Thanks blkout and Zeta Phi Beta!

Wanted to take a moment to thank blkout and the Delta Theta chapter of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc for extending to me an invitation to participate in the panel discussion they held last night as part of their PHIner Womanhood Week.

College kids these days are doing some amazing work and stepping up to the plate in terms of holding the discussions on TBLG issues.

Despite the fact I'd been in Frankfort earlier that morning, wasn't missing this 'Black and Gay In America' panel discussion. It was also the first time I'd been on a panel in which the 'B' part of the community was represented.

While Dr. Story unfortunately couldn't be there last night, blkout's Jaison Gardiner did a wonderful job as moderator of the two hour discussion that covered a wide range of issues on and off campus.

It was an informative and interesting discussion in which some cogent and intelligent questions were asked by the audience concerning issues such as family acceptance, spirituality, how to be a better ally to the TBLG community and where we fit in the overall African descended community.

Thanks once again blkout and the distinguished sorors of the Delta Theta chapter of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. for giving me the opportunity to take part and kick some knowledge to you about my segment of the BTLG rainbow.

Drama With Blacks And Gays Aint New

For those who think that the tensions between Black folks and gay folks is a recent, post Prop 8 phenomenon, peep this early 90's video from the Arsenio Hall show when some Queer Nation folks interrupted his monologue.



The question Arsenio asked was also valid. Why did these activists interrupt his show, but not the Tonight Show or other white-hosted late night shows?

Julie Bindel-Mary Daly For The New Millennium

Mary Daly is no longer walking this planet, but fear not, her transphobic radical feminist replacement is on the case.

Julie Bindel is spreading lies and disinformation about trans peeps and sitting in vanilla flavored privileged judgment of our lives.

Like Janice Raymond, she gleefully wallows in transphobia and advocates that biology is not destiny unless you are trans.

Real nice words coming from a lesbian. The oppressed now becomes the oppressor.

Bindel has the nerve to whine that trans people are stifling her free speech. Yeah right. Free speech has consequences, Mary Daly for the New Millennium.

Did you actually think transpeople were just going to sit in a corner and sulk while you spewed forth transphobic rants and insults with impunity?

Um no Miss Deluded Thang, unlike the Disco Era where our voices were drowned out by the trans hatred chorus of Daly, Greer and Raymond, new decade, new rules.

We can and will hit back just as hard.

Besides, as a minority, I know all too well that hate speech such as Bindel's must be called out as early and forcefully as possible, not greeted with silence.

Too often over recorded human history hate speech becomes hate violence which leads to genocide.

And it's past time that Julie Bindel be called out for her transphobia, not excused for it.

LGBT Americans Outraged At Delay In Basic Job Rights

TransGriot Note: A joint press release from several GLBT rights organizations.

In light of continuing delays in the House of Representatives, we must state clearly and unequivocally: Passing basic job protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people must happen now. At a time when our government is deeply focused on the critical issue of employment, it is inexcusable to delay action on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). Each and every job lost to prejudice based on sexual orientation and gender identity needlessly compounds the unemployment challenges facing our nation. We call on Congress for the immediate passage of ENDA.

For decades now, we have called upon Congress to pass legislation to address the basic right of LGBT people to work free from discrimination at our jobs, and now Congress tells us we must wait another year. In 29 states, it remains legal to fire people based on sexual orientation and in 38 states, discrimination based on gender identity remains legal. In failing to take swift action to pass ENDA, our government allows unfettered bigotry to go unchecked, leading to the loss of jobs, fear in the workplace, economic instability, and personal hardship, while allowing employers to lose competent experienced workers. ENDA is urgently needed by our communities.

The majority of Americans consistently state their support for employment protections and voters have affirmed similar state and local measures. There is absolutely no reason for Congress to continue to delay this non-controversial bill or drop LGBT issues to the bottom of their agenda. We will not be denied basic rights any longer. Nothing is more important than protecting peoples’ jobs so ENDA must pass now. Further delays are absolutely unacceptable.

***

Matthew Coles & James Esseks, Co-Directors, American Civil Liberties Union LGBT Project

Terry Stone, Executive Director, CenterLink: The Community of LGBT Centers

Toni Broaddus, Executive Director, Equality Federation

Jennifer Chrisler, Executive Director, Family Equality Council

Lee Swislow, Executive Director, Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders

Jarrett Tomás Barrios, President, Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation

Joe Solmonese, President, Human Rights Campaign

Rachel T. Niven, Executive Director, Immigration Equality

Earl Fowlkes, President/CEO, International Federation of Black Prides, Inc.

Kevin Cathcart, Executive Director, Lambda Legal

Christian Berle, Director of the Log Cabin Republicans National Office

Sharon J. Lettman, Executive Director/CEO, National Black Justice Coalition

Kate Kendell, Executive Director, National Center for Lesbian Rights

Mara Keisling, Executive Director, National Center for Transgender Equality

Rebecca Fox, Executive Director, National Coalition for LGBT Health

Rea Carey, Executive Director, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Action Fund

Michael Mitchell, Executive Director, National Stonewall Democrats

Gregory Varnum, Executive Director, National Youth Advocacy Coalition

Selisse Berry, Founding Executive Director, Out & Equal Workplace Advocates

Jody Huckaby, Executive Director, Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) National

Jo Kenny, Interim Director, Pride at Work AFL-CIO

Masen Davis, Executive Director, Transgender Law Center

Additional organizations may be added.

