Congrats Madame PTA President!

One of the ultimate goals for us in Trans World is to just be seen as the amazing men, women and people we are and just get on with living our lives.

Nikki Araguz Loyd since her precedent setting trans marriage case win in the Araguz v Delgado case has been doing just that.   She's been focused on helping promote her husband Will's art career, being mom to two amazing kids, being that sisterfriend to all of us blessed to have her in our lives, and some human rights and trans advocacy work in different areas of importance to her.

Oh yeah, did I mention that the camera love her?

Through the Trans National Alliance, she's helping trans folks here in the area and state of Texas get their name and gender marker changes done.   The TNA is having another fundraiser at Hamburger Mary's Houston on June 6.

Now Nikki has made history again in another arena.   Her daughter is in middle school, and as you probably guessed, she has been a fierce advocate for her and the children of the school her daughter attends in that Trump loving suburb she lives in.

The other parents at the school have taken note of her all around awesomeness and fearlessness to speak truth to power be it the principal or the school board, and yesterday elected her the president of the school's PTA for the upcoming 2017-18 school year.

She is probably the first out trans PTA president that I've been made aware of, and probably the first in the Lone Star State and possibly the nation.

As I've said, don't mess with Texas trans women.  We handle our business and get the job done.

Congratulations Madame PTA president!    May you have s successful and productive term as you take on this exciting challenge in your fabulous life.

Never Again

Seventy five years ago today President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 that resulted in the internment of Japanese-American citizens and resident aliens who lived in the west coast states of California, Oregon and Washington and the seizing of their property  

Next to the turning away of the MS St Louis, it was another fail in FDR's otherwise remarkable presidency, and has has lasting negative effects in the japanese American community.

This day is necessary to remember in light of the fact that Trump wishes to do the same to Muslim Americans.   To this all of us who love this country, the Constitution and our human rights must stand up and say in a loud collective voice, "Never Again!".

Raquel Willis DC Women's March Speech

Janet Mock wasn't the only trans woman speaking at the recent DC Women's March.  Raquel Willis was also on that stage to speak on that historic January 21 day, and she finally found and posted to YouTube the video from her speech.

As someone said on the YouTube comment thread, "Ms Cheryl (Courtney-Evans) is looking down and smiling."

I didn't like hearing that her mic was cut before she finished her remarks, but now I can share her Women's March speech video with you TransGriot readers

The full text of Raquel's speech entitled 'A Vision of Liberation' can be found at this link.

Congrats Sheriff-Elect Zena Stephens!

One of the other positive things that happened on Election Night was that the first ever African-American female sheriff in Texas was elected in Jefferson County

That's the county 90 miles east of Houston along I-10 in which Beaumont and Port Arthur are the primary cities in.

She's Zena Stephens, and at the time she was elected on November 8 she was serving as the current chief of the Prairie View A&M University Police Department.

She served for 16 years in the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department, leaving as a chief deputy to take the chief's job at PVAMU in 2013 after serving in the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department as a field officer, in administration and in public relations.

Stephens when she accepted the PVAMU PD job became the first female chief in that department's history.

As you probably expected for a trailblazer, it wasn't an easy road to make that history.  She had to win three elections to do so.  In two of them, she faced off against better funded candidates.

Texas Black history moment.  The first Black female deputy sheriff in Texas was Barbara Hayes Foreman.  She was appointed in 1977 and served in Travis County (Austin).

But back to talking about our latest Black history maker.

In the March Democratic primary, Stephens knocked off Rod Carroll, the top deputy of retiring Jefferson County sheriff Mitch Woods, who is retiring after 20 years of service as Jefferson County sheriff.     Carroll had the overwhelming support of Jefferson County law enforcement and the funding, but finished third in the primary.  

If Stephens name is familiar to you, it's probably because of an incident that garnered national news coverage.

During that March primary campaign, a gunshot was fired through a glass door at her campaign headquarters the night before the election by 19 year old Vidor resident (why am I not surprised?) Adam Carver who was allegedly uttering racial slurs as he did so.  

Vidor is an odious Klan infested sundown town along I-10 in neighboring Orange County which has a long racist reputation in southeast Texas and with Black Texans across the state.

