2017 Williams Watch- Venus Rising

Since Little Sis announced that she was pregnant, and won the 2017 Australian Open title while with child, me seeing Serena complete a calendar year Grand Slam sweep is over for 2017, so I wasn't paying attention when the French Open started at Stade Roland Garros back on May 22.

While Little Sis is counting the days until she has her first child, I forgot for a minute that Big Sis is still playing, ranked number eleven in the world WTA rankings, and at age 36 (until June 17) is still kicking butt and taking names while repping the greatest tennis playing sister act of all time.

Venus started this 2017 edition of the French Open in search of her second title and her first since 2002 as the tenth seed in this tournament.

As usual in Paris, some big name seeded players on the women's singles tennis side have already been knocked out and are looking to have better luck across The Pond at The Championships.

Number one seeded Angelique Kerber, Johanna Konta (7), Coco Vandeweghe (19), Lauren Davis (25), Mirjana Lucic-Baroni (22) and Roberta Vinci (31) all were one match and done in the first round.

The second round at Roland Garros claimed sixth seeded Dominika Cibulkova, Madison 'I'm Not Black' Keys (12), Petra Kvitova (15), Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (16), Kiki Bertens (18), Barbora Strycova (20), and Ana Konjuh (29)

The seeded players that fell in the third round are ninth seeded Agnieszka Radwanska, Elena Vesnina (14), Daria Kasatkina (26), Yulia Putintseva (27) and Zhang Shuhai (32).

But back to French Open tenth seeded Big Sis and how she's doing in this edition of the French Open who is in section four of the top half of the women's draw which has been decimated by the upsets and presents an opportunity for Big Sis to possibly win this title.

In the first round she dispatched China's Qiang Wang in straight sets 6-4, 7-6 (7-3) to set up her second round match with Kurumi Nara of Japan.  

Big Sis sent Nara quickly packing with another straight set 6-3,  6-1 win to propel her into the third round against Belgium's Elise Mertens, who also got sent to the Roland Garros sidelines in that same straight sets 6-3, 6-1 score.

That win over Mertens sets up her fourth round match with 30th seeded Swiss miss Timea Bacsinszky.  Should Venus prevail, she would face off in the quarters against the winner of the match between 2016 defending French Open champ Garbine Muguruza (4) and French homegirl Kristina Mladenovic (13)

Good luck the rest of the way Big Sis!
   

Shut Up Fool Awards-First One In June Edition

With the flipping of the calendar page to June we're now halfway through 2017, and this year has already seemed to have dragged on for six centuries instead of the 153 days in real time since New Year's Day that have already passed.

And since this is the first Friday of June, y'all know what that means.   It's time for this week's edition of the TransGriot Shut up Fool Awards.

Let's start with our honorable mentions.

Honorable mention number one is a blanket award for the Trump misadministration for pick an outrage.

Honorable mention number two is Texas Lt Governor Dan Patrick.   He's not only trying to bully the governor into calling an anti-trans special session, he shut the senate gallery down to ensure that SB 4 Memorial Day protesters didn't let him and his Texas GOP senate oppressors hear how displeased we are about the unjust and racist SB 4.

Honorable mention number three si CNN serial liar Jeffrey Lord who got his azz handed to him this week by Jennifer Granholm, Robert Reich and claimed that Jared Kushner is the 'Robert Kennedy of the Trump administration'.

Ugh.  GOP White male mediocrity and ignorance on full display again.

Honorable mention number four is Ivanka Trump.   She put out this tweet alleging her support for the LGBTQ community since yesterday marked the start of Pride Month and is getting ripped a new anus for it.

Naw boo boo kitty, like father like daughter.   You traffic in the illusion of inclusion.   If you were really a supporter of this community you wouldn't be sitting silently as your father attacks trans kids, the gay peeps in Chechnya are being rounded up and sent to camps and anti-gay rhetoric and actions reign supreme in you daddy's misadministration .

Honorable mention number five is Kentucky governor Matt Bevin (R), who said that the answer to a rising murder rate is to 'pray it away'.

Yeah, I pray that the good people of Kentucky will only have to suffer one term of your GOP idiocy in the Governor's mansion.

This week's Shut Up Fool Awards loser winner is Texas state Rep. Matt Rinaldi (R-Irving).

Rinaldi, who is a member of the far right wing Texas Freedom Oppressor Caucus, won this week's award with his actions on Monday as the sine die Memorial Day weekend protests coordinated by United We Dream activists erupted in the House chamber.

