Last Day Of Texas Early Voting

Today is the last day of early voting for our primary election in Texas, and if you haven't done so yet, you have from 7 AM to 7 PM today at various locations around the state to do so.  

If you are in line waiting to cast your ballots, stay in line until you get to do so.

After 7 PM, you'll have to wait until Tuesday, March 1 to handle your electoral business, and you'll need to do so at your friendly neighborhood precinct.

If you aren't registered to vote for the primary, you still have time (October) to do so and get your blue Texas voter registration card before the general election on November 8.

Time To Fight An Unjust Anti-Trans Bill In Tennessee

Well, the latest attempt by conservative Republicans to attack trans kids with unjust laws is about to be launched any day now in the Volunteer State.

Thanks to the Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition for posting the alert so I can signal boost it.

The Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition is disappointed to learn that HB 2414 by Lynn, Matlock, & Lamberth, the Transgender Student Bathroom Harassment Act, has been placed On Notice in the House Education Administration and Planning Subcommittee on Tuesday, March 1.

It is imperative that those who live in Tennessee contact members of the committee and express your opposition to this incredibly dangerous bill. It would expose transgender, gender variant, and gender non conforming students to increased levels of bullying, harassment, and physical assault.

Mark White (R-Memphis), Chair, 615-741-4415, rep.mark.white@capitol.tn.gov,

Harry Brooks (R-Knoxville), 615-741-6879, rep.harry.brooks@capitol.tn.gov,

John DeBerry (D-Memphis), 615-741-2239, rep.john.deberry@capitol.tn.gov,

Kevin Dunlap (D-Rock Island), 615-741-1963, rep.kevin.dunlap@capitol.tn.gov,

Debra Moody (R-Covington), 615-741-3774, rep.debra.moody@capitol.tn.gov,

Eddie Smith (R-Knoxville), 615-741-2031, rep.eddie.smith@capitol.tn.gov,

Dawn White (R-Murfreesboro), 615-741-6849, rep.dawn.white@capitol.tn.gov,

Rick Womick (R-Rockvale), 615-741-2804, rep.richard.womick@capitol.tn.gov,

http://www.capitol.tn.gov/hou…/committees/sub-education.html

As TTPC advises me how those of us outside Tennessee's borders can help them in their fight against HB 2414 I'll pass that info on to you.   I'll also keep tracking this latest unjust bill designed to attack the humanity of our trans kids.
.

Clock Ticking On Unjust HB 1008 Signing By SD Governor

The unjust HB 1008 has been sent to South Dakota Governor Dennis Daugaard's (R) desk for his signature, and he has until March 1 to act on it.

It was passed on a 20-15 vote out of the GOP controlled Senate and 58-10 a month ago in the GOP controlled house, and is now awaiting action from Governor Daugaard.

He can either: (A) veto it, (B) be a bold GOP trans oppressor and sign the unjust bill into law, or (C) take the political coward's way out and let the bill become law without his signature.

I'm expecting option C to happen.  I'm under no illusions that Republicans will do the right thing when it comes to the human rights of groups they don't like and wish to oppress.

The South Dakota trans community and their allies are hoping that their governor will do the right thing and veto the bill, and yesterday showed up in their state capitol of Pierre to demonstrate their opposition to the bill.   Petitions have also popped up with over 80,000 signatures and urging him to not sign the unjust law

Even Wayne Maines, the father of trans teen Nicole Maines who fought a successful protracted legal battle over bathroom access for his trans daughter, urged the governor in an open letter to veto the unjust legislation

“Transgender children across the nation go to school everyday afraid – a survey by the HRC Foundation found that three-quarters of transgender students feel unsafe in school settings. They sit in class and learn about powerful words, like courage, freedom and equality. Words that transgender people know well and dream will one day be true. Words that some of our leaders talk about but have forgotten how to use. If I could meet with you and your fellow governors, I would sit down with you and ask, ‘What are you afraid of?’ These kids just want to go to the bathroom, maybe visit with their friends to discuss their day, to laugh and just be kids. Why does it have to so hard? Their classmates do not care and they are not afraid. It is time to listen, watch and learn from them to understand that being transgender is not a big deal.”

