I mentioned that one of the three openly gay members of the House, Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO) introduced HR 4530, the Student Non-Discrimination Act of 2010 back in January.
Senators Al Franken (D-MN) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) have introduced the Senate version of the legislation aimed at combating anti-LGBT bullying in public schools.
The bill, known as the Student Non-Discrimination Act, currently has 21 Senate cosponsors and "would establish a comprehensive federal prohibition against discrimination in public schools based on actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity," according to a press release from Sen. Gillibrand's office. "It would forbid schools from discriminating against LGBT students or ignoring harassing behavior."
Penalties for public schools that fail to address anti-gay bullying could include loss of federal funding and legal recourse for students who have suffered discrimination.
Sen. Franken indicated last month that he would introduce an anti-bullying bill when he criticized current laws during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing.
“There’s something very specific that has been on my mind ... LGBT youth being bullied,” Franken told a panel of education experts in the April hearing. “Right now we have laws that prohibit bullying based on pretty much everything, but not on gender identity and gay and lesbian kids. And the evidence is that gay kids are bullied a lot and that their achievement goes down. There’s a lot of absenteeism and even suicide.”
Rand Paul is a prime example of why I can't stand Libertarians and regard them as little more than Republicans who are ashamed to take on the GOP label.
Let me just say it now....Rand Paul, shut the HELL up fool!
Time for y'all to cut out the jibber jabber and start singing happy birthday to our Shut Up Fool! Awards mascot, who was born in Chicago on this date in 1952.
I mentioned in a previous post about Oreo Barbie running for Congress in Mississippi's 1st Congressional District, but she's just one of 32 Black Republican candidates running for congress this year,
That's the most Black Republicans running in any political cycle since Reconstruction, but what Notorious GOP, AKA Michael Steele and the conservamedia won't tell you is that this ain't your great-grandfather's Republican party.
The last Black GOP congressmember was J.C. Watts of Oklahoma, who left Congress in 2003. It will be interesting to see if any of this current bunch even makes it out of their various GOP primaries to Capitol Hill.
Black conservatives such as GOP Chair Michael Steele have consistently been concrete examples of Zora Neale Hurston's admonition of 'all my skinfolk ain't my kinfolk'.
Some of the 32 people include longtime sellouts like Star Parker, who is running in CA-37, a diverse Long Beach, CA area district with a large African-American majority currently represented by Democrat Laura Richardson.
Others are running in majority white suburban districts from Arizona to Florida.
I'll be willing to state for the record that none of them will be taking the oath of office in January 2011. We've heard this broken record meme before about conservatism sweeping the Black community as a political philosophy combined with double digit numbers of GOP Black peeps rushing to run for office.
Then they get all this conservamedia hype and attention, but all it translates into is getting an electoral beat down either in the GOP primary or in the general election.
Black Republican candidates face a double edged hurdle to climb. They may try to discount their Blackness, but it's a fact of American political life that race plays a major role in party identification.
In many cases they sound like chocolate covered sycophants regurgitating the same failed conservapolicies that the Black community already rejects, or say stuff during their campaigns that alienates them even more from the African American community.
They're not going to get much white support in the GOP no matter how 'more conservative than thou' they sound.
Because they espouse ideas similar to the garden variety white conservatives we African-Americans despise, we ain't voting for them either. It's just a matter of time before those with a Black consciousness wake up and realize they're banging their heads against a dead elephant and eventually leave.
And as I've said before, while I know it would be desirable to have more African descended people involved in both parties, what's the point if Black GOP peeps are going to mimic the oppressors behavior?
TransGriot Note: Ashley Love is one of our intelligent, up and coming trans community leaders as an organizer for MAGNET. She sounds off in this open letter posted on the Transforming Media blog about producer Ryan Murphy's transphobic blind spot after castigating Newsweek's Ramin Setoodeh for his recent 'Straight Jacket' article.
Here's a quote from Ashley's open letter;
Ryan, as a gay man who purports to be an ally of everyone in the LGBT community, (and I would hope that includes transsexual women as well, not just gay men of privilege), you are held to a higher standard of behavior.
Yes, sis. you are speaking serious truth there. Here's the link to the full text.
