The gay community has gone through post mortem after post mortem in terms of dissecting why the Prop 8 fight in Cal-ee-forn-ia was lost last year. But I doubt anyone thought about one simple change that will help immeasurably in this struggle.
Flying the American flag.
Since today is Flag Day, starting like yesterday, the TBLG community should make sure Old Glory is front and center at every protest, every march, and the backdrop at every press conference that's held from now until the next electoral showdown in 2010 and beyond.
One factor as to why the GLBT community continues to lose is that it hasn't forcefully made the unassailable case that we are AMERICANS who deserve and are demanding our constitutional rights.
And how do we do that? The easiest way to prove that we are is by flying the flag.
By continuing to fly only the rainbow flag we make it ridiculously easy for the right-wing Christohaters to paint us as un-American.
Making sure that American flags are front and center and prominently displayed is a major lesson of the African-American Civil Rights Movement.
The immigration movement made the same mistake early on, but after getting savaged by conservative haters about the lack of American flags quickly picked up on that error and swiftly corrected it.
An immigration protest now doesn't happen without American flags being prominently displayed and dispersed amongst the marchers and I fail to understand why the GLBT movement continues to make this fundamental mistake.
Yeah, I've heard the philosophical reasoning that some of you sent my way when I wrote about this topic last year. I know some of you have issues with the American flag. But if you want your rights, better get over those issues with the quickness and bury them
It's time to realize that only flying the rainbow flag not only isn't going to cut it, it's past time to try old school tactics for the new millennium.
Face the facts that no American civil rights movement agitating for the constitutional rights of a minority group has been successful or done so without consistently flying and prominently displaying the American flag at its myriad events.
And gay people aren't any different as far as the powers that be are concerned. We are seen as the 'other' unworthy of rights. Mike Huckabee's November 2008 comments on The View that 'the gay community hasn't suffered enough' for their rights should have clued y'all in to that jacked up line of conservathinking.
So it is incumbent upon the GLBT community to prove the haters wrong and establish we are red-blooded Americans.
What the Stars and Stripes represents at its fundamental level is our country. It is not a bought and paid for symbol of the Republican Party or the conservative movement, who by the way NEVER fail to fly it at their events.
Failing to fly it makes the rights case a non starter with persuadable people who do believe in mom, apple pie, fairness, the American Dream and tear up when they hear the Star Spangled Banner.
And if you won't do it for yourselves, do it for the TBLG veterans who served and the GLBT service members who died defending it on foreign soil so you can use it.
This may come as a surprise that you're seeing this open letter from me, one of the more vehement critics of HRC and your new boss, but congratulations on your new senior legislative policy adviser job starting January 9 in Representative Barney Frank's (D-MA) office.
Contrary to what many peeps may surmise, I have been observing and admiring your historic rise through the Democratic Party hierarchy. Know that I'm extremely proud of you and I'm confident that you'll be an excellent role model as well. The fact that you're doing it as an out and proud Latino transman makes your historic climb even more remarkable and noteworthy.
We may have been on opposite sides on a few issues in the transgender community, but I presume we're on the same page when it comes to seeing that all transgender people attain full citizenship rights.
I know you're the second out transperson hired as a senior staffer after Susan Kimberly in Sen. Norm Coleman's (R-MN) office, but you're the first transperson of color to earn that distinction and I presume the first out transperson to be hired as a senior staffer in the House of Representatives.
Diego, you are someone the entire community can point to with pride and say, transteens, here is an example of what is possible if you bust your butts to get that education and dare to dream big dreams. This is a message that transpeople of color need to see and hear as well, in addition to seeing transpeople like you in positions of power and authority.
I hope your hiring also empowers other transgender staffers that are rumored to be employed in various offices on The Hill to feel comfortable enough to come out.
But my joy over your hiring is tempered by who did it. I hope and pray it signals a profound change in Chairman Frank's thinking about transgender inclusion in ENDA, but I long ago subscribed to deeds, not words when it comes to people whose past exclusionary deeds outstripped their flowery rhetoric.
I hope your hiring signals, like Barack Obama's election to the presidency, that historic change has actually come to the office of the representative from Massachusetts on transgender issues, but only time and the progression of legislation authored by Chairman Frank through the 110th Congress will tell in that regard.
Once again, congratulations on the new position and achieving a historic milestone, and I hope I'm blessed with the opportunity to personally congratulate you the next time I'm in Washington DC.
Sincerely yours, Monica Roberts 2006 IFGE Trinity Award Winner
One week to go. Seven days. I'm climbing the walls waiting to cast my ballot in this historic election. And I'm wishing I could cast my ballot right now.
If you are in a state that allows early voting, please do so.
Be alert for the GOP trickery that will be deployed on Election Day.
TransGriot Note: This is one of my latest posts from the Bilerico Project.
The Montgomery County trans law finally being implemented is wonderful news to all of us working toward and looking forward to the day that all transgender people, no matter where we reside have civil rights coverage. Congratulations to all of you in Maryland who worked your butts off to make it happen.
