Details of city-mediated agreement not yet available

David Moore

Fallout from Crews Inn co-owner David Moore temporarily banning from his bar drag queens and transgender women whose appearance does not match their ID is coming to a close, almost three months after it began.

Moore sent an open letter to Dallas Voice offices this week. The letter reads:

“We at the Crews Inn do not discriminate. We appreciate all of our customers. If anyone has felt offended or discriminated against, we certainly did not intend to do so.

“We believe that all customers should have a good experience at the Crews Inn, and we take our responsibility to ensure that seriously.”

The letter marks the first time Moore has publically commented about the ban since July. It comes on the heels of mediation that resulted from two complaints of discrimination filed against Crews Inn with the city’s Fair Housing Office.

The city has an anti-discrimination ordinance that bans discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodations. Both sexual orientation and gender identity are covered by the ordinance, which carries a maximum fine of $500 per violation.

The other option was mediation.

It’s unclear if the letter is part of an agreement reached in that mediation because the involved parties are not allowed to talk about it, and the city of Dallas is still in the process of responding to a request for that information.

But a performer who was kicked out of the club three years ago and played a big part in the protest following this summer’s ban says it’s a big step forward regardless of why it happened.

“If he truly means it from the bottom of his heart, it truly means a lot to me,” Sierra Nichole Standridge said. “That takes a big person to make a public apologize like that, and that’s all that we wanted from him.”

Standridge and two other transgender women, Ivanna Tramp and Celeste Williams, staged protests outside of Crews Inn weekly for a month after the ban.

The protests would have gone on longer, but rain stopped them.

The protesters hoped to at least “put a dent in his pocket,” according to Williams.

The picketers at the initial protest chanted, “One, two, three, four. Don’t give cash to David Moore,” and told people walking into the bar that going inside meant they support discrimination, too.

Many turned away. An employee at the bar across the street said business there was up by about 30 percent. That club was at capacity, with a line outside the door for the first time in memory, the employee said.

But overall, the attention to the ban might have backfired as Crews Inn’s business initially tripled after the first article about the dispute appeared in the Dallas Voice. An employee at Crews Inn declined to comment on if business has stayed up since then.

But the protesting did have an unintended benefit, according to local transgender activist Kelli Busey.

“This changed everything,” she said. “Before Crews Inn there was no organized trans community in Dallas, and now we’re becoming a major movement.”

Several of those involved in the protest are charter members of the recently formed Dallas Transgender Advocates and Allies. The group will work towards equality for transgender people and full recognition of their rights under the law, organizers said.

But before they do that DTAA will tackle spirituality. On Nov. 22, from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m., they will hold a “Transgender Conversation” with the Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson of the Episcopal Church, the first openly gay, noncelibate priest to become a bishop in a major denomination.

“Our community has had trouble responding in the past to discrimination, but no more,” Busey said. “And when you look at where we’re headed, more good came out of all this Crews Inn stuff than bad.”




This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition October 24, 2008.