Happy Juneteenth 2019!

Happy Juneteenth, people!    Today is the day back in 1865 that Union Major General Gordon Granger read General Order Number 3 that freed all slaves in Texas.

That day has been celebrated by Texas Black people ever since, and was made an official state holiday in 1980.    Black Texans as they moved around the country took the Juneteenth traditions with them, and the day is increasingly celebrated in many states, with Pennsylvania the latest to do so. 

Here's Rep Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) to discuss Juneteenth and the effort to get long overdue reparations for African Americans.    Rep Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) has filed HR 40 to jump start the process of making that happen.

 

POSE Renewed By FX For A Third Season!

The Emmy nomination voting opened on June 10, and don't be surprised if you see some folks from POSE snatching trophies when the Emmy Awards are finally broadcast to add to the GLAAD Media Award they received. .

POSE received a double dose of good news as it starts its second season.  It's Season 2 debut episode 'Acting Up'  not only got more viewers and higher ratings than last year's opening, it was announced by FX that POSE has been already renewed for a third season

We also are blessed with two more episodes in POSE season 2 for a total of 10.   It's also #MustSeeTransTV with the five major trans characters and trans actors playing them.

What that third season will look like we'll find out later, but season 2's opening with its time jump to 1990 has already ensured it will exceed the bar it set in Season 1.

Congrats to the cast of POSE, and hope that this year's season leads to some well deserved awards for your performances 

Jessica Zyrie Featured In The 'Absolut Acceptance' Ad

Y'all know how much I love my sis Jessica Zyrie.   In addition to her ripping Fashion Week runways, we are fortunate to have her here in the Houston area doing her thing to advocate for our community.

Jessica recently shot a commercial for Absolut Vodka released just in time for Pride Month and Father's Day.  The commercial also featured her amazing dad who I got to meet on my birthday trip  last month. 

I'm going to need to hit Wayne's Wings again the next time I find myself in the Alamo City.

Anyway, here's the commercial, entitled Absolut Acceptance

 

Number 10- Rest In Power and Peace Zoe Spears

These posts are coming so fast an furiously these days it's taking me time to just get caught up writing them.

We head back to the Washington DC area, specifically the same Fairmount Heights, MD suburb where Ashanti Carmon was killed to report on the latest trans woman taken from us way too soon.

23 year old Washington DC resident Zoe Spears was found shot to death from a gunshot wound just after midnight EDT in June 13.  Spears was declared dead at the scene by first responders, and her body was found less than half a mile from where Carmon's was found.

Spears is now the tenth American trans woman we have lost to anti-trans violence.   All the known American trans deaths so far in 2019 have been African American.   She is also the seventh under age 30 to die this year.

No word yet if there is a person of interest in this case.

As of yet no word concerning a memorial service or funeral planned, and I will pass that info along when I receive it. 

Rest in power and peace, Zoe.. 

Not Feeling Your Transphobia, Black Gay Men

As if we didn't have enough transphobia coming from the federal government, the TERF's, evilgelicals,  elements of the white gay and lesbian community, and elements of the Black community, we also have Black gay men coming out of the closet with their toxic transphobia.

A few years ago I attended a drag show one steamy Saturday night in the Montrose gayborhood at a club now called Barcode.  I was bored, didn't see anyone I knew, and decided to head home and walk the few blocks back toward Westheimer Rd to the nearest bus stop and start the trip back home. 

I cut through the shared parking lot for JR's and the then open South Beach clubs in order to shorten the walk to Westheimer Rd.    While doing so I passed an interracial white and Black gay man who made the loud and wrong assumption I was a sex worker, with the Black one saying it loud enough for me to hear it.

I stopped, glared at both of them, read them for good measure and cussed them out one more time before I flipped them the finger before resuming my journey back to my bus stop.

In my 21 years of activism, I have had many Black gay men in my corner like Ashton Woods, Brandon Mack, Venton Hill-Jones, and Harrison Homer Guy just to name a few.  These men have unapologetically had my back and been major supporters in what I do activism wise.

These righteous gay Black men have also called their gay brothers out when they tried to aim transphobic shade or outright disrespect toward me and my trans sisters, and I love and appreciate them for defending our honor. 

Unfortunately, it seems that  righteous Black gay male accomplices are the exception lately and not the rule.  We have far too many of them letting their transphobic flag fly on social media, and Black trans women are beyond sick and tired of it.