Now that this battle is won, our friends in Hamtramck, MI, and Gainesville, FL, need our help to fight off the Forces of Intolerance. But before we gird our loins for the next fight, we need to analyze what went right, what went wrong, make the necessary corrections and pass that hard won intelligence to our friends now on the front lines of this next civil rights battlefront.
What we also need to do in the GLBT community is come up with a coordinated strategy for beating back these right-wing attempts to roll back our civil rights, and I'm about to tell you how we do that.
So as we say in football country, the best defense is a good offense.
While I'm not gonna give all my ideas away in this post, since our enemies do read The Project, I will offer some general thoughts on what we proactively have to do to send these referendums to crushing defeat.
1- Get the public to focus on the fact that our opponents want them to take away people's civil rights.
The Forces of Intolerance know that there's irrefutable evidence that transgender people need civil rights protection and public sentiment turning in our direction. They can't throw that "special rights" shade as often as they used to because it's as played out as an 8 track tape. They only have fear to use, and thanks to Barney, their fear-mongering weapon du jour is the "showers and bathroom" argument.
Reasonable people do not want to be put in a position where they are taking away someone's rights. We have to constantly remind them that's precisely what our opponents are asking them to do. The Californians did that brilliantly by changing the title of Proposition 8 to make it clear voting for it would take away people rights.
2-Rewrite their referenda
One of the things the Reichers do well is when they put together these recall referendums, they use deceptive Orwellian language to do so. Ward Connerly's anti-affirmative action ones are prime examples of it. They claim to be protecting affirmative action programs and are confusingly worded or titled. They're designed to deceive you into thinking a yes vote means you're protecting the programs when in fact you are actually voting to eliminate them.
The way we beat Connerly in Houston was force changes in his ballot initiative language to a straightforward yes or no question. It was what I was suggesting the Maryland peeps do as a fallback position if they'd lost the court battle.
3-Make them look like the mean spirited, intolerant jerks they are.
While you're debunking and utterly destroying their arguments, you also want to use humor as a weapon to make them look like the buffoonish, bigoted, mean spirited jerks they are. Think the "Righteous Flock" from the Porky's 2 movie.
Fundies hate to be made fun of, and if you tweak them enough, you can knock them off their game to where they'll make a mistake you can pounce on. Fortunately that isn't hard, because most of the time they'll shoot themselves in the foot. But if they don't, you'll have to do the smart legwork and bury their arguments in an avalanche of facts that will make them overreact.
4- Propose our own ballot initiatives.
Nothing's stopping us from proposing our own ballot initiatives. The initiative process works both ways, people. Let's force them to react and burn up money trying to kill one of our initiatives for a change and bring our progressive voters to the polls at the same time.
These are just four suggestions that I hope will get us to start thinking offensively on these issues instead of defensively. We have the moral high ground on this issue of transgender civil rights, they don't. The public is on our side. 110 plus jurisdictions have transgender rights protections.
So lets go out there and win a few for the civil rights team!
Over at The Bilerico Project, Nadine Smith posted this story about a Florida state legislator and minister who thinks 'the law is supposed to discriminate sometimes'.
The constitutionally challenged idiot who said this, Rev. Darryl Rouson, I'm sorry to say shares my ethnic heritage. What's even more shocking and disgusting is that he's a Florida state legislator.
Okay, so a man who is entrusted with the sacred responsibility to make law in the state of Florida feels the law should discriminate. It is unacceptable and morally reprehensible that in light of our own tortured civil rights history in this country, when we are only 150 years removed from slavery and only 40 years removed from the end of a long and bloody fight against Jim Crow segregation that an African-American, much less an African-American legislator would even part his lips to say that.
Dr, King and everybody who put their lives on the line to end Jim Crow segregation is probably rolling over in their graves right now over that beyond asinine statement.
But Rev. Rouson's comment speaks to one of the things that I have been majorly perturbed with over the last decade. African-American ministers being facilitators for and agents of oppression instead of fulfilling the historic duty and mission of the Black church to speak truth to power and fight for the oppressed.
It has irritated me to no end the ignorance that has been displayed in some quarters of the African-American community not only of our history, but it escaping some people as Dr. King so eloquently stated, that we are in an inescapable network of mutuality.
That means what hurts the African-American community hurts me as well and what affects me as a transperson of African descent does affect the greater African-American community.
I've always been blessed with the ability to look at an issue and see the big picture, or what peeps in the political world call 'vision'. Barack Obama is a politician that has that ability, but that's a subject for a future post.
One of the things that alarmed me when I first started paying attention to the Religious Reich back in the late 80's-early 90's was their absolute hatred of the 60's Civil Rights Movement. the separation of church and state doctrine, and the Constitution. They wanted a theocracy, and the only way to accomplish it was trash the constitution. They also remember from their readings of history that Germans voted Hitler into power and the old quote that when fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross.
