Astros Win 2019 ALCS On Dramatic Walk Off Homer

That breeze you felt close to midnight Central time was the entire city of Houston collectively exhaling after Jose Altuve's walk off two run homer that clinched the Astros second American League title in three years and punched their ticket to another trip to the World Series.

And it's always fun when you knock off the Evil Baseball Empire to do it.




After a tense Game 6 in which the Astros took an early 3-0 lead on Yuli Gurriel's 3 run homer in the bottom of the first, the Evil Baseball Empire kept chipping away. 

They got a second inning run after Didi Gregorius doubled and Gary Sanchez singled to cut the deficit to 3-1.   In the fourth a Gio Urshela solo shot into the bullpen trimmed the Astros lead to 3-2.

The Astros got one back after Alex Bregman hit into a fielder's choice to bump the lead to 4-2   

After the Yankees DJ LeMahieu hit the tying two run homer off Astros closer Roberto Osuna into the right field bleachers just inches past the glove of a leaping George Springer to tie the game at 4-4,  the Astros had the daunting task of facing Yankee closer Aroldis Chapman in the bottom of the ninth.

Chapman hadn't given up an earned run in 4 2/3 postseason innings, but gave up a two out walk to Springer to set up the dramatic showdown with Altuve.




After taking two Chapman fastballs for balls and a slider for a strike, Altuve blasted an up in the strike zone slider over the wall in left center field for a series clinching 6-4 win that gave the Astros their second American League title in three years and their third World Series appearance as a franchise.

Don't think we Astros fans didn't hear your foul ''Eff Altuve'  chant at Skankee Stadium aimed at him last night.   Altuve got the last laugh last night and the ALCS MVP trophy to go with it.

This just in.  The paternity test came back.  The Astros are the Yankees daddy. 

The Astros have faced the Yankees in the postseason three times (2015,2017, 2019) since joining the American League, and beaten them all three times.    Beating the Yankees tonight also meant that this is the first decade since the 1910's that the Yankees have failed to make it to the World Series.

Speaking of the World Series, that starts on Tuesday with the Astros facing the Washington nationals at Minute maid Park.

Pride Houston Presenting WorldPride 2023 Bid Today!

WorldPride has been taking place for over twenty years, and has only been hosted by a US city only once.   New York got that honor largely on the strength of this year being the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion that jumped off the modern TBLGQ rights movement.

Today the Pride Houston team is presenting their bid to the Interpride International Association of LGBTI Pride Organizers conference in Athens, Greece.  They are also busy lobbying to get the 51% of votes from all the registered pride orgs there to bring World Pride 2023 to Houston.

Bids are also being presented by Sydney, Australia and Montreal, Canada to bring WorldPride 2023 to their locales. 

If Pride Houston is successful, the month long Houston World Pride event in June 2023 would take place during the 40th anniversary of Houston's pride parade and the 20th anniversary of the Lawrence v. Texas SCOTUS case that nullified the Texas and national sodomy laws.

It would not only have opening and closing ceremonies at NRG Stadium, but a parade, TBLGQ themed panel discussions, cultural events and an international human rights conference at various locales across our diverse city.   

Rice University, Texas Southern University and the University of Houston would also be involved in the diverse programming planned for this event that can draw up to 5-10 million international tourists. 

We also have no problem getting them here because Houston is one of the only cities that has airline connections to every inhabited continent on the planet via Bush IAH .

Houston would also become the second US city to host WorldPride, and the first in the southern US.

We'll find out Sunday Athens time (late Saturday night Houston time) if we do, and best of luck to our Pride Houston team in potentially bringing Pride Houston to the Lone Star State.

TransGriot Update: Sydney, Australia was chosen to host WorldPride 2023 

Prairie View A&M University Opens An LGBTQ Center!

I was wondering which one of our Texas HBCU's was going to open an on campus LGBTQ Center, and looks like Prairie View A&M University has the honor of doing so.

There are 105 HBCU in the United States, and yesterday PVAMU became only the fifth HBCU to open an on campus LGBTQ center, and the first in Texas and the SWAC to do so.

