As some of you TransGriot readers know, I spent 14 years in the airline industry working for Continental Airlines at IAH.
So when the announcement was made yesterday that United Airlines and Continental had reached agreement on a merger deal, even though I was hearing the chatter about the deal last weekend.there was a little bit of sadness in it for me.
My late grandfather worked for CAL for 35 years, and I was a second generation employee that came in during the 1987 merger with CAL, Texas International, People's Express and Frontier under Frank Lorenzo.
I was there when the airline literally went from worst to award winning first, dealing with a bankruptcy along the way and other soap opera-novel worthy drama.
But we always had (and still do) have some great people at IAH and other places around the CAL system who loved the 'Proud Bird With The Golden Tail' and busted their butts to provide quality service regardless of the circumstances.
Some have retired, some have left us, some have transferred to other places, but I've been getting reconnected lately with many of my CAL coworkers through Facebook.
So now that the deal is done and pending regulatory approval would create the worlds largest airline, what's next short of the Continental name will disappear like Pan Am, TWA, Ozark and all the other airlines formed during the air travel golden age?
The merged company will have CAL's Jeff Smisek as its CEO, but the corporate HQ of the merged carrier will be in Chicago.
That means some of my friends at the downtown HQ may be moving to Chitown. IAH will have hub status, but where Cleveland will fit is going to be the interesting question.
CAL has a predominately Boeing fleet, while UA has an Airbus dominated one.
We'll see how this plays out over the rest of the year, but after 76 years, the Continental Airlines name will no longer grace the side of an airplane.
On my birthday in 1970 an anti-Vietnam war protest was held on the Kent State University campus in Kent, Ohio, northeast of Akron. It was being held to protest President Nixon's decision to widen the Vietnam war by invading Cambodia, which had happened only a few days before.
That protest would turn tragically ugly when for some still unexplained reason the Ohio National Guard fired on the crowd after tear gassing them to break up the protest.
Four students died as a result. Ten days later there was a similar incident at HBCU Jackson State University in Jackson, MS in which two students died.
Today is Cuatro de Mayo, my favorite day on the calendar. All of you who I'm blessed to have in my life as my friends should love it, too.
Today is the day back during the Kennedy administration that this phenomenal Tauron took her first breaths of air on this planet and claimed my status as a proud Houstonian and Texan.
As you can tell I'm beyond ready for Season 1.5 of Caprica to get started.
Of course, as you loyal TransGriot readers are aware of it took me a few more decades to become the fabulous sistah I would eventually evolve into.
But better late for Moni than never.
This birthday is a little different. Besides getting a year older, I'm in the midst of some changes in my life. After eight years in Louisville, I'm headed back home.
It's been an emotional last few days, and it has surprised me. I'm leaving one set of friends, a church family at Edenside and created family to go back to where my blood family and other created family members are.
But as I close this chapter in my life, leave my homegirl Dawn and roll south with Polar who's taking some vacation time to help me move, I'm looking forward to starting another one.
I also have some unfinished business to deal with as well.
In hindsight, I needed the time away from the Lone Star State and the Gulf Coast. I needed to experience living in a different section of the country.
While I haven't been happy about some aspects of my life as a Texan in exile, when I look at the sum total of everything I experienced here good, bad and indifferent, there were a lot of positive things that happened while I was up here.
I've grown a little in my time away from the Lone Star State. I'm still continuing forward on an evolutionary path that leaves me today somewhat happy about where I am on my feminine journey, but always striving for improvement.
And yes, I'm approaching another milestone birthday in 2012.
But I'm at the point in my life in which EVERY birthday I'm standing 189 centimeters above ground for is a good one.
That's six feet two inches for the metrically challenged.
Happy birthday to Moni. I hope I'll be blessed enough by God to celebrate a few more decades worth of them before I;m done.
TransGriot Note: I received this e-mailed press release from my sis Leona Lo in Singapore. The clubs there are going buck wild in terms of openly expressing their anti-trans bigotry and my sisters there have had enough.
Latest Clarke Quay Incident Sparks New Anti-Discrimination Campaign by Singapore Transgender Women
Monday, 3 May 2010, Singapore.
