Shut Up Fool! Awards-Day of Silence Edition

Today is the 15th anniversary of the Day of Silence.

It's the GLSEN sponsored event in which students at the middle and high school levels take a vow of silence for the day to call attention to anti-TBLG name-calling, bullying and harassment.

And that's a nice segue into our award We call attention every Friday to the people that need to take a permanent vow of silence because of how stupid they sound on a regular basis.

As usual we had a lot of contenders for this week's award. The GOP, Hannity, Beck, Bigot, oops Bishop harry Jackson, Angela McGlowan, Sarah Palin...

But in the end, I had to choose one winner, and the Shut Up Fool! for this week goes to Sarah Palin's running buddy, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN)

Miss Thang was quoted recently as calling the Obama administration a gangster government. Methinks Michele has the Obama administration confused with the last misadministration.


Michele Bachmann,, shut up fool.

Let's Play FQ Face

Haven't posted any ballroom community video in a while, and need to get back to highlighting it on TransGriot since they are my sisters, too.

Jack Mizrahi and others regularly chronicle and post YouTube videos about the ballroom community. Since I like the femme queen category face and runway battles, thought I'd give you TransGriot readers a taste of it.

Isis Day of Silence Video

Today is the 15th annual Day of Silence sponsored by GLSEN, the Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network.

The Day of Silence involves thousands of students at more than 6000 middle and high schools taking some form of a vow of silence for the day to call attention to anti-TBLG name-calling, bullying and harassment.

My sis Isis King has cut a promo video for it (and y'all know how much I love little sis)



Of course the haters will be out in full force trying to either disrupt it or pulling their kids out of school.

Guess Itawamba Agricultural High School in Fulton, MS will be empty today.

As someone who experienced it firsthand during my school days, may this day be a success one that starts genuine conversations about the serious issue of BTLG school bullying.

Boycott The HRC Atlanta Dinner

TransGriot Note: From Monica Helms, TAVA founder and president


Friends,
On May 1st, HRC will have its local gala dinner here in Georgia. I am urging people not to go, but for reasons that many would not expect me to give. Yes, I am a transgender activist and have been called a leader in the transgender community, but I am coming to you today as an LGBT resident of Georgia.

Georgia's unemployment rate is above the national average. Even people with jobs are struggling because while the cost of living goes up, their income doesn't. We are still in the worst economic disaster since the Great Depression. It is bad out here for Americans, and especially Georgians.

Here are the admission costs for this year's HRC dinner:

* General Admission Tickets: $200
* Federal Club: $75
* Student w/ID: $100
* Mother or Father attending with Son/Daughter: $100
* Elected Official: $100
* Ordained Clergy: $100

This is down from previous years, but is still a lot of money. Two hundred dollars is a car payment for me. It will buy groceries for nearly a month for Darlene and I. It would greatly help Gentle Spirit Christian Church, and many other people.

This is the real reason we need to boycott the HRC dinner. They have taken hundreds-of-thousands of dollars out of the State of Georgia for decades and given nothing in return. When we were having our same-sex marriage struggle in 2004, they blew us off as being a lost cause. This does not seem like a good investment for our pink dollars, but you can always ask an accountant to verify this for you.

On top of that, HRC's track record on a national level is dismal at best. You can't even point to the Hate Crime bill as one of their accomplishments, because it was a grassroots movement that helped get that bill passed in the first place.

Sadly, the first groups who suffer in bad economic times are non-profits and local PACs. For Georgia, that would be Georgia Equality. They have both. What HRC makes at just one of their Atlanta dinners could greatly help Georgia Equality fight for an anti-bullying bill, hate crimes and to fight any anti gay adoption bill. Instead, that money goes to pay for the mortgage on HRC's big building in DC and the salaries of their employees. It takes TWO Atlanta dinners just to pay for the yearly salary of HRC's president. What are you really getting for your money?

Other wonderful local organizations who need the money more than HRC are the Lesbian Health Initiative, Youth Pride, MEGA Family, Juxtaposed Center and AID Atlanta.

I urge you to not give HRC the much needed money that could go to help LGBT people here in Georgia. And, if HRC really cared about the well-being of the LGBT people of Georgia, they would donate the profits of the Atlanta Dinner to the local groups. However, none of us will live long enough to ever see that happen.

Monica Helms
President, Transgender American Veterans Association.

We're Paying Our Dues-So When Do We Get The Privileges Of Membership In American Society?

TransGriot Note: My latest post at The Bilerico Project

Today is April 15 as many of you perusing this post are aware of. With the midnight deadline looming to get that check mailed off to the IRS, depending on whether you owe Uncle Sam or are waiting for a nice refund from the Feds, you have mixed emotions about today.

