Shut Up Fool Awards- It's Juneteenth Weekend Edition

June 19 is not only Father's Day, but it is also Juneteenth in Texas.

Juneteenth is the 1865 day that Union Major General Gordon Granger read Order Number 3 from the balcony of Galveston's Ashton Villa and proclaimed at all Texas slaves were henceforth free.

It became known as Emancipation Day to the freedmen, and starting in 1866 was celebrated with picnics, parades, and church services.  African-American Texans as the migrated to other parts of the country too the unofficial holiday with them, and on January 1, 1980, thanks to the efforts of Texas state Rep Al Edwards, Juneteenth became an official state holiday.

So let m break out my strawberry soda and barbecue and chow down on it before i call out this weeks list of holiday fools.

Honorable mention number one is a group award to every conservafool and Republican who tried to pit the TBLGQ community against the Muslim community over the Pulse terror attack.

Honorable mention number two is the Log Cabin Republicans, who also tried to push Islamophobia and blame ISIS for the attack when they and 'errbody' in TBLG World knows that the largest purveyors of  LGBT hate are the Republican Party
'
Honorable mention number three is Tila Tequila, who  was listening to too much Dan Patrick while growing up her in H-town. Her racist Asian azz tweeted that Jennifer Lopez was a 'Mexican with money'   No. you bigoted twit, unlike you, J Lo was born in the US (The Bronx) and is Puerto Rican.

And can't I get one day when some right wing idiot isn't embarrassing my home state by opening their mouths and letting something stupid fly out of it?

Honorable mention number four is Donald Trump for just pick a stupid statement this week, but the most over the top one is the assertion he would be better for LGBT people than Hillary Clinton. .

Honorable mention number five is John McCain, for claiming President Obama is responsible for the Pulse aatack when his party refused to pass legislation to keep people on the 'no fly' and terror watch lists from buying assault weapons.

Honorable mention number six is Bill O'Reilly, for saying on air he wants to slap Rep James Clyburn for wanting to focus on gun safety after Orlando attacks.

He has good reason to you conservaidiot, especially since today is the one year anniversary of the Mother Emmanuel church terrorist attack by Dylan Roof in Charleston, SC.


Honorable mention number seven is the still unidentified kneegrow who tweeted that the Pulse shooting was 'someone doing community service', and lost his job at a Marietta, GA WalMart as a result.

Honorable mention number eight is my Lt Governor Dan Goeb Patrick, for posting a 'you reap what you sow' tweet five hours after the terror attack, and when the justifiable backlash hit him, tried to claim it was an error and was selected well in advance of Sunday's event.

Honorable mention number nine is Rep Rick Allen (R-GA) who said 'gays are worthy of death' and doesn't feel the need to retract it in the wake of the Orlando mass shooting.


This week's Shut Up Fool winner is Roger Jimenez, the California hate pastor who gleefully referred to the 49 victims as  pedophiles, stated he's upset that the Pulse shooter didn't finish the job,  and then doubled down on the gaybaiting hatred.

Ignorant hatemongers like you are why the Pulse shooting happened in the first place, and you are the reason why Christianity has such a negative connotation with millennials

Roger Jimenez (not going to even call you a pastor because you don't deserve the title), I rebuke you in the name of Jesus, and oh yeah, shut up fool.

Good Luck And Speedy Healing, Eli

As you long time TransGriot readers know, for the last several NFL seasons I've been battling with Michael Watts and Eli Blake in a friendly contest for NFL prognostication supremacy.

I'm the defending champion going into the 2016 NFL season, and I'll be trying to something that has never been done in terms of repeating as TransGriot NFL prognostication champion.

But dealing with some sad news this morning as our 2013 TransGriot NFL prognostication champion Eli revealed that he has been diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer that has spread to his liver.  He's checked into a hospital to have a stent put in and once that is done, begin treatment for the cancer.

Best wishes to you and your family Eli in this challenging time.   Prayers up for some speedy healing and looking forward to jousting with you again for NFL prognostication supremacy.  

My Name Is Moni, And I'm Unapologetically Black And Trans

My name is Monica Roberts and I am an unapologetic Black trans person who is a child of God created in God's image. My transition did not invalidate my Black Card, it just added a transgender flag sticker to it.

