Don Lemon Is Right- We Need A Conversation In Black America About TBLGQ Issues

“Because apologizing and moving on doesn’t make the world a better place for people who are gay or people who are transgender. Being an ally does.”-Don Lemon 

From time to time I have put Don Lemon on blast on these electronic pages for fumbling on trans issues.  But since the Orange Fool has been in power, he has been on fire in terms of calling crap out on a wide range of subjects. 

Now, he is taking on Kevin Hart's recent appearance on Ellen and Hart's comments that he wasn't to move on from the conversation. 

Naw player, those of us in Black Trans, Bi and SGL World would submit that we have yet to even have this family discussion about transphobia and homophobia in Black World, and it needs to happen now. 

Black trans people definitely wish to have this family conversation because toxic masculinity and toxic transphobia are killing us. |

Here's Don Lemon's on point CNN commentary

Rep. Jennifer Wexton Displays Trans Pride Flag Outside Her DC Congressional Office

When you visit the House and Senate office buildings in Washington DC, in addition to having the nameplate of the representative or senator outside the entry door, there will also be an American flag, their state flag, and then sometimes a third flag of choice on a flagpole outside of the office.

Sometimes that third flag is one for the school they graduated from.  Some have the black POW flags, or the flag representing the branch of the military they served in.

Freshman Representative Jennifer Wexton (D-VA) has a unique one hanging outside her Longworth House Office Building door.  It's the trans pride flag, and she may be the first congressmember to ever display it outside their congressional office door.

Abby Carter, Rep. Wexton's chief of staff, said that she displays the trans pride flag to make a personal statement about trans inclusion.   She the aunt to a trans child, and Del. Danica Roem is one of her Virginia 10th District constituents. 

"This is personal for me. We're talking about my family and friends,” Rep. Wexton said in a statement to NBC News. "I want everyone in the trans community to know that they are welcome and loved even in the face of this administration and its attacks on who they are."

"I didn’t think putting it up would be a big deal, but I've received a huge outpouring of support and appreciation from the LGBT community in the past two days," Wexton added. "We’ve been receiving messages from across the country and they've been telling me how much it means to them to see that in the halls of Congress.

It is a huge deal Rep. Wexton.    In a time when trans Americans have been under attack by the federal government and evilgelicals, and feel that their governments at any level don't care about them, to see that trans pride flag outside a congress member's office. 

Until trans people get elected to Congress, we will be dependent upon legislative allies to help push the policies and make the laws that make life better for trans Americans.

The next time I go to DC, I'm definitely stopping by to say hello and personally thank you for sending a message to everyone that either stops by your office or walks past it that trans lives matter.

This Presidency Has Happened Before..

Where?  During the second and third season of Battlestar Galactica.

I was re-watching my DVD collection of Battlestar Galactica a few nights ago and it struck me the similarities between Dr. Gaius Baltar's disastrous turn as President of the Twelve Colonies and Orange Foolius.

Baltar, unlike Orange Foolius, was a media savvy prize winning scientist prior to the surprise Cylon nuclear attack on the Twelve Colonies that nearly wiped out humanity in their star system.  He had become the science adviser to Roslin, and eventually rose to become Caprica's representative on the Quorum of the Twelve and later vice president of the colonies.

But what he did have in common with Orange Fooluis is chasing women to the annoyance of Caprica Six, getting wasted, and being incurious about governance.

What was also in common with today's current political situation despite the fact that the BSG re-imagining was deliberately taking cues from the political situation of the 2000's is his colonial presidential race with the incumbent colonial president Laura Roslin

Roslin was expected to cruise to reelection, but Baltar seized on the recent discovery of New Caprica to push an issue that gained him even more popularity and support despite being woefully inept. 

Roslin was also suffering a drop in popularity because she was forced for the good of the surviving humans and to keep support amongst the highly fundamentalist Gemonese and Sagittarons issue an executive order banning abortion in the Colonial fleet.

