25 Writers Shaping My World

Educator Marva Collins once said 'readers are leaders'. Nowhere has that statement proven to be so emphatically true as to note the major difference between the last two presidents.

Our current one loves to read and wrote two books of his own, the last one brags he never did despite being married to a woman with a library science degree. You can see how the country turned out as a result of being under the misleadership of a non-reader.

I've been reading since I was two, when to my mom's surprise I picked up one of her college textbooks and wasn't 'scurred' to read and pronounce the 'big words' contained in them.

So you can thank Electronic Villager for this post since I got tagged by him. I get to tell y'all who are the twenty five readers who shaped my world.


1. Martin Luther King
2. Alex Haley
3. Ralph Ellison
4. Toni Morrison
5. Alice Walker

6. Randall Robinson
7. John Hope Franklin
8. Barack Obama
9. Malcolm X
10. W.E.B DuBois

11. Eric Jerome Dickey
12. Kayla Perrin
13. Omar Tyree
14. E. Lynn Harris
15. Terry McMillan

16. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
17. Zora Neale Hurston
18. Pat Califa
19. Susan L. Taylor
20. James Carville

21. Marcus Major
22. Jimmy Carter
23. Molly Ivins
24. Tavis Smiley
25. Farai Chideya

The 25 writers who made my list contributed different things to shaping my world. Some gave me a different way of looking at the world in terms of theory. Some armed me with the information I needed to be able to articulately whack racism, prejudice, and right wing conservatism. Some expressed their hopes for an America that lives up to its Constitutional promise and warned us when it was veering off track.

The fiction writers infotained me. They not only drew me into the worlds they created and made me laugh or cry, they also provided some insightful commentary at the same time on love, relationships and various other issues pertaining to the Black community.

Some authors I tuned to for inspiration, education, enlightenment and empowerment.

There are also various books on my shelf that I read such as biographies, history, self-help, sci-fi, writing books to perfect my craft, or cover various issues that pique my interest.

And if you think I'm sleepin' on the facts, I'm armed with the last six issues of the World Almanac that I read cover to cover and keep within easy reach of my computer along with books to help me select the right quote to fit into what I'm writing.

Those 25 writers and many others not only shaped my world, they continue to do so.

Black People More Homophobic? You're Kidding, Right?

One of the memes that has irritated many Black people gay, transgender and straight since the Prop 8 debacle has been the 'Black people are more homophobic' one.

You're kidding, right?

Every time I'm watching TV I see predominately white ministers such as James Dobson, other white fundamentalists, white dominated anti equality orgs and peeps like Tony Perkins leading the anti gay charge.

Fred Phelps checks the 'white' box on his census forms, and the megachurches bankrolling these rights rollback or anti same gender marriage amendments have membership rolls of predominately European ancestry.

I'm not saying we don't have 'phobes in our midst. The peeps who are selling out to the white fundies like the Hi Impact leadership Coalition come immediately to mind along with the homophobic pronouncements of people like Rev. Gregory Daniels, Donnie McClurkin, and Rev. Bernice King.

But it was the Mormon church who provided the cash to fund and provided the foot soldiers for the Yes On 8 Forces of Intolerance. Last time I checked, the Mormon church ain't exactly chock full of members who look like me.

I find it laughable the Blacks are 'more homophobic' charge when the number one blog for almost a year in the Afrosphere's BBR's (Black Blog Rankings) has been the GLBT oriented Pam's House Blend. I and my transsisters have received much love, support, hands of friendship and sisterhood from womanists, but the predominately white dominated rad fem ranks have shown me and my transsisters nothing but hostile vitriolic hatred for three decades.

Even our civil rights icons such as Rep. John Lewis, Julian Bond and the late Coretta Scott King have consistently stated that GLBT rights are not only civil tights but human rights.

And if Black people are so homophobic as was scurrilously charged in California based on a flawed exit poll in Los Angeles County, explain why Prop 8 was defeated in Alameda County, which has a 13% Black population?

The major problem I have with the 'Black people are more homophobic' meme is that the peeps that keep spouting it are not only overwhelmingly white gays such as Dan Savage and others, but it deliberately ignores the fact there are Black SGL people as well.

