Seth MacFarlane Attacks Transwomen On 'The Cleveland Show'

TransGriot Note: Another on point guest post from my brilliant and talented Canadian homegirl Renee of Womanist Musings


The Cleveland Show continues to be a hot mess. Week after week it targets the most vulnerable members of our society. MacFarlane has no witty repartee for the reduction of White, cisgender males of class privilege. Apparently men that look like him are above ridicule. Often the defence of his actions is that he picks on everyone, however; that is far from the case. The omission of White cisgender males of class privilege, speaks to who he values and whose power he is attempting to maintain.

This week MacFarlane decided to play with gender.

At first it seemed that he was taking a page out of Tyler Perry’s play book. The character Auntie Mama, is quite reminiscent of Madea. She is loud, abrasive and quite foul, taking pleasure in screaming outrageous as she farts loudly. Of course, Auntie Mama is revered by her family. It seems that despite his Whiteness, MacFarlane believes he knows the characteristics of the Black family.

Then the shift occurs, Cleveland discovers that Auntie Mama has a penis and immediately declares her a man. Auntie Mama clearly presents as a woman and lives her life as such and therefore; declaring her a man is highly transphobic. Rather than just admitting that trans people make the decisions that they do because their bodies are not aligned with their gender, Auntie Mama claims to have made the decision to live as woman after the death of Donna’s mother to give her feminine role models.

Cleveland then decides to corner Auntie Momma and demand that she declare that she is a man. Immediately Auntie Momma’s voice deepens and the rest of the episode is spent making jokes about her gender presentation. It was written as though she was deceiving those around her. This meme is particularly dangerous. The deceptive trans woman construction has lead repeatedly to murder and yet MacFarlane decided that this was just pure humour.

Of course, the deceptive trans woman then goes on to seduce a straight cisgender male. When Auntie Momma is outed by Cleveland, his father proceeds to vomit copiously and expresses shame for having in engaged in sex with Auntie Momma. It is absolutely not Cleveland's place to out someone? In the real world, such an action often ends in violence. Why is it necessarily shameful that a cisgender man engaged in sex with a trans woman? The response of Cleveland’s father is based squarely in the trans panic and homophobia. Isn’t MacFarlane great; two marginalizations for the price of one.

This entire episode was devoted to promoting transphobia and homophobia. It is particularly galling that this episode was aired right after the Transgender Day of Remembrance, which commemorates all those who have died because of trans hate in the previous year. When trans people are reduced in this way it leads to violence, which is hardly a laughing matter. Could MacFarlane stand at the graves of Ebony Whittaker, LaTeisha Green, or Taysia Elzy and justify his comedy as ironic? Could he look into the eyes of their grieving family members and even for one moment pretend that they had not suffered a terrible loss?

Not only is violence against trans women extremely common, it is even more so for trans women of color. Some would even declare this ongoing violence a war. In this battle MacFarlane has clearly chosen sides. To ensure that there was no mistaking his intent, he had the character Cleveland, call Auntie Momma a tranny repeatedly. MacFarlane was not giving some kind of ironic commentary regarding the lives of trans women, he was acting to maintain cis supremacy.

There will be those that will continue to defend such hatred as comedy, blind to the fact that the media is an agent of socialization. The media not only reflects common beliefs, it informs them through its active selection of how different bodies are constructed. I could turn off the television and avoid the barrage of offensive images, however; that would not protect me from the people that continually consume this kind of media uncritically. When undeserved privilege is routinely affirmed, it encourages the perpetuation of othering.

We know that othering leads to discrimination, poverty and in some cases violence. With this knowledge, how can we possibly declare sitcoms like The Cleveland show to be harmless? It is particularly galling that this episode played just days after the Transgender day of Remembrance, which commemorates all of those who died because of trans hatred each year. Despite all of the violence the trans community must endure, it was not until this year that someone was finally convicted of a hate crime in death of a trans woman. It took this long because we have demeaned and reduced their humanity. It takes extreme arrogance to laugh in the face of blood and violence. How many death notices do we need detailing the murder trans women to understand that such mockery devalues their lives? MacFarlane will not pay the cost for his actions because he is cisgender, white and male; it can be certain that a vulnerable woman will pay for his hatred.

Moni's Excellent LI Adventure

I had the honor and pleasure of being the keynote speaker for the LITDOR on Sunday. Even though the invitation was extended months in advance, by the time the actual date approached I was ready for another trip out of Da Ville.

I usually don't like flying the day of my speaking engagements because as a former airline employee, I am intimately familiar with ATC delays and how capricious they can be at times. Air travel can be stress inducing enough without adding the concern that you're going to be delayed for an event you are the one of the participants in, but it worked out this time.

I crawled out of bed at 4 AM to get ready for my flight and when I was satisfied, I woke Dawn up at 4:55 AM to drop me off at the airport. My flight wasn't leaving until 6:10 AM and I already knew from the Bryn Mawr trip that the checkpoint doesn't open until 5:30 AM.

