Straight Outta Stonewall

One of the things that pissed me and many folks off last week was the release of a trailer for the upcoming Roland Emmerich directed crime against history Stonewall movie that centered the story around a fictional white gay man named Danny.

We all know who really kicked off the 1969 Stonewall Rebellion.  It damned sure wasn't the Fire Island  'good homosexuals' covering in their closets.  It was the trans peeps, butch lesbians, bi folks, drag queens and other LGBT people of color fed up with NYPD police harassment of them.

And the Stonewall Inn was their hangout.  

In honor of the 20th anniversary of the release of the classic NWA rap album Straight Outta Compton, Beats Audio created a meme maker in which you could upload a pic of yourself and add your 'hood or hometown to it.  Of course, their are mischievous pranksters who have gleefully taken it and ran with it and I'll be talking about that in another post late.

But thanks to La La Zannell, we have these reminders of who the real heroes and sheroes of Stonewall were in terms of Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson and Miss Major.

In light of the fact we have had far too many trans murders this year, these memes serve to remind usof the proud history we have as trans women of color, and that we are not just tragic victims.   We kicked off a human rights movement.  We are fighting not only to advance our own human rights cause but the human rights of all people.   We are providing  trailblazing and innovative leadership as we continue to make history in our 21st century time on Planet Earth.

It  is also vitally important for our trans younglings to know we existed before they were born, are part of the fabric of our communities, and they have possibility models they can look up to, be proud of and emulate.

We who benefit from the pioneering work of Sylvia, Marsha, Miss Major, the Dewey's Lunch Counter Sit In protestors, and the Compton's Cafeteria and Copper's Donuts riots must never forget that we all walk in their pumps, and it ain't about us.  It's about the next generation of transkids that we do this work for.  All we are simply doing is building on the foundation of resistance and struggle they have painstakingly laid down. 

Even though we may not live long enough to enjoy the fruits of that work, it's trans human rights work we must do.  At the same time we must tell our stories, work intersectionally to build allies, build community here and abroad while documenting our history.  We must pass it on to the next generation so they can know what we did in our late 20th-early 21st century time on Planet Earth did to make the world better for trans people than when we encountered it.

As the Stonewall movie whitewashing tells us,  we must also be vigilant in ensuring the historical record is correct when it comes to events we know beyond a shadow of a doubt were trans people of color productions.  We cannot allow POC contributions to building the LGBT rights movement to be erased by whiteness and white supremacy.   

We're Straight Outta Stonewall, and don't you ever let anyone try to tell you you're not.


TransGriot Mote:  Last two images courtesy of Elizabeth Rivera, previous three  LaLa Zannell.

50th Anniversary Of The Signing Of The Voting Rights Act

August 6 is also the day 50 years ago that President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act.   I find it deliciously apropos that yesterday the 5th Circuit Court struck down the Texas Voter Suppression (ID) law for the third time using Section 2 of the law.

The Voting Rights Act when it was signed into law by President Johnson, resulted in the mass enfranchisement of racial minorities across the nation.   It was markedly dramatic in the South, where the Jim Crow voter suppression and blatant disenfranchisement mechanisms in place were successful in denying African-Americans the right to vote.

The VRA was designed to enforce the voting rights provision in the 14th and 15th Amendments of the US Constitution, and has been updated and amended five times by Congress to expand its protections.  It is considered the most effective piece of civil rights legislation ever enacted by Congress, which is why it has also been under relentless attack by the conservative movement and the Republican Party..

The Voting Rights Act is not only groundbreaking legislation, it led to a dramatic expansion in the number of African-American politicians at all levels of government including four decades later the election of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States.

It's why I and other African Americans are still highly pissed off about the Supreme Court's racist and clueless 2013 ruling in Shelby v. Holder that gutted a key enforcement provision in the Section 4(b) 'coverage formula' , that was designed to encompass jurisdictions that had historically engaged in egregious voting discrimination at the time the VRA was passed, and was subsequently updated in 1970 and 1975.

The coverage formula was the part that made the Section 5 preclearance provision work, and while the SCOTUS didn't strike Section 5 down, by shadily declaring unconstitutional the coverage formula, they basically made Section 5 unenforceable for the time being until Congress can pass a legislative fix to update the old formula.

While this should have been fixed immediately, and President Obama called on Congress today to act on the VRA fix legislation that Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) has filed to do so, good luck with that happening in a dysfunctional GOP controlled House and Senate whose party is heavily invested in keeping the number of voter going to the polls down in order to win elections.

