Mayor Turner Reelected!

Tony Buzbee spent $13 million of his own money in an attempt to get a chair he claimed he didn't want or need.   In the end he was blown our after his last ditch attempt  to inject transphobia in this race failed.

The  last minute Trump robocalls didn't help either.  All they did was piss people off

Incumbent Mayor Sylvester Turner cruised to reelection with 56% of the vote to crush Buzbee and drive home the point that transphobia is no longer a successful political strategy in H-Town.

In addition, when the new city council gets seated in January there will be five Black women sitting on it and nine women total..

In other good news from this Election Night, transphobe Dave Wilson was ousted from the HCC board by Monica Flores Richart, and two more Black women in Kathy Blueford Daniels and Patricia Allen are joining the HISD school board. 

The results are here.

So now I can go to sleep know that I won't have a transphobic jerk as my mayor or a white supremacist sitting on my city council.

BTWI and TENT Condemn Transphobic Buzbee Campaign Mailer

For Immediate Release

December 13, 2019

Contact: Monica Roberts, BTWI Media Chair, Emmett Schelling, Executive Director, TENT

Phone: 855-255-8636 ext 69
Email: info@transtexas.org or mroberts@blacktranswomen.org

BTWI and TENT CONDEMN TRANSPHOBIC BUZBEE CAMPAIGN MAILER 

There is a runoff in the Houston municipal election tomorrow that features incumbent Mayor Sylvester Turner and challenger Tony Buzbee. Both BTWI and TENT were disappointed to see and hear about this transphobic and homophobic mailer being deployed on the eve of the runoff election by the Buzbee campaign.

“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.

Buzbee claimed in an August 2 Pride candidate forum on the Texas Southern University campus that he would be a mayor for all Houstonians. Based on the mailer, along with his subsequent actions garnering the endorsement of longtime Houston-area anti-LGBTQ activist Steven Hotze, it has become clear that was not the truth.

“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,” said BTWI President Dee Dee Watters. 

Emmett Schelling, Executive Director of Transgender Education Network of Texas (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.”

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.

     

Never Demetria

The late Maya Angelou once said that when somebody shows you who they are the first time, believe them.   One of the candidates in the 2019 Houston mayoral race has a long ugly history of showing us exactly who she is as an unrepentant transphobe and a homophobe.

That would be Demetria Smith.     And Moni has receipts.

Yep, the same Demetria Smith who has run for since 2013 a District D city council seat, Texas governor in 2018 and now twice for mayor in 2015 and this year.

The same Demetria Smith who is anti-HERO and still futilely trying to gaslight you into believing she isn't.

The same Demetria Smith that threw a hissy fit at a January 2018 Houston GLBT caucus meeting when her time ran out to speak at that meeting, then took to her social media in the wake of that public meltdown to falsely claim "the GLBT's are trying to silence me."

The same Demetria Smith that can't spell her own name right on her own campaign material.

She is the same Demetria Smith whose $3,750 filing fee check for the governor's race bounced, leading the Texas Secretary of State to declare her ineligible to run for the governor's office. 

It's not like she would have gotten any support had she been able to stay on the ballot in that Blue tsunami wave election year.   She got less than 1% of the vote the last time she ran for mayor in 2015, and is well on her way thanks to her unrepentant homophobia and transphobia to failing spectacularly again.

Oh yeah, almost forgot.  Don't you still owe the state of Texas $22,000 in delinquent filing fees?

The last few days have found Smith on social media once again letting her anti-gay and anti-trans flags fly.  She has attacked At Large 5 city council candidate Ashton P. Woods, Kandice Webber, Eric Edward Schell, Nick Arvizu-Hutchinson  and an increasingly lengthy list of other peeps in the Houston TBLGQ community tired of her bull feces and calling her on it.

It's reading time    But let me hydrate first.

(Moni cracks knuckles)

I am personally tired of your ignorant mentally constipated transphobic behind pushing the bathroom predator myth as your weak as well water excuse to hate on HERO.   And yes Demetria, you ARE a transphobe and homophobe who is unfit to hold any public elective office in Houston, Harris County or the state of Texas.

You don't like people calling you out about being a homophobe and transphobe?   Then stop saying homophobic and transphobic crap.   It's that breathtakingly simple.

But tragically, you can't help yourself, and I'm not expecting that miracle to happen.

News flash for you Miss Thang.   It ain't the trans folks you need to worry about.  It's Baptist preachers, deacons, Catholic priests, Republican politicians and creepy uncles.

