Hey Cowboy Fans, NFL Officiating Karma Is A You Know What

Y'all know I have no love for that NFL team that plays in Arlington and have been a Cowboy hater since childhood

And after watching the Lions get robbed by a jacked up call last weeks and Cowboys Nation telling the pissed off Detroit  fans to 'get over it', now after the officiating karmic wheel kicked their fave squad in the teeth, the griping about it has been loud and long.

And before you get started with that 'What have the Texans done?' line, they've won one more playoff game and one more division title than the Cowchips have in this decade, and they've only been around since 2002..

And please Cowboy fans, don't start bragging about those Super Bowl titles.  Not only is that so 20th century, y'all haven't been to a Super Bowl much less won one in the 21st Century without buying a ticket for it or watching it on your big screen TVs.

Dez Bryant had an amazing and critical 4th down fourth quarter catch wiped out because of NFL Rule 8, Section 1, Article 3, Item 1 AKA the 'Calvin Johnson Rule'.   Yeah, he caught the ball, but he didn't according to that rule after making contact with the ground maintain control of it. 

Because he didn't do that, the catch call was correctly reversed after the challenge by Packers coach Mike McCarthy.   The Packers got the ball and the Cowboys never saw it again.

And in other news, Chris Christie is rumored to be heading to the NFL store to buy a New England Patriots jacket and a Seattle Seahawks 12th Man flag.

Yes Cowchip fans, I have some sympathy for you.  I and other longtime Oiler fans are still pissed about a lousy call in Three Rivers Stadium that robbed the Oilers of a tying touchdown in the 1980 AFC Championship game against the Steelers and possibly cost us a Super Bowl trip.

But not that much because of your Harris County bandwagon riders that crawled out of the closet,

They were insufferable as usual inside Loop 610 after being cricket chirping silent about 'Dem Boys' for the last three 8-8 seasons as the Texans were winning back to back AFC South titles

So yeah, NFL Officiating Karma is a you know what.

Trans Community, We Need To Be Better Friends To Each Other

One of the things that jumped out at me while reading my Facebook feed was one transsister not wanting to go out on New Year's Eve, but expressing her wish of just wanting to quietly usher in 2015 at her place with a friend and watch the New York ball drop on TV because she really wasn't feeling being in a club that night.

I feel her on that.  She was also aware that because it was New Year's Eve, her mission to find someone who wouldn't be out clubbing or at somebody's house party would be tough.

She managed to get in contact with another trans sister at home that night, but Person B as I'll call her declined. 

To be fair to Person B, she could have had a rough day that played into her decision to decline the invite and had no intention of hurting the person in question's feeling.

But Person B declining that invite led the person to question whether she actually had any trans sisters as friends in the community in which she lives that cared about her.

I know the person in question, and she is a warm, funny, and sweet person who is as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside..  I would have loved to have spent a few hours on New Year's Eve (or any time) in her company since the last time I was in her presence I enjoyed it so much.

And on New Year's Eve I was at home alone myself and looking to spend some quality time with somebody that evening, so that story she recounted on her Facebook page resonated with me.

The reason I'm mentioning this is because I have a bigger point to make as it relates to transkind and the current spike in suicides we are experiencing. 

One of the reasons I believe we have the suicide problem in trans circles is because for the most part, we tend to be loners to begin with. 

I have had to fight that loner tendency myself.   You combine that with rejection from family and friends because of the trans issues, add a dash of isolation and depression, and you have the perfect storm of conditions to grease the skids for a suicide attempt.

To me, one way to combat that is simple human contact with people who love and care about you and your well being..  Facebook chats and phone calls are fine, but nothing beats sitting with your homegirls at their home or yours chatting about whatever issues pop up in your mind.  Or if that's not your speed, going to lunch or dinner with a friend.   Going shopping.   Going to a movie.  Going to a museum.  (insert fave activity here)

Human beings are social animals, and we need regular contact with other humans on a frequent basis. So transpeeps, go do something you like in which you have regular contact with another human being.cis or trans.

And one thing we trans folks need to do a better job of is hanging out with other trans people.   I love my cis sisters and have learned much in my own feminine evolution because of the conversations and  quality time I've spent with them over the years and will continue to do so because every trans woman needs sistahfriends in her life.

But there are times when you have to have conversations with other trans people who have gone through the drama of living life while trans.

And some of those trans people you can learn things from are trans guys.

It's not like this is a new idea I'm suggesting in terms of being better friends with each other..  I've talked about the importance of sisterhood for years and it being a necessary component of building a strong community.    With this outbreak of recent suicides, the message about reaching out to other transpeople and forming lasting lifelong friendships needs to be repeated once again.

So in the spirit of fixing society as Leelah urged in her final words, let's do this.   This is one of the easy things we can do as a community that doesn't require legislation and we can expeditiously implement it.

