NAACP LGBT Forum-Yep It's Happening

Remember when I was wondering aloud on the TransGriot pages if the LGBT forum was happening at the NAACP convention that just started in Houston?  

I ran into someone during Netroots Nation 2012 from the Washington NAACP that told me it was being organized, but now I can confirm it is happening.

And yes, there will be a transperson on that panel.

The forum will take place at the George R. Brown Convention center on Wednesday afternoon and be moderated by LGBT task force chairs Alice Huffman and  Julian Bond .

It is entitled 'Civil Rights and Marriage Equality: What's The 411?'  on Wednesday July 11, 2012  from 2:30-4:30 PM CDT.  

The panelists for the forum will be NAACP North Carolina President Rev. William Barber,  NAACP San Francisco President Rev. Amos Brown, NBJC Executive Director Sharon J. Lettman-Hicks,  TPOCC Executive Director Kylar Broadus, licensed therapist Dr. Douglas Butler PhD, and Equality Florida Executive Director Nadine Smith and other distinguished guests.

Should be an interesting two hours.   So will the reception from 5-7 PM CDT at the Hilton Americas Skyline Room after the panel discussion

NBJC's Out On The Hill 2012 Coming Soon!

I attended The National Black Justice Coalition's second annual Out On The Hill conference last year and had as you can probably guess from the posts I got to compile during that week one fantastic week in Washington DC.

In addition to meeting many African-American rainbow community leaders, allies and the wonderful people associated with the National Black Justice Coalition, I had time when it was done to play tourist and see the Dr Martin Luther King Jr Memorial and the National Holocaust Museum before I headed back to Texas. 

It's almost time for the third annual Out On The Hill to take place, and it will be happening September 19-22.   This year's national chair will be ESPN/CNN columnist LZ Granderson, who was one of the long list of people I had the pleasure of meeting at last year's event.

"LZ embodies what is at the heart of OUT on the Hill - informed, intentional and purpose-driven leadership," says NBJC Executive Director Sharon Lettman-Hicks. "As one of the most influential and powerful Black LGBT voices in media, his vision and guidance as National Chair will be invaluable."

Last year, Granderson moderated "From Civil Rights to LGBT Equality: African Americans and the LGBT Community at the Intersection," the first-ever, LGBT-themed Congressional Black Caucus Foundation (CBCF) Issue Forum sponsored by NBJC and the National Education Association (NEA).

OOTH attendees get to participate in an inspiring week of discussion, strategizing and organizing as well as educate congressional leaders, the White House and federal agencies about Black LGBT public policy concerns and meet other African-American TBLG leaders while doing so..

I definitely want to be there for this year's edition of it, and if your schedule allows you to be in Washington DC during that weekend I highly recommend attending OOTH.2012..

Texas Voter Suppression Law Trial Starts Today

Texas' voter ID suppression law will go on trial starting today in front a a three judge panel in Washington DC.  

It pits our Republifool attorney general Greg Abbott making another bogus 'states rights' argument against the Department of Justice and a phalanx of groups seeking to enforce Section V of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Since my birth state has an odious history of suppressing the voting rights of non-white people, they find themselves under Section V of the Voting Rights Act.  

Section V requires any changes in election law or that affect voting procedures to be precleared by the DOJ and it was under that provision of the VRA that the Texas Voter ID suppression law was blocked by the DOJ from implementation in March.  

That prompted Abbott to file a suit attempting to convince a three judge panel to uphold this jacked up law.  The sniping you heard Sen John Cornyn (R-TX) direct at Attorney General Eric Holder and demand he resign during that Senate hearing a few weeks ago was in relation to this Texas voter suppression case.

The three judge panel that will hear this case for this projected five day trial is made up of  GW Bush appointee (2002) Rosemary Collyer, Clinton appointee (1994) David Tatel and Obama appointee (2010) Robert Wilkins. 

Collyer was also one of the judges comprising the three judge panel that threw out the partisan GOP Texas congressional redistricting maps a few months ago after a three week trial 

Abbot will argue the GOP party line that this law is only designed to address 'voter fraud', but we non-white Texans know these ALEC sponsored laws are designed to do noting else but suppress non-white voter turnout. 

