TLDEF and Green Family Statement on Sentencing in Lateisha Green Trial

The Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund (TLDEF) today welcomed Judge William Walsh's sentencing of convicted killer Dwight R. DeLee to the maximum term of 25 years in prison in connection with the shooting death of Lateisha Green. Green, a 22-year-old African American transgender woman was shot and killed by DeLee on Nov. 14, 2008 in Syracuse, NY.

On July 17, a 12-member jury found 20-year-old DeLee guilty of manslaughter in the first degree as a hate crime and criminal possession of a weapon. DeLee's conviction for committing a hate crime is the first involving the death of a transgender person in New York State. It is only the second such conviction in United States history. In addition to the sentence for manslaughter, DeLee was sentenced to a concurrent term of 3 1/2 to 7 years in prison on the weapon possession conviction.

"Today, a measure of justice has been delivered for Lateisha Green and her family with the imposition of the maximum sentence for this crime," said TLDEF Executive Director and attorney Michael Silverman. "While nothing can make up for the loss Lateisha's family has suffered, this sentence helps to bring some closure to Lateisha's family. The sentence sends a clear message that violence targeted at transgender people will be heavily penalized."

Silverman has been working with the family since Lateisha's death in November. He was on the ground in Syracuse throughout the trial working closely with Lateisha's family. TLDEF collaborated with its sister organizations, including the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), the Empire State Pride Agenda and the Rainbow Alliance of Central New York.

"Transgender Americans continue to face a serious risk of violence and discrimination. African American transgender women are at particularly high risk," added Silverman. "Neither New York State law nor federal law includes gender identity or expression as hate crime categories and that sends a dangerous message that it is acceptable to leave part of our community vulnerable to hateful acts of violence simply because of who they are. We call upon our state and federal lawmakers to ensure adoption of transgender-inclusive legislation that will protect everyone regardless of their gender identity and gender expression."

Following the sentencing, Lateisha Green's family released this statement:

Today’s sentencing sends a clear message that violence motivated by anti-transgender bias is unacceptable and wrong. It affects everyone in a community and it has left many hurt and distraught. We can only hope that Teish’s story will prevent any more loss of life simply because someone is different.

It has been a little over nine months since Teish was taken away from us. On November 14, 2008, Dwight DeLee aimed a rifle and shot Teish. All it took was one bullet to pierce her heart. That one bullet ended Teish’s life and all of the possibilities that could have been a part of her future.

That one bullet took away our brave and beloved family member and friend. But it also pierced our hearts and left us all feeling fearful, sad and angry. All of our hopes and dreams that we had for Teish were taken away from us simply because Teish was transgender. One bullet shattered all of our lives.

Every possibility for Teish slipped away when Dwight DeLee shot and killed her. But today’s sentencing by the judge has left us to believe that new possibilities have replaced old ones. A possibility to begin a conversation for reconciliation and understanding in Syracuse. A possibility to pass state and federal laws that would protect everyone from this kind of violence. A possibility to share Teish’s story so that nobody will ever have to know the feeling of losing a child because of that child's gender identity.

We want to thank everyone who supported our family during this difficult process and helped us to share Teish’s story. No legal proceeding can provide full closure for us. But we know that closure will come into our hearts as we continue to share this story with the world. We can only hope that more conversations about Teish and her life will prevent another bullet from taking another life. Though Teish left us 9 months ago, she has given us all the possibility to work towards a better tomorrow.

Thank you.

Live Your Life Well

Saturday Dawn, Polar and I spent a few hours at Christ Church Cathedral in downtown Louisville attending the funeral of Robert Botts, one of our fellow CFAIR board members who died unexpectedly.

On the ride from the house to downtown I contemplated the fact that less than two weeks ago I was laughing and joking with him at a fundraiser being held at the Hyatt Regency hotel's revolving restaurant and talking to him at our last board meeting. Polar and Dawn last saw him at work.

Robert was an outgoing, friendly person always eager to help, and it was hard not to miss him. Now he's gone.

