Moni's Early Morning #CC20 Musings

I'm up early because I haven't been able to sleep since 5:30 AM, and finally said frack it and got up.

This is the big day for me at Creating Change 2020.   I have a 10 AM panel during the Trans Institute, and later tonight a speech to make during the 8 PM opening plenary as  I accept the Susan J Hyde Award for Longevity in The Movement.

But in the runup to this day, I've gotten to see a lot of old friends, meet some new ones, and introduce myself to the younglings who may not be aware of what I've been doing since 1998.

While I'm trying to stay humble and modest about this major award I'm about to get, many of you #CC20 attendees have let me know how much you love and care about me, and how much of a BFD you think this is to you.

There have also been some nights like last night where me and elders like Diego Sanchez, Antonia d'Orsay, Yosenio Lewis, and others have had a chance to chill out in front of the conference hotel, sit either outside  or in the hotel and talk about the good, bad and humorous days of our activist journeys.

We marvel about the fact that some of us are still effing here, and lament the ones who have gone on to join the ancestors.    Some of those TBLGQ+ folks who joined the ancestors left us way too soon,either by their own hand or someone else's murderous one.

I also have had the chance to catch up with Dallas area friends like Kyiana Wheeler,  just have a quiet dinner away from the convention hotel, and catch up on what has been going on in each other's lives.

I've gotten to spend some time with my BTAC family, and that will continue until Sunday. 

And yes, as promised, Slurpees are being destroyed at the rate of two a day

This conference, as always, gets to serve as not only a giant family reunion for all of us in the TBLGQ+ movement, it's also a time where we can break bread together, talk about the direction of where we want to take our human rights struggle, and acquire the skills and knowledge we'll need to help us accomplish the goals we set here.

While I love talking to my fellow advocates and elders,  the best part is meeting and hanging out with the younglings.  Getting to hear them talk about their hopes, dreams and aspirations for the future.  Having the blessing of having those intergenerational conversations with them

Them getting to realize that the person and possibility model they idolize in me also is human, down to earth, has a wicked sense of humor, and always has time to give a needed hug, listen to their conversations and give advice if they request it..

Am I nervous about the speech tonight?  A little since it will be the largest crowd I've ever done one in front of in my life.   But I've been doing speeches in front of crowds large and small since elementary school, and once I get started and into it, I'll be fine/ 

Speaking of getting started, time fo me to hit the shower and get ready for my big #CC20 day
   

Moni's In The CC20 House!

After rolling up I-45 yesterday, I'm back in Dallas again, but this time it's for my sixth  Creating Change Conference and my first since the 2017 one in Philadelphia.

So what's Creating Change?  It's one of the largest political conferences in the TBLGQ movement ranks.  It has been around since 1988, and my first one was the 1999 event in Oakland

Creating Change is back in Texas for the first time since 2014, but not on my end of I-45 this time and we Houston peeps are still a little salty about that.   Houston has only hosted Creating Change once, while this is now the third time Dallas has hosted it.

Dallas previously hosted Creating Change in 1994 and 2010.

When H-Town had our chance to do so in 2014, we  handled our business and raised the bar for hosting it.  We set new Creating Change records across the board, including the current CC attendance record of over 4000 attendees that as of yet still hasn't been broken.

This time, unlike my last Creating Change event in Philly in 2017,  I'm staying in the conference hotel for the first time since #CC15 in Denver. 

I'm going to be receiving the Hyde Longevity in the Movement award while I'm here at the opening plenary session on Thursday.

I'm also participating in two panels on Thursday at 10 AM as part of the Trans Institute and Friday at 3 PM before I head back down I-45 south to home on Sunday.. 

I was already aware of thanks to my previous Dallas trips there's a downtown 7 Eleven store near the St Paul DART Rail station.

That St Paul DART Rail station is in easy walking distance of the conference hotel  and since I'm only two away from a free one on my app, Slurpees will be demolished while I'm in Dallas at an unprecedented rate.   

