HERO Passage 2nd Anniversary

It may have been one small step in the human rights evolution for many cis and straight Houstonians, but for those of us in LGBT Houston, it was a giant leap in our human rights 30 years in the making.
-TransGriot, May 28, 2014 'Houston, We Have HERO Passage'

Today is going to be a bittersweet day for me and everyone in Houston who busted our behinds, sat through three contentious marathon city council meetings and a contentious committee hearing to pass the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance.(HERO)

On that May 28 evening, I was so proud of my hometown and being part of the team that had helped passed this human rights law that covered 15 categories for our community.  That night I'd also accomplished a longtime personal activism dream of ensuring that we not only passed HERO, but it was trans inclusive.   .

At the time we passed it on that 11-6 council vote, I and everyone who fought tooth and nail for HERO's passage knew that night was the easy part.   Keeping it would be our task from that moment on.

But I and my fellow Houstonians who helped passed this much needed ordinance were bursting at the seams proud to have sent the message to the city, Texas, the nation and the world that discrimination's time in Houston had expired.

But as we celebrated the hard fought win, the Axis of Intolerance, led by the Harris County and Texas Republicans Party, longtime gaybaiters Steven Hotze, Dave Wilson and Dave Welch, and a cadre of sellout Houston ministers led by Rev. Max Miller were plotting to kill HERO..

They tied up its implementation in court as they collected petition signatures for a recall vote.  The rife with fraud petitions were found not valid in August 2014, and that set up another lawsuit that the HERO haters lost in January 2015 that led to it immediately being implemented..

HERO was still in effect at the time we celebrated its first birthday, but the haters had appealed to the all-Republican Texas Supreme Court, who unjustly forced it onto the ballot in an August 2015 ruling and set up the now infamous repeal campaign in which the HERO haters successfully deployed the anti-trans bathroom meme to kill it in November 2015.

We have a new mayor in Sylvester Turner and several new council members sitting around 'The Horseshoe' in those nice leather chairs.

Even more crucial to our efforts to pass a new H-town human rights ordinance, we still maintain a liberal-progressive majority on council.  

But with Mayor Turner early in his first term, not likely he'll be pushing to spend his hard won political capital on passing HERO 2.0 right now even though it is needed and necessary.  Mayor Turner is going to focus on getting his agenda he ran on passed, and can't blame him for that.  He got his first budget passed (which did on a unanimous 17-0 vote), he's dealing with infrastructure issues, and working on solving the city retirement pension funding crisis..

That meas that we are unfortunately we are back to where we started human rights wise in my hometown as this second anniversary of HERO's passage is upon us.  The positive PR we gained from passing HERO took a hit as we frustratingly watched the Republican Party and conservative anti-human rights activists replicate the tactics they used to kill HERO to either kill attempts to pass trans inclusive rights laws in other cities or enact unjust statewide laws like North Carolina's HB2 as Jared Woodfill and his merry band of GOP haters mugged for the cameras and bragged about doing so..

Are we upset about that in Houston?  Yeah, we are upset not only about losing a crucial human rights battle, but how it happened, and no one is taking that loss harder than me and my Houston trans siblings. 

We aren't giving up on the fight to ensure that the human rights of all Houstonians are respected and protected.  It's just unfortunately delayed for now as we absorb the lessons on what went wrong, what we did right and come up with strategies to ensure our success when we finally attempt to push for HERO 2.0 or whatever the new ordinance will be called. 

But we will do our utmost to win the fight to get an inclusive human rights law with public accommodations protections passed in my hometown. And you can be damned sure I'm going to be doing my part to ensure it not only passes, but watching to ensure that trans Houstonians aren't cut out of it.

But here's hoping that within the next few years, we will have another trans inclusive human rights law added to the Houston Code of Ordinances and that we finally get to proudly send the message once again that discrimination's time in Houston has expired. .

Community Debrief On HERO Tonight

This should be interesting.  

Tonight a conversation about HERO will take place to discuss what's next and map out a future course for what will happen next.  But this is also the same Houston Unites crew that I called Prop 8 2.0 for the way that the defense of our human rights ordinance was screwed up.

Will be interesting to see who they have taking part in this discussion from the Houston Unites side and what they have to say about how they conducted the campaign.

It starts at 6 PM at the Ripley House Neighborhood Center Gym.   The address if you wish to attend is 4410 Navigation Blvd.

Should be an interesting discussion.    

Should Have Voted For HERO

Well, as those of us who supported HERO tried to tell you peeps who fell for the GOP okey doke and lies back on November 3, the HERO ordinance was about providing a local remedy to combat Houston area discrimination for 15 categories.   It wasn't just an LGBT ordinance or about the bathrooms.

But because of your lack of human rights vision, 61% of you are now discovering too late you got played and you fell for the right-wing anti-trans scare tactics.   As the GOP and the conservafool movement celebrated that night how stupid y'all were and the sellout ministers got kicked to the curb after fulfilling their mission for the white GOP oppressors, our much needed human rights law was repealed.

