Kelly Ripa GLAAD Media Awards Speech

The New York division of the GLAAD Media Awards occurred Saturday night.

One of the awardees was Kelly Ripa, who received the Excellence In Media Award

She was introduced by CNN's Anderson Cooper, and said during her speech that we need to be vigilant about attempts to rebrand discrimination like the odious 'religious freedom' laws our right wing opponents are trying to foist upon this nation.

She also noted it was strange to her to be receiving an award for "just treating people like people", and noted we still have a long way to go toward acceptance.

GLAAD president Sarah Kate Ellis hailed Ripa as part of the reason for optimism in a statement.

"For over a decade, Kelly Ripa has greeted millions of viewers with messages of acceptance and inclusion," she said. "By sharing inclusive stories with her audience and loudly voicing support for her LGBT friends and fans, Kelly is helping to drive acceptance forward."

Kerry Washington's 2015 GLAAD Vanguard Award Acceptance Speech

As y'all know, I have much love for Kerry Washington, and look forward to the day when I can meet her and let my inner fangirl loose,

In accepting the Vanguard Award last night, she cut loose with a powerful speech that brought the assembled crowd to their feet.  One portion of it was calling out the hypocrisy of marginalized communities turning on each other.

"So when Black people today tell me that they don't believe in gay marriage… the first thing that I say is please don't let anybody try to get you to vote against your own best interests by feeding you messages of hate. And then I say, you know people used to say stuff like that about you and your love. And if we let the government start to legislate love in our lifetime, who do you think is next?" 

"We can't say that we believe in each other’s fundamental humanity and then turn a blind eye to the reality of each others existence and the truth of each other’s hearts. We must be allies. And we must be allies in this business because to be represented is to be humanized. And as long as anyone, anywhere is being made to feel less human, our very definition of humanity is at stake and we are all vulnerable."

And here's the video of that Vanguard Award acceptance speech.

President Obama's Selma 50 Speech

In case you didn't see it, and I didn't see yesterday's speech live since I was traveling back to Houston from Washington DC, here's President Obama's remarks about the anniversary of Bloody Sunday with the Edmund Pettus Bridge in the background.

We owe much to those Bloody Sunday marchers, including Congressman John Lewis.   Because of that event, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 passed, and without the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Black political power it unleashed, we wouldn't have had President Obama standing there on this 50th anniversary of the event to give a speech about it.

Here's President Obama and the video of the speech.

Jazz Speaks At The Time To Thrive Conference

Y'all know how much I love the amazing Jazz Jennings, and when I finally met her and members of her family last summer during the Philly Trans Health Conference, I was more excited about it than she was.

She is not only one beautiful and amazing young woman, she has been an advocate for trans kids and our community since she was six years old.

So you'll always see Jazz videos here on TransGriot, and here she is speaking at the recent Time To Thrive conference.

FBI Director Comey's Speech On Race And The Po-Po's

FBI Director James Comey basically said the same thing Attorney General Eric Holder said a few years ago, but peeps are going to go gaga over this narrowly tailored speech on race and law enforcement because a white male said it.

Director Comey traveled to Georgetown University on February 12 and spoke to the assembled crowd about the need for law enforcement officers and the citizens they serve to discuss the historic and problematic disconnect between the police and communities of color.

Will be interesting to see the freak out the conservafools have about this speech.

Ashton Speaks At #MillionsMarchTexas

One of our fave local activists here in the Houston area, Ashton Woods was asked to speak at the recent #MillionsMarchTexas event in our state capital of Austin.

Here's what he had to say on the subject of intersectional justice.

President Obama Says The 'T' Word In His 2015 SOTU Speech!

"That’s why we defend free speech, and advocate for political prisoners, and condemn the persecution of women, or religious minorities, or people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender."
--President Barack Obama, January 20, 2015

The 2015 State of the Union speech was broadcast to our nation earlier tonight.

While there was a lot to like in President Obama's speech, one of the things that has electrified Trans Nation was the fact that he made a little history by mentioning us in it.

While cynics will say that the POTUS uttering the word 'transgender' in the State of the Union speech won't magically change the lives of trans people in the United States, it still matters to every trans person inside the borders of this country.  

