Testifying For HB 1513

Been resting after spending  ten days away from Houston for BTAC and another trip to state capitol to testify in favor of a trans positive bill.

After the 9 AM CDT press conference, I spent  the rest of the day visiting a few House and senate offices to kill time before the 2 PM scheduled start of the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee meeting was scheduled to start. 

But because we're mercifully getting close to the end of this Texas legislative session, the House session didn't adjourn until 6 PM, with the committee meeting not starting until 6:30 PM

By the time I and Claire Bow, Danielle Skidmore, Ash Hall, and Leslie McMurry finally got to testify it was two hours later. 

Only one hater from Texas Values showed up, but it wasn't who I expected.   Instead of Jonathan Saenz doing his hatemongering personally, he sent a Black woman to try and fail do the job.

Sadly, the bill was left pending in committee despite our compelling testimony as to why trans Texans should be added to the Byrd hate Crimes Act.   That means if it doesn't pass out of committee and by the full House by Friday, it dies for this session. 

While I'm disappointed by that result,  Rep Garnet Coleman (D-Houston) has made it clear he will introduce that bill when the next session takes place in 2021.

And I and my Texas trans community will be there in force when it's time to testify in favor of it

Moni's In Las Vegas!

My first trip outside of Texas takes me to Las Vegas, and the landing was a little more exciting that I wanted, but I'm here in one piece until Sunday.  It's also the first time I've ever spent time in Clark County, NV besides transiting the airport.

But it's not a vacation,  it's actually a business trip.  I'm here for the Working Families Party Spring School along with some of my colleagues from Trans United Fund.

In case you're wondering who and what is that group, the Working Families Party is a progressive organization founded in New York in 1998 by a coalition of labor unions, civic organizations, and advocacy groups.

They are a growing progressive organization dedicated to fighting for an economy that works for all of us, not just the 1% billionaires and a democracy in which every voice matters.  Working Families now has chapters in New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Oregon and Washington DC

The policies they are pushing for are a livable wage, affordable housing, raising the minimum wage, universal single payer health care, better public schools, and more investment in public services.

This Spring School is a multi day training that is happening here, and it's going to be interesting to see what other persons and organizations are here and what transpires over the next few days until I head back to the Lone Star State.  

Leaving On A Jet Plane To- Las Vegas

My first trip outside of Texas in 2018 is also to a place that I'm visiting for the first time in Las Vegas, Nevada.   It also comes with a large slice of deja vu attached to it.

I get to travel out of IAH on United.   I get to not only see my former coworkers who haven't retired yet, I also get to walk through Terminal C and E exactly one week after my transiversary. 

When I made my first trip to Portland, Oregon back in 1996, we hadn't started non-stop trips to PDX yet, so I had the options of either flying to Las Vegas, Phoenix or San Francisco on Continental, then fly an America West flight up there from whichever of those airports I chose up to PDX and back and back.   We has a code share and pass agreement with America West at the time, so it wasn't going to cost me more than the standard pass charges no matter which way I went.

I decided to go through Las Vegas.   I had a 45 minute layover, and I knew about the slot machines in the McCarran International terminal waiting to relieve you of more cash.   I had every intention of sitting there, exercising my Taurean willpower and resisting the temptation to play until my flight boarded.

That only lasted 10 minutes, so I ended up playing one of the nearby quarter slot machines.   

$1.75 of playing later I hit it for $25 dollars just as it was time for me to board my America West flight to Portland, so I was forced to grab my money and go. 

My luck was even better on the America West flight.  The head flight attendant on this trip was one I helped non- rev on one of my CAL flights two weeks earlier.   She raved to her crewmates about the service I'd provided for her at my gate, and was determined to return the favor.  Her America West crew spoiled me rotten on that flight to Portland even though I was in the back with a row to myself.   
On the way back to IAH I had a much longer layover in Vegas for my Continental redeye back to Houston, so once again I killed some time by playing the airport quarter slot machines.   

It only took me only $1.25 of play this time to hit for a $15 payday.  I immediately quit while I was ahead of the game and took my winnings to grab something to eat in the airport food court before it was time to board my plane back home. 

It took 21 years, but this time I get to leave the airport and stay in the city for the first time.  It had always been on my domestic trip bucket list, but never got the opportunity to take it as an employee.

Now I get to go to Vegas for a multiday training and also stay in a hotel on the famed Las Vegas Strip.  I also have two cousins who live there that hopefully I'll get some quality time with before I have to come back to Texas on Sunday

.
See y'all in a few hours Las Vegas,       

Stop Sliming Activists And Start Appreciating Them

There's a Facebook conversation happening amongst several of us activists that triggered this post.

In the discussion we're talking about our frustrations with getting slimed, backstabbed, disrespected and slandered by the communities we are trying to serve to the best of our ability. 

