METRORail Test Train Phase Beginning On East End Line

METRO just opened the North Line extension to daily revenue service last weekend, and now comes word that the testing phase on the East End/Green Line from the EaDo/Stadium station serving BBVA Compass Stadium to the Altic/Howard Hughes station will begin in early January.

As was done on the North Line earlier this year, the initial phase will be with an unpowered rail car being pushed or towed along the tracks at no faster than five miles per hour and escorted by METRO police.

Just as was the case when the unpowered train testing was done on the North Line, the tests are to ensure there are no bends or bumps in the Green Line tracks.   The workers will be checking train clearance, ensuring signals are working properly and if that isn't the case, the train is stopped and the location of the problem logged so that it can expeditiously be corrected.

Once those unpowered tests are done, then it will move to electrical wiring tests and running powered test trains on the tracks to get METRORail train operators familiar with this new section of rail before it opens for service to the East End as they complete the 9 stations and the decorative touches around them.

At the moment the Green Line opens for revenue service, METRORail will truly become a light rail system and not just one 12.8 mile long line from the south side Fannin South Station to the Northline TC/HCC one via the Med Center and downtown.

And yeah, it goes without saying,  I can't wait for the Purple Line near me to open as well.

TransGriot Update: The start of the testing phase on the East End/Green Line got delayed until January 24

Serena Williams Is 2013 AP Female Athlete Of The Year

Read it and weep haters!  Serena Williams was named the 2013 AP Female Athlete of the Year for the third time.  She'd previously won that honor in 2002 and 2009.

It capped off a year in which she won the French and US Opens to push her Grand Slam title count to 17, won 11 tournament titles, earned $12 million in prize money and finished the season ranked number 1 on the world for the third time in her career.

She is only one Grand Slam title win away from matching Chris Evert and Martina Navratiloa who are tied with 18 majors.  

And yeah, just to remind y'all, the Australian Open starts January 13.

Christian Has Been Found!

Some good news to report on the missing transteen front concerning Christan Kukahiko, the 15 year old teen who was last seen November 9 at her home in Maunawili. 

According to a comment on the Crimestoppers Honolulu Facebook page dated December 3,  Christian was located and reunited with her family.

While we are happy for Christian's family that there was a happy ending in this case, there are far too many others in which successfully finding a missing person is the exception and not the rule, especially when the child is non-white or TBLG.

Just happy that Chris is home and this missing trans persons case had a successful resolution. 

Shut Up Fool Awards-Last Fool For 2013 Edition

This is the last week and last Friday for 2013, which means that this Shut Up Fool Award will be the last one I select for 2013

And I'm sad to say it has been a bumper crop year for folks exhibiting mind numbing stupidity, gleeful hypocrisy, and WTF moments that make your head spin.

And with me about to go into my fifth anniversary year of doing the TransGriot Shut Up Fool Awards, the fast approaching mid term election in November is guaranteed to produce more fools worthy of claiming our award.

And thanks to all you TransGriot readers who never fail to send me suggestions, nominations and links to SUF worthy candidates through the year. 

And to celebrate the fifth anniversary year of the Shut Up Fool Awards, because you asked for it, starting next month I will do a TransGriot Shut Up Fool of The Month

So let's move on to handling our weekly SUF business for the last time in 2013.

Honorable mention number one is a group award for all the GOP grinches who moved to cut extended unemployment beneifts for people on December 28.

Hope you peeps who had that happen to you remember that on November 4, 2014. 

Honorable mention number two is 2011 Shut Up Fool Lifetime Achievement Award honoree Sarah Palin who was also the 2010 Shut Up Fool of the Year.   She parted her lips to admit that she hadn't read the GQ article with A&E Duck Dynasty patriarch and fauxbilly Phil Robertson's controversial comments before becoming the head cheerleader for the Conservafool Noise Machine on this issue.

Why should we be surprised about that?    

Honorable mention number three goes to Utah Governor Gary Herbert (R-UT)  Homboy had this to say about marriage equality deliciously and unexpectedly breaking out in his state.  "I am very disappointed an activist federal judge is attempting to override the will of the people of Utah. I am working with my legal counsel and the acting Attorney General to determine the best course to defend traditional marriage within the borders of Utah."

Governor Herbert, guess you don't have any problem with 'activist judges' when they are conservafool ruling to roll back or suppress human rights, huh?

Good luck getting that stay past Justice Sonia Sotomayor..

