Another day, another historic trans first for Laverne Cox.
Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum in San Francisco announced that in honor of Pride Month, she would become the first transperson ever turned into a wax figure.
Her wax figure will join those of George Clooney and Leonardo DiCaprio on display at Madame Tussauds San Francisco in Fisherman’s Wharf and debut during the San Francisco Pride press conference on June 26.
Is Laverne excited about it? Yes.
“When I think about being who I am, a black trans woman from a working
class background raised in Mobile, Alabama, this honor feels even more
improbable and extraordinary,” said Cox in a statement. “I hope that
this will be a source of inspiration for every one who encounters it to
believe that their dreams matter and are possible.”.
And so do I Laverne. Congrats on another groundbreaking honor.
There are according to a Williams Institute study an estimated 15,000 trans people in the US military. In my time in this community I have met or currently know people who have honorably served or are currently serving in all the branches of our military.
Some of those military vets have become some of the trans community's most respected leaders.
But unlike our LGB brothers and sisters, we cannot serve openly because Don't Ask Don't Tell unfortunately still applies to us.
However, there has been some positive momentum toward open trans military service. In addition to out military trans people like Army Sgt Shane Ortega who is openly fighting for his right to serve, there are organizations like SPARTA who are along with our allies fighting to ensure these archaic non scientifically based policies are eradicated. .
On June 4, the US Air Force stated that neither gender dysphoria nor self-identification as transgender are grounds for discharge.
Today the American Medical Association House of Delegates at their annual meeting in Chicago unanimously approved a resolution that states there is no medical reason to exclude transgender people from the US military.
It also calls on those trans military members to receive care according to the same medical standards that apply to all other military personnel.Four former U.S. surgeon generals issued a statement during testimony on the issue this weekend at the AMA meeting here in Chicago urging the AMA to take a stand.
“Transgender service members should, as with all personnel, receive the medical care that they need,” former Surgeon Generals Drs. Joycelyn Elders, David Satcher, Regina Benjamin and Kenneth Moritsugu wrote in their statement released by the Palm Center research institute.
Looks like we are getting another step closer to the day that trans people in the United States, like their counterparts in 15 other nations, can openly serve their country.
I was hoping my problem would be resolved before I had to take the step of asking for help, but this is where I am right now.
As you longtime readers know some of the panel discussions and speeches I do are paid events so Moni can pay her bills and have a little money in her purse to live her life.
And if you want to support Moni and hear talk about trans history, transition from a Black perspective and current events in the community, she's available to be booked to speak at your events.
Now, why I'm writing this post.
My lease is up in my apartment and I have to vacate it by the 15th because it is being torn down and renovated. I was planning to use the speaking fees from two recent events totaling $2500 to help pay for that move, first month's rent in new spot and whatever is owed to my current landlords.
Both checks have been held up for different reasons after I did my part to do the work to earn that money. I have my state rep looking into one of them, and once that has been exhausted, will take it to my congressmember if I don't get a successful resolution with this.
However, that means the money I was expecting and based my plans on is NOT in my hands right now when I need it, and it is causing me unwanted stress and negative ripple effects in my life.
While I have my political reps dealing with that, the clock is ticking on me having to vacate this place, and I need to raise at least the $2500 that's tied up right now until it's resolved.
Y'all know how much I'd rather try to solve my own problems before asking for help for myself, but I don't have any other option at this point.
I have a PayPal button in the upper left hand corner of the blog marked TransGriot Tip Jar, and whatever you can spare is deeply appreciated.
If you can, thank you.
TransGriot Note: Looking at four to six weeks before I have a possible resolution for one of the checks..
The FIFA world number 2 ranked USA women finally get the Group D party started with their opening round FIFA Women's World Cup match against Australia later tonight in Winnipeg.
Group D is considered this tournament's 'Group of Death', because in addition to the FIFA number 2 ranked USA and FIFA number 10 ranked Australia, has FIFA number 5 ranked Sweden and FIFA number 33 ranked African champs Nigeria in the mix in this competitive group.