He not only called ICE on the House protesters that I was observing and called them 'un American,
 but also threatened to shoot another Latino House colleague in the head and then tried to spin it as 'they attacked him.'

Ah the fragile GOP white male ego and its incredible capacity for self deception.   Hey if you don't want protests in the House gallery, don't pass unjust, racist  and oppressive laws that will piss people off. .

Rinaldi's threat to call ICE probably handed the expanding coalition of folks and orgs opposing SB 4 the legal ammo they needed to prove in federal court the Texas Lege when they passed the unjust bill did so with 'discriminatory intent'.

Rinaldi is a prime example of what I've been saying in that the most dangerous bigot is the one with legislative power.

He only won his Texas House seat last year by 500 votes, and guess he forgot that Irving is now 40% Latinx.  His office was hit with protests two days later, and he is probably going to be electorally targeted next November.

Sucks to be you.   See you at the ballot box in November 2018 when we work to make you an EX state rep

And oh yeah.  Rep. Matt Rinaldi, shut up fool!

Congrats Madame PTA President!

One of the ultimate goals for us in Trans World is to just be seen as the amazing men, women and people we are and just get on with living our lives.

Nikki Araguz Loyd since her precedent setting trans marriage case win in the Araguz v Delgado case has been doing just that.   She's been focused on helping promote her husband Will's art career, being mom to two amazing kids, being that sisterfriend to all of us blessed to have her in our lives, and some human rights and trans advocacy work in different areas of importance to her.

Oh yeah, did I mention that the camera love her?

Through the Trans National Alliance, she's helping trans folks here in the area and state of Texas get their name and gender marker changes done.   The TNA is having another fundraiser at Hamburger Mary's Houston on June 6.

Now Nikki has made history again in another arena.   Her daughter is in middle school, and as you probably guessed, she has been a fierce advocate for her and the children of the school her daughter attends in that Trump loving suburb she lives in.

The other parents at the school have taken note of her all around awesomeness and fearlessness to speak truth to power be it the principal or the school board, and yesterday elected her the president of the school's PTA for the upcoming 2017-18 school year.

She is probably the first out trans PTA president that I've been made aware of, and probably the first in the Lone Star State and possibly the nation.

As I've said, don't mess with Texas trans women.  We handle our business and get the job done.

Congratulations Madame PTA president!    May you have s successful and productive term as you take on this exciting challenge in your fabulous life.

It's Not 'Talking Politics' To Cosign Oppression

This is a guest post from my Arizona homegirl Toni D'orsay.  She's tired of people who use the term 'talking politics' to weakly attempt to camouflage the fact they are cosigning oppression when they do so.

This was originally on her Facebook page, and I'm signal boosting it for your TransGriot reading pleasure.

***

It is not "talking politics" when you say that trans people should not be able to use public accommodations.

It is not talking politics when you argue, even for fun or to "prove a point", that black people are not able to follow the law.

It is not politics when you argue that a woman does not have the right to decide what she can and cannot do with her body.

It is not talking politics when you argue for a ban on refugees or you call someone an "illegal immigrant".

Those things are not talking politics. Talking politics is not what you are doing when you support or advocate for oppression, which is violence, and for the denial of human rights, which is also violence -- even if you "don't think it is a human right".

It is not talking politics when you are racist, or misogynist, or ableist, or homophobic, or transphobic, or you think that someone is better than someone else because of how much more money they have (indeed, factually, the opposite is true).

I don't give a flying fuck if you think that someone needs to be polite about stuff or nice about stuff or if we should all just get along because, factually, so long as there i oppression, we cannot, and will not, and never will get along -- as the last seven thousand years have shown rather well.

Either you support human rights -- which must be zealously protected, and which take priority over your whole idea of feeling safe and secure -- or you do not.

There is no middle ground there outside the simple fact that we do not know all of those rights yet. But the ones we do know we must defend, and there is no "not doing so" and thinking that all of this will go away.

This is not with us or against us or beside us or over there somewhere with your thumb up your ass -- at least, not if you believe in people being treated fairly and decently and being able to live their lives.

You might have a philosophical difference of opinion about the value of human rights and all, but the moment your theories are applied to a real world test and involve the denial or abrogation of human rights to anyone, you fucked up, and that idea is an evil one.

