Saturday Sellout-Ken Blackwell

Time for you TransGriot peeps to get your learn on about another one of the useful fools in the service of the GOP that wants to oppress me.

Meet John Kenneth Blackwell, senior fellow at the Family Research Council, a vocal conservacritic of President Obama, 1971 graduate of Xavier University, former mayor of Cincinnati from 1979-80 as a Democrat and former HUD undersecretary in George HW Bush's administration in 1989-90.

He left Daddy Bush's administration to run for office in Ohio, later become the Ohio Secretary of State in 1998 and served from 1999-2007. He ran for governor of Ohio in 2006 and got pimp slapped by Democrat Ted Strickland, who beat him by a whopping 24% margin despite Religious Reich support .

Blackwell also ran for RNC chair in 2009 but withdrew after the fifth round of voting in the chairmanship election eventually won by Michael Steele.  

He's also author of the 2010 waste of trees, Blueprint: Obama's Plan to Subvert the Constitution and Build an Imperial Presidency,

For you GL folks who can't get married in Ohio, he's the reason you can't because he was the driving force pushing for the 2004 adoption of the state constitutional amendment that bans recognition or the performance of same gender marriage and civil unions..

But besides his conservafool positions, he is most hated by much of the African American community for his controversial role in the 2004 presidential election.   As Ohio Secretary of State he is the chief election officer, and his status as an honorary co-chair for the 2004 Bush campaign in the state combined with some questionable partisan decisions caused people to ask questions about the conflict of interest.  .

It was magnified by the fact that Bush carried Ohio, its 20 electoral votes and subsequently the 2004 election by less than 120,000 votes despite widespread reports of voter irregularities.

Those questionable decisions ranged from approving the use of Diebold electronic machines when concerns  were being raised in 2003 about their accuracy (and owning stock in the company at the time) to multiple Secretary of State rulings later struck down by court rulings that attempted to restrict ballot access and suppress African-American and collegiate voter turnout in the state.   Many African American and collegiate precincts in the state were allocated less voting machines than suburban ones, which caused long lines to vote on election day.

There was chatter that he was considering a run against Sen. Sherrod Brown (D) next year for his US senate seat but he has dropped that bid.

So yeah, there's not much love for J. Kenneth Blackwell amongst our peeps in Ohio or elsewhere in the nation for that matter.  

Vigil For Lashai Mclean

For those of you in the Washington DC metro area who wish to pay your respects, there will be starting at 7:00 PM EDT a candlelight vigil for Lashai Mclean at the corner of 61st and Dix Streets.

From the DC Center's blog:


The 23 year old McLean was gunned down on the 6100 block of Dix Street, NE in the early morning hours. There was a second person with her, but all accounts have this person escaping the attack. Police state that they are still trying to determine a motive. However, the LGBT community believes that the attack was based off of the fact that McLean identified as a transgender woman.

McLean was highly active within the LGBT community. She spent many days on the premises of Transgender Health Empowerment (T.H.E.) and was known by most of the staff. It is coincidental that the site of her murder was in the same neighborhood T.H.E's Wanda Alston House.  

Mayor Vincent Gray issued a press release which condemned the murder of a member of the LGBT community. He also was quoted as saying "if the investigation concludes that this shooting was the result of bias based on sexual orientation or gender identity, MPD and my administration will work with this community to see that there is an appropriate response to this kind of violence, which cannot be tolerated."

A candlelight vigil will be held at the corner of 61st and Dix street, NE on Saturday, July 23rd at 7:00 PM. Please come out and pay your respects to this young woman lost.

NAACP Hosting A Trans Free LGBT Town Hall Meeting

The 102nd NAACP convention starts officially in Los Angeles on July 23 and runs through July 28 at the LA Convention Center with the theme of 'Affirming America's Promise'. 

One of the things I'm heartened to see the NAACP do is finally address the undeniable fact that there are African descended LGBT people who are proud members of the African American community.

Our issues and problems as African descended TBLG people are intertwined with those of our parent African American community due to our shared cultural and historical ties.  As members of that community we have a vested interest in seeing it survive and thrive.

I was happy to hear as a former card carrying youth member of the organization that the NAACP for the first time in their 102 year history is hosting a town hall meeting to discuss the issues that face African descended TBLG people.   

"Black members of the LGBT community share a common history and continued struggle to address issues of bigotry, yet their identities, talents, and leadership are oftentimes diminished because of homophobia and fear of physical violence,” remarked Benjamin Todd Jealous, NAACP president and CEO. “It is important that we address these issues head on.”

Yeah, I would definitely agree with the sentiment President Jealous expressed, except for one problem.   The panel that was put together for this NAACP Town Hall meeting has no trans participants in it.

The July 25 panel will commence at 2 PM PDT and is moderated by CNN anchor Don Lemon.   It has as participants Wanda Sykes, civil rights icon Julian Bond, Spelman College Professor Beverly Guy-Sheftall, actor Daryl Stephens, and writer, scholar, and activist Kenyon Farrow.

So what's the problem?   The problem is that this panel is heavy on the GL part of the community and has that glaring omission.  Not sure how the bi portion of our community feels about it, but I can say with certainty that the trans part of the rainbow community is not happy about the erasure of African descended trans people from this historic panel.

NAACP, if your goal is to have a serious discussion of the issues that face African American LGBT people, then you can't erase the people who are taking the brunt of the casualties and discrimination.. 

And it damned sure ain't the GL portion of the community. 


My point is underscored by the killing on the eve of this NAACP convention of Lashai Mclean in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, an African American transwoman being beaten in broad daylight in Fredericksburg, VA back in May and Kiare Newson being sexually harassed and disrespected at a traffic stop by Memphis police.

And no, as I've said ad nauseum on this blog and elsewhere, don't want to hear the excuse that 'you couldn't find any African American transpeople' to be part of this historic panel.   I submit the people putting this panel together didn't look hard enough or let's get real, didn't try or didn't want to find any African descended trans people for this discussion.  

Let's see, just on the West Coast living in California alone are Miss Major, Sharyn Grayson, and Tracie Jada O'Brien.   In the LA metro that is hosting the convention are Valerie Spencer and Sharon Franklin Brown.  

That's before I even touch on the out of state African descended trans peeps such as Antonia D'orsay, National Black Justice Coalition board member Kylar Broadus, and Dr. Marisa Richmond who could and would have eloquently discussed the issues facing trans people of African descent.  

And yeah, if the invitation had been extended, don't think the TransGriot wouldn't have been happy and proud to be part of that discussion as an award winning blogger of trans descent. 

It is a family conversation the trans portion of the community desperately needs to and should have had a long time ago with our cis African American peeps, legislators, and legacy orgs, and the NAACP convention would have been the perfect venue to have that family conversation.

But what I'm willing to bet is that on July 25, when we see the live feed starting at 2 PM PDT courtesy of the NAACP website of this Town Hall meeting, or cable coverage of it, it will be dominated by an 'all marriage all the time' discussion once again.

It's a conversation that while it is important and historic, pales in comparison to the fact that transpeople are dying and catching hell out there and a same gender marriage heavy discussion won't do jack to alleviate the problems that African American transpeople are facing.

TransGriot Note: Been told that the African American bi community ain't happy about being erased from this town hall meeting either.