50th Anniversary Of The Astrodome Opening

It's been long since overshadowed by the 2002 opening of NRG Stadium, but fifty years ago on this date the Harris County Domed Stadium, better known to the rest of you peeps as the Astrodome, opened as the world's first multi-purpose domed stadium.

'The Eighth Wonder Of The World' was an iconic part of my childhood as I not only attended Astros baseball, Oilers, UH Cougars and TSU Tigers football games in its cavernous space, but  the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, Texas high school football playoff games, concerts and other events also happened there.

I even worked at the Dome's concessions company for several years during college from 1981-1986.

The Astrodome was the dream of Judge Roy Hofheinz, who conceptualized it as early as 1952.   When Houston was granted a National League expansion franchise in 1960 that started play in 1962 as the Colt .45's, it was after the Hofheinz led expansion group promised to build a covered stadium to deal with our blast furnace summers.

Construction on the Dome began on January 3, 1962 and was completed ahead of schedule in November 1964.

It opened on this date with a sold out exhibition game between the Astros and the New York Yankees attended by President Lyndon Johnson and the First Lady, Texas Governor John Connally, and Houston Mayor Louie Welch.

The Dome would host the nationally televised 1968 'Game of The Century' between the University of Houston and UCLA that not only established a college basketball attendance record that wasn't broken until 2003, it set the stage for March Madness and proved college basketball had a viable TV audience. 

The 1973 'Battle of The Sexes' tennis match between Bobby Riggs and Billie Jean King was also played there, and as many of you are aware, the 1992 GOP National 'Culture War' convention nominated President George HW Bush was  also hosted under its domed roof.

One of my fave Dome events was the 1980 Luv Ya Blue pep rally that happened after the Oilers controversial 27-13 AFC championship game loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers.  After my father dropped me off on the Fannin Street side of the stadium, I had to climb the locked seven foot barbed wire topped security fence surrounding the Astrodome perimeter and got inside the stadium just before the fire marshal ordered no more people be allowed in because it was beyond capacity.



I still had a memorable evening despite all that work to get in there.    

I also enjoyed it when I got to go to the Astrodome for TSU games.  Because my dad was the Tigers radio play by play announcer, I got to sit in the press box, act as a spotter during the game, and enjoy the press level cafeteria with its delicious food and bottomless soda cups as the Tigers engaged in gridiron battles against their SWAC foes.

And yes, there was one day I was working at the Dome during a high school football doubleheader that involved the (boo hiss) Jack Yates Lions. 

As I was sitting outside the concession stand I managed at the Dome's west gate taking a break, three young flamboyant Black drag queens on hormones sashayed through the crowd

A cluster of ten kids were following them laughing as they paid it no mind until they got to where I was sitting with one of the HPD cops working security.  Stuff got real as sistah girl's wig got snatched off her head and they had to start chasing the wig thieves playing keep away with it as they ran down the ramp to the lower level

We;re still trying to figure out how to repurpose it so it is around for another generation of Houstonians.   So on the 50th anniversary of its opening, the Dome will be opened for a birthday celebration starting at 6 PM.    It was added to the National Register of Historic Places last year so it doesn't suffer the fate of the Kingdome, the Hubert H Humphrey Metrodome and the RCA Dome. 

But I'm going so I can once again even if just for a moment, stand inside the stadium that triggered so many childhood memories for me and hundreds of thousands of Houstonians.

Zeam's MSHSL Testimony

Because Minnesota is not among the 32 states that have policies or procedures for participation by transgender student-athletes, the Minnesota State High School League is debating implementing an inclusive competition policy that would allow transgender high school athletes to compete on the teams that correspond with their gender presentation

News of this was met by the Minneapolis Star Ledger, the state's largest newspaper, making the controversial decision to allow the trans hate group the Minnesota Child Protection League to post in the Sunday edition of the paper a full page falsehood filled ad seeking to stop the policy.

Trans student Zeam Porter appeared before the MSHSL committee debating the policy to give some emotional testimony in favor of it. 

“My love for basketball last year made me believe I could handle being on the wrong team. That was wrong. Constantly being misgendered and called the wrong name took away my soul. I already feel like I don’t have my body -- now I am soulless." said Porter during the hearing.

Unfortunately, the vote on the proposed policy was delayed until December.


All I have to add to this is let my transkids play sports just like everyone else matriculating on a Minnesota high school campus, and do so on the teams that correspond with their gender presentation.

NFL Flags Muslim Player For Prayer

The NFL used to be the most PR savvy professional sports league in the country.  

But lately it has been buffeted by multiple scandals and kerfluffles, while seeming to be hellbent on liking up to the sarcastic nickname of the 'No Fun League'  

I enjoyed watching the New England Patriots get their butts kicked by the Kansas City Chiefs on Monday night.  I enjoyed watching this 39 yard pick six by Chiefs safety Husain Abdullah that helped propel the Chiefs to their 41-14 win over the Patriots. 

What has people pissed off is that after the pick six, Abdullah prayed in the end zone for a moment and was flagged for a 15 yard unsportsmanlike conduct for 'excessive celebration'.

Okay, I have a problem with that after having to watch Tim Tebow multiple times and a long line of Christian NFL athletes proselytize their faith after scoring TD's. 

