Tag: Black Voices

If you don’t know who JJ Smith is, you better ask somebody—perhaps one of the more than 1.2 million folks who keep up with her on social media. Or the hundreds of thousands of people who purchase her weight loss books, which have created a cottage industry for the 47-year old Fredericksburg, Va., native.

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Source: HuffPost Black Voices

This piece by Sam Riedel originally appeared on The Establishment, an independent multimedia site founded and run by women.

Content warning: discussion of homicide and assault

Here are some facts: Mesha Caldwell lived in Canton, Mississippi. She studied at Jackson State University and worked as a hair and makeup artist, winning competitive “hair battles” and mentoring younger beauticians in the Madison County area. She was also a black transgender woman.

I know these things because Mesha was found shot to death on January 4, the first of seven trans women of color to be murdered this year. But the first thing I read about her was the one thing I never wanted to know: the deadname she was assigned at birth.

For transgender people, our relationships to our names are complicated, to say the least. What we’re called has power, and hearing a blatantly masculine or feminine name applied to you when you’re trying to realign your gender in a different direction can be a source of profound, dysphoria-inducing anxiety. Hearing or seeing one’s old name can induce a visceral sense of terror that no matter how much progress one makes in their transition, the person they used to be (or pretended to be) is still there.

Hearing or seeing one’s old name can induce a visceral sense of terror.

Hence the term “deadname”: a name that shall not be spoken, for it invokes a restless spirit. Many trans people will go to great lengths to prevent people from finding out their deadnames, destroying irreplaceable photos and documents in an effort to ensure that who they really are is the only identity most will remember. We may not be able to make our families forget what they used to call us, but we can change how we’re known to the rest of the world.

Except when we can’t.

Breaking the news of Mesha Caldwell’s murder, MS News Now reporter Waverly McCarthy chose to position Caldwell’s deadname as the first piece of information readers would learn about her (after being informed that she was trans). In doing so, McCarthy violated a deeply personal boundary that perpetuated the single most harmful misconception about trans people all over the world: that our true gender identities — who we are at our core — are the ones we were assigned at birth.

This has become a pattern in reports on transgender homicides: CNN and Slate both deadnamed Kayden Clarke when he was shot by police in a hospital last year; The Daily Mail printed Mayang Prasetyo’s deadname directly under a 2014 headline that referred to her as a “young man”; Reuters deadnamed and called Jennifer Laude “the transgender” when reporting on her murder at the hands of a Marine; and so on.

In addition to Mesha, the other trans women of color murdered in January and February didn’t escape this trend. In reporting the murder of Keke Collier, the Chicago Tribune deadnamed her twice: once in their initial report, and once in their follow-up after Collier’s true name had been established. WTOL has yet to correct their report deadnaming Jojo Striker, and in a shocking display of cognitive dissonance, LGBTQIA news site PinkNews reprinted Chyna Gibson’s deadname while noting that initial reports had misgendered her. (They have since removed that information, nearly four days after the fact.)

This represents a systematic process of denying trans people not just our identities, but our humanity — one that I wrote about in 2015, when Kathy Sal was assaulted in front of her apartment in Queens (and deadnamed on WCBS, naturally). That was my second column as an out trans girl. As I waded through the litany of abusive comments and misgendering media reports, I wondered how to fix society’s preconceived notions of what it means to be trans, and if such a thing was even possible.

But more than anything, I wondered — and still do — what the news will say about me when I’m dead.

I have a handmade clay coffee mug with my deadname on it that I still can’t bring myself to throw away. Though seeing it emblazoned on bills and checks makes me depressed, and I can’t wait to legally be Samantha, there’s a small spark of sentimentality in me that can’t let that little souvenir of my past go — maybe because it’s one thing that ties me to my father, who I lost to cancer five years ago. I was named for his favorite playwright (I’m sure some of you can guess who). Disposing of that shard of history, both cup and name, feels like a slap in the face, if a necessary one.

If trans folks’ feelings about their deadnames were easy to parse, we could hardly call this problem a trans issue — after all, nothing about transitioning is simple. It’s important to know that some of us have an amicable relationship with our deadnames; during the period of time I identified as genderfluid, I had no feelings at all about what was on my driver’s license. It was only after I reexamined my transness that I began feeling upset at how obviously male my name was, and started looking into the long process of changing my name to a more feminine version. 

If trans folks’ feelings about their deadnames were easy to parse, we could hardly call this problem a trans issue.

I’m not the only one whose feelings about their given name have changed over time; one friend of mine took a permanent marker and scissors to anything bearing her deadname immediately after coming out, and experiences some dysphoria at the mere thought of anyone knowing it.

We also have to consider the feelings of trans people who transition in the public eye, whose deadnames are plastered on books, movies, albums, and so forth. The Wachowski sisters are a prime example, as is comics creator Lilah Sturges, whose old name appears on a swath of publications (some of which have been nominated for high-profile industry awards). Though she’s ecstatic to have her name changed legally now, Lilah told me in an interview that personally, she doesn’t even use the term “deadname.” “It makes me a little dysphoric to see it and hear it, but I respect it, just like I respect the things that I did in order to make it through life,” she told me. “Some books I feel belong to that name, in a strange way that I can’t quite elucidate.”

