BTAC Forever!

I'm now back on my end of I-45 after spending the past empowering week in Dallas at the 7th annual National Black Trans Advocacy Conference.

And it seems like the fact of BTAC's unapologetically Black trans self existing bothers some of you  white trans peeps.  Too bad. 

BTAC is a FUBU production in which everyone is welcome to attend, but you must bear in mind if you aren't Black, when you step into our trans Wakanda it is one of the few conferences in Trans and GNC World that is grounded in unapologetic Blackness. 

I'm hearing some bull feces laden chatter from assorted bitter white trans peeps that BTAC is 'racist'.

Um no boo boo kitty, let Moni school you are something.  Racism equals bigotry and prejudice plus systemic power and majority population numbers used by a majority group to retard, roll back or eviscerate the human rights progress of a minority group.

And don't even step to me with that weak azz Webster's Dictionary definition of racism or you will get your wig snacthed.

Back to talking about BTAC. 

Black trans and GNC peeps being at a conference in they meet others like them and unapologetically celebrates our heritage them isn't 'racist'.   You need to stop sniffing that vanillacentric privilege and talking out the side of your neck about an event you probably haven't been to.

And for those of you who doubt what I'm saying, you can come see for yourself when we gather in Dallas again April 22-28 for BTAC 2019. 

BTAC wouldn't have been a needed and necessary response to the ongoing marginalization of Black trans and gender non conforming people inside and outside the TBLGQ world if a long list of white led trans and SGL 'equality' organizations like GenderPac, NCTE, HRC, TENT, and Equality Texas had been doing their job of properly advocating for Black trans people.

More importantly, when they advocate for Black trans people, they hire us to do the advocacy work for and in our community  Since you equality orgs are belatedly coming to the realization that Black trans people exist and aren't going away, BTAC will.

This BTAC event was founded and built by Black trans men, who get even less credit for the yeoman's work they have done to build our trans movement, and that crap needs to stop

For seven years BTAC has handled its business and been a healing place for the Black trans and GNC community. It also been a place where we network, learn and do so in an unapologetic Afrocentric environment that welcomes all who wish to come.

It is needed, life saving and necessary in a world hostile to Black trans and GNC bodies.  Even more galling to us, that anti-Black trans hostility also comes from white trans peeps as well

BTAC is also a place where we can meet others who look like us, their supportive spouses and accomplices who unequivocally support Black trans people in Texas and beyond

It is also a place when we can sit down, interact with and listen to the wisdom of our trans elders. 

For a week we get to live in a Black Trans Wakanda in which we talk about community issues and come up with solutions to those problems.  It is a place where we get to build friendships, are affirmed, loved on and in many cases get to heal from the micro and microaggressive crap that is hurled at us the rest of the year by an increasingly hostile to trans folks outside world until it is time for us to head to our various locales to live our lives.

This year BTAC 2018 had three seminar tracks for trans women, trans men and our anchors, AKA the spouses and allies.   We're planning to add tracks for gender non conforming peeps since we had some show up this year in numbers and they expressed their desire for that t happen. 

We're  planning to have tracks for our trans and GNC elders above age 55 that we call the Golden Flames because we value their wisdom, respect and love them, and realize they have much to teach us in terms of their lived experiences and our history.

We hope that one day as this BTAC conference continues to grow we will have enough parents of Black trans kids and Black trans kids in attendance so that we can programming for them as well   . 
 

At BTAC we get to hear our names called for awards named for distinguished leaders in our community and celebrated at a Friday gala, not a TDOR that was hosted by Dezjorn Gauthier and Jessica Zyrie . 

We show off our talents at Trans Manifest Live early in the conference week.   Our pageant peeps get to compete for the Mr. and MIss Black Trans International titles in which they know before even stepping on that stage that when they win that title, they will expected to be advocates during their reign for our community

And we cap it all off with the Family Day, Black Diamond Ball, and the closing interfaith ceremony led by our elders on Sunday.

BTAC is needed and necessary, and it needs to be supported.   It would be nice if we got to see our Black legacy civil rights orgs like the NAACP step up as sponsors for our conference or the gala. 

It would be wonderful for our BTAC attendees to see our Black trans superstars in the house someday.

