Monthly Archives: January 2008

Shoppers can take a Lovers Stroll down the gay strip on Wednesday, Feb. 6 during the third monthly First Wednesday sponsored by the Cedar Springs Merchants Association.
Participating retailers will offer two-for-one specials and other discounts, according to Merchants Association President Scott Whittall.

There will be live music from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. outside the Sue Ellen’s patio for the Valentine’s Day-themed event.

The retailers will be decorated with balloons and display First Wednesday posters, Whittall said. They will include Walgreens, Nuvo, Outlines, Buli, The Round-Up, Union Jack, Tape Lenders, Hunky’s, Obscurities, Alexandres, Skivvies, JR’s and Sue Ellen’s.

The Andrea Dawson Band, Robert Olivas, Mel Arizpe, Beckah Kubicek and Junye Butler are scheduled to perform.

First Wednesday was started by the Merchants Association in December as a way to increase foot traffic on the strip, where some retailers have struggled in recent years.

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition February 1, 2008

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Dallas County GOP Chair John Neerman, Dallas County Commissioner Maurine Dickey and Plano City Council candidate Justin Nichols, a gay Republican, were all guest speakers at the Monday, Jan. 28 meeting of Log Cabin Republicans of Dallas, according to LCR-Dallas President Rob Schlein.

Schlein said a number of guests, including county judge candidate Mike Lee and representatives for Dallas County Sheriff candidate Charlie Richmond, also attended the meeting.

“It is exciting to have candidates come unannounced to seek votes and endorsements,” Schlein said in an e-mail this week. “It represents a further advance for Log Cabin Dallas.”

He added that presentations by the three speakers indicate that the Dallas County Republican Party is becoming a welcome faction within the county party, which in the past has shied away for LGBT issues and organizations.

Neerman “made it very clear that Log Cabin will be warmly welcomed” in the county party, Schlein said. “He understands the challenges we face as gay Republicans because he, too has faced challenges as a Republican Jew and husband to a Baptist woman.”

Dickey spoke at length about the Dallas County Sheriff race.
Incumbent Sheriff Lupe Valdez, a Democrat and a Latina lesbian, faces three challengers in the Democratic Primary. Four Republicans are also seeking the post.

Dickey told the Log Cabin members that the sheriff needs to be an expert business administrator with skills similar to those of an executive in the hospitality industry, because “many of the basic functions of running a jail system are similar to running a hotel,” Schlein said.

He said that Dickey, too, talked about the Republican Party having “a big tent where gays and lesbians are, indeed, welcome. I think she reflects the future of our party and where it needs to head.”

“I am proud that the Dallas County GOP will lead the state and perhaps the nation by actively embracing Log Cabin as a partner in the party,” Schlein added.

Also at the meeting Schlein recapped Log Cabin Dallas’ activities in 2007 in his “state of the chapter” speech. He said the group’s achievements last year included a “vigorous outreach” to the mainstream GOP and to the LGBT community. The group sponsored the Reagan Day Dinner, and nine members met with presidential candidate Mitt Romney at a VIP reception. The group also became a sponsor of the Black Tie Dinner and welcomed “many notable speakers” in 2007, including Mayor Tom Leppert, WBAP radio host Mark Davis and State Sen. John Carona.

“We ended the year with a presentation of Log Cabin’s position on the military’s “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy to U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions at a joint meeting with North Dallas Republicans,” he said.

Schlein said the group’s outreach efforts will continue in 2008, and announced that the guest speaker for the Feb. 25 meeting will be Carol Reed, the political consultant who helped Leppert win the race for mayor last summer and has been a top fundraiser for presidential candidate Rudolph Giuliani. Dallas County Sheriff candidate Lowell Cannaday will also attend.

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition February 1, 2008

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Study UCLA shows same-sex parents also have a lower
home-ownership rate than their straight counterparts

Same-sex parents in Texas have substantially fewer economic resources than their straight counterparts, according to a recently released study.

The study, from the Williams Institute at the University of California-Los Angeles, showed that the average household income for same-sex parents in Texas is $52,927, compared with $67,508 for heterosexual couples with children. Same-sex parents in Texas also have a lower home-ownership rate than their straight counterparts, 50 percent compared to 73 percent, according to the study.

According to Gary Gates, senior research fellow at the Williams Institute and a co-author of the study, there are several possible factors behind the discrepancies, which also have shown up in other states.

For example, a large proportion of same-sex parents are women or nonwhite, two groups that earn less on average. And same-sex parents tend to live in urban areas, where home ownerships rates are lower.

