Michelle Obama's DNC Speech

Here's the next FLOTUS (First Lady of the United States) speech at the Democratic National Convention last night in Denver.

Shirley Chisholm's 1972 Presidential Announcement

In honor of the 88th anniversary of the day that women first gained the right to vote, here's some YouTube video of Shirley Chisholm (D-NY) the first African-American woman elected to Congress in 1968.

She was also the first African-American and first woman to run as a major party candidate for president and a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus in 1969. She held her Congressional seat until she retired from Congress in 1982 and was succeeded by Major Owens.

Chisholm's campaign inspired a young African-American volunteer by the name of Barbara Lee to remain active in politics and eventually run for and win a congressional seat herself in California.

Barack Needs A Pee Wee Reese To Step Up

TransGriot Note: I posted this to The Bilerico Project and had to share with you TransGriot readers as well.



The Democratic Convention is kicking off in Denver today. (wish I could be there)

Since the Beijing Olympic Games just ended, I'm still in a sports oriented frame of mind. I tend to focus on baseball after the All-Star break but with the Olympics happening, my sporting attention has been devoted to that quadrennial sports festival.

I was watching a forum on C-SPAN this morning sponsored by Politico and The Denver Post which had as participants Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr (D-IL) Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) Dr. Cornel West, Tavis Smiley and former Virginia governor L. Douglas Wilder, the first African-American elected governor since Reconstruction.

During the commentary, Rep. Jackson said something that Rep. Clyburn cosigned on that I totally agree with.

Barack needs a Pee Wee Reese.

Pee Wee Reese for those of you not familiar with the Jackie Robinson story was his roommate and team captain of the Brooklyn Dodgers when he broke into the major leagues in 1947. Reese refused to sign a petition that would have led to a threatened Dodger player boycott if Robinson joined the team. His friendship with Robinson not only helped ease the transition with his Dodger teammates, but eventually the entire National League. They also became one of the most potent double play combination in the sport during the 40's and 50's.

One of the restrictions that Jackie was under when he became the first African-American major league player was that for three years, he couldn't fight back or lose his temper, no matter what was done or said to him.

During his first road trip to play the Cincinnati Reds, the fans there taunted him unmercifully with racist slurs during pre game warmups. Pee Wee walked up to him, engaged Robinson in conversation and put his arm around his shoulder, a gesture that silenced the ignorant fans. During that difficult three years as their friendship grew, Reese helped keep Robinson's spirits up as Jackie's brilliant play on the field began to speak for him.

As a matter of fact, outside Louisville Slugger Field, the minor league ballpark here, there's a bronze statue of Robinson and the Louisville native at the entrance to the stadium capturing that moment.

What we are witnessing right now is a remix of the Jackie Robinson situation played out in this presidential political campaign, but substitute Sen. Barack Obama for Jackie Robinson.

He is trying to break the color line at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. He's capable of running a negative campaign, but has to run a positive one because an 'angry' Black man won't get elected president. He also has to walk a political tightrope that John McCain doesn't. He can't appear to be 'too Black' for the white and Latino/a electorate or 'too White' to the African-American community. He can't make too many mistakes because as a 'First Black' he gets judged far more harshly than a white person in the same position. He also doesn't get the luxury of responding angrily to obviously stupid, racist or asinine questions.

We have already heard the idiocy expressed by some disgruntled Hillary supporters that they will vote for McCain since Hillary wasn't the primary winner or chosen as his running mate. We haven't even begun to see the worst of the racist rhetoric that will be thrown at him by the right wing and the GOP even though they're already slinging their code worded racist slogans courtesy of Faux News and the Right Wing Noise Machine.

'Presumptuous', 'Arrogant' or 'elitist' (think 'uppity n****r)
'Not ready to lead' (the same coded rap on our intelligence they used to say about African-American quarterbacks, coaches, managers or CEO's )
'Lacks experience' (so did the resident-in- thief, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, and Jimmy Carter before they won the presidency)

What is needed at this juncture is a Pee Wee Reese to step up in the Democratic Party, put their arm around Barack's (and Michelle's) shoulders and say emphatically this man is alright and he'll make an excellent president. That alone will help allay the fears of all the (mostly white) people who want to do the right thing and vote for Obama but need that reassurance.and validation from another white person that this man is okay.

It's probably one of the reasons why Sen. Joe Biden is now the VP nominee instead of Sen. Clinton or some other Democratic woman like Governor Sebelius. Sen. Biden can do what Barack can't in this campaign, be the attack dog trashing the so-called 'maverick' at every opportunity.

But Sen. Biden can't be the only one. If the Democratic Party is serious about having the Obama family move into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue on January 20, then we will need multiple Pee Wee Reese's to step up. The bottom line is that as an African-American, I'd like to remind you that we are the most loyal constituency in the Democratic party over the last 40 years. We have voted for Democrats of all ethnicities during that time period, even for people we weren't all that enthused about.

And as part of that loyal constituency, we expect the same or greater level of reciprocal support for Sen. Obama from you as white Democrats that we African-American Democrats have shown for Lyndon Johnson, Hubert Humphrey, George McGovern, Jimmy Carter, Walter Mondale, Michael Dukakis, Bill Clinton, Al Gore and John Kerry.

