November 2004 TransGriot Column

Black History Month Lesson: Three Months Early
By Monica Roberts
Copyright 2004, THE LETTER

TransGriot Note: This column originally appeared in THE LETTER in November 2004.

Well folks, by the time you read this the election should’ve already taken place. We’ll either be celebrating the fact that Bush is packing up for a one-way trip to Crawford or we’ll have four more years of mean-spirited misleadership to endure. I pray that the odious amendment to the Kentucky Constitution banning same-sex marriage died a horrible death.

Now, let’s get to the column.

One of the things that’s irritated me about the same-sex marriage amendment battle has been the use of sellout Black ministers to shill for them instead of Dr. Frank Simon and Company.

The Reverend Jerry Stephenson commented during a local September 17 rally that “gay rights activists have hijacked the civil rights movement and that Blacks don’t believe that homosexuals ought to be married.”

Speak for yourself, Rev. Jerry. I believe that if two people love each other and want to get married, it's their business. I could care less whether they’re the same gender or not. Neither the state of Kentucky nor the United States Congress should be attempting to enshrine intolerance in our constitution at the behest of Bible-thumping bigots. I’m in good company. Ambassador Carol Moseley-Braun, Coretta Scott King, Julian Bond, Rep. John Lewis, Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Rev. Al Sharpton, Dr. Joycelyn Elders, Whoopi Goldberg, and former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown are some of the folks with our skin pigmentation that agree with me. By the way reverend, I am also a Christian.

Let me get back to focusing on Rev. Stephenson’s ignorant assertion that gays have hijacked the civil rights movement. He and the rest of his fellow Stepford Negroes got that talking point directly from the Concerned Women for America, an organization that has been less than friendly to African-Americans and our issues over the years.

By the way Rev. Stephenson, since you were sleeping in class during Black History Month, let me hip you to the fact that gays and lesbians played a major role in the Civil Rights Movement. Can you say Bayard Rustin? I thought you could.

This gay Black man was not only a co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with Dr. Martin Luther King, but was one of his principal strategic advisors. Rustin was the person who introduced Dr. King to Gandhi’s non-violence philosophy, the major ingredient in the series of campaigns that won passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. He was also lead organizer of the 1963 March on Washington in which Dr. King gave his immortal ‘I Have a Dream’ speech.

Coretta Scott King pointed out during a April 1998 speech to the 25th Anniversary Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund luncheon that “Gays and lesbians stood up for civil rights in Montgomery, Selma, Albany GA, St. Augustine FL and many other campaigns of the Civil Rights Movement.” She said that “Many of these courageous men and women were fighting for my freedom at a time when they could find few voices for their own, and I salute their contributions.”

She also had this to say about gay rights and the civil rights movement:

"We have a lot more work to do in our common struggle against bigotry and discrimination. I say “common struggle” because I believe very strongly that all forms of bigotry and discrimination are equally wrong and should be opposed by right-thinking Americans everywhere. Freedom from discrimination based on sexual orientation is surely a fundamental human right in any great democracy, as much as freedom from racial, religious, gender, or ethnic discrimination."

Amen, Mrs King.

I Ain't Hatin' I'm Appreciating

I Ain’t Hatin’, I’m Appreciating This was the column I submitted to THE LETTER for printing in September for the October issue.


I have much love, admiration and respect for the illusionist community.

Yes, there are certain things about it that irritate me and people involved in it that I won’t be breaking bread with anytime soon, but hey, they are my sistahs too.

And for you illusionists, don’t assume that activists don’t know about your issues, don’t care or haven’t walked in your pumps. Some of the best activists I know used to perform (or still do) on various stages or were pageant titleholders. Some are leaders in their local GLBT communities when they’re off stage.

In the early 80’s, I was a scared kid first starting to venture out in Houston’s gayborhood called Montrose. I didn’t know anybody, was still trying to sort out things and nervous about whether my femme presentation was up to snuff. It was Houston’s legendary drag queen and show emcee Cookie LaCook who took a few moments out of her busy evening to speak to me when other peeps wouldn’t. It jump-started a conversation that put me on the road to becoming the Phenomenal Transwoman you see today and earned me ‘cool points’ with the regular patrons of Studio 13.

Over the next two decades Cookie and I would get into some deep conversations over the years. She sometimes incorporated me into her monologues as “Soul Sister Number One.” I was saddened to find out she passed away July 27

I know what illusionists do isn’t easy. It takes a lot of work, time, talent and effort to perfect the onstage persona, much less perform. I found that out firsthand when I went on stage at small club back home as a favor to a Latina illusionist friend of mine named Brittany Paige. She’d been asking me to do a Talent Night for two years before I finally said okay. It’s not my cup of tea and I’m more comfortable on a stage with a podium, a microphone and a speech in front of me and she knew that. The joy that lit up Brittany’s face is one image that brings a smile to my face whenever I think about her. A week after my one time performance she lost her battle with AIDS.

My illusionist friends helped me polish my feminine presentation. They taught me a few tucking techniques and trade secrets that aided my transition. For the ones that only did girl onstage I got the pleasure of sitting backstage, watch them morph into the gorgeous divas that you peeps tip and learn some makeup secrets in the process.

And speaking of tips, if you like the performer, give ‘em a little somethin’ somethin’. Makeup and all the things ‘the gurls’ need to transform themselves into the beautiful peeps you see ain’t cheap.

They were generally cool people to be around and the source of some entertaining moments as well. I’ve watched illusionists read each other, trifling boyfriends, and hecklers. I’ve seen them beat the crap out of suburban bigots who thought they were easy targets outside of clubs and get into wig-pulling fights. But these same people when I was kicked back and chilling at their cribs challenged and expanded my worldview. They inspired me to check out my African-American LGBT history, helped me sort out my gender issues and kicked knowledge to me about a wide range of subjects.

I can’t forget the greatest gift the illusionist community gave us in conjunction with transgender peeps. They jump started the GLBT rights movement with the 1967 Compton’s Cafeteria riot in San Francisco and Stonewall two years later because they were mad as hell and tired of being jacked with by the police.

So no, I’m not hatin’. I’m appreciating all the things the illusionist community does in their own way to make this a better world for all of us.


TransGriot Note: I discovered after I sent it off to be printed that the Compton's Riot actually happened in August 1966. I also discovered that my editor refused to print this one as well. More details on what's transpiring in regards to my newspaper column in an upcoming post.

Syimone, Syimone, Syimone....

TransGriot Note- This was going to be my September 2007 newspaper column. The column wasn't printed due to threats of legal action.

-------------------------------------------------------
To Syimone (And Every Black Female Illusionist Who Thinks Like Her)
“I’m not offended by Shirley Q. Liquor because my sexuality is more important to my sense of who I am that my skin color is, and I don’t see the so called Black community out there in the streets protesting for my right to love and fuck and marry who I want.”

That was a quote from Syimone, one of The Connection’s female impersonators. It was originally printed in a June Rolling Stone article about Chuck’s jacked-up minstrel show persona and was recently reprinted in the July 18 issue of the LEO. (the Louisville Eccentric Observer, a local alternative newspaper.)

While we African-Americans aren’t monolithic in thought and she has a constitutional right to her opinion, this comment is just begging for me to expound on it.

News flash for you, Syimone. Race overrides everything in the USA. The color line and the attitudes that accompany it predate the founding of our country by 150 years. So check that birth certificate of yours. It definitely doesn’t have a box to check for gay or straight on it.

There are also African-Americans working for the marriage equality you yearn for. Check out the website of an organization called the National Black Justice Coalition at http://www.nbjcoalition.org/

One of the things I’ve observed and disliked about the African-American illusionist community over the last twenty-five years is some of its members egocentric selfishness combined with Clarence Thomasesque hatred of their ethnic background.

Syimone, since you’re so quick to denigrate the African-American community about what they haven’t done for you, I’d like to ask what you have done FOR the African-American community?

