You TransGriot readers are cognizant of the fact I have been tracking the progress of the documentary film on these electronic pages for the last few years.
Just received some wonderful news from Annalise Ophelian and StormMiguel Florez, the producers of the documentary film MAJOR! that focuses on the fascinating life of one of our trans elders in Miss Major Griffin-Gracy
I'm excited to announce that MAJOR! will have its world premiere in San Francisco's Castro Theater on Friday, November 13 as part of the San Francisco Transgender Film Festival.
I've had the pleasure of getting to see a preview of it, and those of you who get to see the premiere and MAJOR! when it hits your local film festival will be in for a treat.
After suffering through the horror of multiple GOP presidential debates that had the feel of a reality TV show, finally the Democrats get in the game with the first of their six debates from Las Vegas being televised by CNN starting at 7:30 PM CDT with Anderson Cooper as the moderator.
Vice President Joe Biden won't be there since he still hasn't decided whether he will jump into this race, but Democratic primary front runner Hillary Clinton will be in the Wynn Las Vegas house along with Sen. Bernie Sanders, Martin O'Malley, Jim Webb, and Lincoln Chafee.
In addition to wondering when will VP Biden get in the game, there is still the desire in Democratic Party circles to see more than just the six DNC sanctioned debates that is being echoed by people such as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and former DNC Chair Howard Dean..
The call for additional debates have led to protests in front of DNC headquarters in Washington DC and heckling of DNC chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz at a recent New Hampshire Democratic party event..
And frankly, I'd like to see more debates as well.
Until that happens, the political junkie in me will take the opportunity to watch this one presidential debate that I suspect will be far more substantive on policy than all the GOP ones combined.
Thanks to a tip from a concerned citizen to Philadelphia PD homicide detectives, one of the wastes of DNA who participated in the brutal October 6 attack on Keisha Jenkins has been arrested.
That tip led them to 24 year Pedro Redding, who was arrested Sunday and charged in the murder of Jenkins. Redding has a prior history of criminal activity, was denied bail, and was arraigned by a judge on murder, conspiracy and weapons charges.
Redding is part of a pack of men who are suspected of committing other robberies in the Hunting Park section of Philadelphia where he lived.. The Jenkins case at this time is not being investigated as a hate crime
Three other people are being sought by detectives in this ongoing murder investigation
No American TransGriot readers, this isn't a typo. In case you weren't aware of it, our Canadian cousins
get their Turkey Day grub on during the second Monday in October instead
of the fourth Thursday in November we celebrate it on.
As Canadians settle down at dinner tables across their nation to partake in those delicious Thanksgiving meals, they will do so knowing that next Monday they will be heading to the polls for a federal election.
On October 19 our Canadian cousins will be voting to determine which party, the NDP, the Liberals, or the Conservatives will get the lion's share of the now 338 seats up for grabs in the House of Commons, with 170 seats being the magic number needed to gain majority control of the House.
Just wanted to take a moment to wish all my friends and my north of the border TransGriot readers a Happy Thanksgiving!
May your food be tasty , the company eating it with you delightful, and your travels to and from your Thanksgiving destinations be safe and drama free.
"If you're trans*, it's even scarier and a much different dynamic from our LGB brothers and sisters because a gender transition is not easy. After the initial coming out date, unlike our cis LGB brothers and sisters, we have to pay cash out of pocket, get trans specific medical care and counseling, and morph our bodies to be our kind of person we wish to project to the world. " -TransGriot October 11, 2013,"National Coming Out Day 2013-It's STILL Different For A Trans Person
Today is National Coming Out Day, in which people in the trans, bi and SGL community are urged to on this October 11 date to be ourselves. If you aren't ready to do so today, my best advice to to wait until you are emotionally ready to handle that challenging business of announcing to the world your true self and going forward from that date of making it happen.
But I'm also thinking about National Coming Out Day 2015 in the wake of us losing another young trans sister in Keisha Jenkins last week.
Being girls and guys like us can be tough at times, but nothing beats the exhilaration and the happiness of knowing thyself and being on an evolving journey of living your life openly and honestly.
