Pick When Stand Your Ground Won't Work

It's time to play TransGriot Final Jeopardy

Here is your TransGriot Final Jeopardy clue.  .  

The situation in which the ALEC pimped Kill A Black Person With Impunity Stand Your Ground Law will NOT work to keep the shooter out of jail.

Remember your answer must be in the form of a question




Time's up, so what was your answer?.

Fallon Fights Next Friday

Next Friday March 21 our WMMA fighting sister Fallon Fox will enter the cage and get busy at the UIC Pavilion in Chicago as part of a big 50th XFO fight card

As part of the "Biggest Night in XFO History", the 3-1 'Queen of Swords' will do battle against the 1-0 Heather Bassett. 

Fallon is hoping that many of you in the Chicagoland area and especially the TBLG community will come out and support her and I hope you will do so for those of us in the national community who would like to be there but can't.

It'll be at the UIC Pavilion at 525 S. Racine Ave.for those of you in the Chicago metro area who want to attend the fight with the action starting at 6 PM CDT.

As we get closer to that date, I'll remind 'errbody' to get those warm thoughts and best wishes ready for our fave #girllike us WMMA warrior

Wendy Williams Steps Into Transphobic Territory Again

Wendy Williams is already on my caca list for her misgendering comments of Viola Davis during the 2012 Oscars, and has a long, negative history with the trans community already with some past problematic incidents and comments from her shock jock radio days..  

She just poured more gasoline on the simmering fire with her transphobic comments on a recent broadcast of her talk show.  

Williams along with a panel discussed trans athlete Chloie Jonsson.     She is suing CrossFit for not allowing her to compete in the women's division of the CrossFit Games. 

Williams and panelist Joe Pardavila then uttered some transphobic comments on top of all the misgendering of Johnson while spouting ignorant non-science based myths about trans athletes that hearken back to the same bull feces that used to be said to justify segregated sports in the bad old Jim Crow segregation days. 



It's bitterly ironic that as someone who routinely gets slimed and misgendered by Black gossip bloggers as a trans woman, you would think that Williams would at least be more sensitive and aware to not do the same to other people and put out ignorant commentary about trans people on her TV show.

But that would be expecting too much from Wendy Williams. 

TransGriot Update:  I originally had the video from the Wendy Williams show on this post, but she has removed it and apologized for the comments.   But the wonderful aspect about the Net is once you post something it's around on somebody's server forever and this video is specifically of the offensive segment. 

Shut Up Fool Awards-Happy 40th Birthday Grace Park Edition

Today is the milestone birthday of actress Grace Park, who was born in Los Angeles in 1974, and raised in Vancouver after she and her family moved to Canada when she was 22 months old. 

She is currently on the reimagined edition of Hawaii Five-0 as Officer Kono Kalakaua. 

But what many Battlestar Galactica fans already know she was Cylon Model Number Eight, AKA Sharon 'Boomer Valerii and Sharon Athena Agathon. 

So happy milestone birthday, Grace!

We'll segue from giving birthday shoutouts to handing our usual Friday 'bidness' here at TransGriot, which is calling out this weeks bumper crop of fools.


Honorable mention number one is a local fool in HISD superintendent Dr. Terry Grier.  In the wake of a highly contentious board meeting yesterday that in large part was stoked by the serial school killer proposing another round of closings that landed squarely on the Houston Black community, said this in a press release.

"School closure discussions are never easy.  However, we must continue to have constructive conversations on the issue of school size and school efficiency. Not to do so could be harmful to our communities and the students that reside in them. The goal remains creating better, stronger schools."

When all the school closure are only affecting one community, you're closing them regardless of performance and refusing to listen to the affected community calling that a 'constructive conversation', that's a problem. 

Honorable mention number two is another Texas fool in Mario Gomez.   He's the promoter of a Selena tribute event in Corpus Christi who unleashed his transphobia and told #girllikeus Selena illusionist she wasn't welcome at his event, then tred to backtrack and claim he wasn't a 'phobe when the swift bacjklash rained down upon him. 

Um, yeah Mario, when you tell a transwoman she isn't welcome at your event despite performing at it for three years, threaten her with arrest from the po-po's if she shows up and add at the end of the foul text you sent her  'nobody wants to see a male person dress up like a girl', you ARE a transphobe.

Honorable mention number three we go to the other end of I-10 for in Teapublican Arizona US House candidate Jim Brown, who obviously didn't get the memo about the GOP's minority outreach and made another ridiculous reference trying to equate government safety net programs to slavery.

