It was touch and go in terms of whether or not I'd actually get here, but thanks to a major assist from BTAC, I'm here for #NLGJA18!
After missing out on the NABJ one in Miami, I was determined to at least make this one since it was this close (385 miles) to my Houston stomping grounds.
My Megabus trip from Houston started out on a less than promising note, with us having to swap the bus out before we could start our eastward trek down I-10. But better to have them handle that problem in Houston than having us break down along the route.
I-10 in Louisiana includes major stretches of it going through swamp in the Atchafalaya Basin west of Baton Rouge and in St Charles, St John and St Martin Parishes as you approach New Orleans..
Still ended up getting to New Orleans an hour late, but in one piece with my luggage.
It's ironic to me that after not having visited New Orleans since the 1990 Mardi Gras, since then I have been to a 2018 BTAC Leadership Institute here, the 2018 Netroots Nation, and now this NLGJA conference.in the span of 14 months.
I have a Saturday panel I'm on, so looking forward to not only handling my business on it, but also getting my learn on. And yes, looking forward to seeing a few friends and some of the NLGJA leadership team while I;m wandering the convention hotel.
I also want to catch up with my NOLA trans fam before I have to hit I-10 west on Sunday
I still have to get registered before that happens, but will deal with it in a few hours.
I'll also be tweeting and posting to my Facebook while I'm here, and you can also check out the #NLGJA19 hashtag for the latest news.
You longtime TransGriot readers are quite aware that I have been calling out for years the NAACP's cricket chirping silence when it comes to what is happening to Black transgender people .
They are the oldest civil rights organization in our community, and whether you feel that way or not, the 110 year old NAACP's voice is still respected in the progressive civil rights community and with elements of our people.
I have urged them to not only say the words 'Black trans lives matter' from their convention stage, but pushed for NAACP state and local chapters to take action to make sure those words, when they are finally spoken publically, are backed up with policy.
Today, I was thrilled to hear that a resolution supporting the trans community was passed yesterday by the delegates of the 110th NAACP convention in Detroit!
The resolution reads:
Be it resolved that the NAACP will work with all of its Units to work to support equal protection for transgender individuals so that all members of our community can live free of violence, shame and discrimination.
This is a huge win for the Black trans community! One of our legacy civil rights orgs has actually passed a resolution that acknowledges our existence.
We in Black Trans World want all members of our Black community to be free from violence, shame and discrimination. It's imperative that we at least get the process and conversation started about how we do so for Black trans individuals in collaboration with the NAACP before we start plunking down our T-bills for memberships.
Hopefully this opens the doors for conversations with the Black trans community as to the best way to accomplish coordinated action that makes a reality the goal set forth in that resolution.
You TransGriot readers know that I have been pushing for the NAACP to end the silence, say the words Black Trans Lives Matter, and start aggressively backing them up with policy.
Yesterday afternoon during the NAACP convention happening in Detroit two longtime freinds of mine and fierce Detroit SGL leaders in Michelle Elizbeth Brown and Curtis Lipscomb were on a livestreamed townhall entitled The State of the LGBTQ POC In America town hall that was moderated by Keith Boykin.
Wish I could have seen this panel live, but I did get to see it on the NAACP convention website and was pleased that a trans person was on that panel.
Maybe next year we can get a panel at an NAACP convention that specifically talks about the issues that black trans people have to navigate in our community.
It was once again a needed and necessary conversation to have in that space, We need our community's oldest civil rights org to recognize that Black TBLGQ people exist. We also need the NAACP to open their mouths and consistently say that Black trans lives matter.
But thanks for a wonderful and much needed conversation.
Another one of the outstanding speeches of this just concluded DNC convention in Philly was delivered by a man that I had the pleasure of meeting while I was living in Louisville, and got reconnected with him during the 2015 LGBT Media Journalists Convening when he was our keynote speaker for the event.
I'm talking about the Rev Dr. William Barber II, the president of the North Carolina NAACP and a fierce social justice warrior. Thursday night America got to witness what many of us who have had the opportunity to hear him speak already know. This is a man who is an unapologetic truth teller who has no problem speaking truth to power and tellin' it like it T-I-S is.
