ENDA Update

The news has been coming fast and furiously since transphobic Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) tried to pull HR 2015, the transgender-inclusive ENDA and split it into separate bills. He created a firestorm of controversy, a political black eye for Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and almost touched off a GLBT civil war.

I'm reminded of an old African-American community saying that's apropos in this mess.

If you dig a grave for someone else, better dig one for yourself.

In Barney's haste to screw the trannies, he screwed his OWN community. It turns out that Lambda Legal did a preliminary analysis of HR 3685 (which I'll call Frank's Folly).

Lambda Legal is an organization that has worked on employment discrimination issues for a long time in the GLBT community. They have also represented clients who have faced discrimination or harassment at work based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Lambda Legal's preliminary assessment of the revised version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (HR 3685) shows the bill to be riddled with loopholes in addition to failing altogether to protect transgender people against discrimination.

"Leaving out protections for transgender people is unacceptable, and passing a bill riddled with loopholes will make it harder to achieve equality on the job," said Kevin Cathcart, Executive Director at Lambda Legal. "You can't be fired for being a lesbian or a gay man, but you can be fired if your boss thinks you fit their stereotype of one."

"After working together for so many years on a bill to provide protections for the LGBT community on the job — we can do better than this," Cathcart added.

Preliminary Analysis Summary:

*As a point of clarity for the community: The recent version (HR 3685)is not simply the old version with the transgender protections stripped out — but rather has modified the old version in several additional and troubling ways.

*In addition to the missing vital protections for transgender people on the job, this new bill also leaves out a key element to protect any employee, including lesbians and gay men who may not conform to their employer's idea of how a man or woman should look and act.

This is a huge loophole through which employers sued for sexual orientation discrimination can claim that their conduct was actually based on gender expression, a type of discrimination that the new bill (HR 3685) does not prohibit.

*This version of ENDA states without qualification that refusal by employers to extend health insurance benefits to the domestic partners of their employees that are provided only to married couples cannot be considered sexual orientation discrimination.

The old version (HR 2015) at least provided that states and local governments could require that employees be provided domestic partner health insurance when such benefits are provided to spouses.

*In the previous version of ENDA (HR 2015) the religious exemptions had some limitations.

The new version has a blanket exemption under which, for example, hospitals or universities run by faith-based groups can fire or refuse to hire people they think might be gay or lesbian.

You're Under Arrest

I'm not a big anime fan, but I've gotten hooked on this particular anime series thanks to Dawn.

It's called You're Under Arrest and ran for two seasons on TV in Japan. The show centers on Miyuki Kobayakawa and Natsumi Tsujimoto. They are roommates, friends and partners who are Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department officers. They are stationed at the fictional Bokuto Station in the Sumida Ward of Tokyo.




Miyuki is a computer whiz who is shy, polite, punctual, proficient at her job and not as physically strong as her best friend. They are traits not shared by her partner Natsumi. She's tough, brash, a slacker, loves to excessively eat and drink and is chronically tardy. But despite that she's an excellent officer. She and Miyuki make an unbeatable team that has garnered a reputation around Bokuto Station for solving many cases.

The show focuses on their lives on and off duty and includes some of the other officers at Bokuto Station. There's the whiny Yoriko Nikato, the dispatcher and station gossip. She's a klutzy bumbler who gets her fellow officers in awkward situations, but her lucky streak gets them out of the trouble she inadvertently creates. When she was at the police academy she managed to graduate at the top of her training class and earn the ire of rich witch Chie Sagamiono in the process.

There's the 'White Hawk', handsome motorcycle cop Ken Nakajima. He's an expert rider who is good enough to where he could have had a pro racing career, but loves his job. He also likes Miyuki, but just like her is too shy to express his feelings to her. They actually made progress towards kindling a relationship at the end of Season 1

There's Strikeman, the local costumed vigilante that fancies himself as a superhero. He's the bane of drunks, peeping toms, perverts, parking violators and people who are disrespectful to seniors. They usually find themselves at the other end of one of his fastball pitches

He's an annoyance to not only the citizens of the Bokuto precinct, but the officers of Bokuto Station as well. Strikeman refers to Natsumi as 'Home Run Girl' due to her ability to whack Strikeman's pitches into orbit.

The character I really love is Aoi Futaba. Prior to joining the police force he was an accomplished high school basketball player. After becoming a police officer Aoi was assigned to the vice unit. In order to crack a case involving a serial rapist, Aoi crossdressed as part of the investigation and assimilated into womanhood so thoroughly that Yoriko said about her in one episode, "she's more woman than we are".

