Black Trans Year In Review 2013

Those were just some of the stories that were part of our Black trans year in review for 2012.   I hope this post is even longer and chock full of even more groundbreaking achievements for our community in the twelve months ahead.  
--TransGriot December 28, 2012

The year 2013 is about to exit stage left in a few days and make room for 2014.   It was a year in which we continued to see groundbreaking progress and achievements for the Black trans community.. 

But unfortunately we started off 2013 like we did 2012 with the horrific murder of transman Evon Young in Milwaukee, WI.  He went missing on New Year's Eve and his body was never found. 

The five people involved in this heinous crime and their cases are being resolved in the legal system now..

Evon was one of twelve African American transpeople to die during the 2012-2013 TDOR cycle.  Sadly, another pattern that persists in the wake of murders of African-American transpeople in addition the extreme levels of violence aimed at them by the perpetrators of this killings is ongoing media (and police) misgendering of them.  

The most egregious example of media misgendering happening was in the wake of the Cemia 'CeCe' Dove Acoff case in Cleveland, OH by their local paper of record.  A letter delivered in November by a group of concerned Cleveland LGBT citizens has resulted in improved coverage of the TBLG community.  We'll be watching to see if that is a permanent change in the culture of the Cleveland Plain Dealer or they will backslide toward committing journalistic hate crimes again.    

So let's take a moment to remember Evon Young, Ashley Sinclair, Kelly Young, Cemia 'CeCe' Dove Acoff, Milan Boudreaux, Artegus Konyale Madden, Domonique Newburn, Eyricka, Morgan, Diamond Williams, Amari Hill, Islan Nettles, and C. Lipscomb.  

Let's not forget that CeCe McDonald is still sitting in a Minnesota jail for standing her ground and defending herself against a racist and transphobic attack and transteen D. Sage Smith is still missing over a year later.  


We are increasingly seeing the people committing these crimes against us being caught and prosecuted.   While that has yet to happen for Kelly Young, C. Lipscomb, Konyale Madden or Domonique Newburn, Cemia Acoff's killer Andrey Bridges in now sitting in an Ohio jail cell until at least 2034 and hope the same happens soon in the cases of Deoni Jones and Islan Nettles.  

People who survived horrific attacks like our sisters Bree Wallace and Coko Williams also saw the people who attacked them get arrested, convicted and sentenced to jail time for doing so.


We witnessed in 2013 Toni D'orsay's dream with an assist from Jen Richards become a reality in terms of the unveiling of the inaugural Trans 100 List.  The diverse list included 11 African-American trans women and  4 African-American trans men    Nominations are being taken for the second edition of the list which will be released in 2014 will include international trans people, so get them in before January 15.

2013 was also a huge breakout year for Janet Mock and Laverne Cox.   In addition to being named on various community lists inside and outside the trans community, collecting numerous awards and doing countless speeches, both made appearances on talk shows ranging from 'HuffPo Live' to 'The Melissa Harris-Perry Show'.  

In addition, Janet's book Redefining Realness is set to hit bookstores in February 2014 while Laverne has garnered major buzz for her breakout acting role as Sophia Burset in the Netflix hit series 'Orange Is The New Black' which will start its second buzz producing season in the Summer 2014.

We also had B. Scott announcing she was trans* in the wake of being discriminated against at the BET Awards.  B's evolution to Team Trans will be one of the things we'll be watching in the upcoming year.


The transbrothers were also making major strides and stepping up to their leadership roles in the Black trans community as well.  The Black Trans Advocacy Conference that began in Dallas last year and hosted by Black Transmen, Inc got bigger and better in 2013.   It moved to the Doubletree Campbell Center for its second edition, expanded its programming, opened its doors to trans women and gave out awards.  The third annual edition of BTAC will be taking place in Dallas April 29-May 4.

In addition to BTMI expanding from its Dallas headquarters and adding new state chapters, they also formed a Black Transwomen, Inc sister organization.   Trans 100 honoree Carter Brown continued his rise as a major national leader and challenged cis Black leaders to stand up for Black transpeople.

Whether the leadership of traditional Black civil rights orgs, the clergy, Black SGL people and Black politicians at the local, state and federal level consistently do so is something that we'll be anxiously watching in the Black trans ranks in 2014.

Trans Persons of Color Coalition (TPOCC) also continued its climb towards becoming a respected national organization by holding its first lobby day in Washington DC with ENDA and immigration reform being its top issues.

The National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC) on September 20 featured the trans brothers in a town hall of their own at this year's fourth edition of OUT on the Hill.  

Dr. Kortney Ryan Ziegler was also getting some love and things done.  In September he organized Trans* H4CK, the first ever hackathon in Oakland that melded the hackathon platform with trans social justice issues.   Kortney was also named to the Root 100 list of influencers and achievers in the African-American community oi addition addition to being honored with several awards for his innovative social justice activism and thoughtful blog commentary.

Kortney is also working on expanding trans hackathons across the nation, so we'll be watching in 2014 just how successful our trans brother is in doing so.

Speaking of blog commentary, Black trans bloggers, be they in written format like TransGriot now heading into its 8th anniversary year on January 1, blac(k) ademic or in video format like Diamond Stylz are telling it like it T-I-S is on many subjects with a new generation of written and video bloggers coming online in their trailblazing wakes to tell our stories in 2014.


Kylar Broadus also was making moves in 2013.   He was tapped to lead the Task Force's Transgender Civil Rights Project in September and named to the OUT 100 List.

Like everyone else in the country, we African-descended trans people also celebrated the November 7 passage of the trans inclusive Employment and Non Discrimination Act  (ENDA) in the US Senate. 

That human rights project has been ongoing for several decades, but one of the people we can thank for helping us get the 64-32 vote is Kylar, whose historic June 12, 2012  committee testimomy is widely credited as not only solidifying the inclusion of trans people in ENDA, but swaying many senators to support the bill.   

