LGBT Community Town Hall Tomorrow On Houston ERO

As I mentioned earlier in the week the language for the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance was released by Mayor Parker.   Now the fun of getting it passed and defending it against the almost certain effort to repeal it via ballot referendum has started. 

City Councilmember Michael Kubosh is holding an LGBT Community Town Hall tomorrow at 3 PM at Haven's Place, 1827 W. Alabama.  

Would be nice if we have a big turnout for this because Council Kubosh leans conservative and he's been getting major push from the haters and Dave Welch's Pastor's Council to vote NO.   

Since Kubosh has an at-large seat, he does have to at least listen to what we TBLG Houstonians have to say about the ERO, and tomorrow will be an opportunity for the Houston LGBT community to present our side of the story.

And as your homework assignment in preparation for this meeting, here's the draft ERO language.

So if you can make it to that location tomorrow, please do so.  Should be an interesting afternoon.     

Now The H-Town Fight For Equal Rights Begins

We Houston activists, public officials and TBLG leaders have been anxiously awaiting the release of the language in the proposed Houston Equal Rights Ordinance.

The Mayor's Office finally released the initial draft of the Equal Rights Ordinance at 2:30 PM followed by a press conference in which Mayor Annise Parker answered questions about it.

http://www.houstontx.gov/ordinancefeedback/equalrights_ordinance.pdf

Got people analyzing it now. but on first glance the ERO prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.    It covers city and private employment, housing and has the public accommodations language the trans community wants in it.

Now comes the fight to pass it.   It will take nine city council votes to pass in and finally add Houston to the long list of over 180 cities that have already done so.   If we are successful in accomplishing that task, out job then becomes pivoting to successfully defending our hard won ERO from the misguided people on the wrong side of the moral arc of the universe.  

We have every confidence in H-town that we can and we will build the broad based coalition necessary to accomplish both tasks.   

Houston is a world class city.   It's way past time our human rights laws reflected that.   The fight to make that happen begins today.

TransGriot Update:  The City of Houston's Quality of Life Committee chaired by Councilmember Ellen Cohen, will be meeting on Wednesday, April 30th, at 2:00 PM in Council Chambers at City Hall (901 Bagby St).  There will be discussion on the City's Equal Rights Ordinance, and public comments are accepted.

UH Josephine Tittsworth Act Passes!

Was on the University of Houston campus to watch a little history being made in the ultramodern UH SGA Senate chambers in the UC North as UH 51.001, the Josephine Tittsworth Act came to a final vote

The SGA meeting started at 7:30 PM with the TransGriot an overflow crowd anxiously watching the proceedings.

The Tittsworth Act sought to have The University of Houston follow its existing EEOC and non discrimination policy by allowing trans students to update their university identification with their preferred name, discerned gender and titles. .  
But this simple turned into a surprisingly contentious issues that plucked nerves on both sides of it.

The frats and sororities were the initial Tittsworth Act opposition, and there were reports the UH campus Republicans were also stirring the injustice pot as well.  The opposition initially went to the all too familiar play to the trans community and our allies of 'fear and trans smear' along with complaining about being called bigots during the debate.

Well opposition people, when you actively oppose a measure for a marginalized group by throwing long ago debunked trans bathroom and sexual predator myths as you did in last week's town hall (which I made my pissivity about that stunt clear), it's not a good look and puts you on the wrong side of the arc of the moral universe not only in my eyes as a trans person but in the court of public opinion.  .

I also noted that the UH frats and sororities 45 years ago were on the wrong side of history when they opposed the election of Lynn Eusan as UH's first Black homecoming queen, and sadly, they were repeating that history by attempting to oppress another on campus marginalized group.  

The opponents sought to delay the vote, claiming that the Tittsworth Act 'had been rushed', with many of the junior SGA senators complaining they 'hadn't had enough time' to present the issues to their constituency groups

SGA President Charles Haston and Tittsworth Act lead sponsors SGA Senators James Lee and Guillermo Lopez  were having none of that along with the senators who supported the bill .  

President Haston spoke eloquently during his time in favor of the bill to a standing ovation when he concluded his remarks.   He also wrote this op-ed concerning the Josephine Tittsworth Act.

The Senate will vote tonight on a bill that, unfortunately, a small group of students has voiced visceral opposition to. I'd like to make some things clear. 

I have had several conversations with CFSL (Center For Student Life)  and this bill literally has NO impact on fraternities or sororities.

A student said today that Greeks would be "discriminated" against if they chose not to admit a trans student to their organization. This bill is about protecting students who are actually discriminated against and the notion that we shouldn't protect those students because an organization is worried about bad PR is disgusting.

Over the last 237 years, 1,264,000 Marines, soldiers, and sailors have died to protect the freedom of all Americans, but especially the freedom of those the majority may disagree with. That includes everything from Westboro Baptist Church's right to protest military funerals, to women and minorities right to vote.

You don't have to agree with the personal choices of others, but as an institution we have an obligation to promote tolerance in order to ensure that all students can thrive at the University of Houston.

***

After handling the initial business items on the meeting agenda, the meeting turned to the issue the overflow crowd was waiting to see, the outcome of the Josephine Tittsworth Act.  

