Still Concerned About Massachusetts Question 3

As the folks in the Bay State are aware of, the rights of trans folks are on the November 6 ballot no thanks to the transphobic bigots behind the No on 3 team.

Question 3 puts on the ballot the just passed in 2016 law that extended public accommodations protections to Massachusetts transgender people.  It also prohibited discrimination against the Mass transgender community.

I was even more concerned when I saw the results of a June 14, 2018 that showed only 49% of the respondents in a Suffolk University poll would vote to keep the trans rights law vs 37% of the respondents that would vote to repeal it with 14% undecided about which way they would vote.



The No on 3 haters are trying to play the tired 'bathroom predator' attacks along with the race card by showing in their attack commercial a white woman going into a locker room after a burly male attacker hides out in there.

There has been a more recent poll (September 13-17) conducted by Suffolk University that shows the YES vote up to 73% while the NO vote is down to 17.4%.   The number of undecided voters is also down to 9.2%,

While the poll numbers look good, the only poll that counts is on November 6.    Massachusetts trans folks and the national trans community at large still have a reason to be concerned about it.

A repeal of Massachusetts law would open the floodgates on a wave of NC style anti-trans bills or anti-trans referenda across the US at a time when the SCOTUS with the addition of Kavanaugh on it is stacked with a conservative slant,   

This election is a must win for us, and it's why I'm urging Massachusetts peeps to vote YES on 3 

My friend Ben Power, who runs the Massachusetts based Sexual Minorities Archive, and has been an activist for several decades, says it best:

“There’s no reason why as Americans trans people shouldn’t have 100% equal rights. To have them possibly taken away is an outrage, and that option being on the ballot is crazy. How and why does the majority get to vote on the rights of a minority? If these rights are repealed, it would be another attack on the transgender community that will lead possibly to more calls to suicide hotlines, more harassment and hate crimes, more ugliness. It would be a black eye on the state’s image. I’m concerned about the welfare of my own friends. There’s only so much harassment and cruelty someone can take before they get very disheartened. We need to totally and unapologetically hold onto our rights here.”

Massachusetts trans kids, their trans elders and the people who unconditionally love us will thank you for helping them do precisely that with a YES vote.

Transphobia An Unacceptable Part Of A VA Middle School's Mass Shooting Drill

Because mass shootings on school campuses happen far too frequently in the United States, one of the facts of life for students currently attending our public schools is active shooter drills.

One recent active shooter drill at a Stafford County, VA middle school had a unnecessary helping of transphobia injected into it   

During the drill, a trans feminine student was not only barred from going into either the boys or girls locker rooms by school staff, she was told by the PE teachers to sit alone in the bleachers and subsequently in the hall while the cisgender students in her physical education class were immediately sheltered in the nearest locker rooms and bathrooms.

This is outrageous on many levels.   An active shooter drill happens so that kids are taught the basic procedures necessary to survive an attack like getting to shelter quickly.   Any hesitation in doing so can be deadly.

The PE teachers in question not only outed the student by doing this, they basically made the problematic statement to the world that you considered the mere presence of this trans child in the student body to be more dangerous than some assailant who is gleefully shooting up a school.

You also left that trans student, through your transphobic actions, exposed had this been an actual active shooter situation. 

Stafford County Public Schools spokeswoman Sherrie Johnson said in a statement concerning this disturbing incident:

"Stafford County Public Schools does not comment on individual student incidents to avoid divulging confidential information. However, the new superintendent has requested a review of all protocols and procedures to ensure that all children are treated with dignity and respect. We take such matters very seriously and they will be addressed. The welfare of all students is of the utmost importance for SCPS."

Ms Johnson, unfortunately the teachers at the SCPS middle school in question failed to demonstrate during the drill that the welfare of this SCPS trans feminine middle school student was of the utmost importance to them,

When asked by reporters if the trans feminine girl should have been allowed into the girls' locker room because she identifies as a girl, Johnson said that all the policies, practices and safety procedures are under review.