I was handling some TTNS business and unfortunately missed it live, but when I found out he had spoken to the DNC, when I got some downtime I checked it out.
Here's Dr. Barber's DNC speech for those of you who missed it.
Hillary Clinton wasn't the only woman making history last night at the Wells Fargo Center . When Sarah McBride stepped to the podium on the DNC convention stage, she became the first out trans person to deliver a speech at a major party political convention
It's apropos that she is making this history as we showed up at #DNCinPhilly with a record trans contingent of 28 people..
Srah standing on that stage helped fulfill something I was hoping along with the rest of the American trans community would happen, and emphatically points out that the Democratic party is the one what supports the humanity and human rights of trans Americans.
We're now past Day 1 and Day 2 of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia as we rush toward the historic Thursday night that Sec Hillary Clinton will make her acceptance speech for the Democratic presidential nomination. But before we get to that historic day, we have to get through Day 3 of the #DNCinPhilly
Day 3 kicked off with now 14 year old Sebastien De La Cruz singing the national anthem to start the #DNCinPhilly proceedings day. If you don't remember my fellow Texan, several years ago during the NBA Finals between the San Antonio Spurs and Miami Heat his then 11 year old self got hated on by bigoted ignorati on Twitter after singing the national anthem. It prompted the Spurs to issue another invitation for the 'Little Mariachi' to sing the national anthem during the Finals.
Since then De La Cruz has appeared in an episode of Telenovela, since Eva Longoria is a big fan of his along with President Obama, Longoria also produced the documentary for ESPN about the incident. He sang his way into the semifinals of America's Got Talent, and back in March sang the national anthem before the Clinton-Sanders debate in Miami.
The big business of the day was the vice presidential nomination, which was formally done by acclamation for Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) which he accepted in his speech later that evening.
The Democratic vice presidential nominee showed off his Spanish language skills as he whacked Trump on his fitness for office..
There was also the enjoyable takedown of the Trumpenfuhrer by former New York mayor and billionaire Michael Bloomberg, who called him out as a 'dangerous demagogue' and on his shady business practices.
It was also nice to see Vice President Joe Biden's speech tonight He reminded everyone of the stakes in this election and also talked about our presidential nominee in comparison to the opposition..
Texas bragging moment alert. We're showing up and showing out at this DNC event. Eva Longoria, Sebastien De La Cruz, Cecile Richards, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, Ilyse Hogue...
And that's before I start talking about my fellow Texans who are there repping the Lone Star State in the Texas DNC delegation like Ashton Woods, Melissa Vivanco, Kim Frederick, Lou Weaver, Brad Pritchett and countless others. Also cool to know that my H-town homegirl Yesenia Chavez, who is working down I-95 in our nation's capital is in the DNC house
I'm enjoying your FB and other photos your're posting of the convention action and the celebs you're running into. Makes me feel less bummed about being there.
I enjoyed seeing the various Democratic legislative leadership caucuses like the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and the Congressional Asian Pacific Islander Caucus on stage reminding people that we not only have some amazing leaders in our party, but some up and coming young ones like Georgia state Rep. Park Cannon.
As each of those groups took the DNC stage, they reminded everyone to not stop at the top of the ticket, but finish the job and vote for every race on your November 8 ballot . We have a great shot of flipping the US Senate back to Democratic control, and a longer one at getting control of the US House back
But the big speech of Day 3 was given by President Obama. Kinda obvious he's the second best speechmaker in that family, but he succinctly laid out the case for supporting Sec Hillary Clinton and making sure she's taking the oath of office January 20 as our 45th president.
Day 1 of #DNCinPhilly was contentious at times, but this was the day that eluded Hillary Clinton eight years ago and that sound you heard was the glass ceiling finally shattering.
Move over boys, Hillary Clinton has now made history as the first woman to be nominated for president by a major party . It was a long road to get to this point in American history with many women trying to do so but ultimately falling short of making that history.