I'm proud of being a #girllikeus, and my transition also has led to me since it happened in April 1994 to being able to live an amazing life. I went to the White House last week.  I was at the Philly Trans Health Conference where I get hugs from amazing trans teen activists Jazz Jennings and Nicole Maines just for starters, and get loved on by everyone from trans kids to the trans guys to my trans elders like Miss Major.  

But one thing I am proud of is my cis sisters that knew me before I transitioned who tell me they are proud of me and marvel at how my life has evolved since that day.  They have let me know without equivocation that they consider me part of the sisterhood  

I'm also cognizant of the people in Trans World who see me as a mentor, leader, and the trans kids who see me as Aunt Monica. I take that leadership mantle and being a possibility model for our trans youth seriously.

I never want to disappoint them or the people who place their confidence in me to do the right thing as a trans leader and provide thoughtful, principled leadership of our community.

Since I mentioned haters, you're probably asking the question do I have them? Yes, I sure do.  But I really don't give a rats anus what they think.  Haters are my motivators, and they know who they are.  Having haters lets me know they consider me important enough to waste their time and energy thinking negative thoughts about moi.  It also lets me know I'm doing what I need to do personally and professionally to advance the human rights of my community.

As far as the faith based haters and ignorati are concerned, if they don't like that declaration early in this essay about being unapologetically Black and trans, too damned bad. Neither do I care about you TERF's, fauxminists, or TS separatists or what loud and wrong things y'all have to say either. 

I get to call a group of diverse and wonderful trans and cis people from around the world my friends, and they are people I probably wouldn't have met without doing so.

I have a voice is amplified by a decade old blog that 'nobody reads' as one of my haters once said, and that statement makes me chuckle with every blogging award I get nominated for and every kudo I get from my fellow journalism peers.

I`m beyond caring about what you think because I'm tired of you, your GOP friends, assorted ignorati and kneegrow sellouts attacking my humanity and the humanity of my trans siblings.

I`m going to focus on just being the best person I can be, and doing my part to help advance the human rights of my trans family in concert with our allies and the people who love and care about us.

I'm Moni, and I approved this TransGriot message.

You Mad Because You're Attracted To A Trans Woman?

One of the things I'm more than a little sick of is the meme floating around the Net denying the femininity and humanity of trans feminine women.  My sis Raquel Willis was sick of it too and tweeted that meme to counter a transphobic one that was floating around.

Just an FYI cis boys (and cis girls), trans women are women.  That's a far too simple concept for you to grasp.

As women, we not only come in all shapes, sizes and skin tones, some of us were blessed to have the right combinations of genetic material that also make us attractive to people who like attractive feminine bodies.  Some of u spent the extra cash to surgically enhance our bodies to get them where we wanted them in order to hake ourselves happy.

And if by doing so, we became more aesthetically pleasing to you, that's a bonus.

And if some of you transphobes are bothered by that last statement, too damned bad if you are.  Don't get mad if you saw a pic of a trans woman, you said to yourself "Damn she's fine!" and in response your junk starts stiffening as you ogle her picture.

Yeah, we know it happens.  Some of y'all are hitting those trans porn sites on the regular to see what my pre and non op sisters may or may not have in their panties, so don't even front.

Once again, a trans woman is a woman. If you are attracted to femininity, you are going to react to an attractive trans woman just as you would a cis woman, especially if you aren't prejudiced by knowing the trans woman's background before you scope out her pictures.

And not all of us are over 6 feet tall.  I repeat, just like cis women, we come in all shapes, sizes and body configurations, and I know more than a few trans women who are petite size 8 shoe wearing divas.

I ain't mad or jealous of my trans sisters who were blessed with that combination of traits that make them attractive to the male species.  Neither should you cis he-men be hating on that trans women either to the point that you wish to inflict unhinged levels of violence upon her..

So don't get mad if you're attracted to a trans woman.  If you actually take the time to get to know some of us, you'll find that many of us are smart, sexy, talented and make great friends.

And if you allow yourself to do so, you may even find yourself if you open your heart to doing so, taking her home to meet your family or eventually putting a ring on her finger.

