New TransGriot Feature-Saturday Sellout

I've decided to start a new feature on TransGriot tomorrow called the Saturday Sellout.

I'll take the time to shine a spotlight on and highlight the people who are actively working to retard our progress as African descended people, who are collaborating with the agents of whiteness and intolerance and are getting paid for it.

While it won't be a weekly thing like the Shut Up Fool! Awards are, the Saturday Sellout will be designed to enlighten you about the peeps that may be our skinfolk, but damned sure ain't our kinfolk.

You need to know who they are, what they are up to and why they deserve the Oreo cookie they're going to get.

Many of our Uncle Thomas and Aunt Thomasinas aren't as blatanly open about it as the Supreme Court Injustice and Condoleezza Rice. Some of them try to slide below the radar before they get outed by conservatives praising their names or they show up on Faux News attacking progressive Blacks.

No more will they be allowed to do that. Time to tell it like it T-I-S is about these 'honorary white people' as Pat Buchanan called the man sitting on the Court.

You sell us out, I'm callin' your ass out.

And here's the cookie you so richly deserve for doing so.

Why The Media Silence On HR 676, The Universal Single Payer Health Care Bill?

'The time has arrived to help millions of Americans living without a full measure of opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health...and [to have] protection...against the economic effects of sickness.' President Harry S. Truman September 19, 1945

The United States is the only industrialized nation without a universal single payer health care system. It's not for lack of trying. President Harry Truman tried to get one passed for us starting in 1945 but the W-M-D Bill to establish the system was thwarted by the dynamic duo of Republican Party resistance and the AMA screaming 'socialized medicine'.

In 1993 President Bill Clinton tried to pass universal single payer health care with then First Lady Hillary Clinton being the point person on the plan. 'Hillarycare' was drowned in $100 million of special interest money, lies, lobbyists, the usual refrains of 'socialized medicine' and the 'Harry and Louise' negative attack ad among others.

The takeover of Congress in the 1994 midterm elections by the GOP, the perennial Party of NO when it comes to universal single payer health plans also killed any further attempts by the Clinton administration at implementing it.



The soon to be nasty and heated debate concerning what direction the Obama Administration reforms of our broken health care system will take will make the 1993 one look like a church picnic. Out of all the plans under discussion, there's one option our corporate media won't talk about.

Universal comprehensive single payer health care.

So if the media won't kick knowledge about it, it's up to us bloggers to do so. I also found it interesting that 'Harry and Louise are back and singing a different tune in these 2008 ads, just like the millions of Americans who were hoodwinked and bamboozled into opposing 'Hillarycare'.



Since I believe that health care is a right, not a pay for out of pocket privilege, what I'm seeking to do is 'ejumacate' you about the once in a lifetime chance we have to get a health care system passed that benefits us, not large corporations.

Class is now in session. Time to talk about HR 676.

HR 676 is the United States National Health Insurance Act. It would expand and improve Medicare to cover all individuals residing in the United States.

If HR 676 is passed and signed by President Obama everybody would receive high quality and affordable health care services. People would receive all medically necessary services by the physicians of their choice, with no restrictions on what providers they could visit. If HR 676 is implemented, the United States National Health Insurance Act would cover primary care, dental, mental health, prescription drugs, and long term care.

In other words, the same high quality, low cost health care that other nations such as Canada, Great Britain, France and others around the world enjoy that's a major reason why their life expectancy rates are rising as opposed to ours would finally come to US shores.

'Our current national health care system is simple. Don't get sick.' Anonymous.

If you've seen the Michael Moore movie 'Sicko', you've already gotten a glimpse of what it's really like for the countries that use single payer health care plans.

Citizens in countries with universal health care pay small fees for medications we pay hundreds of dollars for. It's the reason US peeps who live near the Canadian or Mexican borders get their medications over there.

They get to see their regular doctors and never pay doctor bills. Doctors still get paid six figure salaries for practicing medicine despite working for the government, and you have luxuries such as house calls for doctors, therapists, et cetera.

Of course, the large HMO's and drug companies are against it and are already gearing up to spend truckloads of cash on PR firms and lobbyists to demonize and stop this bill from passing. They favor one that keeps the same tired Nixonian era HMO based system in place with its high costs, obscene drug prices, deductibles and high profits for them.


We also have a coalition of doctors, nurses and health care workers who are pushing for a comprehensive single payer universal health system to be created here in the United States as well. Physicians For a National Health Program is doing the myth busting work in order to get this passed so we'll no longer have 18,000 people a year die because of our jacked up system.

Contrary to the fiction that universal health care opponents and the GOP like to pimp, we don't have the best health care system in the world. We're 37th in the World Health Organization rankings when it comes to health care (France was number one).

The United States also fared poorly in a 2007 study by the Commonwealth Fund that compared our health care system to eight industrialized nations.