If you want to eventually win the fight for same gender marriage, you can't continue to write off large chunks of the electorate because you have this false belief that our community is 'more homophobic', won't be receptive to your message and won't even try to be in my community to win it. You have to find a message that resonates with us just like you do any other community, and you'll need the help of the Black SGL/transgender community and our allies to do that. Failure to engage my community means failure to win at the ballot box.

So just as the white community has not only 'phobes but supporters and allies, so do we. It's past time you stop demonizing us with this disrespectful discredited meme and start humbly asking what can you do to win our support.

Diahann Carroll

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

When I was a kid, Must See TV was the show 'Julia' featuring trailblazing Tony and Emmy award winning actress Diahann Carroll.

She was born Carol Diahann Johnson in the Bronx, New York on July 17, 1935 and as an infant moved to Harlem's Washington Heights neighborhood. She attended Music and Arts High School with one of her classmates being actor/artist Billy Dee Williams.

One of her first roles was in the 1954 movie Carmen Jones playing a friend to Dorothy Dandridge's Carmen. In 1962 she became the first African-American actress to win a Tony award for her role of Barbara Woodruff in the musical No Strings and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for the 1974 movie Claudine.

Those of you who grew up in the 80's and 90's remember her playing Dominique Deveraux on ABC's Dynasty and its The Colby's spinoff and for the recurring role as Whitley's mother Marion Gilbert on A Different World for which she received an Emmy award nomination in 1989. She also had roles in the 1991 movie The Five Heartbeats and the 1997 movie Eve's Bayou.

Folks who watch Grey's Anatomy will see her as Jane Burke, the demanding mother of Dr. Preston Burke.

She's also a breast cancer survivor and has become a spokesperson and tireless advocate in fighting the disease in our community.

But one of the things that I have always loved about Diahann Carroll is to me, if you look up the words 'class' and 'sophistication' in the dictionary, you'd probably see a picture of her pop up.

She's got it going on, no matter what decade you stick her in. Best of all she just carries herself with class and sophistication at all times. It's been interesting to me since I've admired her for a long time to see her evolve and gracefully age.

She's an example to me like Lena Horne and my mom of the timeless beauty of Black women. And that's a legacy of class, style, elegance and sophistication that I work diligently at being worthy of.

Men In Dresses? In The Military? I Don't &#@!* Think So!

TransGriot Note: This guest post is from Monica Helms, the President of TAVA, the Transgender American Veterans Association and editor of the Trans Universe blog. It's another emphatic reminder that the late Christine Jorgensen, some of our transleaders and various people in our community proudly served in the military. It also exposes the lies, moral bankruptcy of the Forces of Intolerance's devoid of logic remarks opposing the impending DADT repeal and sadly, the cowardice of our 'friends'.


March 21st, 2009
By Monica F. Helms

The impending repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell hangs over Bigot Americans like a specter of doom that will reach biblical proportions. In other words, they lack a strong grip on reality. They will do anything it takes to instill fear on the unknowing masses, stopping short of predicting the coming of The Rapture. Well, maybe they won’t stop short of that.

In this endless process of misinformation and out-and-out lies, the one part of the LGBT community that they like pointing to in order to generate the most fear are transgender people. They will always gravitate to the worn-out, standard line from the Bigot’s Handbook (Volume 17, 5th Edition, page 963,) “Men in dresses.” If all else fails, they can always throw out “Men in dresses,” even if it has nothing to do with transgender people. To Bigot Americans, ALL gay men wear dresses. That’s BS to the max. Hell, I know several trans women and lesbians who wouldn’t be caught dead in a dress.

Let me show the important points in this latest round of lies that the BAs like to gloss over or don’t wish people to know about.

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell does not cover gender identity or expression.

It should have, but sadly it doesn’t. No one thought that transgender people actually served in the military. The possibility was too outrageous to everyone, including gays and lesbians. They forgot about Christine Jorgensen. We were nothing more than an after thought once again.

