'Hit The Floor' Season Three Starts Tonight

It's been awhile since Sloane was put in the position of being forced to fire Ahsha from the Devil Girls at the end of season 2 back in August.

And now after a marathon binge watching weekend of Hit The Floor season on shows on Saturday and Season 2 yesterday. season 3 of Hit the Floor finally starts at 8 PM CST.

Y'all know how much I love scripted shows, and I started watching Hit the Floor because Kimberly Elise was playing Ahsha's mom Sloane Hayes and Dean Cain is also in it playing Devils coach Pete Davenport.

But I fell in love with Taylour Paige, who plays Ahsha, Logan Browning, who plays the scheming Devil Girls captain Jelena Howard, Valery Ortiz,who plays Raquel Saldana and Katherine Bailess, who plays Kyle Hart.

I love not only the Devil Girls dance numbers, but all the backstabbing, duplicitous deals and cliffhangers. I also want to see how things turn out for my fave characters.

Anxious to see if karmic justice finally comes Jelena's way.  I'm also interested to see what happens to Ahsha and all the other characters populating Devil's Arena on and off the court.

Happy MLK Day 2016!

"No time for apathy and complacency.  This is a time for vigorous and positive action."
--Rev Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr

When I was younger, I loved Rich Little and used to be able to do dead on vocal impressions of people and celebrities.  One of the people I used to do was the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and one day I was attempting a humorous impression of him for my classmates during my 8th grade English class.  

My English teacher Ms. Maxie liked it so much I ended up doing the last part of the 1963 'I Have A Dream' speech it at a school assembly for a Black history month program to a standing ovation when I was done.

So my love of arguably the greatest American our people every produced started early, and the more I learn about Dr. King, the more fascinated I become with his all too brief life.

His writings and speeches not only are relevant in 21st century America, they inspired a downtrodden people to stand up and fight for their human rights.   His writings and speeches resonated across this nation and the world.  His words inspire me to fight for another class of downtrodden people in our country in transgender Americans.

On this national holiday dedicated to his memory, I take this day to do as he called it, hard solid thinking about the state of human rights in our country.

In a time when people are pushing back against trans human rights and suggesting that 'this is not the right time' to push laws and policies that mandate you treat transpeople as human beings, I take comfort from my history in the fact that the same loud and wrong commentary was said when it came to the African-American and other human rights struggles.

The rime is always right to agitate for human rights.  Just like during the 1950's and 1960's, 2016 is also not a time for apathy and complacency, but a time for vigorous and positive action about the pressing human rights issues of our time.  It is a time to get busy registering people to vote, getting people informed about the issues and ensure that people take their souls to the polls on November 8 in this critical to our nation's future presidential election.

And it is also a time to contemplate what I can do as an individual and collectively in expanding human rights coverage for everyone in a time when we have a conservative movement that is hellbent on rolling back everything that Dr King and countless other human rights warriors accomplished.

Happy King Day 2016, everyone!

Josh Vallum Charged In Mercedes Williamson Murder

17 year old Mercedes Williamson was the youngest of 21 trans people murdered in the US last year, and her alleged killer will be on trial in a few weeks.

28 year old Josh Vallum is a known member of the Latin Kings gang who has been incarcerated since he was arrested June 2 for Williamson's brutal murder.  Williamson's partially decomposed remains were found on Vallum's father's property in Rocky Creek, MS on June 1 after she went missing on May 30.

And as you probably guessed, the two have known each other for nine to eleven months. While she lived in Theodore, AL, her home address was in George County.

A George County, MS .grand jury indicted Vallum for Williamson's murder back on July 29 with the trial set to start on February 1.  If he is convicted, he faces life in prison with the possibility of parole at age 65..

We'll stay tuned to this case to see if Mercedes receives justice in this case..  

Naw Caitlyn, You Can't Win Republicans Over On LGBT Issues

I had to laugh and shake my head when Caitlyn Jenner was quoted as saying that we can win Republicans over on LGBT rights issues in a recent Advocate article.

As someone who watched the Harris County and Texas Republican parties, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and Lt Governor Dan Patrick (R) stick their noses in Houston human rights business and fund the oppressors deceit filled kill the HERO campaign, had she talked to me and other Houston advocates when she stealthily bounced into my hometown, I would have schooled her clueless behind on the folly of that position.

