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Local Advocate to Attend International Transgender Symposium in Thailand

Published

12 years ago

February 5, 2014

Jenetta Marie Johnson, an African American Transgender advocate, wants to go to Bangkok, Thailand to be a voice for incarcerated Transgenders and especially Transgenders of color at a symposium she says is dominated by the white and wealthy Transgenders.

Johnson, who represents Transgender GenderVariant Intesex Justice Project, has been invited to be on a panel at the 24^th World Professional Association for Transgender Health International Symposium in Thailand. The organization promotes evidence based care, education, research, advocacy, public policy and respect in transgender health.

Webster’s defines gender as a societal or behavioral aspect of sexual identity. The term Transgender (TG) is actually an umbrella term that encompasses a variety of gender expressions including, cross-dresser, bi-gender, and transsexual and according to Johnson the list continues to grow.

Estimates show that the TG population makes up only one to five percent of the general population, while the population is highly vulnerable and marginalized, facing discrimination commonly, when seeking to obtain basic necessities, such as employment, housing, and healthcare.

Common are reports of violence and harassment, even from their own family members. It is directly because of these and other factors that transgenders, especially transgenders of color, experience severe health disparities including HIV.

The Transgender GenderVariant Intesex Justice Project is located in Oakland, providing assistance to Transgenders, transwomen of color who are in incarcerated and those getting out of custody.

Johnson wants the chance to speak about incarcerated TG people and their health needs.

“I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to attend, and I truly believe in my heart that I can make a difference by sharing my experience with the medical and mental health providers who will also be attending,” she said. “My goal in attending (the symposium) is to speak directly about the needs and issues faced by transgender people in prisons.”

She says that their organization, receives over 25 letters a month from TG inmates complaining about physical and sexual abuse behind bars.

Johnson has been through some bumpy roads herself, 13 and years in Florida prisons, for drug distributing. She looked for help but had difficulty finding services for Transgenders in Florida.

In 1997, Johnson came to the Bay It was in San Francisco that she blossomed, she said, getting educated, empowered, finding a place of worship. She soon became a service provider, helping others with the issues she had overcome.

At least 5,000 transgenders persons are estimated to call the Bay Area their home.

At the symposium in Bangkok, professionals, scientist and Transgender advocates from all over the world will gather together to present the latest advances in research, education, clinical service, and advocacy to promote the health and well being of transgender and transsexual people and their families.

Topics that will be addressed are primary care, psychiatry, endocrinology and surgery, gender and sexuality, speech and voice therapy, as well as other issues relevant to transgender heath.

They will also make recommendations to The World Health Organization (WHO), a specialized agency of the United Nations, who is in the process of developing the latest edition of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), which is the standard set of definitions of diseases and health conditions used throughout most of the world.

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Black Artists in America, Installation Three Wraps at the Dixon Gallery and Gardens

TRI-STATE DEFENDER — With 50+ paintings, sculptures and assemblages, the exhibit features artists like Varnette Honeywood from Los Angeles, whose pieces appeared in Bill Coby’s private collection (before they were auctioned off) and on “The Cosby Show.” Also included are works by Alonzo Davis, another Los Angeles artist who opened one of the first galleries there where Black Artists could exhibit.

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3 weeks ago

March 24, 2026

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By Candace A. Gray | Tri-State Defender

The tulips gleefully greet those who enter the gates at the Dixon Gallery & Gardens on an almost spring day. More than 650,000 bulbs of various hues are currently on display. And they are truly breathtaking.

Inside the gallery, and equally as breathtaking, is the “Black Artists in America, From the Bicentennial to September 11” exhibit, which runs through Sunday, March 29. This is the third installment of a three-part series that started years ago and illustrates part of the Black experience through visual arts in the 20th century.

“This story picks up where part two left off,’’ said Kevin Sharp, the Linda W. and S. Herbert Rhea director for the Dixon. “This era is when we really start to see the emergence of these important Black artists’ agency and freedom shine through. They start to say and express what they want to, and it was a really beautiful time.”

With 50+ paintings, sculptures and assemblages, the exhibit features artists like Varnette Honeywood from Los Angeles, whose pieces appeared in Bill Coby’s private collection (before they were auctioned off) and on “The Cosby Show.” Also included are works by Alonzo Davis, another Los Angeles artist who opened one of the first galleries there where Black Artists could exhibit.

“Though [Davis] was from LA, he actually lived in Memphis for a decade,” said Sharp. “He was a dean at Memphis College of Art, and later opened the first gallery in New York owned and operated by black curators.”

Another featured artist is former NFL player, Ernie Barnes. His work is distinctive. Where have you seen one of his most popular paintings, Sugar Shack? On the end scene and credits of the hit show “Good Times.” His piece Saturday Night, Durham, North Carolina, 1974 is in this collection.

Memphis native James Little’s “The War Baby: The Triptych” is among more than 50 works featured in “Black Artists in America, From the Bicentennial to September 11” at the Dixon Gallery & Gardens, the final installment of a three-part series highlighting the impact and evolution of Black artists through 2011.

The exhibit features other artists with Memphis ties, including abstract painter James Little, who was raised in a segregated Memphis and attended Memphis Academy of Art (before it was Memphis College of Art). He later moved to New York, became a teacher and an internationally acclaimed fixture in the art world in 2022 when he was named a Whitney Biennial selected artist at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.

Other artists like Romare Bearden, who had a Southern experience but lived up North, were featured in all three installments.

“During this period of time, he was a major figure,” said Sharp. “He wrote one of the first books on the history of African American art during a time when there were more Black academics, art teachers, more Black everything!”

Speaking of Black educators, Sharp said the head curator behind this tri-part series and Dixon’s partner in the arts is Earnestine Jenkins, Ph.D., an art history professor at the University of Memphis, who also earned a Master of Arts degree from Memphis State University (now UofM). “We began working with Dr. Jenkins in 2018,” he said.

Sharp explained that it takes a team of curators, registrars, counterparts at other museums, and more, about three years to assemble an exhibit like this. It came together quite seamlessly, he added. Each room conjured up more jaw-dropping “wows” than the one before it. Each piece worked with the others to tell the story of Black people and their collective experience during this time period.

One of the last artists about whom Sharp shared information was Bettye Saar, who will turn 100 years old this year. She’s been working in Los Angeles for 80 years and is finally getting her due. Her medium is collages or assemblages, and an incredible work of hers is on display. She’s married to an artist and has two daughters, also artists.

The exhibit catalogue bears some of these artists’ stories, among other scholarly information.

The exhibit, presented by the Joe Orgill Family Fund for Exhibitions, is culturally and colorfully rich. It is a must see and admission to the Dixon is free.

Visit https://www.dixon.org/ to learn more.

Fun Facts: An original James Little design lives in the flooring of the basketball court at Tom Lee Park, and he makes and mixes his own paint colors.