Number 12- Rest In Power And Peace, Kenne McFadden

Was wondering how long it was going to take before all the anti-trans hatred being spewed out of Dan Patrick's and other Texas Republican mouths trying to pass SB 6, HB 2899 and other unjust anti-trans hate legislation would result in the death of a trans Texan.

The answer to my question was April 9. when 27 year old Kenne McFadden's lifeless body was found floating in the San Antonio River near the city's famed Riverwalk and many of us were up I-35 in the ATX fighting Texas GOP legislative oppression aimed at the Texas trans community.

But because the San Antonio media misgendered Kenne at the time, we are just now finding out two months later about her murder.  

Once again news media transphobes, accurate reporting of trans murder victims matters.  And I'm sick and tired of the media misgendering repeatedly happening to Black trans women .

Kenne is the 12th trans woman we have lost to anti-trans violence in 2017, and 11 of the twelve US murder victims have been African American.   Native American Jamie Lee Wounded Arrow of South Dakota is the only (so far) non Black trans person killed.

What also continues to sadden us at Black Transwomen, Inc is that nine of the dozen souls we have lost to anti-trans hate are under age 40.

And yes Dan Patrick, Lois Kolkhorst and Texas Republican Party, her blood is on your hands.  Anti-trans hate thoughts + anti-trans hate speech = anti-trans hate assaults and murders of trans women.

And far too often those trans women who end up dead share my ethnic background.

According to a KENS-TV report, the San Antonio PD has a person of interest in the case who is already in jail on unrelated charges, and they plan to after further interviews and sorting out what happened in this case, arrest and charge this person.

I, my San Antonio trans family and trans people and our allies across the Lone Star State will be keeping an eye on this case as it develops.

Rep. Senfronia Thompson Calls Out The TX GOP Transphobic Discrimination

“White. Colored. I was living through that era…bathrooms divided us then, and it divides us now. America has long recognized that separate but equal is not equal at all.” “I can also tell you that separate restrooms for transgender kids, which is what we will be discussing for this bill, are also based on fear and not fact.”
-TX State Rep. Senfronia Thompson (D-Houston)

On this May 21 date that will live in Texas political infamy as 'Discrimination Sunday', the Texas GOP decided to satisfy their inner bigotry and pass a bill (HB 2078) laws to discriminate against Texas trans kids.   They also passed another bill that would allow taxpayer funded adoption agencies to refuse to place children with TBLGQ, non-Christian or unmarried people because of religious objections

Rep. Senfronia Thompson has been in the Texas House since she was elected to represent Texas House District 141 since 1972 and is the longest serving African-American woman in the Texas Legislature.

As she did in 2005 in her 'Hellfire Flames of Bigotry' speech in which she called out the passage of the unconstitutional Texas anti-gay marriage amendment to our state constitution, 'Ms. T' was once again standing tall against injustice when she took to the Texas House floor to remind her colleagues that separate is not equal, and discrimination aimed at trans people is just as ugly as when it was done to her and other Black Texans.

Too bad the Texas GOP isn't getting that message through their pointed hoods.

And with us headed once again into a tax money squandering special oppression session,  I wanted y'all to see and hear the words of one of the people and Democrats who have had our backs during this Texas legislation oppression session.

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First LGBT Pride Month Display Up At Houston City Hall

On my birthday, as their way to get me out of the house and to a known location so they could surprise me, I ended up at Eric Edward Schell's studio to take a P.R.I.D.E, Portrait.

I was happy to discover that it is one of the photos that went up today along with a placard explaining the project;

The P.R.I.D.E Portraits project was created by Schell, and the acronym stands for Photographs Representing Individuals Deserving Equality.   As Schell said in an OuTSmart interview this campaign is about visibility.

"Visibility is key to promoting the humanization of a group that faces dehumanization every day," said Schell.

It's also vital it happen when the Texas TBLGQ community is under sustained legislative attack.

As far as we;re aware of , this is the first time that the city of Houston has displayed an LGBTQ-specific project at City Hall, and it couldn't have come at a more opportune time.   .

Texas Special Oppression Session To Start July 18

Not satisfied with the fact they didn't get all their legislative oppression done during the recently concluded 85th Texas Legislative session that ended on Memorial Day, Gov. Greg Abbott just called for legislators to come back to Austin starting on July 18 for another 30 days and $800,000 wasted taxpayer dollars.

While he caved to Lt Governor Dan 'Potty Man' Patrick, he also made it clear he wasn't happy about the gamesmanship that was played in order for Patrick to get the special session he craved.

Well Governor Abbott, ,you could have called the special session and limited it only to the sunset legislation if you were that unhappy about the stunts that Patrick and his Texas Conservafool Freedom Caucus buddies played in the House. .

