My Local Races

The old political axiom is 'all politics is local'. I'm happy to hear that an Obama team armed with truckloads of cash is searching for more opportunities to put McPalin on the defensive.

I'm overjoyed to hear that Kentucky may get more love and attention and possible visits over the next two weeks as this historic presidential race comes to a contentious, nail biting close.

We're already seeing more Obama ads on the tube here in Da Ville since our local TV stations broadcast into southern Indiana. Indiana is rapidly turning into a meeting engagement in the overall fight for the magic 270 electoral votes.

We're also seeing ads for the latest fight between Rep. Baron Hill and Mike Sodrel for the Indiana 9th congressional district seat.

We have some hot races here in Bluegrass country as well. Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader is in a fierce battle just to hang on to his senate seat with Bruce Lunsford.

It's also highlighted by the fact that Mitch refuses to debate Lunsford, which isn't sitting well with me and many Kentuckians anxious to hear what he has to say about his 24 years in the senate and the current financial mess that he and other Republicans deregulated us into.




Speaking of legislative reruns, Anne Northup is trying to regain the seat she controlled for ten years before she lost it in 2006 to Rep. John Yarmuth.

Yarmuth's not only beating her as of this writing, he's been a vast improvement over little GOP Annie and her vote in lockstep with Bush 90% of the time record.

He also has a 'A' from the NAACP on his congressional report card compared to Annie's 'F' grade. Yarmuth also supported Sen. Obama in the Democratic primary and if the current polling trends continue, Rep. Yarmuth will have a very happy birthday on November 4.

I've had the pleasure of meeting him and discussing issues with him at the numerous community events he makes time for. Since he's also a man of means, he donates his $150,000 congressional salary to various local charities as well.

We also have several Metro council races, judicial races, school board and state legislative ones to weigh in on as November 4th approaches.

As a proud TK, the school board ones definitely have my undivided attention. Two members who voted for the JCPS GLB employment policy, Stephen Imhoff and Larry Hujo are being opposed by Simonite candidates. Imhoff is my rep on the JCPS board so I'll have a say in that race while Hujo is Polar's rep.

Hujo's opponent has school age children in private schools and has openly stated the reason he's running is because he hated the policy that passed on a contentious 4-3 vote last year. I question why somebody who has kids in private school would run for the JCPS board anyway. It's like putting an anti-government zealot in charge of a government agency.

With the presidential election is the Super Bowl in terms of this election cycle, w also need to ensure that Sen. Obama has help in the House and Senate to turn his proposals into law.

We also need progressives at the state, county and local levels as well.

All politics may be local, but in order to begin to think and act globally and see the type of progressive change we desperately need after years of conservative regression, we have to empower people locally who have broad progressive policy visions as well.

Win, Place And Show Me The Money

I mentioned I spent a few hours in Lexington yesterday at Keeneland along with Polar.

We were doing our annual traditional trip to Keeneland to help Dawn celebrate her October 12 birthday but I was the one having a very good day.

I've been living here for seven years and yesterday was only my third trip to a racetrack despite living in Louisville and having Churchill Downs not far from me.

The only track I've been to is Keeneland, and to be honest it's actually prettier than the Downs. It's a beautiful facility on a large plot of land near the airport with ample parking and a parklike setting. It's especially beautiful in the fall with all the trees starting to turn.

My first visit occurred only two weeks after I moved here in 2001. Dawn and Polar knew I was still severely homesick and took me there just to get me out of my funk and being down about my situation. I had a memorably entertaining one in 2004 involving a humorous race call with a horse named Scripture.

When Scripture stumbled and fell out of the starting gate, the track announcer without skipping a beat replied, "Scripture kneels to pray at the starting gate."

Unfortunately Scripture's stumble was more serious than it looked because when the race was over the horse ambulance came out and whisked him off to the vet. I discovered later he'd broken one of his legs and had to be euthanized.

While nothing that serious happened on this trip, I did have something happen for the first time since I started coming to the track. I actually won money.

Usually when I go I make my win, place and show bets on a few horses and don't win anything, Polar's hit and miss while it seems like everything Dawn bets she cashes winning tickets on.

We happened to go on one of the themed racing days, so almost everyone in honor of Big Blue Day was wearing either UK colors or their own collegiate gear. We arrived there just after the second race concluded and in time to bet the third race. I'm still learning what to look for as a horse racing neophyte in terms of picking winners, and my luck held true to form in the third race.

But the fourth race was different. There was a horse named Galloping Home in this one, and I just liked the name. When I saw his workout times I liked him even better and bet him. I did have an anxious moment when he balked at being loaded into the starting gate. But once the race started he did his thing and lived up to his name by galloping home down the stretch in first place.

After doing the happy dance I cashed the ticket out and used some of my proceeds to bet on a horse called Dookie Duck in the fifth race. He finished in second.

Feeling adventurous, I decided to bet two horses since I couldn't decide which one I liked better in the sixth race between Sweet Ransom and Impressionism.

