Another Day, Another Offensive Transphobic Drag Queen Stunt

There's been a severe outbreak of transphobia in the white gay male ranks over our outrage in Trans World conserning the slur terms to our community and their use on RuPaul's Drag Race and elsewhere in gay male ranks.   

That has led to an ongoing war of words between predominately white gay men and the white trans feminine community of which the volume of it got kicked up another notch when LOGO decided the 't-word' and 'shemale' would no longer be part of the show. 

The trans hatred has flowed ever since, and it didn't get any better when Calpernia Addams and Andrea James wrote inflammatory posts in predominately gay male read online venues defending  RuPaul and the drag community that slammed trans people on the opposite side RuPaul as 'Internet hacktivists'.  

That drew return fire from their trans counterparts who called them sellouts, and those were the nicer anti-Andrea and Calpernia comments I can print and have have this post remain safe for work reading.

Now comes word of a stunt that somebody sent me a link to that has gone too far from the drag queen side. 

2014 Trans 100 honoree Parker Marie Molloy has been at the center of much of the ire of gay men and drag queen community for her blistering no holds barred "I fucking hate RuPaul' commentary when the now pulled offensive RuPaul's Drag Race show was aired that triggered this ongoing G and DQ vs T battle.. 

But when drag performer Alaska Thunderfuck posted a since pulled YouTube video that ends with the controversial trans writer being shot, that's when stuff crossed a dangerous line. 

Not no, but oh hell no do you ever go there when transpeople are getting murdered for simply trying to live their authentic lives and drag queens sometimes find themselves being targeted for anti-trans bigotry that escalates unto them being violently attacked (or murdered) as last summer's pizzeria incident involving drag queen Miles Denardo in Washington DC amply demonstrated.

There has been a lot of shade and angry words hurled by both sides in this kerfluffle.  I didn't like some of the stuff Parker Molloy wrote at times although I've made it clear I'm no fan of RuPaul either.  Neither have I liked the commentary coming from Calpernia and Andrea on this issue, but I will defend to the death as a fellow writer their First Amendment right to say it.

But the bottom line is that is unacceptable and dangerous to advocate for the murder of any person because you disagree with what they say.   It's even more problematic when that person you aimed it at is part of a despised marginalized group and you are a member of a privileged societal group while doing so.

And don't even part your lips to say 'this was satire' or 'a parody'.  That dog won't hunt as we say here in my home state.      

HuffPostGay was also wrong in posting that transphobic ish to their well read site, which they recognized, pulled and apologized for later.

Note: This page originally contained a video by drag artist Alaska Thunderfuck. We believed that the clip was one example of how diverse gender-variant communities are currently engaged in a complicated conversation about important issues regarding language, identity and privilege. However, we now realize that the video is patently offensive to many people and ultimately now feel it goes beyond being useful in this discussion and therefore have removed it from the site. We apologize.

Let me reiterate the money point I'm trying to get across for you to burn into your brain cells one last time. It is unacceptable and dangerous to advocate for the murder of any person simply because you disagree with what they say, and especially when that person is part of a despised marginalized group who is targeted far too often with murderous violence aimed at it.    

If Closeted TBLG People Are Harming BTLG People's Human Rights, Out 'Em

In the wake of the outing of three more closeted Pink Republicans, the debate has been stirred up in LGBT World once again as to whether it is ethical or moral to do so and whether it harms or helps our rainbow human rights movement.

Here's my take on outing.  If the person in question holds a position of policy making, judicial or legislative power, and is consistently using it to negatively impact the TBLG community while being GLBT themselves, yeah, you need to be outed and called on it.

I have no sympathy for you in this case because self hating closeted people are problematic.  Self hating closeted people with policy making, legislative or judicial power who consistently use it to negatively impact the human rights of a marginalized group are dangerous to not only themselves, but the marginalized group they are a part of.
 
Clarence Thomas proves that point for African-Americans every SCOTUS session when he consistently rules with the other four white male conservative justices on cases that negatively impact the human rights of our people   The only thing more galling about (in)Justice Scalia's 'racial entitlement ' comments and Chief Justice Roberts cluelessly stating that the VRA that he's worked for decades to destroy was 'no longer needed' was Thomas' sellout behind voting to eviscerate Section 4 of the VRA.

But for an example of a person from the GLBT community who was in a decision making capability who repeatedly acted in ways to harm the community, you need look no further than Ken Mehlman.

He was Director of the White House Office of Political Affairs from 2001-2005, ran the 2004 GW Bush reelection campaign and was chairman of the Republican Party from 2005-2007 until he came out three years later.  

Despite being gay himself (and he repeatedly denied it while holding those power positions), he pushed the effort to exploit anti-gay animus to cement the alliance of anti-gay conservatives for Republican political gain at the expense of the human rights of LGBT people.

Mehlman was quite aware that Karl Rove was working with other Republicans to put anti-gay referenda and anti-gay marriage amendments on the 2004 and 2006 ballots to cynically increase turnout for those election cycles, but said and did nothing about it.  Worse, he stacked much paper while remaining mute.  

So he came out.  Big fracking deal because the damage has already been done and he's long since cashed his checks for his reprehensible work.  We are going to be spending the next decade or so unraveling the damage to our human rights this self hater caused.  It is time, energy and money that could have been spent focusing on other issues of important to our community.    

So when it comes to people like this who only care about themselves, their personal power, prestige and bank accounts while screwing the rest of us, then yeah, out 'em.
  

Gay, Inc Needs A Trans Rooney Rule

With the close of the NFL season, five head coaches were fired for their teams 2013 performance or lack thereof.    Five teams, including my Houston Texans initiated searches for their new head coaches, with the Texans doing so before the season concluded. 