Instead you rewarded their shenanigans and probably ensured they will play those games in the future.

The first bill to be taken up on the call will be the sunset legislation to keep key state regulatory agencies from shuttering their doors, but once that legislation is passed, Gov. Abbott then outlined 19 items that he will allow the legislature to take up, including oppressing Texas transgender people.

In addition to oppressing trans people, some of the other items are school finance reform, creating automatic rollback elections when local property taxes rise by a certain amount, more abortion regulations, voter fraud, school choice for special needs students and property tax reform.

And it means that once again,  me and the rest of the Texas trans community and our liberal progressive allies are going to have to roll to the ATX once again this summer to fight Texas GOP legislative tyranny aimed at our trans kids..

It's a fight that we not only must win, we're determined to win.

Race and Gender Discrimination Sidelines Nebraska Soccer Player And Her Team

Not happy to hear about the situation that took place in Nebraska in which a soccer team was disqualified from a tournament before they were to play in the finals of it because in the president of the Springfield Soccer Club's words, for "looking like a boy."

Meet 8 year old Milagros 'Mili' Hernandez.   Mili loves soccer, has been playing for three years and currently plays for the Azzuri Cachorros Chicas club team in Omaha, NE.  Mili is so skilled at the game that she plays with the 11 year old squad, and she and her teammates were playing in a tournament organized by the Springfield Soccer Club.

After playing three games on Friday and Saturday and advancing to the semifinals of the tournament that were to be played on Sunday, they were shocked to find out they had been shadily disqualified from the tournament.

The reprehensible chain of events started when an anonymous complaint was made by someone telling tournament officials that a boy was playing on a girls team.

Hmm, I suspect the anonymous complainer must have been a supporter of a suburban based melanin free team, but back to the story.

Mili's coach Mario Torres got a phone call early Sunday morning informing him that Mili had been listed as a boy on the roster, but instead of resolving the issue, disqualified the team.

Torres called Mili's family, and despite them bringing and presenting multiple forms of identification proving that Mili was female, the tournament director refused to reverse the incorrect decision.

Torres suspects that the twin evils of racism and gender discrimination are at play here.

"We had already paid to play.  We'd played three games.  Why was this not resolved before the semifinals?" asked Torres. "Even if this was a mistake, they did not need to humiliate her or kick the entire team off the field."

The president of the tournament hounded me all throughout the tournament.  He disqualified three of my four teams for bogus reasons. He caused a lot of problems and for that reason, we feel this had to do with race."

Torres 'club has already filed a complaint with the Nebraska State Soccer Association, and as you can expect, the bigots at the Springfield Soccer Club have no comment for the media.  The Nebraska State Soccer Association put out a statement concerning the ugly incident yesterday.

The story has gotten the attention of US women's soccer legends Mia Hamm and Abby Wambach and tennis legend Billie Jean King, who have sent messages of support to Mili via Twitter.  Hamm has invited Mili to come to one of her soccer camps.

And Mili is thankful for the support she has received.  She's also going to continue to wear her hair short.

But it still doesn't bring back the opportunity for Mimi and her team to prove on the field that they were the best team at that tournament.

Introducing the New TransGriot Logo!

I've been working since late 2016 on this project for a few months in conjunction with Houston based Koncept Kit, a trans owned marketing firm, and now I finally get to reveal my new official blog logo to you readers.

I've wanted and frankly needed one for a while to put on business cards, and eventually merchandise, and here it is.

Thanks to Koncept Kit for all your hard work and skill in making my vision of what I wanted in a blog logo come to life.

Gov. Abbott's Press Conference Today

Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has called for a press conference to take place in Austin at 2:30 PM CDT that will be watched from both sides of the political aisle in Texas and probably have the nation's attention.

It is assumed that at this press conference, Gov Abbott will announce his decision on whether or not to call a special session, and if he does, what issues the special session call will entail.
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Ever since the Memorial Day sine die date of a contentious 85th Texas Legislative session, rumors have been flying even that day under the Pink Dome that we were cruising toward a special session.

Lt. Governor Dan Patrick (R) has been loudly pushing for a special session in large part because he's pissed off his unjust SB 6 that he got Sen Lois Kolkhorst (R-Brenham) to push died in the Texas House.

Abbott is in a no win situation.  Only he under the Texas Constitution has the power to call a special session.  He also decides what bills to bring up during that special session that can last up to a maximum of 30 days.

During a special session, Texas lawmakers can only consider legislation that fits into the governor's 'call', or the issue that the governor specifies in the special session proclamation that will be read during the upcoming press conference,  

The governor also because of Texas Constitution Article 3, Section 40 faces no limitation of the number of issues that can be designated for consideration in the special session proclamation.

