This 2012 Election Is STILL About The Supreme Court

As much as the pundits will try to make this election about the economy, I submit this election is about a far more important factor the media pundits aren't talking about in terms of the Supreme Court.

I bring this subject up because in a few hours another term of our nation's highest judiciary body starts and runs through June 2013.   Just as in the last term, there will be some contentious subjects such as Section V of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, same gender marriage, Prop 8 and affirmative action that come up to be argued in front of the 5-4 conservative leaning Roberts Court.

It hasn't escaped my attention that there are four justices who are over 70 years of age.  Clinton appointed Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg (77) and Stephen Breyer (71) are past that age on the liberal progressive side.

Reagan appointed Supreme Court Justices Anthony Kennedy (73) is a predominately right leaning swing vote, and reliably conservative Antonin Scalia is 74.    

The next president (and I pray it's a second term President Obama) could possibly get to appoint three and possibly four Supreme Court justices during his next term  and shape the direction and political orientation of it for the next thirty to 40 years.  

For you people who claim there's no difference between the two parties, nowhere does your rhetoric look more delusional and politically clueless than when it comes to what person is in the Oval Office picking Supreme Court justices and judges for the federal judiciary.

The last thing I want is a President Romney (yecch) advised by Robert Bork picking those justices.


I would rather have it continue in the liberal-progressive direction of being diversified as the trend has been under President Obama.  

We have already seen President Obama's first two picks be women in terms of Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. 

I'd also like to remind people there has never been an African-American woman, an Asian of any gender, a Latino male or a Native American jurist of any gender selected to serve on the SCOTUS.

As a matter of fact President Obama's judiciary picks have been leaning heavily towards women and persons of color.   He has had appointed and confirmed a record 72 women to the federal judiciary in his first term with 29 of those women being non-white ones.   31 of President Obama's judicial picks were African-American, three were openly gay and there is no reason to doubt that pattern won't continue in a second Obama term

With a gridlocked Congress, the federal judiciary will become more important to advancing our human rights agenda.  With 90 federal judicial vacancies and four potential ones at the Supreme Court level diversity in the federal judiciary not only improves the quality of the decisions rendered by federal courts, it's a trend I want to see continue.

It's not only about the economy stupid, it's about the federal judiciary. and especially the political orientation the Supreme Court will take for the people in my generation for the rest of our lives.

Ponder that point as you enter the voting booth on November 6 or whenever during this month you get to cast your early voting ballots.

DADT Still Hasn't Died For Trans People

Couldn't let today pass while I'm up here inside I-495 'Owning My Power' to remind you readers as I will our legislators while I'm chitchatting with them on Capitol Hill today marks the one year anniversary of the day that Don't Ask Don't Tell died.  

While our SGL and bi brothers and sisters will be celebrating this first anniversary of DADT repeal, it'll be another painful reminder that DADT is still not dead for trans people,.but it's still an ugly reality that we can't serve openly. 

Discrimination by the US military of transpeople still exists for us as documented in this Kristen Schilt report for the Palm Center.  Unlike the trans citizens of six nations, the big bad US military still will not allow patriotic trans people to enlist who are willing to fight for and defend our country.  

If you're in the military and it's discovered you're trans, you get discharged or worse.

We love our country and want to have the option to serve in its military as well.   To make an economic argument for it, trans people being able to openly serve our nation not only helps the ones already enlisted and helps you retain those personnel you spent time and tax dollars training, it would also make a dent in that 26% trans unemployment number if trans people who desire to do so have the option of military service as a career option.

So let's see if you 'come back for us' on this issue, LGB community.  .As you raise your appletini glasses and toast the demise of DADT, I'm reminding you about the trans people you threw under the Humvee when you pushed for passage of DADT repeal in the 2010 congressional lame duck session and trans activists told you repeatedly it didn't cover us. 

While DADT died for you, it still hasn't died for the trans community.


     
 

Black Trans History-Jim McHarris

Found another interesting story from our African-American trans past in the fascinating EBONY archives.

Courtesy of a November 1954 issue of EBONY and the books Black Love, Black Resistance and Dr Susan Stryker's The Transgender Studies Reader, I began to read the story about transman Jim McHarris.

It starts in his birthplace of Meridian, MS in 1924.   He was born as Annie Lee Grant and his parents died early during his childhood. 

McHarris was raised by two sets of foster parents and exhibited a distaste for all things feminine except dating the ladies.   The young Jim McHarris would often slip away to Jackson to hang out.  Longtime friend Bishop Smiley Jones noted that young McHarris was not only attracted to women, but preferred mens clothing and living as a man as well.  

He transitioned in his early teens, ditched the female clothing and began in 1939 to move frequently to different cities around the country.   McHarris lived in Memphis, Chicago and other midwestern cities living his transmasculine life.   In that 15 year period as a restless traveler the 5' 5" McHarris worked as a short order cook, cab driver, gas station attendant, auto mechanic, shipyard worker, and preacher.while continuing with his handsome baby face and husky 175 pound frame to draw attention from and enjoy the company of the ladies he was attracted to. 

