Vice President Joe Biden's NAACP Speech

What a difference 24 hours makes and a huge contrast to Mitt v. 2012.  Check out what Vice President Joe Biden had to say to the enthusiastic huddled masses at the 103rd NAACP convention in Houston.



Note to Mitt and the Republifools:  This is how you respectfully talk to African-American voters, not in that fracked up condescending way you did.

Mitt Gets Booed At NAACP Convention

I'm the TransGriot and I approve of the NAACP booing his Gordon Gekko wannabe behind for that jacked up disrespectful speech..




Reactions from the people Mitt didn't convince.




From what I gathered talking to people during the LGBT reception who saw the speech, they were just as offended as I was that Romney came to Houston and our NAACP house not to respectfully talk to us but condescendingly AT us.





Yeah Willard, it's on.

Headed To Washington DC Again!

Moni's headed to Washington DC as you read this post to handle some weekend business can't really talk about until it's over.

Leaving out of Hobby (sorry IAH airline family) and traveling through the ATL to get to Washington National (I refuse to call that airport Reagan International).  Every time I connect through Atlanta I think about this old airline joke and chuckle when I arrive there.

If you're going to heaven or hell, you'll have to change planes in Atlanta.  

And yes, I wrote a few posts for you TransGriot readers to persuse and enjoy while I'm flying the friendly skies.  I'm also planning on making a beeline for Five Guys when I get to DCA. .     

But I'm going to enjoy getting out of Houston for a moment even though it's been cooler this week than it usually is in July thanks to the rain and cloudy conditions we've had for the last few days.   I submit the NAACP delegates are happy they're here in H-town while we're getting a break from our usual blast furnace heat and humidity.

I get to chill for a minute when I get to DC Thursday night before I enter the Cone of Silence Friday through Sunday about the reason for my trip.

At any rate, those of you I get to see inside I-495, looking forward to hanging out with you and I'll see you when I get there.

In The Shadow Of Giants-The NAACP LGBT Reception

Since I have a trip to DC coming up in a few hours I was a little bummed due to last minute scrambling I missed the LGBT panel discussion.

But I was comfortable knowing that TPOCC's Kylar Broadus was holding it down for the community and that panel has so much firepower on it I wasn't really needed for this one.  

But I was definitely going to be there at the Hilton Americas Hotel for the LGBT reception that started at 5 PM CDT.

I barely had walked into the cavernous main lobby of the Hilton Americas when I was recognized by two people who had been in the room for the panel discussion at Netroots Nation. I stopped and talked to them for a few moments and headed to the elevators that would take me to the Skyline Room on the hotel's 24th floor.

While I was waiting another woman rushed up to me, introduced herself and told me that she was a huge fan of TransGriot and had been following my blog and tweets for three years.  I thanked her for her loyalty before I stepped into the elevator.  

Once I arrived in the beautiful Skyline Room on the 24th floor of the hotel for the reception a few minutes after 5 PM I was greeted by Dee Dee Watters, one of my local transsisters and a few moments later by Daniel Williams from Equality TX.

Dee Dee, another NAACP delegate and I launched into a lively discussion about the Affordable Care Act, the Canadian universal healthcare system, the Medicare For All bill and the sorry state of the US healthcare system vis a vis other industrialized nations.

As people continued to arrive I spotted one of my activist mentors Mandy Carter sitting at the table next to me and struck up a conversation with her after welcoming her to my hometown.  We were soon joined by Nadine Smith, (one of the panelists) Kylar (who I've been playing phone tag with for the last three months), Daniel and his boss from Equality Texas.   The Texans at the table started talking about our Lone Star conservafool idiots after Mandy discussed what happened in the recent North Carolina marriage battle and we got our grub and drink on. 

We also discussed at the table after Kylar joined us the hot topic in the room, Mitt getting booed multiple times by the assembled and unrepentant NAACP masses.  (FYI, the TransGriot approves of the message to Mitt v. 2012)

As more people continued to arrive it had for me a 'the activist gangs all here' feel in terms of many of the people I last saw or met at the NBJC Out On the Hill conference being here for this event. Stacey Long from the Task Force was in the house along with Leslie Herod from the Gill Foundation, Leslye Huff as an NAACP delegate, Sharon Lettman-Hicks from NBJC, Donna Payne and other local Houston people, activists, convention delegates, and reps from various TBLG organizations.

Leslye is also on the planning committee for the 2014 Gay Games that are coming to Cleveland and we discussed how the preparation for that event were going for a few moments along with her impressions of my hometown and Mitt's speech 

I also got a chance to chat with Eric Wingerter, the NAACP's VP for Communications and New Media who I met at Netroots Nation 2012.  He told me he'd been one busy man since the convention started and had a few late nights and early riser days in keeping the new media side of the NAACP convention working seamlessly. 

