Angelica Ross To Host Historic 2020 TBLGQ Presidential Forum

If you've watched the last three presidential debates, you'll quickly notice as a member of the TBLGQ community the questions about the issues that concern LGBTQ + Americans have been non existent save for Cory Booker and Julian Castro mentioning trans Americans and Pete Buttigieg talking about love and marriage at the end of the Houston one.

GLAAD on Friday will sponsor along with The Advocate, One Iowa, and The Gazette the 2020 Presidential Candidate Forum on LGBTQ Issues at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, IA.

Joining GLAAD president and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis on the Sinclair Auditorium stage is actress and advocate Angelica Ross.

This makes Ross the first out trans person tapped to be a presidential forum host in addition to all the trans television history she's made already as a cast member of the groundbreaking FX series POSE and American Horror Story 1984 that premieres tonight.

Congrats to Angelica!   I'm so proud of her, and I'm confident she will do a wonderful job in making sure that the concerns of our trans community are articulated during this event.

“This LGBTQ Presidential Forum is a pivotal moment in the 2020 election cycle,” said Ellis. “It’s the first time that LGBTQ issues will be exclusively discussed by 2020 presidential candidates on a national stage.” 

She adds, “We look forward to hearing how the 2020 candidates plan to reverse the attacks and rollbacks of the Trump Administration and put LGBTQ Americans on a course to 100% acceptance.”

It's a pivotal moment indeed.   We have had 20 trans people murdered this year in the US as the Trump misadministration ramps up its attacks on our basic human rights.    It opposes the Equality Act, which passed the democratically controlled House but has gone nowhere in the GOP controlled Senate.

We TBLGQ voters need to know as November 3, 2020 gets closer what Democratic presidential candidates will do to stop the erosion of our human rights, and what policies they will enact that benefit TBLGQ Americans if they are elected.

Confirmed participants in this TBLGQ specific forum are Joe Biden, Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, Julián Castro, Tulsi Gabbard, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, Joe Sestak, Elizabeth Warren and Marianne Williamson.

The forum is scheduled to start at 7 PM CDT on Friday, September 20, and you can watch the forum livestream here.

Mississippi 2018 US Senate Debate

If you thought the 2018 midterms were over, not quite.   We still have some races in a few states that went to runoffs, and others they are still counting ballots in close races. 

One of those states in which a runoff is occurring is Mississippi, where Mike Espy is trying to become the first Black senator elected from the Magnolia State since Hiram Revels did so during Reconstruction.

Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R) was appointed to fill the seat after Thad Cochran resigned for health reasons.  She has lately been making news for all the wrong reasons.

She commented that she would be on the front row of a public hanging lynching, and came out in favor of voter suppression.   An old picture has surfaced with Hyde-Smith in a Confederate cap standing next to a person from an SPLC certified hate group. 

This isn't dog whistle racism.  This is alarm klaxon racism.  That also concerns me as someone who has maternal side family members who live in Mississippi.

The debate between Espy and Confederate Cindy was last night, so if you missed it, here's the video of it.

2018 Florida Governor's Debate

The race between Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum (D) and Rep. Ron DeSantis (R) has been ugly from the start, with DeSantis wasting no time going low and deploying racist tactics against the first African American nominee for governor of the Sunshine State. 

Well, it shouldn't be a surprise since DeSantis has been swimming in the white supremacist sewers.

Early voting is now taking place in Florida as you read this, so if you live in the Sunshine State, handle you business. If you didn't see the October 21 debate that was broadcast on CNN, as a TransGriot public service, here's the debate video

The First Beto-Cruz Debate

As a TransGriot public service for all folks inside and outside of Texas who may not have gotten the chance to see the debate between incumbent Sen. Ted Cruz (R) and Rep. Beto O' Rourke (D), here's the video of their first encounter from the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas and hosted bu SMU, the Dallas Morning News and KXAS 5 TV.

The debate was held in front of a raucous crowd of supporters for both candidates .

This is the first of three debates.  The next two will take place on September 30 at the University of Houston and October 16 in San Antonio.

The debate, like the one scheduled for UH, will be focused on domestic policy.  The San Antonio one will be a mix of domestic and foreign policy   

Who won?   You can see for yourself.

