NBJC Calls on the Department of Justice to Investigate Marco McMillian Murder

WASHINGTON, D.C. – March 5, 2013 – The National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC), the nation’s leading Black lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization, is urging the U.S. Department of Justice’s Community Relations Service (CRS) and Civil Rights Division to launch an investigation into the murder of Marco McMillian, an openly gay Black mayoral candidate in Mississippi, as a potential racially-motivated and/or anti-gay hate crime.

In a letter to the U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr., NBJC Executive Director and CEO Sharon Lettman-Hicks writes
:

After speaking extensively with the family, community and anti-violence coalition members like the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP), NBJC feels the perpetuation and validation of the “gay panic” defense is irresponsible. The conflicting reports as well as the current racial and anti-LGBT climate in Mississippi is justification enough for a federal investigation.

NBJC is standing firmly with Marco McMillian’s family so that their concerns do not fall on deaf ears. The details of this case just aren’t adding up. Whether on the basis of race or sexual orientation, hate is hate. If there is the possibility that McMillian was murdered because of who he is, that warrants the Department of Justice’s involvement.”

To learn more details about the case, call to action and astounding Mississippi hate crimes statistics, read the attached letter submitted to the Department of Justice.

###

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 end racism and homophobia.

Former 2006 Miss International Queen Erica Andrews Dies

I was shocked to hear that longtime Texas resident and pageant community icon Erica Andrews died yesterday in Chicago of a lung infection. 

Erica was born in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, moved to San Antonio and became one of the most decorated queens on the pageant circuit.
Andrews performed at clubs in San Antonio, Dallas and Houston and her jaw dropping beauty and creative routines led to a long list of titles that include Miss Gay Texas USofA 1997, Miss Gay USofA 1999, Miss Texas Continental 2001, Miss Florida Continental 2004, Universal Show Queen 2004, Miss Continental 2004, Miss International Queen 2006 and Entertainer of the Year 2006.

She also appeared on the Tyra Banks Show, the Maury Povich Show, in the documentary Transtasia and the controversial movie Ticked Off Tr*****s With Knives.   She also worked as a makeup artist for the Maury Povich Show.

She had less than a year ago moved from the Lone Star State to the Terre Haute, IN area to be with her significant other, and was a beloved and respected person in Texas and around the TBLG community.   .



As the news has spread, commentary from her peers and all who loved her has come pouring in on her Facebook page for this community icon who will be sorely missed. 

Rest in peace, Erica..  

The Problem With Numéro's African Queen

Past time to share another one of Renee's Womanist Musings articles with you 
 
Yes we have yet another magazine tying to justify its inclusion of Blackface.

 

The above image is of the ever so White, blond-haired, blue-eyed model Ondria Hardin. The image appeared in Numéro magazine n°141 of March 2013 and was photographed by Sebastian Kim.  I don't know how any editor could possibly look at the image and declare it fit to print, given the continual outrage which occurs each time any magazine has chosen to engage in Blackface.  This isn't a case of artistic license but the absolute perpetuation of White supremacy.  

Numéro has since issued the following apology:

Some people have declared that they have been offended by the publication in Numéro magazine n°141 of March 2013, of an editorial realized by the photographer Sebastian Kim called “African Queen”, featuring the American model Ondria Hardin posing as an “African queen”, her skin painted in black.

The artistic statement of the photographer Sebastian Kim, author of this editorial, is in line with his previous photographic creations, which insist on the melting pot and the mix of cultures, the exact opposite of any skin color based discrimination. Numéro has always supported the artistic freedom of the talented photographers who work with the magazine to illustrate its pages, and has not took part in the creation process of this editorial.

For its part, Numéro Magazine, which has the utmost respect for this photographer’s creative work, firmly excludes that the latest may have had, at any moment, the intention to hurt readers’ sensitivity, whatever their origin.

Numéro Magazine considers that it has regularly demonstrated its deep attachment to the promotion of different skin-colored models. For instance, the next issue of Numéro for Man on sale on 15th march has the black model Fernando Cabral on the cover page, and the current Russian edition’s cover of our magazine features the black model Naomi Campbell on its cover. This demonstrates the completely inappropriate nature of the accusations made against our magazine, deeply committed to the respect for differences, tolerance and more generally to non-discrimination.

