TransTalk – with Monica Roberts (TransGriot) and Justin Shaw (KCAVP)

After the LGBT news, Sandra Meade will interview special guest Monica Roberts, an award winning trans community leader that has lobbied since 1998 for trans human rights protections at the federal, state and local levels in Kentucky and Texas. They’ll discuss this long history of trans people of color in the LGBT rights movement, erasure and minimization of their contributions to said history, and the disparate challenges faced by trans people of color today.

Next up, Sandra will interview Justin Shaw, Executive Director at Kansas City Anti-Violence Project (KCAVP). They’ll talk about KCAVP’s important mission serving the entire LGBT community in the Kansas City metro area. Awareness about violence against trans people, and especially trans people of color, is heightened at this time of year as the transgender community prepares for another Transgender Day of Remembrance coming up on November 20th.

And of course Brent Husher will bring us the latest Community Calendar update to keep us all informed on what’s happening in and around Kansas City, and our Producer and sound engineer Linda Wilson will keep our 100,000 watt transmitter on the air, as always! It’s going to be a great show…please tune in to 90.1 FM if you are in the Kansas City area, or you can listen to live streaming audio on the internet at kkfi.org.

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More about Monica: Monica Roberts, aka the TransGriot (Gree-oh), is a native Houstonian and a trailblazing award winning trans community leader.
She has lobbied since 1998 for trans human rights protections at the federal, state and local levels in Kentucky and Texas. In 2006 she became the third African-American trans person and the first African-American Texan to be given the IFGE Trinity Award, the transgender community’s highest meritorious service award. She was named to the inaugural Trans 100 List and honored with the Monica Roberts Advocacy Award by Black Transmen, Inc in March 2013

Monica was a founding member of NTAC, the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition and served on its inaugural board as its Political Director from 1999-2002, served on the boards of Louisville, KY’s Fairness Campaign and C-FAIR, helped organize the 2005 and 2006 Transsistahs-Transbrothas Conferences that took place in Louisville and participated in the first ever trans themed panel discussions at Netroots Nation and OUT on the Hill in 2012.

In addition to participating in a long list of panel discussions, town halls and keynote speaking engagements to various colleges, groups and conferences over the years, in January 2006 she founded the award winning blog TransGriot.

Her writing about trans issues from an Afrocentric perspective has appeared at Ebony.com, Loop21.com Transadvocate, The Huffington Post, Racialicious, Feministe, Global Comment, The Bilerico Project, Elixher, What Tami Said and Womanist Musings.

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More about Justin: Justin Shaw has worked in the nonprofit sector for more than 10 years, and for more than a year has been the Executive Director of the Kansas City Anti-Violence Project or KCAVP. He serves on or leads many local, regional and national task forces, committees, work groups and coalitions actively pursuing social change for LGBTQ people. Previously, Justin worked at the Unicorn Theatre in marketing, fundraising and literary development. He holds a Bachelor’s degree from Park University in Marketing and Management and hopes to pursue a Master’s in Social Work Degree in 2014 with a clinical focus on LGBTQ families and relationships. Justin is a Kanas City native, who grew up gay in Raytown…and survived.

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More about KCAVP: Kansas City Anti-Violence Project provides information, support, referrals, advocacy and other services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) survivors of violence including domestic violence, sexual assault, and hate crimes, focusing these services within the Kansas City metropolitan area. KCAVP also educates the community at large through training and outreach programs. KCAVP is a Missouri 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation.

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More about TDOR: Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDoR), which occurs annually on November 20, is a day to memorialize those who have been killed as a result of anti-transgender violence, and acts to bring attention to the continued violence endured by the transgender community


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