ABC's WWYD Trans Bathroom Show This Friday

We fought a knockdown drag out battle over the 2017 regular and special oppression session to kill SB 6, which specifically targeted trans people for bathroom dehumanization. 

Now in an episode ripped straight (pun intended) from the headlines, John Quinones and ABC's What Would You Do hidden camera are back to test the reactions of people who are confronted with the situation of a trans feminine person withing to use a public restroom.

And yes, our fave Harvard college bound student makes a cameo appearance in this one. 

Here's the link to the trailer video

This show broadcasts this Friday, August 23  at  9 PM EDT, 8 PM CDT on you local ABC station 

Welcome To Texas, Liberals!

“You’re welcome in Texas as long as you never forget why you fled a liberal state,” he declared on Twitter. “Texans expect less government, lower taxes & more freedom. Newcomers must keep it that way.”-Gov Greg Abbott, Twitter

Seems like Gov Abbott and his conservafools are a little upset that Texas after 20 plus years of Republican misrule, the Lone Star State  is starting to turn  purple on its way to becoming blue.

Gov Abbott also has it wrong (as usual).   Texas has always been a progressive state, not a conservative one, and GOP control of it is only a recent phenomenon aided by gerrymandering and voter suppression laws.

It's a political flip that has been long predicted to happen since 2009, when the population of non-white Texans began to outnumber white Texans.

The blue tsunami and the movement of mass quantities of liberals to Texas also has them scared they are about to lose control of the state because it is critical to their efforts to elect a GOP POTUS and be relevant in national politics.

Ted Cruz narrowly won reelection over Beto O' Rourke in the closest US Senate race in the Lone Star State since 1978.   Texas Republicans also lost 12 Texas House seats to put the Texas Democrats within nine seats of flipping the chamber for the first time since 2002.

And in a development that really has them 'scurred', Tarrant County (Ft Worth), went blue for the first time since the 1970's.

The leftward political shift has also been sped up by the racist Trump misadministration and its 'hate on everybody but conservative white males' policies.  Texas Republicans have also contributed to the blue tsunami buildup with their anti-immigration policies,  incessant attacks on abortion, their racist rhetoric and failure to expand Medicare.    The Texas GOP has also pissed voters off by pushing socially conservative bills that don't have the support of the vast majority of the growing Texas population or our Texas business community.

The conservafools are also distressed about the fact that over 1000 people a day move to the Lone Star State, which solidifies our hold on the number two spot of most populous US states.   The Texas population is also not only majority-minority, it is also getting more ethnically diverse, especially in the suburbs.

By 2022, Latinx people will pass whites to become the largest ethnic group in the state, and the increasing anti-Latinx rhetoric is convincing many of them to vote Democratic

Houston, the largest city in Texas, is projected to move up to become the number three most populous city in the nation behind New York and Los Angeles once the 2020 Census is completed.

Houston and Harris County also account for in any statewide race 25% of the vote total, and Harris County flipped blue in the 2018 midterms.  San Antonio, the second largest city in Texas, is currently the seventh largest in the nation, and Dallas, the third largest in Texas with the ATX nipping at its heels, is number nine in population.   Austin and Fort Worth are 11th and 13th on that national population size list with El Paso at number 21

While some of that growth has been from conservatives leaving deep blue California, it has been offset by many liberal Californians and other people from across the country moving to Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin and San Antonio because of jobs in our growing tech sector, corporate headquarters moves to the Lone Star State and a lower cost of living.

That growth in the big four Texas population cities of Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Austin and their suburbs has seen those cities get bluer.   That blue wave is also starting to extend to the formerly Republican suburban bastion counties like Fort Bend near Houston, Williamson near Austin (and where Dell Computers has its headquarters) and Collin near Dallas, where the city of Plano landed Toyota's North American headquarters.

It's just a matter of time before the number of people in Texas cities outnumbers the entire combined population in Texas' rural areas that remain Republican for now.

So Greg Abbott and his fellow Republicans can whine all they want, but the flip of Texas to Democratic control is underway.   That bullet train has already left the station. 

BTW, speaking of bullet trains, we're about to start building a bullet train line between Houston and Dallas.