As always peeps, if you see me wandering the CC20 halls and I'm not running my mouth with somebody, don't be shy, say hi!   Looking forward to seeing and reconnecting with old friends and meeting new ones.

Getting On The (Bougie) Bus To Dallas

I'm starting this 2020 year of travel the same way I ended 2019, by riding a Vonlane luxury bus to or from a Lone Star State destination.

This will be my longest trip ever on a Vonlane, or what I loving call The Bougie Bus'.  I usually end up taking them to and from Austin or San Antonio, but this is the first time I've done one to Dallas. 

Why do I love them so much?   WiFi that works, satellite TV,  a bus attendant that brings snacks to my seat, and oh did I mention that reserved leather seat?

This reclining leather seat is what I get to chillax in all the way to Dallas and back to Houston.   The best part is I'm not doing any of the 3.5 hour drive up and back.

So why am I traveling to Dallas this time?    It's to attend the Creating Change Conference that will kick off tomorrow at the Sheraton Dallas Hotel.  It will be my first one I've attended since the 2017 one in Philadelphia and my sixth overall.   

Y'all also might have heard I'm getting an award while I'm there during the opening Thursday night plenary session starting at 7 PM in addition to the two panel discussions I'll be taking part in.

One of those is on Thursday at 10 AM as part of the Trans Institute,  and the second is on Friday at 3 PM entitled 'Building Trans Political Power.' 

I'm looking forward to seeing old friends, and meeting new ones.

But I'm also looking forward to this latest ride on the 'Bougie Bus' in addition to seeing all you peeps when I arrive in Dallas.
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Dutch YouTube Makeup Guru Comes Out As Trans

Nikkie de Jager would have rather kept this part of her life her business, and make the announcement she made at a time and place of her choosing.  Unfortunately someone took the ability to do that away from her. 

As NikkieTutorials, the YouTube makeup guru and 11 year video blogger has over 13 million subscribers, and a fiance who loves her named Dylan.

But as I and your trans elders know all too well from our trans history, when you are a non disclosed trans person, trying to keep it that way and living your best life, unscrupulous haters will try to use your desire to keep the knowledge that you're part of Team Trans against you. 

Nikkie revealed in a video blog that she was being hounded by blackmailers who found out about her trans history, and threatened to reveal she was trans feminine to the media.

She decided to make the announcement she was trans in order to regain some of her personal power back.




Welcome to our international trans family Nikkie!  Yes, I wish that she could have done so at a time and place of her choosing, but I;m glad she did.

So will all the trans younglings who just found out they have another trans possibility model to look up to and emulate.

Shut Up Fool Awards- New Year, Same Old BS Edition

This was the first full week of 2020 and the new decade.  Sadly the crap that was going on in the last months of the 2010's before we flipped the calendar page to January and a new decade is still happening.

As Mr T has reminded us for years, fools are everywhere.  They tried to prove it this week on both sides of The Pond

Everyone from Jim Bakker to TX Gov Greg Abbott to Transphobic Boy George tried their best to get this week's TransGriot Shut Up Fool honors,

But this week's winners are the NAACP Image Awards

I gave them the sideeye last year when the critically acclaimed FX show POSE was snubbed for awards last year.   Janet Mock, who is a writer and producer for this show, called them out for their BS with this comment on Twitter.



Well said Janet.   You would think that in a year in which the NAACP passed a resolution mandating that NAACP chapters support and defend the humanity and human rights of Black trans people, that the Image Awards peeps would have gotten the message. 

But it seems they didn't./ This year they left no doubt that the NAACP Image Awards has a transphobia problem 

Billy Porter got two Image Award nominations for Entertainer of the Year and Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series frankly because his talents are undeniable,  but MJ Rodriguez, Indya Moore, Angelica Ross, Dominique Jackson, and the POSE show got ZERO nominations.

Neither did Janet Mock or Steven Canals   Mock was snubbed in the writer or director categories despite Mock writing or directing some of the most powerful Season 2 POSE episodes. 

No nomination for POSE in the Outstanding Drama Series category either but Meghan McCain's problematic azz gets one for The View?

