AB 1266 Repeal Referendum Effort Clears Initial Hurdle

After hearing the news coming out of California moments ago, I'm going to repeat what I said in a post last month.  Hope you Cali peeps have a game plan in place if the PFAS haters succeed in getting this on the November 4 ballot.

My concern about that possibility is elevated because of the news that the haters effort to get a referendum on the ballot to repeal AB 1266 cleared the first hurdle.  

The random sampling indicated that AB 1266's opponents failed to gather the 504,760 valid signatures of registered voters they needed to put their measure on the ballot, California Secretary of State Debra Bowen (D) said.   However Los Angeles County was the last one in the spot-check verification process, and its 77.9% verification rate bumped up the statewide verification rate to 77.93% and 482,582 signatures. 

While that was below the 81.5% one needed to shut down implementation of the law or immediately put the repeal referendum on the California ballot, it was enough to move it to the second phase.  Secretary of State Bowen's office will now check every one of the 619,241 signatures received on those petitions, and that process needs to be completed by February 24.

So that now another month and a half of waiting to see if this referendum happens or it doesn't.

In the interim, Childen of Light, better be using your time wisely.

Katie Interview With Carmen Carrera

For some strange reason every time I tried to post the Carmen Carrera and Laverne Cox January 6 Katie  interviews in the same post, the code would get overwritten to where it was either showing carmen or Laverne's segments twice.  

So I'm just going to give the Carmen Carrera one this separate post of its own and link it to the original post.  Problem solved.

Here's Carmen's interview with Katie Couric.

Katie Interview with Laverne Cox

The Katie show that aired Monday featured Laverne Cox and Carmen Carrera.   That was the good news. 

It's getting attention in a not so positive way because Katie Couric tried to go there on the genital surgery question with both Carmen and Laverne.

Pro Tip: Trans women are beyond tired of being asked about genitalia, and frankly that is in none of your damned business territory unless you want to date or get intimate with us.  Focus on what's between our ears, not what's between our legs.


Megakudos to Carmen and Laverne for gracefully deflecting and refocused those questions back toward general trans issue concerns.

For some reason when I tried to put the separate segments on the same page, the code in one would overwrite the other, so I had to put Carmen's interview in a separate post after trying four times to tweak the code so I wouldn't have to do that. 

Here's Laverne's interview

When Are Transbrothers of Color Going To Get Their TV Closeups?

While I'm very happy that my transsisters like Laverne Cox, Janet Mock, Arianna Inurritegui Lint on the Spanish language side and Carmen Carrera are getting their television time and long overdue closeups, I'll have to admit one thing that is bothering me as I observe this positive trans media pattern in the first full week of 2014.

In the six decades since Christine Jorgensen stepped off her SAS flight in New York on February 13, 1953, when the media has deigned to turn the discussion of transsexuality towards transmasculine issues, far too often that discussion has centered on white transmen. 

That has been majorly frustrating to me as a Black trans woman and also Black and Latino transmen.   They don't get enough television time as is to discuss transmasculine issues, and what little there is has yet to realize they exist, ignores them altogether and the issues unique to being transmen of color. 

And frankly, transwomen of color for balance purposes in our communities need to have those stories told.

Our ethnicity trumps our transitions, and those transitions are affected by race, class and economic issues. That dynamic is no different in the transmasculine community.   We have yet to hear a discussion on how Black transmen have to deal with being considered suspects and hated for EWB (existing while Black).  

Latinos are the fastest growing minority group in this country.   It would nice to have Latino trans men talking about the cultural issues inside and outside the Latino community that affect their transitions.

To make you go hmm even more, how about Asian transmen?   What are the issues that affect them?   

It's not like it's hard to find transmen of color who are willing to chat about those issues all over the country.   Carter Brown, Dr Kortney Ryan Ziegler, Tiq Milan, Kye Allums and Kylar Broadus for starters can easily and eloquently hold it down on the Black trans masculine end of things.  

Mark Angelo Cummings, Diego Sanchez, Ignacio Rivera, Yosenio Lewis can do the same on the Latino transmasculine side.  Yosenio can also bring another dynamic into the trans Latino conversation by discussing those issues from the perspective of being a dark skinned Latino.     

So yeah media peeps, how about trying harder in the 2K14 to broaden the transmasculine discussion to include transmen of color?    

You'll not only broaden and bring about a long needed diversification of the transmasculine conversation, but get some fascinating and compelling stories out of it as well.

AB 1266 Random Sample Validation Deadline Today

My Left Coast transpeople and their allies have their eyes turned toward their state capital of Sacramento awaiting word on whether the transphobic haters efforts to put a repeal effort on the ballot for have successfully made it to the next round of the process or they failed.

Deadline for all 58 California counties to complete the random sample validation is January 8, but hope the supporters have been using their time wisely and setting up their game plan in case this does happen.  

AB 1266 went into effect on January 1, so it is NOT on hold pending the results of the signature count.