That’s what I thought.

But let’s examine your comment that your sexuality is more important than your ethnic background. Since that’s what you claim (and I think it’s bull feces), where were you when the Fairness laws were under attack in 2004? Didn’t see you at Metro City Hall that night confronting the Reichers. Have you lobbied our legislators in Frankfort or Washington DC for the marriage equality you say is so important to you?

This hatred of your Blackness is not the only issue about you and some of your female illusionist sisters that irritates me and the African-American transpeeps who ARE doing thangs in the community. We get annoyed when we see y’all sit on your silicone-enhanced asses and constantly complain about what peeps aren’t doing for you, but y’all won’t step out of your show world cocoons to be informed or give a damn about issues that matter to the ENTIRE African-American community gay and straight.

So as the old saying goes, if you ain’t part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.

Syimone, I vehemently disagree with your misguided statement that your sexuality overrides your ethnicity. You may believe that fairy tale, but in the real world our dealings with white-dominated orgs such as HRC and GLAAD make a mockery of that. If sexuality overrides ethnicity, then why are there over twenty Black pride events scattered all over our country and around the world?

You chose Chuck over your people and you look like a Condoleezza Rice clone in the process. If you said that because you’re angry at the African-American community or were misquoted, then please contact me and I’ll give you the chance in a future TransGriot column to explain yourself.

But Syimone, if this is the prevailing sentiment of you and your female illusionist sisters, then y’all are as clueless as Chuck and it’s past time for all of y’all to check the alarm clock and wake up.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T My Womanhood

TransGriot Note: From a May 2004 TransGriot Column
Copyright 2004, THE LETTER

Aretha Franklin sang about, and I expect it.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

I'm glad that there are other transsistas that feel the same way that I do and are willing to speak out about the disrespectful attitudes that we encounter while operating in the world around us.

Here's some advice to the 'gentlemen' that try to rap to us. If you wish to get to know me or any transwoman, just treat us as you would any other sista that you meet for the first time. Unzipping your pants and asking "How big is your d**k is a real turnoff. It's one of the things that annoys me on the occasions that I do go out to GLBT clubs.

Another thing that upsets me is to have some guy walk up me, grab his crotch and ask, "How much?" If you did that with a genetic sista, she'd slap you, and my reaction to that insulting query won't be as nice either. Just because some of my T-sistas may partake in paid extracurricular sexual activity doens't mean that you can assume I'm sitting in a GLBT club for the same reason. Nor can you speculate what genitalia I may or may not possess between my legs because I happen to be in a gay patronized establishment. The fact that I spent my formative years in a male body doesn't give anyone the right to disrespect me. You may not like me, but you will respect me as a human being. I expect nothing less.

I grew up in a male body, but I'm not a man. I am a woman. I'm deliriously happy to finally be able to say that. The way that I look at life, love and interact with people on this planet is filtered through a feminine perspective. I like going out on dates, getting flowers, and hanging out with brothers as much as my genetic sisters. I can talk about what happened this week on THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS just as easily as I discuss politics, sports or various other topics that pique my interest.

I went through a lot of drama to make my external appearance match the way I've felt internally since childhood. I did not travel down this pothole filled road to become someone's sex toy. I'm finally comfortable with my body and I'm ready to take my place in this society as an African-American woman. I want to contribute my talents to uplift my people while being cognizant and proud of the fact that I am transgendered.

Diana Ross said it best in an October 1989 Essence magazine interview. 'I never considered it a disadvantage to be a Black woman. I never wanted to be anything else. We have brains. We are beautiful. We can do anything we set our minds to.'

Well, I set my mind on becoming the beautiful Black woman that I am today. I didn't have the advantage of being taught from birth what genetic women learned about femininity from their mothers or grandmothers. My femininity has been acquired by observing my mother, gradmothers, sisters, aunts, cousins, and various women that I
admire. I also have the examples of myriad transgendered and non-transgendered ladies to inspire me to greater heights.

All that I and my transgendered sisters are doing is striving to become the best women that we can be. If we happen to turn some of you on in the process, then that's all good, too.

August 2007 TransGriot Column

Universal Health Care-What’s In It For The GLBT Community?
Copyright 2007, THE LETTER

While only 7 months into his administration, President Harry S Truman proposed implementing universal health care. The ideas Truman set forth in a November 19, 1945 speech came to Congress in the form of a Social Security expansion bill. It was co-sponsored by Senators Robert Wagner (D-NY) and James Murray (D-MT) along with Representative John Dingell (D-MI) and became known as the W-M-D bill.

Predictably, the American Medical Association launched an energetic attack against the W-M-D bill that capitalized on American fears of Communism by calling it "socialized medicine". In a foreshadowing of 50’s McCarthy-era rhetoric, critics labeled Truman White House staffers ‘followers of the Moscow party line.’
President Truman gamely continued efforts to implement the W-M-D bill until the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950 forced him to abandon them.

In the latest attempt to implement Universal Health Care, Rep. John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) has introduced HR 676, which would create a single payer health care system in the US. It would cover all necessary medical care for US citizens and include prescription drugs, primary and preventative care, emergency services, dental and vision care, chiropractic and long term care, mental health, home health care, hospital, surgical, outpatient services, physical therapy, substance abuse treatment and rehabilitation.

HR 676 would also end deductibles and co-payments and economists predict that 95% of Americans would see a reduction in their health care costs

HR 676 is currently in committee and has 75 cosponsors. (Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY) is one of them). The Louisville Metro Council, Boyle County, the city of Morehead, KY and the KY House of Representatives have passed resolutions along with other municipalities across the US supporting the bill. HR 676 also has support from labor and other organizations such as the Jefferson County (KY) Teachers Assn., the American Library Association, the (national) NAACP, and the National Education Association.

It even has some corporate support. US based corporations are tired of competing with a handicap in the global marketplace. It’s one of the factors affecting the survival of US automakers. For example, if you buy a GM auto, $1200 of the price you pay for the vehicle is to cover the cost of the worker’s health insurance that built it. Toyota doesn’t have to factor health care costs into their auto pricing.

So what’s in it for transgender peeps and the GLBT community? My initial reading of the bill leads me to logically conclude that the medication and other care we require should be covered. AIDS medication would be available and acquired at much lower costs. Because GID is a medical condition listed in the DSM-IV, a transperson could get their hormones, medical exams, counseling, surgery and checkups covered at reasonable rates as is done in Canada, Great Britain and several other countries with universal health care plans. The Reichers and health care companies will fight tooth and nail to ensure that we aren’t.

We GLBT peeps are inevitably gonna get older. Wouldn’t it be nice to pay a flat fee for the medications and care that you require instead of the grossly inflated prices we pay now? Wouldn’t it be wonderful to HAVE medical coverage that’s not tied to whether or not you’re employed? The 46 million people that are currently uninsured definitely think so.

If you want more information, check out www.PNHP.org the website of the Physicians for a National Health Program, www.kyhealthcare.org or call (502) 899-3861 or (502)636-1551.

It's not gonna be easy. You will see obscene amounts of money spent, negativity and disinformation spread about Universal Health Care that makes what the GOP, the health insurance and pharmaceutical companies did to kill the Clinton plan in 1993 seem like a church picnic by comparison.

But it will probably happen in the next five years. Universal health care is not only a human rights issue, but also one with broad-based support that the GLBT community should get behind. It’s a bridge-building opportunity that gives us a chance to work with labor, business, government and other interested parties. We need to get off our behinds, educate ourselves about universal health care and fight for our issues in the implementation of it.