Carver was using his 2nd Amendment rights to express some of those Klan family values they preach and teach in Vidor.  He was arrested, indicted and charged with deadly conduct, and is facing a court hearing on November 28.

Stephens topped the field in the March Democratic primary, but didn't get over 50% of the vote to win the nomination outright, so she was forced into a May runoff election for the Democratic nomination against former constable Joe 'QB' Stevenson.  

In addition to the Democratic nomination, history was on the ballot in that Democratic runoff election battle.  The winner would become the first ever African-American sheriff in Jefferson County, and Stephens prevailed

That win over Stevenson propelled her to the general election against the Republican nominee in former Beaumont PD Lt, Ray Beck, who raised six times more cash than Stephens for this race.

But as I've pointed out more than a few times, just because you have more money than your opponent doesn't mean you're guaranteed political victory.

Stephens won by 2,431 votes in a race that saw 86,701 total ballots cast.   It was voters in Beaumont's northern and southern precincts along with Port Arthur voters that helped her seize the lead and hold on to win with 51.4% of the vote for the win despite a strong challenge from Beck. .

Sheriff-elect Stephens commented after her win about the historic nature of it.

"I think it is important, because I never saw anybody who looked like me in this role, or as a police chief, when I was growing up," said Stephens. "And so the idea, not just for girls but for any minority, that you can obtain these jobs at this level, I think that's important. And it's important for these jobs in law enforcement and any job to reflect the community they serve."

Congrats to Sheriff-elect Stephens for this hard fought accomplishment in a male dominated field. And at a time when confidence and respect for police forces is at a low ebb in Black communities across the nation, it''s an important accomplishment as well.

TDOR History Snapshot

We know that TDOR occurs on November 20, and has grown to become an international event.

But what is the history of it and why did it start?

It started in the wake of the November 28,1998 murder of Rita Hester and the transphobic media coverage of it in gay and mainstream media outlets that incensed the Boston area and national trans community.   Hester's killer as of this date has not been brought to justice.

On the one year anniversary of Hester's death, because we were starting to forget the names of the people who had been murdered at that time because it was happening so frequently and we had better information about it thanks to the Internet, San Francisco based trans advocate Gwen Smith founded the Remembering Our Dead web project to track and memorialize those folks we have lost to anti- trans violence.

Smith also organized a vigil in San Francisco on the one year anniversary of Hester's death that grew into the Transgender Day of Remembrance event we are familiar with almost two decades later.  The TDOR was rapidly adopted elsewhere in the United States and the rest of the world.

The basic elements of a TDOR are the same no matter where the event happens.

A list of names of trans people murdered from November 21 of the previous year to the date of this year's TDOR is read an a candle is lit for that person.  Depending on where you are in the world and who is conducting it, there are other regional or local international touches added to the basic ceremony.

Some areas also do a week of educational events and panel discussions in the lead up to the TDOR. since in addition to now being an international trans event, it has now become part of Transgender Awareness Week and Transgender Awareness Month.

TDOR is at its core, a memorial service for the people we lost.  It's a reminder to friends, foes and frenemies that our lives mater.  our humanity matters and these are.lives lost we'll never get back

It's also a time that we collectively remind the cis community that the humanity and human rights of trans people here and around the world are not up for discussion or debate.

TDOR is also a time that we reflect on the people we lost, and rededicate ourselves to the task of ending anti-trans violence, .

Will The Washington NFL Team's October 16 Win Translate To A Clinton One?

One of the interesting election bellwethers in American politics involves our national passion of NFL football and the Washington NFL franchise.  I'm refusing to use the racist nickname of the team in this post and per TransGriot policy out of respect to my Native American friends.

Since the team moved to DC from Boston in 1937, when the Washington NFL franchise wins their last home game before the presidential election, the incumbent party stays in the Oval Office.  If they lose their last home game, according to the rule, the party out of power wins the subsequent national presidential election.

The Washington Rule has been remarkably consistent, and only been wrong once.