Only three teams will advance to the knockout round, so one of these four teams will have their dreams dashed. So getting off to a winning start and getting points in these three group stage matches (3 for a win, 1 for a tie, 0 for a loss) will be critical in surviving and advancing from Group D..
Once the Red, White & Blue (gotta come up with a cooler nickname than this) completes their match with the Matildas, they will face Sweden and their old coach Pia Sundhage on June 12 in Winnipeg and finish up in Vancouver on June 16 against the Super Falcons of Nigeria.
But the road to the July 5 title match starts today, and Team USA will hopefully be at BC Place in Vancouver as one of the two teams playing for the title.
According to a Reuters report, NYPD arrested on Friday 32 year old homeless man Rolan Reid on the same 6 line the trans woman was attacked
Reid was acting erratically, threw a plastic Coke bottle at the woman, and subsequently shoved her off the Bleecker Street Station platform.
Reid has a history of 28 previous arrests and was spotted on a northbound 6 train and taken into custody at the Canal St. Station. He had to be physically restrained at the station where he was booked and was taken to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation.
Reid has been charged with second degree attempted murder as a hate crime and with various assault charges according to Sergeant Carlos Nieves.
The 28 year old victim of the alleged attack was treated at Bellevue Hospital for her injuries and released on Monday.
Know my NYC trans family will be keeping an eye on this case as it develops. If they pass along any pertinent information in it, you TransGriot readers will be made aware of it as well.
Gotta love it when hypocrisy is called out, and Whoopi Goldberg did so on The View Thursday in the wake of the Duggars jacked up exclusive interview with Megyn Kelly on FOX Noise trying to conservasplain their son Josh being a pedophile to five girls, four of their own daughters, and them covering it up.
"You brought God up, so it makes it OK to say this," Goldberg said of
the Duggar patriarch pleading for forgiveness for his oldest son.
"You're not forgiving of people. You’re not forgiving of people who feel
differently than you.”
What also makes it odious is in the Duggar zeal to oppress TBLG people, Michelle Duggar bore false witness against trans people while recording a robocall used in a campaign to roll back a Fayetteville, AR nondiscrimination law, and then doubled down on the demonization of trans people during the Tuesday interview.
This graphic has been making the rounds in Trans World recently, and far from being representative of the lack of job opportunities for trans women in Gay, Inc organizations, it's more accurately reflective of the lack of Gay, Inc job opportunities for African-American trans women.
Since we now have America's attention, one of the things that needs to be addressed that has been a longtime sore spot with our community is the problematic pattern of trans hiring (or lack thereof) in Gay, Inc organizations that claim to be advocates for the rights of transgender people.
As an example of what I'm discussing, the LGBTQ Task Force used to have until Kylar Broadus took over that role, a cisgender woman named Lisa Mottet running their Transgender Civil Rights Project.
While Mottet is a wonderful ally, has now moved on to NCTE and has done an admirable job in that role, it's still problematic with all the qualified trans people out there across the country doing the work (some for decades), you would still ignore them on an issue that they are more than qualified to advocate for, eloquently speak on in favor of hiring cisgender peeps to do that advocacy work.
And when they do deign to hire a trans person in a Gay, Inc org for a leadership position, it has been either predominately white trans masculine ones or a white trans woman.
It's even more galling to notice this pattern within Gay Inc orgs when the people who take the brunt of the hate crime casualties are Latina and African-American trans women.
We Black trans women have in many cases done the work for decades and put our asses on the line for all the letters of the TBLG community including our own, but when it comes time to get paid for it, we aren't the ones reaping the rewards.
When it comes time to getting paid to be a professional LGBT activist, far too often it is cisgender white gay males who do and get those positions and parlay those entry level positions into fast tracks to the leadership ranks of Gay, Inc organizations.
Even in the organizations that are trans oriented, the same problem crops up. With the notable exception of TPOCC, trans organizations are not only devoid of Black trans feminine people, but have a glaring lack of melanin in their senior leadership ranks.
