If after watching (or not watching) the second debate and you are sufficiently motivated enough to vote on November 8, then you better bust a move because today is the deadline day to get registered.
Texas is one of those states in which today is the deadline to get registered to vote along with georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Tennessee.
In the District of Columbia today is also the deadline to register in advance of the election, but you can do same day registration there. I'd suggest you do it now DC if possible.
Florida's deadline was originally today, and Gov. Rick Scott (R-FL) refused to extend the deadline despite the fact that county offices in much of the state were closed because of Hurricane Matthew.
Thanks to a successful voting rights lawsuit filed by the Florida Democratic Party, the voter registration deadline was extended by US District court Judge Mark E. Walker (Obama appointee) by one day, with another hearing coming later today to determine whether to extend it beyond Wednesday.
Once again, presidential elections matter, and if you wish you exercise that right to vote on November 8 or during early voting if your part of the country offers it like Texas does (October 24-November 4), you must handle the first step of it and register to vote.
If you're thinking, "Didn't you just fly off to San Francisco a week ago?" yes I sure did. But this trip isn't for business, it's a vacation
Yep, I can actually spell that word, and I'm going to spend a week with my homies and homettes in Louisville. Hey I did promise after my last visit to the city in 2014 that it wouldn't take me four years to come back,
I also think it's apropos that I come back to the city where ten years ago, I founded TransGriot and spent nearly nine years of my life that was critical to my development as an advocate and a person.
And frankly, I wanted to see some of my friends and chosen family here in Da Ville.
Assuming my Southwest bird leaves on time out of Hobby and from Midway, I should be stepping off the plane at 3;00 PM EDT, and hopefully will be destroying some Impellizzeri's Pizza before the week is over.,
Looking forward to seeing everyone when I get there
One of the issues that continues to plague our LGBTQ community across the country is finding culturally competent health care in our various locales we reside in..
In my old stomping grounds of Louisville, which unfortunately has the LGBTQ hatemongering Southern Baptist Theological Seminary inside the city limits, it's probably a factor in why the University of Louisville's LGBT Center is fielding calls from LGBTQ Louisvillians and residents all over the Kentuckiana area on a daily basis who are searching for doctors and health care providers willing to respectfully treat LGBTQ patients.
To address these issues, the University of Louisville as part of their eQuality Project will host a LGBTQ Health Summit on September 12 at the UofL School of Medicine.
It's sponsored by the U of L School of Medicine Office of Undergraduate Medical Education, Office for Community Engagement and Diversity, and the U of L LGBT Center
"Historically, LGBTQ health has not been part of any health care or medical school curriculum," said Suzanne Kingery MD, assistant professor of pediatrics at UofL. "It is only recently that a handful of medical schools, with UofL at the forefront, have started to do this kind of training. This health summit is a wonderful opportunity for health care providers to learn about LGBTQ care so they can provide affirming care for their patients and follow best practices."
The LGBTQ Health Summit will begin at 8:30 AM EDT on that September 12 date at the School of Medicine , and early registration is encouraged for those of you health care providers wishing to attend..
Hillary Clinton will not go 0-for May to th chagrin of the Sanders camp..
While Sanders won Oregon as expected to continue the pattern of winning overwhelmingly white states, Clinton took the Bluegrass State in a tight contest that my homies and homettes in Louisville cast the deciding votes for
Yep Bernie supporters, once again it was ongoing failure of the Sanders campaign to get Black Democratic voter support that cost him this state.
It also put Clinton just 99 delegates away from clinching the Democratic nomination with the June 7 contests looming.
And once again, the obese opera singer's doing sound checks in preparation for singing the 'It's Over' aria.
One of the other races that had my attention besides the contentious race between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders was the 41st District race between longtime incumbent Rep. Tom Riner and former Louisville metro Councilmember Attica Woodson Scott.
Riner had occupied that seat since 1982, but was increasingly out of touch with this overwhelmingly Democratic district. It didn't help his admission he hadn't caucused with the Democrats since the 90's and he introduced Kim Davis to the Liberty Counsel.
Scott was attempting to become the first African-American woman since 2000 from the Louisville area to be elected to the Kentucky General Assembly.
