Hamburger Mary's Is Opening In Houston This Weekend

I've heard about and wanted to go to one of their locations during my travels across this country, but the originals are on the Left Coast, haven't done many events in that part of the country.. and the last two times I was in the Bay Area, didn't have enough time in my tight schedules to check it out.

Was surprised and happy to hear that Hamburger Mary's is expanding, and they will be coming to my Houston home turf.   The Houston location will be right in the middle of the Montrose gayborhood next door to Bayou City on Grant Street.

So what's Hamburger Mary's?   It started in 1972 in San Francisco with the idea to create a friendly beer and burger place, and quickly became popular with the Bay Area TBLGQ community.  A second location opened in Hawaii, and the concept really caught on as franchised locations opened up in Colorado, Illinois, Wisconsin, Florida and Missouri.

The Houston location when it officially opens this weekend will be the 16th for the chain.

Hamburger Mary;s is renowned for its quirky names for its burgers like the Proud Mary, Queen Mary and Buffy The Burger Slayer burgers and a dessert item called Mary Tyler S'Mores.  The local outlet will have some Tex-Mex items and fajitas on its menu..

But what it's most renowned for are its drag shows and daily entertainment that start at 8 PM  Wednesday thru Saturday, with additional shows at 11 PM on Thursday and Friday.   The Sunday show times are at noon and 4 PM.  

Wednesdays is the 'Divas' show.  Thursday night is a Latin themed 'Fuego' show, Friday nigh is a variety show, Saturday is the 'Illusions' show, and Sunday is the 'Broadway' show.

Hamburger Mary's is closed on Monday nights, and Tuesday is reserved for Drag Queen bingo night, that helps raise money for local 501c3 charities.  The Houston Gaymers tonight and the Trans National Alliance on March 14 are just two of the local groups who have already scheduled bingo nights at the new eatery.

Hamburger Mary's Houston is located at 2409 Grant Street in the Montrose gayborhood, and looking forward to finally getting the opportunity to check one out without having to hop on a plane to do so.

A Busy H-town Day For Me

This Sunday finds me doing multiple events in my hometown

There's a rally at Houston City Hall organized by a coalition of groups taking place at 3 PM that myself and a long list of Houston area advocates and leaders will be speaking.

Some of the organizations that are part of this 'We The People Connect The Dots' event and march. are Fiel Houston . National Organization for Women (NOW) - Houston Area , Houston LGBT Caucus, Texas Coalition of Black Democrats Harris County, Black Lives Matter: Houston, Muslim Society of Houston, International Center for Spiritual and Social Activism, SEIU, Pantsuit Republic, Harris County Democratic Party, Women & Allies, and KPFT-FM's'The Prison Show 

After my turn at the mic, I leave downtown and head over to the nearby Guava Lamp club for a Pride Houston Grand Marshal Nominees Meet and Greet.  It's not an official Pride Houston event, but it gives people a chance to meet us and put faces to the names on the ballot. 

Voting has already started for who will be the 2017 Pride Houston Parade Grand Marshals and run through April 9.  That event starts at 5 PM and runs until 8 PM

Going to be a busy day, but when it comes to repping my community, don't have a problem taking the time to do so

2017 Pride Houston Grand Marshal Candidate Meet and Greet On Sunday

As many of you loyal TransGriot readers are aware of, I have been nominated as a finalist for Pride Houston's female Grand Marshal   along with Lou Weaver, for whom this is his second nomination for the honor of being male Grand Marshal at the Pride Houston parade.

As you probably guessed, if I win I get to make a little history as the first Black trans feminine Pride Houston parade female Grand Marshal and only the third Black female in the history of the event to ever become Grand Marshal.  

Lou would also make some history if he wins.  He would become the first ever transmasculine Houston Pride Male Grand Marshal.

Just in case you're wondering who the other trans feminine Grand Marshals were, Judge Phyllis Frye was the first trans feminine Parade Grand Marshal back in 2006, followed by Jenifer Rene Pool in 2012.

