Like Comments....But

In case you missed it on the left hand sidebar, I don't mind receiving comments on the things I post here.    

However, due to the fact that I am an unapologetic African American transwoman who tells it like it T-I-S is, I do get my share of hate and racist commentary.   It's why the TransGriot comment section is on moderated status, and that will not change in the forseeable future.   

That means because of the idiots, lil ol me is the one who has to approve all of your comments good, bad or indifferent.  They'll get posted when I get the time in my busy life to go through them.   

Yes, contrary to public opinion and the unsolicited opinions of my detractors, I do have a life that doesn't revolve around this blog.

Since this is my cyberhome, your First Amendment free speech rights extend to the end of my nose.    If your comment is offensive or racist, it will not see the light of day unless I feel like embarrassing you or making you look like the anus you are for the world to see.

Some I hold in the que for the Nuke A Troll segment, and I reserve the right to edit your comment for clarity. 

There is no need to repetitively send your comments, it'll show up once I approve it.

Thank you for your patience.

The Washington Blade Quoted Me...

But not enough in the article they wrote on HB 235.  The article failed to interview local opponents such as Sandy Rawls, Dana LaRocca, and Jenna Fischetti for example.   Chibbaro tried to claim that the HB 235 opposition was out-of-state transpeople    It also failed to explain the reason why HB 235 is getting this pushback...

And I have to co-sign Kat Rose's latest ENDAblog article. 

I also like her FB page comment 

Why is it that when a politician changes his mind to the detriment of trans rights its 'political reality,' but when a politician changes his mind to the detriment of same-sex marriage, he becomes the embodiment of betrayal - Benedict Arnold multiplied by Julius and Ethel Rosenberg with a Quisling chaser?

Here's the initial article on HB 235 from the Blade's Lou Chibbaro, Jr.

Here's the comment I left on that article that has yet to be approved as I write this

Monica Roberts March 4, 2011 at 1:33 am

Since you’re going to selectively quote me in this article, I also said this in that Feb 15.’Still Concerned About The Flawed MD Trans Rights Bill’ post on my blog.

Yes Maryland trans peeps, Lord knows... I understand how badly you want trans rights coverage along with everyone else shouting from the rooftops that this bill is flawed. But better to insist on an airtight and properly written trans rights bill from the outset, even if it takes a few more years to pass than settle for a bad bill now.

Any civil rights bill ever written has that no brainer language in it, including the ones that the GL community cut us out of that cover them. But yet Equality Maryland drafted and submitted HB 235 to the Maryland legislature, admitted they did so, and is pimping the ‘incremental rights’ mantra at the trans community while they settle for nothing less than full blown same sex marriage for themselves.


GL community, if legislative ‘crumbs’ aren’t acceptable to you, they aren’t for me and my community either, especially in light of the fact it’s trans POC’s who are taking the brunt of the trans hate casualties and the discrimination.


Jenna Fischetti of TransMaryland had this to say about the Blade HB 235 article:

In responsible journalism, should you wish to investigate a story and write on it, a collection of the purported facts should obtained. In writing this piece you have not interviewed a single person in opposition to the bill, while interviewing or at least reporting the statements of three persons in favor of this weakened bill. You didn't speak with Sandy Rawls, you merely reposted a statement from her Facebook profile, you reference a national transgender activist with as much if not more experience in civil rights than ANYONE currently discussing this legislation and even then, its just one comment about same-sex marriage and the attention the anti-discrimination bill is getting. Nothing on the points of why this is poor legislation. No counterpoint to what amounts to a fluff piece written for the benefit of EQMD and its attempt to ram a flawed bill on the community solely so one politician, a bureaucrat and one civil rights attorney can claim victory.