The initial plan was to allow three speakers from each side to speak for two minutes for or against the bill.   But after none of the peeps flapping their transphobic gums on social media stepped up to speak against it (surprise, surprise), an additional three speakers in favor of the Tittsworth Act filled that time.

The first and most moving speaker of the evening was Autumn Packard.  She is the mother of a trans child who urged the UH SGA to pass the bill so that her trans daughter, should she grow up and wish to attend UH someday could do so in safety.  Becca Keo-Meier spoke about the problems she encounters as a person who has androgynous appearance on campus and read a statement from her spouse Dr. Colt Keo-Meier.    After the rest of the affirmative speakers had their say (I was on standby),  the debate shifted to the SGA senators who would determine the fate of the bill.

Senator Pooja Magadi in response to an opposition senator who stated he was voting against the bill 'for his constituents', reminded the senators to a standing ovation that the trans students on the UH campus were also their constituents, too.

After some final questions and answers, the vote on the Josephine Tittsworth Act finally happened a little after 9:15 PM    The vote was 11 in favor, 4 opposed and 2 abstentions.

The Josephine Tittsworth Act now goes to the Faculty Senate and up the UH administrative ranks before it becomes university policy.  

But I'm so proud of my Coogs and the UH SGA for passing the Josephine Tittsworth Act.  Thanks to James Lee, Guillermo Lopez, Yesenia Chavez, President Charles Haston, the 11 SGA senators and all the people who were drum majors and drum majorettes for justice that got this done.  

It was a deeply appreciated step not only for the safety and security of UH trans students, but also resonated beyond the campus with alums and supporters of the University of Houston and the Houston TBLG community.

Tonight you proved that the justified pride in UH being one of the most diverse campuses in the nation isn't empty rhetoric as far as trans students were concerned.

Go Coogs!

I Find The Proposed Houston HRO's Lack Of Citywide Employment Protections Disturbing

I'm hearing disturbing chatter coming from my human rights sources here in Houston concerning the proposed Houston Human Rights Ordinance that is supposed to be unveiled later this month.

I'm hearing that the proposed ordinance will cover city employment and public accommodations but not cover private employment citywide and I'm about to go into Maya Wilkes mode over that. 

If it is true and the reporting I'm seeing from Lone Star Q seems to back that up, that is unacceptable to me as a transperson of color who represents the group that gets the disproportionate share of anti-TBLG discrimination aimed at them in Houston and that is facing 26% unemployment.  .

The Izza Lopez case emphatically demonstrated along with the harassment and 2010 arrest of Tyjanae Moore for using the women's restroom in the downtown Houston Public Library branch why a comprehensive human rights ordinance is needed and necessary.

And as I stated in the September 2013 post, I will not accept trans human rights crumbs in Houston and will fight with ever fiber of my being to ensure that any human rights ordinance passed in my hometown has  citywide job protections and public accommodations language .       

When I spoke in favor of a comprehensive human rights ordinance for my hometown in January, enshrining the unjust Houston status quo into law because you are 'scurred' of a referendum that is coming from the right wing haters anyway no matter what kind of human rights ordinance you pass is not the vision I had in mind for our human rights ordinance along with TBLG Houstonians.  

And it would human rights malpractice for me as a Houston based human rights advocate to NOT to call this injustice out. 

It takes nine votes to pass anything on Houston City Council, and we're one vote shy of passing an ordinance with citywide job protections with four undecided councilmembers.  Three of them that are alleged to be noncommittal share my ethnic heritage, so Houston Black SGL, trans and bi community, time to get busy expressing ourselves.    


This is the question that was asked by the Houston GLBT Caucus of Mayor Parker when you came asking for the caucus endorsement last year: 

Would you be willing to introduce a non-discrimination ordinance, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity or expression in employment, housing, and public accommodation, that provides reasonable exemptions for small businesses, religious organizations, and federally exempt residential property owners?

This is how you answered it at that time.

Mayor Annise Parker:  YES

And Houston City Council members, when the Caucus asked:

If elected, would you publicly advocate for and vote in favor of a non-discrimination ordinance, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity or expression in employment, housing, and public accommodation, that provides reasonable exemptions for small businesses, religious organizations, and federally exempt residential property owners?

The Houston City Council members and candidates for council answered:

Jerry Davis: YES
Ellen Cohen: YES
Dwight Boykins: YES
Ed Gonzalez: YES
Robert Gallegos: YES
Mike Laster: YES
Larry Green: YES
Steve Costello: YES
David Robinson: YES
C.O. Bradford: YES
Jack Christie: YES

So mine and other inquiring Houston LGBT minds wanna know, what's changed your minds since you were asking for our votes last year? 

If you councilmembers wish to see the language of the proposed HRO before committing one way or another I can understand that.  But if you have already have seen that language and it's as bad as I'm hearing, then it's time for some profiles in political courage.

Note to Maverick Welsh, Houston LGBT Caucus president:  I'm not liking the incrementalist chatter coming out of your mouth either. 

Welsh added that the Caucus will still support the proposed ordinance if it doesn’t include citywide employment protections. “I don’t think the perfect has to be the enemy of the good,” he said.in a Lone Star Q interview.