Considering the turmoil caused by this publication, the Management of Numéro Magazine would like to apologize to anyone who may have been offended by this editorial. 

Right, so it's not racist to put a person in Blackface no matter what Black people have to say about it, as long as your intention is to show diversity.  Of course, it's absolutely not diverse to show real people of colour, when you can use White people to stand in for them.  Everyone should be able to agree that a racist image is just as good as real representation, after all, they have the future of White supremacy to think about.

It's also shocking that anyone could potentially declare Numéro magazine racist, simply because of one model covered in dark makeup. What's a little Blackface between friends, when you have people like Naomi Campbell on next month's cover?  Just count the Black people. Count them I say. This proves that Numéro isn't at all racist.  Someone should have told Numéro that if we have to be instructed to count Black people that this in itself, is an indicator that there is most definitely a race problem. Racial integration should be seamless, in that people of colour should be easily visible alongside their White counterparts, rather than a few standouts to avoid being labelled racist. Furthermore, using the people of colour associated with the magazine to reject being labelled a racist, is exactly the same deflection of "hey, I have Black friends," and is not only ridiculously unbelievable but racist as well.

At this point, I have become so accustomed and in fact jaded about shitty apologies that this didn't even cause me to bat a single eyelash.  Quite simply, when you engage in something this obviously racist, there is no apology that could possibly make up for it.  The damage has already been done. In the game of bad apologies, Numéro's was pretty horrendous but I have to say that Sebastian Kim was at the very least, equally as bad.

I would like to apologize for any misunderstanding around my recent photos for Numero France. It was never my intention (nor Numero’s) to portray a black woman in this story. Our idea and concept for this fashion shoot was based on 60's characters of Talitha Getty, Verushka and Marissa Berenson with middle eastern and Moroccan fashion inspiration. We at no point attempted to portray an African women by painting her skin black. We wanted a tanned and golden skin to be showcased as part of the beauty aesthetic of this shoot.

It saddens me that people would interpret this as a mockery of race. I believe that the very unfortunate title “African Queen” (which I was not aware of prior to publication) did a lot to further people’s misconceptions about these images. It was certainly never my intention to mock or offend anyone and I wholeheartedly apologize to anyone who was offended.

All right, I'm a good sport and can say that if the photographer was not responsible for the title that does make him possibly a little less of a douchbag than Numéro; however, he still thought it was a good idea to paint a young White woman with dark makeup, in order to have appear as a race to which she doesn't belong.  Does he actually expect a cookie and a round of applause for that?  Even if we remove the label of 'African Queen', the image in and of itself is still patently racist because no White person can ever represent a person of colour in this fashion.  If he wanted a Middle Eastern look, the way to go about it was to use a Middle Eastern person. That seems logical to me.

Ultimately, the intention of the magazine or the photographer is meaningless. Intent is not some magical elixir against harm.  This is especially true when it comes to something as blatant as this. It is not reasonable to suggest that both Numéro and Sebastian Kim had no idea of the furor these images would cause when they were released to the public.  People of colour have repeatedly spoken out about such engagement whenever and wherever it has appeared.  It is far more likely that they hoped to be perceived as edgey, the new hipster code for ironically racist.  Apologizing after the fact, "if people were offended," is not ownership of said offense and does not negate the harm done.  So in short, fashion magazine editors and photographers, just stop doing racist offensive shit because at this point, not only does the public not believe your intent was benign, your apologies suck ass as well.

Fallon Fox Excels-People Hate

One of the ongoing arguments that has occurred ever since Renee Richards sued the USTA and in 1977 won the right to play in the US Open and on the women's professional tennis tour is carping about the 'unfair advantage' trans women have over their cis female counterparts in sporting events.

Trans teen Jazz was barred for two years from playing in her youth soccer league because of those same fears. She and her parents had to appeal the decision of the Florida Youth Soccer Association through various administrative levels until the US Soccer Federation board of directors not only unanimously agreed to let her play as a girl, they got busy devising policies to cover future trans soccer athletes.   

Canadian downhill mountain biker Michelle Dumaresq went through the same drama in the 2K's when she started winning races and the cis women bikers who once encouraged her to compete in their ranks started hatin'.  