What it does do is act as a shot of inspirational self esteem to a downtrodden and maligned community that damned sure can use it.  At a time when the Religious Right and the conservative movement is increasingly attacking us with falsehoods and lies, it makes us feel included in the life of this country.

We'll also be standing a little bit taller in the morning with wider smiles on our faces. 

It's wonderful when the leader we trans peeps elected with our votes twice in 2008 and 2012 recognizes us with the nation's and the world's television cameras on him.

It says to us trans folks, we matter.   It also mattered that our trans kids got to hear their president say 'transgender' tonight along with their trans elders.
 
Yeah, we in Trans America know we have a lot of work ahead of us until trans human rights are a reality across this nation.  But hey, let us trans peeps revel in our historic moment.

This is one State of the Union speech we'll never forget.

Fix Society, Not Trans People!

Lourdes Hunter last Saturday cut loose a powerful speech during a Washington DC rally attended by over 200 people organized to call for justice for Leelah Alcorn. 

She laid out the problems that trans people face in a society hostile to us, and issued an impassioned call to fix the problems now that ail trans kind.

"I am here to tell you that we don't need to be fixed," she said in the speech. . "What is wrong is society's depraved indifference, willful ignorance, complicity, and inactive engagement with the systems that deny trans people our humanity and our right to life."

Amen, sis.   Here's the speech.

ANZPATH Conference Trans Human Rights Keynote Speech

As I've been saying for a long time and it increasingly is being borne out, trans rights are an international human rights issue.

That message was driven home at the recent Australia and New Zealand Professional Association For Transgender Health biennial conference at Adelaide University that took place October 3-6

Australian Human Rights Commissioner Tim Wilson gave the opening keynote speech at this event.

He was appointed in February and the appointment was notable Down Under because Wilson is the first ever openly gay human rights commissioner.

Wilson's speech clarifies the Australian Human Rights Commission position on trans human rights issues.and leaves no room for doubt for our Aussie trans brothers and trans sisters where the commission stands.

Here's Commissioner Wilson's October 3 ANZPATH keynote speech.

Chad Griffin's 2014 Southern Comfort Speech

This will be a pivotal speech for HRC.  Depending on what happens after it is delivered, it will either start HRC on the road to redemption in the trans community or if handled badly as they are prone to do, set back their efforts to overcome their negative trans oppressor past another generation.  
--TransGriot August 12, 2014, 'HRC Deja Va At SCC 2014?

I talked about it on the blog and with Dawn and Polar while I was on vacation in Da Ville. 

They co-signed my thoughts I penned in that August 12 post and added a few of their own while we were dining at Impellizzeri's.  They felt that HRC President Chad Griffin's highly anticipated speech at Southern Comfort was going to have to be a big one to overcome the memories of the 2007 Solmonese Big Lie and the long, hostile anti-trans history of HRC towards the US transgender community.

Here's the text of today's highly anticipated by Trans World Southern Comfort speech by Griffin..

***

Hello! Thank you! I wouldn’t be half the person I am today without strong Arkansas women like that. Love you, mom.

It’s an honor to be here with all of you at Southern Comfort, where so many transgender people find strength and fellowship, and where so many allies can come to listen and learn.

I want to thank the organizers for the months and months of hard work that went into making this conference the success that it is — the Southern Comfort board members Lexie, Stefanie, Blake, Phyllis, and Christy, and special thanks JoAnn and Lisa for all your leadership as well.

I want to cut right to the chase here today. There’s an elephant in this room, and, well, it’s me.
Some of you may be wondering what I am doing here. Some of the more skeptical among you, particularly those I don’t yet know, may think I’m lost. I promise you I’m not. I’m here for a pretty simple reason. I’m here because I want to be here. And I’ll tell you why.

A few months ago, I was at the Ohio State University in Columbus for an HRC event — our Columbus annual gala, as a matter of fact.

Anyone here from Columbus might know that the Student Union at OSU is this big open building with this huge atrium that stretches all the way to the top floor, with event space on each level.

Our dinner was on the second floor. And when I arrived the HRC crowd had already turned out.

But when I looked up through the atrium to the third floor, I saw that there was a conference going on. Some of the attendees had noticed the activity below; they were clustered around the balcony, looking down at us.

It was a trans conference. The largest in Ohio. The 6th Annual TransOhio Symposium, organized by the courageous Shane Morgan. They were gathering after a string of trans women were murdered in Ohio last year. Another murder took place shortly after that conference was over.