In 2012, the Washington NFL team lost to the Carolina Panthers 21-13, but incumbent President Barack Obama won in an electoral landslide over Mitt Romney.

If you count the presidential elections of 1932 and 1936 before the team relocated to Washington DC, it's twice.

In 1932, they beat the Staten Island Stapletons in their last home game before the election 19-6 but Democratic nominee Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated incumbent Republican president Herbert Hoover for the first of his four terms.

In 1936, the first year they competed under their racist nickname, they beat the Chicago Cardinals 13-10 in their last home game before the election, and FDR was reelected in a landslide.

The Washington NFL franchise is playing across The Pond at Wembley Stadium today against the Cincinnati Bengals and because of their subsequent bye week, won't be playing their next home game against the Minnesota Vikings until after the election on November 13.

So what was the result of their last home game?   The Washington NFL team's last home game was on October 16 against the Philadelphia Eagles, who they defeated 27-20.  According to the rule, that means the incumbent party (the Democrats) will keep the White House and Hillary Clinton will become our next POTUS..

Will that result on October 16 be backed up by the election on November 8?   We'll find out in a few days.

TransGriot Update : Nope 

National Museum of African American History and Culture Opens Today

It was an event 100 years in the making, but how apropos that when the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) was opened, the first African American president of the United States was there.

The effort dates back to 1915, when Black Civil War veterans pushed for a memorial to recognize he role they played in fighting for and winning their own emancipation.   Of course, their pleas were ignored and funding never came for that memorial.

After the success of the African American civil rights movement several decades later,  there was renewed interest in our history and recognizing it with a museum.

Civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) introduced 13 different bills to make that happen, which drew opposition from everyone from Sen Jesse Helms (R-NC) to federal land use watchdog groups that objected to the site of the museum on the National Mall.

The museum bill finally passed in 2003 and was signed into law by President GW Bush.

The work then began to raise the $270 million dollars in private donations and get the thousands of artifacts needed to fill the cavernous museum building's exhibit space.

Construction finally started on the NMAAHC in 2012 and was completed in November 2015,  The Smithsonian's newest museum that tells the story of African Americans is now open for all of us to enjoy.  

Here's President Obama's speech at today's NMAAHC museum grand opening ceremony.



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15th Anniversary of The 9-11 Terror Attacks

September 11, 2001 is one of those dates etched into American history as one you remember what you were doing and where your were when the event happened.

15 years ago today an Al Qaeda terror attack that used hijacked planes to slam into the World Trade Center towers in New York, the Pentagon in Washington DC and another that was planned to either slam into the White House or the US capitol building.

That attack was thwarted when the passengers of United Flight 93 overpowered the hijackers and the plane crashed near Shanksville, PA,

The shock and horror of that day was amplified when the twin World Trade Center towers both came crashing down

The 9-11 attacks shocked the world and killed over 3000 people   Our airspace was closed for two weeks in response to the attack, and Canada in Operation Yellow Ribbon opened their airports, hearts and homes to international flights and travelers forced to land there because of the closure of US airspace.

While a new World Trade Center building rises 1776 feet into the New York skyline at the spot where the former towers stood, the gaping hole in the Pentagon has been repaired, and Osama Bin Laden long ago was killed in a SEAL raid, for many of the people who lost loved ones or who survived the attacks, the infamy of that day hasn't subsided..

Here are President Obama's remarks at the memorial service remembering the attack on the Pentagon.

Happy Transgender Pride Flag Day!

Happy Transgender Pride Flag Day!  

So why is today Transgender Pride Flag Day?   Time for another TransGriot trans history lesson concerning the Helms trans pride flag.

"August 19, 1999 is when I came up with the design and August 19, 2014 was when I donated it to the Smithsonian, " said Helms in a comment to me. "I'm humbled that it is being used all over the world. I thank the community for that."

The trans pride flag design that flag creator Monica Helms came up with was a light blue, pink and white striped flag that is designed so that even when turned upside down, the stripes are in the correct pattern.  

It first flew at a pride parade in Phoenix, AZ in April 2000 as part of the color guard, and since that initial appearance, it appeared at protests, trans themed conferences and events across the United States including the recent White House LGBT Pride Reception.  

