Why The Lack Of TransGriot Posts? - Life

If you regular readers have noticed, I haven't been posting much on TransGriot lately for a good reason.  Life got in the way for the last two months

I had to find a new place to live at the end of May, and I hate moving to the point where the thought of it literally depresses and overwhelms me.  But knowing I had to handle my moving business combined with Dee Dee Watters gently nudging this Taurus into action got me out of it and on task.

I spent much of the month of June searching for a new place.  I finally found one with the help of an apartment locator I liked, signed the lease and moved on July 6. 

While searching for that new Casa Moni, it necessitated me moving around a lot during the month of June while engaged in that apartment search.  I was trying to find a place that fit my budget and my move parameters of being near public transportation and not near a known Houston flood zone.

The luxury apartments have been springing up like weeds over the last few years all over the Houston area and especially inside Loop 610 were not on my list at this time.

I would have rather found a spot inside the Loop, but those peeps frantically building the luxury units seem to have forgotten that many people  can't afford to spend $1000-$1500 a month or more for a one bedroom place no matter how many mind blowing amenities are crammed into these inside the Loop units in prime locations.

It's also seems to be a primal reaction that when you have instability in your housing situation, nothing else matters until you get that satisfactorily resolved, and that's the headspace I've been in since late May.

So while I was looking outside the Loop and in some cases Beltway 8 for a new place, two different Galleria area Air BnB's were my temporary homes.  I also ended up in two westside hotels when a glitch developed with the start of my electric service that kept me from moving into my new place on July 1. 

One of the moves to a hotel happened mere hours after I returned to Houston from the BTAC Leadership Institute in New Orleans.

So yep, been dealing with life throwing curveballs at me for the last month.   While I was blessed to be able to have people looking out for me and be able to stay in a Air BnB while looking for a new spot, I was well aware of other people who may not have been so fortunate, and I'm profoundly thankful for that blessing. 

And while I was in the second Air BnB, discovered a wonderful seafood place across the street from while I was staying at the one on Fountain View.

Once I finally moved into my new place in Houston's Westchase area, it was not only getting acclimated to a new neighborhood, but moving stuff from my storage space  near downtown Houston.   That is a task I'm still trying to complete as of this writing.  It was choosing an electric company, then setting up electric service.   Same for which cable service I would be watching in my new place.

I had help from many people along the way.  From the Houston community peeps who helped me move stuff out of my storage space to everyone here and around the country who bought me housewarming gifts on my registry I have put to good use.   A few even dropped some change on my PayPal to help me with moving expenses.

I thank you all for what you have done (and continue to do) to help a sister out.

Now that I have a 14 month lease on this place, I can put down some roots and go back to focusing on giving TransGriot the attention it deserves and engaging in some activist stuff.

Frankly, moving every six months as I have been doing since October 2014 was getting frustrating, and contributing to my reluctance to get involved in more community actions .   I'm also looking forward to meeting my neighbors and exploring this new neighborhood.

So if you've been wondering why I haven't been publishing on my usual daily schedule, now you know.   Life got in the way.

Happy 56th Birthday To Moi

It's my favorite day on the calendar, Cuatro de Mayo,  AKA my birthday.

56 years ago today I was born in a segregated hospital on a Friday at 10:45 PM in an H-town that was close to passing one million residents and the seventh largest city in the nation.   The Astros played their first game a mere two weeks before I was born.

Now my hometown has over 2.2 million diverse people in its population, will pass (or has passed Chicago to become the third largest city in the US and I look a lot different on the outside than I did in 1962

And the Astros finally captured that elusive World Series title last fall!

I have an amazing life with some wonderful people in it.  I have friends all over the world, get to travel on a regular basis thanks to the activism and sitting on two boards that allow me to focus on the trans folks I want to serve. 

I'm considered a trailblazing leader by my peers, a sister friend, and a role model to the trans kids growing up right now who I never want to disappoint them.