That made what was supposed to be an election blowout for Roslin that much closer.  Admiral Adama and the military leadership were so alarmed at the prospect of a President Baltar that they attempted to rig the election in Roslin's favor.

Shut up Berners, the Democratic primary wasn't 'rigged' as you repeatedly claim.  Your boy got his azz whipped by Clinton.

Back to the story.

It was an attempt that failed because Lt Gaeta noted that the number of ballots from a certain ship in the fleet seemed to be off.   Roslin was trailing in the presidential election balloting by 500 votes with three ships left to count.  The ballots arriving from the Zephyr swung the tide in her favor.

The rigging was exposed, Baltar wins the election, and orders the immediate settlement of New Caprica as he promised during the campaign if he won.

The Baltar presidency is a disaster.   A year late the civilians are living in rough conditions exacerbated by shortages of antibiotics, and strikes.   He ignores the Quorum of the Twelve. and spends more time getting laid and doing drugs than focusing on the day to day governance.

Lt Gaeta, now his presidential aide, tries to get Baltar to focus of his duties with no success because Baltar ignores him just like he does the Quorum.

The Cylons suddenly appear in force over New Caprica.   They were over a light year away from the Colonial Fleet when they were drawn to the area by the light and radiation signature from the nuclear blast that Gina set off from the nuke Baltar gave her that destroyed the Cloud Nine liner and several other ships on his Inauguration day

The Galactica, Pegasus and the other military ships in orbit over New Caprica are forced to withdraw as the Cylon occupy the planet and make Baltar their Vichy style puppet ruler after he unconditionally surrenders.   He is forced at gunpoint by Aaron Doral (think Vladimir Putin) to sign a termination order for hundreds of humans..

Baltar tried to convince the Cylons their mission to rule over humans was doomed to fail, and they should leave New Caprica.    Not long after that the Galactica and Pegasus return in force to rescue their people trapped on the planet and resume the journey to Earth.

So yes, it seems the Orange Foolius presidency has happened before in the person of BSG's Gaius Baltar.  And like Baltar's coming to an end, his will too.  It's just a matter of whether it is by, his resignation, his impeachment and removal from office, or the American people do it themselves in 2020.

Congratulations Judge Rabeea Collier!

Yesterday afternoon I got to witness some Texas history being made.

While many people have heard of the 17 African American women being elected to the judicial benches in Harris County, another story being missed is that we had a large group of Asian American judges running for office in this cycle as well.

One of those judges who was successfully elected was Rabeea Sultan Collier.   This was her second run for a judicial bench.  She lost a Democratic primary runoff for the 11th District bench in 2016.

Her second run was much more successful.  She overwhelmingly won the 2018 Democratic primary race for the 113th District Court seat, and comfortably defeated the Republican incumbent Michael Landrum in the November midterm election.

The TSU Thurgood Marshall School of Law grad has been a practicing attorney for 12 years.  She's served as a board member of the Harris County Democratic Lawyers' Association, the Association of Women Attorneys, and served on the State bar of Texas' Women in the Profession Committee.

During the 2018 cycle, Collier made history on multiple fronts with her November 6 win.   She became the first person of Pakistani descent and the first Muslim woman to ever win a Texas judicial bench.

I had the honor and distinct pleasure of watching Rabeea's investiture ceremony yesterday inside a packed Harris County Civil Court building ceremonial courtroom in which she took the oaths of office.

As of Wednesday morning, she began writing her own chapter of the distinguished history of the 113th District Court.   She is only the second woman ever to serve as a judge in this court.

Along the way she will serve as a role model and a leader to many inside and outside her community 

Congratulations Judge Collier!  It was an honor and a pleasure to be there to witness history and meet your family.  I know you will be an outstanding judge, and continue to be a trailblazing leader in our community.