Republicans, just say no the slavery analogies,.because they have ZERO credibility coming from the ethnic group who owned and brutalized my ancestors for 246 years.


Honorable mention number four New Hampshire Teapublican state rep Kyle Tasker, who was probably asleep when the GOP was having those 'How To Talk To Women' meetings..  Tasker posted a misogynist joke on his Facebook page that makes light of domestic violence.

Yeah GOP, you still are conducting a war on Women, and you'll get punished at the polls for it on November 4.

Honorable mention number five is Dr. Ben Carson.    I used to have much respect for him, but that's gone now after this conservaknee-grow parted his lips in a Breitbart interview to say the 'US is very much like Nazi Germany'

Really?  Your ass is still walking the streets and not in jail after saying such off the wall BS along with all your buddies at FOX Noise.   If you really want to know what living in Nazi Germany was like for a Black man, pick up a copy of the late Hans Massaquoi's Destined To Witness in which the EBONY managing editor tells his story of growing us as a Black child in that European dictatorship.     

I have three words for you to conclude this.  Ihre Reichsausweis, Bitte

That's your papers, please in German. 

Our Shut Up Fool Winner this week is Eddie Munster, oops Rep. Paul Ryan, one of the Great White Hope Republican Leaders that Rep. Lynn Jenkins of Kansas waxed so poetically aboutt in 2009.  

Ryan in his zeal to prove the GOP does care about the poor, trotted out the racist dog whistles and parted his lips to say that 'inner city men aren't even thinking about work' while citing the work of the racist Charles Murray, then started backpedaling without apologizing for the initial racist comments when he got called out by Rep. Barbara Lee and others in Washington and the African-American community.  

You know, you really need to put down The Bell Curve and join the rest of us in reality based America.  
It is your budget and your party's economic policies that have made it hard on those same 'inner city men' to find good jobs at good wages along with the systemic issues of racism that conservafools like you refuse to acknowledge.    

And yeah, when you have a history of using dog whistle comments in your speeches  and quote the work of a known racist, yeah there's a distinct possibility you will be considered a racist by the people you're discussing in those jacked up comments.  

Rep Paul Ryan, shut up bigot, er fool.   

Nobody Wants To Hear Your Transphobic Bigotry, Mario

The slain Tejano singer Selena is well loved in the Latin@ community and especially here in Texas.

There have been more than a few times I've attended drag shows, pageants or club talent nights and witnessed either Latina transwomen or Latino drag illusionists perform to the Queen of Tejano's songs


With the painful 19th anniversary of her March 31, 1995  murder in Corpus Christi at the hands of her fan club president Yolanda Saldivar weeks before her 24th birthday looming, the city has marked that sad anniversary with an annual tribute event.  

For the last three years #girllikeus Honey Andrews has been performing at that tribute in addition to doing her Selena illusion in clubs and other events around the area and the state.   She performs as the Queen of Tejano in outfits custom made to resemble the ones Jennifer Lopez wore in the 1997 biopic on Selena's life. 

She's preformed at the tribute event in Corpus Christi with no problema until this year. 




Andrews was set to perform at this year's event scheduled for March 30 until she received this transphobic text message from promoter Mario Gomez stating she wasn't welcome, he'd have police deal with her if she did, and adding at the end of it 'nobody wants to see a male person dress up like a girl'

Oh really?   Guess you haven't heard about RuPaul's Drag Race, or the fact the movie To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar garnered a box office of $36.5 million     

Once the transphobic conversation was posted on Andrews' Facebook page it went viral Wednesday and triggered a backlash that prompted Gomez to backpedal and offer her a spot in his show. while spouting the usual comment of persons who have been caught doing and saying transphobic ish.

“If this person really wants to sing that bad, they are more than welcome,” Gomez told the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. “This person shouldn’t be making such a big deal about it ... I’m not a bad person. I’m not discriminatory. There’s no need for this.”

 There was no need for the transphobic bigotry you unleashed upon Honey, either homes.. 

Of course, the disrespected Andrews declined it.  “He did this to clear his name up,” she said in an interview. 'That's not the way it works. He did something wrong. He needs to face the consequences.”


Andrews is already committed to performing at another Corpus Christi tribute on March 31

Another Month, Another Contentious HISD Board Meeting

Stay tuned because there will be fireworks at this Thursday's HISD 4 PM CDT board meeting.
--TransGriot   March 13, 2014.

