NBJC OUT On The Hill 2016 Starts Wednesday!

Unfortunately I won't be there in DC because of other commitments, but had to let you TransGriot readers know that the National Black Justice Coalition's (NBJC) OUT on the Hill Black LGBT Leadership Summit is one of my favorite events.

The 2016 edition of OUT on the Hill will be taking place September 14-17, with the theme of The Post-Obama Era: What's Next?   Since this also takes place at the roughly the same time as the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's Annual Legislative Conference,

OUT on the Hill has always had some collaborative panels with the CBC-ALC event and provided opportunities for OUT on the Hill attendees to access the CBC-ALC event taking place over at the DC Convention Center.



OUT on the Hill kicks off with an Issues Advocacy Day at the US Capitol on September 14, a welcome reception on Thursday sponsored by HRC, the OOTH 2016 one on Friday  and the closing State of the Black LGBTQ/SGL Community brunch on Saturday.

While I won't be in the OUT on the Hill house this year, as always I hope this event is megasuccessful, and hope my schedule will allow me to attend it in 2017.

And if your schedule allows you do do so, here's the link to register for the OOTH2016 conference.

Happy 10th Blogiversary Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters!

Eight months after I founded TransGriot on January 1, on September 6, 2006 South Carolina based blogger Alvin McEwen was founding his now decade old award winning blog entitled Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters.

The blog was initially started by McEwen as an effort to support a book of the same name that Alvin was trying to get published that discussed the anti-gay industry, but turned out to be far more successful than the book was according to Alvin.

I finally got to meet him and Pam Spaulding at Netroots Nation 2012 in Providence, and had a blast getting to know him and discussing with him and Pam some of the issues impacting our community at the time.   I also have the pleasure from time to time of chatting with my fellow Southern blogging colleague on a somewhat regular basis.

Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters has done such a great job of calling out the tactics of the anti-gay right, he has become after Joe Jervis of Joe My God, the other LGBTQ blogger they love to hate  

McEwen's blog has also been nominated twice (2014-2015) for GLAAD Media  Awards, and there are times I link to him for his take on the issues of the faux Christians and their ongoing facts free attacks on our LGBTQ community and other subjects.

Happy blogiversary Alvin and congrats on 10 years of publishing success for your blog. It is needed and even more necessary now than it was when it started.

May you have continued success in exposing the facts free hypocrisy and outright blasphemous lies of the anti-LGBTQ industry.

Busy H-Town Saturday

Saturday was a busy one for me as I attended two events that were fortunately happening only a mile apart.

I was asked by Rhys Caraway to present an award that went to Phoebe Van Cleefe at the #BlackQueerMagic Empowerment Brunch that was held in the shadow of downtown Houston at St, John's UNC.and sponsored by Young Black Voices.

That even started at 12:30 PM, and after we got our grub on, the awards presentation started with much of activist Houston in the room for this event..

Awards were also presented to Jason Black, Mike Webb, Aurora Gray and Fran Watson in addition to two Bayard Rustin Scholarships that was emceed by Harrison Gray.

After spending an enjoyable two hours there Dee Dee Watters and I headed over to the HSPVA campus that's still in Montrose for now for a 30th anniversary celebration for Bering Omega House.

What many people don't realize is that Houston was one of the early Ground Zero's for the HIV epidemic that broke out in 1981 with the nastier HTLV-1 virus

Indigent terminally ill AIDS patients were finding themselves once they were discharged from the various Houston hospitals with no place to go.  Omega House was founded by then 76 year old retired Montessori teacher Eleanor Munger in 1986 to fill that critical care gap and give indigent people suffering with AIDS die with dignity.  

With $10,000 in seed money from Christ Church Cathedral, Munger opened the four bed all volunteer run facility with the mission to compassionately care for terminally ill AIDS patients in their final stages that could no longer be cared for by the traditional medical establishment.

It was the first residential hospice in Texas, and it recently merged with Houston Area Community Services.  Bering Omega House and celebrated its 30th year of existence with a short program in HSPVA's Denny Theater in which longtime workers there recalled the early days of its existence.

Munger passed away in 2004 at age 92, but the residential hospice she founded is still very much a part of the community.  Some of the peeps who were at the Empowerment Brunch with us also took time like Dee Dee and I did to spend a few moment at that ceremony that began at 4 PM, and also included a tour of the facility.

It was a long day, but it's always good to see my Houston community peeps.and spend some quality time with them, especially since I've  piled up a lot of frequent flier miles this year.

And I couldn't think of a better way to spend my day than to celebrate the achievements of some of our young activists and the 30th anniversary of a critical institution in our community.