'The perfect' as you called it Maverick is 'Necessary for our survival' when seen from the viewpoint of trans, bi and  SGL people of color disproportionately affected by anti-GLBT discrimination in this city.  

We want a Houston HRO that FIXES the problems we face, not locks the wretched status quo of discrimination in place so you Mr Welsh and your like minded peeps can sip appletinis at the next Houston HRC gala and declare a win     

We still have time to ask for what people in the Houston TBLG community expect in a long overdue Houston Human Rights Ordinance:  that it fix the problem and it has enforcement teeth.

Thanks to the Houston Stonewall Young Democrats for the form so you can click on this link and do precisely that.   Here's the contact information for Houston City Council members so you can also respectfully express yourselves and ask for that comprehensive Houston Human Rights ordinance we elected them to enact.

So we're asking politely (for now) Houston City Council to fix it.   We only get one shot at this, so let's do it right the first time, pass the Houston Human Rights Ordinance the entire community can get behind, then work to defend it from Dave Welch and his haters.   

Mayor Parker Discusses TBLG Inclusive Human Rights Ordinance

During Mayor Annise Parker's State of the City address she gave to a crowd of 1600 members and guests of the Greater Houston Partnership on Wednesday, she outlined many of the issues that she'll be tackling during her final term as Houston's leader. 

She also addressed the one question that has been on the minds of TBLG Houstonians ever since San Antonio's contentious passage of their trans inclusive human rights ordinance last September made Houston the largest city in the state and the only one of the top five population US cities that doesn't have one:  What's up with the LGBT inclusive non-discrimination ordinance she's been talking about for months now and even mentioned in her third inauguration speech back on January 2? 

You know as a native Houstonian I believe it's past time we do so, and have already spoken to Houston City Council twice urging them to pass such an ordinance.

That's why she discussed during the GHP speech and in the press conference afterward the long needed Human Rights Ordinance, which will prohibit discrimination in city employment, contracting, housing and public accommodations.  It will also add sexual orientation and gender identity to the list of protected classes of people and will create a seven person Human Rights Commission that hears complaints and refer them to the proper authorities

Mayor Parker is expecting that ordinance to be rolled out sometime next month, and as you probably guessed, the usual H-town conservahaters in Dave Welch and the Houston Area Pastor Council are already trying to scuttle it.

But we are just as determined in liberal progressive H-town to pass it, and the fun will begin when we finally see the initial draft of the proposed ordinance next month.
 

Discrimination Has No Place In Houston Petition

As you are well aware of TransGriot readers, I'm a proud native Houstonian who has been more than fed up about the lack of a comprehensive non-discrimination ordinance in my beloved hometown.  

In the wake of San Antonio passing theirs on a lopsided 8-3 vote, I have been vocal about wanting the same nice human rights thing on my end of I-10.

Ever since Mayor Parker announced during her January inaugural address that it was time to push for that ordinance, I have not only spoken to City Council (twice and counting) about it, I wanted to make sure that when that push started, the trans community and  the Houston trans community of color had a seat at the table, we ensured transpeople were covered in it and it was a comprehensive ordinance unlike the 1984 one that was sexual orientation only and went down to crushing electoral repeal in 1985. 

And as a proud Houstonian, I'm tired of H-town being the largest Top 5 city in the United States and the largest city in Texas without one.   And I will not accept trans civil rights crumbs just to say we have one, either.

It's past time that Houston added gender identity and sexual orientation to the non-discrimination ordinance and ensures every Houstonian has equal access to employment, housing, and public accommodations inside the 628 square miles of Texas we call home.

Texans Together is collecting signatures (and yes, I've already signed it)  for a petition that would be one of the steps toward making this non discrimination ordinance a reality in my hometown. 

You can click on this link to add your name to this petition.

UHD Safe Zone Panel Today

Before I jet off to our nation's capital tomorrow for the upcoming 2014 edition of the LGBT Media Journalists Convening, will be hanging out with the UHD Gators this afternoon. to participate in a panel discussion.

It's jointly sponsored by Safe Zone, the UHD LGBT on campus organization and the UHD Black Student Alliance.

The panel is entitled African American Perspective Within The LGBTQ Community.

We want to bond the gap between the movement of racial justice and LGBTQ Equality. We are also trying to take action to eradicate both homophobia and racism in our own community. We are looking for ways to deal with disparities in the African American community concerning social issues (religion, culture, family and occupational issues in the LGBTQ community.

BUT HOW?
With YOUR help!

The panel is running from 2-4 PM CST in Room N420 on the UH-Downtown .campus main building at 1 Main Street.   The UHD campus is easily accessible via the METRORail Red Line if you don't feel like dealing with fighting downtown traffic and trying to find a parking place for your vehicle.

Thanks once again to LaTrina Carter and the gang at Safe Zone for the invitation to participate in this panel and blessing me with the opportunity to be on your campus again.  

All are welcomed to attend, and hope I'll see as many of you as possible in N420 for what I'm sure will be an interesting discussion..   

TransGriot Update: After I arrived on the UHD campus, discovered that the BSA suddenly pulled out of co-sponsorship of the panel with no warning and no explanation.   Their loss.
   

My Mayor Got Married!

Congratulations to Houston Mayor Annise Parker and First Lady Kathy Hubbard, who made it official and put a ring on the first lady's finger.