I not only see the big picture in terms of Supreme Court judges, whether a Democrat or Republican is sitting in the most powerful office in the country directly affects the quality of my life and how much cash is in my wallet

It also speaks to something I've said for quite some time now. If you want progressive policies, you have to elect progressive politicians to enact those policies.

John McCain is NOT a 'maverick', he's a committed conservative. Anybody that thinks he'll change or is friendly to GLBT issues is making the same mistake they did eight years ago by allowing themselves to be hoodwinked by George W. Bush and his compassionate conservatism' snake oil.

There's no doubt that Barack Obama has the education, the talent, the judgment, charisma and the temperament to lead this country. He is already respected by many world leaders and would do much to restore our tarnished standing in the world.

He is one of our best as African-Americans and the best candidate we've set forth as a party for the office in probably a generation. I'd hate to think that Sen. Obama could possibly lose because of petty jealousies, lack of vision or people still hung up on harboring centuries old prejudices against African-Americans and not get to chance to show like Jackie Robinson did a half century earlier, he's got the talent to excel in the presidential game.

Shooter Of Trans Woman Convicted Of Voluntary Manslaughter

TransGriot Note: Here we go again. Another murderer put on trial for killing a transwoman of color, another one who gets off. It's depressingly consistent whether the trial happens in Memphis, TN or London, England.


By Timothy Cwiek
PGN Writer-at-Large
Philadelphia Gay News, PA, USA
8/22/08


A Philadelphia judge has acquitted the killer of a trans woman of murder charges, despite an impassioned plea by the prosecutor that malice was behind the shooting.

At the end of a three-hour bench trial on Aug. 18, Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey P. Minehart convicted Terron Oates of voluntary manslaughter in the death of Alexis King.

Oates, 20, of the Olney section, faces a minimum of five years in prison when he is sentenced next month, but could be released within the next 30 months because of credit for time served.

Police arrested Oates after the February 2006 incident and he has been incarcerated since then.

Minehart didn't explain his ruling, but it appears he accepted the defense's position that Oates acted in the heat of passion after he picked up King for sex in February 2006, then shot her twice after realizing she was a biological male.

Assistant D.A. MK Feeney argued for a first-degree murder conviction or, as an alternative, a third-degree- murder conviction. She said the evidence indicated that Oates targeted King because of her transgender status.

But defense attorney Brian McMonagle stressed the youth and naiveté of his client when he went out looking for sex about 5 a.m. Feb. 1, 2006, at Broad and Spring Garden streets.

He said Oates wasn't aware that transgender sex workers frequented the area. He didn't know King was a biological male until she became sexually aggressive inside Oates' car and indicated that she had a penis. Then, Oates went into a frenzy and shot her twice in the heat of passion, McMonagle said.

Feeney scoffed at that defense.

"Mr. Oates isn't so naïve that he can't find a gun," she said. "He has an illegal gun in his car, he's out at five o'clock in the morning on a school night and he's going to a strip club when he's underage. He's sophisticated enough to be doing those things. Yet the defense portrayed him as an innocent, naïve little boy."

Oates told police he didn't realize King's biological status until King grabbed Oates' hand and placed it on King's penis, inside the car.

Oates did not testify during the trial but his early statements to police were read for the record.

However, Sgt. Daniel Dutch, who's worked undercover as a "john" in the area, testified that he's never heard of — nor experienced — such behavior by a transgender sex worker.

To the contrary, transgender sex workers normally go out of their way to avoid having the johns touch their penises, Dutch said.

And medic William Murphy, who administered emergency care to King after she was shot, testified that King's penis was "tucked" between her legs, held in place by her panties, when he got to her.

The shooting happened in the Nicetown section, near the intersection of Bott and Kerbaugh streets. King was shot twice, from the side and rear, according to the medical examiner's report.

Her body was found about 120 feet from Oates' car, where she collapsed in a pool of blood, evidently trying to run for safety, said Feeney.

McMonagle said the shooting happened during "pandemonium" in Oates' car, after he felt King's penis, tussled with her for Oates' pistol, then King moved toward him.

But Feeney refuted that scenario.

"At no time was she ever coming toward him when he shot her, because she was shot from the side and rear," Feeney said. "That tells you right there that the defendant is lying. If you're coming toward someone, your front would get shot."

She said Oates' actions after the shooting also contradict a heat-of-passion defense.

"He immediately got rid of the weapon," Feeney continued. "If you can't think straight, you're not going to do that. Then he calls 911, does this act on the phone about a robbery and unknown gunman and lies to the responding officer and detectives. To me, that shows a pretty good presence of mind, don't you think?"

She said Oates tried to flee the scene but was stymied because his car wouldn't start. "But for the fact that his car wouldn't start and he was stuck at the scene, we'd probably never even know who killed Alexis King," Feeney said.

Minehart scheduled sentencing for 10 a.m. Sept. 29 in Courtroom 602 of the Criminal Justice Center, 1315 Filbert St.

Timothy Cwiek can be reached at (215) 625-8501 ext. 208

© 2008 Philadelphia Gay News

2008 Democratic Comvention

I'd hoped to be sitting in Denver right now as part of the army of bloggers credentialed for the 2008 Democratic Convention in Denver, but unfortunately that fell through when The Bilerico Project wasn't selected as one of the credentialed blogs.

Bil and Jerame are there covering the event for The Bilerico Project anyway, but I've committed my vacation time for something else and couldn't go.