Texas 2018 Democratic Gubernatorial Debate

I missed this when it happened on Friday because I was traveling to Dallas.   Now that I've found the video for it I'm posting it for you peeps who are trying to make up your minds which person you wish to see take on Greg Abbott in November.

This is the one and done debate between Lupe Valdez and Andrew White that occurred on Friday evening in Austin.  It was moderated by Dallas Morning News reporter Gromer Jeffers, and as you probably suspected, got testy at times, especially since early voting for the May 22 runoff election starts today and runs through May 18 

So who am I supporting in this race?   I voted for Valdez in the primary in large part because I didn't like White's donation to the Kentucky Republican Party and his self description as a 'conservative moderate Democrat.' and I will be voting for her again in this runoff.

We need real Democrats, not Democrats-lite in these Trumpian times. 

 So handle your electoral business.

CNN Guns Town Hall

For those of you who missed it, here's the  town hall that CNN broadcast featuring the students and parents of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School vs the NRA and Sen. Marco Rubio (NRA-FL)

Also taking part in this conversation that was moderated by CNN's  Jake Tapper  was Sen Ben Nelson (D-FL), Rep Ted Deutch (D-FL) and Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel along with NRA shill spokesperson Dana Loesch . 

As you probably guessed, coming a mere week after the mass shooting event that killed 17 people, it was contentious at times.

Here's the video of it.

Sen Garcia Takes On A Legislative Trans Oppressor

Texas state Senator Sylvia Garcia (D-Houston) has been a stand up ally and champion for the Texas trans community as we have fought SB 6 and now SB 3.   She's not a member of the Senate State affairs Committee, but she sat in the hearing room through the 10+ hours of testimony back in March and during last Friday's hearing.

Yesterday she took part in a conversation hosted by the Texas Tribune in Austin yesterday concerning the anti-trans HB 46 and HB 50 bills with their sponsor Rep. Ron Simmons (R-Carrollton)

All that came out during this conversation is just how awesome Sen. Garcia is about the subject and how clueless Rep. Simmons is when it comes to trans issues.

And Sen Garcia is right when she starts that 'Dignity and Diversity over Discrimination' is more important.



You can check it out for yourself.

It's A Debate Sweep For Clinton

The final debate was in Las Vegas last night, and once again it was another win for President Secretary Hillary Clinton in which she decisively spanked that behind once again.

Trump came out swinging, but once again proved once again he didn't have the stamina or command of policy to hang with Clinton

And when Trump didn't have an answer to a policy question, he did what he always does: lie, deflect and stall to avoid answering it, and when that didn't work, launched false attacks of Clinton

But the comment that is probably going to sink his campaign for good is not emphatically stating he wouldn't accept the election results  if when he loses

Secretary Clinton talked about this on her campaign plane.



Once again the polls have spoken and backed up what I observed by overwhelmingly stating she won.   I agree.  Another win for Secretary Clinton

Hopefully the debate sweep results in an resounding electoral college win on November 8

Hey Caitlyn, You Still Supporting Trump and the Transphobic GOP?

As y'all know, after giving Caitlyn Jenner time after her transition to try and fail to find a voice we could be proud of in our community as an advocate, I finally had enough of the numerous faux pas and ridiculous statements and called her out.

One of the statements out of her mouth that was ridiculous on its face was initially claiming that Republicans were leaders when it came to trans human rights at a time when they were legislatively attacking us in South Dakota and North Carolina and several other GOP controlled states.

She also claimed back in June that Donald Trump is a champion for women and LGBT people.  Yeah, right.  Donald's a champion groper and pervert

Oh the Republicans are leaders all right.  Leaders when it comes to oppressing trans people.  

See my lieutenant governor Dan Patrick, Attorney General Ken Paxton, Caitlyn's fave senator Ted Cruz and right wing state and federal judges like Reed O'Connor for concrete example of being trans oppressors instead of trans human rights trailblazers like President Obama and soon to be POTUS Hillary Clinton.

Well, the reason I'm bringing Caitlyn's comments up again is that the North Carolina gubernatorial debate was held Monday night, and guess whose name came up in the debate discussion about Hate Bill 2?