The race wasn't even close. Scott amassed an overwhelming victory, taking 59% of the vote in the district to 23% for Riner. Phil Baker, the third candidate in the race received 19%.
Since there will be no Republican candidate for the District 41 seat in the fall, you can call her Representative-elect Scott.
She will be headed to Frankfort when the 2017 session starts, and becomes the first African-American woman elected to the house from Louisville since Rep. Eleanor Jordan left to take on then US Rep. Anne Northup. .
Congratulations Representative-elect Scott! How apropos you won this race four months after the first ever Kentucky African-American legislator in Sen. Georgia Davis Powers has joined the ancestors.
Now let's hope that the Democrats can hold their majority in the House on November 8.
I have no doubts that you will do a wonderful job for your constituents in the 41st District and they will get the representation they have been lacking recently. .
The Kentucky and Oregon presidential primary elections are happening today, and as a former resident of the Bluegrass state that spent nearly a decade there, I'm going to be watching with more than a passing interest.
Not only will I be watching the contentious Democratic primary contest between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton that is creeping toward a June 14 conclusion. . Despite Sanders win last week, the delegate math continues to point to the inevitable conclusion the Sec Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic nominee to the consternation of the supporters of Sen. Sanders.
As a person who once called Kentucky home, I'm also going to be checking many of the down ballot races in the commonwealth, and especially one in Louisville's 41st House District. My homegirl and former Louisville Metro Councilmember Attica Woodson Scott is taking on a 34 year DINO incumbent in Rep Tom Riner in that one..
If Scott is successful in knocking him off in their Democratic Primary race, it puts her a step closer to becoming the first African-American woman elected to the Kentucky House since 2000.
But it's now up to the voters of Kentucky's 41st District to choose who will represent them in Frankfort, and hope it's Attica when the polls close later this evening.
And hope that all my TransGriot readers across the commonwealth of Kentucky and in my other adopted hometown of Louisville take some time out of their busy schedules to exercise their right to vote..
The Kentucky Primary election is on May 17, and in this case I'll be looking at some races besides the presidential one between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders at the top of the ticket.
As many of you long time readers know, I spent nearly nine years living in Louisville, and TransGriot actually started there. I also met and made friends with some wonderful people while I was there in Kentuckiana.
One of those people I got to know was Attica Woodson Scott. We kept bumping into each other as I settled into my Louisville life after moving there in September 2001 and I got involved in the Louisville liberal progressive political scene and activist circles. She's been there for me and the Kentucky trans, bi and SGL community as a staunch activist, organizer, and ally when we needed support.
And she's a cool person on top of that.
I was elated when she decided to run for the District 1 seat for Louisville Metro Council, but moved in May 2010 before I had a chance to return the favor and do some work to support her election bid. She was subsequently elected to the Louisville Metro Council that fall and served until 2015.
While on Metro Council, she sponsored the Louisville Living Wage ordinance, efforts to ban the box and led efforts to increase affordable housing. Attica has been an ally not only of our Louisville TBLG community, but seniors, our union brothers and sisters, and JCPS teachers. Former state Rep. Eleanor Jordan and my former state Rep. Mary Lou Marzian have endorsed her, and Scott has an ever lengthening list of endorsements backing her campaign
I am happy to see her take on a 34 year DINO incumbent in Rep. Tom Riner who is not an ideological fit for the diverse west side District 41 and alarmingly bragged at a recent debate about not having caucused with the Democrats since the 90's. Riner was also responsible for hooking Kim Davis up with her Liberty Counsel attorneys and I'm surprised he hasn't jumped to the GOP.
That DINO Riner has got to go. In addition, we haven't had a Black female state legislator representing Louisville, much less in the Kentucky House period since Rep. Eleanor Jordan (D) left her seat in 2000 to take on then Congresswoman Anne Northup (R). It's past time we had another Black female state legislator from Da Ville in Frankfort, and many peeps agree with me.
Hope the voters of District 41 will agree with me on May 17 and give Attica Scott the opportunity to serve them in Frankfort.
Got the news from my old Kentucky stomping grounds that the GOP controlled Kentucky Senate in Frankfort went there and passed the unjust SB 180, a 'right to discriminate' bill sponsored by Sen. Albert Robinson (R-London).
Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article66200452.html#storylink=cpy
It passed the Kentucky Senate on a 22-16 vote with five Republican senators, Julie Raque Adams (R-Louisville), Alice Forgy Kerr (R-Lexington), Christian McDaniel (R-Latonia), Carroll Gibson (R-Leitchfield) and Wil Schroeder (R-Wilder) joining the 11 Democratic senators in opposing the unjust bill.
It moves on to the Democratic controlled Kentucky House, where Speaker Greg Stumbo (D-Prestonburg) stated this bill was headed to committee to die.
"We took an oath to defend the Constitution, not violate it," said Speaker Stumbo.
The 2016 legislative session ends on April 12.and I'll be watching along with my former fairness campaign colleagues to make sure that the unjust SB 180 never makes it out of committee.
Mary Lou Marzian was my state rep during the nearly nine years I was living as a Texan in Exile in Louisville, and while I was there had a chance to talk legislative shop with her and see her at other events during my time in Kentucky.
Her day job when she's not bouncing to Frankfort to look out for the interests of her constituents is as a registered nurse, and as you probably guessed she wasn't happy with the 'informed consent' bill the boys in the KY legislature overwhelmingly passed on January 28 and Gov. Matt Bevin (R) signed into law.
To register her disgust with the Commonwealth of Kentucky inserting themselves in the private health decisions of the women living in the state, Marzian on February 11 filed HB 396. a bill that would require men in the commonwealth who wanted an erectile dysfunction drug like Viagra or Cialis to get a sworn and dated letter from his spouse, make two office visits with a medical practitioner and make a sworn statement with his hand on the swear Bible that he will only use the erectile dysfunction drugs while engaged with sexual relations with his current spouse.
In an interview, Rep Marzian said while HB 396 is tongue in cheek, the issue she is highlighting in government interference in women's health decisions
"Maybe it will wake some people up in this state to say, "Hey wait a minute, where are they going with seven abortion bills?'"
We're barely six days into 2016 and we already have vanillacentric privileged white guys showing their asses and jockeying for SUF honors.
The latest example came in my old Louisville stomping grounds in Kentucky Circuit Court Judge Olu Stevens court.. He was elected to the 30th Judicial Court seat in Louisville in 2010 and was unopposed in his 2014 reelection campaign for an eight year term that doesn't expire until January 1, 2023.
Stevens is one of the few African-American judges in the commonwealth of Kentucky, and has had to deal with his share of racist commentary from people transiting his Louisville area courtroom.
He is also not 'scurred' to tell it like it T-I-S is either. He chided one person for writing some problematic racist comments in a victim impact statement. He has criticized all white juries for trials involving Black defendants in a Louisville that is 25% African-American.
And on Monday, the latest instance in which he has faced racism in his courtroom happened.
Adam Satterly was facing the legal music in front of Judge Stevens for violating the terms of his bond on multiple methamphetamine charges.
As he was being taken into custody, Satterly uttered the audible to many observers in the courtroom comment of "punk azz n----r",
He was immediately brought back before Judge Stevens, and realizing he'd screwed up, tried to claim he was speaking to his brother. Judge Stevens wasn't buying that excuse, held Satterly in contempt of court and gave him a 60 day sentence for it. After Satterly apologized the next day to him in his courtroom, he commuted the sentence to time served.
And what did we learn here Kentucky bigots? If you get in legal trouble and find yourself in front of a Black judge, it would be wise of you to keep your racist commentary to yourself..
Happy to see my Louisville homegirl and Louisville Human Relations Commissioner Dawn Wilson was honored October 1 by the University of Louisville during its 2015 Pride Week festivities with the establishment of a scholarship in her name.
"Tonight , I was honored to not only to have a scholarship named in my
honor at the University of Louisville but I also met the dynamic
Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement,." said Wilson in a statement on her FV page "This new
scholarship will offer LGBTQ students of color opportunities to pursue their collegiate dreams"
Patrisse Cullors was the keynote speaker for UL Pride Week, and her keynote speech also happened on Thursday night.
