Pulling My US House 22 Endorsement

Over the last several election cycles, I have done endorsements for municipal, state and national candidates.   They have bcome sought after ones, and I compiled one for the 2020 cycle.  . 

I originally endorsed Nyanza Moore in the US House 22 race.  But since I published it last week, I've gotten disturbing news of transphobic statements made by Ms. Moore, accompanied with video from Media Matters as a FOX 26 pundit.

That's problematic on a lot of levels for me since in conversations I've had with her over the last year, she expressed to me the desire to want to learn about trans issues and be better at advocating for  them.  The video leads me to question her sincerity in what she expressed to me.

We need peeps who are committed to fighting for trans Texans in the halls of Congress, not ones who dismissively question our very humanity.  I expect Republicans to be that way to us.  I'm not tolerating it from folks who are supposed to be progressive Democrats.

Therefore I'm pulling that endorsement made in the US House District 22 race to make it a No Endorsement race.   

How I Count The Trans Murders

The number of murdered trans folks in 2020 has been holding steady so far at one since New Year's Day.  But I expect that number to quickly rise once winter gives way to spring and summer and the temps rise.

People have asked me what are the parameters I use to count trans deaths, so here they are. 

*I use the standards of the Remembering our Dead Web Project as created by Gwen Smith.   If you report a person as having been killed to me, I will need a link to at least one or two local news media stories confirming that the person was killed.   Will need a link to their Facebook page if known as well so that I can have a nice pic of the person to use while telling their story instead of a mug shot.

 
*I count from 12:00 AM January 1 to 11:59 PM on December 31 in the same calendar year.  I don't count from TDOR to TDOR.  We need to know how many people have been killed in a calendar year so we can have those hard numbers.

*I don't include suicides.   A person who commits suicide has made a choice about taking their life.   Someone who is murdered doesn't have the element of choice.  The perpetrator of the anti-trans violence made that choice to end their life for them. 

Trans suicide, while important to talk about, is a wholly separate issue from trans people who have been violently taken from us.   Suicides should not be lumped in with TDOR murder stats.

*If someone has been killed while in prison or ICE custody, unless someone in that prison or ICE has been charged with murder, I can't for journalistic reasons count it in the yearly stats. 

Same rationale for someone killed by a police officer.   Unless that officer is charged with murder, can't count it as a trans murder no matter how much we suspect that's exactly what happened.

*I'm focusing on counting the trans deaths in the United States.   There are other orgs tracking the deaths in Europe, Latin America, Asia and other parts of the world like Transgender Europe (TGEU)  and OutRight Action International. 

Facts are what matter.   I am striving for accuracy when I compile these counts on these TransGriot pages.   As a member of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA) and the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) I'm also doing my utmost to follow the journalistic standards of these organizations I am a proud member of.   

It's even more important now I'm finding myself doing more local and national print and television interviews to talk about the anti-trans violence that's killing us.  I also don't want our right wing opposition or TERFs trying to claim we're padding the counts.

If someone is arrested after the commisison of one of these murders aginst our siblings, the average time from an arrest to trial is about two years.   With the avalanche of cases happening and my limited bandwith to keep track of it all, I am asking for help from you TransGriot readers to let me know when these trans killers in your areas of the country come to trial. 

I want to know if the killers have been found guilty, and if so, how much time did they get when they were sentenced.

So with so many cases happening, I will need a reminder from you, TransGriot readers if you see news of a a trans murderer going to trial .

So these are the guidelines I use to track trans murders.  I hope and pray I won't be as busy as I have been the last few years documenting these cases, but we still have a lot of 2020 left, a raving transphobe in the White House, conservative media going buck wild in sprading transphobic BS, and Republican lawmakers in the US trying to pass unjust anti-trans bills.

So while I'm hoping for the best, I'm mentally prepared to expect another bad year on the trans murder front.. 
 

TransGriot 2020 Texas Democratic Primary Election Endorsement Post

You've been asking me for it, and here it is, just before early voting starts in the Texas primary election on  February 18.   For those of you who wish to wait for the actual Texas primary Election Day, that will happen on March 3.

