Diane Sawyer To Become ABC World News Anchor In 2010

And then there were two.

In some news that will make many peeps in Da Ville happy, Diane Sawyer will be leaving Good Morning America and taking over as the anchor for 'ABC World News' in January 2010.

Current anchor Charles Gibson will be retiring at the end of the year after 35 years with ABC. He took over the ABC World News anchor duties after the 2005 death of longtime anchor Peter Jennings and Bob Woodward was injured while reporting in Iraq.

White Sawyer's ascension to the ABC desk and Katie Couric already ensconsed in the legendary CBS News anchor chair that Walter Cronkite once occupied, that means in 2010 two of the three original television networks as of 2010 will have women sitting at their anchor desks.

NBC still has Brian Williams helming their rating leading NBC Nightly News, with ABC a solid second in the ratings.

No word yet as to what's going to happen with Diane's soon to be former gig at Good Morning America, where Robin Roberts is one of the co-hosts.

Maybe ABC will do the logical thing and slide Robin into the lead chair at GMA.

At any rate, congratulations to Diane Sawyer. She's from Louisville, and the peeps here are ecstatic that she's going to get the ABC News anchor chair.

That's A Man*

One of the things that hasn't been talked about yet is the devastating effects of these gender tests on the people that fail them.

Imagine that one day for whatever reason, athletic competitions, et cetera, you take a medical test that you expect will confirm what you know and have deeply felt since birth. You were raised as female, you have no doubts about your gender identity, and your body and your reflection in the mirror confirm that.

Now imagine how you would feel if the results of that gender test aren't quite what you expected.

In 1967 Ewa Klobukowska was preparing to compete in the European Cup Championships being held in Kiev. She was the co-holder of the then women's 100m world record at 11.1 seconds. She'd won a bronze in the 1964 Tokyo Games along with a relay gold medal.

Then her chromosome test came back. Because she had "one chromosome too many," she was a man*.

She was stripped of her world record, her Olympic medal and barred from international competition.

A year later it was Erika Schinegger's turn. In 1966 she'd become the World Cup skiing champion and subsequently a national shero in that skiing mad country.

Schinegger was one of the favorites to win gold at the upcoming 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France until her gender test came back with results shocking to her.

Turns out Erika was chromosomally male due to an intersex condition. That condition was missed at birth and she was raised as a girl. After discovering this information, Erika transitioned to become Erik, competed on the men's skiing tour for a few years, married in 1975 and now runs a ski school.

Spanish sprinter Maria Jose Martinez Patino arrived in Kobe, Japan, in 1985 to compete at the World University Games. She'd passed previous genetic sex-determination tests, but in this instance she'd forgotten her Certificate of Femininity and had to retake the test.

She failed it after discovering she had androgen insensitivity syndrome (AIS) and was a woman with 46XY chromosomes.

The failed test had devastating and humiliating consequences in Patino's life. Not only was she barred from competing for several years, she lost an athletic scholarship, watched her boyfriends walk out of her life and ultimately, the chance to compete in the 1992 Olympics being hosted in her country.

Patino lost time during her peak athletic competition years fighting to regain her eligibility. It cost her a chance to qualify for the Barcelona Games as she failed to qualify for the Spanish team by hundredths of a second.

Patino retired from athletics, picked up her PhD and is now an university professor.

Santhi Soundarajan was an up and coming runner who held the Indian national record in the 3000m steeplechase and was the 800m silver medalist at the 2005 Asian championships.

Her world as she knew it came to an end after she repeated her silver medal winning performance at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, Bahrain. She underwent a gender test and failed it.

She went from being a potential medalist at the Beijing Games to being stripped of her Asian Games silver medal. Despondent over the test, she reportedly attempted suicide in September 2007. She regrouped and became a successful running coach in India.

So as South Africa's Caster Semenya and the world awaits the results of the gender test, it is with this backdrop of negative history what her potential fate will be if it comes back with a negative result. At the same time, it also lets her know that there is life after a adverse gender test.

But it points out once again that in humans, there is a extremely fine line hormonally that separates male from female.

It's past time we recognize that.

Big Sis Taken To Limit In 2009 US Open Match

The 2009 US Open started yesterday in Flushing Meadows, NY and will be running until September 13.

You know I'll be watching as my favorite tennis playing siblings battle the women's tennis world and their haters to capture another major tennis title.

While number 2 seed and defending US Open champ Little Sis opened play by cruising to a straight set 6-4, 6-1 win over Alexa Glatch, Number 3 seeded Big Sis had a rougher time.