But I'm going to focus on another aspect of taxes. I was driven to ponder it based upon a quote I recently read from an October 12, 1936 speech President Franklin D.. Roosevelt delivered.

He stated during that Worcester, MA speech that "'taxes, after all, are the dues we pay for the privilege of membership in an organized society."

Well, if that's the case, to paraphrase FDR, when am I and my African descended trans peeps going to get the privileges of membership in American society for the dues we've been paying into it?

It's been a four decade long battle for transpersons in the United States just to have our humanity acknowledged, and even that is questionable depending on when and what day of the week you take a hard look at it.

For trans people of African descent, we continue to fight a multipronged battle not only just to get that recognition in our own community, but inside the white dominated GLBT one as well.

There are days I ponder where we are in the overarching scheme of things as African descended trans people in this country and across the African Diaspora and wonder, is it ever going to get better for us?

My sisters and Latinas are not only paying our federal, state and local taxes, but paying in blood by taking the brunt of the anti trans violence casualties. Unfortunately our sacrifices haven't been translated into significant representation in the leadership ranks of the BTLG organizations that purport to represent trans concerns.

And far too often the political agendas these organizations adopt and pursue don't address our pressing concerns for jobs, jobs, jobs.

When there's money that needs to be raised or melanin is needed for a photo op to show the diversity of the TBLG community, our phones ring off the hook and the e-mails and text messages freely flow.

But let it be a situation in which people need to be hired for leadership in a GLBT organization, testify at a congressional hearing, get invites to the White House or need someone to speak to the media on trans issues, no e-mail or text messages come our way and our phones are silent.

Our taxes paid in many cases have not translated into the political jurisdictions in which we live doing the right thing and passing laws to protect us.

Thanks to the odious tag team of Janice Raymond and Jesse Helms low income trans women since the 80's are barred from using the Medicaid/Medicare system our tax dollars help fund to pay for SRS.

I have yet to see passed the ENDA bill that address our most pressing concern as transpeople of color and give me and every transperson residing inside the United States a fair shot at obtaining gainful employment.

We only just witnessed a few months ago the passage and signing by President Obama of the Byrd-Shepard Hate Crimes Act.

And our lives are disrespected, mocked and treated as wedge issues and political footballs by our so called allies and our enemies.

So I ask the question again I posed at the beginning of this post.

We're paying our dues. When do we not only get the privileges of membership in American society enshrined in the Constitution, but a return on our significant investment in it?


Crossposted from the Bilerico Project

Katie Washington Makes Notre Dame And Black History!

Too many times people focus on the worst my people produce. In addition, sisters don't get much love for doing something positive.

Today I get to proudly pop my collar on behalf on my people and a lovely young woman for a historic achievement.

21 year old Gary, IN native Katie Washington is a senior at Notre Dame University and has bee accepted to Harvard and four other schools for post graduate studies.

Thanks to her 4.0 GPA in biology major and Catholic social teaching minor, Katie will become the first African-American in the 168 year history of Notre Dame to be crowned as the school's valedictorian.

University officials said they couldn’t recall ever having a black valedictorian, and don’t keep record of their race.

Katie will give that valedictory address on May 16.

'I am humbled,' Katie said to the Northwest Indiana Times. “I am in a mode of gratitude and thanksgiving right now.”

'Katie works so hard,' Washington’s mother Jean Tomlin told the newspaper. 'I told her when she went to Notre Dame, ‘You are representing your family, your church and the city of Gary. Make us proud.’

Katie done more than make her family and the city of Gary proud. She made the entire Black community proud.

She'll be heading to Baltimore's Johns Hopkins University in the fall and plans to pursue a joint M.D./Ph.D.

You may want to file the name Katie Washington away in your memory banks. She's a young scholar who may be on the track of making more history.

Congratulations, Katie on the historic achievement! You're also proof along with our spacefaring sistah Stephanie Wilson that sistahs can and do excel in math and science.


H/T The Field Negro

Arrest Made In Amanda Gonzalez-Andujar Murder

The po-po's have finally caught up with the waste of DNA who allegedly strangled 29 year old transwoman Amanda Gonzales-Andujar

Rasheen Everett of Manhattan was tracked down and arrested in Las Vegas on April 9 and brought back to New York Tuesday to face charges. He's also wanted in Brockton, MA for attempting to murder his ex-wife.

Everett is charged him with second-degree murder and tampering with physical evidence.

FYI people, since GENDA hasn't been passed in New York State, Everett isn't eligible for hate crimes charges.

Remember, thanks to Matt Foreman and company dumping trans people back in the day in order to pass the gay only hate crimes law, we ain't covered. Even if trans people were included in current hate crimes law, no evidence has surfaced to elevate this crime to that level.

