2019 TransGriot NFL Picks -Week 8

We are at the halfway point of the 2019 NFL season, and I had a great Week 7 to add to the lead I'm starting to build on defending champ Mr Watts.

The San Francisco 49ers had fun playing in the drenching rain falling in DC to beat Washington and  stay unbeaten.

Boo hiss, so are the new England Cheatriots  Patriots.   And in another example of the NFL rich getting richer, they just acquired WR Mohammed Sanu from the Atlanta Falcons. 

Well, let gets to the picks.    Cowboys and Ravens are on their bye week, so only 15 games to pick this week.  As usual, my picks will be in bold red print with the home team in all CAPS. 
Mike's Week 8 picks will be at this link.

Week 7 Results                               2019 NFL Season Results
TransGriot 10-4                               TransGriot  66-39-1
Mike            8-6                               Mike           61-44-1


Thursday Night Game
VIKINGS over Washington

Sunday Early Games
Seahawks over FALCONS
COLTS over Broncos
TITANS over Buccaneers
SAINTS over Cardinals
RAMS over Bengals
BILLS over Eagles
BEARS over Chargers
LIONS over Giants
JAGUARS over Jets

Sunday Afternoon Games
TEXANS over Raiders
49ERS over Panthers
PATRIOTS over Browns

Sunday Night Game
Packers over CHIEFS

Monday Night Game 
STEELERS over Dolphins

WTF? Edward Thomas Convicted Of Misdemeanor Assault

The Edward Thomas trial in Dallas closed after final arguments from the prosecution and the defense in judge Hector Garza's courtroom..

The prosecution was arguing for a felony assault conviction, while defense attorney Andrew Wilkerson kept deploying his reprehensible spin on the trans panic defense by deliberately misgendering Muhlaysia Booker and claiming the fight was between two men.

Looks like it worked. 

After four hours of deliberation, the jury found Thomas guilty of the lesser charge of misdemeanor assault and sentenced him to 300 days in jail.   If he doesn't appeal the conviction, the time that Thomas has already served since April will count toward fulfilling the terms of that 300 day sentence.

Translation:  Thomas will be getting out of jail in four months.

Really?   This is straight up BS.   Thomas was offered $200 to beat Booker, allegedly sucker punched her while using brass knuckles to start the fight  and was videotaped viciously beating Booker to the point she was rendered unconscious.

Booker suffered a broken wrist, and had to be pulled out of the situation by six cis women and placed in a car for transport to a nearby hospital, and all this mofo gets is 300 days in jail for that? 

Dallas trans advocate Mieko Hicks agrees with that sentiment.   She blames Dallas Police Chief U. Renee Hall and DPD detectives for the in her words botched investigation that led to this verdict.

Thomas should have been convicted of felony assault, and should be doing some serious time for that hate crime.

But no thanks to Dianne Hardy Garcia and the Lesbian Gay Rights Lobby (LGRL), Texas trans folks were stripped out of our state's James Byrd Hate Crimes Act in  the 1999 and the 2001 Texas Lege session when it passed with sexual orientation but not gender identity as one of the categories eligible for enhanced punishment. .  .    .

I and other trans Texans across the Lone Star State will be working to fix that problem in the 2021 session.    But that doesn't do anything about the anger and disappointment we're feeling right now ,with the verdict and the (in)justice system that produced it..

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Survives To Win A Second Term

We started early voting yesterday in Texas, but the election I had my eye on was taking place north of the border.

The Canadian federal election happened yesterday, and the Liberals under Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau were facing a tight race because of scandals and a blackface controversy during his first term combined with high expectation for his majority government.

Conservative leader Andrew Scheer, who won a contentious race for the leadership of his party, was hopeful they would recapture control of Parliament for the first time since Stephen Harper and the Tories were dealt a crushing defeat after running Canada for ten years.

Scheer tried to portray himself as an 'average Canadian guy', but that effort took a major hit when it was revealed that he has dual Canadian and American citizenship.

The Conservatives had a narrow lead in polling before the election, but were disappointed that despite garnering the most popular votes on this night and picking up 22 seats, it didn't translate (thank God) into a national win for him and the Conservative Party.

You need 170 seats in order to form a majority government in Canada's 338 seat Parliament, and as of this moment the Liberals are projected to have enough seats to form a minority government. 

The Liberals picked up 157 seats, and have leads in 2 more races. Turnout was 65% in this year's election.  Trudeau, as the current prime minister, not only was reelected to his seat, but will have first crack at forming that new Canadian government.