We are also discussing the shady two bit three block 'activists' who are only in it for their 15 minutes of fame or who actively work to undermine the people who are successfully doing the work for whatever reason.

Being a human rights warrior is a tough job and can take a toll on you if you're not practicing regular self care   The doctor who did the autopsy on the Rev. Dr Martin Luther King shortly after his assassination 50 years ago noted that Dr King, despite being only 39 years old at the time of his death, had the heart of a 60 year old in large part due to all the stress he was under being the principal leader of the African American Civil Rights Movement.   

As I execute my human rights work, I constantly think about a comment that Barbara Smith made during the Black Feminism plenary panel at #CC16 in Chicago when the discussion turned to self care that has stuck with me to this day. 

"We need live revolutionaries, not dead martyrs". 

As someone who has spent 20 years of my more than a half century on this planet fighting for the human rights of transgender humans and other people, I understand how the petty BS in the activism ranks can can drive a person with a heart full of love for their people and a desire to make a better world for everyone walk away from it.

I actually stepped away for two years from national work after I got backstabbed on a 2002 NTAC initiative by a white trans woman that would have if we had gotten the opportunity to execute what was discussed in that Marietta, GA meeting advanced Trans 101 knowledge and info about the Black trans community to the Congressional Black Caucus, Southern Christian Leadership Conference and national NAACP much earlier.


So yeah, I feel y'all when the discussion turns to being backstabbed by other morally bankrupt activists who are in it for their 15 minutes of fame or selfish reasons.

But know that the 'activists' who choose that crabs in a barrel approach to build their activist platform will fail.  Backstabbing your way to prominence may work to get you where you wish to go in the short term, but in the long run it you will have zero credibility, will make a lot of enemies in the process, and karma will get you sooner or later.

Activism at its core, is building working relationships and partnerships with diverse groups of people or organizations that you can reliably call on to help you solve problems when you need it. 

I have also witnessed in my 20 years 'activists' who are committing repeated civil rights malpractice but want to prevent more competent leaders from rising to successfully do the work the haters don't have the skill set to do.

I've had happen in my 20 years of activism the hurtful thing of trans people running away from me because they are afraid of being outed as trans if they are seen standing next to my unapologetically Black trans activist behind.
I've seen the idiotic online comments from peeps slamming activists stating we should 'stop stirring up trouble' because it's 'causing problems' in their low/ no disclosure lives, and if we activists would just stop 'stirring up trouble' the haters would leave us (and them) alone. 

But those same people attacking us, like the ones running away from me and other trans activists, when they get into trouble are the first ones blowing up my phone trying to call me and other activists demanding help to solve their problem when anti-trans discrimination kicks them in the rear.

No boo boo trans kitties, the haters aren't going to leave us alone if we do nothing.  See the 40 plus years of TERF hatred aimed at us as an example of that or the conservafool anti-trans legislation popping up like weeds in the garden of democracy.

You don't get your humanity and human rights respected unless you repeatedly demand it and relentlessly fight for it.

And if you haven't noticed, we have an incompetent orange white supremacist with his tiny hands on the nuke launch button in the White House.    In this critical time for American democracy, activists are needed now more than ever if it is to survive this crisis.

Angelic troublemakers will always be needed and necessary to hold people, organizations and politicians accountable for bad policies and unjust laws.  It's what we activists do.   Activists are the angelic troublemakers that Bayard Rustin was talking about. 

We are the people who through our efforts, shine a light on the issues of the day, and facilitate the conversations that help move society toward being better for all parties.

So it's past time to start appreciating the people who do that work instead of sliming them.
 

Keeping My Houston City Council First Meeting of the Year Tradition Going

One of the New Year's traditions I've been observing that's a fairly new one for me is to attend the first Houston City Council meeting of the year.

It started out of necessity in 2014 when in the wake of Mayor Annise Parker's election to her final term in November 2013, the chatter about a Houston non-discrimination ordinance started ramping up.  Dee Dee Watters and I were concerned that transgender Houstonians would be left out of it because we had no elected trans representation on council, and we showed up at the first Council meeting of 2014 with several Houston Black trans peeps in tow.

At that January 2014 public comment meeting we insisted that any Houston non-discrimination ordinance being considered for adoption cover gender identity in order to protect the trans community. 

We also served notice at that January 2014 meeting that any attempt to pass a HERO without trans protections would leave the Houston trans community with no choice but to work to kill it. 

That's how it started, and ever since then either both of us or one of us will make certain that we are in the council chambers for that first council meeting of the year. 

Today it was my smiling face bringing Happy New Year greetings from the trans community, thanking Mayor Turner, HPD Chief Art Acevedo and his command staff for attending the vigil we held at City Hall for Brandi Seals, our Houston trans sister who was murdered last month. 

I also called for a renewed push to pass HERO 2.0 since in the wake of the November 2015 repeal of HERO, discrimination incidents, especially aimed at the Houston TBLGQ community have been rising.

