'Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel' Upcoming Trans Sportswriters Show

Trans themed shows have been the rage over the last few days with the CNN Susan Stanton one and Anderson Cooper's recent multi part interview of Chaz Bono.

Turns out the late Christine Daniels wasn't the only trans sportswriter. On March 16 HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel will profile and interview trans sportswriters.

And no, the TransGriot won't be part of this discussion, even though on occasion I let my inner sports junkie out on the blog.



Should be an interesting discussion

Kristina, Read Your AP Stylebook

Kristina DeLeon is another reporter that needs to learn the difference between a transman and a transwoman.

I know WOAI-TV should have copies of the AP Stylebook around the station, but let me take a moment to school you on the basics of how to properly report about transpeople.



A transgender man or transman is a person born in a FEMALE body like yours who transitions to male.

A transgender woman or transwoman is a person born male but who transitions to female

Transmen are referred to with male pronouns, transwomen with female pronouns irregardless of genital status.

Such a simple concept, but people constantly screw it up.

Y'all Already Have WET And The NAAWP, So Stop Trippin'

Whenever you have a situation in which a white person acting in a racist manner gets called on it by African American or other people of color, the first thing that comes out of their mouths besides a weak 'I'm not racist' comment is a tired overused meme.

If you peruse the comment threads for the defenders of racist white people behaving badly, the first thing they'll say is, 'Well, Black people have BET and the NAACP, why can't we have a WET, a Congressional White Caucus or a NAAWP?' or some variation of the above weak line.

Some of you swimming in vanilla flavored privilege fail to realize that you already have White Entertainment Television. It's called NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX, MTV and every other cable network besides Telemundo, BET and TVOne.

And of the three, guess which one is owned by a Black person.

If you said BET, wrong. While Telemundo was founded by Angel Ramos in 1954 it's an NBC network. Black Entertainment Television is owned by Viacom, not Bob Johnson.

TVOne is the Black owned cable network, and thank you Cathy Hughes for not only ensuring Black radio's survival into the 21st century by founding and being the chairperson of RadioOne, but saving us from Buffoonery Everyday Television.

As a matter of fact, the bitterly sarcastic joke in the African American community concerning NBC is that its letters stand for 'Nothing But Caucasians' in reference to its less than diverse programming. The last time NBC had any shows on with predominately Black casts was 'Cosby' and 'A Different World'.



As for the NAAWP, the National Association For The Advancement of White Privilege and the Congressional White Caucus, it exists too.

The Congressional White Caucus is called the Republican Party. The NAAWP is the Republican Party, the Conservative movement and the interlinked spiderweb of organizations connected to it.

Everything in this culture and our society revolves around whiteness. Because of the Jim Crow segregation you started and maintained for 100 years and the near genocidal level of violence directed at us, for our own edification, safety, survival and cultural uplift we've had to form all Black organizations in which our culture and our people are celebrated, not denigrated.

That's why the NAACP exists. Black newspapers. Black magazines. Black Greek letter fraternities and sororities. Black social clubs such as The Links and 100 Black Men. Historically Black colleges and universities. Black music. Black radio. The Miss Black America Pageant. Black authors and poets writing books and poetry steeped in our culture. Black History Month. The Blackosphere.

Shall I continue?

Y'all already have WET and the NAAWP, so stop trippin'.

Pat Robertson Hatin' On Haiti

Boy the competition for this week' TransGriot Shut Up Fool! Award just got a little tighter.

The entire planet is focused on expeditiously getting help to the people of Haiti following a devastating 7.0 earthquake and once again Marion 'Pat' Robertson opens mouth and inserts foot in the wake of a natural disaster.

Pat went off on a bizarre tangent over the successful slave rebellion that ejected the French and led to Haiti's independence during his 700 Club broadcast.



"Something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it. "They (Haitians) were under the heel of the French...and they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said 'We will serve you'...and so, the devil said 'Okay, it's a deal' and kicked the French out," Robertson said.

