Moni Goes To Washington-Day 2

The heavy drenching rain ending Day 1 gave way to a beautiful clear, cool and sunny May 6 day in Washington.

After emerging from the Capitol South Metro station Polar and I arrived on the Hill and headed straight to the Longworth HOB cafeteria after dropping off some promised information packets to the offices I'd visited the previous day. I'd finally picked them up during our initial strategy meeting the night before.

My task was simple. I had the mission of hitting as many CBC offices as possible and I was going to have to do it with a rookie lobbyist in tow. Since I knew it was going to be next to impossible for me to cover all 43 offices in the limited amount of time I had, I just decided on the train ride in to hit CBC leadership and whatever offices I passed in the various House Office Buildings along the way.

We arrived in the cafeteria and waited to hook up with Ness and the rest of our party. Since we had two newbies, we decided to take 'errbody' as a group to Rep. Al Green's (D-TX) office to give them an idea of what and how to do it.

On the way there I started my training by explaining to my partner Ro some of the basics. Lobbying is more than just advocating yes or no for a bill and asking for its passage. You have to engage your active and passive listening skills in addition to your powers of observation. You have to build personal relationships. It's calling upon your lifetime accumulated knowledge base. It's having a good working grasp of civics and government and how it works.

Passion and idealism is fine and an excellent starting point, but it must be balanced with discerning 'the art of the politically possible'.

If you're planning on lobbying Congress or any governmental body on behalf of this community, one thing that must end is your detachment to politics or the news. You cannot be willfully politically ignorant and be an effective lobbyist.

Watching CNN, C-SPAN, MSNBC, FOX (to know what The Enemy is up to) The Hill newspaper/website is a must and reading various newspapers becomes necessary as well.

You must also acquire a broad based knowledge as to what's transpiring in the transgender community so that you can converse intelligently and authoritatively about it. You never know if you'll be called on in an office or to give bill testimony about a hate crime that happened in California, a discrimination case that occurred in Texas, a police beatdown in Tennessee or an ID case in Illinois.

We arrived at the office a few moments later in the Rayburn building. One thing I also noted is that the CBC members, now reflecting the increased clout of seniority and the important leadership roles many have in the 110th Congress aren't clustered in the Cannon HOB. They now have offices in the Rayburn and Longworth buildings where the House power players are.

While Ness was talking to the LA in Rep. Green's office, I poked my head in to see his Chief of Staff Jacqueline Ellis. The last time I was there in 2007 she was catching hell on the phone from a local minister who was expressing in not so Christian terms his opposition to the hate crimes bill. We had a wonderful conversation in the aftermath of that.

When I poked my head in, I said to her "I see you aren't getting screamed at on the phone today." She looked up, saw my smiling face and gave me a big hug as we talked for a few minutes about the office move.

I stopped in Rep. Bobby Scott's (D-VA) office, and had wonderful conversations in Rep. Keith Ellison's (D-MN) and Rep. Gwen Moore's (D-WI) offices. I advised Rep. Moore's LA about the Sierra Broussard discrimination lawsuit that's about to kick off in Appleton, WI. I also asked them to convey my appreciation for their hate crime votes and hoped they would do the same for ENDA.

I ended up cutting my day short because my partner had finals to study for. After dropping off some promised information packets in a few offices I'd visited the previous day, it was off to the Capitol South Metro station and dinner at a Fuddruckers near our hotel. I haven't eaten at one since I moved from Houston and I was eagerly awaiting to opportunity to chow down there once again.

Two days down, one to go.

Moni's Thoughts On The Friess Op-Ed

Looks like some rainbow vanillacentric privileged nerves got plucked in the aftermath of the incident during the closing NLGJA reception in which Marshall McPeek was called out for a problematic 'things and its' comment while emceeing the event. 

Mary Emily O'Hara wrote an article about the incident, I followed it up with my thoughts about it, and now Steve Friess has written a shady op-ed in the Bay Area Reporter in which he asserted that 'everybody was wrong' , but focused much of his commentary on attacking the trans community and what he derisively called 'Pitchfork-wielding Trans Twitter'.

Gee, how mighty white gay male of him. 

Here was my response I posted in the comment thread to his op-ed.

Steve Friess, 

Referring to human beings as 'things and its' is not a joke to the trans community, and especially the African American one who are taking the brunt of the anti-trans violence aimed at us. 