It's also necessary for us to do so because our only sane response to a world hostile to transpeople is to close ranks, hold each other tight, and love each other and the allies who love us.

And yep, I have a few people in mind I'd love to do that with in 2015.  

Searching For My Transfeminine Cousin

We are on Christmas Day countdown in which we are out and about trying to get those last minute presents, prepare meals for Christmas dinners, or wondering what gifts are under the Christmas tree for us.

If there is one gift I'd love to have for the 2014 holiday season, it is to be reunited with my trans feminine cousin that I'll call Janet for the purposes of this post.

We lived in the newly developing (and segregated) Crestmont Plaza subdivision while my cousin Janet and her brother lived in a South Park whose demographics were rapidly changing due to rapid white flight from it.    Janet and her brother were also one of the few local Roberts cousins I was aware of and grew up with in early childhood.

Besides the trans issue, we are similar in a lot of ways.   In addition to her sharing my last name and us being roughly the same age, we are both the firstborn kids of our respective families.  My brother and I attended their birthday parties and got to see and play with them on a regular basis until we lost contact with them after their parents divorced in the early 70's.  

While from time to time I wondered what was going on in their lives, it began to pale in comparison with me try to navigate growing up transfeminine in 1970's Houston and she and her brother faded from my memory for a while.

That changed one day when I was in my high school health class during my junior year at JJ in 1978. A cisfeminine .sophomore student who had gone to Johnston Jr. High with my cousin asked me in front of the entire class if Janet (and used her old male name while doing so) was my cousin.   When I replied yes, she called her the f-word that rhymes with maggot, and I swiftly chewed her ass out for disrespecting my cousin and moi. 

I also sarcastically said to  the messy cis female when I finished calling her out it bothered her because she was probably attracted to my cuz.  We rolled our eyes at each other and moved on.

That was my first clue that something was going on with Janet.   I wouldn't get another one until I took a non-rev trip to California in 1992 and ended up visiting the home of Janet's father while accompanied by a then close cisfeminine cousin of mine who was living in Cali at the time. 

While we were visiting his expansive house, I noted the pics of his two sons on the wall of his study, but none of Janet.  Since I was seriously contemplating getting my own transition party started at the time, I silently sat there and wondered if that was going to be my fate with my own family. 

Two years later I was on the verge of beginning my own transition, and sat my parents down in the living room of our home to inform them of my intentions to do so.  In their attempt to dissuade me from transitioning, they mentioned the existence of Janet and alluded to how challenging her life was.  When I heard I had a trans cousin, all I felt at the time for my parents was anger for keeping that information from me and tuned them out.

It's now Christmas Eve 2014.  I've gotten over the anger I felt for having Janet's existence hidden from me   I often wondered if our paths crossed while I was running around Montrose in the 1980's and 1990's, and .she has never been too far from my thoughts since then even as I navigated my own bumpy at times transition road. 

The trans historian part of me  really wants to know how her life has turned out, especially since she had the guts to transition in the more challenging 1970s and 1980's.  

And yes, because she's my blood family and also trans, if Janet is still alive, I want to get reacquainted with her because we are both trans and have a lot of catching up to do.

So if you happen to be reading this Janet, get in touch with your cousin.  It's been way too long since we saw and talked to each other, and I'd love to have lunch with you as a starting point especially if you're still living in H-town..

And I hope and pray that Christmas wish is granted..

Role Models-Damned Glad To Have Them

One of the things I have been most pleased to see this year is a new generation of trans women becoming well known to Middle America and at the same time, advancing the conversation about trans issues on multiple levels.

Whether it was Janet Mock with her New York Times bestselling book Redefining Realness, Laverne Cox's groundbreaking turn on Orange Is The New Black and subsequent Emmy nomination, Carmen Carrera's quest to become a Victoria's Secret model or Geena Rocero's well received coming out TED Talk and subsequent founding of GenderProud, these ladies are raising the bar in terms of being as Laverne calls it of being a possibility model

You don't have to wait until adulthood to be a trans possibility model in the 2K10's.   I have been inspired by Jazz Jennings and other trans younglings who are not only proud of being who they are, they aren't waiting for their trans elders to handle their business for them, either.

They are not only instilling pride in our trans elder ranks when they talk about their evolving lives, but taking the lead in tacking the problems unique to their age group their damned selves and doing so quite successfully.

It's not  just these ladies and our trans kids positively representing Team Trans these days.    The fellas are stepping up to lead and getting their closeups too like Tiq Milan , Dr Kortney Ziegler, and Carter Brown.

They are also doing their part to get the long needed discussion started about trans masculinity, diversifying that conversation and advancing the overall  trans human rights conversation at the same time .

