The Jefferson's Transgender Episode

This episode entitled 'Just A Friend from the fourth season of 'The Jeffersons' was groundbreaking in many respects. It's the first time that an African descended transwoman character was shown on TV who didn't fit the stereotypes we all know and loathe.

It was also broadcast in 1977.





While I didn't care for the part where he tried to pass off Leroy as Edie, for the most part the episode is on point. You also have to remember at the time 'The Jeffersons' was a Top 10 rated show that many African-American homes watched.

So if they weren't aware of the trans issue affecting African descended people, they were after that broadcast.

Speaker In Your House

One of the things I absolutely love is public speaking. I grew up being the MC of various programs at the elementary and junior high school levels, in my church, and as the co-host of a FM radio show so I'm very comfortable around a microphone.

Many of us find ourselves in our advocacy and activist work speaking in front of various crowds, be it a panel discussion on a college campus, a presentation to a group, advocating or giving testimony to legislators or other political decision makers.

Over the last two years, as my profile in the blogosphere has risen, I have increasing numbers of people who like this blog ask me via e-mail if I'm willing to speak at their events, conferences, do interviews, et cetera.

Just so we're clear on that, the answer is yes. Just e-mail me at transgriot@yahoo.com with the dates of your event and we'll work out the details.

I love traveling, and you may end up with the TransGriot speaking in front of your group. If you're thinking about it, I need to know in enough time to coordinate my schedule and I am getting an increasing number of requests from various groups to do so.

I love speaking on college campuses as well as professional groups. So if you're wanting me there or are in the midst of planning a conference, let me know soon.

Congrats Laverne!

Congrats to my sis Laverne Cox, who picked up an outstanding reality show trophy at GLAAD's 20th annual Media Awards last Saturday in Los Angeles.

GLAAD honors individuals and projects in media for fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and the issues that affect their lives. The awards were split into three ceremonies, held in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco in March, April and May, respectively.

Her turn as an outspoken contestant on VH1's "I Want to Work for Diddy" tied with the Logo transgender dating series "Transamerican Love Story" featuring Calpernia Addams for the award presented by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.

Once again congrats sis, and I'm looking forward to the day I finally meet you in person.

Sierra Broussard Discrimination Trial In Wisconsin

All 28 year old Sierra Broussard wanted to do was go to a local Appleton, WI club called Park Central, but what she ran into was transphobia and discrimination instead.

The biracial transwoman was denied entrance into the club on June 21, 2008 because in the words of one Park Central employee and in the civil suit she filed last year, if she "used either bathroom it would cause confusion for the other patrons," and that she should go to another club, one that caters to "her kind."

A club manager told The Appleton Post-Crescent last summer that the bars do not discriminate against gays or lesbians, but cannot accommodate Broussard because allowing her to use either the men's or women's restroom is a safety issue.

Excuse me?

In their response to Sierra's lawsuit, Concepts Unlimited Inc., the owner of Park Central, and its owners, Charles A. and Lynn McCarrell, denied that Broussard was denied admission to the club because she is black or transgender.

They admit she was not allowed to use the men's or women's bathrooms because it would cause confusion for their customers.

They also deny the refusal caused her economic losses or mental and emotional distress and embarrassment, and deny that Outagamie County courts are the proper venue and jurisdiction for the lawsuit.

Sierra is living her life full time as a woman, but her name and gender marker on her ID does not match her gender presentation. She also has no plans at the moment to get SRS. But that doesn't mean that peeps can trample all over her civil rights, either.

“A lot of people … are thinking I’m a cross-dresser that wants to be a woman, (that) I’ve got a big Adam’s apple, big muscles and you’d be able to tell,” Broussard said. “No, you can’t.”

Broussard and two others protested outside Park Central in June 2008 to bring awareness to the issue.

“You don’t have to get along with people, but you don’t have to discriminate,” Sierra told the Post-Crescent when she filed the lawsuit.

Outagamie County Circuit Judge Mitch Metropulos has been assigned the case, and has yet to set a start date for it.

Will keep you TransGriot readers apprised of the trial and its result when it begins.

Chicago's Baton Show Lounge 40th Anniversary

The Baton Show Lounge has hosted one of the finest female illusionist shows in Chicago.

