Thanks Again, Leona!

This is one of those 'today is a good day' moments.

I mentioned four months ago that I was given the honor of writing a commentary for my sis and blogger Leona Lo's wildly successful sold out play the Ah Kua Show.

I was surprised and flattered she asked me to write the commentary. What made it so much cooler was that she's one of the many people in the international trans community I have much love, respect and admiration for.

She's been doing a wonderful job in Singapore helping to educate and dispel myths about trans people in her homeland.

Now that I've shown my Singaporean sister some love, I'll move on in this post.

My mailbox had a surprise waiting for me earlier today.

I'd forgotten that Leona asked for my address a few months ago in order to send me a program from the show.

When Dawn handed me my mail, it finally clicked who it was from when I saw the Singaporean stamps on the envelope and eagerly tore into it.

Sure enough, there was my Ah Kua Show program.

Leona, thanks again for giving me the honor of writing that commentary and in a small way, be a part of that show. It was comforting to know that even though I couldn't be there physically, part of me was there in terms of my composed words in the program.

Nikki Reed and Kristen Stewart Set For Gender Bending Roles In Upcoming Movie 'K-11'

White it's irritating to some people in the transgender community who feel our own should be doing these roles, Hollywood has other ideas.

The trend of ciswomen playing transwomen in motion pictures continues with Nikki Reed and Kristen Stewart from Twilight being the latest actresses to attempt to do so in the upcoming movie 'K-11'.

The movie is set for release in 2010, and the title refers to the section of the LA County Jail in which celebrities and GLBT people are housed.

They are placed there to avoid putting them in dangerous and potentially life threatening situations with general population prisoners.

It focuses on a successful record executive who is jailed in K-11 on suspicion of murder and is housed in the dormitory like facility.

Details about the movie have yet to be released, but Reed will play Mousie, the cell block leader, while Stewart will play Butterfly.

UH Cougars Take On Tulsa

My favorite college football team will take on the University of Tulsa Golden Hurricane at 6:30 PM EST later tonight.

The 7-1 (3-1 C-USA West) and Number 13 ranked Coogs stroll into Tulsa with a one game lead over their C-USA West Division rivals. A victory puts them one step closer the the division title and a berth in the C-USA championship game.

Sesame Street Trashes Fox News

Got a chuckle out of this one. Sesame Street is approaching its 40th Anniversary show on Tuesday, and it seems like our conservafriends are a little pissy because of this segment that aired on a recent show.



The truth hurts doesn't it? It isn't the first time that Sesame Street has parodied real life shows. What was said was right on the money.

The truth hurts, doesn't it conservafools? Fox News not only has trashy shows, the whole network is trashy.

Transpeople Are Part Of The Diverse Mosaic Of Life 3

This feature is proving to be a very popular one.

Just as I've done in the previous two posts, I'm simply compiling photos that show transpeople around the world just following our dreams, fighting for our rights, living our lives and doing things that prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are part of the diverse mosaic of life on Planet Earth.



Ethan St. Pierre lobbying a legislative assistant in Massachusetts



Laverne Cox at the GLAAD Awards



Greek model Jenny Hiloudaki from her calendar



Leiomy Maldonado with her Vogue Evolution crew.




Tania Luga and her legal team after a court victory in Argentina




A pride march in Guatemala



The ladies of STRAP preparing to march




German singer and model Kim Petras



Dana International at an Israeli political rally



Rappers Pam Jones and Foxxjazell




Member of the Vietnamese group Pattaya performing

Shut Up Fool! Awards-We Got Rights Edition

It was a good week for transpeople as far as civil rights goes. Tmpa expanded their civil rights ordinance to protect transpeople yesterday. The good citizens of Kalamazoo, MI handed the Force of Intolerance another crushing defeat Tuesday as they overwhelmingly approved Ordinance 1859. ENDA had a senate hearing yesterday.

While these are positive trends, we still have much work to do. Even if we achieve our main goals, the work will not be finished until conservatives stop jacking with people civil rights because they hate us, their misguided self perception they are morally superior to 'errbody' and have the right to do so for selfish political gain.

That being said, it's time for our weekly reminder as our awards mascot reminds us, fools are everywhere.

