Dr. Ronald W. Walters Passes Away

One of the people I eagerly read who has influenced much of the way I see things politically is political scholar and expert on African-American politics Dr. Ronald W. Walters.

I've posted and quoted Dr. Walters Principles of Black Leadership on numerous TransGriot posts over the years but really hadn't gone into depth about just how farsighted he was and how much his ideas have become part of mainstream progressive policy.

Just to satisfy your curiosity about what those principles are, let me kick 'em to you one more time:

"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."

Two of his ideas which were considered radical back in the day such as comprehensive health care and a proposed two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian problem, are now mainstream progressive political thought.

He predicted in his 1987 book 'Black Presidential Politics in America: A Strategic Approach' how and what a Black presidential would have to do to get elected. He was the intellectual guru behind the formation of and early coalescence of the Congressional Black Caucus in 1970 and was on the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr. 1984 presidential campaign team.

In 1958 as an NAACP youth member in his hometown of Wichita, KS he pioneered and took part in a demonstration tactic that would later become famous in Greensboro, NC two years later, the sit-in.

In 2003 he predicted a resurgent white conservative movement in his book "White Nationalism, Black Interests: Conservative Public Policy and the Black Community."

In a January essay, Dr. Walters had this to say about President Obama's record in the face of criticism from the left and the right.

"I think that the pundits and the public should face up to one fact," he wrote. "The mess that President Barack Obama inherited will not be fixed in one year, or two or possibly even during his entire term.

"The media works on a timeframe of instant results. . . . If George Bush had been as criticized and interrogated as much as Obama, perhaps the edifice of problems that now challenge the very viability of America might have been stopped."

Dr. Walters died Friday in Bethesda from cancer.

"As an academic, journalist and crusader, he was in the tradition of W.E.B. DuBois," writer and civil rights leader Roger Wilkins said Saturday. "He was a man who used his intellect and wisdom to make this a fairer and culturally richer country than the one we were born into."

Dr. Walters was one of my intellectual role models. He will be missed by those of us in the African-American community and the progressive political side.

Rest in peace Dr. Walters.

The Freezer Project

TransGriot Note: Wonderful story from north of the border about a meals project that helps recovering post operative trans peeps

Freezer Project Eases The Transition

By Sarah Fraser
Ottawa
Wednesday May 27, 2009
Xtra.ca.com

Post SRS Trans Folk Get Boost From Program

Now entering its second year, the Freezer Project is an initiative that provides a portable freezer containing 30 homemade frozen meals —and the occasional ice cream bar or eclair — to individuals who have undergone sex reassignment surgery (SRS).

The project, started by trans activist and community agitator Elizabeth Tyler in 2008, is a free service open to both trans men and trans women. It fills a critical gap for people who may not have other options in terms of household support post-surgery.

"The freezers typically go out to folks who are living alone or who are low income."

The project began after Tyler observed an acquaintance recuperating from a bilateral mastectomy. His recovery was a painful and difficult one.

"After the surgery, he couldn't open his pain medication. He couldn't use the can opener to open a can of beans. He even had trouble taking the top off of spaghetti sauce," Tyler says.

"That's how the Freezer Project was born. I thought, 'Hey, someone should do this.' Then I thought, 'I guess that person is me.' It was easy to take action on."

Prior to surgery, Tyler meets with clients to understand their preferences and needs. They discuss whether the individual has any food allergies or restrictions, such as a vegetarian diet, and they work out the month-long menu together.

Tyler drops off the freezer after the client returns from the hospital and then picks it up in 30 days' time. In the meantime, the client simply takes a Tupperware container out of the freezer each night, lets it thaw and the food is ready to be heated and eaten the following day. No additional prep is needed.

When it comes to potential clients, Tyler says that she goes on an honour system and wants to keep it that way.

"If someone wants to be a recipient of [a] freezer and feels that they need it, I do my best to arrange it for them. I would not turn anyone down, and so far, the service has not been abused."

Although Tyler is the one who initiated this project, the wider Ottawa community is now getting involved in the process of cooking and assembling the meals for each freezer.

"The Freezer Project engages the community — it gives folks a chance to help out in a simple and easy way," Tyler says.

How does it work? Tyler typically rounds up seven other volunteer cooks and asks each person to make a large pot of a specific dish, like chili or stew. They each divide their dish into four portions, which equals a month's worth of food. A little bit of effort ends up making a huge difference in someone's recovery.

