Laverne Cox VH1 Interview

TransGriot Note: Here's an interview featuring my sis Laverne Cox talking about her new reality show 'Transform Me' and other subjects.

VH1 TV Shows | Music Videos | Celebrity Photos | News & Gossip

Shut Up Fool! Awards-Showing Some Love To My Coogs Edition

It's March Madness, and while the Democrats scramble to get the votes necessary to pass health care legislation, the 2010 NCAA Men's and Women's tournaments get underway along with the NIT and WNIT.

My Coogs are playing Maryland later. Unfortunately my Lady Coogs season is over after dropping a tough game in Lubbock last night to the Texas Tech Lady Raiders 80-77 in their WNIT opener.

But congrats to both the Cougar men and women B-ballers. We UH alums and H-town are so proud of you.

And now, since it's Friday, let's continue the basketball theme and see who will exhibit championship level ignorance and stupidity to win this week's Shut Up Fool! Award.

As I mentioned, the health care debate is going on and this week's winner got it for attacking an 11 year old child who lost his mother due to lack of health care.

Marcelus Owens mother Tiffany died in June 2007 of pulmonary hypertension. It's a rare condition described as high blood pressure in the arteries of the lungs that can lead to heart failure. It has no cure, but is treatable with consistent medical care that can cost up to $100,000 a year.

Owens was an assistant manager at a fast food restaurant when she became sick in September 2006. As she became sicker, she missed work and was eventually fired, leaving her without health insurance. She was treated twice in an emergency room and died at age 27 after a week of unconsciousness. His grandmother Gina Owens has custody of Marcelas and his two younger sisters.

His story has been championed by Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) as more prima facie evidence as to why we need health care reformj now in this country.

But as usual the conservafools, led by Limbaugh and Beck went on the attack and the SUF winner got it for piling on.

Michelle Malkin wins for attacking 11 year old Marcelus Owens.

Malkin called him "one of Obama's youngest lobbyists" who has been "goaded by a left-wing activist grandmother," promoted by Murray and has become a regular on the "pro-Obamacare circuit."

Malkin also suggested there were other programs that could have helped Tiffany Owens , adding, "It's not clear that additional doctors' visits in the subsequent months would have prevented her death."

Gee Michelle, didn't know you were a medical doctor as well as a batshit crazy bully.

Michelle Malkin, shut the hell up fool!

Theta Beta Chi Anniversary Conference In Winston-Salem, NC

Theta Beta Chi Fraternity, Inc. is a non collegiate Greek letter fraternity of unique men that was founded in 2008.

Theta Beta Chi in conjunction with Church of the Holy Spirit Fellowship will be sponsoring their Unity and Understanding conference in Winston-Salem NC from April 22-25.

The event will include a Black tie awards dinner, workshops, and a Greek party along with on-site vendors.

The theme for the event is 'Recovering The Spirit That Is Within Me' and will also serve as a celebration of Transgendered People of Color.

I've been asked by one of the organizers to attend and I'd love to be there if my schedule allows me to get down to North Carolina.

One of the scheduled presenters is Kylar Broadus, the board chair of the National Black Justice Coalition. There's also another person I'm interested in meeting whose name I'd heard of thanks to one of my Dallas cousins, Min. Carmarion D. Anderson.

Should be an interesting weekend down in Winston-Salem

If you need further information you can also dial 336-833-6435

Laverne Cox On TJMS

My sis Laverne Cox has an upcoming VH1 reality TV show starting March 15 called TRANSform Me that she's starring in with her co-hosts Nina Poon and Jamie Clayton.

More about that later.

Laverne was interviewed by Jacque Reid this morning during Jacque's 'Inside The Story' segment on the Tom Joyner Morning Show about the show and trans issues in general. It's significant because the TJMS has a syndicated national audience of 11 million predominately chocolate flavored people on stations in 29 states and the US Virgin Islands.

And thanks to Buffalo, NY station WBLK 93.7 carrying the show, listeners in southern Ontario can catch the TJMS as well

The interview was going well until Laverne mentioned her show cohosts and J. Anthony Clown (oops Brown) decided to try to make a joke out of Nina Poon's last name.

The interview will post later today if you wish to check it out.

The Other Black 'Unwoman'

Yesterday was International Women's Day. I spent it talking to some of the women that matter in my life and contemplating what and how transwomen fit into this day.

One of the things I thought about was how Black women are considered by society as the 'unwoman'.