It is never wrong to immediately call crap out. And FYI, you don't get to tell trans people what we should and shouldn't be offended by or how offended we should be about anti-trans insults.  

I can forgive mistakes. But as a representative of the group taking the brunt of that anti-trans hate violence that starts with comments like that, I am also compelled to immediately call that comment out, because far too often, gay men like yourself have been slinging those anti-trans insults inside community circles and LGBTQ organizations with zero accountability.  

If you have a problem with this NLGJA member calling that problematic comment out at a reception sponsored by a so called 'news' organization that makes their money demonizing Black and trans people on a regular basis, too bad. 

One of the jobs of the media and LGBTQ journalists is to speak truth to power, even within our own circles and organizations, not sweep crap under the rug.

I repeat, it is never wrong to instantly call out problematic commentary.  And as TBLGQ journalists, it is not our job to be stenographers for our community organizations.  When they do something that is worthy of praise we will give them their kudos, and when they frakk up, we will call them on it.

As an African American TBLGQ journalist, I am part of that century plus long tradition Black journalists have of not only speaking truth to power, but activist journalism that moves the ball forward in our ongoing human rights struggle.

The fact that am transgender, I do so as an NLGJA member from a GLAAD award winning decade plus old blog, a monthly column in a regional LGBTQ magazine and have 15K followers on Twitter doesn't diminish the power of my written words or the importance of them, it enhances them.

And you would be wise to listen to what the hell I have to say as an unapologetic Black trans someone who also has 20 years of award winning activist experience.

As journalist Ida B. Wells once said, "The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them." 

That is what has been taking place here.   When we point out stuff that is wrong in our community, in our organizations, or discuss problematic commentary, we are doing so in the spirit of constructive criticism so that the mistake can be corrected.    We are doing so to make organizations better. 

The bottom line is that comment should have never been uttered in an organization dedicated to respectful coverage of the TBLGQ community.   And if people who are part of our community's media organization think it's okay to call trans people 'things and its', what hope do we trans folks have of getting respectful coverage from mainstream media, much less have NLGJA stand up for us when the inevitable misgendering or facts free anti-trans reporting happens?   

We trans journalists are representing our community and our readership, and they demand of us that when necessary, we hold you accountable.

We also need you as organizations representing the TBLGQ community to role model the change we wish to see in this currently screwed up Trump run country. 

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
 

Houston Trans Woman Attacked, And I'm Pissed About It

Because of the anti-trans hate speech coming from the kneegrow hate ministers of the Baptist Minsters Association of Houston and Vicinity in relation to the HERO passage battle, and it being greeted with silence from other local Black ministers and Black media outlets not called TransGriot, I was beginning to wonder when it would result in Houston area transpeople being attacked or God forbid, killed because of it.

Unfortunately, I got my answer Thursday.

According to an About magazine article, a  gang of seven people attacked Thailand Warr, who is also known as the popular Houston based female illusionist DeyJzah Opulent Mirage,  in the lobby of her Southwest Houston high-rise condo complex as she was preparing to get into a waiting cab for a performance at the Houston Improv.

She was confronted by a group of five Black men and two Black women, all in their late teens to early twenties, who she said smelled of marijuana.   She sustained injuries to her head, upper body and breasts, along with scratches across her chest when they tried to expose her breasts.

I'm attempting to get in contact with Ms. Warr and find out how she's doing along with the rest of the Houston area TBLG community.  If there are any efforts organized that need some additional love from y'all locally and nationall, I'll let you know ASAP.

But right now I'm going to focus the rest of this post on the kneegrow ministers that have been priming the pump for anti-trans violence to erupt with their hate speech as many Houston Black church leaders, our leading organizations like the local NAACP and Urban League, and media outlets like KCOH-AM and KMJQ-FM among others say nothing to condemn the sellout pastors..

Well, if y''all won't say anything, Moni will.

I and the Houston Black transgender community, in a year in which we lost 11 trans people of color in the USA, and with ten of them being African-American, are beyond sick and tired of the cricket chirping silence coming from the Houston Black church about these murders and assaults on trans people when y'all always have a fracking opinion about other crap as demonstrated in the HERO battle you know nothing about

And the fact this attack happened to Ms Warr on November 20, the day we memorialize our lost sisters, wasn't lost on me or anyone else in the trans community and our allies.

What angers me still further is because of your hatred, (yes, hatred) of transgender, gay and lesbian individuals, you real life Uncle Ruckuses have entered into an unholy alliance with Dave Welch and his conservative Republican friends to attempt to kill a much needed human rights ordinance we have NEVER had for our city. 