We are now back to the jacked up human rights situation we had in H-town prior to HERO's passage in May 2014.

The latest person who is discovering the hard way they were hoodwinked and bamboozled by Dave Welch, Steven Hotze and sellout friends, tweeted to Mayor Parker about their problem.

Mayor Parker dropped the truth nuke about what their only expensive option is to combat the H-town discrimination they faced.

Well, I hope that when 2016 rolls around and it comes up with the new mayor and city council, you'll support HERO 2.0 passage and implementation.

Until then, the folks who were doing the H-town discriminating will gleefully continue to do so until they can't or are made to pay for their human rights crimes.

Last Chance To Vote For Houston Mayor Saturday

Been hearing some disturbing chatter that there are elements of the Houston LGBT community who are voting against their own political interests for the mayoral candidate who is NOT concerned with their human rights.

And that candidate NOT concerned about your human rights is the one who looks like you and who is endorsed by Steven Hotze and Ted Cruz.

If you wish to see HERO 2.0 happen, it would be in your best interests to head down to your local polling place Saturday and cast your vote for Sylvester Turner, not the carpetbagger who couldn't even run Kemah correctly.

There are also pro-HERO city council candidates who will need your support Saturday.

And just to make it clear where Turner stands on revisiting HERO, here's the open letter he wrote that explains his position.

Early voting ended yesterday, and this election us tight.  I don't want my hometown going 'back to basics', I want it moving forward as a city, especially on the human rights front.

My vote is already in the can since I went for early voting and has been counted.

I and your fellow progressive Houstonians need those of you who haven't done so yet to handle your electoral business on Saturday.

Every vote matters.  And I don't want to see the wrong persons getting inaugurated at the Wortham Theater on New Year's Day.

The Latest Ad Whacking The HERO Haters

Once again, better late than never, but another hard hitting ad attacking the HERO haters is coming out just in time for the first day of early voting which started today and runs through December 8.

The runoff election itself is December 12, and here's the official list of TransGriot endorsed candidates for this crucial runoff election.

But back to signal boosting this latest ad whacking the HERO haters and the money man behind them, Dr. Steven Hotze.

More Ads The HERO Defenders Should Have Been Running

Yep, still pissed about the human rights malpractice that happened here in Houston in terms of the Houston Unites coalition badly botching the defense of the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance.

I want to point out that Houston City Council meetings are televised on municipal cable channels, and there was video from both sides that could have been used not only for a pro-HERO commercial, but for an attack ad as well.

Let's start with the video from last year's HERO hearings that could have been used in a pro HERO commercial.

I start with Cassandra Thomas, from the Houston Area Women's Center, who for 20 years has been a nationally recognized authority on the subject of sexual assault.



Now, why wasn't this testimony used as part of a concerted effort to destroy the bathroom predator lie or information pointing out that in the other Texas cities that have similar laws to HERO, no such problems have occurred?  

I'll wait.

Our next video is Noel Freeman's brilliant August 2 takedown of the bathroom lie on ABC13




The Houston media failed to do their job debunking the opposition lies until it was way too late.

Now for one that Houston Unites could have turned into an attack commercial like the one I previously talked about.

Here's local faith based hater Becky Riggle testifying that because of her Christian faith, she had the right to discriminate against Jews.



This was a Christmas present from the opposition that should have been turned into an endless attack commercial loop highlighting their faux faith based bigotry and used to drive a wedge between the non-white ministers and their GOP controllers.

But it wasn't.
   

The Ad The HERO Defenders Should Have Been Running

This is an example of the type of hard hitting ads I've been saying that should have been run starting in September about our HERO haters.

Had Houston Unites had the political cojones to do that, we'd probably still have a HERO.

You cannot play nice with people who are willing to lie to win, and that should have been obvious when we fought the prevaricating faux Christian human rights oppressors to pass HERO last year.

Better late than never...

 

Open Letter To The Houston Black Community

Dear Houston Black Community,
It has been two weeks since many of you stupidly let the Texas and Harris County Republican Party, Dave Welch, Jared Woodfill, Steven Hotze in collusion with sellout ministers hoodwink and bamboozle you into voting against a human rights law that protected you.

How's that working out for you?

And yeah, as a proud native Houstonian who grew up in South Park, loves this city and who is an unapologetically Black trans woman who has no problem owning her power, I'm still majorly pissed off about what transpired November 3.

The embarrassment is strictly on those of you who were part of the 160,286 people who got played, but the negative consequences of that misguided vote will be felt by all 2.2 million of us who reside in the city limits of the 600 square miles of Texas soil we call Houston.

Whatever excuse you came up with to justify your NO vote doesn't take away the fact that I have to deal with the realization that many of you voted that way because you ignorantly fear or hate me and other trans Houstonians enough to take away your own civil rights.