During an earlier report with a reporter for Robertson's CBN News, the televangelist questioned whether the earthquake in Haiti was a "blessing in disguise."

Haiti's Ambassador to the United States Raymond Joseph verbally pimp slapped Robertson and gave his clueless behind a history lesson he sorely needed when he appeared on the Rachel Maddow Show to discuss the situation in his country.

In addition to being a racist fool wallowing in vanilla flavored privilege, you've shown yourself to be ignorant of history as well. Haiti is the world oldest Black republic and the second oldest in the Western Hemisphere after the United States.

One of the causes of Haiti's poverty is because the Southern slaveholders didn't want a repeat of Haiti's successful revolt on US territory and sought to make life difficult for the nascent nation. France forced Haiti to pay crushing reparations in exchange for diplomatic recognition.

Speaking of recognition, because of Southern opposition the United States didn't extend diplomatic recognition of Haiti until 1862, a year after the Southern states jumped off the Civil War and seceded from the Union.

There's no truth to the rumor that President Obama proclaimed Pat's mouth a disaster area, but I suggest that Pat change the name of his show to the more apropos title of the 666 Club.

To QI & Mr Stephen Fry: Transgender Women Are Not Blokes And Are Not There To "Fool" Anybody

TransGriot Note: This is the text of a complaint letter sent to the BBC by Sass Rogando Sasot concerning a transphobic January 8 segment of a British TV show called Quite Interesting. For my UK readers you can watch that January 8 episode here, for the rest of us, the player isn't set up for viewing outside of Great Britain.

If you wish to send your complaint to the BBC, here's the link. You can also send it to the QI contact person Sarah Lloyd (sarah@qi.com)

Here's Sass's letter

Dear QI:

I'm writing to complain about the comments and questionable opinion of your host, Mr Stephen Fry, about transgender women in your episode entitled "Girls & Boys" on January 8, 2010. The disrespectful comments and questionable opinion of Mr Fry were said during the discussion that came after he asked the question: "How can you be so sure she's not a bloke?"

After discussing why the Adam's apple can't really be a sign that someone is a man, Mr Fry said that: "Basically, a good ladyboy can imitate almost anything female, in terms of how they hold(?) their legs and you know...anything like that."

Then one of the guests asked "Hands and feet?". Mr Fry answered that there are also other women who have large feet then he said: "A dainty ladyboy can easily fool and often has."

Finally, Mr Fry concluded this segment by saying: "The truth is,
Without undressing them or testing their DNA, you can't be sure what sex someone is. So be careful out there."

I find the comments disrespectful and questionable on the following grounds:

First, the term "ladyboy" is a term that is usually used in the sex industry, specially in porn that features Asian transgender women. This term has the same offensive connotation as the term "she-male". I suggest that you refrain using this term as calling transgender women a ladyboy is no different than simply calling them "boys/men", thereby disrespecting their gender identity as women.

Second, the comments about transgender women "imitating anything female" and "a dainty [transgender woman] can easily fool and often has" suggest that transgender women are out there to deceive people. Transgender women are not deceiving anyone because they are just simply living their gender identity as women. This is a courageous manifestation of one's inner truth and not a sinister ploy to fool anyone. More than disrespectful, this comment is also disturbing as this is the same line of argument being used by the perpetrators of violence and discrimination against transgender women to justify their acts.

And third, the opinion of Mr Fry that someone's "true sex" is determined by what's between our legs OR by our DNA is highly questionable.

The external genitalia is now losing ground in being the "true" determinant of someone's sex. As what Dr. Louis Gooren, a Dutch endocrinologist and one of the leading experts on transsexualism, said in his closing speech during The Council of Europe: 23rd Colloquy on European Law: Transsexualism,
Medicine and Law, that:

"It has always been assumed that the sexual differentiation was completed with the formation of the external genitalia. But it is NOT. Since the beginning of this century we have known that the brain, too, undergoes a sexual differentiation. This has been firmly established scientifically in lower animals, and it occurs relatively late in development, in most species just before or shortly after birth...What do we know about man, the human species? We know that the human brain, too, undergoes a degree of sexual differentiation...Long after you were born and after your sex had been determined by the criterion of the external genitalia, your brain still had a long way to go to become sexually differentiated; it does not do so not before the age of 3 to 4 years. These scientific findings may shed light on the problem of transsexualism where we find a contradiction between the genital sex on the one hand and the gender identity on the other hand."


