DeShanna And Trinity Meet Gov. Markell

I've had the pleasure of meeting and talking to over the last few years many of the mothers who are raising trans kids like Jeanette Jennings, Debi Jackson, and Kim Pearson.

In my Houston area backyard, thanks to Gender Infinity that's run by Dr. Colt Meier, I've gotten to meet more of the 'Mama Bears' as they call themselves, and Ann Elder and Kimberly Shappley are just two of the amazing mom's I've gotten to meet.

But one of the things that I have been repeatedly asked by people is where are the trans parents who look like me?   Where are the Black trans parents who unconditionally love and support their trans kids and are raising them to be the best human beings they can be and not tossing them out on the street?

Their Black Lives Matter as well, and I was jumping up and down ecstatic to hear about Delaware based mom DeShanna Neal and her precocious preteen trans daughter Trinity.  

If Deshanna's name sounds familiar to you, it's because she was one of the four mothers profiled in the Trans United Fund video that was released back on Mother's Day.

She also authored a well received post in the Advocate about why her daughter's Black Life Matters and making a better world for Trinity and all her kids.

I finally got to meet both of them at this year's edition of the Philadelphia Trans Health Conference, and it was a joy to meet DeShanna, spend some quality time with her during the PTHC, and watch Trinity interact with other kids like her at the pool party.

On July 13 she and her family got to meet with Delaware Gov. Jack Markell (D) and her state representative Paul Baumbach (D).  Gov Markell has been a standup ally of the trans community, supported and signed the Delaware trans rights law when it hit his desk in 2013 and supports the DOE/DOJ trans guidelines.   Rep. Baumbach has also been a supportive ally and the Neal's are happy to have his as their state representative.

Said Neal about that recent meeting, "Hearing him express his support and acceptance for the LGBT community, and especially trans children, gave me hope for a better future for my daughter and Delaware's transgender community."

Congratulations for the successful meeting with your state's governor.   It's a light years different response from Texas top governmental officials when it comes to trans kids in my home state.

Gov. Markell's words and deeds give me and the trans elders around the country who love and support our trans kids hope as well when we hear positive news like this.. And it's even more amazing as an unapologetic Black trans person to see Trinity be showered in unconditional love. This should be the rule for our trans kids, not the exception.
.

Janet and Laverne Make The 2015 Root 100 List!

They both made the list last year, but it's a year later and the 2015 edition of  The Root 100 List has been released with Janet Mock and Laverne Cox's names on it.

The Root 100 List celebrates those peeps 25-45 who are forging a new direction in social justice, politics, entertainment, business the arts, science and sports.  While this list has many well known names on it, The Root 100 List also seeks to recognize people whose accomplishments have yet to be recognized on a national level.

Janet is at number 31 this year and Laverne occupies the number 43 spot,  but once again it is a huge accomplishment for Black girls like us to be acknowledged for their work to not only advocate for our human rights as trans people, but uplift the Black community at the same time.  
|
They are also concrete examples of what I'm talking about when I say in my posts imploring the Black cis community to stop hating on Black trans people that we too are part of the kente cloth fabric of Black America.

And when the nomination process for 2016 starts, I'd like to see some of our trans brothers in that 25-45 range get nominated and hopefully make the list along with other trans sisters in that 25-45 age group

That's next year's project trans fam, but until then, congratulations Janet and Laverne for making this years The Root 100 list.

Can't Talk About The State Of Black Houston Without Discussing Black LGBT Houstonians

Because I was committed to another event that was scheduled at the same time, I missed this The State Of Black Houston forum that took place last night.

And it was well attended and well organized

Since our legacy orgs in the NAACP, 100 Black Men and the Urban League were listed as sponsors along with the Houston Justice Coalition, I presumed going into last night's #SOBH15 event that it would once again be a heterocentric/ cisnormative one in which they ignored the fact that Black TBLGQ/SGL issues are Black community issues.

And yeah, I'm still pissed off about the kneegrow ministers doing their 21st century cooning for Dave Welch and pimping anti-trans hate in the fight to pass HERO.  That anti-trans rhetoric led to a trans woman getting attacked last November

In case you haven't gotten the memo, the Houston Black community also includes SGL, trans, lesbian, bisexual and gay members of it, and we're tired of being erased from the overall Houston African-American community narrative.  

Also tired of the cricket chirping silence coming from our legacy orgs about the slaughter of African-American trans women , the 26% unemployment rate, 20% of us being HIV+, and discrimination being aimed at us.

If you believe #BlackLivesMatter, then that also includes the lives of Black LGBTQ/SGL people. Any forum that purports to have that discussion about Black Houston needs to recognize that fact, especially when you're discussing education and media images just to name two issues discussed last night..

#WeExist, and that conversation needs to happen ASAP.  Would have been nice if it could have started last night.

You can't talk about the state of Black Houston without discussing Black LGBTIQ/SGL Houstonians.

If #BlackLivesMatter...

Then #BlackTransLivesMatter too.

We are days away from seeing the end of a groundbreaking year for trans visibility predominately led by Black trans people. 

In Houston it was myself, Dee Dee Watters and our supporters who showed up at the first City Council meeting of 2014 to send the message that the only acceptable Houston Equal Rights Ordinance to us would be a trans inclusive one, and we fought tooth and nail to make it a reality.

But one of the things I continue to be distressed by is the ignorance in our African-American ranks across the country about transgender lives, and the spreading of the debunked faith based ignorance about us being pimped by kneegrow sellout ministers trying to curry favor with white conservatives.