You Can Run CM Knox, But You Can't Hide From Us

Spent a very interesting day at Houston City Council with several Houston LGBT community leaders and our allies hanging out for our public comment session.

Eleven of us were there to call out Councilmember Mike Knox for his problematic May 2 comments demonizing the Houston trans community while attend a Target protest initiated by the same reprehensible peeps who gleefully peddled transphobia during the HERO fight.

"Equality is the same for you as it is for me. If someone has a greater right to use a bathroom than someone else as an expression of their sexuality, that's a problem,"
Council Member Mike Knox.

No CM Knox, equality is NOT the same for you and me.  HERO was wiped off the city Code of Ordinances by demonizing trans Houstonians, and I'm still pissed off about that. 

And Councilmember Knox, I'm appalled along with trans Houston and our allies about the demonization of the humanity of me and other trans Houstonians.

We also were showing up to call out his chief of staff Trebor Gordon, who tried to block Syed Ali, a longtime Muslim Republican from getting a Harris County GOP precinct chair position, and made some Islamophobic comments while doing so. There have been calls for his firing or resignation, and Gordon is allegedly not serving in that position in Knox's office any more, but we'll see about that.

It was decided to keep this council trip in stealth mode so that the opposition wouldn't have the time or opportunity to organize a counter trip busing people in from the 'burbs to attempt to shut down what we were going to say or defend Knox.

And you knew I wasn't going to miss the fun. It was also done that way so that Councilmember Knox would be in attendance at that meeting and not come up with a convenient excuse to miss it.

Knowing that Houston LGBT community leaders were lying in wait to call his butt out, he left at 2:24 PM and never returned to hear us call him out about running from being held accountable by his constituents for the transphobia and Islamophobia.

CM Knox, just a reminder that yes, we are your constituents since you are in an at-large council seat. You can run like you did today, but you can't hide from the Houston GLBT community calling you our about your comments, and sooner or later you'll have to sit in that nice leather chair around The Horseshoe and hear what we have to say.
 
And yeah, you'll do so because we vote.  2019 will be here before you know it.

News Media, Why Aren't We Talking About This Alleged Terrorist?

Unchecked anti-trans hate speech kills whether it's online, in the media or from the pulpit.
TransGriot, January 27, 2015

As we woke up Sunday to the horror of another mass shooting, we're also finding out that Sunday could have been far worse for our TBLG community.

20 year old James Howell of Jeffersonville, IN was arrested by Santa Monica, CA police while enroute to a TBLG pride festival in West Hollywood, CA.  

When Howell was arrested  he was in possession of three assault rifles. camouflage clothing, high capacity magazines and ammunition, and a five gallon bucket of chemicals that could be used to create an improvised explosive device.  There is no evidence so far he was acting in a coordinated fashion with the Orlando mass shooter.

He has been booked on three felonies, possession of a firearm, possession of an improvised explosive device and possession of high capacity magazines.  He was also charged with misdemeanor possession of a loaded weapon and is in jail on a $2 million bond.

Howell also has a history back in Indiana and Kentucky of various gun charges and gun violence. You put all this anti-trans and anti-gay hate speech out there, and you shouldn't be shocked when people start acting on what you spoke into existence.

So why isn't the media talking about this suspected terrorist? Guess it's easier for the predominately white media peeps to focus on a person who committed a terrorist act that doesn't look like them as opposed to one who was stopped from possibly executing an attack that does look like many of the people in the media.

Clinton Wins DC Primary

As expected Sec. Hillary Clinton closed out the 2016 Democratic nomination contests with another victory as she clobbered Sen. Bernie Sanders in the DC primary.
 
The huge win once again fit the pattern that has been established since March in Clinton taking diverse primary electorates, and solidifies her status as the presumptive Democratic nominee for president.

And which DC having a large African-American population, the group of Democratic voters that has overwhelmingly supported her in this primary season, basically made the point that in Democratic Party politics, Black voters matter.

As she was capturing this last primary, she and Sanders were meeting at the Capital Hilton to sort out the terms of his exit from the presidential race so she can pivot to attacking Donald Trump full time.

And we need her to start clobbering Trump sooner and not later.

