#BlackHistoryReimagined, Day 2

In this series, I re-imagine the lives of Black folks gone too soon.

#BlackHistoryReimagined, Day 2

Monica Roberts, born on May 4, 1962, in segregated Houston, Texas, immediately became a transgender rights activist following her early ’90s gender transition. She was a founding member of the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition, among other prominent roles in countless advocacy organizations. Seeking to be the role model for younger people she felt she needed as a child, Roberts has often said she would have transitioned earlier if she had access to Black trans role models in the 1970s.

Roberts began writing TransGriot in 2004 as a column for The Letter, a Louisville-based LGBTQ+ newspaper, citing her motivation as lack of trans blogs focused on Black people. One of her main focuses with the blog version of TransGriot, which was launched in 2006, was to dignify the victims of homicides, as they are often deadnamed in other publications. She is credited with bringing national attention to trans homicides. Although a self-taught journalist, having served as a flight attendant before being bit by the writing bug, it wasn’t long before Roberts became an award-winning journalist and activist. She won the IFGE Trinity Award in 2006 for her service to the trans community, becoming the first Black Texan and only the third Black American trans person to receive the honor. Ten years later, she received a Special Recognition Award from GLAAD. The following year she received the HRC John Walzel Equality Award from the Human Rights Campaign. Houstonia listed her as one of its “8 Houston Women to Watch on Social Media” in 2018. That same year, she also won GLAAD’s Outstanding Blog award, among many other highly lauded accolades.

On October 5, 2020, after having been involved in a hit and run car accident, Roberts joined by her friend, Dee Dee Watters, announced that the TransGriot would become a digital media outlet that will hire, support, and empower Black Trans contributors while chronicling the history of the trans movement throughout the years; providing accurate media coverage of trans-related issues; and maintaining a continual push for change in politics and legislature on a national and international level. While working to craft the necessary messaging the trans community deserves, Roberts continues her international advocacy efforts in hopes of entirely changing the narrative so that trans people may feel safe and comfortable with any media outlet’s inclusive and careful coverage.

[#BlackHistoryReimagined is a series of posts that re-imagines the lives of black folks gone too soon, by writing a story that does not end in their deaths. Throughout this month, I implore you to go on this imaginary journey with me and think of what could have been. The stories are based on the people’s real lives; the ending has been altered to allow them to live out whatever they were actually working on or could have done had they been given more time on earth.]