A little after 6 PM Chairman Julian Bond stepped up to the mic along with Alice Hoffman to make some remarks to the now over 100 people in the room.  He talked about the recently concluded LGBT panel discussion, the road to making this event happen, and the recent affirmative NAACP marriage equality vote.

Alice Huffman during her remarks recounted what happened to her in California when she became one of the early NAACP leaders to support the marriage issue.   She talked about being spit on by a fellow African American who then went on the radio and exhorted people to resign their NAACP memberships.

She was proud of taking that stand, and was pleased to see what it has led to.  I took a moment to personally thank her later that evening and did the same with Chairman Bond, one of our civil rights icons that was in the room.

Chairman Bond also proclaimed this was a historic day of another sort in terms of cementing a permanent marriage between the NAACP and the Black LGBT community because of our interlocking interests, and he highlighted the ongoing fight against the odious voter suppression laws as one of the issue we have in common  

When Sharon Lettman-Hicks was asked to take the mic, she echoed the sentiments expressed by Ms. Huffman and Chairman Bond in terms of the long needed marriage between the African-American straight and African-American SGL/trans communities and eloquently added some comments of her own in terms of pointing out that the Black LGBT community needs the NAACP in our corner just as much as the NAACP needed us.  

Lettman-Hicks asked the LGBT people in the room to raise our hands and challenged us to become NAACP members if we weren't already active in our local NAACP chapters.  She also challenged people to become NAACP life members as well. 

Stacey Long in her remarks pointed out that we still have some human rights fights yet to come before  yielding the mic to a rep from the Gill Foundation.  Donna Payne, who Chairman Bond acknowledged was instrumental in helping set up this year's panel discussion and reception also spoke for a few moments before we returned to chatting with the people in that room with a wonderful view of downtown Houston,   Discovery Green, Minute maid Park and the George R Brown Convention Center.

With the remarks over and the clock creeping closer to the 7 PM end time for the event and knowing I had to go home, pack and write down my impressions of this event for you TransGriot readers, it was time for me to leave and head back to my undisclosed location on the south side of Houston.

But I still wish I could have witnessed the LGBT panel discussion.   That would have really made this an even better day than it already was.

NAACP LGBT Panel Discussion Today

For the second consecutive year the NAACP will be holding a LGBT panel discussion, and this time there will be a transperson sitting at the table in the person of TPOCC Executive Director Kylar Broadus.

The 2:30-4:30 PM CDT. panel discussion is entitled 'Civil Rights and Marriage Equality: What's The 411?'  It will be moderated by Julian Bond and Alice Huffman.

You may wish to check to NAACP website to see if it's being telecast.

I'll definitely be at the reception that will take place at the Hilton Americas Hotel once it concludes, and on that note, need to get off the computer and head downtown to the George R. Brown Convention Center..  

Renee's Birthday Trivia

To help my Canadian homegirl celebrate her birthday properly,  I thought I would oblige her by helpfully pointing out some of the events and things that happened the day she was born.

This was the number one R&B and Hot 100 song on the US Billboard charts on your birthday.  It's George McRae's 'Rock Your Baby'



Richard Nixon was a few weeks from getting impeached and resigning the presidency .

Pierre Trudeau was running thangs as Canada's Prime Minister.

And a certain dyn-o-mite TV show with Ann Coulter's boyfriend debuted a few months before you were born.



Some of the people you share your birthday with are Lil Kim, actresses Kellita Smith, Lisa Rinna and Sela Ward, Nadya  Suleman, actor Yul Brynner, Giorgio Armani. boxer Leon Spinks, singers Bonnie Pointer and Suzanne Vega  and tennis player Caroline Wozniacki

Attorney General Holder's NAACP Speech

US Attorney General Eric Holder came to Houston to speak at the 103rd NAACP convention and had a message for the conservafools trying desperately to suppress the vote in advance of the 2012 presidential election.

He isn't backing off from trying to repeal  your Voter ID suppression laws.    He contends (and I concur with his assessment) that they are poll taxes specifically banned under the 24th Amendment. .

For you conservailliterate sheeple, here's the text of the 24th Amendment since y'all only read the 2nd and 10th and ignore the 25 other amendments that make up our Constitution. .

Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax. Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

It's Renee's Birthday!

Another July 11 has arrived and that means my Timmy's Ice Capp drinking Coach purse loving homegirl has made it through another 365 days (366 in a leap year) to celebrate the day she arrived on this planet north of the 49th parallel. 