The bottom line is that me and my fellow trans Houstonians were peeing and pooping in Houston public restrooms without incident for the last five decades prior to November 3, and we will continue to do so afterward.

It's also painfully obvious that some ongoing Trans 101 'ejumacation' needs to happen.




We Black trans people exist, and we will not go back into the closet or go into hiding because you don't want to deal with the fact you are less than enlightened when it comes to the transgender community, and that lack of knowledge was exploited by the same right wing conservative oppressors who have hated Black people forever.

We trans peeps are Black people first before the trans stuff even enters the human rights equation and my 6 foot 2 body is a walking study in intersectionality.  But the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance never was about bathrooms.  It was about creating a human rights non-discrimination ordinance with a local enforcement mechanism that we don't have now.  Thanks to some of you peeps failure to use Google to look up other sources of information about the HERO besides negative ads on KCOH and Majic 102, are embarrassingly without again

Let's bring this back to talking about the community whose humanity has been under attack since last April.  At least 1-5% of the folks who live here are estimated to ID as transgender, and I hope that the 2020 US Census will include a transgender identifier category so we can get more precise numbers.

We Black trans people are your brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, nieces, nephews, cousins, friends and neighbors.

And we vote.

We Black trans people are an intertwined kente cloth part of the Black community, and that symbiotic relationship ain't changing.  What ails Black Houston also hurts Black Trans Houston and vice versa.

If you think I'm sellin' woof tickets about that last point, it was a Black trans woman named Leyth Jamal who Saks Fifth Avenue in the Galleria discriminated against in 2012

If we are facing 26% employment discrimination, that hurts not only Black trans people, but the Black community as a whole if we can't get legitimate jobs and have to go to the underground economy to earn a living.   If Black trans kids are being bullied to the point of dropping out and don't continue to get as much education as they can, that hurts the Houston Black community as a whole.

What else hurts is seeing ministers that look like us oppressing us, mouthing the same dehumanizing anti-trans lies as white conservatives for over a year and fomenting hatred in Black Houston toward us.   That is  not only problematic, it is greasing the skids for hate crimes to be perpetrated against us.

If we have two HBCU's in the Houston area in Texas Southern and Prairie View that don't have non-discrimination policies that cover gender identity or policies in place that help make trans students feel safe and welcomed on their campuses, they will go to the PWI and HBCU colleges and universities that do.

I own my power.  Post- HERO I will redouble my efforts toward encouraging my Black trans brothers and sisters to own theirs and exercise it in conjunction with our allies.  You will have to deal with us becoming more active and visible in the Black community in the wake of this loss because it's painfully clear to me that needs to happen.

You don't like that, too bad, you brought it upon yourselves.

While this education is going on, new rule is in effect: You will not be allowed to uncritically demonize or dehumanize us.  You will give us the same respect that you demand for yourselves and if you can't or won't meet that basic condition of engagement, you will be called out.

We have far more problems in Black Houston that we can solve by working together.  Demonizing the trans community won't do squat for that, so chill with that anti-trans drama so we can get busy building the progressive Houston we all want, need and deserve.

I and other Black trans Houstonians, despite attempts to erase us from the Black community, exist and aren't going away.   Deal with it.

Yours in the struggle,
Monica

Moni's Recent Can We Talk 4 Real Podcast Interview

The Can We Talk 4 Real podcast appearance was scheduled for November 4 before we knew what was going to happen to the HERO.

Timing was great for me because I got to vent about what happened a mere 24 hours after the vote..

The podcast has now been posted to the site, and for those of you that missed the original November 4 podcast can now click on the link to listen to it.  

Thanks Teresa and Michelle for the invite..

Houston Stonewall Young Democrats #AfterHERO Discussion

It's been a week post-HERO loss, and far from wallowing in despair over a temporary defeat, the Houston activist community is taking the time to ask itself in this post-mortem period some hard questions about when went wrong, and what we need to do to clean the mess up so it doesn't happen again.

Last night I was honored to be invited to take part in a discussion at the Houston Stonewall Young Democrats meeting along with Brandon Mack and Texas state Reps. Armando Walle and Ana Hernandez to talk about what needed to be done post-HERO.

It was a lively discussion in a packed room at Little Big's moderated by HSYD president James Lee, which even got the attention of ABC13, but after interviewing James, bounced before the community conversation happened.    

Brandon pointed out one thing that must happen is for the predominately white LG leadership in Houston must not only share power and reach out to non-white Houston, but stop ignoring Black LGBT people when we tell you stuff that you don't want to hear.

I echoed the same points from a trans perspective, and Reps. Walle and Hernandez pointed out it is imperative that young voters get active, involved and most importantly, show up at the polls to vote

Thanks James and HSYD for the invitation.

Umm Naw, Black Houstonians Aren't Solely To Blame For This HERO Disaster

I've been calling this failed Houston Unites effort Prop 8 v 2.0 because they basically replicated the mistakes of the 2008 Prop 8 campaign in California.