And the news so far has been bad for the Forces of Intolerance trying to kill the law.   The Orwellian named Privacy For All Student (PFAS) group needed to gather 504,760 signatures to put the issue on the November 4 ballot, and the PFAS haters verification percentage has been steady at 78.24%   

Even with the Mono and Tulare County petitions that were ordered by a state judge to be checked because they were initially refused because they came in after the Veterans Day weekend deadline didn't help the PFAS haters much.   The Mono County only added 17 signatures to the total and the Tulare County ones added another 3,872.

If that continues to be the case, it means that they will have submitted 484,487 signatures, 20,000 shy of the number needed and the attempt to put AB 1266 on the ballot for repeal will have failed.

We'll find out later this afternoon if that still is the case.

Moni's Speech To Houston City Council

TransGriot Note: This is the text of the three minute speech I delivered to the Houston City Council this afternoon during the public comment phase of today's City Council meeting.

                                             Speech To Houston City Council
                                                            January 7, 2014


Happy New Year and good afternoon to you Mayor Parker, distinguished members of City Council, and my fellow Houstonians.

I am Monica Roberts, a proud native Houstonian who grew up and resides in District D. I’m standing at this podium today because I’m one of the people that Mayor Parker talked about in her inauguration speech last week and was inspired by it to do so.   

As a transgender resident of this city, I’m keenly aware of the fact I'm not covered in this city’s current NDO and don't have the human rights coverage other Houstonians take for granted.  I stand here before you today to humbly ask on behalf of myself and other trans Houstonians that when you take up the issue of crafting a comprehensive non-discrimination ordinance that adds sexual orientation and gender identity to protections most Houstonians take for granted, to not forget us.

The late Nelson Mandela once stated, “To deny any person their human rights is to challenge their very humanity.”

Far too often many of our fellow Houstonians are all too willing and eager to do precisely that.  It took a court order to stop the Houston Police Department from using the 1904 anti-crossdressing ordinance then on the books in 1975 to harass Anne Mayes and other members of the local LGBT community with it until Phyllis Frye led the nearly four year solo charge to get it repealed in August 1980. 

Izza Lopez was forced to sue River Oaks Imaging in 2005 after it discovered during a background check she was transgender. River Oaks Imaging used that reason to rescinded a job offer they had extended to her

Lopez said about what happened," My first emotion when they rescinded the job offer was shock:; I was in disbelief. I had thought that if I passed, I would be able to slip under the radar of society's judgement and disapproval.   But I was wrong." 

Speaking of society's judgment and disapproval, Tyjanae Moore, was minding her own business at the Houston Public Library back in November 2010 but was arrested for using the bathroom appropriate to her gender presentation.  An overzealous female security guard believed gender policing was part of her duties, declared Moore to be in her not so infinite wisdom a ‘man’ and subsequently involved the HPD officer on site in this situation. 

And these are just the highly publicized incidents we are aware of.   There are probably countless others inside the 628 square miles we call home that go unreported because of the lack of human rights protections and the transpersons involved feel powerless to do anything in response to the injustice aimed at them.

Well today, I'm going to reclaim and own that power on their behalf..

While we have a proud Houston flavored trans history in terms of ICTLEP, (The International Conference of Transgender Law and Employment Policy) happening here from 1992-1997, the Josephine Tittsworth organized Texas Transgender Nondiscrimination Summit, people like the late Kathryn McGuire, Judge Frye, Vanessa Edwards Foster, Lou Weaver, Cristan Williams, Jenifer Rene Pool, Dee Dee Watters, myself and others rising to the challenge of leadership inside and outside our city limits, trans Houstonians and especially trans Houstonians of color feel more like third class citizens of it.

According to the 2011 "Injustice At Every Turn'  National Transgender Non Discrimination Survey commissioned by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, which is having its conference here January 29-February 2, transpeople have an unemployment rate twice the national average of 7%.  It’s even more appalling for transgender people of color at 3x the national average.

We face housing discrimination, harassment on various levels from grade school to collegiate campuses to health care and we’re fed up with it.

This shouldn’t be happening in the fourth largest city in the country, and the largest in the great state of Texas.   But sadly Houston is now the largest city in the US and the state that doesn’t have an NDO that protects its LGBT citizens from discrimination .

A world class city like ours protects the human rights of all its citizens. It’s past time distinguished council members, to let freedom ring in Houston for the LGBT citizens who live here.  You’ll discover that as you expand rights to include us at the Houston family table, you’ll expand them for yourselves and the Houstonians you represent.

I’ll close with the words of Barbara Jordan, a great daughter of our city and paraphrase them so they are applicable to my transgender brothers and sisters.

“What transgender Houstonians want is very simple.  We want a Houston that is as good as its promise.”

I and my trans brothers and sisters hope and pray that when you finally have the opportunity to exercise your legislative power to write that comprehensive non discrimination ordinance, you will expeditiously do so.

Moni's Long H-Town Day

As you read this, I'm enroute to downtown Houston and City Hall to speak at a city council meeting that starts at 1:30 PM.

I'm excited about it because it's not only the first Houston City Council meeting I have attended since I returned home, it's the first ever one I've signed up to speak at.

The subject?   Give you a wild guess what it's about    
The text of the speech will pop up at 3 PM CST for your reading pleasure and those of you in the H-town area will eventually get to maybe see me deliver it on public access cable.   