There are also trans folks in all regions of the country and the world stepping up to do the trans human rights thing on a local level, and I'm so happy as a longtime trans human rights warrior to see this happening.

So glad to see more trans role models these days, and so glad to have them.

Moving Day 2014

Unlike the last time in 2010, when I moved from Louisville back to Texas, this one is different in a lot of ways.    It's a shorter distance, there was unnecessary drama that triggered it, and I'm leaving the 'hood.

I'm moving to the Houston Heights, AKA the Heights.   It dates back to 1891 and was one of Houston's first suburban neighborhoods when it began to grow and expand from its original square mileage on the road to becoming the 720 sq mile diverse international city we know and love.   It was incorporated as its own city in 1896 and kept that status until Houston annexed it in 1918

I officially started the moving process yesterday by picking up the key from my landlord and moving my clothes I was able to take with me during Operation Extract Moni into it.  I notified my landlords I was exercising my option and planned on signing an initial six month lease to see it I like the area.

I'll get my desktop, books, CD's and DVD's when I have tables and bookshelves to put them on.   That's probably gonna happen soon because I have a trip to New York coming up and my sweater coat I was able to get away with for the Chicago and Dallas trips isn't gonna cut it up there in early December .

While I'm not happy about the transphobic family drama that precipitated this move, the end result is that for the first time since September 2001 I will be living in my own space.   And speaking of space, major thanks to Sahel and her family for opening their lovely home to me as I waited for the previous tenant to vacate my apartment. 

While it's larger than the rooms in the three houses I've been living in for the last almost decade and a half, it's still a small space that I will have efficiently and creatively decorate to make it my own

It's also one in which I get to figure out the next chapter of my life and how I want it to play out.  I know what I want to do, it's just making the plan and putting in the hard work to get there

New neighborhood means new opportunities to make lifelong friends.  It's a new part of the city I get to explore.   I've always wanted to live in the Heights, and now is my chance to do precisely that since I am definitely an Inside the Loop kind of girl.

So while I was in a melancholy mood about it yesterday, and the cloudy, rainy H-town weather didn't help, it's a new day, the sun is out, and it's time to get started getting acclimated to my new place and new neighborhood. 

Thanks to everyone out there who made it possible

Future Trans*

From time to time I like to engage in hard, solid thinking about various topics.   There are times I like to take a ride on what Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson called on Cosmos The Ship of the Imagination and ponder what our world will be like decades from now and what issues will impact it.

The last time I actually wrote down what I was thinking, I was in junior high school writing an essay for a NASA sponsored contest that asked us to predict what the space program would look like in 2000.   I nailed the International Space Station, but I'm still waiting for the permanent moon base and manned Mars missions.

That essay did earn me a trip to Johnson Space Center in which I got to meet Nichelle Nichols and the first group of Black shuttle astronauts along with a non standard tour of JSC.

One of the things I was pondering recently was triggered by me seeing a pic of a five year old trans girl.  I began to ponder what her Trans World that we 2K10's activists are fighting tooth and nail to shape, would be like 10 to 20 years from now.

One thing we can say for certain in one important aspect, she's in trans territory that our current trans teens intimately know or are experiencing firsthand.  This five year old trans girl is getting the benefit of living her childhood predominately in her targeted gender. 

So will her five year old trans masculine counterpart.

Trans kids in 2034 that tell their parents they want to be the other gender will have advanced medical techniques available to either delay puberty or put them on the desired gender development transition track.

Our societal knowledge about gender identity and the medical side of it will exponentially increase as mounting research evidence continues to drive home the point that gender is between your ears and not your legs.   

What things will our current five year old trans child who triggered this trip on The Trans Ship of the Imagination benefit from by the time they have hit age 25?

Gender transition specific healthcare will be covered because it will have long since been proven to be a medical necessity and not a debatable political, religious and medical ethics issue.

That trans child by the year 2034 will probably be able due to those rapid advancements in reproductive technology to bear a child using reproductive organs created from her own stem cells.   Hopefully that same route, the biomechanical or a medical breakthrough as yet unknown will lead to realistic functional genitalia for our trans masculine peeps that desire it.

Hopefully that advancing medical technology will lead to a better quality of life for us 2030's trans seniors

That trans child in our thought experiment will see a world in which nondiscrimination laws that add gender identity to the list of categories that discrimination is banned will cover more than just the current 18 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and 180 jurisdictions. 

More nations will have laws that ban discrimination against their trans citizens as well as allow them to change identity documents easily.

People in the 2030's will wonder what the fuss was about or why was there so much resistance when these no-brainer laws expanding human rights coverage were proposed and enacted.    

The trans kids of 2030 will be be able to go to schools and colleges that have trans nondiscrimination policies in place.  