One of the other way they are replicating the mistakes of Prop 8 is trying to blame Black people for their human rights malpractice.

One of the things I was worried about in the run up to the Prop 1 election was that if it went sideways and was repealed, the Houston Black community would be blamed for the loss.

And right on cue, that BS is already starting.   Carlos Maza ridiculously tried to throw shady blame at Beyonce, when I already pointed out that the #BeyBeAHERO campaign he tried to push was flawed because of the lack of input from Black LGBT Houstonians.   

Ashton Woods also had something to say about Maza's problematic comments.

Been warning y'all for months that the HERO would be decided in Districts B and D, not Montrose and the Heights, and the 72% of voters in District B and 65% of District D voting to repeal HERO basically cosigned what we've known we needed to do and asked for since May 2014.

You had to do education in those districts, since many of the repeal petition autographs came from those same districts.  Education, outreach and canvassing also needed to be done in the Latinx and Asian communities.

And when it comes to trans issues, there are elements of LG World that are just as transphobic as the Hotzes of the world,

You want to blame somebody, let's start with the organization tasked with defending our human rights law in Houston Unites. 

When you knew this, didn't even reach out to the Black community (and the Houston Latinx and Asian communities) to counter the lies spread by the HERO haters despite people pleading for you to do so, much less put trans people of color in ads to hit back against the transphobia, nobody in LG World better even part their lips to point a finger of blame at Black Houston when you didn't do the work to reach out to my community, much less involve the Black LGBT community to do it.

Because if you try it, you will find mine and the Black TBLG community fingers quickly pointing back at you.

Houston Election Day 2015!

In a few hours the polls will open for a Houston mayoral election the whole world will be watching.

The peeps who didn't early vote will be heading to their local precincts to cast ballots that will not only determine who sits in those nice leather chairs around The Horseshoe for the next two years, but who will become our next mayor succeeding the term limited Annise Parker.

And yeah, there's a proposition on the ballot to determine the fate of the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance I've had a lot to say about over the last few months.

The polls open at 7 AM CST and will close 12 hours later at 7 PM.  If you don't know where you go to vote today, here's the link to find out.    

METRO is also providing free rides to the polls.   Just show your voter registration card to the operator as you board the bus or train to do so.

So how do I feel as the clock ticks to the 7 AM start of a critical election for the future of a human rights law I and a team of Houstonians fought to get passed last year?

Nervous, frustrated and angry right now.

No matter what the result of the election will be later today, and I hope the human rights progressive side of my hometown I'm proud of prevails, the bottom line is the Houston trans community is going to have to deal with the fallout from the anti-trans ignorance spread since April 2014 by the HERO haters.

So Houston peeps, handle your electoral business and not only vote YES on Prop 1, but for mayoral and city council candidates that will fight to improve the HERO and not kill it.

We'll see if I have a reason for my mood to change in a few hours.

The Fight To Keep HERO - November 2

It's election eve, and I'm nervous that this election to keep HERO is tight going into Election Day tomorrow morning.

And it shouldn't be.

As I have pointed out repeatedly since last August, I have not been happy about the way this HRC funded campaign has been run from the initial August 12 press conference.  I have been appalled at the lack of outreach done to the Houston Black community which would probably decide this election being that it is also a city mayoral election with two African Americans on the ballot.

Councilmember Jerry Davis (who voted YES for HERO passage last year) basically spelled it out what needed to be done in order to defend the law and ensure it won at the ballot box.



So did myself and many other African-American HERO supporters.

I have also been scratching my head at the ongoing human rights malpractice as to why Houston Unites hasn't pointed out the consequences of what WILL happen to Houston economically if Prop 1 isn't approved.
-TransGriot  September 21. 2015

'The bottom line is that the HERO opposition has been since last May disseminating lies about HERO unchallenged. This election will probably be decided in Black neighborhoods, and we must get accurate information to our people to counteract the right wing lies.' 
--TransGriot, September 30, 2015

What we did get is a whitewashed campaign that didn't do enough to destroy the only political card the HERO haters could play in the bathroom meme attack,   It failed to point out the Texas and Harris County Republican Party and suburban right-wing activists were gleefully behind killing the HERO, and let nonstop anti-HERO commercials on Houston Black radio stations go unanswered. They were reacting instead of being on the attack, and that's a recipe for an electoral loss.

And if you think Moni is selling woof tickets about the Texas GOP involvement in this fight to keep the HERO, peep what Gov. Greg Abbott (R) had to say in this tweet about the HERO.

What a surprise.  As usual, Texas Republicans on the wrong side of a human rights issue.

But back to the numerous problematic ways this Houston Unites campaign evolved, right down to them making the mistake at their own press conference of validating the bathroom predator lie.