So like the Cylons, they had a multi faceted plan to do so.
They needed an enemy to focus on, and since 'godless communism' wasn't available, it got replaced by 'The Gay Agenda'. They wanted you to believe that if we didn't start oppressing gay people, our country would collapse. Knowing that most fair minded Americans wouldn't drink that Kool-Aid, they 'scurred' and duped many of you into believing that BS.
People see a videotape of a person getting roughly handled by the police during a protest and think they 'deserve it'. A person gets beat down in a police station and people shrug their shoulders because it was a transgender person taking the blows and not one of 'their' people.
In order to get people comfortable with the idea of voting to limit people's civil rights or eliminate them altogether, out come the ballot initiatives from 'concerned citizens'. There are constitutional amendments proposed with Orwellian language that state they're designed to 'protect marriage' or 'strengthen the family' but in reality they strip away not only GLBT people's rights , but the rights of straight people as well.
The sad part is that many of the folks now complaining about this didn't have any problem doing so on election day because they thought 'their' rights weren't on the chopping block. Some of them blindly followed what their pastor said in his homophobic sermon preached from his pulpit on Sunday after getting his faith-based bribe money. That sermon concluded with the admonition that voting for the latest 'Hate The Gays' constitutional Amendment or voting to repeal civil rights for GLBT people is not only your way to prove you're a God-fearing Christian, but a good American as well.
The problem with that attitude and the faith-based ignorance that feeds into this is that once civil rights are lost, it's difficult to get them back. These amendments are also being designed to have an impossibly high threshold to repeal them as well as being designed with deceptive wording when they are first proposed.
Back in the early 20th century, before the high-tech methane gas detectors were created, miners used to take a live canary into the mine and hang them in the areas where they worked. If that canary started showing visible effects, like swaying on its perch before dying, then the miners knew that the methane concentration in that area of the mine had built up to dangerous levels and they had to get out immediately.
To borrow an analogy Dr. Enoch Paige used in his speech to the Transgender Pride March back in June, we GLBT people are the canaries in the civil rights coal mine. The health of our civil rights determines the health of civil rights in our democracy in general, and right now we are swaying from the efforts of a decade of poisonous attacks on them.
We and our rights aren't dead yet, but there are plenty of warning signs the Reichers are coming after us, aided and abetted by cowardly constitutonally-challenged legislators such as Rev. Rouson and sometimes by our own allies.
We beat back an attempt here in Louisville in 2004 and won big when our Fairness Ordinance had to be reauthorized in the wake of the city-county merger. Our brothers and sisters in Montgomery County, Maryland are fighting to keep a transgender civil rights law that passed last year on a 9-0 vote. The Forces of Intolerance are using the bathroom issue as a wedge issue and trying various deceptive and deceitful tactics they will use to fight transgender rights laws elsewhere if they are successful in repealing this one.
This is a coordinated strategy that our enemies are using, and it will take a coordinated response from all sectors of it to beat it back.
It's also a fight we must win, or like the coal mine canaries, our civil rights will painfully expire right before our eyes. And to my fellow non-GLBT African-Americans, guess whose civil rights are next on the right-wing chopping block after they're done jacking with the GLBT community?
So we need y'all to step up to the plate and help some brothers and sisters out. The civil rights you save may be your own.
Yesterday Polar and I decided we wanted to grab a bite to eat. We were in the mood for pizza, and since both of us were off from work we decided to go run out and get some.
In Indianapolis.
Actually, the reason we bypassed our favorite pizza place in Louisville (Impellizzeri's) and drove 100 miles for it was not just because we had the 'we need a road trip' itch that needed scratching,
It was an opportunity that popped up to meet newlyweds Waymon and Anthony, see Marti again (I haven't seen her in the flesh since the NTAC Lobby Day in DC last year) and congratulate her personally for being elected as a transgender delegate repping Indiana for the upcoming Democratic National Convention in Denver.
I'd also finally get the opportunity to fulfill my promise for a face-to-face meeting with Bil.
After Polar scooped me up at the house and we battled our way through the late afternoon rush hour traffic trying to get across the Kennedy Bridge to the Indiana side of the Ohio River, we stopped in Sellersburg to get gas.
It's cheaper there than it is here in Louisville, a fact that we in Da Ville gripe about every day. There's an investigation under way by Kentucky's state attorney general Jack Conway as to why we in Da Ville are paying far more for reformulated gas than our neighboring cities Indianapolis, Nashville and Cincinatti.
After Polar filled the tank, off we rolled northward up I-65 at a 70 mile per hour clip to our dinner rendezvous. I-65 is a major truck route and we noted the fact that like us, the truckers had pretty much slowed it down to doing speed limits these days and not because the Indiana State Police were busy patrolling the road in both directions.
We were enjoying life on the road again. Enjoying the scenery and seeing the corn grow at various heights as we passed numerous farms and outlet malls. We recounted past roadtrips as the numbers on the green mile markers on the side of the road steadily climbed up and the highway mileage between us and Indianapolis went down. It wasn't long before we reached I-465, the beltway interstate that loops Indy and headed east on it to the Washington Ave exit and our final stop at a pizza place in Irvington.