Just before I bounced from Da Ville, the announcement was made about which of the five finalists had won the fierce competition for the naming rights of the new Louisville Arena.
It's scheduled to open in November with a game against 2010 NCAA championship finalist Butler.
It was Louisville-based Yum Brands who inked a $13.5 million, 10-year naming rights agreement with the University of Louisville. The U of L men's and women's basketball teams will be the primary tenants for the downtown arena.
Yum Brands in September 2006 donated $5 million for the naming rights to the University of Louisville's basketball practice facility.
Yum Brands owns Taco Bell, Long John Silvers, Pizza Hut, and PETA's least favorite fast food franchise, Kentucky Fried Chicken. All will be available in the new arena's food concourses.
The 22,000-seat area will be known as the KFC Yum! Center, and you know PETA's probably got their hate on for the new arena name.
I won't be surprised if PETA show up in Da Ville and try to stage some kind of protest during the Cards opening night game.
Happy birthday to El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, or as he's better known to the rest of the world, Malcolm X. He was born on this date in Omaha, NE in 1925.
Our 'Shining Black Prince' as the late Ossie Davis said about him in his eulogy after his assassination, is misunderstood by people and is called 'racist' by many whites.
But then again, any Black person who has immense pride in our people and is blunt about the subject of race and race relations in the United States gets tarred and feathered with that assertion.
While I was keeping an eye on the Kentucky US Senate race Democratic primary won by Jack Conway, the mayor's race, Mile Slaton's bid to unseat a 20 year Kentucky House incumbent and a few other ones back in Da Ville, there were also primary elections taking place in Arkansas, Oregon and Pennsylvania.
There was a major upset in Pennsylvania as five time Senator Arlen Specter, now running as a Democrat, was beaten by two term Congressman Joe Sestak. Another DINO, Sen. Blanche Lincoln, who was one of my SUF Award winners, was forced into a June 8 runoff with Arkansas lieutenant governor Bill Halter.
The Democrats also ran their record in House special elections to 7-0 since 2008 by keeping the PA-12 House seat of the late John Murtha. The RSCC spent $1 million in the losing effort.
So what does all this mean going into the November elections?
There has been too much punditry TV time and hot air expended on the Tea Klux Klan, who are only 18% of the population, predominately white, have racist elements of it and is heavily Republican. Teabaggers have failed to win in two House races in New York and the aforementioned PA-12 race.
There's also been too much pontificating about the Democrats losing both houses of Congress. The party in control of the White House generally loses seats in a midterm election, but I'm not buying the 40 plus numbers the pundit class is talking about.
I point out that in the 1998 'Angry Black Vote' midterm election, the Democrats thanks to African-American anger over the BS Clinton impeachment launched by Newt Gingrich and GOP company, gained five seats after losing control of Congress in 1994.
It's a nice segue into my next point. As I remind people every election cycle, don't sleep on the Black vote. As Dr. King presciently predicted, it has become a decisive factor in national elections.
The incessant 'take our country back' rhetoric from the Tea Klux Klan and the GOP is only causing African-American voters to circle November 2 on the calendar in red ink. African American voters will do their part to be out in force that day to ensure President Obama has a Congress he can work with.
I suspect Latino voters will be energized this fall as well to throw the Republican bums out after the series of Hate on Latino unjust laws recently passed in Hateizona.
The bigger message the inside the Beltway punditry peeps are missing is this: the liberal-progressive wing is in this fight as well, and we don't want to see a return to power of the people and party who created the mess in the first place.
But the final message sent last night was for the DINO's, and they ignore it at their political peril.
Democrats from the Democratic wing of the Democratic party elect Democrats to Congress to fight for ordinary citizens, not corporations. Corporations are already well represented by the GOP, they don't need any more help.
It's time for DINO's to start being FDR Democrats and not corporate Democrats. It's time for Democrats to relentlessly fight for our values, principles and policy objectives, not be Neville Chamberlainesque appeasers and water down stuff before the legislative process even gets started.
The Democratic wing of the Democratic Party spoke loudly and clearly last night, and the peeps inside I-495 better be listening.
At any rate, looks like this midterm election season will be anything but a quiet one.
My sis Mercedes Allen has an update on her Dented Blue Mercedes blog concerning the progress of Bill C-389.