The convention starts in a few hours and here's the link to the official convention website. In addition to the Project covering the DNC, Pam's House Blend will be doing so as well along with several other blogs.

At the Avalon Farmblog you'll have Dr. Marisa Richmond, our first African-American transgender delegate commenting on the historic happenings from her spot in the Tennessee delegation. My homegirl Vanessa Edawrds Foster is a Texas delegate and will be blogging about her experiences in her Trans Political blog.

And of course, just because I'm not in the Mile High city doesn't mean that the TransGriot won't have any opinions about the various speeches, GOP bullshyt spin, network coverage and other political activity going on.

But I'd rather be there pontificating about it than in Louisville.

Passing the Torch To London

We all wondered what the organizers of the Beijing Games would do after providing us with a breathtaking opening ceremony for the ages.

Well, as we expected, they finished off these Games in spectacular fashion. After 16 days of thrills, chills, heartbreak, drama and the athletes from 204 nations living up to the Olympic motto Citius, Altius, Fortius (Swifter, Higher, Stronger) The Games of the 28th Olympiad in Beijing came to a close. The host nation cleaned up in the gold medal count with 51 medals and 100 medals overall. It was the most gold medals collected by any nation since the old Soviet Union cleaned up in 1988. Team USA is taking home 38 gold medals and 110 medals overall, the most we've piled up at a non US hosted Games.

It was also cool to note that 78 countries won medals, so it wasn't all concentrated among the sports superpowers.

The standout athletes who will forever be synonymous with these games are Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps. Usain Bolt not only solidified his claim as the world's fastest man, he did so with record breaking ease. Michael Phelps record eight medals include one memorable relay race and outtouching Bernard Cavic by a fingernail.

Bolt, Phelps and images of the Water Cube and the Bird's Nest Stadium will be the signature Olympic moments and images for for this generation just as watching Mark Spitz, Carl Lewis, Nadia Comaneci, Olga Korbut, the 1980 USA Olympic hockey team, the 1992 Dream Team and Florence Griffith Joyner was for mine.

The performances at these Games will serve as an inspiration for kids and the adults that were glued to the television. You have no excuse for not getting in shape when you see a 41 year old mom and former Olympian come out of retirement to earn a silver medal or a 33 year old German competitor executing a vault while competing against people that are old enough to be her daughter.

Hopefully one of those kids who was inspired to become an Olympian in a future Games was a transgender one. I pray that I'm granted enough time on Planet Earth to see that transgender athlete, wherever they are from receive that medal.

The reasons I love the Olympics are multifaceted ones. Yeah, I'm a sports fan who loves to see my country do well in any international competition, as I documented with the various Olympic posts. But the Olympics aren't just any sports competition. It's special. It's summed up in the motto of these Beijing Games, One World One Dream.

The one dream that any kid who plays a sport shares no matter where they grew up on this planet is to stand on the top step of the Olympic podium with a gold medal around your neck. You've just executed the best sporting performance of your life against top flight competition and you're hearing your country's national anthem played as you see your nation's flag raised to the rafters of an arena or the top of a flagpole.

But the beauty of the Olympics is that for two weeks, all 6 billion of us on Planet Earth forget about the usual rivalries, national borders, political drama and even our own problems to cheer for the youth (and sometimes people like 41 year old Dara Torres) of the world competing at the highest levels for Olympic immortality.

And sometimes, as you get reminded, it's not always about winning a medal. Sometimes it's just being there to compete. You also see that no matter how hard you've trained for that moment, one mistake can cost you a medal.

The Olympics are a microcosm of life. It's not about how you fare when you're on top, but how quickly you bounce back from adversity. Sometimes your best efforts aren't good enough to get you the big prize on that particular day, so it will interesting to watch and see if the folks that failed to medal here in Beijing show up in London and stand on the medal platform four years from now.

So the torch has been extinguished at the top of the Bird's Nest, the Antwerp Olympic flag has been passed to the mayor of London and we wait until 2012 for the start of the Games of the 30th Olympiad. Our British cousins are plugging away as I write this building the venues and making plans for their own turn on the Olympic stage.

Beijing raised the bar in terms of hosting a Games, but I have no doubts that our British friends will rise to the occasion and put their own unique stamp on Olympic history.

They already have a head start on making history. They will become the first city to host the Olympics three times when the Olympic torch gets lit there on August 29, 2012. London also hosted the Games in 1908 and 1948.

There are four cities who will be anxiously awaiting an October 2009 IOC meeting in Copenhagen that will determine who will be the mayor receiving the Antwerp flag from the mayor of London when they have the closing ceremonies of those 30th Games.

But take heart Olympic fans, the Winter Games in Vancouver are only two years away.

Redeemed!

It took eight years, but you can finally call Team USA's men's Olympic gold medallists.

The 'Redeem Team' rolled over Spain by 37 points in the pools, but eked out a hard fought 118-107 victory over Spain to claim the gold medal and finish the Games unbeaten.

In a game more akin to an NBA all-star game in terms of the non stop scoring, Spain showed why they won the 2006 FIBA championship and were determined to make Team USA work for it. Team USA shot a lights out 71 percent in the first half and still couldn't run away from the gritty Spaniards. Spain has been having a banner sports year themselves and dearly wanted to add Team USA to its lengthening list of high profile sports victories.