I did get an opportunity to say a few words at the service packed full of his friends, family and co-workers.

One of his relatives earlier had tried to make a comparison to his life in terms of space and the universe. I built upon his comments in my remarks and compared Robert's life to a supernova.

A supernova is a star that bursts with a brilliant flash of light that briefly outshines its entire galaxy before fading over weeks and months of time.

Robert definitely was a star and a stellar human being whose light shined brightly amongst us for years, and now unfortunately will fade away.

After being thanked by family members for my remarks before departing with Polar and Dawn for the day, I pondered the messages I took away from that service.

*Spending time in the service of others is the greatest gift you can give other people.

*Give it your best effort in terms of what you can personally do to live a quality life.

*Do not take your time on this planet for granted. Live every day as if it is going to be your last one.

While some of those messages are part of the values I try to pattern my own life on, every now and then you need a reminder.

So the next time I do some hard, solid thinking, I'll be contemplating what I can do to ensure I'm living my life well and getting the maximum output out of whatever time I have left on this planet.

DeLee Sentenced

Dwight DeLee, the convicted killer of Lateisha Green was sentenced today to spend the next 25 years of his life in prison.

DeLee was convicted of manslaughter July 17 and unfortunately escaped the more serious charge of murder. He is only the second person in the Unites States to be found guilty of a hate crime that involved the death of a transgender victim.

TLDEF is covering the sentencing, and as more info becomes available I'll post it.

More Flight Anxiety For Transpeople As New TSA Rules Implemented

I worked for Continental Airlines for over a decade and spent a lot of time on my off days flying the friendly skies before 9-11. Thanks to some of my speaking engagements I have had the opportunity to experience post 9-11 air travel.

Whether it was before or after 9-11, it's an irritating challenge at times to travel as a transperson. I do have some stories I'll talk about in later posts about my own personal drama with flying while transgender.

What's driving this post is the news that TSA regulations will soon take effect that require all passengers to declare their full name, age, and gender to book travel.

This is related to the Transportation Security Administration effort to streamline their Secure Flight database and reduce the number of times a passenger is misidentified as a possible terrorist.

But since policies have unintended consequences, many of us in the transgender community are nervously apprehensive about how things will shake out once these procedures are implemented.

The first implementation phase of the initiative required that airlines collect the names of all passengers as shown verbatim on government-issued identification.

The next phase began August 15 on several air carriers. It requires passengers to declare their gender at the time of booking their flights.

By the end of March 2010 all companies will be required to obtain gender information from persons booking travel.

TSA spokesman Dwayne Baird told Advocate.com in a recent interview that transgender travelers who are purchasing tickets should declare "the gender that they were at the time that they booked their flight."

However, Baird said he was unsure whether those who don't identify with a specific gender or are in transition would be held to the same rules.

Kristina Wertz, the Transgender Law Center's legal director, said the new regulations will likely exacerbate airport hassles that some transgender people already face while traveling.

No kidding. One of the potential consequences of having your trans business disclosed is a situation in which the traveling transperson could be subjected to harassment, disrespect and discrimination by airline personnel, security, customs officials if they're travelling internationally and other passengers.

One major reason it happens as Kristina Wertz points out and I can tell you from my time as an airline employee is government issued ID's, passports and other documents that don't match the current gender presentation of the person possessing it.

"A lot of transgender people don't have documents that match up with how they currently identify. There are always troubles that arise when dealing with documents. People are sometimes forced to disclose their transgender status in a situation where they may not want to."

Wertz said she hopes that the TSA is open to receiving training on transgender issues to prevent uncomfortable situations at the airport.

In the interim, the transgender community will be anxiously watching how these new rules impact our flying experiences at our local airports.

ESSENCE.com Article Features Roxanne Green

The sentencing of Dwight DeLee will occur on Tuesday for Lateisha Green's convicted murderer. But while DeLee is about to find out how much time he gets for taking Teish's life, it still doesn't bring her back.

Lateisha's mother Roxanne Green talked to ESSENCE.com about it and other subjects in a Wendy Wilson story entitled Gone Too Soon: The Lateisha Green Story.