And I’m going to tell you the honest truth: I had no idea the conference was happening before that night. And here all these committed transgender advocates and allies were—scholars, educators, everyday folks and their families there to support them. And instead of all of us working together, taking stock of all of our progress and the challenges ahead, and finding comfort in each other’s company, “they” were upstairs, and “we” were downstairs.

And, in that moment, despite all the progress the LGBT movement and HRC in particular have made on transgender issues in the past couple of years…

No matter how many brilliant, new transgender and allied board members, volunteer leaders and staff members are helping HRC broaden our work…

Despite every inclusive state non-discrimination bill we’ve fought for…

No matter how many thousands of hours and millions of dollars we put into the campaign for a fully inclusive ENDA…

There that divide was, for all to see. Plain as day.

I knew in that moment in the Student Union that something was deeply, profoundly wrong. I went up to that third floor. Introduced myself to as many people as I could. I felt like the biggest jerk in the world, because I knew that gesture wasn’t nearly enough. It wasn’t anything, really. I promised next year we would work more closely, that we would coordinate for the 7th Annual Symposium to ensure HRC had a deeper presence and a real partnership.

But all throughout that evening I had a sinking feeling in my stomach. We all know why that divide between the trans community and HRC exists, and taking a big step toward closing it is my responsibility.

So I am here today, at Southern Comfort, to deliver a message. I deliver it on behalf of HRC, and I say it here in the hopes that it will eventually be heard by everyone who is willing to hear it.

HRC has done wrong by the transgender community in the past, and I am here to formally apologize.
I am sorry for the times when we stood apart when we should have been standing together.

Even more than that, I am sorry for the times you have been underrepresented or unrepresented by this organization. What happens to trans people is absolutely central to the LGBT struggle. And as the nation’s largest LGBT civil rights organization, HRC has a responsibility to do that struggle justice, or else we are failing at our fundamental mission.

I came here today in the hopes that we can begin a new chapter together. But I also came here to tell you the truth. We’re an organization that is evolving. We may make mistakes. We may stumble. But what we do promise is to work with you sincerely, diligently, with a grand sense of urgency, listening and learning every step of the way.

And I also want to be clear that I’m not asking you to be the ones to take the first leap of faith. That’s our job. My mom taught me that respect isn’t given, it’s earned.

Over the past two years HRC has dramatically expanded the scope of all of our programs to reach more trans communities than ever before, and I want to take just a few minutes to talk about that work.
First things first: an inclusive ENDA. It’s an absolutely essential piece of legislation. It will change millions of lives for the better. And as an organization, HRC will continue to invest in and fight for an inclusive ENDA.
But even a broad, inclusive ENDA isn’t enough.

If you’re trans, a fully inclusive ENDA doesn’t do much good if you’re living on the street because you’ve been kicked out of your apartment…if you haven’t been able to finish school…if even getting a job interview in the first place seems light-years away.

That’s why, in the next session Congress, HRC will lead the campaign for a fully-inclusive, comprehensive, LGBT civil rights bill. A bill with non-discrimination protections that don’t stop at employment, but that finally touch every aspect of our lives—from housing, to public accommodations, to credit, to federal funding, to the education we all need to succeed and thrive.

And I’m going to keep being honest with you, this is not going to be an easy fight.

We’re going to need everyone working together, arm in arm, and even then it could take years. As we’ve seen in non-discrimination fights from the city of Houston to, most recently, Fayetteville, Arkansas, our opponents will stop at nothing to halt our progress with their scare tactics and lies. Let me tell you what… The haters have got bathroom fever, and they’ve got it bad.

But I want to say something here today. Whenever the inevitable chant about “bathrooms” begins, they’re not just attacking you, they’re attacking me, they’re attacking us. We can’t let them win. We must hold the line. We will tell the truth. Because these are our lives, and this is the moral thing to do.

But even that’s not enough, is it? After all, it was less than two months after a Maryland coalition, including HRC, helped enact a statewide non-discrimination law that two trans women, Kandy Hall and Mia Henderson, were brutally murdered in Baltimore.

That massive disconnect … the disconnect between legal protection and lived experience … is what too many in this country don’t understand or, quite frankly, even realize. We can’t afford to just change laws.
In rooms like this one, for years, you have been making the case that we’ve got to change society at a fundamental level by lifting up more trans people, your lives, and your stories.

