Why The Ignorance About Canada?

You long time TransGriot readers have probably noticed that I write a lot of posts geared toward our northern neighbors.

It's not an accident. Even before I ended up with a dear friend who resides north of the border I was fascinated by the Great White North. I noted as an African American the close cultural, spiritual and historic ties we share with our African descended brothers and sisters north of the border.

The Canadians are our largest international trading partner, and we share a long 5000 kilometer (3145 mile) border with them stretching from the Arctic Ocean along the Alaskan frontier, through the Pacific Northwest, passing through the Great Lakes and eventually ending at the Atlantic Ocean.

So it amazes me sometimes just how ignorant some Americans are about basic Canadian geography, much less their politics and their culture.

There are Canadians who can break down the US political system better than American natives and know our capital is in Washington DC. I'm willing to bet my next paycheck that many Americans not only couldn't tell you what the capital of Canada is but find it on a map.

Hint, it's in Ontario. And no it ain't Toronto. That's Ontario's provincial capital.

Speaking of provincial capitals, how many Americans can tell you what those provincial capitals are, much less name the provinces and territories off the top of their heads?

In terms of politics, who is the Prime Minister of Canada? What party does he belong to? Can you name the five major Canadian political parties? You get bonus points if you can name the leaders of those five parties as well.

And who is the current Governor General of Canada and what is the significance of the job?

Like I said, Canadians not only can tell you that, they can break down our politics as well.

When you have the second largest nation on the planet next door to you, it behooves you to know as much about them as they know about us.

For example, one thing you can't underestimate is a Canadian's love for Tim Horton's. They're a quintessential slice of Canadiana that symbolizes 'home' to just about every Canuck living inside or outside of the Great White North.

Timmy's coffee's is the bomb, too.

Wanna make an expat Canadian your BFF? Find a way to get them some Timmy's coffee.

I guess because I'm a person who wants to be informed, desires to be able to intelligently converse with anyone on the planet on any issue, maybe mine is a minority opinion.

Hey, they're our neighbors, and we should know as much about Canada as possible instead of walking around in ignorance. Maybe some Americans feel comfortable wallowing in it, but I'm not one of them.

On that note, in honor of Canada Day, I'm going to do some more reading on famous Black Canadians. It'll also be checking the Timmy's website to see how close one is to Louisville.

A Transsistah's Secret-Bras

The day you get your first bra is a right of passage moment for many cisgender girls. It's also a sign that a transwoman is moving towards the feminine side of the gender fence.

In the days when you are early into your transition and hadn't developed your girls yet or are simply cross dressing, all you did was stuck your breast forms (or whatever you used for the purpose) in your bra and went out and about in the world.

Now that you've been swallowing hormones or taking your shots for a sustained period, you have either developed a pair of your own girls, or got impatient and spent some cash to buy some.

No matter which way you got there, the burning questions become not only what's my bra size, but how do I put it on correctly?

Let's start by answering the size question. My endo was doing breast measurement during my visits my measurements to track my development progress, and I'd gotten up to a 34C.

It's estimated that 8 out of 10 women are wearing the wrong bra size, which can lead to back and other problems.

So unless you have contortionist skills that will lead to a professional career with the circus, getting accurate measurement is something you'll need a helping hand to do.

To ensure their customers are getting the correct size, a comfortable fit and reduce the risk of those potential problems, every so often your local department or lingerie store will have a bra fitting event where you can get properly measured for the correct size. They can also do so without you removing any clothing to be measured, unless you are wearing thick or bulky clothes.

If you're comfortable going out and about in the world, that's probably a good way to do it. But if you're still developing that confidence to boldly go out and about in the world, you'll have to have a trusted friend grab a tape measure and help you do so.

The key to a proper fitting bra is determining our accurate cup size, not what we wish our cup size to be.

You'll have that trusted friend start with a tape measure just underneath your breasts and around your back, making sure the tape is flat against your skin.