He moved to Kosciusko, MS in November 1953 and ran into his old friend Bishop Smiley Jones, who was now living there and was the pastor of the True Tabernacle Church of the First Born.  (If that town name sounds familiar, it is the hometown of talk show queen Oprah Winfrey who ironically was born there in January, 1954, but back to the story)

McHarris asked his old friend to keep his gender secret as he set out to build his life in Kosciusko.  He worked at a gas station for almost three months, was living at a local boarding house, was working as a short order cook and was engaged to be married to a young high school girl.  . He was also scheduled to be elevated to deacon at the True Tabernacle church

But the life he was carefully building in that town of 10,000 people at the time unraveled in 1954 when he was pulled over by Kosciusko.police on a traffic stop.  Officers pulled him over for McHarris' car having improper lighting and noted he had a pint of whiskey in the car.   He was arrested and when the officers prepared to do a pat down search on him Jim revealed his birth gender..     
  
The gender revelation caused drama in the town and subjected Bishop Jones to some criticism from local residents.  The people most upset were the cis women that Jim dated as well as the woman he dated when he was living in Memphis who admitted in the EBONY article she was receiving money from him.  

There was even more drama when Jim in order to 'prove' he was born female, retreated to a closet, stripped off his male clothes and revealed breasts and female genitalia in front of the judge and the arresting officers.

He was quickly fined by Judge (and mayor of Kosciusko) T.V. Rone and given the option of paying a $100 fine or doing 30 days in jail at the prison farm.  While Jim was serving his sentence he was dressed in men's clothes, and worked in the prison kitchen, but housed with a female prisoner.

When he served his time, he stepped out to a Kosciusko that gave him a cool reception and people he once called friends shunning him..  McHarris decided it was time to move once again.  As he gathered his belongings and prepared to move to Jackson, he said in the article "I ain't done nothing wrong and I ain't breaking no laws"

He also made the decision to live his life permanently as a man.  But one thing Jim McHarris didn't do was register as all US men had to do at that time for the draft.

When EBONY asked him why, he quipped, "Man, I ain't crazy."   But in every other respect, Jim McHarris was happy to be treated as one of the boys and made certain he lived his life that way to the best of his ability.

DNC 2012-Trans DNC Delegates Getting International Attention

The 13 trans delegates (and hearing rumors they have discovered a 14th delegate) are deservedly getting a lot of positive attention and positive press coverage for our community

There's a story about them on AFP (Agencie France Presse)  and is a concrete example of the well deserved media attention for this distinguished group of DNC trans delegates that is going international. 


Thanks to y'all for representing our community with class and dignity during DNC 2012

• Super Delegate: Barbra Casbar Siperstein
• Dana Beyer, M.D.
• Kylar William Broadus
• Janice Covington
• Chris Land
• Daria Lynn Lohman
• Lesley Rebecca Phillips
• Marisa J. Richmond, Ph.D.
• Diego Miguel Sanchez
• Jamie Dianne Shiner
• Melissa Sklarz
• Meghan Stabler

Any Progress We Make As African-Americans Is 'Too Much'

Two things that CNN camerawoman Patrica Carroll said in her interview discussing the ugly incident that happened at the recently RNC convention resonated with me. 

"This is Florida, and I’m from the Deep South ... You come to places like this you can count the black people on your hand. They see us doing things they don't think I should do." 

She also said, "People think we're gone further than we have." .

Sadly it's a recurring theme in our four centuries of being Africans in America.   We African-Americans make any minor, major or groundbreaking progress and it's 'too much ' for whites and whiteness to handle.

After it occurs, you have the inevitable panicked rush of white supremacists to roll back that progress or work to create barriers to prevent further advancement for my people while stirring up resentment in the huddled masses of low and middle income white people.   When we overcome that latest created barrier or painfully get back to the previous point we were at evolutionary wise in terms of our development as African-Americans, the rush by whiteness to create a new way to roll our progress back begins anew.

We've definitely seen that distressing pattern play itself out over the last 150 years of American history.  After the spectacular progress freedmen made after emancipation from slavery in which they went from a 15% literacy rate to over 70% by the 1900's combined with an explosion of African-American elected officials, community building based on a solid educational foundation, entrepreneurial spirit and hard work, fearful and jealous whites began working to roll back that progress.

Klan terrorist attacks, mob violence, the shady 1876 presidential election that resulted in the Compromise of 1877 that ended Reconstruction, restrictive voter laws, boycotts, Jim Crow segregation and conservative Supreme Court rulings combined to shut down the first Reconstruction and our political participation in American society to the point in which we had zero members of Congress by the dawn of the 20th century.  We were knocked out of many professions we'd managed to enter or were dominant in such as the horse racing industry and recurring riots destroyed much of what we had painstakingly managed to build. 

It took decades of effort from a phalanx of civil rights organizations such as the NAACP, visionary leaders such as W.E.B DuBois, A Philip Randolph, Dorothy Height, Bayard Rustin, the Rev Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.and the civil rights movement of the 50's and 60's before we could overcome Jim Crow segregation and jump off another period of spectacular progress for African-Americans which by 1980 was 'too much' for white people. 

