TransJustice Fellowship Applications Due October 1

For those of you in the New York area, got word of a fellowship opportunity that is accepting applications.

If you're interested, you'll have to get that completed application in for the fellowship by October 1.

TransJustice Political Education and Campaign Fellowship

Who We Are:

TransJustice is a political organizing group created and led by Trans and Gender Non-Conforming People of Color in New York City. We work to educate organize and mobilize our communities and allies on the pressing political issues we face. We are a multi-racial, multi-gender, multi-class, and all ages group.

TransJustice is an organizing program of the Audre Lorde Project. The Audre Lorde Project is a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Two Spirit, Trans and Gender Non Conforming People of Color center for community organizing, focusing on the New York City area. Through mobilization, education and capacity-building, we work for community wellness and progressive social and economic justice. Committed to struggling across differences, we seek to responsibly reflect, represent and serve our various communities.

About the Fellowship:
-- Are you interested in community organizing and developing leadership in yourself and others?
-- Want to develop skills in facilitating workshops, building curricula, and political education?
-- Interested in learning more about campaign and coalition work?

The TransJustice Fellowship is a pilot project to support and develop the leadership of Trans and Gender Non-Conforming People of Color. Fellows will receive supervision and work closely with the TransJustice Coordinator to meet the following goals:
-- Build skills and capacity in Community Organizing work, including coalition work, political education, and facilitation
-- Support the coordinator with logistics, planning, and implementation of programming
-- Support with administrative work and documentation

Requirements;
-- Can commit to ten months (November 2014 through September 2014), 10 hours per week
-- Can be on site at the Manhattan offices of the Audre Lorde Project during fellowship hours
-- Identifies as Trans and/or Gender Non-Conforming and a Person of Color
-- Can demonstrate experience using Microsoft Office, Google Docs, and Gmail.
-- Is invested in building community/movement and struggling across difference from a loving place
-- Wants to grow in their skills and support others in growing their skills as an organizer and facilitator
-- Willing to be supervised, and willing to give and receive feedback in open and communicative ways
-- Works well in collaboration and teams

Responsibilities Include:
-- Participating in coalition meetings with the program coordinator and core members, and creating new and exciting ways to share information from meetings back to the membership base
-- Supporting with logistics and facilitation for TransJustice Community School, our 9 week Political Education and Leadership Development Program.
-- Supporting with logistics, planning and facilitation of our 3 monthly meetings
-- Data Entry and Administrative support
-- Supporting members in outreach for meetings and events
-- Preparation and planning for all TransJustice Related events (Trans Day of Remembrance, Trans Day of Action, TransJustice Community Schools, and Open Political Education Workshops)

How to Apply!
Please send a cover letter stating why you are interested in the fellowship and a resume to efukui@alp.org.
This is a paid fellowship. TransJustice Community School Graduates and Daring to Be Powerful
 Graduates are strongly encouraged to apply!

The Audre Lorde Project is a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Two Spirit, Trans and Gender Non-Conforming People of Color community organizing center focusing on the New York City area.

147 West 24th Street, 3rd Floor New York, NY 10011
Tel: 212-463-0342
Fax: 212-463-0344
www.alp.org

You Claim You Aren't Scared Of Me, But Tragically You Are

TransGriot Note:  My fave WMMA fighter talks about the reasons why many of the so-called tough WMMA women fear her.   And after Tamikka Brents microwaved beatdown, don't think too many more will be stupid enough to transphobically bash Fallon Fox and claim in the same breath they can beat her.

I've been waiting a little over a year to say this.

Remember a little while back there was this MMA fighter who found out that she was locked in a tournament with a few other Caucasian women, a couple of black women, and one transgender woman. She took a look at the field of competitors in the tournament after the first bracket and saw one of these women knocking another woman out in 39 seconds. And at 6' 1" while professing to be a legitimate professional MMA fighter, she got scared.

