9th Annual TRANSforming Gender Conference This Weekend

I had the honor and pleasure of being a keynote speaker for the 2008 edition of this event, and this weekend will mark the 9th annual edition of the TRANSforming Gender Conference March 13-14 sponsored by the University of Colorado's LGBTQ Resource Center,

The keynote speakers this year will be TPOCC board member Mattee Jim and Amos Mac.

If you're in the Boulder area, you may wish to check the TRANSforming Gender Conference out on the picturesque CU campus that's FREE and open to the public, and hear these two dynamic speakers in addition to checking out the workshops and seminars.

International Women's Day Includes Trans Women, Too!

Today is International Women's Day, which is celebrated every March 8.

The UN sponsored iteration of the day dates back to 1977, but the day's history goes back to 1909.

This year's theme is 'Equality For Women Is Progress For All', and equality and progress for women includes trans women in that mix as well.

Anti-trans feminine discrimination and violence basically has its roots in the same systemic anti-woman attitudes and anti-women violence that has historically plagued women on our planet.

And we trans women aren't immune to that.   Ours just comes with a heaping helping of transphobia on top of it along with the refusal to realize what we and medical science already knows in terms of  that trans women are women.

Medical science is increasingly making that point for us along with shifting cultural attitudes and the realization that the trans rights movement is an international human rights one..

But as we celebrate this 2015 edition of International Women's Day in Trans World, while we celebrate the fact that we have trans women running for political office in Britain, have trans parliamentarians in Belgium and Poland, trans feminine models rocking runways from New York to Milan, one who performed on the hallowed stage of Carnegie Hall, another who scored a groundbreaking legal win in Kenya., others who will grace movie and our television screens commenting on various issues inside and outside the trans community, we have trans women around the world who are not experiencing that same level of progress.

In many parts of the world, trans human rights progress is occurring at a glacial pace, if at all.

We still have far too many around the world that experience crushing discrimination that leads them to engage in survival sex work to pay the bills.  

And far too many of our sisters are being killed for simply trying to live their trans feminine lives in the United States, Latin and Central America, Brazil and Turkey.

And those are the trans murders we are aware of.

We have the Canadian Conservative led government that since 2013 has been stalling passage of C-279, the Trans Rights Bill as various Republican state led jurisdictions are trying to pass laws that dehumanize trans people and allow discrimination against them for their own selfish political gain.

And now that the US right wing is losing on the gay marriage issue, they now are starting to attack the humanity of trans people as their ticket to political power, fame and fortune and legitimacy in conservative political circles.

I wrote this last paragraph in a post penned for the 2012 edition of International Women's Day, and it still applies two years later as to where trans women fit into this day..

While we are fighting to overcome the transphobic hatred and disinformation aimed at us, we also seek to continue discussions with our cis sisters as to where trans women fit in the grand scheme of womanhood.  We're more than willing to do our part to help uplift all women cis and trans around the globe if we're respectfully given an opportunity to do so. 

And we're ready to handle our feminine human rights business if that respectful invitation comes.
 
International Women's Day also includes the issues that impact and ail trans feminine women across Planet Earth . Don't let anyone tell you it doesn't.

Moni's Washington Musings

One of the things I was thinking about on the 3.5 hour plane ride back to Houston was the overwhelming sense of deja vu that enveloped me in the days leading up to my Washington trip to handle my TPOCC board  business, while I was in my room, and during that facilitated board meeting..

In addition to the fact this TPOCC meeting happened on the same weekend as the 50th anniversary of the Bloody Sunday march in Selma, the facilitated board meeting took place in a hotel across the Rhode Island Avenue street from the headquarters of HRC, an org that in the 90s was more of a trans human rights oppressor than an ally.

Fifteen years ago a 37 year old TransGriot was the political director of a neophyte multicultural trans rights organization called the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition.   A national transgender policy meeting facilitated by the Task Force was scheduled to happen January 27, 2000 amongst the major LGBT organizations at the time and it was going to be NTAC's debut at those policy tables


But that initial meeting was delayed due to a surprise snowstorm that started January 24 and dropped several inches of snow on Washington DC and a wide swath of the Midwest and northeast US.   I was at Intercontinental Airport along with Vanessa Edwards Foster trying to get to DC as two other NTAC board members drove from Louisville, KY and Columbus, OH in that snowstorm following a snowplow as they entered Maryland to actually make it to the front doors of The Task Force headquarters. 

