Mile High Chillin' With My Family

Moni's was in the middle of her just concluded family reunion in Colorado's state capitol over the weekend just relaxing.

The reason you TransGriot readers are just now seeing this post about it is because I decided before I left Houston to take the opportunity to unplug from the Net for a few days, recharge the creative batteries and treat this reunion like a vacation.  

I didn't want to think about anything activism or blog related because I was going to have plenty of time to deal with that when I returned to Houston starting July 2.    

In addition to seeing my blood family members from different parts of the country and meeting my Colorado based cousins I tried to carve out some time to hang out with the Denver based trans family before I headed back to Texas Sunday after arriving there a little after 5 PM MDT Thursday afternoon.

We bounced out of Houston at 10 PM CDT Wednesday night headed north on I-45 toward Dallas on the first leg of a 1100 mile trip that would take us up I-45, on I-30 west for a mile to connect with I-35E going north to Denton and its merger point with I-35W from Fort Worth, I-35 through Oklahoma City and Wichita, KS to I-135 north to Salina, KS and west on I-70 through the Sunflower State to Colorado.

Thursday was a gorgeous travel day with not a cloud in the sky and the best part about starting that late was we got through Dallas and OKC before the morning rush hour started and while most of the truckers were asleep. 

We did get to see a lot of interesting scenery during the drive and as I'm used to with Dawn and Polar thought provoking commentary on a lot of topics.

This time the commentary came from the smart people that are part of my family tree.

As we rolled north and west we spotted acres of farmland with soybeans and wheat growing on it.  Cattle grazing in Oklahoma, Kansas and Colorado.  Grain silos dotting the flat plains of Kansas to the horizons edge, clusters of wind turbines producing power west of Salina, KS and Limon, CO and farmers along I-135 and I-70 in Kansas busily harvesting their wheat in preparation to sending it to market.  

When I spotted that United plane on final approach to DIA, passed the hotel I stayed at on the corner of  I-70 and Quebec St. that was a Hilton back in 1988 during my Air Marshal days and the Havana Street exit that used to lead to Stapleton it reminded me for a moment about how much things had changed in Denver, my life and how much I missed the airline biz.

But I couldn't dwell on that thought long because we did get to Denver right at rush hour and I happened to be behind the wheel of our rented van. One thing that hasn't changed about the city is that traffic on I-25 and I-70 still sucks.

Before I'd left Houston I'd planned a Friday lunch outing with Eden Lane and hanging out with Kelley Winters as well on Saturday but you know what they say about best laid plans.  Complications killed both of those planned events (darn it) after I arrived here Thursday afternoon. 

It was unseasonably warm here in Denver the first two days with the temps clocking in at 95 and 97 degrees. (No Denver peeps, I didn't bring the heat from Texas with me)  But considering I ducked out of Houston as the temperature spiked up to 100 and 102 on Thursday and Friday for the first time this summer, this was heaven.  

Took a ride on the South Platte Trolley by the Aquarium on Friday with my uncle and aunt, my grandmother, mom and sister. 

When the female guide after asking how many of us riding the trolley were from out of town and we Texans and New Yorkers raised our hands, she began bragging about her beloved Broncos beating our local NFL squads at Sports Authority Field at Mile High Stadium as we passed it. 

I got a return shot in to my family's and the New Yorkers snickering that wasn't the 31-25 case last season when they played the Texans last September.

Once a smartass, always a smartass.

Enjoyed the dinner at the Cheesecake Factory downtown with my family Friday night despite us having to fight our way past Coors Field traffic to get to it and spend a few minutes looking for reasonable parking.  We did find a garage in Tabor Center that was $6 right next to the place, so it was all good. 

Speaking of good, there was next door to our hotel a Mexican restaurant called Maya's that had great food, reasonable prices, sizable portions and excellent service that we went to on Thursday evening and just before we departed Denver on Sunday afternoon. 

Our LaQuinta hotel in addition to being next to I-25 and close to downtown also had free breakfast.  After I helped myself to the juice and waffles I walked out of the front door of the hotel and hiked up the viaduct toward Coors Field to burn off those calories.

I also had a nice conversation with several people from the San Francisco bay area checked into the hotel during my stay there who were in town to watch their beloved Giants take on and get spanked by the Rockies

So I could get away from the hotel once my Saturday event with Kelley also turned out to be a disappointing no-go, I tagged along on a trip up I-25 to Dacono, CO where there is a motocross and go-cart track complex.  I watched my Uncle Leo and my cousin William do some laps around the track in carts that can run up to 60 MPH and required them to suit up and wear a helmet for the ride.

The storm clouds started gathering over the Rockies and looking like they were about to drop another monsoon like rain on us, but didn't.  It actually cooled things down before they headed into the mountains to hit a casino and I took the opportunity to have some quiet time without my grandmother in the room and get some sleep I would sorely need when we hit the road the next day.

I enjoy doing road trips, and this one was not only a chance to drive interstates I don't normally get to travel on in the Midwest and see the Denver area again, I needed the change of scenery. 

And looking forward to the next one I do.    

HT to Mike and Joyce's Travel Pages and AARoads.com for the Kansas and Colorado highway photos I used in this post.  

Canada's Transport Committee Upholds Potentially Trans Discriminatory Canadian Air Travel Regs

North of the border the battle for trans human rights has been focused on a problematic change in Canadian air travel regulations that has the potential to bar some trans people in the Great White North from traveling on airplanes.

