Not Feeling This Transphobic Country

Today is the 242nd anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence that is considered the birthday of the United States.

But I'm not feeling particularly patriotic on this Fourth of July 2018.   I'm not feeling love for a country that gleefully hates on me and my trans community just for unapologetically existing. 

It also hates on me for being unapologetically Black and female.

I'm also not feeling love for a country that has an administration that with the help of longtime haters like the Family Research Council, the TERF's and white conservative evilgelicals are goading the Trump misadministration into rescinding the Obama era trans friendly policies and replacing them with trans oppressive ones. 

There's also the people who claim they support trans people, but are silent about the injustice being aimed at transgender people.

The worst people are the clueless or self hating trans people whose whiteness was more important than ensuring that our community wouldn't be oppressed, and sold us out by voting for Trump.

FYI, your white skin will not protect you from the trans oppression being visited upon us by the Trump misadministration

Trans people are Americans too, whose human rights are covered under the Constitution  Those inalienable rights didn't disappear when we transitioned, and anyone who thinks they do is one of the domestic enemies to the country we were warned about.

So nope, not feeling this transphobic country on this 4th of July.

On this Independence Day I am going to redouble my efforts to ensure that the human rights for trans Americans are respected and protected.  Our trans kids are counting on us trans adults to do precisely that, and I'm not going to disappoint them.

Yes, right now our Republican led federal government is a worldwide embarrassment and disgrace.

But this November, we have an opportunity to change that.   And we need to seize that opportunity to vote the oppressors out.

Moni's Thoughts About Justice Kennedy's Retirement

US Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy alarmed many people yesterday after a string of depressing from my perspective 5-4 decisions to announce that he was retiring from the SCOTUS.

It's bad news because he was the swing vote on many critical issues like affirmative action, a woman right to choose and gay marriage just to name a few.   I didn't forget that he was a conservative appointed by Ronald Reagan, and in this 2017-18 SCOTUS term he swung far too often to the right for my tastes.

That news from the SCOTUS was being heralded with weeping and gnashing of white liberal progressive teeth, but was met with me and others in Black TBLGQ world with a collective shrug.

Bottom line is we, Hillary Clinton  (and especially this blogger) told y'all what would happen if y'all didn't get over your butthurt Bernie fee fees, look at the big political picture, realize the 2016 election was about the SCOTUS and federal judiciary and vote accordingly.

My humanity as an unapologetic Black trans person was on the ballot, so you damned skippy I was with her.

And many of you failed to do so in enough numbers, especially in several critical swing states for Trump to shockingly win.

So what do we do now?   Exhale, and prepare to fight tooth and nail to mitigate this disaster by firing everything with an 'R' behind their name on the ballot in November.

This is not a surprise to me because Kennedy is 81 years old.   As I have been pointing out since 2012 there were a potential four SCOTUS nominations that would potentially come open either in Barack Obama's second term of the term of the 45th president. 

So while some peeps are trying to rehash the 2016 election, the bottom line is that 2016 election ship has sailed.   As usual I and every Black person in America, despite us trying to warn you white liberal progressives of the danger of a Trump presidency, unfortunately still have to deal with the fallout from liberal progressive lack of political vision and massive failure to pay attention to the big political picture.

What's that big political picture?  Every election matters.  The federal judiciary matters, especially to marginalized and non white Americans.   Control of Congress and the White House matters.

Trust Black women 

Seeing the big political picture means that some of y'all on the left need to stop hating on the Democrats and realizing that they are the only political party big enough and in the position to stop the slide toward authoritarianism.

Translation:  That means your puny third parties aren't big enough or organized enough to take on the massive job of stopping this country's slide toward conservative authoritarianism.  It also means your azzes are going to have to do what George Will and others have asked you to do and vote for Democrats up and down the ballot this November.

I don't want to hear jack about the Democrats didn't do this or that, left wing ideological purity or 'I voted my conscience'.   The only people that have a credible claim toward voting their conscience are the 65, 843,063 Americans who voted for Hillary Clinton to become the 45th POTUS.   

