Texas Trans Teen Being Allowed To Wear Dress For Graduation

In the wake of what happened in North Carolina the usual calls from the I-5 and I-95 corridors rang out for GLBT people to leave their 'bigoted red states' and come to the blue oases of rainbow equality that can be just as hateful and bigoted as the red states we leave behind.

I and other red staters repeatedly point out that you can't turn those states purple and later blue unless you have people living here who not only love it just as much as the Forces of Intolerance, but are willing to fight the right wingers tooth and nail to advance rainbow human rights.

Well, here's another example in my argument as to why it's vitally important for GLBT peeps to stay and fight for our human rights and the world we wish to live in even in a so called 'red state'.

Just 30 miles northwest of Houston is Waller, TX where transteen Brandon Navarro lives and is a Waller High School senior.   Brandon ID's as gay and a crossdresser (but I suspect Brandon is headed to the trans end of the TBLG spectrum and will use femme pronouns in this story) and has worn appropriate feminine attire according to her mother during her high school years.   

Navarro planned to wear a dress to prom and high school graduation on June 2 and had already skipped prom to avoid drama.  Navarro dropped plans to wear a dress and high heels with her long hair after a teacher reminded her of the graduation dress code.

The Waller High School graduation dress code rules requires senior males to wear slacks and shirts with their hair above the collar.

Navarro’s mother then got involved and Brandon met with the school's principal to strike a compromise acceptable to both sides.   While Brandon will have to leave the earrings and high heels out of her wardrobe, she’ll be able to wear a dress under her gown.






 Congrats Brandon!  may you have much success in any future endeavors.

Two Transwomen Nominated For DC Human Rights Commission

Was happy to hear that Washington D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray has nominated trans activists and 2010 IFGE Trinity Award winner Earline Budd and Alexandra Beninda for seats on the D.C. Commission on Human Rights.


The 15 member commission is only operating with three member at the current time, and if the two are confirmed as expected by the D.C. City Council, they would become the first trans persons ever to serve on it.

The Human Rights Commission rules on discrimination complaints brought under the D.C. Human Rights Act that was passed in 1977.   The comprehensive act bans discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodations and other areas based on an individual’s sexual orientation and gender identity and expression as well as other categories such as race, religion, national origin, and ethnicity.

“To be getting one transgender person on the commission would be great, but to be getting two is fantastic,” said Beninda to the Washington Blade.  

“I’m really excited and looking forward to serving,” said Budd while attending Saturday’s LGBT Youth Pride festival in Dupont Circle. “This is important for the entire community.”

It most certainly is 'Number 4' and Alexandra.  It's vitally important to have our perspectives and lived life experiences on boards and commissions such as this, and especially one that investigates human rights complaints.   

I have no doubt you ladies will do a wonderful job in representing the Washington D.C. trans community on the Human Rights Commission.

TransGriot Update: Here's the Washington Blade story about their swearing in

AG Holder Speech On Race And Justice System

The National Action Network 's 14th annual convention is happening in Washington DC through April 14 as I write this.  You folks in DC you may want to head down to the Convention Center and check it out.

Yesterday Attorney General Eric Holder was the opening speaker at the event and talked about the Trayvon Martin Case, voting rights, and defending Section 5 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act which is being challenged by the conservafools

Voting Rights March Starts Today

Wish I could be in Alabama for this event, but unfortunately I can't.  

A voting rights march from Selma, AL to Montgomery is being held starting today and running for several days to not only commemorate the upcoming 47th anniversary of Bloody Sunday (March 7, 1965) , but protest the Republifool attacks on the voting rights of African-Americans and others in the run-up to the 2012 presidential elections.

The 50 mile march from Selma to Montgomery helped galvanize support for the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act after the nation and the world watched as the first march was halted by police wielding billy clubs and firing tear gas into the crowd after they crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge. 

It's also why Rev Al Sharpton and several congressmembers led by Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) are retracing the historic 1965 march from today until March 9 along US 80 to draw attention to the GOP Block the vote efforts   Rev. Al will also be doing his MSNBC PoliticsNation show from the road as well.

For those of you who can be a part of it, i urge you to do so, even if it's only for a day or at the rallies in Selma or Montgomery.  Alabama is one of the GOP controlled states that are pimping voter ID laws designed to disenfranchise voters and draconian SB 1070 style anti-immigration laws.

And frankly people, our democracy is at stake because the basic bedrock principles of it are under attack by a conservafool movement that wants to repeal the 20th century.  

