Moni's Headed To The ATX For Educate Out Loud!

As a proud teacher's kid, education issues are a part of my activist portfolio, and I am an unabashed supporter of public education. 

It's why I was pleased to accept the invitation of the organizers of this event to be the keynote speaker for Educate Out Loud!

It's a research and practice symposium that is dedicated to exploring and discussing issues related to TBLGQ+ people in  teacher preparation, higher education and in the field of education.

I can definitely talk about those issues with no problem. 

My keynote happens tomorrow at the Joe C. Thompson Conference Center on the University of Texas campus, so I'm headed to the ATX in a few hours so I can be there when it starts .

Hopefully I will see as many of you ATX peeps and conference attendees I know while I'm in Travis County. 

Moni's Getting On The Bus To-San Antonio

I took my longest Megabus ride ever to NOLA and back to Houston last week for the just concluded NLGJA conference.   Now for the second consecutive week I get to do a bus trip on I-10.

But it won't be on Megabus this time. 

This time I'm going west to San Antonio, and even better, it will be a nonstop luxury bus trip on Vonlane for another conference.

I fell in love with the Vonlane buses on my lobbying trips to Austin, and who wouldn't love a reclining assigned leather seat, unlimited soft drinks and juices, snacks, WiFi that works and an attendant to bring them to your seat as you roll towards your destination?

This will be an unprecedented for me third trip this year to San Antonio, which is the second largest city in Texas.   This will also be the first time I've attended the Excellence in Journalism Conference, and looking forward to it. 

It's also the first time I've been to the Grand Hyatt San Antonio hotel, and looking forward to checking it out and everything the nearby Riverwalk has to offer.

Looking forward to meeting everyone at #EIJ19, and hopefully seeing some of my San Antonio trans fam while I'm in the 210 area code.

Power Rising Summit Happening In The ATL February 22-25

During a Congressional Black Caucus female members retreat held after the 2016 election, DC pastor Leah Daughtry, who had chaired the 2016 DNC convention, was speaking at that retreat. 

She was asked by Rep, Maxine Waters (D-CA)  what should Black women do next after they had undeniably proven to the country and the world they were the base of the Democratic Party, having voted 94% for Hillary Clinton nd almost getting her into the White House.

Daughtry recalled saying at the time in a Washington Post interview, "If I could wave my magic wand, I'd have a conference of Black women to come together across the spectrum and say 'How do we leverage the political power we just demonstrated that often gets ignored?"

The CBC women's retreat concluded without any action on Daughtry's idea. 

But as 2017 unfolded Daughtry began to get angry as she witnessed the Trump misadministration and its conservative media allies repeatedly attack Black women such as ESPN anchor Jemele Hill, White House correspondent April Ryan, Rep Waters, Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-FL) and the widow of slain soldier La David Johnson.

Watching those attacks, combined with Black women's own simmering anger at the Democratic Party's white leaders and white activists claiming that the party spent too much time in the 2016 cycle with voters of color and not enough with the white rural Trump voters who made it clear they don't love Democrats also didn't sit well with her.

Meanwhile as that problematic conversation was happening in the party, Black women once again demonstrated that they were undeniably the base of the Democratic Party by flexing their political muscle by powering Democratic wins in Virginia and the senate upset win for Doug Jones in Alabama.

But the media coverage that night dismissed the major role Alabama's Black women played in making Doug Jones the first Democratic senator elected from the state in 25 years, calling it a 'victory for women'.   The media trying to ignore the fact that Alabama's Black women voted at a 98% clip for Jones while Alabama's white women voted 63% for Republican Roy Moore also exasperated Daughtry.   



The dormant idea she'd had resurfaced, and Daughtry began calling Black women to ask if they would be willing to help organize the conference that she'd talked about during that retreat.

She got resounding YES answers to that question, and meetings began to be held in Washington DC at the National Council of Negro Women HQ on Pennsylvania Avenue.  The conference that was just an idea a few months earlier began to take shape. 