Got checked in at the US Airways counter and as I was clearing the security checkpoint I set off the alarm. I'd forgotten to take off my belt, which has a large metal buckle.

I take it off and as a precaution took off my earrings as well. Once again as I walk through I hear the annoying beep again, and realize at that moment it's the underwire bra I'm wearing that was the culprit. I ended up getting hand wanded and pat down searched by a friendly female TSA officer before I could proceed to my gate.

I finally get to the gate as my regional jet flight is boarding, so my timing is perfect despite the unexpected extra time I spent clearing TSA security. Once I get settled in my seat I pulled out my speech and started reviewing and making corrections to it as we pushed off the gate to begin my airborne journey to Philadelphia and my subsequent connecting flight to Islip.

Had a beautiful late fall morning with a beautiful sunrise as we streaked eastward with plenty of visibility. As we crossed the Appalachian Mountains it got a little bumpy and the cloud cover started thickening up below us. I also noted the thick blanket of snow that had been dropped in some parts of the mountains as we got closer to Philly.

We landed and I made my way to my connecting gate. I noted that this Islip leg was going to be on a Dash-8 turboprop, and the last time I'd flown one of those was on the Pittsburgh-Lexington return leg of my trip back home to bury my grandmother in 2002.

I'm a jet fan, be they regional or big birds. I detest turboprops because of the noise, and to make matters worse my seat was right by the engines.

I also knew we were going to be flying for a few minutes of the flight over the Atlantic Ocean before landing in Islip. While I'm blessed with many talents, swimming isn't one of them.

The flight was uneventful but I was nervous from the time the New Jersey shoreline receded from my view until I saw the welcome sight of the southern Long Island coastline.

We finally land at MacArthur International in Islip and Eileen is there to greet me as I exit into the airport's lobby area. After checking in to my nearby hotel and dropping off my bags we went on a mini tour of Long Island.

My flight arrived early, so Eileen and I had two hours to kill before we met the rest of the LITDOR gang at a restaurant in Centerpoint. I ended up taking a little stroll down the Jones Beach Boardwalk, discussing various trans political and other issues with Eileen before we took off for the restaurant.

We also ended up on the iconic Long Island Expressway for a few minutes and I chuckled when we passed the Amityville exit before we walked into the restaurant a little after 1 PM.

The restaurant was in some rolling, forested hills next to a picturesque lake framed with fall foliage. The food was great but my positive mood took a hit a few minutes later.

I'm the only African-descended person at the table with a group of twenty people and one of the waiters has a pronoun problem only with moi. First time is an accident, second time is deliberate, and the third time after I've advised you not to do so is a major indicator you are disrespecting me. At that point the USS Monica goes on Defcon 1 status and launches verbal Tomahawks at the fool or fools in question.

I politely told him the first time I didn't appreciate being 'sirred'. When he did it the second time, had I been back in Da Ville, I would have politely gone verbally nuclear on his behind, found the manager, told them why and walked out. My hosts were appalled and not too thrilled about it either.

But my pissivity over the Afro-transphobic waiter lessened as the LITDOR gang surprised me with a t-shirt and other Long Island themed gifts since it was my first trip there.


I get dropped off at the hotel after 4 PM to take a nap. I'd been up at this point since 4 AM and definitely needed it. I managed to get almost two hours in before I was awakened by the alarm clock to get ready for the LITDOR service that was starting at 7 PM.

Arianna scooped me up and got me to the church for a LITDOR service was a wonderful blend of music, spoken personal testimonies by various LITDOR members and Native American spirituality.

Then it was my turn to do my speech after a wonderful introduction by Juli, who was at the IFGE convention in Philly for my 2006 Trinity acceptance speech that still gets positive commentary three years later.

I was also surprised and flattered to see a July 2007 poem that I'd written on TransGriot called 'Don't Disrespect Me' printed as part of the program.

Not sure if this keynote speech was on the level of the 2006 IFGE one, but the audience liked it, and that's all I really cared about. I was interrupted by applause once before I finished it.

After the names are read by LITDOR members from various corners of the room and the benediction by Rev. Bigelow, we close the service with a rendition of 'Amazing Grace' before Eileen and I jointly blew out the single large candle resting on the altar draped with a transgender flag different from the Monica Helms designed white pink and blue version to conclude the service.

I found out how much the attendees liked the speech at the reception. One person after another sought me out over the next two hours and told me me how much they enjoyed the speech, TransGriot, or both. I also had the interesting and humbling experience of being asked for my autograph by a Black transman named Christian. As I signed his program he expressed how proud he was to see me standing there and eloquently speak about our fallen brothers and sisters.

Ended up in some substantive conversations with many of the attendees on a wide variety of subjects before heading back to the hotel and get some sleep for the return trip back to Da Ville

Said my goodbyes to Eileen and quietly autographed the extra copy of the speech she had for me before I entered the Islip terminal. This time to avoid what happened in Louisville I made sure that any foundation garments I was wearing didn't have metal in them.

