It's Not About The Bathrooms

In the wake of our HERO loss, now that we have the local media's attention that we didn't have during the HERO fight, the Houston trans community has gotten up off the mat and it coming out swinging against our lying detractors.

Dee Dee Watters organized a media training event on Sunday at the Montrose Center in which we discussed what we need to do if we find ourselves staring at the unblinking eye of a camera.  We also discussed talking points for ourselves and allies as part of our effort to permanently kill the ignorance about trans people.

One of the attendees of that media training was Vito Cammisano, and when it was over several of us got to test drive some of our talking points in front of his camera.

You might recognize a certain blogger 'nobody reads' in this video.

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MAJOR! Premiere This Friday

This Friday will be an event I hope I get the chance to attend in the premiere of  the highly anticipated movie MAJOR! at the San Francisco Transgender Film Festival.

The film festival runs from September 12-15 at the Roxie Theater, but the MAJOR! premiere will happen at the Castro Theater.

MAJOR! is the documentary directed by Annalise Ophelian about Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, who is a Stonewall vet and Bay Area resident who has fought for trans human rights for trans women of color for over 40 years.

The 75 years young Miss Major recently retired as the executive director of the Transgender Gender Variant Intersex Justice Project, better known as TGI Justice, and is a beloved and much respected figure for many of us in the community.   I've also had the pleasure of spending quality time with her at various conferences around the country over the last few years.

While I've had the pleasure of seeing a rough cut of the movie, would love to see the final finished documentary and Miss Major at the same time.

TransGriot Update:  Tried, just couldn't make it happen.  Will just have to see it when it hits my neck of the woods.  

Jazz Jennings Named Again To TIME Magazine's 30 Most Influential Teens List

For the second consecutive year, our fave transteen Jazz Jennings has been named to the TIME Magazine 30 Most Influential Teens List.

It's a list that includes such lofty company as Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai,  First Daughter Malia Obama, Jaden Smith, Ahmed Mohamed and actresses Amandla Sternberg, Rowan Blanchard and Zendaya Coleman.

Y'all know I'm ride or die for our now 15 year old high schooler, and have been ever since she entered our consciousness as a 5 year old being interviewed on 20/20 by Barbara Walters.

This summer the I Am Jazz reality show on TLC was a big hit, and was broadcast on Discovery Familia with Spanish subtitles.

I've had the pleasure of meeting and spending some quality time with her and her wonderful family, and Jazz continues to be the amazing advocate and role model she has been for our community and our trans teens.    

Congratulations again to our trailblazing transteen for making the TIME magazine list for the second year, and hope you're having a wonderful first year of high school.
   

The Houston Trans Community Fights Back

After spending a few days venting about the results of the HERO vote, now that we H-town trans people have gotten the venting about it out of the way, comes the time for turning this lemon situation into lemonade.

Saturday members of the Houston based Transgender National Alliance and our allies stood at the busy corner of Montrose Blvd and Westheimer Rd in the heart of the gayborhood for a rally to combat the anti-trans negativity stirred up by the HERO haters.

Yesterday at the Montrose Center another event was organized by Dee Dee Watters in which I participated in along with Melissa Murry and Veronika Simms.  The goal of the event was to begin the process of getting our diverse trans community and our allies some common media talking points about our trans lives to use if they find themselves being asked to do media interviews as I and other local trans leaders have found ourselves doing in the last few days.

This event also included some practice using the new talking points in mock interviews, and won't be the only time we do this.  It will be an ongoing thing.

Speaking of upcoming events, we also have an upcoming one at MSociety in which we will have a Trans 101 conversation with people from the Black SGL community.  

The same conversations will also be conducted in other sectors of the Houston LGB community as well since we were disheartened to learn that some of our LG allies also drank the right wing potty Kool Aid and voted against the HERO.

So yes, we suffered a disappointing defeat in which we trans folks were gleefully slimed and demonized at every turn by our opponents.  But we Houston trans folks are a resilient bunch, and far from silently acquiescing to what happened November 3, we are gearing up to fight back because resistance to transphobia is not futile.

We are taking heart in a quote by the Rev Dr Martin Luther King, Jr to guide our future big picture efforts as we fight back from the punch our right wing opponents threw.

"Right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant."

We are on the right side of history, and we will prevail.  We just have to work harder than the Forces of Intolerance to make that day happen here in H-town.

