Shea Diamond Nominated For A GLAAD Media Award!

I'm not the only Black trans person who will be watching and waiting to see if I get a GLAAD Media Award when those shows happen in LA and New York.

My BTAC sister Shea Diamond has been nominated for a GLAAD Media Award in the Best Music Artist category for her album Seen It All. |

Here's her website if you wish to check out her music.   Of course, Shea would also deeply appreciate it if you buy it as well and add it to your music collection.

My fave songs on the album are American Pie and I Am Her.



Just like my Outstanding Blogger category, it's a stacked field.   She is part of a ten person nominee field that includes another trans music artist in Kim Petras, Janelle Monae, Troye Sivan and Hayley Kiyoko just to name a few of the folks she's competing with for the honor..

Congrats Shea!   Here;'s hoping that you get to make some history of your own when they announce the winner of this highly competitive category. ,

Oprah's 2018 Golden Globe Speech

I wasn't watching this year's Golden Globe Awards, and probably should have been because Oprah Winfrey made history by becoming the first Black woman to receive this year's Cecil B. DeMille Award for Lifetime Achievement.

And based on the online chatter I'm seeing, looks like a lot of people LOVED her acceptance speech for it to the point some people are saying the words 'Run Oprah Run!

Here's the video of the speech:

49th Annual NAACP Image Awards Voting

The 49th Annual NAACP Image Awards are happening on the Rev Dr Martin Luther King, Jr 's birthday (January 15). 

So what are the NAACP Image Awards?  Noting the fact that the major award shows far too frequently don't recognize the talents of our people, the NAACP founded this annual event in 1967 to honor outstanding people of color in the film, television,  music and literature.

The NAACP Image Awards were first televised on FOX in 1994, and the first live telecast also happened on FOX in 2007 for its 38th annual edition.    It has happened every year except in 1978 and 1995, but since then has become an eagerly attended and anticipated event . 

This year's edition of the NAACP Image Awards are adding a new feature in 2018.  For the first time, the general public can cast votes for this year's nominees

If you are interested in weighing in on who will walk away with awards next month you need to get busy.  The deadline to cast your votes for you think should win the various NAACP Image Awards categories is December 15.

Here's the link to do so, and once you do, tune into TV One on MLK's birthday at 9 PM/8 PM CST to watch this year's edition of the NAACP Image Awards.

Bloggers Are An Afterthought Again At GLAAD Media Awards

Bloggers are being treated like stepchildren by GLAAD again.

A year after we TBLGQ bloggers had to raise hell just to get the Outstanding Blogger category reinstated after it was dropped from the GLAAD Media Awards entirely, looks like GLAAD is backsliding once again into the problematic behaviors that pissed many of us in Blogging World off and compelled us to write about it in the first place.

In the drop down category menu for the New York awards show that is taking place tonight at the New York Hilton Midtown, there is no mention of the Outstanding Blog award nominees.  

In fact one of the reasons my statuesque behind will be in Texas tonight and not New York for it is because the blogging category isn't even going to get an onstage presentation.

If you claim that bloggers are indispensable to the movement and jump starting policy and societal conversations about TBLGQ and other issues, then your GLAAD Media Awards show actions and how the blogging category is handled doesn't convey the 'we're valued' sentiment to me and other bloggers who put in the time and effort to create informative quality content for the readers of our platforms.

And I'm saying that as someone who received a Special Recognition award that is sitting on my shelf just a few months ago during the GLAAD Gala San Francisco.

I'm not feeling the love when a GLAAD Award Best Blogger category I've now been nominated for twice and will hopefully win in a few hours, doesn't even get the prestigious respect of being handed out onstage.

TransGriot Update: The Outstanding Blog award finally went to Alvin McEwen's Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters tonight.  This was his fourth nomination for it.      

5th Annual F.A.C.E. Awards Tonight

I get to pull out the nice clothes tonight as I head to the gayborhood and check out the 5th annual F.A.C.E. Awards.   Been nominated a few times since 2014 for them but as of yet haven't won one.    

The F.A.C.E acronym stands for First Achievers in Community Excellence, and it is a rapidly growing event which celebrates the best of TBLGQ Houston.   This year I'm nominated in two F.A.C.E award categories with tight competition in both of them./

Today has also been declared in a proclamation signed by Mayor Sylvester Turner as 'FACE Awards Day' in Houston

Looking forward to checking out the event at South Beach that starts at 8:30 PM CST, with the red carpet arrivals and pre-award show starting at 7:00 PM

Congratulations and good luck to everyone who was nominated this year.  Even if I don't win in my categories, I'll at least get another opportunity to spend some quality time with my H-town peeps

Countdown To The GLAAD Media Awards

The Los Angeles ones are happening April 12, and congrats to my homegirl Laverne Cox for receiving GLAAD's Stephen F Kolzak Award.    The Kolzak Award is presented to a person who has made a significant difference in the promotion of LGBTQ equality and yep, Laverne definitely fits that bill.  .

The past winners of it are Ellen DeGeneres, Wanda Sykes, Melissa Etheridge, Rufus Wainwright and Sir Ian McKellen.