That crap needs to stop because it is greasing the skids to anti-trans violence aimed at Black trans women.  We lost 12 trans women in 2014 , and I don't doubt the anti-trans hate being thrown around by the anti-civil rights haters hellbent on stopping human rights advances that include us played a large part in the fact these sisters are no longer in this plane of existence..

Yes, I have no love for bad policing that results in our people ending up dead.   But I would like to have seen as a proud transperson of African descent just as much anger in Black America over Islan Nettles' killer still walking the streets unprosecuted.   I would have loved to have seen the same passion in the ATL and beyond over two trans women being attacked on MARTA trains.  I would have loved to have witnessed the same level of Black community anger over CeCe McDonald being unjustly incarcerated in a Minnesota jail for defending her life against a neo-Nazi.  And I would have loved to have seen Black political and community leaders in attendance at this year's TDOR's

If Black Lives Matter,  then Black Trans Lives Matter. 

The Trans Rights struggle is also an international  human rights struggle that has been rooted in the African-American tradition since the Dewey's Lunch Counter Sit In and Protest happened in Philadelphia nearly 50 years ago this coming April.

Just as our families include gay and lesbians in them, you also have transgender members as well who are part of the kente cloth fabric of Black society.   I defy any sellout kneegrow minister to tell me to my face I'm not Black.

I'm saying it loud, I'm Black trans and proud of being both, and you haters need to deal with that in the 2K15 and beyond.   We Black trans folks are going to demand our seats at the African-American family table, and we are not taking no for an answer any more.

We trans folks are proud Black people who care just as deeply about this community as you do, and it's past time you got that message.

It's also past time you heard another message concerning your trans brothers and trans sisters loud and clear, because it's going to get repeated often by me, other Black trans leaders and our allies in 2015.

#BlackTransLivesMatter because they are also Black lives that matter.

Happy Black Trans Kwanzaa 2014

Haban gari    What's The News?  

Well, today's news is that it is the first night of Kwanzaa for those peeps who celebrate it.  It will run through  January 1.

During the Kwanzaa 2010 and 2011 celebrations I wrote a series of posts that put a Black trans twist on the seven Nguzo Saba principles celebrated each night during Kwanzaa. 

What I attempted to do in 2010 and 2011 was break down  each one of the Nguzo Saba principles that are celebrated during Kwanzaa and explain how they apply to the African descended trans community.   

I wanted to point out by doing so not only that African-American trans people are not only members of the general African-American community with a shared history, but we trans Black folks can also use these principles  to organize to help us own our power

What are those principles that kinara candles are lit for over the next seven days of Kwanzaa?

• Umoja (Unity): To strive for and to maintain unity in the family, community, nation, and race.
• Kujichagulia (Self-Determination): To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves, and speak for ourselves.
• Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility): To build and maintain our community together and make our brothers' and sisters' problems our problems, and to solve them together.
• Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics): To build and maintain our own stores, shops, and other businesses and to profit from them together.
• Nia (Purpose): To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.
• Kuumba (Creativity): To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.
• Imani (Faith): To believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders, and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.

As the late Kwame Ture said. "In order to become a part o the greater society, you must first close ranks.".   It has been necessary at the beginning of this second decade of the 21st Century for trans African-Americans to unify, collectively organize, and own our power.

That simple act, combined with the last two years of proud African-American trans people becoming visible possibility models and spokespersons for the trans human rights movement and ourselves has scared the crap our of some folks.

It shouldn't, but if it does, too bad.because the Black trans unification train has left the station, and this needed to happen a long time ago.

We are simply doing what our ancestors did at the turn of the 20th century when also confronted by an America hostile to them and using those time tested techniques to build our community

We African-American transpeople exist at the intersections of oppressions for being Black and trans, and we have to come up with strategies to navigate those issues.

We are also evolving to become New Black Transmen and Transwomen.   We are beyond sick and tired of being demonized not only by society, but by elements of our own people who are doing so to sell out to the white conservative power structure or out of sheer ignorance.

They are also joined by elements of the white trans community jealous of our recent positive media attention.    Those issues must be addressed in concert with our allies in 2015 and beyond as well. 
  
The process must continue because in order for us to be able to help the ENTIRE trans community advance to have the human rights we all deserve, the African-American trans community must do so in order to counter the Forces of Intolerance who are organizing to oppose our just human rights cause.

And if you can't visualize the value of a stronger, powerful unified Black trans cohort confidently exercising its power in concert with our allies , then the problem lies with you.

So Happy Kwanzaa, Black Trans Style 2014.

PRIDE Houston Juneteenth Parade Conflict Update

Just an update to the boneheaded vanillacentric privileged PRIDE Houston decision to not move it from conflicting with the Juneteenth parade on the same June 20, 2015 day.  

This is after having it pointed put to them by Houston Black LGBT leaders and our allies that the date is problematic and could put the HERO in jeopardy if they don't wake up and see the big political picture aspects of this.

It has also put the Houston African-American SGL, trans and bi community once again in the uncomfortable position of having to not only choose between the events, but choose which community they intersect and interact with to support.

And on this one, we're going to choose our people.

First up, PRIDE Houston President and CEO Frankie Quijano misspoke lied about the pride parade being held on Juneteenth (June 19) in the past.   Here are the June dates of past Houston pride parades going back to 1994:

2014: 28
2013: 29
2012: 23
2011: 25
2010: 26
2009: 27
2008: 28
2007: 23
2006: 24
2005: 25
2004: 26
2003: 28
2002: 29
2001: 24
2000: 24
1999: 26
1998: 28
1997: 28
1996: 23
1995: 25, a Sunday
1994: 12, a Sunday, held on that date to not conflict with NYC's Stonewall 25 anniversary at the suggestion of legendary Houston gay activist Ray Hill.

