Latina Teen Wins Fight For Miss San Antonio Crown

In Lone Star State culture, there are two things that Texans revere: King Football and beauty pageants.

In the eight years I lived in Kentucky I never saw either the Miss Kentucky USA or Miss Kentucky Pageants televised live on local television,  but have always had the ability to flip the television set on here in the Lone Star State and watch both the Miss Texas USA and Miss Texas pageants on my local TV station.

The Miss Texas USA pageant and the Miss Texas pageant for the Miss America system has more contestants in it in some years than either the Miss USA, Miss America or Miss Universe one.

There was a court battle that took place recently to decide who was the Miss San Antonio titleholder.   17 year old Domonique Ramirez was stripped of her title in January by pageant officials.  Her first runner up, Ashley Dixon wore the pageant crown for a few weeks while this issue was being litigated.


The 5' 8" Ramirez  and her mother sued the Miss San Antonio officials for breach of contract and alleged some pageant officials said she needed to 'lay off the tacos'.   The Miss San Antonio pageant officials countersued citing alleged insubordination and weight gain from a size 2 to a size 6.

The battle went to court, and yesterday a jury awarded Ramirez the Miss San Antonio title back but no monetary damages. 

Ramirez is thrilled with the legal win, is more than ready to get prepared to win the Miss Texas pageant and said in a subsequent interview that she'd like to share the Miss San Antonio crown with Ashley Dixon. 

The Miss Texas pageant will take place in Fort Worth this July, and it'll be interesting to see if Domonique does place in the Top Ten, much less even wins Miss Texas and moves on to the Miss America one..

Triangle Shirtwaist Fire Centennial

With the coordinated attack on unions by the GOP conservafools underway, thought you peeps might need a reminder of why unions exist, why we have all the workplace laws and safety regulations in effect and why they are necessary in the first place.

Today is the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City in which 146 people died.   Many of the 500 people employed there were Jewish and Italian immigrants and women and children as young as 13 and 14 years old.



On the afternoon of March 25, 1911 as the workday was winding to an end, a fire broke out in the factory that was located on the eighth, ninth and tenth floors of what is now known as the Brown Building.   Because the managers locked the stairwells and doors, many people couldn't escape the burning building and jumped to their deaths.

Of the 146 people who died, 129 were women.  max Blanck and Isaac Harris, who survived the fire by fleeing to the building's roof.were tried for first and second degree manslaughter in December 1911.   They were acquitted, but lost a subsequent civil suit in 1913.

It is also described by Frances Perkins as "the day the New Deal began."

The Brown Building became a National Historic Landmark as a result of the tragedy and the events that it triggered in its wake.  .

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire fueled the growth of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, improved work safety standards, tougher fire codes and the enactment of progressive labor laws in New York State.

On the anniversary of the fire members of the ILGWU read the names of the fallen in a memorial service in front of the building    During the 50th anniversary memorial service of the Triangle fire, ILGWU President David Dubinsky said, “We want a fitting memorial to the martyrs we honor today.  No better one can be found than to increase the respect for and the safety of workers.”

We are now at the centennial anniversay, and we now have Republican governors such as Wisconsin's Scott Walker wanting to take us back to the bad old days of laissez-faire capitalism, workers rights being trampled and lax or nonexistent rules and regulations for businesses.   

The centennial anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire is a warning and reminder of the type of work world we'll have if we allow that to happen.  

Shut Up Fool! Awards- Missing Glenda Edition

It has been an interesting week for me emotionally.   The 18th was the 10th anniversary of the night I received the late night phone call that advised me that my ex had unexpectedly died a few days short of her 38th birthday on March 20.  Even though ten years has passed and we had a pretty stormy two year relationship, we had patched up our friendship a few months before she passed away.

There's still a day that doesn't pass that I don't think about Glenda and I do miss talking to her, and my emotions are on a rollercoaster ride during those three days.

Rest in peace.  You are missed.   

So now let me turn my attention to the normal Friday business of TransGriot and find this week's fool or fools that earned our Shut Fool Award.


The nominees were Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) , Rep Eric Cantor (R-VA), Gov. Paul LePage (R-ME), Gov Scott Walker (R-WI) and Chris Brown.  Fox News and the GOP received group nominations.