The Virginia and national trans community will be watching to see if the SCPS policy review is not only expeditiously conducted, but what recommendations or policy adjustments come out of it that protect this trans child and others that happen to matriculate in this district 

Of course, news of what happened to the still unidentified trans child has pissed some folks off. 
People in the district and the Stafford County area are planning to attend the next scheduled Stafford County Public Schools board meeting scheduled for tomorrow night at 6:30 PM EDT to let the board and new Stafford County Public Schools superintendent Dr Scott Kizner have it.

One thing that needs to be repeatedly stated until it drilled into the heads of every employee and administrators in that district, is that a trans child's life is just as valuable as any cisgender kid. 

And that includes protecting their lives in an active shooter situation.

POSE's Dominique Jackson Coming To UH!

Been wanting to meet Dominique Jackson from POSE.   Now she's coming to Houston. 

The University of Houston Center for Diversity and Inclusion as part of their fall speaker series is bringing her to H-town.   Dominique will share her story about being a transgender woman and other aspects of her life. 

And she may talk about the show and her role as Elektra Abundance Evangelista on POSE. 

This conversation will take place on October 16 in the Houston Room on the south side of the UH Student Center at 6 PM.   Hope y'all come, check it out and show Dominique some love.     

Number 22- Rest In Power and Peace Ciara Minaj Carter Frazier

Little did I know that when I posted my cumulative trans murder stats for this year, I'd have to go back into the post to correct it a mere 24 hours later. 

We unfortunately go to Chicago for the second time this year to discuss the latest trans woman we have lost to anti-trans violence.

She is 31 year old Ciara Minaj Carter Frazier.   At 9:28 PM CDT Wednesday night she had been arguing with a person inside an abandoned building in the 4500 block of West Adams in the West Garfield Park neighborhood, 

That person stabbed multiple times, then left her body in the backyard of the building.    She was pronounced dead at the scene by police and Cook County medical examiners.    A subsequent autopsy found that Frazier died of multiple sharp force injuries, and her death was ruled a homicide.

The Chicago Sun Times story l based this post on,  is being accused of leaving out some disturbing details that I'm hearing about from local trans advocates and people who knew Ciara. 

They allege that the perpetrator mutilated her body by cutting off her genitalia, and the body was nude when it was discovered.   Those missing details, if confirmed, escalates Ciara's murder to a hate crime.

It also fits into the excessive violence beyond lethality pattern that we know is a part of the profile of murders of trans women.

Her murder is being investigated by Chicago PD Area North detectives.

Frazier was well known in Chicago's ballroom community, and she was the second trans person to die in the city in less than a month.   She is also the 16th Black trans person to die in the US in 2018. 

And once again, she was under 40 years of age. 

#StopKillingUs    Our Black trans lives matter.   When will we hear community leaders, our legacy organizations, faith leaders and the politicians we put into office with our votes say that?

Or are you content to stay silent about it as the plague of violence being visited upon Black trans people continues? 

NC Trans Feminine Student Denied Run For Homecoming Queen

When this 2018-19 school year kicked off, I was aware of the fact we have as of yet never had a Black trans feminine high school homecoming queen in the US.   We've had it happen several years ago on the Black trans masculine side.   

I was wondering where and when in the US this would happen, and believed that this would be the year that we'd ginally have a Black trans feminine teen attempt to do so

Interestingly enough, it's in the same state where the first Black trans homecoming king, the late Blake Brockington was crowned, North Carolina. 

Yep, the same state that tried to enshrine trans discrimination into the law.

That person stepping up to attempt to make that history attends Jack Britt High School in Fayetteville, NC.    But she was initially denied the opportunity to run by her principal.

Meet Jack Britt High School senior Marquis Monroe.   The 17 year senior wanted to run for homecoming queen, and informed her principal of her desire to do so, only to be told no. 