The attack on Ms Warr is a prime example of exactly why we need the HERO to be implemented without further delay.

And I have nothing but contempt for you for doing so and allowing yourselves to be the useful fools fronting this effort to kill HERO.

Thailand Warr is one of the few anti-trans assaults we are aware of.   How many more have transpired since you started your rhetorical attack on the Houston trans community that we are not privy to and the victims have declined to report them?

Yes, I'm grateful that Ms Warr survived the attack and I pray for her speedy recovery.  I hope the ignorant wastes of DNA who did this face justice.  But I blame the Baptist Ministers Assn. of Houston and Vicinity for sowing the anti-trans seeds at the behest of their massas in the white conservative led Pastor's Council that have now borne poisonous fruit in Ms Warr's life.

The next trans person that gets attacked by a gang of people inside Beltway 8 may not be so fortunate.

Where you at Houston Black church?    Where are your voices of condemnation for this attack Houston NAACP and Houston Urban League for starters?   Where are you Houston Black Area Democrats?  

And where are you Majic 102 and KCOH-AM?   Both of your stations can provide platforms for the sellout ministers and HERO opponents to speak and demonize the Houston African-American trans community, but you can't (or won't) provide a platform for us to rebut the scurrilous and demonstrably false charges aimed at us?

I' eagerly await the answers to those questions along with our allies

Transpeople of Color Don't Get The Luxury of Ignoring Race And Class

Sigh.  Once again, Moni's gonna have to break it down for the wallowing in white privilege clueless. 

And this clueless youngling had the nerve to claim in the subsequent comment thread that she's 'anti-racist'.

Peep this comment posted by Jocelynn Veleta on the mixed company Facebook Transgender Alliance FB page.

It was posted on a comment from Black Transmen Resources ironically posted to promote their upcoming BTAC 2014 conference in Dallas April-May 2014.

At first I was going to be nice and not embarrass her in cyberspace until she deleted her initial comments before I had a chance to copy them, ran, called me 'stupid', said I was 'playing the victim'  and cried the usual 'white women's tears' before I got tired of her mouth and unleashed the 50 megatons of knowledge on her azz.  

im offended when ppl add race, ethnicity, or gender restrictions to anything, Trans in itself is enough of a minority i personally don't feel we need to break up anymore... hey maybe its just me; im not trying to be rude.

No, you weren't rude, you were white privileged clueless.

As I've said on multiple posts here on this blog and on countless discussion threads inside and outside the trans community for over a decade in various ways, race matters, even in the trans community..

We transpeople of color do not have the luxury of separating our race and ethnicity from our trans status. They are inextricably part of us.   And as part of the Black community, we still get whacked by the microaggressive and macroaggressive ways whiteness and white supremacy deleteriously affects us.

Your lived experience as a solitary white trans person doesn't trump (and never will) the lived experience of someone who has taken the brunt of the white supremacist attitudes since birth, much less her people's 400 year history of living in the Americas.

Jocelynn, you may not like the fact that we have Black, Latina and Asian trans groups, organizations and conventions, but they didn't come out of a vacuum.

As Kwame Ture said, 'in order to become a part of the greater society, you must first close ranks.'

People of color face anti POC hatred whether we are trans or not and being trans only magnifies that. And some of the worst manifestations of that anti-POC hatred are in our own TBLG ranks.

What we do have, if the trans community will seize that opportunity, is to lead by example in eradicating racism in its subset of society.

Our little subset of society is infected by the same isms and ills of the parent society, and just because you transitioned doesn't mean you nor transpeople of color are free of that baggage.  Race and ethnicity add to our trans status as bigotry multipliers in terms of the anti-trans hate directed at us inside and outside the TBLG community.   Black trans women have to deal with the same 'ugly black woman' meme and destruction of our images that our cis sisters have had to grapple with for four centuries.  Black trans men when they transition step into being just as hated by society as their cis Black masculine counterparts do and the transmasculine discussion being disproportionately centered on white trans men. 

And when the Teapublicans seek to block the vote of the Black community at the polls, I don't get a pass from that because I'm trans.    

Jocelynn, you aren't even close to being anti-racist if you can't openly acknowledge the point that racist attitudes permeates American society, still affects POC's in the second decade of the 21st century, can't see past your own unacknowledged white privilege and how it has shaped your thinking (as the playing the victim conservacomment demonstrates) and that racism= prejudice plus systemic power.

