*Midtown Security Tactics Questioned*

Neighborhood group sounds alarm on gays in Piedmont Park, puts trans prostitutes on YouTube

By RYAN LEE
Jul. 20, 2007

Click here to read the article in Southern Voice.

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My Response:

Ryan,

I applaud your article and the work you contribute to the community via your post with Southern Voice. I am very concerned about the impression that the messages being communicated by MPSA will be taken in large part as racist and discriminatory based on their language and mode of communication. I, like many black gay men here in Atlanta, feel it is important to shed some light on this situation. I want to illuminate the fact that not all black gay men, lesbian, and transgender persons who attend the park on Sunday are related to the ballroom scene. Being a recognized leader in the ballroom community here locally and nationally, I feel its important to rectify and correct any misconceptions surrounding the ballroom scene and its activities. I also feel it would be more appropriate and prudent to address these situations as the isolated incidents that they are as opposed to generalizing the collective. Additionally, while I sympathize with the views and concerns expressed by the MPSA, I must agree with the comments made by Atlanta Police Officer Darlene Harris; vigilante actions on the part of the MPSA are in fact dangerous, especially considering their contention is that "those" people pose a "threat". I would further like to point out that the City of Atlanta has a formal law enforcement component, and in the 7 years that I have lived here, have been aware that the Atlanta Police are responsible for the investigation, apprehension, and prosecution of criminal activity in the Midtown area. It seems as if there is some concern on the part of the MPSA of the Atlanta Police Department's efficiency in being able to properly and promptly address criminal activity in the park. In short, I would hope that in the future, since Midtown residents do not live in isolation from the rest of the community and in many ways overlap the population of people they are addressing; that the MPSA would choose more compassionate and partnering ways to address and handle their concerns, instead of stereotyping and generalizing a community that they seem to inherently lack a proper understanding of.

In Service to His Will,

Stephaun Elite Manolo Blahnik

Community Activist-Health Educator-Empowerment Specialist

www.stephaunelite.blogspot.com
http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/southeast_ballroom_scene

"Love is the ability and willingness to allow those that you care for to be what they choose for themselves without any insistence that they satisfy you."- Wayne Dyer

"I Am Not Taking the Blame, I Am Accepting Responsibility"

"I am now willing to forgive myself…for refusing to acknowledge what my life is showing me about myself.

Your life is a reflection of you. Everything that is coming at you from out there is coming to show you where work is required on yourself. As you shake your head No, and point at all the people you can blame for what is going on with you, you miss another divine opportunity to examine what is really going on within you. Until you are willing to accept total and complete responsibility for every aspect of you life, your life will keep sending you experiences designed to get your attention.

It can be difficult to acknowledge your role in the annoying little messes and great big disasters in your life. No one likes to take the blame!!!! Quite often, we confuse accepting responsibility for bearing the blame. When you are the one to blame, it means you are somehow at fault…and must be punished. To avoid punishment, we look for someone else to put the blame on. In doing so, we miss an opportunity for self correction.

Rather than looking for who is to blame, think about who is responsible. Accepting responsibility means examining the choices made. A choice is usually made in reaction or response to some sort of stimulation. The outcome reveals what kind of choice was made. When you are trying to escape blame and punishment, the outcome will lead you to speak to others. When you are willing to accept responsibility for your choices, the outcome leads you to self evaluation and self correction.

Until Today, you may have believed that if you were to blame, you would be punished. Just for today, take blame out of the life evaluation equation. Honestly examine the situations in your life about which you are not pleased. Forgive yourself for not accepting your full share of responsibility. Put yourself in the center of your life, and accept full responsibility for all the things that may be spinning out of control.

Today, I am Devoted to Acknowledging my Responsibility for Every Aspect of my Life."~ Unknown

A Smoothie & Random Thoughts in a Window

So, I actually got up yesterday and walked down to Outwrite bookstore, after stopping off at Caribou Coffee first. I am a sucker for a mixed smoothie from that place! So I then headed over to the bookstore to meet up with an associate. While in the mist of a conversation about some very controversial events that have just transpired recently in Midtown, I started drifting into another level of waking consciousness.

