A Month in the Life of a Transgender Candidate

One of the dangers of running for office is that one can quickly lose all sense of proportion. I have not even officially announced my candidacy and already I have fallen victim to this condition.

I imagine many of you thought I reached the ultimate when I told Republicans who to vote for but au contraire, mon frère. I am actually going so far as to tell you about my activities for the month of March.

I must confess I am really trying to establish a precedent. Although my life is incredibly boring the real Texas politicians live interesting lives. Thanks to Sparkle and her precedent you might find out from Dan Patrick what it is like to spend a whole day pulling the wings off butterflies, or from Greg Abbott what's it like to spend the whole day washing the cars of billionaires .

So as you read this boring account just remember that Sparkle wrote this for you and science.

March 1

I start every day writing 3 morning pages. This is part of the program the Way of the Artist by Julia Campion. At times this means setting my alarm for 4 am so I can get these done before I leave for Jazzercize. Rarely am I not already awaken by then, so it is not unusual for me to be working at 3 in the morning writing these pages. I am getting close to my year anniversary and I have not missed yet so I pretty well committed to this process

True confession time - this process would go much easier were it for my two cats. Oreo likes to plop herself down on the middle of the workbook. Boozer likes to attack my pen. Eventually I will be forced to feed them which will give me a temporary reprieve that will allow me to finish the pages.

I know that the admission that I am subservient to my feline overlords separates me from conventional politicians (I can't imagine either Dan Patrick or Greg Abbott talking about power struggles with their pets)

I have found that the great divide between American humans is not between conservatives and liberals nor is it between cisgender individuals and transgender individuals. The great divide is between those that insist humans are in control and those of us who conceded that felines achieved the upper hand long ago.

Frankly I am not really sure why I am so committed to the Artist Way Morning Pages. No poetry, good or bad, is ever found on these pages. Most of it is pure drivel (as opposed to impure drivel). I have already wasted too much time and space describing this endeavor and I write no more about it.

Since the month of March began on a Saturday, the month was a little different

I began the month by going to the Austin Writers Breakfast. We all listed what projects we are working on. I always have projects to discuss but I never tell how little progress I made on any of them. It's like I expect dwarves, or fairies (or some other magical group it's politically correct to exploit) to do the work for me. I have a mixture of fiction and non fiction projects.

I am working fairly hard on one non fiction topic. That is "The War against trans and nonbinary children and their families". The problem with that project is that is constantly changing and expanding.

I actually have a completed project fiction project in bits and pieces. It is "The Art of zooming Dangerously". They are plays on a zoom call that replicate a zoom call.

When I wrote these plays I did not anticipate Zoom fatigue. I will probably wait until the next pandemic before I bring it out on the world stage.

When it does come out it will be on Amazon Kindle. I will have plenty of opportunities to be rejected by the voters. I don't need to drum up more rejections by sending my work to agents.

I did submit one screen play to the Austin Film Festival Pitch Competition. It was all about the daughter of Solomon who solves a murder while writing the Bible. The first words out of one of the Judge's mouth was "This would make a great novel" . That is not what one wants to hear from a judge of a screen play competition.

Others tell what they have been working on.It is a very humbling experience After the report we talked about writing - specifically what our responsibility was to our readers. To be honest the others had a much more nuanced answer than I did. I basically made the commitment to take their money and not publicly shame them for reading my words.

After the meeting I boarded the bus. I road the bus home feeling sorry for myself and feeling anger at the mythical little people who didn't do my work for me.

I guess I will have to confess that I don't own a car . I wish I could claim that my failure to own a car was due to my commitment to the environment. Unfortunately such a statement would be a bald face lie. (As opposed to a bearded or mustached faced lie). The reason I don't have a car is that I made two terrible choices for cars.

These car choices left me a pedestrian for the foreseeable future. Being a constant bus rider is time consuming but does give many opportunities to observe human nature in all its forms.

After landing in my apartment I spent the rest of the day reading, writing and a little bit of cleaning. I am not going to give future reports on these activities.

March 2 - Sass and Ass

My favorite activity in the month is on the first Sunday. Heather, the Jazzercise instructor, is a former Lakers cheerleader. She is a free spirit and has created an incredible supportive environment. She will say things like "You strong, sexy, sassy bitches. You own this room".

I always feel twenty years younger after taking the class. Unfortunately taking twenty years off my age leaves me still the oldest in the class. Most of the other participants are in their twenties and thirties. One of the purposes of writing this is to show I am no different from anyone else but there are no other senior citizens in the class.

In the evening I went to Bookwoman to hear Kiya Heartwood. Kiya is a talented singer/songwriter who is also a Unitarian Universalist Minister in the Bryan area. The show was great and I had an opportunity to thank her wife, Meg for an incredible kind and gracious act. I had been on the Board of Directors while I was still masquerading as a cisgender male.