On my PHL layover ran into the same ground personnel who had kicked my Islip flight out the day before. I had a wonderful chat with them before I headed for my gate for my Louisville bound flight.

One of the cool things about the trans community is that your family expands, not contracts. I added some new family members and had a wonderful time in the process despite the solemn reason I was on Long Island in the first place.

Once again, I thank the LITDOR gang for inviting me to speak at their event. I knew I had a tough act to follow in Diego Sanchez and the other keynoters who have graced that event. Looking forward to hanging out with the LITDOR gang sometime and somewhere in the near future.

Already Getting Started On The TDOR 2010 List

We in the international trans community are just wrapping up the many TDOR events we held for 2009, and as Leona Lo reports courtesy of The Guardian, there's already been a transwoman death to possibly kick off our 2010 list.

32 year old Brenda Paes was found dead November 20 in her apartment that she shared with her friend Natalie after a mysterious fire.

But this one has the earmarks of a murder, since her roommate Natalie is one of the people involved in a widening political scandal that eventually forced the October 27 resignation of prominent Italian center-left politician Piero Marrazzo.

The widening scandal is now threatening the center-right government of Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.

The scandal started with four members of the Carabinieri, the Italian paramilitary police force offering for sale to the press a video shot August 2 of a sexual tryst involving the former governor of the Lazio region, which surrounds Rome.

Investigators then discovered a longer video allegedly showing Marrazzo in the company of two transsexual sex workers. Brenda admitted to local magistrates investigating the unfolding drama on November 2 that she recorded the images on her mobile phone.

Brenda was found lying naked on the floor in her bedroom loft next to some packed suitcases. She apparently died of asphyxia after a fire started in a bag of old clothes next to the door.

Arousing particular suspicion in what police described as a complex crime scene was the presence of Brenda’s laptop computer partially covered by water in the sink.

One of the people who also shares the hypothesis that Brenda was murdered is none other than Italy's first trans MP, Vladimir Luxuria.

“I immediately thought it was murder. It made me really angry when I heard them talking about suicide,” Ms. Luxuria said. “The person who ordered it is a powerful individual who feared meeting the same fate as Marrazzo. This is a Mafia-style murder and it sends the message: don’t talk.”

Ms. Luxuria said Brenda was a vulnerable person whose photo and address had been published in the press and who had received no protection despite being a witness in a sensitive political scandal.

“Brenda had her mobile phone stolen two weeks ago. No one seems to have asked whether the phone had value as an object or because of the information stored in its memory,” Ms. Luxuria said. The former MP says she knows at least 10 of her political colleagues who availed themselves of the sexual services of transsexuals.

“The person behind this could just be a single individual, but someone in a very high position. I hope this doesn’t end up as yet another Italian political mystery.”

She and others, including Piero Mazzarro's lawyer are calling for Brenda's roommate Natalie to be put under immediate police protection in the wake of Brenda's death.

But sadly, thanks to an unfolding political scandal, Brenda Paes may have also just become the first name we read at the 2010 TDOR ceremonies.

Back In SDF

What's SDF? The IATA airline code for Da Ville.

Back in town after spending a wonderful Sunday afternoon and evening hanging out on Long Island with Eileen, Kyle, Juli, Barbara, Arianna and the rest of the LITDOR gang. Got to sample a little bit of life on Long island before my speech later that evening.

There was someone videotaping it along with Barbara taking photos, so if I get them or a link to the video of the LITDOR event, I'll put them up in a later post.

Once again, I deeply thank the Eileen and the LITDOR organizing committee for extending the invitation for me to speak at your event and being gracious hosts.

Hope y'all enjoyed the speech as much as I enjoyed delivering it.

By the way, if you want the TransGriot to speak at your events, better get to me early. 2010 will be here before you know it.

My flights back here got in early, and Polar was at the airport to scoop up the TransGriot and take her to lunch.

I'm going to crash for a little while, and will talk to y'all about my excellent Long Island adventure later.

2009 LITDOR Keynote Speech

TransGriot Note: This is the text of the keynote speech I'm giving at this minute for the 2009 LITDOR Service in Centerpoint, LI, NY

Moments before taking the podium at the church, was advised we'd added two more names to be memorialized, so I revised what I originally posted to reflect we were remembering 122 people.

Giving honor to God, my gracious LITDOR hosts, my brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, members of this church congregation, my transgender brothers and sisters, friends and allies of our community.

I have been given the honor of delivering the keynote speech for the 2009 Long Island Transgender Day of Remembrance Service.

I thank you for the opportunity of joining the long list of prominent people in our community who have preceded me in having the chance to do so. Many of those people are ones who I admire, and it’s nice to be included in such lofty company.

I thank Eileen and all the wonderful LITDOR people that I’ve had the pleasure to meet today for extending the invitation. I thank you for doing the hard behind the scenes work, the phone conversations and numerous e-mail exchanges to ensure I would be standing proudly before you today on this not so happy occasion.

