Can Use Some Help Again For Housing

You know I usually don't like to ask for monetary help unless I absolutely need it, but once again TransGriot readers, I'm at a point where it's necessary to call on your help again.  . 

I'm needing to move from my current space by March 1, and need to I need to raise a total of $2000 to pay for first months rent plus deposit for a new place to live, plus potential moving expenses. 

So far I've raised a quarter of that, and I'm $1500 away from the goal. 

I'm humbly asking for a little help and donations to get there.   No donation is too small.  $5, $10, $20 quickly adds up.

I do have a PayPal account, and it has a DONATE button on the left hand side of it marked TransGriot Tip Jar.    transgriot.blogspot.com 

The direct link to it is https://www.paypal.me/TransGriot


If you can, thanks for doing so. For those who have donate already, I thank you.     

Emma Gonzalez Gun Control Rally Speech

As you may be aware, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School senior  Emma Gonzalez put Trump, the Republican Party and the NRA on blast during her powerful speech at a gun control rally in For Lauderdale, FL a few days ago that has since gone viral.

Here's  Ms. Gonzalez's speech.   The text of it is below the video.

We haven't already had a moment of silence in the House of Representatives, so I would like to have another one. Thank you.

Every single person up here today, all these people should be home grieving. But instead we are up here standing together because if all our government and President can do is send thoughts and prayers, then it's time for victims to be the change that we need to see. Since the time of the Founding Fathers and since they added the Second Amendment to the Constitution, our guns have developed at a rate that leaves me dizzy. The guns have changed but our laws have not.

We certainly do not understand why it should be harder to make plans with friends on weekends than to buy an automatic or semi-automatic weapon. In Florida, to buy a gun you do not need a permit, you do not need a gun license, and once you buy it you do not need to register it. You do not need a permit to carry a concealed rifle or shotgun. You can buy as many guns as you want at one time.

I read something very powerful to me today. It was from the point of view of a teacher. And I quote: When adults tell me I have the right to own a gun, all I can hear is my right to own a gun outweighs your student's right to live. All I hear is mine, mine, mine, mine.

Instead of worrying about our AP Gov chapter 16 test, we have to be studying our notes to make sure that our arguments based on politics and political history are watertight. The students at this school have been having debates on guns for what feels like our entire lives. AP Gov had about three debates this year. Some discussions on the subject even occurred during the shooting while students were hiding in the closets. The people involved right now, those who were there, those posting, those tweeting, those doing interviews and talking to people, are being listened to for what feels like the very first time on this topic that has come up over 1,000 times in the past four years alone.

I found out today there's a website shootingtracker.com. Nothing in the title suggests that it is exclusively tracking the USA's shootings and yet does it need to address that? Because Australia had one mass shooting in 1999 in Port Arthur (and after the) massacre introduced gun safety, and it hasn't had one since. Japan has never had a mass shooting. Canada has had three and the UK had one and they both introduced gun control and yet here we are, with websites dedicated to reporting these tragedies so that they can be formulated into statistics for your convenience.

I watched an interview this morning and noticed that one of the questions was, do you think your children will have to go through other school shooter drills? And our response is that our neighbors will not have to go through other school shooter drills. When we've had our say with the government -- and maybe the adults have gotten used to saying 'it is what it is,' but if us students have learned anything, it's that if you don't study, you will fail. And in this case if you actively do nothing, people continually end up dead, so it's time to start doing something.

We are going to be the kids you read about in textbooks. Not because we're going to be another statistic about mass shooting in America, but because, just as David said, we are going to be the last mass shooting. Just like Tinker v. Des Moines, we are going to change the law. That's going to be Marjory Stoneman Douglas in that textbook and it's going to be due to the tireless effort of the school board, the faculty members, the family members and most of all the students. The students who are dead, the students still in the hospital, the student now suffering PTSD, the students who had panic attacks during the vigil because the helicopters would not leave us alone, hovering over the school for 24 hours a day.

