Happy 30th Birthday Serena!

Hmm...almost forgot I'm traveling on the milestone birthday of one of my favorite tennis playing siblings.

Today is the Big 3-0 birthday for Serena Jameka Williams, or as you TransGriot readers know who read my Williams sisters tennis updates I call 'Little Sis'.

While she had a disappointing and jacked up to say the least loss to Sam Stosur in the US Open final, considering the drama and health issues she's faced this year, she probably considers reaching this birthday a blessing.

It was wonderful to see her playing world class tennis and they'd better look out for Little Sis in 2012.  

Headed Back To Houston

The 2011  OUT on the Hill has concluded for this year along with the CBCF-ALC event, and I'm taking some wonderful experiences, a reenergized sense of purpose, the glow of finally meeting some of the people I've been either talking to on the phone or chatting with for several years now and a lot of extra business cards with me on the return trip home from Washington DC..

And hopefully I made a few new friends along the way as well.


I also want to thank my gracious hosts Denise and Jeri for offering me their home to crash at while I was in our nation's capitol.   Enjoyed the thought provoking conversations that we engaged in while I was there.

I have a lot to do and think about, but the goals remains the same.  It's past time for my people inside and outside the TBLG community to recognize that we are human beings with civil and human rights.

The other thing we transpeople of African descent must do is love ourselves before we can tackle the systemic ills and isms that retard our progress.

Well, that's something I'll have to think about on the plane ride back to the Lone Star State.

Trans Rights Bill Reintroduced In Canada

One of the legislative casualties because of the Canadian election call earlier this year was Bill C-389, the Trans Rights Bill authored by now retired NDP Critic Bill Siksay that passed the House of Commons 143-135 on Third Reading but was stuck in the Conservative controlled Senate .

The private member's bill Siksay was sponsoring for the third time had it passed would have given trans Canadians explicit rights under the Human Rights Act and the hate-crimes provision of the Criminal Code.

MP Fry was a supporter of the previous bill, and promised the retiring Siksay that if C-389 failed , she would bring it up in the next Parliament.

"I said, 'Look, if you’re leaving and the bill doesn’t get through, I will bring it back for you,'” According to Xtra, Fry sent a letter to the NDP’s Libby Davies about the issue. “I said, 'It’s not about you or me, or the NDP or the Liberals, it’s about trans persons, so let’s come together and work on it.'”

Now that the fall session of Parliament is about to get cranked up north of the border, despite the fact that the Conservatives have a majority in the House of Commons, the Liberals and the NDP are joining forces to try to get civil rights coverage for transgender Canadians.

On September 19, making good on her promises to Siksay and the promise she made during the campaign to reintroduce this bill during the next Parliament if she won reelection, Vancouver Centre Liberal MP Dr. Hedy Fry introduced Bill C-276 in the House of Commons, followed on September 21 by the introduction of Bill C-279 by NDP queer issues critic Randall Garrison of Esquimalt-Juan De Fuca .

Bill C-389 had some Conservative support that included two Cabinet ministers, but now that they have a muscular 167 seat majority, will those Conservative MP's support it?

Fry's Bill C-276 is an exact redraft of the previous Siksay bill, and would amend the Canadian Human Rights Act to include gender identity and gender expression as prohibited grounds of discrimination.  

It would also amend the Criminal Code to outlaw hate speech that advocates genocide against groups distinguished by gender, and to allow evidence that a crime was motivated by hate based on gender to be taken into account during sentencing.

In addition to Dr. Fry's and MP Garrison's support, it also has the support of Green Party leader MP Elizabeth May.

Will be interesting to see how far this one goes in this Conservative controlled chamber.

Moni's DC Tourist And Activism Day

One of the things about me and my trips to Washington DC is that I'm only here sometimes for three tightly scheduled days to lobby with little or no time to just play tourist.  

Sometimes it's just a matter of hours, like the 2007 trip to DC in which Polar and I drove 10 hours from Louisville to protest the HRC dinner and then headed back after the protest was done

On this trip for Out on the Hill I built some time into it to do just that and my opportunity to do so came yesterday.   

Jeri and I got out of the house and rolled over to the just opened MLK  Jr. Memorial.  Was a bear parking her car because the National Book Festival was this weekend on the Mall so we had to drive around for a bit before we found a parking space near L'Enfant Plaza.  The clouds were looking dark and ominous at first but they parted to allow the sun to shine as we walked over to it.

But it was worth it.  Jeri and I took some pictures of the monument and of me next to my fave MLK quotes that were on the Inscription Walls.

We then headed over to the nearby National Holocaust Memorial Museum  where we spent two hours until the museum closed at 5 PM EDT.    We then headed over to Dupont Circle for the 7 PM candlelight vigil and march to remember Gaurav Gopalan, a South Indian gay man who was dressed in women's clothing when he was killed in his Columbia Heights neighborhood two blocks from where he lived.on September 10. 