As a result of Section 5 being gutted and the feds having to prosecute voting rights and discrimination cases using the VRA's Section 2 , the immediate result was Republican controlled legislatures gleefully started passing voter (ID) suppression laws designed to mess with and severely restrict the ability of  non-white voters to cast their ballots.  Texas' then Attorney General (now Governor, boo hiss) Greg Abbott, despite having the Texas Voter Suppression Law being struck down in federal court twice, reinstated the unjust law within hours of the SCOTUS misguided 5-4 ruling.

It resulted in the 2014 election cycle in 600,000 predominately non-white Texans not being able to vote.

So on this 50th anniversary of the passage of this groundbreaking law, let's remember that it safeguards the voting rights of all Americans, and must be defended by all who cherish human rights in our country.

Hiroshima Plus 70

70 years ago on this date in 1945, the first atomic bomb used in warfare was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima by a lone B-29 bomber piloted by Col.. Paul Tibbets named the Enola Gay.

When the 'Little Boy' exploded in an air burst 2000 feet over the city at 8:15 AM local time, 60,000 people were instantly killed and five square miles of the city was left in ruins.  Thousands of other Hiroshima residents who survived the initial blast later succumbed to burns, radiation poisoning or died of cancer and other illnesses combined with effects of malnutrition.

It is estimated that 140,000 people were killed in Hiroshima and 70,000 in Nagasaki.

While the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki three days later are credited with ending World War II, they are still considered the most controversial events of the war.  The atomic bombings are still being argued in hindsight whether they were even necessary seven decades later.

A ceremony was held yesterday at 6:15 PM Houston time in Hiroshima Peace Park in which representatives from over 100 nations including US Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy were there to mark that somber anniversary with a one minute moment of silence and renew the call to work toward a world without nuclear weapons. 

This 70th anniversary also dovetails nicely with the debate going on inside I-495  about whether the recent Iran nuclear deal will not only shut down their ability to build The Bomb, but be enforceable.

While that's another issue for discussion, what we know is that the Little Boy and Fat Man bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were primitive compared to the nuclear weapons we possess now that can be sent zooming off to their targets in mere minutes..  

We have come close in 1962, 1973, 1979 and twice in 1983 because of mistakes, military system glitches and political miscalculations of the US and the Soviet Union launching nuke attacks on each others respective nations and imperiling life on Planet Earth as a result.  

We must do our utmost to ensure that these are the last instances of cities being nuked in anger, and get people to remember, as I paraphrase a line from the movie WarGames, in that the only way to win a nuclear war is not start one in the first place.

Happy Birthday HERO!

On this day last year, after a long combined Houston City Council meeting that saw over 200 speakers spend one minute each pro and con debating it, on an 11-6 vote the HERO was passed to the joyous cries and cheers of all of us who busted our butts to make this day happen.

And yeah, as you know, a certain blogger had been hounding Houston City Council since January to make sure her hometown human rights ordinance was trans inclusive.

Our HERO covers 15 categories, but the HERO Haters were only concerned about two, sexual orientation and gender identity, and demonized trans folks in the month long contentious debate to passage.

We didn't get to celebrate our 30 years in the making win for long, because we immediately had to shift to defend it mode.   Thanks to unbridled arrogance, fraud and stupidity on the haters side as they collected the recall petitions, they discovered on August 4 didn't gather enough signatures to force it on the 2014 ballot for a recall.

The HERO Haters kept trying, and tried to get in the courts what they failed to get in the petition process they screwed up, and still lost twice in a jury trial and with the judge..

They just recently had another motion denied in which they tried to get an expedited trial in the 14th Texas Court of Appeals.   In order to get a HERO repeal on the ballot, they have to get a ruling overturning Judge Schaffer's decision before the August deadline to get ballots for November 2015  elections in Texas printed.

Tick, tick, tick , tick...

Meanwhile the HERO is in effect and being implemented by the city of Houston, so for the first time in Houston history we have a local remedy for discrimination that happens in the Houston city limits.

But what I was most proud of as a native Houstonian was that we sent the message to the state, the nation and the world that discrimination's time had expired in the fourth largest city in America.

So happy birthday HERO!   May you be around to celebrate many more!

US Attorney General Loretta Lynch Sworn In!

America, we finally have a United States Attorney General!

She had to wait over 160 days for it,  but Loretta E. Lynch is now officially the second woman, second African American and first African-American woman to become Attorney General.

She was sworn in earlier today, and here's that historic moment.

50th Anniversary Of The Astrodome Opening

It's been long since overshadowed by the 2002 opening of NRG Stadium, but fifty years ago on this date the Harris County Domed Stadium, better known to the rest of you peeps as the Astrodome, opened as the world's first multi-purpose domed stadium.

