Carmen And Adrian Get Married!

The VH-1 series Couples Therapy has featured Carmen Carrera and her longtime fiance Adrian Torres working out their relationship issues on this season of the show as she drops some knowledge on trans issues at the same time with the other peeps participating in this year's edition of it.

In a year in which we have seen a fictional trans person in Maya Avant get married to the love of her life on the CBS soap The Bold and the Beautiful,  watched Nikki Araguz Loyd win her protracted multiyearTexas legal battle to validate her marriage and take down the odious Littleton v Prange case at the same time, see Janet Mock marry her fiance Aaron Treadwell in her home state, and follow Precious Davis and Myles Brady as they prepare for their own wedding next year, it was nice to see this happen for Carmen and Adrian







Congrats Carmen and Adrian!   may you ave a long healthy and happy marriage.

'Go To College' Video

In order to help push the message of the FLOTUS' 'Better Make Room' initiative that launched back in October and encourages kids to go to college, First Lady Michelle Obama and SNL cast member Jay Pharaoh teamed up to do a video to promote it.

And yes, the FLOTUS briefly spits some rhymes in it.  South siiiiide!

Here's the video.

 

Mount Horeb 'I Am Jazz' Library Reading Draws Overflow Crowd

After a reading of the book I Am Jazz was canceled due to lawsuit threats by the Liberty Counsel hate group, a reading in the Mount Horeb Public Library was scheduled last night that was organized by Amy Lyle to support the trans feminine child and her family.

To the stunned and pleased surprise of the organizers, the book reading drew a crowd of 600 people in this town 25 miles southwest of Madison, WI.

"I knew that our Mount Horeb community was a loving compassionate and caring one for all kids--I knew that in my heart-but you all have just shown that to be overwhelmingly true," said organizer Amy Lyle.

The reading scheduled at Mount Horeb High School that morning drew 200 people at the school's flagpole before classes started.   The reading at the library featured Jessica Herthel, the co-author of I Am Jazz who flew in from California to support the family.

Mount Horeb HS Sexuality and Gender Alliance (SAGA) member Claire Jenkins praised the elementary school at the center of the debate and said "This is a day to show a little girl we love her."



You not only overwhelmingly did so Mount Horeb, but you also demonstrated it to the trans community and the world at a time when we trans folks of all ages really needed to hear some good news after a few days of negative events impacting us.

Thank you Mount Horeb for demonstrating what being supportive and caring trans allies looks like in practice and rebuking the transphobic Liberty Counsel hatemongers.

Diamond Stylz- No Time 4 It

Been a while since I've had one of Diamond's videos on the blog, and this one needs a signal boost.

And now for your viewing pleasure, one of the pioneering Black trans video bloggers on YouTube y'all need to be watching on a regular basis and I need to be signal boosting her stuff more often..

8 Holiday Comebacks For Shady Transphobic Relatives

For those of my trans family members about to travel home for the holidays, while some of you are unconditionally accepted by your family and looking forward to the opportunity to break bread with them, some of you with more complicated relationships with your blood family are dreading the trip home to break bread with them because of transphobic relatives that may drop by.

You may have had at one time or another while happily getting your grub on at the holiday dinner table some transphobic comments get dropped either in ignorance or microaggressively aimed at you by less than accepting relatives.

Thanks to MTV News, Kat Blaque and  Franchesca Ramsey have come up with eight comeback lines for you to fire back at the transphobes related to you if you find yourself during the holidays getting shadily served by your relatives an unwanted side of transphobia with your holiday meal.

As a TransGriot public service, I'm signal boosting the MTV video so you'll have it in a nice convenient spot to quickly view on your phones, laptops or tablets on the way to dinner with your blood family.




Safe travels to and from your holiday destinations, and here's hoping that your holiday meal is free of transphobic drama.

Carl(a) Trailer

As y'all know, I'm always on the lookout for trans themed movies that feature trans folks playing trans characters, and here's another one that should be on your radar starring Laverne Cox,

It's entitled Carl(a) and has two trans actors in it. Joslyn DeFreece in the title role as a trans woman facing opposition from her family as she is completing her physical transition and Laverne before she blew up.  The 2011 movie also stars Greg Bello and Mark Margolis and is directed by Eli Hershko.