So as you can see, the Houston Pride Parade has since 1994 NOT been held anywhere close to the June 19 date of Juneteenth.    Why now?   Is it simply cultural incompetence?   Or was it a deep seated need from the predominately white PRIDE Houston board to get back at the Black community for all the drama and animus stirred up in the HERO battle?

The news is spreading fast since I posted it at midnight.  Edward Pollard, the president of the Houston Black Area Democrats (HBAD) penned this letter to Frankie Quijano:

***
Mr. Quijano,
My name is Edward Pollard and I am the President of the Houston Black American Democrats. I am also an attorney and member of the historic Antioch Missionary Baptist Church downtown (oldest black church in Houston built by the newly freed slaves in 1866).I am writing you because I have received news that PRIDE Houston has decided to change the date and location of the PRIDE Parade to Juneteenth weekend downtown. I am not sure if you are aware of the significance of Juneteenth Holiday/Weekend in Houston but it is arguably the most highly recognized and celebrated weekend for Blacks, especially in Houston.
Juneteenth is the weekend Texans remember and celebrate the abolishment and emancipation of black slaves in our state. The holiday is celebrated because although the Emancipation Proclamation was signed by President Lincoln in 1862 and went into effect on January 1, 1863, slaves in Texas did not get news of their freedom until June of 1865.
Leaders in Houston have fought for Juneteenth to be a recognized and celebrated holiday in Texas and our community deserves for that celebration not to have to compete with the attention and coverage of the PRIDE Parade.
The black community understands more than any community what it feels like to be discriminated against. We understand what it means to fight for equality. That is one common bond we share with the LGBT community. Many efforts, sacrifices, and lost lives of our ancestors have afforded the civil rights that you and I have today.
It is my hope that you will not move the PRIDE parade to our historic Juneteenth celebration and respect that it is a weekend we want all people around Texas to reflect on our past and celebrate our present.
I would not be opposed to speaking with you further on this topic in person and I look forward to your response.

***.

I received a call at 1 PM from former Houston City Councilmember Jolanda Jones, who was alerted to the clueless decision of PRIDE Houston.  She is working to ensure that progressive African-American community leaders impress upon Mr. Quijano and his friends what they just set off could imperil the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance if it goes to a repeal vote during next year's city elections.

This is not a simple dispute about a parade date.   This is about cultural respect that sadly, the PRIDE Houston board has demonstrated it lacks.

So let them hear your thoughts at tomorrow's PRIDE Perspective meeting  at the Montrose Center 401 Branard St.    It starts at 7 PM, so let them know your thoughts on this issue.

#CHANGEtheDATE #RESPECTus #RespectJuneteenth

Message To The Brothers

TransGriot Note:  This deserves a signal boost.

It was written by Julian Long in response to the renewed drama surrounding Ray Rice.   It has jumpstarted a  conversation in our community right now about domestic violence as a result of the termination of his Ravens contract and the indefinite (and long overdue) NFL suspension resulting from punching his wife following a domestic dispute in a New Jersey casino.

And now, take it away Mr. Long.

Black men. Fellas. Brothers.

I need you to stop complaining about Ray Rice's (much deserved and yet woefully insufficient punishment) RIGHT NOW.

When we - Black men are beaten, slain, left in the street and otherwise persecuted our sisters, our mothers, our women stand for us with nearly unilateral unwavering support. They march for us. They cry out our names and demand justice. They support us in our moments of quiet fear when we shed the bitter shameful tears of self-doubt and fatigue. If you cannot find it within you to get over your idol worship and stand up for our sisters when they are being abused and mistreated then you need to spend some serious time in reflection.

STOP looking for reasons to diminish Ray Rice's actions.
"Well...it couldn't have been that bad. She married him."
It doesn't matter.

"She should know he's a big man and if provoked he's gonna hit back"
It doesn't matter.

"She charged at him"
It doesn't matter.

"She hit him first"
It doesn't matter.

"He's trained to hit. He can't stop it. It's a reflex."
Are you f*cking kidding me. That's absurd and even if it were true IT DOESN'T MATTER.

When you say these kinds of things – when you look for ways to go easy on Ray Rice when you claim he's "already been punished" you do two things – first you tell black women "Your lives and your sense of safety have less value to me than the recreational sports entertainment I watch ritually." You tell the women who stand for you- cry for you- demand justice for you ––"thanks for all that but don't mess with my game" You deny them any hope of feeling safe with you. You reinforce the perception that they are ALONE in their struggle. Which in turn signals to those who would further victimize them (you know- general society that places Black women at the very bottom of valued humans) that they are free to move at will.

The second thing you do is – and this is irony – you borrow from the script of people like supporters of Darren Wilson. Let's compare notes...

"He shouldn't have been in the street"
It doesn't matter

"He should have listened to the cop"
It doesn't matter

"They say he stole so he was in the mindset to resist arrest"
It doesn't matter

"Cops are trained to shoot to kill. He couldn't help it it was reflex.."
Are you seeing the terrifying parallel? IT DOESN'T MATTER.

Brothers. Recognize wrong and stand up for what's right. Whatever happened between them and whatever they did to patch things up is irrelevant to the fact that no man has business hitting (let alone knocking out) any woman over a spat. He should regard the use of his body against her as lethal force and exercise restraint above all else.

Also stop sipping your damn tea.