'The Eighth Wonder Of The World' was an iconic part of my childhood as I not only attended Astros baseball, Oilers, UH Cougars and TSU Tigers football games in its cavernous space, but  the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, Texas high school football playoff games, concerts and other events also happened there.

I even worked at the Dome's concessions company for several years during college from 1981-1986.

The Astrodome was the dream of Judge Roy Hofheinz, who conceptualized it as early as 1952.   When Houston was granted a National League expansion franchise in 1960 that started play in 1962 as the Colt .45's, it was after the Hofheinz led expansion group promised to build a covered stadium to deal with our blast furnace summers.

Construction on the Dome began on January 3, 1962 and was completed ahead of schedule in November 1964.

It opened on this date with a sold out exhibition game between the Astros and the New York Yankees attended by President Lyndon Johnson and the First Lady, Texas Governor John Connally, and Houston Mayor Louie Welch.

The Dome would host the nationally televised 1968 'Game of The Century' between the University of Houston and UCLA that not only established a college basketball attendance record that wasn't broken until 2003, it set the stage for March Madness and proved college basketball had a viable TV audience. 

The 1973 'Battle of The Sexes' tennis match between Bobby Riggs and Billie Jean King was also played there, and as many of you are aware, the 1992 GOP National 'Culture War' convention nominated President George HW Bush was  also hosted under its domed roof.

One of my fave Dome events was the 1980 Luv Ya Blue pep rally that happened after the Oilers controversial 27-13 AFC championship game loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers.  After my father dropped me off on the Fannin Street side of the stadium, I had to climb the locked seven foot barbed wire topped security fence surrounding the Astrodome perimeter and got inside the stadium just before the fire marshal ordered no more people be allowed in because it was beyond capacity.



I still had a memorable evening despite all that work to get in there.    

I also enjoyed it when I got to go to the Astrodome for TSU games.  Because my dad was the Tigers radio play by play announcer, I got to sit in the press box, act as a spotter during the game, and enjoy the press level cafeteria with its delicious food and bottomless soda cups as the Tigers engaged in gridiron battles against their SWAC foes.

And yes, there was one day I was working at the Dome during a high school football doubleheader that involved the (boo hiss) Jack Yates Lions. 

As I was sitting outside the concession stand I managed at the Dome's west gate taking a break, three young flamboyant Black drag queens on hormones sashayed through the crowd

A cluster of ten kids were following them laughing as they paid it no mind until they got to where I was sitting with one of the HPD cops working security.  Stuff got real as sistah girl's wig got snatched off her head and they had to start chasing the wig thieves playing keep away with it as they ran down the ramp to the lower level

We;re still trying to figure out how to repurpose it so it is around for another generation of Houstonians.   So on the 50th anniversary of its opening, the Dome will be opened for a birthday celebration starting at 6 PM.    It was added to the National Register of Historic Places last year so it doesn't suffer the fate of the Kingdome, the Hubert H Humphrey Metrodome and the RCA Dome. 

But I'm going so I can once again even if just for a moment, stand inside the stadium that triggered so many childhood memories for me and hundreds of thousands of Houstonians.

150th Anniversary Of Lee's Surrender To Grant

150 years ago today CSA General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia after abandoning the Richmond-Petersburg area, headed west in an attempt to link up to the Confederate forces in North Carolina while pursued by Union forces under .Lt. Gen Ulysses S. Grant.

The Confederate retreat was cut off at Appomattox Court House, and Lee launched an attack that morning that sought to break through the Union force in front of him under the assumption it was just a cavalry unit.   When it turned out it was backed up by two Union corps size infantry units, Lee had no choice but to surrender, and did

The surrender of Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia to Grant effectively ended the War To Perpetuate Slavery combat in Virginia.   But as word spread of Lee's surrender, it had seismic effects with the rest of the starving and disillusioned Confederate armies still in the field.

Gen. Joseph E. Johnston surrendered his army in North Carolina on April 26 to Gen. William T. Sherman in Durham, NC.  Gen Edmund Kirby Smith surrendering the Trans-Mississippi Department near New Orleans and Nathan Bedford Forrest (the future KKK founder) surrendering in May. 

The last battle of the Civil War took place in Texas at Palmito Ranch on May 12-13, and the last sizable Confederate unit under Gem Stand Watie surrendered in Oklahoma on June 23.

It also meant that with the military defeat of the Confederacy, it mean the end of their traitorous armed insurrection against the US government, their attempt to win by force keeping slavery alive and the emancipation of my ancestors. 

Philly, Are You Planning To Recognize The 50th Anniversary Of The Dewey's Sit In?

Ever since I was first sent notice of it by Dr. Susan Stryker, I was excited to learn and talk about the Dewey's Lunch Counter Sit In and Protest that involved African-American gender variant kids in April- May 1965.