The governor can also call as many special sessions as he wishes. Back in 2003, then Governor Rick Perry (R) called the Lege into special session three consecutive times in order to execute the infamous partisan Delaymandering of Texas congressional districts.

And don't think that 2018 Texas GOP primary politics aren't entering into the political calculus of this. The governor and lieutenant governor are up for re-election next year, and it's been rumored that Patrick is angling to go after Abbott despite previous declarations that he is running for reelection as the lieutenant governor. .

If Abbott calls a special session to attack Texas trans people, he'll not only look like he's Dan Patrick's puppet and not his own man, he'll piss Texas trans people and our allies off if he adds the anti-trans BS to the call. .

Abbott will also piss off Texas taxpayers who have to foot the $800,000 bill for this 30 day exercise in Texas Republican legislative oppression.

If he doesn't call the special session, then Dan Patrick will probably use his decision not to do so as an attack weapon in a potential Republican gubernatorial primary (assuming he runs for governor next year) by claiming that Abbott is not a 'real conservative' and doesn't want to stand up for your 'Texas Values'

FYI Lt Dan, if you think that attacking trans people is good for your political prospects, ask ex Texas state reps Debbie Riddle (R-Tomball) and Gilbert Pena (R-Pasadena), former South Carolina state senator Lee Bright, and former North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory.

Transphobia is increasingly becoming,even in GOP leaning Texas, a losing political strategy, and you keep attacking Texas trans kids at your political peril.

So in a few hours I and a lot of people in the Lone Star State will be watching to see if we'll have to make another trip to Austin to fight Republican legislative tyranny aimed at the Texas trans community for cynical GOP political primary gain.      

Congrats Niece and Nephew For 200 Strange Fruit Shows!

One of the things I got to do when I took my 2014 Labor Day weekend vacation trip back to Louisville was head to the WFPL-FM studios in downtown Louisville to record an episode of Strange Fruit.

Strange Fruit in this case is the talk show and podcast hosted by Dr. Kaila Story and Jaison Gardiner, AKA known as Niece and Nephew to moi, that on a weekly basis discusses politics, pop culture and Black gay life.

And yeah, definitely need to show their wonderful producer Laura Ellis some love as well.

So far I've been on Strange Fruit twice, with the 2014 studio appearance being the last time I was on it.  

Been a little busy since September 2014 and so have they. Niece has gotten married since then and has her women and gender studies associate professor teaching gig at the University of Louisville to keep her busy.

And she was just named to the 2017 NBC Out #Pride30 list.

I did get to see and spend some quality time with Niece and Nephew when I went to Da Ville for my vacation last year.  

They will be celebrating this upcoming broadcasting milestone of 200 shows on June 21 with a live taping and party.

Congrats Niece and Nephew for 200 amazing Strange Fruit shows!   Thank you for not only inviting me to be a part of it and getting the chance to speak to you Fruitcakes (the nickname for their listeners)  but for educating, entertaining and informing your WFPL-FM listeners and those who enjoy it via podcast for the last several years. .

May Strange Fruit continue its high standard of radio broadcast excellence in discussing the issues of importance to our community, and make it to the next broadcasting milestone of 300 shows.

The Most Unfriendly LGBT President Ever

The turning of the calendar page to June also means that it's the start of Pride Month, and we have gotten spoiled over the last eight years by having a president who is cognizant of that.

It was this time last year I had gotten the invitation to go to the LGBT Pride Reception and I was scrambling to try to get to DC for it.

That's not the case with 45 despite the fact during the campaign he promised he would be 'the most LGBT friendly president in history'.

Like all his other campaign promises, that has turned out to be a lie.   We already had the best president ever when it came to LGBT rights issues in the previous occupant of the White House at that time in Barack Obama.

Trump stocking his campaign advisory team with long time LGBT haters like Mike Pence, other professional gay baiters and right wing hate pastors telegraphed to me and everyone else paying attention except the Log Cabin Sellouts that this would not be an administration that we could count on, much less would be inviting us to his White House for a Pride Reception.

If there were any folks in LGBTQ World holding out hope that Trump was going to live up to his campaign rhetoric, that died June 1 when he failed to put out a proclamation for Pride Month as President Obama had done for every year of his presidency.

And I was saying while in attendance at last year's Pride Reception that if Hillary didn't win, this would probably be the last one until possibly 2021.

Damn I hate it when I'm right.

2017 Williams Watch- Venus Is Out At 2017 French Open

Aww, I was hoping with all the upsets that included defending 2016 French Open champ Garbine Muguruza, that 10th seeded Big Sis would get to make a serious run at winning her second French Open title, but it was not to be,

She got off to a great start against 30th seeded Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland, taking the first set of the match, but you have to win two to advance to the next round, and it fell apart for her.  

Venus lost 7-5, 2-6, 1-6 to end her run at Roland Garros.