And DNA testing is as problematic as using external genitalia as determinant of the "true" sex of anybody. As what Dr Eric Vilain, a clinical genetics specialist at the UCLA Health System: "Recent advances in the field of the genetics of sexual development have shown the extreme complexity of defining males and females from a biological standpoint. There is no one biological parameter that clearly defines sex. ”

In fact, the United Kingdom, with its Gender Recognition Law, is now one of the countries in the world that has now legally recognized that one's gender identity is the best determinant of one's sex.

I understand that the comments of Mr Fry were meant to be humorous. However, there's a fine line between having a good laugh and turning a group people into an object of ridicule. And as a quiz show, we expect that QI would be curious enough to discover and use information that reflects current discoveries and understanding of the concepts that are being discussed in the show. This segment is not about furthering scientific understanding but more about furthering the opinion that transgender women are "really" blokes.

I trust that QI and Mr Fry would rectify this unfortunate and unbecoming display of ignorance.

Thank you.

Respectfully,

Ms Sass Rogando Sasot
transgender rights activist,
Communication Officer in Asia of
the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual,
Trans & Intersex Association (ILGA)

Shut Up Fool! Awards-Let It Snow Edition

It's the first full week of the New Year and the second decade of the 21st century. We in Da Ville have spent the last 48 hours shoveling snow, slip sliding on the highways and byways of Kentuckiana and sliding down the various designated sledding hills since we got dusted with 3.5 inches of snow Thursday.

It's Friday and you know what that means people. Now that I've finished shoveling snow and clearing the sidewalks, time for me to shed a bright spotlight on the fool or fools that embarked and engaged in unleashing a blizzard of BS, buffoonery, idiocy and jibber jabber.

This year, I'm going to put a new wrinkle in the Shut up Fool! awards. From time to time I'll ask the people who are signed up on my Twitter or Facebook page to select the Fool of the Week.

This week I asked the people on my Facebook page who should win this week's award.

The winner this week was David Letterman

Dave did a skit which turned the historic appointment of Amanda Simpson into a stereotypical transphobic sight gag.



Never mind the fact he did so at the same time transphobic reporting on it was happening in the New York Post and the Not Enough Family Research Council was piling on and attacking the appointment.

GLAAD called him on it along with others in the trans community.

And this week, you earned this-

David Letterman, shut up fool!

How To Respectfully Cover A News Story Involving A Trans Person

I love Rachel Maddow for a lot of reasons, but the most important one is that she covers news stories with intelligence and humor, something sorely lacking in most journalism outposts these days.

Makes me glad she's on the progressive side.

Take notes MSM. Notice how Rachel covered the unfolding Amanda Simpson presidential appointment story. This is how you RESPECTFULLY cover a story involving a trans person.



If you need further 'ejumacation' on the issue, you can go to the GLAAD website or peruse your latest copy of the AP Stylebook

GLAAD Ain't Happy About Letterman's Amanda Simpson Skit...And Neither Am I

Damn, can a transwoman, or transpeople in general get through the first full week of the New Year and new decade without being disrespected?

Sadly, the answer is no.

We have a moment in which the entire trans community is bursting with pride at one of our own getting an historic federal appointment by the president, only to have tabloid newspapers and comedians turn it into a fracking joke.

GLAAD has already highlighted some problematic coverage of the news by the reliably transphobic New York Post, and now David Letterman piles on with this skit from last night's show.



The 'cis man gets physically ill at presence of transwoman' is unfortunately a lame and depressingly far too common meme in the entertainment world.

It has manifested itself in films such as Bachelor Party, The Crying Game and Ace Ventura Pet Detective.



