2013 TransGriot NFL Predictions- Week 17

It took me 16 weeks of this 2013 NFL season to finally take top honors for a prognostication week and that in a nutshell is why I've been trailing Mr. Blake and Mr Watts all season.

While I tied for top honors a few times, I've had too many sub.500 weeks and not enough winning weeks to be in this prognostication contest at the end of the season in a position to win it.   

And this winning week come on the heels of back to back sub .500 weeks to illustrate my point. 

Arrgh.  Like my fave NFL team, too little and way too late to defend my prognostication title.  That title is going to Arizona unless Eli has a horribly bad week 17 and Mike conversely has a monster good one.   While I had a lovely Week 16 and went 11-5, Mike went 9-7 and Eli slipped to 8-8.

As for my fave NFL squad, we Texans fans already received that lump of coal in our NFL Christmas stockings courtesy of a 13 game losing streak.   After the Texas play the Tennessee Traitors in Nashville, it's hire a new coach and focus on getting ready for the 2014 NFL draft in May.   They'll have an extra month to decide who to select with that number one pick.  Choose wisely on both accounts. 

Native Texan Lovie Smith has already been interviewed for the job, so he's one of my faves to get it. That interview also means the Texans have complied with the NFL's Rooney Rule, which requires every team to interview at least one non-white candidate for any head coaching vacancy.  

The other candidates for the Texans head coaching job include current interim head coach Wade Phillips, Penn State head coach Bill O’Brien and Chargers offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt.  Some rumored to be in consideration are Texas A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin and Stanford's David
   

So the last week of the NFL season goes like this.  Mike has to make up four games just to tie him, five to win it.   16 games to select, no Monday night or Thursday night games.   My picks are in underlined bold print, Mike's and Eli's are here.

Week 16 Results
TransGriot        11-5
Eli Blake            8-8
Mike Watts        9-7

2013 Season Record
TransGriot      132-107-1
Eli                  150-89-1
Mike              146-93-1

NFL Week 17

Sunday Noon Games
Cleveland at Pittsburgh
Washington at NY Giants
Baltimore at Cincinnati
Houston at Tennessee
Jacksonville at Indianapolis
NY Jets at Miami
Detroit at Minnesota
Carolina at Atlanta

Sunday Afternoon Games
Tampa Bay at New Orleans
Buffalo at New England
St Louis at Seattle
Green Bay at Chicago
San Francisco at Arizona
Denver at Oakland
Kansas City at San Diego

Sunday Night Game
Philadelphia at Dallas

 

Jenna Talackova Gets Canadian ELLE Shoot

In case you're wondering what Jenna Talackova is up to these days after successfully fighting to open up the Miss Universe pageant system to trans contestants, she's simply handling her business and making things happen in her life and modeling career.

The now 25 year old girl like us is set to appear in a photo shoot for Canadian ELLE in January
:
"I can’t believe I’m posing for them,” Talackova said in a behind the scenes video posted on the Canadian ELLE website.

“It’s been a dream — I put them on my vision board and it happened!”

In addition to the Canadian ELLE photo shoot which will appear in the January 2014 issue,  Talackova is also working on an eight episode reality TV series for E! Canada set to start January 19 entitled Brave New Girl.

Talackova is also involved in efforts along with other international trans activists to get the World Health Organization (WHO) to remove transsexualism from the list of mental disorders in the ICD manual that has currently started the revision process that is scheduled to be completed by 2015. 

So what's next for Talackova?   Whatever she decides to do, seems like she's had much success so far in making it a reality with the ICD revision fight to be determined.

Unmasking The Religious Right War In America

It's said that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.   That's especially true if you are a persecuted or hated minority group under constant microaggressive and macroaggressive attack.

You have to know your enemy, call them out, be vigilant for and respond to any attacks aimed at undermining your humanity and by extension, your human rights no matter how small they seem on the surface. 