Honorable mention number four is a joint one for Suge Knight and TMZ.    Knight parted his lips to ignorantly say he's offended when people call him African-American because he's not African, but has no problem with the word n**ga.  Fool, you may not have been born on the second largest continent on the planet, but your DNA damn sure screams it and connects you through the blood of our ancestos to that continent. 

Have several seats and a tall tropical punch flavored glass of STHU.    TMZ then followed up on Knight's jacked up comment with a racist poll asking the question, 'Refer to Black people as' African American or N***a?    Guess what's leading as of this writing?

Honorable mention number five goes to Conrad Barrett.   The 27 year old Lone Star fool bragged last month about knocking out a 79 year old African-American man to a stranger he met at a restaurant.   He asked the stranger and the woman he was with if they'd heard of the Knockout Game, then pulled out cell phone video of the incident and show it to them.   .  

He was stunned to find himself in handcuffs a few moments later   The stranger he showed it to was an off-duty cop who excused himself, found an on duty one who busted the idiot.   

Barrett is being charged with a hate crime because in further searching Barrett's phone, police found video of him using racial slurs as well as another in which he asks, "That plan is to see if I were to hit a black person, would this be nationally televised?"   

Honorable mention number six goes to soon to be former teacher Gil Voigt.   He's on his way to hopefully being terminated after telling a Black student who expressed his desire to be POTUS in his Fairfield, OH classroom that "we don't need another Black president.".

Well, we can guess which way Mr Voigt voted in the last presidential election based on that jacked up statement. 

We've had 43 white male presidents in this country and the last one was a disaster.  We not only need another Black president, but a female one, a Latino/a one, an Asian one, a trans one, an SGL one...

What we don't need is another incompetent white male POTUS or a bigoted white male teacher in the classroom.     

The last Shut Up Fool weekly award winner for 2013 is former PR executive Justine Sacco.   It's former PR executive because the global head of communications for the Barry Diller-led firm IAC — was on a 12-hour flight from London to Cape Town.

She tweeted before boarding BA Flight 43 this racist comment.

Going to Africa. Hope I don't get AIDS. Just kidding. I'm white!— Justine Sacco (@JustineSacco) December 20, 2013

While 12 hours is a long time to be cooped up on an airplane, it's plenty of time to marshal the forces of the Internet to call your behind out about racist crap.  Before she landed in Cape Town and cleared customs, Black Twitter was on her azz with the #HasJustineLandedYet hashtag.   Another person registered the justinesacco.com domain name and redirected it to Aid For Africa, her boss chimed in and then this happened.     

She apologized, but the damage was done.  White Women's tears start flowing n 5...4...3...2...1...

That's okay, Daddy is a billionaire and will have a nice cushy job waiting for you at Fox Noise when you return to the States.

In the meantime, Justine Sacco, shut up (unemployed) fool 

Moni's Headed To The 2014 LGBT Media Journalists Convening!

One of the first trips I'll make in the New Year will be back to Washington DC, but it won't be to lobby. 

I'll be headed inside I-495 to attend the 2014 LGBT Media Journalists Convening that will be taking place in our nation's capital.

The National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association (NGLJA) is the proud host of the 2014 LGBT Media Journalists Convening, and it is sponsored by the Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund.

The theme of the 2014 LGBT Media Journalists Convening is "Honing Our Game," and will be held Friday, February 28 to Sunday, March 2, 2014.  The goal of this fifth annual forum is to strengthen the capacity of TBLG  members of the media and blogosphere to more deeply understand and more effectively communicate critical issues facing the BTLG community, as well as assist in increasing the presence and diversity of GLBT bloggers in the national blogging community.

Translation, the convening is a business trip to help me become a better blogger and meet with many of my counterparts around the country to talk shop.   

Last year's event in Philly was the first time I was able to attend it.  I'm still bummed I missed the 2012 one in Houston, and from what I heard when I was in the City of Brotherly Love for it, so were many of my fellow bloggers.

So as the date gets closer to it and other attendees start talking about it,  I'll have more to say.  But one thing I'm already aware of is the hashtag we'll be using for the 2014 convening, which will be #LGBTMedia14.

I'm looking forward to 'Honing My Game' with my fellow bloggers and journalists and hanging out with y'all in late February.

1993 Oilers Getting More Interesting By The Day

Well well, looks like the In Living Color 'Men on Football' Super Bowl skit joke about the Oilers wasn't too far off base.