While my life is a quality one, there are areas of it that need to improve. 

But as I start my 56th revolution around the sun on this space rock, I'm seemingly at another crossroads in my life.   Question is which options do I take that will result in the desired improvement?

First thing is definitely becoming more vocal about what I need.or when I need help.  There are times when my Taurus personality lends itself to me trying to solve problems on my own, and only asking for help when the situation gets tobe too much for me to handle.

Gotta start asking for help before it gets to an emergency level.

That question won't be answered in this blog post, but in the interim, need to figure out simply what I wish to do to celebrate another year and then deal with the rest of those fork in the road questions later.

We'll see how this birthday plays out, and then the rest of the year after it 

Happy New Year 2018

Happy New Year, Trans Griot readers!   Yeah, I know it hasn't hit midnight in the Mountain and Pacific time zones yet, but since I'm chilling in Houston, it is 2018 for moi.

And yes, today is also TransGriot's blogiversary

2018 is also a political election year, so all you peeps pissed off over everything that is coming out of the GOP controlled government, on November 6 you have a chance to step to the ballot box and change it.

There's also some things I want to leave behind in 2017 and goals I want to and need to reach in 2018   While 2017 wasn't as bad as it could have been, there are things that happened that also would have made it much better.

Is a relationship in the cards for me in 2018?   That I'm not sure about. 

I'd like to do more education and panel discussions on trans issues.   I want to get bust on that needed and necessary project of eviscerating transphobia from cis Black community ranks that is negatively impacting the human rights of all Black people as the GOP tries to use it as a wedge issue.

I'd like to put those championship punditry skills to use  (I'm the Netroots Nation 2016 Pundit Cup champ) and exercise them in 2018.   I want to have more op-ed articles published this year .

And I want to do an international trans conference this year.

There are a few trans folks I haven't met in Trans World I'd love for that to happen like Laila Ireland, Lauren Foster and Del. Danica Roem for starters.  .And yes, trans kids, you know I'll always have and will make time to listen to your concerns. 

Better self care is also on the menu in 2018.  I need to spend more time hanging out with my homies and homettes for stuff beyond just activist stuff.   Need to do more fun stuff with the peeps I care about, and maybe the upcoming debut of the Black Panther movie can be the jumping off point for it.

We'll see if all of that happens for me as this year unfolds. . 

I Told Y'all Ferengi = Republican

If you are so desperate to claim a Star Trek character,  if anything, the Ferengi are the peeps you Republicans are most like in the Star Trek universe.
-TransGriot  March 1, 2015

Back in 2015 I wrote a post shredding an Oregon Republican who dared to try to make the laughable claim on my watch that the late Leonard Nimoy was a Republican and so was Spock.

That claim didn't take me long to eviscerate. 

There is however at least one group in the Star Trek universe who perfectly mirrors the Republican Party and the conservative movement:  The Ferengi.   That's even more pronounced since 45 occupied the White House became Grand Nagus.

Think I'm kidding or off base with the comparison?   Let me count the ways and the multiple examples in the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition in which the Ferengi are just like the Republican Party.

Like the Ferengi, the GOP wants their women barefoot, naked, birthing babies and having no rights .
The both love 'greed is good capitalism with no rules and will do anything in the pursuit of profit  including screw their own family members.

Even many of the 285 Rules of Acquisition sound like they were  plucked straight from the Republican party platform   

Rule 34: War is good for business.
Rule 35: Peace is good for business   
Rule 63:  Power without profit is like a ship without an engine.
Rule 106:  There is no honor in poverty 
Rule 125:  A lie isn't a lie until; someone knows the truth
Rule 126:  A lie isn't a lie, it's the truth seen from a different perspective
Rule 128:  Ferengi are not responsible for the stupidity of other races
Rule 188:  Never bet on a race you haven't fixed

So yeah, when it comes to the Star Trek universe, the Ferengi are the GOP's doppelgangers.