My coming out date wasn't on October 11, it was April 4, 1994 and I have not regretted making that move. The only regret I really have that pops up at times is not being able to start it sooner.
But I did, and I have a higher quality and amazing life because of it. I have some people in my life I probably wouldn't have gotten to know if I hadn't transitioned, get blessed with opportunities to talk about trans issues around the country and would like to have it happen more often.
I get to pick up the phone and actually converse with trans people from around the country from my trans younglings to trans elders like Miss Major, occasionally make a little history like I did when I took part in a White House Trans Women of Color Briefing back in March;. I have an awesome network of cis and trans sisters who keep me grounded and ensure that my azz doesn't get 'Big Head Syndrome' because of the awesome company I keep.
I have also gotten to meet during my two decades in this community some trans brothers who are also doing some groundbreaking things for our community as well like Dr Kortney Ziegler, Kylar Broadus, Jevon Martin, Rev. Louis Mitchell and Carter Brown just to name a few that I am immensely proud of.
Has it been challenging and a pain in azz at times? Yep, sure has. I've also had my share of setbacks, especially in the romance department.. But facing those challenges and emerging victorious from them has made me the unapologetically Black trans person I am today.
But it wouldn't have happened if I hadn't taken that preliminary first step out of the closet in 1994.
To those of you coming out today, at events tomorrow or whenever you choose to do so, welcome to the family.
One of my nicknames in the trans community is the Air Marshal for two reasons. When I first got involved in community activism in 1998 I was working for a major airline. Being based in Texas also meant as an trans advocate I had to hop a plane to get to either coast, Washington DC, the Midwest, the Southeast US, the Rocky Mountain states, the New England states or the Pacific Northwest where many of the trans events and conferences were happening.
And yes, that means because of my heavy travel schedule at times, I have had more than a few opportunities to engage not only with the local TSA officers at Hobby and Intercontinental Airports, but airports throughout the country.
And it never fails that I get a patdown search either at the beginning of my trip, the homeward bound leg of it, or on both legs. It also happens no matter whether I start my trip at Hobby or IAH..
While I have yet to (and hope I never have to) experience the horror of what Shadi Petosky experienced in Orlando last month, I have had more than my share in my travels across this country of patdown searches by female TSA agents, snide comments made by TSA officers running screening machines as I waited to be scanned, and twice being sent to the chemical analyzer for more screening before being sent off to my departure gate.
In the wake of the Petosky mess, a TSA investigation into her allegations was launched, and a federal lawsuit was filed in July over the regulations that govern scanners and patdown searches.
On Thursday, 32 members of Congress sent a letter to TSA Administrator Peter Neffinger to review the TSA protocols and procedures that affect trans travelers.
As much as people hate on the TSA, the reason it exists is because the private security companies that were handling the job at our nation's airports failed massively on 9-11 and had been failing at doing so for years before that 2001 terror attack.
As a former airline employee and someone who is a frequent air traveler, I support the existence of the TSA and their personnel who are handling their duties with the utmost level of courtesy and professionalism for the flying public.
However, the flying public also includes trans people, and there is room for improvement when it comes to interacting with trans travelers.
Neither should I or any trans person face dehumanization or disrespect when we are simply doing what other cis people are doing and are traveling across the country for business or pleasure.
One of the problems that we have as African descended people across the Diaspora is that Blackness is despised and demonized across the planet and has been for centuries.
Planet Earth ain't post-racial either. Whether it is a Kenneth Eng writing a 2007 column entitled 'Why I Hate Blacks' in an San Francisco based Asian newspaper, Satoshi Kanazawa trying to justify his fracked up 2011 study that declared Black women ugly, and Asian-Americans being called out by other Asian-Americans for their anti-Black racism, anti-Black attitudes and racism have an undeniable international cachet.
The recent complaints in The Land of the Rising Sun that Miss Universe Japan 2015 Ariana Miyamoto isn't Japanese enough despite being born there, a Japanese citizen currently residing in that nation, her mother being full blooded Japanese, having fifth degree mastery of calligraphy and she being a fluent Japanese speaker only add to the pissivity and anger of Black people across the African Diaspora having to confront anti-Black racism no matter where they go on this planet..