This team gets more interesting by the day.   First there was the allegation on HuffPo there was a transfeminine Derrick Doll shaking her pompoms on the Astrodome sidelines during the 1992 and 1993 seasons.

Then there was the recent NFL Network documentary about the 1993 Oilers team and all the drama surrounding it.  1-4 start, Warren Moon benching, Babygate, the nationally televised punch of Kevin Gilbride by Buddy Ryan, the 11 game win streak that led to them clinching the AFC Central title with a 12-4 record and earning home field advantage throughout the playoffs but falling victim to one last hurrah from Joe Montana and the Kansas City Chiefs 28-20 in their divisional round Dome playoff game.   

Now in the wake of the documentary comes this preview of a Houston Chronicle article scheduled to be published on Sunday (December 29) that stated there were two gay players on that 1993 team, the team knew about it, and didn't care. 

“Listen, those guys that we’re talking about were unbelievable teammates. And if you wanted to go to war with someone, you would get those guys first. Because I have never seen tougher guys than those guys,” said Oilers Pro Bowl linebacker Lamar Lathon. “And everybody in the locker room, the consensus knew or had an idea that things were not exactly right. But guess what? When they strapped the pads on and got on the field, man, we were going to war with these guys because they were unbelievable.”

It's interesting info in light of the fact that no active NFL player has come out, and only a handful of NFL players have come out in retirement.  It's also interesting to note that Brendon Ayanbadejo and Chris Kluwe, after expressing support for marriage equality and filing an amicus brief on February 28 in support of the Hollingsworth v Perry case then before the US Supreme Court, were let go by their respective NFL teams and were not signed by any NFL team during the 2013 season.  

But back to the 1993 Oilers and that gay players revelation.  That was the way it should have been.  Nobody giving a damn about those two gay Oilers except for how they did their jobs on the playing field.

As to who they are, I remember hearing a lot of rumors during that time about who those players were, but as long as my fave team was winning, I didn't care.  

Looking forward to reading that Chronicle article on Sunday.
 

Racist TMZ Poll Wants You To Decide Whether To Call Us African-Americans Or N**gas

I guess TMZ thought because of the holidays no one would be paying attention to that racist poll they have on their site, but they guessed wrong.

Suge Knight parted his lips in a December 16 article posted on the site to say he's 'offended' when people refer to him as an African-American because he's not African.  

Your DNA says otherwise, you idiot even though you weren't born on the African continent.

Sheesh, where is the D.R.O..P. Squad when you need them?  

And vanillacentric privileged elements of the white community don't consider you to be simply an American, either.   And they would love to call you the word you don't have a problem with.  

But TMZ for whatever stupid, clueless, racist, they though it was funny or all of the above reasons decided to create a poll which had this question. 

What should black people call themselves?  

The only possible answers in this reprehensible poll are African American or N**ga.    And you know that white folks are constantly bitching because we have told them NOT to call us the n-word and are gleefully flocking to this racist one.  

Over 82,547 votes have been cast at this writing, with N**ga currently ahead of African American at a 54%-46% clip as of this writing.    The script on that poll needs to be flipped ASAP while at the same time we cuss TMZ and their editors the hell out for even coming up with that racist poll in the first place.   

2013 TransGriot NFL Predictions- Week 17

It took me 16 weeks of this 2013 NFL season to finally take top honors for a prognostication week and that in a nutshell is why I've been trailing Mr. Blake and Mr Watts all season.

While I tied for top honors a few times, I've had too many sub.500 weeks and not enough winning weeks to be in this prognostication contest at the end of the season in a position to win it.   

And this winning week come on the heels of back to back sub .500 weeks to illustrate my point. 

Arrgh.  Like my fave NFL team, too little and way too late to defend my prognostication title.  That title is going to Arizona unless Eli has a horribly bad week 17 and Mike conversely has a monster good one.   While I had a lovely Week 16 and went 11-5, Mike went 9-7 and Eli slipped to 8-8.

As for my fave NFL squad, we Texans fans already received that lump of coal in our NFL Christmas stockings courtesy of a 13 game losing streak.   After the Texas play the Tennessee Traitors in Nashville, it's hire a new coach and focus on getting ready for the 2014 NFL draft in May.   They'll have an extra month to decide who to select with that number one pick.  Choose wisely on both accounts. 

Native Texan Lovie Smith has already been interviewed for the job, so he's one of my faves to get it. That interview also means the Texans have complied with the NFL's Rooney Rule, which requires every team to interview at least one non-white candidate for any head coaching vacancy.  