But it's not the only event on my schedule for today.   Today will also be the last scheduled meeting for the Houston Host Committee for Creating Change 2014 at the Montrose Center,.

Since I missed the last meeting because I didn't want to share my cold with 'errbody' else in the room, definitely want to be there for this one since I was a part of the team of people who were at that first Host Committee meeting back in April.

It's probably going to be a bittersweet and emotional moment when the realization hits us that it is the last scheduled one before CC14 happens at the Hilton Americas. 

While it's going to be a long day for me when I return home and I didn't help it by being up until 5:30 AM working on my City Council speech, if the sweat equity I put in today leads to a comprehensive NDO and a wildly successful CC14, then it'll be worth it.

  

Olympic Gender Drama-Erik Schinegger

With us a month away from the start of what are sure to be the controversial Sochi Olympic Games, here's another one of my posts about Olympic and world class athletes that were embroiled in gender identity or gender related drama either during or in the runup to an Olympic Games.

We're going to jump into the wayback machine and go back to the June 19, 1948 birth in Agsdorf, Austria of Erik Schinegger.   Erik was raised as a girl named Erika who became a world championship downhill ski racer.

In Portillo, Chile in 1966, 18 year old Erika Schinegger won the title over France's decorated Olympic and world championship skier Marielle Goitschel.

In 1967 because of Marielle Goitschel's and Nancy Greene's of Canada's dominant World Cup season she fell to sixth in the overall standings and relinquished the downhill title to Goitschel.

But going into the 1968 runup to Grenoble, Schinegger was considered a favorite for three Alpine skiing medals on the women's side.  But because of concerns that the Eastern Bloc nations were using disguised genetic males to compete for medals in women's international athletic competition, invasive gender testing was inaugurated starting with the 1966 European track championships and expanded to the Olympics in 1968.   

Grenoble would be the first Winter Games that female competitors would have to submit to such testing, and now 19 year old Erika submitted to it along with the other Austrian skiing hopefuls as part of the formality for competing in the Olympic Games.  

Doctors found only male hormones in the saliva of Schinegger, and submitted her to more rigorous scientific and psychiatric testing that led to a shocking discovery for the soon to be 20 year old who had been raised as a girl but was questioning her sexuality at the time.

Schinegger was told by IOC doctors she couldn't compete in the Games because she was chromosomally male and intersex.  After digesting and accepting the news Schinegger changed his name to Erik, went on a hormone regimen, started living his life as male and underwent a corrective surgery that revealed he had an internal penis and testicles.

"The discovery was a tremendous shock for me, my parents and everyone who knew me," Schinegger was quoted as saying. "What came afterward was an indescribable torture."


Erik set his sights on competing for Austria in the 1972 Games in Sapporo, Japan.  He trained hard for it and found himself beating many of the leading male Austrian skiers of the time but was denied a spot on the Austrian National Ski Team assembling to compete in Sapporo.   

Schinegger subsequently retired from international skiing, got married twice and fathered a daughter in addition to running an inn and a children's ski school in the Carinthia region of Austria..   Schinegger also penned an autobiography entitled  Victory Over Myself and during a documentary that was filmed about his life handed his 1966 World Championship gold medal to Marielle Goitschel. 

UH-Downtown Gender Neutral Bathroom Proposal Up For Vote

If Kristopher Sharp and the students of UH-Downtown get their way on Friday, UHD will become the first school in the Houston area and the second in the state of Texas with gender neutral restrooms.

A proposal is being considered by the UHD student government association on January 10 that would designate two bathrooms (one male, one female) in each of UHD's three buildings as gender neutral restrooms open to anyone.

UHD student body Vice President Kristopher Sharp is pushing the initiative after hearing of trans and gender variant students being either harassed or made to feel so uncomfortable they refrain from using the on campus facilities.

Ever since Sharp's election as student body vice president last April, he has been busy addressing some of the groups that have felt marginalized on campus versus the rest of the student population.

Sharp helped create a GLBT resource center on the UH-Downtown campus, amend the nondiscrimination policy to include sexual orientation and gender identity in the student handbook, and create a diversity committee in the student government focused on finding underrepresented populations, such as international, veteran and LGBT students. A similar diversity committee was also created for administration for faculty, staff and students to look at diversity issues at the university.

"We began to see that, in many ways, our university was disproportionally leaving out the transgender population, which we have a sizable transgender population on campus,” Sharp said.

Sharp wrote up the proposal after hearing stories about a transfeminine student being confronted twice in the women's restroom.   It also has the advantage of being a quick and cheap solution since it requires only a new sign (and possibly instructions) on the door.

The proposal also affects only six of the 60 bathrooms on the UHD campus.

University officials have been working to address the problem by building lockable single stall restrooms of which the first is scheduled to open in February according to John Hudson, director of UHD's new Center for Student Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

"Others we hope would come on line later in the year," Hudson said in a Houston Chronicle interview.  The administration's plan calls for a total of five private restrooms - one in each main building, one near the auditorium and one at the sports center, he said.

Good luck and hope that proposal gets the unanimous vote and passage it deserves..