Carla falls in love with a man named Sam who seems to love her for who she is, but he questions their relationship when Carla finally get the means to finish it.  She is faced with the choice of being herself or being with the man she loves.

Carl(a) will be distributed in limited release by Ariztical Entertainment in select theaters across the country on December 10, and hope we in Houston get to see it.

The Ad The HERO Defenders Should Have Been Running

This is an example of the type of hard hitting ads I've been saying that should have been run starting in September about our HERO haters.

Had Houston Unites had the political cojones to do that, we'd probably still have a HERO.

You cannot play nice with people who are willing to lie to win, and that should have been obvious when we fought the prevaricating faux Christian human rights oppressors to pass HERO last year.

Better late than never...

 

SNL Destroys The Bathroom Meme

It's too late for it to help us here in Houston, but what I have been saying for a while is that the bathroom meme needs to be made into such a joke and radioactive to conservafools they won't dare throw it .

Here's Saturday Night Live comedian Pete Davidson giving the HERO loss the wicked comedic treatment it deserves.

It's Not About The Bathrooms

In the wake of our HERO loss, now that we have the local media's attention that we didn't have during the HERO fight, the Houston trans community has gotten up off the mat and it coming out swinging against our lying detractors.

Dee Dee Watters organized a media training event on Sunday at the Montrose Center in which we discussed what we need to do if we find ourselves staring at the unblinking eye of a camera.  We also discussed talking points for ourselves and allies as part of our effort to permanently kill the ignorance about trans people.

One of the attendees of that media training was Vito Cammisano, and when it was over several of us got to test drive some of our talking points in front of his camera.

You might recognize a certain blogger 'nobody reads' in this video.

 ,

Trans Teen Surprised By Mom With Her First Hormones

For the transphobes who are trying to push the lie that parents supporting their trans kids is 'child abuse', I offer this in emphatic rebuttal of what you're trying to peddle.

Allowing a trans person to be their true selves is life saving and life affirming.

Peep this video of 14 year old trans feminine child Corey being surprised by her mother with her initial dose of hormones  after a 2.5 year wait.

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'Her Story' Trailer

Been hearing about this new media series project that Jen Richards and Angelica Ross are involved and starring in along with Laura Zak for the last few months.

Now we finally get to see the trailer for this web series with a targeted Fall 2015 debut..

It's called Her Story and features Jen and Angelica playing two Los Angeles trans women who have given up on love until two chance encounters giver them hope.

Richards plays Violet, the new girl in town who is drawn to Allie, a reporter who has approached her for an interview.  Ross plays Paige, a career driven girl like us attorney who meets James, the first cis man she has considered opening up to in years.

Can both women get past their own issues in order to take a chance on letting someone love them for the beautifully human people they are?





One of the things I and other trans people have been saying for years is that since Hollywood isn't doing the job, we need to have transpeople telling our own stories so it gets done properly.  

This is a concrete example of what I have been talking about, and so looking forward to seeing it.,

55th Anniversary of JFK's Church And State Speech

On September 12, 1960 during the heat of a close presidential race between himself and Vice President Richard Nixon, and because of concerns and skepticism that as a Roman Catholic, his religion would allow him to make important national decisions independently of the Vatican,  then Senator John F Kennedy delivered a speech to a skeptical Greater Houston Ministerial Association.

Here is the transcript an the video of that speech that was one of the events that helped him win the presidency by a razor thin margin over Nixon..

Charlie Rose Gender Identity Show

This was an interesting Charlie Rose show in which gender identity in the brain was discussed.

The show featured guy like us Dr Ben Barres, who happens to be the chair of the neurobiology chair at Stanford University, Dr Norman Spack of Boston Children's Hospital, Catherine Dulak of Harvard University, Erick Kandel, Melissa Hines of the University of Cambridge. and Janet Hyde of the University of Wisconsin.


Here's the video of it.

Gatorade Commercial With Prophetic Young Serena Statement

An interesting Gatorade commercial  has been airing in which a young Serena Williams is being interviewed by a reporter who asks her an interesting question

"If you were a tennis player, who would you want to be like?"

The commercial when shows video from different points of her amazing career before it cuts back to young Serena giving her answer to the reporter's question.

Check out the video...