It's also pissing me off you're flapping those loud and wrong gums about 'predators' when we have predators who have declared open season on Black trans women.   Where's your concern about that? 
Don't their lives mater?

These are dangerous times in America, and we need intelligent leaders at all levels of government who stand up for everyone, not just heterosexuals.   If my rights as a trans Houstonian aren't secure, nobody's are.

HERO 2.0 without public accommodations language or coverage for trans people is a non starter.

Your beliefs as you call them are not grounded in anything but sheer ignorance, and as an award winning blogger and journalist, my job is to speak truth to power, call crap out and stamp out ignorance inside and outside my community.

You are batting .1000 when it comes to spreading that ignorance. 

And let me get something straight with your reprehensible behind..  Gaybaiting is not a good look on you sweetheart.  Neither is willful ignorance or transphobia, and it's time for a makeover and a trip to the library.

It's also quite obvious that you desperately need education about LGBTQ issues but are unwilling to learn.   You also keep doubling and tripling down on your homophobia and transphobia and posting it on social media for the world to peruse as if that is something to be proud of. 

That's why you continue to fail whenever you run for office.   This 2019 election cycle will be another one in which you fail to learn from past mistakes, and you will get less than 1% of the vote in this upcoming election.

You have made it quite clear since 2013 that you are NOT that person we need at City Hall, and it's why I and an increasing majority of Houstonians are on Team #NeverDemetria

A Houston Municipal Election Is Happening In 2019

It's a new year, and one of the things we have happening in the 713 in 2019 beside the county turning deep blue is our Houston civic elections.

Thanks to Proposition B passing back in 2015 in large part because the fake faith-based haters were fixated on killing HERO, we now have city elections every four years. 

The terms for mayor, city council and the controller were expanded to four years as well, and our term limits were adjusted . That means you are now limited to just two four year terms instead of the three 2 year terms we had under the old system.

Mayor Turner is going for his second and final term, and as of today no significant challenger has filed to run yet.  Right now it's attorney Tony Buzbee, Kendall Baker, Demetria Smith and 2015 mayoral election loser Bill King who have either declared or are thinking about it.   Wrestler Booker T had also declared last year that he was running, but he hasn't been heard from lately. 

Five council members are term limited.   CM Jack Christie in At Large #5,  CM Brenda Stardig in District A,  CM Jerry Davis in District B, CM Ellen Cohen in District C and CM Mike Laster in District J.

As you probably guessed the races with term limited council members are drawing a crowd of contenders filing for them.

Tarsha Jackson and Renee Jefferson Smith are the announced candidates so far running for the District B seat being vacated by CM Davis. 

In District C, the district that contains the Montrose gayborhood, the list of candidates is growing, with Shelley Kennedy and Nick Hellyar being just two of the people running for the seat being vacated by CM and Mayor Pro Tem Ellen Cohen.

In District D, the southeast Houston district I grew up in, Jerome Provost, the son of longtime Houston photographer Georgia Provost, is taking on incumbent CM Dwight Boykins.

The aforementioned 'Miss P' is taking on CM Mike Knox again for the At Large #1 seat.   Raj Salhotra is also running in the At Large #1 race.

District E, the Kingwood-Clear Lake seat, is held by CM Dave Martin.  District F is currently held by Steve Le,  District G by CM Greg Travis, District H by CM Karla Cisneros, District I by CM Robert Gallegos,  and District K by CM Martha Castex Tatum.

Tatum won a special election last year after the tragic death of CM Larry Green, and is running for her first full term.

Advocate Shere Dore has announced she's running for the At Large Position #2 seat currently held by CM David Robinson.

So far haven't heard if anyone is challenging CM Michael 'God put me on City Council to oppose the HERO' Kubosh  for the At Large #3 seat.   The suburban evilgelicals made an assumption I'm jumping into that race against that Drag Queen Story time hater.

CM Amanda Edwards holds the At Large #4 seat , but hasn't drawn a challenger as of this writing.

Laurie Robinson is running for the soon to be vacated At Large #5 seat

A lot can change between now and August 19, which is the last day to file for a place on the 2019 ballot.   People who are thinking about running for municipal office have until then to put up or shut up. 

And yeah,since I'm being asked.  I'm seriously thinking about it.  As for which seat I might be running for. we'll see.   Trying to decide between an at large or district race.

First day to file is on July 20, 2019.   Filing fee is $1250 for mayor, $750 for the city controllers office or $500 for a city council seat. 