Last year I marched in the parade with the Organizacion Latinas De Trans en Texas along with Dee Dee Watters in front of their amazing color guard carrying trans pride flags.   If I successfully get enough votes to do so, I'll have the honor of riding in one of those nice Grand Marshal cars at the start of the parade in addition to being present for the Pride Week events in the runup to Saturday's parade.

Pride Week this year will run from June 18-25, and here are the  the events scheduled for it..

We'll see if that happens for me since the online voting just went live and runs through April 9 at 5:00 PM CDT for the honor.   Here's the link for the Pride Grand Marshal voting to do so.  

For those of you who don't live in the Houston area, I'll keep you updated on what's happening in the process all the way to the Pride Kickoff event in .April in which the winners will be announced.

On February 19 I get to attend a meet and greet from 5-8 PM CST at Guava Lamp in which I get to meet not only my fellow Grand Marshal nominees, but also people in the community.

It's located at 570 Waugh Drive on the edge of the gayborhood near Allen Parkway, and hope that you'll spend part of your Sunday with me and my fellow Grand Marshal candidates. ,

Texas Bullet Train Breaking Ground In 2018?

Whenever I wish to go to the Dallas-Fort Worth area, my options rights now are to either drive or ride the nonstop Megabus between the two cities via Interstate 45 which takes four hours to do, or fly.

The flight between the two cities is only a little over an hour, but that's before you factor dealing with TSA security at airports on both ends of the trip plus driving to and from the airports, be they Hobby or IAH on this end of I-45 or Love Field or DFW on the other end.

There may be a third option added soon for those of us in both cities, and it's tantalizingly close to becoming a reality in terms of high speed bullet train service between Houston and Dallas.

The Texas Central Railway trains would be based on the Tokaido Shinkansen N700 ones that have been zipping between Tokyo and Osaka for over fifty years with a pristine safety record, and would take 90 minutes to zip between the two cities at speeds of up to 205 MPH along a 10 county route.

The Texas Central Railway is a privately funded effort that aimed to get that service started by 2020, but has been delayed a bit until 2022 because they are awaiting the final environmental impact statement and ongoing negotiations with landowners along the ten county high speed train route corridor to acquire the right of way necessary for the trains to handle their high speed travel business

The surprise election of Trump also threw some uncertainty into this with all his 'America First' campaign rhetoric.

Texas Central claims they have 30% of the land needed to get the project going, and 50% of the land needed in Waller and Grimes Counties near the Houston end of the line.   They also have two preferred sites for the Dallas HSR station near downtown.   On the Houston end are trying to decide whether the HSR station will be near downtown Houston or at the METRO Northwest Transit Center.north of the Galleria.

Grimes County, which is the home of Texas A&M University, will also have a stop along the 240 mile line.

We'll.see if they meet their goal of starting construction on the line next year so it can be completed for passenger service by 2022.  But if TCR is successful in doing so, once the line is operational, I won't have to travel to Japan, France ,China or Germany to experience riding a high speed rail train.

The best part about that is I'll get to do so  in my home state.

So How Did You Spend Your Friday?

My Friday turned out to be a busy one.  

Dee Dee and I joined a group of our fellow Houstonians at 2 PM CST who protested Lt. Governor Dan Patrick when he was invited by Houston Crime Stoppers to their dedication and ribbon cutting for their new headquarters building named for longtime Houston TV news anchor Dave Ward.

While we were respectful to other speakers including Dave Ward, who all of us grew up watching and is a beloved media icon here, we had no such love for our oppressive lieutenant governor, and we let him have it when he stepped to the mic.

He was visibly disturbed when we booed him and yelled 'Flush SB6' and 'No hate in the Lone Star State" among the other slogans we yelled at him while he was at the podium.