July 2007 TransGriot Column

Why “Gender Identity’ Is Necessary In ENDA
Copyright 2007, THE LETTER

Any day now Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) will be introducing his version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. We can only pray, wait and see if it mirrors the language of the recently passed HR 1592, the Hate Crimes Bill that is now as of my deadline sitting in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

But one thing I repeatedly heard in several offices I visited during the recent National Transgender Advocacy Coalition (NTAC) Lobby Days May 15-17 disturbed me. Several staffers informed me that Senator Kennedy’s bill DOESN’T mirror HR 1592 by including the words ‘gender identity’ and the definition for it as set forth in Section 3.6 of the House bill. I hope by the time that this column is read that that it tuned out to be just a rumor and the bill does mirror the one that passed the House May 3.

But what if that information IS true?

There are some gay and lesbian people that would be ecstatic if that happened. Some of them have expressed the attitude that the term doesn’t belong in ‘their’ ENDA bill. That’s a fundamentally short sighted, selfish and myopic viewpoint.

It’s not the revulsion in Christobigot brains about who your bedroom partners are that causes the virulent reaction to GLBT peeps (although it is a factor in some of the discrimination experienced by gay and lesbian people), it’s the transgressing of the binary gender system.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen or read about the negative reactions of straight peeps to lesbians who exhibit behavior that’s considered ‘masculine’ or the gay male that exhibits ‘feminine’ characteristics. We transgender people know all too well that transgressing gender binaries sometimes results in death or severe injury.

A few years ago there was an incident in downtown Louisville in which a six-foot tall broad-shouldered straight woman with short hair was verbally abused and nearly attacked by a group of bigoted men who assumed she was a lesbian or a transwoman. The irony is that the woman was a student at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, which has long pushed intolerance of GLBT people as part of its ministry.

In the Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins Supreme Court case, despite glowing reviews of her major role in securing a $25 million dollar government contract, Ann Hopkins was denied a partnership in the firm in 1982 because she was considered ‘too macho.’

She was even advised at one point in order to improve her chances to make partner she should ‘walk more femininely, talk more femininely, dress more femininely, wear make-up, have her hair styled, and wear jewelry.’ She sued in 1984 and in a landmark care proved gender-based stereotypes played a substantial, motivating role in her employer's refusal to admit her to the partnership. When the Supreme Court ruled in her favor on May 1,1989 Ms. Hopkins was admitted to the denied partnership. She retired from Price Waterhouse in 2002.

Those are just two examples that point out why an ENDA that doesn’t include ‘gender or perceived gender’ language is a flawed bill. It would only cover 10% of gay and lesbian people. One of the lessons we African-Americans have learned from our centuries long struggle with the Forces of Intolerance is that when you draft civil rights legislation you design it as broadly as possible to cover the most people. You also don’t leave the bigot caucus any loopholes or wiggle room to come up with more creative ways to discriminate against you.

An ENDA that includes gender identity would not only cover all segments of the GLBT community, but also include straight people who don’t quite conform to the rigid gender binaries like the Ann Hopkinses of the world.

And that's a win for every American, be they gay, straight or transgender.

May 2007 TransGriot Column

Genetic Women and Transwomen: Can We Be Friends?
Copyright 2007, THE LETTER


I’ve done a lot of thinking about the undercurrent of tension between genetic women and transwomen. I posted the following set of questions on the Net a few weeks ago to discover if it were possible to overcome the hostility and form healthy friendships with each other.

1-What do we transwomen need to bring to the table to make friendships between us and genetic women work successfully?

2-What do genetic women need to do to make it work?

3-What in your opinion are the mistakes that both parties make that create barriers to forming healthy friendships and what can be done to avoid them?

4-What are the advantages/disadvantages to both parties in cultivating friendships with the other?

Thanks to transwomen Joann, Traci, Lexi and Angelica and biowomen Audrea and Jazz for consenting to express their thoughts on this subject. It’s deeply appreciated.

The consensus of both sides to Question 1 was that transwomen simply need to be themselves and be open and honest about their status.

Audrea stated, “I feel that communication and honesty are important parts of any friendship; regardless of the friends' appearances or backgrounds. Personally, I feel that transwomen and genetic women are the same essentially, and they should all be treated as such. Some women may feel threatened or resentment towards transwomen, but those feelings are based on fear and ignorance. These things have no place in a true friendship.

The consensus on both sides concerning Question 2 was that education was the answer

“I think genetic women should just be open to getting to know transwomen,“ said Jazz.

Joann agreed. “I think many need to learn the truth about what transgendered women are and are not. It’s time to let a lot those old misconceptions about us go.”

The panelist’s thoughts about Question 3 were that insecurities on both sides and lack of respect for one another led to the condescending comments and disagreements that inflames tensions between the two groups.

"I think if some of us were honest, I believe on both the side of genetic women and the side of transsexual women there is an element of intimidation. Women who are around beautiful transsexuals compare themselves by thinking "I'm a real woman, and I don't look like that." or "I'm a real woman, you're just pretending to be one." And as transsexuals we sometimes are intimidated believing that they are indeed "real" women and we are not. So sometimes we over compensate for the things we believe we lack in being a "real" woman,” said Angelica.

Question 4 had both groups seeing having the other as friends being a plus.

“They should comprehend the fact that we can be very formidable allies when it comes to deciphering the male ego. They should also know how deeply we desire to bond with them as the true sisters that we all need to be,” said Traci.

As for the negatives, the transwomen expressed concerns that the insecurities of both groups would rear their ugly heads or that their genetic female friend would be mistaken for a transwoman once they start hanging with the genetic woman on a consistent basis.

“I have to say that I think the issue in relationships between transwomen and natal women is multi-dimensional. I think Angelica said it best when she wrote about the insecurities that both sets of women feel around the other. So, in my opinion, that is the first and probably biggest factor,” said Lexi.

So in closing, there appears to be willingness on both sides to keep open minds and get to know each other.

Said Audrea, “I say that the more diversity one is exposed to, the better. I don't see any disadvantages developing when involved in an open, adult friendship. I appreciate my transwomen and men friends just as much as my genetic friends. When choosing friends what gender one is should make no difference. I'm happy to say, for me it's a non-issue.

Same here.



TransGriot note: This article triggered a series of blog posts on the subject.

April 2007 TransGriot Column

Chill Out Calling Women You Don’t Like Trannies
Copyright 2007, THE LETTER

One thing I’m getting a little sick of is the trend in the blogosphere, the Internet and elsewhere to use ‘trannie’ as an epithet for women you despise.

For several years now 6-foot conservative commentator Ann Coulter has been bombarded with the ‘Mann Coulter’ wisecrack. Yeah, she’s said far worse things about gays, liberals and a whole host of peeps that we need to forcefully call her on. But why stoop to her middle school level of discourse?

Here’s an example of what I’m talking about from the blog ‘Moon Over My Hammy’:

‘Isn’t it Ironic . . . that Ann Coulter would call Edwards a "faggot" when she looks like a post-op transsexual?'

It’s hypocritical for the progressive community to get its panties in a bunch about Coulter’s f-word insult of John Edwards and then counterattack by calling her transvestite, transsexual or transgender. The part that galls us even more about this is that we’re supposed to be your allies in the struggle against these conservaidiots.

It’s not just progressive bloggers who are culpable. Gay ones such as Perez Hilton and others have savaged 5’8” Paris Hilton as well by repeatedly calling her and her sister Nicky trannies. Tina Fey commented during a recent interview on Howard Stern’s Sirius radio show that “Paris looks like a tranny up close.”

That remark is also hurled at 6-foot former model Kimora Lee Simmons as well as any other women perceived as having traits that ‘belong’ to the opposite gender. While I would expect that crap from the general public, It angers other transwomen and me even further when GLBT peeps such as Perez Hilton are engaged in doing it.

Let me ‘edumacate’ y’all on something. GLBT peeps should know that better than any other humans on Planet Earth that no one is 100% male or female. You get some of your genetic and physical traits from mommy and some from daddy. In many cases you get a blend of the two.

One of the things my female relatives noticed about me before and since transition is my naturally long eyelashes. I got relentlessly teased in junior high about my 'girl's legs’ and ‘girl’s butt’ by the fellas in my gym classes.