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown stated that according to the criminal charges, Everett went the apartment of Amanda Gonzalez Andujar in Glendale, Queens, at 8:50 AM on March 27.

Witnesses heard screams and banging consistent with a struggle moments later, and Everett exited the building alone several hours later carrying two bags.

It's suspected Andujar's computer was in one of the bags to conceal the e-mail communication between the suspect and her.

Before exiting the apartment he poured bleach over her body. The autopsy confirmed Andujar died from manual neck compression.

If convicted, Everett faces up to 25 years to life in prison. Anybody wanna bet that his defense attorney plays the 'trans panic defense' card in this case?

I hope not, but I get more cynical with each year that passes.

At any rate, here's hoping that Amanda gets justice.

April 15-Talkin' About Taxes

Those of us in the States are well aware of what today's date represents.

It's the deadline day for paying our taxes to Uncle Sam or filing that extension for extra time to do so.

You have until midnight to get that envelope to your nearest post office, get it postmarked and mailed to the IRS processing center nearest you.

The TransGriot was owed money this year, so I've already filed and I'm eagerly awaiting my refund.

The Tea Klux Klan and their Faux News controllers will be having more 'Hate on President Obama rallies' all over the country disguised as 'tax protests'.

The vanilla flavored conservasheeple keep falling for the same tired meme that's been pimped since Saint Ronald of Reagan days about Americans allegedly being 'taxed to death'.

Yeah, right.

Those 'taxed to death' arguments don't hold water for me when billionaire Warren Buffett, the third wealthiest man in the US, criticizes our tax system by saying he doesn't pay enough. He said during a 2007 New York speech that he paid a 17.7% rate on $46 million dollars of earnings without attempting to avoid paying higher taxes. His secretary, who made $60K, paid a 30% rate on her income.

How fracked up is that?

According to the most recent data compiled in 2005 by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD. based on a family with one wage-earner and two children, only Iceland and Ireland have a lower income tax burden than the United States.

The OECD collects data on 30 member countries and annually calculates what it calls the tax "wedge" for each -- the combined effects of personal income tax, employee and employer social security contributions, payroll taxes and cash benefits.


Tax burdens around the world
Country Single, no kids/ Married, 2 kids

Australia 28.3% 16.0%
Austria 47.4% 35.5%
Belgium 55.4% 40.3%
Canada 31.6% 21.5%
Czech Republic 43.8% 27.1%
Denmark 41.4% 29.6%
Finland 44.6% 38.4%
France 50.1% 41.7%
Germany 51.8% 35.7%
Greece 38.8% 39.2%
Hungary 50.5% 39.9%
Iceland 29.0% 11.0%
Ireland 25.7% 8.1%
Italy 45.4% 35.2%
Japan 27.7% 24.9%
Korea 17.3% 16.2%
Luxembourg 35.3% 12.2%
Mexico 18.2% 18.2%
Netherlands 38.6% 29.1%
New Zealand 20.5% 14.5%
Norway 37.3% 29.6%
Poland 43.6% 42.1%
Portugal 36.2% 26.6%
Slovak Republic 38.3% 23.2%
Spain 39.0% 33.4%
Sweden 47.9% 42.4%
Switzerland 29.5% 18.6%
Turkey 42.7% 42.7%
United Kingdom 33.5% 27.1%
United States 29.1% 11.9%


Sweden, Turkey, France and Poland top the list of countries that impose the highest tax burdens on families.

The countries that topped the list in terms of imposing the highest tax rates on individuals were Belgium, Germany and Hungary. The United States ranked 24th.

However, most of those countries see a larger return on their tax payouts in the form of getting added social services for families such as secure pensions and universal health care.

So shut the hell up Tea Party Fools. As usual y'all don't know what in Hades you're squawking about. I like my interstate highways without potholes and my other government service running smoothly, thank you very much.

And I along with other 'reality based Real Americans' are mature and 'ejumacated' enough to know that it takes consistent monetary investments and personnel to make that happen.

As a matter of fact, if we do eventually get universal single payer health care system in the States (AKA Medicare For All), I wouldn't mind paying the additional taxes to help set up and keep a high quality system going.

As long as Paris Hilton and her friends are paying their fair share as well.

As President Franklin Delano Roosevelt once stated during an October 12, 1936 speech in Worcester, MA.

Taxes, after all, are the dues we pay for the privilege of membership in an organized society.

So yes, while it hurts to write that check to Uncle Sam, remember that your taxes do help ensure that the Feds have the money to pay for the services that we take for granted at times.

Gender And Transgender People Video

TransGriot Note: This is a short documentary video on gender and transgender people produced by the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center of New York.

NTAC ACTION ALERT: Urge Senators to Pass ENDA Out of Committee Now!

