2012 TransFaith In Color-Day One

Been a long day for me so far, but I made it in one piece and finally arrived here in Charlotte, NC for my first ever TransFaith in Color Conference!

I'm excited about it, and I did get a chance to hit a few seminars before the welcoming reception.   We have a screening of Gun Hill Road to look forward to at 8:30 PM EDT..  

And yes, loving the fact I'm getting to see some old friends here and finally meet some new ones.  

The biggest irony is Diamond Stylz and I both live in Houston, but it took this event and traveling on the same flights for us to meet.   

And oh yeah, there's a little matter of a TFIC keynote speech I get to give at noon tomorrow that I'm already beeng told by everyone I run into for this event they are eagerly awaiting me to deliver.

No pressure.

Shut Up Fool Awards-TransFaith In Color Conference Edition

Assuming my flights are on time, according to my schedule I should be in Charlotte as you read this and preparing to do my keynote for the TransFaith In Color Conference that starts today.

Looking forward to seeing everyone at this event which has long been on my 'must attend' conference list.   The TFIC folks wanted me to speak at their inaugural 2010 conference in Los Angeles but had a scheduling conflict that kept me from doing so.

I'm here now, fired up anxious to see some old friends and meet new ones. I'm also ready to participate in some of the seminars and panel discussions in addition to deliver my keynote speech at noon EDT tomorrow.  For those of you who can't be here, the text of my speech will pop up here on the blog at that time.

If I happen to get some video of it, I'lll post it to the blog later.   .

It's also Friday, and that means I have to handle some of my usual Friday TransGriot business in terms of the weekly Shut Up Fool awards.  

As always, I had a bumper crop of fools his week.   Group nods to Fox Noise, the Log Cabin Republicans, the Tea Klux Klan, and the Republican Party.   Individual nods this week to Chad Johnson, R. Clarke Cooper, Reince Priebus, John Sununu, Eric Fehrnstrom, Rep Paul Ryan, Gretchen Carlson, 

This week's SUF winner is.one of our contenders for the Shut Up Fool of the Year Award in Mitt Romney

So what did he do to earn this week's award?  Lie about the fact that the $718 billion the ACA takes from Medicare is waste and fraud, not from benefits of current recipients and extends the life of the program by eight years.  Lied when he claimed the POTUS is running a 'racist and divisive' campaign, and them made a racist dog whistle 'go back to Chicago' remark while doing so.  Sent his wife Ann to do his dirty work about not releasing more tax returns.  Lied that president Obama is trying to eliminate military voting rights in Ohio...

Oh yeah, did forget to point out that Mittbot lies on a daily basis? 

On that note.  This one deserves a special Mr T appearance.  Mitt Romney, shut the HELL up, fool!
 

Deoni Jones Case Update

I posted back on February 12 that 55 year old Gary Niles Montgomery was arrested and charged with second degree murder while armed in the February 2 stabbing death of Deoni Jones. 

Since that last post, Montgomery has been in jail without bond.

He has undergone mental status hearings that declared him competent to stand trial back on March 23. and has another upcoming felony status hearing on August 31.

So as of this writing Montgomery is still on a legal glide path that will probably result in him being tried for Deoni Jones' murder. 

I'll keep tracking this case, and as new details on this case become available to me I'll post them here until justice is served for our fallen sister.

Leaving On A Jet Plane-For Charlotte

Well if everything is on time and there is no ATC drama, I should be airborne as you read this out of Hobby Airport and on my way via Atlanta to my final destination of Charlotte and the TransFaith In Color Conference

I had to get up early to make this 6 AM CDT departure but I'm looking forward to giving my keynote speech and attending my first ever TFIC conference.,

For those of you who can't be in Charlotte for it, I'll post the speech on the blog tomorrow.   If someone videotapes it, I'll post that video on TransGriot as soon as I receive it.  

