Shut Up Fool Awards-Canadian Thanksgiving Weekend 2014 Edition

My TransGriot readers come from many countries, but the top one for visitors have been the Canadians.  

This is Thanksgiving weekend for my north of the border readers, and they will be getting their grub on and giving thanks for all their blessings for the year on Monday.  

One of their blessings is that they don't have as many off the charts right wing fools in their national political circles as we have to deal with on our side of the border.

So lets get right to it.   Let's find out what fool, fools or group of fools get called out in this weeks edition. 

Honorable mention number one is the Republican Party.   They have been in Blame Obama mode attacking the administration about various issues and the organizations tasked to deal with those problems, but conveniently forget to mention that they cut the funding to all those organizations so they have less money to do their jobs.

Honorable mention number two is Charlotte Lucas, who let out a Facebook rant in which she proclaimed she was 'sick of minorities running this country'.

Your white sheet is showing Charlotte.   Yeah, I'm sick of minorities like the GOP 1% running this country, too and I'm going to do something about it on Election Day.

Honorable mention number three is Cornel West.   He's still hatin' on President Obama, and still bitter about not being invited to either inauguration.

Honorable mention number four is Reince Priebus, who is still clueless as the RNC chair and praised hatemonger Tony Perkins as being 'right on marriage. 

More like right wing, Reince.   And news flash, the GOP War on Same Sex Marriage is over.   Didn't you get that memo from the SCOTUS this week? .

Honorable mention number five is Annie Lennox for engaging in Beyonce bashing.   And how many Grammys do you have again compared to Bey Bey?   Sit your ass down somewhere.

Diana Veiga said it best about Lennox's feminism policing. 

'This need for white women to police Black women’s definition and brand of feminism is troublesome, bothersome, and disturbing,” she wrote. “It does nothing more than widen the chasm that already exists between white and Black feminists. What exactly are the depths of feminism Lennox is talking about? How does Beyoncé not represent them? And what does Lennox think Beyoncé is missing?” 

Honorable mention number six is Rep Louie Gohmert (R-TX).   This contender for the 2014 Shut Up Fool of The Year Award parted his lips to say that the POTUS just sent 3000 troops to catch Ebola and die.   They are headed there on a humanitarian mission.  

Gohmert Pyle needed to shut up a long time ago.

Honorable mention number seven is Rick Wiles, who continued the TeaGOP Ebola themed talking points on his radio show.  He parted his loud and wrong lips to say that "Ebola could solve America's problems with atheism, homosexuality, sexual promiscuity, pornography and abortion".

One major gaping hole in your theory.  So far the only Americans to get it have been Christians doing medical missionary work.

The Canadian Jive Turkey winner is the Canadian Senate for stalling the passage of C-279 for over a year

This week's Shut Up Fool award winner is Todd Kincannon.   Todd let loose this racist series of tweets that proposed that people with Ebola be put to death, .



And y'all wanna know why I despise the Tea Party movement and call them the Tea Klux Klan   

Todd Kincannon, shut up fool!

Texas Voter Suppression Law Struck Down Again

Last night we Texans received some wonderful news with early voting scheduled to start on October 20. 

After hearing three weeks of testimony, the odious Texas Voter suppression law was declared unconstitutional (well, duh)  in a ruling by US District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos in Corpus Christi.

FYI, she was appointed  to the federal bench by President Obama , so here's another example of elections mattering and why you butt needs to be bumrushing the polls in this and EVERY election cycle .

Back to your regularly scheduled blogpost.  

This wasn't the first time SB 14 has run afoul of the VRA and the Constitution.   The odious Shelby County v. Holder SCOTUS ruling weakening the preclearance provision of the VRA gave Texas Atty Gen. Greg Abbott his opportunity to implement one of the toughest in the country voter suppression laws.

Judge Ramos equated the unjust law, which passed the Texas Legislature in 2011 and has been in effect since last year, to the poll taxes of the Jim Crow-era South that were used to hinder minorities’ ability to cast ballots.