IT IS YOUR BUSINESS

When one of our sisters is hurt, abused or in peril it's OUR business. Because when somebody has us jammed against a car with 5 or 6 weapons drawn at us they sure as hell make it their business to monitor record and speak out. They throw themselves in peril to see us safe –– and you can't manage as much as a a supportive Facebook post?!

GTFOH. I mean it. we don't need that sh*t in our community.

 

Houston Black Community Needs To Be BETTER LGBT Allies

You and your misguided friends are hypocritically siding with the same conservative oppressors that oppose the African-American community on human rights issues of importance to us such as voting rights and workplace fairness, and it's a disgusting spectacle to witness.
--TransGriot, May 18, 2014, Houston Black Pastors, Sick Of You Denying Our Humanity 

As my readers already know, I have no problem telling it like it T-I-S is and calling out friend, foe or frenemy when it's warranted. 

Since I unleashed a  post taking the Houston LGBT community to task for its failure to work intersectionally, it's time to also call out the ways in which the Houston African-American community has also failed to do the same with the local LGBT community instead of pointing fingers and smugly thinking their feces is malodorous.

There is a perception in elements of the white LGBT community that Black people are 'uniquely homophobic'.  Yeah, I know it's bull feces and we in Black LGBT world are constantly doing battle with that meme when it comes up in conversation with our white GLBT brothers and sisters.

But that perception is cosigned when you have loud and wrong ministers like Max Miller and company and others nationally in the community like Bishop Eddie Long twisting Scriptures trying to mask their homophobia and participating in anti-gay rallies. 

It's also an infuriating head scratcher to us in LGBT World that elements of the African-American community would partner with the same white Texas GOP conservatives like Jared Woodfill who have oppressed and hated on our community for decades in order to scuttle a mutually beneficial Houston Equal Rights Ordinance..

Dave Welch, another one of those white conservative haters, is the executive director of the far-right Houston Area Pastors Council and one of our community's long time enemies.  He was the founding Executive Director of the Christian Coalition of Washington, the National Field Director of Christian Coalition, the Executive Director of Vision America and chickened out of a debate with Cristan Williams, after she handed him his bigoted behind on FOX 26 back in 2010.  

He's also the local affiliate for NOM, who has been since 2009 engaged in a cynical campaign to drive a wedge between the African-American and BTLG communities.

“The strategic goal of this project is to drive a wedge between gays and blacks—two key Democratic constituencies. Find, equip, energize and connect African American spokespeople for marriage, develop a media campaign around their objections to gay marriage as a civil right; provoke the gay marriage base into responding by denouncing these spokesmen and women as bigots…”

***

“These documents expose NOM for what it really is—a hate group determined to use African American faith leaders as pawns to push their damaging agenda and as mouthpieces to amplify that hatred,” said  Sharon Lettman-Hicks, National Black Justice Coalition Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer at the time.

Max Miller and the Baptist Ministers Association of Houston and Vicinity are making King Hater Dave Welch smile.   He gets to sit back, plug y'all into that NOM game plan and let Max Miller and the rest of you be the useful spokesfools in the divide and conquer game they're running as he and his white conservatives laugh and use y'all as human shields to hide behind and claim they have a 'diverse coalition' to oppose the HERO.  

Meanwhile you're pissing us SGL peeps off by being in bed with one of our major longtime enemies, and you wonder why the Houston LGBT community coolly sits on the sidelines and their wallets for issues you deem important. 

Speaking of crap, me and my fellow Houston trans people are more than upset about being demonized in this anti-HERO campaign and y'all falling for the bathroom predator okey-doke.

We are facing 26% unemployment, have transpeople openly being denied jobs or having them rescinded when their trans status is revealed, fired for BS reasons, have recently had five transwomen across the nation killed in a six week period, and you wanna trip about where we poop and piss?   

The Izza Lopez case and what happened to Tyjanae Moore and other Black trans and SGL women is why gender identity was added to the 15 protected classes of the HERO.  

And FYI, HISD has has a non-discrimination policy that includes gender identity since 2011 with none of the parade of horribles Max and Dave have been peddling.    As a matter of fact, there have been no cases of trans predators attacking cis women in bathrooms, but we sure do have examples, including here in Houston on the University of Houston-Downtown campus, of trans women being attacked and harassed by cis women  in the bathroom.   The UHD attack led to the passage of a policy that created designated gender neutral bathrooms in UHD buildings.

FYI, contrary to the 'gay affluence' fiction, while some peeps in the community are doing well, there are others who have been priced out of Montrose.   There are others for who living in the gayborhood will be a never fulfilled pipe dream because they are trying to get by on below poverty level wages of $10,000 a year.   Many of the folks who are trying to live on that $10K  a year share your ethnic heritage.


As I've pointed out more than a few times on this blog, Black LGBT issues are also Black community issues.  None of us gave up our Black cards because we began to live our SGL truth or transitioned.   Like myself, many of us also have deep roots in the Houston African-American community and are just as proud of our Black heritage as we are of being unapologetically LGBT people.

So stop trying to pretend like we aren't Black because we are also part of the TBLG community, because our haters, elements of our white LGBT counterparts and the world sure don't let us forget we're Black. 

Some of us are dues paying members of the NAACP, the Divine Nine  frats and sororities, faithful tithing members of various churches, and support other organizations in this community.  It is disingenuous and angering to us when you try to play that game of SGL, bi and trans peeps not being "Black enough' for this community when what ails the Black community also ails us, and we have an extra layer of oppression heaped upon our Black bodies because of our BTLG status.