Impressionism just beat out Sweet Ransom for third place while everybody else chased a 61-1 longshot called Cure For Sale to the pole. If I'd bet that one it would have payed $128 on a $2 bet, but alas I didn't. I had to be happy with the $2.80 I won for Impressionism's not so picture perfect third place finish.

But that made the third straight race I'd won something on, and we decided to bet one more before we called it a day.

In the seventh race I once again bet two horses, Santana Strings and Natural Speed. Natural Speed showed it late, but just finished out of the money behind Santana Strings, keeping my money winning streak alive.

It's the best day I'd ever had on our horse racing jaunts, and we topped it off with the Nighthawk special at the downtown Lexington Columbia Steakhouse location.

While the day belonged to Dawn since we were celebrating her birthday, as Polar's car headed westbound on I-64 back toward Da Ville I began humming Ice Cube's Today Was A Good Day while pondering the wonderful one I'd had as well.

A Day At The Races

As part of Dawn's birthday celebration (it was Sunday) I'm getting dressed and ready to roll with her and Polar to Lexington.

It's one of our traditions, and since the fall racing season has commenced at her favorite track, we're going to give Dawn the chance to go home, hang out with her friends and release her inner elitist by spending a few hours hobnobbing at Keeneland.

Tell y'all about it later.

Moni's Busy Weekend

If you've ever seen the voter's guides or voter cards that various organizations put together for election day and wondered how they came up with their endorsement lists, well I'm about to tell ya.

I'm on the board of a local GLBT org, and I've had a pretty hectic low sleep weekend. Over the last four days I've been helping get the interviews done so that C-FAIR can get its endorsements out in time for the upcoming 2008 election.

C-FAIR only deals with local and state races when we put together these recommendations. Louisville's power grid being down cost us a week in getting this done according to our original timeline.

But get it done we did. I ended up participating in four candidate interviews over two of my days off, with the first one happening just four hours after I got off from a 12 hour shift early Thursday morning. I was on call in case I was needed Saturday and attended a two hour meeting to mull over the endorsements yesterday.

While waiting for the interviews I'd agreed to participate in, I pored over the candidate questionnaires we received, their own campaign literature, their websites and whatever other information I could find out for these meetings so I could come up with cogent questions to ask. Some of the meetings are also opportunities to gather political intel that help us make future informed strategic policy decisions.

If you're from Da Ville, you'll have to check out the C-FAIR website and see who we endorse for the local races since due to confidentiality agreements I'm bound to can't tell you what we discussed.

What I can tell you is that the process was followed to the letter and on some of the races we had to debate and thoughtfully think about which candidate to endorse.

I and my fellow board members also wanted to make the point to candidates seeking our endorsement that even though we are a GLBT org, we aren't just focused on GLBT rights issues.

We are also a cross section of concerned citizens of this community who have interests encompassing a broad range of issues that go beyond GLBT concerns.

Was it worth it? If it helps one voter feel more comfortable, at ease, and empowered enough to head into the voting booth feeling they've cast an informed ballot, then giving up some of my time to help put these endorsements together is worth it.

A Day At The St. James Art Show

One of the things that I missed about home was the Westheimer Colony Art Festival which took place in the spring and fall in Montrose.

Back in 2001, I'd only been in Louisville for two weeks, was severely homesick, job hunting and depressed about my situation. Just to get me out of the house and change my routine, since it was the first weekend in October, Dawn and AC took me to Louisville's version of it, the St. James Court Art Show.

I got to wander around the several blocks of art, crafts and food vendors ensconced in this Old Louisville neighborhood and for a few hours forgot about my problems and how much I missed home.

When I attended the 2002 St. James I discovered another element of it. Since upwards of 200,000 people are walking around the area and it happens four weeks before election day, if you're running for political office, it's a must attend event. For several hours you get to press the flesh, meet the constituents, and have your staffers pass around stickers and sign up volunteers. You also get to chat with a wide demographic of peeps from Louisville and the surrounding area.

So since it was a gorgeous, sunny, cloud free 80 degree fall day, I decided to get out of the house and attend the 52nd annual edition of the show since I didn't go last year. I got out of bed, threw on my Obama shirt and jeans and rolled to Old Louisville to check out this year's edition of the St. James Art Show.

It's a prestigious, judged event that over 750 artists travel to Da Ville to participate in and sell their crafts. I didn't have any cash budgeted to buy stuff this year, but did for snacks. I ran into more than a few friends wandering around and the armies of volunteers working on behalf of the local, state and national politicians running for office.

As I ambled through the art show I noted I was getting either positive comments or thumbs up from a wide ethnic cross section of people about my Obama shirt. I also noted that the majority of people supporting the McPalin ticket and wearing Anne Throwup stickers were predominately white.

Anne Northup is trying to get back the congressional seat she held for ten years before she got her butt kicked by John Yarmuth in 2006. We've gotten light-years better representation in Congress since we got her Bush anus kissing butt out of there.

Dawn left the house at noon to attend the St. James and told me after I got back home that both were there in full effect.

