2019 TransGriot NFL Picks- Week 1

It's that time again.   With the flipping of the calendar page to September, it means that once again I'm going to be battling Michael Watts for NFL punditry supremacy.

This year also marks the NFL's 100th season, and I want to celebrate that by taking my punditry title back. 

Over the next 17 weeks defending champion Mr Watts and I will battle under these rules. 

We pick the winners of each week's NFL gamed with no spread.  Person with the best record at the end of the regular season will be the champ.   Picks need to be posted on our blogs before the kickoff of the first NFL game of that week.    Any game not selected by kickoff time of that game will be counted as a loss for that person.   Tie games will be counted as a tie on that person's cumulative season record.

The road to reclaiming my NFL punditry throne starts today.

Week 1 is always the hardest one because of the changes in everyone's rosters due to retirements, free agency, the draft and trades.  Some teams got better, some got worse, some will basically be the same.    Some teams will suffer a plague of injuries that will wreck their season before it even gets started, and some teams that made the playoffs last year will find themselves on the outside looking in when January 2020 rolls around.

Let's get ready to rumble!   

16 games to pick because all 32 NFL teams will be busy on this opening weekend.   Mike's picks will be at this link.   My picks will be in bold red print this year with home team in CAPS

2018 Final NFL Standings 
TransGriot   158-95-2
*Mike          164-90-2


Thursday Night Game
BEARS over Packers

Sunday Early Games
Rams over PANTHERS
EAGLES over Washington
Bills over JETS
Falcons over VIKINGS
Ravens over DOLPHINS
Chiefs over JAGUARS
BROWNS over Titans

Sunday Afternoon Games 
CHARGERS over Colts
SEAHAWKS over Bengals
BUCCANEERS over 49ers
COWBOYS over Giants
Lions over CARDINALS

Sunday Night Game
PATRIOTS over Steelers

Monday Night Games
SAINTS over Texans
Broncos over RAIDERS

Moni's Getting On The Bus To-San Antonio

I took my longest Megabus ride ever to NOLA and back to Houston last week for the just concluded NLGJA conference.   Now for the second consecutive week I get to do a bus trip on I-10.

But it won't be on Megabus this time. 

This time I'm going west to San Antonio, and even better, it will be a nonstop luxury bus trip on Vonlane for another conference.

I fell in love with the Vonlane buses on my lobbying trips to Austin, and who wouldn't love a reclining assigned leather seat, unlimited soft drinks and juices, snacks, WiFi that works and an attendant to bring them to your seat as you roll towards your destination?

This will be an unprecedented for me third trip this year to San Antonio, which is the second largest city in Texas.   This will also be the first time I've attended the Excellence in Journalism Conference, and looking forward to it. 

It's also the first time I've been to the Grand Hyatt San Antonio hotel, and looking forward to checking it out and everything the nearby Riverwalk has to offer.

Looking forward to meeting everyone at #EIJ19, and hopefully seeing some of my San Antonio trans fam while I'm in the 210 area code.

Number 17- Rest In Power Bailey Reeves

The calendar page just turned to September, and once again I'm having to write about another Black trans woman being murdered.   This time we travel to Baltimore to talk about our latest person  we have lost to anti trans violence.

17 year old Bailey Reeves was attending a party on Labor Day n the 4300 block of Parkwood Avenue in North Baltimore.  As she left the event around 8:05 PM EDT  several gunshots rang out and struck Reeves.   Five kids were witnessed by neighbors running away from the scene as Reeves was lying in the middle of the street in a pool of blood.

Reeves later succumbed to the gunshot wounds after being taken to a local hospital 

Now for the grim stats.   Reeves is not only the 17th person we have lost to anti-trans violence in the US in 2019, she is the youngest person we have lost this year.

And yes, it continues the aggravating pattern of the victims being overwhelmingly Black trans women.   Out of the 16 Black trans women we have lost this year, 13 are under age 30.

If you are in the Baltimore area and have any information that will solve this case, you are urged to call detectives at 410-396-2100 or Metro Crime Stoppers at 1-866-7LOCKUP (756-2587)

2019 Williams Watch- It's US Open Time!

The last major Grand Slam tournament of the 2019 tennis season happens in New York, and it's one that Serena Williams will probably be highly motivated to take after the controversial way it ended last year for her.

Serena started this tournament seeded eighth and for once on the opposite side of the women's singles tourney bracket from Venus.

Big Sis started out with an opening round 6-1, 6-0 straight set win over China's Zheng Saisai.   Her time at Flushing Meadows ended when Elina Svitolina sent her out of the second round with a 4-6, 4-6 straight set loss

Little Sis started her 2019 US Open experience with a opening round match with her rival in her own mind Maria Sharapova Sharadopa.  Serena spanked that azz for the 19th consecutive meeting in a 6-1 6-1 straight set romp that took Williams less than one hour to accomplish.