And who said on stage that you needed to use the men's bathroom?   It sure wasn't Roy Cooper, the Democratic candidate for governor and the one who refused to defend as North Carolina's attorney general that unjust law.

It was that trans oppressor Gov Pat McCrory (R)



And what has been Caitlyn's response so far?

I hope you are waking up from the pink fog you're in and realizing that the party you wanted to be a 'trans ambassador' for has enshrined hatred of trans people in their 2016 platform.

I still have to ask since woke transpeople don't let friends vote GOP, if you are still supporting the anti-trans GOP presidential ticket and anti-trans Republicans?

Inquiring minds wanna know.

2016 Vice Presidential Debate Tonight

It was clear to myself and other observers when it was over that Sec. Hillary Clinton spanked Donald Trump's incoherent behind in the first presidential debate.

So as we move toward the one and only debate between vice presidential candidates Sen. Tim Kaine (D) and Indiana Governor Mike Pence (R), the stakes are high for both sides.

This is also another historic debate moment in that we will have the first ever Asian-American journalist as a moderator for a national presidential or vice presidential debate in Elaine Quijano of CBS.

She's also at age 42, the youngest to do so since Judy Woodruff was tapped at age 41 to moderate a 1988 debate, and the first from a digital media outlet

And yeah Debate Commission, I repeat, your selection of debate moderators needs to be more diverse.

As they step onto the debate stage at Longwood University in Farmville, VA  Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine will have the job of keeping the momentum going that Clinton seized with her debate performance in front of 84 million viewers.   Republican vice presidential nominee Pence will have the job of trying to calm the nerves of distressed Trump supporters and stop the political bleeding unleashed by his out of control running mate.

Both Kaine and Pence in addition to introducing themselves on a national stage, will also have to demonstrate they will be capable of running this nation should the president become unable to perform their elected duties.

That's a concern for some voters because the presidential candidates at the top of the ticket if elected will be the oldest (Trump at 70), and second oldest (Clinton at 69) when they are inaugurated on January 20, and both vice presidential candidates are in their 50's

The viewing record for a vice presidential debate, just in case you're wondering about it, is 70 million viewers, which was set during the 2008 debate between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden, which may not be in any danger, but you never know.

Vice presidential debates over the last few presidential election cycles from 1976-2008 according to Gallup don't affect the overall race much,   The average they affect the polls have been about one point.

Bu the possibility of a memorable moment can happen as the 1988 vice presidential debate demonstrated. When Sen. Dan Quayle tried to compare himself in that debate to President John F. Kennedy, Sen. Lloyd Bentsen responded, "Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy, I knew Jack Kennedy, Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine.  You are no Jack Kennedy."



There was also this moment in the 2012 vice presidential debate in which Vice president Joe Biden as part of his demolition of Rep. Paul Ryan unleashed the "Oh, now you're Jack Kennedy" line at his challenger.



Will there moments like that in this 2016 vice presidential debate?   You'll have to tune in to find out.  
The fun begins at 8 PM CDT

1965 Baldwin vs. Buckley Debate

"It is a terrible thing for an entire people to surrender to the notion that one-ninth of its population is beneath them.  Until the moment comes when we, the Americans, are able to accept the fact that my ancestors are both black and white, that on that continent we are trying to forge a new identity, that we need each other, that I am not a ward of America, I am not an object of missionary charity, I am one of the people who built this country-- until this moment comes there is scarcely any hope for the American dream.  If the people are denied participation in it, by their very presence they will wreck it.  And if that happens it is a very grave moment for the West."
-James Baldwin, 1965 Cambridge University debate    

50 years ago writer James Baldwin  accepted an invitation from Cambridge University's Cambridge Union Society to debate William F. Buckley, Jr., the father of modern conservatism and the young founder of the conservative leaning National Review magazine.

The debate topic was 'Has the American Dream Been Achieved At The Expense Of The American Negro?' 

Baldwin in addition to being a prominent writer, was one of the intellectual voices of the Civil Rights Movement.  Buckley was had voiced his opposition to desegregation in the pages of the National Review in 1961 but was a few years from his status as 'The Father of Modern Conservatism'.

Both got their opportunity to argue their points, and when it was over the Cambridge Union Society members voted on the proposition.   Baldwin trounced Buckley 540-160.  

