Mycroft Masada is a nonbinary trans and queer Jewish leader with 30 years of experience who moved to Gaithersburg, Maryland (Montgomery County near Washington DC) from their lifelong home of Boston in 2014. A TransEpiscopal Steering Committee member and former Congregation Am Tikva board member, Mycroft is particularly called to pursue LGBTQ+ and fat justice, and is an advocate, organizer, consultant, educator, trainer, writer and artist. They are married to Julia McCrossin, the mas(s)culine fatshion blogger, and with her they co-parent a dogter. Their central online home is MasadArts.blogspot.com.


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Friday, August 30, 2019

Shabbat Shalom


Shabbat shalom.

For this Erev Shabbat, something unusual and unpleasant, yet also important. My photo of a display at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, taken during my Julia’s and my first visit (as the centerpiece of our first visit to Saint Michaels) on Monday August 5th. A black and white photo of a woman posing in front of a big “GENTILES ONLY” sign somewhere on the Chesapeake Bay (photo courtesy of the Maryland State Archives). And a police badge from Anne Arundel County’s Beverly Beach. Both from circa 1950. The Museum has also added a little sign asking “As the Chesapeake Bay became a tourist destination, was it the buyer or the seller that first suggested segregation?” 

We have rarely seen anything about anti-Semitism included in our travels together, so this was...bittersweet? I included this photo in the album of our visit I published on Facebook this morning. And it’s especially interesting as we welcomed this Shabbat at the Gaithersburg Water Park (which was the subject of my next Facebook post).

This day and every day, may we discover, create and share more shalom -- rest, cessation, peace, harmony, wholeness, completeness, prosperity, welfare, tranquility -- schlepping ever closer to tikkun olam, world repair, at the intersection of LGBTQI+, climate, immigration, racial, spiritual, fat, disability, and all other shades of the spectrum of justice. Amen!

#ShabbatShalom #ErevShabbat #Shabbat #ShabbatThoughts


Monday, August 19, 2019

Happy 20th Birth Day, Transgender Flag!

Happy 20th Birth Day to the Transgender Flag, and happy Trans Flag Day to everyone else! The trans flag was created on August 19th of 1999 by Monica Helms (todah rabah, many thanks). And five years ago today, August 19th of 2014, it was donated to the National Museum of American History (part of the Smithsonian).

I'm doing at least seven trans-flag-themed posts on Facebook today (!). Including a reminder / FYI that the planet Jupiter is trans (according to NASA and the United States Postal Service), the trans-flag-themed stained glass panel I made at VisArts in February (and the ocean-inspired one my spouse Julia made), and our new trans flag crab magnet from Route One Apparel (because we're meshuggah Marylanders, though I lived in Boston until 2014). 

And yet no observance can be complete without our stolen sisters and other siblings -- at least 16 trans people have been murdered in 2019 in the US (joining hundreds more elsewhere), and 15 are Black trans women. Dana Martin, Jazzaline Ware, Ashanti Carmon, Claire Legato, Muhlaysia Booker, Michelle ‘Tamika’ Washington, Paris Cameron (along with Alunte Davis and Timothy Blancher, Black gay men), Chynal Lindsey, Chanel Scurlock, Zoe Spears, Brooklyn Lindsey, Denali Berries Stuckey, Tracy Single, Kiki Fantroy, Jordan Cofer, Pebbles LaDime 'Dime' Doe. We have also lost siblings to ICE, prison, suicide, and other plagues. May their memories be blessings -- and call us to act! Amen!

#TransFlagDay #TransFlagDay2019 #transgenderflag #transflag #MonicaHelms #MondayMorning #MondayMood #MondayMotivation 

Sunday, August 11, 2019

15 trans people murdered in 2019 in US - 14 Black trans women!


Erev tov, good evening, on this second Sunday of August 2019, as Tisha B’Av is ending and Eid Al-Adha beginning.

My mourning, prayer and work includes two more of my trans siblings murdered here in the US since my last post of this kind -- and there have been dozens more in the rest of our world. The total in this country in 2019 is now at least fifteen -- and all but one are Black trans women. Jordan Cofer, 22, was among the nine victims killed in the mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio, last Sunday August 4th -- and was the brother of the shooter. Pebbles LaDime “Dime” Doe, 24, was killed in Allendale County, South Carolina, that same day.


The other stolen sisters are Dana Martin, 31, Montgomery, Alabama, January 6th.
Jazzaline Ware, age unknown, Memphis, sometime in March.
Ashanti Carmon, 27 -- like Zoe, who she knew, right here in Maryland, in Prince George’s County’s Fairmount Heights at the DC border, March 30th*.
Claire Legato, 21, Cleveland, shot April 15th and died May 14th.
Muhlaysia Booker, 23, Dallas, May 18th -- having survived a transphobic attack by a group on April 12th.
Michelle ‘Tamika’ Washington, 40, Philadelphia, May 19th.
Paris Cameron, 20, Detroit, May 25th -- Alunte Davis, 21, and Timothy Blancher, 20, both Black gay men, were also killed, and two other people were injured.
Chynal Lindsey, 26, Dallas, June 1st**.
Chanel Scurlock, 23, Lumberton, North Carolina, June 6th.
*Zoe Spears, 23 -- like Ashanti, who she knew, right here in Maryland, in Prince George’s County’s Fairmount Heights at the DC border, June 13th.
Brooklyn Lindsey, 32, Kansas City, Missouri, June 25th.
Denali Berries Stuckey, 29, North Charleston, South Carolina, July 20th.
Kiki Fantroy, 21, Miami, July 31st.

**Johana ‘Joa’ Medina, 25, a Latinx trans woman from El Salvador, also died on June 1st, in El Paso, Texas -- just hours after being released from ICE custody. Layleen Polanco, 27, an Afro-Latinx trans woman, was found dead in her cell at Rikers (Island Jail, New York City) on June 7th.

Again, the great majority of our stolen siblings here are Black, women, and young -- elsewhere, they are Latinx trans women and transfeminine people. Too, very little attention is given to the murders, assaults and disappearances of Native / Indigenous people -- especially girls, women, and/or Two Spirit people.

We also lose many siblings to suicide -- the attempt rate in our community is over 40%. And there are unreported trans deaths, reported deaths where the victim is not identified as trans, non-fatal assaults and much more. Trans people are not included in even basic civil rights laws in most states, and several states have anti-trans laws or are attempting to pass them -- and Trump administration is attempting to undo trans rights progress on a national level.

And while I say little here or elsewhere about the death details -- primarily to avoid further traumatizing my trans followers, especially those living at similar intersections as the victims -- it is vital to say that the great majority are shootings, and that this is yet another reason we desperately need gun control, and it is an LGBTQ+ and racial justice issue.

May all of my trans sisters, brothers and other siblings’ memories be blessings (as we say in Judaism) -- and call us to act! Today and every day, may we schlep closer to tikkun olam, world repair, at the intersection of LGBTQ+, climate, racial, immigration, spiritual, fat, disability, and all other stripes of the rainbow of justice! May we never forget that white supremacy has always included cis supremacy, misogyny and transphobia! Amen!

#TishaBAv #TishaBAv2019 #TishaBAv5779 #TDOR #TDOR2019 #TransDayOfRemembrance #BlackLivesMatter #BlackTransLivesMatter #LatinxLivesMatter #LatinxTransLivesMatter #NativeLivesMatter #TwoSpiritLivesMatter #TransLivesMatter