A group of transgender women in Singapore have rallied to issue a joint call to Clarke Quay night spot operators to stop discriminating against transgender women. The latest incident involving a transgender patron has sparked outrage among the long-suffering community, drawn close to 500 supporters on Facebook, and sparked the launch of a first-ever anti-discrimination campaign entitled "Sisters in Solidarity" (SIS).
The SIS campaign will be launched on Wednesday, 5 May 10, at 2 pm at Post Museum on Rowell Road. Ms Marla Bendini Junior Ong, a Singapore transgender woman will be present to share her experiences at Clarke Quay witnessed by her dance instructor who will also be present. Trish, a transgender pioneer, will speak up for the first time about her personal experience with workplace discrimination. The campaign will include a series of education activities throughout the year.
Media invitation We invite you to send a representative, photographer/camera crew to attend the media conference. Please RSVP to Leona at leona@talksense.biz by 6 pm on Tuesday, 4 May 10. We regret we cannot grant pre-event interviews. As the media conference is open to media representatives only, we would also require your representative to show his/her press pass.
Date: Wednesday, 5 May 10 Time: 2 pm Venue: Post Museum at 107 Rowell Road, Singapore 208031.
If Arizona was trying to convince reality-based people beyond the conservasheeple that the new 'Papers Please' Law wasn't directed at Latino/as and wasn't going to result in racial profiling. they seriously undermined that argument.
In another boneheaded move sure to increase the calls for a boycott, the Republican dominated Arizona Legislature passed a bill April 29 that outlawed ethnic studies programs:
HB 2281 would make it illegal for a school district to have any courses or classes that promote the overthrow of the U.S. government, are designed primarily for students of a particular ethnic group or advocate ethnic solidarity “instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals.”
It also would ban classes that “promote resentment toward a race or class of people.”
The measure was aimed directly at the Tuscon Unified School District’s popular Mexican-American studies department, which school officials say provides only “historical information” — not “ethnic chauvinism” as the state school superintendent has alleged.
One state lawmaker tried to show how ridiculous the legislation is by proposing that schools be barred from teaching about 9/11 because it would result in hatred toward Arab-Americans; the measure failed.
The Mexican government struck back by issuing a travel warning advising its citizens visiting Arizona to use extreme caution in doing so.
The Wall Street Journal also published a report about a new Arizona Department of Education policy in which they began telling school districts that teachers whose spoken English it deems to be heavily accented or ungrammatical must be removed from classes for students still learning English”:
Of course Arizona state education officials are spinning this as a move that they're spinning this as a move intended to ensure that students with limited English have teachers who speak the language flawlessly.
But by who's standards? Are you going to impose the same accentless English standards on someone with a British accent? A Canadian one? An Australian one? A New England accent? A Southern accent?
Or only Latinos, since Arizona schools have significant numbers of teachers who are native Spanish speakers?
Some school principals and administrators in the state have expressed concerns the Arizona Department of Education is imposing arbitrary fluency standards that could undermine students by thinning the ranks of experienced educators.
Arizona universities are already beginning to feel the effects of the 'Papers Please' law. Out of state students accepted to schools such as Arizona State and the University of Arizona are notifying those schools they are declining or are transferring out of the state to other colleges. Faculty and staff at Arizona colleges are also expressing concerns about the draconian law.
These latest legislative and policy attacks aimed at Latinos are only going to increase calls from leaders across the spectrum from members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus to Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa for an economic boycott of Arizona.
There is already pressure being applied on Major League Baseball to pull the 2011 All-Star Game from Phoenix, especially in light of the fact that 40% of its ballplayers hail from Latin American nations.
You can bet that the NFL will not put a Super Bowl in the state until this law is repealed, and the same goes for the NCAA with its Final Fours.
If you're asking where my peeps are on this issue, the Congressional Black Caucus has condemned the law. We have long memories about laws specifically aimed at us starting with the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act to the post Civil War Jim Crow statutes that permeated Southern lawbooks until the 1960's.
