Dan Savage's Transphobic Azz Strikes Again

TransGriot Note: A wonderful post from my brilliant sis Renee at Womanist Musings. And no sis, you aren't alone in your observation that Savage is a (you name the phobic) jerk.

Well, Dan Savage is a winner isn’t he? Is there a group of people that he is unwilling to verbally assault and “other,” in order to assert his undeserved privilege? It seems that for Savage, the best way to attack someone, is to suggest that they are trans, even when the opposite is true.

To the right is a photo of Washington state Attorney General Rob McKenna, who Savage declared was FTM

It's staggering that Rob McKenna, a female-to-male transsexual, is making it harder for other FTMs (and MTFs) to access the life saving sex-reassignment surgery that allowed Rob to become the man he is today. Rob had the resources to finance his own sex-reassignment surgery—presumably—but that doesn't excuse Rob's cruel disregard for his low-income transgendered brothers and sisters or his making common cause with anti-trans bigots in states like Virginia and Mississippi.

For shame, Rob.

Really Savage? You’re going to take something that is so incredibly serious and then make tongue in cheek statements. If he did not have a history of making transphobic commentary, perhaps I could believe that he simply failed to do the proper research, but his own history convicts him.

When dealing with a conservative, there are plenty of ways that you can be critical, only someone drunk on privilege decides that the best course of events is to attack a marginalized group. When we consider that the gay community has a history of throwing the trans community under the bus, his commentary is truly problematic. Dan Savage does not speak for all gay men; however, his extremely high profile suggests that many continue to consider his views to be of great importance, though he has a history of making racist, abelist and transphobic comments.

I really think that Dan Savage needs a huge cup of STFU. Until he begins to recognize his various privileges (and yes, gay men can still be privileged), he is doing far more harm to his community than good. When you throw your allies under the bus, and taunt them cruelly, it makes people that much more reluctant to stand up and fight when you are being abused, because we wonder if we are next in the line of fire.

I don’t care if Dan Savage is your gay super hero with a capitol G; if the man is being abelist, racist and transphobic, perhaps your definition of hero needs to be examined. How many times have marginalized groups suggested, that when you fail to take an intersectional approach to organizing, we all suffer? Only a man like Savage who is White, male, class privileged and cisgender could fail to see that his, I’m just like you approach to advocacy is damaging. No movement for civil rights has ever been successful without allies, and yet people like Savage continue to believe that they can just throw people under the bus, while minimizing their humanity and then demand that they come to bat for you as needed.

So, I am just going to say it: The man is not amusing or enlightening; he is cruel. As long as he continues to sit in judgment of others and to perpetuate a harmful hierarchy of bodies, he has no business sitting in judgment of anyone. Glass houses Savage, perhaps it’s time you discover that you live in one.

Dallas Peeps-Call To Action On DART Transphobia

Dallas has been challenging Austin for being the most TBLG friendly city in Texas, and cemented it with the narrow loss of an openly gay councilomember who ran for its mayor's chair two years ago.

However, native Texans are also aware of the fact that the third largest city in the Lone Star State one upon a time was Republican turf. As evidenced by Dubya moving there to live post mispresidency, still has that fundie GOP undercurrent despite the Democrats taking control of Dallas County politics at all levels in 2006

Nevertheless, I was stunned to find out courtesy of the Dallas Voice along with the Dallas area trans community that attorneys of DART (Dallas Area Rapid Transit Authority) for some inexplicable reason decided to go to court to get the gender marker change of a 20 year post operative DART employee reversed.

The identity of the person involved is being concealed to protect her, but this case is taking some interesting and disturbing twists.

The judge that granted the reversal, 301st Family District Court Judge Lynn Cherry, received the Pink Pump Award from the Stonewall Democrats of Dallas in 2009 for being an ally to the group.

There will be a DART board meeting taking place Tuesday, March 9 from 6:30-9:30 PM to press the DART board to expand their anti-discrimination policies to cover transpeople in light of this jacked up situation.

