At the 19th Annual Houston Transgender Unity Banquet put on by the Houston Transgender Unity Committee, my good friend and advocacy colleague, Lou Weaver was presented with the much deserved "People's Choice Award" for the second year in a row!!.

It is so amazing that Lou was honored in this way and I am so humbled to be his friend and to occassionally be able to be near his awesome personal energy as we together work on community projects.

In 12 days Lou will be another year older, another year wiser than me.

Recently, Lou and I were sharing/confiding in each other our hopes and dreams. I shared with him my long time dream to have a BBQ benefit along the lines of "Katy's surgery fund". For me it would be styled like all of these BBQ benefits I have gone to for people I know through friends of friends, or whose family members in the Bryan/College Station community may be co-workers of mine. Often I buy a BBQ plate or two, even enter a raffle, and don't really know the person the benefit is about, but send my love, my blessings, and my funds their way.

As Lou and I were talking, I recalled my own selfishness because I realize that he had top surgery coming up soon and could use some help. Finally, I would have a chance to give a gift to a good friend and a cause that is more than just "buying an anonymous BBQ plate".

I then began to think of ways in which I could get my friends and loved one's to donate to a personal fundraising cause that is to benefit a real, honest to goodness, leader in our community.

If you know about me, you know all about my position on giving of time and money to things you are passionate about - to supporting nonprofits because of the realtionships we build with the people and with the efforts they support.

But, sometimes relationships with organizations can be difficult to engage in. And in almost every fundraising setting, it is the power of the relationship we have with the person asking for money that makes all the difference. How much better to give to support one of our own, a real, living hero in our midst?

Please, join me in giving Lou a great Birthday present, let's all donate to a cause that is a person - Lou Weaver.

If this is not enough to convince you, I have a letter below I would like to share with you:

It gives me unique joy to bring to your attention a young man so very much in such a short history part of the very transgender fabric that swaddles the Houston community. Lou Weaver, self-admittedly a conduit, is the kind of person who makes connections and brings people, ideas, and organizations together. As myself a collaborator, the chance to meet and work with another on projects who totally gets, embraces, and thrives on synergy simply gives me renewed hope on a regular basis and keeps my own advocacy engines burning brightly.

I find my professional relationship with Lou extremely fruitful because of his ability to act simultaneously as a partner, as a mentor, and as someone who appreciates the wisdom others offer. A recent incident goes to show his care for the transgender community and his perseverance to move forward.  About a week ago I received a phone call from Equality Texas about a piece of legislation with statewide impact on the transgender community. At first blush I thought the impact important but of a lower priority and deserving of legal consultation before moving forward. It was Lou’s emails and phone calls later that night as he received word from other sources that quickly moved me to understand through his eyes the very important primary impact and attack on transgender people statewide and the need to do something immediately.

It is in large part due to Lou’s communication style and encouragement that I am hopeful that this legislation will not move much further this legislative session because of a last minute grassroots mobilization that secured testimony and concerns to the appropriate decision makers about the impact of the proposal before them. Following this incident, it is in brainstorming with Lou that we find ourselves collaboratively building a system by which Equality Texas and Transgender Education Network of Texas work in more synchronicity  to “shake the information tree” around the state and therefore engage more of our sisters and brothers  (whether they be transgender or not) in advocacy that affects the this community.