We obviously got on the nerves of someone besides Dan Patrick,   A white male attendee walked over to our protest group standing on the sidewalk off the property to complain we were 'ruining the occasion'.   I said in response "The time is always right to talk about human rights" while others in our group pointed out before HPD pulled him way from us that if Crime Stoppers wanted a drama free ribbon cutting, they shouldn't have invited the polarizing lieutenant governor of this state to speak.

Once that event was over, I went a few blocks north up San Jacinto Street downtown to the Harris County civil courts building on Caroline Street to watch the investiture ceremony in the packed ceremonial courtroom on the 17th floor of my good friend Ursula Hall, who is now judge of the 165th Civil Court.

She was elected in the wave of Democratic judges we swept into power when we flipped Harris County blue on November 8.   Many of those newly elected judges were in attendance at her investiture ceremony that started at 4 PM.

The Hall family in Houston is well respected in Black Houston.   Her father Anthony Hall, Jr, was a Houston city councilmember who ran and narrowly lost a 1978 US Congressional race to succeed Barbara Jordan to Mickey Leland.  

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee and Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis were just two of the local political luminaries who spoke at her investiture ceremony.

The ceremony had me in tears at one point, and Judge Halls' speech had a line in it that I have been pondering ever since I left it and returned home.:  '

"To whom much is given, much is required."

It was a joy to watch someone I have known for years and has served as a Houston municipal judge finally get elected to a state bench and I was happy to be there to witness it.

That's how i spent my Friday.   What did you do on yours?

Been Nominated For 2017 Houston Pride Parade Grand Marshal!

During the unveiling event for this year's Houston Pride logo and the theme for this year's parade,they also announced the names of the people who are the finalists for the Male,, Female and Ally parade Grand Marshals.

Being named as a Grand Marshal of the Houston LGBT Pride Celebration is among one of the highest honors bestowed by the Houston’s LGBT community. Individuals and organizations nominated for Grand Marshal have made significant achievements for LGBT rights and have made considerable contributions to the LGBT community at large.

They also once they are officially voted in, get to ride in the nice cars at the start of the parade and wave to the crowds along the now downtown parade route.  Our parade is also a nighttime parade because it happens in late June and it can be rather warm here at that time of year..

Last year I marched in the Houston Pride Parade for the first time ever with the OLTT trans Latinas, and this year, I was nominated as a Female Grand Marshal finalist. for the first time.  Lou Weaver has been nominated for the second time for Male Grand Marshal finalist with the voting to start in two weeks .

Both of us have a shot at making some Houston TBLGQ community history.    If Lou wins he would become the first ever trans masculine Houston Pride Parade Grand Marshal  

In my case, if elected, I'd become the first ever Black trans feminine Grand Marshal, the third trans feminine one after Phyllis Frye (2006) and Jenifer Rene Pool, (2012) and the third Black female one after Carolyn Mobley (1993) and Fran Watson (2016)

Congrats to everyone who was nominated for Houston Pride Grand Marshal this year.   Will keep you TransGriot readers updated on whether or not I make that history and when the voting starts for it.                      

Houston Trans History- Rachelle Annette 'Toni' Mayes

'If you think I can be harassed until I leave town, you're wrong.  I love Houston and I will stay."
-Toni Mayes to Houston City Council,, October 1972, 

Houston has a long, proud history of trans folks who have no problem standing up against anti- trans bigotry, harassment and oppression   It is a proud part of our Houston trans history that has continued into this century.   It's something I have learned as I began my own transition just how deep and far back Houston trans history goes, and how i'm just past of the latest generation of trans people who speak truth to power while fighting for their humanity and their human rights.

One of my trans elders I've been thinking about a lot recently is Rachelle Annette 'Toni'  Mayes, who also was known as Anne Mayes. Thanks to JD Doyle, I now know what happened with Anne Mayes, and I'm going to share her story with you so I have it down for the current and future generations of trans Houstonians.

Toni was born on December 13, 1947 and grew up here in Houston.   From her earliest memories she  knew she was a girl..   Her parents however disagreed, and she talked about in one interview how she was punished by her mother for wearing her younger sister's panties.