The Republican Party of 2016 in Texas and around the country is one made up of people who are hellbent on gleefully rolling back the human rights of anyone that isn't a white male right-wing 'christian'.   They have a special brand of hatred for human rights for trans, bisexual and SGL people, and are still working to terminate any progress on LGBT rights issues.

If you think I'm kidding about that, look no further than the unjust anti-trans bills popping up in Indiana , Virginia,  Washington and other GOP controlled state legislatures sponsored by proud Republican legislators or what happened here with HERO last year.

And hello, the GOP controlled NY Senate has been the major reason that GENDA's passage has been stalled in New York state despite their Democratic controlled assembly passing it eight straight times by comfortable margins.

The current Republican Party is not the one Eisenhower or Nixon led, much less even the one of Ronald Reagan.  And if Caitlyn's behind had more melanin in her skin, she wouldn't even begin to part her lips to say something that obtuse.

But if Jenner wants to take on that quixotic mission of trying to convince a party that is foaming at the mouth anti-LGBT for decades to change their BTLG hating ways, have fun wasting your time and breath trying to do so.

Meanwhile, I'll be chilling in Houston trying to resist the urge to say 'I told you so' as I and others do the work necessary to get the conversations going to solidify support behind the no-brainer idea of trans, bi and SGL rights being an international human rights issue.    

2016 Williams Watch- It's Time For The Australian Open

The first Grand Slam tournament of the tennis season is the Australian Open, and the 2016 edition of it will kick off in Melbourne later tonight (Monday Melbourne time) and run until January 30.  

All eyes as usual will be on defending women's singles champ Serena Williams after her bid for a Grand Slam came up just short after being upset in the US Open semis.  She's had four months to rest from it, but there is some concern after she withdrew from the Hopman Cup warmup tournament with a knee injury.

She says she's ready to play, and she'll need to be from the opening round.  Her draw for this tournament has the world and Australian Open's number one seeded player on a potential collision course with Caroline Wozniacki (16), Belinda Bencic (12), Agnieszka Radwanska (4) and Australia Open finalist Maria Sharapova (5) in her half of the women's singles bracket.

Serena starts her bid for her 22nd Grand Slam title and seventh Australian Open title with her opening round match with Italy's Camila Giorgi, who is ranked number 35 in the world..

Well, at least they don't have Venus on the same side of the bracket with her little sister this time.

Big Sis came on strong at the end of the season and finished ranked in the top ten.  She starts 2016 with her highest seeding in a Grand Slam tournament since 2011.

Venus is seeded number 8 in this Australian Open tournament, and kicks off her quest for her first Australian Open title since 2003 with an opening round match against Johanna Konta of Great Britain.

This tournament will be interesting for both sisters, and we'll see if this is the first step to a Golden Slam for Serena or Venus executes another deep run that ends up with her clashing with her sister in a Grand Slam final.
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TransGriot 2015 NFL Picks - Divisional Round

As you TransGriot readers probably guessed, I was not happy with the piss poor playoff performance of my hometown NFL ballers, but picked that game correctly.

Note to Texans GM Rick Smith:  Please get the Texans an NFL quality franchise starting quarterback
Went 2-2 thanks to Blair Walsh missing a chip shot field goal and the Bengals melting down in the fourth quarter to snatch playoff defeat from the jaws of a streak snapping playoff victory.

It's now the 2016 NFL playoffs Divisional Round.  The stakes are higher in these four games this weekend, with the winners going to the conference championship games and the losers ending their season lamenting about what might have been.

And  now, my picks for this weekend's NFL playoff games.

NFL Divisional Round    Saturday, January 16, 2016

#5 Kansas City Chiefs (12-5) at #2 New England Patriots (12-4)

Interestingly enough, this is the first ever meeting of both teams in the playoffs

The Chiefs go into this game as the league's hottest team after the number 2 ranked defense in the league forced five turnovers in their 30-0 shutout of the Texans to win their eleventh straight game and snap their eight game playoff losing streak.  

Meanwhile the defending NFL champion Patriots needed that bye week off. After starting 10-0, they limped down the stretch with a 2-4 record after suffering a series of injuries that has crippled their offense and left them with an offense line that has struggled to protect Tom Brady this year..  