Trans people all have different relationships to the concept and even terminology surrounding deadnaming — and that’s okay, because this is an integral part of our struggle to self-determine our identities. The problems come when cisnormative media and society at large decides to make those decisions for us.

We have to consider the feelings of trans people who transition in the public eye.

One of the best examples I can use to illustrate this is Caitlyn Jenner.

I don’t bring up Cait because I think she should be a spokeswoman or icon for the broader trans community (on the contrary, one of the only things almost all trans people agree on is that we wish she’d go away), but because hers is a deadname that virtually everyone knows. While Caitlyn is reportedly still “dad” to her kids, she’s been clear that she isn’t who she used to be anymore. Whereas many trans people consider themselves to have been “born this way,” a la the prevailing gay rights narrative, others feel like their identity has actively changed over the years, and Caitlyn has often referred to her pre-transition self as though she were talking about a totally different person.

No matter where Caitlyn falls on that spectrum or how comfortable she is personally referencing her deadname, it’s no longer appropriate to refer to her as anything other than her chosen name. Even if you haven’t read GLAAD’s style guidelines on the matter, Caitlyn Jenner is a name that almost everyone invested in pop culture recognizes; she’s arguably far more famous now than she was as an Olympian. Did you notice I managed to get through that last paragraph about her deadname without using it? You still knew who I was talking about, right?

But mainstream media outlets can’t seem to get it out of their mouths. Tabloids like the New York Post are obviously the most egregious violators (our old friend the Daily Mail can’t resist deadnaming Caitlyn even in passing), but this extends to larger publications as well. Forbes, Inquisitr, the International Business Times — even Vanity Fair, the magazine via which Jenner once famously asked the world to “Call Me Caitlyn,” bizarrely referenced her deadname four times in the course of an article about David Foster.

All of these examples are from the past two months, and none of them are necessary or appropriate. Regardless of Caitlyn’s own willingness to use her deadname in certain contexts, it’s obvious that the media at large isn’t doing this because she granted them permission; these reports reference her deadname as though doing so is imperative.

Why, when Caitlyn Jenner is one of the most recognizable names in the world? Maybe because, on some level, many still think transgender people are play-acting and don’t believe us when we assert our true selves. (Did you look up my deadname when I referenced it above? What made you think you needed to?)

On some level, many still seem to think that transgender people are play-acting.

And make no mistake: This rhetoric is harmful. When mainstream news reports constantly reference deadnames like Caitlyn Jenner’s, they propagate the idea that transphobia is just a difference of opinion — that when sites like Breitbart stubbornly deadname and misgender her, it’s simply a political disagreement.

But in what universe does the idea that “trans women are really just men” not directly lead to violence? Almost one in 10 respondents to the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey said they’d been physically attacked in the past year because of their identity; over half of those attacked for any reason had been assaulted multiple times. Many shared harrowing experiences, like this woman’s:

I was found in a ditch after being brutally raped for three days. I was taken to an ER. There I met an officer who told me I deserved it for attempting to be a woman and should have died.

Stories like hers don’t exist on the fringes of the trans community. Jennifer Laude, Gwen Araujo, and untold others have been murdered because people “found out” who they “really were” — and somehow that’s not related to the media’s reckless weaponization of deadnames?

If you’re friends with a trans person and they give you permission to use their deadname in the past tense, fine. That’s their personal choice. But in any other context — especially a journalistic one — that information should be strictly confidential. Sharing it is violence under the guise of reportage, and any writer who engages in it should feel personally ashamed.

Because until they learn, we’re going to keep losing people like Mesha Caldwell. And those of us who survive are tired of being the only ones who remember the names of the dead.

You can support The Establishment’s independent media work by purchasing a ‘Member of the Resistance’ tee or making a donation here.

Other recent stories include:

As A Trans Woman, I’ve Seen Nerd Culture’s Misogyny From Both Sides

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I’m A Refugee From A Banned Country—This Is My American Story

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Source: HuffPost Black Voices

CeCe Peniston realized her dreams by landing on the music charts with her multi-platinum single “Finally.”

Peniston’s breakout hit, featured on the singer’s 1992 debut album of the same name, catapulted the then-21-year-old to the top of Billboard’s Dance/Club songs chart, and peaked at No. 5 on Billboard’s Top 100 singles chart. 

Peniston’s seminal track, which was followed by hits like “Keep On Walkin’” and “We Got a Love Thang,” helped earn the Arizona native the 1992 Billboard award for Best New Artist, Dance.

Over two decades since her meteoric rise in the music world, Peniston has launched her own publishing company, CeCe Pen Inc., and is currently recording two new solo studio projects, as well as developing an as-yet-untitled reality show.