Isis Makes 2009 Out 100 List

Congrats to my sis Isis for making OUT magazine's Out 100 List. Been an interesting and groundbreaking year for little sis. She's represented us with class, dignity and style and is a sweetheart of a person as well.

You just love it when people like her get recognized for the positive things they do and Isis deserves all the accolades she gets.

Only wish that the outcome of America's Next Top Model Cycle 11 had turned out a little differently.

Fort Worth City Council To Vote On Panel Recomendations

In the wake of a highly publicized Fort Worth Police Department and Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission raid on the Rainbow Lounge that took place June 28, a task force was formed to look into the complaints that arose from that contentious raid.

Five people were arrested for public intoxication in that raid and one patron was taken to the hospital with a serious head injury. Complaints poured in about the use of excessive force during the raid as well as accusations that the Fort Worth police and the TABC targeted the bar because of its GLBT clientele.

The commission released its recommendations November 3 for giving Fort Worth's GLBT residents better access and equal treatment at City Hall.

Those recommendations are:

■ Extending the city’s nondiscrimination ordinance to include gender expression. A vote on the recommendation is scheduled for Tuesday.

■ Training for all city employees and elected officials on dealing with the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community. Police, fire and front-line customer service representatives will be trained within two years.

■ Extending domestic partner benefits, shared pensions and family leave for gay and lesbian city employees.

■ Including a company’s record on domestic partner benefits when considering city tax breaks.

■ Including sex-change surgery in city health insurance coverage.

■ Posting nondiscrimination language on job notices, including a letter to police recruits.

■ Establishing support groups for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees.

■ Holding educational fairs and using public events and media to increase awareness of the city’s anti-discrimination ordinance.

■ Pushing for state and federal anti-discrimination laws.


According to a Fort Worth Star Telegram article, Fort Worth council members appeared to favor most of the proposals. Councilman Joel Burns, who is gay, said, "I think everyone on this council wants to demonstrate that we’re committed to protect the full rights of everyone in our city."

Fort Worth City Manager Dale Fisseler concurred with the recommendations, although he asked for time to research the financial impact of some, such as the pension and healthcare changes.

The Fort Worth City Council will meet at 5 PM CST tomorrow to vote on those recommendations.

Kelli Busey of Planet Transgender is asking all GLBT people in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area show up for this critical meeting because the haters definitely will.

Fort Worth back in the day was headquarters for several televangelists, and still has a fundamentalist streak running through it despite being the home of Texas Christian University.

The Forces of Intolerance have mobilized in an attempt to shut GLBT people out of City Hall and do a replay of this summer's nekulturny town hall behavior.

Their mission is to browbeat and either intimidate the Fort Worth City Council into voting against the recommendations or tabling it to give them more time to stir crap up and bring out of town reinforcements in.

It's up to you peeps who are drum majors for justice to stop them, stand up to the bullies and give the Fort Worth City Council the opportunity to hopefully hand them another embarrassing defeat.

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.

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.

Wait Your Turn?

Frankly, I have never yet engaged in a direct action movement that was 'well-timed' according to the timetable of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation.

For years now I have heard the words "Wait!" It rings in the ear of every Negro with a piercing familiarity. This "Wait" has almost always meant "Never".

Rev Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr
'Letter From Birmingham City Jail', April 16, 1963.

Ever since I begun fighting in 1998 in conjunction with other transgender people around the country to expand the work of Dr. King, I have heard a late 20th-early 21st century variation of that paragraph uttered from the lips of numerous gay and lesbian people when it comes to transgender civil rights.

Wait your turn.

Wait my turn? Wait my turn for what?

Did you gay and lesbian people 'wait you turn' when you pushed for inclusion in civil rights legislation in the 70's?

Did you gay and lesbian people 'wait your turn' when you demanded that funding for HIV/AIDS research and finding a cure for it get higher priority in the 80's?

Did you 'wait your turn' when you demanded that your rights be acknowledged and respected in the 90's?

Did you gay and lesbian people 'wait your turn' in 2003 when you disastrously pushed for marriage equality one year before a critical presidential election?


How dare you part your lips to even say that to us. We transgender people are the ones who had the cojones to stand up to police harassment in San Francisco in 1966 and during the Stonewall Rebellion in 1969 while you gay and lesbian peeps were cowering in your closets. It is transgender blood that is being shed and transgender peeps who are discriminated against, denigrated, and disrespected by our foes and even by you, our so-called allies.

You have repeatedly cut us out of civil rights legislation on every level of government with the soothing words of 'we'll come back for you'. That has been proven over the years to be an odious lie as we wait for you in many jurisdictions across the United States to fulfill your broken promises.