She ran away from home at age 14 to California with a cousin, but when she started living with two gay men there, the cousin called her parents, who brought her back to Houston

Her family after the California trip was determined to in their words 'make a real man out of her', and her mother even signed papers in an attempt to enlist her in the Navy even though she was just 15 at the time. .

But that trip to California also convinced her that she wasn't gay and something else was going on with her.   She eventually joined the Navy in 1964,  While she was as she said in an interview 'embarrassed' to be showering with 75 guys',  Mayes' time in the Navy led to her falling for a girl in Iowa, and she jumped ship in Florida to be with her.

She was arrested by the FBI for going AWOL and taken to a military jail in Illinois.  During the investigation, she was given a questionnaire that asked the question if she had ever had gay sex. While she hadn't, she saw this question as her ticket out of the Navy, so she answered the question affirmatively and got dishonorably discharged for homosexuality, as our military was doing at the time..  .
She returned to the girl in Iowa, married her and conceived a daughter with her in 1966, but her marriage broke up soon afterward and her ex-spouse retained custody of their daughter.   Mayes got married again to another woman, but that marriage also broke up in large part to her gender identity issues.

Mayes returned to Houston, started working as a television repair person, and then through a newspaper article learned that transsexuals existed.   The now 25 year old Mayes now had a name for the issue she was dealing with.  She was now aware of thanks to that article it was possible for her to become the woman she wanted to be.

Mayes was also fortunate that at that time, the nation's second full service gender identity clinic was getting started in the Houston area at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston   She now had the place to go to help her become her true self, and the gender transition for her started on December 11, 1971.

Like many cities at that time, Houston had an anti-crossdressing law that had been on the books. Section 28-42.4 prohibited people from wearing the clothes of the opposite sex.  Because the ordinance was vague and Council was worried about it being struck down in the courts because of that vague language, the Houston City Council in June 1972 strengthened the ordinance with this language:

 'It shall be unlawful for any person to appear on any public street, sidewalk, alley or public thoroughfare dressed with the design intent to disguise his or her true sex as that of the opposite sex'

That 1904 ordinance clashed with one of the HBIGDA/transition protocols of the time that required someone on the path for gender confirmation surgery to dress and live as their target gender for at least a year prior to doing so.

HPD, run at the time by the reviled police chief Herman Short, gleefully enforced Section 28-42.4 not only against the Houston trans community and drag queens, but also the Houston lesbian community.

While Mayes was happy that she'd begun her transition, she also found herself being frequently targeted by HPD vice squad officers.  She was arrested eight times in 1972 by HPD for violations of the anti-crossdressing ordinance.  As you probably guessed, when Mayes was arrested on that crossdressing charge, she was taken to the men's side of the Houston city jail.  

Four of those charges were dropped because they happened before the Houston City Council revised the ordinance on June 2, but there were some that stuck that she and her attorney appealed.  There were two arrests that happened literally as she stepped onto the sidewalk outside the city municipal court building moments after she'd had those previous charges dismissed.

Tired of being harassed by HPD vice officers, she filed a federal lawsuit on December 20, 1972 seeking $200,000 in damages against HPD Chief Herman Short and five HPD officers.   Mayes in addition to seeking to have the Houston crossdressing ordinance declared unconstitutional, was also seeking an injunction against further arrests  

Interestingly enough the harassing arrests of her by HPD ceased after that federal suit was filed.

The federal lawsuit seeking to declare the Houston crossdressing ordinance unconstitutional eventually went all the way to the SCOTUS, who unfortunately rejected it without comment in April 1974.   That law stayed in the Houston Code of Ordinances until Phyllis Frye got it repealed in August 1980

While the court cases were percolating at the local and federal level, Toni's transition continued to move forward.   She eventually became on January 23, 1974 the fourth person to have gender confirmation surgery done via the UTMB gender program, and on March 11, 1974 her name change petition to Rachelle Annette Mayes was granted by a state district judge

An April 1978 Houston Post article that I had clipped and saved when my teen self was coming to grips with the fact I was transgender updated us about Toni's life in the intervening years.

