The 'Class With Class'

I have another reunion coming up the weekend of October 8-10 with the fellow members of my Jesse H. Jones High School Class of 1980, AKA 'The Class With Class'. We received that nickname from Annie Booker, one of our counselors, and it has stuck with us throughout the years and the turn of the century as well.

We were the kids that entered kindergarten in 1967 as the pace of integration of HISD schools was taken out of the 'with all deliberate speed' setting.

We muddled through pairing plans, busing, and the adoption and formation of magnet schools by HISD as we grew up during the 70's. At the same time Houston was annexing territory, well on its way to becoming the fourth largest city in the United States and was in the news on a regular basis thanks to NASA and the space program. Houston's Black community was continuing to make progress economically, politically and socially as the city also became a magnet for people from various nations and ethnic groups as well.

By the time we members of the Jones Falcon Class of 1980 began arriving on campus from our various junior high schools we were this interesting multicultural blend of kids who not only were sophisticated beyond their years, we carried ourselves from the first day on campus as if we owned the school. Whether it was in sports, academics, student government or other extracurricular activities we quickly established ourselves as leaders despite the short time we'd been walking JJ's halls.

Some of my classmates were already driving cars and were fashion plates wearing skirted suits and three piece suits to class. But we also combined that sense of sophistication and single minded purpose with a cocky, fun loving attitude and wicked sense of humor.

During the three years we were there (HISD was on a 6-3-3 system at the time) we'd build on that reputation. The 'Class with Class' would cheer our school's victories, mourn our losses, watch romances blossom and break up and form lasting friendships in the process. I was in the Vanguard gifted and talented magnet program housed on the campus at the time, but as far as I was concerned I was a Falcon and member of the Jones Family first, and King Arthur (our nickname for Mr. Arthur Pace, our principal at the time) was the head of it.

Through all the wild and crazy stuff we did with a late 70's music soundtrack blaring in the background as we matriculated through our high school years, the thing we were most proud of was not only that nickname that had been bestowed upon us that we wore with pride, it was our teachers constantly telling us that we were a special class.

But all good things unfortunately must come to an end. We entered the decade of the 80's for the last five months of our high school days with the dizzying backdrop of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the Lake Placid Olympic 'Miracle on Ice', the upcoming Carter-Reagan presidential election and the Iran hostage crisis in the background as we excitedly exchanged senior cards, signed memory books, attended the Astroworld All Night Senior Party, and counted down the days to Senior Week, our graduation and our prom.

On that May 20 night in the Astroarena we noted our diploma covers had 'The Class With Class' printed on them, tossed our caps in the air, took endless pictures and waved goodbye to each other as we counted down to the last day of the school year and prepared to begin the next chapter in our lives.

As we 'Accepted the Challenge of the 80's' (our class motto) we've taken time out of our lives to get together for our 1985, 1990 and 2000 reunions and relive that almost magical time.

With the 2010 reunion rapidly approaching, our teachers and counselors were right about us. We have turned out to be a special class. One of my classmates sits on the Texas State Board of Education and ran for city council. Our class president also ran for city council in the mid 80's. Another classmate was VP of the Houston Urban League and had a radio talk show on Majic 102. One was a Harris County DA while others are excelling in various fields.

As for me? I'm just some award winning activist, Kentucky Colonel and trans blogger.

But I am looking forward to once again seeing my classmates later this year.

Thinking About My Ex-Classmates

My 30 year high school reunion is coming up next year, and as that date approaches I find myself reminiscing more about my school days and the classmates I'm not in contact with.

There's a core group that I'm in regular contact with thanks to Facebook, Twitter or the other social networking sites such as Classmates.com but there are others who I haven't seen or spoken to since we left high school.

I find myself musing at times about those classmates I haven't seen since we stepped off JJ's campus for that final time as students in June 1980.

I wonder how they're doing in their lives, if they found love or had hard luck with it. I follow the news about my successful classmates and wonder if the ones I haven't seen since 1980 are doing likewise, if it has eluded them, or if they were just coming into their own now. I ponder about whether they are dealing with trying circumstances.

I even wonder about how they look now vis a vis our school days.

But the cool thing about next year's reunion is I already won the 'Most Changed Award' at the 2000 one. I can just focus on having a good time and getting reconnected with my classmates.

And I'm looking forward to going back home to do so.

Harsh Realities For Transgender Students

My school days weren't as bad as some GLBT kids since I wasn't totally out yet, and my intellect got me placed in gifted an talented classes that allowed me to focus on my academics rather than how I was going to get through the day.

