It was a night in which the ancestors and many peeps across America were beaming with pride as they saw her stand behind that podium in Wilmington, DE to deliver the acceptance speech.
For those of you who missed it, here's the video for it.
A proud unapologetic Black trans woman speaking truth to power and discussing the world around her since 2006
Showing posts with label speech. Show all posts
Showing posts with label speech. Show all posts
Saturday, August 22, 2020
Kamala Harris VP Acceptance Speech
It was a night in which the ancestors and many peeps across America were beaming with pride as they saw her stand behind that podium in Wilmington, DE to deliver the acceptance speech.
For those of you who missed it, here's the video for it.
Thursday, January 16, 2020
CC 2020 Susan J Hyde Award Speech
To Rea Carey, the Creating Change leadership team, the Dallas CC20 Organizing Committee, Barbara Satin, Creating Change 2020 attendees, my Houston activist family and my trans siblings.
I am beyond thrilled and excited to be honored with this year’s Susan J Hyde Award for Longevity in the Movement. Even better is the knowledge that I’m receiving it in my home state. The only thing that would have made it more amazing would have been to be receiving it on my end of Interstate 45.
I humbly accept it not only for myself, but for every Black trans person who will never have the opportunity to contribute their talents to our community because they were taken from us far too soon..
Can we please have a moment of silence for all the trans people we’ve lost to anti-trans violence in 2019?
Thank you.
I’m not the first Black trans person to receive this award, and you can trust and believe I won’t be the last Black trans person standing up on a future Creating Change stage to pick up one of their own.
Kylar Broadus received this Hyde award during Creating Change 2011 held in Minneapolis. He’s a trailblazer, community leader and a man I have the utmost respect for. I’m proud to be on this date following in his footsteps and receiving this prestigious award.
As much as native Houstonians like myself revel in poking fun at the third largest city in the state because it is ingrained in people growing up either here or in Dallas to throw shade at each other and their respective NFL franchises (Go Texans!) , there is no denying the fact that Dallas has been a major part of my life. My mom grew up here until her junior year of high school and my grandfather was transferred by his Continental Airlines job to Houston.
Every summer, my family and I made the four hour trip up I-45 to Dallas to visit many of my relatives that still live here in the area and span the Metroplex from Garland to DeSoto, and South Dallas to Oak Cliff. I’ve been coming here since 2013 for the Black Trans Advocacy Conference, and proudly sit on the Black Trans Advocacy Coalition board as a member of Black Transwomen Inc. I’ll be back here to spend my birthday week at BTAC’s 9th annual conference also being held here in Dallas May 5-10.
And I can’t forget last year, when I made multiple trips to Dallas for everything from a BTAC leadership institute to Muhlaysia Booker’s wake and funeral.
I’ve been a trans activist for over two decades, and 2019 was a milestone year on two levels. It marked 25 years since that April 4,1994 day I walked into Houston’s Intercontinental Airport to begin the work shift at my airline job that would change the course of my life for the better.
2019 also was the year that I passed the 20th anniversary of my first Texas trans lobby day organized by my late mentor Sarah DePalma, the ED of the Texas Gender Advocacy Information Network or TGAIN. TGAIN is still around, but is now called the Transgender Education Network of Texas.
It also marked the 20th anniversary of me attending my first Creating Change conference in Oakland.
But to be honest, when I started the transition in 1994, being an activist was the furthest thing from my mind. My goals then were a little more modest. I wanted to do my 35 years at the airline job I absolutely loved and retire I wanted to just get comfortable being me and enjoy my life evolving into the fabulous Black trans woman you see on this stage today.
There’s an old saying that if you want to make God laugh, try to plan out your life.
There used to be an organization back in the day called the International Foundation for Gender Education (IFGE) that was around until 2015. Back in the 90’s they published a quarterly magazine called Transgender Tapestry that I started a subscription to in 1995.