I'd missed them by the time I arrived around 2 PM, but I killed two hours taking a leisurely walk around the hundreds of booths,sampling much of the wide variety of food available before I finally had enough and headed back to my Crescent Hill hood.

I am looking forward to next year's edition of the show and hope the weather is just as beautiful as it was today.

Saturday At Centre

Saturday morning found me and Dawn jumping into my ride at 6:45 AM EDT and rolling 85 miles toward the Bluegrass country in central Kentucky and the picturesque town of Danville.

Our destination was the campus of Centre College for the Statewide Fairness Summit. We were going to spend all day at Centre's Young Hall in a classroom with the state's GLBT leaders and some straight allies formulating our political strategy for the next few years.

It was appropriate that we were holding the meeting here. Danville was the cradle of Kentucky's emergence as a state. This used to be the entire western portion of Virginia back during the Revolutionary War period as Kentucky County. Ten constitutional conventions were held in Danville that led to Kentucky becoming a state in 1792.

If Centre College is vaguely ringing a bell in your minds, it's because the vice presidential debate was held here back in 2000. It's a liberal arts college of 1215 students which over the last 50 years has produced two thirds of the Rhodes Scholars from Kentucky. It has also produced 27 Fulbright Scholars over the last 10 years.

Our arrival was slightly humorous. There was an air guitar competition being held nearby and as we parked the car in the lot, the dueling banjos song from the movie Deliverance was blasting over the speakers.

I noted several cars with Texas license plates in the lot, and ironically one of them also had a bumper sticker for Carnegie Vanguard High School. I'm an alum of HISD's Vanguard gifted and talented program, which was housed at my alma mater Jesse Jones HS until it was controversially moved to its own campus in 2001.

We had a facilitated meeting in which we hashed out the initial seeds of the game plan we'll use over the next five years and beyond. We also took steps to exorcise the ghosts of the 2004 Kentucky marriage amendment defeat and have a little fun in the process.

I'm part of one of the working groups that was formed to do more detailed planning concerning one aspect of our plan. There are other leaders from various parts of the state who are part of working groups responsible for formulating other aspects of the plan.

While this was technically a business trip, it's always great to see some old friends in the civil rights community, meet new ones and meet our up and coming youth leaders. Once I get the okay from our communications group to reveal exactly what we were working on this weekend, you TransGriot readers will definitely be kept in the loop and advised what's up.

It was also a pleasure to meet psychology professor Dr. Mykol Thompson and some of our gracious student hosts at Centre. I'm looking forward to seeing them again in the near future.

It was also cool to get gas for $3.49 a gallon.

Whacked By Ike

This post is coming to you live from the Louisville Public Library. As you may have heard by now many of us in Da Ville, including the TransGriot haven't had power in our homes since Sunday.

The branch library here in my Crescent Hill hood just got its power back yesterday afternoon while I was at work.

Anyway, outside of waiting for the power to be hooked up at the crib, doing okay.

Saturday afternoon I did get in contact with my mom and sis in H-town and got the 411 on how they and my family members were doing. Outside of some minor damage to their various houses and dealing with no electricity, they were all doing okay. I advised Mom that we were going to get hit by the remnants of Ike during our phone conversation.

Boy did we ever.

Sunday morning I was jarred out of bed by the rattling of the storm windows a little after 11 AM EDT. I found out later those winds were gusting at up to 80-90 MPH, and a few minutes later the power was out in the house.

When the storm died down two hours later, Dawn and I took a quick look around the hood to discover that several neighbors had trees toppled either onto their homes or onto power lines. Truckers having the misfortune of driving through the area on I-64 or I-65 had their trucks blown over, and fallen tree and broken power lines played havoc with travel throughout the city.

I was also fortunate I listened to my instincts and filled up the car Saturday, since finding a gas station around here with power and without long lines attached to it has been a Sarah Palin. We've also been fortunate that the last two nights not only have been cool, we've had a full moon to provide nocturnal illumination as well.

The prognosis for us getting power back has been a week to two weeks. Ironically LG&E sent some crews to Houston to help with power restoration efforts there, and those units had to be recalled due to the situation we have here in the Ohio Valley. The areas surrounding Louisville also got whacked pretty hard by a disintegrating Ike's winds as well, and the help we normally would have gotten from nearby power companies isn't forthcoming because they're dealing with their own drama.

Even though I'm mildly pissed I lost my half gallon of Blue Bell I just bought, I'm counting my abundant blessings. Besides, it's on sale this week anyway.

My childhood home once again survived a Category 3 hurricane with minimal damage. My family members are well and doing fine. The house up here had a piece of a shingle loosened and has no other damage. We're doing okay outside of waiting for power to be hooked back up.

So yeah, it could have been a lot worse, but I'm surviving and thriving.

Clocks ticking on my time for this computer, so gotta wrap it up and check my e-mail. Got a long line of peeps behind me waiting for this computer to pop open as well.

Goodbye Nikki

Hey TransGriot readers,
As y'all know I've been dealing with the untimely death of a friend over the last few days and just got back home an hour ago from Nikki's service.