Every since this came to light, there have been attempt to whitewash and gaywash the protest and erase the African-American gender variant kids completely out of the story,.

And I'm not having it.

This is one of the first instances of a protest centered around gender identity issues that involved people of color  

And that is worth celebrating, especially with the 50th anniversary of this event looming

I hope that on April 25, 2015 that we will see at that site where  Dewey's once existed members of the Philadelphia LGBT community coming together to commemorate this event in trans history

That's right I said trans history.  The protest was driven by Dewey's refusal to serve young patrons dressed in  'non-conformist clothing.'   This was a first ever protest that was sparked by gender variant issues and an ultimately successful one.

So Philly, hope you're planning a nice event on that date.

9/11 Terror Attacks 13th Anniversary

Today is the 13th anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks that targeted the World Trade Center towers in New York, the Pentagon in Washington D.C. and the US Capitol building that used four hijacked planes to do so.  Over 3000 people died in those attacks.  

The 40 passengers and crew of United Flight 93 thwarted the attack on the US Capitol building when it was 20 minutes flight time from Washington by rushing the cockpit and attempting to overpower the hijackers.   The plane crashed in a field outside of Shanksville, PA.

In addition to the memorial being built in New York and the 1,776 ft Freedom Tower being built at the former World Trade Center site, the Flight 93 crash site is now home to a national memorial being built there.

As a matter of fact, just as I did back on that September 11 day, I woke up early this morning. 

I was watching Good Morning America on that fateful day when I saw the first reports that of a fire at the World Trad Center building.   I saw the second hijacked plane crash into the other tower on live television.  I spent the next few hours trying to call and verify that all the cis and trans people I knew in the New York area were okay. 

I was also nervous in those early confusing hours that one of the hijacked planes was a Continental one.  When I discovered later that the hijacked planes were American and United ones, my thoughts turned to those personnel, the passengers on board those planes and especailly the gate agents who worked those respective flights. 

Then the news came about the Pentagon being attacked.  The unprecedented shutdown of US airspace at 9:45 AM EDT that led to Operation Yellow Ribbon in Canada.  

And I watched on live TV as those majestic World Trade Center towers that I didn't get to visit during my New York vacation the year before collapsed minutes apart. 

The attacks took us on a path that led us to the conflict in Afghanistan, a war foolishly jumped off by the GW Bush administration in Iraq two years later, the loss of over 5000 soldiers and wounding of countless others, the election of Barack Obama as president in 2008 and the death of Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the al-Qaeda attacks via a Seal Team 6 operation in Abbottabad, Pakistan.   

But for those of us who remember the events of that day, the memories still haven't faded yet.  
 

Malcolm X-The Ballot Or The Bullet Speech

This April 4, 1964 speech delivered by Malcolm X at Cleveland's Cory Methodist Church is ranked (number 7) as one of the 100 Greatest Speeches in American history. 

It is sadly, in the wake of what's happening in Ferguson, MO still relevant 50 years later..

Smithsonian Adds Trans Items To Expanded LGBT History Collection

Yesterday The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History added hundreds of photographs, papers and historical objects to its collection to document the history of trans, bisexual, gay and lesbian people.   And in case you're wondering about it, yes, the trans end was ably represented on this day. 

One of the trans items donated was a wooden tennis racket from Renee Richards, who turned 80 years old yesterday and was one of the newsworthy trans folks of the 1970's.  After she was denied entry to play in the 1976 US Open because of a hastily enacted USTA women-born-women policy, she won a landmark New York Supreme Court trans rights decision in 1977.

Another of the trans-specific items donated for historical posterity was the original trans pride flag created by longtime Atlanta based trans advocate Monica Helms back in 1999 along with a Transgender American Veterans Association button, a TransParentday.org rubber wrist bracelet, Trans and Proud and Trans Ally buttons  and items from Monica's military career in the US Navy.  

This ceremony also took place on the 15th anniversary of the August 19, 1999 day she created the trans pride flag she is donating to the Smithsonian.  

Helms was in Washington DC for yesterday's donation ceremony and obviously thrilled to be representing the trans community on this momentous day.  In her remarks she spoke to the importance of the 'T' being repped in this expansion of the National Museum Of American History's LGBT collection.

Thank you Director John Gray, Katherine Ott, Jennifer Jones and Valeska Hilbig for all that you have done to make this moment possible. This is a historical honor for all transgender and gender non-conforming people across our country. We have always been part of America’s history since the beginning, yet we have also been marginalized the entire time.