Somewhere Ann Richards, Shirley Chisholm and Barbara Jordan are smiling because that glass ceiling she put 16 million cracks in back in 2008 has finally been broken.
After Hillary Clinton narrowly missed the big prize in 2008, she finally made it happen in 2016. Now if we can just get her to the point in November of calling her 'Madame President' instead of 'Madame Secretary'.
The LGBT Caucus happened today, and one of the highlights of it was Barbra casbar Siperstein presenting the Jane Fee Award to Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA).
While some of the Bernie Sanders supporters are still upset about the fact that you can officially stop calling Clinton the presumptive nominee, the efforts continue in this convention space and beyond to get those folks who see the big picture of what needs to happen on November 8 to be totally on board with her instead of 'I guess I'm with her.'
Some of the highlights of Day Two of the DNC besides the Roll Call of the States were speeches by the Mothers of the Movement to the shouts in the Wells Fargo Center hall of 'Black Lives Matter'
They pointed out that they trust Hillary Clinton , not Donald Trump to reduce racial tensions between police and the Black community because of her longtime commitment to social justice and urged people to vote for her.,
Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright also took the stage to point out Trump's problematic fawning over authoritarian leaders like Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong-un, who recently endorsed him.
Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D-VA) also repeated something I've been concerned about as a Kennedy baby who grew up during the Cold War and had to do duck and cover nuke attack drills in elementary school until 3rd grade.
I don't want Donald Trump's paws and thin skinned behind near the US nuclear launch codes, and McAuliffe echoed my thoughts in terms of cautioning the nation about giving control of the nuclear launch codes to a man who praises Putin and Saddam Hussein
The speech by former Attorney General Eric Holder debunked the lies that Trump has been telling, and pointed out that violent crime has gone down since President Obama took office.
He went on to passionately endorse Hillary Clinton for president.,
The big speech of the night was given by our Democratic presidential nominees' husband, who happens to have been the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton.
Bill talked about his wife, how they met and her lifetime of fighting for liberal progressive causes as his daughter Chelsea looked on from the arena box seats.
It was a side of her that many people, haven't heard in terms of her undercover work in Alabama on behalf of Marian Wright Edelman to spike the tax exemptions for the racist private academies that sprang up across the South in order for white parents to avoid sending their kids to integrated schools.
It was nice hearing from Bill about how they got married before he launched into his case as to why she should become our 45th president.
And yeah, not only has the music been better at this convention, ,so has the star power.
Trans people have been part of the DNC convention landscape since 2000, but it wasn't until 2008 that we African American trans folks got our first out trans delegate in Tennessee's Marisa Richmond. She was in the Mile High City for that historic convention that Sen. Barack Obama was nominated at, and eventually won the presidency while carrying our party's label a few months later.
In 2012 Richmond was joined in Charlotte by another person used to making history. Trailblazing trans leader Kylar Broadus of Missouri became our first out Black trans masculine delegate.
This year in Philadelphia we have a record contingent of 27 trans people in the Wells Fargo Center house and attending the various events and panels Marisa Richmond is attending her third consecutive DNC convention, but this time she is making history again by serving as the DNC convention's official timekeeper.
But fear not dear readers. Just as in 2012, the #DNCinPhilly event will have Black trans masculine and Black trans feminine delegate representation in the house for the second consecutive event as part of this record trans DNC contingent thanks to Pennsylvania homegirl Sharron Cooks and Merrick Moses of Maryland.
Both Cooks and Moses will be attending their first DNC convention, and both of our trans siblings are excited to be at another historic Democratic convention as we nominate Sec. Hillary Clinton for president.
"It is an honor and a privilege to be a part of the democratic electoral political process. I am so excited and thrilled to be a first time delegate for Pennsylvania Congressional District 1 especially since Philadelphia is the DNC host city," Cooks said.
She's also proud to be representing the Black trans feminine community here at #DNCinPhilly, and is cognizant of the importance of being here.