Really Image Awards?   .You need Jesus and to solve your obvious transphobia problem.

NAACP Image Awards, shut up fools! 

The Lincoln Project's MAGA Church Video

I'm loving this video from The Lincoln Project that smacks the evilgelicals surrounding Trump and exalting his as their lord and savior as the power hungry grifters they are.

They're racist and LGBTQ phobic too, but since Republicans created this video, guess they didn't want to go too far in excoriating their kindred spirits and fellow party members.

The Lincoln Project was launched by Steve Schmidt, Rick Wilson and George Conway last month, and is called the 'MAGA Church'



Amen!  Tell the truth and shame the conservadevil.   

Oh yeah, has anyone checked Trump's combover to see if the mark of the Antichrist is there.? 

TransGriot Gets 5th Nomination For GLAAD Media Award!

Woke up to the wonderful news that TransGriot has been nominated once again for a GLAAD Media Award in the Outstanding Blog category.

It it is my fifth overall  nomination, and the fourth consecutive nomination since 2017.  As you long time readers know, I won the Outstanding Blog award in 2018.

Once again the Outstanding Blog category is packed, with the other nominees being 2019 winner Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents, 2011 winner JoeMyGod, Gays With Kids and My Fabulous Disease.

Ever since this category started in 2011, there has never been a repeat winner of it.  Will this be the year that happens for me or the other two previous award winners, or will Gays with Kids or My Fabulous Disease finally get their first wins?

There are also folks who got nominated for GLAAD media Awards in which I had a participatory role in. 

Lauren McGaughy of the Dallas Morning News received a nomination in the Outstanding Newspaper Article category for her article  "Texas Leads the Nation in Transgender Murders. After the Latest Attack, the Dallas Trans Community Asks Why”

In the Outstanding TV Journalism Segment Category, Vice News Tonight was nominated for their 'Black and Trans in Texas' one.

ABC News Nightline was nominated  in the Outstanding TV Journalism category for "Am I Next? Trans and Targeted

Congrats also to my homegirls Trish Bendix, Raquel Willis, Geena Rocero and Dawn Ennis who also received GLAAD Media Award nominations for their work.

Bendix and Ellis are nominated in the Outstanding Digital Journalism category, while Willis and Rocero were nominated in the Outstanding Magazine Article category

I Am Jazz received another nomination in the Outstanding Reality Series category, so congrats to the Jennings family again..

The winners will be announced during the GLAAD Media Awards events in New York at the Hilton Midtown on March 19 and in Los Angeles at the Beverly Hilton on April 16.

Congrats to everyone who received nominations today, and good luck!

Why Trans Murders Are Happening

As some of you were aware of, I made my MSNBC pundit debut on January 5 to talk about (briefly) transgender murders and why they are happening.

It a subject that deserves more than the three minutes it got on MSNBC Live.

I wanted to make these points, and give examples backing them up./

*The anti-trans murders are predominately intimate partner violence.
*They are happening because of anti-trans rhetoric being spread by the Republican Party, TERFs,  evilgelicals and orgs like the Heritage Foundation
*That anti-trans rhetoric is also being spread by pop culture figures like JK Rowling and Dave Chappelle
*Conservative media is also playing a role in spreading the anti-trans rhetoric that results in our murders.
*The Southern Baptist church and the Roman Catholic Church are also responsible for spreading anti-trans rhetoric from their pulpits.
Since i didn't get enough time to explain them during MSNBC Live, it'll have to wait until i get to Creating Change 2020 in Dallas next week.

A Texans Playoff Game For The Ages

Like much of Houston, was watching the Texans AFC wild card playoff game with the Buffalo Bills.

So many folks were glued to their televisions that I heard or saw no cars rolling up or down the streets of my neighborhood during the roughly three hours the game was on

I was not a happy camper during the first half as the Texans stunk up NRG Stadium with one of their patented slow starts.   Deandre Hopkins was being shut out, and the one pass he caught in the first half he fumbled

Down 13-0 at halftime, visions of Houston area Cowchip fans hatin' danced in my head and only added to the frustration of watching what was looking like another Bill O'Brien orchestrated early round playoff failure.