@peggymorganmma @KatalinaMMA @notsosweetmma @heatherbassett @shanknapp @ufc @InvictaFights

Then, an opportunity to get that woman out of the tournament and out of her way arose. It came out that one of the women in the tournament happened to be a transgender woman. That was great news for our tall friend for sure! Because at that time not that many people were aware of the intricacies of this category of woman, and were not aware that transgender women had been legitimately competing in sports YEARS before that day. It was a prime opportunity to muddy the water and exit the tournament. Peggy Morgan's fear and lack of skill had her doing an about face accompanied by a swift double time towards the metaphorical exit sign. She even went as far as to sit down in front of a camera with her trainer also wanted that 39 second knockout potential out of the way. So, she sat smugly staring into the lens while her trainer did all of the talking. The man said, "Fallon Fox is not Rosa Parks", "He lied on his Florida State Application and as a result HE assaulted an unknown woman in the cage", "We are not afraid of Fallon Fox...", and "He will be famous for about 10 minutes for being a man who had a sex change and now wants to fight women. Peggy on the other hand will be a household name for being one of the top female fighters on the planet".

( You can read all about this and watch the video here: )

http://www.outsports.com/2013/3/24/4141668/fallon-fox-john-fain-peggy-morgan-mma-transgender

Funny what can happen in little over a year huh? It can wash away that false baseless "Lied to the Florida commission" claim. It can destroy that "10 minutes of fame" nonsense. And most importantly, it can show that Peggy Morgan will certainly not be known as "One of the top female fighters on the planet". As a matter of fact, she's racked up two losses since that time, and I've racked up two wins. Her record is 2-2-0 and she's on a losing streak. (Mine is now 5-1-0 and I'm on a win streak.) She lost every single fight after she decided to go on camera and have her trainer proclaim to the world how tough she was. Some female MMA fighters just don't have what it takes. They fear too much and have very little heart. Normally they don't get too far in MMA.

Peggy Morgan was similar to Charmaine Tweet of Canada. Who recently stated that transgender women should be segregated from women's MMA. They are both over 6' tall with ridiculous reach advantages who are scared of lil' ol' me. Perhaps they fear me because both they and their trainers realize they are lacking in real skill and heart, and that the only reason why they made it as far as they've made it is because of the added factor of how big they are.

But, you know, there's also shorter competitors who sometimes do the same thing. Like Katalina Malungahu who recently took to twitter in her stupidity called me a man (even when commissions, the government, and medical community says otherwise) to express how scared she is of fighting me. Guess what her record is? It's 2-2-0, she's on a downward tailspin of loss right now and itching to get whatever potential threat out of her way. She's not the real deal either...

But, you know who at least had heart? Ashley Evans Smith, Tamikka Brents, and Allana Jones. One of those three defeated me in my only loss, and Allanna Jones made it to the 3rd round with me.

Oh, there's one that has more heart than them all. You've probably never heard of her though. - Heather Basset - she fought me and was able to do a lot better than most suspected in the first round even though she was tapped out in the second. She stands out as the one with the most heart to me because after it was all over, she simply said, "I lost". She didn't say any wild untrue assertions in order to save face for her loss. She just went back to her gym to get better and hopefully win the next one. NOW THAT is the heart of a warrior. How is it that Heather Basset, the smallest of these women stands taller than all of them? It's pathetic if you really think about it.

Anyhoo. Was just dying to say that. Now, back into the gym to prepare for whatever fight comes next.

Transmasculine Homecoming King Crowned In Texas!

I keep telling you people who like to bash Texas at every opportunity that my home state and hometown has progressive tendencies built into its DNA.   The kids that are growing to adulthood will ensure that no matter how hard the GOP tries to prevent it from happening, Texas will eventually go back to its blue and purple roots.

Was happy to hear that on September 12, a little Texas history was made as the first out  trans masculine  homecoming king in the Lone Star State was crowned in my H-town backyard.  

17 year old Mel Gonzalez, a senior at Stephen F. Austin High School in Fort Bend County, had a goal of proving a transmasculine student could be elected homecoming king.  He was simply aiming to get into the Top 5.     

Well, he did much better than that.   He discovered after he stepped onto the field at Mercer Stadium his classmates at this suburban high school just southwest of Houston selected him as their homecoming king.

He told Project Q that his win, combined with the win of transfeminine homecoming queen Scarlett Lenh in Sand Creek, CO proves that the country is moving towards acceptance for not just those who are not heterosexual, but those who also identify outside of the gender binary.

And yes folks, even in Texas, despite transphobic resistance at times, it's happening.

Congrats Mel on your historic win.   Looking forward to seeing a trans feminine homecoming queen soon in my birth state.

5th Annual NBJC OUT On the Hill Starts Today

Personal issues are going to prevent me from attending this year's event (and I'm pissed about it), but the 5th Annual OUT on the Hill Black  LGBT Leadership Summit will kick off today and run through the 27th.