I was pleased to not only see the overflow crowd of Nikki's friends and family, we even had besides yours truly, the Louisville transgender and GLB community there in full effect.

It was hard looking at Nikki peacefully sleeping in that white casket realizing she died a few months short of her 30th birthday. There were more than a few tears shed, but simmering under the surface this morning was anger. Anger over the way she was taken from us and anger over the disrespectful way the story was covered by the local media.

BTW, had a chat with GLAAD about that. Will keep y'all updated as to what they're hearing from WLKY and WDRB about it.

The service was a combined wake and funeral that started at 9 AM EDT with the funeral portion starting precisely at 11 AM EDT. They kept the service on a tight schedule, so unfortunately people weren't allowed to speak.

During Rev. Barry Washington's eulogy he talked about love and how it is the binding force that keeps this world from tearing itself apart. He also talked about the love that was in that room.

I was struck by the fact that we had an interesting contrast of people in there. Nikki's family and friends, the GLBT community, and her mother's U of L coworkers.

It was also interesting to note that the transwomen were dressed conservatively church service stylish, while some of the biowomen in the room were wearing jeans and t-shirts.

After the service I went home. I decided not to go to the cemetery. I'd had a rough night trying to get to sleep and Nikki not only was on my mind all day yesterday, she's even moreso in my thoughts today.

But no more pain and suffering for our sister. She's doing her painting and writing her poetry in heaven now.

It's funny, but just as I wrote this line, the cloud cover that has cast an appropriately gloomy start to the day here suddenly parted to allow some rays of sunshine to beam through my window. It was predicted to be sunny and 83 today, so maybe it'll help lighten the sense of loss I and everybody who knew and loved Nikki feels.

What will really help me is for LMPD to find, arrest, convict and permanently send to Eddyville the wastes of DNA who committed the crime.

Nikki, say hello to Tyra, Channelle, Gabrielle, Kellie, Ukea, Stephanie, Saneshia, Ebony and all our other fallen sisters for us.

We'll see you again soon.

Another Transsistah Disrespected By The Media- In My Backyard

Here we go again with a media outlet NOT reading the AP Stylebook when it comes to reporting on transgender people of color.

This time, it's happening right here in my backyard in Da Ville.

I met Nikki when we held the 2005 Transsistahs-Transbrothas Conference here. Contrary to what the person writing up the report on WDRB Fox 41 thought, she ain't no man.

As per my policy on TransGriot when I come across these travesties of reporting I rewrite them using proper AP stylebook reporting procedures. We'll also be talking to WDRB Fox 41 about the shoddy reporting.

Those of us who knew Nikki will miss her. Tonight Terri Vanessa Coleman hosted a special show tonight at the Connection to help kick start a memorial fund being raised to aid the family with burial expenses.

Nikki's funeral will take place on Saturday starting with the wake at 9 AM EDT and the funeral at 11 AM EDT.

In the meantime, here's the contact info for WDRB-TV.

WDRB/WMYO TV
624 W Muhammad Ali Blvd
Louisville, KY 40203
(502) 584-6441

Fox 41 News Department 502-585-0811

***



This was the e-mail I sent to WDRB-TV

I'm writing this e-mail to point out that the story on Nakhia Williams violated the AP Stylebook guidelines on reporting on transgender persons.

The AP Stylebook states:

transgender-Use the pronoun preferred by the individuals who have acquired the physical characteristics of the opposite sex or present themselves in a way that does not correspond with their sex at birth.

If that preference is not expressed, use the pronoun consistent with the way the individuals live publicly.

Nakhia was living as a woman, so feminine pronouns should have been used throughout the story.

Nakhia's untimely death was a tragic loss for her friends, family and all who knew and loved her. Was it that difficult for WDRB-TV to pick up the Stylebook and compile a report that stated the facts of the case and respected her as well?

****

Here's the rewrite of the story the way it SHOULD have been done per AP Stylebook rules


Transgender woman dies from gunshot wounds after home invasion

A transgender woman shot during a home invasion dies ten days later. Detectives, of course, are treating this case as a homicide. Neighbors were afraid to talk on camera because the attackers are still on the loose. But one man said he found 29-year old Nakhia Williams lying on the ground outside her apartment on West Market Street.

Police say Williams was rushed to the hospital the morning of August 20th and died this past Saturday, the 30th. The medical examiner says Williams died from a gunshot wound, which complicated a medical condition she already had. Police say another person was home with Williams during the home invasion.

"There was possibly four black males who had forced the victim and another occupant to the ground, a lot of commotion going on," said LMPD Detective Phil Russell.

No one is saying who this other occupant is and whether he or she was injured.

If you have any information that could help solve this case, you can call the anonymous police tipline at 574-LMPD.

Good Day For Dawn and US Olympians

My roomie Dawn bounced out of the house early this morning to compete in the 2008 Bluegrass Games fencing tournament. She came back home a few hours later with an overall silver medal in the open saber competition and a gold in the women's division.