The initial MPD police report presumed Gopalan was a Latina since the body was found with no ID.   Nevertheless, Jeri and Earline Budd were there to rep the DC trans community, and my presence there meant the national trans community was represented as well.   I was there simply to pay my respects and let the local activists handle their business.

I got to meet the Washington Blade's Lou Chibbaro, more DC activists and local politicians.  After Earline spoke at the vigil, conducted a few interviews with reporters including Patricia from Georgetown's student newspaper, we took 'Number Four' home.   We rolled past the landmark Ben's Chili Bowl enroute to her place and after I admitted I've been to DC five times and haven't been there yet, promised her on my next DC trip I'd rectify that omission as we both waxed poetic about Five Guys.

Yeah, have a feeling it may not take me two years to return to DC again.   But I definitely have to do the tourist thing more often.  
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OUT On The Hill-Moni's Reflections

OUT on the Hill has come to a close for this year and the staff of the National Black Justice Coalition has once again managed to put together a first class, informative and empowering event.

One of the themes that NBJC ED/CEO Sharon Lettman-Hicks has stressed during the time we've been up here is 'Owning Our Power'.   There have been a lot of frank, thought provoking family conversations inside and outside the breakout sessions and events where we have had discussions into just how do we as African descended TBLG people 'Own Our Power' and fearlessly name and claim it. 


You TransGriot readers know I've never been shy on this blog about speaking my mind and calling people organizations and feces laden crap out, but when I return to Houston, I'm planning on owning my power.

How I plan to do it, you'll have to stay tuned to see how I execute that.   Only the TPOCC leadership, the NBJC ED/CEO and BOD members will know what I'm up to.  That part of me 'owning my power' will not be revealed or broadcast on this blog for my haters, sellouts and agent provocateurs to undermine it.  

I'm coming back home with a purse full of business cards and contacts that in between the time until we have the 2012 Out on the Hill event, I will be diligently working to expand on.  I have the reassurance and knowledge that I have far more love, respect and support inside and outside the African American BTLG community and our allies than I believed I had and a stronger support system to help me 'Own My Power'.  

It was an honor for me to finally meet people I've talked to either on the phone, e-mailed or chats for years like Kylar Broadus, Kamora Herrington, and Valerie Spencer.   It was wonderful finally getting to meet Sharon Lettman-Hicks, the BOD and staff of the National Black Justice Coalition.   It was also an honor to meet leaders like Kimberly McLeod, Stacey Long and a host of others I'd need another post to name and know they feel the same way about moi.   


I said this in a post I fittingly wrote on King Day 2011, and it bears repeating.   If you claim to love all Black people, then by extension that means Black transpeople are included in that definition as well.  

I love Black people, and to me, while fighting for the human rights of transpeople is a primary focus, I'm Black first and everything else comes second to that.   Loving Black people means that I love ALL Black people in all their permutations including my lesbian, gay, bi, trans and straight brothers and sisters.  That also includes my brothers and sisters across the African Diaspora as well.  


That is the first prerequisite to leading us and yes Sharon, I got that Owning My Power message loud and clear this week.   I'm happy to see that my bi, gay, and straight brothers and sisters love and value their trans ones.  

It was amazing to talk to civic leaders in DC and beyond, faith leaders, people like Cheryl Kilodavis and Sirdeaner Walker, and transleaders in Washington DC such as 'Number Four' Earline Budd, Danielle King and Ruby Corado.   I enjoyed my time talking to Washington DC GLB leaders and my gracious hosts Jeri Hughes and Denise Leclair about a wide variety of issues that were on their minds.

I head back to H-town knowing our movement is in great hands thanks to the talented, emerging, energetic young leaders I met here that are coming out of the best educated and brightest generation of Black youth we've ever had in our people's history.

The bottom line is that the Black trans community in Houston and elsewhere nationally has been silent for far too long, and I can,.will be and must be that leader they can look up to and count on for leadership in that area.   If I'm the only one standing up for Black trans people when I get back to the Lone Star State, so be it.  But the invisibility and silence of the Black trans community in Houston ends when I step off that plane tomorrow afternoon. 

The work of us closing ranks to become a stronger part of the greater community has begun, and I'm happy to be playing my part in it. 

I know this Out on the Hill conference isn't going to solve what ails Black LGBT America in one exhilarating week.  The problems we have took years to get to this point and we have a lot of hard solid thinking we need to do and organizing work that needs to be done to lift up our community.  

As for the trans sector, we are in even more dire need of hard solid thinking, organizing, and getting over the shame and guilt issues that plague us as we struggle to utilize our many talents to become a more cohesive part of the greater Black BTLG and African American family.