And we in LGBT world are not liking the cricket chirping silence or flip-flopping of legislators our endorsements, votes and dollars support.  

Neither do we appreciate Black community orgs when we need you to come out of the closet and be fierce advocates for our policy concerns being silent or being consistently inconsistent about your LGBT community support.  .   

So yes, it's past time for the Houston Black community to be BETTER allies to the LGBT community

Houston Style Magazine, Stop Pimping The HERO Bathroom Lie

One of the things that has really pissed me and Team HERO off about this battle to pass the now week old Houston Equal Rights Ordinance is how the elements of the Houston media are still stuck on stupid in continuing to deploy the bathroom meme.

The latest demonstration of facts free Houston media stenography concerning the HERO comes from Houston Style magazine.   It's a local African-American oriented publication that's available on newsstands in predominately Black H-town neighborhoods.and has a Facebook presence.

I was angered along with Team HERO to see Houston Style post this grossly inaccurate June 2 commentary on the HERO on their Facebook page that made it all about the bathroom and once again poured gasoline on the lie injected into this HERO debate by the Daves and the Black auxiliary ministerial sellouts about the damned bathrooms.

The push to pass the HERO started because of the discrimination experienced by a straight Black woman who is a sitting judge (Alexandra Smoots Hogan) at a Washington Ave nightspot.  She discovered along with Councilmember Ellen Cohen there was no way to address that type of discrimination locally unless you filed a federal lawsuit.  . .



Houston Style, it is irresponsible stenography like this (it doesn't deserve to be called reporting) that leads to anti-trans hatred and attacks upon trans African-Americans.

Here's a crash course in Trans 101 that you sorely need.  You also need to remember that some of the trans people you are dissing have melanin in their skin and African heritage.

As one of those proud Black trans Houstonians who fought for passage of the HERO and is a leader in the African-American trans community locally and nationally, I'm beyond sick and tired of being sick and tired of the anti-trans hatred and ignorance being trafficked in our community and our media outlets.    

You should be ashamed of yourselves, Houston Style magazine for perpetuating the debunked transphobic lies of longtime gay baiters Dave Wilson and Dave Welch.   I'm sure the Daves, the Republican Party and their Baptist Ministers of Houston and Vicinity sellouts are pleased you continued the perpetration of disinformation about a long needed ordinance that protects the human rights of ALL Houstonians, not just those of us in the trans, SGL and Bi community.



I'd demand a retraction and apology, but I'd probably have better odds of seeing the Astros, Texans, Rockets, Dynamo and Dash all win championships in the same year than seeing you post an apology for this transbaiting piece. 

How about you do the Houston African-American community a huge favor by doing your jobs and actually printing the facts about the HERO instead of the 'fear and smear' talking points of the opposition?


TransGriot Update: A retraction was made for the problematic bathroom lie  comments I was lambasting in this post.

'The New Black' H-town Screening Tomorrow

I have been waiting for this award winning documentary to come to Houston for months, and it is driving me crazy to discover that it is scheduled to be screened on the same day I'll be at City Council awaiting the HERO vote.

That film I've been anxious to see is Yoruba Richen's The New Black, which is being screened tomorrow at the Houston Public Library location downtown right across the street from City Hall at 6:00 PM.

The New Black details the successful 2012 marriage equality referendum fight to preserve it that happened in Maryland, and features two very familiar faces to me in Sharon Lettman-Hicks, the ED and CEO of the National Black Justice Coalition and Samantha Master.   




The Houston Public Library downtown location address is 500 McKinney Street.  The screening is free and seating for it is first come first served.   I doubt that City Council will be finished with their HERO 'bidness' by the time this film starts, so I'd encourage those of you who can't be in council chambers to check it out.

But if by some miracle they are, it'll be a wonderful way for me to celebrate what I hope will be an H-town  human rights win.
 
 

Unveiling Of Houston MLK Jr. Plaza Statue Delayed

Across the street from the soon to be opened MacGregor Park-MLK Station on the METRORail Purple Line a memorial plaza is being built.  

That plaza will contain an 8 foot bronze statue of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the 30 year old 'Tree of Life' that was planted by the Black Heritage Society back in 1983 in the middle of the MLK Blvd esplanade at Old Spanish Trail. 


The Black Heritage Society founded by Ovide Duncantell in 1974 was instrumental in getting South Park Blvd. renamed for Dr. King in 1978 and starting the parade held on his January 15 birthday.   He and the BHS have been pushing the city of Houston for 33 years to get a statue honoring the Good Doctor erected at that site.  

When METRO began planning the Purple Line route down MLK Blvd they were unaware the 'Tree of Life' was in the middle of the planned MacGregor Park-MLK Station they were set to build in the esplanade.

In 2012 METRO agreed to move the 30 year old oak tree and contribute funds to build the memorial plaza across the street.    

The statue was scheduled to be unveiled on Friday, but unfortunately was damaged just prior to being shipped to Houston and is being repaired. 

The candlelight vigil went on as scheduled.  The rescheduled date for the statue unveiling and a parade starting at Griggs Rd heading north up MLK toward the statue and MacGregor Park that was supposed to take place yesterday along with other events connected to the statue unveiling has yet to be determined or announced.

The memorial plaza was completed in January.   The theme of it has the Tree of Life as part of the Atlanta Birth Axis and a Memphis Assassination Axis with 8 foot wide sidewalks.  The statue will be located in the center including a four foot pedestal it will be anchored to that raises the total height to 12 feet. 