But until then, this Dallas, Texas based conference will continue to chug along and serve our community.   If you wanna hate on that, that's on you.

I and the rest of my BTAC fam here and increasingly around the world will smile, mark off our calendars to the last full week of April and return here to Black Trans Wakanda. 

BTAC Forever! 

Photo credits: Rebecca Jackson 

My Thoughts On The Houston GLBT Caucus-Baptist Ministers Assn. Initiative

People are weighing in on the what WAS a quiet effort to talk to the Baptist Ministers Association of Houston and Vicinity and the GLBT Caucus.

As one of the people considered a major unapologetically Black trans leader in the Houston, Texas and national TBLGQ community, I have also been asked my thoughts about this from multiple people including political candidates, members of the Caucus, and other thought leaders.

So here's what I have to say about it

You know from perusing this blog that I not only have been a vocal critic of the Baptist Ministers Assn, I was not in 2014-15 happy with them colluding with the Harris County GOP and our longtime assorted haters in Dave Welch, Dave Wilson and Steven Hotze.

And Moni STILL isn't happy with them and the rampant miseducation about the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance they helped grease the skids for that was critical in how it was framed and why it was rejected in the Houston Black community . 

But I also have been just as critical about the piss poor effort of Houston Unites and their Prop 8 2.0 campaign that spectacularly failed to educate about and defend the much needed ordinance in my community in large part because of the failure to listen to Houston Black TBLGQ leaders.

In order for us to pass and successfully defend a HERO 2.0 ordinance, you not only need to listen to Houston Black TBLGQ leaders, we are going to have to deal with the Baptist Ministers Assn and also the just as odious to me COGIC PAC. 

I also have some ideas about what else needs to happen, but it's going to cost you to hear what they are.  Y'all in the market for hiring experienced Black trans leaders, equality orgs?  It's kinda obvious we're needed and necessary to advance equity in this human rights movement, and not just equality.

We cannot allow Houston Black voters to ever again be hoodwinked and bamboozled into voting against a local human rights law that protects them in the Bayou City.   Neither can we tolerate sellout Black folks who collude with the Harris County and Texas Republican Party and white fundamentalists to make that miseducation happen.

It is past time for a 'Come to Jesus' Houston Black community meeting with those groups.  This is a family conversation that Houston Black trans, bi and SGL leaders need to facilitate because we need to and KNOW HOW to talk to our people. 

And as a member of Black Lives Matter HOU, I'm confident that we can successfully along with POC Caucus leaders and other Houston Black community leaders have that conversation.  Both groups are coming to the table with the common points of our Blackness and being sick of the narrative we are 'more homophobic and transphobic' than the white folks who draw high five figure paychecks working in anti-TBLGQ orgs , the white fundies ministers that get their jollies hating us, and support a Republican Party dedicated to oppressing us. 

Just before the January 2018 Caucus meeting, Mike Webb pulled me aside and asked if they could talk to me about an initiative that was being worked on.  I now know because of the drama this was the initiative they were talking about. 

I'm also not happy about the conclusion jumps being made in the article that the trans community is 'being thrown under the bus' and that Houston Black SGL leaders expressing their opinions about this situation informed by their Blackness and political knowledge of our Houston Black community and the players in it is 'cisplaining'.

Really?   Don't even insult my intelligence with that BS. 

This initiative is a Houston Black family conversation that once again, we need to and must have.  That means Houston white TBLGQ community, y'all are going to have to sit on the sidelines for this one until if and when we call for you.

It is an initiative that I definitely agree needs to have Houston Black trans representation at the table since we were the people attacked by the inflammatory anti-trans rhetoric.  Because of that anti-trans hate speech, Black trans people have undeniably taken the brunt of the anti-trans violence uptick that resulted from that 2015 campaign, the GOP efforts to pass anti- trans 'bathroom bills'  and the anti-trans rhetoric surrounding the failed dual attempts to pass SB 6.

So would I talk to a group that as you know I'm seriously pissed off at?  I sure would.   I definitely wouldn't mind talking to Max Miller, FN Williams and whoever else is leading the Baptist Ministers Assn of Houston and Vicinity as long as that apology to the trans community happens

The ministers need to know from a living breathing Houston Black trans person we not only exist, that their collusion with our longtime enemies was hurtful to Houston's trans community.