Y'all know I have much love for NBJC and this event and I'm upset I'll be missing it for the second year in a row, but have to sort out some things on the home front so I can be there in full effect next year.

For those of you who do head to, are enroute or are in Washington DC for it, you are in for a wonderful and memorable experience courtesy of our NBJC family.   It's chock full of stimulating panel discussions and seminars, a White House briefing, lobbying, and charting the course of our Black LGBT movement.

And there's nothing better than being around your fellow Black LGBT peeps for a few days and discussing a wide variety of issues and topics.

You can also follow the happenings online at #OOTH 2014 or #NBJContheMove

Hope you have another megasuccessful event, may everyone in attendance leave it better informed and energized to help advance the human rights of our community, and y'all have fun while doing so.

Hasselbeck Forgot About Literacy Tests

I'm not shocked when one of the FOX Noise Fembots opens their mouths and something stupid, racist, bigoted (or all of the above) comes out of it.

Today's latest example of them reinforcing the dumb blonde stereotype is Elisabeth Hasselbeck.

She parted her lips to state during a Monday Fox and Friends conversation on civics education that all voters should have to pass a 'citizenship test' before they were allowed to vote.

Yeah Liz, guess you ignored that chapter in your history books about literacy tests.   They were supposed to be administered to all voters, but were exclusively used to disenfranchise African-American voters back during the bad old Jim Crow days from thw 1880s to the 1960s before they were banned by the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

She sounds even more hypocritical because she in her past utterings has been railing against Common Core and standardized testing.



I sincerely doubt that Liz, her Fembots and most conservafools could even pass a standardized citizenship test, seeing that their understanding of American history is so distorted, and they only care about the Second and Tenth Amendments of the Constitution.

And you conservafools wanna know why I and other no-white Americans consider conservatism and conservatives racist.   You never fail on a daily basis to do or say something that verities and validates our perception that conservatism is the political arm of white supremacy.

Thanks Peeps For Your Support

As some of you may or may not be aware of, been dealing with unexpected major drama over the last week

It got ugly, and while the situation is being mediated, because it got nasty and nitpickingly petty, that instigated drama and moi defending myself from that toro poo poo is going to result in me having to find a new place to live in H-town shortly.

While I'm on the lookout for a new place to call home inside Beltway 8, do want to take a moment to thank all the peeps who have called to check up on me and see how I'm doing, or left notes either at my e-mail address or on my Facebook page.

It's times like there when you're going through unnecessary drama or trouble that you really find out who your friends are, because quality people who love you and care about your well being will rise to the occasion.

And yes, will do my best, even without internet access at my current residence to ensure that you readers continue to see fresh content on TransGriot.

Texas Fall College Democrats Convention At UH This Weekend

Since I'm right down the street from the UH campus (for now)  and the price is right (FREE), will probably go get into reporter mode and check out the  Fall conference of the Texas College Democrats which is being hosted on the UH campus 

Will be nice to be around all that youthful energy and see the future Democrats of our state who will be working hard to get Wendy, Leticia and all our Texas Democratic candidates across the ballot get elected November 4.

And just a reminder, if you aren't registered to vote in the Lone Star State, you have until October 3 to do so.   If you are, early voting in Texas starts October 20

Convention will run from 11:00 AM-3 PM, so if you wish to see and hang around our younglings who will play a major role in turning our state back to its progressive roots, might wish to swing by the UH campus and check it out.

Texas Governor's Debate

For those of y'all who don't live in the Lone Star State, the first debate between Texas state Senator Wendy Davis and Attorney General Greg Abbott happened Friday night in Edinburg, TX down in the Rio Grande Valley. 

Both were going after the Valley's Latino voters, and Davis was on the offensive from the opening bell.

But I don't need to tell you that.  here's the video so you can check it out and see for yourself who won.

Shut Up Fool Awards-Scotland's Staying Put Edition

While we were sleeping last night, across The Pond Scotland was counting votes for a referendum that if it had passed, resulted in Scotland leaving the United Kingdom and becoming an independent nation.

The votes have been counted, and by a 55%-45% margin Scottish voters decided to stay in the UK for now.

But the nervous pols in London along with financiers in Edinburgh and London are breathing a sigh of relief.

But there is no relief from our usual Friday activity of calling out our favorite fool, fools, or group of fools, and lately, business has been booming.   

So let's get started.