There is one tweet I would like to call attention to. So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled for bad and erratic behavior. Neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities again and again. We did, time and time again. Since he was in middle school, it was no surprise to anyone who knew him to hear that he was the shooter. Those talking about how we should have not ostracized him, you didn't know this kid. OK, we did. We know that they are claiming mental health issues, and I am not a psychologist, but we need to pay attention to the fact that this was not just a mental health issue. He would not have harmed that many students with a knife.

And how about we stop blaming the victims for something that was the student's fault, the fault of the people who let him buy the guns in the first place, those at the gun shows, the people who encouraged him to buy accessories for his guns to make them fully automatic, the people who didn't take them away from him when they knew he expressed homicidal tendencies, and I am not talking about the FBI. I'm talking about the people he lived with. I'm talking about the neighbors who saw him outside holding guns.

If the President wants to come up to me and tell me to my face that it was a terrible tragedy and how it should never have happened and maintain telling us how nothing is going to be done about it, I'm going to happily ask him how much money he received from the National Rifle Association.

You want to know something? It doesn't matter, because I already know. Thirty million dollars. And divided by the number of gunshot victims in the United States in the one and one-half months in 2018 alone, that comes out to being $5,800. Is that how much these people are worth to you, Trump? If you don't do anything to prevent this from continuing to occur, that number of gunshot victims will go up and the number that they are worth will go down. And we will be worthless to you.

To every politician who is taking donations from the NRA, shame on you.

(Crowd chants, shame on you.)

If your money was as threatened as us, would your first thought be, how is this going to reflect on my campaign? Which should I choose? Or would you choose us, and if you answered us, will you act like it for once? You know what would be a good way to act like it? I have an example of how to not act like it. In February of 2017, one year ago, President Trump repealed an Obama-era regulation that would have made it easier to block the sale of firearms to people with certain mental illnesses.

From the interactions that I had with the shooter before the shooting and from the information that I currently know about him, I don't really know if he was mentally ill. I wrote this before I heard what Delaney said. Delaney said he was diagnosed. I don't need a psychologist and I don't need to be a psychologist to know that repealing that regulation was a really dumb idea.

Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa was the sole sponsor on this bill that stops the FBI from performing background checks on people adjudicated to be mentally ill and now he's stating for the record, 'Well, it's a shame the FBI isn't doing background checks on these mentally ill people.' Well, duh. You took that opportunity away last year.

The people in the government who were voted into power are lying to us. And us kids seem to be the only ones who notice and our parents to call BS.Companies trying to make caricatures of the teenagers these days, saying that all we are self-involved and trend-obsessed and they hush us into submission when our message doesn't reach the ears of the nation, we are prepared to call BS. Politicians who sit in their gilded House and Senate seats funded by the NRA telling us nothing could have been done to prevent this, we call BS. They say tougher guns laws do not decrease gun violence. We call BS. They say a good guy with a gun stops a bad guy with a gun. We call BS. They say guns are just tools like knives and are as dangerous as cars. We call BS. They say no laws could have prevented the hundreds of senseless tragedies that have occurred. We call BS. That us kids don't know what we're talking about, that we're too young to understand how the government works. We call BS.

If you agree, register to vote. Contact your local congresspeople. Give them a piece of your mind.

(Crowd chants) Throw them out.

Daniela Vega To Be A 2018 Oscar Awards Presenter

The Oscars happen on March 4 in Hollywood, and the initial group of people tapped to be awards presenters has been announced.  For the first time, one of the twelve instage presenters for this year's 90th edition of the Academy Awards will be an out trans person.

Rge person given the honor of repping the trans community on that Oscar stage will be Chilean actress Daniela Vega.

The 28 year old Vega is the star of the Oscar nominated film A Fantastic Woman in which she plays Marina Vidal, the trans protagonist in this Sebastian Lelio movie.   She loses her life partner Orlando, ,and her trans status makes it difficult for her to mourn Orlando's death.

Hmm, another movie I'll have to check out.

 

A Fantastic Woman was nominated in the Best Foreign Language film category, and after getting award nominations and international acclaim for the role of Marina, there was buzz building that she could possibly be the person that finally made Academy Awards history and become the first out trans person ever nominated for an Oscar. 