Now, the Smithsonian and the American Government are saying that our history is worthy of being displayed, along with that of our fellow Americans. The Transgender Pride Flag was created to give our community a unique symbol for us to show that we are proud of who we are. Not only have trans people in America embraced the flag, but trans communities in other parts of the world have also embraced it. If weren’t for them we would not be here today. The honor goes to the people of the world’s trans community. Transgender and gender non-conforming people of America are truly part of this country that we all love.

And, since the Smithsonian will be displaying items from my military career, they are also acknowledging that we have contributed to the security of our country since the Revolutionary War. We only hope that the Department of Defense and President Obama hears this message and allows transgender and gender non-conforming people the right to serve openly in the military, like our gay, lesbian and bisexual brothers and sisters are doing today.

Thank you for this honor.

***

Sea Monica shot me an e-mail before her departure to DC for yesterday's donation ceremony and I asked her a few questions.

TG- What prompted the Smithsonian to seek to enshrine the original trans pride flag and when did they contact you?

MH- I contacted the Smithsonian a year ago. They are starting to collect LGBT artifacts, so I contacted them at the right time.

TG- How excited were they about getting the original trans pride flag and to your knowledge what other trans historical artifacts are going into their collection?
MH- They were very excited. I was surprised.  They became more excited when they understood how important this was to the trans community.

TG- How soon will Smithsonian visitors be able to see it?

MH- It may take them a year or more before the display is put together and put out to the public. They will let me know. It will be on permanent display versus temporary.  It will be in their Armed Forces Flag display section, because I was in the Navy.

***

So how important is this?  BFD important.  Just as it happened when the April Ashley exhibit opened last September in her hometown Liverpool Museum, it notes to the world and our haters that transpeople exist. 

It loudly says to the world we have a proud history we can show to our transkids and others that The Smithsonian thought was worthy enough to be enshrined in its National Museum of American History halls.    It's one of the reasons I participate in efforts locally and elsewhere to document trans history on behalf of my African-American trans community.   It's why I keep a lot of my papers and memorabilia around so I can pass them on so future generations can enjoy them.

Thank you Sea Monica for helping to ensure that when The Smithsonian was looking to expand the LGBT collection, items representing the trans end of the community were included.

40th Anniversary Of Nixon's Presidential Resignation

The Watergate saga came to an end when embattled President Richard Nixon, who was about to become the first president to be impeached and removed from office, resigned effective at noon EDT on August 9, 1974 rather than face the ignominy of being impeached and removed from office.

And yeah, as a teenaged political junkie, I watched the speech that Nixon gave to the nation on the night of August 8, 1974

45th Anniversary Of Apollo 11 Moon Landing

After blasting off from Pad 39A in Florida and a three day journey to enter lunar orbit, the world is waiting as astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin leave Columbia pilot Michael Collins behind to orbit the Moon as they climb into the lunar module Eagle.

It's on them to fulfill the challenge that President John F. Kennedy laid down to the nation and Congress in 1961 of landing on the moon and safely returning to earth .

As the Eagle descends toward its landing area in the Sea of Tranquility, Armstrong has to improvise to manually pilot the ship past an area of rocky boulders with the Eagle's onboard computers signaling alarms as he's doing so. 

Finally at 3:18 PM CDT  the lunar module is on the surface of the moon with 30 seconds of fuel left and Armstrong radios, "Houston, Tranquility Base here,  The Eagle has landed." as cheers and the tension breaks in Mission Control. 

At 9:56 PM CDT Armstrong is ready to begin the EVA and plant his foot on the lunar surface as half a billion people watch on television screens around the globe.   As he climbs down the ladder from Eagle and steps onto the surface he proclaims: "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." (› Play Audio)



He's joined by Aldrin as the duo explore the lunar surface for two and a half hours.  They collect rock samples, take photographs, and leave behind an American flag, a patch honoring the fallen Apollo 1 crew members, leave their footprints in the lunar soil and a plaque on one of Eagle's legs before blasting off to dock with Collins in Columbia and head back to Earth.   

With the splashdown in the North Pacific on July 24, President Kennedy's challenge to the nation had been successfully fulfilled.  

Over the next three and a half years I'd get to witness ten more Americans land on the moon and safely return.  

I'd also in April 1970 agonize and pray with the rest of the world for the safe return of the Apollo 13 astronauts after a service module oxygen tank explosion enroute to the moon cancelled the landing at Fra Mauro and they had the use the lunar module Aquarius as a 'lifeboat' to get home.

Gene Cernan, commander of the Apollo 17 said as the Challenger prepared to leave the lunar surface on the final Apollo lunar mission in December 1972,"We leave as we came and, God willing, as we shall return, with peace, and hope for all mankind."

It's past time this nation did so.

