In 2007 I became a blogger at Pam’s House Blend, and went on to become what Melissa Harris Perry called “the first national transgender blogger.” In 2008 I became one of the first two transgender reporters who were credentialed to cover the Democratic National Convention. In 2009 I became the first transgender reporter to cover…
In the past week, respected drag performer Lady Bunny weighed in on a topic that seems to still be ongoing in social media. It’s terminology still; it’s over their perception that trans women are trying to ban use of terms such as “tranny” and “shemale.” “Tranny is an abbreviation for transvestite and transsexual, so I’m…
I took a few things I consider positive away from my Pentecostal upbringing, and one of those things was a non-religious concept of how to apologize. In the Foursquare church I was raised in the concept was called “repentance,” but I separate repentance as a tool to apologize from the term’s religious connotations. I think…
When trans people are imagined in the minds of many folk who’ve never actually met a trans person, we often are imagined as one or two-dimensional male creatures dressed as females that are interested in sex and trans related surgeries. Thoughts of trans people having parents, children, jobs and hobbies seem lost to caricature. Well,…
What a weekend it was for the LGBT community this past Mother’s Day weekend. Michael Sam became the first openly gay football player drafted by an NFL team, drag performer Conchita Wurst won the annual Eurovision Song contest and the Arkansas State Supreme Court ruled for marriage equality. But in a development that truly made…
With marriage equality at some point becoming the law of the land, and although conservative Christians and other social conservatives are aware that this is the case, they still rail against it even though the vigor is lost. Time to change what social conservatives focus on in their culture wars. And, it’s trans people that…
Monday, the Department of Defense (DoD) released a new DoD Human Goals Charter, signed by Secretary of Defense Hagel. The last iteration of that document was released in 1998, and included mention of equal equality based on sexual orientation for civilian employees, but not for military servicemembers. The new iteration includes a language based on…
A friend recently pointed me to a video of trans advocate Sylvia Rivera’s Y’all Better Quiet Down speech at New York City’s 1973 Liberation Day Rally. In the speech she stated, “I believe in the gay power. I believe in us getting our rights or else I would not be out their fighting for our…
“There is a Trans Action Committee that’s part of Canvass For A Cause,” stated Canvass For A Cause’s Holly Hellerstreet in an interview with LGBT Weekly. “And we have been working to support transgender people in San Diego. We’re really excited here in California that we have the School Success and Opportunity Act which is…
I know I’m getting old. I used to watch the television show Roseanne when it was in the first run, and thought it was pretty funny. I thought it was pretty progressive, often having lesbian characters sprinkled through storylines. And, with Roseanne Barr being an executive producer on the show I thought she must have…