Dawn and Sarah did get a meeting with then Task Force leaders for their efforts, and when we were able to convene the rescheduled policy meeting a few weeks later I was in the room  representing the interests of trans people of color at that table .  

I also got to call out the HRC rep for sabotaging our lobby days dating back to 1994 and let her know in no uncertain terms that the new trans human rights sheriffs were in town, and we were here to pass legislation and advocate for policies to fix the problems that ail trans world.

HRC could either join u in that effort or get the hell out of the way.

That memory was on my mind as I sat in the Hobby Airport gate lobby about to hop a flight to Washington as another snowstorm was bearing down on our nation's capital.   I thought about the fact that I was about to take part in a board meeting for another multicultural trans organization during a historic weekend for African-Americans.

I pondered the fact after safely arriving during a snowstorm at DCA, I was once again in a city I had visited so many other times before in my activist life helping to formulate policy and chart the course of another organization tasked to represent the human rights interests of trans people of color.

And I want this one to be around for the next generation of trans people of color to run when our founder and the rest of us at that policy table on Friday need to pass the leadership torch to the next generation.

TPOCC has a unique voice in these trans human rights matters that needs to be heard before formulating policy that affects all trans people, and in this fifth anniversary year you will increasingly hear that voice.. 

Did You Spring Forward 2K15 Style Yet?

Did you move those watches and clocks ahead one hour?   If you did, congratulations and disregard this post.

But if you didn't, handle your daylight savings time business now, otherwise you'll find yourself being an hour late for everything today.

And it figures we'd have a time change as I'm trying to recover from my quick trip inside the Beltway.

Oh well, just gotta deal with it until we turn the clocks back November. 1.

President Obama's Selma 50 Speech

In case you didn't see it, and I didn't see yesterday's speech live since I was traveling back to Houston from Washington DC, here's President Obama's remarks about the anniversary of Bloody Sunday with the Edmund Pettus Bridge in the background.

We owe much to those Bloody Sunday marchers, including Congressman John Lewis.   Because of that event, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 passed, and without the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Black political power it unleashed, we wouldn't have had President Obama standing there on this 50th anniversary of the event to give a speech about it.

Here's President Obama and the video of the speech.

Top GOP Congressional Leaders No Show Selma 50 Event

For those people, especially in Conservaworld and even the liberal ranks who don't understand why I have an intense dislike for the Republican Party, it's simple.

The Republicans hate me and my people.

I'll repeat it for you again if you think Moni was kidding about what I just wrote in that last sentence and write it in bold print for you this time:  The Republicans hate me and my people.

You would think that a part that bristles at the commentary I and other African-Americans inside and outside the TBLGQ community that they are racist, bigoted toward African-Americans, anti-Black, (fill in the blank), you would think they would jump at opportunities to at least symbolically show African-Americans they aren't as bad as we say they are.

But the Selma 50 event came and went without an appearance from top GOP leaders like Speaker of the House John Boehner, Sen Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and House Majority Klansman, er Whip Steve Scalise or their leading candidates for the GOP 2016 presidential nomination.

And naw, I don't want to hear any false equivalence grousing pointing out some Democratic leaders didn't show up either.

It ain't the Democrats who are gleefully saying racist crap on an almost daily basis or passing repressive legislation, that's all on you Republicans.   

Hell, it would have been more shocking to me if they had shown up, seeing that their party has made attacking the Voting Rights Act one of the centerpieces of conservative movement activity over the last 50 years.

So the next time I or anyone else in Black America calls you out on your racism and your blatantly anti-Black commentary, demagoguery, laws and policies detrimental to our community, I don't want to hear a mumbling FOX broadcast word in protest of it.  

And don't be surprised when I look at you funny when you say you're a proud Republican.

You Republicans and the conservafool movement as a whole are the party of white supremacy, and it's past time that people call them on it and vote accordingly.

Spring Forward 2015!

Don't forget to set your watches and clocks ahead one hour tonight before you go to bed because daylight savings time kicks in at 2 AM on Sunday.

Hey if you don't, you'll be an hour late for everything.

