Houston LGBT Legislative Forum Tomorrow

I talked about this event earlier in the month, so this is your friendly TransGriot reminder that the Houston  LGBT Legislative Forum is happening tomorrow at the Council on Recovery- Houston building.

The event is jointly sponsored by the Houston GLBT Political Caucus and Legacy Health Services, and is scheduled to run from 6:30-8:30 PM CST.

The forum will be moderated by Caucus Vice President Mike Webb, and the persons scheduled to participate in the forum are Sen. Sylvia Garcia (D), Rep. Garnet Coleman (D) , Rep Sarah Davis (R), Rep. Senfronia Thompson  (D) and Chelsie Kramer of the Texas Association of Business.

If you can't attend, you can send questions to the participants via social media with the hashtags #HoustonCares  or #TheCaucusSpeaks

The address of the Council on Recovery venue is 303 Jackson Hill St in Houston just off Memorial Dr and the zip is 77007.

I'll be there asking questions of our state legislators, and hope to see the room packed for this event. 

Houston LGBT Legislative Community Forum On December 14

In the 2015 Texas Legislative session we faced 24 anti-TBLGQ bills, with four of them specifically targeting the Texas trans community.   People outside our state thought we had zero chance of stopping those bills but we proved them wrong.  

We rolled up our sleeves, got to work and thanks to a collaborative community effort all those unjust bills failed to pass.

In a few weeks the Texas Legislature will be gaveled into session in Austin, and we will once again face a renewed anti-TBLGQ legislative assault from January until June from our Texas Republican majority seeking to pass unjust bills aimed at our community into oppressive laws.

That's why on December 14 the Houston LGBT Caucus and Legacy Health Services are cosponsoring a LGBT Legislative Community Forum.

The forum will feature our state legislators discussing their thoughts about the issues that affect out TBLGQ community, discuss what we can do as a community and at the grassroots level in terms of fighting this unjust hate legislation, and discuss what you can do to help kill the bad bills and advance the positive legislation.

The LGBT Legislative Community Forum will take place from 6:30- 8:30 PM and will take place at the Council on Recovery-Houston building.  The address is 303 Jackson Hill St in Houston, and the zip is 77007.

If you have questions about what needs to happen in Austin starting in January to protect our human rights, this is the forum you need to attend to ask those questions.

Hope to see you at this important community event.

Congressional Violence Against Trans People Forum Today

We owe it to the people we have lost this year to ensure this Congressional Violence Against Trans People Forum is the start of formulating federal government level policy solutions that fix the anti-trans violence problem negatively impacting Trans America.-TransGriot, November 14, 2015 

In an hour a historic forum held by the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus to discuss violence against trans people.  Hopefully the two hour forum will be the catalyst for legislative action that helps fix the problems we face.

Earlier this morning inside I-495 there was a 10:30 AM EST press conference held by the LGBT Equality Caucus to announce the formation of a Transgender Equality Task Force.

The forum will run from 2-4 PM EST, with the first hour of the forum featuring a panel on the causes and impacts of anti-trans violence chaired by Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA).

It will feature testimony from panelists La La Zannell from the Anti Violence Project and DC based advocate and blogger Joanna Cifredo who were both survivors of violence.

The second hour will focus on policy and how to end bias motivated violence against trans people chaired by Rep, Jared Polis (D-CO).  It will feature testimony from Kylar Broadus, the executive director of the Trans Persons of Color Coalition, Sharon Lettman-Hicks of the National Black Justice Coalition and Chad Griffin of HRC  

Hoping that the forum will be livestreamed like the press conference was this morning, and as soon as the video is posted, I'll post it to TransGriot.

TransGriot Update:  The link to the livestream of the forum.


  

Hope The Congressional Violence Against Trans People Forum Isn't Monoracial

I was thrilled to hear according to the Washington Post that the House Equality Caucus will hold on Tuesday a violence against trans people forum in the run up to the November 20 Transgender Day of Remembrance.

The House Equality Caucus was founded in June 2008 by Rep. Barney Frank and Rep. (now Sen.) Tammy Baldwin along with Members of Congress who are strongly committed to achieving the full enjoyment of human rights for TBLG people in the US and abroad.

Today, the Caucus is co-chaired by the six openly LGBT Members of Congress  Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO); Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI); Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY); Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI); Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) and Rep. Mark Takano (D-CA).

