International Federation Of Black Prides Supports HR 2015

Dear Black Pride Organizers/Attendees:

As you may know, a critical discussion regarding the rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Same Gender Loving people (LGBT/SGL) is being debated in our nation’s capital, Washington, DC between the congressional leadership, its members and representatives from various LGBT/SGL related national organizations, including the International Federation of Black Prides (IFBP).

The discussion centers on language contained in the Employment
Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), drafted by the Congressional Leadership. Currently there have been two different bills drafted. One bill (HR 2015) includes language offering protections to all members of LGBT communities from employment discrimination and another offering protections from employment discrimination to members of only the LGB communities.

The IFBP has joined a majority of the national LGBT related organizations and civil rights organizations by declaring our vehement opposition to the language contained in the bill (HR 3685) offering protections from employment discrimination to members of only the LGB communities and excluding our Trans brothers and sisters.

Some have gone as far to say that “blacks didn't get civil rights over night” and we shouldn't expect that LGBT communities would get protections from employment discrimination in that way either. This is at best a “losers game” in political maneuvering that threatens to further harm members of our communities who have already been harmed the most by our various discriminating systems, including unfortunately by some in our communities.

We all know that members of our communities whether or not we are members of Trans communities, have been harmed by gender role stereotypes in employment and many other public interest areas. We also know that members of the LGB communities even with discrimination still happening, often have roads of recourse not yet available to members of Trans communities because of certain local laws offering such protections. In addition, we all know that members of Trans communities have been some of our brightest “torch barriers” on our road to many of the rights we enjoy today as members of LGBT communities. Further, in 31 states, it's still legal to fire someone because they're gay and in 39 states it is legal to fire someone for being Transgender.

The IFBP is clear that the exclusion of Trans people in the language of ENDA will represent a loss that will have a grave affect on members of African American/Black Trans communities and LGB communities given the high rate of discrimination, unemployment and poverty already present in these communities. Additionally, splitting the community on this issue only plays into the plans of those who want no bill to pass and wastes the resources the community could be devoting to passing this bill while disillusioning people; making them less motivated to become in resolving the many other issues facing our communities.

So today we are calling on you to lend your voice of support to the full inclusion of LGBT communities in the ENDA Bill that will be voted on by Congress.

ACTION STEPS YOU CAN TAKE TODAY:

1.Send an Email to your Congressional Representative by clicking;
http://eqfed.org/campaign/keepENDAinclusive_clone_8?rk=g1AEcKp1BlY-W

2. Individuals can sign onto the two online petitions, and groups can
encourage individuals to sign them.

a. http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/transgender_inclusive_ENDA/ developed by the National Center for Transgender Equality and the Transgender Law Center.

b. www.nosubstitutes.org developed by
National Stonewall Democrats

3. Individuals/Organizations can also join the Facebook group “One ENDA: For the Employment Protections of All LGBT People”:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5065064220

Thanking you in advance for raising your voice and raising our Pride!

Earl D. Fowlkes, Jr.
Michael S. Hinson, Jr.
Founder/CEO, IFBP Chair,
Board of Directors, IFBP,

Your Transistion Ain't Like Mine

A few months ago I had someone post a comment to a blog post I'd written and ask the question, 'Is transition for an African-American versus a white person really that dufferent?

Yes, it is.

I say that because we start from two very different places on the social scale. A white male to female transperson is coming from a position of privilege, whether they acknowledge it or not. The society revolves around you. Because of that, many feel they have too much to lose if they transition, and tend to do it later in life.

It adds complications once they do so. Many tend to be married and deep into careers. It also impacts passability. The later you do a gender transition on the M2F side, the more testosterone buildup you have to overcome. In addition to that most white women on average tend to be shorter.

An African-American male to female transperson comes from a position in which they are reviled by society. For an African-American M2F it's an improvement in status because Black women tend to run thangs in our community. We also deal with our issues at an earlier age, which helps with passability because there's less testosterone buildup to impede feminization. Another thing that helps enhance our passability is that it's not unusual to see full figured sistahs or sistahs over six feet in height with broad shoulders.

I honestly believe that one of the reasons transpeople receive so much flack is because in addition to confounding rigid gender boundaries and making peeps insecure and uncomfortable with their gender identity or sexual orientation is WMP (white male privilege).

I think some white males find the idea of one of their own willingly stepping down from white malehood and all the perks that it bestows upon them to become a white woman so incredulous that they take it upon themselves to punish this 'deluded' individual for the 'crime' of abandoning white manhood.

The elements of the gay community that bought into Jim Fouratt's rantings tend to believe this as well.

It's more odious to the peeps who feel that 'whiteness' is under attack by the demographic trends stacked against them. They feel that EVERY white male is valuable and must not only stay in that gender role, but help produce their share of babies to perpetuate the race or get assimilated out of existence.