A group of trans students had a closed door meeting with Governor Daugaard yesterday, and the trans community's most well known Republican in Caitlyn Jenner took to Twitter to urge the governor to do the right thing and veto it.

We'll see what happens over the next few days in Pierre if South Dakota decides to continue down the destructive road at the behest of out of state hate groups and their GOP controlled legislature to legislate oppression of trans people.

Carter Brown On Can We Talk 4 Real Tonight

The Black Trans Advocacy Conference April 25-May 1 dates are approaching fast, and the Can We Talk 4 Real podcast will be hosting Black Transmen, Inc Executive Director/CEO  Carter Brown to talk about it later tonight with Michelle and Terri Boi.  

Black Transment, Inc has become the Change They Wish To See In The World because Brown actively leads a host of over 40 board, staff and volunteer members of the organization, and continues to multiply the presence of the organization with over nine BTMI state chapters throughout the U.S.

His work, along with Black Transmen, Inc. and its subsidiaries, is based in peace building, community education, public policy initiatives, empowerment programs and direct services. Black Trans Advocacy works with communities in the U.S. and across the globe to foster diversity, inclusion and equality for all people. 

The show will start at 8:00 PM EST/ 7:30 PM CST. and you can call 347-215-8985 and press 1 to become part of tonight's conversation.

Maya Young Makes Three Trans Murders In 2016

Sad to report that another US trans woman has been murdered this year.

25 year old Maya Taylor was found stabbed multiple times in the neck and chest in the 4800 block of Penn Street at 11:50 PM EST Saturday in the Frankford section of Philadelphia.

She was taken by police to Aria Health-Frankford, less than two blocks away from where she was found. where she was pronounced dead at 12:21 AM EST on Sunday.

"The community is heartbroken once again with the senseless slaying of another transgender woman of color," wrote Naiymah Sanchez, a coordinator with the Philadelphia based TransHealth Information project on her Facebook page.  


The Philadelphia Police Department is looking for information in this case, and if you have it, you can call the PPD Police Homicide Unit at 215-686-3344 or 911.

A $20,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction in this case.

As I get more details about this case I will post them

Rest in power and peace, Maya.  Not happy about your life violently ending before you even got a chance to spread your wings and fly.

Charlotte Passes Ordinance Banning TBLG Discrimination

Some good news out of Charlotte tonight as their City Council passed on a 7-4 vote an ordinance banning LGBT discrimination in the Queen City in front of an overflow crowd.

Of course, the Forces of Intolerance beat the bathroom predator meme into hamburger and Gov Pat McCrory (R), the former Charlotte mayor, tried to browbeat the Charlotte City Council into not taking the issue up by issuing threats to overturn it at the state level.

The new Charlotte ordinance takes effect in April and bans discrimination based on gender identity and expression and sexual orientation in housing and public accommodations.

You may recall that an attempt to pass the same ordinance last year was defeated, and in the wake of that loss, the two Democratic councilmembers that opposed it were ousted and replaced with democrats who supported the ordinance.

Elections matter.

But this was the easy part.   As we can tell you in Houston, keeping progressive legislation you pass in a red state is much harder.

But congrats Charlotte for doing so!    

USA The 2016 CONCACAF Women's Olympic Tournament Champs

The USA and Canada are headed to Rio in August as the CONCACAF reps in the 12 team field for the women's Olympic soccer tournament that starts August 3.

But there was one more piece of business left to figure out at BBVA Compass Stadium on Sunday in terms of who would get that nice trophy and the first place medals as the CONCACAF Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

As usual in these border war soccer matches between the USA and Canada, it was a hard fought affair that went to halftime tied because referee Quetzalli Alvarado (from Mexico BTW) missed Carli Lloyd being dragged down in the penalty area by Melissa Tancredi.

