No White Supremacist Express Subway Train For Their DC Hate Rally

The white supremacists are coming to Washington DC's Lafayette Park on August 12 to celebrate the one year anniversary of their 'Unite The Right' Rally in  Charlottesville, VA.

As you are aware of, many of DC's 700,000 residents are Black and not feeling the Klan affiliated hatemongers coming to town.  You can count DC Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) as one of the many people who aren't feeling this march.

"We have people coming to our city for the sole purpose of spewing hate," Mayor Bowser said. "We denounce hate, we denounce anti-Semitism, and we denounce the rhetoric we expect to hear this Sunday."

One of the things that was suggested for security purposes was to give the Klan affiliated hatemongers a special WMATA subway train comprised of three rail cars to transport them from their assembly point near the Vienna, VA station to the Foggy Bottom-GWU station.  The haters would be subsequently escorted by police from that station to the Lafayette Park rally site.

The proposal was made by WMATA officials as a way to avoid a repeat of the violent confrontations that happened in  Charlottesville.

That plan got derailed (pun intended) quickly when the Amalgamated Transit Workers Union Local 689 declared in a statement their members would refuse to drive those trains.  They correctly felt it would give special treatment to hate groups and a courtesy that hasn't been extended to any other group planning a march or rally in Washington DC.

“Local 689 is proud to provide transit to everyone for the many events we have in D.C. including the March of Life, the Women’s March and Black Lives Matters rallies," ATU Local 689 president Jackie Jeter said in the statement.“We draw the line at giving special accommodation to hate groups and hate speech,” Jeter said. “We find it hypocritical... to make these unprecedented special accommodations for a hate group.”The union said that people of color make up “more than 80 percent of Local 689’s membership...  the very people that the Ku Klux Klan and other white nationalist groups have killed, harassed and violated. The union has declared that it will not play a role in their special accommodation.”

WMATA has dropped the idea, and is now coordinating via talks with the Virginia State Police, the MPD and Metro Transit Police what they will do to keep everyone safe on hate rally day and keep it peaceful.

Good luck with that.   But one thing to note is there will not be a white supremacist express subway train for their DC hate rally. 

Wonder if Dolt 45 will make an appearance at Lafayette Park so he and Stephen Miller can hang out with all the 'good people' that will be at that hate rally?   

Houston Intersectional Justice Rally Tonight

Another day, another event for Moni.

To drive home the points that #WeExist, #LGBTLivesMatter,  #BlackLivesMatter , #BlackTransLivesMatter, and #LatinaTransLivesMatter, in Houston later tonight we'll be having an Intersectional Justice Rally at Hermann Park tonight.

I will have the honor of representing the trans community, and Pastor Lura N. Groen will kick this off with an interfaith prayer and a moment of silence for those community members who are non believers.

This rally is designed to honor women and the LGBT community, because we are continually left out of tit and give us a chance to speak on our own behalf! We will meet at the new Lake Picnic area which is located between Miller Outdoor Theater and Lake Plaza.

The speakers slated to  talk about how their lives intersect in different communities:

L - Fran Watson
G - Ashton P. Woods
B - Heather Strange
T - Monica Roberts
& Yung Mozart one of our great allies

Following the speeches we will read from a list of names of those lost in our communities (like TDOR). Finally, we will allow those who wish to speak to come up and share a few words.

It starts at 7 PM, and hope to see a nice crowd gathered there.

Jordan Baker Protest At Houston City Hall

One of the things that will continue to be an issue in Houston and elsewhere around the country is unarmed Black people continuing to be shot and killed by predominately white police forces.

And yeah, the Black community is beyond sick and tired of being sick and tired of it.

And before you pro-police peeps go there and start spouting insulting FOX Noise talking points such as my people need to learn respect for the po-po, how about the police officers who look like you turn off the right wing radio and stop using my people as gun practice targets?

In the Houston area, we have the Jordan Baker case to sadly contribute to the national conversation about the death by po-po of Black people of all ages and what needs to happen to end it. 