But another likely factor is that same-sex parents lack the right to marry, which can bring with it tax breaks and other financial advantages such as health insurance benefits and the ability to be legally recognized as a family without costly court proceedings.

“I think what these studies show is you see these disadvantages, and one of the potential ways to even that playing field is marriage, and that’s something that’s not available,” Gates said.

The study found that there were an estimated 49,423 same-sex couples in Texas in 2005, according to a periodic Census update known as the American Community Survey. That was up from 42,912 at the time of the last Census in 2000.

Gates said the increase is at least partly due to the fact that more same-sex couples were willing to identify as such.

To view the complete study, go to www.law.ucla.edu/williamsinstitute/publications/TexasCensusSnapshot.pdf.

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition February 1, 2008

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Transgender activists staff table at Austin Black Tie Dinner

Transgender Advocates of Central Texas participated in the recent Human Rights Campaign Austin Black Tie Dinner by staffing a table at the event intended to give attendees the opportunity to learn about and discuss gender expression issues, according to TACT officials.

Members of Transgender Advocates of Central Texas staffed a table at the recent Austin Black Tie Dinner in an effort to facilitate discussion and education on transgender issues.

TACT members stressed their message that “Gender Expression Matters” by offering those attending the event lapel stickers and encouraging them to talk about whether they believe transgender people are part of the lesbian and gay community.

The event took place in the wake of discord between the Human Rights Campaign and transgender activists last fall over the organization’s support of a federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act that did not include protections for transgenders. But TACT members who staffed the table at the Austin Black Tie event said they felt welcome and were encouraged by the support expressed by most of those attending the dinner.

Many HRC members at the dinner said they supported passage of an ENDA that specifically includes protections for transgenders, and many also related stories about their personal experiences with discrimination based on gender expression, according to TACT members who attended.

TACT board member Lisa Scheps encouraged trans activists across the country to hold similar events in their areas to improve relations with HRC.

“The rank and file of HRC needs to be educated on the issues so they can tell their leadership to shift their thinking,” Scheps said.

She said that events such as TACT’s “educational initiative” at the Austin Black Tie dinner are “the best way of positively affecting change and educating the LGBT community on issues that not only affect one subsection of the community, but the entire group.”

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Family Council Action Committee launches petition drive to put measure on November ballot

Ken Carney of Hot Springs, Ark., is the first person to sign a ballot to place an adoption and foster care initiative on the November 2008 ballot, as Jerry Cox, director of the Family Council Action Committee, back left, and John Thomas, vice president of the Family Council Action Committee, back right, look on. – MIKE WINTROATH/Associated Press

LITTLE ROCK The Family Council Action Committee launched a drive Thursday, Jan. 24, to put a measure banning unmarried couples living together from fostering or adopting children on the ballot.

The conservative group’s president called the proposal an attempt to stop a “homosexual agenda” in Arkansas.
Jerry Cox, the council’s president, said the group would rely on the same network of activists and church leaders that helped gain approval for a 2004 constitutional amendment that defined marriage as between one man and one woman.

Cox denied that his proposed initiated act was aimed solely at gays and lesbians, but singled them out in a news
conference announcing the petition drive.

The group must submit 61,974 valid signatures to the secretary of state’s office by July 7 to get the measure on the November ballot. Cox said the group’s goal is 100,000 signatures.

“There is an agenda at work in other states around the nation that’s being driven by the homosexual community,” Cox said. “This agenda involves using children who are in foster care and waiting to be adopted, using those children to advance a particular political agenda.

“We don’t believe children should ever be used by a particular group to advance an agenda.”

The proposal would effectively ban gays and lesbians from adopting or fostering children. The state Supreme Court in 2006 struck down a state policy that specifically banned gays and lesbians from becoming foster parents.

Gov. Mike Beebe has said he is opposed to the initiated act because it goes too far with the adoption restriction.
The group marked the launch of its campaign by having a North Little Rock retiree and a Hot Springs minister who have both served as foster parents sign the petitions, the first to do so.

Cox said the group hopes to increase the number of families willing to adopt or serve as foster parents, though its proposal would effectively reduce the pool of homes available to children.

Volunteers will distribute a 24-page booklet on the guidelines for fostering and adopting children in the state.
Cox said the group does not plan to run television or radio ads to promote the initiative before it is approved for the ballot. The group has raised $16,505.15 for its campaign, according to a report filed with the state Ethics Commission.

The council is simultaneously raising money to campaign against another proposed ballot measure, which would create a lottery to fund college scholarships. Lt. Gov. Bill Halter is gathering signatures to place his proposed constitutional amendment on the November ballot.