So what fol or group of fools distinguished themselves this week? Too numerous to choose from. Rush Limbaugh, Rep. Michele Bachman (R-MN), Orly Taitz, Michelle Malkin and Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) are probably locks for our Shut Up Fool of the Year competition along with this week's winner. I'm thinking about letting you loyal TransGriot readers add your own nominations for the Shut Up Fool of the Year Award.

But back to the 'bidness' at hand. Who earned our illustrious award this week?

Glenn Beck. For comparing health care reform to Osama Bin Laden 9-11.

Keith Olbermann says it best here.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Glenn Beck, shut the hell up, fool!

Tampa Expands Civil Rights For Transpeople

Add another Florida metropolis to the list of cities protecting the civil rights of their transgender residents.

The Tampa City Council this morning voted unanimously to expand its human rights ordinance to protect transgender people from discrimination.

The vote extends laws prohibiting discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodations based on sexual orientation, sex, race and religion to include 'gender identity or expression' as a protected class.

Tampa's Human Rights Board has been discussing the issue for the past year and has requested the changes. Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio and several council members supported it.

Tampa joins 16 Florida municipalities, at least 13 states across the country and several Fortune 500 companies who have extended such protections to transsexuals and others with a gender identity that differs from their birth gender.

It remains to be seen if the haters try to come after this law in the wake of back to back lopsided losses in Gainesville, FL and Kalamazoo, MI.

Thinking About My Ex-Classmates

My 30 year high school reunion is coming up next year, and as that date approaches I find myself reminiscing more about my school days and the classmates I'm not in contact with.

There's a core group that I'm in regular contact with thanks to Facebook, Twitter or the other social networking sites such as Classmates.com but there are others who I haven't seen or spoken to since we left high school.

I find myself musing at times about those classmates I haven't seen since we stepped off JJ's campus for that final time as students in June 1980.

I wonder how they're doing in their lives, if they found love or had hard luck with it. I follow the news about my successful classmates and wonder if the ones I haven't seen since 1980 are doing likewise, if it has eluded them, or if they were just coming into their own now. I ponder about whether they are dealing with trying circumstances.

I even wonder about how they look now vis a vis our school days.

But the cool thing about next year's reunion is I already won the 'Most Changed Award' at the 2000 one. I can just focus on having a good time and getting reconnected with my classmates.

And I'm looking forward to going back home to do so.

0 For 31-What Now?

The gay community lost another marriage fight in Maine, and in their pissivity over the loss they're once again a la California, letting the negativity flow.

I was wondering who Dan Savage and the gay community were going to blame for this latest loss since African-Americans make up only 1% of Maine's population.

Lo and behold, they found a Black person to blame for their loss anyway.

President Obama.

Keep it up, people. But while you're bitching about what happened in Maine and pointing fingers, take a moment to look in the mirror and point one at yourself as well.

While you're jumping down President Obama's throat for not speaking up and in your words 'being a good ally', y'all see to have forgotten all the times you dismissed coalition building opportunities with other groups by uttering the words 'it's not a gay issue'.

Politicians are also looking at that 0-31 number as well. If you folks thought they and the general public weren't paying attention to that stat plus the four decades of shady behavior directed at the trans community, they were.

The noted the legions of gay and lesbian people actively working to cut trans people out of legislation we desperately needed while uttering the words 'we'll come back for you', 'they need more education on this issue', 'get over it' or 'you're not part of 'our' movement'.

After watching that, I wouldn't doubt politicians have in the back of their minds, 'If this is how they treat their allies, how loyal are they going to be to me?'

The karmic wheel is a rhymes with itch, too.

It's not fun being cut out of legislation is it? It's a pain watching politicians vote to keep you a second class citizen or not speak about you in public.

Not fun to watch the fundies put together a petition drive designed to put your civil rights on the electoral chopping block, and basically violate all of the Ten Commandments while campaigning to do so.

Now you know what it's like to walk in the trans community's shoes.

It's aggravating to have rights that you already possess taken away, as transpeople's marriage rights are thanks to the conservabacklash from your gay marriage push.

I'm also getting sick of seeing the 'homophobic African-American' meme raise its ugly head across the Gayosphere as you peeps work through your righteous anger over the loss.

Um, did you not forget that some GLBT people not only happen to be chocolate flavored, but bust their asses to support this issue? Probably not.