She took to Twitter and Instagram to express her displeasure with the decision, stating, "I worked so hard to be comfortable with myself."  that post wen viral, getting support from her fellow students and shared.

When the local TV station came calling to find out why the principal opposed Monroe's request to run, Cumberland County Schools sent out this statement: 

"The principal initially said no, but upon further consideration, he is prepared to support the student's request to participate, subject to parental approval, which is required for all participants."

Umm hmm.  Amazing how a viral post and a TV stations handling their news business will change a trans oppression situation into a trans empowerment one.. 

Now that the JBHS principal has seen the light, Monroe is now planning to run.  The homecoming queen will be crowned next weekend.

Here's hoping history will be made and after all this unnecessary drama, she makes that history.

Miss Colombia Universe 2018 Hatin' On Angela Ponce

Was wondering how long it would take before one of the Miss Universe 2018 contestants opened her pretty mouth and let something horribly transphobic ooze out of it.

That contestant turned out to be Miss Colombia Universe 2018 Valeria Morales. 

The 20 year old Morales made some TERFy remarks aimed at Miss Spain Universe winner Angela Ponce, who was crowned back in July,   When Ponce steps on that Miss Universe stage in Bangkok on December 17, will make history in as the first ever out trans contestant in the pageant's history.

But Morales threw a catty remark at her in a recent Colombian television interview that has gone viral.

"I think that beauty shows like Miss Universe should be for women who are born women, and I think it would be a disadvantage for Ponce too. Therefore, we should respect her but not share it with her," Morales said

Ugh, there's that transphobic 'women born women' line again    How do you say 'trans women are women' en Espanol?

Colombia is also part of the group of national Miss Universe pageant orgs that bars trans women from competing despite the Miss Universe system rules that since 2013,  have allowed them to compete if they qualify. 

While Ponce hasn't directly commented yet about Morales' remarks, she did have this to say several weeks ago concerning folks who are salty about her participation in this year's Miss Universe pageant.

“I would like to tell them [critics] that I am a woman. I am a trans woman and I have the right to be there. So I ask them to respect it because the rules allow me to participate,” she said.

Morales in the wake of the international dragging she's getting, seems to be changing her tune about Ponce's  participation in the pageant. 

"If Miss Universe accepts Angela, I will accept her with love and respect."

Well Ms Morales, that what you should have done before you opened your mouth and inserted those pumps in it. 

We'll see in a few weeks at Miss Universe 2018 if your deeds match your words. 

Ponce is already a winner in exhibiting the one characteristic of a pageant queen you failed to demonstrate in that televised interview. 

Class.

TransGriot 2018 NFL Picks- Week 5

It's the part of the 2018 NFL that Texans fans have been waiting for since that 20-17 overtime loss at Jerry World in 2014.   

The Texans vs the Arlington Cowchips.   They are probably next to the Tennessee Traitors our most despised NFL rival.  Because we aren't in the same conference, we only get to play them in the regular season every four years. 

The Texans are only 1-3 versus the Cowboys, but the one win we have in the series was the most memorable one.   It was in 2002, during the Texans inaugural NFL season, and they kicked off NFL play versus the Cowboys in a nationally televised game at Reliant (now NRG) Stadium. 

The expansion Texans stunned the Emmitt Smith led Cowboys by beating them 19-10 in front of a raucous sellout crowd.

Now it's the QB's for both teams in Deshaun Watson vs Dak Prescott.   Who's going to win this prime time  Governor's Cup showdown?   Keep reading to find out who I picked to do so.

Week 4 in our season long prognostication contest ended in Mike's second consecutive weekly win, which has us tied going into the Week 5 games.

I have got to get busy.    It's another 15 games that the Bears and the Buccaneers will get to watch because it's their bye week.  My picks will be in bold print with the home team in CAPS.   Mike's Week 5 picks are here.  

