Moni's In The Excellence In Journalism Conference House

It's been a few weeks since my last instate road trip to Dallas, and I've hit the road again for an unprecedented for me third trip to San Antonio in the same calendar year.

Unlike my birthday trip to the Alamo City back in May, this one is business. 

I'm here to attend the Excellence In Journalism Conference  that started yesterday and is being held through September 7 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in downtown San Antonio on the Riverwalk

This 2019 edition of the conference is jointly sponsored by the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA), the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ).

The Excellence In Journalism Conference was started in 2011 by the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) and the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) to provide an industry event that would provide the best training and networking opportunities. 

The NAHJ had previously been a partner for this conference in 2013, 2015 and 2017, and is now in the house again this year. 

Like the other media Conferences I have attended such as the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), NLGJA, the Unity Conference held every four years in Washington DC jointly sponsored by the NABJ and NAHJ, and the LGBT Media Journalists Convening, it's an opportunity to not only get more training to get better at what I do, but also give me an opportunity to network with other media professionals.

It also goes without saying I get an opportunity to rep the trans community at the same time in those media conference spaces.

Major thanks to NAHJ for the invitation to be here, and I'm looking forward to spending a few days in San Antonio getting my learn on and networking with the people in attendance here.
 

Hopefully since the Alamo is not far from the conference hotel, I'll finally get to do more than just drive by it before they do the renovation and redesign of the area in front of that historical landmark and site of a crucial 1836 Texas Revolution battle.

I also hope I get some time to actually check out the Riverwalk for the first time ever.   I have been coming to San Antonio since 1981.   Because many of my San Antonio trips have either been day trips or I had other business when I came here and a too tight schedule that had no room for a trip to the Riverwalk, I have yet to spend any time exploring it.

And yes, y'all already know I'm not leaving the 210 without making another tasty stop by Wayne's Wings.

Moni's Getting On The Bus To-San Antonio

I took my longest Megabus ride ever to NOLA and back to Houston last week for the just concluded NLGJA conference.   Now for the second consecutive week I get to do a bus trip on I-10.

But it won't be on Megabus this time. 

This time I'm going west to San Antonio, and even better, it will be a nonstop luxury bus trip on Vonlane for another conference.

I fell in love with the Vonlane buses on my lobbying trips to Austin, and who wouldn't love a reclining assigned leather seat, unlimited soft drinks and juices, snacks, WiFi that works and an attendant to bring them to your seat as you roll towards your destination?

This will be an unprecedented for me third trip this year to San Antonio, which is the second largest city in Texas.   This will also be the first time I've attended the Excellence in Journalism Conference, and looking forward to it. 

It's also the first time I've been to the Grand Hyatt San Antonio hotel, and looking forward to checking it out and everything the nearby Riverwalk has to offer.

Looking forward to meeting everyone at #EIJ19, and hopefully seeing some of my San Antonio trans fam while I'm in the 210 area code.

Moni Is Going To San Antonio!

Going to San Antonio for the second time this year, and this time it's for two purposes.

May 4 is election day here in the Lone Star State.  San Antonio, Dallas and other municipalities across the state will have elections on that day. 

One of the election campaigns I'm watching is a San Antonio city council race which pits Frankie Gonzales Wolfe against an incumbent council member in District 8.

If Wolfe wins, she would become the first trans Texan elected to public office in the Lone Star State, and possibly the first out trans Latina elected nationally to any office.  I definitely want to be there to witness that history should it happen.

It goes without saying that I enthusiastically endorse Frankie Gonzales Wolfe for that San Antonio city council seat

May 4 is also my birthday and I wanted to do something on my birthday this year besides chilling in my apartment.   

So that's just a few of the reasons why I'll be spending it on the San Antonio end of I-10.   I hope I'll have a lot to celebrate before that day is over.     

One Week To San Antonio Municipal Election Early Voting

We're one week away from the start of early voting for San Antonio's municipal election and the possibility of trans history being made.

No out Texas trans person has ever been elected to public office.  While trans masculine and trans feminine people have won Democratic Party primaries, we still are waiting to break through that concrete ceiling and see a trans person win elective office in the Lone Star State. 