One of the things I talked about in the wake of mine and other people's ongoing frustrations with TDOR is that the people memorialized at these events are predominately Black and Latina, but the people organizing and conducting the ceremonies are overwhelmingly white.   I warned that if that dynamic didn't change and get more inclusive, you would start to see separate TDOR's for the same reason that separate pride events exist. 

That prediction may have come to pass in 2013.  We had happen in my hometown on November 20 the first ever Black trans organized TDOR event in the United States thanks to Dee Dee Watters.  Will we see others in the rest of the US in 2014?   That's something to watch, too    

So as we turn our attention toward 2014, we still have some old challenges to overcome.  Once again during the Christmas season we have lost another transwoman, Brittany Stergis to anti-trans violence in Cleveland and had her disrespected by local media outlets.  

As the Rev Dr. Martin Luther King once said, "We must accept finite disappointment but must never lose infinite hope."  We've had our share of finite disappointment in 2013, survived and overcome it because of our infinite hope and belief in creating a better future for ourselves and our community. .

Now it's time to experience more infinite hope and success in the Black trans community ranks in the rapidly approaching New Year.  

And as long as I'm blessed to do so, I'll be chronicling it on these electronic pages in 2014.

A Trans Ally Sounds Off

TransGriot Note: A guest post from Tresha Ruthe that originally appeared on her Facebook page, but it's deserving of more widespread readership and attention.   Thanks for allowing me to post it here.

With the widespread idiocy in the last few days regarding the LGBT community at large, and specifically the Trans community, let me explain the Trans experience in the most succinct way I know: Your brain, not your body is the seat, source, and home of your identity. If you, as you are now, with all your likes, dislikes, hates, loves, preferences, tastes, and all those things that define you as you, woke up tomorrow with the opposite gender's genitals, you would be living in the Trans experience. Now, try for just 10 seconds to imagine not only the internal, "This is wrong!" but also having the entire world tell you that you CAN'T (not shouldn't) but CANNOT be who you are at the very core of your soul. THAT is what it means to be Transgender.

Whether you understand why a transgender person is transgender or not; whether that is a choice you would make or not; whether you are comfortable around them or not; they deserve tolerance, understanding, support, love, and to be championed. No matter who the person was "before transition" they are still, at the core of their being, the same person "after transition". If you loved them "before" why can't you love them "after". A "sister" doesn't "become a brother", they always were one, it's just that you couldn't SEE that they were a brother and not a sister. Transition is nothing more than making a physical change so that others can see what's inside. In many ways, transition is on the same level as dying one's hair, losing weight, having plastic surgery, or any other form of body modification done to make us feel more comfortable in our own skins. Yes, Transition is an extremely difficult process. Yes, it is far more extreme than dying one's hair, and I have yet to meet a Trans person who didn't take their choices with every ounce of the gravity that those choices deserve. Until you have personally had to choose between living a lie, dying a truthful suicide, or going through one of the world's most humiliating processes of change, do not presume to assume that you "know what those people are really after." I can tell you, from deep, direct, constant contact with not just one, but many Trans people, what they are really after is love, acceptance, and their own truth of identity. None of that should threaten or frighten you. If seeing them around does either of those things to you, that is ignorance, intolerance, and unacceptable. Get over yourself.

PS: This is not directed at anyone I know personally, but rather some things happening in the society.

Moni Does The METRORail North Line Opening

I wasn't here in town when the METRORail starter Red Line rail line opened back in 2004, so I was determined to be part of the action that took place for the grand opening of the 5.3 mile North Line.

In addition to the free concert that was happening at Moody Park along with the snow area for the kids, rides were free all day on METRORail.  So my game plan was to catch the bus to the Downtown Transit Center station, then board the train from there. 

But one complication for this big civic party was our Saturday weather.  We had a fast moving front coming through the area that was due to hit town right around the time that much of the grand opening festivities were planned to happen.  It was also projected to because it was moving at 50 mph create high winds, possible severe weather and drop a lot of heavy rain.

So I did spend a few hours watching the Doppler radar sweeps online,  Once the heavy rain passed through the area and didn't produce the predicted high winds, I bounced from the house on my missions to travel the new section of the North Line and also ride it from end to end

I got downtown about noon and started my rail riding mission from the Downtown Transit Center stop which is in front of METRO headquarters on the Red Line.  When we arrived at the UH Downtown stop that used to be the terminus for it, noted that they had people gathering in the covered plaza area.  There was a podium, camera and a microphone set up there for what I later discovered was the ribbon cutting ceremony along with METRO.employees, city and county officials and guests with passes getting off the train and heading to that event. 

Then as the train pulled out of the UH Downtown station we were on the new 5.3 mile section of the North Line that dives under I-10, then enters an elevated platform to take it over railroad tracks toward the elevated Burnet Transit Center /Casa de Amigos Station.   There are plans to build an intermodal train and bus station at that location that on hold for now, but what I did notice was there was another wrapped train there parked on one of the side tracks on that platform.   

I eventually passed by Moody Park, where the free concert featuring Selena's brother (yeah, that Selena) AB Quintanilla and his band were the headline performers was cranking up and the crowd was gathering for all the fun and festivities there.  .   

I started to get off and walk around it for a few moments but I decided to stay on the train because I was having  nice chat at the time with a retired METRO employee who worked in the training department and the last few years he worked for METRO was as part of its rail operations.

We eventually ended up at its new terminus of the Northline TC/HCC Station.   Going to be interesting to see in the near future where and how they take this line up to IAH and I pondered that as I waited for the train operator to switch ends of the train and reverse direction for the trip from the north side of town to past Reliant Stadium and the southern terminus of the line at the Fannin South station.  

