HB 235 Dying In The MD Senate?

The unjust HD 235 trans rights bill crossed over to the Maryland Senate Monday and has landed in the Senate Rules Committee   

According to the Baltimore Sun's Maryland Politics blog, HB 235 has some formidable procedural hurdles with less than two weeks left in the Maryland legislative session

It has to first undergo a short Rules Committee hearing to determine its policy committee assignment.

Once its assigned to the proper policy committee, it then has to undergo a hearing in that committee before it hits the Senate floor for a vote.  

But with two weeks left, the Senate is engaged in trying to pass Maryland's state budget, and Senate president Thomas V. Mike Miller said that they are unlikely to take up this bill before the session ends.

"When we are through with the budget we’ll have time to deal with other issues that might have a chance of passage," Senator Miller said after the morning session. "At this point in time I’d say the chances of passage of that bill are next to none."

Kill the bill! Kill the bill! Kill the bill!

Hmm.. that's not what InEquality Maryland wanted to hear after all the shady stuff they pulled just to get to this point.   After losing their gay marriage bill, the last thing the want to happen is have another loss.

But the civil rights karmic wheel is turning on them, and they have no one to blame but themselves.   You introduce a comprehensive bill, the entire community would have gotten behind it, and my last two months worth of posts on this issue would have a much different tone.     



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We Need To Handle Our Chocolate Trans Business

I'm not only angry and disgusted about what has transpired in Maryland over the last two months concerning HB 235, so are many of my fellow African descended transpeople..

I'm disgusted over the duplicitous and shady way that this bill was handled by predominately white dominated 'equality' groups.   They were aided and abetted by white sellout transpeople thinking only about their comfort, status and bank accounts.

Once again, they not only froze African American transpeeps out of the process of developing this law in a state with a 30 percent African American population, they used the deaths and stories of African American transpeople and appropriated our proud civil rights history to attempt to pass this unjust law.

And when we call their asses out on their all too familiar pattern of behavior, the white trans apologists have the nerve to attack us for pointing out how jacked up this situation is. .

You know, I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired of seeing this crap happen again, and I am close to recommending that since the white trans community and their Gay, Inc overseers repeatedly won't do the right thing and pass comprehensive civil rights laws that help the entire community,  maybe it's time for us in light of what has happened in Maryland, for the African-American trans community to totally separate ourselves from the white dominated trans community and handle our own political business.

Why stay in a community in which we're not wanted or respected?   I'm chuckling about the recently released survey that highlights the lack of trans people in GLB orgs.  I'm willing to bet that what transpeople they do have working in them don't have melanin in their skin.

Bottom line is that we're beyond tired of the invisibility and it's time for the chocolate trans community to do what our Black sisters did in the late 80's and early 90's when they separated themselves from a similar jacked up situation in the feminist ranks.

As to what that independent Black trans community will look like?.   That's part of the Black trans revolution that will not be televised or talked about on this blog, Twitter or Facebook    But white trans community, know that you've had ample time and multiple warnings to clean up your behavior and the clock's ticking..

How long are we going to allow ourselves to keep getting disrespected?   How long are we going to see our transpeople bear the brunt of the discrimination and trans murder casualties as you continue to sell us out to gain the white privilege you lost when you transitioned and continue to pine away for?

It's nation time Black trans people.   Time to build that FUBU community.    If we have some righteous white trans brothers and sisters wishing to help, we'll gladly take you,, but know going in it will be a situation  in which we are going to call the march.

It is also going to happen after we finish closing ranks and have that in house conversation about how we want that Black trans community to look, collectively act, and the policies we will pursue to advance all transpeople's civil rights.

It's past time for the children, grandchildren and great grandchildren of our civil rights warriors to show you how a civil rights movement is run properly.

We've been doing it bassackwards for the last 50 plus years and it ain't working out for us.   Time to try something different.

The Game Season 4 Finale Tonight

At 9 PM CDT I'm tuned into BET (yes, BET) for my weekly dose of The Game.    The Mara Brock Akil produced show was on the CW for three seasons until it was canceled.   It was revived and picked up by BET due to a write in campaign initiated by its many fans, and the opening season 4 episode drew 7 million viewers.

And what a season.   We've seen the now married Dr. Melanie Barnett-Davis do a failed paternity test on DJ, watched Jason get cut from the Sabers,  Tasha date a younger man and drive him away, Kelly's reality TV show bomb, and Jason and Kelly actually crack down and become parents to an out of control teenage Brittany.  

Speaking of out of control, Malik's life descends to a dark place to the point where he ends up in rehab, falls in love and just when he climbs out of that hole, ends up in another one with the Sabers owner when he finds out Malik has been sleeping with his wife who the owner has badly disrespected.

Hmm, wonder what Season 5 has in store for us?     

I'll definitely be watching later tonight.

If We Can't Be Proud Of Who We Are, Why Should Anyone Else Be?

I've talked about the ongoing struggle that many people have in the trans community with overcoming the shame and guilt issues that plague us.

Time and time again I see those shame and guilt issues manifest themselves in internalized transphobia, timidity in terms of fighting and calling out people who oppress us, and the lack of pride in being trans men and women.

One of the things I was most happy about is I had trans mentors who were proud of being trans people, and wouldn't let us think of ourselves as less than human.   Then again, me being African American and having parents and grandparents that also drilled that same message into me and my siblings early in life also was a big help in terms of building the healthy self esteem that I've needed to call on at times as I deal with the transphobia hurled at me

But it is past time to deal with the shame and guilt issues in this community.   Shame and guilt issues are one of the major factors holding back our progress and our pressing need to build a cohesive community. 

George Bernard Shaw once said, “We live in an atmosphere of shame. We are ashamed of everything that is real about us; ashamed of ourselves, of our relatives, of our incomes, of our accents, of our opinion, of our experience, just as we are ashamed of our naked skins.”  

What's real about us is that we are trans men and women.   There is nothing shameful about that.  We need to boldly own it and tell people who have a problem with us to go to Hades.   

We are part of the diverse mosaic of human life.   If we can't be proud of being who we are as trans men and women, why should anyone else in our circles be?