I guess when y'all say to non-gay America that GLBT Americans are 'just like you', it doesn't include us or any POC in the equation, huh?.

Trans community leaders warned in 2003 that it was a tactical mistake to shift the organizing focus of the GLBT movement from passing GLBT rights at local, state and the federal level to pushing marriage equality.

Some gay people have the misguided belief that all civil rights flow from marriage equality. No, they don't.

I'm in favor of marriage equality. But being an ally doesn't mean that I check my brain at the door either, I can't comment in the spirit of Kingian love when y'all screw up or that I'm not supposed to express my constitutional rights to speak my mind just as you insist on doing when you bash the President.

And lets get real, all civil rights do not flow from marriage, nor will everyone in the GLBT community benefit. All you have to do is look north of the border at Canada to see that truism play out.

African-Americans have been able to get legally married since emancipation. It still took us over 100 years, a lot of shed blood, several court decisions, marches, and several federal Civil Rights Acts just to get to first class citizenship status, and we're still fighting tooth and nail just to avoid any slippage.

If you want marriage, not only are you going to have to rethink the strategies for achieving it, you are going to have to come to grips with the fact it may take 25 to 100 years and a federal constitutional amendment to do so.

After 31 straight losses, it's past time to seriously consider deemphasizing marriage as THE organizing push for the GLBT rights movement.

It's time to stop playing in the Religious Right' backyard and push a full equality strategy that puts Constitutional arguments front and center, not the marriage equality ones that specious religious ones and half-truth, lies and falsehoods dominate.

You might recognize the strategy. It's the one my people successfully used.

November 4, 2008

It's one time I will happily say (and will write the post on November 5 if it plays out) I was wrong about an issue. I've always told friends that I believed the United States was too obstinately racist to ever put in my lifetime an African-American man in the Oval Office. I've always believed for that reason the first African-American president would be a woman rather than an African-American man.

Monica Roberts, October 1, 2008

I wrote that in advance of the November 2008 presidential election. I'm still smiling a year later. Today marks the one year anniversary of President Obama's historic election as president of the United States.

I won't forget what I was doing the night I heard the historic network calls that he had passed the magic 270 electoral votes with the close of polls in California, Oregon and Washington state.

I remember my eyes welling up with tears as I watched the spontaneous celebrations that erupted in Louisville, Washington DC, cities all around the United States, across the globe and especially in his father's Kenyan homeland.

For the first time in a long while, African descended people here in the United Sates and across the Diaspora stood a little taller as our hearts swelled with pride over the fact that an African descended man was going to run the most powerful country on the planet.

I came home from work that night and gleefully wrote the 'Yes We Did' post I'd promised to do if he was elected.

It's been full of historic firsts such as selecting the first Latina Supreme Court Justice in Sonia Sotomayor.

There have been trying times as well for President Obama, but he has the country moving in the right direction as we approach the end of his first year in office in January.

Annise Parker In Houston Mayoral Runoff

Was keeping a close eye on the mayoral election back in Houston last night. I was happy to see that city controller Annise Parker is headed to a December 12 runoff against City Attorney Gene Locke.

With 100 percent of precincts reporting in Harris, Fort Bend and Montgomery counties, Parker led the field with 31 percent of the vote, followed by Locke at 26 percent. Brown came in third at 22 percent, trailed by Morales at 20 percent. Three other minor candidates on the mayoral ballot totaled 1 percent.

Even though Parker led most of the night, she wanted to make sure her supporters knew that they had unfinished business.

“This race is not over,” she said. “Join me at headquarters tomorrow. We'll get back to work, and in five weeks, we'll claim victory.”

The runoff will have the element of history coursing through it. At the end of the night on December 12 Houston will either have its second woman mayor and first openly gay woman mayor of any large city or our second African-American mayor.

Haters Lose In Kalamazoo! GLBT Rights Law Passes!

Haters lose Haters lose!

With all 19 precincts reporting, the Forces of Intolerance were handed another crushing defeat as they sought to use their reprehensible tactics to attempt to overturn Ordinance 1856.

Just as the voters of Gainesville, FL did earlier this year, 62 percent of Kalamazoo voters approved Ordinance 1856 by a vote of 7,671 in favor to 4,731 against. This margin is larger than the number of outstanding absentee ballots that are currently being counted.

