25th Anniversary Of The ICTLEP Conference

Today is the 25th anniversary of the first of eventually six ICTLEP conferences that took place in Houston from 1992 to 1997.

The International Conference on Transgender Law and Employment Policy (ICTLEP) was conceived by Phyllis Frye as an annual event that would focus on developing progressive legal strategies in employment and nondiscrimination law for the transgender population.

She had initially pitched the idea of the event to then International Foundation For Gender Education (IFGE) Executive Director Merissa Sherrill Lynn in the summer of 1991, as a traveling event under its auspices, but she told Frye that IFGE wasn't interested in hosting it.

Frye in the fall of 1991 ran for and won the vice presidency of the Houston based Gulf Coast Transgender Community (GCTC)  group on the platform of hosting a transgender law conference in Houston in 1992.

Planning then began with a group of local activists and GCTC members forming a committee that laid the groundwork for the historic conference to happen combined with Phyllis' attendance at the February 1992 Texas T Party and the March 1992 IFGE Convention.

Frye's attendance at those large trans conferences was crucial in those pre-Internet days to the success of the ICTLEP conference she and GCTC were planning.  It helped spread the word about the fledgling conference, and helped get attorneys who were interested in the different areas of the law that needed presenters to volunteer to do so

The organization of it gathered steam to the point that when the inaugural event kicked off at the Hilton Southwest Freeway in Southwest Houston on August 26-30, 1992, it did so with over 50 people in attendance.

The conference was a success, especially on the financial end, and led to the hosting of five more ICTLEP conferences.

The ICTLEP conferences from 1992-1997 were crucial for not only laying the groundwork for much of the subsequent transgender rights law and principles that we fight and lobby for in the modern trans rights movement, they also helped train my generation of trans rights activists and attorneys..

The International Bill of Gender Rights, Health Law Standards of Care, and policies for imprisoned transgender people came out of ICTLEP.   The Proceedings published after every ICTLEP conference documented for posterity what happened in those presentations on the different areas of law being discussed.

ICTLEP also led to the organization of the national trans rights org It's Time America, the second national trans lobby day in Washington DC in October 1994,  building working relationships between the legal and advocate wings of our newly emerging and energized modern trans rights movement, and more importantly led to the trans people who were in the legal profession becoming more out and open about who they were and forging working relationships with each other and the activist community.

It also led to trans folks becoming participating members in national gay legal organizations and conferences like Lavender Law.

And at a time in which the Trump misadministration is hell bent along with his fundamentalist anti-trans haters who advise him are getting orgasmic over the thought of eviscerating the human rights of transgender people in the US, the lessons learned and built upon over the last 25 years since the ICTLEP conferences took place here are going to be applied and tested as we fight 45's unjust policies in the federal courts.

But it all started on this day at a Houston Hilton hotel in the summer of 1992 thanks to the vision of Phyllis Frye and those early trans leaders in GCTC and elsewhere to make it happen. .

Waiting For Hurricane Harvey

I moved back to the Houston area in May 2010  nearly two years after Hurricane Ike wreaked havoc on the upper Texas coast and its Category 1 self knocked power out for me in Louisville.

Dealing with hurricanes and tropical storms is just the cost we pay for being 30 minutes from the beach   So we were overdue on the Texas Gulf Coast to experience a landfall for a major hurricane, and traditionally if we are going to get whacked with one, it tends to be in August or September.

So while Hurricane Harvey is heading its as of this writing Category 3 self toward the Corpus Christi area after nearly breaking up in the Caribbean, crossing over the Yucatan Peninsula and then reforming in the warm waters of the Bay of Campeche, we still expect along with our local meteorologists to get hit with some of the rain bands from it in the Houston area and get tropical storm level winds in the area.

There are predictions we might get hit with up to 25 inches of rain.  That's a lot of water in a short period of time, and Houston's drainage system is tied to multiple bayou that run towards Galveston Bay.   The same Galveston Bay that will be experiencing Harvey's storm surge plus be whacked by trying to deal with that onslaught of heavy rain.  .

Can you say 'serious floods' TransGriot readers?    Thought you could.  