Abdullah is a devout Muslim who skipped the 2012 season so that he could take part in the Hajj to Mecca with his brother Hamza Abdullah, who played in the NFL for several seasons.   Both wanted to take part in the Hajj while they had the means to do so.   Hamza Abdullah has yet to be picked up by an NFL team since making that journey, while Husain is now in his second season with the Chiefs after playing for the Minnesota Vikings from 2008-11.  

Abdullah also practices the traditional fast that happens during Ramadan even though it falls during training camp.

The problematic penalty flag also drew the attention of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.  The organization issued a statement early Tuesday asking that the NFL take steps in response to the growing backlash citing the problematic nature of the penalty.

"To prevent the appearance of a double standard, we urge league officials to clarify the policy on prayer and recognize that the official made a mistake in this case," said CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper.

The NFL to their credit, acknowledged that Abdullah and the Chiefs shouldn't have been penalized   Even Abdullah noted that it was probably the end zone slide before the prayer that drew the flag. 

"I'm pretty sure he understands who I am, what my faith is," he said in a ESPN interview. "And again, I think the prostration is all right. It's the slide. Come to a full stop, get down, make the prostration, get up and get out."
 

Fallon Fox Being Inducted In National Gay and Lesbian Sports Hall Of Fame!

So proud of my sis Fallon Fox, who was named to the 2014 class of inductees for the National Gay and Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame!

The National Gay and Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame was the brainchild of Bill Gubrud and several other founders to celebrate the sporting achievements of LGBT people. 

The Chicago-based National Gay and Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame is housed at the Center on Halsted and unveiled its inaugural class last year.  It has garnered letters of supports from NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, MLB commissioner Bud Selig and NBA commissioner Adam Silver. 

In addition to Fox, the other 14 inductees in the Hall's Class of 2014 are my Houston homegirl and WNBA baller Brittney Griner, retired NBA player John Amaechi, retired MLB player Billy Bean, 2012 Olympic diving medalist Tom Daley, Executive Director of You Can Play and retired NFL player Wade Davis, endurance swimmer Diana Nyad, retired rugby player Gareth Thomas, retired NFL player Esera Tuaolo, triathlete and founder of transathlete.com Chris Mosier, Nike, and the Stand Up Foundation.

The persons in the 2014 Class being inducted posthumously are San Francisco Mayor George Moscone, NFL player Jerry Smith and rugby player Mark Bingham, who was one of the heroes of Flight 93.

The induction ceremony will take place Friday, July 11 with a VIP reception at 5:30 PM CDT, a general reception at 6:30 PM with the induction ceremony starting at 7:30 PM.

Price of admission includes hosted bar and hors d'oeuvres. Tickets are $30.

Congratulations Fallon!  Here's hoping we have more of our trans sporting heroes and sheroes inducted in the Hall's Class of 2015. 
 

It's NCAA Conference Moving Day!

July 1 is the day in NCAA collegiate athletics that schools get to move to their new conferences for the 2014-15 academic year.

One of the schools moving to a new conference today is the University of Louisville, who leaves the American for the upper crust digs of the Atlantic Coast Conference. 

The ACC welcomes the Cards into their conference ranks as their 15th member with a ceremony at Fourth Street Live! in downtown Louisville starting at 5 PM EDT.

While I'm going to miss seeing them in the American, can't be too mad at U of L   I've had a ringside seat during my time in the city to see how the school and AD Tom Jurich has worked to be in the position to make their program an attractive one and build the facilities.   The payoff of that investment was the Cards being asked to join a better and more nationally ranked power conference like the ACC.

When I was a Coog, we were a nationally ranked kicking butt member of the dearly departed Southwest Conference.  We went to three consecutive Final Fours and a Cotton Bowl, and I'd love to see them playing at that Top 25 level again in all sports.  Maybe with that burnt orange wearing UH hater Deloss Dodds gone into retirement, the new football stadium opening next month, and the upcoming renovation at Hofheinz Pavilion, we'll eventually get that Big XII invite that has been denied us. 

The University of Houston deserves that sitting in the largest city in Texas, and I hope UH is paying attention to how Louisville made it happen for themselves since they were in similar dissed circumstances back in the day.

Speaking of conference moves, the Big Ten welcomes former ACC charter member Maryland and the AAC's Rutgers into their ranks.  

On top of that with the entry of these two schools this fall, the Big Ten scrapped the Leaders and Legends Divisions and went to the more logical geographic divisional setup. 

Should be interesting to see what these two schools bring to the Big Ten table besides the Washington DC and New York-northern New Jersey TV markets, especially when basketball season kicks off. 

As for the American (AKA the old Big East) which is the Coogs current conference home, we get reunited with some old C-USA foes in East Carolina, Tulane and Tulsa this fall with Navy joining in 2015.  

Our crosstown rivals Rice in C-USA will also get some new conference members in Old Dominion, which is moving up from the FCS level and Western Kentucky, with Charlotte scheduled to join C-USA after an FCS transition in 2015.

This is the 2014 edition of NCAA conference moving day.   We'll see how well it plays out for all the schools involved this fall.    It also brings up the question, will there be another round of conference shuffling soon?   
   

Michael Sam Drafted By St Louis Rams!

It took three days and over 248 picks, but Michael Sam finally made sports and NFL history. 

The St Louis Rams on the 249th pick in the seventh round of the draft selected the SEC Defensive Player of the Year to hearty cheers in Radio City Music Hall.  

