Hurricane Katrina 5th Anniversary

Today is the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katina's devastating landfall in the New Orleans area.

I was pissed off when it happened then and I'm still angry about what happened to New Orleans in the wake of this disaster. And don't even get me started on Karl Rove using this tragedy for GOP political purposes.

New Orleans is one of the unique treasures of America, and it took a major blow.

It has half the population nowadays and the 2010 Census will reveal just how much population the Big Easy lost.

The aftermath of Katrina has profound social and political consequences as well. Rove went into this with the intent of turning Louisiana red and suceeded. In his zeal to do so, he may have sowed the seeds to turn Texas into a swing state thanks to all the people displaced from New Orleans who relocated to Dallas and Houston.

Thanks to all those New Orleans evacuees who stayed here combined with Latino population growth, our population in Houston finally surpassed 2 million. If it's confirmed by the census, it will trigger the addition of two more city council seats.

We Gulf Coast residents also take hurricane evacuation warnings seriously now.

We also know another affect it had-It highlighted the GW Bush administration's gross incompetence and putting a bright media spotlight on the failure of conservapolicies. It was a factor in helping eject the GOP from federal power and giving the Dems control of Congress in 2006.

So on this fifth anniversary, let's pray for and remember the people who lost their lives during and after the storm and never forget what happened to New Orleans.

Ho Hum, Ken Mehlman's Gay

We have news that another GOP Pink Elephant has come out of the closet in former Republican chair Ken Mehlman.

Ho hum. Dude, you were pegged as family a long time ago.

There was more than enough whispering and chatter in the GLBT community that gave hints and clues that he was flying the rainbow flag long before Bill Maher called Mehlman out as a pink elephant in his 2006 CNN Larry King interview.



But Mehlman's coming out has not been met with joy and rapture by his fellow travelers because of his role as GW Bush's 2004 campaign manager and later the head of the Republican National Committee from 2005-2007.

A party and a presidential campaign mind you that demonized his fellow GLBT citizens simply for political advantage. Mehlman enabled the major damage done to their lives and civil rights.

So yeah, while there may be a few people like the Log Cabin Republican and GOPProud sellouts immediately embracing him with open arms, there will be more than a few people in GL world giving him cross eyed looks and a lot of grief for a while.

And that's just the white GLBT people.

GLBT people of color definitely have no love for him for a long list of reasons. Does the 'Southern Strategy' the piss poor politicized 2005 Hurricane Katrina response from the Bush misadministration and Latin@ bashing on immigration issues ring a bell, Kenny boy?

I'm glad you've come out of the closet, Ken. But you have a lot to atone for.

Feeling Cleveland's Sports Pain

The Decision has been made, and once again Cleveland is on the short end of it as another high profile athlete leaves for a bigger market and greener pastures.

This one hurts deeply for Cavaliers fans since LeBron is from Akron, Ohio and was a lottery pick for the team. They'd pinned their civic hopes on him breaking their sports championship title drought that dates back to 1964, when the Cleveland Browns won the 1964 NFL title with Jim Brown in their backfield.

But LeBron is taking his game and talents to Miami.

I definitely feel their sports pain. In fact, Houston has been kindred spirits with the city of Cleveland in terms of professional sports frustrations.

The Oilers were AFL powerhouses who struggled after the AFL-NFL merger. They had seasons in which they were pathetic, and others like in the Luv Ya Blue era where they challenged for NFL supremacy.

And to make it worse, the Cowboy fifth column inside Harris County never failed to remind us long suffering Oilers fans that the NFL team 262 miles up Interstate 45 was winning titles.

It was just Houston's luck they were competing in the same rugged AFC Central Division with the Pittsburgh 'Steel Curtain' squads and the Ohio NFL teams. We had a 1975 NFL season in which we went 10-4 and STILL didn't make the playoffs because the Oilers lost to Pittsburgh and Cincinnati twice.

But we did beat the Browns twice that year along with every other NFL team we played, including the future NFL champion Oakland Raiders.

