A Transsistah's Secret- Hair

It's no accident that Madame CJ Walker, the first African-American millionaire, made her money by creating a hair care system aimed at African-American women. It's no secret that we have multiple magazines such as Sophisticate's Black Hair that are dedicated to talking about it as well.

In the run up to transition it's one of the stress inducing parts of it for Black transwomen. One of our keys to blending in with our biosisters is making sure our air is hooked up and it's the bomb. It's important for us to not only find a beautician who will be open minded about taking on a transgender client, but who has skills as well to deal with some of the challenges she'll face caring for our hair.

Our hair, be it natural, loced, braided, curly, straight or wavy is not only a Black woman's crowning glory, it is her way to express her individuality and style.

It also at times takes on political connotations as well. The pride we take in our hair dates back to slavery. Slave masters not only forbade the braided styles we often wore that connected us to our various peoples back on the Mother Continent, but the wide tooth combs and shea butter to care for our hair wasn't available.

Toss in our ongoing battle with a beauty standard skewed toward white women, and you can see over time why blonde hair on Black women didn't become an acceptable hair color until the 90's.

Whether it's wearing the Afro in the 60's and 70's as an expression of Black pride, braids and locs in the 80's and the 2k's, our relationship with our hair is the first key decision that we make as Black transwomen that expresses who we are and the type of image we wish to project to the world.

And sometimes the fight to express our individuality and pride in our heritage leads to litigation when it clashes head on with white privilege, which deems certain styles in corporate settings as 'unprofessional'.

But at the same time our hair issues also remind us Black transwomen at times what we missed not growing up female. The bonding experience steeped in our people's history of the youngest child sitting in the chair near the kitchen stove on Saturday morning having her hair greased, parted and hot combed as she and two generations of women in the family talk about various issues while she prayed she didn't get burned.

It's why hair issues for a Black transwoman are a major concern and she's ecstatically happy when she finally does get to sit in that beauty shop chair. It's another important milepost on her journey to Black womanhood.

Germany's Transgender Community

Germany's transgender community has an interesting and tumultuous history. In 1930 the first surgery was performed there in Berlin with Danish transsexual pioneer Lili Elbe. Tragically, Lili is also buried in Dresden after dying from complications from an additional surgery in 1931.

In addition to supervising Elbe's groundbreaking surgery, much of the research and terminology concerning transsexual issues was either done by or coined by Magnus Hirschfeld at his Institut für Sexualwissenschaft housed in Berlin.

It's also no accident that one of the first public book burnings after the Nazis gained power took place on May 6, 1933 in front of Hirschfeld's office. Years of research and volumes of books were burned in what a New York Times writer called a 'bibliocaust'.

It also ushered in the dark period in which some of the first concentration camp internees into Dachau were gay and transgender persons who wore the pink triangles on their prison uniform. The pink triangle is now in addition to the rainbow flag the universal symbol for the GLBT community.

Germany has a transgender law on its legal books since 1980 called the Transsexuellengesetz or the TSG in German. It has come under fire from German transpeople because it allows for first name changes, but not for legal gender changes unless you had SRS. If you were married, you had to divorce your spouse and have SRS before the gender change was allowed.

Thanks to a June 2008 court case, that is no longer the case, and the court also ordered the German legislature to modernize the TSG within a year.

It's also home to Kim Petras, who at 16 is believed to be the youngest person to have undergone GRS. Kim's case has been closely followed for several years, and as of this writing has arguably become to the rest of the world the most well known person representing the German transgender community. Kim has also signed a recording contract and is doing some modeling in her homeland as well.

Kim's not the only German transperson whose recently garnered international attention. In the wake of the East German Olympic athletic doping scandal Andreas Krieger was front page news as he testified in 2000 at the trial of former East German sports official Manfred Ewald and doctor Manfred Höppner.

Recently transman Bailian Buschbaum has also been in the news in the wake of his transition after retiring from international pole vaulting competition in 2007.

While German transpeople still report facing some challenges, organizations such as Transgender Network Berlin, a consortium of 21 Berlin based transgender groups are trying to keep the positive momentum going while seeking to expand outside the German capital city.

The other thing they want to expand is their civil rights and continue to ensure that things improve for all German transpeople as well.

Houston Barbies

TransGriot Note: I'm a Barbie fan, and started cracking up over this satirical post that's been making the Houstonsphere rounds. It was originally on Jeff Balke's blog and I spotted it Jay Lee's The Bald Heretic Blog

It is missing a Third Ward, Fifth Ward and South Park Barbie ;)

So without further ado, in honor of the 50th birthday of Barbie, introducing the Barbies of Houston.