Statement From The CeCe Support Committee

TransGriot Note:  If everything stays on track, CeCe McDonald is scheduled to be released next Monday.  

Here's a statement from the CeCe Support Committee.

Dear CeCe McDonald supporters,

The rumors are true: CeCe is scheduled to be released from prison in January. She will wait and write a public statement about her release after she gets out of prison, because she wants to tell you all in her own words and own time. She would like to spend her first days out in privacy, with people she feels close to. Again, information about her release will be shared when CeCe feels it is the right time to do so. In the meantime, she and her support committee ask everyone to be patient.

We are excited to throw her a party, the weekend after her release. As soon as the venue and date are confirmed, we will announce! This party is a chance for everyone who has been supporting CeCe to come out and celebrate her release with her.

Many of you are eager to send contributions of money or materials, to aid in her transition home. Keep an eye on the FreeCece Mcdonald Facebook page for specific 'asks' in the future. Right now, because of the incredible support of her community here in Minneapolis and around the world, she will be safe, comfortable, and cared for when she rejoins us. Please consider sending a donation to other incarcerated people or abolition movements. (Check out the Rainbow Defense Fund http://rainbowdefensefund.wordpress.com/).

Thanks everyone for supporting CeCe, and for supporting her now in the way she most needs: with your patience.

~ CeCe Support Committee

Carmen And Laverne On Katie Show Today

Looks like 2014 is going to get off to a fast, positive start for #girlslikeus media wise.

While the Katie show has already been cancelled after its two seasons on the air,  the shows that have already been taped still have to being broadcast.

One of the shows in the can and scheduled for broadcast will involve Carmen Carrera and Laverne Cox.

These two lovely ladies will be gracing our television screens today.   Katie will be discussing in Laverne's case of course her groundbreaking role in Orange Is The New Black and the realities that trans people have to face.   

Carmen will talk about her transition fears, her blossoming career as a model and the fan sponsored petition to have her walk the runway as a Victoria's Secret Angel.

If you wish you find what local station in your area broadcasts the show and at what time for your market (in Houston it's broadcast at 3:00 PM CST on KTRK-TV Channel 13), you can click on this station finder link to do so. 

OutSmart Article On Creating Change 2014

OutSmart is our local TBLG community magazine that has been publishing since 1997.  

Christina Gorczynski, one of our Houston Host Committee Co-Chairs,wrote an article that published in the latest issue of it concerning the rapidly approaching January 29-February 2 date of Creating Change Houston style. 

And yeah, as you probably guessed, a  certain blogger y'all know and love was quoted in it.

And for those of you traveling to Houston wondering  if I'm going to be there for CC14, um yeah.  This is my birthplace and hometown (although Louisville likes to claim me as theirs, too).  I've been part of the team helping put it together since April and I'm already scheduled for two panel discussions.   You think I was going to miss a Creating Change in my backyard?    

Here's the link to it, and looking forward to seeing everyone who is going to be part of the record breaking crowd we are expecting at the Hilton Americas Hotel in a few weeks. 

UT Fans Welcome Their New Coach To Austin

As I've stated in other UT related blog posts, I'm not a Texas Longhorns fan because I've had negative run-ins with elements of their arrogant and racist fanbase while I was a student at UH during the SWC days. 

In fact, it makes my day when I see their precious $140 million dollar football team of five star recruits get its collective butt kicked by teams that have less cashflow and had to work harder to get their players 

But did have to comment on Charlie Strong becoming the first African-American head coach of their football program.  Word is that Strong has accepted their offer and is about to sign a contract that pays him $5 million a year over the next five years to break the UT coaching color line.  

Congratulations and good luck, brother, you're gonna need it. 

LSUFreek put up at his blog this awesome GIF of the reaction that Strong's hiring as the Longhorn head coach has generated with elements of UT's demanding fanbase. 

.

And yeah, also not happy about the problematic reporting coming out of the Dallas-Ft Worth area about it too. 

If Closeted TBLG People Are Harming BTLG People's Human Rights, Out 'Em

In the wake of the outing of three more closeted Pink Republicans, the debate has been stirred up in LGBT World once again as to whether it is ethical or moral to do so and whether it harms or helps our rainbow human rights movement.

Here's my take on outing.  If the person in question holds a position of policy making, judicial or legislative power, and is consistently using it to negatively impact the TBLG community while being GLBT themselves, yeah, you need to be outed and called on it.

I have no sympathy for you in this case because self hating closeted people are problematic.  Self hating closeted people with policy making, legislative or judicial power who consistently use it to negatively impact the human rights of a marginalized group are dangerous to not only themselves, but the marginalized group they are a part of.
 
Clarence Thomas proves that point for African-Americans every SCOTUS session when he consistently rules with the other four white male conservative justices on cases that negatively impact the human rights of our people   The only thing more galling about (in)Justice Scalia's 'racial entitlement ' comments and Chief Justice Roberts cluelessly stating that the VRA that he's worked for decades to destroy was 'no longer needed' was Thomas' sellout behind voting to eviscerate Section 4 of the VRA.