In order to form their minority government, the Liberals will need to partner with another party to get the 170 seats they need to form a new government.  That party looks like it will be the Jagmeet Singh led New Democratic Party (NDP).    Singh held onto his seat in his Burnaby South BC riding.

The Bloc Quebecois already declared as part of the Quebec only nationalist campaign they ran in the province of Quebec they will not participate in forming a minority government.

The Conservatives hold 121 seats and will be the Official Opposition after their dominant showing in the Prairie provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. 

The Tories blue tsunami flipped two of the three ridings they didn't control in Alberta, and those were Liberal held seats in Calgary and Edmonton .  The lone one they didn't flip is the Edmonton-Strathcona one held by the NDP.   MP Linda Duncan retired, and Heather McPherson fought off a strong Tony challenge to keep the seat in NDP hands.

The Tories also captured all formerly held Liberal seats in Saskatchewan.   But they failed to gain any seats in the greater Toronto area (the GTA) and in the Montreal metro area.

The NDP holds 24 seats, but lost ground in Quebec to the Bloc Quebecois, who will have a larger mischief making say in the 43rd Parliament with the 22 seats they picked up.   

The Bloc Quebecois now holds 32 seats, up from the ten they held in 2015.

The Green Party had a historic night by picking up their first riding in Atlantic Canada.  Jenica Atwin picked up a seat in Fredericton, New Brunswick to raise their total to 3 seats.  Green Party leader Elizabeth May was reelected to her Saanich-Gulf Islands riding in BC

But despite running candidates in all 338 ridings, and  record breaking fundraising numbers for them, the Greens fell way short of getting the twelve seats they needed to get official party status in the House of Commons.

The other good news out of Canada last night was that Maxime Bernier, the leader of the People's Party of Canada (PPC), lost his Beauce, Quebec riding to Conservative Richard Lehoux.   

Bernier was a wildly popular Conservative who had won that riding in four previous elections in 2006, 2008, 2011 and 2015.   His father also represented that riding that extends from the outskirts of Quebec City to the border with Maine .

Bernier narrowly lost the Conservative Party leadership race to Scheer, and left the party to form the far right PPC in 2018.   The PPC ran over 300 candidates across Canada in this election cycle, and they thankfully failed to win a single seat or hold onto the one House of Commons riding they had.

The PPC was known for not only having racist and anti-immigrant views, but was accused of having ties to a neo-Nazi group in the US and Canadian far right groups like the Soldiers of Odin and Pegida Canada.

Canada's voters sent a message that the far right populism polluting American and British politics and much of Europe doesn't have a home there for now. 

Trudeau has won a second term, and peeps on both sides of our shared border are exhaling.

Melania is probably happy about that, too.

Trans Canadians are especially thankful in this post Thanksgiving Day month that they have something else to celebrate.

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.

Sarah McBride TEDx Talk

I met Sarah McBride during the 2012 NBJC Out of the Hill conference when she was a White House intern and I was there for a policy briefing being conducted by the Obama Administration.

I remember saying to Laverne Cox and Janet Mock that day this young woman was going to do great things for our community, and she has lived up to that prediction.

She now running for a seat in the Delaware State Senate, and if she's successful next year, she will become the first out trans person ever elected as a state senator.

This is a 2016 TEDx talk she was part of in which she expounds on the subject that the gender assigned to us at birth should not dictate who we are.

  

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 

Transphobic Defense Attorney Andrew Wilkerson Found In Contempt Of Court

Had a feeling this was going to happen sometime during this Edward Thomas trial, and today was that day.

Thanks to reporter Dana Branham, who is tweeting this trial for the Dallas Morning News now in its second day,  we've learned that Andrew Wilkerson, the transphobic lead defense attorney for Edward Thomas, the person videotaped beating Muhlaysia Booker in that infamous viral video, went too far in his as he termed it "zealously, righteously, and fearlessly defending his client."

Before the trial started, he tried and thankfully failed to deploy the trans panic defense to get his client who is facing 20 years in prison a lighter sentence.

Wilkerson and Michael Campbell, the other defense attorney in this case, continued to misgender and deadname Booker.   Wilkerson also made the BS laden claim that Booker instigated the attack that left her with a concussion and a broken wrist by 'talking smack'

He also continued to argue with Judge Hector Garza, who warned his transphobic behind several times that he was going too far with his courtroom antics before Garza cleared the jurors out of the courtroom and found Wilkerson in contempt of court.

Wilkerson was sentenced to 14 days in jail and a $500 fine, and led out of the courtroom in handcuffs before testimony resumed in this case. 