One of the things I thought about in the days leading up to my speech tonight and also pondered on the plane ride here is that this event is taking place on the anniversary of another senseless death, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

In his televised June 11, 1963 speech on civil rights, he used the words ‘a moral crisis’ to describe what was going on in the nation at the time..

Well, tonight, we are here to call attention to another moral crisis, the senseless loss of people to anti-transgender violence. Tonight we are going to talk about the 120 people that are no longer here on Planet Earth.

One of those people on the tragically long list we are memorializing this year is Lateisha Green, who was killed in Syracuse, NY six days before TDOR 2008.

We’re going to talk about the 122 senseless deaths that have not only taken away a brother, sister, aunt, uncle, son, daughter or cousin, it has deprived our various communities around the world of the contributions our lost brothers and sisters could have made to those societies.

We know in the trans community we have some amazing people in it who have as we say in my community the skills to pay the bills, assuming we’re ever allowed to show that we can do so.

Well never know if the people that were killed would have gone on to become leading educators, made that scientific breakthrough that advances life for all humanity, created art, become prominent social and political leaders in our various nations, or simply become parents raising a family

We'll never know that because they have been violently taken away from us.

It also causes us to say to ourselves, “there but for the grace of God go I’

I know the question many of us are asking ourselves tonight and have been since we started this ongoing gender journey is. ‘Why?’

Why are people so resistant to us simply living our lives or feel so threatened by the existence of transgender people that they have the misguided belief that they can kill us?

Maybe it’s because the religious leaders who are supposed to help us sort out these moral crises are instead exacerbating the problem.

When you have the leader of the Roman Catholic Church make a Christmas Eve speech in which he states, “humanity needed to listen to the "language of creation" to understand the intended roles of man and woman and behavior beyond traditional heterosexual relations was a "destruction of God’s work"., it’s not surprising that there was an alarming spike of transgender deaths in Roman Catholic dominated countries such as Brazil, Honduras, and Guatemala.


When you have a moderate Islamic cleric such as Malaysia’s Mohamad Asri Zainul Abidin say in an interview transsexuals should be fined or jailed if counseling proves ineffective at deterring them from transition, then follow up that misguided comment up by stating, "We must try to reform them and give them advice. We must not allow them to stray. Imagine if this world were filled with transsexuals -- what would happen to the human race?"

It’s not surprising that the result of such comments by Islamic clerics who share Abidin’s opinions is persecution and killing of transpeople in Muslim countries.

When you have fundamentalist Christians, our modern day Pharisees and Sagicees repeatedly violate the Ninth Commandment of ‘bearing false witness against thy neighbor’ because of their personal transphobia or as part of promoting their regressive right wing political agenda, is it any wonder that we have repeated violations of the Sixth Commandment in regards to transgender people?

In case you’re wondering what the Sixth Commandment states, it’s ‘thou shalt not kill.’

It is the words of these so-called religious leaders that are fueling the dastardly deeds of the people who are killing our trans brothers and sisters.

Well, time to school all the faith based haters out there. Increasing reams of medical evidence and recorded history point to the inescapable conclusion that transpeople are part of the divinely inspired mosaic of human life. The sooner y’all get that through your thick heads, the better life will be for all of us on Planet Earth.

Why is this still happening to transgender people? As I know all too well from my people’s tortured history in the Americas and across the African Diaspora, when you ‘other’ a people, promote lies and half truths about them, refuse to understand and learn about their issues, and deny their humanity, the end result is they begin to die at the hands of the people who are actively denying their humanity.

The funny thing about that is as the Forces of Intolerance continue their nefarious mission to dehumanize transpeople, we fight back even harder to ensure that we call them on it when it happens.

Now that I’ve given you the abridged version to the ‘why’ this is happening, it’s time to move on to our solemn task for this evening.

What we are gathered in this church for this evening is to remember the 122 people who lives have sadly been extinguished by anti-transgender violence.

122 people. It’s triple the number we memorialized in 2008.

122 people having candles being lit for them during this service to symbolize each one of the lives that was taken away from us far too soon.

122 people too many

For some of the people we memorialize, we won’t even get the opportunity of reading their names because they were either killed and dumped on the side of a road or for security reason the name of the deceased was not released in order to protect their living relatives.

122 people who died simply because somebody hated them for who they were.

I have to point out that one of the 122 people on this list that we memorialize this year is a cisgender man by the name of Michael Hunt.

He died for the same reason Pfc. Barry Winchell did ten years ago, because his killer didn’t like the fact he fell in love with a transwoman.

Michael Hunt fell in love with Taysia Elzy, and for that he paid with his life.

Dwight DeLee didn’t like the fact that Lateisha Green was daring to live her life in upstate New York openly and unabashedly proud about who she was. A gunshot outside a Syracuse house party fired from a rifle wielded by DeLee wounded her brother Mark and ended her life.