For the freezer that's about to be assembled, one of Ottawa's roller derby teams has volunteered to cook everything and put it together. Amazingly, the food, the freezer and the Tupperware containers come entirely from donations and the person receiving the freezer does not pay for the service.

Beyond it being free, Tyler believes that the Freezer Project offers benefits that services like Meals on Wheels does not.

"[With] Meals on Wheels...there is not as much choice," Tyler said. "And [they] deliver at lunch time, which is not always the most convenient for people. With the Freezer Project, you create your own menu and have more variety. And we try to keep the contents nutritious."

Given that SRS is now included under the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) — a move made by Ontario's Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care in June 2008 — more people will be able to undergo SRS. And the Freezer Project will undoubtedly grow as a result. In fact, in the last year, the project has served five clients in the Ottawa-Carleton region and more are requesting the service. Tyler is working on expanding the Freezer Project beyond Ottawa.

"The hope is to see the project take off in other cities — I'm trying to spread the word far and wide. I think the program could be applied to many different situations: I concentrate specifically on trans men and women because...there is a need for it, and it is close to my heart," said Tyler.

"I'm not aware of any other such projects in the world. It is very simple to run, and it doesn't cost a thing."

So far, the feedback Tyler has received from clients has been tremendously positive. She has received thank you cards in the mail and heartening comments from recipients.

"People appreciate that it is free and think it's a wonderful project."

If you or someone you know is interested in receiving a freezer or volunteering for the project, please contact Elizabeth Tyler at thefreezerproject@ live.com.


©2009 Pink Triangle Press

Coccinelle

Since I mentioned Coccinelle in a previous post, I thought it was only fair that you get to know who Jacqueline-Charlotte Dufresnoy was.

She was born in Paris on August 23, 1931. Her petite 5'3" frame and slight build led to many people questioning her gender identity. She was also aware of her gender issues at age 4 and began taking hormones in 1952.

A year later she made her debut as a transgender showgirl at Chez Madame Arthur where her mother worked selling flowers. She took the stage name Coccinelle (French for ladybug) as the show at Chez Madame Arthur became popular among Parisians and fascination about her metamorphosis grew.

She dyed her brunette hair blonde and later joined transgender showgirls April Ashley of Great Britain and Amanda Lear as a regular at the famed Le Carrousel de Paris nightclub as her popularity continued to increase.

Coccinelle usually arrived on stage wearing scarlet lipstick and wearing one of a number of outrageous mink coats dyed in different colors.

She'd already had rhinoplasty to further feminize her features, and in 1958 she traveled to Morocco and became the first European transwoman to undergo vaginoplasty by pioneering Casablanca based SRS surgeon Dr. Georges Burou.

When she returned to France, she became a media sensation like Christine Jorgenson several years before. She then remixed her look and her stage act to match the prominent sex symbols of that time period, Marilyn Monroe and Brigitte Bardot.

In addition to her new sexy image, she became appearing in various movies such as 1959's Europa di notte by director Alessandro Blasetti. More films followed, and she became the first French transwoman to become a major star in 1963 when she starred in a revue entitled 'Cherchez la femme' at the famed Paris Olympic Theater.

Coccinelle was a trailblazer and an iconic figure to transpeople who grew up in the 50's and 60's. After her operation France modified its laws to allow details on birth certificates to be amended following SRS, and she duly changed her name to Jacqueline-Charlotte from Jacques-Charles.

She also worked extensively as an activist on behalf of French transgender people, founding the organization Devenir Femme (To Become Woman). Devenir Femme was designed to provide emotional and practical support for persons seeking sex reassignment surgery. She also helped establish the Center for Aid, Research, and Information for Transsexuality and Gender Identity as well.



She was married three times, and her first marriage to sports journalist Francis Bonnet in 1960 not only was the first transsexual union to be officially acknowledged by the nation of France, she booked Notre Dame Cathedral for the ceremony. It also established a transgender person's legal right to marry in France.

Coccinelle toured the world for 25 years, and was a big hit in South America. Bob Hope was impressed by her show and offered her a tempting financial package to perform with his troupe, but she declined it. She even performed in front of the Shah of Iran and for 10 years appeared in a German cabaret run by transwoman Romy Haag. Her autobiography, Coccinelle by Coccinelle, was published in 1987 with her last public performance being done in 1990.

She later moved to Marseilles and ran her own cabaret there from 2002-2005 before being hospitalized in July 2006 following a stroke. She died on October 9, 2006 at age 75.