One of the very first interviews given for the vacant head coaching position of my fave NFL squad was to Lovie Smith, the former head coach of the Chicago Bears.  He has since been interviewed and hired by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The reason the interview for Smith happened, and you will see that repeated for other non-white NFL coaching and GM candidates was to fulfill the requirements of the now decade old 'Rooney Rule'. 

The rule is named for Pittsburgh Steelers owner and chairman of the NFL's diversity committee Dan Rooney, due to the Steelers' long positive history of giving African Americans opportunities to serve in team leadership and coaching roles.  The Rooney's themselves before hiring Mike Tomlin as their head coach in 2007 interviewed current Carolina Panthers coach Ron Rivera for the job. 

Since 2003 the National Football League's Rooney Rule requires teams to interview at least one minority candidate for open head coaching and senior football operation jobs.  It started because of the sorry history that up until the hiring of Tom Flores by the Oakland Raiders in 1979, there had been in the entire history of the NFL only one non-white head coach, and that was African-American Fritz Pollard in 1920.


Tom Flores made history not only as the first Latino starting quarterback (for the 1960 AFL Raiders), but the first Latino NFL head coach.  He's also the first non-white head coach to make it to and win two Super Bowls (1980, 1983) and win one as an assistant (1976).   Why he's not in the NFL Hall of Fame is a travesty, but that's another post.

The institution of the Rooney Rule raised the percentage of African-Americans coaches by 2006 to 22% from 6% in the year prior to its implementation.  It was subsequently expanded in 2009 to all ethnic minority coaching and GM candidates and there are proposes to expand it to offensive and defensive coordinator jobs. 

The Rooney Rule is not a quota as its vanillacentric privileged detractors like to call it.  It simply says you must interview minority candidates for these positions.  Who you hire is still up to you as the owner.  But it is obvious that the Rooney Rule worked to promote diversity in the coaching and GM ranks until the 2012 season and it was tweaked again. 

This heavy dose of NFL history about the Rooney Rule has a point.  

What got me thinking about this in terms of TBLG community circles is a conversation ENDABlog 2.0 blogger Katrina Rose and I were having about the Rooney Rule and its implementation in the current NFL hiring cycle.

Katrina made a comment that Gay, Inc orgs need to have one and she has a point.   When it comes to their hiring record concerning the people they choose to lead their organizations, only white gay men need apply.  

When the leadership rannks of your Gay, Inc organizations resemble Republican party conventions, if you're transgender why even apply, especially if you're a trans woman of color? 

The only Gay, Inc organization that has bucked that trend so far is the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.   In its over three decades the Task Force has had multiple female executive directors in Jean O'Leary, Urvashi Vaid, Kerry Lobel just to name a few and since 2008 has been led by current Task Force executive director Rea Carey.


Even with the Task Force's remarkably consistent record when it comes to feminine leadership, they unfortunately have the same pattern as other Gay, Inc orgs in terms of the overall lack of hiring of trans people despite the September hiring of Kylar Broadus to helm their Transgender Civil Rights Project.   

The same project that was led for over a decade (2001-2013) by cis woman Lisa Mottet until moving on to NCTE..

Allyson Robinson is the only person who has ever headed a Gay, Inc org that doesn't have trans human rights as a primary focus, and OutServe-SLDN unfortunately imploded a few months later into her term.


Like Kylar and others prove, it's not like trams people, and especially trans people of color don't have the education, talent or innovative ideas that would serve this community and movement well at an organizational level.  

And yeah, would be nice to get a regular paycheck for fighting for the human rights of this community.   It would also make a small symbolic dent in the trans unemployment numbers, send the message you practice what you preach to Fortune 500 companies and to governmental bodies that you are trying to convince to pass non-discrimination legislation.

It would also send the message that as allies you do value the contributions of trans people to the movement.

But it is probably the all-marriage all the time agenda of these predominately gay white male run orgs that is a reason why a civil rights oriented non-white candidate to this point hasn't been allowed near the leadership ranks of these groups.

You can also add other possible reasons as to why the lack of trans leaders in these Gay, Inc orgs is the dearth of trans hiring at mid-management and senior management levels of these organizations like it routinely does for white gay and lesbian people, or inclusion on their boards of directors so they can get the experience to someday be considered to run the entire organization .  

And let's be real about this, racism and transphobia probably plays a role in this lack of Gay, Inc leadership diversity as well.

For that paradigm to change, we are going to have to see more trans people make it into the good old gay boy and girl networks so they are familiar to the people who can hire or make recommendations to hire.

And it may take Rooney Rule type efforts, or these Gay, Inc organizations realizing that diverse leadership leads to better policy development to do so.     
 

Garland TBLG Residents Address City Council

Garland DART board member Michael Cheney taking that futile walk that denied a quorum for passage of domestic partner benefits during the September 24 DART board meeting may have been the spark that finally motivated the TBLG peeps in Garland to push for their own non-discrimination ordinance.

Garland BTLG community residents accompanied by Rafael McDonnell and Dallas Gay and Lesbian Alliance President Patti Fink showed up at a recent meeting of their city council accroding to the Dallas Voice and expressed themselves not only about Cheney's walkout at the DADT meeting but the lack of a non-discrimination ordinance in Garland.

Lerone Landis told the council at the October 2 meeting he is a daily DART rider who lives in the city with his husband and their 4 year old daughter. He stated he was disappointed to learn that it was Garland’s representative who prevented the healthcare equalization plan from passing and urged the Garland City Council to pass a nondiscrimination policy for its own employees and city residents to show they are serious and committed to diversity in the city. 

Carmarion Anderson said she was embarrassed to be a Garland resident after Cheney’s stunt at the DART meeting.  “We live here and pay our taxes here,” she said and expressed her expectations to the council that she and DART's LGBT employees receive equal treatment. 

Fink called Cheney’s action at the DART meeting “shameful.” and encouraged the council to pass an ordinance that would cover city employees.

“Be on the cutting edge and bring new business to the city,” Fink said.