The political reality is Senator Rich Madaleno, D Montgomery County, the Maryland Senate's only openly gay Senator has called for this bill to be amended with public accommodations. That countless local members of the transgender community do not support the bill because it creates a separate but not equal subclass of citizenship for individuals based on gender identity. Lou, can you name me 5 people this would protect? I can name you 6 million. THE ENTIRE STATE OF MARYLAND as EVERY citizen has a gender identity, just that not all are transsexual or transgender and face the immediate or obvious discrimination, but are still subject to discrimination. Young boys wanting to wear Daphne costumes for Halloween or the softball playing 'tomboys' are affected by gender expression and the discrimination it presents. Public accommodations, what are they? What's your favorite emergency room? What's you preferred ambulance service? We would ask Tyra Hunter, but regrettably she's not able to answer that. She was a DC resident refused basic emergency services based on her gender identity. As a result she died. What bill brings her back? Restores her family to whole?

Additionally due to prior versions including public accommodations, this years draft without establishes legislative intent that separate but not equal classes were the intent of the legislature in drafting the bill, preventing jurist interpretation which might otherwise provide protection not explicitly defined. So even if we might try to litigate a provision of the employment or housing to cover public accommodations we're pinched. And believe me, the logic that shelters are housing is based on the notion they can be 'interpreted' that way.

The transgender community has been sold out on numerous occasions and refuses to accept an empty promise from a group, devoid of transsexual representation and a history of transgender members leaving its ranks on the board in complete frustration of lack in understanding on these issues. If Equality Maryland truly believes and is interested in fighting for the inclusion of public accommodations, it will back an amendment REMOVING sexual orientation from the public accommodations Codes in Maryland (20-302, 20-304, 20-401,and 20-402) and THEN come out saying 'We're now TRULY in this fight just like you!" That's putting your money where your mouth is. But they won't because they know better. Half a loaf? It a dead end street. If our legislators are incapable of recognizing BASIC civil rights, the transgender community prefers to educate and continue to place constituent based pressure on them to wake up to the fact its 2011.

Why is there so much fact and information coming from my keyboard when you were silent on these points? Because I research my facts. I am a woman of transsexual history. I am one of the voices which Equality Maryland wishes to gloss over.

***

Interesting in that case isn't it Jenna?    When we have something to say about legislation that affects us that Gay, Inc orgs don't wanna hear or want to suppress, then all of a sudden I'm an 'out-of-state' blogger.    If I'm writing about an issue that affects GL people, then they have no problem with my location.

Bottom line is HB 235 is still a jacked up worthless trans rights bill.   Until public accoomdations language is put in it to strengthen it, me and my friends inside and outide of Maryland aren't shutting up about this unjust bill..

When you know it’s good

Discovering what you have is a major reason to attend a trade show. That is just what happened to me recently; I learned from sewing experts exactly how durable and easy it is to use my sewing and embroidery threads. I knew they were quality threads in gorgeous colors, but this weekend I came away with tips and tricks, plus ideas and inspirations for using the colorful fibers in even more ways that I thought.

Last weekend, while Dena and Julie attended the cross stitch trade show in Nashville, I attended a Professional Machine Embroidery show in Columbus. Many attending this show came with strong feelings about working with metallics on a machine: breakage, shredding, the lack of color selection, and an overall “meanness” of the thread were constant irritants and complaints heard from the professional practitioners as to why they don’t and won’t use metallics.. When your livelihood depends on stitching logos, banners, clothing, blankets and other customized designs for important customers, your thread matters A LOT. It has to look good, but it also has to behave well. Time (and effort) is money for a professional machine embroiderer. My team - two ladies from the Sewing B store in Williamstown, WV, plus myself - attacked the problem with a simple solution: Kreinik machine embroidery and sewing thread.

Most of you are familiar with Kreinik metallic Blending Filament, Braids, Ribbons, real metals, and silk threads that are used in hand embroidery or couched by machine. At this show, we demonstrated and sold another part of our thread selection, Kreinik machine embroidery threads: 1. Silver Metallized Gimp, 2. Fine Twist, 3. Fashion Twist, 4. and a new metallic wrapped thread, all designed for use on long-arm quilt machines, sergers, digitized embroidery machines, home sewing machines, and industrial machines. We feature many videos on www.YouTube.com/Kreinikchannel using these threads, and also have information on our web site www.kreinik.com. The threads are sold in sewing/quilting stores, plus online at www.kreinikmall.com.