If you're a Republican, you'll need to move your clocks forward 100 years.

As for that hour of sleep you're going to lose, you'll get it back November 1.

So go handle your daylight saving time business.

TPOCC Board Business Is Handled

As some of you are aware of, I bounced up here to Washington DC as part of my board duties to spend yesterday handling TPOCC business.

Kind of speaks to mine and the board's determination to ensure that the Trans Persons Of Color Coalition stays the one national organization dedicated to the concerns of ethnic trans persons when several of the board members braved Winter Storm Thor to travel to a DC getting whacked by several inches of snow so we could be there on time for our all day facilitated meeting that occurred yesterday.

TPOCC will celebrate its fifth anniversary this year and our founding executive director Kylar Broadus has big plans for the organization that we will roll out over the next few months.

One of those I can talk about is giving our TPOCC constituents the chance to support us fiscally, since this work takes money.   Details on how you'll be able to do that and invest in our organization will come soon.

TPOCC board members like Cecilia Chung, Mattee Jim, Louis Mitchell Andrea Jenkins and myself along with Kylar will be out, about and visible at major community events like the Trans 100 event in Chicago , the LGBT Media Journalists Convening, the Black Trans Advocacy Conference in Dallas, the Philadelphia Trans Health Conference and other regional events in our various locales around the country.

TPOCC is also ramping up its online presence on Facebook and Twitter.

There's a lot of things we discussed yesterday that a board confidentiality agreement will not allow me to talk about in this post, but you can be assured that TPOCC will be working to become that visible, muscular national trans advocacy organization you want, deserve, and look toward to role model  principled leadership.

And yesterday we took some major steps toward making that happen.

'Bloody Sunday' 50th Anniversary

While more people are aware of it because of the movie Selma, today marks the 50th anniversary of the brutal breakup of the first Selma to Montgomery voting rights march by Alabama state troopers on March 7, 1965.

SNCC and local activists between 1961-1964 had been trying to organize voter registration drives despite massive resistance from Dallas County, Alabama officials in the county seat of Selma.

They convinced the Rev. Dr Martin Luther King, Jr and SCLC to get involved and make Selma's intransigence to African-American voting a national concern.  They agreed, and began a series of demonstrations in January-February 1965 to the Dallas County Courthouse.

On February 17 protester Jimmy Lee Cooper was fatally shot by an Alabama state trooper and in response, a Selma to Montgomery protest march was scheduled for March 7.

Six hundred marchers assembled in Selma on Sunday, March 7, and, led by John Lewis and other SNCC and SCLC activists, crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge over the Alabama River en route to Montgomery. Just short of the bridge, they found their way blocked by Alabama State troopers and local police who ordered them to turn around. When the protesters refused, the officers shot teargas and waded into the crowd, beating the nonviolent protesters with billy clubs and ultimately hospitalizing over fifty people.
- See more at: http://www.blackpast.org/aah/bloody-sunday-selma-alabama-march-7-1965#sthash.zCNiuu8L.dpuf

Six hundred marchers led by future congressman John Lewis and other SNCC and SCLC leaders set off for Montgomery and crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge over the Alabama River.  

On the other side of it they were met by a wall of Alabama state troopers and local police demanding they turn back  When they refused,  the police responded by firing tear gas into the crowd and beating people with their billy clubs   They sent 50 people to the hospital, including John Lewis.

The violent beating of nonviolent protestors was televised around the world, and led Dr King to call for a second march that he led despite being torn by federal officials urging him to exercise patience and the SNCC and SCLC activist demanding action.

The second march happened on March 9, but King turned it around at the bridge, which exacerbated the developing tension between the civil rights movement elders and the younger activists in SCLC and the more militant SNCC demanding radical action and tactics to overcome the oppressive systems.

On March 21 the third successful march occurred under federal protection, and on August 6 the Voting Rights Act passed, spurred by the horrific violence of the Bloody Sunday march

Shut Up Fool Awards-Moni's In Snowy DC Edition

This Friday finds me waking up in a hotel room bed outside the 713 area code and inside I-495.  Thankfully it's after the 2015 Cirque de GOP, also known as the CPAC conference, has mercifully been over for a week. 