Kudos for our work in articles, inclusion on community leadership lists or tributes in Gay, Inc org CEO speeches while deeply appreciated, don't pay our bills or get us out of poverty.
Sustained money from a decent job at a livable wage does.
When African-American trans people are facing 26% unemployment, it would send a powerful message to the corporate ranks you push your equality indexes on if you would actually practice what you preach at others and hire transpeople for your own Gay, Inc organizations.
And yes, Black legacy orgs, I'm giving y'all the side eye as well. This isn't just a Gay, Inc problem, and you traditional legacy orgs could also send a powerful message inside and outside our community about hiring us in these advocacy positions if you would take the bold step of leading instead of following on this issue.
If you are wishing to become competent on transgender human rights issues, wouldn't hurt for you to hire the people who are experts at it and who are also culturally competent in the issues that ail Black America as well
Will that pattern change? I hope and pray it expeditiously does, but that remains to be seen.
When I was a soon to be junior in high school in 1978, I turned on the television to watch the Belmont Stakes and what turned out to be sporting history as Affirmed won the Triple Crown.
Just the year before in 1977, I got to see Seattle Slew win the Triple Crown just four years after the amazing run of Secretariat who set the Belmont Stakes speed record in a blazing 2:24.00 run to capture the Triple Crown in 1973.
Some of you TransGriot readers have yet to have this happen in your lives just once.
But after teenaged me got to see three horses win the Triple Crown in my lifetime, it has now been 37 years since that June day I watched Affirmed do it. 13 horses have had a shot to join the short list of Triple Crown winning race horses but have had those dreams dashed by the 1.5 miles of the Belmont and fresh horses taking them out.
American Pharoah, who is owned by an Egyptian-American, has won the first two legs of the Triple Crown in the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes. Will I get to see sporting history made today or will I see another horse valiantly try to make that history but fall just short of it?
I'll be tuned in later today to find out if the horse with the misspelled name makes history
TransGriot Update: Yep, American Pharoah did it! Won the 147th Belmont Stakes wire to wire to become the first horse in 37 years to win the Triple Crown.
Serena Williams run to this third French Open title was a bumpy one at times. She had several three set matches in which she dropped the first set against formidable opponents like Victoria Azarenka and Sloane Stephens but roared back to win. She battled the flu in her semifinal round match with Timea Bacsisczky but came back to win in three sets.
She was so ill that she couldn't even train yesterday, but there she was on Court Philippe Chatrier for the 2015 French Open final against the Czech Republic's Lucie Safarova.
It started in dominating fashion with Serena taking the first set 6-3. She was cruising at 4-1 in the second set and serving for a 5-1 lead when in her words in the post match interview 'she choked'.
Williams stopped playing her A++ game as Lucie Safarova seized the early Christmas gift to get back into the set and win it in a tiebreaker. 6-7 (2-7) to even the match.
A pissed off Serena, upset that she blew her opportunity to close it out in straight sets, fell into an 0-2 hole in the third set before she kicked up her game another level that Safarova tried to match but couldn't. Williams won the next six games to take the match 6-2 and hold the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen for the third time.
It was Serena's 20th Grand Slam title, tying her with Steffi Graf, her third straight Grand Slam win since the 2014 US Open, her third French Open title and first since 2013.
And how apropos at the conclusion of this successful business trip to Paris, she's hoisting the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen on D-Day..
And oh yeah,Serena haters. she's halfway to a calendar year Grand Slam. The next Grand Slam is across the Channel at the All England Lawn Tennis And Croquet Club starting June 29, which has been her and Big Sis' personal playground throughout her career..
This is the month that women's soccer fans have been waiting for since the last World Cup in Germany ended with Japan taking the title home after winning the final over the USA in a shootout.
The 2015 Women's World Cup will start today and run until July 5 north of the border with the host Canadians taking on China later today in Edmonton.