I’m a fan of the science fiction series Battlestar Galactica and I recently viewed the movie entitled The Plan. In one scene Number Six says to Brother Cavil, in regards to the genocidal nuclear sneak attack launched by him and his fellow humanoid robots that destroyed the Twelve Colonies of Mankind and led them on a quest to find a new home on Earth, ‘you can’t declare war on love.’

That’s what I take away from these TDOR 2009 memorial services that took place all around the world on November 20 and here this evening.

We are saying to those who have declared war on transpeople, ‘You cannot declare war on love.’

There is the love our allies have shown for us this week. The love we have shown for each other and we mourn our losses and resolve to work even harder to make the TDOR obsolete. The love that we show for our fallen brothers and sisters.

Love is the most powerful force in the universe, and it endures long after the outer shell of a body that houses our spirits becomes dust that goes back to the earth.

Love is the advantage we have over the Forces of Intolerance and all the other nattering nabobs of negativity who demonize and deny our shared humanity.

It is the love we have for our fallen transbrothers and transsisters that compels us to gather in this church today to mourn their losses, and ensure that we the living never forget the people who died.

JFK Assassination Anniversary

Today is the sad anniversary of the November 22, 1963 assassination of our 35th President of the United Sates, John Fitzgerald Kennedy in Dallas.

Since I have relatives in Dallas, I have visited Dealey Plaza and the area where the assassination happened numerous times

While there are many quotes from JFK that I love, this one about liberalism is perfect answer to conservafools as to why I am a proud liberal.

And yes, I agree with people who state that we need to immediately take that word back from the conservaidiots.


If by a liberal they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people - their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, their civil liberties..if that is what they mean by a "liberal" then I am proud to be a liberal. John F. Kennedy, 35th president of the United States

Rest in peace, JFK. Our country would be a far better place today had you lived.

Leaving On A Jet Plane...To LI

I'm getting my beauty sleep as you read this right now because in a few hours I'll be rolling out of bed for a long day of travel and eventually being the keynote speaker at tonight's LI Transgender Day Of Remembrance event in Centerpoint, NY.

Looking forward to finally meeting Eileen and all the wonderful folks in LI.

If you're in the New York area and can get there, I'd like to meet and greet some of you wonderful people as well.

See you tonight.

Number 24 Coogs Beat Down Memphis

The Number 24 AP ranked University of Houston Cougars shook off their upset loss to Central Florida last week by beating down Memphis at the Rob 55-14.

It's only the second time since the 1991 season that my fave college football team has won nine games in a season, and they have a chance to hit ten wins next week when they play our crosstown rivals Rice.

Case Keenum made sure it was going to happen today. UH scored on eight of its first nine possessions as he went 29 for 39 for 405 yards and five touchdowns in the rout and broke David Klingler's school record for career touchdowns.

Keenum now has 94 TD's with only the game against our crosstown rival Rice remaining on their C-USA schedule

The Coogs also received some good news in addition to improving their season record to 5-2 in the C-USA West Division. Marshall knocked off the C-USA West Division leading SMU Mustangs 34-31 to drop them into a tie for the West Division lead with SMU.

The Cougars already have the tiebreaker over SMU thanks to the earlier 28-15 homecoming beatdown.

I'm not getting too happy yet. They have to take care of business next week against Rice before I can exhale and get happy about the prospects of my boys playing for the C-ISA title.

If they do that, they win the C-USA West Division Championship and they host the C-USA title game at the Rob.

IAAF-'No Discussion Of Caster Semenya's Case At The IAAF Council Meeting '

Well, well, well. We were expecting some serious drama and fireworks at this session of the International Association of Athletics Federations, the world governing body for what we call track and field in the States.

The IAAF Council is meeting in Monaco as we speak. When the Caster Semenya drama first exploded into the world's consciousness in the wake of her historic 800m victory at the World Championships in Berlin, the IAAF indicated they would wait until November and this Council Meeting to make a decision concerning the South African teen's international athletic status.

Peep this press release from the IAAF dated November 18, 2009

The IAAF, the South African Ministry of Sport and Recreation and Caster Semenya’s representatives have been and still are in discussions with a view to resolving the issues surrounding Caster Semenya’s participation in Athletics.

The IAAF will not comment upon the medical aspects of Caster Semenya’s case. The medical testing of the athlete is still to be completed.

There will be no discussion of Caster Semenya’s case at the forthcoming IAAF Council Meeting to be held in Monaco on 20-21 November 2009. No further comment will be made
on this subject until further notice.

The South African Sports Ministry in a statement posted on its website stated that the International Association of Athletics Federations has agreed to allow the 18-year-old Semenya to keep her prize money.

"Because Caster has been found to be innocent ... she will then retain her gold medal," the ministry said.

"Whatever scientific tests were conducted legally within the IAAF regulations will be treated as a confidential matter between patient and doctor," the sports ministry said. "As such there will be no public announcement of what the panel of scientists has found. We urge all South Africans and other people to respect this professional ethical and moral way of doing things."

White that's good news, it has yet to be confirmed by the IAAF. In addition, no definitive decision has yet been made about whether Semenya remains eligible to compete as a woman.