The passage of this ordinance adds protections for gay and transgender people to the city's nondiscrimination ordinance.

In addition, the mayor and the six members of the Kalamazoo City Commission who voted to unanimously pass the law back in June were all reelected.

“Our campaign started with a very basic idea, and today voters confirmed that we are One Kalamazoo,” One Kalamazoo campaign manager Jon Hoadley said in a written statement.

But the bottom line is that the rights of minorities should NEVER have to come up for a vote in the first place. Maybe our side needs to push a constitutional amendment to ban the practice.

The fair minded voters of Kalamazoo, MI have spoken and handed the bigots another bitter defeat. The politicians who voted for it all got reelected.

Thanks, Kalamazoo.

Louisiana JP Who Refused To Marry Interracial Couple Resigns

Keith Bardwell, the Tangipahoa Parish justice of the peace who refused to marry interracial couple Beth Humphrey and Terence McKay a few weeks resigned today after several weeks of resisting calls to step down from several civil rights groups, Governor Bobby Jindal (R) other Louisiana officials and U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA).

Bardwell's term wasn't due to expire until 2014, but quit with a one sentence statement to Louisiana Secretary of State Jay Dardenne and no explanation of his decision.

"I do hereby resign the office of Justice of the Peace for the Eighth Ward of Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, effective November 3, 2009."

He also didn't immediately return a call for comment about his resignation

Gov. Bobby Jindal called Bardwell's resignation "long overdue."

"This was the right decision by Mr. Bardwell. What he did was clearly wrong and this resignation was long overdue," Jindal said in a statement released by his office.

Humphrey and McKay have filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Bardwell, who was elected in 1975 as justice of the peace for Ponchatoula, LA., a town 55 miles north of New Orleans. He claimed before this drama unfolded that this was going to be his last term.

Looks like it ended sooner than he planned. If some couple had spoken up about the injustice that happened to them earlier, he wouldn't have lasted in office this long.

Good riddance.

Election Night In America Open Thread

It's election night, peeps!

In between taking a look at the reimagined 1983 sci-fi classic 'V' on ABC tonight, I'm going to be channel surfing between CNN, MSNBC, various news shows and the Net trying to find out election results on ballot initiatives, candidates and issues of importance to the GLBT community.

I'm also going to be monitoring the mayoral race back home as well.

So in the meantime, what y'all get to do is express yourselves in the comment section. You know you'll see my 'very definite opinions' on various issues as I feel the need to comment on it.

The Saints Are Marching With A 7-0 Record

Who dat? Who dat? Who dat say they gonna beat dem Saints? Who dat? Who dat? Who dat say they gonns beat dem Saints?

So far nobody on their 2009 NFL schedule has.

I'm a happy camper right now football wise. My high school and collegiate alma maters are having banner seasons right now. My Texans are 5-3 and have a huge game coming up up the road from me with the Indianapolis Colts for the AFC South lead.

And the New Orleans Saints, my other fave NFL team is 7-0.

You're not misreading that. The New Orleans Saints are 7-0 and leading the NFC South Division after a wild 35-27 Monday Night Football victory over the Atlanta Falcons that probably set off major partying in the French Quarter last night.

And yes, they are my other fave NFL team because I lived on the West Bank as a toddler for two years.

In a sense, the Saints are my connection to the New Orleans part of my life besides my godsister Angela and her family, and my former IAH flight attendant co-workers who live there.

As I stated in the Who Dat post, the Saints are as much a part of New Orleans life as chicory coffee, beignets, jazz and Mardi Gras.

The Saints even echoed their nomadic fanbase in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, playing their 2005 'home' games in San Antonio and limping to a 3-13 record that season while the hurricane damaged Superdome was being repaired.

But since they moved back into a renovated Superdome, picked up a new coach, new GM, and made some smart player acquisitions such as quarterback Drew Brees, Jeremy Shockey, Jonathan Vilma and Marques Colston, the New Orleans Saints have been climbing towards elite status.

In 2007 they won their first NFC South title and made it all the way to the NFC Championship game before falling to the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field..

So far this edition of the Saints looks like they have the tools to go all the way with an explosive offense and a suffocating defense.