Can I call it or what? 

I had the opportunity to spend what was an interesting afternoon and early evening watching and Tweeting remarks during the March HISD Board meeting in which 120 people signed up to speak at a meeting that had the closure of Jones High School and Dodson Elementary on the menu.  

As I mentioned in earlier posts, the Houston African-American community is seething with anger over the fact that 19 of the schools that have been closed so far are disproportionately in African-American neighborhoods, and are creating what we call 'school deserts' in our neighborhoods.   

That anger boiled over in the meeting last night attended by a standing room only crowd in the board room at HISD's Hattie Mae White Educational Support Center on the northwest side of town. 

Because of the large number of speakers, we were limited to one minute (which pissed me off) because you can't even get a coherent thought out in one minute.  The dismissive,disinterested attitude of the white male HISD board members and Superintendent Grier as people came to the podium to express themselves was interpreted as disrespect, combined with the pissivity over the proposed closes of two more of our schools.  

That combined with many people feeling before even walking into that board meeting the HISD board and the district weren't and haven't been listening to our community about our displeasure over the disproportionate number of public schools being closed  in our neighborhoods led to emotions boiling over.

When one of the speakers made the comment of coming after Terry Grier with an accounting audit, all the HISD po-po's heard was 'threat' and scrambled into action to form a phalanx in front of the board while the person was hustled off to another corner of the room away from the speakers podium.  That triggered a five minute recess and 'Fire Terry Grier' chants as people wroked to defuse tensions in the room..

After the pissivity in the room was ratcheted down a few levels with the help of Trustees Wanda Adams, Rhonda Skillern-Jones and Texas state rep Borris Miles,  the vote on Jones fate happened.   The proposal was amended to keep Jones open and repurpose it without athletics, which didn't sit well with me and many of the people in the room.   We basically want the same thing the white HISD constituents enjoy at Bellaire, Lamar, Westside, and other comprehensive HISD neighborhood high schools.  

That passed on a 6-3 vote.  Jones lived, but its attendance zone was split between Worthing and Sterling High Schools and what the 'repurposed' school is going to look like is still to be determined. 

But it definitely wasn't the comprehensive high school we wanted 

Dodson Elementary unfortunately we couldn't save.  Because as I mentioned in yesterday's post Dodson's location made it a juicy target for closure despite hosting an exemplary rated Montessori program. 

It sits in the shadow of downtown in the EaDo neighborhood less than two blocks from the soon to be opened Purple Line light rail line and right next to a hike and bike trail.   It was battling the forces of gentrification and whatever backroom deals had been cut and our kids are going to be the losers in this.   .  

The vote to close it was a 5-4 one, and that stoked fresh waves of anger after the stunned crowd realized what happened.
  
So the struggle continues.  Another Black school in Houston has been slated for closure this May, Jones has been put on the slow track in many of our minds to eventual death and the simmering African-American community anger at superintendent Dr. Terry Grier and the HISD board has just had gasoline poured on it.


As to whether the trust level between the Houston African-American community and the HISD board can be rebuilt?   What that is going to take is Terry Grier's firing or departure as a starting point and a moratorium on school closures in our neighborhoods.    

Moni's Headed To The HISD School Board Meeting

I'm preparing to head over to Houston northwest side and the Hattie Mae White Educational Support Center for today's 4 PM CDT HISD school board meeting that will determine the fate of my high school alma mater and Dodson Elementary School. 

And if you're wondering if I'm feeling a sense of deja vu about this, yes, I am. 

The HISD board of trustees is going to vote on that issue today, and I'm one of the speakers signed up in opposition to it.  

Superintendent Grier is proposing (again) to close the doors of Jesse H Jones at the end of this school year and send the students currently enrolled there to Sterling and Worthing high schools.  

I and a coalition of people are fighting to keep that from happening, and pointing out that HISD caused many of the problems the school is experiencing.

A press conference was held yesterday in front of Jones in which we pointed out once again the HISD has no legitimate reason to close Jones or Dodson Elementary and are tired of the school closure ax falling in predominately African-American neighborhoods.   . 

We'll see what happens at the school board meeting.   My HISD trustee Paula Harris said February 11 at the community meeting held at Jones there weren't five votes on the board (the majority) to close those schools.  But until the HISD board actually casts that binding vote in public at today's meeting, anything can happen.  


Will update y'all as to what is happening and how it turned out. 