We are the most populous county in Texas, and our ballot is going to reflect that.   It always going to be a long one because of that.  Also bear in mind that no thanks to the TXGOP, we no longer have the option of straight ticket voting.

Every race matters, so vote from POTUS to dog catcher.   Your vote may be the differnce between winning and losing for many candidates in a tight race.

Make Trump, Greg Abbott and the Texas GOP mad by voting either during early voting, which runs from Febuary 18-February 28., on primary day on on the general election day on November 3.

You can also vote at ANY voting center in Harris County during early voting or the general election.

If you aren't registered to do so during the primary, you can still make sure you are registred for the upcoming presidential election in November and the May runoff elections from May 18-22

Vote as if your life depends on it, because frankly, it does.

And now, my TransGriot 2020 Democratic primary endorsements.

President- Elizabeth Warren 

US Senate-  Amanda Edwards

US House-District 2-Sima Ladjevarian
US House District 9- Al Green
US House District 10- Mike Siegel 
US House- District 14- Adrienne Bell  
US House- District 18-Sheila Jackson Lee
US House District 21- Wendy Davis 
US House- District 22- No Endorsement

TX State Board of Education District 4 -Larry McKinzie 
TX State Board of Education District 6- Michelle Palmer

TX State Senator- District 11-Susan Criss 
TX State Senator- District 13- Borris Miles  


TX House- District 26-Sarah DeMerchant  
TX House- District 27- Ron Reynolds
TX House- Dsitrict 28- Lawrence Allen
TX House- District 83- Addison Perry-Franks 
TX House- District 126- Natali Hurtado
TX House- District 131- Alma A Allen
TX House- District 134- Ann Johnson 
TX House- District 135- Jon Rosenthal 
TX House-District 138- Akilah Bacy 
TX House- District 139- Jarvis Johnson 
TX-House- District 141- Senfronia Thompson
TX House- District 142- Jerry Davis 
TX House- District 146- Ashton P Woods 
TX House- District 147- Garnet F Coleman
TX House- District 148-- Penny Morales Shaw 

Chief Justice TX Supreme Court- Amy Clark Meacham
TX Supreme Court Justice- Place 6- Kathy Cheng
TX Supreme Court Justice- Place 7- Staci Williams
TX Supreme Court  Justice- Place 8- Gisela Triana 

TX Court of  Criminal Appeals- Place 3 - William Pieratt Demond
TX Court of Appeals District 14-  Jane Robinson
TX Court of Appeals- 1st District- Place 3- Veronica Rivas Molloy
TX Court of Appeals 1st District- Place 5- Amparo Monique Guerra
TX Court of Appeals 1st District Place 7 - Cheri Thomas
TX District Judge- 80th Judicial District- Larry Weiman 
TX Dsitrict Judge- 164th Judicial District- Alexandra Smoots-Thomas 
TX District Judge- 165th Judicial District- Ursula Hall 
TX District Judge- 176th Judicial District-Nikita 'Niki' Harmon
TX District Judge -179th Judicial District- Ana Martinez 
TX District Judge- 333rd Judicial District- Daryl Moore
TX District Judge- 334th Judicial District- Dawn Deshea Roigers 
TX District Judge- 337th Judicial District- Colleen Gaido
TX District Judge - 339th Judicial District- Te'iva Bell
TX District Judge- 351st Judicial District- Natalia 'Nata' Cornelio
TX District Judge- 367 Judicial District-  Janet Buening Happard
TX District Judge- 505th Judicial District- Surendran K. Patel  
TX District Judge- 507th Judicial District-Julia Maldonado 

Harris County District Attorney- Audia Jones 
Harris County Attorney- Christian Menefee
Harris County Sheriff- Ed Gonzales
Harris County Tax Assessor Collector -Jolanda Jones

Harris County Commissioner- Precinct 1-Rodney Ellis
Harris County Commissioner- Precinct 3- Diana Martinex Alexander

Harris County Constable- Precinct 1- Alan Rosen
Harris County Constable- Precinct 7-  May Walker

Harris County Civil Court at Law No 4- Bill McLeod

Harris County Department of Education Place 5- Erica Davis
Harris County Department of Education Place 7- Obes Nwabara
Harris County Justice of the Peace- Precinct 6 Place 1- Victor Trevino III
Harris County Justice of the Peace- Precinct 7 Place 1- Jeremy L. Brown

TransGriot Gets 5th Nomination For GLAAD Media Award!