Craig Brooks has gotten widespread acclaim for calmly handling a workplace racism situation in which he was called the n-word despite being majorly pissed off about it.

But Brooks couldn't be bothered to extend the same respect he demanded for himself when it came to Black  trans women.   It was discovered that his social media feed was a cesspool of transphobic hate.

And he's not the only one.   Far too often we see Black gay men making derogatory comments about trans women as the people in their feeds like and share them.

Even famous Black gay men like RuPaul have made repeated transphobic comments, and it's one of the major reasons why I refuse to support Drag Race.

I have to ask the question why some of you Black gay males engage in this behavior.  You jealous?  You mad and ashamed because you don't live unapologetically in your truth the way Black trans women do?   You trying to curry favor with the evilgelicals?   You just want to bully trans women? 

Let a trans sister know what the reason is so she can avoid your treacherous azz. 

You will get read for filth by us in the 2K19 if you're caught engaging in that nekulturny behavior because I will say it again, Black trans women are sick and tired of your crap. and being disrespected by people who are supposed to be our ride or die accomplices.

You throwing 'that's a man' shade at us from you spot in the SGL community will no longer be tolerated.  If you're mad because I called your azzes out on this problematic behavior, and are claiming you'll no longer be allies to the trans community because I did so, then sashay away because you were never trans allies to begin with.

That rainbow toxic transphobia contributes to the climate in the Black community that gets Black trans women killed.   You Black gay males who gleefully engaging in spreading that transphobia in our SGL community need to cease and desist with that.
 

Macy's Galleria Pride Fashion Show

Some positive news out of my home state in terms of Macy's Galleria celebrating Pride Month by hosting a fashion show inside the store yesterday from 6-8 PM CDT.

This wasn't just any store fashion show.  The participating models were all local Houston area trans people, and one of the show's organizers and commentators was none other than Jessica Zyrie, who knows a few things about ripping runways.

She was joined in the commentator duties by wardrobe stylist Ashley Kahn as the models showed off in season fashion looks that were inspired by Pride month.   The show also included a DJ spinning tunes, a photo booth, makeup tutorials and complementary swag.

Note to my critics.   Hey it ain't always about me.  I'm a firm believer in there is room for everyone in this trans community to shine, and I practice what I preach. 

I was good with the fact that I got to see the spotlight shined yesterday on our younger Houston area trans peeps . I also got to watch a positive event for our community in a month we sorely needed it.

Just wish the show had been a little longer, but the people in attendance who saw this first ever event won't forget it along with the customers and employees who were in the store at the time it happened.

And hope it happens again next year.

Edward Thomas' Attorney Disrespects Muhlaysia Booker

Our crappy pride month continues with more info coming out of Dallas concerning the legal fallout from the videotaped April 12 assault on Muhlaysia Booker that landed Edward Thomas in the Dallas County Jail.

Thomas is being defended by attorney Andrew W. Wilkerson, who is big mad that his client is facing twenty years in a TDC facility for the videotaped hate assault on our departed sister.

This is the transphobic shyt he had to say on his Facebook page about it:

I’ll say this again, our condolences to the family of Pierre Booker. He was a human being, he was a person that was loved dearly by his family. He did not deserve to die. No one deserves to die. But our client had absolutely nothing to do with his death.

But this is ridiculous. The State is offering Edward Thomas twenty years for that fight in back Royal Crest Apartments a couple months ago. The State is offering twenty years for a fist fight, between two men, with no weaponsinvolved. Let that sink in. There was no knife, no gun, no brass knuckles, and nothing was picked up off the ground and used during the physical altercation. Furthermore, this was no hate crime, period. People who were there know that this all arose from an altercation after Pierre Booker rear ended Thomas’s friends vehicle and refused to exchange insurance information or rectify the situation in anyway. Are you surprised that the news didn’t tell you these details?? Don’t be😑.

No disrespect to anyone’s life style at all. It’s your decision. But when the law recognizes gender it’s based off one’s anatomy or biological make up if you will. So when dealing with the law you must realize that ones sexual preference/orientation has no bearing on his or her gender, a persons gender is based on his/her biological hardware or, plainly said, if a person has a penis, the law views him as a male and if a person has a vagina the law views her as a female. Ridiculously obvious to say, I know, but some of you facebookers seem to have the law a tad bit confused.