Going into the show, I knew I had metallics that were stronger (the metallized gimp and wrapped thread) and prettier (Fine Twist and Fashion Twist) than common metallics sold in sewing stores. At the show, I learned more from the experts, and I want to pass that along to you. Life is too short to deal with frustrations in your creative processes, so here are a few points that may make your machine embroidery life easier.

1. Often when running metallics through the machine there is a problem of shredding and breaking. At the show, we ran on a Janome MB-4, a four-needle professional embroidery machine. I always recommend a 14 or 16 topstitch needle, but Kathy, the operator and demonstrator, had zero problems with an 11 needle. She did not even change her tension when running the metallics. Kathy ran both the twisted and the traditional round metallics at 800 rpm or 800 stitches per minute without a problem. I have personally seen my threads run at 1200 and 1300 rpm on the Tin Lizzie and Tajima machines. When you hear the constant humming chatter with no stoppage from breaks, it is a joy. It was as smooth as silk.

2. There are two different kinds of metallics that give you two different looks. The twisted Kreinik thread is constructed with metallized polyester twisted with either nylon or a polyester fiber. Since what you see is not all metallic, it is possible to create various dimensional effects with high and low areas, creating loft depending upon which threads and which stitches are used. The traditional metallic threads are called gimps and they are constructed by wrapping metallic polyester around a core of nylon, thus adding to its strength. This product reflects light differently from the twisted thread; it is a bolder look, giving a more distinct outline for the design. Blending the twisted and wrapped metallics into a design enables you to play with light and gives your project or product exciting proportions that, for the professional, can also add value.

3. The wrapped threads have two categories: polyester with a laminate of aluminum, and rice paper backed with silver. Both types are very vibrant, and I am proud that the Kreinik selection often wows customers with the large number of color choices (not just the traditional gold, silver, red, green and black). The rice paper backed gimp is also very strong, can run at 1200 rpm, and is laminated with silver then twisted around a nylon core. It gives a very lush, very rich real-metal look, radiating a truly beautiful patina that is quite inspiring.

4. All of these Kreinik machine embroidery threads are washable and dry cleanable, can be ironed or placed in a hot-fix press without damage. Ultimately, the Kreinik machine embroidery and sewing threads are perfect for the design and production environment. All are available in 1000-meter cones (5000-meter cones are special order) in more 30 metallic colors. Look for new 2011 colors in the traditional array of wrapped threads, but with a sophisticated antique flair.

By Doug Kreinik

What are those things?

You may or may not have noticed these funny little codes showing up on posters and brochures recently. Well these codes are a cool way to quickly and easily send someone to a web page or video. Kreinik has recently begun including these "QR" codes on all marketing materials.

How does it work? You need a smart phone such like the IPhone or an Android based phone like the Droid, Samsung, LG Ally, etc. You will then need to download an app for your phone that will read the codes. Luckily there are free apps to do this. For the IPhone you can try the QR2D Code reader and for Android based phones try using the Barcode Scanner. Once you have downloaded and installed these apps on your phone, start the app. The scanner will use your phone's digital camera to scan the code. Simply hold your phone up in front of the code and the scanner will scan the code and instantly take you to the web page that code is programmed to link to. Try scanning the code in this post and see where it takes you. You should be able to scan it right off of your monitor.

Blackberry users we want to hear from you. Tell us about apps that work for you.

Small, is the new big

Friday, October 8, 2010, I spent the day at West Virginia University’s School for Fashion and Merchandizing in Morgantown, WV. I am on an industrial advisory board that is designed to help the department in rewriting and orienting the curriculum so that students have a greater opportunity to get a job in their field. In one year, the school has made great strides. They recently acquired a computerized sizing device which takes hundreds of quantitative photos and measures the body for fitting. They now have professional sewing machines from Juki including a buttonhole machine, button attaching machine, overlock, serger and more. Also, the school recently set up a master and a doctorate program.