Final Ruling Issued In Houston Drag Queen Story Time Federal Case

The final ruling was issued yesterday in the Houston Drag Queen Story Time case, and the hatemongers lost

Chief District Judge Lee H. Rosenthal issued he final ruling yesterday swatting away the evilgelicals attempt to shut down the event  in a case that was filed back in October.

Rosenthal granted the city of Houston's request to terminate the case, stating the court didn't have jurisdiction because the plaintiffs didn't have standing to sue, and the plaintiffs had failed to establish that the freedom of religion clause had been violated by the storytellers.

The haters contended that program where drag queens read books at the Montrose library violated the freedom of religion of library patrons.

Yeah, right.

They argued in court documents that drag queens and transgender storytellers would 'indoctrinate children to believe in another religion', which the suit identifies as Secular Humanism. The activists believe the storytellers would 'groom children at the event to become transgender.'
Excuse me for a moment while I double over in laughter at that last delusional sentence in that paragraph.

The Houston Public Library in a previous court filing, explained their rationale for hosting the Drag Queen Story Time events

“Throughout their history, American public libraries have been on the front lines of promoting inclusivity and dispelling intolerance. The Houston Public Library is committed to celebrating the diverse and culturally rich communities here in Houston through a broad array of programs and resources we offer. All our programs are free, open to the public, and accessible by choice,” the legal filing stated.

The fake faith based haters plan to appeal   They tried to spin their crushing legal defeat as 'happiness the case is out of Judge Rosenthal's hands'.   Judge Rosenthal was appointed by President George HW Bush.

Mayor Turner and the HPL declined comment concerning the ruling.

Why I'm Endorsing Mike Webb For Reelection As Houston GLBT Caucus President

This month's Houston GLBT Caucus meeting is one in which we will be electing officers and board members for new terms. 

Mike Webb is only the third Black president ever of the Houston GLBT Caucus, but in his first term accomplished much.

*The Caucus raised over $100,000 this year, and ALL the funds went toward helping elect our endorsed candidates.
*We had more visibility on TV and radio than ever before.
*We had the largest endorsement card that reached more people throughout Harris County and beyond in Caucus history.
* A very inspiring new batch of volunteers and equality supporters joined our coalition, which helped us mobilize over 270 voters to the polls with our new Pride2ThePolls initiative.

All of this was accomplished through inclusive leadership and coalition building with diverse partners. Now let’s make 2019 our best year yet!

I was asked by Mike in February 2018 to help lead a Caucus initiative in which myself and my team members helped broker a deal between the Caucus and the Baptist Ministers Association of Houston and Vicinity.   That team helped clear up some misunderstandings between both groups, got an apology from them for their actions during the HERO fight, and set the stage for future meetings and cooperative ventures with them..

Mike also worked for state senator (now Congresswoman) Sylvia Garcia during the 2017 session and currently works for Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis.   Translation: They (Mike uses gender neutral pronouns) have the legislative experience we will need as a community and the organization will need at the state, county and local level to advance our community's policy agenda.  

With a Houston municipal election coming up, and a 2019 Texas Legislative session commencing on January 8, why throw out proven leadership for someone who will have to learn the job on the fly? 

These are just a few of the reasons why I'm endorsing Mike Webb for another term as the president of the Houston GLBT caucus< and why I will be casting my vote for him later this evening. 

He has proven he can lead this organization, so why not stay the leadership course?   
.  . 
Here's hoping they are reelected to the Caucus presidency again later tonight!

Historic Change Comes To Fort Bend County!

When I was growing up in Houston,  I had a great uncle and aunt who lived in Rosenberg that we used to visit every Christmas until they moved to Houston during my college years. Fort Bend County was despite a sizable Black population, largely white and conservative leaning.

It was Tom DeLay's power base during the 80's and 90's as a reliably red suburb on the southwest corner of purple to blue Harris County.   DeLay rose from here to prominence in the Texas GOP and a state legislative seat.  He eventually got to Washington DC repping the 22nd Congressional District, and became the House Majority Leader and a major adversary of President Bill Clinton.

