Muammar Al Khadafi

You may have read the long post I wrote venting about the lack of diversity in Houston and Texas TBLG orgs that purport to represent us but look like Republican Party convention rooms.

That's not the first time I've talked about that subject and probably won't be the last.  The valid criticisms I leveled in that post aimed at the white TBLG  organizations in Houston and Texas are stuff that is fixable with modest efforts from them.

But this one is dedicated to what you TBLG people of color in Houston and Texas need to do as well.


Okay, I sent the message that TBLG people of color in Houston and Texas aren't happy about being erased from TBLG orgs, BTLG events and are upset about the policy directions these white dominated TBLG orgs continue to make and are taking in our names.  I got that and heard you at last year's Houston TDOR.   I'm still hearing you express your frustrations about this situation and agree something needs to be done about it.

But here's the $64,000 question.   How can we affect the policy or ensure our community interests are ensconced in these policies if we aren't sitting on the boards to articulate our community's views in the first place? 

Yeah yeah, I know.  I'm quite aware of and have talked about the race and class issues that have caused LGBT boards in this diverse city and state to be melanin free and gone off about it.

But if we're criticizing the white dominated LGBT orgs about their failings, in fairness we need to acknowledge ours as well.   We need to give them one final chance to make good to fix the issues that we've identified at problematic and deleterious to our community before we start executing the "Texas trans revolution will not be televised" options.  

Now as much as I am honored by the chatter in Lone Star person of color trans world that y'all think IFGE Trinity Award winning me is all that and four bags of mesquite flavored BBQ chips when it comes to handling our Houston and Lone Star trans business, I can't be the only voice speaking for the POC trans community.   

'Let Monica do it' while some of y'all sit on your ample asses, party, do pageants, sit behind your computers, hide out at your jobs or in your apartments or homes 'scurred' of being trans and proud while y'all snap at me and others for not doing enough to expeditiously bring about your trans liberation is not going to be the tired modus operandi of the 2K10's Lone Star POC TBLG program. 

I've been there and done that.  From this day forward shared sacrifice is the name of the game.    

If I'm willing to give up some of my valuable time to represent your interests in Houston, Austin, nationally and the rest of the state, some of y'all here in Houston and the rest of the Lone Star State are going to have to stand and deliver too.  

Some of you are going to have to get off your behinds, come out of the shadows, own your power and step up to the leadership plate as well. 


I'm not saying you have to put your pretty faces on camera, talk to politicians (although there will come odd numbered years I ask y'all to do that), speak before you're mentally ready to do so or do interviews on 'Queer Voices'.  I'm willing to be your front person for that, but you can and are going to have to do so in other ways. 

You can serve on the boards of TBLG organizations without disclosing it to your coworkers.  You can volunteer.  You can join the NAACP Houston or Dallas chapters or your local one.  You can mentor other trans people.  You can make more of an effort to support Vanity Wilde when she has her community parties and her business (hint hint) along with other trans entrepreneurs.  You can show up at the TTNS, local events at colleges to make your presence known, town hall meetings, or at a local TDOR or a memorial service for a fallen transperson.

Just do something positive that helps build visibility and goodwill for the POC trans communities of Houston and Texas. For those of you in the Houston area, every now and then show up at the first of the month TG socials like I do to meet other Houston transpeople.  Hello?  Sometimes other transpeople of color show up at this event and it's a way to meet people in this spread out city of ours

Rafael O'Donnell and the gang would probably love to see some of y'all in the Dallas-Ft Worth area volunteering at Resource Center Dallas or other orgs in the area.   Same is true for the rest of y'all in Austin, San Antonio, El Paso, the Golden Triangle and on your various college campuses. 

And there's always my FB page and the TransGriot blog.   

You've asked me to step up to a leadership role and I'm ready, willing and in a place now where I can do that.

But I need people to stand behind and beside me.   I need loyal people watching my back so I don't get stabbed in it by lukewarm wishy-washy folks, sellouts or agent provocateurs.

We have allies in Houston and the state TBLG community who have heard what I had to say on your behalf about our POC trans community frustrations about the erasure.  They believe the best way to fight for our Texas rainbow community's human rights issues is moving forward together with a diverse coalition of people.  They are willing to extend invitations to us to sit on boards, fight for our inclusion in their orgs and do what it takes to make that inclusion happen.  But there is only one Moni, and human cloning hasn't been perfected yet.  I can't be everywhere and part of every organization.  Some of y'all are going to have to say yes when those invites are extended to you. 