It's Renee of Womanist Musings birthday, and I definitely will not let this auspicious occasion pass without reminding her (especially after that post she wrote on my recently passed milestone birthday) she is another year closer to a milestone birthday of her own (snicker, snicker).

But she also knows I have much love, admiration and respect for her, too.  I hope those testosterone based lifeforms in her house are treating her like the queen she is and taking Renee out for her favorite dinner.  

I also hope the unhusband, Mayhem and Destruction are giving her the peace and quiet and many gifts she deserves on her special day as well.

She has been a wonderful friend to me as well, has given me some sage advice as I continue my evolutionary feminine journey and when I needed them, some long distance motivational kicks in the behind.   

Renee is admired and loved by many of her fellow bloggers in the Afrosphere as well.  I look forward to the day I finally get the opportunity to visit her part of the world and give her the hug she so richly deserves.

It's your birthday sis.  Enjoy it, and may you have many more.  . 

Birth of The New Black Transwoman

One of the things I'm determined to make happen is doing my part to help eradicate the negative perceptions and stereotypes aimed of African descended transwomen. 

I'm more than sick of the 'unwoman' shade and negativity aimed at Black transwomen.  I'm tired of the hypersexualization, the othering and the outright lies written and uttered about who we are. 

I want our next generation of African descended trans kids to dream big and not have their lives cut short by anti-trans violence or be crippled by shame, guilt and fear of being a trans person.

So what am I going to do about it?    For starters, I'm going to use this electronic platform and get y'all to do some hard, solid thinking with me as we ponder the birth and rise of a New Black Transwoman. 

If it sounds like I'm borrowing a term from the Harlem Renaissance, congratulations intelligent reader, I most certainly am . I'm borrowing it from Alain Locke and putting a trans spin to it. 

Locke and other Harlem Renaissance writers during the 1920's talked about the New Negro being one who was a more outspoken advocate of dignity for our people and one who refused to quietly submit to the practices of Jim Crow segregation and the Jim Crow laws of the era.   They also began to think about and tackle the Unholy Trinity of shame, guilt and fear that plagued Black people at the time and began thinking critically about our images as African descended people. 
 
At this point in the second decade of the 21st century in which we are seeing trans human rights progress in various parts of the world combined with more discussions anout trans issues, it's time for a New Black Transwoman to arise. 

The New Black Transwoman is an outspoken advocate for the dignity of herself and all transwomen, and refuses to submit quietly to anti-trans oppression and injustice.  

She is grounded in her spirituality, constantly evolving on her feminine journey and strives to be a compliment to Black womanhood and not regarded a joke or detriment to it.  

She fearlessly tackles the shame, guilt and fear issues we face and expresses pride in being a Black transwoman. 

My beautiful Black transsisters, if you're frustrated and fed up with the falsehoods aimed at us (and still continue to be aimed in our direction) time for us to make some changes that will help bring into fruition the  New Black Transwoman in you that is dying to get out.

We can begin the process by remembering this and repeating it like a mantra as we go about our lives:

What I do reflects on you.  What YOU do reflects on me.  What WE do reflects on the ENTIRE Black trans community.  

Translation: You are your transsister's keeper.


We need to raise our standards, period.  If we say we are Black women, we need to step up to our A plus games in terms of how we present ourselves to the world.  We need to emulate the historic role that Black women have had and continue to have in uplifting themselves and our community.

As the late Dr. Dorothy Height once said,  "I believe we hold in our hands the power once again to shape not only our own but the nation's future -- a future that is based on developing an agenda that radically challenges limitations in our economic development, educational achievement and political empowerment. Undoubtedly, African-Americans will have an integral role to play, although our path ahead will continue to be complex and difficult."


In order for African American transwomen to play our role in shaping our own and our nation's futures, we have to get busy raising our standards and becoming as Sharon Davis exhorted us to be, finer specimens of womanhood. .
 

Raising our standards means getting as much education and knowledge as we can.  It means us being cognizant of our feminine presentations since we know we're being scrutinized and judged in terms of how we interact with the world.  It means dropping the 'drag queen English' when we're out and about in the world and adopting as a trans human rights strategy speaking impeccable English.  

It means no more silently taking crap from those who work tirelessly to slime us and retard our human rights progress because we have the mistaken belief grounded in shame and guilt that it's unfeminine to do so. It means confronting the transphobic lies, being proud of who we are, knowing our history and putting ourselves in the best possible position to advance our trans human rights struggle.

 It means loving and respecting ourselves and demanding nothing less from others.   .

And by raising our standards individually, Black transwomen benefit collectively.  So do the communities we intersect and interact with. 