The military thinks that anyone who wishes to change their sex is automatically gay. However, transsexuals will still be subjected to discharge under different rules after DADT becomes history. Also, any man caught crossdressing off duty will be subjected to these same rules.

I’m wondering if anyone could dodge the bullet on this by saying they were gay and pointed out that DADT has been repealed. Some may get away with it if they have a stupid commander, but I wouldn’t recommend this path. It could catch up to them later. The best bet would be to have the Department of Defense address this issue separately so transgender people can also serve openly, like they can in six other countries.

Military people wear standard uniforms.

All I can say to this is “DUH!” We have an all-volunteer military, so everyone serving asked for that job. If a person takes a job, then they follow the rules set down in the workplace. Plane and simple. Besides the military, many other jobs require a person to wear a uniform. If you do the work, then you dress the part. Men will NOT be wearing dresses while on duty. Reality is not a Korean War sitcom.

In all the state and local jurisdictions where laws have been passed to protect transgender people in employment – some going back to the early 1990s – there has not been one case where a man came to work wearing a dress and got fired. Workplaces have dress codes that are gender specific, so if a person wants to keep their job, then they will follow these guidelines. However, dress codes should not be used as a weapon to prevent transsexuals from transitioning. It would be the same in the military.

The area where Bigot Americans seem to have a problem pertains to a transsexual who begins living full time in their target gender. The BAs insist that no one can change their sex, so transsexuals should be considered “men in dresses.” What about “women in pants” when it comes to FtMs? I don’t seem to hear that bantered around much.

Luckily, a good portion of large corporations and many smaller companies now understand the process and allow their transsexual employees to wear the gender specific clothing or uniforms appropriate for their new gender. So, that means that if a male-to-female transsexual is allowed to transition in the military, they would not be considered “men in dresses.” Corporations already have a handle on that and so would the military.



Some gays and lesbians refuse to discuss transgender people in the military.

The Transgender American Veterans Association has heard over and over and over that when DADT gets brought up, transgender people have to be left out. When this first came up, the excuse we heard was, “DADT only covers sexual orientation.” TAVA knew that transgender people had been targeted and discharged under DADT, but without any proof, the ones protecting the integrity of the wording in the Military Readiness Enhancement Act could easily blow us off. The specter of “men in dresses” scares them as much as it does the Bigot Americans.

But, the excuse given to keep us from being covered has now been proven to be nothing more than smoke and mirrors. I have to keep bringing up the TAVA Survey, because the facts can no longer be ignored. We have the proof of what we have been saying all along, but the guardians of the bill still will not listen. Their “baby” has grown up to a whole new world and it needs to reflect that new world.

What is wrong with creating a whole new bill that allows all LGB AND T people to serve openly, instead of just repealing the existing law? The new bill covering all of us would not only trump the existing law, thus repealing it, but allow for transgender people to serve openly in the military. When the legislators originally wrote the bill, we had a Republican-controlled government, so they went for the bare bone. We now have a government who will pass a more comprehensive bill, so why are the gay and lesbians working on this issue still running scared? I’ll tell you why. “Men in dresses.”

As I stated above, six countries allow transgender people to serve openly. Canada, UK, Israel, and Thailand allow all of their transgender people to serve, whereas Australia and Spain allow FtM transsexuals to serve openly. If they have figured it out, then I would hope that America is smart enough to also figure it out. But, the truth of the matter has nothing to do with “figuring it out.” The legislators sponsoring this bill and the gays and lesbians pushing for it lack the will power to do the right thing. Because other countries have figured this out without any problems, then we won’t be inventing the wheel. Too bad some people feel scared of doing the right thing.

Reality check on transgender people in the military.

Who are the idiots out there who think that just because a person identifies as being trans, they can’t control themselves and have to dress in women’s clothes on duty, as if they had some form of “fashion tourettes syndrome?” From personal experience and from knowing hundreds of other transgender veterans, they have far more control over their gender issues then the hundreds of men who can’t control their urge to commit rape.