Pink granite benches for sitting and meditation, pavement lights, a granite donor wall and MLK quotes verified by the King Center from the 1963 'Letter From Birmingham City Jail' laid in the granite flooring complete the design of the memorial plaza that will have Houston join cities such as Atlanta and Washington D.C. which have memorial plazas dedicated to the memory of Dr. King.     

Looking forward to seeing the H-town version when the statue is finally added to the completed plaza. 

It's been a long time coming, and it will definitely be a nice addition to MacGregor Park and that corner..   

Whose Beloved Community? Conference In ATL This Weekend

Those of you in the ATL will have the opportunity to attend this conference at Emory University  from March 27-29 entitled Whose Beloved Community? Black Civil and LGBT Rights..

It brings together TBLG and civil rights scholars activists and other community stakeholders as they spend what promises to be an interesting weekend advancing a more comprehensive and expansive view of justice.

The conference is sponsored by Emory University's  James Weldon Johnson Institute for the Study of Race and Difference, and the Emory Women's Center along with many other university divisions, and the Arcus and Ford Foundations.

Atlanta is the perfect venue for this conference because it is the historic cradle of the African-American civil rights movement combined with the fact that the ATL is considered the mecca of the Black SGL, trans and bi community.   More Black LGBT people live in the South than in any other region of the country, and Atlanta is the hub city for it.      

A keynote conversation to open the conference with longtime civil rights leader Julian Bond, African-American lesbian social-justice activist Mandy Carter, and activist Alexis Pauline Gumbs, co-founder of the Mobile Homecoming Project, will take place in Glenn Memorial Auditorium starting at 7:30 PM EDT on Thursday, March 27.   The location is 1660 N. Decatur Road and the keynote event is free and open to the public.

Conference sessions will be held at the Emory Conference Center beginning on Friday, March 28 at 9 AM and will feature panels on topics including religion, scholarship, LGBT and civil rights history, marriage equality, activism and literature. On Saturday, panel sessions begin at 8:30 AM and the conference will conclude with a closing reception from 4-7 PM.

Saving JJ-The Sequel

Last year I wrote about the controversial efforts of HISD Superintendent Dr. Terry Grier to close my high school alma mater that was thwarted by a coalition of people that included moi.

We bought ourselves some time after last year's unanimous 8-0 HISD board meeting vote to table it, but like Jason, the proposal being pushed by Grier to close Jones isn't dead yet.

This time the proposal was to close Jones and send the students to Worthing and Sterling.   That proposal got the same thumbs down at the February 11 community meeting held on JJ's campus as the Jones-Sterling merger got  last year and I said as much during that meeting that was attended by a multicultural crowd of  over 100 people.

Read my lips and this post HISD school board.   The students, teachers and the South Park community want Jesse H. Jones High School to stay open.  Most importantly we want HISD to fix the mess that was created when the Vanguard magnet program was shadily stripped off the campus back in 2002 and time to come up with alternatives to boost enrollment.  

Marketing the school to the growing South Park Latino population would be another one.  Creating programs and activities that would appeal to the neighborhood kids whose talents gravitate to things other than the STEM program along with bringing Vanguard back home by creating another VG high school program on that campus.  .

If it weren't for the removal of the Vanguard program and its subsequent housing on a separate campus now relocated to the Montrose area,  Jones would have an enrollment of 1030 students and I wouldn't even be writing this post.   It would help if we had stability in JJ's principal's office along with HISD ceasing and desisting with the yearly threats to close JJ. That would be a great start toward boosting its enrollment because some of the transfers out of the Jones attendance zone are driven by that.   

I had the pleasure at that February 11 meeting of talking to the current Falcons who were excited and happy to know that they weren't alone in this fight and alums were in the JJ house to help them in this battle to keep Jesse H. Jones High School open.


HISD is still peddling the same snake oil they were trying to sell the community last year to justify the closure.  Low enrollment, high transfer rate out of the Jones attendance zone, high budget cost per student and changing neighborhood demographics that were all debunked in this March 5 Houston Forward Times article.

Performance has not been a factor with the closures.   Some of the 19 schools that were closed, like Rhoads Elementary were exemplary ranked schools.   Dodson Elementary, which has the highly successful HISD Montessori program on its campus that my sister attended, is also slated for closure Thursday and sits along I-45 in the EaDo shadow of downtown Houston mere blocks from the Purple Line light rail line being built. 
   
The African-American community is still pissed that the bulk of the school closings during Grier's controversial tenure as superintendent since 2009 have disproportionately been aimed at schools in African-American neighborhoods, with the school properties subsequently sold to charter outfits, private schools or in Ryan's case after its closure last year turned into a magnet school.     

Some of the players have changed since last March.   Juliet Stipeche is now the HISD board president, and removed three of the schools slated for closure off the list.    Too bad she didn't kill it period.  

At this upcoming Thursday board meeting you'll have Wanda Adams, my former city councilmember sitting in the seat formerly occupied by Grier ally Lawrence Marshall.  Adams just penned a Houston Chronicle op-ed concerning the shifting goalpost for school closures and the need for a consistent set of metrics for doing so

The shifting goalposts and dismissive lack of action on what the community says is needed to reverse the negative enrollment problem HISD caused is what is pissing many of us off in this fight to keep JJ open.

We know the district caused the problem, arrogantly will not listen to the community suggestions to fix the problem, and are continuing to use debunked talking points to try to justify the school's closure.  

If you wish to speak at Thursday's board meeting, you have until 4:30 PM today to sign up and it's Item F-1 on the board meeting agenda.   

  
Stay tuned because there will be fireworks at this Thursday's HISD 4 PM CDT board meeting.    
. 