In celebration of her forthcoming nationwide tour commemorating the 25th anniversary of “Finally,” Peniston spoke to The Huffington Post about the song’s success, taking control of her music, and the significance of becoming the first foreign female entertainer to perform in post-apartheid South Africa.

Congratulations on the 25th anniversary of “Finally.” How does it feel to commemorate the song’s success?

It feels really good, and we’re definitely going all out. I finally put back on the “Finally” hat from 25 years ago on the album cover. Not everybody gets a classic. Sometimes people get songs on the radio, but to have a song that stands 25 years. All over the world, I’m traveling and I still hear it. Just to have that one classic that people want to hear all over again, it’s definitely a blessing and truly feels epic for me.

What was the inspiration for writing the song at age 21? 

I was in college and I started writing poetry as a way to express myself. And while I was in college I wasn’t dating that much and I was like, “I don’t have a man, what would I say if I found him, finally? And what would he look like?” And I just put in the description of what he would look like to me. And it’s funny how that happened. So the inspiration was a real-life experience for me being in college and not having somebody and just saying what I would say.

Following the song’s release, did you finally meet your man?

I did, sweetie. [Laughs] I did meet him afterwards, and we ended up getting married. We were married for about a year. I started traveling around the world and sometimes that’s weird when you’re young and trying to travel the world. And being married, that’s a whole new experience. But yeah, I found him for a little bit. [Laughs]

Through the years, you’ve remained active in music by releasing a string of dance singles. However, your last full-length solo album was released in 1996. What has prompted your decision to record singles instead of an album?

I just think that people get bored. Because sometimes, there’s so many projects. For instance, I’m working on a Christmas project, which probably won’t be done until May, but the single route is easier. I have another live project that I’m working on and then I have my own dance music. So between putting out too many albums at one time and just doing singles and doing things that you like to do, you never know what’s gonna hit. And it prevents me from having to be in a box. And also, I’ve been on different labels where they’ll say, “Hey, we’ll just put out a single here and a single there,” and you’re in different places putting out singles.

Now, I’m doing stuff myself ― independently, paying for stuff, putting out my own music, getting my own publishing. Everything. When you own stuff it makes it a lot different than having to get permission from somebody else. So those are the things that I’m doing this year, as I take charge of my business.

What are your thoughts on some of today’s R&B/pop artists, such as Rihanna and Usher, recording dance music, in comparison to the ‘90s?

I just think that the beats are different. I think the tone and the format has changed. When we were doing dance music [in the ‘90s], you had a verse, a chorus, a verse, a chorus, a bridge, and your outro. Now, you may have the chorus, say 20 times, whereas we had a different format. We didn’t do a lot of extra singing. Sometimes people don’t like a lot of extra singing, especially on EDM [electronic dance music] songs, they want it easy and as singsongy as possible, because that’s what people remember the most.

Who are some of your favorite artists that have successfully transitioned from R&B to dance music?

Well, if you look at how Chris Brown and Usher transitioned from R&B to do some of the dance music, some of the beats that they have are like that. I feel like it’s hard to choose a favorite, because with us [during the early ‘90s] it was clear-cut [dance songs]. Right now they don’t have a real genre. Like Jamie xx, he does a lot of funky stuff that’s different. Drake has beats that’s like that. People don’t know this, but Travis Scott sampled my song “Finally” for his song “Whole Lotta Lovin.’”

Have you experienced any challenges adapting to today’s era of music?

What I try to do is listen to what’s out there. And I probably have some of it. I just released a song called “Believe” last year that did well on the Billboard charts and another called “Nothing Can Stop Me Now,” so there’s some EDM stuff in there. But I just feel like I don’t like to put myself in a box and limit myself.

When people tell me I can’t do something, I just say, “OK, I hear you. I’m still gonna do what I want to do.” And so, I just let the people decide, because they’re definitely gonna decide if they like it or not.

In 1994 you became the first foreign female entertainer to perform in post-apartheid South Africa. Talk about the historical significance of the performance. 

When I went over there it was like, “Oh, my God, I’m in the motherland. Where everything started. It’s our history.” I just looked out at the crowd and when I was performing I just got goose bumps on my skin off the fact that I was over in Africa and I was one of the first women, historically, to be able to come over to Africa ― right after apartheid when people felt beaten down ― and feel the depression and the sadness of what’s been going on in the world.

I got to go bring a piece of heaven to them, and bring the gift of song and be able to experience things after that happening. So I felt honored to go over there and do that.

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Source: HuffPost Black Voices

The newly released Nielsen report has shown that a large percentage of non-black TV viewers watch shows with predominantly black casts. These shows include ABC’s “Black-ish,” which has an audience that’s 79 percent non-black, and HBO’s “Insecure,” which has a non-black viewership of 61 percent. Other shows with black leads that have a high percentage of non-black viewers also included “This Is Us,” “How to Get Away With Murder,” “Pitch,” and “Scandal.”