Alvin McEwen of the Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters blog and Pam's House Blend fame (and who I had the pleasure of meeting during Netroots Nation 2012) has been diligently documenting the Religious Right and their unrelenting neo-fascist attacks on the TBLG community while cloaked in Christian drag.

Alvin has spent the last year putting together a booklet that is a handy guide for detecting those tactics, debunking and eviscerating their talking points, and giving you the information and tools to develop counterprogramming against them entitled How They See Us: Unmasking The Religious Right War In America.

McEwen's booklet is timely in the wake of the Religious Right taking their war against the GLBT community global and exporting their hate based oppression of our rainbow brothers and sisters with successful results in Uganda, Nigeria and Russia.  The conservafaith-based haters are also attempting to spread their lies and disinformation in Brazil, Latin America and the Caribbean. 

It's available for download and viewing by clicking this link, so if you want to understand the mindset of the Forces of Intolerance, might be a good idea to check this out.

BTAC 2014 Registration And Call For Proposals

The 2014 Black Trans Advocacy Conference in Dallas from April 29-May 4 at the Hilton DoubleTree Campbell Center is rapidly approaching.   It's time for you trans and gender non-conforming individuals, family, friends and community allies to accept the BTAC conference invitation to gather, educate, learn, build and grow together in unity.  

The clock is ticking, so it's time to get busy and get registered for this third annual conference that is free for all registered guests to attend as long as you do so before April 1, 2014.   After that date all registrations will be processed onsite at the conference hotel and carry a $10 processing fee.

The BTAC 2014 theme is "One Earth. One People. One Love."  BTAC is inviting trans and gender non-conforming individuals and our family, friends and community allies to gather, educate, learn, build and grow together in unity.

BTAC 2014 has also issued a Call for Proposals with proposals due on January 5, 2014.   So if you have an idea for a conference proposal, need to get it in by clicking this link before this deadline.   

If you're looking for more information or an opportunity to sponsor this conference, you can inquire about how to do so by emailing btac@blacktrans.org 

Black Trans Advocacy
3530 Forest Lane Suite 312C
Dallas, TX 75234
(855) 255-8636

And yes, if you have some spare change like $5's, $10's, $20's (or more if you're feeling generous)  burning a hole in your pocket, you can make a tax deductible donation since it is a 501c3 organization.
   

Aisha And Danielle on MHP

Merry Christmas People!

Just had to post the pics courtesy of my fave power couple from Sunday's appearance on the Melissa Harris-Perry show that was guest hosted by Joy Reid.   Birthday girl Aisha was looking good, and so was her lovely spouse Danielle.   I'm looking forward to seeing them the next time I'm inside I-495.

Oh yeah speaking of their joint #nerdland appearance, if you didn't get to see them in action on Sunday, here's the links to the show.

Part 1: http://on.msnbc.com/1fBxrQ7
Part 2: http://on.msnbc.com/1c2TMS6

Hey Megyn, My Santa Is Black...

And so are the Christmas themed movies I watch, the Christmas themed romance novels I read, and the Christmas music I have listened to since I was a child.

And yes, that was vitally important then and even more so now in a world that doesn't value non-white children, to see ourselves and our culture reflected during this Festival of Off The Chain Consumerism. 

In a world of overwhelming whiteness, it's vital that non-white folks have cultural touchstones that you and you Fox Noise comrades can arrogantly take for granted Ms Kelly because the world and the dominant culture revolve around people who look like you.

So you can take that vanillacentric privileged  and racist Fox Noise 'War on Christmas' BS and shove it up you know where.

Now where are my Alexander O'Neal and Luther Vandross Christmas CD's?

Yo Hallmark Channel, Next Year Can We Get More Diversity In Your Christmas Movies?

