Chilling On Forty Acres

After a three and half hour nonstop flight on the United  'Nerd Bird' from San Francisco to Austin, I'm back in the Lone Star State to participate in tomorrow night's Equality Texas 30th Anniversary gala.

It's also nice to do an Austin trip that doesn't involve me going to our state capitol building or spending an entire day there.

Austin still needs to do something about their horrid traffic, like expand their light rail system (hint hint).  Took me nearly two hours to get from ABIA to my hotel on the UT campus.

Nope, that not a typo.   I'm staying at the AT&T Conference Hotel that is on the University of Texas campus near the iconic UT Texas Tower.   My room has a view of Lavaca Street, not that I'll be in it much.

And even better, I have a 7 Eleven two blocks away from me, so Slurpees will be demolished while I'm inside Travis County.

Hope i get to see some of my ATX fam while I'm here, and see y'all at the gala tomorrow night.

'Assigned Male' Cartoonist Sophie Labelle In Houston Today!

I met Sophie during the 2012  Philly Trans Health Conference and fell in love not only with the French Canadian cartoonist, girl like us and public speaker, but her Assigned Male comic.

Assigned Male chronicles the adventures of Stephie, a young Canadian trans girl from Montreal getting adjusted to life while trans.   The cast of Assigned Male also includes her gender nonconforming friend Ciel, their cis friend Eirikur, her boyfriend Frank, her brother Virgil and a diverse cast of minor characters.

And yes, I'm a fan of Assigned Male, with its cast of unapologetic trans and gender nonconforming characters making their way in the world.  It also has some timely commentary on events transpiring in Canada, the US and the world concerning trans people.

It has also drawn it share of right wing haters who hate the unapologetic truth telling that Assigned Male brings to its updated three times a week webcomic pages. 

Labelle is currently doing a US Tour, and the southern US leg of it started in New Orleans with stops in Austin last night, Houston today and Denton on Tuesday.

Looking forward to seeing Sophie and welcoming her to H-town.  If you want to see her and get some Assigned Male swag at the same time, you'll need to swing by the Montrose Center starting at 4 PM CST.

2017 Pride Houston Grand Marshal Candidate Meet and Greet On Sunday

As many of you loyal TransGriot readers are aware of, I have been nominated as a finalist for Pride Houston's female Grand Marshal   along with Lou Weaver, for whom this is his second nomination for the honor of being male Grand Marshal at the Pride Houston parade.

As you probably guessed, if I win I get to make a little history as the first Black trans feminine Pride Houston parade female Grand Marshal and only the third Black female in the history of the event to ever become Grand Marshal.  

Lou would also make some history if he wins.  He would become the first ever transmasculine Houston Pride Male Grand Marshal.

Just in case you're wondering who the other trans feminine Grand Marshals were, Judge Phyllis Frye was the first trans feminine Parade Grand Marshal back in 2006, followed by Jenifer Rene Pool in 2012.

Last year I marched in the parade with the Organizacion Latinas De Trans en Texas along with Dee Dee Watters in front of their amazing color guard carrying trans pride flags.   If I successfully get enough votes to do so, I'll have the honor of riding in one of those nice Grand Marshal cars at the start of the parade in addition to being present for the Pride Week events in the runup to Saturday's parade.

Pride Week this year will run from June 18-25, and here are the  the events scheduled for it..

We'll see if that happens for me since the online voting just went live and runs through April 9 at 5:00 PM CDT for the honor.   Here's the link for the Pride Grand Marshal voting to do so.  

For those of you who don't live in the Houston area, I'll keep you updated on what's happening in the process all the way to the Pride Kickoff event in .April in which the winners will be announced.

On February 19 I get to attend a meet and greet from 5-8 PM CST at Guava Lamp in which I get to meet not only my fellow Grand Marshal nominees, but also people in the community.

It's located at 570 Waugh Drive on the edge of the gayborhood near Allen Parkway, and hope that you'll spend part of your Sunday with me and my fellow Grand Marshal candidates. ,