And as soon as the video pops up, I'll post it.

We'll see what happens as the rest of 2018 transpires, but I definitely will be keeping an eye on Houston City Hall and won't rest until it does.

And yes, I'll be at the first meeting in January 2019.   That's an election year in H-town.

What Is Trans Activism?

I recently had some allegedly Black 'gender critical' transwoman(?) step to me with some BS trying to put out in the Twiitterverse  a loud and wrong interpretation of what trans activism is.

After I went Cookie Lyons on her clueless behind, I took a moment to ponder as someone who have been actively involved in making trans human rights a reality for the last 17 years, my thoughts as to what exactly Trans Activism is about.

Ahem, school is in session.

Trans Activism is an international human rights movement to recognize our humanity and protect it with the force of law in all the nations that we inhabit.

Trans Activism is creating the societal conditions for respect, acknowledgement and acceptance of the humanity of trans people..

Trans Activism is pushing for the ability to be able to fully participate in society without stigma.and live a quality life at any age.

Trans Activism is pushing for medical transphobia free, culturally competent and affordable trans and non-trans specific health care.

Trans Activism is pushing back against inaccurate, transphobic and outright false portrayals of our trans lives in the media and trans people doing more to ensure control of that collective media message.. 

Trans Activism is fearlessly speaking truth to power inside and outside the communities we intersect and interact with

 Trans Activism is having the opportunity and ability to enjoy the same first class citizenship and human rights  that cis people take for granted.

Trans Activism is making sure we exercise the citizenship rights we have under our control such as voting, lobbying legislators, and running for public office.

Trans Activism is ensuring we have a participatory seat at the table to formulate the policies that impact us, and building and sustaining our own organizations to ensure we are able to do so..

Trans Activism is knowing our trans history, defending it from erasure by whoever tries it, and passing it on amongst ourselves and to the next generation of trans people.

Trans Activism is fighting for the ability to openly walk down the street without being harassed, misgendered, assaulted or murdered just for having the courage to live our authentic lives.

Trans Activism is developing and maintaining pride in being a trans human being and developing community rooted in that pride of being trans men and women.

Trans Activism is the ability for those who wish to do so, openly serve in the armed forces of the various nations we inhabit.

Trans Activism is building  up trans economic power to complement our social and political power.

Trans Activism is engaging in ongoing leadership development, constantly ensuring that the folks who do step up to leadership roles are up to the task, and those leaders are held accountable to the community for their actions or lack thereof on our behalf..

Trans Activism is acting intersectionally in genuine reciprocal partnership with others, supporting them in their hour of need and working together on issues of mutual concern.

Trans Activism is fighting for the day that trans people are accepted, valued and fully integrated in society, our human rights are codified into law, and our existence and humanity is not subject to debate.

Moni's Headed To The HISD School Board Meeting

I'm preparing to head over to Houston northwest side and the Hattie Mae White Educational Support Center for today's 4 PM CDT HISD school board meeting that will determine the fate of my high school alma mater and Dodson Elementary School. 

And if you're wondering if I'm feeling a sense of deja vu about this, yes, I am. 

The HISD board of trustees is going to vote on that issue today, and I'm one of the speakers signed up in opposition to it.  

Superintendent Grier is proposing (again) to close the doors of Jesse H Jones at the end of this school year and send the students currently enrolled there to Sterling and Worthing high schools.  

I and a coalition of people are fighting to keep that from happening, and pointing out that HISD caused many of the problems the school is experiencing.

A press conference was held yesterday in front of Jones in which we pointed out once again the HISD has no legitimate reason to close Jones or Dodson Elementary and are tired of the school closure ax falling in predominately African-American neighborhoods.   . 

We'll see what happens at the school board meeting.   My HISD trustee Paula Harris said February 11 at the community meeting held at Jones there weren't five votes on the board (the majority) to close those schools.  But until the HISD board actually casts that binding vote in public at today's meeting, anything can happen.  


Will update y'all as to what is happening and how it turned out. 

DART Board Votes To Extends Domestic Partner Benefits!

It's been in the works for over a year and was delayed another few weeks by a walkout during the September 25 DART board meeting by members Michael Cheney (representing Garland) and Randall Chrisman (representing Carrollton, Irving) just as the issue was about to come up for a final vote.

The Cheney and Chrisman walkout denied the 15 member board a quorum and forced a delay of the final vote  until the October DART board meeting.    

But at last night's DART (Dallas Area Rapid Transit) board meeting my TBLG peeps and allies in North Texas got to celebrate their delayed major victory when the DART board voted 10-3 to extend health care benefits to the domestic partners of unmarried DART employees. 

Translation: that also extends them to SGL couples. 

We unfortunately have had since 2005 one of those odious marriage bans contaminating the Texas Constitution, so the words "same-sex partners" are not used in this DART policy because Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott (R) says the state does not recognize same-sex partnerships.  