In addition to that, while she was at the venue they were using for the fencing competition, the announcement was made to a cheering crowd that the US won their first medals of the Games courtesy of a US sweep in the individual sabre event. Mariel Zagunis beat her teammate Sada Jacobson 15-8 to sucessfully defend the championship she won at the 2004 Athens games.

In the bronze medal match, Becca Ward came back from a 6-1 deficit to defeat Russia's Sofiya Velikaya 15-14 and assure the US fencers of their history making triumph. It was the first time since Germany swept the foil medals at the 1988 Seoul Games that a nation had swept all the medals in an individual fencing event. Zagunis was also the first fencer and first woman to win back to back gold medals in her event.

I watched nervously as Team USA in their opening game versus the Czech Republic pulled out their bricklayer's union cards. The Czechs took advantage of their early shooting troubles to race out to an 11 point lead. After coach Donovan called a timeout, out came their pressure defense and poof, away went their deficit.

Big Syl came off the bench to score 16 points and snag 14 rebounds as Diana Taurasi led all scorers with 17 points to pace a 40 point 97-57 win. All 12 Team USA lady ballers scored and team captain Lisa Leslie grabbed 10 rebounds. It was Team USA's 26th consecutive victory in Olympic competition and got their quest to win a fourth consecutive gold medal off to a positive start.

Da Fellas play tomorrow against Yao Ming and the homestanding Chinese as the 'Redeem Team' begins their quest to claim our first men's baskeball gold medal since the 2000 Sydney Games.

Louis Coleman: 'A First Responder To Injustice'

TransGriot note: Rev. Louis Coleman passed away on July 4. He was as Betty Baye's column mentioned, a first responder to injustice here in Da Ville and across the state.

He's also a polarizing figure here as well. One day I overheard a white co-worker of mine when I worked at Macy's griping about him and a recent LG&E price hike in the breakroom. I pointed out that if it hadn't been for Rev. Coleman protesting it and chewing on them in the media the price hike would have been even higher.

I and more than a few people in GLBT Louisville were pissed at him for two months (some are still pissed) because he sided with the bigots during the bruising JCPS policy fight a few months ago. He will be missed.

By Betty Baye
Louisville Courier-Journal
July 10, 2008

I took for granted that the Rev. Louis Coleman would always be around Kentucky, speaking truth to power as he saw it.

But the long July 4 holiday was rudely interrupted while I was out to dinner with friends. News arrived that Louis had died.

My immediate thought was that now Louis can lay down the cross that he carried for so many and let somebody take care of him.

Louis Coleman befriended me when I was a reporter back in the mid-'80s. He kicked open doors in this city and this state through which a lot a people waltzed, including some who, once seated at tables of power, denied Coleman just as Judas denied the Jesus that Louis served so faithfully for 64 years.

We've all probably heard Louis' critics; they said that his tactics were unorthodox and that he wasn't always careful about marshalling all the facts before lacing up his marching shoes and grabbing his bullhorn and picket signs.

Fact is that Louis Coleman was just too "grassroots" for some people.

He wasn't an oratorical wonder like Frederick Douglass, Mary McCloud Bethune, Malcolm X or Martin Luther King Jr. He wasn't erudite like W.E.B. DuBois. And when he mounted the pulpit of the First Congregational Church, where he was pastor for many years, he wasn't a poetic preacher like the Rev. Jesse Jackson. Louis wasn't a natty dresser like Minister Louis Farrakhan, and he couldn't turn a phrase on paper like James Baldwin or his old friend, the late Anne Braden.

No, Louis Coleman was just Louis.

He wasn't a duplicate of anyone. He had his own style, and if you know anything about the civil rights movement, and human rights struggles in general, you know that it takes all kinds.

King, for example, self-identified as a drum major for justice. When I think of Louis Coleman, I imagine a foot soldier, bringing up the rear, as someone more comfortable in a T-shirt and jeans and in the trenches rather than in board rooms -- though Louis slipped in and out of more board rooms than some might imagine.

I'll always remember Louis as a first responder to injustice; he was an accessible leader.

Louis was hard-headed, too. He didn't readily take to the advice of those who urged him to take better care of himself or to slow down. For example, he called himself retired once, but that that didn't last long. Louis ran himself ragged holding press conferences about one issue or another, leading daily vigils outside crack houses and picketing City Hall, police headquarters and job sites, where he didn't believe that minorities were getting their fair share of the work or the contracts.

Not everybody was always happy to see Louis Coleman coming.

But those unhappy folks weren't the poor kids who lined up for the school-supplies giveaway that Louis held every year. Those unhappy with him weren't the people who applauded Louis' efforts to cut down on the violence by buying back guns off the streets.

And contrary to many of his detractors, who obviously had no personal contact, Louis was no racist. He didn't discriminate among his friends or those who sought his aid.

Though Louis did generate a lot of press over the last 30 or so years, he did some of his best work behind the scenes, and he never seemed to mind, as some close to him clearly did, when he wasn't given credit for the work that he had done. And it also didn't seem to matter to Louis that when the money that came as result of something that Louis first agitated for, it didn't flow into the coffers of the Justice Resource Center, but instead went to more mainstream groups.