Woke up to the wonderful news that TransGriot has been nominated once again for a GLAAD Media Award in the Outstanding Blog category.

It it is my fifth overall  nomination, and the fourth consecutive nomination since 2017.  As you long time readers know, I won the Outstanding Blog award in 2018.

Once again the Outstanding Blog category is packed, with the other nominees being 2019 winner Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents, 2011 winner JoeMyGod, Gays With Kids and My Fabulous Disease.

Ever since this category started in 2011, there has never been a repeat winner of it.  Will this be the year that happens for me or the other two previous award winners, or will Gays with Kids or My Fabulous Disease finally get their first wins?

There are also folks who got nominated for GLAAD media Awards in which I had a participatory role in. 

Lauren McGaughy of the Dallas Morning News received a nomination in the Outstanding Newspaper Article category for her article  "Texas Leads the Nation in Transgender Murders. After the Latest Attack, the Dallas Trans Community Asks Why”

In the Outstanding TV Journalism Segment Category, Vice News Tonight was nominated for their 'Black and Trans in Texas' one.

ABC News Nightline was nominated  in the Outstanding TV Journalism category for "Am I Next? Trans and Targeted

Congrats also to my homegirls Trish Bendix, Raquel Willis, Geena Rocero and Dawn Ennis who also received GLAAD Media Award nominations for their work.

Bendix and Ellis are nominated in the Outstanding Digital Journalism category, while Willis and Rocero were nominated in the Outstanding Magazine Article category

I Am Jazz received another nomination in the Outstanding Reality Series category, so congrats to the Jennings family again..

The winners will be announced during the GLAAD Media Awards events in New York at the Hilton Midtown on March 19 and in Los Angeles at the Beverly Hilton on April 16.

Congrats to everyone who received nominations today, and good luck!

Happy 14th Blogiversary TransGriot!

One thing I can promise you dear reader is that you won't be disappointed. There will be times I'll make you laugh. Other times I'll touch your heart. Then there will be the occasional time or two when I piss you off. But my goal is to make you think and expose you to some of the drama that African-American transpeeps (and transpeople in general) deal with.-TransGriot, January 1, 2006 

The arrival of New Year's Day 2020 also means that TransGriot is celebrating another birthday!

It was on January 1, 2006 at 12 midnight EST that my first post went up on my blog.   It took me a year to find my voice and figure out what I wanted to do with it, but once I did, it has led to four a GLAAD Outstanding Blog Award nominations  in 2014, 2017 and 2019.  I captured it on my third nomination in 2018.

It also led to last year the TERF enemies of the trans community cyberattacking it in a failed attempt to shut it down. 

It has also opened up some opportunities for me to express myself not on on these electronic pages, but at college campuses, conferences,  on radio and television, and other venues across the United States. 

There are over 11, 000 posts on this blog discussing everything from trans issues to sports.  It is not only an electronic repository of our Black trans history, it  has also allowed me to elevate my voice in the political discourse of the moment inside and outside of the TBLGQ community.

And with 2020 being a presidential election year, I'll have a lot to talk about until New Year's Eve rolls back around in 365 days.   

Yep, this is also a leap year and an Olympic year    Will be nice to see if we have a trans athlete FINALLY qualify for an Olympics.

Note to all you haters claiming that trans feminine athletes are 'dominating women's sports'   So far this is the only trans woman who has made it to an Olympic opening ceremony, and she was holding the placard for the Brazilian Olympic team.

While I have been documenting the murders of my trans family over the last few years, it is not the only mission of this blog.  Here's my mission statement to tell you what it is.