Rivalry?  What rivalry?

Serena then had to do three sets of work in the second round against fellow American Caty McNally.

The wild card qualifier McNally captured the first set 7-5.  Little Sis stepped her game up another level to take the next two sets and punch her ticket to the third round with a hard fought 5-7, 6-3, 6-1 win

Serena then took out Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic in straight sets 6-3, 6-1 to get to the fourth round and a match with Serbia's Petra Martic. 

Little Sis once again handled her tennis business, nothing another straight set 6-3, 6-4 win to push her into the US Open quarterfinals against 18th seeded China's Wang Qiang.

If she gets past this quarterfinal match, she would face the winner of the Elina Svitolina- Johanna Konta match in the semis with a spot in the US Open finals on the line.

Motion To Deadname Muhlaysia Booker Denied

Andrew Wilkerson, the transphobic defense attorney for Edward Thomas, tried it. 


Knowing that his client is on videotape beating down Muhlaysia Booker into unconsciousness for $200, and knowing that there are witnesses to that hate crime, he tried injecting transphobia in the mix for the upcoming October 14 trial.

Wilkerson is cynically trying to get the April 12 assault by the 29 year old Thomas characterized as a fight between two men, instead of a man beating up a woman.

The 29 year old Thomas is charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, a second degree felony that if convicted, can get Thomas anywhere from 2 to 20 years in jail.

The attack left the 22 year old Booker with a broken wrist and a concussion.

Fortunately for us trans Texans, Judge Hector Garza (D) saw through this BS attempt to use a cynical variation of the trans panic defense in this trial.

Wilkerson is claiming that recognizing Booker as the female she was will 'prejudice the jury', and tried to have the name on the indictment changed to Booker's deadname.   Prosecuting attorneys argued that indictments can be amended to include aliases, and since Booker had been living as her true self for several years and answered to Muhlaysia, the court should honor that.

"Our position is one of respect," said lead prosecutor Jason Hermus to Judge Garza.

Wilkerson has been a serial transphobe in this case.   He also disrespected and misgendered Booker in a June 7 Facebook post, which led to Judge Garza issuing a gag order for both attorneys.

Judge Garza ruled that when this case goes to trial, the jury will hear the name Muhlaysia Booker, not her deadname.

Remember that trans Dallas when Judge Garza runs for reelection for the 195th Judicial District Court next March.

Shut Up Fool Awards- Moni's In NOLA Edition

Aww yeah, I'm back in NOLA for the NLGJA convention, and Southern Decadence is also happening just blocks from our convention hotel near the French Quarter

Guess someone on the NLGJA planning committee noted that it was happening and made sure when they chose the dates for this year's conference we'd be here at the same time.

But before I roll out of this hotel to check it out, got convention business to handle.  The other business I need to handle is calling our this week's fool not named Donald John Trump.

That would be Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME)   

Sen Collins is upset because her support of (In)Justice Brett Kavanaugh (boo,hiss)  has made it more likely that when November 2020 rolls around she will be an ex-senator. 

Well, boo boo kitty, you knew this man was unpopular and woefully unqualified for the SCOTUS,  your constituents didn't want you voting to confirm him and made it clear where they stood, but you did what you always do with your 'F' NAACP Congressional Report Card rated self does and kiss up to the conservafool wing.

Even Stevie Wonder can see you ain't a 'moderate', and you're going down to electoral defeat next year because peeps have had enough of your fauxgressive crap .

And oh yeah,   Sen Susan Collins, shut up fool!

Back In NOLA For The NLGJA Convention

It was touch and go in terms of whether or not I'd actually get here, but thanks to a major assist from BTAC, I'm here for #NLGJA18!

After missing out on the NABJ one in Miami, I was determined to at least make this one since it was this close (385 miles) to my Houston stomping grounds. 

My Megabus trip from Houston started out on a less than promising note, with us having to swap the bus out before we could start our eastward trek down I-10.  But better to have them handle that problem in Houston than having us break down along the route. 

I-10 in Louisiana includes major stretches of it going through swamp in the Atchafalaya Basin west of Baton Rouge and in St Charles, St John and St Martin Parishes as you approach New Orleans..

Still ended up getting to New Orleans an hour late, but in one piece with my luggage.

It's ironic to me that after not having visited New Orleans since the 1990 Mardi Gras, since then I have been to a 2018 BTAC Leadership Institute here, the 2018 Netroots Nation, and now this NLGJA conference.in the span of 14 months.   

I have a Saturday panel I'm on, so looking forward to not only handling my business on it, but also getting my learn on.  And yes, looking forward to seeing a few friends and some of the NLGJA leadership team while I;m wandering the convention hotel.

