On a 3-2 party line vote this morning, the Dallas County Commissioners added trans protections to the county's non discrimination policy after 30 minutes of public commentary.
Voting for the successful proposal were Democrats Judge Clay Jenkins, Commissioner Dr. Elba Garcia and Commissioner John Wiley Price. Voting against were the two Republicans commissioners Maurine Dickey and Mike Cantrell.
Note the interesting point trans community, that part of Dickey's district covers the Oak Lawn gayborhood. She voted FOR the sexual orientation ones but AGAINST the trans community.
Let's just say the next time I'm visiting my friends and relatives in Dallas I won't be eating or spending my money at Dickey's Barbecue anymore..
“The community’s participation is what made this happen — the letters,
the phone calls, the people who showed up here,” said Resource Center
Dallas’ Rafael McDonnell to the Dallas Voice. “The fact that this was done in five weeks is what really
surprises me. Five weeks is the blink of an eye in government time.”
Now the trans employees who are part of the 7000 person workforce of Dallas County have the same employment protections as everyone else.
And the GL community has lived up to the principles that bear the city's name.
In a few hours we'll find out if the trans residents of Dallas County, Texas will have their employment rights protected in the county non discrimination policy like the GL folks were back in March.
A County Order is part the Commissioners Court business that kicks off at 9 AM CDT, and it should be a packed house to witness this event.
If you can attend, please do so because we can presume the haters will be there in force. Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins wants you to be at the County Administration building located at 411 Elm St. for what could be a historic day.
We'll find out if they have and who the elusive third vote is to pass this. .
If you want to remind those commissioners one more time to do the right thing and add gender identity to the non discrimination policy or thank Judge Jenkins and Commissioner Garcia for their hard work on this issue, as always, be nice and respectful while doing so.
Y'all need to do the right thing for Andy Moreno, Ms T-DART and other trans residents of Dallas County and pass this addition to the policy. We are (or soon will be in Ms. Moreno's case) tax paying residents of Dallas County.
Lost in the blizzard of news I've been covering this month was the WNBA draft. Now that they've hired a new president for the league, I'm somewhat ready to forgive them for screwing my Comets since Donna Orender resigned in December.
And who was the WNBA's overall number one pick in the draft. Give you one guess who it was, and UConn Huskie fans can probably tell you.
Yep, it was UConn's Maya Moore, .who will be spending her WNBA summers when she's not playing for Team USA next summer in London playing for the Minnesota Lynx.
It may be your game, and Canada has won the International Ice Hockey Federation women's title nine times, but when it comes to what have you done lately in the IIHF world championships, that trophy has stayed on our side of the border since 2008.
The 13th annual women's International Ice Hockey Federation championship concluded today with a overtime goal by Hilary Knight to secure a hard fought 3-2 Team USA win over Team Canada. for our third straight IIHF women's world title and fourth overall.
USA! USA! USA!
And to underscore our growing star spangled superiority in 'your game', peep the most recent IIHF Women's world hockey rankings:
The top ten of the World Ranking is as follows:
1 USA 2970
2 CAN 2930
3 FIN 2800
4 SWE 2700
5 RUS 2670
6 SUI 2620
7 KAZ 2475
8 SVK 2470
9 CHN 2385
10 GER 2355
Don't worry, you'll get another chance to take that title away from us next year. And Sochi is only three years from now.
We're still concerned about this bill if it isn't killed enshrining the odious Littleton case into Texas law and setting negative legislative intent precedent against trans marriage especially in light of the pending Delgado v Araguz case.
The Texas legislature is also meeting until May 30.
We're glad this is starting to get the attention of people not residing in the Lone Star State, but that means it's getting the attention of our haters and they will start pushing back as well.
Remember, the Republicans have an 19-12 edge in the Texas Senate. They need ONE Democratic legislator to break ranks and allow this bill to come up for a vote.
So your Texas transpeeps still need those calls and e-mails to the Texas Democratic senators (be nice) and ask them to keep the united front to kill SB 723.
Here are those addresses and phone numbers. Sen Carlos Uresti is the one highlighted for now because he was rumored to be the one wavering on SB 723. Let them know the eyes of trans Texans and the nation are upon them to do the right thing and thank them for doing so. Mario Gallegos (512) 463-0106 mario.gallegos@senate.state.tx.us
Wendy Davis (512) 463-0110 wendy.davis@senate.state.tx.us
Rodney G. Ellis (512) 463-0113 rodney.ellis@senate.state.tx.us
As I consistently strive to remind you peeps who read here, race permeates everything we do in this country.
When I first heard about this I was hoping (and praying) it wasn't a POC involved in this jacked up attack of a trans person because I knew how ugly this would get.
And once the word got out it was a white transwoman attacked by two black women, my worst fears have been realized. .
Before I dive into this, let me make it abundantly clear that
I'm royally pissed about what happened to Chrissy Lee Polis and want to
see the perps brought to justice. The 14 year old and 18 year old
Teonna Monae Brown.have already been arrested as I write this. The
employee who videotaped the beatdown is no longer employed at that
particular McDonald location.
But sadly, there is no denying that race is percolating front and center in this case of anti trans violence as well. Since the trans community is a subset of the parent society infected by
the same ills, you can cease and desist with the protestations of or trying to be 'colorblind' about this.
Ignoring race and how it insidiously operates in the trans community hasn't made it go away in the decade plus I've been involved in its civil rights struggle.
If you're in denial that this transphobic Mickey D's attack isn't
about race, then check out some of the problematic and straight up bigoted commentary around the
net on on various websites about this.. It may have started as a simple argument in a suburban McDonald's bathroom between three women that turned into a vicious fight, but it's not any more.
Case, are you condoning the giant apes actions? I
don't care if myself being a 230 lbs walked in a women's bathroom, it
doesn't let someone beat the crap out of me. Transgender or not, it does
not condone it, I honestly hope that girls ends up in a ditch
somewhere, this attack was disgusting, and they kept going back for more
and more. The employees that work there are cowards, the manager and
everyone but that poor older woman are cowards. I would have loved to
beat the living S#&* out of two pieces of crap stomping a
defenseless girl.
And right now, the Black trans community is stuck uncomfortably in the
middle of this mess. Never mind the fact Moni and other Black
transpeople have condemned
and continue to condemn the attack The bottom line is once again, we
see elements of the white community using it as a excuse to let their inner Archie Bunker
out, and some of those Archie Bunker wannabees expressing themselves are TBLG people. .
When I wrote my initial post, I intentionally focused it on attacking the bathroom meme. Wasn't expecting some people to trip on the 'white wing' conservatives line and accuse me on my FB page of 'trying to make this about race'. The reality is the conservative moment and its leadership is overwhelmingly dominated by white people, and they are pushing the bathroom predator meme in order to retard the progress of trans civil rights. You don't like that Moni stated the inescapable truth about that, tough.
But now the pushing of that bathroom predator meme is starting to have deleterious effects on our ability to simply go to the bathroom in peace to the point where people think it's okay to violently resist our civil rights to do so
The point is we need to use this as a teachable moment to talk about anti-trans violence, why the bathroom predator meme need to be utterly attacked, debunked, discredited and destroyed, and why it's important that any trans rights laws have public accommodations language with strong enforcement teeth.
We also need to have an honest conversation about race and race relations in the trans community as well..
![]("http://img2.blogblog.com/img/video_object.png")