Barbies of Houston


Mattel recently announced the release of limited-edition Barbie Dolls for the Houston market.

"River Oaks Barbie"

This princess Barbie is sold only at The Galleria. She comes with an assortment of Kate Spade, Prada, and LV Handbags, a Rolex watch, a Lexus SUV, a long-haired foreign dog named Honey, and a 25,000 sq ft. patio home. Available with or without tummy tuck and face lift. Workaholic Ken sold only in conjunction with the augmented version.

"Spring TX Barbie"



The modern-day homemaker Barbie is available with Ford Windstar Minivan and matching gym outfit. She gets lost easily and has no full-time occupation. Traffic jamming cell phone sold separately.

"Aldine Barbie"



This recently paroled Barbie comes with a 9mm handgun, a Ray Lewis knife, a Chevy with dark tinted windows, and a Meth Lab Kit. This model is only available after dark and must be paid for in cash (preferably small, untraceable bills) ...unless you are a cop: then, we don't know what you are talking about.

"Tanglewood Barbie"



This yuppie Barbie comes with your choice of Rolls Royce convertible or Hummer H2. Included are her own Starbucks cup, credit card, and country club membership. Also available for this set are Shallow Ken and Private School Skipper. You won't be able to afford any of them.

"Ft. Bend Barbie"



This pale model comes dressed in her own Wrangler jeans two sizes too small, a NASCAR t-shirt, and tweety bird tattoo on her shoulder. She has a six-pack of Bud light and a Hank Williams, Jr., CD set. She can spit over 5 feet and kick mullet-haired Ken's butt when she is drunk. Purchase her pickup truck separately and get a confederate flag bumper sticker absolutely free.

"Memorial Barbie"



This collagen-injected, rhinoplastic Barbie wears a leopard print outfit and drinks cosmopolitans while entertaining friends. Percocet prescription available, as well as warehouse conversion condo.

"Huntsville Barbie"



This tobacco-chewing, brassy-haired Barbie has a pair of her own high-heeled sandals with one broken heel from the time she chased beer-gutted Ken out of Butler Barbie's house. Her ensemble includes low-rise acid-washed jeans, fake fingernails, and a see-through halter-top. Also available with a mobile home.

"Midtown Barbie"



This doll is made of actual tofu. She has long, straight brown hair, arch-less feet, hairy armpits, no makeup, and Birkenstocks with white socks. She prefers that you call her Willow. She does not want or need a Ken doll, but if you purchase two Midtown Barbies and the optional Subaru wagon, you get a rainbow flag bumper sticker for free.

"Spring Branch Barbie"



She's perfect in every way. We don't know where Ken is because he's always out a-huntin'. Is looking to move to Katy or Ft. Bend County because Spring Branch is getting 'too ethnic'.

"Montrose Barbie"



This versatile transgender doll comes with Drag Queen Ken accessory pack. It can be easily converted simply by adding or subtracting the multiple snap-on parts and comes with complementary CD of show tunes.

Screaming Queens-The Riot At Compton's Cafeteria Documentary

Screaming Queens: The Riot At Compton's Cafeteria is the 2005 documentary produced by Victor Silverman and Susan Stryker about San Francisco's 1966 Compton's Cafeteria riot. It preceded the more famous Stonewall one by three years

Here's a link to more information about it, and enjoy these clips from the documentary.

Happy 50th Birthday Barbie!

Happy 50th birthday to Barbara Millicent Roberts. Even though we share the same last name, we aren't related. On top of that, Barbara's plastic and way shorter than me at only 11.5 inches tall.

Today is the 50th birthday of the most popular toy line ever conceived, the Barbie doll. Mattel has sold over a billion dolls since it was introduced at the New York Toy Fair on this date in March 1959. I can vouch for that since I own nine of them in various skin tones plus one that honors a certain sorority that has salmon pink and apple green colors.

Of course, since this was the 50's, the sistah Barbies didn't debut until 1980, but they did produce an African-American Christie doll starting in 1968 that was Barbie's girlfriend. But once they debuted, those sistah Barbie's eventually encompassed the rainbow of skin tones prevalent with African descended women over the years. Latina and Asian versions were produced along with a line of Barbies that wore various national costumes.

Barbie was also ahead of the curve in terms of depicting women performing various jobs in society.

An astronaut Barbie was sold in 1965 despite the fact the first US woman in space didn't happen until the shuttle program blasted off in 1979. Barbie's also been an airline pilot, flight attendant, ballerina, teacher, gymnast, skater, NASCAR driver, WNBA ballplayer, cowgirl, a cheerleader for various colleges, politician (stop snickering), doctor, surgical nurse, a member of all branches of the military and Dallas Cowboy cheerleader.

