6 August 17-23, 2023 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents “I actually worry more about the Eagles than I do the Niners,” Walker said. “Philly is a pretty complete team that really is the only team that should challenge the Cow- boys in the [NFC] East. San Francisco has way too many questions at quarterback for me to think about them at this point.” Perhaps more than any other league, the NFL is built to surprise its fans. Each year, a number of playoff teams from the year be- fore fail to reach the postseason. Thanks to favorable schedules and high draft picks, teams that sit near the bottom one season seem to commonly achieve far better results the next year. In the NFC East, in particular, there hasn’t been a repeat division champ since 2004. Twists and turns of fate are the name of the game. Both Mino and Walker envision an event- ful season for the Cowboys, with a pair of polarizing players likely to surprise the fan- base. “I’m a huge Dak Prescott fan. I always have been,” Mino said. “I hate that he’s be- ing judged by one season, where he had a turnover problem, and a bad playoff game in San Francisco, where he threw two in- terceptions. Naturally, that’ll leave a bad taste in the mouth of Cowboy fans. But I am expecting a big bounce-back season for Dak. Adding Brandin Cooks, having a fully healthy Michael Gallup, CeeDee Lamb en- tering his fourth season and being a true elite wide receiver, I even think second- year receiver Jalen Tolbert has shown a lot of growth in training camp this season. Those weapons will make this offense ‘Dak-friendly’ and make my guy more com- fortable.” Walker has his eye on a different player, one that Cowboys fans hope opponents will have a hard time keeping their eyes on as well as trouble keeping up with. “As a longtime Kansas State fan, I was so excited when they picked diminutive running back Deuce Vaughn late in the draft,” Walker said. “That dude is electric. If they can figure out the right way to work him into the offense and special teams, I think the fans will love him. All hail Deuce Nation!” When the NFL schedule was an- nounced in May, a number of national me- dia outlets quickly issued their predictions of how teams would fare in 2023. Notable entities such as Sports Illustrated, Fox Sports, CBS Sports, Bleacher Report and ESPN each saw somewhere between 10 and 12 wins for Dallas in their respective crystal balls. But as unpredictable as the NFL season can be, perhaps it isn’t so when it comes to the Cowboys after all. At least Mino isn’t so sure he’ll be surprised by much when it’s all said and one. “I do think the Cowboys are capable of winning the NFC East this season, but real- istically for the time being I’m predicting a 10-7 record with the Eagles winning the NFC East and the Cowboys getting a wild card berth,” he said. “I think the Cowboys will win a road playoff game and lose in the Divisional Round in San Francisco. Sounds a lot like last season doesn’t it? Damn. I hope I’m wrong.” ▼ LGBTQ+ TRANS BAN DENTON PROTESTERS TELL GOV. ABBOTT THERE’S ‘BLOOD ON YOUR HANDS’ OVER SB15. BY SIMONE CARTER C hanting could be heard blocks away from the protest on an otherwise still Aug. 7 afternoon at Texas Woman’s University in Denton. “Transphobia has got to go,” the demonstrators yelled as the tem- perature approached triple digits. Roughly 200 protesters had gathered to confront Gov. Greg Abbott at the ceremonial signing of the so-called Save Women’s Sports Act, which bars transgender athletes from playing on college teams that align with their gender. They came with a clear message for the Republican governor: Trans lives are on the line. “Greg Abbott, you can’t hide / We charge you with genocide,” the protesters chanted. Demonstrator Aubrey Escoto shielded themself from the sun with a rainbow para- sol. They noted that Denton, which is also home to the University of North Texas, has two “pretty queer college communities.” Escoto said the ceremonial signing seemed designed to provoke outrage. “It’s about restricting our access to the public — not just bathrooms and not just locker rooms and women’s sports,” they said. “It’s pushing us into the margins.” The new law comes amid an ever-deep- ening anti-trans moral panic. Texas is just one of several states nationwide that has passed anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in recent days. The American Civil Liberties Union tracked 53 anti-LGBTQ+ bills in Texas this year, more than any other state. Lone Star lawmakers introduced one-fifth of all such legislation in the U.S. in 2023, a separate re- port found. LGBTQ+ advocates have decried Senate Bill 15, which was formally signed into law in June, as both unconstitutional and cruel. It takes effect on Sept. 1 and mirrors a law passed in 2021 targeting trans athletes in K-12 sports. While opponents of SB 15 say it punches down at transgender athletes, its supporters