume it was the late Clark Polak, a long time Philadelphia gay activist. Thanks to unacknowledged white privilege, it never entered the minds of the people that challenged my post that maybe the arrested gay advisor could be Black, especially in light of the fact that the Dewey's in question was an African-American GLBT hangout and the incident in question involved African-American GLBT kids. It's also insulting because it implies that there weren't Black GLBT people or Black allies in general capable of organizing the protest.

Chris may not have meant as he says in his comment to me to whitewash history by harping on Clark Polak's possible participation in this event, but that's the effect of it.

Since it's your assertion that Clark Polak was the advisor arrested and you're so keen on 'historical accuracy of GLBT history', then it's incumbent upon you to go research the Philadelphia Police Department arrest records for April 25, 1965 and see if his name pops up.

My Dewey's post was simply talking about the event from an African-American GLBT perspective. It STILL doesn't change the fact that despite all this distractive quibbling over a minor point, the larger message is being lost that this was a predominately GLBT African-American protest that occurred four years before Stonewall, organized on 60's Civil Rights Movement principles, and was one of the first examples of a protest organized about and centered on transgender issues.

But it speaks to a larger problem in the GLBT community. For the longest time the historical record on what happened in the GLBT community was written by white people, with the predictable results of GLBT people of color and transgender people being erased from it.

Even in the transgender community, I see that happening, and it needs to stop. One of the things I discovered two years ago when I started suggesting POC names on a transgender activist Yahoo list in the wake of The Advocate's glaring omissions of transgender people for their '40 Heroes of the GLBT Movement' article, the reaction I received was a 'who are they'?

But that's the insidious nature of how the whitewashing of GLBT history (and history in general) happens. First it's trying to seize on a minor point, then it's changing the story to insert white people into this event, then 20 years later as with Stonewall, it's a Brooks Brothers riot.

Transsexuals In Iran

Transsexuals In Iran is an award winning documentary by Tanaz Eshaghian that takes a fascinating look at the lives of transsexuals living in post revolutionary Iran.

It's not very often that we get to take a look at the lives of our transgender brothers and sisters in that part of the world, and this documentary gives us the chance to do just that.




Part 2


Part 3


Part 4


Part 5


Part 6


Part 7


Part 8

Yes, There Are Transpeople In The Middle East

When I say that being transgender is a worldwide issue, I'm not kidding about that.

While the peeps in Europe, the Americas and Asia get far more publicity and attention, the African continent beyond South Africa is beginning to get on the radar screen of transgender visibility and so is the Middle East.

Israel's Dana International may be the most well known of the Middle Eastern transwomen thanks to her 1999 win in the Eurovision song contest along with Turkey's Bulent Ersoy, but there are transgender people in Egypt, Jordan, Iran, Iraq, and the various Arab Persian Gulf states as well.

And increasingly, they are staging courageous fights for the right to live their lives in a region in which transpeople are sometimes persecuted and women are less valued by the dominant religious mores.

In Iran, sex reassignment surgery has been allowed ever since Maryam Khatoon Molkara endured being fired from her job, forcibly injected with male hormones, imprisonment in a psychiatric institution and a bloody beatdown by the late Ayatollah Khomeini's guards in order to prove in graphic terms to him personally that she was a woman. Khomeini then issued a fatwa that paved the way for Iranian transpeople to get surgery. Iran's transgender people still face much drama despite the fatwa, and gay people are faced with the choice of transition or die.

In Bahrain Hussein Rabi fights to be recognized as a man with the help of his attorney and in Egypt Sally Mursi has been fighting a decades long legal battle just for the right to study at Al-Azhar University's Medical School For Girls despite having her SRS 19 years ago.

And even with the most famous transgender celebrity in the world hailing from there, Israeli transgender people still fight to have their basic human rights respected and get their name and gender changes done without having to resort to genital surgery to do so.