Discrimination Has No Place In Houston Petition

As you are well aware of TransGriot readers, I'm a proud native Houstonian who has been more than fed up about the lack of a comprehensive non-discrimination ordinance in my beloved hometown.  

In the wake of San Antonio passing theirs on a lopsided 8-3 vote, I have been vocal about wanting the same nice human rights thing on my end of I-10.

Ever since Mayor Parker announced during her January inaugural address that it was time to push for that ordinance, I have not only spoken to City Council (twice and counting) about it, I wanted to make sure that when that push started, the trans community and  the Houston trans community of color had a seat at the table, we ensured transpeople were covered in it and it was a comprehensive ordinance unlike the 1984 one that was sexual orientation only and went down to crushing electoral repeal in 1985. 

And as a proud Houstonian, I'm tired of H-town being the largest Top 5 city in the United States and the largest city in Texas without one.   And I will not accept trans civil rights crumbs just to say we have one, either.

It's past time that Houston added gender identity and sexual orientation to the non-discrimination ordinance and ensures every Houstonian has equal access to employment, housing, and public accommodations inside the 628 square miles of Texas we call home.

Texans Together is collecting signatures (and yes, I've already signed it)  for a petition that would be one of the steps toward making this non discrimination ordinance a reality in my hometown. 

You can click on this link to add your name to this petition.

A Mother Of A Trans Child Speaks

As I will continue to point out, and the existence of people like Kenya's Audrey Mbugua drives home, transpeople do exist on the second largest continent on this planet.

The African continent is home to another of the well known international trans organizations in the South African based Gender DynamiX. 

Although this video is several years old, I was happy to see this video featuring Tshepo Kgositau and Diana Motsitsi in which she talked about being a parent of a trans child.  

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Julie Burchill Is Hatin' Again.

There are just times when you just have to call somebody's azz out, and this is one of those times.

Got a little concerned when the TERF's got quiet for a minute and weren't engaged in their usual transphobic hate rants.  But like the conservative movement and the GOP here in the States, you can always count on them to show their asses sooner or later.

The latest eruption of TERF transphobic bigotry came from across The Pond. in Great Britain.

Julie Burchill opened mouth and inserted her foot in it when she said in reaction to a Paris Lees article that 'Transwomen are just big white blokes who have cut their cocks off.'.

That's mighty white of you Julie.  And TERF's like you are just vanillacentric privileged white women pissed off they weren't born conservative white men.   Because you and you fellow TERF's have a lot in common with them and our Republicans..  You all love to gleefully engage in oppressing and denigrating others.  

Burchill has a long deplorable history of anti-trans hate screeds our British trans cousins have called her butt out on and engaged in a lot of activism on their side of The Pond to combat.

But when Burchill once again attacked Lees and by extension the British trans community, she tried to have it both ways.  She tried to simultaneously cry White Women's Tears and bemoan the world of retaliatory hurt that was going to come her way in response to her transphobia by trying to claim she's a 'victim' of trans women 'bullying her.'  

Yeah, right.  Your jealous, pathetic behind needs to have a makeover, several sections of Wembley Stadium seats and a nice tall Earl Grey tea flavored mug of STFU.   

And I'll repeat what I said last January in response to Suzanne Moore's racist and transphobic comment. 

As an African-American transwoman, I'm beyond sick and tired of being sick and tired of your racist and transphobic hate speech that is stoking the white hot flames of anti-trans bigotry and discrimination.  It is not only getting transwomen of all ethnic backgrounds killed, but disproportionately ones that share my ethnic heritage.

If you and your TERF buddies don't want to get called out for saying transphobic crap, then don't say transphobic crap in the first place, because we trans women, and especially transwomen of color have zero tolerance for your mean girl schtick.    But Burchill and friends keep on doing it, and that's why she's considered a transphobic mean girl in Great Britain whose 15 minutes of fame is long since over. 

Her screed not only denies the existence of trans women (as usual) she took it to another level and erased the existence of trans women of color.  

So naw, I don't give a rat's anus about Burchill's delicate, precious nerves because if she's woman enough to say transphobic shyt and write in her multiple failed columns, then she needs to pull up the big girl panties, stop crying White Women's Tears and deal with the justified retaliatory fire that will swiftly and surely come from us calling her azz out for saying her transphobic shyt.

New century, new decade, new rules.    In case you haven't noticed, this ain't the 1970's and 80's where you TERF mean girls could say transphobic crap with impunity, write books, transphobic columns, do lecture tours and go cackling off to your corners unchallenged.

