Courting Nikki

She's been with the ancestors for the last seven months and her 44 year life was way too short for all of us who loved her, but Nikki Araguz Loyd will never be forgotten by me or anyone in our community.

She will also not be forgotten for her ginormous contribution to trans rights for us trans Texans.  It was her tenacious and ultimately successful six year legal fight in the Delgado v Araguz case that secured marriage rights for us here in the Lone Star State.

Courting Nikki is a short documentary by Cressandra Thibodeaux that follows Nikki through this case.  It also brought back some memories for me of that time and the amazing complex woman I was blessed  to call my friend.

This documentary video was shown at Nikki's memorial service

Anchorage Anti-Trans Proposition 1 Defeated!

While many of us were heading to bed in the Lower 48, the citizens of Anchorage, Alaska were counting ballots in the latest trans rights battleground.

The anti-trans hate group the Alaska Family Council had managed to get a proposition on the ballot that if it had passed, would have stripped the trans protetctions from the city's LGBTQ rights law passed in 2015 by the Anchorage Assembly.   Proposition 1 would have also barred transgender people from using the facilities and locker rooms that matched their gender presentation, even if they had changed their identity documents.

Translation:  The Alaska Family Council haters were trying to pass a nastier Last Frontier version of North Carolina's HB 2. 

It was also going to be the first time that the city of Anchorage would attempt to use a mail-in ballot for a civic election, and turnout was expected to be high.   Anchorage is also the largest city in the state of Alaska .

The Yes on 1 IForces of Intolerance rolled out the usual anti-trans playbook of anti-trans lies and fear mongering but were outgunned by Fair Anchorage, the coalition group working to defeat the unjust Proposition 1   

The Yes on 1 haters raised $128,000 to spend on their scampaign to $800,000 for the Fair Anchorage coalition.   Fair Anchorage not only had more money, they learned the lessons from the failed HERO defense fight here in H-town and attacked the bathroom predator myth head on.

Meanwhile the Yes on 1 side was committing the cardinal sin in Alaskan politics of using a non-Alaskan in their commercials. 

In addition to ads from Alaska' native community, who have felt the sting of discrimination themselves, advocating for their trans neighbors and urging a NO vote,  Fair Anchorage also had local trans people in their commercials and engaged in their coalition of groups fighting this latest trans rights battle.



That predictably deployed trans predator lie by the YES on 1 trans oppressors was also blown up not only in this ad featuring an APD officer, but  a statement from the Fair Anchorage campaign that quoted firefighters, former state reps and a former police spokesperson. 

It also pointed out that a YES vote would be bad for Anchorage.

“While backers of Prop 1 claim they're advocating for public safety, nothing could be further from the truth," Mike Stumbaugh, president of Anchorage Firefighters Union Local 1264, said, according to the press release issued by Kati Ward, Fair Anchorage campaign manager. "And in the 200-plus cities and 18 states with laws nearly identical to Anchorage's nondiscrimination law, the results have been the same: Protecting transgender people is not a threat to public safety — here in Anchorage or anywhere else in the country."

Over 40 Anchorage based businesses also opposed the passage of Proposition 1 as bad for business and the city reputation. 

Fair Anchorage not only aggressively tackled and demolished the predator myth, they also took on and demolished another of the right wing's favorite lies in claiming that by letting transgender women poop and pee in women's restrooms, cisgender women's safety was compromised.



And here's one of the NO on 1 ads that featured a trans person and their parent




35,054 ballots (17.4% of the city's voters) had already been returned before the April 3 deadline.  With all the ballots counted, Proposition 1 was defeated by a 53%-46% margin.

Congrats to the Fair Anchorage coalition for decisively beating the Alaska Family Council haters.
That's wonderful news considering Massachusetts is facing its own looming trans rights election this November. 

It also lends credence to what I have been saying in terms of transphobia becoming less of a winning issue for Republicans and the conservative movement 

What's Happening With C-279?

Well, so much from the Canadian Senate returning to work on September 17 and getting busy passing Bill C-279.  Prime Minister Stephen Harper decided on August 19 to ask Governor-General David Johnston to prorogue Parliament, a request that was granted a few days later. 

So what does that mean for us peeps south of the 49th parallel?   According to the Canadian Parliament’s website: “The principal effect of ending a session by prorogation is to end business. All government bills that have not received Royal Assent prior to prorogation cease to exist; committee activity also ceases. Thus, no committee can sit after a prorogation.”

Translation: Canadian MP's and Senators will not return to the business of legislating until after Canadian Thanksgiving on October 14.