Add four inches to this measurement, and you have your band size. If you encounter an odd number, round up to the nearest even number since bra sizes only come in even numbers.

To find out your cup size, you will again pull out your trusty tape measure, and make sure it's once again flat across your back.

But instead of measuring under your breasts, measure across their fullest peaks. Add four inches, and compare with your band size measure. The difference between the two is your cup size, keeping in mind the following:

Negative Number AA A
Less than 1" AA
1" A
2" B
3" C
4" D
5" DD or E
6" DDD or F

Now that you know your size, time to find out how to put it on correctly.

After sticking arms through the straps, lean forward a bit and let gravity help the girls settle into the cups of the bra. You then make sure the nipples are in the crosshair point of the bra before hooking it.



Then again, the ways that women have of putting on their bras are as varied as the woman herself. So what ever way you put it on, make sure that you and the girls are comfortable when you're done.

Another Historic Meeting, Another Melanin Free Transgender Contingent

i went nuclear last year when there was a historic committee hearing on transgender issues and not one African-American transgender person was invited to participate.

There was another historic gathering of importance to GLBT people that took place on Monday. It was in the wake of the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots that took place June 28, 1969.

This time the host was none other than the POTUS, and it took place in the building at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue that my ancestors helped construct with their unpaid labor.



So did the white transgender community learn its lesson from last year and make sure in the twelve transgender people that were selected to be there, there was some African-American representation?

Nope.

As usual, the white transgender community was well represented on the transman and transwoman side, and Latino Diego Sanchez was there in his new role as Rep. Barney Frank's chief legislative aide. The NCTE folks were present and we even had one former NTACer in Kathy Padilla there.

But if y'all think I'm not gonna light your asses for making the same dumb ass mistake you made 365 days ago, y'all don't know me very well do you?

This was supposed to be a commemoration of Stonewall, and Miss Major, one of the few African-American transpeople left who are Stonewall veterans is still alive and well.

Why wasn't she there? Come to think of it, there were people in the trans community such as Vanessa Edwards Foster and Marti Abernathey who busted their derrieres in swing states like Ohio and Indiana to help get President Obama elected.

Washington DC itself is 61% African-American, which translates to Chocolate City having chocolate flavored transpeople. Where were they?

I also have to ask the question who put the list together this time or had input for it, knowing that you'll shunt the blame to the Obama White House for the 'oversight'?

And what pisses me and many African-American transpeople off even more about this dissing is the bitter irony that we weren't invited to an event that an African-American president we helped to elect called to celebrate an event and a movement we helped jump off.

You know, I and the African-American transgender community are beyond sick and tired of being sick and tired of the frequency of these 'oversights', the weak excuses that freely flow from white transpeople and their gay-lesbian allies trying to justify them, and the empty promises that flow from their lying lips that they'll do a better job next time to fix the problem.

It's obvious you don't want to fix the problem. You want to keep perpetuating the impression that this is a whites only movement.

If that's not the case, prove me wrong. But it's hard to not overlook the fact that the two major historical media events involving transpeople in the capital that was built with slave labor have had a glaring lack of African American transgender representation.

The ossifying impression of a whites only trans movement are also not helped by these oversights and trans movement leadership ranks that are as lily white as the Republican Party.

And what infuriates me and many African-American transpeople off even more about this dissing is the bitter irony that we weren't invited to an event that an African-American president we helped elect called to celebrate a historic event and a movement we helped jump off 40 years ago.

I wonder what the African-American president and first lady's thoughts were as they perused a so-called diverse group of transgender people that didn't have anyone of their ethnic background represented?

Once again, you vanilla flavored privileged peeps have demonstrated your utter lack of ignorance, respect and regard for your so called African descended transgender 'allies'.

It results once again in a situation in which another historic meeting takes place that has a melanin free transgender contingent.

Will you people ever learn? Obviously not, and neither does it seem you care to either.


Crossposted to The Bilerico Project