And before you even part your lips to ever try to bring up the word 'anti-racist' in a conversation, better hit Google and learn the word 'intersectionality'. 

I'm offended Jocelynn when you make such a knee jerk reactive clueless statement on the comment of a Black trans group promoting their upcoming Dallas trans conference open to all, you failing to see how problematic that statement of yours was, and then running when you get called on it.

And you getting your vanillacentric privileged back up, accusing me of 'attacking you' for schooling your barely out of zygote stage behind and you running from the truth isn't going to change one syllable of what I posted about race still mattering in the trans community.     

We do have the opportunity in the trans community to build a society better than the one we left behind but it's going to take honest communication about race relations in our community to do so. 

Honest communications that obviously you're not even close to being ready for or intelligently discuss.
 

This Is An Afrocentric Blog-Deal With It

There is an on point 1984 James Baldwin quote from a Village Voice interview n which he talked about race in GL World.  I'm going to substitute trans for gay for the purposes of this post.

"Their reaction seems to me in direct proportion to their sense of feeling cheated of the advantages which accrue to white people in a white society. There's an element, it has always seemed to me, of bewilderment and complaint. Now that may sound very harsh, but the trans world as such is no more prepared to accept black people than anywhere else in society."


Over the last week and a half elements of white trans world have been showing their asses and letting their pink, white and blue sheets show because they are jealously pissed off about the deserved and increasing media attention that Black trans people are getting.  

The cadre of white trans women in question are upset that Black transpeople are not only closing ranks and owning their power, they see it as they bump their gums in their not so quiet Facebook rooms that this long ago needed development in the Black trans community ranks as 'a threat'

The star of their offline Two Minute Hates has been moi and my GLAAD Award nominated blog.
Aww, I'm flattered and frankly LMBTAO that I'm the focus of your hatred.  But what I said before to you still stands:  You need Jesus.

And I revel in your irrational hatred.  Why #youmad because for the first time in the 61 year modern history of the trans rights movement that Black trans people and their accomplishments are getting increased media attention and love?

Do you not see the point that a strong Black trans community that owns its power, confidently wields it, helps destroy transphobia in Black cis and SGL ranks, and does the Trans 101 education tailored to our history and culture in those communities helps all of Trans World?

Or do you peeps have so much internalized hatred for Black people that you are role modeling the remixed James Baldwin remark?

If you are, too bad.   We're not gonna let your lack of vision turn us around from our urgent mission of building community and stopping the off the charts violence aimed at us.

Are you that upset because we are finding innovative ways to lead, forming our own organizations and building community infrastructure that reflects our culture, are increasingly tackling the problems that ail our community with the help of our cis and SGL allies, are writing New York Times best selling narratives, are breakout stars on TV shows and have GLAAD nominated blogs that people flock to for intelligent commentary about issues inside and outside the trans, bi and SGL community?

Yeah, obviously you do and this isn't a new development.   Moni ain't the only person that has called you out on your racism that you tried and failed to keep under wraps and don't want to talk about.

If that's your problem. you can #staymad then.    You can also KMBTA because if you don't like the fact TransGriot is an Afrocentric blog founded by an unapologetically Black transperson, and have consistently called crap out in this community, too damned bad.  Deal with it.

As a matter of fact since I mentioned this was an Afrocentric blog, here's the Mission Statement I compiled on January 2, 2011 for it:

The TransGriot blog's mission is to become the griot of our community.  I will introduce you to and talk about your African descended transbrothers and transsisters across the African Diaspora, reclaim and document our chocolate flavored trans history, speak truth to power, comment on the thins that impact our community from an Afrocentric perspective and enlighten you about the general things that go on around me and in the communities that I am a member of.  

Hey, I did warn you and I was blunt about what was going to happen on these electronic pages.  
   
TransGriot was founded on New Year's Day 2006 with the mission of elevating the voice, thoughts, visibility and policy concerns of African descended trans people across the Diaspora as its Prime Directive. I comment on the issues of trans people of color and developments around the world from my Afrocentric perspective as well.

I am unapologetically Black and trans.   I an not going to apologize for that or the over 7000 posts in my tell it like it T-I-S is Afrocentric tone that is in sync with the journalistic style and traditions of my people  

Neither will I separate my transness from my Blackness just to make a certain segment of misguided white trans world comfortable

You don't like the fact I said it or my opinions don't neatly line up with yours, I don't care.   Neither do I give a rat's anus that you have a problem with me owning my power on behalf of my community as I have done since 1998.  

