Buzbee Pimps Transphobia In The Houston Mayoral Runoff

Looks like Tony Buzbee is getting desperate on the eve of the Houston municipal runoff election tomorrow.

He didn't get as many votes as he thought he would on Election Day or from the early voting phase that concluded on December 10, and is now resorting to transphobia to try to win. 

Why am I not shocked that he's playing that game since he was endorsed by long time Houston gaybaiter Steven Hotze?

Buzbee tried to claim when he was at the Pride Forum held at Texas Southern University back on August 2 that he was in favor of HERO 2.0 and would be a mayor for all people.  He also tried to bash Mayor Turner during that forum by claiming that the mayor didn't listen to the LGBT Advisory Board.

Unfortunately for him I and LGBT Advisory Board Chair Harrison Homer Guy were in the room, and we promptly blew up that lie in real time.. 

These mailers started appearing at the homes of many Houstonians across the city, including my mother, who alerted me this morning she'd received it and wasn't happy about it.



The mailers make references to the HERO repeal debunked 'men in women's bathrooms' talking point and Drag Queen Story Time, which is actually on hiatus at this time.

Buzbee is getting called out for his transphobic political Hail Mary by a wide variety of local and state groups, including Black Trans Women Inc (BTWI) the Transgender Education Network of Texas (TENT), and the Houston GLBT Caucus.

“This mailer is additionally disturbing in light of the fact that Texas has unfortunately led the nation in anti-trans homicides. Two of the four trans Texans we lost in 2019 were from Houston. To see trans women being vilified and misrepresented by a candidate running for mayor in the most diverse and fourth largest city in this country to score political points is a shameful day in Houston’s history.” said Diamond Collier, Interim Executive Director of Black Transwomen Inc.

"Gone are the days where constituents are silenced and forced to live through inconsistency in our elected public servants dedication to our needs. WE SEE YOU AND WE VOTE! Demeaning narratives that perpetuate an already exacerbated hate within our community fortifies systematic and cultural disenfranchisement of our demographic. It leads to unsheltered people without homes. It leaded to workforce discrimination which we don’t have protection from. It leads to us not trusting you to do when we would be electing you to do which is to represent of the most marginalized people in this community as well as the privileged. Undignified narrative about trans people, immigrants, black people, poor people or women is not the direction leaders should be going for the future,

BTWI President Dee Watters added. "As a native Houstonian, it is irritating and disgusting to once again see a political candidate attempt to deploy transphobia and homophobia for their personal electoral gain in a municipal election. Spreading this ugly rhetoric has real-world consequences that the Black trans community will have to deal with long after Election Day has passed." The Houston GLBT Caucus stated, "Tony Buzbee's latest mailer ad is a grotesque anti-transgender charade, in an attempt to pander to his conservative base. We cannot let this kind of blatant, bigoted mindset into City Hall."

Emmett Schelling, the Executive Director of TENT stated,“LGBTQ Houstonians are part of this diverse city that we are all exceedingly proud of, and we urge all Houstonians to reject the false message that the Buzbee campaign is trying to send.”

If you haven't voted yet, you have a chance to send your own message and reject the transphobic bigotry that Buzbee is trying to peddle. 

Voting for the runoff election starts at 7 AM tomorrow and runs until 7 PM in 350 voting centers across Houston and the Fort Bend County portion of Houston.

If you don't know who to vote for, here are my TransGriot Municipal Election endorsements.

But by all means, we cannot afford to have a this transphobe in the most powerful mayoral seat in the country.

     

Don Lemon Is Right- We Need A Conversation In Black America About TBLGQ Issues

“Because apologizing and moving on doesn’t make the world a better place for people who are gay or people who are transgender. Being an ally does.”-Don Lemon 

From time to time I have put Don Lemon on blast on these electronic pages for fumbling on trans issues.  But since the Orange Fool has been in power, he has been on fire in terms of calling crap out on a wide range of subjects. 

Now, he is taking on Kevin Hart's recent appearance on Ellen and Hart's comments that he wasn't to move on from the conversation. 

