• ELIXHER
• On August 2, 2013

Tiny Tornado after a recent trip to the barbershop.

We Think He Might Be a Boy

I am at the dining room table, and my five-year-old is in the bathroom. After a bit, I realize that the water has been running for much longer than it takes for him to wash his hands. I hear cupboard doors opening and closing; I hear the rattle of things being taken down from shelves; he’s probably had to put a stool on top of a chair to reach.

“What are you doing in there?” I call.

There is a long pause. He’s definitely up to something.

Finally, he answers: “I am doing,” he says, “what I want to do.”

Let me introduce you to our son. We call him the Tiny Tornado.

He is not yet two and we still think he’s a girl.

Continue reading this mom’s powerful experience raising a gender non-conforming kid.

The New Black and Other Docs Ask, “Why Has Black Been Made the Face of Homophobia?”

There’s a gorgeous moment in Yoruba Richen’s documentary The New Black, currently playing the film festival circuit, in which two young black lesbian activists canvass an inner-city black neighborhood to drum up support for the gay marriage initiative that was on the ballot in Maryland’s 2012 statewide election. The women approach a group of young men hanging out in front of an apartment building to talk to them about voting and—more specifically—supporting gay marriage.

“I ain’t voting on that gay shit,” says the most vocal of the guys. “I ain’t with that.”

What follows is an amazing back-and-forth. One of the young women succinctly breaks down how black people have to have each others’ backs, how she has theirs and she needs them to have hers. It’s not at all a volatile exchange, and the young women hang tough with their political stance. But what turns the conversational tide for them is when the chillest guy in the group—lounging on the stairs, his arms folded lightly across his chest—calmly asks the nearby naysayer, in particular, and homophobes in general, “Who are you to tell someone who they can be with?” Then, addressing the two women, he says simply, “I got you.”

Read more at The Village Voice.

Laverne Cox Discusses Her Role in “Orange is the New Black”

Laverne Cox is living her reality in a new runaway hit series for Netflix.In the show, €Orange Is the New Black, Cox plays a transgender woman who is in jail as a result of stealing money in order to pay for her gender reassignment surgery. In a dramatic scene, Cox’s character Sophia swallows the top of a bobble head in order to be sent to the doctor – so she can get her hands on the hormone estrogen. For Cox, the character she plays on the TV show is one she can relate to wholeheartedly, telling Showbiz Tonight, €œ(Sophia) is doing what she can to be true to who she is.

Via HLN.

Disease Is Not A Metaphor

Disease is not a metaphor for some crude and unnamed other. Disease is not capitalism, nor is it communism. Disease is not anarchy, nor is it the threat of anarchy. Except for when the body is chaotic and unknowable. Disease is not a virus in the system. Disease is not the body, not the whole, but a part. Disease is not a test from god. Disease is not a fiery furnace, a wall to climb over, a home to be lifted out of by rope. Disease is not a battle to be won or lost in death. Disease is not a metaphor. Disease is not hyperbole. Disease is neither metonym nor synonym. Disease is a condition of the body. Disease is a visitor. Disease is a backseat driver who climbs up front and takes the wheel.

Continue reading on Black Girl Dangerous.