She's probably humming Destiny's Child's Survivor after spending 2 hours and 44 minutes outlasting Russia's Vera Dushevina 6-7 (7-5), 7-5, 6-3 at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

In their careers, neither Venus or Serena has ever lost in the opening round of a Grand Slam tournament. But Dushevina came extremely close to knocking out Big Sis.

Venus dropped the first set in a 7-5 tiebreaker. She led 5-3 in that tiebreaker until being rattled by a foot fault call that wiped out a great serve that would have given her a 6-3 lead. She also called an 8 minute injury timeout early in the first set at 2-1 to deal with her left knee in addition to struggling with her second serve.

She found herself down 5-4 in the second set just serving to stay in the match and fell behind love-15. The number 47 world ranked Dushevina found herself just three tantalizing points away from pulling off a major upset.

But as Houston Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich once said, "Never underestimate the heart of a champion." Big Sis dug deep and won the next seven games to even the match and take control of the match by building a 4-0 third set lead enroute to winning the match.

If the Williams sisters continue their winning ways, they would unfortunately meet in the semifinals of this tournament. They are on the same side of the 2009 US Open women's singles draw.

The Williams sisters last won the US Open women's doubles championship in 1999, and are seeded fourth in this tournament.

Hopefully Big Sis gets the kinks out of her service game while playing some doubles. She had ten foot faults in that match, and there are concerns about whether her left knee will hold up from the pounding its going to take from the hard court surfaces at the Billie Jean King Tennis Center.

Stay tuned to find out if Little Sis makes it back to back US Open singles titles, if Big Sis finally wins a major and they capture their first US Open women's doubles championship in a decade.

When It Pertains To Transpeople, Do You Media Peeps Even Read The AP Stylebook?

One of the things I have griped about constantly since the founding of my blog in 2006 is the rampant use of incorrect pronouns by the media when it comes to writing news stories on transgender people.

Before I get started, let me point out what the AP Stylebook, the professional journalist's Bible, has to say about covering transgender people.

transgender-Use the pronoun preferred by the individuals who have acquired the physical characteristics of the opposite sex or present themselves in a way that does not correspond with their sex at birth.

If that preference is not expressed, use the pronoun consistent with the way the individuals live publicly.

Tyli'a looked like a woman, lived her life as one and died as one.

So with that being said, how the hell did Tyli'a Mack become a 'transgender man'?

I know where the misguided usage of this term originated. It came from our scientifically challenged 'christian' wingnuts, who refer to trans women that way in their literature and hate sites.

Newsflash for the scientifically illiterate. A transgender man (or trans man) is a person born in a FEMALE body who transition to male. A transgender woman (or trans woman) is a person born in a MALE body who transitions to female.

Tyli'a Mack is the latest edition to the pathetically long list of transwomen who have paid the ultimate price for being their true selves. About 70% of the fallen transpeople memorialized on the Remembering Our Dead list are transpeople of color.

Tyli'a was stabbed to death August 26 along with another trans person who was critically injured during a daytime incident that occurred in Washington D.C.

Washington D.C. has a long history of African descended transpeople not only being killed, but being the centers of media attention dating back to Tyra Hunter's 1995 death after a car accident..

So it's not like the Washington D.C. media isn't familiar with trans people and our issues in Chocolate City. But they, along with other media outlets around the country continue to get the pronouns wrong or horribly mangle the story because of ignorance on transgender issues, their own personal prejudices or a combination of both.

In Tyli'a Mack's case, the media got it horribly wrong.

Christine H. one of my TransGriot readers, e-mailed me August 31 with her observations about the Mack case.

"I watched the original NBC news coverage of the story and I think there's an important aspect that The Sexist left out. In addition to identifying the victims as "two transgendered men" instead of as women, NBC reported that police were investigating the possibility of the women stabbing each other in a fight. In fact, in the report that I saw, that was the only possible motive that NBC gave. It seems unlikely for two people in a fight to cause such major injuries to each other (one resulting in death, the other critically injured) and I can't imagine what gave NBC news that idea."

Nice, they're blaming the victims as well. And if what the NBC affiliate is reporting is correct, shouldn't the D.C. PD be spending their time looking for the waste of DNA who committed this hate crime?

Nope, instead the various D.C. media outlets are engaged in playing a public back and forth blame game with the DC Po-Po's because the DC transgender community is rightfully pissed about how Tyli'a Mack and the other transwoman were disrespected.

But that still doesn't take away the fact that despite clear guidelines for reporting on transgender people, the media continues to get it wrong because cisgender reporters don't ask enough of the right questions.