In 1997 they decided to publish a series of articles highlighting 100 out and proud trans leaders. The first magazine I received highlighted 25 people, many of them iconic elders in our community like Jamison Green and Phyllis Frye just to name a few.
But as I read that article, I was left asking the question, “Where are the trans leaders who look like me?” I know we exist.
I get my next quarterly Tapestry issue, and it finally had two Black people in it. RuPaul and Dennis Rodman.
Needless to say I was pissed. RuPaul and Dennis Rodman had made it quite clear they weren’t trans, and worst of all their inclusion was perpetuating a racist stereotype that the only thing Black folks could do was be an entertainer or an athlete.
Never mind the fact that Marisa Richmond in Nashville and Dawn Wilson in Louisville were at that time running trans support groups called the Tennessee Vals and the Bluegrass Belles on opposite ends of I-65. Marisa and Dawn were also emerging Black trans community leaders that I would later meet at the 1999 Southern Comfort in Marisa’s case and Dawn at the 2000 IFGE Convention in DC.. I’m also proud to call them my friends,
So after seeing that I resolved to not only be at the 1998 GenderPac Lobby Days in Washington DC, I made it my mission to start getting involved in local and national trans activism.
So yeah, a jacked up article in a trans magazine was the impetus for me getting into trans activism, and I never looked back.
When I came into trans activism in 1998, there was unfortunately a prevailing attitude that adding trans folks to pending legislation for the TBLGQ community would kill it for everybody, so all TBLGQ activism at the local, state and federal level operated on the euphemistically named ‘incremental progress’ model.
Translation: We trans folks were told by some Big Gay Org this bill won’t pass with you trans folks in it. Or we were told that ‘trans rights was ‘too new’, so let’s just take what we can get and we’ll come back for you trans folks later.
A later that never came. Ask the trans folks in Wisconsin, who have been waiting since 1982 for people to come back for them and add them to their state’s nondiscrimination law.
Sometimes the anti-trans legislative hostility came from our own community The anti- trans bathroom argument was created not by Republican politicians, but by one of our own in former US Rep Barney Frank in 1999 because he didn’t want trans folks included in ENDA..
The 1998 landscape also included the trans community being relentlessly attacked by TERFs, evilgelicals and being laughed at and considered a joke by politicians on both sides of the political aisle
But still we rose. During my 22 years in this movement, I have been blessed to see changes in how the trans community was perceived, and I'm happy to say that the Task Force played a major role in making that happen. As the Political Director of the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition, (NTAC) from 1999-2002, one of the first events I attended in that role was a National Transgender Policy meeting facilitated by the Task Force in 2000.
I got to witness the rise of our trans kids like Jazz Jennings and the Mama and Papa Bears as a political and cultural force for our community I got to witness politicians stop laughing at the trans community and take our demands for human rights equity seriously
I started a blog in 2006 ‘nobody reads’ called TransGriot that not only just celebrated its 14th birthday on New Year’s Day, but was just honored with its fifth GLAAD Media Award nomination.
I get to watch an amazing TV show called POSE in which the issues that affect the trans community get told as you watch it from coast to coast. The trans characters are also played by trans women, with trans women being writers and producers of the show.
I’m also happy to witness trans men not only become better known in Hollywood, but stepping up across the country and the world to take on their leadership roles in the movement. I’m also proud to see my Dallas based sibs in BTMI under Carter Brown’s leadership role model not only what that leadership looks like from a Black trans masculine perspective, but also be sterling examples of Black men while doing so.
I have gotten to witness people like Virginia Delegate Danica Roem get elected and reelected to their state legislature. I got to see Black trans people like me in Councilmembers Andrea Jenkins and Phillipe Cunningham be elected to the Minneapolis city council and serve together on that body.
And naw siblings, I didn’t forget about the work that nonbinary and gender non conforming people are doing to drive home the point that gender is on a spectrum, not a rigid binary.