The Helms transgender pride flag quickly grew in popularity even as variant designs of trans pride flags popped up in Canada and Israel.   The Helms trans pride flag since it was the first one, has increasingly been adopted by trans communities in various nations around the world as an internationally recognized symbol of our community.



August 19, 2014 is also the date that the original trans pride flag was donated by Helms to the Smithsonian as part of their permanent LGBT history collection

So Happy Transgender Pride Flag Day!  Maybe I'll get some pink lemonade to celebrate this date in trans history.

Marisa Richmond Named Official 2016 DNC Convention Timekeeper

This #DNCinPhilly convention is tuning out to be even more historic for trans kind than I anticipated.  In addition to having a record 27 trans delegates attending the event and the American trans community eagerly awaiting Sarah McBride's Thursday podium speech, there's more news cementing this Philadephia DNC convention as one of the most trans friendly events in American political history.

Longtime Nashville based trans advocate Marisa Richmond has been active in Democratic Party politics for years and has been a delegate to several DNC conventions including the 2008 one in which she witnessed history in then Sen. Barack Obama's historic nomination.

She'll have a lot closer seats than she did in 2008 to witness another historic nomination this time, like on the convention stage.

She was tapped to become the official timekeeper for the 2016 Democratic National Convention. This makes Richmond possibly the first out trans person to be named as a major party convention podium official, which is also a big deal.

Marisa's task as the convention's official timekeeper is to keep all the speakers on schedule and within their allotted time limits.  Through her roles with Trans United For Hillary and the Democratic Party's  LGBT advisory board she was contacted and subsequently offered the position.

"It's a personal honor and privilege to be up there on the stage," said Richmond in an interview with The Tennessean.  "I'll be just a few feet away from all of the speakers all four nights.  it's literally one of the best seats there."

"It shows that this is easily the most trans friendly convention ever, " she said.  "It shows that this party has really made progress in terms of inclusion and diversity."

Speaking of seats, if you're looking for her, during the television telecasts, where the arrow is in the photo by Mara Keisling is where Marisa will be sitting and doing her timekeeping duties during the convention.

The Tennessee Democratic Party was also pleased about Richmond being chosen as the 2016 DNC convention timekeeper, and Tennessee State Democratic Party Chair Mary Mancini said she was thrilled by her selection.

Mancini noted that Richmond, the former chair of the Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition, has been one of the strongest LGBTQ advocates in Tennessee and across the country for many years."

And yes, I'll definitely cosign that sentiment.  I've had the pleasure of knowing her trailblazing self since the late 90's, and I'm proud of her for getting this amazing honor.

Stonewall Inn Declared National Monument

History was made yesterday as New York's Stonewall Inn was declared a national monument by President Obama days before the 47th anniversary of the June 28, 1969 Stonewall rebellion that was the spark for the modern TBLG rights movement.

The new national monument would encompass the Stonewall Inn, Christopher Park and the surrounding streets and sidewalks in the area   It is the first ever specifically LGBT historical site to be given national monument status and something that is long overdue.  



"I believe our national parks should reflect the full story of our country -- the richness and diversity and uniquely American spirit that has always defined us, that we are stronger together," said President Obama.

And with this happening a week after the attack on the Pulse club in Orlando on the club's Latino Night that took 49 lives and wounded another 53 people, it's even more important for people outside our trans, bi and SGL community to recognize that TBLG history is also American history.

Historical Trans Firsts Are Important To Note For Our Community

Those who have no record of what their forebears have accomplished lose the inspiration which comes from the teaching of biography and history."--Dr. Carter G. Woodson


I was in a Facebook discussion talking about the historic Philippine election win of Geraldine Roman to the Philippine Congress when someone went on a rant about not caring about what she called 'fake firsts'.

This white trans person then continued to say it was a waste of time to talk about who was the first trans person to do X thing, and you know I had to call that crap out quickly.

Knowing your history is never a 'waste of time' as this person put it.  It is a vital component of not only building community, but building pride in being a trans person and tracking the progress of our movement in changing the culture..