But for an example of a person from the GLBT community who was in a decision making capability who repeatedly acted in ways to harm the community, you need look no further than Ken Mehlman.

He was Director of the White House Office of Political Affairs from 2001-2005, ran the 2004 GW Bush reelection campaign and was chairman of the Republican Party from 2005-2007 until he came out three years later.  

Despite being gay himself (and he repeatedly denied it while holding those power positions), he pushed the effort to exploit anti-gay animus to cement the alliance of anti-gay conservatives for Republican political gain at the expense of the human rights of LGBT people.

Mehlman was quite aware that Karl Rove was working with other Republicans to put anti-gay referenda and anti-gay marriage amendments on the 2004 and 2006 ballots to cynically increase turnout for those election cycles, but said and did nothing about it.  Worse, he stacked much paper while remaining mute.  

So he came out.  Big fracking deal because the damage has already been done and he's long since cashed his checks for his reprehensible work.  We are going to be spending the next decade or so unraveling the damage to our human rights this self hater caused.  It is time, energy and money that could have been spent focusing on other issues of important to our community.    

So when it comes to people like this who only care about themselves, their personal power, prestige and bank accounts while screwing the rest of us, then yeah, out 'em.
  

Using Our Pain To Make You Money

Back in 1925, Maxon Lester Graham and Adelaide Burt started with a $50 investment a restaurant in Salt Lake City called The Coon Chicken Inn.

It had an entrance designed to look like a smiling blackface picture of an African American porter.   As you approached The Coon Chicken Inn, you would see a large head with huge lips and a porter’s hat over the exaggerated features that portrayed African Americans as a denigrated cartoon character. Customers would enter the restaurant through the sculpture’s mouth, and the trademarks and advertising for the restaurant featured the same reprehensibly racist caricature.

Items on The Coon Chicken Inn's menu were southern fried Coon Chicken sandwiches and the Baby Coon Chicken special.  African Americans were hired as waiters, waitresses, and cooks but were discouraged from frequenting the venue as customers or enjoying its dance floor.  

The karmic wheel caught up with it in early July 1927 as the restaurant caught fire sometime around 6 PM.  But a group of 50 people rebuilt the Coon Chicken Inn and had it back in operation within days.  The Coon Chicken Inn later expanded to Portland and Seattle and the chain's three locations were in operation until the late 1950's

I tell that piece of Black history to point out this isn't the first time a white restaurant owner has used racism for fun and profit.   In January last year the news went viral about a Mexican restaurant owner in South Carolina there using racism and xenophobia to boost her business.

Leanne Snelgrove owns the Taco Cid restaurant in Columbia, SC and her vanillacentric privileged behind thought it would be a hilarious and wonderful idea to promote her restaurant with an offensive T-shirt that states 'How To Catch An Illegal Immigrant'.

It has a graphic of a box trap propped up by a stick with two tacos underneath it that employees of the eatery also wear.

It went viral after Corey Hutchins took a picture of this full of fail shirt and posted it to his Twitter account.   Predictably, Snelgrove doesn't think the shirt is racist and proceeded to whitesplain it in media interviews and on the restaurant's website.

So for you peeps still trying to defend Ani DiFranco for her fauxgressive frack up last week, just stop.  The visceral reactions of Black women and the African-American community to the now cancelled plantation retreat and the initial fauxpology come from this long four century history of whites choosing profits over the humanity of non-white people, be it cluelessly or deliberately.      

It’s so cute when white-owned businesses, restaurants, etc., in an effort to prove how bold, hip and modern they are, hide behind marketing campaigns in demonstrating their resentment of people of color and other marginalized bodies all in the name of sticking it to political correctness. I can’t imagine just how awesome these folks must feel to know their creativity is so dismal that they have to step on the backs of oppressed groups just to get ahead. - See more at: http://newblackwoman.com/2013/01/11/today-in-post-racial-america-restaurant-uses-xenophobia-to-promote-business/#sthash.ZT3Pxpk3.aFldB9ik.dpuf

We're tired of you using our pain to make you money, and hope that message came through loud and clear during that dustup. 

Sadly I have the feeling it didn't

Janet Mock's 'Redefining Realness' Due In February

Despite the fact I get a chance to converse with her from time to time when both our busy schedules allow it, I'm still like many of you megaexcited that her book Redefining Realness is being released one month from now on February 4.

These are some of the early reviews about her book.

“Of the book’s many strengths, the most notable is its political bite. Mock defies the historically apolitical confines of the transgender memoir…[and] take[s] the uninitiated, non-transgender reader with her.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Undercurrents of strong emotion swirl throughout this well-written book…An enlightening, much-needed perspective on transgender identity.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“Redefining Realness is loving, searing, and true.”
—Jennifer Finney Boylan, New York Times bestselling author of She’s Not There

“Redefining Realness is a classic American autobiography. Like Richard Wright and Maya Angelou, Janet Mock brings us into a world we may not know.”
—Barbara Smith, author of The Truth That Never Hurts

“Redefining Realness is a riveting, emotional, crisply written testimony. I couldn’t put it down!”
—Laverne Cox, actress, advocate and star of Orange Is the New Black

“Redefining Realness overflows with the everyday magic of survival and resiliency.”
—Susan Stryker, author of Transgender History

I'm looking forward to reading it, and hope you will pick it up when it hits your fave local bookstore.  If you have local independent bookstores, support Janet and them by purchasing it from them or hit your fave online retailer or chain bookstore to do so as well.

