Early Voting Starts Today In Texas Primaries

No thanks to the redistricting chicanery the Republifools tried to pull in the Lone Star State and got called on by federal judges and the Department of Justice, the electoral primary elections that normally happen in March got pushed back to May 29.

Karma is a witch ain't it GOP?    If you hadn't tried to frack with us non-white people ability to vote or tired to lock in you ill gotten Delaymandered supermajority you would have been able to have a major say in whether Willard would be the presumptive GOP presidential nominee.

But I can needle y'all Texas Republifools about your overreach later.  Back to our regularly scheduled TransGriot post. . 

Since we have early voting in Texas, that gets cranked up today and runs through May 25.   If any of the races require a runoff, the two two candidates will square off off for their party's general election nomination on July 31  

If you live in Harris County (the county that Houston is in for you geographically challenged people) here's the info specific to us via the Harris Vote website. 

You can access the primary candidate ballots for both parties, find out where the 37 countywide early voting polling places are located, and if you missed the cutoff date for getting registered to vote for the primary can still get it done so your behind will be eligible for the November 6 general election.     

The information for the rest of Texas is here.   You can also go to the website specific to your county for local polling place info as well or pick up a voter registration card at your local US post office, fill it out and mail it postage free.

To be eligible to register to vote in the Lone Star State, a person must be:

• A United States citizen;
• A resident of the Texas county in which application for registration is made;
• At least 18 years old on Election Day;
• Not finally convicted of a felony, or, if so convicted must have (1) fully discharged the sentence, including any term of incarceration, parole, or supervision, or completed a period of probation ordered by any court; or (2) been pardoned or otherwise released from the resulting disability to vote; and
• Not determined by a final judgment of a court exercising probate jurisdiction to be (1) totally mentally incapacitated; or (2) partially mentally incapacitated without the right to vote.

As for that odious Voter ID Suppression law the Republifools passed and Governor Goodhair signed,.that got legally pimp slapped thanks to the DOJ and the 1965 Voting Rights Act.   The conservafools that run this state for now are appealing ti, but odds are long that they will reverse it.

The law was clearly shown to have a deleterious discriminatory impact on Latino voters, and it's not too far an extrapolation to deduce that it would have had the same jacked up effects on African-Americans and other targeted groups for suppression such as college students and seniors as well.

And conservafools, spare me the what's wrong with requiring an ID to vote to prevent voter fraud spin line you'll send me in the comment sections.   We've has less than 12 people arrested in over a decade of elections out of millions of votes cast and know what the real deal is in terms of motivating your faux concern for stamping out voter fraud..

We are quite aware you conservapeeps define 'voter fraud' as massive numbers of non-white and liberal voters lining up at the polls to put Democrats in office

We know as part of your scheme to make a certain Democrat residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave a one-termer y'all rushed these unconstitutuional laws to passage in 34 states after the 2010 midterms.

So with the Voter ID Suppression Law being struck down, that means all you'll have to do is present your new yellow voter registration card they should have mailed you already when you show up at the local polling place to cast your ballot.

If you have any drama doing so, notify your local or the Texas state NAACP chapters 

This is the first step for you liberal progressive Texans on the long road we have to making our state more progressive and one we can be proud of.   

So handle your civic duty, thank you for caring enough about who runs this state and your counties to do so and see y'all at the polls.

Tired Of Being Invisible

I'm going to remix Ralph Ellison's words so that they are apropos to conveying to the rest of the world how the chocolate trans community is feeling at this point in our history.

We are invisible because you not only refuse to see and hear me, you refuse to acknowledge our existence.

That's basically the sentiment that comes across when I talk to African-American trans men and trans women in all age demographics around the country about the state of our trans community and our place in the greater scheme of things.

Every time one of our transwomen dies, we get erased from things like congressional hearings, town halls and televised discussions about our issues, have to deal with micro and macroaggressive bigotry and discrimination aimed at us from inside and outside the GLBT community, or being considered the trans 'unwoman', the frustration and anger grows.

Hear me and hear my community.   My trans cousins of the African Diaspora are more than capable of speaking up and speaking out about their thoughts concerning this erasure of African-descended trans people, but don't think I haven't had discussions with African continent trans leaders and trans people over the last few years that echo the frustrations I'm verbalizing in this post.

So when I say community, my thinking reflected in this post is inclusive of my trans cousins across the African Diaspora as well.