They almost got their wish. With 8 minutes left in the fourth quarter Spain closed to within two points of tying the game. It took a critical four point play from Kobe Bryant to finally allow Team USA (and its fans) to exhale and start celebrating a moment that we've been waiting for ever since the 2002 embarrassment of Indianapolis, the less than scintillating 2004 bronze medal performance in Athens and falling in the semifinals of the 2006 FIBA World championships in Japan.

All is right with the basketball world until the 2010 FIBA World Championships in Turkey. We have claimed basketball supremacy in the sport we invented for now. But we know we can no longer step on a basketball court wearing a USA jersey, say boo and win by 50. The rest of the world has game as well.

See y'all in Turkey and London.

Poetic Posts

TransGriot Note: I love creative writing, and from time to time I like writing short stories, novels and poetry.

Some of them I've posted on TransGriot, and since there are over 900 plus posts for you to peruse, thought I'd make it easy for y'all and consolidate the poetry links in one easy to find post.

photo and video-Maya Angelou reading her poem 'On The Pulse Of Morning' during the 1993 inauguration of President Bill Clinton.



Silly Rabbit


Ebony


Batty Boys


I Am She


Fracked Up


Don't Disrespect Me



They Don't Want No Sissy Church


Phenomenal Transwoman


Houston Blues


I Am A Houston Sistah

Same Olympic Women's B-Ball Final- Same Result

Since 1996 the Team USA women and the Australian Opals have had quite a basketball rivalry. They are the two best teams in the world. The Aussies are the current FIBA world women's champs. They have met in the 1996 Atlanta semifinals and the gold medal games in Sydney and Athens. All the matchups were double digit Team USA wins.

The Aussies felt that this Olympics was theirs. Some of their best players stayed home to train. Lauren Jackson left the Seattle Storm two weeks before the WNBA Olympic break started to go back to Australia to train with the Opals.

But once again, the Opals will be taking silver medals back Down Under. Lisa Leslie made sure her last Olympic game would end on a high note despite fouling out with 6:33 left in the contest. She scored 14 points to help Team USA defeat Australia 92-65 and join Teresa Edwards as the only female USA ballers to win four gold medals. Leslie made history by becoming the first to accomplish the feat in consecutive Olympiads.

It looked like it was going to be a hard fought game for a while. Team USA trailed 13-10 late in the first quarter before Kara Lawson and the 'Young Guns' as I call them took the floor. They ignited a 12-2 run that gave Team USA a 22-15 lead at the end of the quarter. The Aussie were also held to 22% shooting as Team USA raced out to a 47-30 lead while blistering the nets with 63% shooting.

The 'Young Guns' also outscored the Opals bench 59-11 in this game as well with Kara Lawson's perfect 5 for 5 shooting and 15 points leading the way.

Lauren Jackson scored 20 points while trying to rally the Opals, but they couldn't get any closer than cutting the deficit to 12 points. Team USA not only sent Lisa Leslie and Katie Smith out in style, they won their 33rd consecutive Olympic game.

This team had a nice mix of veterans and youth. Team USA will definitely be in good shape when the Drive for Olympic Gold Five kicks off in London four years from now.

It's Joe Biden

The question many peeps in the political world have been asking in the runup to the start of the Democratic National Convention in Denver Monday has now been answered.

Sen. Joe Biden will be Sen. Obama's running mate.

He returned to Springfield, IL to make that announcement, where he started his campaign 19 months ago. While I was hoping that the veep would be New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, that's too much diversity for the folks who still harbor racist prejudices and assumptions to deal with, even in my own party. Sen. Obama winning the nomination almost dictated that he was going to have to select a white person for the vice presidential slot.



To be honest, I'm glad it wasn't Sen. Hillary Clinton. Contrary to what her supporters think, she is a liability despite the vaunted strength with so-called white working class voters. That was built on smoke and mirrors, GOP crossover vote meddling and a healthy dose of good old-fashioned prejudice.

Her, Bill's and her supporters behaviors since suspending her campaign in June has only pissed me and other African-American Democrats off and probably sunk her chances to get the VP slot.

While Sen. Biden wasn't my favorite of the peeps rumored to be in the mix for the VP slot, if it results in victory on November 4, that's all I care about.

Survey Finds VA Discriminates Against Transgender Veterans

Trans Universe, TAVA founder Monica Helms' blog has the results of an interesting survey conducted by TAVA of 827 transgender veteran participants from December 13, 2007 to May 1, 2008.

This represents a strong sampling from what is estimated to be approximately 300,000 veterans in the US who identify as being transgender.

The Palm Center at the University of California, Santa Barbara has released the findings of a survey, conducted by Transgender American Veterans Association (TAVA), that shows that transgender veterans are being turned away and being mistreated in high numbers by Veterans Administration medical facilities.

Check out the story at Trans Universe

Payback

During the 2002 FIBA World men's championship that was held right up the road from me in Indianapolis, Argentina shocked the world by beating Team USA 87-80. That shocking loss sent Team USA careening toward a sixth place finish in a FIBA tournament we were hosting on home soil.

Two years later Argentina proved the 2002 game wasn't a fluke by beating Team USA in the Athens Games semifinals 89-81. The loss sent the 2000 defending Olympic champions to the bronze medal game.

Today the 'Redeem Team' got some payback for 2004. They defeated Argentina 101-81 to advance to the gold medal game against current FIBA world champions Spain. The wounded Argentines will face Lithuania for the bronze medal.