DART's new policy was crafted with a major assist from Rafael McDonnell, the Communications and Advocacy Manager of Resource Center Dallas.and strikes a balance between Abbott's unjust rulings and the Supreme Court's decision to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act.    

The new DART policy takes effect in January and is a “one-plus” plan that will allow a DART employee to cover one unrelated adult in his or her household.

The unrelated adult cannot be eligible for health benefits through the government or another employer, and the person added must prove that he or she has lived with the DART employee for at least one year.

"This is an issue of fairness and competition," McDonnell said in an interview. "It sends a signal to future DART employees that this is a place that values you regardless of who you are and who you love."

Omar Narvaez echoed the feelings of many people supporting the measure and said the passage was a long time coming.

"This has probably been the most overly examined, low cost issue in DART history," Narvaez said  North Texas area TransGriot readers, here's the list of DART board members and how they voted on this domestic partners benefits issue so you know who to properly thank and show some love to. 

For
Richard Carrizales (Dallas)
Jerry Christian (Dallas)
Amanda Moreno Cross (Dallas)
John Danish (Irving)
Pamela Dunlop Gates (Dallas)
Gary Slagel (Addison, Highland Park, Richardson, University Park)
Robert Strauss (Dallas)
William Tsao (Dallas)
William Velasco II (Dallas, Cockrell Hill)
Faye Moses Wilkins (Farmers Branch, Plano)

Against
Michael Cheney (Garland)
Randall Chrisman (Carrollton, Irving)
Mark Enoch (Garland, Glenn Heights, Rowlett)

Absent
Jim Adams (Dallas)
Paul Wageman (Plano)

Congratulations North Texas BTLG family.  This was another win worth celebrating that once again points out to the peeps on I-5 and I-95 that just because you live in a Red state, it doesn't mean that you can't get GLBT human rights stuff passed.

Can't wait to see what y'all pull off on your end of I-45 next. 

Help Our San Antonio Trans Brothers And Sisters Pass A Trans Human Rights Non Discrimination Ordinance

TransGriot readers, need your help with a critical Lone Star State human rights mission. 

I wrote about the upcoming vote around September 5 concerning trans inclusive revisions to San Antonio's Human Rights ordinance that would prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation and is sorely needed. 

There was a contentious San Antonio City Council public hearing on the issue in which 120 people spoke pro and con about and we are also battling FOX Noise sliming and lying about the ordinance as well

This ordinance is desperately needed.  We have had two trans sisters sexually assaulted in 2005 and 2010 by two San Antonio cops who barely served any jail time for their crimes.  In 2011 we had a gender variant person there denied access to a Macy's dressing room by faith based transphobe Natalie Johnson who the local wingers there are trying to use as their  'christian persecution' poster child in opposition to the ordinance.

And that's before we even start talking about the Texas specific results of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey. 

It takes six votes on San Antonio City Council to pass ordinances.  As of this moment we have FIVE supporters for the changes who are Mayor Julián Castro, District 1 Councilman Diego Bernal, District 4 Councilman Rey Saldaña, District 5 Councilwoman Shirley Gonzales, and District 6 Councilman Ray Lopez.

Call them and tell them thank you for support the changes to the San Antonio Non-Discrimination Ordinance that prohibit discrimination on gender identity and sexual orientation grounds.

Two have said they are voting NO period, and they are  District 9 Councilwoman Elisa Chan and District 10 Councilman Carlton Soules.

But there are four people on council who haven't committed yet and one is rumored to be leaning NO.   The Forces of Intolerance and their FOX Noise allies sliming the changes need all FOUR of these people to vote their way to defeat the ordinance while all we need is just ONE.  Let's shoot to get ALL of them voting our way for an overwhelming victory.

Please respectfully ask these four people for their YES votes. 

Those councilmembers are District 2 Councilwoman Ivy Taylor, District 3 Councilwoman Rebecca Viagran, District 7 Councilman Cris Medina, and District 8 Councilman Ron Nirenberg . 

They need to hear people calling or e-mailing them in favor of this ordinance.  Mayor Castro and the San Antonio City Council are damned sure hearing from the Children of Darkness who are foaming at the mouth opposed to it.  Children of Light y'all need to get busy being just as zealous in FAVOR of this ordinance. 

You can share this website supporting equal rights in San Antonio.  You know that as I get further developments as to what's transpiring human rights wise on I-10 west I will keep you posted.

But start calling these folks tomorrow and don't stop until September 5 because the haters sure won't.

TransGriot Update: Here's a Change.org petition I'm asking you to sign and share asking the San Antonio City Council to support and vote for the inclusive non-discrimination ordinance.

CAUSA's website

Moni's At The March HISD Board Meeting

I talk about intersectionality a lot on this blog.   I also talk about the fact that I interact and intersect with a lot of communities besides just the trans one.  I also have policy and other issue interests besides trans human rights ones.