I have also been blessed to witness the beautiful sight of our Texas trans kids living up to our history of being tenacious fighters for trans rights in the Lone Star State and helping lead the charge in 2017 to kill twice the odious SB 6 ‘Bathroom Bill’ in a regular and a special oppression session.
It’s interesting that Creating Change is back here in Texas at a potential tipping point moment in our politics. We are now only nine seats away from flipping the Texas House to Democratic control for the first time since 2002 There is the possibility that we may flip this state blue on November 3 and flush John Cornyn out of his US Senate seat he has occupied for way too long at the same time.
We have lesbian and gay office holders across the Lone Star State from judges to city councilmembers to state legislators. I hope to see in my lifetime a Texas trans person get elected to public office before the decade of the 2020s has passed into the history books.
But much needs to be done here in Texas before we can see that glorious day. We mush flip our legislature and ensure that fair maps instead of gerrymandered ones are drawn. We must make sure that every TBLGQ person is counted in the upcoming 2020 Census and registered to vote. On November 3 we must do everything within our power to ensure that every person who is registered to vote has the opportunity to cast a ballot in a critical to our democracy election.
We must push to ensure that trans Texans are covered not only in our state’s James Byrd Hate Crimes Act, but a statewide nondiscrimination law.
In my Houston hometown, we must convince our female majority city council to pass HERO 2.0, and defend it from attack from the evilgelicals and the Republican Party.
We must kill any proposed bills in Texas and anywhere else in the US that seek to ban the ability of trans kids to get trans medical care before their 18th birthday or criminalize doctors for providing that treatment.
And yes, I have a message for Gov Greg Abbott, Lt Governor Dan Patrick and the Texas Republican Party: Don’t mess with Texas trans kids.
Don’t mess with our trans kids in the other 49 states and\ US territories either.
How do we accomplish all that? That’s why you’re here in the 214 area code for the next few days at CC20. You are here to not only network with the peeps that can help you accomplish those goals, but learn new skills, and brush up on ones you learned decades ago like I did at my five previous Creating Change events.
You are also here to hopefully make lifelong friends during the time you’re here in Dallas for CC20.
In conclusion, when I transitioned a quarter century ago, I never imagined standing up on stages as my fab self getting honored for the work I do to make my community, the Lone Star State, and our nation better. I never imagined back in 1994 that I would be appearing on Nightline or MSNBC, or doing print media interviews or podcasts to talk about trans issues.
I didn’t consider the possibility that people would be asking my unapologetically Black trans self to run for public office. I never thought about the fact that while I don’t have children of my own, I would gain a whole lot of nieces and nephews who chose me to be their Aunt Monica.
But it’s happening. I’m seen as a possibility model and an icon to a community that I’m unabashedly proud of. I’m proud of the next generation Black trans women I see who will make me look like a slacker by the time that I’m done in terms of what they collectively accomplish for our movement .
And to quote our trans elder Miss Major, “I’m still effing here.”
We’ve got work to do CC20. Time to go handle our movement business, get our learn on, and get it done for the TBLGQ + kids who look up to all of us.
And I’m not going to disappoint them.
I am beyond thrilled and excited to be honored with this year’s Susan J Hyde Award for Longevity in the Movement. Even better is the knowledge that I’m receiving it in my home state. The only thing that would have made it more amazing would have been to be receiving it on my end of Interstate 45.
I humbly accept it not only for myself, but for every Black trans person who will never have the opportunity to contribute their talents to our community because they were taken from us far too soon..
Can we please have a moment of silence for all the trans people we’ve lost to anti-trans violence in 2019?
Thank you.
I’m not the first Black trans person to receive this award, and you can trust and believe I won’t be the last Black trans person standing up on a future Creating Change stage to pick up one of their own.
Kylar Broadus received this Hyde award during Creating Change 2011 held in Minneapolis. He’s a trailblazer, community leader and a man I have the utmost respect for. I’m proud to be on this date following in his footsteps and receiving this prestigious award.