The 'Redeem Team' said they wanted to face Argentina, and in the first quarter they looked as though they would blow them right out of the arena. With the USA up by 10 in the first quarter the Argentines lost Manu Ginobili to the ankle injury that slowed him up in the NBA playoffs. They went up by as much as 21 points early in the second quarter before the defending Olympic champs made a run of their own that whittled the deficit to 46-40.

Houston Rocket Luis Scola scored 28 points to keep the Argentines in the game but Team USA had too much firepower and too many people determined to wipe away the bitter memories of those past embarrassing defeats.

Team USA is now 40 basketball minutes away from fulfilling LeBron James' Olympic gold guarantee.

What's Wrong With The USA Track Team?

It's been a while since I've seen an Olympics (Munich 1972) in which a Team USA track squad has had this many gaffes, miscues, medal favorites who fizzled and just plain old bad luck.

Not counting the boycotted Moscow Games, this will be the first Olympics ever that the United States has gone 0-6 in the sprint events (men's and women's 100m and 200m and the 4x100m relays).

I realized that Usain Bolt was going to kick some major butt in the 100m and 200m and correctly predicted to friends that Michael Johnson's 200m world record he set at the 1996 Atlanta Games would fall. I felt the Jamaicans had the better women's sprinters since our ranks over the last 8 years have been decimated by suspensions and retirements.

But I didn't expect both the men and women's 4x100m relay teams to drop the baton in the same event in the same games.

For an American track fan, watching a US relay team in the Olympic or world championship final, even if we don't win the gold, is an event we take almost for granted. When it doesn't happen, it's major sports news.

To give you an idea how long it's been since a US men's team hasn't competed in an Olympic 4x100 final, you'd have to go back to the 1912 Games in Stockholm and the 1988 Seoul Games. The last time the US women missed a 4x100 final was the 1948 London Games.

I realize these things go in cycles, and from time to time you will get an extraordinary athlete like a Usain Bolt that wasn't born in the USA. That's the breaks. There's a lot of things I'm mad at the Jamaicans about, but you gotta give it to them, they busted their behinds to get to this point. They have an opportunity to become the first nation to go 6-6 in the Olympic sprint events since Team USA did it at the 1984 LA Games.

While the world has clearly stepped up its game in athletics (what the rest of the planet calls track and field) I feel the USA not only hasn't kept pace, but has gotten sloppy in the way it promotes the sport and develops talent.

I grew up watching track events in Houston, which was a hotbed of the sport at one time thanks to HBCU's Texas Southern and Prairie View A&M. Longtime PV women's coach and Hall of Famer Barbara Jacket was the US women's Olympic coach in 1992 and 1968 Olympian and Hall of Famer Jim Hines was a TSU Tiger.

There used to be US TV network coverage of the major track competitions like the Penn and Texas Relays among others. Because of our historical connections to the sport, Houston papers covered track at the high school level and collegiate level as well.

Once upon a time in the States, just as we followed Candace Parker from the historic 2004 McDonald's high school All-American game when she became the first female player to beat the guys in the slam dunk contest to playing for Team USA in Beijing, we used to know who the up and coming track phenoms were and developed them for future Olympic glory.

Now you have to hunt for any coverage of it, much less any coverage of a high school level track meet. I was bummed to find out the Kentucky state championship track meet happens here in Louisville on the U of L campus, and I didn't find out about it until AFTER it had occurred.

I'm happy to hear that incoming USA Track & Field CEO Doug Logan has promised a comprehensive review of the way the US federation does things— including the way we select, train and coach our relays.

It can't happen soon enough in my opinion. The opening ceremony for the London Games happens on August 29, 2012.

TCBing

Taking care of business. That's what the USA men's and women's basketball teams are doing so far in these games. Both finished unbeaten in their pools. They blew people out. Both have disposed of a quarterfinal round opponents. Both are facing tough semifinals opponents.

The women just disposed of a Russian team that for 23 minutes gave them their stiffest challenge yet. They expected a tough game from them and they got it.

It's a tradition with us and Russia. It's a rivalry with deep roots. The Russians upset Team USA 75-68 to end Team USA's 50 game international winning streak in the 2006 FIBA championship semifinals in Brazil. Russia, playing as the Unified Team in 1992 also handed the US women their last Olympic loss as well.

So with that history on the minds of several US players and basketball fans around the planet, it probably led to the sloppy start of this semifinal matchup. Team USA had the TransGriot and probably every USA basketball fan nervous as our girls trailed by as much as seven points. They turned the ball over 13 times, missed free throws and blew six layups until they settled down and turned up the defensive heat. Team USA went on a 10-2 run to go into halftime with a slim one point lead.

They started off the third quarter the same way they did the first two. They trailed the Russians 38-33 before they ratcheted up the defensive pressure and scored the next 12 points while shutting down the Russians (and Becky Hammon) for the next 7 minutes while limiting them to 8 points for the quarter and seizing control of the game.

Thanks to Diana Taurasi's 21 points (with 15 of them courtesy of her sharpshooting from beyond the FIBA arc) and Tina Thompson's 15 points they defeated Russia 67-52 and secured not only their 32nd straight Olympic win, but their fourth straight trip to the Olympic gold medal game on Saturday versus the Australians. They dismantled China 90-56 in the other semifinal game with Penny Taylor sitting on the bench.

