Why I Hate The 'All Politicians Are The Same' Meme

I posted a comment to my Facebook page yesterday that stated 'the bigots I was most concerned about are ones who have the power to write legislation.' 

One of the peeps who responded to that comment said something that irritates the hell out of me when I hear it along the lines of the 'All politicians are the same' meme.

It has other derivatives, such as 'all politicians are corrupt', 'there's no difference between the two parties', 'they work for the same corporate masters', et cetera.  

And all of those memes are incorrect.

I hear that meme far too frequently from predominately white people, because as any non-white American can tell you, there's a Grand Canyon sized chasm of difference between Democrats and Republicans, and anyone parroting the above memes will get the side eye from me and any other non-white person.  . 

I hate those memes for multiple reasons.   Not only are they inaccurate, they are one of the things wrong with American politics that feeds into the cynicism that breeds low voter turnout and people not participating.

And that makes the corporate interests and the conservative movement very happy, because they can only win elections when the turnout is under 50% of the electorate.

And far from being beholden to corporate interests as the lie goes, as I have seen with my own eyes on lobby trips to Washington DC, Austin, Frankfort, et cetera, politicians at all levels pay far more attention to their constituents than corporate interests. 

Can't tell you how many times I've observed in my 16 years of activism and lobbying the various lvels of government that a city councilmember, representative, congressmember or senator has kept a corporate lobbyist waiting outside his office as I and other constituents are given extra time to discuss our concerns and problems. 

I have been admitted into an office without an appointment or allowed in before our scheduled appointment started and the only thing I've done is voted for them.   I have had situations in which I have talked with legislators as they were hustling to get to the chambers to vote, or had a one on one chat with me after their council meeting or school board meeting concluded. 
  
Broad brush disparaging all politicians instead of the handful of people guilty of the criminal and nekulturny behavior that tarnishes their offices can have the effect of discouraging quality candidates who have a genuine desire to serve their fellow citizens from running.  

Pushing the 'all politicians are the same meme' can also poison the dreams of our liberal-progressive youth who are contemplating running for office someday.

The facts are that all politicians are not the same.   Just as in society, they come in all shapes, sizes, ethnic backgrounds and political beliefs.   Would be nice if we could add some trans politicians to the mix at all levels of government, but that's coming sooner rather than later. 

We also are quite aware of the fact we have far too many conservafools chomping at the bit to run for offices they clearly aren't qualified for so they can unleash their 'proven conservative leadership' on the rest of us who don't want it.

  
That pushing of the 'all politicians are the same' lie has opened the door to the Louie Gohmerts and others of his ilk who seem to think saying the most stupid, bigoted and outrageous stuff to their base voters combined with passing racist and punitive legislation aimed at the most marginalized people in our society is the way to go. 

So check yourself the next time you get ready to part your lips and say 'all politicians are the same'.  Put your lips in neutral and think about it before spouting that comment. 

The overwhelming evidence is that they aren't.       

Trans*cending At Black Girl Dangerous

TransGriot readers, there's another spot you'll get to read my writing besides the home blog. 

As of yesterday, my monthly Trans*cend with Monica Roberts column debuted over at the Black Girl Dangerous.blog.    

I thank BGD founding Editor-in-Chief Mia McKenzie for the invitation and the opportunity to share my writing talents with her readers and I'm looking forward to a long, satisfying and mutually beneficial partnership.

So what will I be writing about at Trans*cend?    Everything, just like I do here.  You'll get the usual tell it like it T-I-S is commentary in the column that you get here on a daily basis at the home blog

And my debut column, 'Springing Forward With Black Girl Dangerous' is up now.   Here's a taste of it. 

This election is critical because your human rights and whether liberal progressive legislation will flow from this currently gridlocked Congress in the next two years depend on you voting. Getting control of your state legislatures from the Teapublicans is a must as well.

You can read the rest of my debut column at Black Girl Dangerous. 

Moni's 2014 NCAA Men's B-Ball Bracket

I love March Madness like 'errbody' else, except when they keep showing replays of the last painful seconds of a certain 1983 NCAA tournament final game in Albuquerque.

One of the things that I've done on TransGriot is to put my men's NCAA tournament bracket up for the whole world to see, and I've done so every year since 2007.    You can also see my brackets for 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012 here.

Since it's Women's History Month, I also do a bracket for the NCAA women's tournament,  and that goes up tomorrow.

As for last year's NCAA men's tournament, for the second straight year I picked the eventual NCAA champion correctly (Louisville), but not without some of my regional brackets being totally trashed.

And yeah, it irritated Cat Nation to no end that the Cards won the title in a year they didn't even make the tournament and that NCAA championship trophy moved to the Louisville end of I-64.   Speaking of irritated, the defending champs are pissed off about their seeding.

Will the NCAA title stay in the state of Kentucky?   I'm saying yes.  

