Happy Birthday To The FLOTUS!

I could not let today pass without giving a shoutout to First Lady Michelle Obama on her 48th birthday.

You know I think she's all that and four bags of Jay's potato chips and hope she's being spoiled rotten by the POTUS and the First Daughters today.

Happy birthday Madame First Lady!   Hope you had a great one today and will continue to be celebrating them at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue through 2017.   

Is Rev. Bernice King Evolving On TBLG Issues?

Like many African-American trans and SGL people I've been a vocal critic of Rev. Bernice King ever since Dr. King's baby girl made this foul 2004 statement:

“I know deep down in my sanctified soul that my father (Dr. King) did not take a bullet for same-sex marriage.”

She was also a co-organizer and participant in a December 11, 2004 anti-same gender marriage march in the ATL that started at the foot of her father's grave.at the King Center sponsored by Bishop Eddie Long's New Birth Missionary Baptist Church.

She was until last year an associate pastor and elder at New Birth until she left during the scandal to become the CEO of the King Center..

Now the GA Voice's Dyana Bagby is reporting that Rev. King made an eyebrow raising statement at a rally honoring Dr. King, Jr. in Atlanta that called for straight and TBLG people to come together to fulfill the legacy of her father.


It was reported that during Rev Bernice King’s sermon calling for unity, she said she didn’t care if people “were black or white,” she asked for “Hindu, Buddhist, Islamist” people to come together, people from the “North side or the South side,” and most surprisingly added the words “heterosexual or homosexual, or gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender.”

Say what? Is it true she sounded more like her late mother Coretta than her cookie-chomping Aunt Alveda?

“We need all of us,” Rev. Maressa Pendermon, a minister with LGBT-inclusive Unity Fellowship Church, reported King as saying in the GA Voice article..

That we do.  If Rev. Bernice King has come to that epiphany, amen!   The proof will be Rev. King's deeds over the next few years.

The onus is on her after years of anti-gay statements and actions to show an extremely skeptical African-American rainbow community and our allies to borrow her father's words, she has moved from supporting the children of darkness and come over to supporting the children of light..

Why WE Can't Wait Either

TransGriot Note: Guest post from Cheryl Courtney-Evans, the editor of the Abitchforjustice Blog.

Yesterday was the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday; it was a national holiday, resulting in celebrations, remembrances, and excerpts from his speeches repeated virtually everywhere in these United States (and some places abroad).

As I listened to the recitation of one of his literary offerings from his "Letters from a Birmingham Jail", that concerned "Why we can't wait", I thought about the lesser known equality promotion Rev. King did for the Gender Non-Conforming (GNC; aka LGBT) community (as we know, he and Coretta both spoke up for us on many occasions), and I couldn't help but consider how this piece could relate to the transgender community and how still today, too often we still find ourselves at the very bottom of the "totem pole" of society.

So just as Rev. King enumerated the reasons "Why we can't wait", I'd like to share with you all the reasons WE as a transgender community can't wait either...after all, patience is suppose to be a "virtue", right? Additionally, we've also been told by other GNC advocates (most notably [usually] the LGB segment), "Let us get 'ours' first, then we'll address  'yours'...", with regards to equality/rights...(yeah, riiiight). The obstacles to "quality of life" are numerous for the transgender community, and for lower income/African American transgenders, standing as we are at the intersection of race and gender discrimination, almost insurmountable...

WE can't wait, when young transgenders (who come to their realization of their gender identity at ever younger ages, it seems) find schooling a battlefield of bullying, sometimes to the extent of death, and not finding nearly enough protection/assistance from school authorities (and too many times censure from these people).

WE can't wait, when we stop to realize that of all demographics, transgender individuals have the shortest life expectancy; few are expected to reach the age of retirement [65] (that is, IF they find a job to retire from).

When we're stopped for minor traffic violations, and find that it results in offensive altercations with law enforcement and too many times going to jail, because of the 'gender marker' on our driver licenses, WE can't wait.

WE can't wait when, as in Atlanta, GA., we find ourselves homeless, yet cannot find shelter because available facilities are trans exclusive or hostile.

WE can't wait when no matter what our education or capability, we are disallowed employment (making livable wages); that our wages too often must be "supplemented" by commercial sex work (or that is the sole income; no alternative).

