Andrade Trial - Crystal's Snowed In

TransGriot Note: Much love and deep appreciation to Crystal Ann Gray for these updates. She's observing the trial for the LGBT Center of Colorado.

Friday, April 17

Hello! I am at home and not at the courthouse due to a snowstorm. I am watching the case at home and it appeared to me today that the judge cleared the courtroom. The reason is that video and pictures that were taken from the crime scene and autopsy were private.

As I watch this on TV I saw a poll where 70% believed that the agree with the hate crime additional charge. Most people leaving comments at the CNN.com/crime (also where you can find live streaming video of the trial) said that it is her fault if she did not tell him. However, the prosecutor says she is able to show that he knew 36hrs before he killed her. So those that believe he did not know about her transgender status may have to eat their words.

CNN also did an on street interview with people on the street and asked them about the tolerance of transgender people in the US. Most said one of two things. Either that it depended where you live or that there is not enough tolerance by the general population toward transgender people. This is the latest and I will keep you all informed if there is any more interesting news.

Crystal Ann Gray
Volunteer Transgender Advocate
LGBT Center of Colorado

Still Missing 'Lufer'

April 20 has a lot of negativity associated with it in terms of being Adolf Hitler's birthday and the anniversary date of the Columbine High School shootings in Littleton, CO. The 10th anniversary of that event is being marked today.

But it's also the birthday of one of my favorite singers in Luther Vandross, who was born in New York on this date in 1951.

He's been gone from us since July 1, 2005, but for those of us who bought his albums, got our groove on or conceived our children by candlelight with his voice in the background, got married with someone trying to sing one of his songs or attended his sold out concerts, we definitely love and miss him.







'Lufer' was a once in a generation kind of singer, and this legend was taken away from us far too soon.

Tami's Podcast Now Archived

Thanks to Tami of What Tami Said for the kind invitation to participate in yesterday's podcast along with Renee of Womanist Musings and AJ Plaid of The Cruel Secretary.

This was one of those free ranging discussions that could have gone on all afternoon and all night. We only had an hour an a half to try to tackle the complex subject of Black femininity, and tackle it we did.

The podcast is now up along with links to various posts from all of our blogs that talk about the subject.

So if you didn't get to hear the live show yesterday, check it out at your leisure.

Just Because You're Younger Doesn't Mean I Can't Learn Something From You

One lesson I was taught by my parents growing up was even though I possessed off the charts intelligence, in order to keep me from developing the arrogance that can sometimes accompany that level of intelligence, I was told and have observed that there's always someone on the planet who is smarter than you.

I like surrounding myself in my circle of friends with people of not only diverse backgrounds that I can have intelligent, thought provoking conversations with, but of different ages who can teach me something as well.

Sometimes those people are younger than me.

Just because I've lived longer on Planet Earth doesn't necessarily mean I'm automatically more intelligent than a twenty or thirtysomething. I have a life experience advantage on them, but if I sit down and have a conversation with a young brother or sister who has some profound insightful knowledge to impart to me, I'm in shut up and listen mode.

We must remember that the twenty and thirtysomethings grew up being immersed in information and are far more tech savvy than those of us whose first computer was a Radio Shack TRS-80.

I take time to listen to the younglings. They may have a fresh way of looking at a problem or have come up with new tactics to achieve an old goal.

If you're too busy dismissing their idea simply because the person proposing it doesn't have more birthdays under their belt, then you run the risk of driving them away and you and the cause you're championing never having the benefit of their wisdom again.

One of my goals has always been that I want to continue to grow and evolve as a person throughout my lifespan. Sometimes the people that will help you achieve that goal happen to be part of Generations X, Y and Z and not the Pepsi or Greatest Generation.

When they wish to speak to me, they'll have my undivided attention.

Why Black Transgender Role Models Are Important

Wyatt T. Walker wrote in a December 1967 Negro Digest article, "Rob a people of their sense of history and you take away hope."