This begins another set of interesting back to back trips because next week I fly to New York to participate in GLAAD's POC Media Institute.   So yeah New Yorkers, I'm headed your way for a few days

First up is Charlotte, and see y'all in a few hours.

Another Young Chicago Transwoman Killed

Sad news to report before I depart for Charlotte, and thanks to reader Jessica Wicks for bringing it to my attention.

19 year old Tiffany Gooden was found stabbed to death on Tuesday in an abandoned building in the 4800 block of West Jackson Street on Chicago's West Side.    This comes less than four months after Paige Clay was found shot dead in an alley less than three blocks from that location. 

My reaction to the news that another young transsister's life was snuffed out?   I'm pissed, and the transphobic idiots running rampant in the comment threads of the CBS2 news story isn't helping my mood. 

I also didn't appreciate the writer sticking in the story courtesy of some random street interview the 'Black transwomen are prostitutes' meme

Chicago Police according to the story are investigating both the Clay case and the Gooden one.   They'd better be, because if they aren't, I'm going to find out about it courtesy of local activists.  I will be keeping an eye on this latest murder as well with the help of the Chicago rainbow community until the wastes of DNA who committed it are brought to justice.

But add Tiffany Gooden's name to the sadly lengthening list of people we will be memorializing when the 2012 edition of the Transgender Day of Remembrance takes place in November.

Campus Pride's First Ever Top 10 Trans Friendly College and University List

The organization Campus Pride has been compiling  LGBT friendly campus lists through its Campus Climate Index  for several years now.  

With the increasing numbers of campuses adding gender identity and expression language to their mission statements and non discrimination policies (even here in Texas) and the fact that trans kids transitioning at earlier ages will one day become trans collegians,  I was happy to discover via an Advocate.com article that Campus Pride has compiled a first ever list of its Top Ten Trans Friendly Colleges and Universities.

This initial Top Ten list is heavy on northeastern and west coast schools with one in the midwestern US.     We can only hope over time that this Top Ten Trans Friendly List will grow to a Top Twenty List and become more regionally diversified.  I would also like to one day see some HBCU campuses on this list as well as some from my birth state.  

The Top Ten Trans Friendly Colleges and Universities for 2012

Ithaca College,  Ithaca, NY
New York University, New York, NY
Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
University of California Riverside, Riverside,CA
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
University of Oregon, Eugene, OR
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
University of Vermont, Burlington, VT

Joint LGBT Organization Statement Over FRC Shooting

Joint Statement regarding shooting at Family Research Council (FRC) from lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) organizations

We were saddened to hear news of the shooting this morning at the offices of the Family Research Council. Our hearts go out to the shooting victim, his family, and his co-workers. The motivation and circumstances behind today’s tragedy are still unknown, but regardless of what emerges as the reason for this shooting, we utterly reject and condemn such violence.  We wish for a swift and complete recovery for the victim of this terrible incident. Michael Adams Executive Director, Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders (SAGE) Tico Almeida President, Freedom to Work Katie Belanger Executive Director, Fair Wisconsin Wayne Besen Founding Executive Director, Truth Wins Out A.J. Bockelman Executive Director, PROMO Carly Burton Deputy Director, MassEquality Dr. Eliza Byard Executive Director, Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN) Jennifer Chrisler Executive Director, Family Equality Council Brad Clark Executive Director, One Colorado R. Clarke Cooper Executive Director, Log Cabin Republicans Heather Cronk Managing Director, GetEQUAL Jerame Davis Executive Director, National Stonewall Democrats Emily Dievendorf Director of Policy, Equality Michigan James Esseks Director, ACLU Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Project Lynn A. Faria Interim Executive Director, Empire State Pride Agenda Jenna Frazzini Executive Director, Basic Rights Oregon Herndon Graddick President, Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) Chad Griffin President, Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Jody M. Huckaby Executive Director, PFLAG National (Parents, Families, Friends of Lesbians and Gays) Mara Keisling Executive Director, National Center of Transgender Equality Kate Kendell Executive Director, National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) Abbe Land Executive Director & CEO, The Trevor Project Ineke Mushovic Executive Director, Movement Advancement Project National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs Darlene Nipper Deputy Executive Director, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Donna Red Wing Executive Director, One Iowa Aubrey Sarvis Executive Director, Servicemembers Legal Defense Network Josh Seefried Co-Director, OutServe Brian Silva Executive Director, Marriage Equality USA Lee Swislow Executive Director, Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders Rachel B. Tiven, Esq. Executive Director, Immigration Equality Chuck Wolfe President & CEO, Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund and Institute Evan Wolfson President, Freedom to Marry ### About GLAAD: The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) amplifies the voice of the LGBT community by empowering real people to share their stories, holding the media accountable for the words and images they present, and helping grassroots organizations communicate effectively. By ensuring that the stories of LGBT people are heard through the media, GLAAD promotes understanding, increases acceptance, and advances equality. For more information, please visit www.glaad.org or connect with GLAAD on Facebook and Twitter.