WE can't wait, when too many of our number find that the only way to "stabilize" their existence is to become chronically ill and receive government benefits to survive (also decreasing life expectancy; some through the infecting disease, but also due to 'cultural incompetency' on the part of health care providers with regards to the transgender community).

We know that when we dress to leave home on any given day, we MUST be "on point" in our appearance, or we stand the very real chance of verbal or physical abuse, by others, and profiling/arrest by police (those who are suppose to be charged with "protecting & serving"), so WE can't wait.

So...although patience may be a virtue in many cases, many places, WE, the transgender community, CAN'T wait for tolerance, acceptance and last (but definitely not least) EQUALITY...our very lives depend on it.

Unjust Tennessee Transphobic Bill Dead For Now

The transphobic HB 2279 bill that Tennessee state representative transbigot Richard Floyd (R-Chattanooga) introduced that sought to make it a Class C misdemeanor crime punishable by a $50 fine to use a public restroom or dressing room "designated for one particular sex" if not a member of that designated sex.appears to be dead for now.

Rep. Floyd told Nashville's WTVF-TV his motivation for introducing HB 2279 was reading news reports about the San Antonio Macy's dressing room incident involving transphobic clerk Natalie Johnson.  She denied access to the transwoman in violation of Macy's corporate policy and was subsequently terminated

"I just do not want the same sort of thing happening in Tennessee," Floyd said in a WTVF-TV interview, adding that he believes "society is on the slippery slope to depravity" and the bill would help average citizens avoid being forced to "go along with the perverted way of thinking" promoted by a few persons.

Yeah, right.  And what about us citizens who don't want your conservabigotry imposed on us?  

Moving on to the good news.   The bill was effectively killed (for now) thanks to Sen. Bo Watson (R-Hixson) withdrawing his Senate version of the unjust bill. 

For the unjust bill to become law it not only had to pass both chambers of the Tennessee General Assembly, it needed at least one sponsor in the Senate to do so.  

As of this writing no one in the Senate has stepped up to be the sponsor for Rep Floyd's transphobic bill.  
 
As Marisa Richmond of the Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition pointed out in a MetroWeekly article, in the TTPC's view the bill had it been enacted would be unconstitutional: "For any gender non-conforming, or gender variant person, we see this as a violation of their Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable searches and seizures."

In addition, the bill would have put transpeople and androgynous looking cis people transiting the Volunteer State either in its airports, bus stations or interstate highways traversing the state in the position of being cited for violating the draconian bill.   That's before we even talk about cleaning staffs and parents who bring children of the opposite gender into restrooms with them or fitting rooms.

So yeah, this was a bad bill that needed to die.   This is a prime example of a legislator seeking to write an unjust law targeting a minority group and in the process not seeing (or caring) that it would have ripple effects far beyond the group they were singling out for vindictive action.

The TTPC will keep a watchful eye on the HB 2279 situation and so will I.  .

Recall Scott Walker Deadline Day

Today is the deadline day for all petitions in the attempt to recall embattled Wisconsin dictator governor Scott Walker (R) to be turned in by the groups seeking to unseat him.

They need 540,000 valid signatures to put it on the ballot, and the groups coordinating the recall effort passed that benchmark before Christmas and were shooting for 750,000 signature by this date.

We'll know soon enough if they were successful in doing so.   Scott Walker obviously thinks they were since he's been frantically trying to raise money from his 1% buddies to keep his seat.that has suddenly grown very uncomfortable for him.

Will keep you posted on Total Recall as it progresses.

My Hit Counter's 5th Anniversary

Today marks the 5th anniversary of the day that I installed a hit counter on this blog and yes, there's a story behind it.

I'd just celebrated TransGriot's first blogiversary and was curious to find out exactly how many people were reading my nascent blog.  

It happened to be King Day 2007 when I finally got around to doing so and once I did install it I was startled to discover I was getting 400 people a day visiting it.

From that day forward I stepped up my blog writing game in quality and the frequency of how often I post here at TransGriot and it has thankfully paid off. 


I get almost ten times the number of people visiting now on a daily basis as I did on January 17, 2007. At the time I compiled this anniversary post I've had a total of 3,309,654 people surf by or continue to check with me and see what I and my guest posters have to say about a wide variety of subjects including trans ones.

And I thank you readers for continuing to stop by my cyberhome to do so.