So when I stated that I wish I'd had pioneering transgender role models to look up to of African descent growing up like white transwomen have with Christine Jorgensen, April Ashley, and Phyllis Frye, I was speaking not only from a personal frame of reference, but from a historical one as well.

Yes, those people and many others have wonderful qualities that anyone can admire and emulate. But they also have in common the fact they are white.

That hasn't changed even though there are three African-American transgender people who have Trinity Awards on their mantels. That hasn't changed even though there are countless examples of transgender people of color stepping up, being intimately involved in shaping the history of this community and blazing trails such as the Alexander John Goodrums and Roberta Angela Dees of the world.

I'm lamenting the history that either hasn't or is just beginning to be told.

The point is that a young Euro-American transkid always has people representing them that affirm, reflect and share their cultural heritage. They log into computers for information on transgender issues, and the websites and the history they tell about the community disproportionately reflects them.

Go to the library or search for books on transgender issues, and there's a plethora of books, be they fiction or non-fiction, written from their point of view. They even see themselves reflected in the few movies and TV shows that have been done with transgender characters in them.

Now if you're a person of color, it's a different world.

Black transwomen have been whitewashed out of the transgender community narrative despite playing major roles in crafting it. We're rarely interviewed by the MSM, have books written by us, about us, or for us, asked to speak at colleges on transgender issues, or reflected in the predominately white middle-upper middle class leadership ranks of the community.

Don't even get me started talking about the images of African descended transwomen.

So when people consider me a role model or tell me they're honored to talk to me, I realize the seriousness of it. It's something I wish I'd had growing up, and it's the same lament shared by current day transwomen now in their twenties and thirties.

It's important in any marginalized community, especially as a transperson of color to have role models that share your ethnic heritage. They give you a concrete example of the fact that you aren't alone for starters. Their existence lets you know they are proud to be who they are, a roadmap to living your own proud life and the strength to persevere against adversity.

It also lets you know that you have a valued history that we have an obligation to defend and build up to greater heights. It also gives you the sense that you are another runner in the relay race of life and it's your turn to pick up the baton and carry it forward.

That has what's been denied us through intentional and unintentional whitewashing of transgender history, our community being disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS and taking the brunt of the hate violence directed at transgender people.

It has also served as Wyatt Walker's quote states, taken away our hope.

It's a negative pattern that needs to be reversed, and it starts with us. We have to claim and fiercely defend our history, trumpet our accomplishments, and document what's happening for current and future generations to read as well.

I want future generations of cisgender people inside and outside my African descended community to know not only what Alexander John Goodrum, Roberta Angela Dee, Dionne Stallworth, Kylar Broadus, Dawn Wilson, Dr. Marisa Richmond, Lorrainne Sade Baskerville, some transgender blogger who's the 2006 IFGE Trinity Award winner and many others accomplished in their time here on Earth to build this community, it's important for future generations of transkids to know this as well.

What Tami Said Podcast Appearance Today

Renee and I along with AJ Plaid from the The Cruel Secretary will be discussing the subject of Black femininity on The Best of What Tami Said podcast at 4 PM EDT today.

So if you wish to hear an informative and entertaining chat or participate in the chat room, you can either call in your questions at (646)716-4672 or surf over to the show page.

On the next installment of our Womanist Musings show that takes place on April 25 at 8 PM EDT, Renee and I will be talking to IFGE's Ethan St. Pierre and Crystal Ann Gray from the GLBT Center of Colorado about the ongoing trial of Allen Andrade, the accused killer of Angie Zapata. You can call us at (347) 326-9452 or join our chat room this weekend to ask questions of our guests or comment.

As with all blogtalkradio shows, if you can't listen live, you can always listen to it at your leisure by clicking on the link to the show website.

Zoe Saldana's Playing Uhura!

I'm an unabashed Trekkie and fan of anything Star Trek related.