Naw player, those of us in Black Trans, Bi and SGL World would submit that we have yet to even have this family discussion about transphobia and homophobia in Black World, and it needs to happen now. 

Black trans people definitely wish to have this family conversation because toxic masculinity and toxic transphobia are killing us. |

Here's Don Lemon's on point CNN commentary

Vinny, You May Wish To Keep Fallon's Name Out Of Your Transphobic Mouth

There are some folks in MMA who sure do love to talk shyt and call my homegirl Fallon Fox's name in vain don't they? 

This time another MMA fighter recently did so, and Fallon was nowhere near the cage in question when it happened.

It started when women's MMA fighter Julianna Pena made her UFC debut in Fairfax, VA Saturday against Russia's Milena Dudieva.

Pena spent a year on the sidelines rehabbing from a January 2014 freak training accident injury in which she tore the ACL, MCL, LCL and meniscus in her right knee.

The 25 year old Pena is not a fan of undefeated UFC bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey  and has become increasingly vocal about wanting to fight her and take the championship belt from Rousey.

She took her first steps toward making that happen by taking Dudieva out in a brutally efficient first round 3:59 TKO.

In the wake of that MMA butt kicking 'The Venezuelan Vixen' administered to Dudieva that took her record to 6-2, Brazilian MMA fighter Vinny Magalhaes tweeted a transphobic and tasteless comment in which he called Pena 'Fallon Fox' .


When peeps started calling him out on Twitter about it, Magalhaes deleted the tweet and unleashed homophobic comments at his Twitter critics.   But as we all know, the Internet is forever, which is why I have it on this post.

This is also a prime example of how transphobia doesn't just affect trans women, but also affects cisgender women.  Far too often transphobia is aimed at cisgender women of color, and especially cisgender women of color athletes who have their femininity attacked.

Naw Vinny, I didn't appreciate that transphobic crap at all in attacking the femininity of another WMMA fighter of color in Julianna Pena and thinking bringing Fallon's name in it was funny.

It wasn't, and you need to apologize to not only Ms. Pena and Ms. Fox, but women athletes in general who hear that misgendering crap far too often.

And Vinny, keep Fallon's name out of your transphobic mouth, unless it's a call for UFC to stop stalling and sign my 5-1 WMMA fighting sis to a UFC contract.

B-Daht Bounced From WSSU Announcer Duties

You'll recall back in April when Chevara Orrin, Jane Vaughn and We Are Straight Allies brought to my attention the over the top bias, homophobia and transmisogyny being aimed at openly gay Winston Salem State University student Aaron McCorkle.  

He was running for Mr. WSSU at the time and photos of him dressed in feminine attire were maliciously released in an attempt to derail his campaign. 

Popular 102 Jamz DJ, WSSU alum and announcer Brian 'B-Daht' McLaughlin then poured gasoline on the situation with a series of homophobic tweets.  While McLaughlin eventually apologized for the tweets, McCorkle accepted that apology for them, the damage was done and McCorkle lost the Mr. WSSU election.

In the wake of this kerfluffle, WSSU has indicated that cultural competency training will be offered.  Orrin, Vaughn and allies continue to push WSSU to add gender identity to the school's non-discrimination policy and implement the Safe Zone program campus wide.    

As for McLaughlin, after a 10 year tenure as the PA announcer for WSSU Ram football and basketball games that started in his junior year at the school, McLaughlin was fired as the announcer for WSSU athletics.

Bigotry has a cost

Majic 102 Does The Haters Dirty Work For Them

KMJQ-FM aka Majic102 has been the longtime R&B station on our local FM radio dial since 1978.

It is owned by the African-American owned Radio One corporation, and has long been a Top 5 Arbitron rated station in the Houston radio market. 


Majic 102 since 2000 has been the local host station for the syndicated Tom Joyner Morning Show and Rev Al Sharpton's Sunday morning talk radio show.   So when the anti-HERO commercials started running in heavy rotation on its airwaves Sunday I was surprised and disappointed about it. 

But yesterday Majic 102 irresponsibly posted a story on their website about the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance by Robert Washington with the inflammatory and transphobic headline ' Mayor Parker Promotes Ordinance To Allow Men In Women's Restrooms (Your Thoughts) from a 'christian' website. 