Enjoy this debate, because sadly, many of the points Baldwin makes are still valid in 2015 and explain much of the racial animus we are currently dealing with.

Live From Las Vegas, The Democratic 2016 POTUS Debates!

After suffering through the horror of multiple GOP presidential debates that had the feel of a reality TV show, finally the Democrats get in the game with the first of their six debates from Las Vegas being televised by CNN starting at 7:30 PM CDT with Anderson Cooper as the moderator.

Vice President Joe Biden won't be there since he still hasn't decided whether he will jump into this race, but Democratic primary front runner Hillary Clinton will be in the Wynn Las Vegas house along with Sen. Bernie Sanders, Martin O'Malley, Jim Webb, and Lincoln Chafee.

In addition to wondering when will VP Biden get in the game, there is still the desire in Democratic Party circles to see more than just the six DNC sanctioned debates that is being echoed by people such as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and former DNC Chair Howard Dean..

The call for additional debates have led to protests in front of DNC headquarters in Washington DC and heckling of DNC chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz at a recent New Hampshire Democratic party event..

And frankly, I'd like to see more debates as well.

Until that happens, the political junkie in me will take the opportunity to watch this one presidential debate that I suspect will be far more substantive on policy than all the GOP ones combined.

NIkki Araguz Loyd Eviscerates Dave Welch In Local News Debate

Y'all know I love my sis Nikki Araguz Loyd,  who is a kick butt activist in her own right fighting a now five year long battle to have recognition of her marriage to her late husband Thomas Araguz III restored.

The case is now at the Texas Supreme Court level, and in like of the Oberkfell SCOTUS ruling legalizing same sex marriage, it remains to be seen how this will  affect Nikki's still pending case.

Nikki was on FOX 26 last night not to talk about her pending marriage case, but to tangle with Dave Welch in a segment moderated by FOX 26's Isiah Carey.  

Dave Welch is a longtime hater and professional gaybaiter who before heading the Houston Area Pastoral Council, the predominately white right wing group of haters that Max Miller and his Baptist Ministers Assn of Houston and Vicinity cooned it up for in last year's HERO fight, worked for Ralph Reed's Christian Coalition in Washington DC.

He's been back in Texas attempting to spread his special brand of hate with the aid of sellout non-white preachers like Miller and friends.

Note to Zoey Tur, this is how you deal with a right wing hater.

Here's the link to the FOX26 webpage if you can't see the video..

Welch is probably tired of getting his azz kicked when he tangles with Houston trans women.  First Cristan took him down to the point where he refuses to debate her any more, then moi, and now Nikki have made him look bad on local TV.

But hey, the existence of trans people is not up for debate, and neither is whether or not as Houstonians, Texans and Americans we should have human rights protection.

Anybody like Welch who thinks their religious beliefs and praying to Conservagod trumps human rights  is our enemy, and doesn't deserve our pity or respect.

Texas Governor's Debate: Round Two

This second debate between Wendy Davis and Greg Abbott last night in Dallas got a little more contentious than the first debate in the Valley.  

Many statewide media pundits in the post debate aftermath consider Wendy to have won this one, and I concur with that assessment. 

To be honest, They really needed to do one in a town hall format, but Abbott didn't want that for obvious reasons.

For those of you who didn't get to see it live last night or who didn't see the livestream of it, as a TransGriot public service, your favorite blogger will make it easy for you to check it out.

Wendy vs Greg: Round Two

The final Texas gubernatorial debate between Wendy Davis and Greg Abbott is taking place later tonight in Dallas, and I'm hoping to see a lot more fireworks in this one. 

But since both candidates are playing not to make the game changing mistake that can swing the election, it's probably going to be just as close to the vest as this one.

Frankly, I would have rather seen a couple of town hall ones in which both candidates have to take questions from the audience, and would have loved those town halls to have been in The Valley and on the TSU campus in Houston for starters..  

But for you political junkies, the debate starts at 8 PM.  I've been invited to a debate watch party later tonight with a group of Wendy Davis supporters gathering at Nikki Araguz Loyd's house (yep, that Nikki).   KXAS-TV (NBC5), KXTX-TV (Telemundo 39), The Dallas Morning News, Texas Association of Broadcasters are the sponsors of it with the moderator for tonight's political fun being KERA managing editor Shelley Kofler. 