But you can't bet against a team that has gone 32-5 at home in the playoff, and the Chiefs are due to lose a game.  Patriots to win this game,

#5 Green Bay Packers (11-6) at #2 Arizona Cardinals (13-3)

After spotting Washington an 11-0 lead, the Packers offense finally woke up from their several week long slumber and looked like their number three NFL ranked selves by scoring on five consecutive possessions ti get control of the game and cruise to their 35-18 wild card round win

But this week they are playing a Cardinals squad that demolished them 38-8 back on December 27 in Glendale, and is itching to prove they are the best team complete team in the league,

They say it's hard to beat the same team twice in the same season. but Arizona will handle their business in the desert once again and move on to the NFC title game.

NFL Divisional Round   Sunday January 17, 2016

#6 Seattle Seahawks (11-6) at #1 Carolina Panthers (15-1)

Sunday starts off with a heavyweight matchup between the fortunate to be here Seahawks and a Panthers team that is on a mission to get to Santa Clara for Super Bowl 50.

The Seahawks are probably happy it won't be -6 degrees like it was for last week's game, but don't let that sixth seed fool you.  The Seahawks are not quite the Legion of Boom, but are still the number one ranked defense in the NFL.  The two time defending NFC champs offense also woke up down the stretch and gets Marshawn Lynch back..

Carolina has their MVP candidate QB Cam Newton rested and ready for this battle between two teams that are basically mirror images of each other.

It will be a tight game, but Seattle will pull off the upset to get to their third straight NFC title game.

#6 Pittsburgh Steelers (11-6) at #1 Denver Broncos (12-4) 

The last time these teams played during the regular season, Ben Roethlisberger and Antonio Brown were enjoying their Heinz Field home cooking.  They stormed back from a 27-13 deficit to force two turnovers and scored 20 unanswered second half points to get a 34-27 comeback victory over a Bronco team being quarterbacked by Brock Osweiler.

But this time the game is in Denver, and Peyton Manning will be the Broncos starter.  Antonio Brown still hasn't cleared concussion protocol after suffering a concussion in the wildcard game against Cincinnati they were fortunate to win 18-16 thanks to the Bengals fourth quarter meltdown, they have a running back by committee situation due to injuries and Roethlisberger is banged up.

You'll also have a Peyton Manning determined to shake off his failed playoff performances of the past and give the fans at Sports Authority Field at Mile High some to cheer about.

Advantage and game to the Broncos.  

Shut Up Fool Awards- Rev Dr MLK Jr 87th Birthday Edition

Today is what would have been the 87th birthday of the Rev. Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. and as we head into the federal holiday on Monday that celebrates his outstanding and all too brief life, it's time to once again examine his words and speeches that are still as relevant to our lives today as they were when the words were penned and uttered.

Dr King famously said, 'Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance, and conscientious stupidity', and the peeps who get called out every Friday for these illustrious TransGriot Shut Up Fool Awards are a living testimony to the wisdom of those words.

So let's get right to our usual Friday business of  calling out the sincerely ignorant and conscientiously stupid people in our midst this week.

Honorable mention number one is John Ritzheimer, the Vanilla ISIS terrorist who got pissed off because people have been sending he and his fellow armed malcontents dildoes and 55 gallons of lube instead of the food, money and other stuff they have been begging for online.

Well, boys, how about you give it up and go home like the sheriff and the folks of Burns, OR advised you to?

Honorable mention number two is a group award to the Oscars, for once again on nomination day unveiling a melanin free nomination slate for the second consecutive year despite some amazing 2015 performances from Idris Elba, Will Smith, Michael B. Jordan and movies like Beasts of No Nation, Selma, Creed, and Straight Outta Compton being released.

I guess they have a policy of no Black people get Oscar nominations unless they are playing in a role or producing a movie that demeans African-American people.

Honorable mention number three is the junior senator from Alberta, Ted Cruz, who has had an interesting week trying to tapdance around the fact he wasn't born here and is probably ineligible to run for POTUS, and after slamming 'NYC Values', was revealed to have gotten a $1 million loan for his 2014 senate campaign from Goldman Sachs, where his wife worked.

Honorable mention number four is another group award for all the GOP idiots who have been racistly attacking Gov Haley.   FYI for you GOP fools, Haley's parents were immigrants, but she was born in South Carolina in 1972.

This week's fool is South Carolina governor Nikki Haley.   After she received rave reviews for her SOTU response speech that whacked the Trumpenfuhrer, screwed all that positive publicity up by stating that 'America has never passed laws based on race or religion'.