Dawn Wilson is one of the pioneering trans peeps y'all need to get to know. She took part in the Phyllis Frye run lobby day in Washington DC in 1994, founded the Louisville based Bluegrass Belles trans group, helped pass trans inclusive human rights ordinances in Louisville and her hometown of Lexington in 1998, was the first African-American trans person to win the IFGE Trinity Award in 2000, helped organize the Transsistahs-Transbrothas trans POC conventions in 2005-2006 in Louisville and has been an integral part of the Louisville and Kentucky human rights community for over two decades.
And yeah, she's one of my mentors.
The Wilson scholarship is for LGBTQI college bound students of color who wish to attend college on the University of Louisville campus, and may be the first of its kind offered on a college campus located in the South.,
Last night some old Louisville human rights business I'd been working on since 2007 and had to unhappily leave undone when I moved in 2010 was finally completed!
By a nearly unanimous 6-1 vote, the Jefferson County Public School Board in Louisville voted to expand the JCPS anti-harassment and non discrimination policies to includes added gender identity and expression to the district's non discrimination and anti-bullying policies.
And the wonderful Bluegrass State news news had me doing the happy dance deep in the heart of Southeast Texas.
It was a process that Mike Slaton and I along with a team of people had been fighting for back in 2007, and I was bitterly disappointed when the gender identity and expression language was cut in favor of adding sexual orientation only
JCPS is Kentucky's largest school district, with 101,000+ students, 172 schools, and 6,400+ teachers, With this near unanimous vote, JCPS becomes only the second school district in the state to add gender identity to its non-discrimination and bullying and harassment policies.
The Fayette County Public School Board in Lexington approved a similar policy in July 2012.
As Metro Louisville Human Relations Commissioner Dawn Wilson said in a statement on her Facebook page," Tonight, the ghost of 2007 was finally laid to rest. No outside opposition. Room supportive. As the education chair of the Louisville Human Relations Commission I applaud the JCPS board for passing 6-1 gender ID and expression to the school policy!
The chair of GLSEN Bluegrass was also pleased with what transpired at the Van Hoose Education Center last night. “We are pleased to see JCPS pass this policy and join Fayette County as the only two school districts in the state with fully inclusive policies that protect students regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity,” said Zoey Peach, chair of GLSEN Bluegrass. “With the knowledge that they are protected from bullying and discrimination, these policies will ensure a safe and affirming school climate for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students in these schools.”
And I'm happy for the trans JCPS students and employees the expansion of this policy will protect. .
When I left Louisville in May 2010 four days after my birthday to
come back home, I had unfinished human rights business I was unhappy to
leave undone.
That unfinished business was getting a nondiscrimination policy that included gender identity language for the Jefferson County Public Schools.
In 2007 I was part of a coalition effort to get a
comprehensive LGBT inclusive policy passed for JCPS.. Trans people were cut out of that policy in committee because of then Supt. Berman's lack of human rights vision. I
was highly pissed off about it at the time and almost dropped our of the effort at that point because
I was upset about the trans community getting throw under the political bus again.
After calming down and promises being made to me and
the Louisville trans community that the Fairness led coalition would
come back and fight for trans inclusion in the JCPS policy at another
time, .I changed my
mind and fought hard to get the JCPS trans free policy passed..
On Monday I was alerted by Dawn Wilson that the trans inclusion policy n JCPS I was fighting for passed its first stage JCPS board vote with a 5-2 margin.to take it to the second stage
Linda Duncan, just as in 2007 tried to use all the tools in her oppression handbook, but failed to slow down this policy what should have been adopted 8 years ago had Berman and the board listened to me and the coalition then.. Duncan along with board member Chuck Haddaway opposed it.
Rounds two and three are coming up, and I expect Frank Simon, Jerry Stephenson and the rest of the merry band of suburban haters will be loading up the buses to stick their nose in JCPS human rights business soon.
It took a little longer than expected, but Sen. CB Embry anti-trans Bathroom Bounty Bill is finally dead with the end of the 2015 Kentucky General Assembly session at midnight EDT.
You'll recall that back in February the Kentucky senate Republicans shadily passed the bill out of committee, then passed the unjust bill it in the GOP controlled Senate on a 27-9 vote.
But SB 76 was DOA in the Democratically controlled House, and it was parked in a committee with no intention to let it out to the House floor much less bring it up for a committee vote.
