My Coming Out Story

I remember it like yesterday, I was in the seventh grade when I privately started to acknowledge, in my mind that I was gay. I was going to a little magnet school called "The New Orleans Free School" and it was a school where a kid could be a kid, learn and grow. It was here that I had my first pubescent crushes, and battled with whether or not I believed in God. On one hand I was being raised by my grandmother who is a Jehovah's Witness and one thing about the Witnesses is that my sexual orientation is not in line with their teachings or ideals. On the other hand I struggled with what people told me what my belief system should be vs my own independent thoughts that I do not believe in any God. It was a dual battle to believe and be straight, two things that have never been good at and never will be LOL! Anyway, I was having a conversation at recess with my favorite teacher Mary Garton, was not only a great teacher, but a strong woman in her own right. The few things that I remember about this conversation is that it was a warm and sunny day in New Orleans and Mary, a classmate and I were talking about random societal issues (yes we were pretty advanced). During that conversation I blurted out, "I think that I might be gay..." and then the conversation continued with a thoughtful acknowledgement of my statement. That day turned out to be a precursor to when I would actually come out as gay and the way my life would change.

One day, during my freshman year at McMain I read in the local paper that one of the teachers at my school had come out as gay in the interview that he had with them. That teacher turned out to be Marco Menghini a Spanish teacher, he was brave enough to allow the paper to list his phone number in article. That very same day I called him to tell him that he had my support and we talked for a few minutes, not knowing what drove me to call him, I felt a calling to do it. The conversation ended with an invitation to meet in his classroom with a small group of students to discuss creating a Gay/Straight alliance on campus. When the day came to meet in his classroom, there was a lot of anticipation on my part, I was curious to know who the other students were and what they would be like. So, during the lunch period I headed to the meeting and there stood the folks that I would come to be friends with to this day. 

That day we came up with the name “Student Alliance For Equality” or S.A.F.E and recorded a video introduction for the morning announcements. We ironed out a script for those who would speak and when the camera started to roll something weird happened. The person who was supposed to say his lines froze in fear, understandable considering the circumstances. For some reason, I remembered lines and stepped forward to recite them. It was like my alter ego pushed me forward and said the words for me. It went something like this (paraphrasing), “Hi my name is Ashton Woods and this is the Student Alliance for Equality, if you are gay, lesbian, or bisexual come and join us at the S.A.F.E club…we are family.” I am quite sure that some of the wording may have been different, but you get the point! Keep in mind that my actions during this recording facilitated my coming out to a student body of close to two thousand plus students. The prospect of this never scared me, but it set me up for triumph and failure on a scale that would take me years to come grips with.

I had help and friends to come and go over the years, like I said in a previous post "Why WE Must Support OUR Trans Brothers & Sisters NOW!" After I came out that I had some help through my coming out process, "I have had the privilege of meeting some great people who just so happened to be Transgender. When I was fifteen and still living in my beloved New Orleans, I would visit my life long friend Dee whose mother is friends with my mother. He lived around the corner from me and when I would visit him I would notice four people sitting on a porch, sometimes five, two to three women and two men. I had always spoken (its a NOLA thing) to them in passing and one day I was drawn to go directly and speak to them out of attraction to this beautiful man named Jeff. My attention was quickly stolen by a regal and stately elderly woman named Mrs. Williams, who I came to think of as my own family: "boy come on up here and sit on this porch.." she belted out in strong yet soft tone. It turns out that this group of people for a short time in my teenage life would be part of my chosen family! Amber, one of the women, out of the three happened to be Trans and I couldn't tell until she made mention of it."

Why WE Must Support OUR Trans Brothers & Sisters NOW!

UPDATE: 

Today I saw something that made my blood boil, a picture of four WOMEN who happen to be Trans with a misgendering caption. The photo on the left was posted in the in a Facebook group for the MAD HATTA MORNING SHOW which airs on 97.9 THE BOX. I was pissed because there were posts in multiple groups, Black groups, including some with members of the LGBT community, of this picture and the comments from what I saw...

The comments were misinformed, ignorant and bigoted at points in time. YOU do not have to agree with a person transitioning their Gender Identity, but please stop mixing SEX and GENDER! I would advise many of you without a clue to get one and fast, you may think your opinions are from a good place, but this shit is endangering TRANSlives. Especially Black Trans folks who just want to live and be themselves, who have to hear and read this vitriol, and get killed by people who are emboldened by this vile anti Trans language. Please stop misgendering folks in a jacked up attempt to perpetuate the lie that Trans folks are out to deceive Cisgender men and women and get into relationships based on lies. While many of you want to believe that bullshit, please know that Trans men and women don't do shady things like that and its just a few bad apples. Learn to think for yourselves and use non anecdotal sources to read up on people who are different and don't fit into what your socially constructed norms are.

