Monday, September 04, 2017

What's The Texas Trans Community Doing In Harvey's Wake?

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Plenty!

It's also ironic in the wake of a legislative session in which the Republican controlled Texas government tried to push fear and hatred of transgender people in the regular session and spent $800,000 of our tax money during the Special Oppression Session to mess with Texas trans people for their own political gain.

But when Harvey hit the upper Texas coast, it has been the Texas trans community who has also stepped up to not only organize efforts to help our own people, but people outside of it.

Hannah Simpson has been in Austin helping to coordinate Red Cross efforts there.   She has been reading stories to the kids there.  She's built a database to help with client management in the shelter, is working to help coordinate the volunteer scheduling and routing at the Austin command center and just doing what she can to help the place run smoother.

And nobody cares that she's using the women's bathroom when she has to pee.  It's past time to stop wasting valuable Texas legislative time aiming discrimination efforts at us.

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Political rant moment over, back to the post.

Meanwhile here in Houston my fab sis Nikki Araguz Loyd and her husband Will went out during the deluge on their jet skis in their northeast area part of the city to help people caught in the floodwaters during Harvey.   They  ended up rescuing this 82 year old woman during one of their jet ski rescue runs.

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Ana Andrea Molina and the Organizacion Latina de Trans in Texas (OLTT) despite losing a computer to a roof leak (since generously replaced) caused by the storm at Casa Ana Andrea, is standing by with up to six beds to shelter trans people made homeless by Harvey.

They are also pitching in to help where they can to help our trans community and other quicly recover from the storm.

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One of my homegirls who is a pilot and operations director for a charter airline, has made flights along with her charter airline's pilots chock full of medical supplies to bring back here to Houston.   One of those medical supply flights was to Hobby Airport, which was closed at the time and she was told by the tower to 'land at her own risk'.  She landed the plane safely along with the supplies.

Other trans Houstonians and trans Texans are in unsung ways helping clean storm damage at other people's homes, volunteering at local shelters, coordinating aid and relief efforts, raising money and simply doing their part as fellow Houstonians and Texans do to pitch in and help people recover from this storm.

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And that's before I even mention the countless trans folks around the country who are doing things in their area to help their Texas trans, bi and SGL fam in their hour of need.

Harvey is giving us the golden opportunity to prove that trans Texans are an undeniable part of the fabric of the Texas community.

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We are eagerly rolling up our sleeves and seizing this opportunity to do so by handling our business and helping our fellow Texans.


Sunday, September 03, 2017

Karma Kicks UT In The Behind

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While rolling up to Austin along 290 yesterday for the SB 4 rally that Ana Andrea Molina was speaking at,  noted a lot of cars with burnt orange clad passengers and UT bumper stickers headed in the same direction.

That's when it hit me that 23rd ranked UT's season opener was happening with Maryland under their new head coach they stole from us at UH, kept us out of the Big XII and fired Charlie Strong after three seasons to make room for Tom Herman.

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Anticipation was high because Herman in his short time at UH went 22-4, won a championship in the American in his first season (13-1) on the UH campus, beat top five ranked teams such as Oklahoma, Louisville and Florida State in the Peach Bowl and returned the swagger to UH football that we had when I was going there in the early 80's.

Image result for Ed Oliver UHWith the H-Town Takeover in full effect, UH became once again a serious and cool recruiting destination for local high school talent considering where to play college football.

They also underscored their renewed commitment to keeping our best players in the 713 by recruiting Ed Oliver, a marvelous defensive tackle that was coveted by Power 5 schools like Alabama who people were shocked when he signed to play and stay here.  

Oliver has become a nightmare for offensive lines across the AAC and the college football landscape.

So anticipation was high with the Longhorn fanbase that Herman and his coaching staff that included former UH defensive coordinator and interim head coach Todd Orlando would bring that success to Forty Acres.

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Well, Herman's debut game in front of the Longhorn faithful at DKR-Memorial Stadium didn't go so well.   The Longhorns shockingly lost 51-41 to an underdog Maryland team at home that was picked in the preseason to finish sixth in their Big 10 East division.

Guess it's gonna take longer to fix UT's problems than they thought, huh?  The arrogant and impatient UT fan base was throwing stuff on the DKR-Memorial Stadium field after the game.

FYI Longhorn fans, Charlie Strong won his debut game yesterday at USF 31-17.

As a Cougar alum, I laughed all the way back to Houston when I heard the news.   Serves them right for screwing Charlie Strong the way they did.   At least he never lost a home opener while he was UT's coach.   And yeah, my dislike of everything burnt orange runs back to when we were members of the dearly departed Southwest Conference and I was walking UH's campus.