You’re right. And if there’s one thing we’ve all learned in this movement, it’s that once Americans come to really know us, it starts to become impossible to discriminate against us. And at our best, HRC offers an unmatched communications and public affairs platform to amplify LGBT stories across the country.

In just the past few weeks we have demanded stronger efforts from local and state authorities to protect transgender people, particularly trans women of color ...

We’re proud to support Casa Ruby and Ruby Corado’s courageous work to support trans youth on their path to employment …

We’ve lifted up the stories of transgender Southerners like Andrea through our expanded work in the Deep South …

And yes, we joined a group of national LGBT organizations in telling the Michigan Womyn’s Festival that transwomen are women too.

But we’re committed to doing more than just speaking out. It’s essential that HRC be meeting transgender people where they are, listening, and acting to create positive change. And we have an incredibly important foundation to build on.

Over 10 years, for instance, our Corporate Equality Index has helped shift trans-inclusive healthcare plans from a rarity in corporate America to a best practice that is the policy of more than 340 major companies.
Our Healthcare Equality Index has helped bring transgender competency training and patient and employee nondiscrimination policies to hospitals from the heart of the Deep South to each and every Veterans hospital in the country.

Our Welcoming Schools program has brought safer schools and well-trained teachers to thousands of transgender and gender-nonconforming youth.

But we’ve got to do even more.

Over the past two years I have worked directly with HRC’s staff to dramatically expand our work that distinctly impacts transgender people. From the workplace, to the schoolhouse, and from the hospital, to the church pew.

Think about it this way. Everywhere you’ve ever seen an equal sign sticker on the back of a car and even pick-up trucks — every small town in the heart of a red state—we can touch that place. We can change lives there, for the better, for good.

Andrea mentioned HRC’s newly expanded work in the Deep South, work that is reaching more people than ever before. Today, we are also significantly expanding and modernizing our HIV/AIDS efforts, because we know that so many communities — including communities of color, LGB people, and especially trans women, battle silence and stigma because of this epidemic. So many have done so much to change that, and we want to lift up that work and expand upon it however and wherever we can.
But we can’t stop there, either.

I talked a bit earlier about antitrans violence. Horrific and senseless murders that stain every state in this country and too often go unnoticed and unsolved. It’s time to call it what it is: Antitrans violence is a national crisis.

Look, this is a complicated issue that brings in race, employment, poverty and so many other factors, and none of us in this room have the solution today. But what we do know is we can never, ever accept this violence as a given. And together we have got to turn the tide.

I’m here today to declare that a core aspect of our work moving forward will be to work with you to develop a national response to the epidemic of antitrans violence in this country.

Some of our senior team members, folks like our director of foundation strategy Jay Brown, our senior legislative counsel Alison Gill, and our new deputy chief of staff Hayden Mora are central to this work. And of course, our Board of Directors, including the tireless Meghan Stabler, who spoke to you here last year, and Mollie Simmons, who is here with us today, is working with us every step of the way. All of us are undertaking conversations with movement leaders, community organizers and individuals who are already at the forefront of tackling this issue.

We need all hands on deck.

They are supporting our trailblazing State and Municipal Equality team in undertaking conversations with movement leaders, community organizers and individuals who are already at the forefront of tackling this issue.

None of this work would be possible without trans advocates. I am so grateful for those who have been fighting for trans equality, literally, for decades and decades. From Shannon Minter, Mara Keisling and Ruby Corado, Lourdes Hunter, to Diego Sanchez, Monica Roberts and Masen Davis, and every single one of you in this room. You are not simply movement leaders, you’re an inspiration. You’re an inspiration to me personally.

Look, by now it should be clear that I didn’t come here today to tell you that HRC is perfect and that you’re wrong for not seeing it. Because we’re NOT perfect, and you’re NOT wrong.

What I am here to say is what a young trans man told me in the heart of Mississippi. It was a meeting with a bunch of local LGBT people in a church community center outside Jackson. There must have been 20 folks in that room, everyone telling their stories, sharing their struggle. But his story sticks out most of all.