Garland Mayor Douglas Athas and two councilmen spoke to the group in the council chambers when the council meeting concluded  and said the city would consider the idea of a nondiscrimination ordinance.

“We have a lot of lesbian and gay employees,” Mayor Athos said. “We would never allow that sort of discrimination.”  He said he had never heard a request from any of the city’s lesbian and gay community for a nondiscrimination ordinance. But he called the ordinance “nothing to rush into because no one’s come forward” with a complaint.

Mayor Athas, just because nobody's filed a complaint concerning anti-LGBT discrimination doesn't mean you can make the conclusion jump the discrimination isn't happening in a city the size of Garland.  And as far as your comment that no one from the Garland TBLG community has requested a nondiscrimination ordinance, I guess you weren't paying attention during that meeting when Carmarion Anderson and Lerone Landis were taking three minutes each of their valuable time to address the council.


Patti Fink told the mayor that most Fortune 500 companies have a nondiscrimination policy and look to relocate in cities that have similar policies. She said that the city may not have received any complaints, but many people looking for work may have skipped applying in suburban Garland because they have no protections.

Could Garland be the next community in the DFW Metroplex to protect its TBLG residents from discrimination?   Stay tuned to this TransGriot channel to find out.

Puerto Rico House Passes Trans Inclusive Rights Bill

In a historic day for the Puerto Rican TBLG community, the Puerto Rican House of Representatives  approved the trans inclusive Senate Bill 238 on a 29-22 vote after nearly three hours of debate in a session that ended well after midnight. 

“I can serve God without having to discriminate against anyone,” Rep. Lydia Méndez Silva said before she announced her support of the anti-discrimination bill.

The bill authored by Senator Ramon Luis Nieves would ban anti-TBLG discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodations and government services in the US territory based on real or perceived gender identity or sexual orientation. 
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The Puerto Rican House also approved by the same 29-22 margin House Bill 488, which extends existing domestic violence protections to any person regardless of their marital status, sexual orientation or gender identity.  

HB 488 will now move to the Puerto Rican Senate for its approval while Senate Bill 238 heads to the desk of Governor Alejandro García Padilla.

Governor Garcia has indicated he will sign into law the passed SB 238 and HB 488 if it reaches his desk. He is also in favor of a bill that would extend second parent adoption rights to gay and lesbian couples and met with legislators on Thursday morning to garner support for the human rights legislation.

Puerto Rican homeboy and singer Ricky Martin also urged legislators to vote favorably on that pending TBLG rights legislation in an open letter he penned to Puerto Rican House members.

“The rights of gay people are human rights, and human rights are for everyone,” Martin wrote.“The passage of [SB 238] would represent the respect of our brothers and sisters’ rights.” 

American GL community, I hope you were paying attention to what transpired in Puerto Rico.

This is the 'Dallas Principles' in action in terms of not leaving anyone behind and moving forward to make collective human rights progress.  Unfortunately that's a concept that seems to have escaped some selfish people in this community. 

Trans inclusion helps TBLG human rights move forward for all of us, not backwards. 

It's also another concrete example of what I've been saying for years.  If you want liberal progressive change and laws, you have to elect liberal progressive politicans to do the job. 


But megacongratulations to my TBLG brothers and sisters in Puerto Rico.  It would be nice if our politicians in Washington DC would follow the sterling example of what yours just did, say no to the faith based haters and do the same thing on the mainland.

WTF Advocate?

I shouldn't be surprised after 15 years in the TBLG community to see the Advocate failing when it comes to talking about trans issues.

But this disastrous May 22 op-ed from cisgender woman Suzan Revah swimming in vanillacentric privilege and appropriation was an eye-rolling experience that I fortunately read on an empty stomach. 

It was also highly insulting to read that jacked up op-ed when three girls like us who share my ethnic background were killed last month and we are two weeks from the first of the five accused killers of Evon Young being tried in Milwaukee.

When the backlash swiftly came from trans folks calling out the BS in the comment threads, the White Women's Tears came out from Revah and the 'poor defenseless white woman' had people (predominately gay men in that Advocate comment thread) rushing to defend her.  

And naw Suzan, trans people correctly pointing out where you massively failed in this piece.doesn't make us 'haters', and it's mighty white of you to part your lips to say so. 

To borrow a snippet of Gemma Seymour-Amper's comment that encapsulates much of what trans peeps who responded to the jacked up post had to say: 

FYI, the entire trans community stopped reading when you called yourself a "normal Real Girl", because when that's the mindset you hold, everything you say about trans issues after revealing that fact is immediately and automatically invalidated by your immediate dismissal of the authenticity of trans women as women, and as female, for those who think that making that distinction is going to save them from the inevitable march of public opinion.

We only get that far, because I've chosen not, at this particular moment, to point out the absolute overweening arrogance of The Advocate (once again) in choosing a white, cis, and from what I can tell from this pathetic and demeaning article probably heterosexual, person to speak for the trans community, as if we are incapable of speaking for ourselves. Kyriarchy, much? Oh, well...I guess I *did* just point it out, didn't I?

Note to the LG community, let me make this point crystal clear on behalf of my trans brothers and sisters. 

You do not EVER get to determine for me and my transpeeps what is and isn't offensive to the trans community.  We do.   We are also the final authorities as to what is and isn't trans because they are issues that we are intimately familiar with and have major impacts on our lives.   We don't like our existence trivialized, and those of us in the non-white trans community have a major problem with it especially since it's our trans women who are taking the brunt of the anti-trans discrimination and dying for it.

If you claim to be an ally, there are times when you need to be in sit down and shut up mode, respectfully ask us what help we need and when we tell you, then you make it happen.

Advocate, did it ever occur to you or the editors that let this full of fail piece fly that the best way to discuss trans issues on your site is to (gasp) have real live trans people write the fracking op-ed's?