As part of the US bicentennial celebrations in 1976 there's even a Barbie that was placed in the time capsule that will be opened in 2076 for the US tricentennial.

'Barbie doll' has even become a part of our lexicon, humor, academic and general societal discourse. Ask anyone who majored in women's studies and a certain Alaska governor about that.

She has even joined a sorority. Last year a collectors Barbie was created for Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. in honor of their centennial celebration last year. It was the first Barbie that Mattel had created that honored any sorority, Black or white. The AKA Barbie also has the distinction of being the first doll created to honor any historically Black organization as well.

Of course, Barbie has always been synonymous with fashion, as witnessed by the various collector Barbies that sported clothes designed by Bob Mackie and Byron Lars and the runway event held during New York's Fashion Week last month as part of the Barbie 50th anniversary celebrations.

So Happy Birthday to a timeless and iconic slice of childhood, the Barbie doll.

Hitting The Gender Wall

Marathon runners talk about hitting 'the wall'. It's that point in the race in which you exhaust the glycogen stored in your body while using it for the quick energy that running calls for and start burning stored fat instead. That's brings on massive fatigue, and at that point in marathon parlance, you've 'hit the wall'.

There's a wall when you transition as well, but it's emotional. You try to live with the incongruent brain gender body mismatch, but feel more and more out of place and as if you're playing for the wrong gender team.

You feel out of sorts, confused, and disconnected. It's as if your sleepwalking through life. You know that something's not quite right, but can't put your finger on it. You continue to try everything to live as a 'man' or 'woman' in body but not in spirit, suppress that inner male or female by becoming more hypermasculine or hyperfeminine but you're still unhappy.

The frustrations mount in terms of life, love and relationships until you finally say, 'enough' and emotionally crash. At that moment that's when you finally realize or accept the fact that you are transgender.

Hitting the gender wall is emotionally painful and never comfortable. It's a emotional and difficult road with a few potholes in it. But in the end, you end up as a far happier person as you make the moves toward becoming the beautiful person you truly are and were born to be.

Sistahs Are ALWAYS In Fashion

Some designers and elements of society may not think so, but we beg to differ on that point. As far as many of our men and Black women are concerned, sisters who grace the catwalks, the red carpets, various stages, the ballroom floors and who just strut down any street like they own it, sistahs are always in fashion.



Lena Horne

Amerie

Dorothy Dandridge

Terri Vanessa Coleman

Rihanna

Beverly Johnson

Octavia St. Laurent

Jourdan Dunn

70's model Pat Cleveland

A 1978 EBONY Fashion Fair show

Ayanna Khan

Tyra Banks

Tempress

Katoucha

Phyllis Hyman

Oluchi Onweagba

White House social secretary Desiree Rogers

Candace Parker

Black models

What The Hell You Mean Black Bloggers Don't Talk About Politics?

Kevin Ross pissed off me and many peeps in the Blackosphere by making the asinine statement while kissing his frat brother Tavis Smiley's behind that 'Black bloggers don't talk about politics'.

That Kappa Kane he's been twirling must have hit him in the head a few times

Where the hell has he been for the last few years? He damned sure wasn't at the DNC convention last year when Black bloggers such as Pam Spaulding were there in full effect to record the historic happening or checked out any of the almost 200 blogs that make up the AfroSpear.

TransGriot mostly concentrates on transgender issues from an Afrocentric perspective, and even then I have 110 posts that have the 'politics' label attached to them out of the over 1400 I've written so far.

Whether it's getting media attention for African-American kids who come up missing, injustice, disseminating information, talking about our history, shining spotlights on events across the Diaspora or what I do here in focusing attention on transgender people of color and race/class issues in the GLBT community, we play a major role in shaping the discourse that reverberates in the blogosphere and beyond.

Many African-American bloggers have built upon the historical tell it like it T-I-S is tradition of our print and radio media and structured our blogs to do the same. We not only report on the things the MSM ain't telling us, but in some cases have talked up an issue long and loud enough to where it actually begins to drive the MSM coverage as Jena 6 did.

The Black blogosphere is just as diverse and innovative as its counterparts. and has its own flava at the same time.

And just like in the past, when the blogosphere's rating, awards and ranking systems didn't include us, we created our own. We have our own rating system in the BBR's, and are putting our own conferences together such as Blogging While Brown so that we can talk to each other, exchange information and get better at doing the thangs we do well.

While there are the gossip blogs, there are far more of us around the world who take immense pride in the fact that we focus on educating and informing our people and others on a wide range of issues, including political ones. Kevin Ross did us a disservice by ignorantly claiming that we don't.