Mitt And Ann, Show Us The Tax Returns

One of the things I'm chuckling about as this 2012 election campaign mercifully enters the home stretch is how much tap dancing Mittbot and his beloved wife are doing to avoid by any means necessary showing more than two years of his tax returns. 

You and your stay at home 1% wife Ann can whine all you want, but the bottom line is that you are running for the presidency.   If you didn't want the media and the electorate asking legitimate questions about your finances, then you shouldn't have run for president. 

And sending your wife out to cover for you isn't going to change things either.

If giving 23 years of tax returns to the McCain campaign when you were vetted for the vice presidency in 2008 was okay then, and you asked for multiple years for your own vice presidential nominee, then it's good enough for those of us who have inquiring minds about just what information is in those tax returns you don't want to come out?

So pull up the temple garments and deal with it because politics is a contact sport.   You will not be allowed to give vague non-answers to questions the voting public has a right to know about you and think you'll slide into the presidency by riding the bigot vote into office.   .     .  

Neither one of you peeps word is good enough when you claim you've paid your taxes and given your 10% in tithes to the Mormon church.  Mitt lies on a daily basis on the campaign trail about everything else including his records in government and his business dealings, so why should we presume that he isn't lying when it comes to this topic as well?.

You say that the charges that you haven't paid taxes for several years are false, only one way to prove that, especially in light of the fact that President Obama has released his tax returns back to 2000. . 

So what's stopping you from not only matching that, but the precedent your own father set when he ran for the presidency in 1968?

Mitt and Ann, show us the tax returns.

Being Trans Is No Longer Considered A Mental Illness

2012 for the trans community is going to be celebrated as fondly as 1973 is for the gay and lesbian community.   When the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM V for short is published in May 2013, the term Gender Identity Disorder will be replaced with “Gender Dysphoria.”

What that means is that being trans is no longer considered a mental illness. 

We already knew that, but it took years of lobbying the American Psychiatric Association to change or completely remove the “mentally ill” characterization given to all trans people. Individuals may now be diagnosed with Gender Dysphoria, “a marked incongruence between one’s experienced/expressed gender and assigned gender.”


“All psychiatric diagnoses occur within a cultural context,” Jack Drescher, a New York psychiatrist and member of the APA subcommittee said. “We know there is a whole community of people out there who are not seeking medical attention and live between the two binary categories. We wanted to send the message that the therapist’s job isn’t to pathologize.”

“The label of mental defectiveness really places a burden on trans people to continually prove our competence in our affirmed roles,” said Colorado scholar and advocate Kelley Winters in an Associated Press interview

The new designation will have profound effects on our community both positive and negative, but one of the immediate benefits is that it takes away a right wing talking point they used to oppose trans human rights laws.  It will also affect us in the legal realm both positively and negatively, but there are arguments pro an con from trans legal scholars as to how it will play out.

But one thing we can all agree on is that it's a good thing to depathologize being trans.

Bennigan's Is Back In H-town!