Yesterday, led by your point gay Rep. Barney Frank, you once again cut us out of a bill that frankly, we need more than you do. You uttered the lie that 'we'll come back for you' and help you pass the 'GENDA bill' while pulling HR 2015 that was inclusive and replacing it with a gay and lesbian only one in addition to GENDA.

We transpeople know that you will bury that GENDA bill in a subcommittee, never call hearings on it and let it die a painful death while you selfishly fast-track your gay and lesbian only ENDA bill to the House floor for passage.

The sad part is that President Bush isn't going to sign it, so why start a civil war in the GLB community over this issue?

If there's anything that the misguided pastors of the Hi Impact Leadership Coalition have been proven right on is that your GLB civil rights movement is not like ours. Your GLB movement is selfish, morally bankrupt, exclusive and has been so since 1971, while the Civil Rights Movement led by Dr. King was a morally strong and inclusive one. You have more in common with the Dixiecrats than with civil rights warriors such as Rep. John Lewis (D-GA).

You say the country is not ready for transgender inclusion in civil rights law. Just today Oprah Winfrey did a show on transgender people and is doing another one on October 12. Transgender people are getting more positive coverage every day. Surveys prove over and over again that the public is more enlightened on the transgender issue than the Barney Franks of the GLB movement who are still drinking the hate-on-transpeople Kool-aid of Janice Raymond and Jim Fouratt.

As a transperson who also happens to be a proud African-American, the 'wait your turn' to me and transpeople who share my ethnic heritage sounds eerily similar to what Supreme Court Justice Roger B. Taney wrote in the Dred Scott Decision majority opinion 150 years ago: That I have no rights that you are bound to respect.

Wait your turn.

Rep. Frank and all you gay and lesbian conservaqueers who share his myopic self-centered views, how long must I and other transgender people wait for their constitutional rights in your infinite wisdom? It's sickening that transpeople in other countries around the world such as Spain and Great Britain are gaining and have more rights that those of us who live in the so-called cradle of democracy.

Will little six year old Jazz, the transkid profiled in Barbara Walters 20/20 story on transgender people have to wait until she's 21 to get constitutional protection?

How about Rochelle Evans in Fort Worth? Will she have to wait until she's 45 to get a law that protects her civil rights?

How long will transgender prom queen Crystal Vera have to wait? How long will Jake, the 16 year old transman profiled on today's Oprah show have to wait?

Rep. Frank and Speaker Pelosi, do you have the balls to tell the parents of these transkids that they must 'wait their turn' for their constitutional rights?

How long will transpeople who've been fighting this pitched battle with you for a decade over ENDA and simple inclusion in the GLB community since the 1970's have to wait? Can you walk into a TAVA meeting and tell our transgender veterans who honorably served our country, fought to protect, extend and defend people's civil rights and freedoms abroad that they have to 'wait their turn' to have the same freedoms extended to them at home?

Can you look all the parents and family members of deceased transpeople such as Rita Hester, Tyra Hunter, Gwen Araujo, Brandon Teena, Deborah Forte, and hundreds of others in the eye and tell them that transpeople have to 'wait their turn 'to have their civil rights codified into law?

So if you couldn't 'wait your turn', then why would you dare ask us, the shock troops of the GLBT movement to do something that you yourselves are unwilling to acquiesce to?

I'm Not Surprised: GLB Version

One of the things that I've been worried about since my DC lobby trip was a scenario in which they kept transpeople in hate crimes and let it pass, but transpeople got stripped out of the more critically important HR 2015, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.

Well, that scenario just happened. HR 2015 as of this morning is no longer being moved. It was replaced with two separate ENDA bills filed Thursday by the transgender community's old nemesis, the Purple Dinosaur AKA Rep Barney Frank (D-MA).
One bill is gay and lesbian only, the other has the 'gender identity' language.

The resident transphobe on Capitol Hill has PERMANENTLY earned the wrath and vitriol he's gonna get from transpeople.

Barney has been the point gay on keeping us out of ENDA. He has basically provided the religious right with their talking points over the last decade to use against transpeople by bringing up the shower issue and calling Riki Wilchins 'Read My Lips' book a transgender handbook. (which is laughable)

Of course the 'sell the trannies out' gay and lesbian voices are in full throat with their 'wait your turn' spin. What they won't tell you is that we've done canvass after canvass of congresscritters over the last decade that indicate that transgender inclusion won't sink ENDA.

And they know that as well. The Mattachine wing of the gay rights movement has reared its ugly trans-hating head.

I think we need to make a serious push toward getting transpersons elected to Congress. In the interim, somebody needs to run against Barney Frank in the primary next year to send him (and any other transphobic legislator) a personal message that we've had it with being cut out of civil rights bills.

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?

Philly Transgender Mural Stays

Dee Chhin can breathe a litle easier. It took the Philadelphia Board of Licenses and Inspection Review just eight minutes to unanimously decide that her mural The Death of Venus gets to stay where she painted it six years ago.

"I'm just happy it's over," said Chhin. "Finally, I can focus on something else that's not so controversial."