Wilkerson is now in jail for the rest of this trial, and hopefully his client Edward Thomas will be joining him in the Dallas County Iron Bar Hilton soon.

TransGriot Update: Wilkerson was released from jail Friday on a personal recognizance bond 

2019 TransGriot NFL Picks -Week 7

Won another week, and could have done even better if I'd had more faith in the Texans, who used the same blueprint the Colts executed the previous week to beat the high octane offense of the Kansas City Chiefs.

Now the first place Texans face the Indianapolis Colts in a critical AFC South divisional showdown in Indy that will go a long way to determine the division title and AFC playoff seeding.   TY Hilton usually salivates when he sees the Texans on their schedule, since he has toasted more Texans defensive backs than Quizno's subs.

Meanwhile up I-45, all is not going well in Jerry World, and I'm have a schadenfreude laden moment about the pigskin drama coming out of the 214.  The Cowchips inexplicably lost their third straight game to the previously winless NY Jets 24-22 to drop to 3-3 after starting the season 3-0.

The best part about this loss is that it guarantees the Harris County Cowchip Fifth Column's mouths will stay zipped for another week. 

Peeps are demanding that Jason Garrett be fired, and the Cowboys have a divisional showdown of their own at the Jerrydome with the Philadelphia Eagles, whose coach guaranteed a win.   Will be interesting to see what transpires in that game between those two bitter divisional rivals.

Enough jibber jabber, let's get to NFL Week 7.   The Panthers, Browns, Steelers and Buccaneers all get to chill during their bye week and watch everybody else play.   So only 14 games to pick.

My picks for the week will be in bold red print with the home team in CAPS.   Mike's Week 7 picks will be at this link. 

Week 6 Results                           2019 NFL Season Results
TransGriot   8-6                           TransGriot  56-35-1
Mike            7-7                           Mike           53-38-1
 

     
Thursday Night Game
Chiefs over BRONCOS

Sunday Early Games
Texans over COLTS 
BILLS over Dolphins
Jaguars over BENGALS
LIONS over Vikings
PACKERS over Raiders
Rams over FALCONS
49ers over WASHINGTON
Cardinals over GIANTS 

Sunday Afternoon Games 
TITANS over Chargers
Saints over BEARS
SEAHAWKS over Ravens

Sunday Night Game
Eagles over COWBOYS

Monday Night Game 
Patriots over JETS

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!

Edward Thomas Trial Starts Today

The reason that Diamond Stylz and I made a quick trip up I-45 to Dallas late Sunday night was to bring awareness of the fact the Edward Thomas trial was starting today in the Frank Crowley Courts Building.

Thomas was arrested for the April 12 beating of Muhlaysia Booker in a South Dallas apartment complex after a minor fender bender that left her with a concussion and other injuries.

She was murdered a month later.

We joined with local Dallas trans advocates Mieko Hicks and Stacey Monroe in a Monday morning press conference to not on shed light on that upcoming trail, but the transphobic comments of Thomas' defense attorney Andrew Wilkerson.

Wilkerson also attempted to sow the trans panic defense in this case by trying to get Booker deadnamed and misgendered during this trial, motions that Judge Hector Garza shot down.

We also called out the problematic release of Domingo Ramirez-Cayente and the murder of Atatiana Jefferson by a Fort Worth police officer that happened just before we departed for Dallas

Ramirez-Cayente is the waste of DNA who attempted to kill Daniela Calderon.   He was not only ridiculously charged with aggravated assault, but bond was set at only $25,000.   He was also allowed to leave without being required to wear an ankle monitor, and as you probably guessed, took the first opportunity after his released to point that red truck down I-35 south and run to the border.

Back to the Thomas trial.

Hope that my Dallas trans fam will pack the courtroom for this trial, and send a message to the jury, the defense and prosecuting attorneys that Muhlaysia was loved by a lot of people in the Dallas area.

For those of you who don't live in the DFW area, Dallas Morning News reporter Dana Branham is following the trial on her Twitter feed.

Number 22- Rest In Power And Peace Brianna 'BB' Hill

Seems like as fast as I find out and get the details about one of my trans siblings being murdered, I'm having to sit down and write about another one.

We go back to Kansas City, MO for our latest trans murder.   

She is 30 year old Brianna 'BB' Hill.   She was shot  at 11:30 AM CDT on Monday October 14 near 43rd St and Hardesty Avenue in eastern Kansas City.    She died at the scene before police arrived and took the shooter into custody.

