Moni's Thoughts About The EQTX Gala

I'm back in Casa de Monica after traveling a grand total of 3315 miles by air and bus from IAH to San Francisco, the SFO to Austin nonstop 'Nerd Bird' and back home to Houston from the ATX on the 'Bougie Bus.

Y'all might have heard I was blessed to receive another award, this time courtesy of Equality Texas, the Transgender Activist Award.

Hopefully EQTX will name that award for some pioneering trans Texan in the future.

Yes it was quite special to receive it on the same night as the Texas LGBT legislative caucus founders were honored along with my feisty Emmy Award winning niece Kai Shappley and her mom Kimberly Shappley     Kai and Kimberly received the Glen Maxey Activism Award

Reps Mary Gonzalez (D-El Paso), Jessica Gonzalez (D-Dallas), Julie Johnson (D-Carrollton), Celia Israel (D-Austin) and Erin Zweiner (D-Driftwood) were honored with EQTX's LGBTQ Leadership Award

Rep Sarah Davis (R-Houston) was given the EQTX Profile In Courage Award  while the Legacy Awards went to retiring state senator Jose Rodriguez (D-El Paso) and Rep Senfronia Thompson (D-Houston) 

Got a little pissed when they mentioned  Rep Thompson and the state James Byrd Hate Crimes Bill that I have been pushing since 1999 to include trans Texas people . 

My first state lobby day trip to Austin twenty years ago was for trans inclusion in the state's James Byrd Hate Crimes Bill, and I'm still pissed about how we got cut out of it twice. 

It was a fact I made clear to the assembled audience during my acceptance speech, and after the awards ceremony was over, one of the EQTX board members came to me afterward and apologized for that decision he helped to make back then that cut Texas trans folks out of that much needed bill.

That moment aside, I did enjoy meeting the new EQTX CEO Ricardo Rodriguez, seeing the EQTX team again, my ATX fam,  Dallas Councilman Omar Narvaez and all the wonderful conversations I had that night.

I must do another trip to Austin before the 2021 session jumps off.

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Chilling On Forty Acres

After a three and half hour nonstop flight on the United  'Nerd Bird' from San Francisco to Austin, I'm back in the Lone Star State to participate in tomorrow night's Equality Texas 30th Anniversary gala.

It's also nice to do an Austin trip that doesn't involve me going to our state capitol building or spending an entire day there.

Austin still needs to do something about their horrid traffic, like expand their light rail system (hint hint).  Took me nearly two hours to get from ABIA to my hotel on the UT campus.

Nope, that not a typo.   I'm staying at the AT&T Conference Hotel that is on the University of Texas campus near the iconic UT Texas Tower.   My room has a view of Lavaca Street, not that I'll be in it much.

And even better, I have a 7 Eleven two blocks away from me, so Slurpees will be demolished while I'm inside Travis County.

Hope i get to see some of my ATX fam while I'm here, and see y'all at the gala tomorrow night.

Headed To Austin Again!

Well, for once I'm doing an ATX trip that doesn't involve me spending most of my day at the Pink Dome.   But it's a little unique in how I'm getting there.

For the first time in 20 years, back in my Air Marshal days, I'm flying to Austin for an event.   It's also the first time I will fly into Austin Bergstrom Airport, which opened back in May 1999 and has been expanded since then to house 34 gates. 

It used to be Bergstrom Air Force Base until it closed in 1993.  Austin's tiny local airport on the north side of town was generating increasing citizen noise complaints, and the city asked to Air Force to consider making Bergstrom a joint civilian-military field.  Those requests were rejected until the base closed. 

Bergstrom was also where Air Force One repeatedly flew into from Washington DC when Lyndon B. Johnson was president and enjoying time on his nearby LBJ Ranch in Johnson City, TX.

The city of Austin eventually acquired it, demolished all the old base structures except the runway and the circular 12th Air Force HQ building that got converted into a hotel. 

The main terminal at the ABIA airport is named after trailblazing Texas legislator Barbara Jordan, and there's a statue of her in it. 

Most of the time when I go to Austin from Houston I'm rolling past the airport on TX 71 either as a bus or car passenger.   But since I was in a United hub city in San Francisco and I needed to be in the ATX, decided to save myself a trip and just fly nonstop to Austin instead of flying back home to IAH,  heading to downtown Houston, then taking a nearly 2 hour bus ride back to the ATX.

It was going to be a 'Bougie bus', AKA a Vonlane, but still, why do that to myself?

I will be taking the bus back home to Houston when I'm done up here

What is that business?   I'm here for the 30th anniversary gala for Equality Texas that's happening on Saturday night, and they're giving me an award.

And yes, I will have room on my trophy shelf for it.

That 30th anniversary gala will happen at the AT&T Conference Center in downtown Austin on Saturday night, and looking forward to seeing and spending some time with my ATX family