And the beautiful view that greeted me was a snow covered one of Dupont Circle.

At this moment you're reading this I'm knee deep in a Trans Persons of Color Coalition board meeting and loving every moment of it.   I'm proud and happy to be spending this time with my TPOCC family helping to chart the course of this multicultural trans organization for this and the next few years.

Speaking of stuff I'm happy to be doing is calling out every Friday the fool, fools or group of fools that have us shaking our head pondering just how they walk through life being so off the charts ignorant and stupid.

So while I handle my TPOCC meeting business, you TransGriot readers get to find out who won this week's TransGriot Shut Up Fool Awards.

Honorable mention number one is a group award for the GOP House and Speaker John Boehner for their failure to legislate and provide funding for Homeland Security

Honorable mention number two I got north of the border for and give a group award to the Canadian Senate Conservatives for stalling passage of the Trans Rights Bill for two years. and adding an amendment to it exempting C-279 from applying to public spaces including bathrooms and locker rooms.

Just another example why marginalized people all over the world hate conservatism.

Honorable mention number three is Tennessee state Rep Sheila Butt (R), who got her butt (pun intended) in trouble with a racist tweet saying it's time for an NAAWP.



Oh Sheila, you already have the National Association For The Advancement of White People.  It's called the Republican Party.  So have several seats and a nice tall sweet tea flavored glass of shut the hell up.

Honorable mention number four is the Liberty Institute.   They are doing loud and long bitching about the fact their petitions to force a May repeal referendum on the recently passed non discrimination law were rejected.  But what they fail to admit to their sheeple is the city of Plano notified the Liberty Institute three weeks before the deadline to submit the petitions they had problems, and they failed to correct the problems.

Oops.  Looks like no matter what end of I-45 they are on, the haters have a demonstrated inability to collect signatures for petition drives.

And when you attempt to dig a grave for someone, better dig one for yourselves.

Honorable mention number five is Flip Benham, who spent far more time at that Monday hearing for Charlotte's failed LGBT rights bill staked out in front of the women's bathroom oppressing trans women  and  trans kids than he did listening to the testimony of over 150 Queen City citizens expressing themselves pro and con about the ordinance.

Doesn't your perverted azz and your fellow faith based perverts have better things to do than creepily standing watch in front of the women's restroom to berate any transwoman going to piss and poop in them?

Let my trans people poop and piss in peace.

Honorable mention number six is Ben Carson, who in addition to the rants he unleashed during the Cirque de GOP, said that science needs religion to interpret it because it could be propaganda, and that prison sex  proves that being gay is a choice.

Honorable mention number seven is Andrea Shea King, who let loose a racist rant on Wing Nut Daily calling for Congressional Black Caucus legislators that boycotted Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to be hanged.

Another racist idiot with a radio show firing up the conservasheeple.   If she were thirty years younger she'd be perfect FOX Fembot material.

And y'all wonder why I continue to call the Tea Party the Tea Klux Klan.

This week's Shut Up Fool is Cal-ee-forn-ia attorney Matt McLaughlin, who has proposed a California ballot initiative, the 'Sodomite Liquidation Suppression Act'. that would if it made it to the ballot in Cali and passed, would mandate the execution of all gay peeps in the state,

Hey, I have to give him props to not only naming and claiming his hatred, he put his own money ($200) down on what he believes in.   Even if it is genocide.

And you know I gots to call his azz out on it.  Here's another example of a white conservamale wanting to oppress (and kill) somebody he doesn't like.

Never mind the fact a federal judge ruled the California death penalty was unconstitutional last June

Matt McLaughlin, have several seats and shut the hell up, fool!

Trans America, Your Humanity Is Under Attack

Maybe it's me being inside the Beltway or simply being pissed off at the spectacle of a grown ass faith based bully berating a trans youngling in Charlotte for simply handling a nature call, or the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday happening in Selma tomorrow, but Moni has something to say about what I've observed going on over the last few weeks in Trans World and beyond.

Like many of you in Trans World I'm not happy about the Religious Reich  doubling down on the thoroughly debunked bathroom predator meme and sponsoring dehumanizing anti-trans legislation that is a straight up attack on our humanity

While one is on its way to dying in Kentucky despite being passed by their GOP controlled senate, there are others in Florida and Texas still floating around that haven't gotten the derisive pushback they need to make the GOP withdraw them or the business community calling them out.about it.