"This experience is so humbling, educational and is an amazing opportunity to network with lobbyists and legislators, which I believe is very valuable, because as a community organizer, advocate and activist; it helps when it comes to securing the rights and protections for the LGBTQ community," she added.
Merrick Moses echoed Cooks' excitement about being at his first convention/ He felt honored to be there in Philadelphia and part of the record trans DNC contingent and the Maryland delegation..
He's proud of representing the Black trans community and the state of Maryland. He also been pleased about the diversity being showcased to America an the world at this #DNCinPhilly event.
"We have a large number of LGBT delegates, and I am so happy the party has been intentional about showing our diversity." he said.
"It's been interesting, I'm loving the experience and hope that more Black trans folks join us in 2020."
Well, I'm working on it.
Both Cooks and Moses have also expressed interest in wanting to meet each other, exchange information and take photos with each other before the convention closes Thursday
Thanks to you and Sharron for repping our community in Philadelphia and making a little Black trans history while doing so.
Thanks to both of you for not only being witnesses to American history being made at this DNC convention, but actually playing a part in making it happen on behalf of the people you're representing in Maryland and Pennsylvania.
TransGriot Update: Sharron and Merrick finally met on Wednesday ...
For those of you who didn't get to witness it live, First Lady Michelle Obama took to the DNC 2016 stage last night and delivered a speech for the ages that reminded me at times of the one her hubby dropped at the 2004 DNC event in Boston.
This #DNCinPhilly convention is tuning out to be even more historic for trans kind than I anticipated. In addition to having a record 27 trans delegates attending the event and the American trans community eagerly awaiting Sarah McBride's Thursday podium speech, there's more news cementing this Philadephia DNC convention as one of the most trans friendly events in American political history.
Longtime Nashville based trans advocate Marisa Richmond has been active in Democratic Party politics for years and has been a delegate to several DNC conventions including the 2008 one in which she witnessed history in then Sen. Barack Obama's historic nomination.
She'll have a lot closer seats than she did in 2008 to witness another historic nomination this time, like on the convention stage.
Marisa's task as the convention's official timekeeper is to keep all the speakers on schedule and within their allotted time limits. Through her roles with Trans United For Hillary and the Democratic Party's LGBT advisory board she was contacted and subsequently offered the position.
"It's a personal honor and privilege to be up there on the stage," said Richmond in an interview with The Tennessean. "I'll be just a few feet away from all of the speakers all four nights. it's literally one of the best seats there."
"It shows that this is easily the most trans friendly convention ever, " she said. "It shows that this party has really made progress in terms of inclusion and diversity."
Speaking of seats, if you're looking for her, during the television telecasts, where the arrow is in the photo by Mara Keisling is where Marisa will be sitting and doing her timekeeping duties during the convention.
The Tennessee Democratic Party was also pleased about Richmond being chosen as the 2016 DNC convention timekeeper, and Tennessee State Democratic Party Chair Mary Mancini said she was thrilled by her selection.
Mancini noted that Richmond, the former chair of the Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition, has been one of the strongest LGBTQ advocates in Tennessee and across the country for many years."
And yes, I'll definitely cosign that sentiment. I've had the pleasure of knowing her trailblazing self since the late 90's, and I'm proud of her for getting this amazing honor.
The 2016 Democratic National Convention gets started in Philadelphia today with the opening gavel in the Wells Fargo Arena scheduled at 3 PM CDT. Should be much better than the Klan rally masquerading as the Republican convention in Cleveland last week even with the drama of Debbie Wasserman Schultz's resignation
The featured speakers lineup for today is First Lady Michelle Obama, Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT), Sen Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ).
Looking forward to once again seeing a Democratic convention hall that looks like America, and I'm exceedingly proud of the fact trans Democrats will be in the hall in full effect. There will be a record 28 person DNC trans delegation and they and Trans World will witness a historic Thursday speech by Sarah McBride from the convention stage..
I'm taking a moment to give a TransGriot shout to my Houston home peeps who are part of the Texas DNC delegation. Like I've said before, we have some amazing advocates repping H-town at the DNC, and those Texas delegation meetings at your host hotel should be a lot of fun.