One of my fondest memories of the 80's and 90's was hanging out at Bennigan's.   When I wasn't scarfing up their food and having drinks there as well, I was soaking up the atmosphere.  

There were two of the then 20 locations in Houston that regularly got me to part with my money.  One of them was located on Loop 610 by the Astrodome and the other was by my old apartment on Bissonnet.   It was across the street from the Pappas Barbecue location I was on a first name basis with most of the staff who worked there during the 90's.  

That's another post.  This one's about my love affair with Bennigan's.

The Bennigan's on Loop 610 got the nickname of 'Black Bennigan's' by me and my friends at the time for an obvious reason.  It was a short drive from Third Ward, South Park and the nearby condo and apartment complex filled neighborhood chock full of Buppies and young professionals.  If you said you wanted to eat at Bennigan's and the answer to the 'which one?' question came back "Black Bennigan's", you knew immediately which direction to point the car and drive. 

That particular Bennigan's was more fun at times than paying $5 cover to go to any club and was always packed.  There were times when the restaurant would be closed at 2 AM and people would still be hanging out in the parking lot until 3 AM.

There were more than a few times I hung out at the 610 location with friends during the 80's.  When I moved to my new Bissonnet and Beltway 8 southwest Houston neighborhood in 1991, one of the reasons I picked it was because my apartment complex was less than two blocks walking distance from that Bissonnet Bennigan's location..

That particular location liked to put Rockets and later Comets games on their televisions, and when the Rockets won their 1994 NBA title I was sitting there cheering with everyone else when it happened. 

So when I moved back to Houston, I was shocked to learn that all 20 Houston Bennigan's locations closed when the chain went through bankruptcy in 2008.  I still get depressed when I pass by the old Loop 610 location that had been bought and remodeled into a Mexican food chain restaurant.  

Was estatic to learn that Bennigan's is reentering the Houston market and the new franchisee is planning to open up to 10 restaurants around the Houston area.  That's half of the total that were around prior to the 2008 bankruptcy, but it's better than not having any here at all  .   

And yes, for those of you who loved the Monte Cristo sandwich, it's still on the menu. 

Liberal* Media, This Is How You Shut Down A Lying Conservafool

Take notes ABC, CBS, NBC, and other CNN hosts.   MSNBC already does so with regularity which is why the conserafools are 'scurred' to show up on many MSNBC shows.  

Over the next 82 days the consevafools are going to lie,.lie, lie and it is your job to call their azzes out on it and stand your ground as Soledad O'Brien masterfully does to John Sununu here.

Thank You For The 2012 NYC Black Pride Heritage Award

TransGriot Note: I'll be in New York next week for GLAAD's POC Media Institute, but not in time for tonight's awards event that is taking place at the Schomburg Center For Research In Black Culture and is a kickoff event for NYC Black Pride.  

In case you missed the earlier post I wrote about it, I'm getting a NYC Black Pride Heritage Award from Gay Men of African Descent in their Literary Excellence Category.   I also wanted to congratulate my homegirl Tona Brown who is getting the Marsha P. Johnson Award as well. 

So here's my acceptance letter and thank you GMAD for the honor.

It is indeed an honor an a privilege to be receiving this unexpected award for Literary Excellence from GMAD.   Ever since I stated TransGriot in 2006, I have strived  to live up to the mission statement and the name of this blog, to be a 21st century griot for our community.

I wish I could be there in person at the Schomburg Center to pick up that award for a variety of reasons.  I would have loved to have sat in the same place where my late historian godmother spent many hours during her time as an NYU student.   It would have been mice to meet many of you in the New York area who have let me know throughout the time I'm been publishing the blog how much you love and appreciate it and my tell it like it T-I-S is Afrocentric flavored commentary on unfolding events in the world around us. 

And finally, it's a chance to go to New York!   