They also opened their new LGBTQ center during PVAMU's Homecoming Week.

The new LGBTQ Center is located in May Hall in Room 125 on the north side of the PVAMU campus, which also houses the PVAMU Multicultural Center.

It's past time that HBCU's recognize the fact that TBLGQ students have always been and currently are matriculating on their campuses.   Far too often that has been done in silence, and TBLGQ students have unique issues that need to be addressed in order for them to successfully navigate college life.   

If TBLGQ students are able to come out and have the support they need, that increases their chances of successfully completing their education in addition to their GPA's.

A few years ago I had the pleasure of attending along with Nikki Araguz Loyd and Meagan Gillett the PVAMU graduation of a trans feminine student who got that paper despite having some at times challenging moments getting her collegiate education. 

The LGBTQ Centers also help educate others about the issues that TBLGQ students deal with, and facilitate introductions to trailblazers and leaders in our area TBLGQ community like Houston Mayor's LGBTQ Advisory Board chair Harrison Homer Guy, who also happens to be a proud PVAMU Panther alum. 

Congrats to PVAMU for opening this center.   Hope I get the honor and pleasure of visiting it soon. 


TransGriot Note:  Thanks to Harrison Homer Guy for the news tip concerning this historic event!

Number 21- Rest In Power Itali Marlowe

I am not happy to report that we have lost another trans woman in my Houston area backyard to anti-trans violence

She is 29 year old Itali Marlowe, and she was killed back on September 20 at 2 PM CDT on that date in the Ridgemont portion of Houston that extends into Fort Bend County. 

HPD offices responded to a shooting call at 15829 Ridgeroe Lane and found Marlowe when they arrive lying in the driveway of the residence.  She had been shot multiple times, and was transported to a nearby hospital where she subsequently was declared dead, according to the HPD press release.

Now for the stats.

Marlowe is the 20th Black trans woman to die due to anti-trans violence in the US this year and the second one in the Houston area in 2019.   She is also the fourth trans person killed in Texas this year and the 14th under age 30.

We have a suspect in this case.  23 year old Raymond Donald Williams has been charged with murder in this case by the Fort Bend County District Attorney's Office. 

Williams was living with Marlowe, and was spotted fleeing on foot from the Ridgeroe Lane residence prior to the arrival of HPD officers.

 If you have information on his whereabouts, you are urged to call the HPD Homicide Division at 713-308-3600 or Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS (8477)

Rest in Power, Itali   We won't rest until this perpetrator is caught, prosecuted, and incarcerated for your murder.

The TransGriot 2019 Houston Municipal Election Endorsements

Since one of the things I talk about on this blog is politics from a trans perspective, I do pay attention to what's going on at the city, county, state, national and international level when it comes to what's happening in the political world.

As a person who is also a writer and advocate, it's also my job to know and pass that info on to you.  I want people to be more informed voters when it's time for you to head to the polls.

The early voting period starts October 21 and runs until November 2.  Election Day for our Houston municipal election and the special Texas House elections will be on November 5

Speaking of voting, if you wish to participate in our upcoming Houston municipal election or the Texas House special elections, you'll have until October 7 to register to vote in order to be eligible to do so.

Now that the basic information is out of the way, let's get to the endorsements.

***

Mayor- Sylvester Turner
Controller- Chris Brown 

City Council
District A- Iesheia Ayers Wilson
District B- Tarsha Jackson
District C- Shelley Kennedy
District D- Carla Brailey
District F-  Anthony Nelson
District G- Crystal Pletka 
District H- Isabel Longoria
District I-  Robert Gallegos 
District J- Sandra Rodriguez 
District K- Martha Castex Tatum 

At Large 1-  Georgia Provost
At Large 2-  David Robinson 
At Large 3- Janaeya Carmouche
At Large 4-  Dr. Letitia Plummer 
At Large 5- Ashton P. Woods

Houston Community College System Trustee 

District 1- Monica Flores Richart 
District 2- Rhonda Skillern Jones

HISD Trustee

District II- Kathy Blueford Daniels
District III-  Daniela Hernandez 
District IV- Larry McKinzie
District VIII- Judith Cruz

Texas House Special Elections

HD-28 -  Eliz Markowitz 
HD-148- Penny Morales Shaw 

METRONext- YES

The M.O.B. Strikes Again!

