2010-11 Miss Continental Winner Is....

Last year Mokha Montrese finished as the first runner up to 2009-10 queen Armani, who finally achieved her personal goal of seizing the crown at the 30th annual Miss Continental Pageantin Chicago.

What a difference a year makes at the recently conducted 31st annual edition of the Miss Continental Pageant.

Outgoing queen Armani spent Labor Day 2010 at the Park West Theater passing the Miss Continental crown to her successor, Mokha Montrese, the person she beat to gain the previous year's title. She is the Miss Continental pageant queen for 2010-11.

Mokha Montrese's story is a mirror image of Armani's Miss Continental history in terns of finally getting to wear the crown she's relentlessly pursued after all these years. She's another longtime Miss Continental contestant who has come agonizingly close in various years to winning the title.



The Miss Continental pageant is contested every Labor Day weekend in Chitown, so if you're interested in attending the 2011-12 version, better be ready to shell out the dough when the tickets go on sale because they don't last long.

Bu congrats to Mokha, and may you enjoy your reign you've worked long and hard to achieve.

2010-11 Miss Continental Pageant This Weekend

It's Labor Day weekend, and one tradition that has happened in Chicago since 1980 is the Miss Continental Pageant.

It's the nationally respected and premier trans pageant for professional female illusionists and takes place at Chicago's Park West Theater.

Last year's winner Armani Stevens will be passing on her crown to her successor, and the road to the 200-11 crown will start with the preliminaries on Sunday, September 5.

The preliminary field will be whittled down to the 12 ladies who will compete for the crown on Labor Day evening.

One former Miss Continental who went on to mainstream success is 2001 winner Candis Cayne. She later became the first transwoman to appear in a recurring prime time role as a transwoman when she joined the cast of the short lived ABC series Dirty Sexy Money as Carmelita Ranier.

If you're in the Chicago area and are interested in checking out the event, you can check and see if they still have reserved tickets for sale by calling 312-527-9338.

The Host City For The 2016 Olympic Games Is...

Rio de Janeiro!

They're probably still depressed in Daley Plaza, Rush Street, Grant Park, the Navy Pier and elsewhere in Chicagoland after today's IOC meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark awarded the Games of the XXXI Olympiad to Rio de Janiero.

Chicago shockingly was knocked out in the first round of voting despite the best efforts of the FLOTUS, POTUS and Oprah along with many other peeps in the US delegation.

Some Chicagoans have compared the feeling to their emotions after the Cubs were knocked out of the NLCS by the Florida Marlins a few years ago.

Gee thanks Republican party, Fox News and all the Olympic haters. Your mismanagement of this country for the last eight years and stirring up anti-American sentiment, your over the top racist hatred of President Obama and sniping may have possibly cost Chicago and this country the Games.

Hope you're happy.

But one of the things Jacques Rogge stated when he became IOC president in 2001 is that he wanted to have an Olympic Games on the South American and African continents before his term ended.

While I'm disappointed the Olympics won't be returning to the United States and staged in Chicago, the silver lining is that an Olympics will be held on the South American continent for the first time.

The dates for the Rio Games will be August 5-August 21, with the Paralympic Games taking place September 7-September 18.

When the London Games have their closing ceremony, it will be the mayor of Rio accepting the Olympic flag from his London counterpart in 2012.

I feel the pain of Chicago and all the hard work of an army of dedicated people who put their hearts and souls into landing the Games for this city and our country.

So when the final leg of the Olympic torch relay happens, it will be traveling through the streets of Rio in 2016. Wonder who will be the person lighting the cauldron in Rio's Olympic Stadium?

But it does open the door for Houston to try again to land the Olympics in 2020.

And there's one serious party going on right now in Rio de Janeiro.

President Obama and Oprah Winfrey Are Headed To Copenhagen

The International Olympic Committee meeting to determine who gets the 2016 Summer Olympics will be held on Friday and the Chicago 2016 delegation is hard at work trying to land the bid.

According to Olympic bid watchers it has devolved to a competition between Rio de Janeiro and Chicago, and it's anybody's guess which way the 106 members of the IOC will vote. The only thing anyone can say with certainty is that it will take multiple ballots and it will be close.

With rumors flying a high IOC official stated Chicago won't get the bid unless the prez appears in Copenhagen despite comments from IOC President Jacques Rogge to the contrary, President Obama decided to make the trip.

Chicago 2016 officials were pleased to announce that President Obama would be joining First Lady Michelle Obama, White House senior adviser and former Chicago 2016 vice president Valerie Jarrett, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn, and Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood in Copenhagen Friday to help push the Chicago bid to a hopefully successful conclusion.

Chicago 2016 Chair Patrick Ryan stated, "There is no greater expression of the support our bid enjoys, from the highest levels of government and throughout our country, than to have President Obama join us in Copenhagen for the pinnacle moment in our bid. We are honored that President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama will be with us to extend a hand of friendship on behalf of our nation and the city of Chicago as we seek to welcome the world for the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games".

Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley said, "President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama symbolize the hope, opportunity and inspiration that makes Chicago great, and we are honored to have two of our city's most accomplished residents leading our delegation in Copenhagen. Who better to share with members of the International Olympic Committee the commitment and enthusiasm Chicago has for the Olympic and Paralympic Movement than the President and First Lady".