I talked about in the Saving JJ post about HISD's attempt to consolidate my old high school with one of our rivals in Ross Sterling.   It was a plan they attempted to shadily blitz through at the last minute and we raised enough of a stink to get the high school consolidation part of it tabled for now. 

I practice what I preach about intersectionality, and to prove it, here's video of the March 7 HISD school board meeting.   You'll see some trans blogger y'all know and love speaking during this board meeting.

JJ Gets A Reprieve

I wrote about your favorite blogger joining in the efforts to save my high school alma mater Jesse H. Jones from a consolidation neither we or the peeps at Ross S. Sterling wanted

It's one of those times where I get to practice what I preach on these pages in terms of working intersectionally and also make the point to those folks who know I'm a trans activist that I'm also paying attention to what happens in the African-American community.

I attended Monday's board agenda meeting in which Superintendent Terry Grier mischaracterized and pissed off us Jones alumni that afternoon.   He called the passionate way we tore into the board and documented the troubling pattern of closing schools in predominately Black neighborhoods and immediately turning them into charter schools during the February 26 meeting at JJ as 'racism'.

I called his azz out along several of my Falcon alums along with Sterling alum Larry McKinzie in an interview with a Houston Chronicle reporter shortly after I walked out of the board agenda meeting because I was still majorly pissed off and decided to remove myself from the room.

Larry and I were the only ones quoted in the article that ran in Thursday's edition of the Chronicle

Note to Superintendent Grier.  Racism=prejudice plus systemic power, not an epithet you sling when the uppity Black people correctly call you out on your double talk and bull feces.

I signed up to speak at the board meeting along with 23 other people signed up to speak on the proposed Jones-Sterling merger.   There were 26 signed up to speak on the merger of Cullen and Ryan middle schools which was also opposed by people in the Third Ward neighborhood where it sits.

There was an entire section of the HISD boardroom auditorium reserved for those of us signed up to speak that evening, and we were also cut from our normal three minutes to two because of the number of speakers.

I told my mom that there would be fireworks at this meeting and she might wish to watch it on public access and I was on target in that assessment.  I also noted along with many of us sitting there the conspicuous absence of Superintendent Terry Grier and the board member representing our area in Paula Harris 

After getting through the initial board business,  we got to the two issues Items E-1 and E-2 on the board agenda that were causing the drama.   

After getting through the twenty plus speakers who passionately pointed out why Ryan and Cullen needed to stay as separate schools, the board voted 5-3 to merge them to the disgust of the Ryan folks in the audience.

Then it was time to discuss Item E-2, the consolidation of Jones and Sterling.  As I and the other 22 speakers passionately made our case for either a NO vote or a tabling of the issue the tension continued to rise.  Then came the motion to table it and the unanimous 8-0 vote to do just that   Considering we were just finding out about this proposal only last week, it was an amazing result.

All we accomplished was buying ourselves some time.   It's up to us to come up with recommendations for programs that will attract neighborhood kids back to both campuses and  entice others from different parts of the city to go there.

And for those of you wondering why I got involved besides the fact it was my high school alma mater, as the proud child of a retired teacher education issues are important to me.  

It was African-American Texas legislators during Reconstruction that passed the laws to set up the public education system in our state. That obligates me and other African-American Texans to fight for better Houston and Texas public schools as a legacy for future generations just as they were thinking about our generation when they set it up back in the 19th century.  

So Jones Family and Raider Nation, we have work to do.  

Petition Delivered To LA Times-Meeting Soon

I posted a story about Gender Justice LA along with other trans people in the LA area being more than a little pissed off  about the disrespectful reporting in their paper of record concerning a recent article by reporter Sam Quinones that disrespected the slain Cassidy Vickers.

Hannah Howard brought to my attention the effort to not only collect signatures on a petition to be delivered to the Los Angeles Times offices asking the paper to use more sensitivity and care when it comes to covering transgender people and trans issues, they were also seeking a meeting to discuss community concerns about that coverage.

"The use of male pronouns, birth names, and terms like 'men with women's breasts and clothes' to refer to transgender women brings up painful memories for many of us in the transgender community," the petition states.  "Throughout our lives, people refuse to acknowledge our gender identities, use our birth names and birth genders to refer to us against our will, and respond with varying degrees of harassment and violence when we protest."

The petition containing over 300 names was delivered on Friday, and the Times agreed to meet with community members and GLAAD to discuss those issues.

Will keep you posted on this unfolding story..

Black Trans Brothers-What Can We Black Trans Women Do To Help You Own Your Power?

Ever since I transitioned, it's been necessary as a trans woman of African descent to paraphrase Barbara Jordan, to do more than just talk about the injustice and oppression we trans women of color have to constantly fight against and work to eradicate it..