The Black ministerial collusion was harmful specifically to the Houston Black trans contingent of it, and the Baptist Ministers Assn of Houston and Vicinity need to as a starting point publicly apologize to us for their reprehensible actions to the Houston Black trans community.

And the Houston Black TBLGQ community will have a major say in how and what that looks like.

Wesley Muhammad Bringing His Hate Speech To Houston

"This man and this event is an assault on Black manhood! Cancel this event. Hate is not welcome in Houston."
-Ashton P. Woods

No this ignorant fool isn't coming to my Houston backyard to peddle his divisive bullshyt

After not learning his lesson in a city he couldn't even spell  and having to move the event to a Wilmington, DE Nation of Islam Muhammad mosque in that city once the Philly community got wind of it, 'Dr' Wesley Muhammad is bringing his special brand of transphobic hate speech to the S.H.A.P.E. Community Center on November 17 and 18.

Not only is Muhammad trying to peddle his TBLGQ hate speech here in H-town, he's charging people $25-$35 to walk through the doors of the S.H.A.P.E. Center  to hear it.

Naw Wesley, changing the title of it from 'How To Make A Homosexual; The Scientific Assault On Black America' to 'Chemical Feminization and the Assault on Black Manhood' isn't going to stop my Black trans azz from bringing the wrath of Moni and the rest of progressive Houston upon you.

You thought they were rough on you in Philadelphia?  You ain't seen nothing yet. 

What's even more odious is this hate event is happening during the week we memorialize 21 murdered trans people during the Transgender Day of Remembrance  on November 20, of which 17 of those murder trans people are African American. (16 Black trans women, one Black trans man)

No hate in my Houston backyard!.  Unless it gets canceled, my Black  trans azz  is planning to be there at 3903 Almeda Road to protest it.

So tell me S.H.A.P.E.Community Center  and Deloyd Parker.   How does hosting this Wesley Muhammad hate event fit in with your mission statement? 

Just a reminder of what it says:

'To improve the quality of life for people of African descent  (all people) through programs and activities with an emphasis on Unity, Self-Determination, Collective Work and Responsibility, Cooperative Economics, Purpose, Creativity and Faith'

It doesn't. In fact it will be counterproductive to that mission statement. 

So how about doing the city of Houston and the Black community a favor not allowing this hate speech laden event and Wesley Muhammad to darken the doors of the S.H.A.P.E. Community Center period?   

Dear Transphobic People- Putting You Transphobic Black Cis Men On Blast

Dear Transphobic People,
Been a while since I've done one of these posts calling y'all out on your off the chains transphobia, but in light of the fact that I have had to call out two transphobic Black men in Third Ward in the last 72 hours, with one of them threatening me with violence, it's past time for me to call y'all out like I had to do with my Black cis sisters.

First off, what the hell is wrong with y'all?  

I and other Black trans women are beyond sick and tired of being sick and tired of y'all having something to say when we are just trying to go about our day without harassment and you feel the nerve to whisper or holler 'that's a man' at us while we're close enough for you to hear it.

Neither do we like it when you Black men repeatedly get on the mics at 100,000 watt radio and TV stations broadcasting transphobic ignorance and hate speech to the world.

That transphobic hate speech metastasizes into anti-trans violence that can cause our deaths.  

Naw b****, I'm not a man. I was born an infant 55 years ago that evolved and grew to become a fabulous, proud, unapologetic Black trans woman who is finally comfortable in her body.

If I was a man, I wouldn't have spent the countless hours and years in counseling, tons of money on trans affirming medical procedures and the aforementioned counseling, money on a new wardrobe, and gleefully getting adjusted to the nuances of living life on the Black feminine side of the gender spectrum.

I and my trans sisters are women, regardless of the genitalia configurations concealed in our panties, what you assume our chromosomes are or what your ignorant masculine azz has to say about the subject.

Gender identity is between your ears, not your legs.  If you aren't a certified gender therapist, geneticist, progressive politician or pastor, supportive family member or ally, or a doctor that specializes in transgender issues, I really don't give a rats anus what your loud and wrong opinion is anyway.