Upcoming 'Whose Beloved Community?' Conference At Emory

Definitely wish I could b in the ATL for this one, but I'm already committed to an event on the HCC-Southeast campus on one of the dates for this conference..

Emory University is hosting an international conference entitled 'Whose Beloved Community?  Black Civil and LGBT Rights Movements that is right up my activist alley. 

It is taking place on the Emory U.campus from March 27-29 which support from the Arcus Foundation  and I posted the Call For Proposals on TransGriot last March.

The role of Black lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in both race-based and sexuality-based civil rights movements is frequently rendered invisible as a result of prevailing national narratives that present (presumed white) LGBT communities and (presumed straight) Black communities as opposing forces. 

In recent years, however, an increasing number of scholars and activists have produced work seeking to make visible the vital points of intersection and contention among the U.S. Civil Rights movement, the LGBT equality movement, and Black LGBT communities.  This work is shaped by questions related to identity formation, intersectionality, tokenism, marriage equality, the role of religion and “respectability” in African American communities, the emergence of the South as a center of Black LGBT life in the U.S., HIV/AIDS and its continuing effect on African American communities, the proliferation of a prison-industrial complex unprepared for its LGBT population, and the appropriation of the civil rights movement by the right. 

This conference seeks to make visible and critically engage the points of convergence and divergence between these two historic, overlapping, yet distinct social movements that continue to transform civil society, law, and the academy.

Should be an informative and lively discussion, and I hope it doesn't turn out to be a monoethnic event.   

Open Letter To The UHD Black Student Alliance

As you TransGriot reader are aware of, I was part of a wonderful panel discussion yesterday with Augie Augustine, Dee Dee Watters and Ashton Woods entitled African American Perspective Within The LGBTQ Community.

It was a no holds barred discussion in which we touched on a lot of issues inside and outside the bi, SGL  and trans communities and was enjoyed by the people in attendance.   I thank LaTrina Carter and Safe Zone once again for the opportunity to be a part of it.

One group that was supposed to be a part of it was the UHD Black Student Alliance.  They had agreed to co-host the event with Safe Zone, but I discovered when I arrived on campus that they pulled out with as of this writing no explanation.     .  

That didn't sit well with me, and I decided to write this open letter to express why they should have followed through with their agreed commitment, especially in this case.

***

Dear UHD Black Student Alliance,

As one of the participants in yesterday's panel discussion that you were supposed to co-host with Safe Zone, it bothered me to hear when I arrived on campus that you pulled out of the event at the last moment.

And the salient question I have for you at this moment which compels me to write this open letter is why did y'all pull out of the event with Safe Zone today?

Was it fear of the unknown? You didn't want to be associated with 'those people'? Not willing to step out of your comfort zone and learn something about a group of fellow African-Americans that love being Black as much as you do and also happen to be LGBT? You don't want to walk the walk when it comes to unity in our community?

Or was it a case of unresolved phobias, hate and bias toward the SGL, trans and bi community?

You missed out on an opportunity to not only get your learn on about the Houston Black LGBT community, you also missed an opportunity to ask us questions, learn about how we navigate our lives, and also about the issues we deal with as we interact with the various communities we intersect with as African-American LGBT people. 

But the thing I'm most saddened and concerned about for my Safe Zone fam was that it was a lost opportunity to do some chocolate community building  and jump start an on campus dialogue between that is sorely needed.  

As the passage last week and subsequent veto of SB 1062 in Arizona emphatically proves, all oppressions are linked.   That bill aimed at the GLBT community would have also had deleterious discriminatory impact on you cis Black straight peeps as well.   

You would have also discovered had you shown up in Room N420 today that Black trans issues are Black community issues.   If the NAACP and other legacy organizations in our community understand that, why can't you?  

The voter suppression laws that the state of Texas passed knocked me out of the 2013 election cycle, but because you no-showed, you didn't get to hear me talk about that.  

You would have also been surprised to discover that I and my fellow panelists are just as concerned about other issues that impact the Black community besides TBLG ones.  

You also missed hearing about the other interesting aspects of my life and the lives of Augie, Ashton, Dee Dee, LaTrina and some of the people in the audience who spoke today.

You would  have also discovered that I'm unapologetically Black and a member of the BTLG community like 'errbody' else on that panel and our moderator was yesterday.  We also aware of what we need to do individually and collectively to uplift our people and also own our power in the LGBT community we are an important part of.


That's what you missed by not showing up, and it's your loss.  But you do owe your fellow Gator LaTrina Carter, who worked hard to put the panel together, an honest explanation along with the members of Safe Zone as to why you did so.

The bottom line is that not I nor anyone else on that panel forfeited our Black Cards when we acknowledged we're also members of the trans, bi and SGL communities. 

We were all looking forward to having that dialogue and building that sorely needed community on the UHD campus and within the 600 plus square miles of Texas soil that we call Houston.  We have more that unites us than divides us, including a shared community history and African ancestry and batturd delusional conservafool politicians that have a foaming at the mouth hatred of Blackness.

In closing, I'd like to say this.  If you claim to love Black people, then you must love ALL Black people, including trans, SGL and bi ones, without exception.


Respectfully yours,
Monica Roberts
The TransGriot

Time To Deal With The Contentious Relationship Between Cis Black Men And Cis Black Women

I commented on that disgusting video earlier this week that has been generating somewhat heated discussion across the Blackosphere and beyond.  

But in the wake of me posting my response to it, it also gave me time to contemplate why has the relationship between cis Black women and cis Black men gotten this contentious? 

Is it as bad as this video indicates?