Maybe it's time for the media to do what they did back in the day. When they realized they needed Black reporters to cover the Civil Rights Movement and other breaking news in the Black community where White reporters couldn't go, they hired Black reporters to do so.

It's time for media outlets to hire transgender reporters to cover these issues.

Seems like it's the one way we trans people can insure that we won't face the recurrent pronoun problems. In addition, our issues and concerns will get the sensitive, respectful coverage they deserve.

Crossposted to Feministe

70th Anniversary Of Nazi Invasion Of Poland

Today marks the tragic 70th anniversary of the start of the Nazi invasion of Poland that kicked off World War II.

It lasted six years, resulted in 110 million people from 75 nations wearing the uniforms of their military, and 45 to 80 million people dying as the result of Adolf Hitler's dream to rule the planet.

Poland was first to fall to the German Blitzkrieg tactics as five German armies attacked it from three sides. The Poles fought hard, but were outgunned and outmaneuvered by the new German warfighting style.

Warsaw was surrounded by September 8 and put under siege. The Poles repulsed several German attempts to take the city, but with daily bombardment, increasing civilian casualties, dwindling food and water supplies and the invasion of the eastern half of Poland by the Soviet Union, surrendered on September 27.

Thus began Poland's long nightmare under Nazi occupation that would result in 6 million Polish dead and the bloodiest conflict that humankind has embarked on.

Guest Blogging At Feministe Until September 13

Wanted to let you loyal TransGriot readers know that my two week guest blogging stint at Feministe starts today and runs until September 13.

You can check out my initial post over there by clicking this link.

My game plan is to write a mix of posts exclusive to Feministe, some cross posts from TransGriot, and maybe a TransGriot classic or two.

But as always, the goal is to make sure it's thought provoking.

Kerry Washington-More Video

Here's more Kerry Washington video promoting Life Is Hot In Cracktown (which I have yet to see since I'm not in a major city.

Happy Birthday Caroline!

The Caroline I'm referring to in this post is one of our transgender icons. Back in the 70's and 80's she was a Bond Girl, model, author of two books, civil rights activist, a Paris showgirl and even posed for Playboy.

Today Caroline Cossey, AKA Tula is celebrating her 55th birthday.

She grew up in Britain, worked in Paris, Rome and London as a showgirl, had her SRS at 20 and became a sought after high fashion model.

But after achieving her childhood dream of being a Bond girl and appearing in the For Your Eyes Only Bond movie, she was outed by a British tabloid. It derailed her push to become an actress and temporarily sidelined her modeling career.

She fought back by releasing her first autobiography in 1982 entitled I Am A Woman

Upset about the jacked up British laws concerning the legal status of transsexuals in the wake of the Corbett v. Corbett case, in 1983 she filed suit against the British government to get the legal status of transsexuals changed.

While the legal process percolated through the British judicial system she made numerous media appearances and campaigned tirelessly for transsexual civil rights

After seven years, in 1989 her case reached the European High Courts in Strasbourg, France, where they ruled in her favor. The conservative British government promptly appealed it,

She got married in the wake of the court ruling to businessman Elias Fattal. Soon after she'd returned from her Caribbean honeymoon, the same tabloid that outed her earlier, News of the World, did so again.

During this ugly period, her marriage to Fattal was annulled, her car was sabotaged, and she received death threats. To top it all off, in 1990 she received an adverse ruling from the European Court that reversed her win from the year before.

Despite all the drama swirling around her, she released her second autobiography, My Story and resumed her modeling career.

It does end happily for her. In 1992 she met and married Canadian David Finch and has since moved to the States.

Happy birthday to Caroline Cossey, another one of our transgender icons. May you have a nice quiet stress free day down in Georgia.

I hope to one day get to meet you in person and tell you how much of an inspiration you were to me growing up.

Happy 173rd Birthday H-Town!

Happy 173rd birthday to my hometown!

It was on this day that New York entrepreneurs Augustus and John K. Allen founded the city on 6,653 acres of land near Buffalo Bayou.

They named it after Sam Houston, the hero of the Texas Revolution and the 1836 Battle of San Jacinto. It briefly became the capital of the Republic of Texas from its founding until it was moved to Austin in 1839.

It is the county seat of Harris County, the largest city in Texas with 2,208,140 residents and the fourth largest in the United States.

It has a fascinating history, and I'm proud to note that African-Americans have played a major role in driving it as well.

Hopefully my hometown will be making some more history this November by electing its second woman mayor in Annise Parker.