If passed it would add “gender identity” and “gender expression” to the list of protected classes in the hate crimes section of the Criminal Code of Canada, and also to the Canada Human Rights Act, which protects against discrimination in housing and employment.
As of now only the city of Toronto and the Northwest Territories have explicit trans protections ensconced into law.
In Ontario today NDP MPP Cheri DiNovo re-introduced for the third time Toby’s Act, named after a trans person at DiNovo's church who committed suicide.
It would amend the Ontario Human Rights Code to include “gender identity.”
Bill C-389 is sponsored by the NDP's Bill Siksay and had its second reading yesterday. In addition to having NDP support, it has the support of the Liberals, and the Bloc Quebecois.
So to my Canadian readers, y'all need to get busy calling your Member of Parliament and getting them to support this bill. It's critically important to do so if you're living in a Conservative riding. The Tories are already trying to find a way to not supporting it.
With a little luck, you trans peeps in the province of Ontario and in the rest of the Great White North may get coverage in Canada's federal laws before they get around to voting on ENDA here.
TransGriot Note: Even though it's a little old, the Ragin' Cajun makes some valid points that need to be heeded and committed to memory by all liberal progressive peeps fighting the Forces of Intolerance.
1. Stop Apologizing for Everything
You are a member of the party that beat the Depression, won two world wars, cut elderly poverty by two-thirds, and is responsible for the greatest period of economic growth since World War II. Democrats wake up and start looking for someone to apologize to. Stop It. You've got nothing to apologize for.
2. Quit Conceding That The Other Side Has A Point.
I taught school for a little while, and guess what? There is such a thing as a stupid question. The same goes for opinions. Not everyone has a valid point. The next time a right-wing nut tells you that the Bush plan gives the poor a lot of incentive to get rich don't say, 'Well, you've got a point." They don't have a point. What they are saying is stupid. Sometimes a mind is like a mouth; you just have to shut it.
3. Be Big:
Think only of, and talk only about big things. When I advise candidates, I tell them it is okay to have an opinion on everything, it is just not okay to render said opinion on everything. I may favor a transgender amendment. But if I were running for president, I would not make that part of my core platform of ideas.
4. Be Positive.
I grew up in the town of Carville, Louisiana-so named because my family provided the town with its most indispensable federal employee, its postmaster. When I was growing up, my daddy convinced me that I was living in the best place in the world. He always made sure I remembered that we had the best climate, the best people, the best family, the best soil, the best peaches-the best of everything. "Of any place that you could live in the world, " he'd tell me, "you're living right here in Carville, Louisiana." Man, I thought it was the garden spot of the universe. Did I know that there was a Broadway or a Michigan Avenue or a Rodeo Drive? No. And I didn't give a damn.
Progressives are genetically inclined to talk about how bad things are. We'd rather be the skunk than enjoy the garden party. We need to be able to see the good-and make a case for making it better. In short, we need more of my daddy's Carville attitude in Washington and less of our liberal activist carping one.
5. Use Their Weapons Against Them
Republicans love to talk about the right and wrong. They do so with an absolutely religious fervor-and that makes sense because more than a small number of them use their religion as a justification for their policies.
If they're going to do that, it's fair for us to ask questions like "Is cutting funds for the schools that educate the kids of the people fighting for us in Iraq a bad, stupid right-wing policy, or is it an affront to God?" "Is rolling back clean water protections so your rich contributors can blight the environment bad policy, or is it a sin for which you can burn in hell?"
6. Attack Their Lack Of True Patriotism
There are actually some people who will buy a used car from the dealer with the biggest flag. He's usually the guy with the biggest mouth, too. The same goes for politics. We shouldn't look for the biggest flag or listen to the biggest mouth-we should look for the real patriots, the ones who are willing to tell the truth and make America stronger. It is completely antithetical to the American ideal of generational promise to burden future generations with a massive amount of debt.
Every American child has heard the story from his or her parents or grandparents about how they worked hard to make things better for the next generation. They struggled to be the first in their family to finish high school, so that the next generation could be the first in their family to finish college, so that the next could be the first to finish graduate school. And whether your family came here on the Mayflower in 1620 or from Manila in 2003, we all share the belief that America is not just a good place today, but is going to be a better place tomorrow.