But as they say, if the ref doesn't call it, it ain't a penalty.  

The USA finally got on the board in the 53rd minute after Becky Sauerbrunn chipped a ball deep into the penalty box that Lindsey Horan beat her defender and Canadian goalkeeper Stephanie Labbe to the ball and headed it into the open net for a 1-0 lead.

Eight miners later after a weaving dribble from Mallory Pugh down the sideline, she laid off a pass across the penalty area to Tobin Heath that she buried in the right hand side of the net past Labbe for what turned out to be the final goal of the match.




The 2-0 final held up as Hope Solo recorded her 95th shutout and 144th win, both USA records.


In addition to stretching their record in CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying to 18-0-1 (the tie came against Canada) , Team USA swept the tournament individual awards.  Hope Solo won Best Goalkeeper.  Crystal Dunn won the Golden Boot as the tournament's top scorer with six goals, and the Houston Dash's Morgan Brian won the Golden Ball as the tournament's best player.

Team USA also won the Fair Play Award, and had eight players named to the tournament's Best XI squad.

Well, now that the USA has handled their main business of qualifying for the Olympics, now it's time for the Red White and Blue (we gotta get a cooler nickname for our men's and women's squads) to prepare for the upcoming Olympic tournament and shoot for the Golden fivepeat.

Trans Woman Found Dead In San Antonio Motel

Courtesy of OutInSA is the sad news that a trans woman was found dead in a South San Antonio hotel on February 19.   Don't know for certain in this developing story if foul play was involved and have my trans fam in San Antonio trying to get more details.

According to a KABB-TV report, the mid-30's Veronica Banks Cano was found by police in the El Mio Motel in the 3500 block of Roosevelt Avenue around 9:00 AM fully clothed in a bathtub with some water in it.   The body had no obvious signs of trauma, and some individuals that were in the hotel room have been questioned.

She was from Pleasanton, TX and according to Joe Mendez, a friend of hers interviewed for the OutinSA story, was pursuing a career in nursing.  

A GoFundMe page has been set up to help with the burial expenses.  Her rosary service will be held on Tuesday, February 23 at 7 PM at Palm Heights Mortuary, located at 3711 S. Zarzamora with burial set for Wednesday.

Rest in power and peace Veronica.

Vittoria Schisano Gets A Playboy Cover

There have been three trans women who have done photographic spreads for Playboy magazine in Brazil's Roberta Close, Caroline Cossey and Ines Rau.

This month actress Vittoria Schisano joins that list with her appearance in the February issue of Italian Playboy.   She may also be the first out trans woman to appear on the cover of Playboy.

You may recall that Vittoria announced at a 2011 press conference that she was transitioning, and ever since then the folks in Italy have gotten to watch her evolution into her true and beautiful self.

Another day, another interesting groundbreaking moment for trans women.

Hillary Wins In Nevada!

Today's Nevada Democratic Caucus had much riding on them for both sides in this 2016 Democratic presidential nomination race.  While Sen. Bernie Sanders was coming off a huge double digit win in New Hampshire and had some momentum going in, he still hadn't proved yet that he can get non-white Democrats to #FeelTheBern.

Nevada would offer him and his supporters their first chance to prove that he could win in a state that wasn't overwhelmingly white.  Nevada has a 27% Latinx and 13% African-American population largely concentrated in Las Vegas and Reno.

Meanwhile Secretary Clinton was looking to rebound from the New Hampshire thumping.

After spending several months organizing in Nevada, she and her campaign team were cautiously optimistic they could pull out a much needed win in the Silver State.

But the Sanders campaign spent heavily to match her organization here and air commercials in local media.   They also trumpeted media polls they were running even with Clinton in the runup to today's caucus.

But when the dust settled, it was Clinton's support with non-white voters and her ground game that carried the day.  Clinton got 52.6% of the caucus attendees to say #ImWithHer with just 47.3% going to Sanders.   It was a critical win to calm the nerves of her supporters going into Saturday's South Carolina Democratic Primary and with Super Tuesday looming on March 1.