Now your asses get called out by us and our allies and you don't like it.   Too damned bad.  

As we say on my side of The Pond, don't start none, won't be none.

Congrats Cecilia!

Congrats to my Cali homegirl Cecilia Chung, who along with trans women Desiree Jade Sol and Dayna Sinopoli were honored Monday by the California State Assembly as Women of the Year. 

Every year each California state lawmaker selects one person in their assembly district for the honor who have broken down barriers and helped fight for equality.  

Assemblyman Phil Ting, (D-San Francisco), honored San Francisco resident Cecilia.   Assemblyman Richard Bloom (D-Santa Monica) selected Desiree Jade Sol of West Hollywood; and Assemblyman Mark Stone, (D-Monterey Bay), chose Dayna Sinopoli of Monterey Bay.

In addition to being honored in a ceremony on the floor of the California Assembly, she and the other honorees received resolutions celebrating her accomplishments.  

I've known Cecilia for years and finally got to meet the senior advisor to the Transgender Law Center in person during Creating Change 2014.  She's also a health commissioner at the San Francisco Department of Public Health, a member of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, plays a leadership role in international organizations such as the Global Network of People Living with HIV (GNP+) and the Sero Project.

She's also been a trans trailblazer in her own right.   She was the first deputy director of the San Francisco based Transgender law Center, the first trans woman and first Asian to be elected to lead the Board of Directors of San Francisco’s LGBT Pride Celebration, and the first person living openly with HIV to Chair the San Francisco Human Rights Commission.  

Under her leadership, the San Francisco Human Rights Commission documented widespread discrimination against transgender people and prompted the city to adopt many pioneering anti-discrimination ordinances and policies.

"Cecilia has an inspiring record of breaking down barriers," said Assemblyman Ting. "Her bravery and brains have made our community a more compassionate and welcoming place. As we strive for even greater equality, we can simply look to her for a roadmap forward. Cecilia's passion and commitment to equality know no bounds."

Saving JJ-The Sequel

Last year I wrote about the controversial efforts of HISD Superintendent Dr. Terry Grier to close my high school alma mater that was thwarted by a coalition of people that included moi.

We bought ourselves some time after last year's unanimous 8-0 HISD board meeting vote to table it, but like Jason, the proposal being pushed by Grier to close Jones isn't dead yet.

This time the proposal was to close Jones and send the students to Worthing and Sterling.   That proposal got the same thumbs down at the February 11 community meeting held on JJ's campus as the Jones-Sterling merger got  last year and I said as much during that meeting that was attended by a multicultural crowd of  over 100 people.

Read my lips and this post HISD school board.   The students, teachers and the South Park community want Jesse H. Jones High School to stay open.  Most importantly we want HISD to fix the mess that was created when the Vanguard magnet program was shadily stripped off the campus back in 2002 and time to come up with alternatives to boost enrollment.  

Marketing the school to the growing South Park Latino population would be another one.  Creating programs and activities that would appeal to the neighborhood kids whose talents gravitate to things other than the STEM program along with bringing Vanguard back home by creating another VG high school program on that campus.  .

If it weren't for the removal of the Vanguard program and its subsequent housing on a separate campus now relocated to the Montrose area,  Jones would have an enrollment of 1030 students and I wouldn't even be writing this post.   It would help if we had stability in JJ's principal's office along with HISD ceasing and desisting with the yearly threats to close JJ. That would be a great start toward boosting its enrollment because some of the transfers out of the Jones attendance zone are driven by that.   

I had the pleasure at that February 11 meeting of talking to the current Falcons who were excited and happy to know that they weren't alone in this fight and alums were in the JJ house to help them in this battle to keep Jesse H. Jones High School open.


HISD is still peddling the same snake oil they were trying to sell the community last year to justify the closure.  Low enrollment, high transfer rate out of the Jones attendance zone, high budget cost per student and changing neighborhood demographics that were all debunked in this March 5 Houston Forward Times article.

Performance has not been a factor with the closures.   Some of the 19 schools that were closed, like Rhoads Elementary were exemplary ranked schools.   Dodson Elementary, which has the highly successful HISD Montessori program on its campus that my sister attended, is also slated for closure Thursday and sits along I-45 in the EaDo shadow of downtown Houston mere blocks from the Purple Line light rail line being built. 
   