You remember evil, don't you? Kinda out of fashion to talk about. Well, that's what all this stuff you think you are doing is -- evil.

If you talk about misandry -- you are engaging in an act of evil. If you talk about reverse racism, you are engaging in evil. If you think that the confederate statues should still be up, or that the Republican Party is a decent one, or that "unfettered free markets" are a good thing -- you are not talking politics. You are talking about being evil, and you are doing it for your own benefit, and saying fuck you to the rest of the world.

Which is evil done for evil purposes.

You wanna know what talking politics is?

talking politics is arguing about the best way to do a universal basic income. Talking politics is about the the best way to protect the environment without concern for its commercial use.

Talking politics is about how we go about ensuring that everyone's human rights are protected, not about who we are going to take them away from but pretending to really care.

Of late, about 90% of any substantive stuff is not talking politics. It's talking about being evil.

So if you wonder why some people still support the orange fuckup and the vast majority of people want to see him out of office, there you have it:

Those that support him are literally evil people. No matter what their reasons are. They are supporting evil, which is and of itself is an evil act.

Those that oppose him may be evil in some ways (I've seen misogyny and racism on the left, many times), but they are less evil than those who support the orange fuckup.

Moni's Excellent Memorial Day Weekend

So what did y'all do on Memorial Day weekend?

This year I didn't sit around the house waiting for a late invite to a barbecue or be bored out of my mind watching the Indy 500.  I accepted the invitation of Alice Serna-McDougald, Chris Valdez and United We Dream to join them and Latinx people from five states (AZ, NM, FL, NY and MD) plus Washington DC in Austin to protest SB 4.

After an enjoyable Sunday drive to the ATX with Alice to be there for the fun that was starting at 9:00 AM on Memorial Day,  I was sitting with Alice as we witnessed the silent filling of the House gallery by over 200 people clad in red Fight Back NO SB 4 T-shirts ruining the GOP House majority's self congratulatory back slapping as the clocked ticked toward the sine die moment of the 85th Texas Legislative session

At approximately 10:30 AM chants of 'SB 4 is hate! 'Hey hey ho ho, SB 4 has got to go' , 'Here to stay!' and 'This is what democracy looks like' erupted in the House gallery along with banners being unfurled stating 'See you in court' and 'SB 4 is hate' as simultaneous chanting from the assembled masses on all four floors of the Capital rotunda occurred at the same time.

It was fun watching the shocked, embarrassed and bewildered looks on the faces of the GOP legislators on the House floor who probably thought they were going to escape Austin and head back home without being held accountable for passing that racist law.

Um no, GOP boo boo kitties.  Y'all were not escaping facing the consequences for your racist act on behalf of your party.   I hope they have the same bewildered looks on their faces after the November 6, 2018 election.

Many of the legislators since it was sine die day, had their families with them and probably had to lie to their kids about why they passed the unjust and racist SB 4.

Pro tip to the Texas GOP:  If you don't want to face protests in the Texas capitol, them stop passing unjust and racist laws that will piss people off .

The Texas House leadership reacted by ordering the House gallery cleared as the chanting continued while being herded out of the chamber by DPS state troopers.

Once the gallery was cleared, Texas state Rep. Matt Rinaldi (R-Irving) let his inner bigot out by threatening to shoot a fellow Latinx legislator and telling a group of Latino legislators watching the demonstration from the House floor that he'd called ICE on the protestors.  

Um GOP dude. your pointed hood is showing.  Many of the protestors in that House gallery are American citizens.   You also proved a point I repeatedly make that the most dangerous bigots are the ones who have legislative power.

It's also a bad political move in a city that is 40% Latinx, and you barely won election to your Texas house seat in 2016 anyway.

I also received the honor of getting to make a little speech before the thousands of huddled masses yearning to breathe free from Texas GOP tyranny at the rally on the south steps of the Texas Capitol. .
I loved what Julieta Garibay, one of the co-founders of United We Dream had to say about the Memorial Day SB 4 protests:

“Today was a historic moment in Texas  as brown and Black freedom warriors took over the Capitol to make sure that as Republicans looked up into the gallery that they would forever remember every signal space filled with the beautiful and determined faces of Texans who refuse to be driven out and refuse to be intimidated. This is our state, this is our home and we are here to stay! Today is a turning point in Texas politics — from El Paso to McAllen to Dallas to Houston to Austin we are organizing to create spaces where all people of all backgrounds can survive and thrive. We will resist the Republican attack and we will win!”