Guess I should be counting my blessings that Late Night bandleader Paul Shaffer didn't fire up the band and play 'The Crying Game' song to go with it.

And before y'all start typing the 'damn it's just a joke, lighten up' BS in the comments, I have a sense of humor as people who know me will tell you. I know the difference between a good joke and one that goes a bit too far and is hurtful to the persons and the community that was the punchline of said joke.

The Letterman Amanda Simpson skit crossed that line last night. It mined a tired meme for the sake of a laugh.

And the 'cis man gets ill at sight of transwoman' sight gag needs to die

New Years Video Message From The POTUS

Fresh for the 2K10, the New Years Day Message from President Barack Obama

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.

See Ya, Lou!

Last night was Lou Dobbs' last broadcast on CNN.

All I have to say to that is hallelujah and what took y'all so long to remove the prevaricating bloviator off the air. Truth and balance have been in short supply on his show for several years now.

And it's sad since he has won major journalism awards.

His coverage of the 1987 stock market crash won him the George Foster Peabody Award for excellence in broadcasting along with an Emmy for Lifetime Achievement that he received from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in 2005.



But pimping fact free conspiracy theories and hatred of immigrants is not what an Emmy award winning journalist should be doing on a network like CNN.

He's now free to slither on over to Faux News and pimp all the conspiracy theories he wishes to a more intellectually challenged audience

Los Angeles Times...going Tabloid, to whip up sales??? Zell, command!

Samuel Zell, the head of a raft of reputable newspapers across the country, raised some eyebrows in the newsroom in recent days, when he noted that he "didn't mind if employees watched pornography while at work", as long as the titillating foray into the realms of carnal knowledge didn't interfere with productivity.

A bit of tawdry flesh and graphic simulated sex generally engenders a much-needed boost in these quarters sure to jump-start the day, so I applaud the guy (yeah, right; and, I have swamp land in Florida you may be interested in acquiring, too).

Apparently, the newly-installed top dog at Tribune had a surprising request on the heels of this office memo,

"If any of you find any good (porn) sites, let me know..."

Ah, it's always encouraging to learn the boss is a horn dog; it's so much easier to fathom a way to fast track up the career ladder, ya know?

Personally, I'm not about to share any of my "pleasure product"; after all, those endless late-night searches - googling a little here, probing a little there - are sexually strenuous, downright exhausting, at times.

Forget about sloppy seconds, too - Sam!

Zell's ideas about how to inspire and spark worker motivation are novel, as well.

According to reports from prudish employees eye-witness to events, the whip-snapping print King actually facilitated salty language in a zesty effort to "shake things up" at the office.

A complacency had set in, argued Zell, so it was time to stir the pot - passion on all fronts, eh?

But management fired a subtle warning shot across his bow, and subsequently, may have taken the wind out of his sails.

"Sam (Zell) is a force of nature, but we still have expectations at times as to what is correct in the workplace," a rep asserted.

The impression one gets? Zell is pretty cheesy, alright; out of line, perhaps.

The staff are wisely establishing a "paper trail".

One writer alleged - "they laughed off" - Zell's lusty remarks. "...our bigger concerns are about jobs," he pointedly added.

Zell obviously expects "the sensualizing up" be reflected in the column inches - and ultimately - to impact the revenue logs, as well.

Otherwise, a handful may be "out of ink" at the Tribune, shown the door.

On the horizon at Zell's Inferno?

Right now, Zell is not impressed with the status quo.

In fact, when a reporter asked the company "fireman" to expound on his ideas about journalism and the view points he sought to put across, he allegedly responded by swearing at the startled innocent.

However, Zell had no qualms putting forth the notion that revenue in the specific area of the "Gentleman's Club" arena, be plumbed with virile vigor.

To add a splash of imagery to the discussion, he allegedly tossed in some slang terms relating to female anatomy, to hammer home the idea.

Well, men are visual, aren't they?

With the trend towards tabloid journalism, and snippets of McNews - USA Today Style - one can only imagine what awaits between the turn of the phrase.