Some, not all, transgender military people (specifically MtF) will crossdress off duty, off base, when on liberty or leave. They shouldn’t be penalized for this. When they go back to duty, they will make sure no evidence, regardless of how small it could be, will be left on their bodies. They would not shave their legs or body hair, but would never grow a beard unless being at sea for many months, or in a war zone. Their clothes would be tucked away at a civilian friend’s house, a bus station locker, in the trunk of their car, or any other place where no one in the military would find them. Conversely, FtM military people could get away with looking as butch as possible, both on and off duty. Still, that doesn’t protect them from the DADT wolves.

Up until the 1990s and the extensive use of the Internet, transgender people in the military did not have a lot to go on when it came to the feelings they had. Most thought that no one else in the world felt like them. They knew of Renee Richards, Wendy Carlos and Christine Jorgensen, but could not be sure if their life needed to go in that direction. Many joined the military so it could “make a man out of them,” but that didn’t work. During the Vietnam Era, some join to have the Viet Cong “take care of their problem,” but instead, they came home with the same “problem’ and new ones to boot. No matter why they joined, their secret would be one they would take to their grave. The “men in dresses” BS that Bigot Americans like tossing out would be the last thing they would ever think of.

Looking back on my time in the military, I remember one thing that makes me still smile today when I think about it. When out on patrol on a submarine, we knew the very day we would return, like clockwork. In the middle of the patrol, we would have what we called, “Halfway Night.” During the celebration, we would have contests, some would sing or play guitars, I played a kazoo and others would do skits. Inevitably, there was always one person who just so happened to have all the necessary items to dress as a woman for a skit. Looking back at that, I now understand why.

The subject of gays in the military will not be put to rest, even after DADT is repealed. There will always be Americans who will never accept this, even if a decade passes without incident. A transgender person serving openly is another subject all together, yet we can serve just as well as gay, lesbian, bisexual and straight people can. The military has set rules for uniforms, so even a transitioning transsexual will be required to dress appropriately for their new gender. And, if six other countries can do this, then so can we.

Transgender people have enough problems bucking the system on this issue without having our gay and lesbian friends make fun of us or intentionally hold us back because of being afraid that we would upset the delicate senses of the legislators. We see yet another situation where transgender people are being told, “We’ll come back for you later.” Too bad, but “later” is NOW, and we have all the proof to show why. Take your heads out of the sand and let’s do the right thing for once. And, don’t let me ever hear a gay man or lesbian use “men in dresses” when talking about transgender people in the military, even if it’s in a joking manner.

Going Out Tonight

In a few hours I'm getting all dressed and glammed up so that I can attend the local ACLU dinner being held at the Muhammad Ali Center in downtown Louisville.

I enjoy these events not only because I'll once again get to rub elbows with the rich, not so rich and famous, the power peeps in town and represent the community at the same time, but I get an opportunity to actually wear some of these nice clothes I have in my closet

Most of my working life I've been in jobs in which I've had to wear uniforms. While I don't mind it and that saves me on one hand from clothing wear and tear and the 'what do I wear to work?' quandaries, on the other hand I inherited the fashion diva gene from my mom that she passed on to my sister as well.

There are times I do envy the sisters that get to wear their own clothes to work. I get to check out their individual senses of style, good and bad and get ideas that I may want to try for myself.

I also have a constant stream of catalogs coming to the house from various stores for me to peruse that I check out as well to add to my mini Imelda Marcos sized shoe collection.

Yes, as I've said here on many occasions, femininity is about more than the clothes, it's a lifetime journey of discovery.

But I'll ponder some of those questions later. Time to get my glam on.

Villager's March 2009 Black Blog Rankings

It's a new month, spring is here, and to the breathless anticipation of the Afrosphere, the Villager has compiled and unveiled his March 2009 edition of the Black Blog Rankings.

Will I get closer to my Top 25 BBR pot of gold, or will I be just looking at the rainbow in the sky from last month's position or worse in the BBR Top 50?

This month the BBR's ranked 1621 blogs, which is an increase of 22 blogs over the last ranking period. The Number One BBR ranked blog is, all together now gang, Pam's House Blend. For the rest of the blogs ranked 2 to 25 and beyond you can click on the rankings link to discover who they are.

As for TransGriot, in last month's rankings I was as of the February 8 compilation date sitting at Number 48 with a Technorati ranking of 150.