The questions will come from panelists Brian Curtis, NBC5; Peggy Fikac, San Antonio Express-News/Houston Chronicle; Norma García, Telemundo 39; and Gromer Jeffers Jr., The Dallas Morning News.  

If you don't live in the Lone Star State, the debate is being livestreamed, and it may end up being broadcast on C-SPAN like the first debate was.

Texas Governor's Debate

For those of y'all who don't live in the Lone Star State, the first debate between Texas state Senator Wendy Davis and Attorney General Greg Abbott happened Friday night in Edinburg, TX down in the Rio Grande Valley. 

Both were going after the Valley's Latino voters, and Davis was on the offensive from the opening bell.

But I don't need to tell you that.  here's the video so you can check it out and see for yourself who won.

Louisville Forum, Why Are You Hosting A Trans Issues Forum With No Trans People On The Panel?

Since 1984 the influential Louisville Forum has been a nonpartisan public issues group that hosts monthly meetings to discuss and debate issues of importance to the Louisville metro area. 

From their website:  The Louisville Forum is a nonpartisan public issues group. Founded in 1984, the Forum hosts debates and discussions of contemporary and sometimes controversial public policy issues that affect the greater Louisville community. The Forum provides an arena for the presentation and analysis of different sides of vital issues affecting the Louisville Metropolitan area.

As an independent and nonprofit organization, the Forum itself never takes a position on issues. Instead, we bring together speakers who aggressively articulate their specific and often opposing viewpoints. Membership is open to the public at large, and guests are welcome at all meetings.

Since its founding, the Louisville Forum has held monthly meetings to discuss wide-ranging matters of public interest, covering economic, political, environmental, health, and social issues. Members and guests receive firsthand information from community and industry figures: business leaders, elected officials, industry experts and others deeply involved in shaping Louisville's future.

So with the July 9 forum luncheon scheduled to tackle transgender issues in the wake of what happened at Atherton HS recently, it was interesting to discover courtesy of Jaison Gardiner, one of the co-hosts along with Dr Kaila Story of the Strange Fruit radio show on WFPL-FM, that the Louisville Forum panel has no transpeople represented on it.   

Yes Louisville Forum, one of the panelists is the mother of a trans child, but the fact remains there is no transperson on it to talk about trans issues.   That is the equivalent of having a discussion on gay issues, having no gay people on the panel to discuss and debate it, and the only person there to discuss the issues pertinent to the gay community is the straight mom of a gay child. 

And that's before I even point out how monoethnic the panel is to begin with..

You mean to try to tell me that in the entire Louisville metro area, you couldn't find one trans person to sit on that panel?   Or did you even try?   All you had to do was give Chris Hartman a call at the Fairness Campaign and I'm sure he and Fairness could have easily recommended more than a few trans candidates for that panel to you. 

I lived in that city for 8.5 years.  I know for a fact there are transpeople who can eloquently talk about being trans, and one of them is Dawn Wilson, who is a current member of the Metro Louisville Human Relations Commission.  

When the country is finally paying attention to the issues that transpeople face, it is vitally important to have people who actually are trans and dealing with those issues to be talking about them in these type of forums.

It's imperative in a space in which influential policy makers gather, are in the audience, and the discussion is videotaped for future multiple broadcasts on Louisville public cable television.we transpeople are represented.

It is important for a trans person to be on that Forum panel room when there is far too much disinformation and lies being gleefully spread by our opponents in order to derail trans human rights concerns. 

It is imperative to have a trans person on that Forum panel when the Southern Baptist Church, which has a seminary on Lexington Rd, just voted on June 10 to openly oppose trans human rights laws and deny our existence as human beings. 

As Samuel Cornish and John Russworm once said in 1827, 'We wish to plead our own cause.  Too long have others spoken for us.  Our vices and degradation are ever arrayed against us, but our virtues are passed by unnoticed.'  

So yes Louisville Forum, it it time to allow transpeople to plead their own cause.  Without a trans person on that panel, your impartiality and credibility as a non partisan public issues group will be called into question when it comes to this debate on trans issues.