Moni's Raising Hell At City Hall Again

As you read this, I'm awaiting my turn to speak during this Houston city council comment session.

It will be the first time I've spoken to Houston City Council since our new Mayor Sylvester Turner took office along with new council members Karla Cisneros, Amanda Edwards, Steve Le, Greg Travis and Mike Knox.

The reason I'm there is to support folks in our community pissed off about problematic transphobic comments made by Position 1 at large Councilmember Knox and the Islamophobic comments of his chief of staff Trebor Gordon.

He showed up with the haters at a May 2 Target protest, and helped spread anti-HERO and anti-trans talking points.

So that we can handle our business without right wing idiocy interfering with our reads, I was asked along with the Houston LGBT community to keep this organized effort a secret until the 2 PM CDT start time of the council comment session meeting.

No CM Knox, it isn't about my sexuality when I or any trans woman in the Houston area and beyond goes to the bathroom, it's about me pooping and peeing, and washing my hands when I'm done.

And Houston trans people are tired of you conservative Republicans demonizing our humanity.

Yep, and since I've been in a combative mood since Sunday over the Pulse mass shooting, am looking forward to calling out some inside the Houston city limit transphobia and Islamophobia along with other community members scheduled to attend.

Houston Stands With Orlando

While I was spending Sunday on the East Coast battling  trolls on my Twitter feed who didn't like what I had to say about the Orlando 'terriss' attack, back home in Houston Ashton Woods was busy organizing a vigil at Hermann Park so that the H-town TBLG community and our allies could #StandWithOrlando.

Ashton in addition to being one of our standout community advocates, also happens to be a member of the Houston chapter of Black Lives Matter.  The goal of the event was for the community to speak up, and also declare that we were going to continue to fight against the oppression of BTLG people.

Here's the link to Ashton's post from his Strength In Numbers blog about the Houston vigil and some of the photo's from it.

Moni's Thoughts About The Pulse Terror Attack

I was in the midst of one of the more empowering weeks I have had in my life between getting to attend my first White House LGBT Pride reception, a well received Philadelphia Trans Health Conference media panel on Friday, and experiencing the love of much of my community (except for five haters who know who they are)

So it was a shock but not too surprising for me when I awoke on Sunday morning to hear the distressing news about the Pulse TBLG nightclub in Orlando being attacked on Latinx Night.

Why am I not surprised it happened?  Because of the ramped up anti-trans and anti-gay animus that has been stoked by the Republican Party and fundamentalist preachers like James Dobson, I have been concerned that something like this was going to happen.   When you keep demonizing a marginalized group, just a matter of time before something like this happens in a country with far too many guns and easy access to acquire them.

We have 49 people dead with 53 more are injured as a result of the terrorist attack at Pulse and my condolences to the predominately Latinx BTLG family members we lost.  I also pray for the people who survived it, but will be haunted by memories of that  horrific night for a long time to come.

But it seems to me the media is more obsessed with the now deceased shooter Omar Saleem's radicalization and playing footsie with ISIS than pointing out the fact that the Republicans were gleefully trafficking in anti-trans and anti-gay hatred for months before Sunday's attack.

In fact, Texas Lt Governor Dan Patrick unleashed a tweet at 7 AM he later retracted about people 'reaping what they sow' mere hours after the mass shooting happened.  Once again, another day when Texas Republican leaders have embarrassed the state.

I'm also not liking the Republicans, after spending decades demonizing the TBLG community, all of a sudden trying to play like they are our community's best buds.   And the Log Cabin Sellouts Republicans need to check themselves in terms of that press release they put out, but conveniently ignoring that their party was pushing fear and hatred of transgender people for political advantage.

As the details of this mass shooting continue to come out, the nation and the world mourns with Orlando and the national BTLG community.   In addition to the one held in front of the historic Stonewall Inn in New York, the Houston LGBT community held a vigil on Sunday, and there have been others either held or planned as the week has progressed.

This was an  attack on the entire TBLG community, and we cannot allow the people killed at Pulse to die in vain.  Far from the entire community cowering in fear, we should be even more determined to openly live our lives and work to ensure that homophobia and transphobia are eradicated from our culture.

Finally Headed Home From The East Coast

I said before I embarked on this trip on Wednesday it would be an interesting and emotional one, and it was.