The Power Rising Summit is organized around 'five pillars' or policy areas.  Business and Economic Empowerment, Culture, Community and Society,  Education Technology and Innovation,  Health and Wellness and of course Political Empowerment.

The Power Rising Summit is nonpartisan, and hopes to attract at least 1000 attendees to the event ranging from big name celebrities, grassroots activists, seasoned leaders and students from all 50 states to the ATL from February 23-25.

One of the questions I have as I peruse this Power Rising Summit website is will Black trans women be welcome to attend?

Registration fees range from $25-$100 with scholarships available for participants.   They are also working on getting corporate sponsorship to help defray some of the costs of the gathering. 

The last time Black women gathered to create an agenda that reflected our unique intersectional concerns was back in the 1970's courtesy of the Boston chapter of the National Black Feminist Organization.

The Combahee River Collective of Black lesbians and feminists disillusioned with second wave feminism and and the civil rights, Black Power and Black panther movements gathered from 1974-1980.   That gathering of Black feminists resulted in the 1977 Combahee River Collective Statement  that is considered the bedrock principles document for Black feminism.

The Power Rising Smmit is building on that legacy.  It'll be interesting to see at this 21st Century gathering of Black women what action plan and statement comes out of this eagerly anticipated conference.

25th Anniversary Of The ICTLEP Conference

Today is the 25th anniversary of the first of eventually six ICTLEP conferences that took place in Houston from 1992 to 1997.

The International Conference on Transgender Law and Employment Policy (ICTLEP) was conceived by Phyllis Frye as an annual event that would focus on developing progressive legal strategies in employment and nondiscrimination law for the transgender population.

She had initially pitched the idea of the event to then International Foundation For Gender Education (IFGE) Executive Director Merissa Sherrill Lynn in the summer of 1991, as a traveling event under its auspices, but she told Frye that IFGE wasn't interested in hosting it.

Frye in the fall of 1991 ran for and won the vice presidency of the Houston based Gulf Coast Transgender Community (GCTC)  group on the platform of hosting a transgender law conference in Houston in 1992.

Planning then began with a group of local activists and GCTC members forming a committee that laid the groundwork for the historic conference to happen combined with Phyllis' attendance at the February 1992 Texas T Party and the March 1992 IFGE Convention.

Frye's attendance at those large trans conferences was crucial in those pre-Internet days to the success of the ICTLEP conference she and GCTC were planning.  It helped spread the word about the fledgling conference, and helped get attorneys who were interested in the different areas of the law that needed presenters to volunteer to do so

The organization of it gathered steam to the point that when the inaugural event kicked off at the Hilton Southwest Freeway in Southwest Houston on August 26-30, 1992, it did so with over 50 people in attendance.

The conference was a success, especially on the financial end, and led to the hosting of five more ICTLEP conferences.

The ICTLEP conferences from 1992-1997 were crucial for not only laying the groundwork for much of the subsequent transgender rights law and principles that we fight and lobby for in the modern trans rights movement, they also helped train my generation of trans rights activists and attorneys..

The International Bill of Gender Rights, Health Law Standards of Care, and policies for imprisoned transgender people came out of ICTLEP.   The Proceedings published after every ICTLEP conference documented for posterity what happened in those presentations on the different areas of law being discussed.

ICTLEP also led to the organization of the national trans rights org It's Time America, the second national trans lobby day in Washington DC in October 1994,  building working relationships between the legal and advocate wings of our newly emerging and energized modern trans rights movement, and more importantly led to the trans people who were in the legal profession becoming more out and open about who they were and forging working relationships with each other and the activist community.

It also led to trans folks becoming participating members in national gay legal organizations and conferences like Lavender Law.

And at a time in which the Trump misadministration is hell bent along with his fundamentalist anti-trans haters who advise him are getting orgasmic over the thought of eviscerating the human rights of transgender people in the US, the lessons learned and built upon over the last 25 years since the ICTLEP conferences took place here are going to be applied and tested as we fight 45's unjust policies in the federal courts.