Focus.  Everything and every policy we value as liberal progressive is in danger of political extinction.   It's past time you far left peeps fight the Republicans who are the major cause of the political drama you hate as hard as you do the Democrats.

Black and other POC Americans have been in fighting mode because we have to be.  Would be nice for the rest of y'all to get in formation and join us in firing the GOP this November at the ballot box and in every election cycle for the next 20 years.

Because your kids, grandkids, nieces and nephews are counting on you to do so.

   

Racism Is NOT Going To Die Off

The latest racist incident involving white younglings on a college campus is more evidence pointing to the fallacy of thought that racism will end when the Greatest Generation and the Baby Boomers die off.

Umm no.   To me, the chatter to 'wait until the old racists die' is an excuse for people to do nothing to aggressively attack and eradicate the problem of racism in our society. 

And once again for the people in the back, everybody can't be racist.   Everybody can be bigoted and prejudiced

What that statement fails to take into account is that racist parents will attempt to pass on their racist commentary and belief systems to their kids.  Racist relatives will do the same thing.

Some of those kids targeted will reject it, while others will embrace it and pass it on to their kids, nieces and nephews.  If they are successful in doing so, that keeps it going for another generation or two. 

And please spare me the kissing cousin to this flawed thinking that if 'you people didn't talk about racism, it would go away' comment.  Me and other non-white people talking about the negative ways in which racism affects our lives is not 'perpetuating racism', it's diagnosing the problem.

You can't eradicate a problem until you discuss the scope of it and what you need to do to successfully fix it.   That's why we non-white peeps talk about it on a regular basis to remind you peeps who o through your lives without being affected by it that it exists, the problems, micro and macroaggressions we deal with are real, and that racism is simply not going to magically end by ignoring it or doing nothing about it.

If you want to erase racism in this society, it is going to take some heavy lifting to do, with the vast majority of the work needing to happen to make racism a thing of the past occurring with our white siblings.

Racism is not going to die off.  The only way it will be eliminated in our society by sustained ongoing anti-racist action.

Not Feeling The Syracuse Theta Tau Chapter Bigotry

Once again we have another instance of the racism that has exploded out of hiding in our American culture ever since the White Supremacist in Chief entered the White House.

As I have said since 45's disgusting inauguration, the bigots now feel empowered to let their swastika flags fly and openly wear those Klan robes in public.  They also feel empowered to say racist and bigoted crap until they get called on it. 

This time the students behaving badly video comes from Syracuse University, and it was a videotaped fraternity initiation that was acquired by the independent student newspaper the Syracuse Orange.

The frat caught behaving badly was the Theta Tau professional engineering one

The first videotape shows a student on his knees sweating to hate Black, Jewish, gay and Latinx people and using the slur words for each group. . A second person is taped in it using a derogatory word for Jews and makes a veiled references to Nazi gas chambers

A second videotape has also surfaced in which mimics a sexual assault on a disabled person while reciting derogatory language.

When the videos surfaced, the Theta Tau members tried to weakly claim the comments were 'satire' (yeah, right) and that they were lampooning a conservative Republican member of Theta Tau.

Naw fools, don't even try and insult my intelligence with that bull feces laden lie.  Y'all were gleefully uttering those racial slurs and forgot that cameras are everywhere these days.

Syracuse University was not amused, and after Chancellor Kent Syverud apologized for the reprehensible comments and videos, SU dropped the disciplinary hammer on Theta Tau. 

The fraternity has been permanently banned from campus.   The tapers were turned over to local law enforcement because the frat is being investigated for possible criminal charges.

19 students are also facing being expelled from the university 

If you peeps haven't learned anything from this pot, take this point away from it.  Racism can cost you 'bigly', and your boy Trump isn't going to do or say a damned thing to save your azz when the hammer comes down on you for being a bigoted douchenozzle.

Stop Sliming Activists And Start Appreciating Them

There's a Facebook conversation happening amongst several of us activists that triggered this post.

In the discussion we're talking about our frustrations with getting slimed, backstabbed, disrespected and slandered by the communities we are trying to serve to the best of our ability. 