My fellow Texan has become the first openly gay football player drafted by a professional football team.

Sam was in San Diego at the home of his agent when the pick was announced by  NFL vice president of game operations Mike Kensil and an emotional Sam tweeted this moments after he was picked::

Thank you to the St. Louis Rams and the whole city of St. Louis. I'm using every once of this to achieve greatness!!"

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell stated in an April 2013 document: “The NFL has a long history of valuing diversity and inclusion. Discrimination and harassment based on sexual orientation is not consistent with our values and is unacceptable in the National Football League."

The NFL added sexual orientation to its list of protected classes in September 2011.

Being drafted was the not so easy part of this BFD GLBT sports moment.   Now comes the hard work of trying to make the St. Louis Rams opening day roster not far from where he played his collegiate ball at the University of Missouri.

He will have three of his Mizzou teammates with him in Rams camp trying to do the same thing.

Congratulations Mike!    May you make the Rams opening day roster and have much success, except when you're playing against my Houston Texans.
 

White America Is Still Hatin' On Black Athletes

I watched the NFC Championship game on Sunday between the Seahawks and 49ers and saw the post game interview Erin Andrews conducted with him after he made the game saving play to send his team to the Super Bowl.

I didn't see anything out of the ordinary.  I saw it simply as an athlete who was talking smack to his just vanquished opponent that he has a history with after a hard fought NFC title game 

So imagine my shock to see White America losing its collective minds over the post game interview, calling a man who graduated from Stanford a 'thug' and releasing a torrent of racist commentary afterwards.

Then again I shouldn't have been surprised by White America's nearly instantaneous racist reaction to it.

Something that is not being talked about is the same thing happening to Serena Williams last weekend after her loss in the Australian Open quarterfinals to Ana Ivanovic.  

She is also getting called a 'thug', being compared to simians and on the receiving end of post-match racist slurs aimed at her.

Only difference between her and Sherman is because Williams is a Black female athlete, the commenters are tossing in misgendering and transmisogynist slurs into the hateful stew of insults they aim at her.


It's one of the major reasons I hate it when Serena does lose a Grand Slam match and I rub it in when she wins those majors.   I'm beyond sick and tired of being sick and tired of the knuckle dragging racism and transmisogyny that comes out when she does unexpectedly lose a match.   

Serena is still going to go down in history as one of the greatest women's tennis players ever.  You vanillacentic privileged peeps slamming her also can't stand the fact she routinely beats your European tennis glamazons with almost boring regularity, draws viewers to those Grand Slam or any tennis matches and clocks more dollars than you people who have vanilla scented privileged hate for her ever will.

But back to talking about Richard Sherman.  He's absolutely on point when he notes that 'thug' is the new code word whiteness uses to denigrate Black folks since they can't openly use n----r anymore unless they simply don't care what other white peeps think about them. 

I find it mind numbingly head scratching that he even had to apologize in the first place.  For what?  Because white peeps fee-fees were offended that he called out another NFL player?  That he told the truth to a national audience about being the best cornerback in the NFL?   The stats and his play this season and cumulatively over the last three years back that up. 

I personally watched him singlehandedly change the course of the entire 2013 Texans NFL season with his Week 4 pick six that tied the game and eventually allowed the Seahawks to escape Reliant Stadium with a 23-20 overtime win.
 
Please spare me the 'Tom Brady and Peyton Manning don't do that' line.   They don't have to because the predominately white male dominated sports media does the bragging and belittling of their opponents for them.   And if Brady and Manning were trash talkers, the sports media and all these people hatin' on Richard Sherman for doing so would be calling it 'refreshingly candid' if those words were coming out of Manning's or Brady's mouths. 

So Black athletes, say what's on your minds.  Because no matter which direction you go, you're damned if you do or damned if you don't.

 

Told Y'all Some UT Fans Hated The Charlie Strong Hire

If you thought I was kidding about the less than warm welcome that greeted the news of Longhorn Elementary The University of Texas hiring Charlie Strong from some elements of their vanillacentric privileged, entitled and spoiled burnt orange wearing fanbase, well, you shouldn't be surprised.

UT megabooster Red McCombs, who has donated $100 million to UT, did his best Al Campanis impression when commenting of the hiring of the first African-American head coach for ANY UT men's sport.   

“I think the whole thing is a bit sideways,” McCombs said during a  interview on ESPN 1250 in San Antonio. “I don’t have any doubt that Charlie is a fine coach. I think he would make a great position coach, maybe a coordinator.  

“But I don’t believe (he belongs at) what should be one of three most powerful university programs in the world right now at UT-Austin. I don’t think it adds up.”

McCombs was lobbying for former NFL coach and ESPN football analyst Jon Gruden to get the UT job. 

So tell me, how is the hiring of a coach who never had a losing record in his four years at Louisville, won a BCS bowl game, currently has a 37-15 record, won two Big East/AAC conference titles and has recruited and coached the possible number one overall pick in the 2014 NFL draft in Teddy Bridgewater a 'kick in the teeth' hire? 

Says more about Red McCombs.   And naw white peeps, don't even attempt to defend what McCombs said by using Dennis Green as a shield.   Dennis Green was hired in 1992 and was already in his sixth year as the head coach of the Vikings when McCombs bought the team in 1998, and as soon as Green had his first losing season in a decade as the Vikings coach in 2001 a year after narrowly missing a trip to the Super Bowl fired him. 