One of the other things that Herman and others (Kevin Sumlin) who have used UH to get Power 5 head coaching jobs elsewhere tend to forget is that UH sits in the middle of the most talent rich area for Texas high school football talent in the Houston metro area.  

UH is also a school with a chip on its shoulder.  We have always been condescendingly looked down upon by the UT's of the world.   We were supposed to be part of the Big XII during its 1996 formation but were screwed out of it.  

Being dissed by the Big XII last year only increased the size of that chip on UH's shoulder.

That chip on their shoulder attitude also filters down to the folks who eventually come to UH to play football there.  UH gets the kids who were overlooked by the Big XII and SEC schools who want to prove they are as good as those 4 and 5 star recruits that go to UT, Texas A&M and other Big XII and SEC schools who are part of the entitled football elite.

Image result for Tom Herman after Maryland lossIt's why Herman was able to go 13-1 in his first season and were in the running last year for a spot in the College Football Championship before injuries and a three game losing streak dropped us from being ranked number 6 in the nation to out of the polls.  

We do have talent here at UH.   If we could keep a quality coach as long as we did Bill Yeoman it would be able to sustain that success  It's probably why every time UH finds that coach the Power 5 schools steal him.

It's probably why the Big XII is 'scurred' to make us members because they know a UH that is a member of a Power 5 conference will be instantly competitive and the non-Texas Big XII schools are afraid they will never have a shot at recruiting Houston area talent if we are.

Ask Oklahoma about that.   I repeat, the UH player has a chip on his shoulder, is hungry for success and will work harder to beat the so called elite Power 5 player at Texas or A&M who because they play in the Big XII or SEC assume they are better than someone who plays in a 'lesser conference'.

And you can't replicate that 'us against the collegiate football world' mentality you have at UH and took advantage of to get your Power 5 conference school job with the phat contract.   It will be interesting to see if Herman can do so after becoming the first coach since John Mackovic to lose his UT debut game.

But until then. I'm going to enjoy watching karma kick UT in its burnt orange behind.

Friday, September 01, 2017

Happy 40th Birthday Fran Watson!

Fran Watson's photo.
Couldn't let today pass without wishing Fran Watson a very happy 40th birthday.

Y'all know I have much love for my trailblazing sis, who has weathered much adversity in her life and overcome it to blaze trails, get happily married to her spouse Kim and make history.

She is a much loved figure in our Houston advocate community, and someone who I admire and look up to as a role model.

Image result for fran watson houstonFran is not only a kick butt attorney, but was elected as the first African-American female president of the Houston GLBT Caucus.   She became only the second African American female Houston Pride Parade Grand Marshal last year, and spends some of her precious free time sitting on the boards of several organizations in our Houston area community.

Now she is taking on another challenge by running for the Texas Senate and taking on Republican incumbent senator Joan Huffman.

If she wins next November, she would become only the second ever Black woman in Texas history elected to the Texas Senate and the first since the legendary Barbara Jordan successfully did so in 1967.

So looking forward to seeing if that history gets made with the help of the SD 17 voters .  But in the meantime, happy milestone birthday Fran!

Can't wait to see what else you accomplish in your amazing life!

British Trans DJ Is The Face Of New L'Oreal Campaign

Photo published for Transgender DJ is the new face of L’Oreal | 9Style
As the right wing continues to fan the flames of anti-trans hatred, we just keep blazing trails and handling our business.

Meet British model DJ and activist Munroe Bergdorf.   The 30 year old girl like us  is breaking ground as the first out trans woman to appear in a L'Oreal Paris campaign in the UK.

The beauty brand is adding five new faces to their #allworthit campaign for their True Match Foundation, that matches 98% of the UK's skin tones.

And Bergdorf is excited about the opportunity to do so.

"If I can't relate to anybody that's in the media that's transgender, then hopefully someone can relate to me," she explains in the commercial. "I definitely set out to empower girls like me. I think that our history definitely wasn't being told. Not that many people know that it was trans women of color that fought for gay rights that started the Stonewall riots, which eventually led to the gay rights movement."

You can check out the commercial here.




TransGriot Update: I woke up a few hours later to find out that due to fragile white tears grousing from right wingers stoked by the Daily Mail tabloid L'Oreal Paris yanked her contract.

Very interesting to note that a gay white male can make a blatantly racist comment but still keep his contract, but a Black trans woman telling the truth about racism is grounds to yank hers and prove the point she made about racism in the first place.  .


 

Thursday, August 31, 2017

2017 Williams Watch- The US Open's Starting!

While I was busy dealing with Hurricane.TS Harvey dropping way too much rain on my hometown, the 137th annual US Open kicked off at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadow, NY on August 28.