I also want to catch up with my NOLA trans fam before I have to hit I-10 west on Sunday

I still have to get registered before that happens, but will deal with it in a few hours.

I'll also be tweeting and posting to my Facebook while I'm here, and you can also check out the #NLGJA19 hashtag for the latest news.

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 

Teddy Quinlivan Lands A Chanel Campaign!

"My whole life has been a fight. From being bullied at school consistently, kids threatening to kill me and going into graphic detail how they were going to do it, my own father beating me and calling me a f****t, to receiving industry blowback after speaking publicly about being sexually assaulted on the job... This was a victory that made all of that s*** worth it."-Teddy Quinlivan

Another day, another instance of trans folks winning despite the hostile forces arrayed against us. 

Meet 25 year old model Teddy Quinlivan.   She has walked runways for Chanel, Louis Vuitton and Gucci before coming out as trans in 2017. 

Like many folks who have lived non disclosed trans lives (AKA stealth) before coming out, the Boston born Quinlivan thought her career might be over after doing so, but as Geena Rocero found out after coming out, it is starting to lead to more groundbreaking opportunities, not less.

She has continued to walk Fashion Week runways, appear on magazine covers like Porter Magazine and L'Officiel, and do beauty campaigns for Redken, Milk Makeup and Maison Margiela Fragrances.

But the one she recently landed is historic and deeply personal for her.   Quinlivan has now become the first openly trans model to be hired by Chanel to helm a beauty campaign.

I had walked 2 shows for Chanel while I was living in stealth (stealth meaning I hadn’t made my trans identity public yet) and when I came out I knew I’d stop working with some brands, I thought I’d never work with the iconic house of Chanel ever again," she wrote. "But here I am in Chanel Beauty Advertising. I am the first openly trans person to work for the house of Chanel, and I am deeply humbled and proud to represent my community."

Congratulations Teddy!   It's is not only a huge win for you personally, but one for the trans community as well.   It's just more evidence that coming out as trans doesn't mean the end of your dreams.

WWYD- The Trans Bathroom Episode

Finally found the YouTube video of the ABC What Would You Do show that featured Jazz Jennings and people in the situation of a transphobe dissing a trans woman for going to a fracking restaurant bathroom.

FYI for you transphobes.  Trans people have to poop and pee as well.   But then again you're more concerned with aiming oppression and disrespect at trans people than minding your own damned business and letting trans people go through their day without hearing your unsolicited comments.

It's one that we increasingly run to no thanks to the conservafools and evilgelicals stirring up anti trans hate, and even led to on August 13 a trans woman in the Philippines getting arrested for using the potty in a shopping mall in Quezon City.

If you're looking for predators and pervs, start in in your right wing evilgelical churches and Republican Party meetings. 

Here's the Friday episode of the WWYD show if you missed it.

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.

Edward Thomas Defense Attorneys Attacking Muhlaysia Booker's Femininity

Damn, we Black trans women can't get any respect in life or in death.

The news out of Dallas is that Edward Thomas, the waste of DNA who violently put his hands on the late Muhlaysia Booker back in April, will be going to trial in October for that assault in the 195th District Court of Texas.

Thomas was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.   Even though Booker was murdered back in May, that video of the April 12 assault is still around on The Net along with all the witnesses to that violent attack on her.

So what do you do when you're faced with mounting evidence that your client attacked a trans woman?  Go for a cynical variation of the 'trans panic' defense and attempt to strip the trans woman of her femininity.

 The transphobic defense attorney in this case are objecting to the fact that prosecutors are asking Judge Hector Garza (D) to rule that the indictment can use Muhlaysia's name even though she hadn't changed it legally or on any identification documents.

The defense attorneys are using her dead name and disrespectfully referring to Muhlaysia as a man

"Pierre Booker is legally a male by gender. To name him 'Muhlaysia' Booker could have the jury wrongfully conclude that Pierre is female...This is prejudicial against our client ,who is male."

The defense attorneys are trying a variation of the trans panic defense to strip Muhlaysia of her femininity.  They hope they can stir up transphobia in the jury pool and get potential jurors to not see Booker as the woman she is.

It also feeds this dangerous for us and patently false meme that trans women are just 'men in dresses'.

The Edwards defense attorneys also fear that if Booker is seen as the woman she is, it won't go well for their client.   Society usually takes a less charitable view of any man who puts his hands on a woman, and the defense attorneys know that.

It is a despicable legal tactic by the defense attorneys.  Here's hoping that Judge Garza sees the same thing I see and rules in favor of Dallas County prosecutors when the defense motion has a hearing next week.

If he doesn't, I predict that Judge Garza is suddenly going to find himself being primary challenged in March 2020

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.