Now comes the latest gender sporting kerfluffle involving mixed martial arts fighter Fallon Fox.  She's been kicking butt and taking names in the MMA ranks with a 5-0 record.  In her last bout she knocked out her opponent Erica Newsome 39 seconds into the first round.

But after revealing in a Sports Illustrated interview she's trans, there is now drama concerning her fighting license.

.

"The medical community stands behind me in that in there's no unfair competitive advantage, like my competition have said," Fox said. "I started training in 2008, which is about two years after my gender reassignment surgery. My first MMA match was about a year and a half ago."

So what's the fuss?  There is a perception that a transfeminine athlete has an advantage when she competes against cis feminine athletes because her teen body developmental years were influenced by testosterone.  It's also marked by a flawed assumption that all trans feminine athletes are tall and have exceptional sports skills.

It's flawed because trans women come in all shapes, sizes and sporting ability levels.  That specious argument is not borne out by scientific evidence, research or the results on the playing fields either.

Renee Richards while a decent player and excellent coach, had the same number of career Grand Slam tournament wins as Anna Kournikova did during her career (zero).

Mianne Bagger so far isn't dominating the women's professional ranks as was hysterically feared when she was allowed to play after the LPGA scrapped its 'female at birth' rule.

But Fallon Fox is correct in one regard.  The international athletic and world community needs to educate itself about transgender athletes.  It also needs to create competition rules based on scientific evidence and not emotion that allow trans athletes to get in the game and compete.

   

Jenifer's Running Again!

I am happy to hear that my H-town homegirl Jenifer Rene Pool is going to make another run at Houston history in this election cycle and attempt to become the first transperson elected to public office here.

I chronicled Jenifer's run for an at large council seat in the 2011 election cycle, and she kicked off her campaign on Valentine's Day for the City Council at large Position 3 seat.  

Jenifer had a crowded ten candidate field to navigate in her 2011 city wide race but garnered 7,104 votes to finish seventh.

It's two years later and she is gearing up to chase history once again.   For those of you in the Houston city limits and you want things to get better for trans peeps here, this is a way to help make that happen. 

You have more than enough time before November 5 to get busy getting registered to vote if you aren't already or double checking your registrations in advance of that election. 

Jenifer is also going to need your time, sweat equity, some cash out of your wallets and purses, your votes and basically you to do whatever you can to help get out the vote and help get one of our own trans peeps elected to the Houston City Council

Here's hoping that Election Night 2013 has a much better result and we are watching her make a historic victory speech.  

Happy Jimmy Carper Day!

From November 1999 to September 2001 I got to spend some late Saturday-early Sunday AM mornings at the KPFT-FM studios sitting next to Jimmy Carper as a rotating co-host for After Hours. 

KPFT-FM is our local Pacifica Radio outlet with its studios still in the middle of the Montrose gayborhood.  I had a lot of fun doing that 'Queer Radio With Attitude' show especially since I was fulfilling a dream of actually being on the air. 

The best part of the deal of being Jimmy's co-host is I got to say whatever I wanted and what was on my mind about politics, the community or whatever was LGBT related as long as I didn't violate FCC regulations.

And yeah, I did introduce his listeners to some R&B artists who were rainbow family as well since he only played LGBT artists during the time After Hours ran from 1-4 AM. 

Jimmy is a beloved figure in the Houston rainbow community and LGBT radio circles, and Mayor Annise Parker declared March 10, 2013 as 'Jimmy Carper Day'.

Congrats to my old radio bud for the honor... 
 

It's Janet Mock's Birthday!

Another year and another birthday celebration for one beautiful lady I finally got the opportunity to meet when I flew up to New York last August for my GLAAD media training.

I got to spend more quality time with her and Kimberley McLeod a few short weeks later when I was in Washington DC for the 2012 edition of OUT on the Hill and she was there to attend a function at Vice President Joe Biden's house. .

Janet's photos don't her justice.  She's even more beautiful in person both inside and out, and I'm proud to call her a friend.

Happy birthday, Janet!.   Know you've already been celebrating it for most of the weekend, so may you continue to receive abundant blessings on your special day, and may you have many more birthdays to come!     

