Houston GLBT Caucus Hosts 2nd Annual Advocacy Day

If you are in the Houston area, and looking for an opportunity to chat with your state legislators, your opportunity to do so will take place on (no joke) April 1.

The Houston GLBT Caucus along with their partner organizations United We Dream, Transform Houston, Your Houston PAC, the New Leaders Council and Indivisible Houston will head to Austin on April 1 for their second annual Houston's Advocacy Day at The Capitol

If you're wishing to register for the lobby day and be in the ATX for it, here's the link to register.

Bus will leave the Montrose Center at 6 AM on Monday from the Montrose Center at 401 Branard St to head to the Pink Dome, and return to H-town at 8 PM

So if you wish to lobby your state reps, register now, because the Caucus and all these amazing orgs would love to have you there in Austin with them and your fellow citizen lobbyists,

The Trans Community Could Use Some Investment In Our Advocacy Infrastructure and Our People

I noted with interest a conversation Renae Taylor had on her FB page recently in which she talked about the struggle we trans advocates have just making enough money to sustain our lives or the viability of our organizations.

She expressed a wish that a fund be created that would pay the bills of a trans advocate for at least a year so that they can focus full time on advocacy work instead of having to work non advocacy jobs to pay bills.

Renae's modest proposal sounded to me similar to the MacArthur Foundation's Fellows Program, or what is called the 'Genius Grant'. 

Fellows must be citizens or residents of the United States, can be working in any field, and have shown "extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction".  

The Foundation doesn't take applications for it.   They solicit at a certain time anonymous and confidential nominations that are reviewed by a confidential group of a dozen people.  Those people review the nominations and recommend awardees to the foundation president and board of directors. 

Usually the first sign that a person has won a MacArthur Fellowship is when they get a congratulatory phone call from the Foundation.  According to the website, 'The fellowship is not a reward for past accomplishments, but rather an investment in a person's originality, insight, and potential". However, it is considered a significant honor to receive it.

MacArthur Fellows get a no strings attached $625,000 grant paid to them in quarterly installments over a five year period. 

That is a life changing amount of money.  These fellowship grants have been awarded to 945 people since 1981, and people such as Marian Wright Edelman, Junot Diaz, Ta-nehisi Coates and Alison bechdel are just some of the distinguished people who have received MacArthur Fellowships.

So back to discussing Renae's idea.

The trans community and trans activism suffers from a major lack of significant investment in our organizations via a vis organizations primarily focused on the lesbian and gay community.   If those trans organizations are focused on trans communities of color,  they get even less funding than their white trans counterparts..

Heaven help that trans organization if it is based in the eleven state southern US region, AKA the former Confederacy.   It gets as a whole only 8% of the available donor funding made to TBLGQ organizations, with the majority of that money being gobbled up by Atlanta and Houston based orgs.

These underfunded trans organizations are fighting well funded right wing orgs with people who get paid quite well to come up with ways to oppress us.  The ED's of many of the anti-trans hate orgs are making just on their salary alone, more than the annual operating budget of many POC trans led organizations.

And since 2014, the trans rights legislative battles have predominately been in the southern US.   Considering we're majorly outspent, it's a miracle we have been as successful and do the work we do on basically a shoestring budget.

So imagine what we trans folks could do, especially in communities of color if we could spend our days working full time in well funded organizations to help our communities,

Imagine if our most talented advocates didn't have to do Go Fund Me appeals just to get the money to pay their bills or have to spend time being stressed out and worried about how next month's bills are going to get paid

Just having them paid for a year would be a load off the minds of an advocate, and would allow them to focus on doing what is needed for the community and allow them to save what money they may earn elsewhere.

That's why Renae's idea is an intriguing one.   The question is where would the seed money come from for it? 

 Would be nice if Renae's idea became a reality, because at this critical point in our trans human rights struggle, we could definitely use the investments in our trans advocacy infrastructure and our people. .

The 2017 Trans 100 List Goes International!

Well international trans folks, you are finally getting what you have asking for ever since the Trans 100 List founded by Antonia D'orsay cranked up here in the US several years ago.

The Trans 100 List is going international.

The 2017 Trans 100 International List will honor those trans people who are NOT in North America (North America for the purposes of this award is Canada, Mexico and the United States)
North America will have its own 2017 Trans 100 nomination list that you can nominate people for via the link provided.

Here are the guidelines for the 2017 Trans 100 Nominations

– Nominees must have been living and working to improve the lives of trans people for at least six months of the prior year. (International will be 2015 and 2016)
– Nominees can be working at any scale, locally, regionally, or nationally.
– We would like to see all parts of the country represented.
– We particularly encourage the addition of the otherwise unsung or only locally known workers.
– We particularly encourage the addition of persons of color.
– Nominees must identify as trans.
– Nominations must include a means of contacting them.
– Organizations are eligible, provided the organization is entirely run by trans persons.

This is not an award. The goal is to recognize outstanding members for the Work itself, and it is the work they do that is considered before anything else.

Nominations will close on March 1, 2017, at midnight MST.

Notes:

– Voting is anonymous.
– The list will not be ranked, and the tally will not be publicized.
– Nominees will be contacted by the Trans 100 Team for permission before the list is published

Here's the link for the 2017 Trans 100 International Nominations

So yes, I'm excited to see what trans folks in Africa, Asia, Central and South America, Australia, Europe and the Middle East will be nominated and eventually make the final cut for doing the work of standing up for transkind in 2015 and 2016.

Upcoming TSU Town Hall On Being Black, Gay & Trans

It's an event that is sorely needed in Black Houston.,

I've been pushing to have more of these panel discussions take place, and it figures I'll probably be out of town when this one takes place on the TSU campus November 13.

One of the things that has been upsetting to me as a proud Black Houstonian who also happens to be a proud transgender person is the total ignorance on display about trans lives here.  It's the ignorance about trans people and our lives that has been exploited by the opponents of the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance and their sellout christopimpin' sycophants. 

The depth of ignorance in Black Houston has shockingly been exposed even in the ranks of 'ejumacated' Black people you presume would know better and our SGL community.

To combat the spreading of disinformation and lies by the hate ministers, another effort to do some community outreach education is taking place, and this one is being sponsored by Delta Phi Upsilon Fraternity Inc, Legacy Community Health Services, TSU OUTLaw, and the House of Capri.

The panel is entitled The Misfits: Being Gay And Transgender In The Black Community.  It will take place starting at 6:30 PM CST at the Thurgood Marshall School of Law in Moot Court Room #105.   Address is 3100 Cleburne St.

It's another event designed to drive home the point that #WeExist , we aren't going away, and you are going to have to deal with the fact that Black trans and SGL people are part of the kente cloth fabric of the Houston Black community.

Hope you take the opportunity to check out what I'm sure will be a lively and informative panel discussion.

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.