In honor of its 40th anniversary, I found and I'm posting some YouTube video that interviews some of the peeps there and takes you behind the scenes at the club.

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.

Wanda Sykes Whacking Wingers

I watched it live Saturday on C-SPAN the White House Correspondents Dinner and not only enjoyed the president poking fun at himself, but loved Wanda skewering the right-wingers.



The remarks of President Obama



They were sipping Republican Red Hateraid Sunday morning on Faux News, right wing talk shows and some of the talking head shows. It's also going to be fun to see how much airtime Rush Limbaugh kills today spewing hateraid at Wanda and the prez for making fun of him.

Waah. The right-wingers can't take a joke because they are walking comedy routines and punch lines.

Keep on speaking truth to power Wanda, especially if it makes us laugh in the process.

Villager's May 2009 Black Blog Rankings

Go Moni! It's your birthday month! Go Moni! It's your birthday month!

And now that the celebration of the blessing of me getting another year older is out of the way, let's see if I'll be doing more dancing as I peruse the latest edition of Electronic Villager's Black Blog Rankings.

The BBR's started in September 2007 with 75 ranked blogs and has exponentially grown since them to become a much anticipated monthly event in the Afrosphere.

In our last episode of tracing TransGriot's climb up the BBR mountaintop, I was still as of the April 12 compilation date of that month's BBR's whining about my stagnant 150 Technorati ranking, but for some reason still managed to climb to a Number 43 BBR ranking.

In May the BBR's ranked 1659 blogs, which is an increase of 30 blogs over the last ranking period. The runaway Number One BBR ranked blog is still, all together gang, Pam's House Blend. (bowing in direction of North Carolina) If you wish to see Numbers 2-25, check the link. The full May BBR ranking list is here.

The 2009 Blogging While Brown Conference is June 19-20 in Chicago, and the TransGriot is seriously thinking about going if I can make it fit my schedule. If I can commit to it, I'll announce it on the blog.

So let's get to it, how did the birthday girl do this month?

Well, I'm a little disappointed I didn't make it to my goal of reaching the BBR Top 25 and a 200 Technorati ranking by my birthday. I did finally start making forward progress in both the upward mobility and see a rise in my Technorati ranking after three months of stagnation, but the three months of treading water around the 150 mark killed any shot I had of achieving that goal.

So where's TransGriot now? As of the May 10 compilation date the blog has a BBR ranking of 37 and a Technorati ranking of 159.

I jumped 6 spots in the BBR's and gained 9 points. I knew that continuing to create quality posts and adhering to that standard would eventually pay off.

So that means I need to set a new target goal. It's still reaching the Top 25 BBR's and the 200 Technorati ranking by Labor Day, September 7.

Since it's going to take a lot of labor for me to get to that level by that date, making that a target date seems apropos.

Okay, time to me to blow out the candles on my birthday cake and get busy.

Our Special Show With Poet Staceyann Chin

Tune in to a special BlogTalkRadio show Renee and I will conduct at 8 PM EDT in which our guest will be performance poet Staceyann Chin!

We'll be 'telling you something good' as we talk about various issues with her. The online chat room for our site as always will be active and you can call in with your own questions to ask her as well.

So once again you can hear the show live starting at 8 PM EDT. If you're busy that evening you can always download it from the Womanist Musings show website.

So tune in to hear our special show with Staceyann Chin.

Moni Goes To Washington-Day 1

I've spent the last three days post birthday exercising my constitutional right to petitioning my legislators for 'redress of grievances'.

Translation: I've been lobbying.

Lobbying isn't just for high priced hired guns operating out of K Street offices, anyone can do it. Besides, I get the additional benefit of being in a large city once again, and a 9 hour drive from Louisville to Washington to boot.

We hit the road after stopping by a post office to drop off my mom and sister's Mother's Day cards. After a lovely drive down I-64 dodging showers through eastern Kentucky, the mountains of West Virginia, crossing the Virginia border and up and down I-81 and I-66 past several Civil War battlefields, Polar and I arrived at our hotel in Fairfax, VA a little after 9:30 PM EDT.

I found it a little amusing and inspiring that our hotel room had pictures of the Declaration of Independence and Thomas Jefferson on the wall. We also flipped it on the local news after grabbing a bite to eat and grabbing some supplies.