Yes ma'am we will, if we work together across the Lone Star State to do so and bumrush the polls on November 6, 2018  to flush the TX GOP out of power.

It's The 85th Texas Legislature Sine Die Day

It's is mercifully Day 140 of the 85th Texas Legislative session and the last day of it.   The clock is ticking toward 12:01 PM as we stand on guard in liberal progressive Texas for any GOP led legislative attacks on our human rights and our humanity.

And surprise surprise, I'm here in the ATX for the last day of the session

It has definitely not been an easy session for those of us who fight for the human rights of TBLGQ Texans.   The last time we had anti-LGBTQ bills passed in Texas was 2005, and we'd just come off a 2015 session in which we were successful in killing 24 anti-TBLGQ bills including four anti-trans ones.

The anti-LGBTQ Forces of Intolerance were determined this year to pass some anti-TBLGQ hate legislation this year and we were just as determined to kill them.

We were successful in killing the big anti-LGBTQ bills in SB 6 and HB 2899, but unfortunately some good bills for our community fied during this session as well.   We also saw some horrible ones like SB 4 pass

There is chatter that we may be going into a special session, but right now, just need this one to end with the quickness.

And if Governor Abbott is stupid enough to do Dan Patrick's bidding and call it, me and the trans community will be there ti be in his face again to flush any anti-trans bill they propose.

Islamophobia Being Deployed Again In Another Pearland Political Race

Did the conservative white males in Pearland not get the message that Islamophobia is not okay at any time, especially when deployed during a campaign?

Islamophobic comments made by the incumbent aimed at Dalia Kasseb probably played a role in Mike Floyd comfortably winning his Pearland ISD school race, and now we may have a replay happening in the runup to the June 10 Pearland mayoral and city council runoffs.

30 year old pharmacist Dalia Kasseb is making a historic run for a Pearland City Council seat as the first Muslim ever to run for office in Brazoria County.  On May 6 topped a crowded field of candidates in the Position 7 council race to capture 41% of the vote to Owens 21%

She noted in a Houston Chronicle story that when they have met in person, he seemed cordial, but Owens' has been sharing anti- Muslim message and comments on his Facebook page,.

"Our few meetings have been very pleasant,"Kasseb said.  "But for him to be sharing that stuff on Facebook shows what he really believes."


The controversy also has had an indirect impact on the Pearland mayor's race.  Longtime Pearland Mayor Tom Reid is being challenged by 36 year old Quentin Wiltz,  The 91 year old Reid has held the mayor's chair for a combined 34 years (1978-90, 1995-present), and publicly endorsed Owens on who served four terms on Pearland's city council, back on April 6.

But Reid has been silent since the story broke about the Islamophobic comments that Owens has been sharing on his Facebook page since February 2015.   If Reid doesn't share those opinions, then he may want to open his mouth and say so before June 10 because early voting for the mayoral runoff election begins on May 30, and Wiltz garnered 45% of the vote back on May 6.

Pearland is a fast growing southern suburb of Houston that has grown from a small town of less than 5,000 residents in the 1960's to over 130,000 people, and its population has tripled and gotten more diverse since 2000.  It is currently 47% Anglo, 25% Latinx, 17% African American and 9% Asian .

But it seems as though some peeps either aren't aware of that or are being willfully ignorant about that fact, and the clock is ticking toward the June 10 conclusion of this runoff campaign.

Headed To Austin To Fight Back Against SB 4

Well, looks like I'm going to be making another trip to Austin in a  few hours.

I was asked to be a speaker at this Memorial Day event to loudly proclaim to the world that we are not down with the actions our oppressive Texas Republican controlled government took in passing the unjust SB 4.

Since 2009, the combined non-white population of Texas outnumbers white people, which is probably why the Texas RepubliKKKans were hellbent on passing this unjust and racist legislation.

They are failing to heed the lessons from the previous times Republican controlled state legislatures passed unjust anti-immigration laws like California's Prop 187 and Arizona's SB 1070.

In California, it incensed and galvanized the state's Latinx population to get involved politically, and that mobilized Latinx population helped flip the state blue in less than a decade.   And FYI Texas Republicans, California, like Texas is another state in which brown folks outnumber white ones.