"The state's argument has this notion of widespread fraud, when what we know from the evidence is that so far, for 2008 and 2010, there were 13 million votes cast across the state and of those 13 million, there's been one indictment for voter fraud," said Texas state Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, the chairman of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, one of the groups joining the Justice Department.

May this law go down in a painful death later this week.

Williams Sisters Win, Cue Racist And Transphobic Slurs

Didn't take long for the haters to start posting racist negativity aimed at the Williams sisters as they had a very successful fortnight at 'Williams'-don and captured the Ladies singles and doubles titles.

Loved this post by NewBlackMan (In Exile) Entitled 'Ain't I A Champion?'

If you think I'm kidding about the racist negativity, just peruse some of the comments that were directed at her on Twitter this week.

Today a giant gorilla escaped the zoo and won the womens title at Wimbledon... oh that was Serena Williams? My mistake.

      Serena Williams is a gorilla

     Watching tennis and listening to dad talk about how Serena Williams looks like gorilla from the mist

     I don't see how in the hell men find Serena Williams attractive?! She looks like a male gorilla in a dress, just saying!

   
You might as well just bang a gorilla if you're going to bang Serena Williams

     Earlier this week I said that all female tennis players were good looking. I was clearly mistaken:

The Gorilla aka Serena Williams.

      serena williams looks like a gorilla

      Serena Williams is half man, half gorilla! I'm sure of it.

     Serena Williams look like a man with tits, its only when she wears weave she looks female tbh, what a HENCH BOLD GORILLA!

       
Serena Williams is a gorilla in a skirt playing tennis #Wimbledon

      My god Serena Williams is ugly! She’s built like a silver backed gorilla

      I would hate to come across Serena Williams in a dark alley #nightmare #gorilla #notracist

      Serena williams is one of the ugliest human beings i've ever seen #Gorilla

Note to you scientifically illiterate bigots.   Gorillas also look like this.

I don't hear you comparing those Eastern European tennis playing amazons who lose to the Williams sisters on a regular basis on the world tennis tour to this animal, calling them ugly or men. 

I'm just sayin'. 

But I'm more than a little sick of the Williams sisters getting 'unwoman' shade spat at them by you haters who bitterly resent the fact that international tennis since 1999 has been dominated by two Black women who grew up in Compton.

Serena went through the defending Wimbledon champ in Kvitova, the presumptive world number one and 2012 Australian Open champ in Azarenka and Radwanska to get her fifth Venus (Williams) Rosewater Dish, so yeah she earned it.

You haters want so desperately to write them off, ignore their accomplishments and their status as two of the greatest tennis players in the game, but they continue to win Grand Slams.  You resent the fact the Williams sisters have had injuries, battled illnesses stared death in the face and still come back after an almost two year layoff to spank those behinds on the various world tennis courts. 

By the way, in case you weren't aware of this, the 2012 Olympic tennis tournament will be conducted at the All England Club.  Who are the defending tennis doubles gold medallists?   Serena and Venus.  . 

And still they rise.   They look damned good doing it too. 

Happy Birthday Pam!

Wasn't going to let today pass without wishing one of my fave people in the blogging world a happy birthday. No, it's not my Canadian homegirl's birthday yet.   That's later this week

Today is Pam Spaulding's birthday, the creative genius and founder of Pam's House Blend.  I finally got to meet her during Netroots Nation and give her the hug and thank you for being one of the first major blogs to link to my then fledgling blog six years ago and give it a traffic boost. .

She is one sweet lady with a wicked sense of humor, and I enjoyed hanging around and talking to her about a long list of subjects during that conference

But today is all about you.

Happy birthday Pam!  May it be full of blessings and you have many more of them.

2012 Williams Watch-'Williams'-don Championship Saturday

It was a wonderful day for the Williams sisters at the All England Club Saturday and a bad one for you Williams sisters haters.  

It started with Serena collecting her fifth Wimbledon ladies signles title and 14th career Grand Slam at Centre Court after defeating third seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland 6-1, 5-7, 6-2

She also equals Big Sis in adding a fifth Venus (Williams) Rosewater Dish to the family trophy case. 


Nine hours after that hard fought ladies singles championship match concluded Serena teamed up with her big sister Venus to win their first Wimbledon doubles title since 2009 and their first Grand Slam doubles championship since the 2010 French Open  with a straight set 7-5, 6-4 victory over the Czech duo of Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka.