argue that such competitors have an unfair advantage. Former college swimmers Riley Gaines and Paula Scanlan sat on either side of Ab- bott during a ceremonial signing in the TWU library. Several Texas GOP lawmakers stood behind them. Gaines rose to prominence as an activist after tying with transgender athlete Lia Thomas for fifth place in the NCAA champi- onship’s 200-yard freestyle last year. (She also used Thomas’ original name and re- peatedly misgendered her during her speech.) “When Gov. Abbott signed the Save Women’s Sports Act this summer, he sent a message to approximately 15 million Texan women that they will be treated fairly on the playing fields, in the sport arenas and inside the locker rooms,” Gaines said during the signing ceremony. “Governor Abbott, thank you for respecting our right to fair play, safe spaces and privacy.” Gaines isn’t the only athlete demanding restrictions on trans players. Recently, tennis legend Martina Navrati- lova blasted the country’s tennis association over policies that are inclusive of transgen- der women. When the World Surf League announced earlier this year that it would let trans athletes participate in women’s com- petitions, professional surfer Bethany Ham- ilton vowed to boycott. Abbott has pitched SB 15 as necessary for safeguarding female athletes. He argued that women’s sports are being “threatened” nationwide by “biological men” vying for the same titles, teams and records. During a post-signing press conference, Abbott said that competitors like Gaines and Scanlan — not transgender athletes — are the ones being marginalized. Denton City Council member Brian Beck stood in solidarity with the protesters against the new law. He called the local com- munity welcoming and inclusive, traits that stand in stark contrast to SB 15. “I think Denton and TWU are being used as a mask, or to use the vernacular, as a beard,” Beck said. “And I don’t think that it’s appropri- ate to come in and say, ‘Here I am at a women’s forum and event dedicated to celebrating women,’ and then to turn around and use that as a way to exclude people from the commu- nity — I think it’s completely inappropriate.” The event grew heated at times. Gaines and Scanlan later claimed that protesters spat on SB 15’s proponents. State Sen. Mayes Middleton, a Galveston Republican who authored the law, railed against the demonstrators in a tweet. “Welcome to the ‘tolerant left’ — spitting on us, throwing water on us and willing to get violent to oppose fairness in women’s sports, the save women’s sports act,” he tweeted. But to many in the trans community, the flurry of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in Texas and beyond amounts to a coordinated attack on their right to exist. “You’re fucking killing people!” one protester screamed. In April, Science magazine reported that scientists have yet to reach a consensus on how trans women athletes compete com- pared with their cisgender counterparts. Given the overall lack of conclusive data, some researchers have slammed World Ath- letics’ decision to ban trans track and field athletes as “discriminatory.” The way protester Vaughn Richardson sees it, feelings shouldn’t supersede science when it comes to making laws. “Anybody who signs off on [SB 15] is not really actually looking for facts or science,” she said. “They’re looking for religious supe- riority and things of that nature.” Evidence suggests that legislation like SB 15 has had detrimental effects on LGBTQ+ people. Around 86% of youth who identify as transgender and nonbinary say that de- bates surrounding anti-trans legislation have hurt their mental health, according to the Trevor Project, an LGBTQ+ suicide pre- vention group. Some LGBTQ+ Texans are considering fleeing the state. That subset includes Escoto, who said they were accosted in public earlier this year while out in downtown Dallas. On the sidewalk leading away from the TWU campus, chanting could still be heard even after the ceremony had ended: “Racist, sexist, anti-trans / You have blood on your hands.” ▼ SPORTS KICKING GOAT MESSI MANIA CAME TO NORTH TEXAS AND LIVED UP TO THE HYPE. BY KELLY DEARMORE A s it turns out, one can mess with Texas. Or to be more accurate, one can Messi with Texas. For the better part of the Aug. 6 Leagues Cup match against Lionel Messi’s Inter Mi- ami squad, FC Dallas not only looked like the better team, but it had the score on their side to prove it. As it turned out, the Argen- tine superstar’s goal in the match’s early minutes was only a preview of some rather dramatic coming attractions. A sublime Messi free kick in the 80th minute resulted in an FC Dallas player head- ing the ball into his own goal to bring the score to 4-3. An even more sublime Messi free kick goal from just outside the Simone Carter Protesters railed against the so-called Save Women’s Sports Act for being anti-trans. Unfair Park from p4 >> p8