After an attempt to ironically join the Houston Police Department was rebuffed, she'd ended up as a successful sales rep for a local company.  She was taking courses toward a business administration degree at the University of Houston, and from time to time would lecture college classes at UH and other local colleges in the Houston - Galveston area about gender identity issues.

But as far as trans activism, she'd felt she'd more than paid her dues and was just ready to live her life.

I sadly discovered thanks to JD's research that Rachelle Annette Mayes died on November 6, 2007, just a few weeks short of her 60th birthday.

I wish I'd had a chance to meet and talk to her before that happened.  I would have loved to have had a chance to tell her thank you for being willing to fight to make it easier for the trans people in the Houston area and beyond that came behind her like me.

Rest in power and peace, Anne.   You earned it.  Something else you've earned is also having your story preserved and told forever to every trans person and trans kid who lives in the Houston area and beyond.

Upcoming 2017 Rainbow On Ice At Discovery Green

One of the things that i love to do is ice skate, and since I moved back home I haven't had the chance to hit the ice rink at either the Galleria or Discovery Green.

Yes people, it does get cold enough down here to have an outdoor ice rink, although it does lead to the interesting sight at times of people skating in shorts because out roller coaster temps around here.

Rainbow on Ice returns to ICE at Discovery Green on January 20 from 7-10 PM and will be sponsored by the Mayor's LGBT Advisory Board.

 Crawford Nation will be there as the entertainment, and it is shaping up to be the ultimate dance party.



Hope you peeps who live in the Houston area come check it out

Houston LGBT Legislative Forum Tomorrow

I talked about this event earlier in the month, so this is your friendly TransGriot reminder that the Houston  LGBT Legislative Forum is happening tomorrow at the Council on Recovery- Houston building.

The event is jointly sponsored by the Houston GLBT Political Caucus and Legacy Health Services, and is scheduled to run from 6:30-8:30 PM CST.

The forum will be moderated by Caucus Vice President Mike Webb, and the persons scheduled to participate in the forum are Sen. Sylvia Garcia (D), Rep. Garnet Coleman (D) , Rep Sarah Davis (R), Rep. Senfronia Thompson  (D) and Chelsie Kramer of the Texas Association of Business.

If you can't attend, you can send questions to the participants via social media with the hashtags #HoustonCares  or #TheCaucusSpeaks

The address of the Council on Recovery venue is 303 Jackson Hill St in Houston just off Memorial Dr and the zip is 77007.

I'll be there asking questions of our state legislators, and hope to see the room packed for this event. 

5th Annual F.A.C.E. Awards Tonight

I get to pull out the nice clothes tonight as I head to the gayborhood and check out the 5th annual F.A.C.E. Awards.   Been nominated a few times since 2014 for them but as of yet haven't won one.    

The F.A.C.E acronym stands for First Achievers in Community Excellence, and it is a rapidly growing event which celebrates the best of TBLGQ Houston.   This year I'm nominated in two F.A.C.E award categories with tight competition in both of them./

Today has also been declared in a proclamation signed by Mayor Sylvester Turner as 'FACE Awards Day' in Houston

Looking forward to checking out the event at South Beach that starts at 8:30 PM CST, with the red carpet arrivals and pre-award show starting at 7:00 PM

Congratulations and good luck to everyone who was nominated this year.  Even if I don't win in my categories, I'll at least get another opportunity to spend some quality time with my H-town peeps

Houston LGBT Legislative Community Forum On December 14

In the 2015 Texas Legislative session we faced 24 anti-TBLGQ bills, with four of them specifically targeting the Texas trans community.   People outside our state thought we had zero chance of stopping those bills but we proved them wrong.  

We rolled up our sleeves, got to work and thanks to a collaborative community effort all those unjust bills failed to pass.