We got commercials that didn't include the community being demonized in Houston trans people, or give them air time to debunk the lies.   I commend Houston Latinx media for actually airing Latina trans people in HERO stories on their news stations to combat the lies, but a similar and critically needed effort featuring a Black trans person didn't happen for the Black community, and you had a GLAAD media trained trans person standing by ready to do battle with the lying pastors.

We also got too little too late outreach to the Latino and African-American communities as well and a bunch of late endorsements in favor of it that should have been rolling in BEFORE early voting started.

And what little outreach was done was handled by African Americans For HERO, the grassroots group that formed because of our alarm in Black Houston activist circles in terms of how the Houston Unites campaign was going.

And it's not just Moni who believes this HERO defense campaign was Prop 8 2.0 in terms of the critical mistake made in not reaching out to the Houston African-American community and listening to those of us who do grassroots activism in it.  Tarah Taylor wrote this on her Facebook page back on September 23.

***

So I'm going to go ahead and say what everybody's whispering about because not saying it does my people a disservice 

WE WILL LOSE ON HERO IN NOVEMBER.  

Why? Because nonprofit interest groups are choosing to IGNORE the black community - the group that benefits the most from HERO and has the most opposition to the ordinance.The field is wrong, timing is wrong, staff is wrong, marketing is wrong, offense is wrong, defense is wrong. 

All who are involved, I love y'all, has nothing to do with you personally but the grant money has you locked into a strategy that WILL NOT WORK and only caters to one marginalized group. And the black community that supports HERO doesn't appreciate your late response to our issues if there is a response at all - hasn't been one yet.

 Can we fix it? Yes, but you'll have to make some alliances, hold supporting organizations accountable, cut some turf in black neighborhoods, and knock those doors WITH THE RIGHT messengers IMMEDIATELY!

If y'all are mad about be saying it, imagine how mad I am watching this get thrown together and go down in flames 

HERO has volunteers that WANT to canvas the black neighborhoods to talk about racial issues but there's no infrastructure set up for it. Good portion of black voters vote by mail, mail-in ballots go out next week. WTF? 

Where's the strategy and field plan for women voters? Veteran voters? DisABLEd voters? Religious voters, business owners... I mean, what are we doing here???

In the words of Dr. Cleo Manago, you cannot talk to black people about a human rights issue using a white LGBT framework.

***

And when the Houston NAACP has a gala on Friday night and they don't even mention the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance that I and many Houstonians fought tooth and nail to get passed, there's a problem.

I hope and pray tomorrow that the people voting at polling places across the city will do the right thing and vote to keep a human rights ordinance that protects 15 categories of Houstonians.

But right now, I'm not feeling confident that will happen.

The Fight To Keep HERO - October 31

'The bottom line is that the HERO opposition has been since last May disseminating lies about HERO unchallenged. This election will probably be decided in Black neighborhoods, and we must get accurate information to our people to counteract the right wing lies.' 
--TransGriot September 30, 2015

I hope that on November 3 I'm in the position to report some wonderful news when it comes to the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance, but right now what I'm hearing is disturbing but something I and the Houston Black LGBT warned about months ago.

Early voting it over, and it's being reported that the anti-HERO forces have an edge going into Tuesday.  The thing that makes me have some shred of optimism about these reports is two of the three local political scientists reporting this have been wrong multiple times.

I hope I'm wrong on November 3, but as many of you longtime readers of this blog are aware of, I have this propensity of being correct about political and other stuff.

It's also a problematic sign of this Prop 8 2.0 campaign as I called it in my October 6 interview with political blogger Charles Kuffner when the Houston NAACP has their awards gala last night at the Hilton Americas Hotel and there is ZERO mention about a human rights ordinance that protects the entire populace, and was driven by discrimination aimed at African-American Houstonians.

Time for a Keeping It Real moment from Christina Gorczynski pointing out all these anti-HERO peeps who have 'concerns about women and children' have been all talk and no action.

Hey Houstonians: Just a quick ‪#‎HERO‬ observation and a little Houston history. Not long ago, Houston had years of backlogged untested rape kits-- and these anti-#HERO fear-mongering potty police were NOWHERE to be found. They were not running commercials advocating for safety for women and girls, and they were certainly not out protesting for justice for sexual assault victims in our city.

IN FACT, the person who took the lead, fought for funds and showed a drive for justice was our Mayor Annise Parker- the very person you are lying about and accusing of making women and children unsafe in bathrooms. She worked with our city council and our state and federal legislative delegations to get the funding necessary to successfully alleviate the untested rape kit backlog. She made it a mission to make sure that women and children in Houston were safer and that people who violated women and children were held accountable. Without much fanfare, she worked hard for us. And our city should be grateful for her leadership. (Olivia Benson would be proud.) 

So some REAL TALK: If all these anti-#HERO assholes really gave a flying fuck about the women and children in Houston, they would have given a damn then. If they actually cared about supporting women and children in crisis, they'd be giving hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Houston Area Women's Center or the women's ministries at their respective churches instead of buying TV ads to scare women and make us feel afraid in our own city, all under the guise of keeping us "safe."