The African-American community is still pissed that the bulk of the school closings during Grier's controversial tenure as superintendent since 2009 have disproportionately been aimed at schools in African-American neighborhoods, with the school properties subsequently sold to charter outfits, private schools or in Ryan's case after its closure last year turned into a magnet school.     

Some of the players have changed since last March.   Juliet Stipeche is now the HISD board president, and removed three of the schools slated for closure off the list.    Too bad she didn't kill it period.  

At this upcoming Thursday board meeting you'll have Wanda Adams, my former city councilmember sitting in the seat formerly occupied by Grier ally Lawrence Marshall.  Adams just penned a Houston Chronicle op-ed concerning the shifting goalpost for school closures and the need for a consistent set of metrics for doing so

The shifting goalposts and dismissive lack of action on what the community says is needed to reverse the negative enrollment problem HISD caused is what is pissing many of us off in this fight to keep JJ open.

We know the district caused the problem, arrogantly will not listen to the community suggestions to fix the problem, and are continuing to use debunked talking points to try to justify the school's closure.  

If you wish to speak at Thursday's board meeting, you have until 4:30 PM today to sign up and it's Item F-1 on the board meeting agenda.   

  
Stay tuned because there will be fireworks at this Thursday's HISD 4 PM CDT board meeting.    
. 

Tona Brown To Sing In DC Area Opera Friday

Too bad I won't be able to be there to see it, but for those of you in the Washington DC metro area, you'll get an opportunity to enjoy hearing Tona Brown sing this Friday.

My mezzo-soprano singing sis, who has not only performed for audiences around the world and has the distinction of being the first trans person to perform for a sitting president, will be performing in the role of Principessa in the Puccini one act opera Suor Angelica being presented by the Singers' Theater of Washington. .

“I am honored to be part of this production,” says Brown, “I love doing opera, and working with such amazing people. - See more at: http://ikonsmagazine.com/2014/03/tona-brown-perform-dc-area-opera/#sthash.4CzNJE3X.dpuf

"I am honored to be part of this production", says Brown.  "I love doing opera and I love working with such amazing people."

You'll get the opportunity to see her on Friday and Saturday March 14 and 15 starting at 7:30 PM EDT at Convergence in Alexandria,VA.

The tickets are $20, and $15 for students and seniors.and can be purchased here if you're interested in attending and supporting our sis and checking her out..

Help Jaila's EP Become A Reality

You may remember me talking about Jaila Simms, who was on the reality TV show Making Diddy's Band back in 2009.

So what's Jaila been up to since then? 

Well, Jaila has put together a debut EP entitled 'Best of Both Worlds' with a tentative release date of April 8, but is $600 short so the post production of it can happen.   

)

She has a Gofundme campaign that is running through March 17 that is trying to raise that post production money for the EP, so let's help a #girllikeus out. 

Every dollar counts, and even if you can only spare a dollar, that's one dollar closer to her goal..  600 people x $1= $600. 300 people x $2 =  $600.  120 people x $5= 600   60 people x $10 = $600

Help Jaila's EP become a reality.
 

What Does 'Tell It Like It T-I-S Is' Mean?

For those of you who read my blog regularly. you'll note that I have the phrase 'tell it like it T-I-S is' incorporated in many of the over 7000 blog posts I've composed for this blog.
 
So what does it mean and where did it come from?

I didn't create it.  I give the credit for it to the 'Father of Black Radio', Jack 'The Rapper' Gibson.' 

I used to read his Mello Yello Black radio and music publication when my Dad was finished with it, and saw it there regularly.  I loved Gibson's no holds barred truth telling style when he wrote about issues inside and outside Black radio world. 

The T-I-S in that phrase I borrowed from him stands for 'truth is sacred'.  It hearkens back to a long history we have in the African-American community of fearlessly speaking truth to power.

As James Baldwin once wrote in Rap on Race in 1971, "I write to bear witness to the truth.'.  

And so do I.   That's one of my goals here at TransGriot.   Yes, I find it interesting that some people can't handle that truth, especially when I am in tell it like it T-I-S is mode.  I do so because to do anything less is spitting on the legacy of the legions of truth telling writers my people have proudly produced and I am an heir to that legacy.  

As a unapologetically Black trans person who has the writing skills to (sometimes) pay my bills, I am feeling the 1972 words of Gwendolyn Brooks when she said, 'True Black writers speak as Blacks about Blacks for Blacks'.

If you're not Black but get the messages that I convey in my writing, then that's all good too.

So now you know not only where that phrase comes from, but where my head is at when I write it.  