And as you probably guessed, the predictable bigot eruptions and ignorance ensued in the comment threads.
   
It was an avalanche of transphobic negativity and derogatory phobic comments aimed at Mayor Parker in that comment thread, with logic and reason taking a backseat to fearmongering and over the top ignorance.  .

Never mind the fact the bathroom predator meme has been pimped by the anti-HERO forces since the proposed human rights law was introduced April 30 and has been widely debunked for the conservalie it is.

It's problematic that Majic 102 would link to an anti-HERO website that plays into the 'fear and smear'  anti-trans hatred continually propagated by the opponents of this much needed ordinance in this entire HERO debate.   I guess you forgot some of the Houston area African-American listeners KMJQ-FM targets are also members of the LGBT community who have been negatively affected by anti-TBLG discrimination in the Houston area that the HERO is designed to address.

We have also been affected by the faux faith-based hate speech coming from the opponents who are depressingly African-American ministers, and you added to that problem.. 

I guess it has escaped your attention Majic 102 that African-Americans are part of the team fighting hard for passage of this much needed human rights law.   The HERO has the support of the NAACP, the Urban League, 85% of the Houston African American community in a recent poll and various African-American local, state and federal legislators.

It also saddens and infuriates me Majic 102 that as a Radio One station, you have placed yourself on the wrong side of Houston history and human rights.   You promoted by linking to that problematic post long discredited bathroom predator lies that emerge every time human rights legislation is proposed that will protect the transgender community.   

As someone whose late father worked in this radio market for 35 years, I have an intimate knowledge of what the power of radio can do.  It can inspire people to be better politically aware human beings or can be negatively used to demonize oppressed folks by the tyranny of the majority  

Majic 102 unfortunately has veered down the opposite path over the last two days.   

KMJQ-FM, you owe the Houston transgender and SGL community an apology along with giving us an opportunity to debunk the bathroom predator lies either on-air or by posting an article on your website rebutting the problematic one.  

Not holding my breath that either one of those will happen.

 

Handling My HERO Business

For the longest time one of my fondest wishes as a Houston based activist was that one day I would get to be part of the team that would help wipe Houston's name off the human rights list of shame and pass a trans inclusive human rights act.

Well, be careful what you wish for, because it can happen and sooner than you expect.

That moment of participating in the Houston human rights fight that I've been thinking about since 1998 is here. 

The TransGriot,  Dee Dee Watters and many of our  Houston LGBT community members, activists, clergy, friends and supporters showed up at City Hall in force for the 2 PM CDT hearing on our proposed Houston Equal Rights Ordinance that spilled over into adjacent viewing rooms.  

It was a hearing of the Quality of Life Committee chaired by Councilmember Ellen Cohen in which the only item on the menu was the HERO and it took place in a packed City Council chamber.  

After City Attorney Dave Feldman laid out the case for the HERO and city council members had the chance to comment on it pro and con, the fun began around 3:20 PM.    I knew I was going to have a long wait because by the time I got to City Hall and signed in to speak the list was up to five pages.

This is what I said in a earlier post about my assessment of what I thought the haters were going to do before I even left the house for City Hall:

I'm expecting our Pastor's Council haters to be there in full effect bearing false witness and pimping their usual lies of how this will 'stifle their free speech',  'suppress their religious freedom' and fling the bathroom meme for good measure.

Can I call it or what?   They went to City Hall in full 'fear and smear' mode.  But I did forgot one of their attack lines.  They also threw the 'sexual predator' meme out there while whining about being called haters and bigots. 


Well, Houston Pastor's Council conservafools and kneegrow auxiliaries, read my lips:  If you don't want to be called haters, oppressors and bigots the cure for it is simple.  Stop acting like haters, oppressors and bigots and we'll stop calling you out on that inconvenient for you truth.       

But what really disappointed me today (but wasn't surprising) was seeing that cluster of African-American pastors eagerly playing the role of oppressors and bearing false witness on an oppressed community as some of the women mouthed not so silent amens.  