Mixed Houston Harvey Emotions

Today is Houston's 181st birthday, and I woke up to a sight I haven't seen in several days in terms of a sunrise and no angry rain swollen cloudy skies.  

Harvey is now rolling through Louisiana dropping rain as the waters recede here and we can try to get life back to H-town normal.  

While I woke up this morning with a roof over my head in my bed, I'm deeply cognizant of the fact that I was indeed blessed and fortunate to be in the sections of Houston that didn't flood this time.

There are other Houstonians who woke up this morning in the George R Brown Convention Center, the Toyota Center, NRG Arena and other shelters scatted across the 650 square miles of Texas territory we call home.   I have friends that range from escaped any serious damage to their homes and apartment domiciles to losing everything they owned in rising floodwaters.

And so far 16 people have lost their lives including HPD Sgt. Steve Perez

So yes, this morning as the sun peeked through my windows for the first time in nearly a week, I'm pondering all that as the waters recede from this historical level flooding from Tropical Storm Harvey how lucky I was, and thinking about all the folks who weren't.  

Waiting For Hurricane Harvey

I moved back to the Houston area in May 2010  nearly two years after Hurricane Ike wreaked havoc on the upper Texas coast and its Category 1 self knocked power out for me in Louisville.

Dealing with hurricanes and tropical storms is just the cost we pay for being 30 minutes from the beach   So we were overdue on the Texas Gulf Coast to experience a landfall for a major hurricane, and traditionally if we are going to get whacked with one, it tends to be in August or September.

So while Hurricane Harvey is heading its as of this writing Category 3 self toward the Corpus Christi area after nearly breaking up in the Caribbean, crossing over the Yucatan Peninsula and then reforming in the warm waters of the Bay of Campeche, we still expect along with our local meteorologists to get hit with some of the rain bands from it in the Houston area and get tropical storm level winds in the area.

There are predictions we might get hit with up to 25 inches of rain.  That's a lot of water in a short period of time, and Houston's drainage system is tied to multiple bayou that run towards Galveston Bay.   The same Galveston Bay that will be experiencing Harvey's storm surge plus be whacked by trying to deal with that onslaught of heavy rain.  .

Can you say 'serious floods' TransGriot readers?    Thought you could.  

Oh well, at least it won't be sauna room level hot for the next few days.  The HISD school kids get an extra summer vacation day out of the deal since school was supposed to start Monday.

The approach of Harvey has triggered a run on local stores to get hurricane supplies, food, bottled water, batteries and gas for their vehicles.  
It also has people who own them checking their generators to ensure they work and charging their phones, laptops and portable charging devices just in case we lose electrical power.

In the meantime we do what we always do when there's a hurricane bearing down on us.   Make sure we've done our hurricane prep, are prepared to evacuate if needed, and just wait for Harvey to make landfall and get out of the area.

And nope, don't have any alcohol.  I used that up celebrating the demise of SB 3.

If I Were An Unapologetic Cis Black Girl

I wrote an It's A Wonderful Life themed post back in 2007 that pondered the 'what if' question of what my life would be like if I were a cis Black woman.  

Granted that came about during a time when I living in Da Ville, and was depressed during the Christmas holidays, but Raquel Willis asking the question on her Facebook page has me doing some hard solid thinking about the issue once again.  

So what would my life been like had I showed up in 1962 as a cis Black girl?  Probably not as exciting as the one I have now, but would probably have a much fatter bank account.

My elementary junior high, high school and college experiences definitely would have been different.  Instead of playing Little League baseball as I did in junior high I probably would have been in the stands watching my brother play or being his team's official scorekeeper.

Hey, this was the 70's I grew up in.   Title IX hadn't fully kicked in yet.  And I'd probably still be a huge Houston Texans fan.

The most obvious change would be this blog probably wouldn't exist or if it did, it would have a different focus.  I definitely see me being a writer as part of my cis feminine life in this deep thought exercise.