So, what does it all mean?

It means that the habits of TV watchers are changing thanks to television being far less segregated than it was 20 years ago. According to Indiewire, by the late ‘90s networks like Fox, UPN, and The WB aired 16 of the 20 primetime sitcoms that featured black casts like “Martin,” “Living Single,” and “One on One.” This presented a stark contrast to the major networks that had mostly white shows. 

But now, with shows like “Black-ish” and “Scandal” dominating on major networks, it’s becoming clearer that diversity on TV is a win-win. It means better representation for the underrepresented, and it makes business sense for networks who want to attract a wide range of viewers. Hopefully, this will encourage more networks to green light even more diverse stories about people of color. 

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Source: HuffPost Black Voices

Cyrus Aaron is all too familiar with the injustice that abounds in America.

The pain from watching national news events unfold ― like the police slayings of black lives, the devastating water crisis in Flint and the fight to protect sacred tribal sites in North Dakota ― has overwhelmed Aaron, a writer and poet from Chicago, in ways that have also motivated him to speak out about the agony.

While Aaron, who identifies as a creative artist, is deeply committed to creating social change, he says engagement and momentum can sometimes be hard to sustain in many movements. “We see the names so much we forget the people, and their lives become fossils, dried up moments of humanity buried under time,” Aaron told The Huffington Post. “The information we acquire has to be stretched, pulled apart and wrung into action.”

This is why he decided to create his own modernized method to fuse storytelling and social justice, and help mobilize people across the country to get involved ― and stay involved. Behold The People’s Campaign.

On Wednesday, Aaron launched a GoFundMe page to crowdfund the project, which he hopes will be able to take a small team of creatives to 15 cities across America that have been affected by injustice, including in Ohio, where Tamir Rice was killed; Maryland, where Freddie Gray died; and South Carolina, where Walter Scott was fatally shot.

They will then team up with local activists to co-organize an event that will tackle a local social justice issue and identify solutions that will leave community residents feeling more empowered. Aaron plans to lead the team, which will use digital platforms like YouTube, Instagram and SnapChat to profile local community members, as well as produce livestreamed and edited content for the general public. 

“The People’s Campaign is a journey of streamed content that marries action in the digital space with action in the real world,” Aaron told HuffPost. “We will democratize social change, simply by tapping into the power already in our hands. So that people like myself, everyday people, have the information, the ideas and the access to action.”

Aaron, who aims to raise enough money to donate $10,000 to an immediate area of need in each city, said he hopes The People’s Campaign will help residents realize the power of their voices. He believes people are very interested in getting involved, tired of feeling powerless and are ready to move simply because, he says, we can’t afford to wait any longer.

“I want the nation to show up at the front door of communities in need.”
Cyrus Aaron

“I want people to take this journey and be empowered every step of the way,” he said. “I want people to know they can contribute, and even though social issues are large they are not impossible. We just need enough eyes and ears locked in at the same time.”

For Aaron, tackling injustice has evolved into a lifelong commitment. Following Sandra Bland’s death in July 2015, Aaron was so overcome with grief that he quit his job in hospitality, essentially locked himself in his room for a month and fully focused on writing. In that time, he wrote a powerful book of poetry called “Someday” that is primarily centered on the complexities of race, and wrote and directed a 12-part play of the same title that followed many of the book’s themes. He will be using the hashtag #SomedayMustCome to merge his past project with his current one and help drive momentum to The People’s Campaign by asking people to post a picture with the hashtag.

“I want the nation to show up at the front door of communities in need,” he added. “I want people to use their smartphones, or their laptop like a key and have a seat in a home that doesn’t stand like their own. I want people to understand difference and not criminalize it. I want us to challenge ourselves, and if nothing else, then out of curiosity, see how much good we can achieve together.”

The People’s Campaign aims to fundraise $150,000 and, as of Friday, has raised more than $1,600. Aaron says he is confident it will reach its goal, but if that doesn’t happen, he still plans on using the available funds to create events in whatever cities possible. The campaign plans to kick off its first social event in New York ― but first, it’s asking members of communities everywhere to support its mission and embrace their own power.  

“We have to awaken collective power now, build a bridge of access between interest groups now, or the cycle of injustice will continue at the expense of the people sharing the margin,” Aaron said.

“We’ve been waiting patiently and politely long enough,” he added. “It’s all hands on deck!”

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Source: HuffPost Black Voices

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— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Source: HuffPost Black Voices

The Huffington Post recently got a chance to sit down and chat with 20-year-old actress and singer Zendaya. One of the main topics of discussion? How to pronounce her name. 

Turns out a lot of people have been saying it wrong for years, so we’re here to set the record straight once and for all. And no, it’s not “Zen-die-ya.”

Again, it’s not:

It’s actually:

Glad we cleared that one up!  

Subscribe to The Tea to read exclusive interviews with Keke Palmer, Noah Cyrus, Jacob Sartorius and more here!