There are increasing numbers of cities such as Austin, TX and Louisville along with various organizations who have passed resolutions supporting and endorsing HR 676 along with various citizens groups. It's time once again to make our voices heard to our congressmen like we did on November 4 last year so it can happen.

It's time for the United States to stop the medical madness and join the rest of the world in providing quality health care to all its citizens.

The Shut Up Fool! Awards

I'm initiating a new feature on TransGriot today to add to your blogging pleasure.

Every Friday I'll pass out the 'Shut Up Fool! Award. They will go to the person or persons that say the stupidest, most asinine crap during the previous week.

There were many worthy honorees I could have chosen for this week's award, and I know you're anxious to find out who won, so let's get to the nominees for this week inaugural award.

Rush Limbaugh must be swallowing the OxyContin again and drinking Republican red hateraid from 55 gallon drums. He's said he 'hopes Obama fails', and after getting slammed by fellow conservatives and others, has been trying to spin the comment ever since.



There's the ongoing soap opera with Rod Blagojevich, and please Illinois legislature, impeach the idiot, remove him from office and get him the help he needs because his 15 minutes of fame was up a long time ago.



Ann Coulter for her latest waste of trees and the asinine comments she made on The View that single mothers were 'raising criminals'. She forgot that she was saying it in front of single mother Whoopi Goldberg, who ripped her a new anus.



But this week's winner is Faux News sellout Juan Williams, who called First Lady Michelle Obama 'Stokely Carmichael in a dress'.



This meme of trying to paint the First Lady as the second coming of Angela Davis is getting old from you conservatives.


That's who I chose this week. Any comments? Were there other peeps you think should have won it? Discuss.

TransGriot Panel Discussion Series Input

Back in May 2007 I wrote a newspaper column entitled Genetic Women and Transwomen-Can We Be Friends? that generated an interesting and thought provoking discussion on the issue of friendship between transsistahs and our biosistahs that I had to continue on this blog.

I and the panelists had so much fun doing it, I'm thinking about initiating on TransGriot a regular feature in which I gather a panel of transwomen and our biosisters together on a monthly basis to discuss various issues.

Sometimes they will be predominately bloggers, sometimes not. Sometimes it may be a discussion that's WOC only so that we can talk about some issues unique to the community, sometimes it will be a broad cross section of panelists across our diverse rainbow of humanity.

It's part of my New Year's resolution to not only open this blog up to other voices, but continue to break down any potential barriers between us and our biosisters that hinder communication and allow us to build mutually beneficial friendships with each other.

This is where you TransGriot readers come in. When I begin this ongoing series of panel discussions, what topics would you like to see discussed by my esteemed panelists?

In Solidarity

TransGriot Note: One of the things I want to do this year is foster open discussion and communication between transwomen and our biosisters about various issues. From time to time I'll be opening up TransGriot to various women of color bloggers in order to facilitate these conversations, and I've been invited to do the same on several of their blogs as well.

My Canadian sister Renee of Womanist Musings kicks off this series of posts.

Hello everyone, my name is Renee and I write a blog called Womanist Musings. I would like to first say thank you to Monica for sharing her space with me. It is a real honour to be given an opportunity to blog here.

On my blog one of the things I focus on is having the conversations that no one else is having. I believe that unless we speak for the marginalized and exploited bodies of this world they will continue to be ignored in our quest to amass greater and greater privilege. This is detrimental not only to us as a society, but to our little blue planet.

I have spent a lot of time in conversation with Monica recently. Yes, she is as marvelous as you think she is. In our conversations we seem to come back to one reoccurring theme, the need for cisgendered women of color and trans women of color to unite. As a womanist I have had many dealings with the feminist community and one thing has become overwhelmingly clear, though many pay lip service to intersectionality, it really is about progressing the needs of white women. While discussing my frustration with feminism with Monica, she related a similar story about the trans movement.

Oddly enough I met Monica when she came to cuss me out. I laugh about it now because we have developed a wonderful friendship, though girlfriend still owes me a cornbread recipe. At any rate, as we got to know each other and share our different experiences the more I began to realize that if two individuals, hundreds of miles apart from each other could forge a bond based in our mutual frustration with racial discrimination and a belief in our self worth, then it is quite possible to create a larger coalition.

Black women are not strangers to work. From the moment we stepped on this continent in chains ours have been lives of intense labour. We have worked under the cruel threat of the lash and we have more often than not laboured to benefit others. When you examine any social justice movement you will find white people in leadership roles with black women serving as support staff. The one commonality of all organizations or corporations is the distribution of labour; it is the support staff that does the real work without any real acclaim, or reward. I am tired of whiteness being the face of my labour, and I am sick of whiteness being the beneficiary of my blood sweat and tears.