The Turkish transgender community has long faced harassment despite once again, having an internationally known transwoman living there. But Turkish activists state that ever since Turkey applied for membership to the European Union, the country has been trying to put their best human rights face forward to the world while the application to EU membership is pending, and the police haven't been hounding them as much.

And as those of us who either attended or posted the names of last year's Remembering our Dead list already know, some of the people memorialized on the list came from Iraq.

Like everywhere else on planet Earth, while the levels of drama for transgender people vary by country to country in the Middle East, they are still depressingly familiar issues. But the desires of our transbrothers and transsisters to live an authentic life still remain the same.

2009 New York Spring Fashion Week- Will The Blackout Continue?

Fashion Week cranked up in New York yesterday and one of the things I and other interested observers will be scrutinizing is not if they use a transgender model like they did in Brazil, but how many African descended models participate in the various fashion shows in the mid town Bryant Park tent village that's Ground Zero for the event?

In the wake of last year's biannual shows that were overwhelmingly melanin free and Italian Vogue doing an all Black models filled July 2008 issue to highlight the racist reluctance of designers and advertisers to use Black models, the question that we'll be pondering is did the designers and advertisers get the message, or will the catwalks continue to be overrun by Eastern European glamazons and little or no models of color despite a historic presidential election here in the States?

There was an event held by the African Fashion Collective last night that starred Grace Jones and a diverse lineup of models from a dozen countries that included Ethiopia, Namibia, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Russia, China and the Netherlands. It also included male supermodel Tyson Beckford, and runway supermodels Alek Wek and Chanel Iman.

The show featured an array of African inspired collections and presidential prints by designers Xuly Bet from Mali, Nkhensani Nkosi who designs the South African label Stoned Cherrie, and Nigerians Fati Asibelua of Momo and Tiffany Amber.

Now after the African Fashion Collective showed them how it's supposed to be done and threw in some flava as well, will the rest of the fashion world's designers follow suit, or will it be the same tired-ass business as usual as Fashion Week continues?

The Tall And Short Of It

One of the things I hear a lot from my biowomen friends when we're chatting at various times is that they sometimes wish they were my 6'2" height, to which I'll usually reply "No, you don't".

While I'm proud to be a tall sistah, revel in my long legged body and love the fact that there are numerous examples in the world of statuesque sistahs representing and doing positive things like our new First Lady for example, every now and then I check out my stylishly dressed shorter sisters and wonder what life would be like from that perspective.

Based on what I've been told and observed, I'd have the same frustrations about clothes except from the petite end of the scale. It would be a little more challenging for me to reach the top of shelves without assistance or a small step ladder, and if I picked up weight it would be more noticeable than it is right now.

I think a lot of both sides yearning for the others height is the 'grass being greener on the other side of the street' syndrome. And like it is with any other 'I wish' scenarios, you'll find that if you actually had the opportunity or the chance to actually have that wish fulfilled, it has a set of challenges and problems that you didn't know about until you experience them first hand.

But the bottom line is short, tall or in between, we look in the mirrors, thank God that we are healthy happy and well adjusted beings, and love every millimeter of our bodies no matter what the height is.

Valentine's Day Posts

Happy Valentine's Day 'errbody'. For those of you who are in long or short term relationships, married or unmarried, I ain't mad at y'all.

A relationship is the one thing that has eluded me so far in my life, but on this day dedicated to love and being in love, I'm going to hit the TransGriot Time Machine and link back to some posts I wrote on previous V-Day's.


Valentine's Day Musings

Letter To The Ladies Who Loved My Twin




Wonder how our favorite couple is going to celebrate the day?

Shut Up Fool! Awards-Friday The 13th Edition

Well, since today is Friday The 13th, it's time to show some fear and loathing to the people who made us cringe in terror by flapping their gums to let the most asinine comments come out of their mouths this week.

Where's Jason and Freddy Krueger when you need them?

And now, this week's nominees for the Shut Up Fool! Awards.