I speak truth to power inside and outside TBLG World and I'm damned sure going to do it on a blog that I founded and have control over.  You have a problem with that, then have several seats and choke on that bottle of Vanillacentic Privileged Frost Haterade you're liberally drinking from

My award winning blog with over 4.4 million hits (and counting), my cyberhome, my rules.   The opinions expressed here are the result of my unapologetically Black behind residing on this planet inside the borders of the United States since 1962 and my two decades of life being a transperson while Black.

If you don't like the opinions expressed here, you are always free to exercise your option of reading the hundreds of trans blogs that reflect your vanillacentric privileged world view.

But you do so with the knowledge that this blog for eight years is proudly rooted (and always will be) in the African-American community.  It is edited by an award winning trans human rights activist with 16 years experience in the game, and who has been blessed with mad writing skills to boot.

This is an Afrocentric blog.   For those of you who like that fact, I thank you for surfing by my cyberhome on a regular basis to check out the posts that I and my guest posters leave here for you to peruse.

For those of you who wanna hate, deal with it.

Trans America, Your Humanity Is Under Attack

Maybe it's me being inside the Beltway or simply being pissed off at the spectacle of a grown ass faith based bully berating a trans youngling in Charlotte for simply handling a nature call, or the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday happening in Selma tomorrow, but Moni has something to say about what I've observed going on over the last few weeks in Trans World and beyond.

Like many of you in Trans World I'm not happy about the Religious Reich  doubling down on the thoroughly debunked bathroom predator meme and sponsoring dehumanizing anti-trans legislation that is a straight up attack on our humanity

While one is on its way to dying in Kentucky despite being passed by their GOP controlled senate, there are others in Florida and Texas still floating around that haven't gotten the derisive pushback they need to make the GOP withdraw them or the business community calling them out.about it.

But that's a subject for another post.   I want to talk about what we in the trans community can control.

And Moni's going to be real about it and can't say it enough,  your humanity as a trans person in this country is under attack.   I've been warning you for years that the faith-based haters were going to come for us, and now that day of reckoning is here.

What are you going to do about it? Are you going to meekly submit to right-wing oppression and let them criminalize being trans without a fight?

And don't think you can reason with GOP women on this issue.   Debbie Riddle sponsored our trans hate bill in Texas, and I predict that you'll see more white GOP women acting as useful fools to front these scientifically illiterate anti-trans measures

Let's also not forget that some of our LGB friends voted for some of the GOP legislators who are oppressing us, and are more concerned with their wallets that aiding us and anyone else in our human rights struggles.

How much is your dignity and humanity as a human being worth to you trans people, and are you willing to fight for it?   Are you going to be the trans men and women you say you are and these times demand?   Are you willing to join our younglings in fighting for our human rights against white male conservafools who are basically mad they didn't get to oppress somebody Jim Crow style like their great grandparents did?

Or are you going to cower in the false security of nondisclosure and let others do the heavy lifting of being agents for our liberation while you insultingly say from the safety of your keyboards 'these people don't represent me'?

Your nondisclosed status will not protect you forever from anti-trans oppression or anti-trans bigotry.   Sooner or later that pseudo-cisnormative status you have painstakingly built up will unravel, and you'll be blowing up mine or other activists phones wanting us to drop other important collective work that needs to be done to deal with your personal crisis.


Want to stop or slow down trans youth suicides? The first step to that happening ,is trans adults being visible,  proudly being possibility models living our lives to the best of our ability, and role modeling leadership is such a positive way it inspires our trans youth to live, handle their educational business and take the steps to dare to dream to be productive in society.

When we are doing the trans advocacy, we have to bear in mind that is not just for us.   Some of the policies we're fighting to get passed we may not be around to see them implemented, much less enjoy them.   But fight for them we must.

And finally, we must send the message that our humanity and our human rights are not up for discussion, nor are our human rights to be played with for your personal  political gains.

Don't tread on us or our human rights.  We're tired of it.  We've had enough. That message also goes to our peeps who are willing to throw the entire community under the human rights bus for their own comfort.

We also need to hold those who claim trans leadership status accountable in our community who aren't doing the job of  being trans leaders.

We also need to be on our job of building trans community.   I'm sick of the selfish trans separatist inspired rugged individualism.  We need collective community building for the rest of this decade and beyond.