The Texas GOP oppressors know it too, which is why they passed the unconstitutional voter suppression laws that target Black and Latinx voters and gerrymandered the state to negatively impact non-white Texans.    It's why we need to #FireTheTexasGOP in 2018

Looking forward to spending Memorial Day with my Latinx siblings and expressing my disgust about SB 4.  

IBM Statement Opposing Texas Discriminatory Laws

With the potential of an anti-trans special session increasing, Texas based companies that opposed SB 6 and HB 2899 are starting to speak up, with IBM being the first to release a statement opposing the passage of any discriminatory laws.

“IBM has a longstanding commitment against discrimination in any form and believes that an inclusive and welcoming environment is the best way to attract talented individuals to our company.   

As a major employer in the state, we urge the Texas legislature and Governor Abbott not to pass or enact laws that will allow for the discrimination of any person based on who they are. These laws do not reflect IBM’s values of diversity, acceptance and inclusion that we have upheld for decades, and they have no place in the 21st Century.” 

– Diane Gherson, Senior Vice President, Human Resources, IBM

Thank you IBM.  Any other Texas based company wish to speak out in opposition to a special session specifically for the purpose of passing an unjust law?.

Dan Patrick's Trying To Force A Special Session To Oppress TX Trans People

The 85th Texas Legislative session is mercifully drawing to its sine die day close, but  Lt. Governor Dan 'Potty Polizei' Patrick wants a special session to oppress trans people.

Last time I checked the Texas Constitution, only the governor had the power to call a special session, not you.

On Friday Speaker of the House Joe Straus, who made it clear at the beginning of the session that he nor the House is interested in his pet project SB6 bill to oppress trans people, called a rare press conference to announce that the House would waste no more time on his bathroom obsession.

“The House has compromised enough on this issue,” Speaker Straus said at a press conference, announcing that the watered-down version passed by the House was the most his body was willing to do. “It’s absurd that bathroom bills have taken on greater urgency than fixing our school finance system.”

Yes, it is absurd that Dan Patrick has been pushing this issues even that thousands of Texans, the business community and others have said we don't want North Carolina style HB 2 idiocy with a GOP Texas twang in our state oppressing our trans kids and trans Texans.

We thought we'd sent that message loud and clear with us showing up en masse at the Pink Dome back in March and April in opposition for the SB 6 and HB 2899 hearings, but yet Dan Patrick and his Texas GOP lackeys still want to mess with Texas trans people.

Maybe we need to send it again by calling and contacting the governor's office and urging him to resist following Dan Patrick's delusional lead and not waste our time and tax dollars by calling a special session.

The number to Gov. Greg Abbott's office is 512-463-2000   

Patrick of course, flanked by Senate Republican oppressors, called a one man press conference ian hour later n response to the middle finger one that Straus had just conducted, and basically blamed Straus for the special session should it happen that he doesn't have the authority to call

And yeah, if it does happen, me, my trans fam and our allies will be headed to Austin for it, and once that 30 day special session is over, will begin working to #FlushDanPatrick and #FlushTheTexas GOP on November 6, 2018

BTWI Statement Concerning The Faulkner Murder

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 26, 2017
Contact  Monica Roberts BTWI Media Chair
Carmarion D. Anderson  BTWI Founding National Director
855-255-8636 Ext 11
media@blacktranswomen.org


It is with a heavy heart that we at Black Transwomen, Inc must release a statement concerning the murder of another Black trans woman

Sherrell Faulkner was attacked and found suffering from trauma near a dumpster on November 30, 2016 in the gay friendly Plaza-Midwood neighborhood in northeast Charlotte, NC.   She succumbed to her injuries on May 16.

The attack we must point took place after a contentious North Carolina gubernatorial election in which transphobia was served up by the North Carolina Republican Party and its incumbent governor Pat McCrory that he subsequently lost.

The 46 year old Faulkner is now the 11th trans woman in the US we have lost to anti-trans violence.  All eleven of them have been women of color, with now ten of them being African American.

The Charlotte Mecklenburg PD is classifying this case as a homicide investigation, and if you have any information that will lead to the arrest, conviction and incarceration of the perpetrators of this crime against our fallen sister you are urged to call Charlotte Mecklenburg Crime Stoppers at 704-334-1600 or 704-432-TIPS (8477)

Dee Dee Watters will be doing a moment of silence for Sherrell starting at 9 PM CDT

Rest in power and peace, Sherrell.  We will say your name because your life mattered, and we won't rest until the people who took you from us are brought to justice.