The Trans 100 List is a nice place to start if you are clueless in finding transpeople that can expertly discuss the issues that affect our community.

You may wish to consider that point the next time you feel the need to do an op-ed piece on trans issues that doesn't piss us off in the process.
 

Two Pronged Teahadist Attacks On Texas Collegiate TBLG Centers Terminated

The Texas Teahadists have had their water on for the LGBT centers on the Texas A&M, University of Houston and University of Texas campuses for some time and launched efforts to kill them in this 2013 legislative session. .  

It was a two pronged effort on the Texas A&M campus.  The homobigots on campus there have been trying for years to kill the GLBT center.   They launched another effort to take away its funding by authoring the 'GLBT Funding Opt Out Bill'  that would have given Aggie students the option to opt out of funding for the center if they have 'religious objections' to it.

Less than 24 hours before the April 3 vote they attempted to put lipstick on this pig of this unjust bill by renaming it the 'Religious Funding Exemption Bill' and removing all references to the GLBT center in a feeble attempt to mask the blatant anti-GLBT bigotry and deflect attention from the fact it was an attack upon the center. 

After 3 hours of contentious debate it passed on a 35-28 vote and the unjust bill was sent to Texas A&M student body president John L. Claybrook for his signature.   

Claybrook vetoed the unjust measure on April 5

News this week that some student senators had targeted the center thrust the traditionally conservative university into the national spotlight, and Claybrook said it was time to “stop the bleeding.”

“The damage must stop today,” Claybrook wrote in a letter announcing his intention to veto. “Texas A&M students represent our core value of respect exceptionally and I’m very proud of the family at this university. Now, more than ever, is the time to show great resolve and come together, treating each other like the family that we are.”

The future Teahadist student senators pushing this unjust measure can try to override Claybrook's veto, but it will take a 2/3 vote to do so.  It didn't have a 2/3 majority when it passed so it's likely the veto will stand.  Even if they were successful and it became A&M policy, it would almost certainly be struck down in court and expose the deafeningly silent senior Texas A&M administration officials to legal liability.  

Ken Upton, senior staff attorney for Lambda Legal’s Dallas office, said even if the bill were signed and adopted as university policy, it wouldn’t last long.

“The most likely result is that a court would step in and stop it before it even happened,” Upton said.   He said there was clear legal precedent on the issue as laid out in the Supreme Court’s ruling in Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System v. Southworth, where students sued their university because they opposed multicultural, environmental and GLBT groups.

“This issue is pretty well settled,” Upton said.

If somehow the measure did work its way through the courts, he said, top university officials could be held liable.

“… The people with decision making authority who allowed it to happen could be held liable full money damages,” Upton said. “But it would probably be struck down so quickly that money damages wouldn’t be an issue.”

Meanwhile, on the University of Houston campus their Student Government Association unanimously approved a resolution opposing the second prong of this attack on Texas collegiate LGBT centers  

Proud of my alma mater and their SGA!    


There was also victory on the Austin front as well.  State Rep Bill Zedler (R Teabagger-Arlington) proposed an unjust amendment to the state budget bill designed to eliminate LGBT resource centers on state university and college campuses. The amendment would also eliminate state funding for women's centers and all gender and sexuality centers at Texas universities.    Under pressure, he withdrew that amendment   

Hasta la vista, unjust bills.

So this two pronged attack on GLBT centers is terminated for now, but you know we Lone Star State progressives must be forever vigilant as long as the GOP has control of our state legislature and the governor's mansion because the homobigots will not stop until their mission is completed.

Historic Day For Texas Legislature

The 83rd session of the Texas Legislature gets started today and runs for 140 days until late May.  For the first time since Glen Maxey left office in 2003 there will be a rainbow community legislator on the floor of our state capitol in Austin. .

She's 29 year old Mary Gonzalez (D) from El Paso, who was the first out woman of color to run for the Texas state legislature.   She beat two opponents in the May primary to win her District 75 seat..  She had no Republican opponent in the general election. 

Representative Gonzalez is also a trailblazer in another respect in terms of being the first legislator in the nation to declare publicly that she is a pansexual..

Gonzalez said in an exclusive Dallas Voice interview she identifies as “pansexual,” an orientation many would call bisexual, except pansexuals don’t believe in a gender binary and can be attracted to all gender identities. Gonzalez said she doesn’t believe in a gender binary because “gender identity isn’t the defining part of my attraction.”

Gonzalez originally ran for the legislature to gain access to clean drinking water and better educational opportunities for her district, but her sexuality quickly became something she had to repeatedly address on the campaign trail.  Mainstream media called her the Latina lesbian lawmaker and the coverage led to negative comments about her dating men in the past, accusations she was not a “true lesbian,” Gonzalez said.

But since her sexual orientation was made a campaign issue, she decided to wait until after the election to clarify it.   The bottom line is that she'll be the one representing District 75 and hopefully that will be for a long and distinguished legislative career.

Why Is A So Called GLBT Election Exit Poll Excluding The 'T'?

Since the 1990's a consortium of five networks NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, and Fox along with the Associated Press have contracted with the New Jersey based Edison Research polling firm to conduct a national exit poll not only during the congressional midterms, but also during presidential elections.

In the 2000, 2004 and 2008 presidential elections 4% of the respondents that took part in election exit polling have responded YES to the question, “Are you gay, lesbian, or bisexual?”

Notice who isn't included in this question despite the fact that some of my transbrothers and transsisters identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual.

Joe Lenski, the executive vice president of Edison Research, told the Washington Blade that the exit poll for the 2012 presidential election won’t seek to identify transgender voters through a lengthy questionnaire given to voters as they leave polling places across the country.

“We’ve tried to keep that wording as consistent as possible across elections and that’s the way it’s been asked in the last decade at least,” he said.