The other candidates for the Texans head coaching job include current interim head coach Wade Phillips, Penn State head coach Bill O’Brien and Chargers offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt.  Some rumored to be in consideration are Texas A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin and Stanford's David
   

So the last week of the NFL season goes like this.  Mike has to make up four games just to tie him, five to win it.   16 games to select, no Monday night or Thursday night games.   My picks are in underlined bold print, Mike's and Eli's are here.

Week 16 Results
TransGriot        11-5
Eli Blake            8-8
Mike Watts        9-7

2013 Season Record
TransGriot      132-107-1
Eli                  150-89-1
Mike              146-93-1

NFL Week 17

Sunday Noon Games
Cleveland at Pittsburgh
Washington at NY Giants
Baltimore at Cincinnati
Houston at Tennessee
Jacksonville at Indianapolis
NY Jets at Miami
Detroit at Minnesota
Carolina at Atlanta

Sunday Afternoon Games
Tampa Bay at New Orleans
Buffalo at New England
St Louis at Seattle
Green Bay at Chicago
San Francisco at Arizona
Denver at Oakland
Kansas City at San Diego

Sunday Night Game
Philadelphia at Dallas

 

Jenna Talackova Gets Canadian ELLE Shoot

In case you're wondering what Jenna Talackova is up to these days after successfully fighting to open up the Miss Universe pageant system to trans contestants, she's simply handling her business and making things happen in her life and modeling career.

The now 25 year old girl like us is set to appear in a photo shoot for Canadian ELLE in January
:
"I can’t believe I’m posing for them,” Talackova said in a behind the scenes video posted on the Canadian ELLE website.

“It’s been a dream — I put them on my vision board and it happened!”

In addition to the Canadian ELLE photo shoot which will appear in the January 2014 issue,  Talackova is also working on an eight episode reality TV series for E! Canada set to start January 19 entitled Brave New Girl.

Talackova is also involved in efforts along with other international trans activists to get the World Health Organization (WHO) to remove transsexualism from the list of mental disorders in the ICD manual that has currently started the revision process that is scheduled to be completed by 2015. 

So what's next for Talackova?   Whatever she decides to do, seems like she's had much success so far in making it a reality with the ICD revision fight to be determined.

Unmasking The Religious Right War In America

It's said that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.   That's especially true if you are a persecuted or hated minority group under constant microaggressive and macroaggressive attack.

You have to know your enemy, call them out, be vigilant for and respond to any attacks aimed at undermining your humanity and by extension, your human rights no matter how small they seem on the surface. 

Alvin McEwen of the Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters blog and Pam's House Blend fame (and who I had the pleasure of meeting during Netroots Nation 2012) has been diligently documenting the Religious Right and their unrelenting neo-fascist attacks on the TBLG community while cloaked in Christian drag.

Alvin has spent the last year putting together a booklet that is a handy guide for detecting those tactics, debunking and eviscerating their talking points, and giving you the information and tools to develop counterprogramming against them entitled How They See Us: Unmasking The Religious Right War In America.

McEwen's booklet is timely in the wake of the Religious Right taking their war against the GLBT community global and exporting their hate based oppression of our rainbow brothers and sisters with successful results in Uganda, Nigeria and Russia.  The conservafaith-based haters are also attempting to spread their lies and disinformation in Brazil, Latin America and the Caribbean. 

It's available for download and viewing by clicking this link, so if you want to understand the mindset of the Forces of Intolerance, might be a good idea to check this out.

BTAC 2014 Registration And Call For Proposals

The 2014 Black Trans Advocacy Conference in Dallas from April 29-May 4 at the Hilton DoubleTree Campbell Center is rapidly approaching.   It's time for you trans and gender non-conforming individuals, family, friends and community allies to accept the BTAC conference invitation to gather, educate, learn, build and grow together in unity.  

The clock is ticking, so it's time to get busy and get registered for this third annual conference that is free for all registered guests to attend as long as you do so before April 1, 2014.   After that date all registrations will be processed onsite at the conference hotel and carry a $10 processing fee.

The BTAC 2014 theme is "One Earth. One People. One Love."  BTAC is inviting trans and gender non-conforming individuals and our family, friends and community allies to gather, educate, learn, build and grow together in unity.

BTAC 2014 has also issued a Call for Proposals with proposals due on January 5, 2014.   So if you have an idea for a conference proposal, need to get it in by clicking this link before this deadline.   