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It's the last Grand Slam of the 2017 tennis season and the last one a pregnant Serena Williams will miss since she's due to give birth to her first child in September.  In bad news for the rest of the women's tennis tour and good news for all who love her, she's planning to return to the tennis tour in January 2018 for the Australian Open.

It's also the first Grand Slam tournament that Maria Sharapova is able to play in since coming off her suspension after the 2016 Australian Open for violation of the anti-doping policy.

One of the favorites in this year's US Open to no one's surprise is Venus Williams.  She's appeared in the Australian and Wimbledon finals this year and if she makes it to and wins the US Open, she will reclaim the world number one ranking for the first time since July 2002

August 29, 2017 - Fans fill Arthur Ashe Stadium during a match at the 2017 US Open. (USTA/Mike Lawrence)
The door has been opened for Big Sis to reclaim the number one ranking thanks to 2016 defending US Open champ Angelique Kerber getting upset in the first round in straight sets 6-3, 6-1 by Japan's Naomi Osaka along with Simona Halep's loss to Sharapova.

The sixth seeded Kerber wasn't the only big name that fell in the US Open women's tournament's first round.  Number 7 seeded Johanna Konta, number 2 seed Simona Halep, number 14 seeded Kristina Mladenovic, number 19 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, 21st seeded Ana Konjuh, 24th seeded Kiki Bertens, 26 seeded Anett Kontaveit, 28 seeded Lesia Tsurenko and 32 seeded Lauren Davis all fell in the opening round

Image result for US open tennis logoMeanwhile, ninth seeded Big Sis is handling her tennis business so far   It took her three sets, but survived her opening round match against Slovakia's Viktoria Kuzmova 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 to move on to the second round against Oceane Dodin of France.

Venus beat Dodin in straight sets 7-5, 6-4 to advance to her third round match against Greece's Maria Sakkari.  

The winner of this match will face in the fourth round the winner of the clash between Ekaterina Makarova and Carla Suarez Navarro.

Will Venus finally claim a Grand Slam title this year?   We'll just have to wait and see.  

Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Mixed Houston Harvey Emotions

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Today is Houston's 181st birthday, and I woke up to a sight I haven't seen in several days in terms of a sunrise and no angry rain swollen cloudy skies.  

Harvey is now rolling through Louisiana dropping rain as the waters recede here and we can try to get life back to H-town normal.  

While I woke up this morning with a roof over my head in my bed, I'm deeply cognizant of the fact that I was indeed blessed and fortunate to be in the sections of Houston that didn't flood this time.

There are other Houstonians who woke up this morning in the George R Brown Convention Center, the Toyota Center, NRG Arena and other shelters scatted across the 650 square miles of Texas territory we call home.   I have friends that range from escaped any serious damage to their homes and apartment domiciles to losing everything they owned in rising floodwaters.

Houston Police Department Sgt. Steve Perez  Photo: HPD
And so far 16 people have lost their lives including HPD Sgt. Steve Perez

So yes, this morning as the sun peeked through my windows for the first time in nearly a week, I'm pondering all that as the waters recede from this historical level flooding from Tropical Storm Harvey how lucky I was, and thinking about all the folks who weren't.  

Tuesday, August 29, 2017

Right On, Ashlee!

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If I haven't said it lately, I have much love and respect for Ashlee Marie Preston, my trailblazing Left Coast based sis who made history on June 28 by being tapped as an out Black trans woman to be the editor in chief of Wear Your Voice.

Since that announcement, she has been busy running Wear You Voice in addition to calling out Charlamagne Tha God about Lil Duval's transphobic Breakfast Club comments

This weekend she put Caitlyn Jenner's problematic behind on blast, and in the wake of this I heard elements of White trans feminine world criticizing Preston on social media for doing so.

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If Ashlee was calling out some TERF, right wing anti-trans politician, Black fundie pastor or assorted transphobic gay men like Milo, the peeps criticizing her now would be saying, 'Yay Ashlee!"
But since it's Caitlyn's behind that was being chewed on by a Black trans woman , y'all wanna trip.

I need y'all to chill with the tone policing and think long and hard about the inconvenient fact that some of y'all in White Trans World aren't happy with Jenner's long list of gaffes and WTF level comments as a trans Republican either, especially since she's a trans woman with your ethnic heritage. .

If you're wondering where I stand on this issue, it's with Ashlee.   I and others in Black Trans World saw the video of what happened post LA Trans Chorus event as a needed and necessary dragging.

And before y'all go there, my support of Ms. Preston is not because I've had my own issues with the WTF level commentary Jenner has uttered since coming out.

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My support of Preston in this case is rooted in the understanding that as someone who has been a Black trans leader for nearly 20 years, she is role modeling the tenets of Black leadership as outlined by the late University of Maryland political scientist Dr. Ron Walters.