Honorable mention number one goes to Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R).   He's trying to do everything partisanly possible and failing to keep a withdrawn Democratic Senate candidate Chad Taylor on the ballot so that endangered conservafool  Senator Pat Roberts (definitely no relation) can hold on to his seat.

With the Dem in the race, Roberts narrowly wins.  Without him, he loses to surging independent candidate Greg Orman and screws the GOP's changes of taking the Senate.  

After telling the Kansas Supreme Court they needed to make a decision yesterday on thi case so ballots could be printed to send to the troops, when the decision, didn't go his way, suddenly that deadline wasn't so rigid.  

He also demanded that the Kansas Democratic Party replace the withdrawn Dem senate candidate.  You know what the Kansas Dems are going to tell hs teabagginbg behind. 

Honorable mention number two goes to the US Congress, for going into recess for the next seven weeks to campaign as we have serious issues facing this country to deal with.

This week's winner is a group award for the NFL, who had another player get busted on domestic violence issues along with the still inconsistent levels of punishment meted out to other accused or convicted of domestic violence charges as the calls for NFL: commissioner Roger Goodell's resignation grow louder and sponsors start to drop out.  

NFL, shut up fools

TransGriot 2014 NFL Picks-Week 3

After getting off to a great 11-5 start in Week 1, the upset bug and a few close games that didn't go my way ravaged my Week 2 selections.   But I still had a better week than NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.

He had to (and still is) dealing with the fallout from the NFL PR week from Hades in the wake of the Ray Rice and other domestic abuse scandals involving NFL players.

More pleasant news to moi is my fave NFL team for the fifth straight season has started with a 2-0 record.   Yeah, yeah I'm well aware of what happened to the Texans last year. that's why we have a new coach and defensive coordinator

So let's get to NFL Week 3.  It's another sixteen games, and my picks to win  are in underlined bold print

Week 2 Results

TransGriot   7-9
Eli                9-7
Mike.           7-9

2014 NFL Season Record

TransGriot    18-14
Eli                 17-15
Mike             15-17  


Thursday Night Game
Atlanta over Tampa Bay

Sunday Early Games 

San Diego over Buffalo
Cincinnati over  Tennessee
Baltimore over Cleveland
Dallas over St Louis
Green Bay over Detroit
Houston over NY Giants
Indianapolis over Jacksonville
New Orleans over Minnesota
New England  over Oakland
Philadelphia over Washington

Sunday Afternoon Games
San Francisco over Arizona
Seattle over Denver
Miami over Kansas City

Sunday Night Game
Carolina over Pittsburgh

Monday Night Game
Chicago over NY Jets

TTNS Accepting Hosting Proposals For 2015 Event

The sixth annual Texas Transgender Nondiscrimination Summit is history, and the event for the first time was hosted outside the Houston area on the Texas State campus in San Marcos.

Been advised that the TTNS is now accepting hosting proposals for the summer 2015 event. 

The minimum requirements to host the TTNS are:  A campus liaison, a room at no charge to TTNS capable of accommodating 100 people, and at no charge to TTNS three rooms capable of holding 35 people for seminars.








If your Texas based college campus is interested in submitting a hosting proposal, please email Josephine@txtns.org with it or for further information

2014 FIBA World Cup Watch-Back To Back FIBA Champions!

Team USA started this basketball business trip at the end of August with a few goals in mind.  They wanted to become only the third nation to win back to back FIBA titles.  They wanted to keep  their winning streak going, and most importantly, qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympic basketball tournament.|

But to accomplish all of those goals, they would first nento get to the title game and win it.

That road to the title game started with a what was anticipated to be a tough semifinal matchup with Lithuania.   The USA is 5-1 against Lithuania since 2000, but the loss was in pool play during the 2004 Olympics, and they have been single digit margin wins.

And this semifinal game stayed true to the pattern they had established in this tournament.  They got off to a slow start, an led Lithuania by only seven points at halftime.

\

Then came the third quarter and the 10-0 USA run that broke the game wide open.  They finished with a 33-14 quartet that turned what was a close game into a comfortable 96-68 romp to the FIBA final in Madrid.

With host nation Spain now out of the tournament due to their upset loss to France, they came into Sunday's title game as heavy favorites to walk away with the James Naismith Trophy.

Their opponent was Serbia, who knocked off France in the other semifinal.