Frankie Gonzales Wolfe is running for the District 8 city council seat in northwest San Antonio against an unpopular incumbent.   The significance of this seat is that it not only sits in one of the most diverse areas of San Antonio, it has produced its share of people who have gone to enhanced leadership roles in Texas and the city of San Antonio.

Current mayor Ron Nirenberg once represented the district.   Now Gonzales-Wolfe seeks to do so as her campaign continues to build momentum toward the May 4 election day .

She has my TransGriot endorsement, and hope that you can contribute to her historic campaign.

For those of you in the Alamo City, early voting for the civic elections starts on April 22 and runs until April 30.  May 4 is election day.   Make sure you're registered so you can participate in making your voice heard at the ballot box.

If it's Monday It's Austin, Tuesday It's San Antonio

One of the things about odd numbered years is that going into them, I know I'll be doing a lot of travel inside and outside of the state of Texas.

An odd numbered year on the calendar means that the Texas Legislature is in session, and I'll be doing a lot of scheduled and unscheduled trips to Austin to lobby or testify for and against bills.

Monday afternoon was one of those unscheduled trips, as TENT's ED Emmett Schelling invited me to come to the ATX to do battle against SB 17.

It is the unjust bill sponsored by Sen.Charles Perry (R-Lubbock) that would allow anyone with a professional license to discriminate against people based on their 'sincerely held religious beliefs' and not face repercussions for doing so.

Translation, it's the 'religious freedom' BS once again.   Perry is also the conservafool who stated that 'being Christian in America is like being Jewish in Nazi Germany.'

Yep, that was the level of conservaidiocy we were taking on Monday.

That meant for the fourth time this session I would make the 175 mile trip from Houston to Austin to handle some political business under the Pink Dome.  This was the first time this session I would get to testify for or against a bill.

In case you're wondering, my personal record for Austin trips during a session is eight, set during the 2017 session.  I 'missed a ninth trip because I was handling San Diego Comic Con business during the special session, and Senate State Affairs called for a hearing on SB 6 while I was on the Left Coast.

The joke running around in the Texas activist community about me not being there for that ninth time is that the TXGOP heard I was leaving the state for a few days and decided to call that SB 6 hearing while I was in Cali because they didn't want to see or deal with me calling their conservaazzes out

Emmett, his family, Brad Pritchett, Lou Weaver and I piled into a minivan and rolled from Houston late Sunday afternoon for the hearing that was scheduled to take place at 9 AM the next day in the Senate State Affairs Committee.

But interestingly enough, this hearing took place on the floor of the Texas Senate chamber since as you probably guessed, committee hearing rooms are hard to get this time of year.

You can watch here as I said my piece along with other Texans opposed to it about that unjust bill.   It was also nice to spend some quality time talking to peeps in the community like Ashley Smith, Claire Bow, Finn Jones, Ash Hall, Fran Watson and my high school classmate Lawrence Allen, Jr

He was with his Omega Psi Phi frat brothers for their advocacy day, and also sits on the State Board of Education.  It was also nice bumping into Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo, Rep. Ron Reynolds, Rep Shawn Thierry, and spending some quality time with my own state senator Borris Miles.

In case you're wondering, he's opposed to SB 17

The next day instead of going back to Houston, since I was riding with Emmett and had nothing important scheduled back home, I made the short drive down I-35 south with them to San Antonio.

It was actually the first time I'd done the drive to San Antonio from that direction, and noted all the home and other construction going on along I-35.

While I was in Bexar County, Emmett, Andrea and I stopped by the northwest San Antonio campaign office of Frankie Gonzales Wolfe, who is running for the District 8 seat on the San Antonio City Council against an unpopular incumbent.

Frankie, should she be successful in doing so on May 4, would become the first out trans person elected to public office in the Lone Star State.  She'd also become if it happens the first trans Latina elected to public office anywhere in the United States. 

Was happy to hear that her campaign is starting to pick up positive momentum in the Alamo City, but our trans sister could still use some donation dollars from y'all who pride yourselves on helping to build trans political power.

So after allowing for some time for Andrea to hang out with her mom Elsa, and grabbing a bite to eat to allow for San Antonio rush hour traffic to die down, we hit I-10 east for the journey back to Houston and to get a few days of rest before it was time for me next Monday to head back to Austin for another lobby day.

And nope, I didn't get to destroy any Slurpees in either Austin or San Antonio despite the plethora of 7 Eleven locations in both cities.