Hopefully this decade and the succeeding ones will witness the birth, growth and development of the New Black Transwoman.  It's past time that happened and for the sake of our own and the African-American community, it must.  .

I'd Like To See More Positive Films That Feature Trans Women Period

When I was checking out my Twitter feed Saturday night, noted a comment Isis made about how she wished she could see more romantic films that featured transwomen in them.

I presume she was talking about that new romantic film in Bangladesh with a trans character that has become a runaway hit there.  I concur with my little sis' thoughts on that subject 

But how about we get Hollywood to start casting transwomen in trans roles as a starting point, then go from there to non stereotypical trans characters to ones in romantic roles?

I know that Isis, Laverne, Alexandra, Calpernia, Candis, Jamie, Harmony and other trans actresses would love to play those types of romantic interest roles as soon as possible and I'd love to see that happen for them as well.   Since we trans women of color haven't gotten much positive Hollywood picture love, definitely would like to see myself accurately depicted on a silver screen before the end of the decade.    


I said this back in March 2009 and it's even more prescient in the wake of Isis' comment.  

What's going to have to happen is that transwomen are going to have to write, produce and direct their own stories, and one of those indie films is going to have to make enough money and garner enough awards to get the peeps in Hollywood's attention.


I think that's still the case three years later.  

With trans human rights and issues getting more coverage and attention around the world, this is our moment to press Hollywood to consider doing these types of productions because we need to see trans people positively reflected in popular culture.

And the sooner it happens, the better. 

The more positive portrayals in popular culture we get, the faster on trans rights struggle will gain traction and be ensconced in the general public minds that we are just like everyone else in society  because frankly, we are.

Transpeople have hopes, dreams, aspirations, complex personalities, interesting stories to tell and are looking for people to love us.   We also want our lives accurately depicted on the silver and small screens, too.

So yes, I'd like to see more positive films produced in Hollywood that feature trans people not only as major characters, but take the additional step of having trans actors in them.   Wile I'm not mad and I'm flattered that beautiful and talented cis women actresses such as Rebecca Romijn, Sheryl Lee Ralph and Kerry Washington have portrayed transwomen in the past, it's time to give some work to trans actresses as well who intimately know what is like to be #girlslikeus.

And if we have to write those scripts or produce those films our damned selves in order to accurately tell our stories, then that's all good too.

How To Be A Trans Community Ally

I love this poster courtesy of the Houston based Transgender Foundation of America entitled 'How To Be An Ally To The Trans Community'

Certainly Do

*Get to know me

You'll find that I and other trans people lead very interesting lives at times.  I'm always on the lookout for quality people to hang around with and if you do, you'll discover I'm serious like many of my trans sisters are about being complements to womanhood and not detriments to it.   Same is true of transmen wishing to be seen as finer specimens of masculinity.  But what we do want you to take away from any interaction with us is that we're not much different from any other human being on the planet and we're part of the diverse mosaic of human life.    

*Educate yourself

There's plenty of material, blogs and books that discuss trans issues.  But the best way to educate yourself is simply ask a transperson. 

*Use preferred pronouns

I and my fellow transpeople didn't spend all that time, money and sweat equity in becoming the phenomenal persons we are to be disrespected by being called the wrong pronoun.   If you love, respect and care about us, then use our preferred pronouns, ask us what they are or how we wish to be addressed.   If a transperson is presenting as female, address them as such.  If a transperson is presenting as male, address them as male.

*Learn my 'real' name

We spend a lot of time and thought into choosing a name that accurately reflects who we are and treasure getting documents changed to reflect that name we chose.  Show respect for a transperson by consistently using that name.

 Please Don't

*Out me as trans without my permission

Because by doing so, you could set that transperson you outed up for harassment.   If you outed that transperson in an area with no trans human rights protections in front of a vindictive transphobe, you could also cause unintended negative ripple effects in their lives up to and including job loss and setting them up for a hate crime   

*Ask me what my old name was before transition

Some of us don't care, some of us will straight up tell you it's none of your business while others are attempting to make clean breaks with that pre-transition past.  Asking what the old name was can be for that trans person a painful subject.    Besides, we want you to focus on getting you to say our new names on a consistent basis.  

*Make assumptions about my sexual orientation

You know what they say about when you assume.    Sexual orientation and gender identity are two separate issues.  Not all trans people are heterosexual and some of us identify with the G, L and B parts of the community in addition to being T.  The converse is also true.  

*Ask me about my genitalia

I don't ask you about the genitalia configurations in your panties or briefs, so don't ask me about mine.   Focus more on what's between my ears and not what's between my legs.

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.