Fort Bend County isn't red any more.  It has increasingly been trending purple because of the numerous suburban neighborhood that have popped up around Missouri City, Sugar Land, Katy and Rosenberg like Mission Bend, Sienna Plantation, Quail Valley and others.

Fort Bend County not only became since the 80's one of the Houston metropolitan area's fastest growing suburbs next to Montgomery County to the north of us, it is also rapidly diversifying. 

That spells political trouble for the Texas and Fort Bend County Republican Party.

Tom DeLay Country finally flipped blue in the midterms, and while we were at NRG Center yesterday gleefully celebrating Harris County going deep blue, down I-69 our suburban neighbors were having a very Happy Blue Year celebrating their own historic gains.

The Fort Bend Democrats had come close in 2016.   Hillary Clinton became the first Democratic presidential candidate to win Fort Bend County in decades, but unlike here in Harris County, Republicans still won countywide, but by much narrower margins than usual.

That set the stage for what happened on November 6 when the Blue electoral tsunami hit Fort Bend County.

Brian Middleton became the first African American ever elected as the Fort Bend County DA. He was also the first Democrat elected as Fort Bend County DA in 25 years. 

But they didn't stop there.  KP George was also elected to become Fort Bend County judge (the chief executive of the county) and become the first South Asian elected a county judge anywhere in the state of Texas. 

George, as Lina Hidalgo made happen here in Harris County, unseated a longtime Republican incumbent in Robert Herbert, who had held the position for 15 years.

Missouri City also elected its first African American mayor in Yolanda Ford.   The lifelong resident of the town and city council member beat incumbent mayor Allen Owen, who had been running the city for nearly 25 years.

Fort Bend County also elected seven Democratic judges, one of them being a high school classmate of mine in Teana Watson.   This was her third attempt at a judicial run, losing in 2012 to James Shoemake for the 434th District Court, then four years later narrowly losing the race for the 400th District Court to GOP incumbent judge Maggie Jaramillo.

The third time was the charm for Watson in her race for the Fort Bend County Court At Law #5 bench, comfortably beating Republican Harold Kennedy. 

Shapnik Khan, the vice chair of the Fort Bend Democratic Party, also attributed the wins to the increasing diversity of the county.

“It’s the minorities like us,” he said in an interview with Ella Feldman. “The Asian-Americans, the Hispanics, the African-Americans, it’s a combination of the different ethnicities. They’re moving in, and not only moving in, but getting involved.”
That they are.   Even more importantly, they are working together to change the county for the better and make its leaders and government officials as diverse as Fort Bend County is.Congrats Fort Bend Dems!  The easy part is over of flipping the county blue.   Now comes the hard work of keeping it that way.

SPART*A Sends Thanks To Our Allies

As you longtime TransGriot readers are aware of, I unequivocally and enthusiastically support our trans siblings serving in the armed forces of our nation.

There are 15,500 trans people serving around the globe in our military and their right to mdo so is under attack by the Trump misadministration. 

Thanks to our allies, SPART*A and the federal judiciary, the Trump trans military ban is NOT in effect and trans troops can keep serving our country. 

If you haven't heard of SPART*A , it's the nonpartisan TBLGQ organization that supports active duty military personnel, their spouses, or anyone in our community who has proudly served in our armed forces.

SPART*A’s mission is to advocate for our actively serving transgender military members, veterans, and their families. SPART*A provides our members with a peer support network, assistance in navigating military transgender policy and health care, and educational resources for their professional development. SPART*A actively coordinates and collaborates with other LGBT advocacy organizations to promote an inclusive military environment that values the contributions of all Americans with the desire to serve.

Here's a video from our trans service members and their spouses thanking you for your support of them.

Know trans service members, I will also continue to have your back on the home front.

Swearing In Of Harris County Officials Today!

Happy Blue Year!

In a few hours, I'll be at NRG Center to watch the swearing in ceremony for all our newly elected Harris County officials. 