But our winner this week surprisingly is George Lopez.    Now I love me some George Lopez.    I actually saw him perform in the early 90's at the Laff Stop in Houston before he blew up   I watch Lopez Tonight and have much love for him for rolling into Texas and other states with high Latino concentrations in 2008 and campaigning for President Obama.

George dissed both Kirstie Alley and Wendy Williams in a comedy routine critiquing their DWTS performances.   He compared Kirstie Alley's dancing to a pig, and called Wendy Williams a man.

I asked the question on March 14 how long would it take before the transphobic slurs started flying about Wendy Williams, and got my answer pretty quickly.    Roughly 24 hours after her performance.

Now, interestingly enough, Lopez apologized to Kirstie Alley for insulting her, but not to Wendy Williams for the transphobic diss.    Oh well, sadly the Black unwoman meme lives on.

George Lopez, shut up Fool!

R-E-S-P-E-C-T The Queen Of Soul's Birthday

Today is Aretha Franklin's 69th birthday, so it is time to bow in the direction of Detroit and pay homage to one of our iconic singers while she still walks amongst us mere mortals in her queendom.

The Queen of Soul was born on this date in 1942, and yes I have much love for her music.




Don't forget she sang at the 2009 inauguration of President Obama.




PETA may hate her, but as I said in last year's birthday post,  frack them.   Who cares what those fools think?  .

Happy birthday, your royal higness!

Darn, I Missed Independence From HBS Day!

You long time TransGriot readers have seen the posts I've aimed at the HBS/WWBT crowd over the five years I've been writing at this blog.

They have their white sheeted hatred on for me so much that they only refer to me in their delusional discourse by my last name.   By the way White Women Born Transsexuals, that's Ms. Roberts to you.

Award winning internationally known activist, IFGE Trinity Award winner and blogger that you WWBT's incessantly hate because you want to emulate.

Anyhoo, on to more serious business since playtime with you peeps is over.  Take it away One Fallen Angel, which celebrated on March 22 Independence From HBS Day.

On this momentous occasion, I could think of nothing better than to celebrate my independence from believing in ‘science’ by opinion. I speak of ‘Harry Benjamin Syndrome’ — the fictitious medical condition that TS-Si’s delusional cult leaders (and their obsequious thralls) purport to suffer from.

Loved the Independence From Harry Benjamin Syndrome Day post that has link smacking the TS-Si cultists around, and thank you for including two TransGriot posts to the fun and festivities of the day.

I appreciate anyone who has the patience and writing skills to point out just how privileged and full of bull feces the WWBT cultists are, and this definitely deserves a signal boost.    Check out the link to it here.

And Happy Belated Independence From HBS Day!

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We Need 'Trans Leaders', Not 'Leading Trans' People

One of the highlights of the 2007 Tavis Smiley State Of The Black Union event for me was when Dr. Julia Hare of the Black Think Tank spelled out in a fiery speech the difference between 'Black leaders' and 'leading Blacks'.

Dr. Hare noted that iconic Black leaders like the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Ida B. Wells, and Harriet Tubman "didn't put themselves first; they put the community first, unlike many of today's supposed Black leaders." She noted that the difference between Black leaders and "leading Blacks." was that leading Blacks "get paid while you (the community) get played."

Damn, sounds familiar to the leadership issues we have in the trans community.   We don't have enough trans leaders.  But we damned sure have a bumper crop of 'leading trans' people with a certain ED of NCTE being the poster child for the 'they get paid while the community gets played' crowd.

The point is we desperately need trans leaders to step up.  We need people in our leadership ranks who are thermostats and not thermometers.   Thermometers take the public opinion temperature before they act, thermostats set it.

We need leaders who are willing to call out our enemies and our so called allies in Kingian love but if they continue to ignore us go Marcus Garvey or Malcolm X on them.  We need leaders who are visionary strategic thinkers, knowledgeable political strategists, great communicators and people who love all segments of the trans umbrella equally (not just certain segments of it)

We need leaders who are more concerned about passing just laws and enacting policies that benefit the trans community, not fit the overall strategic vision for an ally that doesn't have our community's interests first and foremost in their mind.


And to paraphrase the Good Doctor, we cannot win if we are willing to sell out the future of trans children for our personal comfort and safety.

So where do you stand trans people?   Are you a trans leader?   Or are you just a 'leading trans'?    At this crucial time in the trans community's history we can't afford any more people that reflect the latter description.