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Feminists Around the World: Miss Major Griffin-Gracy · Stuff Mom Never Told You

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  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to Stephane
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  Speaker 1: ever told your protection of iHeartRadio. Welcome to another edition
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  Speaker 1: a Feminist around the World, and today we want to
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  Speaker 1: celebrate the amazing activist an icon, Miss Major Griffin. Gracie
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  Speaker 1: and I actually had to take a minute and go
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  Speaker 1: through our files and our old stuff because I had
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  Speaker 1: I thought, it's like, maybe we've talked about her. I
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  Speaker 1: bet she's been mentioned before, because she's pretty iconic in
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  Speaker 1: the US and continues to be someone that we look
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  Speaker 1: at as a pioneer when it comes to activism within
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  Speaker 1: the trance community, the queer community, as well as for
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  Speaker 1: those who have been affected by the HIV AIDS epidemic.
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  Speaker 1: So for a lot of us in the US, she
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  Speaker 1: is a familiar name. I will say I didn't know
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  Speaker 1: too much about her, but I do know kind of
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  Speaker 1: about her, and I thought, you know what, we need
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  Speaker 1: to talk We need to talk more about her. Let's
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  Speaker 1: dedicate at least ten minutes. And y'all, I know that
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  Speaker 1: sounds shameful and we should go more into it, but
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  Speaker 1: we do want to talk about her accomplishments and the
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  Speaker 1: things that she has contributed, especially during a time that
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  Speaker 1: feels so dark. As we've talked about previously, you know,
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  Speaker 1: we just want to keep highlighting those who've done so
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  Speaker 1: much work already and continue to show how to fight
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  Speaker 1: for the rights for everyone. So let's start ready, Are
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  Speaker 1: you ready? Any? Yeah? So, Miss Major as many people
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  Speaker 1: know her as a leader in the trans community and
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  Speaker 1: has been actively working for the rights of trans people
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  Speaker 1: with her own experiences in transitioning and having to fight
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  Speaker 1: the prejudice and persecution she faced growing up. So Griffin
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  Speaker 1: Gracie has been involved in the drag ballroom world since
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  Speaker 1: she was very young, starting in Chicago where she was from.
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  Speaker 1: As in fact, in her teens she was coming prolong
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  Speaker 1: and figuring out her identity and she met a performer
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  Speaker 1: I believe her name was Miss Kitty, who helped her
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  Speaker 1: learn how to dress up and how to wear makeup
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  Speaker 1: and really taught her how to be herself right. And
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  Speaker 1: her journey and finding her true self was not an
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  Speaker 1: easy one during a time when being transgender was not
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  Speaker 1: spoken about or understood it all, she was able to
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  Speaker 1: learn to love herself and who she really was. Of course,
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  Speaker 1: because of those difficult times she had to hide in
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  Speaker 1: public and trying to keep it private due to the
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  Speaker 1: fear of ridicule and persecution, even being expelled from college
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  Speaker 1: after being exposed for having and wearing dresses in private.
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  Speaker 1: In an interview with Raquel Willis for them, she said,
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  Speaker 1: at that point, it was as it is now a
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  Speaker 1: matter of survival. It's interesting to think about when I
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  Speaker 1: was younger, the constraints in the way I had to
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  Speaker 1: negotiate through in order to maintain breathing. Every day. It
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  Speaker 1: becomes a matter of standing up for who we know
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  Speaker 1: we are. It's not that we believe for this or
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  Speaker 1: that we know that's who we are. When the dust settles,
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  Speaker 1: I want my trans girls and guys to stand up
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  Speaker 1: and say I'm still in here. But I didn't discourage
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  Speaker 1: her all of that, all of these out skills from
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  Speaker 1: being her true self. She soon moved to New York
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  Speaker 1: from Chicago in nineteen sixty two and was able to
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  Speaker 1: find a small community where she was welcomed and felt safe.
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  Speaker 1: But outside of that small community it was not the case.