The meeting will take place in the DART Headquarters Akard Station Board Room, and the address is 1401 Pacific Ave in Dallas, TX.

Okay DFW Metroplex, time to stand up for a trans sister and help yourselves at the same time. If DART did this to an employee with a clean record because someone in DART has their hate on for transpeople, who's next?

So give 'em hell Dallas trans community and get justice for our sister.

Someone in Dallas County also needs to be seriously contemplating a run against Judge Lynn Cherry as well.

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.

Stop Trying To Erase Tenika Watson-And Trans African Americans In General

In the wake of Teddy Pendergrass' death it was interesting to note that the eulogies of him written by MSM papers and elsewhere mentioned the 1982 traffic accident but didn't mention the other passenger involved.

Tenika Watson's name was ignored by many except the people who Googled it and ended up at this humble blog. As a matter of fact I had an all time record traffic day of 8561 page views thanks to that August post I put up telling Tenika's side of the story circa 1982 and I thank y'all for visiting the blog.

But with those 8500 plus view came the trans haters trying to erase Tenika's existence and transpeople in general

I received this comment from someone calling themselves Elizabeth. My comment filter thankfully caught it before it could contaminate my comment thread on the post.

'Elizabeth' commented on Tenika Watson's Story - TransGriot:

It's wonderful that they both lived throught the accident. Tenika Watson is a man, which is why society will not accept him as a woman. However, he should not be attacked for his lifestyle. He, like the rest of us, just needs to be prayed for and told the truth.

The e-mail address of Elizabeth was removed to protect the ignorant.

Did you pay any attention to that picture? Tenika Watson is most definitely NOT a man, SHE is a woman. You are the one however, who needs glasses, Jesus and prayer for the ugly transphobia you had the nerve to attempt to bring to my blog.

And what you did was attack her life by denying its existence. I'm sick of you Reichers rolling out the word 'lifestyle'. You chose your 'christian' lifestyle, transpeople have a life.

The truth is that you need to pick up a science textbook before you comment here, Elizabeth. Since you're so concerned with the truth, time to school you on gender issues.

First lesson is that genitalia does not equal gender identity. That's something we scientifically literate peeps have known for some time and is becoming more clear with each passing year and decade of research on gender issues.

It's also becoming clear to all except those of you wallowing in arrogant cis privilege that there's a fine line between walking on this planet in a masculine or feminine body.

This was a comment from the ATL that was a reaction to my recent Bryn Mawr speech.

You speak of this stuff as if it's normal. It isn't normal! If you have a problem with my statement I think you really need to seek, not a pastor or counselor, but the holy spirit. Ask him to give you understanding of the Bible. I'm sorry that homosexuals/transgender people are abused and that is definetly NOT God's will. We are to love EVERYONE. However, I'm so sick of people trying to pass this lifestyle off as "o.k.".

The waste of DNA calling themselves Disagreeing didn't have the cojones to own their hate speech. You cannot profess that you love someone and express these kinds of hateful sentiments. As a Christian I have a problem with you using the Bible as justification for your BS.


Contrary to your erroneous assessment of my spirituality, I attend church regularly and know beyond a shadow of a doubt God loves me and other trans people as well.

I also have a better grasp of scripture than you assume I do. Check out Matthew 19:12 before you come over here to get pimp slapped again.

These are blatant examples of what has been going on in the African American community, online at various sites and beyond.

Too many of the insecure people who engage in erasing our identities such as Elizabeth and Disagreeing attend conservative prosperity gospel pimping churches. They hide their trans hatred, ignorance and transbigotry behind the Bible and parrot those sellout Christopimp preachers who spout this scientifically illiterate crap ad nauseum and it needs to stop.

What else needs to stop is ignoring the fact that transpeople have been a part of African American culture and living our lives for decades. There are an estimated 1.3 million proud chocolate flavored transpeeps.