We are blessed to have some amazing college bands in the Houston area like TSU's Ocean of Soul, Prairie View A&M's Marching Storm, and UH's Spirit of Houston.

But none of them can match the legendary irreverence of Rice University's Marching Owl Band, or 'The MOB' as they are affectionately known.

The MOB doesn't wear traditional band uniforms or march onto the field.  They scatter into formations in their pinstriped three piece suits and fedora hats.   They also live for irreverently poking fun at their game day rivals, politics, life on the Rice campus and themselves.

While those MOB shows can be good natured at times, there are other times the MOB drew ire from their targets because they struck a nerve.   One memorable MOB show involved them during a November 17, 1973 game at Rice Stadium poking fun at cherished Texas A&M Aggie traditions. 

The MOB Nazi goose stepped onto the field, mocked the Aggie War Hymn and the Corps of Cadets, and formed a fire hydrant while playing 'Oh Where Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone' to mock the Aggie mascot Reveille



The Aggies were not amused, and losing the game to Rice didn't help matters    The pissed off Aggie fans formed a mob of their own that trapped the embattled band in the stadium tunnel for several hours after the game.   HPD had to come in to disperse the crowd as the band escaped the Aggie wrath in empty food trucks

In 2007, the MOB mocked the legal woes of the Texas Longhorns by playing the theme from Dragnet as three band members dressed as Longhorn players were chased by other band members carrying cardboard police cars.

In 2011, days before Texas A&M announced they were leaving the Big 12 for the SEC, during the Owls season opener against Texas in Austin, they formed the words '$EC' during their halftime show.

In  2016, when Baylor last made the trip to Houston to play the Owls, the MOB not only formed the roman numeral IX to refer to Title IX and the sexual assault scandal engulfing the school at the time, they formed a star and played 'Hit the Road Jack' to allude to the firing of former Baylor president Ken Starr

They whacked UT again this season when they spelled out '2.89', which is the cumulative GPA of the Texas Longhorn football team.   



The MOB struck again last Saturday as they hosted Baylor at Rice Stadium.    They took a jab at Baylor for denying a charter for an on campus LGBTQ group.  They formed the word 'Pride' and played the Village People's YMCA as students ran onto the field carrying the various TBLGQ community group pride flags.

Aw yeah.   Going to have to check out a Rice home game before the season is over to see what the MOB does next.

 

Houston's World Pride 2023 Host Application Approved

We are one step closer to hosting World Pride 2023 in H-town! 

Pride Houston, the nonprofit that organizes our LGBT Pride Parade and festival and who is coordinating our hosting bid, announced that their application to the WorldPride Committee of InterPride was unanimously approved.   Our competition for the 2023 WorldPride bid, Sydney, Australia and Montreal, Canada also had their WorldPride bids accepted by the committee. 

Interestingly enough Austin, TX is bidding for the 2025 WorldPride against Rome, Italy.

Representatives from Pride Houston, Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras and Fierte Montreal will travel to Athens, Greece next month for the annual meeting to present their bids to the WorldPride Committee

The bids are then voted on, with the winning group getting to host WorldPride

I believe our toughest competition is Sydney.  WorldPride has never been held in Australia or the Southern Hemisphere, and New York just hosted it in the US for the first time ever this year in large part because of the Stonewall 50th anniversary. 

Montreal also has the problem of a WorldPride recently being held in their nation in Toronto, and being a 5 hour drive from New York that just hosted it.

Houston would also be another first time city with the advantages of nonstop international air travel to much of the globe from IAH and Hobby, in addition to being a large international city as well.

When the 2020 Census is completed, Houston is expected to officially pass Chicago to become the third largest city in the United States.