So stay turned, there will be another chapter it seems to the ongoing spots soap opera.

Shut Up Fool! Awards-TDOR Memorial Edition

Today is the 11th annual Transgender Day of Remembrance. This is the day transpeople and our allies around the globe pause to remember and memorialize the 120 people we've lost to anti-transgender violence. This edition of the Shut Up Fool! Awards is dedicated to all of our fallen transpeople for this year.

Now to focus on our weekly exercise in exposing the fools in our midst.

This week it was no contest. Bill O'Reilly gets it.

When you utter the words "I don't care about the Constitution" with cameras rolling and you claim to be a law and order defender...


Well, y'all know the rank hypocrisy of Bill O'Reilly.


Bill O'Reilly, shut the HELL up, fool!

Makes Me Wanna Holler

The last two days I've been participating in panel discussions, putting the finishing touches on a speech for a TDOR event Sunday on Long Island, writing a piece for the glaadBlog that just got published yesterday, and will be attending our local TDOR service tonight.

The classically timeless Marvin Gaye song 'Inner City Blues' that is playing in the background of this YouTube video is encapsulating some of what I'm feeling today



The senseless loss of all these people simply because of who they are really does make me wanna holler.

Semenya's Athletic Fate In Hands Of IAAF Council

Back on September 12, the IAAF released this press statement concerning the Caster Semenya case.

The IAAF has noted statements in recent media articles regarding the athlete Caster Semenya of South Africa.

We would like to emphasize that these should not be considered as official statements by the IAAF.

We can officially confirm that gender verification test results will be examined by a group of medical experts. NO decision on the case will be communicated until the IAAF has had the opportunity to complete this examination. We do not expect to make a final decision on this case before the next meeting of the IAAF Council which takes place in Monaco on November 20-21.

Please note that there will be no further comments from the IAAF on Caster Semenya until that time.

Well, it's that time.

The eyes of the world will be turned in Monaco's direction November 20-21 as the IAAF Council meets. One of the items on the agenda is determining Caster Semenya's competitive international athletic future.



Kind of ironic this meeting will be taking place at the same time trans people around the world will be observing Transgender Day of Remembrance ceremonies.

Here's hoping and praying I and the world will get to see this talented young runner continue her quest toward Olympic glory in 2012.

Retailers, Can You Wait Until After Thanksgiving Before Putting Up The Christmas Decorations?

Last week I headed to the Dillard's in Mall St. Matthews to reload my Fashion Fair makeup and get some other items for my upcoming LI trip.

After breathing a sigh of relief that my Pure Brown foundation shade was in stock and successfully procuring it, since I was just down the street I decided to roll over to the other side of the Watterson Expressway and Oxmoor Center.

It's been a little over six months and ten dress sizes since I last saw some of my former Macy's coworkers. I was curious to know not only what was transpiring there but show off the Coke bottle shape as well.

I entered near the center of the mall and as I strolled through the central plaza heading toward the Macy's end I noticed Oxmoor Center maintenance personnel putting up the mall Christmas tree in the middle of the now shut off water fountain.

When I arrived at Macy's, I noticed some Christmas music was being mixed in with the other regular music selections. I also noticed the posters for the Christmas ad campaign were being put up as well.

One of the things that annoys me is the recent recurring trend of retailers trying to get a jump on their make or break sales season by putting Christmas decorations up before we've even gotten Thanksgiving, or in some cases Halloween out of the way. My local Walgreen's had their Christmas stuff up three days after Halloween was over.

I understand it's been a tough year retail wise. The recession has really hurt and taken out some small and large retailers in the process. Even iconic ones are feeling the pinch.

I understand why they're doing it. The retailers are trying to entice consumers into the stores.

But until we consumers get some raised credit limits and cash lining our purses and wallets, won't be much shopping done until we see sales that make it worth our while to spend our limited cash on or we absolutely, positively need that particular item you're selling.

I love the Christmas season as much as anybody, but damn, Thanksgiving hasn't happened yet. Thank God the radio stations at least hold off playing Christmas music until the day after Thanksgiving, or I'd really be muttering 'bah, humbug' under my breath at regular intervals.

We're going to get assaulted with Christmas commercials, music, the sights and sounds of the season for a month. Can you least hold off starting that onslaught of Christmas commercial cheer until I've at least had time to digest my Thanksgiving dinner?

Never Forget The People Who Died

Never forget the people who died.

That's what the TDOR is all about. To make sure we never forget the people we have lost to anti transgender violence.

We say people because we have folks on our list such as Willie Houston and Pfc. Barry Winchell who died because of ignorant perceptions as well. Barry died because he was dating Calpernia Addams and one of his fellow Fort Campbell soldiers had a problem with that. Willie died because the shooter's homophobia was triggered by him holding his fiancee's purse while she used the restroom.

But the bulk of the people on this sadly growing list are transpeople of color. Black and Latina people make up 70% of the Remembering our Dead list, and once again, the people we memorialize this year are disproportionately people of color.