The poptop Centre Court roof was closed for this one.and they also had time pressure to contend with since the match had to be completed before the 11:00 PM London time curfew would suspend play .  .

Next up is being back at the All England Club in two weeks for the start of the Olympic tennis tournament in which they are the defending 2008 gold medallists..

Yollada Getting Drama Already

TransGriot Note: Thanks to my friend Robert Ganshorn in Thailand for sending me the link to the Bangkok Post story.

I posted the story about 30 year old Yollada Suanyot getting elected to the regional provincial organization in her home province of Nan back in May and beating several better funded male candidates to do so.

That May 27 election victory made her the highest ranking trans politician in Thailand and would you be surprised or shocked to discover that drama has already started about her tenure on the council?

Believe it or not, the controversy is over the fact she wore a female uniform to her first meeting

Really?  Um, hello people.  According to the story Yollada had SRS at 16, has presented and lived as a female for half her life and wears feminine clothing on a regular basis despite the male name on her ID that the Thai government won't change to reflect who she is now.       

And this snippet of the caption underneath the picture accompanying the Bangkok Post article was a trip as well.

Critics say it is against the rules for anyone who is not a natural-born woman to wear a female official uniform.

What rules?   And there's that 'natural-born woman' bull feces again.  Where is it written that Yollada, much less any trans woman can't wear a female uniform if they are and present themselves in their everyday lives as female?

I'd be willing to bet a few bahts some of those 'internet critics' are the sore loser male politicians she beat to get on the NAO in the first place..

It's Janet..Producing A Trans Documentary.

Janet Jackson that is (although y'all know how much love, admiration and respect I have for Ms. Mock)

It's old news, but wanted to point out how happy I was to hear that one of my favorite artists is planning to executive produce a documentary on the lives of trans people.around the wold called 'Truth' that is set to begin production later this summer.

Jackson hopes the documentary that will reportedly include stories from North America, Europe, Australia and Latin America will help stop discrimination against the transgender community.

It will be directed by Robert Jason, who directed the Style Network's trans documentary Style Exposed: Born Male, Living Female that featured four trans New Yorkers.


"All people are very important to me. I've been fortunate to make friends and learn about very different lives," Jackson is quoted as saying. "'Truth' is our small chance to ask that you try and understand someone who lives their life in a way that is a little bit different from yours, even though all of our hearts are the same. We want to stop the hate and find understanding."

There's also word that Janet may also conduct some interviews in the soon to be produced documentary as well. 

It's always nice to hear that one of your favorite artists supports your community.  If Janet executive producing it has the effect of getting more curious eyeballs on the finished product to watch it, and the vfinished product is well done and informative on top of that, then that's all good as well.

2012 Willams Watch-Williams Power!

My fave tennis playing siblings continue their so far wildly successful tennis business trip to the All England Club by knocking off the number one doubles seeds Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond 2-6, 6-1, 6-2 in their doubles semifinal match..

Huber and Raymond flipped the script on my girls and took the first set in 33 minutes as Venus and Serena struggled with calibrating their serves.  But once they got it done, Little and Big Sis won seven straight games to take the second set and built a 3-0 lead in the third set before cruising to victory and their ninth Wimbledon Ladies doubles final.

They will play against the sixth seeded Czech duo of Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka  in the Ladies doubles finals and attempt to win their sixth 'Williams'-don doubles crown.

Shut Up Fool Awards-NAACP Convention Weekend Edition

The 103rd Annual NAACP  Convention will be taking place in my hometown starting tomorrow through July 12.

It should be an interesting and in may cases start studded affair as our community's legacy civil rights org meets at the George R. Brown convention Center. with many of our local political leaders from Mayor Annise Parker to Congressmembers Al Green and Sheila Jackson Lee participating

Gospel singer Yolanda Adams, who is also a native Houston will be part of the long line of entertainers performing during the event as well that concludes on July 12.  And since this NAACP convention is occurring during a presidential election year, Mitt version 2012 will be speaking at it, so i can probably count on his saying something jacked up enough to get him a nomination for next week's Shut Up Fool awards.

So let's move on to earned this week's SUF award since it's Friday and I know that what y'all surfed over here to find out or left me nominations for.