But it all started on this day at a Houston Hilton hotel in the summer of 1992 thanks to the vision of Phyllis Frye and those early trans leaders in GCTC and elsewhere to make it happen. .

Leaving On A Jet Plane - To San Diego

Back when I was traveling to Tucson for their TDOR last year, my flight there went to San Diego and flew over Tucson along the way.   I got to spend two hours in the San Diego airport on a gorgeous fall day checking out the view of the airport area and saying that I'd love to come back and visit,

Well, guess I spoke that trip to San Diego into existence, and it couldn't have come at a better time for me.

After a trying few days that found me at Defcon 1 levels of stress bumping up against a July 15 deadline to move from my current place, find a storage spot, a new place to live with the date for the Texas Special Oppression Session also approaching along with my 9:18 PM departure from my old IAH airport stomping grounds, let's just say that I needed a trip out of Houston even if it is booked on (yuck) Spirit Airlines.

I'm not happy about that because you have to pay for everything on Spirit including carry on bags, drinks and snacks, the seats don't recline, and you don't have WiFi.

The only redeeming features of this upcoming flight on Spirit is that they have new Airbus planes, I got TSA Pre on the San Diego bound leg and both legs are nonstop to and from IAH's Terminal A.

And I get to go to Comic Con!  

The other cool thing I get to do is that I finally get to meet another of my trans elders in Tracie Jada O'Brien, and on top of that I get to San Diego in time for her birthday on the 22nd.

So happy early birthday Mama Tracie!   Looking forward to finally meeting and spending a little quality time with you .

I'm also looking forward to not thinking about Texas politics for a few days either and enjoying my first trip to San Diego.

Upcoming 'Our History, Our Future A Multigenerational Conference on Human Rights' In Boston

Heading back to Boston this weekend to participate in a conference that is going to happen on the Boston University campus.

The ' event will be taking place on April 8 in the George Sherman Union Ballroom on the BU campus jointly sponsored by the Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground and the Boston Theological Center.

Join us on April 8 for a public conference titled entitled, "Our History, Our Future: a Multigenerational Conference on Human Rights."

The schedule includes two plenary sessions, two panel sessions and a workshop offering participants nonviolent direct action training. This is a continuing education event; CEUs will be provided upon request. Registration is free but you MUST register to attend.

Speakers include persons known for human rights activism during the 60s civil rights movement, the crisis in Ferguson and Baltimore, the movement for Black Lives, LGBTQ activism, scholars of the movement and serving as consultants to the White House under the Obama administration. They are gifted in ministry, music and the arts, shaping public policy, writing, peace negotiation and nonviolent direct action.

I'm excited because I get to see and hear the amazing Bishop Yvette Flunder speak again during the morning plenary session immediately before my panel with Ahman Green-Hayes and Karlene Griffiths-Sekou scheduled to start at 11 AM EST.

The conference is free, but you will need to register for it at this link 

 Conference Schedule

9-10am Breakfast, Welcome and Introduction10-11am Plenary One (Bishop Yvette Flunder)11-12pm Panel (Monica Roberts, Ahmad Greene-Hayes, Karlene Griffiths-Sekou)12-1pm Lunch1-2:30pm Nonviolent Direct Action Workshop (Rev. Osagyefo Sekou)2:30-3:30pm Panel (Ruby Sales, Kevin Rigby, Darnell Moore, Tef Poe)3:30-5pm Plenary Two (Rev. Michael McBride)

Address is 775 Commonwealth Avenue in Boston, 02215. and I'm hoping to see some of my trans family who can attend be there.

Lavender Law 2016

While I was across town handling my media business as part of the over 4000 Black and Latinx media people attending the joint #NABJNAHJ16 conference, over at the Renaissance Washington Hotel, the LGBT Bar Association was hosting its 25th  Lavender Law Conference and Career Fair at the same August 4-6 time.