While that Best Actress nomination unfortunately didn't happen for Vega this time, she did get the consolation prize of being the first out trans person ever to be named as an Oscar presenter.

Congrats Daniela for making that history, and hopefully one day you'll be back on that Oscar stage to actually claim an Oscar of your own.

T- 24 Hours Until Texas Early Voting Starts

Texas yellow 2018-19 voter registration card -CHECK.   Texas drivers license -CHECK.   

Texas primary election early voting starts tomorrow, and as you can tell I am oh so ready to do my part to select the best Democratic candidates available to take the Lone Star State and my country back from the Trumpers hellbent on ruining both. 

Early voting will run from February 20 until March 2.   During this period you can vote at any early voting center location of your choice.   On March 6, the primary election day you must do so on that date at your regular precinct location.

If you need information about where to vote, times the early voting polling places are open, check your county clerk's websites (this is the Harris County one as an example) or the VoteTexas.gov website. 

So make it easy on yourself and handle your voting business during the early voting period at a time and place of your choosing.   And if you aren't sure who to vote for,  these are the folks that TransGriot has endorsed for the primary. 

This is also the sample ballot for you to peruse.

Many political groups from the Houston GLBT caucus to HBAD to the Tejano Democrats and unions have also put out their own endorsement lists, and the Houston Chronicle and other major newspapers across the state have done endorsement sement candidate interviews

If you are unhappy about the current misguided direction this country and the state of Texas is headed in, here's where you start doing your civic duty to change that.   Consider this as a practice run before the main event on November 6

And if you missed the registration deadline to participate in the primary, you still have time to get registered for the critical to our democracy midterm election this NOvember.

So handle your electoral business.

My Trip To Wakanda

I went to check out Black Panther today at the AMC 8 Houston.   I've been looking for an excuse to go there since they bought it, and am happy I now have another inside the Loop movie theater option to choose when I'm ready to see a movie.

For you Houstonians going 'What movie theater downtown?", it was the former Angelika Theater in Bayou Place that closed down in August 2010, then reopened as a Sundance Cinema before being bought out by AMC where I attended the 1 PM screening of it.

But back to Black Panther.   Was it worth the wait?   All I have to say about it for now since I don't want to spoil it for you folks who haven't seen it yet is hell yeah and WOW!

It was so nice not only seeing myself represented on the silver screen, but so many kick butt women.

I also watched Black Panther in 3D, and will probably see it again    This movie is shattering box office records, and is cruising toward a $210-215 million dollar opening weekend, which is the highest ever for any Marvel Cinematic Universe film,

Vanillacentric privileged people are hating on it for doing so to the point they are trying to 'scurr' other white folks into NOT going to see the movie by posting fake news of violence that hasn't occurred.

Oh well, y'all can #BeMad and #StayMad about that.  We're going to keep bum rushing the multiplexes to see it

One of the things that did bother me was having a young white male in line at the theater I went to see it at in downtown Houston show up with a small backpack and roller suitcase. 

The reason it bothered me was because I remember the mass shooting that happened in an Aurora, CO movie theater back in 2012.  It was why I was concerned this person's suitcase and backpack weren't inspected before they let him in.

It became a problem halfway through my viewing of the film when it was stopped and the lights went up in the auditorium after the folks who had been seated by him in the back part of the theater ( I was in the sixth row) noticed he wasn't there and reported it to the ticket booth and manager.

They searched the auditorium for a few minutes to make sure he and his bags weren't there before turning the auditorium lights back down and resuming the film.

Despite that drama and having to do a sprint to the bathroom when my attempt to hold my bladder until the movie ended became an emergency sprint to the lavatory when my bladder said 'screw what you want ' and demanded immediate attention.

I was planning on seeing it again anyway.,and now I have even more of a reason to do so

When Will You See and Hear Black Trans People, Black Legacy Orgs?

If you are wishing to become competent on transgender human rights issues, wouldn't hurt for you to hire the people who are experts at it and who are also culturally competent in the issues that ail Black America as well-TransGriot,  June 2015


Been talking about this it seems for years on this blog, and I and Black Trans America are still waiting for our legacy orgs to actually hire Black trans folks to do advocay work for ours and the Black TBLGQ community.

