How Best Should One Observe the Day of Remembrance?

By not trying to cash in on it while renaming it.

“Anatomy of a Losing HERO Campaign”

None of the overpaid, underworked elites of HRC should be permitted to cash another paycheck until they read this piece by Monica Roberts…

One of the proudest moments of my activist life was on May 28, 2014 when the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance passed on a 11-6 vote after a month of contentious City Council meetings. So I was justifiably angry when HERO went down last week by a 61 percent to 39 percent margin.

Now that I’ve had time to do hard, solid thinking about the issue and read commentary from people who don’t live inside Beltway 8, it’s time to talk about the political train wreck I watched happen.

…and then read it again and again and again and again and again – and explain why someone as knowledgeable and experienced as Monica was not, well over a decade ago, offered gainful employment at an organization that claims not to be racist and transmisogynistic and also claims to actually be an advocate for trans people and trans issues.

You Lying SOB – You Don’t Even Protect Your Own Employees from Discrimination

We, of Reality, Take Credit

From Jezebel:

It turns out that hundreds of reviews trashing Stonewall, Roland Emmerich’s wildly misguided, whitewashed parody of the Stonewall Riots of ‘69, were effective in their goal of steering weekend moviegoers in literally any other possible direction.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the latest outing from the director of bombastic, wildly successful box office fare such as Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow grossed a truly miserable $112,414 from 127 theaters for an location average of $871. That’s a wicked bomb, especially for a project whose architect was explicit in his desire to make a story central to LGBTQ rights accessible to the cis white masses

Get thee to a Black Tie Dinnery, Roland….

and stay there.

So In Other Words, It is HRC, Circa 2007

From Camille Beredjick at Patheos:

Evangelical Conference on Transgender “Confusion” Has Zero Transgender Speakers

Translation: He Made the Film Using the Gay, Inc., Hiring Paradigm

From Queer Channel Media re: well, you know…

BLADE: Theoretically could the film have worked with somebody like Marsha P. Johnson as the protagonist? Could you have gotten a green light with that approach?

EMMERICH: Well we never did get a green light. I gave my own green light. I love the Marsha P. Johnson character. I have friends who are trans women, but it felt to me like I’m a white male, I’m openly gay and we can have all forms of sexuality in this film, but I think it’s good to use somebody very close to yourself, you know, and find truth in that.

Some of his best friends are…

Oh, this just keeps getting better and better

And as an Added Bonus, Her Back Story Will be that She’s a Post-Transition Chad Griffin

Independence Neigh

Stonewall sparks a riot in first trailer for Roland Emmerich’s gay rights drama

…

Right before returning to the skies for next summer’s Independence Day sequel, director Roland Emmerich is aiming for awards, rather than attendance, for his fact-based drama Stonewall.

…

The film has already gained a small amount of controversy for pushing a white male agenda above other minorities. Some have complained that the lead characters all being of the same ethinicity and gender (other key roles are played by Jonathan Rhys-Meyers and Ron Perlman) gives the film a limited focus, something Emmerich denies.

I’m sure he also denies that President Whitmore’s speech from Independence Day is so syrupy that it could give a cinder block diabetes.

If Perlman is in character as Vincent from Beauty and the Beast I can accept the Stonewall movie as high farce. Otherwise….

You Can’t Spell ‪#‎S_onewall‬ Without the T

Memo to Fresno

Specifically, to the Fresno police Lt. Joe Gomez re: his attitude in the aftermath of trans people not being too thrilled with his department’s attitude toward a trans murder victim who was, according to the Fresno Bee, “walking near the intersection of Blackstone and East Cornell avenues around 2 a.m. when the attack occurred,” an attack which, based on surveillance video which showed the “wearing a dress with a cardigan over it and carrying a bag,” consisted of “an SUV pull[ing] up next to the victim, who approached the passenger side window” with the victim eventually being “stabbed multiple times and later [being] pronounced dead at Community Regional Medical Center.

There’s no evidence to indicate this was a hate crime

No.

There’s not yet conclusive evidence proving beyond a reasonable doubt that it was a hate crime.

But when you have a trans body that has become dead via being “stabbed multiple times,” there is a noticeable quantum of per se evidence of a hate crime.

And if you don’t start with the presumption that its a hate crime then you’re not doing your job.

Such a presumption prejudges no individual suspect or group of suspects any more than initially presuming the death to be a murder had the victim been found dead with stab wounds – but without accompanying video.  Under those circumstances, it could turn out to be self defense on the part of the stabber or it could have been a suicide after which someone ran off with the knife – but it makes sense to presume foul play.  In fact, it would not make sense not to.

And under the facts of the Fresno case as described by the Fresno Bee, there could indeed be a non-hate-crime explanation for the death or even a non-murder explanation – either of which might leave the trans community unsatisfied – but there is no explanation for the Fresno P.D. not starting with the presumption that it was a hate crime.

Well…

there’s no legitimate explanation.