Transpeople Are An Oppressed Minority Group

When you talk about oppressed groups,  here are some of the characteristics in political science terms.

*The oppressed group makes up a numerical minority of the population in the nation they reside in.
*Faces persistent discrimination and violence from the majority population
*Has minuscule or no political representation at the local, state or federal legislative level

Doesn't that sound like the description fits a certain part of the GLBT family?

Despite the recent reelection of Kim Coco Iwamoto to her Hawaii State Board of Education seat, Victoria Kolakowski's election to a state judicial bench in Alameda County, California and Phyllis Frye's historic appointment to a municipal judgeship in Houston,  the reality is there are no open transpersons serving in the United States Congress, any state legislature, and any large population city either on their city councils or as mayors.

So yes, we are an oppressed minority group.   That has been crystal clear to those of us on the POC end of the trans community, but that realization for you vanilla flavored transpeeps has been a little slow to sink in.

Many of you decry 'identity politics', but reality check time:   ALL American politics is identity politics.

The sooner you get that realization through your heads, the sooner we as a community can start to deal with the dearth of trans political representation and move our civil rights agenda forward.

Kim Coco Iwamoto Reelected!

Reelected and it feels so good....

Pardon the mini Peaches and Herb song lyric rewrite, but found another nugget of wonderful news out of a sucky Tuesday night politically 

Kim Coco Iwamoto garnered the votes of 102,845 people on Oahu to get reeelcted to a second four year term on the Hawaii State Board of Education.   

She was elected to her first term back in 2006 and has garnered much praise as a tireless advocate and hard worker for Hawaii's schoolchildren.

The good people of the president's birth state will have her around for another four years as one of the three Board Of Education members from Oahu, and they are fortunate to have such a dedicated public servant.  .

Heh Heh Heh...'Queers' Beat 'Steers' To Take World Series

The right wing bigots in the Dallas-Fort Worth area have been billing this 2010 World Series as a battle between the 'Steers' vs 'Queers' and in the process making derogatory homophobic slams at the San Francisco Bay Area, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California, and everything rainbow flavored.

Karma is a rhymes with witch isn't it?  

Besides, that's what y'all get for having George W. Bush throw out the first pitch in Game 4.   

The San Francisco Giants closed out the World Series with a 3-1 win in Arlington over the Texas Rangers to win it four games to one and claim their first major league baseball title since moving there from New York.

Congrats Giants!   They're probably still partying in the Castro.    

Texas Is A Lost Cause? Don't Think So

One of the things that irritates us Lone Star TBLG people is when we see online comments from people that arrogantly presume that Texas has always been a red state and will never change.  

We hear from the 'experts' living inside the Capital Beltway, along I-5 and I-95 that Texas is a lost cause GLBT rights wise and the money and time to organize it for progressive action could be better spent elsewhere.

Oh really?

News flash for you folks.  Texas is a majority-minority state with progressive roots.  The current GOP dominance of it is a fairly recent phenomenon that was built on a foundation of deception, party switchers, corporate cash and Southern Strategy inspired anti-Black and anti-Latino bashing to 'scurr' low income white voters.   .   

Bet you didn't know that the only southern Democratic senator to vote for the 1964 Civil Rights Act was Texan Ralph Yarborough?   As a matter of fact, Sen. Yarborough voted YES for every civil rights bill during his term in the US Senate from 1957-1971   

Can't forget other progressive leaders such as President Lyndon B. Johnson,  Congressmembers Barbara Jordan, Mickey Leland, Sam Rayburn, Governor Ann Richards, and Billie Carr, the godmother of Texas Democrats who mentored a certain William Jefferson Clinton back in the early 70's. 

As for the LBITG aspect of it, one of the things GLBT peeps elsewhere forget is that it was Houston, not New York, LA or even San Francisco that elected an openly gay large city mayor in 2009 in Annise Parker   Dallas came agonizingly close to doing so the year before.  


Texans have also shaped much BTLG history.   The Lawrence v Texas case that wiped out US sodomy laws got its start in Houston.   The Texas 'T' Party, one of the first popular trans conventions was organized by the Boulton and Park Society group and held in San Antonio in the early 90's.   Phyllis Frye sponsored transgender law conferences in Houston in the mid 90's under the auspices of  ICTLEP.  Sarah DePalma once ran It's Time America!    Texans were part of the team that organized NTAC in 1999.    Other TBLG Texans continue to be cutting edge thinkers, opinion shapers and continue to provide innovative community leadership ..

We have four IFGE Trinity Award winners from Texas alone, Phyllis Frye, Vanessa Edwards Foster, the late Brenda Thomas, and some loudmouthed opinionated African-American trans blogger from Houston. 

Yes, we have homophobic and transphobic yahoos here along with wonderfully supportive allies  just as you peeps residing in so called blue state GLBT 'paradise' areas.         

The point is that just as you love the quality of life in your neck of the woods, we love Texas and our quality of life and its culture just as much and think it's worth fighting for.    The fact that we have majority-minority population status compels us along with our progressive tradition to fight even harder to establish the type of Texas we want to live in and pass on to our children and grandchildren, and not this unequal conservafool red state version.    

The other three states that have majority minority population status, Hawaii, California, and New Mexico are Democratic or are swing states, and it's past time for Texas to join the swing state political party.

So is Texas a lost cause?   Don't think so.    

Jenifer Rene Pool Announces Candidacy For 2011 Houston City Council Race

On October 2 longtime civic activist Jenifer Rene Pool announced that she will be a candidate for the Houston City Council At-Large Position 2 seat

“I run because I want to serve the citizens of Houston in helping to make my home, this great city, greater.  I want to participate in the process of helping to find solutions to our challenges, create opportunities for all our citizens, make sure all constituents are represented, and become the most efficient and effective city government in the history of Houston.”

She's been doing that ever since she moved here from Beaumont in 1980 to work in the construction industry.

Jenifer was appointed by former mayor Bill White to serve as a City commissioner of the Building & Standards Commission, and by current Mayor Annise Parker to serve on the Police Advisory Commission. and a Blue Ribbon Task Force on Building & Standards.

She's also a past president of the GLBT Political Caucus, a board member of the Houston Transgender Unity Committee, and a steering committee member and past Co-Chair of the Diversity Committee of the Human Rights Campaign-Houston.

Dr. Maria Gonzalez, professor of English at the University of Houston and past president of the GLBT Political Caucus said in an OutSmart magazine article about Jenifer's announcement, “Jenifer represents the kind of citizen candidate I like to see run for our City Council.  She understands the challenges this city faces and wants to work towards solutions.  I look forward to volunteering on her campaign.”

Good luck, Jenifer.   Here's hoping you make Houston history in 2011.