 They spotted the Bills a 16-0 lead before hitting the comeback trail started by a JJ Watt sack that forced a Bills field goal, woke up the Texans and the NRG Stadium crowd. 

The Texans then scored 19 unanswered points to take a 19-16 lead. 

Buffalo fought back and got into position deep in Texans territory to kick a game tying field goal, but the Texans defense once again rose to the challenge and forced two huge losses, one on a 4th and 27 play to give the Texans the ball deep in Buffalo territory with a chance to close out the game 

Instead of kicking the field goal that would have put them up by six points, the Texans went for it on 4th and 1 and failed.   Buffalo said thank you very much for the reprieve and drove down the field with no time outs to get the Steven Hauschka field goal to send the game into overtime. 

After both teams failed to score on their initial overtime possessions, then came the drive that will forever live in Texans playoff lore. 



Next week we play the Kansas City Chiefs in the Divisional round, and we'll see if the Texans can keep the momentum going

Houston Inaugurates Mayor Turner and Female Majority City Council

One of the things I got to do today thanks to an invitation from CM Letitia Plummer was for the first time ever be in the Wortham Center to witness the inauguration of a Houston mayor and our new city council.

Mayor Sylvester Turner was inaugurated for his second term as Houston's mayor earlier today in a joyous ceremony that spotlighted our city's diversity.   Everyone from Mariachi Pumas to rapper Trae Tha Truth performed on the Wortham stage along with the Houston Symphony Orchestra .

It was also a historic one in which it became official in terms of having a majority female city council.    Eight women took their oaths of office today, with four of them being African American women.  The ninth one will join once the contentious District B race is settled in the courts and the runoff election is finally held.

The court case will be heard on January 28, and will determine whether Cynthia Bailey or Renee Jefferson Smith will face frontrunner Tarsha Jackson in the runoff. 

In his inaugural address Mayor Turner stated that his second term would focus on flooding, affordable housing and transit issues.   He also challenged the private sector to do more to help solve the city's homeless crisis.

It was nice getting to see many of the area's politicians, judges, and advocates in attendance for this event. 

But rest assured that I and other peeps  will be watching to see if the mayor and this council lives up to their promises, and holds them accountable for doing so. 

Number 1- Rest In Power Dustin Parker

Damn, the confetti wasn't even swept up off of the streets in New York's Times Square before the news broke that we have already lost a trans person in 2020 to violence.

We head to McAlester, OK for the news concerning 25 year old Dustin Parker.   His body was found in the drivers seat of his Rover electric Taxi at 6:30 AM CST on New Years Day in the 200 block of West Delaware Avenue.   The vehicle had been hit by multiple gunshots and he was deceased when police arrived at the scene. 

Investigators recovered shell casings at the scene, and interviewed people in the area who head gunshots, but dismissed it as celebratory gunfire until McAlester PD cars started arriving on the scene. 

Parker leaves behind his wife Regina and four children.   He was a founding member of Oklahomans For Equality.   His employer, Rover Taxi, has set up a Facebook fundraising page to help benefit Parker's family.

“Rover Taxi is devastated at the loss of a member of our Rover family,” said Rover Taxi owner Brian West in a post on its site.   Parker served as a manager for the company.

“Dustin was a steadfast friend, an amazing husband and father, and generous to a fault. He loved fiercely, worked tirelessly, and took on life with so much hope and enthusiasm that his presence brightened all of our lives. His bright, young life was taken far too early. Please keep his loved ones in your thoughts as we all try to pull together to get through these difficult times. Dustin will be missed, but never forgotten.”

As of this writing, there are no suspects in this case. Capt  Kevin Hearod of the McAlester Police Department stated that while there is as of yet no evidence that Parker was killed because he was trans, they are not taking that possibility off the table in terms of a possible motive.