Black trans women are and have been in a state of emergency for the last several years.   We're getting slaughtered out there, without even a peeps from our legacy orgs or even Black politicians at the national stating that our Black Lives Matter.

Really makes me pine for the halcyon days of the Obama Administration when then Attorney General Loretta Lynch

"Let me also speak directly to the transgender community itself. Some of you have lived freely for decades. Others of you are still wondering how you can possibly live the lives you were born to lead. But no matter how isolated or scared you may feel today, the Department of Justice and the entire Obama administration wants you to know that we see you; we stand with you; and we will do everything we can to protect you going forward. Please know that history is on your side." 

This country was founded on a promise of equal rights for all, and we have always managed to move closer to that promise, little by little, one day at a time. It may not be easy—but we’ll get there together.

Where y'all at NAACP?   Your silence as trans people's humanity and human rights have been attacked has been deafening.   Black trans folks, their parents, and their supporters need to see and hear the nation's most respected and legendary civil rights organization stand up for Black  transgender Americans the way you did for our people over much of the 20th century.

Another US Mass Shooting Nothing Will Be Done About To Prevent The Next One

These school shootings are happening so often I barely comment on them anymore. 

This Valentine's Day massacre wasn't conducted by Al Capone's mobsters in a Chicago warehouse.  It was in a Parkland, FL high school by a 19 year old 'white identity extremist' named Nikolas Cruz.

The antidote to stopping them has been obvious to me for a long time. 

*Ban the ownership of assault weapons like AR-15's by civilians
 *Institute instant background checks for anyone wishing to buy a gun tied to the National Crime Database
*Allow the CDC to study the effect of gun violence
*Ban high capacity magazines
*Vote people out of Congress who take NRA money and block any attempts at passing sensible gun control legislation
*Kick the Republicans out of control of Congress and the White House,
*Keep the GOP out of power for the next 30-40 years so we can FIX the gun violence problem 

Lori Alhadeff,  mother of 14 year old Alyssa Alhadeff, one of the 17 people slain in this latest incident, called out Trump on CNN.



How many more kids have to die before something is done about this problem?   Will it take the death of the child of a senior NRA leader?   The death of a GOP congress member's child or a GOP congressmember before that happens?

That's a good question.   But thoughts and prayers damned sure aren't going to stop these mass shootings.  Actions like banning assault weapons will.

Happy Wakanda Day!

The hate is still flowing from vanillacentric privileged folks mad that Black Panther is hitting the multiplexes today and probably by the end of this weekend will be the number one movie in America

You mad about that?   Stay mad.

White supremacists are tripping about this film to the point where they were plotting to jack with the film's scores on the Rotten Tomatoes website by inundating it with negative reviews.  Wouldn't be surprised in FOX Noise VP John Moody comes up with another racist op-ed attacking this movie.

Even Breitbart's shady azz, that never missed an opportunity to demonize trans people and the LGBTQ community, had the nerve to post a story asking where was the TBLGQ representation in this movie.   Your azzes were mute about the topic when it came to Star Wars and every other white dominated superhero movie, so stay mute about this one.

While they hate, Black Panther is selling out theaters and has become a cultural touchstone moment for Black America.

Happy Black History Month!   What was that noise Hollywood that movies with Black superheroes don't draw a great box office?   Blade ring a bell?

It's also nice seeing a superhero who looks like us and coincidentally happens to be royalty on top of it.  It is a joy to see a movie that is unapologetically immersed in our African culture.   It is also going to be so cool to see all the kick butt women who are part of this movie from Queen Mother Ramonda to Princess Shuri, the genius kid sister of T'Challa, to the Dora Milaje.

So no conservadevils, we will not allow you to steal our joy in Black Panther debuting now that Wakanda Day is finally here.

It's even more important for our kids to see themselves reflected on the silver screen   That's probably the major reason why you conservafools and vanillacentric privileged clueless peeps are hatin' on the film.. 

This is not 'just a movie' to Black America.  My friends who have already seen it are raving about it in their words being a love letter to Blackness, and it's making me even more determined to see it this weekend.