Hill is the third trans woman to die in Kansas City this year, the 21st African American trans woman, and the 22nd in the US in 2019.

The man who stands accused of shooting Hill waited for police to arrive, and and KCPD investigations are currently looking into the motive for this crime.

As of yet no word on whether any memorial service or vigils are being held there.   I'll pass that info along as I receive it.

Rest in power and peace, Brianna.   May justice be served in your case as well.

 

Why Was An Attempted Murderer Let Loose In Dallas?

Daniela Calderon Rivera is still recovering from the six gunshot wounds she received when a motivated by anti-trans hatred Domingo Ramirez Cayente tried to kill her.back on September 20.

ICE is also claiming according to the Dallas Morning News that Ramirez-Cayente was deported to Mexico back in 2010. 

We presumed in the DFW area and Texas trans community based on that emerging info, that when he was arrested, Ramirez-Cayente would be locked up until his trial, but we were wrong.  Instead of being charged with attempted murder, the Mexican national was only charged with aggravated assault

WTF?


To add to the high levels of WTF level issues in this case, Magistrate Judge Hal Turley issued a $25,000 bond for a hate crime.   Since you only have to pay 10% of that amount, that meant that all Ramirez Cayente had to come up with was $2500 to be sprung from the Dallas County Jail.

Turley compounded his bond amount mistake by not ordering him to wear an ankle monitor to ensure that he could be tracked.   

Turley also failed to consider the fact that Dallas is only a 7.5 hour drive to Laredo and the Mexican border, and that Ramirez Cayente may have a major incentive once released from jail to point that red Chevy truck he owns onto I-35 south and skedaddle across the Rio Grande into Mexico.

It appears that Ramirez-Cayente has fled the Dallas area, and that a fugitive warrant was issued by the Dallas Police Department on October 7 for his arrest. 

Local advocate Stacey Monroe is holding a press conference at 3:15 PM at the Frank Crowley Courts Building to discuss the latest developments in this case.

Daniela Calderon Rivera deserves justice, and has every right to be fearful in light of the fact the violent transphobe who tried to kill her is a fugitive from justice.   Some folks in the Dallas County justice system failed her, and they must  be held accountable for that.

We also need to know the answer to the question of why an attempted murderer was released in Dallas?

2019 TransGriot NFL Picks -Week 6

Week 5 was good for me since I once again won the week    It was also a good one because the Texans won big against the Falcons and the Tennessee Traitors and Arlington Cowchips lost.

Naw peeps.  never letting it go that the Traitors moved to Nashville.

The Texans rewarded my faith in them after their crappy outing last week by pimp slapping the Falcons 53-32 at NRG after Deshaun Watson threw for a career high 426 yards and five TD's, three of them going to Will Fuller who had a career day.

The Texans  now have to travel to KC to play a Chiefs team that lost to the Colts 19-13 in large part because Indy made sure that Mahomes spent more time picking splinters out of his behind and nursing his injured ankle from the bench than piling up video game yardage totals on them by running the ball down their throat.

We're almost at the halfway point of this 100th NFL season, and it's becoming clearer which teams are Super Bowl contenders and which ones will be competing for the first pick in the 2020 NFL Draft.

We have another NFL game in London on the schedule and a pretty good one for you peeps across The Pond in the NFC South rematch between the Carolina Panthers and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

The Bucs managed to shut down Christian McCaffrey and get away with a 20-14 win despite a wounded Cam Newton throwing for 333 yards in that game. 

New quarterback for the Panthers now in UH Cougar Kyle Allen in addition to McCaffrey playing at an MVP level for the moment.   Can the Bucs do it again?  We'll see.   

The Bills, Bears, Colts and Packets are on their bye week, and get to watch everyone else play.  Only 14 games to pick, so let's get to it. 

My picks in bold red print with the home team in CAPS.   Mike's picks can be viewed at this link 


Week 5 Results                                  NFL Season Results 
TransGriot     9-6                                TransGriot   48-29-1
Mike              8-7                                Mike            46-31-1

Thursday Night Game
PATRIOTS over Giants

London Game
Panthers over BUCCANEERS

Sunday Early Games
CHIEFS over Texans
Seahawks over BROWNS
Washington over DOLPHINS
Eagles over VIKINGS
Saints over JAGUARS
RAVENS over Bengals

Sunday Afternoon Games
49ers over RAMS
Falcons over CARDINALS
Cowboys over JETS
Titans over BRONCOS

Sunday Night Game 
CHARGERS over Steelers

Monday Night Game 
PACKERS over Lions