As we rode I-465 I noticed a gas price of $3.98 as we talked about the efforts of David Letterman fans back in 2002 to name the entire 60 mile I-465 loop for him. I knew from previous trips that I-65 through Indy was named for singer and Indianapolis native Kenneth 'Babyface' Edmonds and wondered if they were going to name a freeway for another Indy native, Vivica A. Fox. (I love me some Vivica A. Fox)
Polar pointed out the western end of I-465 that runs past the airport and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is named for four time Indy champ (and a fellow Houstonian) AJ Foyt, Jr.
We finally arrived at the pizza place in picturesque Irvington and ran into Marti, who arrived at the same time we did. After we all greeted each other, we were escorted by one of the enthusiastic young servers to the patio area where Bil and the happy couple were waiting for us.
Unfortunately, Jerame wasn't there, but we did spend a wonderful few hours talking shop, plotting the next moves of 'The Gay Agenda', getting to know each other on a personal level, Waymon and I telling a few stories from our airline days, Marti and I talking about some transgender issues, and catching up on the latest political news while Polar broke out his political science degree to pontificate on it.
We also got a good laugh about the latest tired twist to the 'TBP is too Black' spin. The whispers on the GLBT Net now is that the Project is a 'Black gay website'.
All power to GLBT Black people (raising clenched fist in air). Hmm, wish I'd worn my black polo shirt and black beret for the photos now that I've heard that nonsense.
And how was the pizza?
It was great, and so were the people I was eating it with.
As many of you regular TransGriot readers know I was looking at the prospect in a few months of taking two Denver trips. One was going to be for the TRANScending Gender Conference at the University of Colorado-Boulder in October.
The August Denver trip was in the hands of the DNC. The Bilerico Project, the blog in which I'm a contributing writer was a finalist for the credentialed blogging spots at the upcoming Democratic Convention in Denver. I'd already arranged a place to stay and was prepared to use vacation time so that I could be there for what undoubtedly is going to be a historic convention.
But unfortunately, we got the word last night from the DNC that The Bilerico Project wasn't on the final list for credentialed blogs. While I'm disappointed for Bil that we didn't get it, I'm happy for fellow contributor Pam Spaulding. Her Pam's House Blend not only will be there, it's one of only two GLBT oriented blogs to get credentials for the upcoming convention.
What's bugging me, though is the same thing that's bugging Bil. The other blog that got an LGBT slot, Towleroad, while it is a quality blog that I peruse from time to time, doesn't even do politics on a regular basis like the Project does, much less tackle the prickly subjects head on such as race in the GLBT community or go in depth on transgender issues.
It's also overwhelmingly monoracial. Towleroad's readership is moneyed white gay male and their focus reflects that demographic. (translation-the peeps most likely to donate money to the party.) So like Bil, I have to wonder how much politics factored into the selection process and I'm a little disappointed I won't be there.
Fortunately Pam's blog not only does politics, it does it quite well. It's one I frequently read, and I've posted comments and diaries there from time to time. It's a diverse place to boot just like Bilerico and will serve the GLBT community well.
I have much love and respect for Pam. She's a role model to me. She was one of the first bloggers to give me a boost by allowing me to link to her blog when I started TransGriot in 2006 (Jasmyne Cannick was the other) and she's cool people to boot. I'm also happy that other African-American and minority bloggers will be there to record history as well.
But it looks like my return to Denver after two decades will be delayed now until October.
TransGriot note: It's nice to hear from people who not only appreciate your writing (a gentle hint for you TransGriot readers to leave comments from time to time), they take the time out of their busy schedules to tell you.
I deeply appreciate that. It's also a wake-up call as to just how much of a role model and inspiration others consider me, even if I don't feel like I am most days.
Fredrikka Maxwell, who's a TransGriot guest poster from time to time sent me this e-mail. Someone on the Dignity list (for GLBT Catholics) she's on sent her a link to my Destruction of the Black Transwoman Image post I wrote a few days ago that I crossposted to the Bilerico Project as well. It also underscores the point I was making that I'm not the only African-American transwoman who's beyond sick and tired of being saddled with the 'all Black transwomen are hookers' stereotype.
***
Marvin, Monica Roberts is someone I have met, have high regard for, and count among my friends.
She has a clear insight into the black community and knows firsthand what it's like to be black and trans. And she's one of those women who have come through that drama and trauma and still holds her head high and walks tall like the regal daughter of kings of the Motherland.
Monica founded a thriving Yahoo list for black trans people, their friends, families, and allies, called Transsistahs-Transbrothas. And when she first thought of starting her list, then called Transsistahs, I was one of the charter members.
Monica is on target with her post. There is, among the mainstream media, the perception that all black transwomen are sex workers. Now I don't deny that some black transwomen may have taken to prostitution. It's not something I've ever encouraged. Here's my take on that.
