Ms W Finally Wins The Right To Marry!

The third time was finally the charm for Ms W in her nearly three year long Hong Kong court battle to marry her boyfriend.

After losing two previous rounds in court, she finally prevailed Monday at the Court of Final Appeals level in a 4-1 decision and won a groundbreaking ruling for transpeople in Hong Kong in the process.

The Registrar of Marriages had argued that because her birth certificate couldn't be altered under Hong Kong law and said she was male, she could not wed her boyfriend.

Ms W argued the previous adverse court rulings were a violation of her constitutional rights and the Hong Kong government subsidized her SRS back in 2008. 

"It is contrary to principle to focus merely on biological features fixed at the time of birth," the court said in a written judgement by the panel of five judges.

It added that existing laws "impair the very essence of W's right to marry"

The court said the nature of marriage as a social institution had "undergone far-reaching changes" in a multi-cultural present day Hong Kong.

However, the five judge panel stopped short in this ruling of allowing same gender marriage in Hong Kong. 
Ms W according to her attorney Michael Vidler was overjoyed at the landmark ruling, which not only allows her to marry her boyfriend, but orders Hong Kong to rewrite their marriage law to allow trans women to marry cis men and trans men to marry cis women.

Vidler read a statement by the now thritysomething Ms. W to reporters in which she said,"I have lived my life as a woman and been treated as a woman in all respects except as regards my right to marriage. This decision rights that wrong."


"I am very happy that the court of appeal now recognizes my desire to marry my boyfriend one day and that that desire is no different to that of any other women who seek the same here in Hong Kong," W said.

"This is a victory for all women in Hong Kong."

Interestingly enough had Ms W lived in mainland China, she would have been able to get married.  China's marriage were changed and clarified in 2003 to allow transpeople to get married to their opposite gender partners.  Hong Kong as an autonomous Special Administrative Region is still under British law.

The landmark ruling brings Hong Kong in line on the issue of trans marriage with other Asia-Pacific Rim nations such as mainland China, Singapore, India, South Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand.   Out of all those Asia-Pacific Rim nations, only New Zealand allows same sex couples to marry.

After Joanne Cassar's win in Malta and this one for Ms. W, can Nikki Araguz make it three in a row for international trans human rights with a trans marriage win here in Texas? 

Ms W is going to have to wait another 12 months for the landmark ruling to take effect and give the Hong Kong government time to rewrite the marriage laws, but she'll probably spend that time planning her wedding.

C-279 At Second Reading Phase In Canadian Senate

Our Canadian trans cousins (and so are we south of the border) are still anxiously watching Bill C-279, the Trans Rights Bill move through their national legislative body.

It has now moved to the Canadian Senate after being passed March 20 by the House of Commons on a 149-137 vote with the critical support of 16 Conservative Party MP's .

Interestingly enough one of the people who didn't vote on C-279 in the House of Commons was new Liberal leader Justin Trudeau, while Canadian Prime Minster Stephen Harper voted NO. 

The 105 member Canadian Senate is appointed, and has a current makeup comprised of 63 Conservatives, 36 Liberals, three independents and one Progressive Conservative.

The private members bill sponsored by the NDP's LGBTQ critic Randall Garrison had First Reading in the Senate on March 21 and its first hour of Second Reading debate on April 16. 

Senator Grant Mitchell of Alberta, the senate sponsor of C-279 gave a lengthy and comprehensive speech in favor of it, which would add gender identity to the list of protected grounds under the Canadian Human Rights Act and under the hate crimes section of the Canadian Criminal Code. 

It underwent its second hour of debate May 9 with Sen. Hugh Segal of Ontario doing the honors

Honourable senators, the amendments to the Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code proposed in this bill are timely and necessary. They are about extending the protection in these laws to a minority of Canadians who face particular challenges. That is what human rights is all about. That is what civilization at its best is all about. I support this legislation before us without reservation.

I will cite the testimony of Shelly Glover, Member of Parliament for St. Boniface, an MP for whom I have great respect and a former Winnipeg police officer, in her elegant testimony before a committee in the other place on this be bill. She said:

To give hope and opportunity to transgendered people through a bill like this, to give them hope in knowing they will have clarity every single time they report, every single time they want to go before a commission or a tribunal, that gender identity means they can be a transgendered individual and not have to rely on sex, which to most people means plumbing, or disability, which is not what many of them feel, I think is imperative. I think it's imperative that this move forward. I think it's imperative that we, as Canadians and parliamentarians, embrace the notion that we are inviting other Canadians to feel the sense of belonging that this will bill will give them.

When people say it's symbolic only, I disagree wholeheartedly. I want transgendered individuals to feel they can go to a police service, that they can go to a court, knowing full well that gender identity is in the Criminal Code and the Canadian Human Rights Act. I agree with the Canadian Bar Association when they say it will also provide clarity and public acknowledgment. I agree with Mr. Fine, who asks that there be a leaning towards more explicit language, which is what this bill will do. And I agree with all of the two-spirited people I spoke with at Safe Night off Winnipeg Streets recently who said this is an important bill.

Many who are sincerely opposed to this bill have raised the spectre of the protections included in it somehow giving licence to a transgendered individual to use public or school lavatories as predatory sites without any sanction. This is an undue and baseless fear.
Let me quote Randall Garrison, MP, the distinguished and courageous sponsor of this legislation, from his speech on February 27 of this year:

There were some concerns about "gender expression" being less well defined in law and that this would somehow open the gates to abusive practices on the basis of the gender identity bill. I will be very frank and talk about the main one of those, which was the concern that somehow people could use this bill to gain illegitimate access to public bathrooms and change rooms in order to commit what would always be criminal acts of assault.