The TransGriot blog's mission is to become the griot of our community. I will introduce you to and talk about your African descended trans brothers and trans sisters across the Diaspora, reclaim and document our chocolate flavored trans history, speak truth to power, comment on the things that impact our trans community from an Afrocentric perspective.  I will also enlighten you about the general things that go on around me and in the communities that I am a member of.
--Mission Statement compiled January 2, 2011

 That's my blog's mission.   Been handling that business for now fourteen years, and just an FYI, the 15th anniversary of this blog will take place 366 days from now on January 1, 2021.

Happy blogiversary TransGriot 

Blog Was Deleted, Now It's Back Up

As many of you TransGriot readers are aware of by now, a few hours ago this blog was deleted for some still as unknown reason by Google/Blogger mere hours after this profile post of me appeared at  The Daily Beast. 

And yeah, I'm still pissed about it.   

I was also in that moment feeling the pain Diamond Stylz must have felt last year when her decade old video blog was taken down

TransGriot is back up because of the efforts of many of you peeps who called and raised holy hell to make sure that happened.   Still haven't as of yet received an explanation or apology from Google about what happened to my 13 year old GLAAD Media Award winning and four time nominated blog.

We'll see if I get that explanation over the next few days and it matches with what I suspect happened. 

But in the meantime, I do want to thank everyone who went to bat for me and offered to help get it restored and back in operation should the worst case scenario occurred. 

I'm quite aware of what TransGriot means to this community, its place in chronicling trans history, and being a news source for my fellow journalists and members of all the communities I interact with.

If you appreciate what I do here, you can always hit that TransGriot Tip jar in the upper left hand side of the blog or my PayPal at paypal.me/TransGriot

Once again, thank you for you support and help in getting this important community resource back in operation.

TransGriot Nominated Again For A GLAAD Media Award!

After finally winning the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Blog on my third nomination last year, I was not expecting to be nominated when the 2019 nominations were rolled out.

I was surprised and pleased once again to find out that I have once again been nominated for a GLAAD Media Award in the Outstanding Blog category

It's the third consecutive year I have received a nomination in this category, and is my fourth nomination overall in the Outstanding Blog category (2014, 2017, 2018, 2019).  It also puts me in the mix of making a little history should I be fortunate enough to win it again.

Ever since the GLAAD Media Awards Outstanding Blog category started in 2011, we have never had a repeat winner of the Outstanding Blog award.   There was no Outstanding Blog award given in 2016 because a misguided attempt was made to end the category, and we bloggers fought like hell to get it back.

I did receive a Special Recognition award in 2016 during the GLAAD Gala San Francisco.  That was also my tenth anniversary year.

Alvin McEwen's Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters (2017) and I are in position to make that history should either of our names be called.

As always, we have some tough competition in this category.   Mark S. King's My Fabulous Disease,  Sue Kerr and Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents, and Gays With Kids are the 2019 finalists in this category.   

Will I get to add another one to my trophy shelf?   Won't find out until awards night.   The LA ceremony is happening at the Beverly Hilton on March 28, and the one in New York is on my May 4 birthday at the New York Hilton Midtown.

You can check out the rest of the 2019 GLAAD Media Award nominees here.

Happy 13th Blogiversary, TransGriot

Today is not only the start of a new year, it's also the 13th anniversary of the start of TransGriot.

At midnight Eastern standard time on January 1, 2006, my first post went up on this blog.   It initially started out as a way for me to comment real time on the issues of the day and complement the monthly column I had in a local Louisville TBLGQ paper called The Letter.

The blog eventually got more popular than the newspaper column after spending much of of TransGriot's first year trying to figure out what I wanted to do with it.

Now after 13 years, over 10,000 posts, and finally capturing an elusive GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Blog , what I figured out was that what I needed to do with it was be a voice for Black trans people who at that point and time didn't have one.

It also has another important mission of recording our history.  I also used TransGriot's electronic pages to push the media in the TBLGQ community and in Cis World of doing better when  and how they report on trans issues, and role modeling how to do so.

And yes, one of the most beloved features is the TransGriot Shut Up Fool Awards.

So thanks to Jordana LeSesne for relentlessly staying on my azz until she got me to commit in November 2005 to start TransGriot, to pick a January 1 start date, and actually follow through with my first post.

This blog opened up a new world of opportunities for me, in addition to allowing me to be the voice for a community. 