"I'm shocked. This has been six years in the fighting. I am just amazed," said Michael Sher, a Center City real estate broker who commissioned the emigre Cambodian transwoman and aspiring artist to paint the mural in 2001 to dissuade graffitists from tagging the building's wall. He also funded the legal fight to keep it there.

The controversy started when officials at nearby Peirce College, whose campus is across the street, learned that the mural did not have a permit and complained to the Historical Commission.

The commission then cited Sher because the 1850 brick townhouse that the mural is painted on is in the Rittenhouse-Fitler Residential Historic District. That designation meant that owners can't alter building exteriors without obtaining Historical Commission approval.

The mural was granted interim approval due to the complexities of Philadelphia's permit laws. It allowed the mural to remain undisturbed for four years before Sher had to apply for an extension. During that time the mural became a popular and promoted stop on Philly's murals tour.

When those four years passed the Philadelphia Historical Commission in January voted twice to remove the mural, setting the stage for the August 14 hearing.

City officials stated that it would be up to the Historical Commission to decide whether they wished to appeal the ruling to Philadelphia Common Pleas Court.

Bishop Harry Jackson's Claims Divisive and Untrue

Jackson's Claims Divisive and Untrue

July 1, 2007
by: Rev. Dr. Michael Eric Dyson
Sylvia Rhue, Ph.D.

Bishop Harry Jackson of the High Impact Leadership Coalition and pastor of Hope Christian Church in Maryland is leading the misguided attempt to scare Black ministers into backing his efforts to derail the much needed Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act also known as the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act. In doing so he is distorting the facts about a law which would provide local law enforcement with addition tools to stem the tide of intentional acts of violence and murder.

Contrary to Bishop Jackson's assertions, this bill will not "muzzle clergy", and it is not "anti-Christian". This bill should be passed because it is fair, overdue and much needed. The House passed a version last May and the Senate should pass it as well.

Bishop Jackson's claims are based on bias that is divisive, destructive and untrue. Hate crimes laws punish violent acts, not beliefs or thoughts, not even violent thoughts. The proposed federal statute does not punish, nor prohibit in any way, free expression of one's religious beliefs.

Pastors will remain free to condemn, demean, defame and dehumanize their gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered congregants and neighbors as they feel called by their religious beliefs. This bill will not change the First Amendment and we would not support any law that undermined this precious freedom.

On the other hand, we work with clergy who respect gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people, and honor the many gifts they have brought to the Church, especially to the Black Church. We believe this is the American way—we value the separation of church and state. We also believe it is the authentic way of Christ.

We also suggest that Bishop Jackson take a course in basic human sexuality since so much of his resistance to equal rights for LGBT people lies in his stated assumption that homosexuality is a "choice", while being black is not. Sexual orientation is not a choice. It is a innate, God-gifted, morally neutral state of being.

We hope and pray that Bishop Jackson will focus some attention on Christ's message of inclusion as we did when we invited him to speak to our members during our recently held Black Church Summit at Mother Bethel AME Church in Philadelphia. From that experience alone the good Bishop should have known that we would never support a law that would silence him in his own pulpit.

Rev. Dr. Michael Eric Dyson
Sylvia Rhue, Ph.D.

The writers are respectively the Chair and Director of the National Black Justice Coalition's Religious Advisory Committee.

Where My Sistahs And Brothas At?

I tuned in to watch the Larry King Live show on transgender peeps earlier this evening on CNN hoping to see if the transgender community would pick up on a recurring omission they make when they put these shows together.

Sadly, they didn't.

So what is the glaring omission you ask? I have no complaint about the content of the show. It was tastefully done and informative as Larry King shows usually are. But there was one thing missing. As usual, there was NO African-American transperson as part of the panel.

Yeah, the white transgender community will point to the Latina that was part of tonight's panel and state quizzically, "What was wrong with it? There was a person of color on the panel."

No, my Caucasian sisters and brothers, there was a LATINA on the panel. There were three white people on that panel. There were three transwomen and a transman on that panel.

There were NO African-Americans on that panel.

The reason I'm griping about it is because once again, just as last night's HRC sponsored GLBT Democratic presidential candidate forum ignored the concerns of African-American, Latino/a's GLBT peeps and the transgender community, the white transgender community repeatedly and conveniently forgets us when these media opportunities arise.

News flash: There are intelligent African-American transpeople who can easily speak for ours and the entire transgender community and look fly while doing it. We need that face time, too. We need to have my people (and yours) see African-American transpeople in a setting other than a pageant stage, an adult website or a smoky GLBT club.

Once again in a nationally televised setting, I didn't see someone representing me or my community. The transkids that share my heritage didn't see someone on that stage tonight that represents them.

That's what I'm upset about

Miz Bones Makes No Bones About Her Schtick

By Betty Baye
Louisville Courier-Journal
August 2, 2007

Just when I thought the insulting of black women couldn't get any worse (think Don Imus, think Eddie Murphy), a recent issue of The Louisville Eccentric Observer brought news of Shirley Q. Liquor. The headlines said, "The Most Dangerous Comedian in America. Why in the world is a gay white man putting on blackface and performing as a boozing welfare mother who drives a Cadillac?"