The forces of whiteness and white resentment have reacted to the Second Reconstruction the same way they did to the first one in terms of flocking to elect conservative Republican politicians who pimped a message of racial resentment for electoral success in the once Solid Democratic South.   They combined it with a conservative Supreme Court, a phalanx of shadowy conservative organizations working behind the scenes such as ALEC, right wing conservative Christians and  in conjunction with the national and state level Republican Party orgs designing laws to retard or erect new barriers for us..
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The fact you have people of color routinely doing things 'they' don't think we should be doing such as running Fortune 500 corporations, winning Nobel Prizes, walking fashion runways, winning major golf or tennis tournaments, being the governor of a state or living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue along with the news that whites will be a minority population in the United States by 2040 has made whiteness uneasy. 

The election of Barack Obama to the presidency in 2008 has sent the bigots into a frothing at the mouth frenzy and doubled down on pimping the dog whistle message of GOP=white leadership.  When the GOP gained control of several state legislatures in the wake of the 2010 midterm elections one of the first things those Republican legislatures did was pass voter suppression laws designed to depress the turnout of African-American voters in the runup to this 2012 presidential election..

And the irrationality of the Massive Resistance 2.0 strategy the Republican party has deployed in order to deny him a second term speaks volumes to the level of racism in the GOP.  They are willing to bankrupt and destroy this country just to oust one Black man and his family out of the house at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave my people built with their unpaid labor.

So yeah, any progress we make as African-Americans always seems to be 'too much' for whiteness and white supremacy, and that pattern is played out.

Happy Labor (Labour) Day!

It's the first Monday in September, and besides the fact the 2012-13 edition of the Miss Continental Pageant is going on in Chicago and it's considered the last unofficial day of summer (can't tell that by the temps here in Houston), it is Labor Day weekend.  

If you're north of the 49th parallel as most of my Canadian TransGriot readers are, it's Labour Day weekend

However you spell it, find your friendly neighborhood union member, bow down and thank them profusely for this three day weekend the labor movement bought and paid for with blood, sweat and tears.

You can also thank a union member while you're at it for the following:

1. All breaks at work, including your lunch breaks
2. Paid vacation
3. Family & Medical Leave Act (FMLA)
4. Sick leave
5. Social Security
6. Minimum wage
7. Civil Rights Act/Title VII - prohibits employer discrimination
8. 8-hour work day
9. Overtime pay
10. Child labor laws
11. Occupational Safety & Health Act (OSHA)
12. 40-hour work week
13. Workers’ compensation (workers’ comp)
14. Unemployment insurance
15. Pensions
16. Workplace safety standards and regulations
17. Employer health care insurance
18. Collective bargaining rights for employees
19. Wrongful termination laws
20. Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA)
21. Whistleblower protection laws
22. Employee Polygraph Protection Act (EPPA) - prohibits employers from using a lie detector test on an employee
23. Veteran's Employment and Training Services (VETS)
24. Compensation increases and evaluations (i.e. raises)
25. Sexual harassment laws
26. Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA)
27. Holiday pay
28. Employer dental, life, and vision insurance
29. Privacy rights
30. Pregnancy and parental leave
31. Military leave
32. The right to strike
33. Public education for children
34. Equal Pay Acts of 1963 & 2011 - requires employers pay men and women equally for the same amount of work
35. Laws ending sweatshops in the United States

The unions and the labor movement are one of our allies working with the trans community to get the Employment and Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) passed.

And with less than 70 days left until Election Day, this election is critical to us being able to keep all the precious things on that list that unions helped us get and the Republicans and US Chamber of Commerce wants to eliminate.  

So stop letting the GOP, Fox Noise and the conservafool movement bamboozle you into hatin' on unions and get busy not only supporting candidates that support the ability for people to organize to join a union, but support collective bargaining rights and all the other hard won workplace rights that are under attack. 

Happy Labour (Labor) Day!  

Texas Unjust Voter Suppression Law Unanimously Rejected

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott (R) was handed another loss in court today for the second time this week.

First the redistricting plan unanimously went down in flames, and today a federal three judge panel unanimously rejected the Texas Photo Voter ID voter suppression law passed by our Republifool controlled state legislature in 2011. 

"Uncontested record evidence conclusively shows that the implicit costs of obtaining SB 14-qualifying ID will fall most heavily on the poor and that a disproportionately high percentage of African Americans and Hispanics in Texas live in poverty,” according to the ruling written by U.S. Circuit Judge David Tatel and joined by U.S. District Judges Rosemary Collyer and Robert Wilkins. .

Tafel was appointed to the bench by President Bill Clinton, Collyer by President George W. Bush and Wilkins was appointed by President Barack Obama. 

Collyer was also part of the three judge panel that threw out the jacked up Republican concocted discriminatory redistricting plan earlier this week.  

Elections matter people.   The POTUS picks your federal judges, so it ain't as the GOP is lying to you just about the economy.  It's about the federal judiciary, the Supreme Court and who controls both for the next three decades or more.