While we're on that subject, the fight continues for those of you in New York State to pass GENDA and add transgender people to the existing Hate Crimes statute.

You may want to call your state legislators and urge them to pass this bill.

Getting My Coke Bottle Back

When I first began my transition, one of the things I was concerned about was whether or not I would develop shapely curves.

One of the things that sisters are noted for is having curves. Our 'fine brown frames' have been sung about by legions of male singers over the years.

I had no doubts about whether or not I could pull off living on the other side of the gender fence as a Phenomenal Black woman. I was fortunate enough to have a few key pieces of my future feminine presentation in place with my legs, my long eyelashes, smooth skin, thin androgynous body build, and my butt.

Hormones were very good to me in the early stages of my transition. They enhanced what I had and the weight I gained went toward giving me some needed curves. I was quite pleased when I checked myself out the mirror and saw a beautiful sistah staring back at me to match the one inside.

But over time my size 14 shape morphed into a size 22 thanks to the inevitable weight gain from being an estrogen based lifeform, age, me living in H-town with its super sized restaurant portions, the slowing down of my metabolism and my subsequent move to Da Ville in which pizza and great restaurant food is plentiful and an art form. Being depressed and unhappy about leaving home and other myriad issues also played a role in it as well.

At the tail end of June I finally decided that I was going to shed my excess poundage and cut back on some of my bad habits feeding into me ballooning at one point to 275 pounds.

Since diabetes runs in my family and so far I've been able to avoid it, the weight needed to come off. My room in this house is upstairs. We have hills nearby in this neighborhood I have to negotiate when I do my long walks around it and to the nearby reservoir walking trail.

I noted the heavy breathing I was doing when I walked uphill or up the stairs. I was also annoyed by the fact that when I started playing tennis again a year ago after a long layoff, my endurance wasn't as great as it used to be.

Vanity also played a role into my decision to drop the excess poundage. I was not happy about some pics Ness sent me from the recent lobby day. My unhappiness with those photos, my having the status of a role model for this community and having nice size 14 clothes sitting in my closet I wanted to start wearing again was a powerful incentive to drop the excess pounds.

I was pleased when I checked out my reflection in the full length bedroom mirror last week and noted that the shapely sistah has made a comeback.

I cut way back on the fast food, my food size portions, bread, the soda and late night snacking in order to shed that weight. I even fasted for a week and drank lots of water in order to let nature eliminate some of the belly fat.

It was a struggle, but never underestimate the willpower of a Taurus. The joy in me being able to put on a pair of my size 14 jeans, a dress or a skirt and zip it up with no problem was a victory that has done wonders for my self esteem and divatude.

There's also a few nice pant suits I have my eyes on in the Metrostyle catalog as well.

It also didn't hurt that while I was out and about earlier in the week I overheard two brothers saying "Damn, she's fine" while casting admiring glances at me.

I'm still working on getting rid of the remaining belly fat so I can continue wearing those size 14 clothes. I have upcoming speaking engagements I want to be in diva mode for.

9.58!

When we watched Jamaica's Usain Bolt destroy the old 100 meter world record and showboat his way over the last ten meters to a 9.68 time enroute to the gold medal, many of us wondered how fast could the 23 year old run if he ran flat out for 100 meters?

In the 2009 World Track and Field Championships being held in Berlin, we may have gotten an answer to that question.

In the same stadium in which Jesse Owens won four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Games, and exactly one year from the date he set the record in Beijing last summer, Usain Bolt obliterated it.

He ran an out of this world 9.58 in the 100m final. If you had any doubts that this man is the real deal and the best sprinter in the world bar none, I think he answered them.

Tyson Gay finished second in 9.71 and became as a consolation prize, the American record holder in the event and the second fastest man of all time.

If he stays healthy over the next two years, it's probably safe to say that Bolt will be a prohibitive favorite to repeat his gold medal winning performance in London. There's no one on this planet who can run with him.