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Thanks, Everyone For The Love

It has been a tough few days since my hometown shockingly voted to swallow the lies of the opposition about trans people and stupidly throw a human rights law under the bus that also covered them.

Not gonna lie, I was pissed off about that for a few days, but as the sun came up in the east and set in the west, it got better.

Much of the reason it got better was because many of you here in Houston, Texas, around the nation and the world called me, e-mailed me or sent much needed messages of encouragement.

I wanted to take the time to thank all of you who took the time out of your busy day to do so.  It was deeply appreciated .

To paraphrase a line from Star Trek, resistance to transphobia is not futile.   All the haters did was make me more determined along with human rights loving people here in my hometown to fight harder to make a comprehensive human rights law a priority.    

Tona's Trans Awareness Month Truth Telling

TransGriot Note:  Guest post by Tona Brown

It's Trans Awareness Month: As each day gets closer to TDOR (November 20th) a time where we recognize the names of all the transgender men and women that have been killed just for living in their truth; I realize that it's time to really let the world know about how poorly we are treated within the ‪#‎LGBT‬ community especially when it comes to funding!

I receive so many emails and notes from people who assume that if you are transgender and successful that life is EASIER for you. It most certainly is not for a transgender woman of color!

I have learned that funds that are specifically raised by #LGBT org's towards the transgender population are not being allocated to those that really need it the most. I have gone behind the scenes to see where are these funds going over the past four years. I have done research on websites like but not limited to LGBTQ funders.org just to see HOW MUCH money is sent to #LGBT organizations in an effort to help our community and the numbers are astounding! Millions of dollars have been sent to Gay and Lesbian organizations that use the "T" to receive said funds. The bigger questions is how much of that money "trickle's down" to TRANSGENDER people?

Wake up call LGB Organizations... You have done our community wrong! You have asked our community support your agendas, you have tokenized so many of my sisters and brothers in believing that you would do better but still HAVE NOT! So let me list the services that are available from my personal research and attending various events.

HIV TESTING!! HIV TESTING AND MORE HIV TESTING! (Because of course every trans person has to be HIV positive right? WRONG!! BUT we know that you get most of YOUR funding from HIV grants)
PLENTY OF CONDOMS AND LUBE EVEN DENTAL DAMS (if there FANCY)
$5-$10 vouchers (FOR YOUR TIME) or bus passes or tokens.

If you're lucky and a trans person has been allowed to help. A support group! TRANS WEDNESDAYS! Woo hoo!

Hormone therapy depending on your state and the program.
Assistance with name changes or birth certificates. (Very rare)
HOUSING.. NEARLY NEVER!

My personal favorite....SHADE!!! The girls are always telling me about a salty gay male who throws them enormous shade at the front desks or in the lobby and or he wants to talk to you about how "fierce" you look and how he would have never known you were trans! UGH

TAKING SURVEYS! (Of course we have to help you meet your quotas and deliverables) And no matter how many we fill out that say the same thing.. YEAR AFTER YEAR. The programs don't change.

Over the years what I have learned the most is that if you are a trans person of color these programs really don't suit your needs AT ALL. It's no wonder that most trans people don't support your events. You do not support us. Every survey conducted since the late 90's and early 2000's has told you what our community needs is EMPLOYMENT, HOUSING, FUNDING, and assistance to get NAME CHANGES AND BIRTH CERTIFICATE CHANGES (SO WE CAN GET A JOB).

But year after year these organizations pretend to care are still offering the same BS. The crumbs of their budget. The health department gives org's condoms and lube FOR FREE!! You're paying everyone else to test us. And since that is expensive... How about training more trans women to do it giving them EMPLOYMENT?! Your boards consist primarily of WHITE gay and lesbian people who have NO CLUE what our needs are. We need more transgender people on these boards. And any other place where you can HIRE US.. If you did a survey that says that we are facing employment discrimination but WE CAN NOT go to GAY AND LESBIAN organizations for employment THERE IS A PROBLEM!!

AGAIN!! We need HOUSING, AND EMPLOYMENT opportunities!!! Every survey has shown that transgender people live below the poverty line IN THE U.S. and the entire world. Yet your organizations continue to ask our community for financial support for YOUR agendas. The transgender community as a whole does not have the resources to do so.

The trans community has been left behind by #LGBT organizations that were supposed to be there for us. THIS EXCLUDES organization that are run by a trans person or trans oriented in its ENTIRETY.. However these organizations get very little support especially with FUNDING, fund raising or out right grants! Even their fiscal sponsors usually other Gay and Lesbian org's supply little support and its hard for them to keep their doors open!

