One Week To BTAC 2019

It's T-7 days and counting until the 8th annual Black Trans Advocacy Conference takes place in Dallas April 23-28, and I can't wait.   It is shaping up to be our biggest and best ever, with the Friday awards gala already being sold out.

The best part of BTAC for me in addition to the fact that this conference centers Black trans and GNC people,  is that y'all get to come to my Texas turf and hang out for a week. 

Level UP-Elevate The Revolution is the theme for this years conference, and it will be an empowering and interesting week in Dallas for everyone in attendance.

And yes, I get to see you peeps from around the country.   I also get the pleasure of administering dominoes beatdowns at the  Family Fun Day on Saturday.and during the week in the hospitality suite. at the host hotel.

You have been warned.

But on a serious note, we are gathering in Dallas literally days after the horrific hate attack on our sibling Muhlaysia Booker, and there will be some discussion about that at our community summit along with other topics.

I am so ready for this week to be over with so I can witness what's happening at this 8th annual edition of the Black Trans Advocacy Conference..

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.

Past Time To Add Trans Texans To The James Byrd Hate Crimes Law

Back during my first Texas trans lobby day 20 years ago, one of the twin ;legislative goals for that effort was not only to pass a Texas Gender Advocacy Information network (TGAIN) sponsored bill to streamline the name change process, but to make sure we stayed in the proposed James Byrd Hate Crimes Bill.

We intrepid trans citizen lobbyists arrived in Austin to discover that we'd been cut from that bill by the Lesbian Gay Rights Lobby (LGRL) so that the sexual orientation language could survive.   It had already been sent out of committee and to the then Democratically controlled Texas House floor for a vote, and it was too late to amend the bill to add us back into it.

And yeah, I'm still pissed at Dianne Hardy Garcia for that shady legislative BS.

Karma surfaced swiftly because while the trans-free bill passed the Democratic controlled House, it ran into the headwinds of 2000 presidential politics.  It died in committee in the Republican controlled Texas senate.

We got cut out of the Byrd Hate Crimes bill again during the 2001 Texas legislative session, and unfortunately this time it passed both houses and was signed into law by Governor Rick Perry (R)

In the 2002 midterm election the Democrats lost control of the Texas House, and we Texas transfolks are still waiting to get added to the James Byrd Hate Crimes Law.

I bring that sorry legislative history up to point out why the Byrd Hate Crimes law doesn't cover trans Texans.   It's way past time that it does since we are the peeps being attacked and killed as Muhlaysia Booker's case painfully pointed out.

Rep. Garnet Coleman (D-Houston) has been trying since 2007 to get trans Texans added to the Byrd Hate Crimes Law, but with Republicans in control of all three branches of Texas government it has been a tough slog to do so. 

Nevertheless, he keeps trying, and has filed HB 1513 in this session in order to do that. 

HB 1513 is sitting in the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee chaired by Rep Nicole Collier (D-Fort Worth) and is still awaiting a hearing as of this writing. 

But the clock is ticking toward the Memorial Day end of the session.  It would be nice if HB 1513 could finally get a hearing and at least start the process of righting a wrong that was perpetrated on the Texas trans community 20 years ago.   

Forgotten Women Panel Happening April 16

I have another panel I've been asked to participate in as I pass the time before I head to Dallas for BTAC 2019. 

This one will take place on April 16 on the Lone Star College North Harris County campus, and is entitled Forgotten Women:  Sexual Assault and Violence Against Women of Color.

I'm joining three amazing women in Dee Dee Watters, Audia Jones, and Mya Carroll as we discuss this topic.  This also gives you folks who live in the Houston 'burbs a chance to see all of us in your neck of the woods.

The panel will start at 2:30 PM at the Lone Star College North Harris campus, located at 2700 WW Thorne Dr not far from Bush IAH.

Hope I see al lot of my far northside friends there for this event..   

I'm Getting An Award At The JRR Luncheon!

I've never been to the annual Johnson Rayburn Richards event that Harris County Democratic Party conducts.\  It's one of their biggest fundraisers, and one of the biggest for any of the Democratic Party organizations in the Lone Star State.

But this year I'll be attending it for the first time, and a I have pretty good reason for doing so.

I've known about it for a week now, but was asked to keep it quiet until the official announcement could be made.by the HCDP.

I'll be receiving the Barbara Jordan Breaking Barriers Award at this year's JRR luncheon!

As a native Houstonian who was a witness to the remarkable trailblazing political career of this legendary H-town Democrat, it is a high horor to receive an award named for her.

That also means I'll be writing a speech for the occasion, and so looking forward to being there on May 24 to deliver it and receive the award along with my fellow JRR Award honorees Yolanda Black Navarro and Ai-jen Poo for it.

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.

You're Mad At Mayor Turner - But Who Are You Going To Replace Him With?