I and Black Trans Feminine World are sick and tired of you kneegrows cooning it up with the same white male Republican politicians that hate your Black behinds to politically hate on the trans community, then expect me and my community's help and support when your white male GOP best buds turn on or their white supremacist police buds shoot to kill one of y'all after they're done using you for their right wing photo ops.

Whatever personal issues you have going on in your life,  or if you're mad because you ain't getting any attention sexually, don't take it out your shortcomings on Black trans women.   Don't get mad because we turned your azz down for a date. If we're not feeling you, deal with it.  

We know deep down you are turned on by us, want to date and get busy with us.  The trans porn sales numbers and sustained popularity of the trans porn genre don't lie.

We Black trans women, nor ANY woman for that mater, are not punching bags for you to release your toxic masculine anger on.   Neither is it acceptable to put your hands on or disrespect a trans woman for any reason.

Too many of my sisters are dying at your hands because you are far too concerned about your masculine reps than the lives of the trans women you are dating or getting busy with.  .

And naw Black gay men, you ain't escaping Moni's Dear Transphobic People wrath either.  It time to snatch your wigs, too

 Far too many of you have thrown transphobic shade at trans women you pass in the gayborhood streets or in the clubs while hugged up with your white male boyfriends, or while you're out and about at the club with your friends.  

Get it through your heads that trans women are WOMEN.  You are not experts (RuPaul) on how we live our lives, we trans women are.   If you want to know something about our lives, respectfully ask us.   If you work for an org that wants to know about our transfeminine lives, pay us for that privilege.

Don't get it twisted, being a trans woman is not analogous to being a drag queen.  While some of my trans sisters make their money doing drag in clubs or the pageant circuit and have used it as a way to facilitate their personal feminine transition journey, drag is simply a job for them to pay their bills.

When that show is over, they wipe the stage makeup off, clock out, exit that club, reenter society and navigate their way back home as trans women, not gay men.

And for those of you working in Black oriented or other cisgender focused human rights orgs, we need you to have our back in those policy circles you have access to, not stab us in the back.

My Black trans life matters just as much as yours does.   Black trans people aren't going away because we are an undeniable part of the diverse mosaic of human life, ,and you need to deal with that reality.

So cis Black men, next time you feel the urge to throw 'that's a man ' shade at a Black trans woman who is just trying to get through her day without drama, put your lips in park and don't do it.

Because you may not like what happens next if you follow through with your desire to mess with a trans woman that day.

Why Y'all Mad About The 'Black Panther' Movie?

One of the movies I'm looking forward to  seeing next year is the long awaited for me and the rest of Black America Black Panther movie starring Chadwick Boseman.  

The trailer was released a few days ago, and elements of the white community are losing their damned mind over it on social media as the trailer became the third most watched one in movie history.

What bothers some of y'all so much about seeing a Black superhero who is the king of the technologically advanced African nation of Wakanda?

Oh yeah.  Never mind.  Forget I asked that question.

I haven't seen elements of White America lose their mind over a movie centering Black folks since White Man's Burden came out in 1994.  That movie starred Harry Belafonte and JohnTravolta in a world in which the societal script was flipped and it was Black peeps on top of the societal totem pole and white peeps living in the 'hood.

I enjoyed trolling peeps as they walked out the theater.  I said to one guy "What's wrong?  You can't handle this fictional world?   This is mine and non-white peeps everyday reality."

Moving on from that trip down Moni Memory lane and back to discussing Black Panther.

Y'all need to get over it because this superhero exists, has since 1966 and predates the founding of the Black Panther Party, FYI, and yeah, T'Challa is a badass who for a minute was married to Storm.

Looking forward to seeing the Dora Milaje kick some serious behind as his royal security guards,

I'm also looking to see how T'Challa's kid sister Shuri, the future Black Panther and Queen of Wakanda, is portrayed.   .

So y'all need to chill with the ridiculous assertion being bandied about online that Black Panther is 'racist'.   Black Panther is a fictional African character based in Africa, and y'all doing over the top tripping about it.

So hate on haters.   Come Black History Month 2018, I and other Black panther fans will be going to and having a lot of fun at the local multiplex watching a superhero that looks like us.