Believe it or not, Bolt thinks he can run even faster and lower the record to a mind bending 9.4 seconds.

I don't have any doubts that he can't.

Woodstock 40th Anniversary

1969 was quite the year for historical events. This weekend marks the 40th anniversary of one that has taken on legendary proportions.

I was just a kid in elementary school when an estimated 300,000 people gathered on a muddy Bethel, New York dairy farm from August 15-17 to witness a concert called Woodstock.

Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Jefferson Airplane, Santana and the Who were some of the rock and roll greats were all assembled there for the three days of music. Sadly, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix would be gone a year later.

But it was a signature and touchstone event for a generation, and for those who were there it's hard to believe that 40 years have passed.

Dr. Story Gets Public Apology

It's a better late than never story, but yesterday U of L professor Dr. Kaila Story finally received her apology for racist and sexist remarks hurled at her and several U of L students by the owner of a local bar called Woody's.

I have much love for Dr. Story. She's the Assistant Professor of Women's and Gender Studies, with a joint appointment in the Department of Pan-African Studies. She also holds the Audre Lorde Chair in Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.

But to bring y'all up to speed on what transpired here in Da Ville, last year Dr. Story along with a group of four Black GLBT friends was visiting the bar which is near the U of L campus.

She and the group were playing pool when two unleashed dogs charged into the room barking. Dr. Story was startled by the unexpected entrance of the dogs and jumped on the pool table.

The owner of the dogs was Woody's owner David Norton. He began berating her, remarking that he didn’t like “big girls” on his pool table.

That triggered an argument that spilled out into the street. Norton followed the group outside while hurling epithets, calling them “cunts,” “bitches,” “niggers” and other racist and sexist slurs.

The incident happened about the same time that a local McDonald's on Market Street hurled anti gay slurs at two white gay patrons.

Predictably the reaction of the local GLBT community was a night and day one. A protest was quickly initiated and the ACLU was called in. It resulted in a $2000 settlement paid to both of the offended persons and sensitivity training for 30 local McDonald's restaurants.

Dr. Story's situation struggled just to get the same level of action and attention since it uncomfortably highlighted the internal racism many Black GLBT people face from other GLBT people.

Norton tried to deny the incident happened, but with the May resolution of the McDonald's incident, new Fairness Campaign director Chris Hartman along with the University of Louisville's Director of LGBT Services Brian Burford revisited what happened at Woody's.

Burford wrote a letter that was posted to the Fairness Campaign website calling for Norton to apologize. He also noted the lack of GLBT community response vis-a-vis the McDonald's case

“I would’ve liked to have seen some greater response to what happened at Woody’s,” “I wished people would have boycotted. Individuals did, but in terms of an organized effort, there wasn’t one.”

Chris Hartman lamented the lost opportunity as well in the Woody's situation.

“Discrimination is discrimination. Any sort against any people is absolutely unacceptable and we will not allow it to go silently by,” says Hartman, who is now urging Norton to apologize. “It’s deplorable to continue to not offer an apology.”

Hartman also stated in the Fairness press release, “We hope this apology will begin a process of healing and reconciliation,” shared Fairness Campaign Director Chris Hartman. “This incident, however, must continue to shed light on the fact that racism pervades every community in America, including our own LGBTQ community, that any form of discrimination hurts everyone, and that no act of discrimination may go unchallenged.”

Hopefully the apology that finally occurred with the news cameras rolling yesterday will begin to jump start that process of reconciliation.

Black CDU Politician In Germany Getting Death Threats

No matter where we reside in the world as part of the African Diaspora, sooner or later, despite our best efforts, racism will rear its ugly head and we'll have to deal with it.

That message was driven home once again after I read on CNN.com and watched the news story about 45 year old Zeca Schall. He's a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling Christian Democratic Union party, was born in Angola, moved to Germany to live in 1988 and became a German citizen in 2004.

Schall has been named as a CDU expert for the integration of minorities.

I have much love for Germany. I took German in high school and I'm fascinated by its history, scientific and technological prowess, its politics, its people and its culture.