In the group category it was the Republican party, Fox Noise, the TS separatists, the rad fems phlegms and the Texas Republican Party for their jacked up platform, The NRA, , the Washington Times, the Drudge Report and the Daily Caller.

The individual nods went to Michelle Malkin, Herman Cain, Mitt Romney, Ann Romney, Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), Rep Eric Cantor (R-VA), Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), Eric Fehrnstrom, Gretchen Carlson, Megyn Kelly,   Sen Mitch McConnell (R-KY). Dr Keith Ablow and Joe 'The Plumber' Wurtzelbacher

Honorable mention goes to Rep Allen West (R-FL) for the off the deep end comment that the POTUS wants to make us his slaves

This week's runaway winner is the Tea Klux Klan's favorite congressional deadbeat dad in Rep Joe Walsh (R-IL).   Rep Walsh unleashed more cowardly hateraid at Lt. Colonel Tammy Duckworth this week in a attack reminiscent of what Sen Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) did to then sitting senator and Vietnam vet Max Cleland (D-GA) .




Walsh's no serving ass had the nerve to part his lips and disparage Lt. Col Duckworth's 20 years of distinguished service to our nation and claim that a woman who lost two legs, the use of one arm as a helicopter pilot in Iraq, has a Purple heart and other military medals, still serves in the Illinois National Guard and served in the Obama Administration as the Deputy Secretary of the Veteran's Administration  isn't a hero. 

Really?  In what conservafool alternate universe?   If Duckworth  had an 'R' behind her name you conservafools would be rubbing her in our faces and she'd be on Fox Noise and conservafool talk radio ad nauseum.

Walsh waited until Duckworth was doing her Illinois National Guard service to challenge her to a debate, and has continued to double and triple down on this reprehensible line of attack.   This chickenhawk who is $162,000 behind of his child support doesn't have the standing to part his lips and utter one word at Lt. Col Duckworth, much less President Obama 

Rep Joe Walsh, shut the HELL up fool!

Manitoba Trans Human Rights Code Expansion Bill Gets Royal Assent

The trans rights positive momentum in Canada continues as Bill 36, the Human Rights Code Amendment Act passed the Manitoba Legislature and received Royal Assent on June 14.

Translation for you peeps south of the 49th parallel:  it's now the law.

Manitoba now has become the second Canadian province to pass trans human rights protections with the passage of Bill 36.  .

In addition to the Manitoba human rights code now being expanded to cover gender identity, the Human Rights Code Amendment Act adds "social disadvantage" to protect individuals who are or are perceived to be undereducated, underemployed, homeless or living in inadequate housing.

It also streamlines procedures for the Manitoba Human Rights  commission to handle its business

Congrats again to the Canadian trans community.  Your home and native land is rapidly becoming one that respects and protects your human rights in at least two provinces and the Northwest Territories and its something that I home my own country will replicate soon.

2012 Williams Watch-Yo Haters, The Williams Sisters Are Still Winning At 'Williams'-don

If you wonder why I call The Championships 'Williams'-don, its because if you peruse the champions list in the singles and doubles ranks you'll see the Williams name prominently displayed multiple times.  It's also the major Grand Slam tourney in which the Williams sisters have had the most success.

Even the ladies singles championship trophy is named the Venus (Williams) Rosewater Dish

It's gonna be a bad weekend for the Williams haters because Serena is another step closer to collecting her fifth Wimbledon Ladies singles title and matching Big Sis.  In her semifinal match she broke the Wimbledon aces record she just set a few days ago in obliterating one time world number one player Victoria Azarenka of Belarus in straight sets 6-3,7-6 (8-6).  

She served a record 24 aces, with the 24th one coming on match point.  It also tied the all time WTA record for aces served in a two set match and ensured she'd reach her seventh 'Williams'-don final.   

Serena is 9-1 against Azarenka and as has been the case in this 2012 Wimbledon tournament Little Sis got off to another fast first set start.   She took 33 minutes to win it before Azarenka pulled up the big girl panties and dug in to fight in the second set. 

But with the serving clinic Serena was putting on at Centre Court yesterday there was no way she was going to be beaten.   

She faces Poland's Agniezska Radwanska for the Ladies singles title Saturday

And for you people who like hatin' on any tennis success the Williams sisters have, here's some more Hater Tots fresh out of the grease for y'all to chew on. 