Now if they'll get that third installment of The Best Man on the silver screen ASAP I'll be doing a happy dance at the snack bar.

Moni's Excellent Memorial Day Weekend

So what did y'all do on Memorial Day weekend?

This year I didn't sit around the house waiting for a late invite to a barbecue or be bored out of my mind watching the Indy 500.  I accepted the invitation of Alice Serna-McDougald, Chris Valdez and United We Dream to join them and Latinx people from five states (AZ, NM, FL, NY and MD) plus Washington DC in Austin to protest SB 4.

After an enjoyable Sunday drive to the ATX with Alice to be there for the fun that was starting at 9:00 AM on Memorial Day,  I was sitting with Alice as we witnessed the silent filling of the House gallery by over 200 people clad in red Fight Back NO SB 4 T-shirts ruining the GOP House majority's self congratulatory back slapping as the clocked ticked toward the sine die moment of the 85th Texas Legislative session

At approximately 10:30 AM chants of 'SB 4 is hate! 'Hey hey ho ho, SB 4 has got to go' , 'Here to stay!' and 'This is what democracy looks like' erupted in the House gallery along with banners being unfurled stating 'See you in court' and 'SB 4 is hate' as simultaneous chanting from the assembled masses on all four floors of the Capital rotunda occurred at the same time.

It was fun watching the shocked, embarrassed and bewildered looks on the faces of the GOP legislators on the House floor who probably thought they were going to escape Austin and head back home without being held accountable for passing that racist law.

Um no, GOP boo boo kitties.  Y'all were not escaping facing the consequences for your racist act on behalf of your party.   I hope they have the same bewildered looks on their faces after the November 6, 2018 election.

Many of the legislators since it was sine die day, had their families with them and probably had to lie to their kids about why they passed the unjust and racist SB 4.

Pro tip to the Texas GOP:  If you don't want to face protests in the Texas capitol, them stop passing unjust and racist laws that will piss people off .

The Texas House leadership reacted by ordering the House gallery cleared as the chanting continued while being herded out of the chamber by DPS state troopers.

Once the gallery was cleared, Texas state Rep. Matt Rinaldi (R-Irving) let his inner bigot out by threatening to shoot a fellow Latinx legislator and telling a group of Latino legislators watching the demonstration from the House floor that he'd called ICE on the protestors.  

Um GOP dude. your pointed hood is showing.  Many of the protestors in that House gallery are American citizens.   You also proved a point I repeatedly make that the most dangerous bigots are the ones who have legislative power.

It's also a bad political move in a city that is 40% Latinx, and you barely won election to your Texas house seat in 2016 anyway.

I also received the honor of getting to make a little speech before the thousands of huddled masses yearning to breathe free from Texas GOP tyranny at the rally on the south steps of the Texas Capitol. .
I loved what Julieta Garibay, one of the co-founders of United We Dream had to say about the Memorial Day SB 4 protests:

“Today was a historic moment in Texas  as brown and Black freedom warriors took over the Capitol to make sure that as Republicans looked up into the gallery that they would forever remember every signal space filled with the beautiful and determined faces of Texans who refuse to be driven out and refuse to be intimidated. This is our state, this is our home and we are here to stay! Today is a turning point in Texas politics — from El Paso to McAllen to Dallas to Houston to Austin we are organizing to create spaces where all people of all backgrounds can survive and thrive. We will resist the Republican attack and we will win!”

Yes ma'am we will, if we work together across the Lone Star State to do so and bumrush the polls on November 6, 2018  to flush the TX GOP out of power.

Kim Burrell And Homophobic Houston Black Church Folk, Leave TBLGQ Hatred Behind In 2016

Needed to take a few days to compose my thoughts about Kim Burrell serving Satan and letting loose that hateful anti-gay rant she tried to pass off as a sermon recently.

And I'm sad to say that Burrell is from my hometown.    But what I do need to say about it is something that has been on my mind since the HERO repeal.

I'm tired of so called kneegrow little c  'christians' peddling this anti-trans and anti-gay hatred they copied from white fundamentalists that is causing dissension and discord in our community.  