With the clock ticking toward the end of the session, Embry decided to tack his unjust bill to HB 236, a bill that overwhelmingly passed the House that would allow for a student representative to be appointed to school superintendent search committees.
Dismayed Kentucky students from across the commonwealth not only saw the bill they had worked so hard to pass being hijacked by Embry, but also being altered Tuesday after two student rallies in Frankfort and news coverage about the impasse.
HB 236 was altered by the Kentucky senate to allow the student to sit on the search committee, but the student would not be able to vote on who is recommended for the job. The 'Student Religious Speech' amendment was also attached to HB 236 by Sen. Albert Robinson (R) to permit students to voluntarily express religious viewpoints in schools. Senator Alice Forgy Kerr (R-Lexington) successfully attached another amendment that would make HB 236 immediately come into force after it became law with Governor Steve Beshear's (D) signature.
Sen. Embry withdrew his 'Bathroom Bounty Bill' amendment and the altered HB 236 passed 27-9. But the damage was done, and the amended HB 236..has no support in the Democratically controlled House when they voted overwhelmingly for the original bill.
While I'm sad that a great bill that would have empowered Kentucky students fell victim to GOP political shenanigans, the bigger picture is that the unjust anti-trans bill is FINALLY dead.
"In my two decades of lived experience as a Black trans woman, I have
seen
more than a few young gay males who liked doing drag, claimed it was 'a
hobby', only did it for pageants or gay nightclub talent nights and
swore up and down they were gay men and had no intention to transition.
But a
year or two later after having that gender epiphany, those same gay males were declaring
they were trans, swallowing hormones, answering to feminine names and transitioning to live full time
as female." -TransGriot, February 2, 2015,, The Case For Edwards Being A Trans Murder Victim"
A trans woman who knew Ms. Edwards and was also at the January 9 murder scene named Tiffany, came forward and publicly confirmed what I was hearing from multiple Louisville contacts.
“Papi got shot becauseshe was a transgender female,” Tiffany told BuzzFeed
News in a phone interview this month. “That is exactly why she was
killed — because of gender identity.”
The photo in this post is a surveillance camera still shot of Ms. Edwards moments before she was killed. And she is clearly presenting as female moments before she was killed.
Henry Gleaves, the alleged shooter who prematurely ended Papi's young life, just had another court hearing March
26, with the trial due to start in Da Ville on October 27.
We have had eight trans women killed this year. I expect there will be more before the calendar turns to January 1, 2016. This Edwards case underscores the importance of police departments when they encounter trans murder victims, ACCURATELY identifying and publicizing the fact they are dealing with a trans murder case.
Because the sooner the trans community knows we are dealing with a trans murder case, the sooner we can spring into action to help you peeps in law enforcement solve them.
As expected, the GOP controlled Kentucky Senate did the bidding of the Kentucky Family Foundation and passed the unjust SB 76 bill by a 27-9 vote.
The bill originally failed to advance out of the Senate Education Committee last Thursday, but was stealthily brought back up on Monday in a surprise meeting and voted out by an 8-1 margin.
The unjust bill then went before the full Kentucky Senate with three Republican senators Jared Carpenter of Berea, John Schickel of
Union and Julie Raque Adams of Louisville being drum majors and a drum majorette for justice and voting against the bill.
Six Democrats, Julian Carroll of Frankfort, Perry Clark of
Louisville, Denise Harper Angel of Louisville, Morgan McGarvey of
Louisville, Gerald Neal of Louisville and Reginald Thomas of Lexington also voted against the bill.
So Kentucky trans peeps, these are the Senate peeps you thank for standing up for your human rights.
Chris Hartman, director of the Fairness Campaign, said in a statement the "Bathroom Bully Bill" as they call SB 76, lacks legal muster and will increase
bullying in schools.
"What an embarrassment the Kentucky Senate has made of our commonwealth," Hartman said
But I need to remind you TransGriot readers the Kentucky General Assembly has split legislative control, with the Democrats holding the Kentucky House (thank God) by a 54-46 margin.
And with only ten days left in this legislative session, House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, indicated that the unjust measure won't win House approval.