Both of them wanted to wait until marriage equality became the law of the land in Texas, but after being in their relationship for 23 years and noting Greg Abbott and his Teapublican friends gearing up to fight the Texas flavored federal marriage cases set to take place in a few weeks to overturn the ban, they decided not to wait any longer and get married in Palm Springs, CA.

"This is a very happy day for us," Mayor Parker said in a statement. "We have had to wait a very long time to formalize our commitment to each other. Kathy has been by my side for more than two decades, helping to raise a family, nurture my political career and all of the other ups and down and life events that come with a committed relationship."

Of course Harris County GOP chair Jared Woodfill and his merry band of local homophobic haters threw shade at the happy couple, but frak 'em.  

Congratulations to the Mayor and H-town's First Lady.  May you union continue to be a long, happy and healthy one.

 

Road To Creating Change Houston 2014 Diary -Light At The End Of The Tunnel

Back in May I started writing a series of posts on the blog that sought to capture my thoughts as I watched the process of putting together the Task Force's Creating Change conference unfold.

It seems like it was eons ago that we had our first Host Committee meeting at the Montrose Center on May7 and began that process by filling out the subcommittees that would do the bulk of the organizing work

Now we are an anxious two weeks away from having the conference happen and having to execute all the plans we have spent months putting together and laying out..

Speaking of having things happen, I missed the December 3 meeting because I wasn't feeling well, and that killed my chances of attending every one of the meetings from start to finish.   But I didn't need to be sharing my cold with my fellow Host Committee members either.    

But I made sure I was there for our last Host Committee meeting on January 7.   As the meeting started at the Montrose Center and we gave our respective reports, there were mixed emotions in the room.   We are excited that January 29 is rapidly approaching and we're about to host our first ever Creating Change, but sad that this was the last Host Committee meeting.   .

While I was sad that it was the last time we'd be gathering together for Host Committee meeting purposes, the work still isn't over. .  

We are still on our various committee fine tuning our programming in the hospitality suites, still promoting our conference to the people in the Houston metro area, and doing our best to get the word out that Creating Change is coming to town January 29-February 2. 

Christina had a article published earlier this month in OutSmart magazine as part of those efforts, and I don't doubt that our media team has reached out to our local media to cover CC14 when it happens


Lou was delayed getting to that final Host Committee meeting due to travel issues related to the polar vortex deep freeze gripping the nation, (and Houston was in the low 40s for a high that day) but our other co-chairs Christina, Bryan and Augie were there in full effect ticking off the reasons why this conference was poised to be the most successful ever.

Speaking of weather, we're wanting Chamber of Commerce weather for it, (sunny, 45-60 degrees) so you CC14 attendees can get the opportunity to enjoy the ice rink at Discovery Green across the street.

The temps have been all over the map this month.  It was cold earlier that Host Committee meeting week but was up to 70 degrees by the weekend. 

Just an FYI, January is our coldest month in Houston with the average temp at 53.1 degrees.  I'm not going to mention what our average rainfall is for January.   Don't want to jinx us. 

I'm getting increasing e-mail and chat messages from people who are headed here asking if I'm going to be in the house for it and other general information related questions about my hometown. 

As for the conference programming, I'm part of two panel discussions on Friday afternoon and Sunday morning during Creating Change along with handling my Racial Diversity Suite supervisory shifts on Wednesday and Thursday.   

We set a goal of 4000 attendees for it, and have already sold out not only the host hotel, but two overflow hotels.  A third overflow hotel is rapidly approaching that status.  We're still getting volunteers and know the mandatory training session is happening January 26.   So for those of you coming to Houston, you are going to be part of a record breaking all time attendance for a Creating Change Conference  
 
We smashed the all time fundraising record by raising $33,000 for this event . We have Laverne Cox coming to Houston to give the plenary speech and Nona Hendryx performing at our closing concert and I'm looking forward to seeing both of them. 

You may even see a former Creating Change attendee who happens to work at City Hall in Mayor Annise Parker.

And speaking of City Hall, it will be floodlit in rainbow colors during the conference.    

But the best thing that has come out of this experience for me in addition to the new friendships and the opportunity to see the peeps in the national and international LGBT community again, is being able to work with people who I might not have gotten a chance to meet otherwise or it may have taken a while to do so. 

That's also true of the people who I've been chatting with online for years and will finally get the opportunity to meet during Creating Change.  

Those of us who have embarked on the project of putting together Creating Change Houston style have established working partnerships that will last long after we pass the Creating Change torch to Denver and their Host Committee has the task of trying to top in 2015 what we accomplished in H-town.

Those partnerships will serve us in the local and statewide TBLG human rights battles to come..

But can't wait for January 29-February 2 to finally get here so we can roll out the rainbow carpet for you.

OutSmart Article On Creating Change 2014

OutSmart is our local TBLG community magazine that has been publishing since 1997.  

Christina Gorczynski, one of our Houston Host Committee Co-Chairs,wrote an article that published in the latest issue of it concerning the rapidly approaching January 29-February 2 date of Creating Change Houston style. 

And yeah, as you probably guessed, a  certain blogger y'all know and love was quoted in it.