Let's do our part to push this book toward the New York Times Best Seller List.

Also looking forward to seeing her in H-town when her book tour finally makes it to my part of the country

Homegoing Services For Minister Bobbie Jean Baker January 11

For those of you who may not have heard the tragic news, our West Coast sister Minister Bobbie Jean Baker was killed in a hit and run accident January 1 after attending a New Year's Eve watch service.

Here's the information about the homegoing service for those of you on the Left Coast who want to pay your last respects to our sister who was very active in the trans* faith community.

It will be officiated by Bishop Yvette Flunder and take place next Saturday, January 11 at First Congregational Oakland UCC starting at 1 PM PST.

Address of the church is 2501 Harrison St, Oakland, CA.

For those of you in the Bay Area whose lives she touched, I hope you will consider attending and being there in body for those of us who would like to be there but can only do so in spirit.

Let's fill that sanctuary up as a tribute to her and in honor of her years spent in service to our community

If there are any updates to the story, I will pass them along as soon as I get them.
 

'YMCA' Is Not A Gay Anthem? Really?

I am a huge disco fan, and one of the groups I used to listen to and liked was the Village People back in the day.

And yeah, I was quite aware of the impression amongst my high school peers that it was LGBT-family friendly music.

One of the comedians in my high school classes used to sarcastically call the 'Macho Man' Village People song 'Montrose Man' to make it very clear what he thought the heterosexuality quotient of the tune was.    

So I laughed my azz off when I recently heard Village People frontman Victor Willis try to claim that the monster Village People hit song 'YMCA' is not a gay anthem.  

Seems that some gay activists keen on having some kind of show of support for the TBLG Russian population for the rapidly approaching Sochi Winter Olympic Games suggested that the USA Olympic team march into the stadium as it is being played.  That's not gonna happen since the host nation has wide latitude in how they want the Olympic opening ceremony to unfold, but nice sentiment.

But here was Willis' reaction to that idea.    

“If they want to use the song that way, go right ahead, but I think it's silly because the lyrics were written by me as an expression of urban youths having fun at the YMCA,” Willis said. 

“The words were crafted by me to be taken any number of ways but not specific to gays. It's much broader than that. The song is universal.

Umm hmm.  And what say you Blaine and Antoine to that comment?

The Village People had to be the most in your face with the gay archetypes band ever put together.  The late Village people producer Jacques Morali got the name of the group from New York's Greenwich Village gayborhood and was designed to be aimed at and marketing to disco's gay demographic. 

And let's go down the list of songs shall we?   'Village People', 'San Francisco (You Got Me)', 'Key West', 'Go West', 'Macho Man', 'In The Navy'. 

Two album titles were Cruisin'  (1978) and Go West (1979) and Village People songs were played in Black, Latino and gay underground nightclubs before getting radio airplay on R&B, Top 40 and disco formatted stations .

I'll concede your point since you wrote the lyrics to it that YMCA has become part of universal pop culture.  But it also a universal pop culture touchstone that flies the rainbow flag. 

You may not have intended for 'YMCA' to become a gay anthem, and we know not everyone in the Village People was family, but like Diana Ross' 'I'm Coming Out', that is exactly what the song has become.

So yeah Victor, keep tellin' yourself that YMCA is not a gay anthem.   The rest of the world, and especially those of us in the GLBT community beg to differ with your assessment.

TransGriot International Top Ten-December 2013

One of the things I've resolved to do a better job of this year is do posts in which I track where my international readers are coming from. 

I take great pride in being a widely read international blog.  That information helps me do a better job of balancing out my international content so it isn't as North American, North Hemisphere or Western Hemisphere centric.

Of course, I'm always going to focus on events TBLG wise in the African Diaspora regardless of pageviews or location because that's part of my blog's mission statement.

So with this post I'm going to start doing on a monthly basis tracking my Top 10 nations where my blog traffic came from for that preceding month.

So let's get busy revealing those ten nations for December 2013.

10. Poland               729           
9.   China                 734
8.   Russia                2020
7.   France                2348
6.   Australia             2651
5.   Germany             3813
4.   Malaysia             4097
3.   Canada               6261
2.   Great Britain        8339
1.   United States      83897  

That was a surprise in terms of Poland sneaking into the Top Ten.  Malaysia jumping into the number 4 one since I complied the last post in April.   Maybe it's because I mentioned MP Anna Grodzka in that year end international trans year in review post.    No surprise who my top three are although Canada and Great Britain flip flop between the number 2 and 3 spot.

We'll see if there are any changes when I report the numbers for January. 
 

2013 TransGriot NFL Predictions- Wildcard Weekend

2013 was my worst ever  NFL prognostication season.   Like my hometown team I had high hopes of defending my title, but multiple .sub 500 weeks killed that for me. 