Girlfriend, you're joking, right?   Obviously you were asleep in American History class because our history is chock full of far too many examples of policy that is based on religion or race.

Let's see, slavery, the near extermination of Native Americans from our nations borders,  the detention of Japanese Americans during World War II, Jim Crow segregation, Plessy v. Ferguson, Dred Scott v Sandford, Don't Ask Don't Tell, the Defense of Marriage Act,...

Shall I continue, Gov. Haley?  

Oh BTW, Shut up fool!     

The New Black H-Town Panel Discussion

Thursday was a busy day for me.   I spent a few hours at the Harris County Domestic Violence Coordinating Council January meeting that afternoon as their guest speaker talking to the cross section of women in that room about how domestic violence issues impact the trans community.

I spent Thursday evening at 14 Pews NOT watching the latest GOP presidential debate and being part of a panel discussion focused on the Black LGBT community organized by the Infamous Iota chapter of Delta Phi Upsilon Fraternity, Inc. and moderated by Brandon Mack and Januari Leo.  

Before we dove into that moderated discussion that featured a cross section of Houston feminine leaders that included newly elected Houston LGBT Caucus president Fran Watson, Shekira Dennis, Christina Gorczynski, and some blogger nobody reads, we spent a few moments getting to socialize and chat about a few things before we started watching at 7 PM the Yoruba Richen documentary The New Black.
Just in case y'all wish to view it, it is currently on Netflix.

The New Black is a movie that should have been required viewing for Houston Unites before they tried and massively failed to defend HERO.

Yeah, still pissed about that HERO defeat and the piss poor Prop 8 2.0 campaign that led to its repeal along with a lot of peeps in Houston Black TBLG World.

But back to the post.

Once that screening was over, after Brandon's remarks, he turned over the program to Januari for the panel discussion that lasted until 9:15 PM because there was just a lot of subjects to unpack.

Thanks again Iota Chapter of Delta Phi Upsilon Fraternity, Inc.for the invitation to be a part of this amazing evening, and continued success in fulfilling your ongoing mission to inform and educate our community.

Happy 87th Birthday, Dr King!

Today is what would have been the 87th birthday of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., one of the greatest Americans our people have ever produced, as Tavis Smiley has said..

While our conservative friends like to focus on the Dr King pre-August 1963, the reality is that Dr King had a lot more profound things to say about America beyond the  March on Washington  'I Have A Dream' speech.

Much of what he wrote and said not only during his all too brief life, and especially post August 1963 is just as fresh and relevant in 2016 America as it was at the time when he uttered those words.

And yes, he is a sterling example of speaking truth to power.

This is an excerpt from the 1967 'Beyond Vietnam' speech that he gave at New York's Riverside Church one year before he was assassinated on April 4, 1968.   I think it is so appropriate that we read and heed those words in this critical election year for our country.

I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin—we must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered.

A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. On the one hand, we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life’s roadside, but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life’s highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.

A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth with righteous indignation. It will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say, "This is not just." It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of South America and say, "This is not just." The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just.

A true revolution of values will lay a hand on the world order and say of war, "This way of settling differences is not just." This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation’s homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.

America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. There is nothing, except a tragic death wish, to prevent us from reordering our priorities, so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war.

Happy birthday Dr. King.  America is a much better nation because of you, and had you been blessed with longevity, would be an even better nation.   That's up to us to make that dream of yours a reality.

Precious 'Says Yes To The Dress' Tomorrow

The clock is ticking toward the wedding of Precious Davis and Myles Brady this summer at the Rockefeller Chapel on the University of Chicago campus.   The couple has been engaged since last February and their much anticipated wedding has a intimate guest list of 200 people.

She'll be selecting her wedding dress in front of millions of television viewers.

The clock is also ticking toward the historic broadcast of  Say Yes To The Dress: Atlanta,  Precious will become the first trans bride ever featured on the show, and has an unlimited budget to select a wedding dress for her and Myles' upcoming wedding.

I'm anxious to see it along with everyone else in Trans World since we haven't had many opportunities for Black trans people to get positive media coverage like this, and reality TV shows have been hit or miss when they cover our lives and issues.

If you wish to watch or DVR this episode of Say Yes To The Dress: Atlanta featuring the #TransObamas, it will be broadcast on TLC at 8 PM CST Friday.