In a few weeks the Texas Legislature will be gaveled into session in Austin, and we will once again face a renewed anti-TBLGQ legislative assault from January until June from our Texas Republican majority seeking to pass unjust bills aimed at our community into oppressive laws.

That's why on December 14 the Houston LGBT Caucus and Legacy Health Services are cosponsoring a LGBT Legislative Community Forum.

The forum will feature our state legislators discussing their thoughts about the issues that affect out TBLGQ community, discuss what we can do as a community and at the grassroots level in terms of fighting this unjust hate legislation, and discuss what you can do to help kill the bad bills and advance the positive legislation.

The LGBT Legislative Community Forum will take place from 6:30- 8:30 PM and will take place at the Council on Recovery-Houston building.  The address is 303 Jackson Hill St in Houston, and the zip is 77007.

If you have questions about what needs to happen in Austin starting in January to protect our human rights, this is the forum you need to attend to ask those questions.

Hope to see you at this important community event.

Going To Miss You, Rev. Lura!

Was sad to hear just before Thanksgiving that at the end of this month Houston is going to lose another member of our progressive faith community in Rev. Lura Groen.

She and Jess are moving to Maryland before the end of the month so that she can get back into congregational life and also write a book.

I first met Lura during our fight to pass HERO in 2014, and while she was the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church attended a few services there.  One thing I loved about her sermons is that she not only is an unapologetic truth teller, but they are thought provoking as well.

She has been a blessing to our progressive faith community here in Houston, and we are going to miss her.   I have been blessed to have you in my life Lura, and will miss you as well.

Megablessings to you and Jess and safe travels to your new home.  May you have much success in the next chapter of your life.  Hopefully our paths will cross again, and with the way I travel, we probably will.

Moni's On Queer Voices Once Again!

Just a reminder for those of you in the Houston area that I'll once again be headed to the KPFT-FM studios later tonight to be on the Queer Voices radio show.

I'm scheduled to chat about with the Queer Voices on air team about recent developments in TBLGQ World, the 2016 election and our upcoming 2017 Texas legislative session along with whatever else we can fit into that time I'll be on air.

I'm scheduled to be on starting at 8:35 PM CST, and for those of who can't pick up KPFT-FM on your radio dial at 90.1 FM or who don't live in the Houston area you can check out their livestream of it.

Should be a fun and interesting conversation with Jack, Bryan and Jenifer tonight and looking forward to it.

Harris County Goes Blue!

>The news wasn't all bad for me and Team Liberal-progressive on November 8.

My home county, Harris County, which with over 4 million people in it is the third largest county in the nation and the largest in Texas by population, went blue on Election Night!

What was even more delicious was that Fort Bend County, one of our neighboring counties to the southwest which once upon a time was the political base of the odious Tom DeLay, also went blue on Election Night.   It has become more diverse since 2000.

We did in Harris County what the nation should have done. fired everything with an R behind their name. Hillary romped in Harris County    The GOP lost every county wide seat they held.  We elected Kim Ogg, who narrowly lost two years ago as our DA (#ByeDevon).  We reclaimed the sheriff's office by electing Ed Gonzales to replace the appointed Republican Ron Hickman.. We added new Democratic state judges and now have 12 African-American women judges at the county courthouse.

Stan Stanart, you're next.  We need to have a Democrat as Harris County clerk administering voting rules in this diverse county.  We're done with your shady voter suppression tactics.

Neither is the SGL community going to forget how you stalled implementation of the Obergefell ruling here for several hours.

Flipping the county was the easy part.   Now comes the hard part of keeping it in 2018 and beyond.

I'm An ABC13 2016 Election Night Pundit!

Took a while, but the Netroots Nation 2016 Pundit Cup Champion finally gets an opportunity to flex her political punditry chops.  Best of all for my political junkie self, it's on Election Night!

It happens on my local ABC station, KTRK-TV, starting at 7 PM CST and running until 10 PM CST.