I'm aware of anti-Black racism rearing its ugly head in the Arab world, and even in supposedly progressive Israel, they have their problems with anti-Black racism rearing its ugly head there as well.
And while they try to ignore, deny it or pass it off as a 'North American issue', anti-Black racism is alive and is a problem in Latin America.
And haven't forgotten the ugly instances of anti-Black racism that have popped up repeatedly on European soccer pitches in spite of an ongoing worldwide FIFA`'Say No To Racism' campaign in which Black players like Italy's Mario Balotelli and other African descended players playing in Europe have to deal with European soccer hooligans slinging bananas and racial epithets.
And with the rise of ultra-right wing parties in some European nations, the level of anti-black racist animus in Europe is sadly rising as well..
I'd been hearing disturbing comments about Thais considering dark skin 'ugly', and my annoyance with that alleged anti-Black sentiment was only heightened after the controversial ending of the 2011 Miss International Queen trans pageant to pissed off levels after an all Thai judging panel literally screwed a trans woman representing Nigeria out of the crown.
Now comes this shot of materials used to teach Thai.kids English that has gone viral in social media, and note the caption under the Black male head.
International anti-Blackness is real, and it needs to be confronted and dealt with not only by the indigenous black people in those nations, but coordinated action is needed across the Diaspora to combat it...
'But I'm willing to bet some arrogant vanillacentric privileged fool will ignore this advice and find themselves in a media caca storm for doing exactly what I'm warning them not to do.'--TransGriot September 24, 2015'For Halloween 2015, Just Say No To Blackface'
Didn't I call it? Post wasn't even up a week before the first fool got busted for not saying no to blackface in the person of Friedel Kushman, who couldn't say no to blackface, bragged about doing so on Facebook and paid for her lack of Halloween vision with her job.
Now comes news that a UCLA fraternity and sorority that jointly hosted a 'Kanye Western' party couldn't resist the urge to wallow in offensive stereotypes.
Damn White people, just say no to blackface. Your future career prospects, unless you're applying for internships in the Republican Party or some conservafool think tank, depend on it.
The Sigma Phi Epsilon frat chapter on campus is suspended pending an investigation and Alpha Psi sorority will probably suffer the same fate in addition to having their blackfaced bigotry blasted all over the Southland in local LA media.
Once again White people, just say no to blackface. It is offensive to my people, there is no justification for it under ANY circumstances, and my people's lives and culture are not a costume for you to put on and mock. And I'd be willing to bet if you had to permanently live our Black lives 24/7/365, y'all couldn't handle one hour of it.
But alas. I'll probably have more instances of white people running wild with blackface and getting in trouble for it posted on this blog before October 31 gets here.
On Monday our Canadian cousins will be gathering at family tables across their vast nation and getting their grub on.
It's Thanksgiving Canadian style, and our north of the border cousins will be giving thanks for all the blessings they have received this year and probably having some hot political debates as they break bread.
Speaking of debate, let's get one started courtesy of our usual Friday business in which we determine what fool, fools or group of fools get dissed, dismissed and called out for their jaw dropping ignorance and stupidity in this week's edition of our TransGriot Shut Up Fool Awards.
Honorable mention number one goes to the Canadian Conservative Party for attempting to borrow a page from the GOP playbook and inject hatred of Muslims into the upcoming federal elections by urging Canadians in their words, report 'barbaric cultural practices.'
The ramped up Islamophobic rhetoric led to an attack on a pregnant Montreal woman by two teens who ripped her hijab off her head and knocked her to the ground..
Y'all know what to do then if you don't like it. vote the Tory bastards out of power. .
Honorable mention number two is Rupert Murdoch for his jacked up 'real Black president comment.. Yeah, I already put him on blast for it.