Oprah Winfrey has also announced she would be heading to Copenhagen as well to help push the Chicago Olympic bid, and the leadership is happy to have her along as well.

Valerie Jarrett, who was the vice chair of Chicago 2016 prior to becoming a senior adviser in the Obama administration stated, "Oprah will have a full schedule from the time she hits the ground as well. I think that she is an international icon, widely respected throughout the world and her presence, and her willingness to put her reputation behind Chicago, a city she both calls home and loves and knows so well, I think will have a very significant impact on the IOC."

We'll find out how much of an impact they all had on the IOC on Friday

Chicago 2016 Olympic Bid May Get More High Powered Help

With Chicago being in a tight race to secure the 2016 Olympic Games and the October 2 decision date looming, the Chicago 2016 committee may be about to get more help from the big guns in its arsenal- Oprah Winfrey and the POTUS.

There are also rumors that Chicago 2016 is trying to get Hall of Famer and Olympian Michael Jordan to make the trip as well. No word from His Airness yet as to whether he will do so, although he does support the bid.

“I’ve had some tremendous memories in my professional basketball career,” Jordan said. “But the memory of standing as a representative at the Olympics representing the United States is one of the proudest moments of my life. To step up on that podium representing your country—there’s no greater honor than that.”

As for Oprah, she stated in a recent interview from Toronto that she is open to the idea of going to Copenhagen to help Chicago sell its bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics.

There's some talk about it, and if I feel I can be useful there, then that's what I will do." Oprah said to the Chicago Tribune.

First Lady Michelle Obama and White House adviser Valerie Jarrett are heading to Copenhagen with the Chicago 2016 delegation for that October 2 meeting.

On that date each of the Final Four cities will get a final chance to impress IOC members and make their Olympic case after months of preparation and visits by IOC officials.

Each candidate city will have 45 minutes to present, followed by 15 minutes of questions. First up will be Chicago thanks to the results of a random drawing conducted before this meeting.

To secure the Olympic bid, a candidate city must garner a 51% majority of the secret ballots cast. IOC President Jacques Rogge has said this year's vote is too close to call, and the winner could be decided by a few votes.

Olympic bid watchers are predicting a tight race between Chicago and Rio. It's adding to the pressure for President Obama to help his adopted hometown cross the finish line and secure the Olympic Summer Games for a US city for the first time since Atlanta hosted the 1996 Games.

There are rumors the Prez is creating room on his domestic calendar to hake that trip and be available for the vote.

Even if he doesn't make the trip to Copenhagen, the White House says the president has been actively engaged in helping Chicago. He has not only reached out to IOC President Jacques Rogge, but sent letters to all IOC voting members, taped four video messages supporting Chicago's bid and made targeted phone calls to key IOC members.

That outreach will continue and probably intensify as the October 2 meeting date approaches.

During the Olympics rally recently held at the White House, the president stated a winning bid would not only be a success for Chicago, but the whole country.

"Chicago will make America proud," he said. "And America will make the world proud."

Burr Oak Hits Home

When the news about the horrific happenings at Chicago's historic Burr Oak Cemetery broke a few weeks ago I had this unsettling deja vu moment.

As some of you long time TransGriot readers may know, my roomie Dawn and I both have relatives in the Chicago area. I used to early in my airline days frequently visit them during the early 90's, sometimes with my then best friend and co-worker Eric Shepherd along for the ride to hit some of the house music venues.

I knew that Burr Oak was one of the cemeteries where many prominent Black Chicagoans have been laid to rest. It is also the resting place of Emmitt Till, whose 1954 lynching was the emotional spark that jump started the African American civil rights movement.

When I watched the news coverage of the unfolding events I had a 'where have I heard that name before' alert going off in my head. The reason I was having the bad moment became clear when I called home last Friday and talked to my mother.

My first trip to Chicago was back in August 1986. It was my first airplane ride as we took an Eastern Airlines Moonlight Special flight from Houston Intercontinental to Chicago O'Hare to attend the funeral of my Uncle Leon.

My uncle had passed away on August 2, and the date sticks in my mind because it was the same day as the fatal Delta air crash at DFW.

My mom has a summa cum laude degree in history and is basically our family historian.

She keeps the records of all family events such as our reunions, weddings and funerals and was having the same unsettling feeling I had upon hearing the name Burr Oak earlier this month. Mom decided to pull out and reread my Uncle Leon's program.

When I talked to her, Mom dropped the bomb for me that Uncle Leon was buried in Burr Oak.

I was already concerned, pissed and mortified about the horrific crap that had happened there and greed being the motivating factor for it. It was initially reported that First Lady Michelle Obama's father Fraser Robinson III was buried there as well, but the White House later released a statement that he wasn't.

Unfortunately, there are families like mine all over the country and the Chicago area who do have loved ones buried there. I'm still awaiting word from my Chicago relatives to find out if my Uncle Leon's grave or headstone was disturbed.

Emmitt Till's grave was one of the 300 graves disturbed. After all the pain that the Till family has suffered, to have those painful wounds reopened again in such a disgusting way makes me sick to my stomach.

As Jesse Senior said, there's a special place in Hades for the people who perpetrated this evil. When these wastes of DNA are brought to justice for it, may the Cook County court system and the state Of Illinois throw the book at them so they can spend the rest of their miserable lives rotting in jail.