The LGBT Bar Association is headquartered in Washington DC, and that Lav Law gathering of our community finest LGBTQ legal minds started on August 4 and was scheduled to conclude today.

Lavender Law was first held in San Francisco in 1988, and started out being held in even numbered years for the first five Lav Law events.
Starting with the 1997 Lavender Law Conference held in West Hollywood, CA it became an annual event.

Unfortunately didn't get a chance to bounce over there and hang out with some of our trans legal peeps like my activist mentor Phyllis Frye, Dry Levasseur, Kylar Broadus and Jennifer Levi, but they probably were handling their business and networking with their friends and colleagues in the LGBTQ legal world like I was busy doing.

Hope y'all had a productive several days, and when you return to your locales you are armed with the information, strategies and tactics necessary to help advance TBLGQ rights in courtrooms at the local, state and federal level.

TransGriotNote: Photo by JasonSmith.com

Moni's Headed To The NABJ-NAHJ Joint Convention

About to head to Washington DC for my second media conference o 2016, and it's a big one.

The National Association of Black Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists re joining forces to host a joint media convention in our nation's capital  starting today and running until August 7 at the Washington Marriott Wardman Park.

How apropos they are holding it at a hotel where poet Langston Hughes once worked.  Too bad the new African American history museum won't be open until next month.  

Maybe I can finally do that stop at the Newseum as a substitute for it  

I'm looking forward to being in the house for it, and spending time discussing the issues we trans peeps face with NABJ-NAHJ journalists and members.while i'm there.

BTAC 2017 Keynote Speaker Nominations

BTAC 2017 will be here before we know it, and one of the cool things about this conference is there is space made for community input for some of the events like the Awards Gala and the keynote speakers.

The nominations for 2017 keynote speakers have opened, and BTAC is looking for trans masculine and trans feminine nominees to do their keynotes for the conference that is set to happen April 24-30.

Who Will Be Your Next Keynote Speaker? BTAC 2017 National Keynote Speaker Nominations NOW OPEN for trans, transmen, transwomen!!!

If you or someone you know would be a great candidate for this opportunity, please nominate them today. The deadline to submit keynote speaker nominations is October 30, 2016.

Here's the link to nominate your candidates for BTAC 2017 keynotes.

Will UH Be Heading To The Big 12?

Ever since the Southwest Conference broke up and TCU and UH were shadily left out of the merger of the SWC and Big 8 no thanks to former UT athletic director DeLoss Dodds, the end goal has been to get UH collegiate athletics back into a Power 5 conference where it belongs.

Dodds motivation for dissing UH during the formative stages of the Big 12 besides his burnt orange hatred for UH probably includes the fact he wanted to be able to have the lion's share of the Houston metro area's elite high school talent coming to Forty Acres instead of their local university on Cullen Blvd.

He knew firsthand that UH while in the SWC routinely and gleefully spanked the Longhorns and a University of Houston in the Big 12 would continue doing so.

But with the Big 12 having only ten teams (you need twelve to host a conference championship game) and with Texas A&M now being a member of the SEC, if the rumors and reports I'm hearing are correct looks like UH may finally get what it has been seeking since 1996 and become a member of the Big 12.

ESPN.com is reporting that UH, Memphis, Colorado State and UCF are lobbying the Big 12 in anticipation of the next round of league expansion.   If the Big 12 was wise it would expand to 14 teams, not just 12 as an insurance policy in case someone leaves for greener conference pastures.

Will we get to see the #HtownTakeover at a Big 12 stadium near you?  Maybe  Since they were unceremoniously kicked to the curb, things have changed.dramatically on campus.  It is a Tier One research institution like UT and Texas A&M, and is the third largest school in the state of Texas.

It is still sitting in the fourth largest city in the United States, is in the top area for Texas high school talent in all sports, is in a Top 10 TV market (number 7), and now has a METRO light rail line rolling past the west and south sides of the campus with a stop on the doorstep of the west gates of  the 40,000 seat (expandable to 60,000 seats) on campus TDECU Stadium.