Just because Paris Hilton wears size 11 shoes and Ann Coulter has a huge Adam’s apple doesn't necessarily make either one of them transsexuals until they proclaim otherwise. I know more than a few petite transwomen as well as genetic women who are taller than my 6’2” height.

While there are a lot of genetic women that we in the transgender community would happily embrace as our sisters and welcome them with open arms, Paris and Ann ain't high on my personal list of peeps I’d love to see declaring they are transwomen.

The problem with using transgender or transsexual as pejorative terms is that it reinforces the views of some less-than-enlightened people in our society that being transgender is wrong or strange. Some people in the transgender community also consider the term transvestite an inflammatory insult, so it’s doubly wounding to us if you call somebody out using that word simply because you loathe them.

If you feel the need to insult someone, find some other creatively shady epithet to use (and not the b-word either). Transwomen deal with enough accumulated slights, slurs, negativity and assaults on our self-esteem and images from our foes. We don’t need our allies contributing to the dissing of us as well by using the terms we chose as a community to describe ourselves to insult our genetic sisters.

March 2007 TransGriot Column

Why Is The GLBT Community ‘Scurred’ of Old Glory?
Copyright 2007, THE LETTER

Something’s missing when we have any kind of press conference, protest, or other function in the GLBT community.

The American flag.

I find it odd that the flag is absent from many GLBT protest events. (I’m not talking about that rainbow version of the US flag, either.) I’m talking about the red, white and blue one with the 50 stars and thirteen stripes on it. You know, the one that was planted on the moon in 1969.

One of the things I see as a failing of those of us on the progressive side of the culture war is ceding control of our national symbol to the Christobigots. It lends credence to their propaganda spin about us that we’re anti-American when we don’t fly the flag at our events. The US flag is not a bought and paid for campaign decoration for the Religious Right, Fox News or the Republican Party. It belongs to all of us. We need to make that clear by resolving to use it at every opportunity to erase the perception in the Fox-watching masses minds, some of our own peeps and
mainstream Americans that it is.

Other protest movements have not had the aversion to the flag that I’ve seen in GLBT activist community circles. I point out that the US flag was carried during Civil Rights movement marches. When Vietnam War protesters weren’t burning them they carried Old Glory along with their peace version. Even the immigration protesters began carrying it when the nationally televised marches of them carrying Mexican and other national flags began generating a backlash against their cause.

We in the GLBT community need to proudly display it as a reminder to ourselves and our opponents that we are American citizens, we have constitutional rights and we demand that they be respected and defended irregardless of whether you like us or not.

To the folks that argue that it causes conflicting emotions in the GLBT community: And your point is?

If any peeps in this country should have a putrid hatred of that flag it should be African-Americans along with Native Americans. But both groups have fought and died for it in combat, held protests accompanied by it, hang it on our doorsteps and have it at places of honor in our communities.

I’m not a Faux News patriot. I love my country and deplore what has happened to it in the last seven years. I will praise it when it does the right thing and like any patriot will call it out when it’s on the wrong side of an issue. I am horrified that our country’s good name has been besmirched by a group of arrogant boobs in an unbelievably short time. But don’t turn anger with the administration into playa hating on the flag.

To many people on Planet Earth the US flag represents hope, justice, freedom, equality and fairness. Aren't those the same values that we're fighting for in the GLBT movement?

Just simply flying Old Glory will take away one more lie they use to demonize us and garner support for their anti-constitutional agenda. It may even get us some support from those American flag bumper sticker voters when we need it.

So don’t be ‘scurred’ of the flag. Get in touch with your patriotic side. Your country will thank you for it later. Put your right hand over your heart, face the flagpole and repeat after me.

I pledge allegiance to the flag
Of the United States of America
And to the republic for which it stands
One nation under God
Indivisible
With liberty and justice for all

February 2007 TransGriot Column

Honoring Black History Month
Copyright 2007, THE LETTER


“Those who have no record of what their forebears have accomplished lose the inspiration which comes from the teaching of biography and history.”

Dr. Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950), Father of Black History Month

February is the month when the nation takes 28 days (29 during a leap year) to focus on the contributions of African-Americans thanks to the Herculean efforts of Dr. Carter G. Woodson. (who spent several semesters at Berea College working on his bachelor’s in Literature). On February 7, 1926 he founded Negro History Week, the precursor of what would later become Black History Month.

As I’ve mentioned in previous columns, I have a deep love of history and agree with Dr. Woodson about the importance of knowing what your predecessors have accomplished in order to chart a better future. One of the reasons that Black History Month exists is because despite the fact that we’ve been on American shores since 1619, for too long the contributions of African-Americans in the building of our nation were either overlooked or deliberately covered up.

It’s to your benefit to know, for example that Garrett Morgan invented the gas mask. There’s the unmatched combat record of the Tuskegee Airmen or the exploits of the Buffalo Soldiers to peruse. Get to know Benjamin Banneker, the mathematician who was part of the survey team that helped lay out Washington D.C. and put together a best selling almanac that was widely read in the 13 colonies.

Those accomplishments even apply in our current time. Philip Emeagwali not only built the world’s fastest computer in the early 90s but came up with a process that allows for more crude oil to be recovered from drilled wells. He is the gentleman responsible for the increasing accuracy of weather forecasts you see on the local news. Those are just tantalizing examples of the historical buffet awaiting you.

“Our song, our toil, our cheer and warning have been given to this nation in blood brotherhood. Are not these gifts worth the giving? Is not this work and striving? Would America have been America without her Negro people?”

W.E.B. DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk, 1903

The same could be said about GLBT African-Americans as well. Our contributions to the American family quilt are numerous. Gay writers like Zora Neale Hurston and Countee Cullen were major forces in the Harlem Renaissance. Many of the major civil rights events, including the 1963 March on Washington were organized by Bayard Rustin, a gay man who helped Dr. King co-found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

Speaking of the Harlem Renaissance, that planted cultural seeds that decades later allowed Alvin Ailey to found his world famous dance troupe. The Harlem Renaissance also gave birth to the Harlem drag balls that morphed into the ballroom culture depicted in the movie ‘Paris Is Burning.’ Chicago had their own version on the South Side called the Finnie’s Ball, named after its founder Alfred Finnie.

We were there at Stonewall. One of the plaintiffs in the Lawrence v. Texas case that overturned sodomy laws was an African-American by the name of Tyron Garner. One of the seven couples in the Goodridge v. Massachusetts Dept. of Public Health case that made marriage equality a possibility has an African-American lesbian in it. We GLBT African-Americans are still making contributions today fighting for GLBT civil rights and building the GLBT community

Black History Month is not just a FUBU (For Us By Us) production. Yes, it helps my people better understand where they’ve been, where they are going and build pride and self-esteem in our kids. It’s vitally important for other cultures to know what we have contributed not only to American society, but the world as well. Black history does not start and stop with slavery, Martin Luther King, the creation of jazz, achievements in sports or the Civil Rights Movement.

It is much more than that. It is American history.

January 2007 TransGriot Column

Cleaning Up Our Own House
Copyright 2007, THE LETTER


Happy New Year TransGriot readers!

This month marks the third anniversary of my column, the third year of the founding of Transsistahs-Transbrothas and the second anniversary of my TransGriot blog.
Thanks to all of you who have expressed to me during the year how much you enjoy reading TransGriot. That makes my editor Dave and I very happy.

Something that didn’t make me happy was the drive-by show that Chuck Knipp performed at The Connection during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. The reports that I’ve received about it from several people that attended were that they didn’t find it funny and they observed people leaving during the performance.

While that is gratifying to hear, the differing race-based reactions to the SQL minstrel show controversy have exposed the need to have a conversation about racism in the GLBT community.