Since the word got out that Star Trek was about to get a reimagined makeover by director JJ Abrams, one of the questions crossing the minds of Black Trekkies was who was going to play Nichelle Nichols' classic role of Lt. Nyota Uhura?

It's not an insignificant question. Nichelle Nichols' role in the original series had historic significance to the point that when she considered quitting after the first season, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. himself urged her not to.

The appearance of this smart, sexy sistah on our nation's 60's era TV screens inspired a Chicago girl named Dr. Mae Jemison to become an astronaut and later make history as the first African-American woman launched into space. It also inspired a New York girl named Caryn Johnson AKA Whoopi Goldberg to become an actress and eventually play a character on Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Even Nichols herself worked for NASA not only recruiting African-Americans for the space program, but inspiring kids in my era to consider math and science careers as an ambassador for NASA's space program.

The person with the pressure of stepping into Nichelle's boots for this reimagined movie is Zoe Saldana. I'm a fan of hers from several movies over the years from Drumline to Pirates of the Caribbean.

When Zoe talked about her meeting with Nichelle Nichols, she is well aware of the fact that for African descended people, Lt. Uhura is more than just a movie role.

"I was able to sit down with her, and she told me the whole story of how Uhura came to be and where they were going with her character. It all fell into place the moment she walked into the door and auditioned for the part. She named the character herself ... and she felt as an artist, she was going to make the part big."

It's going to be interesting to wrap my mind around seeing her in this role but I'm curious to see how she's going to pull it off.

Nichelle Nichols agrees with me as well. She stated in a recent interview, "I'd love to wait and see what she brings to it so that I can understand, get to see who and what Uhura was like. "I would like to see what Nyota Uhura had that qualified her to go on that first five-year mission where no man or woman had gone before."

Hopefully they gave Nichelle a cameo role in the new Star Trek film, which hits your local multiplex on May 8.

Tell The Truth, Janeane!

The sheet wearing batturd wing of the GOP is furiously trying to deny it, but the world knows the truth about the sparsely attended so called 'grassroots' tea party rallies promoted by Faux News in a suburb near you.

Janeane Garofalo tells it like it T-I-S is, and the Reichers ain't liking it.

Janeane just vocalized what many of us noted. These non-events reminded me of the 'Two minute hate from the novel '1984'. In my local one I saw the usual anti civil rights cast of characters and that told me all I needed to know about these events.

As 'errbody' who watched the teabaggers frothing at the mouth hatred of Obama, we noted not only the lack of melanin at these rallies, but noted through your various commentaries to various news sources that what was motivating you wasn't good old fashioned American values, but racism.




Oh yeah, forgot you Fox News watching peeps consider hatred and wearing pointed hoods a good old fashioned American value.

I'm surprised the Confederate flag didn't come out of the closet based on the tired 'state's rights' rhetoric I heard ad nauseum.

Yo teabaggers, you lost on November 4, and the beauty of the situation is that we didn't have to rig the election or call on the Supreme Court to beat the crap out of you. So until 2012, why don't you turn off Faux News and Rush Limbaugh and pick up a few history books?

Better get with the fact the 'A' students are running the country now and doing a much better job in the last 80 plus days than your non reading fool did in 8 years.

Andrade Trial-Opening Impressions

The eyes of the transgender community in Colorado and elsewhere are focused on a Greeley, CO courtroom for the next two weeks. The groundbreaking trial of Allen Andrade, accused killer of Angie Zapata started Tuesday.

This trial is notable for the fact it's the first time an accused killer is facing additional hate crime charges for killing a transperson.

After weeding through 300 potential jurors during the jury selection phase, the 14 person jury made up of 10 males and 4 females was empaneled, and the opening remarks from the prosecution and the defense happened Thursday.



Autumn Sandeen of Pam's House Blend is in Greeley for the trial and will be covering it from a transgender perspective that is sorely needed.

I was watching Banfield & Ford: Courtside coverage of the trial Friday. I was pissed about Gwendolyn Lindsey-Jackson, the sistah defense attorney they had as a guest calling Angie 'it' during one segment of the show, but Ashleigh Banfield did express her disgust over the use of the trans panic defense and at one point called Andrade a 'moron'.