McCombs did apologize and walk back his comments, but McCombs is symptomatic of the arrogance I talk about in the UT fan base.  It's why I get gleeful enjoyment when their burnt orange wearing football team of four and five star recruits gets their butt kicked in Big 12 play or in bowl games..  

As I said in the earlier post, Charlie, good luck brother, you're going to need it.  Going to be interesting to see if they Ty Willingham you if you have one bad season there in Austin. 

Introducing Trans* Athlete

After I compiled the post about why I write about sports as a trans person on a transcentric blog, I discovered while surfing the Web the founding of this timely and still evolving website called Trans* Athlete.

As evidenced by my old roommate Dawn, Fallon Fox in women's MMA and Jazz fighting her two year battle with the US Soccer Federation so she and other trans kids like her could play soccer, trans people are increasingly getting out there and participating in the games we love.

The Trans* Athlete website morphed from an idea by Chris Mosier, an educator, nationally recognized transgender Ironman triathlete and coach and Jessica Pettitt, a Social Justice and Diversity Consultant and Facilitator to create a large-scale resource about inclusive sporting policies for trans athletes. 

After Mosier and Pettitt began to examine the existing documents about sporting inclusion for trans people, they discovered that others have been doing excellent work in creating resources for specific populations regarding policies and best practices for trans inclusion. Chris then morphed the project into this website, which puts together resources for folks looking for information on trans inclusion in athletics.

Trans* Athlete is a resource that puts in one centralized location for students, athletes, coaches, and administrators information about trans inclusion in athletics at various levels of play from K-12 through the collegiate level and beyond.

If this website does its job of allowing trans people to play the games they love, participate and excel at competitive sports and do so without drama from you cis peeps, then it's successfully doing its job.
    

I Like Sports And I Need To Write About Sports

When I'm out and about in our community and the subject turns to what I write about on TransGriot, I have people tell me that they love it when the Shut Up Fool Awards pop up every Friday.  They are appreciative of the hard work I put in and long hours to keep up with all things trans here and around the world.

They enjoy my Ten Questions interviews and love it that I break down politics and how it impacts this community as well.  They love my Black trans history posts and for the most part me discussing race and class and how it affects our TBLG community.   They love my motivational posts and also want to hear my views and analysis on whatever subject I feel like talking about.   

But every now and then I get some pushback as to why I discuss sports on this blog.  

Well, frankly, because it's my blog and if I want to talk sports on it, I can.   Second, because TBLG sports fans exist, I'm one of them and they need love and content to read, too.  I write about my local Houston teams.   I have opinions I want to express about developments in the collegiate and professional ranks from time to time.   And because female athletes don't get much ink or love in an arena dominated by male sports writers, I'll comment on developments in women's sports that pique my interest.

Far too often female athletes and their athletic achievements are belittled by male sports writers and male sports fans.  Women's sports leagues like the WNBA, women's international sports and women's collegiate sports are seen as not deserving of media attention like 'the menz.' until some controversy pops up. 

If we don't talk about female athletes, their accomplishments and the issues that impact them, who will?  

I like discussing my fave tennis playing siblings the Williams Sisters, who get far too much disrespect from the media, their fellow players and knuckle dragging racist idiots in comment threads despite having Tennis Hall of Fame level careers. 

Serena and Venus will always get love here and when deserved, some WTF's.  And yes, the 2014 Australian Open starts January 13-26.      

Third, keeping up with all things trans means that I need to be talking about trans athletes, our history and how developments in the sports world like the LGBT Sports Coalition and Nike LGBT Sports Summits affect our community. 

As Kye Allums, Fallon Fox, Michelle Dumaresq, Christina Kahrl, Keelin Godsey  and others prove, trans people are also breaking ground and making history in the sports world as Renee Richards once did when she sued the USTA in 1976 for the right to play in the US open and won.  

As a blog that seeks to chronicle trans people making history, that means you readers need to see their stories.  They are also trailblazing leaders and pioneers in the sports world that are busting stereotypes about us and they deserve our community's love, understanding, appreciation and support.

Speaking of stereotypes, just as we do so as a community when it comes to doing Trans 101 mythbusting about transpeople in the rest of society, there is just as much disinformation, mythbusting and Trans 101 that needs to be done about transpeople in the sports world.  

There are also sports related issues that we need as a community to be paying attention to and be able to discuss authoritatively like the NCAA rules for trans athletes.  We need to be able to talk about the International Olympic Committee's Stockholm Consensus that allow trans people to compete in the Olympic Games.   We need to be aware about Jazz's successful two year fight with the US Soccer Association to allow trans kids to play and be working on getting FIFA to allow trans athletes to play on international soccer teams like cis people can.  

We also need to as a community need to be keeping up with the states that allow trans kids to compete at the high school level in the gender they present to the world and fight for their right to compete.   

I also see the parallels between transpeople making groundbreaking strides in athletic competition and the African-American human rights struggle.   It's no accident that with the successes of Jesse Owens in the 1936 Olympic Games, boxer Joe Louis, and Jackie Robinson smashing baseball's color line in 1947 among our countless other sporting achievements that African-Americans also gained increased acceptance of our humanity and advancement in our human rights struggle. 