As a result trans people will be able because of the widespread nondiscrimination laws that cover gender identity have a better opportunity to get better paying jobs.

With transsexuality being less stigmatized, society being more open,  and people being out, open and proud about being trans men and women, it should lead to a lessening of anti-trans violence. 

That will probably change the nature of Transgender Day of Remembrance to a memorial reminding transpeople in the 2030s how bad it was 20 years ago, still mourn the person killed that year, celebrate the societal progress that has been made since that dark time and resolve every November 20 to never go back to those days again.

Trans children will grow up being able to simply focus on making their dreams a reality.   While trans activists making trips to Washington DC and the various state capitols in 2034 will be fighting to keep hard won political and judicial courtroom gains ensconced in law like the federal Gender Identity and Gender Recognition Act and avoid any slippage, that trans child will be able to see various representations of himself in various parts of society.

Transgender politicians, teachers, business people, clergy, athletes, beauty queens, bodybuilders, actors, models, and families headed by trans parents won't be front page news or scoffed at, but an accepted part of life that once again will draw chuckles as to how backwards those transphobic cisgender people back in the 2010's were.

And yes, there probably will be some negativity aimed at our transpeeps in 2030.  Murders and sexual assaults of our peeps will probably still happen and necessitate activists having to still organize TDOR's.   The transphobic bigots will get more creative with their anti-trans bigotry.  Rapidly advancing medical technology will cause other issues of concern for trans activists on the 2030s that we have yet to even think about.  

What issues will crop up that cause intra trans community drama in 2030?  While my data banks are coming up with 'Insufficient Data' responses to that question, I'm willing to bet the four century old issue of the color line will still be a problem in Trans World .  Class issues  will continue to necessitate coordinated action and work between trans political organizations to solve the problems they cause.

Since the world will probably be more interconnected 20 years from now than it is today,  hopefully that will result in better international human rights cooperation between trans people across the planet..  

Hopefully I'll be around to see how much of this turned out to be on target.  

I'll also be interested to see if my NASA moon base finally gets built.

What Do You Mean Transitioning Was A 'Waste Of My Potential?'

Was talking to my mom the other night when she relayed a conversation she'd had with another one of my old neighbors in the Houston hood I'd grown up with. 

After they'd asked what my other siblings were up to, she then asked what I the eldest was doing since it is not a secret (at least I tend to think so) I transitioned 20 years ago and took the difficult path of doing so in my hometown.

When mom made a non committal "I was doing fine' answer, the person made the mistake of saying what was really on her mind and making the comment that me transitioning was 'a waste of my potential' and it was' an embarrassment'. 

Seriously?   This comment came from a woman whose sons did jail time, and when they made the local news, it was a negative story.   Compare and contrast that with yours truly.

My mom calmly told her, "We give our children life, but we can't live their lives."  As Mom is already aware of, I will determine how to live my life to not only maximize its potential, but to make me happy.  Caring about what haters think is not part of that game plan.

But I damned sure will use my electronic media platform to comment on it.

I'm more than a little tired of this ignorant thinking in the African-American community that presumes that if we don't stay in those mismatched at birth bodies, we African descended trans people don't contribute anything to the greater African-American community.  

That's bull feces.  So far you haven't given us the opportunity to prove that we transpeople of African descent can excel, or are ignoring our contributions when we do so.

And sometimes, you are our oppressors in league with others preventing that from happening.    

As I have pointed out on more than a few occasions on this blog, we have African descended trans people who have advanced degrees, are working in various vocations and excelling when given the chance to do so. 

I'm considered an authority on transgender history.  I'm an award winning writer with a blog I started in 2006 that has 5.7 million hits and counting.   I have done countless radio interviews, speak at various college and conventions on trans and other issues.  I was asked on two separate occasions if I would run for public office.   I have friendships with some amazing cis and trans people that span the globe that I probably would have never met if I hadn't transitioned.

And I still have living to do and chapters of my still evolving story to write.  

Waste of my potential?   It's because I transitioned, I'm living up to it.  I gained the courage to step out there and live my life so I can be happy.  You don't like that, tough.   While you're tripping about my transition, I'll continue to live my life to the best of my ability and look fly while doing so.
 
It is from that happiness and balance in my life I can then focus on using the gifts and talents I have to make my life and all the communities I intersect and interact with better.  

Thanks Peeps For Your Support

As some of you may or may not be aware of, been dealing with unexpected major drama over the last week

It got ugly, and while the situation is being mediated, because it got nasty and nitpickingly petty, that instigated drama and moi defending myself from that toro poo poo is going to result in me having to find a new place to live in H-town shortly.

While I'm on the lookout for a new place to call home inside Beltway 8, do want to take a moment to thank all the peeps who have called to check up on me and see how I'm doing, or left notes either at my e-mail address or on my Facebook page.