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— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Source: HuffPost Black Voices

This piece by Michelle Marie Wallace originally appeared on The Establishment, an independent multimedia site founded and run by women.

“Maybe I should stop my periods.”

It wasn’t something I had ever before considered and I had, in fact, wondered if there could be potential, unknown, long-term ramifications when friends of mine stopped theirs. I had never considered my periods an inconvenience or gross or annoying; in fact, I had liked the rhythm of them. The times I had been on birth control I resented how it made me feel divorced from my body.

When I asked this question, I was sitting in my doctor’s office, nine months into antiviral treatment for chronic fatigue syndrome, 11 years after starting treatment for Lyme disease. The previous year had been hard. Though I had been significantly healthier than I’d been in a long time and had started running again, working hours that were closer to full-time and going out with friends, every month, in the week before my period, I collapsed.

In these weeks, I felt ragged, frayed; the simple act of my body functioning with regulatory actions felt like too much of a drain. My life required too much of me in these weeks and I’d stumble through work, cancel plans, and do as little as possible. I’d get cold and not be able to warm up again, no matter how many burning hot showers I took; fevers would flash through me, but I never retained the heat and I’d collapse in a heap of fatigue, wracked with fevers and chills, muscle pain, sore throats, and mental confusion again. When my cycle was over, I’d be better than I was during the flare-up but worse off than I had been before my period. Every month, I’d take another step down in my health.

Every month, I’d take another step down in my health.

I always wonder how to describe a fatigue so profound it feels like a weighted shroud, especially as so many doctors have not believed me. This is not just being tired, it’s a fatigue of dangerous proportions that feels like an emergency in my body, threatening to take me down again. When I was finally diagnosed with chronic Lyme disease, I’d been sick for over 11 years — 11 years of doctors who refused to believe that I wasn’t just seeking attention, 11 years of worsening chronic fatigue and tick-borne illness. These are diseases that, when not addressed, become steadily more serious and more difficult to treat.

When I was 24, I moved back in with my parents, deep into third-stage Lyme. My hairline had receded dramatically, deep purple rings dragged on my always bloodshot eyes, my skin had gone gray and papery. My body was wracked with so much pain it felt like simple daily use of my joints was causing them to degenerate. I wondered if I would be able to walk in three years. I couldn’t follow conversations, words had lost significance for me, I could no longer read. My inability to engage with the world mimicked that of my grandfather’s Alzheimer’s Disease. I was so tired that I hadn’t laughed in years.

A decade-plus of treatments has stripped me of most of the worst effects of CFS and Lyme (the symptoms often overlap) and returned me to living a life more fully than I had ever been able to before. But I still declined each month with my period, and never quite got back to where I had been before the decline. I was doing better than I had been before I started my antivirals, I told my doctor, but I felt that I would never be doing well — unless I stopped menstruating.

I was doing better than I had been before I started my antivirals, but I felt that I would never be doing well  — unless I stopped menstruating.

My doctor, Jennifer Sugden, N.D., had treated me for Lyme and CFS with a variety of different protocols, including hormone replacement therapies. But I’d never suppressed my periods before. I had always collapsed the week before my period, but I thought that this was one more thing that would resolve as I got better. Instead, it seemed that the hormone changes around menstruation would always be an Achilles heel.

This is a common experience among patients with Lyme and chronic fatigue syndrome and some other tick-borne illnesses. Dr. Sugden says that when she discusses Lyme and CFS within the medical community of Lyme-literate doctors, they talk about how “women are typically harder to treat and some women really decline before or with her period.” Jose G. Montoya, director of the multidisciplinary division of Stanford’s Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Initiative, concurs, saying that “this phenomena is really pronounced in some women. You don’t have to dig this [information] out…that is so clear in some cases, that the disease is significantly worse right around their menstrual cycle.” He acknowledges that “we will have to be treating women and men differently, there is no question.” (It’s important to note here that menstruation is not just a “women’s issue,” and can affect trans and nonbinary bodies as well.)

So far, the research on ME/CFS has been meager at best and without a focus on female endocrinology. Stanford’s ME/CFS Initiative is currently recruiting subjects for a neuroendocrine study with women of child-bearing ages to hopefully give some answers on this subject. Eventually, Dr. Sugden says, “it wouldn’t surprise me if stopping periods becomes a part of protocol.”

My doctor said it wouldn’t surprise her if stopping periods becomes a part of chronic fatigue syndrome protocol.

So what is it about periods that can compromise some patients with ME/CFS and tick-borne illnesses so dramatically? Dr. Sugden points to an underlying problem: overworked adrenal glands. The adrenals produce cortisol, which regulates our circadian rhythm, and DHEA, which is the building block to produce estrogen and progesterone. “It’s having to produce DHEA on a cyclic pattern when the adrenals are not strong enough to produce it on a monthly cycle,” Dr. Sugden says about the monthly decline some people experience. “But when you replace the hormones and suppress periods, the glands can focus on healing themselves. You allow the adrenals to NOT produce DHEA and your body can produce cortisol at the rate it needs to.”