Why indeed?

Shirley Q. is poor. She drinks malt liquor (hence her last name), has 19 "chirrun" with colorful names and talks "ignunt" about most anything that pops into her head.

Shirley Q. is the black-faced (yes, a minstrel) creation of a white, gay man named Chuck Knipp, who seems to leave no stereotype behind.

David Holthouse's Rolling Stone article, reprinted in LEO, said that Knipp "has emerged from the dive bars and semi-underground gay clubs in the South, and he has rapidly developed a second-tier celebrity cachet." Wealthy whites book Knipp for private parties, prompting him to tell LEO, "I can see that my being there as Shirley makes them feel it's acceptable to openly mock black people in a way they otherwise would not, and that does cause me to have second thoughts. If what I'm doing is truly hurtful, then I need to stop."

But he won't. His minstrel act pays, so Knipp soldiers on as Shirley Q., despite the protestors who dog his appearances.

Knipp has offered various rationalizations for his monstrous Mammy creation. He's compared himself to Dave Chappelle making fun of white people and to Eddie Murphy's Rasputia, the fat, black, over-sexed character in the movie "Norbit."

Knipp also has insisted Shirley Q. is a response to a higher calling. "I think God's plan for me is to get right in the middle of all the tension (between whites and blacks) and just make them laugh."

In response to my e-mail, he offered a different explanation, but he wanted me to know, too, that "most African Americans who have seen my show laugh heartily; they see Shirley Q. Liquor as a representative of the dirty laundry and 'down home ignunce' that embarrasses so many people of color."

He added that most African Americans have taken up Dr. King's challenges to excel "as individuals of excellence and character," but others have chosen "to revel in perpetual victimhood … and rather than deal with their own cultural choices, i.e., hip hop, neckboning and clowning, some in the Black community still find it easier to play the underfunded card to justify the more embarrassing aspects of black culture."

Knipp believes he's performing a public service. But for which part of the public? The Klan?

And to think, many of the same people who have contempt for fat, poor, black women have equal distain for fat, white, gay drag queens.

But everybody needs somebody to look down on, I guess.

Monica Roberts, a member of the Louisville Fairness Campaign's advisory committee, appealed to the owners of a local establishment that caters to gays to reconsider an invitation for Knipp to perform.


Roberts, an African American, described Knipp's act as a minstrel show using "blackface images" that, even in the 21st Century, "carry much pain, anger and historical baggage." Not only that: Inviting Knipp to perform in our city gives cause, according to Roberts, "for African-American GLBT people in Louisville to seriously question our place in this community if our concerns, as your supposed allies, are going to be cavalierly brushed aside."

Carla Wallace, also of the Fairness Campaign, often has made the point that there are "interconnections between racism, sexism and homophobia."

What these sustained hateful assaults on poor, black women in music, film, "comedy acts," and sometimes even on the floor of Congress, suggest is that the women's lib movement has left many poor, black women behind. Otherwise we should hear a greater outcry.

It seems that Knipp's southern upbringing has trumped any extra compassion or sensitivity one might have expected, or at least hoped for, from someone who surely knows how badly stereotypes can wound, or even provoke some people to violence. But what goes around comes around, and maybe one day the joke will be on Knipp.


Betty Winston Baye is a Courier-Journal editorial writer and columnist. Her column appears Thursdays. Her email address is bbaye@courier-journal.com

August 2007 TransGriot Column

Universal Health Care-What’s In It For The GLBT Community?
Copyright 2007, THE LETTER

While only 7 months into his administration, President Harry S Truman proposed implementing universal health care. The ideas Truman set forth in a November 19, 1945 speech came to Congress in the form of a Social Security expansion bill. It was co-sponsored by Senators Robert Wagner (D-NY) and James Murray (D-MT) along with Representative John Dingell (D-MI) and became known as the W-M-D bill.

Predictably, the American Medical Association launched an energetic attack against the W-M-D bill that capitalized on American fears of Communism by calling it "socialized medicine". In a foreshadowing of 50’s McCarthy-era rhetoric, critics labeled Truman White House staffers ‘followers of the Moscow party line.’
President Truman gamely continued efforts to implement the W-M-D bill until the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950 forced him to abandon them.

In the latest attempt to implement Universal Health Care, Rep. John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) has introduced HR 676, which would create a single payer health care system in the US. It would cover all necessary medical care for US citizens and include prescription drugs, primary and preventative care, emergency services, dental and vision care, chiropractic and long term care, mental health, home health care, hospital, surgical, outpatient services, physical therapy, substance abuse treatment and rehabilitation.

HR 676 would also end deductibles and co-payments and economists predict that 95% of Americans would see a reduction in their health care costs

HR 676 is currently in committee and has 75 cosponsors. (Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY) is one of them). The Louisville Metro Council, Boyle County, the city of Morehead, KY and the KY House of Representatives have passed resolutions along with other municipalities across the US supporting the bill. HR 676 also has support from labor and other organizations such as the Jefferson County (KY) Teachers Assn., the American Library Association, the (national) NAACP, and the National Education Association.