What is more ominous for Sanders supporters is that African-American voters, who only make up about 13% of the Nevada electorate are feeling Hillary.  They broke 76%-22% for Clinton and she rolled to wins in six of the state's majority Black precincts.  Nevada's Latinx voters also broke for Clinton.

And South Carolina comes up fast this Saturday along with the Super Tuesday primaries on March 1 in which many of the Southern states involved, including Texas which is in early voting now, have large percentages of non-white voters.

We will see what transpires in South Carolina, especially in light of the fact that more superdelegates and party leaders are declaring for Clinton including Rep. James Clyburn. (D-SC) and Clinton picked up more endorsements here in Texas, where 222 delegates are at stake.  

,    

Dave Wilson Up To His Political Dirty Tricks Again In TX 148 Race

Transphobic homohater Dave Wilson, fresh off a 2013 campaign in which he pulled a Rachael Dolezal and misrepresented himself as Black to narrowly get elected to a six year term on the Houston Community College board, is trying to lie his way into office again.

This time he's trying to move up the political food chain and get a state House seat, and the long time LGBT bigot is trying to run in the Democratic primary against longtime state Rep. Jessica Farrar in House District 148.

With early voting just starting for the March 1 primary and running until February 26, Wilson just unleashed a deceptive mailer in which he posted a picture of Farrar's home  and her car with the state official license plate affixed to it to claim that she doesn't live in her Houston district, but in Austin.

The reality is Farrar's home is in the middle of TX 148,

It's also laughable that Wilson would try to project his own situation on someone else because he was busted and sued for doing exactly what he is falsely accusing Rep. Farrar of.doing.

And he bragged about what he pulled off in the afterglow of his HCC race that he won by 26 votes.

Voters of HD 148, please don't fall for the okey doke.  make sure you rebuke this fool and send Rep Farrar to victory against this political charlatan..  

2016 CONCACAF Women's Olympic Qualifying- It's Canada And The USA To Rio!

The 2016 CONCACAF Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament has been going on in Texas since February 10 to determine who gets the two Rio Olympic soccer tournament slots allotted to CONCACAF.

The scene has shifted to Houston for the knockout rounds of the tournament, with the semifinals being played last night at BBVA Compass Stadium.

Group B winner Canada faced off against Group A runner up Costa Rica for one of the two Olympic slots, and thanks to their captain Christine Sinclair's two goals in the 17th and 51st minutes punched their ticket to Rio with a 3-1 win.

Costa Rica's Raquel Rodriguez added one from the penalty spot to cut the Canadian lead down to 2-1 in the 71st minute, but Deanne Rose scored in the 86th minute to put Canada comfortably back in front by two goals and secure their spot in the tournament finals on Sunday.

Two hours later it was the USA facing off against the surprise runners up of Group B in the Women Soca Warriors of Trinidad and Tobago, who clinched their spot in the knockout round with a 5-1 win over Guyana on February 16.

But playing Guyana and the world champion USA squad are two different tasks, and 12 minutes into the match Tobin Heath scored to put the world champs up 1-0.   Alex Morgan score the first of her three goals in the 30th minute to put the USA up 2-0, and Carli Lloyd scored in the 43rd minute to send the USA to the locker room at BBVA Compass Stadium with a 3-0 halftime lead.

Morgan completed her 3rd international hat trick with goals in the 71st and 73rd minutes to send the USA to the finals of this qualifying tournament on Sunday against Canada with the second CONCACAF Olympic qualifying spot nailed down.

It is the sixth consecutive time that the USA women's team has qualified for the Olympics, and they will be seeking their fifth straight Olympic title when they do get to Rio.

On Sunday the USA an Canada clash for the CONCACAF Qualifying tournament title in a game in which nothing is on the line but pride and a trophy.

The real fight will be starting on August 3 when the women's Olympic soccer tournament kicks off.