At this point a Latino family joined me who was doing the same thing I was.   We had interesting conversations during that 35 minute ride from there to Fannin South.  They noted along with their kids the line passed through downtown, the Museum District, Hermann Park/Houston Zoo, the Texas Medical Center and past Reliant Stadium and how much driving time, parking hassles and gas money it would save them to just take the train to those places. 

As we made it to Fannin South that trailing rainband I'd noted earlier in the morning finally made it to where I was located and a sudden blinding rainstorm dropped visibility to the point I couldn't even see Reliant Stadium.  By the time I started moving back north up the Red Line and hit the TMC Transit Center station it had cleared out as fast as it had moved in and ensured that when I got off the train I wouldn't need my umbrella.
 
I said goodbye to my traveling companions when I arrived at my Downtown Transit Center stop.  The new year for us in Houston will see even more expansion of our light rail from just one long 12.8 mile long line to a true system with multiple lines (the Green and Purple) in just a few months.  

And one of them, the Purple Line terminates just five blocks from my house.   Can't wait until it opens.

 

Happy Birthday Aisha!

Time for another TransGriot Birthday Shout out!

During the 2011 OUT on the Hill, I attended a panel discussion with Denise LeClair at the Congressional Visitors Center that was sponsored by the LGBT Congressional Staff Association and served as the kickoff event on the 2011 OUT on the Hill schedule. 

Not long after I arrived cards were passed out so that we could write a question that would be read and answered by the panelists.  Well, normally I carry a pen with me but forgot it.  Denise didn't have one on her either, and this stylishly dressed lady sitting in the row above and behind us in that auditorium saved the day by lending us hers for a moment to write our questions down on the index cards. 

Mine got selected, and the question I asked was: 

In light of the fact that the recent NAACP LGBT town hall had no bi or trans representation, when will African Americans inside and outside the LGBT community have that family discussion about the transgender community and our issues?

The stylishly dressed young lady who lent me her pen to write the question on that September 2011 evening that triggered a much needed discussion on the 'T' end of the community during that event was none other than Aisha Moodie-Mills.  I discovered that two days later during the OUT on the Hill event hosted at the Center For American Progress and she was one of the panelists for it.   It was a year later that I met the other half of my fave DC power couple, her spouse Danielle at the 2012 OUT on the Hill.


Anyway, I'm doing all this fangirl jibber-jabbering because today is Aisha's birthday, and I wasn't letting it pass with giving her a TransGriot birthday shoutout. 

As you guessed I have mad love and admiration for her and Danielle.  I love reading her thoughtful writing on LGBT rights and other issues in various venues, checking her and Danielle's Politini podcast out and seeing Aisha's insightful commentary from time to time on the various MSNBC shows.  


Hey, if MSNBC was smart they'd give Aisha her own show.    But that's just me talking. 

Speaking of MSNBC shows, she and Danielle will be on Melissa Harris-Perry in a few hours. 

What a nice way to spend your birthday.

Happy birthday Aisha!   May your special day be as beautiful as you are, overflowing with blessings, and you have many more of them to come! . 

Olympic Gender Drama-Flo Jo

Since the 1960 Rome Olympics, with the exception of the period from 1976-1984 when the steroid fed East German women were tearing up the tracks, the USA women have had a multiple medal sprinting star in athletics.  

It was Wilma Rudolph in Rome.  Wyomia Tyus did so during two Olympiads at Tokyo in 1964 and the 1968 Mexico City Games.  In Los Angeles in 1984 it was two American women who shared that golden Olympic spotlight in Valerie Brisco-Hooks and Evelyn Ashford.

In the 1988 Seoul Games, no star shone brighter or with more style than Florence Griffith-Joyner's.

FloJo's story was beginning to be told as the hometown girl competing in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics with the glamorous looks, long nails with speed to burn.  She took home a silver medal in the 200m in 22.02 behind Valerie Brisco-Hooks gold medal winning Olympic record time of 21.81 seconds.

Now it was four years later and Griffith-Joyner after a trying post LA Games period served notice at the US Olympic Trials in Indianapolis in July 1988 the Seoul Olympics was going to be her party. 

In her 100m opening heat in the 1988 Olympic trials she ran a wind aided 10.60, which was below Evelyn Ashford's then four year old world record of 10.76 seconds.  Undaunted, Griffith-Joyner obliterated the world record in her quarterfinal heat by clocking an astounding 10.49 time that STILL hasn't been matched.  The wind gauge was showing 0.0 meters per second (no wind) so it stood.

She then ran 10.70 in the 100m semifinal (wind a legal 1.6 mps) and 10.61 in a legal 1.2 meters per second wind in the final to claim her ticket to Seoul. 

If anyone had doubts that those Flo-Jo times were flukes, in her specialty, the 200m, she just missed by .06 of a second matching East German Marita Koch's world record with a 21.77 quarterfinal time and clocked a 21.85 in the final.  

After running the four fastest 100m times for any woman in history in Indy, setting a world record in the 100m, barely missing the 200m world record and setting an American record in the 200m Trials quarterfinal, Flo-Jo was a heavy pre-Olympics favorite to dominate the track in Seoul

She didn't disappoint. On her way to the 100m gold medal she broke the Olympic record three times with 10.88, 10.62 and 10.54 times.  Her 10.54 time to capture the gold over defending 1984 Olympic champion Evelyn Ashford was unfortunately wind aided, so 10.62 is the current Olympic record.  

It also gave Griffith-Joyner at the time the seven fastest 100m times in history.

But Flo-Jo wasn't finished.  In the 200m, she warmed up with a quarterfinal time of 21.76 to erase Valerie Brisco-Hooks' Olympic record she set in 1984.   Flo-Jo then obliterated Marita Koch's 21.71 world record with a semifinal time of 21:56, then lowered it to 21:34 in the 200m final to capture her second gold medal of the Seoul Games. 