You see, Bryson’s a city worker. Transitioned on the job. And almost overnight, he began to face unprecedented harassment. They made him shave his dreadlocks, even though his other male colleagues wore their hair long. They even went after his wife at her place of work, so much so that she was forced off the job. He was just completely run-down, with only his family standing beside him.

I couldn’t believe it. Why did he come to that meeting in the church that day? Why risk so much to tell me his story, despite all he’d been through and was still going through? He looked me in the eye and said, “there’s always going to be hope for a change.”

On that night in Columbus, Ohio, standing on that third floor balcony, I thought about Bryson. I thought about that young man in Mississippi. How can we, all of us, ever make that change happen if this divide between us persists?

My friends, please continue to hold HRC accountable. Hold me accountable.

Please be in conversation with us as we do more than we’ve ever done before.
We have come too far together not to share our progress.

We have come too far not to share the fight against the obstacles ahead.

There are a lot of people like Bryson out there hoping for a change.

And I promise you here, with my sweet Southern mom and all of you as my witness, that we won’t stop fighting until everyone in this room and everyone across this country has the equal protection, equal opportunity, and equal dignity that we all deserve as human beings.

Thank you very much.

Bamby's Liberty Awards Speech

I have much love and respect for my homegirl Bamby Salcedo, the founder of the TransLatin@ Coalition and a longtime Los Angeles based activist

She was recently honored at Lambda Legal's West Coast Liberty Awards ceremony, and had some emotional and stirring things to say about our ongoing trans human rights movement.

The Liberty Awards event took place under the somber backdrop of activist Zoraida Reyes' body being found just 24 hours before she was to accept the award.

Congratulations Bamby on the well deserved honor for all the work you have done on behalf of our community.  

Here's the speech. 



 

President Obama's NAN Convention Speech

President Obama spoke at the 2014 National Action Network Convention in New York on Friday in which he called out the GOP on the voter suppression BS and a few other subjects..

You Democrats, how about you follow the POTUS' lead and do the same from now on until November 4 and beyond?  

The SOTU Speech I'd Love To See The POTUS Give

The State of the Union speech is happening later tonight, and I'll be paying attention like all of us political junkies and the pundit class will be.

President Obama will steer this one right now the middle and try his best to stay with the 'No Drama Obama' image despite the massive hate the Teapublicans and their conservafool acolytes have hurled his way. 

But just once I would like to see him give a SOTU speech in which he went Chicago Southside on their behinds.   How would that sound?

***

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, members of Congress, fellow citizens: 

I have had it with trying to be nice to these Teapublican jerks, and I'm going to go Southside on them in this State of the Union Address and call some folks out.

The State of Our Union is strong but divided due to these racist GOP fools doing everything possible to get back at me for whipping Mitt Romney's behind in the 2012 election cycle.  

They hate me so much they were willing to destroy the economy of the United States and the world just to deny me ANY success by following Sen. Ted Cruz's lead and shut the federal government down.  These mitches are so filled with hatred that they won't pass the Jobs Bill this country needs, immigration reform, reasonable gun regulation, increasing the minimum wage, rebuilding infrastructure, passing ENDA or do anything else that will generate good jobs at good wages because it's what I want to see done and they are beholden to the Koch Brothers and their 1% corporate paymasters. 

Something else I want to see done is fix the problem with the Voting Rights Act tossed into our laps due to another jacked up Supreme Court decision.  But you know the Republicans don't want that to happen because they know you'll with vote their behinds out of office this November

My fellow Americans, I know you want and would like to see bipartisanship bloom like the cherry blossoms inside the Beltway, but I can't keep offering my hand to people who instead of shaking it and doing what's best for the country and moving us forward together, take their hand instead to slap me across the face with it, spit in my face when they are done, and then laughably accuse me in their propaganda outlets of not wanting to work with them. 

Well, that's over.  They want to lie and accuse me of being a Chicago politician, well, they are about to see it live and in living color in 2014.   If they won't act to move this country forward in a bipartisan way, then I'll do it my damned self.   I'll use my executive authority to the full extent constitutionally permissible to move America forward.   There's more than one way to beat an obstructionist Republican, and I'm going to prove that to you.

And as I handle my business inside Washington DC, I ask you to do your part by putting pressure on your congressmembers and senators to act on the legislation already passed by the Democratic Senate that is bottled up in the House because Speaker Boehner refuses to bring it to a vote.

