Trans Pioneer Dainna Cicotello Has Passed Away

One of the joys of my visit to Denver for the 2015 Creating Change Conference and a few months later at Fantasia Fair was spending some quality time with Dainna Cicotello and her daughter Laurie.

She celebrated her milestone 70th birthday back in September, but  I was shocked and saddened to hear from Laurie that Dainna was seriously ill to the point that she was being put in hospic care.

I was just informed that Dainna passed away this afternoon at the Denver Hospice.

Dainna served our country in the US Navy for over a decade, transitioned in 1985 and served our community and the people in the Denver area in terms of doing panels, trainings and consulting work.   She also taught those classes at several trans themed conferences such as ICTLEP (International Conference of Transgender Law and Employment Policy) IFGE (International Foundations for Gender Education) , Colorado Gold Rush, Southern Comfort, the Texas T Party and Fantasia Fair

She's also done radio and television interviews as part of that education effort

Dainna was also part of the working group in the early 90's that sought to create a modern definition for transgender that would satisfy the trans stakeholder constituent groups at the time

Here's a 2011 TransFM interview Ethan St Pierre did with Dainna.

I het her during the 1999 Southern Comfort conference, and met Laurie a year later at the IFGE one being held in Washington DC.  She was one of my activist mentors I have much love and respect for, and one of the people her work made a better world for was me.

She is going to be missed by me, Laurie, our community  and all the people who loved her, and as soon as I get the word of a memorial service or other arrangements, I'll pass it on.

Rest in power and peace Dainna

Three 2016 Major Party Trans Candidates Trying To Make More Electoral History

Hillary Clinton isn't the only candidate on the ballot attempting to make American electoral history tonight.  There are three trans candidates on the ballot in Utah, Colorado and Texas also trying to make history and win their respective races.

We have two shots today at getting an American trans person in that exclusive international sorority of trans people who are elected national legislators  in Misty Snow and Misty Plowright.

In Utah, the 30 year old Snow became the first out transperson to win a major party US senate primary race and any political race in Utah when she overwhelmingly captured the Democratic US senate primary. over Jonathan Swinton.

Snow is now facing the daunting political task of trying to upset incumbent Sen. Mike Lee (R) in staunchly conservative Utah.

Next door in Colorado, the 33 year Plowright is running in Colorado's 5th Congressional District.   She became the first out trans person to win a Democratic Party nomination for a US congressional seat and any race in Colorado by handily defeating Donald Martinez.

The late Karen Kerin was the first out trans person to win a major party nomination for the US House.  In 2000 Kerin won the Republican nomination for Vermont's US House seat, then lost in the general election to independent Bernie Sanders.
Plowright also has a tough political task to accomplish in attempting to unseat five time incumbent Congressman Doug Lamborn (R) in this congressional district centered in conservative leaning Colorado Springs that is also the home of the transphobic Focus on the Family..

Here in my Houston backyard, Jenifer Rene Pool is attempting to make more trans political history. Back in March she became the first out trans person in Texas to win a major party primary race when she won the Democratic nomination in the Harris County Commissioners Court Precinct 3 race.

She now taking on longtime incumbent Republican commissioner Steve Radack, who has held this sprawling precinct that covers 400 square miles of western Harris County since 1980.

If Jenifer wins, she not only makes more Lone Star State political history, she will by winning that race flip political control of the Harris County Commissioners Court to the Democrats.  

Good luck later today, ladies.   Hope you are successful in your various races.      

Congrats Leslie Herod!

There are people who you cross paths with at times in your life that when you meet them, you can sense they are destined for greatness.

One of those people for me was Leslie Herod, and I first met her back in 2013 during one of my Washington DC trips when she was working for the Gill Foundation. She just impressed me at the time and I made a mental note to keep an eye on this rising star in our ranks.  Wasn't surprised when she ended up as one of the four co-chairs of Creating Change when it was held in Denver last year, and enjoy talking to her when I get some quality time with her when our paths cross.

Been aware she was running for the Colorado House in Denver's HD-8.  The incumbent state rep for the district in Beth McCann decided not to run for reelection, and Leslie's candidacy, even though I'm 1000 miles away from her, is one I've been enthusiastic about and keeping up with as it has progressed.

Last night I discovered she handily won her Democratic primary race for the HD-8 seat with 60% of the 9399 votes cast over Aaron Goldhamer,   Since that district and its demographics lean heavily Democratic, it's looking good for her to be the person taking the oath of office when the next session of the Colorado legislature kicks off on January 12, 2017.

But before she gets to that point, there's the matter of the general election on November 8 and getting past her Republican opponent for the HD-8 seat in Evan Vanderpool.