Republicans have destroyed that. Being an American, honoring the flag, is much more than some trumped-up staged landing on an aircraft carrier. Just having a lot of red, white, and blue bunting at your convention isn't patriotic. Their lack of understanding of what this country is really about demonstrates a total lack of patriotism. We need to call them on it. 7. Never Just Oppose, Always Propose.
I can tell you with absolute certainty that back in 680 B.C., the first sentence for the first speech in the first campaign of the first Athenian running for City-State Council was this: This election presents a choice. Every election is a choice, and as progressives, our goal must be to ensure that the choice isn't between bad and nothing; the choice needs to be between good and bad. We progressives need to define our visions of American, not just react to the right wings vision of America. We don't like the America they want to build, we need to show Americans something better.
8. Don't Let the Little Crap Get in the Way of the Big Shit.
You have to pardon my language, but I just don't know a better way of saying it. As progressives we need to do more than fight symbolic battles, we need to be driving toward a larger goal.
For example, the big shit is energy independence. The little crap is drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. I once asked a friend of mine who was very active in the environmental movement, "Would you trade off a fuel standard that freed us from Middle Eastern oil for drilling in ANWAR?" He said no. To me that's an example of the little crap getting in the way of the big shit. Would you trade off late-term abortions for universal health care? To me, the great gain of universal health care is far more importance than the largely symbolic battle over a little-used procedure. Don't get me wrong; symbolic fights are periodically worth fighting. I have nothing against them, and I'm not saying we should abandon our principles. What I'm saying is that we should be willing to make a trade-off to advance them.
9. Sometimes You've Got to Be Willing to Fight. Period.
Why is it that Democrats were calling on Al Gore to concede the election when no Republicans called on George Bush to concede? Why didn't we want to fight as badly as they did? Why didn't we call on Bush to concede? Because our nature is not too be tough. If I've said it once, I've said it a million times; America will never trust a party to defend America that fails to defend itself.
10. Stop Brown-nosing the Elites
I believe that in the 180 days prior to any election, candidates should be required to stay away from cocktail parties, dinner parties, or any social event that occurs in the following areas: Georgetown, Foxhall, Spring Valley, Bethesda, Old Town Alexandria, McLean, and Chevy Chase and other bastions of stupidity inside the Washington Beltway.
One of the reasons Tom Delay was so successful is that he doesn't give a damn what any people in any of these neighborhoods think. Democrats tend to become completely paralyzed by it. I can't tell you the number of times in a Democratic meeting where someone says that such and such was said at so and so's dinner party, and that the deputy assistant to the associate editorial page editor at the Washington Post rolled her eyes. Everybody freaks out. For reasons not completely understandable to me, the effect is far greater on Democrats than Republicans. This is a disease we must cure ourselves of.
There are primary elections in several states today, and if you reside in one of them, time for you to take a few moments out of your day and participate.
Voting is not just for racist GOP leaning teabaggers, it is your voice for way of changing the status quo. When you are part of a minority group, sitting out an election is NEVER an option.
So take the first steps in ensuring an idiot free Congress. Go to your nearest polling place and get your vote on.
And if you need some motivation, here's the Isley Brothers 'Fight The Power' to get you in the mood for doing so.
If you need more motivation than that, remember the Tea Klux Klan will be motivated to vote not only in the primary, but wants to put the same GOP do nothings back in power that caused our country's problems in the first place.
So go handle your civic business. Your city, your state and your country will thank you for it later.
I was checking out the Luna Show on YouTube since he interviews many of the personalities in the ballroom community. I was happy to note for his 100th episode he featured Tracy Norman, AKA Tracy Africa.
I've mentioned her in more than a few TransGriot posts concerning the ballroom community and its connections to the New York modeling scene. I've also talked about her as an example of the beauty of African descended transpeople as well.
In the 70's and 80's Tracy was a print and runway model getting paid with several major contracts and considered a 'Baby Beverly Johnson', one of the premier Black models of the time.
That was until a hater spilled her 'T' during a sixth ESSENCE photo shoot and put a major crimp in her then successful career as a model.
She became a ballroom icon with the House of Africa and was elected to the Ballroom Hall of Fame in 2001.
Here's the fascinating YouTube video of the Luna interview with one of our icons, Tracy Africa.