*************************************************************************************************************************************

Over the last fifteen years of being out and proud, I have had the privilege of meeting some great people who just so happened to be Transgender. When I was fifteen and still living in my beloved New Orleans, I would visit my life long friend Dee whose mother is friends with my mother. He lived around the corner from me and when I would visit him I would notice four people sitting on a porch, sometimes five, two to three women and two men. I had always spoken (its a NOLA thing) to them in passing and one day I was drawn to go directly and speak to them out of attraction to this beautiful man named Jeff. My attention was quickly stolen by a regal and stately elderly woman named Mrs. Williams, who I came to think of as my own family: "boy come on up here and sit on this porch.." she belted out in strong yet soft tone. It turns out that this group of people for a short time in my teenage life would be part of my chosen family! Amber, one of the women, out of the three happened to be Trans and I couldn't tell until she made mention of it.

THIS is where my advocacy for Trans persons of color originates from. I mean there was this eighty year old woman, her sister who was in her seventies, me a teenager, and two thirty something men just sitting on the porch on Saturdays for a couple hours and talking about life! The best part about us is that we were all Black! Like I said, they were my family for a short time do in part to me becoming an SGL-BT/LGBT homeless youth, which led me to just be around people like me, Black SGL-BT/LGBT homeless youth. On the first of many nights having to sleep out in the streets, a man held a knife to me in order to force me into having sex with him until I saw this tall statuesque woman come up from behind to take the man down. She told him "Don't mess with this baby..." and she literally took the knife out of his hand and sent him away bloody. Honestly, it was all a blur, but she saved my life and I never knew her name, she saved my life. She was in transition and she let it be known during a short conversation over food that she bought me after convincing me to go and eat at Clover Grill. Mind you, the frame of time between meeting Amber and this stranger who came to my rescue was a matter of months from 1999 to 2000.

Life has a way of putting people in your presence in order for you to truly understand the nature of being human and what comes with it. I guess, I never tried to understand what it meant to be Trans-Masculine  or Trans-Feminine, only that people are people, PERIOD. I saw how Trans folks were and are abused physically and verbally via institutional & general means. I will not go into all of that, what I will go into is how we are currently treating people who have the same struggles as us. When I say struggles, I mean living while Black and dealing with all that comes with being Black, while being told that we don't exist by Black folks! When will we stop being so Trans-phobic and disrespectful to our Brothers and sisters? It is extremely odd that members of the SGL-BT/LGBT community of color are some of the most Trans-phobic, this is extremely problematic.

The first thing that we must understand is not how and why a person decided to transition, but how we can help our brothers and sisters in that transition and respecting it. We can't continue to sexualize Trans persons out of curiosity of what their genitalia may or may not look like! Here is a place to start:
   
Sex - refers to biological differences; chromosomes, hormonal profiles, internal and external sex organs.
   
Gender - describes the characteristics that a society or culture delineates as masculine or feminine.
    
Gender identity - is a person's private sense and subjective experience of their own gender. This is generally described as one's private sense of being a man or a woman, consisting primarily of the acceptance of membership into a category of people: male or female.
Gender expression

Gender expression - refers to all of the external characteristics and behaviors that are socially defined as either masculine or feminine, such as dress, grooming, mannerisms, speech patterns and social interactions. Social or cultural norms can vary widely and some characteristics that may be accepted as masculine, feminine or neutral in one culture may not be assessed similarly in another.

Transgender - is an umbrella term for people whose gender identity or expression is different from those typically associated with the sex assigned to them at birth (e.g., the sex listed on their birth certificate). Not all people who consider themselves (or who may be considered by others as) transgender will undergo a gender transition. 

Gender transition - Transitioning is the process some transgender people go through to begin living as the gender with which they identify, rather than the sex assigned to them at birth. This may or may not include hormone therapy, sex reassignment surgery and other medical procedures.

Can we come to agreement that we should try to respect and understand others' choices to transition without stereotyping, demeaning and attack our Trans brothers and Sisters? Now is the time for us to use our privilege to help the "T" in SGL-BT/LGBT and understand that it doesn't take away from or main struggles and only serves to benefit all.