Like the Texans, i"m looking forward to the start of the 2014 NFL season and May's NFL Draft in which we have the first pick after a 2-14 meltdown.  We'll have a new coach in Bill O'Brien and a new quarterback in Teddy Bridgewater. .

The winter of my NFL discontent could be worse.  I could be hearing it from the Harris County Arlington Cowchip Fifth Column about this revolting development.   But they won't go there.  All I have to do is ask them is what time does their playoff game start at Jerryworld, point out the fact they've now missed the playoffs for three straight seasons and that should be enough to shut them up about the Texans going 2-14.   Even better, our interconference division opponent next season is the NFC East.

Ahem, focus Moni.

Enough jibber-jabber about my Texans, the 2013-14 NFL playoffs have arrived. While it won't be as much fun for me because my hometown team isn't in the running to play in Super Bowl XLVIII in Met Life Stadium (why) on February 2, I need to get my NFL prediction skills recalibrated.   Mike and Eli's picks are here.

So it's time to dive into NFL Wildcard Weekend

Saturday NFL Wildcard Weekend Games

Kansas City (11-5) at Indianapolis (11-5)

This AFC wildcard game is a rematch of a December 22 NFL Week 16 matchup in which the AFC South champion (yuck) Colts forced four turnovers and scored 23 unanswered points after exiting the first quarter trailing 7-0 enroute to beat the Chefs 23-7 at Arrowhead Stadium.

This time the rematch game is at Lucas Oil Stadium, and the trendlines aren't looking good for the Chiefs.

They enter this game having lost five of their last six games against Indianapolis. After starting the season 9-0, KC was 2-5 down the stretch including the 27-24 overtime loss against San Diego in which they rested 20 of their 22 starters, blew a 10 point fourth quarter lead and Ryan Succup missed a 41 yard field goal with :04 seconds left in regulation that would have secured the win. 

Meanwhile Indianapolis comes into the playoff game at Lucas Oil Stadium on somewhat of a roll, having won their last three games.  So what if they were against the Texans, the Chiefs and Jacksonville, they still handled their NFL business. 

The Colts are determined to not only go deeper into this season's playoffs than they did last year, but win their first ever home playoff game for their sophomore quarterback (and Houston homeboy) Andrew Luck and the out for the season Reggie Wayne.

We'll also get to see tomorrow how well Andy Reid making the call to rest his starters in that final regular season game against San Diego game worked out.  

Be afraid KC, be very afraid.  

Indianapolis wins this one.

New Orleans (11-5) at Philadelphia (10-6)

This intriguing NFC wildcard nightcap game features a pair of offenses and (ahem) a pair of former Texas HS quarterbacks that can light up the scoreboard when they get rolling in the Saints' Drew Brees and Philly's Nick Foles.

Brees and Foles played for Texas 5A HS football power school Austin Westlake, but a decade apart.  Brees led Westlake to their only state title in 1996 while Foles is responsible for breaking Brees' high school passing records.   This will be only the second playoff game in NFL history in which QB's from the same high school confronted each other and the first time ever two from the Texas high school ranks have done so.

The Saints march into this matchup at Lincoln Financial Field as the number four ranked team in the NFL in total offense, the number two ranked passing offense in the league and five Pro Bowlers.

The defense in their first year under defensive coordinator Rob Ryan wasn't too shabby either.  They were number four in the NFL in total defense and number two in passing defense.     

But the reason the Saints are playing this game in chilly Philly instead of the climate controlled raucous confines of the Mercedes Benz Superdome (where they were a spotless 8-0) is because they were 3-5 on the road.   As the Saints have been reminded all week, they have lost their last five road playoff games and Drew Brees is 0-3 in road playoff games.

The NFC East champion Eagles after starting 1-3 under new head coach Chip Kelly, caught fire and went 9-3 to capture the division crown.  

They were the number two team in the league in total offense and number one in rushing offense thanks to 2013 NFL rushing champion LeSean McCoy who finished the season with 1,607 yards.  Foles after taking over as the starter for Michael Vick threw for 27 TD's with only 2 picks.

The Eagles are the flipside of the Saints in terms of they did their best NFL work away from home.  They were 6-2 on the road, but only 4-4 at Lincoln Financial Field.   However, Philadelphia did win their last four consecutive home games as part of their 5-1 finishing kick in the second half of the season, including that 54-11 prime time Sunday Night Football blowout of the Chicago Bears.   
 
They also clinched the NFC East title by beating the hated in Philly (and everywhere else) Dallas Cowboys 24-22 at the Jerrydome
 
My pick for this game comes down to location, location, location.  It's also going to be cold with the predicted 8:10 PM EST kickoff time weather expecting a low temp of 21 degrees, 5-10 mph winds, and a 20 chance of precipitation. 

Not what Who Dat Nation wants to hear when they are already nervous about the Saints chances of winning this playoff game and overcoming their playoff road woes.

Since this game is not in Orleans Parish and the Eagles have already proven their offense works in bad weather conditions, going with Philadelphia.