This tournament has an expanded field of 24 nations, and the FIFA number two ranked Team USA will be seeking their third title and first since 1999. Germany after the heartbreak of losing on their home soil to Japan in the quarterfinals, will not only come into this tournament ranked number one, but will also be seeking to take the trophy back home for a record third time as well.
The host Canadians after not winning a game in the group stage in 2011, not only want to get to the knockout round, but play in the final in Vancouver.
Speaking of Team USA, their first Group D match will be played June 8 in Winnipeg against Australia. They will play Sweden on June 12 and finish up in Vancouver on June 16 against Nigeria.
Going to be fun to see how this month of women's soccer plays out, and it starts in a few hours.
When I last visited New York City in December, one of the things I was cognizant of while riding their subways was making sure I was standing in the middle of the subway station platforms as I waited for my MTA trains to take me wherever I wanted to go.
I was well aware of the history of people being either shoved onto the tracks or into oncoming trains by disturbed people.
And while there are a lot of girls in NYC who are my height, I was definitely paying attention to my surroundings when I was riding the subways.
With the increased attention on trans people because of the media hoopla surrounding Caitlyn Jenner, it's also had the affect of transphobia being ramped up in right wing circles that may manifest itself into increased hate attacks on transpeople
On Monday a 28 year old trans woman waiting for a southbound 6 train at Manhattan's Bleecker St. Station at 9 AM EDT was assaulted and shoved off the platform by a male assailant.
The assailant asked the woman “What are you looking at?” while standing nearby on the platform. He then “ran to a garbage pail” and removed a plastic bottle which he threw at her before pushing her onto the tracks, according to an NYPD spokesperson.
Commuters pulled the woman off the tracks and back onto the platform as the assailant fled the scene Authorities then took the woman to Bellevue Hospital where she was treated for lacerations on her chin and other bruises on her chin and arm before being released.
NYPD is investigating this incident as a hate crime, and this person is wanted for the crime.
And note to you trans haters, trans women are not your societal punching bags for your personal problems and issues.
As we wish our trans sister who was attacked a speedy recovery from her injuries, let us also hope the waste of DNA who committed this crime be swiftly arrested and punished for it.
Caitlyn Jenner is out to the world, and the media is going gaga over her. At the same time the transphobic bigots have come out to play, in addition to some folks in Trans World grousing about the attention she's getting as a former Olympian and stepparent to the Kardashians.
As I said in my post about Caitlyn's debut, any positive media attention that transpeople can get because the media peeps are suddenly interested in covering trans people is good media attention.
It's up to us to take this moment and pivot off of talking about Caitlyn and talking about the issues that impact and affect all transpeople.
Now let's pivot off of talking about Caitlyn to calling out fools as we do every Friday on these electronic pages.
Honorable mention number one is a group award to all the fools who signed the Change.org petition demanding that the International Olympic Committee take back the gold medal that Jenner won in the decathlon in 1976. To the IOC's credit,they quickly ignored that transphobic play.
Hell, if the IOC refuses to snatch the steroid fueled medals the East Germans won during their two decades of state sponsored cheating, what made these conservaidiots think their petition had any chance of success?
Honorable mention number two is Matt Walsh for his transphobic waste of bandwith that stated calling Jenner a woman was an insult to women. Dude, calling you a journalist is an insult to journalists And since when do you know what the hell is insulting to women?
Oh yeah, I forgot, you're a Conservative White Male that is endowed with the magical all knowing power to ascertain what all women are thinking.
Honorable mention number three to Marco Rubio for going on the FOX Noise show Outnumbered and when being called out by one of the Fembot panelists that his Middle East policy was 'nation building', tried to defend it by confusingly stating it wasn't nation building.
Honorable mention number four is DL Hughley for his tweeted transphobic comment in which he was hating on the idea of Caitlyn Jenner getting the ESPY Arthur Ashe Courage Award.