Week 4 Results                                                  2018 NFL Season Results
TransGriot  9-6                                                     TransGriot  34-27-2
Mike           10-5                                                    Mike          34-27-2

Thursday Night Game
PATRIOTS over Colts

Sunday Early Games
Titans over BILLS
PANTHERS over Giants
BENGALS over Dolphins
Ravens over BROWNS
Packers over LIONS
CHIEFS over Jaguars
Broncos over JETS
STEELERS over Falcons

Sunday Afternoon Games
CHARGERS over Raiders
Vikings over EAGLES
Cardinals over 49ERS
Rams over SEAHAWKS

Sunday Night Game
TEXANS over Cowboys

Monday Night Game
SAINTS over Washington

Moni's Being Honored Again With OutSmart Gayest and Greatest 2018 Awards

My awards runneth over this month! 

 In addition to the upcoming CASN Birthday Brunch where I'm being honored along with other local kick butt Houston area advocates, I'm also being honored at this year's OutSmart Gayest and Greatest Awards

While I now write a monthly column for OutSmart entitled Unapologetically Trans, I wasn't a writer for them at the time these awards were chosen by a community vote.

This year I'm being honored with the Favorite Trans Community Hero one and the Favorite Local LGBTQ Blogger

I was a finalist for the Most Prominent Female LGBTQ Activist that went to Fran Watson, and Most Prominent Trans Activist that went to Alexis Melvin.

Thanks to everyone who voted for me, and I'll hopefully see y'all at the awards reception on October 17 from 5-8 PM CDT at JR's

2018 US Trans Murder Stats- October

We are a few weeks away from the 2018 TDOR, and as many of you are aware of, I have been keeping track of the trans people we have lost to anti-trans violence since New Year's Day and we first heard about Christa Leigh Steele Knudslein's death. 

As of this writing, 22 people have died in the US due to anti-trans violence since January 1.   This list may get longer between now and New Year's Eve

But here are the stats, tracked from January 1 to now.

2018 Trans Murders

Christa Lee Steele-Knudslien, 47, North Adams, MA
Vickky Gutierrez, 38, Los Angeles, CA
Zakaria Fry, 28,  Albuquerque, NM
Celine Walker, 38,  Jacksonville, FL
Tonya Harvey, 35, Buffalo, NY

Phylicia Mitchell, 45, Cleveland, OH
Amia Tyrae Berryman, 28, Baton Rouge, LA
Sasha Wall, 29, Chesterfield County, SC  
Carla Patricia Flores-Pavon, 26, Dallas, TX
Nino Fortson, 36, Atlanta, GA
Gigi Pierce, 28,  Portland, OR
Antasha English, 38, Jacksonville, FL
Diamond Stephens, 39, Meridian, MS

Catalina Christina James, 24, Jacksonville, FL
Keisha James, 58, Cleveland, OH
Sasha Garden, 27, Orlando, FL
Vontashia Bell, 18, Shreveport, LA
Dejanay Stanton, 24, Chicago, IL
Shantee Tucker, 30, Philadelphia, PA
Londonn Moore Kinard, 20, North Port, FL
Nikki Janelle Enriquez, 28, Laredo, TX Ciara Minaj Carter Frazier, 31, Chicago, IL 2018 Trans Murders Stats Breakdown
Female 20-Male/GNC 1)

By Race
White-3   (3 female-0 male)
Latina-3   (3 female-0 male)
Black -16  (15 female-1 male/GNC)
Asian-0
Native American- 0

By Age
50+  1
40-49  2

30-39  8
20-29  10
10-19- 1

Florida is in 2018 the deadliest state for trans peeps, with five confirmed murders this year.  Three of them occurred in Jacksonville, FL.

Louisiana  (Baton Rouge and Shreveport), Illinois, (both in Chicago), Ohio  (both in Cleveland)  and Texas (Dallas and Laredo) have two each. 

TX US House District 29 Debate

TX Senator Sylvia Garcia is taking on the transphobic Phillip Aronoff in their US House 29 district race.  Sen, Garcia and Aronoff recently confronted each other during a September 25 debate at the University of Houston Downtown campus.