#HERO: Gaslamp & Why We Should Vote YES on Prop1 (PART 1)

I have been sitting back waiting to respond to the incidents that have taken place at Gaslamp in Midtown. This takes me back to an incident that I wrote about that took place at Tony’s Corner Pocket on LUEY weekend, when I was told “get out of my way nigger.” Then finding out that Tony’s had a history of prejudice and racism toward Black members of the LGBT community via stories and screenshots from one of the DJs who worked there. The connection between Gaslamp and Tony’s is that they both used a cover charge and only for Black and Brown people who sought to enter. These incidences outline the NEED for the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance which protects Houstonians in situations like this.

The Houston Equal Rights Ordinance provides protections in employment (both public and private), housing and public accommodations for the following classes:

- sex                          - age                                         - disability
- race                         - familial status                        - sexual orientation
- color                        - marital status                         - genetic information
- ethnicity                  - military status                        - gender identity
- national origin         - religion                                  - pregnancy

Recently Three black men, Brandon Ball (32), Dan Scarbrough (42), and Ken Piggee (43) made their way to Gaslamp (Facebook page & website) and were told that they would be charged a cover because they were out of dress code.  They decided not to pay the cover and went elsewhere and then decided to walk back by Gaslamp and from Brandon Ball’s observation... 

"We're looking, and there are white people going in and getting their hands stamped..."

"They were going in and not paying anything."

...White customers entered "free of charge and minorities get turned away." According to the Houston Chronicle, the trio observed "Two black men visiting from San Antonio said they were told they couldn't enter because they were wearing Polo shirts and jeans. A group of Hispanic men said they were told to pay a cover. Two Brazilian men received the same treatment, as did two Vietnamese women," and "A large group of Hispanic men and women also were told they couldn't enter without a $20 charge, while a group of white people went in for free..."

Ball also told The Chronicle this: "It didn't matter what they had on for the most part..." in reference to the white patrons entering the bar that night

Here is an excerpt of a post on Facebook from Ball:

“My name is Brandon Ball. I am 32 years old. I am African American. Tonight I was with my friends Dan Scarbrough (42) and Ken Piggee (43). Both are also African American. We were in the Midtown area of Houston, TX tonight and tried to go into The Gaslamp. Both Dan and Ken had on blazers. I had on a button up and slacks. When we walked up the guy at the door told us $20 each. We didn’t want to pay that amount so we decided to go to the next bar down, The Dogwood, which was free. After about 30 minutes we left The Dogwood and were walking back. As we passed The Gaslamp we noticed folks walking into The Gaslamp without having to pay. Those folks who didn’t have to pay were white. I brought this to Dan’s attention a few minutes later and he said we should go back and just watch from across the street to see if there was some "funny business" going on. Ken, Dan, and I went back and watched from across the street as the guys who were working the front door of The Gaslamp allowed white people to come in one after the other. Every black person who we watched try to go in was told there was a $20 cover or that their attire was not proper. One black guy was told that he could not get in because he had on Polo Boots. Dan spoke to several people who were told there was a $20 cover and they pretty much all said the same thing. It was not just blacks they were charging. It was people of both Asian and Latin decent. I again tried to walk in and was told there was a $20 cover. This was right after I had just seen a group of white guys walk right in. I finally went and spoke to the cop who was working the door (who is a minority himself) and asked him if he was aware and comfortable with how the door guys were conducting business. His reply was basically... "I just work and do my job and those guys over there do their job." I told him he was complicit but he blew me off. I then took pictures of the two main guys at the front door and both of them began to ask if I had a problem. The one in the short sleeved shirt went as far to tell me that he hoped I didn’t "run up on him in the streets because it would be a problem." Why does this matter to me? Why is this important? If I have to answer that please just move along. This post is not meant for you. This event occurred in the late night of Sept. 11th. A day in which we as a country are supposed to come together. But events like this just tells us how far apart we are. Please share this. Please pass along. Please read this and understand what type of establishment The Gaslamp is. If you were at The Gaslamp on this night and had a similar experience please comment and share. Don’t let actions such as this continue with no recourse. If you know the guys working the door let them see this. Please let them. Remember, this is 2015."

As of today the Chron reports that law enforcement some agencies are no longer providing services to Gaslamp and aside from that, this story illustrates the need for Proposition 1(HERO) to pass on November 3. When HERO was in effect, ninety five percent of reported discrimination was based on race. TO BE CONTINUED....