After three months of supressing my periods, I realized that I hadn’t had any extreme crashes in my health. While I wasn’t fully well, my health was steadier and I was incrementally getting better. Six months later, I was stable enough to start chasing dreams again. I packed up and moved to Mexico City, a place I’d been talking about moving to for years. I never did because I needed my family and my doctors close and I didn’t want to move abroad when I would have to live my life tight, watching to never do too much.

It’s been a year now and I live more easily than I ever thought possible. I’ve settled into my new home and language, work full time, and still have energy left over for friends, exploring, and climbing trips. In many ways, stopping my periods helped give me back my life.

You can support The Establishment’s independent media work by purchasing a ‘Member of the Resistance’ tee or making a donation here.

Other recent stories include:

The Dirty Politics Of Period Sex

Yes, Trans Women Can Get Period Symptoms

The Establishment Means The World To Me, And It Needs Your Help

The Agony And Ecstasy Of Masturbation

‘It’s Because You’re Fat’ — And Other Lies My Doctors Told Me

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Source: HuffPost Black Voices

How “true loyalty,” political connections, and conservative ties fueled his ascent

In November 2004, Neil Gorsuch oversaw legal teams in Eastern and Central Ohio for the Bush-Cheney campaign. In an email to President George W. Bush’s Political Director Matt Schlapp, he cheered, “What a magnificent result for the country. For me personally, the experience was invigorating and a great deal of fun.” (The experience for up to 15,000 people unable to vote in Columbus, Ohio, because lines stretched for hours was probably less invigorating or fun).

Gorsuch continued, “While I’ve spent considerable time trying to help the cause on a volunteer basis in various roles, I concluded that I’d really like to be a full-time member of the team.” 

His resume describes the various roles in which he was politically active to “help the cause,” with greater specificity than his Senate Judiciary Questionnaire ― Co-Director of Virginia Lawyers for Bush-Cheney; Bush-Cheney Marshal; RNC Bronco; and Co-Chairman of the Republican National Lawyers Association Judicial Nominations Task Force ― for which the Senate Republican Conference cited his Distinguished Service to the United States Senate for his work in support of President Bush’s judicial nominees.

As Gorsuch began his effort to “be a full-time member of the team,” the way he started and then advanced his public service career raise troubling concerns regarding his nomination to the Supreme Court.

A “True Loyalist”

In March 2005, Gorsuch interviewed at the Department of Justice to become Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General, and his candidacy was sent to the White House Office of Political Affairs for review. So he reached out to his former law school roommate ― who happened to be Chairman of the Republican National Committee ― and Ken Mehlman told the White House that Gorsuch was “a true loyalist” and “a good strong conservative.” A month later, Gorsuch formally got his job offer.

Now, questions are being raised about Gorsuch’s tenure at the Department of Justice—essentially whether he was, in fact, too much of a “true loyalist” and did not demonstrate enough independence when it came to issues of national security, including torture and warrantless surveillance.

For instance, Gorsuch developed talking points to defend the use of torture, or “enhanced interrogation.” In response to the question “Have the aggressive interrogation techniques employed by the admin yielded any valuable intelligence?” he handwrote “Yes” and made a to-do list that started with “Examples of Intell on GTMO.” This is especially troubling because then-candidate Trump repeatedly offered the same justification for reinstating torture ― that it “works” ― as he cavalierly said, “Would I approve waterboarding? You bet your ass I would.”

This is just one example why serious doubts are being raised over whether Gorsuch would serve as a check on executive overreach ― not be truly loyal to it. It also has led Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein to call on Judge Gorsuch to immediately provide missing documents and information regarding his role at the Justice Department, particularly in matters of executive power and national security. Judge Gorsuch must now supply this material so that Senators and the public can evaluate his complete record.

How a web of ties to a conservative billionaire landed Gorsuch a judgeship—when he wasn’t even a finalist

Concerns regarding Judge Gorsuch’s independence also have been magnified by the recent New York Times discovery that conservative billionaire Philip Anschutz “successfully lobbied Colorado’s lone Republican senator and the Bush administration to nominate Judge Gorsuch to the federal appeals court.”

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer has described Anschutz as “one of the leading advocates for a hard-right pro-corporate agenda.” Anschutz owns conservative publications such as The Weekly Standard and The Washington Examiner, and from 2013 to 2015, his foundation donated $500,000 to the Heritage Foundation and $150,000 to the Federalist Society.

In January 2006, there was an opening on the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, and on January 10, 2006, the Denver Post reported that there were three finalists—all women—with no mention of Gorsuch. This is not surprising—although Gorsuch had roots in Colorado, he had never practiced law there, compared to the three finalists who had deep ties to the Colorado legal community: a former Colorado Supreme Court Justice; a federal district court judge; and Colorado’s Solicitor General and professor at the University of Colorado. Also, at the time, the twelve-member court only had two female judges, and Colorado had never had a female circuit court judge (and still hasn’t).