The thing also pissing me off today was the erasure of me and LGBT African-American Houstonians as they were throwing their 'smear and fear' attacks and their selective memories concerning the history of the Civil Rights Movement.  I have two words for you faith based know nothings trying to pimp the lie we don't have any claim as African-American LGBT people to the legacy of our civil rights movement:  Bayard Rustin .  

The Civil Rights Movement history is MY history too, and how dare you try to lie and say it isn't as you tried to do in city council chambers today.  . 

And there were times I had to literally leave the chamber and vent because I was so pissed off at those crimes against history. 

Note to the Houston African-American haters.  BTLG people of African descent exist who get discrimination aimed at them from multiple intersections.   We are also just as down with fighting for the issues that impact our community as my appearance at HISD headquarters to fight the closure of schools in our neighborhoods and last summer's Trayvon Martin rally on the steps of City Hall are ample testament to.  

You can deny it all you want, but African-American LGBT people are part of the kente cloth fabric of our community, and it's past time you stopped slumming with the children and grandchildren of segregationists and recognize that.   

It was close to 6 PM before I got the chance to finally approach the podium for the third time this year and speak.   Since I only had 90 seconds, all I had time to do was call out the hate pastors and point out that trans, bi and SGL African-American exist with multiple oppressions aimed at our bodies.  

The hearing concluded after 7 PM, but this was just the warm up.  

The battle to pass the HERO is about to ratchet up another level with two more public hearings before we get to the final city council vote sometime in mid May.

TransGriot Update: Final tally of the speakers at yesterday's HERO hearing was 49 in favor and 19 against.  That means we also had more human rights minsters than hate minsters speaking..  

San Antonio Councilmember Elisa Chan's Transphobia and Homophobia Revealed

Well, well, well.  More interesting and revolting developments as San Antonio heads toward a September 5 vote on adding sexual orientation and gender identity to their revised non-discrimination ordinance.  

It's also giving you an example of what your LGBT brothers and sisters here in the Alamo City are dealing with as they fight to have their human rights codified into law. 

Elisa Chan, one of the San Antonio council members who is a firm NO (for now) on this proposed non-discrimination ordinance revealed her true feelings about TBLG people in this May 21 meeting at her City Hall office with members of her staff.  They were discussing the city's proposal to update its nondiscrimination ordinance by adding protections for sexual orientation and gender identity and their political responses to it..

James Stevens, one of her now former staff members was secretly taping the meeting on his cellphone (thank God)  He handed the recording to San Antonio Express-News reporter Brian Chasnoff who compiled and broke the story that I linked to in the previous paragraph. 

Bigotry, transphobia and homophobia is bad enough. When you have a public official with the power to vote on and write legislation expressing that kind of anti-TBLG hate, it's worse. 

Hope Councilmember Chan when she comes back from her 'pre-planned vacation' takes some time to ponder her jacked up attitudes and uses this September 5 vote as an opportunity to change her ways.  If not, may she get the electoral butt kicking she so richly deserves when San Antonio has their next round of civic elections and never hold public office in San Antonio, Bexar County or the state of Texas ever again.    

That's my take from my end of I-10.  Mayor Julian Castro (D) also commented on Councilmember Chan's bigotry.  

"Councilwoman Chan's misinformed, hurtful views do not reflect the views of the overwhelming majority of San Antonians. Ours is a city that respects and welcomes all people," Mayor Julian Castro (D) said in a KSAT-TV interview. "This attitude is precisely why we have to pass a nondiscrimination ordinance."

Okay, it's on like Donkey Kong now.  Here's the CAUSA Change.org petition in favor of the ordinance that they need to reach 5000 signatures on before September 5. 

Please consider calling or e-mailing the San Antonio City Council and urge then to pass the revision including gender identity and sexual orientation.   In the wake of this I hope Councilmember Ivy Taylor is considering being a drum majorette for justice instead of an oppressor like Elisa Chan has revealed herself to be. 

And now, to help you understand why its necessary to do this, here's Elisa Chan's TBLG bigotry unplugged 

Arrest Made In Racially Charged Denardo Pizzeria Attack Case

On June 23 there was a 3:15 AM EDT incident in a Washington DC pizzeria in the 1800 block of 14th St. NW that went viral due to it being filmed and posted on three websites and briefly on YouTube.