Oh well, at least it won't be sauna room level hot for the next few days.  The HISD school kids get an extra summer vacation day out of the deal since school was supposed to start Monday.

The approach of Harvey has triggered a run on local stores to get hurricane supplies, food, bottled water, batteries and gas for their vehicles.  
It also has people who own them checking their generators to ensure they work and charging their phones, laptops and portable charging devices just in case we lose electrical power.

In the meantime we do what we always do when there's a hurricane bearing down on us.   Make sure we've done our hurricane prep, are prepared to evacuate if needed, and just wait for Harvey to make landfall and get out of the area.

And nope, don't have any alcohol.  I used that up celebrating the demise of SB 3.

Roland Martin Puts Pastor Paula White On Blast

Pastor Paula White lived up to her last name by hypocritically defending Dolt 45 in a televised fake faith based dog and pony show with the disgraced Jim Bakker.

Well, my Houston  homie Roland Martin wasn't having that nonsense, and took to the airwaves of the Tom Joyner Morning Show to put 'Pastor'' Paula White on blast for that WTF level blasphemous commentary, and then called her out on NewsOne Now
Here's his read of 'Pastor' Paula White, along with her nauseating WTF level commentary on Jim Bakker's show.



Thank you Roland for calling out this Pharisee and false prophet who is more about, like many white televangelists,  making a profit and upholding white supremacy.

Arrest Made In Tee Tee Dangerfield Murder Case

Happy to hear that an arrest has been made in the Tee Tee Dangerfield murder case  

To refresh your memories about the case, the 32 year old Dangerfield was shot in front of a College Park, GA apartment complex back on July 31 and died on the way to the hospital.

According to reporting by Nefertiti Jaquez of WSB-TV, 26 year old Tyrone Kemp has been arrested for the murder of Dangerfield.  He was arrested by College Park PD at the Union City car dealership where he works.

Investigators say they have evidence that proves Kemp was with Dangerfield in the moments before she died.

There's also video of Dangerfield leaving a nearby sports bar several hours before she was killed.

Now that someone has been arrested for Tee Tee's murder, here's hoping that if Kemp is the person who committed the crime, that he gets the serious jail time for doing so.  

Justice Being Served In Keyonna Blakeney Case

In the latest update in the Keyonna Blakeney murder case, .22 year old Keith Renier was found guilty of second degree murder and was sentenced by Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Marielsa Bernard to the maximum 30 year sentence in this case.  

The then 21 year old Renier fatally stabbed 22 year old Blakeney at a Red Roof Inn off Shady Grove Road in Rockville, MD back on April 16, 2016.


Five days before the encounter with Blakeney, Renier had pleaded guilty to pulling a knife on a Washington Metro subway platform in a case involving a simple assault and weapons charge and was awaiting sentencing.

On April 25 he was sentenced in that District case to probation and ordered to take anger management classes.  

According to court documents and a confidential informant's testimony to detectives in the case, Renier arrived at the Red Roof Inn along with a second suspect via an Uber paid for by Blakeney.
The second suspect arranged a false pretenses date with Blakeney with the intention of robbing her with Renier's help. The second suspect knew Blakeney and one of his relatives had dated her.

The room where Blakeney was found dead of multiple stab wounds was ransacked.

One down, one to go in the Blakeney case.   It's not life in prison, but Renier will be getting 30 years for killing our sister.  

'What Would You Do?' Episode Tackles Transphobic Boutique

The ABC show What Would You Do? hosted by John Quinones has had shows that have tackled transphobic situations staged with actors to see what people's reactions would be and how they would respond as the hidden cameras are rolling.

The latest episode of it is set in a New Jersey boutique with a trans women dealing with a transphobic clerk.   The cameras are there to discover whether other shoppers stand up for her or ignore what's happening.

Here's how it turned out.

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Total Solar Eclipse Today

I remember the 1970 total solar eclipse that ran up the East Coast of the United States and got a mention in Carly Simon's hit song You're So Vain.   It was the last total solar eclipse we experienced in the continental United States until this one that is happening today.

If you live in the 70 mile wide path of totality that will stretch from Salem, Oregon to Charleston, South Carolina, you're going to get the celestial skywatching treat of seeing a total solar eclipse.