Yes, Black people fall in love, get married, buy  romance novels, and like watching romance movies, too.   It would be nice to see ourselves occasionally represented in your made for TV romances especially since we persons of colors are part of the 87 million homes that have Hallmark Channel as part of their cable package.
--TransGriot, October 15, 2012, "Yo Hallmark Channel, Black People Fall In Love, Too"

As an incurable romantic, I do like reading romance novels and love a good romantic movie from time to time as an escape because the topic I write about are serious in terms of human rights issues.

Hallmark Channel bills itself as 'The Heart of TV'  and built its cable brand on broadcasting made for TV romance movies it produces along with broadcasting classic TV shows like Frasier and The Golden Girls.  It is part of many cable TV packages and has 86 million viewers.

It also likes to do holiday themed programming.  Its popular and highly rated 'Countdown To Christmas' lasts from the first weekend in November to Christmas Day as the network broadcasts 24 hours of Christmas themed movies. 

From December 26 to January that shifts to the 'Countdown to New Year's Day' which ends with the broadcast of the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, CA.  In February it's all romance all the time leading up to Valentine's Day.

But no matter what the theme, there is one consistent, nagging issue about that themed programming that becomes glaringly obvious in 24 hour rotation.  

The overwhelming whiteness of it.

I noted that in my post last year about it, and I see that nothing's been done to correct the problem I noticed last year.   This year's 'Countdown to Christmas' themed movies probably made Fox Noise and Megyn Kelly smile because they had the diversity of a Republican Party convention.

Black folks meet, fall in love with each other and get married during the holidays, too. As a matter of fact that simple point is what keeps royalty checks consistently flowing into Kayla Perrin's and other Black romance writers bank accounts.

As The Best Man Holiday and its $69.8 million box office emphatically continues to prove, we African-Americans do have universal stories that will appeal to a wider audience and want to see ourselves represented on the small and silver screens..

The same is true of the Latino and Asian community and movies that are performed by an all-Latino or all- Asian cast.   They would like to see themselves represented in the media they watch, too 

In fact when I do discover movies such as Nothing Like The Holidays, which was a Christmas movie released in 2008 with a predominately Latino cast, I see them as a refreshing change, because romantic movies with all white casts are so been there, bored with that.

So next year Hallmark and into the foreseeable future, what I and many non-white viewers of your channel want is so deceptively simple when 'Countdown to Christmas' 2014 rolls around.

Can we get some holiday movies made by you that reflect the diversity of this country?

And when I say diversity of this country, I don't mean an all or predominately white cast with a token Black, Latino or Asian actor in the background for half a second as the white leads are making goo-goo eyes at each other. 

If you don't have the writers on hand to produce those scripts with the (and this is vitally important) cultural nuances of my people, then get writers to produce those Christmas romance scripts who are culturally competent to make it happen and hire directors well versed in those non-white cultures to make them.

So Hallmark, can you do that for your non-white viewers, who are part of the 86 million people who watch your channel?

Merry Christmas 2013

Merry Christmas to all my TransGriot readers on the eastern side of the International Date Line!   Once again I get to thank you for all the gifts that y'all provide me with throughout the year.

One of the most precious gift you TransGriot readers provide me with is spending your valuable time surfing the Net to read what I write here.

Occasionally some of y'all in addition to telling me how much y'all like what I read or sending me links to stories I may have missed, will additionally drop some change in the TransGriot electronic Tip Jar.

Thank you, it's deeply appreciated.

In just a few short days I'll not only announce my 2013 TransGriot Shut Up Fool of the Year Winner, but celebrate my 8th Anniversary blogging on New Year's Day.

So I'm talking the day off, but if the news cycle warrants it or I feel something move me to post today, I will.   

NY Islan Nettles Case Meeting

TransGriot Note:  From the New York City Anti-Violence Project (AVP)

On December 20 trans community leaders Laverne Cox and Brooke Cerda Guzman, along with representatives from the Audre Lorde Project’s Trans Justice and the New York City Anti-Violence Project (AVP) met with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office regarding the Islan Nettles investigation after misdemeanor charges were dropped against Paris Wilson on November 19, 2013. 