I've had to along with other African descended transwomen step up to a leadership role in fighting anti-trans discrimination and oppression.  I'm proud and happy to see as our trans seniors begin the process of advising us.   I'm pleased to see our younger generation of trans women begin to step up to those leadership positions and be trans human rights warriors around the country as well.      

But it's not just us.  We've had African descended transmen who have stepped up to the national leadership ranks such as the late Alexander John Goodrum, the late Marcelle Cook-Daniels, Kylar Broadus, Louis Mitchell, Imani Henry, Carter Brown and blaze some historic trails while doing so.

But even elements of the trans masculine ranks recognize they can and should do more to help us African- descended trans women equally shoulder the leadership burden in terms of uplifting the entire African descended trans community.    

One of the things I'm looking forward to discussing while I'm at Out On The Hill next week is discussing what can we in the African descended trans feminine do to help our trans masculine brothers own their power.

While we know the brothers can, are quite capable of and we have no doubts will handle their business, we can help them avoid some of the pitfalls we Black transwomen encountered as we continue to seek to own our power and exercise it on the behalf of our community.  

It would also be a good thing as African descended trans women if we get familiar with some of the issues unique to African-American transmen.

I'm ready and willing to open this electronic platform to my African descended trans brothers to signal boost what they are writing in their blogosphere and get that needed conversation jump started.

And of course, when it comes to the elements of the ongoing conversation that will fall into The Black Trans Revolution Will Not Be Televised territory, we'll have those discussion amongst ourselves.   

So tell us Black trans men.  What can we do to help you own your power?   The sooner that conversation happens, the sooner the results of it will be mutually beneficial to all of us, the African-American community and all the other communities we African descended transpeople intersect and interact with.  

NY Latina Trans Activist Starts LBCF Community Fund

As I've stated more than a few times on this blog over the last now six years and Amnesty International has cosigned on that point, Officer Friendly ain't exactly friendly at times to the trans community, and especially trans people of color. 

There have been more than a few times these negative interactions have turned into highly publicized court cases.

My trans sisters in New York are dealing with the disproportionate fallout of the odious NYPD 'stop and frisk' policies   Because the po-po's assume they are sex workers, if during one of those stops the transperson in question has more than three condoms on them, according to local activist that transperson can find themselves arrested for prostitution

Interesting story about long time New York trans activist Lorena Borjas, who started the Lorena Borjas Community Fund.  

The LBCF provides legal assistance and funding to pay bail for low income and immigrant members of the Queens community in which she has resided for over 25 years.

What I'd Like To See At Netroots Nation 2013

It's been almost a week since I was part of that historic trans panel at Netroots Nation 2012 in Providence and in the room for the LGBT pre-conference event that was a week ago today. 

I'm still sorting through the e-mail from the people I met, the conversations we started, pondering some offers and invitations, and fleshing out the parameters of some of the commitments I made on behalf of myself and the African-American trans community during the event.

I'm following up on many of those and want to make them happen. 

It was announced on Sunday that Netroots Nation 2013 will be held June 20-23 on the West Coast for the first time in the history of the event in San Jose, CA and they are expecting 3000 people to attend.  Of course I enjoyed my first timer experience in Providence so much I'm seriously thinking about being in the house at the San Jose Convention Center if my schedule allows it to happen.

But lets presume I'm standing there as an attendee, a panelist, or a speaker a year from now. and I'm checking in at the desk to get my credentials and my Netroots Nation 2013 programming guide.

What would the TransGriot like to see in terms of some of the panel discussions being offered at NN13 to the huddled liberal-progressive masses yearning to breathe free from conservatism?

You know I've been pondering this, and I'm about to share some of those thoughts with you.

One of the things I'd love to see, and I kicked this idea around in Providence with Viktor, Pam Spaulding and Alvin McEwen is a Black LGBT bloggers panel to discuss some of the issues and challenges we face in the liberal progressive blogosphere..

I'd also like to see multiple trans specific panels spread throughout the convention calendar and that sentiment was echoed by my fellow trans panelists as well.

One of the panels that is definitely needed is a trans POC only panel.  One of the things that bothered me with this Netroots Nation 2012 one I was cognizant of is we didn't have a trans Latina on this panel or a trans man, and before I left Houston I reached out to trans Latinas to ask what issues I needed to bring to the table during this 90 minute discussion.   Immigration and police harassment were the ones that came up, and we did get to discuss both.

Speaking of trans men, there needs to be a trans men only panel that allows them to discuss the issues unique to them and interpret trans human rights events from a transmasculine perspective.  

I'd like to see trans people discussing issues not specifically part of the rainbow community on different panels throughout the Netroots Nation programming blocks in the various communities we intersect and interact with.

I also want to see trans people as moderators of panels or even keynote speakers leading the discussions.