Wish I could be there with you for this historic convention which will witness the first woman to be nominated as a major party presidential candidate but have another commitment I made I must fulfill. But definitely will be with y'all in spirit.
Also sending love to my Kentucky peeps who made it to #DNCinPHL and all the peeps on my FB pages and Twitter feeds who will be in the house with their various state delegations.
Already enjoying reading your Facebook statuses and tweets, and anticipating the pics and posts I'll see as the DNC is gaveled into session later today and it winds to its climax of Sec. Hillary Clinton's acceptance speech on the 28th..
Hope y'all have fun, handle your business, get to spend a little time enjoying the city and make some amazing memories while you're in the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection.
One of the things I'd like to see in that 2016 DNC transgender delegate contingent besides more people and continued ethnic diversity is that trans DNC delegation in 2016 and beyond include trans people who are elected to public office. That would be in addition to the trans people already diligently working inside the various levels of the Democratic Party to ensure we have a voice in it at the policy formation tables.
TransGriot, September 6, 2012 When the 2016 Democratic National Convention is gaveled into order for its first session at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, we will have a record 28 trans folks in the house and taking part at this historic convention which will see Hillary Clinton officially become the first female presidential nominee of a major political party.
The Green Party and Jill Stein doesn't count as a major political party and she doesn't have a credible chance of taking the oath of office on January 20, so stop hatin' fauxgressives and deal with that dose of political reality.
We've come a long way in Trans World from the 2000 days in which Minnesota's Jane Fee became the first out trans person the attend a DNC convention and was the lone trans delegate in Los Angeles.
Trans representation at the DNC convention has grown exponentially to the point that we had our most diverse delegation ever in Charlotte with 14 people in 2012, One of the 14 people in attendance in Charlotte was a superdelegate in New Jersey's Barbra Casbar Siperstein.
Babs has been blazing the trail and active in New Jersey and national Democratic Party politics for years, and will be one of the superdelegates in attendance in Philadelphia, the other super being Laura Calvo of Oregon. I'm hoping that the 2016 trans DNC contingent during their time in Philadelphia will actually see more trans history made with one of our people actually making a speech to the convention attendees and hopefully the nation from the convention stage.
It's even more vital the American people see that in the wake of the Republicans putting together a virulently anti-trans and LGB platform. We need to make it clear as a party that we are proud of the most pro-trans platform in Democratic Party history, and putting a trans Democrat on stage would put an exclamation point on our values of treating trans people with dignity and respect.
We already know the Texas DNC delegation will have its first ever out trans masculine representative in Lou Weaver, and Montana will be sending its first ever out trans delegate in Anita Green. Monica DePaul will be the first ever out trans delegate from Florida.
There will also be just as in 2014, two African American trans representatives in Merrick Moses from Maryland and Sharron Cooks representing the host delegation from Pennsylvania
While I'm proud of the record numbers of trans people headed to Philadelphia, many for the first time, we do have room for improvement in terms of the diversity of our trans DNC delegates. It's been a dream of mine to one day be a DNC delegate, and I hope I can make that happen someday.
I would also like to see more trans people of all ethnic backgrounds showing up at future DNC's as elected representatives, and hope the 2016 election cycle is the first step toward that becoming a reality.
Speaking of reality, will be nice to not only see a political convention that's grounded in reality, but looks like America at the same time.
While Melania Trump is justifiably being dragged by Twitter for plagiarizing First Lady Michelle Obama's 2008 speech, need to direct your attention to much more egregious commentary made earlier in the day by a longtime TransGriot SUF Awards contender in Rep. Steve King (R-IA)
I can't stand King because of his long history racist remarks, but yesterday he went too far during an MSNBC interview in which he must have been reading Mein Kampf before he went on air
King said that non-whites 'subgroups' haven't contributed to Western civilization in comments made in response to writer Charles Pierce's comments about 'old white guys' running the Republican Party. . Well Steve, here's a short list for the stuff just African Americans have contributed to society like blood banks, open heart surgery, traffic signals, gas masks, potato chips, refrigerated trucks and railway cars, the world's fastest computer, automated steam engine lubricator and the Super Soaker water gun..