No thanks to haters using the world's great religions to twist religious doctrine into a billy club to attack TBLG people, it is a day that is sorely needed.
IDAHOT is different from pride events because it is focused on pointing out '..that in reality it is homophobia that is shameful and must be deconstructed in its social logic and fought against openly.'
The IDAHOT got its start thanks to our Canadian friends in Quebec. An organization called Fondation Emergence created a National Day Against Homophobia that was celebrated on June 1, 2003.
Afro-French academic Louis-Georges Tin in August 2004 launched the successful campaign to create a similar day that was global in scope and impact. Tin proposed that the IDAHOT be celebrated on May 17th to commemorate the day in 1990 that the World Health Organization decided to remove homosexuality from the list of mental disorders.
The first celebration of it occurred in 2005 and was supported by several international GLBT organizations. Transphobia was added as a focus in 2009 and the French in advance of last year's IDAHOT observance, became the first nation in the world to officially remove transgender issues from its list of mental illnesses.
The International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia is now celebrated in more than 50 countries around the world, and recognized officially by the European Union, Belgium, United Kingdom, France, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Mexico, and Costa Rica.
So Happy IDAHOT! Let's hope and pray that the rest of the nations of the world and the committee putting together the DSM VI manual will follow the example of France in the years to come.
TransGriot Note: It's time for another song rewrite. The idea for this one actually came from Ethan St. Pierre and Bet Power. I came up with the rewritten lyrics because I like 'errbody' else in the trans community is beyond sick and tired of being sick and tired of the bathroom issue being used to delay and scuttle ENDA.
So y'all know what time it is. Fire up the iPod's and sing along with the revamped lyrics
Fight For Our Right To Potty
(sung to the tune of the Beastie Boys-(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party)
Kick it!
Trans people need to pee but we don't wanna go
Needs to be gender neutral but Barney says, "No!"
We need ENDA passed so we can go to work
Right wing preachers hatin’ on the bill like ignorant jerks
We gotta fight for our right to potty
Bathrooms based on presentation need to happen yesterday
GOP hypocrites are saying “No way!”
Facing trans discrimination can be so sad
Coming from so called allies makes you fighting mad (Busted!)
We gotta fight for our right to potty
Don't like that I transitioned? Why should you care?
Don’t need to know what genitalia that I have down there
I’ve got to pee so bump that noise.
I’m not (will be) going to use a bathroom with cisgender boys!
We gotta fight for our right to potty
We gotta fight for our right to potty
Something else that transpired while I was in the process of moving to H-town was the 13th annual Miss Tiffany's Universe pageant in the resort city of Pattaya, Thailand, 150 km (90 miles) away from the chaotic political situation in Bangkok.
This year's winner of the nationally televised pageant was 19 year old university student Nalada Thamthanakorn. She walks away with the 100,000 baht ($3,100) cash prize and a Honda Jazz car.
The Miss Tiffany's Universe Pageant is the Thai transwomen only one that determines who represents the 'Land of Smiles' for the open to all international transwomen Miss International Queen Pageant later this year.
Assuming the political drama wracking the capital doesn't spread to the rest of the country, it's scheduled to be held at Tiffany's Cabaret Theater.
This year's competition theme was, 'I am what I am', which is applicable to transpeople around the globe. The hundreds of applicants were whittled down to the 28 lucky ladies that took part in the televised portion of the contest.
In addition to being the most prominent transgender pageant in the world, Miss Tiffany's Universe continues to get more educated girls competing every year.
Out of the 28 contestants, 75 percent of them were students pursuing bachelor's degrees in Thailand's prominent universities such as Mahidol University, Bangkok University and Khonkaen University. Their majors or professions varied from safety trainer for firefighting to film director.
Contrary to the popular meme that is pushed in the MSM and with conservafools, relations between African-Americans and Latinos are not fraught with angry tension.
Over the past five years, numerous polls have shown that the belief in disunity between Blacks and Latinos is far more prevalent among White Americans than any groups of color.
For example, a 2008 Gallup poll reported that 67 percent of Blacks and 60 percent of Latinos consider Black/Brown relationships to be positive, as opposed to only 43 percent of Whites.
