Caitlyn Jenner's ESPY Speech

Well, no matter where you stood on the issue pro or con, the bottom line is that ESPN chose her to receive this year's Arthur Ashe Courage Award. 

As to where I stood, it's on the pro side.   I appreciated the fact that it's the first time a trans person has received an ESPY of any kind.   I don't doubt because of all the interest and controversy leading up to this speech, will probably be far more folks tuning in to hear it than the total number of people that have ever surfed to read posts on my blog in its 9.5 years of operation.

So don't hate.  Appreciate the fact that we have a girl like us in Caitlyn who is sincere about being an advocate doing good in the community, is an experienced public speaker, and she's wanting to 'ejumacate' some peeps about our lives inside and outside that Microsoft Theater and do some good for trans kind.

And here is Caitlyn's acceptance speech for the Arthur Ashe Courage Award.

Let's Blow Up Some Conservafool Marriage Talking Points

As y'all have been observing, the conservafools are in full freak out mode now that marriage equality is the law of the land after the recent affirmative 5-4 SCOTUS ruling. 

But since when did the faux faith based haters let facts and history get in the way of a good lie?

The bottom line is that marriage is basically a legal contract between two parties, not a religious sacrament, hence the need to get a marriage license from the government before you do so.

As a TransGriot public service, here's a masterful takedown of all the right wing arguments about 'traditional marriage'  by Matt Baume that you can use on your right wing relatives, the ignorati as you surf the Net or the peeps reciting FOX Noise talking points.

Enjoy.

Miss Major Talks Stonewall

There is an upcoming movie about Stonewall that has pissed some people off because it gaywashes and whitewashes the real history of the rebellion that it was a trans, people of color and butch lesbian led event. 

Well, only proves the old saying that you have to be in control of writing the history, because if you aren't, you're not going to be happy about what is produced, especially if it is by people who don't like you.

Miss Major, courtesy of the Trans Oral History Project, talks about June 1969 night.

Nicole's 'Royal Pains' Episode

If you missed it, there was a Royal Pains episode that aired on June 23 featuring another of our amazing trans teens in Nicole Maines called 'The Prince of Nucleotides'

I finally got a chance to see some video of her performance  courtesy of YouTube, and here it is a scene from it..  If I can find the full episode I'll post it here.

John Oliver's On Point Transgender Rights Commentary

If you don't have HBO or haven't seen it yet, John Oliver, the host of HBO's Last Week Tonight had a ten minute segment on his June 28th show in which he discussed the transgender community that has received rave reviews and kudos from peeps in Trans World.

This needs to be seen, and here's the YouTube video of it.

Whoopi Calls Out The Duggar Hypocrisy On 'The View'

Gotta love it when hypocrisy is called out, and Whoopi Goldberg did so on The View Thursday in the wake of the Duggars jacked up exclusive interview with Megyn Kelly on FOX Noise trying to conservasplain their son Josh being a pedophile to five girls, four of their own daughters, and them covering it up.

"You brought God up, so it makes it OK to say this," Goldberg said of the Duggar patriarch pleading for forgiveness for his oldest son. "You're not forgiving of people. You’re not forgiving of people who feel differently than you.”

What also makes it odious is in the Duggar zeal to oppress TBLG people, Michelle Duggar bore false witness against trans people while recording a robocall used in a campaign to roll back a Fayetteville, AR nondiscrimination law, and then doubled down on the demonization of trans people during the Tuesday interview.

Go get 'em Whoopi.

Hillary Clinton TSU Voting Rights Speech

Hillary Clinton has been in Texas for the last three days to do some fundraising and other events in the Lone Star State to shore up the Democratic base here.

Yesterday afternoon she was on the Texas Southern University campus to receive a public service award named for the late Rep..Barbara Jordan, who was an alumnus of the university.

The speech was broadcast live on C-SPAN, and for those of you missed the speech, here's the video of it.

Angelica Ross 2015 HRC Corporate Equality Index Keynote

Y'all know how much love and respect I have for Angelica Ross, the founding CEO of Trans Tech Social Services and She's one of the leaders in our national trans feminine community that people need to be paying attention to.

She was the keynote speaker at a March 31 event revealing the 2015 HRC' Corporate Equality Index Awards, and had some interesting things to say as she stylishly stood at that podium.

