20th Anniversary of Love and Basketball

One of my fave romantic movies was released 20 years ago today in the Gina Prince Bythewood directed film Love and Basketball that starred Omar Epps and Sanaa Lathan.

I was at my local movieplex the weekend it debuted to watch the story of Quincy McCall and Monica Wright begin when her family moved from the ATL to Los Angeles in 1981 to become the next door neighbors of the McCall family. 

After a contentious early start, it was clear that Quincy and Monica had a love of basketball as the basis of their friendship.   Over time, they developed a relationship as the movie follows them from that first day they met on Quincy's backyard basketball court through high school, college and young adulthood as masculine and feminine basketball prodigies. 

It also highlighted the differences in how they were treated by society, and the lack of respect women basketball players got then (and still don't get).   



Monica not only had to fight to get her opportunities on the court, she also had to fight off challengers who stepped up to try to wrest Quincy away from her in high school, college and later young adulthood.

I'll let y'all see how it ended for those of you who may have never seen Love and Basketball, but it's one of my fave movies that I rewatch from time to time.

And Gina, if you're reading this, I'd love to see a sequel to it. 

Change Will Not Happen Under A Fascist Republican Dictatorship

I've been amused and alarmed to hear the #NeverBiden rhetoric coming from Bitter Berners who seemed to have willfully forgotten the 2016 election.

These are NOT normal times. We have a malignant political tumor that needs to be excised from the WH.

That is the only thing that matters in November. Everything else is BS. Trump gotta go.  His Republican enablers at all levels of government gotta go as well. 

You have far too many MAGATS that are okay with fascist crap happening as long as it is only aimed at the non-white people and other peeps they despise.

There are also far too many Republican politicians who will look the other way as long as they can stay in power and keep getting their six figure taxpayer funded checks

So I don't from this moment forward want to hear another syllable uttered about how Biden is not your preferred choice for president. Neither am I as a Black trans woman in the mood to hear that tired left wing political purity BS or the false 'Biden is worse than Trump' talking points because you mad Bernie lost again.
  .

Been there heard that shyt in 2016 when you far lefties hated on Hillary.   She was the last person standing between Trump and the White house, and you peeps let your hatred of her override your common sense enough to allow Trump to slide into the Oval Office.

I heard this same rhetoric from the far left in 2000 when Al Gore was 'not progressive enough' for the fauxgressive purity police.  Both times in 2000 and 2016, we had opportunities that if Gore or Clinton had won, to flip the federal judiciary and the SCOTUS in a progressive direction.

Biden is the last person standing out of the Democratic primary field. He is the only thing standing between a Trump second term and catastrophe.

I also don't want to hear another caca laden word from far left white fauxgressives about how this country and its political system needs to burn down so 'The Revolution' can happen.

Your revolution won't mean shyt if you have a fascist/ totalitarian government in place that bans gatherings, criminalizes protest, suppresses your votes, has police armed with military equipment ready to gleefully use it, demonizes media and monitors your social media to ensure you won't be able to organize or speak out against it.

A fascist/totalitarian government that will arrest, torture, and jail you indefinitely in a concentration camp for daring to organize against it if they don't decide to outright execute you.

Can you hear me now? Good.

This is what is at stake this November

Maybe down the road when this American political crisis is settled, only then can you think about pushing for the type of systemic change you want.

But it can't and will not happen under a fascist Republican dictatorship

Two Trans Texans Running For The Texas Lege!

When we get to cast ballots in the general election this November, Texas Democrats are only nine tantalizing flipped seats away from gaining control of the Texas House for the first time since 2002 .

That would be huge as we go into a 2021 legislative session that will have redistricting on the agenda.

One of the things that would also be huge is if that new class of 2021 legislators had trans Texans as part of it. 

While we have actually had trans Texans serve in public office, we unfortunately have never had a trans Texan be elected to any public office in the Lone Star State. 

Phyllis Frye has been serving since 2010 as a Houston municipal judge,  and was appointed to the position by then Mayor Annise Parker 

Jess Herbst served as mayor of New Hope, TX for two years,   She was serving on city council as the mayor pro tem and took over after the mayor's May 2016 death. She unfortunately lost her bid to win a full term of her own in 2018.

In 2018 Finn Jones advanced out of an uncontested Democratic primary to take on one of the Texas trans community's biggest haters in incumbent District 94 Rep Tony Tinderholt.(R).  Jones made history as the first out Texas trans person to make it to a legislative general election race, and the first out trans masculine Texans to win a party primary . 

Unfortunately, even in a great election year for Texas Democrats, we couldn't get that electoral breakthrough we needed.  Tinderholt was one of the few North Texas House Republicans to survive the Blue Tsunami and win reelection 

So while we trans Texans are still looking for someone to make that Lone Star State history and get elected, history was made on March 3 when two trans feminine Texans won their Democratic primary races to make it to the November 2020 ballot.

In the Panhandle, Addison Perry Franks secured her spot in the District 83 general election by beating James Barrick  by a 54%-46% margin in the Democratic Primary. 

Perry-Franks will take on incumbent Rep Dustin Barrows (R) in the fall and attempt to flip the Lubbock area seat blue. . .

Meanwhile in Central Texas'  House District 17, Madeline Eden was advancing to the general election against incumbent Rep. Jon Cyrier (R), who was also unopposed in the GOP primary.   Cyrier has held this Austin metro area seat since 2015.

Eden is the current chair of the Bastrop County Stonewall Democrats and a former Democratic Party precinct chair.  She has also been endorsed by the Victory Fund.

So here;'s hoping that Eden flips that Centex seat.