If Speaker Boehner continues his recalcitrant ways through the rest of this year, then you get the opportunity on November 4 to vote him and the Republicans out of power on November 4 so that we can return the speaker's gavel to someone who will pass the legislation we need to move this country forward in Nancy Pelosi.

It's past time to end the war in Afghanistan and bring our troops home.   And when we do so, we give them everything we promised them in terms and they signed up to go into the military for in terms restoring all the GI Bill funding.   They earned it fighting to defend our freedoms, we promised that money to them, and we need to make good on that promise. 

And speaking of our military, it is past time to allow transgender Americans to opportunity to openly serve their country.  The time has come to allow patriotic transgender Americans the chance to openly serve their country like anyone else inside the borders of this nation we all love.   It is also time for our military to allow those transpeople who are hiding their true selves in order to stay in military service to be able to come out and openly serve our country.   Just as was done with DADT, we do so after consultation with our military leaders to expeditiously come up with the best practices, policies and ways to integrate trans Americans into the greatest armed forces in the world.    

We also need to act decisively to end the horrific situation that our daughters in uniform face when it comes to sexual assaults going unpunished.   American women sign up to serve our country, not  face sexual harassment and assault and have their superior officers turn a blind eye to it when they seek justice for what happened to them.   If you are not willing to act inside the military justice system to fix the problem, then we'll need to give our women warriors other options if their superior offices are thwarting prosecution of those crimes.

I've already alluded to it with transgender Americans in the militray, but if we are are going to lead the way in fighting for the human rights of LGBT people people around th world, we have to lead by example here at home.    It is past time that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans be afforded first class citizenship in the United States of America.  It is ridiculous that ENDA has not been passed, that many states still refuse to allow people to marry the person they love for specious reasons or use their faith as a fig leaf to cover their bigotry and prejudice. 

It is inexcusable that transgender people are facing the levels of hate violence they do.  Transpeople should have to hide because they fear that what happened to Islan Nettles will happen to them.   They should have to jump through hoops just to get identification that matches who they are now or if they are immigrants working hard to build new lives for themselves after fleeing anti transgender oppression in their birth nations being deported back to them.. You are first class human beings who deserve first class citizenship in our nation, and it's past time that happened. 

And why should we do all this?   We are approaching 50 years since the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed and signed into law by president Lyndon Baines Johnson.  I , my children and yours are the beneficiary of the changes in American society that the Civil Rights Act and other subsequent groundbreaking legislation engendered..

And let us keep building together a more perfect union.  This country works best when we are also contributing our ideas, talents, sweat equity and elbow grease into putting in the work to make as Barbara Jordan said. an America as good as its promise. 

We should have as our guiding North Star striving to make an America better than its promise.   Let's start that wok tonight as we leave this chamber.  

God bless you my fellow Americans, and God bless the United States of America.  

Moni's Speech To Houston City Council

TransGriot Note: This is the text of the three minute speech I delivered to the Houston City Council this afternoon during the public comment phase of today's City Council meeting.

                                             Speech To Houston City Council
                                                            January 7, 2014


Happy New Year and good afternoon to you Mayor Parker, distinguished members of City Council, and my fellow Houstonians.

I am Monica Roberts, a proud native Houstonian who grew up and resides in District D. I’m standing at this podium today because I’m one of the people that Mayor Parker talked about in her inauguration speech last week and was inspired by it to do so.   

As a transgender resident of this city, I’m keenly aware of the fact I'm not covered in this city’s current NDO and don't have the human rights coverage other Houstonians take for granted.  I stand here before you today to humbly ask on behalf of myself and other trans Houstonians that when you take up the issue of crafting a comprehensive non-discrimination ordinance that adds sexual orientation and gender identity to protections most Houstonians take for granted, to not forget us.

The late Nelson Mandela once stated, “To deny any person their human rights is to challenge their very humanity.”

Far too often many of our fellow Houstonians are all too willing and eager to do precisely that.  It took a court order to stop the Houston Police Department from using the 1904 anti-crossdressing ordinance then on the books in 1975 to harass Anne Mayes and other members of the local LGBT community with it until Phyllis Frye led the nearly four year solo charge to get it repealed in August 1980. 