And now, here's Angelica.

Open Carry Laws Racist Enforcement

One of the things I'm not in favor of is the proliferation of guns and open carry laws that allow ammosexuals to carry assault rifles in public.

I see them as problematic.  'Stand your ground' laws have come to be 'Kill Black People And Get Out Of Jail Free' cards for white people while Black people like Marissa Alexander do jail time for simply firing warning shots in the air.

I'm highly skeptical of open carry laws and how they will be enforced.by police departments that let's be real, have their share of racist cops.

And right on cur, here's a video that basically encapsulates how I believe these laws will disproportionately be enforced.

Note the difference in how the persons carrying an AR-15 down the street are treated.

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."

'Things Trans Men Are Tired Of Hearing' Video

Since all of a sudden everyone wants to know or talk about trans people these days, time to take this conversation in a trans masculine direction.  

There are a lot of offensive and problematic things that you don't say to trans women that have been elaborated on a few times on this blog and elsewhere

And now, let me present courtesy of my thespian brother Tajir Hawkins, a video that covers some of the things you don't say to trans men if you wish to be considered a respectful ally to the transmasculine community.

The Reel Majik Productions video is entitled 'Things Trans Men Are Tired Of Hearing' .

POTUS Remarks At 2015 WH Correspondent's Dinner

The 2015 White House Correspondents Dinner, AKA 'Nerd Prom' took place last night.  For those of you who missed it, here's the video from C-SPAN.

PBS-The Quiet Trans Revolution

More evidence that trans human rights and the transgender tipping point talked about in the Time magazine story is happening.

This PBS story interviewing Alex Myers, who transitioned in the mid 90's and became the first trans graduate of Harvard

Mika Mashes Fiorina Misinformation

The Right Wing Noise Machine is on full blast after former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton declared she is a candidate for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination.  

They have deployed the GOP women pundits to attack Hillary, and some have as usual gone to ridiculous lengths to do so.

One such attack on Clinton came from Carly Fiorina, the failed HP executive that for some reason is tapped for her business experience by Republican candidates.

Watch Mika Brezinski do her job and masterfully point out to Fiorina that she was throwing her partisan shade at Clinton while living in a glass house.

Roll that beautiful YouTube video.

ET Interview With Karla Mosley

For some of y'all who aren't soap fans, the long running CBS soap The Bold and the Beautiful has been running a storyline with a major and historic twist in which Maya Avant, played by actress Karla Mosley is revealed to be a trans woman.

It's historic and vitally important because for the first time we have a major character on a network soap who is a trans woman of color.

Entertainment Tonight recently interviewed Ms. Mosley about her groundbreaking character.

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.

Dale Hansen Calls Out The Flower Mound Bigots

You'll recall I wrote about the bigotry eruption that occurred at the recent February 13 Flower Mound-Plano East boys basketball game that got deserved national attention and condemnation.

Now longtime WFAA-TV sportscaster Dale Hansen has added his voice to those condemning what happened in that town.  You'll remember Hansen on these electronic pages  for his commentary in support of NFL draftee Michael Sam.

Now he's calling out what happened in Flower Mound.

Sen. Boxer Calls The GOP Senators Out

“I thought they were the party of ‘family values.’ Show me where that’s true? Ripping families apart? I thought they were the party of ‘economic prosperity.’ Show me how that’s true, when we know from study after study that one of the greatest things we can do for our economy and job creation is get people out of the shadows so they can go buy a home and hold a good job. They (Republicans) can’t or won’t pass an immigration bill. They will not do their job. So when the president steps in and does his job, they say, ‘Oh, this is terrible! Let’s shut down a totally unrelated department. The Department of Homeland Security.”
-Sen. Barbara Boxer

Too bad Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) is retiring in 2016.

She called out the Teapublicans in a blistering 20 minute floor speech that took them to task for the off the charts hatred of President Obama among other subjects that those of us sick of the GOP have long called their butts out for.

And yes, I have the video of Senator Boxer handling her US senate business.  Enjoy the verbal smackdown  she delivered.

Debi Jackson Talks To GLAAD

Remember when Debi Jackson gave the moving speech about her trans child AJ and did some mythbusting along the way?

Well it's a year later, and she's now talking about acceptance and that journey she's been taken on with her trans feminine daughter with Claire Pires