I also would probably be trading my five White House trips during the Obama administration and trips to various TBLGQ conferences over the last 20 years for National Association of Black Journalists and sorority ones.

Which sorority you ask?   My mom and sister wear salmon pink and apple green.

Cis feminine Moni probably wouldn't be as well versed on trans issues and history as I am now, but my social justice leanings would ensure that I was an ally to the trans community and drive me to learn more about it.

But I go from having the phone numbers of various well known trans folks programmed in my phone to basically having to fangirl about them and not knowing personally many of the international trans folks I've gotten to know.

Speaking of history, that love of history probably would be is part of my cis feminine life.  Because my mom, godmother and great grandmother were teachers, and my godmother taught at the collegiate level, there the possibility that cis feminine Moni would try to follow in their footsteps as my godmother would have been trying steer me toward being a Sigma Gamma Rho.

I'd probably would have already attempted to run for office, either for city council or the state legislature, or been counting the days to retirement from the airline biz at IAH as I travel the planet on my passes.

Do I see myself with kids?   Not sure.  One of the things that has eluded me in my life is a long term relationship, but some of that lack of success in love is probably attributable to dealing with the trans issue. With me not being trans, maybe the issues that derailed a lot of my pre transition relationships go in a more positive direction.

But that's also assuming that I have the ability to have kids.

So what are the other life challenges I would face had I been born as unapologetic Black cis girl?

My parental relationship would have changed with my dad being his first born daughter.  My womanhood would still be demonized, my intelligence discounted, I'd still be facing the prospect of sexual assault or violence aimed at me, and because I'm 6' 2", I'd still have transmisogyny or 'that's a man' shade flung at me. I'd still be pulled over by the police for driving while Black.
 .
So naah, I think I'll take the life I have now.   It's a lot more challenging, but it's also a lot more fun at times as well..

It's Moni's 55th Birthday!

Well, I've made it through another 366 days on this space rock and get to celebrate another birthday. Yay me!

A lot has happened in my time on the planet.   Mere months after I was born the Cuban Missile Crisis happened.  The Civil Rights Movement.  The assassinations of JFK, Malcolm X, the Rev. Dr Martin Luther King, Jr and RFK.  Watergate. and my hometown growing to become the third largest city in the country.  

And oh yeah, something else happened in 1994 besides the OJ trial and the Houston Rockets winning the first of their back to back NBA titles.

So what's in store for me on this milestone birthday?   Don't know yet.  One of my birthday presents was last week's BTAC conference in Dallas.  Another friend gave me a DVD copy of the movie Hidden Figures that I never got to see in the theaters and heard me lamenting it.

Now that the cold front has blown through town at least we'll have chamber of commerce weather for my born day.

As to what transpires on it to be recorded for the history books, we'll find out in a few hours.  

Leaders Need Love, Too

'If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.'
-John Quincy Adams  

I've been in trans activism and holding a leadership role in some capacity in it for 24 years now.   While there are times I enjoy it, there are other times it can be a pain in the rear end in terms of executing the responsibilities that come with that leadership mantle.

While it is fun and exciting at times to be networking at various conferences, dinners, board meetings, participating in panel discussions and lobby days, and meeting, spending quality time with and getting to know some of the amazing activists, allies and leaders inside and outside our community, some of the things that aren't fun are the travel.

Getting up before the sun rises to catch flights to and from home especially for those of us who don't live on the coasts involves a multi hour plane ride with multiple connecting flights at times. While that's great for my frequent flyer miles, your body is saying 'what the heck are you doing to me?'  

It's also interesting when you are traveling from Houston in the winter or early spring to a cold weather locale and experience a 50 degree temperature drop in mere hours and you're trying not to catch a cold because of that wild temperature swing.

Sometimes getting jacked up by TSA security isn't fun, and in some cases neither is doing that travel solo.  There are moments during those plane rides that you have time to do some hard solid thinking about whatever issues that are cropping up in your life at that time.