I submit that as more out trans athletes make their mark in the sporting world, we'll see less hatred and drama directed at us as a community as a result of their athletic competition success, and it will pave the way for other trans athletes to exceed what the pioneers accomplished. 


We transpeeps not only increasingly play the games, we have people like Christina Kahrl, who is breaking ground by writing about the athletes who play them as an ESPN.com columnist and a member of the Baseball Writers Hall of Fame.  

I have TBLG sports fans and trans athletes who thank me for writing about them, standing up for their humanity against the transphobic haters and using my TransGriot platform to talk about being a sports personality who happens to be trans.   That will continue because trans athletes have an important role to play in our ongoing trans human rights struggle.

Trans athletes not only excel on the field of play to prove we can do so just like any other cis person, we love the various games we play.   As they play the games they love, they demolish stereotypes and advance trans human rights at the same time for all of us, even for you trans peeps who hate sports.   

So yeah, I like sports, I write about sports and need to continue doing so.   

National Gay And Lesbian Sports Hall Of Fame Announces Its First Class

The National Gay And Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame in Chicago announced its inaugural nomination class of inductees, and it not only includes some people I'm acquainted with, but some girls like us.

The Hall of Fame is housed at the Center on Halsted and was created by its executive director Bill Gubrud and several other individuals to celebrate the sporting achievements of LGBT people.

The initial class includes tennis player and girls like us Renee Richards and sportswriter Christina Kahrl, ESPN and CNN columnist LZ Granderson, MLB baseball player Glenn Burke, two time 1984 and 1988 Olympic diving champion Greg Louganis, tennis legends Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova, the first out boxer Orlando Cruz, Gay Games founder Dr. Tom Waddell, former pro lacrosse player Andrew Goldstein, out NBA player Jason Collins, Jerry Pritikin, and straight English Rugby league player Ben Cohen.

Congrats to Christina and LZ on this well deserved honor.  The Hall of Fame is taking nominations until July 1 for additional people that will be voted on by the board and announced during their induction ceremony.  

I'd like to see Kye Allums, Keelin Godsey, Michelle Dumaresq, Kristin Worley and Fallon Fox also get nominations and have a chance of making this inaugural class.    . 

The induction ceremony will take place in Chicago on August 3 and I hope that these folks also make it 

Second Annual Nike LGBT Sports Summit Happening This Weekend

The first half of 2013 has seen some interesting and dramatic events happening in the world of sports from a TBLG perspective with the coming outs of NBA baller Jason Collins, WNBA rookie ball player Brittney Griner, women's MMA fighter Fallon Fox and soccer player Robbie Rogers.

Rogers later became the first openly gay player to join an MLS team when he signed with the LA Galaxy. 

It has seen NFL players Chris Kluwe and Brendon Ayanbadejo boldly speak up as allies for the TBLG community on marriage equality and other issues of importance to the community.

It has also seen in the first half of this year some positive and especially in Fallon Fox's case viciously negative commentary and epic ignorance spew forth from people inside and outside the sports world in reaction to those events.

This weekend in Portland, OR the second annual Nike LGBT Sports Summit commenced on June 12 and ends today with the lofty goal of eliminating anti-trans and anti-gay bias in sports by 2016.

The summit is sponsored by Nike and organized by Outsports blog founder Cyd Zeigler, the National Center for Lesbian Rights Sports Project Director Helen Carroll and LGBT sports pioneer Pat Griffin. 

One of the people who is on the scene this weekend from our community is Kye Allums.

Also attending the LGBT Sports Summit are college and professional athletes, coaches, athletic administrators, political figures, LGBT advocates, journalists and allies along with representatives from GLAAD, the United States Olympic Committee, GLSEN, the NCAA, Athlete Ally, USA Wrestling, You Can Play; Campus Pride; StandUp Foundation; Equality Coaching Alliance, the Federation of Gay Games and ESPN.

The attendees are there to form the LGBT Sports Coalition, an umbrella org that will have as its mission formulating the strategies necessary to achieve the goal of eliminating anti-trans and antigay bias in sport by 2016. 

While there has been some amazing progress in letting our people play sports over the last few years, it's clear we have a long way to go to bust stereotypes and eliminate bigotry in the collegiate, professional and international sporting ranks.

The Nike Sports Summit is a step forward toward accomplishing that Herculean task.

MMA World Still Hatin' On Fallon Fox

Still keeping an eye on the drama surrounding trans MMA fighter Fallon Fox. 

The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, which oversees the Florida Boxing Commission, is expected to conclude an investigation into Fox's license on April 5.  

In the meantime life goes on for Fox since her license is not frozen or suspended and she has an upcoming May 24 bout with Allana Jones that could possibly be televised..

In the wake of Miesha Tate going on the record as saying she would refuse to fight Fox, she made an appearance on the Inside MMA show and asserted that any fighter who refused to face her was doing so out of fear. 

Fox has a valid point.  They are refusing to fight her out of fear and stereotypes about trans feminine athletes, but the comment incensed Peggy Morgan and her trainer.  They released a transphobic video declaring that she wouldn't fight Fox as trainer John Fain disrespected her. 

Morgan appears to be backing away from some of the inflammatory transphobic statements her trainer John Fain made, but they still are ignorant and skating close to the edge of transphobia. 