We watched the fireworks erupting over the 12-1 DC City council vote to recognize same gender marriages performed in other states. We discussed the irony of Marion Barry being the lone no vote as we watched the bigoted Black minsters show their anuses as well.

Polar and I beat 'errbody to DC, so we decided Wednesday morning (May 6) not to do any sightseeing and just get the lobbying party started since I had the daunting task of trying to hit as many of the 43 CBC offices as possible.

We clambered aboard the bus for our trip to the Vienna Metro Rail station. One of the reasons Polar chose that hotel was its proximity to the Washington Metro Orange line. Finding parking in the capital, much less battling it on the various freeways in and around the Washington area including the infamous Capital Beltway is a pain in the rear. Even though we had a longer commute in, we didn't have to change trains.

So our first stop was to see our own congressmember John Yarmuth (D-KY). He's a much busier guy on the Hill this session and he wasn't in. We'd just run into him at the local ACLU dinner a few weeks ago anyway and were paying our respects.

So we bounced over to see Andre Carson (D-IN). Although I am thoroughly pleased by my current Congressional representation, Andre being the rep for Indianapolis is my closest CBC rep. He's also the grandson of the late Julia Carson, who represented the area for ten years.

I always get to talk to at least one living breathing US congressmember, and this time it was Andre. I got to thank him and his staffers personally for his support of HR 1913 and for the piece he wrote on The Bilerico Project in support of GLBT rights. They were also pleased to discover that I was a contributing writer to the Project as well.

After that, it was off to Barney Frank's (D-MA) office to fulfill a promise I made to shake Diego Sanchez's hand. He was happy to see us and took a few moments out of his busy schedule to outline some of the issues of importance to the community he was working on as well as the constituents in the district.

I popped into Sheila Jackson-Lee's office to pay my respects to her. She'd sent me greetings through Vanessa Edwards Foster when Ness ran into her in Austin doing some lobbying back home. She wasn't in, but I did express my thanks to her staffer for her positive vote on HR 1913.

I ended the day with a stop at Rep. Barbara Lee's (D-CA) office. I'd visited it during my 2007 trip to DC and wanted to congratulate her on becoming the new chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. Had a nice chat with her chief of staff and asked him to convey mine and the transgender community's appreciation for being a ally standing up for the transgender community.

It was getting close to our planned 4 PM meeting in the Longworth cafeteria with the rest of our intrepid lobbying team, so it was time to bounce. We kiled some time checking out the new Capitol visitors center, looking at the Supreme Court building and musing about who the president was going to nominate for the soon to be vacated seat of Justice Souter. I ended the day not only getting reunited with my Houston homegirl, but meeting Toni, Ro, and Rebekah as well.

We shoved off after the planning meeting to the Dupont Circle area for dinner. After a few hours of lively conversation about the past, present and future state of the transgender community, Polar and I had to call it a night in order to get back to hotel before the last train to our station stopped running along with the bus we'd have to catch to get there.

We did have some technical difficulties. We discovered the difference between the Green 1 and Green 2 bus routes as we left the rail station and endured a long winding bus tour through Fairfax and the George Mason University Fairfax campus. Just as we stepped off the bus in front of the hotel the skies opened up and we got drenched in a deluge.

But despite the detour, the first day we could consider a success. We'd gotten information that would serve us well over the next two days, set up our lobbying strategy and were ready to hit the Hill running tomorrow.

After we got some sleep.

Allen Andrade Gets Additional Jail Time

TransGriot Note: Crystal Ann Gray from the GLBT Center of Colorado sent me her report of the court hearing held yesterday in Greeley, CO. It was held to determine whether Allen Andrade would get more time added to his life sentence without parole for killing Angie Zapata.

I went back to Greeley, Colorado for the final sentencing of Allen Andrade. The hearing started out with the prosecution proving that he was a habitual offender with 6 prior felony convictions. Of course, the defense tried to prove he wasn't and failed.

At sentencing, Maria Zapata spoke once again and directed most of her comments to the judge. At one point she addressed Allen Andrade and you could tell her anger. Maria, however, kept check on her feelings.