If you're looking for more information or an opportunity to sponsor this conference, you can inquire about how to do so by emailing btac@blacktrans.org 

Black Trans Advocacy
3530 Forest Lane Suite 312C
Dallas, TX 75234
(855) 255-8636

And yes, if you have some spare change like $5's, $10's, $20's (or more if you're feeling generous)  burning a hole in your pocket, you can make a tax deductible donation since it is a 501c3 organization.
   

Aisha And Danielle on MHP

Merry Christmas People!

Just had to post the pics courtesy of my fave power couple from Sunday's appearance on the Melissa Harris-Perry show that was guest hosted by Joy Reid.   Birthday girl Aisha was looking good, and so was her lovely spouse Danielle.   I'm looking forward to seeing them the next time I'm inside I-495.

Oh yeah speaking of their joint #nerdland appearance, if you didn't get to see them in action on Sunday, here's the links to the show.

Part 1: http://on.msnbc.com/1fBxrQ7
Part 2: http://on.msnbc.com/1c2TMS6

Hey Megyn, My Santa Is Black...

And so are the Christmas themed movies I watch, the Christmas themed romance novels I read, and the Christmas music I have listened to since I was a child.

And yes, that was vitally important then and even more so now in a world that doesn't value non-white children, to see ourselves and our culture reflected during this Festival of Off The Chain Consumerism. 

In a world of overwhelming whiteness, it's vital that non-white folks have cultural touchstones that you and you Fox Noise comrades can arrogantly take for granted Ms Kelly because the world and the dominant culture revolve around people who look like you.

So you can take that vanillacentric privileged  and racist Fox Noise 'War on Christmas' BS and shove it up you know where.

Now where are my Alexander O'Neal and Luther Vandross Christmas CD's?

Yo Hallmark Channel, Next Year Can We Get More Diversity In Your Christmas Movies?

Yes, Black people fall in love, get married, buy  romance novels, and like watching romance movies, too.   It would be nice to see ourselves occasionally represented in your made for TV romances especially since we persons of colors are part of the 87 million homes that have Hallmark Channel as part of their cable package.
--TransGriot, October 15, 2012, "Yo Hallmark Channel, Black People Fall In Love, Too"

As an incurable romantic, I do like reading romance novels and love a good romantic movie from time to time as an escape because the topic I write about are serious in terms of human rights issues.

Hallmark Channel bills itself as 'The Heart of TV'  and built its cable brand on broadcasting made for TV romance movies it produces along with broadcasting classic TV shows like Frasier and The Golden Girls.  It is part of many cable TV packages and has 86 million viewers.

It also likes to do holiday themed programming.  Its popular and highly rated 'Countdown To Christmas' lasts from the first weekend in November to Christmas Day as the network broadcasts 24 hours of Christmas themed movies. 

From December 26 to January that shifts to the 'Countdown to New Year's Day' which ends with the broadcast of the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, CA.  In February it's all romance all the time leading up to Valentine's Day.

But no matter what the theme, there is one consistent, nagging issue about that themed programming that becomes glaringly obvious in 24 hour rotation.  

The overwhelming whiteness of it.

I noted that in my post last year about it, and I see that nothing's been done to correct the problem I noticed last year.   This year's 'Countdown to Christmas' themed movies probably made Fox Noise and Megyn Kelly smile because they had the diversity of a Republican Party convention.

Black folks meet, fall in love with each other and get married during the holidays, too. As a matter of fact that simple point is what keeps royalty checks consistently flowing into Kayla Perrin's and other Black romance writers bank accounts.

As The Best Man Holiday and its $69.8 million box office emphatically continues to prove, we African-Americans do have universal stories that will appeal to a wider audience and want to see ourselves represented on the small and silver screens..

The same is true of the Latino and Asian community and movies that are performed by an all-Latino or all- Asian cast.   They would like to see themselves represented in the media they watch, too 

In fact when I do discover movies such as Nothing Like The Holidays, which was a Christmas movie released in 2008 with a predominately Latino cast, I see them as a refreshing change, because romantic movies with all white casts are so been there, bored with that.

So next year Hallmark and into the foreseeable future, what I and many non-white viewers of your channel want is so deceptively simple when 'Countdown to Christmas' 2014 rolls around.

Can we get some holiday movies made by you that reflect the diversity of this country?