Shane's Lack Of Trans Men Of Color Representation Video

Last week I challenged Houston area trans men to step up their leadership game and do their part to help 'ejumacate' our people on trams issues.   As I said in that post, "The education of our people about trans issues can't solely be a trans feminine responsibility."

The best people poised to do the educating about trans masculinity are trans men themselves, and that can't be done with y'all either being ignored by the media or trans men sitting on the sidelines refusing to get involved while simultaneously complaining about the lack of coverage on their issues.

Closed mouths of marginalized people that don't speak their minds don't get fed, and also don't get the media attention they deserve.

One of my goals in this TransGriot 10th anniversary year is to also feature the voices of other trans women of color and my trans brothers.

Love this video from Shane Ortega discussing the marginalization and of marginalization of trans men of color..

Fed Up With Trans Latina Erasure

TransGriot note: Several of the 22 trans feminine lives we lost in 2015 were trans Latinas, but like their trans African American sisters, are not heavily represented in the leadership ranks of our trans human rights movement.  That's a problem,  especially since there are some issues trans Latinas face that disproportionately affect them.

Looks like 2016 is going to be the year trans Latinas are going to make moves to address it.   Here's a guest post from Elizabeth Rivera discussing it.

So I woke up with a lot on my mind today. Thought about keeping it to myself but I'm not biting my tongue anymore! Slept on it. And I'm done!!!!
I'm fed up with the attempted erasure of Trans Latin@s within the Transgender Social Justice Movement! This is problematic!!!! We can do better than this!!! There are specific individuals (YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE! YEAH, YOU!!!) within the movement who refuse (blatantly) to acknowledge that Trans Latin@s are just as affected. As if we don't struggle with discrimination!!!!! As if we are not being murdered too!!! Y'all know exactly what I'm talking about. To deny this is an act of violence!

I'm going to need for the REAL AUTHENTIC LEADERS in this movement to step up and start holding those in sheep's clothing accountable NOW!!!!! I'm going to need those who are attempting to steal the limelight for their own personal gain to have a long overdue seat!!!! I am officially done with blatantly biased representation from members in our community who are only about their own personal agendas.

I am sick and tired of feeling invalidated within this movement. I am and will always be a transgender woman of color who has been a sex worker and homeless. I know my authentic truth! I have not been doing this work for the last 20+ years to start feeling this way now. ‪#‎LatinaTransLivesMatterToo‬

Just Say Yo To Girl Scout Cookies!

One of the things that has really pissed me off about the Forces of Right Wing Intolerance  is their ongoing attacks on Girl Scouts because they are TBLG inclusive.

As you know, the conservafools never let facts get in the way of their outrage machine.  The conservahaters have been recently pimping the lie that GSUSA has been partnering with Planned Parenthood to promote abortions and urging their sheeple to boycott Girl Scout cookies when they go on sale.

Funny to note that Girl Scout Cookie sales have been increasing ever since the conservafool movement started this War on the Girl Scouts several years ago.

Good, y'all continue to be that petty and stupid and point that you only care about a fetus, the 1% super billionaires and not living breathing working class humans.  Leaves more cookies for me and the peeps who support GSUSA.

Trans community, time for us to support an organization that supports us.   Consider buying a few boxes of Girl Scout cookies this year as a delicious way to send a message against ignorance, misogyny, sexism. oppression and intolerance.

Thin mints, anyone?

President Obama's Last SOTU Speech

The last State of the Union speech of his \historic presidency happened last night in Washington DC, and President Barack Obama is getting rave reviews for it.

Here it is for those of you who missed it.

Community Debrief On HERO Tonight

This should be interesting.  

Tonight a conversation about HERO will take place to discuss what's next and map out a future course for what will happen next.  But this is also the same Houston Unites crew that I called Prop 8 2.0 for the way that the defense of our human rights ordinance was screwed up.

Will be interesting to see who they have taking part in this discussion from the Houston Unites side and what they have to say about how they conducted the campaign.

It starts at 6 PM at the Ripley House Neighborhood Center Gym.   The address if you wish to attend is 4410 Navigation Blvd.

Should be an interesting discussion.    

UH Cougars Finish With No.8 AP Ranking!

Time to pop my collar again as a proud Cougar! This 2015 football season will rank as one of the more successful ones in recent UH athletic history, and last night the final AP college rankings were released that confirmed what we Cougar fans already knew.