I know from bitter firsthand experience that a lot of trans people are currently under or flat out unemployed. When you go to hunt for employment on the web, for example, you will usually find on most applications, a space for or a question about whether you've worked under another name. In a perfect world it would be OK to say yes to that. Bu in the real world that can out you and cause you to lose the job you thought you were going to be hired for.
Does the name Peter Oiler mean anything to you? Oiler was a truck driver for the Winn-Dixie grocery chain. They found out somehow that, away from work he was a cross dresser and fired him. He sued. He lost. The court seemed to think it was OK for the company to fire him even if the wasn't doing anything gender variant on company time. Now Oiler wasn't black. He was like mos of you, a white dude.
My reason for bringing him up is that black trans people have gone through that.
Does the name Susan Stanton mean anything to you? Just a person who worked for her city for 14 distinguished years only to get fired because it was learned she was beginning to transition.
There are thousands of black trans people who have gone though that. And what do some of them do since they can't find jobs anywhere? Some take to the streets in more ways than one. Some actually LIVE on the damn street.
And even if you have a decent job, your health insurance may have a specific exclusion for anything related to Gender Reassignment Surgery. That means hormones, or Facial Feminization Surgery, or finding a qualified gender therapist. And your therapists and endocrinologists, electrologist, and your surgeons all have one thing in common. THEY ALL WANT YOUR FREAKING MONEY.
So I'm not going to pass judgment on those who take to the streets. I just say a prayer of thanksgiving and realize that, there, but for the grace of God go I.
But I'm not now, never have, and never will encourage anyone to hit the streets. But I'm telling you that I understand how some people can feel like that's an option.
But, having said that, ALL BLACK TRANSWOMEN ARE NOT WHORES. Thank you. That's the truth from somebody who knows transwomen who run call centers, who are classical musicians, who are nurses, police officers, writers, and motivational speakers and even a minister or two. And that's just the transWOMEN, who include regal souls like my friend Monica Roberts.
I still have a few minutes left in another Cuatro De Mayo celebration, AKA my birthday. As usual its been an interesting weekend.
I was born during the Kennedy Administration at 10:45 PM CDT on this day in H-town's Third Ward. At this point in my life I look at every birthday I reach as the blessing that it is, especially when you factor in that it took me awhile to evolve (and I'm STILL evolving) into the person I am today.
One of the neat things about living in Da Ville is that my birthday falls either just before, on or just after Derby Day. The two week period leading up to the Kentucky Derby is a smorgasbord of events, parties and festivals all leading up to the Derby and Kentucky Oaks. The Oaks is held the day before at Churchill Downs and the races that day including the Oaks have fillies running in them.
When I first moved up here in 2001, my big 4-0 birthday actually fell during Derby 128 in 2002. I still have memorabilia stashed from that one..
Of course, the GLBT community gets in on the fun as well. One of the parties I attended last night was sponsored by our local GLBT civil rights organization, the Fairness Campaign. It's a fundraiser for Fairness and an opportunity for our community to show some love to all the local, state and national political peeps and others who support us. It's also a chance for GLBT friendly celebs who are attending other Derby events around town to interface with their local GLBT fans. And hey, i get to dress up for it as well.
But that party made for a short night. I'd already agreed to roll up to Columbus this morning with Dawn to catch another fencing tournament with her, and we shoved off bright and early up I-71 north at 10 AM EDT to do so. A few hours later we were in Columbus, but not after a little Mapquest drama.
For those of you who Mapquest trips, you're probably aware of the quirks that sometimes pop up that have you taking counterintuitive routes to your destination point. Nine times out of ten it's on target, but every now and then you get one of those head scratching routings
Well, our target destination was a high school in Dublin, OH where the Great Lakes Regional Tournament was being held. We should have been routed off I-71 WESTWARD onto I-270. Instead, it gave us directions a few minutes into it I realized had us going EASTWARD away from Dublin. I ended up catching I-70 west, cutting through downtown Columbus and intersecting I-270 a few moments later and getting Dawn there 35 minutes before check in time at 3 PM EDT.
Well, despite that glitch, I did enjoy the tournament, have a pleasant trip up and back on a beautiful spring day through the Kentucky and Ohio countryside while blasting Janet Jackson's new CD and a host of old school R&B favorites on my system.
I also had the opportunity at various moments during that drive to reflect on some of the blessings I've received this year. Being invited to become a contributing writer to the Project. Speaking at the upcoming inaugural New England Transgender Pride March on June 7. Having people in my life who love and care about me in addition to the calls, e-mails, e-cards and well wishes I received from people who consider me an important part of their lives. I deeply appreciate all the love you've showered on me today.
When I blew out the candles on the cake, one of the things I wished for will hopefully take place on May 20, November 4 and January 20, 2009.
So yeah, today was a good day. And I hope to be blessed with another similar one like it or better 365 days from now.