Umm Joe, the weak azz 'that's the way it's been done before' excuse doesn't compute with me, who has voted in every presidential and congressional midterm election since 1980 and other trans voters around the country.  It's also frankly insulting to us as well. 

Some of those people you ask those questions as they leave polling places happen to be trans people who are also part of the rainbow community. 

It's important that we transfolks be counted in your polling data in light of the fact we are not only American citizens exercising our civic duty, but we're working to get trans human rights laws passed all over this country.   We need to have that data handy to get reluctant legislators hipped to the fact they have trans constituents in their districts.

Memphis Passes Inclusive Non-Discrimination Law

It wasn't looking good for this to happen last month after word leaked of an alleged secret deal to cut transpeeps out of the civil rights mix.

But the Memphis City Council did the proper civil rights thing and passed on a 9-4 vote an inclusive non-discrimination ordinance that has protections for disability, age, national origin, gender identity, sexual orientation and ethnicity.

It was sexual orientation only until Councilwoman Janis Fullilove proposed an amendment to the ordinance that added protections on the basis of gender identity that also passed 9- 4.

The only "no" votes on the gender identity amendment and the main motion to amend the city's nondiscrimination ordinance came from Memphis council people Wanda Halbert, Bill Boyd, Kemp Conrad, and Joe Brown.

And thanks to all the hate calls conservative Councilmember Reid Hedgepeth received because he voted in favor of the ordinance last time, he voted for this one as well.   Hedgepeth told the audience that harassment and robo-calls from the amendment's opposition, the Family Action Council of Tennessee (FACT) had only strengthened his resolve to vote in favor of the amendment again.

"One e-mail said 'I hope you and your family burn in hell together.' How is that for Christianity?" Hedgepeth asked.

Thank you FACT haters for flipping a vote to our side.

It was delayed 30 days to get legal opinions on whether it would violate the city charter. City Attorney Herman Morris gave an opinion that the ordinance would not violate the charter because it would strengthen an existing policy to prevent discrimination while the City Council Attorney asserted the proposed ordinance was unnecessary.



The 9-4 vote in favor of the ordinance set off celebrations amongst the Memphis rainbow community while the haters of the Family Action Council of Tennessee slunk out of the chamber in defeat.

The arc of the moral universe is bending toward justice for the TBLG community in Memphis this morning and I couldn't be happier for my trans brothers and sisters who live there.    . 

Barney's Right-The Log Cabin Republicans ARE Uncle Toms

Lord knows I've had my issues with The Purple One and have called him out for throwing transpeople under the civil rights bus on various occasions ever since I started advocating for trans people's human rights in 1998.  My most notable rants slamming him occurred in 2007

But I have no argument with him this time.  Rep. Frank was right on target in terms of his recent criticism he has leveled at the Log Cabin Republicans that also applies to GOProud.

Rep Frank (D-MA) originally made the scathing comment on Michelangelo Signorile’s Sirius OutQ radio show Wednesday, saying, “I now understand why they call themselves Log Cabin: Their role model is Uncle Tom.” 

He repeated it when addressing the Democratic National Convention’s LGBT Caucus last Thursday: “I am again inclined to think that they’re called the Log Cabin club because their role model is Uncle Tom.”


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Some rainbow community orgs have distanced themselves from the comment, but this is another instance in which he told the truth and shamed the conservadevils.

As I and others on the liberal-progressive side have said more than a few times, yes we need people on both sides of the political spectrum and no political philosophy has a monopoly on good ideas.    

But what we don't need is people on that conservative side of the spectrum regurgitating the same language as our oppressors and actively working against the overall human rights aims and advancement of the community either.

That's when you're stepping into Uncle Tom territory, and we got to call you out on it when you do. 

2012 TBLG Pride Month POTUS Proclamation

Presidential Proclamation: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month, 2012

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month, 2012

 By The President Of The United States Of America

 A Proclamation

From generation to generation, ordinary Americans have led a proud and inexorable march toward freedom, fairness, and full equality under the law ‑‑ not just for some, but for all. Ours is a heritage forged by those who organized, agitated, and advocated for change; who wielded love stronger than hate and hope more powerful than insult or injury; who fought to build for themselves and their families a Nation where no one is a second-class citizen, no one is denied basic rights, and all of us are free to live and love as we see fit.

The lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community has written a proud chapter in this fundamentally American story. From brave men and women who came out and spoke out, to union and faith leaders who rallied for equality, to activists and advocates who challenged unjust laws and marched on Washington, LGBT Americans and allies have achieved what once seemed inconceivable. This month, we reflect on their enduring legacy, celebrate the movement that has made progress possible, and recommit to securing the fullest blessings of freedom for all Americans.

Since I took office, my Administration has worked to broaden opportunity, advance equality, and level the playing field for LGBT people and communities. We have fought to secure justice for all under the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act, and we have taken action to end housing discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. We expanded hospital visitation rights for LGBT patients and their loved ones, and under the Affordable Care Act, we ensured that insurance
companies will no longer be able to deny coverage to someone just because they are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. Because we understand that LGBT rights are human rights, we continue to engage with the international community in promoting and protecting the rights of LGBT persons around the world. Because we repealed "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," gay, lesbian, and bisexual Americans can serve their country openly, honestly, and without fear of losing their jobs because of whom they love. And because we must treat others the way we want to be treated, I personally believe in marriage equality for same-sex couples.

More remains to be done to ensure every single American is treated equally, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. Moving forward, my Administration will continue its work to advance the rights of LGBT Americans. This month, as we reflect on how far we have come and how far we have yet to go, let us recall that the progress we have made is built on the words and deeds of ordinary Americans. Let us pay tribute to those who came before us, and those who continue their work today; and let us rededicate ourselves to a task that is unending ‑‑ the pursuit of a Nation where all are equal, and all have the full and unfettered opportunity to pursue happiness and live openly and freely.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 2012 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month. I call upon the people of the United States to eliminate prejudice everywhere it exists, and to celebrate the great diversity of the American people.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this first day of June, in the year of our Lord two thousand twelve, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-sixth.
                                                                                                                   BARACK OBAMA

2012 Hurricane Season Starts Today

June 1 is also the day that we Gulf Coast residents start paying close attention to our local weathercasters when their weather discussions turn to the topics of tropical thunderstorms or tropical waves forming up off the West African coast or in the Caribbean.   