“The Court holds that S.B. 14 creates an unconstitutional burden on the right to vote, has an impermissible discriminatory effect against Hispanics and African-Americans, and was imposed with an unconstitutional discriminatory purpose,” Ramos’ opinion said. “The Court further holds that SB 14 constitutes an unconstitutional poll tax.”

Judge Ramos ruling drew swift commentary from both sides of the political aisle. As Greg Abbott through a spokesperson promised to quickly appeal it to the conservafool leaning US 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, Texas Democrats and liberal progressive people hailed the ruling.

“As our former President Lyndon B. Johnson once said: ‘It is wrong—deadly wrong—to deny any of your fellow Americans the right to vote in this country,’” Texas Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa said in a statement.

“This ruling affirms what Democrats have known all along, the Republican majority in the Texas Legislature deliberately passed a voter/photo ID law to disenfranchise Texas voters based on race,” he continued. “Texas has a long history of voter discrimination. This ruling is a step in the right direction to ensure that all Texas voters have an equal voice at the ballot box.”.

Texas NAACP President Gary Bledsoe said: “We are greatly encouraged by today’s decision. This decision vindicates what African American and Latino leaders have been saying since this law was first proposed, that it discriminates against minority voters and was designed to do just that.

"This is great news for democracy. I call on Attorney General Greg Abbott to drop his defense of a law that a court has now called a 'poll tax' and 'discriminatory' against African-Americans and Hispanics."  said State Sen. and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis.

State Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston: "Texas has a long and sad history of making it difficult for people to vote. Elected officials repeatedly used the law to keep people out of the voting booth. Decades later, history rightly judges those men and women in a harsh light. As the court ruled, the voter ID law is essentially a modern day poll tax and has the same effect as other laws used in decades past to keep scores of lawful, legal Americans from voting. It was wrong then, it is wrong now, and I'm pleased the court stood up to protect the right to vote for all Texans."

State Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio: “This ruling is a major victory for our caucus, voting rights advocates across the country, and most importantly, for Texas voters and the fight for free and fair elections in our state. Since last summer's Supreme Court decision, Shelby County v. Holder, struck down the preclearance formula of the Voting Rights Act, we have seen a wave of voter suppression legislation aimed to curb minority voting strength in states across the country.

"We are extremely heartened by the court's decision, which affirms our position that the Texas voter identification law unfairly and unnecessarily restricts access to the franchise,"  US Atty Gen Eric Holder said in a statement released Thursday night. "Even after the Voting Rights Act was seriously eroded last year, we vowed to continue enforcing the remaining portions of that statute as aggressively as possible. This ruling is an important vindication of those efforts."

Let's just hope SB 14 stays dead, at least through November 4

'Laverne Cox Presents The T Word' Documentary On October 17

Coming up on October 17 will be a documentary on trans youth that will be simulcast on the MTV and LOGO networks.

It's entitled Laverne Cox Presents: The T Word and will focus on trans youth.

“The cast members in this documentary are fearlessly living their truths and in sharing their stories,”  says Emmy nominated actress and trans activist Laverne Cox, who produces and co-stars in the documentary. “[And] will send the message to other trans youth that it’s okay to be who you are.”

Looking forward to seeing it.

Get More:
Laverne Cox Presents: The T Word, Logo TV

Happy Birthday, Islan

Today would have been the 23rd birthday of my fallen New York transsister Islan Nettles.

But because she ran into some transphobes on a Harlem street corner who thought for whatever jacked up reason they could physically assault her, she is no longer here to celebrate any more birthdays.

The best present we can get for you right now on this day is justice and heightened awareness of your case..  

The wastes of DNA who attacked you need to be sitting in a  jail cell somewhere in New York state.  If the local prosecutors won't put theses idiots away for their deserved jail time, maybe it's time for federal prosecutors to get.involved and start investigating this case.

And those local prosecutors failing to act need to be replace in the next election cycle by people who will seek justice..