Izza Lopez was forced to sue River Oaks Imaging in 2005 after it discovered during a background check she was transgender. River Oaks Imaging used that reason to rescinded a job offer they had extended to her

Lopez said about what happened," My first emotion when they rescinded the job offer was shock:; I was in disbelief. I had thought that if I passed, I would be able to slip under the radar of society's judgement and disapproval.   But I was wrong." 

Speaking of society's judgment and disapproval, Tyjanae Moore, was minding her own business at the Houston Public Library back in November 2010 but was arrested for using the bathroom appropriate to her gender presentation.  An overzealous female security guard believed gender policing was part of her duties, declared Moore to be in her not so infinite wisdom a ‘man’ and subsequently involved the HPD officer on site in this situation. 

And these are just the highly publicized incidents we are aware of.   There are probably countless others inside the 628 square miles we call home that go unreported because of the lack of human rights protections and the transpersons involved feel powerless to do anything in response to the injustice aimed at them.

Well today, I'm going to reclaim and own that power on their behalf..

While we have a proud Houston flavored trans history in terms of ICTLEP, (The International Conference of Transgender Law and Employment Policy) happening here from 1992-1997, the Josephine Tittsworth organized Texas Transgender Nondiscrimination Summit, people like the late Kathryn McGuire, Judge Frye, Vanessa Edwards Foster, Lou Weaver, Cristan Williams, Jenifer Rene Pool, Dee Dee Watters, myself and others rising to the challenge of leadership inside and outside our city limits, trans Houstonians and especially trans Houstonians of color feel more like third class citizens of it.

According to the 2011 "Injustice At Every Turn'  National Transgender Non Discrimination Survey commissioned by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, which is having its conference here January 29-February 2, transpeople have an unemployment rate twice the national average of 7%.  It’s even more appalling for transgender people of color at 3x the national average.

We face housing discrimination, harassment on various levels from grade school to collegiate campuses to health care and we’re fed up with it.

This shouldn’t be happening in the fourth largest city in the country, and the largest in the great state of Texas.   But sadly Houston is now the largest city in the US and the state that doesn’t have an NDO that protects its LGBT citizens from discrimination .

A world class city like ours protects the human rights of all its citizens. It’s past time distinguished council members, to let freedom ring in Houston for the LGBT citizens who live here.  You’ll discover that as you expand rights to include us at the Houston family table, you’ll expand them for yourselves and the Houstonians you represent.

I’ll close with the words of Barbara Jordan, a great daughter of our city and paraphrase them so they are applicable to my transgender brothers and sisters.

“What transgender Houstonians want is very simple.  We want a Houston that is as good as its promise.”

I and my trans brothers and sisters hope and pray that when you finally have the opportunity to exercise your legislative power to write that comprehensive non discrimination ordinance, you will expeditiously do so.

Zoe's 2013 Cleveland TDOR Speech

Cleveland's TDOR memorial ceremony had the added sorrow of remembering one of their own this year in the person of Cemia 'CeCe' Dove Acoff.
  
In addition to mourning her death when the news broke of it back in March, the Cleveland trans community then had to deal with their paper of record in the Cleveland Plain Dealer subsequently committing a journalistic hate crime against Cemia by grossly disrespecting her.

When people complained about it including me, instead of listening to what people from the community were pointing out and correcting their mistakes, the Plain Dealer took the opposite combative path and defiantly doubled down on the transphobic disrespect aimed at Cemia.

Andrey Bridges, the waste of DNA who committed the senseless crime was quickly arrested, subsequently convicted of murder, felonious assault, tampering with evidence and abuse of a corpse.   He will be serving a life sentence for it. 

There was even resolution between the Cleveland TBLG community and the Cleveland Plain Dealer.  After a letter was submitted requesting they cover the TDOR and do so with honesty and respect, the Plain Dealer agreed to not only cover the local TDOR , but meet with area activists to ensure that such grossly disrespectful coverage of a trans person never happens again. 

During their 2013 Cleveland TDOR, Zoe Renee Lapin, who organized one of the rallies held for Cemia  during that time person spoke to the assembled people at the memorial service. 

Here's her speech.

***

Realness isn't seen in your physical beauty but it's revealed through your heart. It isn't your ability to use one hand to give yourself a pat on the back and use the other to hold down others going through the same journey. It is your ability to look beyond the surfaces and empower your community. To be the greatest you that YOU can be, and then when you do that, do it again-but even better. The reality that your work is never over. The reality that this list gets longer and longer every year and yet the respect grows smaller and smaller.