That usually can after I left the cocoon of gifted and talented classes and had to interact with the rest of the school's huddled masses in gym, recess, art and health classes or on my three mile walk home.

Even though I was matriculating through school in the 70's, J. Escobar's recent drama at North Cobb High School resonated with me and was a reminder of just how tough open trans kids have it trying to navigate the shoal filled school environment.

It's not that we don't have some brilliant people in the trans community. I've had the pleasure of meeting many of them. I discovered during my 20 year HS reunion that I wasn't the only transperson in my class. There is a transman in my Vanguard class that I'm aware of but haven't seen since we graduated and were on opposite sides of the gender fence.

I graduated with honors and a 3.0 GPA, but in hindsight I believe it could have been much higher if Monica was around in the late 70's and dealt with whatever gender issues I had then, even in a 70's era environment.

But it's hard to concentrate on academics to improve your life and set the table for a better future when you have concerns about other non-academic issues impacting it at that moment in time.


GLSEN, the Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network recently published a report called Harsh Realities- The Experiences of Transgender Youth In Our Nation's Schools.

Autumn Sandeen wrote about it at Pam's House Blend back in March, and in light of what just happened to J. Escobar in Cobb County, GA, what happened a few months ago on Guam to Jeremy, and the federal civil rights lawsuit currently pending in court over what happened to KK Logan in Gary, IN, it's time to revisit this report.

Some of the findings of the report brought back some painful memories.

• Two-thirds of transgender students felt unsafe in school because of their sexual orientation (69%) and how they expressed their gender (65%).
• Almost all transgender students had been verbally harassed (e.g., called names or threatened) in the past year at school because of their sexual orientation (89%) and gender expression (87%).
• More than half of all transgender students had been physically harassed (e.g., pushed or shoved) in school in the past year because of their sexual orientation (55%) and gender expression (53%).
• More than a quarter of transgender students had been physically assaulted (e.g., punched, kicked or injured with a weapon) in school in the past year because of their sexual orientation (28%) and gender expression (26%).
• Most transgender students (54%) who were victimized in school did not report the events to school authorities. Among those who did report incidents to school personnel, few students (33%) believed that staff addressed the situation effectively.

• 90% of transgender students heard derogatory remarks, such as "dyke" or "faggot," sometimes, often or frequently in school in the past year.
• 90% of transgender students heard negative remarks about someone's gender expression sometimes, often or frequently in school in the past year.
• Less than a fifth of transgender students said that school staff intervened most of the time or always when hearing homophobic remarks (16%) or negative remarks about someone's gender expression (11%).
• School staff also contributed to the harassment. A third of transgender students heard school staff make homophobic remarks (32%), sexist remarks (39%) and negative comments about someone's gender expression (39%) sometimes, often or frequently in the past year.

I know all too well that outside influences can have a powerful impact on educational success. It's why I support whatever efforts are underway and ongoing to make schools a safe space for transgender students.

School should be a pleasant part of your childhood memories, not a bitter chapter of your life.

But for too many trans kids matriculating through school right now, that is the harsh reality of their school years.

School Days II-Falcon Quest

Our Gold and White we love so dear
We'll remember through the years
Courage, love and loyalty
True to our school we'll always be
Falcons stand out among the rest
Meeting each and every test
Cherished you will always be
In and hearts and memories.

I recently renewed my Classmates.com subscription after getting numerous e-mails about peeps checking my profile. Being on there the last few days I've seen the names of some of my old classmates. Its triggered a flood of memories for me about the Class of 1980 that made me pull out my senior class memory book and yearbook.

Ah, the memories. Beating Jack Yates my sophomore year. The great state-ranked Falcon basketball teams. That heartbreaking last-second basketball district championship loss on a dunk we suffered against Wheatley in 1979 that eerily replicated itself for me at UH in 1983. The dances. Beating Sterling on a last second field goal during the 1979 'South Park Super Bowl'.

The Vanguard beach parties in Galveston and some of the other wild-and-crazy things about life in Vanguard. The costume day during homecoming week in 1979 when Charmaine Tolliver came dressed as Wonder Woman. She had the body to pull it off and was followed through school by drooling brothers hollering "Save me, Wonder Woman, Save Me!" Me and Lonnie Prothro cutting up during tennis practice and running laps for it.