Frankly, If these DUDES really wanted to protect women, they wouldn't be lying like dogs to each and every one of us with this nutjob shit about bathroom predators. And if they really respected women and children-- and I mean ALL WOMEN including trans women and ALL CHILDREN including trans children, they wouldn't be sitting around thinking of creative and completely dishonest ways to make us afraid of sexual violence every time we leave the house. 

#HERO protects women. Period. Anyone who tries to tell you otherwise is knowingly or unknowingly full of shit. ‪#‎hardstop‬

HERO also protects 14 other categories of Houstonians and it's worth fighting for.  Would be a shame if my fellow Houstonians allowed themselves to be hoodwinked and bamboozled into voting against their own human rights.

The Fight To Keep HERO-October 30

Today is the last day of early voting in H-town for the upcoming mayoral election and voting YES for Prop 1 and the ads are flying.   Another pro-Prop 1 ad rolled out this week as an anti-HERO ad featuring Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick hit the airwaves.



We have had in the runup to Election Day some political heavyweights comment on the HERO vote in President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.

“While the Administration generally does not take a formal position on specific proposals or initiatives, the President and Vice President have been strong supporters of state and local efforts to protect Americans from being discriminated against based on who they are and who they love. We’re confident that the citizens of Houston will vote in favor of fairness and equality.

”Democratic presidential candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has also weighed in on the HERO fight..



Hollywood has chimed in as well.  Native Texans Matt Bomer and Eva Longoria have also tweeted their support of the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance.

Eva Longoria ‏@EvaLongoria  Oct 27

I’m proud to join @HRC in support of #HERO in Texas. Join me in the fight #YesonProp1 http://www.whosay.com/l/piRbaPV  pic.twitter.com/AJqq5LSQiE 

We have had actress Sally Field, who has Texas family roots and is an award winning women's rights advocate, weigh in on the HERO at an event Wednesday night, and repeated her commentary Thursday morning at an event for women legislators at the Alley Theater.

News coverage on the local and national level about this fight continues.  The Houston Chronicle in another editorial called out Lt Governor Dan Patrick for outright lying about the ordinance.

But I'm still concerned along with the Houston Black LGBT community this late swell of positive endorsements may be too little, too late.   Polling has tightened up in the last few days, and you know I've expressed my dissatisfaction with the way the campaign to defend HERO was run.  I've been concerned about the failure to utterly crush the bathroom lie.and its lack of outreach to the Houston Black community and POC trans community of color in the face of an opposition side that will use fear and smear attacks on trans people as their only tactic.

And the HERO haters have been immensely helped by the lazy reporting of Fox 26,

You have until 7 PM to take advantage of early voting, otherwise you'll have to wait until November 3 to make your voice heard on this issue.

The Fight To Keep HERO- October 29

We are in the second week of early voting which will conclude on Friday, so if you haven't gotten your early vote on, please do so today or Friday.  After that date you will have to do it at your regular polling place on Tuesday November 3.

And yes, I have voted FOR Prop 1 and the candidates for mayor and council who support the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance.

Lot of things happening since my last update post.   One of the big business groups in town, the Greater Houston Partnership has come out in favor of HERO and urged a YES vote on it.



And that meme leading off this post?    Yep, it's sad but true.  The reason we don't have a non- discrimination ordinance with local remedies for discrimination today is because back in 1984 when the sexual orientation only one was passed, the ordinance haters like Steven Hotze, Dave Wilson and others teamed up with the Klan to 'scurr' people into voting against their own human rights.  And yes, attacks on the trans community (crossdressing men in your kids schools) were used in that odious 1985 campaign.

Now Hotze, Wilson and the new jack HERO haters like Dave Welch, Steve Riggle have shrewdly used kneegrow sellouts like Ben Hall, Rev F.N. Williams and Rev Max Miller to act as human shields for them to make their hate coalition look 'more diverse' and inject anti- trans hate in my community.

And I'm NOT happy about that .along with the ongoing efforts of these sellout kneegrow ministers and a failing for the second time mayoral candidate to hoodwink and bamboozle Black Houstonians into voting against their human rights.

As I've been saying since August, the HERO battle would be won or lost in the Black community, and I've expressed my concerns that NOT enough has been done by Houston Unites to kill the bathroom predator lie being spread in Black neighborhoods.

The gentleman on the left is Houston civil rights icon Rev. William Lawson.  He led the coalition that helped desegregate Houston's downtown lunch counters, secured Black employment for the construction of the Astrodome and subsequent African-American employment when it opened in 1965.  

And as the Houston African-American News pointed out, he supports HERO

Today from 6-8 PM a phone bank geared toward the Houston African-American community will take place at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston jointly sponsored by African Americans For HERO and Houston Unites. Address is 5200 Fannin Street, and you can either bring your laptop and cellphone or  just show up.