But back to the wonderful news about this federal court ruling legally pimp slapping this photo voter ID voter suppression law.  

Abbott is probably going to waste more Texas taxpayer money appealing it to the Supreme Court, but the upshot of this ruling is that all we Texans will need to cast ballots on November 6 in the Lone Star State or during the early voting period is our yellow voter registration cards.  

Thank you Section 5 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and Attorney General Eric Holder. 

I'll be celebrating this win by as soon as early voting starts in October by heading to the nearest early voting center and casting another proud ballot for President Obama and every Democratic candidate I see on it..

You racist Teapublican conservafools have pissed me off that much.

NABJ Comments On The Lack Of Debate Moderator Diversity

I had my say about the problematic lack of diversity when the presidential and vice presidential debate moderator selections were announced.  So did the NAACP and Univision's president on behalf of the Latino/a community. 

It was appalling that in an election year which will feature the most diverse electorate ever in American history and has an African-American president running for re-election, those October debates with have no African-American, Latino/a or Asian journalists posting questions to the 2012 presidential and vice presidential candidates. . 

In case you're wondering, the last African-American male journalist to serve as a presidential debate moderator was CNN's Bernard Shaw in 1988.

Former ABC News anchor Carole Simpson was the last African-American female to moderate a presidential debate, doing so in 1992. 

Gwen Ifill of PBS has moderated two vice presidential debates in 2004 and 2008.  

The National Association of Black Journalists are definitely not happy about the vanillacentric debate moderator selections whitewashed by the Commission on Presidential debates either, and here's what they had to say about it on August 17:

NABJ is disappointed that the journalists chosen to participate in the presidential debates don't reflect what has become the most diverse electorate in U.S. history. 

While we commend the selection of the first woman moderator in 20 years, we find it unacceptable that no journalists of color will be involved. The Commission on Presidential Debates, which announced the selections this week, blamed the omission on "debate arithmetic." Frankly, the math doesn't add up.

There is no absence of qualified journalists of color, or those with experience as debate moderators, such as NABJ Hall of Fame member Gwen Ifill, of PBS.

By excluding journalists of color, the commission failed to satisfy an important public interest given that racial and ethnic minorities will contribute roughly one quarter of the votes cast on Election Day. Any credible analysis has shown that their turnout, or lack thereof, will be a decisive factor in the presidential contest. This year, both presidential campaigns and their parties are devoting more resources than ever to reaching non-white voters.

Yet the commission has minimized the significance of our nation's changing identity, as well as the role of minority journalists in informing an increasingly diverse public. We believe the commission wasted an opportunity to use its unique platform in a manner that encourages more citizens to participate in the democratic process.

"The commission had a chance to embrace the racial kaleidoscope that the American electorate is fast becoming, and chose instead to remain blind to it," Sonya Ross, chair of NABJ’s Political Journalism Task Force, said. "It is time to end this cyclical charade of treating equally deserving, equally capable journalists of color as if they are invisible, unqualified, or both. I would like to invite the commission, along with leading entities in political media, to join the task force in making a concerted effort to ensure a truly diverse set of presidential debate moderators for 2016."

So why is this lack of debate moderator diversity a big fracking deal to POC's?   In addition to the fact there has never been an Asian or Latino presidential debate moderator of either gender, non-white voters will be the decisive voting blocs in several swing states.

We need to hear the presidential and vice presidential candidates answer debate questions that are geared toward our policy concerns and issues as people of color. 

As NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous stated, “The lack of diversity among this year’s debate moderators is representative of the overall lack of diversity in news media. Whether it’s as primetime news anchors, debate moderators, or commentators on the influential Sunday morning political talk shows, people of color — and African Americans specifically — are strikingly underrepresented.”

That is what we POC Americas are complaining about, the lack of representation.

A debate setting is one of those times Republican candidates, who avoid non-white media outlets on a routine basis because they don't want to answer those tough questions from POC journalists, have to do precisely that, especially if the moderator is a person of color. 

Some of those issues and policy concerns (let's be real here) white journalists aren't culturally fluent in or it wouldn't immediately occur to them to ask those types of questions from our non-white points of view because we do live in two vastly different American realities.      

If you are going to run for president of the United States, then you have to be president for ALL Americans, not just a vanillacentric 63% slice of th population.   If you are setting up debates to ask the people running for the highest political offices in the land questions, the journalists asking those questions also need to reflect the diversity of our nation.

 

Univision President Decries Lack Of Debate Moderator Diversity

Looks like I wasn't the only person along with the National Association of Black Journalists that noticed the lack of debate moderator diversity in the upcoming October presidential and vice presidential debates.

Univision President Randy Falco wrote a letter that put the Commission on Presidential Debates on blast for their vanillacentric and major network centric selections of debate moderators.

"This November more than 20 million Hispanics could play a critical role in electing the new President of the United States and it is important that they make an informed decision," Falco wrote. "The debates announced yesterday presented an ideal opportunity to tap one of the two best journalists in the business who have a broad understanding of the domestic and international issues facing this country, understand the Hispanic community better than anyone else and are fully bilingual: Jorge Ramos and Maria Elena Salinas."