Trans Americans, your humanity is under attack.   What are you going to do about it?

Elections Matter, GL People

Had one of my Facebook friends shoot me a link to a discussion in which once again, predominately white GL activists were ranting about the executive order issue and getting their left wing hate on for President Obama

One person in the thread who is a proud GetEqual supporter, implied that whichever party held a political office didn't matter and expressed more faith in direct action than the ballot box..

It has little to do with who is in office and everything to do with our community's willingness to fight

Oh really? Spoken like someone chock full of vanillacentric privilege  and that's where you and your organization are tragically wrong.  Elections matter and if you were a person of color you wouldn't part your lips to say something so categorically obtuse.

It calls me to question whether you GetEqual people really have a vowel and a clue about how to get rainbow community human rights coverage done right in the first place, much less have a coherent long range plan for doing so besides hating on President Obama.  

Political Reality Check 101 for you since it seems as though some of you slept through your high school civics or your collegiate political science classes.   What party controls the state houses, Congress, city hall, the judicial benches, the governor's mansion, the White House is a big fracking deal, especially if you are part of a mariginalized minority group.  Control of the White House is also important because the president appoints justices for the federal court system and the Supreme Court.  

And news flash for you white GLBT peeps, in case you haven't realized it yet, Moni's going to break it down for you.  You are part of a marginalized minority group now and as such have been knocked down a few pegs from your former perch at the top of the societal privilege food chain.

That means that you have a new political reality to absorb, and it's one that non-white TBLG people are intimately familiar with.

Rule Number One of the new political reality is that it is never a smart political play to even think about sitting out an election.   Why in the hell do you think the Republifools have spent so much time and money trying to suppress non white people's votes in advance of this election?

Rule Number Two you need to burn into your brains is that you can't get progressive legislation from conservative politicians.   

I'm also going to tear into another misguided comment I saw in this thread from another person.   This person who shall remain nameless suggested the GL community should stay at home in 2012 to 'punish' the Democrats and President Obama for not moving as fast as you vanillacentric privileged peeps deem necessary on rainbow community human rights issues.

Um, didn't y'all try that 'punish the Dems by staying home' strategy in 2010?   How's that working out for you and the GL rights movement?

The only people you 'punished' because of your lack of strategic vision were yourselves, all women, middle class workers, the poor, and our children.   The only people that worked out for was the Tea Klux Klan and the Republicans.  They said.thank you very much clueless left wing Obama haters for staying at home and handing us power in a election cycle that was going to determine how federal, state and local legislative bodies were going to be reapportioned for the entire 2k10 decade.

Since one of them was a Texan, thank y'all very much for irrationally sitting at home and giving the Republicans a Texas House supermajority in the Lone Star State.  They promptly attempted to use it to disenfranchise Blacks and Latinos but thanks to the 1965 Voting Rights Act were stymied for the moment..  That supermajority also gave GOP legislators the political power to cut public school funding for starters and attack this community with more anti-gay legislation .  

Thank you clueless GL folks who hate Obama so much you allowed the Republicans to draw political legislative maps that will reduce our political power and make it harder for us to regain progressive majorities in the Texas legislature until 2020

And at the federal level, thank you for giving the POTUS half a congress that makes it impossible for him to get anything done GLBT rights wise or pass the liberal-progressive legislation we wish to have happen until 2013.

Elections matter, and the sooner you GL folks learn that simple lesson the conservafool moment has known since 1964, the faster we can make GLBT rights progress a reality. 

Moni's Thoughts About The EQTX Gala

I'm back in Casa de Monica after traveling a grand total of 3315 miles by air and bus from IAH to San Francisco, the SFO to Austin nonstop 'Nerd Bird' and back home to Houston from the ATX on the 'Bougie Bus.

Y'all might have heard I was blessed to receive another award, this time courtesy of Equality Texas, the Transgender Activist Award.

Hopefully EQTX will name that award for some pioneering trans Texan in the future.