Sunday NFL Wildcard Weekend Games

San Diego (9-7) at Cincinnati (11-5)

The AFC North champion Bengals for the first time in two seasons are playing somebody in January besides the Texans in a wild card playoff game. 

They are also doing so at home against a San Diego Chargers team that had to come back from a 10 point fourth quarter deficit to tie the game, then go deep into overtime in Week 17 to eke out a controversial 27-24 win against a Kansas City Chiefs squad that was resting their starters.

Another Texas HS quarterback from a perennial Class 5A championship powerhouse in Katy's Andy Dalton leads Cincinnati into this rematch of a Week 13 game in San Diego in which the Bengals came storming out of their bye week to beat the Chargers 17-10.courtesy of a late third quarter 21 yard TD pass to a wide open A.J. Green that turned out to be the winning score 

The Bengals come into this playoff tilt at Paul Brown Stadium on somewhat of a roll.  Including that December 1 win against the Chargers, they were 4-1 down the stretch.   Three of those wins were by blowout margins over the Colts (42-28), the Vikings (42-14) and the not so Angry Birds (34-17) with the only stumble being a 30-20 loss at Heinz Field against the Steelers.  The Bengals for the first time since 1988 were unbeaten at home, and the last time that happened they went all the way to Super Bowl XXIII   

The Cincinnati defense is ranked number three in the NFL in total defense, and number five in both rushing and passing defense.   But as the Bengals have been reminded all week, they haven't won a playoff game since 1991.   Despite this being the third straight season they have played January football, it has been one and done the last two years.

Despite San Diego barely getting into the AFC playoff party, after that loss to the Bengals, the Chargers come into this playoff game having won four straight pressure packed games, including a 27-20 upset win on December 12 over the number one AFC seeded Broncos in Denver. 

The Bolts are the number five ranked offense in the NFL and the number four ranked passing offense in the league. Philip Rivers is also no slouch in the quarterback slot.

They just hope it won't be as cold in Cincy as the last time they played January football there, the 1981 AFC Championship game that the Bengals won 27-7.  The wind chilled temp was minus 59 degrees and replaced the 1967 Ice Bowl as the coldest playoff game in NFL history. 

San Diego is also hoping that bad Andy Dalton shows up.  Not a likely occurrence. Andy Dalton's stats in The Jungle: 63.5 percent of his passes completed with 20 TD's, nine interceptions and a 98.4 passer rating with the weapons to exploit your number 12 ranked defense.

More bad news for you Charger fans to digest.  High temp for Sunday's game at The Jungle is forecast to be 36 degrees with rain and then snow.  You are catching a break becaus it is a noon CST kickoff, such as it is.

Looks like Polar down in Da Ville and the Bengals fans will be were happy and chanting "Who Dey" after this game is over.

Cincinnati to win this one.


San Francisco (12-4) at Green Bay (8-7-1)

The Sunday NFL wildcard afternoon playoff matchup is a rematch of their Week 1 opening game shootout at Candlestick Park. 

Colin Kaepernick flipped the script and lit them up for a career high 412 passing yards and three TD's enroute to a 34-28 victory eight months after the Niners and Kaepernick knocked the Packers out of the NFC Divisional round of the 2012-13 playoffs with his legs in a 45-31 win.

But this one is being hosted at Lambeau Field because Green Bay fans got both of the presents they wanted from Santa on Christmas Day  

They got the return of Aaron Rodgers to the Packer lineup after spending seven weeks on the sidelines with a broken left collarbone.

The other was the third straight NFC North title won in dramatic fashion in that Week 17 winner take all December 29 showdown at Soldier Field against the Bears.   Rodgers hit Randall Cobb on a 48 yard TD pass on fourth and eight with :38 seconds left in the game to erase a one point deficit.   An interception of a desperation Cutler pass in the waning seconds of the game preserved the 33-28 win.

The Packers are third in the NFL in total offense and because of Rodgers' injury were forced to lean on rookie Eddie Lacy more heavily than they probably would have their franchise QB been healthy.  

But major red flags going into this game is that despite winning three of their last four games down the stretch, none of their wins were against playoff teams this season, their defense has been getting worse as the season progressed, Clay Matthews is out with a thumb injury and the secondary has been getting toasted like Quizno's subs.

The Niners played in the best division in the NFL this year in the NFC West, closed the season winning six straight games including a 19-17 win at Candlestick Park over the eventual NFC number one seeded Seattle Seahawks and have the number three ranked rushing attack in the league.

They also bring into this game eight Pro Bowlers, the number five ranked defense in the NFL, and the number four ranked rushing defense in the league..

We might be looking on Sunday at a replay of the 1967 Ice Bowl. Aaron Rodgers on the field gives the Packers a chance to pull an upset along with a forecast kickoff high temp of minus 5 degrees with a low approaching minus 20.  If the 49ers can overcome the Arctic cold bearing down on Green Bay, Colin Kaepernick will prove once again he is no slouch either at QB and has a better supporting cast and team.

And since he was the losing quarterback in last year's Super Bowl, Kaepernick has a major incentive along with many of the Niners players who had to watch the Ravens hoist the Vince Lombardi Trophy to handle their playoff business despite the temps.

San Francisco to win this one.