After knocking off the Falcons last night they have a favorable rest of the season schedule. If they keep winning, they can secure Dome field advantage and set themselves up nicely for a memorable NFL playoff run.

It would be fitting for an NFL city that has hosted multiple Super Bowls if their beloved hometown team gets to march right into Miami's Dolphin Stadium on February 7 and play in Super Bowl XLIV for an NFL championship.

Aldine Nimitz Trans Student Sent Home

As you long time TransGriot readers know, I am a proud Houstonian and a proud Texan as well. Being trans doesn't make me any less a Texan except in the eyes of the Texas GOP and ignorant Lone Star Bible thumpers.

Houston is the largest city in the Lone Star State with over 2 million residents. It is a proud, diverse, international city poised today to possibly elect a lesbian mayor. But that diversity at times does not extend to my fellow trans people, as the Izza Lopez case I documented last year painfully points out.

One of the major reasons I left home in 2001 is because of the lack of transgender rights protection in my home state and Harris County. It figures that Dallas and Austin passed it not long after my relocation to Kentucky.

In the city of Houston, we're protected only if you're employed by the city of Houston or are working for a Fortune 500 company that has corporate policies protecting trans workers.

Got sent an email about this story by Stephanie Stevens, our esteemed Transgender News compiler.

It's a KHOU-TV 11 News story about Aldine Nimitz High senior O'Rhonde Chapman, another trans teen who is at home instead of getting her 'ejumacation' because of dress code drama.

Since the original story has violations of the AP Stylebook in it, per TransGriot policy, I'm rewriting the original Courtney Zubowski story to be more respectful to Ms. Chapman.


***

A Nimitz High School senior says she’s being discriminated against because of her gender presentation.

17 year old O’Rhonde Chapman says, “I wear women’s clothing every day”

But Monday was the first time Chapman wore a wig and stiletto heels to school. The principal told her to change her clothing or go home. Chapman was told she was in violation of the school’s dress code policy.

“I would like to be able to wear my hair and everything and still be treated the same and have an equal opportunity to have an education, as others do. I ought not be segregated or sent home because of what I have on,” Chapman said. “I am losing out on my education. That upsets me. That upsets me because I don’t go to school to be judged.”

A spokesperson for the Aldine Independent School District said this has nothing to do with discrimination. He says the student violated the school’s dress code. If she follows policy she can return to school. The district wouldn’t release other information about this issue because as of Monday afternoon they had not received permission to do so from the teen’s mother.

The Aldine ISD dress code states that the hair length for boys cannot extend below the bottom of a shirt collar. It also reveals that wigs are not acceptable as a cover-up for hair not meeting the dress code. Even so, civil rights attorney Randall Kallinen believes she shouldn’t have been kicked out of class.

“He’s wearing a wig, there’s no doubt about that,” Kallinen said. “And his hairstyle, his actual hairstyle conforms. So, basically, he fits the criteria for wigs because it doesn’t say anything about hair length of wigs.”

Chapman says she plans to stand by her decision and not return to school unless her hair goes with her.

“I believe in fighting for what’s right,” Chapman said.

TransGriot Note: Trans kids are transitioning at earlier ages and in elementary, middle school and high school. It's past time for school administrators and educators to wake up to the reality that transpeople are here and aren't going away.

That's your cue to come up with common sense rules and regulations that allow us to be our authentic selves and get an education at the same time.

Election Day-Let's Get Busy And Vote!

Today is election day in many locales around the country including my beloved hometown. If you haven't done so, then go get your vote on now.

You have no excuse not to if you're a progressive wanting systemic change. Dropping out of the system because you're pissed at the peeps in power is NOT an option.

There are ballot initiatives that help and hurt this community. There are progressive candidates for public office that deserve and need our support.

Just consider it a practice run for the 2010 midterm federal elections next November.

Bottom line is that if you want progressive policies, you have to vote for progressive politicians to carry them out.

If you don't like your choices, then get involved with your local party and help choose better candidates. If you think you can do a better job than the politician you dislike, then run for public office yourself.

Still Anxiously Watching The 2009 Houston Mayoral Race

We're in the final countdown to election day back in H-town, and I'm still anxiously awaiting the outcome of the 2009 mayoral race.

My thoughts over the last few days have drifted back to 1981, the first mayoral election I was eligible to vote in. I fondly remember Kathy Whitmire becoming the first female mayor in Houston history.