So congrats on getting another step closer to becoming Rep-elect Leslie Herod!  I know that the residents of HD 8, your supporters, and your campaign team are doing everything possible to ensure that you'll be their representative at the statehouse.

And I couldn't be prouder of you as I watch you accomplish that goal..

Is Open Trans Hate Becoming A Political Liability?

Another piece of political news I was gleefully doing the happy dance about was hearing about two trans hating Republican politicians in Colorado and South Carolina losing their reelection bids.

Colorado state Rep. and faux faith based transphobe Gordon Klingenschmitt lost his reelection bid for a third term last night in the GOP primary.   He was blown out by his primary challenger Bob Gardner, a former state representative who won with 62% of vote to represent Colorado Springs in the state Senate.

Gardner is considered more moderate than 'Dr. Chaps', who will not be missed in the state senate, especially by the Colorado TBLG community.

He wasn't alone in tasting electoral defeat last night. South Carolina state senator Lee Bright, who sponsored the failed anti-trans legislation in the Palmetto State, lost his bid for a third term as a South Carolina senator.

He lost his runoff race to former state Rep. Scott Talley, a candidate backed by SC Gov. Nikki Haley (R) who once again, was considered more moderate than Bright..

With Sen. Ted Cruz attempting to deploy transphobia in his last ditch effort to keep Donald Trump from becoming the GOP nominee, spectacularly failing in the Indiana primary and dropping out of the presidential race the next day, are the losses of anti-trans politicians a coincidence or a sign that open hatred of transgender people is a political liability?

Both Klingenschmitt and Bright were unpopular and had committed other unforgivable sins in their party besides being unrepentant transphobes that led to their political demise, but I sure hope so.

As I have pointed out, trans people are at least 1% to 3% of our population, and we are just as diverse as the US population.

Some of those adult trans folks are not only Republican, but some of our trans kids have parents who are members of that party like Debi Jackson, Kimberly Shappley and Rep Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) .

Those parents and their allies are increasingly becoming fed up with the demonization of their children and trans family members and seeing member of the party they support propose legislation and dehumanizing policies to make their kids third class citizens and are retaliating at the polls..

We'll find out if the nascent political hypothesis I'm pondering about transphobia for fun and GOP political gain becoming a liability is valid if North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory (R) falls on November 8 to his Democratic gubernatorial challenger Roy Cooper  

Sen. Ted Cruz, Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, Gov. Greg Abbott and AG Ken Paxton, assuming he isn't convicted or in jail by then we won't find out about until they face the voters in 2018.

Hopefully by that time the Texas voter suppression law will be dead.

But I'm hopeful that the pattern of politicians gleefully and openly hating trans people for political gain goes the way of hanging chads on punchcard ballots.

Trans Candidates Notch Historic Wins In US Senate And US House Primaries!

The cool thing about being a trans person in this amazing moment in time is that if every day you wake up and simply do your best to be the best person you can be and live your life, you may find yourself making history as a result.

I've been asking in the wake of Geraldine Roman's historic win in the Philippines as their first trans congress member when we were going to see it happen in the United States?  

Well, the answer to my question is it may be as soon as November 8.

On that day, trans voters in Utah and neighboring Colorado will have candidates like us in Misty K. Snow and Misty Plowright on their ballots in this critical national election for the US House and the US Senate.

Last night in a historic upset, 30 year old Utah native Misty K. Snow made some trans political history by handily beating her heavily favored Democratic opponent Jonathan Swinton 59.5%-40.5%.

Snow jumped into the race just before the deadline, wishing to offer an alternative to the center-right leaning Swinton.  At the Utah Democratic Convention Swinton had earned 55% of the delegates votes to Snow's 45%, but she got enough support at the convention to force the runoff, then built on that by aggressively campaigning throughout the Beehive State by touting her working class background and being an unabashed progressive Democrat.

It wasn't close.  Snow garnered in unofficial returns 26,668 votes to just 18,182 for Swinton with all counties reporting..

"Today we have scored a major victory, We have shown that voters will turn out in numbers to support progressive candidates that take strong stands on issues," said Snow in a press release.

"I want to thank all the wonderful people of Utah who supported me in the Democratic primary; without your support none of this would be possible," she added..  

The upset win made Snow the first ever out trans person to earn a major party nomination for the US Senate, and earned her a shot against her as she called him 'loathsome' incumbent Republican senator Mike Lee.    Lee is one of the most conservative senators in the nation and was unopposed in the Utah Republican primary for his second six year term.