That still didn't lower my pissivity over the 'it' remark from someone who shares my ethnic background and needs to get her Trans 101 on.

But back to the trail's opening phase. As I and others have long since predicted, the defense's game plan was to play the trans panic defense.

“This case is not about judgment of a lifestyle,” defense attorney Brad Martin told the jury. “It’s not about whether Justin Zapata’s lifestyle was right or wrong. It’s about a deception and a reaction to that deception. ... Justin’s Moco Space profile was that of a female, not of a transgender, and it certainly wasn’t that of a man.”

However, a bomb got dropped by the prosecution that puts a nice chink in the Andrade's contention that he didn't know Angie was transgender.

Deputy District Attorney Brandi Lynn Nieto told the jury that Andrade knew for 36 hours Angie was biologically male. He even attended a court hearing for a traffic ticket where clerks called for the case against “Justin Zapata.”

“You’ll hear a call to his girlfriend that demonstrates his hatred for homosexuals,” Nieto said. “It will give you a window into the defendant’s mind. It will show his bigotry, his prejudice and his bias against homosexuals.”

Nieto showed the jury transcripts of those calls, including one that said it was not like he was shooting a teacher in cold blood or a straight, law-abiding citizen.

“He makes it clear there is a difference between killing someone who’s homosexual and someone who’s not,” Nieto said. “He knew for some time she was transgender, and he brutally killed her because of it.”

They began calling witnesses Thursday afternoon. The nine witnesses that have testified so far include the first officers and paramedic on the scene, neighbors who saw Zapata the night before her murder, and the officers who arrested Andrade two weeks later.

Yesterday's proceedings were interrupted by a major snowstorm that hit the Denver metro area that only dumped rain in the Greeley area. Areas west of I-25 were whacked by up to 3 feet of snow. Denver (south of Greeley) was clobbered by nine inches of snow.

Stay tuned. Just like spring weather in the Rockies, the ride is gonna get bumpier once the defense gets their chance to state their case.

Tell It WOC Speak April Carnival Up

The third installment of the 'Tell It WOC Speak' blog carnival is up, and thanks again to Renee for all of her hard work putting this together on the dedicated site for it to showcase the work of WOC bloggers.

The apropos theme this month is Voices Have Power.

It's past time as women of color bloggers to realize that we need to use our individual and collective voices to speak truth to power and stand up to injustice and intolerance.

Take some time to surf over to the site and check out some wonderful writers. Yeah, you know I made sure I submitted some posts, too. I think it's important enough for me to do so, and it introduces my writing to people that may not have discovered my blog.

If you want to be a part of the May 15 WOC Speak Carnival get cracking now and submit those posts for the next installment.

Real Texans Aren't Nekulturny

As you longtime TransGriot readers know I'm exceedingly proud of my Houston and Texas roots and wax poetic sometimes about growing up in a Lone Star State that followed its progressive political roots.

Unfortunately the batturd wing of the Republican Party decided to use Texas as a laboratory for field testing the themes and policies they would later use to capture control of the state and later the country. After 15 years of disastrous GOP control of the state in the wake of Ann Richards successful 1991-1995 term as governor, the yahoos are running the asylum and did unto Texas what they did to the nation.

George W. Bush's disastrous mispresidency didn't help the image of Texans as far as the county and the world is concerned. Every time some politician says something stuck on stupid, you can count on three things: they're Republican, they're from Texas or both.

So of course I'm going to comment on the idiocy spouted by Governor Goodhair. It also speaks volumes as to probably why until 2002 Texans never elected an Aggie as the governor.

“Texas is a unique place. When we came into the union in 1845, one of the issues was that we would be able to leave if we decided to do that,” Perry said. “My hope is that America and Washington in particular pays attention. We’ve got a great union. There’s absolutely no reason to dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, who knows what may come of that.”