It's times like there when you're going through unnecessary drama or trouble that you really find out who your friends are, because quality people who love you and care about your well being will rise to the occasion.

And yes, will do my best, even without internet access at my current residence to ensure that you readers continue to see fresh content on TransGriot.

Moni's Vacation Musing

There are just times when I just get into deep introspective mode, and it can happen for me at any time.    I do enjoy engaging in what Dr. King called 'hard, solid thinking' .

One of those times I get to do that is when I'm traveling or on vacation like I am right now.

So what am I musing about?   Much of it has been centered on the fact I'm now 20 years into transition and my ongoing evolution as Moni.   There are times I count my blessings like friends and family who love me and the people I have encountered due to the activist portion of my life that do have much respect for me, what I do and more importantly what I stand for.

I think about the fact those friends, extended family and brothers and sisters in the human rights struggle extend around the world.

I think about the amazing progress that has been made in getting the public to see the humanity of trans people and especially trans people of color, but realize that we have much work to accomplish on that front.

I think about what I can do to continue striving toward my goal of being a quality Black woman and being the best person I can be.

And as a leader in this community, I do think about because I'm a Kennedy baby what kind of legacy I will leave for the people who follow in my footsteps.  Am I doing my utmost to be the best 'possibility model' I can be?

I have the rest of today, tomorrow, and the plane rides home to ponder those questions and whatever other queries pop up in my mind.

Musing About These Austin Gender Variant Photos

I've talked about the point more than a few times that Black gender variant people are an intertwined part of the African-American community and not something that just popped up out of thin air in the late 20th-early 21st century . 

Thanks to Max Reddick, I have some more proof of that and some interesting photos to peruse.

The cool part is that these photos were taken at a club in the Lone Star State.

Max sent me a link to a story in the Arts Labor Austin blog by Michael Corcoran dated February 7, 2014.    In it Corcoran discusses finding some photos dated October 7, 1955 while searching for another legendary Austin establishment called Charlie's Playhouse.  

The photos weren't of Charlie's, but possibly of the IL Club which was on East 11th Street    The east side of Austin was predominately African-American at the time but due to gentrification of those historic neighborhoods and the rising cost of living, Austin's African-American population is falling. 

It's interesting to note these photos are of drag artists of that time period performing at a blues club.

Not a big surprise to me, knowing that the Halloween Finnie's Ball in Chicago and elaborate drag balls in New York's Rockland Palace dating back to the Harlem Renaissance were quite popular and drew large crowds during that period.  

The winner of Finnie's Ball was covered in Jet magazine from the 50's through the late 60's-early 70's.  
      
And just across the Sabine River, New Orleans has had a longtime gender bending reputation and Mardi Gras events that lent themselves to celebrating gender variance .

As I look at these photos I'm curious about the lives of the people in them.  How old were they at the time these photos were taken?  Did they continue to live in the Austin area or move on to cities with larger gender variant populations?

Did their gender variance cross over into transgender territory? 

To see more photographic evidence of gender variant people prior to my arrival on the planet is exciting to me and drives me to want to learn more about this Austin scene and the snapshots taken on this October 7, 1955 night.   It's even more exciting to note that it's in my home state, and these folks share my ethnic background..

Houston Black Community Needs To Be BETTER LGBT Allies

You and your misguided friends are hypocritically siding with the same conservative oppressors that oppose the African-American community on human rights issues of importance to us such as voting rights and workplace fairness, and it's a disgusting spectacle to witness.
--TransGriot, May 18, 2014, Houston Black Pastors, Sick Of You Denying Our Humanity 

As my readers already know, I have no problem telling it like it T-I-S is and calling out friend, foe or frenemy when it's warranted. 

Since I unleashed a  post taking the Houston LGBT community to task for its failure to work intersectionally, it's time to also call out the ways in which the Houston African-American community has also failed to do the same with the local LGBT community instead of pointing fingers and smugly thinking their feces is malodorous.

There is a perception in elements of the white LGBT community that Black people are 'uniquely homophobic'.  Yeah, I know it's bull feces and we in Black LGBT world are constantly doing battle with that meme when it comes up in conversation with our white GLBT brothers and sisters.

But that perception is cosigned when you have loud and wrong ministers like Max Miller and company and others nationally in the community like Bishop Eddie Long twisting Scriptures trying to mask their homophobia and participating in anti-gay rallies. 

It's also an infuriating head scratcher to us in LGBT World that elements of the African-American community would partner with the same white Texas GOP conservatives like Jared Woodfill who have oppressed and hated on our community for decades in order to scuttle a mutually beneficial Houston Equal Rights Ordinance..