And when I say diversity of this country, I don't mean an all or predominately white cast with a token Black, Latino or Asian actor in the background for half a second as the white leads are making goo-goo eyes at each other. 

If you don't have the writers on hand to produce those scripts with the (and this is vitally important) cultural nuances of my people, then get writers to produce those Christmas romance scripts who are culturally competent to make it happen and hire directors well versed in those non-white cultures to make them.

So Hallmark, can you do that for your non-white viewers, who are part of the 86 million people who watch your channel?

Merry Christmas 2013

Merry Christmas to all my TransGriot readers on the eastern side of the International Date Line!   Once again I get to thank you for all the gifts that y'all provide me with throughout the year.

One of the most precious gift you TransGriot readers provide me with is spending your valuable time surfing the Net to read what I write here.

Occasionally some of y'all in addition to telling me how much y'all like what I read or sending me links to stories I may have missed, will additionally drop some change in the TransGriot electronic Tip Jar.

Thank you, it's deeply appreciated.

In just a few short days I'll not only announce my 2013 TransGriot Shut Up Fool of the Year Winner, but celebrate my 8th Anniversary blogging on New Year's Day.

So I'm talking the day off, but if the news cycle warrants it or I feel something move me to post today, I will.   

NY Islan Nettles Case Meeting

TransGriot Note:  From the New York City Anti-Violence Project (AVP)

On December 20 trans community leaders Laverne Cox and Brooke Cerda Guzman, along with representatives from the Audre Lorde Project’s Trans Justice and the New York City Anti-Violence Project (AVP) met with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office regarding the Islan Nettles investigation after misdemeanor charges were dropped against Paris Wilson on November 19, 2013. 

Islan Nettles was attacked on August 17 in Harlem by an individual or group of individuals shouting anti-transgender slurs.  Ms. Nettles was taken to Harlem Hospital for her injuries and on Thursday August 22, was taken off of life support and died.

At the meeting, community leaders spoke about their concerns about the real danger that transgender women of color face in New York City and the need for the District Attorney’s Office to prioritize violence against transgender women of color.  The District Attorney’s Office assured community leaders that the Islan Nettles case remains a top priority and that they were doing everything in their power to move the investigation forward.  The group also spoke about ways in which the District Attorney’s Office and transgender women of color could work together to create safety and highlight the disproportionate impact of violence in transgender and gender non-conforming communities.

The Anti Violence Project (AVP) will continue to work with transgender community leaders and the District Attorney’s Office on the Islan Nettles case and on issues of safety for all transgender women of color in New York City.

AVP stands with transgender women of color, our allies, community members and community leaders in saying we will not be silent about the violence faced by transgender women and transgender women of color in our city.  In September 2013, at AVP’s Courage Awards, Laverne Cox called the violence against transgender women of color “a state of emergency,” and it is exactly that, both here in New York City and across the nation.  The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) most recent report, Hate Violence Against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and HIV-Affected Communities in the United States in 2012, documented 25 anti-LGBTQ murders.  73.1% of all anti-LGBTQ homicide victims in 2012 were people of color and 53.8% were transgender women.

So far this year we know of 14 transgender women nationally who have been victims of homicide.  In many of these cases, no motive is known, and we are concerned about the pace of investigations, the serial misgendering of the victims by police and media, and by a lack of public awareness about these tragic deaths.

 REPORTING VIOLENCE HELPS TO END VIOLENCE
AVP encourages you to report violence you experience or witness to our free and confidential 24-hour bilingual (English/Spanish) hotline at 212-714-1141 where you can speak with a trained counselor and seek support, or you can report violence anonymously online at http://avp.org/get-help/report-violence.

2013 International Trans Year In Review

Just like 2012, the year 2013 on the international front was a good news, bad news one for the international trans community. 

Let's start with the fact that we continue to see unacceptable levels of anti-trans violence, discrimination and murder being leveled at our people, with the most egregious levels of it happening in various Latin American nations, Brazil, the United States and Turkey.

There was also the horrific case in Jamaica of 16 year old transteen D. Jones being set upon by a mob during a street party and beaten, shot, stabbed and run over by a car for the crime of being her true self. 

We witnessed the disappointing defeat of PLC 122 last week, a bill that would have prohibited gender identity and sexual orientation discrimination in Brazil.  We also saw the Gulf States led by Kuwait consider a ban on transpeople entering the area for employment purposes in October, and expressed concern about transpeople in Russia, Nigeria and Uganda being caught in the backlash spawned by the various draconian anti-gay laws in those nations.