When I talk about 'tipping', I'm not talking about trying to figure out how much cash you give your server after you chow down at your local restaurant.
In the real estate world, 'tipping' refers to the point of no return in which 'white flight' is triggered from a neighborhood because of the perception that it's 'too Black' or 'too ethnic'
What is that point? According to some studies, white flight from some neighborhoods can be triggered if just 8% of the homes are bought by Black owners. Translation, in a 100 home subdivision, if just eight African-American families move in, the mass exodus begins. Other studies say if the percentage of white residents dips below 50%, 'white flight' begins.
I believe it's the 8% figure, and I remember a vivid example of it.
My friend Leighton Lindsey and his family moved from my neighborhood to their Hiram Clarke area neighborhood in 1976. That area and their block was majority white at the time and their new home was just two blocks up the street from Madison High School in southwest Houston.
Two months later when they got settled into their new home, my brother and I were invited to spend the weekend with him and his brother Todd. I noted when we got dropped off at his house that not only did the next door neighbors have a 'For Sale' sign on their home, but four other houses on that same block had them as well.
I'm bringing up this childhood memory in the wake of the comments of a Projector on Bilerico where I'm a contributing writer. This person complained that Bilerico was becoming 'too black', a comment in which I and Bil Browningwent off on.
I'm also seeing and hearing the same whispers on other GLBT oriented lists that I peruse that Bilerico is 'too Black' or 'too transgender'. Is that your code word or whatever the frack excuse you're using for not only not wanting to read the posts of people that don't look like you, but don't want to engage in the frank discussions we have on various issues on the Project?
If that's your opinion, you're entitled to it. But basing those comments on a small portion of the generated comment of the Project being authored by African-American GLBT people is bigoted and asinine.
As I have repeatedly stated, I see things through an African-American prism. The way I look at and analyze issues does not always neatly line up with a predominately white GLBT community's views. There are some issues I will agree with you with on that put me at odds with the African-American community. There are others that I'll have a radically different point of view on that will have me standing in solidarity with my people.
When I'm commenting on issues, it's primarily based on what's right and wrong along with the moral and ethical implications. I'm also blunt about tellin' it like it T-I-S is as the late Jack 'The Rapper' Gibson would say.
So if you can't handle what I have to say and try to dismiss it as a 'transgender conspiracy theory' or 'rubbing my blackness in your face', you do so at your own intellectual peril.
I'm a huge fan of the syndicated Tom Joyner Morning Show and listen to it every day. Its combination of news, interviews, humor and insightful commentary from such peeps as Tavis Smiley, Michael Eric Dyson, and 'the Revs' routinely draws an audience of 11 million predominately African-American listeners.
IIf there's anyone who has their finger on the pulse of Black America, it's Tom Joyner.
During yesterday's show he conducted a For Real For Real poll that has me extremely nervous about the 2008 election should Hillary somehow get the nomination.
According to this poll, 54 percent said they'd vote for Clinton if Barack is not the candidate. But a whopping 35 percent said they won't vote at all if Obama isn't in the race.
There are a few things you Hillary fans aren't seeing. Sen. Obama's campaign is bringing in large numbers of people who are either new voters or people haven't been engaged in the political process for a long time. It is also tapping into a shared dream that African-Americans have held since emancipation, seeing one of our own taking the oath of office as president.
It took a while for us to get emotionally invested since we've been down this road twice with Jesse Jackson, Sr. in 1984 and 1988. But this time we have a candidate who may actually make this dream a reality. We're beginning to have the audacity of hope that we may see him on January 20, 2009 standing on the capitol steps taking the oath of office while his lovely wife Michelle holds the Bible.
Now that we can conceive the dream and are tantalizingly close to seeing him secure the nomination, the continued negative race-baiting attacks by the Clinton camp is only suceeding in pissing off a constituency without which no Democratic candidate can win in November.
For me and many African-Americans sitting out the election or voting for John McCain is not an option. Hillary Clinton can't overtake Obama delegate wise even if she swept the remaining contests. That ain't happening because North Carolina is one of those remaining primary states with a significant African-American population that hasn't weighed in yet (By the way Hillary fans, Barack has a nine point lead in North Carolina) and because of proportional allocation rules, he'll continue to accumulate delegates..
But that 35% number scares me. I hope those peeps will take the time to think about the big picture and realize that we and the country cannot afford a McCain presidency.
But the point I'm making is that Democrats cannot afford to piss off your most loyal constituency and expect to win. Barack leads in the delegate count, has won double the amount of states, and him being on the ballot in the fall will continue to bring record numbers of new voters into the mix.
If Hillary pulls this out by using the superdelegates, and that's the only way she can remotely get the nomination at this point, it will be perceived in Black American circles as 'she stole the nomination' and the sitzkrieg will commence. Hillary will not get the historic turnout of African-American voters that Barack Obama's presence on the November ballot would generate. She would also have a frosty reception in terms of getting many of us motivated to come to the polls and support her.