We'll find out next month if a Texas city gets a WorldPride.   Hopefully it will be Houston that will be that city

The Houston Dem Presidential Primary Debate Final Qualifiers

As many of you political junkies are aware of, yesterday was the last day for the remaining 2020 Democratic presidential primary candidates to qualify for the September 12 debate in Houston

The standards were doubled to require that candidates seeking to be on that stage reach 2% in four DNC approved polls and draw 130,000 unique donors.   400 of those donors need to be from at least 20 different states. 

Ten people qualified to be in the H&PE Arena on the Texas Southern University campus in two weeks.

They are former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), Sen Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Sen Cory Booker (D-NJ), Sen Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Mayor Pete Buttigieg, former Rep Beto O"Rourke, former HUD Secretary Julian Castro, Andrew Yang and Sen Bernie Sanders (I-VT)

The rest failed to make the cut, meaning there will be only one night of debates in Houston.

The scramble is on for tickets to the event, with current TSU students, faculty and staff getting first shots at the tickets for the event in the 8100 seat venue starting at 12 noon CDT on Friday August 30.   

TSU is also planning to have a campus debate watch party in Sawyer Auditorium for students, faculty, staff and the general public
   

Looking forward to all the debate related candidate events that will be taking place in the 713 during that week 

Bill King's Shady Mayoral Campaign Mailers

Back in 2015 Bill King narrowly lost in a December runoff to current mayor Sylvester Turner in large part because ethnically diverse Houston, and especially the Black and Latinx parts of it ain't feeling Republicans right now. 

Our city hasn't elected a Republican to sit in our mayor's chair in over 40 years, so in this run, looks like King is deploying deception and racism in his attempt to knock Turner out the mayors chair at The Horseshoe.

He has already been called out for his dog whistle racist signs that are still up in many parts of town that say 'Clean Up City Hall', as if to imply there is rampant corruption going on with the Black mayor in charge.

Since our Houston municipal elections are theoretically nonpartisan, to imply that his Republican behind has bipartisan support, a mailer has appeared targeting the predominately suburban white Kingwood area in Northeast Houston  that lists some Democratic precinct chairs and makes the claim they support him.

Only problem is that many of those Democratic precinct chairs listed in the mailers DON'T support King, and were majorly pissed to find out their names appeared in his campaign literature without their knowledge.   Those Democratic precinct chairs want their names removed from King's campaign literature ASAP.

King apologized on August 7,  then three days later sent out another mailer targeting the predominately white Clear Lake area in suburban southeast Houston replicating the same tactic.

This statement appeared on the Harris County Democratic Party's website expressing support for their party precinct chairs outraged at the unauthorized use of their names or that they implicitly supported the King campaign.   

The Harris County Democratic Party has been made aware that Bill King, Candidate for Houston Mayor, recently mailed a political advertisement that identified as supporters, among others, Democratic Precinct Chairs. 

Our Precinct Chairs have unequivocally stated that at no time did they express support for Mr. King’s campaign or otherwise give their consent to be listed as supporters of his campaign. 

“We take the concerns of our Precinct Chairs very seriously, we always have their backs,” said Lillie Schechter, HCDP Party Chair 

We stand behind these chairs in asking that all candidates conduct their campaigns with the utmost integrity and obtain consent before listing any HCDP Precinct Chair as a supporter. 

Why am I not surprised that King would do what Republicans always do when they run for office?   Lie and do whatever shady crap they have to do to win.

Arrest Made In Tracy Single Williams Case

The Houston Police Department (HPD) has announced it has made an arrest in the Tracy Single Williams case. 

The waste of DNA who did it was dating her.

25 year old Joshua Dominic Bourgeois was arrested on Friday and has been charged with the murder of the 22 year old Williams.   She was living in an apartment on Houston's west side at the time of her murder and was in a dating relationship with Bourgeois. .   

Her body was found in a gas station parking lot along the 11700 block of  I-10 in west Houston just west of Beltway 8 around 3;30 AM back on July 30, and her death was ruled by the Harris County coroner as a homicide.   Williams body according to HPD spokespersons had severe lacerations in addition to a puncture wound.

