God Has A Sense of Humor

God has a sense of humor.

When I say that, I'm talking about the observation I made that while my prayers were being answered on God's time to become the woman I needed to be, I was being put in all these interesting ironic situations during the time I was struggling with the gender issue.

Some of those situations weren't so humorous or funny at the time they occured, but with the accumulation of wisdom and as the years go by I've learned to laugh at them.
It seems like during that time period in the late 70's and 80's the more I fought the gender issue during my 'imitation of a male life phase', the more I got hit with a situation where I was confronted with it.

One of my favorite cousins I grew up with is transgender. It was a fact that was kept away from me by my parents (that I'm still a little upset about). What they didn't know is that I found out anyway that something was up.

I got confronted during my junior year in a health class by a female sophomore student who'd gone to Johnston Jr. High with my cuz. When Dena asked me in class if John was my cousin and I acknowledged that he was, she called him the 'f' word that rhymes with maggot. I ripped her a new anus for dissing my cousin.

A few weeks later I dozed off in my chemistry class because I wasn't feeling well and I awoke just in time to avert an impromptu makeover about to be conducted by Brenda Hayes and Virginia Tucker. They and many of my female classmates had noted my long eyelashes and fairly androgynous features of my face. Many have told me since that they felt I was on the wrong team as well.

I kept running into transwomen when I was hitting the various clubs I was partying at in H-town during the 80's. There was one night that me and two friends were at Georgi-O's in 1984 and I was talking to a UH classmate working the door entrance. Two beautiful transsistahs walked in while I was standing there and showed their ID's to my friend to verify they were of legal drinking age. I noticed both ID's had 'M' in the gender code areas. Later that evening one of my friends decides to hit on one of the girls and disses me in the process, so I didn't bother telling him what I learned at the door. I was calmly eating my breakfast at Denny's with his cousin when he discovered her secret during his attempted romantic interlude at the nearby Mitchell Inn with her.

I had girls constantly remarking that talking to me was like talking to their homegirls. A few even slipped up during those phone conversations and used, "Girl, let me...."

Even distance from Houston couldn't keep me from bumping into transwomen. I spent July 1988 doing corporate training in Denver when I worked for CAL. Three days after I arrived I was in the hotel restaurant about to grab some breakfast before heading to class when I observed a guy and a transsistah walk into the restaurant holding hands.

I kept running into them at my various jobs. When I was working at the Dome, during a high school football doubleheader in 1981 I had three sistah drag queens strut by the concession stand I managed with a crowd of kids behind them. I noticed that two of them were on hormones. Just after they passed me and wandered toward the Dome's West exit one of those kids snatched the wig off one of the girls heads.

The business next door to the check cashing place I briefly worked at employed a transsistah for a while. I had a DJ party gig in which two drop dead gorgeous transsistahs came in the venue to enjoy the ambiance and house music me and my DJ partner Eric were throwing down. I had various flights over the years where I ran into various female illusionists, peeps on their way to compete in pageants, do out of town gigs or just traveling.

It took me a while, but I finally got the message. ;)

Queen of Nations Pageant

On July 27 eight contestants ranging in age from 19 to 26 years old representing Angola, India, East Africa, Japan, Panama, The United Kingdom, Mauritius, and two from the Philippines competed in the first annual Tranny Queen Of the World 'Queen of Nations' pageant held at London's Bloomsbury Theatre.



The contestants in the inaugural pageant were either current or former pageant titleholders, 1st-5th alternates, runner-ups, or prestigious award winners in pageants in their towns, regions or country in the preceding two years.

The pageant has some lofty goals. This pageant is not as the TQW organizers put it a 'one day glitz and glamour event'. The winner wil spend her reign doing a lot of charity work. The Queen of Nations organizers are planning to hold charity fund raising events for underprivileged t-girls in countries who unfortunately face discrimination and prejudice every day.

The TQW organizers also wish to start a development program in conjunction with other charity organizations that helps t-girls quit prostitution and escorting.

In addition to those goals as listed in their mission statement, the Queen of Nations pageant wishes to campaign against the negative views of transgender women as sex objects, and give beautiful, talented young transwomen a platform to express themselves as beautiful, intelligent, and creative individuals. Another goal is to celebrate the beauty, femininity and creativity of transgender women.

The TQW pageant organizers want this pageant to become a platform for transgender voices to be heard. They desire to promote acceptance, appreciation and respect for who we are. TQW also wishes for transwomen to be seen as positive examples for women all around the world and encourage transkids to be their true selves.

The TQW organizers are already at work searching for contestants and planning the 2008 pageant.

The winner of the inaugural 2007 Miss Queen of Nations title was Amanda De Leon, one of the two contestants representing the Philippines. Her thoughts are shared by transwomen all over the world when she stated, "I dream of a time and place where women like me would be accepted, respected and treated with fairness by the rest of humanity."

Let's hope that day comes sooner rather than later.

Ugandan GLBT People 'Let Us Live In Peace"

Press Release by Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG)
Thursday, 16 August 2007

In a landmark case, we, Ugandan lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people assembled at the High Court of Uganda two months ago to reinforce our right to privacy, dignity, and property. There were no charges against us. We had done nothing wrong.