And for those of you traveling to Houston wondering  if I'm going to be there for CC14, um yeah.  This is my birthplace and hometown (although Louisville likes to claim me as theirs, too).  I've been part of the team helping put it together since April and I'm already scheduled for two panel discussions.   You think I was going to miss a Creating Change in my backyard?    

Here's the link to it, and looking forward to seeing everyone who is going to be part of the record breaking crowd we are expecting at the Hilton Americas Hotel in a few weeks. 

T-30 Days And Counting To Creating Change 2014

After the months of meetings, planning fundraisers, getting the word out, and other activities wrapped around it, we are now 30 tantalizing days away from Creating Change 2014 happening in my hometown January 29-Febuary 2.. 

Am I excited about it?    Is Annise Parker still my awesome mayor?

Yeah, me and our Creating Change team can't wait to roll out the rainbow carpet for you peeps who are traveling to H-town for this event. 

Looking forward to seeing the Hilton Americas Hotel swarming with our TBLG community members from around the country and the world as we plot, plan, learn from each other and strategize the next stages of our human rights movement. 

I'm looking forward to seeing and chatting with as many peeps during this conference as humanly possible while doing my part to make sure that things run smoothly in the Racial Diversity Suite.

But still have 30 days of work and nervous anticipation along with the rest of the Houston host committee before that happens.

Race Relations In The Houston GLBTIQ-SGL Community Discussion

I posted the information about an event that took place yesterday at Resurrection MCC and facilitated by Dexter Williams that was entitled 'Race Relations In The Houston GLBTIQ-SGL Community.

It cranked up a little after 3 PM on the Northwest Houston area GLBT church campus after the ground rules were laid out.  After an initial icebreaker exercise to give the facilitator an idea of the attitudes in the room, for the next three hours the 30 people who took the time out of their Sunday afternoon discussed the issue from a wide variety of perspectives.

We had a thoughtful conversation about the lack of visibility of Black people in local GLB and trans organizations, some of the racism we'd faced inside the Houston SGL community, and touched on the issues and challenges in our own community that contribute to the Black leadership void in Houston based GLBT organizations. 

There were four people who identified themselves as biracial and brought their perspectives, and yes, I brought another angle to the afternoon's proceedings to the predominately Black gay and lesbian room as someone who experiences the issues of race in the H-town TBLG community from a trans perspective.  We were also fortunate to have a bi identified person in the room telling her story. 

What I was disappointed by and not surprised at was that despite Dexter and the Brother 2 Brother organizers best efforts, out of the 30 people who felt it was an important enough topic to be there, there was only one straight white female ally in the Gathering Place room where it was held.   She happened to be a TransGriot reader who saw the announcement I posted earlier about the event on my blog.   

Race relations in the Houston GLBT community is a topic I have tackled on this blog and we will have to have that discussion sooner or later in this community in order to move forward.  I believe there is an LGBT community, but race and class is a problematic part of it that must be addressed in order for it to move forward in our just human rights cause. 

It's even more imperative that we clear the air about this issue in the Houston SGL, trans and bi community as we seek to emulate San Antonio and pass updates to our non-discrimination ordinance that add much needed gender identity and sexual orientation language to them.   We will need a united front for our multitracial coalition to take on the predominately monoracial Houston Forces of Intolerance who will do everything possible to stop that progressive GLBT ordinance from happening in the largest city in Texas.   

Ignoring the festering 400 year old problem of race is not going to make it go away.  Just because we are part of the LGBT community doesn't mean we DON'T have those same race and class issues in our little subset of the greater American society that's infected by it.   To address it we have to talk about it so we can come up with a community based solution to it that everyone can be happy with.  

We also need to handle our business on this subject so that Houston as the fourth largest city in this country with a sizable SGL, bi and trans community is better able to take its place amongst New York, LA, Chicago, Atlanta as a recognized major LGBT leadership center   

I'm happy to report that Dexter and Brother 2 Brother are determined this won't be the last conversation we hold on this subject, and one is tentatively scheduled for February.   When there a solid date for it I'll post it to the blog, and I hope to see more of Houston's rainbow diversity reflected in that room when the next race relations discussion in the community is held.

Upcoming Race Relations In The GLBTIQ-SGL Community Discussion

Was advised about an interesting upcoming event that will take place on Sunday, September 29 at the Resurrection Metropolitan Community Church here in H-town.

It's a discussion on 'Race Relations in the Houston GLBTIQ-SGL Community' that is sponsored by Brother 2 Brother and will be facilitated by Dexter Williams.

We are calling ALL persons of the GLBTQ-SGL community! Let’s come together to discuss race. Let’s embrace our cultural differences and in the process gain a better understanding how we can move forward together as one community. We want to make sure everyone has a voice.

We in the Houston rainbow community are going to need to have a frank discussion about and deal with the issue of race in this community.  We need to ensure we're on the same page in preparation for the ugly and bruising knock down drag out fight we will have in the near future over adding gender identity and sexual orientation to our non-discrimination ordinance. 

When that ordinance passes, there will be an effort by the Forces of Intolerance to force a ballot referendum in an attempt to repeal it.  We will need to be working together in order to fight it and win..Resurrection Metropolitan Community Church is located at 2025 West 11th Street in Houston and the event is scheduled to run from 3-6 PM CDT.