Laverne Cox Gets Historic Emmy Nomination

I'll have another reason to watch the August 25 Primetime Emmy Awards broadcast on NBC besides wondering if Kerry Washington and Joe Morton get the statues to go with their well deserved nominations for their respective Scandal acting roles

I'm still pissed off about Kerry getting screwed last year and y'all know how much I love her. 

But enough about Ms.Washington, this post is about another person I have mad love for in our fave possibility model Laverne Cox, who made more trailblazing history today.

When the nominations for the 2013-2014 Emmy's were announced today, Orange Is The New Black earned 12 Emmy nominations.  One of these nominations was for the Outstanding Guest Actress In A Comedy Series category, and Ms. Cox was nominated for her role as Sophia Burset on the smash hit series.

That nomination makes Laverne the first open transgender actress to be nominated for a primetime Emmy.

She's competing against two of her Orange Is The New Black castmates in Uzo Aduba (Suzanne 'Crazy Eyes' Warren) and Natasha Lyonne (Nicky Nichols) for this Emmy, but I'm hoping that it works out for her.  

Congratulations Laverne!  Well deserved nomination and I'll be tuned in at 7 PM CDT to see if you make more history and actually win it.    
  

50th Anniversary Of The Civil Rights Act of 1964 Signing

I was a mere toddler when this event happened, but it was a critical one in determining the type of America I got to grow up in as an African-American child.

On this date in 1964, with the Rev. Dr Martin Luther King, Jr as one of the witnesses, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the landmark Civil Rights Act into law.

It was the signature legislation of the Civil Rights Movement.  The law barred segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. 

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 It fundamentally changed our country for the better with its passage and when the voting rights, fair housing, and other civil rights legislation was passed in its trailblazing wake followed by court cases that further validated, clarified and built upon that landmark legislation. . 

Here's what President Johnson had to say about the Civil Rights Act at the time when he signed it.  

45 Years Later...

June 28, 1969 was the hot, sultry New York night 45 years ago when during another one of those harassing police raids on the Stonewall Inn, our folks had reached a 'We've had enough of this crap' moment.

Instead of submitting quietly to another police raid, the Stonewall Inn patrons that night, the transpeeps, butch lesbians and other peeps of color unwanted in the more upscale New York City gay oriented spots, followed Sylvia Rivera's lead after she threw the first bottle (and some peeps claim a shoe) at the NYPD po-po's and jumped off the Stonewall Rebellion. 

45 years later it's transpeople of color taking their rightful place once again in leading this movement after being dumped out of it in the early 70's.   Isn't it an interesting coincidence that as we stepped up to lead and became more visible, forward progress on trans issues followed? 

Frankly, I don't think it's a coincidence at all, but a much needed development in our ongoing and evolving international trans human rights struggle.   We need to be reminding people that you can't spell Stonewall without the 'T' even though at times the GL community tried to pinkwash us out of the collective memory of an event and strongarm us out of a movement we jumped off. 

45 years later, while Sylvia if she were still here would be pleased at some aspects of our progress, she'd be upset about others. She'd be pleased to see that some of the leaders of the trans moment are Latin@ and how non-white transpeople are unapologetically owning our power.   She'd be pissed off that New York State still does not have a human rights law that covers transpeople (GENDA) and how that happened.

Sylvia would also be pleased to see us taking the next steps like running for public office. building economic power in our communities and talking the lead role in telling our stories and defining ourselves to the media .

As a vehement opponent of the Vietnam War  (and I argued with her about this and LBJ's legacy) she would have a problem with trans people openly serving in the military, but if I got her to to grudgingly see the problem in her viewpoint that LBJ wasn't 100% evil, I think she'd be able to see the wisdom of allowing transpeople so inclined to do so the opportunity to serve their country.    

But one point I'd believe she'd definitely echo is that 45 years later, our work to see trans human rights coverage ensconced in our nation and around the world isn't done. 
 

The Confederate Flag Is A Racist Flag

Over the weekend a discussion started on the Facebook page of a Latino friend in which he expressed his disgust at seeing a Confederate flag in his neighborhood

He commented on it, and a white ally chimed in that maybe this person wasn't racist, but was expressing their Southern pride. 

That comment innocent as it was, still pissed off many of the non-white peeps on that thread who have experienced discrimination and hatred aimed at them from people who had it on their vehicles or as jacket patches. 

It led to me compiling this post and making the following comment in the thread.

***

'The Confederate States of America existed for one purpose: They were traitors who fought an armed rebellion against the United States government for the purpose of keeping my ancestors enslaved for perpetuity. Had they won the Civil War, my grandparents, parents and yours truly would probably be working on plantations and in big houses across the Confederacy   Texas would be under that flag, not the Stars and Stripes. 