If we have an LGBT pre-conference event in San Jose like we did in Providence, I'd like to see some of the discussion time during that day long event geared toward the issues of transfolks and TBLG people of color so we can continue to have those honest discussions and formulate better policy in our rainbow community movement..

Well folks, we have a year to make it happen.  Y'all know my e-mail address and some of you lucky peeps have my phone number.  So let's get busy making it happen.

Naw, I Ain't Moving From My Red State And Neither Should You

I get sick of hearing from rainbow community people living along I-5, I-95, inside I-495 (the Capitol Beltway) or an interstate traversing a blue state the tired mantra that we red state rainbow community peeps need to move to the blue ones and abandon the red ones we live in.

That mantra increases in volume in the wake of an anti-gay referendum loss or some odious anti-TBLG law sponsored by the homobigots that overwhelmingly passed.

Didn't see any rush to leave California when Prop 8 passed in 2008 or New York transpeople hitting the interstates after GENDA failed to pass the New York Senate for the fourth consecutive session and may be going on five in a row..

Umm no.  I'm a fourth generation Texan and have been there done that.  As I said in this post last year and I'm reiterating in this one for your reading pleasure about being a TBLG person living in a red state: 

Unless your life is in imminent danger, you fight with every fiber of your being to make it a more progressive place to live.   If you can't flip it totally blue, at least work to make it purple and get the blue part later.   

I noted those comments coming fast and furiously in the wake of the devastating loss that North Carolina activists suffered in fighting their valiant battle against Amendment One.  I felt their pain as I recalled what happened to the Kentucky rainbow community in 2004 when we went through the same drama when I lived there.  For those of us who lived in Louisville our pain was short lived because we had to immediately go back and fight another human rights battle.  

The faith-based homobigots flush with the afterglow of victory tried to go after our Fairness Ordinance mere weeks after the demoralizing defeat we suffered in our anti-gay marriage amendment battle.

You know what they say about a wounded animal being the most dangerous one.  We regrouped and crushed the Forces of Faith Based Intolerance in that civil rights skirmish by getting an 18-6 Louisville Metro council vote to reauthorize the Fairness Ordinance.

It get better North Carolina peeps. The Kentucky TBLG activists regrouped to the point that a statewide Fairness Law has been steadily gaining sponsors and other cities in the state are considering passing local fairness laws similar to the ones in Louisville, Lexington and Covington.

But it's still not cool that you LBGT blue staters, who achieved many of your rainbow legislative goals already in more politically friendly times are smugly sitting on your behinds, are throwing shade at us peeps in red states and saying we need to move to what you consider a blue oasis.

Hey, there are times you peeps in blue areas catch just as much hell as we red staters do   I've had times in which I've had derogatory racist and transphobic comments aimed at me in blue states.  Conversely while living in my red state I've been fortunate to run into people who not only get it in terms of our issues, but are busting their behinds harder than you blue state peeps who are supposed to be our rainbow family to help us achieve TBLG human rights rights progress in our red states.   

Yes we have to fight tooth and nail to get whatever scraps of rainbow human rights progress we do achieve and fight even harder to defend it.  But we do it because the red states are home to us. 

Why?  It's a red state thang, you wouldn't understand.   We love them more than the average conservafool and have just as much right to live there as the smug faith based information challenged idiots who hate on us and are trying to force us out..  Because we rainbow peeps are part of the diverse mosaic of human life we have the incentive and drive to make our red states the types of places we deserve to live in

Because we red staters have the faith-based enemy in our face 24./7/365 and 366 days in a leap year, we don't have time for the internecine semantics wars that always seem to break out at regular intervals on the Net predominately driven by people who live along I-5 and I-95.  We have more important crap to deal with like Tea Klux Klan dominated state legislatures trying to use every trick in the book to erase our human rights.

But the bottom line is our red state rainbow communities are better for it because we have learned by necessity how to spell a word some of y'all haven't yet. intersectionality.   We red state activists have to work together not only inside the TBLG community but also with our non-GLBT counterparts in keeping the conservafools at bay on a wide range of issues that affect the liberal -progressive coalition.

And one of the things you blue staters don't realize is that while our states may appear rabidly red to you and especially the rural areas of them, some of our red states are actually purple and the cities are our turf..  

May I gleefully remind you blue state peeps that the largest city run by an openly gay mayor just happens to be my 2 million person hometown of Houston, the largest city in Texas.

Annise Parker is a perfect example of a red state rainbow kid making a difference.  If they live in a rural area of a red state and don't want to leave, they can move to an urban area in said red state, get an education, find a rainbow hood if they wish and still live in their native red state.

If we are going to eventually expand our issues across the nation, we are going to have to do the education work in red states to make that happen as well and that can't be done from New York or San Francisco.   You are going to need natives of the red states in question talking to their peeps and tailoring the message and tactics for local conditions.