Islan Nettles was attacked on August 17 in Harlem by an individual or group of individuals shouting anti-transgender slurs.  Ms. Nettles was taken to Harlem Hospital for her injuries and on Thursday August 22, was taken off of life support and died.

At the meeting, community leaders spoke about their concerns about the real danger that transgender women of color face in New York City and the need for the District Attorney’s Office to prioritize violence against transgender women of color.  The District Attorney’s Office assured community leaders that the Islan Nettles case remains a top priority and that they were doing everything in their power to move the investigation forward.  The group also spoke about ways in which the District Attorney’s Office and transgender women of color could work together to create safety and highlight the disproportionate impact of violence in transgender and gender non-conforming communities.

The Anti Violence Project (AVP) will continue to work with transgender community leaders and the District Attorney’s Office on the Islan Nettles case and on issues of safety for all transgender women of color in New York City.

AVP stands with transgender women of color, our allies, community members and community leaders in saying we will not be silent about the violence faced by transgender women and transgender women of color in our city.  In September 2013, at AVP’s Courage Awards, Laverne Cox called the violence against transgender women of color “a state of emergency,” and it is exactly that, both here in New York City and across the nation.  The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) most recent report, Hate Violence Against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and HIV-Affected Communities in the United States in 2012, documented 25 anti-LGBTQ murders.  73.1% of all anti-LGBTQ homicide victims in 2012 were people of color and 53.8% were transgender women.

So far this year we know of 14 transgender women nationally who have been victims of homicide.  In many of these cases, no motive is known, and we are concerned about the pace of investigations, the serial misgendering of the victims by police and media, and by a lack of public awareness about these tragic deaths.

 REPORTING VIOLENCE HELPS TO END VIOLENCE
AVP encourages you to report violence you experience or witness to our free and confidential 24-hour bilingual (English/Spanish) hotline at 212-714-1141 where you can speak with a trained counselor and seek support, or you can report violence anonymously online at http://avp.org/get-help/report-violence.

2013 International Trans Year In Review

Just like 2012, the year 2013 on the international front was a good news, bad news one for the international trans community. 

Let's start with the fact that we continue to see unacceptable levels of anti-trans violence, discrimination and murder being leveled at our people, with the most egregious levels of it happening in various Latin American nations, Brazil, the United States and Turkey.

There was also the horrific case in Jamaica of 16 year old transteen D. Jones being set upon by a mob during a street party and beaten, shot, stabbed and run over by a car for the crime of being her true self. 

We witnessed the disappointing defeat of PLC 122 last week, a bill that would have prohibited gender identity and sexual orientation discrimination in Brazil.  We also saw the Gulf States led by Kuwait consider a ban on transpeople entering the area for employment purposes in October, and expressed concern about transpeople in Russia, Nigeria and Uganda being caught in the backlash spawned by the various draconian anti-gay laws in those nations.

Despite that negative news, the international trans human rights picture overall is an increasingly bright one.

In addition to the United Nations holding on September 26 a first ever ministerial level meeting to discuss TBLG human rights issues, several nations have made moves either with favorable court rulings, administrative rule changes, ended forced sterilizations or SRS in order to do name changes, or are considering or passed legislation to streamline their name change process for transgender people like the Netherlands.


The Philippines held congressional hearings December 5 to discuss an inclusive anti-discrimination bill, and a trans inclusive ENDA passed in the United States Senate on a 64-32 vote. 

While the US state of New York's senate frustratingly refused to allow GENDA to come to a vote on the floor after its passage for the sixth consecutive session by the New York state assembly, the state of Delaware showed them how it was done by becoming the 17th US state to pass a trans inclusive human rights law.

In Canada, progress on the passage of C-279, the Trans Rights Bill was stalled by the Conservatives in the Canadian Senate on the verge of its Third Reading vote in June.  After summer recess, it was dealt another blow by the prorogation of Parliament, which forced it to start the Senate legislative process from the beginning stages after it was reinstated.  C-279 is currently at Second Reading stage in its repeat Senate legislative journey.