You can also in lieu of cash collect petition signatures to place your name on the ballot.   However, we still don't know the exact number of signatures you need to collect to get on the ballot that way, and won't find out from the City Secretary's office until at least June.

Note to anyone running for office and seeking my support for your municipal political run. 

If you are a Republican evilgelical, anti-trans, anti-gay, openly opposed the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance in 2014, or supported its GOP sponsored repeal,  don't even think about asking for my support in this election cycle.

See y'all at the polls on November 5.

Naw Bill King, You Are The Problem

And I don't want you vanillacentric privileged teabagging behind in the mayor's chair.

You couldn't even run Kemah efficiently, so what makes you and the Tea Klux Klan think you can run my hometown?  Not no but hell no.

Don't let this man become the next Houston mayor.  Take your behinds to the polls toady and make sure this transphobe doesn't get elected to office.

2015 TransGriot Houston Election Endorsements

As many of you longtime TransGriot readers are aware of, I am a serious political geek who lives for Election Day.

In the nearly ten years I have been writing posts for this blog, while I have written posts about various candidates and urged you TransGriot readers to get out and vote in each and every election cycle, I have yet to actually do a post in any election, local, state or national that put the TransGriot seal of approval for a slate of candidates until now.

Introducing the first ever TransGriot 2015 Election Endorsement post for the Houston city elections.

***



Prop. 1  (HERO) : YES
Prop. 2:  YES

Mayor:  Sylvester Turner 
Controller:  Chris Brown

Houston City Council
District B:  Jerry Davis
District C:  Ellen Cohen
District D:  Dwight Boykins
District F:   Richard Nguyen
District H:  Roland Chavez
District I:    Robert Gallegos
District J:   Mike Laster
District K:  Larry Green

At Large Position 1:  Lane Lewis
At Large Position 2:  David Robinson 
At Large Position 3: Joseph McElligot
At Large Position 4: Amanda Edwards
At Large Position 5: Philippe Nassif

HISD
Trustee, District II:      Rhonda Skillern-Jones
Trustee, District III:     Ramiro Fonseca
Trustee District IV:      Jolanda Jones
Trustee, District VIII:  Juliet Stipeche

Houston Community College System
Trustee Position III:     Adriana Tamez
Trustee Position VIII:  Eva Loredo

The Fight To Keep HERO-October 30

Today is the last day of early voting in H-town for the upcoming mayoral election and voting YES for Prop 1 and the ads are flying.   Another pro-Prop 1 ad rolled out this week as an anti-HERO ad featuring Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick hit the airwaves.



We have had in the runup to Election Day some political heavyweights comment on the HERO vote in President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.

“While the Administration generally does not take a formal position on specific proposals or initiatives, the President and Vice President have been strong supporters of state and local efforts to protect Americans from being discriminated against based on who they are and who they love. We’re confident that the citizens of Houston will vote in favor of fairness and equality.

”Democratic presidential candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has also weighed in on the HERO fight..



Hollywood has chimed in as well.  Native Texans Matt Bomer and Eva Longoria have also tweeted their support of the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance.

Eva Longoria ‏@EvaLongoria  Oct 27

I’m proud to join @HRC in support of #HERO in Texas. Join me in the fight #YesonProp1 http://www.whosay.com/l/piRbaPV  pic.twitter.com/AJqq5LSQiE 

We have had actress Sally Field, who has Texas family roots and is an award winning women's rights advocate, weigh in on the HERO at an event Wednesday night, and repeated her commentary Thursday morning at an event for women legislators at the Alley Theater.

News coverage on the local and national level about this fight continues.  The Houston Chronicle in another editorial called out Lt Governor Dan Patrick for outright lying about the ordinance.

But I'm still concerned along with the Houston Black LGBT community this late swell of positive endorsements may be too little, too late.   Polling has tightened up in the last few days, and you know I've expressed my dissatisfaction with the way the campaign to defend HERO was run.  I've been concerned about the failure to utterly crush the bathroom lie.and its lack of outreach to the Houston Black community and POC trans community of color in the face of an opposition side that will use fear and smear attacks on trans people as their only tactic.

And the HERO haters have been immensely helped by the lazy reporting of Fox 26,

You have until 7 PM to take advantage of early voting, otherwise you'll have to wait until November 3 to make your voice heard on this issue.

Got My Houston Vote On!

The second week of early voting started yesterday. and you know I wanted to make certain that I got to weigh in on this 2015 mayoral and Houston civic election because I was voter suppressed out of the 2013 one.