Bourgeois is currently cooling his heels in the Harris County Jail without bond, and it is unknown as of this writing if he has a defense attorney.

And yes, you can bet that the Houston area trans community and our allies will be closely watching this case to ensure that justice is served for Tracy and her family.

UH College of Medicine Building Plans Unveiled

The city of Houston has had since 1945 the world class Texas Medical Center that has grown to a 2.1 square mile complex of densely packed medical building and hospitals that do cutting edge cancer and other medical research.

The first college of medicine to be started in the state of Texas in nearly 50 years became closer to becoming a reality after a bill establishing the new UH College of Medicine passed both houses in the 2019 session and was signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott.

The UH College of Medicine will start classes in the fall of 2020 with the goal of 50% of its graduates engaged in primary care.   An anonymous $3 million donation that was announced in July 2018 will cover tuition for the entire inaugural class of 30 students.   Another donation from the John O'Quinn Foundation will cover a third of the second class, with enrollment expected to grow to 480 students over the next 8 years. 

It still has some major steps to pass before classes can start.  UH was recently granted permission in a unanimous vote of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) for the new Doctor of Medicine degree.   In December it will submit its application to the federal accrediting body for medical programs called the Liaison Committee for Medical Education (LCME)

The university is finalizing a partnership with HCA Houston Healthcare, the largest hospital company in the nation, to bring a total of 389 new resident positions to the College of Medicine over its first six years.

Those new doctors will be needed and necessary.  Texas ranks an abysmal 47 out of 50 states in primary care physicians to population ratio, and the new medical school will be a major step towards rectifying that

Hopefully the new medical school will also take some time to teach their students about the medical needs of transgender patients, since we do have a large population of trans folks in the Houston metro area.    UH already has degree programs in nursing, pharmacy, optometry and social work, and the new medical school will be complementary to all those existing programs

“They clearly recognize the need for more primary care physicians in underserved urban and rural communities, and the University of Houston remains laser-focused on creating a new kind of medical school with an innovative curriculum to address the shortage," said founding College of Medicine dean Dr. Stephen Spann said in a statement

The school's four story 150,000 square foot building will be located on a 48 acre wooded plot of land just south of the main UH campus across from MacGregor Park along Martin Luther King Blvd the university purchased in 2008. 

Construction is slated to start in the spring of 2020 and be completed in 2022.

UH and TSU Are Back To Being Harris County Polling Locations

When I was a student at UH, the 1980 presidential election was happening during my freshman year.  While I eventually cast my ballot in my home precinct at Crestmont Park, I was still happy to know that we had a polling location set up in the UC for students to vote at. 

The same was the case at Texas Southern, which is one of the largest HBCU campuses in the nation and just a few blocks west of the UH campus.

When the Republicans got control of ethnically diverse Harris County, knowing that it provides at this point 25% of the vote total in a statewide election, the polling places on the UH and TSU campuses were removed.

At the same time, Texas Republicans when they passed their voter suppression laws in 2011, made sure that student ID's from a Texas college or university were no longer valid identification in order to make it harder for college students to vote.

Elections have consequences, and one of the happy consequences of the 2018 Blue tsunami that flipped Harris County back to dark blue Democratic Party control was the election of Dr. Diane Trautman to replace the odious GOP hack Stan Stanart as our Harris County Clerk. 

The county clerk, for you non-Texans, is the Chief Elections Administrator.  She's the person that establishes the procedures and policies that determine how elections are run in the largest county in Texas by population, where we vote and even the times we're able to do so subject to state and federal election law and approval of Harris County Commissioner's Court.



In addition to the welcome policy of being able to vote at any polling location in Harris County, polling locations were reestablished on the University of Houston and Texas Southern University campuses.

"It's important for young people to be involved in the elections process", said Dr Trautman. "These additional voting locations will make it easier for students, faculty and staff, as well as the surrounding communities to vote " 

That's significant, because UH has over 40,000 students and 7000 faculty and staff, while TSU has over 9000 enrolled students.   They deserve a say in who will govern them while they are matriculating on the UH and TSU campuses at the local, state and national level.