It's the start of the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season which lasts until November 30.  We have already had two named storms in Alberto and Beryl, of which Beryl made landfall during Memorial Day weekend along the North Florida-Georgia coastline. .  

Speaking of hurricane names, here they are for the 2012 season.

Alberto, Beryl, Chris, Debby, Ernesto, Florence, Gordon, Helene, Isaac, Joyce, Kirk, Leslie, Michael, Nadine, Oscar, Patty, Rafael, Sandy, Tony, Valerie, William.

Note the hurricane name list has no Q, X, Y, U or Z names on it.   If we have a year like 2005 in which we have a bunch of named storms that exhausts the list, they resort to the Greek alphabet to name them. 

If you're wondering why I'm talking about hurricanes on a trans blog, it's because I've lived on the Gulf Coast for the majority of my life and frankly because the trans issue comes up even in ways you don't traditionally associate it with like a hurricane evacuation. 

We Houston area transpeeps had that lesson reinforced in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and the evacuations from the city of New Orleans it triggered.

New Orleans is a mecca for transpeople, so logically some of the thousands of people evacuated from the city in the wake of the storm were trans. 

We also heard some disturbing stories of trans and GLB evacuees who were housed in suburban and exurban evacuation centers that didn't get the hospitality we Texans are world renowned for and were mistreated by transphobic and homophobic shelter workers.  

It's also a heightened concern of mine about how TBLG hurricane evacuees are treated because Sharli'e Dominique, one of those New Orleans trans evacuees who got grossly mistreated in 2005 shared my ethnic background.

Since some of us don't have contact with our families or are estranged from them, we transpeeps may not have places to evacuate to when the call goes out to leave an area threated by an approaching Category 2, Cat 3, Cat 4 or Cat 5 hurricane.

It's why the TFA here in Houston collects a list of names so that if that situation occurs again and we're not in the bullseye of one like we were with Rita or Ike, we know who the TBLG peeps in the Houston metro area who have indicated their willingness to host a trans or GLB evacuee.

So yes, from now until November 30 we'll be gathering supplies for our hurricane emergency kits at our local stores while casting nervous eyes out at the Gulf and satellite photos of circulating storms off the West African coast, in the mid Atlantic or the Caribbean..

Naw, I Ain't Moving From My Red State And Neither Should You

I get sick of hearing from rainbow community people living along I-5, I-95, inside I-495 (the Capitol Beltway) or an interstate traversing a blue state the tired mantra that we red state rainbow community peeps need to move to the blue ones and abandon the red ones we live in.

That mantra increases in volume in the wake of an anti-gay referendum loss or some odious anti-TBLG law sponsored by the homobigots that overwhelmingly passed.

Didn't see any rush to leave California when Prop 8 passed in 2008 or New York transpeople hitting the interstates after GENDA failed to pass the New York Senate for the fourth consecutive session and may be going on five in a row..

Umm no.  I'm a fourth generation Texan and have been there done that.  As I said in this post last year and I'm reiterating in this one for your reading pleasure about being a TBLG person living in a red state: 

Unless your life is in imminent danger, you fight with every fiber of your being to make it a more progressive place to live.   If you can't flip it totally blue, at least work to make it purple and get the blue part later.   

I noted those comments coming fast and furiously in the wake of the devastating loss that North Carolina activists suffered in fighting their valiant battle against Amendment One.  I felt their pain as I recalled what happened to the Kentucky rainbow community in 2004 when we went through the same drama when I lived there.  For those of us who lived in Louisville our pain was short lived because we had to immediately go back and fight another human rights battle.  

The faith-based homobigots flush with the afterglow of victory tried to go after our Fairness Ordinance mere weeks after the demoralizing defeat we suffered in our anti-gay marriage amendment battle.

You know what they say about a wounded animal being the most dangerous one.  We regrouped and crushed the Forces of Faith Based Intolerance in that civil rights skirmish by getting an 18-6 Louisville Metro council vote to reauthorize the Fairness Ordinance.

It get better North Carolina peeps. The Kentucky TBLG activists regrouped to the point that a statewide Fairness Law has been steadily gaining sponsors and other cities in the state are considering passing local fairness laws similar to the ones in Louisville, Lexington and Covington.

But it's still not cool that you LBGT blue staters, who achieved many of your rainbow legislative goals already in more politically friendly times are smugly sitting on your behinds, are throwing shade at us peeps in red states and saying we need to move to what you consider a blue oasis.

Hey, there are times you peeps in blue areas catch just as much hell as we red staters do   I've had times in which I've had derogatory racist and transphobic comments aimed at me in blue states.  Conversely while living in my red state I've been fortunate to run into people who not only get it in terms of our issues, but are busting their behinds harder than you blue state peeps who are supposed to be our rainbow family to help us achieve TBLG human rights rights progress in our red states.   

Yes we have to fight tooth and nail to get whatever scraps of rainbow human rights progress we do achieve and fight even harder to defend it.  But we do it because the red states are home to us. 

Why?  It's a red state thang, you wouldn't understand.   We love them more than the average conservafool and have just as much right to live there as the smug faith based information challenged idiots who hate on us and are trying to force us out..  Because we rainbow peeps are part of the diverse mosaic of human life we have the incentive and drive to make our red states the types of places we deserve to live in

Because we red staters have the faith-based enemy in our face 24./7/365 and 366 days in a leap year, we don't have time for the internecine semantics wars that always seem to break out at regular intervals on the Net predominately driven by people who live along I-5 and I-95.  We have more important crap to deal with like Tea Klux Klan dominated state legislatures trying to use every trick in the book to erase our human rights.