At her funeral, held at the Eglise Saint-Roch de Paris, Father Philippe Desgens reminded mourners: "All the children of God have a place in the Church", and noted that "by her marriage in church after her operation, and during her whole life, Coccinelle showed her faith."

Coccinelle is another of our iconic transwomen who will never be forgotten, and blazed a path that future French transwomen would follow.

Louis Coleman: 'A First Responder To Injustice'

TransGriot note: Rev. Louis Coleman passed away on July 4. He was as Betty Baye's column mentioned, a first responder to injustice here in Da Ville and across the state.

He's also a polarizing figure here as well. One day I overheard a white co-worker of mine when I worked at Macy's griping about him and a recent LG&E price hike in the breakroom. I pointed out that if it hadn't been for Rev. Coleman protesting it and chewing on them in the media the price hike would have been even higher.

I and more than a few people in GLBT Louisville were pissed at him for two months (some are still pissed) because he sided with the bigots during the bruising JCPS policy fight a few months ago. He will be missed.

By Betty Baye
Louisville Courier-Journal
July 10, 2008

I took for granted that the Rev. Louis Coleman would always be around Kentucky, speaking truth to power as he saw it.

But the long July 4 holiday was rudely interrupted while I was out to dinner with friends. News arrived that Louis had died.

My immediate thought was that now Louis can lay down the cross that he carried for so many and let somebody take care of him.

Louis Coleman befriended me when I was a reporter back in the mid-'80s. He kicked open doors in this city and this state through which a lot a people waltzed, including some who, once seated at tables of power, denied Coleman just as Judas denied the Jesus that Louis served so faithfully for 64 years.

We've all probably heard Louis' critics; they said that his tactics were unorthodox and that he wasn't always careful about marshalling all the facts before lacing up his marching shoes and grabbing his bullhorn and picket signs.

Fact is that Louis Coleman was just too "grassroots" for some people.

He wasn't an oratorical wonder like Frederick Douglass, Mary McCloud Bethune, Malcolm X or Martin Luther King Jr. He wasn't erudite like W.E.B. DuBois. And when he mounted the pulpit of the First Congregational Church, where he was pastor for many years, he wasn't a poetic preacher like the Rev. Jesse Jackson. Louis wasn't a natty dresser like Minister Louis Farrakhan, and he couldn't turn a phrase on paper like James Baldwin or his old friend, the late Anne Braden.

No, Louis Coleman was just Louis.

He wasn't a duplicate of anyone. He had his own style, and if you know anything about the civil rights movement, and human rights struggles in general, you know that it takes all kinds.

King, for example, self-identified as a drum major for justice. When I think of Louis Coleman, I imagine a foot soldier, bringing up the rear, as someone more comfortable in a T-shirt and jeans and in the trenches rather than in board rooms -- though Louis slipped in and out of more board rooms than some might imagine.

I'll always remember Louis as a first responder to injustice; he was an accessible leader.

Louis was hard-headed, too. He didn't readily take to the advice of those who urged him to take better care of himself or to slow down. For example, he called himself retired once, but that that didn't last long. Louis ran himself ragged holding press conferences about one issue or another, leading daily vigils outside crack houses and picketing City Hall, police headquarters and job sites, where he didn't believe that minorities were getting their fair share of the work or the contracts.

Not everybody was always happy to see Louis Coleman coming.

But those unhappy folks weren't the poor kids who lined up for the school-supplies giveaway that Louis held every year. Those unhappy with him weren't the people who applauded Louis' efforts to cut down on the violence by buying back guns off the streets.

And contrary to many of his detractors, who obviously had no personal contact, Louis was no racist. He didn't discriminate among his friends or those who sought his aid.

Though Louis did generate a lot of press over the last 30 or so years, he did some of his best work behind the scenes, and he never seemed to mind, as some close to him clearly did, when he wasn't given credit for the work that he had done. And it also didn't seem to matter to Louis that when the money that came as result of something that Louis first agitated for, it didn't flow into the coffers of the Justice Resource Center, but instead went to more mainstream groups.

It's not that Louis Coleman never got angry or didn't have an ego; we all do. But what I and many others who knew this kind, wonderful human being will cherish as his legacy is that Louis was more about getting the job done than simply being famous or being loved.

Louis Coleman was one of God's originals, and I'm going to miss his face around this place. I'll miss, too, those phone calls when I'd pick up and hear his raspy voice on the end of the line saying ever so respectfully, "Sister Betty, I've written something. Do you think you can get it in The Courier?"

Betty Winston Bayé's column appears Thursdays; her e-mail address is bbaye@courier-journal.com.