If you think I'm off base about this, then explain to me why white fundamentalists have basically been preaching this message since the early 90's, have a virulent hatred for gay people, have savagely attacked immigration with disgusting racist rhetoric and pressure their wives to leave the work force and have multiple children?

Black transpeople not only get the residual fallout from the attacks on white transpeople, but we get attacked by segments of our own community as well. We have to deal with the sellout ministers preaching anti-gay sermons in order to keep their faith-based bucks flowing into their pockets. That message gets interpreted by the nekulturny elements as 'it's okay' to attack transpeople.

Since we are the most visible spectrum of the GLBT community, and because one of the tragic instances of early transition sometimes results in some kids being tossed out of their homes by 'christian' parents, it leaves many of my sisters more vulnerable to the violence stirred up by these hatemongers.

While we do catch hell from some portions of the African-American community, on the other hand, we receive love and acceptance from the parts of it who correctly believe that our solidarity as African-Americans trumps the BS. They feel that people who have been historically hated for who they are shouldn't be doing the same things to transpeople, who are also being hated for superficial reasons as well.

In the African-American GLBT/SGL community, for the most part we don't have the gays and lesbians vs transpeeps or transpeeps vs. crossdressers battles that roil relations in the white GLBT community. One thing that keeps it in check for all of us SGL community members is the realization that 25% of this country hates us no matter if we're straight or gay.

We African-American transwomen have our own cross to bear when it comes to our images. We transsistahs have the double whammy of getting saddled with the hypersexy vixen image that burdens our biosisters, the angry neck-rolling SWA (sistah with attitude) stereotype and being considered less attractive when we are compared to European beauty standards.

We are also disproportionately saddled with the burden of having African-American transwomen images (along with Latina and Asian transwomen) and sexuality linked in some people's minds to transgender porn and the sex industry.

So no, our transgender journeys are not alike. We have common interests in terms of having our civil rights protected, codified into law and respected. We are both concerned about unemployment/underemployment issues. We have to continually work on educating the public about our issues and understand each other enough to build a larger transgender community as well.

But on others, we must bear that burden alone.

Whip Count Questions

Barney's excuse for this ENDA mess is that a whip count was called that precipitated the removal of the transgender inclusive ENDA (HR 2015) to be replaced with Frank's Folly (HR 3685).

Did anyone in the media, gay or straight or the blogosphere ask the guy who IS the House majority whip whether he actually called that whip count?

The House majority whip is Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC). I'm still trying to confirm it, but I have a strong suspicion that Frank is lying about it. I'm making that assertion because what a lot of people missed is that the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's Annual Legislative Conference started on September 26 and concluded on the 29th.

All 42 CBC members voted for passage of the Hate Crimes Bill despite intense browbeating from the Lo Impact Misleadership Coalition. I was also told when I visited many CBC offices in May that they were in favor of voting yes on HR 2015 as well.

The ALC is a must-attend event for any African-American that's politically active and is the premier African-American conference for discussing policy issues. This is where in one event you'll have politicians from all over the US at all levels of government, athletes, actors, activists, and academics getting together in one place.

In 2002 I had an invitation extended to attend the ALC in order to teach a Transgender 101 presentation to the CBC. There was a proviso that it stay secret since the 2002 midterm elections were a few months away.

A well-known white activist leaked details of the event to HRC, who sent lobbyists into CBC offices demanding to know what was going on. My invite to the ALC got cancelled as a result. I'm still pissed to this day at that activist.

But back to the regularly scheduled post. I find it very interesting and highly unlikely that this alleged whip count was called, but I'm trying to confirm that as well. The ALC was taking place in DC and as some of you may have seen on C-SPAN over the last few days many of those seminars are hosted and conducted by CBC member reps.

The seminars and brain trusts started on Thursday and Rep. Clyburn was conducting one on Enviromental Justics Friday morning. It's not just a Black thang either. The House recessed early so that members could attend and take part in that event. Sen. Ted Kennedy spoke during the ALC.

I have my doubts concerning Barney's version of events. I have to consider the timing. This happens during the ALC weekend and a week before a major HRC fundraiser in Washington that Speaker Pelosi is slated to attend. I also know that there are some HRCites in Dem offices that work as aides and staffers who hate transpeople as much as the Purple One. They were definitely feasting on Hater Tots when they pulled this stunt.

Congress adjourned on Wednesday afternoon. The whip count took place at 8 PM later that night. Rep. Clyburn was speaking at the Washington Convention Center during the opening ceremony for the CBC ALC Weekend that kicked off at 6 PM, so unless he has a clone I don't know about, he couldn't be on the Hill and at the convention center at the same time.

Hmm.

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.