It pisses me off every time I see her face and wonder what kind of contributions she would have made to our community and the world. 
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She was just beginning to live her life and these transphobes ended it it because of their person prejudices and transphobia.

Happy birthday, Islan.  You were taken away from us way too soon.   The city of New York, all the people who loved you and the world are poorer for it.

Conversation Between bell and Laverne

The New School hosted bell hooks for another week long residency with he having conversations with high profile people of color.

One of the people she had a conversation with was my amazing sis Laverne Cox. 

It resulted in this phenomenal discussion concerning feminism, pop culture, and her Orange Is The New Black show with Laverne Cox

Thanks Laverne for the shout out, and here's the link to the conversation.

TransGriot 2014 NFL Picks- Week 6

I had another fantastic week picking NFL games, going 12-3 in Week 5.

Only problem, that wasn't good enough to win the week.   Eli and Mike beat me because of the result of the Dallas-Houston game that ended with the (yuck) Cowchips winning in overtime.

No rest for the Texans, because they now have to dive into AFC South play and deal with H-town homeboy Andrew Luck and his Colts coming to NRG Stadium for a nationally televised first place showdown.

Since the Texans have yet to win a game in Indianapolis, this one is magnified.  

So they better handle their football business    Great place to start would be to play four quarters of football and force teams to try to come back on them instead of the other way around.

Speaking of handling football business, time to get the Week 6 picks out of the way.   Only 15 games to pick because the Chiefs and Saints are on their bye week.

My picks will be in underlined bold print, Eli's and Mike's I'll link to here once they are available.  Our prognostication contest is still tight, and I'm still leading, but not by much.

Week 5 Results.

TransGriot   12-3
Eli                13-2
Mike            13-2

2014 NFL Season Record

TransGriot     49-27
Eli                  47-29
Mike              48-28

NFL Week 6

Thursday Night Game
Houston over Indianapolis

Sunday Early Games
Pittsburgh over Cleveland
New England over Buffalo
Cincinnati over Carolina
Tennessee over Jacksonville
Green Bay over Miami
Detroit over Minnesota
Denver over NY Jets
Baltimore over Tampa Bay

Sunday Afternoon Games
San Diego over Oakland
Atlanta over Chicago
Seattle over Dallas
Arizona over Washington

Sunday Night Game
NY Giants over Philadelphia

Monday Night Game 
San Francisco over St. Louis

Doing Some Brazilian Trans Musing

One of the things I have wanted to have happen for a while as a child of the African Diaspora is to have better communications links and form lasting friendships with my Brazilian transsisters.

While I'm on my way to making that happen on my Facebook page with a few Brazilian transsisters already there and us having conversations from time to time, I need to do it more frequently.

A high priority for me has been to get to know some of my Black Brazilian trans sisters so I can have a better knowledge base to discuss African Diaspora issues from their perspective and intelligently write about them.

I also want to find out their thoughts of being Black and trans in their home country, and where they see themselves in terms of the trans spotlight inside and outside of Brazil.

While there are some differences between African-American trans folks  and Black Brazilian trans peeps, there are other aspects of having blood connections to the African continent that we are both painfully aware of.

Brazil is the largest nation on the South American continent and the fifth largest on the planet.  It is one of the Top Ten countries that I receive TransGriot readers from despite this being a primarily English language blog. 

I'm motivated toward wanting to do a better job of covering trans human rights developments that happen there.

Yes, we have known since Roberta Close hit the international spotlight that Brazil has some of the most beautiful trans women on the planet.  Some are ripping modeling runways right now. But I want to delve deeper and find out from my Brazilian transsisters and transbrothers what are their issue concerns?  How do they see themselves in comparison to the rest of the trans people who are on the international stage?

Who are their up and coming trans human rights leaders?  Who are the local trans people they think represent them well on the national and international trans human rights stage.

In addition to discussing trans themed history that involves Brazilian trans people, while I want to bring attention to the fact our Brazilian sisters are catching hell and getting eviscerated just like we are in the States, I also want to make sure that I present a balanced portrait of Brazilian trans women to my readers.