It's stayed with me because it was the first Houston mayoral election I was eligible to vote in back in 1981. Our former city controller ran the city for ten year during the challenging times of the 80's and did it well.

The police and fire departments hated 'Tootsie' as they derisively labeled her and don't share my assessment, but many Houstonians do.

Whitmire appointed Lee Brown as our first African-American police chief and later Elizabeth Watson, our first female one. She began the process of making the city run more efficiently and also made Houston city government more diverse.

Now in the early 21st century, we have another talented and well qualified woman seeking to lead my hometown in Annise Parker.



In addition to being the city controller for the last 6 years, she was also a three term at large city council member.

She would be an excellent choice to run the fourth largest city in the country and the largest in Texas. No peeps, Dallas is only the third largest in the state, so don't believe the DFW hype.

But don't take my word for it. Here's what the Houston Chronicle had to say about the 2009 Mayoral race when it issued its endorsement.

Houstonians are fortunate to face a difficult choice for mayor this year between two exceptional candidates, public law attorney Gene Locke and City Controller Annise Parker. It’s likely one or both will be in a runoff after the first round of voting winds up on Nov. 3.

With the city facing critical financial decisions early next year as a result of the economic downturn, the next mayor will occupy a pivotal leadership position. Parker and Locke offer deep roots in the city and a dazzling range of life experiences and public service that would well equip either to serve as the successor to term-limited Mayor Bill White.

The Chronicle is withholding its final endorsement in the race until the runoff. We have made this unusual decision because the candidates are so evenly matched, and we want to hear more details about their ideas for managing the city before recommending the person who could well control the helm of City Hall for the next six years.

Parker and Locke have very different styles, but have shown the ability to get things done in making our city a better place. With either candidate, Houston is guaranteed to come out a winner.

That decision is in the hands of Houston's voters now, and I hope my fellow Houstonians choose well.

TDOR 2009 Event List

If you're looking for information about a TDOR event near you, click this link.

Ethan St. Pierre is also compiling and updating it as he gets info from the various groups planning Transgender Day Of Remembrance events.

So make his life easier and E-mail Ethan at radicalguy@gmail.com with your event information as soon as you finalize the details.

You can also follow the TDOR event updates on Twitter.

I came from a planning meeting last Friday for the Louisville TDOR and I'm happy to see the event begin here to grow into a community one. This is the seventh year we've had them in Da Ville.

We're proud to have had the wonderful people at the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary's Women's Center be the lead organization and host of many of the events since we started observing TDOR's here in 2002.

The local gender group Sienna is also involved and for the first time this year we have input from U of L's LGBT Services, U of L campus GLBT groups and the Fairness Campaign.

The TDOR November 20 date is rapidly approaching. These are the people we are memorializing this year and I pray that list doesn't grow between now and November 20.

Crunch Time For One Kalamazoo Team

It's crunch time for the One Kalamazoo team fighting to keep Ordinance 1856 on the books.




For those of you who were unaware of it thanks to the almost nonstop coverage in much of the GL press and Gayosphere of marriage initiatives and votes, the Kalamazoo, MI city commissioners unanimously passed on June 29 Ordinance 1856.

It would make it a city infraction punishable by up to a $500 fine to discriminate against people because of their sexual preferences or gender identification in housing, employment or access to public accommodations.

Just as predictably, the Forces of Intolerance attacked it by setting up a petition drive that gathered enough haters to force a referendum on the vote.



So once again, our civil rights are up for a fracking vote. The GLBT people in the state of Michigan answered the Zoo's call for help. Many have headed to the Western Michigan hamlet and home of Western Michigan University to help their brothers and sisters out.

The anti side has nothing but their usual reprehensible tactics of fear, loathing, obfuscation and outright lying to people in order to defeat this legislation.

It's time once again to give these misguided people another painful electoral beatdown tomorrow. If you're in the area, do what you can to help the peeps in the Zoo defend their law. If you're a progressive voter living in the area, go to the polls and take as many friends with you as possible. If you live on the WMU campus and are eligible to vote, this is your opportunity to show that discounting the youth vote is a fatal error.

I'm hoping and praying that happens and Ordinance 1856 stays on the books.