We are a microcosm of society at large. Since racism is prevalent in the parent society, then our subset of it is also contaminated and it is naïve and foolish to think that we aren’t. When we started planning the first Transsistahs-Transbrothas Conference back in 2005, we had a critic of it post a comment on a predominately white transgender Internet list in response to my letter explaining why we were having TSTBC that said ‘It’ll make it easier for them to service their tricks.”

The March 2002 NGLTF report entitled ‘Say It Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud’ highlights the problem. From April to September 2000 a survey was done at nine Black Pride events in an attempt to learn more about the African-American GLBT community. Guess what one of the issues was for the 2,500 respondents that cropped up?

When asked the question if the racism of GLBT whites was a problem for GLBT blacks within the community, 48% of the respondents agreed with the statement. The numbers were even higher among my fellow transgender survey respondents at 57%.

When asked about their interactions within white GLBT orgs, 39% reported negative experiences within those organizations, 29% reported positive ones and 39% of respondents reported both negative and positive experiences in White GLBT orgs.

When asked about their experiences in white GLBT clubs, 36% reported negative interactions in white GLBT clubs, 30% reported positive ones and 31% reported negative and positive experiences in those clubs.

I can cosign on that last one. I’ve been called the n-word by a white gay patron of one club back in my hometown and denied entrance at another one with the excuse that it wasn’t a transgender bar. However, I observed from the entrance door white t-girls not only inside the club but partying with the predominately white gay male crowd. I’ve had people in the pageant world report that even with equal status level in terms of titles, et cetera, they receive far less appearance money from promoters for performing in shows than their white counterparts.

Accumulations of those negative experiences over time and the frustration of dealing with white GLBT community indifference in tackling the problem head on eventually leads us to say ‘enough’. If you wondered why Black GLBT people have separate pride events, pageant circuits, and conventions such as TSTBC, racism in the community is a major component of why those organizations exist.

As GLBT peeps we are fighting for recognition of our constitutional rights. We need all sectors of our community engaged in this process. It is to our advantage to find a way to work together building a diverse, multicultural community that respects all of its members and face the reality that 40 years of post Civil Rights Movement education and policies did not magically erase 400 years of negative racial attitudes.

There needs to be a long-term commitment from all leaders in the GLBT community to aggressively tackle this nettlesome problem. However, it can’t be just people of color doing the grunt work on this issue. I’m glad to hear that Fairness will spend time in 2007 focusing on anti-racism work.

It couldn’t come at a better time.

December 2006 TransGriot Column

A Very Democratic Christmas
Copyright 2006, THE LETTER

Merry Christmas dear readers. I’m so happy I feel like singing.

Dems have got the House and Senate
Fa la la la la la la la la
In Da Ville John Yarmuth wins it
Fa la la la la la la la la
Bring home our troops and heal our nation
Fa la la la la la la la la
Time to conduct investigations
Fa la la la la la la la la la

I am ecstatic about last month’s midterm election. For the first time since I left Houston in 2001 a Democrat will represent me in Congress. Congratulations to John Yarmuth for proving that a vision and ideas trump negative ads and truckloads of cash.

The one thing my late grandmother and other senior citizen African-Americans always told me is that if you want fairness, a good economy and a just society, you’d better vote for Democrats. I poo-poohed that notion during my idealistic college days until I came face to face with GOP vote suppression tactics in my home precinct back in November 1984.

My grandmother Tama was right. One of the things that I’ve noticed over my lifetime is that when Republicans take power, American society gets more mean spirited, materialistic, selfish, and militaristic. The bigots feel more comfortable spreading their hatred and attacking people they don’t like. Civil rights get constricted or rolled back. I also noticed the effect on my wallet. I made more money during the Clinton years than in the two periods of my life covered by GOP administrations.

I have been alarmed about the direction that this country has taken under this administration over the last six years. I’m for the deployment of American military muscle when necessary but ONLY after all reasonable diplomatic options have been exhausted. I’m appalled that a war that started based on a lie has resulted in the deaths of 2,800 brave Americans. I am also sick of the GOP using 9-11 as an excuse to attack our constitutional rights. News flash: you can fight terrorism WITHOUT eviscerating the Bill of Rights. I’m a strong believer in checks and balances.

And finally, I’m sick of pseudo Christian gay bashers enshrining their hatred in state constitutions. I was surprised but happy to see that Arizona defeated an anti- marriage equality amendment. I wasn’t happy to see Ward Connerly’s deceptive anti-affirmative action tactics work in Michigan.

Nancy Pelosi will make history on January 3 when she becomes the first female speaker of the House in our country’s history. For the first time in US history people that share my ethnic heritage will chair important committees. John Conyers (D-MI) will head Judiciary. Charles Rangel (D-NY) gets the powerful Ways and Means Committee. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) will head Homeland Security. There is also the possibility that Alcee Hastings (D-FL) may end up as the head of the Intelligence Committee.

The CBC is also pushing to have James Clyburn (D-SC) elected as majority whip, the third highest leadership position in the House. It would be a milestone political accomplishment for an African-American. Speaking of milestone politicians, Deval Patrick became the second African-American elected governor of a US state since Reconstruction when he won in Massachusetts.

But back to Speaker Pelosi (love the sound of that). She has promised in the first 100 hours to pass an increase in the minimum wage, address ‘drain the swamp’ ethics reform on the Hill, promote stem cell research and remove the restrictions that will allow the government to negotiate for cheaper medication prices.

I’d like to see a few other things happen such as restoring the Fairness Doctrine, but I want the Democratic majority in Congress to be around as long as the last one (40 years). It may need that much time to clean up the mess the GOP made while they were misrunning thangs.

I just hope and pray the Dems don’t blow this opportunity. Somehow I don’t think they will.

November 2006 TransGriot Column

Justice? Or Just-Us?
Copyright 2006, THE LETTER

November is a bittersweet month for me. I’ll be taking part along with other transgender community members November 20 in the local Transgender Day of Remembrance ceremony. It will happen at the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.

What is the TDOR? It’s an event that takes place to memorialize the more than 200 plus people we have lost due to anti-transgender violence. It was started in reaction to the November 28, 1998 murder of Rita Hester, a Boston African-American transwoman. This homicide happened seven weeks after Matthew Shepard’s slaying in Wyoming.

When Rita was disrespected in the gay and straight press by being called ‘he’, having her name placed in quotation marks and being called a sex worker despite living 20 years as a woman, local transactivists erupted in outrage. They were already upset over the verdict that was handed down in the May 1997 Chanelle Pickett trial. She was an African-American transwoman killed in her home by William Palmer after being picked up by him at a Boston GLBT club. Palmer was only convicted of assault and battery, given a 2 ½ year jail sentence with six months of it suspended and five years probation.

Rita Hester’s death gave San Francisco activist Gwen Smith the impetus to begin the Remembering our Dead web project. She also helped organize a 1999 San Francisco candlelight vigil that has grown into a worldwide event. The LPTS has sponsored an observance since 2002 and I was honored to be the featured speaker for the inaugural 2002 event and the 2003 one.

How big a problem is anti-trans violence? According to a September 2005 Amnesty International report, over 3068 people worldwide have been killed due to anti-transgender violence over the last 30 years. 92% of those cases are still waiting to be solved.

One distressing aspect of the 11-page AI report is police misconduct and abuse of transgender people. It contained summaries of the testimony of 23 New York City transwomen who described mistreatment at the hands of police officers. Those stories combined with the cavalier way that many police departments handle assaults and crimes committed against transgender people have contributed to a climate of mistrust, loathing and fear of the police in the transgender community.

An example of this is a recent July 10 attack in which transwoman Christina Sforza was attacked by the manager of a New York City McDonalds with a lead pipe for going to the women’s bathroom. The staff allegedly chanted ‘kill the faggot’ during the assault. When the victim’s friend called NYPD, the officers arrested Ms Sforza and charged her with assault.