As of right now, she's trailing 51%-37% to Lee, but she feels she's in a great starting position seeing that most voters don't know her yet and she has time to introduce herself to the Beehive State's electorate.  If Snow's campaign catches fire, there's the possibility that the DSCC will kick some funds to her if she gets within striking distance of knocking him off in a year in a presidential election year in which bright red leaning Utah might be in play.

Next door in Colorado, more trans political history was being made in another Democratic primary race, this time for a US House seat.   In the 5th Congressional District Democratic primary, 33 year old  Misty Plowright won her primary race to face off in the fall against Rep. Doug Lamborn (R), who is running for his sixth term in Congress.

Rep. Lamborn was forced into a runoff against Calandra Vargas, who beat him at the Republican assembly.  Lamborn flipped the results to beat her 68.3%-31.7% in the primary.

Plowright's primary race wasn't close either.  With one county (El Paso) still out according to the Colorado Secretary of State website, she was beating Donald Martinez by 16 points, 58%-42% in her historic primary win,  Plowright garnered 13.373 votes to Martinez's 9,639 and local media is calling the race for her.

Plowright also faces an uphill challenge because her central Colorado district south of Denver is considered one of the most conservative in the state.  It encompasses the city of Colorado Springs and its suburbs, Cimarron Hills and Fort Carson.  Since its creation in 1973, the district has never been represented by a Democrat, although El Paso County's increasingly diversifying population gives Democrats hope they can change that dismal electoral history.

The city of Colorado Springs is the county seat of El Paso County and the home of the anti-TBLG organization Focus on the Family and hate pastor James Dobson.  It would be oh so sweet if she upset Lamborn and give Dobson a coronary if she ended up representing the 5th Congressional District

We'll see what happens in November.  If the Mistys both shock the political world once again and make it to Washington DC to get inaugurated on January 3, 2017 for the start of the 115th US Congress, they will have earned those seats.

In the meantime, you may want to chip in some t-bills to help both Misty's campaigns get to the House and Senate.

TransGriot Note.  Plowright is not the first out trans person to get a major party nomination in a US House race.  That distinction goes to the late Karen Kerin, who in 2000 ran and lost as a Republican in Vermont to Bernie Sanders.

Plowright still made history as the first in the Democratic Party, and the first in Colorado. 

Happy Birthday Eden Lane!

Couldn't let today pass without giving a TransGriot birthday shout out to my trailblazing Denver based television producing sis in Eden Lane.

I say trailblazing because she is the first out trans reporter and journalist to cover a national political convention.  She covered the 2008 Democratic National Convention for PBS when it came to Denver.

She has also produced the show In Focus with Eden Lane for the last seven years on Colorado Public Television, and is seeking to raise $15,000 to produce another season of the weekly show that focuses on the local arts scene in Denver and the state of Colorado as she works on other media projects..

And if her name seems familiar to you, you have probably seen Eden's insightful commentary pop up recently on CNN and other television shows. 

Lane was also recently voted by readers of the local Westworld  newspaper as the 'Best Non-Network Television Personality', and I definitely hope she gets the birthday present of a major network or local station in the Denver area giving her an on-air job.

Happy birthday Eden!  May your special day find you enveloped in love, be a stress free one, and you receive the ultimate gift of celebrating many more of them.

And so looking forward to the next time we get to spend some quality time together.

Colorado Civil Rights Division Rules In Favor Of Marjorie Silva!

Remember Marjorie Silva, the Latina baker in Denver who the right wingers tried to troll with a civil rights complaint for refusing to write anti-gay slogans on two Bible shaped cake she agreed to bake for conservafool activist William Jack?

Before Creating Change 2015, I asked that we support Ms. Silva by buying any baked goods we needed for CC15 from her bakery in a show of solidarity with her, and people did exactly that.

Well, the verdict is in concerning the religious discrimination  complaint Jack filed with the Colorado Civil Rights Division.



They ruled that Ms. Silva did not discriminate against Jack when she refused to prep two Bible shaped cakes with anti-gay imagery and write derogatory phrases like 'God Hates Gays' in icing on the cakes.

The Colorado Civil Rights Division noted in its decision that Silva is Catholic, and her refusal to complete the customer's requests was based on "derogatory language and imagery" rather than their religious nature.

Boom.

So happy to hear that Ms. Silva won and the trolling Christohater lost    Of course Jack is going to appeal the ruling, and it will probably result in the same finding.

Hope you Denver LGBT peeps will continue to support her Azucar Bakery when it comes times to buy your wedding cakes, but cakes of all kinds and for all occasions.