I want to tell more stories about Black Brazilian trans women as well.

Thanks to Dora and Aleikasandra for giving me your thoughts and  insights into what is happening trans wise in Brazil.  I hope the subsequent posts that result from what you shared with me do your trans community justice the next time I respectfully attempt to discuss those issues on TransGriot.

And I hope we are blessed to have more long and fascinating chats in the future.

The Task Force Is FINALLY Changing Its Name

When I began my advocacy work on behalf of the trans community in 1998, one of the few national organizations that supported us was the Task Force.

I was introduced to then executive director Kerry Lobel, and what I observed of her I liked, and not just because our birthdays were a week apart.

The Task Force at the time was one of the few national organizations that supported trans people, and that trans inclusion was evident at the Creating Change Conference I attended in Oakland a year later.

When I became the Political Director of a neophyte trans rights organization called the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition, one of the first national policy event tables I got the opportunity to sit at with other LGBT organizations was a February 2000 National Transgender Policy one held at the Task Force's DC headquarters.

And over a decade later, I was a proud member of the Houston Host Committee and conference participant for our wildly successful 2014 Creating Change Conference in my hometown.

I have a long personal connection with the Task Force, and I was extremely pleased to hear that yesterday the organization changed its name to the National LGBTQ Task Force.

The Task Force name only including gay and lesbian has been an at times contentious issue with elements of the bi and trans communities, and even reared its head during one of the plenary speeches during CC14.

The organization’s new tagline to go with the new name and logo is “Be you.”  The vision is a society that values and respects the diversity of human expression and identity and achieves freedom and equity for all.

It's past time that the B, T and Q letters were added to the name, since the Task Force as one of the oldest national LGBTQ orgs has long been doing work around trans issues.

It's just now we're included in the name of the organization.

Zeam's MSHSL Testimony

Because Minnesota is not among the 32 states that have policies or procedures for participation by transgender student-athletes, the Minnesota State High School League is debating implementing an inclusive competition policy that would allow transgender high school athletes to compete on the teams that correspond with their gender presentation

News of this was met by the Minneapolis Star Ledger, the state's largest newspaper, making the controversial decision to allow the trans hate group the Minnesota Child Protection League to post in the Sunday edition of the paper a full page falsehood filled ad seeking to stop the policy.

Trans student Zeam Porter appeared before the MSHSL committee debating the policy to give some emotional testimony in favor of it. 

“My love for basketball last year made me believe I could handle being on the wrong team. That was wrong. Constantly being misgendered and called the wrong name took away my soul. I already feel like I don’t have my body -- now I am soulless." said Porter during the hearing.

Unfortunately, the vote on the proposed policy was delayed until December.


All I have to add to this is let my transkids play sports just like everyone else matriculating on a Minnesota high school campus, and do so on the teams that correspond with their gender presentation.

Audrey Mbugua Wins Her Landmark Case!

Been talking about this on the blog since last year, and finally have some wonderful news to report.

Prominent Kenyan trans activist Audrey Mbugua has won her landmark case against the Kenyan National Examinations Council {KNEC}!

KNEC was ordered by the High Court Tuesday to change the name and gender marker on her academic certificates.   

Justice Weldon Korir said KNEC had failed to demonstrate why they couldn't make the changes requested by Ms. Mbugua, and gave them 45 days to print a new certificate without the gender marker.

The court ruled that Ms. Mbugua would have to pay for any extra costs to make the change, but you can obviously presume she was exceeding happy about this latest legal victory.

We won,” Mbugua told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “It’s a huge watershed moment.”

Back n July, the High Court ordered the Kenyan authorities to register her lobby group, Transgender Education and Advocacy, saying their refusal to do so had no legal basis and was an abuse of power.

Mbugua has also been nominated by the Dutch government for their Human Rights Tulip Award for the innovative and groundbreaking human rights work she has been doing raising the profile of transgender human rights issues in Kenya.