I'm honored and touched that GMAD thinks so highly of my work chronicling the history of the African descended trans community here and across the Diaspora.  I believe it is vitally important now just as it was on January 1, 2006 when I founded the blog that we African-American transpeople had a FUBU space of our own on the Net that unapologetically refleced our culture, our heritage, and began to fight back aginst the ignorance and lies propagated aout us inside and outside the rainbow community.

It was also critically important for our young trans people to know they have a proud history, and heroes and sheroes to look up to.  It was important as well for African-American cisgender people to know that transsexuality isn't a 21st century phenomenon.

So to GMAD, thank you once again for bestowing this 2012 NYC Black Pride Heritage Award on me for Literary Excellence.   

Where's The Diversity In The Presidential Debate Moderator Lineup?

The presidential debates between President Obama and Mitt Romney and the vice presidential debates between Vice President Biden and Paul Ryan will occur in October.  

The schedule and debate subjects have already been determined along with the locations for the four scheduled debates, but the moderators were just announced yesterday..

First Presidential Debate

October 3, University of Denver, Denver, CO

Moderator: Jim Lehrer, PBS

Vice Presidential Debate

October 11, Centre College, Danville, KY

Moderator: Martha Raddatz, ABC

Second Presidential Debate (town hall -meeting format)

October 16, Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY

Moderator: Candy Crowley, CNN

Third Presidential Debate

October 22, Lynn University, Boca Raton, FL
Moderator: Bob Schieffer, CBS

The first presidential debate will focus on domestic policy and be divided into six time segments of approximately 15 minutes each on topics to be selected by the moderator and announced several weeks before the debate. The moderator will open each segment with a question, after which each candidate will have two minutes to respond.  The moderator will use the balance of the time in the segment for a discussion of the topic.

The vice presidential debate will cover both foreign and domestic topics and be divided into nine time segments of approximately 10 minutes each. The moderator will ask an opening question, after which each candidate will have two minutes to respond. The moderator will use the balance of the time in the segment for a discussion of the question.

The second presidential debate will take the form of a town meeting, in which citizens will ask questions of the candidates on foreign and domestic issues. Candidates each will have two minutes to respond, and an additional minute for the moderator to facilitate a discussion. The town meeting participants will be undecided voters selected by the Gallup Organization.

The format for the third presidential debate will be identical to the first presidential debate and will focus on foreign policy.

The question I and every non-white American is asking ourselves right now is where's the diversity in the moderator lineup?

Granted, CNN's Candy Crowley will be the first woman in over 20 years to moderate a presidential debate.  But you couldn't ask Gwen Ifill, who has moderated the 2004 and 2008 vice presidential debates to do so?   You mean to tell me Presidential Debate Commission you couldn't find a single non-white journalist to moderate at least one of these debates?

Here's the short list of people of color journalists I came up with in addition to Gwen Ifill that could easily moderate these debates: Martin Bashir, Tamron Hall, Roland Martin, Alina Cho, Suzanne Malveaux, TJ Holmes, Ed Gordon, Soledad O'Brien.....  

Or is it you didn't look hard enough?

FAA Updates Medical Rules For Trans Pilots

As you longtime TransGriot readers are aware of, I started my own transition in 1994 during my airline days, and I was motivated to do so after one of our Newark based pilots successfully won her anti-trans discrimination lawsuit.  

A year after I did so, she and I finally met one day in Terminal C as she was on a trip that took her through IAH.  

So I was happy to see that FAA has updated their medical rules to eliminate the unwarranted and unfair psychological tests they required

With the new FAA change, the only thing required for a trans pilot is submitting current clinical records together with an evaluation from a psychiatrist or psychologist.  If they have any surgery a report is required as well.

Pilots in general are required to go through rigorous physical and psychological testing by the FAA for safety reasons and to get the medical certification they need to keep their pilots licenses.  But what was happening when pilots began to transition, they had been required to undergo expensive, burdensome and unnecessary batteries of psychological tests including personality, projective and intelligence tests in addition to the FAA required medical ones.    