The other Latino journalists whose names were rumored to have been considered for moderator slots were CNN's Soledad O'Brien and Telemundo's Jose Diaz-Balart.  

As the fastest growing minority group that will make up by 2050 a third of the population of the United States, the 2012 presidential candidates should have to answer questions posed by Latino journalists in a debate setting just as they needed to answer questions from African-American journalists.

The importance of having POC journalists is magnified when one of the presidential candidates has been routinely ducking non-white journalists on a regular basis.

Falco also offered in his letter to the Commission to create a Latino forum for both presidential candidates to participate in.

"Since you have already made your decision on moderators for the debates and have neglected to have someone speak credibly to the concerns of Hispanics in America, Univision would be willing to create a forum for the presidential candidates to address this sector of our society."

Janet Brown, the Debate Commission's executive director tried to deflect the justified criticism coming their way about the glaring omission of journalists of color.   In addition to stating the Commission was not creating the requested forum,  she wrote this in response to Falco.

"We recognize that there are many organizations and individuals who wish they had been included in our moderator selection. Debate arithmetic means that it is impossible to accommodate all of them. However, we strongly believe that the four journalists we have named see their assignment as representing all Americans in their choice of topics and questions. The general election debates have always focused on issues of national interest that affect all citizens, including Univision’s audience.  We have met with Univision about joint efforts to get the largest number of people possible engaged in discussing and learning from the debates, and remain interested in working with you toward that goal."

Yeah, right.  This is a cop-out statement and a recognition the Commission fracked up by not adding journalists of color for these debates.  It also doesn't address the valid point that Falco made that the four journalists chosen as moderators don't have experience or cultural fluency with the issues the Latino community faces. 

It's also arrogant and insulting of Ms. Brown or the commission to presume that non-white journalists aren't capable of asking debate questions that would appeal to all American citizens, since it has been effortlessly done by Carole Simpson in the 1992 presidential debate and Gwen Ifill most recently in the 2004 and 2008 vice presidential ones. .

Debate Commission leadership, it's past time for you to recognize the reality that the 'all citizens' part of that statement Ms. Brown crafted also includes non-white Americans.    
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2012 Olympics Watch-The Drive For Five Is Golden!

The USA women's ballers used a devastating 19-0 third period run to blow the gold medal game wide open and cruise to a comfortable 86-50 win over France and their fifth straight gold medal since 1996..

It was also their 41st consecutive win in Olympic competition dating back to the bronze medal game of the 1992 Barcelona Games, with the last time the USA lost on the women's side being to the Unified Team AKA Russia in the semifinals.

While I'm happy to see the sustained excellence of the USA women, I worry that the IOC will yank the sport out of the Olympic program for the same reason they pulled softball because we're dominating it. 

Hey world, all I have to say on that is ramp up your level of play like we've had to do in the sports you dominate.  .    

2012 Olympics Watch-40.82!

For American track fans, winning the 4x100 and 4x400 relays in an Olympics or World Championships is like winning the gold medal in basketball.

It's expected due to the long and distinguished history in these events on both the men's and women's sides..   

The USA women prior to 2000 had won the 4x100 relay nine of the 16 times the event had been held with the last win being in the 1996 Atlanta Games.

During the Sydney Games a relay team featuring gold medal winner Marion Jones had to settle for bronze because of a sloppy second exchange between Torri Edwards and Nanceen Perry.

In Athens in 2004, they bungled the second exchange again and failed to finish because Lauryn Williams started too early and Jones passed her the baton beyond the legal zone. 

And in Beijing the buzzard's luck for the women's 4x100 relay team continued.  They didn't even make the final because they failed to finish in their qualifying heat.

Track fans in the States were getting restless with the miscues and the gold medal drought in one of the events we consider a signature one for our Olympic track teams of either gender. 

The drought ended in resounding fashion last night.   Not only did the USA quartet of Tianna Madison, Allyson Felix, Bianca Knight and Carmelita Jeter win gold, they beat their Jamaican rivals in a resounding world record setting time of 40.82 seconds.

They took out the 41.37 record set in 1985 by East Germany and also took out the East German 1988 Olympic record in the process.


Great job ladies.   Now how about an encore in Rio?

Draft Language Of 2012 Democratic Party Platform ENDA Plank

If you TBLG community voters are still pondering with less than three months to go which party really wants your rainbow votes on November 6, perhaps this latest news should get your attention.

The draft language for the 2012 Platform plank on ENDA.

We know that putting America back to work is job one, and we are committed to ensuring Americans do not face employment discrimination. We support the Employment Non-Discrimination Act because people should not be fired based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.

President Obama and the Democratic Party are committed to ensuring all Americans are treated fairly. This administration hosted the first-ever White House Conference on Bullying Prevention and we must continue our work to prevent vicious bullying of young people and support LGBT youth. The President’s record, from ending “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in full
cooperation with our military leadership, to passing the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, to ensuring same-sex couples can visit each other in the hospital, reflects Democrats’ belief that all Americans deserve the same chance to pursue happiness, earn a living, be safe in their communities, serve their country, and take care of the ones they love.