 

TransGriot Perv Watch- Faith Based Freak

In our latest edition of the TransGriot Perv Watch, here's another incident that proves what the trans community is saying in terms of the peeps you have to watch out for aren't members of our community.

52 year old Mark Wayne Howington of Maumee, OH, the music director at Proclaim FM, a Christian radio station based in Holland, OH. decided to take the laying of hands on someone to another disturbing level at a Target store in the area.  

And he wasn't trans or in drag or trans when he did so.

58 year old Debra Piechowski was shopping at a Target with her niece looking for Valentine's and birthday gifts husband when she entered the women's restroom at 5:00 PM EST last Thursday afternoon.




Piechowski was violently pulled into the bathroom by Howington and slapped hard on the left butt cheek by him before he exited the bathroom without a word as she went to find the manager and store security.

The search for him was initially unsuccessful, but Piechowski spotted him in the parking lot attempting to pry open a car door, and she and officers chased and cornered him in another nearby store where he was apprehended.  He refused to give his name and when he was ordered to pull his hand out of hos pocket, revealed the sharp end of a screwdriver.

If he'd been non-white he'd be dead, but back to focusing on this perv watch story.

Howington was arrested and charged with simple assault, obstruction official business and carrying a concealed weapon.  He appeared in court Friday and was released from the Lucas County. OH jail on Saturday on $1000 bond.

Howington has resigned his position at the Dwelling Place church and is on leave from his WPOS-FM job.

Shut Up Fool Awards- It's Early Voting Time In Texas Edition

On Tuesday early voting commenced for the March 1 Texas Primary election.  Yep people, we are a Super Tuesday state, and our vote matters since 225 Democratic convention delegates are up for grabs.  The early voting period in Texas runs until February 26, and yes I've already handled my electoral business and voted in the primary and hope you will make your voice heard if not during the early voting period, on March 1.

It's also Friday, and that means it's time to call out the fool, fools or groups of fools that have exhibited WTF levels of idiocy and unleashed a string of stupid comments out of their mouths.

So let's get busy calling out this week's Shut Up Fool.

Honorable mention number one is Phyllis Schafly, for flapping her gums and stating all of President Obama's judicial nominees need to be stalled and funding stripped from the federal courts.

Damn, is she still wasting O2 on this planet?

Honorable mention number two is the Log Cabin Republicans, who keep showing the world they have an incurable case of Stockholm Syndrome by agreeing to be a sponsor of CPAC.   Yep, they agreed to pay for admission into an event where many of the speakers will be dissing them from the stage.

Honorable mention number three is Caitlyn Jenner, for parting her lips and saying she gets more flack for being a Republican than being trans.

Are you really that isolated and clueless? Maybe in Caitlyn World that's true, but the rest of us not living on a Malibu hilltop estate catch hell for being trans.   Bye, Caitlyn!

Honorable mention number four is Killer Mike for unleashing his problematic commentt at an ATL Sanders rally that he later apologized for that a uterus doesn't qualify you to be POTUS.  

Neither does a penis, homes.

Honorable mention number five is every conservafool who believes the conservalie that President Obama killed Scalia.   Naw fools, natural causes did that.

Honorable mentions number six is Ted Cruz.   After bashing President Obama for his decision to skip the funeral of Antonin Scalia, his azz isn't going to show up.

How do you say hypocrite in Spanish?

This week's Shut Up Fool winner is The South Dakota Republican controlled legislature for passing the unjust  HB 1008 and now sending through another odious anti-trans bill in HB 1029.

As I keep pointing out, the most dangerous transphobic bigots are the ones with the power to pass legislation.

SD legislators like Reps. Jim Stalzer (R), Mark Willadsen (R) Steven Haugaard (R) Arch Beal (R) and Sen David Omdahl (R) are living examples of what I'm talking about.  

If you voted for them or are silent about what is happening in the Mount Rushmore State,  you are also complicit in the enabling of  oppression aimed at your transgender neighbors


South Dakota GOP,  shut up transphobic fools