Eden Lane Honored As 'Best Non-Network TV Personality'

And now, time for some much needed good news .
My Denver based sis Eden Lane recently received a wonderful surprise from Westworld, the local alternative weekly newspaper

Every year the editors of Westworld along with their readers select 'Best Of' winners in various categories.  And guess who won 'Best Non-Network TV Personality''?

Here is what they had to say about our hard working media sis.:

Since 2009, Eden Lane has been hoofing her heels all over Denver to cover the burgeoning performing-arts and media beats, using a scant crew to grab an interview with new talents and introduce them to the world via her weekly, self-produced In Focus show on Colorado Public Television (Channel 12 to those in Denver). Always professional, effervescent, creative and dressed to kill, Lane's recent openness on living life as a trans woman just might bring her to national eyes as a role model for how journalism should be done.

Take note of that underlined last sentence.

Hey, I've seen In Touch, and you can also watch the show on YouTube.  I'm still wondering why some network or local station hasn't hired her yet..   But nice to see quality work and a quality person recognized!

Congrats Eden!   Hope this is just one of many awards you'll get and it results in more positive attention for you!

9th Annual TRANSforming Gender Conference This Weekend

I had the honor and pleasure of being a keynote speaker for the 2008 edition of this event, and this weekend will mark the 9th annual edition of the TRANSforming Gender Conference March 13-14 sponsored by the University of Colorado's LGBTQ Resource Center,

The keynote speakers this year will be TPOCC board member Mattee Jim and Amos Mac.

If you're in the Boulder area, you may wish to check the TRANSforming Gender Conference out on the picturesque CU campus that's FREE and open to the public, and hear these two dynamic speakers in addition to checking out the workshops and seminars.

CC15 Day 4 Recap

Since I'm done with my workshops and seminars, I decided to take this Saturday to catch up with some people who live here in the Denver area that I know.

One is an old friend of mine from Houston who moved here in 2001 and I haven't see her for years, but we made it happen over lunch at the Denver Hard Rock Cafe just up the 16th Street Mall from the hotel.

While I was marching up the street to the Hard Rock Cafe and my reunion, a protest was being held that started at 12:15 PM MST back at the hotel aimed at the Denver po-po's.  

It was still going on by the time I returned to the hotel and commenced to running my mouth with my sis Samantha Dato.   We talked about PTHC and whether I was coming for it (maybe)

My activist mentor Dainna Cicotello called me while I was talking to Samantha, and we set up a meeting for dinner at 6 PM.

I killed some time for that meeting by attending a seminar entitled The Psychology of Debunking LGBT Myths that Brynn Tannehill was an informative part of before I had to jet to meet Dainna in the lobby as we headed to a nearby restaurant.   I also got the bonus of seeing her daughter Laurie, who was celebrating her birthday

After a great meal, some peanut butter cheesecake and two hours of catching up since I hadn't seen either Cicotello in the flesh since the 2000 IFGE Conference, I was back at the Sheraton hanging out in the lobby just chilling and trying to decide what to do next.

Stacey Langley (happy birthday Stacey), Latisha, and Lynette arrived and after a few minutes, we decided the check out the 50+ Dance.    There was also a Masqueerade Ball happening., but after handing out at the dance for 30 minutes, headed back to my room after talking to Omar Narvaez about Texas politics in the bar to write up the days events and pack.

Needed some beauty sleep for my last day in Denver for awhile.

CC15-Day 3 Recap

Today marked the first full day of workshops and seminars, but I needed a little sleep and time to do some writing before I kept my promise to Imam Daayiee Abdullah to attend the Friday prayer service at 12:30.

I was pleased to see the attendance has grown, and Imam Abdullah announced some exciting news for the LGBT Muslim before the service started about an exciting initiative.

While that service was happening, Rea Carey's State of the Movement Address  was simultaneously taking place.



After talking to Imam Abdullah for a few moments after the service ended, I headed down to the vendor area to kill some time before my panel.  Ran into Andy Marra, Samantha Dato, Dani Heffernan , Kimberley McLeod and Kylar Broadus before we headed to Governors Square 14 for the 3:00 PM panel.

The Trans Women of Color: The Sisterhood featured Tela La'Raine Love, La La Zannell, Bamby Salcedo, Arianna Lint and some based Texas blogger y'all know breaking down the issues that impact us as trans women of color.

Afterwards I got to finally meet a shero of mine in Kim Coco Iwamoto, talk to Trudie Jackson, Bishop Tonyia Rawls, Diego Sanchez, Johanna Saavedra, Elizabeth Clair an my fave power couple in Aisha and Danielle Moodie-Mills.