When she was released from jail, according to TransJustice she attempted to file a complaint at the NYPD Midtown South Precinct against the manager on six separate occasions. In addition to each request being denied, Ms Sforza encountered harassment, extremely long wait periods, and was threatened with arrest for "filing a false report."

Unfortunately that’s the reality that transpeople deal with. It’s never far from our minds that each and every one of us could one day find ourselves in a similar situation facing a potentially violent and possibly fatal confrontation with a transphobe. We bow our heads, say a prayer that it doesn't happen and exhale. When we do hear about cases like Ms Sforza’s we shake our heads and say to ourselves ‘there but for the grace of God go I’.

You have to ask yourself; what about this transwoman so threatened this guy that he assaulted her just for going to the bathroom? And what's up with NYPD not doing their job and investigating the assault or allowing the victim to press charges?

I don't care whether you hate me or not, I do have the constitutional right as an American citizen to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Just because you hate me doesn't give you the right to assault me, kill me or jack with my civil rights to make you feel superior.

October 2006 TransGriot Column

‘Intelligent Design’ Is A GLBT Issue
Copyright 2006, THE LETTER


One of the things that pisses me off (besides Shirley Q. Liquor and the state of our nation) is when GLBT peeps toss out the ‘that isn’t a GLBT issue’ line to avoid thinking about various subjects or discussing sensitive ones such as racism in the GLBT community.

Over the last decade, scientists and educators have been fighting a pitched battle against ‘intelligent design‘. American fundamentalists have always poured Hateraid on Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. The 1925 Scopes ‘Monkey Trial’ and a century of scientific evidence supporting Darwin didn’t change their fundamental goal of eliminating it from public education. With the rise of the Religious Right in the early 80’s they allied themselves with those folks and developed the Creation Science/Intelligent Design argument as a slickly packaged attack on Darwin. Their attempts to inject intelligent design into public school curriculums have created federal court clashes in Louisiana, Arkansas and Pennsylvania.

Creation science is based on the biblical Book of Genesis and asserts that the earth is only 6000 years old. When it ran into resistance from the scientific, education, religious and legal communities it got respun into what is currently called ‘intelligent design.’ The gist of it is that life is so complex it couldn’t possibly have arisen from uncontrolled natural events.

Tell that to the Vatican’s chief astronomer, the Rev. George Cloyne. According to the Italian news agency ANSA, Father Cloyne stated that intelligent design "isn't science, even though it pretends to be." He argued that if it is to be taught in schools, then it should be taught in religion or cultural history classes, but not in a science curriculum.

Federal district judge John Jones agreed. In a court case initiated by eleven Dover, Pennsylvania parents angered by their local school board's decision to implement teaching of intelligent design, the Bush-appointed Lutheran judge in a 138-page opinion ruled in December 2005 that it was ‘a mere relabeling of creationism," intended to get around the 1987 judicial ban on teaching creationism as science in public schools. He also called it a "breathtaking inanity" that fails the test as science, castigated its proponents and said Dover's students, parents and teachers "deserved better than to be dragged into this legal maelstrom."

Those eight board members were all replaced in the November 2005 school board elections. Unfortunately the peeps in Kansas didn’t get Judge Jones’ message. Their conservative controlled State Board of Education recently mandated that intelligent design be taught in science classes there.

So what does this have to do with the GLBT community? As citizens we need to be paying attention to the composition of our school boards and what happens there. Formations of Gay-Straight clubs or combating bullying shouldn’t be our only involvement in public schools. In the face of studies that show US kids falling behind nations such as India and Japan we need more fact-based science curriculums in place, not faith based ones.

It’s also in the GLBT community’s best interests to ensure that quality public school education is widely available and continues to serve a diverse population of students and support those folks who fight to make that idea a reality. It’s no surprise that the anti-public education folks and the intelligent design proponents have the common thread of being bankrolled and supported by our fundamentalist opponents.

It is also only a matter of time before the reams of research being generated by the completion of the Human Genome Project blows up the major Religious Right attack argument that being gay is ‘a choice’. The Nazis began their persecution of Jews by using bogus theories and disseminating them as scientific facts. That propaganda has been repackaged by our opponents to attack the GLBT community and needs to be refuted ASAP. The scientific community will play an important role in that effort.

A minority group has to seize opportunities to build coalitions with other advocacy groups because we can’t do it alone. If we want help in the GLBT civil rights struggle with the radical fundies, then we must help others who are similarly besieged by them.

September 2006 TransGriot Column

New Greeks On The Block
Copyright 2006, THE LETTER


One hundred years ago on December 4, 1906, Alpha Phi Alpha, the first African-American intercollegiate fraternity was born on the Ithaca, NY campus of Cornell University. In 1908 the Howard University campus witnessed the birth of Alpha Kappa Alpha, the first African-American sorority. Omega Psi Phi Fraternity in 1911, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority in 1913 and Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity in 1914 would soon join AKA on the Howard U campus in addition to Phi Beta Sigma’s sister organization, Zeta Phi Beta Sorority in 1920.

The state of Indiana can claim two orgs that were founded within its borders. Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity on the IU campus in 1911 and Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority at Butler University in 1922. Several decades later came the 1963 founding of Iota Phi Theta Fraternity on the Morgan State University campus.

These organizations have been responsible for much of the progress that our people have made over the last century. If there’s an African-American making history or breaking new ground in society you can bet that nine times out of ten they are members of one of those organizations. Their membership ranks include people such as current Liberian president Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Martin Luther King, Michael Jordan, Dr. Mae Jemison, Aretha Franklin, Spencer Christian, George Washington Carver, Nelson Mandela and former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.

The Divine Nine have always had members past and present who are GLBT such as Harlem Renaissance poet and Alpha Phi Alpha member Countee Cullen and Zeta Phi Beta’s Zora Neale Hurston. Unfortunately the historical significance, cultural importance and power of these organizations has created a climate in which these organizations have yet to openly embrace their past and present GLBT members despite their intimate
involvement with the Civil Rights Movement and other social justice issues. They are also grappling with homophobia within their ranks.

Possibly in reaction to this reticence and the homophobia, the late 20th and early 21st century has witnessed the formation of a cluster of Greek organizations that are openly GLBT. Like the Divine Nine orgs, they seek brotherhood and sisterhood with each other and wish to continue the historic Black Greek mission of uplifting our race. There is even a governing body similar to the National Pan Hellenic Council called the International Alternative Greek Council.

The formation of Delta Phi Upsilon on the Florida State University campus was the beginning of the GLBT Greek movement. Trevor Charles, Ronald D. Powell, Kenneth LeGrone, Victor M. Cohen and Hamilton Barnes had a vision for gay men of color to have their own bond of brotherhood on college campuses everywhere.

They fittingly got together on Dr. King’s birthday (January 15, 1985) and started the Alpha Chapter of Delta Phi Epsilon. Black gay men, tired of being rejected in their attempts to join the Divine Nine fraternities eagerly embraced the new organization. It rapidly grew to include chapters in other Florida cities, New York, Boston and Houston. The Delts celebrated their 20th anniversary last year.

Fifteen years later Lakisha Goss, Janiece Smith, Michelle McCallum and Stefany Richards decided to form a sorority for lesbian women of color. On February 7, 2000 Iota Lambda Pi Sorority was born. During the planning process they realized that an organization that catered to dominant lesbian women was desperately needed. They renamed Iota Lambda Pi as a fraternity and gave it the mission to change the negative stereotypes placed upon butch/stud women and establish a safe haven for them. Lakisha and Janiece subsequently formed Omicron Epsilon Pi Sorority for feminine lesbians.

Other organizations such as Sigma Kappa Tau, Kappa Xi Omega, and Alpha Psi Kappa Fraternity have followed the trail blazed by these pioneering organizations.

These new Greeks on the block may be small in number now, but their founders have big plans for them. They are taking a page out of our history books and are following the road map that the Divine Nine organizations used in the early 20th century to build themselves up to become the African-American icons they are today.