One of the issues on the board was an individual whose attorney had missed a deadline in requesting asylum. She almost certainly faced death if deported. There was much uncertainty in the situation that made it difficult to know what to do.

I was terrified that as a lawyer I would miss a deadline which would result in terrible consequences to a client. I was the first to speak in favor of allowing the individual to stay in the church. Another board member spoke in favor and was much more eloquent in support of the individual being allowed to move in.

St. Andrews also let a mother and son stay in their church. Austin Sanctuary Network was formed. That group has done so much to help the immigrant community .

Meg in her farewell sermon talked about that decision and my role in it. I had felt that a number of older members of the church were not supportive of my transition. Meg's sermon changed all that. I totally broke down when I thanked but Meg with her typical grace turned what could have been an awkward situation into a tender moment.

As much as I find this day by day account fascinating I do want to finish this article before the election so I am going to try to list some of my activities before my gentle readers have become angry readers.

Lobbying efforts

I spent a lot of time lobbying. Just to name a few of the groups I lobby for... Texas State Employees Union, Texas Impact, Texas Unitarian Universalist Justice Ministry, Equality Texas and Transgender Education Network of Texas.

None of these groups had a good year. Pretty much every worry piece of legislation never saw the light of day. A lot of my time was spent trying to reason with so called "Responsible Republicans". I have decided that the term is oxymoronic. I made no attempt to tally the number of hours spent. It is too damn depressing.

Jazzercize

I have been a Jazzercize student since 1981. When my arch collapsed and I could not longer run it became almost my sole exercise activity. A lot of women who take the class are conservative politically and undoubtedly some disapprove of my decision to challenge the gender binary. They all have adopted a live and let live philosophy. Many welcome my presence in class. All tolerate it.

Hanging out with Rainbow Connections

One of the best things I did when I decided to transition was get involved with Rainbow Connections. The brain child of World Famous Bob, the group is dedicated to ending the social isolation of elder LGBTQ individuals.

There are so many activities as part of Rainbow Connections that I can't begin to list them. We have gone to the Ransom Center, the Blanton Museum and have had a petting zoo visit us.

This group is available on Meetup.

Zoom Calls on Meetup

I had never heard of zoom before the pandemic. Now I wouldn't be able to live without it.

My favorite zoom meetup is Herstories which is run out of Los Angeles. The two hosts are Lauren and Maggie who are the kindest and most supportive souls that one will ever meet. The meeting starts with an ice breaker and then move on to issues that are brought to the group. On several occasions I have brought my experience lobbying the Texas Legislature. It gives me a chance to hear the reaction from individuals who are not of the Texan Mentality.

This group has made Monday my favorite day of the week.

Church Zoom Call

Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 1 to 2 I take part in a Zoom call with Jon and Gary. Originally this call was known as Kami's Zoom call. Kami was the administrator at the church. She also cooked meals and basically did everything that needed doing.

Kami was a wonderful and inspirational individual who died of cancer in 2022. We

Continue the conversations in her homor. Both Gary and Jon and are in their 80s. They both are wiser than I am and both keep me humble.

LGBTQ Groups on Zoom and in Person

These groups remind me just how diverse our community is. There are no Trump supporters but other than that every possible group is represented.

Unitarian Universalist Church Activities

When I ran for State Senate in 2018 I actually got the endorsement from the Freedom from Religion Foundation. I don't think I will get their endorsement this time. I believed strongly

That churches should not be tax exempt. I still believe that but no longer believe I am the person to make that argument.

One of the three Unitarian Universalist churches in the Austin area, Wildflower, is in financial peril and might not survive having to pay taxes

I go to the three Austin Unitarian Universalist churches on a rotating basis and benefit from all three.

I should clarify that I still believe in the fundamental beliefs of the Freedom from Religion Foundation. The reason I don't think I would get their endorsement is that I acted like a spoiled brat and refused to debrief after losing the primary so badly in 2018.

Book Discussion Groups - In Person and Zoom

I must confess that am a book discussion addict. I love just about every kind of book discussion group. I particularly like it when my groups discuss the same book. That way I can pawn some of the best insights of the first group as my own insights when the book is discussed a second time. ;-)

I love book discussion groups of all shapes and sizes. The wonderful designer of this website is a book discussion group leader out of California. She is the best leader of all the groups. Her name is Jo Jo. If you want some to design your website, I can not recommend her enough. If you are interested in her doing work for you contact me and I will connect the two of you.

So there you have it. This is a fairly accurate depiction of a month in my life. While there is nothing that would particularly qualify me to be Governor there is nothing which should disqualify me either. I do hope that I have demonstrated that we are not a danger to ourselves or others. And maybe my candicacy will lessen my book discussion group addiction...