Despite that negative news, the international trans human rights picture overall is an increasingly bright one.

In addition to the United Nations holding on September 26 a first ever ministerial level meeting to discuss TBLG human rights issues, several nations have made moves either with favorable court rulings, administrative rule changes, ended forced sterilizations or SRS in order to do name changes, or are considering or passed legislation to streamline their name change process for transgender people like the Netherlands.


The Philippines held congressional hearings December 5 to discuss an inclusive anti-discrimination bill, and a trans inclusive ENDA passed in the United States Senate on a 64-32 vote. 

While the US state of New York's senate frustratingly refused to allow GENDA to come to a vote on the floor after its passage for the sixth consecutive session by the New York state assembly, the state of Delaware showed them how it was done by becoming the 17th US state to pass a trans inclusive human rights law.

In Canada, progress on the passage of C-279, the Trans Rights Bill was stalled by the Conservatives in the Canadian Senate on the verge of its Third Reading vote in June.  After summer recess, it was dealt another blow by the prorogation of Parliament, which forced it to start the Senate legislative process from the beginning stages after it was reinstated.  C-279 is currently at Second Reading stage in its repeat Senate legislative journey.

C-279 passed the Canadian House on a final 149-137 vote back on March 20 with Prime Minister Stephen Harper being one of the NO votes and current Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau being MIA for it. 

The Canadian and the international trans community will be watching to see if the Canadian Senate values its trans citizens and passes this much needed law.

Canadian trans kids are also front and center in current north of the 49th parallel trans rights battles.  Mat Asano in Quebec,  Harriette Cunningham and Tracey Wilson  in British Columbia are fighting for recognition of their identity in addition to battling documentation issues in those two provinces.     

My Canadian trans cousins did have something else to cheer in 2013 as the province of Newfoundland and Labrador became the latest Canadian legal jurisdiction to protect trans human rights and Quebec has introduced legislation that addresses the trans documentation issue. 

On the political front, while Polish MP Anna Grodzka continues to blaze trails as only the third elected trans MP in world history, we are still waiting for the first ever elected trans national legislator in the Western Hemisphere to happen.  Attempts by Diane Rodriguez in Ecuador in February and Valentina Verbal in Chile to get elected to their respective national legislatures unfortunately fell short.  

Verbal's was for an all too frustratingly familiar reason to transpeople around the world,  She pulled out because of documentation issues.

Speaking of history making trans politicians, was nice to hear about the combination fundraiser and tribute for Georgina Beyer, the world's first ever elected trans MP who is battling chronic kidney failure and is awaiting a transplant.  The well attended tribute event was held in Wellington, NZ on Beyer's 56th birthday on November 14.   


As a child of the African Diaspora, one of this blog's missions is to highlight the issues facing my continental trans brothers and sisters on the African continent and across the Diaspora so they get the attention they deserve.

Despite the recent depressing news from our planet's second largest continent emanating from Uganda and Nigeria, there is positive movement trans human rights wise to report on the African continent. 

There's increased regional cooperation and coordination with various indigenous organizations on the African continent concerning trans rights issues. 

Kenyan trans activist Audrey Mbugua's lawsuit requesting KNEC change her documentation on her school records to reflect who she is now fostered a wider conversation in her nation about trans people and our human rights issues and concerns.

Titica's continued growing musical popularity in Angola and the southern African region led to her being named as a UNAIDS goodwill ambassador.


In Asia, the Vietnamese trans community is coming out of the shadows and increasingly demanding their human rights be respected and codified into law so they no longer face anti-trans discrimination. 

The trans marriage cases the international trans community were nervously watching in Hong Kong with Ms W and in Malta with Joanne Cassar came to successful conclusions in different ways.  

Ms. W finally won at the highest level of the Hong Kong judiciary, the Court of Final Appeal, after losing two previous times.  Cassar won and lost cases at various levels in the Maltese court system, and eventually had to take her marriage case to the European Court of Human Rights before the Maltese elections and a governmental change led to her finally emerging victorious.   The new Maltese government settled the pending ECHR marriage case with Cassar out of court and passed new laws recognizing the rights of transpeople to marry.   They recently honored Cassar with the Gieh ir Repubblika on December 13.  

Here in Texas we are anxiously awaiting the results of the September appeal of Nikki Araguz Loyd in her ongoing court battle to affirm her (and ours in Texas) marriage rights.  No matter which way it goes, it will probably be appealed to the Republican dominated Texas Supreme Court.