The mornings we spent cracking jokes in the cafeteria or in front of the school auditorium before school started. Sneaking off campus to go to Popeye's and Mickey D's for lunch. The Max and Kyle Living Singleesque dissfest that me and Jocelyn Woodard used to engage in before she transferred to another school my senior year. Peeps used to accuse both of us of having feelings for each other which we both heatedly denied.

To be honest, I was a little jealous of her. Jocelyn was a beautiful girl, smart, never had a hair out of place and we rarely saw her in anything but dresses, heels and hose. Before she left for Lamar I had the pleasure of beating her butt at Mattel electronic football.

The girls that were interested in my 'twin' I kept at a distance because I was afraid that if I fell in love and that relationship progressed to marriage plus kids one day the gender issue would blow everything up and I'd have three or more people's feelings and lives hurt instead of just my own.

It was also torture for me to watch my female classmates blossom into womanhood. I felt like I was on the wrong team, I was being cheated and a cruel cosmic joke was being played on me. Little did I know at the time that I had a fellow Vanguard classmate that was going through the same feelings from the female to male aspect of it.

My time at my high school alma mater was a mixed bag. I'm very proud of my classmates in 'The Class With Class' as we're known in Jesse H. Jones lore. Many of them have gone on to greater success or are still working on it like I am. Sometimes when I get nostalgic about my time at JJ there's a little bit of residual sadness that washes over me because of the internal gender conflict I was dealing with and felt I couldn't tell anyone about.

That senior year seemed almost magical when I look back at it. I ended up going to TWO proms that night, ours and Sterling's. Ross Sterling was the high school my neighborhood was zoned to and my junior high Albert Thomas was a feeder for. I was at JJ for the Vanguard magnet program and many of my junior high friends ended up at Sterling. I spent almost as much time around Sterling events as I did at Jones and it was ironic that we held our prom the same night at two different Galleria hotels. We kept trading peeps back and forth between the two events.

The All Night Senior Party event at AstroWorld was the bomb. I got my license on my 18th birthday just a few weeks before graduation and recall the mixture of relief and sadness I felt during Senior Week. I also remember the last day of school of my senior year. It felt like that day took ten years to pass. Now ten years passes by in a week.

However, there are times I wish I'd just dealt with the gender issues then. I could've walked across that stage when I picked up my diploma as the person I am right now and I'd be in a better position life wise. Then again I'm also talking about the late 1970's as well.

I also have to consider the fact that if by some miracle I'd been able to do teen transition, would I be the same person I am now? I probably wouldn't be as open about my life since the advice gender therapists were giving then was to blend in and not let anybody know you were transgender. But then again I had buried it so deeply that when I finally did come out, the weight lifted off my shoulders was so liberating that I didn't care if peeps knew or not. I probably would've had the same reaction then as I did in 1993.

I managed to graduate with honors, but when I look back on it there were some things I would do differently if I could. I'd be more active than I was. I was on student council, part of the Model United Nations group my junior year but I feel I could've done more. I realized several years ago that I have a God-given talent for writing. That's something that should have clicked when I was one of my junior high school's winners of that NASA writing contest. I would've spent time on the school paper, joined the yearbook staff and went out for the tennis team sooner instead of my senior year. One of the side effects of the gender issues conundrum was that I spent so much time and energy trying to play 'boy' and eradicate any hint of my female persona that I didn't leave myself time to focus on what I really wanted out of life. I didn't have the self-confidence built up to fearlessly go for it.

I'm still the premier trash talker bar none and opposing fans who made the mistake of walking over to our side of Barnett Stadium or Barnett Fieldhouse found out the hard way. One night we were playing our bitter rival Jack Yates my junior year and they were trashing us 40-0 in response to the buttkicking we gave them my sophomore year. This loudmouth comes over to our side of the stadium and yells, "What's wrong Jones? Y'all couldn't program the computers to beat us?"

I shot back, "At least we have people at Jones smart enough to program computers, unlike you future TDC (Texas Department of Corrections) residents." Homeboy went scurrying back to the Yates side of the stadium with our laughter ringing in his ears.

I am blessed to still have in my life some of the friends I made during my time there. Some have remained so through my transition. I have gone to our reunions in 1985, 1990 and 2000 and plan to be there in 2010. I'm hoping I'll get to see at the 2010 reunion some classmates I haven't seen since we left JJ. I'm hopeful that while I'm on Classmates.com I get to reconnect with some others and reminisce about our times walking the halls of Jesse H. Jones.

By the way, me and 'errbody' else in Vanguard are still pissed about that Animal House like double secret senior trip some of y'all took to Dallas-Fort Worth and didn't tell us about until y'all got back. ;)