Yes it was quite special to receive it on the same night as the Texas LGBT legislative caucus founders were honored along with my feisty Emmy Award winning niece Kai Shappley and her mom Kimberly Shappley     Kai and Kimberly received the Glen Maxey Activism Award

Reps Mary Gonzalez (D-El Paso), Jessica Gonzalez (D-Dallas), Julie Johnson (D-Carrollton), Celia Israel (D-Austin) and Erin Zweiner (D-Driftwood) were honored with EQTX's LGBTQ Leadership Award

Rep Sarah Davis (R-Houston) was given the EQTX Profile In Courage Award  while the Legacy Awards went to retiring state senator Jose Rodriguez (D-El Paso) and Rep Senfronia Thompson (D-Houston) 

Got a little pissed when they mentioned  Rep Thompson and the state James Byrd Hate Crimes Bill that I have been pushing since 1999 to include trans Texas people . 

My first state lobby day trip to Austin twenty years ago was for trans inclusion in the state's James Byrd Hate Crimes Bill, and I'm still pissed about how we got cut out of it twice. 

It was a fact I made clear to the assembled audience during my acceptance speech, and after the awards ceremony was over, one of the EQTX board members came to me afterward and apologized for that decision he helped to make back then that cut Texas trans folks out of that much needed bill.

That moment aside, I did enjoy meeting the new EQTX CEO Ricardo Rodriguez, seeing the EQTX team again, my ATX fam,  Dallas Councilman Omar Narvaez and all the wonderful conversations I had that night.

I must do another trip to Austin before the 2021 session jumps off.

.

Never Demetria

The late Maya Angelou once said that when somebody shows you who they are the first time, believe them.   One of the candidates in the 2019 Houston mayoral race has a long ugly history of showing us exactly who she is as an unrepentant transphobe and a homophobe.

That would be Demetria Smith.     And Moni has receipts.

Yep, the same Demetria Smith who has run for since 2013 a District D city council seat, Texas governor in 2018 and now twice for mayor in 2015 and this year.

The same Demetria Smith who is anti-HERO and still futilely trying to gaslight you into believing she isn't.

The same Demetria Smith that threw a hissy fit at a January 2018 Houston GLBT caucus meeting when her time ran out to speak at that meeting, then took to her social media in the wake of that public meltdown to falsely claim "the GLBT's are trying to silence me."

The same Demetria Smith that can't spell her own name right on her own campaign material.

She is the same Demetria Smith whose $3,750 filing fee check for the governor's race bounced, leading the Texas Secretary of State to declare her ineligible to run for the governor's office. 

It's not like she would have gotten any support had she been able to stay on the ballot in that Blue tsunami wave election year.   She got less than 1% of the vote the last time she ran for mayor in 2015, and is well on her way thanks to her unrepentant homophobia and transphobia to failing spectacularly again.

Oh yeah, almost forgot.  Don't you still owe the state of Texas $22,000 in delinquent filing fees?

The last few days have found Smith on social media once again letting her anti-gay and anti-trans flags fly.  She has attacked At Large 5 city council candidate Ashton P. Woods, Kandice Webber, Eric Edward Schell, Nick Arvizu-Hutchinson  and an increasingly lengthy list of other peeps in the Houston TBLGQ community tired of her bull feces and calling her on it.

It's reading time    But let me hydrate first.

(Moni cracks knuckles)

I am personally tired of your ignorant mentally constipated transphobic behind pushing the bathroom predator myth as your weak as well water excuse to hate on HERO.   And yes Demetria, you ARE a transphobe and homophobe who is unfit to hold any public elective office in Houston, Harris County or the state of Texas.

You don't like people calling you out about being a homophobe and transphobe?   Then stop saying homophobic and transphobic crap.   It's that breathtakingly simple.

But tragically, you can't help yourself, and I'm not expecting that miracle to happen.

News flash for you Miss Thang.   It ain't the trans folks you need to worry about.  It's Baptist preachers, deacons, Catholic priests, Republican politicians and creepy uncles.

It's also pissing me off you're flapping those loud and wrong gums about 'predators' when we have predators who have declared open season on Black trans women.   Where's your concern about that? 
Don't their lives mater?

These are dangerous times in America, and we need intelligent leaders at all levels of government who stand up for everyone, not just heterosexuals.   If my rights as a trans Houstonian aren't secure, nobody's are.

HERO 2.0 without public accommodations language or coverage for trans people is a non starter.

Your beliefs as you call them are not grounded in anything but sheer ignorance, and as an award winning blogger and journalist, my job is to speak truth to power, call crap out and stamp out ignorance inside and outside my community.

You are batting .1000 when it comes to spreading that ignorance. 

And let me get something straight with your reprehensible behind..  Gaybaiting is not a good look on you sweetheart.  Neither is willful ignorance or transphobia, and it's time for a makeover and a trip to the library.