I contacted the jurisdictions in the United States that have had these provisions in place for a very long time. Four of those did reply, those being California, Iowa, Colorado and the state of Washington. All of them reported the same thing: there have been no instances in any of those states of attempts to use the protections for transgendered people for illegal or illegitimate purposes — no incidents, zero, none.

Honourable senators, this bill has multi-partisan support in the other place and I respectfully submit that it warrants bipartisan support in this chamber, because whatever partisan divides we face, whatever pettiness sometimes invades our rhetoric on all sides, however ideologies of the left or right proscribe our creativity and constructive ability to cooperate, I appeal in humility and sincerity to our better natures and our more noble shared aspirations for coming together around this legislation.

I subscribe to the view that a society is not in the end judged by how the wealthiest and most powerful make out, how those with the loudest voices and most efficient lobbies survive and prosper. We are judged most accurately by how those who are most vulnerable make their way and experience genuine equality of opportunity.

Transgendered Canadians and those who are seeking to redress their personal struggle are indeed a minority among us, but that minority status should not diminish their rights to protection from discrimination; it should ensure protection of those rights as fully as we can.
Honourable senators in this chamber will remember when, decades ago, we tolerated in Canada discrimination based on gender, based on age, based on religion, based on colour and race, and based on sexual orientation. All of these have been addressed, at least in terms of our formal laws and Constitution if not yet completely in practice. However, over time function follows form and the values of the Magna Carta of 1215; Mr. Diefenbaker's Bill of Rights of 1960; the Charter of Rights and Freedoms advanced by Mr. Trudeau in 1982 with the help of Premiers Davis and Hatfield and made stronger by activists like our Senator Nancy Ruth and millions of other women; and changes in human rights codes to protect different sexual orientations have all headed in the same direction, and Bill C-279 continues that step forward.

As a Conservative, the fact that this will set us apart from dictatorships like Iran, Saudi Arabia and many others makes me very comfortable and happy. If we work together and proceed to advance this bill, we will all feel even prouder to be Canadians living in the best country in the world where no legitimate rights are set aside or willfully ignored.

Bill C-279 still has a few more steps to navigate on its legislative journey through the Canadian Senate. It will reconvene on May 21 and if Conservative Senate majority leader Marjory LeBreton of Ontario allows the bill to go to a vote and it passes, then it would head to a committee for review and possible changes.  

If changes are made to C-279 at the committee stage, the bill would need to return to Parliament for another approval vote.   If changes aren't made, then the bill would proceed to Third Reading stage, another two hours of debate and then if the majority leader allows it a final vote.

If C-279 passes Third Reading, it would then go to Governor General David Johnston for Royal Assent, which would make it Canadian law.   Senator Mitchell would like that to happen before the end of June and told Xtra that he has spoken to 30 Senators, with 15 assuring him they will support the bill. The majority of the remaining 15 senators he has spoken to he indicates are leaning toward supporting the bill.

We'll see what happens to C-279 in the Senate and if Sen. Mitchell is correct when it reconvenes.

Dr. Ben Barres Elected To National Academy of Sciences!

It's one huge honor for him and one giant leap for transkind.

Meet neurobiologist Dr. Ben Barres, a professor and chair of the department of neurobiology at the Stanford University School of Medicine.   He is one of 84 new members elected to the 150 year old National Academy of Sciences.

It is a major accomplishment and one of the highest honors a scientist can achieve. There are 220 NAS members who have won Nobel prizes and potential NAS members are nominated and extensively vetted by their peers, “in recognition of distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.”

Dr. Barres joins a distinguished group of 2,200 American NAS members and 400 NAS members from other nations. While he was humbled and thrilled about his election to the NAS, he also recognized the significance of his achievement to the trans community.

“This was a total surprise,” Barres said. “I had heard last year that I was nominated but had no idea I had actually been elected.”  Barres said that personally, his election to the Academy was a “nice honor.”

“But the primary significance to me is that it matters for young people. It sends a strong message to them that our country really values science and that they should consider becoming scientists. And of particular importance to me is that this matters to young trans kids. I am the first transgendered person to be elected to the NAS. This helps them to have confidence that they can feel comfortable being who they are, including changing sex, and still be successful in their career, in this case science. They don't have to choose between the two (identity and career).

“Young people should never let anyone make them feel bad about who they are--their differences are often their greatest advantages in life! I have been contacted by so many talented young trans kids (and I meet with them at every Society for Neuroscience meeting and hear their personal stories) who tell me their parents strongly resist their changing sex because they will lose their careers. That they can point to me as an example that this is not true really matters.

“When I decided to change sex 15 years ago I didn't have role models to point to. I thought that I had to decide between identify and career. I changed sex thinking my career might be over. The alternative choice I seriously contemplated at the time was suicide, as I could not go on as Barbara. Very fortunately, my academic colleagues have been incredibly supportive and my fears were far worse than reality. I hope that my election to the academy will help young trans scientists (and LGBT folks in general) to see this.”

Congratulations Dr. Barres for your groundbreaking National Academy of Sciences election.  Thank you for being a strong voice criticizing the gender divide in science and being a role model to our kids who may be considering careers in science, education and technology fields.

Thank you for proving once again to our naysayers that transpeople, if given the opportunity, can excel in any field.

CNN-The Caucasian News Network

When my family installed cable in our home back in the early 80's, one of the things as a news junkie I absolutely loved was CNN.  From James Earl Jones distinctive voice in its commercials announcing 'This Is CNN' to having Bernard Shaw as one of its early anchors.  It was one of the channels I turned to when I wanted to keep up with what was happening in the nation and the world.

But that's over now.   I've been more than pissed at CNN for a lot of reason from the rightward drift in its coverage, CNN President Jeff Zucker's initial hires only being white journalists to its refusal to have non-white anchors on except on the weekends and in the mornings.