But that's a subject for another post.   I want to talk about what we in the trans community can control.

And Moni's going to be real about it and can't say it enough,  your humanity as a trans person in this country is under attack.   I've been warning you for years that the faith-based haters were going to come for us, and now that day of reckoning is here.

What are you going to do about it? Are you going to meekly submit to right-wing oppression and let them criminalize being trans without a fight?

And don't think you can reason with GOP women on this issue.   Debbie Riddle sponsored our trans hate bill in Texas, and I predict that you'll see more white GOP women acting as useful fools to front these scientifically illiterate anti-trans measures

Let's also not forget that some of our LGB friends voted for some of the GOP legislators who are oppressing us, and are more concerned with their wallets that aiding us and anyone else in our human rights struggles.

How much is your dignity and humanity as a human being worth to you trans people, and are you willing to fight for it?   Are you going to be the trans men and women you say you are and these times demand?   Are you willing to join our younglings in fighting for our human rights against white male conservafools who are basically mad they didn't get to oppress somebody Jim Crow style like their great grandparents did?

Or are you going to cower in the false security of nondisclosure and let others do the heavy lifting of being agents for our liberation while you insultingly say from the safety of your keyboards 'these people don't represent me'?

Your nondisclosed status will not protect you forever from anti-trans oppression or anti-trans bigotry.   Sooner or later that pseudo-cisnormative status you have painstakingly built up will unravel, and you'll be blowing up mine or other activists phones wanting us to drop other important collective work that needs to be done to deal with your personal crisis.


Want to stop or slow down trans youth suicides? The first step to that happening ,is trans adults being visible,  proudly being possibility models living our lives to the best of our ability, and role modeling leadership is such a positive way it inspires our trans youth to live, handle their educational business and take the steps to dare to dream to be productive in society.

When we are doing the trans advocacy, we have to bear in mind that is not just for us.   Some of the policies we're fighting to get passed we may not be around to see them implemented, much less enjoy them.   But fight for them we must.

And finally, we must send the message that our humanity and our human rights are not up for discussion, nor are our human rights to be played with for your personal  political gains.

Don't tread on us or our human rights.  We're tired of it.  We've had enough. That message also goes to our peeps who are willing to throw the entire community under the human rights bus for their own comfort.

We also need to hold those who claim trans leadership status accountable in our community who aren't doing the job of  being trans leaders.

We also need to be on our job of building trans community.   I'm sick of the selfish trans separatist inspired rugged individualism.  We need collective community building for the rest of this decade and beyond.

Trans Americans, your humanity is under attack.   What are you going to do about it?

The Air Marshal Has Landed In DC Again

Y'all can breathe again Mom and H-town.

The Air Marshal has landed again in Washington DC, but this is once again another one of those in and out business trips in which the only sightseeing I'll be doing is as I'm passing stuff on final approach to DCA, in a van, car or on a Washington Metro train.

And yeah, I refuse to call this airport Reagan National.   Hated his racist azz.

I'm back inside I-495 for a Trans Persons of Color Coalition board meeting.  But I'm having to battle Winter Storm Thor, which canceled my original 7:35 AM departing flight out of Hobby, snow which delayed my arrival and had me and the other 74 people on my flight doing lazy circles over Virginia as we waited for the DCA runways to be cleared of falling snow.

And my Southwest flight crew handled their flying business   We also had a hotel change, and my third floor room at the Beacon Hotel has a lovely view of a snow covered Dupont Circle and the Australian Embassy.

But that's okay, since my 12:05 CST departure was a nonstop albeit bumpy at times flight up here and I'm thrilled I'm going to see my TPOCC colleagues again. 

That also goes for anybody else I know up here in the Washington DC area that blows up my cell phone or feels like trudging through the snow to see me before I head back home Saturday.

What's not okay is it's 20 degrees colder here than what I left in Houston with snow on the ground , and it was a chilly for Houston 40 degrees after the front passed through after 2 AM CST

Wednesday it was a balmy 75 degrees and I actually had to crank up the air conditioner to get rid of the humid air at Casa de Monica.