VOTE YES ON PROPOSITION 1 (HERO)

Check Your Religious Privilege - Christian Privilege & Ahmed Mohamed

Christian privilege - is the system of advantages bestowed upon Christians in some societies. This system arises out of the presumption that the belief in Christianity is a social norm, leading to the exclusion of the nonreligious and members of other religions through institutional religious discrimination. Christian privilege can also lead to the neglect of outsiders' cultural heritage and religious practices.

Houston Chronicle

Christian privilege is a very dangerous thing to have in America because it feeds into White supremacy and ultimately White privilege. In general there is an unfounded hatred toward Black and Brown bodies and things get worse when ethnicity and religion are intertwined into the scenario. Take the case of Ahmed Mohamed of Irving, Texas (pictured to the left), arrested for being intelligent while Muslim. He built a simple clock and he was taken into custody!!! The question that needs to be asked here are: would this have happened if he were White & Christian? The answer is no, it would not have happened, because if he were white, he would have White privilege to save him and a hoard of Christians crying foul.

We know this, whether it was on purpose or not, bad timing perhaps; A story came out about a boy by the name of Taylor Wilson who built a nuclear reactor five years ago via Raw Story today in order to contrast the issue of privilege based on race and religion. Here is an excerpt from that story: "A Muslim teenager built a simple clock out of electronic components and took it to show his engineering teacher at school — but he was arrested when another teacher thought it looked like a bomb and alerted administrators...Police in Irving, Texas, never suspected the device was an explosive device and did not alert the bomb squad, but they still arrested 14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed because he could offer no “broader explanation” for his clock besides describing it as a device that measures time.



When another 14-year-old boy built a nuclear reactor at his parents’ home he was invited to meet with officials from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Energy — who offered their expert assistance, equipment and encouragement to apply for a research grant."

Here is what Irving police had to say:

Irving Police Chief Larry Boyd

The letter sent home to Ahmed's parents:

ParentLetter_SuspiciousLookingItematMacArthur by Max Fisher

The Ahmed and his family in their own words:

“He just wants to invent good things for mankind...But because his name is Mohamed and because of Sept. 11, I think my son got mistreated.” - Mohamed Elhassan Mohamed

THE BIGGEST THING THAT I WILL LEAVE YOU WITH IS THIS RUNDOWN

Ahmed's POV:

- "When the principal and a police officer pulled Ahmed out of sixth period, he suspected he wouldn’t get it back. They led Ahmed into a room where four other police officers waited. He said an officer he’d never seen before leaned back in his chair and remarked: “Yup. That’s who I thought it was.” -A reference to Ahmed's racial, ethnic and religious identities."

- "Ahmed felt suddenly conscious of his brown skin and his name — one of the most common in the Muslim religion. But the police kept him busy with questions."

- "The bell rang at least twice, he said, while the officers searched his belongings and questioned his intentions. The principal threatened to expel him if he didn’t make a written statement, he said.....

- “They were like, ‘So you tried to make a bomb?’” Ahmed said.

- “I told them no, I was trying to make a clock.”

- “He said, ‘It looks like a movie bomb to me."

HERE ARE THE QUESTIONS THAT NEED TO BE ASKED:

Why were his parents or attorney not present?

Was there a consent to search?

Where is the written statement and why was he threatened in order to write it?

Police POV:

- "Ahmed never claimed his device was anything but a clock, said police spokesman James McLellan. And police have no reason to think it was dangerous. But officers still didn’t believe Ahmed was giving them the whole story."

- “We have no information that he claimed it was a bomb,” McLellan said. “He kept maintaining it was a clock, but there was no broader explanation.”

- “It could reasonably be mistaken as a device if left in a bathroom or under a car. The concern was, what was this thing built for? Do we take him into custody?”

For more information go here...

#‎IStandWithAhmed‬

#HERO: Meet The Opposition of Proposition 1 - Ben Hall for Houston Mayor

I previously spoke on about Ben Hall in my second post about the anti HERO that Dave Wilson was on before the Texas Supreme Court ruled that ordinance had to be on the ballot this November. Here is a little about what I said on the issue before I delve into the real post..."While I was in Phoenix, AZ it was reported by a couple of organizations HOUequality & Houston Stonewall Young Dems that none other than Ben Hall Signed the petitions that my last post talked about:"

"There's only one candidate in this race who has consistently for the last two years opposed HERO and supported the right of voters to vote," Hall said in a Fox 26 segment that aired Tuesday. "When the pastors wanted to fight in the court system, none of the other candidates was present. I was." - Chron.com July 30, 2015

Lets get to the real deal here, Ben Hall is running as a liberal Democrat in a non partisan municipal election, but being funded by the most conservative of political factions. I have always said that pastors, including Hall have let White men who don't even live in the City of Houston tell them what to do. Mr. Hall like many others have been bought by these White men who typically support initiatives that hurt the Black community at large, LGBT community, women and are waging a war on the movement for non discrimination. With supporters like Steve Hotze who said, “The homosexual political movement hates Ben Hall...I support Ben Hall. I’ve given him my endorsement, I’ve given him my money.” It becomes increasingly hard to believe that Ben Hall has true loyalty to the Black community.