I'm making plans to be there and check it out. 
 

A Ray Hill Houston TBLG History Moment

TransGriot Note: Ray Hill is one of our iconic leaders here in the Houston area who has been in the BTLG rights fight locally, statewide and nationally since the 60's. 

He recently wrote a status update on his Facebook page in which he shared his thoughts about local LGBT history events that were transpiring when the TransGriot was a teenager. 

This is one of those moments in which when one of your iconic GLBT elders are speaking or writing down their thoughts for posterity, it's shut up and listen time. 

Ray also said this in the last sentence of it.  'Share this with your friends so we can celebrate today's victories in the context of where we came from and what we can do looking forward.'

I agree, which is why I'm posting it.   And now, here's Ray Hill.The GLBT movement(s) have come a long way since I began writing about the need of change in 1966: One could go to prison in all states if caught in gay/lesbian intimacy; If caught in the opposite gender's clothing; going to jail was a given; The suicide rate was the highest than among any other class of people and violence against us was rarely investigated and even more rarely prosecuted; The police themselves were frequently responsible for violence against us; Our jobs and educations could be rendered insecure after every raid on our gathering places; Our birth families more frequently rejected us than not.

I could go on because the list of oppression is endless. We had no defenses. No one except those genetically gender varied was out of the closets and they faced constant ridicule wherever they went.

In Houston a few of us began to talk about how to start an effort toward change. In 1967, The Promethean Society organized meetings. In 1968 three of us began to confront the authorities about policy changes. The authorities laughed at us even GLBT people objected to what we were doing because they had learned how to survive in the then current oppression and feared we would cause more.

In 1970 KPFT-FM went on air for the first time.  In 1973, the felony Sodomy Law was replaced by section 21.06 a misdemeanor.  In 1975 a handful us founded Houston Gay Political Caucus and Wilde N Stein began to give the community a broadcast home; In 1976 we had a Pride March on Main Street downtown (The mayor (Annise Parker) and I may be the only participants that remember that event) but in 1977 everyone remembers when Anita Bryant came to town and those of us who greeted her never returned to our closets; 1978 brought Town Meeting I, during which many of the enduring institutions that still serve our community were founded and the Transgender movement was born.

In 1980 a few of us gathered at Bering Church to found the Kaposi's Sarcoma Committee in concern for dire health indications. That organization became the K.S./A.I.D.S. Foundation in 1982 when the term AIDS was chosen at the Paris Conference, it is now AIDS Foundation Houston. What followed was at once the most devastating and the most character building part of out history, Our collective caring and organizing against the greatest pandemic in recent Centuries is remarkable and say more about who we are and what we can do than anything in anyone's memory.

I have outlived all the others who have a memory of the scope of that progress and most of the community have no grasp of where we were and how we got to where we are.

Change comes rapidly now but without the foundation laid forty years ago none of this would be possible at all.

Road To Creating Change Houston 2014 Diary

Ever wondered what it was like or what goes on to not only plan a convention, but make them run smoothly?   Well, it takes a lot of work from dozens of committed people to plan it in the year before the event date and hundreds of volunteers during the event to make it happen.

In the world of large conventions, especially in the GLBT community, one of the largest is Creating Change.   I think you've read in these electronic pages how excited and thrilled I am along with the Houston LGBT community to have the premiere TBLG conference coming to Houston in 2014 for the first time on our end of I-45. 

Some little city on the northern end of I-45 has held it twice.  Gratuitous civic rivalry shade thrown at Dallas over, back to post.

I'm excited that many of you will be coming to my hometown and the Hilton Americas Hotel because it'll be the first Creating Change I've been able to attend since 1999.  That's way too long. 

I've been to several interest meetings since the rumors started flying that we were going to possibly get Creating Change last June.   But now the reality is sinking in that we are a mere nine months away from the January 29-February 2 dates we have scheduled for it. 

At 7 PM CDT in the Montrose Center the work began to organize the massive task of putting together Creating Change 2014, Houston style.

Our co-chairs for the 2014 event have already been selected.  They are Bryan Hlavinka, Christina Gorczynski, Augie Augustine and Lou Weaver.  They are not only the faces of our convention,  they have the task of overseeing the 15 subcommittees that are going to do the nuts and bolts work of helping to assemble CC14.

Those subcommittees are Development and Fundraising, Local Promotion and Outreach, Volunteers, Programming, Youth Support, Elders Support, Disability Hospitality, Bisexual Hospitality, Community Housing, Local Hospitality and Information, 12-Step Recovery, Spiritual Needs, People of Color Hospitality, Transgender Hospitality, and Media/Public Relations.  

The four subcommittees I was interested in were People of Color Hospitality, Transgender Hospitality, Media/Public Relations, and Programming.  

However out of the four that appealed to me, I could only pick one to focus my primary efforts on.  I was concerned about what would happen when my fall speaking schedule cranked up.  I didn't want to spread myself too thin or take leadership in one and my speaking schedule started pulling me all over the country to the point that the subcommittee's work would suffer.   So I decided to focus on People of Color Hospitality and I'd offer my help to the others I was interested in if it was wanted or needed.  