And as per the disgusting pattern that has played out elsewhere, the HPD officer in question was NOT indicted.

At the same time we have another fatal incident that occurred i n Texas City that has exacerbated racial tensions there to the point that a protest by the family of Carlton Smith was bumrushed by predominately white pro-police supporters.

Since today is the first city council meeting of 2015, a protest will happen at 1:30 PM CST on the steps of city hall in advance of the city council meeting in which people have signed up to speak about the Baker shooting and policing HPD style.

Yep, definitely will be checking it out.

Moni Speaks At The Houston #NMOS14 Rally

Since the local #NMOS14 rally was happening just up the street from me at MacGregor Park, it was a no brainer about whether or not I was going to check it out.  

After it started a little after 6 PM CDT, we had the moment of silence starting around 6:20 PM to commemorate the life of Mike Brown, what the people in Ferguson, MO were going through and all the victims of police brutality and misconduct.

The floor was then opened by organizer of the event Ashley Williams to anyone who wished to speak to do so. 

And yeah, you know once that happened, I was going to take the opportunity to do just that and represent the Houston TBLG community while doing so. 

When my opportunity to speak to the crowd came, I pointed out that I was there on behalf of myself and the Houston TBLG community, and that Black community issues like police brutality are LGBT issues and vice versa.

I then pointed out that trans people are affected by negative policing behavior. and used the Monica Jones case in Phoenix as a example of it before pivoting back to the reason for the event.  

I pointed out that Black women were experiencing death by po-po and not to forget that.   I also reminded everyone that we have an election coming up on November 4, and that is your best tool for societal change before I stepped down.

I hung around to talk to people and listen to more speakers before I finally left about 8:30 PM. 

One of the chants was 'No more!' in reference to not having another unarmed Black child die due to death by po-po. 

But I wondered as I walked toward the bus stop with the MLK statue in my sights if we were on the road to actually making that happen or we'd be gathered once again at another Houston location to mourn the loss of another African-American child due to police brutality.

I hope not.   But we have a lot of work to do to make no more Black kids dying at the hands of police officers a reality.

Cleveland TBLG Community Rally On Sunday

Been advised by Zoe Lapin that a community rally to discuss the trans murders of Brittany Kidd-Stergis and Betty Skinner, the latest outbreak of racist Cleveland media transphobia and other issues of importance in the local trans community will take place at Trinity Cathedral on Sunday,  December 15. 

Trinity Cathedral is located at 2230 Euclid Avenue in Cleveland and the event will start at 1:00 PM EST.  

What I am hoping for is that this event will be as diverse as the city of Cleveland is, and will feature someone from the local African American trans community to represent the people who are taking the brunt of the anti-trans hate crimes.  

I hope this does not turn into another event where white faces are the predominant ones we see all over the news, the media and the Net speaking, and irritatingly once again the Black trans community people who are the ones doing the dying, their representatives, leaders and local community leadership voices are shut out, ignored and the bodies of our dead are used once again to push somebody else's rainbow agenda.

In the runup to organizing this event, I hope and pray the organizers keep the I-words inclusion and intersectionality in their vocabularies and don't ignore the Black trans community as they put together this community rally.  

The Cleveland trans community has people besides white trans men who can eloquently speak for it.. Call them and invite them to the podium to speak for their fallen transsister who can no longer do so and their community. 


That being said, hoping for a large, diverse turnout and speakers at that rally reflecting the diversity of the Cleveland TBLG community.  I also hope for a frank discussion that takes place in that space which begins to address the frustration that I hear privately from many Black transpeople in the area about the state of the LGBT community in Cleveland, Ohio.   Their anger is mounting about their marginalization in it combined with the anti-trans violence being aimed at them and needs to be heard and dealt with. 

