Ready For Our ABC Nightline Closeup

Dee Dee, Diamond Stylz and I recently taped on July 22 an ABC Nightline episode in which we talked about the violence affecting Black trans women in Texas and around the country.

The initial part of it was taped while we were in Dallas for our recent BTAC Leadership Institute, and the rest was done when we returned back to Houston.

We were also doing so in the wake of the loss of Denali Stuckey at the time we taped it.  We're now up to 20 trans women lost to anti trans violence with three months left in this year.

As y'all know, anti-trans violence aimed at the Black trans community is a serious issue.   It's past time that we were blessed to have an in-depth discussion about it with the people that it negatively affects on national television.   

It was also nice to be having that discussion with my H-town homegirls and fellow BTWI board members.

Was alerted that the show will finally air tonight.   Looking forward to seeing how this segment turned out    As for when  ABC News Nightline airs, it comes on at 11:35 PM CDT.

Hope that when you watch it, it will be an informative show and that those of you who see it will get something out of it.  .

Faith and Family Dynamics Panel at Resurrection MCC Today

If you're looking for something to do on this Saturday afternoon, how about joining me and a few Houston community friends for a trans panel focusing on the intersection of faith and family and its impact on the lives of TBLGQ people.

This event will be focused on lifting up the lives and voices of the Black trans community and will include a panel discussion and a memorial to the ten people we've lost in 2017 to anti-trans violence.

The Faith and Family Dynamics event will take place at Resurrection MCC from 1-4 PM,     The church is located at 2025 W. 11th Street in Houston and hope you can join us for it.
 

Deric Muhammad, #WeExist

One of the things I get pissed off about in my Black community is activists, ignorant people and ministers spouting facts free anti-trans and anti-SGL rhetoric in our ranks that is a carbon copy of crap that white fundamentalists have been sputtering for decades from their megachurch pulpits and talk radio shows.

I was sent a link to a homophobic op ed authored by local activist Deric Muhammad published in the Houston Forward Times that attacks teen lesbians.

It's not only a slap in the face of the Houston Black LGBT community, this op-ed also has the problematic timing of being published as a Forward Times featured editorial on the first day of LGBT Pride Month..

Since Mr. Muhammad wrote in his article he wished to get a community conversation going, be careful what you wish for.

Ashton Woods has already written his response to Muhammad's homophobic Forward Times scribblings, now it's my turn.  .

I've met Deric Muhammad at various Houston community events in the last two years, and one of the vibes I picked up from him when I heard him speak at city hall or during various community events is that he may have a problem with his Houston LGBT siblings.   I had to call him out during a meeting held at KCOH a little over a year ago about some problematic comments that erased the Houston LGBT community during a community conversation about police brutality and the Jordan Baker case..

It's reprehensible that you have written an article that attacks lesbian teens and blames them for the problems of the Black community.  Sadly, it is confirming what I suspected when I first encountered you at the Harris County Courthouse.   I'll also point out that same gender loving attractions are not a 'choice'.. If you really believe that bull feces, then tell me the exact date that you chose to be a heterosexual Black male and chose to live a heterosexual lifestyle?

I'd also like to point out to you that one of the iconic leaders in our Black H-town community was a lesbian named Barbara Jordan.   Our lesbian sisters have not only historically been on the front lines in helping uplift our community and fighting for our civil rights, they are continuing to provide innovative and principled leadership for our community as well.

Teen lesbianism isn't the cause of what ails the Black community as a whole.  It's anti-Black policies pursued by politicians and a conservative movement that hates our people.

Our LGBT kids are already under attack from predominately white Religious Right and Republican politicians.  The last people that need to be attacking them are people in our Black community.

This divisive BS of attacking kids in the name of 'starting a community conversation'  is the last thing we need right now, and as a unapologetically proud Black trans Houstonian, it pisses me the hell off every time some person that shares my ethnic heritage decides to try to live up to the 'Black people are more homophobic' meme I have to constantly argue against in mixed human rights company.

#WeExist, Deric.   If you claim you love all Black people in H-town, then by default that includes my unapologetic Black trans behind and your Black trans, bi and SGL siblings.

Councilman Boykins, LGBT People Of Color Exist

Because I had pressing business to take care of, I was reluctantly forced to miss yesterday's Houston City Council public session in which HERO was the major topic of discussion.

And after hearing about how some of the public comment hearing transpired, wish I was in the room to counter some of the faux faith based conservamadness I was told about by people who attended it.

I was told by people who attended the meeting that District D Councilmember Dwight Boykins, the only African-American councilmember who voted against HERO last year, parted his lips to make the outrageously logic defying statement that :during all this Black Lives Matter situation , the LGBT community wasn't there.'.