Dave Welch, another one of those white conservative haters, is the executive director of the far-right Houston Area Pastors Council and one of our community's long time enemies.  He was the founding Executive Director of the Christian Coalition of Washington, the National Field Director of Christian Coalition, the Executive Director of Vision America and chickened out of a debate with Cristan Williams, after she handed him his bigoted behind on FOX 26 back in 2010.  

He's also the local affiliate for NOM, who has been since 2009 engaged in a cynical campaign to drive a wedge between the African-American and BTLG communities.

“The strategic goal of this project is to drive a wedge between gays and blacks—two key Democratic constituencies. Find, equip, energize and connect African American spokespeople for marriage, develop a media campaign around their objections to gay marriage as a civil right; provoke the gay marriage base into responding by denouncing these spokesmen and women as bigots…”

***

“These documents expose NOM for what it really is—a hate group determined to use African American faith leaders as pawns to push their damaging agenda and as mouthpieces to amplify that hatred,” said  Sharon Lettman-Hicks, National Black Justice Coalition Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer at the time.

Max Miller and the Baptist Ministers Association of Houston and Vicinity are making King Hater Dave Welch smile.   He gets to sit back, plug y'all into that NOM game plan and let Max Miller and the rest of you be the useful spokesfools in the divide and conquer game they're running as he and his white conservatives laugh and use y'all as human shields to hide behind and claim they have a 'diverse coalition' to oppose the HERO.  

Meanwhile you're pissing us SGL peeps off by being in bed with one of our major longtime enemies, and you wonder why the Houston LGBT community coolly sits on the sidelines and their wallets for issues you deem important. 

Speaking of crap, me and my fellow Houston trans people are more than upset about being demonized in this anti-HERO campaign and y'all falling for the bathroom predator okey-doke.

We are facing 26% unemployment, have transpeople openly being denied jobs or having them rescinded when their trans status is revealed, fired for BS reasons, have recently had five transwomen across the nation killed in a six week period, and you wanna trip about where we poop and piss?   

The Izza Lopez case and what happened to Tyjanae Moore and other Black trans and SGL women is why gender identity was added to the 15 protected classes of the HERO.  

And FYI, HISD has has a non-discrimination policy that includes gender identity since 2011 with none of the parade of horribles Max and Dave have been peddling.    As a matter of fact, there have been no cases of trans predators attacking cis women in bathrooms, but we sure do have examples, including here in Houston on the University of Houston-Downtown campus, of trans women being attacked and harassed by cis women  in the bathroom.   The UHD attack led to the passage of a policy that created designated gender neutral bathrooms in UHD buildings.

FYI, contrary to the 'gay affluence' fiction, while some peeps in the community are doing well, there are others who have been priced out of Montrose.   There are others for who living in the gayborhood will be a never fulfilled pipe dream because they are trying to get by on below poverty level wages of $10,000 a year.   Many of the folks who are trying to live on that $10K  a year share your ethnic heritage.


As I've pointed out more than a few times on this blog, Black LGBT issues are also Black community issues.  None of us gave up our Black cards because we began to live our SGL truth or transitioned.   Like myself, many of us also have deep roots in the Houston African-American community and are just as proud of our Black heritage as we are of being unapologetically LGBT people.

So stop trying to pretend like we aren't Black because we are also part of the TBLG community, because our haters, elements of our white LGBT counterparts and the world sure don't let us forget we're Black. 

Some of us are dues paying members of the NAACP, the Divine Nine  frats and sororities, faithful tithing members of various churches, and support other organizations in this community.  It is disingenuous and angering to us when you try to play that game of SGL, bi and trans peeps not being "Black enough' for this community when what ails the Black community also ails us, and we have an extra layer of oppression heaped upon our Black bodies because of our BTLG status.

And we in LGBT world are not liking the cricket chirping silence or flip-flopping of legislators our endorsements, votes and dollars support.  

Neither do we appreciate Black community orgs when we need you to come out of the closet and be fierce advocates for our policy concerns being silent or being consistently inconsistent about your LGBT community support.  .   

So yes, it's past time for the Houston Black community to be BETTER allies to the LGBT community

Houston LGBT Community Needs To Be BETTER Black Community Allies

''Failure to engage my community means failure to win at the ballot box.' 
-TransGriot., March 23, 2009  Black People More Homophobic, You're Kidding, Right?


As many of you are aware, I spent an hour on Houston Media Source TV last night discussing the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance with show hosts Fran Watson and Durrell Douglas .

At least the first 30 minutes with Christina Gorczynski, Daniel Williams, and Noel Freeman were enjoyable.   The next thirty was a battle with King Hater Dave Welch and HERO opponent Kathy Blueford-Daniels, who shares my ethnic heritage.   