It's also where some world transgender history was made. Much of the research that made it possible for us to deal with our gender issues was done by people such as Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld.

But there is that twelve year period from 1933-1945 in which Germany lost their damned minds and succumbed to right wing madness. They elected that failed Austrian painter and author of Mein Kampf as chancellor to the detriment of Germany and the world.

I'm also concerned about what's happening to Schall because I have family members who live in Germany. Schall resides in Thuringia, a state bordering the Czech Republic that used to be part of the former East Germany.

While its not as problematic in the western states that made up the former West Germany where my cousins reside, in those five eastern states they still have problems with fascist and racist behavior.

There was an October 1993 incident in Oberhof in which African-American luger Robert Pipkins was verbally and physically attacked by 15 neo-Nazi skinheads while visiting a disco during an international luge competition. Duncan Kennedy received facial and chest injuries while coming to the aid of his teammate.

The denizens of Oberhof were so disgusted by the incident the then mayor of Oberhof sent a letter of apology to then President Bill Clinton. The owner of the disco offered to treat both American lugers to free drinks and admission during their next visit to the town.

Schall has attracted the ire of a far-right anti-immigration German party. The National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) is channelling their inner Nazis and called on him to leave the country.

The NPD has been under surveillance by Germany's Office for the Protection of the Constitution for alleged contacts with illegal neo-Nazi groups. However, past efforts to ban the party have failed on technicalities.

But judging by their rhetoric, they ain't exactly rolling out the welcome mat for him either. A statement posted on their website said, "The CDU seems to be realizing that even after years of re-education, negroes cannot be accepted as permanent guests in our state."

Schall has the support of the CDU and the denizens of his adopted hometown of Hildburghausen, where he is a volunteer firefighter. But even the residents admit they still have some rockheads who want to turn the clock back to 1933.

The situation escalated to a worrisome level Wednesday when the NPD held a rally in Hildburghausen. They attempted to get to Schall's home but police dispacted to protect him thwarted the attempt.

NPD Party Chairman Udo Voigt claims in a press rel;ease all they wanted to do was speak to Schall "and persuade Mr. Schall that he is needed more in Angola than in Germany."

Yeah, right.

Because of the numerous death threats he has received in the runup to this state election in Thuringia, Schall has been pulled from campaign events because the CDP feels it's too risky for him to do them.

Schall told CNN he had never before been subjected to such a level of racial hatred.

"I am shocked," he said Thursday at a campaign event in Erfurt, the capital of Thuringia. "I simply cannot believe that people would do this to fellow humans."

"I have police patrolling at my house day and night, and some officers stay in my house overnight," he said.

Schall, who appears on a CDU election poster, said he is scared but won't be intimidated by far right thugs.

Nevertheless, I'll still be saying a little prayer on your behalf for your safety.

Ah Kua Show Video

I mentioned that I was honored to be asked by my sis Leona Lo to write a comment that appeared in the Ah Kua show program.

I was pleased to see this video of a television interview with my sis about the show.

Congratulations on a sold out and successful three night run.

First Day Of School

Thursday marked the first day of the 2009-2010 school year for JCPS students.

I was aware of it because I have a middle school two miles up the road from the house. There's constant bus traffic up and down the street in the morning starting around 6 AM and later in the afternoon when school lets out.

I also realized that with the start of the new school year, for the next two weeks the Louisville Po-Po's will be patrolling that school zone. They will be passing out expensive reminders to peeps who fail to remember that the school zone speed limits are back in full effect.

It also means that one of the things that induces homesickess for me will be cranking up as well: high school football season.

Texas high school football is the bomb and a major part of Texas culture. It's so awesome that a book and a movie was written about one of the legendary programs in the Lone Star State, the Odessa Permian Panthers.

Attending a predominately Black high school means you not only get the quality football, but you get a slamming halftime show as the bands try to outdo one another in a high energy, high stepping, soulful musical performance guaranteed to get you dancing in the stadium bleachers. Oh yeah, can't forget about the majorettes shaking what their mamas gave them as the drum majors high step all over the field.