Yes, there is a need for POC transpeople to close ranks and build community as we simultaneously seek to be part of the local and state ones as well.  We have the ability and the will to accomplish both tasks and need to get busy doing it, but in order to do so some of you are going to have to step up your leadership game. 

And for those of you who don't wish to lead but do wish to engage in shady behavior, stirring up mess and confusion or jealous name calling denigrating the people who do step up to lead, don't let me find out you are engaging in instigating that behavior because I will call your azzes out and embarrass you.
 
But the bottom line is that in a city of 2.1 million residents and a state with over 25 million people,  I shouldn't be the lone transperson of color willing to be out and proud and take a leadership role in this community and this state   I'd like and I'm humbly asking for some help in accomplishing this task that needs to happen.    

So what are we going to do about it?   Griping about it isn't going to change the status quo situation, only concerted action is.  We've identified the problem.  What are you going to do to become part of the solution to fixing that problem and not an impediment to doing so?

The Houston and Texas TBLG communities and I await the answer to those questions from you POC transpeople.

It's time to not only own our power, but stand and deliver on it.

Identity document issues are a problem for transpeople all over the world, and there is great news coming from Down Under concerning theirs.. 

In line with an Australian government initiative to remove discrimination issues on the grounds of sex. sexual orientation and gender identity, the Australian Passport Office is no longer requiring genital surgery as a prerequisite for issuing a passport in a new gender..

Birth or citizenship certificates do not need to be amended in order to receive that passport in their preferred gender..

According to the Australian Passport Office website:
  A letter from a medical practitioner certifying that the person has had, or is receiving, appropriate clinical treatment for gender transition to a new gender, or that they are intersex and do not identify with the sex assigned to them at birth, is acceptable.

The letter will only be accepted from practitioners registered with the Medical Board of Australia (or equivalent overseas authority). ‘Appropriate clinical treatment’ does not have to be specified.


A full validity passport in a new sex may also be issued to applicants who have undergone sex reassignment surgery and have registered their change of sex with Registrars of Births, Deaths and Marriages (RBDM) or the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC).

A passport may be issued to sex and gender diverse applicants in M (male), F (female) or X (indeterminate/unspecified/intersex).

There had been a 20 year policy in place at the Department of Foreign Affairs allowing transsexuals to have their preferred gender listed on a 12 month passport if they were traveling overseas for sex-change surgery which was replaced with a 10 year one after SRS.   That policy was overturned in 2007 by the Howard government and was reinstated in 2009 after an incident involving Stefanie Imbruglia, the trans cousin of pop star Natalie Imbruglia.

Stefanie not only was disrespected and issued a passport with an "M'  in the gender code, when she arrived in Thailand for her surgery the passport control officer there embarrassingly asked Stefanie in front of other passengers to account for why there was a discrepancy between her passport and her appearance. 

After completing her surgery Imbruglia took the Department of Foreign Affairs before the Australian Human Rights Commission, arguing that it had not only discriminated against her, but put her life in danger by refusing to give her a passport that reflected her identity.   The department issued a written apology to Imbruglia in addition to reinstating the old policy..

“This measure will extend the same freedoms to sex and gender diverse Australians. While it’s expected this change will only affect a handful of Australians, it’s an important step in removing discrimination for sex and gender diverse people," said Attorney General Robert McClellan

The Australian groups who have been fighting for the policy changes on behalf of  the gender diverse community there hailed it and agreed with the AG's sentiments.

Congrats to my friends Down Under for their major victory in achieving this policy change.

As I will relentlessly keep pointing out, human life originated on the African continent, so it stands to reason that trans people also exist on the second largest continent on the planet. 

As a child of the African diaspora it is my business and one of the missions of this blog to keep up with trans developments in the various nations on the African continent

They have been just as busy organizing to fight for their human rights, and it's why I and others have major issues with that unjust anti-trans UN paper two white East Coast first world radical lesbians wrote.

Here's a video courtesy of the South African trans organization Gender DynamiX of a May 2010 meeting that was held in Windhoek, Namibia.    Activists from South Africa, Namibia, Zambia, Uganda and Botswana met for training purposes, to strengthen their communications ties, build community and get tips on strengthening the organizations poised to fight for their human rights in their various nations.