These polls, combined with the overwhelming public support of Sen. Barack Obama by Latinos in the 2008 presidential election, suggest that much of the beef between Blacks and Latinos exists solely in the imagination of the White majority.
In the home state, there was reciprocity. As actress Rosie Perez and comedian George Lopez were traveling across Texas stumping for Sen. Obama, African-American voters supported and overwhelmingly voted for Rick Noriega in his 2008 US Senate race to unseat John Cornyn.
African-American Texans were returning the favor for the overwhelming support from Latino voters former Dallas mayor Ron Kirk received in his 2002 US Senate race against John Cornyn.
One thing both groups bitterly remember, especially in Texas, is that not so long ago both groups were hated on by the white majority. Signs were posted that freely expressed that hatred of both groups.
While the Texas GOP tried to mend their ways, the anti-immigration backlash may undo what George W. Bush and Rick Perry painstakingly tried to build politically with Latinos in the Lone Star State by passing this unjust law in Arizona.
We already have conservative Republican state legislators such as Debbie Riddle chomping at the bit to pass in Texas similar legislation when the 2011 legislative session kicks off.
But they may want to consider focusing on keeping that two seat GOP majority in the Texas House before they start flapping their gums about unjust legislation they wish to pass in 2011.
In addition to pissing off Latino voters, the GOP may have also set off their worst political nightmare: Long overdue and permanent socio-political cooperation and alignment between Blacks and Latinos
Last week, Alpha Phi Alpha, the nation’s oldest African American Greek letter fraternity, sent a powerful message to the state of Arizona. In response to the draconian new immigration legislation that compromises the civil liberties of its documented and undocumented Latino residents, the fraternity unanimously voted to relocate its annual conference from Phoenix, AZ to Las Vegas, NV.
Right on, Alpha Phi Alpha!
By making that serious public gesture in defense of Latinos, the Alphas may have provided the impetus to start the dialogue with leaders in both communities on how best to continue down the road of mutually beneficial Black-Brown solidarity.
While I was in the process of moving last week I heard the sad news about one of my fave beauty icons, legendary singer, actress and civil rights warrior Lena Horne.
She passed away on May 9 in her hometown of New York at age 92 from congestive heart failure.
She started as a 16 year old chorus girl at Harlem's legendary Cotton Club during the Depression and parlayed that into a career spanning 60 years in movies, television, Grammy-winning records, a one-woman Broadway show and untold numbers of nightclub appearances.
In the 1940's she was a trailblazer in having a seven year MGM contract during an era in which that kind of deal was unheard of for African-Americans. But the racism she battled throughout most of her career would result in many of the scenes she shot for films during that era to be cut in prints destined to be shown in the Jim Crow South.
Horne found herself being painfully passed over by non-singing Ava Gardner for the role of Julie in the 1951 movie "Show Boat.' Julie in that movie, FYI, was a mixed-race performer who was passing herself off as white.
During World War II if you walked into African-American sections of military bases, Black GI's had pictures of the glamorous Horne posted all over the place. She reciprocated the love that brothers of that era had for her by traveling to bases along the west coast and in the South to entertain African-American troops.
She was outspoken about the treatment of Black soldiers in the then segregated US military, and quit a January 1945 USO tour when the officers in charge allowed German prisoners at a base in Little Rock, AR to witness her performance but barred African American troops from doing so.
Horne was raised by a suffragist grandmother who was an NAACP member in a free-thinking household. She refused to accept the restrictive conventions and damaging stereotypes of mid-20th-century Hollywood and brushed away attempts to cast her as a Latina.
She was a proud civil rights warrior who took part in civil rights demonstrations. Her civil rights activism and friendship with Paul Robeson and others marked her in McCarthyite eyes as a Communist sympathizer and she was blacklisted for it.
She overcame her own personal stormy weather to become an iconic American performer, a shining example of African-American womanhood, and a beloved shero and icon to millions.
I posted the wonderful news a month ago about Gary, IN native Katie Washington, who became the first African-American valedictorian in Notre Dame history.
Today is graduation day at Notre Dame, and she will be giving her highly anticipated valedictory speech this morning. As soon as it's up and posted, I'll add the text or video of it to this post.
In the interim, you can check out this video about a remarkable young woman.
And now, Katie's valedictory address!