UH is also a natural fit for the Big 12, and has rivalries with the four current Texas schools that would instantly be rekindled should they be extended an invitation to join the conference.

Also in UH's favor is many schools in the Big 12, with SEC member Texas A& M nearby, continue to express the sentiment that the league needs to decisively act to take back the Houston area as a Big 12 bastion before another Power 5 conference snaps us up.

In addition, the Big 12 North schools want Houston in the conference so they have a crack at recruiting the talent rich Houston area.  Their recruiting pipelines to the Houston area vanished after Texas A&M SECeded, and they need the ability to play a regular scheduled game in Houston so that they can have a shot at recruiting the Houston area's talented kids against the Texas Big 12 schools.

Even the current players in the Big 12, when they are surveyed, would like to see UH extended an invitation to join the conference.

And even more delicious for Cougar fans, UH membership in the league in addition to accomplishing a mission we've been on since being dissed and dismissed in 1996 means that the Texas based Big 12 schools could no longer run from playing us anymore.

While the Big XII continues to publicly downplay they are expanding, University of Oklahoma president David Boren,  Kansas State coach Bill Snyder and Baylor head coach Art Briles have been pushing for Big XII expansion.  It was confirmed that University of West Virginia president Gordon Gee, who sits on the Big XII expansion committee, paid UH a visit back in November.  

The November 30 UH campus visit wasn't for expansion purposes, but Gee quickly found himself in UH president Renu Khator's office for an hour, met UH head football coach Tom Herman, and was escorted by UH AD Hunter Yurachek, several members of the UH Board of Regents on a tour of the UH athletic facilities.  

So will we see the Cougars in the Big 12?  Sure hope so. UH will get a taste of Big 12 play when they open the season with Oklahoma at NRG stadium September 3, and we'll find out next month whether it happens for us.

If it does, I'd love to go to the Jerrydome and watch my boys play in a Big XII title game, or see a basketball game at a sold out renovated Hofheinz Pavilion against Kansas

And I'd love to see my Cougars once again routinely beating the hell out of Texas.

BTAC 2016 Day 2 Highlights

The first full day of BTAC 2016 seminars starts at 9:15 AM CDT.   We'll also have the BTAC Career Clinic and the opening of the vendor area.

Th topics of the seminars in the AM block are 'Creating Healthy Masculinity', 'Ways Of Coping With Stress', 'Gaining and Maintaining Employment For Trans People', 'Behind The Scenes Pageantry Preparation On and Off Stage' and 'Life Choices'.

I'm moderating one on Black Trans History at 2:15 PM as part of the Black Trans Community Summit, with Part 2 starting at 3:30 PM will be a round table discussion on issues of importance to our community.  

For those of you wishing you were here in Dallas with us,  you can check out the days events at the hashtag #BTAC2016.

This day closes with Trans Manifest Live starting at 9 PM

In Austin For The Women's Empowerment Conference

There's good news and bad news to start off this Saturday.post.

The good news part of it is that I received the opportunity yesterday afternoon thanks to Crystal Solares and my trans fam in the Organization de Trans Latinas en Texas (OLTT)  to do a day trip to Austin to check out the third annual Women's Empowerment Conference happening on the Austin Community College Eastview campus.

And y'all know how much I love road trips.

The bad news part of that was it meant that in order to be there on time for the start of the opening WE Con 2016 sessions at 10 AM,  those of us in Houston would have to get up at 5 AM in order to get on the road by 7 AM for the 180 plus mile drive to Austin so we can get there by 10 AM for the start of the initial session block..

We Con 2016 is a bilingual event sponsored by the Women's Community Center of Central Texas, and is open to women, girls, femmes, trans women, genderqueer and non-binary people and everyone else who is interested in learning about the issues affecting those communities in the Austin and surrounding areas.