I angrily watched my Oilers get screwed out of the 1980 AFC title game versus Pittsburgh on a hideous blown call during the Luv Ya Blue era, catastrophically blow playoff games to Denver and Buffalo, then painfully watched Bud Adams move the team in 1997 to Nashville and play in a Super Bowl in 2000.

The Texans, the team that replaced the Tennessee Traitors in 2002, only had their first winning season last year after back to back 8-8 campaigns in 2007-2008.

The Astros have been around since 1962 and have worked our collective sporting nerves as well.

In addition to horrid trades and lousy seasons, the 'Stros have had
their share of frustrating and heartbreaking NLCS losses in 1980, 1981, 1986 and 2004.

They made the playoffs in 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2001 and lost in the NLDS, with the 1998 season being particularly galling. We won our second of three straight division titles, had Randy Johnson on our pitching staff and won a team record 102 games only to lose in the NLDS to the San Diego Padres.

They finally won their first National League title in 2005, then got swept by the White Sox after interference from commissioner Bud Selig over the Minute Maid Park retractible roof.

My frustrations even extend to the collegiate level. The Cougars lost in the 1967 College World Series to Arizona State. The Cougar B-ballers have made it to five NCAA Final Fours, and played in three straight during the Phi Slama Jama years from 1982-1984.

They played in the 1983 and 1984 title games, and I have to painfully watch the end of the 1983 NCAA one every time March Madness fires up. In addition to that I'm still pissed along with other UH alums about the Cougars being screwed out of Big 12 membership by the Wronghorns and their arrogant burnt orange wearing fans reminding us of our C-USA membership every chance they get.

The Rockets lost in the 1981 and 1986 NBA Finals to the Boston Celtics and have had some frustrating playoff losses as well.

But the difference between me and a Cleveland sports fan is that I have witnessed my hometown teams win championships. The Rockets finally broke our civic title jinx in 1994 and repeated in 1995 with Houston homeboy Clyde Drexler in the lineup.

I got to watch the Comets win the first four WNBA titles from 1997-2000. The Dynamo moved here from San Jose, CA and won back to back MLS ones in 2006 and 2007. Rice University won an NCAA College World Series title in 2003.

So yes Cleveland, definitely feel your pain and frustration on that one.

Y'all haven't felt this backstabbed since Art Modell moved your beloved Browns to Baltimore in 1995 to become the Ravens, then watched them win a Super Bowl in 2001.

I have a pretty good understanding of why you're burning his jerseys and I take it the Cavalier-Heat games next season are going to be very interesting affairs.

When I lived in Da Ville, every time I went to or through Nashville and passed anywhere near the Tennessee Traitors stadium I flipped it the finger.

But take it from the TransGriot. When y'all finally do break through and win that elusive title, it's going to lead to the biggest cathartic release and civic celebration in your town's history.

Just hope you aren't opposing a Houston team when it happens.

'Soul Train' Gets New Ownership-Where The New Shows At?

Must See TV when I was growing up was getting up at 7 AM on Saturday morning to watch my favorite cartoons, then flipping the channel at noon to watch Soul Train.

The hippest trip in America was my peeps version of American Bandstand. It was where me and my friends tuned in to catch up on the latest dances and see my favorite R&B and soul artists.

From 1970 until the 2005-2006 television season we were treated to new episodes and the iconic Soul Train Dancers.

They are so ingrained in African-American culture that In Living Color parodied them during its run.

And what party or African-American wedding did you attend over the last few decades that at one point or another didn't break out at the reception into an impromptu Soul Train line?

There was an episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air that showed Vivian and Phil's engagement on an episode of Soul Train and reappearance during their wedding anniversary along with the kids on a Soul Train episode.

Well, that iconic slice of my youth has new owners. Show creator and long time host Don Cornelius sold the show in June 2008 to a Los Angeles based production company called MadVision Entertainment.

MadVision's plan at the time was to open up the show’s archives for older consumers as well as to create a new version of the program for younger ones.

“The series has never been shown on DVD, and it’s not been utilized on video-on-demand or mobile or Internet platforms,” Peter Griffith, a co-founder of MadVision, said. “There are many opportunities that we are exploring.