One of the people participating on the 2012 Democratic Party's platform committee is TPOCC's executive director Kylar Broadus.   It looks like trans Democrats voices and the allies who support an inclusive ENDA were heard in this process.    .

2012 Olympics Watch-This Time It's For The Gold Medal

The last time Japan and Team USA clashed with a title on the line it was during the the 2011 Women's World Cup final in Frankfurt, Germany.   Japan was recovering from the March earthquake and  tsunami that devastated the northeastern part of the country, and the Nadeshiko Japan rode that wave of international goodwill and determined play to go on a World Cup run that ended with a stunning penalty kick shootout win over Team USA and the FIFA world title..   

It's a year later, and the stage is now a sold out Wembley Stadium and the Olympic Final.   Once again it's Japan and Team USA battling for women's soccer supremacy, and once again the USA comes into the match with the history on their side.   They have won four out of the five Olympic titles since women's soccer became part of the Olympic program in 1996 and are working on a gold medal threepeat .

They also have bitter memories of that loss in Germany and want to atone for it.

"It's definitely redemption," said Carli Lloyd. But it's also opportunity to show that we're the No. 1 team in the world. This game is going to be different. We're a different team. Japan's a different team, and we're ready to bring it."

FIFA world champion Japan wants to make more history and prove their penalty kick shootout win over  the FIFA women's world number one ranked team USA wasn't a one hit wonder.

We'll find out at 1 PM CDT which team takes home the gold.  (Stop hatin', Canada)
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2012 Olympics Watch-USA Advances To Gold Medal Match In Controversial Semifinal

The USA has pretty much owned the international soccer border war with Canada throughout our time playing the beautiful game on the women's side.  

But the 500th match for Team USA is guaranteed to be a memorable one for many reasons on both sides of the border.

The USA entered today's semifinal match at Old Trafford with history and momentum on their side.  They had never failed to reach an Olympic final since women's soccer was added to Games sports calendar in 1996, and the Americans hadn't lost to Canada since 2001.   They were unbeaten in this 2012 Olympic tournament and Hope Solo had posted three shutouts since the opening 4-2 comeback win over France.  
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But the lure of Thursday's gold medal match at Wembley Stadium added additional fuel to the desire for the Canadians to end their 11 year losing streak to Team USA.

Christine Sinclair put the Canadian team on her back and carried them for the initial 90 minutes.  She had a hat trick in this one after failing to score in the last six contests against Team USA with goals in the 22nd, 67th and 78th minutes, but Team USA has a refuse to lose mentality.  

Every time she scored, the USA answered it with two from Megan Rapinoe in the 54th and 70th minute and a controversial penalty kick goal from Abby Wambach in the 80th minute..

Referee Christina Pedersen had warned McLeod for time wasting earlier in the match and finally penalized her with a whistle for unsportsmanlike conduct, giving the USA an indirect free-kick a couple yards inside the penalty area. Tobin Heath tapped the free kick to the right and Carli Lloyd took a right-footed shot that hit Nault’s arm. Pederson did not hesitate to point to the spot.  Wambach calmly placed the penalty kick to the left side of the net past the diving McLeod for her 143rd international goal and a 3-3 tie..

The stage was then set for Alex Morgan's sheroics, but not after some nervous moments for both teams in overtime. 

In the 123rd minute with the game looking like it was headed for the first ever penalty kick shootout Morgan with seconds left in the third and final minute of stoppage time rose over defender Chelsea Stewart to meet a cross from Heather O’Reilly and loop her header over Canadian goalkeeper Erin McLeod's desperate outstretched arm to seal a historic victory.

“For some reason we like to make things dramatic. I’m really happy that Alex Morgan is on my team. This team doesn’t give up" said Abby Wambach.  "This is what we’re about. This is what we’ve been working for since the day we lost to Japan in the World Cup final. We know that it’s not going to be easy. We didn’t anticipate a game like this, but we’re willing to deal with whatever is thrown at us. I’m so thankful that people kept believing in us, that we kept believing in ourselves. We stuck with it until the end.”

Nope, it wasn't but Team USA is about to get what they came to London for, a shot at redemption versus the FIFA world champions.   On Thursday the US gets a chance to avenge the 2011 Women's World Cup final against Japan while a bitterly disappointed Canadian team moves on to play France for the bronze medal.   

2012 Olympic Watch-USA vs Canada In Olympic Women's Soccer Knockout Semis

Back in January the USA and Canadian women's soccer teams met in the CONCACAF qualifying tournament that was held in Vancouver to determine who the two reps from our FIFA region would be for the London Olympics.   It was a match that had a disappointing ending for our northern neighbors as the USA beat Canada 4-0.

Fast forward to August and we are now deep into the Olympic women's soccer tournament knockout rounds.   Surprise surprise, Canada and the USA are facing each other on one side of the women's Olympic soccer semifinal bracket while FIFA world champ Japan takes on France in the other semifinal.

