Trans Community Things To Look Forward To In 2014

Many of you TransGriot readers either got dressed up to go party last night or brought in the New Year like I did.   I chilled quietly at home while nervously looking up at the ceiling hoping and praying the fools who were shooting their guns in the distance didn't prove to my detriment the Newtonian gravitational laws of physics.

What goes up (bullets) must come down.

Now that we are past the midnight hour, the ball dropped in Times Square or however you celebrated it around the world to signify that we are indeed in the early morning hours of 2014 east of the International Date Line, what do we have to look forward to as an international trans community this year as we build on 2013?

We are less than 30 days from the 2014 edition of Creating Change happening in H-town January 9-February 2.   I and my Creating Change Host Committee members are ready to roll our the pink, blue and white carpet for you estimated record breaking 4000 attendees and are looking forward to seeing those of you who can be at the Hilton Americas Hotel for the event.

The Trans 100 List is still taking nominations for the 2014 edition of the list.  Deadline to get them in is January 15, and this year nominations of international trans people are encouraged. 

While I'm on the subject of lists, the Latino LGBT oriented Honor 41 List will also be taking nominations soon, and it will be interesting to see if more than five trans Latin@s make the 2014 edition of it.

We finished 2013 with the early good news of our unjustly incarcerated sister CeCe McDonald's scheduled release from that Minnesota jail on January 13.   So we'll be anxiously watching to see if that happens along with the documentary that Laverne and Jac Gares are filming on her.

Speaking of anticipated documentaries, our community will be anxiously awaiting the release of MAJOR! that StormMiguel Florez and Annalise Ophelian are putting together.
   
We'll see the launch of Janet Mock's book Redefining Realness at bookstores near you on February 2 along with Laverne Cox's anticipated return in season two of the hit Netflix show Orange Is The New Black 

The third annual Black Trans Advocacy Conference will happen in Dallas on April 29-May 4.  The Cal for Proposals has already gone out along with asking the community for nominations for the awards that will be given out at BTAC 2014's dinner are being accepted.

On the international front, will my Kenyan sister Audrey Mbugua get the positive result she's seeking in her history making court case?  Will trans human rights on the African continent build forward momentum and wins despite meddling from US based fundie groups?

Will the Canadian Senate when they come off their extended holiday break January 28 finally do the right thing, pass Bill C-279 and finally join the list of nations that protect the human rights of its trans citizens?

And what Canadian province will be the next one that steps up to do so? 

What nation not on our radar will step up to the legislative plate and be the next one to make groundbreaking positive legislative progress on behalf of its trans citizens?  Will we see another trans MP or legislator join Poland's Anna Grodzka on that very short list of trans national legislators in 2014? 

Will we see a trans contestant in the Miss Universe pageant system in the US or elsewhere in the world during the 2014 cycle?   Another trans model rock the runway?  Another high profile trans coming out? Another trans societal breakthrough? 

We'll be watching to see if New York becomes the 18th US state plus the District of Columbia to pass a statewide law protecting the human rights of its trans citizens.  It has passed the NY State Assembly in lopsided numbers six consecutive times only to be stalled by the GOP controlled New York State Senate.  Will that finally change or will other states not on our trans human rights radar at the moment step up to the plate and do whats right for their trans citizens like Delaware did in 2013? 

We will be nervously watching to see if the California Forces of Intolerance haters were successful in forcing a statewide referendum vote on AB 1266.  If they did get enough signatures to force a November repeal vote, did the liberal progressive groups in Cali learn their lessons from the Prop 8 failure?  Do they actually have a plan and are they prepared to fight as hard as the trans community will to decisively win it?

Will my hometown chuck the embarrassing distinction of being the largest city in Texas and the US that doesn't protect the human rights of its trans citizens this year? 

It goes without saying that I'll be watching to ensure that any such ordinance should it happen will be trans inclusive.  

What cities will add their names to the lists of municipalities that value the rights of their trans citizens?

Texas trans peeps are waiting to hear the results of Nikki Araguz Loyd's appeal to the Texas 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in the Araguz v. Delgado case.  Speaking of legal cases we're watching in Texas, the nation and the world, will the trans people we lost in 2013 like Islan Nettles receive justice? 

Will the Black cis community, the Black Church and our legacy orgs step up and accept the challenge Carter Brown laid down?  Will they not only loudly proclaim this year that Black trans lives are just as valuable as their own but back it up with fierce urgency of now action?

Will the African-American and Latino trans communities continue to build on the progress they made in 2013?   Will our African American and Latino trans brothers finally get the media attention they deserve?

In the wake of Fallon Fox, Aeris Houlihan, and Miranda Itzayana running into loud, ignorant and transphobic resistance to them playing and participating in the sports they enjoy, will cis world finally get a grip in 2014 along with the international sporting governmental bodies and simply let us play? 

It also points out that trans human rights advances are and need to happen in the sports world, and why I unapologetically cover them.   

Finally, who will be the breakout trans personalities this year?   The surprises we didn't see coming?   The heartwarming stories we talk about and cover?

And yeah, what will the TransGriot do in 2014?

Those are the interesting things we'll get to see as we spend the next 364 days on this space rock watching the year 2014 unfold before our eyes.