"In staking out that position, Hall has endeared himself to some on the right, including local donor Steven Hotze, who publishes an influential Republican endorsement mailer. "Hall speaks his mind forthrightly with conviction," Hotze wrote Tuesday in an email sent out through his Conservative Republicans of Texas group. Campaign finance records show Hotze and his wife each contributed $5,000 to Hall's campaign, the maximum allowed in a city race." - Houston Chronicle

Then we have the conservative faith based endorsements which denotes the beating of the bible to justify bigotry towards the LGBT community which has Black, Hispanic, Latino, Asian and other ethnic groups in it. Hall recently earned the endorsement from The Confederation of Ministerios Cristianos which is a group of Hispanic religious leaders and represents 1400 churches in the City of Houston and more than 15,000 parishioners. The other endorsement came from the Baptist Ministers Association (the subject of the next post) which represents 350 mostly African-American churches. In response to these endorsements driven by his anti HERO stance, Hall stated “The faith communities all across Houston are joining my fight because we will put an end to the warfare waged by Houston City Hall on the pulpit”, says Hall. “But this is not just about my fight to stop the HERO ordinance. These religious leaders are on the front lines helping Houstonians battle crime and the lack of economic opportunities.” My thing is that if these religious leaders were in the business of  battling crime and increasing economic opportunity, why wait for Hall to run for mayor?

“I am clearly for no one discriminating against anyone. And I have to immediately say this ordinance is not the way to do it...I’m concerned about being right. I’m concerned about being just. I’m concerned about being true and authentic.” - Ben Hall

Video courtesy of KTRK/ABC13 - Full Video Here

I reassert that,"Ben Hall you are a BIGOT and you need to come to terms with that and soon, these are not "false accusations" that we are aiming at you. You said, "I proudly signed the petition" which means that you are continuing the disproved and idiotic assertion that the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance allows a "male sexual predator to simply dress up as a woman to gain access to a woman’s restroom." You know that what you are saying is baseless and is a straight up lie used evoke an irrational fear of transgender Houstonians."

Houston Penal Code: Sec. 28-20. Entering restrooms of opposite sex.permanent link to this piece of contentIt shall be unlawful for any person to knowingly and intentionally enter any public restroom designated for the exclusive use of the sex opposite to such person's sex without the permission of the owner, tenant, manager, lessee or other person in charge of the premises, in a manner calculated to cause a disturbance. (Code 1968, § 28-42.6; Ord. No. 72-904, § 2, 6-2-72)

The Houston Equal Rights Ordinance provides protections in employment (both public and private), housing and public accommodations for the following classes:

- sex                          - age                                         - disability
- race                         - familial status                        - sexual orientation
- color                        - marital status                         - genetic information
- ethnicity                  - military status                        - gender identity
- national origin         - religion                                  - pregnancy

I ask you to reconsider if you plan on voting for Ben Hall, He is not the right person to lead Houston...

#HERO: Meet The Opposition of Proposition 1 - Campaign For Houston

We have a slew of organizations and campaigns that support the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance, well so do they. The Campaign For Houston is a PAC that was set up by many of those featured in this series and they already have ADs out on local radio:










Their WEBSITE is really simple, with very clear ANTI TRANSGENDER rhetoric:

On their ABOUT page:

They also have a TWITTER account which is pretty inactive, and a moderately active FACEBOOK. Do not take this group of people that I have been highlighting lightly, they are all interconnected and have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to destroy local protections for the LGBT, especially the Trans community. We must work from our lanes of influence to deter the work of these bigots. We do not have much time to do what needs to be done leading up to November 3.

We have to be ONE collective voice and stand up for the TRANSGENDER community, in doing so we are saving all of Houston from discrimination. this is what they are saying about us:

"The ordinance gives new special privileges to two special interests, neither of which qualify as true “minorities” requiring special legal protection." We are not special interests, we are MINORITIES, we are not a new group and infact we are of different races and ethnicities. It is clear that they just want to discriminate against those who choose to live their truth.