Yeah, this was a tough week for the peeps in North Carolina.  But as a famous Southerner who was a Nobel Peace Prize winner once said, "We must accept finite disappointment, but must never lose infinite hope."  

And yes, from time to time we win those battles against the faith based phobes.  It keeps hope alive and it's sweet when we do. 

We are on the correct side of the moral arc of the universe and will win more battles than we lose.  But in order to turn those red states to purple and then blue, we'll have to have the people who love social justice, rainbow human rights and the state live there to and be tough minded enough do so.

CeCe McDonald Hearing Tomorrow

The struggle to free CeCe McDonald, who 'stood her ground' after she and her group of Black gay and trans friends were subjected to racist, transphobic and homophobic slurs and then attacked by white supremacists while walking past a bar in Minneapolis will play out in a court pretrial hearing tomorrow at 9 AM CDT.

The pressure is mounting on Hennepin County attorneys to drop the charges as this case gets additional international scrutiny and attention.   There is also a Support CeCe McDonald online group that has sprung up with the goal of getting CeCe released as well..

If that doesn't happen during the pre-trial hearing tomorrow, the trial will start on April 30 and will probably last for up to two weeks.   If you live in the Twin Cities area and can come to the Hennepin County Government Center to support CeCe, please wear purple to demonstrate to the judges and supporters that the community has Cece's back.

Use The Phelps Phamily To Phundraise For Your GLBT Charity

We have all seen the despicable Phelps Phamily and their Westboro 'Baptist' Church haters show up in our gayborhoods our at the funerals of fallen US soldiers and supporters of GLBT rights.

The WBC haters have announced they are planning to show up at the funeral of Elizabeth Edwards who passed away Tuesday after a long battle with cancer.  

But instead of raising your fists and screaming obscenities at them, or letting them provoke you into doing something rash that ends up putting money in their pockets after they sue you for violating their First Amendment protest rights, why not use the strategy other areas have used and make Phred Phelps' visit work for you?

Here's what you do.  When you find out Phred and Phamily are headed to your area, suse that lead time to start a fundraiser.   They drive to whatever area they plan to protest in and it'll take them time to get there.   


You can have people either donate a lump sum amount or a set amount for every minute that Fred is in your area protesting with the money going to a GLBT group or local charity.

It sets up the delicious irony that the Phelpses are earning money for GLBT causes for every hate filled minute they spend desecrating your town or whatever parameters you set up for the fundraising event.

Towns that have done this have also reported that once Phred and Phamily find out they are raising money for GLBT and other causes by their hateful presence there, they bounce to cut the fundraising time clock short.

A WBC July visit to protest the Resource Center Dallas led to a counter protest fundraiser that according to RCD spokesperson Rafael McDonnell and the Dallas Voice raised a record-breaking $11,000 for the organization.

So want to flip the script on the WBC haters?   Here's a way to do so, satisfy your urge to stick it to the Phelps Phamily without violating their First Amendment rights and make money for GLBT themed charities at the same time.  

Have fun and happy fundraising.

MAGNET Protests Stonewall UK Transphobia Outside British Consulate

No matter where we are on this planet, to paraphrase the late Houston crusading consumer reporter Marvin Zindler, 'It's hell to be trans.'

One of the things we deal with is the transphobia aimed at us from inside and outside the GLBT community, and the worst offenders many times are other GL people..  

MAGNET coordinated a protest outside the British Consulate in New York timed to occur at the same moment the Stonewall UK Awards were happening across The Pond.    It was about a video produced by Stonewall UK that includes the term 't****y', which has become a derogatory and insulting slur word to many in our community.

The New York trans community wanted to show solidarity with our British trans cousins, which was why the consulate there was targeted.

Ashley Love, MAGNET organizer had this to say about last night's protest:

"We protested tonight in front of the British Consulate, New York, because a very alarming situation is happening in the UK. A transphobic DVD named “FIT” has been approved to show children and youth in public schools. The anti-transsexual slur “tra**y” is being used, which is used as a taunt and insult when bullies and bigots harass people perceived to be transsexual, intersex or gender non-conforming. This outrage is being ignored by Stonewall UK, who not only advised on the DVD, but has an unhealthy past with the UK trans community, who they exclude from their mission statement, and then back lobby against their interests."

"We ask the Dept. of Education, The Teachers Union, Equality and Human Rights Commission and Stonewall UK to protect the well being of all the children who attend school, and make the responsible and socially conscious decision to edit out the dehumanizing pejorative from the DVD." she said.. 

"Normalizing the T-word, much like how the N-word was normalized decades ago to degrade Black people, will have severe consequences for the acceptance of trans people in mainstream society.  It’s unbelievable that an oppressed minority group, especially children, could have their human rights be disrespected like this by authority figures. As adults, we must protect trans children. Teachers being forced to show DVDs with anti-trans slurs will do no such thing. The good news is that the decision makers involved still have a chance to do what’s right and fix this horrid mistake."