The CNN relaunch ad that is at the top of the post didn't help, since the only non-white folks in it are Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Christiane Amanpour and Fareed Zakaria.  It also served to bitterly remind us in the African American community CNN has lost Black and Latino anchors off its airwaves such as TJ Holmes, Tony Harris, Rick Sanchez, Soledad O'Brien and  Roland S. Martin in stark contrast to rival MSNBC embracing diversity. 

My fellow Houstonian and 2013 NABJ Journalist of the Year wasn't shy in verbalizing his thoughts as to why CNN has had a problem with diversity.

"You have largely white male executives who are not necessarily enamored with the idea of having strong, confident minorities who say, 'I can do this,'" he said. "We deliver, but we never get the big piece, the larger salary, to be able to get from here to there."



People of color are all over MSNBC in a variety of capacities from contributors to anchors such as Tamron Hall, Rev. Al Sharpton, Melissa Harris-Perry, Karen Finney, Victoria DeFrancesco Soto and Joy Reid just to name a few of the faces you'll see there along with Martin Bashir and Alex Wagner.  It's also led to an astounding 61% growth in MSNBC's African-American audience as well. 

The dearth of CNN African-American and Latino anchors has led me to stop watching what I sarcastically call the 'Caucasian News Network' and go elsewhere to channels like MSNBC, for national and international news.  I'm not supporting a channel that won't hire or use pundits who look like me.   

It ain't just me complaining about the ethnic cleansing that's happened at CNN.  The National Association of Black Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists also ain't liking what has happened at CNN either.

In a multicultural nation, it is vitally important if you want balanced news to have viewpoints coming from a diverse group of people.   News executives, 'diverse group of people' doesn't mean old white men, young white men, liberal white men, or conservative white men with a white female or two thrown into the mix.

It means Black and Latino folks need to be at your news anchor desks since we do represent a sizable chunk of the US population.  I can even tolerate conservatives as long as somebody is sitting at that desk to counter their crap.  

I also want somebody sitting at that desk that reflects my lived experiences as well. 

Brandi's In JET Magazine!

If you search the JET magazine archives in Google books, you'll find articles on Black trans women throughout its nearly 60 years of publication that run the gamut from positive to not so positive.

Some of those JET articles were light years ahead of the mainstream media in terms of respectfully using correct pronouns while others would be right at home in our current media environment when it comes to covering trans women of color.

We even had a girl like us appear as a JET Beauty of the Week.in its August 20, 1981 issue in the late actress Ajita Wilson

There's a saying in the African-American community that you haven't made it until you appear on the pages of JET or EBONY.

I was deliriously happy and pleased to discover via Janet Mock and ELIXHER that JET"s April 29 issue contained a one page article featuring Washington DC trans woman Brandi Ahzionae.

29 year old Brandi opens up about her journey to be a girl like us in that JET issue that may still be available on your grocery store magazine racks with the 'Missing And Black' cover story.  

Brandi was subsequently interviewed on the electronic pages of ELIXHER.   She said something in the ELIXHER interview I enthusiastically agree with, especially in light of the ongoing journalistic hate crime being perpetrated by the Cleveland Plain Dealer aimed at Cemia Acoff.


I’d like to see Black trans women portrayed in a more positive light. I want the media to give us just as much of a right to be “normal” as anyone else. This is an opportunity to start a movement and gain some respect in the transgender community. The T in LGBT is excluded. We are a separate issue and people need to learn this.

Amen Brandi and congratulations on continuing the tradition of Black trans women being featured in one of our community's iconic magazines.    

Our Birth Names Are Not Germane To Telling Our Stories

Was having a conversation Saturday with my little sis from another mother Jordana in which we touched on the jacked up news coverage of Cemia's death and the AP Stylebook guidelines for covering trans people.

We noted how the Cleveland Plain Dealer seems to have adopted flipping the journalistic middle finger at the Cleveland trans community in their Cemia Dove Acoff coverage and also talked about the disrespectful reporting incidents in New York with Lorena Escalera and Los Angeles with Cassidy Vickers that pissed off people in those trans communities as well.

By the way, here's what the AP Stylebook currently states about covering transpeople  . 

transgender-Use the pronoun preferred by the individuals who have acquired the physical characteristics of the opposite sex or present themselves in a way that does not correspond with their sex at birth.   
If that preference is not expressed, use the pronoun consistent with the way the individuals live publicly.

Fortunately I'm seeing a lot less instances of media outlets putting a trans persons chosen or new name in quotation marks.  But with the way some of the media outlets have been backsliding on or straight up ignoring the AP Stylebook guidelines lately, I won't be surprised to see that odious news article tendency make a comeback.

What I and a lot of transpeople are also concerned about is seeing in far too many stories about us lately adding the line 'born as ___________'  or 'legal name is __________'.

I'm proposing that since many transpeople find this problematic, another line be added to the AP Stylebook guidelines or the NGLJA and GLAAD stylebooks that state that we find this problematic and they not do it.

You already know by stating the person is transgender is sufficient enough for the average reader of your story to know that the person you're writing about wasn't born with the gender characteristics they currently have.  So why add the birth name of that person unless you're deliberately trying to be disrespectful or salacious?   

I also can't stress this point enough that transpeople consider you using the name that matches their current gender presentation as a sign of respect of their lives.   

I've had a longstanding policy in any interview I do that my birth name is none of your business.   I've noticed that other trans people are also doing the same thing these days.  When Kylan Wentzel declined to give her old name to a reporter, I noted the tone of the article tuned pissy when she did so.  

Reporters, don't get mad when we insist in only giving you the names that correspond with the way we live our lives now.  I'd advise my trans younglings who are fortunate enough to get the opportunity to be interviewed from this day forward to decline to answer that question.  Far too often what I've observed is that your old name gets used to attack and misgender you. 