Roland S. Martin Drops The Mic On Bill O'Reilly

Roland S. Martin tore Bill O'Reilly a new anus after O'Reilly used his Fox Noise show to bash #BlackLivesMatter, call them 'a hate group'  and vow in his white supremacist arrogance he was going to ' put Black Lives Matter out of business.'

And yeah, my fellow Houstonian let him have it .




I agree with Roland.  Until you, O'Reilly, are calling out the police with the same venom you spewed at Black Lives Matter, and by the way, I met the founders of the BLM movement in February, you do need to shut your racist, vanillacentric privileged ass up.

Ask A`Trans Attracted Man: Trans Murders Part 2

This is Part 2 of Troy's thoughts about the epidemic of anti-trans murders aimed disproportionately at Black trans women.

If you wish to check out Part 1 of Troy's commentary, you can do so by clicking on the link 

Ask A Trans Attracted Man: Trans Murders

Been a while since I've had a video up from Troy, and in this one he's commenting on the far too frequent murders of Black trans women.

You can check out Troy's other videos on his YouTube channel.

Geena Rocero Takes Part In The #GirlsCan Campaign

Y'all know how much I love my modeling sis Geena Rocero, and it was wonderful to see the latest thing she is involved in.    Geena's stylishly dressed self was onstage sitting with other accomplished women discussing the kickoff of a COVERGIRL Cosmetics #GirlsCan campaign videos.

It's a campaign launched in February 2014 by Soledad O'Brien and COVERGIRL that encourages young women to break down social stigmas and challenge themselves to achieve what many would say impossible.

In this photo Geena was sharing the stage with a CEO, a computer science specialist and a rapper who have not only broken down social stigmas and barriers in their own lives, but have excelled in their respective fields.    

Congratulations Geena for being part of this campaign and repping #GirlsLikeUs

Here's Geena's #GirlsCan video with Soledad O'Brien

Pastor E. Dewey Smith Calls Out Black Church TBLG Hypocrisy

One of the things I'm sick of hearing is the repeatedly debunked lie that Black people are 'more homophobic' when the reality is that since the 70's, the anti-LGBT movement has been overwhelmingly white in terms of the people who support it, lead the professional gaybaiting organizations, and the fundamentalist churches who push that anti-gay message,

You see idiots like James David Manning get air time, but won't call progressive Black ministers like Bishop Yvette Flunder and countless others around the country.that believe in radical inclusiveness.

So with that being said, i was delighted to see this video of the Rev. E. Dewey Smith of the House of Hope, Greater Travelers Rest Church in Decatur, GA.   He is an example of the ministers who aren't liking the ones who hypocritically attack LGBT people.

He gave a fiery sermon last Sunday that was posted to YouTube on Thursday in which  he slammed church leaders for judging gay people but “you change wives like we change underwear.”

Enjoy the video.

NIkki Araguz Loyd Eviscerates Dave Welch In Local News Debate

Y'all know I love my sis Nikki Araguz Loyd,  who is a kick butt activist in her own right fighting a now five year long battle to have recognition of her marriage to her late husband Thomas Araguz III restored.

The case is now at the Texas Supreme Court level, and in like of the Oberkfell SCOTUS ruling legalizing same sex marriage, it remains to be seen how this will  affect Nikki's still pending case.

Nikki was on FOX 26 last night not to talk about her pending marriage case, but to tangle with Dave Welch in a segment moderated by FOX 26's Isiah Carey.  

Dave Welch is a longtime hater and professional gaybaiter who before heading the Houston Area Pastoral Council, the predominately white right wing group of haters that Max Miller and his Baptist Ministers Assn of Houston and Vicinity cooned it up for in last year's HERO fight, worked for Ralph Reed's Christian Coalition in Washington DC.

He's been back in Texas attempting to spread his special brand of hate with the aid of sellout non-white preachers like Miller and friends.

Note to Zoey Tur, this is how you deal with a right wing hater.

Here's the link to the FOX26 webpage if you can't see the video..

Welch is probably tired of getting his azz kicked when he tangles with Houston trans women.  First Cristan took him down to the point where he refuses to debate her any more, then moi, and now Nikki have made him look bad on local TV.

But hey, the existence of trans people is not up for debate, and neither is whether or not as Houstonians, Texans and Americans we should have human rights protection.

Anybody like Welch who thinks their religious beliefs and praying to Conservagod trumps human rights  is our enemy, and doesn't deserve our pity or respect.