Serbia jumped out to a 15-7 first quarter lead before Kyrie Irving shattered and splattered their upset title dreams by personally igniting a 15-0  USA run in which he lit up the Serbians with 15 first quarter points on 6 of 7 shooting and trigger the 9 of 12 three point shoot barrage that blew the game wide open and sent Team USA romping to a 129-92 win.

In addition to completing their tournament run and shutting up the international skeptics with a spotless 9-0 record, they (and the Brazilians as the host nation) get to chill while everyone else in the FIBA Americas Zone tries to qualify for Rio.

They also became the first men's squad to win four straight international B-ball tournaments (2008 and 2012 Olympics, 2010 and 2014 

And what's scary for the rest of the FIBA basketball world to contemplate, we won this title without LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Blake Griffin, and Chris Paul . 

The 2016 Rio Games should be fun to watch.

NBJC's 5th Annual OUT on the Hill Rapidly Appoaching

The September 24-27 dates for the 5th Annual OUT on the Hill Black LGBT leadership summit are rapidly approaching, and there's still time for you to get registered and head to Washington DC for an amazing four days of seminars, panel discussions, policy briefings, movement agenda setting, and conversation about where we are as a community.

Black LGBT leaders and allies from around the country will be there to take part in what has become a highly anticipated event, and the National Black Justice Coalition would love to have you there.

The added bonus for attending OUT on the Hill in addition to interacting with some amazing community leaders is that you are in town and have an opportunity to also participate in the Congressional Black Caucus weekend and own your power at hat event as well..

I've had the pleasure of attending the 2011 and 2012 events, and if you are wishing to make connections with other Black LGBT leaders, this is the conference for you

If you need further information concerning OUT on the hill you can contact NBJC Operations Manager Venton C, Jones, Jr for further assistance..

For further assistance, please contact:

Venton C. Jones Jr.

Events and Operations Manager

National Black Justice Coalition

events@nbjc.org

202-319-1552, ext 101

Fallon Fox Beats Brents!

There's an old saying in the Black community that goes "'Don't let your mouth write a check your body can't cash."

Fallon Fox's opponent should have heeded that comment before she started flapping her transphobic gums last year.   After letting  those comments fly, she also denigrated Fox's WMMA skills and punctuated it with a desire to battle her in the cage.

Well, Brents got her wish tonight, but it didn't turn out the way she expected. 



After she was all Betty Badass last year, it was put up or shut up time during their Capital City Cage Wars co-main event bout earlier tonight. 

The 'Queen of Swords' made short work of Brents with a dominating display of her WMMA skills and talents that resulted in a first round stoppage of the anticipated fight in Springfield, IL.  

Fox is now 5-1 while Brents is now 2-2

Sade's Story

I posted a while ago about efforts of the trans community in Guyana to overturn the British colonial era anti-crossdressing laws that are used against them, and the legal review that happened as a result of those determined efforts to end the anti-transgender oppression last year

In this video, Sade Richardson tells her story about being trans in Guyana.

 

Shut Up Fool Awards- Fallon's Fighting Edition

Our fave WMMA fighter Fallon Fox will be headed to Springfield, IL to take on Tamikka Brents as a co-main event bout in the Capital City Cage Wars

Should be a fun bout, hope Fallon emerges victorious and looking forward to seeing the video from it.

It's Friday, and y'all know what that means.  It's time to for you to discover what fool, fools or group of fools succumb to me knocking out their hypocrisy,   putting a headlock on their ignorance, dropkicking their arrogance, and putting the submission hold on their stupidity.

Yep people, it's time for this week's edition of the TransGriot Shut Up Fool Awards.

Honorable mention number one is a group award for the Georgia Republican Party.  They are scared to death that Jason Carter and Michelle Nunn on the top of the November ballot will motivate Democratic voters to come to the polls in droves and take away the governor's chair and a US Senate seat from them.  

So what do they do?  Scream about 'voter fraud', racistly complain about Black voters and pull out the GOP voter suppression card.  Did you fools not learn anything from 2012 that the more you try o suppress our votes the higher our turnout grows?     Guess you'll need to learn that lesson again in November.

Honorable mention number two is Joan Rivers, in one final nekulturny parting shot from beyond the grave, left instructions to ban Adele, Chelsea Handler and First Lady Michelle Obama from her funeral. 

Yeah right, I'm sure all three of those ladies are losing sleep over missing your funeral. 