For those of you who aren't aware of what happened here on Election Night, Harris County (translation the county that Houston is in) went dark blue on November 6. 

A blue tsunami swept through the most populous county in Texas and swept out every incumbent Republican judge.  Harris County voters replaced them with a diverse, experienced group of Democratic judges that included 19 Black women.

The blue tsunami also put Lizzie Fletcher in George HW Bush's old TX-7 congressional seat that had been in Republican hands for 50 years.   It also gave us an opportunity to send former TX state Senator Sylvia Garcia to Washington DC along with Fletcher as part of the new Democratic House majority taking office in 48 hours.

Garcia, along with Veronica Escobar, who won the race to succeed Beto O'Rourke in Congress, become the first Latinas Texas has ever sent to the US Congress.

Democrats also got control of the Harris County Commissioners Court with the election of Latinx peeps Lina Hidalgo as our new county judge and Adrian Garcia as Precinct 2 commissioner.

In addition to making our Harris County judicial ranks finally look like the diverse county we are, we also fired Stan Stanart, our much loathed county clerk, and replaced him with Diane Trautman.

The county clerk is the person who administers voting procedures, and Stanart was a partisan GOP hack hellbent on suppressing votes.   That ends today 

Marilyn Burgess will take office today as our Harris County District Clerk.  We also sent Orlando Sanchez packing and replaced him with a new county treasurer in Dylan Osborne

What a wonderful way to kick off 2019 in terms of watching dozens of Democrats get sworn into office as the Republicans they replaced suck their teeth and whine that 'straight ticket voting cost us our offices'

Naw GOP boo boos.  It wasn't straight ticket voting that did you in.  It was the fact your party is seen by a majority of voters as intolerant and hostile to people of color.   The Republican Party has become toxic to a majority of Harris County voters, and you refuse to deal with the reality of that.

You Harris County GOP fans let that truth sink into those hard heads while I get dressed to watch my friends and every Democrat I gleefully voted for get sworn into office.

Happy 13th Blogiversary, TransGriot

Today is not only the start of a new year, it's also the 13th anniversary of the start of TransGriot.

At midnight Eastern standard time on January 1, 2006, my first post went up on this blog.   It initially started out as a way for me to comment real time on the issues of the day and complement the monthly column I had in a local Louisville TBLGQ paper called The Letter.

The blog eventually got more popular than the newspaper column after spending much of of TransGriot's first year trying to figure out what I wanted to do with it.

Now after 13 years, over 10,000 posts, and finally capturing an elusive GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Blog , what I figured out was that what I needed to do with it was be a voice for Black trans people who at that point and time didn't have one.

It also has another important mission of recording our history.  I also used TransGriot's electronic pages to push the media in the TBLGQ community and in Cis World of doing better when  and how they report on trans issues, and role modeling how to do so.

And yes, one of the most beloved features is the TransGriot Shut Up Fool Awards.

So thanks to Jordana LeSesne for relentlessly staying on my azz until she got me to commit in November 2005 to start TransGriot, to pick a January 1 start date, and actually follow through with my first post.

This blog opened up a new world of opportunities for me, in addition to allowing me to be the voice for a community. 

While my blog may have started to give Black trans people a voice and talk about the issues from our perspective, it has grown far beyond what I envisioned for it when I hit SEND on that first post on New Year's Day 2006. .

Here's to TransGriot's Year 13!   Let's see how it transpires.

Happy New Year 2019

Happy New Year TransGriot readers!   I know some of y'all are out ringing in the New Year, while other of y'all may be chilling at home or fast asleep.

It a new year, and a new 365 days to tackle life.   The reset button just got pushed to do just that, so what are you going to do with it?.