It'll be the third straight time since 2000 that they and the Opals have squared off in a women's Olympic basketball final and should be fun to watch.

Silly Rabbit

TransGriot Note: Was motivated to write this poem after seeing a young male wearing this anti gay slogan on a t-shirt.

An MKR Poem


Saw you on the street the other day
Wearing a shirt that was anti gay
It read, 'silly faggot, dicks are for chicks'
Thanks for the warning you're a bigoted prick

Did you know there are chicks
That don't like dicks?
And there are chicks
That possess dicks?

There are handsome Dicks
Who used to be chicks
And there are Dicks
Who are now cute chicks

So, silly rabbit
Are you in the habit
Of showing the world that in your brain
Ignorance, transphobia and homophobia reign?

And that you're immature
And insecure
In your sexuality
And gender identity?

Think about this silly rabbit, if you can
Did that shirt make you feel more like a man?
If hating gay and trans peeps makes you feel okay
You're a pathetic waste of DNA

You keep hatin' on peeps who are transgender or gay
We ain't gonna go away
'Tudes like yours cause us stress and strife
But won't keep us from living a quality life
Silly rabbit

'Creation Science' Gets Another Legal Smackdown

As the child of an educator I abhor and despise ignorance no matter where it comes from.

I have a special distaste for the Religious Reich not only because of their faith-based hatred of GLBT people or the twisting of Biblical scripture for their nefarious political purposes, but because of their decades long Talibanesque push to destroy public schools. They wish to force their interpretations of science on the rest of us who don't turn off our brains when we enter a church sanctuary or have no problem reconciling scientific reason and logic with our Christian beliefs. In fact, Dr. Martin Luther King is my role model to be just that type of Christian.

I'm bringing this issue up because the University of California recently won a federal lawsuit brought by a Christian school in Southern California, an association of Christian schools, and several students in 2005. They were arguing that the University of California's refusal to honor courses that reject evolution or declare the Bible infallible violated their rights to freedom of speech and religion.

S. James Otero of the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles ruled that when considering applicants from Christian high schools, the University of California system does not have to recognize or give credit to those courses.

Judge Otero said the UC's review committees had a valid reason for rejecting the courses. It wasn't because they contained religious viewpoints; it was because they failed to meet the university's legitimate academic standards.

In a written statement UC provost and executive vice president for academic and health affairs Wyatt R. Hume praised the judge’s ruling. “As we have said all along,” he said, “the question the university addresses in reviewing courses is not whether they have religious content, but whether they provide adequate instruction in the subject matter.”

As you probably guessed, the Reichers are already appealing the case, which is winding it's way through the Ninth Circuit.

Hallelujah!

I'm sick of right-wingers pimping creation science, intelligent design or whatever name du jour they call creationism as legitimate science.

If they despise having their kids sit next to African-American, Latino/a, Asian and GLBT kids in a classroom so much that they willingly pay thousands of dollars to send their kids to private 'christian' schools and stuff their heads full of Flintstones cartoons, so be it.

It's on y'all if you want to pay for the privilege of dumbing down your kids. We have in northern Kentucky a $27 million dollar monument to that ignorance in Petersburg called the Creation Museum.

Just don't expect the rest of the science, logic and reason based world to play along with your faith-based fantasy that you are the majority or use our tax dollars to pay for that BS.

Neither should you expect a competitive academic institution such as the University of California or any other public university that require fact-based science classes as a prerequisite for entrance to factor non-science based courses into that entrance decision. If y'all won't allow diversity as a reason to admit historically denied people who qualify to enter Cal, then y'all don't get any sympathy or slack from me.

Merit arguments cut both ways. Thanks to your decision to isolate them from a diverse world, your kids failed to meet the fact-based science credits requirement standard necessary to enter an elite institution. Besides, this country is already lagging far enough behind in math and science thanks to your hate on public education hijinks.

On the University of California logo it has the words 'Let there be light' on it. There needed to be light shone on the Religious Reich's ongoing attempts to force creationism down people's throats as they just did in Louisiana. Thank you University of California and Judge Otero for calling them on it

The Reichers would do well to remember the words of a man far smarter than many of us, Albert Einstein.

“Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.”

And the fundies have been blind for a long time when it comes to science education.

Another Houston Landmark Goes Bye-Bye

I talked about how I felt when what would have been Astroworld's 40th anniversary passed with it being razed to the ground and many Houstonians still saddened and pissed about how Six Flags handled the situation.

Now another landmark company for many Houstonians is going bye-bye as well.

Finger Furniture, where for 81 years generations of Houstonians have bought the furniture for their homes will become Ashley Furniture HomeStores. The four Finger locations in town will be shut down, including the massive one on the Gulf Freeway close to downtown that holds the Houston Baseball Museum and the home plate for old Buffs Stadium.

The Gulf Freeway store sits on the site of old Buffs Stadium, which was the home of Houston's longtime minor league baseball team the Houston Buffalos.

It was a St. Louis Cardinals affiliate until the Colt 45s/Astros were born in 1962. Some legendary Cardinals such as Dizzy Dean played here before heading off to St. Louis and future Hall of Fame careers.

As a result of being a former Cardinals farm team city, the major league opponent that draws the biggest crowds for Astros games behind the Cubs and ahead of the Braves and Dodgers, especially among the generation that grew up with the Buffs is the St. Louis Cardinals. It was also ironic that we beat the Cards to earn our first National League championship in 2005.