It's also cool going to one of the various stadium complexes around the state and knowing that just a few short years from now, some of the kids you're watching today may be playing on an NFL team tomorrow or being inducted in the NFL Hall of Fame.

Here in Kentucky high school football is about as predictable as something stupid coming out of Sarah Palin's mouth. It's either Catholic private schools Louisville Trinity, Louisville St. Xavier or occasionally Lexington Catholic that win the Class 5A title with nauseating regularity. Sometimes Louisville Male, a Lexington area public school or one from another part of the state will crash the party to face off against either Trinity or St. X.

The first day of school makes me wax nostalgic sometimes for my own long gone school days. I remember when it was me walking to school with my brother and our friends carrying my shiny new lunch kit in elementary school, ready and eager to tackle the challenges of a new school year.

I remember my days in junior high meeting the challenge of heightened academic expectations and counting the days until I started high school.

In addition to reminiscing about my disco-era sojourn through those angst and anxiety filled high school years in which I was wrestling with my gender issues, sometimes I can't help but wonder what it would have been like to matriculate throughout my school days on the other side of the gender fence.

To my transpeeps matriculating through the various levels of school right now, keep your head and grades up and get that paper. It'll make your life much easier later.

The first day of school also served as a reminder that my 30 year high school reunion is rapidly approaching and it's one I'm looking forward to. I've already won the 'Most Changed' Award at the 20 year one back in 2000. The only one I'm looking forward to competing for next year is the farthest distance traveled to attend the reunion.

To those kids matriculating through school now, may you have a wonderful, challenging and exciting school year. For those of you who are in your senior year of high school, may it be a memorable one as well.

Shut Up Fool! Awards-The Conservalies Continue Edition

I'm back online and rarin' to go after a frustrating week without Computer Prime or the backup laptop I was using until a few days ago.

Didn't keep me from monitoring the news and watching all the madness surrounding the health care debate and the GOP's shady tactics to drown out the voices of people like myself who are in favor of universal single payer health care, AKA 'Medicare for All'.

As our Shut Up Fool! awards mascot Mr. T has noted on many occasions, fools are everywhere. We definitely have a bumper crop of them, whether it be the Birthers, the Deathers, Lou Dobbs, Glenn Beck, Faux News, Rush Limbaugh, Michael Steele, Sarah Palin...you get the drift.

Our Shut Up Fool! award for this week goes to all the stupid predominately vanilla flavored people who have allowed themselves to be bamboozled into showing their racist azzes at the various town hall meetings held this month.

You are doing so at the behest of conservative K Street lobbying firms, Faux News, right wing hate radio, HMO's who want to stay between you and your doctor and continue to make obscene profits off the current broken system and the GOP who gets paid mad loot to thwart any meaningful legislative reform as they've done for decades.

Once again you information challenged people are being played, manipulated, hoodwinked and bamboozled again to vote against your own economic interests because you're 'scurred' of the current occupant of the White House.

Bamboozled health care reform opponents, shut up, fools!

Busy Drama Filled Weekend (And Week)

You probably noticed loyal TransGriot readers that I didn't post as much as I normally do this week or last weekend.

It's not that I didn't have anything to talk about or that I was in need of a writing break. I was more than a little irritated that I was on the cybersidelines with all of the breaking news and other assorted madness percolating on the net and elsewhere. The problem was the borrowed laptop computer I was working with went down.

Unfortunately I was working on a post last Friday at the exact moment Blogger was getting cyberattacked. A major file was corrupted that knocked me offline for a few days. To complicate matters my job called asking if I could cover an open shift and I ended up squeezing 36 hours in over a three day period.

However, during my work and at home downtime I did get the opportunity to jot my thoughts down on a notepad. Over the next few days, weeks and months you'll get to see what I came up with in this space.

Since the laptop was being worked on, couldn't take it with me to compile those thoughts that came to mind while I was at work. In addition, thanks to the recent flood we had here in Da Ville, the public library computers aren't an option for the next several weeks because the system servers were housed in the basement of the main library building downtown that flooded.