Black women aren't considered beautiful vis a vis the vanilla tinged beauty standard. We're considered 'angry ' just for speaking our minds, less than intelligent despite having advanced degrees earned with summa cum laude grades, and when we excel in athletic endeavors we're presumed to have either cheated or it's dismissed because of 'natural ability'.

Even Black men are ignoring us when it cones to choosing their life partners.

That burden of the 'unwoman' is also shared by African descended transwomen as well.

If you look at the lists of transwomen who are considered beautiful, the discussion doesn't include us. We have to deal with not only the same baggage that is hurled at our cis sisters, but have the additional baggage of dealing with being trans as well.

It's time to destroy that paradigm that considers us the 'unwoman'. It's something that we can work on with our cissistahs as we strive to become the phenomenal women we are despite spending time one the other side of the gender fence.

The Lady Chablis

I've had the pleasure of meeting The Lady Chablis and have an autographed copy of her autobiography Hiding My Candy thanks to that May 2003 encounter at a GLBT community Derby party here in Louisville.

Thought it was time to post some videos of the 'Empress of the South.'



On Good Morning America

Shani Looking For More Vancouver Gold

Shani Davis is looking to grab another medal tonight and make more speed skating history. He's competing in another event he's dominated during the World Cup season, the 1500m.

Davis is not only the defending world champion at this distance, in December he set the new world record in Utah at 1:41:04. He was the silver medalist at this distance in Torino.

Just like two nights ago when he defended his 1000m title, Davis will be skating in the last pair of the evening.

The best thing about that is that when he steps to the starting line, he'll know what time he has to beat to claim Olympic gold for the second time in these Games.

Transwoman and ACLU-NJ File Lawsuit Against Newark Po-Po's

As I have stated repeatedly over the years that this blog has been around, we African descended transpeople face some of the same issues our cis brothers and sisters do.

One of those issues is harassment by the po-po's. African-American transpeople are no different from our cisgender counterparts in that regard as Duanna Johnson getting assaulted in a Memphis police station made quite clear.

The news coming out of Newark that adds an exclamation point to what I'm stating here is transwoman Diana Taylor and the ACLU New Jersey chapter filing a lawsuit against the Newark Police Department.

The six count lawsuit alleges two officers stopped Diana Taylor on March 23, 2009 for no reason, mocked her gender identity and threatened her with retaliation if she filed a complaint.

“I kept asking, ‘What did I do? What did I do?’” Taylor said at a news conference today. “I’m coming forward now because this shouldn’t have happened to me.”

The incident unfolded while Taylor she was walking near Broad and Elliott streets. Two officers stopped her, making derogatory comments about her wig and alluding to a bet they had made about her gender, she said.

Taylor said one cop told her he didn't want to touch her "because I might have AIDS."

She said when she was initially stopped and asked to hand over her identification, one of the officer's yelled to the other "it's a man. You were right. I owe you $10!"

He said the officers began calling her a string of discriminatory names including "chick with a d---k," and "f----t."

Taylor was taken to a police station and frisked in a sexually intrusive manner, she said.

Finding no reason to detain her, two officers drove Taylor to her home and said they knew gang members in the neighborhood who would harm her if she filed a complaint against them, according to the lawsuit.

About a month later, Taylor was charged with littering and disorderly conduct, she said. The charges were eventually dismissed in court.

The lawsuit is the third the ACLU has filed against the police force in as many years, said Deborah Jacobs, the executive director of the ACLU’s New Jersey chapter. She called for a slew of department changes, including a way to submit civilian complaints online and an independent monitor to review the internal affairs division.

“(The administration) came in saying internal affairs was important, but we expect it to be run better than it is,” Jacobs said.

According to nj.com The Newark Police Department did not respond to requests for comments.

Taylor also filed an internal affairs complaint with the police, but it was not thoroughly investigated, said her lawyer, Neil Mullin, who added two eyewitnesses to the incident were never contacted.

Newark Police Director Garry McCarthy has previously said reforms have been put in place to improve the process of gathering and responding to complaints.

It seems as though this is a recurring problem in the Newark Police Department. Albert Cunningham, a member of the Newark Pride Alliance, said members of the local gay community routinely complain to him about police abuse. “We hear only the tip of the iceberg with filed cases,” he said.

It's also a issue that Amnesty International highlighted in a report entitled Stonewalled: Police Abuse and Misconduct Against Lesbian, Gay and Transgender People in the U.S. that was compiled about police harassment of transwomen. And as you probably guessed, transpeople of color have taken the brunt of the police harassment.

Will be keeping an eye on this case to see if Ms. Taylor receives justice for what was done to her.