As much as native Houstonians like myself revel in poking fun at the third largest city in the state because it is ingrained in people growing up either here or in Dallas to throw shade at each other and their respective NFL franchises (Go Texans!) , there is no denying the fact that Dallas has been a major part of my life. My mom grew up here until her junior year of high school and my grandfather was transferred by his Continental Airlines job to Houston.
Every summer, my family and I made the four hour trip up I-45 to Dallas to visit many of my relatives that still live here in the area and span the Metroplex from Garland to DeSoto, and South Dallas to Oak Cliff. I’ve been coming here since 2013 for the Black Trans Advocacy Conference, and proudly sit on the Black Trans Advocacy Coalition board as a member of Black Transwomen Inc. I’ll be back here to spend my birthday week at BTAC’s 9th annual conference also being held here in Dallas May 5-10.
And I can’t forget last year, when I made multiple trips to Dallas for everything from a BTAC leadership institute to Muhlaysia Booker’s wake and funeral.
I’ve been a trans activist for over two decades, and 2019 was a milestone year on two levels. It marked 25 years since that April 4,1994 day I walked into Houston’s Intercontinental Airport to begin the work shift at my airline job that would change the course of my life for the better.
2019 also was the year that I passed the 20th anniversary of my first Texas trans lobby day organized by my late mentor Sarah DePalma, the ED of the Texas Gender Advocacy Information Network or TGAIN. TGAIN is still around, but is now called the Transgender Education Network of Texas.
It also marked the 20th anniversary of me attending my first Creating Change conference in Oakland.
But to be honest, when I started the transition in 1994, being an activist was the furthest thing from my mind. My goals then were a little more modest. I wanted to do my 35 years at the airline job I absolutely loved and retire I wanted to just get comfortable being me and enjoy my life evolving into the fabulous Black trans woman you see on this stage today.
There’s an old saying that if you want to make God laugh, try to plan out your life.
There used to be an organization back in the day called the International Foundation for Gender Education (IFGE) that was around until 2015. Back in the 90’s they published a quarterly magazine called Transgender Tapestry that I started a subscription to in 1995.
In 1997 they decided to publish a series of articles highlighting 100 out and proud trans leaders. The first magazine I received highlighted 25 people, many of them iconic elders in our community like Jamison Green and Phyllis Frye just to name a few.
But as I read that article, I was left asking the question, “Where are the trans leaders who look like me?” I know we exist.
I get my next quarterly Tapestry issue, and it finally had two Black people in it. RuPaul and Dennis Rodman.
Needless to say I was pissed. RuPaul and Dennis Rodman had made it quite clear they weren’t trans, and worst of all their inclusion was perpetuating a racist stereotype that the only thing Black folks could do was be an entertainer or an athlete.
Never mind the fact that Marisa Richmond in Nashville and Dawn Wilson in Louisville were at that time running trans support groups called the Tennessee Vals and the Bluegrass Belles on opposite ends of I-65. Marisa and Dawn were also emerging Black trans community leaders that I would later meet at the 1999 Southern Comfort in Marisa’s case and Dawn at the 2000 IFGE Convention in DC.. I’m also proud to call them my friends,
So after seeing that I resolved to not only be at the 1998 GenderPac Lobby Days in Washington DC, I made it my mission to start getting involved in local and national trans activism.
So yeah, a jacked up article in a trans magazine was the impetus for me getting into trans activism, and I never looked back.
When I came into trans activism in 1998, there was unfortunately a prevailing attitude that adding trans folks to pending legislation for the TBLGQ community would kill it for everybody, so all TBLGQ activism at the local, state and federal level operated on the euphemistically named ‘incremental progress’ model.
Translation: We trans folks were told by some Big Gay Org this bill won’t pass with you trans folks in it. Or we were told that ‘trans rights was ‘too new’, so let’s just take what we can get and we’ll come back for you trans folks later.