My computer guru Polar excels at and earns his living cleaning up electronic messes, so I had to patiently wait until he got some time in his busy life to deal with it.

I just received Computer Prime today. The replacement motherboard didn't work, so it had to be sent back to the manufacturer. Polar received the new new motherboard, and thanks to his hard work Computer Prime is ready and better than ever.

I have a much larger hard drive, new power supply, new DVD/RW drive and memory to spare to make Computer Prime run faster.

As always, thank you and know that I deeply appreciate you loyal readers for spending your valuable web surfing time here at TransGriot. Thanks to those of you who are moved enough by my writing to comment on the various posts as well.

Big thank you to Polar for everything you've done to get Computer Prime literally back up to speed. Know that I deeply appreciate it.

Speaking of back up to speed, the break is over, and it's past time for me to get back in the blogging game

Rest In Peace Stephanie and Ukea

Today is the anniversary of the brutal killings of transteens Stephanie Thomas and Ukea Davis.

They were best friends who did everything together. They were extremely close, transitioned at the same time after meeting at a local Washington organization for GLBT teens called SMYAL. They transitioned together and shared an apartment.

They also unfortunately died together in a hail of bullets on the same Washington DC street corner where transwoman Tyra Hunter had the fatal car accident that led to her death a few years earlier.

The perpetrators of this heinous crime have yet to be brought to justice, and I hope and pray that one day they are.

Rest in peace ladies. we will not rest until all transpeople are free to openly live their lives without the threat of violence hovering in the background.

We will never forget you ladies and all the other transpeople who have paid the ultimate price just to be who we are.

It's' My America' Too

Fear of a Black President is making the Stupid GOP White Sheeple lose their damn minds and show their latent racism for the whole world to see.

I caught the video of a woman at a Little Rock, AR town hall Blue Dog Congressmen Mike Ross (D-AR)and Vic Snyder (D-AR) were jointly holding. She tearfully stated she was distressed at what has happened to 'my America' and saying she wanted to take 'her country back'.



Note to all you people. It's my America too. I was born here, educated here, and have to pay my taxes every April 15 like you do. Now that I have an occupant of the White House I can be proud of for the first time since 1993 and who also shares my ethnic heritage, y'all wanna start trippin'.

Last time I checked a map, LA, Houston, New York, New Orleans, and Miami were all inside the borders of the United States. America does not equal to conservative, sacrilegious, rural/suburban dwelling, gun fetishist, GOP voting White Anglo-Saxon.

I'm more than disgusted and tired of this vanilla flavored meme popping up in our national discourse. There are 300 plus million people who call themselves Americans and we ain't all White. We pay taxes, serve in its military, and have done more than our share to help this country grow and prosper. Get used to the fact that we voted on November 4 to take this country in a different direction. It's past time that our policy desires and priorities are pushed with our tax dollars as well and are front and center in the national discourse.

We were more than a little pissed when you people were in control and fracking the country up that we spent 8 years painstakingly cleaning up from the Reagan-Daddy Bush years. Now that President Obama is cleaning up Junior's mess you conservatives are all of a sudden 'concerned about the deficit'.

At least this man is tackling the problems you peeps refused to deal with. What's making you even more upset is that it's your worst nightmare, an intelligent Ivy league educated Black man with his summa cum laude Princeton educated wife that's succeeding.

So keep crying those crocodile tears lamenting the America you lost. Good riddance to that Jim Crow ridden America and welcome to the 21st century.

If you want to be pissed at somebody, aim it at the conservatives who look like you and bamboozled you into repeatedly voting against your own economic interests in the first place.

Not Feeling 'Ze' and 'Hir'

There are some people in the trans community who use alternate gender neutral pronouns to describe themselves such as 'ze' and 'hir'.

While that may work fine for them it doesn't for the Phenomenal Transwoman. I'd be willing to bet more than a few of my transsistahs and transbrothas share my sentiments as well.