Serena then teamed up with Big Sis in their Ladies doubles quarterfinal a few hours later to make quick 6-1, 6-1 work of American doubles duo Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears with the match taking less than an hour to complete.   My fave tennis playing siblings will now face fellow Americans and number one doubles seeds Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond in the doubles semis and setting up an opportunity for the Williams sisters to win their 13th Grand Slam doubles title should they beat Huber and Raymond..

2012 FIBA Men's Olympic Qualifying Tourney In Quarters

The 2012 FIBA Men's Olympic Qualifying Tournament being contested in Caracas, Venezuela is in the knockout stage. 

The twelve teams that started the tournament been whittled down to the eight teams still left with a chance to grab the last three spots for the London Games men's basketball tournament..

To the chagrin of the local fans Venezuela wasn't one of them.    They were in the closely contested Group B in which all three teams finished group play with 1-1 records, but Lithuania and Nigeria advanced thanks to +12 and +4 point differentials. 

The same thing happened in Group D with Macedonia and Angola advancing after the tiebreakers were applied.

In today's quarterfinals Group A winner Greece will face Group B runner up Nigeria and Group C winner Russia will take on Group D runner up Angola.   In the other bracket Group B winner Lithuania will face Group A runner up Puerto Rico and Group D winner Macedonia will face Group C runner up Dominican Republic      

Winners move on to the semifinals on July 7, and the winners of those semifinal games get the first two London Olympic tournament spots.  The semifinal losers will play July 8 for the final Olympic spot 

Saying Hello To The Camp Aranu'tiq West Campers

Couldn't let this week pass without pointing out to you TransGriot readers the inaugural session of Camp Aranu'tiq West is occurring as I compose this post.

It started July 1 and will continue through July 7,  and I hope the trans and gender variant kids that are congregated in the camp's double secret California location are having a wonderful time, enjoying meeting each other and having fun.

So what's Camp Aranu'tiq?  It's the  trans summer camp that has been around since 2010 founded by Nick Teich.   Since you have more trans people transitioning at earlier ages, the need arose for those parents who wished to have their transkids take part in a summer camp style program and meet other kids like them arose.  It already has an picturesque New England campus and this year expanded the program to the West Coast.   The Camp Aranu'tiq east session will happen in August.

Hope it continues to grow prosper and we see more camps like it open up in other parts of the country.

Just in case there happens to be any Camp Aranu'tiq campers reading my blog, here's a message especially for you.

Know that your trans elders and our allies love you.  We are doing everything we can to fight for a world in which you have an easier time navigating it.  Have fun while you're there at camp and be proud of the men and women of trans experience you are growing into.

Canadian Trans Student Named Prom Queen

The positive trans news just keeps on coming from north of the 49th parallel, and this time it's centered in Trenton, ON.

We've had on our side of the border two people, Crystal Vera of Fresno, CA in May 2007 and Andi Viveros in Davie, FL last year be elected by their respective student bodies as prom queens.  

There was also the thwarted October 2010 attempt of Andy Moreno of Dallas to become the first ever open trans homecoming queen when the transphobic principal of North Dallas High School refused to allow her to run.

Toby Covarrubias of Fresno attempted weeks before Crystal Vera became prom queen at Roosevelt High to become the first trans prom king at Fresno High School but didn't get enough votes to make history.  

In 2010 while Moreno was battling her principal, Oak Reed in Michigan won the title of homecoming king at his school but was denied by school authorities the opportunity to accept it.  Niko Walker of Culver City, CA became the first trans homecoming king.

Now comes news from the Great White North that Connor Ferguson was named on June 22 prom queen at Trenton High School.

“I was really surprised,” Ferguson said of the win. “It was pretty surreal actually. If I remember correctly my jaw hit the floor and we all started laughing because it was so crazy. I walked up and the crown didn’t fit my hair, so I had to hold it.”

Ferguson admitted high school was relatively easy-going, especially considering the stigma surrounding transgender people and the LGBT community. The school has a tolerant student body and supportive staff, as well as the positive effects of the anti-bullying campaign the school holds annually, Ferguson said.

“I’ve lived as I am for four years now, so I believe the ‘shock value’ is gone and most people just accept me for me,” Ferguson said. “It took some time for quite a few people, but the school and staff definitely helped with that, and my group of friends was endlessly supportive. I think people accept you a lot more when you stick up for yourself and have enough confidence to be yourself.”