What is surprising is that just two days after the Denver Post article, Anschutz’s lawyer sent the White House a letter on Anschutz’s behalf recommending Gorsuch, and three weeks later, Gorsuch was interviewing with the White House Counsel. By mid-March, President Bush had approved his nomination, subject to background clearances.

Anschutz’s success in securing this judgeship for Gorsuch is just one connection in a “web of ties” between the two men, and according to Senator Schumer, this history “suggests a judge whose fundamental economic and judicial philosophy is favorable to the wealthy and the powerful and the far right.”

Furthermore, although Judge Gorsuch has recused himself from most Anschutz-related cases (with one exception that his spokeswoman said was inadvertent), questions regarding his independence also have been raised by the New York Times’ assessment that Judge Gorsuch “appears to be leaving the door open to participating in Anschutz-related cases on the Supreme Court.”

Not a finalist for the Supreme Court? Still not a problem!

Especially given the timeline around Judge Gorsuch’s circuit court nomination, there are questions around how—ten years later—history has repeated itself.

During the presidential campaign, Trump made the unprecedented decision to release a list of Supreme Court finalists, and he outsourced the selection process to two conservative, ideological interest groups: the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation. On May 18, 2016, he released his list of 11 judges as potential United States Supreme Court Justices. Another finalist list without Gorsuch.

On September 23, 2016, Trump released a second list, with 10 more names, and declared, “This list is definitive and I will choose only from it in picking future Justices of the United States Supreme Court.”

Judge Gorsuch had made it this time.

In fact, according to The Weekly Standard (again, owned by Anschutz), “a main reason [for the second list] was to put Gorsuch’s name on it. But by adding 10 more names, it didn’t create a stir or look like favoritism.”

What happened in these intervening four months that changed the dynamic so radically in Judge Gorsuch’s favor?

What did it take to convince the Heritage Foundation and Federalist Society?

According to The Weekly Standard, Judge Gorsuch was not included on the first list because Trump’s advisors “hadn’t fully studied his judicial record, his years as a private lawyer, and his personal life.”

I am incredibly troubled by what these interest groups were “fully studying” during this time. For example, the Washington Post describes this highly inappropriate area of inquiry:

Gorsuch has been aggressively vetted for the court by conservative groups such as the Heritage Foundation, and they have backed him enthusiastically. These groups even scrutinized his attendance at St. John’s Episcopal Church — which draws from the largely liberal population in Boulder, Colo., calls itself a largely liberal congregation and advertised on its website for the Women’s March in Washington last month — and concluded it was not a strike against him.

When it comes to evaluating Judge Gorsuch’s adherence to the rule of law, I am at a complete loss for why his choice of which church to attend would need to be scrutinized at all ― and I have experience evaluating and recommending hundreds of candidates to President Obama for potential judicial nomination.

But even more concerning, once they embarked on this line of questioning, what did it take to “conclude it was not a strike against him?”

On August 1, 2016, an anonymous judge on the Tenth Circuit requested that all of the judges on the court rehear the case Planned Parenthood Assn. of Utah v. Herbert ― even though neither party had made such a request ― to reconsider a decision that provided a preliminary injunction against the Governor of Utah, who tried to block Planned Parenthood of Utah from receiving federal funding. As Judge Briscoe noted, it was an “unusual procedural step” and would “surely come as a surprise to the parties, who have clearly moved on.”

Judge Gorsuch wrote a dissent in this denial of rehearing, escalating this procedural issue to what one progressive legal commentator called a “crusade against Planned Parenthood.” While we do not know for certain which anonymous judge set this process in motion, a conservative legal commentator, who praised Judge Gorsuch’s dissent as “powerful,” noted that “it’s not climbing out on a limb to surmise that it was Gorsuch who made the sua sponte call.”

Could the sua sponte call in this case—with the future opportunity to write a dissent—have been enough for these interest groups to conclude that Judge Gorsuch’s attendance at his church was not a strike against him?

Or maybe Judge Gorsuch’s August 23, 2016, concurring opinion in Gutierrez-Brizuela v. Lynch —to his own majority opinion—proposing an end the long-settled legal principle known as the Chevron doctrine satisfied any lingering questions. After all, this opinion helped establish Judge Gorsuch as being to the right of Justice Scalia, who believed that Chevron “accurately reflects the reality of government, and thus more adequately serves its needs.”

Or maybe Anchutz’s support for Judge Gorsuch ― and Anchutz’s hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations to the Heritage Foundation and Federalist Society—convinced them.

With all of these questions about Judge Gorsuch’s independence, we deserve to know how the Federalist Society and Heritage Foundation communicated with him ― and with Trump’s campaign, transition team, and administration ― in vetting him and resolving “potential strikes” against him. Senator Richard Blumenthal has asked for this information, and a thorough evaluation of Judge Gorsuch’s nomination cannot be complete without it.