Shut Up Fool Awards- Memorial Day 2017 Weekend Edition

We are rapidly heading toward the halfway point of 2017 and this has already been a trying year for many of us, especially in Texas.

Memorial Day is Monday, and in addition to serving as a day in which we remember all the people who died while serving in the US armed forces,  the long weekend off for this federal holiday serves as the unofficial kickoff to the summer season.

So let's get right to our Friday Shut Up Fool Awards business and announce who this week's fool is.

It's a group award for the Texas Republican Party.  Instead of spending our valuable legislative time on passing a state budget and fixing our problem filled foster care system. the Texas GOP House and Senate majority have wasted far too much of it on attack the Texas TBLGQ community

With the sine die day fast approaching, the Texas GOP oppressors on Discrimination Sunday ramrodded two discriminatory bills through on party line votes as Texas trans kids and their parents watched from the gallery, and Sen Lois Kolkhorst tried to attach her killed SV 6 trans hate bill to another piece of  unrelated legislation

But according to y'all, it's not about discriminating against the Texas LGBTQ community and Texas transgender people.   Sell them woof tickets and lies to your base.   We ain't buying that transphobic and homophobic nonsense.

You're also the reason why we haven't had nice things in the Lone Star State since this woman left the governor's mansion in 1994.

And yeah, #Y'allMeansAll, and  we TBLGQ Texans vote.   See y'all at the polls on November 6, 2018.    

And oh yeah, Texas GOP, Shut up fools!

40th Anniversary of the Original 'Star Wars' Film Debut

40 years ago in a galaxy called the Milky Way on a planet named Earth, a film debuted on this date that has become a iconic classic, sparked a revival in the science fiction genre and spawned a media empire that is now owned by Disney.

On May 25, 1977, Star Wars debuted to the delight of science fiction nerds like myself.  We flocked to our local multiplex theaters in droves to see the space saga and fictional galaxy in which good as repped by the Rebellion and a Luke Skywalker trained in The Force triumphed in this movie over the evil Galactic Empire run by Emperor Palpatine and his Sith apprentice and enforcer Darth Vader.

It is a saga that has now spawned seven films with the eighth in the series, The Last Jedi to debut in December 2017

As the original film became a trilogy and spawned a 1980 sequel The Empire Strikes Back, it was renamed in 1981 Star Wars Episode IV- A New Hope

>The inaugural Star Wars movie raked in over $450 million in the US alone and another $775 million worldwide and has significantly impacted pop culture and even politics as Reagan's embrace of the term 'evil empire' to describe the then Soviet Union aptly is an example of.

In 1989, Star Wars was selected along with The Empire Strikes Back in 2010 by the Library of Congress to be preserved in the US National Film Registry for culturally dded to its

Star Wars also borrows from politics and history.  The Galactic Empire's stormtroopers share the name from the Nazi stormtroopers.   The Empire's black political officer, commander and guards uniforms are modeled on the Waffen SS, and the Imperial fleet uniforms borrow elements from the World War II era German Wehrmacht.

Palpatine's rise to power is is similar to how Hitler came to power in 1930's Germany.   Palapine was first elected chancellor of the Galactic Republic before seizing power to become dictator and declaring himself emperor. then subsequently having the Jedi Order exterminated. .

May the Force be with you on this 40th anniversary date of the debut of a movie that became part of our lives   May be time for me to check out my DVD copy of it again in honor of today's anniversary

Black Trans History- Jackie Shane

'I never realized that I'd mean something to people all these years later'
-Jackie Shane  

I've talked about in these TransGriot electronic pages about trans masculine gospel singer Wilmer Broadnax, who was a major star from the 40's to the 70's.

Now it turns out that we are now getting another piece of our Black trans history revealed in the person of R&B singer Jackie Shane.

She was born in Nashville on May 15, 1940.  While Nashville is world renowned for its country music scene, it also had a thriving blues and R&B music scene centered on the clubs on Jefferson St.

Shane was surrounded by music from an early age, and according to the 2010 CBC Elaine Banks  radio documentary I Got Mine; The Story Of Jackie Shane, as a teen she stayed with Marion James, Nashville's legendary Queen of the Blues.

She moved to Montreal in 1960, and a chance 1962 encounter with the Washington DC based band Frank Motley and the Motley Crew, known as Frank Motley and the Hitchhikers north of the border led to her becoming the lead singer for the group, relocating to Toronto with them in 1961 and as their lead singer subsequently taking Toronto's music scene by storm.  