When it was over, he ran like Usain Bolt out of that studio because after the tag team demolition of him by me and Christina and the daggers I stared into him, he didn't want to hang around to see what was coming next from me.  I probably made it clear from the side eye I gave him off air that I have zero respect for him because he is a human rights oppressor.        

But Kathy and Christina struck up a conversation which I joined because she and the other woman there with her wanted to know more about the trans community.    

After I gave her some Trans 101, the four of us as women of color moved on to some other issues of discussion.   Kathy didn't like my calling the anti-HERO folks haters, and  my response to that was if you are in a coalition with people who want to roll back my human rights, you're a hater.   If you lie down with right wing dogs, don't get mad when their fleas bite you and I call you on it.

Kathy explained the reason she is part of the anti-HERO coalition is because she is part of the section of the African-American community that gets bent out of shape with any mention by white LGBT peeps that LGBT rights are a civil rights issue.  In her mind and the minds of a segment of our community, when you say that, you are conflating the African-American civil rights movement with the LGBT one.  

No matter how many historical examples I gave her that Black LGBT peeps like Lorraine Hansberry, Bayard Rustin, and James Baldwin were indeed part of the Civil Rights movement and as fellow African Americans I and other Black LGBT people can make that claim because it is part of our shared heritage, she wouldn't budge from that ossified in her mind perception.   


And she was very pissed off when Mayor Parker stated the HERO was a civil rights ordinance.  It most certainly is.  But in her mind and the mind of like minded African-American Houstonians they had a major problem with her saying it.

Kathy is active in many issues in the Houston African-American community and is a super neighborhood leader.  One thing she asked me was where was the Houston LGBT community when it came to fighting for issues besides marriage and their own human rights ones?

Hey, she's not the only person who has asked me that question.  So have other leaders in the African-American community.   I've asked the same question myself about the.repeated failures in the TBLG ranks to spell the word intersectionality..

She remembered me after I told her I have been involved in fighting against the closure of Black schools in HISD for two years now.  I spoke to the HISD school board in 2013 and back in March about those issues in addition to speaking in favor of the TBLG friendly HISD non discrimination policy.    I was also front and center last July speaking at a Trayvon Martin protest rally at City Hall.  

That's what I have done, mainly because I have consistently preached that Black trans issues are Black community issues and vice versa.  Dee Dee Watters' has an annual toy drive she holds every Christmas as her way of giving back to the Houston Black community.  Other Black LGBT people do their part to give back to our community in myriad ways.   . 

But Kathy's question is a valid one.  When has the Houston TBLG community stood up and played a visible, vocal or fiscally supportive role when it comes to the issue concerns of other ethnic groups here in Houston?    Where is the Houston LGBT community when it comes to other issue concerns besides marriage and other LGBT oriented ones? 

African-American Houstonians ask where was the Houston GLBT Caucus voice when we were complaining about and fighting those HISD school closures?  The Houston Latin@ and Asian communities ask where are you when it comes to immigration issues that don't involve bi-national same sex married couples or other issues specific to their community? 

And all of us non white H-town peeps ask, where were you LGBT community when our voting rights were being attacked by the Texas GOP?

As Kathy stated to me, if that intersectional cooperation had been happening in H-town prior to May 28, we would have had additional support from the Black community for HERO, and Dave Welch and his hater collective's attempts to collect signatures would have been a non-starter.


But these HERO opponents see a predominately monoracial Houston GLBT community leadership.  They don't see people who look like them highlighted as leaders in it and one glaring example of that is Houston Pride.   There has to my knowledge NEVER been in the history of the Houston pride parade an African-American male or female grand marshal.  Don't think that hasn't been noticed by our straight and SGL African-American brothers and sisters.

There also the myth that wealthy white gays are trying to 'piggyback on OUR civil rights movement' that Welch, Miller and their cadre of his hate ministers are gleefully exploiting.   The perception the Houston LGBT community is selfish and pushed this ordinance when we have pressing needs of fixing potholes and streets is another factor fueling elements of the anti-HERO opposition. 

And yeah, let's be real, a major chunk of this is homophobia and transphobia.  

Many of these POC peeps are quite aware that Dave Welch and his pastors are Teapublican  homophobes and are being played as 'useful fools', but don't care as long as they can stick it to the LGBT community.

Even if it takes down a HERO ordinance that benefits them.

So what can we do to change this perception?

Short term, use the term 'human rights' or 'international human rights' Councilmember C.O Bradford did to describe the HERO and make it clear this ordinance protects 13 other characteristics besides sexual orientation and gender identity. 

Other things on the to-do list will have to be long term ones like highlighting and elevating BTLG leaders of color in our Houston LGBT leadership ranks.  Being a supportive ally and showing up when there are issue concerns for other Houston ethnic and constituent groups.  