It is the government who had to answer for illegal behaviour of its agents by discriminating against homosexual and transgender people. Government officials raided the home of Victor Juliet Mukasa, an LGBT Human Rights Defender, in 2005, and illegally arresting a guest they found in her home. They forced their way into Victor's home, stole many work documents, dragged her guest to Kireka police post, and forced the guest to strip naked in order to prove that she was a woman. The guest and Victor Juliet Mukasa were treated in a degrading and inhumane way. Many of us, as the Ugandan LGBTI community, have suffered similar injustice. We are here today to proclaim that these human rights violations are completely unacceptable. We have had enough of the abuse, neglect, and violence.

No person should be deprived of their constitutional rights; and homosexuals and transgender people are no exception. All people are equal under the law.

Therefore, we step into the public today to give a face to the many who are discriminated against every day in our country. Some of us have brought our faces before you for you to know us. But many of us come before you today with masks to represent the fact that you see homosexuals and transgender people every day without realising that it is what we are. We do not harm anyone. We are your doctor, your
teacher, your best friend, your sister, maybe even your father or son.

As Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), the umbrella organisation for Ugandan lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex organisations, there are two urgent issues we would like you to consider.

HIV/AIDS is a concern for all of us in this country. And yet many people ignorantly turn a blind eye as we die of HIV/AIDS because we as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex people do not have proper access to protection, care, and treatment. We cannot continue to ignore the people in this country who are most at risk because of unfair discrimination and stigma. To successfully stop HIV/AIDS, we must treat every person with the dignity and attention they deserve. No one can justify taking away a person's right to live, when protection and treatment should be readily available to all.

Secondly, as Sexual Minorities Uganda, we would like to publicly acknowledge the police for their leadership in reinforcing justice in this country by speaking out against hate crimes and discrimination of human beings because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Leaders in the police force have recently made great steps toward upholding the law in a just and fair manner, providing equal protection for all people against harm. Likewise, we also urge LDUs to help to end the persecution of minorities, particularly lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgenders, and intersex people, by acting in an upright and lawful manner in the course of their duties, respecting and protecting the dignity of all human beings.

Finally, to our communities, our schools, places of work, our families, we would like to end by passing on the wisdom of so many of our parents, who have known us and seen that we are born this way and are still their beloved children. Don't lay a hand on us, we are the homosexual and transgender children of God. God created us as this way as LGBTI, all we ask is Let Us Live In Peace.

My name is Larry. I am an LGBTI Human Rights Defender from Kenya.

Across East Africa, we are many who were born like this. We are lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender, and intersex Africans who come from villages that are very far, who come from trading centers, and some who even come from large cities like Kampala, Dar Es Salaam, and Nairobi.

But our traditions of loving each other come from very far back in our African history, before the colonialists ever entered our land. Many of our ancestors in our tribes across East Africa were the way we are. They were born like this. We were accepted in our communities before the colonialists came, and we come before you today to ask you for that same acceptance that was part of our African culture before
we were destroyed by laws from the West. Because of the prejudice brought by the West, we have been threatened, intimidated, and harassed.

I stand today from Kenya in solidarity with the LGBTI people in East Africa to proclaim that these human rights violations are completely unacceptable. We have had way much enough of the abuse, neglect, and violence. In fact, our leaders have recognized this and made our East African countries signatories of international agreements to end such discrimination.

There is need for liberation in East Africa as a whole. Just as if people were starving in Kenya, but had plenty to eat here, we would still fight against poverty in our region.

This can be seen as in the LGBTI court case where Victor's guest who is a Kenyan was treated in a degrading and inhumane way and is standing in solidarity to hold the Ugandan government officials accountable in court for violations of our rights.

It is a very clear case. Government agents violated the rights of Victor Juliet Mukasa and her guest in the following ways:

* First, illegal search of the home of Victor Juliet Mukasa without a search warrant and unauthorized seizure of items from the house amounting to trespass and theft
* Secondly, illegal arrest of the guest found in the home at the time of the raid
* And then, there was also inhuman and degrading treatment of Victor and the guest amounting to sexual harassment and indecent assault

The basic rights enshrined in the Constitution of Uganda protect all persons, regardless of sexual orientation:

These Constitutional Rights include:

* Article 23 is about protection of personal liberty
o (1) No person shall be deprived of personal liberty . . .
* Article 24 talks about respect for human dignity and protection
from inhuman treatment
o It states that no person shall be subjected to any form of torture,
cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
* Article 27 talks about the right to privacy of person, home and
other property
o (1) states that No person shall be subjected to-
+ (a) unlawful search of the person, home or other property of that
person;
+ (b) Unlawful entry by others of the premises of that person.
Property.
o (2) No person shall be subjected to interference with the privacy
of that person's home, correspondence, communication or other
property.

There have been two hearings of the case; we are waiting for the next hearing soon, where the government is to prove beyond reasonable doubt that they did not violate these rights. We hope the judgment will be free from any prejudice and that justice will prevail. I am a tax payer, I am your doctor, I am your brother, and I am your mother. Does this make me a lesser being? Why would we choose to go through such pain and suffering if we had a choice? LGBTI rights are not special rights, but are fundamental Human Rights for heavens sake,

CAN'T you Let Us Live in Peace?