Fayetteville, AR Police Investigating Death Of Trans Woman

Last night I received a tip from an area TransGriot reader concerning the death of a 28 year old trans woman in the Fayetteville, AR area named Amrita Tehuti Mekti 

The reader sent me the message because they were concerned that so far no media outlet in the Fayetteville area (home city of the University of Arkansas) is covering the story. The Fayetteville PD have so far been tight lipped about what they know in this developing case.
This media story popped up only after I posted the initial tweet last night concerning this case. Back to discussing our fallen sister. Amrita was well known and loved in the Fayetteville area trans and GNC community, and loved supernatural and sci-fi stories.  
According to the Facebook post of the inTRANSitive group,
Amrita was a loving presence at every inTRANSitive event, fed the community at their weekly dinners at St. Martin’s Episcopal Center, attended almost every demonstration or protest in the  Fayetteville area, and has a special space in the hearts of many people across and beyond the Fayetteville area 

She was found dead in her apartment at The Gables complex at 1526 Oakland Ave. there following a welfare check on Monday after being missing a week . The details of her death are currently unknown and under investigation. An investigation that if foul play is involved, the community wants to see justice expeditiously happen for Amrita and all who loved her.

There were no signs of suicide, and her body is being sent to a crime lab in Little Rock for an autopsy. If it is confirmed that she was indeed murdered, she would unfortunately become the ninth person lost this year in the US due to anti-trans violence She would also saly become the sixth Black trans person and seventh trans POC murdered in the US this year.

Rest in power and peace Amrita, we lost you way too soon.

#BlackTransLIvesMatter #SayHerName TransGriot Update: The autopsy ruled out foul play in Amrita's death...

What Would You Do? Will Charlotte Say Yes To A Trans Woman Buying A Dress?

This was a What Would You Do trans discrimination scenario that they had run before in New Jersey, but this time they were running it in Charlotte, NC.

As we know all too well, HB 2 was passed, and the WWYD producers decided to see how the citizens o that city would react when the saw a boutique owner refusing to say yes to letting a trans woman buy a dress

This was voradcast last year, but y'all still need to see it.   We do have people who get us and support us.  Will they show up when the WWYD hidden cameras are rolling? .

Texas Municipal Elections Today

Today also happens to be the day set aside for municipal elections in Texas.   Polls opened at 7 AM and will be open until 7 PM CDT/MDT.

Just an FYI, if you're in line when the polls close, stay there until you get to cast your ballot.

There are some key ones I'm watching, one in suburban Pearland and another in the town of New Hope, TX, northeast of Dallas.

In New Hope, Jess Herbst will be attempting to get reelected as mayor of the town of 524 residents.  She was mayor pro tem when the previous mayon Johnny Hamm died.   After being appointed as mayor, came out as trans.   Now she's running her first campaign as a out trans person against Angel Hamm, the wife of the deceased mayor and two other candidates. 

We'll see if she was successful in getting reelected when the polls close, because in New Hope, the most votes wins.

The other Texas municipal elections I'm watching are both in Pearland.  Dalia Kasseb makes her second attempt to get elected to a Pearland City Council seat.

The Pearland ISD has two races that could determine control of the school board and lead to the ousting of their homophobic and transphobic superintendent Dr. John Kelly

One of the school board candidate challenging a PISD incumbent board member is Daniel Hernandez, the imam of the local mosque

And as you probably guessed, Islamophobia and dirty tricks have been deployed in both those races.

Here's hoping the fair minded citizenry of Pearland turn out and send a message to the haters that Pearland is a diverse city, and representation on the school board and on city council need to reflect that .

We'll know for sure what happened when the polls close and the votes get counted.

TransGriot Update:  While Dalia made the runoff in her council race, Jess wasn't as fortunate on election night.  

#TransmenWeSeeUAndHearU

An MKR poem (photo credit-Rebecca Jackson)

I believe Black trans men and Black trans women are indivisible
It hurt to hear you say you feel invisible
It's something you've been saying and it's nothing new
#TransmenWeSeeUAndHearU

Black trans men exist, that's no lie
It's a fact no one can deny
You face anti-trans violence on your trans journey
And deal with unique issues we're just beginning to see

Brothers like Marcelle, Alexander and Kylar paved the \way
You're trailblazing kings we see every day
Brother Carter who is unapologetically Black
Had the vision to found what became BTAC 

Acknowledging more transmasculine history
James McHarris and Wilmer Broadnax on our trans family tree
Shedding tears for too soon departed sons
Like the amazing Blake Brockington 

Can't forget the brothers who are nondisclosed
They keep me on point and on my activist toes
My trans military brothers on foreign shores
Fighting for freedom, mine and yours