The Texas Republicans may not want you here, but as a fourth generation native Texan, I not only welcome you liberals to the Lone Star State, but I am along with other Texas native and Texas liberal progressive residents eagerly looking forward to working with you to make Texas better by turning it back to its progressive roots.

400 Years of Africans In America

Today is the 400th anniversary of the arrival of captive Africans at Old Point Comfort in what would later become Fort Monroe in Hampton, VA.

They were part of an original group of 60 Africans captured in in the kingdom of Ndongo in present day Angola.   With the Transatlantic Slave Trade well underway in the Caribbean and Latin America, the captured Africans were placed on a Spanish ship named the San Juan Bautista to transport them on an unwanted boat ride to Mexico.

The San Juan Bautista was attacked by two pirate ships, the White Lion and the Treasurer, who forced the Spanish ship to surrender its cargo of captive Africans.   Those ships got split up during a storm, and the White Lion ended up at Old Point Comfort.

I also need to emphatically point out these early Africans weren't slaves.   Slavery was not legal in Virginia at that time and wouldn't become so until 1661, so those 20 plus Africans from Angola were traded for food and supplies and treated as indentured servants. 

At the time of the Africans arrival, the colony at Old Point Comfort was failing.   The colonists were resorting to cannibalism to survive, and now you had these Africans who arrived just in time with farming and artisan skills that were spread out amongst the nearby Virginia area homes and plantations

Those African farmers also had the skills to cultivate rice, sugar and cotton, crops that were perfect for this climate, but didn't have the seven year contracts like the white indentured servants from England.  That meant the Africans were at the mercy of their plantation owners

Many of those Africans worked 15-20 years before they were granted their freedom.   Once that freedom occurred, the freed Africans started their own homesteads, married other white and Native Americans, purchased the freedom of other family members, owned land, and enjoyed their freedom during that 40 year period before slavery stained what would later become the United States for the next 200 plus years



One of the other things that happened with those first African arrivals was the first African descended child born in North America.   Isabella and Antony were part of that group of 20 Africans that ended up living at Capt William Tucker's home, the commander of Point Comfort

His home was in present day Hampton. and Antony and Isabella eventually got married and had a son named William Tucker. The Tucker family was documented in the 1625 Virginia census, and William was baptized on January 4, 1624.  William is considered to be the first documented African descended child born in English North America.

The occasion of the arrival of Africans in America will be marked by a series of events in Hampton during the August 23-25 weekend. 

In light of the fact we have ignorant MAGAts shouting 'go back to Africa' to us, this 400th anniversary celebration of the arrival of Africans in America is a timely one.

It drives home the point that we have not only been here in North America for 400 years and predate the founding of the United States, but despite all the ongoing challenges of being Black in this country, we have managed to persevere, and thrive.

UH and TSU Are Back To Being Harris County Polling Locations

When I was a student at UH, the 1980 presidential election was happening during my freshman year.  While I eventually cast my ballot in my home precinct at Crestmont Park, I was still happy to know that we had a polling location set up in the UC for students to vote at. 

The same was the case at Texas Southern, which is one of the largest HBCU campuses in the nation and just a few blocks west of the UH campus.

When the Republicans got control of ethnically diverse Harris County, knowing that it provides at this point 25% of the vote total in a statewide election, the polling places on the UH and TSU campuses were removed.

At the same time, Texas Republicans when they passed their voter suppression laws in 2011, made sure that student ID's from a Texas college or university were no longer valid identification in order to make it harder for college students to vote.

Elections have consequences, and one of the happy consequences of the 2018 Blue tsunami that flipped Harris County back to dark blue Democratic Party control was the election of Dr. Diane Trautman to replace the odious GOP hack Stan Stanart as our Harris County Clerk. 

The county clerk, for you non-Texans, is the Chief Elections Administrator.  She's the person that establishes the procedures and policies that determine how elections are run in the largest county in Texas by population, where we vote and even the times we're able to do so subject to state and federal election law and approval of Harris County Commissioner's Court.



In addition to the welcome policy of being able to vote at any polling location in Harris County, polling locations were reestablished on the University of Houston and Texas Southern University campuses.