She added another gold in the 4x100m relay  but her attempt to become the first woman ever to win four gold medals in a single Olympic track meet was dashed when she couldn't catch Olga Bryzgina of the Soviet Union down the stretch. 

The Soviet 4x400m relay quartet ran a world record setting time of 3:15.17 just to get the gold with Griffith-Joyner and her American teammates having to settle for silver.   That 4x400m relay was not only the first time Flo-Jo had run an internationally rated 400 meter relay, the 3:15.51 time they ran is still the second fastest ever run. 

But because Ben Johnson failed a post race drug test and had to give up his 100m gold medal and the 9.79 world record he ran to beat Carl Lewis to get it, it cast a pall over the Games and the times of Flo-Jo came under suspicion. 

1984 LA Games 800m gold medalist Joaquim Cruz of Brazil started throwing shade at Flo-Jo by claiming she was on steroids or other performance enhancing drugs and there was no way she could have run those times.

She denied it, the tests came up clean, and Griffith-Joyner later won that year's Sullivan Award as the top amateur athlete male or female in the US.  She moved on after the 1988 Games to retirement, have her daughter Mary Ruth Joyner in 1990 and her post Olympic life.

But those questions about alleged drug use kept coming up, and dogged her to her untimely death at age 38. While sleeping in her Mission Viejo, CA home she died of suffocation during a severe epileptic seizure on September 21, 1998.  An autopsy conducted by the Orange County Coroner's office noted she had not died from drugs or banned substances.  

After Griffith-Joyner's death in 1998, Prince Alexandre de Merode, the Chairman of the International Olympic Committee's medical commission, stated that Joyner was singled out for extra, rigorous drug testing during the 1988 Olympic Games because of rumors of steroid use.  She was rigorously tested according to him by Manfred Donike, the foremost expert at the time during the 1988 Games, who failed to find anything

"We performed all possible and imaginable analyses on her...We never found anything. There should not be the slightest suspicion [on Florence Griffith Joyner]  

So stop hating, and give Flo-Jo her due as the fastest woman ever.

California Trans Teen Tells Her Story To The School Board

Hercules High School sophomore student Jewelyes Gutierrez got fed up with the bullying and transphobic harassment being aimed at her on an almost daily basis.  She appealed to the school's vice principal for help in stopping it, who ignored her request.

That frustration finally boiled over in the on campus November 15 fight between her and three girls egged on by other students that was captured on video, went viral and they were all suspended for it.

Jewelyes told her story in a December 3 community meeting convened by the West Contra Costa School Board

"As I was telling her how she was being disrespectful and rude, she spits gum in her hand and throws it in my face," said Gutierrez. "It was just build up after build up after build up and no one was there to really, like, help me."

"I was just sticking up for myself," she said. "Because you're different, you'll get picked on, you'll get name calling, bullied, taunted, harassed -- all those."





The West Contra Costa School Board to their credit in the wake of this incident is working on a new anti-bullying policy they will vote on January 29.

Will definitely be keeping an eye on this situation.

Shut Up Fool Awards-Here Comes The Train Edition

I was still a Texan in Exile living in Da Ville when METRORail opened the 7.5 mile Red Line on January 1, 2004 after a nearly 20 year battle to get a rail component for our public transit system here in H-town
 
One of the first things I did when moved back home in May 2010 and getting reacclimated to all the changes that had occurred in Houston while I was a Kentucky resident was jump on the Red Line.  

After happily discovering it cost the same $1.25 as METRO's bus service, I rode it from the UH Downtown end of it to the Fannin South Station where it ends and reversed the trip back to the Downtown Transit Center Station in front of METRO headquarters.

One of the long awaited extensions to our very popular METRORail, construction on it started in July 2009 and it opens ahead of schedule tomorrow. (The METRORail Purple and Green Lines open in mid-2014)  The North Line will crank up for service with free train rides and a free concert in Moody Park on the north side of town, which is served by one of the new stations on the 5.3 mile extension of the Red Line that is eventually planned to terminate at IAH.   There will also be 80,000 pounds of snow provided for the younglings to play with. 

Your favorite trans blogger has every intention of taking advantage of those free METRORail rides to get a feel for where the new North Line stations are and how they are laid out.  I also want to ride the extended line from its new termination point at the Northline TC/HCC Station to Fannin South.

Yeah yeah, I know it's Friday, and I can already see your eyes glazing over and hear you TransGriot readers saying, when is she going to get to what we really came here for?  

So let's do it.   It's time for me to stop jibber-jabbering about METRORail and get to my next to last week of 2013 fool, fools or groups whose common sense trains jumped the tracks or got derailed by mind-numbing hypocrisy, hubris and stupidity.

Honorable mention number one is a shared one for Neal Boortz and Megyn Kelly.    Kelly made a non-apology apology for her Santa is white remarks, then cried 'white women's tears' on air by claiming she and FOX noise were being attacked.  Then Neal Boortz joined in on the conservafun.

Their 'Santa is white' BS resulted in this Black student in New Mexico being told by a teacher it was ridiculous for him to dress up as Santa because 'Santa is white' and this bigoted IU-Bloomington display they ended up having to apologize for.

Guess that's what you conservafools mean when y'all sing you're dreaming of a white Christmas. 


Honorable mention number two is Sara Legvold, the Texas GOP Executive Committee member who writes at the white supremacist site Stormfront and endorsed apartheid. 

Honorable mention number three goes to that cookie chomping knee-grow sellout Mychal Massey, who wrote in Wing Nut Daily that racism is over.

Don't even get me started on that topic, conservafool.   You also need to have a seat, an Oreo cookie and a nice tall glass of STFU.

Honorable mention number four is Larry Kilgore, the Texas GOP gubernatorial hopeful who wants Texas to 'secdee', thinks gays and lesbians should be put to death and transpeople severely flogged.