In addition to this Cougar team finishing 13-1, capturing the American title, beating Florida State in the Peach Bowl , knocking off four ranked teams in 2015, and beating teams from the ACC (Louisville, Florida State) and the SEC (Vanderbilt), the  Cougars finished ranked at number 8 in the final AP NCAA football poll,

That is the Coogs highest ranking since 1979, and probably sets them up for a nice ranking in the 2016 preseason AP NCAA football rankings this fall.  The Coogs will also kick off the 2016 football season at NRG Stadium against the Big 12 champion Oklahoma Sooners.

The Coogs great season is also helping them in the recruiting wars, since we are located in one of the best areas in the state for high school football talent.

Hey ESPN College Football GameDay, how about y`all coming down to H-town and the UH campus again like y'all did in 2011 to start the 2016 season off?
 

NFL Meeting In H-town To Decide Who Goes To LA

It has been 21 years since the NFL has had teams in Los Angeles, the second largest TV market in the United States and the largest metropolitan area without an NFL franchise.

The Rams and Raiders moved to St. Louis and Oakland in 1995, and the city's bid to get an NFL expansion franchise back in 1999 was thwarted by lack of a stadium plan and Bob McNair outworking them to secure the expansion franchise that became the Houston Texans and the league's 32nd team.

That two decade NFL drought may be about to come to an end, because three NFL franchises with a history in LA, the San Diego Chargers, the Oakland Raiders and the St. Louis Rams have put in bids to move, and two of them may be playing in Los Angeles in time for the 2016 NFL season.

The Chargers played one season in Los Angeles when the AFL kicked off in 1960 before they headed south to San Diego.  The Rams moved to LA from Cleveland in 1945 for fiscal reasons after winning the NFL title and because the Cleveland Browns were scheduled to begin play in the All-American Football Conference,  They played at the LA Coliseum and in Anaheim before bouncing to St Louis.

The Raiders moved to Los Angeles from Oakland in 1982 and headed back in 1995 after failure to get improvements made to the LA Coliseum and a proposed stadium deal in Irwindale collapsed.

And yep, out of the three teams in contention to move, the Raiders are a distant third for the affections of LA football fans and sports media pundits..

The NFL special owners meeting will be taking place here in Houston today and tomorrow, and we'll know by the end of it which two teams will be kicking off in LA this fall.

Unlike 1999, the LA area stadium proposals runneth over this time..

Rams owner Stan Kroenke has already broken ground on a new 80,000 seat transparent roofed stadium in Inglewood, near the old LA Forum arena with a construction completion date of 2019.  If it stays on that timetable and he is successful in relocating the Rams back to LA, it would make that new stadium eligible to host a Super Bowl starting in 2020.

Chargers owner Dean Spanos and Raiders Mark Davis are pushing a joint stadium project in Carson, but the city referendum hasn't happened yet, and it looks like consensus is building for a deal that would call for the Chargers and Rams to share the new Inglewood stadium that is already under construction.

The entertainment company AEG until March 2015 pitched a downtown stadium project near Staples Center, and the City of Industry has another proposed project not attached to any team.

There's support by various influential NFL owners like Bob McNair, Jim Irsay and Jerry Richardson for the Chargers to be one of the teams that moves, while Jerry Jones is part of the 'anybody move to LA' group of owners, especially in light of the fact it's almost time to renegotiate the NFL broadcasting rights contract and teams in LA would enhance the NFL's bargaining position.

Another issue that will be discussed at the meeting here in Houston is whether to move two teams to LA immediately, or stagger their entry into LA, with one team moving now and the other team moving in 2017.  As far as realignment goes, wouldn't be necessary because the Rams are already in the NFC West Division, and the Chargers and Raiders both play in the AFC West Division

The word right now is the Chargers are gone (and I feel your pain San Diego), with the Rams probably being the other team that will be allowed to move.  The Raiders look like they will be the odd team out, but if Davis does decide to move the team, their destination could be San Antonio unless Oakland or the league comes up with a plan that will keep the Raiders in northern California..

Davis held a meeting with San Antonio city officials in 2014 about moving the Raiders there and if they did so, would play in the Alamodome until a new stadium gets built.  

It will take securing 24 votes for the successful teams to get approval to move, and until the new NFL playpens are completed, the relocated NFL teams would play either in the Coliseum or the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.

We'll find out how this all turns out soon.