Honorable mention number three is a group one for Cosmopolitanmagazine, for that jacked up 50th anniversary cover calling the Kardashians 'America's First Family'
Umm naw boo boo kitty, in case it slipped your minds, the last name of America's First Family since November 2008 is Obama and here's a photo of them.. They live at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave in Washington DC in that nice white house my ancestors built with their unpaid labor.
Honorable mention number four is Mike Huckabee, who has called for a boycott of all Frito-Lay snacks because they are 'anti-christian', but called the boycott of Chik Bigot Fil-A 'economic terrorism'.
Oookay Raven-Symone with a girlfriend named AzMarie. You seriously need an intensive weekend visit from the D.R.O.P. Squad.
.
Honorable mention number six is Ben Carson for a week'sworth ofstupidity. And yes peeps, he is now the front runner for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination.
This week's Shut Up Fool winner is Florida judge.Jerri Collins, who berated and sent to jail for three days on contempt of court charges back in July a domestic violence victim that failed to show in her courtroom to testify against her attacker because she was triggered by him.
Elections matter. What do you expect from a judge appointed by Jeb Bush? Bad news Seminole County, unless she is impeached, she's in that courtroom until 2021.
May karma be swift on this one, starting with this judge losing her Seminole County seat
Not every day that a comment you put out there on Twitter gets an audience besides your own followers and influence circles.
But that's what happened for me on Thursday when a comment I aimed at Rupert Murdoch and FOX noise for his 'real Black president' comment caught the attention of the Washington Post and was highlighted in a story they wrote about it.
Hey, just another day at the TransGriot office for me. I think my friends and longtime TransGriot were more excited about the attention it received in this Washington Post article than I was.
Yeah, let me stop fronting about that. It IS a BFD to me, too..
Here's the tweet that everyone has been paying attention to and thanks for the love..
Short week for the Texans after they got spanked in the ATL on Sunday. They now get their first AFC South game in NRG Stadium against the Indianapolis Colts.
Unlike my fave NFL team, I had another great week picking game after stumbling out of the gate once again on Thursday for the second straight week to win for the second straight week..
The folks in Detroit are probably cussing up a storm after getting screwed in their Monday night game at CenturyLink versus the Seahawks that we all were on the right side of picking thanks to that officials brain fart.
But I am now solidly in second place in this 2015 NFL prognostication contest, so let's get to NFL Week 5. Four teams on their bye week in the Panthers, Vikings, Dolphins and Jets, so only 14 games to select winners from.
And I need to cut into Mike's three game lead. Time to get started on that.
Week 4 Results 2015 Season Record
TransGriot 10-5 TransGriot 40-23
Mike 9-6 Mike 42-21
Eli 9-6 Eli 38-25
NFL Week 5 (Home Team In CAPS)
Thursday Night
Colts over TEXANS
Sunday Noon
Bills over TITANS
RAVENS over Browns
CHIEFS over Bears
Seahawks over BENGALS
PACKERS over Rams
BUCCANEERS over Jaguars
EAGLES over Saints
FALCONS over Washington
Sunday Afternoon
Cardinals over LIONS
Patriots over COWBOYS
Broncos over RAIDERS
Of all people, Rupert Murdoch decided to tweet a comment about GOP sellout Ben Carson and take a swipe at President Obama at the same time.
Let's just say the reaction to it from Black America was swift and negative, and Black Twitter hasn't come for his azz yet.
But first of all, who the phuck are you to even part your lips about anything related to the racial divide, when your FOX Noise propaganda network is majorly responsible for the amped up racial negativity in the United States?.
You also don't get to decide from your residence in Canberra who is 'Black enough' for us. Black Americans collectively do.
We have had a Black POTUS since 2008, despite your effort to ensure that historical milestone wouldn't happen.
While there are times that we have had contentious disagreements about how much President Obama has done for our community, Black America is exceedingly pleased and proud that he, the First Lady and their beautiful daughters live at that nice white mansion built by our ancestors at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Ben Carson on the other hand, has gone the other way. He went from being respected in Black America to being seen as a sad joke by the vast majority of us. It's insulting and laughable for you, Mr 1% to even say 'president' and 'Ben Carson' in the same sentence..