Caitlyn Jenner 2 receive Arthur Ashe award 4 courage! Ashe faced racism and AIDS with dignity and grace! Bruce Jenner put on a dress! #TeamDL
Yo DL, Black trans women face racism. AIDS and have to deal with off the charts violence directed at us far too often by our own people. So why don't you have several seats and a nice cup of STHU?
Besides DL,, it's ESPN who makes the final decision on who gets that particular ESPY award.
Honorable mention number five is Jay Foster, the superintendent of schools in Senatobia, MS who filed disturbing the peace charges against a Black family cheering the graduation of their loved one from high school.
So they are facing jail time for expressing their joy that a loved one graduated from high school? WTF?
At every high school and collegiate graduation I've ever gone to, people cheered the grads as they crossed the stage despite the usual admonition about maintaining the 'solemnity of the ceremony'.
WTF is wrong with these Mississippi Tea Klux Klan peeps? Do they hate Black peeps that much they want to do anything to make our lives miserable?
Honorable mention number six is Mike Huckabee, for his transphobia and other fracked up comments defending the Duggars this week
This week's Shut Up Fool winner is a group award for the Duggar family.
In addition to Jim Bob and Michelle's jacked up appearance on FOX Noise trying to defend the indefensible in terms of Josh molesting his sisters and another girl, Jill and Jessa Duggar are trying to cover for their pedophile brother.
Both are going on FOX Noise to once again deflect from the pedophilia going on in their house and Michelle Duggar is once again trying to deflect from the sexual predator in their family's midst and attack the trans community again.
Wooo Pig Sooie.....Phooey! Looks like the only pedophiles we see here are you Bible thumping ones.
Duggar family, have several seats at Razorback Stadium and shut up fools.
Hillary Clinton has been in Texas for the last three days to do some fundraising and other events in the Lone Star State to shore up the Democratic base here.
Yesterday afternoon she was on the Texas Southern University campus to receive a public service award named for the late Rep..Barbara Jordan, who was an alumnus of the university.
The speech was broadcast live on C-SPAN, and for those of you missed the speech, here's the video of it.
The French Open women's semifinals were earlier today, and Serena was playing Switzerland's Timea Bacsinszky for a spot in the finals.against Lucie Safarova.
She was hoping to avoid a troubling pattern in this French Open tournament in which she has dropped the first set, but roared back to win the next two and the match.
With her quarterfinal straight set dispatching of Sara Errani, it looked like she was back to being the brutally efficient and dominant player she usually becomes when a title is in her reach.
What people didn't know before this match was that Serena was battling a nasty flu bug, and it showed in the first set that she dropped 4-6 to Bacsinszky. But trailing 2-3 in the second set, coughing and struggling during the changeovers, Serena summoned once more that tremendous will to win that set her apart from most of the women on the tour and kicked up her game another level..
She won not only the next game to even the second set at 3-3, but the next nine consecutive game to close out the second set and even the match at 6-3, then closed out the third set to win it and the match 6-0.
She said in a post match interview with Darren Cahill:
"I don’t think I’ve ever been this sick – I didn’t expect to win that, and I can’t believe I won. I got the flu after my third-round match and I haven’t been getting better. Hopefully this is the worst and I’ll get better. I really thought I was going to lose, and I thought: if I’m going to
lose, I might as well go for winners. I was so tired, and I just fought
for every point."
Serena may have been ill, but the only one who is probably sick at the lost opportunity to knock her out of the French Open and get to the final is Timea Bacsinszky.
Serena will have a day off to rest, and will be playing for all this history on Saturday. If he pulls this off, it will be her third career French Open title and her 20th career Grand Slam title. That will put her only two behind tying Steffi Graf..
Speaking of two, she will be halfway to a calendar year Grand Slam, with her fave tournaments 'Williams'don and the US Open coming up.on the Grand Slam calendar. It will also be the third straight Grand Slam she has won since the 2014 US Open.and put her one away from a 'Serena Slam'
Speedy recovery Serena and hope you make that happen.
I had three major goals when I began my transition in 1994. On of them was wanting to be a visible role model for other girls like me.