Yesterday was the opening night of it, but the business end of WE Con 2016 is happening today starting as you read this post.   Registration opened at 9 AM, and it's still not too late for you peeps in the ATX area to join us.

The ACC Eastview campus is located at 3401 Webberville Rd, and hope I get to see and meet some of my ATX TransGriot readers in the house.   

H-town State Of Black Lives Convening Tomorrow

On tomorrow and February 13 here in Houston there will be a State of Black Lives Convening in which I will be part of a 10:45 AM panel moderated by Dee Dee Watters in which we discuss Black trans lives.

This two day event is sponsored by Freedom Bound Texas and #BlackLivesMatter, and will be hosted by the Emerson Unitarian Universalist Church, 1900 Bering Dr.

It starts at 8 AM on Friday and will run through Saturday, and the keynote speaker is Elaine Brown, the former head of the Black Panther Party on an intergenerational panel entitled The Movement: Then &Now with Deloyd Parker, Kaleb Harris,  Roz Pelles and Aurora Harris  

There will also be a panel moderated by Fran Watson discussing LGBTQ people in the movement, and another by Eesha Pandit and Rachel Afi Quinn on gender and violence at 3 PM

BTAC 2016 Approaching Soon

TransGriot Note: Do need to point out in the interest of journalistic integrity that I sit on the board of Black Transwomen, Inc.

This conference up I-45 north from me in Dallas has been growing steadily over the last several years, and will be celebrating its fifth anniversary when it kicks off in April.

It's the Black Trans Advocacy Conference & Awards Gala and this year's event for April 25-May 1 will be moving to a new hotel, the Dallas/Addison Marriott Quorum by the Galleria.

This year's theme is 'Thinking and Speaking A Better World' and you're invited to join the BTAC family at an event designed to do just that.

I had the pleasure of being its first trans feminine keynote speaker in 2013, so I'm always interested in seeing who will get that keynote nod at every BTAC event.  This year's BTAC 2016 keynote speakers will be Mister Cris and Dora Santana.

And as always, the awards gala, the Black Trans International pageants, the Family Fun Day at Austin Ranch, the Black Diamond Ball and the information filled workshops and panels make this a unique for the conference world exciting, fun filled and informative week in the Lone Star State.

And in addition to it being in my home state and it being one of my fave conferences, it either falls on or very close to my birthday, and it has been a blast the last two years celebrating it during an event with my Black trans family from around the country and increasingly, as Dora's presence as this year's keynote speaker is indicative of, across the African Diaspora.

You have time to get that registration in for the BTAC conference, consider submitting a panel discussion topic or get ready to walk the Black Diamond Ball floor.

So hope to see y'all in the BTAC house this year as we spend the week of April 25-May 1 thinking and speaking a better world so that once we leave we can translate that into action on behalf of our community. .  

SBC Trans Hatefest Starts In Louisville Today

In a few hours the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary will host a hatefest conference in which they will arrogantly spend three days in trans-free rooms coming up with new ways to spin scripture to attack the trans community.

Can't say I didn't see this coming.  When they lost on marriage, they were going to have to come up with a new enemy to attack and organize their faith based minions around, and it is now us.

The Southern Baptist denomination at their June 2014 conference in Baltimore voted to hate on trans people and to officially put themselves on the wrong side of the trans human rights movement just as they did over a century and a half ago on slavery and Jim Crow segregation.   

They can meet if they wish, but the bottom line is and will always be that we trans people and our allies will not allow ANY religious denomination to attempt to turn the non-debatable existence of trans people into a theological issue.

And we damned sure are resisting it with every fiber of our beings.

Hope Louisville is planning a special welcome for you and the rest of Satan's Helpers.

OOTH 2015-Saturday Recap

The last full day of OUT on the Hill 2015 activity, and Saturday morning I awakened to what is a familiar sight to Washingtonians but not to this Texan.

I was awakened by the roar of motorcycles and sirens and got to my seventh floor hotel room window just in time to see the presidential motorcade speeding by heading in the direction of the White House.