Benjamin Banneker not only built the first clock in the Americas, he published an almanac for over a decade and helped do the surveys that laid out Washington D.C.
So naw fool, your ignorant racist behind doesn't even need to try to go there
Last night I watched much of the first night of the Republican National Convention from Cleveland, and got so tired of the race bating and sellout kneegrows like Sheriff David Clarke being on the podium that for self-care reasons I turned it off before Melania Trump's speech and started following the far more entertaining Twitter commentary.
I then noted before the media finally started talking about it increasing chatter on Twitter that started sharing Jarrett Hill's observation that Trump's speech had two paragraphs that were strikingly similar to one that First Lady Michelle Obama gave at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver.
The Hill observations turned out to be so on point that the networks were after initially praising the Melania Trump speech, forced to address the growing plagiarism controversy as the Trump campaign scrambled to try to respond to it.
So what's the big deal about plagiarizing speeches? Allegations of it sank Joe Biden's 1988 presidential campaign. Careers have gone down in flames for it, and people have been expelled from colleges and universities for doing so.
When you also listen to the Trump speech, the message sounds oddly out of sync when you consider that Melania grew up in Slovenia. It was part of Communist run Yugoslavia at the time she was born in 1970 before the 1991 breakup of that country and Slovenia's subsequent independence after a brief ten day war.
As I also pointed out in my take on this growing controversy on my Twitter feed, this was a real time example of a common problem in terms of Black intellectual property being jacked by whites for their own personal gain. This happens far too often with Black women having their words repeatedly stolen by white women with little to zero credit for being the originators and creators of those words and receiving no compensation for it.
Trump also claimed in an interview before she went on the RNC stage she'd written the speech without much help in what was expected to be a moment to introduce Melania to the world and humanize her reprehensible husband..
Of course Twitter gleefully went all in on their dragging Melania Trump mission, and the hashtag #FamousMelaniaTrumpQuotes quickly rose to become the number one Twitter hashtag along with the #BeckyWithTheBorrowedSpeech one as Trump supporters and his campaign team tried to furiously spin away what happened.
This plagiarism situation was also dripping with irony. The plagiarized section is discussing honesty, character and integrity, and since you couldn't find nice things to say about The Donald, so you steal them from a speech the FLOTUS is giving about her hubby the POTUS who does role model those qualities.
First Lady Michelle Obama has been demonized, misgendered, had her intelligence questioned despite possessing two Ivy League degrees earned with stellar grades and has been called everything but a child of God by the conservative movement.
But when it comes to speech writing, either Trump or someone on her husband's campaign team had no problem stealing the FLOTUS' eloquent August 25, 2008 words to put in Melania's teleprompter.
We'll have to see how this latest Trump campaign mess plays out not only for the rest of the RNC, but also for Melania Trump and this train wreck of a presidential campaign
Lost in all the news of the opening of the RNC convention is the fact that 250 miles away on the southern end of Ohio, the 107th NAACP National Convention is taking place at the Duke Energy Center in Cincinnati.
As per tradition, both the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates were invited to speak to the NAACP convention delegates, with Sec. Hillary Clinton accepting her invitation to do so while Donald Trump declined.
Then again, if I sucked as bad on issues of importance to African Americans, had been saying racist crap for decades and my presidential race poll numbers were worse than Romney's, I'd be finding any excuse NOT to speak to 'The Blacks' either or put myself in a position to be called on it.
Here is the video of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's Monday speech to the NAACP convention.
"For now, let's focus on what we already know - deep in our hearts. We know there is something wrong with our country. There is too much violence, too much hate, too much senseless killing, too many people dead who shouldn't be. And we know there is clear evidence that African Americans are much more likely to be killed in police incidents than any other group of Americans."