If we can respect Cher, Sir Elton John, Tina Turner and Sting and a long list of celebrities and politicians by not pointing out their birth names are Cherilyn Sarkisian, Reginald Dwight, Anna Mae Bullock and Gordon Sumner, why do we insist that somehow it's different for trans people and we MUST know their old names they no longer identify with?  Are we not worthy of the same media respect that a cis person gets? 

My birth name or the birth name of any trans person you're writing about in many instances is not only not germane to the story, it's a derailing distraction. 

So if you're concerned about writing a story respectful to our community and the trans person in question, how about simply focusing on our lives in their current manifestation? 

Lorena Escalera-One Year Later

Today marks the one year anniversary of the day that 25 year old Lorena Escalera was found dead in her Brooklyn apartment following a suspicious fire.   The model and member of the House of Xtravaganza was found during the subsequent investigation to have died by strangulation and suffocation suffered BEFORE the fire started at approximately 4 AM.  

However, the New York Times and the rest of the New York media decided to engage in an all too familiar pattern in media coverage of the deaths of POC trans women and sensationalize it. 

As Janet Mock stated about the coverage of Lorena at the time:

“As my city's and our nation's paper of record, I would expect the New York Times to treat any subject, regardless of their path in life, with dignity.”

"In Lorena Escalera's life she was so much more than the demeaning, sexist portrait they painted of girls like us. It goes beyond a ‘choice of words.’ According to the Times' limiting, harmful portrait of Lorena, she was nothing more than a ‘curvaceous’ bombshell for men to gawk at. That is not the ‘personal’ story of any woman, and until we treat trans women like human beings - in life and death - with dignity, families and struggles, our society will never see us beyond pariahs in our communities."
.

It's now a year later and her killer or killers still haven't been brought to justice and the murder remains unsolved.   Lorena's friends and family want NYPD to move forward on the investigation.  

They want justice for Lorena.   So do we as her trans brothers and trans sisters.  And as the Good Doctor says, justice delayed is justice denied.   It's past time for the process to begin so that the wastes of DNA who killed her can be punished for it and justice can finally happen for Lorena and all the people who loved her.

Mr T: Treat Your Mother Right Video

Well, since it's Mother's Day and I'm going to be spending it with my mother and grandmother, definitely thought this is the day this video needed to be posted.

It's Mr. T doing his 'Treat Your Mother Right' video from the 80's.  (God I miss that decade and the 70's).

 

NBJC-A Celebration Of Motherhood

TransGriot Note: From The National Black Justice Coalition

A true celebration of motherhood encompasses mothers from all walks of life. As we celebrate Mother's Day, we must remember the many mothers in the Black lesbian, bisexual and transgender community, because motherhood transcends categories such as sexual orientation, gender, and gender identity.

The history of motherhood in the Black LGBT community is replete with many women mothering against the odds. Disparities that mothers often face like equal pay for equal work, providing safe environments for themselves and their children, and finding good schools for their children are all exacerbated by issues like homophobia, biphobia and transphobia.

"When I had my first son, I kept hearing that I was going to fail my son due to my sexual orientation," says NBJC Leadership Advisory Council Member Kamora Herrington. "I'm currently raising my second son, a 15-month old, and I can now say with confidence that Black lesbian moms raise amazing sons."

We salute our lesbian, bisexual and trans mothers. Women like Alice Walker, June Jordan, and Miss Major are all mothers who dared to raise their children in spite of the oppression they encountered. These women challenged stereotypical notions of what it means to be a provider and expanded the narrative around motherhood. In our community, motherhood is not just having children, but it is also a matter of providing a space for our youth to find safety, support and love.

"The Mother in the House Ball culture plays an integral part in the lives of LGBT people who often times have been disinherited from their biological families based solely on their gender identity or sexual orientation," says Icon Mother Ayana Christian of Royal House of Christian.  "I have had the privilege and honor of nurturing the spirit and souls of so many adolescents and young adults over the last 14 years. The most amazing thing about it for me is knowing that, despite the fact that I have not birthed them from my own womb, their lives have my distinct imprint of motherhood."

  

The National Black Justice Coalition believes that the celebration of motherhood should be more than a symbolic gesture. That is why we are committed to supporting legislation that strengthens Black families. We are proud to support the Every Child Deserves a Family Act (ECDF), a bill that would empower Black LGBT parents to provide homes to the nation's hundreds of thousands of kids in our foster care and adoption system by denying federal funds to states that discriminate against adoptive and foster parents on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. However, even amidst these challenges, resilient Black LGBT people have continued to raise families and give love.

Mother's Day is not only a celebration, but a reminder of the hard work that our lesbian, bisexual and trans mothers undertake daily.

We salute all those who mother to make this world a better place for our community.

Happy Mother's Day

A Labor Of Love

TransGriot Note: Shakira wrote this on April 20 and posted it in our The Tea Spot Facebook  group just a few days before she passed away.  It was penned to mark the occasion of her mother's April 19 birthday.   I promised I'd give it some visibility in the wake of her death and I can't think of a better day than Mother's Day to share this with the rest of the world.

A LABOR OF LOVE
by Shakira Daneshia Gordon Garr

As each day passed with the setting of the sun, although your work seemed tedious, it was strength, courage, faith, that moved you to get it done. Flying high above adversity, as if GOD gave you wings of a dove. Nothing could stop the unconditional feeling presented to you by A LABOR OF LOVE.

It was your hope of the future of this generation,that motivated you to complete your task. Given the gift of the opportunity to instill our Heritage without being asked. The innocence you carried became the gardens you would tend, nothing would keep you from your farming, it was determination of your nurturing technique, that would help you see the seed you planted grow to the end.