Also ran into my NFL prognostication partner Michael Watts, and that started an almost two hour conversation in which we discussed everything from what was transpiring in our lives, football and politics to the movie Blazing Saddles.  Ran into Myles Brady, who thanked me for the engagement post I wrote about him and his now fiancee.

And the thing I'm really enjoying is running into all the people here at #CC15 who let me know how much they love the blog.  A writer always loves to hear that what they put out there is the universe for you to peruse and ponder is not only read, it's appreciated.

And the feeling is mutual TransGriot readers.

One last Slurpee run, and then I've got to shut it down for the night.

CC15 Delegates, Let's Support Marjorie Silva While We're In Denver

When we start gathering in Denver next week for Creating Change 2015, I hope that one of the places we delegates visit and patronize is the Azucar Bakery owned by Marjorie Silva.

Remember the ridiculous 'swastika cakes' line that Houston suburban hate preacher Steve Riggle uttered during our HERO fight last year?  

It stems from a Colorado case in which a right wing leaning baker named Jack Phillips ran afoul of Colorado's anti-discrimination law for refusing to bake a weeding cake for a gay couple.  Because white privilege addled right wingers wouldn't know discrimination if it slapped them in the face like it does non-whites, TBLG people and women on an almost daily basis, they have a loud and wrong conservainterpretation of it that is not based in reality.

They seem to think their religious beliefs trump human rights law.   Um, no they don't.

And by the way Steve, Houston bakers still aren't being forced to bake swastika cakes.  But Houstonians are still having to deal with discrimination inside our city limits because HERO hasn't been implemented because of your friends baseless anti-human rights lawsuit.

Okay, back to Ms Silva's story.

In their zeal to prove a false equivalency,  right wing activist Bill Jack rolled over from Castle Rock, CO and trolled 40 year old Marjorie Silva's Denver bakery and asked her to make a Bible shaped cake, which she agreed to do. 

But when they were about to complete the order, according to Silva, Jack then handed her a piece of paper with hateful words about gays that he wanted written on the cake. He also wanted the cake to have two men holding hands and an X on top of them.

"It's just horrible. It doesn't matter if, you know, if you're Catholic, or Jewish, or Christian, if I'm gay or not gay or whatever," said Silva to KUSA-TV, adding in the interview that she has made cakes regularly for all religious occasions. "We should all be loving each other. I mean there's no reason to discriminate."

Silva said she would bake the cake, but would give him a pastry bag and icing to write the hateful anti-gay words on the cake himself.   

Jack didn't want that, claimed he'd been 'discriminated' against and subsequently filed a complaint against Azucar Bakery with the Colorado Civil Rights Division.

"There's no law that says that a cake-maker has to write obscenities in the cake just because the customer wants it," said Mark Silverstein, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Colorado.

And that's the key difference in the Silva and Phillips cases.   She didn't refuse to bake the cake, she refused to write the offensive message on it.   She offered a solution for the customer to do it himself that he rejected.  That's a First Amendment free speech issue, not a public accommodations one

And I'm also not liking the racist fact the right wing christobigot chose a Latina owned bakery in Denver to attack.

Since Creating Change 2015 will be kicking off in Denver next week, why don't we show Ms.  Silva some love and support and buy any baked goods needed at the conference from her Azucar Bakery while we're in the Mile High City? 

There is also a gofundme campaign that has been started to help defray her legal expenses from this right wing trolling of her.

And for you TBLG peeps and allies in the Denver metro area, may I suggest pre and post CC15 you put Ms. Silva's bakery on your support list when you need to purchase a cake or baked goods for your future rainbow community events.

This is also a golden opportunity to show the nation and the world that we TBLG folks stand by and with our community allies when they are unjustly attacked while sticking it to the right wing christobigots at the same time.

And I can't think of a more delicious way to fight anti-LGBT hatred.

CeCe McDonald To Receive The Paul A. Anderson Youth Award At CC15!

The 2015 edition of Creating Change is rapidly approaching, and one of the things the Task Force does during this event is present awards to honor the people involved in our human rights movement.

So happy to discover that the person who will receive the Paul A Anderson Youth Award is none other than CeCe McDonald.  

Since being released last January after 17 months of unjust incarceration for defending herself against a July 2010 racist and tranphobic assault aimed at her and some friends in Minneapolis, CeCe quickly became a leading and outspoken fighter in the movements for LGBTQ liberation, prison abolition, and racial justice.

She is currently working on a forthcoming documentary with actress Laverne Cox on her case entitled Free CeCe. Since being released, CeCe has spoken across the nation: she served as the Grand Marshall of Seattle Pride, received the Bayard Rustin Civil Rights award, was featured in an article published by Rolling Stone Magazine, and has appeared on Democracy Now!, MSNBC, and in various other media outlets.