Well, y'all can be mad and stay mad as we in Black America and our allies and accomplices head to the multiplexes to see this long awaited  movie which will probably end up getting a sequel.

A sequel in which if they follow the Black Panther story, will end up with Princess Shuri becoming Queen of Wakanda and by extension, the next Black Panther. 

Moni's Talking Trans Issues At TSU

So how did I spend my Valentine's Day afternoon and early evening?  Discussing transgender issues to a class at Texas Southern University.

One of the things I've wanted to do for years is have more conversations about trans issues on HBCU campuses.  I was thrilled to get an invite from Dr Rockell Burton to do just that for her graduate level Gender and Communications class.   

It's just ironic it happened on Valentine's Day.

Three graduate level classes were combined to hear yours truly talk about trans issues from a Black perspective, and thanks to Dr Burton for the invitation so I could be on The Yard for it

One of the points I wanted to leave with the students in that class was that Black trans issues are Black community issues.   I also wanted to make the point that trans men are men, trans women are women, and our Black trans lives need to matter to the cis Black community because we are an intertwined part of the community..

Looking forward to the next time and next conversation we have

Happy Valentine's Day 2018

Happy Valentine's Day people!

For those of you who are happily married, engaged, or booed up on this day for lovers I'm not mad at you.  I'll just be buying my own chocolate instead of having someone get it for me. 

I've seen many of my family, friends and acquaintances fall in love, and in some cases gotten married.  I've even been the bridesmaid in one friend;s weeding back in 2004. Some of those relationships are ongoing, others fell by the wayside for various reasons.

While I have a lot of talents in various areas, there are some things that have been difficult for me to have happen for me in my life.  One of those difficult things for me is being in a sustained long term relationship.   Maybe it was because I missed the signs early or the right person still hasn't come into my life yet, but I'm still single.  I envy you peeps who are happily coupled, with or without a marriage license.

I knew when I transitioned in 1994 that one of the things that could possibly happen is I could possibly be spending the rest of my life by myself and never be in a committed relationship again because it's hard for a trans women, and especially Black trans women to find love.

More often than not in the early years of my transition I saw marriages contentiously break up because one partner transitioned.

But over the last few years I've been seeing it happen for more than a few trans people who are either hooked up with a cis partner or what has been happening more frequently here and around the world, two trans people marrying each other.  .I'm even seeing it happen more often of people staying together and living up to the 'till death do us part' portion of their wedding vows when one person transitions.

I was also blessed to have a ringside seat as Nikki Loyd found love with Will while simultaneously fighting for and winning her landmark Araguz v. Delgado case that cemented the right for Texas trans people to get legally married   It's been fun to see how their fab life has transpired since that court victory, because it's obvious when I'm spending quality time around them they are still madly in love with each other.

But love in Trans, Bi and SGL World is not necessarily heteronormative.  There are bi couples, same gender loving couple and even polyamorous ones.  Some of them have lasted for decades, some till death do us part, while others broke apart because of drama.

To borrow the words of the comedian J. Anthony Brown, 'same sex marriage, same relationship drama'.

One of the things I also want to ponder on this Valentine's Day is what is happening in the ranks of trans attracted men   These are the cis men who see trans women as viable long term relationship and lifetime partners, but in many cases have to come to grips first with the idea they are attracted to trans women. 

Once they get past that hurdle, they then have to get past the genitalia issue and deal with the attacks on their masculinity for daring to love a transgender woman be she pre-op, post-op or non operative.

But those conversations are going to have to be had and led by trans attracted men. 

As much as we trans women would like that set of 'they unapologetically love trans women' epiphanies to happen like yesterday, just as we trans people have had to give people time to come to grips with our trans evolutionary process, we must do the same for trans attracted men. 

Once the trans attracted men evolve, one of the things that must happen in the wake of that is they will need to come out of the shadows and unequivocally state that they love us, there's nothing wrong with that, and society can kiss their azzes if they don't like it.

And that might take a celebrity doing that to break that psychic door down or our younger generations making that happen.