That flag is as offensive to me as the Nazi swastika flag is to our Jewish friends. And it isn't an accident that the segregationists used that same confederate flag to symbolize their opposition to the Civil Rights movement of the 50's and 60's and it's making a comeback at Tea Klux Klan rallies.

So no, there is nothing noble or warm and fuzzy about the CSA or that reprehensible flag.'

***

This blog wouldn't exist either had the Confederacy won.  


There was nothing noble about the Confederate States of America because they were on the wrong side of history and willing participants in a monstrous crime against my ancestor's humanity.  Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens clearly spells out what the main reason was for the secession and initiation of the War To Perpetuate Slavery was all about in his March 1861 'Cornerstone Speech'. 

Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner- stone rests upon the great truth, that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery -- subordination to the superior race -- is his natural and normal condition. [Applause.] This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.

And yes, the CSA states seceded over slavery and started the Civil War to keep my ancestors enslaved.  The causes of secession for the states of Georgia, Mississippi and Texas along with the comments of Southern politicians of the time clearly point that out.  

And I'm tired of people wanting to regurgitate that Southern revisionist 'happy darkie' bull feces, the war was about tariffs, the North started it, 'heritage not hate', or the lie that 'thousands of Black soldiers' fought for the CSA.  It's even more important the Southern revisionist history crap be debunked, especially as the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War continues through the rest of this year and through the April 9, 2015 date I may have to throw a party on.

What's that day you ask?  The day the CSA surrendered to end the Civil War. 

When I see the Confederate flag, I see the pain of 246 years of chattel slavery.  I see Jim Crow segregation.  I see a Freedom Rider bus burning.  I see the bombed 16th Street Baptist Church and four dead little girls who entered that building to attend church.  I see fire hoses and police dogs being unleashed on defenseless protestors in Birmingham.  I see 'Bloody Sunday' 

I see along with many African-Americans a racist flag from a failed nation state that fought a war to keep enslaving my ancestors, and there's no sanitizing that.   

30th Anniversary of Able Archer 83

I wrote last year about the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis that nearly led to a global nuclear war.   Today is the 30th anniversary of the start of the ten day 1983 NATO Able Archer nuclear exercise that almost triggered another one. 

According to a 1997 CIA analysis by Benjamin Fischer, the incident had its roots in Soviet anxiety over the US defense buildup that began during the Carter Administration. The Russians knew they couldn't compete spending and technology wise and feared they would soon be outgunned. 

The USSR was also spooked by stepped-up probes of their early-warning intelligence system and other mind games played by the American military starting shortly after Ronald Reagan took office in January 1981.

Whatever the impetus, the Soviet leaders persuaded themselves the US was planning a sneak nuclear attack on the USSR and in 1981 under then KGB Chairman Yuri Andropov ordered their spies to look for evidence in an effort incongruously code-named RYAN, the Russian acronym for "nuclear missile attack."

Soviet nuclear first strike fears were heightened a few more levels in February 1983.  The US prepared to counter the Warsaw Pact conventional arms numerical superiority in Europe augmented by deployment of the mobile Soviet SS-20 intermediate range missiles against NATO by stepping up their conventional military readiness in the region and deploying their own next-generation mobile Pershing II intermediate range nuclear missiles in West Germany.  

From their West German bases the Pershing II missiles could reach hardened targets in the Soviet Union in just four to ten minutes.

It also didn't help during this period of heightened tension and deteriorating relations between the two superpowers President Reagan was also ratcheting up the anti-Soviet rhetoric by denouncing the USSR in March as an "evil empire" and shortly afterward announced the SDI "Star Wars" missile-defense initiative designed to create a missile defense shield to make the US invulnerable to Russian nukes.  The mere thought of American military R&D being put to work to make that a reality put the Soviets aging leadership team now headed by a gravely ill Yuri Andropov and their military and Strategic Rocket Forces commanders in freak out mode.

On September 1 Soviet air defense military units in the Far East, under pressure from their upper echelon political and military leadership for responding lackadaisically to previous US military air incursions during Fleet Ex 83 conducted in the North Pacific Ocean, shot down Korean Air Lines Flight 007, which had strayed into Russian airspace and been misidentified as a spy plane.  All 269 passengers and crew aboard the flight were killed, including US congressman Lawrence McDonald who was headed to South Korea.  Former president Richard Nixon was supposed to be on that flight seated next to McDonald but decided not to go on that trip at the last moment. 

The US condemned the attack as evidence of Soviet barbarism and the increased worldwide anti-Soviet attitudes and revulsion for the attack on KAL 007 greased the political and public opinion skids to begin the European deployment of the Pershing II's.