Even though the weeds did come to destroy your path, Your motherly instincts taught you, that those weeds could not stay long or last. So you pressed forward with protection and prayers to the above. For like the others who had come before you, this was your time to have A LABOR OF LOVE.

Like a warrior you stayed, battles you fought, victories were made. Joy overshadowed sorrow and the foundation had finally been laid. Now its time to reap the salvation of your bountiful harvest of that nurturing heart. The seeds stand grateful of your journey, because you refused not to do your part. I celebrate your love, teachings, knowledge, and time you put into an unknown abyss. For without your tenacity, strength, courage, and faith our bloodline would not continue to exist.

Your irreplaceable wisdom still grows to this day, As each and every harvest passes and the sun moves to set in the same way. You are priceless, a blessing to the earth from the heavens above. For I know without a shadow of doubt. My legacy would not be, without you taking A LABOR OF LOVE.

This Week In The Texas Lege 2013-Weeks Ending May 3-11

It's May, and the Lege is still busy (or not busy) passing laws that will affect everyone in the Lone Star State.  That's good news for anti-LGBT issues but bad news for legislation that will positively benefit our community. 

Equality Texas Field Organizer and Legislative Specialist extraordinaire Daniel Williams breaks it all down for you.as the clock ticks down to crunch time in this 2013 Texas Legislative session.

Week Ending May 3




Week Ending May 10

Cleveland Plain Dealer STILL Hatin' On Cemia

Far from seeing the error of their transphobic ways and correcting them, the Cleveland Plain Dealer continues to flip the journalistic middle finger at the Cleveland trans community.

In their latest article, the stenographers at the Plain Dealer continue to conduct a journalism class case study in how not to report on Black trans people. 

They continue to misgender Cemia and demonize her by using the mug shot and problematic references that people found so odious in the first place.  

As a reminder, not that you care anyway Cleveland Plain Dealer, here's what the AP Stylebook says about covering transgender people:

transgender-Use the pronoun preferred by the individuals who have acquired the physical characteristics of the opposite sex or present themselves in a way that does not correspond with their sex at birth.

If that preference is not expressed, use the pronoun consistent with the way the individuals live publicly.

It's sad when a smaller local news outlet in Cleveland, out of town news media and bloggers show more respect for the victim of the crime than the local paper of record.

It's crystal clear at this point through this latest article they are defiantly obtuse about how offensive this is to the trans community and instead of making their corrections, have tripled down on the transphobia.So what can you TransGriot readers do to help our friends and allies in the Cleveland trans community? 

Help our Cleveland transpeeps and allies get that sorely needed meeting with the Plain Dealer editors and staff to discuss their fracked up coverage on Cemia.  Call them out in the comment threads on these pathetic stories.   And if that doesn't work, be civil and e-mail the reporters in question as you point out the continued blatant AP Stylebook violations.   

Alleged Ce Ce Acoff Killer Charged

In the latest development in the Cemia Ce Ce Acoff case, the alleged perpetrator of the killing, 36 year old Andrey Bridges of Parma, OH has been charged with aggravated murder, kidnapping, tampering with evidence and gross abuse of a corpse in his appearance before Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court.  

Bridges has a long criminal history that includes felonious assault and four stints in prison.  He did not enter a plea, was assigned a public defender and his bail was set at $5 million.

That's the good news.  The bad news is that the Plain Dealer continues to stick their journalistic middle finger at the Cleveland and national trans community and obstinately traffic in transphobia.

And yes, I'm concerned that the relentless PD media negativity and demonization of CeCe may have a negative effect on this trial and the ability to get justice for her.

As long as I'm tracking this case, Cemia (and any other trans woman being disrespected in the media) will get the respect she deserves on these electronic pages.

Well, Andrey Bridges has now been charged for the murder of Cemia 'Ce Ce Acoff.   The question now becomes will he do time for it?

In my nearly twenty years of being transitioned and 15 years of activism, I have seen far too many killers of non-white transwomen walk or get ridiculously low sentences.  I'm not letting go of my skeptical cynicism or doing the happy dance until I hear the words 'guilty' come out of a jury foreperson's mouth.  

Shut Up Fool Awards-Mother's Day Weekend 2013 Edition

This Sunday is Mother's Day, in which we take time to recognize, celebrate and appreciate our mothers or the mother figures in our lives.   Without mom.you wouldn't be here on this planet.

And some people, like NBA star Kenneth Faried, are blessed enough to have two of them. 

It's Firday, and it's time for our weekly edition of the TransGriot Shut Up Fool Awards.  Every week I shine a bright spotlight on the fool, fools or group of fools who are not only embarrassments to their mothers, but to themselves and our country as well.  

So let's get started calling this week's fools out.

Honorable mention number one goes to the Republican Party,  who keep trying and failing to turn Benghazi into a scandal and are getting pissy because nobody except Fox Noise is buying their bull feces.

Honorable mention number two goes to Pat Robertson who on yesterday's episode of the 700 Club advised people not to listen to false prophets.  I guess he forgot about his loud and wrong 2012 POTUS election prediction in which he told Benn Hinn that God informed him that “Romney will win” but that he will be a two-term president who presides over a huge economic boom.  The only thing Romney is presiding over is his California crib.with the car elevator.

Honorable mention number three goes to Governor Rick Perry (R-TX) for unleashing more stupidity out of his mouth.   Claimed that opposing LGBT rights is just like opposing slavery.

There's a reason why no Aggie occupied the Texas Governor's Mansion before Perry ascended to it in 2001 in the wake of Junior being elected selected by the Supreme Court. and with Governor Goodhair's  far too long performance in office, may be a long time before we see another Aggie in that chair.