When will that day happen?   Damned good question.   But it does need to happen soon because we need to expeditiously erase the stigma surrounding trans relationships involving cisgender people, because that stigma I believe is a factor driving some of the anti-trans intimate partner violence that can lead to our deaths.

So to all of you peeps who are booed up on this day or well on your way to jumping the broom into the land of matrimony, congratulations.    I'll be on the sideline cheering you on and hoping for all of you to have long, healthy and happy relationships, no matter what it looks like to the outside world or what genitalia is concealed in your underwear.

.Happy Valentine's Day people!

Jeanne Ives Peddles Transphobia In Illinois Gubernatorial Campaign Ad

Illinois state legislator Jeanne Ives  (R)  is a longtime foe of the Illinois TBLGQ community who is primary challenging Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner (R).

A lot of people in the Land of Lincoln are unhappy with her after she unleashed an attack ad aimed at Rauner that ended up offending many people in Illinois, and members of her own party. 

The misleading ad featured not only a bearded man in drag, but attacked the Women's March, the Chicago Teachers Union and Latinx immigrants

 
She tred to play of the ad as 'edgy' and 'informative'/  Yeah, that what you conservaBeckys always pivot to when you get caught peddling racist, transphobic and homophobic crap.



Illinois Republican Party chair Tim Schneider stated that Ives should pull the ad and immediately apologize to the Illinoisans who were negatively portrayed in a cowardly attempt to stoke division."

"There is no place in the Illinois Republican Party for rhetoric that attacks our fellow Illinoisans based on their race, gender or humanity,"Schneider said.   

Gov Rauner's campaign quickly called out the ad, stating "This TV ad has no place in Illinois.  It just shows how unelectable Representative Ives really is."

But in the wake of that ad, Ives campaign has received $2.5 million in donations from a conservative mehgadonor who funded Roy moore's failed campaign.   It has also raised her profile amongst those Illinois conservatives wishing to send Gov Rauner packing.

So stay tuned to see if this transphobe who also hated on gay marriage back in 2013 gets out of the Republican gubernatorial primary

TransGriot Houston Area Texas Primary Endorsements

Early voting for the Texas primary elections starts on Monday and runs until March 2, with the primary election itself on March 6.    To help you TransGriot Texas readers out, it's time for me to announce the folks that I am endorsing for various races in the Democratic primary

I went through the Big 4 endorsements, plus my own observations about some of the candidates to come up with this list.   May be adding to it over the next few days until the start of early voting.     

Governor- Lupe Valdez 
Lt Governor- Mike Collier

US Senate- Beto O'Rourke
US House District 2- Todd Litton 
US House District 7- Laura Moser 
US House District 10- Madeline K. Eden
US House District 14- Adrienne Bell
US House District 18- Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee 
US House District 22- Sri Preston Kulkami
US House District 29- Sen. Sylvia R. Garcia  
US House District 36- Dayna Steele

GLO Commissioner- Tex Morgan
State Board of Education #4  Lawrence Allen 

TX State Senate 15- Sen. John Whitmire
TX State Senate 17- Fran Watson 

TX House 27- Rep. Ron Reynolds
TX House 28- Megan Scoggins
TX House 29- Dylan Forbis
TX House 126-Natali Hurtado
TX House 133- Sandra G. Moore 
TX House 134- Allison Sawyer
TX House 138- Adam Milasincic
TX House 139- Randy Bates
TX House 142- No Endorsement
TX House 146- Rep. Shawn Nicole Thierry
TX House 147- Rep. Garnet Coleman

TX 14th Court of Appeal #3 - Jerry Zimmerer 

TX 14th Court of Appeals #8-  Margaret Meg' Poissant
55th Civil District Court- Latosha Lewis Payne 
113th Civil District Court- Rabeea Collier
185th Civil District Court- Jason Luong

188th Civil District Court - Scot 'Doll' Dollinger
234th Civil District Court - Lauren Reeder
269th Civil District Court- Shampa Mukerji
281st Civil District Court- George Arnold