The other was I wanted to be considered a complimentary to Black womanhood and not seen as a detriment to it.
The third was wanting to be the best Moni I could be to the point that my trans and cis sisters would be proud of me and whatever I accomplished.
I've been honored with a lot of awards, profiled in articles and added to some lists, but was not expecting to be part of this Samantha Master article in The Root that profiled 8 Trans Women Of Color Doing More Than Being Visible.
Speaks to how long I've been in the movement when I've met or personally know the other seven amazing women who were profiled in this article.
While I'm honored to be one of the people in this article, and I thank everyone for the kudos on my FB page, I can't nor will I let you peeps forget we have some amazing trans women of color leaders across this country and beyond our borders.
My native Hawaiian sisters like Cathy Taffy, Ashilana Hawelu-Fulgoni, Stacia Ohira, Hina Wong-Kalu, and Maddalyn Ashton Sesepasara and Asian sisters like Kim Coco Iwamoto, Cecilia Chung, Tita Aida, Geena Rocero and Andy Marra.
And a shoutout goes to all trans women of color who are yet unknown on a local, statewide or national stage, but are doing their part to lead in their communities and advance our just trans human rights cause.
All trans women of color are representing our overall community not only as leaders, but as leaders role modeling a transition experience formed by their cultural experiences.
Women of Color means more than just a default way to write Black or African-American.
While the media focus may be on Caitlyn Jenner, Trans World, our trans men and allies know who the people are who have been doing the heavy lifting to make it easier for Caitlyn and other to have a community to come out to.and who would have her back when the haters started coming out of the closet.
As many of us in Trans World are aware of, our right wing opponents have been busy scaring their people with the debunked bathroom predator lies in a desperate attempt to stop the passage of trans inclusive non-discrimination policies.
They have taken those attacks to another reprehensible level by attacking trans kids, who as the US Department of Education has pointed out, transgender students are protected under Title IX.
The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) in the U.S. Department of Education
today issued official guidance which makes clear that transgender
students are protected from discrimination under Title IX. Title IX is a
federal civil rights law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of
sex in federally funded education programs and activities. Specifically,
the guidance states that "Title IX's sex discrimination prohibition
extends to claims of discrimination based on gender identity or failure
to conform to stereotypical notions of masculinity or femininity and OCR
accepts such complaints for investigation." [GLSEN, 4/29/15]
Media Matters decided to ask 17 large school districts covering over 600,000 students nationally if the right wing scenario they drone on about cisgender kids misrepresenting themselves as trans to gain access to opposite gender facilities is actually occurring.
And as you probably guessed, the conservalie isn't true. These 17 large school districts stated there not only have been ZERO incidents of the type conservafools have been frothing at the mouth about.
So not surprisingly, the conservative lie claiming that protecting transgender students in school settings results in confusion and inappropriate behavior is demonstrably false. It also corroborates what was discovered last year in the evisceration of the trans bathroom predator lie.
There's that pesky truth rearing its liberal biased head again.
So the next time your conservafool FOX noise watching uncle or aunt ties the bring up this lie, hit them with this avalanche of truth.
Today starts the 14th annual Philadelphia Trans Health Conference, and once again something has come up that has prevented me from attending it..
Guess I'm going to have to go to last year's strategy of not planning on going, and then things will fall into place and I'll be at the Pennsylvania Convention Center for it.
Anyway, let me get over being bummed I'm not there for it and get back to reporting on the country's (and possibly the world's) largest trans themed conference with over 3000 attendees..
The welcoming ceremony for this year's conference kicks off at 8:45 AM EDT and as usual it will be packed with informative seminars over the next three days.
And the timing of it once again comes at an interesting moment for the trans community with all the media attention on trans issues post-Caitlyn Jenner reveal. The other thing I love about it is that the PTHC is blessed to have attendance and panels from trans people and leaders from around the world in addition to the professional tracks,.