As for my category, I'll find out a month from now along with my fellow nominees in the GLAAD Media Awards Outstanding Blog category if I make history by becoming the first trans blogger ever to win it.

Would be a nice early birthday present, but have some stiff competition in this category with Kimberley McLeod's Elixher (of which my posts appear at times) , Alvin McEwen's Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters, multiple nominee Autostraddle and The New Civil Rights Movement.

As I said in my post when I heard about the nomination, it's nice when you get recognized for the hard work you put in to maintain a quality blog.  When you get nominated, the hard part is over.  All the nomination does is give you a chance to win it.  

While I have appreciated the congratulations and the confidence many of you have expressed in me and my chances to win this with my first nomination, it's not official until they call my name May 3. 

And nope New York trans peeps, since this category won't be announced during the live show, no point in me coming up there.  But there is probably a New York trip in my future assuming I get an invite to speak in the area.  

Jared, Those Trans Women Are The Reason You Have A Golden Globe Award

After Kerry Washington and a too long list of African-American actors and actresses were dissed and dismissed at the Emmy's, I didn't even bother watching the Golden Globes.  

Maybe I should have.  

Jared Leto won a Golden Globe for playing the trans character Rayon in the movie Dallas Buyers Club which is a movie I have yet to see.

Leto is being taken to task this morning for the tone deaf acceptance speech that he made while accepting the Best Supporting Actor award..

"I did not ever use any prosthetics in this film…that tiny little Brazilian bubble butt was all mine."

"It was a very transformative role, I had to do a lot of things to prepare. One of the things I did was wax my entire body including my eyebrows," he shared.

"I'm just fortunate that it wasn't a period piece so I didn't have to do a full Brazilian [wax]. Ladies, you know what I'm talking about though…and so do some of you men, I think."

He did end it on a serious note.  "I want to thank my team for making this so fun and giving me this incredible life, and to the Rayons of the world, thanks for the inspiration."

But there are some trans women like Jaila Simms who aren't laughing.  In a comment she posted on FB and shared with me, Simms put him on blast for that speech.

The (Salon) article rings VERY true. ESPECIALLY KNOWING that other great transgender actresses were passed up so that Leto could play the role. Furthermore, he further disconnects trans people from being anything other than physical novelties, and not actual people facing REAL SHIT! You won an award for playing a TransWoman with AIDS and all you can say in your speech is some corny a$$ joke about waxing your body hair!!!??!!! CeCe McDonald is being released from 19 months in jail today for defending herself from a hate crime, Laverne Cox and Janet Mock are pioneering in media for trans women, DOMA was just passed, little trans kids are bullied, depressed, and dying!! And it was a platform to honor, respect, and enlighten and that moment was diminished. Without THAT ROLE, THAT LIFE, THAT "CHARACTER," there wouldn't have been AN AWARD!!

Mercedes Allen said this on her Twitter feed:

I doubt a trans actress in a #trans role would have been as trivializing & embarrassed as Leto. #goldenglobes @glaad http://t.co/3U0iEH3oWG

As Jaila said, trans women and their very real lives are the reason you have that Golden Globe on your shelf now.  Too bad that point didn't come across in your acceptance speech last night.. 

BET Apologizes To B. Scott For Awards Show Drama

Diamond has commented on it in her latest video blog along with other people in the blogosphere and outraged fans of multimedia personality B. Scott

The openly gay Scott sports an androgynous look and was hired by BET to be the host of the red carpet pre-show broadcast before Sunday's 2013 edition of the BET Awards.  

But just before Scott went on camera, drama ensued as BET producers demanded he tone down his makeup, pull his hair back, wear masculine clothing and not wear heels.

The producers also attempted to replace him with Adrienne Bailon before pressure from show sponsor Procter & Gamble forced them to drop that idea and got him back on the telecast.

Scott was not a happy camper about the behind the scenes homophobic drama, and it was noticeable during his first on camera interview.  He later took to Twitter to discuss his feelings about it and dished about what happened to a fellow blogger and BET took a public relations beating over it.

“It’s not just about the fact that BET forced me to pull my hair back, asked me to take off my makeup, made me changed my clothes and prevented me from wearing a heel,” Scott wrote. “It’s more so that from the mentality and environment created by BET made me feel less than and that something was wrong with who I am as a person.”

BET tried to ride out the controversy with silence as outraged fans of B. Scott vented on Black Twitter and elsewhere but as the firestorm of criticism continued and BET continued to take a public relations black eye over this they finally issued an apology to the multimedia maven.  

“BET Networks embraces global diversity in all its forms and seeks to maintain an inclusive workforce and a culture that values all perspectives and backgrounds,” the statement read. “The incident with B. Scott was a singular one with a series of unfortunate miscommunications from both parties. We regret any unintentional offense to B. Scott and anyone within the LGBT community and we seek to continue embracing all gender expressions.”

Yeah, right. You sure didn't demonstrate that 'embracing of global diversity' and 'valuing all perspectives and backgrounds culture' Sunday night with B. Scott and you are deservedly getting excoriated for it.