Stop Looking At Being Trans As A Curse

One of the memes I get tired of seeing and hearing is transpeople calling being trans a curse. That's problematic right there and plays into the shame and guilt issues about trans people being part of the diverse mosaic of human life. 

I look at being trans as a blessing, not a curse.

You think I wouldn't have loved to have been female from birth? Yes. Am I envious of younglings like Kim Petras and Jazz who either got to or are growing up as girls and have loving parents who helped them do so? Yes.  You think I wouldn't love to go through a day without hearing about a transperson being disrespected or killed somewhere on the planet?  Yes.   You don't think that some days I would love to just be another 6'2" statuesque Black woman on the planet blithely going about her day and not having to constantly do hard solid thinking about her own and everybody else's gender identity and civil rights? 

But at the same time I realize that if I'd been born female from Day One I'd be missing out on this amazing life I have now.

I have this blog.  I get to interface on a regular basis with academics, politicians, thought leaders, college students, activists and amazing allies. 

The people who I call my friends I have no doubts they will have my back when I need it because all the poseurs, psuedo-friends and associates bounced when I transitioned   I have the knowledge of what it's actually like to live on the other side of the gender fence, an international network of friends thanks to over a decade of fighting for trans human rights and the blessing of getting to know some amazing people in the trans community

And how many people cis or trans can say they actually lobbied their congressmembers?

Frederick Douglass wrote in North American Review in 1881 that "Neither we, nor any other people will ever be respected till we respect ourselves and we will never respect ourselves till we have the means to live respectfully." 

In a nutshell, we transpeople not only have to get busy loving ourselves and keep working 24/7/365 (366 in a leap year) at it, we must work just as diligently to create the positive conditions in our lives so that we have the means to live respectfully .  

That means we must challenge the meme that being trans is a curse and root it out of our community.   We must fight tooth and nail to obtain trans human rights and fight even harder once they are achieved to zealously defend and expand them. 

We must emphasize self-love over self-hatred and constantly strive to live quality lives.  If that means surrounding yourself with people who role model that behavior on a consistent basis so that you can overcome the shame and guilt issues, by all means do so.

It's past time that transpeople stop viewing being us as a curse.  If we want people to love and respect us, it may sound simplistic, but we have to start first with loving and respecting ourselves.

Happy Kwanzaa Black Trans Style-The 2011 Remix: Ujamaa

TransGriot Note:  On each night of the Kwanzaa celebration, just as I did last year, I'm going to write about each one of those principles and explain how it applies to the chocolate trans community and our cis African descended brothers and sisters.

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Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics): To build and maintain our own stores, shops, and other businesses and to profit from them together.

Haban gari    What's The News? 

It's time to light the fifth candle on the Kinara and ponder the fifth principle of the seven celebrated during Kwanzaa.

Ujamaa.  Another principle that is key to solving what ails Black transpeople.   It's something that we need to consider and cultivate as a long term strategy to cut into the crushing 26% unemployment rate that we are currently grappling with.

Just imagine if we had a network of Black trans owned businesses than not only provided goods and services to our community, but also provided opportunities for employment.   There are also professional trans people who are accountants, attorneys, notary publics who could use the business and helping them helps our African American community keep a viable business going, helps us cut unemployment amongst our people and most importantly of all, keeps Black dollars circulating in our community and helps us profit from them together.

So in line with the ujamaa principle, if you are in a position to hire people, consider hiring a transperson.  They'll definitely appreciate the job and won't take it for granted knowing in the backs of our minds how hard it is for us to get them in the first place.

And transpeople use your dollars to support the businesses in our community and professionals who are us, hire us and stand up for our community.   You'll be doing us and the Black community a favor as well.

2011 UH Cougar Watch- Lots Of Stuff Going On

Since I last wrote a UH Cougar season update post in the wake of that crushingly disappointing C-USA championship game loss to Southern Mississippi that knocked us out of consideration for a BCS bowl berth there have been a lot of things happening on Cullen Blvd.

Former head coach Kevin Sumlin went for the money and bounced to Texas A&M.   UH got the official invitation to join the Big East Conference which they accepted and will begin play in the league starting in the 2013 season. 

Special teams coordinator Tony Levine was elevated to the head coaching spot to replace Sumlin and UH found out our number 20 ranked 12-1 footballers would be going bowling in Dallas' Cotton Bowl stadium to play in the 2nd annual Ticket City Bowl  on January 2 against number 24 and 9-3 Penn State.

So yep, been a rollercoaster of emotions and a lot of things happening for Cougar fans lately.

As for the C-USA title game loss, still disappointed that we're not going to New Orleans to play in the Sugar Bowl and what made it worse was hearing about it from all those nekulturny Harris County t-shirt wearing Longhorn and Aggie fans and UH haters.  Sumlin leaving was adding salt to the wound.

But getting the long rumored Big East invite made up for some of the drama.  It's a reward for all the effort put into President Khator's goal of in making UH Tier One in athletics just have we have strived for decades in academics.

Who cares if the Big East has questions about its AQ status?   We're finally in an AQ conference and still have the challenge of getting the recruits we need to get the basketball program ramped up to Big East level ball and keeping the forward momentum going in the football program and Cougar athletics in general.

That shouldn't be too hard for a Tier One level university smack dab in the middle of the largest city in the state and in the best recruiting turf for all sports in Texas.

The Big XII will regret the day they let UT AD DeLoss Dodds' grudge against UH cloud their thinking about admitting the third largest university in the state into the conference and I hope TCU kicks their behinds next year.

So looking forward to the new year,  the UH footballers and Case Keenum closing out a marvelous season with a bowl game win.   It's also going to be interesting to see what transpires in our last C-USA season starting in September enroute to Big East play in 2013.