Congressional Black Caucus Chair Barbara Lee, (D-CA), and Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, (D-TX), chair of the CBC’s Immigration Task Force, called the new law “patently unconstitutional.” President Obama called the law 'misguided' and asked the Department of justice to look into the constitutionality of it.
Rev. Al Sharpton among other African American leaders are joining the Congressional Hispanic Caucus in calling for an economic boycott of Arizona.
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc, the oldest African-American Greek organization has responded to those calls by moving its July convention that was to be held in Phoenix to Las Vegas.
Arizona will have a hard time drawing any convention to the state for a while except probably one that Phoenix has put in a bid for.
There were a lot of events going on this weekend, and while I was attending a local GLBT Derby party, back in the home state the 18th annual Houston Transgender Community Unity Banquet was taking place at the Sheraton Brookhollow.
The last one I attended was in 2001 when I was up for a Dee McKellar Award as the Houston trans community's most outspoken transperson and lost to Katrina Rose.
It's all good, Kat. There's 2011.
Wanted to give the Unity Committee a quick shoutout for doing the hard work of planning and putting together the signature event for the Houston trans community.
Y'all know I have much love for my Houston homegirl Beyonce, but she isn't the only well known musician that has broken out of the Houston area to fame and stardom.
My hometown has produced a lot of musical talent across many genres of music from gospel, blues, country, R&B, rap and jazz.
So I'll give you a few examples of the immense music talent that call or used to call Houston home.
Archie Bell and The Drells
the late Johnny 'Guitar' Watson
Everette Harp
Yolanda Adams
Jade
Ronnie Laws
Y'all knew I was going to have to show some love for Destiny's Child
One event the political junkie in me didn't get to see since I was at the Down and Derby party last night was the 2010 White House Correspondents Dinner in Washington DC.
Here's the video of the president's remarks followed by Jay Leno.
The sun broke out just before the start of the 2010 Kentucky Derby. I watched jockey Calvin Borel hit the inside rail and guide Super Saver to his third Kentucky Derby win in the last four years.
With that bit of Louisville business concluded, the post Derby partying can being in earnest. The one that Dawn, Polar and I are headed to is Down and Derby Party which kicked off at 8 PM and is running until 4 AM.
Madame Party Animal has to go to church in the morning, so I'm not going to even attempt to hang out until this party shuts down.
The Down and Derby Party is the successor event to another GLBT derby event the Louisville GLBT community used to have at the Olmstead and I attended a few times.
That one had a few more celebrities that used to attend it. The one I hit in 2003 I was walking out of the place when Anna Nicole Smith was walking in. I also had a blast talking to Tammy Faye Bakker and The Lady Chablis.
I even got my copy of the Lady Chablis' book 'Hiding My Candy' autographed.
Despite the lack of celebrity star power (for now) since the event is in its second year, it's still a worthy one to attend. It serves as a fundraiser for two AIDS-related organizations in Louisville — the WINGS Clinic at the University of Louisville Health Sciences Center, and the Louisville AIDS Walk.
They are two organizations near and dear to my heart because I have lost friends and extended family members to AIDS.
The Water Tower is also a cool place to have it as well.
Oh yeah..time to bounce. Polar's here. See y'all at the Water Tower.
There are times when I sort through the hate mail, the negative comments from other trans people and other assorted fools and question why I continue to speak up for people who don't appreciate it.
Then I'll check my e-mail and see one from a transwoman thanking me for writing a post about not having anything to be ashamed about for being trans, and then confiding in me that reading the post dissuaded her from committing suicide.
I'll get another e-mail from someone who tells me they love my blog and thank me for telling the story of African descended trans people and talking about our issues.
I'll have a college kid and school administrators who sit in on my lectures tell me how much they appreciated me coming to their school.
I'll get e-mail on my Facebook page from people who not only consider me a role model, they tell me I inspired to fight for GLBT rights after reading one of my speeches or blog posts.
It's the knowledge that your peers around the world have much love and respect for you, the work you do and having someone to chat with from time to time that feels your pain when you're feeling down.
There are a lot of reasons people become activists. But one common thread amongst all of us is that we are justice seeking individuals that want a world better than the one we arrived in.