One thing I hope happens to you is your campaign dies a quick and painful primary death.  Naah, then again, let the Tea Klux Klan wackos make you the GOP gubernatorial nominee.  Wendy Davis would win in a landslide. 

Honorable mention number five is Texas 'Affluenza' Judge? Jean Boyd (R)    In addition to the still mounting backlash and criticism she's getting for exercising 'proven conservative leadership' and letting a rich 16 year old drunk driving white male teen off for killing four people with Daddy's company truck, turns out she had a less than sympathetic response when the teen involved in an accidental death case was Black
 

Honorable mention number six is a group award for Don Lemon and every conservafool rushing to defend Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson's homophobic and racist remarks.

First was Lemon serving up another bitter glass of Lemon-aid in this case.   The howlers and WTF inducing moments for me from the conservafools so far in this still evolving story were this fool Mike Slater trying to compare Robertson to the Rev Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, and Newt Gingrich trying to compare him to Pope Francis.

Naw conservapeople, Phil Robertson is more like Pat Robertson and other hate preachers in your ranks.

And yeah, with free speech comes consequences for exercising it. 


This week's shut up fool award winner I go south of the border for in Brazilian evangelical pastor Silas Malafaia

This Brazilian TBLG oppressor celebrated and gloated about the defeat in the Brazilian Senate of  PLC 122, a sorely needed anti-LGBT discrimination bill that had been stalled on one level or another by evangelical leaders like himn for 12 years and did so on Twitter:

“You can swear, we’re hahahaha plc122 [the bill outlawing LGBT discrimination] is dead, hahahha try something else and wait a few years hahahaaha, if God laughs at the wicked, imagine me, hahahaha.”

The rest of the justice loving world isn't laughing.   The blood and the death of every Brazilian LGBT person from this point forward are on your hands.

And oh yeah, can somebody tell me how to say Shut up fool! in Portuguese? 

Uganda Goes There-Passes Anti Homosexuality Bill

The Ugandan Parliament just dropped a lump of coal in the Ugandan LGBT community's Christmas stockings.

They dusted off the shelved Anti-Homosexuality Bill and passed the unjust law over the objections of Ugandan Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi, who asserted there weren't enough MP's present for a quorum.

Of course MP Homohater David Bahati, who sponsored the legislation at the behest of his American fundie handlers, was happy about the outcome of the vote.

Bahati told the AFP news agency: "This is victory for Uganda. I am glad the parliament has voted against evil."

"Because we are a God-fearing nation, we value life in a holistic way. It is because of those values that members of parliament passed this bill regardless of what the outside world thinks," Bahati said.

Yeah right.  God-fearing nation my azz.  You and your misguided and wrong peeps in the Ugandan parliament just opened the doors to a witchhunt on LGBT people and let a bunch of white American fundamentalists like Scott Lively play you into enacting into law this steaming pile of hatred they would like to replicate in the US.

The bill also applies to people visiting Uganda and also attacks the 'promotion of homosexuality', whatever in the hell that means. 

So people, the Agents of Intolerance just won another round.   Bah humbug.

What are we going to do about it? 

Why PLC 122's Passage Was Important In Brazil

Sergio Viula talks about conditions in Brazil in the wake of the failure of PLC 122 to pass.the Brazilian Congress.

Netherlands Passes Groundbreaking Trans Identity Law!

In the Netherlands, trans rights advocates are celebrating a major win in that western European nation with the passage of a Gender Identity Law that does not require sterilization, court orders or genital surgery as prerequisites to change gender markers on documentation. 

It passed with a lopsided 51-24 vote of Dutch lawmakers in The Hague on Tuesday, and when the new law takes effect July 1, Dutch citizens aged 16 and older will only require a statement from an expert attesting to the trans person's desire to do so to match their gender identity.

The move to do so was driven by a report on the human rights of trans people in European states which called out The Netherlands over their previous unjust law and demanded a modification of it.
  
Despite the major win, there were trans rights groups who felt that the proposals pushed by Justice State Secretary Fred Teeven and enacted into law didn't go far enough.  Some parties wanted to lower the age consent threshold for SRS from 16 to 12.  Teeven said that he considered that too early and pointed out that boys in puberty often wrestle with their identity. 

"This law is a victory for transgender people in the Netherlands," the chairpersons of Transgender Network Netherlands and COC Netherlands say in a statement. "There is an end to all the humiliating situations that transgenders still daily deal with because the sex designation on their paper is different from the gender in which they live."   

There were elements of the Dutch trans community who pushed for an Argentinian style Gender Identity Law provision in which you don't need a doctor's statement to change identity documents.

Human Rights Watch also hailed the new law as a positive step.

“The new law is an important step toward equality for transgender people in the Netherlands,” said Boris Dittrich, advocacy director in the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Rights Program at Human Rights Watch. “It puts people in a much stronger position to change their gender identity without intrusive and abusive medical requirements.” 


It's a huge improvement from the previous status quo in which a transperson seeking to change their documentation to match their gender identity not only had to be sterilized, but undergo genital surgery or other unwanted gender modification operations, followed by having to get judicial permission to do so.

That created situations in which Dutch transpeople who objected to the sterilization, genital surgery requirement or judicial intervention chose to live their lives with official documents that didn't correspond with their current gender presentation.    That created problems for them as they applied for jobs, tried to access healthcare, traveled and otherwise had to use that documentation to officially identify themselves.

Since the law had already passed the other Dutch parliamentary chamber, all it needs is King Willem-Alexander's signature to become official.

The new law when it goes into effect in July will go a long way toward solving some of those problems  .