I went from witnessing that sight to witnessing an amazing State of the Black LGBTQ/SGL Community panel that started at 9:00 AM focused on the wellness of our community.

It was a panel moderated by the Rev. Dr. Jamie Washington featuring Valerie Spencer, Faith Cheltenham, Dr. Cleo Manago. Tim'm West, Geneva Musgrave and Rayceen Pendavis had some tell it like it T-I-S is moments and commentary about what we needed to do in a multipronged ongoing strategic way to build and continue focusing on Black LGBT community wellness.

It ended way too fast, and I stayed in that room to check out a Tim'm West moderated panel entitled Brave Education: OUT Black Educators Advancing Educational Excellence.

The panel that started at 12:15 PM discussed the issues, challenges and joys in K-12 schools for TBLGQ students of color and the out teachers and administrators seeking to prepare them for collegiate studies and the world.

There were also comments from the panelists that pointed out that the public education system need to just as concerned about producing students who are critical thinkers than their ability to take a standardized test.

It also pointed out how important it was to have out Black LGBTQ educators on these campuses representing and being possibility models for Black LGBTQ and other students.

The final plenary session was another after lunch State of the Black LGBTQ/SGL conversation that focused on Faith and Spirituality featuring the Rev Rodney McKenzie, Minister Verdell Wright, Bishop Allyson Abrams, and the Rev Dr Jamie Washington.

The conversation touched on many issues including the been for Black LGBTQ folks to forcefully push back against the loud and wrong anti-Black doctrine that has been remixed to attack us, talk about Black liberation theology from a Black LGBTQ lens, and do a much better job of integrating trans people in this mix.

After closing remarks from Sharon Lettman-Hicks, Kylar Broadus, and Venton Jones, the bittersweet moment of #OOTH 2015 coming to a close was upon us.   I also found myself in the middle of an intergenerational conversation in which I and youth with Trini, Haitian and Nigerian heritage started a fascinating conversation in which we discussed the African Diaspora, our shared connections and history, and where Black LGBT people fit in this.

And yeah, I got to destroy two more Slurpees before I called it a day and crashed from conference fatigue.    

OUT on the Hill-Saturday Preview

Seems like it was just a few days ago OUT on the Hill was kicking off on Tuesday with a pre conference event, and now we have reached the last full day of plenary sessions and seminars for the 6th annual edition of OUT on the Hill

At 9:00 AM EDT will be the first of two The State of the Black LGBTQ/SGL Community sessions.   The first of two sessions is entitled  A Focus on the Wellness of our Community and will run for a scheduled two hours.

We will then move to the final concurrent sessions for #OOTH2015 starting at 11;15 AM before we go into the second State of the Black LGBTQ/SGL Community event focusing on faith and spirituality starting at 1:00 PM and scheduled for three hours..

OUT On The Hill- Thursday Preview

My first full day waking up in DC and being in the NBJC OUT on the Hill house for the first time since 2012.  .Am I excited about that and seeing my NBJC family for the first time since #CC15?   Does Beyonce have curves?

Also felt good being able to get some sleep as I try to get my body adjusted to East coast time.

My plenary isn't until Friday, so I get to spend today in reporter mode.


So what's happening today?    Hmm let's check the schedule.   The opening #OOTH2015 plenary kicks off at 9 AM EDT and is entitled A Focus on the Health and Wellness of our Community.

That's followed by the first concurrent OOTH 2015 sessions starting at 10:45 AM, two general plenary sessions at 12:30 PM and 2;45 PM followed by the welcome reception starting at 5;00 PM

All of today's OOTH 2015 plenaries, panel discussions and the welcome reception will take place at the Human Rights Campaign Headquarters   I(f you're in the DC area still not too late to get a day pass and join us.

Looking forward to spending the day getting my learn on, tweeting and writing about today's events You can check out the #OOTH2015 hashtag to follow the action.