It's incidents like this that negate the hard work of LGBT police liaison officers across the country and continue to reinforce the perception that when it comes to African-Americans and other people of color, Officer Friendly ain't so friendly after all.

Miyia's Interview

This is a interview featuring my little sis Miyia that appeared on Fox41 News in Da Ville yesterday.
It was nice learning a little bit more about one classy young lady.



Being trans is not as easy or effortless as some of us make it. There's a lot of gut wrenching pain, drama and that we go through to become the happy, well adjusted people you see on the other side of the trans crucible.

And sometimes it tests your faith in many ways, but if you hang on, the tough times don't last as the saying goes, tough people do.

Shani Repeats!

Shani Davis had to wait a while before he took the ice at the Richmond Olympic Oval in the last pair of the 1000m event.

But once he did Davis sped through his race in 1:08:94 to make history none again as the first skater to repeat as the 1000m gold medalist.

And he was ecstatic about it.

"I would say it's probably No. 1," he said. "Once you become world champion or Olympic champion, you get this nice little thing on your back -- it's called a target. People usually shoot for you. Just to be able to go out there today and defend my 1,000-meter title is truly amazing. I'm very satisfied that I was able to stay true to myself and defend my title."

This win makes him the second most decorated male long track speedskater behind Dr. Eric Heiden, who is the USA speedskating team physician for these Games.

Davis has another shot of adding to his medal collection with the 1500m event coming on Saturday

Shani's Best Event Coming Tonight

So far Shani Davis' attempt to win four gold medals in Vancouver has come up empty with a 12th place finish in the 5000m and withdrawing from the 500m Monday due to bad ice conditions.

I'll be parked in front of the TV to watch Shani Davis compete in his best long track speedskating event, the 1000m. It along with the 1500m are the two speedskating distances he has dominated.

Davis is the world champion and world record holder in the 1000m meters and the favorite to take gold in this event.

Here's hoping that tonight turns out to be a golden one for Shani Davis at the Richmond Olympic Oval.

Be Careful Who You Mess With

Transpeople as we are out and about in the world living our daily lives take a lot of crap. We suffer the slings and arrows from various institutions in society, our families, and sometimes even our own ostensibly friendly GL community.

That accumulated verbal and sometimes physical abuse takes a tool. We may not lash out at that moment, but when you least expect it, when we've had enough, we'll lash out at our tormentors no matter who they are.



We're only human in the fact that sooner or later, like a pot with a lid on it, those negative emotions will boil over and have to be released.

BTW, transgender don't mean punk. So for you peeps who think it's cool or you insecure ones who want to make yourselves feel more like a 'man' or woman' by jacking with transpeeeps, think again.

You never know what peeps have endured that day. If you think that transpeeps are going to meekly take your crap with minimal consequences to you, it may not turn out the way you expect.

Keep fracking with somebody that has a little more strength than the average cis female, is on estrogen, has had a bad day, and see what happens.

Shani's Drive For Five Is Down To Four

Was disappointed to learn that Shani Davis is not going to attempt to match Eric Heiden's feat of winning five Olympic gold medals in speedskating in a single Olympic games.

Davis decided to drop out of the 10,000 meters before the January 17 deadline to submit final entries to the International Skating Federation. His 10,000m slot will be filled by Jonathan Kuck.

Guy Thibault, the high-performance director at U.S. Speedskating stated "I'm sure Shani knew already that doing all five was a big thing. That was a big task to do,'' "He didn't want to close any doors, so he could see how things were going in training, before he decided he needs to cut one.

"I want Shani to be the best at what he does,'' Thibault said. "I would rather him focus on the distances he can do something in, instead of getting silver and skating everything.

Even though he's no longer competing in the 10,000m, he's still going to be a busy man in Vancouver. As the reining world champion in the 1000 and 1500 meters he's a favorite to win gold in the 1000 and 1500 and is considered an outside medal contender in the 500 and 5000.

And Shani's busy week in Vancouver starts Saturday with the 5000m.

Transsister Slams Trans Community Bigotry Aimed At Black Transwomen

I've talked about and written commentaries slamming the 'Black Transwomen Are Ugly' meme that keeps popping up like kudzu in the blogosphere and beyond.

While searching through YouTube this weekend for fresh trans related video, I stumbled across this video from a transsister who was letting somebody have it about a 'Top 100 Ugly Black Transsexuals' video posted on YouTube (that I haven't found yet).

You know if I do, somebody's getting called out. But while I'm searching for that video bigotry aimed at Black transwomen, enjoy this YouTube takedown of it by a biracial transwoman about it.