I hate injustice. I hate the erasure of African descended trans people from our history and the leadership ranks of this community. I want to see lasting legislation passed for all of us that will help us to lead better lives. I want to see better cooperation and a sense of interconnectedness and pride exponentially expand amongst transpeople of color. I want to see a world that's fairer and safer for transpeople to live their lives.
But accomplishing those lofty goals ain't easy and it's hard work.
They are goals that may not even come to pass in my lifetime or be accomplished a a future point in time in which I don't get a chance to enjoy them. But if it means the next generation of transkids don't have to deal with a tenth of the drama we had to, then it's worth fighting for and whatever crap I have to deal with to make it happen.
Thanks to Naomi's excellent PinayTG blog, I've been able to keep up with developments happening with our transpinay sisters in the Philippines and around the world through links from her site.
I learned that the 8th anniversary of STRAP's founding is occurring this month as well. I have had the distinct pleasure of not only getting to know Naomi, but Sass Rogando Sasot, one of the founders of that trailblazing organization.
Since 2002, STRAP has grown to not only become an advocacy and support group for transpinays, they have developed transwomen who are highly regarded leaders on the world stage in terms of transgender rights issues.
So I definitely wanted to give STRAP a shout out at the beginning of its anniversary month.
Happy 8th Anniversary STRAP!
May you continue to grow, prosper, and educate people about our lives in the Philippines.
May you also continue your tradition of being shining example of courageous leadership for transpinays and your trans sisters around the world.
TransGriot Note: The video and transcript of President Obama's remarks made at yesterday's memorial service for Dr. Dorothy Height.
Washington National Cathedral, Washington, D.C. 10:40 A.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Please be seated. Let me begin by saying a word to Dr. Dorothy Height’s sister, Ms. Aldridge. To some, she was a mentor. To all, she was a friend. But to you, she was family, and my family offers yours our sympathy for your loss.
We are gathered here today to celebrate the life, and mourn the passing, of Dr. Dorothy Height. It is fitting that we do so here, in our National Cathedral of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. Here, in a place of great honor. Here, in the House of God. Surrounded by the love of family and of friends. The love in this sanctuary is a testament to a life lived righteously; a life that lifted other lives; a life that changed this country for the better over the course of nearly one century here on Earth.
Michelle and I didn’t know Dr. Height as well, or as long, as many of you. We were reminded during a previous moment in the service, when you have a nephew who’s 88 -- (laughter) -- you’ve lived a full life. (Applause.)
But we did come to know her in the early days of my campaign. And we came to love her, as so many loved her. We came to love her stories. And we loved her smile. And we loved those hats -- (laughter) -- that she wore like a crown -- regal. In the White House, she was a regular. She came by not once, not twice -- 21 times she stopped by the White House. (Laughter and applause.) Took part in our discussions around health care reform in her final months.
Last February, I was scheduled to see her and other civil rights leaders to discuss the pressing problems of unemployment -- Reverend Sharpton, Ben Jealous of the NAACP, Marc Morial of the National Urban League. Then we discovered that Washington was about to be blanketed by the worst blizzard in record -- two feet of snow.
So I suggested to one of my aides, we should call Dr. Height and say we're happy to reschedule the meeting. Certainly if the others come, she should not feel obliged. True to form, Dr. Height insisted on coming, despite the blizzard, never mind that she was in a wheelchair. She was not about to let just a bunch of men -- (laughter) -- in this meeting. (Applause.) It was only when the car literally could not get to her driveway that she reluctantly decided to stay home. But she still sent a message -- (laughter) -- about what needed to be done.
And I tell that story partly because it brings a smile to my face, but also because it captures the quiet, dogged, dignified persistence that all of us who loved Dr. Height came to know so well -- an attribute that we understand she learned early on.