It is also this faux faith based ignorance that led you Houston kneegrow church folk to allow yourselves in 2015 to be hoodwinked and bamboozled into voting against a human rights ordinance in HERO that protected you at the behest of your ministers who were puppets for white fundies and the Texas and Harris County Republican Party..

Kim Burrell ain't the only person in the Houston city limits using their pulpit to preach anti-gay hate. She just got caught doing so and is being deservedly called out for it.   There are also Black masculine ministers who do so every Sunday who need to be called on the carpet for it as well

This also isn't just a H-town problem, it's one I'm sadly seeing being repeated in sellout Black churches across the country and across the African Diaspora.   But I'm directing my anger about it at my H-town homies and homettes first.

At a time in which we have an anti-Black presidential administration about to take over the White House on January 20, the Black trans, bi, SGL and straight communities do not need this crap happening right now.   We need to be more united than ever before.

You know you're a bunch of shady hypocrites for doing so because you know damned well you couldn't get through a Sunday service without your gay choir director or the trans women singing in the church choir.  Neither would you look presentable for the cameras Ms. Burrell without that army of TBLGQ folks who style your hair, do your nails and makeup and coordinate your clothing.

We also know for a fact that some of the people we lost in the Black community to AIDS also happened to be gospel singers like yourself.

If you faux faith based kneegrow 'christians' feel the need in 2017 to wrap your homophobic and transphobic bigotry in Scripture, don't be surprised when I and other Black folks inside and outside our community swiftly call your faux faith based behinds out on you violation of the Ten Commandments and other various books of the Bible you hypocritically profess to believe in.

I'm looking at you Rev. Max Miller and the Baptist Ministers Assn of Houston and Vicinity.   Don't think Moni, Black TBLGQ Houston or our allies forgot about all that anti-trans hate y'all pimped from your pulpits on behalf of the Harris County GOP and white fundamentalists like Dave Welch who threw y'all sellout butts under the bus when Election Day 2015 passed and HERO got repealed.

That's why TBLGQ hatred aimed at Black TBLGQ folks by Black so called Christians needs to stay behind in 2016 and will not be tolerated or excused by those of us in Black TBLGQ world in the 2K17.

Moni's TDOR 2016 Thoughts

We will lose more transgender people to violence. The Remembering Our Dead list will get longer. The anti-transgender rhetoric coming from their acolytes will get nastier and more hateful. They will try to spin and twist Bible verses to favor their immoral positions. But in the end the result will still be the same and the neo-fascists will lose. --TransGriot  June 14, 2007

Today is the 18th Transgender Day of Remembrance, in which we memorialize the people we lost due to anti-trans violence. here in the US and around the world.

This year's TDOR observance is coming upon the heels of a contentious national election in which an unqualified moron who told racist white people what they wanted to hear basically got himself elected to the presidency of this nation.  

That election has consequences for the country, and unfortunately our community and its fragile human rights will be the first in the crosshairs of this undemocratic regime that is Making America Hate Again and ramping up anti-trans animus for political gain.

Unfortunately, that anti-trans animus has resulted in the untimely loss of trans lives, with the vast majority of them being trans people of color.

Jazz Alford, 30 years old
Amos Beede, 38 years old
Keyonna Blakeney, 22 years old
Brandi Bledsoe, 32 years old
Veronica Banks Cano, 30s
Kayden Clarke, 24 years old
Goddess Diamond, 20 years old
Deeniquia Dodds, 22 years old
Shante Isaac, 34 years old
Kedarie/Kandicee Johnson, 16 years old
Monica Loera, 43 years old
Skye Mockabee, 26 years old
Noony Norwood, 30 years old
T. T. Saffore, 20s
Jasmine Sierra, 52 years old
Demarkis Stansberry, 30 years old
Mercedes Successful, 32 years old
Rae'lynn Thomas, 28 years old
Erykah Tijerina, 36 years old
Tyreece "Reecey" Walker, 32 years old
Dee Whigham, 25 years old
Quartney Davia Dawsonn-Yochum, 32 years old
Maya Young, 24 years old

Say their names tonight and from now on.  
The majority of the American trans people whose names we will say and light a candle for tonight as part of our regrettable contribution to the international list of trans souls lost are Black and Latina.  