It started when 28 year old Raymone Harding and 22 year old Rachel Manna Sahle of Gaithersburg, MD started making fun of drag queen Miles Denardo's makeup as he entered the Manny & Olga's location to pick up food after performing at the Black Cat nightclub in the same block under his Heidi Glum performance name.

It escalated into a heated argument in which epithets were exchanged, one of the women is alleged to have slapped Denardo, Denardo is alleged to have spit in the face of one of the women and egged on by an unidentified patron, resulted in a fight in which Denardo was punched by Harding and Sahle while being dragged across the floor of the take out pizzeria by his hair as bystanders laughed and cheered.   

Elements of the Washington DC and national LGBT community decried the attack in which the 'faggot' and 'tranny' slurs were deployed by the women against Denardo.  The African American end of the trans and SGL community were not too happy (myself included) about Denardo tweeting the n-word in the aftermath of it and the LGBT social media bigot eruptions that ensued aiming racial animus at Harding and Sahle.

There's also the problematic point of the HIV positive Denardo admitting to spitting in the face of one of the women and claiming they now had HIV.

If a person is HIV positive and deliberately spits in the direction of another person or bites them, in some states that is considered assault with a deadly weapon.  

On Tuesday police arrested Harding and charged her with misdemeanor simple assault in the ugly incident which is still under investigation by DC Metro Police. 

The misdemeanor simple assault charge carries a maximum six month jail sentence and/or a $1000 fine.

Sahle filed a police report the night of the June 23 incident accusing Denardo of biting her on the thigh and telling her 'now you have AIDS'.  

Denardo is claiming self defense for the felony aggravated assault charge that carries a maximum 10 year jail sentence,

He asserts in a Washington Blade interview that he had no choice but to bite her in order to get her to release the grip she had on his hair.   He also denies saying that she now has AIDS when the tape of the incident does capture him saying precisely that.

There's enough wrong to go around on both sides.  And as the conventional wisdom goes when you have two conflicting sides of a story, the truth is somewhere in the middle.  

It will be up to federal prosecutors in the District to sort out where the facts are and who is telling the truth in this convoluted and racially charged case.   


TransGriot Update: Rachel Manna Sahle was also arrested. charged with misdemeanor simple assault and released along with Harding after both women plead not guilty in DC Superior Court.
Both are scheduled for misdemeanor initial status hearings on September 5, ordered to take drug tests and stay away from Denardo.  

Second Annual Nike LGBT Sports Summit Happening This Weekend

The first half of 2013 has seen some interesting and dramatic events happening in the world of sports from a TBLG perspective with the coming outs of NBA baller Jason Collins, WNBA rookie ball player Brittney Griner, women's MMA fighter Fallon Fox and soccer player Robbie Rogers.

Rogers later became the first openly gay player to join an MLS team when he signed with the LA Galaxy. 

It has seen NFL players Chris Kluwe and Brendon Ayanbadejo boldly speak up as allies for the TBLG community on marriage equality and other issues of importance to the community.

It has also seen in the first half of this year some positive and especially in Fallon Fox's case viciously negative commentary and epic ignorance spew forth from people inside and outside the sports world in reaction to those events.

This weekend in Portland, OR the second annual Nike LGBT Sports Summit commenced on June 12 and ends today with the lofty goal of eliminating anti-trans and anti-gay bias in sports by 2016.

The summit is sponsored by Nike and organized by Outsports blog founder Cyd Zeigler, the National Center for Lesbian Rights Sports Project Director Helen Carroll and LGBT sports pioneer Pat Griffin. 

One of the people who is on the scene this weekend from our community is Kye Allums.

Also attending the LGBT Sports Summit are college and professional athletes, coaches, athletic administrators, political figures, LGBT advocates, journalists and allies along with representatives from GLAAD, the United States Olympic Committee, GLSEN, the NCAA, Athlete Ally, USA Wrestling, You Can Play; Campus Pride; StandUp Foundation; Equality Coaching Alliance, the Federation of Gay Games and ESPN.