Good morning, Mr. Williams, Mr. Gioia, Fr. Jenkins, distinguished faculty and guests, family, friends and loved ones. Thank you all for being here with us to celebrate our commencement. To my fellow classmates, congratulations, again, for making it to this momentous occasion. Our accomplishments during the last four years give us ample reason to celebrate.
But at some point during the next few months, the excitement surrounding our commencement will wane, and many of us will be forced to confront challenging realities. What happens after the applause stops? The spotlight fades, the crowd clears, and there are moments of complete silence. While applause is accompanied by feelings of safety and security, this silence can bring vulnerability and uneasiness. Through my experiences at Notre Dame, I’ve found that these silent, uneasy moments usually spring up right after I get comfortable with self-praise and appreciating my own accomplishments.
Earlier this year, the Notre Dame Voices of Faith Gospel Choir spent our Spring Break touring the East Coast. Although our thirty-four choir members came from many different cultural and religious backgrounds, our unique style of worship originates from African-American Christian traditions. I was a student director this year, and as the week started, I was ready and excited to give my all to an organization that has been part of my college experience since freshman year. During our first concerts, as we sang and worshipped with loud and exuberant praises to God, we met all kinds of people who were willing to sing, clap and worship with us.
Then, during a concert at a church in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, the applause stopped.
There were at least 150 people at the concert, but somehow, no sound or movement seemed to come from the pews. Apparently, the congregation had never experienced a musical ministry quite like ours. We continued with our concert, in spite of the silence, but I wasn’t sure that our rehearsals had prepared us for that moment.
Now, I can reflect upon a conversation that I had with a tearful parishioner after the concert. Had Voices given up when the applause stopped, we might have been gone when the woman arrived late, after sitting for hours at her sick mother’s bedside. She told me that, while we were singing, it seemed like we were talking directly to God. She was so grateful that we were there to pray with her through song.
Over the last four years, I hope that all of us have taken the opportunity to step outside of our own comfort zones to build relationships with people from different places and backgrounds. Through service, time spent abroad, and our experiences with each other right here on campus, we’ve had the chance to find unity in the diversity of gifts with which God has blessed us. We’ve been given many opportunities to let self-acceptance blossom, and to develop mutual respect and understanding for all members of the Notre Dame family. In doing so, we’ve learned to build relationships in light of our differences and in spite of our fear.
After today and beyond the applause, we can continue to escape normative ideals and find the freedom to understand the unique and special qualities that make all of us human. We can put solidarity into action, for love of all our neighbors, near and far.
Last December, after a year and half working in Dr. David Severson’s laboratory, I saw my study of mosquito population genetics in Haiti in its published form, for the first time. Through the collaborative efforts of the members of Dr. Severson’s lab and the Notre Dame Haiti program, we were able to demonstrate that human activities are likely responsible for the distribution of infectious mosquitoes throughout Haiti. Each year, mosquitoes transmit diseases that kill more than 1 million people, mostly in impoverished countries. I was pleased to know that I had made an important contribution to the global health community. But on January 12, after only a few weeks of celebration, an earthquake hit Haiti, and the applause stopped.
At first, it was exciting to know that my work could help solve problems that many people don’t even know about. However, the earthquake reminded me that I had done so from the safety, security and comfort of a lab here, at Notre Dame. The cities that I wrote about in my paper have been reduced to rubble, and many of the lives that I hoped to protect were claimed by immediate and overwhelming tragedy.
Now, I can reflect on conversations with my research advisor and other outstanding scientists at Notre Dame. Over and over again, they have reminded me that our work is not about being celebrated and rewarded. Instead, it gives us an opportunity to add value to a world that has given us much more than our fair share. To do science at a place like Notre Dame, a University where our sense of faith informs everything we do, is to commit to innovation and discovery because of our personal moral convictions. In the College of Science and throughout the entire University, our faculty has committed themselves to the mission statement. And our learning has become service to justice. We learn, we think, and we work in our different disciplines to address tough problems because we all know that it’s the right thing to do.
After today and beyond the applause, we will experience the freedom to challenge the conventional. We can engage in strokes of genius, enlightened moments, and great ideas that will improve planet Earth and heal her inhabitants. Together, we can pool our knowledge to define the undefined, and combine our efforts to prepare for the unexpected.