Oh really?  I have a news flash for you.  Black Lives Matter was founded by Black lesbian women Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi.  LGBT people have been involved in Black Lives Matter from the beginning.  

And yeah, the LGBT community also includes LGBT people of color, and I'm not happy about this attempt to once again erase TBLG people of color from our respective ethnic groups and paint the LGBT community as monoracial..   

What the hell do you think my unapologetically Black trans behind and Dee`Dee`Watters are?  even when some of our people don't love us, we're standing up for the entire community to make Houston better.   And neither do I nor she appreciates our names being called by you in vain when your butt is getting chewed on for those idiotic remarks, your negative HERO vote last year and your problematic pattern of palling around with Black anti-LGBT sellout ministers

And may i remind you once again Councilmember Boykins, District D also has LGBT people, our allies, and our family members living in it who aren't happy about your anti-HERO vote.

The statement that 'LGBT people aren't part of a movement we founded is as offensive as it is a bald faced lie.  Your comment is also being interpreted in Houston LGBT communities of color as saying 'we don't exist'. 

But let me pivot and focus on the erasure part of this.  There are 2.3 million people in the Houston area.  It's estimated about 10-15% of the population are part of the BTLG community, and of those folks you'll find moi and other TBLG Houstonians of color..

#WeExist, and are part of the Houston communities of color we intersect and interact with.   We are tired of being erased by you and other straight cisgender people of color.   Many of us in LGBT World have taken part in various movements that impact our community including #BlackLivesMatter .

And you do recall yours truly was at HISD headquarters in 2013 and 2014 blasting them for attempting to shut down my HS alma mater Jesse H Jones?

But one of the reasons the Houston LGBT community is rising up to defend HERO is because our backs are against the human rights wall.  We still as LGBT Houstonians and American citizens don't have basic civil rights in Texas and federally, and now the Texas Republican Supreme Court has fracked with our local human rights ordinance that covers 15 categories, not just our community 

We're also angry when we see the city of Dallas, 262 miles up I-45 and San Antonio in 2013 to the west of us on I-10 pass laws similar to our HERO with a lot less drama that we're dealing with in Houston..   Dallas in November 2014 strengthened theirs.   These are cities that we compete with for convention business and sporting events like NCAA Final Fours and Super Bowls.

Are you aware that the trans woman who was discriminated against in 2012 by Saks, Leyth Jamal, was a Black trans girl like me?   That LGBT people of color are in various positions in our workforce?  And by you voting against HERO last year and hatin' on it now, you send a message that you don't respect our humanity, community or human rights?.

Many of us weren't in attendance at yesterday's hearing because we had to work during the 2 PM start time of this meeting, but thanks to the folks like Fran Watson, Melissa Vivanco, Ashton Woods, James Lee and the Organization Latina de Trans en Texas who were in the house and did speak in favor of keeping HERO.

Other TBLG people of color aren't showing up for movements in the community at large because they aren't out at work and don't want to be seen or outed on television.  They fear that they will be fired from their jobs if their status as members of the TBLG community is revealed, and no thanks to the partisan Texas Supreme Court we no longer have a local remedy to combat that discrimination.

And it's comments like yours that make LGBT people feel as if they aren't wanted or needed in movements built around the common issues we face as people of color.

The LGBT that don't show up also legitimately fear being victimized by anti-LGBT violence in their neighborhoods that your hate minister buddies have been stirring up for over a year with their anti-gay sermons.  

And after 11 trans women, 9 of them trans women of color have been murdered in the US this year including one Texas (so far) in that sad number, it's a legitimate concern.

Yes, Councilman Boykins, hate thoughts + hate speech = hate violence.   And it's even more odious when that debunked hate speech is coming from a pulpit with selective interpretations of scripture to try to justify it.  It's also disgusting to witness when it is an attempt to bamboozle the flock into voting against a human rights ordinance that protects their human rights at the behest of white conservative activists like Dave Welch,  Steve Hotze, Steve Riggle and Rick Scarborough who don't even live in the Houston city limits. .

When we went through those contentious HERO hearings last year, did you forget that many of the TBLG discrimination stories at those HERO hearings were being told by LGBT people of color?

So yeah, your comment just guaranteed that my 'invisible' behind will be making an appearance at City Hall next Tuesday, and I'll be accompanied by more LGBT Houstonians of color who according to your statement, aren't there.

I consider my human rights something important enough to show up and fight  for, and so will others who will be at City Hall debunking the lies of our opponents next Tuesday..