“Then has the nerve to call it “Rich N*gga Sh*t,” more like “Dumb A** Sh*t”. This boy never talks about going to school or even doing something to better himself. Yet, young America looks up to him… WOW!!!” -Bossip

Devin Alston-Smith

From the time that Devin Alston-Smith became involved in George Washington University’s Zeta Phi Beta sorority, he made it clear that he was not your typical sorority sister.

In spring 2008, Alston-Smith began what Zetas refer to as the “intake process.” He knew his sisters would have a lot to take in: He asked them to call him Devin instead of his legal name, Chanise. He told them he preferred male pronouns—”he” and “his” instead of “she” and “her.” At sorority events, he wore a button-down shirt and tie and a fedora over his long dreadlocked hair. The sorority’s sisters were initially welcoming, friendly, and confused. At the initiation ceremony, all sisters were required to dress in head-to-toe white. Alston-Smith had white pants, shirt, and tie, but he didn’t have any white shoes, so one Zeta offered to buy him a pair. He told her he wore men’s shoes, size 6½. She returned with white women’s flats. “I tried to get a low heel,” the Zeta explained. “That’s when I sort of knew that they didn’t really get it,” says Alston-Smith. He wore the women’s shoes anyway, the flats uncomfortable on his feet. “I felt degraded, like I was dressing in drag or something,” he says. “I know that all my signifiers, except for my clothes, indicate that I’m female. So I try to be really understanding.” Alston-Smith had never intended to become anybody’s sister. “I was anti-sorority for a long time,” says Alston-Smith. “Then I joined Zeta.” During his sophomore year, Alston-Smith kept running into one senior Zeta around campus. She told him, “I’m a Zeta. You should come to our events and check us out,” he says. He did, and the historically black sorority’s commitment to “Service, Scholarship, Sisterhood, and Finer Womanhood” surprised Alston-Smith—he actually liked it. He had trouble getting his sisters to refer to him consistently with male pronouns, or truly understand what it meant to be transgender, but he knew they were making an effort. Only one Zeta, junior Vanessa White, appeared visibly uncomfortable with Alston-Smith’s presence. “A lot of the members were really nice and open individuals,” he says. “I felt like they were the most open sorority on campus.” That spring, Zeta Phi Beta extended Alston-Smith an offer of membership into the sorority. At his campus debut as a Zeta, which the sorority calls a “coming out show,” Smith and his fellow inductee, or “line sister,” Shauna Butler, performed a step routine the two had choreographed for the audience. This time, the wardrobe was Alston-Smith’s choosing, down to the blue-and-white Converse shoes. The routine ended with Alston-Smith’s official “unveiling” in front of his fellow sisters, the sorority’s graduate chapter, his friends, and his mom. At the big reveal, the sorority president pulled the tape off of Alston-Smith’s backward hat, exposing the nickname his sisters had chosen for him: “The Liberator.”
Zeta Phi Beta, for all its inclusiveness, maintains a small presence at GW. The seniors who had welcomed Alston-Smith into Zeta’s fold graduated and moved on in May of 2008, leaving only four members: Alston-Smith, White, Butler, and Akilah Bledsoe. White had been elected chapter president. Alston-Smith hadn’t voted for her. Over the summer, the sisters hung out regularly as friends, eating lunch together or planning step routines for the fall semester. During one choreography session for a sorority “Step and Stroll,” Alston-Smith saw how his new sorority sisters’ discomfort with his gender identity would be enforced. “We were learning new steps from an older [sister], and I was doing the moves differently,” says Alston-Smith. “One of the routines was to a Beyoncé song, ["Get Me Bodied"] and it involved a lot of feminine gestures. I was just tweaking them so I didn’t have to bend over really sexy, stuff like that,” he says. “They told me I had to do it—that we were going to look stupid if I didn’t.” Alston-Smith stopped dancing. “I’m not going to pop it like a girl,” he told them. According to Alston-Smith, they