There is time for you to reconstitute the panel so that a trans person is present and in the room representing our community on July 9.  If you can't  (or won't) do that, at least have a trans moderator there asking the questions.

Cristan Williams Challenges TERF To Debate

When I used me debating The Bug as this year's TransGriot April Fool spoof post, I knew there was no way in Hades she'd agree to debate moi.

Neither did I want to be on the stage with somebody who I knew would blatantly lie on a debate platform more than Mitt Romney does. 

But in the off chance she accepted it, I would have been more than ready to handle my business.

But Cristan Williams isn't joking about wanting to debate a TERF (trans exterminationalist exclusionary radical feminist).   She has challenged to a debate GallusMag, the Borg Queen of Gender Trender, one of the major hate sites in the TERFosphere.

The trans community expects GallusMag to chicken out just like TS separatist Lisa McDonald did when she accepted Cristan's challenge to a debate and then weaseled out of it. 

Frankly, I'd demand as a condition of the debate she come out of hiding, but Cristan is conceding that in order to take away an excuse she'd use to decline it which I'm betting she does anyway..  

But if it does happen, it will be interesting to see what would happen when a TERF is forced to come up with verifiable examples to justify their jibber-jabber instead of strawman and red herring filled arguments that they pull out of their vanillacentric cis privileged behinds..

Third 2012 Presidential Debate Wrap Up

While the Chicago Bears were dominating the Detroit Lions during their 13-7 victory at Soldier Field last night, in the other big Chicago vs Detroit matchup on the political stage President Obama also won big in his final debate with challenger Mitt Romney.

Hey, that's not just my chococentric assessment of this debate.   Three snap post debate polls show that the POTUS won.  The loud conservafool whining  already commencing on the Net about the moderator, speaking time and other issues tells me all I need to know about who won in addition to what I watched transpire over those 90 minutes. 

The 'Big Chief' as Tom Joyner calls him showed up at this debate, but he was confronted with another version of Moderate Mitt.   This time Mitt was in 'me, too' mode repudiating stances he took during the Republican primary and over the six years he's run for POTUS and President Obama called him on it.

And note to Mitt Romney, check a map the next time you try to go into a foreign policy debate because it's obvious you are woefully lacking in that aspect of the POTUS job and having the GW Bush foreign policy peeps sniffing around you doesn't help..     .  

First you tried to claim the AFRICAN country of Mali is in the Middle East, and then later you tried to claim that Syria was Iran's path to the sea.   Um dude, ever heard of two bodies of water called the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz?

There was also that devastating counter to Mittens talking point that the US Navy has less ships than it did in 1916 and the President swiftly and snarkily whacking him with the point that the US military has fewer horses and bayonets.

“You mentioned the Navy, for example, and that we have fewer ships than we did in 1916. Well, Governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets … because the nature of our military's changed," the president taunted. "We have these things called aircraft carriers where planes land on them. We have these ships that go underwater, nuclear submarines.”

The Commander in Chief was in command of the facts, knew his stuff foreign policy wise while Mitt was sweating, saying the POTUS has done a great job, and regurgitating his loud and wrong foreign policy campaign talking points President Obama ripped to shreds. 

That's why President Obama whupped that Mitt again when this evening at Lynn University was over.   Now with 14 days left until Election Day we'll see if the voting public sees it that way as well. 

Final Presidential Debate Tonight

After I finish handling my civic duty, I'll be parked in front of the TV with notepad in hand checking out the final debate in Boca Raton, FL between President Obama and Mitt Romney.  


The debate at Lynn University is supposed to be focused on the subject of foreign policy and will be moderated by Bob Scheiffer of CBS.   I have the suspicion that both candidates will do their best to sneak in commentary about domestic issues during this 90 minute battle.

And TransGriot readers, I implore you to have no drinking games based on how many times Mitt lies.  You'll be risking alcohol poisoning if you do. 

I also wonder if the conservafools are going to attack Bob Schieffer before the debate starts like they did Martha Raddatz and Candy Crowley? 

Yes TransGriot readers, just as I have done for the last three debates, I will post my thoughts and impressions about how it transpired around midnight CDT.