Of course, Media and Programming filled up fast along with.Transgender Hospitality.   I decided to join People of Color Hospitality as the one I'd focus my efforts on and signed up for that one.   

After a few minutes I met the people who I would be spending the next several months ensuring that our piece of Creating Change 2014 is well organized and run.   We're responsible for ensuring the People of Color Hospitality suite would have the Houston flavor we're all seeking to project to the world when y'all come here and ensuring that it and CC14 reflects our diverse community. 

After we selected our chair (Melissa) and co-chair (Ryan) (nope, was too slow on the draw so I'm the admin for it) we didn't waste any time trading contact information, setting up a meeting date and agreeing to a time that fits all our schedules for our subcommittee meetings.   We got started bouncing initial ideas and visions off each other as to the collective result we wanted to achieve.

The same thing was happening with the other 14 subcommittees the people in attendance at last night's meeting were committing themselves to in that room and the one next door. 

You can follow our efforts on Twitter @CC14Houston, we have a Facebook and Google groups set up. And yeah people, the $25,000 record fundraising target for a Creating Change is in serious danger of falling.  We ain't playing about obliterating that record.   We're also shooting for 4000 conference attendees for CC14.

For those of you in the Houston area who missed last night's meeting, it's not too late for you to join in the fun of planning this event.  The next meeting is happening on June 4 at the Montrose Center starting at 6:30 PM CDT and we have them scheduled through January 2014.   You can also get in contact with the co-chairs and they can plug you into one of the committees they oversee.

And I'll be keeping y'all posted through my window on the process.

Happy Jimmy Carper Day!

From November 1999 to September 2001 I got to spend some late Saturday-early Sunday AM mornings at the KPFT-FM studios sitting next to Jimmy Carper as a rotating co-host for After Hours. 

KPFT-FM is our local Pacifica Radio outlet with its studios still in the middle of the Montrose gayborhood.  I had a lot of fun doing that 'Queer Radio With Attitude' show especially since I was fulfilling a dream of actually being on the air. 

The best part of the deal of being Jimmy's co-host is I got to say whatever I wanted and what was on my mind about politics, the community or whatever was LGBT related as long as I didn't violate FCC regulations.

And yeah, I did introduce his listeners to some R&B artists who were rainbow family as well since he only played LGBT artists during the time After Hours ran from 1-4 AM. 

Jimmy is a beloved figure in the Houston rainbow community and LGBT radio circles, and Mayor Annise Parker declared March 10, 2013 as 'Jimmy Carper Day'.

Congrats to my old radio bud for the honor... 
 

2012 Houston TDOR Coming Soon To UH Campus

We have a date, time and location for the 2012 Houston Transgender Day of Remembrance memorial service .  It will once again be on the University of Houston main campus on November 17 from 7-9:30 PM and it will be returning to the AD Bruce Religion Center.

I'm planning to be there to remember our fallen sisters and I hope you Houston area transpeople and our allies will join me and the rest of the Houston trans community in doing the same.

Will definitely be giving you Houston area TransGriot readers more details as we get closer to the event.     

4th Annual TTNS Starting Today

At this moment I'm on the beautiful UH-Clear Lake campus getting my learn on and covering the 4th annual Texas Transgender Nondiscrimination Summit.  As usual, I'll be chronicling the proceedings over the next two days and getting feedback about the pre-conference event that took place yesterday.

Had blog related and other person stuff to take care of that prevented me for being there and reposting on what happened in conjunction with TENT's  Trans Health Summit.

So check back on the blog a little later this evening for the recap of the day one TTNS events, and if you have time on your hands you can still join us for day two of the Texas Transgender Nondiscrimination Summit tomorrow.

In The Shadow Of Giants-The NAACP LGBT Reception

Since I have a trip to DC coming up in a few hours I was a little bummed due to last minute scrambling I missed the LGBT panel discussion.

But I was comfortable knowing that TPOCC's Kylar Broadus was holding it down for the community and that panel has so much firepower on it I wasn't really needed for this one.  

But I was definitely going to be there at the Hilton Americas Hotel for the LGBT reception that started at 5 PM CDT.

I barely had walked into the cavernous main lobby of the Hilton Americas when I was recognized by two people who had been in the room for the panel discussion at Netroots Nation. I stopped and talked to them for a few moments and headed to the elevators that would take me to the Skyline Room on the hotel's 24th floor.

While I was waiting another woman rushed up to me, introduced herself and told me that she was a huge fan of TransGriot and had been following my blog and tweets for three years.  I thanked her for her loyalty before I stepped into the elevator.  

Once I arrived in the beautiful Skyline Room on the 24th floor of the hotel for the reception a few minutes after 5 PM I was greeted by Dee Dee Watters, one of my local transsisters and a few moments later by Daniel Williams from Equality TX.

Dee Dee, another NAACP delegate and I launched into a lively discussion about the Affordable Care Act, the Canadian universal healthcare system, the Medicare For All bill and the sorry state of the US healthcare system vis a vis other industrialized nations.

As people continued to arrive I spotted one of my activist mentors Mandy Carter sitting at the table next to me and struck up a conversation with her after welcoming her to my hometown.  We were soon joined by Nadine Smith, (one of the panelists) Kylar (who I've been playing phone tag with for the last three months), Daniel and his boss from Equality Texas.   The Texans at the table started talking about our Lone Star conservafool idiots after Mandy discussed what happened in the recent North Carolina marriage battle and we got our grub and drink on. 