Page 3 girly shots along the lines of the Fleet Street Rags?

You betcha, if it will Zell - er - sell!

Rachel's Right

Miss USA Rachel Smith has incensed some people by inadvertanly dissing current CBS anchor Katie Couric.

During a recent Women in Entertainment Empowerment Network event last week in New York, when Smith was asked about her future career aspirations she expressed her desire to get into journalism. FYI for your Rachel bashers, she interned last summer in Chicago at Harpo Productions and graduated magne cum laude from Belmont College with a degree in journalism.

She's quoted by the New York Daily News as saying, "I always wanted to be a reporter — maybe some TV. Who knows? Some serious news — but some modeling, too. I just don't want to end up like Katie Couric. I want people to take me seriously."

In response, Couric's rep later told the Daily News: "If she continues to offer such profound insight, she will not have to worry about anyone taking her seriously."

For the folks who are attacking Rachel, if they took a monent to actually think about what the sistah's saying, she's right. Katie Couric is one of the reasons I gave up watching CBS News. I watched her the first week after she took over as news anchor and was sadly disappointed about the direction that the newscast took with her in the anchor chair.

CBS, the network home of Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite, and once was the gold standard in terms of broadcast journalism surrendered to the right wing. The network that once had the cojones to call out Joseph McCarthy during the height of the red-baiting McCarthy era, have its news anchor call Vietnam 'unwinnable' caved and fired Dan Rather when the right-wingers screamed about a 60 Minutes report that dared to ask the question that many of us had on our minds long before the 2004 election.

Where was George W. Bush during the last 18 months of his National Guard service?

I noticed that once again, most of Rachel's critics are white and are comparing her to the recent Miss Teen South Carolina who botched her question. Rachel ain't her.

In our community, Black girls are taught from birth that beauty fades. It's drilled into Black girls to rely more on their brains than a beautiful exterior and a pretty face to carry you through life.

For those who choose to model or enter beauty pageants, they are used as springboards for other careers. There's a former Miss America you may have heard of named Vanessa Williams who's conquered Hollywood, the music business and television. 1977 Miss Universe Janelle Commissiong runs a successful business in Trinidad. Before B. Smith took the culinary world by storm she was an Ebony Fashion Fair model. I doubt that anyone considers Tyra Banks a joke these days either.

Beauty queens aren't taken seriously? Just ask a former Miss Black Tennessee who's now running a media empire worth billions. What's her name again?

Black Radio Days

A post on the Mes Deaux Cents blog was the inspiration for this one. She talked about her love of radio and working in the business. It's generated a lot of comments from people like myself who fondly remember the pioneering deejays in their hometowns and got me thinking once again about that part of my childhood.

Radio, especially Black radio has a special place not only for me but in the hearts of our people. As someone who grew up around radio stations, cut a promo commercial for my dad's AM drive time show when I was in the first grade and another one years later, I saw that love firsthand.

Black radio entertained us, informed us, raised money, helped us get organized and gave us a voice. It's rightfully credited by no less than Dr. King and others with being the engine that powered the 50's and 60's Civil Rights Movement.

Because the deejay has an exalted place in our community. they were considered leaders and opinion makers. The movie Talk To Me, in which Don Cheadle depicted the life of legendary jock Ralph Waldo 'Petey' Greene who was on Washington DC's WOL-AM during the 60's and 70's, illustrates the ability of Black deejays to shape community public opinions. It was a power that J. Edgar Hoover and others were so afraid of they actually monitored many Black deejays from the late 60's through the mid 70's.

It's no accident that when the Telecommunications Act of 1996 was passed, the first victims of the rush to buy stations in many markets were Black ones. They were part of small radio station networks or had individual owners. When the Clear Channels with their megabucks started calling, they cashed out. If it weren't for Cathy Hughes and Radio One Inc, Black radio as we know it wouldn't exist.