Spring Forward 2013

Believe it or not TransGriot readers, it's already time spring forward into Daylight Savings Time this weekend.  

At 2 AM it'll be time to move those clocks forward one hour.   For the Republicans they'll have to more theirs forward a century or two..  

So TransGriot readers, don't forget to spring forward, otherwise you'll be an hour late for most of your Sunday events.  

Transilience

Writer, educator, artist and activist Joelle Ruby Ryan has created a short YouTube film that discusses what she called transgender resilience or 'transilience' and how she has called upon it to get her through various parts of her life.. 

2nd Annual Black Transmen Conference Schedule

It's getting closer to the March 13-17 dates for the second annual Black Transmen, Inc Conference in Dallas.  I'm getting more excited about being there as we draw closer to my Wednesday travel departure date from my end of I-45 for it.

I have the honor of being the first transwoman keynote speaker for this rapidly growing event and I get the bonus of seeing Kylar, Louis, Kye and some of my other favorite trans men in the community and meet others for the first time. 

Also looking forward to meeting and greeting many of you in the transmasculine and transfeminine community that I get to chat with on Facebook or trade Twitter tweets with.

This conference keynote that happens on March 15 will be the first time I've ever done one inside the borders of my home state and I'm looking forward to it.  I'm also looking forward to checking out some of the informative seminars and discussions that will be part of this event.   There will be pageants as part of this event as well. 

For those of you in the Dallas area you may want to head to the Hilton Double Tree Campbell Center and check out all the exciting activity that will be happening there.
  

This Week In The 2013 Texas Lege-Weeks Ending March 1-8 Edition

Now that I'm back online I'll resume posting the weekly 'This Week In The 2013 Texas Lege' reports courtesy of Daniel Williams of Equality Texas. 

It's important that we keep tabs on what our teabagger infested GOP controlled state legislature is up to until the session ends in May.

Since my computer died before I could post the previous week's edition, I'm going to include it in this week's post.

You're getting the pleasure of a double dose of  Daniel's reporting this week, Lone Star TransGriot readers

And now, here's Daniel with the March 1 and this week ending March 8 report.




Week ending March 8

Shut Up Fool Awards-CPAC 2013 Is Coming Edition

Those wild and crazy conservafools are gathering inside I-495 for CPAC this weekend, their premiere political event for their all-star conservatives.

Sarah Palin, Allen West, Mitt Romney and the gang will all be there to pontificate, speak and create more material and nominees for next week's edition of my TransGriot Shut Up Fool awards.

So let's get busy and get to the task of selecting this week's winners.

Special mention of SUF Lifetime Achievement award winner Bil O'Reilly for his off the chain freakout

Honorable mention number one goes to Roger Ailes for peddling the 'President Obama is lazy' lie popular in right wing bizarro world and his propaganda network with the shrinking viewership and credibility in the toilet.

Honorable mention number two goes local to HISD Superintendent Terry Grier whose behind was a no show at last nights HISD board meeting while all the pissed off Black folks (including the TransGriot) were in the board room auditorium venting about the proposed school mergers being foisted on their community, but mysteriously made an appearance in the room after they moved on to other agenda items..

Honorable mention number three goes to Sen Rand Paul (Teabagger-KY) who staged a 13 hour grandstanding filibuster over the drone pogram that went sideways when he brought up Jane Fonda and other WTF moments in it.




This week's winner is Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) who continues to embarrass the state and the reality based peeps unfortunate enough to live in his Tyler area district by not only voting against the Violence Against Women's Act that was signed into law yesterday and ranting about Sharia law, he's now filing an amendment seeking to ban any public funding of golf trips by the POTUS. 

Gee Louie, neither you or your GOP buddies were concerned about that issue when Dubya was in office or y'all were jetting off to golf courses around the world on congressional junkets.

Louie Gohmert, shut up fool.
 

JJ Gets A Reprieve

I wrote about your favorite blogger joining in the efforts to save my high school alma mater Jesse H. Jones from a consolidation neither we or the peeps at Ross S. Sterling wanted

It's one of those times where I get to practice what I preach on these pages in terms of working intersectionally and also make the point to those folks who know I'm a trans activist that I'm also paying attention to what happens in the African-American community.