It even has some corporate support. US based corporations are tired of competing with a handicap in the global marketplace. It’s one of the factors affecting the survival of US automakers. For example, if you buy a GM auto, $1200 of the price you pay for the vehicle is to cover the cost of the worker’s health insurance that built it. Toyota doesn’t have to factor health care costs into their auto pricing.

So what’s in it for transgender peeps and the GLBT community? My initial reading of the bill leads me to logically conclude that the medication and other care we require should be covered. AIDS medication would be available and acquired at much lower costs. Because GID is a medical condition listed in the DSM-IV, a transperson could get their hormones, medical exams, counseling, surgery and checkups covered at reasonable rates as is done in Canada, Great Britain and several other countries with universal health care plans. The Reichers and health care companies will fight tooth and nail to ensure that we aren’t.

We GLBT peeps are inevitably gonna get older. Wouldn’t it be nice to pay a flat fee for the medications and care that you require instead of the grossly inflated prices we pay now? Wouldn’t it be wonderful to HAVE medical coverage that’s not tied to whether or not you’re employed? The 46 million people that are currently uninsured definitely think so.

If you want more information, check out www.PNHP.org the website of the Physicians for a National Health Program, www.kyhealthcare.org or call (502) 899-3861 or (502)636-1551.

It's not gonna be easy. You will see obscene amounts of money spent, negativity and disinformation spread about Universal Health Care that makes what the GOP, the health insurance and pharmaceutical companies did to kill the Clinton plan in 1993 seem like a church picnic by comparison.

But it will probably happen in the next five years. Universal health care is not only a human rights issue, but also one with broad-based support that the GLBT community should get behind. It’s a bridge-building opportunity that gives us a chance to work with labor, business, government and other interested parties. We need to get off our behinds, educate ourselves about universal health care and fight for our issues in the implementation of it.

Crystal Vera's Quest For The Crown

High school senior Crystal Vera created a lot of buzz when she ran for prom queen. Now the trans girl is ready to tackle the future.



By Michelle Garcia
An Advocate.com exclusive posted June 26, 2007

At 19, Crystal Vera has already made history. This May the high school senior at Roosevelt School of the Arts in Fresno, Calif., became the nation's first transgender prom queen.

Her moment of glory attracted massive attention: MTV and Bravo wanted interviews, Fresno's gay pride parade named her as grand marshal (she rode in the parade in her tiara, sash, and sparkly blue gown), and the blogosphere buzzed with news of her win. For the LGBT community, Vera's win was a remarkable statement—and one Vera initially had reservations about making.

“My friends would constantly ask me to run for queen,” she says via phone. “But I just wanted my prom to be fun and my senior year to be relaxed. I didn’t want to be stressed-out. I knew that this would take a lot of work.”

Eventually those friends wore her down. One day Vera walked into the school cafeteria to find a mob of supporters urging her to put her hat in the ring.

“I was so touched by how my classmates accepted me, and that they respected me so much that they would want me to be prom queen,” she remembers. So Vera’s campaign began. She handed out rainbow flyers and chatted up her classmates, the high school equivalent to shaking hands and kissing babies. The Roosevelt School of the Arts, where Vera (still known to some teachers and classmates as Johnny) excelled as a student, cheerleader, and dancer, is a progressive magnet program for fine arts with a student body of 500 students. But before Vera's run for queen, no one knew just how progressive the program was.

In the end, the transgender teenager beat the other contenders, whom she described as equally popular and well-liked as she, by a 5-to-1 margin.

After the prom the whirlwind continued. "The following Monday when I walked into each of my classes, my peers would all get up and clap for me,” she says. “When I went to lunch, the whole cafeteria—I will never forget this—everybody was clapping. It’s just so wonderful to know that times are changing. People are changing. Things like this bring us hope as individuals that things will be better off for us.”

In September, Vera will study fashion design at the California College of the Arts, something she's dreamed about doing since she was 14 years old. Whatever challenges she may face, she'll always be able to draw strength from the memory of her prom.

“A year from now, if I’m going through a hard time," she says, "it will be good to look back and remember that not all people are cruel and rude."

Austin Reflections

Guest column by Fredrikka Maxwell

There’s a bridge across busy Congress Avenue in Austin, Texas. It crosses the Colorado River and is the home for the largest bat colony in the world and is a tourist attraction in the Texas capital.

And there’s a plaque on that bridge, still shiny and new, naming it for Ann Richards (1933-2006) the lady governor of Texas from 1991-1995 who was in essence a bridge builder advocating for equality of the races, women’s rights and rights of GLBT people

I was in Texas on the July 4th weekend giving a seminar at the Dignity USA convention in Austin. And as I explored the bustling downtown area and watched the variety of people young and old, black and white and brown going to and fro, I discovered the plaque on the bridge and realized that this is what it was really all about.

Building bridges.