Canada knocked off the host nation Great Britain 2-0 in the quarters while Team USA was doing the same thing to New Zealand by the same 2-0 score.

The win over New Zealand kept their streak alive of playing in the semifinals of all the Olympic tournaments in which women's soccer has been contested.   Team USA women have also played in the semifinals of all six FIFA Women's World Cups.

The semifinal match will take place tomorrow at Old Trafford in Manchester, England starting at 1:45 PM CDT.   It will be the 500th international match that the USA women have played and just in case you're wondering, they have a 388-57-54 record.   

But back to tomorrow's game.   Since the opening 4-2 win against France, Hope Solo and Team USA have posted a 4-0 record and have posted three shutouts.   But we're facing our neighbors with a chance to go to the Olympic gold medal match on the line.     


And bragging rights between moi and a certain Canadian blogger are on the line as well.  

2012 Olympic Watch-Serena's Golden!

Just finished watching Little Sis blitz Russia's Maria Sharapova 6-0, 6-1 in a little over an hour to capture the 2012 Olympic women's singles gold medal.  

Serena not only didn't drop a set in this golden run to the singles title at the All England Club, she only lost 17 games total while doing so. 

Serena also made a little history in the process.  Little Sis is the first female player ever to achieve the career Golden Slam in singles and doubles.

The Golden Slam is winning all four major tennis tournaments plus winning an Olympic singles gold medal.  To recap, Serena just picked up her singles gold in London, and is on track with Big Sis to possibly win doubles gold.   She and Big Sis won doubles gold in 2000 and 2008.

Speaking of the London Olympic doubles tournament, my fave tennis playing siblings will take on the Russian duo of  Maria Kirilenko and Nadia Petrova in the semifinals of the women's doubles tournament, with the winners challenging the Czech Republic's duo of Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka in the gold-medal match.

They beat Hlavackova and Hradecka a few weeks ago for their 'Williams'-don doubles title, and the way Serena is playing right now I have no doubts should they get past the Russian duo they will do so again.

But you still have to platy the matches.

Congrats Serena.  If anyone doubted (or hated on the fact) that you are one of the greatest tennis players of all time, they don't have much of an argument any more.

TransGriot Update:  Serena and Venus are in tomorrow's doubles final after beating Kirilenko and Petrova in straight sets 7-5, 6-4.

2012 Olympic Watch-London Blowout

Team USA's mens b-ballers are 2-0 in Group A play and despite a comfortable 98-71 win over France and a 110-63 win over Tunisia, there were two things I had been worried about with this team.

I'd been concerned about the slow starts of the starting five players, who were being majorly outscored by the bench brigade 180-10 and the abysmal three point shooting so far. 

The new FIBA 3-point line is a foot shorter than the NBA distance and I was wondering if that was impacting them  After yesterday's record setting 156-73 game against Nigeria that tore up the Olympic basketball record books, I'm not worrying about their three point shooting abilities for the rest of this tournament.  

Their winning margin of 83 points beat Team USA's previous Olympic best of 72 points against Thailand set during a 101-29 win in 1956.   Kobe Bryant got an initial 13-0 scoring run started with a three ball on the opening possession of the game as the USA lit up a Nigerian team that started the game packing the paint with a record setting 29-46 barrage from 3 point range (63 percent) and shot 71 percent for the game.

Team USA scored 49 points in the first quarter, had 78 by halftime, passed the 100 point mark midway in the third quarter and after Andre Igoudala hit another (ho hum) three pointer with 4:37 left in the game to give them a 139-68 lead, they surpassed the previous Olympic record 138 points Brazil scored in a 1988 game with Egypt. 

The 78 first half points broke the old Olympic record of 72 scored by that same 1988 Oscar Schmidt led Brazilian team against China. 
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Oh yeah, considering FIBA basketball quarters are only 10 minutes long, unlike the 12 minute ones you get in the NBA, the numbers are eye popping to say the least. 

Carmelo Anthony's 37 points in 14 minutes of work thanks to 10-12 three point shooting broke the 31 point US Olympic record set by Stephon Marbury against Spain in 2004. 

The 2012 Team USA even one-upped the 1992 Dream Team. The 83-point margin of victory eclipsed the 79 point spread that the Dream Teamers put on Cuba when they beat them 136-57.

But playtime is over for Team USA with games against Lithuania on Saturday and Manu Ginobili-led Argentina waiting for them on the schedule.   

2012 Olympic Watch-USA Women's Vollyballers Beat China

The number one world ranked USA women's volleyball team has embarked on a mission in which no USA women's Olympic volleyball team has gone before:  Getting to the top step of the medal podium.

Team USA clinched a spot in the quarterfinals after beating number 3 world ranked China in Group B play in straight sets 26-24, 25-16, 31-29. in a battle of Group B unbeaten teams.

Destinee Hooker did much of the damage scoring 22 points wit Megan Hodge added 18 points to help them go to 3-0 in pool play with matches remaining against 0-3 Serbia on August 3 and 1-2 Turkey on August 5.