Kortney blazing trails in movies and high tech
Dezjorn and Laith ripping runways among other projects
You're husbands, businessmen, gentlemen and scholars
So proud of you transmen it makes we wanna holler

I see you transmen running for political seats
Trying to become the next Phillipe
Snatch those seats at the political table
And run trans brothers run as soon as you're able

Can't forget the trans brothers that I'm increasingly seeing,
In Africa, Europe, the Americas and the Caribbean
While we share these connections across the Diaspora, too
Your unique stories are what we need to hear from you

Some of y'all are nonbinary
Chill out peeps, that concept isn't that scary
All it means is they don't wanna be
Tied to simply using the pronoun he

Time for me end this poetic 'ejumacation'
And show some love for my transbrothers across the nation
Your sisters all have mad love for you
#TransmenWeSeeYou AndHearU

Is Becky Hammon Becoming An NBA Head Coach?

Becky Hammon already made history as the first full time female assistant coach in NBA history when the San Antonio Spurs hired her in 2014.

Now she's on the verge of making NBA and sporting history again.

The 41 year old Hammon was a six time WNBA All-Star and Olympian with the Russian national team in 2008 and 2012.   She made history on August 5, 2014 when she was hired as an assistant by Gregg Popovich.   Hammon not only became the first full time female head coach in NBA history and second ever, she was the first full time female assistant coach in any of the four major North American professional sports leagues.,

In 2015 she made history again when she was named as the Spurs head coach for the NBA Las Vegas Summer League team.  She made that groundbreaking achievement even more memorable for her by guiding the Spurs to the NBA Las Vegas Summer League championship.

That made her a sought after head coaching hire in the collegiate ranks, and she's one of four Spurs assistant coaches to get opportunities to interview for open NBA head coaching slots

The Milwaukee Bucks fired Jason Kidd and are looking for a new head coach for the 2018-19 season.  They just started their coaching search and announced their intention to give Hammon an interview for their vacant job,

If they follow through on it,  Hammon would become the first woman to interview for a coaching vacancy in the league. 

She's made it clear that she wants to make the history of becoming the first female NBA head coach, and has turned down opportunities to coach at several high profile college basketball programs to make that dream a reality.

Will Hammon get that Bucks job?    I sure hope so because San Antonio is a Houston Rockets division rival and I could easily see her being the Spurs next head coach when Popovich finally retires.

I also want it to happen so that more WNBA players get considered for coaching vacancies in the NBA as well.   A pick and roll or zone defense is the same whether it's executed in the WNBA or NBA, and if a woman is qualified for the job, it's past time to give her a shot at it instead of recycling the same mediocre coaches around the league.

Best of luck to Becky Hammon and hope she gets that interview. 
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Shut Up Fool Awards - Moni's Birthday Fool Edition

Every few years my birthday falls on a Friday, and you know what you TransGriot readers get every Friday and on the TransGriot Weekly show, a Shut Up Fool honoree.

So before I cut the birthday cake and celebrate another year of being on this space rock, I get to call some fools out.

Honorable mention number one everybody inside the DC Beltway and the media who attacked MIchelle Wolf for calling them out during last weekend's White House Correspondents Dinner.

Honorable mention number two  is Mike Huckabee for going on FOX Noise and threatening people who justifiably call his daughter the WH Mistress of Propaganda out with 'dire consequences'.

Dude, when you daughter stops telling lies to the American people I and everybody else will stop calling her smokey eyed butt on it.

Honorable mention number three is Sarah Huckabee Sanders, for pick a press conference lie.

Honorable mention number four is Rudy Giuliani, for throwing Dolt 45 even further into legal trouble with his appearances on FOX Noise. 

Just a reminder Rudy that your loose lips just may have sank Trump's presidential ship.

This week Shut Up Fool loser winner has also gotten on my radar as a possible Shut Up Fool of the Year candidate in Kanye West.

Dude opened his mouth and let the colossally stupid comment pass his lips that slavery was a choice.

Really?  So our ancestors chose to be snacted out of their homes, take a long unwanted boat ride from African shores to the Western Hemisphere  and get whipped, sexually assaulted and forced to work without compensation for 400 years?

Boy bye.  That's an insult to your mother's memory and her African Studies degree.

How about your Trump azz kissing behind read some books on the African Slave Trade and have a chat with scholars like Henry Louis Gates and Jelani Cobb?

And yes, Yeezus, you need Jesus.   Oh yeah, all you peeps who tried to spin what he said need to chill as well.   There is no spinning or defending that level of idiocy. 

Kanye West, shut the hell up, fool!

Happy 56th Birthday To Moi

It's my favorite day on the calendar, Cuatro de Mayo,  AKA my birthday.