"The Democratic-led House can better spend the remainder of the legislative session working on other bills," Stumbo said.
Translation: SB 76 is about to get parked in a House Committee where it won't see the light of day, much less the House floor. And in case you're wondering Kentucky's governor is Steve Beshear (D)
Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2015/02/27/3717535/kentucky-senate-approves-bill.html#storylink=cpy
But I don't think my trans friends and our allies back in the Bluegrass State will exhale until the 2015 session is over.
Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2015/02/27/3717535/kentucky-senate-approves-bill.html#storylink=cpy
Never underestimate the GOP's desire to hate on groups they don't like.
The Teapublican haters in the Senate Education Committee regrouped, waited until Sen. Gerald Neal (D-Louisville) and Sen. Julie Raque Adams (R-Louisville) were not in Frankfort, then called a snap meeting of the committee Monday night to revisit the issue.
And this time they also made sure they had the transphobes speaking in front of the committee
"I know of several girls at my school who are uncomfortable with my
school's policy but are afraid to speak out about it because they know
the school's not on their side and they're afraid of judgment by their
peers," Christina Kelty told reporters. "I thought those girls needed a voice."
Umm hmm. Being a transphobe and an oppression enabler should ALWAYS make you uncomfortable, Christina
The bill shadily passed out of committee 8-1 with the lone NO vote belonging to Sen. Reginald Thomas, D-Lexington, who is the other African-American senator on the committee.
He also said this reminded him of an era when white students were uncomfortable using the restroom with Black students
The unjust bill now advances to the floor of the Teapublican controlled Kentucky senate (26-12 GOP edge), where we'll see if they waste valuable time in this legislative session debating it instead of passing a state budget.
But alas, it seems as though the 21st century Republican Party always has time to pass unjust laws that enable bigotry and oppression instead of govern..
Received some wonderful and surprising news earlier today from my old Kentucky stomping grounds that had me happy dancing in my place after I heard it.
It's also a major reason why if you're able to do so, LGBT peeps need to be staying in red states to fight the hate and not running to some so-called coastal LGBT oasis that seems to have green human rights grass that at closer inspection is Astroturfed.
SB 76, the Bathroom Bounty Bill that Sen. CM Embry (R) filed at the behest of long time Kentucky homobigot Kent Ostrander of the Kentucky Family Foundation, died in spectacular bipartisan fashion in the GOP dominated Senate Education Committee.
If Embry's unjust SB 76 had passed and been signed into law (doubtful with a Democratic House and Democratic governor), it would have mandated that Kentucky schools provide separate, private areas designated for use by students based on
their genitalia where students could be in a "state of undress."
The bill proposed allowing students to sue
their school for up to $2,500 each time they saw a student who appeared
to have a non-matching gender presentation in a facility "designated
for use by the cisgender biological sex of the aggrieved student.”
Embry tried to make this unjust legislative pig more palatable before the hearing by offering an amendment to strip out the bounty language. But the 'Bathroom Bounty Bill' as it was dubbed by opponents, was fought by the Fairness Campaign and other interested parties who braved the frigid below freezing temps to make the trek to Frankfort for the hearing that started at noon EST.
People testifying against the bill included Atherton HS principal Tom Aberli and trans teen Henry Brousseau . He told the Huffington Post in an interview he was harassed in restrooms until he was allowed to use the men's room. Once that happened, there have been no issues.
“A lot of folks think that having a separate and private restroom for
trans kids is the way to go,” said Brousseau during his Senate committee testimony, “While that might work
for some, when somebody tells us that we’re so different that the only
way to accommodate us is to create a special restroom, the message is
clear that we don’t belong. But the thing is, right now schools get to
make their own decisions about what’s best to accommodate trans kids,
and every school may decide differently. The problem with this bill is
it would take away that right for schools to decide.”
Aberli said in his senate testimony that he and others at Atherton were forced to educate
themselves about an issue they previously knew little about, and that
the state should not take away their authority to do what they think is
right.
“What I quickly found was that this is an issue of respecting people
for who they are,” said Aberli. “I’m going to boil it down: This is a
civil rights issue.”
The unjust bill died a painful death (at least in the opinion of the KY Family Foundation) in the Republican controlled committee, falling one vote short of being passed out of it.