So yeah, while I'm happy I get a chance to vote on May 20 for my candidate, I'm still going to be anxious until Barack finally closes out this nomination.
HRC and its defenders has been on a furious spin offensive in the last several weeks.
They've been trying to paint its numerous critics like myself as 'transgender conspiracy theorists' and other nastier epithets in other corners of the GLBT blogosphere I won't waste bandwith repeating.
For the white transgender community, the dwindling ranks of HRC supporters have been trotting out the new jack spin line of that tired 'horizontal hostility' crap they used to peddle that states we HRC critics are trying to 'tear down HRC'.
Au contraire my HRC Kool-aid drinking friends.
As an African-American who is considered a major transgender leader and has the Trinity to prove it, I see this contentious debate as healthy and normal. I also subscribe to the African-American definition of leadership as set forth by Dr Ron Walters.
The task of Black leadership is to provide the vision, resources, tactics, and strategies that facilitate the achievement of the objectives of Black people.
These objectives have been variously described as freedom, integration, equality, liberation, or defined in the terms of specific public policies. It is a role that often requires disturbing the peace. And we constantly carry on a dialogue about the fitness of various leaders and the qualities they bring to the table to fulfill this mission.
The bottom line is that I not only subscribe to this definition of leadership and try to practice it, it is also one of the litmus tests I use to judge whether an organization is doing what it's supposed to do.
The flack that HRC is catching from me and other transgender leaders is because HRC for a decade has not lived up to their claim as being the leaders of the GLBT community. Their actions have been deceptive, dismissive and disrespectful of my community. They have continued to act in a manner devoid of moral authority and made decisions that are harmful to the transgender community. Their relentless pursuit of money over passing inclusive legislation that benefits all of us has caused major chasms in the GLBT community. What's even more infuriating about it, they are arrogantly unrepentant and alarmingly clueless about it.
Their arrogance in repeating the Republican strategy in regards to African-Americans of trying to create 'acceptable to HRC' transgender leaders, demanding that we only have one organization to negotiate with them, and ignoring the leaders that we have chose is also galling as well.
As an African-American, I have multiple organizations that speak on my behalf. So does the gay and lesbian community. Why would you egotistically demand of the transgender community something that you don't follow yourselves?
You have left us and our supporters no choice but to picket your dinners until some attitudes change at 1640 Rhode Island Ave, NW. We're human beings beyond sick and tired of being treated like bargaining chips in some game of congressional poker. We need legislative protection like yesterday, and if you are the 'leading civil rights organization' that your relentless PR claims it is, show some leadership by passing am inclusive ENDA that's a win-win situation for the entire community, not just wealthy straight-acting Caucasian gay men and women.
Nelson Mandela eloquently stated, 'no true alliance can be built on the shifting sands of evasion. illusions and opportunism.'
That quote describes the decades long history between HRC and the transgender community and the drama that goes back to Stonewall between the GLB and transgender communities. The choice is yours. It's either building a working partnership based on respect that treats us as equals, bust your asses to pass an inclusive ENDA in 2009 while beginning an honest dialogue with your harshest critics, or continue to face a long, hot no justice, no peace spring, summer and fall of protest at every event that has an equal sign attached to it.
As I noted in a TransGriot blog post, it's my Houston homeboys' and homegirls' turn to protest an HRC dinner.
The HRC Dinner is being held at the convention center hotel across the street from the George R. Brown Convention Center on April 12. The protest is being coordinated by the distinguished stateswoman of the Houston transgender community Phyllis Frye and veteran leaders Vanessa Edwards Foster and Josephine Tittsworth.
But it seems as though HRC has a problem with the Houston transgender community exercising their First Amendment rights. The National HRC office called the Houston Police Department in an attempt to shut down the protest.
Phyllis just concluded a meeting with the HPD, and this is a just released statement courtesy of Phyllis' Phyllabuster e-mail newsletter:
It seems that in response to my national Phyllabuster about our protest, ...... GET THIS ...... the National HRC called the Houston Police.
HPD and I had a very nice meeting. I do not foresee any problems. HPD was so courteous that I was given a "Demonstration Guide" that they published in 2003 to assist citizens in expressing their 1st Amendment rights will not violating any laws. I told HPD that I would scan it and attach to my list. It is attached herein as good general information.
During the chat with HPD, I was also informed that HRC has also instructed the hotel security to ask us to leave if we attempt to pass out any written information or ask folks to wear our stickers.
I always thought that HRC was big on education and discussion.
Well, we will be there (read reposting below). and we will be peaceful, and we will be within the law, and we will be protected by HPD, and we will attempt to hand out our lapel stickers.
Yeah, the Homosexual Rights Corporation is a friend of the transgender community. If you still believe that fairy tale, I have some waterfront property along I-10 in the Atchafalaya Swamp between Breaux Bridge and Baton Rouge I'd like to sell you.