And if I hear the phrase 'holding someone accountable' one more time I'm gonna scream.

There's also the keyboard activists that you rarely see doing any action, at a lobby day, or working intersectionality with other groups but have the nerve to criticize you and claim 'you don't represent them' or are spitting the word 'elitist' at you for whatever reason.

I know that's part of the territory, but it's still an irritant, and we need love, too.

Being a leader ain't easy. but when you help pass good legislation and kill bad bills, make someone's day simply by talking to them, motivate people to stand up for their human rights because they are following your example, and have your classmates, community members  and former coworkers tell you they are proud of you for what you do, the rewards so outweigh whatever criticism I receive from nattering nabobs of internet negativism.

It's also where the self care aspect comes in.  Having a group of people around me that you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that love you, tell you the unvarnished truth and have your back is vital. They'll give you that hug when you need it and a motivational kick in the azz when it's required

It's also nice to talk to people who do the work and discuss stuff beyond what's happening in the movement and just catching up with their lives. There are also those phone calls in which we get to vent with each other about the crap we're seeing.

Those peeps who love and care about you will not allow you to get 'big head syndrome' either and keep you focused on why you do the work in the first place.  .

In a world that is hostile to trans people and especially trans people of color, it's vital to have people in your life who unconditionally love you.

They help make you not only a better leader, but a better human being as well.

Building Sustained Texas Black Trans Representation Is Needed and Necessary

In addition to some blogger y'all know making a little speech, engaging with our elected officials and their staffers under the Pink Dome yesterday, and talking to the various people in different organizations, one of the cool things about a lobby day is also having the opportunity to have those one on one conversations with attendees and the general public.

There are also those unexpected moments that happen that tug at your heart.

I have said and been cognizant of ever since I started taking these lobby day trips to Austin in 1999 that it wasn't about me, it was about the next generation of kids who were behind me and making it better for them.

It it happened that my work to pass laws and policies that expanded trans human rights benefitted me in the short term, that was all good as well

In this one snapshot taken in the rotunda of our Texas state capitol building, there are three generations of Black trans women here.  I made my first lobby day trip before all of them were born, but we're here together on this March 20, 2017 day repping our community.

Every time I look at that picture, it not only makes me cry happy tears, but also puts a smile on my face.   To them, I am a respected trans elder who not only is passing down their history to them, I'm also role modeling what it will be possibly like to be a fab Black trans women when they hit my age.

I get to see these amazing Black trans women in their teens, twenties and thirties, and it reminds me of why I have been fighting since 1998 for visible Black trans representation in our movement, in the media and other spaces.

Because it matters.

It matters to Texas Black trans kids like Zuri and their parents.  It matters to Mia and Jessica to see their fourth generation Texas trans elder confidently speaking to over 1000 people with cameras trained on her firing up a diverse crowd before they went to their various meeting with state legislators under the Pink Dome.

It matters that our Black community knows that #BlackTransPeopleExist, we are concerned Texans who are expressing ourselves to our legislators about the issues that matter to us, and we thought it was so important to do so we took a day out of our lives to make it happen

It matters for me to be hugged by Mia  and Jessica, and having a two hour intergenerational conversation on the bus ride back to Houston about the issues we deal with as Black trans women and our hopes, fears, insecurities and aspirations for the future,

It also was heartening to know that these young women also shared my concerns about the media images of Black trans women and were determined to role model being quality Black women who just happen to be transgender.

It mattered to be called Aunt Monica by Zuri.  While it brought on a momentary twinge of sadness with the thought crossing my mind that I don't have biological kids of my on and at this stage of my life, it's probably not gonna happen for me, the trans kids are basically my kids as well.

But Zuri's presence also reminded me that this Texas trans human rights fight is about ensuring that she has a Texas and a country she can grow up in that will allow her to become the amazing Black woman she is well on her way to becoming.

Would I love to see more Black trans representation when we have these lobby days in the 2019 session?   Absolutely.  