Finger Furniture was founded by Sam Finger in 1927. His son S.P. "Sammy" Finger was an industry legend who pioneered the environmental room-setting retail concept, according to the American Furniture Hall of Fame.

In 1989, Robert "Bobby" Finger became president and CEO. The company named his son Rodney Finger president in 2006, and the following year, after the death of Bobby Finger, Rodney became CEO.

Last year, the company posted sales of about $255 million, according to Furniture Today.

"It's sad to see them go. Sammy Finger built a great brand," said Jim McIngvale, owner of Gallery Furniture.

"Finger's has been a good name in the community for a long time. I wish the family and employees well and hope the transformation is successful," said Melvyn Wolff, chairman of Star Furniture, a 96-year-old chain and the oldest in Texas.

Fingers was a victim of the changes in the furniture industry. Once upon a time all furniture retailers in the States bought their products in North Carolina. Now it comes from all over the world. Rodney Finger mentioned that several of Fingers old suppliers have gone out of business as a result of that changing business model.

Fingers bought the exclusive operating rights for Ashley Furniture in the Houston area a few years ago. The three Ashley stores it has opened in the Houston market are outperforming their four Fingers ones, leading to the corporate restructuring.

Most of the furniture in my parents and grandparents homes came from Fingers. When I tagged along on those furniture shopping trips I'd make a beeline for the Houston Baseball Museum section of the store and its free soda pop.

I understand the Finger's are doing what they have to do to ensure the company survives for a fifth generation and beyond. The end result is that another piece of the Houston I and generations of people grew up with, and like Joske's and Sakowitz, another marquee retailing name in the Houston area is going away forever.

Houston Councilwoman Jones Helps Rescue Driver From Fiery Crash

TransGriot Note: I wrote a post about my fellow Cougar back in December 2007 when she won her at-large seat on City Council. Check out what she's been up to since then.

By JENNIFER LATSON
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Aug. 17, 2008, 11:01PM

The sparks from the highway looked like fireworks, but Jolanda Jones' teenage son saw what caused them: a car vaulting off the elevated stretch of Westpark Tollway before crashing about 100 feet below.

Jones followed the billowing smoke to where the car rested against a fence in the Hillcroft Transit Center.

Flames engulfed its front end.

"I think, 'Oh my God, someone's dead,' " Jones said.

The Houston City Council member and two other Good Samaritans happened to see the crash just before 1 a.m. Sunday. Together, they pulled the driver from the mangled, fiery wreckage.

Jones and a friend had just picked up her son from a country-western concert and were headed toward Wal-Mart on a Westpark feeder road when they saw the car leap off the tollway near U.S. 59. They stopped their car, called 911 and followed the smoke.

"We just ran," said Jones, 42, a former track and field star at the University of Houston.

She didn't expect to see anyone alive. But when she neared the car, she saw movement.

Then she heard a woman screaming.

Jones and the two men, all of them strangers to each other, tried to pry the woman out, but she was pinned by the steering wheel inside the crumpled car.

Time was running out.

"The window was melting," Jones said. "The fire was coming in."

Finally, Jones leaned in through the back passenger window and put her weight on the driver's seat.

The woman slipped free, and the trio lifted her out the window.

Her leg was clearly broken; the protruding bone was visible, stretching the skin. Blood trickled from her mouth.

Jones carried her to a curb and sat down, cradling her in her arms, she said.

"I didn't know if she was going to live or die," she said. "I didn't want to put her on the ground."

Jones spoke to her briefly and learned her first name. The dark-haired woman was about 25, Jones guessed.

The woman screamed until police and firefighters arrived and whisked her away in an ambulance.

It was the second time this month that Jones has crossed paths with police at a scene.

On Aug. 1, she happened upon an arrest in progress outside a Third Ward gas station. She approached police and said she had concerns that the suspect, wanted on charges of marijuana possession, was being mistreated. The officers accused her of interfering with an arrest.

This time, she said, one officer expressed gratitude.

"He said, 'You saved her life,' " she recalled Sunday afternoon.

But, she said, he told her the woman might have suffered massive internal injuries from the 100-foot fall.

Houston police Capt. Bruce Williams declined to comment Sunday on the specifics of the accident.

Jones said anxiety kept her awake all night. She went to the Ben Taub Hospital emergency room Sunday morning to check on the woman.

She could only tell them the woman's first name and the details of the crash. They knew who she meant.

"They said, 'Yes, ma'am. She's alive.' "

jennifer.latson@chron.com

African-American Sibling Fencers Win Silver Medals

The Williams sisters aren't the only African-American siblings who will be taking medals back home from Beijing.

Meet Keeth and Erinn Smart. Keeth and Erinn are the trailblazing fencers from Brooklyn, NY who were the first kids that walked through the doors of the Peter Westbrook Foundation's fencing program when he started it in 1990.

Peter Westbrook was the last American man to win a fencing medal and the first African-American one to do so. He captured a bronze medal in the men's sabre event at the 1984 LA Games. The Smarts are competing in their third Olympics, and as the old saying goes, the third time was the charm. But they've had a rough year just getting to this point.

Their parents unfortunately weren't there to witness it. Their father Thomas Smart passed away in 2005 from a sudden heart attack,. Their mother Audrey Elizabeth died recently in March after battling colon cancer for two years.