First of all, Perry failed his Texas history class in junior high and at Texas A&M. Texas was an independent republic from 1836 until it joined the Union. The oft cited 1845 treaty that facilitated Texas' admission into the Union stated that Texas had the right to split into four additional states, not the right to secede.

In 1991 a Texas legislator filed a bill to do precisely that, but it went nowhere, just as it did when John Nance Garner proposed it in 1921.

Perry also misquoted Sam Houston, a former president of the Republic of Texas who became our seventh governor.

He borrowed a Sam Houston quote that stated, “Texas has yet to learn submission to any oppression, come from what source it may!”

The reality for you conservailliterates is that Sam Houston bitterly opposed Texas’ 1861 secession from the Union, and was removed from office when he refused to sign a loyalty oath to the Confederacy.

As for the question of secession, the Civil War settled that. Also note that the only peeps pimping this racist 'state's rights' secession bullshit are devoid of melanin. In addition to that 75% of the state in a poll released today said a resounding 'Hell No' to the prospect of secession.

My former state senator, Rodney Ellis, called out Governor Goodhair by saying, "that by not rejecting the possibility of secession out of hand, Perry "is taking a step down a very dangerous and divisive path encouraged by the fringe of Texas politics."

The Texas House Democrats as well sponsored a resolution condemning the governor's remarks as well.

For the rest of you folks in the other 49 states that are hollering 'do it' and 'good riddance', let me school y'all on something. If Texas were an independent nation, it would be the eighth largest economy on the planet. Not something you want to lose if you're trying to pull the USA out of a recession.

The national Republican party is probably behind the scenes cursing Rick Perry out for even suggesting it because all of their presidential election scenarios begin and end with Texas in their electoral college calculations.

I'd like to also point out that while we unfortunately have the stereotypical Ugly Texan yahoos, many Texans have made substantial contributions to the United States on many fronts.

You have military leaders such as Admiral Chester Nimitz, General and later president Dwight D. Eisenhower who hail from my birth state. Political statesmen and stateswomen such as Mickey Leland, Barbara Jordan, Governor Ann Richards, President Lyndon Johnson, Sam Rayburn and Sen. Ralph Yarborough, the only Southern senator to vote for all civil rights bills from 1957-1970.

We have writers such as Molly Ivins, Larry McMurtry and J. Frank Dobie. Distinguished CBS News anchors Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather are from my hometown and Bill Moyers is a Texan as well.

I won't even begin to list the legions of Texans from Sandy Duncan and Renee Zellweger, Oscar winner Jamie Foxx, Tony winner Phylicia Rashad, Grammy winner Beyonce Knowles-Carter and Erykah Badu who have populated the stage, screen and music worlds.

If it weren't for Texan football players, Oklahoma wouldn't even be an elite football program. It would take another post for me to list the Texans populating the professional sports ranks and Halls of Fame in various sports as well.

Those of us who are proud progressive Texans in the Billie Carr-Barbara Jordan-Ann Richards-Ralph Yarborough tradition are sick and tired of these yahoos purporting to represent 'real Texans' and us getting the negative backlash for their idiocy.

Real Texans aren't nekulturny jerks like the fools who were on display last Wednesday. Real Texans care about all their fellow human beings, not a partisan slice of it.

Shut Up Fool! Awards-Post Taxing Edition

It's two days after April 15th, and the fallout from the right wing hate on Obama fest is still reverberating throughout the media and the blogosphere.

Here in Da Ville we're gearing up for Thunder Over Louisville, the massive fireworks show that kicks off the two week long Kentucky Derby Festival that's a prelude to the Kentucky Oaks and Derby horse races.

Speaking of horses, let's see what fool made himself or herself look like a horse's posterior and earned this week's Shut Up Fool! Award.

There were plenty of candidates thanks to the teabagging parties, but the fool who distinguished himself is my former governor Rick Perry.