I'm also extending my African diaspora trans cousins an open invitation to express themselves on this blog  about what it's like being trans people in the Caribbean and continental Africa and their perceptions of it from their vantage point.   But back to what I needed to get off my chest..

We're tired of being invisible. 

We're tired of taking the brunt of the trans community casualties and nobody giving a damn about it.   We're enraged about seeing one of our trans sisters stand her ground against neo-Nazi attack but be the only one being punished for it.   We're tired of our voices being erased from trans community discourse and our heroes and sheroes ignored.   We're tired of people seeming to conveniently forget that transwomen also exist in the Caribbean and the African continent and they have important voices that need to be seen and heard as well. 

We're tired of being seen as 'tragic transsexuals' but not groundbreaking leaders, role models and iconic figures in this community.  We're tired of being ignored and disrespected by our fellow African-Americans as well straight and gay.

And it needs to cease and desist. 

Happy Mother's Day To Trans Moms

I do know of and I'm aware of the existence of trans women who are doing the tough job of raising kids.

I'm also aware of the fact we have transwomen who are serving in the role of a mother figure for trans youth either by being a house mother or just lending a sympathetic and non judgmental ear when one of our younglings needs to chat and get some things off their chests.  

Thank you for stepping out there and being you.   Thank you for standing and delivering for our youth and you get my utmost love and respect for doing so. 

So yes, Happy Mother's Day to you as well.

Renee Discusses Motherhood And Feminism

Happy Mother's Day TransGriot readers!  Since it's your day, what better way for me to spend it than listening to one of my favorite mommy bloggers who is all that and four bags of ketchup flavor chips?

Renee of Womanist Musings spent a few moments on Friday as a guest on the CBC Radio show The Current discussing the topic of motherhood and feminism.




And as you those of you who read her blog know about her, she's going to tell it like it T-I-S when it comes to motherhood and the different ways she intersects with the topic.  

The Current is hosted by Erica Johnson, and here's my Timmy's IceCapp drinking homegirl for your  TransGriot listening pleasure.

Tamron Hall Brings The Pain

Damn I love Tamron Hall!  

Her weekday MSNBC show at 1 PM CDT is Must See TV for moi and the fact she's a sista Texan and no nonsense journalist adds to her appeal for me.

She just has poor taste in NFL football teams being she's an Arlington Cowchips fan.

But back to the post.  Tamron called out Romney spokesbot Art Carney on a recent show for disrespecting her and accusing her of 'ambushing' him for this interview he agreed to do.

Dude, don't ever piss off a journalist from Texas.   Another note for you, not all Texans are conservafools. 

Thank you Tamron for bring the pain. More media people should follow her example and call out the disrespect when it happens.   The politicians need y'all, not the other way around and it's past time journalists started acting like journalists and not stenographers to power

Our demoracy depends on unflinching journalism asking tough questions of the people running for office so we peeps heading to the polls have solid information to base our decisions on, and that's supposed to be the reason why the Fourth Estate folks get paid the bucks they do.

Watch her bring the pain to a Romney spinmeister who made the mistake of disrespecting her on her show.

Rep John Lewis Calls Out Rep. Paul Broun

The GOP effort to suppress the vote is well underway, and Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) tried to offer an amendment Wednesday night that would strip the funding from the Department of Justice allocated for it to enforce Section V of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

What Broun didn't count on when he tried to pull this stunt was civil rights warrior and American hero Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) being in the room.  Rep Lewis then proceeded to call his azz out about it to the point where Broun's bigoted behind withdrew the amendment. 

Take notes liberal-progressives and Democrats.  This is how you confront a conservafool.



transcript courtesy of Think Progress.

It is hard, and difficult, and almost unbelievable that any Member — but especially a Member from the state of Georgia — would come and offer such amendment. There’s a long history in our country, especially in the 11 states that are old Confederacy — from Virginia to Texas — of discrimination based on race, on color. Maybe some of us need to study a little contemporary history dealing with the question of voting rights.

Just think, before the Voting Rights Act of 1965, it was almost impossible for many people in the state of Georgia, in the state of Alabama, in Virginia, in Texas, to register to vote, to participate in the democratic process. The state of Mississippi, for example, had a black voting age population of more than 450,000, and only about 16,000 were registered to vote. One county in Alabama, the county was more than 80 percent [black], and not a single registered African-American voter. People had to pass a so-called literacy test. . . . one man was asked to count the number of bubbles in a bar of soap. Another man was asked to count the number of jelly beans in a jar.