So, now that we’ve cleared that up, to offer a man twenty years for a fist fight with another man is unconscionable and shows no regard for his life or his future. Say what you want, but that ain’t justice, not even close. A man can literally wave a gun in another person’s face and not receive twenty years in prison, come on now. Call a spade a spade, this is beyond ridiculous

First off,  Miss Wilkerson, what you said is this jacked up post is not only loud and wrong, but your ignorant and scientifically illiterate rhetoric is why we have a major problem in Black America with anti-trans violence being visited upon trans individuals in Texas and elsewhere in the United States.

It was also straight up disrespectful to the memory of Ms Booker, her family, and all the people in the Dallas area who loved her.

Gender is between your ears, not your legs, and that is the overwhelming consensus of the scientific community and folks who have been doing the research for decades when it comes to transsexuality and gender identity.

Let me repeat it for you one more time so your willfully clueless azz gets it.  The genitalia between your legs is not the sole determinant of your gender identity.

Your client in a fit of transphobic and toxic Black masculinity, stuck his nose in somebody else's business and beat down a trans woman for $200.   He also by doing so, triggered the series of events that resulted in Muhlaysia Booker's death a month later.   

And can you accurately account for your client's whereabouts after he was released from the Dallas County Jail on bail days before Ms Booker was killed?

When your client beat a trans woman unconscious on that April 12 day to the point that several cis women had to step in and physically remove her from your client's flying fists as he uttered homophobic slurs, yeah Miss Attorney Thang, that's not a mere fight.   That's a hate crime that your waste of DNA client deserves jail time for.

One other thing.   Trans people live lives, not a lifestyle.  So miss me with that 'no disrespect' line because your entire comment was dripping with it and transphobic ignorance.   Calling a trans woman a man is the height of disrespect.

You need Jesus and some serious education about trans issues.  .You are also a disgrace to the proud tradition of attorneys from the Thurgood Marshall School of Law.

Now what's the phone number and the URL for the State Bar of Texas?

30th Anniversary of the Crushing of the Tiananmen Square Demonstrations

'It's a reminder to those of us who live in democracies that as much as we gripe about the imperfect nature of the governments we live under, these freedoms are hard won and require eternal vigilance to keep.' 
-TransGriot  June 4, 2009 

Back in May 1989 the world watched as student led demonstrations calling for greater democracy and an end to government corruption occupied Beijing's Tiananmen Square as the world watched.

Then late in the evening on June 3 and into the early morning hours of June 4 the plug was pulled on the international television network's live feeds. moments later PLA troops rolled into the square with trucks and tanks firing their weapons to brutally end the protests .

Estimates of the dead ranged from 200 to 1000 people as China was universally condemned for what happened.  It also produced this iconic photo of a lone Chinese man stepping in front of a tank column before being taken away by police to a still unknown fate.

It's now been 30 years since that fateful evening that impacted modern Chinese history.  Despite their Chinese government's diligent efforts to scrub it or suppress any knowledge that it happened inside the country , those of us outside of China ensure that the memory of what happened in 1989 never dies.

And we must keep the memory of what happened alive for future generations so that those persons who died in Tiananmen Square didn't do so in vain.

     

Number 7 Rest In Power Chynal Lindsey

I and the Texas trans community still haven't had time to regroup after laying Muhlaysia Booker to rest, and now a mere 24 hours after Dallas Pride happens, we are now having to say the name of another of our trans siblings gone far too soon in her young life.

We go back to Dallas for the second trans person they have had murdered there in 2019, the second in the state of Texas, and the seventh in the United States.

Meet 26 year old Chynal Lindsey.   She was born in Chicago, but lived here in the Lone Star State.  Her body was found in the White Rock Lake reservoir on June 1.

As I mentioned, she is the seventh trans person we have lost in the US to anti-trans violence.  All seven have been African American.   Five of the seven are under age 30.

As of yet,  haven't heard if there is going to be a memorial vigil or detail about funeral arrangements.  Dallas Police has called in the FBI on this case per reporting from David Taffet to determine whether or not this is part of a string of serial killings of trans women in the Dallas area.. 

Something else I haven't heard is the words 'Black trans lives matter' coming from the mouths of the Texas NAACP, which is headquartered in Dallas.

Rest in power and peace , Chynal.  We won't rest until the person who took your live is brought to justice.