When will their Black Lives Matter, Black community?   When will these Latina lives matter to you, Latinx community?  

When will trans lives matter to this nation, period?

Once this day is over, it's nation time trans Americans and allies..  The  transphobic bigots are compiling unjust  legislation to oppress us that we must fight with every fiber of our beings.  We are going to have to come together as never before and fight the evil that wants to eviscerate our existence.  

We unfortunately have some vanillacentric privileged people in our own ranks who fell for the Trump okey doke and conveniently forgot that theirs and the community's humanity was on the ballot November 8.   They  gleefully voted for the guy with an openly transphobic vice president thinking that their lost white privilege and their wallets were more important than the human rights of the entire trans community, and their white skin would protect them from harm.  

They are about to find out it won't.   They failed us, and more importantly, failed our trans kids, who were depending on their trans elders to handle their electoral business and keep this unqualified man out of the Oval Office.

Today we mourn the people we lost.   Tomorrow we prepare to do what we always do and fight for our very humanity.   And yes, we will win.  Yeah I know I said that in 2007, but I believe it, and I'm going to speak it into existence today.   We have the moral high ground, our haters don't no matter how much Biblical scripture the radicalized faith based haters try to throw.

But this time, we won't be fighting for our humanity and our human rights alone. We will have human rights organizations and allies working intersectionally by our side and at least until noon EST on January 20,  the power of the Obama Administration.

Transgender rights are human rights. and we will have legislators on Capitol Hill and across the country willing to do the right thing and stand up for us.   We will have trans parents standing with us and their kids.  We also have history to peruse that gives us insight on how to fight the hateful evil that has once again befallen this country and we are squarely in the crosshairs of.

Our vision of our community and a fair and just America is worth fighting for.

As the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr once said, we must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.   The progress that we have made gives me hope that we will get through this.

TransGriot 2016 NFL Picks-Week 7

I had a great Week 6 picking NFL games highlighted by the Texans coming back from their somnambulant first half of offense at NRG Stadium to resemble and NFL offense in the second half to tie and eventually prevail in overtime in this critical AFC South Division game against the Indianapolis Colts thanks in large part to Lamar Miller and the Texans defense.

Now they face an interesting Monday night game with the Denver Texans Broncos in which they'll not only be facing their former coaches in Gary Kubiak and Wade Phillips, but several former Texans.

That'll be on Monday night.  

I rebounded from a subpar for me 8-6 to go 10-5 despite the upsets.  Mike on the other hand after cutting my lead in half after his first winning week of the season followed that up with another sub 500 one to give me a five game lead going into this week..

And it's time to build on that momentum and pick this week's NFL games.

Only 15 games on this week's on the schedule, and you long time TransGriot readers know the drill for this TransGriot prognostication contest..

Teams I'm picking to be victorious are in bold print, with the home team in CAPS.   Teams on their bye week are two heading in opposite directions in the reeling Carolina Panthers and the Arlington Dallas Cowboys

There's also another NFL International game happening in London with the Giants and Rams facing off at Wembley Stadium.

Yeah, still hate that NFL franchise up I-45 with a passion  And with them getting off to a 5-1 start, their Harris County Fifth Column is going to be insufferable until they start losing again.
The best Cowboy fan is a silent one.

Focus, Moni..  Eyes on the prize in defending my 2015 title.  Time for this week's picks.   Mike's will be here.

And for those of you wondering where's Eli, he's sitting this season out recovering from a serious health challenge.   Send him your warm thoughts and prayers.  

He did make a preseason Super Bowl pick, and I'll reveal that to you next week.

2016 NFL Week 5 Results                                       2016 NFL Season Record      

TransGriot    10-5                                                      TransGriot    58-34
Mike               7-8                                                       Mike            53-39
Eli                   ---                                                        Eli                 --

Thursday Night Game
PACKERS over Bears

International Game
Giants over RAMS

Sunday Early Games
CHIEFS over Saints
Colts over TITANS
Vikings over EAGLES
BENGALS over Browns
LIONS over Washington
Raiders over JAGUARS
Bills over DOLPHINS
Ravens at JETS

Sunday Afternoon Games
Buccaneers over 49ERS
FALCONS over Chargers
Patriots over STEELERS

Sunday Night Game
Seahawks over CARDINALS

Monday Night Game
Texans over BRONCOS
 

Moni's Post BTAC 2016 Thoughts

I'm back at Casa de Monica after spending an amazing week hanging with my chosen family at the 2016 edition of the Black Trans Advocacy Conference in Dallas.