And we could have a third trans person running for the Texas Lege if perennial candidate Jenifer Rene Pool wins the Texas House District 138 Democratic runoff for this Houston area seat against Akilah Bacy.

This was the seat that former Rep Dwayne Bohac (R) won by a razor thin 47 votes over Adam Milasincic in 2018, and Bohac retired when the 2019 session concluded.   This seat is seen as a prime pickup opportunity for Texas Democrats, and its a must get.

The winner in that May 22 runoff will take on Republican candidate Lacey Hull in the general.

So will 2020 finally be the year that Texas trans people get a trans person elected to The Lege?
We'll find out in November

Shut Up Fool Awards-STILL Dealing With The 'Rona Edition

The month of March is mercifully over, and we have now flipped a calendar page to April and another uncertain month of dealing with the COVID-19 virus.

And yes, even in the midst of a pandemic fools are everywhere, and it's my job to call them out.

Honorable mention number one is Jerry Falwell Jr for reopening Liberty University and thinking that COVID-19 was just going to miraculously pass by his campus. 

Naw player, it didn't.

Honorable mention number two goes to every Republican politician who laughed and poo-pooed it when Democratic leaders took action in their areas, and are now belatedly realizing Rona ain't playing with y'all.

Honorable mention number three  is Cubic Zirconia and Polyester er Diamond and Silk. 

They decided to coon it up for Trump in those horrid wigs and peddle the lie that the 'Deep State' is responsible for creating the coronavirus specifically to hurt Trump's reelection chances.

And you sellouts wanna know why y'all sitting on the cookout sidelines with Stacey Dash, Candace Owens, Paris Dennard  and Uncle Thomas

Honorable mention number four is Idaho governor Brad Little (R) who signed two anti-trans bills into law the day before TDOV.   The Idaho legislature didn't have time to deal with COVID-19, but they made time to oppress trans people.

I repeat, the most dangerous transphobe is the one that has legislative power.  Since Republicans are the peeps pushing these unjust laws, time for trans folks to bumrush the polls and vote our GOP oppressors out of office. .

Oh yeah. Idaho.  See y'all in court.

This week's Shut Up Fool Winner brigs me back to the Lone Star State and my southeast Texas part of it to call out US House candidate Kathaleen Wall.She's decided she's tired of being the money behind many area  Republican candidates and is trying to snag the GOP nomination for the 22nd Congressional District down in Fort Bend County.

Wall decided to deploy some anti-Asian bigotry in her fight against Fort Bend County Sheriff Troy Nehls.  She ran a commercial for her runoff against Nehls that stated 'China poisoned our people.'   The ad also called China 'a criminal enterprise masquerading as a sovereign nation.'

Kathaleen really needs to stop talking about the Trump misadministration like that.

Not the first time this cycle she has run some problematic commercials, but this one is getting her azz called out.  Fort Bend County has a large Asian population, and Sri Preston Kulkarni, the Democratic nominee, has already called out Wall's racism.

"Irresponsible, race-baiting comments like these from Kathaleen Wall are unacceptable and dangerous to TX-22’s large Asian American and Pacific Islander population, who are intimately aware of the FBI warning about the recent surge of hate crimes against their community," 
But she doesn't care, as long as she gets enough bigot votes to propel her past Troy Nehls and into the general election.

Kathaleen Wall, shut up fool!

Stay The F**k At Home

If you were wondering how long it would take before we heard from Samuel L Jackson during this COVID-19 crisis, wonder no more.

Jackson is on the J-O-B with his latest poem for these times entitled Stay The Fuck At Home.

Some of you peeps need to hear it, especially you evilgelicals.

TransGriot April Fool's Day Posts

One of the traditions I have on TransGriot is to do a satirical or prank post on April Fool's Day.

Because we have had an ongoing April Fool's joke desecrating the Oval Office since January 2017, I hadn't been doing April Fool's Day spoof posts since then..   

Until this year..

Now what I will do is link to some of my April Fool's Day TransGriot Greatest Hits from my archive and let you enjoy those.

TransGriot To Debate Cathy Brennan At Smith College

RuPaul Hospitalized After Being D'R'O'P. Squaded 

I'm Sellin' Out 

I'm Joining HRC 

Drop Squad Strikes Again- Jimi Izreal Targeted

I'm Joining The NCTE Board 

Dan Savage To Transition

I'm Joining The TS Separatist Ranks 

Moni's Going On CNN

Moving To Washington DC 

Candace Owens DROP Squaded

The mysterious D.R.O.P Squad struck again, with their latest high profile target being Candace Owens.

The D.R.O. P. Squad is a shadowy group that kidnaps and deprograms African Americans who have betrayed their community. 

The D.R.O.P. in DROP Squad refers to 'Deprogramming and Restoration Of Pride'. As of this writing no communique has come from D.R.O.P. Squad leaders explaining why Owens was targeted, but anyone who watches FOX Noise has a pretty good idea. 

Owens was found outside of her home with her makeup and hair perfectly done and endlessly repeating the late Maya Angelou's Phenomenal Woman poem.

She was also when found holding paperwork to change her voting registration to the Democratic Party.

Owens was taken to a local psychiatric hospital for observation after being tested for the COVID-19 virus.

Police are looking for any clues that will lead to the arrest and conviction of the D.R.O.P. Squad, but as of this time have no leads in this case.

Meanwhile security for SCOTUS Justice Clarence Thomas and HUD Secretary Ben Carson has been elevated in the wake of this latest appearance of the D.R.O.P. Squad.


And TransGriot readers, check today's date......