Well, maybe next time.

Frankie Gonzales-Wolfe Is Running For San Antonio City Council

Over the last two election cycles in 2017 and 2018, voters have increasingly shown their willingness to elect trans candidates to office.   Councilmembers Andrea Jenkins and Phillipe Cunningham are serving their constituents on the Minneapolis City Council, with Jenkins also serving as the council vice president.

VA Del. Danica Roem is one of four openly trans state legislators serving her constituents in her district, and was joined by Rep Brianna Titone in Colorado, and Reps Gerri Cannon and Lisa Bunker in NH in the 2018 election cycle.

Here in Texas,  we have had trans masculine and trans feminine people running for all kinds of offices, and some have even made history like Phyllis Frye, our first transgender municipal judge in Houston who was reappointed by Mayor Sylvester Turner, and Jess Herbst, who served as mayor of New Hope,TX after the death of the town's longtime mayor.

Finn Jones and Jenifer Rene Pool were the first to win Democratic Party primary races for the state legislature and Harris County commissioner, and Vanessa Edwards Foster got an impressive 17% of the vote in her 2018 Democratic congressional primary race.

But unfortunately we have had no openly trans Texan elected to public office in the Lone Star State, much less any trans Texans of color who have attempted to run for office.

Frankie Gonzales-Wolfe is attempting to change that.   She's a small business owner and political consultant who has been running various campaigns for over 20 years.

Now this proud trans Latina is taking on the challenge of running her own potentially historic race for the San Antonio City Council.

She's running for the District 8 seat in northwest San Antonio against the incumbent council member Manny Pelaez and Tony Valdivia

The 55 square miles inside the District 8 boundaries  are not only the most diverse and fastest growing area of the city of San Antonio, it is home to UTSA, UT Health San Antonio, the San Antonio Medical Center, three of the city's largest employers in Valero, USAA and NuStar, the Fiesta Texas amusement park,  the Camp Bullis military base and the Northside ISD.

It was also formerly represented by current San Antonio mayor Ron Nirenberg, and has a history of  producing people who have moved on to statewide leadership.

Gonzales-Wolfe wants more transparency and inclusion in San Antonio city government, and has a vision for District 8 that seek to deal with traffic and infrastructure issues, growth, climate change
and economic development.

She is working hard to make sure on May 4 that history is made and a Texas electoral ceiling is pushed through.

Good luck, Frankie!  Hope you make that Texas history and give me something else to celebrate on my birthday!

Moni's Getting On The Bus To- San Antonio

Didn't realize until i was asked by SAGA and TENT to come to the Alamo City for their Justice for Kenne rally tomorrow that it had been nearly five years since I last spent time in Bexar County.

The last time I was there was to speak at a TDOR back in November 2013, and got to spend some quality time not only with Lauryn Farris, but also Rev. Carmarion Anderson as well. 

Once again it's for activism, but it will be nice to see some folks while I'm there calling crap out. 

See you in a few hours San Antonio. 

Justice For Kenne McFadden Rally and March Tuesday

Kenne McFadden was murdered while we were fighting to kill the unjust SB 6 bill.   Her body was found on April 9 by a barge operator on San Antonio's famed River Walk.

Her lifeless body was found floating in the San Antonio River near East Commerce and St Mary's Streets and was the 12th murder of a trans person in 2017.   The alleged killer, 20 year old Mark Daniel Lewis was arrested for McFadden's murder while he was in the Bexar County jail for another crime and indicted by a grand jury in November on manslaughter.

Lewis pushed McFadden, who was intoxicated at the time and a non swimmer, into the San Antonio River and refused to help her as she drowned.

The Bexar County DA Nico LaHood, for some unknown reason reason decided to present this evidence during a probation hearing for Lewis in an attempt to revoke his probation for failing to register as a sex offender.

On March 8, State District Judge Joey Contreras (R) a Gov Greg Abbott appointee to the 187th Criminal District Court ruled that Lewis pushing her into the river didn't rise to the level of criminal conduct.

Unfortunately, the probation hearing became a defacto trial, and once the judge made his ruling, Lewis couldn't be tried for her murder because of double jeopardy laws.

Fortunately for us in the Lone Star State, this is an election year, so Judge Contreras and DA LaHood have to face the voters.