Too bad I'm not there to celebrate it properly by heading to Frenchy's and scarfing up a Campus Special or grabbing some Shipley's Donuts.

Missing You, Michael

Today would have been Michael Jackson's 51st birthday, and it still seems surreal to talk about him in the past tense.

As the events of his last day begin to unravel and the stories get out, we're learning more about what led up to his untimely death.

But it still doesn't change the fact that when he was onstage, he was the King Of Pop and a first class entertainer.

But it speaks to the fact I was spoiled. I didn't realize the quality type of music I had growing up and the sheer volume of music legends that graced my teen and early adult years. I'm becoming aware of it as these peeps leave us and what we have currently pales in comparison to them.

And it's sad to realize that not only is Michael Jackson gone, there won't be another singer like him in my lifetime.

Katrina Plus Four

Today is the fourth anniversary of the devastating landfall of Hurricane Katrina in the New Orleans area.

I spent two years living on the West Bank and was there when Hurricane Betsy whacked the city in 1965. I still have friends and my godsister in the area.

I still find it amazing that four years later the GOP and assorted conservaidiots are still trying to have it both ways in the wake of this disaster. Eben on his way back to Texas in the waning days of his presidency Junior was trying to rewrite history and claim their response was timely.

The only timely response that came from the Bush misadministration was how many no bid contracts they could shovel at their cronies and how they could do a 'heck of a job' using this disaster for GOP political purposes.

On one hand they whine it wasn't their fault that Junior's goverment massively failed the citizens of New Orleans, it was Governor Blanco and Mayor Nagin

The evidence says otherwise. Gov Blanco and Mayor Nagin did everything possible on their ends to prepare for the disaster.

It's all on you conservaboys and girls who hate government and routinely spout that 'government can't do anything right' conservaabull.

Maybe you should truthfully restate your pet phrase. It's CONSERVATIVE run governments that can't do anything right.

We still have New Orleans residents living in FEMA trailers while others were part of the largest relocation of African descended people since the Great Migration.

The area is still slowly recovering from the storm, but for many people it will never be the same as it was pre-Katrina.

Say a prayer today for the people that didn't survive the storm, and for the people in the area who are still struggling to rebuild their lives in the aftermath.

Words Mean Something – And So Do Letters

TransGriot Note: This is a guest post courtesy of another one of the people in the community I have much love and admiration for, trans historian and attorney Katrina Rose.

This was originally posted at ENDAblog,

Engaging in historical revisionism must give some people a buzz comparable to Pineapple Express.

Exhibit 639,172,825: Former Scampaign head Tim McFeeley.

Ted Kennedy’s leadership in defense of the civil rights and aspirations of LGBT Americans has been remarkable, and his death leaves us without our fiercest champion in the United States Senate. The value of one strong advocate in the Senate — someone who will use every parliamentary, personal and political lever to preserve, protect and defend an issue — cannot be overstated, and Senator Kennedy was the LGBT community’s lion-hearted advocate.

Whether working with Republican Senator Lowell Weicker to secure the first funding to care for people with AIDS, or standing up to the incessant, vile attacks on gay Americans and people with HIV/AIDS from Jesse Helms, or ensuring that all people with HIV are covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Ted Kennedy was the “go-to” Senator for LGBT Americans for over 20 years. Senator Kennedy was not deterred by a lack of political support; whether our side could deliver 50 votes or 5 in the Senate, and whether the public opinion polls favored the gay side or not, if Kennedy felt the issue deserved his support, he would hold the Senate floor as long as necessary to achieve the best result.

Would that be the same ADA that includes not one, but two, explicitly anti-trans provisions – provisions that led to the erasure of pro-trans Rehabilitation Act precedent?

Senator Kennedy was not deterred by a lack of political support….

Really?

Then why was there never even a trans-inclusive ENDA bill in the Senate until three weeks before Kennedy’s death?

And, if folks are keeping track, Kennedy died in 2009 – not 1994.

One day in particular stands out in my mind: July 29, 1994, a hot summer Friday in Washington. The Employment Non-discrimination Act (ENDA) had its inaugural introduction just a few weeks before, and Senator Kennedy as Chairman of the Labor Committee scheduled a hearing on the bill for 10 a.m. We lined up outside the hearing room two hours in advance, and as the doors opened we had to jostle with a phalanx of right-wing ministers led by Louis Sheldon and his daughter Andrea who broke ahead of the line to try to pack the room. A scuffle and angry words brought Capitol police officers to restore calm, and before the hearing officially commenced Senator Kennedy had to denounce the uncivil behavior at a hearing to discuss civil rights. Here was the leader of every major civil rights bill protecting women, ethnic and racial minorities, and people with disabilities taking up the fight once again, this time to stop discrimination in the workplace against LGBT Americans.

