I Repeat, I Didn't Stop Being Black When I Transitioned

I try to call my family at least once a week to keep up with what's going on back home and in my old neighborhood, catch up on the latest Houston scuttlebutt and family news.

During my conversation with my mother a few days ago she mentioned she'd had a conversation with one of my old neighbors who was unaware of my gender transition. Her sons stumbled across my blog and of course relayed the news to their mother.

She made some cis privileged comments such as 'I was too smart to transition' and other ones that smacked of Christoignorance that my mom called her on.

I thought I made it clear for you African descended peeps last year that harbor the same thoughts as my old neighbor when I wrote about this subject.

It looks like it's time to remix and reiterate what I said because it still applies in the '09 and beyond.

Say it loud, I'm Black, trans and I'm proud!

Just because I transitioned a decade and a half ago doesn't shield me or any African descended transperson from being whacked with all the daily slings and arrows that being Black in America presents you with.

I still get called 'nigger'. As a matter of fact I've had that epithet thrown at me more so by people in the GLBT community since I transitioned than folks outside it.

I also get the displeasure of in addition to having the other anti-black and anti-gay ones hurled at me, having the b-word and other epithets directed at women spat at my statuesque behind as well.

As a child and godchild of historians I am not only cognizant of our history, I eagerly embrace and revel in it. I'm always striving to learn more about my people's accomplishments across the Diaspora.

Transition did not lower my IQ. As my cis girlfriends jokingly tell me, it enhanced it.

I am still down with our ongoing effort within the Black community to uplift the race and make it better. I want to add the voices, thoughts and talents of African descended trans people like myself and others to that effort both inside and outside the Black community.

At the same time I recognize the value of having and building a vibrant, self-aware Black trans community that knows its history, recognizes its heroes and sheroes and is a key player in the decision making ranks of the GLBT community.

I am still a 'Big C' Christian who is more concerned with 'what Jesus said' than the 'what Paul said' mean spirited right-wing prosperity gospel brand of Christianity.

I am not a 'birth defect'. I was made by the Creator to be here at this particular time and place with a certain skill set and talents. I am as a trans person a person with unique insights and part of the diverse mosaic of human life.

I also still share, as William Hastie said in a 1950 speech at the University of Rochester, the 'militancy against discrimination and racial indignity that is a heritage from our forbears'.

Being a proud African descended trans person does not constitute grounds for yanking my 'Black Card'.

Now Clarence Thomas is another story, but I digress.

I'm proud of who I am and 'who I be' as I continue to evolve into a beautiful, Quality Black Woman.

And you Black peeps who have a problem with trans people on specious religious grounds or because of your own insecurities need to buy a vowel and get a clue about that as well.