National Trans Advocacy Coalition (NTAC)
Contact: Vanessa Edwards Foster
ntacmedia@aol.com

ACTION ALERT: Urge Senators to Pass ENDA Out of Committee Now!

As time is ticking away on this session of Congress, we still have no ENDA (Employment Non Discrimination Act) bill active in process in the House of Representatives. The window of opportunity to bring a bill up for vote is extremely tight now, with only three and a half months before the congressional summer break. After that break, it’ll be peak re-election campaign season for most on Capitol Hill.

Translated, it means nothing will be done on ENDA if it has not passed both houses of Congress before the end of July. We lose ENDA’s window of opportunity completely.

With Rep. Barney Frank continuing to tamper with the original bill language, it’s anyone’s guess what the ENDA bill’s end result will be. It’s obvious that the House will not be leaders on this.

Moreover, the silence and lack of clear direction from our community’s political leadership in Washington is not a good sign.

We must begin contacting the Senate and requesting them to lead on this effort, and need to do so immediately. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) is author and lead sponsor of ENDA (Senate bill S. 1584), and we have adequate language on the Senate bill as it currently stands [you can view the bill at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:S.1584:] We have 44 sponsors in all, including twelve of the 23 senators on the Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee it’s assigned to.

Special focus on specific senators on committee who could be potential supporters: Kay Hagan (D-NC), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), and maybe a straying Orrin Hatch (R-UT) or Judd Gregg (R-NH).

Task One: We need everyone to contact the senators who sit on the Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee to bring this bill onto the calendar for mark-up and committee vote. Additionally make it known that you want this bill to proceed in its current form with no changes. Express that you are against having the language watered-down on any of the provisions in it. When you write to them, if you were formerly a resident of their state then let them know you are a former constituent and add that you are even considering moving back there in the near future (they don’t need to know whether or not that will eventually occur).

If the particular senate office contact asks by phone if you are a constituent, reply to them that as this is a committee vote, not every state has representation on each committee and that you want this bill brought to the floor in order to ensure your elected senator has the opportunity to weigh in on this bill. (That’s all they need to know for now.)

Task Two: If you’re a constituent of any senators not on this committee (see list of committee senators below), contact them and ask for their support on S.1584. Additionally ask if they would write a “Dear Colleague” letter or personally contact their colleagues on the Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee to express their support and encourage them to move this bill without amendment to the Senate Floor.

Task Three: Once you’ve completed this, contact all your friends to do likewise, and remind them how vital this bill is for the LGB and especially T community!

List of Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee Senators:

US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions - http://help.senate.gov/

Democrats by Rank
Tom Harkin (IA) // DC office: (202) 224-3254 // dan_goldberg@harkin.senate.gov // Iowa: 515-284-4574
Christopher Dodd (CT) // DC office: (202) 224-2823 // Fax: (202) 224-1083 // CT office: 860-258-6940
Barbara A. Mikulski (MD) // DC office: (202) 224-4654 // Baltimore office: (410) 962-4510
Jeff Bingaman (NM) // DC office: (202) 224-5521 // NM phone: 505-346-6601
Patty Murray (WA) // DC office: (202) 224-2621 // Fax: (202) 224-0238 // Seattle office: (206) 553-5545
Jack Reed (RI) // DC office: (202) 224-4642 // RI office: (401) 943-3100
Bernard Sanders (I) (VT) // DC office: (202) 224-5141 // Fax: (202) 228-0776
Sherrod Brown (OH) // DC office: (202) 224-2315 // Fax: (202) 228-6321
Robert P. Casey, Jr. (PA) // DC office: (202) 224-6324 // Fax: (202) 228-0604 // christina_baumgardner@casey.senate.gov
Kay Hagan (NC) // DC office: (202) 224-6342 // Fax: (202) 228-2563 // devan_barber@hagan.senate.gov
Jeff Merkley (OR) // DC office: (202) 224-3753 // Fax: (202) 228-3997 // waasil_kareem@merkley.senate.gov
Al Franken (MN) // DC office: (202) 224-5641
Michael Bennett (CO) // DC office: (202) 224-5852 // Fax: (202) 224-5036 // sam_jammal@bennet.senate.gov

