Monica Katrice Roberts (May 4, 1962 – October 5, 2020) was an
African-American blogger, writer, and
transgender rights advocate. She was the founding editor of TransGriot, a blog focusing on issues pertaining to
trans women, particularly African-American and other women
of color. Roberts' coverage of
transgender homicide victims in the United States is credited for bringing national attention to the issue.
She began writing TransGriot in 2004 as a newspaper column for The Letter, a Louisville-based
LGBT newspaper;[7][8] the term "
griot" refers to a storyteller from
West Africa.[8] Roberts founded the TransGriot blog in 2006.[5][9] Roberts was motivated by a lack of trans blogs focused on black people and other
people of color.[9][8] One of the missions of her blog is to "chronicle the history of Black transpeople".[6] The blog allowed her to address community issues in a more timely manner and allowed greater control than the column after it was taken away due to a conflict with an advertiser over her writing.[10] Through TransGriot, Roberts also identified
transgender homicide victims in order to tribute the victims, many of whom are often
misgendered in police reporting and media coverage.[11] Roberts' coverage of transgender homicides is credited for bringing national attention to the issue.[12]
As a black
trans woman, Roberts has explored the intersections of
cissexism and
racism in her writing. In a 2009 column, she stated that people who have a problem with the word cisgender "are wailing in unacknowledged cisgender privilege", and compared this criticism to white people that "call me 'racist' anytime I criticize the underlying structural assumptions that buttress whiteness".[13]
Awards and recognition
In 2006, Roberts won the
IFGE Trinity Award for meritorious service to the transgender community; it was the transgender community's highest meritorious service award, and she was the first African-American Texan and the third African-American openly trans person to be given the award.[6] In 2015, Roberts received the
Virginia Prince Transgender Pioneer Award from
Fantasia Fair, making her the first African-American openly trans person to be so honored.[5][14]
In 2018, she was named one of "8 Houston Women to Watch on Social Media" by Houstonia.[17] and won Outstanding Blog at the
GLAAD Media Awards.[18] In January 2020, Roberts received the Susan J Hyde Award for Longevity in the Movement from the
National LGBTQ Task Force.[19] In June 2020, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the first LGBTQ
Pride parade, Queerty named her among the fifty heroes "leading the nation toward equality, acceptance, and dignity for all people".[20][21]
In April 2021, TransGriot won a
GLAAD Media Award in the Outstanding Blog category.[22]
Personal life, death and legacy
Roberts began her
gender transition in 1993–94.[9][4] She had felt since she was five or six that "something was different about me", but didn't have access to black trans role models at that time (the 1970s); she felt that she would have transitioned earlier if she had.[9][7]
Roberts died on October 5, 2020.[23][24][25] Her death was announced on October 8, 2020, in a
Facebook post by her friend Dee Dee Watters, and was later confirmed by the Harris County Medical Examiner and local media.[26] Roberts' death was initially reported as a
hit and run case, though the medical examiner later stated that the cause of death was a "medical emergency"; her family reported that she was feeling unwell in the days prior to her death.[27] The following week, the medical examiner reported the cause of death was complications of a
pulmonary embolism.[28]
In January 2021, Dee Dee Watters, another Houston activist and friend of Roberts, announced plans for a publication named TransGriot to continue the work Roberts had done to cover black and trans issues on her blog of the same name.[34][35]
There is a memorial to Roberts, in the form of an
electrical enclosure painted with her likeness, in
Montrose. Abbie Kamin, a member of
Houston City Council, established the project to make the memorial; Katherine Ligon and Brad Pritchett were the artists. The process of proposal to completing the memorial was about one year. Sam Byrd of OutSmart stated that the memorial shows a "silent gaze".[36]