The attendees are there to form the LGBT Sports Coalition, an umbrella org that will have as its mission formulating the strategies necessary to achieve the goal of eliminating anti-trans and antigay bias in sport by 2016. 

While there has been some amazing progress in letting our people play sports over the last few years, it's clear we have a long way to go to bust stereotypes and eliminate bigotry in the collegiate, professional and international sporting ranks.

The Nike Sports Summit is a step forward toward accomplishing that Herculean task.

Callie Thorne's GLSEN PSA

I'm a big fan of the USA network show Necessary Roughness that follows the exploits of psychologist Dr Dani Santino.  She works with the fictional New York Hawks football team to help the players sort out their personal problems while trying to sort out the complications in her own post divorce life with teenage kids,

In a two part story arc season finale, one of the Hawks players will come out of the closet and we get to see that unfold and how it impacts the team, especially when the player coming out is the team's quarterback.

Callie Thorne, who plays Dr. Dani, taped this PSA for GLSEN that aired during the broadcast of the show.

NC 'Pastor' Calls For Final Solution To The LGBT Problem

If you thought I was kidding when I said this is the most pivotal election in American history and you people who call yourselves liberal-progressives need to be running to the polls to vote a straight Democratic ticket, peep the following video. 

The Conservafundies in North Carolina are basking in the glow of victory after the unjust Amendment One's passage, and they are letting the homophobic and transphobic faith-based hate flow

Pastor Charles Worley of Maiden, NC was channeling his inner Nazi last Sunday and has some ideas about what to do with all those pesky GLBT people demanding human rights coverage in 'their' America.






I guess for his next sermon he'll have David Bahati flown in from Uganda to pimp their idea for a 'Kill The Gays' bill.

Okay, you just called for genocide.  Maybe that's okay by conservagod, but not the Lord and Savior and the God I worship.as a Christian.

Take it away Martin Bashir and Anthea Butler.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

2012 International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia

Today is IDAHOT Day, and the acronym stands for International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia.

It happens every May 17 and is marked with events around the world that call attention to homophobia and transphobia, salute those who work tirelessly to fight for TBLG rights in our various nations  from our planet and give our allies an opportunity to express their support for the trans, bi, lesbian and gay brothers and sisters.. 

It's a lofty goal but is one that sadly the human race is a long way from achieving as evidenced in the United States.

In just the first five months of this year alone we've witnessed the passage of the unjust Amendment One in North Carolina, a Republican congressman openly stating it should be legal to discriminate against TBLG people, transwomen of color being murdered at alarming rates and no one really caring about it and a major newspaper in the New York Times ignoring the AP Stylebook guidelines on respectfully reporting about trans people and refusing to retract a transphobic story penned about Lorena Escalera's tragic death in a suspicious fire.

While my nation hasn't been living up to the words of the Constitution as it applies to trans and GL Americans, I and others will continue to insist that they do and will not rest until the words 'We the People' also include trans, bi, gay and lesbian people too. 

Well, what better time than today to get started than on IDAHOT doing the work necessary towards  achieving that goal?  Because it's glaringly evident in the United States and elsewhere around this planet we have a lot of work to do to eliminate the scourges of homophobia and transphobia from our planet.

Happy IDAHOT 2012 people.

Pastor Sean Harris Advocates Beating The Gay Away

Guest Post From Renee of Womanist Musings

Next week there will be a vote on Amendment 1, which would add a ban on gay marriage to North Carolina's constitution.  Filled with false righteousness and determined to influence the decision, Pastor Sean Harris of Berean Baptist Church in Fayetteville, took to his pulpit to advocate strict adherence to the gender binary, and compulsory heterosexuality for all children.  For this bigot, conformity begins in the home and to ensure that children are properly abused, Harris even go as far as to suggest that fathers should punch their sons.

So your little son starts to act a little girlish when he is four years old and instead of squashing that like a cockroach and saying, "Man up, son, get that dress off you and get outside and dig a ditch, because that is what boys do." You get out the camera, and you start taking pictures of Johnny acting like a female, and then you upload it to YouTube, and everybody laughs about it, and the next thing you know, this dude, this kid, is acting out childhood fantasies that should have been squashed.