A later that never came. Ask the trans folks in Wisconsin, who have been waiting since 1982 for people to come back for them and add them to their state’s nondiscrimination law.
Sometimes the anti-trans legislative hostility came from our own community The anti- trans bathroom argument was created not by Republican politicians, but by one of our own in former US Rep Barney Frank in 1999 because he didn’t want trans folks included in ENDA..
The 1998 landscape also included the trans community being relentlessly attacked by TERFs, evilgelicals and being laughed at and considered a joke by politicians on both sides of the political aisle
But still we rose. During my 22 years in this movement, I have been blessed to see changes in how the trans community was perceived, and I'm happy to say that the Task Force played a major role in making that happen. As the Political Director of the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition, (NTAC) from 1999-2002, one of the first events I attended in that role was a National Transgender Policy meeting facilitated by the Task Force in 2000.
I got to witness the rise of our trans kids like Jazz Jennings and the Mama and Papa Bears as a political and cultural force for our community I got to witness politicians stop laughing at the trans community and take our demands for human rights equity seriously
I started a blog in 2006 ‘nobody reads’ called TransGriot that not only just celebrated its 14th birthday on New Year’s Day, but was just honored with its fifth GLAAD Media Award nomination.
I get to watch an amazing TV show called POSE in which the issues that affect the trans community get told as you watch it from coast to coast. The trans characters are also played by trans women, with trans women being writers and producers of the show.
I’m also happy to witness trans men not only become better known in Hollywood, but stepping up across the country and the world to take on their leadership roles in the movement. I’m also proud to see my Dallas based sibs in BTMI under Carter Brown’s leadership role model not only what that leadership looks like from a Black trans masculine perspective, but also be sterling examples of Black men while doing so.
I have gotten to witness people like Virginia Delegate Danica Roem get elected and reelected to their state legislature. I got to see Black trans people like me in Councilmembers Andrea Jenkins and Phillipe Cunningham be elected to the Minneapolis city council and serve together on that body.
And naw siblings, I didn’t forget about the work that nonbinary and gender non conforming people are doing to drive home the point that gender is on a spectrum, not a rigid binary.
I have also been blessed to witness the beautiful sight of our Texas trans kids living up to our history of being tenacious fighters for trans rights in the Lone Star State and helping lead the charge in 2017 to kill twice the odious SB 6 ‘Bathroom Bill’ in a regular and a special oppression session.
It’s interesting that Creating Change is back here in Texas at a potential tipping point moment in our politics. We are now only nine seats away from flipping the Texas House to Democratic control for the first time since 2002 There is the possibility that we may flip this state blue on November 3 and flush John Cornyn out of his US Senate seat he has occupied for way too long at the same time.
We have lesbian and gay office holders across the Lone Star State from judges to city councilmembers to state legislators. I hope to see in my lifetime a Texas trans person get elected to public office before the decade of the 2020s has passed into the history books.
But much needs to be done here in Texas before we can see that glorious day. We mush flip our legislature and ensure that fair maps instead of gerrymandered ones are drawn. We must make sure that every TBLGQ person is counted in the upcoming 2020 Census and registered to vote. On November 3 we must do everything within our power to ensure that every person who is registered to vote has the opportunity to cast a ballot in a critical to our democracy election.
We must push to ensure that trans Texans are covered not only in our state’s James Byrd Hate Crimes Act, but a statewide nondiscrimination law.
In my Houston hometown, we must convince our female majority city council to pass HERO 2.0, and defend it from attack from the evilgelicals and the Republican Party.
We must kill any proposed bills in Texas and anywhere else in the US that seek to ban the ability of trans kids to get trans medical care before their 18th birthday or criminalize doctors for providing that treatment.
And yes, I have a message for Gov Greg Abbott, Lt Governor Dan Patrick and the Texas Republican Party: Don’t mess with Texas trans kids.