"It's important for young people to be involved in the elections process", said Dr Trautman. "These additional voting locations will make it easier for students, faculty and staff, as well as the surrounding communities to vote " 

That's significant, because UH has over 40,000 students and 7000 faculty and staff, while TSU has over 9000 enrolled students.   They deserve a say in who will govern them while they are matriculating on the UH and TSU campuses at the local, state and national level.

This will be effective for the upcoming November 5 municipal elections.


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Happy 20th Anniversary Trans Pride Flag!

Today is the 20th anniversary of the day that Monica Helms, while she was living in Arizona, created the original trans pride flag that now rests in the Smithsonian.

The flag is made up of five stripes.  Two baby blue, which represents the masculine and the traditional color of baby boys.   Two pink stripes represent the feminine as the traditional color of baby girls, and the white center stripe that represents gender non conforming and  folks who are transitioning.   

It is also designed so that no matter which way it is flown, it is always correct.   That symbolizes according to Helms, how we're always trying to find completeness in our lives.

On this same August 19 day in 2015, Helms donated the original trans pride flag to the Smithsonian where it was displayed at the last White House Pride Reception in June 2016.

That Helms Trans Pride flag first flew publicly at a pride parade in Phoenix, AZ in 2000 and since then has become over these last 20 years the widely accepted flag representing the international trans community .

That has been demonstrated by the creation of ginormous trans pride flags by groups in Mexico City and Palm Springs, CA which held the previous record for the largest trans pride flag ever created, and now the current record holders in Los Angeles 

That flag, created for the LA Resist pride march in June 2017 is 25 feet 6 inches by 160 feet  (7.8 meters by 48.7 meters).

Happy Trans Pride Flag day!     Thanks Sea Monica for being inspired to create it. 

Reading Is Fundamental- Elektra Reads A Transphobe

As you TransGriot readers know, I am a huge fan of the FX show POSE.   With five major trans characters, it has been showing what we deal with in our trans community lives  through Blanca, Elektra, the now deceased Candy and Angel. 

In last week's episode Elektra took her trans daughters on her working vacation to the beach, and ended up giving a master class in reading when  a transphobic Becky made the mistake of stepping to her and her children.

Enjoy

Never Demetria

The late Maya Angelou once said that when somebody shows you who they are the first time, believe them.   One of the candidates in the 2019 Houston mayoral race has a long ugly history of showing us exactly who she is as an unrepentant transphobe and a homophobe.

That would be Demetria Smith.     And Moni has receipts.

Yep, the same Demetria Smith who has run for since 2013 a District D city council seat, Texas governor in 2018 and now twice for mayor in 2015 and this year.

The same Demetria Smith who is anti-HERO and still futilely trying to gaslight you into believing she isn't.

The same Demetria Smith that threw a hissy fit at a January 2018 Houston GLBT caucus meeting when her time ran out to speak at that meeting, then took to her social media in the wake of that public meltdown to falsely claim "the GLBT's are trying to silence me."

The same Demetria Smith that can't spell her own name right on her own campaign material.

She is the same Demetria Smith whose $3,750 filing fee check for the governor's race bounced, leading the Texas Secretary of State to declare her ineligible to run for the governor's office. 

It's not like she would have gotten any support had she been able to stay on the ballot in that Blue tsunami wave election year.   She got less than 1% of the vote the last time she ran for mayor in 2015, and is well on her way thanks to her unrepentant homophobia and transphobia to failing spectacularly again.

Oh yeah, almost forgot.  Don't you still owe the state of Texas $22,000 in delinquent filing fees?

The last few days have found Smith on social media once again letting her anti-gay and anti-trans flags fly.  She has attacked At Large 5 city council candidate Ashton P. Woods, Kandice Webber, Eric Edward Schell, Nick Arvizu-Hutchinson  and an increasingly lengthy list of other peeps in the Houston TBLGQ community tired of her bull feces and calling her on it.

It's reading time    But let me hydrate first.

