Meet Andii Viveros-Prom Queen

I posted a story back in 2007 about Fresno trans teen Crystal Vera becoming the first trans prom queen.  

In light of the drama that Andy Moreno went through in trying to become homecoming queen at North Dallas High, was happy to hear about what just transpired (pardon the pun) at McFatter Technical High School in Davie, FL.

17 year old Andii Viveros beat out 14 candidates to  become the second trans teen nationally to become the prom queen at her school.  To make it even more interesting, the prom king is 17 year old gay male student Juan Macias.


Andi is two years into her transition, and at times it has been rough for her despite the support from her family.  She had to deal with bullying and taunting behavior from students along with a less than supportive administration until this year.   She also had to deal with a faction of students who started a petition to get her removed from the ballot.

Andii told the Miami Herald in an interview this year the school got a new principal who was supportive of her.  She even encouraged Andii to run for prom queen.

Andii is planning to attend Broward College in the fall and get a degree in culinary arts management.

Congrats sis, and best of luck in your future endeavors.


 

The Texas Lege Headed To A Special Session

Today is the last day of the 82nd Texas legislative session.   Although we trans Texans got a major legislative victory this year when SB 723 died, because the Republicans wasted so much legislative time on their pet right wing social issues and this was a redistricting year, the budget didn't get dealt with until late in the session.

One of the main sticking points in passing the budget is the GOP desire to cut $4 billion over the next two years from public education despite having $6 billion dollars in the state's rainy day fund.    Democrats said no way on that and voted as a bloc to oppose HB 1 in the House.   But peeps, when you're facing a 101-49 GOP majority not much you can do to stop crappy legislation unless you get Republicans to join in, and only 15 did.

The SB 1811 companion bill in the Senate got filibustered to death Sunday thanks to Sen. Wendy Davis (D-Fort Worth).  The GOP redrew her Fort Worth area district to make it next to impossible to win it assuming the GOPmandered map passes Department of Justice muster, so she decided to go out fighting for Texas school kids and torpedo this jacked up budget.

The bill can still be revived today on a 4/5 majority vote (25 senators) which means the Republicans need to get five Democratic senators to vote with them to do it.


"Those in charge have made irresponsible choices in allowing special interests to preserve tax-payer funded loopholes, while telling educators, students and working families that we can't afford to educate Texans,"  Sen. Davis said in a post filibuster news conference afterward.


Of course Governor Goodhair is not a happy camper and will probably be calling a special session to deal with the budget probably as soon as the clock strikes midnight.

While that gives the state another opportunity to get it right on school funding, it also gives State Rep Wayne Christian (R-Center) another chance to not live up to his name.  He has been trying to pass an amendment that kills GLBT centers on state college campuses.

Stay tuned Texans, we're about to go into legislative overtime in Austin. 

Memorial Day 2011

Today is Memorial Day, the day that we set aside to remember the men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice for their fellow Americans.

As I strive to remind people, TBLG Americans have not only served, but given up their lives as well in military service for this country

Memorial Day 2011 comes several weeks after Osama Bin Laden was killed during a daring May 1 operation in Pakistan that may lead to expedited withdraw of American troops from Afghanistan and Iraq.

Time to bring our girls and boys home and start spending the money we waste fighting in those countries domestically on our infrastructure.and other domestic priorities.    

'Cars 2' British Flavor

With Cars 2 having a more international theme and storyline,  I found interesting the new characters that will pop up in the upcoming film.

In addition to Team Lightning McQueen getting to experience the hospitality of Luigi's hometown when the World Grand Prix's second race takes place in Italy, action takes place in Japan and England as well. 
 
The movie makes its British debut on July 22, and there will be more than a few familiar characters, voices and a home country feel for British audiences to enjoy.

In addition to seeing iconic vehicles like London bus Topper Deckington III, London cab Chauncy Fares, and Sgt. Highgate it was interesting to note that Queen Elizabeth II was immortalized in the film along with the just married Prince William. 

Character Art Director Jay Shuster was well aware of the tricky task of respectfully depicting a national sovereign for this movie
.  

Specifically with The Queen’s design it took some careful stepping as we, of course, were on hallowed ground emulating a nation’s sovereign as a car. The Queen’s design in our film is inspired by the elegant lines and paint schemes of British car designs of the finest vintage.

In addition to the Royal Family representatives, British Formula 1 champion driver Lewis Hamilton is one of the racers in this film. 

I thought (and my Formula 1 loving friend will probably agree with me) it should have been as a Formula 1 race car to be a stickler for authenticity, but the Hamilton character as one of the World Grand Prix racers in this movie still looks cool and better yet, he'll be doing the voiceover for it.. 

And yes, the British theme of this movie wouldn't be complete without me mentioning the Sir Michael Caine voiced British intelligence agents Finn McMissile, his sidekick Siddley and agent Holley Shiftwell. 

Think I need to reconsider eating buttered popcorn when i go see this one and get fish and chips instead..

Close But No Cougar Championships

I spent the day pulling for my UH women's softballers and men's baseballers hoping they would emerge victorious today, but it was not to be for either team. 

The Cougar women were up in Stillwater, OK in a super regional against Oklahoma State.   They were playing  for the opportunity to advance to our school's first Women's College World Series.  

Despite banging out 10 hits in the first game of the series, they couldn't get the key hit they needed to score some runs and were shut out 3-0.  It also didn't help that UH's ace pitcher Amanda Crabtree had to leave Game 1 with a reinjured wrist after only two innings..

That put the Cougars in the position where they had to win Game 2 or go home, and they did so with a 1-0 shutout win courtesy of Donna Bourgeois.to force the decisive third game.

Donna Bourgeois got the start in Game 3 because Amanda Crabtree still wasn't able to go    She got pulled after the Cowgirls loaded the bases in favor of freshman Diedre Outon.

The Cowgirls built a 3-0 first inning lead but the Cougars clawed their way back into it with two runs in the bottom of the first and took a 4-3 lead courtesy of a Jennifer Klinkert two run homer in the third inning.

The Cowgirls struck back in the fifth with three runs to retake the lead 6-4.  UH made it interesting in the bottom of the seventh when Baillie Lott blasted a solo shot to narrow the margin to 6-5.    Unfortunately Houston native and Cowgirl ace Kat Espinosa retired the next three Cougar batters to preserve the victory and clinch the trip to Oklahoma City and the WCWS.

A few hours later the UH baseball team was in Pearl, MS trying to snap a 14 game losing streak against the top seeded Rice Owls in the C-USA tournament championship game.  

Rice has had to overcome slow starts in their tournament games and repeated the pattern against a determined Cougar squad by falling into a 3-0 hole thanks to UH starter Jared Ray pitching a masterful game.  He only allowed one earned run and three total over eight innings. 

After the Cougars stranded a runner on second base in the top of the 10th, the Owls got the game winning hit in the bottom of the 10th to secure their 4-3 win and another C-USA tournament title.

It was close but no championships for both Cougar squads.   The women softballers finished with a 44-18 record, were C-USA regular season co-champs, and considering they were playing without their ace pitcher, came within a few outs of making it to the school's first women's CWS.  

The baseball team was 27-32, has battled injuries all season, but fought and scrapped their way to the C-USA championship game and made the Owls earn it..   

Proud of both teams and hope y'all have better results next season.