Republicans by Rank
Michael B. Enzi (WY) DC office: (888) 250-1879 // Fax: (202) 228-035 // jennifer_barnes@enzi.senate.gov // http://enzi.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ContactInformation.OfficeLocations
Judd Gregg (NH) // DC office: (202) 224-3324 // allison_dembeck@gregg.senate.gov
Lamar Alexander (TN) // DC office: (202) 224-4944 // Fax: (202) 228-3398
Richard Burr (NC) // DC office: (202) 224-3154 // Fax: (202) 228-2981
Johnny Isakson (GA) // DC office: (202) 224-3643 // Fax: (202) 228-0724
John McCain (AZ) // DC office: (202) 224-2235 // Fax: (202) 228-2862
Orrin G. Hatch (UT) // DC office: (202) 224-5251 // Fax: (202) 224-6331 // bryan_hickman@hatch.senate.gov
Lisa Murkowski (AK) // DC office: (202) 224-6665 // Fax: (202) 224-5301 // karen_mccarthy@murkowski.senate.gov
Tom Coburn, M.D. (OK) // DC office: (202) 224-5754 // Fax: (202) 224-6008
Pat Roberts (KS) // DC office: (202) 224-4774 // Fax: (202) 224-3514

In your communication, please be:

Respectful (even if the office is unsupportive). We want to duplicate the Teabaggers' coverage and efficacy in contacting Congress. We DO NOT want to duplicate their rhetorical rancor or personal invective as that will place us all in a bad light. At the end of the communication, thank them for their time.

Insistent that this legislation is sorely needed. Explain how this economy has made a tough situation even more dire and how we can’t wait for Rep. Barney Frank as we’re losing our chance to address this in this session. (You can additionally remind them of Sen. Kennedy’s words shortly before his death on his support of ENDA).

Stress the Personal. We’re not going to force you to a script – put this in your own words! If all of us parrot the same words, they’ll dismiss it as a carbon copy campaign. If you have an incident of discrimination in the workplace (and most all Trans people do), detail that. If you have friends or relatives who’ve been discriminated against in the workplace place, recount their stories too. Personal stories make impact and work!

We can’t speak on behalf of other groups, but if needed, you may mention you were encouraged to contact them by the National Trans Advocacy Coalition (NTAC).

After the Senate Committee vote, NTAC will issue a follow-up Action Alert on ENDA.

- 30 -

Founded in 1999, NTAC – the National Trans Advocacy Coalition – is a grassroots civil rights group and the longest-tenured organization advocating for federal legislation on behalf of the America’s Trans Community.

Gay Mayoral Candidate In Gainesville, FL Facing Recount

Gainesville, FL residents went to the polls yesterday for a runoff election that would determine their city's next mayor.

The candidates were openly gay city commissioner Craig Lowe, who led the initial round of voting by garnering 40.13 percent of the ballots cast.

His opponent Don Marsh is a businessman and hater who ran on the campaign promise of overturning the newly passed TBLG non-discrimination law. Marsh got 29.13 percent of the ballots cast on March 16 to get into the runoff.

The haters are especially ticked off at Lowe not only because of his sexual orientation, but because he supported the 2008 trans inclusive anti discrimination ordinance. Lowe was one of the leaders in the effort to defeat an amendment designed to kill the law.

The mayoral runoff has been marred by the usual hatemongering from the 'christian' conservafools. It has led to some ugly displays of homophobia such as the pink flyer mocking Lowe that found itself planted on car windshields in the runup to election day..

All the back an forth of the campaign came down to whether the progressive side or the regressive side could turn out their voters.

For the moment, it looks like Craig Lowe did and you can call him mayor*.

With all 34 precincts in, Craig Lowe had 6,098 votes or 50.14% with Don Marsh getting 6,063 votes or 49.86%. Since it's less than a 1% margin a recount is forthcoming.

Once it's completed, we'll know for certain who the next mayor of Gainesville, FL will be. Let's hope it's the candidate who will unite all the city's citizens and not the one offer no more than just hate and shady divisiveness.

Missoula Passes Inclusive TBLG Rights Ordinance

Congratulations to the people in Missoula, Montana!

In front of the largest crowd to attend a city council meeting in 30 years, the Missoula City Council by a 10-2 vote early Tuesday morning adopted the first TBLG rights non-discrimination ordinance in the state of Montana.

The new ordinance protects people from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Just as the debate on the issue in the weeks leading up to the historic vote was contentious, the nearly seven hour council meeting was charged with emotion.

One example of just how contention this debate has been was the moment in which Tei Nash, the leader of the opposition to this ordinance was confronted by his adult daughter Taryn, who came out that evening.

"Dad. I strongly disagree with the way you have been portraying the LGBT community. You have gone too far. I will not sit back any more and be quiet. I love you because you are my dad, but I have lost respect for you. You need to realize this crusade you are on is wrong, and it affects me personally. Right now I am ashamed to call you my father."

Councilman Jason Wiener in warning opponents against trying to repeal the ordinance pointed out that Missoula precincts bucked the state and opposed the 2004 constitutional ban on gay marriage by 55 percent to 45 percent.

He noted that the generation growing up and voting since then is even more in favor of equality, he said.