That's one of the goals we need to make happen, and it become even more important in light of the fact some of the members of the Texas House and Senate share our ethnic heritage and history as Black Texans.

There are some arguments I can make while lobbying in a Black legislator's office that frankly, a white trans person can't.  It's one of the many reasons why we need to start being hired and paid as lobbyists or to do work in equality orgs that profess to work for the entire community but are still overwhelmingly white in their employment and staffing rolls.

It's either do so or don't get mad and whine 'Why are you separating from us?" when we form our own organizations to do the work you refuse to do or hire us for.   That's why BTWI, BTMI and Black Trans Advocacy exist in the Lone Star State right now.

And our right wing opposition has no problem hiring Black sellouts to deploy and use against you

And speaking of that sustained Texas Black trans representation, much of the heavy lifting and elbow grease required to make it happen also is on us Black trans Texans.   If you want orgs that rep you, you have to support them not only with your sweat equity but with your dollars so they can do the work you say you want and need to have happen.  

Do I hope to see in my lifetime Black trans women standing in the Texas House or Senate as elected representatives, judges or accomplishing whatever their heart desires and their skills take them?.

Do I hope to one day see an end to cadres of Black ministers selling out our community and preaching anti-trans hate from their pulpits as white fundamentalists and conservative Republicans smile?

Do I hope to have my Black community say in one loud voice that Black Trans Lives matter and I see an end to the obscene levels of anti-trans violence aimed at us?

I sure do.

It's why building Texas Black trans representation is needed, necessary and needs to expeditiously happen.\

20 Years To The 'F' On My License

One of the necessary tasks that we embark on during a gender transition is changing our identity documents to make them match the person we are.    It is a costly and time consuming process to get the name, gender markers and other identity documents changed, and how fast it happens depends in large part on how much money you have in your wallet or purse to do so.

When I started my transition in 1994, money wasn't a problem.   I was an airline employee making a nice living, so it was just a matter of getting the process started and if I incurred fees for doing so, reaching into my purse, pulling out my wallet and pulling out the cash to cover it.

But I also didn't think at the time I started the process it would take me nearly 20 years and living in two states to complete it.

I started with getting my Social Security card changed in 1998 since it is pretty much next to your drivers license a de facto national ID card. While the Social Security Administration won't change the SSN number for numerous reasons, they will change the gender marker and name on it.  

Since Clinton was president when I did so, it was a no drama situation.   During GW Bush's presidency, a problem arose with the SSA starting in 2002 to send 'No Match' letters that had the effect of outing trans people to their employers.

My next task was my Texas voter registration card.   I was determined to be voting in the upcoming 2000 presidential election as Moni, and I successfully completed that in October 2000 just a month before that election.  .Little did I know at the time that less than three months after I got that voter registration changed that I would be bounced from that airline job I'd been at for 14 years and was planning to retire from.

It was a seismic change to my life and my finances, and I now had to adjust to making half of the $40K a year I was making.   While I was upset about it at the time, the September 2001 move to Louisville produced an unexpected blessing that happened two weeks after I moved there.

In Kentucky the name change process in Jefferson County where I now lived was a simple, one page administrative form in which I filled out the info, swore it was accurate and true, and when I was done signed it and paid my then $10 fee.  It was then mailed to me a few days later stamped and signed by the court.

However, while my name now was officially Monica, the only way the gender marker was getting changed under Kentucky law at the time was if I had a 'gender altering surgery'.  Because of my loss of the airline job and using the money I'd saved for surgery to pay bills in the six months I was unemployed in Texas prior to the move to Kentucky, SRS had now become a back burner luxury item

I knew I was going to need to change my birth certificate and file the name change I'd received in Kentucky back in Texas, but that also got put on the back burner as I spent time getting adjusted to my life in Da Ville and dealing with far less discretionary income in my bank account.