I am not an expert in gender reassignment, but I have a hard time believing that there is no correlation between Fallon’s success in the cage and the fact that she lived as a man for thirty-one years."

And that's the key point Peggy. Neither you or the transphobes commenting on the Net are experts on trans issues or trans athletes, much less have experienced living your lives as a trans woman.

Fox, meanwhile, blasted Morgan and Fain's video in a posting on her official Facebook page, saying they were mostly worried about losing the $20,000 offered to the tourney's winner.

"I wonder if I should argue that her long bone structure is an unfair advantage to all the female competitors in the tournament? Nah, I won't do that," Fox said in response to the transphobic video. "Because I realize that her advantage is something that I must overcome. It is a challenge and I welcome it!"

Medical evidence is on Fallon Fox's side.  Whatever advantage Fox had experiencing muscle and body development growing up as male is gone after her first year on hormone replacement therapy. That muscle development becomes FEMININE in character and strength level under the continued influence of estrogen.

I know that firsthand because I discovered when I played tennis post transition I can't hit my serve as hard as I used to. 

To assume that Fox has a natural advantage because she was born male is sexist and a disrespectful commentary concerning the abilities and talents of cis female athletes. Frankly, if Fallon Fox were 0-5 not one of you cis women or you transphobes would have anything to say about the issue of her being in MMA.

But since she's kicking butt and excelling in the sport it's let's try to find whatever excuse we can use to kick her out of MMA or frustrate her to the point that maybe she'll quit and we won't have to deal with the t----y kicking our azzes anymore.

But did anyone in their rush to hate on Fallon Fox think about the possibility that hey, maybe Fallon Fox IS  that good and we have to step up our athletic game to compete with her?

Meet Tia Norfleet-NASCAR Driver

Move over Danica Patrick, there's another female driver about to hit the NASCAR circuit and she's a sistah.

She's 25 year old Tia Norfleet, the first and only African-American female driver in NASCAR.  She's the daughter of Bobby Norfleet, a NASCAR racer in the 90's who was mentored by legendary African-American racing pioneer Wendell Scott. 

Tia fell in love with racing early, and has competed in the drag racing and short track late models circuit in which she earned two top 15 finishes.

Her goal is to not only win the Daytona 500, but expand NASCAR's popularity beyond its current demographic base.  She also want to see more person of color get involved in NASCAR and become drivers, pit crew members and even engineers.


But I'll let Tia talk in this video.

.


Norfleet received her NASCAR racing license in August and for now hasn't released her racing schedule, but when she does, I might be tuning into a NASCAR race or two to watch my fellow Taurus' historic car number 34 compete instead of bypassing any channel that a NASCAR race is on now.
 

What's Wrong With USA Olympic Boxing?

While reading my Facebook comments the other night checked out one from my homegirl Arianna Inurritegui Lint noting how much she loves boxing in the wake of the Marquez-Pacquiao fight and Marquez knocking him the hell out.

That got me thinking about the recently conducted Summer Olympic Games and US boxing in general.

I wondered what's happened to the US in the sport and stumbled across this interesting Bleacher Report article from August 1 discussing the topic. 

One of the things I have been disappointed about when I've watched the Summer Olympics over the last decade and a half is the boxing team.  I've probably been spoiled by watching the dominating performances of the 1976 and 1984 US Olympic boxing teams and the knowledge that our great heavyweight champs such as Floyd Patterson (1952), Muhammad Ali (1960), Joe Frazier (1964) and George Foreman (1968) were Olympic champions.  Oscar De La Hoya (1992), David Reid (1996) and Andre Ward (2004) were also golden boys before winning titles in the professional ranks as well. 

The 2012 London Games was one which will live in US Olympic infamy because the men produced ZERO medals.  It was the women that upheld the proud USA boxing tradition.

Women's boxing was added to the Olympic competition program this year, and they produced the only US boxing medals of the London Games thanks to 17 year old Claressa Shields golden win and my fellow Houstonian Marlen Esparza winning a bronze medal in her weight class.

I've noted that since the 1988 Games and the implementation of a computerized scoring system to prevent people from getting victimized by questionable judging decisions has the consequence of encouraging what Teddy Atlas calls a 'fencing with gloves' style counterintuitive to the way Americans are taught to box, the teams haven't been as good.  

Maybe that's part of a drop off in talent, or what I suspect is the fallout from talented boxers like Roy Jones, Jr and Michael Carbajal in Seoul and Floyd Mayweather, Jr had happen in Atlanta in terms of being screwed by international boxing officials during those Olympic tournaments..    

There's less incentive for a talented US boxer to bust their behinds and slog through the amateur and international ranks for a chance at a Olympic gold medal if they are going to get screwed out of it by shady officiating.

Boxing has traditionally been seen as a way out of the 'hoods and barrios, and I believe another problem with US boxing besides the disorganization at the top  and the closing of many of those neighborhood gyms that trained kids is there's not as much emphasis on the Golden Gloves youth tournaments that develop our amateur boxers and potential Olympic champions.  

During the 70's and 80's I couldn't turn on the TV locally in Houston without seeing a public service commercial for the Progressive Amateur Boxing Association with its tagline of 'A kid can't open a knife or fire a gun with boxing gloves on'.   PABA boxers were highly competitive in local and Texas Golden Gloves competition which added to its appeal.  