Assuming your local weather cooperates.

Those of us in Houston will only get a partial solar eclipse that covers about 67% of the Sun that will start around 11:46 AM CDT and end around 2:45 PM CDT.

But in any case, whether it is the total or partial, be advised not to look directly at it/   You can go to you local planetarium to see it or check out this webstream broadcast of it on NASA's website.

Don't Let Your POTUS Get Your Azz Cussed Out

Laughing my butt off at the faux outrage coming from conservafool white America because two high school Beckys waltzed onto the campus of Howard University to cause drama, got what they were looking for, and are now crying white women's tears on the Net about it.

Naw b  oo boo kitties, what did you Trumpettes think was gonna happen when you disrespectfully stepped onto the campus of the flagship HBCU in the nation with Make America Great Again hats on, and you do so mere days after Dolt 45 cosigns white supremacists in Charlottesville?

Exactly what you got.  All I have to say about it is don't let your white supremacist POTUS get your azz cussed out or put in the position to get a beatdown.

There are times when you have to give people exactly what they are looking for to send a message that we ain't having it.   One of the places that Black folks aren't tolerating conservative white BS is on the campus of one of our flagship HBCU's.

Your excuse of you were going to have lunch on the HU campus isn't going to fly either.  When I visit The District, there are a lot of places I have gone to eat or been taken to in DC like Ben's Chili Bowl, Five Guys or Eatonville just to name a few.   No one has ever suggested that we dine at the HU cafeteria.

So you two New Jersey Beckys can go cry all the white tears you want on FOX Noise and in conservafool fake media about how mean the Black college kids were to you.  You were the agent provocateurs who jumped this mess off.  

High fives to the HU students who called your lack of home trained asses out on your vanillacentric privileged bull feces.  Kudos also to Howard University for standing up for their students and their right to be hostile to these troublemaking Beckys

Black America is not in a mood to be disrespected or played with right now, especially when you white peeps in this country have been running buck wild ever since Orange Julius was elected.

And we damned sure aren't going to tolerate it from you Trumpettes who are part of the 53% white female demographic that delusionally put him in office.

So miss us with this mess.   And I repeat, don't let your POTUS get your azz cussed out.

Happy Transgender Pride Flag Day!

Today is the anniversary of the day 18 years ago that Navy veteran Monica Helms came up with the design of the transgender pride flag that is increasingly coming into widespread use around the world.

Helms came up with the design in 1999, and first showed it at a pride parade in Phoenix, AZ in 2000.

The Helms trans pride flag is designed so that no matter which way it is held horizontally, it is always correct, signifying us finding correctness in our lives.   The blue stripes are for trans masculine persons, the pink for trans feminine persons, and the white center stripe is for those who are intersex, gender non conforming or don't consider themselves to have a gender..

The original trans pride flag she created was donated to the Smithsonian an August 19, 2014 as part of their American LGBTQ history collection, and was on display in the White House during the 2016 LGBT Pride reception hosted by President Obama

Happy Transgender Pride Flag Day!

Is It Health and Human Services Texas Policy To Harass Trans Texans?

Was not happy to hear about the latest instance of anti- trans discrimination in my hometown and who it happened to.

Ana Andrea Molina is the executive director of the Organizacion Latina de Trans en Texas (OLTT), which works to provide services for the trans Latina population.

One of those services is setting up a trans shelter modeled after Casa Ruby in Washington DC called Casa Ana Andrea in Houston's Third Ward just south of the Texas Southern University campus.

On Tuesday she went to the Health and Human Services Texas office at 9450 Harwin Dr. in her capacity as OLTT executive director to gather information about services that her trans Latina clients could access.

While there she needed to use the restroom, and asked where it was so she could handle her business before proceeding with her information gathering business.

She was followed by an employee and the security guard in the Harwin facility, who after she entered the women's restroom decided to play potty Gestapo.  The transphobes continuously banged on the door of the women's restroom ordering her to come out and use the men's room, erroneously citing the failed SB 3 as their justification for being transphobic bigots.

Molina ignored them and didn't come out until after she'd handled her bathroom business and washed her hands.

