Trans Bodies Trans Selves, the anthology

 

From the Associate Press

"

As transgender people strive to gain more acceptance and legal protections, they will soon have a hefty new resource to assist them - a 672-page book, written by scores of transgender contributors, that encompasses social history, gender politics and wide-ranging advice on health, law, relationships and many other matters.

Encyclopedic in scope, conversational in tone, and candid about complex sexual issues, the Oxford University Press book being released in mid-May is titled Trans Bodies, Trans Selves - a deliberate echo of a pioneering feminist health-resource book, Our Bodies, Ourselves that appeared more than 40 years ago

The goal for Trans Bodies, Trans Selves, she writes, was "to make it as radical as its predecessor" - an act of empowerment through which transgender people exert more control over the available information about their lives.

The book's chapters cover a wide range of topics, including race, religion, disabilities, employment, mental health, sexuality and parenting. There are miniprofiles of prominent transgender people from around the world, and analyses of gender-bending books and films, such as Some Like it Hot and Tootsie.

Its extensive glossary includes such terms as genderqueer, heteronormativity, omnisexual and transfeminism. "The terminology changes so quickly, you really can't keep up," said Erickson-Schroth."

Worshipping Each Other: #Blacklove. Make it Trend

Elixher Magazine wrote an article about the importance of visible Black love in the queer community. My wife and I are humbled by the support and committed to loving each other and our community. Check it out after the jump.

"Black love is revolutionary and I think it’s important to embody that and not just talk about it at panels and conferences. It’s amazing and sad how many black gay and queer people have reached out to me and my wife just to say that they needed to see black love…to feel loved and desired…that it gives them hope that we can still love each other…glad people support our union…but it’s heartbreaking that people need to see it to feel loved around their black gay/queer existence." 


 


The Monica Roberts Advocacy Award

This year at the Black Trans Advocacy Conference I was honored as advocate of the year. The award is named after Monica Roberts, a fierce and brilliant transwoman in Houston who has chronicled trans activism in the south and nationwide on her blog TransGriot over the years. Instead of just thanking God, my mom and my wife, I spoke to how important it is to support Black Transmen Inc, the organization who organizes the conference and the influence of our work in the community. 

The Black Belgian Phenom. Stromae. Get Into It.

 

"Son of a Rwandan father, killed in the Tutsi genocide, and a Belgian mother, Stromae (né Paul Van Haver) has been crowned the voice of the dejected youth of Europe. That's another way of saying all the youth in Europe. The Eurozone crisis that began in 2009 hit young adults throughout the continent the hardest, with unemployment as high as 50% in some countries. In Spain, more than half of young adults under 25 were jobless in 2012. The country found itself in deep recession during the Eurozone crisis and lost more than 5 million jobs over the next few years. Austere governing resulted in frustrations that became violent protests in places like Belgium, Spain and Greece. And through it all, Stromae's voice began to rise powerfully above the noise....for the rest of the article click here

GLAAD's Tiq Milan and Christina Kahrl share best practices for covering transgender stories on CNN's Reliable Sources

Christina Kahrl, a transgender writer for ESPN, and member of GLAAD's board, and Tiq Milan, a transgender advocate and GLAAD's Senior Media Strategist appeared on CNN's Reliable Sources with Brian Stelter to discuss best practices for reporting  on transgender people, particularly in light of Grantland's salacious article, "Dr. V's Magical Putter," which outed Dr. Essay Anne Vanderbilt as a transgender woman.

"We have to understand that we live in a culture that marginalizes transgender people," Milan stated. "Transgender people are four times more likely to experience poverty due to rampant employment discrimination. Over half of transgender people have experienced family rejection. And 40% of transgender people have attempted suicide, compared to less than 2% of the general population."

Milan also pointed out that the Grantland article is a part of a wider pattern of disrespectful reporting when it comes to transgender people. He referenced Katie Couric's questions about Carmen Carrera's anatomy, as well as disrespectful reporting that regularly occurs after the murder of a transgender person.

Read the rest of the article here.

Commentary: Our Lives Are Valuable

"It is not solely the responsibility of LGBT people to put in the work to end this heartbreaking violence. All of us who are considered leaders in the social justice movement have an obligation to affect change for the most vulnerable, misunderstood and marginalized community in this country no matter your gender identity or sexuality. The lives of Black and Latino transgender women have value. It's time that everyone starts acting like it."

Read more on bet.com

DBQ Magazine's LOUD 100 LGBT People of Color

It is our intention to paint a landscape, to knit a quilt of LGBT people of colour who are LOUD in their beingness in the world. Some of these people are influencing our culture, many of them we follow daily, a few are our muses. There are those on this list who are behind the scenes whose faces and names are never seen or heard, and there are those who are so LOUD in our wold that they make us proud to be gay people of colour…here is our uniquely diverse list; some rich, some powerful, and some influential in only their area of expertise.

Read DBQ's Nov/Dec 2012 Issue

U People. 2006

 

 One summer day in Brooklyn, a music video was filmed featuring queer identified people of color. Out of this video came the wildly successful documentary U People which explored gender, sexuality, community, love and how we as queer people find our way and define ourselves.