Contestant Number One is somebody I figured would be nominated sooner or later for this honor, newly minted RNC chair Michael Steele.

He parted his lips on Sunday to say in criticism of Brother President's economic stimulus package that 'he believes that government-funded jobs don't count as real employment because "a job is something that a business owner creates."



The government doesn't create jobs. Let's get this notion out of our heads that the government creates jobs. Not in the history of mankind has the government ever created a job. ... Those 2 to 4 million jobs that are projected won't happen. Trust me.

Contestant Number Two is Bill O'Reilly. In this Faux News clip, he mockingly compares Helen Thomas, the dean of the White House press cord to the 'Wicked Witch of the East'





Contestant Number Three is Catholic Bishop Richard Williamson.

At a time when the Catholic Church and the Vatican is mimicking the Dubya blueprint for winning friends and influencing people is pissing people off left right and center, they added the worldwide Jewish community to that increasingly long list.

Pope Benedict XVI lifts his excommunication of him and then Williamson goes on Swedish TV January 24 to state that the Holocaust didn't happen, there were no gas chambers at Auschwitz and only 300,000 Jews died as opposed to the accepted figure of six million.



Hello, all you need to do is take a trip to Auschwitz or Google it to eyeball them. 1 million people died just at Auschwitz alone with about 900,000 being Jewish. Google 'Wannsee Conference' to note who was at the top of the list for extermination.

So Bishop Richard Williamson, shut up fool! You're our winner this week.

'An Evening At La Cage' Closes In Vegas

The tough economy is whacking Las Vegas as well. If you were thinking about checking out the 'An Evening At La Cage' female impersonators review at the Riviera Hotel the next time you can afford to go there on vacation, you won't have that show as an option to see anymore.

Headliner Frank Marino and the rest of the cast were informed by producer Norbert Aleman after the February 9 performance that the show was shutting down immediately, thus ending a 23 year run on the Las Vegas Strip.

'An Evening At La Cage' opened in September 1985 featuring Marino as Joan Rivers. It eventually became the fourth longest running show on the Vegas strip.



This follows the news last month that another iconic show. the Tropicana's 'Les Folies Bergere' was shutting down March 28 after a 49 year run to make room for another undisclosed production.

"The writing is on the wall," said Aleman in an interview with Mike Weatherford. "It's better if we take a break right now and see what's up with the economy, rather than see my numbers go down and have to perform for under 100 people."

Riviera president Robert Vannucci said in a statement, "We sincerely regret the decision to close La Cage, but fully understand the economic pressures forcing the situation. We wish the producer and the cast well and hope in the near future that conditions will change and encourage reinvesting into the show and its reopening. In the meantime, we are in negotiation with several different show producers and hope to announce a new Riviera show very soon."

Marino said he was expecting the closure because of falling audience numbers and it was time to step it up to the next level as a producer. He was going to take a vacation for a month, then start working on the 'ultimate drag show'.



At any rate, here's hoping that the iconic show gets revived or Marino's 'ultimate drag show' debuts once the economy improves.

Where Are The Positive Black Brazilian Transwomen Role Models?

Brazil has a population of African descended people of about 100 million, which is more than the combined population of African descended people in the Caribbean, the US, Canada and Central America.

Based on Lynn Conway's 1/250 ratio of transgender births the estimated potential population of Black Brazilian transsexuals in Brazil is 400,000. But most of the transwomen that we've heard about who have garnered international attention from Brazil are people such as Roberta Close or recently Patricia Araujo, who just walked the runway at a Rio fashion show.

Unfortunately it seems as though the same pattern that we have of invisibility of Black transpeople in the United States has replicated itself in Brazil. Yeah, you see Black transpeople in Brazil, but unfortunately, just like what happened here in the States, they are disproportionately the subjects of adult websites.

So the question I ask as a concerned citizen of the Diaspora, where are the Brazilian transwomen of African descent who are positive role models? Where are the ones who have transitioned and are contributing to Brazilian society and why haven't their accomplishments and achievements been told to the rest of the world?