#Black Queer Magic Empowerment Brunch Tomorrow

Tomorrow afternoon the Young Black Voices group will present their Empowerment Brunch that serves to honor Houston area Black LGBTQ community leaders that are empowering at the intersections of their identities.

They are also honoring the 2016 Bayard Rustin Scholars during this complimentary brunch that is being held at St. John's United Methodist Church.  

I've been asked to present an award to one of the honorees, and I'm looking forward to seeing this person again and meeting all of the 2016 award winners.

If you wish to attend, St John's UMC is located at 2019 Crawford St in the heart of downtown Houston, and will start at 12:30 PM

Looking forward to seeing everyone there.

The New Black H-Town Panel Discussion

Thursday was a busy day for me.   I spent a few hours at the Harris County Domestic Violence Coordinating Council January meeting that afternoon as their guest speaker talking to the cross section of women in that room about how domestic violence issues impact the trans community.

I spent Thursday evening at 14 Pews NOT watching the latest GOP presidential debate and being part of a panel discussion focused on the Black LGBT community organized by the Infamous Iota chapter of Delta Phi Upsilon Fraternity, Inc. and moderated by Brandon Mack and Januari Leo.  

Before we dove into that moderated discussion that featured a cross section of Houston feminine leaders that included newly elected Houston LGBT Caucus president Fran Watson, Shekira Dennis, Christina Gorczynski, and some blogger nobody reads, we spent a few moments getting to socialize and chat about a few things before we started watching at 7 PM the Yoruba Richen documentary The New Black.
Just in case y'all wish to view it, it is currently on Netflix.

The New Black is a movie that should have been required viewing for Houston Unites before they tried and massively failed to defend HERO.

Yeah, still pissed about that HERO defeat and the piss poor Prop 8 2.0 campaign that led to its repeal along with a lot of peeps in Houston Black TBLG World.

But back to the post.

Once that screening was over, after Brandon's remarks, he turned over the program to Januari for the panel discussion that lasted until 9:15 PM because there was just a lot of subjects to unpack.

Thanks again Iota Chapter of Delta Phi Upsilon Fraternity, Inc.for the invitation to be a part of this amazing evening, and continued success in fulfilling your ongoing mission to inform and educate our community.

OOTH 2015-Saturday Recap

The last full day of OUT on the Hill 2015 activity, and Saturday morning I awakened to what is a familiar sight to Washingtonians but not to this Texan.

I was awakened by the roar of motorcycles and sirens and got to my seventh floor hotel room window just in time to see the presidential motorcade speeding by heading in the direction of the White House.

I went from witnessing that sight to witnessing an amazing State of the Black LGBTQ/SGL Community panel that started at 9:00 AM focused on the wellness of our community.

It was a panel moderated by the Rev. Dr. Jamie Washington featuring Valerie Spencer, Faith Cheltenham, Dr. Cleo Manago. Tim'm West, Geneva Musgrave and Rayceen Pendavis had some tell it like it T-I-S is moments and commentary about what we needed to do in a multipronged ongoing strategic way to build and continue focusing on Black LGBT community wellness.

It ended way too fast, and I stayed in that room to check out a Tim'm West moderated panel entitled Brave Education: OUT Black Educators Advancing Educational Excellence.

The panel that started at 12:15 PM discussed the issues, challenges and joys in K-12 schools for TBLGQ students of color and the out teachers and administrators seeking to prepare them for collegiate studies and the world.

There were also comments from the panelists that pointed out that the public education system need to just as concerned about producing students who are critical thinkers than their ability to take a standardized test.

It also pointed out how important it was to have out Black LGBTQ educators on these campuses representing and being possibility models for Black LGBTQ and other students.

The final plenary session was another after lunch State of the Black LGBTQ/SGL conversation that focused on Faith and Spirituality featuring the Rev Rodney McKenzie, Minister Verdell Wright, Bishop Allyson Abrams, and the Rev Dr Jamie Washington.

The conversation touched on many issues including the been for Black LGBTQ folks to forcefully push back against the loud and wrong anti-Black doctrine that has been remixed to attack us, talk about Black liberation theology from a Black LGBTQ lens, and do a much better job of integrating trans people in this mix.

After closing remarks from Sharon Lettman-Hicks, Kylar Broadus, and Venton Jones, the bittersweet moment of #OOTH 2015 coming to a close was upon us.   I also found myself in the middle of an intergenerational conversation in which I and youth with Trini, Haitian and Nigerian heritage started a fascinating conversation in which we discussed the African Diaspora, our shared connections and history, and where Black LGBT people fit in this.

And yeah, I got to destroy two more Slurpees before I called it a day and crashed from conference fatigue.    