Born in the capital of the old Confederacy, brought north by her parents as part of that great migration, Dr. Height was raised in another age, in a different America, beyond the experience of many. It’s hard to imagine, I think, life in the first decades of that last century when the elderly woman that we knew was only a girl. Jim Crow ruled the South. The Klan was on the rise -- a powerful political force. Lynching was all too often the penalty for the offense of black skin. Slaves had been freed within living memory, but too often, their children, their grandchildren remained captive, because they were denied justice and denied equality, denied opportunity, denied a chance to pursue their dreams.
The progress that followed -- progress that so many of you helped to achieve, progress that ultimately made it possible for Michelle and me to be here as President and First Lady -- that progress came slowly. (Applause.)
Progress came from the collective effort of multiple generations of Americans. From preachers and lawyers, and thinkers and doers, men and women like Dr. Height, who took it upon themselves -- often at great risk -- to change this country for the better. From men like W.E.B Du Bois and A. Philip Randolph; women like Mary McLeod Bethune and Betty Friedan -- they’re Americans whose names we know. They are leaders whose legacies we teach. They are giants who fill our history books. Well, Dr. Dorothy Height deserves a place in this pantheon. She, too, deserves a place in our history books. (Applause.) She, too, deserves a place of honor in America’s memory.
Look at her body of work. Desegregating the YWCA. Laying the groundwork for integration on Wednesdays in Mississippi. Lending pigs to poor farmers as a sustainable source of income. Strategizing with civil rights leaders, holding her own, the only woman in the room, Queen Esther to this Moses Generation -- even as she led the National Council of Negro Women with vision and energy -- (applause) -- with vision and energy, vision and class.
But we remember her not solely for all she did during the civil rights movement. We remember her for all she did over a lifetime, behind the scenes, to broaden the movement’s reach. To shine a light on stable families and tight-knit communities. To make us see the drive for civil rights and women’s rights not as a separate struggle, but as part of a larger movement to secure the rights of all humanity, regardless of gender, regardless of race, regardless of ethnicity.
It’s an unambiguous record of righteous work, worthy of remembrance, worthy of recognition. And yet, one of the ironies is, is that year after year, decade in, decade out, Dr. Height went about her work quietly, without fanfare, without self-promotion. She never cared about who got the credit. She didn’t need to see her picture in the papers. She understood that the movement gathered strength from the bottom up, those unheralded men and women who don't always make it into the history books but who steadily insisted on their dignity, on their manhood and womanhood. (Applause.) She wasn’t interested in credit. What she cared about was the cause. The cause of justice. The cause of equality. The cause of opportunity. Freedom’s cause.
And that willingness to subsume herself, that humility and that grace, is why we honor Dr. Dorothy Height. As it is written in the Gospel of Matthew: “For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” I don’t think the author of the Gospel would mind me rephrasing: “whoever humbles herself will be exalted.” (Applause.)
One of my favorite moments with Dr. Height -- this was just a few months ago -- we had decided to put up the Emancipation Proclamation in the Oval Office, and we invited some elders to share reflections of the movement. And she came and it was a inter-generational event, so we had young children there, as well as elders, and the elders were asked to share stories. And she talked about attending a dinner in the 1940s at the home of Dr. Benjamin Mays, then president of Morehouse College. And seated at the table that evening was a 15-year-old student, “a gifted child,” as she described him, filled with a sense of purpose, who was trying to decide whether to enter medicine, or law, or the ministry.
And many years later, after that gifted child had become a gifted preacher -- I’m sure he had been told to be on his best behavior -- after he led a bus boycott in Montgomery, and inspired a nation with his dreams, he delivered a sermon on what he called “the drum major instinct” -- a sermon that said we all have the desire to be first, we all want to be at the front of the line.
The great test of a life, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, is to harness that instinct; to redirect it towards advancing the greater good; toward changing a community and a country for the better; toward doing the Lord’s work.
I sometimes think Dr. King must have had Dorothy Height in mind when he gave that speech. For Dorothy Height met the test. Dorothy Height embodied that instinct. Dorothy Height was a drum major for justice. A drum major for equality. A drum major for freedom. A drum major for service. And the lesson she would want us to leave with today -- a lesson she lived out each and every day -- is that we can all be first in service. We can all be drum majors for a righteous cause. So let us live out that lesson. Let us honor her life by changing this country for the better as long as we are blessed to live. May God bless Dr. Dorothy Height and the union that she made more perfect. (Applause.)