Governor Goodhair played to the batshit wing of the party and mentioned the s-word in two separate interviews. Okay, didn't Texas try the secession route in 1861 when it joined the Confederacy and it was a miserable failure?

There's a reason why we didn't let Aggies near the governor's chair, and after this term an Aggie probably won't get within sniffing distance of the chair again for a while after you're mercifully gone from the governor's mansion.

We'll also have to conduct an exorcism after the way you and George W have desecrated the place since 1994.

Rick Perry, shut up fool!

Blake Lively Feels Like A Transwoman?

Gossip Girl's Blake Lively recently did a photo shoot for the May issue of Allure magazine which will be hitting the stands on April 21.

During the interview for the upcoming magazine cover Lively confessed 'she feels “like a tranny a lot of the time.”

The 21 year old star then expounded on her remarks by saying “I don’t know, I’m…large? They put me in six-inch heels, and I tower over every man. I’ve got this long hair and lots of clothes and makeup on. I just feel really big a lot of the time, and I’m surrounded by a lot of tiny people. I feel like a man sometimes.”

Blake, I'm 6'2" and proud of it. Some of those shorter women you tower over would love to have the beauty and 5'10" height you were blessed with.

If you really want to know what being a transwoman is Hollywood is like, call up Calpernia Addams, Alexandra Billings, Aleshia Brevard, Jazzmun and Candis Cayne sometime. I'll bet those women could give you a PhD level 'ejumacation' on the subject. I'd also be willing to bet that Candis and the other Hollywood transwomen would remind you they aren't getting calls to do photo spreads like you are for fashion magazines or their pictures plastered all over the place either.

And let's face it, even with your declaration notwithstanding, not many people question what genitalia you pack in your panties like they do transwomen even after decades of transition.

But at the same time, just as I want people to take me and other transpeeps at face value when we articulate our feelings, I'm extending the same courtesy to Blake Lively. I'm not walking in her pumps, so I respectfully take her word for it that was her emotional state at the time she said those comments.

But next time, please refrain from using the word 'tranny'. While I feel you in terms of the emotions you expressed, the T-word coming from the lips of a cisgender woman is still a little problematic.

What Happens Across The Diaspora IS My Business

One of the interesting things about Black people across the African Diaspora, whether we live in the States, Canada, various Caribbean nations, Brazil and Great Britain is the kinship some of us feel with each other and our connection to the Mother Continent.

We in the Western Hemisphere have this shared history as descendants of the survivors of the heinous Middle Passage even though we reside in different parts of the world.

Because of that shared history, just as Euro-Americans look back to their various homelands with pride and are concerned about what happens there, the same logic applies to the children of the African Diaspora.

As an African descended resident of the United States, it is my business what goes on with African descendants in various countries.

Just as African descended people around the world took pride in the election of Barack Obama to the presidency of the United States, I had the same level of pride in seeing Michaelle Jean become the Governor General of Canada, Baroness Valerie Amos become the Leader of the House of Lords, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf assume the presidency of Liberia and Portia Simpson briefly becoming the first female prime minister of Jamaica.

I marveled at Usain Bolt in the Beijing Games blazing across the finish line with the same pride 2 million Jamaicans had for him. I root for the Calgary Flames because of Jarome Iginla and celebrated along with my F1 loving roommate when Great Britain's Leonard Hamilton became the first African descended driver to win the world driving title.

So don't tell me as an American of African descent that I can't comment on or get actively involved in trying to come with solutions to the problems that are occurring in Haiti for example or various nations across the diaspora.

If megachurch minister Bishop Noel Jones can fly his ass to Jamaica, address the Jamaican Parliament and implore them to 'resist US activist pressure' and keep the colonial era anti-gay laws in place that are a root cause of the homophobia-fueled violence there, then I have just as much right to take the opposite position and help overturn those laws.