The NAACP and Houston Urban League (better late than never) are finally getting radio ads on the air urging my community vote YES on Prop 1.  But is it in time?

And as I've pointed out, this fight has the attention of Texas and the world.  Articles in the New York Times, the Texas Tribune and other media outlets.

Out of town media, just a note.  HERO is a human rights ordinance,   It is not a 'bathroom bill' or an 'LGBT ordinance'.  Get it right that it covers 15 categories.

Here are 5 quick things you need to know about the HERO.

And something they should have been doing from the start in terms of debunking the bathroom lie..



In other news Texans owner Bob McNair woke the hell up and asked the HERO haters to return his $10K contribution to them.   Guess the NFL or someone whispered in his ear this was a bad PR move and much of his fan base supports the HERO.

Don't be like Bob on Election Day and wake up on November 4 feeling stupid because you fell for the right wing okey-doke and lies.  Vote YES on Prop 1.
 

Open Letter To My Cis Feminine HS Classmate Colleen

Dear Colleen,
I'm writing this open letter to you since you blocked me for rebutting this transphobic comment you unleashed on your personal Facebook page on Sunday night.

if you were not born a woman, you don't belong in a women's bathroom. i could care less what you identify as

So yeah, not gonna lie, that comment hurt.  It was also hurtful to see many of the cis women that I like, am proud of and admire on one level or another in The Class With Class cosign your transphobia.   But what pissed my unapologetically Black trans behind off was when you exercised your right since it was your page to delete my responses to it.

Fortunately as an internationally recognized award winning trans human rights advocate and writer, I have a big award winning platform I can use to turn this transphobic Facebook lemon of a comment into teachable moment lemonade you denied me the opportunity to do on your page Sunday morning.

I'm also reading your comment several days after becoming the first African-American trans person and the second Texan to be honored by my community with the Virginia Prince Transgender Pioneer Award and several hours before I took three bumpy flights back home to Texas.   I was anxious to get back in the fight to keep the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance I fought hard last year along with other Houstonians to pass and cast my YES vote in favor of Prop 1.

I also read your microaggressive comment after spending an amazing and empowering week here in Provincetown. MA enveloped in love and gratitude by Fantasia Fair attendees, townspeople and others for being my awesome self along with the repeated thanks for being a human rights warrior

Colleen, as you stated in your subsequent e-mail to me this morning, you have every right to express yourself on your Facebook page. You most certainly do.  I also have the reciprocal right and the duty to call your behind out on it and not let the foul stench of transphobic bigotry in my Houston Black community ranks go unchallenged because that has been happening far too much lately.

Black trans people exist in Houston and everywhere else on this planet, we aren't going back in the closet to make you feel better about yourselves and neither are we going to quietly whimper and cry in the corner as our humanity is attacked.

Just in case you and the preachers in the Baptist Ministers Association of Houston and Vicinity didn't notice or keep trying to ignore, I'm Black.  I did not lose my Black Like Me card when I transitioned, nor will I allow you or anyone else to police my femininity simply because you were fortunate enough to have your body and brain line up when you were born two months before me in 1962.

First off, I and my trans sisters have to poop and pee just like any other human beings on the planet. and have been doing so in bathrooms marked female for over 50 years    I and my trans sisters are not 'men' as you disrespectfully put it and increasing medical research will confirm for you that the organ that determines your gender identity and how you express it is between the ears, not your legs,

Medical science and increasing research is also pointing out that gender is not the rigid binary system it was assumed and taught when we were in school, but is a non-binary spectrum.

And if you don't like the fact I will be going to the bathroom marked 'female' at any future JJ class event I have the time to attend and pay my hard earned money to do so, too bad.   BTW, there are trans men who happen to possess the same genitalia you do, but damned sure aren't women.

The bathroom predator meme you and Ben Hall have recited has been widely debunked in Texas and elsewhere , and if any person goes into a bathroom for the purposes of committing a criminal act, they will be prosecuted for it.  The keeping of HERO will not change that as HPD Chief McClellan pointed out.
 
This bathroom predator meme is also derived from the same talking points used by the GOP oppressors you're siding with they aimed at our parents and grandparents to justify Jim Crow segregation.

The sad part Colleen, is that you are a prime example in just how successful the anti-HERO peeps were in getting transphobic attitudes implanted in elements of the cis Black community it will take us years to root out.

And just to make one more point, I don't live as you commented in our private conversation a 'trans life.'   I live a life period that is a much better quality one than when I was miserably walking the halls of JJ and sitting in my Vanguard classes in a body that didn't match the person inside.