2013 TransGriot NFL Predictions Week 16

Is this NFL regular season over yet?   Like my fave NFL squad, I'm slogging through the worst season I've ever had for NFL prognostication.   Had another sub. 500 week thanks to the Cowboys and Tony Romo having another bout of December Pigskin Throat Constriction Syndrome against the Packers and a few other Week 15 upsets

Don't even get me started about the Texans 12th straight loss that put them in firm control of the number one pick in the 2014 NFL draft next May.   They'll also have to deal with in their final home game at Reliant Stadium a pissed off Denver Broncos team.   They got beat at home by the San Diego Chargers, but are saying thank you Lawdy to the Miami Dolphins for the early Christmas present they received. 

The Dolphins knocked off the Brady Bunch 24-20 in Miami to keep the Broncos sitting m the AFC's number one playoff seed and their own playoff hopes alive. 

Back to my fave NFL squad.  Yeah, I'm still a ride or die Texans chick unlike the bandwagon riders that bounced when the adversity started.    

Matt Schaub is starting this game in place of the injured Case Keenum.  This ought to be fun. 

Hope the roof is closed for this one against the Broncos because you'll probably hear the boo birds all the way to Katy and the Woodlands if another pick six happens. 

As for the prognostication battle?  Eli has a five game lead with two weeks to go.  Can Mike replicate what I did to him last year (I erased a four game lead on him with two weeks to go) and erase it for the win?  Or will Eli hold on for the 2013 regular season NFL prognostication title?


Well, that's a nice segue to the Week 16 picks.  16 games, no Thursday night one tonight or next week, major playoff (and 2014 draft order) implications on the line.   My picks are in underlined bold print.   Mike and Eli's picks are here.    

Week 15 Results
TransGriot       7-9
Eli Blake          9-7
Mike Watts      9-7

2013 Season Record
TransGriot      121-102-1
Eli                  142-81-1
Mike              137-86-1

NFL Week 16

Sunday Noon Games
Miami at Buffalo
New Orleans at Carolina
Minnesota at Cincinnati
Denver at Houston
Tennessee at Jacksonville
Indianapolis at Kansas City
Dallas at Washington
Cleveland at NY Jets
Tampa Bay at St Louis


Sunday Afternoon Games
Arizona at Seattle
NY Giants at Detroit
New England at Baltimore
Oakland at San Diego
Pittsburgh at Green Bay


Sunday Night Game
Chicago at Philadelphia

Monday Night Game
Atlanta at San Francisco

TBLG Rights Bill Fails In Brazil

The eyes of the world's TBLG community were turned toward Brazil yesterday as Senator Ana Rita as promised brought PLC 122 to a vote.  

It was a TBLG human rights bill that had been stalled by fundamentalist religious forces for 12 years as increasing number of trans and gay people have died in the country or faced escalating levels of horrific anti-BTLG violence.

It didn't go well.  29 senators voted against it, on 12 in favor and 2 abstained.    The defeat also erased the concepts of sexual orientation and gender identity from a review of Brazil's penal code.  

PLC 122 would have prohibited discrimination or inciting violence on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation and it went down to defeat as evangelical leaders like Silas Malafaia gloated  

“You can swear, we’re hahahaha plc122 [the bill outlawing LGBT discrimination] is dead, hahahha try something else and wait a few years hahahaaha, if God laughs at the wicked, imagine me, hahahaha.”

“Our chances to add the concepts of sexual orientation and gender identity into the penal code are now near impossible,” said Luiz Henrique Coletto, Vice President of the Secular Humanist League of Brazil (LiHS), in a statement to LGBTQ Nation.

“This means that we have no nationwide federal protection against discrimination of, and violence against LGBT people,” he added. “The vote was a clear demonstration of anti-LGBT prejudice in Brazil.”

The Brazilian Forces of Intolerance won this round, but TBLG activists in Brazil, despite the disappointing defeat are continuing the fight and considering other options.

They have been successful in the Brazilian court system, and will go in that direction to obtain the human rights they so desperately need.  With Brazil set to host both the upcoming World Cup this summer and the Olympics in 2016, local activists are calling upon the world to do more to financially support indigenous Brazilian LGBT rights organizations.

They are also calling upon the United States, the European Union, the UN, the OAS and other international human rights actors to pressure President Dilma Rousseff and Brazilian legislators into getting thei nation to live up to the various human rights agreements they have signed.


Said attorney Paulo Roberto, a member of GADvS (Group of Lawyers for Sexual Diversity), to LGBTQ Nation, “Brazil is in violation of international resolutions and statements where it signed a commitment to protect GLBT citizens, both at the level of the United Nations and Organization of American States.”

“Furthermore,” he added, “If this country is not safe for our own people considering anti-gay violence, how can it be safe for people coming for the world cup and the Olympics?”

Indeed.  If it's not safe for its TBLG children, sooner or later it won't be safe for you ostensibly cis and straight Brazilians either.

Brazil Miss Trans 2013 Pageant

The second annual Miss Trans 2013 pageant was held m Rio de Janeiro recently.   It had 28 competitors from 11 Brazilian states competing not only for the pageant crown at Rio's Joao Caetano Theater, but an all expense paid trip to Thailand as Brazil's representative for the 2014 edition of the Miss International Queen pageant

It was also offering a chance to go to Thailand and get a paid gender realignment surgery.

But this pageant also has a serious purpose in mind according to its sponsor Majorie Marchi, the president of Astra-Rio, the Rio Association for Transvestites and Transsexuals.    “The competition was an important demonstration for people who traditionally have no voice in society and are still seen as victims or as culprits on the police blotter,” said Marchi “The trans community doesn’t just want the right to food and sustenance. We are about music, entertainment and art.”

The pageant's goals are to increase the visibility of trans people in Brazil, and was also sponsored by the city government of Rio, fashion designer Almir França, a Brazilian plastic surgery clinic and the Kamol Cosmetic Hospital in Thailand.  