The result was that some trans pilots wre grounded by their air carriers until they did so and others lost their jobs because of it.

I'm very happy to see the FAA finally go to a science-based criteria for trans pilots so that they can continue to not only keep their jobs but continue to serve the flying public.

2012 Olympic Watch-See You In Rio

After 17 days of exhilarating competition filled with highs, lows, drama, controversy and upsets, the 2012 Summer Olympics in London came to a close last night as the torch was extinguished and the Antwerp Olympic flag was passed on to the mayor of Rio de Janeiro.

There were probably some eye rolls occurring all over Chicago when that part of the closing ceremony happened. 

Team USA won 104 total medals, 46 of them gold in what I'm calling the 'Title IX Olympics'.   27 of the 46 golds earned by the United States were courtesy of female athletes on a 2012 USA Olympic team that had for the first time more female than male athletes.   Our female team athletes did quite well in winning a fifth consecutive gold in basketball, the first ever in water polo, and repeating in soccer (stop hatin' Renee).

There was an upset in the volleyball final as our number one ranked women had to settle for silver and the field hockey team didn't get out of pool play.  

This was also the first Olympic Games ever in which all the competing nations entered had at least one female athlete as part of their delegations.

We Olympic junkies will now have to wait until August 5, 2016 for the opening ceremonies of the 31st Olympiad of the modern era.   And thank God for American viewers Rio is only one hour ahead of the eastern time zone and NBC won't have any excuse to not broadcast more events live.

We hope.

Goodbye, London.  You did a wonderful job hosting the Games for the third time.  The torch has been passed to you now Rio.  Looking forward to seeing how y'all handle it in 2016  

Stephanie and Ukea-Ten Years Later

TransGriot Note: I was originally just going to publish this piece here, but decided it needed a major signal boost.   Since HuffPo Gay Voices extended me an invitation to write for them, I decided to have it posted there as well since the 10th Anniversary of the execution style killings of Stephanie Thomas and Ukea Davis and the fact their killers are still walking around free needed to be pointed out.

On August 12, 2002 on the same 50th and C Street corner in SE Washington DC in which the car accident occurred that eventually took Tyra Hunter's life due to medical transphobia, transteens Stephanie Thomas and Ukea Davis died in a hail of automatic gunfire.

Ten years later, this double murder still hasn't been solved.  It saddens me and other DC area transpeople who remember that horrific crime that it hasn't..

As I said in the 2011 post I wrote at my home blog on the 9th anniversary of this despicable murder:

These young sisters died because somebody hated them so much for transitioning that they felt they had the right to violently terminate their lives.  I don't want people or the trans community to forget what happened to these young African descended transwomen or why they are no longer here on planet Earth with us.

I also want the wastes of DNA who committed this heinous crime to be brought to justice not just for me, the trans community of DC and around the world, but Stephanie's mother as well.    .

Someone in that neighborhood knows or heard something that will facilitate the arrest and conviction of the people who did this.   They belong in jail, not walking around in society.

19 year old Stephanie and 18 year old Ukea's lives were extinguished before they even had a chance to live them.  Both of them would be approaching their thirties right now.  I wonder what dreams and aspirations they had for themselves they never got to fulfill?  What kind of contributions to our society did we lose because somebody hated Stephanie and Ukea enough to kill them for openly living their trans lives?

That's what angers me every time I contemplate their loss and the loss of every transperson to anti-trans violence.  It's also what drives me to ensure that no more mothers like Queen Washington have to witness their trans child being buried or mothers who have trans children fearing the same thing will happen to their kids.

Stephanie and Ukea, know that you ladies are not only not forgotten by the trans community and all who loved you.  The trans community in Washington DC and around the country won't rest until the people who killed you are brought to justice. 

We also won't rest until we create a world in which trans youth can come out, dream big dreams and simply live their lives just like any other cisgender kid does

.

2012 Olympics Watch-The Drive For Five Is Golden!

The USA women's ballers used a devastating 19-0 third period run to blow the gold medal game wide open and cruise to a comfortable 86-50 win over France and their fifth straight gold medal since 1996..