This is a huge win she's been fighting hard for, and congratulations to my Kenyan sis.  Common sense and justice did prevail in this case.

Happy Birthday Dee Dee!

I met her last year at a trans POC meeting, and it has been a blessing to me and the city of Houston.  

Ever since we met, we have been collaboratively working on projects that have benefited our community as our personal friendship has exponentially grown.  One of those projects we were working on was HERO.    

And yeah, I enjoy our traditional Tuesday lunches at Frenchy's, too.

When you love and appreciate someone and admire what they do, best to tell them while they are in this plane of existence to hear it..

So here I go.   I have mad love and respect for my award winning activist trans sister, and since today is Dee Dee Watters birthday, I'll let her reveal which birthday she's celebrating. 

She deserves a TransGriot birthday shout out, and my birthday wish for her is that this busy lady take it easy on her special day.   I hope (and presume) she'll be celebrating it by being surrounded by her family and close friends.  

I also hope and pray she receives the ultimate blessing of being around to celebrate many more of them.

Happy birthday Dee Dee!

What Do You Mean Transitioning Was A 'Waste Of My Potential?'

Was talking to my mom the other night when she relayed a conversation she'd had with another one of my old neighbors in the Houston hood I'd grown up with. 

After they'd asked what my other siblings were up to, she then asked what I the eldest was doing since it is not a secret (at least I tend to think so) I transitioned 20 years ago and took the difficult path of doing so in my hometown.

When mom made a non committal "I was doing fine' answer, the person made the mistake of saying what was really on her mind and making the comment that me transitioning was 'a waste of my potential' and it was' an embarrassment'. 

Seriously?   This comment came from a woman whose sons did jail time, and when they made the local news, it was a negative story.   Compare and contrast that with yours truly.

My mom calmly told her, "We give our children life, but we can't live their lives."  As Mom is already aware of, I will determine how to live my life to not only maximize its potential, but to make me happy.  Caring about what haters think is not part of that game plan.

But I damned sure will use my electronic media platform to comment on it.

I'm more than a little tired of this ignorant thinking in the African-American community that presumes that if we don't stay in those mismatched at birth bodies, we African descended trans people don't contribute anything to the greater African-American community.  

That's bull feces.  So far you haven't given us the opportunity to prove that we transpeople of African descent can excel, or are ignoring our contributions when we do so.

And sometimes, you are our oppressors in league with others preventing that from happening.    

As I have pointed out on more than a few occasions on this blog, we have African descended trans people who have advanced degrees, are working in various vocations and excelling when given the chance to do so. 

I'm considered an authority on transgender history.  I'm an award winning writer with a blog I started in 2006 that has 5.7 million hits and counting.   I have done countless radio interviews, speak at various college and conventions on trans and other issues.  I was asked on two separate occasions if I would run for public office.   I have friendships with some amazing cis and trans people that span the globe that I probably would have never met if I hadn't transitioned.

And I still have living to do and chapters of my still evolving story to write.  

Waste of my potential?   It's because I transitioned, I'm living up to it.  I gained the courage to step out there and live my life so I can be happy.  You don't like that, tough.   While you're tripping about my transition, I'll continue to live my life to the best of my ability and look fly while doing so.
 
It is from that happiness and balance in my life I can then focus on using the gifts and talents I have to make my life and all the communities I intersect and interact with better.  

'He Wanted To Erase Her Existence'

Mayang Prasetyo, another one of our transsisters was murdered in Australia.

Along with the media in Brisbane misgendering and sensationalizing the whole thing also came a Guardian post by Amy Gray that took the opposite angle. 

Gray's post asserted that it was masculine entitlement that led to Prasetyo's death.

That Guardian article generated some commentary on my FB page when  I posted it, and the most thought provoking one of all so far was from Troy, whose trans attracted man videos you see pop up on TransGriot from time to time.

In his comment on the article Troy remarked, "Think of the last few trans women that have been murdered, thrown on the streets, dumped in the garbage. It seems their killers wanted to erase them from existence."