The other slap in the face comes when organizations decide to ask OUR community to do a panel discussions, keynote speeches or to talk about issues facing transgender people. 9 times out of 10 the transgender facilitator has do the it FOR FREE. Your organization has a 500k or 1 million dollar budget but you can't pay transgender speakers or artists. But you pay everyone else.

The transgender community started the Stonewall rebellion that helped move the LGBT community forward YET.. the Gay and Lesbian organizations have left us behind. We are the after thought and quite frankly most of these organizations are just as bigoted as mainstream organizations.

Even events that make perfect sense to everyone else to get funding a transgender person of color has to struggle to get the funding for it. My Carnegie Hall debut and every other event I have done for the community does not get support from MAJOR LGBT organizations. There is always an excuse and people assume that I've gotten funding for these events that I self produce. NO!! I HAVE NEVER GOT FINANCIAL SUPPORT FROM ANY MAJOR LGBT ORGANIZATIONS for ANY program or show I have done! I send HUNDREDS of proposals out to GAY/LESBIAN organizations every YEAR! I have never talked about it until now. Because unlike others I refuse to let these organizations keep me from my destiny. I refuse to go to these huge dinners and take pictures on their step and repeat when you're not even using an 8th of your budget for our community.

These organizations don't even do research on the people you actually give the money to and when things aren't done properly you act surprised?! This happens because those of us with a track record or history of doing this work do not get the funding to do what we set out to do! AND WE WILL NOT DO IT FOR FREE!! So gay and lesbian organizations take risks on "new men and women" and often time in their defense get burned! AGAIN.. Do your homework first!!

To those that take advantage of money given to them and you do not do what you were supposed to do with it; NOTE you are not helping our community but harming our community and should be ashamed of your behavior! You're part of the reason why we can't get help for good programming that will help transgender people!

I will NOT perform for pride organizations that feel that I should perform for FREE but you pay a CISGENDER HETERO NORMATIVE performer (who might have mentioned one line about being gay friendly) 10's of thousands of dollars either in check or a tax write-off to perform. I will not speak at your huge dinners and do a keynote just to get a check from an organization that only does surface campaigns to get deep pocket donors yet will not offer the proper services to transgender people.

And now that we come to better understand how you really feel about us. There is the question of the 21 or 22 transgender and gender non conforming murders in 2015 19 of them being transgender women of color! It's a multi faceted issue further conversation and awareness and financial support is needed to help solve the problem.

I am working on a project with a magnificent team of trans attracted men who will be speaking with me from around the U.S. about what they think is going on. They will talk about their lives and the women they love and how they are demonized by others for being attracted to trans gender women. I would also like to do a video performance dedicated to the lives of these women but we cannot get funding for this from the organizations that claim they have out best interest in mind.

The media has already agreed to show their support but before I do another major event and people assume I'm getting funding and not paying out of pocket for it. I decided to share the TRUTH! To my team of volunteers who made Carnegie Hall and every event I've produced happen. I thank you from the bottom of my heart and to those that support me and my career. It takes men and women like you to make things happen behind the scenes when the money is not there. I hear your frustration when you send things off on my behalf only to be rejected because a black transgender woman is on the face of it. We may not be funded but we make history EVERY time I step on stage! I love you all dearly! Stay encouraged and NEVER GIVE UP! Remember one day‪#‎weshallovercome‬

I will be in NYC briefly performing for another event I believe in. Please get your ticket the performance is Thursday November 12th, 2015! I will be singing for this event and would like to see familiar faces in the audience if at all possible! WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT!

Congrats Aaron and Janet!

You know I have much love for Janet Mock, and have been ride or die for her ever since she came out as a girl like us. and I had the pleasure of meeting her in August 2012 and calling her a friend..  

I have yet to meet Aaron but hopeful that will happen soon.

I was happy to hear that Janet and Aaron finally jumped the broom into the land of matrimony in her birth state of Hawaii on November 5 and talked about her big day in this Brides.com essay.

While yours truly can do many things well, being in a committed relationship has been the one thing that has eluded me, and I am happy for those of you that has happened for.

Congrats Aaron and Janet on your big day, and may you have a long, happy and healthy marriage.