C-279 passed the Canadian House on a final 149-137 vote back on March 20 with Prime Minister Stephen Harper being one of the NO votes and current Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau being MIA for it. 

The Canadian and the international trans community will be watching to see if the Canadian Senate values its trans citizens and passes this much needed law.

Canadian trans kids are also front and center in current north of the 49th parallel trans rights battles.  Mat Asano in Quebec,  Harriette Cunningham and Tracey Wilson  in British Columbia are fighting for recognition of their identity in addition to battling documentation issues in those two provinces.     

My Canadian trans cousins did have something else to cheer in 2013 as the province of Newfoundland and Labrador became the latest Canadian legal jurisdiction to protect trans human rights and Quebec has introduced legislation that addresses the trans documentation issue. 

On the political front, while Polish MP Anna Grodzka continues to blaze trails as only the third elected trans MP in world history, we are still waiting for the first ever elected trans national legislator in the Western Hemisphere to happen.  Attempts by Diane Rodriguez in Ecuador in February and Valentina Verbal in Chile to get elected to their respective national legislatures unfortunately fell short.  

Verbal's was for an all too frustratingly familiar reason to transpeople around the world,  She pulled out because of documentation issues.

Speaking of history making trans politicians, was nice to hear about the combination fundraiser and tribute for Georgina Beyer, the world's first ever elected trans MP who is battling chronic kidney failure and is awaiting a transplant.  The well attended tribute event was held in Wellington, NZ on Beyer's 56th birthday on November 14.   


As a child of the African Diaspora, one of this blog's missions is to highlight the issues facing my continental trans brothers and sisters on the African continent and across the Diaspora so they get the attention they deserve.

Despite the recent depressing news from our planet's second largest continent emanating from Uganda and Nigeria, there is positive movement trans human rights wise to report on the African continent. 

There's increased regional cooperation and coordination with various indigenous organizations on the African continent concerning trans rights issues. 

Kenyan trans activist Audrey Mbugua's lawsuit requesting KNEC change her documentation on her school records to reflect who she is now fostered a wider conversation in her nation about trans people and our human rights issues and concerns.

Titica's continued growing musical popularity in Angola and the southern African region led to her being named as a UNAIDS goodwill ambassador.


In Asia, the Vietnamese trans community is coming out of the shadows and increasingly demanding their human rights be respected and codified into law so they no longer face anti-trans discrimination. 

The trans marriage cases the international trans community were nervously watching in Hong Kong with Ms W and in Malta with Joanne Cassar came to successful conclusions in different ways.  

Ms. W finally won at the highest level of the Hong Kong judiciary, the Court of Final Appeal, after losing two previous times.  Cassar won and lost cases at various levels in the Maltese court system, and eventually had to take her marriage case to the European Court of Human Rights before the Maltese elections and a governmental change led to her finally emerging victorious.   The new Maltese government settled the pending ECHR marriage case with Cassar out of court and passed new laws recognizing the rights of transpeople to marry.   They recently honored Cassar with the Gieh ir Repubblika on December 13.  

Here in Texas we are anxiously awaiting the results of the September appeal of Nikki Araguz Loyd in her ongoing court battle to affirm her (and ours in Texas) marriage rights.  No matter which way it goes, it will probably be appealed to the Republican dominated Texas Supreme Court.

The issue of trans people in sports blew up this year in the cases of women's MMA fighter Fallon Fox here in the United States and Aeris Houlihan in the UK.  Both cases have created debate and sometimes contentious discussion in terms of transfeminine athletes, their ability to compete in and participate in their favorite sports against cis women and what is the real science pro and con.

It has also sparked interest in just what are the rules and how can we craft them so they are consistent and fair to both cis and trans athletes.