And I'll finally get the chance to meet her!  Looking forward to giving her a big hug when that happens and hearing her acceptance speech.

Matt Kailey 1955-2014

Was stunned to hear the news that one of my fellow bloggers and trans human rights activists in Matt Kailey passed away Saturday night-early Sunday morning of heart failure.

From Matt's sister: 

"I wanted to let you know that Matt Kailey, my brother, has passed away. He died of heart failure in his sleep Saturday night/early Sunday morning. His untimely and unexpected passing has been a shock. With the help of family and friends, I am currently working on processing this tragedy and making arrangements. I will post more information at a later time. Thank you for being Matt's friends."


Matt transitioned in 1997, and his Tranifesto blog was one of the destinations that people went to for information, advice and to get knowledge on the trans journey from the transmasculine point of view.

The Denver, CO based Kailey was the author of Just Add Hormones: An Insider's Guide to The Transsexual Experience (Beacon Press), a Lambda Literary Award finalist and Rocky Mountain News local bestseller, and Teeny Weenies and Other Short Subjects , a collection of humorous and heartfelt essays about his life before and after transition. In addition, his work has appeared in numerous publications, from anthologies to professional journals. Matt was also a media personality who appeared on local and national radio and television, in local and national print publications, and in five documentary films.

Mat Kailey will be missed in our trans human rights ranks and in our community.  Final arrangements are pending, and as soon as I'm aware of them the news will be posted to this blog. 

Rest in power and peace Matt. 

Happy 24th Birthday, Angie

Today would have been girl like us Angie Zapata's 24th birthday had she not been murdered by Allen Andrade five years ago on July 17, 2008. 

Andrade is rotting in a Colorado prison doing life plus 60 years after being found guilty for that crime while all the people who loved Angie are feeling her loss more keenly on her birthday.

Justice would have been Angie returning to her family, but unfortunately that's not going to happen. 

What would Angie's life be like now?   Would she be getting out of or going to college?  Would she be doing the typical things a twentysomething young woman would be doing?   Would she be dating or involved in another relationship?  Would she have a vast circle of friends and an active social life?  How would her life be evolving right now?

Sadly, those are questions we and Angie's family will never find out the answer to because of what happened on July 17, 2008.   Instead of being surrounded by her loving family and her best friends celebrating another birthday, she is amongst the trans angels we've lost far too many of.

Happy birthday, Angie.  

Colorado Civil Rights Division Lets Coy Pee In Peace

The Colorado Civil Rights Division has ruled in favor of 6 year old trans kid Coy Mathis, who was barred from using the girls' restroom at her elementary school despite a statewide law banning discrimination on the basis of gender identity in public accommodations.


The Fountain-Fort Carson School District 8 told Coy's parents in December that the first grader would not be able to continue to use the girls' restroom after the holiday break
.
The family then filed a civil rights complaint in February.   The Civil Rights Division eventually ruled that the district's solution of letting Mathis use staff bathrooms was a violation of the young girl’s rights and was similar to discriminatory “separate but equal” laws.

"Schools should not discriminate against their students, and we are thrilled that Coy can return to school and put this behind her," Kathryn Mathis, Coy's mother, said in a statement published in the Denver Post. "All we ever wanted was for Coy's school to treat her the same as other little girls. We are extremely happy that she now will be treated equally.

And all any transperson wants, no matter what their age is to be treated as a first class citizen and be able to pee in peace.

Mile High Chillin' With My Family

Moni's was in the middle of her just concluded family reunion in Colorado's state capitol over the weekend just relaxing.

The reason you TransGriot readers are just now seeing this post about it is because I decided before I left Houston to take the opportunity to unplug from the Net for a few days, recharge the creative batteries and treat this reunion like a vacation.  

I didn't want to think about anything activism or blog related because I was going to have plenty of time to deal with that when I returned to Houston starting July 2.    

In addition to seeing my blood family members from different parts of the country and meeting my Colorado based cousins I tried to carve out some time to hang out with the Denver based trans family before I headed back to Texas Sunday after arriving there a little after 5 PM MDT Thursday afternoon.

We bounced out of Houston at 10 PM CDT Wednesday night headed north on I-45 toward Dallas on the first leg of a 1100 mile trip that would take us up I-45, on I-30 west for a mile to connect with I-35E going north to Denton and its merger point with I-35W from Fort Worth, I-35 through Oklahoma City and Wichita, KS to I-135 north to Salina, KS and west on I-70 through the Sunflower State to Colorado.