I started Fall Break of this year in anticipation of all that I hoped to learn during my CSC seminar on Youth Violence. My friend Jeremy and I spent weeks helping Kim, the director of the Indianapolis Peace Institute, to plan our weeklong immersion. I was excited to work with ten other students, and to learn about innovative approaches to address youth and violence. At first, the experience was transformative. I was proud of the work Jeremy and I had done.
Then, on the day our group visited a juvenile re-entry program, the applause stopped.
I realized that I had grown up in the same neighborhood as one of the young men in the program. He had been sent to a juvenile detention center after participating in a series of illegal activities. He’d joined the re-entry program in hopes of building healthier relationships and pursuing goals that would help him to avoid further involvement with the judicial system.
In any other situation, his story of redemption might have left me feeling hopeful for other youths. Instead, my heart ached. All of my reading on urban poverty, structural violence, and peace building seemed meaningless in light of the real obstacles that he faced. At one point during our childhood, I called him my little brother. Meeting again in adulthood, it felt like our lives were worlds apart.
Now, I can reflect upon conversations that I had with him after the seminar was over. If he and the workers at the juvenile re-entry program had given up when the applause stopped, he could have been just another offender, lost in the judicial system. Instead, he is now in college and working to help other young men overcome the challenges that he, himself, faced. I can also reflect upon talks with my fellow seminar participants – my friends. We were 11 Notre Dame students, from different backgrounds with different majors and personal interests. Yet, the young man we met, from my neighborhood, touched each of our lives in a way that we couldn’t have imagined.
After today and beyond the applause, we can continue working to understand our own privilege. We can use real empathy to recognize violence and injustice. We can build relationships with people who are confined to the margins of society. And maybe one day, each and all persons will be able to participate in every dimension of life as they wish.
Throughout my time here at Notre Dame, I’ve grown a bit wary of moments of accolades and applause, because of the unnerving silences that often follow. But our commencement is a momentous occasion worth celebrating. The applause and praise from our friends, family, mentors confirms the value of our hard work, dedication and sacrifice. We have done many things of which we can be proud.
So after all of the applause is over today, I hope that we embrace the silence as much as we’ve embraced our senior week and commencement weekend celebrations. Instead of being afraid, we can cherish the examples set by our often unapplauded heroes: our parents and siblings, professors who have pushed us to do more than we’ve ever dreamed, and you, the members of the Class of 2010 who have set the standard for excellence in and out of the classrooms at the University o Notre Dame.
Since I just rolled through her home state, thought I'd tell you loyal TransGriot readers about another person whose interesting story I discovered courtesy of the JET digital archives, legendary female illusionist Sir Lady Java.
The Los Angeles based Sir Lady Java was born and grew up in New Orleans (where else) and is billed as 'The Prettiest Man On Earth' thanks to possessing 38-24-38 curves in her heyday. She told JET in an article published in the August 10, 1978 issue that she'd never had any surgical enhancement and is non operative.
Java's act consists of singing, impersonations, and exotic dancing. As she said in the article about her performing for her idol, the late Lena Horne, "Lena is one of the three ladies I pattern my act after. I try to look like Lena, walk like Mae West and dress like Josephine Baker."
She first pops up in the November 16, 1967 issue of JET when a picture was taken of her picketing comedian Redd Foxx's nightclub. The Los Angeles Police Department shut down her show there because of a law that was on the books at the time banning female impersonation.
The August 10, 1978 JET issue mentions Java meeting her idol while performing at a star studded Los Angeles birthday party Lena was throwing for her friend Gertrude Gipson.
There's also a mention of her in a February 16, 1978 article about a Los Angeles party thrown for JET chief photographer Isaac Sutton that she attended.
Sir Lady Java is still around and even has a Facebook page. I'd love to hear more about her fascinating life as 'The Prettiest Man On Earth'.
It also points out what I've been saying since I started this blog. African descended transpeople are intertwined with the everyday life of the African-American community, and in many cases we have some interesting stories to tell.
I mentioned that one of the three openly gay members of the House, Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO) introduced HR 4530, the Student Non-Discrimination Act of 2010 back in January. 
Sen. Franken indicated last month that he would introduce an anti-bullying bill when he criticized current laws during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing.