The history of Black Radio is thankfully preserved on the Indiana University campus in its Archives of African-American Music & Culture. There is a section of it that covers Black radio that has not only my dad's memorabilia, but a collection of the late Jack Gibson's Mello Yello magazines and other legendary deejays as well. I'm planning on taking a trip up the road to the IU-Bloomington campus soon and checking out all that radio history.

But it was interesting having a ringside seat for all of that. I got to meet various peeps ranging from politicians to music business people. I got to see some really cool concerts, collect a vast array of promo tee-shirts and have a cutting edge record collection. One of the first concerts I was allowed to attend by myself was a Parliament-Funkadelic one in which Bootsy was part of the tour. I also kept up with the news and happenings in the business by reading my dad's Mello Yello's when he was done with them.

There was one summer I got to tag along for a Jackson 5 concert and actually meet the Jacksons. I have an autographed picture from that encounter of me and Michael Jackson that won me much cash in junior high and high school. ;)

During my sophomore year there was a KYOK Night at the Ice Capades at the Summit in which my brother and I were added to an ice skating race with KYOK's deejays. I spent a lot of weekends on the Galleria's ice rink and in the process learned how to ice skate quite well. I won, but my main concern during the whole thing was not only beating my brother, but not falling in front of 17,000 people because I would have definitely heard about it at school the next morning.

Thanks to Cathy Hughes and others, the traditions and proud history of Black radio have been preserved for the 21st Century. It's cool to know that the kids now growing up will get the same joys out of flipping on their radio and listening to broadcast content that reflects their culture as we did.

It's also comforting to know that Black radio will still be around to help us mobilize our people to fight for justice, as was proven by Thursday's events in Jena, LA as well.

Ebony Magazine's Top 25 Black TV Shows of All Time

In the October 2007 issue of Ebony there's an interesting article by Bryan Monroe that attempts to choose the Top 25 Black TV Shows of all time.

The Ebony editors looked at over 100 shows over 60 years of television. Some of the shows that didn't make it were Room 222, The Mod Squad, Julia, That's My Mama and Being Bobby Brown. Readers also weighed in on www.ebonyjet.com

And now, the envelope please:


1-The Cosby Show
2-A Different World
3-Living Single
4-The Jeffersons
5-In Living Color

6-The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
7-Sanford and Son
8-Martin
9-Good Times
10-Soul Train


11-Girlfriends
12-Soul Food
13-The Bernie Mac Show
14-227
15-Showtime At The Apollo

16-What's Happening
17-The Steve Harvey Show
18-Grey's Anatomy
19-Amen
20-New York Undercover


21-Fame
22-Roc
23-The Flip Wilson Show
24-The Jamie Foxx Show
25-Diff'rent Strokes and Family Matters (tie)


Top 3 Black Talk Shows or Daytime Shows
1-The Oprah Winfrey Show
2-The Arsenio Hall Show
3-Judge Mathis



Top 3 Black Animated Shows
1-Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids
2-The Jackson 5ive
3-The Boondocks



The only beefs I have with the list is that Julia should have been on it, The Flip Wilson Show should have been ranked much higher than number 23, and I think Martin should have been ranked much lover than number 8. I don't think it's the same quality level as A Different World, The Cosby Show, Living Single or The Jeffersons.

But then again, I'm just now finding out about this poll.

Gotta renew my subscription to Ebony ;)

Can't Y'all Read Your Own Stylebooks?

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to see the recent explosion in positive coverage of transpeople by the media. I've done a few interviews and been quoted in a few articles myself.

What I have a problem with when I read or watch stories on transgender people is the continual butchering of pronouns. It has the effect when I'm reading or watching the story video of fingernails squeakily dragging across a chalkboard.

The Associated Press puts out what's called the AP Stylebook. It is considered the journalistic Bible and is updated on a regular basis. I own a copy of it that sits in a prominent place next to my computer. In addition to grammar rules, how to write properly formatted AP stories and other tidbits we writers need to know, it contains the guidelines for language and terminology use when reporting on various groups. Guidelines for reporting on GLBT peeps were adopted and added to the AP Style book for the first time in 2001. It was expanded in the 2006 edition.