Just as Canadian Blacks helped with our civil rights battles in the US and we played a role in helping our South African cousins throw off the yoke of apartheid in the 80's, we have the same obligation to help our Canadian and Brazilian cousins if they request it with their struggles. When GLBT people's civil rights are disrespected and abused in various African countries that's my problem as well as a African descended transwoman.

We are all accountable to each other and linked by a shared history of struggle and triumphant achievement. So yes, it is my business what happens across the Diaspora, and it's time all African descended people adopt that expansive mindset.

Tax Day

Today is the day that many Americans anticipate with fear and loathing, Tax Day.

April 15th is the deadline to file tax returns. I'm due a refund and have had my paperwork and W-2 together since early February, but I usually hold off until late March or early April to file it so I get the refund around my birthday.

I'm getting a little something-something back from the Feds, so I'm not complaining.

But what I am chuckling about is the GOP haters in their desperate zeal to stir up fear, hatred and loathing of our wildly successful so far president have set up anti-tax propaganda rallies all over the country today.

These are alleged to be 'grassroots' events, but are backed by corporate sponsors, Faux News and the Repugnican party.

I checked the ones scheduled for Houston, and all of them with the exception of the downtown event at Jones Plaza, all of them are taking place in predominately white suburbs. I have no doubts that the pattern is replicating itself elsewhere in the country as well along with the glaring lack of melanin of the event participants.

Nobody likes paying taxes, but everybody wants interstate highways with no potholes, their mail to come on time and other federal government services to function on demand, smoothly and efficiently. They can't do that without cash, and as the saying goes, no new taxes equals no new services.

So just fire up TurboTax, e-file it, call it a day and enjoy the entertaining show from the GOP sheeple hatin' on the prez.



They have yet to catch on to the fact (unless they were watching Rachel Maddow LHAO) that the 'teabagging' phrase they are using to refer to their movement refers to a sexual practice.


TransGriot Note: HT to Womanist Musings for the Rachel Maddow Show video link and post.

You Lost Again Norm, Get Over It!

A Minnesota court confirmed Monday that Democrat Al Franken won the most votes in his 2008 Senate race against sore loser Republican Norm Coleman.

Coleman has 10 days to appeal to the state Supreme Court, and has already announced he'll do so. Once the petition is filed, it could further delay the seating of Minnesota's second senator for weeks.

"It's time that Minnesota like every other state have two senators," a jovial Franken said outside his Minneapolis townhouse with his wife Franni at his side. "I would call on Senator Coleman to allow me to get to work for the people of Minnesota as soon as possible."

After a statewide recount and seven-week trial, Franken now stands 312 votes ahead after gaining addition votes from the election challenge than Coleman, who brought the legal action.

Okay, so when is the corporate media gonna start screaming 'sore loser' at Norm Coleman like they did at President Al Gore, who actually won the 2000 election?

It's almost 100 days after Al Franken won the senate race, and it will be so cool when he finally takes his place on the senate floor.

Upcoming Appearance on ' Best Of What Tami Said' Podcast

Sunday April 19 Renee and I along with AJ Plaid The Cruel Secretary have been invited to be on 'The Best of What Tami Said' blogtalkradio show at 4 PM EDT.

We'll be discussing how black femininity is defined, how it is marginalized, stereotypes, appearance and sexuality.

This show should be an interesting one, and if you wish to join Tami and us in the live conversation, please call (646) 716-4672.

As always with Blogtalkradio podcasts, you can listen to them at your leisure by going directly to the show page.

Looking forward to a fun conversation and hearing from some of you loyal TransGriot readers.

Alberta Transgender Rights Tipping Point?

The abolitionist Frederick Douglass once stated in 1892, "Find out what people will submit to and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them."

It looks as though the Conservative dominated provincial government is learning that they've gone past the level of injustice that Alberta's transgender community will tolerate.

Sometimes the 'I've had it' tipping point can be something small. Other times it's something so blatantly egregious you just can't stomach it anymore. You decide to fight and it leads to not only an end to the problem that led you to mobilize to fight the injustice in the first place, but empowers people through your example to fight for greater civil rights protections.