"We've still got investigators out running down leads right now," Hearod said to the Tulsa World. "(Parker was) just a working man, making a living for his family, and he didn't get to come home."
No word as of yet concerning a memorial service.

Rest in power and peace Dustin.   You got to see the dawn of the 2020's, but unfortunately you will not see more of this new decade.   Pondering that thought pisses me off.  .   

Your trans sibs in Oklahoma and around the country will not rest until justice is served in your case. 

I'm Getting The Susan J Hyde Award At CC20!

When Creating Change kicks off in Dallas, I'll be getting another award for my 22 years of activity in the TBLGQ movement.

I'm being honored with the Susan J. Hyde Award for Longevity in the movement during the opening plenary on January 16.

I'm not the first Black trans person to receive this award.   Kylar Broadus received it during the 2011 Creating Change event held in Minneapolis.  It's nice that I'm following someone in receiving this award that I have much love and respect for. 

I'm looking forward to that when it happens, and it also means I'll have a speech to deliver as well

For those of you planning to attend, see y'all in two weeks.

 

Happy 14th Blogiversary TransGriot!

One thing I can promise you dear reader is that you won't be disappointed. There will be times I'll make you laugh. Other times I'll touch your heart. Then there will be the occasional time or two when I piss you off. But my goal is to make you think and expose you to some of the drama that African-American transpeeps (and transpeople in general) deal with.-TransGriot, January 1, 2006 

The arrival of New Year's Day 2020 also means that TransGriot is celebrating another birthday!

It was on January 1, 2006 at 12 midnight EST that my first post went up on my blog.   It took me a year to find my voice and figure out what I wanted to do with it, but once I did, it has led to four a GLAAD Outstanding Blog Award nominations  in 2014, 2017 and 2019.  I captured it on my third nomination in 2018.

It also led to last year the TERF enemies of the trans community cyberattacking it in a failed attempt to shut it down. 

It has also opened up some opportunities for me to express myself not on on these electronic pages, but at college campuses, conferences,  on radio and television, and other venues across the United States. 

There are over 11, 000 posts on this blog discussing everything from trans issues to sports.  It is not only an electronic repository of our Black trans history, it  has also allowed me to elevate my voice in the political discourse of the moment inside and outside of the TBLGQ community.

And with 2020 being a presidential election year, I'll have a lot to talk about until New Year's Eve rolls back around in 365 days.   

Yep, this is also a leap year and an Olympic year    Will be nice to see if we have a trans athlete FINALLY qualify for an Olympics.

Note to all you haters claiming that trans feminine athletes are 'dominating women's sports'   So far this is the only trans woman who has made it to an Olympic opening ceremony, and she was holding the placard for the Brazilian Olympic team.

While I have been documenting the murders of my trans family over the last few years, it is not the only mission of this blog.  Here's my mission statement to tell you what it is.

The TransGriot blog's mission is to become the griot of our community. I will introduce you to and talk about your African descended trans brothers and trans sisters across the Diaspora, reclaim and document our chocolate flavored trans history, speak truth to power, comment on the things that impact our trans community from an Afrocentric perspective.  I will also enlighten you about the general things that go on around me and in the communities that I am a member of.
--Mission Statement compiled January 2, 2011

 That's my blog's mission.   Been handling that business for now fourteen years, and just an FYI, the 15th anniversary of this blog will take place 366 days from now on January 1, 2021.

Happy blogiversary TransGriot 

It's 2020 Y'all!

New year, new decade!

Happy New Year to all of you on the eastern side of the International Date Line.   My friends west of it and Down Under already celebrated New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

The arrival of January 1, 2020 also means I'm celebrating another TransGriot blogiversary.

Hope that 2020 is one that is chock full of amazing accomplishments and abundant blessings for you all. May we also receive the blessing of watching Trump go down in flames on November 3, 2020.

That's Election Day for those of y'all who were wondering about the significance of that date.

2020 also means I get to celebrate another high school reunion, my 40th.   It is still mind blowing to me that I walked out of high school with The Class With Class in 1980, 20 years before the year 2000 happened.   Now me and my classmates are 20 years beyond the year 2000.   