Knowing who was the first documented trans person to be elected to a state legislature (Althea Garrison, 1992), or the first out trans person to have a New York Times best selling memoir (Janet Mock) is important not only for trans elders to know, but to inspire our trans kids.

When you have elements of society trying to erase your very humanity, eviscerate your civil rights and violently erase your existence, you much do everything to build self esteem and pride in your trans youth so they don't lose hope and start feeling that their only way our is to commit suicide

Knowing that we have trans people who have and are making history, are making positive contributions to society and are doing so today  is critical.in building the self esteem and pride that not only builds community, it is a factor in helping reduce suicide rates.

So yes, historical trans firsts are important and necessary to track and remember not only here in the US, but around the world.
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Congratulations On Making History Again, Fran!

It's been a history making 2016 already for attorney and human rights advocate Fran Watson, who is the current president of the Houston LGBT Political Caucus among the other things she's a part of in H-town.

Fran not only became the first African-American woman to hold the position back in January, the native Houstonian was also honored this year with a proclamation by Mayor Sylvester Turner declaring January 27 as Fran Watson Day!

Last night Fran made some more local LGBT history by becoming the first African-American woman in 23 years elected to be a Houston Pride Parade Female Grand Marshal and only the second ever..

The Rev. Carolyn Mobley was the first African-American female Houston Pride Grand Marshal, and she accomplished that feat back in 1993.

In the 2016 Female Grand Marshal race there were two additional outstanding candidates in Lynette Ross and Melissa Vivanco, so it was a tough choice for peeps voting this year..  

That was also the case in the Male Grand Marshal race in which Lou Weaver was vying to become the first ever trans masculine Grand Marshal, and Brad Pritchett and Paul Guillory were also running for it.  .

We've had two trans feminine ones in Phyllis Frye and Jenifer Rene Pool.

Brad Odom was elected 2016 Grand Marshal Male and in another tough choice race for 2016 Grand Marshal Ally, Dena Gray was elected over another deserving nominee in former HISD school board trustee Juliet. Stipeche.

Houston Pride Week will be June 19-26, with the Pride Festival and parade for the second consecutive year in Downtown Houston.


TransGriot Note:  photo of Fran by Eric Edward Schell

Mya Taylor Makes Some Movie History

While the Oscars broadcast and the people nominated for the awards will be melanin free, there are other awards shows that are far more diverse than the whitewashed Oscars.

Was excited to find out that Tangerine actress Mya Taylor picked up an Independent Spirit Award for her performance as Alexandra in that independent film that was considered Oscar worthy but unfortunately was snubbed by the Academy for consideration.

Taylor made a little trans history when she picked up that award for Best Supporting Female. She's probably the first out trans person to do so and noted in her acceptance speech that Hollywood needs to expand opportunities for trans actors.

 

Congratulations Mya!  Hope the award results in more acting opportunities coming not only your way, but for all trans actors.

Say Hello To UK Judge Dr. Victoria McCloud

We have two trans judges here in the United States in Victoria Kolakowski of California and Houston's own Phyllis Frye, and Canada's first one in Kael McKenzie in Manitoba.

Was pleased to discover that across The Pond in the UK, we now have a trans judge sitting on the bench there in Dr. Victoria McCloud.

She has declined to speak publicly about her history making status, but she is at age 46 the youngest person to ever become a High Court Master judge and has presided over some high profile cases since her appointment in 2010.. .

While she may be reluctant to talk about it, a British judiciary spokesperson told the Daily Mail that 'British courts have an increasingly diverse workforce, and now judges come from all walks of life reflecting society in general.'

The British courts finally reflect one segment of British society in the transgender community, and by doing so, may be inspiring the next generation of British trans kids to dream big and follow those dream..

30th Anniversary Of Challenger Disaster

Today is the 30th anniversary of the space shuttle Challenger disaster.   It ,exploded 73 seconds after it was launched from Cape Canaveral on a chilly January 28, 1986 winter day with a large live TV audience of schoolchildren looking on in horror.

One of the people who was part of that Challenger crew on that STS-51L mission was Sharon Christa McAuliffe, a Concord, NH schoolteacher who was set to become the first civilian launched into space and was going to once the shuttle got into orbit do some teaching from space.