Shut Up Fool Awards-Post Houston Election Edition

Houston went to the polls on Tuesday, and the results were mixed for those of us who love freedom and justice.   We have had some of the candidate our community endorsed either get elected outright or survive to make the December 12 runoff while others didn't.

But we also had a major loss with the defeat of the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance in a deceptive trans-bashing campaign bankrolled and backed bu the Texas Republican party and longtime anti-LGBT conservafools that hoodwinked and bamboozled 61% of the population of my hometown into voting against their own human rights.

Yeah, they are gloating now, but we'll see how long those smirks stay on their faces.

Anyway, let's get to this week's SUF winner.   No point in even selecting runners up, the runaway winners are the 61% of Houston who voted NO on HERO,

That also includes the non-white ministers who sold out their communities to pal around with out of town Republican oppressors, those peeps who fell for the okey doke during early voting or on election day, those of you who gleefully promoted anti-trans hate, or thought they were sticking it to Mayor Parker or the Houston LGBT community.

Hey, you're about to find out you hurt yourselves, not just us or Mayor Parker.   The first economic dominos have already fallen.   Less than 24 hours after the hate vote, the NCAA rejected without comment all three Houston bids to host the CFA college football  championship games in 2018, 2019 and 2020, and increasing calls to yank the 2016 NCAA men' Final Four and 2017 Super Bowl from H-town.

HERO haters, shut up fools.

Change.org Drop The T Petition Needs To Die

In the wake of the Prop 1 loss, I talked about how we have some folks in LG World who are bigger transphobes and oppressors than our right wing friends.

And right on cue, I was advised by a longtime reader about this problematic anti-trans Change.org petition.

This anonymous coward calling themselves Drop The T started a Change.org petition that has at the time I am writing this post 647 signatures.  It seeks to have trans people dropped from the community they helped jump start with their human rights activism.

We are a group of gay/bisexual men and women who have come to the conclusion that the transgender community needs to be disassociated from the larger LGB community; in essence, we ask that organizations such as the Human Rights Campaign, GLAAD, Lambda Legal and media outlets such as The Advocate, Out, Huff Post Gay Voices, etc., stop representing the transgender community as we feel their ideology is not only completely different from that promoted by the LGB community (LGB is about sexual orientation, trans is about gender identity), but is ultimately regressive and actually hostile to the goals of women and gay men.

To the ignorant person who started this petition, that seeks to have the Human Rights Campaign, GLAAD, Lambda Legal, and media outlets like The Advocate, OUT and Huff Po Gay Voices to stop representing the trans community, trans people are also part of the bi, lesbian and gay communities as well as pink, white and blue flag waving members of the trans community.

While you claim to not be advocating intolerance or hatred against transgender people, that is exactly what you are doing by advocating the separation of the trans community from the LGB wing.  I also find it interesting to note that if you actually felt you weren't advocating anti-trans hatred, your azz would have proudly stuck your name on it.

I was tempted to sign it so I could find out who the 647 current  transphobes are who willingly signed it.  But one thing is certain.   This anti-trans Change.org petition needs to die.

Cis Woman Misgendered In Detroit Restaurant Suing

It's actually old news, but in light of the injustice that happened here Tuesday, I'm expecting it to happen here soon in the wake of all the lies unleashed by the haters in this HERO campaign.

It points out the absurdity of 'bathroom bills' like the one proposed and that thankfully died in committee in this 2015 Texas legislative session by GOP state reps Debbie Does Discrimination Riddle, and Gilbert 'Don't Want Them Transkids To Pee' Pena.

Lexie Cannes reports about an ugly situation that took place at Detroit's Fishbone's Rhythm Kitchen Cafe in Detroit's Greektown area back in June in which 30 year old Cortney Bogorad was jacked up by a security guard who deputized himself to be a gender policeman, accused her of being a 'boy', and alleges he violently carried her through the restaurant and threw her to the ground outside the restaurant..

On June 23 she and her attorney David Pontes filed a lawsuit in Wayne County Circuit Court after attempts to mediate this incident were unsuccessful.

"The bottom line is I know my gender better than anyone else and I'm going to walk into the right restroom," said Bogorad. "Even when I was questioned, I tried to provide my ID. It shouldn't have gone any further than that."

Nope it shouldn't have.  But because FOX Noise and the conservafool movement have now decided to demonize the trans community, the unintended consequences of that anti-trans hate will unfortunately fall on women like Bogorad who don't fit society's ideas of what a woman should look like.