I agree Connor, and congrats on being probably the first open trans prom queen in Canadian history.

Ashley Love Has Been Consumed By The Dark Side Of The Trans Force

The fast and furious blowback from Ashley Love's unwarranted attack on Isis King for the groundbreaking American Apparel ads has started.

I've already had my say about it, and now other people in reality based transworld are calling out Love concerning her hypocrisy and her Washington Blade post in which she doubles down on her hypocritical separatist idiocy.

“Our much larger goal is promoting media depictions with messages that affirm, rather than misgender.”

Oh really, Ashley?   Still haven't seen you and your one woman MAGNET org attack the misgendering that goes on in the Black gossip blogospere like I've done, much less call out the misgendering that you not only have engaged in for years, but is a staple of the WWBT separatist ranks you are a tokenized part of aimed at anyone that disagrees with you and your TS separatist friends bull feces.

And yeah, just to leave no room for doubt, you are a TS separatist.  It's past time for truth in advertising when it concerns you and your loud and wrong stances.

Ashley, I tried to warn you last year what would happen if you continued down the dark path of TS separatism and you still embraced the Dark Side of the trans force.  Now you get to live with the consequences of it forever consuming your activist destiny and sapping whatever credibility you could have built up.  

I'm done hoping you would wise up, see how much damage you were doing to yourself and correct your behavior.  There may be still good in you Ashley Skywalker, but I'm done waiting for it to appear.   

Moving on   

Angelica Ross recently interviewed Isis on her radio show and they took a few moments to comment on the faux controversy that was stirred up and Ms Love before moving on to other subjects.  

Cristan Williams has an interesting article from her Ehipassiko blog that documents the reactions to Love's recent one woman crusade to colonize the transgender community.

But the bottom line is that it's painful to watch someone who had so much potential to do a lot of good work for the trans community become a pariah.   The sad part is it didn't have to happen.

2012 Williams Watch-Doubles Double Duty

The 4th of July was an off day for the Ladies Singles semifinalists, but not for the hardest working woman at 'Williams'-don  

In order to get ready for the upcoming Olympics tennis tournament that will also be played at the All England Club in a few short weeks, my favorite tennis playing siblings were entered in the doubles tournament for the first time since they were upset in the Wimbledon doubles quarterfinals while seeking a doubles title threepeat. in 2010.

Since then both have struggles with injuries and health issues that knocked them off their lofty status of being the world's number one ranked doubles team. 

The unseeded sisters started their quest for their 13th doubles Grand Slam title by knocking off the tandem of Vesna Dolonc of Serbia and Olga Savchuk of Ukraine in straight sets 6-0, 6-3.   That got them to their second round matchup with the fourth seeded Russian duo of Maria Kirilenko and Nadia Petrova in which they won in three sets 6-3, 3-6, 9-7.

Their third round matchup was yesterday with Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the USA and Sania Mirza of India and beat them in straights set 6-4, 6-3

They are now in the Ladies doubles quarterfinals, on track for their first 'Williams'-don doubles title since 2009 and will face the tenth seeded American duo of Raquel Kops-Jones and  Abigail Spears.

Winner will face the number one seeded doubles team of Americans Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond in the semis..

Young Conservative Jonathan Krohn Politically Evolves

Remember Jonathan Krohn, the then 14 year old hailed by the conservafool movement as their future? 

Back in 2009 when he spoke at their signature CPAC event the author of two books said, "I believe that a conservative has a belief system based on four basic principles: Respect for the Constitution, respect for life, less government and personal responsibility."

While the conservafool blogosphere and Fox Noise rubbed it in our faces that he was the future of their movement, we liberals shrugged and confidently predicted that when young Krohn was exposed to more enlightened thinking and something other than the 24 hour right wing talk radio in his native Georgia, he would evolve politically 

Well, he's now 17 years old and on his way to New York University to study philosophy and film.   Krohn has politically evolved to where he isn't a conservafool any more to the right wing's chagrin. (snicker, snicker)

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Krohn since his conversion to the children of light has been interviewed by Politico, on MSNBC's The Last Word and Hardball.  He said in the Politico interview last week said he now supports same-sex marriage, supports the Affordable Care Act and would vote for President Obama this year if he were old enough to vote.