56 years ago today I was born in a segregated hospital on a Friday at 10:45 PM in an H-town that was close to passing one million residents and the seventh largest city in the nation.   The Astros played their first game a mere two weeks before I was born.

Now my hometown has over 2.2 million diverse people in its population, will pass (or has passed Chicago to become the third largest city in the US and I look a lot different on the outside than I did in 1962

And the Astros finally captured that elusive World Series title last fall!

I have an amazing life with some wonderful people in it.  I have friends all over the world, get to travel on a regular basis thanks to the activism and sitting on two boards that allow me to focus on the trans folks I want to serve. 

I'm considered a trailblazing leader by my peers, a sister friend, and a role model to the trans kids growing up right now who I never want to disappoint them.

While my life is a quality one, there are areas of it that need to improve. 

But as I start my 56th revolution around the sun on this space rock, I'm seemingly at another crossroads in my life.   Question is which options do I take that will result in the desired improvement?

First thing is definitely becoming more vocal about what I need.or when I need help.  There are times when my Taurus personality lends itself to me trying to solve problems on my own, and only asking for help when the situation gets tobe too much for me to handle.

Gotta start asking for help before it gets to an emergency level.

That question won't be answered in this blog post, but in the interim, need to figure out simply what I wish to do to celebrate another year and then deal with the rest of those fork in the road questions later.

We'll see how this birthday plays out, and then the rest of the year after it 

Feliz Compleanos Ana Andrea!

Couldn't let today pass without giving a TransGriot birthday shoutout to another amazing Houston area trans leader in Ana Andrea Molina, the founding executive director of Organizacion Latina de Trans en Texas (OLTT)

It's also interesting to note that many of the kick butt activists here in the Houston area who get stuff done and have no problem bluntly speaking truth to power are predominately Tauruses.

While the Houston based OLTT is focused primarily on the issues affecting our trans Latinx immigrant population in Texas, OLTT also has Casa Anaandrea, which is a shelter for trans and gender nonconforming person open to all

OLTT also does a wide range of events and programs  immigration help, name changes and the Mr and Miss OLTT Pageant designed to support the trans community

But it could also use some funding, because it does cost money to provide those services.  OLTT is also trying to raise $30,000 to renew the rental agreement for the home Casa Anaandrea is housed in with the goal of eventually owning this place.

Andrea has quickly established herself as one of our major Latina trans leaders in Texas and the United States, and we in Houston are fortunate to have her in our midst.

She also a wonderful friend and I have mad love and respect for her as a leader.

Feliz  Compleanos, Andrea!    May you celebrate many more birthdays to come!

NH Senate Gets It Right This Time, Passes Trans Rights Bill

So how long will my transgender brothers and sisters in the Granite State have to wait for their legislators to pass laws that allow them to 'live free or die'? 

And will you find the courage to do so?
TransGriot, May 4, 2009

Nine years ago I was justifiably going nuclear and putting the then Democratically controlled New Hampshire Senate on blast on my birthday after the all female led body voted 24-0 to kill a trans rights bill that narrowly passed the female led Democratically controlled New Hampshire House by one vote.

That vote, gallingly after they had no problem passing a marriage equality bill, kept New Hampshire  as the only state in the New England region that didn't have discrimination protections for its transgender citizens

The political script has flipped in New Hampshire since then.  Instead of the Democrats controlling all three branches of government, it's now the Republicans.   The NH Senate now has a 14-10 GOP edge versus the 14-10 edge the other way at the time.  The NH House is 226-174 GOP instead of the 225-175 Democratic edge it had in 2009.

HB 1319 is a bill that would update New Hampshire's non discrimination law and prohibit discrimination against my Granite State trans family in employment, housing and public accommodations. 

The House passed HB 1319 in a bipartisan fashion 195-129 back on March 7 after three emotional public hearings with a combined twelve hours of testimony from many trans New Hampshire residents that went into the wee hours of the morning. 

Today the New Hampshire Senate righted a nearly decade old wrong.by passing HB 1319 with bipartisan support 14-10.

The bill now heads to Gov. Chris Sununu's (R) desk, where he is expected to sign it into law. 

Once he does, New Hampshire will become the 20th state along with the District of Columbia to legislatively protect its transgender citizens.

And this day has been one trans Granite Staters have been waiting on for a long time.

Check Out The 'Marsha's Plate' Podcast

My homegirl Diamond Stylz in the wake of the 2016 election and the lack of balanced, facts based  discussions about trans people in the media, decided to start her own platform to do precisely that called 'Marsha's Plate'.

The Marsha  the podcast is named for is Marsha P Johnson, our pioneering Black trans elder who is credited with kicking off the 1969 Stonewall Rebellion, and who co-founded Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) with Sylvia Rivera.