We are also discussing the shady two bit three block 'activists' who are only in it for their 15 minutes of fame or who actively work to undermine the people who are successfully doing the work for whatever reason.

Being a human rights warrior is a tough job and can take a toll on you if you're not practicing regular self care   The doctor who did the autopsy on the Rev. Dr Martin Luther King shortly after his assassination 50 years ago noted that Dr King, despite being only 39 years old at the time of his death, had the heart of a 60 year old in large part due to all the stress he was under being the principal leader of the African American Civil Rights Movement.   

As I execute my human rights work, I constantly think about a comment that Barbara Smith made during the Black Feminism plenary panel at #CC16 in Chicago when the discussion turned to self care that has stuck with me to this day. 

"We need live revolutionaries, not dead martyrs". 

As someone who has spent 20 years of my more than a half century on this planet fighting for the human rights of transgender humans and other people, I understand how the petty BS in the activism ranks can can drive a person with a heart full of love for their people and a desire to make a better world for everyone walk away from it.

I actually stepped away for two years from national work after I got backstabbed on a 2002 NTAC initiative by a white trans woman that would have if we had gotten the opportunity to execute what was discussed in that Marietta, GA meeting advanced Trans 101 knowledge and info about the Black trans community to the Congressional Black Caucus, Southern Christian Leadership Conference and national NAACP much earlier.


So yeah, I feel y'all when the discussion turns to being backstabbed by other morally bankrupt activists who are in it for their 15 minutes of fame or selfish reasons.

But know that the 'activists' who choose that crabs in a barrel approach to build their activist platform will fail.  Backstabbing your way to prominence may work to get you where you wish to go in the short term, but in the long run it you will have zero credibility, will make a lot of enemies in the process, and karma will get you sooner or later.

Activism at its core, is building working relationships and partnerships with diverse groups of people or organizations that you can reliably call on to help you solve problems when you need it. 

I have also witnessed in my 20 years 'activists' who are committing repeated civil rights malpractice but want to prevent more competent leaders from rising to successfully do the work the haters don't have the skill set to do.

I've had happen in my 20 years of activism the hurtful thing of trans people running away from me because they are afraid of being outed as trans if they are seen standing next to my unapologetically Black trans activist behind.
I've seen the idiotic online comments from peeps slamming activists stating we should 'stop stirring up trouble' because it's 'causing problems' in their low/ no disclosure lives, and if we activists would just stop 'stirring up trouble' the haters would leave us (and them) alone. 

But those same people attacking us, like the ones running away from me and other trans activists, when they get into trouble are the first ones blowing up my phone trying to call me and other activists demanding help to solve their problem when anti-trans discrimination kicks them in the rear.

No boo boo trans kitties, the haters aren't going to leave us alone if we do nothing.  See the 40 plus years of TERF hatred aimed at us as an example of that or the conservafool anti-trans legislation popping up like weeds in the garden of democracy.

You don't get your humanity and human rights respected unless you repeatedly demand it and relentlessly fight for it.

And if you haven't noticed, we have an incompetent orange white supremacist with his tiny hands on the nuke launch button in the White House.    In this critical time for American democracy, activists are needed now more than ever if it is to survive this crisis.

Angelic troublemakers will always be needed and necessary to hold people, organizations and politicians accountable for bad policies and unjust laws.  It's what we activists do.   Activists are the angelic troublemakers that Bayard Rustin was talking about. 

We are the people who through our efforts, shine a light on the issues of the day, and facilitate the conversations that help move society toward being better for all parties.

So it's past time to start appreciating the people who do that work instead of sliming them.
 

What Is A Democrat?

I'm sick of the Green Tea Party far left labeling anyone they don't like, especially women and people of color as 'corporate Democrats.' I also noticed that that label gets applied to any Democrat who the far left thinks is a possible candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination like Sen. Kamala Harris, Sen. Cory Booker, Sen. Elizabeth Warren...

You get my drift. .Note to you peeps, the 2020 Democratic Party primary voters will determine who will be that nominee, and many of those Democratic Party primary voters look like me.