But our Shut Up Fool winner this week goes to Fox Noise's Eric Bolling.   In his networks desperate zeal to turn Benghazi into a scandal to flog before the midterm elections next year, home boy tried to drag the First Daughters into this shady political mess..




All together now, gang.  Eric Bolling, shut up fool!

Berlin Book Burning 80th Anniversary

"Where they burn books they will also ultimately burn people.'   Heinrich Heine

Today is the 80th anniversary of the day that 20,000 'un-German' books and 5000 images were burned in 1933 in what is now known as the Bebelplatz in Berlin. 

So what does that day have in common with us TBLG people? 

Many of those books that went up in flames that night as Nazi Propaganda Minster Joseph Goebbels spoke to a crowd of 40,000 that evening came from the recently raided sex institute of Magnus Hirschfeld.

Hirschfeld was fortunately out of the country on a lecture tour in the United States when it happened, but he was doing much of the pioneering transsexual research there at the Berlin based institute and it went up in flames.   It's also speculated that the client lists and names seized in that Institute raid led to the murderous Operation Hummingbird purge against the Ernst Rohm led SA by the Gestapo and the SS a year later. 

And as a trans person, you are also left to ponder the question had Hirschfeld's institute and those books and papers survived, how much futher along trans related medical care and research wpuld be if it hadn't been burned that night in the Bebelplatz?
 
 

Landmark Philadelphia LGBT Equality Bill Signed

Had the pleasure of meeting Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter during the February LGBT Media Journalists Convening when he addressed our group, laid out his vision for an inclusive Philadelphia and asked us to consider returning the media convening to the City of Brotherly Love .
And nope, he wasn't kidding about that vision of an inclusive Philadelphia.  

Today Mayor Nutter signed a groundbreaking LGBT Equality Bill pushed by Philadelphia Councilman Jim Kenney.  With this bill now law, Philadelphia can now proudly claim it has the most expansive LGBT protections in the United States.

This omnibus bill includes first in the nation tax credits to support life partner and transgender health benefits in the private sector and removes anti-transgender discrimination from the City employee health plan. Philadelphia is now the largest city to remove trans health care discrimination from its workforce and the only city on the east coast to do so. The bill also includes provisions for partner hospital visitation rights, voluntary single user gender neutral rest rooms and strongly delineates standards for employment and public accommodations standards for transgender individuals.

Many of the employment and public accommodations standards were included in the 2002 Fair Practices Ordinance Philly activists worked hard with allies to get pass, but are often misunderstood by the public and are under attack in other jurisdictions like Arizona as we speak.

With Philadelphia's unique place in America’s history, it felt it needed to clarify these standards for the public and had a responsibility to speak to the country at large regarding fairness for all citizens 

“As a City employee, I’m relieved to no longer have to worry over being denied care for necessary services like mammograms or, God forbid, treatment for breast cancer that are routinely denied trans people," said Kathy Padilla.  "I’m relieved to no longer have to worry over hiding parts of my medical history from providers for fear of it being entered into my file and then leading to denial of other needed services or being an inducement to discrimination. I’m overjoyed that medically necessary trans specific treatment supported by the American Medical Association will be available to people like myself on the same basis as medically necessary treatment for other conditions is available to all my coworkers. This coverage is part of my compensation package, I pay for it with my payroll deductions – I shouldn't be treated differently from other employees based solely upon gender identity."

"The City loses money when transgender people are denied mammograms or pelvic exams and early treatment does not occur," she continued.  "The City loses money when people are afraid and hide their full medical histories from physicians and the City loses money when people simply give up and don’t seek needed medical care until it becomes a crisis over fear of interacting with a system that devalues them.”

"I originally drafted the language that eventually added "gender identity"/"gender expression" to Philadelphia's Fair Practice Ordinance," said Michael Williams   "From the time we started working on this issue (2002) until today, my beloved friend and colleague Kathy Padilla and I have not rested until ALL of Philadelphia's LGBT community received the protections they enjoy after today's bill became law.  Kathy and I have had brilliant, passionate and committed LGBT community members and colleagues, LGBT community allies, elected officials, their staffs, folks from the religious, labor, human rights and many other communities and individuals work with us for over a decade to achieve this monumental goal - equality for ALL of Philadelphia's citizens."

"For me personally, the protections in this bill for me and for my family (my husband Tony and I, officially married in Long Beach, CA in August 2008, will celebrate our 29-year anniversary on July 20th, 2013) are paramount.  We, our sons Kristopher and Robert, Robert's wife Jynea and Rob and Jynea's soon-to-be-delivered into this world baby girl (Miss Kaylee Rose Kneisler is expected to make her appearance in the next few weeks!) are a family that should and must be afforded protections that EACH and EVERY family in this City enjoys right now...and this bill makes this happen.."

Congratulations to the folks in Philadelphia.  Here's hoping the LGBT Equality Law that is now enacted there will become model legislation for the rest of the country to emulate.

It's Give Out Day-Send Some Cash To Your Fave Black LGBT Org

Today is Give Out Day, which is basically a one day blitz in which people in the LGBT community and our allies are urged to support your favorite local organizations or national ones doing grassroots work. 

I'm not just going to urge you to do so, I'm going to lead by example.  I received $51 from Mom for my birthday last Saturday, so I'm donating $10 of it to the National Black Justice Coalition.   I'm also going to be donating another $10 to Black Transmen, Inc.

Both these organizations do wonderful work in the community, but they can't live on grants alone.  They have to have people donate money to them from time to time to help fund their various programs and projects.  And as President Obama's last two presidential campaigns have shown, thousands and tens of thousands of people donating $5, $10, $20 or more can add up to a substantial sum quickly. 

The proceeds that NBJC raises today will go toward their Emerging Leaders program    They'll be the people we'll pass the torch to when it's time to keep the momentum of our human rights push moving in a forward direction.