TWOC and CWOC have divorced from each other and given our energies to our separate social justice movements. The end result of this is that neither one of us has been able to achieve much social progress, nor are we in leadership positions in our respective groups. Essentially we have allowed whiteness to divide and thereby conquer us.

When I talk to Monica, I know that I am talking to a comrade in arms. We have dealt with many issues that are common in our efforts to try and achieve equality for WOC. Our blackness and our femininity are our common bond. There will be times when we face different issues based in the fact that I am cisgendered and that she is a trans woman; however our desire to forge a relationship has caused us to focus on our commonalities, and talk our way through difference. This has reinforced my belief that we must begin to coalition build between cisgendered WOC and trans WOC. Whatever petty divides we have had in the past must be released if we are going to move forward as women.

No one is out there fighting for us; and therefore we must join forces and fight for each other. The issues of my Trans sister of color are my issues. When she is harassed on the streets, beaten or murdered it very well could me, and knowing this cisgendered women cannot turn their backs. TWOC are attacked as much for gender issues as they are for their race. Their vulnerability is my vulnerability.

In this coming year it is going to be my goal to try and forge more bonds with my trans sisters in the hopes that we can stand together and fight the forces that oppress us both. I know that my freedom can never truly occur until my trans sisters are also free. We are women and we are one. If the world cannot recognize this we must join together and make them see what their privilege denies. Together in solidarity I cannot imagine a force of nature stronger than black women aligned in the cause of justice.

Notable African-American Transgender People

TransGriot Note:-This will be an ongoing project of the TransGriot Blog. Our transkids and our people need to know (along with the GLBT community in general) that there are African-American transpeople that are doing thangs.

And yeah, I have to humbly toot my own horn and add myself to this list as well. If you are aware of African-American transpeeps who are doing things that I may not have heard of, please do not hesitate to forward that info to me.

Justina Williams
Dr. Marisa Richmond
Dawn Wilson
Valerie Spencer
Miss Major

Jordana LeSesne
DJ Miss Honey Dijon
Sharon Davis
Tracy Jada O'Brien
Earline Budd

Lorrainne Sade Baskerville
Kylar Broadus
Rev. Joshua Holiday
Laverne Cox
Zion Johnson

The Lady Chablis
Tommie Ross
Sharyn Grayson
Stasha Sanchez
Domanique Shappelle

Octavia St. Laurent
Dionne Stallworth
Louis Mitchell
Cydne Kimbrough
Tona Brown

Isis King
Imani Henry


Our Continental African Transpeeps

Juliet Victor Mukasa
Mia Nikasomo
Barbara Diop
Nick Mwaluko


Our Deceased Transbrothers and Transsisters

Marcelle Cook-Daniels
James 'Sweet Evening Breeze' Herndon
Tyra Hunter
Alexander John Goodrum
Roberta Angela Dee

Cookie LaCook
Cathay Williams
Amanda Milan
Stephanie Thomas
Ukea Davis

Chareka Keys
Chanelle Pickett
Gabrielle Pickett
Rita Hester

T-Tunes With Soul

I reread the Elisabeth Withers post I wrote last year. While I was doing so it reminded me of a project I was working on before I moved to Louisville in 2001.

During the 1999 Texas Lobby Day, as a token of appreciation to all the participants one of the organizing team members put together a compilation cassette tape of transgender themed music called T-Tunes. When I received mine I looked at the songs listed and noted that it was devoid of African-American music.

I pointed out to the person that compiled it that there were songs that you could definitely interpret in the R&B end of the music spectrum as having a transgender theme, even if it wasn't specifically written that way like Elisabeth Withers' 'The World Ain't Ready'.

Well, without further ado I decided to start compiling my own list of what is going to become an ongoing project of TransGriot, the T-Tunes with Soul

'The World Ain't Ready' Elisabeth Withers

'Transformation' Nona Hendryx


'Skeletons' Stevie Wonder


'You're Not The Man' Sade

''Unpretty' TLC

'Imagine' Earth, Wind and Fire

'I Can Only Be Me' Keith John (from the School Daze soundtrack)


So R&B fans.. any other songs you can think of that could be considered transgender themed?


TransGriot Note: person in photo is singer Nona Hendryx in her home studio

Tall Sistahs

photo-Sen. Barack Obama and his statuesque 5'11" wife Michelle.


In our society women are considered tall if they are 5'8' or taller. There's much debate as to how elastic that definition of 'tall' is. My personal belief is that if you're 5'7" or above you can consider yourself tall. Some people dispute my belief and state that tall status for women starts at 5'6".

One of my issues when I started transition was my height. I used to believe the hype despite the abundant evidence that there weren't a lot of women my height (6'2") and I would get read like a cheap novel.