So what is a Corporate Dem? Seems like the definition of a 'Corporate Dem' is anyone who doesn't walk in lock step with non-Democrat Bernie Sanders or who doesn't pass their vanillacentric privileged goalpost shifting standards of a purity test.

Those 'purity tests' didn't work in 2016, and they damned sure didn't work in 2000 either. All your far left Green Tea Party purity tests have done is to get the worst possible Republicans elected and saddle us with a radical conservative SCOTUS because in large part you have an irrational hatred of the Democratic Party that we and the country don't have time for. First things first, we need to have a laser beam focus on the 2018 midterm elections. So what is a Democrat? Here's my thoughts concerning what a Democrat is and not the RussiaLeaks or Republican version of one is.

To me, to be a Democrat is to be someone who is in favor of human rights protection for all. It means you care about the social safety net and wish to defend and improve it. It means you care about the environment.. It means that you will fight to the death to defend Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid. and eventually universal single payer health care.

It means you fight for public education.and making it easier for people to afford a college education without breaking their family's bank accounts or putting the college grad in debt for the next 20-20 years It means fighting for science and scientific research to get the tax dollars it deserves and our school systems go back to teaching critical thinking skills and not test taking .

Being a Democrat also means you fight tooth and nail to protect the right to vote and a woman's right to choose. It means that you respect freedom of religion, and people's choice to be free from having religious beliefs at all.

It means that you are in favor of reasonable gun regulations. It means fighting for a justice system that lives up to its name. It means making our federal, state and local governments, the people who work in them and the folks in our judicial system look like America

It means you fight for working class people, not the 1%. It means fighting for a fair tax system in which corporations doing business in the United States and those who can pay more pay their fair share in taxes. It means being about creating jobs at a livable wage with regular increases in the minimum wage based on inflation, and relentlessly fighting for a strong union movement.
It means investing in infrastructure, be it our transportation networks, internet communications networks or our technological expertise in space.

It means that we Democrats serve with the highest ethical standards because character matters. It means,because believe in a government of, by and for the people, we want government to work. We should as Democrats when we have control of the government find the most qualified people to run their agencies It means that when we create governmental policy that is going to impact people's lives, we do so with facts. It means we Democrats use logic and reason based policies to make government work efficiently and better for all people

Finally, being a Democrat means that we don't fear the future, we look forward to it and plan ahead so that our kids and grandkids inherit a better world
That in my eyes, is what a Democrat is.

My Thoughts On The Houston GLBT Caucus-Baptist Ministers Assn. Initiative

People are weighing in on the what WAS a quiet effort to talk to the Baptist Ministers Association of Houston and Vicinity and the GLBT Caucus.

As one of the people considered a major unapologetically Black trans leader in the Houston, Texas and national TBLGQ community, I have also been asked my thoughts about this from multiple people including political candidates, members of the Caucus, and other thought leaders.

So here's what I have to say about it

You know from perusing this blog that I not only have been a vocal critic of the Baptist Ministers Assn, I was not in 2014-15 happy with them colluding with the Harris County GOP and our longtime assorted haters in Dave Welch, Dave Wilson and Steven Hotze.

And Moni STILL isn't happy with them and the rampant miseducation about the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance they helped grease the skids for that was critical in how it was framed and why it was rejected in the Houston Black community . 

But I also have been just as critical about the piss poor effort of Houston Unites and their Prop 8 2.0 campaign that spectacularly failed to educate about and defend the much needed ordinance in my community in large part because of the failure to listen to Houston Black TBLGQ leaders.

In order for us to pass and successfully defend a HERO 2.0 ordinance, you not only need to listen to Houston Black TBLGQ leaders, we are going to have to deal with the Baptist Ministers Assn and also the just as odious to me COGIC PAC. 

I also have some ideas about what else needs to happen, but it's going to cost you to hear what they are.  Y'all in the market for hiring experienced Black trans leaders, equality orgs?  It's kinda obvious we're needed and necessary to advance equity in this human rights movement, and not just equality.