Realness is realizing that "oddly dressed man found in pond" or "brutal murder marks the end of the fight for acceptance" is not appropriate, not ever. That until all of us are accepted and respected, we are all destroyed and neglected. That every "he, him, his, sir" that a transwoman gets is a direct attack to all of us. That every "her, ms, she, ma'am" that a transman gets is a direct attack to all of us. That every "it and thing" that a non-identifying person gets is a direct attack to all of us. Every drop of blood spilled, every tear shed, cannot exist in vain. That the time for silence is over and that the time for action has never been more prevalent.

My reality is that I am beautiful, my reality is that you are beautiful, our reality is that we are beautiful. And that when we come together in the name of equality, in the name of respect, in the name of our fallen-our cries will not fall upon closed minds and empty hearts. Realness is our ability to empower and encourage everyone from the young person living in the streets because they were forced out of their homes for manifesting their reality, to our elders, to everyone along the way.

Realness is if one of us makes noise, we all make noise, if one of us falls, we all have fallen. Realness is leaving none of us behind, in life and in death. The deceased before us have paid the price for their truth. The living in front of them must never forget them, we carry their names in our hearts and their vindication through our actions. Realness is realizing that Islan, Ce Ce, Ashley, Kelly, the unmentioned and the unknown, cannot continue to live their truths because of the ignorance and fear that propelled so many of their lives to a tragic halt. Realness is healing our wounds and healing the wounds of those around us. Realness is knowing that many in the outside world, even within our own community do not care about us. That we are a threat to their vision of equality, that we are a "burden" that they do not wish to bear.

As much as the term gay isn't a modifier of the entire lgbtq population, the slurs that some see endearing are not signs for our acceptance and validation. That the blood that landed on our footsteps is met with silence, but the bruises met on another are somehow unequal. That in Cleveland, we care more about pandering than we do the pandemic of inequality many of us face everyday. That we are told to all stand up for one cause, but have a seat for another. Your time will come, just wait. Wait...

Realness is the fact that the time is up. That our community cannot afford one more loss. That our family will not fall victim to your hand nor your words. That we ARE family. We are not in competition with each other. We must remain in harmony with one another. Our journeys may not be the same, but we are all in this race together. Our histories, our realities could not have made us any further apart-but I feel so close to each and every single one of you. Our realness, together, is our realness, together. We are our truth, we have manifested our reality. We are united, we embody those fallen and we shape the road ahead, and when we fall together-we rise together.

Masen Davis Address At 2013 TLC Spark Gala

The San Francisco based Transgender Law Center back on October 3 recently had their SPARK gala in which my West Coast trans brother Kortney Ryan Ziegler was honored with their inaugural Authentic Life Award. 

Here's TLC's Masen Davis addressing the crowd at the SPARK Gala.

Janet Mock NY Anti-Violence Project Courage Award Speech

Speaking of people who will probably need to build trophy cases for the awards, deserved recognition and accolades they are getting, Janet Mock and Laverne Cox both received 2013 Courage Awards from the New York City Anti Violence Project on September 26.

During her acceptance speech, Janet spoke about the recently murdered Eyricka Morgan, who remains misgendered by Newark Star-Ledger stenographer Sue Epstein because she refuses to change her original inaccurate story. 

President Obama's Morehouse Commencement Speech

There are some peeps in the African-American community and on Black Twitter who have voiced concerns about his commencement speech, but it doesn't take away from the history that was made Sunday afternoon. 

President Obama is the first sitting US president to do a commencement speech at Morehouse College and was given an honorary degree from the school. 

Janet Mock's Trans 100 Closing Speech

I saw the Trans 100 event live feed on Sunday and like the rest of you am anxiously waiting for the curators to finish their work getting the video ready to post along with the final touches for the Trans100 List itself.

Once that's done and it's available, I'll be posting it here.  

But in the interim, thanks to Meggan Sommerville and her Trans Girl At the Cross blog, there's video of Janet Mock's eloquent closing speech from Sunday night's Trans 100 event.  

POTUS Sandy Hook Vigil Speech

The POTUS speaking at Sunday night's vigil for the victims of the Newtown CT mass shooting.