The Supreme Court must protect our constitutional rights and serve as an effective check and balance on the other branches of government. Judge Gorsuch’s rise from a young private practice partner to Supreme Court nominee raises many questions and concerns about his independence and ability to serve as the Supreme Court Justice we need.

In next week’s hearing, Senators must ask these questions—and Judge Gorsuch must answer them. 

This post has been cross-published at the American Constitution Society blog.

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Source: HuffPost Black Voices

WASHINGTON ― Last week, the Metropolitan Police Department sent out a series of tweets publicizing the disappearance of 10 D.C. teenagers who were considered “critically missing.” The tweets themselves didn’t garner much attention, but the photos and information of some of the teens tweeted by influential Twitter user @BlackGirlMarvel went viral within hours.

On Twitter, many Black women users posted viral tweets of the missing reports, encouraging others to share while questioning why they hadn’t heard about the disappearances on the nightly news — in the same way the disappearance Tricia McCauley, another woman who went missing in D.C., had been covered.

The total number of people reported missing in D.C. has remained constant since 2014, said D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser during a Thursday press conference, addressing online speculation and concern about a rise in reports of missing teens. The mayor added that there is no evidence to support an increase in missing persons, nor is there evidence that recent reports are related to human trafficking.  

At least 462 out of 708 total people reported missing this year were juveniles. Most teens reported missing were located or returned home, leaving 95 percent of reported cases this year closed.

MPD did not provide a racial breakdown of their missing juveniles data at the press conference. But at least 37 juveniles of those reported missing since January have not been located, based on an HuffPost analysis of press releases and tweets of the critically missing.

All of those 37 missing are black or Latinx.

Juveniles of all backgrounds are reported missing for a number of reasons, according to the MPD. Usually, it’s because they didn’t check in at home, work or school for voluntary reasons. More concerning cases tend to revolve around conflicts in the home. When younger children are reported missing, for instance, they could have been taken by a family member during a custody battle. Teenagers are more likely to be running away from physical or sexual abuse or a parent who’s using drugs.

Still a major concern for many is whether or not kids are being recruited by human traffickers. Forty percent of confirmed sex trafficking victims, who are overwhelmingly female, are black, according to a 2013 report from the Justice Department. And Latinx make up 56 percent of confirmed labor trafficking victims.

Black and Latinx teens, on average, are more vulnerable to the type of abuse that provokes a teen to run away from home because they are more likely to live in high-risk environments. But prevailing narratives that these missing children are just runaways leads to less sympathy and media coverage for them when they are reported as missing.

Take the case of Relisha Rudd, an eight year old who went missing in D.C. in 2014. Her case was almost exclusively covered by The Washington Post, and a handful of local and black news outlets. Cable news did not loop the disappearance of Rudd like they did for the highly publicized cases of Natalee Holloway, Elizabeth Smart or Caylee Anthony.

Little mainstream media coverage is contingent upon the belief that black and brown girls are less valuable, says Hillary Potter, a professor of ethnic studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. And she adds the lack of coverage has another dangerous effect: It can perpetuate the idea that black and brown girls aren’t victimized.

“If cars of a similar make and model were disappearing from the more affluent neighborhoods of our city, there would probably be more outrage,” wrote Courtland Milloy, a columnist for The Washington Post. “Owners of vehicles popular with thieves would be warned through various media outlets and automobile associations. Not so when it comes to black girls from more disadvantaged communities. Their family and friends often suffer in silence.”

Black and Missing Foundation, founded in 2008, is one of few organizations that aims to bring awareness to missing people of color. Derrica Wilson, the co-founder and chief executive of the organization, says 40 percent of missing persons in the United States are people of color.

Most of them are black and Latinx. “How often do you see an Amber alert for a missing black or brown kid?” Wilson said. “They like to classify our kids as runaways [and] runaways do not get the Amber Alert.”

MPD, however, is making a conscious effort to publicize missing persons cases. Chanel Dickerson, the new commander of the department’s Youth and Family division, has pledged to publicize the number of missing teens more than they have been in the past.  

Press releases and tweets are now issued for every missing person who falls into the “critical missing” category. People looped into this category include missing persons under the age of 15, those over the age of 65, anyone with a medical condition that could put them in harm’s way or any case where there’s indication of foul play. The district’s police department will create a new Twitter handle specifically publicizing missing persons.

Social media postings of missing kids can help bring them home faster, especially teenagers whose peers are more likely to see the alert and can notify police of any information they have, says Mary G. Leary, a law professor at Catholic University of America and co-author of “Perspectives on Missing Persons.”

“We’ve come a long way from putting up a poster in the local store,” she said.

Wilson encourages people to pay attention to missing person reports in their area and to be aware of recruitment efforts on social media. She also encourages parents to talk to their children as much as possible about human trafficking and monitor their social media use.

“Our people are not just falling off the face of this earth,” Wilson said, “and we need to do something about it.”

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Source: HuffPost Black Voices