shot back: “You are a girl. You have to stop acting like a boy.” It continued that way throughout the summer—friendly interactions would inevitably devolve into critiques of Alston-Smith’s clothes, his dance moves, “the way he was.” Gender pronouns were a particularly sore spot. “At first, everyone seemed accepting, and it seemed like it was something that they would work on,” says Alston-Smith. By the time the administration change was complete, it became clear that the resistance was more than just confusion. “I tried to compromise, because Vanessa says she doesn’t feel it’s morally right to call me by the male pronoun,” says Alston-Smith. “I said, ‘OK—don’t call me by any pronoun. Just refer to ‘Devin’ whenever you speak about me.’ But she just didn’t want to budge.”
When classes reconvened for the fall, it was time to show off all the summer sorority planning. Zeta’s first event of the fall semester was called “Sweetest Selections,” an evening where community members could learn about famous Zetas and munch on refreshments—”pastries and things like that,” says Alston-Smith. As preparation, Alston-Smith read up on his chosen Zeta: Harlem Renaissance writer Zora Neale Hurston. “She was a Zeta, but she was an outside-the-box Zeta,” says Alston-Smith. “She hung out with a bunch of GLBT people. She was a visionary for her time.” White did some preparations of her own to make sure Alston-Smith didn’t appear too outside-the-box. Before the event, Alston-Smith says, she called to inform him that his men’s shoes would not be making an appearance. Instead, he was free to borrow another sister’s dress shoes—a “girl’s sort of shoe.” When Alston-Smith declined, he says White raised her voice, telling him that the sisters “have to look a certain way” because “interests,” or potential members, would be in attendance, and he wouldn’t want to “confuse them.” “She was screaming,” says Alston-Smith. “I couldn’t get a word in.” According to Alston-Smith, he broke into tears, and White hung up. That freed the phone line for another sister, Bledsoe, to call Alston-Smith. “If you wear my shoes, then I’m gonna have to wear some shoes that I don’t like, and they’re gonna hurt my feet,” Alston-Smith recalls Bledsoe saying. “Get in line,” she told him, suggesting he buy his own sorority-appropriate shoes. According to Alston-Smith, Bledsoe then said she’d have to get off the phone before she was forced to say something that would hurt his feelings, and hung up.
Bledsoe’s feet were spared. At that point, Alston-Smith wasn’t too interested in slipping on another pair of women’s shoes, or regaling potential members with tales of great Zetas. Alston-Smith proved a no-show at the event, and the sorority’s graduate chapter placed one more call for good measure. “They told me that no matter what, I should have gone to the event,” says Alston-Smith. The other sorority sisters spent the next few functions avoiding Alston-Smith completely. At one event, Alston-Smith stood by as White chatted up an “interest,” repeatedly referring to Alston-Smith with female pronouns in the process. “It was smug, the way she did it,” he says. “I gave her this look, like, What are you doing?” he says. After Alston-Smith corrected White in front of the interest, White pulled Alston-Smith aside and berated him for making the sorority look bad, he says. “Again, she said I was confusing them. She said, ‘Don’t do that. They’re going to think that men can join us.’” Only a month into the new semester, White notified the sorority’s graduate chapter of the Zeta Phi Beta infighting and scheduled a meeting. Alston-Smith was prepared to talk about what he considered the sisters’ ongoing harassment and sent an e-mail to both chapters again explaining his pronoun preference and his choice’s protection under the D.C. Human Rights Act. White was prepared to talk about Alston-Smith’s repeated failure to cooperate. The sisters would be joined by advisers from the graduate chapter, including former graduate chapter president Yvette Jardine, an older professional who had been a Zeta since she was an undergraduate. “I was warned about her before I even met her,” says Alston-Smith. “She has a really firm belief system about what it means to be a Zeta.”