While the Miss Universe pageant system, with the exception of a few transphobic holdouts was open to trans contestants starting this year, the only person that attempted to do so was 27 year old Kylan Wenzel, who entered the Miss California USA pageant.   Unfortunately she didn't win, but it will be interesting to see if more trans women, now that they have had time to contemplate it and get prepped to enter if they so choose to do so, enter their various national pageants in the 2014 cycle.

Trans models continue to rock the runways with Brazilians Lea T., Carol Marra and Felipa Tavares leading the way.   They are being joined by a rising modeling star in France's Ines-Loan Rau.   The 24 year old from Paris was featured in a steamy photo shoot with Tyson Beckford that went viral. 

In the US trans model Arisce Wanzer is also beginning to get attention and Carmen Carrera is vying to become the first trans Victoria's Secret model   While that didn't happen in 2013, it's just a matter of time before one of the Victoria's Secret Angels strutting that catwalk is a trans woman. 

Jenna Talackova, whose fight to enter the Miss Canada Universe Pageant last year opened it and the Miss Universe system to future transfeminine contestants, is being featured in a January Canadian Elle magazine photo shoot.

Across the Pond, our British trans cousins were handling their business as well. 

They started the year calling out the British TERF duo of Suzanne Moore and Julie Burchill, whose transphobic scribblings in published newspaper columns in January set off a tsunami of local and international condemnation. 

What is believed to be the world's first purpose built memorial dedicated to the victims of anti-trans violence was dedicated in Manchester in July.   But since transphobic idiots don't want us to have nice things or human rights, the memorial was promptly vandalized.  The damage to it was repaired in time for TDOR memorial events in November.

A museum exhibit celebrating the life of trans pioneer and icon April Ashley opened in her hometown of Liverpool back in September.   Entitled April Ashley: Portrait of a Lady, the exhibit will run at the Museum of Liverpool until September 14, 2014.

2013 was award winning British trans activist Paris Lees' breakout year on her side of The Pond.

The 25 year old journalist not only received the top spot on this year's Pink List, Lees just recently made history as the first out trans panelist  to appear on the BBC's long running Question Time program. 

Lees also received rave reviews from the British public for her historic appearance.  So what will Paris and our British trans cousins do next?  Will be interesting to see as the New Year dawns.

There were a lot of things good, bad and groundbreaking that happened internationally for the trans community in 2013.   Looking forward to discussing and chronicling more of the positive trends in the international trans community in 2014

Diamond Stylz-Let's Talk To My Mommy

Since I'm spending time with my family today, thought you peeps needed to see the video Diamond Stylz posted which was an interview she did with her mother. 

Hope she does get a chance to come down to BTAC in Dallas this April.

Merry Christmas* 2013

It's Christmas Eve on my side of the International Date line, but for all of you on the western side of it, it's Christmas Day! 

Merry Christmas to all of my TransGriot readers who are spending it with family (either blood relations or chosen family) friends, or the people you love. 

Can't thank you enough for the support that you have given to me and to my blog since its inception back in 2006, and deeply appreciate you continuing to surf by and check it out.  

Maybe one of these days I'll finally be blessed enough to be able to take those international trips I've always wanted to take to Asia, the Philippines, Australia and the rest of the Pacific Rim and actually spend some quality time with you.

Safe travels to and from your holiday destinations, and may you have a wonderful holiday season.

.  

Fallon's Upcoming GQ Article

For those of you interested in all the latest news concerning our fave WMMA fighter, Fallon Fox will have an article appearing about her in the January 2014 issue of GQ magazine. 

Things have been quiet so far from ever since sore winner Ashlee Evans-Smith flapped her gums and unleashed some transphobic comments that Fox responded to after their featherweight title bout in October.

Hopefully 2014 will be a much better year for our fave girl like us WMMA fighter and people will focus more on her talent than her trans status. .

Looking forward to seeing the article myself when it hits my local newsstand.

TransGriot Update:  It's up at GQ's website:  Here's the link to the article.  

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.