Here’s hoping that these GLBT Greek organizations exceed their wildest dreams in terms of not only uplifting the African-American GLBT community, but all Africn-Americans and the GLBT community as well.

August 2006 TransGriot Column

We ARE Role Models-To The Entire World
Copyright 2006, THE LETTER

While I was in Philly collecting the Trinity I earned I spent some quality time reconnecting with my girls Jordana and Dionne. Thanks to her musical talents she's probably the most well known African-American transwoman on the planet. She’s also lived in London and Thailand and has friends and contacts all over the world.

During our conversations she and Dionne reminded me of something that I’ve observed over the years but didn't connect the dots until they pointed it out.

African-Americans are considered some of the wealthiest people of African descent on the planet because we live in the United States. Many of our brothers and sisters in the Caribbean, Africa and throughout the African Diaspora seek to emulate us. They look to us for guidance and leadership on many issues. In addition, our African cousins admire the Jamaicans and us.

What that means is that whatever we do as African-Americans has reverberations throughout the Diaspora. People in the Motherland take their cues from them and us.

How much, you ask? In addition to culture and style issues, the African colonial independence movement used the American Civil Rights movement as a model. Nelson Mandela borrowed Dr. King’s tactics when South Africans began waging their own successful battle against apartheid. He mentioned in a speech during the 90’s that support from African-Americans was critical to that success and that he and other South Africans listened to Motown, various R&B and rap artists for inspiration at various times during their decades long struggle for freedom.

Our influence even extends to attitudes about various social issues. Jordana pointed out that homophobic rap artists in the States influence much of the
homophobic content of Jamaican reggae. The sellout ministers anti-homophobic stances and US politicians using anti-gay attacks to divert attention from pressing domestic problems or to defuse political dissent has filtered back to the Motherland via Jamaica.

Here are some disturbing examples of it.

Kenyan President Daniel Arap Moi has denounced homosexuality as a “scourge".

After hearing reports that a gay wedding had taken place in a Kampala suburb between a hairdresser and his boyfriend, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni spoke out against same sex relationships by saying that the full law should be used against such "abominable acts".

Nigeria was preparing in April to pass a punitive law that would not only prohibit same sex marriages, but would also punish people who witness, celebrate with or support couples involved in same sex relationships with mandatory five year jail sentences.

Our African cousins even have their own code word for their homophobia. Instead of screaming ‘special rights’ they will argue that homosexuality is "un-African." In other words they blame the European colonizers. They declare that homosexuality is foreign to the continent, against its teachings and traditions and even against what the Bible teaches.

In fact some Africans will go further in buttressing this bogus argument by stating that there is no word for homosexuals or homosexuality in their local African languages.

But it’s common knowledge on the continent that an ancient Ugandan king "paid special attention to boys in his court". A former national President and a prominent church leader on the African continent were recently convicted of sodomy and sexual assault.

The most enthusiastic practitioners of anti-GLBT policies are Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe and Namibia’s former president Sam Nujoma. Mugabe has been very outspoken since 1995 against gays and has been quoted as saying “homosexuals are lower than pigs and dogs". He has backed up his hate speech by relentlessly persecuting GLBT people in his country.

President Nujoma told University of Namibia students on March 19, 2001 that "The Republic of Namibia does not allow homosexuality or lesbianism here. Police are ordered to arrest you, deport you and imprison you."

Members of Nujoma's cabinet have made similar statements that homosexuals should be "eliminated" from Namibian society. The intolerant climate they created led to the death of a Namibian transwoman last year.

So when we say on TSTB that our images and perceptions in the African-American transgender community need to be more positive, we aren’t kidding.

The ability of people in the Diaspora and on the African continent to live their lives proudly and openly may depend on our ability in the United States to do just that.

July 2006 TransGriot Column

Congratulations Domanique Shappelle!
Copyright 2006, THE LETTER

I enjoy watching a good drag show or pageant every now and then (as long as I’m not choking on cigarette smoke in the process). I’ll even sit down and judge them from time to time when presented with the opportunity.

Thanks to all the wonderful people who extended me an invitation to judge the inaugural Miss Imperial Diva 2006 Pageant that took place on June 14. Congratulations to Vanessa Ross of Indianapolis who was crowned the winner.
I also enjoyed getting to meet special guests Amelia Black and Terri Vanessa Coleman and watching them perform as well

Speaking of congratulations, it’s past time for me to extend them to the other royalty in our midst in Da Ville since her reign is rapidly drawing to a close. Congratulations to Domanique Shappelle, Miss Continental 2005-2006.

Miss Continental is held during the Labor Day weekend in Chicago. The Miss Continental system is one of the prestige pageant circuits along with the Miss Gay America and Miss Gay USofA systems. There are several African-American pageant systems as well such as Miss Black Universe and Liberty International for starters and the list seems to grow longer with each passing year.

I met Domanique in conjunction with the time I spent with HIM 100 Concerned Men and HER back in 2003 as Transgender Initiative Coordinator. I was asked to become coordinator when no one else wanted the job. She was doing shows at The Connection at the time and had the respect of many of the transwomen I was trying to reach. That was critical as Dawn, myself and several other dedicated people worked diligently for almost a year to try to revive the Afro-American centered HIV/AIDS program before its funding was pulled.

I have had the pleasure during my journey to transwomanhood of meeting many female illusionists. Some are no longer here like the legendary Naomi Sims. Others I’ve met in my hometown and elsewhere have gone on to bigger and better things such as Tommie Ross, Chevelle Brooks, Chanel Nicole, Shawnna Brooks, Sophia McIntosh and Lawanda Jackson.

I have always been aware of the fact in conversing with many of these beautiful and talented ladies that many of them are intelligent goal-oriented individuals. I discovered during a dinner we had at the house a few years ago that Domanique has a degree in communications. We shared the same concerns about our younger transsistahs growing up without the foundations of a good education, knowing their history and having role models they can be proud of.

Well, Domanique is doing it in the pageant world. Whether she’s onstage or off, she’s carried herself with class and dignity. She’s cognizant of the role she plays as a mentor to the girls of the pageant world as their representative just as myself and others strive to build a positive image for transpeople in our interactions with the folks we come in contact with on a daily basis

Our busy schedules over the last two years have prevented us from being in contact as much as I’d like to, but Domanique is definitely someone I want to spend more quality time with. I still consider her a friend and hope she feels the same way.

Congratulations, sis. May you have continued success in your career.

June 2006 TransGriot Column

Shirley Q. Liquor: It’s STILL a Minstrel Show.
Copyright 2006, THE LETTER


Out of all the TransGriot columns that I’ve written
over the last two years, the one that plucks the most
nerves and has generated the most criticism (and still
does) is the May 2005 one I wrote blasting Shirley Q.
Liquor.

Exhibit A: A comment on my TransGriot blog from
Marshall (who when I clicked on his profile was too
cowardly to leave contact info in it):

You really need to get a life! If you don't like it,
don't listen to it! Ever watched In Living Color? A
show produced by black folk who did it all the time
themselves. The reason racism is still around is
because people like you and the protestors in NY wont
let it! You are full of it!

My response:

Gee Marshall (if that's your real name) did I strike a
nerve?

Sounds like you're another one of Shirley Q's fans who
get their panties in a bunch every time ANYONE calls
him out for his 21st Century minstrel show which is
demeaning and racist to African-American women.

Racism is STILL around because your ancestors
encouraged and practiced it for 400 years.

And by the way, I still have the first four seasons of
In Living Color on VHS. Shirley Q ain't even in the
same league with the Wayans family, much less Jim
Carrey.

I’m bringing Shirley Q's racist act up again because
of what recently transpired on the Eastern Kentucky
University campus.