But back to talking about the 'Marsha's Plate' podcast.   The discussions being had on the podcast which is now up to 30 episodes are coming from a Black trans perspective.

Diamond is joined in this latest media endeavor by her co-hosts Mia Mix and Zee.  They bring to the podcast discussions the perspectives of young trans masculine and trans feminine people.

And knowing Diamond, she's not going to shy away from controversial or hotly contested topics.

Looking forward to checking it out every Thursday, and here's the link to the show.

Trudie Jackson Attempting A Historic Run For Navajo Nation President

I’ve heard some remarks that Navajo women should not be leaders, but I know that we live in a time where every Navajo person is needed to fight for the survival of our Nation.  Navajo women do have a place in politics, in the world of business, in education, in law and the judicial system, and it is time for Navajo women to take their place of leadership. 

-LeNora Fulton, 1998 Address, 1998 Navajo Nation Presidential Candidate,
2nd Navajo woman to run for President of the Navajo Nation.

In a year in which trans people are continuing to step up around the country and run for political office, this shouldn't surprise me that one of my Native American trans fam is deciding it is time for her to step up and lead her people.

The Navajo Nation covers the corners of the states of Arizona, Utah and New Mexico, and at 27,673 square miles of territory (nearly the size of the state of West Virginia) and over 350,000 people as of 2016, it is the largest reservation in the United States. 

Since 1991, the Navajo People have elected a president for their nation,  and the date to officially file and run is May 17 with a closing date of May 30.   One of the people who is attempting to get on the ballot for the August 28 primary election is Trudie Jackson, a longtime advocate from Arizona who is Native American and trans.

***

Ya'tah - my name is Trudie Jackson and my clans are: Bitterwater and Folded Arms, then the Mexican and Yucca-Strung-Out-In-A-Line from Teec Nos Pos, AZ on the beautiful Navajo Nation. I am a product of Indian Boarding School and Indian Student Placement Program.
Upon relocating to Phoenix, AZ in 1984 to pursue my high school education at the Phoenix Indian School, I decided to stay in Phoenix which lead to 34 years. Ultimately, my experience as an urban Navajo taught me many life lessons of learning to survive in urban spaces. I have learned so much and challenged myself to walk into spaces, which at times, meant being the only American Indian to advocate and be the voice for my community as a proud Dine'.
Over the course of years, I have stood on the sidelines and made my observations of the political climate on the Navajo Nation by elected tribal leaders of what they propose as their platform to lift the Navajo Nation as an effective leader that leads for the betterment of the Navajo Nation.

I can not continue to stand on the sideline and allow the ongoing unethical practices by elected tribal officials to 'take from the people' and fill their pockets and/or luxury lifestyles. If I continue to stand on the sideline, I am just adding more fuel and allowing it to continue without interjection. Enough is enough!

With that said, I have decided to enter the race for the 2018 Navajo Nation Presidential Election. I want my people to judge me on my leadership skills and qualities. I would like to bring home the knowledge that I have learned and gained whiled residing off the Navajo reservation and help lift My People to create a better place, which we can all call, "home."

I ask for your support, as a candidate for the 2018 Navajo Nation Presidential Election to help me get on the ballot with any amount of contribution. Your generous donation is greatly appreciated. Ahe'hee, Trudie

***

If Trudie is successful in getting on the ballot and getting through the primary election, we would have to wait until November 6 to see if Trudie makes history and becomes the first female president of the Navajo Nation. 

Two other Navajo women have attempted what Trudie is trying to accomplish. Here's hoping she succeeds and makes that history.

Trans Teen Prom Queen Crowned In Wisconsin

Despite the best efforts of the evilgelicals and Republicans, transgender people continue to make our mark on American society and give the middle finger to those efforts to erase us from society.

One of the more memorable events of your time in high school if you attended it is your prom. With more trans people transitioning in elementary, middle and high school, this news is going to pop up more often.

A TransGriot shoutout goes to Nikko Nelson of Mequon, WI.   She was crowned last Saturday as Homestead High School's prom queen.  The high school junior may think she's not a trailblazer in her town of 25,000 people, but anytime that you are living your trans life in America, that's exactly what you are.

What's even better for me and all her trans elders to hear is that Nelson's prom queen win happened without controversy or drama.

Nelson transitioned in middle school, and wore her first dress at her eighth grade graduation ceremony.  Now she has been elected prom queen by her classmates.

As Nikko said in an interview, "I didn't win prom queen for being a transgender girl.  I won it because I was Nikko Nelson."

Congratulations sis for doing so, and continued good fortune and success in your future life. 

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