It was the fifth anniversary edition of this event, and it was a week in which I got to share the same space with old friends and make acquaintances with new cis and trans friends from around the country and increasingly the world.  This year we had attendees from Brazil and Jamaica, and I hope we continue to draw more people from the African Diaspora to the Black Trans Advocacy Conference..

It's an event that has the feel of a giant family reunion, but it's one in which we get to learn, laugh and love each other in a world that is being stirred up for crass political reasons to become more irrationally hostile to all trans people.  

It was sad we had to spend time putting out a press release condemning Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick (R) for pimping anti-trans hate in the Lone Star State mere hours before our conference kicked off..

But we refused to let the transphobic devils suck the joy out of this conference.

BTAC is a gigantic raised clenched Black fist debunking the notion that Black trans people don't exist.  It is the middle finger to all those who would seek to harm and oppress us.  It is an unapologetically Black trans focused space and conference that is also welcome to all who wish to attend and hang with us.  

BTAC is your family beckoning to those of you to come, get your hug and the welcoming love you deserve that the world and at times your own blood families fail to properly give you at times.  It's having fun and enjoying each other's company whether we are in the host hotel or out and about in the world trying to legislate us out of existence.

It's where we went to the correct bathrooms for an entire week and nothing happened in this hotel except us pooping, peeing and washing our hands when we were done.

It's remembering our ancestors who paved the way, the people we've lost, and the folks who wanted to be there but circumstances kept them away from us this time.  Know that you are loved by your BTAC family, we missed you at BTAC 2016, and hope you're blessed to be with us in 2017.

BTAC is where you can unapologetically be your fabulous Black trans selves.  It's sharing a meal with people who are like you and allies who unconditionally support us..  It's displaying your talent at TransManifest Live.  It's strutting your stuff on the Black Diamond Ball runway as you get tens across the board from the judges.  It's being crowned the king and queen of the BTIPS pageant system by last year's royalty.

It's exchanging information, hugs and heartfelt stories not only in the seminars but as you chill in each others rooms, in the hospitality suite or in the lobby area with other hotel guests and staff.  It's celebrating the start of love connections made at past and this year's BTAC conference.

It's getting dressed up for the Awards Gala and being recognized by your BTAC family for the work you do not only inside the organization, but to advance the human rights of our entire community even if the rest of the world ignores your substantive contributions to doing so.

BTAC is where your voice matters and you get to role model the change you wish to see in the world.

It's also a conference in which peeps find out I write and spit spoken word poetry, can step up my fashion game when necessary, I don't bite when you approach me to say hello, I have a wicked sense of humor, and I play a take no prisoners trash talking game of dominoes while others are doing the same thing when they play whatever card game du jour that is going on at the time.

You have been warned for next year, peeps thinking about coming to challenge the Queen of the Dominoes table. And if it hadn't been raining too hard Tuesday night, y'all would've found out I can bowl.

And trans haters, it's where we gleefully blow up your lies about what it means to be an unapologetically Black trans person or an unapologetic ally to our community..

It's also a conference in which by the time it reached the closing brunch on Sunday, I and everyone else there is sad it's over.

We are all painfully aware as we gather together one last time for that closing brunch it will be another 365 days before we're blessed to be in the company of these amazing people we've spent a fab week with in the same BTAC space

And this year I missed the brunch because I had to leave early to catch my 2:50 PM Megabus back to Houston.  I and Dee had to depressingly watch as everyone else attending it got dropped off by the hotel shuttle bus at Blue Mesa and we stayed on enroute to DART's Addison Transit Center.

So yes, while BTAC 2016 is one for the history books, already looking forward to next year, and hope those of you who missed it this year will join us for BTAC 2017. .

And when the date and location for BTAC 2017 is announced, you will definitely see it on these TransGriot pages.