While my blog may have started to give Black trans people a voice and talk about the issues from our perspective, it has grown far beyond what I envisioned for it when I hit SEND on that first post on New Year's Day 2006. .

Here's to TransGriot's Year 13!   Let's see how it transpires.

If You Like What I Post, How About Hitting The TransGriot Tip Jar?

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you may have noticed the TransGriot Tip Jar that is in the upper left hand column of the blog.

That exists for those of you who like my posts, appreciate what I do and wish to contribute something to help keep this blog im operation.   

I've been managing to do it so far without having to resort to advertising, but internet access still costs me $100 on a monthly basis.   I also have other bills to pay, including rent. electricity and phone

So if you can contribute something even if it's just $10, it's deeply appreciated.

You can also hit me at paypal.me/TransGriot 

2018 TransGriot Endorsement Posts Starting Soon

Early voting in Texas starts on October 22, and you Texas residents have until October 9 to get registered so that you can participate in what is probably the most important midterm election of our country's history

If you don't live in Texas, you need to do the same.  Find out when your election registration deadline is happening so if you aren't registered to vote, you can get it done so you can handle your electoral business on November 6 or sooner if you're in a state hat does early voting like I am. .

Uncle Sam needs you to participate in flipping this country and your states blue and firing the GOP at all levels of government, since they have made it clear they only wish to do so for heterosexual conservative white males only .

I've been asked by several readers if I was going to do any TransGriot endorsements in this 2018 election cycle, and the answer is an emphatic yes.   Those posts will be flagged in the title with a 2018 TransGriot Endorsement header so that you can easily find them 

While many of my TransGriot endorsement posts over the next 60 plus days will be Texas centric, and I will do endorsements in selected races in other states, the goal of them is to arm you with the information you need to cast an informed vote for the people and the issues impacting this election.

'TransGriot Weekly With Monica Roberts' Show Is ON

You TransGriot readers have been asking me from time to time when was I going to do more video?
Thanks to the folks at Koncept Kit, your wish has come true!

I'm now doing a show called TransGriot Weekly with Monica Roberts in which I talk about trans and other news issues locally, in Texas, the US and internationally. 

Like the blog, I'll also comment about things that grab my attention, and yes, I'll do a Video Shut Up Fool Award on a biweekly basis. 

And as the show grows and evolves, I'll look at along with the production team at doing interviews as well.

I'm now six weeks into it, and it has been an interesting experience going from writing about the news to choosing what stories need to go on the air to talk about and delivering them with a camera rolling. 

The best part is I'm having a lot of fun doing so.. 

You can find the show's Facebook page, like it abd check out the video episodes I've done so far at this link.

And yes, once you've seen them, share them as well. 

Can Use Some Help Again For Housing

You know I usually don't like to ask for monetary help unless I absolutely need it, but once again TransGriot readers, I'm at a point where it's necessary to call on your help again.  . 

I'm needing to move from my current space by March 1, and need to I need to raise a total of $2000 to pay for first months rent plus deposit for a new place to live, plus potential moving expenses. 

So far I've raised a quarter of that, and I'm $1500 away from the goal. 

I'm humbly asking for a little help and donations to get there.   No donation is too small.  $5, $10, $20 quickly adds up.

I do have a PayPal account, and it has a DONATE button on the left hand side of it marked TransGriot Tip Jar.    transgriot.blogspot.com 

The direct link to it is https://www.paypal.me/TransGriot


If you can, thanks for doing so. For those who have donate already, I thank you.     

TransGriot Named One Of 8 Houston Women To Watch On Social Media

It's pop my collar time

Wasn't expecting this honor to happen for me, but I and TransGriot was named by Houstonia magazine as one of the 8 Houston Women To Watch on Social Media. 

I do have 14K earned followers on my Twitter feed, and my 12 year old blog has had over 6.5million people surf to it since I started it in 2006. 

Thank you TransGriot readers for doing so for all these years, for sharing my posts and for making me the go to blog when it comes to Texas political commentary.

I don't mind calling crap out on national stuff either, but that's another post for another time, and I definitely don't have a problem calling it as I see it inside and outside my community. 