TX House District 29 is a predominately Latinx district in Houston that was created in 1990 specifically to produce a Latinx congressmember.  While it has been safely in Democratic hands since its creation, it has never had a Latinx person represent it. 

The TX-29 district has been since 1992 represented by Gene Green, and Rep Green announced that he is retiring.   That opened up a mad scramble for this seat on the Democratic side that grew to seven candidates. 

Sen. Sylvia Garcia handily won the Democratic nomination for the seat, taking 63% of the vote while doing so.  She narrowly missed in 1992 making it to the Democratic Party primary runoff for the seat when it was created,

But back to the debate, moderated by ABC13 anchor Mayra Moreno.    Many of the questions asked of the candidates were from UHD students.

 

CASN Birthday Brunch Coming Soon!

I'm getting another award for a locally based org soon along with another group of amazing Houston activists from the Clinic Access Support Network.

The Clinic Access Support Network is a Houston based non profit that provides free transportation, accommodations, and emotion support for people seeking abortion services.

And they are celebrating their fifth anniversary with a birthday brunch.

CASN Birthday Brunch is happening on October 14 from 11:00 AM - 2 PM CDT, and is a fundraising event for the organization. 

The wonderful Houston area activists being honored for their work along with moi at the historic Whitehall Hotel are Daniel Cohen, Maximo Cortez, Kandice Webber, Nisha Randle, Hannah Thalenberg, Kenya Martin< Fran Watson, Jessica DeFeo and Katya Strinka.

Our keynote speaker for the CASN Birthday Brunch is one of my sheroes I've been dying to meet in former Texas senator and 2014 Democratic gubernatorial nominee Wendy Davis

FYI, CASN is already taking nominations for next year's class of Houston area activist heroes and sheroes.   You can nominate the Houston area peeps doing outstanding local work at the following link here: http://bit.ly/ActivistHero

TransGriot 2018 Election Endorsements : Beto O'Rourke for US Senate!

I'm not a fan of my Canadian senator Rafael Cruz, and was hoping that in this 2018 cycle some big name Texas Democrat would step up to the plate and take a shot at knocking off the very unpopular Cruz.

That person turned out to be Rep Beto O'Rourke.   He is the congressman repping El Paso in far West Texas.

Over the last few months since he has announced his run for the US Senate, has done something no Democrat has done since Lloyd Bentsen in terms of running a competitive US Senate race.

And I and every Texas Democrat love it.

The Republicans have going from pooh-poohing his campaign to spending serious money on eye roll inducing attack ads.   I enjoyed watching Beto eviscerate Cruz in their first debate at SMU.    Looking forward to their next scheduled one at UH

Beto continues to run positive campaign ads and expose as my mother calls him, our Canadian senator, as the shameless one trick right wing political pony he is.   O'Rourke continues to out fundraise Cruz without taking corporate or PAC money.   

And on the issues, Beto has unapologetically called out police violence against Black folks, the unacceptable Trump baby jails, and has a forward looking platform I and many Texans across all 254 of our ginormous state's counties can get behind. 

Oh yeah, unlike Rafael, Beto has visited and talked to Texans in all 254 of Texas' counties.  Cruz hasn't even come close to doing so, much less done events in Black neighborhoods as Beto has repeatedly done.

As a transgender Texan, Beto has made it clear that he stands with us.  Ted  Cruz made it clear in his failed 2016 presidential campaign that he doesn't by attacking transgender people 

Beto has also made it clear that he is not afraid to talk about tough issues.



All Rafael Cruz offers is more partisan attacks and not caring about anyone except wealthy white Texans.

That's why I'm enthusiastically endorsing Beto O'Rourke  for the US Senate, and urge my fellow Texans to vote for him when early voting starts on October 22 or on Election Day this November 6.