FYI gentlemen, trans people and our allies vote     Judge Contreras is in a GOP runoff for his seat that will take place on May 22.   LaHood has already been punished at the polls.  He went down to defeat in the March 6 Democratic primary after just one controversial term in office.. 

In addition to LaHood having a contentious relationship with the San Antonio press corps, he'd made controversial anti-Islamic comments, stating the loud and wrong claim that vaccines cause autism, and threatened to destroy an attorney's career.

The result in this botched case has incensed the San Antonio trans community, and they are organizing a Justice for Kenne rally and protest on Tuesday.   The groups involved in coordinating the protest are the Trans Education Network of Texas (TENT), the San Antonio Gender Association (SAGA) and the Pride Center San Antonio.

There will be a press conference in front of Bexar County DA Nico LaHood's office at noon Tuesday, wirth the rally and march taking place at Crockett Park starting at 6PM 

And yes, I've been asked to speak at that rally, so see you Alamo City peeps Tuesday.

SB 4 Federal Court Hearing Today

The first round of federal court hearing in the fight to kill the unjust and racist SB 4 law before it takes effect September 1 is happening in San Antonio.

The hearing on whether to grant a preliminary injunction preventing SB 4 from taking effect while the court case plays out starting at 9:30 AM with over 1000 people from Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and other parts of the state gathering to protest it.

The case will be heard over the next two days in Chief District Judge Orlando Garcia's court ( Clinton appointee), and the Department of (in) Justice has already filed a brief supporting the unjust law.

Elections matter people.

Now we have to wait and see how the legal arguments play out and what happens over the next few days in San Antonio.     

Texas Trans History- The Texas 'T' Party

In the wake of the recent death of Linda Phillips, one of the co-organizers of this event along with her wife Cynthia, been needing to talk about this event that grew to become one of the largest trans themed conferences events in the nation.

And even better, it was based here in Texas.

Back the late 80's, the trans community was tentatively beginning to come out of isolation and forming local transgender support groups that allowed crossdressers and trans people to meet each other, form friendships and go on public local outings as a group in addition to being informed about the latest developments in pre-Internet Trans World.

One of those support groups that sprang up was the San Antonio area based Boulton and Park Society that formed in 1986.

Linda and Cynthia Phillips joined it not long after its formation, and the couple soon ascended to leadership roles in the organization.  Linda became the secretary and treasurer of the Boulton and Park society, while her wife Cynthia became the Executive Director  

Linda and Cynthia also became board members of IFGE, the International Foundation For Gender Education in the 1990's along with doing the talk show circuit to talk about their marriage in which one partner is transgender and the other cisgender.

The Texas 'T' Party started in 1988 as a way for Boulton and Park Society members and other Central Texas area crossdressers to have an event that allowed them to be en femme for an entire weekend at a local San Antonio hotel.  They were only expecting 20-40 people to show up, but to their surprise the word got out and 128 people attended that inaugural event.

The second Texas 'T' Party in February 1989 had 75 people journeying to San Antonio a full day before the conference officially started on Friday, so programming was extended by a day to have events on Thursday starting in 1990.

The 'T' Party grew to include vendors, beauticians, manicurists, makeup artists, photographers, panel discussions, a talent show, programming for the spouses and a keynote speaker.  It also quickly assembled a large mailing list of attendees from across the nation and several countries.

The 'T' Party growth was so explosive that by the third annual one in February 1990 it was not only drawing over 300 regular participants, it had forged a deal with American Airlines to become their official air carrier.  As part of that relationship with American Airlines, a coupon discounting air travel to San Antonio for the event was included in the T Party event confirmation packet.

The Texas 'T' Party growing in a short time to major trans convention status was critical to the startup and success of another Texas based event that was the genesis of the political organizing and messaging of the modern trans rights movement in the International Conference of Transgender Law and Employment Policy.  (ICTLEP).

Phyllis Frye attended the 1992 'T' Party in order to help promote the inaugural August 26-30, 1992 one of what turned out to be six ICTLEP conferences in Houston with the blessing of the Phillipses, who became major supporters of the ICTLEP conference.

The explosive growth of the Texas 'T' Party led to it not only becoming a weeklong event, but outgrowing its original hotel to become arguably the largest trans themed convention in the United States.