My beef with the alternate pronouns is fundamentally simple. We transpersons have a tough enough battle just getting people in general to use 'he' and 'she' property in our presence.

I and other African-American transpeople have a battle with fundamentalist elements of our community just to recognize we transpeople exist. My transpeeps are focused on getting our own community ejumacated' to use the proper pronouns.

Besides, I've spent a lot of time, treasure and effort to make body and gender identity match. I've worked hard for that 'she' pronoun and I'm not willing or ready to give it up just yet for 'ze', 'hir' or whatever comes up next.

Nope, I'm not feeling the alternate pronouns. She, ma'am, Miss, Ms. or madame works just fine for me.

Shut Up Fool! Awards-The Here Comes The Judge Edition

Yesterday we witnessed a historic moment in our country's history as Judge Sonia Sotomayor was confirmed in by the Senate by a 68-31 vote.

Read it and weep, Repugnicans. Sonia Sotomayor is the 111th person to become a Supreme court justice and the era of white male conservatives getting Supreme Court vacancies is thankfully over. You peeps spent so much time letting your white sheets show in opposing this eminently qualified nominee that you've driven GOP support for the GOP down to nearly African American levels at 4%.

I guess y'all think the Latino community will forget about all this BS before the 2010 election cycle.

Dream on. The African-American community still hasn't forgotten about Hurricane Katrina and all the other GOP political atrocities aimed at us over the years.

Now it's time to see what fools or fools who exhibited less than judicious behavior and let their stupidity and ignorance reign supreme.

As usual, there were many worthy candidates, several repeat ones and several Shut Up Fool! of the Year candidates.

This week's fool is Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO). He held a town hall meeting in his district a few days ago. While commenting on the crap that his Democratic colleagues are facing from astroturfed 'protesters' during their town hall meetings he cracked lynching jokes.



Ain't nothing funny Rep. Akin about lynching. But then again, why am I not surprised it's coming from a monoracial party whose motto is Whiteness uber Alles?

Rep. Todd Akin, shut up fool!

Black Transwomen Contestants Disrespected On America's Got Talent

There's no easy way of putting this. We are trying to find an act that can represent America on the world stage, and from where I sit a bunch of lip syncing old drag queens who can't dance is not...not what America needs right now.

Thanks to Renee at Womanist Musings I was alerted to this latest steaming pile of transphobia on our nation's airwaves.

Transpeople such as the Diva League have dreams and aspirations just like anyone else in this country. It was tough enough for them to make it to that stage to begin with. But to perform and then get disrespected on national television had to hurt.

You also have to love the vanilla flavored arrogance of Piers Morgan as well. News flash, Piers. America doesn't need another Simon Cowell wannabee either.

Since you're British Piers, remember who won the 1998 Eurovision Song Contest? It was an Israeli transwoman named Sharon Cohen, AKA Dana International.

South Korea proudly embraces Harisu as well along with the rest of Asia, so I think the world is more than ready for a talented African-American transwoman (or transman) to enter the world's stage.

Hopefully GLAAD will be giving Piers Morgan and the peeps at America's Got Talent a call soon.

Remembering Tyra Hunter

In the midst of this bruising battle to fundamentally reshape our health care system, those of us on the trans side of the spectrum definitely need to be paying attention to and help shape a positive outcome for it.

While we pay attention to the inside the beltway shenanigans of those wishing to kill the reforms at the behest of their insurance company paymasters, it's time once again to focus on another inside the beltway travesty that happened in 1995.

Today is another marking of the sad anniversary of transwoman Tyra Hunter's death.

Tyra didn't die in a hail of bullets like Stephanie Thomas and Ukea Davis would on that same Southeast DC street corner years later. Her death was preventable.

She was in a car accident at the intersection of 50th and C Street on the way to work. Because of a transphobic EMT named Adrian Williams, she is no longer walking this Earth today or doing her clients hair.

Rest in peace, Tyra. As long as TransGriot exists I'll never allow the story of what happened to you die. It's past time that my fellow African-Americans hear it and realize that their irrational faith-based hatred of transpeople carries a cost as well.