But that broadcast never happened.  The collapse of the external fuel tank caused an explosion that broke the shuttle apart and sent the crew cabin in a fall from 46,000 feet altitude to the Atlantic Ocean below that killed all seven crew members.

The mission crew that perished that day were Mission Specialist Ellison Onizuka, Teacher In Space Christa McAuliffe, Payload Specialist Greg Jarvis, Mission Specialist Judy Resnik, Pilot Mike Smith, Mission commander Dick Scobee, and Mission Specialist Ron McNair.

Like the 1963 Kennedy assassination or the September 2001 terror attacks, people of my generation and who were kids watching the launch in their classrooms across the nation remember what they were doing when it happened at 10:39 AM CST.

I was getting ready for a job interview, and my space junkie self had forgotten for a moment that the launch was happening after two prior postponements.   So I flipped the TV on CNN and was listening to the commentary as I got dressed.

The CNN commentators hadn't mentioned the explosion at the time I turned on the television, and I said to myself, "'Damn, the way they're talking, something must have happened to the Challenger."

A few minutes later I would see the horrific video of that shuttle launch gone horribly wrong.  The shuttles were grounded for nearly three years as NASA and the Rogers Commission sought to find out what happened and make the necessary corrections to the shuttle's design to make it safer.

It was later determined that the cold snap that affected the Cape Canaveral area plus a design flaw in one of the solid rocket boosters combined with violations of NASA launch procedures and protocols caused the accident.

As President Ronald Reagan said in his speech to the nation that night, "The future doesn't belong to the faint-hearted; it belongs to the brave.  The Challenger crew was pulling us into the future and we'll continue to follow them."

And may the souls of the Challenger 7 continue to rest in power and peace, and inspire this generation and future ones to continue to look to the stars.

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It's Now Mayor Sylvester Turner!

While the public inauguration won't happen until Monday, the Houston City Charter mandates that all elected offices start their terms on January 2.

So that means that our new mayor, controller and city council members were at a small City Hall ceremony today to take the oaths of office and officially be sworn in.

Sylvester Turner, after resigning from the state legislative seat yesterday he has held since 1988, took the oath of office to become our 62nd mayor.  

The public inauguration will take place at Jones Hall starting at 9:30 AM, and will be televised.  It's free, and the Jones Hall box office opens at 8:15 to pass out tickets for the historic ceremony.

I say historic because Mayor Turner, while being the second African-American elected to the Houston mayor's chair, is the first African-American native Houstonian to be elected mayor.  It also puts Houston on a small list of cities that has elected more than one African-American mayor

It was a long time coming for Mayor Turner and is well deserved.  It also keeps the streak alive of Houston mayor's chair being occupied by a Democrat for the last 30 years, which is why the Tea Klux Klan was meddling in our mayoral election business.

Once again, thank you to the Fort Bend County portion of Houston for ensuring their plan failed and we got this man sitting in the horseshoe.

And oh yeah, looking forward to watching the inauguration to see if Ben Hall's transphobic behind will show up..

Happy Bisexual Awareness Week 2015!

Unfortunately I had to come back to Houston before the White House Bisexual Policy Briefing happened on Monday. but if you weren't aware of it. this is the second annual Bisexual Awareness Week.

It started on Sunday and #biweek is running through September 26.  Bisexual Awareness Week is a series of events around the country and online designed for the bi community and its allies to get to know the 'B' in LGBTQ better and realize there is a reason it's in the alphabet soup designation that covers our entire community.  

"Despite comprising more than half of the lesbian, gay, and bisexual population, bisexual people are only about one third as likely to be out to their close friends and family," said Heron Greenesmith, LGBT Movement and Policy Analyst at the Movement Advancement Project. "As shown in our new infographic, two-thirds of bisexual people report hearing negative comments at work and bisexual people are more likely to report negative health outcomes."

And FYI, some bi peeps are proud Black folks, too.

It's a natural outgrowth of Celebrate Bisexuality Day, that is celebrated annually on September 23 and was created in 1999 by activists Gigi Raven Wilbur, Wendy Curry and Michael Page as a way to combat the invisibility our bisexual brothers and sisters have to grapple with.