Thursday was a gorgeous travel day with not a cloud in the sky and the best part about starting that late was we got through Dallas and OKC before the morning rush hour started and while most of the truckers were asleep. 

We did get to see a lot of interesting scenery during the drive and as I'm used to with Dawn and Polar thought provoking commentary on a lot of topics.

This time the commentary came from the smart people that are part of my family tree.

As we rolled north and west we spotted acres of farmland with soybeans and wheat growing on it.  Cattle grazing in Oklahoma, Kansas and Colorado.  Grain silos dotting the flat plains of Kansas to the horizons edge, clusters of wind turbines producing power west of Salina, KS and Limon, CO and farmers along I-135 and I-70 in Kansas busily harvesting their wheat in preparation to sending it to market.  

When I spotted that United plane on final approach to DIA, passed the hotel I stayed at on the corner of  I-70 and Quebec St. that was a Hilton back in 1988 during my Air Marshal days and the Havana Street exit that used to lead to Stapleton it reminded me for a moment about how much things had changed in Denver, my life and how much I missed the airline biz.

But I couldn't dwell on that thought long because we did get to Denver right at rush hour and I happened to be behind the wheel of our rented van. One thing that hasn't changed about the city is that traffic on I-25 and I-70 still sucks.

Before I'd left Houston I'd planned a Friday lunch outing with Eden Lane and hanging out with Kelley Winters as well on Saturday but you know what they say about best laid plans.  Complications killed both of those planned events (darn it) after I arrived here Thursday afternoon. 

It was unseasonably warm here in Denver the first two days with the temps clocking in at 95 and 97 degrees. (No Denver peeps, I didn't bring the heat from Texas with me)  But considering I ducked out of Houston as the temperature spiked up to 100 and 102 on Thursday and Friday for the first time this summer, this was heaven.  

Took a ride on the South Platte Trolley by the Aquarium on Friday with my uncle and aunt, my grandmother, mom and sister. 

When the female guide after asking how many of us riding the trolley were from out of town and we Texans and New Yorkers raised our hands, she began bragging about her beloved Broncos beating our local NFL squads at Sports Authority Field at Mile High Stadium as we passed it. 

I got a return shot in to my family's and the New Yorkers snickering that wasn't the 31-25 case last season when they played the Texans last September.

Once a smartass, always a smartass.

Enjoyed the dinner at the Cheesecake Factory downtown with my family Friday night despite us having to fight our way past Coors Field traffic to get to it and spend a few minutes looking for reasonable parking.  We did find a garage in Tabor Center that was $6 right next to the place, so it was all good. 

Speaking of good, there was next door to our hotel a Mexican restaurant called Maya's that had great food, reasonable prices, sizable portions and excellent service that we went to on Thursday evening and just before we departed Denver on Sunday afternoon. 

Our LaQuinta hotel in addition to being next to I-25 and close to downtown also had free breakfast.  After I helped myself to the juice and waffles I walked out of the front door of the hotel and hiked up the viaduct toward Coors Field to burn off those calories.

I also had a nice conversation with several people from the San Francisco bay area checked into the hotel during my stay there who were in town to watch their beloved Giants take on and get spanked by the Rockies

So I could get away from the hotel once my Saturday event with Kelley also turned out to be a disappointing no-go, I tagged along on a trip up I-25 to Dacono, CO where there is a motocross and go-cart track complex.  I watched my Uncle Leo and my cousin William do some laps around the track in carts that can run up to 60 MPH and required them to suit up and wear a helmet for the ride.

The storm clouds started gathering over the Rockies and looking like they were about to drop another monsoon like rain on us, but didn't.  It actually cooled things down before they headed into the mountains to hit a casino and I took the opportunity to have some quiet time without my grandmother in the room and get some sleep I would sorely need when we hit the road the next day.

I enjoy doing road trips, and this one was not only a chance to drive interstates I don't normally get to travel on in the Midwest and see the Denver area again, I needed the change of scenery. 

And looking forward to the next one I do.    

HT to Mike and Joyce's Travel Pages and AARoads.com for the Kansas and Colorado highway photos I used in this post.  

On The Road Again-Denver Here I Come

Doing an interstate road trip for the first time since I moved back home as of this writing.  It's also the first time in over a decade I've done one with members of my blood family in the vehicle.

I'm hitting the highway for a family reunion on my mother's side of the family that's taking place in Denver this weekend.