While some Albertans decry their rep within Canada as 'Little Texas' (and I feel their pain being a progressive from Texas) there are times when the idiots in my birth state and the province of Alberta go out of their way to justify and live up to every stereotype assigned to them.

The recent delisting of SRS funding from Alberta's provincial health plans has galvanized the Albertan and Canadian transgender community and their allies into coordinated action to reverse this odious ruling.

Could it be that we south of the border peeps are witnessing the dawn of a 'mad as hell' moment in Wild Rose Country that will lead to the Canadian transgender community organizing on a national level and getting more visibly active to codify, protect and expand their civil rights coverage?

That's up to our Canadian cousins to analyze the conditions in their homeland and decide if such an option is feasible and warranted, but I support whatever decision they make once this current battle is concluded.

Oreo Barbie

Last year Mattel hit a marketing home run when they created an AKA Barbie doll in honor of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority's centennial celebration.

I'm a Barbie fan and own a few of my own, and in this 50th anniversary year I thought I'd mention a Barbie design that didn't go over so well with a segment of the public.

Usually the Mattel folks are pretty savvy and on target when it comes to creating various Barbies, but on this one they missed badly. Somebody either wasn't paying attention or they didn't have any African-Americans in the R&D department to tell them how problematic having a Black Oreo doll would be.

In 1994 as part of a store cross promotion with Nabisco, they created a white Oreo cookie Barbie that was sold in grocery stores. The doll flew off the shelves and in 1997 they decided to produce a Black version of it.

While I understand what Mattel and Nabisco were trying to do in cross promote the world's most famous doll, the Oreo cookie line and creating as diverse a lineup of dolls for it as possible, Oreo has another connotation in the Black community beyond just being a slammin' cookie.

Calling someone an 'Oreo' is fighting words. It means that you are calling them Black on the outside and white on the inside. Translation, you call a Black person an Oreo, you are accusing them of being a sellout or an Uncle Tom to the race.

It's an image that is so ingrained in the African-American community's mind Michael Steele tried to seize on it by claiming that progressive Blacks threw Oreo cookies at him handed out by Democrats during a 2002 Baltimore debate appearance for the Maryland governor's race, a claim which has largely been debunked.

Predictably the doll sold so poorly it was recalled. It's ironically a highly sought after doll by Barbie collectors.

By the way, has anyone sent one to Condoleezza yet?

Andrade Trial Begins

In a few hours the opening arguments in the murder trial of Allen Ray Andrade, the accused killer of Angie Zapata, will begin in the Weld County Courthouse in Greeley, CO. The trial is expected to last two weeks, and there's already been pretrial fireworks.

Weld District court Judge Marcelo Kopcow, who will be hearing the case, issued a 31 page ruling on March 11 that that defendant statements made after 39 minutes of questioning will be disallowed after Andrade told Greeley detective Greg Tharp ‘I’m done. Yeah, I’m not talking right now’ [that] "... is a clear statement of the defendant’s request to remain silent and cut off further questioning.."

Also disallowed is evidence possibly increasing the severity of sentencing due to Andrade's alleged gang membership. As part of that gang culture, all sexual activities considered non-heterosexual are punishable by beatdown, expulsion and even death, which would make killing Zapata seem more of an imperative to Andrade.

All is not lost for the prosecutors, the Zapata family, interested observers in the transgender community, our allies and people around the world seeking justice for Angie's July 17 murder.

What will be allowed into evidence at the trial is:

» Statements to police of Andrade admitting to stealing Zapata’s car.
» Recorded phone calls Andrade made from jail to his girlfriend.
» Evidence from a friend saying Zapata looked convincingly like a woman.
» Evidence and photos from Andrade’s cell phone (though some pictures are out). The cell phone notes 670 separate communications between Andrade and Zapata between July 1-16, 2008.

The Colorado transgender community along with the Zapata family will be monitoring the trial, and here's hoping that justice will be done.