I know they must exist, it's just they haven't had their moment in the media sun yet.

WOC Blog Carnival This Weekend

Thanks to Renee at Womanist Musings, I'm about to experience something new as a blogger, participating in my first blog carnival.

She's organizing, 'Tell It WOC Speak' which will happen on Sunday, February 15. If you wish to participate in it, get those submissions to Renee ASAP. It's a wonderful way to expose your writing to people who may not have had a chance to see it or haven't web surfed in your blog's direction.

Blog carnivals are prevalent all over the blogosphere, but unfortunately in the Blackosphere we haven't done many of them for whatever myriad reasons. The reason this is my first is that I'm just now getting the recognition and the profile thanks to that Weblog award in which people are asking me to participate in their various carnivals.

Renee believes that with all the talented WOC bloggers out there, the lack of WOC themed blog carnivals shouldn't be happening and there's more than enough excellent content generated by us so that we can have this event on a monthly basis.

She's committed to making this a successful event, and I'm committed to doing my part to help make it happen.

How about you, women bloggers of color? Let's do this. Please submit your post here, either old or new works that talk about or intersect with race that involve class, gender, sexuality, ability, etc.

It is time that we tackle the 'isms' and bring them crashing down, and hopefully on Sunday well see a range of thought that begins the discussion process.

2010 IFGE Conference To Be Held Again In Washington DC

The 2009 edition of the IFGE Conference just concluded another successful run with over 150 attendees and speakers from around the country in attendance despite the unusual early February convention date.

Bree Hartlage, the newly elected chair of the IFGE board announced during the final session of Transgender 2009 that the 2010 edition of the IFGE conference will be held once again in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.

"It was quite apparent to both myself and the rest of our Board that the only logical place for the transgender community to gather each year in the name of education and acceptance is in our nation's capital," noted Ms. Hartlage. She also announced that Transgender 2010 - The Capital Conference, will be moving back to it's traditional April time slot, with specific dates and location to be announced very soon.

Hartlage also had high praise for IFGE Executive Director Denise LeClair as well. "I am extremely grateful to Denise for all of her hard work and determination in staging the 2009 conference despite very long odds."

Ms. LeClair also dished out kudos to the volunteers and the local host organization as well. "I want to acknowledge the tireless work of all our volunteers, especially those from our local host organization, TGEA, The Transgender Education Association of Greater Washington, for making this a highly successful conference - we couldn't have done this without each and every one of you."

As with past IFGE conferences, the program of over 60 workshops drew high praise from those seeking to better understand the many varied aspects of what it means to be transgender in today's society. It is the primary vehicle for fulfilling the IFGE mission of "Promoting Acceptance for Transgender People Through Education".

IFGE is a membership organization, so for information on how to become a member of IFGE and make a donation, please visit: http://www.ifge.org

See you next year at Transgender 2010!

Happy 100th Anniversary NAACP

If a Black person gets in trouble, he calls out two names, Jesus and the NAACP.
Joe Madison

Today marks the 100th anniversary of an iconic organization reviled by segregationists, conservatives, and Dixiecrats and revered by people of all ethnic groups who seek justice and equality.

The NAACP will be celebrating its status as the oldest civil rights organization in the States with a year long series of events. In addition to the Founders Day ceremonies that will kick off the celebration, the 40th annual NAACP Image Awards hosted by Halle Berry and Tyler Perry will be taking place later this evening in Los Angeles.

It has come a long way since being founded in 1909 by a group of Jewish and African American people in New York. And as Joe Madison's comment that starts this post alludes to, whenever there was trouble and we called on the NAACP, they answered it.