12 of them resided in the United States, and are part of the 117 names worldwide we are sadly adding to this list.

As long as I'm living on Planet Earth and compile posts for TransGriot, it will be part of this blog's mission to ensure that I cover the TDOR and make sure our fallen transpeople are never forgotten.

Happy Birthday, Tami!

Happy Anniversary of your 29th Birthday Tami!

Today is the birthday of another one of my favorite bloggers, and I couldn't let the occasion slide by with giving her a TransGriot shoutout.

If you've surfed by her home blog What Tami Said or checked out any of her guest posts here or in the other spots she guest blogs at such as Racialicious, you know that she not only is a wonderful and thought provoking writer, she definitely isn't afraid to tell it like it T-I-S is.

And she's cool people on top of that. One of these days I'm going to have to make that drive up I-65 north and hang out with my blogging sister for the day.

Until then Tami, have a very happy and stress free birthday, and may you have many more!

Today Was A Good Day...Sort Of

Bounced out of the house in tastefully dressed full diva mode to head to the U of L Campus at the behest of my fave Women and Gender Studies professor Dr. Kaila Story.

It was for a panel discussion on transgender rights. In addition to the TransGriot, the other people comprising the panel were U of L's Director of LGBT Services Brian Buford, the Fairness Campaign's Chris Hartman, TECK's Yana Baker, Transformations founder Andrea Tucker and Holly Knight of Sienna

The panel was a 3 PM start in the Chao Auditorium and I arrived there at 2:25 PM. I had plenty of time to chill out, use the restroom, check face and get ready for the discussion that would take place.

After the intros by Dr. Story, we had a lively discussion about what jurisdictions covered trans people, delve into some TDOR history and talk about the shady tactics of the Forces of Intolerance in terms of using bathrooms as a scare tactic. It gave Brian a chance to talk about the gender neutral bathroom they have been rolling out on the U of L campus as well and Chris to talk about upcoming state legislative battles.

I got a chance to talk about the differences in transition for African Americans, in addition to point out a gender transition's zero to femininity nature.

Andrea talked about what it was like to be a U of L student and transition, while Holly brought us up to speed about what Sienna, our local gender group was up to and the new direction she was taking it in.

It was an hour and thirty minutes of positivity, and the good vibes only lasted until I got downtown from the U of L campus and on my bus headed home.

Ironically, during the panel discussion I'd talked about how I handled a transphobe several years ago on a TARC bus.

Well, when I stepped on my connecting bus at 4th and Broadway, three African-American kids, were sitting (where else?) in the back of the bus and started tripping.

Normally, Moni has zero tolerance for ignorance but I decided to channel my inner Gandhi and ignore the ignorant. The fools didn't take the hint and upped the ante of transphobic stupidity.

One of the nekulturny trio runs all the way to the front of the bus, whispers in the female driver's ear, then makes a point of grabbing the crotch of her saggin' pants while making a derogatory RuPaul reference.

It was on like Donkey Kong after that. I told her to quit talking about her daddy, which pissed off the youngling to the point she wanted to fight.

I advised her that would not be a wise move, especially in light of the fact I was already a foot taller than her before you add the other three inches from my black patent leather pumps.

The driver tossed all of the transphobic younglings off the bus. Seems as though these kids had been giving her drama all the way into downtown Louisville from wherever she'd picked them up.

With peace and quiet returned to the bus, I settled in for the ride determined not to let ignorant kids spoil my positive mood. A few minutes later my stop approached and the TARC driver said to me before I got off, "Girl, you look good!"

I returned the compliment and wished her a blessed day as I stepped off the bus, pulled my house keys out of my black Liz Claiborne purse and strutted the three blocks home in the fading twilight.

So yeah, today was a good day after all.

What Does Transgender Day Of Remembrance Mean To You?

TransGriot Note: It figures that less than 12 hours after I wrote the TransGriot post talking about the glaadBLOG series of guest posts for the TDOR, mine pops up today.

So as I promised, here it is with a link back to the glaadBLOG as well. Thanks to GLAAD Fellow Amanda Morgan for honoring me with the opportunity to write it.

The Transgender Day of Remembrance exists so that we don’t get so consumed living our own lives, dealing with our own drama and fighting our own battles to live our lives that our fallen brothers and sisters fade from our consciousness. It’s a vehicle to help us remind the world that the people we mourn on this day were somebody’s son, daughter, aunt, uncle, niece, nephew, cousin, or friend.

But what does the Transgender Day of Remembrance mean to me personally?

A Transgender Day of Remembrance is the time that this proud, African descended transwoman pauses from dealing with the hustle, bustle and drama of living my life to do as Dr. King so eloquently put it, some ‘hard, solid thinking’ about the transpeople whose lives were cut short due to anti-transgender violence.

I ponder the painful reality that a large segment of the people memorialized on the list are trans people of color. I lament the loss of the potential positive contributions to our societies these fallen transpeople have, would, could and should have been able to make to our various communities.