When Will African American Trans People Be Able To Tell Our Stories On HBCU Campuses?

One of the things I and other transsisters enjoy doing is telling the story of African descended trans people to college students around the nation.

Since only one side of the story has been told for the last 50 plus years, it is a joy to pass along our knowledge to students, administrators, and instructors eager to learn more about transgender issues from our unique chocolate flavored vantage point.

But while we African descended trans people deeply appreciate the opportunities that we get to do so, one thing that bothers us is the fact that we are primarily holding these discussions at predominately white institutions.

I've been doing these trans oriented panel discussions for collegiate groups for more than a decade, and I have yet to do one on a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) campus.

The histories of HBCU institutions are deeply linked with the history of our people. Some of our best and brightest minds and historical figures have graduated from HBCU campuses. Ground breaking research benefiting all Americans has happened on campuses such as Tuskegee University.

But one area HBCU's are sorely lacking in is understanding what's up with African descended GLBT people. The transphobic and homophobic incidents that have occurred on various HBCU campuses in the last two decades point out the pressing need to dispel some misconceptions about who and what we are. Some of my African descended peeps could definitely use the face time with transpeople to dispel the faith based lies they're being fed about us as well.

Not being able to or being extended the invitation to do trans presentations on HBCU campuses is wounding on another level as well. We have seen our white brothers and sisters get routinely invited in the same time period to do these collegiate discussions, and it hurts when we see there aren't similar efforts taking place at HBCU's.

That bothers me and other proud African descended trans people. We get the perception that we are being unfairly rejected by our people. But we know having the gender issues dialogue is too important to let slide and we aren't giving up.

HBCU's are currently educating our next generation of business leaders, doctors, lawyers, teachers, social workers and yes, politicians. Students at HBCU's need to be exposed to our lives as well, especially in light of the fact that many of my people are willfully ignorant about trans issues.

But the point we will continue to make is that we did not give up our Black Like Me cards when we transitioned. Some of us graduated from HBCU campuses and we have much to offer the African descended community in terms of our talents and expertise. If HBCU's such as Howard can bring people such as Black conservative and RNC chair Michael Steele to their campuses to speak, what's stopping them from doing the same with African descended transpeople?

For us to have forward momentum as African descended trans people, we must begin breaking down that wall of ignorance in our community. HBCU's will play a key role in making that happen. African descended trans people are more than willing to do our part by candidly speaking about our lives.

But you have to meet us halfway so we can start that dialogue.

Black Transwoman Telling Her Story On GSU Campus

Interesting video of a panel discussion at Georgia State University and a transsistah telling her story.

Up, Up You Mighty African Descended Transpeople!

I love talking to younger transpeople when I have the time to do so. One of those opportunities came yesterday when I received a call from my friend Tona.

After catching up on what had been transpiring in our lives since the last time we talked, our conversation over the next two hours focused on various issues affecting the African descended trans community.

One of the issues we discussed was networking. We both lamented the fact that white transpeople do a far better job of networking (at least from where we sit) and pulling each other up than we do in the African descended trans community.

We are in the second month of a new decade, and if we are going to exit the end of the 2K10s in better shape as a community than we entered it, some fundamental things about the way we do business in the African-American trans community must immediately change.

One of them is the networking issue that Tona bought up. We have a tradition in the African descended community we need to go back to of 'each one, reach one, teach one.' That needs to happen ASAP.

Trans elders like myself need to pair up with younger transpeople in the African American trans community and make it a point to pass down our history and accumulated knowledge to people who are serious about uplifting the community and helping it move forward. I and others also need to do a better job talking to our trans elders about the history they have experienced as well so that we can pass that down to the younglings.

We also need to forcefully call out the shady African descended trans people, sellouts, scam artists and borderline criminal elements in our community that do shady crap.

We are already laboring under an image handicap, and some of the things the shady people do are counterproductive to us building a positive image as African descended trans people, establishing trust-based working relationships with each other and our cis allies. The calling out process also extends to cis people who mischaracterize our lives inside and outside the African American community.

We must begin doing our own political lobbying for our community and our issues. It's painfully obvious we can't leave that to others as we have done over the last 15 years.

While some of the white-run trans organizations may try, they don't have knowledge of the unique issues inherent with being an African descended transperson, nor are they rushing to be fierce advocates for them as evidenced by the lack of diversity in their organizational structures.

When it comes to fighting for respect and fairness in our African-American family, that job is our and ours alone to do along with our cis allies.