It’s shameful that you would come here tonight and say to the Department of Justice that you must not use one penny, one cent, one dime, one dollar, to carry out the mandate of Section Five of the Voting Rights Act.

. . . People died for the right to vote. Friends of mine. Colleagues of mine. I speak out against this amendment. It doesn’t have a place.

***

Note to conservafools and Tea Klux Klan, some of those tax dollars you rail about come from the hard work of African-Americans.   We damned sure want the DOJ properly funded to enforce Section V against your white supremacist and ALEC inspired thuggish vote suppression tactics. 

Thanks Rep. Lewis for reminding the nation and the Republifools why the Voting Rights Act is still necessary.

ConGRADulations Class of 2012

In addition to May being my birthday month, it's also the month in which commencement ceremonies are taking place all over the country.   

Not only is my cousin Cyril graduating from Alief Taylor High School this month and moving on to college, but I have some friends graduating from college this year as well.  

Chelsea, one of my Texas Aggie fam who was one of the peeps who spoiled me rotten during my November 2010 visit up there is getting her degree. 

I also discovered that Amirage, one of my Louisville sisters is getting her bachelors in social work from U of L

So to all of my readers who happen to be in the Class of 2012 be it at the middle, high school, collegiate or post-graduate level, conGRADulations 

Best of luck in your future academic or life endeavors and keep me posted.  

NBJC Applauds President Obama’s Endorsement of Marriage Equality

TransGriot Note: The May 9 press release from the National Black Justice Coalition concerning the POTUS' marriage endorsement

Washington, D.C. – May 9, 2012 – Today, President Obama affirmed his support of marriage for loving and committed same-sex couples. The National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC), the nation’s leading Black LGBT civil rights organization, applauds the President for this historic endorsement of the freedom to marry.

“It is an honor to witness our President take such a strong stand in support of gay and lesbian couples across the country,” says Sharon Lettman-Hicks, Executive Director and CEO of the National Black Justice Coalition. “This affirmation reinforces the Administration’s ongoing commitment to LGBT Americans and our families.”

The President has had an exemplary record advancing protections for the LGBT community. However, he explained that his position on marriage equality had been changing and had not explicitly proclaimed his support of extending marriage to gay and lesbian couples until now. Despite the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” ending the legal defense of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), endorsing the Student Non-Discrimination Act (SNDA) and more, President Obama had been under increased pressure for his self-described “evolving” position on marriage equality when Vice President Biden said he was “absolutely comfortable” with marriage for loving and committed same-sex couples.

“As my (s)hero, Barbara Jordan, once said, ‘one thing is clear to me: we, as human beings, must be willing to accept people who are different from ourselves,’” Lettman-Hicks adds. “Here is President Obama, the nation’s first Black president, taking a position that no sitting president in history has had the fortitude to ever take. If anyone in America has ever wondered what courageous leadership looks like, here it is.”

###

The National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC) is a civil rights organization dedicated to empowering Black lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. NBJC’s mission is to eradicate racism and homophobia.

Shut Up Fool Awards-Mother's Day Weekend Edition

Mother's Day is this Sunday, and I must take a moment to not only wish all you moms who read TransGriot a happy one, but all you peeps who act as mother figures in someone's life.

Thanks for all you do to keep your families together

It's Friday, so y'all know what that means. 

It's Shut Up Fool! award time.  It's time to shine a bright spotlight on the fool, fool or group of fools who need to be called out this week.

This weeks nominees are in the group category the Republican Party, the Log Cabin Republicans Sellouts and Fox Noise.

The individual nominees are Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), Rep Eric Cantor (R-VA), Franklin Graham, Billy Graham, Tony Perkins, Rep Paul Ryan (R-WI), Gov Scott Walker (R-WI), Gretchen Carlson, Michelle Malkin, Jamie Dimon (CEO of JP Morgan), Mitt (Da Bully) Romney, Rick Santorum, Hennepin County, MN DA Michael Freeman, and the Rev Dr. Robert Jeffress.      

Honorable mention goes to Bristol Palin, who has the nerve to slam same gender marriage, the POTUS and Malia and Sasha Obama while she can't even stay in a relationship with her baby daddy.

Another honorable mention goes to that knee-grow cookie chomping sellout Jesse Lee Peterson for his steaming pile of fail in which he opines that women should have never been given the right to vote among other things.

Dayum, thought Uncle Ruckus only existed in the Boondocks cartoons 


But this week's winner is a group award to the 61% percent of the North Carolina electorate who allowed themselves to be hoodwinked, bamboozled and motivated by their hatred of LGBT people into stripping the human rights of their fellow Tarheels by voting for the unjust Amendment One. 