"This is not going to be repealed. I'm proud to vote for this," Wiener said.

In an emphatic sermon, Councilman Jon Wilkins told religious leaders who opposed the proposal to reconsider their views. He said he could see fear in some people's demeanors, even in the shaking of one man's hands when he spoke to the council.

"That tells you right there there's been discrimination," Wilkins said. "I believe in God and all that too. I go to church. ... But I don't believe in a God that tells me that I should discriminate against somebody because of who they are or what they are or anything like that. ... That's why I'm going to support this ordinance. Shame on you churches that can't see the light. You'd better start looking to save yourselves."

"Most of us can't remember civil rights in action," said Councilwoman Stacy Rye, an ordinance sponsor, during the wee hours of the morning. "This is it for us. This is our lifetimes."

Congrats Missoula for joining the ranks of communities across the nation that value their GLBT citizens.

And thanks to all the people who busted their behinds, told their stories and fought tooth and nail to make it happen.

TransGriot Post 2500!

Another day, another milestone here at TransGriot.

You are now reading post number 2500 on this humble blog since I started it on January 1, 2006.

2,500 posts means I've had a lot to say about a cornucopia of issues here and on other blogs for a while. It also means that those of you who come to read TransGriot think that what I have to say on various trans and non trans issues is important enough for you to spend some of your valuable web surfing time here perusing this blog.

Thank you for your insightful commentary, the positive e-mail messages, story tips and announcements about trans community events you send to me.

As I've stated, I want an interactive, thinking community, and sometimes I find out about stuff when your loyal readers tell me what's up.

And if you have a comment, don't be shy. Express yourselves.

But without you reading it and telling your friends about the blog, I'd just be writing to nobody in particular.

Thank you for reading TransGriot. Next stops on the blog milestone express: 1.5 million hits and 3000 posts.

Another Southern State, Another GOP Governor Building A Bridge To The Confederacy

There's another Republican governor who issued a proclamation celebrating Confederate History month and who conveniently forgot to mention slavery.

Why should it not surprise me it's Haley Barbour? His previous gig before he became governor of Mississippi was chair of the Republican Party.

It also doesn't surprise me since Mississippi was the second state to secede from the union in January 1861 and only ratified the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution abolishing slavery on March 16, 1995.

It even got a shout out in Dr. King's iconic 1963 'I Have A Dream ' speech.

'I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.'

By the way Confederacy defenders, before you come at me with bogus claims that 'The War To Perpetuate Slavery' wasn't about that, check out what the Mississippi Declaration Of Secession had to say about why the Magnolia State left the union.

"Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery — the greatest material interest of the world. Its labor supplies the product, which constitutes by far the largest and most important portions of commerce of the earth. These products are peculiar to the climate verging on the tropical regions, and by an imperious law of nature, none but the black race can bear exposure to the tropical sun. These products have become necessities of the world, and a blow at slavery is a blow at commerce and civilization."

Barbour helped campaign for now Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell last year, and said Sunday on CNN that slavery was bad but a fuss over McDonnell's original proclamation "doesn't amount to diddly."

It does to the African American residents inside and outside your state and the state of Virginia. The one you issued in Mississippi matters to me since I have relatives who were born there and still live in the Magnolia State.

If it doesn't mean diddly Haley, why did your office refuse to respond to a Monday request by the Associated Press for a copy of your 2010 Confederate Heritage Month proclamation that was freely faxed by the chaplain in chief for the national Sons of Confederate Veterans, The Rev. Cecil Fayard?

The proclamation, signed March 15, said it is "important for all Americans to reflect upon our nation's past to gain insight from our mistakes and successes."

Too bad Gov. Barbour, that you, many people in your ethnic group, and your party not only fail and refuse to reflect and gain insight on past mistakes, you continually fail to learn from them.

Time To Put This Sistah On The Supreme Court

Ever since Clarence Thomas began earning his 'honorary white male' status by desecrating the proud Supreme Court legal legacy of Justice Thurgood Marshall, many African Americans have hoped and prayed for the nomination of a progressive African-American justice to counterbalance the conservaidiocy and lockstep voting with Antonin Scalia coming from Uncle Thomas.

With the recently announced retirement of Justice John Paul Stevens, President Obama now has a second opportunity to shape the Court. One of the candidates on the short list for the Supreme Court vacancy that has popped up in recent days is Leah Ward Sears, who ironically is a friend of Clarence Thomas.

She's a Cornell University and Emory University Law School grad who was the former chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court. She stepped down last year and is now in private law practice in the ATL.

She's also a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.

She's turning 55 in June, and once again, it would be a historic pick as the first African American woman Supreme Court jurist.