Keeth contracted a rare blood disorder that put him in intensive care for two weeks while competing in a fencing tournament in Algeria. The disorder not only threatened his participation in the Beijing Games but put his life in jeopardy as well.

The Smart's roads to their respective medals were just as rocky. In the women's team foil event Team USA was ranked seventh out of eight teams. They upset Poland and then held off Hungary 35-33 in the semifinals as Erinn held off a furious late charge by the Hungarian fencer to send them to the gold medal match versus Russia.

Unfortunately Team USA lost to Russia 28-11 in the gold medal match, but in the process they earned the first US medals in the foil event since 1960.

Keeth's run to a medal was just as dramatic in the men's team sabre event.

Smart took over in the quarterfinal with the USA trailing defending world champion Hungary 40-36. In the team event, first one to 45 wins, and the Americans had their backs to the wall. Smart rallied to tie the match at 44 all, then scored the winning touch to send them to the semifinals against the Russians.

In the semifinals, Keeth found himself not only facing a 40-35 deficit, but a personal demon as well. At the 2004 Athens Games he came on the strip in the bronze medal match against the Russians with a 40-35 lead. Russia's Stanislav Pozdnyakov rallied to lead them to a 45-44 win and the bronze medal. The loss bothered him to the point that he took a two year sabbatical from the sport.

Smart was now ironically facing the same man in the reverse situation and rose to the challenge. He outfenced Pozdnyakov and led Team USA to a 45-44 win and the gold medal match against France.

Unfortunately in the gold medal match Team USA fell behind 40-28 before Smart took over. Despite the twelve point deficit, he almost pulled it out with another miracle rally against France's Julien Pillet. He outscored him 9-5, but the deficit was too much to overcome as Team USA lost 45-37 to France for the silver, the first fencing medals for the men's sabre program since 1984.

Congratulations Keeth and Erinn for making history in the fencing world, being trailblazing role models and finally earning those well-deserved medals while persevering through a tough year for both of you off the strip.

APA Resolves To Play Leading Role In Improving Treatment For Gender-Variant People

TransGriot Note: The transgender community will be closely monitoring the APA to ensure they follow through on what has been written in this press release.

BOSTON – The American Psychological Association urged psychologists today to take a leading role in ending discrimination based on gender identity, calling upon the profession to provide "appropriate, nondiscriminatory treatment to all transgender and gender-variant individuals" and encouraging more research into all aspects of gender identity and expression.

The action came at APA's Annual Convention when the association's governing Council of Representatives adopted a resolution supporting full equality for transgender and gender-variant people. The resolution also calls on APA to:

* support legal and social recognition of transgender individuals consistent with their gender identity and expression;
* support the provision of adequate and medically necessary treatment for transgender and gender-variant people;
* recognize the benefit and necessity of gender transition treatments for appropriately evaluated individuals;
* call on public and private insurers to cover these treatments.

In addition to adopting the wide-ranging resolution, the Council of Representatives received a report by APA's Task Force on Gender Identity and Gender Variance. The six-member task force spent more than two years reviewing the scientific literature, as well as APA policies regarding transgender issues. It was also charged with developing recommendations for education, professional training and further research into transgenderism, and proposing how APA can best meet the needs of psychologists and students who identify as transgender or gender-variant.

Noting that transgender people, their families, friends and employers are increasingly turning to psychologists for help, "this trend underscores the need for psychologists to acquire greater knowledge and competence in addressing transgender issues," the report states.

Among the report's recommendations:

* APA should encourage training programs and graduate internships to welcome and support transgender and gender-variant people;
* APA should develop separate practice guidelines for transgender clients;
* APA should encourage more research into gender identity and expression, including the reliability and validity of diagnostic criteria for gender identity disorders;
* APA should advocate for antidiscrimination protection for transgender people in jurisdictions that lack such laws.

With regard to research, the task force listed a series of recommended areas of focus, including social stigma and public attitudes toward gender identity; identity development, including prospective studies of children and adolescents; the process and outcome of transgender-specific health care; and the variables associated with the efficacy of sex reassignment.

As a direct result of the task force's work, APA added gender identity to its nondiscrimination policy earlier this year. This builds upon prior adoption of gender identity nondiscrimination language in APA's bylaws, Code of Ethics and its Guidelines and Principles for Accreditation of Professional Programs in Psychology.

In addition, the task force developed a brochure, Answers to Your Questions about Transgender Individuals and Gender Identity (http://www.apa.org/topics/transgender.html), which APA published in 2006 and has made available on its Web site.

The task force recommended that APA take no position with respect to the diagnosis of gender identity disorder, which is sometimes required for transgender clients to obtain needed care. "Psychologists who work with clients with gender identity issues are not of one mind on this issue," task force members wrote. They noted that the psychiatric profession publishes the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, which contains GID, "and thus revision is their responsibility."

The report noted that APA has previously adopted resolutions discouraging psychologists from using diagnoses that are potentially harmful or discriminatory. "Accordingly, if there were evidence showing the GID diagnosis to be similarly harmful and discriminatory against gender-variant, transgender or transsexual people, there would be a precedent for a resolution discouraging psychologists from using this diagnosis," the task force wrote. "However … there is a great deal of disagreement about the GID diagnosis and whether it is helpful or harmful; therefore, the Task Force does not recommend that APA take a position on GID at this time."