For those of you who don't live in the Lone Star State,  you can support him here. 

The Tea About Princess Janae Place

"Never ever let somebody tell you what you cannot do or who you cannot be"
-Princess Janae Banks, October 2010

One of the excuses I hear when I make the repeated call for Black trans led organizations to get more significant levels of funding to do their needed and necessary work in our community is funders claiming they don't know of any Black trans led orgs or aren't aware of what they do.

Time to fix that problem. 

Princess Janae Place in New York's Bronx borough is named for the late Princess Janae Banks. 

She was born On February 8, 1970 in Brooklyn, New York and was tossed out of her home at age 19 when she came out as transgender to her family.   Banks was an iconic entertainer, pageant and ballroom performer for nearly 25 years in the New York tri-state region who died from lymphoma cancer after a long battle to beat it on September 16, 2013.

Banks was also a fierce advocate for the TBLGQ community.   Probably because of her experiences with being homeless and housing insecure, she focused her advocacy  on trans individuals at risk of becoming homeless or facing housing insecurity.

Princess Janae Place was founded in 2015 by its Executive Director Jevon Martin to continue Banks' advocacy around tackling the issues of housing affecting transgender and gender non conforming people.

Princess Janae Place, Inc is located at 2526 Wallace Ave in the Bronx, and is New York State's first and only community based housing organization led by and for people of trans experience.   With the motto of  'Housing is Healthcare',  Princess Janae Place, seeks to not only continue to make a dent in that problem. but provide a safe and welcoming space to the New York transgender and GNC community.

PJP's mission is to help people of trans experience maximize their full potential by providing residential, educational, clinical, and recreational services that create and nurture connections to the community and the world.

Since Princess Janae Place sees safe and affordable housing as a human right, it provides housing navigation services that include:

*Referrals to public, state and city housing vouchers
*Assistance in completing housing application
*Support in navigating the housing market
*General education on housing rights
*Referrals to a prescreened group of landlords and realtors with experience working with trans and gender non conforming individuals
*Referrals to non profit partners that provide housing.

PJP It also along with its partner organizations provides a wide array of case management services that include:

*GED preparedness and continuing education opportunities,
*Culturally competent health care, HIV prevention and testing
*Job readiness and preparedness programs that include resume review, access to professional clothing , job interview preparation and job referrals
*Mental health and counseling services
*Substance abuse treatment and support groups

PJP also has an ongoing peep led support and social networking group entitled 'Let's Talk' that covers a wide array of topics such as transitioning, medical care  and surgery resources, harassment, discrimination  and violence, and housing homelessness.

PJP participates in many events and functions in the New York Tri State area, and also conducts a Princess Pageant.    On October 6 it will hold a benefit show featuring the PJP Pageant court from 6;30-8:30 PM EDT at Zambo Aroma in the Bronx.

You can get your tickets for it at this link.

It can use you help to keep these services essential to the New York and tri state trans and GNC community operating and free to PJP members.   

If you need any further information concerning Princess Janae Place's programs or events, the address is 2526 Wallace Ave,  Bronx, NY 10467.   Their phone number is (718) 684-1688 and you can also access and like their Facebook page here.   

Houston Working On Shutting Down A Robot Sex Brothel

I loved the 2013-14 FOX TV science fiction cop show Almost Human, which starred Michael Ealy, Karl Urban and Minka Kelly as near future human and android police officers fighting high tech crimes

One of the interesting episodes of that short lived TV show set in the year 2049 was one entitled 'Skin'.   It involved android sex workers, a murder of a businessman, and a missing person's case.

Women were being kidnapped off the streets and held captive for engineers to harvest skin grafts from them to create more lifelike skin for the unregistered underworld android sex bots that would make the bots far more valuable and desirable for customers to buy or use.

The reason android sex bots were legal in the Almost Human show universe is because when they were introduced, human trafficking crimes went down 40%.

I'm bringing up the TV show because life in Houston is somewhat imitating sci-fi art. 