Shaming a four year old child for expression is disgusting.  It had me thinking about an incident I had about a month ago in which a parent decided to inform me that I was going to make my youngest son Mayhem gay, by allowing him to wear nail polish and encouraging his love of dancing. As you might well imagine, the conversation did not go well for the bigot.  What Pastor Harris is advocating is so incredibly emotionally harmful for children.  Kids should be free to explore who they are in a safe environment without constantly being policed, and if they do happen to be GLBT kids, no amount of forced conformity is going to change that.  All you are teaching your child is that hate is acceptable, and that you don't believe in unconditional love.

Can I make it any clearer? Dads, the second you see your son dropping the limp wrist, you walk over there and crack that wrist. Man up. Give him a good punch. Ok? "You are not going to act like that. You were made by God to be a male and you are going to be a male."

 So, if ordering a change in behaviour does not work, it's okay to be violent with a child.  I hope to heaven that this man does not have any children. As a pastor, he is supposed to minister to his flock and tend to the weak and defenseless, and instead he is using his power to do the exact opposite.  What ever happened to love one another as I have loved you? No, it's only more violence in the name of God and parental rights.

Can I make it any clearer? Dads, the second you see your son dropping the limp wrist, you walk over there and crack that wrist. Man up. Give him a good punch. Ok? "You are not going to act like that. You were made by God to be a male and you are going to be a male."

Once again, Harris is preaching the gender binary as though it is not a pure construction of society.  There is no specific way to be a man.  Gay men don't stop being male when they become aware of their sexuality. The very fact that he could advocate punching a child tells me that he has no conscience, and no respect for anyone who isn't exactly like him.  This kind of attitude, is what is behind the suicides of gay teens across North America.  Harris isn't preaching the gospel, he is using hate speech to promote genocide as far as I am concerned.

And when your daughter starts acting too butch you reign her in. And you say, "Oh, no, sweetheart. You can play sports. Play them to the glory of God. But sometimes you are going to act like a girl and walk like a girl and talk like a girl and smell like a girl and that means you are going to be beautiful. You are going to be attractive. You are going to dress yourself up."

I guess it's nice to see that he is an equal opportunity bigot. Girls can play sports everyone, they just have to remember to make themselves pretty on a regular basis.  Really?  All women are good for are their appearance and their ability to please men?   If it weren't so disgustingly sad, I would laugh.

You say, "Can I take charge like that as a parent?"
Yeah, you can. You are authorized. I just gave you a special dispensation this morning to do that.

Right, his hatred makes him so powerful that he can give a dispensation over ruling the law of the land. This is beyond arrogance.  Children aren't our possessions even though they are vulnerable and dependent on us to take care of them.  If anything, their vulnerability and innocence makes us responsible for caring for them and respecting them as little people.

From start to finish this man has advocated strict adherence to the gender binary, compulsory heterosexuality and child abuse. When I look at him, I don't see a man of God, but a hate filled angry bigot with too much power and less common sense then God gave cabbage.  Attitudes like this are exactly why I no longer belong to any form of organized religion.  I feel that it is a stain upon Christ's teachings to advocate hate instead of loving thy neighbor.  I don't believe any loving God would advocate harming another in this fashion.

CeCe McDonald Hearing Tomorrow

The struggle to free CeCe McDonald, who 'stood her ground' after she and her group of Black gay and trans friends were subjected to racist, transphobic and homophobic slurs and then attacked by white supremacists while walking past a bar in Minneapolis will play out in a court pretrial hearing tomorrow at 9 AM CDT.

The pressure is mounting on Hennepin County attorneys to drop the charges as this case gets additional international scrutiny and attention.   There is also a Support CeCe McDonald online group that has sprung up with the goal of getting CeCe released as well..

If that doesn't happen during the pre-trial hearing tomorrow, the trial will start on April 30 and will probably last for up to two weeks.   If you live in the Twin Cities area and can come to the Hennepin County Government Center to support CeCe, please wear purple to demonstrate to the judges and supporters that the community has Cece's back.