And once again I'm missing it. I'm also going to miss the start of a new PTHC tradition, a trans flag raising that will fly at Philadelphia City Hall for the duration of the event.form June 4-6
The keynote speakers for this year's edition of the PTHC will be Tiq Milan this afternoon at 1 PM EDT and Trudie Jackson on Friday. Turner Stulting and Peter Fair will be the youth speakers on Thursday and Friday.
So for those of you in the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection, have a cheesesteak for me and enjoy the next three days at this year's edition if the PTHC.
I didn't meet her until the summer of 2010, but our multiple conversations since then have revealed our paths crossed in the 90's at a long gone TBLG club called Studio 13.
She's been fighting a pitched legal battle since 2010 to restore her marriage rights, and is the reason the odious Littleton v Prange is dead.
And yeah, she and her best friend Meagan are pretty cool women to hang around that never fail to put a smile on my face when I need it.
She's also married to a wonderful guy and talented artist who loves her to death.
I'm talking about the fabulous Nikki Araguz Loyd, who is celebrating her milestone 40th birthday today. She's had an interesting novel worthy life up to this point, and while she had a few bumps, bruises and challenging moments along the way, never doubt her ability to turn a lemon situation into lemonade and look fabulous while doing so..
Happy milestone birthday Nikki! Hope you have a birthday that is a fabulous as you are, and you are blessed to celebrate many more of them.
Serena Williams Roland Garros business trip is a step closer to a successful conclusion, but she had another slow start that almost derailed it.
She entered her fourth round match with Sloane Stephens mired in a puzzling pattern of getting of getting off to a slow start that puts her in a bind, then clawing back to win the match.
And once again, Serena dropped the first set 1-6 to Stephens, who hadn't beaten Williams since the 2013 Australian Open quarterfinal upset.
Serena woke up after trailing 0-2 in the second set to take it 7-5, and even the match, then punched her ticket to the quarterfinals by taking the third set 6-3 to close out another comeback and face Sara Errani.
In her quarterfinal match with Errani, who has never beaten her, the world number one was determined to avoid the bad starts that had plagued her in her last three French Open matches. Serena took only 63 minutes to overpower her 6-1, 6-3 in a match that included a 123 mph ace.
She's baaaaack....and that may be bad news for Williams' semifinal opponent Timea Bacsinszky. Serena is closing in on her third French Open title, 20th Grad Slam title overall and her third straight Grand Slam since taking the 2014 US Open.
If she gets past Bacsinszky tomorrow, she'll face the winner of the other semifinal being contested between seventh seed Ana Ivanovic and number 13 seed Lucie Safarova.
One of the problems that trans people around the world share is identification that matches who they are now, and barriers to acquiring that ID like requiring genital surgery.
Was nice to hear courtesy of the Transgender Equality Network Ireland thatthe Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection, Joan Burton, T.D. announced that, following the agreement of Cabinet, the application process under the Gender Recognition Bill will for people aged 18 years or more, be based on the person's self-declaration by way of a statutory declaration.
The Gender Recognition Bill will also no longer contain the controversial 'forced divorce' clause that Irish trans people had serious problems with..
"TENI applauds the Government for this hugely significant move. Ireland has now taken its place as an international leader in this human rights area," said TENI Chief Executive Broden Giambrone. "The Government has shown great vision and conviction in ensuring the rights of trans people. This legislation will significantly improve the lived realities of trans people in Ireland."
Speaking after the Cabinet meeting, the Tánaiste said: "Throughout the drafting of this Bill, I have listened carefully to the views of individual citizens, representative groups and public representatives. It is essential that this important legislation is in line with international best practice. That is why we are moving to a self-declaration model for people aged 18 and over. This approach will have no impact on the treatment pathway which is completely separate from the civil registration process."
TENI Chair Sara R. Phillips said after today's announcement: "This is a momentous moment. To be given the respect to self-determine our gender is true equality. For once I can believe our community are seen as full equal citizens. Today I am so proud of our country."
Another day, another historic trans first for Laverne Cox. 