While my hometown is always eager to encourage high tech businesses to set up shop here, in this case they are not wanting us to be the first city in the US to call a robot brothel home.

The Canadian company Kinky S Dolls has a robot brothel in Toronto, and owner Yuval Gavriel wanted to set up its first US location here in Houston.    He plans to have 10 of them in the US by 2020.

It not only sells the 'love dolls', that are able to touch users while providing vocal responses for $2500-$5000, but would also rent them to be used in private rooms by the hour or half hour at the Kinky S Dolls location, a former Galleria area beauty salon on Richmond Ave and Chimney Rock Rd that was being renovated for that purpose.

But Kinky S Dolls ran into a few snags.   Elijah Rising, a faith based anti- sex trafficking organization, got wind of the project and alerted the city and Mayor Sylvester Turner about it.  They also cranked up an online petition that gathered 12,000 signatures.

The owner of the building also wasn't happy to find out he'd been lied to about what Kinky S Dolls actually wanted to do in their leased building.

Because the dolls aren't human beings, Kinky S Dolls cannot be considered a sexually oriented business. 

While Mayor Turner has said publicly he isn't interested in becoming the 'morality police', he is having the city attorney review the sexually oriented business (SOB) ordinance to see if changes can be made to it by Wednesday's upcoming city council meeting to prevent its opening.

Kinky S Dolls also got busted by Houston building inspectors doing construction renovations to their rented space they didn't get permits to do.  They 'red tagged' the building, which means that not only is construction halted, the owners will get hauled into municipal court if they try to do any construction without the necessary permits.

I also won't be surprised if those permits for Kinky S Dolls get slow walked until they can pass the necessary changes in the SOB ordinance.

Stay tuned.   This is going to get interesting

TransGriot Update:  Houston City Council on Wednesday passed an update to the arcade ordinance that classifies the sexbots in that category.   While you can still buy them, it's now illegal for you to get your freak on with them at the Kinky S Dolls facility.  

Past Time For METRO To Build Rail To Hobby and IAH

When I travel to many east coast cities, the ATL, Chicago and even Dallas, one of the things all those cities have in common is a rail component of their local public transit systems that connects to the airport. 

Washington DC has alway had rail connected to Washington National Airport (I refuse to call it Reagan National), and you can catch a train from BWI to either DC or Baltimore.   You also have the option of taking a WMATA bus to DC to the terminus of the Green Line.

The state of Virginia right now is busy expanding the Silver Line subway from its current western terminus at the Wiehle-Reston East station to Dulles airport and beyond it.

When I was in Denver for #CC15, while the construction for the RTA A Line rail system expansion to DIA was completed, it hadn't been opened yet because it was still undergoing the mandatory testing necessary before it could open for passenger service.

Los Angeles has been exponentially expanding their rail system as part of their preparations for the 2028 Olympic Games with a combination of subway and light rail projects scheduled to be completed as early as 2024.  One of those rail projects is to connect to the under construction Crenshaw/LAX Line to LAX scheduled to open next year and the already in operation Green Line via an automated people mover.

I happily discovered when I attended #NN16 in St Louis that it has rail service from the airport to downtown.  That line crosses the Mississippi River to East St Louis, IL

While as a proud Houstonian I hate to admit that Dallas is better than Houston in anything, one area I must give Dallas props for is their over 100 miles of DART light rail that covers much of the city.

The DART Orange Line terminates at DFW's Terminal A, and is part of the largest light rail system in Texas.  The DART system also includes commuter rail lines to Denton and Ft Worth 

DART is now currently planning a subway through downtown Dallas to eliminate the system bottleneck that has all four lines converging and traveling through downtown on dual tracks along Pacific Avenue.   It's also planning the suburban Cotton Belt line which would connect Richardson, north Dallas and Addison to DFW Airport and the other existing light rail lines.  There's also the TexRail project under construction that will connect Fort Worth to DFW's Terminal B, the existing TRE commuter line and the DART Cotton Belt Line. 