And speaking of TV, yanking regular boxing matches off of network TV so that greedy boxing promoters could put them on pay-per- view cable also wasn't a wise move either.  You draw talent and interest to your sport by televising it, not restricting the number of people that can see it.  It's a contributing factor in why boxing is less relevant now and you have upstarts like MMA (mixed martial arts) and UFC bouts drawing huge ratings, growing international popularity and possible future Olympic medal status.
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That breakdown in the US boxing developmental system is combined with some of our better athletes in the 'hoods focusing on other sports such as football and basketball and the rise of the Cubans as international boxing powers.

Granted, the USA with 49 gold medals and 110 medals all time is far and away the all-time Olympic competition medal leader but the Cubans with 34 golds and 67 total medals are number two, have a proud tradition of their own with three time Olympic champions Teofilo Stevenson (1972, 1976, 1980) and Felix Savon (1992, 1996, 2000) and probably would have caught the USA in total medals by now had Cuba not boycotted the 1984 and 1988 games.  

But there is some serious soul searching, self examination and reorganization that needs to happen at USA Boxing if our once proud program is going to get back to the business of putting our young men and now women in the best possible position of competing for and winning international championships and Olympic medals.

Houston's Other Football Team Plays Tonight

My hometown has a second football team that is in the playoffs and going for a championship. 

Instead of wearing battle red, liberty white and deep steel blue, helmets and a lot of padding as they play their 60 minute games at Reliant Stadium to sold out crowds, they wear orange uniforms and kick a round ball around for 90 plus minutes over at a sold out soccer specific BBVA Compass Stadium in front of their passionate fan base.

I'm talking about the Houston Dynamo, our Major League Soccer franchise that has been quite successful ever since they started play here in 2005.  They not only won back to back MLS cup titles in 2006 and 2007, they are the defending Eastern Conference champions and played in the 2011 MLS Cup game last year.

They also became only the fourth MLS squad in the league's 17 year history to go through their home schedule undefeated and have a 27 match winning streak in games played in H-town dating back to last season.

The Dynamo struggled through most of the 2012 season and qualified as the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference, but they have a tendency to turn up their level of play when it's playoff time as they demonstrated last year.

The Men In Orange have already gotten their 2012 MLS playoff run off to a successful start by taking down the Chicago Fire 2-1 in their knockout round match played on October 31.

They play Sporting Kansas City, the team they knocked off last year to get to the MLS Cup championship match they lost to the LA Galaxy in their two leg Eastern Conference semifinal later tonight at BBVA Compass Stadium.   If they are successful in knocking off SKC, they will move on to the Eastern Conference finals against either DC United or the New York Red Bulls.

Let's Go Dynamo! 

St Louis KKKardinal Fans Engage In Racist And Homophobic Rants After Loss

I can understand St. Louis Cardinal fans being upset and angry with their team after they coughed up a 3-1 lead in the 2012 NLCS over the San Francisco Giants, then were spanked 9-0 by the Giants in Game 7.

The Giants became only the fourth team in major league baseball history to come back from that kind of deficit, win the National League championship and advance to the World Series.

But dayum people,  you didn't have to get this nekulturny and flat out homophobic, sexist and racist with the tweets you posted in the wake of that stunning defeat.   Thanks to @BestFansStLouis, and Brock Keeling at SFist the ugly scab of homophobia, racism and sexism got exposed and we have a record of it.

Jojo @HojoJarden

Giants stadium is loud but the clapping noise u hear in the stands is actually from all those fags in San Francisco jerking each other off.

22 Oct 12

Aaron York @ayork14

And to celebrate their win the San Fransisco players and coaching staff will be heading to the bath houses to start another aids epidemic.

22 Oct 12

         Andrew Danter @AndrewDanter

Fox showed things San Francisco was famous for, but they forgot the most important thing: AIDS

21 Oct 12

         Lane Caldwell @LaneCaldwell14

San Francisco has so many fags that the Giants PA announcer is a chick #STLCards #STL #CardinalNation #Cardinals

22 Oct 12

Blake Martindale @BleezyBlee

They are getting loud at homo stadium in san fran....they have the cards messed up. Queers going wild

22 Oct 12

Ashley @ashbrok09

They win, they get it up the ass. They lose, they get it up the ass. #SanFag

14 Oct 12

  Frijoles Grandes @ZachReggieClark

If you're at the Ritenour game instead of watching the Cardinals game, you're probably a nigger

19 Oct 12

But sadly it's not an isolated incident when it comes to opposing fans letting out their inner homophobia out either in the wake of their teams either playing or losing to San Francisco based clubs.   Conservafool Texas Ranger fans billed their 2010 World Series clash with the Giants they lost as a battle between the 'Steers vs Queers'.. 

Going to be fun to watch the World Series play out between Detroit and San Francisco knowing a bunch of phobic Cardinal fans are majorly pissed off they aren't in it.

  

NFL Official Shannon Eastin Makes History Again

Because of the ongoing NFL officials lockout, an opportunity door was opened for others to get the chance to show what they could do at the professional officiating level.  

Many of those locked out officials of the NFL Referees Association have decades of experience doing NFL and BCS collegiate football games, and it isn't easy to become one. 

For those of you who had the opportunity to watch the St. Louis Rams-Detroit Lions game yesterday, you got to witness a little sports history in addition to the thrilling 27-23 game the Lions eventually pulled out.

