Supreme WMP

I've been chuckling over the whining coming from conservative white male pundits about the leading candidates being considered by President Obama for the soon to be vacant Supreme Court seat of Justice David Souter. The grousing from them has centered on the meme that he's not considering white men for the position.

Let me give you some cheese to go with that whine while I point out just how ludicrous this latest conservarant is.

Since the founding of the United States, there have been 118 people who have served as Supreme Court justices. Out of the 17 Supreme Court chief justices, all 17 have been white males.

In terms of the 118 past and present supreme court justices, only two, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sandra Day O'Connor have been women. Only two have been non-white,
African-Americans Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas*.

Clarence gets an asterisk because his status as a Black man is questionable and his Black Like Me card has been suspended.

That means the 114 remaining people who have or currently sit on the Supreme Court have been white males. In the current composition of the Roberts Court, 7 of the 9 justices are white males, not counting 'honorary white man' Uncle Thomas.

So it's past time for some diversity to reign on the nation's highest court. We not only need a Latino/a justice, we need an Asian justice, a Native American justice and an African-American woman to counteract Uncle Thomas' self-hating bull feces.

So you conservacritics dripping with WMP need to sit down, shut up, go off in the corner somewhere and sulk while you ponder the reality that you lost.

Get over it. You had a 40 year run of implementing mean spirited policies that divided this country and a mad rush to deregulation that has jacked up our financial system and nearly bankrupted us. You got to select several supreme court justices that not only share your ethnic heritage, they care more about corporations than the American people.

Now it's time for progressive ideas, progressive policies and progressive justices to rule the day, clean up the mess y'all made and make this country one we can all be proud of again. It's also past time we had a Supreme Court that reflects the diversity of America as well.

ABC 20/20 Feature on AIS

Contrary to the BS the scientifically ignorant Reichers put out there, humans are a lot more complex than their simplistic line of thinking would have you believe.

Back in August 2008 ABC's 20/20 did a segment on AIS, Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome.

In a nutshell, Androgen insensitivity syndrome is a condition that affects sexual development before birth and during puberty. People with this condition are genetically male, with one X chromosome and one Y chromosome in each cell. Because their bodies are unable to respond to certain male sex hormones (called androgens), they may have mostly female sex characteristics or signs of both male and female sexual development.

Complete androgen insensitivity syndrome occurs when the body cannot use androgens at all. People with this form of the condition have the external sex characteristics of females, but do not have a uterus and therefore do not menstruate and are unable to conceive a child (infertile). They are typically raised as females and have a female gender identity. Affected individuals have male internal sex organs (testes) that are undescended, which means they are abnormally located in the pelvis or abdomen.

Undescended testes can become cancerous later in life if they are not surgically removed. People with complete androgen insensitivity syndrome also have sparse or absent hair in the pubic area and under the arms.

Juju Chang interviewed Eden, and told her story.

Now Manitoba Is Delisting SRS

Renee at Womanist Musings has a post up about the recent decision of the Manitoba provincial government following Alberta's lead in delisting SRS.

While you expect that from a conservative province like Alberta struggling with a budget deficit and using it as an excuse to cut so called 'fat' out of a multi billion dollar provincial healthcare budget, Manitoba has an NDP government which is projecting a C$48 million SURPLUS.

So what's up with that?

If you peeps north and south of the border and beyond wish to RESPECTFULLY express your opinions about it, here's the contact info for Kerri Irvin-Ross, the Minister of Healthy Living for the Province of Manitoba

Kerri Irvin-Ross, Minister of Healthy Living
Phone: 204-945-1373
FAX: 204-948-2703
E-mail: minhliv@leg.gov.mb.ca


H/T Womanist Musings

Moni Goes To Washington-Day 3

Our last day (May 8) in Washington was going to be spent on the senate side. I needed to talk to Sen. Roland Burris (D-IL) in addition to a few other peeps since SR 909, the senate version of the Hate Crimes bill had been introduced and was in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

I like being in DC so the days I have to pack my stuff in preparation for our departure from Washington are always bittersweet ones for me. It was also going to have time pressure because Polar and I had to hit the road and head back to the Bluegrass State and our lives here.

I can also say the DC newscasts are hardly ever boring. The first night we flip on the news we see the dustup over same gender marriage. Last night we watched a strip mall gas explosion caught on a security camera.

But back to your regularly scheduled post.

We arrived at the Dirksen Senate Office Building and after clearing security I checked the electronic info board to make sure we were in the right building for Sen. Burris' office. The app in Polar's iPhone stated that he was in Dirksen, but the board said that he was in the Russell Senate Office Building.

So we had to hoof it to the tunnel and head over to Russell. We arrived at his office a few moments later after I took a photo in the Russell building atrium. He wasn't in and the person who handled those issues was out of the office. We were advised by the person we did talk to at the desk that Sen. Burris was a cosponsor of SR 909 and dropped off the info packet before heading to our next office..

We headed to Sen. Evan Bayh's (D-IN) office and after patiently waiting a few moments were told that the person handling GLBT issues in that office had called in sick hat morning. So once again another packet dropoff without a chat.