That's how critical this November 6 election is, and I don't want to hear any excuses from anybody sharing my ancestry or who is a member of a marginalized community as to why they can't or won't vote.   You have time to register to vote and need to do so immediately.

As I have said more than a few times on this blog in terms of our trans human rights push, while we have had a decades long struggle in many cases to get trans human rights coverage enacted, passing the laws is the easy part.  The hard part is staying vigilant against the Forces of Intolerance and defending what you paid for in effort, sweat and in some cases blood to enact.

And when it comes to the 1965 Voting Rights Act, it is under attack from the 1% who only want people like them voting, electing politicians that look like them, and enacting policies that benefit them.

They ain't happy that the hands that once picked cotton are now picking presidents.

As Dr. King said, "Now is not the time to to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.  Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy."



And one of those promises of democracy is enshrined in the basic act of voting.

Houston TBLG Community Prepping For Rainbow Human Rights Battle

Ever since I became an activist fighting for the human rights of TBLG people in 1998, I have watched as nations around the globe and cities, counties and states in the USA have passed human rights laws to protect their BTLG community members.

Over the last year I watched Dallas become the first jurisdiction in Texas to have comprehensive rights at all levels of government for their rainbow community and wondered when it would happen for the BTLG citizens who reside in the largest city in the Lone Star State. 

It looks like we're finally making the moves to begin the process of doing precisely that in my hometown.

Was deliriously happy to discover that petitions are being drawn up and submitted to the city secretary as early as the end of this month for a November referendum.   The proposed referendum ballot item will ban discrimination against TBLG citizens in employment, public accommodations and housing and give permission to the city to grant health insurance benefits to the unmarried partners of city of Houston employees.

"Discrimination exists everywhere. It's really hard to determine how big the problem is," said Noel Freeman, president of the Houston GLBT Caucus in a Houston Chronicle interview.   A local law is necessary, Freeman said, because gays and lesbians who want to press claims of discrimination currently must undertake costly litigation in state or federal courts.   

Since the Chronicle article failed to mention it, that discrimination is also aimed at trans Houstonians as well with the Izza Lopez case being a prime example of it

Houston has had a contentious history with GLBT rights referendums.  A previous gay and lesbian only anti-discrimination law that covered city employees was passed by City Council in 1985 but was rejected in a crushing electoral defeat by a 4-1 margin. 

In the wake of the city approving benefits for unmarried domestic partners, Dave Wilson and his merry band of faith-based haters in 2001 got a referendum on the ballot that banned the city from doing so.

In 1998 Mayor Lee Brown issued an order banning discrimination against gay and lesbian city employees that survived a three year legal challenge from Councilmember Rob Todd.  In 2010 It was extended to trans city employees by Mayor Annise Parker.


It will take 20,000 signatures to get the GLBT rights referendum on the November ballot.  I have no doubts that Dave Wilson and his cohort in hating on our community David Welch are already marshaling the Houston chapter of the Forces of Intolerance to fight the rainbow human rights referendum tooth and nail if it does make it onto this fall's ballot.

Mayor Parker hasn't committed one way or the other as to which way she'll go in terms of the proposed amendment and says she won't until she sees the language 

"I believe it's important for the city of Houston to send a signal to the world that we welcome everybody and that we treat everybody equally, and depending on the elements of what was actually in it, I might or might not support it."  

Like Mayor Parker I'm in show me the language mode as well.  If it doesn't include gender identity language in it, I'm not supporting it.

If it's the comprehensive rights amendment I want and expect to see, then I will do my part to help garner support in the African-American community for it and pass this much needed amendment to our city charter.

And note to you transphobes and homophobes inside the Houston city limits.   TBLG Houstonians are part of the over 2 million people who call this place home. We're beyond sick and tired of being sick and tired of having our human rights fracked with because of your insecurities or your right-wing politically motivated religious beliefs..  

Like all proud TBLG Houstonians I'm also tired of  being embarrassed by the fact my hometown doesn't have human rights laws that cover me like that city up I-45 does and I enjoyed in the city of Louisville when I lived there during the last decade.

If we claim to be an international world class city that values the contributions of all its citizens, then our city ordinances need to reflect that, especially if we want to get that elusive summer Olympic Games we've been trying to land since the late 80's and other international corporate headquarters and businesses. .  

It's past time we send the message that Houston is an international world class city that values all of its citizens, including its TBLG ones.