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  Speaker 1: She was regular at the now famous Stonewall Inn and
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  Speaker 1: was part of the Stonewall Uprising also known as the
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  Speaker 1: Stonewall Riots in nineteen sixty nine, right I believe she's
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  Speaker 1: one of the last people from that riot still alive
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  Speaker 1: today really who would actively been a part of it
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  Speaker 1: and still is able to relate to us what happened
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  Speaker 1: during that time. And that's in fact, while being interviewed
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  Speaker 1: four Outwards, she spoke about her memories of that time,
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  Speaker 1: and she spoke about how they had been protecting each
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  Speaker 1: other before the riots even happened. She said, in the beginning,
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  Speaker 1: it was just looking out for two of the girls
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  Speaker 1: that were close to our little circle. Then our circle expanded,
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  Speaker 1: would be noticed that one of the girls we used
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  Speaker 1: to see all the time suddenly just disappeared. We read
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  Speaker 1: about her and the paper were like, oh my god,
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  Speaker 1: she was killed. We need to really watch ourselves. Then
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  Speaker 1: it got bigger. That does time progress. Boys started coming
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  Speaker 1: over from New Jersey, four or five in a car
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  Speaker 1: high off of beer and stuff and throwing full beer
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  Speaker 1: cans at the girls as they would drive down the street.
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  Speaker 1: We started figuring out how to fight back. Cursing them
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  Speaker 1: out would do no good because they were going to
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  Speaker 1: keep driving. We figured out a way to stop that
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  Speaker 1: car and that they would get out. We would physically
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  Speaker 1: fight them. It was time to kick there and then
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  Speaker 1: send them home. And then speaking with KATV, which is
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  Speaker 1: a local station in Kansas, she talked about the beginning
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  Speaker 1: of the riots. She said, what sparked the riot is
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  Speaker 1: we were sick and tired of being pushed around by
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  Speaker 1: the police, and we decided that we were not going
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  Speaker 1: to take it anymore. They would come in with the
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  Speaker 1: clubs and knock their sticks on the wood and everyone
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  Speaker 1: would separate. We were just tired of it. Stonewall was
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  Speaker 1: the only bar we could go to and the only
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  Speaker 1: bar that accepted us. When we went there, we expected
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  Speaker 1: to relax, and that's the furthest thing that happened. It
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  Speaker 1: just wasn't. So we decided to stand up to them
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  Speaker 1: and defy their order. And she spoke about the horrors
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  Speaker 1: of that time and reliving the memories, saying, quote, that's
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  Speaker 1: not a party place anymore. For me, it's like going
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  Speaker 1: to a morgue. I don't want to dance in a morgue.
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  Speaker 1: The memories there are not pleasant. It's like, Oh, someone
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  Speaker 1: threw a shoe. How do you know you weren't there,
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  Speaker 1: you're twenty three. Oh no, they threw a brick, right, Okay,
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  Speaker 1: I was there. I don't remember a shoe, a brick,
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  Speaker 1: a bottle, a body, a garbage can. I don't remember.
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  Speaker 1: All I know is we were fighting for our life
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  Speaker 1: and we were kicking the cops. I made sure they
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  Speaker 1: knocked me out so they wouldn't break every bone in
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  Speaker 1: my body and drag me off. It's not a fun thing.
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  Speaker 1: It's just not a fun thing. After the incident, Griffin
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  Speaker 1: Gracie had several other incidents which resulted in arrest, including
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  Speaker 1: allegedly robbery of clients, also wearing makeup and going to
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  Speaker 1: lude places such as illegal gay and trans clubs. It
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  Speaker 1: was during her time in lock up she met Frank
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  Speaker 1: Smith at the Attica Correctional Facility, and Smith had participated
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  Speaker 1: in the nineteen seventy one riots in that facility. They
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  Speaker 1: became friends throughout her sentence, and he was not only
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  Speaker 1: a friend to Griffin Gracie, but told her a lot
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  Speaker 1: about political activism within the criminal justice system and equality
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  Speaker 1: and rights for the black community. Here's a quote from
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  Speaker 1: her interview with Advocate dot com about her time in
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  Speaker 1: the detention center. There was a prison and a mental institution,
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  Speaker 1: and they put me in the mental institution first. That
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  Speaker 1: was hard because they stripped me down in front of
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  Speaker 1: everybody and made me walk to places naked, so I
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  Speaker 1: became aware of what was going on. And then they
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  Speaker 1: had the Attica Prison riots and brought some of those
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  Speaker 1: guys and put them in the same cellblock I was
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  Speaker 1: in in the hole, and I got to talk to
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  Speaker 1: them and learn what the differences were and that everybody
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  Speaker 1: suffered in there. I learned not to take it on
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  Speaker 1: as if I was the only one that it had
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  Speaker 1: happened to. It happened to all of us. I then
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  Speaker 1: realized what I had to do. I had to do
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  Speaker 1: something to keep the girls safe in there right. And
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  Speaker 1: after being released from incarceration, she moved to San Diego
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  Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy eight and began organizing and working with
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  Speaker 1: grassroots movements within the community. She began working with food
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  Speaker 1: banks and then moved on to working in direct service.