I sincerely hope it isn't.  I hope it was just a random event that happened to have a camera around to capture it.. 

My sis Laverne Cox mentioned during one of her speeches at UNC-Chapel Hill a few weeks ago that she was saddened to hear the go-to gender identifying terms among younglings are not male and female, but the n-word and the b-word.

Ouch.  And yeah, that's a problem.  Then toss into this volatile mix misogyny, stir in resentment on both sides, bake and voila, drama will ensue. 

Some elements of our Black male population are resenting the fact that sistahs are not only getting their educations and degrees, but getting the stacks of Benjamins and CEO positions that come with those degrees.

Some sistahs are upset that when they do make the sacrifices to get that sheepskin, elevate their status, and reach that point in their lives they are ready to get married and have children with men who have the same status levels and ethnic background they do, they irritatingly see that pool of brothers increasingly getting coupled with non-Black women..

Whether this is just one of the issues feeding into that drama between Black men and Black women, or there are others to add to these two I briefly mentioned, whatever the drama is that's causing heightened agitation between Black men and Black women and damaging our potential to form long lasting romantic relationships with each other needs to be squashed as soon as possible. 

We have a long laundry list of problems to deal with as a community that need our undivided attention to solve together without having adding hostility between Black men and Black women to it.    .

And if it means we Black trans men and trans women end up being the ones who step up to role model what a healthy relationship looks like between Black men and Black women to the cis Black community and the world, then let's get busy Black trans community doing so.

The time has come for us as a community to deal with the contentious relationship between Black cis men and cis women.  

Houston 2013 Runoff Election-Talkin' To My District D Peeps

The early voting for the 2013 City of Houston runoff elections starts in a few hours and runs through December 10, with the final runoff election date on December 14.

In case you're wondering, the only thing Mayor Annise Parker will be doing on this date is voting in the two at large council races since she already won reelection for her third and final term back on November 5. 

We have runoff races in Council Districts A, D (where I live) and District I, and the Position 2 and 3 At large City Council seats are also being contested.

In District A it's a rematch between incumbent Helena 'Madame No' Brown and the woman Brown knocked out of that seat in 2011, former councilmember Brenda Stardig.

In District I the runoff for this open seat is between Robert Gallegos and Graciana 'Graci' Garces, the former chief of staff for term-limited District I Councilmember James Rodriguez..

In Position 2 incumbent councilmember Andrew Burks, Jr was forced into a runoff against David W. Robinson, and in District 3, the open seat that Jenifer narrowly missed getting into the runoff for, Michael Kubosh will square off against Roy Morales.
 
But I want to talk to my peeps in District D for a minute.

There have been some disquieting revelations coming out lately about Dwight Boykins, who along with Georgia Provost is one of the two candidates in the District D race vying to replace term limited Councilmember Wanda Adams.

Adams is leaving City Hall to move on to the HISD Board of Trustees after winning her school board race.    

We had twelve candidates that filed to run for this race.   Whoever gets that District D City Council seat will be representing our various communities in it for the next two years.

We already have an infuriating example of a white conservative Republican anti-TBLG activist in Dave Wilson misrepresenting himself as a Black person in order to get elected to the HCC board seat that represents our community and knocking out 24 year incumbent Bruce Austin in the process. 

In Wilson we now are stuck with for the next six years someone in that seat who is polar opposite of Bruce Austin.   Wilson doesn't live in our community, is a Tea Party member and doesn't have nor cares to acquire the cultural competency necessary to successfully represent our community's interests on the HCC Board.

But back to talking about the District D council race.

With the original Red light rail line crossing District D, the Purple Line under construction that is scheduled for completion in the second quarter of 2014 and the east-west Blue Line under design that will terminate near UH combined with worries about gentrification as a result of development along those light rail lines, there have been people in the district concerned about the historic levels of money business interests have poured into Boykins' campaign.  

But the one thing that is not sitting well with people and sending red flags up is his admission that he voted in the 2010 GOP primary.   That's a major problem if you're claiming to be a Democrat in this solidly yellow dog Democratic leaning predominately African-American council district because Republicans are as well liked in my part of town as a Longhorn fan in College Station.   DINO's get kicked out of seats in this district with the quickness.. 

For you TBLG Houstonians who live in District D, Boykins has the added problem of being evasive concerning where he stands in terms of adding gender identity and sexual orientation language to the City of Houston's non-discrimination ordinance. 

If Dwight Boykins is indeed the DINO he's been revealed to be, and more concerned with doing the GOP's bidding than standing up for District D's residents, it's not only great we found out now, but at a point where we can do something about it at the ballot box and vote for the other candidate in the race in Georgia Provost between now and December 14. 

Anything you find out about Boykins after December 14 or if he wins, after he's standing up there on January 1, 2014 taking the oath of office from Mayor Parker at the Wortham Theater is too late. Character and integrity matter in this runoff election. We've already seen the evidence that the Harris County GOP and its conservative acolytes like Wilson will stoop to any level to get elected.   Their unwavering support of voter suppression legislation is ample proof of that. 

I have no doubts their shady 'win by any means necessary' campaign tactics include running for office in our neighborhoods chocolate coated Republicans with little to no paper trail or history of service to our community.   They know that because an overwhelming majority of African-Americans reject the racist Texas GOP message, they know they couldn't win in this district with their standard 'proven conservative leadership' rhetoric spouting vote NO on everything obstructionist peeps like Helena Brown, much less a cookie chomping knee-grow spouting the usual Teapublican crap.  .

So District D peeps and 'errbody' else in H-town, you have until December 14 to handle your electoral business.