I'm surprised they didn't create a hologram of Jesse Helms to use in the pro-Amendment One campaign. 

It also means that since 1998, same gender marriage when put to a vote has a 0-32 record.


What can I say about that BS that hasn't been said already?   Well, here we go..  

This is the last gasp of the Dixiecrats.  Unfortunately this loss is causing pain for people I know in the state, the team of people who fought mightily to keep this jacked up amendment out of the North Carolina constitution and LGBT residents of it like blogger Pam Spaulding and her spouse, and the straight couples who are now just finding out they are getting screwed by it too.

This is only a temporary setback.  The trend lines and polling are favoring same gender marriage.  So is the moral arc of history and the actuarial tables. 

North Carolina Amendment One 61% Voters, shut up fools.

Naw, I Ain't Moving From My Red State And Neither Should You

I get sick of hearing from rainbow community people living along I-5, I-95, inside I-495 (the Capitol Beltway) or an interstate traversing a blue state the tired mantra that we red state rainbow community peeps need to move to the blue ones and abandon the red ones we live in.

That mantra increases in volume in the wake of an anti-gay referendum loss or some odious anti-TBLG law sponsored by the homobigots that overwhelmingly passed.

Didn't see any rush to leave California when Prop 8 passed in 2008 or New York transpeople hitting the interstates after GENDA failed to pass the New York Senate for the fourth consecutive session and may be going on five in a row..

Umm no.  I'm a fourth generation Texan and have been there done that.  As I said in this post last year and I'm reiterating in this one for your reading pleasure about being a TBLG person living in a red state: 

Unless your life is in imminent danger, you fight with every fiber of your being to make it a more progressive place to live.   If you can't flip it totally blue, at least work to make it purple and get the blue part later.   

I noted those comments coming fast and furiously in the wake of the devastating loss that North Carolina activists suffered in fighting their valiant battle against Amendment One.  I felt their pain as I recalled what happened to the Kentucky rainbow community in 2004 when we went through the same drama when I lived there.  For those of us who lived in Louisville our pain was short lived because we had to immediately go back and fight another human rights battle.  

The faith-based homobigots flush with the afterglow of victory tried to go after our Fairness Ordinance mere weeks after the demoralizing defeat we suffered in our anti-gay marriage amendment battle.

You know what they say about a wounded animal being the most dangerous one.  We regrouped and crushed the Forces of Faith Based Intolerance in that civil rights skirmish by getting an 18-6 Louisville Metro council vote to reauthorize the Fairness Ordinance.

It get better North Carolina peeps. The Kentucky TBLG activists regrouped to the point that a statewide Fairness Law has been steadily gaining sponsors and other cities in the state are considering passing local fairness laws similar to the ones in Louisville, Lexington and Covington.

But it's still not cool that you LBGT blue staters, who achieved many of your rainbow legislative goals already in more politically friendly times are smugly sitting on your behinds, are throwing shade at us peeps in red states and saying we need to move to what you consider a blue oasis.

Hey, there are times you peeps in blue areas catch just as much hell as we red staters do   I've had times in which I've had derogatory racist and transphobic comments aimed at me in blue states.  Conversely while living in my red state I've been fortunate to run into people who not only get it in terms of our issues, but are busting their behinds harder than you blue state peeps who are supposed to be our rainbow family to help us achieve TBLG human rights rights progress in our red states.   

Yes we have to fight tooth and nail to get whatever scraps of rainbow human rights progress we do achieve and fight even harder to defend it.  But we do it because the red states are home to us. 

Why?  It's a red state thang, you wouldn't understand.   We love them more than the average conservafool and have just as much right to live there as the smug faith based information challenged idiots who hate on us and are trying to force us out..  Because we rainbow peeps are part of the diverse mosaic of human life we have the incentive and drive to make our red states the types of places we deserve to live in

Because we red staters have the faith-based enemy in our face 24./7/365 and 366 days in a leap year, we don't have time for the internecine semantics wars that always seem to break out at regular intervals on the Net predominately driven by people who live along I-5 and I-95.  We have more important crap to deal with like Tea Klux Klan dominated state legislatures trying to use every trick in the book to erase our human rights.

But the bottom line is our red state rainbow communities are better for it because we have learned by necessity how to spell a word some of y'all haven't yet. intersectionality.   We red state activists have to work together not only inside the TBLG community but also with our non-GLBT counterparts in keeping the conservafools at bay on a wide range of issues that affect the liberal -progressive coalition.