So how did I do this month? As of the March 8 compilation date, TransGriot was Number 46 with a Technorati ranking of 150

Talk about the luck of the Irish. I'm chuckling to myself and shaking my head because I had the same Technorati ranking, but GAINED two spots. The good news is that I'm STILL in the BBR Top 50 blogs, but progress toward my goal of a 200 Technorati ranking and a Top 25 BBR by my May 4 birthday has been glacial at best and the clock is ticking.

It's been a frustrating month for me Technorati wise because TransGriot's Technorati ranking has yo-yoed up and down and I know it should be far higher based on the traffic I get. It was as high as 154 at one point and has slid to 146. Since it's based on links people, if you like what I do here at TransGriot, show me the love by linking to the blog.

That still won't deter me from channeling my inner Taurus and continuing to come up with fresh commentary on a wide variety of subjects. You can also hear me run my mouth along with my partner Renee of Womanist Musings on our new twice monthly Blogtalkradio show.

So thank you for spending your valuable blog perusing time here, it's deeply appreciated. Hopefully, when I do next month's BBR post I can report some more substantial forward progress.

Battlestar Finale

The cast, producers and writing team said we'd be blown away by the finale, and we weren't disappointed. After four seasons of twists, turns, a million light year journey across the galaxy, and one final climactic battle, the journey ends at a shining planet called Earth after a final FTL jump from the proud warship breaks its back to where it can never jump again in the solar system of a habitable planet.

The habitable planet the final 39,000 survivors arrive at is OUR Earth, 150,000 years ago.

Hmm. Life here began out there.

Like 'errbody' else who is a Battlestar Galactica fan I took a break from all the NCAA basketball games on the tube and checking out how accurate my predictions were for the 2009 version of the tournament to use the big screen TV to watch the final episode of the show. All of the loose ends were tied up and a few surprises were thrown into the mix as well.

Still it was sad to see Laura die even though we all knew it was going to happen at some point. Seeing all the backstory flashbacks with the various characters was nice and how cool was the scene in which the Galactica and the entire spaceship fleet that got them to Earth were sent hurtling toward the Sun to the tune of the original Battlestar theme song.

While this is the end for the regular series, we still are about to be treated to a possible movie, the upcoming Caprica series, and the Battlestar Galactica story in miniseries format from the Cylon point of view just before the fall of the Colonies.

The Battlestar story isn't going to die, it's multiplying. And that's fine with me.

Pirates Of The Indian Ocean

Most of us have seen the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy of movies in which the adventures of Jack Sparrow were chronicled or heard the stories about 18th and early 19th century pirates such as Blackbeard and others.

NFL football fans know the nickname of the Tampa Bay franchise is the Buccaneers and Texans have heard the stories of pirate Jean Lafitte whose base of operations in 1817 was Galveston Island.

But pirates, far from being a colorful part of world history, are making a comeback. They prowled the waters of Southeast Asia jacking some of the 50,000 ships a year that traverse the shipping lanes passing through the Malacca Strait. Buccaneers are also getting increasingly active in the Gulf of Guinea waters off West Africa as well.

But the ones that have gotten the most attention are the pirates operating from bases on the lawless Somali coast in the wake of Somalia's ongoing civil war that started in 1991.

Somali fisherman using traditional methods began losing their livelihoods to the flood of massive fishing trawlers illegally raiding Somali territorial waters due to the lack of central governmental authority. They turned to piracy as a way to get paid.

Because modern ships don't require large crews to operate them, it's fairly easy for an armed group of pirates to overrun a vessel and hold its crew for ransom. Rather than lose the valuable sailors and cargo, the shipping companies just pay the ransoms, which n recent years have escalated to several millions of dollars.

The modern day pirates have three components. The brains of the operation are the ex-fisherman who have the maritime expertise and seafaring skills. The muscle is provided by ex-militiamen who have experience with weaponry as fighters for the various Somali clan warlords over the duration of the 17 year civil war. The technogeeks operate the hi-tech equipment needed to coordinate the piracy operations such as satellite phones, GPS systems and military hardware.