246th Family District Court - Angela Graves-Harrington
280th Family District Court - Barbara J. Stalder
309th Family District Court - Linda Marie Dunson
313th Family District Court - Natalia Oakes
County Criminal Court #2 - Harold J. Landreneau
County Criminal Court #5 - David M. Fleischer
County Criminal Court #7 - Andrew A. Wright
County Criminal Court #11 - Gus Saper
County Criminal Court #12 - Juan J. Aguirre
County Criminal Court #13 - Raul Rodriguez
County Criminal Court #15 - Kris Ougrah
County Probate Court #2 - Jim L. Peacock
County Probate Court #4 - James Horwitz
County Civil Court at Law #2 - Jim Kovach
Harris County District Clerk - Marilyn Burgess
Harris County Clerk - Diane Trautman
County Treasurer - Dylan Osborne
Harris County Commissioner #2 - Adrian Garcia
Harris County Commissioner #4 - Penny Shaw
Harris County Justice of the Peace Pr 3, #2 - Don Coffey
Harris County Justice of the Peace Pr 7, #2 - Audrie Lawton
County School Trustee At Large #3 - Elvonte Patton
County School Trustee Pos 6, Pct 1 - Danyahel (Danny) Norris

Other Texas Democratic Primary races I'm endorsing
US House District 27-Vanessa Edwards Foster 
TX House 62- Valerie Hefner    
TX House 75- Rep. Mary Gonzalez
TX House 94- Finnigan Jones   
TX House 123-  Rep. Diego Bernal

Texas Supreme Court Place #2- Steve Kirkland
116th Civil District Court- Tonya Parker
Williamson County Justice of the Peace Pct 4  Stacy Hackenberg

TransGriot Perv Watch- Kentucky Fried GOP Predator

As of this moment the GOP controlled Kentucky legislature is attempting to pass HB 326 an anti-trans bill once again aimed at school kids

But if they are looking for the real predators, the Kentucky Republican Party needs to look in their own ranks for them because the predators you're looking for are #StillNotTrans

But we have overwhelming evidence of republican Party officials or legislators doing kinky things in public bathrooms or doing the things they screech at others not to do.  .

The latest example of a GOP predator being busted for his crimes is in the state of Kentucky.

71 year old former Campbell County District Judge Timothy Nolan has pleaded guilty to numerous felony charges that included human trafficking of adults, promoting human trafficking of minors and unlawful transaction with minors.

He was indicted on 28 felony counts and two misdemeanor counts, but as part of a plea deal with Atty General Andy Beshear (D) Special Prosecutions Division, Nolan pleaded guilty to 21 counts against 19 victims for crimes that occurred between 2010 and 2017.

One of those crimes was coercing a child under age 18 to engage in commercial sexual activity

Nolan was an enthusiastic voice for the Tea Party on many local issues and a local campaigner for Donald Trump.  Nolan was elected to the Campbell County School Board in 2016

Prosecutors recommended sentences totaling 20 years plus a $100,000 fine   Nolan is being held in the Campbell County Detention center pending sentencing, which is scheduled to occur on March 29.

Joy Reid Shuts Down Another Conservafool

When are these conservafools going to learn not to step to Joy Reid with their 'alternative facts' because she will call them on it?

My media shero once again had to shut down an attempt by a conservative to spread disinformation on her show.   This time it was Amy Tarkanian, the former head of the Nevada Republican Party, trying desperately to spin and defend Trump from Reid calling out the pattern of being drawn to abusive Republican men and not calling them out on it.

As you probably guessed, Joy wasn't having it.   Reid challenged Tarkanian to come up with just one instance that Trump defended a woman who had accused a Republican male of sexual assault or abuse. 

And as you probably guessed, Tarkanian couldn't do it.   Enjoy the video

Meet The 1st Black Player Ever On The US Olympic Hockey Team

FOX Noise's John Moody may hate the diverse US Winter Olympic team, but I don't. 

One of the cool benefits of that team diversity is we have Black History being made by our 2018 winter Olympians in several events.   One of those events is hockey.

Because of a dispute with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) concerning several issues, the NHL refused to allow its players to participate in the Olympics this year.   That meant for the first time in three decades, the US team was going to be composed primarily of collegiate players.   One of the collegiate players who was selected to play on this men's Olympic hockey squad was Jordan Greenway of Canton, NY.