Umm Naw, Black Houstonians Aren't Solely To Blame For This HERO Disaster

I've been calling this failed Houston Unites effort Prop 8 v 2.0 because they basically replicated the mistakes of the 2008 Prop 8 campaign in California.

One of the other way they are replicating the mistakes of Prop 8 is trying to blame Black people for their human rights malpractice.

One of the things I was worried about in the run up to the Prop 1 election was that if it went sideways and was repealed, the Houston Black community would be blamed for the loss.

And right on cue, that BS is already starting.   Carlos Maza ridiculously tried to throw shady blame at Beyonce, when I already pointed out that the #BeyBeAHERO campaign he tried to push was flawed because of the lack of input from Black LGBT Houstonians.   

Ashton Woods also had something to say about Maza's problematic comments.

Been warning y'all for months that the HERO would be decided in Districts B and D, not Montrose and the Heights, and the 72% of voters in District B and 65% of District D voting to repeal HERO basically cosigned what we've known we needed to do and asked for since May 2014.

You had to do education in those districts, since many of the repeal petition autographs came from those same districts.  Education, outreach and canvassing also needed to be done in the Latinx and Asian communities.

And when it comes to trans issues, there are elements of LG World that are just as transphobic as the Hotzes of the world,

You want to blame somebody, let's start with the organization tasked with defending our human rights law in Houston Unites. 

When you knew this, didn't even reach out to the Black community (and the Houston Latinx and Asian communities) to counter the lies spread by the HERO haters despite people pleading for you to do so, much less put trans people of color in ads to hit back against the transphobia, nobody in LG World better even part their lips to point a finger of blame at Black Houston when you didn't do the work to reach out to my community, much less involve the Black LGBT community to do it.

Because if you try it, you will find mine and the Black TBLG community fingers quickly pointing back at you.

2015 TransGriot NFL Picks Week 9

The calendar page turns to November, and the second half of the NFL season starts with the Week 9 NFL schedule of games.  And believe it or not my Texans go into the bye week tied for first place in the AFC South with Indianapolis thanks to their 20-6 win over the Tennessee Traitors and the Colts Monday night overtime loss to Carolina.

The defense finally woke up.  Let's just hope they stay awake for the rest of the season.

And interestingly enough we ended up in a three way tie for Week 8 honors.  But that doesn't help me erase that three game deficit I have with Mike  

There are six teams including the Texans who are on their bye week and getting to watch everybody else play.  Arizona, Baltimore, Detroit, Kansas City and Seattle are the others.

That means only 13 games to pick this week, which can be a good or bad thing depending on which way the picks go.

Week 8 Results                               2015 Season Record.
TransGriot   11-3                                 TransGriot      78-41
Mike            11-3                                 Mike                81-38
Eli                11-3                                 Eli                   73- 46

NFL Week 9   (Home Team in CAPS)

Thursday Night 
BENGALS over Browns

Sunday Noon 
Dolphins over BILLS
Packers over PANTHERS
JETS over Jaguars
VIKINGS over Rams
PATRIOTS over Washington
SAINTS over Titans
STEELERS over Raiders

Sunday Afternoon
Giants over BUCCANEERS
Falcons over 49ERS
Broncos over COLTS

Sunday Night
Eagles over COWBOYS

Monday Night
CHARGERS over Bears

HERO Dies..And I'm Pissed About It

 'What we did get is a whitewashed campaign that didn't do enough to destroy the only political card the HERO haters could play in the bathroom meme attack, It failed to point out the Texas and Harris County Republican Party and suburban right-wing activists were gleefully behind killing the HERO, and let nonstop anti-HERO commercials on Houston Black radio stations go unanswered. They were reacting instead of being on the attack, and that's a recipe for an electoral loss.'--TransGriot November 2, 2015

I can't even begin to tell you how pissed off I am about what happened in my hometown a few hours ago.   I watched a human rights law I also with hundreds of Houstonians busted our asses to pass last year go down in flames by a 61%-39% margin based on a lie. Republican Party activism, and the action of sellout kneegrow ministers.


And what angers me even more is this debacle didn't have to happen.

The Black LGBT community and our allies have been warning for months that action was needed in our community IMMEDIATELY or else HERO was going down to defeat.   We pleaded for canvassing in our neighborhoods, pro-HERO ads on Houston Black radio stations and hard hitting attacks to destroy the only card our haters had to play in the bathroom meme.