But back to focusing on my end of I-45.  So why doesn't my hometown have rail to Hobby and Intercontinental airports despite METRO being founded in 1978 with the goal of city wide rail service in mind?

It's a combination of factors.   Rep John Culberson (R) and before him former Rep. Tom DeLay (R), along with the Harris County Republican Party, were militant rail opponents.  The bad case of NIMBY syndrome that the Afton Oaks neighborhood along Richmond Avenue has just east of the Galleria /Uptown Houston area has had the effect of messing with multiple METRO attempts to logically route rail along Richmond Avenue to the Galleria through that area.

You also have all the naysaying anti-rail peeps who think building or widening freeways is cheaper than rail, nobody will ride it, and building roads is the only option capable of solving our Houston area regional transit issues.

But back to Culberson.   At the behest of his Afton Oaks constituents and his party, he has repeatedly messed with METRO's plan to build the needed and necessary east west University (Blue) Line to connect the rest of the current system centered on downtown, the Texas Medical Center and the north east southeast sides of the city to the Galleria area and the Gold Line by messing with the federal funding. 

Federal funding that the DFW area said 'thank you very much Houston' for allowing us to get it to build our rail system. 

The Galleria area Gold Line that was approved by the 2003 rail referendum passed in large part by Black and Latinx voters is now being built as our first bus rapid transit (BRT) lane that can be easily converted to light rail in the future. 

The BRT lane currently being built along South Post Oak Blvd and the West Loop to its northern terminus at the Northwest Transit Center could be eventually extended to the future Houston terminus of the Texas Central Railway bullet train between Dallas and Houston scheduled to start construction next year. 

Their collective opposition to rail is so entrenched that Culberson is even bragging about in his campaign materials.  That Republican opposition to METRO getting its fair share of federal money to build rail here is a major reason why the Dallas Fort Worth area has quickly amassed over 100 miles of it and is building more while we spin our wheels dealing with nuisance litigation from anti-rail opponents. 

And yes, when the Katy Freeway was widened to a mind numbing 23 lanes at a cost of $2.8 billion, the MKT railroad corridor that ran parallel to it all the way to the western suburb of Katy was paved over.

That corridor could have been used for commuter or light rail.  Same with the corridor along Westpark Road in which freight rail tracks were ripped up for a toll road.

And as you probably guessed, travel times on the Katy Freeway have gotten worse, not better since it was expanded.   Since METRO paid for some of that project, one silver lining of it is the overpasses were built to handle the weight of rail cars if we finally go in that direction we should have and stick rail tracks in the middle of the freeway.

One of the major reasons that Houston was eliminated from the competition to get Amazon's second headquarters was lack of public rail transit to both major airports.   Chicago, which we will pass soon to become the third largest city in the US, has had rail connections to both major airports for decades.

Looks like METRO is finally getting ready to address that issue, and it's about time.

METRO is seeking to at least get Hobby connected to the METROrail system.   The current terminus of the Purple Line at the Palm Center Transit Center station is only three miles from Hobby airport.  The Green Line's eastern terminus at the Magnolia Park Transit Center station in the East End is roughly the same distance from Hobby.

The distance from IAH to the current northern terminus of the Red Line at the Northline/HCC station is 11.5 miles, about the length of track that was built to expand the Red Line from the UH Downtown station to that point.

How they route the Purple and Green Lines to get to Hobby and the Red Line to IAH from their current termination points, and how much is it going to cost is the question right now. 

While I'd like both projects to happen ASAFP, how fast that does occur depends on the upcoming 2018 midterm election in which Lizzie Fletcher is taking on Culberson.

In the wake of the failure to get Amazon's second HQ to locate here, and if Houston ever wants to see its Olympic hosting dreams come true, the incentive is there for Houston to handle its rail public transportation business.

And it needs to happen as quickly as possible.