Shane and the band would occasionally head south for US gigs in Boston, Nashville and Los Angeles, but it was Toronto where they were making their money.  Toronto's music scene was centered on Yonge Street, and they were tapping into the hunger Canadian audiences had for R&B and soul music.

Shane's first single was a cover of the Frank Barrett Motown classic song Money, but it was the song she released later in 1962 entitled Any Other Way, that hit number two on the then influential CHUM radio music chart that led to her taking the Toronto based music scene by storm .

In addition to performing at Toronto's Sapphire Club , there was this 1965 performance on Nashville's WLAC-TV's Night Train show



As the 60's inexorably moved into the 70's the bookings dried up and Shane left Toronto in 1971 returned to the States and lost touch with her bandmates.   She turned down an offer from George Clinton to become part of Funkadelic and began caring for an aunt in Los Angeles.   She returned to Nashville around 1996 after the death of her mother as people wondered what happened to her.  

Rumors abounded that she had been violently murdered in LA or committed suicide until she was found by saxophonist Steve Kennedy living in Nashville in 2005.

Thanks to that 2010 CBC radio documentary, there has been renewed interest in Jackie Shane's career and life, and she's still alive and kicking in Nashville at age 77.

And yes, Jackie, your life means plenty to all of us trans peeps all these years later as a Black trans woman living her life. doing what she loved and being unapologetic about it.      

It also means that another piece of our Black trans history has been uncovered for us to enjoy and appreciate.

President Obama and Chancellor Merkel Speak At Kirchentag

President Obama journeyed to Berlin at the invitation of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the leader of the free world, for the Kirchentag, the German Protestant Church Congress.

This one was taking place not only during the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, but with a looming German federal election in September that you know the Russians are just itching to mess with.

The invitation to speak came last year, so it's a coincidence that the former POTUS is here in Europe as the same time as 45 is on his problematic first international trip in which he's Making America Look Bad Again..

And President Obama is still very popular in Germany.   He visited Germany six times, with the initial trip happening during his 2008 campaign in which 200,000 Germans gathered to hear him speak in front of Berlin's Siegessaule (Victory Column).

Here's the video from today's event with Chancellor Merkel

Texas Trans Kids, The Fight Ain't Over

At this point we all know what happened on May 21, 2017  in what will forever known in Texas history as Discrimination Sunday.  

The Texas House and Senate Republican majorities rammed through the unjust SB 2078 and  HB 3859 to satisfy their oppressor genes and to satisfy their right wing pastors and base.

As the Rev. Dr Martin Luther King, Jr stated, "We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope."

Yes, this was a loss, but it was only one battle in the long road we are traveling towards trans liberation and ultimate victory in World War T.   The world is increasingly coming to the realization that trans rights are international human rights, but as usual, the conservative movement is on the wrong side of history.

Texas trans kids, know that this fight isn't over.   I, your parents, your trans elders, our allies and all who love you will continue to fight to ensure that you have better quality lives than we did growing up,  I have the infinite hope that we will in my remaining lifetime on this space rock emerge victorious and see Texas stop attacking your humanity and instead embrace it as we do.

I have the infinite hope this will happen because I see the determination in your and your parents eyes to make this a reality, and it inspires me to keep fighting.
.

Texas is your state, too.  It, the state seal, the Texas flag and our state capitol building in Austin are not the wholly owned subsidiaries of the Texas Republican Party.   This diverse multicultural state will be blue again, and once that happens we will once again see common sense legislation coming from under the Pink Dome.

But we have a lot of work to do to get it to that point, and Discrimination Sunday made it clear what we must do starting today and in every election cycle at all levels of government in our state from now on is #FireTheTexasGOP.

If it takes some of us running for office to flush transphobia from Texas government, then that what's going to and must happen.

They messed with you, Texas trans kids.  It's time for them to pay a political price for that, the same one that Debbie Riddle and Gilbert Pena did for sponsoring anti-trans legislation in the 2015 session.

They thought that attacking you would help them in their Texas GOP reelection campaigns, but both of them found themselves when this 85th Texas legislative session started in January out of office

Know beyond a shadow of a doubt Texas trans kids, you are loved, you are worth fighting for, and we will not rest until the Lone Star State realizes that the humanity and human rights of trans people are not a political wedge issue.