Oh well, 'Williams'-don starts on July 3,  Maybe she'll have better results on the other side of the Channel  when they go to her and Serena's personal tennis playground at the All England Club.

We'll see in a few weeks .    

Brienne Minor Wins Historic 2017 NCAA Women's Singles Tennis Title

Black history was made on May 29 at the recent NCAA Division I women's tennis championships that were conducted at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex on the University of Georgia campus in Athens. GA.

University of Michigan sophomore Brienne Minor became the first African-American woman ever to win the NCAA Division I women's tennis title   In case you're wondering, the first African-American man to win an NCAA men's singles tennis title was the legendary Arthur Ashe in 1965.

She was the 2014 Illinois state girls singles champion, but in this NCAA women's singles tournament, she was ranked 24th in the nation, and also played with her Michigan teammates in the NCAA Division I team tennis championships that started in Athens back on May 18.   .

Michigan advanced to the Round of 16, beating Youngstown State and Kentucky before being eliminated by national finalist runner-up Stanford.

When the NCAA women's singles tourney started on May 24, the unseeded Minor faced the task of having to win six matches in six days to get to the finals of the 2017 NCAA women's tourney while battling tendinitis in her knees.

Minor was also in the section of the bracket that contained the number one seed Francesca Di Lorenzo of Ohio State.and was facing in the opening round the woman who ended her 2016 NCAA women's tournament run in Miami's Sinead Lohan.

It took her three sets, but she beat Lohan 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 to jumpstart her title run. Di Lorenzo was surprisingly upset in the opening round by Pepperdine's Mayar Sharif Ahmad, and Minor knocked her off in straight sets in the Round of 16 on her way to the finals .

Minor would face Florida senior and tournament sixth seed Belinda Woolcock  The Aussie was playing her last match as a Gator and had only dropped one set on her way to the championship finals.  She also wanted to add the NCAA women's singles title to the 2017 NCAA team tennis championship she played a huge role in Florida winning over Stanford.

Woolcock played 14 singles and doubles matches over the eleven days of the NCAA Division I tourney with an 11-1 record to help Florida win the NCAA team championship, was named the Most Valuable Player in the NCAA team tournament, and made the all Tournament team in singles and doubles.

But it was Brienne Minor's day and she was on an eight match tournament winning streak at this point. With her family cheering her on, Minor made the admittedly tired Woolcock run all over the court as she raced out to a 4-0 first set lead before Woolcock broke her serve to finally get on the first set scoreboard.

Woolcock gave the service break back to stoke Minor to a 5-1 first set lead and won the next two games to close to 5-3, but dropped her service game to give Minor a one set lead in this NCAA title match.

Minor held serve to begin the second set and jumped out to a 3-1 and 4-2 lead before Woolcock made one last push and closed to 4-3 by blanking Minor with a love service game.   But Minor stormed back by winning the next two to take the set and the 2017 NCAA women's championship in straight sets 6-3, 6-3.

Minor knocked off three players ranked in the top 16 in the nation to earn this historic title, and not only gave Michigan their first ever NCAA women's singles tennis national champion, she made some Black history in the process.

With the win she also earned a wild card entry into the 2017 US Open that begins on August 28

Pittsburgh (and Philadelphia) Voted For Hillary, Not 45

The political science joke about Pennsylvania is that it is Pittsburgh in the west, Philadelphia in the east and Alabama in the middle.

We all know that Trump shockingly won this state narrowly on Election Night in large part to three third party candidates siphoning off just enough votes to allow Trump to eke out a narrow (ugh) victory in the Keystone State.

Dear Orange Misleader seems to have it in his head that the two largest cities in the state of Pennsylvania voted for him when he cited the Steel City as his jacked up rationale for pulling the US out of the Paris Climate Change Accords that 195 nations signed.

No Dumb Donald, Pittsburgh didn't vote for you, it voted for Hillary, and it wasn't close.

Hillary Clinton received 363, 017 votes (56.4%) of the votes cast in Allegheny County to Trump's 257, 488 (.40% ) .

Gary Johnson received 15,854 (2%) ,Jill Stein  5,021 (0.8%) and Darrell Castle got 1,793 (0.3%)

In Philadelphia, it was a blowout    Clinton received 560, 542 votes (82.4% ) of the votes cast in Philadelphia County to Trump's  105, 418 (15.5%).

Johnson got 6,786 (1%). Stein 6,452 (0.9%) and Castle 1,029 (0.2%)

So nope Dumb Donald, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, the two largest cities in the state, didn't vote for you. and in both cities it was a massive rejection of you.

TransGriot Note:  Thanks to TransGriot reader Jason Byrd for sending me the Allegheny and Philadelphia Counties 2016 election data that inspired the post.

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.

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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.