The White House Pride Reception in Washington  DC was amazing and even more fun than Imagined it would be.   It was also amazing seeing President Obama speak and being that close to the podium to do so.

The mini crab cakes were also delicious, and trust me when I say I ate enough for everyone who wasn't  in the East Room with me.

Then there was the ride up I-95 to Philadelphia for my second Philly Trans Health Conference, the Brynn Tannehill moderated media panel that included Mari Brighe, Joanna Cifredo and moi.

It was also wonderful getting to see a long list of old friends, meet new ones and spend some quality time with Dionne Stallworth and our trans kids.   And it made my trip to get hugs from two of our amazing trans youth advocates in Jazz Jennings and Nicole Maines.

Then it was back down I-95 from Philly via Megabus to go back to DC and an unplanned trip to Capital Pride and spending the night near BWI before my flight back to Texas.

While I enjoyed the empowering trip, the Orlando mass shooting was an exclamation point reminder that there's still work to do back here in Houston, and it's time to get busy making human rights coverage via a HERO 2.0 or whatever we call it law.

So Houston, the Air Marshal is enroute back home.  Get the Pappa's barbecue ready.

Archie #636 Gender Swap Story

Been talking about 'The Great Switcheroo' story in various posts for the last few years, and now you'll get to eyeball the Archie #636 issue in which after hearing an age old argument in Pop's Choklit Shoppe about whether women or men have it easier in life, Sabrina's mischievous cat Salem casts a spell that flips the gender script in Riverdale.

Everyone in town except Sabrina wakes up to a flipped gender roles as Salem watches everything play out through his crystal ball.  Even Hot Dog gets gender swapped to become a female poodle named Haute Dog.

Archie, Reggie, Moose, Dilton and Jughead become Archina, Regina, Mouse, Dilly and JJ.  Moose makes the most radical transition from being a hulking athlete to a petite blonde with the desire to start a women's football team.  . JJ still has her appetite, Regina is a diva pranksters

The gender swap extends to Josie and the Pussycats, who become Joey and the Junkyard Dogs.

Veronica and Betty become Billy and Ronnie, and the love triangle now has them chasing Archina for her affections.   Billy becomes Riverdale's star athlete in the process, and Ronnie is still the rich kid in town trying to use his fiscal advantage to blunt Billy's athletic prowess which as caught Archina's attention

Even Mr. Weathersbee, Pops,  Ms. Beazly and Ms Grundy and the parents are part of the swap..

Amazing First PTHC Day For Me

This was actually the second day of the Philadelphia Trans Health Conference, but it was the first day of the conference for me after arriving from DC at midnight EDT..

I had an amazing 8 AM Brynn Tannehill moderated panel with Mari Brighe and Joanna Cifredo on it discussing media.   Was told by several attendees of the panel that I bumped into as the day progressed they thoroughly enjoyed it.

Lunch with Dionne Stallworth to get my cheesesteak craving satisfied, and substantive conversations with  a long list of people that I saw today capped off by me making an appearance at the transkids function hosted by Jeanette and Jazz Jennings and a Trans United Fund dinner for the steering committee.

I enjoyed talking to everyone I saw today, and as a reminder, I'll be here tomorrow to check out various panel discussions on the Saturday #PTHC2016 schedule

Shut Up Fool Awards-Moni's On The East Coast Again Edition

It's been an interesting weekend for me because I'm getting to not only go to the 2016 edition of the Philly Trans Health Conference,, I got to do a happy detour through Washington DC so I could go to the White House and attend the last LGBT Pride Reception that President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama would host

It necessitated me flying into DC and then after the ceremony thanks to Fiona Dawson getting a ride up 1-95 to Philadelphia for the PTHC two hours after the reception concluded.

And speaking of just concluded, I'm out of the 8 AM blogging panel discussion that I was part of with Brynn Tannehill, Joanna Cifredo, and Mari Brighe and wandering the halls of the Pennsylvania Convention Center

But this also Friday, and that means it is time to call out the latest group of fools in this week's edition of the TransGriot Shut Up Fool Awards

I'm just going to go straight to this week's winner

This week's Shut Up fool winners is a group award for Brock Turner and his parents Dan and Carleen Turner 

Their sex offender son got a six month slap on the wrist and three years probation by Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky for raping an unconscious woman on the Stanford University campus that became a straight up textbook exercise of White privilege in action.