And one of the things you blue staters don't realize is that while our states may appear rabidly red to you and especially the rural areas of them, some of our red states are actually purple and the cities are our turf..  

May I gleefully remind you blue state peeps that the largest city run by an openly gay mayor just happens to be my 2 million person hometown of Houston, the largest city in Texas.

Annise Parker is a perfect example of a red state rainbow kid making a difference.  If they live in a rural area of a red state and don't want to leave, they can move to an urban area in said red state, get an education, find a rainbow hood if they wish and still live in their native red state.

If we are going to eventually expand our issues across the nation, we are going to have to do the education work in red states to make that happen as well and that can't be done from New York or San Francisco.   You are going to need natives of the red states in question talking to their peeps and tailoring the message and tactics for local conditions.

Yeah, this was a tough week for the peeps in North Carolina.  But as a famous Southerner who was a Nobel Peace Prize winner once said, "We must accept finite disappointment, but must never lose infinite hope."  

And yes, from time to time we win those battles against the faith based phobes.  It keeps hope alive and it's sweet when we do. 

We are on the correct side of the moral arc of the universe and will win more battles than we lose.  But in order to turn those red states to purple and then blue, we'll have to have the people who love social justice, rainbow human rights and the state live there to and be tough minded enough do so.

Senate To Hold ENDA Hearings Soon

While we know  that ENDA is not getting through the Tea Klux Klan controlled House this year, at least they can do the groundwork and build the legislative record so that when the opportunity presents itself things will proceed quickly.

Wonderful news coming out of Hollywood for Ugly People (AKA our nation's capitol) is that the Democratically controlled Senate will be holding hearings soon on the Employment and Non-Discrimination Act

According to a Washington Blade story Sen Tom Harkin (D-IA), the chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee will call those hearings on June 12..

“This upcoming HELP Committee hearing will provide an excellent opportunity to build on the Committee’s previous work and help advance our shared goal of equal rights for all Americans. I am hopeful that working together, we will reach a point where lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons enjoy the same rights and protections, and full equality, as all our fellow Americans.” said Sen. Harkin.

Here's hoping that unlike in 2009, they will at least have trans witnesses, and especially some trans witnesses of color giving testimony to this committee.

Mayor Parker's Response To POTUS Declaration

The president's big announcement also had major ripple effects in my beloved hometown since we not only have one of the oldest GLBT political orgs in the South, but Houston has one Annise D. Parker as its current mayor.

Ahem.  May I remind you peeps that reside along I-5, I-95 and inside I-495 that Houston is the largest city to have elected an openly gay mayor and Annise and First Lady Kathy Hubbard happen to be one of the couples the POTUS talked about   

Mayor Parker also has raised the ire of our local faith based bigots for being the now two term mayor of Houston, which may I remind you peeps is the fourth largest city in the nation and the largest in Texas.   

She was also one of the peeps who was criticizing the pace of his same gender marriage evolution and was surprised to receive a call by senior Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett in the wake of the evolution announcement..

Of  course she got asked about her reaction to the POTUS' interview by one of our local TV stations because she's part of the Mayor's Marriage Equality Initiative..
. 

Mixed Emotions About POTUS Marriage Announcement

Well, President Obama finally said yesterday in an interview with ABC's Robin Roberts (not sure if we're related) the words that elements of the rainbow community have wanted him to say since 2008 about same sex marriage.



I had no doubts he felt that way based on statements he'd made back when he was an Illinois state senator in 1996 and his record on rainbow community issues since taking office.

As I've said more than a few times, I support same gender marriage and I'm exceedingly proud that it was an African-American president who announced he supports this issue.  Where I part company is not sharing the feeling prevalent in some quarters of the rainbow community that marriage is THE most important issue in the TBLG community human rights push.

And just to remind you what issue I think is most important for the rainbow community, having and keeping a J-O-B is.   But back to this post.

I'm also looking at the big picture here and wondering if in the feeding frenzy to hound President Obama into stating six months before the election that he supports same gender marriage, did the vanillacentric GL community just repeat the political mistake they made in 2004 by pushing same gender marriage when we had the chance to defeat George W Bush that year.

To me and many African Americans trans, gay, straight and cisgender, it is vitally important that President Obama be standing on the steps of the Capitol on January 20 taking the oath of office for his second term.   It puts him in the same historic territory with other two term presidents, gives him a chance to continue building on his legacy and forever removes the possibility that the conservafools can stamp his presidency as a failure despite their best attempts to do so.