After hosting the 1995 'T' Party at a new San Antonio hotel, it surprisingly moved up I-35 to Dallas for two years in 1996 and 1997 for its eighth and ninth annual editions before returning the T' Party back home to San Antonio for its 10th anniversary edition in 1998

But the 1990's also saw the growth of other trans themed conferences like the Southern California based California Dreaming, Fantasia Fair in Provincetown, MA and an Atlanta based one called Southern Comfort which was also rapidly growing in popularity in Trans World.

The Phillipses also being busy during the decade with television appearances, collegiate panel discussions, sitting on boards in addition to holding leadership roles within the Boulton and Park Society and being the principal organizers of the T Party led to the decision to end it with one final Texas T Party in 1999.

For eleven years the Texas 'T' Party was the destination convention for many crossdressers, trans people and their spouses who took advantage of the mild Texas winter-early spring weather to be themselves if only for a week in the Lone Star State before it ended.

Thanks to the Phillipses and the team that worked to put on the Texas 'T' Party for over a decade, it was more than just a weeklong party.  It was also an event that educated and informed our community, helped many find lifelong friends, helped many people come to the epiphany that they were definitely trans, and was a critical early informational building block in the modern trans rights movement.

And it did so with a Texas twang and that legendary Texas hospitality..
 

Number 12- Rest In Power And Peace, Kenne McFadden

Was wondering how long it was going to take before all the anti-trans hatred being spewed out of Dan Patrick's and other Texas Republican mouths trying to pass SB 6, HB 2899 and other unjust anti-trans hate legislation would result in the death of a trans Texan.

The answer to my question was April 9. when 27 year old Kenne McFadden's lifeless body was found floating in the San Antonio River near the city's famed Riverwalk and many of us were up I-35 in the ATX fighting Texas GOP legislative oppression aimed at the Texas trans community.

But because the San Antonio media misgendered Kenne at the time, we are just now finding out two months later about her murder.  

Once again news media transphobes, accurate reporting of trans murder victims matters.  And I'm sick and tired of the media misgendering repeatedly happening to Black trans women .

Kenne is the 12th trans woman we have lost to anti-trans violence in 2017, and 11 of the twelve US murder victims have been African American.   Native American Jamie Lee Wounded Arrow of South Dakota is the only (so far) non Black trans person killed.

What also continues to sadden us at Black Transwomen, Inc is that nine of the dozen souls we have lost to anti-trans hate are under age 40.

And yes Dan Patrick, Lois Kolkhorst and Texas Republican Party, her blood is on your hands.  Anti-trans hate thoughts + anti-trans hate speech = anti-trans hate assaults and murders of trans women.

And far too often those trans women who end up dead share my ethnic background.

According to a KENS-TV report, the San Antonio PD has a person of interest in the case who is already in jail on unrelated charges, and they plan to after further interviews and sorting out what happened in this case, arrest and charge this person.

I, my San Antonio trans family and trans people and our allies across the Lone Star State will be keeping an eye on this case as it develops.

Linda Phillips Celebration Of Life Service Set For October 15

I posted here about the recent death of one of our trans community pioneers in Linda Phillips, who along with her amazing spouse Cynthia ran the San Antonio area based group the Boulton and Park Society and the Texas T Party Convention.

The San Antonio based Texas T Party was the largest trans themed convention in the world from 1988 until the mid 90's.

This is the article written about her in the San Antonio Express-News.

Cynthia Phillips contacted me this morning, and wanted me to let you TransGriot readers know that the date, time and location for Linda's Celebration of Life Service has been set.

It will be held starting at 1 PM on October 15, 2016 at the Metropolitan Community Church San Antonio.  The address of the church is 611 E. Myrtle St. in San Antonio, TX.

If you are in the San Antonio area or just wish to come and pay your respects on that day to one of our trans community pioneers here in Texas and nationally, I urge you to do so.

This is the obituary for Linda Phillips.  

In lieu of flowers, donations are asked for the Bulverde Area Humane Society, P. O. Box 50, Bulverde, TX 78163 (which she helped build); or Transgender Education Network of Texas, 102 Wonder World Dr. #304-174, San Marcos, TX 78666; or The Center-Pride Center San Antonio, 1002 N. Flores St., San Antonio, TX 78212