If Team USA wins their remaining two matches, they would finish at the top of the group and would face the number 4 team from Group A in their opening knockout quarterfinal match..

2012 Olympic Watch-USA Women's Teams Continue To Win

In this Olympic Games which is being contested during the 40th anniversary year of Title IX, it's been interesting to note how well the USA women's team sports are doing vis a vis their male counterparts.  

This is the first ever USA Olympic team that has more female than male competitors, and one of the reasons for it was there were American women's teams that qualified for field hockey and soccer and our men's teams fell short of doing so.

That's a nice segue into doing some updates on how the various women's team sports are doing.  

The USA women's soccer team clinched Group G with a 1-0 over North Korea at Manchester United's  iconic home park of Old Trafford thanks to Abby Wambach's 141st international goal in the 25th minute and her seventh in Olympic play.   It was the first women's soccer match played there in 23 years and going into the match Team USA already had their August 3 quarterfinal spot clinched due to their two wins over France and Colombia    It was just a matter of whether they would do so as group champs or the runner ups..

They will play New Zealand in Newcastle in that quarterfinal knockout round match Friday. 

At 'The Mattress', AKA the Basketball Arena the USA women rolled to a 90-38 win over Angola to go to 2-0 in Group A play and take their Olympic winning streak to 35 games. 

The Angolans stayed close to Team USA in the first quarter and were only trailing by 10 points until Team USA went on a 11-0 run that broke the game open along with holding Angola to only six points in the second quarter to take a 41-18 halftime lead.

Team USA outscored Angola 28-11 in the third quarter thanks to 8-0 and 12-0 runs and by the time they reached the 4:06 mark all eleven available players had scored.  Sylvia Fowles didn't play in this game and next up is Turkey at 4:15 PM CDT.

Over at Earl's Court, the USA women's volleyball team is still rolling along unbeaten in Pool B play as well.  They knocked off number 2 ranked Brazil in four sets 25-18, 25-17, 22-25, 25-21 to go 2-0 in pool play and now face number 3 ranked and unbeaten 2-0 China for the outright lead.   

2012 Olympics Watch-Great Day For USA Women's Olympic Sports Teams

Saturday was the first official day of competition of the 2012 London Games and to paraphrase an old Ice Cube rap song, today was a good day for the USA's women's Olympic sports teams. 

The USA women's basketball team started on the road to a fifth consecutive gold medal by getting Group A pool play started in the Basketball Arena with an 81-56 win over a scrappy Croatia team that has been zooming up the FIBA basketball rankings lately.

Croatia trailed 11-4 after the first quarter but sloppy USA play, early shooting woes and turnovers kept Croatia close.  Croatia started lighting it up from three point range in the second quarter after attempting and failing to score inside and were rewarded with a shockingly brief second quarter lead and visions of a ginormous upset dancing in their heads until Diana Taurasi launched back to back threes of her own that gave Team USA a narrow 31-28 halftime lead.

Team USA went to work expanding that narrow lead to a six point cushion by the end of the third quarter thanks to Angel McCoughtry coming off the bench to provide an offense and defensive spark.

A 16-0 fourth quarter run secured their 34th consecutive win in Olympic b-ball play since the 1996 Atlanta Games.   Next up is Angola, and you can bet Team USA will be ready for that game.

While the USA roundballers were getting their Olympic pool play wakeup call,  the Team USA soccer players were in Glasgow, Scotland's Hampden Park playing in a rough and tumble match with a scrappy Colombia that featured 30 fouls and goals from Megan Rapinoe, Abby Wambach and Carli Lloyd.

Wambach's goal in the 74th minute was her 140th career international one and her sixth in Olympic play to pass Mia Hamm and Tiffeny Milbrett on the USA all time Olympic goal scoring list.

The had fought 3-0 win guaranteed that Team USA would make it to the quarterfinals, and they can capture Group G with a win or draw against North Korea at Old Trafford in Manchester, England on July 31.

The world number one ranked USA women's indoor volleyball team is attempting to win our first ever Olympic gold medal.  

They got their Olympic tournament started at Earl's Court in a positive manner with a 3-1 Group B win over South Korea and a dominating performance by Destinee Hooker.  

Team USA took the first two sets by 25-19 and 25-17 scores before the South Koreans clawed their way back into the match by taking the third set 25-20.  Team USA regrouped and with the score at 15-14 in that fourth set went on a 7-1 run to take a 22-15 lead to put them on the way to clinching the set and eventually a hard fought 25-21 win  


Their next Group B match will be on July 30 against number two world ranked Brazil.  Like Team USA, Brazil is considered a gold medal favorite and have been traditionally strong in the sport.   Brazil held the FIVB number one world ranking for four years until the USA took it over at the end of 2011.

After the July 30th volleyball tussle with Brazil Team USA has matches remaining with China, Serbia and Turkey and must finish in the top four teams in their group to move on to the medal round.

But Saturday was a great step in the right direction for the USA women volleyballers and the other USA women's team sports that have gold medal dreams.
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