A few things happened that changed my outlook. The rise of 5'11" Tyra Banks as a supermodel at the time I was beginning my transition, Dr. Cole drilling it into my head during my gender counseling sessions over time that women come in ALL shapes and sizes, my own observations of the world around me and the startup of the WNBA in 1997. I began to look at it with a renewed sense of pride that I am over 6 feet tall and most of my under 5'7" sisters would love to be walking in my pumps.

My fears turned out to be unfounded. The ironic thing is that most peeps when they see me on the street ask me if I'm a fashion model or a WNBA ballplayer. ;)

To help those who may be going through a similar thing, this is a list that I have compiled of sistahs that are 5'7" or taller. While there are other lists of tall women on the Net, many of them either don't have or list few of our African-American stars or peeps of note.

This post will be one that I'll continually update. There are tall women of all ethnic backgrounds and I'll be putting that together in a separate post.

The Tall Sistahs List

5'7"

Halle Berry
Eve
India Arie
Vivica A. Fox
Sanaa Lathan
Sade
Jackee
Tracee Ellis Ross
Florence Griffith-Joyner
Rosario Dawson
Dawnn Lewis
Beyonce Knowles
Dionne Warwick

5'8"

Aaliyah
Rihanna
Shari Headley
Ananda Lewis
Whitney Houston
Gabrielle Union
Jill Marie Jones
Pam Grier
Chudney Ross (Diana Ross' daughter and Tracee Eillis Ross' baby sis)
Maritza Correia (US women's team swimmer)
Zahra Redwood (2007 Miss Jamaica)
Jennifer Beals 5'8 1/2”

5'9"

Michael Michele
Mariah Carey
Ciara
Iman
Kelis
Kim Coles
Mo’Nique
Beverly Johnson
Toccara Jones
Garcelle Beauvais
Lela Rochon
Valarie Pettiford
Yoanna Henry (2007 Miss St. Lucia)
Renata Christian (2007 Miss US Virgin Islands)
Shakara Ledard 5'9 1/2" (supermodel)
Crystle Stewart (2008 Miss USA)

5'10"

Jayne Kennedy
Naomi Campbell
Serena Williams
Cynthia Cooper
Laila Ali
Queen Latifah
Jackie Joyner-Kersee
Robin Roberts
Kenya Moore
Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth
K.D. (Karen Denise) Aubert
Lisa Fischer (Luther Vandross backup singer)
Naomi Sims
Micaela Reis (2007 Miss Angola)
Meleesea Payne (2007 Miss Guyana)
Flaviana Matata (2007 Miss Tanzania)
Gayle King
Veronica Webb 5'10 1/2"


5'11"

Tyra Banks
Grace Jones
Nikki McCray
Alek Wek
Marion Jones
Marsha Warfield
Michelle Obama
Anne Marie Johnson
Rachel Smith (2007 Miss USA)
Rosemary Chileshe (2007 Miss Zambia)
Wendy Williams 5’11 1/2”

6 feet

Phyllis Hyman
Aisha Tyler
Faye Wattleton (former head Planned Parenthood)
Sheryl Swoopes
Nona Gaye
Macy Gray
Kimora Lee Simmons
Maya Angelou
Stagecoach Mary Fields
Jamaica Kincaid
Octavia Butler
Carole Gist (first African-American Miss USA)
Yolanda Adams
Jewel Garner (2007 Miss Barbados)

6'1"

Wendy Fitzwilliam (1998 Miss Universe)
Tamika Catchings (Indiana Fever)
Swin Cash (Seattle Storm)
Jade Johnson (British long-jumper)
Venus Williams 6'11/2"

6'2"

Tamara Dobson (from the Cleopatra Jones movie)
Tina Thompson (Houston Comets)
Rev. Paula McGee (Twin sis of Pamela McGee and USC b-ball great)
Pamela McGee (Twin sis of Paula McGee and retired WNBA baller)
Oluchi Onweagba (Nigerian-born supermodel)
Flo Hyman (former US Olympic volleyballer)
Chamique Holdsclaw (LA Sparks)
Tari Phillips (former Houston Comet)
Tamika Whitmore (Indiana Fever)

6'3"

Cheryl Miller
Mistie Williams (Houston Comets center and daughter of Chubby Checker)
Cheryl Ford (Detroit Shock and daughter of NBA hall of famer Karl Malone)
Astou Ndiaye-Diatta (Indiana Fever)
DeMya Walker (Sacramento Monarchs)

6'4"

Carolyn Peck (former University of Florida women's Head Coach)
Candace Parker (LA Sparks)
Monique Ambers (former head coach of the Sacramento Monarchs)
Tangela Smith (Charlotte Sting)
Tammy Sutton-Brown (Indiana Fever)

6'5"

Lisa Leslie (Olympian and LA Sparks center)
Monica Lamb (former center Houston Comets)
Michelle Snow (Houston Comets center)

6'6"
Sylvia Fowles (Chicago Sky)