The only way Ben Carson will see the inside of the White House is either by taking the White House tour or if President Obama invites him for a visit.
But back to riffing on you for even daring to tweet that nonsense you did. Your network gleefully traffics in race baiting and anti-Black animus for ratings and GOP political advantage, so you, much less anyone at FOX Noise have ZERO credibility, especially since your ass lives in Australia, about race matters here in the United States
And if you seriously wish to contribute to lessening racial tensions in the United States, how about starting by pulling the plug on that electronic Klan rally you call a news network?
Clean up your own crap with Australia's indigenous population and then you might be able to have a somewhat credible conversation about it.
Until then, have several sections of seats at the MCG, a vegemite sandwich and shut the hell up.
There was interesting HERO news that happened yesterday.
First the bad news. The HERO haters got together at Second Baptist with 100 predominately white people on stage to have a press conference trying to convince Houstonians to vote against Prop 1.
And as usual they peddled the predator lie and tired to attack Mayor Annise Parker .
How ironic that this event happened at a anti-trans megachurch who had a youth minister sent to jail for 5 years for actually being a child predator.
Can you say 'hypocrites' people?
They need to stop projecting and look for the predators in their own GOP dominated ministerial ranks. These out of town GOP activists and their kneegrow sellouts also need to stop meddling in Houston human rights business.
Now for the good news. A recent Houston Area Realtors poll revealed that a majority of Houstonians favor keeping the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance and it's not even close.
Houstonians in that HAR poll favored HERO by a 51%-36% margin with 13% undecided. While that's good news, we can't relax until November 4.
What's November 4? The day after Election Day..
The other good news from that poll is that two of the 2015 mayoral candidates vying to succeed Mayor Annise Parker and who support HERO in Sylvester Turner and Adrian Garcia are tied for the lead in it.
The poll reflects the general perception of the race in that the front runners are Turner and Garcia with three other candidates close behind. The HERO haters like Ben Hall are at the bottom. .
African-Americans for Prop 1 just put out another meme aimed at the Black community pointing out why the HERO is needed and necessary in our city.
There was also an event held at the Houston Area Urban League headquarters October 6 which was a conversation about racial discrimination. 56% of the HERO complaints received by the OIG office between May 28, 2014 and September 2 were for once again, RACIAL discrimination, with 17% being gender discrimination.
It is presented by Texas Rising (of the Texas Freedom Network) and the Women's, Gender, & Sexuality Studies Student Group and will take place in the Bayou Room of the UH Student Center
The discussion will
focus on why local non-discrimination policies like HERO are so important and how we must include trans* people and people of color in
post-marriage campaigns to win comprehensive non-discrimination policies and to honor LGBT history that is often overlooked.
Additional discussion will center on how
we go about ensuring that the most vulnerable communities not only be at
the table, but be leading the tables moving forward as a movement.
Scheduled panelists for this discussion are: --Mike Webb (Legacy Community Health) --Jaimie Bockmon (UH Student and activist) --Melanie Pang, LMSW (Social worker and social justice activist) --Dee Dee Waters (Houston activist) .
Hope people can attend because it should be an interesting discussion.
Earlier today I had the opportunity to talk to my sis Raquel. Needed to get her perspective for a trans person from India considering attending the University of Georgia for her PhD studies about the campus climate as a recent UGA grad.
And besides, I'd had so much fun talking to her when I met her at a trans anti-violence conference in Chicago back in March So after we handled the business end of the call, we spent the next hour pleasantly catching up and discussing our current lives.
After I hung up with Raquel, I sat back and thought about the conversation I'd just had with her and wished I'd been able to do the same with my trans elders at the time when I was Raquel's age.
While there are a lot of things I love about being a teen growing up in the 70's, one of the things I lament and I'm happy about at the same time is the societal knowledge that we have about trans issues is light years different.
We also have the exponential growth in Trans World of possibility models that our trans teens, trans twenty somethings and trans thirty somethings can look up to and be proud of.