Don’t mess with our trans kids in the other 49 states and\ US territories either.
How do we accomplish all that? That’s why you’re here in the 214 area code for the next few days at CC20. You are here to not only network with the peeps that can help you accomplish those goals, but learn new skills, and brush up on ones you learned decades ago like I did at my five previous Creating Change events.
You are also here to hopefully make lifelong friends during the time you’re here in Dallas for CC20.
In conclusion, when I transitioned a quarter century ago, I never imagined standing up on stages as my fab self getting honored for the work I do to make my community, the Lone Star State, and our nation better. I never imagined back in 1994 that I would be appearing on Nightline or MSNBC, or doing print media interviews or podcasts to talk about trans issues.
I didn’t consider the possibility that people would be asking my unapologetically Black trans self to run for public office. I never thought about the fact that while I don’t have children of my own, I would gain a whole lot of nieces and nephews who chose me to be their Aunt Monica.
But it’s happening. I’m seen as a possibility model and an icon to a community that I’m unabashedly proud of. I’m proud of the next generation Black trans women I see who will make me look like a slacker by the time that I’m done in terms of what they collectively accomplish for our movement .
And to quote our trans elder Miss Major, “I’m still effing here.”
We’ve got work to do CC20. Time to go handle our movement business, get our learn on, and get it done for the TBLGQ + kids who look up to all of us.
And I’m not going to disappoint them.
Sunday, November 03, 2019
Sen Harris Iowa Dem Liberty and Justice Event Speech
Since it's now glaringly obvious the media won't cover Sen. Kamala Harris' campaign and are doing everything possible to erase, demonize and marginalize her so other mediocre white males can win the Democratic nomination, ,I'm going to do my part between now and the start of the primaries to post news about the Harris campaign because I'm tired of the BS.
Sen. Harris has redeployed campaign resources from New Hampshire and is going all in for the Iowa Democratic Party caucuses that happen in 90 days on February 3.
While the media was trying to pump up Pete Buttigieg and a post heart attack dropping like a rock Bernie Sanders, Sen Harris was making a rousing speech at the Iowa Democratic Party's Liberty and Justice Event on Friday night in Des Moines.
Didn't hear about it? Well, here's the speech.
Tuesday, September 24, 2019
Rep John Lewis Calls For Trump Impeachment
Earlier today he took to the US House floor to give a five minute speech calling for Dolt 45 to b impeached.
Here's that speech if you didn't get a chance to see it .
Thursday, March 07, 2019
Moni's TENT Trans Lobby Day Speech
***
To Emmett Schelling and the TENT leadership team, the Texas NASW leadership team, my fellow trans Texans, you Mama and Papa Bears,you citizen lobbyists, friends and allies in attendance.
It is a tremendous honor, blessing and privilege to be standing before you today as we prepare to head into the Pink Dome and lobby our state legislators and senators for our human rights. And since I am the TransGriot. I needed to take a moment to drop your trans history on you before we send you on your way to lobby your state reps and state senators.
Our job today, citizen lobbyists is very simple. It is to advocate for just laws to get enacted and do our best to ensure that unjust laws don’t pass this session.
So what is a just law versus an unjust law? As the Rev Dr Martin Luther King so eloquently put it in his 1963 ‘Letter From Birmingham City Jail’, ‘Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust.”
Translation: if you’re trying to pass laws that denigrate marginalized communities and people you don’t like, it is an unjust law. If you’re trying to pass laws that uplift people, they are just laws.
I had fun reminding Sen. Lois Kolkhorst and Lt Governor Dan Patrick of that point two years ago. I will continue to drive that point home to any legislator who believes their dry as dust religion gives them the right to oppress and discriminate against people they don’t like..
I’m happily here in the ATX with you a mere 26 days before my 25th transition anniversary on April 4. I’m also here exactly 20 years to the day I made my first trip to Austin to participate in a trans specific lobby day.