But the bottom line is our red state rainbow communities are better for it because we have learned by necessity how to spell a word some of y'all haven't yet. intersectionality.   We red state activists have to work together not only inside the TBLG community but also with our non-GLBT counterparts in keeping the conservafools at bay on a wide range of issues that affect the liberal -progressive coalition.

And one of the things you blue staters don't realize is that while our states may appear rabidly red to you and especially the rural areas of them, some of our red states are actually purple and the cities are our turf..  

May I gleefully remind you blue state peeps that the largest city run by an openly gay mayor just happens to be my 2 million person hometown of Houston, the largest city in Texas.

Annise Parker is a perfect example of a red state rainbow kid making a difference.  If they live in a rural area of a red state and don't want to leave, they can move to an urban area in said red state, get an education, find a rainbow hood if they wish and still live in their native red state.

If we are going to eventually expand our issues across the nation, we are going to have to do the education work in red states to make that happen as well and that can't be done from New York or San Francisco.   You are going to need natives of the red states in question talking to their peeps and tailoring the message and tactics for local conditions.

Yeah, this was a tough week for the peeps in North Carolina.  But as a famous Southerner who was a Nobel Peace Prize winner once said, "We must accept finite disappointment, but must never lose infinite hope."  

And yes, from time to time we win those battles against the faith based phobes.  It keeps hope alive and it's sweet when we do. 

We are on the correct side of the moral arc of the universe and will win more battles than we lose.  But in order to turn those red states to purple and then blue, we'll have to have the people who love social justice, rainbow human rights and the state live there to and be tough minded enough do so.

Mayor Parker's Response To POTUS Declaration

The president's big announcement also had major ripple effects in my beloved hometown since we not only have one of the oldest GLBT political orgs in the South, but Houston has one Annise D. Parker as its current mayor.

Ahem.  May I remind you peeps that reside along I-5, I-95 and inside I-495 that Houston is the largest city to have elected an openly gay mayor and Annise and First Lady Kathy Hubbard happen to be one of the couples the POTUS talked about   

Mayor Parker also has raised the ire of our local faith based bigots for being the now two term mayor of Houston, which may I remind you peeps is the fourth largest city in the nation and the largest in Texas.   

She was also one of the peeps who was criticizing the pace of his same gender marriage evolution and was surprised to receive a call by senior Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett in the wake of the evolution announcement..

Of  course she got asked about her reaction to the POTUS' interview by one of our local TV stations because she's part of the Mayor's Marriage Equality Initiative..
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I Repeat-Diversity Is Sorely Needed In Our Houston Trans Community

I'm a native Houstonian proud of our Lone Star traditions, our trans community, its history and being one of the people who helped make some of that history.   I'm also exceedingly proud of the award winning leaders that we have produced locally that have in some cases achieved a statewide, national and international footprint and following.


I wrote a post last year discussing the hard, solid thinking I was engaged in about the state of the national Black trans community.  I pointed out more diversity was needed in our Houston and Texas trans community ranks and what I said back in March 2011 bears repeating once again.  

As I mentioned, I was blessed to get the opportunity of attending the 20th annual Houston Transgender Unity Banquet for the first time in over a decade last weekend. While I enjoyed seeing everyone who was at the Sheraton Brookhollow and meeting some new rainbow community folks and allies in the process, I was still concerned about the lack of diversity in the room. 

This is the Houston trans community's signature event and the Unity Banquet reminded me once again how monochromatic and vanillacentric in outlook my hometown trans community leadership ranks have become in terms of the folks who are out there representing its public face.  I also believe the 'pay to play' activism model has had the deleterious result of creating a fiscal participation barrier and shutting out low income GLBT people from shaping the Houston GLBT community and the policies it advocates.   

In non-white communities there is already the ossifying impression that the GLBT community is an overwhelmingly white one, and that perception plays into some of the pushback and resistance the entire  rainbow community gets in its human rights fights.  That perception problem is one our right wing opponents are increasingly trying to exploit and use as a wedge issue as they oppose our human rights push. 

In a multicultural city of over 2 million people such as Houston, when we are contemplating fighting for a rainbow community human rights city charter referendum that will require the votes of a multicultural coalition of progressive Houston voters in order to pass it, that's a problem that needs to be fixed now before that ballot initiative gets rolled out and taken to the voters if we wish to win that fight.   Failure to seriously address this problem will result in another electoral loss for this community and I don't want to see that happen to legislation we desperately need.   .

Frustration is brewing among Houston's non-white transpeople.   It's fueled by not only the ongoing killing of our transsisters and the feeling that no one cares about it, it's also the lack of visibility and seeing trans role models who look like them.  Visibility matters and is necessary, especially to the people who don't see themselves represented in the organizations that are purported to represent them and speak for them.

If you think this status quo situation is okay, or you think that identity politics shouldn't be part of this rainbow community rights movement, you're naive or being obtuse about the fact that race matters, even in our little trans subset of society.   We get microaggressive behavior aimed at us every day by the parent society and our rainbow community subset of it, and just because we transitioned doesn't mean it stopped. 


But back to what I was discussing.   Diversity is sorely needed in our Houston trans ranks and it's sad I have to repeatedly state what is so no-brainer obvious.  

It's on you peeps that make up the leadership of these groups to ensure there is representation in them that reflects the ethnic diversity of Houston, the state of Texas and its TBLG community and but your behinds working to make that a reality.   

And yeah, y'all ain't the only people I'm going to call out on this state of affairs.  I'm going to put the non-white Houston trans community on blast too in a separate post. 