From the 2006 AP Stylebook:

transgender: Use the pronoun preferred by the individuals who have acquired the physical characteristics of the opposite sex or present themselves in a way that does not correspond with their sex at birth.

If that preference is not expressed, use the pronoun consistent with the way the individuals live publicly.

The New York Times and Washington Post also have stylebooks as well that contain guidelines on covering GLBT peeps. The Washington Post one as of the 2006 edition doesn't have a paragraph in it covering transgender people. In the New York Times one, last published in 2005, it has this to say about transgender people:

transgender; is an overall term for people whose current identity differs from their sex at birth, whether or not they have changed their biological characteristics. Cite a person's transgender status only when it is pertinent and its pertinence is clear to the reader. Unless a former name is newsworthy or pertinent, use the name and pronouns (he, his, she, her, hers) preferred by the transgender person. If no preference is known, use the pronouns consistent with the way the subject lives publicly.

GLAAD even has a downloadable Media Reference Guide, now in its 7th edition that has a transgender glossary of terms and how to cover us.

But it seems like it's pulling teeth just to get peeps to implement these stylebook rules. The gay media at one point were the worst offenders about using incorrect pronouns to report on our lives with one egregious example of it being the notorious article Boston's Bay Windows ran in the wake of the November 1998 death of Rita Hester.

The anger over Rita's mischaracterization in the Bay Windows and Boston Globe articles eventually became the spark that started the Transgender Day of Remembrance vigils that now happen around the world.

I can't tell you how many times I've seen reports in which the person is obviously living their life as a female and they are referred to throughout the story with an old male name, called a 'transsexual male', or the male pronoun is used to describe them.

One of the things that irritated me about the coverage of transgender prom queen Crystal Vera a few months ago was the constant use of her old name when it was blatantly obvious there was a girl standing in front of those cameras.

In this recent story detailing the problems high school freshman and transwoman Vladimir Moran Miller has had with the Springfield. MO Public Schools over dress code, the incorrect pronouns just jumped out at me. And oh, did anyone think to ask the question whether this person has a femme name? It's obvious she's living as female, so that would be one of the first questions I'd ask.

But then again I'm a transperson. When it comes to some peeps in this country they are still in education mode when it comes to us, so we need to ensure that the story is as accurate as possible.

Is it gonna kill media peeps to ask just a few more questions in order to get a more accurate story when it comes to transpeople?

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

Randi Rhodes Is NOT Michael Savage

One of the things that annoys me about the transgender community is the conclusion jump.

It's a tendency to take a snippet of information and come up with a pessimistic scenario severely out of whack with the available evidence or presume that the jumped conclusion is true even though the weight of evidence doesn't support it.

We have that going on right now in the wake of Randi Rhodes' on-air comments slamming Ann Coulter.

…Y’know, one of my very, very gay women friends wrote me an email and said Honey, let me just explain something to you. When transsexual, when…when they’re going through the…the…the transgender op…they infuse the man with the female hormones, and they go wack-a-doodle on you. And, ah, Ann [Coulter] is obviously getting the hormones…big doses. That’s why she’s so bizarre right now.

Okay, I’m telling you, it was amazing to me to get that information.

This comment has one blogger comparing her to Michael Savage and another calling her a transphobe.

Hold up.

I agree that liberal/progressives have the potential to make negative statements about us and sometimes do. They have the potential to be transphobes. I have the knife wounds in my back from dealings and lobbying efforts with so-called allies over the last decade to prove it. Some of our progressive allies have done things that are just as nasty and neglectful of our community as anything the Reichers could throw at us.

While I don't like Randi's comment (but love her show), and have decried the tendency of genetic females and other peeps (straight and gay) to call women they don't like trannies, I like Ann Coulter even less and I've said nastier things about her in private conversation. Frankly, I think that we should smack Coulter around more frequently than we do now and feed her own words back to her.

But I think it's going a bit too far and it's a tad irresponsible when you assert that Randi Rhodes is a transphobe equivalent to Michael Savage and the evidence doesn't support it.