Sears is already used to being a history maker. When she was nominated for the Georgia Supreme Court by then-Gov. Zell Miller in 1992, she became the first woman and the youngest person to ever sit on the court.‬‪ She later became the first female African-American chief justice in US history.

And best of all, in 2004 she handily won reelection as chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court over her Republican opponent by a 62%-38% margin.

If President Obama is looking to put Republicans in a box like he did during last summer's confirmation fight with the Sotomayor nomination, Leah Ward Sears would be the perfect candidate.

One the Republifools would be hard pressed to filibuster without looking as racist and sexist as they did during last summer's Sotomayor confirmation hearings.

I'm hoping that Judge Sears not only is nominated by President Obama, but we get to see her in this fall's SCOTUS photo in October after she's confirmed.

Another NJ Teen Charged with Racial Intimidation

Damn, what the hell is going on in New Jersey lately? They elect a Republican governor and the nekulturny behavior starts flowing.

And no, I'm not talking about the 16 year old arrested and facing bias intimidation charges for last month's PA incident in a southern New Jersey Wal-Mart.

A 14 year old girl in northern New Jersey is now facing bias intimidation and harassment charges after stepping up to a PA microphone inside a Whole Foods Market Saturday afternoon and announcing, "All blacks leave the store."

Edgewater, NJ police say the case is being investigated as a possible "copycat" situation.

I find it interesting also that New jersey is now under a Republican governor, and suddenly this crap is happening.

It's a phenomenon I've noticed throughout my lifetime. Any time that GOP leadership is in control, the racist whites feel comfortable enough to let the hate flow.

But this teen will learn along with the one in southern New Jersey is that there are consequences to that behavior.

The 'Stupiddome' Goes Bye Bye

Now that the 'Jerrydome' is the multibillion dollar playpen for the Arlington Cowchips, their former home stadium was forlornly sitting unused back in Irving.

Texas Stadium opened in 1971 and Cowboy fans called it 'The House That Landry Built' after their legendary NFL Hall of Fame coach.

As a certified member of the Houston chapter of the 'I Hate the Dallas Cowboys' club, I had a sarcastic nickname for it.

I called it the 'Stupiddome' for the hole in its roof.



Well, I won't have Texas Stadium to rag on any more because it's now a pile of rubble after it was imploded the other day.

Outside of enjoying every loss by 'North Texas' Team' in that stadium, one of my fondest memories of it besides Jack Yates' 1985 37-0 Class 5A state championship title wipeout of Odessa Permian took place on its turf.

There's also a 1979 Thanksgiving Day game between the Oilers and Cowboys in which Earl Campbell ran over, through, and around the Cowboys defense for 199 yards enroute to a 30-24 victory.

As a matter of fact, the Oilers/Tennessee Traitors have never lost to the Cowboys on Thanksgiving Day.

But I digress.

Bye Bye Stupiddome.

Trans Sports Fans-Time To Come Out Of The Closet

I've been a huge sports fan for most of my life and transition didn't change that one bit.

I love huge events such as the NCAA Final Four, the Super Bowl, the Olympics, the World Cup and the NBA finals.

Being that it's part of my Texan DNA, I'm a huge football fan, be it high school, college or the NFL. I'm usually watching college and NBA basketball, and take in a major league baseball game or two from time to time.

One of the things I and other sports loving transwomen crack up laughing about is when we're with a group of transwomen and the discussion topic turns to sports related matters.

Some of them run like Usain Bolt from admitting any love for sports or trot out that tired BS line of 'ladies don't like sports' in a weak attempt to derail the conversation topic.

Umm, have y'all been paying attention to what's been happening since Title IX was enacted in 1972?

One of the things that I've noted since I transitioned in 1994 is the increasing numbers of transpeople not only playing sports, but competing at elite levels.

People such as Canadian mountain biker Michelle Dumaresq and Canadian cyclist Kristin Worley. I've talked about on the blog from time to time about my homegirl Dawn's saber fencing exploits while representing herself, the LFC and the 'Baby Vets' in the USFA's Women's 40's division.

The IOC voted in 2004 to open Olympic competition to transpeople, and while so far we haven't had an open transperson qualify for an Olympic team in either the winter or summer games, it's only a matter of time before it happens.

Since we have transkids transitioning at earlier ages, there have been discussions by the NCAA and the various state high school athletic federations as to what's the best and fairest way for cis and trans athletes to compete side by side.

So yeah, for all you stealth trans sports fans, time for y'all to come out of the closet. Even if you don't want to participate, you can do so by letting your inner sports fan out.

And who knows, you may even make some lifelong friends in the process.

Girl Power Aboard The International Space Station

TransGriot Note: My latest piece for Global Comment

Though many of us did not notice, April 9, 2010 was a historic day for humankind.