Sylvester Turner succeeded Annise Parker as mayor of Houston after narrowly defeating Bill King in a December 2015 runoff.   His first term has been a contentious and rocky one because of budgetary issues and the hard revenue cap that has forced him to make unpopular cuts.

There's also the contentious fight over Prop B.   Despite his repeated warnings that the city didn't have the money to pay for it, people passed it anyway, and now that has devolved into our own local Brexit style mess pitting him in a messy public battle against the firefighters.

Homeless advocates don't like the initiatives coming from the mayor's office they contend are anti- homeless.   I'd need another post to discuss the other groups who are big mad at Mayor Turner right now and want to fire Mayor Turner in November, and some of it is personal animus with him.

The Harris County Republicans are also big mad because the Blue Tsunami swept them out of power.  They went 0-59 in the Harris County judicial races, lost control of Harris County Commissioner's Court thanks to the wins of County Judge Lina Hidalgo and Commissioner Adrian Garcia, and haven't held the Houston mayor's chair since the early 70's. 

They would love to get some political payback for their massive Harris County losses by taking the Houston mayor's chair away from him.

There are several candidates who have stepped up to run against him, but they are far from the top tier candidate that is necessary to beat an incumbent mayor.

Turner has my vote for now because none of the declared candidates are demonstrably better than him, which is my standard to fire an incumbent ,mayor.   These declared candidates are all flawed in major ways, and are actually WORSE than the guy currently in the mayor's chair.



Tony Buzbee? 

Doing fundraisers for Trump at your River Oaks mansion and donating $500K to Orange Fooluis automatically calls his judgment into question.   And he's a Republican. 
Hell naw

Kendall Baker?

Please, that faux faith based HERO hater and transphobe who got fired from his city 311 director job for sexual harassment while falsely demonizing the Houston trans community at the behest of Dave Welch during the HERO passage and repeal fight? 

Naw player, I haven't forgotten about that, and neither has the Houston trans community, and FYI dawg, we vote.

Definite Hell Naw.

Booker T?

Really People?   Did y'all not learn anything from 2016?

Not a viable candidate, and too many questions about who is pushing him to run and why.  Not gonna let 'em have the mayor's chair.

Nope, not today.

Demetria Smith?

NOT an option either. She not only hated on HERO, she told me to my face she voted against it because I quote ' she didn't want 'men in women's restrooms' and was clueless to the fact it covered 15 categories.   Also wasn't smart to say that to a nationally known trans advocate who fought like hell to pass HERO.

I was in the room when she had the meltdown at the January 2018 GLBT Caucus meeting in large part because she got mad she couldn't get more than 1 minute to speak, and then tried to spin it as 'The GLBT's wouldn't let me speak and tried to bully me'

Naw Miss Thang, you thought we forgot that you hated on HERO?   You had nerve to even step your behind in that room to ask for our endorsement after demonizing our community. 

She's a perennial candidate not ready for mayoral prime time or ANY elected office, and an . .
Unequivocal HELL NAW

Bill King?

Another GOP HERO hater who lost to Turner in 2015, couldn't run Kemah without drama, but y'all think he's Houston mayoral material?    Did I mention he's a Republican?

Hard pass

What some of you peeps big mad at Mayor Turner are failing to realize is that the Houston mayor's office is now a four year term with a term limit of eight years.   The mayor's office combines the ceremonial functions  of a mayor's office with the administrative duties of a city manager, and the mayor gets a vote in our strong mayor form of civic government on council .   

It is a powerful office, with the mayor having lots of power to dictate how stuff gets done around The Horseshoe and at City Hall.   The mayor selects the committee chairs.  He dictates the legislative agenda and how, if or when issues come up.

It's no longer a two year term.   If we pick the wrong person this November, we can't correct it until 2023. 

As part of a community taking the brunt of the anti-trans animus stirred up by the contentious passage of HERO five years ago and the 2015 HERO repeal, I'm majorly concerned that three HERO opponents are running. and we don't know Buzbee's or Booker T's public stances about it.

Based on who Buzbee has been palling around with, HERO 2.0 is probably a NO with him as well. .

You may not like Mayor Turner right now, but as far as I'm concerned, unless someone majorly qualified steps up to run by July who is demonstrably better than Turner, I'd rather have him in office for his second and final four year term running this city than these currently declared candidates. 

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!

TENT Trans Lobby Day Today

I'm chilling with my peeps in Austin after a relatively uneventful travel day.  I did have to wait two hours before I got into my hotel room.  I got here at 11 AM, and like my hotel, many of the ATX hotels are packed not only because of the legislative session, but also because SXSW is about to kick off this weekend

So after I grabbed something to eat, I had to kill two hours wandering the downtown streets of Austin.   I happily discovered during my wandering to familiarize myself with the general hotel vicinity there's a 7 Eleven near the hotel.