(Moni cracks knuckles)

I am personally tired of your ignorant mentally constipated transphobic behind pushing the bathroom predator myth as your weak as well water excuse to hate on HERO.   And yes Demetria, you ARE a transphobe and homophobe who is unfit to hold any public elective office in Houston, Harris County or the state of Texas.

You don't like people calling you out about being a homophobe and transphobe?   Then stop saying homophobic and transphobic crap.   It's that breathtakingly simple.

But tragically, you can't help yourself, and I'm not expecting that miracle to happen.

News flash for you Miss Thang.   It ain't the trans folks you need to worry about.  It's Baptist preachers, deacons, Catholic priests, Republican politicians and creepy uncles.

It's also pissing me off you're flapping those loud and wrong gums about 'predators' when we have predators who have declared open season on Black trans women.   Where's your concern about that? 
Don't their lives mater?

These are dangerous times in America, and we need intelligent leaders at all levels of government who stand up for everyone, not just heterosexuals.   If my rights as a trans Houstonian aren't secure, nobody's are.

HERO 2.0 without public accommodations language or coverage for trans people is a non starter.

Your beliefs as you call them are not grounded in anything but sheer ignorance, and as an award winning blogger and journalist, my job is to speak truth to power, call crap out and stamp out ignorance inside and outside my community.

You are batting .1000 when it comes to spreading that ignorance. 

And let me get something straight with your reprehensible behind..  Gaybaiting is not a good look on you sweetheart.  Neither is willful ignorance or transphobia, and it's time for a makeover and a trip to the library.

It's also quite obvious that you desperately need education about LGBTQ issues but are unwilling to learn.   You also keep doubling and tripling down on your homophobia and transphobia and posting it on social media for the world to peruse as if that is something to be proud of. 

That's why you continue to fail whenever you run for office.   This 2019 election cycle will be another one in which you fail to learn from past mistakes, and you will get less than 1% of the vote in this upcoming election.

You have made it quite clear since 2013 that you are NOT that person we need at City Hall, and it's why I and an increasing majority of Houstonians are on Team #NeverDemetria

Number 16- Rest in Power and Peace Tracy Single

Unfortunately we are in a moment in which the trans murders have been happening at a fast and furious pace in the last few weeks.    The latest one happened in my Houston backyard back on July 30.

There was a July 30 news report of a woman found dead in a gas station parking lot along the eastbound feeder road in the 11000 block of the Katy Freeway (I-10 to the rest of y'all)  at 3:34 AM CDT   

Two local stations, ABC13 and FOX 26 reported her as a woman who did not die of natural causes, and HPD detectives were investigating the case.  It took a week to pass here in H-town before we were advised by our HPD LGBT liaisons that the woman who was found along I-10 back on July 30 was actually trans and was murdered. 

Dee Dee Watters subsequently organized an August 11 town hall meeting that led to us finally IDing  Tracy so we can now officially #SayHerName.

Now for the business end of this post. 

The 22 year old Single is now the 16th person we have lost to anti-trans violence in the US in 2019, the third in the state of Texas this year, and the 12th person under age 30 that has joined the ancestors far too soon.

If you peeps in the Houston area have any information that will lead the arrest and conviction of her killer, you are urged to call the HPD Homicide Division at 713-308-3600  or call Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS (8477).

Tracy is being remembered here in Houston by having City Hall lit up in the trans pride flag colors today and tomorrow.   

There's also a stretch of six arched bridges along the below grade portion of I-69 here in Houston that cuts through the southern edge of the Montrose gayborhood that can be lit up in various colors.

Like City Hall, those bridges will be lit up thanks to Houston Mayor's LGBT Advisory Board Chair Harrison Homer-Guy in trans pride flag colors to honor our fallen sister.

As soon as I get confirmation of the funeral arrangements and memorial service, I'll pass that information along when I receive it

Rest in power and peace Tracy.   You were taken away from us way too soon, and we will not rest in the 713 until the person who killed you is locked up for a long stretch in a TDC unit.

Welcome Back To School, 2019-2020 TBLGQ Students!

School is starting for many students in Texas this week, and later this month for Texas colleges and universities.   While this is the favorite time of the year for parents and the retailers enjoying their cash registers ringing from the just concluded sales tax holiday, the kids are lamenting the end of their summer vacations. 