When the shuttle Discovery docked with the International Space Station, three women, Naoko Yamazaki, Stephanie Wilson, and Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger, were part of that seven person crew. Waiting onboard the ISS was Tracy Caldwell Dyson, who had launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on April 2. Out of the 13 people currently aboard the ISS, the four history-making women are a former schoolteacher, a chemist who once worked as an electrician, and two aerospace engineers. Three are from the United States and one from Japan. Collectively, they represent the largest number of women in orbit at one time in human spaceflight history.

All of this points out the undeniable fact that there are women who indeed excel in math and science, regardless of stereotypes. If they are encouraged to do so, one day they might make even more history.

Since Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova’s June 1963 flight aboard Vostok 6 gave her the distinction of becoming the first woman in space, there have been 54 women from the United States, Russia, Canada, Japan and Great Britain that have followed in her footsteps.

Others followed to make history in their own right, like cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya did. She was not only the second woman launched into space in 1982, she was the first woman launched into space twice. On July 17, 1984 she became the first woman to perform a space walk.

In June 1983, Dr. Sally Ride became the first American woman launched into space. Dr. Mae Jemison became the first African-American woman in space in September 1992. She was quickly followed by Dr. Ellen Ochoa, the first Latina astronaut in space on April 1993.

Eileen Collins holds the distinction of not only being the first woman to pilot a space shuttle in February 1995 – in July 1999, she became the first woman to command a space shuttle mission.

Read the rest at Global Comment

God Don't Like Ugly

When the Cricket World Cup was hosted by South Africa in 2003, there was a globally televised Olympic style opening ceremony complete with a Parade of Nations. All of the fourteen national cricket teams participating in the competition marched into the stadium behind their flag bearer and a model carrying a placard bearing that nation's name.

There was only one African model in the stadium that February 9 evening in Cape Town doing placard duty, a Senegalese born beauty named Barbara Diop. She had done work in South Africa and international runways in Italy prior to this fateful day that she held the placard aloft for the cricket team members from Zimbabwe.

A few days into the competition rumors started flying that Barbara was a transwoman. She denied it at first but eventually admitted she was as the story continues to gain traction in the local and eventually the international media.

So why am I talking about a seven year old event when the post is entitled 'God Don't Like Ugly'?

Patience, TransGriot readers.

When Barbara was revealed to be trans, Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe went ballistic and threatened to pull his team out of the Cricket World Cup.

He didn't get to carry out that threat because Zimbabwe was eliminated from the competition.

So what set Bob off? Mugabe is in competition with Uganda's Yoweri Museveni for the mantle of which one is the African continent's biggest homophobe. He ranted at the time that the organizers deliberately did it to embarrass Zimbabwe.

As if you don't do a bang-up job of that yourself, Bob.

In July 2002 came this infamous quote out of Mugabe's mouth: "When I said gays are worse than dogs and pigs, I really meant it because pigs and dogs do not do unnatural things."

He has had a long running policy of anti-GLBT repression in Zimbabwe that the Religious Right would love to emulate here.in the good old USA.

But Bobby, Yoweri, Benedict XVI and all others who do shady stuff to innocent people will eventually come to realize the truth of one of the African-American community's oldest sayings: God don't like ugly.

It's an iconic saying that is so ingrained in African-American culture that it served as the title of a book by novelist Mary Monroe.

Basically, it's taking about karma. Just as Mugabe felt it in 2003 and others will sooner or later experience it, the beautiful thing about observing karma play out is that the evildoers come crashing down due to their own incompetence, hypocrisy, hubris, pride and arrogance.

Or a combination of all the above.

That karma can take form in an anti-gay politician being outed after leaving a gay bar. A transphobe being caught in drag. An anti-gay minister being arrested for soliciting sex from a male sex worker. A large organization that impedes the civil rights advances of a marginalized group it doesn't like finding themselves in trouble on multiple fronts.

One of my favorite ones played out in the home state. I got to watch the rise of Tom DeLay in Texas and later national politics with his questionably shady tactics and running roughshod over a lot of people in both parties in the process that earned him the nickname 'The Hammer'.


It came crashing down in flames around him not long after the 2003 Delaymandering of Texas for maximum GOP political advantage. In October 2005 he was arrested on conspiracy and money laundering charges relating to the 2002 Republican takeover of the Texas Legislature. He watched Nick Lampson, a Democrat he drew out of his seat return to Congress in 2006 by taking the Sugar Land area congressional seat he'd occupied for ten years.

Well, if you didn't get the message, time to straighten up and fly right and do the right thing by people.

If you don't, that cosmic rap on the knuckles or kick in the rear will be coming soon.

How hard that karmic beatdown becomes is dependent on how much dirt you did that God is displeased with.