It's also quite obvious that you desperately need education about LGBTQ issues but are unwilling to learn.   You also keep doubling and tripling down on your homophobia and transphobia and posting it on social media for the world to peruse as if that is something to be proud of. 

That's why you continue to fail whenever you run for office.   This 2019 election cycle will be another one in which you fail to learn from past mistakes, and you will get less than 1% of the vote in this upcoming election.

You have made it quite clear since 2013 that you are NOT that person we need at City Hall, and it's why I and an increasing majority of Houstonians are on Team #NeverDemetria

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.

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.

Shut Up Fool Awards- Moni's In The BTAC 2016 House Edition

I'm in the Dallas 'burbs for my fourth consecutive Black Trans Advocacy Conference.   Got my sweat equity shift at the registration desk done yesterday, presented my panel on Wednesday, and was part of the Black Trans Community Summit on Wednesday as well.

I'm thoroughly enjoying myself at what I call my extended birthday celebrating because this conference falls so close to my May 4 birthday.

Been pleased to not only see old friends like Dora and Yusuf who met at BTAC and are celebrating their first anniversary together, I'm happy to see that we have a lot of first time attendees from around the country, along with a trans bother from Jamaica at #BTAC2016.

I hope the neophyte attendees are also enjoying this event as much as I am.

When we reconvene for ‪#‎BTAC2017‬, I challenge Houston`s Black trans men to show up, participate and hang out with their national and international trans family.   This conference is just a four hour drive up I-45 from us and I and your Houston trans sisters would love to see more of you stepping up and representing H-town's trans masculine community.   It can't be just Houston's Black trans women alone representing our city and all Black trans peeps inside Beltway 8. 

Now that I'm off my BTAC soapbox, let's get to the usual Friday business at hand of calling fools out..

Since I have a long list of fools and some BTAC business to handle, will just select one fool this week and not post the long nomination list of (dis) honorable mention contenders for our weekly SUF title..

This week's Shut Up Fool Award goes to one of my home grown fools in Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick (R)    Despite the fact that North Carolina has been getting major negative international blowback for the unjust anti human rights Hate Bill 2 they hastily passed to stick it to the city of Charlotte and the trans community, Patrick announced in a Wednesday press conference he would support bringing that idiocy to the Lone Star State

Really?  What crystal meth have you been smoking?   Not no but hell no!   No GOP sponsored ALEC hate in my home state.   Sick of you white male Teapublicans wanting to oppress people.

And oh yeah..Dan Patrick, shut up fool!.

Shut Up Fool Awards- Moni's At #CC16 Edition

I'm up in Chicago for the 2016 edition of Creating Change, and I'm having a blast getting my learn on and seeing everyone that made it up here for this major conference.  We're happy that the weather is not as chilly as we expected, but the Chicago Host Committee is showing us a great time as we get our learn on.

It's Friday, and even though I'm up here handling #CC16 business, fools are everywhere, and I gots to call them out.  Speaking of calling fools out, I'll be adding five more names to the SUF Lifetime Achievement Awards List during Oscar weekend..  

So let's get started with my weekly TransGriot Shut Up Fool Awards and finding out what fool, fool or group of fools get it.

Honorable mention number one goes to Bernie Sanders, who is upset that he didn not get the endorsement of the Human Rights Campaign, but keeps mispronouncing the name of the organization.

Maybe if you gooten the name of the group right, they may have felt the bern for you.

Honorable mention number two is a group award for PETA, who floated the offer that if the city of Detroit went vegan, they would pay Detroit`s water bill.

And y`all wanna know why I hate PETA`s racist asses.

Honorable mention number three is a group award for all the 2016 POTUS candidates who continue to spew racist, sexist (fill in the blank) comments at every stop on the ccampaign trail.

Honorable mention number four goes to FOX Noise spokessellout Stacey Dash, who while cooning it up for FOX Noise tried to defend the melanin free Oscar nominees by suggesting that the BET and NAACP awards need to go if we Black people want intergration,

You need to chill with the GOP cranial rinses.   The reaon those award shows exist in the Black community Stacey, is because of repeated snubs like the ones you`re trying to defend.

This week the Shut Up Fool winner is Sarah Palin for blaming the arrest if her son Trask on President Obama and PTSD,

Really?  As usual that chillbilly is just like very other Republican in terms never taking responsibiloity for their actions of lousy parenting.

Sarah Palin, shut up fool