Later today the Journey to the Jerrydome begins for 68 teams with the First Four games tonight and tomorrow night.   For the first time since 2003 the Texas Southern University Tigers are in the Big Dance after winning the SWAC tournament championship at Toyota Center in H-town last weekend .   You'll also recognize TSU Tiger coach.Mike Davis.   If that name sounds familiar, he's the same Mike Davis that took Indiana to the national championship game in 2002.  

Wichita State became the first team since the 1991 UNLV squad to enter the tournament unbeaten but fell to Duke in the title game.    Can the Shockers shock the NCAA b-ball world and become the first champion with a perfect record since Indiana ran the table in 1976? 

Nope, they won't..

But as to who I think will be cutting down the nets at AT&T Stadium, as you can see, I'm picking a repeat champ.  I'm 4-3 so far in picking men's NCAA champs, and we'll see if I'm correct for the third year in a row on April 7.    

So enough jibber-jabber and let's get busy with this year's edition of my NCAA Men's tournament bracket.

  
First Four Games
Albany, NC State, Texas Southern, Iowa

South Regional

Second Round
Florida, Pittsburgh, VCU, UCLA, Ohio State, Syracuse, New Mexico, Kansas

Third Round
Florida, VCU, Syracuse, Kansas

Elite Eight
Florida, Kansas

South Regional Champion
Florida


West Regional

Second Round
Arizona, Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, San Diego State, Baylor, Creighton, Oregon, Wisconsin

Third Round
Arizona, San Diego State, Baylor, Oregon

Elite Eight
Arizona, Baylor

West Regional Champion
Arizona

Midwest Regional

Second Round
Wichita State, Kentucky, St. Louis, Louisville, Iowa, Duke, Texas, Michigan

Third Round
Wichita State, Louisville, Duke, Michigan

Elite Eight
Louisville, Duke

Midwest Regional Champ
Louisville

East Regional

Second Round
Virginia, Memphis, Cincinnati, Michigan State, North Carolina, Iowa State, Connecticut, Villanova


Third Round
Virginia, Michigan State, North Carolina, Connecticut

Elite Eight
Michigan State, North Carolina

East Regional Champion
Michigan State

Final Four Teams
Florida, Michigan State, Arizona, Louisville,

Championship Game
Florida, Louisville

2014 NCAA Champ
Louisville

 



 

DeSoto ISD Posts Problematic Prom Dress Code

Well Trans* Class of 2014, I did warn y'all last June to be ready to fight your trans oppressors.   And word to the wise Trans* Class of 2015, you may want to start prepping now so you have a stress free senior year.   

In the eight years I've been chronicling the events of the trans community on this blog, one of the things you'll note as you peruse my archives is the frequent fights between trans students and transphobic school administrations that sometimes have to get resolved in the court system.

In the fall it's trans students having to fight the school powers that be because they were barred from having the opportunity to run for homecoming king or homecoming queen. 

Sometimes it's battles just to be able to take and put in the yearbook a senior class photo that reflects the person you are now like Jeydon Loredo had to do back in November versus the LaFeria ISD board.  

And yeah, I'm willing to bet there will be in May and June more instances of  transphobic school boards and administrators fighting tooth and nail to not allow trans students to attend their high school graduations or receive their hard earned diplomas wearing the cap and gown and clothing appropriate to who they present as now.

Now with the 2014 calendar in mid-March, thoughts are turning to prom season and the next looming high school gender expression battleground before the commencements start.     

There has been drama with prom dress codes between trans students and school administrators going back over two decades now, but it's happening far more frequently now as trans students transition earlier, assert their human rights to be themselves and school administrators cling to the gender binary like winos holding their last bottle of MD 20/20 

The DeSoto ISD in the Dallas 'burbs is the latest one to go there.   They attempted set a policy to ban cis feminine students from wearing tuxedos and men's suits and cis masculine ones from wearing prom dresses to their May 17 event.  

DeSoto ISD has every right to set those policies and general standards like requiring formal wear or barring revealing clothing.   But as written, the DeSoto ISD prom dress codes are problematic for trans masculine and transfeminine students. 

Not allowing a cis female or transmasculine student to wear a tuxedo or barring a cis male or transfeminine student from wearing a dress may subject the school to legal liability, including a sex discrimination claim under state education laws, antidiscrimination laws, Title IX or the U.S. Constitution.  

With Lambda Legal's regional office being located n Dallas, they are already on the job reminding the DeSoto ISD about what happened in the K.K. Logan case. 

Back on May 19, 2006  Logan was physically barred by her transphobic principal from entering the venue hosting her Gary, IN high school prom in feminine attire despite the fact that Logan had been presenting as female since the start of her junior year of high school.

West Side HS principal Diane Rouse probably wasn't aware the battle she was fighting that night had already been lost.  Diamond Stylz sued and won a similar court case against her Indianapolis area HS back in 1999.
 