Thanks Houstonia magazine for the honor, and to my new readers, who surfed by as a result of that article, welcome to my cyberhome. 

How TransGriot Will Be Counting Trans Murders In 2018

When the clock struck midnight to start 2018, it also closed out my count of anti-trans murders at 24 persons

Others were higher for other reasons like counting from the previous TDOR to the next one, or starting their count on October 1, or including one person twice as I saw on one list.  One list even counted the police involved shootings of Kiwi Herring and Sean Hake and wanted to start an argument with me as to why I DIDN'T include either in my count.

Short answer is unless the cops involved were indicted for murder, you can't legitimately count them as such.

The inconsistency in the trans murder counts last year didn't sit well with me because I'm a 'just the facts' person, and there are times when I need to know for media interview or lobbying purposes exactly how many people were lost due to anti-trans violence in the current year.

That's why when you see the inevitable lists of US trans deaths or posts about them on TransGriot this year, my count on TransGriot of those deaths will run from January 1-December 31, 2018   

Not November 20, 2017-November 20, 2018 in the traditional TDOR way.  Or October 1, 2017-November 20, 2018 as one so-called 'official' list does it . 

TransGriot will count the trans deaths that occur from January 1-December 31 of the same year.  I''ll continue to use the Remembering our Dead standards.  Suicides will not be counted, and once again. no police involved shootings unless the police officer in question is charged with murder.

Accuracy and consistency in how we count the deaths of our trans siblings matters now more than ever, especially with a hostile anti-trans federal administration in place.

That's why when I start recording the number of deaths in 2018, it will be people who were actually killed in 2018.

Happy 12th Blogiversary TransGriot!

Happy 2018 TransGriot Readers!

Today is also my blog's 12th anniversary.   At 12 midnight Eastern Standard Time on January 1, 2006, my first blog post went up at TransGriot after nearly two months of persistent pushing from my homegirl Jordana LeSesne .

After expressing the sentiment in a November 2015 phone conversation with her that we needed a blog in the emerging blogosphere of the time that looked at issues from a Black trans perspective. Jordana's next words to me were "So when are you going to start it?"

She also stayed on my behind until she got me to commit a week later to a January start date for the blog I eventually named TransGriot

I came up with the name because I wanted one that would pay homage to me being unapologetically Black and trans, reflect my African heritage and also the fact that I come from a family of historians in my mom and late godmother Pearl C. Suel.

Griots in West African cultures are oral historians who are capable of reciting up to 500 years of their people's history from memory.   And since some of what I do in this electronic space is record the history of Black transgender people across the African Diaspora

My mission statement came later.on January 2, 2011 and the logo debuted last year.

The TransGriot blog's mission is to become the griot of our community. I will introduce you to and talk about your African descended trans brothers and trans sisters across the Diaspora, reclaim and document our chocolate flavored trans history, speak truth to power, comment on the things that impact our trans community from an Afrocentric perspective and enlighten you about the general things that go on around me and in the communities that I am a member of.

There were only 124 posts in that first year because I was writing TransGriot the column for a local monthly TBLGQ paper in DaVille.  I saw the blog as a realtime way to comment on the issues impacting the community.   The blog over time became bigger than the newspaper column.

And it has also become important to the trans community during the now 12 years I've been publishing posts as well.

And since this is an election year, I'll have plenty to say about a lot of subjects between now and November 6.

Introducing the New TransGriot Logo!

I've been working since late 2016 on this project for a few months in conjunction with Houston based Koncept Kit, a trans owned marketing firm, and now I finally get to reveal my new official blog logo to you readers.

I've wanted and frankly needed one for a while to put on business cards, and eventually merchandise, and here it is.

Thanks to Koncept Kit for all your hard work and skill in making my vision of what I wanted in a blog logo come to life.

6.5 Million Hits!

As of 11:37 PM CST on January 7, I had the 6.5 millionth visitor surf by and peruse my blog in its 11th year of unapologetic truth telling.

It was helped along by my post discussing the SB 6 press conference unexpectedly going viral and sadly, two memorial posts for our first two trans murder victims of 2017.