The Violence Against Trans People Forum is timely not only in the face of the looming TDOR date but us having 21 predominately Black and Latina trans people being killed in the US.

I hope that the House Equality Caucus will consider that fact, make this historic forum ethnically diverse and don't repeat the mistake made in 2008, I am concerned that the upcoming forum will end up being a monoracial one despite the fact the people taking the brunt of the anti-trans violence casualties are trans people of color.

I'm also worried that geographic diversity of the forum participants will be overlooked because of our nation's capital being easier to reach for people in the northeast US and East Coast and the people already living inside I-495 than the rest of us in 'flyover country'. 

While I love you peeps doing the trans human rights work on the coasts and in DC, our federal lawmakers really need to hear input from trans people who live in the South, Midwest and Rocky Mountain states as well.  It is in these areas where we are still fighting tooth and nail transphobic state legislators and officials to get the laws and policies in place that you peeps on the coasts and cities like Chicago have enjoyed for decades.

We owe it to the people we have lost this year to ensure this Congressional Violence Against Trans Women Forum is the start of formulating federal government level policy solutions that fix the anti-trans violence problem  negatively impacting Trans America.

Educating Us About Us Forum Sunday

One of the things the HERO battle exposed in our Houston African-American SGL, trans and bi community was not only a need to do a better job of owning our power, but also understanding the component parts of our communities and debunking the stereotypes and myths the component groups have about one another.

Austin D. Williams is facilitating a conversation on Sunday, August 24 to do precisely that

Acceptance is a beautiful thing! We all want to be accepted, but to understand those who make up the LGBTSQA-SGL community will make us better as a community. If we don’t take the time to know where others are coming from in our own community we limit our potential on where we can go. I want to invite you to join us in an in depth discussion on the following topics:

Understanding Transgender
Understanding the Lesbian
Understanding the Gay Christian
Understanding the Gay Republican
Understanding the Gay Man
Understanding DL

This conversation will take place at the Montrose Center 401 Branard St. from 3:30-6:30 PM CDT.  I'll be taking part in that discussion and hope you can attend. 

Louisville Forum Still Stonewalling On Adding Trans Panelist

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.
-TransGriot. June 23, 2014, 'Louisville Forum, 'Why Are You Hosting A Trans Issues Forum With No Trans People On The Panel?'

With the scheduled Louisville Forum 'Growing Up Transgender' panel set to take place next Tuesday, the questions that Jaison and I asked began to be echoed around the Louisville metro area in local media outlets as Dale Josey and the Louisville Forum unconvincingly insisted that the exclusion of a transperson from the July 9 panel was not intentional.

But their stonewalling in terms of not immediately correcting their mistake gives people in Louisville and across the country the impression that's exactly what is happening in Da Ville.

Louisville Human Relations Commissioner Dawn Wilson echoed the thoughts of many people, myself included.  While we commend the Forum for taking on this trans-themed topic, it's problematic there is no representation on this panel from the Louisville trans community, as she noted in the WFPL-FM story about the controversy written by Laura Ellis.

"“It’s a very good start. But we really do need somebody who has the experiences of school, growing up transgender, growing up as a person who is questioning gender, that perspective needs to be there," Wilson said.

Wilson, who is black, likened the panel to a discussion on African-American issues by a panel of white experts.

“It doesn’t really make much sense, because they’re never had that experience. They’ve never been through those trials and tribulations," she said

The comments of Dale Josey have also been disquieting for the Louisville trans community and our allies. Josey is co-chair for the programs and issues committee for the Forum, made some problematic conflations of sexual orientation and gender identity in Ellis' article, and it emphatically points out why a transperson is needed on this upcoming panel in light of the fact an opponent is already on it.  

Because the Louisville Forum is usually being done in a room full of predominately white male business leaders, politicians, and other influencers, and it's being videotaped, I cannot underscore how vitally important it is to have the perspectives of an actual trans person in that discussion.

So do the right thing Louisville Forum and add the trans panelist.  It will not only balance the panel, it will improve the quality of the discussion.

And since you are discussing our trans lives, it needs to happen. 


TransGriot Update:  Looks like a change has been made to the July 9 panel.   Trans teen Henry Brousseau has been added to the panel.