We also needed trans people of color front and center attacking the meme instead of being almost invisible for this entire campaign,  But once again the Houston Black LGBT community was ignored, and this time the whole city will pay for Houston Unites lack of vision and the milquetoast campaign that was run..

I was so pissed off tonight that I left the Sylvester Turner event at the GRB early.  Couldn't stand hearing the words 'all Houstonians are appreciated' when some of those peeps in that large room may have voted not only for Rep. Turner to be our next mayor, but voted to kill the HERO based on lies the opposition and the kneegrow auxiliaries told about trans people like me.

So naw Houston, far from feeling loved and appreciated, I felt like I got kicked in the teeth.

Moni On Can We Talk 4 Real Tomorrow

I get the honor of once again talking to Michelle and Terri Boi about not only what has been transpiring in my semi-boring life lately, but get to talk about HERO and other subjects du jour.

The show will air starting at 7:30 PM CST on November 4, and if you wish to call in and ask questions, the call in number is  347-215-8985. 

So looking forward to chatting with these ladies again and anyone else who wishes to call in.

2015 TransGriot Houston Election Endorsements

As many of you longtime TransGriot readers are aware of, I am a serious political geek who lives for Election Day.

In the nearly ten years I have been writing posts for this blog, while I have written posts about various candidates and urged you TransGriot readers to get out and vote in each and every election cycle, I have yet to actually do a post in any election, local, state or national that put the TransGriot seal of approval for a slate of candidates until now.

Introducing the first ever TransGriot 2015 Election Endorsement post for the Houston city elections.

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Prop. 1  (HERO) : YES
Prop. 2:  YES

Mayor:  Sylvester Turner 
Controller:  Chris Brown

Houston City Council
District B:  Jerry Davis
District C:  Ellen Cohen
District D:  Dwight Boykins
District F:   Richard Nguyen
District H:  Roland Chavez
District I:    Robert Gallegos
District J:   Mike Laster
District K:  Larry Green

At Large Position 1:  Lane Lewis
At Large Position 2:  David Robinson 
At Large Position 3: Joseph McElligot
At Large Position 4: Amanda Edwards
At Large Position 5: Philippe Nassif

HISD
Trustee, District II:      Rhonda Skillern-Jones
Trustee, District III:     Ramiro Fonseca
Trustee District IV:      Jolanda Jones
Trustee, District VIII:  Juliet Stipeche

Houston Community College System
Trustee Position III:     Adriana Tamez
Trustee Position VIII:  Eva Loredo

Houston Election Day 2015!

In a few hours the polls will open for a Houston mayoral election the whole world will be watching.

The peeps who didn't early vote will be heading to their local precincts to cast ballots that will not only determine who sits in those nice leather chairs around The Horseshoe for the next two years, but who will become our next mayor succeeding the term limited Annise Parker.

And yeah, there's a proposition on the ballot to determine the fate of the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance I've had a lot to say about over the last few months.

The polls open at 7 AM CST and will close 12 hours later at 7 PM.  If you don't know where you go to vote today, here's the link to find out.    

METRO is also providing free rides to the polls.   Just show your voter registration card to the operator as you board the bus or train to do so.

So how do I feel as the clock ticks to the 7 AM start of a critical election for the future of a human rights law I and a team of Houstonians fought to get passed last year?

Nervous, frustrated and angry right now.

No matter what the result of the election will be later today, and I hope the human rights progressive side of my hometown I'm proud of prevails, the bottom line is the Houston trans community is going to have to deal with the fallout from the anti-trans ignorance spread since April 2014 by the HERO haters.

So Houston peeps, handle your electoral business and not only vote YES on Prop 1, but for mayoral and city council candidates that will fight to improve the HERO and not kill it.

We'll see if I have a reason for my mood to change in a few hours.

The Fight To Keep HERO - November 2

It's election eve, and I'm nervous that this election to keep HERO is tight going into Election Day tomorrow morning.

And it shouldn't be.

As I have pointed out repeatedly since last August, I have not been happy about the way this HRC funded campaign has been run from the initial August 12 press conference.  I have been appalled at the lack of outreach done to the Houston Black community which would probably decide this election being that it is also a city mayoral election with two African Americans on the ballot.

Councilmember Jerry Davis (who voted YES for HERO passage last year) basically spelled it out what needed to be done in order to defend the law and ensure it won at the ballot box.