"Mayor Parker’s ordinance is built on deception. It is not about protecting the rights of women, racial minorities, the disabled, elderly or military personnel. There are already important laws on the federal, state and local levels that protect such individuals from discrimination for employment, housing and access to public accommodations." While this may be true, who has the type of money it would take to go through all of the required processes in order to challenge discrimination? This ordinance would help with mediation and offset many costs.

"The ordinance’s naming of these groups is a ruse in an attempt to hide the ordinance’s real purpose, which is to make “sexual orientation” and “gender identification” two new protected classes."  There is no ruse, and you are right these are two classes that have NO protection on any level of government. ALL Houstonians deserve equal protection, THESE ARE HUMAN RIGHTS!

OH AND BY THE WAY HERE IS CONTACT INFO:

#HERO: Meet The Opposition of Proposition 1 - Rev. Kendall Baker

"It offends me that the homosexuals compare their cause to that of black Americans. Homosexuality is a choice, but I was born black." - Baker

Just like I said to Philip Bryant: "One thing that I will not tolerate is being made to choose between my Blackness and being Gay, as neither are a choice. Some may disagree, but do take note that without Bayard Rustin and so many others, the civil rights movement of the 60s would look nothing like it did. The Black LGBT contributions to our Black community is undeniable!
During the back and forth of me and many others defending Prop 1, he and many others acted as if we were White and this was some sort of gay agenda. NEWS FLASH: I am NOT White and there is no gay agenda!"

I first ran across Rev. Kendall Baker during his infamous testimony against the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance. I was in the room when he said this:



Now he is running for Houston City Council District F against Incumbent Richard Nguyen on a campaign of Hate toward the LGBT and especially the Trans community. Here is a recent radio spot:

"I can’t believe we’re having a conversation about whether men should be allowed to go in women’s bathrooms, showers and locker rooms," Baker says in one of the ads. "The bathroom ordinance is shameful. It will allow men to freely walk into places where women are most vulnerable and violate their privacy. The Rev. Will Reed recently cut a radio commercial supporting this sickening ordinance. Let me be very clear about this: A real minister stands up for the safety of women.”

****TAKE NOTICE THAT THIS AD WAS PAID FOR BY THE "CAMPAIGN FOR HOUSTON PAC"**** --- MORE TO COME ON THAT IN THE NEXT POST.

ABOUT Kendall Baker

Baker is Senior Pastor of Christ Solid International Church, Dr and founder of Straight Up Ministries, Inc., a non-profit 501(c)3 geared towards ministry, caring for the needy, sheltering the homeless, employment consultant, motivational speaking and mentoring and empowerment of youth.

He is also a former City of Houston employee and this is what he has to say about that:

But did he really retire? It is my understanding that he was fired by the city for sexual harassment in not long before HERO came up for a vote. He was the subject of an investigation by the Office of Inspector General (OIG), and upon completion of that investigation it was found that baker had solicited sexual acts from female subordinates. The OIG concluded that Baker also made lewd comments, sexual advances,  and even solicited donations from them for his church.

Kendall Baker - City of Houston Interoffice Memos by BrandondeHoyos

HOUSTON ELECTIONS 2015 - INDEPENDENT ENDORSEMENT ANNOUNCEMENT

As I have stated many times, endorsements from everyday citizens matter just as much as the ones from big organization. As an Independent Activist I am pleased to announce my finalized list of candidates in the City of Houston elections for 2015!

THE SLATE

CITY OF HOUSTON

Mayor- SYLVESTER TURNER

Controller - JEW DON BONEY




City Council

District B - JERRY DAVIS - (INCUMBENT)

District C - ELLEN COHEN - (INCUMBENT)

District F - RICHARD NGUYEN- INCUMBENT)

District H - KARLA CISNEROS

District I - ROBERT GALLEGOS - (INCUMBENT)

District J - Mike Laster - (INCUMBENT)

District K - Larry Green - (INCUMBENT)

At-Large Position 1 - LANE LEWIS

At-Large Position 2 - DAVID W. ROBINSON (INCUMBENT)

At-Large Position 4 - AMANDA EDWARDS

At-Large Position 5 - PHILIPPE NASSIF

HISD BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Trustee District II - RHONDA SKILLERN - JONES

Trustee District IV - JOLANDA JONES

Trustee District VIII - JULIET STIPECHE