     

Michelle Washington Celebration Of Life Service Tomorrow

For those of you in the Philadelphia metro area who wish to attend the celebration of life services of Michelle 'Tameka' Washington, here's the info.   

They will take place at Batchelor Brothers Funeral Home., located at 7112 North Broad Street in Philadelphia.   The viewing will start at 12 noon EDT, followed by the service starting at 1 PM EDT.

The Repast/Reception will begin at 2:30 PM EDT and is scheduled to run until 4:30 PM.   It will take place at Hot Pot Cuisine.    The address is 4234 Germantown Ave in Philadelphia.   

Hope you peeps in the Philly area are able to attend and honor our gone too soon sibling.

CeCe Telfer Wins NCAA Division II 400m Hurdles Track Championship!

While the attention of the Texas Black trans community was focused on the DFW area, what we weren't aware of was that some Black trans excellence was happening here in the Lone Stat State. 

The NCAA Division II Women's Track & Field (Athletics to the rest of the world) Championships were held in Kingsville, TX on the campus of Texas A&M-Kingsville just outside of Corpus Christi during that May 23-25 weekend.

In the 400 m hurdles race final starting in Lane 4 was Franklin Pierce University senior CeCe Telfer.  She'd already finished fifth in the 100 m hurdles final earlier in the day at 13;56 seconds, a half second behind NCAA Div II national champion Courtney Nelson of Pittsburg State..

Telfer captured the 400 m NCAA Div II title in the 400 m hurdles in a personal best time of 57.53 seconds

"It was tough conditions out here with the wind and the heat over the last three days but, as she has over the last six months, CeCe proved herself to be tough enough to handle it," said FPU head coach Zach Emerson of the performance. "Today was a microcosm of her entire season; she was not going to let anything slow her down. I've never met anybody as strong as her mentally in my entire life."

As you probably guessed, the TERFs and other haters are already coming out to attack her.   Telfer competed on the FPU men's squad for three years before stepping away from track for a year to transition.   NCAA rules state that you must be on hormones and testosterone suppression meds for one year before you are allowed to compete in your presentation gender. 

Telfer's love of the sport pulled her back to the track, and she was enthusiastically supported by the Franklin Pierce University administration, the AD, and her teammates.
 

But she still faced transphobic hatred from other competitors during her senior season. 

Nevertheless she persisted, and is not walking way with the NCAA Div II title as 400m hurdles champion.

I Repeat: We Live Trans Lives, Not A 'Lifestyle'

"I get tired of hearing that being transgender is a 'lifestyle'. Too many times in the GLBT community we help buttress that conservaspin in our own writings, conversations, and media interviews as a shorthand code for talking about being GLBT."-TransGriot,  July 30, 2008 
One thing that grates on my ears like nails on a chalkboard is hearing some trans person use the conservaword 'lifestyle' to describe our trans lives. 

I've been saying this point for over a decade now and looks like once again I need to 'ejumacate' some peeps in my own community why saying 'lifestyle' is problematic as hell.

What drove me to write this post is Amiyah Scott's recent May 25 Twitter comment.

I’m a black trans woman and it really fucks me up that the community I stand for 1st puts me last. Majority of the hate I see comes from my own people. I’m BLACK before anything else and even if you don’t understand my lifestyle, you should respect me for that if nothing else.

6:59 PM - 25 May 2019

While I applaud much of what Scott said in her comment and have much love for her , what ruined that tweet for me was that 'lifestyle' word in there.

I repeat to Amiyah and 'errbody' else in Black Trans World.   We do NOT live a trans 'lifestyle'.  We live trans lives.

'Lifestyle' is the shady slur word that our evilgelical oppressors spit at us when they gleefully roll back our human rights .  It implies that being trans is a choice, which i certainly the hell isn't.

The only choices in being trans happen when we come out to the world and live life as the fabulous trans people that God created us to be. 

And yeah, I'm unapologetic about being Black, trans and being my fab shining like a diamond self. 

So stop doing the evilgelicals work for them and do your part to expunge the word 'lifestyle' from your vocabulary when we are discussing our fabulous trans lives. 

We don't live a trans 'lifestyle'.  We live trans lives.