So did myself and many other African-American HERO supporters.

I have also been scratching my head at the ongoing human rights malpractice as to why Houston Unites hasn't pointed out the consequences of what WILL happen to Houston economically if Prop 1 isn't approved.
-TransGriot  September 21. 2015

'The bottom line is that the HERO opposition has been since last May disseminating lies about HERO unchallenged. This election will probably be decided in Black neighborhoods, and we must get accurate information to our people to counteract the right wing lies.' 
--TransGriot, September 30, 2015

What we did get is a whitewashed campaign that didn't do enough to destroy the only political card the HERO haters could play in the bathroom meme attack,   It failed to point out the Texas and Harris County Republican Party and suburban right-wing activists were gleefully behind killing the HERO, and let nonstop anti-HERO commercials on Houston Black radio stations go unanswered. They were reacting instead of being on the attack, and that's a recipe for an electoral loss.

And if you think Moni is selling woof tickets about the Texas GOP involvement in this fight to keep the HERO, peep what Gov. Greg Abbott (R) had to say in this tweet about the HERO.

What a surprise.  As usual, Texas Republicans on the wrong side of a human rights issue.

But back to the numerous problematic ways this Houston Unites campaign evolved, right down to them making the mistake at their own press conference of validating the bathroom predator lie.

We got commercials that didn't include the community being demonized in Houston trans people, or give them air time to debunk the lies.   I commend Houston Latinx media for actually airing Latina trans people in HERO stories on their news stations to combat the lies, but a similar and critically needed effort featuring a Black trans person didn't happen for the Black community, and you had a GLAAD media trained trans person standing by ready to do battle with the lying pastors.

We also got too little too late outreach to the Latino and African-American communities as well and a bunch of late endorsements in favor of it that should have been rolling in BEFORE early voting started.

And what little outreach was done was handled by African Americans For HERO, the grassroots group that formed because of our alarm in Black Houston activist circles in terms of how the Houston Unites campaign was going.

And it's not just Moni who believes this HERO defense campaign was Prop 8 2.0 in terms of the critical mistake made in not reaching out to the Houston African-American community and listening to those of us who do grassroots activism in it.  Tarah Taylor wrote this on her Facebook page back on September 23.

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So I'm going to go ahead and say what everybody's whispering about because not saying it does my people a disservice 

WE WILL LOSE ON HERO IN NOVEMBER.  

Why? Because nonprofit interest groups are choosing to IGNORE the black community - the group that benefits the most from HERO and has the most opposition to the ordinance.The field is wrong, timing is wrong, staff is wrong, marketing is wrong, offense is wrong, defense is wrong. 

All who are involved, I love y'all, has nothing to do with you personally but the grant money has you locked into a strategy that WILL NOT WORK and only caters to one marginalized group. And the black community that supports HERO doesn't appreciate your late response to our issues if there is a response at all - hasn't been one yet.

 Can we fix it? Yes, but you'll have to make some alliances, hold supporting organizations accountable, cut some turf in black neighborhoods, and knock those doors WITH THE RIGHT messengers IMMEDIATELY!

If y'all are mad about be saying it, imagine how mad I am watching this get thrown together and go down in flames 

HERO has volunteers that WANT to canvas the black neighborhoods to talk about racial issues but there's no infrastructure set up for it. Good portion of black voters vote by mail, mail-in ballots go out next week. WTF? 

Where's the strategy and field plan for women voters? Veteran voters? DisABLEd voters? Religious voters, business owners... I mean, what are we doing here???

In the words of Dr. Cleo Manago, you cannot talk to black people about a human rights issue using a white LGBT framework.

***

And when the Houston NAACP has a gala on Friday night and they don't even mention the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance that I and many Houstonians fought tooth and nail to get passed, there's a problem.

I hope and pray tomorrow that the people voting at polling places across the city will do the right thing and vote to keep a human rights ordinance that protects 15 categories of Houstonians.

But right now, I'm not feeling confident that will happen.

Happy TransParent Day 2015!

Yesterday was TransParent Day, a day founded by Erica Fields and Sharon Brackett in 2009 that recognizes the parents of trans kids or those parents who are trans themselves.

TransParent Day got its start because Erica Fields' daughter expressed her concerns that Father's Day didn't feel right to her in the wake of Erica's transition, and suggested that they pick another Sunday date to celebrate their relationship.