It is also important to the African-American community that he be there along with his family in that nice white mansion on Pennsylvania Avenue my ancestors built with their unpaid labor through January 20, 2017.  

The next president will have the opportunity to possibly select three Supreme Court justices.  

Antonin Scalia and Anthony Kennedy were selected by Ronald Reagan, and Clinton appointee Ruth Bader Ginsburg is hinting at retirement from the SCOTUS. 

We have 50 federal judiciary seats open because the GOP is playing the massive resistance game and hoping y'all fall for the okey doke and elect Willard  to the presidency so he can start filling them with federal judges selected by Robert Bork

So yes, GLBT community, it IS about the federal judiciary.   When you can't get legislation through a logjammed Congress, the court system is the next place to redress those grievances we have. 

As we trans people have discovered when we've gone to federal court lately, the president who appoints the people who sit in these judicial seats in an era of hyper partisanship matters. 

As for the assertion that it will cost the off the charts popular President Obama votes in the African-American community, I will defer to the wisdom of Aisha Moodie-Mills and what she had to say about that. 

“It’s really quite ridiculous to believe that black folks would stay home and not vote for the first black president over gay marriage. It’s just ludicrous! No megachurch pastor, as bigoted as he may be, has the power to persuade a whole congregation of black folks to turn against this president.”

So yeah, I'm not fazed about the 4% cookie chomping segment of sellout GOP knee-grows that were already planning to vote for Mitt version 2012.   The last Republican presidential candidate to get more than 15% of the African-American vote was Junior in 2004, and he had the help of 18 anti-gay marriage referenda on the ballot and a legion of sellout knee-grow megachurch pastors such as TD Jakes, Bishop Eddie Long and Donnie McClurkin acting as surrogates to do that.

But I'd be lying if I wrote in this post I wasn't concerned about how this announcement will affect a presidential election that has six months to go.  The facts are many non-white peeps are nervous about this election.  

We already know there's a certain percentage of this electorate who will not vote for an African-American period.   Combined with the fact that ALEC and their GOP legislative partners have been merrily passing voter ID suppression legislation targeted at reducing the number of Black, Latino, senior and student voters going to the polls on November 6 that were the major reasons he took Virginia, North Carolina, New Mexico and Indiana, and you can understand why I'm spending a lot of time in prayer hoping that the justice loving part of the American electorate shows up on November 6 to overcome the bigots who will be even more frothing at the mouth motivated to defeat the POTUS.   


I will be watching to see if the Internet chatter and other rhetoric I heard from vanillacentric GL peeps hollering for him to 'evolve already' comes to pass.

May I remind y'all that non-white BTLG people never left him along with those of us liberal progressives who remember our Political Science 101 and 102 that see the big political picture beyond the 'all marriage all the time' agenda. 

I had more than a few testy conversations with the 'evolve already' peeps and GetEqual folks who asserted that the POTUS announcing support of same gender marriage will 'energize the base' and increase support amongst 'the gay community'.

Yeah, I noted the news blurb that stated the POTUS raised $1 million within 90 minutes of making that announcement at 2 PM CDT, but how much of it was from the gay community and are the GayTM's that y'all declared closed to him reopened?


Now that the President Obama has said those five words you wanted to hear, time for y'all to stand and deliver.  Time to circle November 6 on your calendar, get registered to vote and take a bunch of friends to the polls with you because the Tea Klux Klan and friends are damned sure organizing to do the same. 
  .
Now where's my Maalox?
   

Argentine Senate Passes Gender Identity Law

The United States rainbow community wasn't the only one getting some wonderful news today.

My trans cousins in Argentina according to Blabbeando and Rod 2.0 tweets witnessed their national legislature passing a bill affirming their human rights.  

Been talking on these electronic pages about their Gender Identity Law that has been winding its way through the Argentine legislature.

It would make it easier for transgender peeps in that country to change their national identity documents to reflect who they are now in addition to groundbreaking benefits that ensures access to trans specific medical care in their national health plan..

It passed the Argentine Chamber of Deputies by a lopsided 167-17 margin and has been percolating in the Argentine Senate pending today's vote

It passed the Argentine Senate today on a 55-0 vote with one abstention and is now headed to President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner's desk for her signature.

Nice to see at least one country doing some groundbreaking things for its trans population and hope other nations emulate this.