On September 23, 2013 the first ever White House bisexuality issues roundtable was held, and the 2015 roundtable as I mentioned earlier, took place on Monday.

Said BiNet USA president Faith Cheltenham, "In a world increasingly acknowledging the complexity of human sexuality, including bisexuality and sexual fluidity, BiNet USA is thrilled to support a national conversation that accelerates the cultural acceptance of our community," said Faith Cheltenham, President of BiNet USA. "This year's awareness week has garnered unprecedented support from lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) organizations who are committed to amplifying the voices of bisexual people, who are often rendered invisible in the media and public spheres."

Happy Bisexual Awareness Week!  Here's hoping that it is one which continues to grow, does its job in ending bisexual media invisibility, educates us about the bisexual community and contributes mightily to the reduction and eventual elimination of the issues that bi people face.

14th Anniversary of 9-11 Terror Attacks

Today is the 14th anniversary of the 2001 coordinated  terror attacks launched by 19 al-Qaeda operatives predominately from Saudi Arabia against the World Trade Center Towers in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington DC, and the crash of United Flight 93 that was destined for another target suspected to be the US Capitol building but crashed in southeastern Pennsylvania as the passengers on that airplane attempted to overpower the attackers.

3000 people were killed in the attackers including the al-Qaeda operatives.   I was awake on that fateful morning and saw the second plane hit the south tower on live TV along with their collapse nearly two hours later.

On that site in New York is not only a memorial to those attacks, but a new World Trade Center building that  rises 1776 feet about the city.

There were also ceremonies in New York an Washington DC marking the 14th anniversary of those attacks.




Remembering and honoring all the lives that were lost on that day and may they rest in power.

Moni's Thoughts On The 35th Anniversary Of The Houston Anti-Crossdressing Ordinance Repeal

I, wanted to post this on the anniversary date, but with all the breaking news that week, slipped my mind I needed to finish my thoughts about what this August 12, 1980 anniversary date meant to me as a trans Houstonian who graduated from high school three months before the odious ordinance died 

This ordinance was hated not only by the Houston trans community but by the Houston lesbian community and the drag community as well.

Little did I know that when I stepped outside dressed as moi in June 1980, anytime I stepped inside Studio 13 and sat in the audience watching a show or was just hanging out in Montrose en femme prior to that date, I was violating Section 28-42.4 of the city’s Code of Ordinances, AKA the Houston Anti-Crossdressing Ordinance that was the harassment weapon of choice for HPD their aimed at the Houston TBLG community at the time.

I'd seen Anne Mayes and coverage of her fight in the early 70's to not be harassed by Herman Short's HPD oppressors on the local news, and it was my first inkling that there was a name for what I was feeling at the time as a pre-teenager. 

Anne after her genital surgery and a 1978 Houston Chronicle interview dropped out of sight in the Houston trans community.  I wish I could tell her thank you for standing up for me and future generations of trans Houstonians who received the blessing of not knowing what it was like to go to jail for simply wanting to put on the clothes that matched who we are as people.

I would also love to talk to her simply to get a taste of what the late 60's- early 70's were like for trans historical purposes.

I wouldn't meet Judge Phyllis Frye until a decade and a half later, but she at that time had been working for three and a half years to kill that ordinance to make it easier for hers, mine and future generations of trans Houstonians to be able to walk the streets without being messed with by HPD.

I also wasn't aware of it until much later that our paths crossed while I was a UH freshman and she was at the UH law school working on her law degree. 

When she accomplished that on August 12, 1980 I was still working on my census enumerator summer job and wasn't aware that the lobbying work she was doing at City Hall would have such a ginormous impact.

It's also fitting to revisit this seeing that we have an ongoing attempt by a transphobe to inject anti-trans hatred into our city charter.

So Houston trans younglings, the next time y'all go out, you drag artists get or stage, or you lesbians decide you wish to wear a pair of jeans while out and about, say thank you to Phyllis, Anne and Rita Wanstrom   who enabled you to do so.