This is also another example of the transphobic hate speech the Texas Republican Party unleashed while trying and failing twice to pass their anti-trans SB6/3 bill having real world negative impacts on the every day lives of transgender Texans.

But what the transphobes didn't know is that hey messed with someone who is well liked in the Houston advocacy community..

The next day she showed up at that facility accompanied by members of Indivisible Houston to file a complaint with the facility supervisor protesting her treatment.  

I walked in wearing a trans themed t-shirt with 'My Existence Is Resistance' written in Spanish accompanied by four cis feminine allies, and strolled into that same female bathroom with them basically daring them to treat me the same way they'd disrespectfully treated my Latina trans sister.

Someone in that office called HPD, who responded by sending three units to that Harwin location. While two of the HPD officers were polite, one was problematically aggressive, and threatened arrest of everyone if we didn't disperse.

Having gotten the complain form and sending the message we needed to send, we left peacefully .

The Harwin office is in the Texas senate district of Sen. Borris Miles (D-Houston) and Ana happens to be a constituent of his.  She is also in the House district of a longtime friend of the Texas trans community in Rep. Garnet Coleman (D-Houston), who also isn't happy about what transpired, along with Rep Gene Wu (D-Houston) and Sen. Sylvia Garcia (D-Houston).  That office is in Rep. Wu's House district, and he is also a friend of our community.  

People from our local ACLU office are also looking into what happened.

So yeah, they messed with the wrong person., and I'll keep y'all updated as to how this transphobic discrimination story plays out

Number 17- RIP Gwynevere River Song

While the Texas trans community is celebrating the fact that we killed SB 3 and other odious anti-trans bills during this Special Oppression Session, we are also lamenting the loss of the 17th person we have lost to anti-trans violence and the second Texan we have lost in 2017.

26 year old Gwynevere River Song was shot and killed following an argument in the Dallas suburb of Waxahachie, TX  on August 12.   The Ellis County Sheriff's Department is still investigating the murder, and as the details come out, will pass them along to you TransGriot readers

Gwyn was a 2015 graduate of the University of Texas, loved science fiction and her mother Marcella Mosher supported her transition. Gwyn also used they/them pronouns in addition to she.

And yes Dan Patrick, Lois Kolkhorst, Rom Simmons and the Texas Republican Party, her blood is on your hands.

Hee memorial service will take place in her native Waxahachie at the Wayne Boze Funeral Home on August 21, and the community is invited to attend.    It is located at 1826 US-287 BUS in that city starting at 2 PM.,

They Tried To Tell You Trump Was Unfit To Serve As POTUS

And y'all were too caught up in your fee fees to listen, or arrogantly thought you knew better than the Black POTUS or the white female former secretary of state who is qualified to be president of the United States.

So now we're all suffering because of your lack of progressive political vision.

And yes far left people.  I'll be reminding you of your ginormous error in judgement from now until November 2020, assuming Orange Julius doesn't blow up the planet between now and then,

Here's Hillary boldly saying it



And President Obama



You were warned. so don't start saying jack about how incompetent Dolt 45 is when you knew the only thing standing between him and the Oval Office was Clinton.

'Spirit Of The Confederacy' Has Got To Go

The local Robert E. Lee chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy erected a 12 foot tall statue of a bronze angel in Sam Houston Park downtown that was erected in January 1908 called 'The Spirit of the Confederacy'.

Over the last year in Houston we have seen HISD rename eight schools named for Confederate heroes and the renaming of Dowling Street to Emancipation Avenue.

Yesterday I joined several of my Houston activist friends during the public comment session at City Hall in calling for the city of Houston to remove that statue from this public park.

This statue is nothing more than the perpetuation of the Lost Cause lie.  The Spirit of the Confederacy  is nothing more than the failed attempt to keep my ancestors perpetually enslaved

That statue needs to go.

TransGriot Update:  A rally is being held at 3 PM Saturday to call attention to this Jim Crow monument that needs to go.

Texas Special Oppression Session Is Over!

Earlier this afternoon  we Texas activists who have been fighting SB 6, SB 3 and other anti-trans hate bills heard the words we've wanted to hear:  Sine Die!