This will be effective for the upcoming November 5 municipal elections.


.

Never Demetria

The late Maya Angelou once said that when somebody shows you who they are the first time, believe them.   One of the candidates in the 2019 Houston mayoral race has a long ugly history of showing us exactly who she is as an unrepentant transphobe and a homophobe.

That would be Demetria Smith.     And Moni has receipts.

Yep, the same Demetria Smith who has run for since 2013 a District D city council seat, Texas governor in 2018 and now twice for mayor in 2015 and this year.

The same Demetria Smith who is anti-HERO and still futilely trying to gaslight you into believing she isn't.

The same Demetria Smith that threw a hissy fit at a January 2018 Houston GLBT caucus meeting when her time ran out to speak at that meeting, then took to her social media in the wake of that public meltdown to falsely claim "the GLBT's are trying to silence me."

The same Demetria Smith that can't spell her own name right on her own campaign material.

She is the same Demetria Smith whose $3,750 filing fee check for the governor's race bounced, leading the Texas Secretary of State to declare her ineligible to run for the governor's office. 

It's not like she would have gotten any support had she been able to stay on the ballot in that Blue tsunami wave election year.   She got less than 1% of the vote the last time she ran for mayor in 2015, and is well on her way thanks to her unrepentant homophobia and transphobia to failing spectacularly again.

Oh yeah, almost forgot.  Don't you still owe the state of Texas $22,000 in delinquent filing fees?

The last few days have found Smith on social media once again letting her anti-gay and anti-trans flags fly.  She has attacked At Large 5 city council candidate Ashton P. Woods, Kandice Webber, Eric Edward Schell, Nick Arvizu-Hutchinson  and an increasingly lengthy list of other peeps in the Houston TBLGQ community tired of her bull feces and calling her on it.

It's reading time    But let me hydrate first.

(Moni cracks knuckles)

I am personally tired of your ignorant mentally constipated transphobic behind pushing the bathroom predator myth as your weak as well water excuse to hate on HERO.   And yes Demetria, you ARE a transphobe and homophobe who is unfit to hold any public elective office in Houston, Harris County or the state of Texas.

You don't like people calling you out about being a homophobe and transphobe?   Then stop saying homophobic and transphobic crap.   It's that breathtakingly simple.

But tragically, you can't help yourself, and I'm not expecting that miracle to happen.

News flash for you Miss Thang.   It ain't the trans folks you need to worry about.  It's Baptist preachers, deacons, Catholic priests, Republican politicians and creepy uncles.

It's also pissing me off you're flapping those loud and wrong gums about 'predators' when we have predators who have declared open season on Black trans women.   Where's your concern about that? 
Don't their lives mater?

These are dangerous times in America, and we need intelligent leaders at all levels of government who stand up for everyone, not just heterosexuals.   If my rights as a trans Houstonian aren't secure, nobody's are.

HERO 2.0 without public accommodations language or coverage for trans people is a non starter.

Your beliefs as you call them are not grounded in anything but sheer ignorance, and as an award winning blogger and journalist, my job is to speak truth to power, call crap out and stamp out ignorance inside and outside my community.

You are batting .1000 when it comes to spreading that ignorance. 

And let me get something straight with your reprehensible behind..  Gaybaiting is not a good look on you sweetheart.  Neither is willful ignorance or transphobia, and it's time for a makeover and a trip to the library.

It's also quite obvious that you desperately need education about LGBTQ issues but are unwilling to learn.   You also keep doubling and tripling down on your homophobia and transphobia and posting it on social media for the world to peruse as if that is something to be proud of. 

That's why you continue to fail whenever you run for office.   This 2019 election cycle will be another one in which you fail to learn from past mistakes, and you will get less than 1% of the vote in this upcoming election.

You have made it quite clear since 2013 that you are NOT that person we need at City Hall, and it's why I and an increasing majority of Houstonians are on Team #NeverDemetria