The council, which has opposed any expansion of gambling in the state, has raised $1,405 for its campaign against the lottery. Halter has raised $119,631 total for his lottery campaign.

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition February 1, 2008

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Tickets are now of sale for the Legacy of Success Foundation’s “Heritage Celebration Goes Oscar,” a four-day series of events celebrating Black History Month, Feb. 21-24.

The celebration includes a by-invitation-only VIP luncheon at the Magnolia Hotel, the “Discover Dallas” shopping party from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., and the “Heritage Celebration Goes Oscar” party from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. in the Pegasus Grand Ballroom at the Magnolia Hotel, 1401 Commerce St. Donna Payne of HRC will be the guest speaker for the Heritage Awards dinner party.

Tickets are $75 for the Feb. 23 awards dinner. VIP all-access passes are available for $100, including all events except those at Elm & Pearl. For information, go online to www.losf.org or call Derrick at 214-440-9300.

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition February 1, 2008

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Ralph B. Walcott died Jan. 17 of heart failure after many months of illness.

Born April 26, 1944, in Oakland, Calif., to Jewell and Jack Wolcott, he grew up in Wilburton, Okla. He received a degree from Eastern Oklahoma Agriculture & Mechanical College before moving to Tulsa, and he spent the last 25 years living in Dallas and working in the floral industry.

Wolcott loved people and everyone he knew adored him. He had many lifelong friends, who he considered his family. He leaves behind many beloved friends that will miss him dearly.

Services will be held at 3 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 2, at the Cathedral of Hope, 5910 Cedar Springs Road.

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition February 1, 2008

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5 questions with Marc Spurlock

Marc Spurlock, a local physician, is captain for Bal Masque II, the second annual gay Mardi Gras celebration put on by the Mystic Apollo Krewe of Dallas. The Bal, which benefits AIDS Arms Inc. and Texas CAN!, will be Saturday, Feb. 2 at the Dallas Convention Center Arena. For more information, go to www.kreweofapollo-dallas.com.

What is a Tableau Bal?

A Tableau Bal is put on by a Mardi Gras Krewe. Very elaborate costumes are presented in succession to the audience based on a theme each year. After the on-stage presentation, the costume and wearer are put on a cart and moved through the audience (much like an indoor parade), and beads and trinkets are thrown to the crowd. Some of the costumes are made locally, some in New Orleans. A king and queen are crowned at the end of the Bal.

How did Dallas’ Mystic Apollo Krewe get started?
Four kings, including myself, from the Shreveport Apollo Krewe had moved to Dallas and decided to start it in 2005.

There are five Apollo Krewes: Birmingham, Ala.; Lafayette, La.; Baton Rouge, La.; Shreveport, La., and now Dallas. The Birmingham and Lafayette Krewes have been having Bals for 32 years.

What is this year’s theme?
The theme is “A Lone Star Mardi Gras.” We are trying to show Texans that Mardi Gras is not just about Louisiana. We are visiting several Texas cities with our costumes, which include Mesquite Rodeo Cowboy, Sweetwater Rattlesnake Round-Up, Chicken Ranch Best Little Whorehouse, Houston Johnson Space Center, Texas A&M, San Antonio Fiesta, Austin University of Texas Longhorns, San Jacinto Yellow Rose of Texas, Tyler Rose Festival, Amarillo Cadillac Ranch and Dallas State Fair with Big Tex.

What do the costumes generally look like?
The costumes are a little more like the Brazilian Rio Mardi Gras costumes but with not as much “skin” showing. They are quite elaborate, with glitzy body suits, 12- to 18-foot wire works with ostrich and pheasant plumes, sequins and rhinestones. The theme for that year’s Bal is key to the design of that year’s costumes. They are extravagantly beautiful and are only worn for that one year’s performance

What is the goal of the event?
The Bal Masque is a huge production each year for the entertainment of friends of the Krewe. We had around 600 people last year and plan for that many or more this year. You go to a Mardi Gras Bal to celebrate. It’s your chance to let it all hang out. You’re there to have fun; that’s all there is to it. Let the good times roll!

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition February 1, 2008

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If Congress approves the issuance of tax rebate checks this year, what will you spend yours on?

“I’ll take my friends out for a nice night of entertainment.” – Robb Ivey, Artist

“I’ll pay off bills.” – Murrell Masengill, Waiter

“I’m going to blow their minds and put it in savings.” – Anita Schuessler, Office manager

“I’m going to pay the electricity bill.” – Guy Parker, Porn star

“I want to go to the South by Southwest film and music festival in Austin.” – Sol Teran, Barista

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition February 1, 2008

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