I attended Monday's board agenda meeting in which Superintendent Terry Grier mischaracterized and pissed off us Jones alumni that afternoon.   He called the passionate way we tore into the board and documented the troubling pattern of closing schools in predominately Black neighborhoods and immediately turning them into charter schools during the February 26 meeting at JJ as 'racism'.

I called his azz out along several of my Falcon alums along with Sterling alum Larry McKinzie in an interview with a Houston Chronicle reporter shortly after I walked out of the board agenda meeting because I was still majorly pissed off and decided to remove myself from the room.

Larry and I were the only ones quoted in the article that ran in Thursday's edition of the Chronicle

Note to Superintendent Grier.  Racism=prejudice plus systemic power, not an epithet you sling when the uppity Black people correctly call you out on your double talk and bull feces.

I signed up to speak at the board meeting along with 23 other people signed up to speak on the proposed Jones-Sterling merger.   There were 26 signed up to speak on the merger of Cullen and Ryan middle schools which was also opposed by people in the Third Ward neighborhood where it sits.

There was an entire section of the HISD boardroom auditorium reserved for those of us signed up to speak that evening, and we were also cut from our normal three minutes to two because of the number of speakers.

I told my mom that there would be fireworks at this meeting and she might wish to watch it on public access and I was on target in that assessment.  I also noted along with many of us sitting there the conspicuous absence of Superintendent Terry Grier and the board member representing our area in Paula Harris 

After getting through the initial board business,  we got to the two issues Items E-1 and E-2 on the board agenda that were causing the drama.   

After getting through the twenty plus speakers who passionately pointed out why Ryan and Cullen needed to stay as separate schools, the board voted 5-3 to merge them to the disgust of the Ryan folks in the audience.

Then it was time to discuss Item E-2, the consolidation of Jones and Sterling.  As I and the other 22 speakers passionately made our case for either a NO vote or a tabling of the issue the tension continued to rise.  Then came the motion to table it and the unanimous 8-0 vote to do just that   Considering we were just finding out about this proposal only last week, it was an amazing result.

All we accomplished was buying ourselves some time.   It's up to us to come up with recommendations for programs that will attract neighborhood kids back to both campuses and  entice others from different parts of the city to go there.

And for those of you wondering why I got involved besides the fact it was my high school alma mater, as the proud child of a retired teacher education issues are important to me.  

It was African-American Texas legislators during Reconstruction that passed the laws to set up the public education system in our state. That obligates me and other African-American Texans to fight for better Houston and Texas public schools as a legacy for future generations just as they were thinking about our generation when they set it up back in the 19th century.  

So Jones Family and Raider Nation, we have work to do.  

Honoring And Protecting The Lives Of Black Trans Women

Fresh for Women's History Month is the video of the September 21, 2012 NBJC OUT on the Hill panel discussion I had the honor of participating in along with Valerie Spencer, Rev. Carmarion Anderson and Danielle King that  was moderated by Laverne Cox.

Just an FYI, this year's OUT on the Hill will have a similar town hall panel of trans men. 

NBJC's OUT on the Hill usually happens in September, so watch this blog and the National Black Justice Coalition one for the dates.

In the meantime, enjoy the video.

Back Online People!

Hallelujah!    Have a new (to me) Dell Dimension 4800 desktop computer that arrived today while I was at the HISD school board meeting. 

I'm still working on getting it configured, getting used to the new mouse and having sound coming through my speakers once again, but who cares? 

I'm just happy to be back on line, and megathanks to Polar for the new TransGriot Computer Prime. 

I have had a lot of things going on I need to talk about, and nothing drives a writer crazier than not having the tools at hand to ply their craft.

What I'll do with the donations I've received so far is apply them to either a laptop or table that I can take on to road to blog with.    

All i care about right now is I'm back in the blogging biz and just in time for this week's Shut Up Fool award.

Looking Forward To 2nd Black Transmen, Inc Conference

I'm so excited and so looking forward to traveling up I-45 March 13-18 for the 2nd annual Black Transmen, Inc Conference in Dallas.   Not only looking forward to doing my keynote address, but also hearing Kylar's and seeing a few peeps in the national trans community there.

It'll also be the first time I've ever done a keynote speech inside the borders of the Lone Star State, and I'm really looking forward to that opportunity. 