So what effect does that have on Bill C-279, which was at Third Reading stage in the Senate before the Conservatives slowed down the legislative works long enough for them to get out of Ottawa for their summer break without it getting passed?

It basically resets the process for it in the Senate (which was probably the intent of the Conservatives when they stalled its passage) at First Stage, so C-279 has to go though the entire legislative process in the Senate again.

MP Randall Garrison is still hopeful C-279 will pass the Senate and become law, but we'll have to wait until after Thanksgiving to find out if the Canadian Senate thinks the human rights of its trans citizens are worth protecting.

Argentine Gender Identity Law Overwhelmingly Approved In Chamber of Deputies

Was perusing XQsi Magazine and was overjoyed to read that our Argentinian trans brothers and sisters are one step closer to having their Gender Identity Law become a reality.

The groundbreaking Gender Identity Law would be the first of its kind in Latin America and the world that doesn't require medical, psychiatric or surgical interventions to simply change your name and gender marker on identity documents.

If passed, the Gender ID Law would simplify the procedures needed for a person to change the name and gender code on all government documentation.   Instead of going through the court system to do so, under the proposed law you would make a request through the National Register of Persons.  For trans youth under age 18 the request would have to be made through their parents or legal guardian. 

The other wonderful feature about the Gender Identity Law is that it would guarantee that Argentinian trans people be granted access to vital and gender-affirming health services, including full or partial surgical interventions and hormone replacement therapies.

It was introduced earlier this year and according to an XQsi Magazine post by Danny Olvera cleared a joint meeting of the General Legislation and Justice Committees in early November.

On the November 30 last day of the session for the Argentinian Camber of Deputies,  the Gender Identity Laws passed on a lopsided 167-17.vote with 7 abstentions.

Needless to say the local rainbow community groups and trans people residing there were ecstatic about the fantastic legislative news.

“We can’t believe that the margin with which [the bill] has been approved had been so broad, and that all political blocs had accompanied the project, ” said Marcela Romero, president of the Argentine Association of Trans* People (ATTTA) and Secretary General of the Argentine Federation of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Trans people (FALGBT).

The Gender Identity Law now moves on to the Argentine Senate for its approval.  If it passes there it will need Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner's signature to become law.. 


H/T  XQsi Magazine

Nikki Araguz Update 20-Nikki's Getting Deposed

Haven't done a Nikki update in a while because there hasn't been much news coming out of the case until today. 


It's Nikki's turn to be deposed by the opposition attorneys in the case.   In our last episode Heather Delgado, the ex-wife of Thomas Araguz who filed this suit was being deposed by Nikki's attorneys.    

Just take a few moments to send her your prayers, positive thoughts and well wishes.

And for you TransGriot readers who want to catch up with what's been happening and what I've posted about the case so far at the blog, here's the link to do so.

Sucks To Be Disrespected, Doesn't It Del. Pena-Melnyk?

Was chuckling at the Metro Weekly post featuring Del. Joseline 'You People' Pena-Melnyk complaining about not being seen by Senate president Mike Miller concerning the unjust trans rights bill she 'worked hard' on.

Del. Joseline A. Pena-Melnyk (D-Anne Arundel, Prince George's) said, "It is a tremendous, gross disrespect to the community because he's marginalizing a group of people and basically saying, 'You don't matter, you don't count.'" 

 Hmm, is she talking about herself, Sen. Miller or Morgan Meneses-Sheets?

Yeah, Del. Pena-Melnyk, it sucks doesn't it?   Now you know how those of us who opposed your HB 235 that stripped public accommodations out of it and respectfully tried to have a civilized discourse with you about it felt when we were disrespected, belittled and yelled at by you.  


Neither do I feel good about being put in the position of having to openly root against a trans rights bill and advocate to kill it because it was so fracked up.


Now that you've and the EQ MD people tried removing public accommodations from a trans rights bill and it's about two weeks from deservedly dying in committee, can we go back next session or whenever y'all take up this issue again to try compiling a comprehensive trans civil rights bill that we can all get behind?

It's not a good idea to write civil rights legislation that beneifts a marginalized community based on being 'scurred' about what the Religious Reich will say about it.  

We transfolks already know what their game plan is.  They will lie, lie, lie and hope one of those lies is enough for y'all to be 'scurred' enough to water down the tough comprehensive rights bill we need   We hope and pray 'you legislative people' are smart enough not to fall for it.   

But alas, you and EQ Maryland fell for the Reicher okey doke.  Robert 'Android Marriage' Broadus and friends won before they even hopped in their cars to come to Annapolis to regurgitate that ridiculous testimony in front of your committee.


You now know what it's like to walk in our pumps.   Doesn't feel good does it?