Join the Smart Brown Girl Producer Circle
For $2 to $5 or more you can support #SmartBrownGirl,
Enabling the movement to become
a community of resources that benefits
you and women of color around the world.
As a Black woman catering to
an audience of Black women,
Trying to convince the older white men in power that
we are worthy of opportunity…
is an uphill battle.
So let’s provide our own opportunities
And help to launch the #SmartBrownGirl podcast,
tour,
scholarship fund
and flourishing community of
awesome #SmartBrownGirls.
Visit patreon.com/Jouelzy
and become a #SmartBrownGirl patron today
You can also support by shopping #SmartBrownGirl
or grabbing your copy of Jouelzy’s 4C Natural Hair Guide E-Book
and/or her first published work
Send It On, a collection of short stories.
Thank you #SmartBrownGirls...
Hey guys! It's Jouelzy
and I'm currently basking in the
sunshine of LA
and the gloriousness that is the
#YouTubeBlack event.
But it's time to talk about an important topic.
I’m on a mission this year to
address more hard hitting and complex conversations.
So today I’m approaching a topic I said
that I previously said I was not going to be speaking on.
Out of respect to the community.
and allowing them to control their own narrative.
But with the current state of the United States
it is imperative that we address this discussion
with my crew of #SmartBrownGirls
and I am not alone
So yes, we are gonna talk about
transgender...
bathrooms...
and women's rights.
And I have here, Kat Blaque!
Kat: Hey!
Jouelzy: The leading voice for
trans women of color on YouTube.
Here’s whats happening in the United States.
Kat: North Carolina recently passed an Act,
where in schools and government buildings
you must use the bathroom that corresponds with
your "biological sex"
or the sex that's listed on your birth certificate.
Jouelzy: So this essentially means that in the
state of North Carolina it is illegal
for trans people to use to the bathroom.
And then last year in Houston, Texas
they recently repealed
the civil rights bill, the HERO Ordinance.
Kat: HERO standing for the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance
Jouelzy: Right and they ran heavy propaganda
on urban radio, warning
people of the “violation of women’s rights”
by against “men” into their bathroom.
Houston, where Ted Cruz is from.
Ted Cruz who is a Texas State Senator
currently running for United States president.
and who has spent the bulk of his political career
advocating for the closure of Planned Parenthood
and attempting to overturn
the Supreme Court ruling for  Roe vs. Wade.
Yes a federal law that has been on the books
for FORTY THREE years,
making abortions LEGAL in the United States.
Kat: So we restrict women’s rights in one breadth…
Jouelzy: Because whether you believe that abortion is a sin,
or that you prefer a private care gynecologist,
you do not have the right to restrict
other womens bodies based on
your personal religious beliefs.
So whether it’s a poor woman who
needs preventive women's health services
of Planned Parenthood provides
or a women, who for whatever reason
has decided that abortion is the best choice for her.
Kat: she has that right to exercise
autonomy over her body and make
a decision that will ultimately impact
her body and her body alone.
Jouelzy: These are the women’s right
that conservatives have put great effort into
diminishing while using the
Christian morality of Black people to
play themselves against
their own rights  and the rights of transgender people.
Kat: Let’s break it down
Jouelzy: down, down
There are a lot of issues that we have
with the way this conversations is framed.
Kat: First of all inherent in all of these conversations
is the idea the trans women
are inherently predatory.
Which is to statistically unproven because
you're more likely to be assaulted as
a trans person in the restroom.
Then you are a cis-person by a trans-person.
There are far more examples of
violence against trans women in the bathroom
than any other people.
A trans woman was recently assaulted
in New York City while using
a single person bathroom at the historic
Stonewall Inn.
And this is an aspect of the conversation
that really bothers me.
As a survivor of both rape and sexual assualt,
I know that if a man wants something
he is going to take it.
It's not realistic to believe
that a man is going to put on a dress,
to go into the woman's restroom
and sexually assault a woman and then
upon capture, say "Well, I'm transgender."
As though that is going to be a defense
against him and his actions.
And let's say that that does happen.
in this scenario the people that are guilty
are cis men not trans-women.
I've been using the women's restroom, for about a decade.
I've used it in Texas!
This conversation is framed as way more
controversial than it actually is.
Personally when I'm using the restroom,
I'm not thinking about anybody's genitalia.
I'm just trying to do my business and leave.
I find these debates laughable
because I've been using the women's restroom
my entire adult life.
That's just what I've been doing.
I don't particularly have an issue
with people wanting privacy,