NBJC Statement On Passage Of North Carolina's Amendment One.

TransGriot Note: Press Release from the National Black Justice Coalition concerning the regrettable passage of the unjust Amendment One

Yesterday, North Carolinians voted to pass Amendment One, which will change the state’s constitution to recognize only marriage between one man and one woman; ban civil unions; and eliminate health care, prescription drug coverage and other benefits for public employees and children receiving domestic partner benefits.

The National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC), the nation’s leading Black LGBT civil rights organization, responds to North Carolina’s disappointing passage of Amendment One and how Black faith leaders rallied to condemn the amendment as well as educate voters.


Recent polls found that 60 percent of North Carolina voters were unaware of the full implications of the referendum. In fact, Public Policy Polling found that “if all voters were informed of [the amendment’s] consequences, the amendment would fail by a 38-46 margin…”

“It is a grave disappointment that North Carolinians voted to deny couples and children equal protections under the law,” says Sharon Lettman-Hicks, NBJC Executive Director and CEO. “Although this represents an unfortunate setback to progress and has devastating consequences to many families, we are encouraged by the number of Black clergy that spoke out against the amendment.”

Support for Amendment One had continued to slip, especially among African Americans. Public Policy Polling data revealed support for the amendment from Black voters dropped from 61/30 to 51/39. That was the lowest level of support PPP has found in monthly polling of the amendment since last October.

Rev. William Barber, president of the North Carolina NAACP, spoke out in opposition of any proposal that would alter the federal or state constitution to exclude any groups from equal protection under the law. Rev. Barber joined several Black pastors that spoke out publicly about their stance against the amendment.

###

The National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC) is a civil rights organization dedicated to empowering Black lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. NBJC’s mission is to eradicate racism and homophobia.

You Want to Blame Somebody For The NC Loss...

Don't blame the POTUS for it, as I have heard in some politically ignorant and obtuse quarters of the vanillacentric GL community today.   

North Carolina state Senator James Forrester (R) is the one who sponsored this unjust amendment..   But you won't be able to do much screaming at him because he's dead. 

But here's the list of people you can blame.

You can start with all the liberal progressives in North Carolina who sat out the November 2010 midterm election to 'punish the Democrats' and ended up giving the Tea Klux Klan and the Republicans control of the legislature for the first time in 140 years. 

Democratic control of the North Carolina legislature was what kept similar Amendment One style constitution bans from seeing the light of day to begin with because they were routinely killed in committee.   One they lost control, the Dems had no way to stop them and the GOP introduced, passed it and put it on the ballot.  

You can blame the faith based conservafools, Billy Graham, their knee-grow spokessellout Patrick Wooden and other like minded pastors who relentlessly pimped Amendment One and worked like mad spreading disinformation and lies in violation of several commandments in order to get it passed.


You can blame all the registered liberal progressive voters in the state who for whatever reason, didn't bother to show up at the polls.   By not exercising your right to vote, congratulations, you helped pass this unjust amendment and through your inaction are now complicit in the oppression of other people.

You can blame the 61% of North Carolina's voters who for whatever reason, voted for the unjust amendment despite the best efforts of the large coalition that tried to 'ejumacate'  people about what would happen if that happened.  It is now regrettably part of North Carolina's constitution until either North Carolina's or the United States Supreme Court overturn it.

Rest In Peace, Brandy

For those of you in the Bay Area, Brandy Martell's funeral will take place today.starting at 11 AM PDT in Oakland. 

It will take place at the C.P. Bannon Mortuary and once again the address for those of you in the Bay Area wishing to pay your respects to Brandy, it is located at 6800 International Blvd,. Oakland, CA. 94621.

As of yet, haven't heard any news as to whether the waste of DNA who shot and killed her has been apprehended yet, but hope that happens soon and he is brought to justice.

Please consider packing the room for Brandy if you can make it..  She was one of four transwomen that lost their lives last month and helped organize the local Transgender Day of remembrance services in the Oakland area.   She deserves as big a homegoing crowd as y'all can muster.

Those of us who aren't in the Bay Area may consider doing a silent prayer in remembrance of Brandy starting at 2 PM EDT, the exact moment her service starts on the West Coast.

Rest in peace, sis.   You were taken from us way too soon.  You life mattered to us, you fellow African descended travelers on th path of trans femininity and we will lift you up even if no one else does.

We'll resolve to make certain that no one forgets your name either.
 