We also discussed at the table after Kylar joined us the hot topic in the room, Mitt getting booed multiple times by the assembled and unrepentant NAACP masses.  (FYI, the TransGriot approves of the message to Mitt v. 2012)

As more people continued to arrive it had for me a 'the activist gangs all here' feel in terms of many of the people I last saw or met at the NBJC Out On the Hill conference being here for this event. Stacey Long from the Task Force was in the house along with Leslie Herod from the Gill Foundation, Leslye Huff as an NAACP delegate, Sharon Lettman-Hicks from NBJC, Donna Payne and other local Houston people, activists, convention delegates, and reps from various TBLG organizations.

Leslye is also on the planning committee for the 2014 Gay Games that are coming to Cleveland and we discussed how the preparation for that event were going for a few moments along with her impressions of my hometown and Mitt's speech 

I also got a chance to chat with Eric Wingerter, the NAACP's VP for Communications and New Media who I met at Netroots Nation 2012.  He told me he'd been one busy man since the convention started and had a few late nights and early riser days in keeping the new media side of the NAACP convention working seamlessly. 

A little after 6 PM Chairman Julian Bond stepped up to the mic along with Alice Hoffman to make some remarks to the now over 100 people in the room.  He talked about the recently concluded LGBT panel discussion, the road to making this event happen, and the recent affirmative NAACP marriage equality vote.

Alice Huffman during her remarks recounted what happened to her in California when she became one of the early NAACP leaders to support the marriage issue.   She talked about being spit on by a fellow African American who then went on the radio and exhorted people to resign their NAACP memberships.

She was proud of taking that stand, and was pleased to see what it has led to.  I took a moment to personally thank her later that evening and did the same with Chairman Bond, one of our civil rights icons that was in the room.

Chairman Bond also proclaimed this was a historic day of another sort in terms of cementing a permanent marriage between the NAACP and the Black LGBT community because of our interlocking interests, and he highlighted the ongoing fight against the odious voter suppression laws as one of the issue we have in common  

When Sharon Lettman-Hicks was asked to take the mic, she echoed the sentiments expressed by Ms. Huffman and Chairman Bond in terms of the long needed marriage between the African-American straight and African-American SGL/trans communities and eloquently added some comments of her own in terms of pointing out that the Black LGBT community needs the NAACP in our corner just as much as the NAACP needed us.  

Lettman-Hicks asked the LGBT people in the room to raise our hands and challenged us to become NAACP members if we weren't already active in our local NAACP chapters.  She also challenged people to become NAACP life members as well. 

Stacey Long in her remarks pointed out that we still have some human rights fights yet to come before  yielding the mic to a rep from the Gill Foundation.  Donna Payne, who Chairman Bond acknowledged was instrumental in helping set up this year's panel discussion and reception also spoke for a few moments before we returned to chatting with the people in that room with a wonderful view of downtown Houston,   Discovery Green, Minute maid Park and the George R Brown Convention Center.

With the remarks over and the clock creeping closer to the 7 PM end time for the event and knowing I had to go home, pack and write down my impressions of this event for you TransGriot readers, it was time for me to leave and head back to my undisclosed location on the south side of Houston.

But I still wish I could have witnessed the LGBT panel discussion.   That would have really made this an even better day than it already was.

2012 TTNS At UH-Clear Lake Approaching

Just another reminder that we are exactly four weeks from the start of the 2012 edition of the Texas Transgender Nondiscrimination Summit that will take place on the picturesque UH-Clear Lake campus July 20-21

The TTNS will start at 9 AM CDT and the University of Houston-Clear Lake campus is located at 2700 Bay Area Blvd in Clear Lake, near NASA's Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center.

The keynote speakers for TTNS 2012 will be on July 20; Dr. Jean Latting, author of Reframing Change and on July 21 Dr. Genny Beemyn, Director Stonewall Center, University of Massachusetts.

Registration is $10 for students and $20 for all other attendees.

As you TransGriot readers know, I covered the 2010 TTNS event and the 2011 TTNS event and plan to do the same for this one.  

I enjoy reporting on the proceedings and being with folks from the activist, professional and academic worlds around the Houston area and the state to talk about the best practices for making trans human rights and equality happen in the educational setting in Texas.

And yes, I do actually get my learn on at the same time.

This is the 4th annual edition of the Texas Transgender Nondiscrimination Summit.   It is a joint effort of the Texas Transgender Nondiscrimination Summit (TTNS) and the Transgender Foundation of America (TFA) that will have as its gracious hosts the UHCL International Intercultural Student Services (IISS)-Women’s and GLBT Resource Center at the University Of Houston-Clear Lake.

If you wish to attend, time is passing quickly.  The deadlines to lock in you meal choices (yes, they feed you) and get you info in are approaching.  You can E-mail txtgsummit@gmail.com or call 832-409-3363 for info and registration information.  .  

Their snail mail correspondence address is.

TTNS
P. O. Box 1095
Baytown, Texas 77522

Looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible there at UH-Clear Lake July 20-21