If you value organizations like NBJC and think the work they do in terms of being the voice for Black LGBT America is valuable, then drop them some money 

Naw Nicole, You DIDN'T Unconditionally Accept Your Cousin

Interesting comment that hit my inbox yesterday from Nicole Cantie, who had something to say about my post Why The Negative Plain Dealer Coverage May Result In Cemia NOT Getting Justice

First off let me tell you something you don't know anything about me and how dare you make an accusation saying what I did and did not accept. I have always called my cousin by his given name and he never had a problem with it so why should you. I'm the 1 that watched him growing up not you. I love all of my family members and I don't give a damn about what their preference is. My cousin was a beautiful person inside and out and he took some beautiful pictures and looked damn good. I have to respect my aunt and her feelings. Do any of you know what it's like to bury not 1 but 2 of your children? You all don't know what our family has been through this is the second family member we have had to bury within a month's time. Cece wasn't treated different because he chose to live as a transgender woman. All we told him was to be careful because it's crazy people out here. Y'all have no idea how we are feeling

Now Nicole, it's my turn.  

First off, I do have an idea how your family is feeling, and my condolences by the way.  My father was buried the day before Easter Sunday.  There are also two other families in the Orlando area and Baltimore burying trans loved ones who were also killed in the month of April like Cemia..

But back to focusing on you since you stepped to me. 

I calls it as I sees it Nicole, and based on that interview, if you accepted and loved your cousin Cemia like you claim you do you wouldn't have misgendered your cousin in that interview and used the name she chose to reflect who she is now.   You may love your cousin and are proud of her, but misgendering her is what caused me to call your relationship with Cemia into question in the first place because to those of us in transworld, misgendering us IS disrespecting us. 

Unlike you Nicole, I'm a proud African descended trans girl like us just like Cemia and have been for almost 20 years.  I've been an activist for trans human rights issues for fifteen of those twenty transitioned years so I have intimate knowledge of what  does and doesn't bother girls and guys like me. 

So yeah, it is my business and pisses me off when transpeople, especially transpeople who share my ethnic heritage are killed and grossly disrespected in death like your cousin was by the media.  It's a pattern I've seen far too often going back to 1998 when Bay Windows disrespected Rita Hester of Black trans women being misgendered by media outlets inside and outside the LGBT community.

I'm beyond sick and tired of being sick and tired of it.     

The one way I know for certain a cis person inside or outside my family respects me and the person who I am now is the use of feminine pronouns to address me and addressing me by my current name, not my birth one which I changed a long time ago.    

Nicole, you not only admitted to using Cemia's old birth name, you've misgendered someone you claim to respect FOUR times in this comment you fired off to me.  That's not acceptance or unconditional love, that reeks of conditional tolerance.    It's also a huge presumption on your part as a cisgender female to assume that Cemia DIDN'T have a problem with you calling her by her old male name or misgendering her. .

But neither one of us can ask Cemia that question now because some waste of DNA took her life and she won't be taking any more pretty pictures. 

If you didn't care about Cemia's 'preference' as you called her gender presentation and claimed in this comment I'm responding to, I can't emphasize this enough, you would have respected your cousin by using feminine pronouns while describing her and calling her Cemia. 

I'm just sayin'

I'll concede the point you have the obligation to respect your aunt as your elder and inside her home.  But Nicole, once you are out and about in the world and in your own home you are your own woman. You aren't obligated to march lockstep with a loud and wrong position she may hold even if she is your elder or her feelings if they conflict with yours, much less defend them.

I don't have to respect someone who is being a transphobic bigot or who threw her trans child out of her home and put her in the position to be killed in the first place knowing how brutal the streets can be for a trans kid.

And yeah, your aunt throwing her trans child out of your home qualifies as 'treating them differently'. 

Speaking of homes, if you loved your cousin as you say you do and didn't care about 'her preference' which is a problematic conflating of sexual orientation and gender identity, why didn't you open your home to CeCe?  

One thing we can both agree with is that CeCe was taken away far too soon and I'm just as pissed off about that as your family is.  But y'all need to ponder the fact at your next family reunion that if y'all had shown CeCe more unconditional love, she'd still be in your lives.

Please Don't Let It Be One Of Us

Guest Post from Renee of Womanist Musings

If you are a member of a marginalized community, at some point a crime, or a ludicrous action will become public or go wildly viral and the first thought that will go through your head is, "please don't let it be one of us." We will follow up on the story, find out that it is indeed one of us, shake our heads and think about how the action of one individual will come to reflect upon us. If you are privileged, you have never had this experience.

The moment I heard about the Boston Bombing, I thought please don't let them be of colour and please don't let them be Muslim.  When I saw a headline about a man being arrested after calling 911 trying to order burgers and weed, I said, "please don't let him be Black." Certainly, whenever a mass murder happens, neurologically atypical people cringe because they are aware that the media will try to explain that the killer was "crazy" and that's why they acted in that fashion. Just look at the response to the Newton CT. shooting last December.  For many, the gun culture and the relative ease at which most can lay their hands on a weapon in the U.S. was not the problem but that a so-called crazy person had access to a gun. Tory MP Nigel Evans has been accused of rape but when you google his name, all you will find is article after article referring to the alleged incident as gay rape.  You better believe that there are members of the LGBT community who are cringing about this. This kind of thinking happens all the time.  It happens because if you are a marginalized person, though you are an individual, the world does not perceive you as such. Though we know it's a trap to think this way, it's impossible not to in a world determined to define us as a homogenous group with negative traits.