The series of HRC dinner protests initiated by the transgender community not long after our ENDA betrayal in October 2007 has been conservatively estimated to have cost HRC $1 million dollars in lost donation revenue.
So I understand why they wanted to sic HPD on the trannies. That rent is expensive on that headquarters building in DC, isn't it?
So if you're in or are reasonably close to the Houston area and want to make your voice heard, the H-town transgender community would love to have you there. The fun will start at around 4:30 CDT. Just head to the corner of Polk Street and Avenida de las Americas. You'll see Phyllis', Vanessa's and Josephine's smiling faces there.
RuPaul was admittted to a New York psychiatric hospital after being found on a Manhattan street corner repeatedly singing James Brown's "Say It Loud (I'm Black and I'm Proud)", wearing an Afro wig, black leather with a black beret and claiming he'd been 'drop squaded.'
'Drop squaded' refers to a 1994 Spike Lee movie in which sellout African-Americans are kidnapped, taken to a secret location and through various methods are reminded of their ethnicity, history and coached to have pride in themselves.
They were only thought to be a fictional group, but with the recent comments of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the rumors of the real time existence of the Drop Squad have only gone stronger.
A videotaped message left at a New York television station confirmed the group exists and claimed responsibility for the RuPaul and Condoleezza Rice 'reprogrammings'. They also warned other 'sellout' African-Americans that they would face the same fate.
RuPaul has earned the ire of GLBT African-Americans over the years with his lonely and unwavering support for Chuck Knipp. Knipp's Shirley Q. Liquor character is considered insulting by many GLBT people of color and RuPaul has lost credibility in the African-American community for supporting him. Knipp released a statement on his website that expressed his hopes for a speedy recovery for RuPaul.
The security was increased around Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in response to the Drop Squad's threat and copies of the tape were forwarded to the FBI and Homeland Security.
The interesting thing about Negro conservatives is that every now and then, when an issue comes up that Black America is commenting on that is strongly at variance with prevailing conservative opinion or spin, every now and then they shock us by being down with the rest of us. They'll occasionally make comments that leave us wondering if they took a look in the mirror that morning.
Such a moment happened last Thursday when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who has never been a favorite of mine (I have more respect and love for her cousin Constance Rice) was asked about the Rev. Wright controversy during a wide ranging March 28 Washington Times interview.
Believe it or not Condi had this to say to the editors of the conservative Washington Times:
"The United States still has trouble dealing with race because of a national "birth defect" that denied black Americans the opportunities given to whites at the country's very founding."
"Black Americans were a founding population. Africans and Europeans came here and founded this country together — Europeans by choice and Africans in chains. That's not a very pretty reality of our founding."
"As a result, descendants of slaves did not get much of a head start, and I think you continue to see some of the effects of that."
"That particular birth defect makes it hard for us to confront it, hard for us to talk about it, and hard for us to realize that it has continuing relevance for who we are today."
Rice continued on to say that "America doesn't have an easy time dealing with race, and added that members of her family have "endured terrible humiliations."
"What I would like understood as a black American is that black Americans loved and had faith in this country even when this country didn't love and have faith in them —and that's our legacy," she said. Well, well, well. Did she finally remember that she was born in Bomingham, oops Birmingham, AL and lost a classmate in the Klan orchestrated 16th Street Baptist Church bombing?
Whatever prompted her to make these comments, for once I'll have to give her some credit for honestly saying what's so freaking obvious: Rev. Wright spoke the truth about America's race problems.
It's interesting to note, however that the hysterical foaming mouth high-tech witch hunt that has continued to dog Rev. Wright has not darkened Condi's door (pardon the pun) except in Freeperland. The Freepers are in full throated racist rant mode and have turned on her like rabid dogs. I also note that the media has been strangely silent about this save for CNN discussing these comments on Friday's The Situation Room.
As I have said ad nauseum over the years, the color line predates the founding of this country and infects everything and every aspect of our society. Until we forcefully deal with it, America's original sin of slavery and racims will continue to rear its ugly head.
Hey TransGriot readers, I finally published my first two posts today as a contributor for The Bilerico Project. Hope you'll check them out when you have the opportunity to do so and let me know what you think.
The gay community has gone through post mortem after post mortem in terms of dissecting why the Prop 8 fight in Cal-ee-forn-ia was lost last year. But I doubt anyone thought about one simple change that will help immeasurably in this struggle.
Since today is Flag Day, starting like yesterday, the TBLG community should make sure Old Glory is front and center at every protest, every march, and the backdrop at every press conference that's held from now until the next electoral showdown in 2010 and beyond.
The immigration movement made the same mistake early on, but after getting savaged by conservative haters about the lack of American flags quickly picked up on that error and swiftly corrected it. 
It's time to realize that only flying the rainbow flag not only isn't going to cut it, it's past time to try old school tactics for the new millennium.
What the Stars and Stripes represents at its fundamental level is our country. It is not a bought and paid for symbol of the Republican Party or the conservative movement, who by the way NEVER fail to fly it at their events.