 

Message To The Men Who Want To Love Us

It takes balls pardon the pun to be a transwoman. We go through a lot of crap just to be the women we are and any cisgender man who steps to us romantically needs to recognize that fact first and foremost.

No insecure men or playa-playas need apply when it comes to the job of being our mates because you are going to get a lot of bull feces from society for dating a transwoman, be she pre, post or non-op.

You are going to need to be more man than you usually are in a relationship with a transwoman. She has to fight so many battles just to exist in this world and have her femininity respected and will need a little extra TLC to get past that.

Despite the shade thrown at us from our detractors we are not 'men' despite the time we spent on the other side of the gender fence. She doesn't need additional drama in her romantic life from the man that claims to love her.   She doesn't need to come home to a man who lies to her, cheats on her, or in the middle of an argument slips up and calls her a 'man' or some other misgendering epithet in the middle of said argument.

She also doesn't need you threatening to leave her for a 'real woman' because 'you can't have my child.'

Just like you expect us to accept you 'menz' being works in progress, so are we.  Transwomen are just like any other women on the planet in terms of our ongoing evolution and maturation into becoming the best persons we can be. 

So the first way to frack up with us is treat us like one of your homeboys.   Transwomen like flowers, candy, and being wined and dined just like any other estrogen based lifeform on the planet.  If you aren't fully committed to dealing with the fact that you are going to have to step up your romantic game to make a transwoman feel safe, secure, desired and wanted in this relationship so she feels comfortable enough to reciprocate, or you have a fetishistic attraction to transwomen, then don't step to her.

Bottom line, love us and step to us like you would a cis woman.   If you do that, you'll find you'll get major cool points from said transwomen for doing so.  

Let My Transpeople...

Let my transpeople pee in peace without being messed with by ignorant cis people.

Let my transpeople access trans specific and non trans specific health care without the Janice Raymond restrictions being used by insurance companies and transphobic doctors to deny them coverage.

Let my transpeople be able to work and keep a job they are qualified for.

Let my transpeople be able to have identity documents that accurately reflect the person they are now.

Let my transpeople be able to change those identity documents to reflect the persons they are now without  having to go through major drama to do so.

Let my transpeople have their human rights respected, protected, and codified into law.

Let my transpeople have first class citizenship in whatever country they reside in on this planet.

Let my transpeople be able to participate fully in setting the policy agenda of the rainbow community without being disrespected or ignored by gay and lesbian people

Let my transpeople be able to participate fully in setting the policy agendas of the other communities they interact with without being disrespected or ignored

Let my transpeople be able to live their lives without faith-based ignorance or interference from misguided lawmakers. 

Let my transpeople be able to date and marry the person they love.

Let my transpeople see themselves being accurately represented in media.

Let my transpeople see people who look like them discussing trans issues in the media, on college campuses, and other policy forums

Let my transpeople see their heroes and sheroes contributions to society included in the historical narratives and not excluded from them.

Let my transpeople be able to walk the streets without being murdered because of somebody else's fear, loathing and hatred of them.

Let my transpeople overcome their shame and guilt about being who they are realize they must own their power in order to make everything on this list become a reality.

0-32?

The polls open later today in the Tarheel State on the Amendment 1 ballot question to enshrine a same gender marriage ban (which by the way is already banned in the state) into North Carolina's constitution.

"Marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized."  states the Amendment 1 language.

But it also goes one odious step further in addition to inserting the ban on same-sex marriage in the North Carolina Constitution.  

If Amendment 1 passes it would also frack with civil unions or any other form of "domestic legal union" for both gay and straight couples by banning those as well. .

North Carolina was the last of the old Confederate states that didn't have a constitutional gay marriage ban to the disgust of the faith-based homobigots because it kept getting killed in committee when the Democrats controlled the state legislature. But when the Tea Klux Klan got control of the North Carolina legislature in the wake of the 2010 midterm elections, it opened the door for this to happen.

Elections matter, people.    Same gender marriage when it comes to a vote has lost 31 times, and unfortunately the polling coming out of North Carolina on the eve of this election isn't looking good for the rainbow team.   But there's always hope and the chance for an upset.  

To tell you how much this issue matters, I leave you with the wise words of the Rev Dr. William J. Barber II, the North Carolina NAACP president.    Dr. Barber breaks it down with a historical, moral and well-reasoned argument against these anti-gay marriage amendments. 

Please heed those words and defeat this unjust amendment, because no one's civil rights should be put up for a vote by a misguided and hate filled majority.

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