Here's the first suggestion as to how to create that diverse community.  Ask us.   But you'd better do it fast because the clock is rapidly ticking on your opportunity to do so with a fed up non-white trans community.    
What I can tell you is that if the diversity problem isn't dealt with, you will find yourself staring at a situation in which non-white transpeople will say frack it and form their own trans organizations designed to represent their interests and won't look back.

Janet Mock's Message To CeCe, Paige and #girlslikeus You Matter

Y'all know I have much love and respect for Janet Mock and she recently was in Los Angeles speaking on the USC campus.     Here's the video of it from her blog.   

The 20th Annual Houston Transgender Unity Banquet

Was happy to get the opportunity to attend my first Houston Transgender Unity Banquet since 2001 last night and a lot of things have changed since I last attended it eleven years ago..

I got to hang out with Vanity Wilde and the gang and as I sat at the table with her and her friends I contemplated all the changes that had occurred since the last time I attended it. 

It's at a different hotel and it's a project of the Houston Transgender Unity Committee that serves as a fundraiser event for the Peggy Rudd Scholarship.   The number of sponsors has exponentially grown.  We were also blessed to have for a moment Mayor Annise Parker stop by and say a few words before she bounced to the other three dinners that were on her schedule for the night.   

She may be the mayor now, but she still cut her teeth as an activist in out community and we'll always see her as part of our family.

This 20th annual edition was a well organized event ably emceed by Jenifer Rene Pool, and when I wasn't taking a moment to meet and greet most of the Houston rainbow community they were finding me at my table or in various sports in the ballroom.   Got to see Nikki Araguz, Ray Hill, Judge Frye and the gang for her firm, Maria Gonzales, Vivica Perry, Jo Tittsworth, LaKeia Spady, Lorraine Schroeder from the UH LGBT Center, Katy Stewart from TENT, Lou Weaver and Cristan Williams.   That's just the short list of people I got to see, meet, take photos with and converse with at various times during the night.

There were door prizes available in addition to the black gift bag we were given that included a black coffee mug with the Unity Committee logo on it..

The Unity Banquet is not only our community's signature event, it's also the night the Houston Transgender community awards are passed out.    In case you're wondering TransGriot readers, been nominated once and as of yet nothing

The Champion Award, which goes to an ally, individual or group that stands up as a staunch supporter for our community went to the UH LGBT Center in the Group category and Annette Lott of HCC in the individual one.

The People's Choice Award, which is decided by a community vote to the outstanding person in the transgender community in the past year went to Koomah.

The Dee McKellar Award  (which I was nominated for in 2001) went to Jenifer Rene Pool

The Brenda Thomas Award (formerly the Apogee Award) which is given to the individual that has accomplished or achieved the one thing or culmination of things that was the high point of that previous year, went to Daniel Williams for rallying the community to fight and defeat the anti trans SB 723.   

Yep, killing that unjust bill that was a Big Fracking Deal, especially since some of y'all pessimists outside of Texas didn't think we could do it. 

The Horizon Award went to Bethany Townsend.

The Lifetime Achievement Award went to the late Rene Fenner who passed away last July.   It was accepted on her behalf by another iconic figure in our local trans community, Jackie Thorne. 

Once the awards were passed out, we got to hear keynote speeches by the Rev Megan Rohrer and Marty Ebel from the EEOC while we were getting a tasty meal served to us.

After that came some dancing for those who wished to do that and more socializing before I bounced to go home, write this post and watch the replay of the White House Correspondents Dinner.

We already know the date and location of the 2013 Unity Banquet.   It will be on Saturday April 20, 2013 at the Sheraton Brookhollow and the keynote speaker is scheduled to be Dr. Susan Stryker

So you've been notified of the date, and the ticket price will be $65 next year.,   You have a year to join us and if you wish to have information about table sponsorships or serving on the Houston Transgender Unity Committee you can e-mail the Unity Committee at htuc2012@gmail.com or the website at www.htuc.org.

See y'all next year.

Gay Men Just Don't Understand Transwomen

Guest post by Pamela Hayes

Janet Mock crafted a well-written article about how Don Lemon, a black gay man, a CNN correspondent had no grasp of trans people because of dumb questions he asked Chaz Bono. And she is absolutely correct. Don's questions were stupid, juvenile and cursory. But I doubt if he meant a bit of harm. From my experience, a lot of gay men usually don't get us. Gay men, like many straight-identified people think trans women are simply gay men, who refuse to accept that they are gay. So we take hormones and "mutilate" ourselves to mimic women and buy vaginas to justify having sex with a man. And some gay men go positively bonkers when they see trans women with handsome, worthwhile men.

I remember reading where southern writer, William Faulkner-- author of such short stories as A ROSE FOR EMILY, DRY SEPTEMBER, to name a few--said that it was the responsibility of white people to bring black people along, to teach Negroes the importance of manners and education so they could comport themselves effectively and prosper in a democratic society. I don't know when Faulkner uttered these bothersome words because many (blacks) had no chance of prospering or receiving adequate education prior to the Civil Rights struggle.

But I digress. Trans women should take Mr. Faulkner's advice and tweak it to meet our needs. We have to bring gay people along, let them know who we are, our likes and dislikes, our dreams, hopes and aspirations. And make no mistake some gay folks will be impervious to our tutelage.

And in all candor, I doubt if that would be fruitful because the sad truth is, SOME gay people don't give a damn about trans people for a variety of reasons, one of which is envy.

Over the years, I've heard countless gay men tell me that they wouldn't do what I did (switch sexes) because they would make an ugly woman. What an incredibly shallow comment.

I and other trans women have had gay men fight us, out us, embarrass us, disrespect us and I've gotten negativity from lesbians as well. So trans women cannot bring those types along because they are unwilling to learn, but I still say try. And it's unfortunate that gays and lesbians don't believe in the old adage about there being strength in numbers. If we all worked together, we could accomplish plenty.