And as always, I'm looking forward to seeing some old friends in the community and excited about the opportunity to meet folks I've only had the opportunity to connect with via e-mail, chat or Facebook, and meet new ones.

And since I do have a lot of extended family and friends in the Dallas-Ft Worth area, hoping to see some of them in the audience as well. 

March 13-18 will be here before we know it, and gotta get back to polishing that keynote speech.

Saving JJ

Figures that a bunch of stuff would blow up as I'm scrambling to replace my computer.

One of the things that has come up during the week my computer died is the shocking news that the HISD board wants to consolidate my alma mater Jesse H. Jones High ironically with the school I was zoned to in Ross S. Sterling.

Next to Jack Yates (which I still sarcastically refer to as Burger King High because BK's 1970's work uniforms were in Yates' gold and red school colors) Ross Sterling is our biggest rival.  

The district football game we played against each other was nicknamed the 'South Park Super Bowl' and I'm happy to note that during my time walking JJ's halls we Falcons never lost to to the Raiders.   I still bow to Galen Gillum every time I see him at our reunions for saving me from a year of trash talking from my neighborhood by kicking the school record 38 yard game winning field goal in the 1979 game that JJ won 22-20.

You've seen some of my JJ themed posts on the blog, read me bragging about my old school's athletic exploits, and discussing my reunion with the Class With Class, JJ's class of 1980 of which I am a proud member.

But my school which has been open since 1959, counts former HPD police chief Elizabeth Watson, actress JoBeth Williams, NFL all pros Darrell Green and Alfred Williams, NBA baller Daniel Gibson and countless doctors, attorneys, business people, and a human rights activist and blogger amongst its alumni is on the verge of of having its doors shut forever.

In the upcoming agenda meeting at 4:00 PM CST Monday and the HISD school board meeting on Thursday at 5 PM a proposal is being floated to consolidate the two high schools in the wake of the just passed bond issues that allocates $72 million to tear down and rebuild Sterling's campus that opened in 1965. 

The plan is to move the 888 students currently on the Sterling campus to Jones' campus in the fall while theirs is being rebuilt.  Once construction is complete, they and the 451 students currently on JJ's campus will be combined into a new school.


Of course, that plan is not sitting well with either alumni group and especially the parents in South Park who would have to send their kids several miles away from South Park to Sterling or whatever they rename the combined school.

Two of the suggestions for the renamed school are Martin Luther King Jr HS and Barack H Obama HS.  Others have suggested it be named for an African-American Houstonian or Texan.

In case you're wondering TransGriot readers, Barbara Jordan's name already graces a Houston high school.

There were two meetings held Tuesday night at Jones and Sterling in which peeps voiced their less than enthusiastic response to the plan.    There's also a Facebook group of Jones and Sterling alums working together to put a third option on the table of keeping both schools open and enhancing the programs available at both schools.

Much of the hostility on the JJ end is the fact that popular programs like the Hotel and Restaurant management one, the International Baccalaureate one, and the Vanguard one that drew me to the school have been stripped away from the Jones campus.  The way the Vanguard programs was moved in 2002 despite opposition to it from the neighborhood and alums, the messing with Lawrence Allen, one of the schools popular principals (and a JJ Class of 80 alum) during the early 2K's that was the flimsy pretext used by predominately white Vanguard parents groups to force the program off campus also didn't engender warm and fuzzy feelings toward HISD.  

It has led to an air of justified side-eyed suspicion toward HISD's motives in all this especially since Jones alumni, students and parents have the attitude that once again, JJ is being screwed in all this..  It also doesn't help that since the retirement of our longtime principal Arthur L Pace, there has been instability in the principal's chair that has led to six people occupying it in a five year span and last year at a neighborhood meeting at Worthing HS when the question of asked of Superintendent Terry Grier of this possibility, the assembled crowd at that meeting was told there were no plans to merge the two schools. .

And they wonder why neighborhood parents have been sending their kids elsewhere? 

What the alumni and neighborhood parents are wanting from HISD is to invest the money in Jones they promised to get us to vote YES on that 2012 bond issue.   One of the other suggestions that has been floated, since they know we are still pissed off about the Vanguard program shadily being moved from JJ's campus back in 2002 to what is now called the Carnegie Vanguard campus is creating a second Vanguard campus, housing it at JJ and naming the school for Mr Pace, who was the first African-American principal of the school and the longest tenured one.