The winner of Miss Trans 2013 was 21 year old Raika Ferraz, who is from Sao Paulo and started her transition at 17.   She will represent Brazil at the next Miss International Queen contest in Pattaya next November..

And as for whether she will have the SRS that she won as part of the prize package for winning the title?

She says as of right now, no.  'I don’t need this operation, I already feel like a woman. I have been taking hormone tablets for more than four years now to create my curves and increase my bust size and I am really happy with the results," Ferraz says confidently.

A Brazilian girl like us, Marcela Ohio won the Miss International Queen 2013 title, and in the history of this pageant that started in 2004, no nation has ever had back to back winners of it.  

Will the Brazilians and Raika Ferraz be able to pull that feat off?    We'll see if she can in November.

The 6th Annual TTNS Will Take Place In...

San Marcos, TX on the Texas State University campus!

For the first time in Texas Transgender Nondiscrimination Summit history, it leaves the Houston area where it was conceived and hits the road to another part of the Lone Star State as its co-founder Josephine Tittsworth envisioned. 

A TTNS road trip was actually slated to happen on the Texas A&M University campus in College Station back in 2011, but unforeseen on campus complications in Aggieland unfortunately caused it to be shifted back to Houston.  

Barring any unforeseen complications, the 6th annual TTNS will take place August 8-9, 2014 on the Texas State University campus.

The 2013 TTNS event was held on the University of Houston campus for the third time (2009, 2011, 2013) with Rice University (2010) and UH-Clear Lake (2012) hosting the others.   

So what's the Texas Transgender Nondiscrimination Summit?  It a two day event that tackles TBLG issues pertinent to higher education.   Interested academics and other parties in higher education gather at the TTNS host campus to discuss and strategize about what does and doesn't work in regards to codifying inclusion of  'gender identity and expression' into institutional policy.

There are other issues of importance to the Texas transgender community discussed during the TTNS that will facilitate those goals.   

The TTNS since its 2009 founding and inaugural event on the University of Houston campus has grown to become a much coveted event in Texas academic circles.  The TTNS has been responsible for the increasing list of Texas colleges, universities and school districts that have added gender identity and expression language to their non-discrimination statements and anti-bullying policies.  

The TTNS not only has facilitated the education and training that led to these advances, but has also fostered discussions between activists, students and academics on how to create campuses that are more conducive and comfortable for transpeople to simply be themselves.  That results in trans students being better able to focus on getting their educations and becoming productive citizens.   

So mark your calendars and make your plans now to join the TTNS crew in San Marcos, Texas for what is sure to be another interesting and groundbreaking event.   One day I hope to see one of the Texas HBCU campuses in either Prairie View A&M University or Texas Southern University bid to host it. 

As soon as I receive it, I'll post to this TransGriot space more information about the 2014 edition of the TTNS in terms of when registration opens, when the call for presentations goes out and what your campus needs to do if you want to host the 2015 edition of the Texas Transgender Nondiscrimination Summit.

See you in San Marcos, and looking forward to that TTNS chocolate break again! .

Rev. Al, Where You At On The Islan Nettles Case And Trans Rights In General?

I have much love for the Rev. Al Sharpton as a human rights warrior, and don't miss his MSNBC show Politics Nation when it comes on at 5 PM CST.  

He has been a standup ally for the same gender loving (SGL) end of the community, but I'm curious to find out along with other people in the African descended trans community where does Rev. Al stand when it comes to trans human rights?

This question became more valid in the ongoing developments in the Islan Nettles case.   

Nettles was attacked by transphobic thugs on the corner of W. 148th St. and Frederick Douglass Boulevard, mere blocks away from the Harlem headquarters of the Sharpton founded and headed National Action Network on W. 145th St.   The organization had been silent on this case as local trans women and Delores Nettles, the mother of Islan have demanded justice be served for this senseless murder.

In the meantime, as the clock ticks toward the dawning of a new year, a message is being sent that the lives of transwomen of color in New York City don't matter as long as Paris Wilson, or whoever the alleged perpetrator of this transphobic hate crime is not sitting in a jail cell.

We also had New York attorney John Scarpa basically saying trans lives don't matter in open court while defending his client Rasheen Everett.  Fortunately the judge in the case thought otherwise and he is getting called out by organizations and various people for the anti-trans remarks. 

In defense of Rev. Al, I'm aware that he and the National Action Network don't get involved in cases unless they are invited to do so by the families of the victims. 

So based on that knowledge, have to respectfully ask the next question of the New York trans community.   Have you or Delores Nettles talked to people at the National Action Network and asked them or 'the Rev' to get involved?

If Ms. Nettles or the local trans community have done so, then the onus shifts back to the National Action Network and Rev. Sharpton, and you can legitimately ask the question and get righteously indignant New York trans community about why NAN or the Rev haven't gotten involved.  

It also opens the door to asking the followup questions of where does Rev. Sharpton and by extension the National Action Network stand when it comes to this case, decrying the horrific levels of homicidal anti-trans violence aimed at trans women of color and the human rights of trans women in general?  

The trans community of New York City, the nation, the TransGriot and the world are awaiting your answer to those questions.

TransGriot Update.  Seems as though the answer to the first question I asked in this post is that Rev. Al and the National Action Network are aware of the Nettles case.   There was a December 7 panel discussion moderated by Dominique Sharpton entitled 'My Brothers Keeper' at NAN's Harlem headquarters that included trans panelists Sean Coleman, Arisce Wanzer and Kimberly Howard.  

Michael McBride Pleads Guilty In Wallace Case

There's more good legal news for the trans community is the wake of the horrific Washington DC case in which one of our transsisters was lured to an abandoned building in the 3500 block of Stanton Rd. SE and stabbed up to 40 times back on June 21.

Michael McBride, the perpetrator and defendant in this case, acording to statements made by friends of the victim, McBride and the woman had previously known each other, but McBride only attacked her after a passerby asked him what he was doing with a ''faggy.''