And with that selection, Greenway makes history.  When he steps on the ice at PyeongChang on February 14 the first African American ever to play on a USA Olympic hockey team.

“I dreamed of [it] as a kid, and I didn’t think it was going to happen before I graduated college, but I’m fortunate that it did, and I just couldn’t be more excited!” Greenway said in a CNN interview.

The 20 year old Greenway is also the tallest player on the team at 6 feet 5 inches and 238 pounds.  He was drafted by the NHL's Minnesota Wild in 2015, but decided to complete his college education at Boston University . Greenway also has a younger brother, JD who plays the sport.

“I’m the first African American to play hockey for the United States at the Olympics but hopefully I’m the first of many,” Greenway said. “Hopefully these kids go out, try something different, play hockey, and hopefully I see a lot more playing in the near future.”

I'll have even more incentive to not only watch the USA men's Olympic hockey team, but root for its success.   The last time a USA men's team won gold was when I was a high school senior at Lake Placid in 1980

Shut Up Fool Awards- Winter Olympic Fools Edition

The 2018 Winter Games kicked off this morning at 5 AM CST, but NBC is waiting until prime time later tonight to broadcast the Opening Ceremonies from PyeongChang, South Korea. 

In case you're wondering, PyeongChang is only 60 miles from the DMZ    Competition is already underway in several events and the Olympics will continue until February 25

So in honor of the Winter Games, the Shut Up Fool Awards for the duration will be in a gold, silver and bronze level fools format until the Olympic flame is extinguished .

So let the Games begin and let the fools be called out.

Our Bronze medalist fool is Education (Mis)Secretary Betsy DeVos, who is whining because she doesn't like all the criticism she gets and it's hurting her feelings..

Well boo boo kitty, when you spent years trying to kill public education and bashing teachers unions, you are going to get major pushback and derision for that.

Our Silver medalist fool is FOX Noise VP John Moody, who published a hideously racist and homophobic op-ed stating that Team USA will lose medals because the team is too Black and too gay.

Your white hood is showing, John.    Some of those non white and gay peeps you're hating on are contenders for medals.

Our Gold medalist fool is Alex Jones.   He spent too much time taking hallucinogenic drugs before his latest InfoWars show and spit out the ridiculous claim that the transgender movement is 'paving the way for cyborgs to infiltrate and destroy our society.

Really fool?   Whatever drugs you're doing, you need to put them down.   Caprica Six is not coming for you or your intelligence deficient sheeple.

And oh yeah,shut the hell up fool! / 

Number 4- Rest in Power and Peace Celine Walker

Not long after I learned about the murder  of Tonya Harvey in Buffalo, because of the misgendering of her by law enforcement and Jacksonville, FL media, I'm just now discovering thanks to reader Kayla Gore about the murder of the fourth trans person we have lost to anti-trans violence in 2018 and the second we have lost this week in 36 year old Celine Walker.

Walker, who was from Brandon, FL , was found shot to death in a room at the Extended Stay America on Skinner Lake Drive near St John Town Center.   The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office was called to the location after Walker's body was found at 8 PM EST Sunday.

The reason the media has misgendered her is because it started with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, who is claiming they have a policy that does not refer to victims as transgender. 

Well Jacksonville Sheriff's Department, y'all need to deal with the reality that trans people exists, because it was not only disrespectful to refer to Celine as a man, not stating from the outset that a transgender female was murdered (see how easy that was Jacksonville Sheriff's Office) has delayed your investigation

Many of us in the trans community who know her don't know, don't want to know or don't care to know a trans person's dead name.  If you tell us what your name is, we respect that. 

And her Black trans life mattered

Police and JSD investigators did canvass the hotel and the area talking to find out if they heard or saw anything that will help bring Celine's killer to justice.  If you have any information about this case, you are urged to call Crimestopper  at 866-845-TIPS (8477)

As of yet no word about a memorial service for Celine, but when I find out I'll pass that info to you as soon as I receive it.

Rest in power and peace, Celine.  Everyone who loved you will not rest until the person who killed you is brought to justice.