While the new Soul Train shows haven't materialized yet in the two years since the deal, it does have a website.

Could there be new episodes of Soul Train on the horizon? I certainly hope so.

Thank You For A Good 2009

Thank you TransGriot readers for helping this humble blog grow and hit some milestone achievements this year.

*1 million hits

*My 2000th post

*2000 hits per day

*2008 Weblog Awards Finalist




Thanks to you loyal readers, those were achieved and more. I'm looking forward as the anniversary of TransGriot's founding looms at midnight to continued growth, continuing to create quality posts, reaching the 2500 and 3000 post milestones, getting to 1.5 million hits and keeping TransGriot an enjoyable and informative place for you to visit.

Meeting Sylvia Rivera

When I took a vacation trip to New York back in 2000, little did I realize that I would get a chance to meet a historic figure at the same time.

It was back during my NTAC days and the same weekend as the Millennium March. I had no intention of going to DC because the trans community was dissed and ignored in the planning for the march, then made extremely late additions of Riki Wilchins and Jamison Green to the list of speakers when other transpeeps griped about HRC's 'bidness' as usual 'ignore the trannies' approach to community event planning.

That's a story for a later post

Since I was in the Big Apple I was invited by the denizens of Transy House to meet some of the peeps living there.

One of those peeps as I discovered two hours into the visit was Sylvia Rivera.

Thanks to my dad's job and my then airline one I was used to meeting historical figures, celebrities, public/political figures and icons. It really didn't faze me that I was meeting the Mother of the Transgender Rights movement.

After I received a big hug from her and she had a chance to eat something, we started talking. Sylvia carried herself with a regal elegance, and she was ever the activist. We discussed in a long conversation the state of the trans movement, especially after she discovered I wasn't bamboozled by HRC either and couldn't stand Jim Fouratt's transphobic behind.

We had a long conversation about her Gay Liberation Front days, STAR (the first political organization for transgender rights in the world), the chopping of transpeople from New York City's gay rights bill in 1971 that failed to pass, some of the drama and hateraid that was directed her way when the gay community ejected her, Marsha P. Johnson and our transsisters out of the GLF in order to appear more 'mainstream', and her adamant belief that we needed to do more as transpeople to fight for our rights and ensure we weren't erased from GLBT history.

When Sylvia discovered I was a proud Texan, she started criticizing President Lyndon Johnson and the Vietnam War.

I politely pointed out that as an African-American transperson from the Lone Star State I have a much higher opinion of LBJ. I also pointed out that an Austin high school and NASA's Mission Control Center in Houston are named for him, an Austin radio station bears his initials in addition to his presidential library (which I've visited) being ensconced on the University of Texas campus.

We agreed to disagree on that subject.

It was a little past midnight before we wrapped up the conversation. I ended up staying overnight at Transy House because I was staying in Yonkers with a friend and would have had a long crosstown subway and commuter rail ride there from Brooklyn through Manhattan in the wee hours of the morning. Once I arrived at the Yonkers train station, it would be a 30 minute walk to my friend's condo from the station unless their was a cab parked there. I also wasn't sure if the commuter rail trains were still running all the way to Yonkers that late either.

I was planning to return to expand on our conversations, but my life took a different direction several months later. Sylvia died way too soon in 2002 from lung cancer at age 50. I smiled when I heard that even on her deathbed, she was giving the powers that be hell.

One thing I've regretted over the years is that I didn't have a tape recorder or a notepad with me to record for posterity everything we talked about or didn't get to see her again. But then again I wasn't expecting to meet a legend either.

I think about the things we discussed when we approach the Stonewall anniversary or when I'm looking at some situation that crops up between the transgender and gay communities that illustrates perfectly the points Sylvia warned me about almost a decade earlier.

I'm also a firm believer in listening to the wisdom of my elders. Some of what Sylvia divulged to me has served me well over the years. I'm also aware of the fact that I'm walking in Sylvia's pumps.

The conversation at times felt like she was passing a torch to me that night. It's my job as I see it, to hold that torch aloft and keep the transgender rights flame lit until it's time for me to pass it on to the next generation.