I’m also doing so with a heavy heart. Sarah DePalma, one of our trans elders who was the former executive director of TENT’s progenitor organization TGAIN, the Texas Gender Advocacy Information Network, passed away a few weeks ago at age 67 Her memorial service is today. .
She not only was TGAIN’s executive director, she also headed an early national trans rights organization called It’s Time America She was proudly standing up for our human rights in the late 80’s, 90’s and early 2000’s, and walked these Capitol building halls multiple times.
Sarah was also along with Phyllis Frye one of my activist mentors. She was standing up for trans rights before I transitioned in 1994. She was a co host on KPFT-FM’s ‘After Hours’ show
As TGAIN’s executive director, DePalma also organized trans lobby days over multiple Texas legislative sessions. She fought for trans inclusion in lesbian and gay orgs resisting it until Parkinson’s Disease started affecting her in 2005.
We in Texas and the nation are indebted to our transcestor for being a fierce warrior for our community.
DePalma wrote in a 1994 letter a comment that was published by the This Week In Texas LGBTQ magazine that I’m going to remix here “Transgender people and drag queens cannot be hidden without our cooperation, and we refuse to hide. Get used to it, Texas.”
May we please take time to honor Sarah DePalma by having a moment of silence in her memory? Thank you
Raise your hands if this is the first time you have participated in a trans lobby day or a lobby day of any kind.
Whether this is your first time or you’re a veteran of these events like me, I want to take the opportunity to thank you for taking time out of your busy lives to let your legislators know that your human rights are precious to you.
There are nearly one million of us TBLGQ Texans in the Lone Star State. If all of the estimated 930,000 of us were living in our own fabulous rainbow flavored city, we would be the fifth largest city by population in Texas. It would also be a city that had non discrimination protections for its citizens, something that the unjust SB 15 wants to take away.
And note to all you politicians within and beyond the sound of my voice. We LGBTQ Texans vote in EVERY election cycle..
As I mentioned, I first ventured to Austin for a trans lobby day in 1999. The political landscape was different at that time. George W Bush was our governor. The Texas House had a six seat Democratic edge, and a one seat Republican one in the Texas Senate.
We had a modest goal of getting included in the James Byrd Hate Crimes bill and getting a TGAIN sponsored name change bill passed that would take the name change process out of the Texas court system and make it an administrative process.
While we weren’t successful in doing so in 1999, what we did accomplish was visiting all 150 house offices and all 31 Texas senators despite having about 20 people to do so who were predominately from Houston, San Antonio, and Austin.
Today that torch on the name change legislation has been picked up by Reps Jon Rosenthal with HB 1835, HB 2089 by Rep. Garnet Coleman, and Sen. Jose Rodriguez with SB 154.
We’re also still trying to get included in the Byrd Hate Crime bill, and Rep Coleman has sponsored HB 1513 to make that happen
One of the things we didn’t have 20 years ago that we do now is the support of many organizations like the Texas chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, PFLAG, Equality Texas, and HRC,
Texas based organizations now exist that advocate for the issues of trans people of color like the Dallas based Black Trans Advocacy Coalition founded by Carter Brown, and the Houston based Organization Latina de Trans in Texas founded by Ana Andrea Molina
We also have fighting alongside of us the parents of transgender kids that we lovingly call Mama and Papa Bears. They have been invaluable, along with our trans kids themselves, in dispelling the myths and stereotypes that crop up about trans people, and even getting legislators through their lobbying efforts to change their minds about unjust legislation and pass
The trans kids have also been some of our best community ambassadors for spreading the word that trans people exist, and that we are an undeniable part of the diverse mosaic of human life.
And everything we are doing here on March 7, 2019 is to ensure that 20 years from now the Kai Shappleys, Libby Gonzales’ and Zuri’s of our state who are in elementary and middle school don’t have to come here to lobby every session for basic human rights coverage.