They chose the first Sunday in November, and Sharon Brackett, feeling this idea was just too good for the Fields family to keep it to themselves, quickly registered the TransParentDay.org website and set about promoting it at the 2009 Southern Comfort Conference.

The idea turned out to be popular when Fields and Brackett laid out their vision at SCC, and on November 1, 2009 it was launched

Now Trans Parent Day is seven years old, and is more relevant than ever because of the increase in visibility of trans kids like Jazz and her amazing parents.  

I have also had the pleasure of getting to know amazing trans people who are either currently raising or have raised cis kids, and a few trans people who are in the situation of being parents who are raising trans kids.

We Trans World peeps now have a day dedicated to recognizing those parents, our kids and those special families that happens on the first Sunday in November!  

Happy Trans Parent Day!   We definitely need to make certain that more people are aware of the November 6 date of Trans Parent Day 2016 and we celebrate it in style.
 

Did You Do Your 2015 Fall Back?

Did you set that clock back one hour before you went to bed?   Daylight savings time is ending today until March 13, 2016 when we move those clocks forward again in the USA.

If you don't, you'll be an hour early for everything today and pissed off you didn't take advantage of the time change to get your extra hour of sleep. 

If you're a Republican, set your clocks back one hour, not 100 years.

The Fight To Keep HERO - October 31

'The bottom line is that the HERO opposition has been since last May disseminating lies about HERO unchallenged. This election will probably be decided in Black neighborhoods, and we must get accurate information to our people to counteract the right wing lies.' 
--TransGriot September 30, 2015

I hope that on November 3 I'm in the position to report some wonderful news when it comes to the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance, but right now what I'm hearing is disturbing but something I and the Houston Black LGBT warned about months ago.

Early voting it over, and it's being reported that the anti-HERO forces have an edge going into Tuesday.  The thing that makes me have some shred of optimism about these reports is two of the three local political scientists reporting this have been wrong multiple times.

I hope I'm wrong on November 3, but as many of you longtime readers of this blog are aware of, I have this propensity of being correct about political and other stuff.

It's also a problematic sign of this Prop 8 2.0 campaign as I called it in my October 6 interview with political blogger Charles Kuffner when the Houston NAACP has their awards gala last night at the Hilton Americas Hotel and there is ZERO mention about a human rights ordinance that protects the entire populace, and was driven by discrimination aimed at African-American Houstonians.

Time for a Keeping It Real moment from Christina Gorczynski pointing out all these anti-HERO peeps who have 'concerns about women and children' have been all talk and no action.

Hey Houstonians: Just a quick ‪#‎HERO‬ observation and a little Houston history. Not long ago, Houston had years of backlogged untested rape kits-- and these anti-#HERO fear-mongering potty police were NOWHERE to be found. They were not running commercials advocating for safety for women and girls, and they were certainly not out protesting for justice for sexual assault victims in our city.

IN FACT, the person who took the lead, fought for funds and showed a drive for justice was our Mayor Annise Parker- the very person you are lying about and accusing of making women and children unsafe in bathrooms. She worked with our city council and our state and federal legislative delegations to get the funding necessary to successfully alleviate the untested rape kit backlog. She made it a mission to make sure that women and children in Houston were safer and that people who violated women and children were held accountable. Without much fanfare, she worked hard for us. And our city should be grateful for her leadership. (Olivia Benson would be proud.) 

So some REAL TALK: If all these anti-#HERO assholes really gave a flying fuck about the women and children in Houston, they would have given a damn then. If they actually cared about supporting women and children in crisis, they'd be giving hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Houston Area Women's Center or the women's ministries at their respective churches instead of buying TV ads to scare women and make us feel afraid in our own city, all under the guise of keeping us "safe."

Frankly, If these DUDES really wanted to protect women, they wouldn't be lying like dogs to each and every one of us with this nutjob shit about bathroom predators. And if they really respected women and children-- and I mean ALL WOMEN including trans women and ALL CHILDREN including trans children, they wouldn't be sitting around thinking of creative and completely dishonest ways to make us afraid of sexual violence every time we leave the house. 

#HERO protects women. Period. Anyone who tries to tell you otherwise is knowingly or unknowingly full of shit. ‪#‎hardstop‬

HERO also protects 14 other categories of Houstonians and it's worth fighting for.  Would be a shame if my fellow Houstonians allowed themselves to be hoodwinked and bamboozled into voting against their own human rights.