Say It Loud: Black, Transgender and Proud

TransGriot Note: An article I wrote for a local publication, the African-American Journal. Got the runaround on it, so I submitted it to IFGE who just published it.


There are a lot of words you can use to describe me. Daughter,aunt, friend, woman, sister, native Texan, Houstonian, African-American, deejay, Christian, transplanted Louisvillian, transplanted Kentuckian, activist, writer, sports fan, columnist, Kentucky Colonel, American.

Another one that would be accurate to use in my case is transgender.

Since much of the media attention that transgender people have garnered since 1953 is heavily slanted toward white transgender people, many African-Americans aren't familiar with or have preconceived notions about us. So let me take a moment to drop some science on you. There are also female to male transgender people but I'm going to focus on the male to female aspect of it

Transgender people are persons whose gender identity, that deeply held internal sense of being male or female, doesn't correspond with the body they were born with. One thing I want to stress is that gender identity and sexual orientation are two entirely separate and distinct issues. Being transgender doesn't necessarily mean that you are also gay. Current medical research has determined that one in every 250 births is a transgender person or about 3% of the population. Of the 34,772,381 people in the United States that are or identify as African-American, that translates to about 1 million of them being transgendered. Ongoing worldwide medical research into why it happens has been leaning to a biological cause for it

To become the Phenomenal Transwoman you see today, I had to adhere to the Standards of Care protocol devised by the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association, or HBIGDA. It's the medical association that devoted to research, understanding and treatment of gender identity disorders. I did counseling in the Houston area with a therapist trained in gender identity issues,endured several years of electrolysis to remove facial hair, changed identity documents and started hormone replacement by taking estrogen and several testosterone blockers. I was also required to live in the new gender role for a year before I would be allowed to have the gender reassignment surgery.

So as you can see, the journey to make my body match its gender role is not an easy one or a joke. I've been transitioned for 11 years and I still to this day deal with issues that crop up from time to time. Unfortunately a lot of the issues that affect me come from my own community. I love my people, our history and culture but we can sometimes be more narrow-minded, contrary and intolerant than many right wing fundamentalists. It's bad enough when African-American transpeople are disrespected by society at large. But it really hurts when the drama comes from people that share your cultural heritage. But as Zora Neale Hurston once wrote, `All my skinfolk ain't my kinfolk.'

So what is it like to be transgendered? The best way I can describe it is if you grew up female, imagine that you had all the same feelings, hopes, desires and dreams you always had growing up but you had your brother's (or some other male relative) body. Then try navigating puberty in that body knowing that something's different about you, but you can't quite put your finger on it. While you're trying to sort that dilemma out, you're being ostracized, picked on,and bullied. Then it finally gets revealed to you that you're on the wrong side of the gender fence and start making the moves to correct that situation.

I'm blessed that I came through the journey as a well-rounded spiritual person proud of who I am, what I have accomplished, what I'm going to accomplish and the person that I have evolved to become. I'm extremely happy and content with my life. I may be six-two without my heels, but that does not give you carte blanche to refer to me as `he'. I look at and think about life, love and the world around me through a feminine prism. Unfortunately thanks to anti-transgender violence many of my sisters don't get that chance and fall by the wayside.Others are emotionally wounded by the anti-transgender vitriol that comes from people in our community, their families and increasingly the pulpits of our churches

There are a lot of talented African-American transgender people like myself who are poised and ready to contribute our education and talents to uplift our race. Many of them reside in the Louisville metro area. The question I put forth to my fellow African-Americans is will you allow us the opportunity to do so?

I Won A Trinity!

A few days ago I received word that I became the third African-American transwoman to receive an IFGE Trinity Award.

I've had a few days to think about it now that the shock has worn off. I've always been a pretty outspoken individual. My friends can tell you that along with the peeps who post to the blogs, Yahoo lists and websites that I inhabit. They have seen me blast at various times the hypocrisy of Black ministers, negro Republicans, the Religious Right, the GOP, DINO Dems, the Human Rights Campaign, and the Euro-American transgender community for their racism and desperate desires to hang on to whatever remaining vestiges of White Male Privilege they have left. (Hey, I have a low tolerance level for bullshit)

Ever since I've transitioned 12 years ago I have done my part to simply live my life as an out and proud African-American transwoman. I don't wear my transgender status on my sleeve, but if you approach me in the spirit of loving curiosity about how I live my life, I'm happy to share that with you. I'll also tell you if you're treading too close to personal space.

But just a little background on the Trinity. Since 1991 the International Foundation For Gender Education has given out this award to transpeeps and their allies. Some of the biggest names in the transgender community have received this award at one time or another such as Phyllis Frye, my activist mentor down in Houston, Jamison Green, Monica Helms and Angela Brightfeather of TAVA, and Vanessa Edwards Foster just to name a few. There's another one for lifetime service to the transgender community that IFGE issues called the Virginia Prince.

The first African-American winner was Dawn Wilson in 2000, followed two years later by Dr. Marisa Richmond. I thought it would be a while before I got one, because of my opinionated big mouth and noting that other African-American transpeeps have yet to be honored such as Chanel Tresvant of Los Angeles, Lorrainne Sade Baskerville of Chicago and the late Alexander John Goodrum. They have yet to honor an African-American transman with a Trinity. (Hint hint. Maybe we can start with either AJ Goodrum or Zion Johnson, the first African-American president of FTM International)

Nevertheless, I'm damned happy to finally get one and will be at the IFGE Conference in Philadelphia in full diva mode this April to collect it.

Sure will look good on the mantel.

What's A Griot?

You may be wondering how I came up with the name TransGriot for my now two year old column and this blog. When I started the column back in January 2004 I wanted to come up with a name that reflects my ethnic heritage, the history that I'm trying to document and my love of writing. Then it hit me.

I come from a long line of historians in my family. I'm also a voracious reader. I recalled something that I'd read about the griots of Western Africa, the storytellers who pass on the oral history and traditions of their people. Some griots can recite up to 500 years of their people's history from memory. It is said that when a Griot dies, a library has burned to the ground. They are mainly present in the Western African countries of Mali, Gambia, Senegal, and Guinea. There are also Griots among the Mande, Tulkuloor, Wolof and Serer peoples and Mauritanian Arabs.

A Griot is not just a human library, storyteller and historian. They are all of these things and more. Griots are a visible and tangible human link to the past. They are someone who not only could be touched, but could touch you with stories and facts that enlighten you and others about who you were and are as a person.

That's what this blog's mission is. I am going to be your guide to a world that many people have not seen or heard about until now. I'm going to introduce you to your African-American transbrothers and transsisters. We've played a much larger role in the history of our people than you've been led to believe. I'll also comment on the general stuff that goes on around me from time to time, too.