I want them to be building upon the trans lobbying work we do in our Capitol today. But since I’m still doing this work 20 years later, I won't be surprised if I'm still blessed to be around in 2039 to witness it that I will probably see them doing so on behalf of our community
Yes, Trans Lobby Day is about our trans and gender non conforming kids and making life better for future generations . Some of what we elders do here we may never reap the benefits of it. But if it does happen for us trans elders sooner than that, that’s all good as well.
Texas trans kids, here’s a message to you from your Aunt Moni. I and your trans elders will fight for you with every fiber of our unapologetic trans beings You are our future. We will do our utmost to make it a great one for you. So dream big, get those good grades, make friends with people who unconditionally love you, and be better quality people than the bullies who irrationally hate on you.
One of the things we also have going for us now we didn’t have in 1999 was the overwhelming support of the business community. They said it loud and clear in 2017 and before this session started that they see diversity as a core principle of their businesses, and discrimination hurts their bottom line.
Target and Victoria’s Secret are excellent examples of what I’m talking about here. Target just reported their best earnings since 2005 and business is booming for them. Meanwhile a business that went in the opposite direction in Victoria’s Secret is seeing lackluster sales and is closing 58 stores.
Bigotry costs you money As North Carolina proved in the wake of the passage of the unjust and transphobic HB 2, it can also cost you convention and hospitality business and sporting events that bring in millions of dollars to your state's economy. .
We also have increasing support from progressive pastors who have no problem telling the world we trans people are God’s children despite whatever faux faith based anti-trans hate speech Dave Welch, Jonathan Saenz, Steven Hotze and other Texas right wing hate mongers keep putting out there.
I also must give thanks to the people in the social work, education, media and medical communities who unequivocally support our human rights struggle and fight back against the ignorance and attempts to demonize and dehumanize our community.
In closing I want to salute you citizen lobbyists and give you a few pro tips. Relax, take a deep breath and don’t be scared to talk to your state senators and state reps. Yes, they reprepresent you here in Austin and have the power to write legislation, but the bottom line is that they still work for you.
Frankly, your legislators and staffers enjoy talking to a constituent who made the effort to come to Austin from their district far more than they do some paid corporate lobbyist with an expense account who is here in the Pink Dome nearly every day
Know your bill numbers and the basics of what they do when you talk to staffers and legislators so they can be on the alert for them when that bill hits their committee or the floor They can also tell you where they are in the legislative process as well in their respective chamber.
Please and thank you works, especially in liberal progressive offices that get a constant barrage of nasty calls from our loud and wrong opposition. Thank them for doing their demanding jobs and being legislative supporters of our TBLGQ community.
And before you leave Austin, take some time to get to know some of your fellow citizen lobbyists here today. You may make a lifelong friend before this day is over.
Your authenticity is your strength as a citizen lobbyist. You have a unique story to tell, so tell as much of that story to your reps and the legislative assistants in their offices as you feel comfortable in doing.
You don’t have to be perfect. Just be the beautifully human people I know all of you are.
Sunday, February 24, 2019
Rep Herod Drops Some Knowledge In The Colorado House
"To all of the young people who think that they have to choose between going to church or honoring who they are as a person - their sexual orientation or their gender expression - you don't have to. There are many churches who will welcome you with open arms. I as a Christian will welcome you with open arms."
-CO state Rep. Leslie Herod
I met this amazing woman several years ago through my interactions with the National Black Justice Coalition, and was pleased and proud when she was elected to the Colorado House back in the 2016 election cycle.
Herod also made some history when she did so as the first out Black lesbian legislator in Colorado history.
She's now in her second term as the rep for HD-8, and if you aren't aware of it, Rep Leslie Herod (D-Denver) is all that and five bags of chips. Don't be surprised if you see her in a higher office someday
She took to the House floor to school some folks trying to use religious to fearmonger on HB19-1032, a comprehensive human sexuality education bill.
You can check out the link to her floor speech here.
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