And lets keep it real, there are some of you macho cis dudes out there who when you close your bedroom doors have trans sistahs in your beds.

No matter how much you try to erase us and our existence, the beauty of the Net is that we're finally getting the opportunity to tell our stories.

We chocolate flavored transpeeps also get the opportunity to swiftly smack down hateful transphobic comments, faith based disinformation and feeble attempts to erase our existence.

If you don't like the equalized playing field, tough. New decade, new rules.

And one of those new rules is we African descended transpeople aren't tolerating any attacks on our humanity.

Damn Black People- Can You Chill With The Transphobia?

While posting some links to some fresh TransGriot content on Twitter this particular tweet from Kola Boof caught my attention.

KolaBoof

Why do people keep saying that CIARA is a man? I just don't see it. BTW--I've heard that said about me as well. @Drea141 @ditBOMB

And after clicking on a few tweet links, this transphobic gem popped up:

*shots* LOL RT @ditBOMB: I wonder if Ciara can watch her own videos and get an erection?

It's the fracking rumor that will not die.

Let's break this down, shall we?

Ciara Princess Harris was born in Austin, TX. Unless somebody can prove otherwise, has a copy of Ciara's original birth certificate, or has video of a Ciara press conference stating otherwise, the beautiful person standing in front of us on stage and in numerous photographs is a cis African American female.

I'm a Phenomenal Transwoman who is proud to be militantly Black and trans. But one of the things I share with my cis sisters is having to fend off attacks on our images from people who aren't qualified to be members of the femininity police.

Just because a cis African American woman is above 5'7" tall doesn't make her trans any more than being below that height makes one a ciswoman.

But I'm more than a little tired of the ghost of Sara Baartman playing itself out on Twitter, the Net and in other venues inside and outside our community.

I'm fed up with Black womanhood constantly being disparaged. Unfortunately Black men, instead of being the peeps that ought to be front and center defending it, are the ones leading the attacks on the images of Black women.

I'm tired of insecure people jealous of or intimidated by confident, accomplished, and talented sisters throwing 'that's a man' shade at them. In many cases it escapes the clueless that the women having the trans accusation hurled at them are people who have given birth to children.

The point is that you get half your genetic material from mommy, half from daddy, and we are all blends and combinations of traits that purportedly belong to the other gender. There is also as we are discovering, a fine line between being born in a masculine body and a feminine one.

Accumulating medical and scientific evidence is also making quite clear that gender identity is between your ears, not your legs.

But why is it so hard for some of my people to get that through their thick curly haired heads? Maybe it's because some of these people refuse to pick up science textbooks and are too quick to quote some money grubbing right-wing fundie pastor.

Bottom line people, unless a person declares they are trans, they ain't.

It also ain't your business unless you're dating that person or are about to get busy with them what genitalia they do or do not have concealed in their panties.

So can you chill with the transphobia and stop making the rest of the African American community that does have a clue about gender identity issues look bad?

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)

Can A Media Sistah Do Her Job Without Being Labeled Trans, Ugly Or An Affirmative Action Hire?

When I'm writing sometimes I'll flip on the TV and tune it to the Weather Channel. I love the two sister on-air weather presenters Betty Davis and Vivian Brown. Betty is usually doing the weekend on-air weather reports from 7 AM-11 AM EST while Vivian is on-air during the workweek.

I also like checking out their fashion styles as well as I'm finding out what the weather's going to be like here in Da Ville and the surrounding region.

So being the curious person I am, while pondering the backgrounds of my fave sistah weather casters, I Googled their names to see what would come up.

I was not surprised to discover that these ladies both have it going on.

In Betty's case she's a native Georgian and mother of two children who graduated magna cum laude from Spelman with an English degree. She has a BS in meteorology from Mississippi State and her seals of approval from the American Meteorological Society and National Weather Association.

Vivian is a Jackson, MS native who was a world class track athlete during her time at Jackson State University, where she earned her BS in Meteorology.