I did bring the sun with me from H-town, but it's still going to be cold while I'm up here and you aren't going to see it until tomorrow.according to the forecasts.

But I'm going to be indoors for most of this trip, so it's not going to matter much.

What I would like to do is find some time in my packed schedule  to hit the legendary Ben's Chili Bowl before I bounce back home on Saturday. 

And if I can't, Five Guys will do until I come back up here next time.

The 5th Annual TransGriot Black Trans History Quiz- The Answers

Since I was a little late compiling and putting it up on the blog because of other breaking news, I decided to give y'all a few extra days to ponder the answers to these questions.

Hey, it was an open Internet test.

So here they are, the answers to the 5th Annual TransGriot Black Trans History Quiz.

1.  This organization founded by Kylar Broadus is celebrating its 5th anniversary this year.  Name it.
The Trans Persons Of Color Coalition

2.  The Dewey's Lunch Counter Sit-In and Protest took place in what city 50 years ago?
Philadelphia

3.  Which one of these gospel groups was Wilmer Broadnax NOT a part of?

a: The Blind Boys Of Mississippi
b. The Golden Echoes
C. The Houston Heavenly Chorale
d. Spirit of Memphis

4. What is the name of the show in which Laverne Cox will play an Ivy league educated attorney?
Doubt

5. True or False.  A transwoman has appeared as a JET Beauty of the Week Centerfold.
True.   Her name is Ajita Wilson

6. Angelica Ross founded this Chicago based organization to provide job training for trans people.  Name the organization.
TransTech Social Enterprises

7. Model Ines Rau because the first person since Caroline Cossey to do this in May 2014.  What was it?
Appear as a Playboy magazine centerfold

8.True or False    Janet Mock has an MSNBC show entitled So POPular.
True

9. This activist scored a groundbreaking legal win for herself and trans people in her nation   Name her and the nation.
Audrey Mbugua in Kenya

10. This now annual award event was conceived and created by this trans woman.  Name it.
The Trans 100 by Antonia D'orsay

11. What do Dee Chamblee, Tracee McDaniel, Toni-Michelle Williams and Cheryl Courtney-Evans have in common besides the obvious fact they are African-American trans women?
They are all based in Atlanta

12.  True or False.  Rev Louis Mitchell was part of Dr Kortney Ziegler's groundbreaking documentary Still Black: A portrait of Black Transmen.
True

13.  Trans advocate Ashily Dior is from what Caribbean nation?
Trinidad and Tobago

14.  What do Jonathan Thunderword, Yeshua Holiday and Lawrence Richardson all have in common besides being trans men?
They are all ministers

15.  Who said this quote?   As long as there continues to be these petty folk, playing at activism while still harboring their superior attitudes toward the transgender community, we won't have the hard honest conversations and we'll NEVER have complete unity in the so-called "community".
Cheryl Courtney-Evans

16. True or False.  Valerie Spencer was Kerry Washington's trans advisor when she played Marybeth in the movie Life Is Hot In Cracktown.
True

17.  Last year Tona Brown because the first African-American transwoman to have a concert at this historic music venue/  Name it and the city it is located in.
Carnegie Hall in New York City.

18. What award will the TransGriot be receiving this October?
The Virginia Prince Transgender Pioneer Award

19. Who said this?  Those irrelevant articles TERFs tend to write give those of us on the right side of history something to point at and say, "Now, look at the utter ridiculousness of what they are saying. Go ask those in the medical communities who actually study transgender bodies on a day to day basis the reality of trans women's bodies. Go ask the psychologist who actually work with transgender women on a day to day basis. They will disagree with these insane statements."
Fallon Fox

When you are a person of privilege, it can be hard to imagine that the playing field isn’t leveled; but when you are a woman, or a person of color, or a transgender person, or a person from a lower socioeconomic bracket, you are familiar with the ways in which having privilege colors your reality. - See more at: http://thesaltcollective.org/6-things-people-with-privilege-never-have-to-worry-about/#sthash.3gYGfu2s.dpuf

When you are a person of privilege, it can be hard to imagine that the playing field isn’t leveled; but when you are a woman, or a person of color, or a transgender person, or a person from a lower socioeconomic bracket, you are familiar with the ways in which having privilege colors your reality. - See more at: http://thesaltcollective.org/6-things-people-with-privilege-never-have-to-worry-about/#sthash.3gYGfu2s.dpuf