Honorable mention number three to Bill Maher for his Islamophobia.  Yeah, Like fundie Christians and other fundamentalists of all stripes haven't committed acts of terrorism in the name of their faith. 

Honorable mention number four is a group award to FOX Noise for thinking domestic violence is funny.

Honorable mention number five is Mars Hill megachurch founder Marc Driscoll.  He was forced to close several branches of his Washington state based church and take a leave of absence for his anti-woman and anti-gay views.

He caused major controversy that messed with the cash flow of his christobidness by referring to women as 'penis homes'.  Misogyny wrapped in prayer is still misogyny.  

And I'll bet you vote Republican, too. 

Honorable mention number six is Ray Fournier.  The Wake County, NC teacher put his job in jeopardy when he wrote an anti-public education screed in a homeschooling magazine that violated Godwin's Law.  

“I warned them about the spiritual dangers of public education, but sadly they ignored my warning,” he wrote. “It was as if their daughters where [sic] placed inside a spiritual gas chamber. It didn’t take long for the poison to take effect. Within a year’s time, one of them even became a lesbian.”

He apologized, but some parents in the Fuqay-Varina School District are still calling for his resignation or firing.  

Hey Ray here's a thought.  If you don't like teaching in public schools, do the right thing for your students and leave.

Honorable mention number seven goes to Michael Moore, who because he's pissed he isn't deferentially liberal enough for him, opened his mouth to say that history will only remember President Obama as a Black president. 

Naw Mike, history will remember President Obama for saving the auto industry, stopping our freefall into a second Great Depression, ending DADT, ending the Iraq War as promised, passing the Affordable Care Act, ending DADT, being the best POTUS on transgender rights in American history, getting Osama bin Laden, nominating Sonia Sotomayor to the SCOTUS....Did I forget anything?

And he did all that while facing Massive Resistance 2.0 from the Teapublicans 

Honorable mention number eight is a group award for the NFL, for totally making a mess of this Rice domestic violence form the too short suspension to now apparently being caught lying about receiving the more vicious tape of him throwing a punch at his wife that wold have made Mike Tyson proud.

Honorable mention number nine is christopimp James David Manning of the virulently anti-gay ATLAH Missionary Church in Harlem, NY.   He parted his lips to say Michael Sam would be marrying a nine year old  



Nope pastor,I think Mr. Sam's current main squeeze is way older than age nine.

This week's Shut up Fool winner is Ben Stein for parting his lips to say this jaw dropping statement on where else, FOX Noise. 

'There was a time, even in my youth … when lynchings of African Americans were not that incredibly rare. Now the lynchings are of the police, and it’s just an outrage!'

WTF? When I start seeing police officers strung up from trees for just minding their own business, then that jacked up racist statement you made will have a sliver of credibility.  

Until then Ben Stein, shut up fool.

You Can Vote Out Stupid

Nope, you can't fix stupid, especially when they are willfully ignorant and resist any information that points to them as being wrong.

But you can definitely use the powerful constitutional right you have at your disposal to vote them out.

The next two elections are critical to our nation's future.  You need to planning to run, not walk to your friendly neighborhood polling places on November 4 (or earlier if your state has early voting like Texas does) and cast your ballots.

You can whine, gripe and complain about the state of our political system as of today, but the only thing that will change this sorry state of affairs is the time tested method of taking your behind to the polls and voting in each and every election.

And yeah, I practice what I preach at y'all.  October 20 is circled on my calendar in blue Sharpie ink.

If you don't do it, all those misinformed FOX noise voters will be happy to bumrush the polls and choose your next governors, judges, state reps and state senators, US congressmembers and US senators for you.

If you think voting is a waste of time, better wake up and smell the voter suppression.  There's a reason the Republicans spend millions to ensure that groups they don't want voting against them have a hard time doing so.

And if you don't vote, I don't want to hear a word from you or see one negative syllable you type about social media about how awful your government is.

Nope, you can't fix stupid, but you can ensure it doesn't get the power to write legislation in you city, county, state, judicial benches and our country. . 

TransGriot 2014 NFL Picks-Week 2

"I want to get off to a good start and lay the foundation.  This week and the next four weeks of the 2014 NFL season will reveal which teams are contenders and which teams are pretenders fighting for the first pick of the 2015 NFL Draft next May. "
TransGriot, September 4, 2014.

Mission accomplished with an 11-5 opening week.