Zeta done cut up her line jacket!

Alston-Smith came prepared for the meeting with pamphlets discussing basic GLBT and transgender issues. “They didn’t touch the handouts,” Alston-Smith says—Jardine wanted to do the talking. “She started saying that what I am didn’t fit into the mold of Zeta,” he says. “She told me that I should have known not to accept the membership. She said, ‘It’s an organization for women,’ and that they have a certain model for ‘woman’ that’s supposed to be a part of the organization.” When Alston-Smith told Jardine that continued harassment from the sisters could force the university to “take Zeta off of campus,” Alston-Smith says that Jardine responded, “Well, maybe we don’t want to be on this campus.” She then asked Alston-Smith repeatedly if he intended to pursue legal action. When the sisters disbanded for a break, Alston-Smith and Jardine walked silently to the restrooms. Jardine entered the women’s bathroom; Alston-Smith used the men’s. When the sisters reconvened, Alston-Smith says, Jardine outed his bathroom habits. “Look, she went to the men’s bathroom,” Jardine said. The meeting was over.
Jardine says she can’t recall the specifics of the meeting, but says she would never wish the sorority off campus. A week later, Alston-Smith received a letter stating that his Zeta Phi Beta membership had been deemed “inactive.” Alston-Smith was disqualified on less controversial sorority business: He had failed to turn in a transcript on time. Alston-Smith’s place in Zeta Phi Beta is protected by a peculiar nexus of federal, District, and GW code. Federal law and GW’s Statement of Student Rights and Responsibilities allow social fraternal organizations to discriminate on the basis of sex. The D.C. Human Rights Act, however, prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender identity. So while a female-born trans student, like Alston-Smith, could conceivably be legally barred from participating in an all-male fraternity, the law protects him against discrimination from a female sorority—even though his gender identity is incongruous with the traditional definition of “sisterhood.” Despite the legal back-up, when Alston-Smith brought his grievances to university police and administrators, he found he was navigating uncharted terrain.
While GW’s rights and responsibilities statement promises that the university does not permit discrimination based on “sexual orientation or identity,” the Code of Student Conduct—a document that actually disciplines students for breaking that promise—includes no such language protecting transgender students. University spokesperson Tracy Schario says the policy still covers trans students, as the university incorporates the D.C. Human Rights Act’s gender identity protection into its own. But the absence of the phrase “gender identity” can complicate the procedure of filing a discrimination claim with the university. As Alston-Smith’s grievance claim ascended the administrative ranks, he says he was told that a similar claim had never been presented to the university, that there wasn’t a clear category for that form of harassment, and that the university protected sorority sex discrimination. (Alston-Smith’s grievance claim is still being processed by the university). GW’s Zeta Phi Beta undergraduate sorority members did not return requests for comment. In an interview with GW Hatchet Staff Writers Alli Hoff and Emily Cahn, White denied the harassment—while employing the female pronoun. “[Alston-Smith] chose not to participate by not turning in that transcript.…She made it clear she wanted nothing to do with us.” In an e-mail, Jardine seconded the denial. “The undergraduate chapter members knew that Devin/Chanise identified as a lesbian prior to joining,” Jardine wrote. “Devin/Chanise is not the first lesbian member of the organization. Zeta does not discriminate.” Even when sorority members continue to refer to Devin with female pronouns, Jardine says, it’s not harassment. “You try to remember, but sometimes you slip up. This is new territory for our sorority.” When Alston-Smith stopped attending sorority events, he withdrew from other parts of his life as well.
He began to skip classes. Instead, he would hole up, crying, in his dorm room. As the fall semester neared its end, he decided he couldn’t come back—he would take a leave of absence and spend the spring semester at home, in Connecticut. Before Alston-Smith left, he gathered all his Zeta paraphernalia and destroyed it. He ripped apart his letter jacket and scratched out the Zeta Phi Beta emblem on the sorority plaque. He smashed his paddle and tore up the keepsake boxes gifted to him by former sisters. He gathered the blue-and-white mess and placed it in a trash bag. On top, he wrote a note: “You took the liberty of ruining things for me. Now I am returning them to you. All my best, Devin.” He left the bag on White’s doorstep. Jardine called the gesture a “vicious act of violence.” Zeta Phi Beta has filed a complaint against Alston-Smith with the university.
“It wasn’t a violent or a vicious act. It was a final cry of submission,” says Alston-Smith. “At that point, I had given up.”

Photo courtesy Devin Alston-Smith

(Begging for Comments on this one!)

If you’ve noticed similarities between Kelly Clarkson’s new single “Already Gone” and Beyoncé’s hit “Halo,” well, you’re not the only one.

Turns out Clarkson has also noticed, and she’s not too happy about it.

In an interview with Canada’s CBC radio network, the former “American Idol” champ said she was unaware of any similarities between her song and Beyoncé’s “Halo” until she heard the two songs side by side (according to Clarkson, her All I Ever Wanted album was finished before Beyoncé’s I Am … Sasha Fierce was released). And she’s not mincing words about who she blames for the similarities: OneRepublic frontman Ryan Tedder, who co-wrote both songs.

“Ryan and I met each other at the record label, before he was working with anyone else. He’s from Oklahoma, I’m from Texas; we got along really well and had some of the same influences,” Clarkson said. “We wrote about six songs together, four or five of them made the album. It was all fine and dandy. I’d never heard of a song called ‘Halo’ … [Beyoncé's] album came out when my album was already being printed.