They initially began hijacking ships off the southern Somali coast but in 2007 started moving north to the Gulf of Aden, the Gulf of Oman and the Red Sea. They have now expanded their operations to the Arabian Sea and western Indian Ocean as far south as the Kenyan port of Mombasa.

They got the world's attention in November 1995 when the cruise ship Seabourn Spirit was attacked but escaped by sinking one pirate ship by running over it and deploying a long range acoustic device to drive off the other attackers.

A multinational combined naval task force was formed to combat the rising pirate threat but would either arrive too late to stop an attack, would have to watch helplessly as pirate ships attacked vessels in Somali territorial waters or while in pursuit of them had to back off after the pirates slipped inside the 12 nautical mile territorial limit they had no authorization to enter.

In the meantime the pirates are getting even more brazen. On November 15, 2008 they seized the supertanker MV Sirius Star 450 nautical miles southeast of Mombasa. It was headed to the United States via the Cape of Good Hope and was carrying 25 crew members and a full load of oil worth $100 million. It was not only the largest ship the Somali based pirates had captured to date, it marked the farthest point south that they had hijacked a ship.

The capture of that Saudi owned ship caused a major spike in the world crude oil markets and was released after paying a $15 million ransom.

They have also attacked additional cruise ships and fired at warships as well. On March 10, 2006 the USS Cape St. George and USS Gonzalez after having its boarding parties repulsed by small arms fire and being attacked by pirates firing RPG's at it, returned fired with naval guns. The first US naval gun battle of the 21st century resulted in the pirate vessel being set ablaze. On November 19, 2008 the INS Tabar sunk a pirate-captured Thai vessel after pirates fired on the Indian naval ship which was there on a mission to protect Indian and other foreign vessels transiting the Gulf of Aden.

The Russian nuclear powered heavy missile cruiser Peter The Great recently broke up a pirate attack last month and captured ten buccaneers closing in on an Iranian flagged fishing trawler.

It's an example of the increasing successes of the Combined Task Force in stopping many pirate attacks, and more seafaring nations such as Japan are sending warships to join the CTF effort.

But the CTF can't be everywhere. Even with the Somali authorities giving authorization to increasing numbers of nations to enter their territorial waters to eradicate piracy, the CTF has the daunting task of patrolling a million square miles of ocean.

It also has the problem of plenty of willing volunteers in Puntland joining the pirate ranks in a country with few attractive economic options, alleged government complicity and whole towns experiencing economic booms because of pirates lavishly spending their booty on supplies and goods.

It's going to take a while before the nations alarmed and fed up with the latest piracy scourge finally get the upper hand on the Somali pirates brazenly attacking their ships off the Horn of Africa.

Shut Up Fool! Awards-First Day Of Spring Edition

Ahh, today is the first day of spring. The weather is warming up, we have NCAA men's and women's tournament games all over the tube, people got their drink on for St. Patrick's Day and we have our first signs that the stock market is starting to respond to the economic stimulus package.

But as Mr. T admonished us, fools are everywhere. And let's see what fools we get to not pity this week with our illustrious award.

It was a target rich environment for fools this week. I could have chosen the GOP, Glenn Beck, Laura Ingraham, or Jimi Izrael just for starters, but once again it's no contest.

It's our former resident in thief George W. Bush.

He ventured north of the border to Calgary for a 'speech' that 1,500 fools paid C$400 a plate to hear that was closed to the press and 100 Calgarians protested. Gee I wonder why?

And when talking about the book he's going to have ghostwritten (and no it isn't My Pet Goat, the sequel) about the 12 toughest decisions of his mispresidency, he stated.

“I’m going to put people in my place, so when the history of this administration is written at least there’s an authoritarian voice saying exactly what happened,”

Aren't you glad we now have a president that not only was overwhelmingly ELECTED, but is intelligent and has excellent command of the English language?

George W. Bush, shut up fool!

Allies Aren't 'Homophobes' or 'Transphobes' For Telling The Truth

The late poet Gwendolyn Brooks said it best when she stated that 'truth tellers are not always palatable, there's a preference for candy bars.'