We cannot allow Houston Black voters to ever again be hoodwinked and bamboozled into voting against a local human rights law that protects them in the Bayou City.   Neither can we tolerate sellout Black folks who collude with the Harris County and Texas Republican Party and white fundamentalists to make that miseducation happen.

It is past time for a 'Come to Jesus' Houston Black community meeting with those groups.  This is a family conversation that Houston Black trans, bi and SGL leaders need to facilitate because we need to and KNOW HOW to talk to our people. 

And as a member of Black Lives Matter HOU, I'm confident that we can successfully along with POC Caucus leaders and other Houston Black community leaders have that conversation.  Both groups are coming to the table with the common points of our Blackness and being sick of the narrative we are 'more homophobic and transphobic' than the white folks who draw high five figure paychecks working in anti-TBLGQ orgs , the white fundies ministers that get their jollies hating us, and support a Republican Party dedicated to oppressing us. 

Just before the January 2018 Caucus meeting, Mike Webb pulled me aside and asked if they could talk to me about an initiative that was being worked on.  I now know because of the drama this was the initiative they were talking about. 

I'm also not happy about the conclusion jumps being made in the article that the trans community is 'being thrown under the bus' and that Houston Black SGL leaders expressing their opinions about this situation informed by their Blackness and political knowledge of our Houston Black community and the players in it is 'cisplaining'.

Really?   Don't even insult my intelligence with that BS. 

This initiative is a Houston Black family conversation that once again, we need to and must have.  That means Houston white TBLGQ community, y'all are going to have to sit on the sidelines for this one until if and when we call for you.

It is an initiative that I definitely agree needs to have Houston Black trans representation at the table since we were the people attacked by the inflammatory anti-trans rhetoric.  Because of that anti-trans hate speech, Black trans people have undeniably taken the brunt of the anti-trans violence uptick that resulted from that 2015 campaign, the GOP efforts to pass anti- trans 'bathroom bills'  and the anti-trans rhetoric surrounding the failed dual attempts to pass SB 6.

So would I talk to a group that as you know I'm seriously pissed off at?  I sure would.   I definitely wouldn't mind talking to Max Miller, FN Williams and whoever else is leading the Baptist Ministers Assn of Houston and Vicinity as long as that apology to the trans community happens

The ministers need to know from a living breathing Houston Black trans person we not only exist, that their collusion with our longtime enemies was hurtful to Houston's trans community.

The Black ministerial collusion was harmful specifically to the Houston Black trans contingent of it, and the Baptist Ministers Assn of Houston and Vicinity need to as a starting point publicly apologize to us for their reprehensible actions to the Houston Black trans community.

And the Houston Black TBLGQ community will have a major say in how and what that looks like.

Can Y'all Stop Using Texas As A Political ATM?

Early voting has just started in the Lone Star State in advance of our March 6 primary election, and in Harris County and the other 15 largest counties in the state, first day early voting Democratic turnout is double the rate it was in 2014, while the Republican turnout numbers are slightly below 2014 numbers.

There is enthusiasm in the Texas Democratic Party ranks and among liberal progressive Texans for the first time in a while.   Many Republican held legislative seats that went unopposed in 2014 and 2016 have now drawn Democratic challengers.   There's a competitive Democratic primary in CD 7, currently held by Rep.John Culberson (R) that drew seven quality candidates.

In Harris County, (Houston) lost in the bad news of the Trump upset win was the fact we flipped the most populous county in the state blue, and are eagerly looking to continue the process in this cycle.

The significance of this news is that Harris County provides 25% of the vote total in a statewide race, so if we can get turnout up here, it helps Democrats across the state.

And Texas liberal progressive peeps, after observing what happened in Virginia and Alabama, are fired up and ready to demonstrate we can do the same in the Lone Star State and start flipping Texas blue or at least get it to purple status.

But what that is going to take to make a Blue Texas a reality is money. 

One of the things that has pissed Texas Democrats off for a long time is that Democratic candidates from the rest of the country come to Texas to fundraise and taking money out of our state to spend in other races around the country . 