It's not that Louis Coleman never got angry or didn't have an ego; we all do. But what I and many others who knew this kind, wonderful human being will cherish as his legacy is that Louis was more about getting the job done than simply being famous or being loved.

Louis Coleman was one of God's originals, and I'm going to miss his face around this place. I'll miss, too, those phone calls when I'd pick up and hear his raspy voice on the end of the line saying ever so respectfully, "Sister Betty, I've written something. Do you think you can get it in The Courier?"

Betty Winston Bayé's column appears Thursdays; her e-mail address is bbaye@courier-journal.com.

KY Governor Restores Equal Opportunity Employment

Governor Steve Beshear (D) today signed an executive order restoring equal opportunity employment to all state employees and prospective employees. Under the order, no one can be hired or fired based on race, age, religion, sexual orientation or gender identity, ancestry, age, disability, or veteran status.

"A person should be hired or dismissed on the basis of whether they can do the job," said Gov. Beshear. "Experience, qualifications, talent and performance are what matter."

In 2003, Gov. Paul Patton (D) issued an identical executive order and said he was a strong supporter of fair and equal treatment of employees. He noted that qualifications and conduct in the workplace should be the only factors by which an employee is judged.

However, in 2006 Gov. Ernie Fletcher (R) stripped those job protections from a certain segment of the state employee population - notably Kentuckians who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered. The suggestion was that such protection was either unnecessary, legally expensive or the equivalent of "special treatment." As a result, a gay person could be fired simply for being gay.

The executive order signed today by Gov. Beshear restores equal treatment, diversity and inclusiveness to state government.

Kentucky Primary Election Day

Today is primary election day in Kentucky. Over the last 72 hours there's been a burst of frenzied activity as candidates walked blocks or shook hands with people at various events, volunteers delivered yard signs, and phone banks were cranked up making calls to sway those undecided voters.

Hillary had an event here at the Fairgrounds last night while Michelle Obama stopped in three cities including Louisville for some last minute events. While he has a large statewide grassroots organization here, and had a rally Sunday at Shawnee Park that featured my gospel singing Houston homegirl Yolanda Adams, this state's going to go for Hillary. It's 90% white, and 47% of those voters are her prime vote getting demographic, white working class non college peeps.

I got up early to cast my ballot for Obama this morning at my precinct, which is housed at the 100 year old Crescent Hill Baptist Church. It's a good Baptist church BTW, not a Southern Bigot Convention one. I beat the crowd because at the time I arrived at 7:10 AM I was only the 15th person in the precinct to vote, but I'm sure there will be far more Democrats voting before it's over. My Crescent Hill area precinct has a 2-1 Democrat/Republican registration ratio. The Republicans are mostly Southern Baptist Seminary students.

Dawn is our chief election judge, so she bounced out of the house a little after 5 AM EDT in order to get the polling place open at 6 AM. I'm gonna crash for a while because the polls here don't close until 6 PM and she's stuck there until they close. I have a feeling I'll be making some lunch runs before this day is over.

Speaking of over, even though Hillary's projected to win here, the script is flipped in Oregon. Whatever delegates she gets here will be cancelled out by the delegate haul Barack gets in Oregon. The best news is that after tonight Barack is going to clinch the majority of pledged delegates despite what Clintonian fuzzy math and her protestations that this race isn't over.

You can't spin math or this large crowd that showed up at this rally in Portland, OR.



It's over Hillary. The obese singer began singing arias when John Edwards endorsed Obama even after you won by 41 points in West Virginia. What you're doing is akin to a basketball team making three pointers late in the fourth quarter after you couldn't buy a basket in the first half, and are hurriedly trying to make the final margin of defeat look palatable.

Even Bush and McCain acknowledged the obvious and have started tag team attacks on him. In the meantime Sen. Obama just keeps campaigning and connecting with all segments of the US population, like he's doing at this Montana event with the Crow Nation.



Besides the battle between Obama and Clinton on the Democratic side, we're also choosing who will be our nominee to oppose Sen. Mitch McConnell. On the Repugnican side Anne Throwup (oops Northup) is trying to make a comeback after her failed challenge to former governor Ernie Fletcher last year. She's in a four person race to see who's is going to be the Republican candidate to take on Rep. John Yarmuth. Rep. Yarmuth, to progressive Louisville's great delight, ousted her in 2006 after she held this 3rd District seat with a 2-1 Democratic registration advantage for ten years.

Her secret recipe for holding on to it was shoveling faith based bucks at two local Black megachurches, Canaan and St. Stephen. I was astounded and disgusted after I moved her to discover that this woman had 30% support in the Louisville Black community despite an anti African-American voting record.

Well, time to get some beauty sleep. Looks Like I'll be up for a while tonight watching CNN, KET (Kentucky Educational Television) and the local news stations as well.

Another Day, Another Event

Yesterday afternoon I rolled up to the historic Brennan House downtown for a Meet The Candidates event hosted by CFAIR, the Committee for Fairness and Individual Rights. It's the PAC for the Fairness Campaign and I was invited to attend.