Composite Sketch Of Suspect In Houston SGL Couple Murder

As many of you here in the Houston area and beyond are aware of, two African-American SGL women were found dead near a Port Bolivar convenience store dumpster Friday.  

This is a composite sketch of the suspect in the murder of Houston couple Britney Cosby and Crystal Jackson, who were both 24 years old.  Galveston County Sheriff Henry Trochesset wouldn’t elaborate on how the man and the victims were connected, but is quoted in a KHOU-TV report as saying it’s likely the women were killed somewhere in Houston before their bodies were brought to the Port Bolivar location where they were found.

Galveston County detectives are asking for the public’s help in identifying the suspect in the composite drawing. He would have been last seen with the victims and in their vehicle, a 2006 silver Kia SUV.

Those with information are asked to contact the Galveston County Sheriff’s Office at 866-248-8477 or Galveston County Crime Stoppers 409-763-8477.

Conservatism An Intellectual Movement? Since When?

James Baldwin once said that "It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have."  

That junction of ignorance allied with power has been openly on display in the Republican Party and the conservative movement for the last two decades.

I'm still laughing my azz off at a comment Michele Bachmann made during her speech at the recently concluded CPAC conference in National Harbor, MD in which she stated that "at its core, the conservative movement was an intellectual movement based on the greatest ideas that have ever been conceived in the minds of man. 

"at its core is an intellectual movement" based "on the greatest ideas that have ever been conceived in the mind of man."​ - See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/bachmann-our-movement-its-core-intellectual-movement#sthash.Q5RWIIxO.dpuf core is an intellectual movement" based "on the greatest ideas that have ever been conceived in the mind of man."​ - See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/bachmann-our-movement-its-core-intellectual-movement#sthash.Q5RWIIxO.dpuf

Really?  Since when?  And what were you smoking before you stepped to the podium to make that speech?

At its core the conservative movement is the political arm of white supremacy.  It is all about keeping white men at the top of of the societal food chain dictating policy and returning clueless Stepford women like you to the house to birth and raise them babies.

It is also at its core an attack on Blackness, non-white Americans, the TBLG community,  women, the poor, education, human rights, voting rights, unions, worker's rights, science, the arts, and anyone with the ability to critically think.   

You don't promote family values, it's more like Ferengi Values.  Profits before people.  Hell, I'm surprised you haven't proposed replacing the United States Constitution with the Ferengi Rules Of Acquisition.

But seriously GOP, y'all need to better reflect the current state of your party and the conservative movement by changing your mascot from the elephant to a smiling Ferengi because y'all have so much in common. 

Intellectual movement?   The only intellectual activity going on is Conservaworld is coming up with creative ways to unjustly suppress the human rights of people you don't like, justifying greed and selfishness, and keeping your base ignorant about how you're screwing them and laughing about it in your quiet rooms.

John Kenneth Galbraith nailed it when he said this about modern conservatism.

The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.

And they not only are engaged in justifying selfishness, they are also trying to justify bigotry and hatred against anyone who isn't a wealthy white male. 

Conservatism an intellectual movement?   Please, many of their proud followers couldn't spell the word 'intellectual' even if you spotted them all the consonants.   You can bet many of them weren't watching Cosmos last night either.  .  

Only in their vanillacentric privilege addled minds it is.   . 

Congratulations Omar!

The Lone Star State as you know has some fantastic activists living in its 268,561 sq. miles of territory and in the 16 years I've been involved in the TBLG human rights fight I've gotten to meet and know a few of them.

One of the people I have the pleasure of talking to from time to time is Omar Narvaez.

Omar is based in the Dallas area, is the former president of the Stonewall Democrats of Texas and is the community educator for Lambda Legal’s south central regional office in Big D. 

Narvaez made a little history when he was sworn in February 26 as the first openly gay trustee of the Dallas County School Board.    The DCSB governs the 14 school districts in Dallas County and has three countywide positions and four district seats that align with the Dallas County Commissioners Court

The DCSB's primary job is providing services for the Dallas County ISD's in the areas of transportation and information technology, as well as continuing education for teachers.

“It’s not a well-known seat, but it’s one that affects the entire county as far as schools go and ISDs,” he said in a Dallas Voice interview, adding he’s excited to focus on a position that affects youth. “They are the most important entity for our future.”

Narvaez is serving out the remaining DCSB term of trustee Maricela Moore, who resigned from it in January.  That term expires in May 2015 and he has yet to decide if he is going to run for reelection on the DCSB.  