But what needs to happen starting today is the Houston LGBT community needs to get busy doing a better job of working intersectionally with all communities, especially the African-American one.   
      

New H-town Area Code Launched

When I was growing up, the area code synonymous with the city of Houston and Southeast Texas since 1947 was 713.  Ironically when the Los Angeles class attack sub the USS Houston was launched in 1975, it carried the hull number 713.   .   

But with the proliferation of fax machines, pagers, dedicated phone lines for home computers and cell phones in the rapidly growing Houston metro area threatening to exhaust the supply of phone numbers available, it just became a Houston area code in March 19, 1983 when the rest of Southeast Texas was assigned the 409 one. .  

That bought time until November 2, 1996, when the Houston area suburbs outside Beltway 8 were assigned the 281 area code and they thought the exhausting the phone numbers problem was solved for a while .  

Key words in that last sentence are 'they thought the problem was solved'. 

Continued rapid growth in the Houston area and proliferation of cell and smartphones meant that on January 16, 1999, another area code had to be created by the Texas Public Utility Commission. 

On that date the 832 overlay area code was created and the boundary between the 713 and 281 codes was erased.   Mandatory ten digit calling was instituted in the Houston area on that date as well. 

Now that we Houstonians were about to once again run out of numbers by September, on July 1 another overlay area code, 346 has been instituted.

With about 5 million people and counting in the Houston metro area, we'll see how long it takes before we pick up another area code. 
 

Thank Y'all For The HERO Love

It's been a little more than 24 hours since the historic vote happened on the HERO, and I do thank everyone from around the world for the congratulations, well wishes and love you have sent my way concerning this historic human rights win for my hometown.

Y'all know as a proud Houstonian I have been gleefully celebrating the fact that my hometown is now listed in the over 180 jurisdictions, 17 states plus Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia which protect the human rights of all their citizens

While I appreciate the love, the media shout outs, and the thanks from all of you inside and outside Beltway 8 for standing up for all Houstonians human rights against the faith based haters, the fact remains I was just one of many Houstonians working together as part of a multicultural Team HERO to get it passed.  

This HERO passage was a personal dream of mine I have pondered ever since I took that first plane ride to Washington DC nearly 16 years ago to participate in my first GenderPac Lobby Day.   My activism is also based on the deceptively simple principle of leaving all the communities I intersect and interact with better than when I initially encountered them. 

Fighting for passage of the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance was also the right and morally correct thing to do.  Once that long awaited opportunity presented itself, I was going all out to make it a reality, even if that meant starting to appear in front of City Council to urge passage of a comprehensive human rights ordinance back in January before it was even introduced.  


Discrimination's time in H-town has expired and I want to keep it that way.   As of May 28, 2014 we have a non-discrimination ordinance that protects the human rights of all Houstonians, and I'm exceedingly proud to say I played a role in making it happen.  

How much I'll leave to future historians to judge, but I will be able to proudly tell my nieces and my H-town trans brothers and transsisters I put my butt on the line and fought hard for them to have their human rights covered in their hometown. 

So thank y'all for the HERO love. 

The struggle for Houston human rights continues.

Happy Mother's Day 2014

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms, grandmoms, great-grandmoms and mother figures who read TransGriot

Hope you are being spoiled rotten and are having a wonderful day.

As Robin Bonner pointed out in one of the Facebook groups I'm on, a mother is more than a vagina and eggs. A real mom is a teacher, an advisor, a confidant, mentor, a listener and a doer, she is the person your children want to emulate. She is a woman of character, grace and love.

Yes she is, and then some.

If you are fortunate enough to have your mother around, give her a call and wish her a Happy Mother's Day!   If because of your trans status you don't or yours has rejected you, then call the person who acts as a mother figure in your life and give that person some love on this day. 

Happy Mother's Day people!

Happy Easter 2014

Happy Easter TransGriot Readers!

As a Christian, I believe this holiest of days in my faith is for us to remember that Jesus Christ stood up to the Roman Empire, was crucified for it on the cross on Good Friday, died and arose and ascended to Heaven for all our sins..

Jesus' victory over death and resurrection not only was payment for our sins, but also proclaimed death does not have the final victory and eternal life awaits those of us who are believers.

That view was also reflected in the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s 1957 Easter sermon entitled  “Questions that Easter Answers”    In that sermon, Dr. King points out that the message of hope we hear on Easter Sunday is also connected to the necessity to take steps to live a life of love with a commitment to justice.   

I'll take that message a step further.  It  is symbolic for us in our own lives in terms of we must overcome the crosses we bear in our lives here on Earth and defeat those obstacles.in our path that lie in the way of us becoming better human beings.   

Love is the most powerful force in the universe as Dr. King reminds us.   And no more does that message resonate than on this day.

Happy Easter everyone.