The Special Oppression Session ended when the Texas House adjourned without calling hearings on the unjust Senate passed SB 6 or on Rep. Ron Simmons' HB 46 or HB 50 anti-trans hate bills.   The Texas Senate did so a few hours later .

While the GOP transphobes like Kolkhorst and Patrick were lamenting that development, Texas transgender people and our allies are celebrating this huge win.

Don't mess with Texas trans people.   And don't mess with our Texas trans kids.

The Texas trans community, along with the parents of trans kids, Texas based advocacy orgs, legislators, the Texas business community, Texas progressive pastors and our allies testified, phone banked and did what was necessary to kill these bills.

Will Gov Abbott call another special session and waste $800,000 more of our tax dollars to try to pass SB 6 and other anti-trans hate bills?   Just the discussion of these bills has cost Texas $66 million dollars of convention business as the Texas Republican Party tried to pass anti-trans oppression for their political gain.

While Lt Governor 'Potty Dan' Patrick tried to spin this defeat and claim that 'the people' will demand in the next session to pass the anti-trans hate bills, I think fair minded Texans have already resoundingly spoken in the 2015 and 2017 regular and special sessions about how we feel about these attempts to legislate anti-trans oppression.

And if Patrick tries to pass anti-trans oppression in Texas in the next session, we'll be there in force to combat it.

I hope those same fair minded Texans will do to Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, Potty Dan Patrick, Gov. Greg Abbott, Rep Ron Simmons, and every Texas senator and representative who either sponsored or supported these bills do what was done to Rep Debbie Riddle (R-Tomball) and Rep. Gilbert Pena (R-Pasadena) in 2016:   Make them ex-legislators.

Sen. Eddie Lucio, Jr.  (DINO-Brownsville) is also high on my make him an ex legislator list.

So what's next?   I predict the Texas GOP will try to oust Joe Straus as speaker before they attempt to call another Special Oppression Session.   He is one of the major reasons Texas didn't go down the disastrous road North Carolina did..

But in the interim, the Texas Trans Forces of Light have once again defeated the Texas GOP Forces of Trans Oppression.   We can exhale and celebrate our win today, but we must prefare for and be ready for the next clash with the conservative forces attempting to oppress us.
     

She Tried To Warn Y'all About The Deplorables...

But some of you Green Tea Party fools were too busy hatin' on her, caught up in your Bernie feelings,  believing everything RussiaLeaks and jive turkey Julian Assange said that was negative about Hillary Clinton.

Still think she's 'worse than Trump?'    If you do, you're as delusional as Dolt 45. .

She was the only viable candidate in this race, and the only person standing between Trump and the Oval Office, and some of y'all were too stupid to see it.

Anyway, just to remind you what she said since some of you obviously missed it the first time, here's the video.



And she didn't stop there. She called out Alex Jones and the white supremacist movement, too




We could have had this woman as our president.   Instead we have a know nothing racist idiot.

Moni's Charlottesville Thoughts

As I arose from my busy Saturday at Netroots Nation, the word started circulating here about the white supremacist rally going on in Charlottesville, VA and the tiki torch carrying fools that has now resulted in the deaths of three people.

And this fool in the picture, Peter Cvjetanovic now upset because his picture will forever consume his destiny as one of the angry racists who gathered on this less than proud day in American history

Hey homes, that's why your Klancestors wore hoods.  That way they couldn't be identified when they did their racist crap.   I'm glad y'all are arrogant enough to reveal yourselves so we know who our enemy is.

But I'm not as concerned about these tiki torch carrying Nazis than I am about the white supremacists who have the power to write legislation that perpetuates the problems that white supremacy causes.

I'm more concerned about the white supremacists who have infiltrated our,military, our law enforcement ranks, and who teach our kids.  I'm also concerned about the white supremacists who wear fashion forward pumps

I'm also concerned about the people who through their silence and inaction, condone the behavior of the white supremacists in their midsts, and it's past time for you good white people to prove it through action and come get your racist cousins.

But as shameful as these Nazis and Klansmen rallying was, what was even more disgusting was Trump's morally bankrupt reaction to it.