Then a friend of Monica Zapata read a statement written by her to the court which revealed her relationship with her beloved sister Angie. At the end of the statement she asked the court to send Andrade to jail for the maximum he could get so he could rot in jail. In Monica's statement she (along with her mom) stated that Andrade showed no remorse and that he probably would not remember or be remorseful towards anything he had done. Andrade did receive 60 additional years and I found out that the wheels are already spinning in the court system for an appeal on the murder 1 charge. I expect the same for the other charges.

The prosecution also made a motion to drop three charges against Andrade for assaults he was involved in the jail. The judge accepted the dropping of those charges. Another court date is to be heard on the restitution of funds to the family as victim assistance. As it is right now the prosecution is asking for over $5000.

Also, the family and supporters are having the prosecution check into to make sure that Andrade does not receive any royalties for his story of killing Angie and that if he does that it goes to the family.


Ms. Crystal Ann Gray
Volunteer Transgender Advocate
GLBT Center of Colorado

Back From DC

Just walked into the house after a few days in our nation's capital. It was a much needed mini vacation, even though I spent it lobbying the Senate to pass SR 909, the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Bill and saying 'Thank You' to the House members who passed their version I got the pleasure to visit.

It was great seeing some old friends, meeting some new ones and getting my exercise bouncing back and forth between the various office buildings and exploring the area round the hotel in Fairfax, VA.

After I roll over and get some well-deserved sleep after the 10 plus hour drive I'll tell y'all what transpired in DC.

Shut Up Fool! Award-Mother's Day Edition

Mother's Day is this Sunday. Hope you peeps are showering your mothers (or mother figures) with love and are treating your mothers right.

Hope you are also getting the chance to spend some quality time with the woman that brought you into the world and when you misbehaved threatened to take you out of it.

Speaking of misbehaving peeps, let's see what peeps are fools only their mothers could love and earned our illustrious award this week.

Our Fool for this week is Amy Holmes. Miss Thang has been hatin' on President Obama since last year, probably because they have similar backstories. She has a white mommy and an African daddy from Zambia who didn't stick around for her childhood either.

She asserted during the May 3 broadcast of CNN's Reliable Sources that President Obama "is the fourth least popular of the past five presidents." In fact, Gallup itself recently reported that, by two different measures, Obama's approval rating is the second highest of any president since 1969.



President Obama's approval rating according to Gallup is definitely higher than Junior's. He lost the popular vote, stole an election with the help of the conservative wing of the Supreme Court and had objects thrown at the limo during the 2001 inauguration. Junior's approval rating was 55% at this point in his misadministration and falling until 9-11.

Amy Holmes, Shut Up Fool!

The Prez Is Right-We AREN'T A Christian Nation

The Religious Reich got their panties all in a bunch when President Obama stated during his recent European trip that the US isn't a Christian nation.

He's absolutely dead on target.

The First Amendment to the US Constitution states, 'Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.'

That's part of the Bill of Rights for the Christoilliterate in the blogosphere. What that means is that peeps have the right to worship as they please and the government cannot establish an official state religion.

We have people of many faith in this country, including folks for whatever reason don't care to follow any religious teachings.

But to blow up the 'Christian nation' fallacy, peep this language from the 1797 Treaty of Tripoli.

Article 11 of this treaty states;

Art. 11. As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

Translation, the intent of the Founding Fathers was quite clear in this treaty, though only in force for a few years, that "the government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion."

This reassurance to Islam was written under Washington's presidency, and approved by the Senate under John Adams.

But I'll let the President speak for himself. Here's what candidate Obama said last year.



So the Christobigots need to stop telling the lie that 'we are a Christian nation'. The way they practice their right-wing version of it makes it blasphemous to even part their lips to say it.

Virginia Foxx Showcases GOP Ignorance

If the GOP wants to know why they have been getting their asses kicked in national elections and has shrunk to just a regional party, look no further than their jihad against GLBT civil rights that leads to negative news coverage like this.

While it's great comic relief for me as a Democrat, and as someone who has tangled with the yahoo variety on more than several occasions, I am disturbed that its gotten this bad for the GOP.

It's also not good when one party is controlled by its nutcase fringe to the point where reasonable people are fleeing it.

Michael Steele has a tough job trying to sell this tainted brand to the American public, and especially peeps of color after decades of hatin' on us.