20.  Which city did trans masculine leader Alexander John Goodrum NOT live in?
a. Chicago
b. San Francisco
C. New York
d. Tucson

21.In what year was the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition, the first multicultural national trans organization founded?
June 1999

22. What was the title of Sharon Davis' autobiography?
A Finer Specimen Of Womanhood.

23.  True or False.  Isis King's appearance in the movie Hello Forever was her first ever movie role?
False   She appeared in the movie Bella Maddo

24.   This event is going to happen in the near future for Myles Brady and Precious Davis.   What is it?Their wedding

25.  Lady Java was photographed picketing Rule Number 9 outside the LA club owned by this legendary comedian?
Redd Foxx

Loving 'Empire'!

One of my must watch TV destinations on Wednesday night has become Empire.

The show which chronicles the exploits of hip-hop mogul Lucious Lyon and his family is a drama filled entertaining hour of must see TV.

I especially love Taraji P. Henson as Lucious' ex-wife Cookie, who is one tough woman not to be messed with.

Some of my homegirls who are fans of Empire simply call it 'The Cookie Show' for her scene stealing larger than life on camera appearances.

Lucious, played by Terrence Howard is the founder of Empire Entertainment who has been diagnosed with ALS about the same time that past sins start to haunt his life and a power struggle is starting between his three sons for control of the company.

Empire debuted on FOX January 7 with 9.9 million viewers watching its inaugural episode, and has made television history by becoming the first show in 23 years to increase its weekly viewership through the first five weeks of its initial season.

Probably safe to say this show will be renewed  for a second season with strong numbers like this, and it also proves the point that a dram series with a multicultural cast and strong story lines will draw viewers.

Air Marshal Takes Flight To Washington Again

The Air Marshal is about to hop a flight in a few hours for my first 2015 trip to Washington DC for a TPOCC board meeting.  

This one is going to be an in and out trip in which the bulk of my time inside 1-495 is going to be spent tomorrow holed up in a hotel meeting room helping shape the course of the five year old Trans Persons of Color Coalition.

And I'm looking forward to doing that. 

What I'm not looking forward to is the much colder air that will be greeting me upon my arrival.

The original 7:35 AM non stop I was on canceled because of the snowstorm that's whacking the East Coast, so I won't have to get up at an ungodly hour to get to the airport for that flight because  I got rebooked to the next nonstop out of here.  

Now if a certain head of a local service org pops up at DCA to grab me after my arrival to show me their latest progress since my last visit, I won't complain, but already been booked on SuperShuttle.

See y'all in a few hours not so Chocolate City.

Islan Nettles KIller Finally Arrested

Nearly two years after he confessed to the heinous crime, 24 year old James Dixon has finally been arrested for the murder of Islan Nettles.

Dixon was indicted for manslaughter and felony assault in relation to Nettles' death   He has entered a  not guilty plea and is being held without bond.

According to court documents, Dixon made his statements to officers at the 32nd Precinct on August. 21, 2013.

But because Paris Wilson also confessed to launching the attack on Nettles and he has a similar resemblance to Dixon, it bogged down the investigation.

"I'm overwhelmed," Delores Nettles, the victim's mother, told DNAinfo New York. "I still want to know the facts, but it's been a long time coming."

Kiara St, James said in reaction to the news, "It's long overdue to have some positive traction in this case,but I won't be happy until the full weight of the law is brought down on him and he is convicted.

And I concur with your assessment Kiara.   #BlackTransLivesMatter, and a conviction and severe punishment in this case will help send that message.  Will be keeping an eye on this case until justice is served.

If It Happens, It Happens

Had a reader ask me recently if I was disappointed I didn't get a repeat GLAAD Media Award Outstanding Blog nomination

Yep, I was.  While I would have liked for that to happen, the nomination process for this award is out of my control.  All I can control is continuing to put together a quality blog that tells stories and comments on events in the trans, bi and SGL community and beyond from a predominately African-American trans perspective.

And one day, I hope that's enough to win it.  

But best of luck to Alvin McEwen, whose Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters garnered a second straight nomination this year and everyone else nominated in the blogging category.