Six Republican members voted for it, while Sen Julie Raque Adams (R-Louisville) voted NO with the two African-American Democratic senators Neal and Thomas with no explanation for her vote.
Senator Johnny Ray Turner's (D-Prestonburg) decision to abstain left the unjust bill one vote short of passage to the full Republican controlled Kentucky Senate, where they have a 26-12 edge.
Bills need seven votes to be passed out of committee.
So proud of my former senator, Gerald Neal (D-Louisville), who voted against the bill, telling
Brousseau: “Unfortunately, your situation is still subject to the fear,
ignorance and loathing that results there from something that some
individuals see as different from what they understand and what they
embrace.”
That's our point, America. We're tired of you haters trying to pick on trans people for right wing political game and to satisfy your oppression gene. Let us trans people pee ,have human rights coverage and leave us the hell alone to live our lives..
And stop obsessing over what fracking bathroom we use when we need to handle a basic biological function.
For those of in the Lexington, KY area or in the general vicinity, on February 12 there will be a discussion about conversion therapy
It will take place at Memorial Hall on the University of Kentucky campus and start at 7;00 PM EST.
Leelah Alcorn's story reverberated through the nation after she committed suicide in the wake of receiving conversion therapy. Unfortunately her story is not rare. 50% of transgender youth have at least one suicide attempt prior to their 20th birthday.
According to the Trevor Project, LGBT youth who come from phobic or highly rejecting families are 8.4 times more likely to attempt or commit suicide as those who report no or low levels of rejection.
Please join the GLSO, Lexington Fairness, Lexington GSA, TransKY, UK GSA, UK LGBTQ Task Force, UK OUTsource, UK Shades of Pride, and the UK Violence Intervention and Prevention Program as we host Dr. Daniel Walinsky from the Counseling Psychology Department at UK as he educates us about conversion therapy.
After Dr. Walinsky speaks, a panel discussion will take place where the topic will be about fixing and making it safer for trans people to navigate..
For Leelah, let us begin to look within ourselves and take action, even if it is just one step. Memorial Hall's address is 610 S. Limestone St in Lexington.
Hop that people will check out what is sure to be a fascinating evening.
Damn, I barely have calmed down from the rant I unleashed yesterday about too many of my young African descended transsisters being killed before I was sent news of this one from my old Louisville, KY stomping grounds.
It has all the disrespectful AP Stylebook violations I loathe when writing about these murders of African-American trans women.
Using mugshot photo in WHAS-TV story: CHECK. Using victim's dead name: CHECK. Misgendering her throughout the story: CHECK
Surprised the WHAS-TV peeps didn't disrespect Ms. Edwards further by inserting whatever criminal record they could find since they found the mugshot.
The 20 year old Ms. Edwards (I refuse to use a name that is in violation of AP Stylebook standards for covering trans people) was found shot to death at the Fern Valley Motel in the 2700 block of Fern Valley Road on January 9.
She was from Indianapolis, and after LMPD was called to the scene, she was transported to a local hospital where she was declared dead upon arrival after suffering a single gunshot would to the chest.
LMPD is searching for 20 year old Henry Richard Gleaves in connection with this homicide and if you have eyeballs on him, please call the anonymous LMPD tip line at 502-574-LMPD.
For those of you in the Louisville area or Indianapolis area where Ms.Edwards was from, if you have some pics of her or know her femme name, please get it to me ASAP so I can properly and respectfully cover her story unlike the stenographers at WHAS-TV.
And this now make three transsisters we have lost to anti-trans violence since this year started, all 30 years old or younger.
And this month still isn't over yet.
#BlackTransLivesMatter Once again how many more of us have to die before the Black community gives a damn? .
TransGriot Update. Typed the last name as Williams instead of Edwards. That's what I get for writing while watching Serena play tennis. It has been corrected in the post.
Henry Gleaves, the person who is alleged to have committed the crime, is now in LMPD custody and has been charged with murder.
In the District of Columbia today is also the deadline to register in advance of the election, but you can do same day registration there. I'd suggest you do it now DC if possible.
When I left Louisville in May 2010 four days after my birthday to
come back home, I had unfinished human rights business I was unhappy to
leave undone. 