I'm halfway to my free Slurpee.

I'm here for the TENT Lobby Day, and I'll be speaking before we start heading into the Pink Dome to talk to our legislators.   The registration for the event closed on March 4 with 276 people signaling their intention to be here, so looking forward to seeing if we get more than that.

Also looking forward to seeing our trans family from across the Lone Star State

Our legislators know we're here because we've already made the local ATX news.   It's also interesting for me because it's exactly 20 years to the day I first made the trip to Austin as a rookie citizen lobbyist to participate in my maiden trans lobby day. 

I'm also doing so with a heavy heart because back home in Houston, the private memorial service for Sarah DePalma, the founding executive director of the Texas Gender Advocacy Information Network (TGAIN), and the proto org of TENT, takes place today. 

Our trans elder and my activist mentor died several weeks ago at age 67.

Here's the schedule for today's TENT Lobby Day

8-9 AM - Check in at FUMC Family Life Center (1300 Lavaca St), parking is available in the Capitol garage and will be within walking distance of all events. It is also handicap accessible and so is the FUMC Family Life Center)

9-10:00 AM - Lobby Day Training

10:35 AM - Pick up lunch, walk over to south steps of the Capitol

11:00 AM - TENT Rally

12 PM - Join NASW Rally

1 PM - Lobby Day Visits begin

5 PM - Lobby Day Ends

Hope I'll see as many of you peeps and allies handling your trans human rights business.

Heading To The ATX Again

If you're saying to yourself, 'weren't you just in Austin last week?', you would be correct.   I was there for a quick in an out trip to speak during an Equality Texas press conference on the south steps of the Texas Capitol.

And yeah, got my Slurpee before I headed back to H-town.

This time I'm heading back to Austin to take part in the Trans Education Network of Texas (TENT) trans lobby day that is also cosponsored with the Texas chapter of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW).

This lobby day is happening nearly 20 years to the day I made my first ever Texas lege trans lobby trip in 1999 organized by TGAIN, the forerunner org of TENT.

Same Pink Dome, but a different Texas legislative configuration.   Even Austin is way larger population wise than when I first started coming to lobby the Lege.

We have a long list of good bills to support, but are also concerned about the bad ones like SB 15, that would kill already passed non discrimination ordinances in Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, Plano, Carrollton and El Paso and prevent cities from enacting those laws

We also for the first time have an official Texas LGBTQ Legislative Caucus this session, and looking forward to talking to the members of it in addition to my own state rep and state senator.

My behind is already in bed as you read this because I have a 7:35 AM Megabus departure from downtown Houston to get to our state capitol, and the alarm is set for 5 AM CST

I sure hope the route we're going to take to Austin is via I-10 west to TX 71 because I despise going there via US 290.

Despite our schizophrenic weather lately, the bluebonnets are starting to bloom along TX 71 as well

My ETA there is 10:40 AM, so hope we get there on time.   Once I get there, I'll have the opportunity to catch up with what the Texas Lege is doing and on Thursday see my Texas trans fam from across the Lone Star State. 

Rest In Power Sarah DePalma

We in the Houston trans community knew this day was coming because she had been valiantly battling Parkinson's Disease since 2006, but it still hurts to write this post announcing the death of one of our pioneering trans leaders in Sarah DePalma.

DePalma passed away Sunday night, and the woman I call 'Mommy Sarah' was another one of our Houston based kick butt trans advocates who also had trailblazing national and statewide reach. 

She and another Houston trans trailblazer in Phyllis Frye met in the late 1980's, and the two Aggies formed a lasting friendship as a result.   By 1993 DePalma was upping her own activism game and heading to Austin to push for changes in our state laws that would benefit transgender people.

She was also giving the lesbian and gay community in Houston and nationally hell for their exclusionary anti-trans attitudes in the 90's and early 2000's.  We successfully fought a pitched battle for inclusion in the Houston GLBT caucus during that time while calling HRC out for their anti-trans stances.

DePalma was the founder of and Executive Director of It's Time Texas, which later became TGAIN (Transgender Advocacy Information Network) and is now TENT (Transgender Education Network of Texas)  She also led It's Time America, one of the early trans advocacy groups formed in the 1990's.

My first Texas Lobby day was in 1999, but she was already a veteran lobbyist at the state and national level by the time I met her.   Where Sarah and I connected in addition to her being one of my early trans advocacy mentors was as the co-host of KPFT-FM's After Hours show with the late Jimmy Carper.   

She leaves behind her longtime partner Lori, and a host of people who loved her.   As of yet don't know when her memorial service is going to happen, but will definitely be there to pay my last respects to her.

We've lost another of our trans pioneers.  Rest in power and peace, Sarah. .