Yes, peeps Aoi is transgender.

Aoi's arrival at the station was initially met with resistance, with Yoriko being the most vocal about it, but over time the Bokoto officers accepted her as part of the family, began using the correct pronouns to address her and she became one of the girls. Yoriko overcame her initial resistance to her and became Aoi's patrol partner when she transferred to street duty.

She basically says that her spirit is female, and she's more girly-girl than many of the female officers she works with. There are numerous episodes where Aoi ends up in situations in which her gender issues rear their head at inopportune times. A famous actor fell for her in one episode, and despite the fact she was falling for him, had to reluctantly tell him that she's still pre-op.

There was another episode when she was on Christmas vacation with her fellow Bokuto officers and a local mountain kid invaded her room while she was asleep. He tried to force himself on her and ended up with a surprise when he grabbed between her legs.

He also earned a beat down from Natsumi as well.

I found You're Under Arrest fascinating. I love the characters, it's beautifully drawn and illustrated and for the most part does an excellent job in depicting the day to day realities of police work.

Strikeman is a trip as well. ;)

I Ain't Hatin' I'm Appreciating

I Ain’t Hatin’, I’m Appreciating This was the column I submitted to THE LETTER for printing in September for the October issue.


I have much love, admiration and respect for the illusionist community.

Yes, there are certain things about it that irritate me and people involved in it that I won’t be breaking bread with anytime soon, but hey, they are my sistahs too.

And for you illusionists, don’t assume that activists don’t know about your issues, don’t care or haven’t walked in your pumps. Some of the best activists I know used to perform (or still do) on various stages or were pageant titleholders. Some are leaders in their local GLBT communities when they’re off stage.

In the early 80’s, I was a scared kid first starting to venture out in Houston’s gayborhood called Montrose. I didn’t know anybody, was still trying to sort out things and nervous about whether my femme presentation was up to snuff. It was Houston’s legendary drag queen and show emcee Cookie LaCook who took a few moments out of her busy evening to speak to me when other peeps wouldn’t. It jump-started a conversation that put me on the road to becoming the Phenomenal Transwoman you see today and earned me ‘cool points’ with the regular patrons of Studio 13.

Over the next two decades Cookie and I would get into some deep conversations over the years. She sometimes incorporated me into her monologues as “Soul Sister Number One.” I was saddened to find out she passed away July 27

I know what illusionists do isn’t easy. It takes a lot of work, time, talent and effort to perfect the onstage persona, much less perform. I found that out firsthand when I went on stage at small club back home as a favor to a Latina illusionist friend of mine named Brittany Paige. She’d been asking me to do a Talent Night for two years before I finally said okay. It’s not my cup of tea and I’m more comfortable on a stage with a podium, a microphone and a speech in front of me and she knew that. The joy that lit up Brittany’s face is one image that brings a smile to my face whenever I think about her. A week after my one time performance she lost her battle with AIDS.

My illusionist friends helped me polish my feminine presentation. They taught me a few tucking techniques and trade secrets that aided my transition. For the ones that only did girl onstage I got the pleasure of sitting backstage, watch them morph into the gorgeous divas that you peeps tip and learn some makeup secrets in the process.

And speaking of tips, if you like the performer, give ‘em a little somethin’ somethin’. Makeup and all the things ‘the gurls’ need to transform themselves into the beautiful peeps you see ain’t cheap.

They were generally cool people to be around and the source of some entertaining moments as well. I’ve watched illusionists read each other, trifling boyfriends, and hecklers. I’ve seen them beat the crap out of suburban bigots who thought they were easy targets outside of clubs and get into wig-pulling fights. But these same people when I was kicked back and chilling at their cribs challenged and expanded my worldview. They inspired me to check out my African-American LGBT history, helped me sort out my gender issues and kicked knowledge to me about a wide range of subjects.

I can’t forget the greatest gift the illusionist community gave us in conjunction with transgender peeps. They jump started the GLBT rights movement with the 1967 Compton’s Cafeteria riot in San Francisco and Stonewall two years later because they were mad as hell and tired of being jacked with by the police.

So no, I’m not hatin’. I’m appreciating all the things the illusionist community does in their own way to make this a better world for all of us.


TransGriot Note: I discovered after I sent it off to be printed that the Compton's Riot actually happened in August 1966. I also discovered that my editor refused to print this one as well. More details on what's transpiring in regards to my newspaper column in an upcoming post.