I was rousted out of a sound sleep earlier that morning to round up the wine and sodas for the event. After taking one and a half hours of my day doing it and depositing everything at the Fairness Campaign office on Frankfort Ave I returned home to finish my NE Trans Pride March speech and e-mail it to Bet Power so the ASL interpreters could get to work on it.

The event wasn't starting until 5 PM, and I arrived at 5:45 PM in my black pantsuit. Joanne Lynch greeted me with "Our saviour is here!" a humorous reference to my earlier efforts that morning hitting three separate spread out stores for the wine, the multiple two liter sodas, the humongous bag of ice and saving CFAIR some cash in the process. I jokingly said as I hugged her and entered the Brennan House, "I'm not a saviour. I can't walk on water."

By the time I entered the three story Victorian home several of the CFAIR endorsees were there. Metro council members George Unseld (yes, he's the brother of NBA Hall of Famer Wes Unseld) and Rick Blackwell were there along with Metro council candidate Kungu Njuguna.

I was impressed by my Kenyan descended brother. He was born in the States and is a city attorney who prosecuted violations of Louisville's Human Rights ordnance. He's running in AC's district (the 18th) in the Hurstbourne Parkway/Taylorsville Rd. area. Shelley Santry, who's running in a judicial race was also there to thank CFAIR for the endorsement and chat with us for a few moments before jetting off to another event.

A few minutes after I arrived my state rep Mary Lou Marzian showed up and showed us some love. I also got a hug from former metro council member Denise Bentley, who's looking good these days. I noted and mentioned to her that she's dropped a little weight, even though she didn't think so. I also ran into Dr. Story and Jaison Gardiner for the second time in 24 hours as well along with Mark England, who hosted the recent Derby benefit that was the day before my birthday. Dawn popped in after she got off work.

Since I drove, I wasn't partaking in any of the wine and stuck to the soda. The Louisville po-po's have been on the prowl lately pre and post Derby and I was in no mood to spend the night at the Jefferson County Hilton. I hung around chatting with many of the peeps who did show up like Christine and the gang from Sienna, our local transgender organization.

Christine's the prez of the group and congratulated me for my upcoming speaking slot at the NE Pride March. I told her I'd try to make a future Sienna meeting if it didn't conflict with what I had going on. Mark England also chatted with me for a few minutes and asked if I'd seen the photo I took with him and Russ at the Derby benefit. When I replied no, he asked for my e-mail address, input it into his PDA and sent it to me a few hours later.

I'd left my Obama button at home, and a young LGBT Hillary supporter approached me about supporting his candidate. I politely listened to his spiel before I told him I was supporting Senator Obama. When he mentioned that HRC endorsed Senator Clinton, I politely shot back,"That's a major reason why I'm supporting Sen. Obama."

That triggered a lively back and forth conversation in which every time he spouted a pro-Hillary talking point, I had an answer for it. I also pointed out that I'd sat across the table from numerous meetings/confrontations with HRC personnel over the last ten years and had a long, ugly history with them.

When he tried to claim that Obama hadn't stood up for GLBT peeps as an Illinois senator, I told him I had friends and relatives in Chicago who said otherwise. After a few minutes of amusing myself with him, I told him that on this subject we'd agree to disagree and I was still voting for Obama on Tuesday as Joanne and Jeff Rodgers grinned at me.

For you GLBT peeps that still believe that BS like my young friend, here's a quote from a Windy City News February 11, 2004 interview that y'all need to pay attention to.

We must be careful to keep our eyes on the prize-equal rights for every American. We must continue to fight for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. We must vigorously expand hate-crimes legislation and be vigilant about how these laws are enforced. We must continue to expand adoption rights and make them consistent and seamless throughout all 50 states, and we must repeal the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" military policy.

Just an FYI GLBT Hillary lovers, the Windy City Times is a GLBT publication. At the time he was quoted in this interview he was an Illinois state senator a few months away from making the historic keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic convention that catapulted him to national recognition.

Not long after that the event wound to a close. After we helped the staff put the tables and chairs up, I took a quick tour through the lovely Victorian era home before exiting the place and heading back home to Crescent Hill.

Witness To History-Obama In Da Ville

Sen. Barack Obama was in Da Ville today for a campaign rally at the Kentucky International Convention Center. You know that I made sure yours truly was going to be inside the room and part of the 8,000 people that showed up to witness history. There were another 2,000 people that wanted to get in but were unfortunately turned away because the hall was at capacity.

I farted around a little too long and bounced out of the house clad in my Obama shirt and jeans at 4:30 PM. I arrived downtown and passed the convention center enroute to the parking lot I like to use four blocks away on Chestnut Street. I noted the line to get inside snaked around the building for several blocks.

The doors opened at 5 PM and even though I was at the back of the line where it started on the 4th Street side of the Convention Center complex, it moved fast. There were various politicians introducing themselves and shaking hands with people as we waited to get in. Campaign workers were passing out stickers for Greg Fischer, the other Democratic candidate for US Senate here in Kentucky. There are many Democrats in the state who have concerns about just how electable Bruce Lunsford will be if he gets in a race with Mitch McConnell (R-KY) with the Vencor mess lurking in his background.

