Oilers Win Football Championship!

The Pearland High School Oilers that is.

The Oilers completed a 16-0 season for the ages to earn what they wanted for Christmas, the Texas 5A Division I football championship.

Playing in their first state championship game as a huge underdog to three time and defending state champion Euless Trinity, the Oilers knocked off the state number one and number one nationally ranked Trojans in their backyard 28-24 before a crowd of 43,321 at the 'Jerrydome'.

As they have done during the season and this playoff run, they did so in dramatic fashion.  Oilers running back and game MVP Dustin Garrison broke up the fourth down Trojan pass intended for Brandon Carter inside the five yard line with six seconds left to preserve the heart stopping win.

It was the fifth time during this magical season that the Oilers won in the final minute.   One of those wins was a dramatic 38-35 win over regional powerhouse Katy before 41,368 in the Region III-5A finals at Rice Stadium to help them earn their first state title berth in their school history.

This latest last minute win results in the 5A Division I title coming back to the Houston metro area..

All Hail History Making King Niko!

See, Dinnah Escanilla.  If you had let Andy Moreno run you wouldn't have had all that unnecessary drama at North Dallas HS and your name wouldn't be carved in transphobic infamy as the moral equivalent of George Wallace.

Focus, Moni...

Here's a story  about a transperson running for homecoming king (or queen) that unlike Oak's and Andy's  school administration resisted runs to become homecoming royalty had a more positive ending.

Niko Walker just began his transition as he started his senior year at Culver City High.   When friends suggested the vice president of the school's Gender-Sexuality Alliance run for the homecoming court, he scoffed at the idea.  But they eventually talked him into running by pointing out it would be helpful and inspirational to others in the community.

“If I ran and I won, it would be a big thing,” he said.  “For someone who is struggling with their identity, if they can see a transgender win homecoming, they would be more comfortable with themselves.”

And on November 6 he was crowned homecoming king at Culver City High School.

Walker’s win makes him the first-ever transmale student in the United States to be elected homecoming king at his school and keep the title.  Oakleigh Reed of Muskegon, MI. won at his school, but was denied the crown by school officials.   .

“At first I was like: ‘Did they just say my name? I was so confused!” he said moments after the win. "After it set in, I felt really accomplished,” he said.  “I set out to prove a point and I proved it.”

Yep Niko, you proved that if we're allowed to do something, transpeople can usually accomplish anything we set our minds to do.  

Congratulations and all hail King Niko!.

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No Surprise-Andy Isn't A North Dallas HS Homecoming Queen Finalist

Dinnah Escanilla got her transphobic wish.   Andy Moreno will not be in the running as one of the three finalists for homecoming queen.

Moreno received the news today along with the students of North Dallas High.  She's justifiably upset and suspicious of the results and frankly she has every right to be after the transphobic remarks from the principal and stonewalling of the media that even Richard Nixon would be proud of. 

Speaking of Nixonian, the coverup may be underway.

According to Andy's sister Daisy Moreno, she told the Dallas Voice Instant Tea blog that according to poll watchers and friends on the counting committee, Andy received more votes than at least one of the three finalists. However, based on Escanilla's decision. school officials didn’t allow votes for Andy to count.  

The Dallas Independent School District is claiming the results and vote totals in student elections are 'protected information' while at the same time talking out the sides of their necks and repeating like a mantra the increasing mockery of a statement that DISD has the 'most progressive anti-discrimination policies among school districts in the state.'


Yeah, right.   DISD also said in the statement that they still support Principal Escanilla.      

Can you say lawsuit boys and girls?    Thought you could.    

Speaking of lawsuits, Ken Upton, a senior staff attorney at Lambda Legal in Dallas stated to Instant Tea that it's unclear if Andy brought legal action against the school and DISD that she'd win her case..  


Upton said recent federal court rulings have supported students’ right to dress consistently with their gender identity in other contexts, but he couldn’t recall one that dealt specifically with homecoming.

In Indiana, the Gary School District recently changed its policies and settled a case brought by trans student KK Logan who wasn’t allowed to wear female attire to her 2006 prom.

“In this type of a situation, there would probably be some federal arguments you could make,” Upton said. “It would depend a lot on the circumstances of the homecoming event, and whether it was truly just extracurricular or whether it was related to the curriculum of the school. But as a general rule, the federal law has been in some cases protective of students who kind of buck the gender norms or bend the molds and administrators don’t like it.

“I think it’s something we’re seeing more and more of, because students are increasingly becoming comfortable in their own skin in situations where five or 10 years ago, they would have been scared to death to be themselves.”

But stay tuned.  The latest episode of North Dallas Homecoming is coming up and will probably be played out in a courtroom before it's over.