"That's why I'm so adamant about language. When you dehumanize someone it's easier to justify killing them."

Exactly, Troy.  Ever since I transitioned 20 years ago and became aware of the horrific levels of anti-trans violence aimed at us, there have been times when I have been stunned by the extreme level of violence that was aimed at transfeminine murder victims. 

Yaz'min Shancez's killer shot her, then burned her body. Shellie Hilliard's body in Detroit was dismembered and burned by her convicted killer.  I remember reading about other trans murders on the Remembering Our Dead list in which extreme violence was part of it.

One of my suspicions as to why that happens is because of the virulent level anti-trans hate can reach at times with cisgender males, as Joanna Cifredo noted while recounting an incident that happened to her in her blog post Passing To Survive.

That night will forever be ingrained in my memory. It was the night that I looked straight into the eyes of transphobia. I don’t think “phobia” is even the right word, he wasn’t scared of me, just the opposite, I was scared of him, instead I came face to face with pure, undiluted, hatred. As I rode home I began to think about the paralyzing fear that engulfed every pore of my being, and I began to sob uncontrollably. I started to think of all of my sisters who came face to face with hatred and weren’t as lucky as I was to have someone there defending them and were met with their mortality

Joanna is describing an instance in which she came face to face with someone who literally wanted to erase her existence from the face of this Earth because of her trans feminine status.  That person probably would have eagerly done so if it hadn't been for the fact there was a door and another cis male keeping that from happening in the incident she describes in the post

It's the sudden nature in which a transwoman can go from having a pleasant day to fearing for her life that keeps us on edge as we navigate our lives. 

My transsisters, this is just one of the things that estrogen based lifeforms unfortunately have to deal with   It is dangerous at times to walk this planet in a feminine body.

It gets even more problematic when that feminine body is a trans feminine one.  You have cisgender males who mistakenly feel they have the right to violently harm or kill a trans woman simply because the transwoman's presence in their space at that given moment for whatever specious reason offends them.

And I suspect this unfortunately happened to our sis Mayang.   For whatever reason, the man who professed to love her, killed and dismembered her before killing himself. 

How much transphobia played a role in this domestic violence situation we will probably never know, but the bottom line is still the same.  

Our sis is dead at the hands of a man who appears to have wanted to erase her existence

Janet's Interview With Tracee Ellis Ross

Janet Mock was guest hosting for Larry King recently on his Larry King Now show, and got the opportunity to interview the fabulous Tracee Ellis Ross.

She gets to chat with Tracee about her new ABC show Black-ish, her mom Diana Ross and other issues, and here's the video of it.

The SCOTUS Starts Its 2014-15 Session Today

Hide the Constitution, because the SCOTUS is in session starting today through June 2015

And yeah, have no love for the four conservafool politicians in black robes and their kneegrow sycophant who is a disgrace to the memory and distinguished legal career of Thurgood Marshall

As to what cases they will accept  for argument, while they are ducking same sex marrige for now, they are taking on a potentially important race-discrimination case to its 2014-15 docket.

It's a case that could have major implications for would-be borrowers, banks, and businesses.

As of yet don't see any voting rights cases on the docket or any others that impact LGBT rights, but you know I'll be paying close attention and will post any news of what happens there if one pops up between now and June 2015.

Today Is The Texas Registration Deadline To Vote In The 2014 Election

If you are planning to vote in this year's critical election starting on October 20, you need to be registered by today

October 6 is the deadline to be registered, and if you are planning to mail your registration in, it must be postmarked before midnight.

If you aren't liking the direction the GOP is taking this state, your only remedy for changing that is taking your soul to the election polls.

And make it a party by taking a few friends with you.

Election Day is November 4, and early voting starts on October 20.  So handle your electoral business if you haven't done so already

2014 FIBA Women's World Championship Watch-Title Number 9!

The 2014 FIBA World Championship for Women title game was held this afternoon my time in Istanbul, and the FIBA world number one ranked Team USA was facing off against Spain for the title and the automatic bid to the Rio Olympic Games that went with it.