Privileged people don't know this feeling because they don't know what it is to be targeted for who they are. Even people who have privilege in one area and negotiate an ism in another, cannot always understand this feeling.  For instance, a White, straight, cisgender able bodied woman will be marginalized by gender but she cannot hope to understand what it feels like to feel concern that she will be universalized in this manner.  When a violent crime is committed by a woman, no one initially hears about the event and says please don't let it be a woman.  That is not to say that White, straight, cisgnder able bodied women aren't expected to conform to ridiculous gender expectations, or that they are not shamed for an inability, or a determined decision to thwart supposed norms. In fact, in the case of White, straight, cisgender able bodied  women, it specifically comes down to the fact that they are perceived as either delicate flowers who need protecting or as victims.  Certainly, this is damaging but it does not amount to the same universalizing pressure to be responsible for the actions of other women. This is particularly true if the criminal behaviour is performed by a WOC.


Sometimes this fear of being deemed a bad minority means that we consciously change our behavior.  For Blacks, it can involve something called code switching.  This means that when we are in mixed company, we censure ourselves and drop certain slangs or phrases from our vocabulary. The politics if respectability has long been a factor in organizing in the Black community.  A way to prove that we deserve equality and separate us from those in our supposed group who are bringing us down.

I often think about the term the Black community and what it implies.  You see, though I am a Black, straight, disabled woman because I am an individual, and have my particular frame of reference how I view the world is through a very specific lens and yet, I am part of the so-called Black community.  This term implies that because I share the same racial background as millions of people that we will think the same and react the same to similar stimuli.  The truth of the matter is that there is no real community and we are just a group of people who happen to share specific genetic traits.  Yet, I am subject to all of the racial stereotypes faced by Black women and this specifically erases my identity as an autonomous being.  Only certain groups are ever held responsible for the whole, or expected to pay for and at times apologise on behalf of people who we have never met.

Crimes committed by straight, cisgender, able bodied White men particularly send this message home to me.  The denial for instance that the Boston Bombers are indeed White, though they could not be more obviously so is one example.  Crimes committed by straight, cisgender, able bodied White men are culturally perceived as an aberration.  This separation between the group and the individual is absolutely a reflection of power and privilege. This group, regardless of the horrors that it has  committed are not viewed as a threat. This means that anger and or hyper masculinity are ignored or explained away as though they are harmless.  More than any other group, White, straight, cisgender, able bodied men are less likely to understand what it is to look at a large incident and hope that it was not committed by someone who looks like them. Having never been a member of an outgroup and encouraged to believe in their superiority, they are free to universalize, firm in the knowledge that such action will never be applied to them.  Who gets to be perceived as an individual comes down to the degree of social power they are able to access and wield. Ironically this is why we are silenced when we talk about our marginalizations and told that we are the ones with the problem.

Even though I know it's a trap to think, "please don't let it be one of us," I cannot help but to do so because I know that the actions of the individual reflect on the group.  There is no escaping the reality of this, even though I know that this is embracing the masters tools.  Yes, it's a defeatist approach because we should reject this universalizing treatment of us.  We should demand to be seen as individuals in every instance. Yes, we need some form of community for the purposes of support but at the same time, we need to be conscious of the times in which we are held responsible for these very same communities.  There is criminality in all groups and all are influenced by a myriad of social forces.  Please don't let it be one of us while a logical response to the oppressions we are forced to negotiate, only affirms that we can be defined by the actions of others.

TransGriot's Back On Can We Talk For Real Tonight

It was shaping up to be a busy media week and still is.   My interview on Holly's show Sunday has been rescheduled for May 13, and I'm honored to do my second appearance with Ina, Michelle, and Terri Boi, the hosts of CAN WE TALK FOR REAL

Cemia “CeCe” Acoff was another Black trans woman killed then victimized again in the media.  The Cleveland Plain Dealer leading the way with its offensive, insensitive, transphobic coverage of her death that was mimicked by the rest of the local and national media 

.CeCe sadly wasn’t the first and probably won’t be the last victim this year of anti-trans violence. Our transgender community continues to grapple with unacceptable levels of anti-trans violence, intimidation and discrimination. Trans women are disrespectfully misidentified in the media following violent attacks and trans men are often invisible in conversations about hate violence as the murder of rapper Evon 'Yung LT' Young in Milwaukee points out. 

The attacks on our transgender community aren't always by unidentified strangers in dark alleys and back streets..  It's also blatantly in their faces on a depressingly daily basis as the recent news of Arizona’s controversial SB 1045 'Transgender Bathroom Bill' is an example of.

It underscores the fact  anti-trans discrimination takes place in every area of trans people's lives in the areas of employment; housing; and public accommodations, even in our own LGB ranks. 

 

We acknowledge the “T” in our LGBT fight but unfortunately for political expediency, image, bigotry in our ranks or other unexplainable reasons when the going gets tough, the “T” has been left behind or thrown under the human rights bus. 

In 2007 LGBT advocacy organizations, most notably HRC and the LGBT community were divided over support of a modified ENDA that shadily excluded the transgender community.  As we showed our solidarity for marriage equality during the recent Supreme Court deliberations this spring, reports of exclusion of the trans pride flag ironically surfaced during the same week we celebrated transgender visibility with the unveiling of the first ever Trans 100 List

This week on CAN WE TALK FOR REAL I'm one of the two Trans 100 honorees along with , Monica Roberts, the TransGriot, and Carter Brown, director of Black Transmen, Inc. joining co-hosts Ina, Michelle and Terry Boi to talk about the “T” in the LGBT community.

We'll discuss the continued violence against our trans brothers and sisters, legislative battles facing the Trans community, and discuss why there is no room for division in our fight for equality.

 

Call 347-215-8985 at 10:30 PM Eastern time, 9:30 PM Central time, 8:30 PM Mountain time and at 7:30 PM Pacific time on Wednesday, May 8 for one dynamic conversation that I'm looking forward to.