My Muhlaysia Booker Post Funeral Thoughts

I traveled to Dallas on Memorial Day with Dee Dee Watters and Diamond Stylz to represent BTAC and the Black Transwomen .Inc (BTWI) board at Muhlaysia Booker's wake and funeral 

While I was being interviewed by CNN and having a TV camera follow us upon our arrival in Dallas, I did take a moment on the nearly 4 hour drive up from Houston to ponder this latest trans death.

There were things about it that were maddeningly familiar, and some that felt different this time.

Let's start with the familiar stuff.   Muhlaysia was at the time the fourth trans woman to die due to anti-trans violence in 2019.    She was just 22 years old and as we already depressingly know, a Black trans  woman.  She was also like someone else y'all know from Texas, unapologetic about it.

To add to the pain we were already feeling in Dallas, in Philadelphia and across Black Trans America, just before Dee Dee, Diamond and I headed up I-45 to be at Muhlaysia's wake and funeral came the news about Paris being killed in Detroit that Saturday.

Six Black trans women this year.  Four in the month of May alone.   We were also here in Dallas a year after Carla Pavon had been murdered a few miles from where the Cathedral of Hope sits

But this one felt different as well.   The last time I attended a funeral for one of our slain trans siblings was back in 2008 when I was living in Louisville.   That particular funeral was deeply personal because I knew Nakhia Williams and we worked for the same local security company.

Despite being active in trans rights work for a decade at the time, I wasn't as well known nationally as a trans advocate as I am now when walked into that funeral home and the Cathedral of Hope the next day.   TransGriot was only two years old at the time. 

This funeral had international news coverage, in large part because of the viral video of Muhlaysia being assaulted after a traffic accent just a month ago.   This funeral was attended by Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings and Dallas council members Omar Narvaez and Adam Medrano

We had people that came from New Orleans and Washington  to be in attendance.in addition to her Dallas and Texas trans family showing up and showing out in terms of their support for Muhlaysia and her family.

It was also nice to find out some interesting personal details about Muhlaysia.    She was an Eagle Scout.  We discovered that when members of her former scout troop showed up at the funeral home to pay their respects to her.   She was fun loving  and well liked by members of the Dallas trans community and people in Oak Cliff neighborhood.

Her mother told us that while Muhlaysia didn't like starting fights, she had no problem finishing them.

During the resolutions phase of the funeral, proclamations were read from Texas state Senator Royce West (D-Dallas), the city of Dallas, and the Texas House of Representatives from House Rep Jessica Gonzales (D-Dallas)    A few days earlier, Muhlaysia Booker's name had been spoken from the US House floor by Rep. Marc Veasey (D-Ft Worth)

It reminded me as I was sitting there listening to those resolutions being read, that the Texas Lege had gone sine die the day before.   HB 1513, which would have added trans Texans to the James Byrd Hate Crimes Act, was one of the bills that died when it was left pending in the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee after an April 29 hearing in which I and other trans Texans pointed out why it needed to be passed.

Our sister Muhlaysia is now with the ancestors.   It's up to us left here to make certain that when the 2021 Texas legislative session kicks off, we do everything possible to add trans Texans to the Byrd Hate Crimes Act.    We also must ensure that the wastes of DNA who killed her are also brought to justice.

Muhlaysia Booker Wake Today

Headed to Dallas today with Dee Dee Watters and Diamond Stylz as representatives of BTAC and Black Transwomen, Inc to attend the wake and funeral of Muhlaysia Booker.

The wake is later this evening at the Golden Gate Funeral Home starting at 6 PM CDT, with the funeral service being moved to the Cathedral of Hope.

If you live in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and wish to attend the wake and or the funeral, the Golden Gate Funeral Home is located at 4155 S. RL Thornton Fwy in Dallas

The funeral will start at 11 AM CDT    The Cathedral of Hope is located at 5910 Cedar Springs Road.   You may wish to get there early because they are expecting a large crowd to attend this service.

Rep Marc Veasey Honors Muhlaysia From US House Floor

Down in the Lone Star State, the Dallas and Texas trans community is a bundle of emotions this week after the shocking murder of Muhlaysia Booker.

This story has gone international in large part because of the viral April 12 transphobic mob attack video she was in and subsequently being killed a month later. 

We are slowly getting to the May 27-28 days that the wake and funeral for Ms Booker will be held in Dallas.    The wake will be on May 27 from 6-7 PM CDT at the Golden Gate Funeral Home.   The address is 4155 S. R.L. Thornton Fwy, in Dallas.