She's also a mother of two, has her seals of approval from the American Meteorological Society and National Weather Association, is the Weather Channel expert on tropical weather, a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc,, an entrepreneur who started a maternity clothing store in the ATL that features professional attire, a tennis buff and is a member of the Jackson State University Sports Hall of Fame.

I also ran across as I Googled both ladies transphobic, racist and sexist comments as well in this 2005 airliners.net thread and here about Ms. Davis and this one in my Hattiesburg.com about Ms. Brown.

Once again, this is an example of the ongoing centuries old attacks on the beauty and images of African descended women. You also have factored into this situation news and media outlets using young blonde weathercasters to add sex appeal to their newscast and draw viewers.

Some Weather Channel viewers drool over people like Alexandra Steele and have constant debates over who is the most beautiful woman on the channel. Give you two guesses whose names don't enter in that conversation.

Betty Davis and Vivian Brown are two accomplished, intelligent, and talented sisters who stylishly present the weather information we need to get through our days and work weeks. It's obvious they have the talent to do so and The Weather Channel is happy and lucky to have them. CNN hired away the other sister who used to work at the channel in Eboni Deon.

I'd damned sure be happy to stand in these two beautiful ladies pumps, and you folks who are insulting these ladies need to buy a vowel and get a clue about gender identity issues.

You also need to deal with the reality that beautiful women come in a wider variety of shades, ethnic backgrounds, body builds and skin tones besides petite, blonde, thin and white.

Words Have Consequences

'Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me'.

We've all heard that old nursery rhyme. However, if you pay attention to the ebb and flow of historical events, one constant is that words have consequences and ripple effects for real people.

It is the words that precede the sticks and stones breaking our bones, and guns and knives being used to kill people.

The words of Adolf Hitler jump started the series of events and actions that led to World War II and the Holocaust.

Words led to the lynchings, riots and obscene levels of violence directed at African-Americans centuries before and during the Civil Rights Movement of the 50's and 60's.

Words led to the genocides that took place in Rwanda and Bosnia in the 90's.

We have seen the Catholic Church since 2003 under the influence of Vatican adviser and transhater Dr. Paul McHugh adopt a increasingly negative stance toward transgender people.

It has had ripple effects in not only increasing anti-transgender violence in heavily Catholic areas of the world, I believe it has increased intolerant behavior and attitudes toward trans people as well.

And as the hate filled rhetoric of fundamentalist preachers, fundamentalist Muslim clerics and the Catholic Church ratchets up, so do the body counts of murdered transpeople around the world.

Words can hurt. Words can incite someone to kill.

So yes, we should be extremely concerned as transpeople about the increased level of and the volume of transphobic rhetoric coming out of the mouths of people that profess to be leaders in the world's major religions.

Because as I painfully know from my people's history in the Americas, words do have consequences on the lives of marginalized people.

Bad PR For Macs

Been a couple of PR nightmares pop up for Apple lately.

First there's the unwanted photo of Bigot Harry Jackson using one of their computers to read his speech hating on the DC marriage issue during the pubic commentary phase.

But at the same time, Apple can't help the fact the bigots like their computing products, too

Then this old Mac ad touting their iMovie software resurfaced on YouTube in late September and caused some drama as well.



Model Gisele Bundchen in this ad is supposed to be the embodiment of a home movie made using iMovie. After the Mac presents Gisele, the PC presents a person wearing a dress identical to Gisele’s, in a wig, with no breasts, five o’clock shadow and an abundance of exposed chest hair.

The ad ends with the line: “Work in progress?”

Apple is a company that prides itself on its progressive politics, and many of the people that own Macs are GLBT community members. The last thing they want is ruffled feathers with an important segment of the marketing base.

According to GLAAD, they contacted Apple about the trans stereotype filled ad, and they stated they haven't run this since 2006.

But it did add up to a couple of PR headaches for Apple amongst its GLBT clients.