I'll be along with the anchors, guests and other bloggers commenting on local, state and national races.   I'll additionally be commenting on TBLGQ issues, and watching Jenifer Rene Pool's potentially historic Harris County Commissioners Court Precinct 3 race.

I'll also be part of the in studio bloggers panel helping ABC13 monitor the Election Night chatter with my 10.2K (and counting) Twitter followers.  This will be broadcast from the ABC13 studios.    i'll also be checking my Facebook page as well during the night.

My Twitter handle is of course TransGriot.  This is also the link to the ABC13 website for those of you who don't live in the Houston area but may wish to catch me doing my punditry    

If you want to chat with me online and and ask questions tonight about Election 2016, check out the.#abc13eyewitness hashtag to submit questions to our guests and bloggers.

#HouVote hashtag we'll be monitoring as well.

2016 Houston GLBT Political Caucus Endorsements

I've mentioned the Houston GLBT Political Caucus Card in some of my 2016 election posts,   To make it easier for y'all to #VoteTheCard,  here for your TransGriot viewing pleasure are the people who were endorsed in this 2016 election cycle by the Caucus

US Representative
• US Rep, District 2: Pat Bryan
• US Rep, District 7: James Cargas
• US Rep, District 18: Sheila Jackson Lee

Texas Supreme Court
• Justice, Supreme Court, Place 3: Mike Westergreen

Texas State Board of Education
• Member, State Board of Education, District 6: R. Dakota Carter

Texas State Representative
• State Representative, District 126: Joy Dawson-Thomas
• State Representative, District 131: Alma Allen
• State Representative, District 134: Ben Rose
• State Representative, District 135: Jesse A. Ybanez
• State Representative, District 137: Gene Wu
• State Representative, District 139: Jarvis Johnson
• State Representative, District 140: Armando Walle
• State Representative, District 147: Garnet Coleman
• State Representative, District 148: Jessica Farrar
• State Representative, District 149: Hubert Vo

Texas Court of Appeals
• Justice, 1st Court of Appeals, Place 4: Barbara Gardner
• Justice, 14th Court of Appeals, Place 2: Candace White
• Justice, 14th Court of Appeals, Place 9: Peter Kelly
District Judges
• District Judge, 11th: Kristen Hawkins
• District Judge 61st: Fredericka Phillips
• District Judge 80th: Larry Weiman
• District Judge 125th: Kyle Carter
• District Judge 127th: R. K. Sandill
• District Judge 129th: Michael Gomez
• District Judge 133rd: Jaclanel McFarland
• District Judge 151st: Mike Englehart
• District Judge 152nd: Robert K. Schaffer
• District Judge 164th: Alexandra Smoots-Hogan
• District Judge 165th: Ursula A. Hall
• District Judge 174th: Hazel Jones
• District Judge 177th: Robert Johnson
• District Judge 178th: Kelli Johnson
• District Judge 179th: Randy Roll
• District Judge 333rd: Daryl Moore
• District Judge 334th: Steve Kirkland
• District Judge 337th: Herb Ritchie
• District Judge 338th: Ramona Franklin
• District Judge 339th: Maria T. Jackson
• District Judge 507th: Julia Maldonado

County District Attorney
• Harris County District Attorney: Kim Ogg
County Civil Court
• Judge, County Civil Court at Law No. 1: George Barnstone

County Attorney
• Harris County Attorney: Vince Ryan

Sheriff
• Harris County Sheriff: Ed Gonzalez

County Tax Assessor- Collector
• Harris County Tax Assessor Collector: Ann Harris Bennett

County School Trustee 
• Harris County School Trustee, Position 1, Precinct 2: Sherrie L. Matula
• Harris County School Trustee, Position 2, Precinct 4: Marilyn Burgess

County Commissioner
• Harris County Commissioner, Precinct 1: Rodney Ellis
• Harris County Commissioner, Precinct 3: Jenifer Pool

