D-Day At North Dallas High

The eyes of Trans Texas and the TBLG nation will be focused on North Dallas High School today.   We'll be waiting to find out if trans teen Andy Moreno is one of the three finalists for the school's homecoming queen or see if she has been screwed out of an opportunity due to administration intolerance to continue on her quest to become it and Texas' first trans homecoming queen.


One of the things that has been wonderful to find out as this story develops is that Andy not only has the support of her classmates, some faculty and staff in her quest to become North Dallas High's homecoming queen, she has the support and love of her family as well.


Her sister Daisy was the one who contacted the Dallas Voice and got the initial wave of press coverage started, and her mom sister and others have made the signs and Team Andy shirts that have been popping up all over the Uptown Dallas school to the chagrin of principal Dinnah Escanilla and her cadre of transphobes.

Escanilla has reportedly called Andy a 'transvestite'  according to the article published in the Dallas Voice and made some other demeaning comments as well.

But if she wasn't trying to make waves in her first year as principal, she failed miserably in accomplishing that goal.  

The ballots have been or are being counted, and we should hear news soon about whether Andy is a finalist for prom queen or whether this escalates to another level
.

The 30 Year JJ Reunion-Busy Second Day

It's the middle of our three day Falcon Class of 1980 reunion weekend, with a brunch scheduled in Pearland at 11:30 AM and the formal dinner that commenced at 7:30 PM

I had a previous engagement in terms of the Houston Trans community meeting about the Delgado v.  Araguz case that I wanted to get more up to speed on that was starting at 1:00 PM    I couldn't be in both places, so I decided sleep was the ticket, then got my behind up a little later than I wanted to anyway and ended up getting to the TG center in Montrose after it started.

Was an informative afternoon of getting up to speed on the Araguz case and the ramifications of it, and got to meet Nikki and have a loverly conversation with her as well.  That meeting ended a little after 3 PM, but ended up running my mouth until 4:30 PM and not getting home until almost 5 PM..

After checking e-mail and double checking the location for tonight's formal dinner I started getting into glam mode.  Falcon sisters can rock some clothes and Moni was going to come correct.   I already had a pretty good idea what I wanted to wear unlike the previous night where I changed clothes four times before I settled on the outfit I wore to Friday's event.

Our venue for 'Gazing at the Stars' was the Downtown Plaza Club on the 49th floor of One Shell Plaza.    To me it was an appropriate and perfect venue because at the time we were matriculating at JJ, 50 story One Shell Plaza was the tallest buildings in Houston.

It has long since been eclipsed by the 75 story Chase Tower and other nearby buildings that went up and were completed in rapid succession during the 80's .

Its location on the western end of downtown left us with a beautiful unobstructed view of the west side of Houston and the Galleria area just eight miles away on another picture perfect Houston fall day slowly turning into a cloudless starry night.

I arrived about 7:40 PM and walked into the venue to see a gigantic decorated number 30 in our school colors and a mini version of Sir Frederick, our Falcon mascot perched nearby on the table.  

I entered the dining section and found a table close to the video screen and projector that was set up, and began circulating around the room.  Once again greetings and hugs were exchanged, people took photos until it was time for dinner to be served.

After we got our grub on our hardworking reunion committee said a few remarks and passed out the ballots for the reunion awards before segueing into a prayer from one of the ministers in our class.

When that was completed, we launched into another tradition of our reunion weekends by  taking a moment via video presentation of remembering the classmates we lost.   That total is now up to 17 Falcons soaring above the clouds..  

I was having a wonderful time along with everybody else in the room.  My conversations this evening ran the gamut from discussing where I got my outfit and my weight loss to having a discussion with the fellas about the game we lost on a last second shot to Wheatley in '79 that cost us the District 20-4A district basketball title and losing the district title on coin flips despite beating Jack Yates in '78.

We took our reunion class photo, photos of the assorted groups of cheerleaders, class officers, cheerleaders, majorettes, band members and athletes (was on the tennis team) before the announcements for the reunion awards.

Since I'd already won the 'Most Changed Award'  in 2000, I wasn't expecting to do so again but my classmates had other ideas.   I became a repeat winner, and this time it was because I've dropped 60 pounds since the 2000 reunion.   Got a nice prize out of the deal as well..

The picnic is tomorrow at Adair Park and they will have perfect weather for it, but I won't be there.   I'm a little bummed I'm missing it, but i will however be at the homecoming game October 16 next weekend at Barnett Stadium.

But it's already been a wonderful 30 year reunion weekend for me.   Our reunion committee once again outdid themselves and topped the 2000 event.  I'm looking forward to our next one that hopefully happens in five years.

We definitely ain't getting any younger and I hope and pray we don't have more Falcons Above the Clouds between now and whenever we do meet again..