I moved back to Houston in May 2010 to help take care of my grandmother, but that still meant that my income was limited to deal with the paperwork issue.  I still had my Kentucky drivers license in my possession that wasn't expiring until June 2013 with correct name but wrong gender marker, but my Texas voter registration was correct.  

But two events in June 2013 would galvanize me to get serious about completing my documentation and infuse it with a sense of urgency.   The unjust ruling in the Shelby vs Holder SCOTUS case gutting Section 4 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act meant that the unjust Texas voter suppression law could be enforced, and if I wanted to vote in the upcoming November Houston city elections, I now needed a Texas drivers license.  

We also had a family reunion coming up in Denver in June, when my Kentucky license was scheduled to expire.  That process to simply renew my license in the time I'd been away from Texas had been made more difficult by our Texas GOP majority and it took me nine months to get my Texas drivers license.   I also spent a very nervous trip every time it was my turn to get behind the wheel on our 1700 mile drive to that reunion that took us across Texas through Dallas, Oklahoma, Kansas and eastern Colorado to get to Denver and back

The urgency to have the Texas driver's license in my possession before the November Houston mayoral election did force me to get moving on filing my Kentucky name change in Austin.  I ended up as a result of that nine month Lone Star bureaucracy battle with a new Texas birth certificate and a TDL with correct name but incorrect gender markers.

But it was a driver's license I didn't receive until two months after the election in January 2014, which meant I was voter suppressed out of it..

Fast forward to the 2016 election, the next event that ratcheted up my concern for finishing the process I'd started in 1998.  Because I'm a frequent flier, I was also getting tired of showing my mismatched ID at TSA security and other locations and getting jacked up at times because of it.

But as a native Texan, I was going to need to go to court to change that gender marker, and in Harris County, many of our judges are Republicans who routinely deny name changes to trans people.   Thanks to the blue wave that swept many of those regressive Harris County GOP judges out of office and replaced them with diverse Democratic judges, I hope that reprehensible pattern changes.  

But it still costs money to make that name and gender marker process happen, and here's where another unexpected blessing happened that got me closer to completing that process.

The Trans National Alliance held a New Year's Eve Great Gatsby themed fundraiser party at Nikki Araguz Loyd's home in which the TNA was raising money to do name changes for trans people who are on limited incomes.

They raised enough money at that fundraiser to fund two name changes, and I was shocked and surprised to find out moments after we counted down the start of 2017 that I would be one of the people receiving that name change assistance along with Dee Dee Watters.


Two weeks ago Nikki, Dee Dee and I rolled to Austin.  We made happen in the span of five hours getting Dee Dee's name and gender marker change process started, getting me fingerprinted at a nearby Passport Express location from the courthouse, the court order for the gender marker change, getting the request for my new corrected birth certificate submitted, and taking the photo for my new Texas drivers license with the only 'F' I've ever wanted at an Austin DPS office.

And before heading back to Houston, we celebrated the accomplishment while waiting for ATX rush hour traffic to die down with dinner.

Transgender National Alliance is having a dinner and drag bingo fundraiser on March 14 at Hamburger Mary's, so check it out, reserve a table and help TNA raise some money to make happen for other trans people with their identity documents what happened for me and Dee Dee.

Yesterday I received my new birth certificate and Texas driver's license in the mail.  I cried joyful tears when I pulled them out of their respective envelopes and saw my full name with the 'F' and 'female' in the gender marker box on both documents.

Have a trip coming up at the end of the month to Orlando for the LGBT Media Journalists convening, and can't wait to show my drivers license to airline employees, TSA security and hotel desk personnel without having a sense of dread or acute embarrassment happening when I reluctantly pull it out of my wallet.

Now it's just getting my passport so I can finally do some international travel and some other records, and the journey will be complete.   But the major mountain in terms of my identity documents has been climbed. .

It was a long journey to get to this point full of twists, turns, frustration and drama, but seeing and knowing that my documents finally line up with the person I know I am and the world sees me as is priceless.
.