The problem with that repetitive pattern of using Texas as a political ATM because you assume we can't win here is that it deprives Lone Star State Democratic candidates running for office the funds we need to aggressively take on and beat  entrenched Republican office holders.

Texas is also the linchpin of the Republican Party efforts to cling to power on a national level.   It's why the Texas GOP has spent millions to voter suppress and gerrymander this state so they keep control of it.   According to an AP analysis, in 2016 the Republicans picked up four additional US House seats in Texas they wouldn't have if not for the gerrymandering.

It's also no surprise that a federal judge has decaled the 2011 Texas federal and state legislative maps unconstitutional because they were gleefully drawn by the Texas GOP to suppress African American and Latinx political power 

They are even more desperate to cling to power here in Texas because they know as we do that since 2009, demographics have not been on their side.   There are more non-white Texans than white Texans, and they know that if they didn't suppress or gerrymander the vote, this state would be purple or already well on it's way to becoming the political mirror image of California.

If that happens, the Republicans will be hard pressed to win a presidential contest, much less keep control of the US House of Representatives because they would have to fight for Texas' 38 electoral votes instead of relying on adding the Lone Star State's EV's in their total.

With the 2020 census and reapportionment looming on the horizon that will determine how the political fights of the 2020's shake out, it is incumbent upon us liberal progressive Texans in 2018 and 2020 to do what we can to cut into those Republicans margins in the Texas House and Senate despite the gerrymandered maps and put ourselves in the best possible position for that 2021 redistricting fight. 

We also need to have liberal progressive Texans running for statewide and countywide offices, school boards and judicial benches.   It's a win win for us in Texas and for you nationally if Ted Cruz is no longer patrolling the US Senate and Beto O'Rourke is.

But the critical piece in that effort to flip Texas blue is for the national Democratic Party and other national PAC's to stop treating Texas as a political ATM, fundraising, and taking that money to fund races somewhere else.

We need money for our races, too.   Y'all could also send more money here as well to help us flip Texas in 2018 and 2020 as well.

We'll do the rest of the work necessary to make it happen. 

My Trip To Wakanda

I went to check out Black Panther today at the AMC 8 Houston.   I've been looking for an excuse to go there since they bought it, and am happy I now have another inside the Loop movie theater option to choose when I'm ready to see a movie.

For you Houstonians going 'What movie theater downtown?", it was the former Angelika Theater in Bayou Place that closed down in August 2010, then reopened as a Sundance Cinema before being bought out by AMC where I attended the 1 PM screening of it.

But back to Black Panther.   Was it worth the wait?   All I have to say about it for now since I don't want to spoil it for you folks who haven't seen it yet is hell yeah and WOW!

It was so nice not only seeing myself represented on the silver screen, but so many kick butt women.

I also watched Black Panther in 3D, and will probably see it again    This movie is shattering box office records, and is cruising toward a $210-215 million dollar opening weekend, which is the highest ever for any Marvel Cinematic Universe film,

Vanillacentric privileged people are hating on it for doing so to the point they are trying to 'scurr' other white folks into NOT going to see the movie by posting fake news of violence that hasn't occurred.

Oh well, y'all can #BeMad and #StayMad about that.  We're going to keep bum rushing the multiplexes to see it

One of the things that did bother me was having a young white male in line at the theater I went to see it at in downtown Houston show up with a small backpack and roller suitcase. 

The reason it bothered me was because I remember the mass shooting that happened in an Aurora, CO movie theater back in 2012.  It was why I was concerned this person's suitcase and backpack weren't inspected before they let him in.

It became a problem halfway through my viewing of the film when it was stopped and the lights went up in the auditorium after the folks who had been seated by him in the back part of the theater ( I was in the sixth row) noticed he wasn't there and reported it to the ticket booth and manager.

They searched the auditorium for a few minutes to make sure he and his bags weren't there before turning the auditorium lights back down and resuming the film.

Despite that drama and having to do a sprint to the bathroom when my attempt to hold my bladder until the movie ended became an emergency sprint to the lavatory when my bladder said 'screw what you want ' and demanded immediate attention.

I was planning on seeing it again anyway.,and now I have even more of a reason to do so