Really?

What was Sen. Kennedy – or any senator, much less you Mr. McFeeley – doing in July 1994 to stop discrimination in the workplace against transgender Americans? You know – July 1994? When not only was there not a trans-inclusive ENDA but when trans activists were blocked by a Senate committee from even testifying? When one senator not named Kennedy managed to get the written testimony of two trans activists (Phyllis Frye and Karen Kerin) added to the record?

Yes – that July 1994.

But believe it or not, my posting here is not anti-Teddy. I’m willing to accept the possibility that Teddy may finally have come around – but, honestly, there’s not really much of a record (other than his co-sponsorship of the Senate ENDA bill) to back that up.

But that’s not the issue here.

The historical record, when it is finally in full view, may even provide some room to at least maneuver him out of the Barney Frank category; maybe he meant better than his lack of official action indicates – though, it does seem as though there are too many indicators that he indeed was the Senate roadblock that trans people have asserted him to be for the last decade and a half.

But even that’s not the issue here.

The issue is yet another purple-n-yellow-blooded professional queer creating more nuggets of fake trans-inclusive histories of a trans-exclusive movement and a disgustingly transphobic organization, to muddy not just the water but the air and everything else.

And honestly?

If there’s anyone who should be more pissed off about it than trans people…

its Ted Kennedy.

Shut Up Fool! Awards-The Ted Kennedy Memorial Edition

Edward Moore Kennedy, the Liberal Lion Of The Senate has succumbed to a year long battle with brain cancer. In the midst of mourning his loss, we remember his remarkable political career and life.

Rest well Teddy, you've earned it. Time for you to join John, Bobby, Martin and Coretta.

But there will be no rest for the fool or fools we expose on a weekly basis.

As our Shut Up Fool! Awards mascot constantly reminds us, fools are everywhere.

And to think when I started this feature I was worried I wouldn't have enough of them to give out a weekly award.

While there were many worthy contenders as always including the usual suspects of Beck, Bachmann, Coulter, Limbaugh and Hannity, I have to give this week's award to Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R-KS).

While at a town hall meeting she told the folks assembled there that the GOP still had to find a "great white hope."

"Republicans are struggling right now to find the great white hope," said Jenkins. "I suggest to any of you who are concerned about that, who are Republican, there are some great young Republican minds in Washington."

As examples, Jenkins mentioned Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI).



Yo Lynn, guess you didn't read the GOP memo that you aren't supposed to say aloud what your party's strategy is for 2010 and 2012.

Do stiff arm salutes, yell 'White Power' and court the neo-Confederate and batshit crazy sheeple vote.

Rep. Lynn Jenkins, shut up fool!

Everyday Sheeple

TransGriot Note: It's time for another one of my infamous song rewrites. This one is dedicated to all the hoodwinked and bamboozled batshit crazy people who support the birthers, deathers, and use Fox News and right-wing talk radio as their primary news source.


Everyday Sheeple
Sung to the tune of People Everyday by Arrested Development



I remember the night that is long gone
"Obama won!" we screamed in an excited tone
The celebrations went on all night
And the whole planet thought it was really hype
Outta nowhere comes the GOP hating
Lies, demonstrations and obfuscating

But nevertheless I was pleased
Barack's inaugurated and my soul's at ease
Until a group of birthers started bugging out
Drinking the Kool Aid, going the Klansman route
Saying crap that was really mean
Doing tea bagging with signs obscene

I ignored them cause see I know their type
They're racist, got guns and they're mainly white
They see a Black Democrat trying to do some good
Some of them tryin' to test Obama's manhood

Obama was born in Honolulu
His daddy being from Kenya makes them swear [Damn!]
He's in the White House and they're having fits
And his birth certificate they be dissing it
Pray they come to their senses eventually
But they demand to see parts of his anatomy
Why, Lord, do conservatives hate our country?
All we want is for it to be strong and free

Chorus:
They are everyday sheeple
They are everyday sheeple

Told the sheeple, get your news from CNN
And stop denying that he is a citizen
But they won't stop watching the Fox News
And the birthers and deathers are even more crude

At this point I was mad by then
It's sad these peeps listen to Rush, Lou and Glenn
But that's the story y'all of Republicans
Mad because they lost to an African

Chorus
They are everyday sheeple
They are everyday sheeple