On Friday, we discussed the future of the students and what they need when they graduate. This advisory board is made up of manufacturers, retailers, educators and engineers. Our goal is to enable the school to create a niche in an ever-changing global economy and become more competitive. We feel that it is important to give them a corporate view and an entrepreneurial slant. In the US right now the apparel industry is sort of disappearing. Big companies are becoming rarer, so it is the small company that is becoming more important. A small business that is niche-based and flexible can be a big influence and survive. As noted by Kenneth King, the couture designer and one of the board members, “Small, is the new big.”

Doug Kreinik

Blog Talk Radio with Doug Kreinik

Our very own Doug Kreinik was a guest on Gone Stitching's Blog Talk Radio. His interview aired on August 9, 2010. This marks Doug's second appearance on the show and will be a lively and fun show about needlepoint and embroidery. Don't worry if you missed it. Its available on demand.

Click here to listen to the 8/9/10 interview.

Click here to listen to his previous interview with Gone Stitching on 9/14/09

Gone Stitching is a needlepoint store located in Bergenfield, NJ. They are a full service shop that sells threads, canvases and offers classes, stitch guides, finishing & framing services and much, much more. Did we mention they are one of the stores in our Kreinik Mall? Click here to visit their Kreinik Mall home page.

Gone Stitching
31 South Washington Ave,
Bergenfield, NJ 07621
(201) 385-2100

I stitch because...

by Dena Lenham

I was "summer cleaning" this weekend, going through organizers full of quilt, cross stitch, crochet, sewing magazines and patterns that I've collected over the last 20 years of serious crafting. My intent was to get rid of a large portion of them: I don't have enough house-space to display all of the projects even if I could actually finish them; I haven't been able to finish anything or invest time in these lately; and those "hoarding" shows on TV would want me to move these things.

Well, I am too embarrassed to admit how little I managed to hand over to my Frugal Self. Unfortunately, I fell in love with making things all over again. So next on my to-do list is dedicating time for actually making these wonderful patterns I've collected (and get more projects/fabrics/notions when I attend Quilt Odyssey with a friend this coming weekend). 

Now I remember why I love stitching and sewing: it's relaxing and stimulating at the same time. The focus and process of needlework is an escape (the health benefits have even been documented). It's my meditation (I never could master the sitting-still "om" version). It's also liberating and creative. The threads and designs are so pretty and colorful, it's like they are bringing life to the fabric. It is making something out of nothing, or out of scraps. None of these benefits are a waste of time.

One of the magazines unearthed in my pile was "Old Time Needlework Patterns and Designs, January 1977" (sixty cents?!) passed to me from a great aunt. Editor Barbara Hall Pedersen posed a question in her column: "We cannot look thoughtfully at the needlework produced by the women of past generations without asking ourselves a question. What force in their lives was so powerful that it could motivate them to invest the countless hours of their time necessary to produce such exquisite examples of needle art?"

She went on to write, "Was it essentially a quest for beauty? Did they do it out of pride, or possibly an excess of leisure? Did virtue demand that every idle moment be occupied? It may have been all of these things, but I believe that it was also something much more. Each of us, deep down, yearns to leave some sort of mark upon the world, as proof that we have passed this way. In a time when a woman did not even have the vote, when she was forced to transact business behind her husband's name, when her opinions counted for little and her authority extended only to the home, women refused, even then, to see themselves as insignificant. They seized whatever avenues were open to them as a means of self-expression."

Ah, self-expression. Yes, I stitch because of that, and I bet you do too. Stitch your sayings, make your mark, don't stop working your projects. The threads, the designs, the fabrics...it's a beautiful world out there, and we are all making it happen.