And finally, those of us African descended transpeople who are serious about doing this work and uplifting our community need to just ignore the naysayers and get busy doing what we need to do to make this a better world for all of us.

It's Triple V for victory time. It's time we fought for our human rights within our own African descended family, within the overall trans community and our country.

We come from people who have made a way out of no way, and it's time we emulate our forefathers and foremothers in standing up for our human rights and building a community we can be proud of.

It is past time for the sleeping giant to awaken. Up, up you mighty African descended transpeople.

Miss America 2010 Is A Sistah

I was flipping through my 800 plus cable channels last night and happened to tune in just in time for the semifinalists to be whittled down to the young woman who will wear the Miss America crown for 2010.

For the first time since 2004, it will be an African American woman that will do so. It's deliciously ironic it happened on the night that America's Bigot, Rush Limbaugh was one of the judges this year.

One of the other judges for this year's Miss America pageant was Vivica A. Fox, who probably canceled out Rush's foolishness.

22 year old VCU communications major Caressa Cameron. representing Virginia, won the 88 year old pageant last night which is now contested in Las Vegas. Unlike Miss USA, there's a talent portion, and she sang 'Listen' from the movie Dreamgirls..

In case you're wondering, there have been seven African-American women who have become Miss America in the 88 year history of the pageant. African-American women didn't start entering the pageant until 1970, and Vanessa Williams broke through to become the first African descended Miss America winner in 1984. Suzette Charles, the first runner up that year finished out Williams' reign after she resigned due to fallout from a nude photo scandal.

The other African American winners were Dr. Debbye Turner 1990, Marjorie Vincent 1991, Kimberly Aiken 1994, Erika Harold 2003 and Ericka Dunlap in 2004.

Congratulations to Caressa and may she have a quiet and drama free reign as Miss America 2010.

Transsister Goes To The White House!

Remember the long and loud bitching I've done over transsisters being ignored when GLBT oriented events or hearings are being held?

Was happy to receive a link to an Edge story about Helena Bushong becoming the first African descended transperson (and the second transperson period) to be invited to and attend a White House strategy meeting.

The invitation was to participate in the Office of National AIDS Policy’s "Women and HIV" discussion. Helena has been an advocate for several years in Chicago. She serves as community co-chair for the HIV Prevention Planning Group, a position with the Chicago Area HIV Service Planning Council and membership with both Illinois ASAP and the Chicago AIDS Foundation.

She was also recently elected as the chair of Illinois Gender Advocates.

"For too long, the ’T’ has been silent and I think other parts of the alphabet have attempted many times in litigation and policy-making, to exclude us from this bill or that bill because it’d ’offend’ the religious right," Bushong added. "But now we’re saying we are a community and this is who we are."

Congrats Helena on the history making trip and best of luck in advancing the civil rights of transpeople in the Chicago area and the state of Illinois.

TransGriot Update:  Helena recently advised me in  an e-mail that she is no longer the chair of Illinois Gender Advocates 

2010 Battle of the Bands

If you watched the movie Drumline, you got a taste of this event that will be happening this Saturday in the ATL.

The 2010 edition of the Honda Battle of the Bands will be rocking the Georgia Dome starting at 3 PM. There will be nearly 65,000 fans cheering and dancing to the music of eight HBCU bands in what promises to be a very entertaining evening.

From 10 AM-2 PM there will be a HBCU Recruitment Fair that will be a great opportunity for young students to check out the various universities and colleges.

There were 41 bands that started on the road to the ATL, and these are the final eight HBCU bands selected to be part of the Georgia Dome fun.

Clark Atlanta University Mighty Marching Panthers
Virginia State University Marching Trojan Explosion
North Carolina Central University Marching Sound Machine
Prairie View A & M University Marching Storm
Southern University Human Jukebox Marching Band
Albany State University Marching Rams
Tuskegee University Marching Crimson Piper Band
Florida A & M University Marching 100

While there won't be a final winner selected like there was in the movie, the 60,000 people dancing in the aisles will be the judges on which band 'won'.

Since I have family members who have gone to various SWAC schools such as TSU and PVAMU and my dad was a play by play announcer for TSU athletics, I'm a SWAC band fan. I've seen all of the SWAC bands perform including the two that are representing the SWAC at this event from Prairie View A&M and Southern University.

I was surprised to see that Grambling elected not to participate this year.

But I have to give it up to the Florida A&M Marching 100 who are probably the faves going into this among the crowd that will be watching in the Georgia Dome Saturday.



Of course, I'm rooting for the homeboys and girls from Prairie View.