As of the moment you're reading this we're now a few hours into the drive and on out way out of Texas enroute to Denver on the I-45/I-35 leg of the trip

My mom's side of the family has frequent family reunions of which the first one I was able to attend was mere weeks after I returned to Houston in 2010 since it was our turn to host it.   My family on my mom's side is clustered in Texas on both ends of I-45 in Dallas and Houston, in the Greenwood-Yazoo City-Itta Bena, Mississippi area all up and down US 49, in the Cleveland area, the Memphis, TN area,, the Chicago-Gary, IN metro area and in the Tampa, FL metro area.

We have cousins in the Denver mtro area which we will meet when we gather for the reunion this weekend. I'm hoping I'll get a chance while I'm in the area to finally meet Eden Lane if she isn't too busy and see Kelley Winters again.

But have a few more hours and a lot of interstate highway miles to travel before I'm staring at the Rockies again for the first time since 2008.    

Moni's Aurora Shooting Rant

While I was preparing to get my learn on at the 2012 TTNS, some fool decided he'd use the lax gun laws to buy some weapons, multiple rounds of ammo and shoot up a movie theater in the early morning hours of July 20..

12 people are dead, including a six year old girl, 58 wounded because the NRA has stifled any rational discussion of gun control laws in the United States because of their racism, paranoid conservafool political stances and their overzealous interpretation of the Second Amendment.

Granted, the waste of DNA James Holmes is in jail now awaiting justice, but that's of little comfort to the families of the people he killed, the lives of others he disrupted, and the peace and tranquility of the lives of the citizens of Aurora, CO he shattered with this senseless act.

Society will also be denied the talents and potential contributions these persons could have made if their lives hadn't been violently cut short.

I can't stand the National Rifle Association because of their racism, vanillacentric privileged conservative political stances, and the rabid foaming at the mouth opposition to even the most minor common sense gun laws.   Wonder how they would feel if the gun violence was tearing apart their communities and affecting their loved ones?

But the NRA doesn't care about the entire country or any community that's affected by the gun violence, that's been obvious for decades.  They only care about a certain vanillacentric conservaslice of the electorate.  The NRA doesn't care about people who live in the urban communities who have had to deal with the consequences of the flood of guns their lax laws help enable in the name of 'protecting Second Amendment rights', especially if those folks don't look like them.

All that comes out of the mouth of NRA apologists is that tired bull feces spin line that 'if everyone in that theater (or fill in the blank area) had been armed, it would have stopped this shooting.'  

Yeah, right.  There were armed people at the Tuscon shooting and that didn't stop Jared Loughner.  Armed people wouldn't have stopped this fool either since he was wearing a bulletproof vest.  .

Every time one of these mass shootings happens (Columbine, Virginia Tech, Tucson) we hope this will finally be the tipping point event that starts a serious discussion about enacting serious gun control laws here only to fade away until the next mass shooting happens and we have the next one in which people are burying loved ones. 

How many more people have to die, be wounded or crippled in the United States, Canada and Mexico before y'all stop tripping and allow some common sense gun laws in this country that ban assault weapons, extended magazine clips and people with mental health issues getting their hands on weapons that kill mass quantities of human beings?

I'm not holding my breath that the needed discussion will happen, especially with less than 120 days to go until an election day.

Colorado Transteens Battling Bathroom Drama

Colorado is one of the states that has had a trans protective rights law on the books since 2008 but it seems like some of the haters and the clueless haven't gotten the message yet.

First it was Bobbi Montoya and her request to join a Girl Scout troop being denied and now this latest drama over the porcelain throne room.

16 year old transteen Dionne Malikowski and her friend 16 year old transman Kurt Peters are catching flack from Fort Collins High School officials over the bathroom..

She and Kurt were asked to use the staff restrooms, but as Dionne pointed out, staff bathrooms are not spread out over the entire school campus and when you gotta go, you gotta go.  Dionne used a non staff bathroom and was suspended for three days from school because of it.    Kurt was in the same situation but was only given a warning. 

What do they want them to do, pee in the hallways if they aren't near a staff bathroom? .

"I cried," Malikowski said in a KUSA-TV9 interview . "I told them that it was really messed up for them to do that to me, and they were like, 'We've warned you before,' and I was just like, 'Obviously you don't understand what it's like.'"

They sure don't, Dionne.

The Poudre School District says there is not an across-the-board policy for bathroom use by transgender students.  

Well, here's a suggestion for you.  If the transteen in question is presenting as female, they go to the female restroom.  If they present as male, they go to the male restroom.

It's so simple even the GEICO caveman can comprehend it.

Fort Collins High School and Poudre School District, let my transpeople pee and stop the transphobic hassling of these transteens over the fracking bathroom.   You can't live up to your district's motto of Educate Every Child Every Day if you're sending transkids home on suspension because they used the bathroom appropriate to their gender presentation.

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