The 2010 International Foundation For Gender Education 24th annual conference came to a successful conclusion last week in Alexandria, VA. After they catch their breath, the IFGE team will being the planning process for next year's event.
For those of you who wish to attend the 25th Annual IFGE Conference in 2011 or get a head start on planning your life around it, I can tell you the date and the city it will be held in.
It will be held in the Washington DC metro area for the third straight year and the dates for the 2011 Conference will be April 14 - 17, 2011.
IFGE is working on getting the same hotel, the Hilton Alexandria Mark Center hotel in Alexandria, VA to host it. As soon as I can get confirmation from Bree, Denise and the rest of the IFGE gang that the hotel is the same, I'll pass that info along to you.
In the meantime, watch the IFGE website and Facebook page for updates, info on submitting seminar proposals and any other breaking news on the 25th annual conference. The IFGE conference as always is open to our allies and people who wish to learn more about the lives of transpeople and our issues.
And one of the things I'll be interested in finding out is who makes up the Trinity Class of 2011.
For those of you who couldn't be there to pay your respects, thanks to YouTube, you get to see what transpired at the recent vigil for Amanda Gonzalez-Andujar.
In a few hours, we'll have the 136th running of the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs. While many of you peeps around the planet have heard of the 'Run For The Roses', the 'Run For the Lillies' is not as well known as its distaff cousin.
Rachel Alexandra was last year's runaway winner by 20 lengths of the Oaks, and there was major sentiment in town for her to run against the boys in the Derby. Her owner decided to successfully run her instead in the 2009 Preakness.
Today at Churchill Downs is considered Louisville's day at the races. You'll see women coiffed in fashionable Derby hats on this day just like you will tomorrow, the only difference is that all the races, including the Oaks will be run by fillies.
We'll continue the equine theme of this week's SUF post. Our not so nettlesome task TransGriot readers, will be to determine who was the biggest horse's anus worthy of a Shut Up Fool! Award.
As usual the contenders ranged from the usual suspects of Beck, Palin, O'Reilly, Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), Michael Steele, and Gov. Jan Brewer (R-AZ).
But this week's winner was suggested by Renee of Womanist Musings, and I had to agree with her on this one.
Our Shut Up Fool Award goes to Iowa 3rd District Republican candidate for Congress Pat Bertroche.
He's one of seven candidates in a crowded GOP June 8 primary, and this waste of DNA stated during a Tama County candidate forum his solution to the undocumented worker immigration problem.
"I think we should catch 'em, we should document 'em, make sure we know where they are and where they are going. He went on to say to the Cedar Rapids Gazette, "I actually support microchipping them. I can microchip my dog so I can find it. Why can't I microchip an illegal?"
He supported the idea because he feels that too many illegal immigrants find ways to tunnel under fences, and the microchip embedded under their skin would make immigration control simpler.
You know Pat, you and your fellow conservafools need to coordinate your national message of racist intolerance better. Implanting microchips into someone against their will is against the law in California, Wisconsin and North Dakota.
The GOP controlled Georgia Senate passed a bill Wednesday banning what you're suggesting. The GOP controlled legislature in Virginia did the same and a GOP legislator in Tennessee was introducing a bill to doing the same.
However, knowing the competition amongst GOP members to be more obnoxiously racist and 'conservative than thou' will probably result in this bill being amended to incorporate your jacked up idea that violates civil liberties and the Constitution in so many ways I'd need another post to document them all.
I hope the good citizens of Iowa voting in the GOP primary have the good sense to not choose you as their standard bearer.
Um, on second though...do it, Iowa. That will ensure the Democratic incumbent returns to Washington DC in January.
The Tea Party peeps have a major image problem thanks to their nekulturny behavior and the fact their movement is as white as a Republican party convention.
In addition, they have views and have acted in ways that put them in alignment with people who like to wear white pointed hoods on the weekends or play domestic terrorist soldier while spouting pseudo christian rhetoric or anti government slogans.