We then headed to Sen. Richard Lugar's (R-IN) office in the Hart SOB. You'll note we didn't even bother trying to talk to our own Kentucky senators, Mitch McConnell (R-KY) or Jim Bunning (R-KY) who were in the Russell SOB.

It's been a longstanding congressional tradition that you give constituents who take their precious time to come to DC a few minutes, even if you disagree with them politically. In 2007 I got to see an LA in Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson's (R-TX) office even though I'm on the opposite end of the political galaxy from her.

But in McConnell's and Bunning's cases, if you ain't a foaming at the mouth winger, they won't see you. What I'd like to see is somebody with a 'D' behind their names replacing both of them. We'll get our chance to oust Bunning next year.

We arrived at Sen. Lugar's office and got 15 minutes chat time with one of the aides there. He advised us that the senator has 'small business issues' about ENDA, but dose support SR 909. After thanking the LA for his time, we bounced to the cafeteria for a meeting with the rest of our lobbyist and lunch since it was now approaching 1 PM.

We caught up with 'errbody' in the Dirksen cafeteria and spent an hour eating lunch, exchanging info, notes and stories as I handed off my remaining info packets to Ness and Toni. They were planning to hit a few more offices on both the House and Senate side while we hit the road.

We were already aware of the severe thunderstorms smacking Kentucky along the route we were planning to transit home and briefly considered rerouting further north through Columbus and Indy to get back home.

We decided to take our normal route back to Kentucky and wanted to be transiting West Virginia before dark. Polar still has bad memories about a 2002 DC trip in which a pregnant deer stepped in front of a Grand Am he'd lovingly restored. He and another passenger were on I-79 headed south near Weston, WV on the way back to Louisville and both the car and deer lost.

Batting mid-afternoon traffic on the Capital Beltway torpedoed that plan and we didn't arrive at Morgantown, WV until almost 7:30 PM, so we decided to stop there and eat my birthday dinner before resuming our trip. It also would give the heavy rain a chance to clear the area before we tackled the dreaded nighttime southward leg on I-79 toward Charleston.

We slogged through patches of heavy rain all the way to the Charleston area after getting our grub on. It finally cleared out as we intercepted I-64 west for the remaining five hour run home.

I crawled into bed at 4 AM early Saturday morning tired but hopeful that this time, after eleven years of lobbying efforts, that SR 909 and the impending ENDA bill will finally become the law of the land.

Miss Tiffany Universe 2009 Update

This is Miss Tiffany's Universe pageant week in Pattaya. The competition has been pared down to the 30 Thai transwomen who will compete for the crown and the chance to represent Thailand when the Miss International Queen pageant is held later this year.

The finals will be televised on May 15 at 10:30 PM local time live on Thai television.



So while you're waiting for this year's winner to be announced, here's the 2008 finals and the crowning of Miss Tiffany Universe 2008.

Another Year, Another Student Booted From Their Prom

Ah graduation. Is it me or does it seem as though every year we have a story that blows up in the news about a student being booted from their prom for clothing issues?

Last year it was my teenage Houston homegirl Marche Taylor, who wasn't allowed to enter Madison High's prom at the Sugar Land Marriott hotel by school officials because of her skimpy dress. The heated argument that ensued with school officials ended with Ms. Taylor getting busted and taken away in handcuffs by the Houston po-po's.



I posted two years ago about KK Logan of Gary, IN who was banned from attending the 2006 West High School senior prom by Principal Diane Rouse despite wearing women's apparel during his junior and senior year.

KK with the help of Lambda Legal filed a lawsuit which is now percolating in the federal Northern District Court of Indiana.

Well, it seems as though the peeps of Guam's George Washington High School weren't paying attention to the Logan case because they just banned a student who calls himself 'Jeremy' from attending his senior high school prom in feminine attire. The guidelines created by the school's Prom Committee didn't contain any prohibitions against wearing opposite gender clothing.



"Going to prom is supposed to be like a Cinderella story. And this is no Cinderella story. I said, 'Naw-aw - I don't think so.' I'm not letting this go," promised "Jeremy". Unlike Cinderella, the local senior got booted from the ball...because he showed up in a dress.

"They didn't like the fact that I was in a dress. I was dressed appropriately following the girls code, and I looked on the list of the rules and it didn't say 'no cross-dressing, no transgenders or opposite dressing'. All it said was 'males and females'," he said.

Jeremy added that one teacher questioned whether it was appropriate for him to dress that way, saying, "When I walked in, one of the teachers put me to the side and had the audacity to ask me, 'Are you a male or a female?', and I said, 'What does that matter?' and he said, 'It matters!'"

We have yet to determine whether Jeremy had been dressing in femme attire the entire school year like KK Logan. What we do know according to the KUAM-TV story is that Jeremy hasn't received a refund for his prom ticket and spent $400 for that once in a lifetime night he can never get back.

It's also interesting to note that while Jeremy was being given the third degree by school officials, girls who wore tuxedos were allowed in.

Jeremy's classmates, who were cited as the reason for his denial of entrance to the prom because it would make them 'uncomfortable' made a mockery of that statement in subsequent interviews about the incident.

So stay tuned. Jeremy's case could get ugly before it's resolved.

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.