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  Speaker 1: And it was during the time working in San Diego
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  Speaker 1: that she had to confront those who were diagnosed with AIDS,
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  Speaker 1: which had become an epidemic in the US at the time.
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  Speaker 1: And also she has been during that time working with
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  Speaker 1: people who were in prison and making sure the justice
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  Speaker 1: system was working and advocating for the trans people in
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  Speaker 1: the prison as well. Right. She soon moved to the
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  Speaker 1: San Francisco Bay Area in the mid nineties to work
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  Speaker 1: with those affected by HIV AIDS, and even served as
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  Speaker 1: an advocate and educator at the Tenderloin AIDS Research Center
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  Speaker 1: a TAARC. But she soon realized that many of the
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  Speaker 1: transgender community were uncomfortable coming into centers, and she began
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  Speaker 1: going out to provide assistance and eventually started street clinics
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  Speaker 1: to educate the community. In two thousand and four, Griffin
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  Speaker 1: Gracie joined the Transgender Gender Intersex Justice Project, an organization
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  Speaker 1: that advocates her gender people who are in prison. She
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  Speaker 1: remained in the organization in leadership rules, including being the
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  Speaker 1: executive director until twenty fifteen, right, and she's been busy
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  Speaker 1: since then. She actually filmed a documentary called A Major
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  Speaker 1: Exclamation Point in twenty fifteen, which got a lot of claims.
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  Speaker 1: She created House of GG, which is an organization quote
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  Speaker 1: founded and led by transgender and gender nonconforming people in
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  Speaker 1: our allies. We create safe and transformative spaces where members
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  Speaker 1: of our community can heal physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually
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  Speaker 1: from the trauma arising from generations of transphobia, racism, sexism, poverty, ableism,
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  Speaker 1: and violence, and nurtured them into tomorrow's leaders And we
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  Speaker 1: currently primarily focus on supporting and nurturing the leadership of
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  Speaker 1: transgender women of color living in the US South, which
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  Speaker 1: is an incredible organization and you can go look it up.
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  Speaker 1: She is still as the founder, I believe, and they
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  Speaker 1: do a lot of work, which is part her passion.
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  Speaker 1: Of course, they've become more intersectional, and she has become
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  Speaker 1: a huge intersectional feminist since then, talking about the needs
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  Speaker 1: to actually protect all the people in the South, especially
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  Speaker 1: those of a color, So definitely something to look for.
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  Speaker 1: She's also executive produced documentaries such as Trans and trump
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  Speaker 1: Land is exactly what you think, and she's been mentoring
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  Speaker 1: and advocating for trans youth all over the world and
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  Speaker 1: within her own community. And when asked by Willis in
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  Speaker 1: that same interview if Griffin Grace had any advice for
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  Speaker 1: young activists, she said, we have a right to be angry,
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  Speaker 1: but you have to be angry in degrees. You use
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  Speaker 1: your anger to come up with ways that dismantle the
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  Speaker 1: bullshit that is oppressing you in the first place. There
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  Speaker 1: has to be a way to manage this so you
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  Speaker 1: accomplish the goals you sat out for yourself. It's not
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  Speaker 1: an easy thing, but you must nurture, take care of,
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  Speaker 1: and look out for yourself too. If don't take the
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  Speaker 1: time to heal your wounds and soothe your ills, you
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  Speaker 1: cannot be of any benefit to anybody else. I think
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  Speaker 1: that's very important to remember. So yeah, if you look
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  Speaker 1: her up, she has done some amazing things as she
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  Speaker 1: definitely has different websites and she has a lot of
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  Speaker 1: that documentary we talked about, and then has been on
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  Speaker 1: different podcasts, so you should definitely look her up if
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  Speaker 1: you don't know about her. Yes, yes, yes, And as always,
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  Speaker 1: if there is someone you think we should highlight in
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  Speaker 1: this segment, please let us know. You can email us
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: at Steffnia mom Stuff at iHeartMedia dot com. You can
• 10:34
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• 10:37
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• 10:39
  Speaker 1: find us on YouTube. But we also have a book
• 10:41
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• 10:43
  Speaker 1: dot com. Yes, yay, indeed, thanks as always too. Our
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  Speaker 1: superproducer Christina, our executive producer Maya, and our contributor Joey,
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  Speaker 1: thank you all, yes, and thanks to you for listening.
• 10:57
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