"I don't think I had all the answers then. I don't think I have all the answers now," he explained to MSNBC's Lawrence O’Donnell on why he ditched his social conservative ideas. "I just feel that it was really naive of me to think I knew everything then and not open my mind to the possibilities of other things being correct."

No Jonathan, neither, you, I or any liberal progressive has all the answers for the problems that ail us. 

What we liberal progressives do have is the moral high ground because we care about people and their human rights over unfettered corporate power and profits.  We also have proven policies that have worked since the New Deal to lift all boats to prosperity, intelligent creative ideas that build a solid middle class and the desire and determination to advance human rights for all and make this a better country than the way we found it.

Who wouldn't want to be a part of that when all conservatives have to offer is a Massive Resistance 2.0 legislative strategy, propagandized lies, attack the poor and non-white Americans, thinly disguised white supremacist demagoguery and no ideas that benefit society outside of the rich white male 1%?

Oh well conservafools, I and others told you a long time ago you were on the wrong side of history (and especially the knee-grow variety)   .I can see why young people like Krohn once they turn off the Right Wing Noise Machine and critically think for themselves eventually come to the left side of the political force.    


And predictably, the spurned right wingers are now turning like rabid dogs on Krohn.  But that still won't stop his politcal evolution, much less the political evolution of any youngling who critcally thinks. 

Welcome to our liberal progressive ranks, Jonathan, we're glad to have you.

POTUS Swears In New Americans

Imagine if you were a person seeking to become an American citizen, how you would feel if you got the opportunity to not only have your naturalization ceremony on Independence Day, but at the East Room of the White House. 

That's what happened for some lucky new Americans today of which 25 of them were light years ahead of many of us who were born here (Rep Joe Walsh and other GOP chickenhawks) by serving in our country's military.

 


It was also a way for President Obama to whack the Republicans over their knee jerk resistance to the DREAM Act, discuss immigration policy and give out a little history lesson in the process..

Gayjacking and Whitewashing Philadelphia Trans History?

When we talk about erasure and gayjacking of trans history, this is how it happens.  

The Dewey's Lunch Counter Sit-In that occurred in April-May 1965 was the first protest organized around specifically trans issues, and it was done so predominately by Black trans people.  There have been attempts to whitewash this FUBU protest organized around African-American Civil Rights Movement principles as a Clark Polak-Janus Society production.    

Cei Bell wrote this letter to the editor in the Philadelphia Gay News concerning a story that the city is considering naming a section of Locust Street between 12th and 13th Streets for Barbara Gittings, who is considered the mother of the gay and lesbian movement. 

Last week, PGN published an article about Locust Street between 12th and 13th being renamed Barbara Gittings Way [“‘Gittings Way’ in the works,” June 22-28]. Malcolm Lazin, who proposed the renaming, referred to Gittings as the mother of the LGBT movement.

Just because something (or someone) is lesbian and gay doesn’t make it LGBT.

In the ’60s, when Gittings was one of the organizers of the Annual Reminders protest at Independence Hall, the point of the men dressing in suits and the women wearing dresses and carrying pocketbooks was they did not want drag queens, effeminate males and butch dykes — the homosexual stereotypes — at the protest. The reason effeminate males, drag queens and butch dykes were the stereotype is because they were the only people who were out of the closet. Rock Hudson certainly wouldn’t turn from kissing Doris Day and say, “I really want to suck tonsils with Troy Donahue!” That may have been the official moment that the movement began intentionally excluding and harassing gender-variant people out of the movement.

On the other hand, the earlier successful May 1965 sit-in demonstration by drag queens at Dewey’s (a restaurant at 17th and Chancellor streets where Little Pete’s is located) allowed straight-appearing gay men such as Clark Polak from the Janus Society and lesbians to join them. Social class may be the reason why the Independence Hall demonstrations by Gittings and others are promoted as historic while the earlier sit-in demonstration by drag queens at Dewey’s to be served has been ignored.

Bell asserts that in the 60's and 70's, 13th and Locust streets were multicultural hangouts for Philadelphia drag queens and transsexuals and suggests that the more apropos sections of Philadelphia streets for honoring Gittings would be Spruce between 13th and Juniper where the William Way GLBT Center sits, not the ones they are considering.