As for moi, I'm going to do what I've been working to do for the last 20 years, try to make the world a better place for trans people in Houston, Texas, the nation and the world than when I first encountered it 

2019 means that trips to Austin for me are on the horizon as the Texas Legislature will be cranking up for business.   I also get to watch as a dark Blue Harris County becomes a reality with the swearing in of our new Harris County judges, our Democratic Harris County commissioner's court majority led my County Judge Lina Hidalgo, and in two more days, the 116th Congress with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi back in charge 

2019 means this is a municipal election year in Houston.   In a few months we'll be going to the polls to to see if we fire or rehire our mayor and council members, and peeps are already lining up to run in districts with term limited council members. 

Somebody needs to take on CM Kubosh.  ..

And as always, there's the stuff we don't foresee happening.   What will those events look like?

That will all unfold over the next 365 days. 

The 2018 Shut Up Fool Of The Year Is

You've waited 365 days to find out who will join the distinguished list of fools who excelled in outright lying, engaging in massive hypocrisy, or exhibited titanic levels of what the hell head scratching lunacy and ignorance.

It's that time again.   Tine for me to reveal this yea's TransGriot Shut Up Fool of The Year Award

But before I announce this year's winner, some of y'all are probably asking yourselves who won this award in the past. 

It's a tradition that I started on New Year's Eve 2009, in which I chose a person, group or persons that just consistently over the year lived up to Shut Up Fool status.

There were many worthy nominees this year, but before I announce who got it for 2018, need to let y'all know who the previous TransGriot Shut Up Fool of the Year winners were.

2009-Michael Steele
2010-Sarah Palin
2011-Herman Cain
2012- Mitt Romney
2013- Ted Cruz
2014- Louie Gohmert
2015- Donald Trump
2016- Donald Trump
2017- Dan Patrick

Enough jibber jabber, it's time to let y'all know who won.   Mr T, the envelope please.

The 2018 Shut Up Foll of the Year is....Sarah Suckabee Huckabee Sanders!

The White House press secretary propaganda minister will go down in history as the worst White House press secretary ever.    Baghdad Bob has more credibility than Sanders does

Word is that she's having a tough time finding a new post-Washington DC gig. 

Hey, when you lied on national TV for years to defend this toxic waste dump of a presidency and the odious policies that come out of it, you actually think people with integrity are going to hire you, boo boo kitty?

Well, maybe FOX News will.   But the rest of the world won't.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Shut up Fool! 

 .

Tracy, Before You and The Evilgelicals Step To Me,...

Learn how to use a dictionary or spellcheck.

Seems Tracy Shannon, one of the alleged out of town residing Talabaptists, had a problem with me dropping truth bombs on them during the Drag Queen Story Time protest over the weekend, and wrote this screen shotted post on her page. 

FYI boo boo kitty, my award winning 'hate filled blog' is spelled TransGriot.  Damn, you sound too much like a certain white gay male blogger I know and give zero phucks about.

I also find it interesting that you're so bored with your fabulous life in Corpus Christi (if that's really where you live instead of Tomball or some other nearby intolerant Houston area GOP voting 'burb with a hate congregation), that you would burn up your precious gasoline to come to the gayborhood and protest a literacy event for kids with badly misspelled signs.

You and your friends need Jesus and a dictionary.

The truth always sounds like hate speech to a white supremacist Becky, especially a white supremacist faux KKKhristian trying and failing to hide behind the 'bybul' to justify their transphobia and homophobia. 

Word to you Tracy and any of your like minded Pharisees and Sadducees.  If you don't want to be called a transphobic bigot, stop acting like a transphobic bigot.   That way we don't have to call you out on it.

My friends living in Montrose would also deeply appreciate it if you and your fellow faux faith based hatemongers not come to the library next month.  They're worried you thugs and bullies showing up in the gayborhood on a regular basis will drive down their property values.

Let me close this out with a Bible verse you probably skipped over in the rush to drive to Houston to hate on the TBLGQ community in the name of your Lord and Savior Donald Trump.

Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.
-Matthew 7:3

You are also exactly what I said about you and your friends when I had the megaphone in my hands on Saturday.  You are the false prophets the Bible warned us about.

Smooches..