And that was what I was doing in Austin that weekend. Building a bridge from the transgender community in the largest Roman Catholic GLBT group in the country to the group at large--a group that called itself a trans-inclusive group since the mid 1990s but had had nothing trans in its convention line up --which horrified me. It turned out that the transperson they had on the committee putting on the convention had to leave the committee for personal reasons. And, since conventions can take on a life of their own, it basically snowballed and I really believe that the trans aspect went out of sight and out of mind.

So I suggested that perhaps we could squeeze a trans workshop into the convention and I even prepared an outline. The convention chair and the Dignity list moderator both realized I knew my subject. And having been reared Catholic and so had a background for understanding the church didn’t hurt at all. In fact, that probably sealed the deal. So they invited me to give the workshop that we hoped would educate the general run of dignity convention-goers and help them grasp the issues inherent in being trans-inclusive.

It turned out that it was not a large gathering. Maybe 225 to 250 individuals all told gathered at the Hyatt Regency downtown. About a dozen showed up. But they were prominent people in the Dignity community and they were interested and I could see people taking notes and folks asked good questions. It felt very affirming.

I’ve read some figures from NCTE that there are maybe between 750,000 and 3,000,000 trans people in the US. That’s a liberal estimate and may not be exact. So many of us are in the closet, so many of us are stealth, living a life with a secret we pray never gets out. It is hard to know exactly how many of us are out there and that’s especially true for the minority population. It's hard to rally the numbers that will translate to the votes that we desperately need to get Congress to pass the laws that we need.

And so we need all the allies we can find. That was also true in the Dignity community. And some of them were in the gay, lesbian, and bisexual communities.

But many of them don’t always understand us and our issues. And we may not always understand theirs. It was--and is-- therefore important to strive to find common ground. And to find common ground you have to educate folks in your issues and you have to let them know that some of their issues overlap and are right there with ours.

For instance, anti-hate crime legislation is a trans issue. It is also a gay and lesbian issue as well. I personally don’t know if Barry Winchell was REALLY gay or not and frankly it doesn’t matter if he was or not. The thing is it has to be OK to be who you are, whether you’re gay or straight, bi or trans, whatever. But somebody thought it did matter and killed him as a result. He’d probably still be walking around today if that hadn’t happened. So would Nokia Baker. Trust me, anti-hate crime legislation is a must.

Health care is also a gay and lesbian issue. Since it’s also tied to marriage equality getting it for oneself and one’s partner is a challenge. Especially if the person’s employer doesn’t offer domestic partnership benefits.

And sometimes hospitals will not allow a gay person at the bedside of the beloved because of policies that dictate only “family” may visit and only “family” may make healthcare decisions for the patient--and if you’re gay and you can’t get married, then you could be out of luck because only married people are respected as “family”

Although it’s possible to draft legal paper such as durable powers of attorney for health care, and legal paper to declare yourself next of kin so that you can visit the patient that might get around that. But it’s not automatic as it is for straight married couples That makes it a real burdensome issue for gays and lesbians.

And also a trans issue. We know, for instance, that many insurance companies do not cover what we need in the way of health care. many do not cover Gender Reassignment Surgery, and some don’t cover hormones, and some don’t cover facial feminization surgery, the procedures that make the face more feminine for male to female trans people for instance. Health care is for sure both a trans issues and a gay and lesbian issue.

And it’s understanding issues like that that will go a long way towards strengthening the GLBT alliance, allowing us to find common ground and understanding of our sometimes joint issues.

So I was glad to be a bridge builder. Thank you, Ann Richards, for reminding me.

The Color Line IS A Transgender Community Problem Too

At the dawn of the 20th century, W.E.B. DuBois made his famous prediction that 'The problem of the 20th century will be the problem of the color line.

Seven years into the twenty-first century, not only was DuBois on target, but the twenty-first century has an American color line exacerbated by conservative policies and rhetoric that's worse than the one in DuBois day. While I don't face the prospect of being lynched because I dared to vote or forcefully speak up for myself in the presence of a white person, the two centuries of racist negativity still lives.

I have often said that the GLBT community is a microcosm of society at large. It is illogical to think that we GLBT peeps are free of the ills of the parent society. Since we are a subset of a racist society, we're infected with the same sickness as well. Every now and then I get reminders of the racist past that permeates our present.

During the recent lobby day I participated in two months ago AC and I were taking some peeps back to a DC METRO station past The Mall. We'd had a debrief in our hotel room in Silver Spring about the day's lobbying effort. I'm the lone African-American in this vehicle and we took Georgia Avenue enroute to the METRO station. We got stopped at a traffic light on the Howard University campus. While waiting for the light to change I noted just to my right a DC police officer executing a patdown search on an African-American male. I made a comment to AC about it and one of the peeps we were chauffeuring chimed in, "They must be searching for the crack cocaine he was selling."

I turned my head and shot that person a lethally nasty look before saying, "Most of the peeps selling and using crack share your ethnic background."

It isn't the first time I've been confronted with racism inside the transgender community. I've been called the n-word multiple times on various transgender oriented discussion lists simply because people disagreed with me. When a group of us started putting together the first Transsistahs-Transbrothas conference in 2005 we were motivated to make it happen after a person made the comment that 'it will make it easier for them to service their tricks' along with other racist tripe in their posting.