The funeral starts at 11 AM CDT on May 28, and has been moved to the Cathedral of Hope at 5910 Cedar Springs Road in Dallas. 

One of the questions I have been asking in the wake of this murder is where are our Black community politicians?   Trans people are also their constituents, a fact they sometimes remember at election time.

US Rep Marc Veasey, whose 33rd Congressional District covers parts of Dallas and Ft Worth, took to floor of the US house to make a one minute floor speech.    The subject of that speech was Muhlaysia Booker. 

Why is this a big deal?   Floor speeches by members of Congress get entered into the Congressional Record, which is a journal of the speeches, floor debates and activities of both the US House and US Senate for that particular day.

So as long as there is a US, the name of Muhlaysia Booker will live on in the pages of the Congressional Record. 

Number 4- Rest In Power and Peace Michelle Washington

Less than 24 hours after Muhlaysia Booker was killed in Dallas, in Philadelphia 40 year old Michelle Washington was found at 5:06 AM EDT in the 3400 block of North 11th Street suffering from gunshots to the head, body and buttocks.

Washington was transported to Temple University Hospital where she subsequently died after her arrival.

Now for the grim stats.   Washington is now the 4th trans person we've lost to anti-trans violence in 2019 and the second in less than 24 hours.   As you probably suspected, all the trans people we have lost in 2019 have been African American.

Philadelphia police found three shell casings at the scene, and are looking for any information that will lead to the arrest and conviction of thee perpetrators of this crime.

As of yet no word about a memorial service, but will post that information once I receive it from my Philly trans family.   She was also known as Tameka to her close friends in the community

Rest in power and peace, Michelle.   You not only will be remembered by everyone who loved you, we will not rest until the person who committed this crime is rotting in a jail cell.

BTAC Press Release Concerning The Muhlaysia Booker Murder

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 19, 2019
Contact Monica Roberts BTAC Media Chair 346-310-0824
Dee Dee Watters  BTWI President
855-255-8636 Ext 11
media@blacktranswomen.org

As a Dallas based organization, Black Trans Advocacy Coalition expressed our anger and dismay concerning the April 12 hate attack visited upon our sibling Muhlaysia Booker.   We were happy to hear that Dallas police arrested Edward Thomas in connection with that case, and are aware that the investigation into that transphobic mob attack on her is ongoing. 

This afternoon BTAC was shocked, angered, stunned and saddened to learn that the trans woman found dead Saturday morning in far east Dallas was positively identified as Muhlaysia Booker.

The 23 year old Booker was found shot to death in the 7200 block of Valley Glen Drive near the Tenison Park golf course.  As of yet there are no suspects in this case, and if you have any information that will lead to the arrest of the person or persons who killed our sibling, we urge you to call the Dallas Police Department.

BTAC wishes to express our sincere condolences to the family of Ms Booker and all the people who loved her.

Rest in power and peace, Muhlaysia.   You didn't deserve this.  BTAC is committed as an organization to do what we can as a organization and as members of this community to ensure that the perpetrators of this heinous crime are brought to justice.

One of the reasons why BTAC is extremely angry about this murder besides it happening in our headquarters city, is because back on April 29 Monica Roberts traveled to Austin immediately after the conclusion of our 8th annual conference to represent BTAC and testify in favor of HB 1513, a bill that would have added gender identity to the James Byrd Hate Crimes Act.

Unfortunately, after her testimony and the testimony of several other Texas trans people as to the necessity of us being covered in this hate crimes legislation, the bill was left pending in the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee.  HB 1513 has died for this 2019 session. 

Now Muhlaysia has unfortunately joined the ancestors, and the negative message continues to be sent that it is open season on trans people in the Lone Star State and everywhere else in this country.

When will you care that our Black Trans Lives Matter?   When will Texas legislators right the wrong that occurred in the 1999 and 2001 legislative sessions that resulted in trans people being cut from the Byrd Hate Crimes Act?

When will you stop killing us?    When will other Black community organizations join BTAC in not only condemning this and other killings of Black trans people. but commit themselves to coordinated action in our Black community to eradicate anti-trans violence?

Number 3- Rest In Power and Peace Muhlaysia Booker

This latest report of a trans murder in 2019 is not only coming from my home state of Texas, it is shocking and mindnumbingly sad for me.