We are getting the opportunity to have much needed intergenerational conversations about a wide variety of subjects. We get to talk about things like our transitions in different decades, passing the community history down to each other and most importantly, get to build community.
And we trans elders learn just as much from those intergenerational conversations as our trans younglings do.
As a trans elder, I consider it an honor, privilege and a pleasure to share a portion of my day with our trans younglings. I also have the responsibility of being the person I needed and wished I'd had when I was younger and searching for knowledge of how to navigate being trans.
I suspect our trans younglings need us just as badly to be the trans people we needed when we were their age.
Being who I needed when I was younger is an ongoing and evolutionary process, but it's a process that I'm blessed to have the opportunity to do, revel in and accept the challenge of making happen .
And I hope I'm successful at accomplishing that task.
Been taking crap from a certain Mr. Watts for his Rangers (ugh) winning the AL West over my fave baseball team after they led for most of the 2015 season and into the AL Wild Card Playoff Game last night against the New York Skankees Yankees.
There was much trash talking over the last few days on my FB page by certain Yankee fans (Mia Macy) about how my boys were going down, et cetera.
This was the first Astros playoff game not only since they were forced to move by Bud Selig to the American League, but since they won the National League championship in 2005
Guess Mia and those loud and wrong Yankee fans forgot that the Astros won the season series against their club, their offense has gone south since late September, and they were facing our 20 game winning Cy Young Award candidate ace pitcher n Dallas Keuchel.
And oh yeah, the Astros hit 230 home runs, second in the majors this season.
I gleefully watched along with much of Houston Keuchel shut out the Yankees again for six innings as Colby Rasmus and Carlos Gomez slugged solo shots off MasahiroTanaka that propelled the precocious Astros to a 3-0 shutout win over the vaunted Yankees and into the ALDS against the defending AL champion Kansas City Royals
Beware KC fans thinking this will be an easy series. We won the regular season series against the Royals too
Today is the day 30 years ago that Dee Dee Watters showed up on this planet! I've had the pleasure of calling her a friend and collaborating with her on several human rights projects in the Houston area for the last several years.
And yeah, she's a lot of fun to be around when we are not handing a trans oppressor their behind or telling them where to go and what bus line to take to get there.
But anyway, that's a story for another time. I'm happy to see that Dee Dee is finally bginning to get the well deserved recognition for her work to make Houston, Texas and the world a better place for all of us.
Happy milestone birthday Dee Dee! May you be blessed to celebrate many more of them
22 year old Keisha Jenkins was ambushed and beaten by five to six males as she got out of a car in North Philadelphia at 13th and Wingohocking Streets early Tuesday morning at 2:30 AM EDT. One of the males then pulled out a gun and shot Jenkins twice in the back.
Jenkins was taken to Einstein Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead upon arrival. As of yet there has been no arrest in the case..
Nellie Fitzpatrick, Mayor Nutter's
LGBT community liaison, called Jenkins' death "a tremendous and
tragic loss for the entire city, our LGBT community, and, more
specifically, our trans community."
"This type of wicked, inhumane violence just has no place here," Fitzpatrick said. "We can't take anymore. It's just too much."
Jenkins is the 21st American trans woman killed in 2015, the 16th Black trans woman, the second killed in Philadelphia, and the 11th under age 40, and I'm beyond sick and tired of being sick and tired of reciting these stats.
When will our #BlackLivesMatter, Black community? When will #BlackTransLivesMatter? When will it NOT be okay to indiscriminately kill a Black trans woman?
And I'm tired along with everyone in Black Trans World of repeatedly asking those questions.
When I receive information about her homegoing services, I'll pass them along to you folks in the Philadelphia metro area who may wish to attend them and pay your respects.
Speaking of information, the Philadelphia PD needs it to help solve this case.
Anyone with any information on the killing is asked to call the PPD homicide unit at 215-686-3334 and 215-686-3335, or the department's anonymous tip line at 215-686-TIPS.
Stay tuned to these TransGriot pages for updated news about this latest trans sister who has been brutally taken away from us.
Happy Thanksgiving Day!
Monica Roberts