President Obama's Last SOTU Speech Tonight

The reality that 2016 is not only an election year, but President Obama's last as our president will become crystal clear at  8 PM CST when he gives his final State of the Union Address to a join session of Congress and what is sure to be a large television audience.

President Obama gave a preview of his upcoming speech in a video in which he stated he wanted to focus "not just the remarkable progress we've made, not just what I want to get done in the year ahead, but what we need to do together in the years to come:  The big things that will guarantee an even stronger, better, more prosperous America for our kids.  That's what's on my mind."

What's on our mind is the upcoming November 8 presidential election and coming to grips with the fact that on January 17, 2017 you and your family will be leaving the White House.  I'm definitely not ready to think about that near future event.

Well, it's still January, and we still have him, the FLOTUS and the First Family living at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. until then.

Two Houston Trans Feminine Leaders Speaking Tonight

Two Houston transwomen are handling their human rights business on the same night with 1500 miles between them.  Hey we H-town trans women just got it like that.   We have a long distinguished history of being kick ass fighters and activists, and we're keeping that tradition moving forward into the 21st century.

Collar popping done, back to the post.  'll start with the trans feminine leader doing the local event.

Here inside Beltway 8 Dee Dee Watters will be at the January meeting of the Houston Stonewall Young Democrats to discuss transgender equality and how to talk about trans issues in the media.

If you wish to attend, it will be at Little Bigs, located at 4617 Montrose Blvd near the Museum District.  Social half hour starts at 6:30 PM, with the meeting and Dee Dee's discussion taking place at 7 PM

Meanwhile on the Left Coast, Nikki Araguz Loyd will be on the University of La Verne campus for a speech entitled My Experiences In Life & Law.

It is sponsored by the University of La Verne College of Law and the Coalition For Diversity, and will start at 6;30 PM PST in the La Fetra Lecture Hall

For those of you in SoCal and the Los Angeles metro area wishing to check her out, the University of La Verne is located at 1950 3rd Street in La Verne, CA.

Good luck tonight, ladies!  Hope both your presentations are done to capacity crowds.  Have no doubts you'll knock them out of the park.

Womanhood Does Not Equal To Childbirth Alone

While I was surfing the Net last night ran across a Facebook conversation on a trans girlfriend's page in which a cis woman threw the shady comment that trans women were 'men' because we can't conceive or give birth to children.

Of course y'all knew I couldn't let that stand, and shot a comment back at the transphobic sistah would it be okay for trans women when she hits menopause to call her a man?  I pointed out that since in her mind womanhood =  ability to procreate, once she no longer had that ability to do so for whatever reason, by her own narrow definition, she would be a 'man'. 

As for her reaction to the clapback comment I laid on her, she had none.
One of the things that I and my trans sisters are tired of is TERF's and elements of the cisfeminine community throwing that ignorant insult around to either make themselves feel superior to trans women or piss us off.

Just an FYI for some of you who were asleep in biology class, there are some cis women who can't bear children because they have MRKH Syndrome, a rare condition that affects one in every 5000 women in which they are born without a uterus.

Some may have a uterus, but it doesn't function because of fertility or other issues, or the baby making parts work but the cis woman in question chooses not to have children.

Since 2000, medical science has been perfecting the ability to transplant a uterus. The medical technology for that procedure has advanced to the point in which a cis woman in Sweden who received a uterine transplant in 2014 gave birth to a child via Caesarian section.

Now the technology has also advanced to the point that the donor uterus can not only be grown in the lab with stem cells, the lab grown uterus is less susceptible to rejection by the patient it is implanted in.

So as this uterine transplant procedure becomes routine over the next decade, how long will it be before trans women who wish to have children are able to not only have a uterine transplant, but bear children?   Once that happens, it eliminates the ability for TERF's and cis women to weaponize as an insult they shadily throw at trans women their ability to procreate.

As philosopher Simone de Beauvoir once stated, 'Women are made, not born,'  There are many elements that go into womanhood including living culturally as one, and trans and cis women need to realize we have far more in common than they have differences.

We cis and trans women have to do a better job of building sisterhood between us, and discuss the issues that negatively impact that happening.  This is one of those irritant issues for trans women.

Basing womanhood on ability to procreate is also insulting to cis women who can't bear children for whatever reason or choose not to.,

If you claim that femininity and gender roles are artificial constructs that have nothing to do with the body or other biological characteristics, then that applies to trans women as well.