When the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition was founded in 1999 by a group that included transpeople of color, some people in the white transgender community savagely dissed it. Never mind the fact that some of the NTAC founders exposed the duplicitous relationship HRC and GenderPac. Some of them hated the idea that transpeople of color had the temerity to not only form an organization, but step up to the plate and provide leadership for the transgender community.

The racism in the transgeder community has created a situation in which African-American transpeople feel the same disconnect they feel in the parent society. We don't feel respected or valued. When we do try to offer our input, expertise or suggestions, they are dismissed or vilified, then we find the white community after trying it their way and failing eventually doing what we suggested years before.

It aggravates many of us in the African-American transgender community to no end. It has led me to the conclusion that in order to get our voices into the mix and make rapid progress toward gaining our civil rights, we may have to do what our parents and grandparents did.

Do it our damned selves.

We have issues in our community that only we are qualified to deal with. It is African-American transpeeps who will have to take on the sellout Black church folks and call them on their hypocrisy. We will have to do the 'ejumacation' on transgender issues in the African-American community. We will have to do the things within our own transgeder community that build self esteem and pride. We will have to forcefully demand that we get our rightful seat at the African-American family table.

To accomplish that, we may have to form our own organizations if we are ever going to make any headway toward dealing with the problems that affect the African-American transgender community. We realistically can't count on help from people who are 'scurred' of us or get jealous of whatever progress we make and seek to retard it.

We must embrace our proud history. We are a people that have accomplished great and wonderful things when we pull together, brainstorm, roll up our sleeves and just do it.

It time for us to prove to the world that we can do it again.

June 2007 TransGriot Column

Chuck Knipp + SQL + Minstrel Show = Racism
Copyright 2007, THE LETTER

Just in time for pride I’m calling out all you GLBT racism enablers.

Racism enabler? Moi? Yes, you!

You peeps who silently sit through racist rants that would make the local KKK Grand Wizard proud. It also includes you peeps who paid good American money to see and support a racist minstrel show like some of y’all did on May 5 during Derby.

A minstrel show mind you that perpetuates stereotypes dating back to the 1830’s and has as much humor in it as Don Imus’ April 4 ‘nappy headed garden tool’ comments that got him canned from his multimillion dollar radio gig.

Stop rolling your eyes and muttering under your breath ‘there she goes again.’ I’m just as sick and tired of ‘splaining to y’all why Chuck’s minstrel show is offensive to the African-American SGL community. For the record, it’s disrespectful on multiple levels to single mothers, economically disadvantaged peeps, women and African-Americans.

Spare me your latest ‘It’s free speech’ SQL defense line. With free speech comes responsibility and consequences as well. Free speech cuts both ways. Just as Chuck has the right to say things and insult my people in his ‘act’ I have a reciprocal right to protest and call him out for performing a 'show’ with stereotypes rooted in slavery.

And no, Chuck doesn’t get a ‘dodge criticism’ free pass because he’s gay. Isaiah Washington and Tim Hardaway didn’t (and still don’t) get them from the gay community for their one-time comments, so a serial offender like Chuck doesn’t get one either.

Let me also put an end to Chuck’s disingenuously fallacious statement that by performing SQL he’s fostering a discussion on race relations by getting us to laugh at them.

Bull feces.

Chuck is exacerbating racial tensions, not healing them. Using a blackface image with 400 years of negativity associated with it doesn’t exactly lend itself in African-American eyes as a starting point for a civil discourse on race relations. In 2002 we African-Americans had a major problem with those blackface images in Spike Lee’s ‘Bamboozled’ movie. You know we’re gonna be highly perturbed with someone standing on stage in blackface who is not only gay and should know better, but comes from the same ethnic group and gender that enslaved our great-great grandparents.

That little ‘12 Days of Kwanzaa’ ditty Chuck composed that’s posted on every white supremacist website on the Net also puts an abrupt end to that ‘I’m a racial healer' fallacy as well.

Finally, let’s get one thing straight (pardon the pun). The white community gay or straight doesn’t get to determine what we African-Americans should or shouldn't be offended by. The African-American community collectively does and it’s the height of arrogance for you to think that you do. Trotting out RuPaul, the mysterious African-American ‘friend’ who’s allegedly an SQL fan (yeah, right) or anyone else for Chuck to hide behind ain’t gonna work either. RuPaul has less credibility in the African-American SGL community nowadays than Condoleezza Rice.

It should be obvious after 5 years of protests, show cancellations, denunciations from African-American activists, African-American GLBT columnists and bloggers, GLBT organizations, our gay and straight allies and other concerned citizens of various ethnic backgrounds where we stand on the SQL issue. The more intransigent you get about SQL, the more you risk losing the African-American GLBT community as an ally
in the GLBT rights struggle.

Yes peeps, it’s that serious.

This was always more than just us complaining about a lousy minstrel show. This is being viewed by some in the African-American GLBT community as a litmus test to see just how serious the white GLBT community is about dealing with issues that we deem important.

And right now you’re in danger of failing that test.