The start of the 2019-2020 school year is upon us, and I'm wondering what kind of school year that will be for our trans kids.  While Cruella DeVos has been rolling back protections for our kids at the Department of Education level and looks for new ways to inflict cruelty on our trans and GNC kids from pre-K to graduate school, our trans and gender non conforming kids despite the obstacles continue to survive and in some cases thrive   

There are a few districts in Texas and other states that have policies that protect the humanity and human rights of trans students, teachers and employees.

You'll also as this school year plays out pass into the start of another decade of the 21st century during the winter break and the start of a presidential election year.

Bur during this first week, my thoughts are with our trans kids.   I'm definitely concerned about the ones who are about to start elementary school.  I'm also concerned about the ones making the jump from elementary to middle school since we elder all know how rough puberty was before adding trans issues on top of it. 

And with my 40th high school reunion happening next year, I'm thinking about our trans and gender non conforming kids who are either starting their freshman year in high school or beginning their senior year.

I'm also thinking about the ones who about to take that giant leap to college or our trans folks who are in grad school.   Major props also go to the trans people who are in law school or medical school with the goal of serving our community in the medical and legal professions once they finish. 

I have no doubts that like many of your trans student predecessors, you will not only accomplish your educational goals, but in some cases will make history along the way.   There are still schools that have never had a trans homecoming or prom king or queen.  I'm still waiting to gleefully write about that first out trans valedictorian or salutatorian.   The first out trans class president.

Some of you during the 2019-20 school year will unfortunately have to fight anti-trans bigotry along the way as you strive to get your educations.   Some of you who wish to participate in high school athletics will have to fight tooth and nail just to be able to compete while trans. 

Some of you will have to fight just to be able to wear clothing at prom or your graduations that reflects your true selves   But it's worth that battle for you to do so. 

Know that if you choose to fight for you human rights, your parents, your trans elders and our allies will help you fight that battle against the transphobes if that comes to pass.

As a TK, I'm exceedingly proud not only of our trans and GNC students, I'm proud of all you trans folks who teach, whether it be at the K-12 or collegiate level.  You have my utmost respect and love as you do the most important job in our society and educate our next generations.

Happy 2019-2020 school year, TBLGQ students!   Hope it turns out to be a wonderful. and memorable one for all of you 

Laverne Cox Is On The Cover Of British Vogue!

Despite all the attempts of the British TERF's and their US counterparts to demonize and marginalize trans people on both sides of The Pond, to borrow the line from Maya Angelou, and still we rise.

Thanks to a project curated by the Duchess of Sussex entitled 'Voices For Change', Cox will become the first out trans woman featured on the cover of British Vogue.

Cox is also no stranger to groundbreaking magazine covers.   She has been featured on the cover of Essence magazine twice, Cosmopolitan South Africa, Variety and Time in 2014

“I am completely overwhelmed and overjoyed to share this cover,” Cox wrote in an Instagram post about the historic opportunity. “Being on the cover of Vogue magazine has been a dream of mine since I was a child. To get to share this cover with a group of women who inspire me, who are truly forces of change is deeply humbling.”

While she will be the first out trans person on British Vogue's cover, it won't be the first time the magazine has had a trans person grace its pages.

Back in 1960 British trans pioneer April Ashley was working as one of the hot models of the time until her career came to an abrupt halt after she was outed by the tabloids in 1961

During her modeling career the then 25 year Ashley was photographed for British Vogue by fashion photographer David Bailey.

Journalist Paris Lees was first featured in a February 2018 photo shoot in the magazine, and became British Vogue's first out trans columnist in December 2018.

The Voices for Change edition guest edited by HRH the Duchess of Sussex, features Cox along with 14 other women that include Salma Hayek Pinault, Christy Turlington Burns, Jane Fonda, Gemma Chan, Sinead Burke and more.

The British Vogue 'Voices for Change' September 2019 issue hit newsstands on August 2.  Get that piece of trans history while you can

Congrats to Laverne for blazing a trail once again and being an eloquent voice and possibility model for our community.