Both teams were unbeaten, had won their respective groups and breezed through the tournament until the semifinals. 

Both teams also survived tough semifinal matchups the day before to get to the title game, with Spain knocking off the host Turks and Team USA dispatching their Australian rivals once again.

Team USA wanted to get off to a quick start and seize control of this title game from the outset, and with tournament MVP Maya Moore reeling off eight quick points to get the basketball party started, Spain quickly found themselves looking at a 15-5 double digit deficit.

Moore finished with 18 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists and a steal as she made the All-Star Five Team along with Brittney Griner. Australia's Penny Taylor, and Spain's Sancho Lyttle and Alba Torrens.



It didn't get any better for the EuroBasket champs as they headed to the halftime locker room trailing 48-29 and 67-48 at the end of the third quarter as Team USA kept up the defensive pressure and showcased the depth of their predominately veteran roster they brought to Turkey.  

Spain did close with a late rally and held the USA to just 10 points in the quarter to make the final score 77-64.   Spain with the runner up silver medal finish had achieved their best finish ever in FIBA tournament play, and the Australians hammered host Turkey 77-44 to earn the bronze medal.

For my Canadian readers, you finished fifth after knocking off China 61-53.  I think the Canadians might have had a shot at the podium had Natalie Achonwa been able to play.

Team USA with the win repeated as FIBA world champs, captured their ninth overall world championship and most importantly, locked down the automatic bid for the 2016 Games.  

USA Head Coach Geno Auriemma said while reflecting on it, "It is very difficult to win the Championship.  There are some great teams and they are getting better all the time."

"Although just because we are expected to win, doesn't make it any easier."



One thing that definitely won't be easy is selecting 12 players from the vast talent pool Team USA has to choose from for the 2016 women's Olympic b-ball squad.

But we'll see how that plays out two years from now.

Congrats to Team USA for the FIBA repeat.
 
 

Dwight DeLee Case Hearing October 15

I was majorly pissed off along with many trans people in New York state and across the country when the conviction of Dwight DeLee in the murder of Lateisha Green was overturned on a technicality. 

DeLee was subsequently released from prison, and the case in now back in the NY Court of Appeals after the Onandaga County District Attorney asked the appeals court to review the case.  

After the conviction was overturned, the Onondaga County District Attorney asked the court of appeals to review the case. - See more at: http://centralny.twcnews.com/content/news/central_new_york/708214/dwight-delee-s-overturned-case-to-be-reviewed/#sthash.BPfsSg8V.dpuf

On October 15, the NY Court of Appeals will hold a hearing to decide if the conviction in this case will be reinstated and DeLee can go back to serving that 25 year sentence he got for killing Green back in 2008.

Should have been longer, but it is what it is..

While we're waiting along with Lateisha's family for justice to be served again, here's a petition for you to sign if you wish calling for the reinstatement of DeLee's conviction.

The message needs to be sent that killing a trans woman comes with a cost to the perpetrtors of these heinous acts and that our lives are valuable.

2014 FIBA Women's World Championship Watch-On To The Finals!

It was Semifinal Saturday in Istanbul earlier today as the four surviving teams in the 2014 FIBA World Championship For Women tournament faced each other for a spot in tomorrow's finals.

Spain was taking on the host Turks, while the unbeaten Team USA was tangling with their longtime Australian rivals who were also unbeaten despite not having Lauren Jackson on the Opals squad.

In the early semifinal game the European champions broke the hearts of the Turkish faithful dreaming of an appearance in the FIBA final by knocking them off 66-56.

Team USA handled their basketball business against Australia in the other semifinal, sending the Opals to the third place game to face off against Turkey after beating them 82-70.




Tina Charles did the damage this time with 18 points and 9 rebounds to put the USA one win away from repeating as FIBA world champs and qualifying for the Olympic basketball tournament in Rio two years from now.