--Hillary Clinton, July 8, 2016
Presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton was at the African Methodist Episcopal Church National Convention in Philadelphia when the shootings on Tuesday of Alton Sterling in Baton rouge, Philando Castile in suburban St. Paul the next day and the Thursday sniper attack in Dallas following a peaceful protest of the deaths by cop of Sterling and Castile broke out
Clinton spoke to the AME convention delegates and condemned the level of tension and violence that hasn't been seen in this country in decades. .
This is her speech to the AME National Convention on Friday, and it's one that needs to be heard.
Here's the transcript for it.
While the Latino community leaders were gathering in Kansas City for the National Council of La Raza Convention, at the same time in Philadelphia the NAACP was meeting July 11-15 for its 106th national convention at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.
And yep NCLR Conference delegates, as you and I suspected, there were no sightings of GOP presidential candidates at the NAACP convention either.
One of the speakers for that just concluded convention in the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection was none other than President Barack Obama.
He spoke to the assembled delegates on Tuesday, and here's the text and the video of his speech.
This CC15 day started for me with the NBJC Black Institute, and ended at 2 AM cutting up in the Sheraton Denver lobby with my trans brothers and trans sisters.
After the opening remarks from NBJC executive Director Sharon Lettman-Hicks, we dove right into the first panel of the day
It was entitled From the Grassroots to the National Stage: Movement Building with Intersectional Justice for Black LGBTQ/SGL People. It was a panel with Mandy Carter, Earl Fowlkes, Geneva Musgrave, Rev. Dr Kenneth Samuel and Chai Jindasurat and myself in a robust discussion of the state of Black LGBTQ?SGL America .moderated by Angela Peoples.
It was a 90 minute discussion that ended far to soon for the breakout sessions that followed later. and took us to lunch.
Black LGBTQ youth was served in the first panel after the lunch break was a Black Youth Project 100 sponsored panel entitled Get Free:Black LGBT Rights and Grassroots Organizing.
The high energy and informative presentation by Angie Brilliance, Samantha Master and Charlene Carruthers discussed grassroots organizing, and building power in our community as seen from the eyes of the 18-35 set.
After their part of the institute concluded, we had the honor of Fallon Fox addressing us after being introduced by Kye Allums. Fallon told us about her journey to becoming a kick butt WMMA fighter while trans.
That was the lead in to the next panel at 3:30 PM, presented by Athlete Ally.which focused on the sports world. Black TBLGQ athletes such as Kye Allums, Fallon Fox, Brittney Griner, and Michael Sam have not only excelled on the field, but made trailblazing progress that also has bigger ramifications for our community.
The Color of Sports:Black Perspectives at the Intersection of Race, Gender and Orientation in Sports was moderated by Wendy Lewis after being introduced by Akil Patterson.
Panelists Kye Allums, Wade Davis Ashland Johnson and Nevin Caple discussed the challenges of being Black and LGBT in the sports world.
The final panel of the Black Institute was entitled Suffering in Silence:Addressing HIV, LGBT Health and The Black LGBTQ/SGL Community moderated by Venton Jones.
This was my second panel of the day, and I was joined by the Rev Dr Jamie Washington, Kenyon Farrow, Jai Makokha, and Maria Glover-Wallace in which we not only discussed the HIV/AIDS epidemic in our community, but the need to focus on health care, wellness, and raising the profile of HIV/AIDS to where it has the same level of urgency that we give to combating obesity and diabetes in the Black community.
We also discussed the launch of the NBJC Black Wellness Initiative in that interactive panel discussion what we probably could have used another hour for.
After the closing remarks from Sharon, the second annual NBJC Black Institute was concluded.
After joining my Houston homies Ashton Woods and NBJC Emerging Leader Brandon Mack, we headed to the People of Color suite to hilariously kill some time before heading to the what turned out to be a very interesting opening plenary session.
After writing up what happened at the protest, I returned to the lobby area to hang out with my trans sisters and trans brothers until nearly 2 AM
Yep, long day. But I'm not complaining.Just need a little sleep and I'm good to go.