“No one’s gonna be sittin’ at home, thinkin’ ‘Man, Ryan Tedder gave Beyoncé and Kelly the same track to write to,’ ” she continued. “No, they’re just gonna be sayin’ I ripped someone off. I called Ryan and said, ‘I don’t understand. Why would you do that?’ “

“Gone” and “Halo” do share some striking similarities, most notably in the backing track, which features somber piano, crashing drums and hand-claps.

Clarkson — who clashed with her label in the past — said that she’s upset that “Already Gone” was released as a single without her blessing, but that, at this point, there’s really nothing to do about the situation.

“It sucks, but it’s one of those things I have no control over,” she told the CBC. “I already made my album. At this point, the record company can do whatever they want with it. It’s kind of a sh—y situation, but … you know, you learn.”

At press time, a spokesperson for Tedder had not responded to MTV News’ request for comment on the situation.

Pobrecito

PORTLAND — Washington County’s “Bunny Lady” is back in the hutch after violating a court order not to own or control animals for five years.

Let's be honest, you knew she'd look like this...

Miriam Sakewitz, 47, was arrested again Tuesday at a Tigard hotel after an employee reported finding rabbits hopping around in her room.

Problems for Sakewitz started in October 2006 when Hillsboro police found and confiscated nearly 250 rabbits in her home, including about 100 dead ones in freezers and refrigerators.

Police said she broke into the facility where the survivors were being cared for in January 2007 and stole most of them back. Authorities found her a few days later in Chehalis, Wash., with eight live rabbits and two dead ones in her car. Another 130 were recovered at a nearby horse farm.

She was placed on five years probation, banned from owning or controlling animals and was told not to go within 100 yards of a rabbit.

Tigard Police spokesman Jim Wolf said Washington County animal control officers removed eight adult rabbits, five young ones and a dead one from her hotel room Tuesday.

Washington County probation officer Bob Severe said Sakewitz had undergone a court-ordered mental evaluation but that no treatment was recommended. He said she was thought to be living in Clackamas County.

“We hadn’t heard much further from her, she had been pretty quiet,” he said.

Authorities checked her residence occasionally and found it rabbit-free.

Then county probation officer Susan Ranger testified in August of 2007 that Sakewitz had a rabbit in her home in June, had canceled counseling sessions and refused to open the door for unannounced visits.

Ranger said she found no rabbits when she finally got inside but did find a half-empty 10-pound bag of carrots. Sakewitz was sentenced to three days in jail.

But How do we know its not the rabbits werent  keeping her hostage? … I’ve seen Bugs Bunny he is quite clever!

D.Alexander

Off to a shaky start Mariah Carey’s next album “Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel” has allready…

…been pushed back. Mariah has been quoted as saying “The album still needs a little work” and publishers have pushed the August 25th release to September 15th despite the awesome success of the Diva’s Lead single Obsessed. Mariah re-released her controversial video with remix artist Gucci Mane featured and a few more scenes of Mariah glam’n it up. However, speculators have suggested that Mariah is kicking it into “DIVA-DRIVE” (<- quote that) to promote her record as fellow powerhouse Whitney Houston is/was schedualed to release her “Comeback” Cd on the same day as MC. Anxious to avoid another “The Boy is Mine” Fiasco, Mariah may be seen this week donating to charity, touring foreign countries and staging for “Candid” photo leaks of herself in efforts to remain buzzworthy.

GEEEEEY

After years of speculation and denials, it appears R&B singer Ne-Yo finally slipped up! This is a photo Ne-Yo took himself with a cameraphone.