I also find it apropos that it happened mere days after I passed my January 1 blogiversary.

Once again, I thank you longtime and new TransGriot readers who surf by and read the current and archived posts I have here. 2017 is probably going to be a busy year for me personally and writing wise, and I thank everyone for their kind words and letting me know how much this blog means to them.

On to the next milestone of 7 million hits!

Thanks To Koncept Kit For My Blogiversary Gift

When January 1 rolls around TransGriot will start its second decade of operation telling it like it T-I-S is in terms of being an unapologetic truth teller in our community and talking about trans issues from a POC trans perspective.

During this tenth anniversary year fro TransGriot people asked me if I wanted to celebrate it with a party or other events.   One of the best things you can do is keep dropping change on that TransGriot  Tip Jar or consider sponsoring it.   I plow much of what I receive back into the the operation of the blog.

One of the things I've wanted and needed to do for a while is not only get TransGriot its own domain name, but also get a logo for it.   Thanks to Houston based Koncept Kit, I accomplished both those tasks.

Economic empowerment of our trans community ranks is important to me as well, and Koncept Kit being a person of color and trans owned firm also appealed to me as well.

It also gave me an opportunity to lead by example and spend my precious T-bills in our community.

So who is Koncept Kit?

Koncept Kit is a Houston media firm that does audio and visual work, photography, videography, web design and logo branding.

Koncept Kit did the artwork for Dr Colt Keo- Meier's trans themed children's book Stacey Is Not A Girl, and the photography and videography for the recent Gender Infinity Conference just to name some of the work they have done here locally.



After being impressed with their professionalism, how they handled that job and observing them do work at other community events,  I tapped Koncept Kit to come up with a logo for my blog.

The game plan is to unveil it by the time my January 1 blogiversary rolls around.  I've seen the new logo and love it.   I think you readers will love it as well.    The best part about the process is I got to spend some of my hard earned T-bills with a trans owned firm.

Thank you Koncept Kit for my TransGriot blogiversary gift to myself, and looking forward to seeing your skills turn my vision of a logo into reality.

Decided To Take An Unannounced Internet Break

In case you're wondering why I hadn't been posting at my normal schedule here on the blog, just stepped away and needed to do so because I was a little burned out over the election news combined with writers block.

So I just fired up one of my computer games and tuned everything out to refresh, recharge and get refocused for the homestretch of the 2016 presidential cycle and the battles to come in 2017 and beyond.

Turning off CNN, MSNBC, the BBC, FOX Noise (when I need comedic relief) and The Net also allowed me to also recharge the creative batteries.

So yes, I'm fine.  I'm even feeling better now that I've had that little break and on top of it, am creeping closer to another interim weight loss goal.

And yes, I have a lot to say and write before this campaign is done/

Accomplished Two TransGriot Twitter Milestones!

Yesterday evening I hit two Twitter milestones on the same day in terms of sending my 20,000th tweet and reaching 10,000 followers!

And unlike some folks, I didn't have to buy them, I did it the old fashioned way.  I earned every one of them

I've only been on Twitter since January 2009, and initially resisted joining it because as a writer, I like having more than 140 characters to comment on the issues of the day.  But I discovered it helps in promoting my TransGriot blog posts that I would like people to read, and also keeps me in practice in terms of thinking in soundbites for future media interviews.

While I'm not on Twitter every day, when I do sign in to my Twitter feed, I can end up spending a few hours of my day commenting before shutting it down and getting back to writing.   .

Over the seven years I've been on Twitter,  I've  also composed enough tweets when I am on to where they surprisingly to me started getting media attention when I do so.

But it really shouldn't have been a surprise when it first started happening.  OutSmart magazine, our local Houston area LGBT magazine, has nominated me twice for Favorite Tweeter, an award I won in 2014 and was a finalist for last year.

And I'm pleased to have in my Twitter followers some of my fave media people, journalists, bloggers politicians  actors, and all around cool people that like seeing me comment on the issues of the day.

Well, on to the next milestones. Since we have 39 days left until Election Day, I'll definitely have more to say in 140 characters or less on the election and other pertinent issues of the day.