It was also their 41st consecutive win in Olympic competition dating back to the bronze medal game of the 1992 Barcelona Games, with the last time the USA lost on the women's side being to the Unified Team AKA Russia in the semifinals.

While I'm happy to see the sustained excellence of the USA women, I worry that the IOC will yank the sport out of the Olympic program for the same reason they pulled softball because we're dominating it. 

Hey world, all I have to say on that is ramp up your level of play like we've had to do in the sports you dominate.  .    

2012 Olympic Watch-Semenya Gets 800m Silver

I was eagerly watching along with the rest of the world the women's Olympic 800m final race to see if now 21 year old Caster Semenya's drama would end with a golden result. 

Alas it didn't.

She was dead last for 600m of the race and waited a little too long to start her finishing kick and ended up with the silver medal behind Russia's Mariya Savinova in a time of 1:57:23.   Defending Olympic champ Pamela Jelimo of Kenya faded badly down the strtch and finished fourth.

The tactics she use in this race has led to speculation by BBC commentator Colin Jackson that she's holding back in order to not win races in dominating fashion, and avoid a repeat of the international drama that sidelined her for 10 months after the 2009 world championship victory.   .

Atlanta Olympian Michael Johnson disagreed with Jackson's theory on Semenya's motivation.


"Why would she prepare and come here and not want to win? She showed in 2009 she was a fighter. I am not buying that. I don't see that in Semenya," Johnson said.

I'm not buying that either.   But damn, Semenya is damned if she does and damned if she doesn't win big.  

What I was happy to hear is that Semenya's coach is now the great Olympian Maria Mutola of Mozambique, who faced her own gender drama back in the day as well.

And yes, there's Rio four years from now.     

2012 Olympics Watch-40.82!

For American track fans, winning the 4x100 and 4x400 relays in an Olympics or World Championships is like winning the gold medal in basketball.

It's expected due to the long and distinguished history in these events on both the men's and women's sides..   

The USA women prior to 2000 had won the 4x100 relay nine of the 16 times the event had been held with the last win being in the 1996 Atlanta Games.

During the Sydney Games a relay team featuring gold medal winner Marion Jones had to settle for bronze because of a sloppy second exchange between Torri Edwards and Nanceen Perry.

In Athens in 2004, they bungled the second exchange again and failed to finish because Lauryn Williams started too early and Jones passed her the baton beyond the legal zone. 

And in Beijing the buzzard's luck for the women's 4x100 relay team continued.  They didn't even make the final because they failed to finish in their qualifying heat.

Track fans in the States were getting restless with the miscues and the gold medal drought in one of the events we consider a signature one for our Olympic track teams of either gender. 

The drought ended in resounding fashion last night.   Not only did the USA quartet of Tianna Madison, Allyson Felix, Bianca Knight and Carmelita Jeter win gold, they beat their Jamaican rivals in a resounding world record setting time of 40.82 seconds.

They took out the 41.37 record set in 1985 by East Germany and also took out the East German 1988 Olympic record in the process.


Great job ladies.   Now how about an encore in Rio?

2012 Olympics Watch-Semenya To 800m Finals

I've been keeping up with the saga of Caster Semenya of South Africa over the years, and hoped that all the gender drama they took her through after her surprise world championship in 2009 would be avenged by an Olympic gold medal in London.

She's on the verge of making that happen.   She won her 800m semifinal heat in a time of 1:57:67 to put her in Saturday's final that will include defending Beijing gold medalist Pamela Jelimo of Kenya, who won her semifinal as well.
.

"I'm very happy to get through to the finals," Semenya said. "It was very hard, but I tried my best. I just have to go to my bed."

It was wonderful to see her carry the South African flag during the opening ceremonies.  I hope she gets to top that honor by standing on the top step of the victory platform receiving a gold medal tomorrow.

Good luck Caster!