One of the things that irritates me is when the people in the GLBT community who prefer candy bars start hollering 'homophobe' or 'transphobe' when allies offer constructive criticism. Many times that criticism is not offensive, but is offered in the spirit of Kingian love in terms of helping to improve or contribute to the ultimate success of the movement they support.

It takes courage for a straight ally, knowing they will probably take a lot of crap for doing so to stand up and publicly declare that they are with us. Many of them see the interconnectedness of the issues that we are fighting for and realize those issues also impact them as well. It takes even more courage for one who is a politician or similar public figure to do so.

There were many whites, Asians, Latino/a's and GLBT people who helped us (and still do) in advancing the African-American civil rights struggle. Many straight people and transpeople are fighting for same gender marriage equality not only because it is a simple fairness issue, but they see their rights under attack as well. In many cases the anti gay marriage laws are being written to attack unmarried couples and transgender ones as well to mask the bigotry and make hem not as easy to overturn in state or federal courts.

One of the tendencies I see in the GLBT movement is when allies offer criticism, especially when it comes from people of color, cisgender people, or straight peeps, they immediately start screaming 'homophobe'. If the person happens to be a POC, transgender or SGL leveling the charges, they escalate into borderline racist or transphobic personal attacks or claim the person 'doesn't know what it's like to be gay' in order to silence the criticism they didn't want to hear.

The problem with that shortsighted knee jerk reaction is that potential allies who are on the fence about supporting you see the nekulturny negativity. It not only turns off the ally you attacked, it gives the opponents ammo to point to that they'll use against your cause. It also turns away people who were on the fence about supporting you. Many times they are closely observing how you treat the declared allies before they make their final decision as to whether to support your cause or not.

Transpeople are just as guilty as well, and we need to chill with that, too.

Every ally is a precious resource. They can speak for us in settings that we're not able to reach or talk us up in their influence circles. Every person they can get to see the light that GLBT rights equals their rights is one less person signing a petition for an anti gay referendum, voting against us if a referendum occurs or standing up against homophobic/transphobic bigotry and intolerance in their own lives.

So it's time to work smarter, not harder. It's a sign of the maturity level of your movement if you can take the criticism and make the necessary changes. But if you insist on chomping white chocolate candy bars and ignoring valid criticism, sooner or later your movement will start to develop truth decay.

You'll also end up alienating the very people you can't afford to piss off.

Thanks For Linking To TransGriot

Wanted to take a moment to say thank you to my regular readers here who comment (hint, hint) read the posts and link to them. I also thank you peeps who have been kind enough to put me in your link lists on your own blogs or subscribe to RSS feeds, follow me on Twitter or just Googled something and your knowledge search brought you here.

I'm working hard to try to keep this blog informative, fresh and come up with features to maximize your precious web surfing time.

While I'm at it, thanks for all of you who've checked out me and Renee of Womanist Musings new Blog talk radio show. We'll be on the air every two weeks and the next one will take place March 28 at 4 PM EDT. If you missed last Saturday's show, it's now archived on the Blog talk radio site. Just as we do on our respective blogs, we'll be coming up and coming at you with provocative, thoughtful and timely show topics. Our guests will be from inside and outside the blogosphere to discuss the issues we focus on.

So tune in as we 'tell you something good'. We had a lot of fun with our last show and it promises to only get better from here. Me and my broadcast partner also thank the 189 people (and counting) who have already checked out the podcast, and that's great for a first time out of the box debut show. You can also join in the conversation by calling (347) 326-9452 on show days.

TransGriot is a Top 50 BBR blog and a 2008 Weblog Award Best LGBT Blog Finalist, but I'm not resting on my laurels. I want to continue to grow and will need your help to do that. I'm honored by the increasing attention that I'm getting from the womanist/feminist blogs and other sectors of the blogosphere.

I recently had a post linked to on BlogHer, so that was a thrill to see my work there along with Racialicious linking to a few of the transgender themed ones. I also thank Latoya for graciously allowing to post the Not Rape Epidemic post here as well.

Thanks to those of you who have sent me e-mail, it's deeply appreciated, and if you're wondering, I love speaking to groups. Just e-mail me the dates and details.