In their recent charm offensive they tried to deploy their Negro auxiliaries to make the ludicrous case to the media and people of color that 'they aren't racists'.
Well, those signs y'all carry at the Tea Klux Klan rallies say otherwise.
The charge has been led by Oreo Barbie, oops Angela McGlowan, who is currently running for Congress in Mississippi's 1st District in a three way Republican primary.
It's "not about a black or white issue, it's not even about Republican or Democrat, from my standpoint. All of us are taxed too much."
Angela, you're not on Fox News anymore. Out of 30 OCED ranked nations, the USA ranks 28th in terms of tax burden on a one income married couple with two kids. Go peddle that manure somewhere else.
And oh yeah Miss Thang, the Field Negro is still patiently waiting for you in Philly to debate him.
If that wasn't enough, Bigot Harry Jackson (he doesn't get or deserve from me the respect of calling him Bishop) came out of hibernation from the pimp slapping he got in the DC marriage battle and tried to spin for Teabagger Nation.
In a recent column titled "Is Brewing Tea Dangerous?", Jackson suggested that what the Tea Partiers need is a full-blown PR-directed makeover.
Jackson offered up a tablespoon of advice to the Tea Party movement: Clean up your image. "Now that you know how you are perceived [by the media], what are you going to do"?, Jackson asked.
Give it up conservanegroes. We've already peeped the Teabagger game. They are just Obama 'Two Minute Hate' rallies disguised as anti-tax protests.
And no amount of spin from you Oreo cookie chompers can dissuade us from thinking otherwise.
TransGriot Note: Since ENDA is languishing in committee right now, thought I'd bring up this piece of African-American trans history that I discovered in the digitized JET magazine archives. It was reported in JET Magazine's June 27, 1994 issue, using proper pronouns I might add.
It once again drives home the point that not only do African descended transpeople exist, the issues we face ain't nothing new, and in many cases we took positive action to fight back.
Patricia Underwood transitioned and underwent SRS in 1982, but found herself a decade later embroiled in a legal battle after being dismissed from her receptionist job because in their words 'she looked too much like a man'.
Then 31 year old Washington DC resident Patricia Underwood sued New York City based Archer Management Services Inc., a New York City-based firm with a Washington DC office where she was employed.
Because federal laws do not (and still don't) properly protect transpeople against discrimination, Underwood flied suit in U.S. District Court under the broader D.C. Human Rights Law that prohibits discrimination based on personal appearance.
She alleged in her suit she was fired because because she is a transsexual and retains some masculine traits such as her large bone structure.
Gender identity and expression in the areas of employment, schools, housing and public accommodations were added to the DC law in 2006.
"I just want to stand up and say that I am not a freak, but a person," said Underwood at the time. "I was doing the work they asked me to do well, and I don't deserve to be treated like that because of my looks."
Archer in a statement according to JET, said it "vigorously denies any allegations of wrongdoing made by Patricia Underwood." It said it believes that her claim of discrimination based on personal appearance is, "without merit ... and that all of Archer's actions related to Patricia Underwood were wholly lawful and nondiscriminatory."
The Underwood v. Archer Management Services, Inc. case was the first effort to determine if the 1977 DC Human Rights Law's looks-oriented discrimination provision applied to transsexuals.
Archer moved to dismiss the case for failure to state a claim, arguing that the Act does not forbid discrimination against transsexuals. U.S. District Judge Richey disagreed, at least in part, finding that Underwood's factual allegations arguably stated a claim of discrimination on the basis of personal appearance (i.e., the reference to "masculine traits").
Richey followed well-established Title VII precedent at the time in dismissing that portion of the complaint based on sex discrimination. Interestingly, he also dismissed the portion based on sexual orientation discrimination, finding that none of Underwood's factual allegations raised any issue about her sexual orientation (and implicitly recognizing that sexual orientation and transsexuality are distinct phenomena). 1994 WL 369468 (U.S. Dist. Ct., D.C., July 12).
Note to all you GL people claiming transpeople are covered under 'sexual orientation language' when y'all move to cut us out of legislation. This case says it doesn't.