Bigotry Wrapped In Prayer Is Still Bigotry

This picture says it all doesn't it?  

Bigotry wrapped in prayer is still bigotry no matter how much you.try to wrap in in the flag, come up with specious 'love the sinner but hate the sin' spin lines that don't appear as a single scripture anywhere in the Bible, or try to come up with some jacked up 'Hate Thy Neighbor' conservadoctrine to mask your power grab.

While you're saying prayers to get 2012 off to a spiritually cleansing good start, why don't you faith-based transphobes and homophobes say some prayers asking God to forgive you for bearing false witness against your fellow human beings in the 2K11?

Ponder that on your way to Sunday services this morning, faith-based haters

Oh yeah, have a blessed day and a blessed new year.. 

FIFA Needs To 'Say No To Transphobia/Homophobia', Too

Football, or soccer as we call it in the US, Canada and Australia is the world's most popular sport.  Its organizing body FIFA is charged with not only managing and growing the game, but dealing with the problems that crop up in conjunction with doing so.  

One of the blemishes on what is called 'the beautiful game' is racism and discrimination and FIFA has been on the forefront of combating the issue.   In 1961 it expelled South Africa from the organization for its apartheid policies, and thirty years later readmitted it when Nelson Mandela was released from prison and subsequently became president a few years later.

Racist incidents getting media attention in football venues combined with players increasingly leaving their home countries to play football in other nations prompted FIFA to convene a July 7, 2001 congress in Argentina to aggressively combat the twin problems of discrimination and racism in the sport. 

What came out of that congress is known in FIFA circles as the Buenos Aires Resolution.   In addition to denunciations of discrimination and racism by FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter, campaigns that involved the sports star players of both genders starting in 2002, the FIFA Executive Committee approved in 2004 a Code of Ethics that states "officials, players and players’ agents may not act in a discriminatory manner, especially with regard to ethnicity, race, culture, politics, religion, gender or language." 


When incidents of fans shouting racist epithets at non-white players started spiking up at football venues in Europe, in 2006 FIFA began a 'Say No To Racism' campaign that continues to this day.

FIFA President Blatter had to recently take himself to task and apologize when he made a December 2010 remark concerning future 2022 World Cup host Qatar that was perceived as homophobic and caused a firestorm of international criticism.

Blatter said gay fans should "refrain from sexual activity" if they go to Qatar for the 2022 World Cup, a country that criminalizes homosexual conduct.


In the wake of that unfortunate comment by President Blatter and Nigeria Super Falcon head coach Eucharia Uche admitting to the local Nigerian media she purged suspected lesbians off the national team and it controversially rearing its head at the Women's World Cup, maybe it is time for FIFA to initiate another campaign and boldly combat like they are doing with racism and discrimination, homophobia and transphobia in the beautiful game as well..  

Rampant homophobia has not only led to discriminatory actions such as Uche's, but the death of players from misguided people.

31 year old Eudy Simelane was a popular star player on the South African Banyana Banyana women's national team.   When she retired from international competition, she became the first woman in South Africa to be certified as a referee.

Simelane dreamed of one day officiating a World Cup match, but that unfortunately is not going to happen for her.  In April 2008 she was gang raped, brutally beaten, stabbed 25 times in the face, chest and legs and left to die just 200 meters from her home.  It was not only because of her non standard gender presentation, it was also because she was an out lesbian playing in a macho South Africa a 'man's game'.

A former club soccer teammate of hers also suffered the same fate as well.  




I added transphobia as an emphasis because as trans people continue to transition at earlier ages, it is inevitable that one day there will be a trans person born somewhere on this planet who will have the the skill and talent to play football at an elite international level.   That transperson, whoever he or she may be will need to have ironclad rules in place that guarantees they can participate and be the best they can be.

The IOC Stockholm Protocols are a start, but FIFA also needs to spell it out in their rules as well.

But for now, FIFA needs to make it clear that transphobia and homophobia have no place in 'the beautiful game'.  FIFA also needs to prepare to forcefully combat transphobia and homophobia in its ranks just as they have aggressively done for the last decade in combating discrimination and racism.