As you can see, the background appears to be an intimate setting in a home with dim lighting. Ne-Yo and his new girlfriend are chest to chest, she’s caressing his neck, and he’s virtually picking her up off the ground with a big grin on his face that appears to be saying “Yeah I’m gay but you’ll never find out because she looks like a woman!”
That’s right! The girl in the picture isn’t a girl at all! As a matter of fact, this transgendered escort doesn’t even have breasts! It’s a teen black boy with a weave!! I guess Ne-Yo got tired of people hounding him about his sexuality and with all the hoopla surrounding the topic I would imagine it was probably difficult for him to associate with guys to get his fill of D*CK so he found a quick fix

The Harry Potter Nimbus 2000

Mattel recently introduced the “Harry Potter Broomstick”. It’s a battery-powered toy that resembles the flying Nimbus 2000 brooms from the Harry Potter movies. For added effect, the broom makes “flying noises” and vibrates.
After a while on the market, concerned parents noticed that mostly young girls seemed to enjoy the toy – especially the vibrating part…

Here are some of the customer reviews from the Toys R Us website:


Reviewer: A toy enthusiast from NJ
This toy was #1 on my daughter’s Christmas list. So what the heck, although it has no educational value I figured it would be good for imaginative play. It wasn’t until after she opened her gift and started playing with it that I realized that the toy may offer a more than sensational experience. The broomstick has cute sound effects and***VIBRATES*** when they put it between their legs to fly. Come on—what were the creators of this toy thinking? She’ll keep playing with the Nimbus 2000, but with the batteries removed.

Reviewer: Ashley from TX
My 12 year old daughter is a big Harry Potter fan, and loved the part with the Nimbus 2000, so I decided to buy her this toy. I was afraid she would think it was too babyish, but she LOVES this toy. Even my daughter’s friends enjoy playing with this fun toy. I was surprised at how long they can just sit in her room and play with this magic broomstick! A great buy for any Harry Potter fan!

Reviewer: A toy enthusiast from Maine, USA
I recently bought this for my son, Vantro. He’s a HUGE Harry Potter fan. Seen the movie 32 times (in the theaters) and made the paper. This toy gives him the ability to fly around the house zapping things. My only problem I see with the toy is the batteries drain too fast and his sister fights him over it, so now I need to buy her one.

Reviewer: poola13 from Ohio
When my 12 year old daughter asked for this for her birthday, I kind of wondered if she was too old for it, but she seems to LOVE it. Her friends love it too! They play for hours in her bedroom with this great toy. They really seem to like the special effects it offers (the sound effects and vibrating). My oldest daughter (17) really likes it too! I reccomend this for all children.

Soo many stars are doin the summer trim this week, just switchin up the hair and trying something new… But who looks the best?

Dawn of Danity Kane

What in he monkey-doodle hell? Soulja Boy has been tweetin pics of his twit!

What is that a roll of dimes in there?

And then he proceeds to put on Pretty Ricky’s naked gay wind video and returns with an aroused  lil twit…

Twizzlers?

Not much better

What he gon do with that lil thing?????

Brooklyn's Finest

Lil Kim & Faith Evans’s life long beef comes to fruition at Diddy’s famous “WHITE Party!”

Lil Kim and Faith had a face-to-face encounter towards the close of Sean “Diddy” Combs’ coveted White Party in California, sources have reported. Faith and Kim, whom both shared a relationship with The Notorious B.I.G., crossed paths at the White Party, which was held in Los Angeles instead of The Hampton’s in New York. Sources said that Lil Kim took issue with her representation in Notorious, the biopic in which Faith was attached to. Faith was in attendance with her husband and Lil Kim was with producer Choke No Joke and to some, this augmented the tension.

“It was really heated,” one source said. “It was about to pop off…there was crazy screaming.” According to sources, Faith was saying, “I love you” to Lil Kim and Kim responded with “God bless you.” However, later at the event, Kim asked Faith, “How would you say you love me when you trashed me in your book?” Under anonymity, a source told AllHipHop.com “We know that [Faith saying 'I love you'] is bulls**t. It wasn’t even about the movie. It hurt Kim that she was being fake.” Actor Dennis Da Menace, who played D-Roc in “Notorious” and Devante Swing of Jodeci fame were able to prevent a potentially violent exchange between Faith’s husband, Todd Russaw, and Choke No Joke. “At first it was cool, but then Dennis had to peace it out,” another source said. Russaw reportedly attempted to take pictures as Kim and Faith spoke peacefully, to which Choke took exception.

Choke expressed publicly that it was inappropriate to take pictures and charged that Russaw was intoxicated. Russaw was not available for comment on the allegation. Of the matter, Choke would only say, “Yes, I was there, but I don’t have nothing to do with it. Please leave me out of it.” Sean “Diddy” Combs was not at the location at the time of the incident. Despite the drama, Diddy managed to raise awareness for a charity, Malaria No More and his guests enjoyed their time, reports say.