He is also quite aware of the fact that he is now one of the few openly gay officials in Dallas County.  It is a short but distinguished list that includes Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez, District Clerk Gary Fitzsimmons and 116th Judicial District Court Judge Tonya Parker.

“There’s not a lot of us, but at the same time we are putting ourselves out there, and our orientation does not deter us from running for office,” Narvaez said.

Congratulations Omar!   Knowing you, you'll have no problem focusing on being the best person on the DCSB.  The children in those 14 Dallas County ISD's couldn't have a better advocate for them.
   

It's New York Times Bestselling Author Janet Mock's Birthday!

Time for a TransGriot shoutout to my  little sis in Janet Mock, and as you can tell by the title a lot has changed since I gave my sis her last birthday shoutout

Since then she has released Redefining Realness, she's on a SRO book tour, and has done a lot of media interviews in support of it.   Some have gone well while one didn't.

But through it all Janet still manages to represent herself #Girlslikeus and #TWOC in all our fabulous complexity. 

Happy birthday sis!  May you continue to have much success with this book that is not only timely, but is jump starting family conversations about trans issues. 

May the abundant blessings continue to flow your way.   May you experience on your special day smiles as wide as Texas, lots of love and laughter, and may you have many more birthdays to enjoy and experience.
 

Annie Is Black, And The Pointed White Hoods Come Out

A remake of Annie is about to hit your local multiplexes that when it was in the discussion stages, Willow Smith was rumored to be in the running for the part but it went to Oscar Best Actress nominee Quvenzhané Wallis.

And now that the trailer has come out for this movie coming soon to your local multiplex starring her and Jamie Foxx, I was shocked but not surprised to read that elements of white America are losing their damned minds on Twitter about it.

So the same whiteness that has no problem with Jared Leto being cast as a trans woman or defending 70% of movie roles going to white males, arguing that 'casting should be color blind' and 'the best actors should get the part' now has a racist foaming at the mouth problem with Quvenzhané Wallis being cast as Annie?   

Sigh.  The War on Blackness continues.

The same White America that last week was tying itself in pretzel logic like knots trying to justify a white man playing a transwoman as moi and the trans community complained about it, had no problem with that same white male winning an Oscar for that problematic portrayal, smugly told the trans community to 'get over it' while hiding behind Calpernia Addams' skirts to do so, is now having a vanillacentric scented hissy fit because a Black girl is playing Annie.

Their pointed white hoods are showing along with their white sheets. 


I'd need another post to document all the times that white people have played Black or other ethnic characters in movies.

John Wayne as Genghis Khan ring a bell?    Liz Taylor as Cleopatra?  Natalie Wood as Maria Nunez in West Side Story?  Laurence Olivier donning blackface to play Othello?   

Another example was Ava Gardner being chosen over Lena Horne and using the makeup Max Factor developed for Lena to play the mixed race character Julie LaVerne in the 1951 movie Show Boat when hello, Lena Horne practically was living that character's life.   
 
It's not like this is the first time a classic film has been remade with an all-Black cast.   There was the musical The Wiz that was turned into a 1978 film starring Michael Jackson and Diana Ross. 

Most recently the movie Steel Magnolias was reimagined with an all Black cast featuring Phylicia Rashad and her daughter Condola Rashad, Queen Latifah, Alfre Woodard, and Jill Scott. 

IIt also speaks to another problematic issue that if the movie in question doesn't have Blacks interacting with Whites in servitude, deference, or emotional dependence, it results in whites leaving in droves after it starts.


I witnessed that phenomenon firsthand with the movie White Man's Burden. It starred John Travolta and Harry Belafonte in which the societal script was flipped and it was white peeps living in the hood and Black folks living in Beverly Hills.
I noticed whites leaving the theater and heard one brother say to one white guy exiting the theater, "What's wrong? Can't handle this movie? This is what we deal with everyday in America."
Another reality that needs to be dealt with is that in 21st century America, many of the orphans in those homes and the foster care system look like Quvenzhané.

As white people in this country, you can count on the fact that every week, a Hollywood movie will open that has casts who predominately look like you, and share your ethnic heritage and background.   I don't have that luxury as a person of color.  

An Annie that reflects my ethnic background is quite interesting to me, Black parents and the Black girls Quvenzhane's age who will see themselves reflected on the silver screen for once.

That should be celebrated, not racistly denounced..