And you peeps can also hit up the HISD school board on this one as well.

Well, as many of us have asked, if you're going to do that, then why not keep Jones alive for the neighborhood kids since Vanguard was originally a 'school within a school' and until it was yanked off the campus functioned quite well in that role? 

I'll definitely be at the board meeting, and will keep y'all posted as to how this turned out.

Women's History Month 2013 Includes Us Trans Women, Too!

 With today being March 1, it's the start of Women's History Month.

For the next 31 days we'll focus our history attention on the groundbreaking achievements and accomplishments of women of all races, creeds and colors.

And yes, trans women, and especially trans women of color do have something to contribute to this discussion.

We are 60 years past the date when Christine Jorgensen stepped off her SAS flight from Copenhagen into the white hot media spotlight in New York as the first post World War II trans person to get media attention.

That recognition of our contributions to women's history has been far too slow in coming for African-American trans women, but it hasn't stopped us from doing what we had to do to fight for our humanity, recognition of our femininity, while lifting ourselves up and the communities we interact with at the same time.   

From Marsha P Johnson, Miss Major, Dr. Marisa Richmond to 21st century transwomen such as Janet Mock, Isis King, Laverne Cox and others like your humble blogger who are blazing trails today for the next generation of trans kids to follow, Women's History Month also includes our long time contributions to uplifting others as we climb and telling our fascinating stories as we do so.  

We also have women such as Lucy Hicks Anderson, Avon Wilson, Tenika Watson, Georgia Black, Lady Java, Ajita Wilson, Tona Brown, Carlett Brown. Patricia Underwood and countless others who have either fascinating stories to tell, made history in their own right or fought for their own dignity, respect and human rights.

And we can't forget our trans sisters who are no longer here or our international trans sisters like Naomi Fontanos, Sass Rogando Sasot, Audrey Mbugua, Jowelle De Souza or Mia Nikasimo, .

So yes, for the next 31 days, Women's History Month also includes the stories of trans women, too..   

Shut Up Fool Awards-Computer Prime Is Dead Edition

Even though my computer died earlier this week and I'm scrambling to try to raise the cash to get a new one, it's still Friday, I have a HPL library branch with Internet access three blocks from the house and it's time to announce this week's Shut Up Fool Award winner.

If you want to contribute to my computer fund, you can hit up my Pay Pal tip jar button on the left hand side of the blog.

But now to what you peeps are waiting for.   As usual we had a bumper crop of fools this week, so let's cut the jibber-jabber, (especially since I'm on the clock as I type this post) and get to this week's fools.

Honorable Mention Number One is The Onion for that jacked up tweet they sent out Oscar Night about Quvenzhane Wallis

Honorable Mention Number Two goes to Seth McFarlane for that fracked up joke he told about Quvenzhane in addition to all the flat sexist so called humor done during his Oscar hosting stint.

Honorable mention Number Three is a group one to goes to Fox Noise for their usual bang up job in misinforming their section of the country.

This week's winner is Supreme Court (in) Justice Antonin Scalia for calling the 1965 Voting Rights Act 'a racial entitlement'.

Dude, that white sheet is showing under your judicial robe.   I along with every non-white voter in the United States don't consider the precious right to vote as an 'entitlement'.

Antonin Scalia, shut the Hell up fool!    

Computer Prime Is Dead

Well, after seven years of faithful service and a rebuild, my desktop computer died on me yesterday.   Time of death was approximately 2:25 PM  Monday afternoon.  

Yeah, it sucks because I'm still working on my speech for the upcoming Black Transmen, Inc conference in Dallas, but I look at it as I was fortunate my computer lasted this long. 

So until I get it replaced and raise the funds to do so, looks like I'll be making a several block walk to the HPL Young Branch to post stuff on TransGriot and keep up with what's happening online.

I do have a PayPal button on the left hand margin of my TransGriot blog if y'all wanna help a sistah out and get her back online as expeditiously as possible.

Oh well, I did say during the LGBT Media Convening I needed to lose some of my Christmas holiday weight I put on.