The anti intellectualism along with the racism turned me off toward them ever getting my vote as a college student, and they didn't do themselves any favors by trying to suppress my vote in the 1984 presidential election.

The Deep South GOP's are even worse, being the first ones taken over by the Christobigots. The Texas GOP for example has had party platforms which are more batshit crazy than the national GOP

But the problem with the GOP is that it has become an increasingly white male dominated, monoracial, anti-intellectual, hostile to civil rights far right wing party.

In many cases the so called minorites they hold up as examples in the GOP are far worse, because they are selling out their people just so they can look more 'conservative than thou' to fit in.

You can also count on women like Michele Bachmann (R-MN) and Virginia Foxx (R-NC) to make themselves look like idiots on a regular basis along with a certain governor from Alaska.

This nation's two party system works best when you have two healthy parties fighting for the center. It pushes the other party to make the improvements or adjustments needed to come up with intelligent, long lasting policies that everybody can support and rally behind.

When you have a party that's not even trying to be centrist and adopting the Bushian 'you're either for us or against us' bunker mentality, that's not only bad for democracy, it's bad for the country as well.

I'm Shocked

I was talking to Dawn about a recent fencing tournament in Indianapolis she competed in that I couldn't attend. When she gave me the 411 about what happened at it, she also surprised me by telling me a few of her fellow fencers were looking for me.

Now for the most part I'm there at those tournaments to support her in addition to being fun to watch. Since that's her world, I try to stay in the background and let her be the center of attention in it. I've had some wonderful conversations with many of the peeps in the Great Lakes fencing region, the Veterans 40 and veterans 50 fencers, and various officials.

I've done stuff like babysat toddlers so their mom could compete on the fencing strip, been in the cheering section for other KY division/Vet fencers, and even volunteered to help at an LFC Pirates of the Caribbean themed Halloween party. I guess in the process I built up some goodwill among the fencing community.

Sometimes I find it incredible when I discover just how much of a footprint I leave in the various worlds I interact with. I was mildly shocked to find out from a Cleveland based flight attendant who remembered me from my CSR and ASA supervisor days in Houston while flying on a Continental trip back home. It was my first trip on the airline since we parted ways and I was flying back to Da Ville from speaking at last year's Trans Pride March.

Even though it had been seven years since I'd worn a CAL uniform at the IAH gates, she told me just how much I was missed by the Inflight crews across the system. The same thing has been reported to me by former IAH co-workers as well, who ask my homegirl Quinn how I'm doing and send messages through her as to how much they miss me.

Some of you may be amazed I feel this way, but I'm shocked sometimes at just how much love I get from peeps just for simply being me.

All I'm trying to do is simply treat people with the respect and dignity that they want to be treated with, listen to them when they have something to get off their chests, and be a loyal and supportive friend to all I'm blessed to have in my life.

Heading To DC

Once again I'm hitting I-64 east and heading to our nation's capital to talk to some congressmembers. I may even take some time on this trip to do a little sightseeing and souvenir hunting.

This time we're going to try a different routing. Instead of heading east on I-64 to Charleston WV, heading north up I-79 through Morgantown, and catching I-68/I-70 into Maryland and then dropping down I-270 into the Washington area, we're going to run through Virginia and see if the southern routing shaves off some time.

Either way, we're going to have to cross a mountain range, so the scenery will be just as beautiful no matter what direction we take.

If I get a chance to access a computer I'll keep you peeps posted. In the interim I'll do a diary of my time up there and post it when I get back from DC.

Thanks 'Errbody'!

Thank you to Renee and 'errbody' across the blogosphere and the Net who sent e-mailed birthday wishes, hit my Facebook account, mailed birthday cards, called or left messages on the birthday post I put up. It was deeply appreciated and made a somewhat blah day a little better.

It sucked to have to spend 'my' day at work, but I won't be complaining when I get the check next week.

Neither am I complaining about the love you showered down on me or the fact that I was blessed to make another year.

I also received my birthday present from the Houston Rockets. Read it and weep LA Faker fans. Houston 100-LA 92

May 4 Potpurri

I have a lot of company in terms of the peeps who share my birthday.

Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak
Dawn Staley
Kimora Lee Simmons
Katherine Jackson (Janet's mom)
Jackie Jackson
Dr. Stanley Biber
Audrey Hepburn
Randy Travis
J. Fred Duckett (Astrodome announcer)
Randy Travis
Vladimir Lenin
Nick Ashford
Gary Bauer
George F. Will
Tyrone Davis
Ana Gasteyer
Lance Bass


The Horoscope For Today
from Jill M Phillips
HowStuffWorks

Taurus born on May 4 seeks to distill from life its purest essence. Where most people have a tendency to complicate events, these men and women want to enjoy life in a simple and unadorned fashion. Spiritually, these individuals set high standards for themselves.

Friends and Lovers

People born on May 4 have a charismatic personality that sets them apart. Because of this it is sometimes hard for May 4 people to know why people are drawn to them as friends. Love and romance bring a similar dilemma. They are easily swayed by flattery. May 4 men and women should use a great deal of discretion when choosing a life-mate.

Children and Family

The deep spiritual values possessed by May 4 people are generally the result of some profound experience during their childhood years. Their upbringing is likely to have been unusual or offbeat. They love children, and whether or not they have any of their own, they'll continually concern themselves with children's issues.

Health

May 4 people take an active interest in keeping themselves healthy. They eat well, exercise regularly, and rarely if ever have to worry about putting on excess weight. Frequent check-ups and the use of alternate remedies in addition to conventional ones can help ensure good health.

Career and Finances

With their dynamic personality and devotion to social causes, May 4 individuals prefer careers where they can make a difference in the world. They often choose politics, the law, social work, or family counseling. If they have considerable financial power they may use it to garner support for worthy causes. These people have simple tastes and seldom make a show of what they possess.

Dreams and Goals

May 4 individuals are philosophical types who ask "why not?" when contemplating a life change. They have a wildly optimistic view of life, believing that they can make the world a better place through their own efforts. No matter what kind of career they decide upon, these individuals are sure to favor humanitarian concerns.


Taurus Information for May 4
You should embrace: Interesting projects, joy, changes of venue
You should avoid: Anxiety, insecurity, drawing conclusions

NH Senate Kills Transgender Rights Bill On 24-0 Vote

Here's the bitter irony in this 24-0 vote. The New Hampshire Senate is the only legislative body in the United States in which women not only have the majority, but hold key leadership positions.

They can pass a gay marriage bill, but not join 13 other states that ban discrimination for transgender people in housing, accommodation and employment.

New Hampshire transpeeps, maybe it's time for you to channel that righteous anger you feel right now into getting politically active and running one of our own peeps as a candidate for the legislature.

So why the hell did a bill to ban discrimination against transgender people die?

"The bill had flaws," said Nashua Democratic State Sen. Bette Lasky who commended citizens for coming to the Legislature and telling heartfelt stories about their difficulty in keeping a job or getting a promotion.

What are the so called 'flaws' in the transgender civil rights bill that Sen. Lasky alluded to, and if they were there, why wasn't it amended in committee or on the Senate floor to eliminate them so the bill could pass?

Barrington Democratic State Sen. Jackie Cilley attacked the state Republican Party leadership and the media for referring to the legislation (HB 415) as the "bathroom bill."

"To those among you who repeatedly used the label the bathroom bill…and failed to tell the whole story and failed to tell the whole truth, I say you are not journalists, you are merely stenographers for your ignorance, hatred and discrimination," Cilley declared.

Yeah, but you voted to kill the bill. So that leads to the perception, Sen. Cilley, that on some level you agree with the deceptive spin and lying of the media, the GOP and the rest of the Forces of Intolerance cabal you decried in your statement.

Far from dissuading the use of the 'bathroom bill' attack spin against transgender civil rights legislation by the Forces of Intolerance, you and your colleagues have given it new life.

It's sad that you and your senate colleagues didn't show the courage of the New Hampshire House and Speaker Terie Norelli. It passed by one vote after she spoke on the floor and helped convince the House to adopt the bill on a second attempt.

My transpeeps can handle as Dr. King called it finite disappointment. But this vote is bordering on spirit crushing territory.

And what good does it do to have moderate-progressives in control of the legislature if you're going to vote like right wing conservatives?

So how long will my transgender brothers and sisters in the Nutmeg State have to wait for their legislators to pass laws that allow them to 'live free or die'?

And will you find the courage to do so?