My niece Chantoya, who was born on January 20, 2000, will be turning 20 this year.

And just warning y'all now BTACers, Moni will be at the 9th annual conference May 5-10 will be ready to lay down some dominoes beatdowns in defense of my BTAC dominoes championship.

So you better bring your dominoes 'A' game.   I don't wanna hear any excuses when I'm calling out points in multiples of ten.   I'm also looking forward to celebrating my 58th birthday with y'[all as well

The ladies of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc are also celebrating a birthday this year..  January 16 will mark their centennial year, and every Zeta I know is ready to pop their collars  and celebrate the occasion.

The sorority was founded on the Howard University campus in Washington DC back in 1920.,

And yes, besides attending a few conferences and conventions along the way, 2020 will definitely have some domestic travel in my near future..  Will it finally see me going to an international destination for the first time ever?   I do have an international travel bucket list that is several pages long.

In July, the world will get to watch the dawn of another Olympiad in the Land of the Rising Sun

I'm anxious to see if my Houston homegirl Simone Biles will make history and dominate the gymnastic competition in these Tokyo Games just as she did four years ago in Rio.

She been collecting gold medals at all the gymnastics world championship events since 2016 and is now the most decorate athlete ever in the sport.

And yes, with the USA men's basketball team handle their Tokyo business, or will they finally get beaten for the first time since 2004 on an Olympic basketball court?

Will the World Champion USA women's soccer team repeat their FIFA Women's World Cup success in the 2020 Olympic tournament after being shut out of the medals in the 2016 Rio Games?

The wonderful thing about New Year's Day is that it is a chance to hit the reset button on your life.   You can celebrate the things in your life that did go right, and glean lesson from the stuff that didn't.

Whether you did New Year's Resolutions or not  (I did), the one thing that we should all have on our 2020 to do list is to be better human beings this year than we were in 2019. 

2020 is here, whether we are ready for it or not.   You have 366 days to make this year a great one!

The 2019 Shut Up Fool Of The Year Is...

Another 365 days have passed, and it's time to add another fool or (group of fools) to our distinguished and highly anticipated list of idiots,

These are the folks who have engaged in outright lying, massive hypocrisy, engaged in brazen  gaslighting, or consistently exhibited WTF levels of lunacy and gob smacking ignorance.

And no, Donald Trump isn't our winner.   That's would be too easy to give it to him.  Besides, I gave Twitler the TransGriot Shut Up Fool of the Decade award already, and he's the only two time winner (2015-2016) of a TransGriot Shut Up Fool of the Year award.

These are the previous winners of the TransGriot Shut up Fool of the Year Award

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
2018- Sarah Huckabee Sanders

Who will join them tonight>   We had plenty of contenders for the ward,   Cruella  Betsy DeVos, Rep Jim Jordan (R-OH),  Rep Devin Nunes (R-CA),  Kellyanne Conway, Laura Ingraham, Sucker Tucker Carlson, Jerry Jones,, Rep Doug Collins (R-GA), Gov. Matt Bevin (R-KY), Franklin Graham, Rev Jim Jeffress, TX State Rep Briscoe Cain (R), Candace Owens, Diamond and Silk,  TX State Rep Bill Zedler (R), JK Rowling, and group nominations for the Republican Party, the TERFs and every TBLGQ person who voted for Trump . 

That was the level of idiocy I had to wade though, and it's now time to cut the jibber jabber and announce this year's winner.

The envelope please.

This year's 2019 Shut Up Fool of the Year is HUD secretary Ben Carson

What the hell happened to the man who was a gifted brain surgeon?   Did someone give him a GOP cranial rinse and make him this conservastupid?   

And naw Uncle Ben, haven't forgotten all the transphobic crap you spouted this year as well. 

Don't even get me started on the cooning for Trump you did at that Blacks For Trump rally in the ATL.

Ben Carson, Shut Up Fool of the Year!