Unfortunately the local chapter of the Forces of Intolerance was in full effect as well. The odious Dr. Frank Simon was there with several of his acolytes staging an anti-abortion protest. But despite the negative karma from Simon and company, the mood remained festive on this beautiful late afternoon spring day with vendors hawking bootleg Obama shirts and buttons as well. The official Obama campaign stands inside the convention center were doing a brisk business as well.

A few minutes later I was being directed into the building by the cheerfully efficient Obama campaign personnel. I quickly autographed an Obama campaign sign in sheet and headed in the direction of a nearby up escalator. I waited in a second line to walk through a metal detector while I was hand wanded by a Secret Service agent and my purse thoroughly searched by a TSA employee. The whole process from the time I hit the end of the long line to getting into a seat in the bleacher section was thirty minutes.

While I waited for the rally to start, I was having conversations with various people in the multicultural crowd that attended this rally. We were basically talking about the historic nature of this event, Barack's chances in the Kentucky primary next Tuesday (May 20) and eventually in the fall against John McCain.

I eventually ended up seated next to an African-American woman named Bessie. We hit it off immediately and while we were talking about our personal lives, she mentioned she has a college age son at Harvard who's a blogger. I told her about my blog and living life as a transgender woman. We ended up talking about a wide array of subjects before KY 6th District Rep. Ben Chandler stepped on stage at 6:40 PM to deliver the warm up stem-winder speech.

When he was done, he introduced a Ford plant worker who spoke for a few moments, then introduced Sen. Obama a little after 7 PM. The crowd began to roar in approval as flashbulbs from phones and cameras began popping all over the building and especially around Sen. Obama and his ring of Secret Service agents.



Sen. Obama took about ten minutes to shake hands before stepping on stage and getting into his speech. He had to stop twice because two peeps were feeling ill due to heat exhaustion and in one case tossed a liter sized bottle of water to one of them.

40 minutes later after directing his fire at Sen. McCain, his cousin Dick Cheney and George W. Bush, he departed the stage to wild, enthusiastic applause. Me made a loop around the stage to shake hands with the assembled masses before winding his way back to the green room area behind the VIP stands, flashbulbs and the media trailing him all the way.

I killed a few minutes watching people be interviewed by local television personalities and reporters, shaking hands and hugging friends and colleagues before I exited the convention center. I ran into Dr. Story and Jaison Gardiner and walked with them for a few blocks gauging their reactions to the rally before we went our separate ways to our cars.

I enjoyed my late afternoon witnessing political history. I was happy to see the multitudes of enthusiastic young people who were in attendance at this rally. I'm looking forward to being at the convention in Denver courtesy of the Project later this summer as well.

Nothin' But A Derby Party

photos-Louisville Courier-Journal 'The Buzz' columnist Angie Fenton wearing a derby hat, Gabrielle Union and Shaun Robinson at the Derby, the Lady Chablis

One of the interesting things about life in Louisville is the two week period that this town throws itself a party in advance of its signature event, the Kentucky Derby. During that two weeks, Da Ville gets celebrities winging in on private jets from all over the planet to attend the numerous derby parties being thrown all over the area. It's also fun for me since Derby always falls either on or around my May 4 birthday.


We rush all over town trying to find that perfect hat or dress for Derby, getting hair done, and spend the day in the nail shop getting manicured and pedicured. If we're not checking out the various events connected with the Kentucky Derby Festival, or standing outside the Barstable house along with the paparazzi trying to get a glimpse of the celebs arriving for the Barnstable-Brown party, or feel like shelling out the big bucks for the African-American community's signature event the Grand Gala, we're watching the all day coverage of the Kentucky Oaks or Derby or making sure we've got other things to do.

The Louisville GLBT community gets in on the fun as well. If we're not attending the parties at a gay-centric nightclub or at a friend's place, we're getting ready for the Derby party that serves as a fundraiser for the Fairness Campaign along with our GLBT friends from Lexington and the rest of the state.


It hasn'r been around as long as the others, but it's one in which GLBT celebs or GLBT friendly ones pop in and show some love to our community. One that's definitely gonna be missed this year is Anna Nicole Smith, who made it a point to stop in and treat us to her over the top wild and crazy personality. She was arriving just as I was leaving the 2003 event. At that same 2003 one I ended up talking to the Lady Chablis, and made her night when I pulled out my copy of her autobiography for her petite self to autograph. Speaking of cute, petite women, Angie was sporting a pink derby hat to go with the pink suit she was rocking while reporting on the party for the C-J.

That one sticks in my memory for another reason besides the Lady Chablis. I got into a fascinating conversation with Tammy Faye about faith, and she told me something that has stuck with me ever since: Never let anyone tell you that God doesn't love you.

Damn, gotta go make a run to Walgreen's and pick up a disposable camera and another pair of hose for the party tonight.