No Dolt 45, it isn't 'both sides', it was only one side bringing the violence, and it was the white supremacist one who endorsed your campaign and as David Duke reminded us, put you in office.

 It is your racist campaign that led to what happened in Charlottesville and emboldened the racist cockroaches to come scurrying out into the light.   Your cowardly silence will only encourage more racist acts by them, not end it. and I have zero confidence in your misadministration's willingness to confront them.

It's time once and for all to destroy white supremacy before it destroys the country

Hail To The New Pundit Cup Champion!

One of the things I was here in Atlanta for was for the semifinals and finals of the fourth annual Pundits Cup competition.   So what's the Pundit Cup?  It's a judged competitive punditry competition in which contestants pick a topic and go one on one against an opponent in a tournament style competition for a $500 prize.

I'm the 2016 champion of the event, and I was there to be a judge for the finals of it.    

Was happy to see an increase in the number of women, and especially women of color participating in the event and it was definitely more competitive than the #NN16 Pundit Cup competition I won.  

To illustrate the stepped up level of competition at the #NN17  , Bo Shuff, the person I beat in last year's semifinals, was knocked out in the round of 16 by the eventual champion Tenaja Jordan.  

But before Tenaja could claim the crown, she had to get through a tough semifinal round with Sarah Badawi and the final with my fellow Texan Chuck Rocha.

Tenaja handled her punditry business, and emerged from the competition as the 2017 Pundit Cup champion   She has become the third consecutive woman to win the title.

Congrats Tenaja!

Moni's In The ATL For #NN17

For the first time since 2004, I'm actually spending some extended time in Fulton County and not transiting the ATL airport as I've done a few times since then to make connecting flights either to or from Houston.

It's the first of two trips I'll mate to Atlanta over the next several weeks, and I'm here for my second consecutive Netroots Nation conference.  Compared to my maiden 2012 Netroots Nation experience in Providence and last year in St. Louis, it's going to a be a busy one for me with three panel discussion and making an appearance during the Pundit Cup as last year's champion.

And even better I didn't have to fly Spirit to get here since this is Delta's mother hub.

Unlike last year in St. Louis, I'm at the convention hotel this time, which means I'll get to hang out a little bit longer and talk to convention attendees.   Also looking forward to bumping into old friends and meeting new ones.

And once again for those of you attending #NN17, I don't bite.  If I'm not enroute to a panel or a meeting, I'll always have time to talk to people at these events.  

Don't be shy, say hi!

2017 Texans Watch - Texans vs Panthers

They start the 2017 season at NRG Stadium with a AFC South Division game with the Jacksonville Jaguars on September 10.

But before they get to that first regular season game, they leave their comfy West Virginia training camp digs to head to Charlotte to play their first 2017 preseason game against the Carolina Panthers.  
And yes, TransGriot readers, once again I'll be doing my NFL season prognostication when the 2017 season kicks off.

Speaking of kickoffs, Texans fans are watching the quarterback battle between Tom Savage and our first round draft choice in rookie Deshaun Watson.   We're also eagerly anticipating the return of JJ Watt to the Texans stellar defense, and in the wake of NT Vince Woolfork's retirement, all eyes will be on DJ Reader so see if he can replace him.

We'll see what happens in this first preseason game that kicks off at 6:30 CDT.

Moni's Headed To Netroots Nation 2017!

I'll be headed to Netroots Nation for the second consecutive year, and this year #NN17 will be held in Atlanta.

This will be the first trip I've taken to the ATL since 2004, and I'm so looking forward to going there and actually stepping out of the airport for a change

In addition to participating in two Saturday panels and on on Thursday/Friday, I'll also be making an appearance during this year's Fourth Annual Pundit Cup competition and the finals on Saturday since yours truly is last year's champ.



One of my panels is at 1:30 PM EDT in the Hanover F room, and is entitled Talking While Black. There will also be at 3:00 PM in the University room an LGBT POC Caucus.

But I'm definitely looking forward to wandering the Hyatt Regency Atlanta on Peachtree Street convention hotel, seeing some old friends, and as always meeting new ones.

So if you see me wandering the #NN17 convention hotel, don't be shy, say hi!