Someone in the EKU Pride Alliance decided that it
would be a wonderful idea to bring Shirley Q. Liquor
to Richmond for an April 29 on campus performance.
I’ve already documented in the May 2005 column what
African-American GLBT peeps think about Chuck Knipp’s
brand of comedy. To us it’s about as funny as a heart
attack.

After a firestorm of protests the event was canceled.
It didn’t help that Shirley’s visit was going to occur
just as the firestorm over Jason Johnson’s expulsion
from the homophobic University of the Cumberlands was
happening. It was a public relations disaster in the
making.

We already have major problem with homophobic Black
preachers. Once they had gotten wind of this
performance it would have poured gasoline on a fire
that GLBT African-Americans are already struggling to
try to put out in terms of gay-bashing from our
pulpits.

By the way Shirley Q. defenders, please spare me the
latest defense spin about her performance is just
honoring the Black women who raised her. I just ate.

I don’t know ANY African-American women who wear
blackface, an Afro, wear multihued eye shadow in the
colors of the African-American flag (red, black and
green) brag about being a ‘welfare mother with 19
chirren’ or name their children after venereal
diseases.

It ain’t performance art, it’s a minstrel show for the
new millennium. Trotting out RuPaul or any other
African-American to defend her ain’t gonna change
that.

And if y’all are trying to defend Chuck on the ‘he’s
not racist’ tip, then check out the ’12 Days of
Kwanzaa’ ditty that got played on several Deep South
radio stations. It’s a favorite tune of white
supremacists everywhere.

The point I’m trying to make once again is that
blackface images still carry a lot of pain for
African-Americans, even in the early 21st Century.
Spike Lee tried to satirically use them in his 2002
movie 'Banboozled’ to lampoon the way Hollywood
disrespects the images of Black people and he was
savagely criticized for it. The loudest protests came
from fellow African-Americans.

So if Spike Lee can’t get away with using minstrel
show images, what makes a white gay male named Chuck
Knipp think that he can?

May 2006 TransGriot Column

I'll Always Love My Mama
Copyright 2006, THE LETTER


There’s a classic 1973 Intruders song that expresses how I feel about my mother back in H-Town. The chorus goes:

I’ll always love my mama
She’s my favorite girl.
I’ll always love my mama
She brought me in this world

Yep, Mable Roberts did a fantastic job of raising me and my brothers and sisters. She did it while juggling a teaching career, service to her church and to her sorority. I deeply appreciated the times she had to play mom and dad to us when my father was out of town. I was the one she used to roust out of bed on Saturday mornings to play chauffeur to various shopping malls.

Truth is, I enjoyed those trips as much as she and my grandmothers because of the quality time I got to spend with them.

One of the many things that I admire about my mother is her intelligence. She graduated cum laude with a degree in history while caring for a husband, a two year old toddler (the future TransGriot) and my newborn brother. When she started working on her masters she was pregnant with my sister. Mom is an even-tempered woman who instilled in my siblings and me our love of books, history, education and politics and is to this day a voracious reader with wide ranging tastes.

I marvel at Mom’s sense of style and how she did it on a budget. I jokingly call her ‘Imelda Marcos’ because of her sizable shoe collection. My sister Latoya gleefully gets to take advantage of it because they wear the same size. Speaking of sizes, she still cuts a shapely figure in a size 8 dress. (I’m jealous since I wear a size 16) She downplays her beauty, but I remember one Parent-Teacher conference day in fifth grade when she visited my classroom. My fifth grade teacher was a stunning looking sistah herself, but all the fellas said to me after she left “Your mama is finer than Ms. Ware.”

While mom and I are fairly close because I was her first born child, there are days when I wish I could’ve been her daughter from birth. I would’ve rather been in my sister’s position. While she was in college Latoya joined my mother’s sorority and Mom got the opportunity to pin her when she went over. I had to settle for the frustration while I was at UH of enviously watching the smartly dressed pledges walk around campus in skirted suits and heels in the sorority’s colors or being on the periphery when I DJed her sorority chapter’s Christmas party.

My Aunt Gwen along with a host of other relatives always told me that temperament wise I was more like her. That’s become more pronounced as I’ve gotten older. I inherited Mom’s sense of style and sense of humor. I can wield sarcasm with Ninja like precision just like her. In 1997 I ate Christmas dinner with the family for the first time since I transitioned. When I walked into the door of my grandmother’s house with my then roommate Vanity, mom quipped as she hugged me, “People always said when you were growing up that you looked like me. Now you REALLY look like me.” But don’t sleep on her. She’s tough as nails when she has to be. People that tried to take her kindness for weakness found out quickly that she wasn’t to be played with.

I have been living as a woman for over a decade now and I hope and pray that I am living up to the sterling example of African-American womanhood my mother embodies.

I love you Mom. Happy Mother’s Day.

April 2006 TransGriot Column

Friends..I Got Friends
Copyright 2006, THE LETTER

Friends
I got friends
My values are with my
Friends
So glad that I
I got friends
And not the fair weather kind

This is the chorus to the classic 1980's Shalamar song about friendship and what it means to be one.

One of the unexpected benefits of founding Transistahs-Transbrothas in 2004 was the fact that I gained some new friends and reconnected with some old ones in the trans community.

A member of Transistahs-Transbrothas recently posted to the list about feeling 'alienated' because TSTB members share a closeness and cohesion that isn't found on many Internet lists and the member felt left out. While that wasn't intentional, the comment did spark some discussion and I spent a few days pondering the question.

What does it mean to be a friend?

Maintaining a friendship takes a lot of work, shared values, some shared interests and a commitment from both parties to keep the lines of communication open. I've been blessed to still have some friends around in my life that I met in elementary, junior high and high school. Others I have met during various periods of my life.

One of my cardinal rules about friendships is that I treat them like a marriage. Once I've gotten to the point that I consider you a friend, it's till death do us part. Loyalty is another important characteristic that I look for in my friends. What I mean by that is that they know that I'll have their backs and they'll have mine.

In that regard I've been blessed to have friends that took two days off from work to help me move, forwarded a manuscript of mine I was working on to an agent, read another one of my manuscripts and critiqued it, set me up with DJ gigs, paid my airfare home when I needed to go back to H-town for my grandmother's funeral and was in between paychecks, and helped teach me the ins and outs of Femininity 101.

I also don't limit myself to my age group when I choose my friends. I like having a diverse, intellectual group of people around me. There are times when a 24 year old can give me fresh insights on an issue that someone in my peer group may not be able to. I also like soaking up wisdom from friends who are older than me.

I always liked having people smarter than me around that I can learn and grow from but that doens't necessarily mean that you have to be a college grad to be my friend. Some of the smartest people I've interacted with in my life had less than a high school education but taught me much.

Friends will also tell you when you're screwing up, give you that motivational kick in the butt when you need it, praise you when you deserve it or give you that comforting hug or words when you're feeling down. They have a way of making you feel that you are the most important person in their lives at that particular moment in time.

It also takes some risk to open yourself up to possible rejection when you first approach someone that you are trying to get to know on that level. But if you do and the two of you click personality wise, its a win-win situation for both parties.

I can't comprehend my life without the friends I've made and I'm going to make and don't even want to try to imagine doing so. But unfortunately we have some peeps in this world who believe that it's a waste of time and energy to get to know someone on that level or they don't want friends because they're antisocial, loners or afraid of being hurt.

Have my friends said things to me that pissed me off? Yes.
Have I said things that have hurt my friends feelings? Yes.

That's just a part of life. If you choose them wisely it minimizes those occurences. Sometimes those moments are either unintentional or can't be avoided because you need to hear the unvarnished truth about something even if you aren't in the mood to accept that advice at that time. If your friend didn't love you, they wouldn't speak up and tell you what you needed to hear in the first place.

There are times when you will crack up laughing at each others stories, cry a bit or get on each other's last nerve, but the benefits far outweigh the alternatives of trying to make your way in a world alone.