Michael Savage has a long history of making derogatory and racist comments on a wide range of people, including these winners about transgender peeps;

"The wages of sin are death. You're gonna cut off your willy, you're gonna wear women clothes, you're gonna hook, you're gonna wind up dead under a freeway, Johnson."

"You're never gonna make me respect the freak. I don't want to respect the freak. The freak ought to be glad they're allowed to walk around without begging for something."

One difference is that Michael Savage supports a political philosophy in which many of its adherents echo those statements. Some of them are in positions of power that enable them to carry out those wishes verbalized by him and convert them to public policy.

The other difference is that Randi is educable on transgender issues and Savage isn't.

Can A Sistah Get a Quality Black TV Show on DVD?

I've mentioned the fact that I own an extensive music CD collection. The same is true of my ever expanding DVD collection. It runs the gamut from classic Black movies like Carmen Jones to my recently added Daddy's Little Girls.

I have classic and current TV shows in my DVD collection as well and I'm looking forward to adding Ugly Betty to my collection when they release it in August.

There are a couple of shows I would love to add to my collection. Unfortunately it seems that for some reason these shows have been glacially slow in getting put on the shelves of my local retail outlets. My question is what's the holdup in terms of making available additional seasons of quality shows like A Different World, Soul Food and Living Single?

I have the first seasons for all three and plan on purchasing The Cosby Show seasons as they become available. But A Different World was on for six seasons, Soul Food for five seasons and Living Single was on for five seasons as well.

So what's keeping me from being able to purchase additional seasons of my favorite shows? In the case of A Different World and the Cosby Show they were being distributed for Carsey-Werner Productions by a company called Ventura/Urban Works.

Season 2 of A Different World was originally supposed to come out May 30, 2006. It got pushed back to July 11, was delayed again until September and then the release was indefinitely put on hold to the frustration of fans of A Different World like myself. Even though I own it, I don't like the Anne Beatts produced first season of A Different World and I'm more jazzed about owning Seasons 2-6. After Debbie Allen became producer of the show it actually had the flavor of an HBCU, better scripts and more realistic, topical storylines that dealt with the issues of that late 80's early 90's time period. As a bonus you also get to see the Dwayne-Whitley romance evolve.

It turned out that Ventura/Urban Works got bought out by First Look Entertainment and had to renegotiate the licenses with Carsey-Werner. Don't know what the holdup is with Soul Food and Living Single and I'm not into pushing conspiracy theories. But it's irritating to me and makes you wonder when BS shows like Flavor of Love hit the shelves almost instantaneously after they finish airing and you have to wait years for quality shows like these to be available for purchase.

Thank You Tyra

I was moved to post this comment on The Tyra Banks Show website after running across a few less that enlightened comments posted in response to a show Tyra did that was broadcast yesterday called 'In Love With A Transsexual'.

I have to thank Tyra and her staff for consistently tackling transgender topics with the respect and dignity they deserve. She's been one of my role models in terms of the type of sistah I wanted to be and project to the world. It makes me happy to hear that one of my role models considers herself a friend of the transgender community. I hope that one day I get to tell her how much I and other transpeople appreciate that in person.

My posted comment:

One of the things I get so sick of hearing as an African-American transwoman who transitioned a decade ago is the sanctimonious bigoted comments of people that either profess to be 'christians' or 'supporters' who arrogantly assert that transpeople aren't 'real women' or 'real men'.

I am a Big 'C' Christian and I know that God loves me as much as you folks who were fortunate enough to have your gender identities and bodies match up at birth

Transgender people are just trying to live quality lives with the hands we are dealt and could do a lot better job of that without the ill-informed, intolerant attitudes and ignorant moralizing that overwhelmingly comes from people who claim to be 'christians'.

It's past time some of you quit cherry-picking scriptures and wake up to the fact that gender identity is between your ears, not the configuration of the genitalia between your legs.

Thank you Tyra for all you've done to help educate people to the fact that transpeople are human beings, too