But it's now 2015, and with Texas driver's license in hand that doesn't expire until 2020 and current orange voter registration card in hand, I sauntered into my fave early voting location with Dee Dee Watters and cast my ballot for who I think should be sitting in The Horseshoe and those comfortable leather chairs in January running our city.

And yeah, there's some human rights ordinance you may have heard about called HERO that I voted on as well.

After we both handled our election business, Dee Dee and I decided to have some fun doing some Trans 101 'ejumacation' for the assembled poll workers handing out push cards, including one wearing a Women for Hall shirt.   We may have flipped some minds and hearts in the process, and if they haven't voted yet, changed some NO votes on HERO to YES ones.

Speaking of voting, if you haven't done so yet, need to get to an early voting center before Friday.  After that date, you will have to wait until November 3 to make your electoral voice heard.

The Fight To Keep HERO- October 18

Just in case you wondering where the Houston Black community stands on Prop 1 passage, outside of the loud and wrong cadre of sellout ministers cooning it up for the Texas GOP fueled opposition to the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance.

The NAACP Houston Chapter, the Greater Houston Black Chamber, the Houston Area Urban League and a long list of local politicians enthusiastically support HERO.  The Houston Forward Times, one of the oldest Black newspapers in town, just released an editorial that affirms their support of our much needed human rights ordinance.

And as Morenike said in her 'We Are HERO' campaign commentary:

"Houston is almost the 3rd largest city in the US. We need to step up. I want to know that my family is going to be treated fairly when we go into a business, or my kids are at school; and that if that is not the case, that there is a way to deal with it locally. I want to know that we don't have to be second class citizens; that this is not the Jim Crow South. I want to know that no matter who my children want to love, the color of their skin, whether they move differently, or speak differently because of their disability, that we can feel safe. We have experienced discrimination and others have too. It's time for us to change that."

We have Houston civil rights icon Rev William Lawson, who supports it along with Pastor Rudy Rasmus, who has been featured ina pro-HERO commercial.

And just to remind the HERO haters and the willful ignorati on this issue, it was the discrimination that Judge Alexandra Smoots Hogan faced at a Washington Ave nightclub in February 2014 that was the catalyst for getting HERO passed.




HERO is needed and necessary.  It covers 15 categories and provides a local remedy against discrimination experienced in housing, employment and public accommodations,

Our opposition only has fear, smear and lies to throw at it.

So Black Houstonians, don't let the HERO opposition hoodwink and bamboozle you into voting against your own human rights.tomorrow.

If You Want HERO, Vote NO

Well, the opening shots in the battle to keep the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance on Houston's law books have been fired .

On Wednesday Houston City Council voted 12-5 to affirm HERO, and then put it on the November ballot to the voters.

Council members Jerry Davis, Ellen Cohen, Dwight Boykins (who voted against HERO last year), Richard Nguyen, Ed Gonzalez, Robert Gallegos, Mike Laster, Larry Green, Stephen Costello, David Robinson, C.O. “Brad” Bradford and Jack Christie, voted in favor of reinstating HERO

The usual conservative haters of Council members Dave Martin, Oliver Pennington, Michael Kubosh, Jack Christie and Brenda Stardig voted to repeal it.

Houston City Council then voted 13-4 to approve the city attorney's straightforward language to place on the November ballot   Councilmember Bradford proposed offering different language, but that motion was defeated 12-5.

The language that City Attorney Donna Edmondson came up with that will appear on the ballot is the following:

Shall the City of Houston repeal the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance, Ord. No. 2014-530, which prohibits discrimination in city employment and city services, city contracts, public accommodations, private employment, and housing based on an individual's sex, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, familial status, marital status, military status, religion, disability, sexual orientation, genetic information, gender identity, or pregnancy?"

Translation.  what that means Houstonians, is that if you support HERO and wish to keep it, you vote NO on Election Day or during the early voting phase.

“Today what happened is that council members reaffirmed the original Houston Equal Rights Ordinance, and we put it to the voters in the clearest, most straightforward language we could, based on the fact that there was a petition, and that is, ‘Do you want to repeal the ordinance or not?'” Mayor Annise Parker said during a press conference following Wednesday’s meeting. “I and many others will go out and advocate to not repeal the ordinance.”

It's on like Donkey Kong now.  To help you peeps remember how to vote on HERO in November, just say or sing this little human rights protecting tune to yourself.   If you want HERO, Vote NO!"
TransGriot Update: And once again, the HERO haters went crying back to the GOP Texas Supreme Court mad because they hate the straightforward no BS ballot language the city came up with.

Will keep y'all posted about how this turns out.