McBride pleaded guilty according to a MetroWeekly report back on October 25 to a charge of aggravated assault while armed and a charge unrelated to the Wallace attack of assault with a dangerous weapon. 

McBride remains in jail without bond as he awaits sentencing.  His next DC Superior Court appearance is scheduled for January 2014.

Under the D.C. Criminal Code, McBride could be fined up to $10,000 and sentenced for up to 10 years, in addition to a term of up to life imprisonment with a mandatory prison term of five, 10 or 15 years, based on his prior criminal record, for the charge of aggravated assault while armed.  The maximum sentence for the assault with the deadly weapon charge is 10 years.

Will be anxious to see how this case plays out as well and how much time he gets for the attack on our trans sister.
.

Tavares Spencer Sentenced In Tampa

Justice has been served in Tampa, FL.

Tavares Spencer, the 16 year old teen who robbed and shot trans woman Coko McDonald back on April 9 and gleefully bragged about on social media will be spending time in the Florida penal system.

Spencer was tried as an adult and found guilty back in October of attempted first degree murder, robbery with a firearm, attempted second degree murder, aggravated assault and aggravated battery.

The trial featured testimony from Coko Williams and a failed attempt by Spencer's defense attorney to deploy the odious 'trans panic' defense. 

Our transsister Coko is not only thankfully alive to tell her story, she got the early Christmas present of seeing justice being served  

The judge in this case noted his pattern of recent criminal behavior and the testimony from Tampa PD detectives about his lack of remorse in the shooting.  He sentenced Spencer to spend the next 25 years of his young life in jail for letting his transphobia get the best of him.

Hawaii's Still Looking For Chris

In case you're wondering what's the story concerning Christian Kukahiko, the Hawaiian trans teen who has been missing since November 9, unfortunately there is no news to report at this time good or bad.

The 15 year old Chris was last seen at 3 PM local time around her family's home in Maunawili.   She is six feet tall, weighs 230 pounds, has black hair with red highlights and a tattoo on her lower back with the last name "Kukahiko."

Anyone with information about this situation is asked to call CrimeStoppers at (808) 955-8300, or *CRIME on your cellular phone. Free cellular calls are provided by AT&T, Nextel Hawaii, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless Hawaii, Mobi PCS, and Hawaiian Telcom. The public may now send anonymous text and web tips. Text "CS808" plus your message to 274637 or CRIMES.

Let's help the Kukahiko family get what they most want to happen this Christmas.  Their child returned safe to them for the holidays.

Hiding From Transphobic Bigotry Won't Make It Go Away

I got involved in a discussion today on a friend's Facebook page about the transphobic bigotry Yanel Valenzuela was exposed to at a California LA Fitness location back in October


When one of the participants in that FB discussion stated that these type of incidents are why transwomen who pass go stealth, I responded that this is exactly why transpeople need to be out and proud about who they are.

Being in stealth doesn't help the trans community.  It only helps the individual that is in stealth.

Hiding from the transphobic bigotry and hate doesn't and will never make it go away.  The only thing that will make it go away is increased visibility of trans people, increased education about our lives and the issues we face, and getting laws passed to protect our human rights.

I say that because light skinned people in the African-American community that tried to erase their connections to their Black heritage to acquire pseudo White privilege saw it all come crashing down once their Black heritage was discovered.    

The salient point I'm making here is that you cannot fight for your human rights in hiding.   We have tried that in the trans community at the behest of the medical gatekeepers for the first 30 years post Christine Jorgensen's arrival from Denmark 60 years ago.   It didn't work then and it won't work now.

And yes, the Religious Right is now coming for us, and we better be tough minded enough to stand up to them and punch them in the nose when necessary, not cowering in the shadows hoping they'll go away because they won't.   . 

It's no accident that since more transpeople have come out, are openly living their lives and are being ambassadors for our community, we have made tremendous trans human rights progress. 

But our trans human rights job is not yet complete. We still have much work left to do to eradicate anti-trans bigotry and hatred.   The journey to full acceptance of our community with codified human rights is not done and we have many miles to go before it is finished.  
  

January 15 Is The Trans 100 Nomination Deadline

After writing more than a few posts about trans people being repeatedly left off of LGBT community lists that were heavy on the lesbian and gay end of the rainbow alphabet and bi, trans and melanin free, it was nice to see Antonia  D'orsay and Jen Richards collaborate on rectifying that problem with the inaugural Trans 100 List

It was an honor and a privilege for me to be included on the initial Trans 100 List, but now it's time to see who will make it to the list that will be released in 2014.  

Nominations have been open for it since October, but now you have less than 30 days to get them in before the January 15 deadline. 

And for you international trans peeps, this year's Trans100 List is open to nominations of international trans people.  Here's Toni to talk about it.

*** 

Attention all PEOPLE WHO SUPPORT TRANS RIGHTS AND PEOPLE:

Hey, it is December 17th. That means there are less than 30 days left to get your nominations in for The Trans 100 for 2013!

Spread the word, my friends and followers! Repost, share, copy and say what you will, but spread the word far and wide!    Less than 30 days left to get in nominations for trans people doing incredible work that deserves to be recognized.

Pay attention to youth activists, to people of color, to veterans, those though of as having disabilities, those in the fights for equality around who strive to improve the lives of people in ways that others overlook.

We want people from *EVERYWHERE* to be nominated. Pay attention there. Immigrant efforts, struggles against the injustice in other nations, the whole thing.

Nominate them all. Go for it. Tell others to nominate people.

The Trans 100 from 2012 have been featured in news stories, highlighted in documentaries, recognized within their fields, and given opportunities to increase the visibility of trans people and the amazing work and change we create every day.

Nominate folks today!

http://thetrans100.com/nominations/