Justice Of The Peace
• Justice of the Peace, Precinct 1, Place 1: Eric William Carter
• Justice of the Peace, Precinct 3, Place 1: Joe Stephens

Constable
• Constable, Precinct 1: Alan Rosen
• Constable, Precinct 7: May Walker

HISD School Board (special election)
• HISD District 7: Anne Sung

Record Breaking Early Vote First Day In Harris County

If you early voted in Harris County today like I did, you were part of making some electoral history

We had 67, 471 people early vote across the county at the 40 early voting locations.  That's the highest number we've ever had participate in early voting, with the previous record set in 2012 with 47,000 voters on the first day

I'm also hearing the same thing is happening in Travis (Austin), Bexar (San Antonio), El Paso and Dallas counties.  Haven't heard yet if the same thing is happening in Tarrant County (Fort Worth)

The significance of that is that Harris County, the largest county in the state of Texas by population, provides 16% of the total in any statewide race.  

FYI, the rest of the top five in order are Dallas, Tarrant, Bexar and Travis counties

If those early voters are predominately Democratic ones as my glance across my social media circles seems to be indicating, it's a great early sign for the Clinton campaign and Democrats across the state in down ballot races.

I hope the Clinton campaign will consider doing a quick campaign trip here to Houston, Dallas, Austin  and San Antonio to really fire up the Democratic voters here and cement the fact this is a battleground state that has the power to finish off Trump's presidential campaign.

Click the map to create your own at 270toWin.com

Texas' 38 electoral votes make it the second largest electoral vote prize in this and any presidential election cycle after California and its massive 55 electoral votes.

Since 1980, Texas has acted like California does in terms of being the electoral vote base for Republican presidential election success.   If Texas goes blue his year, without Texas in the Trump column to counteract California's 55 EV's going to Clinton, it would make it mathematically impossible for Trump to win the presidency, and Clinton would pass the magic 270 EV's she needs to become our 45th president before we even start adding other battleground states into the mix.

While this is good news so far, it only becomes a reality if you vote.  If you haven't voted yet, please do so.  When you do, vote the entire ballot from the top of the ticket to dog catcher

Early voting in Texas will run until November 4.

Moni's 2016 POTUS Election Musing

Today as many of you know is the first day of early voting in my home state of Texas  I have loved early voting ever since they started doing it in the Lone Star State back in the 90's .

I love early voting because I can do so on my schedule and I'm not stuck waiting until November 8 when I already know who I'm voting for.   Another 14 days or so of campaign commercials and speeches isn't going to change my mind.

Spent some time at the West Gray Multicultural Service Center, one of the 45 early voting locations in Harris County for early the 2016 presidential election.   I arrived a little after noon to the delightful surprise of seeing a long line here, and it took me 45 minutes total to do so

40 minutes in line, and only five minutes to run through the ballot vote, check my work and press the SEND button on the E-Vote machine to handle my electoral business.

And yes H-town , I practiced what I'be been preaching to y'all and voted the entire ballot from POTUS to dog catcher.  I also voted for all the endorsed candidates on the Houston GLBT Caucus Card.

Who did I vote for for POTUS?  Definitely wasn't Trump,Jill Stein or Gary Johnson.

I voted for the person I endorsed for president on these TransGriot electronic pages.

This is another historic election I have been pleased and proud to participate in.  We set a first day early voting record in Harris County, so if you want to avoid the lines on November 8, better go now.

I was pleased that for the first time in my eligible voting life (my first election was the 1980 Carter-Reagan one) , I've had an opportunity to cast a ballot in a battleground state.

The fact the battleground state in question is my home state of Texas makes it that much sweeter and warms my political heart.

Seeing that long line at this polling place and others around town and the county also made me feel good.   It also compels me to remind you TransGriot readers across this nation to show up and show out at the polls because you vote matters.

Once again, early voting in Texas started today and will continue until November 4.  if the record turnout persists, may wish to do what I did and vote early as well.

The direction of this country for the next four years and beyond depends on it.