Whether it was getting the message out through its magazine edited by NAACP founder W.E.B. DuBois called Crisis, fighting to enact an anti-lynching bill, topple school segregation, having its legal arm under legendary attorneys Charles Hamilton Houston and future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall attack the laws buttressing Jim Crow, or assisting Civil Rights Movement campaigns, the NAACP has fought on our people's behalf to tackle the issues of the day.

That tradition has continued into this century with the Congressional Civil Rights Report Cards which track the performance of every congressmember and senator on civil rights issues important to our people to calling out the lack of diversity in Hollywood and various industries.

Here's hoping that the NAACP will add to it's mission fighting for the rights of the African-American GLBT people that are its members as well.

It's had a sometimes bumpy ride, and far from being an anachronistic relic of our past, as its new slogan boldly proclaims, the NAACP is now. I shudder to think where we'd be without the NAACP as part of Black America, and in Benjamin Todd Jealous it has a dynamic young leader to take it into its second century.

Just Not Into RuPaul

RuPaul's back on TV with a reality show called RuPaul's Drag Race on Logo. Yeah, I know I've griped for years about the lack of visibility of GLBT African-Americans in the media, but this is one show that I and many African-American GLBT peeps won't be watching.

The reason? Many of us consider RuPaul a sellout.

RuPaul's road to Clarence Thomas-Condoleezza Rice territory basically began in 2002, when he started defending Chuck Knipp and his odious blackface minstrel show that many of us in the SGL community and our allies have major problems with.

When New York activists protested and succeeded in shutting down a 2002 show, RuPaul leaped to Chuck's defense.

RuPaul also had this to say when he appeared at Southern Decadence in New Orleans a few years ago.

"Critics who think that Shirley Q. Liquor is offensive are idiots. Listen, I've been discriminated against by everybody in the world: gay people, black people, whatever. I know discrimination, I know racism, I know it very intimately. She's not racist, and if she were, she wouldn't be on my new CD."

I'm a critic and a lot smarter than you are. Obviously your racism detector is way off and your ignorance of black history speaks volumes. It's also why that 'Foxy Lady' CD tanked.

If you'd paid attention in history class, you'd know that your racist runnin' buddy does a blackface minstrel show that on multiple levels is offensive and racist. Hiding behind your short skirts won't shield him from the deserved criticism and negativity he gets for doing so.

RuPaul also said on a gay radio show,
“I love it. People really need to take a chill pill and people really aren’t sophisticated enough to know that when a person is coming from a place of love as opposed to coming from a place of hate. Shirley Q. Liquor is so clearly coming from a place of love.”

How much 'sophistication' was Chuck showing when he (or one of his cronies) photoshopped Jasmyne Cannick's head to the body of an nude African American porn model on his website because she successfully led the effort to shut down one of his California shows?

Did that come from a place of love? Hell, naw.

RuPaul, you can stop trying to defend Chuck. It's the reason many of us aren't enamored of you any more, and the sooner you realize that, the better.

But then again, like all good sellouts, you'll salute, take the money they offer you, continue to stab your people in the back and expect us to be quiet about it.

What Do You Mean 'It's Her Fault'?

"I don't think Chris would just a hit a girl like that. She had to do something or say something out the way for him to really hurt her," said Nika2hot on MTV.com

I ain't no Ike Turner, but, if I was in a position where it was either me hitting a woman or that woman hurting me, she's a hit chick. I know at least three guys who are now nestled in their graves behind not defending themselves from an attack by a female. And, for the record, I've never faced with that option, so I've never had to hit a female...PEACE. by BigBlackRod on Blackamericaweb.com

Let's not rush to judgment. Everyone's saying " how could he hit a woman?" Who's to say she wasn't hitting him, and he was trying to restrain her, I guess people just assume the worst in other people. by Mcooper6700 on Blackamericaweb.com

nick says: from socialite life celebbuzz.com
ill tack yo she a slut eny way u dont need her good that u beat the pop out of her

Before I get started on this post, I'm saying for the purposes of journalistic disclosure that I'm a fan of both artists, Rihanna and Chris Brown.