Paper Dolls

Paper Dolls is the 2005 award winning documentary film by Tomer Heymann about a group of transpinays in Israel.

After closing the border to Palestinian workers during the intifada, Israeli authorities sought to fill gaps in the job market by enticing workers from other parts of the world. Among those who answered the call were transpinays in various stages of their gender transitions who emigrated and worked as home health care workers.

On their one day off they perform at a Tel Aviv night club as a drag troupe called the Paper Dolls.



The award winning film captures their stories in terms of being away from home, being strangers in a strange land and persevering despite their ineligibility for citizenship and living precariously under the threat of visa revocation is they lose their jobs.

The Divine Nine And Transpeeps- A Long Road Of Understanding Still To Travel

I was checking out the recent story of transman Devin Alston-Smith and the drama that ensued between him and his local Zeta chapter.

It made me recall a March 2007 post I wrote in which I asked the question are the Divine Nine frats and sororities ready to accept qualified transgender people into their ranks.

Judging by some of the negative responses posted in the comment thread of that story, there's a lot of Trans 101 education that needs to happen with some peeps in the Black Greek Letter Organization world. But before y'all start bumrushing the comment threads assuming I'm going to defend Devin, hear me out first.


I and many of my transsisters and transbrothers have much love, respect, and admiration for the history, traditions and the historic roles that BGLO's have played in uplifting our race and shaping our communities. I have female family members, female friends and my late godmother who are proud members of their respective historic Black sororities. I look up to them and many of the women in these organizations as role models in terms of my own Black feminine evolution.

But what happened to Devin wasn't cool, nor is Devin off the hook either. It's called Zeta Phi Beta SORORITY, Inc. for a reason, and there is the reasonable expectation that if you're going to pledge ZPB or any sorority you at least be female bodied.

I'm Monday morning quarterbacking here at this point, so I don't know what Devin's state of mind was at the time he was asked to pledge or any of the other stuff that went on outside of what's documented in the article. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle, there are hurt feelings and misunderstandings, and ZPB will handle their business as always and sort things out.

But if Devin was contemplating transition, there were two bigger considerations here besides himself, the organization and the transgender community.

Just like when we are out and about in the world as Black people, every one of us, whether we like it or not is an ambassador to the transgender community. We must be cognizant that our actions, for good or ill will shape the perceptions of the cisgender community toward our own. That is particularly important to bear in mind when what is known in the Black community about transgender people by some of our peeps borders on myth, superstition and willful ignorance.

If he wasn't certain of or was still working out the gender issues, maybe he should have held off pledging until he was certain he'd resolved the gender dilemma in one direction or the other, then pursued membership of a BGLO.

Basically what I fear this has done is poison the well within that particular Zeta Phi Beta chapter and made it harder for a qualified transwoman open about who she is, who is down with, has the utmost respect for the history and mission of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. and wants to be a part of building it to pledge and gain membership in the organization. I also fear it may have a ripple effect with the other sororities as well.

I'm not selling woof tickets here. Those four sororities have over a half million members, are powerful networking orgs within the African-American community, have international reach and members in business, government, entertainment, sports, the arts and the media. When we are struggling to gain our own civil rights and fighting for respect within the Black community we can ill afford to piss off valuable potential allies.

Especially allies who proudly wear the letters and colors of those four sororities.

Yeah, we could form transgender only fraternities and sororities just as some Black SGL peeps have done in forming their own Greek letter orgs. I'd be long gone from the planet by the time those organizations and any potential one we could form could begin to amass even one tenth of the clout that those four sororities together have built up over the last century.

So since transpeople aren't going anywhere and are transitioning at earlier ages, we are going to have situations where as part of their collegiate experience, they desire to join like anyone else these organizations. If BGLO organizations sincerely wish to get a better handle on transgender issues, there are people who are more than willing to do Trans 101 presentation to your orgs so that incidents like this don't happen again.

If you can make room for White, Asian, Latina and lesbian women who are down with the organization to join, what's stopping you from admitting transwomen who dream of one day proudly wearing those colors and doing their part to write bold new chapters in these organizations second century of work?