When Shannon Eastin stepped onto the turf at Detroit's Ford Field yesterday she became the first woman ever to work as a official in an NFL regular season game when she served as a line judge   

It's also interesting to note this groundbreaking NFL moment happened during the 40th anniversary year of the passage of Title IX   

The Tempe, AZ resident already made history last month when she became the first female official to work an NFL preseason game.  Eastin served as the line judge during the Green Bay Packers-San Diego Chargers game in San Diego as well. 

The Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, OH already has the hat and whistle she used during that historic preseason game, and I don't doubt they probably asked for the cap and whistle she used during yesterday's Rams-Lions game for a future display, too.   She has worked as a referee in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and has 16 years of officiating experience.

MEAC officials declined comment on Eastin, and the NFL declined to make Eastin available for interviews during the week leading up to the historic game.   They also didn't allow media access to her following the Rams-Lions game, but did set up a conference call with her in August.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said having Eastin on the field is a great opportunity for her and the league.  "She's well prepared for it, and I think she'll do terrific," Goodell said in an interview last month. "So we're excited about that"  

"And there are more coming, by the way. We've been working along this path to try to properly train and prepare a female official, and now we have the opportunity."

Eastin said during last month's conference call, "I hope to show it really doesn't matter if you are male or female."

The only way it matters is in terms of inspiring others to join you in the officiating ranks as you were inspired by longtime NBA official Violet Palmer 

Congratulations on making NFL and sports history again.

Shannon Eastin, First Female NFL Referee

While ignoring the last night of the Republican National Convention Klan Meeting discovered the Texans were playing their last preseason game against the Minnesota Vikings which they won 28-24.

It was also (arrgh!) preempted in the fourth quarter by Mittbot's speech.

Since the NFL officials have been locked out by the league, the preseason has been played with replacement refs on the field for these games and it looks like the lockout will last through the first week of the season. 

This lockout has also resulted in some sporting history being made. 

One of the people who has gotten a chance to.officiate during these games is 42 year old line judge Shannon Eastin.   On August 9 she became the first woman to work an NFL game of any kind in the league’s 97-year history when she served as a line judge during the San Diego Chargers-Green Bay Packers preseason opener in San Diego, CA. 

Eastin said when the NFL selected her, “Knowing that I’m a female in a man’s world, I’ve always put the most pressure on myself. Pretty much everything I do is going to be magnified. I know what I signed up for. I have to be bigger, stronger, know that I understand the rules. I have to do things even better than the men that are working. And I’m OK with that.”

The 5-5 Eastin was part of the officiating crew in the Texans-Vikings game last night and has 16 years of officiating experience, including four in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, made up of HBCU schools..

With the lockout extending to the first week of the season, Eastin has the possibility of making more history becoming the first woman to officiate in an NFL regular season game.  

And once the officiating lockout is settled, hope she gets the chance to stick around and become an NFL offical on a permanent basis.

Keelin Godsey Making Another Attempt At Trans Olympic History

Since 2004 the International Olympic Committee has allowed trans people to compete in the Olympic Games under the Stockholm Consensus.   Unfortunately those rule changes were enacted too late for many trans athletes around the world to take advantage of them in time to compete in Athens.

Yes, there are trans athletes around the world eager to compete at the highest levels, and the ultimate for any athlete is to compete for their nation in the Olympic Games.   The 2004 Stockholm Consensus allowed trans athletes the opportunity to make their dreams of Olympic glory happen

As of yet no transgender athlete has qualified for their national Olympic team either in the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Torino or the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver.  It wasn't for lack of trying why trans athletes weren't marching into Beijing's Bird's Nest Stadium for the opening ceremony . 

Kristin Worley made a contentious bid to qualify for the 2008 Canadian Olympic cycling team that fell short.  On our side of the border Keelin Godsey attempted to make the 2008 US Olympic track team in the women's hammer throw and finished seventh with a throw of 66.55 meters.   Godsey missed making the Olympic team and making history in the process by ten agonizing feet.

Nope, that isn't a typo.  It was the women's hammer throw team Godsey was trying to qualify for since despite the masculine appearance, Godsey is under the same competition protocols that Kye Allums used to compete in women's NCAA basketball competition.  In order to make his Olympic competition dream happen he has delayed taking testosterone. 

It's four years later, the Olympic torch relay is already making it way around the UK before it arrives in London on July 27 and Keelin Godsey is making another run at making his Olympic competition dreams come true and in the process striking a sporting blow for all transkind.

Godsey already made history last year as the first trans athlete to qualify for a US national team and compete in the Pan American Games.  He finished fifth in the women's hammer throw competition in Guadalajara with his third best lifetime throw ever at 67.84 meters.

He recently qualified to compete in the upcoming 2012 USA Olympic Track and Field Trials in Eugene, OR taking place from June 21-July 1.   If he finishes in the top three in the women's hammer throw competition he not only gets a trip to London for the upcoming Summer Olympic Games, he becomes the first transperson ever to qualify for their national Olympic team.   

And on the day the Athletics (what the rest of the world calls track and field) competition starts and Godsey steps into London's Olympic Stadium for his event, he'll become the first transperson ever to compete in the Olympics.

So yes, I will be paying closer attention than usual to the US Olympic track and field trails this year and hope Keelin makes his dream come true.