Soviet leaders were making the counterargument (and to some extent believed) that the KAL 007 incident was an intentional US provocation and declared that accommodation with the US was impossible.

We also didn't know at the time that in the early morning hours of September 26 if it hadn't been for the cool headed thinking of duty officer Stanislav Petrov, we would have plunged that day into a accidental nuclear war. 

Lieutenant Colonel Petrov, who was fortuitously on duty doing an extra shift in the air defense bunker in the Moscow area that day was faced with malfunctioning computers and blaring alarms all over his control bunker telling him five missiles had been launched from US territory.   He knew that if the real thing were happening, the US wouldn't be launching just one to five Minuteman III missiles at the USSR.  Petrov correctly dismissed it as a false alarm and didn't report it to his superiors in breach of Soviet military protocols.  If he'd wanted to play it safe, Petrov would have informed the higher authority immediately. 

Had he done so, knowing that Soviet armed forces policy was launch on warning, it probably would have resulted in a first strike attack that killed millions of people based on the mentality of the senior Soviet leadership at the time believing the US was already making preparations to do so and Reagan would order it. Subsequent investigations proved Petrov was correct and the false alarms were caused by a rare alignment of sunlight on high-altitude clouds and the Molniya satellites' orbits.

Further complicating matters and adding to the tense and worsening diplomatic relations between the superpowers was the October 25 invasion of Grenada by US forces in the wake of a Marxist coup in that island nation that led to the Cubans building a military aircraft capable airstrip on the island that concerned the US.   The invasion of Grenada took place two days after the suicide bombing of the US Marine Corps barracks in Beirut, Lebanon that killed 241 American military personnel there.

With tensions between the superpowers at code-red levels and especially in the USSR, NATO launched Able Archer 83.   This was an annual military exercise simulating the outbreak of hostilities between NATO and the Warsaw Pact nations that the Warsaw Pact was aware was happening.

But this year's version of Able Archer involved an unusually realistic buildup to a simulated NATO nuclear strike involving the NATO senior political leadership like British PM Margaret Thatcher, West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and command and control levels of NATO that was scheduled to last ten days. President Reagan and Vice President Bush were supposed to take part in it but decided not to.

The Soviets knew Able Archer was happening but wondered if something else was afoot, having long planned to use war games as a cover for launching a first strike themselves and suspecting the US might do likewise.  The Soviets also had the attitude the only way to preempt a first strike if that is what the US and NATO were gearing up for was to beat them to it and launch their own.  They raised their own state of alert to a wartime footing in order to be in a better position to do so if the attack confirmation intel came from the RYAN protocol. 

The increased coded traffic picked up by the KGB between Washington and London in reality was chippy diplomatic chatter being generated because Great Britain was pissed about the Grenada invasion but was being read by RYAN analysts as coordination communication prior to launching an attack. 

But the coded traffic combined with NATO forces simulating during the Able Archer 83 exercises the moves and communications necessary to transition from a conventional to nuclear conflict through all alert phases, from DEFCON 5 to DEFCON 1 led alarmist KGB agents to mistakenly report them as part of the Soviet RYAN intel gathering protocols as actual preparations for a NATO first strike on the USSR.


The result was the Baltic Military District in the USSR being placed on alert status along with units in Czechoslovakia, nuclear capable aircraft units in Poland and East Germany being activated and prepped for action and Strategic Rocket Forces ICBM silos and units prepped for launch as the Soviet leadership frantically sent high-priority telegrams from Moscow to its KGB stations in Western Europe on November 8 demanding information about the feared surprise NATO nuclear first strike attack on the USSR.   

The CIA picked up on the increased military and civilian leadership communications activity on the Soviet side, but didn't connect it to Able Archer.  Neither did they pick up on the USSR leadership's paranoid national beliefs since 1982 that it was backed into a global strategic military corner and their only way out of it was to launch a first strike. 

Granted, the most recent example being World War II of Russia being surprise attacked gave them a reason to be wary, but the USSR's 'America's Going To Nuke Us' paranoia almost ended up triggering World War III. 

It's also interesting to note that there were several broadcasts, songs and movies released that year with accidental war (WarGames), Men At Work's 'It's A Mistake' and Nena's '99 Luftballons' and nuclear holocaust (The Day After) reflected the public anxiousness about nuclear war.  

Little did we realize at the time how prophetic those songs and movies almost became. 

Those anxieties eased a bit with the end of the Able Archer exercise, the subsequent death of Yuri Andropov in February 1984 and the restarting of INF treaty talks with the USSR.  But it's sobering and scary to think about the fact the world once again by the slimmest of margins barely escaped nuclear annihilation.