But what's pissing me off at the moment is not only the asinine comments that I posted that are just a small sample of the flood of comments across the Web that this unfortunate incident is generating, but this developing meme that 'it's Rihanna's fault' that she got hit, 'she's a slut' or 'she provoked him'.

Excuse me? The sad part is that some women are regurgitating this bullshit as well.

Bottom line is that I don't care how mad you get, it ain't cool to hit a woman period. That's something that men are taught from boyhood and I speak from experience when I say this. I was in a situation on the other side of the gender fence when my ex-girlfriend picked up a glass Coke bottle during an argument, swung it at me and fortunately missed.

As volcanically pissed off as I was at the time, I still managed without hitting her to disarm and restrain her until she calmed down.

For these folks flapping their gums about 'it's her fault' or the other foul comments I won't waste bandwidth repeating, I have to ask this question for the peeps who feel that way.

What if it was your daughter, sister, aunt, mother, grandmother or any female relative that was in Rihanna's pumps? Would you feel the same way? I'd be willing to bet if Rihanna was your relative, you'd be ready to kick any man's behind that put his hands on her or wouldn't appreciate the fact that her reputation and character are being trashed to defend him.

The story of what happened early Sunday morning is still unfolding and the truth is somewhere in the middle between his story and hers. But some peeps really need to check themselves about the breathtakingly sexist, stupid and insensitive comments being directed at Rihanna.

Castro's Daughter Helps Cuba's Transgender Community Come Out Of The Shadows

Cuba is famous for its cigars, its passion for baseball, the long list of great major league ballplayers from the island, great Olympians and a certain cigar smoking bearded gentleman who was its long time leader.

But I'll bet you didn't know is that like everywhere else on the planet, Cuba has transgender people on the island as well.

Thanks to having a powerful friend in internationally renowned sexologist Mariela Castro Espin, who is President Raul Castro's daughter and Fidel Castro's niece, transgender people have been able to come out of the shadows. She's the head of the National Centre for Sex Education or CENESEX, and since 2004 has pushed for more humane treatment of Cuba's GLBT people.

Not so long ago, being GLBT was a disqualifying factor for upper echelon positions in Cuban society and anti-gay witch hunts were conducted in the 1960s and 1970s that would have made the Religious Reich proud.

In 2005 CENESEX created the National Commission for Integral Care of Transsexual People, and last year announced on June 6 that free SRS would become available for Cuban transsexuals that wish to have it. They would commence when the Cuban surgical team designated to perform the operations finished being trained by international experts was ready to begin the procedures. CENESEX also hosts a transgender support group that meets weekly in Havana.

Cuba performed its first and only sex reassignment surgery in 1988 and so far 28 Cubans have been diagnosed by the government as transsexual, and 19 wish to have gender reassignment surgery.

Castro's mother is the late Vilma Espin, who was an internationally recognized champion of women's rights. For her, it is the rights of gay and transgender people that need to be fought for.

She's pushing the Cuban National Assembly to adopt what would be the most liberal gay and transsexual rights law in Latin America.

It would if passed officially recognize same-sex unions and inheritance rights among same-sex couples, along with giving transgender Cubans the rights to obtain free sex-change operations. Transgender Cubans would be permitted to change their gender on their identity cards without having genital surgery as a precondition for doing so.

It's ironic that a nation reviled by conservatives for being repressive is more compassionate and tolerant towards its transgender citizens than my own country.

The Transgender Issue In The USA

Interesting article from Thailand's Pattaya Daily News about transgender issues in the States.

It's nice to get a perspective from outside the USA as to what they think about our community here, especially when it that perspective comes from a writer based in Thailand, which has a more tolerant attitude toward its transgender people.

Once y'all check out the article, you can leave your thoughts and comments in this thread. International readers, this will also be your invitation to chime in as well. I'm interested in hearing your thoughts and discovering from your comments what the rep of the USA transgender community is outside our borders.