I remind myself as we add new names to this tragically expanding list to not forget Stephanie Thomas, Ukea Davis, Chanelle Pickett, Ebony Whitaker, Nakhia Williams and Kellie Telesford and scores of others. I keep in mind as I silently pray for them that the people who brutally murdered them either still haven’t been brought to justice or received the equivalent of a legal slap on the wrist for doing so.

It’s also the time I remind myself, there but for the grace of God go I.

The Transgender Day of Remembrance is a time I get to engage in coalition building activities and education efforts with our allies organized around this event. It’s when I get to see the trans people in my local community I may not interface with on a regular basis, but who will show up for a TDOR before going back to living their lives in the shadows.

It’s the time I refocus my energy to the task of continuing to remind people that trans people are part of the diverse mosaic of human life, and pray that the day soon arrives in which a trans person’s life matters as much as a cisgender* person’s life does.

Time To End Putting People's Civil Rights Up For A Majority Vote

On the surface, allowing petition drives to force referendums and recall votes on unpopular decisions sounds like a great idea. When used wisely, it allows citizens to force votes on questionable governmental deals, horrible policies, overturn specious laws and sweetheart deals.

But unfortunately, far too often over the last twenty years the right wing has been using the referendum process to do preemptive strikes to curtail GLBT civil rights or overturn passed civil rights laws for marginalized groups it doesn't like.

If the abuse of referenda were as prevalent back in the day as it is now, Jim Crow segregation would still be around and women wouldn't be voting.

So what do we do about the situation? As I've said before, the best defense is a good offense. The right wingers aren't the only people who can propose referendum and ballot initiatives.

So I propose we get them to spend money fighting a progressive ballot initiative. It would contain language that would ban the practice of putting people's civil rights up for a majority vote.

You know something, why stop at a ballot initiative or state constitutional amendment? How about having it ensconced in the United States Constitution as well?

What it would do would kill any future attempts at putting amendments on the ballot that have the effect of the majority voting to take away civil rights granted to protect a minority group.

And conservafools, y'all can hate on the idea all you want, but 2050 is coming sooner than you think, and you know what they say about karma.

It's past time for a constitutional amendment that would ban the practice of putting people's civil rights up for a majority vote

Louisville Area TDOR Events

TransGriot Note: Thanks to Tina Storm for compiling the schedule for the 2009 Louisville TDOR events. I will be leading the November 19 workshop luncheon and discussion.

Thanks once again to More Light and the Women’s Center at the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary for being our lead sponsor and gracious host since 2002.


November 10
Movie Night hosted at LPTS Women’s Center 7:00 PM
Normal
Starring Jessica Lang and Oscar nominated Tom Wilkinson

November 12
Transgender 101 Seminar hosted at the Women’s Center 5:00 PM
Speaker to be announced.

November 17
Movie Night hosted at LPTS Women’s Center 7:00 PM
Transamerica
Two Academy Award nominations Starring Felicity Huffman

November 18
Survivors Prayer Vigil hosted at the Metropolitan Community Church 6:00 PM Prayer Service for transgender murder survivors and the TG Community

November 19
Workshop Luncheon: Panel Discussion hosted at LPTS 12:30 PM
In the Winn Center McAtee A & B

November 19
Transgender Day Of Remembrance Exhibit, Performance and Reception hosted by the Office of LGBT Services in the University of Louisville's Cultural Center.
Events start at 5:30 PM. Performance starts at 6:30 PM with reception at 7:30 PM

November 20
Early Morning Meditation Service hosted at LPTS
8:00 AM in the Caldwell Chapel

November 20
TDOR Memorial Service with reception to follow at LPTS
8:00 PM in the Caldwell Chapel


November 21 - 29
Gallery Exhibit: Transgender Images/Transgender Lives, Rogilio 6:00 - 9:00 PM Pedro Photographic Artist, Mari Mujio Transgender Oral Historian;
At: Clare Hirn Studio, 552 East Market St., Louisville, KY


For directions and updated information please visit: www.siennatg.org or http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/event.php?eid=167074236257&index=1


This year's TDOR events are sponsored by More Light and the Women’s Center at LPTS, Transformations, Sienna, Diversity Consultants, Metropolitan Community Church, office of LGBT Services at University of Louisville, and SoTheatrical.

glaadBLOG Guest Blogger Series On TDOR

This week the glaadBLOG is posting a series of articles from various people about the Transgender Day of remembrance and what it mans to them.

And as you probably guessed, the TransGriot was asked to write a piece for that series which I'll post when it publishes on the day it publishes on their site.

It was a pleasure to do so and I thank GLAAD for the opportunity.

While you're waiting for my piece to show up on the glaadBLOG, here are the thoughts on what the TDOR means to Pauline Park and Stefanie Rivera.

I'll add the other links later as they come up.

UPDATE
Sassafras Lowrey
Ethan St. Pierre's Q and A interview