Remember Trayvon Martin's Name

Melissa Harris-Perry did on her show last weekend.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Thank You To My Sistah Girls

Yesterday I was in a blah mood until the phone rang and it was Renee on the other end of it.  We spent a glorious hour having one of those conversations that surprise surprise doesn't involve us talking about writing, our blogs, the state of the African diaspora, Black women's place in it or some of the other topics we've expounded on over the last five years.

Yesterday, it was simply girl talk. 

Yes, the Phenomenal Transwoman needs to be just one of the Sistah Girls at times.   I deal with a lot of crap inside and outside of the trans community activist wise, and every now and then it just feels good to talk about 'gettin' our girl on' as me and Renee call it.

It's nice for me to know that for that time I'm on the phone with Renee or any of my cis or trans girlfriends, I'm one of the tribe and I'm blessed to have these quality women around me.

Even better, I'm blessed to have quality women around me in my ongoing feminine journey that I can call my friends, ask questions, and get the answers I need that help me in understanding my evolution to Black womanhood and the role I play in it.

In my sistah circle, I'm not getting misgendered by some vanillacentric rad fem or hater.  I'm seen, respected and loved as simply another Black woman and it does wonders toward helping me stay focused on what I need to do to achieve my goal of being a quality Black woman.

It's hard enough to be a Black woman even when you're born with a body that matches your gender identity and presentation from birth.  It's much harder when you feel as though you're playing catch up to that status.  

So thank you to my sistah girls for doing their part to make me and other Black transwomen feel as though we are part of the circle and we belong. 

Thanks to all my sistahgrils cis ans trans. You make my life better just for being you, allowing me the blessing of being part of your lives and sharing some of the life lessons you have learned with me to help make me a better human being.

\n"; document.getElementById('resselect').value=zoomres; } -->

The Road We've Travelled

Here it is, the documentary about the first term of the Obama presidency that the conservafoools love to hate on.



Is it November 6 yet?

Happy 100th Birthday Bayard Rustin

Today is the 100th birthday of civil rights warrior Bayard Rustin, who was born on this date in West Chester PA in 1912. 

Rustin was an unapologetic Black gay man in an era that demanded you be in the closet about it.  He was an architect of many of the innovative strategies that the African American civil rights movement used for it human rights advances. 

He introduced Dr. King to Gandhi's nonviolence techniques and was one of his advisors.  He planned the 1963 March On Washington, and his 1947 Journey of Reconciliation was the basis of the concept and tactics of the  Freedom Rides that would be used to great effect in the 1960's to desegregate public transportation in the South. 

He later turned his attention to gaining human rights coverage for gay and lesbian people

One of my favorite quotes by Rustin is one in which he was talking about te Civil Rights movement, but it is so apropos to the current trans rights movement as well.

“Our job is not to get those people who dislike us to love us. Nor was our aim in the civil rights movement to get prejudiced white people to love us. Our aim was to try to create the kind of America, legislatively, morally, and psychologically, such that even though some whites continued to hate us, they could not openly manifest that hate.”

One the 100th anniversary of the date of his birth, let's keep that quote in mind as we strive to create and win the same type of America for trans people.





Happy birthday, Bayard Rustin.   Your words, deeds and organizational tactics are still helping oppressed people to win their human rights today.

RIP Agnes Torres Hernandez

The international community of trans activists is one in which we are not only a close knit bunch, we tend to form friendships for life as we get to know each other.

When we're not busy e-mailing and chatting with each other trading strategy, tactics and information as to what has worked and what hasn't in our struggles in our various nations to advance trans human rights coverage, we'll quickly shit to what's happening in our personal lives or give each other the moral and emotional support we'll need to continue to do a job we all know can be a tough one.  

We are also painfully aware that in some nations, being an out, proud and open trans human rights activist takes tremendous courage because it can lead to being harassed by the powers that be you are fighting.  It can also be a death sentence as Cynthia Nicole Moreno's 2009 death in Honduras sadly pointed out.

Sadly, I won't get the pleasure to meet Agnes Torres Hernandez. 

Agnes Torres Hernandez was a 28 year old psychologist and educator fighting for the human rights of our trans brothers and sisters in Mexico.  She disappeared last Friday after leaving her home in Puebla to attend a party in the small town of Chipilo.   Her body was found with her throat slashed, burn marks on it and clothed only in her underwear, a blouse with suspenders and a brown jacket.

Hernandez was becoming an important TBLG human rights voice in Mexico for her trans brothers and sisters, and 2000 people gathered in Puebla's central town square to demand justice for her murder.   

It is the sixth crime aimed at members of the Mexican TBLG community that has yet to see even one of them solved and a perpetrator brought to justice. 

While her voice has sadly been stilled, the fight continues for trans human rights coverage around the world and her trans brothers and sisters in her homeland and elsewhere will not rest until it happens..

TransGriot Note:  Read this open letter from Bamby Salcedo the publisher of xQsi Magazine, which covers Latin@ trans issues.   It concerns her thoughts about the senseless murder of Agnes Torres.

\n"; document.getElementById('resselect').value=zoomres; } -->

\n"; document.getElementById('resselect').value=zoomres; } -->

\n"; document.getElementById('resselect').value=zoomres; } -->

\n"; document.getElementById('resselect').value=zoomres; } -->

\n"; document.getElementById('resselect').value=zoomres; } -->

\n"; document.getElementById('resselect').value=zoomres; } -->

\n"; document.getElementById('resselect').value=zoomres; } -->