Ben Hall Doesn't Deserve The Houston TBLGQ Community Vote

2015 is a civic election year in Houston, and while the real political campaign action won't get started in earnest until after Labor Day, there is already jockeying going on to see who will replace the term limited Mayor Annise Parker.

One of the people running for mayor is the guy she beat in 2013 to get that final term in former city attorney Ben Hall.   He's running again, and trying to position himself as someone that appeals to moderate voters, but don't let that act fool you.

Ben Hall has transphobic and homophobic tendencies, and I'm about to break it down why Houston trans/ SGL and LGBTQ peeps not only shouldn't give their precious cash, support or money to a Hall campaign, but make certain he NEVER takes the oath of office in the Wortham Center in 2016.

Ben Hall said in a Harris County Democratic candidate questionnaires during the 2013 election cycle that he would support what later became the HERO, then reneged on that.  

He refused to interview with the Houston Stonewall Democrats and the Houston LGBT Caucus for their mayoral candidate forums, then reached for the homophobia and transphobia in the late stages of the 2013 campaign when he couldn't make a dent in Mayor Parker's double digit lead.

He not only said he would if elected repeal Executive Order 150 that protects trans people in Houston city employment, but reached for the transphobia and homophobia when he appeared on the KUHF-FM show Houston Matters, was interviewed by a moderator before taking questions from callers.

When a homophobic man called in to announce indignation towards the Mayor for offering protections to Houston transgender people, Hall joined in on the transphobic party by announcing that in his opinion, it was unacceptable for transgendered people who are “anatomically another gender” to be treated as anything but the anatomical gender.  

He doubled down on the anti-TBLGQ prejudice by fully opposing a non-discrimination ordinance, calling homosexuality a “lifestyle choice.”

Well Ben, I not only haven't forgotten what you said to me at that 2013 northside mayoral campaign event when you straight up told me to my face you opposed me and other Houston bi, SGL and trans folks having the same human rights coverage as other Houstonians, I haven't forgotten you opposed the HERO.

Neither have I forgotten the transphobic comment you aimed at me and other trans Houstonians on that KUHF-FM radio broadcast.

Transgender and SGL Houstonians also live, work, play inside the Houston city limits and deserve to have their human rights respected and protected.

I have a long memory when it comes to people who oppress me, and I vote.   Even better, I have a blog that will remind BTLGQ Houstonians and our allies from now until Election Day on November 3 why you don't deserve to be the next mayor of Houston and encourage them to vote for candidates that will defend and implement the HERO.

You ain't that candidate, Piney Point Ben.

H-town TBLQ Girls Running The World

OutSmart Magazine in honor of Women's History Month put together an article honoring Houston BTLQ women who are running thangs, rising leaders and making our community better.

I was happy to see two of my trans sisters in Atlantis Capri and Dee Dee Watters make this list.   And if you're asking where's mine and Synthia's names, we were honored in the OutSmart Black History Month Black LGBTQ leaders issue.

I've had (or will have) the opportunity to work with many of the women named in this article on various community projects.   For those who were named I haven't met, I'm certain our paths will cross soon.

Congrats to Marshella, Atlantis, Dee Dee, Melanie, Stephanie, Margarita, Augie, Fran and Christina who were recognized in this article.

And for our proud H-town LBTQ sisters who lead on loan to other locales like Yesenia Chavez and Stacey Langley, know we love you, are still thinking about you in the 713, and look forward to the next time y'all come home.

Misfits March 11 Conversation: Are Black LGBTQ People Being Left Behind By Black Leaders?

Another Misfits conversation moderated by Fran Watson will be taking place in H-town on March 11 which asks the question: Are Black LGBTQ People Being Left Behind by Our Black Leaders?

From my trans perspective, the answer to that question depends on how you define Black leaders.

But I am less than happy about the deafening silence on trans issues coming from our politicians we elected with our votes and legacy civil rights organizations like the NAACP, and The Urban League.

One of the peeps taking part in this latest discussion in the Tiger Room on the Texas Southern University campus will be National Black Justice Coalition Executive Director/CEO Sharon Lettman Hicks.

There will be a reception that kicks this moderated conversation off starting at 6 PM CDT, with the moderated panel discussion scheduled to start at 6:45 PM.