Week 1 of the NFL season is always a crapshoot, especially when you're trying to pick what teams are going to win games.  You don't have much solid info to base your picks on.  Players and coaches have moved on to new teams during the offseason.  There are retirements, suspensions, and rookies altering team chemistry from the previous season to also factor in your decisions along with track record over the last few season and whether it's a home or away game.

It's usually the most nerve racking week, and I got through it better than expected.  

So did the Texans, who thanks in large part to JJ Watt and his defensive teammates, helped snap their 14 game losing streak dating back to last season with the 17-6 season opening win against the Washington NFL club at NRG Stadium. 

Now it's NFL Week 2, and I want to keep the positive prognostication contest momentum going from the better than expected first week while my esteemed opponents both had .500 weeks.

I'm getting right to it.  Another sixteen games, and the team I'm selecting to win will be in underlined bold print.   Mike and Eli's picks are here.

Week One Results

TransGriot    11-5
Eli                  8-8
Mike              8-8

2014 NFL Season Record

TransGriot    11-5
Eli                  8-8
Mike              8-8

Thursday Night Game
Pittsburgh over Baltimore

Sunday Early Games
Miami over Buffalo
Detroit over Carolina
Cincinnati over Atlanta
New Orleans over Cleveland
New England over Minnesota
Arizona over NY Giants
Tennessee over Dallas
Washington over Jacksonville

Sunday Afternoon Games
Seattle over San Diego
Tampa Bay over St. Louis
Denver over Kansas City
Green Bay over NY Jets
Houston over Oakland

Sunday Night Game
San Francisco over Chicago

Monday Night Game
Indianapolis over Philadelphia

Janet And Laverne On 2014 The Root 100 List!

Dr. Kortney Ryan Ziegler became the first ever transperson named to The Root 100 in 2013.  

So when this year's list of 100 achievers and influencers in the African-American community was recently released, I was curious to find out not only who made it, but if we would have any trans community representation on it.   

I'm happy to report the 2014 edition of The Root 100 doubled its trans honorees this year.

Who were the trans persons on this year's distinguished list?    None other than our dynamic duo of Janet Mock and Laverne Cox.  Laverne checks in at number 5 on this year's list, Janet at  number 25. 

Congratulations ladies!   You are emphatic proof that when trans people are given the opportunity to excel, we can and will do so.   When we get to use our talents, the community benefits for us doing so.  It's also proof that we girls and guys like us are undeniably part of the kente cloth fabric of the African-American community.

 

9/11 Terror Attacks 13th Anniversary

Today is the 13th anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks that targeted the World Trade Center towers in New York, the Pentagon in Washington D.C. and the US Capitol building that used four hijacked planes to do so.  Over 3000 people died in those attacks.  

The 40 passengers and crew of United Flight 93 thwarted the attack on the US Capitol building when it was 20 minutes flight time from Washington by rushing the cockpit and attempting to overpower the hijackers.   The plane crashed in a field outside of Shanksville, PA.

In addition to the memorial being built in New York and the 1,776 ft Freedom Tower being built at the former World Trade Center site, the Flight 93 crash site is now home to a national memorial being built there.

As a matter of fact, just as I did back on that September 11 day, I woke up early this morning. 

I was watching Good Morning America on that fateful day when I saw the first reports that of a fire at the World Trad Center building.   I saw the second hijacked plane crash into the other tower on live television.  I spent the next few hours trying to call and verify that all the cis and trans people I knew in the New York area were okay. 

I was also nervous in those early confusing hours that one of the hijacked planes was a Continental one.  When I discovered later that the hijacked planes were American and United ones, my thoughts turned to those personnel, the passengers on board those planes and especailly the gate agents who worked those respective flights. 

Then the news came about the Pentagon being attacked.  The unprecedented shutdown of US airspace at 9:45 AM EDT that led to Operation Yellow Ribbon in Canada.  

And I watched on live TV as those majestic World Trade Center towers that I didn't get to visit during my New York vacation the year before collapsed minutes apart. 

The attacks took us on a path that led us to the conflict in Afghanistan, a war foolishly jumped off by the GW Bush administration in Iraq two years later, the loss of over 5000 soldiers and wounding of countless others, the election of Barack Obama as president in 2008 and the death of Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the al-Qaeda attacks via a Seal Team 6 operation in Abbottabad, Pakistan.   

But for those of us who remember the events of that day, the memories still haven't faded yet.