Dr. Walters defined the task of Black leadership as providing the vision, resources, tactics, and strategies that facilitate the achievement of the objectives of Black people.
Image result for Dr Ronald WaltersThose goals according to Walters are freedom, integration, equality, liberation, or defined in the terms of specific public policies. It is a role that often requires and results in you as a Black leader disturbing the peace when you speak truth to power.

It also makes some people uncomfortable and causes controversy at times as well
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And as Black trans leaders, we not only have those Black leadership principles set forth by Dr. Walters to uphold, but some that are specific to us as Black trans people if we are going to properly represent our community. 
But the salient point I wish to bring up here is that as a Black trans leader, Preston is representing a different trans constituency in Black trans people who at times have issues and objectives that don't always neatly line up with or may be opposed to what peeps in White Trans World think or want.
When placed in those situations, we as Black trans leaders are compelled to call out situations that occur when what some of you want and support in White Trans World (like a Trump presidency) is harmful to our Black trans community.

Pro tip: Full throated support of Dolt 45 and his white supremacist administration by you as a white trans person is one of those issues that will get your wig snatched by me and every Black trans leader that's paying attention.

We will not give a rat's anus when we call your azz on it because we are repping our community. You can be mad and stay mad about us calling you out for supporting an administration that has declared war on transgender people.  Those anti-trans policies will have a disproportionate negative effect on the Black trans people we represent and other trans people of color.

So right on Ashlee!   Keep speaking truth to power, pointing out crap, and calling out injustice aimed at our community by friend, foe and frenemy.

And looking forward to the day I get to finally meet you in person.

Sunday, August 27, 2017

A Houston Harvey Mass Evacuation Would Have Been A Disaster

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Been hearing chatter critical of the decision that Mayor Sylvester Turner, Harris County Judge Ed Emmett and other Houston and Harris County leaders made to not call for an evacuation of Houston with Hurricane Harvey's Category 4 storm self bearing down on the Texas coast.

There are two major reasons why they probably called for Houstonians to shelter in place.

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The first is speed in the storm development.

Harvey went from being a disorganized tropical depression on the verge of dissipating as it crossed the Yucatan Peninsula to a Cat 4 hurricane in two days after it reached the Bay of Campeche. .

This storm caught everyone, myself included by surprise in terms of how fast it developed, and there simply wasn't enough time to plan an evacuation.

Image may contain: car and outdoorReason number two was everyone remembers what happened during the 2005 evacuation of Houston as a then Category 5 Hurricane Rita was bearing down on the Houston area and people tried to get out of its way mere weeks after Katrina devastated the New Orleans area and Mississippi Gulf coast.

That evacuation caused the worst traffic jam in Houston history and resulted in 100+ deaths

And that was in 95+ degree heat.   That traffic jam was so bad it took my family, who was trying to reach our relatives in Dallas, 13 hours just to get to Huntsville, TX a mere 100 miles away.  When they reached Huntsville they basically gave up, exited I-45  and successfully found a hotel room there to wait out the storm.  Rita eventually veered away from the Houston-Galveston area, weakened to a Category 3 hurricane before making landfall near the Texas-Louisiana border.

I still hear horror stories today about what a disaster it was and how long it took people to get to San Antonio, Austin or Dallas. .

Houston is now in 2017 way larger than it was in 2005, with over 6 million people living in our metro area.   The city of Houston itself is 627 square miles, which makes it larger than New York and Los Angeles in area

Image result for harvey hurricane Mayor Turner press conference Houston emergencySo to expect a smooth evacuation with a Cat 4 hurricane bearing down on the city that was projected to drop 25 to 30 inches of rain on the area was about as likely as Dolt 45 being accepted into Mensa.

Based on the flooding those same evacuation roads and freeways are currently experiencing, there would have been people who probably would have drowned in their cars because of that fast rising water that is nine to ten feet deep in some spots.

And it's why when this is over, the decision to have Houstonians shelter in place may have turned out to be the right call this time.

Saturday, August 26, 2017

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. .

Thursday, August 24, 2017

Waiting For Hurricane Harvey

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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.

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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.

Image result for hurricane harvey 2017 stores running out of suppliesThe 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

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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.

Image result for paula whiteWell, 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.


Wednesday, August 23, 2017

Arrest Made In Tee Tee Dangerfield Murder Case

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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.  

Tuesday, August 22, 2017

'What Would You Do?' Episode Tackles Transphobic Boutique

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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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Monday, August 21, 2017

Total Solar Eclipse Today

Photo published for The 2017 Total Solar Eclipse: What Time Can You See It?
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.

Sunday, August 20, 2017

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.

Image result for Howard University
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.