In one of my random thoughts, I imagined my existence on this Earth as being one filled with all the love and light that I can conceptualize. I then looked back upon all my life and the decisions I have made to bring me to this point. From being raped and molested as a child, growing up in South Central Los Angeles and experience years of physical and emotional abuse, and even my experiences living in "crack houses" and on the streets as a child and watching my mother have sex with men for money; I started to get teary eyed. I then thought to myself, "I have chosen this..". My life and all that I have gone through and all that I am today is because I have chosen this. In that respect, I felt a little more empowered. Empowered because I now truly understand the spiritual concepts that I envisioned years ago that kept me sane and together while I went through all the challenges I experienced in life.

I release all of those who I feel have done me any harm from any responsibility. I hereby forgive you all and I forgive myself.

Another thought I had was, the power of "choice" is directly connected to the secret of happiness. I hope you all know what that is (the secret)? If you don't let me know, and I will share it with you. You choose your life and your experiences. Your ability to accept responsibility for those experiences, forgive yourself and others for their part in those experiences you attribute to being negative, and if you are truly ready for the next level, you will then see past all those experiences and experience the "truth". That your PERCEPTION/PERSPECTIVE is divinely connected to your past, present, and future.

I hope I didn't take anyone too fast with this....I am seeking to attain a seat in the top 10%....I know some of you are comfortable being in the 70% or even in the 20%....

Black Gay Online Chat Rooms

I was chatting with some people online recently, and I had an encounter with a guy. He sent me a message saying only, "sup". I replied back accordingly, "hello", since I detest being greeted with one word salutations. He then replied, "chillen, holla at cha boi". Aside from the obvious disconnect I experienced because of the language use and lack of sentence structure I witnessed on my screen; I felt violated to some degree. It was as if someone had taken my understanding of the English language and said "WRONG!!!", this is how you should speak. I decided to respond anyway (curiosity...lol). After about another minute or so of banter I ended my discussion with him. Interestingly, I get quite a few hits or messages aggressively soliciting sex. I am still amazed at how much "perception" and "environment" play a factor in the expectations we often place on people. For example, I find it interesting that some people feel that chat lines are only sex sites and that anyone on such site should "assume the position" as they say. Why can't people just want to chat? Is there something really wrong with that??

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Are You Black Enough?

Before you read this blog, scroll down to my music playlist and play "I Am Not My Hair" by India Arie (if you dont already know the song).

After I read an article by Barbara Howard entitled "Politics of Blackness part 1", I felt like someone had pulled my childhood insecurities and thoughts right out of my past and put them on paper. I believe there is something truly wrong with a person being penalized by his/her own race or community because they opted for success instead of choosing to become assimilated into the stereotypes of our culture.

Now, I can't speak on the experiences and specifics of others lives and stories, however whats completely unclear to me is what exactly defines someone as a "sell-out"? How does one get to call another such? I remember when I was coming up in the mean streets of South Central Los Angeles (prior to moving to the suburbs), I would get called all sorts of things with the same connotation as "sell-out" and I couldn't understand why? Especially when those nasty and hurtful things came from people who previously identified themselves as "friends", had the same color skin as I, and were supposedly trying to jump the same hurdles as I.

For all the intellects and social theorist out there (smile) I know I have not touched upon the socio-economic disparities that exists in our community, and if I don't acknowledge them (some of you will send me hate messages...lol) then I wouldn't be painting an accurate picture of the scenario. Those concerns and influences notwithstanding, I sometimes wonder when are we as a community going to move past them.

Its profound to me, as I people-watch around town and in the world that I hear people speak about freedom and "rights" as if they only belong to "certain" people (I will address the Black Community vs. The Government Conspiracy in a later post). Whether its sexual orientation, race, religion, or any other category that divides us, do we not have the right to express ourselves openly and freely with responsibility? If so, then how can someone truly be a "sell-out"? I think many people might have missed the memo (or maybe ignored it) that slavery is really over, well at least in the physical sense. Some of us, however, seem to still exist in the "slave mentality".