Sec 5.2(1)(c) of the ID screening regs of Aeronautics Act "An air carrier shall not transport a passenger if the passenger does not appear to be of the gender indicated on the identification he or she presents."

The fight against the regulation moved to Ottawa and the Transport Committee.

In a glaring example Canadian trans people of why elections matter to marginalized communities, NDP MP Olivia Chow's motion to rescind the problematic regulation was defeated on a 6-5 vote with all the Conservafools voting NO and the Liberals and NDP members voting YES to rescind it.

Your next step may be to apply for a sex unspecific Canadian passport which meets International Civil Aviation Organization standards and Transport Canada claims they are in compliance with. 

Stay tuned.  This is going to get interesting.
 

Canadian Air Travel Regulation Changes Concern Trans People On Both Sides Of The Border

Air travel is a stressful enough situation for trans people to endure, especially when we have combinations of identity documents that may or may not match our current gender presentations for various reasons.  

Mercedes Allen has a post up at her Dented Blue Mercedes blog which comments about a Canadian regulatory change in the Aeronautics Act pushed through by Harper government ministerial fiat that may affect the trans communities on both sides of our shared border.  

The air travel regulation change  happened July 29.  It has trans Canadians concerned and has the potential to cause problems for transpeople of other nations either flying to, from or transiting Canada if they possess documents that don't reflect their gender presentation.

Sec 5.2(1)(c) of the ID screening regs of Aeronautics Act "An air carrier shall not transport a passenger if the passenger does not appear to be of the gender indicated on the identification he or she presents."



Hmm.  That's problematic to say the least.   What if you're from a province that will not allow you to change gender markers on your ID without surgery?   The Canadian government also will not allow you to change the gender marker on your passport without proof of surgical reassignment or a letter guaranteeing you will undergo SRS within a year..

So in a nutshell, our Canadian transpeeps in that mismatched gender marker situation are effectively banned from flying on airplanes inside or out of their nation.

There are also a few US states that will not allow you to change the gender marker on ID without proof of SRS either, but that is mitigated somewhat by the State Department regulations allowing us to obtain United States passports with the correct gender marker without surgical intervention.  

The regulation's unintended (?) discriminatory consequences needs to be pointed out to Transport Canada.

The TSA Exists Because The Free Market Failed At Airport Security

Been hearing a lot of loud and wrong carping from right wingers attacking the Transportation Security Administration
  
I believe their hatred of the organization is partially based on the fact the TSA operates under the premise that  EVERYBODY is a potential airline travel security threat. 

It gets on their vanillacentric nerves about them getting searched by people in a position of authority making a decent hourly wage despite their white privilege fueled sense of entitlement.  They hate the fact that everybody has to go through security and it irritates peeps with the vanillacentric presumption that they are 'the good peepul' who should be left alone to quickly board their flights without much hindrance.  It's those 'dark people' who are the 'security threats' who need to be profiled, jacked up and if necessary strip and body cavity searched to keep the 'real American' flying public safe.  
 

The conservafools are also piling on the TSA in their zeal to reflexively hate on any job the federal government takes on and has any success at versus the documented spectacular failure of the private sector. 

The conservafools spout their usual bull feces that the almighty private sector can do the job of airport security better and cheaper than a large government agency.   

Um, no they can't and didn't when I worked in the airline industry for over a decade before the TSA was cranked up   Sometimes as part of my supervisory duties I ran the security tests on the private company we used at Terminal C to screen our passengers. I was alarmed and appalled about some of the things I was able to get through the screenings at times.  

And oh yeah, I guess you peeps forgot why we have the Department of Homeland Security and the reason the TSA exists in the first place?  

If you conservafools did, let me refresh your selective memories since it happened under a GOP president.

Does September 11, 2001 ring a bell? 

The TSA was created two months after that horrific event because of the well documented failures of the vaunted private security companies to do the important job of safeguarding the nation's aviation system and passengers well before that fateful day.

The 9-11 attacks were the impetus for federalizing the airport security screening process, and the GOP has hated the Transportation Security Agency ever since.  

The TSA growing pains and the well publicized PR stumbles of the agency along with the bitterly sarcastic joke that has people coming up with sometimes profane meanings for the agency's acronym ('Take Stuff Away') combined with the constant drumbeat of right wing talk radio, Fox Noise and Republican politicians hating on the TSA only exacerbated the problem.

The fact that Transportation Security Agency employees are fighting for collective bargaining rights only adds to the political hatred of the TSA in conservafool eyes as well.  

The Repugs are also pissed off that current TSA head John S. Pistole granted them extremely limited collective bargaining rights that only cover transfers and shifts and not salaries.   To show their displeasure they cut $270 million from the 2012 TSA budget which would force them if approved by the Senate to lay off 10% of their screeners.

Translation:  that means it takes longer for you and me to get through the TSA security lines at the nation's airports with less TSA employees there to process you through it.   

The Republifools are also upset that Pistole limited a program that allows 16 airports to opt out of federal protection and contract with private security companies under TSA rules.  The sixteen airports already in the SPP program could continue, but no others could join without demonstrating "clear and substantial advantages"  

But there is no doubt that the existence of the TSA has made air travel in the United States safer and the organization isn't going anywhere, much less being disbanded any time in the near future. 

It's past time that the Congressional conservafools stop playing games with airline security for politically partisan and union busting reasons.