The issue of trans people in sports blew up this year in the cases of women's MMA fighter Fallon Fox here in the United States and Aeris Houlihan in the UK.  Both cases have created debate and sometimes contentious discussion in terms of transfeminine athletes, their ability to compete in and participate in their favorite sports against cis women and what is the real science pro and con.

It has also sparked interest in just what are the rules and how can we craft them so they are consistent and fair to both cis and trans athletes.

While the Miss Universe pageant system, with the exception of a few transphobic holdouts was open to trans contestants starting this year, the only person that attempted to do so was 27 year old Kylan Wenzel, who entered the Miss California USA pageant.   Unfortunately she didn't win, but it will be interesting to see if more trans women, now that they have had time to contemplate it and get prepped to enter if they so choose to do so, enter their various national pageants in the 2014 cycle.

Trans models continue to rock the runways with Brazilians Lea T., Carol Marra and Felipa Tavares leading the way.   They are being joined by a rising modeling star in France's Ines-Loan Rau.   The 24 year old from Paris was featured in a steamy photo shoot with Tyson Beckford that went viral. 

In the US trans model Arisce Wanzer is also beginning to get attention and Carmen Carrera is vying to become the first trans Victoria's Secret model   While that didn't happen in 2013, it's just a matter of time before one of the Victoria's Secret Angels strutting that catwalk is a trans woman. 

Jenna Talackova, whose fight to enter the Miss Canada Universe Pageant last year opened it and the Miss Universe system to future transfeminine contestants, is being featured in a January Canadian Elle magazine photo shoot.

Across the Pond, our British trans cousins were handling their business as well. 

They started the year calling out the British TERF duo of Suzanne Moore and Julie Burchill, whose transphobic scribblings in published newspaper columns in January set off a tsunami of local and international condemnation. 

What is believed to be the world's first purpose built memorial dedicated to the victims of anti-trans violence was dedicated in Manchester in July.   But since transphobic idiots don't want us to have nice things or human rights, the memorial was promptly vandalized.  The damage to it was repaired in time for TDOR memorial events in November.

A museum exhibit celebrating the life of trans pioneer and icon April Ashley opened in her hometown of Liverpool back in September.   Entitled April Ashley: Portrait of a Lady, the exhibit will run at the Museum of Liverpool until September 14, 2014.

2013 was award winning British trans activist Paris Lees' breakout year on her side of The Pond.

The 25 year old journalist not only received the top spot on this year's Pink List, Lees just recently made history as the first out trans panelist  to appear on the BBC's long running Question Time program. 

Lees also received rave reviews from the British public for her historic appearance.  So what will Paris and our British trans cousins do next?  Will be interesting to see as the New Year dawns.

There were a lot of things good, bad and groundbreaking that happened internationally for the trans community in 2013.   Looking forward to discussing and chronicling more of the positive trends in the international trans community in 2014

Diamond Stylz-Let's Talk To My Mommy

Since I'm spending time with my family today, thought you peeps needed to see the video Diamond Stylz posted which was an interview she did with her mother. 

Hope she does get a chance to come down to BTAC in Dallas this April.

Merry Christmas* 2013

It's Christmas Eve on my side of the International Date line, but for all of you on the western side of it, it's Christmas Day! 

Merry Christmas to all of my TransGriot readers who are spending it with family (either blood relations or chosen family) friends, or the people you love. 

Can't thank you enough for the support that you have given to me and to my blog since its inception back in 2006, and deeply appreciate you continuing to surf by and check it out.  

Maybe one of these days I'll finally be blessed enough to be able to take those international trips I've always wanted to take to Asia, the Philippines, Australia and the rest of the Pacific Rim and actually spend some quality time with you.

Safe travels to and from your holiday destinations, and may you have a wonderful holiday season.

.  

Fallon's Upcoming GQ Article

For those of you interested in all the latest news concerning our fave WMMA fighter, Fallon Fox will have an article appearing about her in the January 2014 issue of GQ magazine. 

Things have been quiet so far from ever since sore winner Ashlee Evans-Smith flapped her gums and unleashed some transphobic comments that Fox responded to after their featherweight title bout in October.

Hopefully 2014 will be a much better year for our fave girl like us WMMA fighter and people will focus more on her talent than her trans status. .

Looking forward to seeing the article myself when it hits my local newsstand.

TransGriot Update:  It's up at GQ's website:  Here's the link to the article.