Logan sued with the help of Lambda Legal, arguing that the school violated K.K.’s First Amendment right to freedom of speech, symbolic action and expressive conduct.

The matter was resolved in 2010, including an undisclosed amount paid to K.K. as well as revisions to the school district's dress code and nondiscrimination policies.  The Gary school district's policies were revised to contain specific protections for TBLG students.  The Gary, IN  school district also agreed to conduct training for the administration and school board members on LGBT issues and respectful treatment of LGBT people.

DeSoto ISD, it would be wise for you to make the necessary adjustments in that problematic policy before you find yourself in court on the losing end of a lawsuit. 

Stay tuned, because the 2014 prom season is coming up.  I'll be willing to bet I'll have one school district somewhere in the United States that shows its anuses before the 2013-14 school year concludes. 

H/T Lone Star Q
 

Tona Brown As Principessa

Time for a little culture, TransGriot readers!. 

I mentioned Tona Brown was performing in the DC metro area last weekend in the Puccini one act opera Suor Angelica as Principessa and lamented the fact I couldn't be there to see the performance and support her. 

Well, through the magic of YouTube, now I can, thanks to one of Tona's students who shot the short video from the audience from her cell phone.   Megathanks to her for doing so. 

In this concert version of Suor Angelica, Tona is playing La Principessa, the mean aunt who is asking Angelica on the left to give away her family inheritance so her sister can have a dowry for marriage.  Her character is reminding her how much she has shamed the family name by getting pregnant without marriage. 

Opera, the soaps before TV and the movies.

And now, here's Tona in the role of Principessa.

 

If The Trans Rights Movement Wants To Win...

Trans people of color will and must be able to lead it. 

I've been complaining for years along with other trans people of color about the senior leadership ranks of the LGBT movement looking like a Republican Party convention.  We have the same problem in the Trans Division as well. 

One of the reasons I keep saying the obvious is because it hasn't sunk in yet (or maybe it has and you continue to ignore it) is that trans people of color have since birth been at the receiving end of discrimination and oppression.   We come from people who have historically had to fight, claw and scratch just to get what modicum of human rights they do possess in his nation and have to fight even harder just to keep those hard won human rights from being rolled back. 

So we trans people of color come from a history of human rights warriors who have a tried and true playbook for winning them that we would love to execute on behalf of the trans community.   

We would like to do that in concert with our white trans brothers and sisters and our allies, but sadly some of you are more concerned with getting your lost white privilege back (which won't happen)  than working in a diverse, intersectional movement that advocates for the human rights of all of us.  

Faye Wattleton once said, 'the only safe ship is a storm is leadership'.   Trans people of color have been hit with a Category Four level hurricane of anti-trans discrimination and violence.  Because the brunt of the anti-trans discrimination and violence is being directed at our communities, we can no longer wait for you to come to your damned senses and help create that movement because we need to have things happen to eradicate and eliminate that oppression aimed at us now, not 5, 10, or 20 years from now.

That's why the status quo situation is no longer acceptable to us as trans communities of color.  If you will not willingly share power and create that movement, then we will have no option except to own our power and do it our damned selves.  

People who don't understand oppression, have been insulated from it, deny race, white supremacy and class are a component of it or believe they don't need to educate themselves about that system arrayed against us  are ill prepared to lead a human rights movement that has the herculean task of liberating oppressed trans people.   Trans people of color intimately understand those intersections, because they are negatively affected by them and have been long before they took their first testosterone shot or swallowed their first hormone to begin their.body transitions.

So it's past time that the children, grandchildren and great grandchildren of those civil rights warriors be integrated into the leadership ranks of not only professional TBLG orgs, but at the regional, state and local levels if the trans rights movement wants to win.

Happy 50th Birthday Octavia St Laurent!

Today would have been the milestone birthday of one of our ballroom legends in Octavia St. Laurent.had she not gone to be with the ancestors on May 17, 2009.

Many people were introduced to her through the documentary films Paris Is Burning and How Do I Look, and if you peruse YouTube you can still see her lovely visage in some of the uploaded video from ballroom competitions of the 90's and 2k's

I also liked this salon talk one from 2005 in which she discussed the changes in her life as she was getting her hair done for the Legends Ball.

I also love this quote of hers from the June 2000 funeral of the slain Amanda Milan in which she stated during her fiery eulogy for Amanda, "Gays have rights, lesbians have rights, men have rights, women have rights, even animals have rights. "How many of us have to die before the community recognizes that we are not expendable?"



Happy milestone birthday sis!.  It's hard to believe that we are rapidly approaching five years since you exited this plane of existence.  You are still loved and missed by all the people inside and outside the ballroom community who had the pleasure of knowing you and for whom you graced with your presence. 

Continue to rest in power.

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.    
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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..