OOTH 2015-Thursday Recap

The first full day of OUT on the Hill activity
found me battling DC traffic in order to get to HRC headquarters for the opening plenary session scheduled to kick off at 9 AM

I got there about 9:15, but because there were so many people checking in to pick up their registration packets, the start got delayed a bit.

But we did get the OUT on the Hill party started at 10 AM as NBJC ED and CEO Sharon Lettman-Hicks and Venton Jones stepped to the podium began a fast paced opening plenary that focused on the health and wellness issues facing our Black TBLGQ/SGL ranks that covered the issues and the NBJC responses to them that got us back on schedule for our first workshop sessions of the day that commenced at 10:45 AM.

Since I`d seen Brandon`s excellent effemiphobia presentation, I checked out the one entitled Somewhere Over The Rainbow:  Can We Talk About Bullying?

Noelle Adams and Margaret Conley launched into their presentation that talked about the causes, led us through an exercise demonstrating bullying, strategies for combating it, and triggered an interactive discussion by the session attendees and our facilitators.

12:15 PM came too quickly, and we reassembled for lunch and the start of the 12:30 lunchtime plenary discussion focusing on the health and wellness of Black bi and lesbian cis women of color.

That was also another informative discussion that pointed out the lack of research and data focused on bisexual and lesbian women, and also the dearth of information and research concerning masculine presenting women.

That segued into the second plenary session of the day that discussed the just introduced by Congress Equality Act moderated by Stacey Long Simmons.   The panelists discussed the proposed law, gave us a snapshot of where we are in the legislative process  (170 House co-sponsors, 40 senate co-sponsors) and how it impacts our Black SGL, trans and bi community.

We also has the pleasure of having one of the sponsors of the legislation in Rep. Ted Liu (D-CA) visit us, talk about some of the issues facing BTLGQ people, and then take questions.

And yes, your fave blogger asked one about getting trans as an identifier option on the  upcoming 2020 census.  His response?   He likes the idea, and I`m going to have some discussions with his legislative staff about it.

There was also some discussion by Sandy James about the US Trans Survey, which is closing in a few days before the floor was opened to questions from the audience before it ended at 4:30 PM.

At 5:00 PM we made our way to the 8th floor of the building for the OUT on the Hill welcoming reception HRC sponsored.   We enjoyed taking time to meet of and new friends, network and have some conversations about various subjects before it ended.

This first full day of the sixth annual OUT on the Hill is done.   So looking forward to tomorrow and my own lunchtime plenary discussion.

6th Annual NBJC OUT On The Hill Starts Wednesday

The 6th annual OUT on the Hill National Black LGBT Leadership Conference starts on Wednesday and runs through September 19, and I'm pleased to announce I will be in the OOTH house starting on Wednesday for the first time since 2012.

I get excited about this event because OUT on the Hill features Black trans, bisexual, lesbian, gay, queer, same gender loving activists, thought leaders, elected officials, educators, elders and young professionals gathering in our nation's capital for a unique, informative and important convening.

OUT on the Hill brings together more than 100 Black LGBTQ/SGL stakeholders and partner organization that include the Human Rights Campaign, the Trans Persons Of Color Coalition, the National LGBTQ Task Force, AIDS United, National Coalition for LGBTQ Health, amfAR, and Planned Parenthood Foundation of America.

The National Black Justice Coalition with the support of the Elton John AIDS Foundation launched in 2014 its Black LGBT Health and Wellness Initiative to address the current health crisis, HIV and the disparity in culturally competent  health and wellness programs that target the Black LGBT population.   It also seeks to shift the conversation about African-American holistic health by including the Black LGBTQ/SGL community in those broader Black community health conversations.

NBJC through this initiative is seeking to strategically and innovatively bring voice and visibility to the health and wellness concerns of the Black SGL and TBLGQ community, raise awareness, decrease stigma and provide culturally competent and accessible resources and services.

The theme for this year's OUT on the Hill Conference is We Are Family: Building Stronger Roots Together. with a call to action addressing health care issues rooted in four summit tracks: health care, social justice, economics and spirituality.  

OUT on the Hill 2015 gets underway with a pre conference networking reception tomorrow at the St Gregory Hotel entitled At the Table: Black Voices In Policy & Advocacy that gives attendees the opportunity to hear updates about the 2020 National HIV/AIDS Strategy for members of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS.

Over the next few days there will be conversations that discuss policy issues impacting our community, briefings about the recently introduced in Congress LGBT Equality Act, several plenary session covering various topics including the bisexual and transgender sectors of our community, and the third annual State of the Black LGBTQ/SGL Community on Saturday  

If you'e seeking more information about Out on the Hill, press credentials or are just interested in attending the event, you can contact Isaiah Wilson at iwilson@nbjc.org or click on this link to peruse the #OOTH2015 schedule.

Hope to see y'all in DC.