Naw player, you did the heinous crime, and you/should have done more time for it than six fracking months, of which you`ll only do at least three for good jail behavior.

As for Dan Brock your comments were reprehensible, and pissed me and a lot of people off.  A 'steep price to pay for 20 minutes of action'?  Are you fracking serious?  I can see based on those comments why Brock is an entitled chip off the old block.

What about the 'steep price' the rape survivor will have to pay beyond the six months your son is going to do in jail plus three years of probation?

Carleen, your cries to the judge for mercy for your son don`t resonate with me because if your child was Black, they would be throwing his azz under the jail.   As a matter of fact we have have had far too many cases of Black sons thrown under the jail for simply being accused of rape.

Brock Turner and parents, shut up fools.

Moni's In The Middle Of The White House LGBT Pride Reception

After a emotional United flight up here to BWI in which for once I didn't get jacked up in TSA security, interesting Uber rides on the H-town and BWI ends in which I discussed politics and life in Houston for my BWI Uber driver who is ironically moving to Houston next week with his family , having dinner and drinks with Hayden Mora, Angelica Ross and Ruby Corado, it's now hitting me that I'm finally going to be in the White House for my first LGBT Pride Reception.

It will be the last one that President Obama will host of his administration (sniff, sniff) and looking forward to just soaking it in, tweeting it, taking photos, seeing who is there and taking as many photos as possible.

So far I'm not the only Houstonian up here for it.  Ashton Woods has already let me  know that he'll be there, and I'm anxious to see how much of my trans fam will be in that nice white mansion my ancestors built with their free labor..

I have to be in line at the White House southeast entrance at 2;30 PM EDT to clear security, and y'all know I made damned sure I made sure I put my ID back in my wallet after I cleared TSA security at IAH.

If it's anything like previous White House LGBT Pride Reception events, you might be able to see it on C-SPAN starting around 4 PM EDT.

The 15th Annual Philadelphia Trans Health Conference Starts Today

Something else that is taking place a little over 100 miles from me is the opening day of the Philadelphia Trans Health Conference.  It is arguably the largest attended trans themed event in the world, and will draw close to 3000 attendees to the Pennsylvania Convention Center. .

Looking forward to being there for the morning panel I'll be taking part in on June 10 with Mari Brighe, Joanna Cifredo and Brynn Tannehill, and looking forward to seeing everyone who is in attendance.

So don'tr be shy, say hi to moi if you spot me walking the halls of that ginormous convention center.  I'll probably be in conversations with a lot of people while I'm  there, and would love to do the same with those of you in attendance from the nation and around the world.

See y'all tomorrow at #PTHC2016 after I handle my DC business.

The 2016 Shut Up Fool Of The Year Race- Midyear Review

It's now June, and we have now moved into the halfway point of the year.  We've also moved into the halfway point of the race to determine who will get announced as the Shut Up Fool of the Year on December 31.

Donald Trump was last year's winner, and so far he's on track to repeat when I reveal the 2016 winner of the award on New Year's Eve.    But with five months to go until election day, there will probably be a lot of Shut Up Fool Of The Year worthy commentary .

But there are other contenders I'm watching for this award like Texas Lt. Governor Dan Goeb Patrick, TX indicted AG Ken Paxton, Jonathan Saenz, North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory, Rep Louie Gohmert (R-TX), NJ Gov Chris Christie, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) , RNC Chair Reince Priebus, Stacey Dash, Andrea  Tantaros, Megyn Kelly, Bill O'Reilly, Caitlyn Jenner, Omarosa Manigault, Katrina Pierson, Sandy Rios, Alex Jones, Rev James Dobson. Susan Sarandon, Rosario Dawson and group nods to the Bernie or busters, the Family Research Council, FOX Noise News, the KKK and all you transphobes.

We'll see who wins on December 31.

Interesting East Coast Trip For The Air Marshal

After scrambling for the last few days to make the logistics of this trip work, my departure day has finally arrived.  I'm at my old Houston Intercontinental stomping grounds for the first time in two years to take a flight once again on United to the East Coast.