Did Patricia Underwood receive justice? Still trying to find out if that case was eventually resolved to her and her attorney Wayne Cohen's satisfaction.
Needed to take a break TransGriot readers. Had to run some errands and pack in addition to tying up loose ends on the board I serve as a member of.
To top it off I woke up with a headache. I'm also on countdown to my birthday, and I tend to get more introspective and moody the closer I get to that day.
So once I've done what I need to do and I'm feeling better, I'll get back to my regular posting schedule tomorrow. If some issue or issues moves me to comment on it before midnight I'll write and post it.
In the meantime, you TransGriot readers have a blessed day.
When you flip on the television to watch your favorite sporting event, it's not unusual to see and hear Black women such as Doris Burke doing the play by play, the analysis of Kara Lawson, Carolyn Peck and Cheryl Miller before, during and after the game breaking down what's transpiring on the field or the court or studio anchors such as Cindy Brunson reading the sports scores and breaking sports news of the day.
Sistah sportscasters have come a long way since Jayne Kennedy made history and news when she was tapped in 1978 to replace Phyllis George on 'The NFL Today', the CBS lead in show for its NFL broadcasts. Kennedy left the show in 1983, about the time a fledgling sports network was starting to expand to a national presence by becoming part of the basic cable packages of a nation wiring for cable.
ESPN is considered a leader in sports television 30 years later, and has also led the way has in opening doors and diversifying the what was once male dominated domain of sports broadcasting.
ESPN has excelled in hiring quality women sportscasters. One of the women ESPN hired in 1990, Robin Roberts, is considered the gold standard when it comes to the level of excellence that the current group of sportscasting sistahs aspire to reach and surpass.
Robin earned three Emmy Awards during her ESPN tenure and after working both for ESPN and doing GMA assignments, moved on to eventually became part of the Good Morning America team. She was recently promoted to anchor for GMA with the elevation of Diane sawyer to the ABC Evening News anchor desk.
My Texas homegirl Pam Oliver was a weekend sports anchor for KHOU-TV before she made the move to ESPN and eventually FOX Sports to become their sideline reporter for their NFL and college football telecasts. EBONY magazine named her as one of their 2004 Outstanding Women in Journalism honorees.
The Dallas native has the distinction of having her own dressing room with her name on the door at the new Cowboys Stadium.
Cindy Brunson has been an ESPN studio anchor since September 1999 and before joining the network covered the Portland Trail Blazers and the University of Oregon and Oregon State men's and women's basketball and the Oregon Ducks football program for a Portland television station.
I also have to give a shoutout to the new school sistah sportscasters who are currently getting attention and air time.
ESPN's Sage Steele has been with the network since March 2007 after stops in Indianapolis, the Tampa-St Petersburg area and Washington DC.
You can catch her when you tune in to ESPN in the mornings, but she used to cover the Baltimore Ravens during her time in DC.
Lisa Salters has been part of ABC Sports and ESPN since March 2000 as one of their sideline reporters for its NBA and football coverage, but her background is in broadcast news.
The cousin of Dallas Cowboys Hall of Famer Tony Dorsett covered as a ABC Los Angeles bureau based reporter from 1995-2000 the Oklahoma City bombing trials, the Matthew Shepard murder, the crash of TWA Flight 800, and both the civil and criminal O.J. Simpson trials.
Reischea Canidate has made the move from New York City television stations to Bristol, CT. She also received an Emmy nomination for her report on the dwindling numbers of African-Americans in professional baseball.
The other interesting aspect of Salters and Canidate is that like Pam Oliver, Kara Lawson and Cheryl Miller they were also college athletes, in addition to having their broadcast journalism chops.
I enjoy watching all these ladies not only for the quality work they do, but their sense of style as well.
The legacy of sistah sportscasters is not only in good hands, these women are serving as role models for the next generation of girls who wish to follow in their footsteps and expand on their legacies.
As some of you TransGriot readers know, I spent 14 years in the airline industry working for Continental Airlines at IAH.
The merged company will have CAL's Jeff Smisek as its CEO, but the corporate HQ of the merged carrier will be in Chicago. 