It is a life in which I have been to the White House five times. It is a life in which I get to talk to college students here and across the country. It is a life in which I can pick up the phone and call Janet Mock, Laverne Cox, Dr Kortney Ryan Ziegler, Geena Rocero and countless others just to say hello.  It is a life in which Jazz Jennings and her amazing family and the founders of the Black Lives Matter movement are a small sample of the people I have been fortunate to meet in the 21 years and counting I have been me.

It is a life in which my cis and trans friends live around the world, I get to attend conferences, do panel discussions and talk to the attendees as I was doing last week during Fantasia Fair in Massachusetts.

It is a life in which I not only get blessed to make history, it is also one in which I practice the principles of my Christian faith rooted in Kingian love and Black liberation theology to fight and call out oppression wherever and whenever it pops up.

And I'm just not fighting for trans specific human rights issues.  I was speaking out at those hearings at Jones and HISD headquarters when they tried to close JJ.  I spoke at a Trayvon Martin rally on the Houston city hall steps in the wake of his 2013 murder.

And I was there in all three City Council hearings of pro and anti- HERO testimony enduring 10 plus hour days to get a human rights law that protects all Houstonians passed.   It is a law that provides ALL Houstonians in 15 categories a local remedy against discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodations we all need that you wish to vote against because of a HERO opposition lie.

As for being blocked from your Facebook page, no big deal to me when I have other people who love, care about and respect the person I am now add me to theirs.

But what I do hope and pray happens for you is evolution and reevaluation of your current anti-trans position.

You don't have to like me.  You don't even have to speak to me ever again in life. Your loss.  You and other misguided folks can exercise your right to vote against the HERO and think you're sticking it to Mayor Parker, the Houston LGBT community, and me.

But before you do that, some food for thought.  54% of the complaints filed with the Houston OIG tasked with investigating HERO complaints before it was unjustly suspended by SCOTX were for RACIAL discrimination, followed by 17% for GENDER discrimination.

And the very people spreading the anti-trans lie at the behest of their Republican masters like Kendall Baker are guilty of sexual harassment or worse.  But those are the ignorant cis masculine folks you are listening to when you have a classmate who actually lives at this very moment as a trans feminine woman, has unapologetically done so for 21 years and who does seminars and panel discussions on these issues.

As the testimony of Judge Alexandra Smoots-Hogan and Dan Scarbrough points out, discrimination is still happening in H-town, and you would be voting to kill the HERO and against your own human rights based on a monstrous lie.

God bless you Colleen, and may you have ever increasing blessings in your life.

Your Classmate,
Monica
 

The Fight To Keep HERO-October 19

Early voting starts today, and over the weekend there was a rally and canvassing done to ensure our fellow Houstonians are well versed on what's at stake in this critical battle to keep the HERO as part of Houston City Code of Ordinances.

There was a canvass and rally on Saturday hosted by Resurrection MCC in the Heights, and one of the speaker was attorney Dan Scarbrough.   You may recall that he and two friends were denied entrance into the Gaslamp hate club in Midtown.

Early voting starts today and runs through October 30, so handle your electoral business. For those of you planning to get your vote on today, here's the link to find an early voting location near you.

The Texas Voter Suppression law is still in effect for now), so you will need the orange voter registration card and the conservatively approved photo ID before the clerk let you handle your electoral business.

In other HERO various organizations are still coming out in favor of Prop 1. The Texas AARP has become the latest group to urge the passage of Prop 1.

"For older workers, grandparents, unpaid family caregivers, and others age 50 and older who bring vitality to Houston, there's good reason to afford them and others the protections offered by Proposition 1 (HERO)."
- Bob Jackson, Texas Director of AARP

The Houston Association of Realtors, who supports the passage of Prop 1  also published this recent statement debunking the bathroom predator myth  

"The ordinance originally included language that specifically mentioned the use of restrooms. That section of the ordinance was removed in May 2014 and is not included in the language on which you will be voting. The ordinance does include protection from discrimination in areas of “public accommodation,” which is defined as any business that offers a product or service for sale from a physical location. There is already a long-standing law in the City of Houston that makes it illegal for someone to enter a restroom designated for the opposite gender with the intent to cause a disturbance, cause harm or harass anyone. This ordinance does not change that; it will still be illegal for a man to go in a women’s restroom."

The law the HAR referenced in their bigot busting statement is Section 28-20.  And it was yours truly and other trans leaders who called for the removal of that bathroom language because it was problematic.

The  Houston Chronicle has published another editorial calling for our fellow Houstonians to judge HERO on the merits and not the debunked lies of the opposition.

And yes, even though early voting has started, the big day is still November 3 when the votes get counted, so we still have to endure a bunch of commercials in this hotly contested campaign to keep HERO and in the mayor's race that is heating up.

And I'm going to close this post out with the final paragraph of the Chronicle's editorial.

Houston is a big city, a big-hearted city.  To allow small-minded arguments, fraudulent claims and cynical tactics to prevail om Election day would be a repudiation of core values that are intrinsically Houston. 

This great city is bigger than that.

Vote YES on Prop 1