23 year old Muhlaysia Booker survived a brutal April 12 assault by a mob in an apartment complex in Dallas' Oak Cliff neighborhood.  Today it is my sad duty to report that Ms Booker was found shot to death Saturday morning by responding Dallas police officers at 6:40 AM CDT in the 7200 block of Valley Glen Dr. near the Tenison Park golf course in east Dallas.

Booker was pronounced dead at the scene due to 'homicidal violence'.   There are also no suspects as of yet in her murder.   I know where y'all can start looking, DPD.   How about every transphobic fool that was videotaped throwing blows at her on April 12? 

Rest in power and peace Muhlaysia. 

This one's personal to me, her loved ones, BTAC and every trans Texan.  As BTMI president Trenton Johnson said on my FB page, "They attack her in one month and then take her life the next!! This has to stop!"

I agree.  It needs to stop.  I want the waste of DNA who killed Muhlaysia to be expeditiously captured and brought to justice.

Booker is now officially the third trans person to die due to anti-trans violence in the US in 2019, and our first in the Lone Star State this year.  All three trans persons who have been killed in 2019 so far have been African American

This one infuriates me even more because it not only happened here in Texas, it is because of what happened to Booker back in April.   It also happens after HB 1513, a bill sponsored by Rep. Garnet Coleman that would have added trans people to the state's James Byrd Hate Crimes Act, died in the House State Affairs Committee committee for this session. 

What is really pissing me off is that we are still sorting out the fallout from the transphobic April 12 mob assault on her in Oak Cliff and were engaged in getting justice for her in that case. 

Now she's dead and her family is now planning her funeral.

I have to ask the question of the Texas NAACP and other organizations in the Black community not named Black Lives Matter or Black Trans Advocacy Coalition.   Do y'all even care about the lives of Black trans people, much less Black trans women?

Your silence, Texas NAACP tells me otherwise. 

If any memorial services are scheduled, I will pass that info along to you as I receive it.

The Equality Act Passes House!

HR 5, also known as the Equality Act, would add gender identity and sexual orientation to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.   How apropos that this legislation came up on the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOTB) and the 65th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education SCOTUS decision.

After some contentious debate and a failed attempt by the Republicans to amend it and send it back to the House Judiciary Committee, it passed in the Democratically-controlled US House on a final 236-173 vote.   8 Republicans joined the 228 Democrats voting YES for the legislation.   All of the 173 NO votes were Republican house members.

Keep that in mind equality voters when you vote for your Congressional candidates next year .

Thanks to all the House Democrats who supported this legislation.   Huge thanks also to Rep. Katie Hill (D-CA) for her mic drop level speech excoriating the Republican attempt to kill the bill

Unfortunately since the Republicans control the Senate, that means the bill will not be taken up by the Republican majority.     That's okay, you can punish then at the polls in 2020 for their lack of political vision.

But celebrate this win, and let's begin tomorrow getting control of the Senate and the White House so we can make this the law of the land.

ConGRADulations Trans Class of 2019

Now that we're in the middle of May, it's graduation time for many of the folks in our community who are getting that paper and the 'ejumacation' that is going along with it.

I wanted to take a moment to celebrate all you trans folks who are part of the Class of 2019 like my Louisville homegirl Amirage Saling    She's  not only receiving her degree in social work from the University of Louisville,  she also made a little history when she received the honor of carrying the Kent College of Social Work banner into the ceremony.

And just when you think Jazz Jennings couldn't be more awesome, now comes the news that she has been accepted to go to Harvard University in the fall!   Harvard Class of 2023 here she comes!

I also needed to show some love in this post to my BTAC forever King Sybastian Smith, who is also walking with his Georgia State University classmates and getting his degree.

Congrats to you as well Sybastian!   So proud of you!

Shout outs also go to you Trans Class of 2019 members who are moving from elementary to middle school, middle school to high school, high school to college, or college to postgraduate education.

Some of you like Charlie Baum, even made history while you were matriculating at your high schools..

Many of you Class of 2019 members have persevered despite enduring in some cases  unnecessary bullying and harassment aimed at you by parents, fellow students, teachers  and administrators   You continuing on your educational path will not only be a great benefit to yourselves personally,  but to our community.

ConGRADulations, Trans Class of 2019!   I salute you, and everyone who loves you also is celebrating the major milestone in your lives.  Can't wait to see what happens for all of you in the near future.