HRC, You Have A Problem

I'm sure that the truth will come out about what really happened at that rally today, but note Human Rights Campaign, you still have a very long and tough road to travel before you even begin to get some positive cred back and you have zero room for errors, misspeaking, or mistakes.   TransGriot. 'What The Hell Happened In DC Today?'  March 27, 2013

Well, looks like we can take the 'alleged' label off the incident that was described in yesterday's post about the SCOTUS rally because someone has come forward to comment on it.

That someone who has come forward is a biggie.  It's Jerame Davis, the executive director of the National Stonewall Democrats.

Jerame wrote on his Facebook page Wednesday that he witnessed the incident, and the only flag out of the community affinity flags that was targeted for removal was the trans one.

HRC is mishandling this situation. While not directly, they are essentially calling me and John M. Becker liars when we were actually direct witnesses to all of this occurring, unlike the folks putting out the statement.

No other flags were asked to be removed from the shot. There were pride flags, American flags, and marriage equality flags all on display. I had a flag of my own. And at one point, organizers directed a person with a pride flag to block someone who was hijacking the media with pictures of dead young gays who were victims of discrimination.

It disappoints me greatly that HRC has chosen the circle-the-wagons-and-deny tactic once again when there were multiple witnesses to what happened. Shameful.

John M. Becker had this to say about it on his Facebook page.

Jerame and I attended the rally together and as he pointed out earlier today, both of us saw this happen. I cannot verify the word-for-word accuracy of the quote in this blog post as I was just out of earshot in that loud and exciting environment, but regardless of whether the words spoken were as blunt as the writer alleges or couched in nicer-sounding language, the sentiment and intent were unmistakable. This greatly dismayed me and others nearby, and we affirmed the flag holder and encouraged him to stand his ground. I'm so glad he did.

I'm sure the staffer was acting out of a misplaced sense of caution in that excruciatingly high-pressure environment -- and I'm equally sure it was not HRC's intent to exclude or deeply offend, but regardless of the circumstances, people *felt* excluded and *were* deeply offended. HRC really should apologize for this regrettable incident before it casts any larger a shadow on an otherwise beautiful event.

Instead, HRC is going into their standard playbook whenever they get caught dissing the trans community and it's witnessed by someone NOT from the trans community:  deny it

“It is a not true to suggest that any person or organization was told their flag was less important than another – this did not occur and no HRC staff member would ever tolerate such behavior. To be clear, it is the position of the Human Rights Campaign that marriage is an issue that affects everyone in the LGBT community.

QNotes published the full statement in this Matt Comer article.

So in effect, HRC Communications Director Michael Cole-Schwartz is basically calling Jerame and John liars.  Damn, I hope and pray somebody comes up with video from the rally for this.

But right now HRC, you have a problem.  As I said in yesterday's post, you had zero room for errors, misspeaking, or mistakes and this incident is the equivalent of pouring gasoline on a smoldering fire.  That white hot fire of anger, especially within the trans community with whom you had little to zero trust and credibility with anyway, is about to burn your organization in multiple ways.  

You may be about to witness the restarting of HRC gala protests a la 2007-2008 by trans community activists and our allies in a city near you and another dropoff in donations, and that's just the opening salvos in how this kerfluffle could probably play out.

Justice For January Rally Tonight

I posted about January Marie Lapuz, one of the girls like us in the Vancouver area who was loved and respected in the community being murdered in her New Westminster, BC home on September 29th of last year.  
Charles Neel, the person who is alleged to have committed the crime was arrested on December 5 and charged with her murder. 

Later today the Vancouver trans community and their allies will have a rally starting at 4 PM PST in support of January.  They will gather at the New Westminster City Hall and march to the New Westminster Provincial Courthouse in a call for justice for January Lapuz and in opposition to the release of Charles Neel.   

Activists at this rally will call on the Canadian federal and British Columbia provincial governments to immediately enshrine human rights protections at the federal and the provincial level in BC for all gender variant, transgender, transsexual, two spirit, intersexual, and other individuals.  

They will also call for general reform and improvement of BC's Trans Health Program, and ending the mistreatment of Canada's transgender and gender variant citizens.

Good luck and hope you have a sizable turnout for this event.