But this one will be a little more emotional for me.  In addition to getting to see some of the CAL airline peeps who haven't retired yet that I used to work with, Terminal C is where my very public physical transition began back in 1994.

I then add to that emotion by traveling to Washington DC for tomorrow's White House LGBT Pride Reception and the first time ever I get to attend..

After seven years of frustratingly not being invited to it, I finally got the nod, and most importantly to me is I got to go when President Obama is still in office.  This will be the last LGBT Pride Reception he will host, and I'm so looking forward to being at the White House, seeing who else got invited to attend, and trying not to cry as I observe the event.

Then it's heading up I-95 when that event concludes for the drive up to the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection for the 15th annual Philadelphia Trans Health Conference.

I have a panel discussion on June 10 I'll be participating in with Mari Brighe, Joanna Cifredo and Brynn Tannehill.   Should be an interesting one and i hope those of you in attendance at PTHC come check it out.

It's the second one for me, and I'm looking forward to seeing everyone once I get to DC and Philly..

This will be an interesting trip in which I get to fly to one city and drive to another one.

Historical Women's Election Milestones In California Tonight

While I was watching the speech in which Secretary Clinton claimed a historic political win in Brooklyn, she wasn't the only woman making electoral history tonight.

3000 miles away on the Left Coast three diverse women in California also made political history

In the California US senate primary to replace the retiring Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), California Democrats were ecstatic to note that the senate seat will stay in Democratic hands because two women emerged to get the top two spots in the primary.

The two Democratic women who emerged from the crowded 34 candidate primary field to replace Sen. Boxer are California Attorney General Kamala Harris and Rep. Loretta Sanchez.  

Harris was favored to win the primary, and she didn't disappoint, taking 40% of the votes and leading Sanchez by over 800,000 votes. Rep. Sanchez, with 17% of the vote is comfortably ahead of the third place Republican candidate Duf Sundheim, who has only 9% of it, so it is she and Harris who will square off November 8 for the seat

If Harris repeats her performance this fall, she would become only the second African-American woman ever elected to the US senate and the first since Sen. Carol Moseley Braun in 1992.  If Sanchez wins, she would become the first ever Latina US senator.

One of our trans sisters also made electoral history tonight as well.. Alameda County Superior Court Judge Victoria Kolakowski was reelected by the voters for another term as judge.  

Judge Kolakowski made history in 2010 when she became the first elected trans trial judge.  

What was even more wonderful about this is that she was unopposed for reelection.  She also serves as president of the International Association of LGBT Judges.

Congrats Your Honor!

It's Official! Hillary Clinton Makes History!

For the first time in US history, we got to watch as a woman  took the stage to claim victory in a major party primary.   Eight years ago Sec. Hillary Clinton came just short of the nomination. but remarked in her speech that '18 million cracks had been made in the glass ceiling'.

Tonight, that glass ceiling was shattered as she became the presumptive presidential nominee of the Democratic Party after wins in New Jersey, New Mexico, South Dakota, and leading big in California.

Sen. Sanders kept to his usual pattern of taking caucuses in predominately white states when he won the North.Dakota caucus and the Montana primary.

As I was listening to her victory speech, had to think about the late Rep. Shirley Chisholm, who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1972 and fell short of it while fighting the boys club in the party every step of the way.   Chisholm's run paved the way for Jesse Jackson, .and later Barack Obama to break through and become the current two term occupant of the Oval Office.

Now we may be witnessing history again as Clinton gets a step closer to becoming our nation's first woman president.   She was congratulated by President Obama for clinching the requisite delegates to lock down presumptive nominee status. .  

As for the big delegate prize of California, Clinton at the time of this writing was up by double digits in the Golden State with 39% of the vote counted.

We probably won't know until tomorrow who won the state, but the trendlines so.far favor Clinton.

But what we do know is that with the wins, Clinton has not only scooped up a majority in pledged delegates, she will have won more states, have more votes over her rival with the final contest in DC happening on June 14.

And while we wait for Sen. Sanders to concede, she and her team can focus on bringing the party together and focusing on defeating Donald Trump..
. .